Hello everyone I'M BACK!!!!!!!!! Sorry sorry sorry for the cliffhanger I was extremely busy!!!!! Hope u like this next chapter!!! Great thanks to everyone who reviewed, please don't give up!!! Enjoy!! :) :) ;)

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Alisa turned the knob and stepped forward, opening the door.

And almost fell out.

There was no floor, no room, nothing. Losing her balance, she almost fell off the doorstep. Swinging herself backwards, not letting go of the doorknob, Alisa slammed the door as she turned on her heel to face away from it. Her foot hit something small, and a tennis ball went bouncing down the steps.

Alisa was still shocked. The door had been open for only two seconds, but the image she had just seen was etched in her brain.

The building ended at the door. It was as though the rest of it was blown away by a huge explosion. When she had leaned out Alisa saw the desert, two stories below. The strangest thing was that she didn't see the parking lot and the gas station, which should have been there. Just the desert. And it was strange, all wobbly and shimmering, although it wasn't that hot anymore. The weirdest thing, though, was that the horizon wasn't where it was supposed to be. It seemed a lot closer, like in those footages shot on the moon. And it wasn't straight and rigid, either - the desert shimmered and dissolved into nothingness.

As though the earth ended in that particular place. With a cold feeling Alisa remembered what Mike had said about the 'Dead Zone'.

"Alisa! Hey! Is anyone up there?" Jodi called.

"Uh, no," Alisa replied. Suddenly, a wave of dizziness and nausea swept over her, but only for an instant. Surprised, she staggered to the right, and her foot hit a small object.

And a tennis ball went bouncing down the stairs.

It was déjà vu. Hadn't that just happened already? Were there two tennis balls? And why would there be tennis balls at the top of the stairs anyway?

Alisa shrugged. For some reason she always got dizzy when she had déjà vu.

She turned to face the door knowing she had to open it, to face it again, to see more clearly what is beyond, although she had a bad feeling abut it. But as she turned the knob, she realized with shock that the door was locked.

What?! But it was just open! Alisa thought in disbelief. Was it possible that she accidentally shut the door when she slammed it behind her?

She tried the door again, pushed it, kicked it, and cursed in frustration. It was no use. The door was tightly shut. So there was nothing left to do but come back down the stairs.

"Jodi," she said, once she was down, "You won't believe me, but I just saw the weirdest thing-"

She was interrupted by loud voices and a thundering of feet coming from the hallway to the left. The guys were coming back.

"Jeez, what took you so long?" Jodi bellowed, "One would think you got severely constipated and had to administer enemas in there."

The guys looked flushed. Dan was cracking up, but Mike didn't look too happy.

"Did Mike slip on his humungous key chain and fall into the toilet? After he did his business?" Alisa asked.

"No," Dan managed to squeeze out between bursts of laughter, "He… he…"

"What?" Jodi looked annoyed, "Boy, I thought you knew how to talk!"

"Dude, it's not that funny!" Mike exclaimed, "That was my favourite yo-yo!"

"What. Happened?" Alisa said slowly.

"He… He was playing with his yo-yos, doing weird tricks with them and stuff," Dan said, catching his breath, "And then… and then…" his voice trailed off again as he doubled over with silent laughter, leaning against the wall.

"And then the yo-yo went up your ass? Is that why you're laughing?" Jodi asked sarcastically.

Mike looked pissed. "It was all your fault, man!" he declared accusingly, sitting down and beginning to play with the remaining yo-yo.

"Well, if you can't speak normally," Alisa told Dan, "Then I think a good smacking might help!"

And she proceeded to slap Dan generously on either side of the face. That helped. Soon Dan managed to tell them exactly what happened. It turned out Mike was doing figure eights with his yo-yos, and accidentally sent one flying through the air and it fell right into the toilet Dan had previously used for #2 and forgot to flush. Imagine their surprise when it turned out the toilet was broken and didn't flush at all.

"We tried everything, man," Mike said, "I even tried to fish out the yo-yo with my key chain, but it didn't work!"

