Chapter 11:
The group fell out of the vortex onto the ground in the middle of Golden Gate Park. They stood up and brushed themselves off.
"How much time do we have left?" Sam asked.
"Uh, two days." Michael said. "I think we might want to find a more permanent hotel than the one near campus, that one is a bit gross."
"Oh! I remember there was this one hotel in town, it was called... The Dominion!" Sam shouted.
"Good idea. Do we have any money, though?" Michael asked.
"I took the liberty of taking some money out of the bank back on the almost our world." Sam said.
"You robbed your double?" Rebecca asked.
"He was missing too, and if he's like us, he probably landed on our world and robbed me!" Sam rebuked.
"Knowing Sam, that's probably true..." Michael said laughing.
"Come on, let's get to the hotel." Rebecca said.
The trio walked to the Dominion Hotel and walked into the lobby. There was a man sitting at the front desk staring at a computer screen. Michael walked up to the desk and smiled.
"Excuse me, sir. We need a room." Michael said. The man ignored him, staring at the computer.
"Hold on, I think I know what's up." Sam said pointing to a sign that had the hotel's phone number. He punched in the number and sent a text to it, saying, "We would like a room, please." The man at the front desk stirred and typed furiously into the computer. Sam's phone beeped and he checked it, there was a picture of a QR code and a text saying, "Use the QR code to get into your room. Enjoy your stay at the Dominion Hotel."
"Wow, talk about connected to technology..." Rebecca said as they walked into the elevator.
They arrived at their room and scanned themselves in. The room was modest, two large beds, a big television, and a door to a bathroom with a full shower/bathtub.
"So, who get's each bed?" Michael asked.
"Well, since I'm a girl, I get one, and you and Sam share a bed." Rebecca said.
"What?" Sam asked. "How is that fair?"
"Because I said so." Rebecca said. "And you owe me, I saved your life."
"She's got you there." Michael said.
"I guess. But I get the left side!" Sam said.
"Whatever." Michael said.
"Can we call room service? I'm starving." Sam said.
"Okay." Michael said walking to the nightstand. He checked the drawers and turned to Sam. "No phone."
"I got it." Rebecca said looking up from the hotel brochure. She walked to a panel on the wall that Michael had assumed was a thermostat. She tapped a few buttons and there was a knock at the door.
"Well then..." Sam said running to the door and opening it to see a cart with various foods on it. "I love this world!"
They ate until they couldn't eat anymore and got ready for bed. Rebecca climbed into her bed and Michael and Sam tried to align themselves in their shared bed.
"You're still touching me." Sam said.
"I'm trying, damn it!" Michael said.
"Just go to sleep! We need to hit a store tomorrow. I need some new clothes." Rebecca said.
"So do I." Michael said. "For some reason, my double on the almost our world liked wearing skinny jeans, and I can't stand them."
"Good thing we have money." Sam said. "You're welcome."
The three sliders slept and awoke the next morning to an incessant beeping noise that rose them from their sleep.
"What the hell is that?" Michael asked.
"It's coming from outside." Sam replied and they walked to the window. They saw an ambulance drive down the street and stopped at a building. The EMTs got out and instead of a stretcher, they had computer repairing equipment.
"What are they doing?" Rebecca asked.
"I guess on this world, computer problems are like life threatening injuries." Michael replied.
"That's pretty weird." Rebecca said.
"Yeah..." Michael said.
"Well, I want to get some new clothes. We still have funds, right?" Rebecca asked. "No one ordered room service in the middle of the night?"
"I tried. I couldn't get the thing to work." Sam said.
"Let's hit the stores, then!" Rebecca said and they left the room.
They arrived at a large clothing store and walked in. It was buzzing with people, many wearing odd glasses. The sliders were mostly ignored by the people walking past them.
"This place is weird." Sam said. "Seems like those are like VR goggles."
"Yeah. So, how do we get clothes?" Michael asked.
"I think I got it, it's like a vending machine. You put cash, a card, or a thumbprint, and you pick what you want." Rebecca said. "I'll go first."
She stepped up to the machine and tapped the screen to pick her new outfit. She tapped the screen a few times, and then put in money into the slot and the machine whizzed and whirred and deposited a bundle of clothes.
"I'll go try these on, why don't you use it next?" Rebecca said.
"I call it!" Sam shouted.
"Fine." Michael said.
Sam walked up to the machine and tapped the screen and put his money into the slot and a bundle came down the chute for him. He walked into the dressing room as Rebecca exited in her new outfit, which consisted of jeans, a red tee shirt, a leather jacket, and a pair of black sneakers.
"Looking good!" Michael said smiling.
"Thanks. I'm happy to get into comfortable clothes!" Rebecca said.
"I guess I should go now?" Michael asked.
