The light coming through the window felt like a sledgehammer to the face, and that's putting it delicately. Sometimes its easier to stay up all night than it is to wake up early the next day, sometimes you have no choice but to stay up all night because you felt like you were going to throw up every passing minute. Elizabeth was hunched over in her chair with her head resting on the small desk in front of her. She breathed deeply and slowly trying to set her stomach at ease while also trying to ward off her headache. 'I thought I got over the nerves of traveling somewhere new when I got into Berlin' she thought.

In fact Elizabeth was far from home, grown and raised in a small farming town in the southwest with her older brother. It had been her dream to run off and live abroad even if it was only for a little while. Germany was naturally one of her first choices, the entire country was practically filled with things to do at every hour of the day. Not just that but she could run off to another country for vacation and be there in three hours due to all the countries in Europe being squished together so closely. It was her brother, Marcus' idea. An agreement to a squabble that started with, 'We never do what I want to do!' She roped him into coming abroad to Germany with her for six long months. After three months of getting used to the Fatherland he wanted to drive over to Poland to take in sights and generally goof around and relax after he went through the tiring process of switching majors. They rented a car, booked two rooms in a cheap hotel and planned to stay three days. During those three days Marcus planned 'fun' activities for them to do together, for example today they would go for a walk in the woods nearby and get coffee afterwards. Pretty much a stress free day to be quite honest, but Elizabeth couldn't settle down and sleep. Her stomach had been doing flips all night and she had a pounding in her head that the light wasn't helping. She paced around the room the whole night in addition to sneaking off to the bathroom when she felt like she was going to throw up. All in all it was a shitty start to her day.

Marcus came into Elizabeth's room, lace up boots in hand, seemingly in better shape than his sister. "Hey start getting ready I wanna head off soon so we can get back early and just chill here." Elizabeth gave a tired grumble in response. Marcus raised an eyebrow and plopped his boots down near the door to investigate. He lifted his sister's chin up to view her tired face. "Did you stay up all night again?" "I didn't feel good." Marcus sighed as he took his hand away. "You're coming with me." He said walking towards the door. "If you thinking I'm wandering around in the woods by my self you're out of your mind." He shut the door and was gone for a couple of minutes. When he came back he placed down an almost empty bottle of asprin and orange juice on the desk then sat down on the bed to put on his boots. Elizabeth sat up straight for the first time in hours and downed two pills and a big gulp of juice. "I still fell like shit." she said stalking towards her suitcase filled with clothes. "You just took the pills it'll take a while to kick in, just bring them with you."

Elizabeth gathered a black tank top, gray jeans and hoodie and black converse and changed in the small bathroom. Marcus was dressed similarly, they had the same tastes and looked so alike people mistook them for twins sometimes. In reality he was only a year older than his sister, twenty one and twenty respectfully. Elizabeth grabbed her backpack and emptied it of her laptop and notebooks and threw in the medicine along with her juice, her phone, room key and some junk food they bought as a snack on the way to Wrocław. Wrocław was decently sized city, bigger than the siblings' home town but smaller than Warsaw. Elizabeth had been excited to see all the history of Wrocław especially the World War Two museums but her current state made her unenthused about pretty much everything. The two set out at around nine and walked through town for half an hour until they came to the opening of the woods. A beaten path scattered with fall leaves divided the trees apart. The pair walked taking in the sight of the large trees, something they rarely saw in the desert they grew up in. As they walked the aspirin started to kick in and Elizabeth started to feel better and she started going back to her normal self. She kicked leaves and joked with Marcus as he took pictures of the woods to show their mom back home.

An hour into their adventure they realized they went deep into the woods. There was no longer a path and the leaves covered the ground thickly. "Do you know where we are?" Elizabeth asked nervously.

"Yeah, I mean I think I do." Marcus looked in all directions, trying to get his bearings. "Maybe we shoudn't have gone through that thick path of bushes back there if we hadn't we could just turn around and walk straight back." He pulled out his phone and tried his best to make use of its compass. Elizabeth took some steps forward until she saw the roof of a building. It peaked her interest and she walked further until she saw more roofs. It could be a small town or a village where they could find a way to get back to Wrocław. Marcus was still fussing with his compass when his sister tugged his hand. "Hey do you know what direction we went to get-"

"Come with me I think I found a way back." With Marcus in tow Elizabeth showed him the roofs. "You think its a village? Maybe a factory?" "Yeah, its better than nothing right?" Marcus agreed and they walked on. As they walked they came across a cracked old road and further along the way they made it to the gates of what turned out to be a factory.