"You forgot the part when you tired to make tweezers out of the cardboard tubes they put inside toilet paper rolls," Dan put in.

"Hey, look who's talking!" Mike exploded, leaping from his seat, "If you stupid butthead haven't fuckin' crapped into the toilet in the first place, we wouldn't have to try fish my yo-yo outta the son of a bitch!"

"Hey, chill!" Dan exclaimed, waving his hands, "What did you expect me to do, crap on the floor? I had to go, man."

Mike calmed down a bit and sat on his chair again. "I don't know what I'm gonna do without my baby now…" he sighed. So sad and pathetic he looked, Alisa almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"It's just a yo-yo," she said, trying not to laugh, "You can buy a new one."

"No, you don't understand!" Mike exclaimed, "It was my lucky yo-yo." Leave it to Mike to be weird about that.

But Jodi knew how to handle her man. In one second, she went from sarcastic and irritated to sweet and sympathetic. She sat down next to him and put her arm on his shoulder.

"Hey, we'll get your baby. I'll promise, we'll get it out. I'll help."

"You mean you'll go into the guys' bathroom and stick your hand in the toilet?!" Mike asked in utter terror, "You would do that for me?"

Jodi nodded. "No problem. I eat spiders. This shouldn't be much different."

A broad smile spread across Mike's face. "You're amazing!" he said. He tried to kiss her, but she ducked away.

"Let's get right to business." She announced in a marine-on-a-mission voice. Who's about to accompany me on my dangerous and extremely hazardous mission?"

"Me," Mike volunteered.

"I'll come," Dan said.

They all looked at Alisa. Suddenly, she wanted to barf.

"Sorry, guys, but uh, I hope you'll forgive me if I sit out on the Mission: Impossible III. I'm not feelin' too well already."

"Well then, you better not come," Dan said, "Cause then you'll feel much, much, worse." They all chuckled and the three left to embark on the extremely hazardous mission, leaving Alisa behind.

She wandered through the empty room, listening to the quiet music, and then sat down in one of the chairs. Fumbling through her backpack, she found an old pack of cigarettes. Finding a lighter, she lit one, and as the warm, sparky red glow came into being on its end, she realized how dark it was. The sun had set and the restaurant was submerged into twilight. The room looked ghostly as darkness began to fill it like smoke, as though giant phantom cobwebs began to grow in the corners. Outside, everything, even the desert, was blue. Twilight looked especially spooky here, in this spooky place. Her thoughts wondered, suddenly as slow as molasses. The whole cosmic patterns of the world seemed to be have slowed down. Here. In this place. Like the lazy heat of the day that now had somewhat cooled off. Like the lazy spinning of the fan on the bar. Like the lazy music playing in the room, as though it had no strength left to go faster and louder. As though the whole world was falling asleep.

Alisa realized with a start that it wasn't the world, it was her who was falling asleep. She had begun to nod. Falling asleep while smoking was dangerous, she knew that all too well. Lifting her head, she took another puff, slowly sucking in the magical smoke. A thought occurred to her. What if she was already sleeping? What if all of this was a dream? That would explain it, of course. The running out of gas, (no really, what are the chances of that?) the dead zone story, what she'd seen up the stairs, the déjà vu… And the whole strange unrealness of this place.

Yes, that was it, she was dreaming, and couldn't wake up. But then, when had she fallen asleep? In the car while they were driving in the early morning? Were they driving right now, still in Dan's Porsche, on their way to LA? Or were they still sleeping soundly at the motel in town, and today had not come yet? Or maybe… Maybe she fell asleep well before they decided to run away… It was a crazy idea. Look where it's gotten them. Alisa was a reasonable person, wasn't she?

She couldn't remember. Maybe this place was eating away her brain cells just like it was eating away reality. They had driven into the twilight zone.

Maybe, then, she had fallen asleep long ago and her entire life was a dream? That would explain her being telekinetic. As far as she knew, this stuff wasn't supposed to be possible…

Alisa stared at the half-empty beer bottle standing on the bar counter. As she concentrated, the bottle rose into the air, tipped to the side, and the liquid poured into an empty glass. The bottle set its self down and the glass of beer flew across the room and into Alisa's hand. She didn't do this often, not wanting to make a habit out of it, not just because that was just way too Matilda. Only Jodi knew, and Alisa was afraid if it became a habit she'd forget and do it in front of other people… And that would be disasterous.

