It was the first day of summer when we were dragged into the future. He didn't tell us his name or why he was there. He just showed up in a white hover craft, threw us all into it and transported us to the future. I didn't know that when we first arrived though. I learned that later.

When we got there we were humans. Five and a half feet tall with ten fingers and toes, a face and ears; you know human. But we were in the middle of this grey, dull city. Tall buildings that were square and grey. Everyone who walked the streets wore real dull colors. There were reds and blues, purples, oranges, greens, and yellows; they just looked like they were heavily tinted by a dark grey color. The city was lifeless. There were no sirens or talking. There were murmurs and shuffles of feet but that was it. The sidewalks were packed and the roads weren't much better. We were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, yet no one paid us any mind. We weren't cursed at or pushed, people just…walked around us.

No one smiled either. The first impression I got from this city was drab, boring, and scared. It looked lifeless, but everyone seemed to be afraid of something. I could see it in their eyes. It was as if they were just trying to get home so they could run to a corner and hide. And I wasn't very far off.

I didn't say anything, surprisingly. I was going to but something caught my eye. A girl. She had a purple shirt with brown hair and brown eyes. She looked at us for half a second and scurried away. Faster than everyone else. She ran into a building across the street.

She seemed…different. I don't know what made me think that. She didn't look very scared to me. She looked more hurt to me. Can't explain why though.

I started walking towards the building she ran into but someone grabbed my arm. I looked back to see it was Kowalski. He was looking at me confused, like he expected me to say something. I didn't know what to say. We were humans in a boring, grey, lifeless city. We didn't have a whole lot to go on; not enough for me to say anything that would help any.

"What?" I asked.

"Where are we?" Kowalski asked. He seemed freaked out for lack of a better word. Then again he was good at that so I wasn't surprised. It still seemed like a stupid question.

"In a city of some sort," I said. "A dull city at that." I paused, but he didn't say anything so I went on. "Truthfully I have no idea. What I want to know is who that guy was, why we are here, and where he went." I paused again. "But I don't see any of that being answered anytime soon." I did want to know why that guy was and why he so rudely pulled us to wherever we were. I started heading towards the building that the girl had gone into. I had a strange feeling that she would be able to tell us something. It had to be the way she looked at me. No one else had even glanced our way.

"Well yeah I can see that," Kowalski said. He seemed to be calming down, which was a good thing. It didn't help any, being scared or freaked. Both weren't very helpful.

He grabbed my arm again.

"Skipper where are you going?" he demanded.

I turned around and slapped his hand away. I really didn't want to lose that girl. I probably already had but at least I knew where she could be. I still needed to find her. "Into a building. There's no use in standing out here." I looked around him. There were two big bulky men, arms drawn heading our way. They were holding golden pistols. I did not want to mess with them but I didn't want to look shocked- which was hard to do- so I turned and pulled Kowalski along, heading towards the building that the girl had run into. Private and Rico followed.

Fum!

I turned around to see a man in a blue shirt arc his back and fall to the ground. The big police like men (dados) picked him up and dragged him away.

"Remind me not to piss them off," I muttered. I opened the door and walked in. I didn't have the intentions of intruding but that is apparently what I did for the very next second a knife landed in a wooden frame right next to my ear. I jumped and looked further into the room. There was a small blonde woman holding two more knives. I should've knocked. I didn't because I thought that this would be a main lobby or something to that extent. The woman held a look that dared me to say something. I had a feeling that speaking wouldn't help much, but I tried anyway.

"Um, sorry to intrude," I said. Trying to be as polite as possible.

"Shut up!" the little blonde barked. She readied another one of her knives and reached her arm back to throw it.

Before she was able to throw the knife her hand was grabbed. "Come now Nini," a sweet voice said. She was so calm and controlled. She was obviously the nicer of the two. "You know that is no way to treat visitors." She stepped out from another room. She was the brown hair girl I had seen on the street. I had found who I was looking for.

"Visitors?" the blonde, Nini, huffed. "We're not aloud visitors don't you remember? After what Pa did-"

"Pa didn't do a thing!" the brown haired girl interrupted. "He didn't broadcast the law yet. Pa couldn't have known. He was being a stupid dictator like he was last week when that little boy was sent to the pit."

"Well at least the pit is better than nearo!" Nini shouted.

I had a feeling that these two didn't get along that often. They both seemed to have different views and thoughts about laws and how to follow them. Or at least with this one law. I had no idea what a pit or nearo was. By the way they were being used, I guessed that neither were good, but the pit was better than the nearo. I didn't know what law 'Pa' had broken either or why breaking it had him sent to the nearo. I didn't even know where I was! One thing was for sure, the longer I was there the more confused and curious I got.

"I don't think so," The brown haired girl said.

"Marla, listen to Nini, let's not argue about this again. We-we can agree to disagree like pa always said," Nini said. She seemed to have calmed down. She walked up behind Marla and rubbed her back. Maybe the two got along better than I though. "Where's that boy?" she asked.