The gates were made of iron, but weakened by all the weathering they endured. The two exchanged glances, both hoping the gates weren't locked. Marcus stepped forward and with little effort he pushed the gates in. The pair walked in quickly learning the factory was actually quite large. Elizabeth looked wide eyed at everything noting that everything was antique.

Eventually they made it into what they assumed was the main courtyard of the factory. There was a raised platform with a large machine on top. Wires connected to it went in different directions. Marcus looked at the machine with interest and turned his head to call his sister over to look as well but as he looked he saw her round a corner entering a room. Marcus followed along making sure his younger sibling didn't get lost. Elizabeth gasped in awe at nearly every object, from diagrams to simple test tubes. "This must've been a crazy German lab or something huh?" Elizabeth said with a hint of excitement in her voice. Her brother shrugged, "Probably." he said with uninterest. However Elizabeth's excitement proved to be contagious as he started to explore with curiosity too. He'd never been a history fanatic like his sister but he had to admit all of this was pretty interesting. A particular picture of a dog caught his eye, with closer inspection it appeared to be severely diseased dog, so much so that it had bones showing in its tail and legs and large patches of fur missing. Another picture showed Nazi soldiers in surrendering in front of the Eiffel Tower. Marcus gave it a double take. Why would Germans have pictures of their own soldiers surrendering? He opened his mouth to ask Elizabeth but when he turned to address her he saw her taking a manila folder and putting it into her backpack.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he said walking towards her. "What?!" she said startled by his outburst. "I'm not stealing them! If that's what you're thinking." "What the hell else could you be doing?" "For your information" Elizabeth started using her most matter of fact-ly voice on purpose to get on Marcus' nerves. "I am going to research these and then take them to my professor in Berlin. What's in these files could be invaluable. This whole place its abandoned no one is going to miss them anyway." Marcus sighed in defeat and walked up the nearby stairs. "Whatever, play archeologist all you like." "Its called being a HISTORIAN and you know that! You did that just to piss me off didn't you!?" Elizabeth followed her brother up the stairs and they explored the facility more. Marcus walked about and took pictures on his phone while Elizabeth gathered files that looked important. As Marcus followed along he found three more machines like larger one in the courtyard. His sister didn't pay much attention to them but he did finding much more interesting than German lab reports he could barely read.

At a little past two they explored all the facility and ended up back in the courtyard. Elizabeth was walking towards the exit when Marcus stopped her and showed her the larger machine. "I was going to show you that earlier but you ran off before I could." Elizabeth looked at the ominous machine with a mix of awe and fear. "I think we should stay away from big machine like that Marcus. We don't know what they could do." Marcus scoffed and walked up the stairs. "It probably doesn't have power, quit being a baby." Pressured by her older brother she walked up the steps too.

While Elizabeth kept her hands to herself and simply looked at the contraption Marcus looked and poked at every visible part of the machine.

"Hey, be careful." Elizabeth cautioned as Marcus hovered his finger tips over the control panel of the machine. "Chill! Its fine I won't touch anything. Hey get inside so I can take a picture." Marcus said motioning to the inside of the Giant machine. Elizabeth looked with unease but eventually stepped foot inside. "Great, now scoot over so I can get in too." Marcus stepped in, took out his phone and held it arms length away. " Hey smile for god's sake will ya? You look like someone just died in all the pictures your in." Elizabeth gave a toothy grin and said "Bite me Marcus" through her teeth. Marcus pressed the button and the flash went off.

"Ouch!" Marcus looked over at his sister. "What? What happened?" "You shocked me! And it really hurt too!" Elizabeth replied rubbing her arm. "Oh shit I'm sorry I didn't mean t-OW! You just shocked me!" Shocks soon became sparks and electricity grew around the two and an electric field built around them and the machine. "Marcus what's happening?!" Elizabeth shouted over the loud noise the machine was beginning to make. "I don't know! Don't move though! You might get hurt!" The noises grew louder and the electricity intensified. Elizabeth buried herself in Marcus' arms and he held her tight. Finally in a flash of light, they disappeared. Nothing was left of them in the machine. Or was there? In another time, in another place they were very much alive.