Flippin' heck, I've never written this many words in five days before. This means that I'd have to have written an average of 2,000 words to achieve this, since this chapter is over 10,000 words long! Wow! If I only had this gumption and the time to write this I have had back when I was writing for NaNoWriMo!
Anyways, thanks for the reviews, guys! They mean so much to me since it lets me know that people are liking what I'm writing! This was so much fun to write, and when I look at it now, after it's all done, I can see that it could have been divided into more than two parts. But, oh well.
Thanks so much for reading, and please enjoy this last instalment of Before I Leave This World. I suggest that you read this on a mobile device since it's so long, and that way, you can read it anywhere without having to stop! lol
Audra told Nick that she'd tell him everything once her brother was in bed. She didn't want to accidentally have him overhear what she had to say, since she wasn't prepared to tell Damion the devastating news yet.
After they watched one more episode of CHiPs, Audra took her brother back to the house and tucked him into bed. She pulled the comforter up to his chin and kissed him on the forehead, wishing him a good night. As she left his room and closed the door gently behind him, she hoped that he wouldn't get up from his bed while she told Nick about her terminal illness.
She turned down most of the lights before she stepped out of the house and closed the front door behind her. With light footsteps she was granted from the massive weight-loss caused by the cancer, she walked down the front steps and made her way to the workshop. Nick had stayed there after they finished watching CHiPs and Damion had wished the helicopter a good night. She wondered if the way that her little brother had taken to Nick bothered him in any way.
She stepped into the workshop and shivered violently. It sure was cold outside; she hadn't dressed properly for the weather. At least it was warmer in the workshop.
"I'm back," she called as she walked to the back of the 'shop. She stepped up to the helicopter and looked him in the eye. "So… you really want to know?" she asked sadly.
A sympathetic look appeared on the helicopter's face, shocking her once again. "It's really bad, isn't it?" he asked slowly, gently. He sank down on his skids until his belly nearly touched the floor. He twirled his tail rotor once and blinked, showing that he had his whole attention focused on her.
Audra sat down on the couch and folded her hands in her lap. Slowly, sorrow welled up in her chest, and tears stung at her eyes. Her gaze faltered and she quickly found she couldn't hold his gaze for very long before she was forced to look down at her knees. She hated this; she didn't want to dump this on anyone.
"I'm dying," she finally blurted, deciding to keep it simple. She wrung her hands together as the interior of the workshop descended into silence. She hazarded a glance up at the white helicopter before returning her gaze to her knees. The look on his face was one of shock, which was slowly morphing into a look of shame.
"…how?" he asked quietly.
A sad sigh hissed out from between her lips. "I've got what we humans call cancer. It's slowly killing me. Cancer is what we call uncontrolled cell growth caused by cells that don't die, since the cells in the human body have a certain life span before they're supposed to die." She paused and looked up at him. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" she asked. She waited until she saw him nod before she continued on. "One of them, I guess, didn't die and mutated. Now, this cancer, which is like an ever-growing mass of cells, is going to block something off or is going to choke something, and then kill me."
"Why aren't you getting any treatments?" he asked.
She sniffed, rubbing at the tears welling at the corners of her eyes. "I can't afford it. I don't want to be trapped in a hospital while some stranger I don't know about takes care of Damion. There are so many people out there who take care of foster children just for the money, y'know?" the tears pushing at her eyes stung and just between her eyebrows, she felt a small headache coming on. She hated all this emotional output; she always believed it made her look weak. "I love my brother so much, he's the only close family member I've got left. There's so much I have to do before I pass on, and so little time—"
Nick interrupted her. "What about you? How do you feel about the fact that your time has come, or is coming?" he asked.
"I don't know what to think," she said, the tears flowing freely now. "I…I…don't want to die—b-but it's not like I have a choice, r-right?" she hiccupped, and suddenly she felt like she was at her mother's funeral again. But this time she was mourning for herself. "How will Damion feel once I'm gone? What will he grow up and become? He's too trusting, he needs his big sister."
"I don't have the answers for your questions, just like I don't have the answers for my questions about how Blade's holding up," he told her truthfully as he watched her try to control her emotions as she descended into sobs. As she looked at him, she watched as a thoughtful look appeared on his face. She blinked when he started speaking again. "But, if you die before I can figure out how to get back to my world, I will willingly take care of your brother until I do find a way."
Audra smiled at him gratefully. "Thank you."
She had a rough sleep that night, but in the end she did manage to catch at least six hours of sleep.
The next morning, she sat down on 'her recliner' with a bowl of cereal, and turned on the TV with the remote. The channel her brother must have left the satellite on a couple days before projected a static-y image of one of his favourite Transformers shows before it was abruptly replaced by what appeared to be some sort of newsroom with two talking cars in it. They were talking about something regarding this year's upcoming winter, but she wasn't focused on that. All she could focus on was the fact that she was suddenly looking a news channel with two living machines on it, and not humans.
Without thinking, she rushed downstairs into the large family room. She turned on the TV there and saw that, on this TV, there was what looked to be a sports channel broadcasting about some sort of race car race. A living race car race.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She rushed to the glass sliding doors that opened up to the yard between the workshop and the house (quietly thanking her parents that they had decided to build a walk-out basement), and practically threw them open. For a second there, she wondered if they would crack with the force she used to throw them open, but then refocused on her mission. "Niiiick?!" she practically bellowed out the door.
A familiar breeze kicked up at about the same time she heard his propeller blades fwop-fwoping through the air. He gently touched down just outside the doors with a worried look on his face. "What? What?" he asked worriedly. Once his propellers stopped moving, he moved as close to the open doorway as his bulk would allow.
