by Matt Ryan
Harris nodded and squeezed through.
Joey tried not to push Harris out as he followed behind him. Stepping from the cool confines of the cave, he raised his hand to block the rays of the unforgiving sun. He squinted, waiting for his eyes to adjust, and counted his friends as they stood on rocks surrounded by sand.
He reeled from the shock of being somewhere entirely different. There wasn’t a tree in sight, not even a bush; nothing but desert everywhere he looked.
They stood about halfway up a hill made of sand and rocks. Rock pillars jutted out of the sand, and when he looked back, the door appeared camouflaged against the landscape. He scanned the desert surrounding them. Where are we?
“Great,” Lucas said, holding out his hands. “You brought us to a freaking desert.”
Harris brought out his Panavice, held it up and tapped on the screen, then put it back in his pocket.
“Do you know where we are?” Julie held her cell phone up, as if trying to find a signal. “You getting a signal?”
“My Panavice isn’t working properly, so I’m not positive where we are. We need to get up there.” Harris pointed up the hill. “For a better vantage point.”
“You need help?” Poly asked.
“No, I’m feeling better now.” Harris threw her a fake smile.
Joey looked up the sandy, rocky hill and then to the sun. It would be a difficult climb, but if it got him closer to Samantha, he would endure much more.
Near the top of the hill, he reached back and took Poly’s hand to help her over the last few rocks. She used her arm to wipe the sweat off her red face. He hunched over, breathing hard, but was glad to be at the top.
Harris strode past them, looking composed and dry. The holes in his jacket were the only reminder of his encounter with Simon.
A small plateau on top of the hill gave them a vantage point to take in the vast desert. The rest of them looked around, but all he could do was look down the hill and control the urge to go back into the cave to find a way back home.
“We’re going to die.” Lucas paced in a circle. “There is nothing here.”
“Shut up, Lucas,” Poly beseeched.
It was hard to argue with Lucas. Joey wiped the sweat from his forehead and longed for the thick canopy of the forest.
“Look around and see if you can find anything,” Harris asked.
“Sure,” Joey said.
This side of the hill looked just like the other side, with a desert spanning all the way to the horizon. Cactuses and bushes scattered the landscape. A dried, sandy riverbed snaked its way through the desert. At the end of the dry river and over a hill, he spotted something. A glimmer of a reflection. He stepped forward, squinting, making out the straight lines of a building.
“There’s something over there,” Joey said and pointed to the horizon.
“Is there?” Harris replied, his eyes following to where Joey was pointing. “So there is. Nice spot.”
“Do you know this place?” Joey asked.
“I hope I don’t,” Harris said.
Joey didn’t understand what that meant but didn’t push for an answer. The sun pulsated and sweat rolled down the side of his face. Oddly enough, Harris didn’t seem affected by the heat. No sweat formed on his brow, even with all the layers of clothes he wore.
“Who are you?” Joey asked.
Harris stopped looking at the horizon and faced Joey. “I tried to help your parents and now I will try to help you and your friends.”
“Half our parents died.”
“I hope to do better this time.”
“What happened? How did they really die?” Poly jumped in.
“Do you all want to get back home—back to Samantha and your parents?” Harris said.
They nodded.
“Then we need to go in that direction.” He pointed to the place Joey found. “We don’t have time to waste on old stories.” Harris glanced back down the hill. “We can make it by morning if we keep a steady pace.”
“Wait. How is going over there,” Julie pointed, “going to help us get home if we’re not even on Earth?” she asked with her arms crossed.
Harris gave a hint of a smile and took his Panavice from his jacket. “There’s a master Alius stone in the same direction. We can use it to get out of here. On the way, we can stop at that building for supplies.” Harris pointed to the horizon.
Joey wanted to start moving. Moving meant he was getting closer to home. His thumb rubbed the small velvet box in his pocket as he took the first step down the hill.
They reached the bottom with ease, and Joey looked back at their footprints trailing down the hill.
