The Dream Mineby Das PootChapters(Introduction) The Dream MineCrashing New Year'sA Promising Development(Introduction) The Dream MineThe Dream Mine … How long have I been in this cave? It can't be too long; my phone says it's only been 8 hours since I got up this morning. The cave I’ve been crawling around in is very dark and my only illumination is my quickly dying iPod's screen. The cave walls are encrusted with huge reflective crystal formations. Could this perhaps still be the mine that old man bought? The area I woke up in has black scorch marks in the area. The crystals are cracked, and some might have been obliterated. If the glitter-like substance around my feet is any indication, it's likely an explosion occurred here. Is teleporting really that violent? I was hoping to sit here and wait to see if anyone might rescue me. But how would anyone know I was in here? Where ever I am... Since it's winter, it's freezing in these caves, and if how pitch dark it is without my Ipod is an indication, I’m probably really deep in this cave. It's time to start trying to find a way out... As I stood up and started walking, I started to think about all the events that led to my current situation. An insatiable curiosity combined with peer pressure from a friend is how I discovered a secret organization. A secret organization that created a portal to who knows where. Sounds absolutely batshit crazy, right? But to make the most sense I have to think back to the day Ezekiel came to my home, and the legend that planted the curiosity in the first place... … The story … ‘The Dream Mine’, they call it. Apparently, decades ago a farmer once had a vivid dream that the mountains to the south housed tons of silver. He dreamt of leaving his life of farming, starting a mine on these mountains, and striking it rich. According to old maps of the place, they dug a third of a mile into the mountain, but only ever found 10 ounces of silver. A decent amount, but not enough to pay for the miners, and maintain the mine. The mine was abandoned... … Not until the late 90's. If you climb up the trail that leads to the “Dream Mine” now, you'll find it to be guarded. Not by military, or any law enforcement agency... Privately. Owned. Guards. What the hell could they be guarding in there? What's so important that no outsiders can know about it? That's what my friend Ezekiel oh so desperately wanted to find out. … One day earlier … *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* Uhhhhhhnnnnggghhhh The alarm clock is going off. Which is a good indication I should wake up. But I don't want to… It's Friday and we have an extra day off from school. Why did I set my alarm in the first place? This is bullshit. I managed to force my eyelids open a little and look towards my window. The sun was just peaking up above the stark white mountains to the east. I rolled over on to my left side to view my alarm clock. 10:31 AM. And its still beeping. *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* I gave my alarm clock the death stare, but to no avail. I'd have to do something about this personally. I pulled my arm out of my cocoon of bedding, extended it into the cold air and flipped the switch to ALARM: OFF, effectively silencing my adversary. I shifted myself into a sitting position on my bed, with my knees tucked towards my chest. Out of habit, I sat my head on my knees and rested my palms on top of my head, feeling the very short stubble growing in from my scalp. What am I going to do today? Ripping the sheets off my body, I proceeded to lazily roll off of my bed and onto the floor. Once I stood up I walked towards my window to get a better view of my street. It must have snowed last night. There's at least 6 inches of fresh snow on all of my neighbors' lawns. The sidewalks were all shoveled and the snowplows have been through to clear the roads already. Most of the children in my neighborhood were out playing in the snow; the majority of them were having an epic snowball fight. A few other groups along the block here and there were making snowmen. It was a picturesque scene. A wave of nostalgia hit me as I remembered myself doing the same as a young child. But now, at the age of 17 all I want to do is get back to sleep. The only problem was if dad found me sleeping past noon he'd kick my ass. Releasing a deep breath, I turned around, opened my door, and walked to my bathroom just across the hall. Leaning my arms on the granite countertop, I looked at myself in the smudged, dirty mirror. I could certainly see the dark stubble of incoming hair on my face and the top of my head. I opened one of the many drawers under the counter and grabbed a black disposable razor and a light-blue canister of shaving gel. F.Y.I., shaving your head hurts like a son of a bitch. The razor blade will constantly catch on your scalp hair, and cause many cuts. After giving the same treatment to my face as I did my head, I rubbed my hands along my now baby-skin smooth scalp. Appreciating my work, I removed my plain white t-shirt and pajama bottoms and looked in my spare clothes drawer. I picked a light blue t-shirt with Kurt Cobain plastered on the front and NIRVANA in white lettering adorning Kurt's waist-line. Those and a pair of dark blue Levi jeans. Giving myself one-last look over before I proceed down stairs, I stared deep into my dark-brown eyes and thought to myself: I'm going to be productive today! After giving myself a grin in the mirror, I was off downstairs. ... I was sitting on my couch playing Call of Duty when I heard the knock on my door. *knock knock knock* I turned my head to look at the same minute my in-game character got knifed, and thus died. "Ffff-!" I started, but decided shouting a vulgarity wasn't a good idea with a guest in ear-shot. "One sec!" I stood up, walked towards the door, and peered into the peep-hole... "God damn it." I muttered I unlocked and opened the door to reveal my good friend, Ezekiel Lewis. But I always called him “Zeke”. Ezekiel is such a pain in the ass to say. It sounds like what a Russian kid would say on Call of Duty for killing an AFK player. “ ‘Sup, asshole!" He said while proceeding to jab me in the gut, causing me to slouch over and grunt in pain. "Hey..." I replied. Why today? Can't I have just a day to relax? I guess it was going to be a boring day anyway. Maybe the spastic, off-the-wall behavior of my friend here will help spice the day up a bit. "Playing Cock 'o' Dooky, I see!" Zeke said while he jumped onto my couch. Like literally jumped. Feet first. "Zeke, I told you not to do that!" "Do... What exactly?" Seriously? "Jump into my couch! You'll break it!" "Calm your tits!" He yelled back at me, taking his black beanie off and pelting me in the face with it. His originally brown faux-hawk was now dyed blond. "Dyed your hair?" I asked. "Sure did! You like it?" He asked back, seeking my approval. "Meh." I said plainly. "What do you mean 'Meh'?!" He quickly stood up. "Okay! Okay! I like it!" I quickly responded, not wanting to start conflict. "That's better." Zeke said giving me a large toothy grin. "So, what do you want to do today?" I didn't feel like going out and doing anything, it was nearing 15 degrees Fahrenheit outside. "I don't know, I was thinking of staying indoors today." Zeke gave me the most disappointed and appalled look he could muster. "Indoors?! We can't let all your excess energy go to waste!" "Energy? I don't have any energy! As long as we don't do anything involving excessive physical exertion I'll be down for anything." I said, hoping Zeke would just agree to stay indoors. "Well, that leaves us next to nothin'! Wait... You got any money?" I knew he would ask that. But I wasn't giving him any money to shop around the mall for an hour. "No." I said flatly. I sat for about ten minutes just listening to Zeke constantly vocalizing his thoughts. "Um..." "Uh..." "Well.." Finally Zeke perked up, and looked at me with a look of realization on his face. "You know, we could go up to the mine." The mine? "What, you mean the Dream Mine?" I asked. Zeke nodded at me. "Yeah, yeah, it's been on my bucket list to go up there to the mine since I heard about it, and I know you've always been curious about it, too! You know, see if we can get inside. See what all those guards and shit are protecting up there." "You actually believe those stories?" I deadpanned. The mountains to the south had an ominous looking white building on it for as long as I could remember. When I was younger I pretended it was an evil fortress. My mom told me a while back that a farmer had a dream of starting a mine on the mountain, thus it was called the "Dream Mine". He dreamt of striking an ass load of silver and becoming rich, but due to there being little to no silver, it was abandoned. Allegedly, there are armed guards to deter any possible sightseers, now. A lot of people believe they are hiding something from the mass of the public. Which is bullshit. Although, allegedly, the guards aren't from the army, nor are they cops, which I found odd. "Yeah, I believe the stories! Let's go and drive up there, what do you have to lose?" He asked. "I'm not going out in the below freezing weather to go storm a mine. Even if there are guards, they're going to make us