A Future In Time (grey987 & Kami)

[grey987]

"I'm... I'm... sorry."


It took the long pause after he'd asked his second question and those two words (one of which had been spoken twice) that Skell managed to utter for Greg to realize that she was just as much in the dark as he was, having caused some sort of accident with results that neither of them had anticipated. For a moment- for just a moment- he felt guilty for scaring her like that and accusing her of conjuring up some sort of crazy prank, but that quickly went away as he remembered the situation that they were currently in right now. What he remembered was that she ended up tripping over that weird and mysterious box that sat in front of them, causing it to glow and knock them unconscious somehow... and now they were suddenly in a place that they had no recollection of, with an appearance that was almost in no way like the present day. This left them with one question and one question alone: What the hell happened?





"This... No... There's no freaking way..." Greg mumbled, seeming to gradually lose his mind as he paced aimlessly through the room and gripped his locks of hair tightly with his fingers. There was no way that this could be possible... There was no way that the device he and Skell found was a legitimate time machine, that had just sent them to a period in time that they were not supposed to be a part of. Hovering cars, jumpsuits and oddly-shaped buildings... It seemed as though they'd been sent to the future, but this time travel stuff wasn't supposed to be anywhere close to real. That kind of thing was merely a comic book fantasy, restricted by the boundaries of fiction... but it seemed as though Todd had somehow managed to push past those boundaries.


Either way, Greg realized that they had to get out of this new reality now.





"... The cube. Where's the cube!?" he asked in a panic, frantically looking around for the large device that had inexplicably vanished from sight.

 

[Kami]

Where is the cube?





After hearing Greg ask this, Skell asked herself the same question. The cube had to have "travelled" with them too, right? It had to be somewhere. She joined Greg in his frantic search for the odd machine, trying her hardest not to panic. There wasn't much furniture in the room, so it couldn't be hiding in many places. Looking behind and under shelves, chairs, and every other thing Skell came across, she couldn't manage to find a thing. It wasn't until she looked under the table that she found something — a note. A single folded piece of yellow, lined note-pad paper had been taped under the table. A small feeling of relief washed over Skell, taking away some of the panic she'd been experiencing. Todd must have wrote it, she could feel it in her bones.


"Greg, look! A note!," she said, removing the note from under the desk, and unfolding it as Greg came toward her. She tilted the note so they could both read it.


Rules:


1. You must wear a uniform at all times.


2. Do not speak to unmarked people.


3. Report any unusual activity to Todd.


4. Do not use the TM17 until everyone is ready and present.


5. Remain calm, and attentive at all times.


Uniforms are located in Room 823, along with maps and guidebooks.


Remember: Job placements begin at 9:30am sharp. Do not be late.





Skell exchanged confused glances with Greg. She had no idea what the note was talking about. Although... Todd was mentioned. It had to be her brother. She knew that if he wrote this note, they were on the right track. All they had to do now was find "Room 823", where all of their questions would be answered. Hopefully. There were so many questions she had and Skell couldn't wait one more minute for them to be answered. She turned her head to Greg, "Room 823. We have to go there. Now."

 

[grey987]

"Greg, look! A note!" Greg turned around to look at Skell as she called out to him, going to join her over by the table and examining the yellow piece of paper that was held between her fingers to see what it said. On it was a list of 5 rules that they were presumably meant to follow while they were in this place, which only served to confuse him since most of them were so vague in meaning. Uniforms? "Unmarked people"? Job placements? What did any of this really mean? He looked over at Skell to see if she had any sort of understanding of the situation, but the look in her eyes suggested the same thing... They'd both taken a leap of faith when they tried to figure out how the machine worked in the first place, and now they sure to have to take many more if they were to get out of this place that they found themselves trapped in.


He turned his head back towards Skell when she informed him that they needed to go to Room 823 as of right now, and he didn't want to argue since they didn't have any other leads as to how they might have been able to get back home, but he knew that wasn't necessarily a simple task, either. "Yeah, but where is 'Room 823'?" he asked, his voice sounding a bit more even than it was before. "We don't even have a clue of where we are right now. For all we know, this 'Room 823' could be in a completely different building than the one we're in right now. How exactly are we supposed to find it?"

 

[Kami]

"No, it has to be here. It only makes sense.. We're in a building similar to the ones outside, considering our view outside is from up above," Skell began, "We have to look around here anyways. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty curious as to where we are right now. You can sit here and worry about what you're going to do, but I'm going out there. To find that room."


Standing up, she crumpled the note and shoved it into her pocket. Having the note with her felt like she carried a piece of Todd with her. Being here really did make her miss her dumb brother. She made her way towards the door, only pausing to turn the door handle. Her hand was tightly gripped around the handle, nervous about what could be behind it. Skell shut her eyes and breathed for a short second, then opened the door without hesitation. Greg could be behind her, but she wasn't sure. Knowing him, he probably would be. She hoped he was, she didn't want to do this by herself.