Over the next hour, the horizon swallowed the last bits of sun light, the air cooling. Darkness enveloped the desert and the night bugs chirped. They trudged over the sandy riverbed; it was their own personal yellow brick road.
Joey walked next to Hank and Lucas at the rear, and Julie and Poly took the middle. Harris kept quiet, but Joey kept watching him. That mind held the answers to their riddles.
The desert valley wasn’t as barren as it appeared from above. There were plenty of cacti, bushes, and spikey plants with flowers on top, and the occasional bird would fly from one bush to the next as they passed.
“Can we use our lights, Harris?” Julie asked.
“Better not, might draw attention to us.”
“Like, from wild animals?” Poly asked, looking into the darkness.
“Maybe, but I would be more concerned with the human kind.”
Julie raised her hand to the sky. “I’m no astronomer, but I’m pretty sure that is the moon, as in our moon, and there’s the big dipper. And look at these plants, cactus and stuff, same as we have.” She jumped up and down twice. “And gravity, it feels exactly the same. What are the chances of all this?”
Harris stopped and turned around. “You’re smart and I won’t try to placate you, however, when I said we aren’t on Earth, I meant it. This is a similar version in another dimension.”
“Like a parallel?” Julie abandoned her jumping and looked Harris in the eye.
“Yes.”
“There could be another group of us here?” Julie shot a glance at Lucas.
“Not likely, I just hope this isn’t the planet I think it is. We could be in danger.” Harris turned and started walking.
Julie lowered her arms and huffed, annoyed by Harris ending the conversation. She took out her cellphone and held it in the air as she walked.
Great, more dangers . . . as if Arracks and strange men in black weren’t enough.
Joey noticed Poly frantically scanning the darkness around her. He jogged to get closer to her. “How are you two doing?” he asked, coming up between the girls.
Julie nodded as she played with her cellphone. Poly smiled at him and hid the knife back in her jacket, moving close enough to rub shoulders.
“You think Samantha’s okay?” she asked.
“I hope so,” Joey said.
“Oh, I bet she got out of there just fine. I did just give her a pretty kickass driving lesson.”
“Yeah, she is probably whipping donuts as we speak.”
Poly laughed and he smiled. He always liked how she could find a way to brighten any situation. He felt relaxed around Poly, as if he could tell her anything.
She leaned in to whisper, “You think we can trust this guy?” She nodded at Harris.
“Doesn’t seem like we have a choice,” he replied. Whom else did they have?
“I have your back if anything goes bad.” Poly flashed a blade. He saw it for an instant and then it was gone.
“Same here,” he whispered, and then looked over to Julie with a questioning nod.
“She keeps texting Samantha, even though there’s no cellphone coverage.”
“I’m right here,” Julie said.
He wished it were simple as calling Samantha. He lowered his head and dragged his feet in the sand.
Poly sighed. “We’re final
ly seniors. It was supposed to be our year. Now look at us.” She extended her arms and looked back at Hank and Lucas. “I think Lucas is right. This whole situation is crazy.”
He didn’t know how to respond. He had the urge to comfort her, but he knew she was too smart for such things. They were on a crazy path and no comforting would change that. He smiled at her instead. “Want to take bets on what our parents will say to the school about our absence?”
“Ooh! Yes. I’ll put twenty down for Alien abduction, of course,” Poly said.
“The town’s going to be suspicious. Our families have a history,” Julie reminded.
Lucas chuckled. “The town will probably think there’s a Preston Three on the way.”
Joey glanced back at Lucas and laughed aloud, “I’ll put my money on that!” He could feel Poly staring at him, smiling. He smirked at her and bumped her arm, as he took in her brightness. She bit her lip and faced forward. He looked at her a moment longer—the softness of her smile, mixed with the determination in her eyes. She had her mother’s eyes.
