The scientist was nervous. He looked over his table of strewn papers and scattered bits and bobs of all sorts of stuff, and wondered if he would have enough time to finish his project. He was so close, but if he didn't finish... but he mustn't think about that. Keep working, he thought instead, and hope it doesn't happen early. This thought drove him on, as he worked to kill thousands of people.

Elements are fundamental to our understanding of the way that the world works. They make up nearly
everything that is known in our world, and are used all the time to conduct experiments and predict
changes that could occur because of set situations. But what some might say is most interesting about
elements is how they react to each other.

A young boy with dirty brown hair walks alone to his house after school. He sees nothing on his street but the normal trash and clutter that is so common in neighborhood like his. His head fixed firmly on the ground, he does not see the group of children around his age playing on a strip of grass, uncommon here. He also doesn't see them stop their game as he walks by. And he certainly doesn't see them pack up and
walk away at his presence... but he hears them. He reaches his house and goes inside.

Elements are strange in the way that they do not react the same way to one element as they would to
another. If oxygen and iron were combined, rust would eventually form. If hydrogen and oxygen were
combined, H2O would form. But some elements do not wish to combine with anything, such as, say,
helium. Helium is a Noble Gas, and therefore will not combine chemically with any other element on the periodic table, except with certain isotopes. When one atom of a Noble gas is set next to one atom of any other element, it will not combine.

Stanek 2

Faster, faster! Pour... stir this... put the lid on... Okay. Now to let it sit for a moment. The scientist knows he is running out of time, but he also knows this is the most crucial step in the whole process... he has to
isolate the plutonium from the rest of the mix. With the plutonium inside, the thing would detonate and might kill everyone in the whole town, and he didn't want this town to die. Well, maybe eventually, but not now. So now, all he had to do was this simple isolation. That's a sad word, he thought as he checked the mixture. Isolation. He was very familiar with that. If someone had asked if he had a best friend he most
likely would have been shot, but if the scientist did happen to respond he would have said that the pursuit of scientific advancement was his best... well, only friend. Isolation was all he knew, so why should he
have trouble with it now? Mr. Bigshot Mayor-Man. I do everything for him, and what does he give me? A reluctant pat on the back and a goodbye wave. Why should I be doing this for him now?
A study was prepared stating, "What would happen if Every Element on the Periodic Table came into
Contact Simultaneously". The study states that there are two ways to go about doing this, neither of which are practical, but both would end up with the same result; some elements would combine to make
compounds and other elements would stay as they were, making a big pot of rusts, salts, and gases.
Humans are the same.

The boy with sandy blonde hair steps across the threshold of his home. He sees the boy with dirty
brown hair sitting in the corner doing his homework. He doesn't stop to say hello, but instead goes
upstairs and shuts the door to his bedroom. He flips on the TV and sees his face on the news. He shakes his head and flips to a different channel.

It is the next day and the boy with the dirty brown hair has Spanish class. He sits in the very back of the classroom with empty desks all around him, just like every other class. He does not raise his hand, and he is never called on.

Stanek 3

The boy with the sandy blonde hair walks through school like a celebrity. Friends surround him as they not-so-subtly try to make themselves the object of his attention, and he does his best to placate them all, one by one. A girl comes up to him and asks for his autograph. She has done this three times by now, but he
doesn't notice amongst all the others asking for the same thing. He continues walking and reaches his next class. Most of his followers continue into the room with him even though most are not in his class. The teacher does not try and push them out, but instead rubs the head of the stuffed duck on her desk to calm her ever present anxiety that she has been struggling with for the majority of her life. She took her
prescription pills today but they no longer seem to have the same effect as they once did. She
remembers that distraction is the most effective way to treat anxiety, and so she began to teach.

Human nature is tricky. At some points humans can connect together extremely well and form bonds
and experiences to last even when they leave the Earth. At other points however they isolate others, and destroy them if they show fear or pose a threat to the rest of the so called "civilized world." In this way, we are like elements.

The scientist is about to run out of time. The plutonium isn't isolating properly, and if it touches the ice at the bottom... well then I won't have to worry about him anymore. Would that be worth it? No, he would
have to leave him alone after this. He had to... otherwise he would really have to run. But that would have to be taken care of after his project. He poured some melted iron into the concoction to stabilize it temporarily, and continued working on isolating the plutonium. There... and there... and there... and theeeerrrreee.... okay. Okay. I can work with this. I can actually do this! As this thought left his head his
unplugged phone began to ring.

The boy with the dirty brown hair passed the boy with the sandy blonde hair without saying hello. Even if he wanted to there was no way he would be noticed over the crowd following the boy with the sandy blonde hair. He continued walking, leaving a wake of people behind him as they parted to let him through. If he didn't know why they did this, it would almost feel like a convenience. He never liked people anyway,

Stanek 4

but after what he did, no one was going to bother him. Except that councilor. And the psychiatrist. But they didn't really count, seeing as how he always managed to avoid them whenever he was supposed to go see them. They thought something was wrong with him, not the hell of a world he lived in. None of them understood, especially not his brother.

In the study mentioned earlier, it was said that the experiment could be conducted one hundred times
and one hundred different outcomes could occur. It is the same with humans. Depending on who meets
who first, some are more likely to get along than others, and some are more likely to be isolated and left alone. Some will even prefer isolation to the idea of connection.

The mayor was a busy man, and he never knew a day off since middle school. Why, just today he had
to return the governors call about a budget hike for the public school system, reintroduce a new welfare system to the planning committee, and send a special package with all his love in the casing. How could he expect not to be killed if he really knows what he's building. Building a damn dirty bomb in his apartment, and he thinks I ordered it! The fool is too dangerous and too deranged to stay alive. Living by himself now ever since... well, for a long time. And me, living the sweet life... as it should be. The mayor
checked his watch and smiled in anticipation. It would be all over the news, but no one would ever be
able to trace it back to him. Too many contacts, too much interference, no one has that much patience. Time to get this show on the road. He picked up his phone and dialed the scientists number.

The scientist slowly walked over to the phone, watching in confusion as it rang even without a plug. He could always find me no matter where I hid. Well I did it! Bet he didn't expect that! Might as well have a little gloat before he sends someone to pick it up. The scientist picked up the phone.

"I would say sorry, but I'm not." The mayor hung up the phone.

Stanek 5

The scientist with the dirty brown hair jerked the phone away from his ear just as a sniper rifle
bullet tore through his heart.

Fitting that he should die from a bullet, seeing as how he shot up the school. No one came near after
that. If I hadn't tackled him from behind who knows who else would have died? You brought on your own
isolation. And I created my connections. The mayor with the sandy blonde hair felt no remorse as he marked off a completed task on his to-do list. He only felt sad that he would have to see him again in Hell, because he had always hated his brother.

It has been said extreme loneliness is one of the most devastating things a person can go through. But is it worse to be overly-connected, disconnected from your own thoughts and forced to live like a puppet to please others? Two elements in an experiment, that is what two brothers became, and both paid a
heavy price.

Work Cited
Carey, Bjorn. "FYI: What Would Happen If Every Element On The Periodic Table Came Into Contact
Simultaneously?" Popsicle.com. N.p., 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-10/fyi-what-would-happen-if-every-element-periodic-tablecame-
contact-simultaneously>.