The Honey balls Mystery

Thanks

First of all I want to thank my team for taking me on exciting adventures with our fantasy.

Troels created this mystery and was our Gamemaster.

Karoline played and created Marie Blomm.

Nedim played and created Maximilian Mattison.

I Played Kelly Lindquist.

 

And I want to give a special thanks to Nils Hintze and Simon Stålenhag who created the game “Tales from the Loop” which we used to create and play our story. We liked the setting and rule system very much. So thank you very much.

 

This story took place many years ago around the decade of 1980 somewhere in Sweden in another universe. In most ways this universe was very similar to ours except for the giant particle collider. And for many years the giant particle collider had provided jobs, financial stability and scientific advances to the people of Sweden but that all changed after it closed down. No one really knows why it closed but it was the start of an unprecedented economic downfall. People lost their jobs and a surge of depression and hopelessness fell upon the land. But that is a story for another time. This particular story is about Marie Blom, Maximilian Mattison and Kelly Lindquist and the Honey Balls Mystery. Let’s meet our three thirteen year old heroes in their homes.

 

(Don’t Stop Me Now by Queens is playing)

Currently sitting in her room trying to do her homework while the house is still silent we find Marie Blom. Marie Blom is the classical beautiful and popular girl who everybody loves; she is friends with everyone. She lives in a big house in the rich part of town with her parents, Elkie and Vilhelm, and her aunt Linnea. It has become quite late in the evening and she can hear the front door downstairs open and close. Her dad is home, he missed dinner again. It has almost become a regular thing for her dad to come home late. And this means mom is about to start yelling.

“Do you know how late it is? You missed dinner again. You didn’t even call. Do you even care about us? Do you even care about not seeing your daughter …” Elkie yells.

Though it is a big house, their voices travels far and Marie can hear the fight as clear as if she were in the same room with them. The fights have become more and more frequent ever since her aunt Linnea moved in and she has been hearing all of them. But Marie is happy that her aunt moved in. Aunt Linnea is her favourite person in the family; she is fun and relaxed and has been living the dream roaming around the world experiencing concerts and meeting new people. And it feels like she is the only adult who really understands her.

“I’m late because I work. And I work to provide a better and more secure future for our family. Not all of us inherited an ass full of money from our parents like you and your sister did. And that money won’t last forever. Just look at your sister, she has wasted them all on partying and now we have to take care of her too …” Vilhelm yells back.

Those are the three topics they always fight about, money, working late and aunt Linnea and it sounds like this fight is going to get big. Marie walks down to the kitchen to get a snack before the fight evolves. Her parents stop yelling the moment Marie walks out in the kitchen. They always stop fighting when she is in the room like they don’t want her to know they are fighting. They just stare angrily at each other waiting for her to make her snack.

“Goodnight mom and dad. I love you” Marie says as she leaves the kitchen.

 

(Love Shack by The B-52’s is playing)

In another part of town, where the middle class people live, is Maximilian Mattison spending another evening building on his super computer. It started as an old arcade machine but over the years he has added more and more parts and upgrades to it. Max loves to fiddle with technology, splitting it apart and assembling it again, even improving on it if he can. He is the smartest kid in his class and a real nerd. But a very confident nerd, proudly wearing glasses, a black and yellow checkered shirt and an upgraded Nintendo power glove. The only thing he doesn’t know how to do is being popular and get a girlfriend. And he really wants a girlfriend, someone who loves and wants to spend with him.

“Max, it’s time for dinner” his dad Rolf calls in a monotonous voice.

Max walks slowly down through the grey hallway to the living room where his mom and dad are already sitting on the sofa, each with a heated tray dinner in front of them. They aren’t talking to each other and not even looking at Max as he enters the room. They just stare emptily into the TV. He loves his parents but they are the most boring people he knows. They both works as accountants for the same company. And when they aren’t working they come home and stare at the TV. He doesn’t remember the last time they did something different. He doesn’t even know why they are still together, it doesn’t feel like they love each other anymore. They barely talk to each other anymore and when they do it is always with the same monotonous voices. Max takes his seat as always hoping that one day it will be different.

 

(Islands in the Streams by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton is playing)

“Kelly, I’m hungry” a small girl, just eight years old, says while pulling on her sister’s arm.

Kelly Lindquist, our third hero, is a real trouble maker; her hair is dyed black, her nails black and her makeup is dark. She wears worn jeans, a black blouse and she always carries a knife in her back pocket. A knife she made in metal shop. She has been in trouble at school more often than any other kid her age. And that is quite impressive considered it is unusual for her to skip school all together. At this moment she is cutting mould of some bread before putting it in a toaster.

“I know Lykke. There is toast and ketchup in a few seconds” she replies and fishes the last pack of McDonald’s ketchup out of the drawer.

“Thanks Kelly” Lykke smiles. She adores her big sister more than anything in the world.

The Lindquists are quite poor, they live in a small worn down apartment with three rooms in the slummiest part of town. One room for Kelly, One room for Lykke and the kitchen slash living room where their dad, Mathias, sleeps when he is home. They haven’t always lived there. They once lived in a normal house in a good neighbourhood. But when Kelly was seven their mother died in a car crash and their dad started drinking his sorrows away. It got so bad that she had to start taking care of Lykke as their dad was always drunk. It didn’t take long before they were broke and lost their home. She doesn’t know how they can afford this place as their dad is a loser who drinks away any money he gets. But she doesn’t care. As soon as she is old enough she is leaving and taking Lykke with her.

“Here, go eat this in your room” Kelly says and hands the toast to Lykke as she can hear footsteps outside the front door.

Lykke walks to her room and closes the down behind her. Their dad walks drunk through the front door shortly after. He looks at Kelly for a moment and then snarls before moving to the sofa and falls asleep.

 

Tuesday the 13th of September

The school bell is ringing the students out for a fifteen minutes break. Kelly, who actually showed up for school today, walks straight from one classroom to another to get her preferred seat at the back of the class, where she is carving words and pictures in the desk. Max is confidently leaning against a wall looking at a group of ninth grade girls crowded together at some lockers. Max knows this group as the pretty ninth grade girls. They are listening to something with great interest but he can’t make out what. Marie always spends at least five minutes getting out of her classroom as she has to say goodbye to several of her classmates even though they have another class together when the bell rings again. She notices Max in the hallway staring at the ninth grade girls and walks up to him.

“What’s up, cous?” Marie greets Max ironically as they normally do.

Marie and Max have known each other their entire lives. They are cousins. Max is the grandson of Vilhelm’s older brother.

“What do you think they are listening to?” Max asks without taking his eyes off the girls.

“Why don’t you go ask them?” Marie teases.

Max looks at Marie and straightens up. Not that it makes a difference as he is quite small for his age. “Of course I’ll do that” he says and struts over to the girls.

“Oh my God this is like the best song ever”

“I could listen to this every day for the rest of my life”

“Do you know who the artist is?”

“No, no one knows yet”

“Hello Gretchen, Carly, Karen, Vera and Holly, what are you girls listening to?” Max says confidently as he gets closer.

The girls turns around to look at Max and takes a step away from him. “Who are you? And how do you know our names?” Gretchen asks.

“It’s me Max; you know from seventh grade, you know Max-man, Maximilian, Max-master, Max. I, uhm, I just wanted to hear what that song is” he says though none of them would know him by any of those names. He has never talked to them before.

“Don’t you know it? It’s like the best song ever made. Everybody who is something knows of this song” Karen says dismissively.

“Well of course I know of the song. I know like all the songs. I just, uhm, couldn’t hear it from over there so I wanted to know which song you were listening to so I could talk to you about the right song. You know what I mean?” Max is nervous and when he becomes nervous he tends to tell lies. The problem is that he isn’t a good lie.

“Do you know the song? Do you know who made it and where we can find him?” Carly asks impressed and the entire group seems to warm a little more up to him.

“If you could, uhm, just play the song again, I just want to make sure that I’m thinking of the same song as you are” Max says hoping that he knows the song. He really wants to impress the girls.

Karen plays the song again. A really bad synthesized techno song with drums playing a boring offbeat rhythm and an out of tune guitar is wailing. It is awful and hurting his ears. If it wasn’t because they genuinely looked like they loved the song he would almost have guessed they were messing with him.

“So do you know who is playing?” Gretchen blurts out the question before the song ended.

“This song, yeah absolutely, I mean, like this is the best song ever” he says trying to find a clue on the cassette.

“So do you?” Karen asks.

“Yeah totally, of course” Max is getting really nervous and his voice is getting high pitched. He has never gotten so much positive attention from these girls before and this could change everything. “You know this is that guy, uhm, Jon Bovi. Yeah it’s Jon Bovi” he tries to lie as his eyes catches a Bon Jovi poster further down the hallway.

“Jon Bovi? Do you mean Bon Jovi? My parents listen to Bon Jovi” Holly says condescending.

“Mine too. Bon Jovi is old man music” Karen chimes in “are you some kind of old man?”

“You know nothing of music, old man” Gretchen says dismissively. The girls are about to leave Max behind as he clearly doesn’t know anything of use to them.

“No, not Bon Jovi, I meant Jon Bovi, that is the guy of your song” Max desperately tries to sound convincing.

“Yeah whatever old man”

“Go home old man”

Defeated and with a new nickname Max walks to the classroom where Kelly is sitting to take his seat. Marie pats him on the shoulder as he passes her by before she walks to another classroom for her next class. She feels sad for him and knows he only went up to the girls because she teased him. But she only teased him because he always stares at every pretty girl in school.

 

After school has ended the three friends meet up and walk to their secret hideout over at the abandoned playground. It is an old damp and mouldy bunker under the playground. It is not much but at least they have it all to themselves. They have decorated it with some bean bag chairs and an old sofa that hangs to the side as it needs half its legs. Max has moved a lot of old computer parts down here, partly for storage and partly to tinker with when they hang out. He has built a second computer down here in the bunker. It is not as good as the one he has at home and it doesn’t connect to the internet. Marie has tried to make the place a little nicer with some blankets, pillows and a plant. Kelly has brought in a used dartboard she found behind a bar. They have spent many hours hanging out here and it is usually where they can find Kelly when she skip school.

Kelly throws herself on the sofa “I heard a rumour you tried to talk to some ninth grade girls” she says to tease Max.

Max and Kelly seem like unlikely friends. But two years back Max were often bullied by the other boys for being a nerd. And Kelly was getting really frustrated by her dad’s neglect. One day the boys were being extra nasty to Max and the teachers did nothing to help him. It became too much for Kelly, she walked up to the boys and punched them right in their faces. And since Kelly was friends with Marie even before that it just came to be. Marie and Kelly met back when they were nine. Marie was out selling cookies in the poor neighbourhood as a girl scout and came by Kelly’s home. She rang the bell and Kelly opened the door sporting a heavily brushed black eye. Feeling bad for this poor girl in this dirty apartment she invited her to come for a walk and have some cookies. She promised Kelly not to tell anyone about it and she hasn’t. She is also really intrigued and fascinated by Kelly’s dark and rebellious energy.

“They were listening to a new song and I wanted to know what it was” Max begins tinkering with a cassette player.

“But he ended up with a new nickname instead, meet the old man” Marie laughs.

 

On his way home from the bunker Max walks down to Comikaze, the local comic book store. Besides from the bunker, this is his favourite place in the world. It got a wide variety of comics as he can read and he really likes the vibe. It is run and owned by Alf, a really cool and wise man who knows everything from government conspiracies to superhero comics. He is always ready to help a piece of wisdom and it feels like he really understands Max. Max would say they have also become friends.

“Yo Maximilian my friend you arrive just as called. The new Wonder Woman comic is here” Alf greets and walks out into the backroom.

Max follows him “that wasn’t actually why I came today. I wanted to get your help with something”.

“Let me guess, it’s about a girl right?” Alf sits down at his desk ready to listen.

“There is this new song playing and everyone is going crazy about it but nobody knows who made it or what it’s called. Do you know something about that?” Max can usually count on his help.

“Nah man can’t really help you there dude, maybe if I could hear it. But then again I’m not that much into modern music. But I can help you with this” Alf pulls out the Wonder Woman comic from a stack under a bowl of yellow candy wrappers on it.

Max is a bit disappointed. It could really have helped him with the girls. But he knew it was a bit of a long shot, the song wasn’t really the kind of music Alf normally listens to.

 

At the time Marie arrives home it is only her aunt Linnea who is there. She is sitting in the living room smoking a joint and watching TV. She only smokes around Marie when mom and dad are out of the house. They have several times expressed loudly that they don’t want her exposed to that kind of stuff. But it doesn’t bother Marie at all.

“How’s life little sunflower?” aunt Linnea greets and makes room for her on the sofa.

On the TV screen there are a group of clean well shaven men who seems very pleased. “Not much Linnea. What are you watching?” Marie sits down next to her for a moment.

“It’s a commercial for this new snack called Honey Balls. It’s a taste explosion in your mouth. Do you want some” aunt Linnea says and offers a pack of yellow candy balls wrapped in yellow paper.

Marie eats one, it is extremely boring. It tastes like sawdust and honey. She figures that aunt Linnea must be high since she likes these Honey Balls.

“Do you want more?” aunt Linnea offers more and reveals that she has large bag hidden under blanket.

“No thanks, I’m gonna make a sandwich instead” Marie says and turns to walk out in the kitchen.

“Don’t you agree that it is a taste explosion in your mouth?” aunt Linnea asks.

“Honey Balls, a taste explosion in your mouth” the jingle sounds from the TV.

“I’m good, I have to go do my homework” Marie says and walks to her room.

 

Kelly is taking a detour on her way home. She has to go get some food as they ate the very last bit yesterday. She sometimes goes a day without food but she will not let Lykke go to bed hungry. So swings by the supermarket in midtown. It is quite a bit out of her way but she alternates between several supermarkets in town to lower suspicion and she hasn’t been to this one in a month. She walks around the store, taking different items in her arms and dropping them off at new spots just in case someone is watching her. And when she is sure no one is looking, she slowly sneaks a loaf of bread and a bag of carrots in under her jacket. Then she grabs another bag of bread and proceeds to the cashier.

“One loaf of bread will be eight krona” the cashier says.

It’s a cheap bread but Kelly knows she can’t afford it anyway. She takes out her purse and pours a measly three krona out on the desk.

“Oh sorry, I don’t think I can afford it then” she says with an innocent voice and puts the coins back in her purse.

The cashier looks at Kelly with a sad glimpse and puts the bread aside while Kelly slowly walks out the door trying not to expose the items under her jacket. This trick usually works. Sometimes she even gets lucky and one of the other customers takes pity and pays for her. It worked better when she was younger and looked more innocent but she figures she can get away with it for about one more year, then she’ll have to find some other trick. It isn’t much she managed to steal but it’s enough for the next three days for her and Lykke. Before going home she walks around to the back where they keep the dumpsters to scavenge for something edible that has been discarded. Unfortunately all she finds are empty Honey ball wrappers and a lot of them.

 

Wednesday the 14th of September

“… Look at that mess she has made all over the living room. What are these Honey Balls even and is that a joint? Has she been smoking in front of our daughter? That is it; your sister has to go” Vilhelm yells. He came home very late last night and went straight to bed.

“And where would she go then? She is family and family stick together. Besides I own this house, it is paid for with my money. You can’t throw my sister out of my house …” Elkie yells back. She is just as annoyed by the mess. Aunt Linnea had promised to clean up before she went to bed. But if he thinks he can throw her sister out, he must be soft in the head.