Audra pointed to the TV, and Nick squinted at it. The young woman walked over to the downstairs television set and read the words on the screen, glad that it was all in English.
"Piston Cup? What the heck is a Piston Cup?" she asked. "Is it like NASCAR?" she looked to the helicopter.
Nick nodded. "Yep, from what I remember, it's a big race-thing that runs for most of the summer where the racers race in order to get a trophy. I don't know very much about it, but there was this one racer who still holds the record for the most wins in one season. I think he was called the Hudson Hornet…there was this big crash in 1954 that forced him to retire from racing." Audra gave him a look.
"Okay, fascinating. On any other given day, I would listen to all the information you have on the Piston Cup. But right now, I'm more concerned about why I'm getting living vehicle channels instead of human ones."
Nick gave her an 'I have no clue' face. He opened his mouth in order to offer a suggestion, but she cut him off when a 'eureka!' expression lit up her face. She walked back to the glass doors and squeezed between the doorframe and Nick. She stopped a few feet from the door and pointed up at the sky.
"Something's going on, but I bet it has something to do with how you got here," she said, her hand dropping to her side. "The crack-thing in the sky may have disappeared—it was your entry-point I assume—but that doesn't mean that there's not another 'portal' around here somewhere. It's probably wide open, and that's why we're able to pick up television signals from your world." She moved back inside and stood at the base of the stairs that lead up to the main floor. "Hey, Dame!" she called loudly. "Do you want to watch some race cars race on TV?"
Loud thumping announced the arrival of the tween as he came downstairs. "Racing? But isn't NASCAR over now?"
"NASCAR may be, but this Piston Cup isn't yet. Living cars from Nick's world race in it," Audra said, leading her brother over to the couch that sat in front of the TV. They sat down on the couch in a way so Nick could watch too and not have their head's blocking his view.
The announcers talked about the racers, focusing mostly on the car that managed to stay in the lead throughout the season. His name was Lightning McQueen. "Huh…" Nick commented eventually. "That's weird—cars have sure become sleeker since the last time I saw them, which was yesterday. These weren't the cars that were on the circuit last year." He had long since retracted his visor, so when Audra looked back at him, she saw how his green eyes widened in realization. He looked her in the eye. "What's the year?"
Audra was confused but she indulged him anyway. "It's 2014—October 13th 2014."
Nick's wide-eyed look became an alarmed one. "It's 2014?! Yesterday it was 1983! How could 31 years have passed in a few seconds?!" he exclaimed, looking as if he had just missed an entire lifetime.
The young woman's eyes widened when Nick announced what year it had been when he fell into her world. "Um…" maybe it was just like Narnia? "Maybe time flows differently in your world than it does here? Maybe your world's time is faster than it is here?" Behind her, the race continued on the TV.
"Ooh! Ooh!" Damion exclaimed. "One lap to go and Lightning McQueen's going to win!" It was obvious he wasn't paying attention to the conversation going on between Audra and Nick.
"Yeah, maybe…" Nick said.
"And who knows, maybe, when you go back, you'll go back to the time you left? It's always a possibility," she assured him. In the Chronicles of Narnia, that's what happened. Even though the Pevensies had been in Narnia until they were well into adulthood, they came straight back to the time when they jumped into the wardrobe when they were children.
"Yeah…" she watched as the helicopter sank straight down onto his belly.
Homesick. Nick was homesick. He was worried about his friend, Blade. Audra figured that she'd be pretty devastated too if she suddenly popped up in a strange new world that looked so similar to her own, yet she knew no one there and she didn't know how her friends or her brother were handling her being gone.
She didn't want to see Nick so sad. She didn't like to see anyone sad, it was just her nature. Nick had made her feel better the night before when she spilled about her cancer (and he had made her promise to tell her brother about it in the next few days), so she decided to return the favour. She got up from the couch and walked to the sliding glass doors once more. "Hey, Nick?" she asked.
He looked up at her. "Yeah?"
"This just came to me…if we can pick up TV channels from your world, what if we can access your world's internet as well?"
Nick looked confused rather than elated like she had hoped. "What's 'internet'?" he asked. Audra refrained from facepalming—she momentarily forgot about the year Nick came from, and the fact that the computer was just becoming a regular thing. There really wasn't any internet back then.
Nick watched as his hostess disappeared up the stairs, an apparent necessity needed for humans to travel up and down between levels when a building wasn't equipped with an elevator. Damion was still sitting on the couch, watching as the racer known as Lightning McQueen rolled into Victory Lane.
This unsettled him. From his position at the glass doors, he could hear how the press asked questions about McQueen's racing career, and how he was on his way to winning his eighth Piston Cup. Nick knew that racer hadn't been racing when he was acting for CHoPs the day before yesterday, when he had been reading the newspaper over coffee with Blade.
When he came here, instead of dropping him in this world's equivalent of 1983, it had dropped him 31 years in the future. Why? Was time between these two worlds really all that different? How come he was watching, then, race cars on TV that were so much different from the ones he was used to reading about?
The broadcast cut for a commercial break, and the first commercial that came on was one about an upcoming movie called Interstellar—a movie about vehicles trying to find a suitable planet to move to since Earth could no longer support life. He felt his fuel-pump sputter to a stop, though, when the date the movie was coming out on popped up on the screen.
November 5th, 2014.
It was 2014 there too, in his world?
So…people had thought he had been dead for over 31 years then. Well…
Audra reappeared with a wide, flat, metallic thing her arms, and she plopped down just outside the doorway with her back to him before she magically split it in half, stopping when the two halves of the thing, which were connected to each other, sat at an almost obtuse angle. He peered over her shoulder at it, his sadness forgotten for the moment as he took the device in with awe. There was a screen on the top half, and keys on the bottom half, reminding him of the computers forklifts used back home. This device was just more compact.
