Panic had started to set in then, the crowd next to the truck more focused on the big problem. No power was bad, the phone signal had gone leaving everyone afraid. There was no internet, no radio, no contact with anyone. All were stuck in the middle of the Montanan wilderness, miles from the next town.

James stood pondering, still next to the Electronics store. No one around seemed to have a solution, and the panic only worsened. All of the kids being so tied to their technology were scared, the infrastructure that had been left for them was gone now, they didn't know what to do. 

"There must be a way to get the power back on," Carlos said, silence falling between Emma and James.

James rubbed the back of his head, "I don't know anything about the power supply or how it works," He sighed, feeling useless again.

After a few minutes, Faith appeared, "Well this is bad," She said cheerily, making the trio raise an eyebrow at her. James hadn't seen her since she'd gone to get the medical supplies for the mystery girl, she didn't seem to show any trauma from the event.

Faith was a short girl, pale complexion with short frizzy ginger hair that had been pulled back into a bun. She also wore large circle-rimmed glasses, making her look very smart but also childish. 

"We know... With no power, we're kind of stuck," Emma said, ignoring Jasper as he looked up at her with a ball in his mouth, that was soon plucked by Penelope, Jasper following her quickly.

The younger Faith nodded but smiled, "There is a chance we can get it back on, there's a solar plant a few miles away that gives Whiterock most of its power... If you can get me there I'm sure I could figure out how to turn it back on."

"How come you know so much?" James questioned.

"My dad works at the plant, so I've been there a few times," Faith replied, blowing a few strands of hair out of her face, the rest of it curled up in a bun on top of her head.

James nodded, smiling, "This is great we can get the power back, sort all of this out and-" He paused like the air had been pulled from his lungs. "Wait, where is the power plant?" James frowned.

Faith tapped her chin, "Um, 10 miles."

"That'll take hours to get to, we'd have to drive there," James sighed.

Emma sighed, "Guess I'll be driving." It made sense, she had been having driving lessons recently, so out of the group who had any experience in driving.

The next ten minutes were spent trying to find a car, finally, they made their way to James' house.

It was eerily quiet in this part of town, mostly with everyone at the plaza.

"Just wait here, I'll go get the keys," James said as he slowly walked up to his house while everyone watched him.

Opening the door, he felt like he was breaking in with how cautious he was, half expecting people to jump out and shout 'surprise', then laugh at how gullible he was to believe all the adults had disappeared. No one did jump out or laugh at him, it was dead silent.

Walking into the kitchen, he saw the table, a plate out for him. There was a plate sat in the middle, a high stack of room temperature pancakes. It was there for him, waiting for him. 

James stared at the food, then at the pans on the side, the flour, milk, eggs, all left there. There was also a pan on the floor, discarded like trash. With some hesitation, he put everything away or in the sink. He could clean it up later when the power was back. The thought of his mother walking in on him cleaning up made him smile, she would have been completely shell shocked to see him doing that, a responsible thing like that.

After that, he turned the lights off, leaving the room in the quiet state he had found it.

Grabbing the keys off the hook by the door, he locked the door just be sure.

"Sorry I took a while, had to sort something," He said quietly as he walked to the car, a small blue Toyota. Changing his tone like a switch he held the keys up. "Let's get going," He smiled as he passed his blond friend, tossing her the keys.

"Got a slight problem, we can't really take Penelope and Jasper," Emma said, all four older teenagers looked at the small girl and dog. Both of them cocking their heads to the side staring back.

"You guys go off, I don't know much about power plants anyway," Carlos laughed to himself.

"Well if you sure mate," James smiled at him, patting him on the shoulder before walking to the car along with Faith.

Emma lingered next to Carlos, "You sure?" She asked, genuinely touched by his care.

Carlos nodded, "I'll just go back to yours, I'll keep them safe, don't worry," 

This made her smile, causing Carlos to do the same. Quickly she reached out, grasping his right shoulder. She thought about moving in for a hug but couldn't make the jump.

