Yellowshirt McRedhead and Redshirt McYellowhead had passed city limits and ventured for hours. Despite their best efforts, Yellowshirta McRedhead was nowhere to be found. Yellow was worried. Was his sister okay? Will he ever find her? Why did she leave to begin with? Was it the recent apparent hostile takeover of their city? Or was it perhaps something less obvious? All these questions and more flooded Yellow's mind as he continued forth. Red, having become exhausted from the journey, halted for a moment to rest.

"Look, kid," Red said. "I know how you feel about all this, but we really gotta save our energy. You know, hit the sack for a bit. We've been out searching for hours on end! It's about time we got some shut-eye."

Yellow had to admit that he was right. Although he was desperate to find his sister, he knew that it would be best not to tire himself and Red to death before they got the chance to do so. He longed to make sure that his sister was safe, but also knew that his sister finding him dead from exhaustion if she were to come their way would likely be just as bad, if not worse. She would no doubt feel that she failed in her duty to look after him and, even worse, that she was a terrible sister. What would happen then?

"You're right," replied Yellow. "Let's set up camp here."

The two fell asleep on the hill. They were going to set up camp, but they were so tired that they fell asleep in the middle of doing so. Hence, no proper bedding was set up. They slept on the grass, dirt, and occasional hidden rocks. It didn't bother them. They were so tired at that point they probably didn't care much what they slept on. Perhaps it would have been better for them to set up their tents, however, as the animals could all lay eyes upon them. That includes the ferocious and carnivorous ones.

However, none of that last stuff matters too much since they managed to sleep through the night unscathed anyways. However, they noticed that all of their camping materials had disappeared.

"Wait, what?" Yellow said in surprise. "Where did everything go?"

"I don't know, kid," Red replied. "Maybe it was the animals, or..."

A gust of wind blew.

"...the wind," he finished.

"Are you sure the wind could really blow everything away like that?" asked Yellow.

"Hey, I was only saying that it was possibly the wind, not that it was definitely the wind. In any case, I felt obligated to suggest it since the timing of that wind was very convenient."

"Oh man, we are so careless!"

"You know, normally I would object to being grouped into the blame like that, but in this case I guess I gotta agree with you. We are kinda careless."

"You're not going to cheer me up by saying it's not my fault?"

"Nope. We both equally deserve the blame. Sorry, kid."

"It's okay. I understand. I know that ultimately a brutal truth is better than a comfortable lie."

"Well, I mean, I wasn't trying to get that deep, kid."

"I know, but all the same..."

Suddenly, Yellow noticed a figure moving in the forest around the bottom of the hill.

Has someone been following us? he asked himself internally. Who?

He became a bit nervous. He was unsure if the person following them had good or bad intentions. Nonetheless, he decided to call to them to see what their reaction would be.

"Who are you?" shouted Yellow. "Come up and show yourself!"

The figure walked up the hill. Yellow was scared, but then he saw her face.

"It's you!" he exclaimed.

He then stopped to think for a moment.

"Wait, what's your last name?" he asked.

"MacRedhead. With an 'a' between 'M' and 'c'." she replied.

"Oh, okay. It's you!"

Yellowshirt McRedhead had once again met with his sister's doppelganger. Apparently, she was following him on his journey and he had no idea. Who could have guessed? It definitely wasn't hinted at in any previous chapters, right?

"What are you doing here?" asked Yellowshirt.

"I was trying to get a cat out of the middle of the road when I saw you and that other person talking," Yellowshirta replied. "After that, I saw you going somewhere with him. I was curious what you two were up to so I took the cat and followed you."

Yellowshirta showed the cat to the rest of the group. It had a remarkable resemblance to Yellowshirt.

"Wow," remarked Yellowshirt. "What a kitty."

"It reminded me of you," said Yellowshirta. "I was thinking we could name it something like Yellowfur McRedhead. Or Yellowpurr McRedhead."

"You know, personally, I was thinking something like Frank, but one of those will do too I suppose."

"I think it should be Yellowpurr. It's a cat, after all."

"But wait a minute. A purr is an action, not something physical. Actions can't be yellow!"

"Hmm, you're right. Yellowfur McRedhead it is."

"But wait! The head is not completely red."

"So what? Neither is yours or mine."

"Our heads aren't completely covered in hair, but his head is completely covered in fur."

"Are you assuming its gender?"

"Sorry, let me see."

Yellowshirt saw.

"It's a boy," he confirmed.

"Alright," Yellowshirta replied. "But what should we call him then?"

"Maybe we could call him Yellowfur McRed(ish)head. The 'ish' would be in parentheses."

"Are you sure that's appropriate? To put parentheses in a name?"

"Is there anything strictly wrong with it?"

"Not exactly, but..."

"Okay then. Yellowfur McRed(ish)head it is."

Yellowshirta was a bit irked at being interrupted, but decided not to make a big deal about it. It really wasn't too serious after all. She decided to move on to the next thing on her mind.

"Who's your friend over there?" she asked. "And what are you two doing?"

"His name is Redshirt McYellowhead," replied Yellowshirt. "I call him Red for short. He calls me Yellow."

"Oh. What are you doing?"

"We're looking for my sister. She disappeared."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I've been getting pretty worried about her. We've looked for her for hours but still haven't found any clues as to where she could be."