"What is that?" he asked. "That's like, the smallest computer I've ever seen."
Audra chuckled. "That's because it's a laptop. It's called a laptop since it's small enough to sit on a human's lap. There are desktops, which sit on desks, and laptops, which can sit pretty much anywhere, including laps." She pressed the 'On' button, and they both watched as the screen slowly turned on as the computer rebooted.
Once the computer was on, Nick watched as she used a flat, almost unnoticeable, square area near the keys to move the familiar arrow curser across the screen, where she double-clicked on an icon. A few seconds later, a white box rapidly grew from the icon, and the human was typing something at the top of this new window.
The window rapidly changed from blank to showing a new image. "This is a website," Audra told him. "I typed 'cbc-dot-ca' into the address bar at the top of the page to get a news 'site up, and—it's different from the one I grew up hearing about." She peered at the screen. "'Canadian-Cars Broadcasting Channel'?" she read out. She turned her head to look at him. "When I was little, the voice-over guy would say 'Canadian Broadcasting Channel'. My, my, I was right, I can connect to your internet." She paused to rub her chin. "So…I wonder what the year is in your world…"
"It's 2014 there, just like it is here," Nick interrupted her, sadly.
Audra bit her bottom lip. "You saw it on the TV, didn't you?" she surmised.
Nick nodded.
She looked down. "I'm sorry," she said.
Nick waddled out and away from the door. "It's okay," he said. "I just think, if I ever get to go back to my world, I'll probably not go back to my time, like you suggested. There's more of a chance that I'd end up in the present of that world—2014. My time is in their past now." Once he was far enough from the house, he started to power up his rotors. "I'm gonna go for a short flight, be back in a half an hour."
He lifted into the air, and the last thing he heard from Audra before she dove into the house in order to avoid the grit kicked up by his blades was, "Be careful and don't let anyone see that you're not a normal, by human standards, helicopter!"
When he was about a hundred feet above the humans' house, he traveled forward and flew over their farm. He looked down and noticed the lack of tractors or any other livestock in the pastures sprawled over the land. But he paid no mind to it—he was a city boy, and to see a tractor in real life was a rare thing for him.
The land rolled and curved under him as he gently flew in a semi-straight line. Mountains rose up from the horizon, outlining the deep valley Audra and Damion lived in. This mountainous area they lived in was quite different from what he was used to, but the cool air that blew off the mountains and brushed against him was refreshing and a nice change from the constant hot weather of California.
He couldn't help but feel sad about all the years he had missed. What would happen when he got back to his world and saw that it had changed so much? He had no doubt that it had changed very much, since technology was just taking off when he came here.
Nick looked down at the land under him. He took in the far-off road and saw the vehicles traveling up and down it. Squinting his eyes, he tried to take in their details, but they were still foggy, even with his strong eyesight. They moved like the vehicles from his world, even though he could tell they lacked personalities, and they didn't move like living beings.
This world was so familiar, yet so strange.
He returned to Audra and Damion's house within the allotted time he had set for himself. He touched down quietly in the middle of the yard. He found Audra sitting on a hanging seat on the porch, slowly swinging back and forth, staring off at the mountains. Damion was nowhere to be seen.
Audra looked over at him as soon as he stopped moving, and smiled, looking significantly more tired than she was when he left. Was this a side effect of the cancer?
"How are you feeling?" he asked, standing up tall on his skids since the porch was several feet above the ground.
"Tired," she said. "I kinda think me and Dame stayed up a little too late last night."
"I think that might had been my fault, sorry," Nick said. "I was new to this world and you spent—"
Audra cut him off. "It wasn't your fault at all. It was my choice to stay up late, and I was kept up later by my thoughts on the conversation we had. Anyway," she said before changing the subject, "I can see Damion has taken a shine to you, which is…good. Lifts a little bit of the guilt."
"He's a good kid," Nick stated. "On my show, I had to deal with so many kids that aren't—weren't as nice as Damion, and a majority of the characters they played for the show weren't very nice, either. It's nice to get to know someone who wants to be your friend and not have some sort of hidden motive behind their actions."
Audra cocked an eyebrow. "Talking from personal experience, Lopez?" she queried, calling him by his last name for the first time since he got here. He could tell she was just jesting.
"Sorta," he replied, and left it at that.
After several moments, the young woman stood up from her chair and walked to the edge of the porch. Crossing her arms, she said, "Well, I was just taking a little break, but I think I should go investigate some things—such as multiple dimensions and how we are going to get you back home without the assistance of a black hole."
Nick was confused. Extremely so. "What does a black hole have to do with our problem?"
For the rest of the day, Audra researched information about the multiverse theory and how different thinkers theorised how people could travel between these universes. She first examined multiverse travel from her favourite books and movies, knowing that most ideas were never really original when used, for the first time, in a piece of media. She took examples from movies like Thor: the Dark World, Pacific Rim, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and numerous books. Where had these ideas come from? Someone would have had to think them up and ponder if they sounded plausible before they wrote them down…
In the movie Thor: the Dark World, dimensions were shown to be accessible if two or more dimensions overlapped. This is what Audra believed to have happened in order for Nick to fall into the human dimension, and for the TVs to be able to pick up channels from his world instead of her own world's channels. Their dimensions were probably still overlapped, and she didn't know how much longer they would be until they pulled apart from each other and went drifting off into the multiverse, never to touch again for thousands of years.
So…where was the portal? The one Nick fell through resealed itself, so there had to be a new around here somewhere. She'd have to search for it in the morning before it sealed itself too. It could be the last portal available, and the last thing they needed was for it to seal itself and leave Nick trapped on this planet, forever.