"Joseph?" Marla asked. She seemed surprised at the sudden change of topic.

"No, no, no," Nini replied. "The one I almost killed."

That would be me. "Uh…Hi?" I said. I didn't know how else to say it really. I was right in front of her but didn't want to be rude. I was confused but didn't want to aggravate anyone. She was still holding the knives and I really wasn't in the mood to have knives thrown at me.

"Oh there you are," She said. "I'm sorry for the unwelcome welcome." She walked up to me, putting the knives on a table as she walked by. "Eh, who are you?" She asked.

I wasn't prepared for that. I hadn't planned for anything really. I didn't know where I was or who these people were. I didn't know why this city was so grey or what a pit or nearo was. I didn't know any of the laws. That was the worst part. Not knowing the laws was a death sentence. I didn't know what to or not to do. I had to figure this place out before I did anything else. Skipper wasn't a normal name where I came from so it probably wasn't a normal name here. I decided to change it. "Uh…Steven." I said. I wasn't sure if they would accept that. But my name was often changed to Steven, so I went with that.

Nini sized me up a few times. Then she nodded her head in approval. "Steven fits," She said.

"So where are you from?" Marla asked.

I froze. Where did I come from? I could say New York but I didn't want to give us away. I didn't know where to say I was from. It was ironic because I have been so many places I could've pick any one of a thousand locations and pull off the act that I actually lived there. "Not here," I said. I could pass myself up as anyone, but why bother?

"Well, here is like anywhere else," Marla replied.

"Marla," Nini said. She sounded a little shocked. Like Marla knew better to say something like that. "You haven't moved from this spot you wouldn't know."

"Nini, Joe has been to many places, he's told me," Marla replied matter-of-factly. "Everywhere is the same, dark, glooming, ghost of a town. No one is different. Except the resistance."

Now I was really confused. Resistance? What was that? And why was it? More questions were popping up and none were being answered. I was about to ask when a hard, loud, thundering knock came at the door. We all jumped away and backed away from the door.

"This is a security check," said a monotone, mechanic voice. "Open up or we'll break down the door."

Marla and Nini froze in fear. That wasn't good. Whoever it was they were afraid. Nini shook it off first. She signaled Marla to do something and shouted to the door. "Coming dearie just give me a minute to get to the door and I'll let you right in." She used a sweet calm voice that was very friendly.

Marla grabbed my arm and pulled me to the corner of the room. There was a chair sitting on a carpet. I didn't know what good that would do. Not until she moved the chair and lifted the blanket. Revealed was a trap door. She quickly opened it and threw us all in. she slammed it closed and I'm guessing she recovered it. A heard a thump, so she probably sat in the chair. She might've just slammed the chair onto the rug though. I really had no idea.

I couldn't see anything so I didn't move. I didn't hear anything so no one else was moving either. When the Dado came in to do the 'security check' he asked some questions but the trap door and rig muffled it so I didn't understand anything. It's not like I understood much of anything else around here. Wherever here was.

Another inference to Hitler, I do believe anyway. Nazi's searching home's for hidden Jew's. That's what it reminded me off. Now before you say anything. I didn't know much about Hitler when this was all happening. I learned of him later. The dado was probably searching for 'visitors'. In other words, the four of us were like the hiding Jew's. We were good at being quiet. We've had to do it countless times before while sneaking about.

"Why did she put us down here?" Kowalski asked. He obviously wasn't grasping anything at a quick pace. I couldn't blame him. I think it's safe to say I was the only one who at least got the gist of things.

"She's hiding us," I said. It was clear to me, by the look on Nini's face, that we were being hidden from the dado at the door. Why, I wasn't so sure of yet.

"From what?" Private asked. He was scared. His voice gave him away. Being shoved into a dark, unknown area wasn't exactly a calming event.

"From whoever was at the door," I said.

Everything went silent. The only thing to be heard was the muffled voices of the conversation above. I took the time to organize my thoughts.

We were in a continent, country, whatever, where every city, town, and or village, was full of tall, grey, lifeless buildings, and people who minded their own businesses, were afraid of something, and wore grey tinted shirts. Wherever this was, there were pits, and nearo's. Both were punishments, but the pit was the better of the two. There were these big, police who carried around golden pistols and shot at… I had no clue. And I was being hid from one of them in a dark room under a carpet and a chair and possible a brown haired, brown eyed girl named Marla. Nothing made sense to me. I still had a lot of questions and no answers and I still had the need to find out if I could get help from Marla and her friend Nini. But I had to wait until the dado left before I would get any answers.

We sat, silent, in that dark room -if it even was a room- for I'd say fifteen to twenty minutes. The Marla opened the trap door and helped me out. As I stepped back into the room another knock came at the door. I was pushed into the kitchen and the trap door was slammed shut again. Marla sat on the chair, on the rug hiding the trap door. Nini, pushed me into the corner of the kitchen and signaled me to stay. I did.

