Chapter 11

A few minutes before ten o'clock, Allie stood in front of the church steps watching the towns' teenage residents walk passed her and into the building, chatting softly with their friends. Folding her arms across her chest, she hoped she was succeeding in hiding her apprehension. Luke, Grizz, Bean, Gwen, and Mickey gathered around her.

Mickey frowned. "Where is Will?"

"He's back at my house, keeping watch over Jason and Clark," Allie explained, lowering her voice so the students walking by wouldn't hear.

"Have you had the chance to talk to them yet?" Grizz asked.

"Talk to them about what?" Bean raised an eyebrow as she glanced between Grizz and Allie.

Allie shook her head at Grizz before turning to Bean. "Nothing you need to worry about. I'll handle it later."

Luke stayed silent, staring at the ground as if he was hoping the earth would swallow him up.

Grizz couldn't help but feel bad for his friend. Having to be in his position and turning their friends over to Allie couldn't have been easy, but at least now they could figure out what they were going to do about Campbell. They all knew it was only a matter of time before the guy tried to mess up their way of life anyway.

Allie, meanwhile, scanned the open courtyard that was still filled with a few stragglers milling around in the grass. "Where is Alec?" she asked, foot tapping in annoyance.

Grizz watched the young woman's nervous fidgeting. "I'm sure he and Magnus are on their way," he tried to reassure her. "They should be here any minute."

He caught Allie biting her lip anxiously before noticing a certain red-head out of the corner of his eye. Sam approached the church with Becca beside him, who signed something causing the boy to smile at her. Turning away, Sam's eyes lit up when he saw Grizz. Sending a smirk his way, Grizz gave him a small nod before the pair climbed the steps and disappeared inside the church.

"There they are," Gwen exclaimed, stepping up next to Grizz and pointing at the street.

All five heads turned in unison in the direction Gwen had pointed to see two men walking their way.

"Are we late?" Alec asked as the pair drew closer. He scanned the quickly emptying grounds in concern.

Grizz shook his head. "Right on time," he confirmed before gesturing towards the blonde teenager and his childhood friend. "Magnus, this is Allie, our town's Mayor, and my friend, Luke."

"Magnus," Allie greeted the Asian man with a small nod. "Alec said you had a meeting to attend yesterday, which was why you couldn't be here before. Is everything okay?"

Magnus nodded. "As well as can be expected in this strange new world we have found ourselves in. Really, it was more of an informal check in to make sure all of our residents are being taken care of and are having their needs met," he explained. His voice sounded playful, almost flirty. Sharing a small look with Alec, he continued on with a more serious tone. "I do apologize for the . . . unusual request we are making. Believe me, we wouldn't normally do something like this. If it weren't for . . . our current circumstances."

"No, I get it," Allie reassured slowly. "I can't imagine what your people have been going through lately. Must be hard. I'm just worried about how my people are going to handle this news."

"Well, that is why we are here, peanut," Magnus replied. A slight grimace crossed Allie's face at the nickname, but Magnus acted like he didn't notice it. "Hopefully we can help assure everyone that this is not some sort of power play, that we legitimately need you guys' help."

"So . . ." Alec sighed, clasping his hands behind his back as he addressed Allie. "How do you want to do this?"

"I thought we should start out with something light-hearted," Allie said. "Christmas is coming up in a few weeks, so I think I'll start off the meeting with an announcement of what our plans will be for the holiday. Then we'll move on to our expedition team." She paused long enough to nod in the group's direction. "I'm sure everyone is going to want to hear some details about what happened out there. If there is anything you feel like we should be aware of, now would be the time to tell everyone." Allie waited to see the four heads nod before turning to Alec and Magnus. "Then we'll move on to the trading agreement."

"Allie," someone called behind them.

The blonde glanced over her shoulder to find Gordie propping the door to the church open with one hand.

"Everyone's here," he announced.

"Thanks, Gordie," Allie said. "We'll be right there." The boy disappeared inside again, the door swinging shut behind him with a soft bang, and Allie turned back to the group gathered around her. "Any questions?"

There was a moment of silence as the gathered individuals eyed each other. When no one voiced any concerns about the meeting, Bean shyly raised her hand.

"Not a question," she started timidly, "but something has been bothering me ever since we returned from the trip yesterday." Bean scanned the group in front of her again before continuing. "Do you guys mind staying back after the meeting to talk?"

"Sure," Alec agreed, sharing a look with Magnus. "We've got time."

"Alright," Allie sighed after an awkward moment of silence. "Let's get this over with."