Behind the door was a wall... connected to a long hallway. Skell felt a surge of relief walking out of the door. It was like stepping outside after being in a closed in space for a long time; she felt like she could breathe now. The halls were dark, and dull. And the doors connected to them were bland as well. At least they all had numbers beside them. Skell looked at the number of the door she just came out of: 812. The number was very close to 823, so she knew that door had to be on the same floor. Walking down the hallway to the right, she began looking at every door number until she came close to 823.

 

[grey987]

Greg kept his lips pressed into a thin line as Skell informed him that she was going to go out and find the room that was mentioned in Todd's notes, then let out a soft sigh before following her over to the door that led outside of the one they were currently in right now. After stepping out into the hallway with her, he found that he'd been overcome by the same feeling of being able to breathe after being trapped in a tight space for a long time, becoming almost inexplicably more relaxed and feeling his head being cleared of all the thoughts that were causing him to be distraught several moments ago. Their search for Room 823 didn't take long; as it turned out, they were on the same floor that it was supposed to be located in, and all they needed to do was travel a short distance down the right side of the hallway before they came face to face with the door leading into the room.


"... I'm gonna kick your brother's ass when we get home," he muttered, his eyes repeatedly scanning over those three numbers etched into the wall beside it. This was supposedly where the "job uniforms", maps and guidebooks were supposed to be, and he hoped that with said maps and guidebooks, things would become more easy for them to understand. Judging from the instructions left behind, there were certain things that they needed to do while they were here yet there had been nothing explaining how they could get back to their own time period, leaving the answers they needed shrouded in a dense cloud of darkness. Those regulations were the only thing that Greg and Skell could rely on at this point, but even then he was still kind of anxious about this whole situation; they were in a completely unfamiliar place, and for all they knew the world around them could have been a very dangerous one to be in. However, since Skell seemed so determined to delve into this whole conspiracy sort of situation, he was letting her take the lead and putting her trust in her because he knew that he'd be no good for trying to make decisions about what they were supposed to do.

 

[Kami]

"... I'm gonna kick your brother's ass when we get home,"


Skell laughed at Greg's remark, happy to hear that he was close behind. Everything was much less scary when he was with her. She then proceeded to open the door to the long-awaited Room 823. The handle clicked open, and the two close friends wandered inside. The room was small, but it was a comfortable size when there were only two people in it. The walls were covered with lockers that were mostly open. The first thing Skell noticed was a wide open locker with a yellow jumpsuit hanging out of it. At the back wall there was a bulletin board with a large map, and several more notes pinned to it. Skell decided to read the notes first, and see if they had any valuable information. The notes were all smaller in size, mostly listing names of... something. The city in the centre of the map was called 'Havelyn'. There was a small note near it that listed: Merridock, Pavet, Kesther, and Cladic. Another note that had been placed on the city of 'Velis' listed one name: Isaias. Skell closely read all of the listed names, examining each one and what they could be of. By the sound of them, they seemed like names of people. The names were odd, but it wasn't unusual considering the time they were in.


After looking at the map for a while, Skell moved on to the lockers. At the bottom of the locker containing the jumpsuits, there were a few small books. Quickly looking at the jumpsuits, Skell discovered that they all had nametags; the names listed on the notes. Skell then grabbed one of the small books, and noticed that they were the guidebooks they had been looking for. The cover said 'Travel Committee Guidebook', which was the name of the committee Todd used to be in. She flipped open the book and began to read the first section about the 'uniforms'. It explained that they had to wear yellow jumpsuits at all times, which meant their work placements were in the 'Tech Factories'. The guidebooks also came with maps that marked where the Tech Factories were, 'red zones', and 'safe zones'. Red zones were described as places that are unsafe for the Travel Committee, the people there could easily notice who you were, and you did not want to get caught. The book didn't say what would happen if you do get caught. Safe zones were exactly as they sound, safe places for the Travel Committee. The TM17 machines were in the safe zones, and because of that there were only two. Skell assumed their final goal was to get to a safe zone to get back home. There were a lot of obstacles in the way that made it seem really hard to get to a safe zone, though. There were six red zones, and only two safe zones. Along with that, they had to get to their job placements on time or they would be in a lot of trouble.

 

[grey987]

There was nearly far too much information for Greg to try and process when he entered the room with Skell and examined it with her to see what was inside for them; not long ago, he'd been the one to tell her to toughen up when she told him that she didn't want to look inside the box with her dad's things, and now here he was, being strung along by her so that they could get some answers and figure out how the hell they were supposed to get home. He felt so confused and in the dark about everything, still reeling from the fact that the situation they'd been thrust into was very real.