Marie slowly turns in her bed. There was still half an hour till she had to get up and get ready for school but now they woke her up with their yelling. She gets ready and walks downstairs and as always, just as she enters the room, her parents stop fighting. At least she can force a little silence by being in the same room with them.

 

At school more ninth graders are talking about the new song and they play it everywhere they go. It is almost like they are hearing something very different from what everyone else hears. Kelly, Max and Marie are trying to enjoy their lunch break in the cantina despite the music. Max has changed up his usual wardrobe with a homemade tour t-shirt that says Jon Bovi. The idea came to him this morning just before he left for school.

“This song sycks, why do they like it?” Kelly asks a little grumpy while eating her school paid lunch. Honey Balls has been added to the menu.

“What, no Kelly, this song is cool. Now excuse me” Max gets up and straightens his t-shirt. He walks over to Gretchen and her friends who are sitting at another table. “Hey girls, so I’ve been talking with some people I know in order to find a name for you. But you know they asked me if I could bring a copy of the song to them. So I was wondering where I could get a copy. Maybe you could lend me one?”

“It’s the old man again. Who are these people? Are they old people like you old man?” Gretchen teases to great amusement for the other girls.

“Oh you know, like uhm, do you know Kaare Lundgren the radio DJ. I talked to him and he said that it was easier for him to help me if I played him the song” Max lies and his voice starts to get high pitched again.

“I thought you said it was Jon Bovi who made this song, old man” Karen laughs.

“Yeah of course, but since you disagreed I wanted to get another person’s opinion on it. So therefore I talked to Kaare” Max starts to get a little nervous, these girls don’t seem to be impressed that easy.

“Is that a self-made Jon Bovi t-shirt, old man?” Carly interrupts and points at his t-shirt.

“No, no, I mean, yeah of course, but it’s not. Jon Bovi likes to give uhm, he likes to uhm, give the fans some room for creativity. So at the conCEert, at the concert people can paint their own t-shirt before buying it” Max says hoping they didn’t notice his voice cracking. But as he finishes the last lie the girls start laughing and ridiculing him until he walks away from the table.

“Marie do you think, you could maybe get them to give me a copy of the song?” Max asks as he sits back down with Marie and Kelly.

“Why do you want a cassette with that song on? It’s a really bad song.” Marie asks.

“No Marie, it’s a good song, you just don’t understand the finer nuances of it yet” Max says trying to sound like he knows better “please Marie, just do it for me”.

“Stop begging, I'll try and talk to them” Marie walks over to Gretchen’s table “hi guys. I was just wondering where I could get a copy of that song”.

“Some guy just handed them out but you can have one of my cassettes. I have like five copies” Karen says and hands over a cassette.

“Oh my God, like thank you very much Karen. You guys are just the best” Marie says and walks back to her table. “Just don’t play it in the bunker” she says and throws the cassette to Max.

 

Max arrives back home and his mom and dad are home earlier than usual. He finds them in the living room sitting on the sofa with yellow wrappers spread all around them.

“Max, are you home?” Rolf asks.

“Sweetheart, are you hungry, you look hungry” his mother Ruth sounds more caring than he remember her ever do.

“Yeah Max, come and have some Honey Balls, they are a taste explosion in your mouth” Rolf talks with his mouth full.

“No thanks, I got a big lunch at school but what’s for dinner later?” Max asks a little freaked out by his parents sudden personality change. He would lie if he hadn’t dreamed of his parents being this nice but now it just seems eerie.

“Honey Balls, here have some” Ruth hands him a bowl of Honey Balls “they are a taste explosion in your mouth”.

Max hesitantly takes the bowl and walks upstairs to his room. He figures that there must be something weird with these Honey ball. And he has no intention of eating any before he knows more about them. He drops the bowl off on his dresser and sits down at his computer where he puts the cassette in a Walkman connected to his computer. He finds that he can make better cassette copies by doing it through his computer instead of the usual way. But halfway through the copying their phone rings and the modem goes crazy. Normally nobody calls their house at this time of day as his parents are at work. And it gives him free access to their modem. And before he can pause the machine a loud woman voice saying “hello” sounds. It took him almost an hour making this copy and now the sound of the modem and the woman saying hello is part of it.

 

Marie walks in through her front door. It is silent so she figures her parents must still be at work or at least her dad. In the kitchen she finds yellow Honey ball wrappers all over the counter and the floor. For a moment she considers cleaning it up, she doesn’t want aunt Linnea to get more trouble. From the living room she can hear the Honey Balls jingle playing again. Both her parents and her aunt are sitting on the sofa buried in Honey ball wrappers. They aren’t fighting, they are just sitting there staring at the TV and eating Honey Balls like they have always been friends.

“Are you three alright?” Marie asks, confused by the situation.

“Of course sweetie, have you tried these Honey Balls, they are a taste explosion in your mouth” Elkie says with a smile and eats more Honey Balls.

“Yeah aunt Linnea gave me some, they aren’t really my thing though” Marie says, she starts to get afraid.

“Nonsense honey, you just have to eat some more” Vilhelm says.

“Yeah have some more sweetie”

“It’s a taste explosion in your mouth”

“You’ll love them”

“Come join us”

Marie slowly backs out of the room as they get off from the sofa to give her more Honey Balls. “I’ll have to do some homework” she runs to her room closing the door tightly behind her.

 

Saturday the 15th of September

“Are your parents also acting weird?” Marie asks the other two as she slouches in the bean bag chair in the bunker “I mean, mine are suddenly crazy into those Honey Balls and they don’t even argue anymore”.

“Yeah, mine just sits there eating Honey Balls and keeps saying that it’s a taste explosion in your mouth. And they are happier now, it’s weird” Max says.

“My dad hasn’t changed and I don’t think he eats Honey Balls” Kelly plays uninterested with her knife. She doesn’t care if people eat weird candy.

“Maybe there is something in the Honey Balls that just makes you all mellow. I don’t think they are safe to eat” Max says while reading the ingredient list on the back of the pack “have you tried one?”

“It tastes like sawdust and honey. I don’t know why people want to eat them” Marie remembers the taste.

“The ingredients in HappyFood Honey Balls are honey and balls” Max reads from the package “how can balls be an ingredient. Ball is a shape and not a specific ingredient. They can’t just write ball, can they?”

“Maybe we can find out what’s in them like we did in the chemistry class with chips” Marie suggests.

“We’ll need a lab for that and the only lab we know is the one from chemistry. Are you suggesting we break into school for I’m down with that” Kelly now finds the conversation more interesting. It would be exciting and something they could do.

“Let’s do that now. It’s Saturday so school is closed and I don’t want to eat Honey Balls all weekend” Max says and the three leaves the bunker together.

At the school there is no one besides the three. It gives them a strange feeling that they shouldn’t be there. Every building is locked with an advance security system that makes the doors blend into the walls and the windows are covered with thick metal plates.

“I didn’t know they had so much security here. How do we get into the chemistry lab?” Marie feels around for the door where it normally is.

“I would say break the window but we would have to remove a thick metal plate first” Kelly says while pulling on the metal plate.

“That would be destruction of public property. That would be a crime” Max says dismissive of the plan.

“So?” It wouldn’t be the first time Kelly had done it.

Max opens a hidden computer panel in the wall. “Maybe I can hack it” he plugs his power glove into the computer.

“It’s an advanced security system and you think you can hack it? By the way hacking and breaking and entering are also crimes” Kelly teases.

But Max doesn’t listen, he is already tapping away on the keyboard and twenty seconds later the door appears and the metal plates slides away from the windows. But it’s not only the chemistry lab that has been unlocked; the entire school is now accessible.

“That was surprisingly easy, the password was OPEN” Max laughs.

In the chemistry lab they find the teacher’s folder with all the food experiments under the table. Max has brought the Honey Balls his mother gave him, he was planning on throwing them out but now they can be used for something. Marie divides the experiments between them, while Kelly finds a lot of different solvents. They spend the next couple of hours dissolving, crushing, burning, neutralizing, spectrumizing and testing the Honey Balls with all the experiments they can. But in the end all they learn about the Honey Balls is that they consist of honey and small traces of wheat that has been puffed up into balls.

“So after all this we have learned that the Honey Balls really just are Honey and balls, nothing else. Then why do people freak out about them?” Kelly says tired and throws a handful of Honey Balls across the lab.

Without another word the three friends leave the school. The chemistry lab is a giant mess with Honey Balls and equipment spread all around.

 

Tuesday the 18th of September

“Have you heard it?”

“What?”

“There’s gonna be a concert this Friday”

“A concert, really, like for real? Oh my God this is amazing”

“We just have to go to it”

“Totally, it’s the greatest song ever made”

“I have to know who he, she or they are”

The school hallway is crowded with ninth graders excitingly telling each other about the concert and listening to the song on repeat. The three friends are on their way to their next classes in the other end of the school.

“It’s been a week and they are still talking about that stupid song” Kelly grunts annoyed. She barely got any sleep last night and could some silence.

“We have to go to that concert too” Max says ecstatic and looks at Kelly and Marie.

“Why?” Kelly doesn’t want to go to some crowded place and listen to more of this awful music just Max can get hit on some girls.

“We might find out why it’s so popular” Marie on the other hand is happy to help out her cousin. And she has become genuinely curious about why almost all of the ninth graders like the song when nobody younger seems to.

“Maybe it’s mind control” Kelly jokes.

“No it’s not mind control. I would know if it was mind control. Alf has taught me all about it. It’s just like a really good song and we should really go” Max dismisses her. Alf has talked a lot about how the government has been mind controlling the people through mainstream media.

“Are you talking about the concert Marie? Are you going? You should totally come, it’s going to be really amazing” Karen was on her way in the opposite direction when she heard them talking.

Max steps closer to Karen to get her attention. “Of course she is going to be there. All the cool people are gonna be there” he says as charming as he can “and so will I. We just don’t exactly know where it is”.

“Yeah all right old man” Karen dismisses Max “it’s at the community centre at the edge of the forest, see you there Marie”.

 

Friday the 21st of September

The community centre is a large wooden building used for all the best social events of the year. It hosts everything from hoedowns and concerts to high end art auctions and debutante dinners. But over the last decade the arranged events have become more and more scarce. Marie has been here many times with her family. The concert tonight is the first event for the last two months. A large group of people at the age of fifteen and older are standing in line at the door to the community centre. Kelly has already parked her stolen moped and Marie is parking her bike. It took them an hour to get there.

 

“Yup this is definitely where the concert is” Max says as he steps down from his bike.

“Should we stand in line?” Marie asks. None of them has been to a concert before, they have asked many times but was always told they were too young. Now no one is there to stop them.

“Let’s try and if that doesn’t work we can always sneak in through a window” Kelly says and straightens her clothes and hair.

They get in line with all the others and wait. After a while they face a big muscular bouncer who stops them at the door. “Hold up you three, aren’t you a little too young for this concert?”

“We are not that young, I’m actually known as the old man” Max says confidently.

Marie pushes Max to the side and takes the lead “we are really big fans sir”.

“Are you three fans of Umami? I didn’t think people your age liked his music. My daughter, Linnea, surely doesn’t, she calls it noise” the bouncer says in a conversing tone.

“Linnea, she’s our age right? We are friends, I’m Marie, Marie Blom” Marie says hoping he has heard of her. Most people in town knows of her so it’s not that unlikely.

“Oh you are that Marie. Linnea talks highly about you, you are a good kid” the bouncer says. He takes a look at the line and then glances inside the community centre “you know what, you are good kids, if you stay out in the back and behave then you can come in. Is that a deal?”

“Of course, thank you” Marie says and the bouncer lets them in.

The bouncer leads them into a room in the back behind the stage where he leaves them alone to resume his post. Everyone else is in the other room waiting for Umami to go on. Kelly immediately starts looking around and opening boxes. They are filled with souvenir items like t-shirts, bags and scarfs. She quickly moves along looking for a kitchen, searching for money or food. Max takes a t-shirt and drops some money in the box. The crowd begins cheering on the other side of the stage. Shortly after a door opens and short chubby man walks through the room and out on the stage carrying a Boombox. He places the Boombox on a stool in the middle of the stage and presses play. The crowd goes wild as the horrible song starts playing.

“Are you ready for Umami?” the man calls out to the crowd and he is met with a wave of cheers and applause. “I am Umami! Let’s party” he calls and increases the volume on the Boombox.

Umami is dancing next to the Boombox but nothing else is happening on stage. Still the crowd parties like it’s the greatest show in the world. Max slowly takes a few steps out on the stage. He wants the crowd to see him together with Umami but without getting seen by him. Unfortunately Umami makes a spin and sees Max dancing in the background. Max freeze on the spot, he must surely be in trouble now but Umami just pulls him to the front of the stage and starts partying with Max. Kelly opens the door to the room Umami came from. There isn’t much in the room except a chair, a dressing table and a closet. Umami’s wallet is lying on the dressing table. It contains a couple of hundred krona bills and a driver’s license for a man named Ole Hunner. She takes the driver’s license and a single bill and puts it in her pocket. Now she and her sister will be able to eat tonight. She puts the wallet back and walks out to Marie again.

“I haven’t found anything and the music is just as bad live” Marie says “did you find anything?”

Max returns from the stage “this was amazing” he is sweaty and slightly exhausted but very happy.

“Well here you can have this. Now you can prove to the ninth graders that you know him” Kelly says and throws him the driver’s license.

“What? You took his driver’s license, why?” Marie asks with panic growing in her voice.

“For Max like I said” Kelly shrugs indifferently.

“I don’t want it, we should put it back” Max says he is also starting to panic.

At this moment a door opens and a security guard looking man wearing a headset walks in and sees Max holding the driver’s license “hey you three, come here”.

“Run” they says simultaneously.

They run out on the stage and split up. Kelly gets down into the crowd and hides. Max jumps out on the crowd and tries to crowd surf across the room, it doesn’t go as fast as he had hoped but the crowd is very willing to carry him. Marie decides to try and run around the crowd but another security guard appears, also wearing a headset and blocks her way at the other end. The first security guard follows them out on the stage. He is talking into a walkie talkie and points at Max and then at Marie. No one else seems to notice this sudden disruption, everybody keeps partying. Another two security guards arrive and circles the crowd trying to catch them. Hidden Kelly steals a blouse and a cap to blend in with the crowd. Marie runs out to the women’s bathroom and crawls out of the window. She sees the door open just as she drops down outside. Max calculates that at this rate the security will catch him. He decides to follow Kelly’s example and drops down into the crowd. Now he just have to change direction and run for the exit. The security guards sees Max disappear and pushes their way through the crowd to find him before it’s too late. Kelly has been slowly moving backwards to the exit and takes this opportunity to nonchalantly walk for the door. Max is the last out of the door but all three of them gets out without getting caught.

“Let’s leave before they find us” Marie says as the two others meet her outside.

 

On her way home, Kelly stops by a pizza place and buys two cheap cheese pizzas. They have eaten bread and carrots for some time and she wants to give Lykke a nice treat for once, but she also needs to save some money for another night. It is almost ten at night when she slowly opens the door. Their dad should be sleeping by now and she doesn’t want to wake him.

The door gets opened for her and Mathias is blocking the way. “Where have you been?” he sounds drunk and angry. “You should have been home taking care of your sister”.

Kelly discretely drops one of the pizzas outside before walking through the door. “I have pizza” she says hoping to calm him down.