Closing her eyes, she sipped the cool liquid. Suddenly, the weird feeling came again, it seemed that once she closed her eyes the world around her disappeared. It wasn't there anymore, she felt it, she somehow knew it, the same way she had known they would not make it till the nearest gas station, the same way she'd known many things before. But it wasn't possible. Or was it?

As she opened her eyes, the room sprang into being. Or was it there all the time? Was she just going nuts? But still, there was the inevitable feeling of that the room behind her, where her angle of vision couldn't reach, didn't exist anymore. Becoming more and more paranoid, she turned around, finding the room where it was. But had it just appeared as she turned around?

Her cigarette had turned into a stump and thin blue smoke rose in a thread from the end, which glowed like a dying ember. "Making progress on the road to cancer?" Alisa heard a voice behind her. She turned around to see Jodi standing there. She was hardly able to see her friend's features in the thickening dark.

She chuckled. "Making progress in fishing Mike's junk out of the toilet?" Jodi didn't answer. "Let me have a puff," she said. As Alisa passed the noticeably diminished cigarette, Jodi sucked in the fume and pinched her nose, causing the smoke to come out of her ears. Alisa laughed. "What the-"

"Mike taught me that," the other girl replied, "Your nose and ears are connected by hollow canals, so if you block one exit… Smoke takes the other." They both laughed. After a short silence, Jodi spoke, "We broke into a closet and I found some rubber gloves to fish out the yo-yo. There were also some plumbing tools, so we decided to try and clear the pipes, but that only made the shit go all over the floor. The guys are cleaning it up."

There was another silence, and this time Alisa broke it. "You know, I could never do these kind of things, and I guess I never will. You know, do something sweet for someone for free, just because I care about them. That is so selfless."

Jodi smirked. "You call this selfless? Sweet? Aw, come on, you know what I'm hoping for when I do nice things for Mike," she said with a wink.

"I just realized that there is no one remembering me as a person who helped them." Alisa said. "I had never done anything for anyone, like you, Jodi. Me, I have no conscience."

"That just means you are much more reasonable than me," Jodi retorted, stuffing the cigarette butt into an ashtray. "No, do you really think that fishing out that yo-yo was a great thing?" she implied.

"It was, to Mike," Alisa responded, "Right now, you're his hero."

"Jeez, what's gotten into you?" Jodi said, "You always say you never had a conscience, so why are you so suddenly overcome by guilt?"

Alisa shook her head really fast, causing her hair to flail into all different directions.

"Jeez, I dunno," she said, "Maybe this place is starting to get to me. Gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, me too," the redhead said, shivering, despite the fact that the air was still quite warm. "Feels like… We're in the twilight zone or something. Maybe Mike was right, there are aliens here and right now they're probing our minds!"

They both laughed at that.

* * *

They had no choice but to spend the night at the restaurant. Their attempts of breaking into the upstairs did not succeed. Trying to make their evening better, Jodi found the old CD player that has been annoying them with the same music through the afternoon, and blasted a Linkin Park CD at full volume. With the beer and the music and the food they found it suddenly seemed that life wasn't so bad after all. They've reached their goal, after all – they were free. And this place couldn't be completely abandoned. Sooner or later, someone will drive by and come to their rescue. The four teens were sure of that.

At some point, Alisa found herself sitting outside on the pavement, leaning against the building's wall. The air had gotten quite cool, and the stars high above in the pitch-black cloudless sky twinkled and shimmered like a billion tiny jewels. But except for that, beyond the circle of light created by the single high-voltage street lamp illuminating the parking lot with a low electric hum, the pitch-black darkness set in, like a living creature, you could almost feel it there, waiting to engulf, to suffocate you. Alisa wasn't afraid. She had planned to become a psychologist after all. She analyzed that feeling for a while, and the fact that she was now completely sure that there was nothing beyond the circle of light, just a black emptiness…

There was a creak as the door opened. Dan came out, bringing the sounds of loud music with him. He was having a smoke.