leave anyway!" Why would Zeke even suggest this? It was pointless either way. Cool, an abandoned mine, or cool, guards telling us to go away. "That's why we sneak inside!" Oh hell no. "Dude-" I started, but was quickly interrupted. "No! When was the last time you did something exciting? And when I mean exciting, I mean something you could tell to chicks to try to pick them up!" Good question. "Um-" "Exactly!" he interrupted again. Zeke proceeded to pull one of the worst 'puppy-dog' looks I've ever seen. "Pleeeeeaassee dude! It can count as my birthday present!" "Your birthday is in three months..." "So?!" I thought for a bit. I guess doing something like this would be fun, but dangerous. Fun, but dangerous... Hmm... "Fine, I guess so." "Sweet shit, dude!" A feeling of dread hit me. A feeling that something bad was going to happen. Was it something I ate? I looked outside. It was getting pretty late. My parents will be home soon. "Hey dude," I started. "What's up?" "Can we do it tomorrow morning though? We won't have much time to do it this late, anyway." "Sure shit, dude! I guess I'll show myself out then. See ya first thing in the morning!" Zeke started towards the door. "For sure!" I called after him as the door shut behind him. ... "Scotty! Dinner's ready!" "Alright! Be right down!" I closed Google Chrome, put my computer to sleep and rushed downstairs. I walked briskly into the kitchen to see my dad sitting at the table and my mom putting a load of spaghetti on everyone's plates. "How was work today?" I asked both of them while seating myself. They both gave the same neutral answer, "It was fine". My mom sat to my right and my dad sat directly across the table from me. "How was your day, Scotty?" My mom asked sweetly. "Same old, same old." I said in between mouthfuls of my food. Damn this spaghetti was good. "Oh." I remembered my conversation with Zeke today. I'd better let my parents know I won't be home. "Oh, um, i'm hanging out with Zeke in the morning." My dad looked up from his plate and frowned, "I wish you'd stop messing with that kid, he's gonna land you into trouble one day." Dad never really did like Zeke. "Dad, he's fine, I know he's a bit off the wall but he'd never get me in trouble on purpose." "Yeah, on purpose." My dad nodded. "Well, be sure to be back home at night. We wouldn't want to get worried about you." "For sure, dad." I reassured him. We all continued to eat our food in peace. ... I was sitting on my bed listening to music when my mom walked in. "Hey, Scott." "Oh, what's up mom?" I asked. She came and sat on the edge of my bed. "You know your dad is just worried about you, right?" "Of course I do. Why do you ask?" Her response surprised me. "Well, we've both been worrying about you. We just don't feel that you're safe when you around Ezekiel, and I know he's a sweet guy, but he's just, well, reckless." She's worried about me? Why? Does she know about the mine? "Mom, I know you and dad don't like Zeke, but I assure you, we'll be fine! We're probably going to do something boring and unexciting anyway." "Well, if you say so." She paused. "Just be careful tomorrow." "I will, mom." After saying goodnight and turning off my light, I wrapped myself in my blanket and went to bed without a worry. I had no way of knowing what kind of shit I was about to be in the following morning. ... The following morning ... It was Winter, my favorite season to be sure. The mountainside was beautiful in this snowy weather. The light snowfall accented the leafless trees in the area nicely. It was a good day to be drinking a glass of Hot Chocolate at home, with Christmas specials playing on TV. That's what I would be doing. But I'm up in the mountains attempting to breach a heavily guarded and supposedly abandoned mine. “Zeke, this is such bullshit! Let's just turn back!” I pleaded to Ezekiel, as we hid in the bushes overlooking the mine. “No way you puss! Are you really that scared?” he asked me. Charming. Zeke, was wearing his usual Gold's Gym workout clothes (which to me looked douchey, but if he's proud for staying fit, let him be). I, however, was wearing my Kurt Cobain shirt for the second day in a row, with a thin red hoodie jacket to help the cold. Which, it really didn't. Now here I was… Ready to storm an abandoned mine... That is, until I found out the mine really IS guarded. “Of course I am! Look at that guy! Does he look like a pushover to you?!” The rumors were also true, in that it wasn't guarded by any military or law enforcement agency. The uniform was nothing I could recognize. The guard wore dark green button up shirt and ankle long khakis. Their shirts had a symbol on the front right breast pocket: a crescent moon with many star bursts surrounding it. What was it supposed to mean? Who knows… Something having to do with astronomy? Not to mention these guys were armed, a pistol of some sorts with three extra magazines of ammunition strapped to his belt. I was most definitely having second thoughts. “Besides, what do you want to bet that door is locked and needs a key?” I was pointing out the steel doorway the guard was standing in front of. “They say the guards will just give you a warning if they see you, hows about I get his attention, and once he starts walking towards me to give me the 'you can't be here' routine, you open up that air vent next to the door and slip through?” The mine's exterior was a three-story tall building. Each story jutted out a different distance from the mountain with the bottom level coming out the most while the top-most story was hugging close to the mountainside. The air vent he was talking about sat right next to the door. I could see that I would barely fit through it. Noise would be a problem too. It opened with a latch at the top. If it was rusted out, I would be heard for sure. I pressed my hands into my face and muttered, "Dude, if I get caught sneaking in there i'm fucked." Zeke tried to console me, however. "Nothing bad will happen to you, man, I promise!" Zeke wasn't letting me go back, so I begrudgingly agreed. I swallowed down the lump of anxiety in my throat. “... Okay.” Those guards better give me a warning. Getting domed is not the way I want to go out. We both positioned ourselves accordingly. Zeke was a pretty good actor and he showed it off here. He walked out of the shrubbery, looking completely lost and confused. The guard immediately perked up at the sight of another person. “Sorry kid, you can't be anywhere near here...” He starts to say some line he has probably practiced to himself a thousand times, while moving towards Zeke. I was starting to have cold feet, but Zeke put his neck on the line for me to get into this damn mine… I wasn't going to let his efforts be in vain! I rushed as quietly as I could towards the air vent, sitting a few feet from the front entrance. “Sir, I’m lost. Do you have a phone I can use to call my mom?” Zeke asks with a sniffle. “Sorry kid, just go back the way you came...” The guard said to him, but I can hear Zeke start to whimper, as I get to the air vent and kneel down. I look back for just a second and Zeke's on his knees with his face in his palms sobbing madly. And the Oscar goes too... I slid the latch of the air vent to the 'open' position. Eureka. Surprisingly, it opened without a sound. I slowly eased the vent guard down to the ground. I knelt down and started to crawl into the mine as I faintly heard the guard begin to moan his exasperations. “Jesus Christ, seriously?-”... I pulled the vent guard closed behind me. ... Crawling on my arms and knees through the ventilation shafts was quite the experience. Barely able to fit, and cold drafts causing me to get goosebumps. Good shit. The shafts were barely illuminated by a light a few feet ahead of me and around a corner. Which i'm guessing there will be another vent guard. As I turned the corner however a trio of rats were sitting next to each other at the vent opening. Seeing me, they quickly scrambled to get away from me, the obvious direction for escape being directly towards me. Obviously. As the rats ran in between my arms and legs, I, for obvious reasons, flipped my shit. "Fucking hell!" I yelled in a panic trying to hit the mice away with my arms. Immediately realizing my huge mistake I quickly covered my mouth with both hands. A useless gesture, the vulgarity had already left my mouth. After sitting there for ten minutes, I reasoned that nobody heard me, so I continued towards the vent guard while I tried to locate the latch. Found it. Opening the vent guard with a slight squeek I stepped into what appeared to be a large hallway. It went a long distance in either direction with many doors and small windows opening into who knows how many rooms. I’m in. I thought to myself as I started strolling through the mine... Laboratory... Place. It didn't look a thing like a mine anymore. It looked more like Black Mesa from Half-Life than a mine! I walked down a few surprisingly unguarded halls... Were most of the guards off for holidays? The walls were made of a very shiny material, perhaps steel. The illumination came from many very bright light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and the flooring was made of nothing but bright white tiles. Different signs were posted on