The next morning, Nick was awoken at about seven o' clock by an energetic young boy. "Wake up, Nick!" he exclaimed. "I gotta go to school in 20 minutes!" and with that, the kid was gone, running back to the house.
The helicopter yawned wide before he turned around and waddled from the workshop. He blinked against the bright light shining outside, and dropped his visor down over his eyes to help his eyes adjust to the lighting. After a few blinks, he could see without squinting in time to watch as Audra rushed down the front stairs and over to a vehicle parked in front of the home. He looked at the car for a moment, then shuddered when its lifelessness made his plating crawl.
The young woman threw the things in her arms into the back seat as Damion joined her by the car. Audra looked at Nick and smiled. "I'm just going to take Damion to school. I should be back in a half an hour to forty minutes, okay? Once I'm home, I'm going to continue my research on how to get you home. I've got a vague idea on what's going on," she said.
"Oh…okay," Nick said, smiling. "Have a good day at school, Damion!" he called to the boy.
"You have a good day, too, Nick!" Damion returned. "I hope you'll still be here when I come back! I wanna be able to at least say goodbye before you go!"
Audra chuckled. "Don't worry, Dame. I'm sure Nick's going to be here when you come home. It's going to take a long time before we figure out how to get him back," she assured him. She glanced at the helicopter and grinned. "Don't get into mischief while I'm gone—'cause I definitely take you as a mischief maker when nobody's around to chaperone you."
Nick assumed a mock-innocent look. "Who? Me?"
"Yeah, you," she chuckled before she disappeared into the lifeless vehicle. Damion got into it too, and somehow the vehicle's engine turned over before it reverse and drove down the driveway. He watched until the car was out of sight before he turned and went back to the workshop. He found that the standard skid-wearing helicopters often developed a waddle that allowed them to move forward when in buildings that didn't allow them room to hop, since they didn't have wheels to roll forward on. Nick managed to learn how to lean on one skid so he could move the other forward and then lean on it so he could move the other forward. So on and so forth. Audra and Damion moved in almost the same manner, yet didn't seem to need to lean so much to the sides in order to move forward.
He looked about the workshop, taking in the tools hanging on the walls and strewn about the tables. He was tall enough to be able to press his nose down on the table-top, and he used his nose to push things on the table-top around as he curiously 'nosed' around the items. He remembered how Audra mentioned that this workshop had once belonged to her father, and he assumed that these tools had belonged to him.
Halfway through his curious searching, he came across an envelope. He peered at it closely, spotting two names written on it. Audra & Damion.
He gently gripped it with his teeth and pulled it closer to the edge. He looked at it, taking in how the envelope was starting to yellow with age. It looked like it had been untouched, forgotten—had it been written by Audra's and Damion's father? Audra must have not seen it, since she had mentioned that she hadn't come back into the 'shop since her father died. That brought up a question: should he show her this envelope?
Nick decided to leave it on the workbench. If she saw it, she saw it. If she didn't, she didn't. He wasn't going to open the letter and read it—that was for Audra and Damion to do. Not him.
There were some picture-frames hanging on the walls. One of them contained a certificate for completing sheet-metal engineer training, entitled to one Kristopher Wellington. There were numerous safety award-certificates too, having been given to Audra's father (he guessed Kristopher was her father) for outstanding safety in the workplace for several years. How did her father die? If he was so good at being safe, then why did he die?
He had so many questions, but he didn't feel it right to ask. He knew it would be a tender subject to poke at, and he felt he hadn't known Audra and her brother long enough to ask such a sensitive question.
The workshop suddenly felt like it was closing in, as if unheard voices were shouting at him, but he couldn't hear them. The air felt heavy, so he quickly waddled from the workshop and hunkered down in the middle of the yard. And that's where he stayed until Audra came back in the vehicle. The vehicle parked in the same place it had been before the young woman left in it, and she didn't get out until it had powered down.
She grinned in his direction again, and approached him. Her grin faded a little when she noticed his sullen expression. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Homesick?"
He looked at her with his eyes. "Home…sick? …Yeah, yep, that's right," he replied.
She cocked an eyebrow, but she seemed to dismiss it. "Okay. Well, let's do some research, then."
"Research?"
She nodded. "Yes. If the TVs in the house can pick up TV channels from your world, and my laptop can pick up websites from your world…then there must be a portal around here somewhere. I can only hope that since you appeared over my property, there must be another portal around here somewhere," she said. She sighed sadly. "I'm going to die, Nick, and I don't know when. Every day I get a little bit weaker, but it could be any day. This morning, I woke up not being able to breath. I want to get you home so that I know that you're not stuck here when I die."
So they began to search. Neither Nick nor Audra knew what to look for.
Audra was beyond exhausted before it was anywhere near noon. They had searched most of the open area on the farm, and were now approaching the forest that lined it. Nick had flown ahead and touched down by the trees, and he was waiting for her to catch up. Audra limped up to him, pale cheeks rosy, and breathing heavily. She was actually wheezing.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked when she came to a stop before him.
She waved his concerns away with a hand. "I…I'm fine…" she said before staggering over to a fallen tree. She sat down on it, and spent the next five minutes trying to catch her breath. When she finally did, she felt quite drained. "Whew, I keep forgetting I can't go as far as I used to," she remarked as she braced her hands against her knees.
Several minutes passed before she stood to her feet again. But as she straightened, her scalp began to tingle, making her pause in confusion.
"Uh…Audra?" Nick spoke up. "The stringy stuff on your head is standing on end. Is it supposed to do that?"