"That must be stressful."

"It is. At least I don't have to go it alone. Red's been very helpful."

"Just doing my job, kid," Red interjected. "Hello, Miss. I'd been wondering when you'd come back into all this. After all, you didn't meet my companion for nothing."

"What do you mean by that?" Yellowshirta asked.

"I'll explain later. If I have the time, that is. Anyways, are you and the kitty here to join our little quest?"

Yellowshirta thought for a moment.

"Sure," she answered. "I guess there's nothing else for me to do."

"Isn't there school?" asked Yellowshirt.

"There could be, but I'm not so sure. When I arrived at school yesterday, no one was there. It was completely empty. No students, no staff, no faculty. Nobody. I went to a classmate's house to ask her what happened and she said it was a day off. Apparently, an announcement at 8:00 AM said so. I had overslept a bit, so I didn't hear it. I had rushed out of bed because I thought I was going to miss classes, only to find out I wasn't really missing anything, save for that announcement of course. Then again, maybe there was something else I missed."

"What do you mean?"

"Even on days off, there's often at least someone doing something there. Typically, if no one else, there are a few custodians doing some extra work in order to earn a bonus. Usually, the only exception to this is when there's some kind of really special holiday, but yesterday wasn't any such day. Neither is today."

"Maybe there's a new holiday?"

"I doubt that. I feel like that would have come up when I talked to my classmate. No such mention, however. That's not all I have to tell you, though. Before I talked with my classmate, I went to my teacher's home to see if she could explain what was happening. I rang the doorbell several times, but there was no answer. I started to think maybe she wasn't home, but I saw that the lights were on. I know some people are careless and might leave things on when they probably shouldn't, but I know my teacher. She takes care to avoid that sort of behavior even when she's in a hurry. She always turns off every light when she leaves home. I know this because almost every day she tells our class some story about her electric bill and a weasel or something like that. I don't know all of how it goes because I don't usually pay attention to all of it, but I know that every time she tells this story it's to explain why she always turns her lights off when she leaves home. The fact that her lights were on suggested she was there, but I peeked through every window after ringing her bell and I couldn't see her anywhere. Even through her bathroom window she wasn't seen. I suppose that's kind of good though since I think I'd be embarrassed after that sort of encounter. Not even sure why she has a window in her bathroom to begin with. Maybe it's part of another one of her crazy stories. Or it's just a weird choice by the house designers. Anyways, it was still bad that I didn't see her there because she was nowhere else either. The lights were on, but apparently no one was home. Or at least that's what I thought."

Yellowshirt had honestly lost track of a lot of what Yellowshirta had said to him. He knew he had heard that certain girls love to talk, but he didn't think he'd hear such a big wad of words from anyone other than the teachers at school. Even his sister, the other Yellowshirta, didn't lay down anything so massive. He wasn't really sure how to respond to something like this.

"Uh, that's your cue to say something so I can continue," said Yellowshirta.

"Oh, uh, what happened then?" Yellowshirt replied.

He felt a slight bit embarrassed. He probably could have come up with something better than that.

"I'm going to pretend you heard everything I said previously, even though I doubt you did," Yellowshirta responded. "Anyways, I could tell that my teacher wasn't home, and you'd think that meant no one was home since she lives alone. However, when I looked through one of the windows, I could see someone passing by it for a split second. I didn't get a good look at who it was, but they didn't look like my teacher. In fact, I don't even think they were a woman. From what I can remember, they looked like a man with dark hair and a dark red outfit. Again, I only saw this person for a split second so I can't verify everything, but I know I saw those colors. For reference, my teacher has light blonde hair and often wears brightly-colored clothes. Whoever was in the window was not her."

"That sounds really strange," said Yellowshirt.

"Indeed. Have you noticed anything?"

Yellowshirt thought back to the night this journey began. He remembered the store that was mysteriously closed when it was supposed to be operating 24/7. More hauntingly, he remembered the broadcast he saw on television. The one that appeared to announce a hostile takeover. After hearing what Yellowshirta had to say about her experiences, these memories became all the more unsettling.

"Yeah," replied Yellowshirt.

"What did you notice?" asked Yellowshirta.

"When I was waiting for my sister to come home, I saw..."

"Okay, look people," interjected Red. "I know you might want to stand around and chat about all this, but if we actually want to find Yellow's sister then we gotta keep moving. We've done enough talking, now let's do some walking."

Yellow paused for a moment.

"Yeah, you're right," he responded. "My sister may need help, and we need to take more advantage of the daylight while we have it. She can't wait forever for us."

"Exactly. Come on, Miss. Follow us."

"I'm with you all the way," replied Yellowshirta.

Off went a boy, a girl, a man, and a cat on their quest for answers to their questions. Where was Yellowshirta McRedhead? Why did she disappear in the first place? What was going on back in the city? Were the disappearance and the alleged dictatorship connected? Who was behind all of these strange phenomena? How many people were involved? They hoped to uncover the truth behind everything once they found the missing girl. It was no easy task. Yellow and Red had already perused many locations previously to no avail. Nonetheless, with two new additions to the team, they remained determined to solve this and the other currently relevant mysteries, no matter how long it took.

Of course, out of all the places they had traveled, there was one particular path not yet taken...



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