Mathias takes the pizza out of her hands and starts eating “I asked where you were?” spit and pizza flies out of his mouth.

“I was out getting food because you never bring us anything” Kelly snaps at him. They barely get anything to eat because he is a useless drunk and now he eats what they have and still scolds her.

“I work hard for you girls” Mathias yells at Kelly.

“You only work hard on getting drunk” Kelly talks back in anger. She is trying to keep the volume down so Lykke doesn’t hear them.

Without a sign of hesitation Mathias slaps her hard across the face leaving a mark on her left cheek “go to your room you ungrateful shit” he yells.

Kelly stares angrily into his face for a second. She wants to hit him back. She wants to grab the knife in her pocket and stab him. But she doesn’t. Just three more years and she can leave and take Lykke away from this shithole. She turns around and goes to Lykke’s room.

“Hey Cutie” Kelly says and smiles to Lykke “I’ll be back in a minute”. She crawls out of the window, walks around to the front door to retrieve the pizza she dropped off before and returns. They spend the evening eating pizza and having fun together. She makes sure to always have her right cheek facing Lykke so she doesn’t see the red mark. She doesn’t want her to find out; she wants to protect her from knowing how their dad really is.

 

Saturday the 22nd of September

“Why did you take his driver’s license?” Max asks again.

They are in the bunker. Both Max and Marie are scared what this will mean; scared that they will get in trouble or the police will come for them. Kelly is wearing heavy dark make-up today to cover up the bruise.

“So you could impress those ninth grade girls but if you don’t want it you can throw it out or give it back” Kelly doesn’t care about the license.

“If we give it back then he will know that we took it” Max says worried.

“Maybe… Maybe we can use it” Marie chips in “maybe we can say something like we found it and when the men came we got scared that they would think we stole it. And then we could maybe talk with him and hear what makes his music special”.

“I still say it’s mind control and I have an idea how to test it” Kelly says. If it really is mind controlling music she can be free from her dad.

“What are you thinking?” Marie asks but senses that she already knows the answer. She was the one who taught Kelly how to conceal bruises with makeup.

“I’ll play it for my dad and see if something happens. Give me your cassette Max” Kelly demands.

Max looks confused at Kelly, he doesn’t understand why she would mind control her own dad. “Don’t you want your dad to stay normal?”

“We have to find out the truth and Ole might not tell you” Kelly dismisses.

Marie can see on Kelly that she is set on doing this. And she has to agree, she too wants Mathias to be mind controlled for what he has done. “I think you should try. It’s like the scientific method, when you make a hypothesis you need to test it. You can do it while we go and have a talk with Ole”.

Max pulls the copy out of his backpack. “But what if we need your help with Ole?”

“He’s just a small man, I mean even you are taller than him” Marie takes the cassette out of Max’s hand and throws it to Kelly “find us when you are done”.

 

Max and Marie are standing outside a big house. It’s almost as big as her house Marie thinks as she looks at it. This is where Ole Hunner lives according to the driver’s license. It’s oddly shaped but very nice and well kept.

“Are you sure about this?” Max asks and looks at Marie. He is scared and really doesn’t want to get in trouble.

“It’s … It’s gonna be fine. Let’s knock” Marie takes a deep calming breath before knocking on the door.

Nothing happens. There is no sound of movement coming from inside. Marie knocks even harder but still without a response.

“Maybe he’s out?” Max says hopefully and ready to leave.

“Maybe, but there’s a car in the driveway” Marie says and looks in through the mail slot “there are shoes and clothes lying in the hallway. And can you hear that? Is that music?” she asks and lays her ear to the mail slot.

Max takes a look around to make sure nobody is watching them before he also lays his ear to the mail slot. “I … I don’t know, maybe. But shouldn’t we just leave and come back another time?”

“What if he is hurt or something? It looks like a mess, he could have fallen” Marie tries to look through a window “wait here and keep an eye out. I’m gonna go around to the other side and take a look”.

She has already disappeared around the corner of the house before he can stop her. She looks in through every window on the way. In the garden there is a large stone patio and tacky styled trees. The glass patio door gives Marie an easy overview of the lower floor of his house. She gives it a little try and to her surprise it slides open. She takes a few steps inside the house and can now hear the music clearer than before. Though calling it music is stretching it a bit as it sounds like the same kind of noise on his cassettes. She stealthily follows the music upstairs and opens a door where she finds Ole Hunner dancing in a robe.

“Mister Hunner, sir?” Marie calls and waves her arms trying to get his attention.

Ole jumps backwards with a little scream “what are you doing here?” He tightens his robe and turns of the music.

“Sorry mister Hunner, I tried knocking but you didn’t answer and I got worried about you” Marie says as calming as she can.

“But why are you here? Who are you?” Ole is still keeping his distance to Marie.

“I was at your concert yesterday and found your driver’s license. So I wanted to bring it back to you. I thought you might want it” Marie takes out his license to show him.

Ole looks careful at Marie “that is very kind of you but what were you doing at my concert. You don’t seem old enough, I mean ehm, you are not uhm, part of my target audience”.

“I’m a big fan of your music so I snuck in to hear you perform” Marie lies and immediately Ole lets go of all distrust.

“You are a fan? Really? Why didn’t you just say that” Ole grabs Marie’s hand and shakes it eagerly “it is so nice to meet you. I’m Ole by the way”.

“It’s so nice to meet you too and here is your driver’s license. And if you don’t mind I have a friend outside who is an even bigger fan and he would also really like to meet you” Marie senses that they might get something useful out of him now.

“Yes, yes, go get him. I’ll begin writing some autographs for you” Ole happily takes a stack of paper and starts writing.

A moment later Marie is at the front door letting Max inside “come Ole wants to meet you”.

“That took you long enough, I have been waiting here for like twenty minutes. I were getting worried” Max complains and follows her upstairs.

“This is my friend Max, he is a really big fan of yours” Marie introduces.

“It is an honour to meet you sir, such a pleasure. I was hoping you maybe could show me how you make your music” Max is eagerly shaking Ole’s hand and with a lot of nervous energy.

“Oh you are the one who joined me on the stage last night. Of course I can show you something” Ole walks around the room “well first I of course start the recorder, this machine here” he turns on a big machine that looks like a giant cassette player. “Then you need a good drum beat like this” he hits the drums a few times without any sense of rhythm or technique. From the drums he moves on to the piano “with a beat you need a good melody like this” his piano play is even worse than his drumming. “Hereafter I add some guitar for some of that coolness the youth likes” his guitar is out of tune and he doesn’t do a single chord. “Then there is this machine over here which, which, well it doesn’t matter” he hurries on from a black box standing near the recorder and his computer “and that is all you need for a good song”.

Both Max and Marie notice how quickly Ole moved on from the black box and they move closer to it.

“What did you say about this machine, what did it do again?” Max asks interested.

“That, oh, that is just the uhm, you know, the, the, the, you know... the what’s it called. It makes the music smoother and uhm more hip. I, I think you probably should leave now” Ole mumbles. He is clearly hiding something about the machine.

“Distract him” Max whispers to Marie.

“You are probably right; it’s just so exciting to learn about music from a real star. I mean the things you did with the drums, can you show it again?” Marie begs and moves over to the drums away from the machine.

“I don’t know…” Ole starts, he nervously rubs his neck for a moment thinking it over. “But you are right I am a star and it’s my job to teach and inspire the newer generations” he finishes and immediately starts drumming again and telling them all he knows of drumming.

Max slowly moves around the room and over to the black box. He keeps an eye on Ole as he connects his power glove to the box and starts downloading data from it. Marie keeps Ole focused on drumming for a good thirty tense minutes before Max gives her the signal that he is done.

“Thank you so much it has been great learning about music from you” Marie yawns in an attempt to end the visit.

“Oh, yeah it has been fun; maybe we can do it again another time. It’s always nice to spend time with fans” Ole says “do you need more autographs? I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures for you” he continues as he leads them out of the house handing out several autographs.

 

Kelly is waiting at home for her dad to arrive. She is a bit nervous about this. If her dad doesn’t like the music it could turn bad for her. She has been sitting in the living room waiting for a few hours already. Lykke is out of the house visiting a friend, she made sure of that. One more thing she doesn’t wants her to see. After another hour she can hear her dad at the door. He doesn’t sound too drunk which is probably for the best as she needs him to hear the song. She quickly puts the cassette in the stereo system and plays it for full volume.

Mathias burst in through the door “turn down that darn music Kelly” he yells furiously.

Kelly jumps up scared and takes a step backwards away from her dad. She really thought it would work. “D-don’t you like it” she nervously stutters. He caught her by surprise and she lost her cool.

Mathias walks towards her raising his hand ready to slap her for being a nuisance. He is pissed and she dares playing loud music at this time of day. But then it hits him like a breeze of cool air on a warm summer day and he slows down.

“It’s quite okay this song” Mathias says completely relaxed and mellow. He stops walking, like he forgot what he was doing and sits down on the sofa.

“So you aren’t mad?” Kelly nervously asks as she moves around him.

“I’m alright. Who made this song, do you know that?” Mathias lies on the sofa staring at the stereo system without noticing Kelly.

 

Sunday the 23rd of September

“How did it go with your dad, Kelly?” Marie asks concerned as Kelly has just entered the bunker more at peace than ever.

“There is definitely something with the cassette. But I think there is something wrong with it. First it sounds different than the others. But also he didn’t became an obsessed fan like the others, he just got all relaxed and he hasn’t moved from the stereo since” Kelly throws herself energetically on the sofa. She feels much better and more relaxed.

Marie sighs relieved, she was worried it had gone wrong when Kelly didn’t meet them again yesterday. “We also found something. Ole went all weird when we asked him about some black box he uses on his music”.

“I copied the data from the machine while Marie distracted him and I have been looking at it all night. Apparently it codes a message into the song or something like that” Max is staring deep into a computer screen. “Oh and the cassette you used on your dad, something went wrong when I copied it. That’s why it sounds different”.

“You ran the song through your computer when you copied it? Can’t you just look at the song with your computer thingy and find what he did to it?” Kelly asks not knowing anything about computers.

“That is what I’m currently doing and I think I found what we are looking for. If you look here there is a high frequency layer on the cassette” Max points on his screen.

“And what does that mean?” Neither Marie nor Kelly knows what he is pointing at.

“I think it means that he has recorded a secret message on the song that affects people. And I think it only affects people over the age of fifteen for some reason. At least I haven’t seen anyone younger being affected” Max explains while he keeps fiddling on the computer.

“So it is mind control?” Kelly says a little triumphant because she figured it out before Max.

“It would more be like brainwashing. But yes, you were somewhat right. Alf would find this very interesting” Max says reluctantly. It annoys him that she figured it out first.

“Can you do something so we can hear the secret message or what it is?” Marie asks.

“I have already isolated it and altered the frequency. We should be able to hear it now” Max does his best chair spin for dramatic effect.

“Maybe only one of us should listen to it in case we get brainwashed when we hear it” Marie suggests.

“That is reasonable, wait a second and I’ll make a cassette” Max spins back around and starts fiddling again.

“I’ll listen to it, I don’t care” Kelly says. She knows she’s not as smart as the others and she wouldn’t know how to help them if they got brainwashed.

“No, I’ll do it” Marie insists and takes the Walkman and cassette from Max. “It’s better that I do it. Max, you can find a way to undo it and Kelly you can protect him”. Marie puts on the headphones and presses play on the Walkman. After listening for thirty seconds she takes them off again. “It says Umami is amazing, we love his music. And it just repeats the message over and over again”.

“So he makes people like his music? That’s not so bad” Kelly says. She is slightly disappointed “I mean his music is bad, but it’s hardly evil”.

“Maybe that’s what HappyFood does too” Max says as a revelation hits him.

“We should stop them. Brainwashing is wrong, people deserve to be free” Marie says.

“Why should we? They aren’t doing anything evil. They just make people buy Honey Balls and listen to shitty music. Worst case is we feed people fake healthy balls and call them Honey Balls” Kelly argues dismissively. Stopping the brainwashing and saving people would also mean saving her dad.

“You are right we should stop them, but how?” Max agrees thinking of how he wants his parents back to normal.

“Just expose it all, to some newspaper and someone is going to do something” Kelly tries to sound indifferent about it.

“We would have to know who is behind it and why they do it” Marie argues.

“If we just expose it some government power might steal it and use it. Or maybe they are already brainwashed” Max thinks of what Alf have told him “but it would be smart to find out who is behind it all”.

“And how would we do that? Is there some place where we can look it up?” Kelly senses they won't let it go. So she might as well help them.

“Doesn’t the library have public records of firms and such?” Marie thinks they learned about it in school.

“It’s worth a shot” Max says.

 

Monday the 24th of September

The three friends are done with school today and has just entered the public library. It’s a big old beautiful building with several rows of books and reading tables. It is completely empty except for an old librarian.

“Can I help you?” The librarian asks with her raspy voice while looking suspiciously at them. She especially keeps a close eye on Kelly.

“Uhm, you see miss, we would uhm, we would like to look up HappyFood in the public records. Can you help us?” Marie approaches the librarian with Kelly and Max standing behind her.

The librarian gives them a penetrating stare before she proceeds to look at her computer. The three friends stand in awkward silence waiting for the librarian to talk again. “Mmmhmmm, so you want information on HappyFood?” the librarian finally says after ten long minutes.

“Yes mam, more precisely where they are located, thank you” Max takes the word.

“Mmmhmm, yes HappyFood has a factory located just two hours out of town. Do you also need a map?” It feels like she is looking right through them.

“Yes, that uhm, would definitely give our uhm, assignment more credibility” Marie says “don’t you think?”

The librarian doesn’t exactly look convinced but she also doesn’t look like she cares enough to call them out on it. She prints them a map and marks the building for them.

“Wow she is one scary lady” Max whispers as they leave “so what now?”

“Let’s go and check it out” Marie suggests.

 

A third HappyFood truck passes them and enters the factory through a small check point where a single guard is sitting and checking permits. It’s a big old brick factory building surrounded with a chain-link fence. They have parked their bikes between the trees and are assessing the situation.

“How are we going to get in there without getting noticed? There are people everywhere” Max asks the others.

“I have an idea for that. When the next truck drives up to the security booth we run up and jump in the back. The guard can’t see us from this side and the driver will be looking at the guard” Kelly explains.

“That sounds doable but what about when we are inside?” Marie tries to count the people walking around outside.

“I don’t know. It’s also the first time I’m breaking in here” Kelly jokes “we just have to figure something out when we are inside”.

Another truck passes them by and pulls up to the security booth and stops. “It’s now, let’s go” Kelly says and starts running towards the back end of the truck.

Marie and Max follow right behind her. Kelly gets to the truck in no time and crawls up in the back ready to help the others up. The truck starts its engine again while Max is slowing down. Marie pushes him out in front of her and he falls right into Kelly’s arms. Kelly pulls them both up in the truck as it starts moving and they just barely get in, in time. The truck drives inside the factory building and parks. They wait for a short while before sticking their head out of the back of the truck. The factory looks overwhelming from the inside. They have never seen anything like it. Big boilers hang suspended from the ceiling with a walkway connecting them. And around fifty workers are moving around in unison like a well-oiled machine, moving bags and boxes and doing measurements.

“I think what we are looking for is up there in the office where that woman is” Max says and points to the far end corner up on the walkway. Where a woman is keeping an eye on the workers from an office with big windows all around.