the walls at every corner where a hallway led off. I tried to see if there was anything listed that would be worth hiding from the public, but apparently, all the hallways I was near led to such boring, uninteresting places as: Cafeteria... Break room... Equipment storage... Teleportation test chamber... Yeah, stupid crap I’m not interes-... Teleportation? They test teleportation here? How does no one know about this?! This is a huge deal! It could- “Who the hell are you?! You aren't supposed to be here!” I immediately stopped my internal dialogue and turned around slowly. It's one of the guards... Suit and ugly meat head and all. “You're coming with me...” But before he could grab me, I started running down a randomly chosen hall. Shit shit shit shit! What if I'd seen to much?! Are they gonna kill me?! “STOP! WAIT!” the guard called after me. I could hear more guards running after me; the one who spotted me probably called for help. But if those god damn meat heads think I’m going to just stop they have another thing coming. … I started to lose my breath and my sides began to hurt, but not soon enough for the guards as I sharply turned a corner and busted through a large double door to the chagrin of numerous men in lab coats. But what was towering behind them made me stop breathing so heavily... Nearly, at least. A towering complex machine was hooked up to all kinds of computers and generators around the room. It had a 10 foot tall circular arch in the center of a large circle and a walkway beginning at the base which extended to my feet... This... This is what they were guarding. I can hear the doors behind me slam open, but before I can start running again they grabbed a hold of me. They were too strong for me to break free. “Jesus, kid! Do you know how much shit you're in?! Literally. Like, NECK deep in shit, if only you would have stopped when we told you to!” “But I thought I saw too much! I thought... you were going to kill me, or something!” I spluttered, still trying to catch my breath. “Well, we probably are now.” The guards replied shaking his head. I tried to choke out a reply, but not before a loud blaring noise filled the room. It was the sound of an intercom activating. “Is that the kid?” The voice was chilling, in how uncaring it was. One of the scientists chimed in and looks upwards, as if the man resided in the upper corner of the room. “Yes, Mr. Roper. He's seen... the gate.” “The Gate” must be the the thing in the middle of the room. The teleporter. The intercom blared again. “So we can't let him leave.” They're going to kill me. I tried to speak for myself, “I won't tell anyone about this! I swear! Just let me go!” The very pissed off guard on my left, (who had horrible breath, by the way) put his face next to mine. “Tough luck! You should've stopped when we told you to!” The scientist spoke up again. “Shall we dispose of him Mr. Roper?” There's a pause, I’m hyperventilating by now. Oh man. Please let me go, please let me go... I thought to myself, even though I know it's not going to happen. A dreadful moment of silence follows. Finally after what seems to be an eternity, the intercom blares once more. “Is the gate working? Do you know where it goes?” The scientist thinks for a moment. “Yes sir, the gate does work, but we do not know yet where it leads, we have yet to get any data back from the subjects we've sent in. ” They wouldn't... "Well. Let's try, AGAIN. Stick him with a tracker and a weak sedative, then put him through.” Immediately the lab coats started frantically typing on their computers and flipping switches. The circular gate starts to spin and forms a swirling purple mass in the center. This is crazy! Where's Zeke when you need him?! “Are you all insane?! What if I turn up miles under the ocean?! Or hundreds of feet in the air?! What if- Ow!” I felt two different needles get inserted into my right upper arm. I heard a lab coat mutter, “He's going to get quite the surprise.” I tried to say more, but my whole body starts to numb and my vision starts fading, the guards start dragging me towards the gate as the world around me turned black. The last thing I hear before I black out is a voice. “Nothing personal, kid.” Crashing New Year'sCrashing New Year's ... Reliving the memories only accomplished to piss me off even more. How the hell could this have happened?! I'm going to beat the SHIT out of Zeke when I get back! I thought as I continued to stroll through the dark caverns. The thought if I got back came to my mind, but being a pessimist won't solve anything. My Ipod had died awhile ago and I was now using my phone's flashlight app. The only other thing I had in my pocket was the old pocket knife I got from my dad. I had lost the feeling in my fingers long ago, I would start to suffer the symptoms of hypothermia soon. As I trudged forward, I thought of my dad and mom, probably worried out of their minds. I guess they did have a reason to worry after all. I had to hurry, my phone only had 40% of it's battery life left, if I don't find an exit soon, i'll be left in the dark. As I kept walking, I came across what appeared to be small train tracks. For a mine cart?... A mine cart! If I follow these tracks they will undoubtedly lead me to the exit! But, to my horror, the tracks spiraled downward, and it looked like a long fall to the bottom. The planks on the tracks weren't spaced out to far, besides, I can't just wait here, i'll die for sure. Tentatively stepping on the planks to make sure they could hold my weight, I started to slowly walk along the tracks. Squeak "Jesus!" Hearing the plank I just stepped on creak against my weight, I decided to continue on my hands and knees. This is going to take awhile... ... I kept crawling on the tracks for what could have been an hour. Having many, many close calls as some of the planks would snap from my weight. Sweating from the exertion from crawling up another incline along the tracks I looked forward as my heart dropped into my stomach. The tracks had broken off here. "Uhhhhggnnn" I groaned, but as I looked down, I could see it wasn't a bad drop, maybe about 15 feet, but looking around, the mine didn't continue forwards. Where would the tracks have led to? I looked in all directions trying to find a way out, but found no other passageway. But then I looked up to see a small circle of dark orange light coming in from the ceiling. A part of me wanted to thank god that there was a way out. But what I actually said was, "Are you fucking kidding me?" That small... dot... of light was my only hope. I could see that the small portions of crystal along the walls could make excellent foot and hand holds, provided if they could hold my weight. But to start climbing the wall I had to get down on the ground, and there was no way to get down except for the forever present force of gravity. I inched towards the broken end of the tracks and let my legs hang off the edge. Brace for impact. I let go. I free fell for about one and a half seconds. *thud* Upon landing on my feet I immediately crumpled up and fell on my side. "Ow! Son of a bitch!" I yelled while clutching my foot. Was my ankle broken? No, it must be sprained, I can still swivel my foot around relatively well, but each time I did I released a gasp from the pain. Looking up towards the ceiling and seeing how far I was going to have to climb made me want to give up my escapade. But it was either this, or die. "God damn you, Zeke. My mom was right about you, you bastard." I mutter as I forced myself to stand up. I limped up to the wall slowly and placed my hands onto a pair of purple crystals jutting out of the wall that were about head level, I then proceeded to place my foot on a crystal at knee level, and hoisted myself up. Success, the crystals held me aloft. But for how long? ... I struggled to keep on climbing, but as I kept gripping the smooth surfaces of protruding crystal, my hands started to get sweaty, and thus harder to hold my grip. As I was about a quarter of a way up the wall, I hoisted myself further up with my left hand, but as I set my right foot down into a crack in the wall, my foot slipped. "Gah!" I started to slip down, but before I started to fall I lashed out for anything that could hold me up. I did happen to catch onto a particularly sharp piece of crystal that cut the flesh of the palm of my hand. "Agggghhh!" I exhaled through clenched teeth as I tried desperately to find a foot hold as I clung to the wall with all my might. I managed to find a new foot hold for my right foot. I looked towards my hand while panting from the pain, it was bleeding quite badly. I had to keep climbing despite the stinging pain in my deeply cut right hand, though. "This. Is. Bullshit." I panted as I continued to climb upwards. Every single time I hoisted myself further up I felt a mixture of pains; from the soreness in my ankle, to the cut in my hand, to the general exhaustion of my body. I was getting so exhausted from the climbing I oh, so badly wanted to give up, let myself fall to the ground and rest, and try later. But looking down I could see I was three quarters of the way up. Falling down from here would mean death. I was Almost there. The pain in my hand was driving me insane. It was still bleeding quite