Chapter 1
Trevor Davis did not believe in aliens until he got in a spaceship that defied the known laws of physics and ended-up on another planet. The madness began in the skate park. He was hanging-out with his friends John Peterson and Anne Frederick.
John has very dark skin tone, brown eyes, and short brown hair. Currently, he is wearing jeans, a gray shirt, and an army-camouflage cap. His favorite way to spend time is reading science fiction. In school, John is basically the best student; no one has better grades than him. When he graduates, John plans of becoming an author. Anne is a beautiful girl at the age of sixteen. Her hair was red, her eyes were green, she smells of women's deodorant and her skin was smooth. At school, she was part of the soccer team and was the best in gym class. Trevor is the most creative member of the group. He is the best student at art class. His hair is blonde, his eyes are blue and he is currently wearing a red-hoodie, sweatpants, and a pendant his mother gave to him just before she died. It had her wedding ring attached to it. Not once since he received had Trevor ever taken it off.
"What are you reading?" Trevor asked John as he rode toward him on his skateboard.
"'Prisoner of the Klade'." John replied. "A story about a soldier captured by aliens in an intergalactic war."
"You read too much sci-fi, man." Trevor said.
"I can understand why he likes fiction so much." Anne commented. "It can be far more exciting than reality."
"Then I guess I am boring because I prefer facts and reality." Trevor replied.
"Well, now that you mention it, you can be kind of dull." John said sarcastically.
The three of them shared a laugh. Then they heard a strange wheezing noise. Slowly, it became louder. Nearby, they saw an object appearing; at first it was transparent, but quickly turned solid. When the object was completely solid, it looked like a giant dice with a wooden door on one side. All three of the friends were confused. They were about to go look for someone when the door opened and a bright light blinded them for a second. Once they regained their sight, the three of them found themselves in a new and unusual place.
A dome-shaped room was where they had found themselves. There were gray circles all over the walls with blue lights at their centers. In the room, there were two doors on opposite sides; one was metallic and futuristic-looking, while the other was simple and wooden. At the center of the room, seemed to be some sort of control-console. It was covered with switches, levers, and buttons. Sticking out of it was a glass pillar that had multiple wires and lights in it. The pillar was constantly rising and falling at a steady rate. A couch was five feet to the left of the control-console and wooden bookshelves on the right side of the room. On the shelves were at least two dozen books. Carved into the wooden were what resembled star charts.
"Wow!" John said both excited and terrified. "This is amazing!"
"Okay, where is the exit?" Trevor asked, trying not to panic.
Quickly, he headed towards the wooden door. He was about to opened it when a beam of blue shot out of the control-console and pulled him over to it. Suddenly, they heard the same wheezing noise from before. Then the whole room began to shake. Anne fell onto the couch while John held onto the bookshelf to keep himself from falling. After two minutes, the vibrations stopped and the blue light that had grabbed Trevor faded. At that moment, Trevor collapsed. Once John and Anne collected their wits, they went to see if he was hurt. There were no visible signs of injury and he was breathing was even, but he was unconscious.
"I don't know what is going on here but I want to leave now!" Anne said.
"Agreed." John replied. "However, we can't leave Trevor here. I will lift his legs, you grab his arms."
Together, they lifted Trevor and made their way to the wooden door. Anne was about to open the door when she froze. Fear had risen in her mind; fear that whatever had happened to Trevor would happen to her if she tried to open the door. She overcame that fear after a few seconds. What had helped her find courage was her worry for Trevor. He needed help, so she was going to help him. Fortunately nothing happened as she opened the door, though what Anne and John saw outside surprised them both.
Somehow, they had moved to a whole new place, while they were inside the giant dice. The room inside it was three-to-four times the size of the outside of the dice. Meaning, it was bigger on the inside. It stood at the mouth of a stone cave. They were in a dead-silent forest. Emphasis on the "dead" part. There was no grass, the bark on the trees was black and the leaves were dark gray. Above them, the sky was rather cloudy, so the light was dim. The ground was muddy.
"How is this possible?!" Anne exclaimed.
"I do not know." John said. "We need to find help. You stay here while I go look for someone."
"Fine." Anne replied. "But I am not staying inside that weird room."
"Okay, stay behind it in the cave." John said. " If I am not back in an two hours, you can come looking for me."
She nodded at him. John then started walking into the forest. This forest was unnaturally silent. No animal noises or even gusts of wind. If not for the creepy forest and Trevor being unconscious, John would have been overjoyed. Whatever that thing that had abducted them was, it seemed like something out of a sci-fi novel. For him, such a thing being real was like a dream come true. He had always wanted to encounter something … crazy. Something that did not fit into his definition of normality. Anyone who truly loves fiction has the same dream.