“Then you’ll need a distraction. Leave that to me” Kelly says and jumps out of the truck.

She sneaks around some boxes and conveyor belts and climbs the stairs up to the walkway. As she takes a turn around a boiler she almost bumps into a worker. They are locking eyes and Kelly is sure that it is over. But the worker just continues walking without taking notice of her. Marie and Max sneak the other way around the work floor. They climb a ladder up to the office. The name Pernille Durkel is written on it. They hide right around the corner waiting for the distraction. As Kelly sees them waiting at the office she takes out her knife and pries loose a screw on the suspension of one of the boilers and it falls to the ground with a loud commotion. None of the workers reacts they just carry on with their work like nothing happened.

“What happened? Go fix that” Pernille calls to the workers as she walks out of her office towards the boiler. And the workers immediately follows her orders as they are given.

Kelly sneaks back to the truck and hides in the back and waits for the others. Marie and Max sneak into the office as soon as Pernille has left it. There are a couple of wooden office tables and some filing cabinets. The tables are messy with lots of papers placed on top of computers and boxes.

“What are we looking for?” Marie asks.

“I don’t know, maybe something that connects HappyFood to Ole” Max pulls a bunch of papers out of a drawer and starts flipping through them.

They open drawer after drawer looking for some kind of clue and every now and then one of them takes a quick glance through the windows to see if Pernille is coming back.

“Boiler three is down; you’ll have to continue with only five boilers today. Now get back to work” Pernille calls out to her workers.

“We have to go now” Marie whispers.

“Wait, I think I found something” Max says and pulls out another piece of paper “yes, I definitely found something. This is a bill from Ole for a machine. Ole made the brainwashing machines”.

“Now come quickly! Pernille is on her way back” Marie hurries on Max. They quickly sneak out of the office and around the corner just seconds before Pernille is back in her office.

“How do we get out?” Marie asks Kelly as all three of them are back in the truck. She is worried that someone is going to find them.

“This is a delivery truck. We just stay here till they drive the truck out and then we jump off it” Kelly leans back unconcerned.

“But aren’t they going to find us?” Max is just as worried as Marie.

“No they don’t care about us. They have probably been brainwashed too and I think that lady did it. Also the truck has finished its delivery so it will be going soon” the truck starts just as Kelly finishes her sentence. “Did you find anything in the office?”

“Her name is Pernille Durkel or at least that’s the name written on the office. And we found this bill for a machine sold to HappyFood by Ole. So he must be behind it all and if we stop him, we stop it all” Marie says.

The truck leaves the factory and drives away and at the first stop the three friends jump out of the back.

“Now we’ll just have to walk back and get our bikes” Max sighs as they tracks two kilometres back to the factory.

 

Wednesday the 26th of September

At the bunker Max is fiddling with some computer parts. He has been fiddling with something for the last twenty-four hours.

“Has anyone figured a way we can stop Ole and HappyFood?” Marie asks. She has been thinking a lot about this.

“Let’s just expose it all, it’s not our problem” Kelly suggests again. Pernille sounded like a mean woman.

“No, that won’t work. They can just brainwash their way out of it. And if they know we know, they can probably alter the brainwashing to work on us too. We have to stop them ourselves” Marie says.

“What about we brainwash Ole with his own technology?” Max suggests.

“But how do we do that? We don’t have a machine” Kelly argues.

“Not yet, but I have all his code and I think I’m close to finish a working machine” Max shows what he has been fiddling with.

“Then we can get Ole to stop it all and destroy all the machines and blueprints” Marie says supportive of the plan.

“So what? Are we going to rescue the world by forming a band?” Kelly jokes.

“We just need a short song. I can use my ukulele that aunt Linnea gave me” Marie is eager and ready.

“And we can call us for Ole School” Max laughs “you get it? Because it sounds like old school”.

Kelly looks at them both and sighs “this is stupid. And we don’t need a band name for this”.

 

Sunday the 30th of September

They are standing outside Ole’s oddly shaped house waiting for him to answer the door. It took them three days to write but their song is ready. The hard part was to find just the right message to use for brainwashing. But in the end they finally found something they were satisfied with. Max knocks on the door one more time. After another minute Ole finally opens the door and Max presses play on the Boombox.

“Ole stop with your shitty plans, Ole stop with you shitty plans”

Kelly’s voice carries the words of the song out of the Boombox slightly off rhythm to Marie’s Ukulele. They couldn’t figure out a good song text so they decided just to use the same text as in the brainwashing message. But they agree it’s still way better than Ole’s song.

Ole looks perplexed “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. It is so clear now. It was a shitty plan. What do I do now?” he apologises.

“Good, now go and stop HappyFood and release everyone that has been brainwashed” Max commands.

“Well yes, of course, but I can’t. Pernille Durkel has her own machine. So I can’t exactly stop her. I just sold her the machine and the blueprints for it. Which I now realise was a shitty plan” Ole says regretfully.

“Then you will stop brainwashing people yourself and you will destroy your own machine and all your blueprints and notes about it” Marie commands.

“That I can do, that sounds like a good plan not like my shitty plans. I’ll do that” Ole pauses for a moment “but no, no that won’t do that is a shitty plan. I have to stop with all my shitty plans”.

“No, this is a good plan. We made this plan, not you” Kelly slaps Ole trying to get him to focus.

“But I’m here making the plan with you. I am part of the plan. That makes it my plan too and I make shitty plans” Ole says a bit confused.

“Again no, this is our plan. We have made this plan and you are just a tool for it to work. You have not made any parts of this plan and therefore it is a good plan” Kelly explains.

“So you will go and follow our plan and we will stop HappyFood” Max says to underline Kelly’s explanation. And Ole nods understandingly

“Now what can you tell us about Pernille and HappyFood?” Marie asks.

“Not much, she approached me four months ago asking me if I could make a machine for her. How she heard of my machine I don’t know. But I delivered it at the HappyFood headquarters to her office. It is near the loop in one of the old loop cooperation buildings. She paid me a lot of money and we haven’t done business since” Ole explains.

“Can you give us a map showing where it is?” Marie asks nicely. Ole walks inside and returns shortly after with a map showing where the building is and then he leaves them alone. “So what now? We are no closer to stopping all this than before. We even have to break into a big cooperation building now” Marie is annoyed that this didn’t pay off as they expected.

“Can’t we just make a new song and stop Pernille like we stopped Ole?” Max suggests.

“But what if she isn’t the one in charge? Then we’ll have to make yet another song and we don’t know where she live so we would still have to break into her office” Marie argues “we have to end this once and for all”.

“Breaking in will be easy. All the loop buildings are connected directly to the loop. If we know someone who lives in an old loop building they can let us in” Kelly has been planning to make a trip out there to look for something to sell or use.

Marie thinks for a moment “I think Rune lives near the loop”.

“Oh no, not him” Max says disgusted “he is super weird, he reeks of cat and his nose is constantly running”.

“Yes, that’s him and he lives not too far from the office building” Marie says checking the map.

“He’s actually a cool guy; he’s just a little weird” Kelly comments. She hasn’t spent much time with him but he has always been friendly towards her.

“Can’t we just go through the front door? Do we really need to talk with Rune” Max would rather get beaten up by the jocks again than spent five minutes with Rune.

“Pernille is a powerful woman who is willing to brainwash the entire world just to sell Honey Balls. Imagine what she would do if she knew we were trying to stop her. It’s probably best we stay safe and sneak inside” Marie says wisely. ”When we are inside we’ll find and destroy the machine and blueprints. We should also stop the commercial, that way they won’t be able to brainwash more people”.

“And just how do we stop the commercial?” Kelly asks. The other things sounded doable but she doesn’t know how to stop a commercial.

“Hopefully Pernille uses emails just like any self-respecting business owner. Then we can write an email ordering them to stop airing it. If not we probably have to break in at the TV station as well” Max says. He has been looking into getting email himself but neither Marie nor Kelly has a computer so he wouldn’t be able to write to them anyway.

“If we go now we can do it before tonight” Marie encourages.

 

“Do we really have to? I can already smell the cat” Max whispers as they stand outside Rune’s home. They haven’t been here since a birthday five years ago.

“Yes, it’s the best plan we have. Now be nice” Marie shushes and rings the doorbell.

“But…” Max is interrupted as the door opens.

“Yes? Can I help you?” Rune asks with his stuffy voice as he opens the door. Rune is a weird loner, his clothes are way too big for him and are always filled with cat hair. He doesn’t really have any friends but is happy and friendly to all.

“Rune, my man, how would you like to help us save the world” Max says with a forced smile.

“You want my help? Like you want to hang out with me?” Rune looks happily surprised.

“We want to go down into the loop. Can you help us?” Marie asks.

“Why do you want to go down there?” Rune sounds a little nervous like he knows something about the loop.

“Listen Rune, we are your friends and we are not going to lie to you. The loop can help us sneak into HappyFood headquarters where some bad people are trying to brainwash the world. And we are going to stop them” Marie explains.

“I can help you with that. I’ll do anything for you, my friends” Rune says and leads them through the house down to their basement. As they pass the living room they can see Rune’s parents sit on the sofa watching the Honey Balls commercial.

“This is our last chance to turn around” Max whispers barely audible to Kelly and Marie.

Kelly discretely slaps Max over the head “have you been down in the loop before?”

“Yes many times, I have a friend down here” Rune says proudly. He sounds more and more stuffy the closer they get to the loop.

“A friend? What kind of friend do you have” Max says insolently. He has a hard time imagining someone wanting to be friends with Rune. But he is also scared of what could be in the loop Rune has made friends with.

Rune opens a heavy metal door. A padlock on the other side stops the door from opening more than a few centimetres but he reaches in and pulls it off. It looks like some big animal has torn it open. “Come you’ll meet her”.

“Did your friend open the lock?” Max asks worried “you know maybe you should stay here. It could be dangerous”.

“I’m coming with you my friends” Rune says and closes the door behind them. They have walked down into a big dark circular tunnel. “So what way are we going?” he looks excited at the others.

Kelly pulls out a flashlight and the map “about half an hour this way”.

“Cool, then we’ll meet my friend” Rune blows his nose in his sleeve.

Max takes the lead trying to get some distance to Rune and the smell of cat. But it seems like it has grown stronger down here in the tunnel. Rune keeps trying to start some small talk and Marie replies politely but only half-heartedly. She doesn’t want to lead him on too much, it’s not like they are going to be friends after this. They just needed his help to get down in the tunnel. After a short walk a sudden growling bounces off the walls. Everyone except Rune stops up to look for the source. A second growl sounds and Max grabs Kelly’s arm hoping she will protect him.

“Don’t worry it’s just my friend, she won’t do you anything” Rune pulls something out of his pocket “come here, come and get a treat” he calls out in the tunnel.

“And who or what exactly is your friend?” Max is getting scared, he had heard rumours of monsters coming from the loop but he never believed them.

Before Rune even answers a big cat appears from out of the dark. The cat towers over them with the height of a full grown man.

“Come here Princess Kitty Meowington” Rune runs to the cat and starts petting it.

“She’s so cute and fluffy” Marie squeals with joy. She has always wanted a pet but her mom is allergic “can I pet her?”

“Yeah come here, take some of these snacks” Rune hands some cat food to Marie “now Princess Kitty Meowington this is one of my friends, be nice to her” he says softly to the cat.

Marie slowly approaches the cat offering food. She starts growling but Rune calms her down with soft sounds. And Marie is allowed to place her hands on the softest fur she has ever touched. The cat quickly warms up to Marie and starts purring with happiness. Max also starts petting the cat but he keeps a little more distance from it. He now understands why Rune smells like cat.

“You are the cutest wittle kitty witty ever, aren’t you” Marie says and gives the cat a big hug. She almost disappears inside the fur.

Kelly just greets the cat with a small bow “Princess Meowington, nice to meet you. But we have a world to save”.

“Yeah, but she’s so soft and cute” Marie says and gives the cat another big hug.

The cat follows at Rune’s side all the way down the tunnel to another heavy steel door.

“This is the right place” Max says after double checking his math “I think you should stay here Rune and keep watch” he has gotten enough of his stuffed voice and sad personality.

“I want to come with you. You are my friends” Rune says bravely.

Marie gently puts a hand on Rune’s shoulder “I don’t think it’s smart that you come with us. From here on it is dangerous and you don’t want them to find out about Princess Kitty Meowington”.

“No, you are right, I don’t want anything to happen to her” Rune says a bit defeated “I’ll stay watch for an hour, then I need to go home”.

“Only an hour? We don’t know how long it will take. What if we need you?” Max objects.

“Stop it Max” Kelly hits him on the arm “it’s cool Rune, stay as long as you can. Can Princess Meowington open the lock?” she asks.

“Easily, see” Rune pads the lock and the cat rips it off with its big claws.

“If we don’t make it out before you leave then we’ll see you in school” Kelly high fives Rune and leaves him in the tunnel with the cat.

The other two follow Kelly without looking at Rune. As the door closes behind them, they look around this new room. They quickly find the light switch and reveals that they are standing in what looks like a supply closet. It is full of different computer parts and office supplies. Max looks at some SD cards and RAMs and puts some in his backpack. Marie opens the door on the opposite side of the room which leads out to a stairwell. It is dark and empty; it looks like it’s only in use when someone has to enter the supply closet. They ascend the staircase looking for something to point them in the right direction. The first door they find leads to the lobby and the second and third door leads to office work floors filled with small cubicles.

“Maybe we should try gaining access to a computer and see what we can figure out about this place” Marie suggests as they look through the door to the third floor.

“Yeah maybe they have a map or blueprint of this place” Max looks at the many cubicles.

“Let’s sneak in and see if there is an empty cubicle we can use” Kelly says but Marie and Max stops her.

“No, I’ll distract someone and get them out of the cubicle. And then you’ll do the tech stuff Max” Marie says and walks through the door. She enters a cubicle just around the corner where the name Eva is written. “Can you help me?” she says teary and with quivery voice “I can’t seem to find my mother and this place is like a maze”.

“Who are you and why are you here?” Eva looks suspiciously at her.

“My mother took me with her to work today so we could spend some more time together. But I had to use the toilet and now I’m lost. Can you help me find her?” Marie lies effortlessly.

Eva looks at the time and then back at Marie “What is your mother’s name?”

“I … I don’t know. I always just call her mom” Marie sniffles.

Eva starts to get a little impatient “What about your last name?”

“It’s Johansson but I think my mom used her maiden name for this job and not my dad’s last name. And I don’t know what that is either” Marie cries a little harder.

“I can try and search on your last name but I don’t know what else I can do. Maybe you should try the lobby” Eva says trying to get done with it and back to work.

“I think she mentioned something about the cafeteria, could you maybe show me down there” Marie gives her the biggest puppy dog eyes she can muster.

Eva looks at the time again, sighs and gets up “alright but let’s make it quick. I have work to do” she says and starts leading Marie towards the elevator.

As soon as they have left the cubicle Max and Kelly sneaks inside it. Eva didn’t log off the computer before she left and Max accesses her files. He searches through many documents and soon finds the blueprints of the building and presses print. From the middle of the room a printer loudly starts printing out paper after paper.

“Who’s printing?” a man calls angrily out in the room.

“What do we do now?” Max whispers with panic in his voice. He didn’t think about where the printer was.

“Relax” Kelly shushes and puts her hand up in the air “I am” she replies to the man imitating the voice of a grown woman.

“But how are we going to get the papers?” Max glances down the row of cubicles.