a bit. Not to mention the blood was making it even harder to keep my grip. Ready to pass out from the exhaustion, I propelled my arm upwards to find another grip, but instead, found a ledge. Giving myself one last hoist, I set both hands over the ledge and pushed downwards, hauling myself upwards, and over the edge. The light from the exit was near blinding. But it didn't matter, I was free. Laying down for a moment to rest, I relished in the fact I was finally out of the cave, and eventually I would find myself at home. But first, to figure out where I got sent to in the first place. Jesus, there should be a law against performing experiments on people without their consent! I'm going to inform the authorities, and put, ALL those sons of bitches right in the slammer, especially that one guy on the intercom! What was his name again? Roper? Yes... I'll be sure to remember you... After many minutes of rest, I stood up and slowly limped forward towards the exit of this godforsaken cave. Squinting from the sunset's bright light, I walked onto an inclined dirt path, that led upwards towards my left, or downwards towards my right. As my eyes got used to the light, I looked in awe at the sight before me. The first thing I noticed is I must have came out of a mountain, as ground level was easily hundreds of feet below me. But I could see for miles, plains of snow covered fields, and majestic mountains over yonder. Is that a village over there? I could see a small town miles away, with a huge dense forest behind it. This doesn't look like anywhere in Utah I could recognize, where the hell am I? The smarting pain in my hand reminded of my injury, it had stopped bleeding, but it was still susceptible to infection, I need to get it looked at soon. I would choose to go down the mountain and head towards that village, but it will be night soon. This dirt path hadn't been used in awhile, but why would the path lead upwards? It had to go somewhere, it's my best option for right now. I started to limp up the dirt road, despite the exhaustion in my muscles. I can't wait to be able to rest, and get something to eat. Shit i'm starving. ... Limping up the steep incline proved to be an exhausting endeavor, after hours of walking up the path that spiraled up the mountain side I was quite ready to fall asleep for a few weeks, it didn't help that it was night time, and it was pitch black outside, with very little light coming from the moon. But as I continued forward I saw something that kept my spirits high, a train chugging along through the neighboring mountains, heading towards my direction. Could there be a train station up here? As I limped along, the dirt path started to turn into cobblestone. I must be close to something! I could also start to see a faint glow emanating from over a sharp incline of the road up ahead, the lights of a city. I started to walk faster, and faster, until I was going at an awkward jog up the incline to get to this new found sanctuary as fast as I can. I was not quite expecting what I saw when I climbed over the small hill. "Oh, my..." Calling this city "grand" would be an understatement, the city's entrance was a drawbridge that gave passageway over a moat. The city was brightly lit up, and I could easily see many gigantic towers made of white polished stone, and was that a castle I could see? Am I in some foreign Disneyland? Seriously, I have never heard of something like this, a... Palace built on the side of the mountain? With how well lit the city is there has to be people there. Breathing a deep sigh I weakly started to limp towards the drawbridge. ... Canterlot Castle ... It was New Year's Eve in Equestria, a monumental occasion for all, especially the ponies of Canterlot. The year would be 3 L.R. The third year of Princess Luna's return to the diarchy. Once Princess Luna's moon reached it's full height in the sky at 12 o' clock the pyrotechnic unicorns will cast a colorful light show for all to see. The entire population of Canterlot was on castle grounds, including the guards, many of the guests spending their time in the dining room, and famous statue gardens, listening to the symphonies played by the best musicians in the city. The Alicorn diarch, Celestia, sat in the castle foyer, greeting the prestigious guests as she would during the Grand Galloping Gala. "It's good to see you here, tonight! "Good evening i'm glad to see you made it!" Celestia gave each individual guest a pleasant welcome, albeit not personally knowing most of them. Celestia was finishing greeting a duchess from Trottingham when her sister, Princess Luna, flew into the room and landed by her side. "Ah, Luna! Just give me a moment to..." Celestia turned to greet the next guest, but apparently everypony had arrived. Luna chuckled slightly, "Don't worry, sister, all guests have been accounted for." "Good, then let us proceed to the gardens. The fireworks show will start any minute now." ... This is goddamn weird. I had just crossed the drawbridge into the city, but there was no person in sight. The city was as strange looking on the inside as it had been on the outside. The buildings looked like they were from times of old, and the lights of the city were coming from oil fueled streetlights on top of a tall pole. These kinds of street lights hadn't been used in decades. What is with this place? My tennis shoes and socks were soaked from the slush covered streets, but besides the snow on the ground, there had been evidence of a celebration of some sort, streamers and empty drink bottles of all kinds littered about. But still nobody in sight. I walked up to many of the buildings and peered inside. All types of different kinds of restaurants and confectioneries with strange names such as "The Golden Bridle" or "The Stuffed Saddlebag". I walked down the street further and discovered what might have been the cause of the town's celebration; a sign that read: Happy New Year! 3 L.R. The year... 3? Where am I?! Some strange secluded foreign country? But the sign is in English... Wait. The old timey architecture. The primitive technology... I could have been only sent one place. I was sent back in time. "NOOOooooo!" I yelled up towards the sky. I buried my hands in my face. A time machine... It's perfect, It explains why the people back in the Dream Mine had been so secretive. A time machine... I'll never see my family again... I'll never be able to kick the shit out of Zeke! I angrily tried to kick an empty drink bottle with my sore ankle. Causing me to grunt in pain. "Ah!" I backed up and leaned against a wall and sulked for a few minutes. I suppose i'd better get used to my new life in the year "3" but still, this doesn't answer where everybody is! Kicking myself away from the wall I continued to limp down the slushy streets towards the huge-ass castle I saw earlier. Maybe everybody is in there? I limped down the street towards the castle entrance. ... Canterlot Gardens ... Princess Luna watched as her sister gave the "New Year's speech" she gave every year, 'this year was a great one, look forward to the next year, it's good to have my sister back for a third year now, yadda yadda.' As Celestia walked off the podium the crowd was informed that it would strike midnight in exactly one minute. Celestia joined her sister's side at the back of the crowd as they waited for the countdown to start. 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! "Happy New Year!" Everypony cheered as the pyrotechnic magicians let off a spectacular light show, lights in the sky forming shapes such as flowers, jewels and other things in all the colors of the rainbow. As the crowd 'Ooed' and "Awed' at the the spectacle the two Princesses conversed to each other. "It's unfortunate Twilight Sparkle and her friends could not have attended, i'm sure they would have made the celebration more... lively as they did at the Gala." Celestia smiled. "I offered for her and her friends to attend, but Twilight said her friends had already planned their celebration in Ponyville." "Ah, well, the display is about to end, and the crowd will start to return to their homes, I'll go inform the guards to return to their posts." "Alright, i'll stay out here and enjoy the rest of the celebration." Celestia had a feeling the excitement hadn't ended just yet. ... As I neared the castle, fireworks just started erupting from it out of fucking nowhere, scaring the shit out of me. But it did reassure me if anybody was around, it'd be in there. Walking up the steps towards the front entrance I could see it wasn't guarded, which was weird. 