A confused look came upon her face before she reached up and touched her hair. Her eyes widened a little when she felt the static-electricity making her hand tingle as she ran it through her hair. "What the heck…?"
Nick then, strangely enough, started sniffing the air, making Audra pause and just stare at him.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"There's a tinny smell in the air, like a bi-product of an electrical fire," he said. He glanced at her, and saw she was still waiting for a reply. "Helicopters are taught to use their noses if they come across something strange. I normally don't do it, and I only usually did it for show in some of the episodes of CHoPs. I just thought that this kind of occurrence warranted some use of the nose."
Audra was a little weirded-out by this, but it didn't take her long to tuck it away in some back corner of her mind and just let it slide. "Okay…" she said. "So…what could it be?" she swept her gaze around in a full 360 degree turn. Her visual sweep of her surroundings brought up nothing, but her curiosity was piqued and she was ready to find the source of the smell Nick was obviously…smelling. "Where is it coming from?"
"I think it's coming from over there," he said, nodding off to her left.
Audra smiled nervously at the sentient helicopter in thanks before she slowly began to move in the direction Nick had indicated. Ahead, one of the many mountains lining the valley loomed tall, making the young woman feel very small and frail. Soon she was climbing a small incline.
Nick decided to stay where he had landed, and she understood whole-heartedly. The trees quickly grew thick in number, and though Nick was a small helicopter compared to most, he wouldn't have been able to squeeze between the trees. His rotors would have gotten in the way anyway, even if he would have been able to squeeze between the trees. So she walked alone, trying to stride purposefully without wasting too much of the non-existent energy she had left.
The farther she traveled, the stronger the electric field that had been messing with her hair became. It tickled her skin, and as she approached mass of stone that reared up from the hill-side, it was almost like a physical force that she had to wade through. She couldn't tell if it was because of her fatigue or because there was something actually there. Once she was about ten feet away from the rocky outcropping, she stopped and looked up at it.
As she examined this sheer rock-face, she inhaled through her nose and smelled the electrical smell that Nick had told her about back down at the bottom of the hill. It was really strong up here, leading her to believe that this could be the epicenter of its source. It really was a marvel that Nick could smell it before they were even close to it—why was that ability to sniff things out useful for in helicopters? She'd probably never find out, so she really didn't concern herself with it.
In the middle of the rock-face, there was a wide opening that looked like it had been eroded away from years of wind blasting the craggy surface and water making its way into the cracks. Darkness yawned from its depths, yet she felt a breeze blowing from it. It drew her closer, and it was less than a minute before she was standing at the mouth of the opening. From this distance, it became apparent that this was the mouth of a cave of some sort.
It was obvious that the electric field was originating from this opening. With every little move she made, static electricity would snap at her, shocking her with loud snap sounds every time. The electrically-burnt smell was so potent that she could taste it on her tongue, and it made her feel uneasy. She was afraid to move any closer or even step foot inside, she had no idea what could even be inside. There could be a bear, or anything else—they could be staring at her right now, and she wouldn't even know. But a small part of her doubted that there was anything even there at all, there was something just too strange about this place, and it had probably scared everything even remotely 'animal' away a long time ago. That didn't stop her from turning and beginning to descend the hill, back down to where Nick was at the fastest pace she could manage.
She sighed in relief amongst her heavy pants when she spotted the helicopter through the trees. In minutes, she stumbled out into the open, where she spotted Nick sitting on his skids, quite still. She looked at Nick, and saw how he was staring into space, squinting slightly, as if he was focusing on something.
"Hey…Nick…?" she called as she approached, wheezing slightly. He didn't respond, so when she was closer, she tried again. "Hey…Nick?"
Nick blinked before looking over at her. "Hey, Audra," he said, smiling a little, "find anything?"
Audra nodded. "Yep. There's a bunch of rock that just juts out of the ground a hundred or so yards up the hill. There's a cavern there that goes into the mountain, but it's awfully suspicious. The smell you smelled originates from that cave it seems. Smells like an electrical fire started up there, and it honestly gives me the creeps. There's something fishy going on up there—but it looks like you might be able to land up there when we go back up there." She inhaled deeply before she asked a question. "Why were you zoning out like that?"
Nick grinned. "I was listening to a radio channel from my world."
"Do you think that that cave may be my way back to my world?" Nick asked, trying not to get too excited yet.
The young woman shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted, looking unsure. "But normal electrical fields are nothing like that, even in dry places. I think there's something quite unusual about that cave." A sigh escaped her and she crossed her arms. "But I think we should wait until Damion gets home, just in case the cave is your way home. He wants to say goodbye." After a moment, she shrugged. "You did say you were picking up a radio channel from your world, near the cave. So, yeah, maybe."
Nick saw the logic in that. Damion had grown quite attached to him, and Nick had to admit that the boy had been growing on him over these last 48 hours. It wouldn't hurt to wait for him to come home from school. At this point, the difference of a few hours probably wouldn't hurt. And what she said about the radio channel was pretty logical as well.
After they managed to return to the farm, since they had wandered off Audra's and Damion's farm and onto Crown Land (land that was apparently owned by the British Crown), they hunkered down in the workshop and watched some more CHiPs episodes until Audra had to go and pick up Damion from school. Thankfully, Audra had been able to rest while she watched the old show with Nick, so she felt up to the drive into town.
Nick watched as she disappeared in the inanimate car again, and it wasn't until several minutes had passed that he moved from where he had parked himself at the end of the driveway. A sigh escaped him as he tried to quell the excitement/nervousness that danced about his tank. In an hour or so, he could be going home, but he didn't know how to react to this properly. He wanted to be excited about being amongst machinekind once more, but in the 48 or so hours he had been here, in this world, 31 years had passed in his world. What was he supposed to do? Would people recognise him on sight? The last thing he wanted was to be swarmed by press and have the tabloids blow up as soon as he stepped foot on machine soil again.