“I got this” Kelly walks out of the cubicle and up to the printer with her head held high. No one seems to notice that she doesn’t belong there. A freshly printed stack of papers with the thickness of a book lies on the printer waiting for her. She grabs it under her arm and walks back toward the cubicle.

“Stop there” a man says, he just turned around in his chair and saw Kelly walking by “who are you?”

“I’m the new office assistant. My job is to bring coffee and get prints” Kelly says with a charming sweet voice.

“I haven’t heard anything about an office assistant and aren’t you too young to work here” the man asks.

“So because I’m thirteen I can’t have a job? It’s called investing in the future. I’m trying to build a set of skills and experiences for when I grow up. Adults always go around saying how important it is for the youth to have part time jobs and how it will build character. And now you are trying to give me shit because I actually do what people preach” Kelly scolds trying to make the man feel bad for judging her.

Max can hear the conversation and hacks into the internal email system where he creates a fake profile imitating Pernille Durkel and starts mailing.

“That is no way to talk young lady. Show some respect …” the man gets interrupted as several emails start ticking into his mailbox “wait here” he opens his mailbox.

“I can’t wait here all day I have to deliver these papers to Eva and then I have many other things to do” Kelly can see panic rise in the man’s eyes.

The man skims mail after mail trying to figure out what is going on “now just wait a moment … oh shit Pernille wants to see me at her office” he says and storms out of his cubicle towards the elevator.

“Should I bring you a coffee?” Kelly calls smugly after him as she walks towards the cubicle where Max is.

As Marie arrives at the lobby she turns to Eva “oh I recognize this, I can find my way now” she says trying to dismiss her.

“You had me take you all the way down here. I could have put you on the elevator and continued my work. You just made me waste valuable time” Eva scuffs and steps back inside the elevator leaving Marie alone.

Marie leaves the lobby through the door to the back stair and walks back up to find the others again. “Did you find anything?” She is slightly winded from running up the stair.

Max is shuffling through pages of paper trying to figure out where they are heading now. “Not yet, it’s almost like they made these blueprints in scale one to four”.

Marie grabs the last pages in the pile of papers “the index here says you should look at page nine hundred and forty-one to page one thousand and twenty-one. And it’s on the fifth floor which is just two floors above us”.

“Who the hell designed these prints” Max annoyed puts the entire stack of papers in his backpack in case they are going to need them again.

The fifth floor office is less crowded than the others. There are only about eight cubicles and on the opposite side of the room is a big glass wall separating Pernille’s office from the rest of the room. Pernille sits half facing the room and half facing a big Zen garden with a little pond on her floor. The man from earlier that stopped Kelly is standing in front of Pernille; she is yelling at him. None of the cubicle workers are paying attention to what’s going on inside Pernille’s office.

“How are we gonna do this?” Max asks the others as the man leaves Pernille’s office and walks to the elevator.

“What about a distraction? I can set something on fire and get the building evacuated” Kelly jokes.

“That sounds way too dangerous” Max argues.

“Hey look at that up in the corner. Is that a speaker? Do you think she is brainwashing them too?” Marie asks and points.

“I bet she is and I know how we can find out” Max pulls a bag of Honey Balls out of his backpack. He throws the Honey Balls into the middle of the room right between two cubicles. It lands with a silent thump.

“How is that gonna help, it wasn’t even hearable” Kelly whispers. But just as she has finished speaking one of the workers turns in his chair to look at the thing that landed on the floor.

“Uuh, Honey Balls” the worker says and goes to pick them up.

Another worker pops her head up from inside her cubicle “did you say Honey Balls?” she asks and when she sees the bag she runs out of her cubicle to get to them first. All eight workers joins in on the fight for this one little bag of Honey Balls.

“Let’s move” Marie sneaks inside the office room with the other two behind her. But they haven’t come far before Pernille steps out of her office. She claps twice and everyone stops fighting. The three quickly jumps inside a closet.

“What’s going on here?” Pernille yells at the workers. The worker currently holding the pack of Honey Balls raises it up to show Pernille. “Go back to work” she takes the Honey Balls and returns to her office.

“She most have some additional brainwashing going on” Marie whispers to the others inside the closet.

“We are within sight of her chair. We can’t get out of here before she leaves” Kelly whispers looking through a crack in the closet.

And so they wait for almost an hour before Pernille leaves her chair again. Marie opens the closet door slightly to get a better look at where she is going. She enters the elevator and turns off the light on the floor. The workers are left behind in their cubicles working like nothing has changed.

“I think she has left for today” Marie whispers “but the others are still here”.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. They are brainwashed and she did that clapped and they stopped” Max says and sneaks out of the closet.

They enter Pernille’s office unnoticed. Max starts hacking into her computer. The light from the screen catches Marie’s attention, she closes the blinds for the glass wall. Kelly turns to the Zen garden. She wants to do something. She wants to mess with Pernille, to show her that they know what she is doing and that they are going to take her down. With her foot she writes “Got you know bitch” in the sand.

“I’m in” Max finally jokes to himself thinking of all the bad hacker movies he has watched.

“First find the machine and blueprints for it” Marie reminds him nervously while keeping an eye on the workers.

“Yes, I know the plan. First the machine, then the commercials” Max taps away on the computer.

“Can you also cut the brainwashing in these speakers?” Marie asks.

“Yeah and order us a pizza but to a street corner and not to the bunker” Kelly says from the Zen garden.

“Not a bad idea, I could eat some pizza” Max looks through several of Pernille’s emails and files “what I can read here is that she has the machine at the factory together with the blueprints for it”

“Of course it is. Why should it not be at the place we aren’t” Kelly says sarcastically.

“This is Pernille Durkel from HappyFood and I would like to order a large pepperoni pizza delivered to the Blockbuster and the supermarket intersection in about two hours. Yes the company will pay for it, thank you” Marie orders on the phone.

“I have found the email address for the commercial firm” Max considers for second what to write “let’s see. Dear friends. It is Pernille Durkel from HappyFood. We will no longer be in need of your services. Stop running the commercial on TV and radio and destroy all recordings of it. Thanks a lot Pernille Durkel from HappyFood. That sounds like a good mail”.

“That sounds fine, send it” Marie says “have you also stopped the brainwashing in this building?”

“I don’t think I can stop it from here. It doesn’t look like the speakers are connected to the computers” Max says “wait in this documents it states that there must always play a cassette on the system down in the lobby”.

“So we are done? Can we throw the computer out of the window now?” Kelly asks hopefully. One thing she knows about computers are that they are very hard to use when they are completely destroyed.

“No Kelly that would draw too much attention” Marie says reasonably.

“Then what about throwing it in the little puddle, that could also be some kind of fun” Kelly doesn’t want to have to get back here when they learn about something else on Pernille’s computer they need to deal with.

“I can support that, we should destroy her system…” Max has barely finished the sentence when Kelly grabs the computer and throws it in the pond. As the computer hits the water sparks starts flying from it and smoke rises from it. A few seconds later the computer has short circuited the entire building. Everything is dark.

“Who cut the power?”

“What’s going on?”

“I think we have to go now” Marie says and they grab their things.

They run out of the office just as the workers are getting out of their cubicles to find the problem.

“You are not supposed to be here. Stop!”

They run through the room and out on the stairwell slamming the door behind them. A large thump and some yelling sounds just behind them as one of the workers runs into the door. Marie leads the way down the stairs with Kelly right behind her. Max is slowly sacking further and further behind. Every floor has gone completely dark.

“We got intruders”

“This way”

“Stop them”

They don’t know where anybody is but they can hear more and more footsteps joining the group behind them. They continue down into the storage room and back in the tunnel.

“Damn they keep following us” Marie exclaims exhausted.

“This way”

“Stop”

“…”

“Wait … I can’t hear them anymore. Do you think they ran the other way?” Kelly stops to listen carefully.

“I don’t know and I don’t care. Let’s just get out of here before anyone finds us” Max is completely winded from running so fast. He should really start participating more in gym class if this is going to be a regular thing.

They find their way back to Rune’s house. With a reluctant see you in school they say goodbye to Rune. They make a quick stop to pick up their pizza before returning to the bunker.

 

Back at the bunker they finally feel like they can relax again. This turned out to be much scarier and harder than they thought it would be. But they are slowly tearing down HappyFood. And though they still have much to do, this was a victory worthy of a pizza party celebration. The night is becoming quite late but neither Max nor Marie seems to be in any hurry to get home.

Max eventually takes the word “Marie, do you think I can sleep at your place? I don’t feel safe at home any longer. My parent’s keep trying to feed me Honey Balls”.

“I would say yes but I was thinking of not going home either. It’s scary how they look at you when you don’t want Honey Balls” Marie says.

“Exactly, it’s like they want to force feed you Honey Balls until you say they are good. I have started blocking my door when I’m home so they can’t get in” Max is beginning to feel a bit sad.

“What about we do a sleepover here in the bunker. We have enough blankets and bean bag chairs for all of us” Marie suggests.

“That sounds like fun but I have to get home to Lykke” Kelly carefully packs two slices of pizza.

“That’s alright we’ll see you tomorrow anyway” Marie hugs Kelly goodbye.

 

“Is dad okay?” Lykke asks as Kelly arrive home “he has been sitting like that all day listening to that song on repeat. And he hasn’t moved at all”. She is sitting by his side starring at his blank face.

“Yes dad is fine, don’t worry about him. I just have to work a little harder on taking care of us from now on” Kelly comforts Lykke “I brought home some pizza for you”.

“Hello” Mathias yelps together with the cassette as it plays the small bit of the phone call that accidentally got recorded.

“Promise me you won’t end up like dad” Lykke pleads as she takes the pizza.

“I’ll always take care of you” Kelly gives Lykke a caring hug “you know what? Tomorrow I’ll start looking for a job so we can eat more often”.

 

Monday the 1st of October

The first class of the day is gym. Max and Marie met early to sneak a bath before anyone could smell how they reek of cat and mouldy dampness from the bunker.

“I can’t join class today Morten, lady problems” Kelly lies to get out of gym class. It’s not that she can’t join, she just doesn’t want to.

Morten the gym teacher sighs “Kelly this is the fourth week in a row you try to use that excuse. I may not be the biology teacher but I am not stupid. Also we both know that you would just skip class if you didn’t want to participate. Go change”.

As soon as Kelly has left, Max and Marie approaches Morten “we can’t join either, we don’t have any gym clothes with us today” they say truthfully.

“Everybody has to participate today. If you can’t borrow clothes from your classmates then go look in the lost and found box” Morten dismisses them.

Marie borrows a top and some shorts from Kelly but Max is doomed to search the lost and found. Unfortunately some flowered shorts and a red top with deep V-neck is the best he can find. Normally Max doesn’t exactly like gym class but having to borrow ugly forgotten clothes has just made it so much worse.

“Everybody listen up” Morten calls out over the two classes standing in front of him “as you are now on your way to becoming young adults it is a vital part in your education that you learn to dance properly. So today we are going to learn to waltz. Everyone has to participate, there are no excuses. So partner up and find some free space”.

An awkward silence spreads between the young teenagers that suddenly feels self-conscious about every part of their bodies. The few already in a relationship quickly partner up. Everybody else is spreading out to small groups trying to avoid any kind of eye contact.

Max sees a group of girls standing not far from him. He got to be fast before all the good girls are taken. He muster up all the courage he got and walks up to them “hey, Linnea, you are like really beautiful and amazing. So I thought that maybe you would want to partner up. I am a good dancer” he says, trying to sound charming. The girls burst out laughing and points at him and his ugly clothes. He can feel the blood rushing to his face but he stands tall and waits for the answer.

Linnea blushes while considering Max’s proposal. Finally she calms down her friends so she can answer “I don’t know Max it’s not like you are cool or popular and your gym clothes are really ugly …” she starts and he can feel hope slowly fade out of him. He wants to leave but she continues to talk “… I do sort of like your confidence. Maybe I should give you this one chance”.

Surprised by the sudden turn of event Max gallantly offers his arm “let’s find a spot then”.

A group of the popular boys are walking menacingly towards Max, as he and Linnea finds a spot on the dancefloor. They were watching, hoping to get a quick laugh as he would yet again humiliate himself in front of the girls. Now they wants to beat him up for having the audacity to ask out Linnea. Kelly makes sure to cross their path together with Marie. She sends them a quick murderous glance as she stands right in front of them. And the boys disperses without a word. Between the boys was handsome Tore. He gives Marie a quick inviting smile before he too leaves the floor.

Marie giggles infatuated “look at that smile. He’s so cute, I’m gonna go ask him to be my dance partner”.

Kelly has never seen Marie behave like this before. But she has seen enough movies to know that this must be her first crush. She laughs silently at the irony, for she and Marie had often made fun of how movies make girls in love look like simple fools.

Marie stops Tore before he gets too far “hi Tore …” she giggles with a cute smile.

“Hey Marie, I was thinking maybe you want to partner up” Tore says sounding cool and carefree.

Marie takes his hand with a giggle and they find a place in the gym hall where they can dance unbothered. Most of the students have managed to find a partner. Even Rune has found a girl to dance with. Kelly has made absolutely no effort in participating and is standing by herself. The few boys who is left without a partner are keeping their distance to her.

“Come on guys find a partner so we can get started” Morten calls impatiently to the last students.

Kelly walks up to the nerd Karlson; the most unpopular boy left. “We are partners now” she grabs his hand and leads him to a free spot.

Morten introduces the dance steps to the class before he starts the music and lets the class try it out. Every now and then he stops a couple to reprimand, reinstruct or compliment them. Max wasn’t lying about being a good dancer. His grandma taught him when he was younger and it is really impressing Linnea. Marie on the other hand is having a cute and awkward time dancing with Tore. She keeps stepping on his toes but he doesn’t seem to mind.

 

“So, are we going to stop Pernille tonight?” Max asks the two others as they meet after the last class of the day.

“Yes, we meet at seven and ride out to the factory” Marie confirms the plan.

“Then I’ll see you later. I have to go get a job now” Kelly sighs.

“A job? You? Who would give you a job?” Max laughs. Kelly flips him off with a smile as she leaves them.

Further down the hallway are Linnea and her friends hanging out. “Excuse me, I have a girl to see” Max says confidently to Marie before he walks over to Linnea. “So babe, gym class was so fun and I thought maybe you wanted to hang out. We can go watch Back to The Future or go to the arcade”

“Back to The Future? That movie is for nerds. Linnea, why is this nerd talking to you” one of the girls asks condescendingly.

Linnea was initially happy to see Max, it was fun dancing with him in gym class. But the disapproving comment from her friend made her smile fade fast “ugh, I don’t think so Max. I mean you were a good dance partner but I can’t be seen with you”.

“What are you saying? I thought we were having fun in gym class” Max is hurt by this sudden rejection. He is used to be rejected but this feels different.

“You are a nerd”

“And a loser”

“She’s too good for you”

“Max you are sort of sweet and all that but we can’t be friends. I’m popular and you are a nerd. I’m sorry” Linnea says with a slight tone of sincere regret before she leaves with her friends.

Heartbroken Max gets back to Marie; he masks his pain with a supposed indifferent smile. Marie feels bad for him but maybe if she can talk with Linnea alone she can help him. “I’ll meet you in the bunker. I’ll just have to get something from home first”.

Max nods and walks off, he wanted some time alone anyway. And now he doesn’t have to talk about what just happened.

Marie hurries after Linnea and catches up with her a little further down the hallway. “Hey Linnea, can we talk for a moment?”