"Jumpsuits... Really?" he asked when he caught sight of the article of clothing that hung outside the wide-open locker. "And they're in yellow, too..." Greg couldn't help but laugh to himself and shake his head in disbelief of his own comment; this was all so ridiculous and- dare he say- scary, and he wished that the cube had just travelled with them when they got to this place instead of leaving them to try and find the device on their own. As if it wasn't already pointed out to them, they were now for sure in a different place and time period than they were before; a bulletin board inside the locker upon further inspection revealed a map with various cities that had names that he didn't recognize at all, making him wonder if maybe they'd actually accidentally travelled to another dimension rather than some point in the future. It was just all so strange, and his mind had difficulty taking it in all at once because it just seemed so surreal, like this was meant to be some sort of dream that just felt all too real.


"I don't understand..." Greg muttered as he read over one of the guidebooks with Skell. "Red zones? Safe zones? How would people be able to recognize us? And why is it so dangerous to be out there?" It really made no sense, and it made him slightly nervous that this was what they had to go through before they could get a chance to make it back home safe and sound. "It's almost as though we're in a whole different world..."

 

[Kami]

"I'm confused about this too," Skell began, "Maybe there are people who know about the Travel Committee, and actively look for them in the red zones. Or maybe the red zones just have official people who are suspicious about everything. Or.. I don't know. There could be monsters there for all we know." She continued to look over the maps, and pictures shown in the guidebook. The red zones were scattered all over the place. It was also weird that there were only safe zones where there were time machines. "It seems to me that we're going to have to cross at least one red zone to get to a safe zone," Skell sighed, giving Greg a worried look. Her thoughts began to drift to how this was all her fault, and she felt bad for putting Greg in this situation. If she hadn't been so curious... so obnoxious..


Suddenly, Skell remembered something.


Remember: Job placements begin at 9:30am sharp. Do not be late.


Her eyes darted towards her watch. It was 8:56am. Considering the two teens had no idea how to navigate in the newly introduced area, they didn't have much time to get to their job placements. Skell didn't know why they had to be there in the first place, or not be late, but she didn't want to risk it. "We have to go. Pick a fake name and get your jumpsuit on, we have a long journey ahead of us."


She grabbed the jumpsuit that contained the nametag 'Merridock', and quickly slipped it over her clothes, throwing her large jacket on the floor. The 'Havelyn' place was the closest to them, so it would most likely be best to go there.

 

[grey987]

"The idea of there being monsters in the red zones sounds a little far fetched..." Greg muttered as his eyes continued to scan over the same maps and graphics that Skell was currently examining, letting out an almost exasperated breath through his nose when she told him that it seemed as though they were going to have to get across at least one red zone in order to get to the nearest safe zone. He went back to wondering just what made these red zones so dangerous before he was shortly informed that they had to leave, reminding him that they had supposed "job placements" to get to and prompting him to quickly shrug off his own black and blue jacket and grab a random jumpsuit from the locker, wearing it over the rest of his original attire. The nametag on it read "Kesther"; he didn't know whether or not the names had any sort of real significance, though quite frankly he didn't care at this moment as he adjusted the jumpsuit over his body so that it fit comfortably around him before quickly grabbing one of the other guidebooks kept inside the locker. The map seemed too large to be able to carried around with the two of them, but the small booklets did have maps of their own inside of them, and they would definitely need some kind of reference to the place they were in if they were going to be able to navigate through it without getting lost.


"So the nearest 'Tech Factory' to us is located in this city called 'Havelyn', right?" Greg asked, looking over at Skell while heading back towards the door to the room. "How exactly are we going to get there, though?"

 

[Kami]

"Well if we could find some sort of bus or train then we could make it just on time," She suggested, hurrying down the several floors of the old building with her friend. Considering there were already plenty of forms of fast transportation in cities in Skell's time, she knew there was something they could take to Havelyn. Greg and Skell pushed the giant doors to the city together, finally entering the new world they had never seen before. It was difficult to look for ways of transportation when Skell was so eager to see everything there was to see in the futuristic city. It was sad almost- there was so much to see and experience but there wasn't enough time for them to do it, and go home. As Skell thought about it more, she began to think she might not mind staying here with Greg, apart from their world. It would be like starting a new life. Although... deep down, she knew she would regret it.


The two friends rushed down the unknown streets of the unknown town they were in. Skell thought a more efficient way to find a form of transportation would be to ask someone- it couldn't hurt, right? They weren't in a red zone... or at least Skell didn't think they were. She spotted someone in a yellow jumpsuit as well, knowing they would be headed to the same place. Before deciding to run up to them and confront them, she realized she could simply follow them. Skell leaned in to Greg, "Let's follow that guy," she whispered, pointing to the person in yellow.