But he had to go back because he was a stranger in Audra's and Damion's world. If their world was as xenophobic as his was, he knew that there had to be people here, then, that would love to get a hold of him. It was for the best that he went back to his world. He would cope; he would figure something out.
His thoughts were suddenly halted when he abruptly remembered something. Audra had yet to tell Damion about her cancer. He hadn't heard her tell him, and Damion's overall demeanor had not changed to one of sadness and mourning. Not that he wanted the boy to be sad. But, apparently, Nick was going to have to do something about Audra's procrastinating before he went back to his world. He didn't want to leave without Audra telling her little brother, because, if she didn't before he left, there was a chance that she'd never tell him at all. And there was a chance that someone would tell Damion about his sister's condition, and Nick had a feeling that that would be quite devastating if that did happen. Damion needed to hear it from his sister.
When Audra returned with her brother, Nick focused on her and made it as clear as day in his expression that he wanted to talk to her.
Audra saw the serious look that was on Nick's face, and felt a knot of dread settle like a stone in the pit of her stomach. The smile she had shot his way fell from her lips as she got the hint that Nick wanted to speak with her. Immediately.
As she walked up to the helicopter, she decided that the expression Nick was wearing did not suit him at all. She knew why he was wearing it, though.
"Can we talk for a moment, Audra?" Nick asked firmly, stiffly.
Audra hung her head and nodded. She glanced back at Damion, who was standing by the car with his backpack in hand. "Hey, Dame? Why don't you head inside and wash up? I'll be right along to make you a snack—"
"No, Damion," Nick said, cutting her off. "You're going to stay right where you are. I'm enacting an intervention."
Damion was confused, but Audra knew what was going on. It made her heart clench, and tears spring to her eyes. She looked Nick in the eye, pleadingly. She didn't want to tell her brother, she wasn't ready. She'd never be ready. She wished the cancer was just some kind of horrible nightmare.
"You have to tell him!" Nick insisted. "It's now or never!"
Audra inhaled shakily, her mind racing. She felt trapped, cornered, without any sign of escape. She didn't want to surrender, but she didn't see any other option. Her thoughts were abruptly halted, though, when a timid voice asked, "Audra? What's going on?"
The young woman turned away from the living machine and looked at her younger brother. Tears now spilled out onto her cheeks at how innocent her brother appeared. On the way home, her brother had been so happy, and excited that he was going to see Nick before he left. She didn't want to destroy Damion's mood, not when Nick was about to leave.
Another glance at the helicopter behind her told her that Nick wasn't going to allow her to not tell Damion. "Tell him!"
Slowly, Audra walked over to her brother and rested her hands on his shoulders. Damion was almost as tall as she was, only being three eighths of an inch shorter than she was, so she was able to look into his eyes with no trouble at all. "Damion, I have some bad news," she began, trying to start out gently.
Damion blinked. "How bad?" he asked, voice small.
A shaky sigh escaped the girl. "Dame…I'm really sick. I've got cancer…I'm going to die." She couldn't figure out any other way to put it, and no matter how she put it, her heart would have clenched the same way it did right then—painfully—when the tears welled up and the doubt entered in her brother's hazel gaze.
"W-what?" Damion managed to stutter.
Audra didn't notice she was bawling until she felt boiling hot tears begin to cascade down her cheeks. This hurt her just as much as it appeared to be hurting Damion. She wrapped her arms around her brother and held him tightly, trying to muffle her sobs in her brother's dark hair. Even as her eyes screwed shut, tears leaked out from under her eyelids. "I'm so, so s-sorry, Dame…I love you so much, I never want to leave you," she nearly wailed, her words unsteady.
Damion squeezed his sister as tight as he could, and she felt it as his strong arms compressed her fragile ribs. But she didn't care. She wanted to feel the embrace of one of her remaining loved ones. She didn't care if it hurt afterwards. Her heart hurt more than anything ever would.
After staying in that position for what seemed like forever, they let go of each other, even though she didn't ever want to let go of Damion ever again. She watched as her brother turned and looked at Nick before he rushed over to the sentient helicopter and practically threw himself at him.
Nick showed shock at being so violently embraced, but he made no move to shrug Damion off.
"Don't go, Nick!" Damion cried. "Don't leave me alone!"
Nick's gaze was ripped away from the weeping boy when the front door of the house slammed shut, sending a concussion of sound out across the rolling hills. The sudden lack of Audra's presence lead him to believe that Audra had retreated into her home. He knew he had pushed Audra severely, but he also knew he had to do it in order to get those words out for her.
He looked back down at Damion and nuzzled him a bit. Inside, he was now torn anew. A part of him told him to stay with the boy, but he knew he couldn't stay here in the human world any longer. Eventually a stranger would come to the farm and discover him, and Damion would be taken away.
A sad, soul-shaking sigh escaped him as he slowly shut his eyes. He didn't know what to do. Why did he have to meet two people who needed more than he could provide? Damion wanted him to stay, but he could not.
"Damion," he said solemnly, before opening his eyes. "You…do know, deep down in your…heart, that I can't stay…right?"
The boy sniffed loudly before looking up into the helicopter's eyes. "I don't want you to go," he insisted. "I'm…I'm going to be left all alone, and strangers are going to have to take care of me. I'd rather be with you."
"I was a stranger when I nearly crashed here, on your farm," Nick reminded him. "Yet, you got along with me great."