"Why'd you leave?" he asked. "I though everyone was having fun"

"I dunno," Alisa replied honestly, "Maybe I'm just tired."

They stared for a while at the darkness where the highway was supposed to be.

"Do you think there will be any crazy nuts like us who'd be coming through this area?" Dan asked. "Cause if there's not, we're toast."

"Well, maybe we could call for help…" Alisa said. Then she realized the ridiculousness of her idea. They didn't even have a radio. Their only hope was if someone drove through these parts. Otherwise they'd have to turn the whole place upside down until they found a gas canister (and that wasn't a guarantee) and then walk all the way back north to their car. The thought of such a hike wasn't very enticing.

Then, suddenly, a miracle happened. At first, Alisa couldn't believe her eyes, and Dan actually rubbed his.

"Do you see what I see?" she asked in disbelief.

There, close to where the horizon supposedly was, there were two tiny pinpricks of light. They grew bigger and bigger as they drew closer.

"This must be a UFO!" Dan exclaimed. That was a pretty stupid comment, but it was true that in this desolate piece of Earth you'd rather expect to see a flying saucer that a car.

"No, you idiot, this is our ticket outta this hole!!!" Alisa exclaimed, jumping to her feet. As though possessed by some demon, both of them took off into the direction of the rapidly nearing headlights. The sound of a car engine was unmistakable in the cool night air.

The two of them raced past the circle of light, and into the darkness beyond, towards where the highway was supposed to be. As the darkness engulfed them, Alisa started getting the same creepy feeling again, but she ignored it, concentrating on the pair of headlights shining ahead, reflecting on the smooth surface of the pavement. They got into the line of the car's headlights, waving their arms wildly, yelling, jumping up and down to be noticed.

The driver noticed them. The vehicle slowed down as it came closer, and pulled past them into the parking lot, rolling down the window at the driver's side. It was a black Pontiac.

And that's when, as the car entered the illuminated area, Alisa realized something was wrong, even before she saw the driver's face. She knew that the car hadn't come here by chance. Whoever was driving it had other reasons. And they weren't good. As funny as it may seem, she could almost feel an evil presence.

As the tinted window slowly rolled down, lines of reflected light slithering like snakes across the glass, Alisa found herself getting more and more nervous, as though she was about to take a peek into the devil's lair.

And that was when she realized just what was wrong. The man behind the wheel wore cool-looking black shades, but his hair was ugly and out-of-date. And that unmistakable pea-colored suit.

Alisa stood frozen, rooted to the spot, feeling a thousand things race through her mind.

They found me. But how? I disappeared. I thought by doing that I'll get them off my tail. But this means they'd been watching me even more intensely than I thought. Do they have spies among my friends? My family? Who the hell are they anyway and the fuck do they want with me?!

For Alisa was sure that the stranger had come for her. She was sure he was the one she saw watching her on that fateful day when she saved a little boy's life – and probably doomed her own.

As though in some kind of trance, she watched as Dan very happily approached the car and started talking to the man. It turned out he saw their car a couple miles up the highway, went to check it out, and when he found no one, realized the situation and drove on to find the poor owner.

He made some lame excuse about being in this deserted area, like he was cutting through, too, but unlike them, knew this area well. Alisa of, course, knew that he was lying. This agent came here on purpose.

Agent? She thought suddenly, why do I suddenly think he's an agent? Why did I call him that?

Meanwhile, the strange man offered them a lift. And Dan agreed, again, happily.

He doesn't know, Alisa thought frantically. What do I do? A lump was forming in her throat, and she felt dizzy. She refused to admit this feeling was fear.

Suddenly the answer came – from within her or somewhere else, she wasn't sure.

Don't go anywhere with this man. Whatever it takes, you must not.

She briskly pulled Dan aside. A fake 'excuse me' was all she could manage to say into the direction of the freakish man. She hoped he'd at least be polite.