'I' personally would want 'my' super castle protected at ALL times, even during a holiday. The front entrance doors were open, so I just walked in and into the grand foyer. It was awesome. A lush red carpet that led up a set of stairs which forked off deeper into the castle. Looking towards the walls I could see many beautifully crafted stained glass windows, but the windows pictured scenes of colored horses doing different things, some horses having wings, and some with horns. What is with this place and goddamn horses? And I still haven't seen anyone yet! I then heard a voice from my left. "What in Celestia's name is that?!" "Hmm?" I turned towards where the voice came from. Holy shit. It was a trio of horses in golden armor! I could see all three of them had a short white coat of fur, and were looking at me apprehensively with HUGE eyes. They stood at about my lower ribs at the top of their heads. Yeah, what is it with this place and horses?... Wait, did they just talk? "G- Go away! Vile beast!" The one in the front yelled at me. I stared at them slack jawed with my eyes as wide as they could go. One of the other horses prodded the one who just... yelled at me. "I doubt the thing speaks Equestrain you dolt!" "Oh! Um... Shoo! Shoo!" The leader of the pack started to do a 'Shoo'-ing motion with it's hoof. We stood there and stared at each other for a few moments. I must have gone insane. What the hell? Maybe if I ignore them they will go away. I started to walk towards them, to try to get past. But the one in the lead saw me coming towards him. "Back! Back I say!" I continued to limp towards them. "I'm warning you!" Silly hallucination. I was about to reach them but the three horses went into a defensive looking stance and then a two-foot long sword was brandished, floating in mid-air, and was encased in a soft blue glow. "What the hell?" "Y- you DO talk! Leave! Now!" The floating sword barreled towards me and stopped with the blade inches from my face. I raised my hand and tapped the tip of the blade with my finger. It was real. Floating swords? This could only mean one thing. These talking mini horses have ghosts in their arsenal. "You stupid quadrupeds! Your ghosts can't hurt me!" I yelled at them. They looked confused for a minute before one of them muttered, "What?" I ran past the sword and towards the trio of horses, surprising them. I shoved them out of the way and sprinted as hard as my ankle would let me down the hallway. "Stop! Wait!" Where have I heard that before? I was getting close to a large double door with a bright light shining from under it. I got close until I was tackled to the ground, face planting into the shiny marble floor. I looked up at my assailant to see one of the horses in armor, but what I didn't see earlier was that this one had a horn coming out of his forehead. The fuck? A unicorn? "Whatever you are, you're not going anywhere near the Princess!" The Princess? I had to get away from this crazy Equine. With my still bloody right hand I proceeded to smack him right in the face. "Bitch!" "Augh!" Some of the blood must have splattered into his eye, with him grimacing, I shoved him off of me with my legs and stood up as fast as I could and ran towards the doors. I could hear music coming from the room ahead of me, there must be people inside! I quickly kicked the doors open and dashed into what looked like a huge dining room of some sort. The music abruptly stopped. I looked around the room to see more mini horses, many of them different colors and wearing an assortment of... clothes? They all looked at me with the same look of shock and awe at the biped that had just crashed their party. One of the horses caught my eye though. A really big one, about as tall as me, and white as snow, with large wings and a long horn poking from it's head. It was giving me a look of surprise, but not the shock of the rest of the room. "Uh..." I started to say, but out of the corner of my eye I could see a large full bottle of liquid was tossed in my direction. Impacting me directly in the head, I quickly started to black out. I fell onto a table face first, crushing it under my weight. This has been the second time in 24 hours I have been knocked out. Great. A Promising DevelopmentA Promising Development The doors to the test chamber swung wide open as Mr. William Roper walked in, coffee in hand, and wearing his usual beige business suit. Once the team of scientists recognized who it was, they returned to their work. Typing on keyboards and eyeing over diagnostic reading and such. William Roper is a 62 year old, retired entrepreneur who, with his immense wealth, was single-handedly funding the STRA, the Search for Trans-dimensional Resources Association. All the technology, the staff, even the mine they bought and used as their laboratory was being funded by him and him only. He had gray, balding hair and a full scruffy beard of the same color. Mr. Roper's shoes clacked against the steel floor as he approached a skinny bald man in a white lab coat. The man looked up from his computer. "Ah, Mr. Roper, um. How is your morning?" Mr. Roper smiled at the pleasantry, "Oh, it's going swell, Dr. Brennan! Tell me, have we had any readings from the poor lad we sent through the other day?" "Um, no sir. No vital signs at all." Dr. Brennan frowned slightly. Mr. Roper's smile turned into a scowl, "Damn! You don't think they'd be dying instantly, would they? I'd think their hearts would continue to beat, they'd continue to respirate, at least for a second!" "Well sir," Dr. Brennan started, "we can only get the signal the trackers give off from the portal itself, and the signal might be getting lost on the way back through, it could take weeks even months to-" "Mr. Roper! Dr. Edgar wants you to see him in the conference room..." One of the numerous facility guards said as he barged in through the chamber entrance. Mr. Roper flailed his free arm in frustration, "God dammit! What does he want now?" The guard shrugged, "I don't know, sir. He didn't say." "Well, then," Mr. Roper turned towards Dr. Brennan, "I'm going to see what the old grouch wants. Be sure to let me know immediately if you see anything!" "Will do, sir!" Dr. Brennan waved as Mr. Roper left the room with the guard. ... The sound of two pairs of footsteps, clicking and clacking, resonated through the brightly lit halls of the Dream Mine. Roper looked through the small windows on the doors decorating the hallways. Teams of researches browsing their computers, calculating formulas, perusing statistics. He even saw an instructor giving a lecture to newcomers of the organization. It'll be nice to see new faces. Roper thought. "You know," Roper broke the silence, "It's astounding, really. We're doing ground breaking research, here. The very entirety of man kind is depending on us!" the guard watched Roper as he rambled on, "How does it feel to be part of this, young man?" "Um, it's pretty cool, man." Roper frowned, "Is that all? It's 'pretty cool'? Do you have any idea of the work we're doing here? The importance of our task? I'll have you know that-" "Oh, were here!" the intimidated man interrupted, Roper turned away from the source of his annoyance to see that, yes, they had arrived at the conference room. Breathing a deep sigh, Roper gave one last glare at the monstrously arrogant security guard before unlocking the door, and stepping into the room. The conference room was dimly lit, barely illuminating the large round table. The table was surrounded by multiple chairs, but only one of them was occupied. Roper raised his arm in a welcoming manner, "Hey, Jeremy!" Dr. Jeremy Edgar only held a flat face, "Don't call me that." he responded. Jeremy Edgar was quite young, for his brilliant scientific mind. He was only 36 years old. With a full head of light brown hair, which Roper envied, and very light stubble on the tip of his chin "Oh, come now, Dr. Edgar, can't we skip the formalities? We've known each other for almost a decade!" Roper pleaded. "Sit." Dr. Edgar pointed to the arm chair right across from him. Roper hesitantly pulled the chair out from under the table and sat in it. "So, uh. What is it you called me down for, Dr. Edgar?" Dr. Edgar's eyebrows instantly furrowed, "You know damn well why I brought you down here!" Roper recoiled slightly, "Um, Doctor?" Dr. Edgar slightly shook his head, "I heard about what you did two days ago. You sent another kid through?!" "Oh, ho ho ho," Roper laughed, which made Dr. Edgar frown even harder, "Yeah, another stupid kid busted in and saw the device. I thought, well, you see, We haven't gotten any readings from the, other subjects we sent through, so-" "So, WHAT?" Dr. Edgar yelled, "If you keep pulling this shit Roper, we could become compromised." Roper scoffed, "Gah, you're being too paranoid..." "Am I William? People are already suspicious of what's up here, if word got around that multiple people have gone missing in the area we'll have more, and more people snooping around! It is especially not worth it if you keep sending kids through and we don't get any results!" A quiet grew beneath the two for a short time. Roper sighed, "I see your point, Doctor. It won't happen again I assure you." A phone started to ring in Roper's front pocket. Dr. Edgar said nothing as he crossed his arms and sunk into his chair. Roper mouthed "I'm sorry." as he reached into his pocket and raised the cell phone to his ear. "What is it? I was in the middle of something!... Oh? Oh really?" Dr. Edgar lifted his eyes from the floor to Roper. "Oh, yes this is marvelous! I'll inform the good doctor right now!" Roper placed the phone back in his pocket as he smiled proudly at Dr. Edgar. "Well? What is it?" Dr. Edgar asked impatiently. "We've got a reading, a good one. The young women we sent in last month survived for at least two weeks. atmosphere is roughly 17.6% oxygen, and she consumed water at some point in the two week period." "Hmph." Dr. Edgar seemed impressed. "Well, you better get an exploration team ready." "Oh, right away, Doctor!" Roper said excitedly as he left for the door. "Wait." Roper stopped as he opened the door. "Yes, Doctor?" "Roper, would we be able to locate the kids you tracked once we got to the other side?" "Hmm." Roper contemplated, "Yes, we should from what the doctors down in the test chamber have told me." "You're going to have to find them, and kill them." Dr. Edgar took on a look of sorrow. Mr. Roper nodded, "Duly noted." before he left the room and took off down the hallway. Dr. Edgar sat in his chair for an extra few minutes as he said to himself, "Well, isn't this quite the promising development?"