"Go ahead, it seems to be safe." Rebecca said.
"Got it." Michael said and walked to the machine, tapping the buttons, depositing the money and walking to the dressing room with his bundle.
Sam walked out wearing a red plaid shirt, black jeans, and a trilby. Rebecca rolled her eyes as he approached her.
"Like it?" he asked.
"Lose the fedora. You look like an idiot." Rebecca said.
"I'm keeping it!" Sam said. "Trilbys are cool!"
"Whatever you say..." she said as Michael emerged from the dressing room.
"How do I look?" Michael asked. He was wearing a beige tee shirt with a pocket on the right side, a pair of green jeans, and new sneakers.
"Those are puke green!" Rebecca said.
"No! It's forest green, and I like it!" Michael said.
"Well, now that we're done here. How much time do we have?" Sam asked.
"A day, plus some change." Michael said.
"I could stay here forever! Automated everything! It's awesome!" Sam said. "Wish we had longer here."
"Yeah, me too. I could get used to this." Rebecca said.
"I know, it's fun and all, but it's also not our world. Who knows if we exist, and if they're decent people?" Michael said.
"Lighten up! You got to enjoy the last world, let us have some fun!" Rebecca said.
"I guess." Michael said. "What other sights do you suppose this world has?"
"Maybe internet cafes, seeing as how everyone has those glasses on." Sam said.
"Didn't those go out of style after Starbucks started giving out their Wi-Fi password?" Rebecca asked.
"On our worlds maybe, possibly not on this one." Michael said.
"I just hope this world doesn't have any conflict." Sam said.
"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked.
"The most perfect places seem to always be the most dangerous." Sam replied.
"I guess so." Michael said.
"Well, besides for the over use of technology, this is pretty idyllic. But I think we should go check out an internet cafe or a coffee shop, see how those work." Rebecca said.
The trio left the store and walked down the street, as they tried to avoid people, the people of this world gracefully moved and avoided them with ease.
"Looks like we finally found a world where people know how to walk!" Michael said, laughing.
"Yeah. Hey! Let's check this place out!" Sam said pointing to a building that had a bunch of people inside tapping away at keyboards.
They walked into the building and were overtaken by the intense smell of coffee, tea, and printer ink.
"Seems nice enough." Michael said.
"Yeah. Let's see how we order." Rebecca said as they walked up to the counter. There was a man behind the counter staring at a screen.
"Excuse us, how do we order?" Sam asked.
"You tell me what you want?" the man replied puzzled. "You okay?"
"Oh yeah, just everywhere else we've been has us use computers for stuff like that." Sam said.
"Yeah, a lot of places do that. Not here though. The machines are automatic, but they like to have a person input. Too much noise here for voice control and too much spillage for a keypad." the man. "So, what'll you have?"
"Oh, I'll have a black tea, an earl grey and a black coffee. What'll you guys be getting?" Michael asked jokingly.
"Haha. How did you know what we'd want?" Rebecca asked.
"I know Sam loves coffee, and I noticed the type of tea that you ordered last night from room service." Michael replied.
"Good memory." Rebecca said.
"One of my best traits." Michael said, smiling.
"Got it! Two teas, one black, one grey, and a black coffee." the man said and tapped a few buttons into a keypad hidden under the counter and the machine made the three cups and they slid out on a tray.
"Thanks." Michael said taking the tray.
"Say, why aren't you connected?" the man asked.
"Oh, yeah. We're not from around here." Michael said.
"We're from Canada!" Sam said.
"Okay... Got it." the man said. "Have a nice day."
"You too." Michael said and they walked to a table and sat down.
"Canada? Really?" Rebecca asked.
"That's the dumbest place you could have said! Why not New York? Or England?" Michael asked.
"Canada's closer!" Sam said.
"Whatever, at least we deflected the suspicion." Michael said.
"So, after this, what do we do?" Rebecca asked.
"Not sure. Just bide our time until we slide, I guess." Sam said.
"Speaking of that, where's the timer?" Rebecca asked.
"It's right... it was in my pocket!" Michael replied, frantically searching his pockets.
"Did you lose it?" Sam asked.
"Yes. But thankfully, I found it." Rebecca said, laughing.
"When did I lose it?" Michael asked.
"It fell out of your pocket when you switched clothes." Rebecca said. "I went back in to make sure I didn't forget anything and the timer was on the floor."
"Oh, god. I'm sorry, I almost stranded us here." Michael said.
"It's fine, lucky I found it." Rebecca said.
"I'm sorry I was so careless. I wasn't thinking." Michael said.
"Don't worry, it was just this once. You're allowed to screw up once in a while." Rebecca said.
"Not when I have two other people's lives in my care it's not." Michael said.