Entering the church, Luke followed Allie down the center aisle and up onto the platform, while Grizz led the rest of the group towards the walkway on the right side of the pews. Making their way to the open seats that were saved for them in the front row, several curious looks followed them as the crowd caught sight of the two adults in their mist. Hushed whispers filled the room.

Allie quickly got everyone's attention, allowing Grizz, Bean, Gwen, Mickey, Alec, and Magnus to make themselves comfortable without being scrutinized by the public's stares.

Luke stood with his arms crossed a couple feet behind Allie as she stood behind the podium.

"Okay, so Christmas is only a few weeks away," the blonde began when she had gotten the crowd's attention. "Similar to Thanksgiving, we will have a communal meal here in the church. Due to what happened a couple weeks ago, though, we will not be accepting any dishes that were made at home. Instead, everything will be prepared in the school's cafeteria. If you have a recipe that you would like made for Christmas dinner, run them by Will, and he'll see what he can do."

"What happened at Thanksgiving?" Magnus asked, leaning over to whisper in Grizz's ear.

"Someone poisoned one of the dishes," Grizz whispered back. "We never figured out who it was. Several people got really sick."

"We are also arranging a Secret Santa," Allie continued. "If you would like to participate in that, there will be a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board. We will be drawing names on Friday, so sign up soon if you want to join." She took a short pause, letting her eyes drift to Alec and Magnus. "Moving on. By now, I'm sure you have all noticed that we have a couple visitors here today. Our expedition group returned yesterday and has made a discovery that we are hoping will turn out to be a helpful arrangement for us both. Grizz, Bean, Gwen, and Mickey. You want to come up and talk about what you found?"

A murmur of low voices could be heard from around the room as Grizz and his fellow explorers stood and made their way up onto the platform. Everyone quickly quieted down again once Grizz started to speak.

"We started our journey by walking about two or three miles straight into the woods before turning east, heading passed where the turnpike used to be, making a big loop around West Ham," Grizz began.

A few pews back on the right side of the church, he saw Becca sitting next to Sam, signing something to him, probably translating what Grizz had said. Noticing his gaze, Sam smiled shyly in his direction. Feeling a soft blush growing on his face, Grizz peeled his gaze away from his boyfriend, criticizing himself for getting distracted so easily. That boy was going to be the death of him . . . He was going to have to be careful if he didn't want others to start picking up on their relationship.

Luckily, Bean picked up where Grizz had left off. "On our fifth day, we came across something unsuspected." She cast a look Alec and Magnus' way. "At Thanksgiving, Gordie and I told you all about how we came to the conclusion that we seem to be in an alternate dimension. Well, it now appears we aren't alone."

"All of our family members may have disappeared, but another community has also found themselves stuck here under similar circumstances," Gwen added. "We discovered another district, a city, out in the middle of the woods only about an hour's walk from here."

Grizz jumped back in, gesturing towards the men that were still sitting in the front pew. "Alec, one of the city's co-leaders, came back with us yesterday to talk to Allie about setting up a trading agreement. Instead of organizing a large farming plantation, we are hoping that our two districts can help each other survive in this dimension and find a way to get back home."

Grizz waved Alec and Magnus up.

"They have offered to help us with our food supply, provide us with new clothes, and deliver medical assistance to us if anything were to happen in the future," Allie explained as Alec and Magnus made their way to join the expedition group on the platform. "All they ask in return is-"

"It's okay, Allie. We can take it from here," Magnus interrupted, glancing at her over his shoulder before addressing the teenagers gathered in front of them. "Before we get into the details of what we want out of the trading agreement, let me just say that I understand how hard these past few months must have been for all of you." Many of the faces around the room seemed to relax, and Grizz noticed a few smiles at Magnus' encouraging words. "I can't imagine how drastic your daily lives have changed, but from what little I have witnessed around your town, and what Alec has told me about his visit the other day, you have made impressive strides to maintain as normal a life as possible. Anything we can do to help support your way of life, besides for what your Mayor has already mentioned, let us know. We really do want to help in any way we can, but . . . I am afraid that we have to ask you all for something pretty big in return."

"The day that most of our people disappeared from Brooklyn, there was a bright flash of light that pulsed down the streets throughout our city," Alec explained. "One minute, people were there, and then when the light died down, many had just . . . vanished. Along with causing many to disappear and cutting Brooklyn off from the rest of New York, this . . . explosion of light seems to have affected several of our residents in a different way."