(Introduction) The Dream MineThe Dream Mine … How long have I been in this cave? It can't be too long; my phone says it's only been 8 hours since I got up this morning. The cave I’ve been crawling around in is very dark and my only illumination is my quickly dying iPod's screen. The cave walls are encrusted with huge reflective crystal formations. Could this perhaps still be the mine that old man bought? The area I woke up in has black scorch marks in the area. The crystals are cracked, and some might have been obliterated. If the glitter-like substance around my feet is any indication, it's likely an explosion occurred here. Is teleporting really that violent? I was hoping to sit here and wait to see if anyone might rescue me. But how would anyone know I was in here? Where ever I am... Since it's winter, it's freezing in these caves, and if how pitch dark it is without my Ipod is an indication, I’m probably really deep in this cave. It's time to start trying to find a way out... As I stood up and started walking, I started to think about all the events that led to my current situation. An insatiable curiosity combined with peer pressure from a friend is how I discovered a secret organization. A secret organization that created a portal to who knows where. Sounds absolutely batshit crazy, right? But to make the most sense I have to think back to the day Ezekiel came to my home, and the legend that planted the curiosity in the first place... … The story … ‘The Dream Mine’, they call it. Apparently, decades ago a farmer once had a vivid dream that the mountains to the south housed tons of silver. He dreamt of leaving his life of farming, starting a mine on these mountains, and striking it rich. According to old maps of the place, they dug a third of a mile into the mountain, but only ever found 10 ounces of silver. A decent amount, but not enough to pay for the miners, and maintain the mine. The mine was abandoned... … Not until the late 90's. If you climb up the trail that leads to the “Dream Mine” now, you'll find it to be guarded. Not by military, or any law enforcement agency... Privately. Owned. Guards. What the hell could they be guarding in there? What's so important that no outsiders can know about it? That's what my friend Ezekiel oh so desperately wanted to find out. … One day earlier … *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* Uhhhhhhnnnnggghhhh The alarm clock is going off. Which is a good indication I should wake up. But I don't want to… It's Friday and we have an extra day off from school. Why did I set my alarm in the first place? This is bullshit. I managed to force my eyelids open a little and look towards my window. The sun was just peaking up above the stark white mountains to the east. I rolled over on to my left side to view my alarm clock. 10:31 AM. And its still beeping. *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* I gave my alarm clock the death stare, but to no avail. I'd have to do something about this personally. I pulled my arm out of my cocoon of bedding, extended it into the cold air and flipped the switch to ALARM: OFF, effectively silencing my adversary. I shifted myself into a sitting position on my bed, with my knees tucked towards my chest. Out of habit, I sat my head on my knees and rested my palms on top of my head, feeling the very short stubble growing in from my scalp. What am I going to do today? Ripping the sheets off my body, I proceeded to lazily roll off of my bed and onto the floor. Once I stood up I walked towards my window to get a better view of my street. It must have snowed last night. There's at least 6 inches of fresh snow on all of my neighbors' lawns. The sidewalks were all shoveled and the snowplows have been through to clear the roads already. Most of the children in my neighborhood were out playing in the snow; the majority of them were having an epic snowball fight. A few other groups along the block here and there were making snowmen. It was a picturesque scene. A wave of nostalgia hit me as I remembered myself doing the same as a young child. But now, at the age of 17 all I want to do is get back to sleep. The only problem was if dad found me sleeping past noon he'd kick my ass. Releasing a deep breath, I turned around, opened my door, and walked to my bathroom just across the hall. Leaning my arms on the granite countertop, I looked at myself in the smudged, dirty mirror. I could certainly see the dark stubble of incoming hair on my face and the top of my head. I opened one of the many drawers under the counter and grabbed a black disposable razor and a light-blue canister of shaving gel. F.Y.I., shaving your head hurts like a son of a bitch. The razor blade will constantly catch on your scalp hair, and cause many cuts. After giving the same treatment to my face as I did my head, I rubbed my hands along my now baby-skin smooth scalp. Appreciating my work, I removed my plain white t-shirt and pajama bottoms and looked in my spare clothes drawer. I picked a light blue t-shirt with Kurt Cobain plastered on the front and NIRVANA in white lettering adorning Kurt's waist-line. Those and a pair of dark blue Levi jeans. Giving myself one-last look over before I proceed down stairs, I stared deep into my dark-brown eyes and thought to myself: I'm going to be productive today! After giving myself a grin in the mirror, I was off downstairs. ... I was sitting on my couch playing Call of Duty when I heard the knock on my door. *knock knock knock* I turned my head to look at the same minute my in-game character got knifed, and thus died. "Ffff-!" I started, but decided shouting a vulgarity wasn't a good idea with a guest in ear-shot. "One sec!" I stood up, walked towards the door, and peered into the peep-hole... "God damn it." I muttered I unlocked and opened the door to reveal my good friend, Ezekiel Lewis. But I always called him “Zeke”. Ezekiel is such a pain in the ass to say. It sounds like what a Russian kid would say on Call of Duty for killing an AFK player. “ ‘Sup, asshole!" He said while proceeding to jab me in the gut, causing me to slouch over and grunt in pain. "Hey..." I replied. Why today? Can't I have just a day to relax? I guess it was going to be a boring day anyway. Maybe the spastic, off-the-wall behavior of my friend here will help spice the day up a bit. "Playing Cock 'o' Dooky, I see!" Zeke said while he jumped onto my couch. Like literally jumped. Feet first. "Zeke, I told you not to do that!" "Do... What exactly?" Seriously? "Jump into my couch! You'll break it!" "Calm your tits!" He yelled back at me, taking his black beanie off and pelting me in the face with it. His originally brown faux-hawk was now dyed blond. "Dyed your hair?" I asked. "Sure did! You like it?" He asked back, seeking my approval. "Meh." I said plainly. "What do you mean 'Meh'?!" He quickly stood up. "Okay! Okay! I like it!" I quickly responded, not wanting to start conflict. "That's better." Zeke said giving me a large toothy grin. "So, what do you want to do today?" I didn't feel like going out and doing anything, it was nearing 15 degrees Fahrenheit outside. "I don't know, I was thinking of staying indoors today." Zeke gave me the most disappointed and appalled look he could muster. "Indoors?! We can't let all your excess energy go to waste!" "Energy? I don't have any energy! As long as we don't do anything involving excessive physical exertion I'll be down for anything." I said, hoping Zeke would just agree to stay indoors. "Well, that leaves us next to nothin'! Wait... You got any money?" I knew he would ask that. But I wasn't giving him any money to shop around the mall for an hour. "No." I said flatly. I sat for about ten minutes just listening to Zeke constantly vocalizing his thoughts. "Um..." "Uh..." "Well.." Finally Zeke perked up, and looked at me with a look of realization on his face. "You know, we could go up to the mine." The mine? "What, you mean the Dream Mine?" I asked. Zeke nodded at me. "Yeah, yeah, it's been on my bucket list to go up there to the mine since I heard about it, and I know you've always been curious about it, too! You know, see if we can get inside. See what all those guards and shit are protecting up there." "You actually believe those stories?" I deadpanned. The mountains to the south had an ominous looking white building on it for as long as I could remember. When I was younger I pretended it was an evil fortress. My mom told me a while back that a farmer had a dream of starting a mine on the mountain, thus it was called the "Dream Mine". He