"What the-?" Dan said when she saw the expression on her face. As soon as they were out of earshot, Alisa stopped and looked her boyfriend in the eye.

"Dan, we must not go anywhere with this freak." She stated solemnly.

"What?" Dan seemed very much surprised. "You think he's that lame? Aw, come on, it doesn't really matter, he's the only chance we've got to get outta here!"

"DAN I'M FUCKING SERIOUS!!!" Alisa almost shouted.

He looked aghast.

"Sorry," Alisa quickly apologized, "I didn't mean to snap at you. But this man is dangerous. I think he might kill us or something." That didn't sound very convincing, she remarked to herself immediately.

Dan didn't seem to find it convincing, either. "Will you listen to yourself ?!" he exclaimed, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you are making a very bad joke!"

"Dan, listen. I know that right now I might have nothing to prove this with, but my intuition is telling me that he means danger to us all. As a matter of fact, in my brain, the alarm bells are going off like crazy. You know about my intuition, Dan. You know I'm always right. A gift, a curse, or a never-used appendix of our minds, you know mine can be trusted."

Dan sighed, rolling his eyes, and jammed his hands into his pockets, a clear sign of irritation. "I know," he said, "But is that all you're basing it on? We must miss our only chance of leaving here just because you've got some evil vibes? I'm sorry, but I need a better reason that this."

It was Alisa's turn to roll her eyes. That was the problem. Everyone wanted concrete and logical evidence for everything. Nobody would believe you just because you say you've got a feeling.

But they should. Because Alisa's feelings have never betrayed her. Now though, at this very moment, she realized she did have a better reason, but it wasn't something she wanted to share with Dan.

But maybe she had no choice.

She took a deep breath.

"I think this dude is from the FBI or the CIA or some shit. Whoever they are, they've been watching me recently. I don't know why. Most likely because of my computer crimes. Somehow they must have figured out who I am. I'm pretty sure that he came for me. I don't want you or Jodi or Mike to get hurt because of me. So please. Just tell him to fuck off."

Dan looked her in the eye, his solemn blue eyes boring into hers. She stared back, trying to make her gaze as clear as possible, as though she had nothing to hide.

Dan sighed again. "Do you really believe what you're telling me?" he asked.

Alisa nodded solemnly. Dan shifted uneasily, utterly confused. She could see he didn't believe her, and he didn't want to.

Then, a quiet but firm and somehow chilling voice came from the direction of the car.

"In case you two are having second thoughts about needing a lift to the nearest town, I hope to extinguish them."

Dan turned around, and with him not blocking Alisa's view anymore, she saw that the weird man was now pointing a gun at them.

Shit, shit, shit, it's too late!

"Now," he said, "I would really prefer if you two cooperate and get in the car."

"Fuck," Dan muttered. He regretted for not listening to his girlfriend now. Amazingly, she had been right. But that still wouldn't have changed anything. He was frantically trying to think of something as the two of them walked slowly towards the car. He decided to talk loudly so Mike and Jodi would come out to see what's happening. And if he distracted the man enough, maybe he could reach out and grab the gun.

"Now who the hell are you and what fucking right do you think you have to do this?" he asked. "Are you the police? Oh no, I see you must be quite the opposite."

"I'm neither," said the man, annoyed, "And I would prefer if you did a little less talking."

"Hey, you're in cranky mood, aren't ya?" Dan continued, "Maybe some big digits will get you in a better one?"

The man looked even more annoyed. His hand suddenly shot forward, he grabbed the teenager's arm and twisted it behind him. Dan was shocked at the speed and power of the move, one second he was facing the man, the other he was standing with his back to the car, his arm twisted so hard behind his back he could hardly move. He heard Alisa gasp.

Jeez, how did we manage to get ourselves into this shit? he thought.

"Now, I'm going to make this very clear," the man said cruelly, "It isn't you I want. So I'd prefer if you keep out of the way."

Dan decided to act his part out till the last. "Holy fuck, what crawled up your ass and died?!" he asked in bewilderment.

