Subject Zero (Book 1)

Chapter 26: Coca Cola Is It!

December 5, 1984
6:43p.m.
The Snicket Household

Third Person's POV
Alio, Anne, Jesper, Naomi, Norman, Rei, and Zero were still in the basement.

Zero was coloring a random doodle as she sat in the fort next to Jesper. Rei was just laying on the couch. Alio, Anne, Naomi, and Norman were all playing Go Fish out of boredom.

"All right, uhh... Naomi, you got any Aces?" Alio asked as he held his cards facing away from everyone else.

Naomi shook her head. "Nope. Go Fish."

Alio drew another card. "Haha, got what I asked for! Okay, okay, uhh... Norman, any Aces?"

     "Go Fish," Norman responded.

Alio drew another card again.

     "Anne," Norman asked, "do you have any threes?"

Anne shook her head as a reply.

As Norman drew a card, Anne asks: "Alio, do you have any Aces?" She smiled.

Alio just furrowed his brows and started muttering gibberish as he handed her his two Ace cards. Anne put down all four cards she had.

"I win!" Anne stated. Her smile grew.

"I demand a rematch-"

Suddenly, the kids heard a knock on the door leading outdoors, causing them to flinch. The knocking made Alio go silent and made Norman fling his cards into the air on accident.

"It's just me," they heard LeAnna's voice say as she opened the door.

Everyone else felt relieved.

"You scared the crap out of us," Naomi said as she set her cards down on the table.

LeAnna walked over to the table, holding a small cardboard box. She swept everything off the table with her arm, then started reaching into the box she was holding, placing pictures of random people on the table. "I did some research on every Liam that has been in this town in the past 20 years. I thought this might help us figure out which Liam we heard on the radio earlier. I figured since only Zero would know what he looks like, then she could see if any of these guys is the Liam we are looking for."

Rei sat up, putting her feet on the floor. Anne and Alio set their cards down on the floor, and Jesper went to the table, followed by Zero. Everyone, including Norman and Naomi, surrounded the table covered with photos.

"Jeez, that has to be at least 75 people," Anne said as she glanced at each photo.

After LeAnna finished setting the photos down, Zero began skimming through each row of pictures. She didn't recognize anyone in the first three rows, but when she saw the fourth row, she saw a picture of a boy with light skin, fluffy black hair, dark hazel eyes, and he had a bandaid across the bridge of his nose. He was wearing a white t-shirt and he had a genuine, happy smile on his face. He looked to be at least sixteen-years-old. Zero almost didn't recognize him.

Her brows rose a little bit, and she slowly pointed at the picture. "Liam."

Alio, Anne, Jesper, LeAnna, Naomi, and Norman looked at the photo she was pointing at. But this photo was the only one that LeAnna was hoping Zero wouldn't choose.