dreamt of striking an ass load of silver and becoming rich, but due to there being little to no silver, it was abandoned. Allegedly, there are armed guards to deter any possible sightseers, now. A lot of people believe they are hiding something from the mass of the public. Which is bullshit. Although, allegedly, the guards aren't from the army, nor are they cops, which I found odd. "Yeah, I believe the stories! Let's go and drive up there, what do you have to lose?" He asked. "I'm not going out in the below freezing weather to go storm a mine. Even if there are guards, they're going to make us leave anyway!" Why would Zeke even suggest this? It was pointless either way. Cool, an abandoned mine, or cool, guards telling us to go away. "That's why we sneak inside!" Oh hell no. "Dude-" I started, but was quickly interrupted. "No! When was the last time you did something exciting? And when I mean exciting, I mean something you could tell to chicks to try to pick them up!" Good question. "Um-" "Exactly!" he interrupted again. Zeke proceeded to pull one of the worst 'puppy-dog' looks I've ever seen. "Pleeeeeaassee dude! It can count as my birthday present!" "Your birthday is in three months..." "So?!" I thought for a bit. I guess doing something like this would be fun, but dangerous. Fun, but dangerous... Hmm... "Fine, I guess so." "Sweet shit, dude!" A feeling of dread hit me. A feeling that something bad was going to happen. Was it something I ate? I looked outside. It was getting pretty late. My parents will be home soon. "Hey dude," I started. "What's up?" "Can we do it tomorrow morning though? We won't have much time to do it this late, anyway." "Sure shit, dude! I guess I'll show myself out then. See ya first thing in the morning!" Zeke started towards the door. "For sure!" I called after him as the door shut behind him. ... "Scotty! Dinner's ready!" "Alright! Be right down!" I closed Google Chrome, put my computer to sleep and rushed downstairs. I walked briskly into the kitchen to see my dad sitting at the table and my mom putting a load of spaghetti on everyone's plates. "How was work today?" I asked both of them while seating myself. They both gave the same neutral answer, "It was fine". My mom sat to my right and my dad sat directly across the table from me. "How was your day, Scotty?" My mom asked sweetly. "Same old, same old." I said in between mouthfuls of my food. Damn this spaghetti was good. "Oh." I remembered my conversation with Zeke today. I'd better let my parents know I won't be home. "Oh, um, i'm hanging out with Zeke in the morning." My dad looked up from his plate and frowned, "I wish you'd stop messing with that kid, he's gonna land you into trouble one day." Dad never really did like Zeke. "Dad, he's fine, I know he's a bit off the wall but he'd never get me in trouble on purpose." "Yeah, on purpose." My dad nodded. "Well, be sure to be back home at night. We wouldn't want to get worried about you." "For sure, dad." I reassured him. We all continued to eat our food in peace. ... I was sitting on my bed listening to music when my mom walked in. "Hey, Scott." "Oh, what's up mom?" I asked. She came and sat on the edge of my bed. "You know your dad is just worried about you, right?" "Of course I do. Why do you ask?" Her response surprised me. "Well, we've both been worrying about you. We just don't feel that you're safe when you around Ezekiel, and I know he's a sweet guy, but he's just, well, reckless." She's worried about me? Why? Does she know about the mine? "Mom, I know you and dad don't like Zeke, but I assure you, we'll be fine! We're probably going to do something boring and unexciting anyway." "Well, if you say so." She paused. "Just be careful tomorrow." "I will, mom." After saying goodnight and turning off my light, I wrapped myself in my blanket and went to bed without a worry. I had no way of knowing what kind of shit I was about to be in the following morning. ... The following morning ... It was Winter, my favorite season to be sure. The mountainside was beautiful in this snowy weather. The light snowfall accented the leafless trees in the area nicely. It was a good day to be drinking a glass of Hot Chocolate at home, with Christmas specials playing on TV. That's what I would be doing. But I'm up in the mountains attempting to breach a heavily guarded and supposedly abandoned mine. “Zeke, this is such bullshit! Let's just turn back!” I pleaded to Ezekiel, as we hid in the bushes overlooking the mine. “No way you puss! Are you really that scared?” he asked me. Charming. Zeke, was wearing his usual Gold's Gym workout clothes (which to me looked douchey, but if he's proud for staying fit, let him be). I, however, was wearing my Kurt Cobain shirt for the second day in a row, with a thin red hoodie jacket to help the cold. Which, it really didn't. Now here I was… Ready to storm an abandoned mine... That is, until I found out the mine really IS guarded. “Of course I am! Look at that guy! Does he look like a pushover to you?!” The rumors were also true, in that it wasn't guarded by any military or law enforcement agency. The uniform was nothing I could recognize. The guard wore dark green button up shirt and ankle long khakis. Their shirts had a symbol on the front right breast pocket: a crescent moon with many star bursts surrounding it. What was it supposed to mean? Who knows… Something having to do with astronomy? Not to mention these guys were armed, a pistol of some sorts with three extra magazines of ammunition strapped to his belt. I was most definitely having second thoughts. “Besides, what do you want to bet that door is locked and needs a key?” I was pointing out the steel doorway the guard was standing in front of. “They say the guards will just give you a warning if they see you, hows about I get his attention, and once he starts walking towards me to give me the 'you can't be here' routine, you open up that air vent next to the door and slip through?” The mine's exterior was a three-story tall building. Each story jutted out a different distance from the mountain with the bottom level coming out the most while the top-most story was hugging close to the mountainside. The air vent he was talking about sat right next to the door. I could see that I would barely fit through it. Noise would be a problem too. It opened with a latch at the top. If it was rusted out, I would be heard for sure. I pressed my hands into my face and muttered, "Dude, if I get caught sneaking in there i'm fucked." Zeke tried to console me, however. "Nothing bad will happen to you, man, I promise!" Zeke wasn't letting me go back, so I begrudgingly agreed. I swallowed down the lump of anxiety in my throat. “... Okay.” Those guards better give me a warning. Getting domed is not the way I want to go out. We both positioned ourselves accordingly. Zeke was a pretty good actor and he showed it off here. He walked out of the shrubbery, looking completely lost and confused. The guard immediately perked up at the sight of another person. “Sorry kid, you can't be anywhere near here...” He starts to say some line he has probably practiced to himself a thousand times, while moving towards Zeke. I was starting to have cold feet, but Zeke put his neck on the line for me to get into this damn mine… I wasn't going to let his efforts be in vain! I rushed as quietly as I could towards the air vent, sitting a few feet from the front entrance. “Sir, I’m lost. Do you have a phone I can use to call my mom?” Zeke asks with a sniffle. “Sorry kid, just go back the way you came...” The guard said to him, but I can hear Zeke start to whimper, as I get to the air vent and kneel down. I look back for just a second and Zeke's on his knees with his face in his palms sobbing madly. And the Oscar goes too... I slid the latch of the air vent to the 'open' position. Eureka. Surprisingly, it opened without a sound. I slowly eased the vent guard down to the ground. I knelt down and started to crawl into the mine as I faintly heard the guard begin to moan his exasperations. “Jesus Christ, seriously?