Tom found himself in a dark corridor, still clutching Amado's hand.
"Funny," Amado said. "People normally pass out the first time"
"First time?" Tom asked.
"First time they travel through time" Tom's jaw dropped down.
"Really?" He asked eagerly. The man nodded in confirmation. "Come with me" Amado led Tom to a door further along the corridor. He grunted as he pushed against it with his shoulder and the door swung back.
"Wait in here. I'll probably be some time. Don't leave" Amado shut Tom in and locked the door with a good old-fashioned key. Tom couldn't hack a key, Amado probably knew that. Tom crossed his arms indignantly, and insulted at being locked away in a room on his own; not trusted. He wanted to see the world outside, wanted to see another time but instead he'd been locked in his room like a naughty child.
He looked around. Two bunk beds lined the walls and were nothing to speak of. They looked as if they might fall down from one little push and needed cleaning. Exploring, he discovered that instead of a way out, the other door led to a windowless bathroom. Eventually, Tom sat down cross legged on the floor and began doing math equations on the concrete with the pencil in his pocket.

About half an hour later Amado unlocked the door. Tom was about to run out and find someone to help him, but he had a girl in his arms, maybe a few years older than him. She had blonde hair and odd-ish clothes and seemed completely out of it.
"Help me get her on to a bed?" Amado asked and Tom moved silently to help. He wasn't going to talk to the man, he decided. Perhaps when she woke up the girl could help him find out what was happening and escape. Perhaps the girl knew what was going on.

Another half an hour later the girl was still out cold on her bed, Tom was still dying of boredom and he could hear Amado struggling down the corridor, presumably weighed down with another body. Tom rolled his eyes and looked out of the window in the door. Amado was just approaching the door, having seemingly abandoned the body. He opened the door and then pulled the body in. Tom was expecting another normal person, like the girl but this time Amado held a boy, probably around the same age as the girl.

It wouldn't have been particularly remarkable, except for the fact that the boy was covered, literally, covered, head-to-toe in mud.
"What happened to him?" Tom asked. Amado smiled nervously.
"I'll explain later. For now let's just say he was dragged through a hedge backwards"
"Only one hedge? Are you sure he wasn't dragged backwards through most of the English countryside. Somewhere very wet and muddy, the lakes perhaps, then left for a year in a mud puddle," Tom stopped as he noticed something on the boy's skin. "Before being eaten alive by lice?" Amado didn't smile. He looked deadly serious.
"Something like that. I need to go fix some things. There's a bath in that room, so you can clean him up."
"What? No way! What if he wakes up whilst he's in the bath, with me leaning over him? How do I explain that one away?" Amado put the boy down on the floor, and left the room in a hurry. Tom looked from the boy to the door leading to the bathroom in disgust.
He unwillingly undressed the boy and lowered him into the bath, before realising that he hadn't filled it. He turned on the taps and left the room. Bored, he saw the girl and decided to try and wake her. He began poking her in the arm.

By the tenth poke he was beginning to lose hope, but suddenly he was knocked to the ground with a forceful punch. He rubbed his jaw.
"Ow!" He moaned.
"Quit poking me!" Someone replied.
"Uh…I was just trying to wake you up…" Tom explained.
"Oh." The girl replied, sitting up and bright red. "Sorry, are you OK?" Tom only grunted in response. No, he wasn't OK. That girl had a mean punch, but he wasn't going to admit it. After a moment of awkward silence, the girl offered out her hand.
"I'm Freya Daly. Who are you?"
"Tômas Rodriquez Valdez-Hellstrom" He said, shaking the hand but still rubbing his jaw indignantly.
"I really am sorry. You have a funny name." She said again. Tom rolled his eyes and ignored the comment on his name. He'd heard it all before. He was more interested in an apology.
"Want to prove it?" He offered. Freya leapt at the chance.
"Sure!" She said, standing. Tom pointed to the bathroom door and Freya walked through.
"Oh my…" Tom heard. He grinned evilly. Perhaps it wasn't nice…but she'd punched him. "Can I have some help with this?" She pleaded. Tom stood up and decided to toughen up. Time to go clean mud-boy.