“I better get back. Lucas gets scared if I leave him for too long in the dark,” Joey whispered in her ear. He slowed down so Hank and Lucas could catch up and Poly rejoined Julie.
WALKING WAS EASY, BUT WALKING with the weight of the unknown and in the thick sand of the riverbed, dragged Joey to near mental exhaustion. After a few hours, without many words spoken, he filled the silence with his own insane thoughts and theories. He refused to believe they were somewhere different from earth. Everything around them seemed familiar. They just needed to get to the building in the distance, back to civilization and a phone. A quick call could end the thick lump in his chest, if anything, a car to get back home.
“Can we get something to drink?” Julie asked.
Harris stopped and looked around. He walked close to a bank, carved back by flowing water at some point. Harris got on his hands and knees and felt around in the sand below it. He must have found what he was looking for because he started scooping handfuls of sand, digging a hole.
Julie moved in, closer to Harris.
“Hold this.” He handed her his Panavice, and continued to dig in the sand.
“What the heck is this?” Her face shone from the light of the Panavice. Her wide eyes didn’t blink. “Can I make calls with this?”
“It’s a Panavice.” Harris pulled out handfuls of sand from the deepening hole. “You can make calls, sort of like that phone of yours . . . but not here. We’re off the net.”
Her fingers slid across the screen. “What OS is this using?” she said to herself.
Harris pulled out a wet clump of sand. “Hank, could you help me out and dig this hole deeper?”
“Yeah, sure.” Hank knelt down and reached into the hole, pulling out handfuls of sand. “There’s water down here,” he said with a big smile.
“Sand is a great filter, but this bag will filter it even more.” Harris pulled out a clear plastic bag. “Hank, see if you can fill this bag up.”
Taking the bag, he lowered it into the hole and pulled it out, full of water. It looked dirty at first, but in a matter of seconds, it turned clear.
Joey patiently waited his turn for the water bag as Julie passed it to him. He took two mouthfuls of water before passing it to Lucas. Hank took the empty bag and filled it again. They continued until everyone was satisfied.
Harris took a couple of small sips, but was too busy spreading white cream on his wound to take any more. A streak of blood ran down his stomach.
“You going to be okay?” Poly asked.
“Yeah,” Harris replied, but it didn’t sound convincing.
“Do you know what happened to my mom, eighteen years ago?” Hank asked.
The group froze, as if a cobra dropped in the middle of them. Everyone stared at Harris in the moonlight.
He let out a long breath and pushed his shirt back down. “They told you nothing?”
“Yeah, that they died in a fire.” Lucas said, rolling his eyes.
“I don’t think it’s right of me to tell you what they didn’t, but I’ll admit we put their bodies there.” Harris’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, but why?”
Harris placed a hand over his gunshot wound. “We needed to protect you. That man back in the forest has been searching for you for a long time. They want what’s in you.”
Joey looked at his body. “What are you talking about?”
“So this Simon guy is after us because of something inside us?” The Panavice’s light shone on Julie’s raised eyebrow.
“He works for another man, Marcus. Marcus wants you. And, it’s not an object he is after, it’s your DNA.” Harris pushed against his wound and cringed. “If we’re on the planet I think we’re on, I can show you a little more. Basically, you are the end-line of a chain of experiments.”
Harris turned and walked down the riverbed. Joey took another swig from the pouch.
Over the next few hours, they quietly talked to each other as they walked. Occasionally, they would stop to drink and rest. Harris would not let them stop long, and would speed up the pace for a mile after water breaks to make up time.
The moon crossed the night sky. Joey felt some fatigue building in his legs, but with each step, he was getting closer to Samantha. On the horizon, the inky sky faded and morphed to a dark blue. The sun was on the urge of showing itself.
“Let’s stop for a water break,” Harris suggested.
Joey plodded over and took a seat on a sandbar, facing the rising sun. Poly passed him the water bag.
“Look at this,” Julie said. She reached down and pulled a bottle out of the sand. “It says Pemberton Cola.”