“What do you want?” Linnea asks, her voice quivers a little but she tries to sound carefree.

“I just want to talk a bit just the two of us” Marie gestures for Linnea to follow her.

“I’ll catch up with you later” Linnea says to her friends and follows Marie.

Now that it is just the two of them Marie knows she can get Max a second chance. “I know Max can act stupid and be a total fool around girls but he is a really good guy. You know he is smart and funny, he just tries a little too hard because he is very lonely. I think you should try and give him a real chance and not let your friends decide who you can or can’t date”.

“That is easy for you to say, you are his cousin. Nobody is going to make fun of you for hanging out with him. But if I start to date him it could really hurt my reputation. I do think he is cute but I am just too popular for it to work” Linnea wipes away a tear. This is not the first time she had to give up on something she wanted for her popularity.

“You don’t really believe that, do you?” Marie asks.

“I have to” Linnea leaves in haste before Marie can stop her.

 

Back at the bunker Max paces back and forth with thoughts running through his head. He is hurt and tired of every girl treating him like trash. Tired of nobody ever taking time to talk with him and get to know him. This time he actually had a connection. He had a moment where it almost felt real and that just made the pain of rejection even bigger. If just people would give him a chance. If they would just spend time with him, they would know how cool he is. If he could just make people spend time with him. He looks at his computer and the cassettes by it and an idea strikes. He can make people spend time with him. He can make people like him. No more rejections and heartbreak. He just needs to make one more cassette.

 

Kelly walks in through the door to the post office. A bored teller sits behind the counter waiting for customers. She steps confidently up to the counter without taking a que number.

“Welcome to the post office, how can I help you?” the teller asks with a hoarse voice. She looks like she is about to fall asleep.

“I'm looking for a job and thought you guys might need somebody to do a paper route” Kelly puts on her biggest and most welcoming smile.

The teller eyes Kelly for a second and then turns around “Benny! Come out here”.

“What is it Agnete?” Benny asks as he steps through a door behind the counter.

“This one here wants a paper route” Agnete says and points to Kelly standing in her torn jeans, black jacket and black make-up.

Benny also eyes Kelly “aren't you a little young to have a job” he tries to dismiss her. He has no time for troublemakers.

“No, I don't think so. I'm thirteen, a good age for any young person to consider getting their first job. It will strengthen my sense of responsibility, let me help out my poor family and let me grow and mature into an adult that is a functioning member of society. Besides it's a paper route, people my age are supposed to work these types of jobs” Kelly is not taking any of their shit and she is not about to leave without a job.

Benny rubs his moustache “hmm, so why should we hire you and not someone else?”

“I'm strong and fast and I know my way around town. I really need a job to help my family. It is just me, my sister and my dad left ever since my mother died. And we can barely afford to eat as it is” Kelly says just enough to get a good amount of sympathy but not so much that they are going to call social services.

Benny takes a moment to really think about his options while Kelly forces him to maintain eye contact. “We'll give you a chance” he finally says as if he couldn’t think of a way out of this “but if you miss a day or doesn't do your job you are fired, got it? Meet here tomorrow at five in the morning. Then you will be given a cart and route. You will be paid one hundred krona a day”

 

Marie sneaks in through her front door. She wants some fresh clothes that don't smell of cat. As she opens the door she is met with the sound of the Honey Balls commercial playing on repeat. They have turned the volume all the way up which fortunately makes it easier for her to sneak around. But that also means that they didn’t succeed in getting the commercial off air. She carefully peeps through the kitchen trying to get a look at her family. She misses them. She misses being able to talk to her aunt about everything. She misses having a mom and dad that cares about her and shows her love. She even misses the sound of her parents fighting for that would mean everything was normal again. But her family is still sitting on the sofa staring mindlessly at the TV while eating Honey Balls. All three have become visibly fatter and they smell like they have stopped bathing. Seeing her family in such a state saddens Marie. She can't let them continue living like this she has to do something now. She can't wait for tonight and what if they fail then no one will save her family. Maybe if they couldn't see that commercial anymore they would eventually wake up. How long does the brainwashing even work? She walks out in the garage and finds the crowbar in her dad's toolbox and takes it with her up to her room. If she removes the antenna they won’t be able to receive the commercial. She climbs out through the window and up onto the roof. It is the first time she is on the roof and the tiles are more slippery than she imagined. She slowly walks closer to the antenna and just as she is about to touch it her foot slips and she falls. She slides towards the edge of the roof, she is flailing around trying to grab something and save herself. But with the crowbar in one hand she doesn’t find anything and she falls off the roof. A second later she swings into the wall. The crowbar got stuck in the rain gutter. She is desperately holding on to the crowbar. Winded and terrified she uses all her strength to crawl back up on the roof. She almost fell two floors towards a paved driveway. She could have died or at the very least gotten seriously hurt. She needs to be more careful next time. After a moment she is back at pulling down the antenna. Steadily she crawls up to it and then jams the crowbar in under the antenna. She screams violently as she pries and wiggles and pushes until the antenna finally comes loose and falls off the roof ripping out a long piece of cord on its way. Sweaty and dirty but proud of herself Marie re-enters her room. She feels like a whole new person, ready to save the world. A quick shower and some clean back clothes later she is on her way to meet the others.

 

It has become quite dark when the three friends finally arrive near the HappyFood factory. Like last time they hide their bikes in some bushes and sneak closer. Pernille has increased the amount of guards patrolling the area. The four guard towers at each corner are methodically searching the area with huge light beams.

“Pernille has improved her security. Do you think it's because of last night?” Max asks the others as they hides behind some trees to observe the place.

“It's definitely because of last night. Now we just need to find a way in. Unfortunately I don't think everyone are brainwashed like last time” Marie whispers while looking for an opening.

“We sneak around to find a good place to cut a hole in the fence and then cross the field under cover” Kelly comments like it’s something she often does.

Marie and Max shrugs and follows Kelly. About midway down the first fence they can vaguely see the outlines of a door on the side of the building just across from them. That side door is their way inside and this point in the fence is the closest they can come. Kelly walks a little into the forest behind them and returns a few moments later with a bush large enough to cover all three of them. They huddle together and duck under the bush. While Marie holds the bush Kelly uses her knife to cut a hole in the fence they can pass through. With a careful eye on the lights they slowly they sneak across the field. They just have to sneak a hundred meters like this. But already after a few meters a searchlight nears their position. They stop and duck down to look like a bush. The searchlight moves past them and they continue their movement. Their hearts beat fast and loud. Every time a searchlight comes too close they crouch down and waits. Their legs are starting to burn from constantly walking in half squads. Max is about to get up as after having crouch for the fourth time but another searchlight is coming heading towards them just as he does. Kelly pulls him back down, he loses his balance and falls into her. They almost tip over. Marie puts her hand out to steady them. The searchlight shines finds them just as they get back in position.

“I think they saw us. Should we run for it?” Marie whispers to the others.

“No, they will definitely see us if we run” Kelly holds the others back. She is the calmest of the three but she has also been in trouble the most.

“We should most definitely get out of here soon” Max can’t keep standing like this. His legs are aching and shaking.

“Just stay still and wait” Kelly shushes.

It feels like the searchlight is shining on them for an eternity. Just ten more meters and they are at the door. If they could just get a few seconds in the dark they would be there. And then the light moves on. They almost run the last distance to the door and pulls on it. Luckily it’s open and they carefully sneak inside. Kelly leaves the bush outside in case they need it later. The factory is even more alive now than it was last time. In addition to the brainwashed workers walking the factory floor there are also several guards patrolling. Kelly silently closes the door behind them and hides with the others behind some boxes.

“Shit, Pernille is here. Do you think she is expecting us?” Max asks and points to her office where she walks around.

“With all these guards I am pretty sure she is expecting us” Marie says ”it's probably in her office she keeps the machine. We need to make a distraction if we want to get up there”

“Leave that to me. Be ready and meet me back here when you have the machine” Kelly sneaks around the room close to the wall.

She sneaks all the way down to the back end and through a door to a grey and demotivating break room that looks like it hasn't been used for some time. The kitchen counter is covered in a thick layer of dust and grease and on the table is a mouldy cup of noodles. She opens the drawers and grabs all the spoons, forks and knifes she can put in the microwave. She crams every opening around the microwave full of napkins and paper towels. Finally she cranks the microwave up to full power and runs out of the break room. The door has barely closed behind her when the microwave explodes in a loud bang and ignites a small fire.

Meanwhile Max and Marie climb up on the walkway and sneak towards the office. They hide around the corner just like last time. Down under them they see Kelly run out of a door. They gasp loudly in shock at the explosion. Pernille storms out of her office and hurries down to the break room with the guards. The workers continue to work unbothered by the sudden explosion. Marie and Max enter the office and pulls out drawer after drawer looking for the blueprints and empties them on the floor. The sprinkler system

“I found them” Marie whispers triumphantly and waves some papers in the air.

“And the machine is here” Max finds it under a bunch of papers on one of the desks.

But the triumph is cut short as two butch guards opens the door. A male and a female guard both equally tall and muscular block the door. Each of them has the strength to single-handedly carry Max and Marie.

“We got intruders up here!” The guardswomen calls with a strong voice.

They have been caught. Pernille must have known they would go for her office. Max can’t see how they are able to get out. And he is scared of what Pernille might do to them. But maybe there is one thing he can do he thinks as he feels the Walkman in his pocket. He hasn’t tested it yet but this might be their last option. Desperately he pulls out his Walkman and plays his new cassette as loud as he can. Hopefully it is loud enough. At this moment the sprinkler system turns on and douses the entire factory in water, including the office. The Walkman cuts out and short circuits from the water. The guardsman grabs Marie by the arm with a firm grip.

“I’m Max. Help us!” he yells desperately.

The guardswoman tackles her colleague. Surprised by the attack he lets go of Marie. The two guards fall through the window and out on the walkway.

“He is mine, keep your hands off him” the brainwashed guardswoman pummels on the other guard.

“Grab the machine” Marie is not sure what just happened but this is their time to get away

They run out of the office with the blueprints and the machine under their arms. More guards are making their way up on the walkway. Every ladder and staircase is blocked.

“This way” Marie climbs over the railing and jumps to a stack of crates not far away.

Max puts the machine down in his backpack and follows. He is about as good with heights as he is with being athletic. And normally he wouldn't do something this dangerous. But it's his only option if they want to save the world. Most of the guards turn around to try and catch them down on the ground. From the stack of crates they jump down on another stack and then another and down to the floor. As soon as they land they spring for the exit. The guards are right behind them. Kelly is hidden at the door ready to open it for them. They zig and zag between boxes and conveyer belts. The guards are gaining on them. Max passes a stack of boxes just as a worker steps out from behind them. He dodges the worker and a second later hears someone fall. He looks back. Marie ran into the worker and they are both lying on the ground.

“Run” Marie yells as Max stops for a second to turn back.

Kelly walks out of the door and grabs the bush. Max comes outside just a moment later. “They got Marie. What do we do?” he is panting heavily.

“We get away safely and figure out a plan to save her later. We can’t get caught too. I need to take care of Lykke” Kelly is ready to cross the field.

“You are right. Take my backpack. The machine and blueprints are in it. I'm going back to get Marie” Max hands over his backpack and sneaks around the building to the nearest window.

Kelly wants to stop him, but she understands. He has to do it, she would have done it herself. Marie is their best friend. But she needs to prioritise Lykke. She promised she will be there to take care of her. She crosses the field and leaves Max and Marie behind. It is a lot easier to cross the field alone. At the other side she finds a place to hide and wait for the others. She should be heading home. But she needs to know if Max makes it. She will just wait for a moment. Her eyes are locked on the door, hoping that Max and Marie will appear in the dark.

 

Pernille strides across the factory floor with murder in her eyes. All this trouble and damage to her factory and the break in at her office was done by mere kids. But she won’t let them make any more problems for her. ”Where’s the other one? She wasn't alone, so where is the other one?” She yells at the guards restraining Marie.

“He got out of the door” The guards hesitantly informs.

Frustrated Pernille slaps Marie “where is your friend?”

“He is gone and you will never see your brainwashing machine again” Marie smiles defiantly. This isn’t even half as terrifying as when she fell off the roof.

“How do you know of that?” Pernille asks but Marie just smiles. “Lock her inside the supply closet in the cellar. I need to think” she says and Marie gets carried away. “Also do something about her” she points to the guardswoman Max brainwashed.

Through the window Max sees the guards carrying Marie towards a door near the break room. If he can get inside without getting noticed, it will be very easy to rescue her. His eyes scans the room for a way to get in. A guard is standing in front of the door so he can't get back in that way. But maybe he can get in through the window. It's more than big enough for him to fit through. He just needs to break the glass. He fumbles around on the ground and finds a good friendly rock, takes a step back and throws it. The window shatters very loudly and the sound echoes through the silence of the night. Two searchlights are within seconds shining down on him. This didn’t go as he wanted. He quickly climbs through the window to get out of the light and cuts his hand badly on the glass. He has barely made it inside the factory before a guard grabs him and carries him to Pernille.

“So you came back for your little friend? Foolish child what did you expect would happen? That you could just break the window and stroll back inside without anyone noticing. Now I got both of you so give me my MACHINE!” For a moment Pernille almost thought that these children had foiled her plans. But she clearly overestimated their intelligence. And soon as she has her machine back she will get rid of them for good. No one is ever going to miss them.

“I don't have it anymore, it's long gone” Max taunts while his hand pulsates painfully.

“So you had a third member of this little group of yours. KEEP SEARCHING THERE IS ANOTHER CHILD” Pernille yells to her guards.

“What, psh no, of course not. There is no one else. It's … it's just her and me. When I said the machine was gone I, I, I meant that uhm…” Max tries to think of a lie. But he just made a huge mistake and it put Kelly back in danger.

Pernille drills a finger deep into the wound on Max's hand “tell me who has it or this will be very unpleasant”.

The pain shoots through his body and it feels like he is going to be sick. He can't stand it. He got to say something to make her to stop. “You will never get it. Rune's cat will protect it” he yells and spits at her.

“You can rot in the cellar with your friend” Pernille walks away and the guard carries Max downstairs to the supply closet.

“Max! What are you doing here?” Marie exclaims surprised as he gets locked inside with her.

“I came back to help you but I cut my hand trying to break in through the window and they caught me right away. But they won't get the machine” Max whispers.

“We need to stop the bleeding” Marie rips a sleeve of her cardigan and wraps it tight around the wound just like in the movies.

“How do we get out of here? Is there something we can use?” Max asks looking around.

“There is mostly just paper in here. I don't think they have used this closet that much. Do you have anything on you?” Marie begins searching when she is done with Max’s hand.

“Just a couple of batteries and a pack of gum with two pieces in it. All my things are in my backpack and I can't hack a regular door with my power glove” Max says while pulling things out of his pocket.

“No but there are paperclips. We can pick the lock just as Kelly has shown us” Marie grabs a few paper clips and begins fiddling with the lock.

