Chapter 5:
The trio landed on the ground in the alley and brushed themselves off. They looked around and stepped out of the alley as Michael glanced at the timer.
"Okay, we have about two days plus some change to figure out if this is our world or not." Michael said.
"I'm banking on not..." Rebecca said as they noticed the people in the street staring at them.
"What are you looking at?" Sam asked the people. "Do I have a hole in my jacket?" he said trying to look at his back.
"Hey! Stop right there!" a police officer shouted and they all put their hands up.
"What seems to be the problem officer?" Michael asked.
"How old are you?" the officer asked.
"Twenty." Michael responded. Rebecca and Sam nodded their heads in agreement.
"What are you doing out of the center?" the officer asked.
"Center?" Rebecca asked.
"The Center, it's where all persons from the ages of sixteen to twenty-two are supposed to be held." the officer replied confused.
"Listen, we aren't from around here..." Michael said.
"I'm sorry, but I have to take you in." the officer said and started to handcuff Michael.
"Get off of him!" Sam shouted as he and Rebecca were grabbed by two more officers.
They were thrown into a truck and taken to a dome where they were put into a holding cell. The officer stood at the door of the cell and held out his hand.
"Empty your pockets." the officer ordered.
"Okay..." Michael said and handed the officer his wallet, keys, and the timer.
"Weird phone you have here..." the officer said.
"Will we get that back?" Michael asked as Sam and Rebecca emptied their pockets.
"If it's non-lethal, you'll get it after processing." the officer said.
"Thanks." Michael said and they sat down on the bench in the cell.
"So... Anyone want to say a bit about themselves? We don't know eachother that well as a group yet..." Sam said.
"I guess. Rebecca, since me and Sam know eachother, you go first." Michael said.
"Fine. What do you want to know?" Rebecca started. "I was born in San Francisco, was a prodigy, started at Cal U, and was on the fast track to becoming a physicist, and then you came along and stole that away!"
"Hmm. Well I was born in New York, I was pretty good at math and science in high school and did a few years at a local college until Cal U gave me a scholarship and I found the Mallory house and the key to creating sliding." Michael said.
"Well, I on the other hand, kind of barely passed through school and went to Cal U and kind of got roped into this after I dared Michael to sneak into the Mallory house. This is much more fun than school though." Sam said.
Your definition of fun must be different than mine..." Rebecca said.
The officer returned to the cell and stood in front of the bars. He motioned for them to stand up and they stood.
"You'll have to spend the night here, then go to processing in the morning. After that you'll be safe in the center." the officer said.
"If you don't mind me asking, why do we need to be in the center?" Sam asked.
"Because, teenagers are dangerous, and raise insurance prices, it was decided in the early 80's that teenagers between the ages of sixteen to twenty-two should be held in a facility to ensure that they are not a danger to themselves or others." the officer said.
"That's ridiculous!" Rebecca shouted. "Not all teenagers are like that!"
"Yes, but we can't be sure, so we keep them all in a safe haven." the officer replied.
"That's like the internment camps in World War II!" Sam shouted.
"World War II? What are you talking about?" the officer asked.
"Uh, he's talking about a movie." Michael said.
"Ah. Anyway, have a safe night!" the officer said and walked away.
They laid down on the floor of the cell and closed their eyes to fall asleep, and hoped they would get the timer back in the morning. They were awoken by a loud clanging coming from outside the cell. Michael shook Sam and Rebecca awake and they looked up to see the officer from yesterday standing with a tray of food.
"Breakfast time!" he said cheerfully.
"Thanks..." Michael said taking the covered plates on the tray and handed two to Sam and Rebecca.
"What is it?" Sam asked taking the cover off to see an oatmeal like substance.
"Nutrameal. It gives you your necessary daily intake of vitamins and minerals." the officer replied.
"It looks nasty!" Rebecca said making a disgusted face.
"Eat up. You can't go into processing on an empty stomach." the officer said.
"It's not that bad!" Sam said after swallowing a spoonful.
"I'll pass..." Rebecca said.
"When in Rome..." Michael said and dipped his spoon in and took a bite. "Not the worst food ever..."
"Okay, time for processing!" the officer said and opened the door of the cell.
They walked out of the cell and another officer walked up to take Rebecca to the women's processing.
"Wait! She's with us, you can't separate us!" Michael shouted.
"You'll meet back up after processing, kid." the second officer said condescendingly.
"Good luck." Michael said to Rebecca.
"Don't leave without me." Rebecca said.
Michael and Sam were led to a medical room, and a doctor and a nurse walked into the room. He looked them up and down and turned to his nurse.
"Prep them for processing, nurse." the doctor said.
"Yes, Dr. Schlumper." the nurse said. "Please step into the other room and strip into these gowns."
"Okay..." Michael said and him and Sam walked into the other room and changed into the gowns.
They emerged and were immediately scanned by some strange scanning device. Dr. Schlumper checked his charts and turned to them.
"Do you have any diseases?" he asked.
"Nope." Michael and Sam replied in unison.
"Okay, seems like you check out. Go change into these, and go out to the waiting room." he said handing them what looked like a combination of a blue jumpsuit and scrubs. They changed into the uniforms and walked back into the room. The officer escorted them into what looked like the student lounge, but it was all white. A white couch, white television, white walls.
"You can wait here now. Your belongings are still being examined. Your friend will be along soon." he said.