His actions did serve a purpose. The agent had forgotten about Alisa for a second. And she chose that particular second to launch herself at him and make a grab for the gun.

But he was way too fast. The next second Alisa found herself sprawled on the ground a couple of yards away and realized he must have shoved her away. Hard.

Dan was on the ground, too, but closer to their captor. He tried to kick the gun out of his hand. But was unsuccessful. The man, looking more annoyed still, grabbed Dan's foot and gave it a sharp twist. Dan howled in pain.

"SHIT!!" he shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM??!!"

But their captor ignored him, pointing his gun at Alisa.

"Your boyfriend is a very annoying little pest, and I don't want to waste my bullets on him. I don't need him. Now, I'm not gonna repeat this. Get in the car."

Alisa got up and walked forward slowly. Her heart was hammering wildly. Had this been some other situation, she would have known better that to fight this man, but something, something deep within her mind kept on telling her not to obey him. She had to do everything she could to get away. She dimly remembered Jodi's psychic aunt, so many years ago, talking to her about people who would hunt her down and use her because of her gift. This made terrible sense.

Her eyes ablaze with defiance, she stared at the man's dark glasses, but saw nothing except for light reflecting in them. It seemed the man had no eyes, or maybe, she thought, behind those glasses were horrible balls of fire, maybe she was dealing with evil incarnate.

"What the hell do you want with me?" she spat.

The man smiled a crooked smile. "I think you know, Miss Raines."

Alisa felt a chill going down her spine. Whatever may come, didn't want to be ordered around. But what advantage did she seem to have over this man? He seemed to be trained in special combat.

And then she knew. Knew the only chance she had.

Staring at that gun barrel, she concentrated on it, until it grew and seemed to take up her whole field of vision. She tried to collect all her power, like at that moment with the car, months ago, to use it all for one cause. And maybe, at that moment, she opened the doorway for powers she had never known she had.

As she let it all go, the gun suddenly jerked out of the man's hand and flew right at Alisa. With an incredible speed and agility she never knew she had, she dodged to the side, the gun missing her head by inches, then turned sharply, her arm shot out, grabbing the gun in midair, and then shot back, pointing the gun right at the man's face. He was shocked and that slowed him down, just enough.

Alisa paused only for a second, but then, suddenly sure, pulled the trigger, shooting the freak she was sure was some kind of agent right between the eyes.

He fell to the ground, very slowly, it seemed. Alisa had killed a man. She didn't know it was her first. Having always thought she would never kill anyone, she was shocked at how sure she was about this one.

Not having quite gotten over that, Alisa was shocked even more as she saw what happened next. The agent, lying on the concrete, suddenly started morphing. Yes, just morphing! In one second he turned into a young woman.

"What the—" Alisa almost sat down in disbelief.

But then, something stopped her.

The cold feeling of a steel gun barrel being pressed against the back of her head.

Slowly, very slowly, she turned around.

And had to keep from screaming. The man was right there, behind her, pointing the gun right between her eyes now.

Alisa was numb, she couldn't utter a word. When she found she still possessed the gift of speech, she said in a voice, that seemed strange and alien and not her own, "No. I just killed you."

"And you haven't thought for a moment before you did that, did you?" the man asked mockingly. "Really, a very nice lady you are. I'm disappointed, Miss Raines. And it wasn't even me you killed."

Alisa wanted to smack him, but knew it wouldn't do any good.

Meanwhile her captor took out a cell phone and dialed a number, continuing to hold her at gunpoint. He needn't tell her not to move, it was obvious that he could shoot her at least 10 times before she even reached the other end of the lot if she ran.

How the hell did that happen?! Alisa thought frantically. Who is this bastard?! I must be dreaming, that is the only credible explanation.

That made her relax a little. If none of this was real, then nobody could get really hurt.

And that's when she realized that Dan wasn't there anymore. He must have escaped… But how? The agent had apparently broken his ankle. He must have crawled away. But then he'd still be in sight. And besides, she could see no marks on the thin layer of dust and sand covering the concrete that suggested somebody dragging themselves along the ground.