"The light has damaged the white blood cells in a number of our residents, and it is messing with their health," Magnus said, continuing the story that he and Alec had discussed beforehand. "We have tried taking blood donations from our healthy residents, but the explosion must have damaged us somehow as well, only we don't show symptoms of the infection." He paused for a moment, glancing at Alec beside him. Letting out a slow breath, Magnus finally admitted, "We need healthy blood donations to help our sick."

As excited, agitated chatter began to build up inside the church, Grizz stole another look at his boyfriend in the crowd and waited as Becca caught up in translating for him. The red-head's eyebrows raised in surprise at the deal that had been made and turned to stare at Grizz with questions in his eyes.

A few raised voices could be heard over the growing noise.

"How often would we have to donate?"

"What about drug testing?"

"Do we all have to give blood?"

"Hey! Hey!" Allie's voice rang out above the crowd. Stepping in front of their guests, she waited for their audience to quiet down before defending the request. "I know this is a lot to ask for, but just consider everything that they are willing to give us in return. If you think about it, what we are getting back for this deal highly outweighs what we will be giving them to help their sick." Allie raised a hand to silence a few protests. "We will work out a system for how we will do this and how often. If anyone has any health issues of their own that will interfere with donating healthy blood, please let us know as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will get back to you with further details on how this will play out for the future."

Having been dismissed, a few of the angry teens stormed out of the church, Campbell and Harry among them. Grizz briefly wondered if this deal that Allie had arranged with the citizens of Brooklyn would feed Campbell's desire to take over her leadership as Mayor. This thought was brushed to the back of his mind when Bean called out into the dispersing crowd.

"Gordie? Could you stay back for a while?"

Pushing his way through the displeased crowd that was making their way outside, Gordie leapt onto the platform to stand before Bean. "What's up?"

"I have a new mystery we need to work out," Bean explained. "You and I worked out the multiple dimension idea together. Want to help with this one too?"

Gordie scanned the group of individuals in front of him before shrugging. "Sure, why not? I'm always up for another puzzle."

"Allie, do you have a scrap of paper I can use?" Bean asked, approaching the table that was set up on the platform behind them and waving everyone over as Allie handed her the paper along with a pen.

With Allie, Luke, Gordie, Grizz, Gwen, Mickey, Alec, and Magnus looking on, Bean leaned over the lined piece of paper and drew a rough circle covering about a fourth of the sheet.

"Okay, let's say this is West Ham," Bean said, printing 'WH' inside the circle. She then made a small 'x' along the perimeter of the shape, "and this is where we first entered the woods." She drew a line about half an inch in length out from the 'x' before turning the pen to the left, creating an arch that stretched a third of the way around the original circle and drew another shorter line before another circle. Another 'x' was made where the line met with the new circle. "And this is Brooklyn. We exited the woods into their park." A 'B' was written in the new circle.

"Okay . . ." Gwen nodded slowly. "What is your point?"

Bean narrowed her eyes at her before turning back to her drawing. "When we started to head home, we reentered the woods where we came out in the park and headed straight for West Ham." From Brooklyn's 'x', Bean drew a straight line, drawing a small square where this line connected with the West Ham's circle. "And yet we came back out where we first entered the woods." She tapped the bottom of the pen over the 'x' that she had identified as their starting mark. "Shouldn't we have ended up miles away from that?"

Mickey reached over to pull the piece of paper closer to him to study, spinning it around on the table to look at from different angles. "Maybe we walked all the way around our town?" he tried to reason out, tracing his thoughts with his finger. "So, by the time we ran into the city . . . and coming straight home?"

A few of the teens around the table sent him confused looks leaving Mickey to simply shrug, obviously having trouble explaining himself.

Grizz shook his head, taking the page away from him and frowned at it. "I don't think we walked that far."

"Maybe it has to do with time zones," Luke guessed. "You know, something trippy is going on with the woods to allow the sun to continue to rise and set at the appropriate times for each of us?"

"That's an interesting theory," Magnus piped up, "but Connecticut and New York are in the same time zone."

Allie raised her head to look at Alec. "What happened when you and Jace went back to Brooklyn yesterday?"

"We reentered the woods in the same location we exited," Alec explained. "We did come out about a mile away from the park though, closer to the Institute. At the time, Jace and I just assumed we must have gotten turned around somewhere in the woods."

"I doubt we would have gotten this turned around," Grizz said, pointing at the paper. "It took us almost a week to walk that distance. It's not possible for us to have backtracked that far in just an hour or so."

Gordie folded his arms, the wheels spun in his head as he tried to work out the problem. "Then what the hell is happening out there?"