While Nini went to the door I analyzed the room. It wasn't a modern at all. There were four cabinets, each looked like they were old and falling apart. The wood was cracked and the hinges that held the door to the main structure were rusted and old. There was a stove in the corner to the left of the one I was standing in, and an oven in the corner right of the one I was standing in. They both looked over used, and in need of some serious cleaning. Next to the stove was a sink it was filled with grime but looked like it used to be white. There were counter tops that ran around the room but stopped a few feet from the door. The door was in the opposite corner that I was in. there was no door, it was just an open area of the wall. It was square so a door could've been there, but it wasn't anymore. The wallpaper was pealing and the ceiling had cracks in it. The kitchen looked run down. Used. It needed some fixing. But that wasn't at the top of my 'to do' list so I concentrated on something else. Like the monotone voice of the dado.

"Your security check was the same as last week," it said. "You were informed that you had to fix the cracks in the kitchen ceiling but they are still there." The dado was right. The cracks were still in the ceiling. But why was that important? Lots of homes had cracks in the ceiling back in New York. "Why isn't the problem fixed?"

"I thought the security check was tomorrow, I've always had a sense that kicks in a day before the checks. I was going to do it today," Marla answered calmly.

I didn't know if she meant what she said. If she didn't then she was a strong girl. To lie to one of those things was probably not an easy thing to do. I got that feeling from the way the thing talked. It wasn't human.

"You know what will happen if you don't fix the problem," The dado threatened.

"Oh, y-yeeah. I-I know. It just slipped my mind. I-I will go to the store soon as you leave," Marla stuttered. She was afraid of the thing. But even so she was keeping straight to her story.

"Make sure you do, or you will be sent to the pit." Then the door slammed.

I heard Marla take a sigh of relief. Or at least I thought it was a sigh of relief. I couldn't have been more wrong.

"What are we going to do?" Marla asked. She sounded desperate and stressed out. I was concerned for her; I just had to figure out where I was and everything else before I focused on her.

"I don't know sweetheart," Nini replied. "We'll figure something out. Let's round up our spare funds and see what we got. Take it easy ok?" She said calmly.

She was trying to calm Marla down. It seemed to have worked too. Whatever they needed to keep Marla from the pit was going to cost them more than they had planned to spend. I felt bad for them. From seeing their kitchen I wondered how they survived like this. It seemed so hard. So harsh. I didn't know that having a rundown kitchen was heaven compared to some of the other things that went on in this new world.

I stepped out into the main room. It was the first time I took in the details. The room wasn't much better than the kitchen. The chairs were older and looked like they could fall apart any day now. There was a couch, but it looked older than old. There was a coffee table in the middle of the room. It was made of wood and was probably the nicest looking thing in the room. It was polished and still looked to have a bit of life left in it. The entire house so far had looked…well it looked poor. If there was a better word I'd use it. But the walls were cracked and pealing, the furniture was old and didn't look very sturdy, and like the kitchen the room looked like it was in desperate need of some fixing up. There was a door behind the chair that was on the rug which was on the trap door. What was behind it was probably not much better than what I had seen so far.

That's when it hit me. The guys.

I looked over at Marla and Nini. They were sitting on the couch. Marla was silently crying and Nini was trying to comfort her. I was starting to think that knowing these two would have to come before learning about where I was. I do hate seeing people upset. Especially when they're having extreme troubles calming down. Marla looked like she wouldn't be calming down anytime soon. Even though I didn't know her, I felt the need to comfort her. She seemed too nice to leave in tears. Silent or not. She hid us. Saved us from whoever came to the door. She didn't even know who I was.

I walked over and sat down on the opposite side of her that Nini was. I sat as far away as I could; I didn't want to impose. "Can…can I… help with anything?" I asked as calm as I could. I hesitated because I wasn't sure if they'd welcome the offer or get extremely agitated at it. But I had to do something.

Nini looked over at me. She gave me a small smile. She knew what I was trying to do. That's what her slight smile told me anyway.

"Tell him Marla," He said. She lifted Marla's chin. "The truth."

Marla nodded. Wiping her eyes one more time she looked over at me. "I guess an introduction is in order," She said pushing away the rest of her tears. "This is my mother in-law, Mary. My husband is Joseph. My name is…is." She took a deep breath. "I'm Marlene."

I couldn't believe it. Marlene. She was human? I didn't have to think twice about it. It was Marlene. She had the same brown eyes. Nothing else really mattered. I knew Marlene inside and out and if there's one thing I always remember about her it's her eyes. I'm ashamed to say I was shocked speechless. I didn't know where I was, why I was there, what anything was or how anything worked. And then to top it all off, I found Marlene. I don't think I had ever been so confused.

"I can tell you were born in the resistance. So in that case, I'll tell you where you are and what kind of situation you've just entered." Marlene continued.

It didn't take much time to comprehend what I was told. What the most shocking part was that she was married. I would have to go more into that later. She was about to tell me everything. She was going to answer all my questions. That was something I had looked forward to.