Freya was surprisingly efficient at cleaning; she only cleaned and never spoke. Tom felt awkward, cleaning a naked boy with a girl he'd known for only minutes. Then Freya stopped.
"Where am I?" She asked out of the blue.
"What?" Tom asked, taken aback.
"It just came to me; last I remember I was in the middle of some shooting. Then this man said he could take me away. So where am I?" Tom shrugged.
"I don't know. We can ask Amado when he comes back. That's the man you were talking about. Because last I remember I was in the labs."
"The labs?" Freya asked. Tom waved the question away with his hand. Freya shook her head. "Let's get him out of here" She said, lifting him out. "You get to re-dress him"
"Are there any more clothes? The ones he came in…" They looked to the brown mess of cloth on the floor. Tom counted at least five lice, and that was from several metres away.
"That's it. I'm finding this Amado guy." Freya said decisively, leaving the boy soaking wet on the ground. She left the room briskly and Tom was left staring at the boy. In the end, he just left him there. Hopefully the shock of waking up wet, naked and alone was less than waking up wet and naked with two strangers staring at you.

Freya was fiddling with the keyhole. Tom didn't understand what she was doing until he saw there was a hair slide in the keyhole and that was what Freya was fiddling with.
"Do you know how to pick a lock then?" He asked, intrigued.
"Nope" Freya answered.
"If it was a number combination I'd have us out in a whip" Tom told her. Freya stood up, momentarily abandoning the hair clip.
"Oh really? Well it isn't" She said, blowing a loose strand of blonde hair out of her face. Presumably the hair clip had been holding it back. She sighed and went back to the keyhole.
A minute or so later, a loud click was audible. For a moment they were still and silent. Could it really have worked? Freya pushed the handle down carefully and pulled. Nothing. Then Tom remembered what had happened when he'd first been escorted to that room.
"Wait," He said. He pulled on the door using all his weight, and a second later the door opened stiffly. They both grinned in victory.

A lit corridor awaited them. Along the walls were adverts for movies and books.
"I've read that one!" Tom laughed, looking closer at one advert. Freya gave him a funny look.
"I've never heard of it" She said. "Is it good?"
"Yeah, it's about math, not sure if you'd like it, although it's hilarious. You should definitely give it a go." Freya pretended to look interested. She preferred Action/Adventure/Romance, and was partial to the odd trashy novel here and there. She wouldn't say no to an old Terry Pratchett discworld novel either, they'd been her old Auntie Ady's favourites.
They walked down the brashly lit corridor for some time, before Tom stopped in realisation.
"I know where we are" He stated. Freya raised her eyebrows in interest. "It's an underground station. One of the London ones, I'd guess" He said, nodding to a WICKED advert for the London theatre. The stations had been showing that one every time Tom visited the capital city, which was weird because he'd been there a good few times over several years. Freya tilted her head.
"Kinda looks like one from some old film, I guess" She noted. Tom shrugged as they walked forward. She sure watched some odd films.

"That's a platform up ahead" Tom pointed. Freya sped up her pace.
When they reached the platform, Tom stopped in awe. They were so beautiful! He walked forward in a trance and stroked the monitor of a computer.
"Do you two want to be left alone?" Freya giggled. Tom glared at her.
"Look at these! They're…they're…State of the art! More than that, it's like…I don't know. Just look at them…" Freya couldn't help but laugh, but she noticed the man before Tom did.
"Oh, I see you're awake now. Sorry I had to leave you in there; I needed to do some tidying up. Tom made everything inconvenient by not blacking out. I'm sure you have plenty of questions, I'll answer them in a second." The man smiled friendlily at Freya, then turned to Tom. "Put that computer down" He instructed firmly, and Tom reluctantly looked away from the incredible treasure trove of technology.


The man took a sip from a cup of tea that had been on the same desk the computers were on. "I suppose you've left poor Frederick on his own back there?"
"Umm, the naked boy?" Freya said, suddenly at a loss for words. "And we need a towel and some clothes for him. He's also very naked" Amado laughed.