"Yeah… but I've heard rumors," Damion said with big eyes. "I don't want to end up in a home where the people there won't take care of me." he whimpered. "I wanna stay with someone I know and like. Once Audra's gone, I'll have nobody else." Nick opened his mouth to say something, but Damion continued on. "I don't care if you'd have to hide me for the rest of my life, I don't want to be left behind."
Nick's words died in his throat, and he was left with nothing to say. Eventually, he found something to say. "So…you wouldn't mind the fact that you'd be the only human, and that you may not get to have any friends outside of me, if you came with me?" he asked slowly.
Damion nodded.
Nick was shocked. "B-but, what if I die on the way back to my world? You'd probably die too since you're more delicate than I am. How would Audra fee—"
"It wouldn't matter very much, then, would it? If we all die, Audra wouldn't have to worry about me because we'd all be in heaven," the boy said bravely.
Nick wasn't very happy about this. He wasn't unhappy about the prospect of being saddled with a human charge possibly for the rest of his life—no, he was unhappy because Damion was willing to give up the free life of a human amongst other humans for a life of constantly hiding from machinekind.
It wasn't until later that Audra emerged from the house. After crying her heart out, she freshened up and chugged down a mug of coffee. She felt numb inside, and she wondered why. It was probably because of the fact that, after her brother learned of her cancer and her fate, instead of telling her that he didn't want her to leave, he went and told Nick that he didn't want him to go. It hurt because her little brother had only known Nick for two days, and yet he chose him over her to wail to even though Damion had known her for 12 years.
When she stepped outside, she stepped out dressed in her black and purple jacket and black winter muck boots. She had changed her shirt to a tomato-orange shirt and her favourite pair of denim jeans, wishing to be out of the sweaty clothes she had worn for most of the day. She made her way slowly down the front steps and over to where Nick and Damion still were by the car.
"Okay, guys," she told them as she stepped up to them. "We don't know how long that strange thing we found up in the foothills will last, so we better go check it out before the day is done." She glanced up at the sun, and saw that it was one sun-breadth away from the horizon. "We don't want to get stuck in the dark on the way home if it doesn't work."
Nick looked at her nervously, and she figured it was because of the chances of this working or not. The strong electromagnetic field she had found up there could mean that the cave there was a portal to Nick's world, but it also could have just been generated by something in the rocks, something that had yet to be added to the periodic table. But when Nick spoke, Audra felt her heart plummet to her toes. "Damion wants to come with me," he told her hesitantly.
That's when it felt like her heart had turned to glass and then shattered into a million pieces. She fought hard against her emotions in order to have it not show, but some of it still managed to. Hurt flashed in her eyes for a brief moment as she winced. She drew her mouth into a thin line and grunted in hopes of clearing her throat, which had synched tight with grief. "H-he does, does he?" she said quietly. She then fell silent and turned her gaze down to the pavement between them.
A few minutes of silence later, she asked, "Where is he?"
One of Nick's rear doors popped open and Damion jumped out. "Nick says we can ride back there up to the cave," he told her.
Audra nodded once and made her way over to her brother. Though he winced as she drew near, probably afraid that she was going to fly at him in a rage because of his decision, he stood still and instead received a kiss on the forehead before she climbed into Nick's back storage space. Damion climbed in after her, and Nick closed the door after him.
"Let's go, Nick," Audra practically whispered as she held herself.
As they flew to the cave, Damion asked a practical question. "Why do you have a space back here like this, Nick?"
Nick chuckled slightly, his voice filtering into the space. "Once in a while, I'd have to carry a pitty—a forklift—for the show. It's only big enough to house pitties, and nothing bigger. It's just the right size for you guys."
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as her brother pressed the side of his face into the wall that they were leaning against in response to Nick's explanation. A silent sigh escaped her as her heart throbbed in pain. She felt like she was being rejected.
They arrived at the mouth of the cave soon enough, and when Audra went to step out of Nick's pitty compartment, she nearly tripped and fell. She quickly straightened and tried to not look like the flight had spooked her. She was tired and she really didn't want her fear of flying to be brought to light.
She looked over at her brother as he hopped out of Nick's pitty compartment, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders once he was close enough to her. Nick closed his door as soon as they were clear of it as Audra guided her brother towards the cave mouth. Once again, her hair stood on end and Damion's thick hair took on the appearance of an afro as they neared the yawning opening. "This is it," Audra said, gesturing to the cave entrance. "This cave is the source of what's making our hair stand on end. This may be the gate to Nick's world. I'm not sure, of course, since nothing like this has ever happened before—ever." She took her arm from her brother's shoulder and turned to look at Nick. "I can't promise that it will take you home, Mr. Lopez. I'm going by gut instinct that tells me that it could take you home. I've watched enough sci-fi shows to see this as logical."
Nick nodded.
Audra turned back to her brother and looked him in the eye. "Are you sure you want to go with Nick?" she asked in a sad tone.
Damion sniffed and nodded once. Audra could see the tears in the boy's eyes, and one spilled out onto his cheek. She reached up and wiped it away. "Be brave, Dame," she said in her best soothing tone. "I don't know what kind of life you'll have when—or if—you'll make it over to the other side…but don't mourn for me. Don't mourn for Mom or Dad either. Make new friends and build a new family around Nick and you, okay?"
Damion nodded again, trying to put on a brave face as he did so. He hugged her again, and buried his face in her chest. She didn't mind. After a few moments, he pulled his head back and looked her in the face. "You'll be lonely, won't you?" he stated.
Audra smiled a watery smile. "Yeah, probably…but I've made peace with your decision. Sure, I'll be scared when my days draw to a close, but I'll at least be happy knowing that you're safe." She gave him a firm pat on the back before letting go, allowing him to take a step back. "Now, I think you should hop back into Nick's compartment so that you'll be well protected when you two go into that cave." She quickly kissed him on the forehead before letting him run back to Nick.