"Thanks." Michael said and sat on the couch.
"Well, this sucks. Those were my favorite pair of pants!" Sam said.
"Calm down, all we have to do is wait for the timer. We should get it back, the timer acts like a normal phone, since I put a fail safe in so that they can't open it without my password. So, they'll just give it back, hopefully." Michael said.
"Here's hoping..." Sam said.
An officer walked in and escorted Rebecca to the couch she sat down and crossed her arms. She glared at Michael and Sam.
"Lemme guess, those were your favorite shoes or something?" Michael asked.
"Yes!" Rebecca huffed.
"I know your pain..." Sam said.
"Guys it doesn't matter, just as long as we aren't stuck here." Michael said.
The officer walked into the room carrying a blue plastic cube and sat it on the table in front of the couch.
"Here's the stuff that made it through processing. We had to confiscate some stuff though." the officer said.
"What?" Michael said running to the cube and digging in it, pulling out the timer. "What did you confiscate?"
"One of you had chewing gum, and that's a choking hazard." the officer said. "Plus, the key you had was very sharp."
"Oh... That makes sense..." Sam said looking confused.
"Thanks for our stuff back." Michael said fishing out his wallet and checking it for his ID, and the money, which was untouched.
"Yeah..." Sam said taking his stuff out of the box, followed by Rebecca doing the same.
The officer left and Michael turned on the timer, checking the time. The timer displayed the time as twenty-three hours.
"Guys, we still have a day til we slide." Michael said.
"Great going!" Rebecca said.
"Hopefully we don't need to eat any more Nutrameal before we slide." Sam said.
They sat on the couch for a while, until Sam got up to turn the television on. The screen blinked to life and a documentary on plants turned on.
"Change the channel!" Rebecca said.
"I can't there's only an on button and no remote!" Sam said.
"Must be part of their enrichment program..." Michael muttered as he tapped his fingers on the back of the timer.
"We should try to get some sleep, we'll want to be well rested before the slide." Sam said.
"Good idea." Rebecca said and she buried her face in a pillow as Sam turned the television off.
Michael lay awake for the next few hours as he stared at the timer. He sighed and put it on the table.
"Why did I create that? Why did I not only doom myself, but my best friend and this girl I don't even know to the same fate?" Michael asked himself.
"Don't sweat it. For all intents and purposes, this is more fun than what I'd be doing without you inventing sliding." Sam said sitting up rubbing his eyes.
"I guess. But I feel bad for Rebecca, I mean she insisted, but we could have knocked her out of the way before we jumped in." Michael said.
"Come on, she loves this, it's her theories coming to life. She just won't admit it, trust me, I can read people pretty well." Sam said.
"Whatever. We still have like twelve hours before the slide. What do we do til then?" Michael asked.
"No idea." Sam yawned.
"Psst!" someone whispered from behind the television. It was a person, about their age dressed in the same uniform.
"Who said that?" Michael asked.
"Me, I'm Allan. Nice to meet you." he said outstretching his hand.
"I'm Michael, this is Sam, and the girl sleeping on the couch is Rebecca." Michael said.
"Great. I see you guys are new, how'd you evade them for this long, you're like twenty! That's four solid years of hiding. I was only able to do it for two months!" Allan said.
"We're not from around here, we just ended up in town and they caught us." Sam said.
"Oh yeah, they don't do this in Canada. Why'd you cross the border?" Allan asked.
"It was more of an accident..." Michael said.
"Whatever, I need your help. We're planning an escape, and we need someone new, who hasn't done anything yet to be involved. You in?" Allan asked.
"Sure!" Sam said. "As long as it'll be done in twelve hours."
"Should be done by then, why?" Allan asked.
"We have plans..." Michael replied.
"Okay then! It's a plan. All you guys need to do is distract the guard when I give the signal. You'll know it when you see it." Allan said.
"Got it." Sam said.
"All right, see you on the flip side." Allan said walking away.
"Are you sure we should do this?" Michael asked.
"Why not?" Sam asked. "We're outta here in twelve hours anyway."
"I don't want to interfere with affairs on different earths. I'd rather not cause a war." Michael said.
"Who's causing a war?" Rebecca asked, already sitting up.
"Sam just agreed to help orchestrate a prison break." Michael said.
"Sounds like fun." Rebecca said.
"Not really." Michael said.
They sat around for the next few hours, which involved the officer giving them more Nutrameal. Soon, there was about two minutes left on the timer.
"When is this thing happening? We only have two minutes left until we slide!" Michael said.
"I don't know!" Sam said.
"Hey! Stop right there!" an officer said as Allan ran into the room and held up three fingers.
"Is that the signal?" Michael asked.
"I guess so!" Sam replied and put his leg out to trip the officer.
"We need a bigger distraction than that guys!" Allan shouted as he was running across the room.
"Michael, you heard the guy." Rebecca said pointing at the timer.
"Oh... Good idea. How's this?" Michael asked as the timer timed out and the portal appeared.
"Woah!" Allan said mesmerized.
"Good luck!" Rebecca shouted jumping into the portal.
"I would start that prison break now..." Sam said jumping in.
"Watch out for the guards!" Michael said and he jumped into the portal and the portal closed.
"What the hell was that?" the officer said staring at where the portal was.
The trio fell through the vortex and were headed for the next world.
To Be Continued