 

It has been almost an hour and Kelly hasn't heard anything since that window broke. She is worried that Max has also gotten caught. She can't just sit here and wait all night. Her new job starts early next morning. She needs to go home now. But she can't just leave both of them behind either. She is torn. If Max had been there they could have planned something together to rescue Marie after school tomorrow. But now she is all alone. What plan can she come up with on her own? Max and Marie are the smart ones. Maybe she should sneak back and see what's happening. But not with the machine. No she can't bring the machine with her. She looks around pondering what to do and how to save the others. One of the searchlights passes over three parked trucks and an idea starts to form. She digs a small hole to bury the machine in and covers it with the bush. She doesn't need it anymore. After watching the searchlights for the last hour she figured out their patterns. She will be home with Lykke before the night is over, she promises herself before she sneaks unnoticed back over the field and over to the trucks. The second truck she tries isn’t locked and she grabs a big rock before entering. She waits for the light to pass over and then pulls out her knife to hot-wire the truck. She puts it in gear, places the stone on the speeder and jumps out. She hides under the adjacent truck and watches as the first is slowly gaining speed. It is heading right towards the loading area. The searchlights are following the truck as it crashes through the metal factory doors. Quarter way inside the building the truck is stuck. She crawls out from her hiding place and runs to the side door. Unnoticed she sneaks inside and climbs the first ladder she can find. Pernille and all of her guards have gathered around the truck. She climbs all the way up on top of one of the boilers where she can keep an eye on everything. She can't hear what they are saying but it seems like Pernille orders the guards to do a search. But two guards take position at a door in the back end of the room like they are guarding it. Even the workers has stopped working and is looking for her. Kelly waits on top of the boiler spectating while she figures out her next move. After a thorough search inside the factory the guards increases their search field and move outside to look for her there. This is her opportunity to save the others. Very carefully she crawls down from the boiler and sneaks down to the backend of the factory and hides behind some crates close to the guarded door. Now she just needs the two guards to move out of the way.

“Stop guarding the door and go help the others” Kelly calls with her best imitation of Pernille. Unsure, one of them moves closer to the crates. “I said, go help the others or I'll add your families to the working crew” she threatens and this time the guards hurries away to do as they are told.

Kelly runs to the door and just as she reaches for it, it opens. Marie and Max are standing right there in front of her. She pushes them back down the stairs and closes the door behind her.

“Are you okay? How did you get out?” Kelly asks them.

“We are fine. She locked us in a supply closet but we picked the lock. Where's the machine? And how did you get in?” Max asks back.

“Shouldn't we talk about this when we are out?” Marie tries to reason.

“I buried the machine and rammed a truck through the wall. They are searching for me. We need a new distraction” Kelly recaps.

“Maybe we can turn off the power. I think I heard a generator downstairs” Max suggests.

“It would make it harder for them to see us” Marie considers the idea.

“It would also make it harder for us to see them” Kelly says. “What about we start another fire or something. Burn this place to the ground so they can't make more Honey Balls”.

“That would be a big blow to Pernille and her evil plans” before today Marie wouldn't consider something like this. But she feels a lot braver than before. And they need to do something drastic and permanent to stop Pernille.

“And how would we do that? We are as far from the exit as we can be and I don't want to burn to death” Max does some calculations on his power glove. “Also it would have to be a really big fire for it to burn this place down”

“Tell me about generators, they run on gas right?” Kelly asks and the three move down into the basement to find it.

“Yes most generators run on gas. They usually have a big gas tank attached or integrated in them. And this one is probably a big one. Why are you asking?” Max asks.

“So what if we explode the generator, would that make a big enough fire?” Kelly finds the generator in the back of the basement.

Max does some measures of the generator and makes more calculations. For ten minutes he walks around the generator and mumbles numbers before he finally turns to the others. “It would be more than big enough to burn this place down but we would blow up with it”.

“We just need to make a fuse. Lend me your knife” Marie pulls of her cardigan and starts cutting the last of it into long strings of cloth “tie it all together and soak it in the fuel tank”.

The fuse reaches from the generator and almost all the way up the stairs. They are all really nervous. This is the most dangerous thing they have ever done.

Kelly takes a deep calming breath “now when we light the fuse. We run as fast as we can. The door is not far away” she whispers and pats her pockets “do you have something to light the fuse with?” she hadn’t thought about that part of the plan.

“I have an idea. I saw this on TV” Max shakes nervously as he pulls out the battery and a gum wrapper from his pocket. Carefully he places the gum wrapper on each end of the battery “this is really crazy”. The fuse ignites.

They sprint up the stairs and out through the door. The guards are back in position but is caught by surprise. Kelly leads the way as she is the fastest. In fact she has never run this fast before. It feels like she isn’t even breathing. They are already halfway through the room before the guards starts the chase. The factory is almost completely empty, it is only them and the two guards left inside. Pernille is gone. They run out of the door and the outdoor field is filled with people. The guards are yelling at them. The searchlights shines down on them. They run towards the forest, dashing in and out between workers. A deafening explosion sounds behind them and the earth shakes. The factory lights up in a blazing fire. They almost fall over from the shock but they keep running. The workers freezes in their places. They run to their bikes without looking back.

 

Marie says goodnight to the others and rides home. The explosion shook her and all the things that happened today is slowly creeping in under her skin. Maybe she isn’t as invincible and strong as she felt after pulling down the antenna. She wants to see her family even if they aren’t themselves. She can remember back a few years ago before aunt Linnea moved in, before they started fighting, how they would sit together as a family and watch a movie. Just the three of them under a blanket sitting in the light of the television. That was a good time. If she sits between them now it could almost feel like that again. She takes a deep breath and opens the front door ready to meet her brainwashed family. And is met by the sound of her parents’ voices. They are chatting and it sounds like they are having a good time. Could it be? She hurries through the kitchen and to the living room. It worked tearing down the antenna. She has saved her family. With a smile she jumps down between them and they embraces her. This also means aunt Linnea should be herself again. She leaves her parents and rushes down to the basement and finds aunt Linnea sitting on her bed contemplating how she has gained so much weight.

“Are you, you again? Can we talk? I have had a horrible day” Marie is trying to keep back the tears.

“Oh sweetie come and sit. Tell me everything” aunt Linnea says and gestures Marie to come sit on the bed.

Marie gives aunt Linnea a big hug. She can’t hold the tears back anymore. She is so happy that it worked. And even though she knows her aunt won't believe it, she starts telling her about everything that has happened.

 

Max goes alone back to the bunker to stay for the night. There is no other place for him to go tonight. He has never really noticed how big and cold it is. It was fine staying here with Marie, they talked and told jokes. It was quite fun despite the situation but now the bunker is silent and lonely, like he is the only one left in the world. Maybe he should just go home too and be with his parents. Not that he would be any less lonely there but it would still be his home. And even when they have stopped Pernille and HappyFood he will be alone at home. He lies down on the sofa with a blanket and begins to cry. Nobody understands how he feels. He could really use a hug right now.

 

Kelly finds her dad where she left him. Sleeping on the sofa with the Umami cassette playing on repeat. She carefully opens Lykke’s door to check up on her. She is sleeping happily in her bed unaware of all the bad things in this world. Her little angel sister. The tears overwhelms her and she falls silently to her knees crying. They could have died tonight. She can still feel the heat from the fire and the shock from the explosion. What was she thinking? What has she done with her life? Is this the example she wants to set for Lykke. Skipping school, stealing, destruction of property and playing with fire. Oh the fire. She has played with fire many times before but this time it actually scared her. It scares her that she almost left Lykke alone in this world. She has to do better. She has to become better so Lykke can grow up and have a good life.

 

Tuesday the 2nd of October

At four the alarm goes off pulling Kelly out of a horrible nightmare. She was trapped inside a burning buildings. She would run to escape but there was no door, there was never a door for her and the fire was burning larger and larger consuming everything she loves. The dream lingers just behind her eyes. And even though she is dead tired she pulls herself out of bed to get to work. She is not going to fail. It is a cold morning, it has just stopped raining and her breath condensates in the air. An old worn down pull wagon awaits her at the post office with a route description attached to it. It is filled to the top with newspapers she has to deliver. Determined she starts doing her job. The wagon squeaks and creaks as the wheels turns uneven. The route goes by slowly, she could have finished in than half the time on her moped. She is on her way up a hill when a hollow clonk sounds and the screeching of metal turning stops. Both wheels broke off and the wagon lies immobile on the ground with more than fifty newspapers left on it. Tired, cold and annoyed Kelly leaves it in the middle of the street with a note reading. If you want me to do my fucking job then don't give me shit equipment like this. She goes back home to sleep, there must be some better way than this shit.

 

Marie and Max stops Rune in the school hallway. “We have to warn you Rune. If HappyFood comes asking about us, you have to tell them that you don't know us. You have to be adamant about it” Max tells him trying to really emphasise the importance of this. It is his fault Pernille now knows about Rune. But he also sees this as an opportunity to stop their friendship before it evolves.

“But you are my best friends. Why should I lie about that?” Rune sounds as stuffed as ever.

“HappyFood are dangerous people and they think you are hiding something from them that they really want back. If they think that you are the Rune that knows us, you will be in great danger. And that brings Princess Kitty Meowington in danger” Marie explains hoping that Rune will just accept without asking more questions.

“I will do this only because you are my best friends” Rune accepts proudly. He would do anything to help his friends.

“That’s great but don’t be so loud about it. Remember it’s for your own safety” Max looks around to see if anyone heard Rune calling them his friends. “Also can I borrow your Walkman? Mine broke last night”.

Marie pulls Max to the side before Rune can say anything. “Why do you need his Walkman? Is it maybe to play that cassette you used yesterday? The one that brainwashes women? Yes, I figured out that it brainwashes women into liking you. Do you intend on using it on Linnea? Cause you can’t she’s not fifteen yet. Also she told me that she actually likes you but she just can't be seen with you” Marie scolds Max.

“It is none of your business. You don't know how it is, you have always been popular and well liked” Max dismisses her. He knows that it won’t work on Linnea and it doesn’t matter. There are many women and girls over fifteen around school and the town. He just has to find someone he wants to be with.

“I will tell Kelly about that cassette if you don't destroy it” Marie threatens.

The conversation gets interrupted as Tore walks up to them “hey Marie I'm having a party tonight at my summer cottage because my parents aren't home. You are invited if you wanna come or whatever” he fiddles with his hair trying look cool and nonchalant.

“Of course Tore that sounds really fun” Marie stares deep into Tore’s eyes and almost forgets where they are. Max makes a fake cough to remind her that he is also there. “Can I bring Max and Kelly?” Marie asks. Yeah she is mad about the cassette but she knows he is hurting and he hasn’t used it yet. There is still a chance for him to do the right thing but not if she doesn’t give him a chance.

Tore takes a judging look at Max like he is weighing his interest for Marie compared to his dislike for Max. ”Kelly is the scary girl who always wears black and has dark make up on?”

“I promise they are cool” Marie says persuasively.

“Yeah, if you come they can come too” Tore decides hoping that it will persuade Marie to show up. He leaves them to go invite some more people to his party.

Tore has barely left them when a group of ninth grade girls suddenly surrounds Max and pushes Marie to the side. It is the first time Marie has been with a group of people and gotten completely ignored.

“Max you know Umami right. I mean you performed with him so you must know him right?” Karen says, stroking his hair.

Gretchen grabs his arm “we wanted to know if you could introduce us”.

“Yeah, we really want to meet him. He is just amazing” Vera chimes in.

A little overwhelmed by the sudden attention Max is unsure how to react. The concert feels so long ago but has just been a little over a week since he was dancing on the stage. He has been so busy the last week trying to save the world that he almost forgot. He looks at the girls around him, basking in their love and attention. Linnea is standing in the distance rolling her eyes at him, she looks annoyed. He doesn’t understand why, it was her who didn’t want him and the pain of her rejection resurfaces again. But it doesn't matter if she doesn't want him. He can get any girl he wants and he didn’t even have to use the cassette on any of these girls.

“Yeah, I know Umami or as I call him, Ole. And of course I can introduce you to him. We are really good friends and we love to party with our fans” Max boasts to the girls.

“Can we meet him today?” Karen presses a little.

“Yes can we?”

“Please”

“Uhm … yeah, just meet me in the parking lot at four and we go there together” Max smiles. This day is turning around for him. First he’ll bring the girls to Ole and later he’ll go to Tore’s party. If everything goes right, and why shouldn’t it, he will be having a girlfriend before the night is over.

The girls squeal happily and give him a big group hug before they run off. Marie rolls her eyes at him and goes to class.

 

“Give me the cassette Max. You can't just brainwash people into liking you. It's really uncool” Marie argues with Max in the bunker.

“It wasn't a problem when it saved us at the factory” Max says defensively.

“We are doing all this because we agreed it was wrong to brainwash people. And what about Kelly and me, in a few years your song will brainwash us too” Marie is both hurt and mad at Max because it doesn’t seem like he understands how she feels.

“Who says I'm going to use the cassette. The ninth grade girls want to hang out with me. I just have it for emergencies” Max insists. And it is not like he needs to use it more than once. He just needs one person to love him forever.

“The girls don't really like you … Kelly, Max has a cassette that brainwashes women into falling in love with him” Marie turns to Kelly as she enters the bunker.

Kelly is tired and annoyed. She couldn’t go back to sleep. She has been beating herself up all morning because of the job. She promised she would do better and be a better person but as soon as it got difficult she gave up. She punches Max in the face and he falls to the ground. “That is not okay dude. You can’t brainwash people to fall in love with you. If you had done like Ole and just increased your popularity I would be fine with it. But this is not okay”.

Marie rips the power glove of Max's arm “I'll keep this until you give us the cassette” she says. “Come Kelly let's go to my house. Tore invited us to a party tonight”.

 

On his way back to the school Max stops by Comikaze. He has a little more time to kill before he is going to meet the girls. And he wants to talk with Alf about something.

“Yo Maximilian what can I do for you today?” Alf greets as Max steps through the door to the empty comic store.

Max notices that Ole’s song is playing on the stereo system. “I want to talk about brainwashing. What do you think about it?” he hopes Alf can provide some good arguments to support his case.

“You already know my opinion about it Max-man. It is one of the evil ways corporations and the government tries to control the people and take away our freedom” Alf sits down at the counter ready to teach Max more about the evil sides of the government.

“But is brainwashing always evil, can't it be used for good?” Max asks hopefully.

“Good question dude. It really depends on your ethical viewpoint. I mean some would argue that you can use brainwashing to prevent a person from doing bad things to others. But by taking away a person's free will you are basically enslaving them. Yes, you may prevent them from doing something bad. But you can never truly know if what they do is bad until they have done it. The action they do might turn out to have positive consequences. Their intentions to do bad things could be a cover they uphold in order to be able to do good at the right moment. Also if you punish people before they do bad things, then where will it stop? You can't prove that they actually wanted to do bad until they have done bad things. Do you follow? And who would you entrust to decide whether a person should be brainwashed or not? The world isn’t black and white, what is considered wrong in one culture may be considered good in another culture. Right and wrong are arbitrary concepts and any action can only truly be judged through the specific situational and cultural context it was performed in” Alf rambles.

Max isn’t sure he really understood what Alf just said. Somethings did make sense to him but it wasn’t really what he had hoped to hear. “But as you said whether brainwashing is right or wrong depends on the specific situation. So we can’t claim that it is always wrong. I mean you are currently getting brainwashed. Umami has used brainwashing technology on his music so people will like it. And you are completely fine”.

“Why do you think Umami brainwashes people into liking his music? His music is totally righteous, it don’t need brainwashing technology” Alf dismisses with an air guitar riff.

“He confessed it to me. He adds a high frequency layer with a secret message that alters how the listener thinks. And I have recreated his technique” Max explains.

Alf looks at Max like he just told a joke “man you are far out my friend. Like, I would know if I was brainwashed”.