Harris grimaced as he viewed the bottle.
“Never heard of it.” Lucas looked confused when Julie handed the bottle over and he rolled it around in his hands.
“Look.” Poly pointed to the horizon, over the hill behind them. “They don’t have sunrises like that in Preston,” she said. The yellow sun crested over the distant desert mountains. Streaks of red stretched across the sky.
“There’s something I need to warn you guys about,” Harris said. “The town’s over this hill. I think it’s empty, but if it’s not . . . Don’t wander off, don’t lose one another, don’t talk to anyone, and don’t touch anything. We don’t want to disturb anything. Everyone understand?”
He hadn’t left any room for a disagreement, but they all nodded. The way he’d said “disturb” concerned Joey.
What are we walking into?
JOEY FOLLOWED HARRIS UP THE small hill. At the top, he spotted the building he’d seen yesterday wasn’t a building after all, but a large, metal water tank on a hill. It sat above a small town of similar looking houses, all lined up down a single street.
An asphalt road split the town down the middle with houses on each side. The road ended at a store parking lot on the far side of town. Sand took over parts of the black road, covering it in large patches. Something about the town just didn’t feel right.
“Let’s try that store first,” Harris suggested.
Joey nodded, letting the rest walk by as he assessed the town below. Nothing moved, no sounds, no cars or people, no cell phones ringing—just the houses and the store. He counted sixteen homes on each side of the street. But where were the people?
Harris led them down the sandy hill toward the store. As he got closer, the bright green grass stood in sharp contrast to the dead bushes and trees, many that had blown against the dirty houses. The sand reached the bottom row of the small white picket fences surrounding the backyards.
Joey brought up the rear as they walked along the backyards of the houses toward the store. Nothing moved behind the cloudy house windows. The only sign of life was the green grass. Joey stepped over the small plastic fence and onto the green lawn, and then reached down to touch it. Plastic blades flicked at his hand as he brushed the grass.
“Stick close
, everyone,” Harris said.
Joey jumped off the fake grass and caught up to the group.
“I don’t think we should be here,” Poly said.
He saw the knife in her hand, and reached for the grip of his gun. He felt the same vibe. The town felt abandoned, dead. Even more than that, he felt as if someone, or something, was watching them.
“Keep an eye out for anything,” Harris said.
Joey rubbed his brow and looked at the sweat on the back of his hand. He gazed up to the sky and the merciless sun had barely cleared the horizon.
Grateful they’d passed the last house, Joey stepped onto the asphalt parking lot of the store. ShopMart displayed on a faded sign over the windows. Joey thought it was all pretty generic as they crossed the empty parking lot. It looked like any gas station he’d ever visited.
Advertisements clung to the dusty store windows with unfamiliar brands. Pemberton Cola, Twickster candy bars, Energy Volcano, and various others. The glass front door listed the hours of operation. Reaching the glass wall of the mart, Joey peered into the store, looking for any movement. Empty shelves lined the store but nothing moved.
Harris crouched low along the storefront and stopped at the door. He held his fist up as if he was hand signaling for a right turn. “Get low and stay behind me.”
They followed his instructions, watched as he opened the door, and followed him into the store. Joey crouched next to an empty barrel of Shocker Cola. Harris pointed to the other aisles. Joey shuffled his feet to the white metal shelves. He imagined them filled with every sort of candy and snacks, but nothing except a thin layer of dust remained. He passed each aisle with the same disappointment.
Harris, hunched over, moved down the last aisle Joey inspected. Getting on his knee, he held a finger to his mouth. Joey pinched his lips together and knelt close to him.
“Don’t look at it, but there’s a camera above the register. It buzzed when I was over there. Get close and see if you hear it,” Harris said and walked away.
Joey strode to the register and resisted every urge to peek at the camera. Standing next to the register, he heard a faint electrical whirring. He turned his back to the camera and folded his arms. Was the camera on some automatic mode or was someone watching them?