That was when she realized it. How the man turned into someone else when she shot him, how he reappeared behind her, where Dan had been, but wasn't there anymore.

And it wasn't even me you killed. The words rang in her brain. So if she was given the opportunity, she wouldn't even be able to kill him. Cause then she'd murder her own boyfriend.

"Yes, I've got her." The agent was saying, "No thank you, I don't need any backup…What?… Who?… Where?… Are you sure?…Now don't bullshit me!…Here?…How many?" Then a relieved sigh. "Nothing I can't handle"

Then, an icy voice came from behind him. "Are you sure?" Alisa gasped as she saw a woman standing behind the agent, with a gun pointed at the back of his head. The next thing she knew, there was a gunshot and the man dropped to the ground, dead.

There's no need to say who he morphed into.

"NO!" Alisa cried, "That… That was my boyfriend!"

"I'm sorry," said the woman who shot him. She was wearing shiny black leather pants and tank-top, and her pale face contrasted with her jet-black hair. She was wearing equally-eerie sunglasses. "I didn't know." There was no compassion in her voice, though. It was icy, just like when she spoke to the agent.

"Now we have to get you out of here. Get in the car."

Oh great, now she was telling Alisa to get I the car. Everyone seemed to want to boss her around.

"How do I know I should trust you?" Alisa implied, "You just killed my friend, for all I know you could be one of them."

The woman sighed. "I don't have time for this shit. Now any minute another one of those bastards is gonna show up, and you're gonna have to choose, whether you come with me, or with them. And if you want to know about the Matrix, I suggest you come with me."

Alisa's heart skipped a beat. The Matrix! "I'm coming," she said. After all, what did she have to lose?

"You're gonna need this" the woman tossed her a shotgun. "Know how to use it?"

"Kind of"

"Then you better drive."

Alisa jumped over the hood of the car, and got into the driver's seat. Then suddenly a thought occurred to her. "What about my friends?" she asked.

"That's the least of our worries" answered the woman, jumping in beside her. Suddenly two more of those agents ran out of the restaurant building. "Maybe not," she corrected herself, "Drive!"

Alisa stepped on the gas pedal, and wildly spun the wheel. The tires screeched, gravel and dust flew from under them, and the car took off out of the parking lot and down the highway.

The freakiest thing was that the agents started chasing it. Seeing them in the rearview mirror, illuminated by the red taillights, was very disturbing, for never in her life had Alisa seen anyone move that fast.

And they were shooting, too.

"What the hell??!!" Alisa exclaimed, "What are they, some kind of cyborgs?!"

"Close," answered the woman, slightly amused, "If you go faster, we'll lose them"

Alisa continued pressing the gas pedal until it felt like they were almost flying, the wind whipping into the open window made it impossible to hear anything. Alisa took one hand off the wheel, and rolled it up. It was true, soon they lost the strange men, and now were driving through complete darkness. Beyond the reach of the headlights, darkness enveloped the road, making Alisa uneasy. Another fact that made her uneasy was that she didn't know who her companion was, and why had she come to her rescue.

But the woman must have been reading her mind. "My name is Trinity. And for the next several hours, I'm boss. You're just gonna have to trust me, Lynx."

Lynx? How had the woman known she was Lynx? Was she with the feds?

"Um, my name is more like Alisa", she said.

Trinity shook her head. "That is the name the Matrix gave you. Lynx is the name you chose for yourself. That makes it truer."

Somehow, to Alisa, that made odd sense. She realized she had a million questions, so she decided to start with the one that had been bugging her for a long time.

"What is this place?" she asked, "I'm figuring you'd know." She shot a glance at her mysterious companion. "It must have something to do with the Matrix."

Trinity took off her shades. Her eyes were a striking ice green color. "It's a paradox," she answered, "An anomaly. A glitch. All I can tell you right now is that you have found a hole in the Matrix."

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Phew! Now that was long wasn't it? I'll try 2 make the next 1 shorter! Oh btw if the smoking made someone nervous sorry! I personally don't smoke (well there was this once heh heh) but maybe I did in my former lifetime or something. My point is my characters are definitely bad children. ;)