"C'mon Emma!" She heard from James, who was stood by his mum's car waiting.

"Thank you," She said quietly, Carlos just smiled back, his mind buzzing with electricity from her touch. 

Removing her hand slowly she crouched down to her sister, who was more preoccupied with fluffing up Jasper's coat. "Hey, Penelope, I've got a go for a bit," Emma said calmly and gracefully.

Penelope looked at her, her brow furrowing, "Why?" Was all she said, probably the word she used most in her life.

"I'm going with James and Faith to turn the power back on, we won't be that long... But while I'm gone Carlos is going to look after you, so no running off ok?" Emma told her, sounding like a concerned mother.

Penelope nodded in response, receiving a kiss on the head from Emma.

With that she quickly patted Jasper and left, jogging over to the car.

Carlos waved, watching the three leave in the car, slowly at first before they sped off down towards the highway.

He looked down at Penelope, stretching his hand down he said, "Come on Penelope, we're going back to your house, but I've just got to go to my house and grab something first," He smiled warmly at her. 

The small girl took his hand, "Ok," She said in a bubbly voice.

The two of them slowly walking to Carlos' with Jasper following Penelope closely, guarding her.

Inside the car, they sat quietly. James watching out the window, seeing all the cars that had swerved off the highway or piled up in the middle.

The drive was slow, Emma having to avoid the few cars. Really there hadn't been that many cars going north-west to Canada on route 93 on a Saturday evening anyway.

Snow still clung to the side of the road and the surrounding pine trees. It bored James how winter clung to this place like a fungus, only when mid Spring hit did the snow finally melt, something he was looking forward to. Despite all that was going on.

"So, Faith... You know how to get the power back up?" James asked, still not sure if it was possible for three teenagers to do, they weren't power plant technicians after all.

"Yeah, there's axillary power generator we need to start up so we kick start the system again, then it should automatically turn itself back on..." Faith said confidently, James found it funny someone younger than him knew all this technical stuff about the plant.

James nodded before saying, "I'll pretend I knew what that meant, but it sounds like you've got this under wraps," He turned his head back to smile at her.

After some directions from Faith, they arrived at the gate to the plant. Around the compound were large metal fences with protruding spikes, making it very hard to climb in. Luckily the forboding gate was open.

Slowly Emma drove through, passing many hazards signs, as well as huge one saying 'AUTHORISED PERSONAL ONLY'. There wasn't anyone to stop them so they pressed on ahead.

The car came to a stop in the makeshift gravel parking lot, all three teens got out. Faith led the way, the two others cautiously followed her, she seemed to know the way.

James looked at his surroundings, in front they were walking to a large circle of mirrors with a large central tower right in the middle, there were pipes running along the ground, leading to several tanks and smaller buildings.

Faith began to pointing to several things around the point, "Basically, these mirrors track the sun's movement and direct the light up there," She said gesturing to the large central tower, the highest point in the entire plant, and pretty much the surrounding area. James looked at the colossal grey thing, looking closer James thought it sort of resembled a lighthouse, at the top was a section of pure black.

"That bit at the top absorbs the light energy and also heats up water pipes. The light energy is turned into electricity while the steam from the pipes filters into some generators, which provides power for the motors on the mirrors, as well as the tracking and all that jazz." Faith finished, looking extremely proud of herself.

James was nodding the whole time, feeling like he was in a science lesson at school, trying to concentrate on what he was supposed to be learning.

"Great, so how do we get it running?" James asked, quickly glancing at Emma who just barely listening, her head somewhere else. 

"It should be just turning on the backup generator to kick start it all... But we may have to check any wires in case a fuse burst or something," Faith pushed her glasses up her small nose and wrinkled it.

"Right..." James nodded again, feeling very useless again as he really didn't know what to do but just agree.

"This building here," Faith smiled, the way she walked around this place was like she lived her, not really giving a mind to anything except the job at hand. Meanwhile, James and Emma were cautious of what was around, being somewhere they shouldn't be felt strange.