After a half an hour of running, John saw someone. This person was an adult male who wore gray army-camouflage and a some kind of device in his hand. John was about to shout to him when he heard the roar of an engine overhead. When John looked up he saw a plane flying toward them. Then came the shots at them. The plane fired what looked like green laserbeams at them. As the other man ran to avoid the beams, john grabbed him and pulled him behind a large tree. The tree provided cover from the beams. Once the plane passed over them, the man pulled a knife out of his boot and held it to John's throat.
"Who are you?" The man demanded.
This man was quite pale, had a dirty face and blue eyes. When John looked him in the eye, he knew for a fact that he was a soldier. John's brother, Jeremy, had fought in Vietnam and when he returned home, his eyes were different. They looked the same, physically. However, whenever Jeremy looked someone in the eye, it was like he was looking right through them. His eyes had become cold, just like the eyes of the man threatening John now.
"Well, this is one hell of a way to treat the guy who saved your life." John said.
"You could be the enemy." The soldier replied. "I need to confirm that you are not my enemy."
Then, the soldier pulled a device that resembled a camera out of his pocket. He pressed a button on the side of it and a blue light shined from the device. After a minute, the light faded. The soldier suddenly looked very confused. Whatever the device was supposed to do, the results were unexpected. He lowered the knife and stepped back, staring at John.
"You are neither Thal nor Kaled." The soldier said. "What are you?"
"Human." John replied beginning to understand. "What are Thals and Kaleds? Where am I?"
"Human?" The soldier repeated. "There has never been any species by that name on Skaro."
Upon hearing that last word, John more-or-less understood what had happened. The ship, or whatever it was, had taken him and his friends to another planet, and even though the man before him looked human, he was really an alien. Actually, seeing as how John was on another planet, he was the true alien. Either way, from how the man acted, and the fact he was carrying weapons and he had questioned John if he was his enemy, it seemed John had found himself in a warzone. His mind quickly turned to his friends. Were they alright? John had to go find out, immediately.
"Well, it has been a pleasure," John lied. "But I have business to attend to."
Just as John started hurrying away, he stopped in his tracks. On the ground, he saw a hand sticking out of the ground. What is more disturbing is that the hand had an eye in the center of its palm. John felt a shiver run down his spine when the eye blinked.
"What the hell is that?!" John pointed at the freaky hand.
When the soldier saw the hand, his face revealed he was quite scared. Suddenly, more hands exactly like the first one began rising out of the mud. Each of them seemed to be searching for something. Their pupils moved rapidly. After a minute, all of them were staring at John and the soldier.
"Hand-mines." The mans said, his voice trembling. "Don't move."
"Why?" John asked. "What kind of danger are we in?"
"Those things look for movement." The soldier replied. "Then they grab the source of the movement and drag it underground. I am not certain what happens next. Probably death by suffocation."
"Oh, well that sounds nice." John said sarcastically.
John forced himself to remain calm. He thought carefully about everything the soldier had said. An idea formed in his mind. John reached into his pockets and pulled out a pencil, a few marbles, and a pen.
"Hey," John said to the soldier. "Take everything out of your pockets."
"Why?" He asked.
"I have a theory I want to test." John replied. "Watch this."
Then he tossed his pencil a few feet to the left. All the hand-mines turned to where the pencil for a short time, then returned to the two of them. John's theory had been proven. The hand-mines could be distracted by objects being thrown. The soldier smiled, understanding John's plan. They were going to throw every object they could to distract the hand-mines when they moved. The soldier pulled a notepad, some string, a key, and a pen out of his pocket.
Carefully and quickly, John and the soldier crossed the hand-mine field. They could only take about three steps before the hand-mines turned their attention back them and they froze in their tracks. Unfortunately, it became quite clear that they did not have enough objects to make it out of the minefield. They ran out of objects about six feet from safety.
"What now?" The soldier asked.
"Well, we are only a few feet away from safety." John replied. "I am afraid we have only one choice. We have got to make a break for it."
"Are you sure that is wise?" The soldier asked.
"It is a risky action, but it is our only option." John said. "On the count of three, we run as fast as possible."
"One ... Two ... Three!"
The two of them made a mad-dash, but it failed. One second before John could reach safety, a hand-mine grabbed his foot. The same thing happened to the soldier. Both of them were dragged right into the earth. Into darkness.