Nick opened the door again and let the boy hop inside. He then shut the door behind him. Audra walked up to the helicopter and stood before him. "I'll take good care of him, Audra," Nick assured her.
"You better," she grunted with mock seriousness. The corner of her mouth tilted up and she snorted a chuckle. She reached forward and patted the side of Nick's face to show that there were no hard feelings. "Be safe, okay?" she glanced at the cave mouth. "You go in first, and I'll watch from the cave mouth until I can't see you anymore, alright? Just to see you off."
Nick nodded once more. He then waddled up to the opening, and the young woman watched as he eyed how wide the opening in the rock was. Then he did something surprising—his propeller blades folded back like a fan (it reminded her of one of those Transformers movies where a helicopter did that before it transformed and then razed a military base), narrowing his wingspan considerably. He then continued on and waddled into the cave.
Audra stood at the mouth and watched as they went deeper. "Be careful, you two. I love you, Damion!" she called after them, sorrow steadily weighing down her heart. They disappeared into the darkness, until she could no longer see them. The tap-tapping of Nick's skids against the ground faded out after several moments, and all went silent. A quick glance at the sky told her that half the sun was behind the horizon. She'd have to start heading back soon before it got too dark for her to see where she was going.
She looked back into the depths of the cave and sighed, wondering if they had made it. Did they get transported back?
Her questions were suddenly answered when a bright flash of blue-white light lit up the inside of the cave, highlighted by a startled yell that sounded like it came from Nick. A breeze rushed out of the cave and buffeted her roughly as she wondered if that was what she was hoping for in terms of Nick being transported back to his world.
A muffled boom reached her ears, and right before her eyes, a wall of blue light came rushing up from the depths of the cave. Her thoughts froze and her eyes widened as the light rushed towards her, and by instinct, she threw up her arms and braced herself.
The energy hit her and she felt herself get thrown back. Panic surged threw her until she abruptly fell unconscious. She never felt herself hit the ground.
Epilogue
The first thing he became aware of was the heat bearing down on his back, propellers, and rotor assembly. As he surfaced from oblivion, he yawned wide. He blinked open his eyes as something stirred in his pitty compartment; wincing as blinding light seared into his eyes. He quickly slid his visor down over his eyes before he rose to his skids, reminding himself as he did so that he had precious cargo stored inside him.
Opening the door to the compartment, he asked, "Are you okay, Damion?"
The boy stumbled out of the compartment and nearly fell to the ground. He straightened and wobbled violently as he made his way around to Nick's front. "I…I think I'm okay…" the boy said, voice shaky. "A-are you?"
Nick's door clicked closed. "I feel perfectly fine," he said.
The helicopter looked about, taking in their surroundings. It looked like they had ended up somewhere in the desert, and though the sun was not very high in the sky yet, it was scorching hot already. Nick had awoken with his belly resting on the sandy ground, and not too far from a particularly sharp-looking cactus. All around them was sand and rock, and in the distance there looked to be mesas—and funnily enough, they looked like the rear-ends of Chevrolet Impalas. Cacti was interspersed everywhere, telling Nick quite blatantly that they had appeared in the middle of a desert. But where though? Were they in California, or…?
The helicopter hummed deeply in thought.
"Where are we, Nick?" Damion asked. The boy squinted against the bright sunlight and shaded his eyes with a hand, making Nick suddenly grateful that he was wearing anti-glare paint on his nose and around his eyes. "This sure doesn't look like the Rocky Mountains."
"It doesn't look like LA, either," Nick stated dryly. After a short sigh, he said, "I think we should take to the air and looked around. It's our best, and safest, bet right now. The heat won't do us any good, and I haven't had any oil since the little bit I found when Audra took you to school…yesterday." He blinked. "Was it yesterday?"
Damion shrugged.
"Well," the former actor said after a moment, "let's get going then. I promised your sister that I'd take care of you. Which reminds me—how would you like to be called Damion Poncherello?"
Damion blinked in surprise as Nick popped open his door once more. "You—you're thinking about changing our names?" he asked. "Why?"
Nick smirked as Damion climbed back into his pitty compartment, and the boy could hear it in his voice. "Well, since I'm going to be taking care of you from now on, I was thinking of viewing our relationship as a father/friend kind of thing," he explained as he powered up his rotors and shut the door. "And I need to change my name so that I don't get swamped by rabid fans or bloodthirsty paparazzi." He laughed. "So, I was thinking of assuming the name 'Francis Poncherello', since Ponch and I seem so alike. Do you like the idea?"
There was a short pause as a grin grew on Damion's face. "I like it!" the boy exclaimed as Nick slowly rose into the air. "but is it okay if I still call you Nick when it's just you and me? And can I call you 'Ponch' when we're around other people?"
Nick couldn't help but laugh again at Damion's eager questions. "Sounds about right, partner. Let's go find a new home."
With that, Nick flew off towards the mesas, hoping for a bright future for both him and his newly acquired charge. For a moment, he thought about Audra, and how alone she must be now that they were no longer in the human world with her. He was glad he could help, and he really didn't mind that he now had to take care of her brother. At least he wasn't alone. Maybe, one day, he'd track down Blade and see how he was doing, but right now, he had to take one thing at a time, and take everything slow.
So, yeah. I know the human in the cars world has been used a lot and not many people like it. But I like it!
I hope you guys enjoyed reading this. I know it took a really long time to read, but...yeah. There were a lot of loose ends left behind, but that was done for a reason, lol. I want to expand on this a little if you guys will let me, and we'll see how it goes from there, okay? Thanks so much, again, for reading!