Inside the large building, it was dark inside as the power was out, machines all laid out, all with wires and pipes making a manic mess. James couldn't even to think how it all work, or how anyone came up with all of this.

Faith was crouched down next the wall, covered in metal boxes, all filled with circuits and fuses. "Can you light this up for me James," She directed, not even looking in his direction.

James quickly pulled out his smartphone, it was practically useless due to there being no cell service. Pressing open the torch app he held it so it lit up the fuse box, while Faith did her magic. Normally Faith looked to be like a lost soul, in the corridors in school he always saw her alone with her books. She seemed like a 'Hermione' archetype.

As Faith tinkered away James looked to Emma, he was concerned with how quiet she had been. "What's up?" He asked smoothly.

Emma snapped her attention to him, shrugging at his question, "Don't know," Was all she said.

James sighed, "What happened with Ethan?" He questioned, knowing something had happened earlier before the power went out.

She sighed at his question, "Just that he didn't care," She leaned back against the wall, every so often shifting her gaze to him. "Didn't once check up on me after all the parents disappeared, it just really annoyed me," She finished.

"Not the first time, the checking up on you, thing, I mean," James said plainly.

"If you're going to start that argument again..." She warned, her voice slightly more intense.

"What? He's just not a good boyfriend Emma, let's face it... He lets you down a lot, he's not even that nice of a guy," James said, he knew it what he was saying would annoy the girl.

"You keep saying that like you know him," Emma said not really addressing his claims of constantly letting her down.

"C'mon you know who he hangs out with," He said, sounding disgusted.

Emma balled her fists slightly, "Every time you bring it back that, seriously what have you got against Brandon. Yeah I know he's a dick but... seriously?" She responded, her voice having risen just slightly. 

James sighed, "It's not about Brandon," He said defensively, "I just think it's time you dump the guy already. Get with someone else,"

Emma slouched back down, shoving her hands violently into her leather jacket, "Like who?"

James opened his mouth but Emma didn't let him finish, "Actually it doesn't matter, why are we even talking about this?... Anyway, I don't think Faith really wants to hear us bickering while she works," Emma had lowered her voice.

"I'm not even listening," Faith replied, really just focussing on checking all the fuses.

The room fell silent for a while before Faith stood up, "Fuses are all good, now we just need to turn on the generator,"

With this she turned around, standing in front of a large vibrant yellow box, it was around 4 ft high. Large power cables snaked from the front and towards the wall, and next to the cables were switches and buttons.

"If I just switch this and then press this-" With that the large yellow box lit up, making a rumbling sound much like a car. The lights turned on quickly, the pipes engaged. 

The plant was up and running.

"It worked!" Faith exclaimed, both Emma and James smiled at her, happy for her getting it up and running.

Walking outside the generator building they looked around.

"So we can just leave this going?" James asked, watching as the mirrors slowly began moving into place.

Faith shook her head, "Someone needs to keep coming up here to make sure it runs smoothly,"

James nodded, taking all of it into account. It would make sense to have Faith here as she knew what she was doing, but she couldn't really live here on her own. It would need to plan this back at Whiterock.

"We'll figure it out, in the meantime lets head back." He said. 

All headed towards James' mother's car, Faith climbed into the back but James quickly halted Emma, holding her arm.

"Hey, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about that back there. I don't mean to bring it all up," He said genuinely, looking into Emma's eyes.

She nodded and sighed, pulling James into a hug. "I know, sorry for getting all defensive about it," She placed her chin on his shoulder, a hug was the right thing she needed right now.

"No it was my fault," James said, patting Emma on the back.

Again, she sighed but chuckled as she pulled away, "Don't be stubborn about it, anyway, get in the car before I beat you up," With that, she opened the driver's door. James laughing in response.

With that, they set off back to Whiterock. Another problem checked off the list of worry for James, even though it had only added more to the growing list.