“But isn't that how it is? You don't know when you get brainwashed. You just act differently without noticing and knowing why?” Max pulls out the cassette he made from his backpack “try and put this in the player”.

Alf takes the cassette and plays it on the stereo system. “Dude this is absolutely horrible” he says after giving it a short listen.

“It's the exact same melody as on Umami’s cassette. I have just changed who it brainwashes” Max clarifies.

“No dude, Umami has something special about his song” Alf insists. There is no way Max can convince him otherwise.

“Yeah, that’s the brainwashing... Oh shit I have to go” Max look at the clock. He has to be at the school parking lot in fifteen minutes. He grabs his backpack and runs out of the comic store.

 

“Hey Max what took you so long” Gretchen can hardly hide her impatience as Max walks towards them. He is just five minutes late for their meeting.

Carly runs up and grabs his arm “let’s go and see Umami now”.

“We can’t wait any longer”

“Hey girls” Max greets with a big smile. He could get used to this level of attention and affection “just follow me”.

All the way to Umami’s house, the girls discuss how amazing he is. Max finds it kind of tedious if he is honest. Fortunately the walk is short, nothing more than thirty minutes. But it looks like Ole isn’t home. All the lights are off and two sets of newspapers are lying on the doorstep. Max realises that maybe he could have planned it better. He could have come by and check if Ole was going to be home or not. How will they react if Ole is out? Will they still want to hang with him or maybe will they be too disappointed? He knocks on the door crossing his fingers. The girls are standing right behind him and it sounds like they have stopped breathing. Ten seconds later, he knocks again and harder than before. Ole got to be home. Where would he go, he is brainwashed to think all his plans are bad. Max is about to knock a third time when Ole opens the door only wearing a robe. He looks like he hasn't slept or showered since last time and he sort of smells. But the girls doesn’t notice, they are giggling with joy and excitement now that they are finally meeting him in person.

“What are you doing here Max? And who are these girls?” Ole asks surprised.

“They are fans of you and wanted to meet you” Max turns to Gretchen ready to introduce them all one by one. But he get pushed aside like an old discarded toy.

“It's true, I'm a big fan. I'm Gretchen by the way”

“And I'm Carly”

“Karen”

“Vera”

“Holly”

One by one the girls rushes to greet Ole and pushes Max further and further to the side. Just like Marie was pushed aside earlier today when the girls crowded Max. It’s like they don't even notice him any longer.

“Come in girls” Ole says and points them towards his living room. “Let me play a new song for you”.

The girls let out joyous screams and hurries inside leaving Max behind. He is the last to enter the living room. The girls are sitting on the edge of the sofa and chairs mesmerised by Ole, waiting for him to play his song. Max tries to sit down between Gretchen and Karen but they aren’t budging. He has become invisible to them. Ole puts on a cassette and goes to the doorway to wait for a reaction.

“This music totally sucks” Karen exclaims after a short moment.

“Why are we hanging out with a little old man and a nerd?” Gretchen chimes in.

“Let's get out of here” Holly suggests and the other girls agree. They leave just as quickly as they entered the room and without giving Max another second of their time.

“What happened? A moment ago they liked me” Max is confused. The entire day has been an emotional roller coaster.

“No Max, they liked me. They were only using you to get to me. Didn't you see how they forgot all about you the second they saw me. And now they are free” Ole sits down and yawns. He looks exhausted.

Max is hurt but deep down he already knew they didn’t like him. Marie even told him so earlier. What is really interesting right now is how they were released from the brainwashing. ”So you removed the brainwash? How did you do that? I thought we got you to destroy your machine”.

“And I have done that. When you brainwashed me, you showed me how wrong it was to brainwash people. I couldn't do anything for a whole day because it felt like a shitty idea. Even though you had told me to destroy the machine, I couldn't decide on how to do it because of your brainwashing. It wasn't until the brainwash had faded away I could do it. But then I thought of a way to use this technology to help you guys. So I created this cassette that negates brainwashing effects. With this you can save everyone from my music and from HappyFood” Ole explains and hands the cassette to Max.

“Wait, the brainwashing is only temporarily?” Max asks surprised. He feels kind of stupid for not realising that himself.

“Depending on the person, the brainwash will fade within twelfth to forty-eight hours. And then they will be just like before they got brainwashed. Maybe even hate you more if they knew what you were doing. That's why I made my song so people would keep listening and reapplying the brainwash” Ole explains “by the way where are your two friends?”

“We had a disagreement because I made a cassette to make girls like me” Max says. If anyone can understand where he is coming from it must surely be Ole.

Ole gives Max a sympathetic pat on the back “so you are willing to lose two people who actually like you for someone who will leave you the moment the brainwash fades away? I understand how hard it can be for guys like us. Women never really pay us much attention and people don’t stand in line to be our friends. So please listen to my advice on this Max, don’t throw your friendships away over something stupid. In the end it is much better to have a good friend”.

Max feels like a fool “I should bring them that cassette and apologize. Thank you for your help”. He doesn’t know precisely where the party is but he knows where to search for it. He stops by the bunker to grab his bike and then rides out of town towards the summer cottage area as fast as he can.

“Max my friend where are you going?” Rune’s stuffy voice calls after him.

Max reluctantly stops to talk with him “I’m looking for Tore’s summer cottage, do you know where it is?” He honestly doesn’t expect Rune to know anything about the part and feels a little bad for bringing it up.

“Have you also been invited to Tore’s party?” Rune sounds excited about going to a party with his best friends even though it is a Tuesday.

Max is in disbelief. He wouldn’t have been invited if it wasn’t for Marie asking and then they invited Rune. “You know about the party?”

Rune grins proudly and puffs up his chest “and I also got a date. I asked Freya and she wanted to go with me”.

Max takes a second to compose himself. Has he completely misjudged Rune? How can he have a date and be invited to a party when Max himself can’t. It annoys him but he needs Rune’s help “so do you know where it is?” He says as calmly as he can.

Rune pulls out a map and shows where the party is “so do you want to go there together?”

“I’m in a bit of a hurry but see you there” Max rides off without Rune.

 

Marie can hardly take her eyes off Tore; she never noticed how his blonde hair shines and how his blue eyes are like sparkling gemstones before. All she has done since they arrived is hanging by his arm, listening to every word he said. Right now Tore and the other boys are talking about football. She doesn’t know anything about football but it doesn’t matter to her. Kelly stands awkwardly on her own in the living room. She had insisted on Marie dressing and doing her makeup to look more like her peers. She is trying to do better but still nobody dares to approach her. And the dress doesn’t really feel like her, she misses her torn jeans and black jacket. Someone knocks on the door. Tore pulls his arm away from Marie and goes to open the door. Max is standing outside all soaked winded. It is now raining heavily and he really gave it all he had to get there.

“You’re not welcome” Tore says while he and his boys block the door. Marie had told him she was mad at Max and she didn’t want to see him at the party. She didn’t say and Tore didn’t ask.

“I need to talk to Marie” Max stands on his toes trying to look over the wall of boys to find Marie.

Tore looks back at Marie who shakes her head “but Marie doesn’t want to talk with you right now. Go home” he slams the door and locks it.

Max walks around the house looking through windows trying to find Kelly. He tries the patio door but it is locked and nobody wants to open it for him. Through the door he can see Kelly standing near a window and he runs around to find Kelly.

At first Kelly tries to ignore Max knocking on the window and calling her name. But it’s not like she is having fun at this party. She is happy that Marie is having a good time. And she is staying around to support for she is bored herself and nobody but Max wants to acknowledge her. She is still mad at him but she is feeling a little bad for him out there in the rain. “What do you want?” she asks as she opens the window.

“Let me in, I have a new cassette…” Max can see on Kelly’s expression that is rather displeased “it’s not the cassette I made. Ole made this one and it can cure the brainwash” he quickly explains before she can close the window on him.

Kelly finds it a little suspicious that Max suddenly have gotten a cassette from Umami that can cure the brainwashing. But Max would not lie about this, he might be hurting and feeling alone. But he would not lie. “Wait here” she says and walks over to a ninth grade guy. If the cassette is a cure he will be fine and if it is the woman seducing cassette, he won’t be affected. “What’s up dude? You like music right?” she asks in a friendly and slightly flirty tone just like she has seen Marie do.

“Who are you and what do you want?” the guy asks and takes a step away from her.

Kelly takes a calming breath and gives her best smile “you like Umami right? I mean who doesn’t. I have a new song from him but I will only play it for you. I just need to borrow your Walkman”.

“You got a new Umami song?” the guy exclaims loudly and several of the others start looking at them.

Max climbs with much effort in through the window to get out of the rain.

“Yes, I have a new Umami song but keep it down cause I only want to play it for you. Just give me your Walkman” Kelly tries to stay calm but the word of a new Umami song is spreading quickly and more people enter the living room.

“I don’t have a Walkman; does that mean I can’t hear the new song?” The guy asks. He gets pushed aside as people starts to crowd Kelly.

“I also want to hear the new Umami song?”

“Me too”

“We also want to hear it”

“Give us the new song”

“Oh my God a new Umami song”

“Umami is the best”

“We love Umami”

Everyone over the age of fifteen is now closing in on Kelly trying to touch her and get a hold of the new Umami cassette. She feels uncomfortable and a little scared. It is like they no longer has any control over themselves. Hands starts grabbing and pulling at her. She pushes them back and draws her knife. But they keep coming closer and she is now standing with her back against the wall. She had promised Marie that she would behave and she did try to do this the right way but now it is getting out of control.

“Someone get me a Walkman” Kelly calls out over the crowd and she can hear the call for a Walkman being repeated into the other rooms. She just needs to test the cassette on one person and then she can put it on the stereo.

Everyone at the party is now entering the living room to see what is going on.

“Who needs a Walkman… Kelly what are you doing” Marie exclaims with the Walkman in her hands as she sees Kelly with the knife.

“Max has a cassette. He says it is from Ole and that it can cure the brainwash but I wanted to try it out first on this dude just in case it was his other cassette. But then they all heard about it and it all escalated so fast. I didn’t want to ruin your night” Kelly apologises to Marie while still keeping the others away with the knife.

Marie pushes her way through the crowd to Kelly “it’s okay but put the knife down before somebody gets hurt. Now everybody relax. We will play the song for this guy first because we promised him and then we will play it for all of you”. She gives the cassette and Walkman to the guy.

The guy listens to the cassette for a moment then takes the Walkman off “that music sucks, who is this Umami even”.

“It works, let us cure everybody. We will now play Umami’s new song for the rest of you” Marie announces and puts the cassette in the stereo system.

Within a few moments everyone is back to themselves complaining about how bad the music is and Marie stops the cassette.

Tore pushes his way through the crowd “Marie, I think maybe you and your friends should leave. I mean Max has dragged mud everywhere and he is all soaked. Kelly started a fight, she even had a knife. And you played this awful music”.

“I understand, we’ll be going” Marie sighs.

The three friends leave together and as soon as the door has closed behind them, they can hear the music start up again.

“Sorry for ruining your party with Tore” Kelly says as they walk homewards in the rain.

“Well it was probably more Max’s fault but good your brought us that cassette” Marie laughs.

“I’m also sorry for being stupid. Ole showed me how wrong I was” Max apologises.

“But where your other cassette? We need to destroy it” Marie’s tone is more serious and intense now.

“I forgot it at Comikaze. I was having a discussion with Alf about brainwashing when I had to leave to meet Gretchen and the others. We can pick up on our way home or tomorrow. It’s not like anyone is gonna hear it…” They pull to the side as three big black cars drive fast by them and towards the party. “I think that was Pernille” Max says looking back at the cars.

“Where are they going?” Kelly asks confused.

“Pernille must have heard Rune is at the party. She believes he has the machine. We have to go back and stop them” Marie argues.

“But what can we do? She got big brainwashed goons and we are just three small teenagers. Last time didn’t exactly go well and I’m not about to almost kill us all again” Kelly can still hear the explosion when she closes her eyes.

“That’s it! She has brainwashed all her people. So if we get in there and play our anti-brainwash cassette then she is alone and we can stop her for good” Marie exclaims excitedly.

“I think it could work and then we would finally be done with Pernille and HappyFood. I’m really tired of Honey Balls” Max says supportively. Also he likes the idea of saving them all, they may not appreciate it but he sort of feels like a hero.

They hurry back to the cottage where the three big black cars have been parked. Through a window they can see Pernille yelling, she has a picture of Max and Marie in her hand. She looks more unhinged than last time, she must be very desperate. A goon pushes Freya to the side and grabs Rune. One of the football players tries to stop him but gets grabbed by another goon.

This is his hero moment. Max opens the front door “are you looking for me” he calls loudly and everyone turns to look at him. Meanwhile Kelly sneaks around to the window Max climbed through earlier.

“Catch him” Pernille orders and two goons tackle Max. The goons drag Max inside the cottage and drop him in front of Pernille.

“That was unnecessary” Max gasps winded but Pernille slaps him.

“Where is your friend and where is my machine?” Pernille spits. There is murder in her eyes.

“I’m right here” Marie walks in through the front door. She needs to buy Kelly some more time “we want to make a deal. We will give you back the machine if you let all of our friends go” she says dramatically.

“Stupid girl, why should I waste time making deals with you. I have all the power here” Pernille laughs “I will torture the truth out of you if I have to. But I will get my machine back”.

Kelly has made her way in through the window and over to the stereo system. “What about I play you a song? It is a gift from Ole. It removes all brainwashing effects” she calls to Pernille and plays the cassette.

“You’re bluffing. Grab her!” Pernille yells at her goons but they don’t move.

“Oh we don’t think so, boss” one of the goons says as they all turns to her. They look angry “you have had us brainwashed for a month doing your bidding. I missed my little girl’s birthday. Johnny’s wife was in the hospital fighting cancer. We all had lives you stole us from”.

“I think it is time we get the police involved. If you would please grab her” Marie says and the goons grab Pernille.

 

And that was how Sweden got saved by the three teenagers, Kelly, Marie and Max. Pernille Durkel sentenced to prison for a long time. She tried to get the three friends arrested for arson, breaking and entering and theft but the police didn’t believe her. HappyFood was shut down and was forced to pay compensation to everyone who had suffered from their brainwashing. As a public service the anti-brainwash tape got played regularly on the radio and TV for a month. And all of Ole’s cassettes got collected to avoid any accidental brainwashing. The three friends went back to the burnt down factory and destroyed the machine they buried. Max also deleted all brainwashing data from his computer before any government agencies could get they hands on it. Unfortunately when they went back to Comikaze to get Max’s cassette it was gone.

Because of Max’s bravery at the party he was finally deemed cool enough for Linnea to date him. They went on a single date where he quickly learned that they had nothing in common. He soon realised that it doesn’t matter who you date if you aren’t interested in them. He did find her cute but he wants a real relationship and not just a status symbol.

Marie dated Tore for a month, she really liked him for a time. But the more she learned about him the more boring he became. It turned out that Tore was really passionate about model trains and special brewed coffee and it was the only things he talked about when they were together. Their last date was on an underground model train coffee shop and that was when Marie decided to end it.

Kelly was to everyone's surprise not fired from her job at the post office. They were impressed by how she stood up for herself and agreed that it was unfair of them to give her a broken cart. She has since become the best paper deliverer they have had. She continues to keep her dad brainwashed as she deems it better for her and Lykke. Her plan is to move out before her fifteenth birthday and take Lykke with her.

 

- The End -