"Whatever, let's relax, and just finish this up and see what else there is to do." Sam said.
The trio walked around the city and stopped at an electronics store. They looked around at all the shelves.
"I'm going to to go look at the loose components. See if there's anything that's compatible with the timer." Michael said.
"Okay! I'm going to go take a look at those VR goggle things. I want to see how they work..." Sam said.
"And I'll watch the timer, to make sure that neither of you lose it!" Rebecca said laughing.
"Got it!" Michael said as he walked off.
The reunited an hour or so later and Rebecca was looking over some phones, and Michael walked up with a box and tapped Rebecca on the shoulder.
"Hey, what's that stuff?" Rebecca asked.
"It's just some spare components for the timer. Just in case we burn anything out on the next slide." Michael replied.
"Where's Sam?" Rebecca asked.
"THIS IS AWESOME!" Sam shouted from across the store.
"I wanna guess over there..." Michael said pointing at the source of the sound. They walked over to where Sam was and saw his swinging at the air.
"Are you okay?" Rebecca asked.
"Yeah, I'm playing a VR game. It's like a fighting game, but you use your body instead of a controller!" Sam said. "It rocks!"
"Sounds fun. But we should head back to the hotel. I want to relax a bit before we have to get ready to slide." Rebecca said.
"Good idea." Michael said and they left the store.
They arrived at the hotel and returned to their room, and Michael fiddled with the components, holding them up to the timer.
"Well, my purchase was a bust. None of this stuff works!" Michael shouted.
"Well, my VR goggles are awesome! I don't think I want to leave this place. It's fun!" Sam said swinging at the air. "This is the best!"
"Well, we have to leave. We don't belong here. We have to get home." Rebecca said.
"I'm sure he'll come around. Why don't we go check out the rest of the hotel. I hear they have a game room." Michael said.
"Sure." Rebecca said. "He'll be punching air for another two hours at least."
They took the elevator and walked into a room that was labeled, "Arcade". The room was bare, except for VR goggles hooked up to the wall, and every pair of goggles had a person attached. Rebecca gasped as she noticed that the people seemed emaciated.
"What the hell?" Michael asked noticing the same thing. He ran to a person and tried to pull the goggles off, but they wouldn't budge.
"Is this what VR does to you? How long have these people been here?" Rebecca asked.
"I guess. We can't stay on this world. We have to destroy Sam's goggles before he turns into one of these." Michael said.
"Agreed." Rebecca said as the two ran upstairs to the room and saw Sam laying on the bed, immobile.
"Sam!" Michael shouted and tried to pry the goggles off of Sam's face. But like the person in the arcade, it wouldn't come off. "Sam wake up!"
"Sam!" Rebecca shouted. "What do we do?"
"I... I don't know. I didn't think it worked this fast." Michael said. "I figured those people were there for weeks, and became immobile because of malnutrition, but it seems like it has some sort of connection to shut down the body."
"I have an idea." Rebecca said.
"What?" Michael asked.
"Well, the stuff you picked up, could it give the timer an option to send a small electrical charge into something, like those goggles." Rebecca said.
"That's... a brilliant idea!" Michael shouted. "How'd you think of it?"
"I know how electrical charges work, and that should work!" Rebecca said. "And you better work fast, we have less than a day left."
"Got it." Michael said and sat down, dumping the components on the table and got to work.
As day began to shine through the window, Michael rubbed his eyes as he held the timer and pressed a button. A small spark cracked from the part that he attached to the top of the timer and Michael smiled.
"I did it!" he shouted, as Rebecca quickly sat up in her chair.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah. Now to test it. Where's an electronic device I can test this on?" Michael asked.
"The food panel?" Rebecca asked pointing to the small panel on the wall.
"Great idea!" Michael shouted and ran to the panel and clicked the button. A spark emanated from the timer and the panel smoked and exploded. "Let's hope it doesn't make Sam's head explode..."
"We don't have time to worry about that!" Rebecca said as Michael walked to Sam and put the timer up to the battery pack of the VR goggles. He pressed the button and the battery pack sparked and smoke began to come out of it.
Sam slowly woke up, and removed the goggles. He looked at Michael and Rebecca, who had smiling faces, puzzlingly.
"What happened?" he asked.
"We just saved your life. These goggles are evil." Michael said.
"Yeah. We have to get out of here before they come up, we sort of broke the food panel." Rebecca said.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. It began getting more forceful as Michael grabbed a chair and barricaded the door.
"Police, open up!" they heard from behind the door.
"Well, that's our cue to leave." Rebecca said grabbing the timer and removing the electrical charge component. "I don't think that we should take that with us."
"Good call." Sam said.
"Let's go!" Michael said as Rebecca clicked the button on the timer, creating the portal and they all ran through it together.
To Be Continued...