A/N: This just randomly popped into my head at the dinner table. It was just an image of Racetrack as a futuristic mechanic, and is vaguely inspired by the Terminator chronicles, which I recently watched. So this will probably never be finished, but it just sort of fell together. So we'll see where it goes.

DISCLAIMER: Roses are red, violets are blue. Me no own, so you no sue. Rated for future swears and violence. I think.

"Les! Les Jacobs! LES!" David shaded his eyes with one hand, scanning the milling crowd for his younger brother. "LES!"

"Jeez, you don't have to yell. I'm right here."

Indeed, David looked down to find Les standing in front of him, an annoyed look oh his face. "Well, why didn't you say something?"

"I did. Just then."

David threw up his hands in exasperation, before leading his brother through the crush of people and the school gates. "So how was your day?"

"Oh, y'know. Same old, same old. Miss Thompson says I'm pre… prekosher."

"Precocious, Les." The two brothers ambled easily along - well, David ambled. Les was skipping.

"That's what I said. What does it mean, anyway?"

"Ahead of your time."

"Like from the future?"

"Like too smart for your own good."

"Oh. Hey look! There's Ralph! Can I go play with him, David? Pleeeeeeeeease?" Les dragged on David's sleeve and opened his eyes impossibly wide.

David looked at his watch. "I suppose. Wait-" he yelped, grabbing his brother by the backpack, just as the kid started to bolt. "I'm going to sit on that bench over there. I'll give you guys half an hour, okay? Stay in the playground."

"Yes, Mother."

After watchingLes scamper off, David sat down on the indicated bench and dug his copy of 'The Life of Pi' out of his backpack. But despite the fact that it was required reading, he was sucked into the story. When he chanced to glance at his watch, he was startled to see that nearly forty-five minutes had passed.

"Shit!" David shoved his book into his bag and stood, once again searching for his little brother. There was Ralph, but the kid he was playing Yugi-Oh with, wasn't Les. "Hey Ralph, where'd Les go?"

The tubby kid didn't look up from his card game, just stabbed a thick finger across the playground.

David shoved through the exuberant after-school crowd, and there was Les. He was talking to an older man with a sort of rancid smile. Les broke off, confused, but the other man leaned down and started whispering into Les' ear. Oh no, don't tell me he's one of those creepy paedophiles…

He was running now, shouting his brother's name – and, yes Les was looking up. But so was the man, and there was an unpleasant look on his face. "NO!" David screamed, knowing what the man was going to do.but the playground was big, and his desperate cry was lost in the general mayhem. The man reached out and grabbed Les around the middle.

Suddenly, David felt like he was in a movie, desperately sprinting forward in slow motion.He could only watch from a distance as the man hoisted Les under one arm like some sort of human football,and turned away. The pit dropped out of David's stomach. Everything felt like it was going so slowly, but it could only have been a few seconds.

In his haste, he stumbled, but was back on his feet before his momentum slowed. The man was running now as well, back through a gap in the chain link fence. Into the forest. David knew what creepy men did to little boys in the woods, and he was damned if that was going to happen to his little brother. Putting on a new burst of speed, he leapt over the teeter-totter, pounded through the sandbox, and finally hurtled through the fence and after the man.

Branches whipped his face, and he didn't have enough breath left for shouting. It wouldn't help him now, anyway. But Les seemed to be of a different opinion, and his muffled shouts echoed through the otherwise silent woods. The man's dim shape flashed through the underbrush ahead, and David locked his eyes on the brief glimpses of the black coat.

Then there was kind of an odd moment, as though the world was a still pool of water that a giant hand had just slapped. And then the forest ahead of David was empty.

Startled, he skidded to a halt, overbalanced, toppled forward-

-and slammed onto a dirt road. Dust puffed up from the impact, and got into his eyes and mouth. Coughing, he pulled himself to hands and knees. There was a big, black car in front of him, and some sort of struggle going on inside it. Les. He lunged for the car, only to catch a fragmented glimpse of his brother's wide terrified eyes, before a foot to the chest sent him sprawling back in the dirt, and the car peeled out – spraying him with pebbles and dust.

Desperately, he shot to his feet and pounded after the car, but it was moving faster than seemed possible, and he was soon left behind. Panting and cursing, David stumbled to a stop, bracing his hands on his knees as he stared dismally after the quickly vanishing plume of dust that carried his little brother away.

Slowly, he sank to his knees, not caring that they were already raw and bleeding from the various scrapes he'd gotten in his frantic flight. Where are they taking him? Who are 'they'? What's going on? Why? How? Wha…And then the urgent message that had been trying to reach his brain for the last several seconds finally got through.

He wasn't in the woods any longer. In fact, he couldn't see any trees at all. All he could see was the flat dirt road, and the flat dirt desert around him – though it was occasionally speckled with rocks or some sort of scrubby bushes. And it was hot too – a huge sun was beating down on his back, larger than he'd ever seen the sun before.

Suddenly, he whirled to look behind himself. Nothing – no trace of the trees he'd run through, or the path he'd taken. Just the pale orange expanse of road, and the slightly darker orange of the surrounding area.

Frantically, he climbed to his feet and hurried back in the direction he'd come. Still no trees. He tried running, jumping, even fell down a few times – just in case. But try as he might, David couldn't get back to the forest, or the playground, or anywhere even remotely familiar. He was stuck, here in this strange desert that seemed to have literally fallen right on top of him. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore…

A/N: Okay, this is kind of a lame opener, but I promise we'll meet the boys in the next chapter. They're gonna be so cool... I'm very excited about their characters. But anyways, what does everyone think of this? Like? Hate? Ambivalence? Is that even the right word? Is it too late for me to be up?

I know the answer to one of those questions, but it's up to all of you to figure out the rest.

Cheers,

Rama