-”... I pulled the vent guard closed behind me. ... Crawling on my arms and knees through the ventilation shafts was quite the experience. Barely able to fit, and cold drafts causing me to get goosebumps. Good shit. The shafts were barely illuminated by a light a few feet ahead of me and around a corner. Which i'm guessing there will be another vent guard. As I turned the corner however a trio of rats were sitting next to each other at the vent opening. Seeing me, they quickly scrambled to get away from me, the obvious direction for escape being directly towards me. Obviously. As the rats ran in between my arms and legs, I, for obvious reasons, flipped my shit. "Fucking hell!" I yelled in a panic trying to hit the mice away with my arms. Immediately realizing my huge mistake I quickly covered my mouth with both hands. A useless gesture, the vulgarity had already left my mouth. After sitting there for ten minutes, I reasoned that nobody heard me, so I continued towards the vent guard while I tried to locate the latch. Found it. Opening the vent guard with a slight squeek I stepped into what appeared to be a large hallway. It went a long distance in either direction with many doors and small windows opening into who knows how many rooms. I’m in. I thought to myself as I started strolling through the mine... Laboratory... Place. It didn't look a thing like a mine anymore. It looked more like Black Mesa from Half-Life than a mine! I walked down a few surprisingly unguarded halls... Were most of the guards off for holidays? The walls were made of a very shiny material, perhaps steel. The illumination came from many very bright light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and the flooring was made of nothing but bright white tiles. Different signs were posted on the walls at every corner where a hallway led off. I tried to see if there was anything listed that would be worth hiding from the public, but apparently, all the hallways I was near led to such boring, uninteresting places as: Cafeteria... Break room... Equipment storage... Teleportation test chamber... Yeah, stupid crap I’m not interes-... Teleportation? They test teleportation here? How does no one know about this?! This is a huge deal! It could- “Who the hell are you?! You aren't supposed to be here!” I immediately stopped my internal dialogue and turned around slowly. It's one of the guards... Suit and ugly meat head and all. “You're coming with me...” But before he could grab me, I started running down a randomly chosen hall. Shit shit shit shit! What if I'd seen to much?! Are they gonna kill me?! “STOP! WAIT!” the guard called after me. I could hear more guards running after me; the one who spotted me probably called for help. But if those god damn meat heads think I’m going to just stop they have another thing coming. … I started to lose my breath and my sides began to hurt, but not soon enough for the guards as I sharply turned a corner and busted through a large double door to the chagrin of numerous men in lab coats. But what was towering behind them made me stop breathing so heavily... Nearly, at least. A towering complex machine was hooked up to all kinds of computers and generators around the room. It had a 10 foot tall circular arch in the center of a large circle and a walkway beginning at the base which extended to my feet... This... This is what they were guarding. I can hear the doors behind me slam open, but before I can start running again they grabbed a hold of me. They were too strong for me to break free. “Jesus, kid! Do you know how much shit you're in?! Literally. Like, NECK deep in shit, if only you would have stopped when we told you to!” “But I thought I saw too much! I thought... you were going to kill me, or something!” I spluttered, still trying to catch my breath. “Well, we probably are now.” The guards replied shaking his head. I tried to choke out a reply, but not before a loud blaring noise filled the room. It was the sound of an intercom activating. “Is that the kid?” The voice was chilling, in how uncaring it was. One of the scientists chimed in and looks upwards, as if the man resided in the upper corner of the room. “Yes, Mr. Roper. He's seen... the gate.” “The Gate” must be the the thing in the middle of the room. The teleporter. The intercom blared again. “So we can't let him leave.” They're going to kill me. I tried to speak for myself, “I won't tell anyone about this! I swear! Just let me go!” The very pissed off guard on my left, (who had horrible breath, by the way) put his face next to mine. “Tough luck! You should've stopped when we told you to!” The scientist spoke up again. “Shall we dispose of him Mr. Roper?” There's a pause, I’m hyperventilating by now. Oh man. Please let me go, please let me go... I thought to myself, even though I know it's not going to happen. A dreadful moment of silence follows. Finally after what seems to be an eternity, the intercom blares once more. “Is the gate working? Do you know where it goes?” The scientist thinks for a moment. “Yes sir, the gate does work, but we do not know yet where it leads, we have yet to get any data back from the subjects we've sent in. ” They wouldn't... "Well. Let's try, AGAIN. Stick him with a tracker and a weak sedative, then put him through.” Immediately the lab coats started frantically typing on their computers and flipping switches. The circular gate starts to spin and forms a swirling purple mass in the center. This is crazy! Where's Zeke when you need him?! “Are you all insane?! What if I turn up miles under the ocean?! Or hundreds of feet in the air?! What if- Ow!” I felt two different needles get inserted into my right upper arm. I heard a lab coat mutter, “He's going to get quite the surprise.” I tried to say more, but my whole body starts to numb and my vision starts fading, the guards start dragging me towards the gate as the world around me turned black. The last thing I hear before I black out is a voice. “Nothing personal, kid.”
Crashing New Year'sCrashing New Year's ... Reliving the memories only accomplished to piss me off even more. How the hell could this have happened?! I'm going to beat the SHIT out of Zeke when I get back! I thought as I continued to stroll through the dark caverns. The thought if I got back came to my mind, but being a pessimist won't solve anything. My Ipod had died awhile ago and I was now using my phone's flashlight app. The only other thing I had in my pocket was the old pocket knife I got from my dad. I had lost the feeling in my fingers long ago, I would start to suffer the symptoms of hypothermia soon. As I trudged forward, I thought of my dad and mom, probably worried out of their minds. I guess they did have a reason to worry after all. I had to hurry, my phone only had 40% of it's battery life left, if I don't find an exit soon, i'll be left in the dark. As I kept walking, I came across what appeared to be small train tracks. For a mine cart?... A mine cart! If I follow these tracks they will undoubtedly lead me to the exit! But, to my horror, the tracks spiraled downward, and it looked like a long fall to the bottom. The planks on the tracks weren't spaced out to far, besides, I can't just wait here, i'll die for sure. Tentatively stepping on the planks to make sure they could hold my weight, I started to slowly walk along the tracks. Squeak "Jesus!" Hearing the plank I just stepped on creak against my weight, I decided to continue on my hands and knees. This is going to take awhile... ... I kept crawling on the tracks for what could have been an hour. Having many, many close calls as some of the planks would snap from my weight. Sweating from the exertion from crawling up another incline along the tracks I looked forward as my heart dropped into my stomach. The tracks had broken off here. "Uhhhhggnnn" I groaned, but as I looked down, I could see it wasn't a bad drop, maybe about 15 feet, but looking around, the mine didn't continue forwards. Where would the tracks have led to? I looked in all directions trying to find a way out, but found no other passageway. But then I looked up to see a small circle of dark orange light coming in from the ceiling. A part of me wanted to thank god that there was a way out. But what I actually said was, "Are you fucking kidding me?" That small... dot... of light was my only hope. I could see that the small portions of crystal along the walls could make excellent foot and hand holds, provided if they could hold my weight. But to start climbing the wall I had to get down on the ground, and there was no way to get down except for the forever present force of gravity. I inched towards the broken end of the tracks and let my legs hang off the edge. Brace for impact. I let go. I free fell for about one and a half seconds. *thud* Upon landing on my feet I immediately crumpled up and fell on my side. "Ow! Son of a bitch!" I yelled while clutching my foot. Was my ankle broken? No, it must be sprained, I can still swivel my foot around relatively well, but each time I did I released a gasp from the pain. Looking up towards the ceiling and seeing how far I was going to have to climb made me want to give up my escapade. But it was either this, or die. "God damn you, Zeke. My mom was right about you, you bastard." I mutter as I forced myself to stand up. I limped up to the wall slowly and placed my hands onto a pair of purple crystals jutting out of the wall that were about head level, I then proceeded to place my foot on a crystal at knee level, and hoisted myself up. Success, the crystals held me aloft. But for how long? ... I struggled to keep on climbing, but as I kept gripping the smooth surfaces of protruding crystal, my hands started to get sweaty, and thus harder to hold my grip. As I was about a quarter of a way up the wall, I hoisted myself further up with my left hand, but as I set my right foot down into a crack in the wall, my foot slipped. "Gah!" I started to slip down, but before I started to fall I lashed out for anything that could hold me up. I did happen to catch onto a particularly sharp piece of crystal that cut the flesh of the palm of my hand. "Agggghhh!" I exhaled through clenched teeth as I tried desperately to find a foot hold as I clung to the wall with all my might. I managed to find a new foot hold for my right foot. I looked towards my hand while panting from the pain, it was bleeding quite badly. I had to keep climbing despite the stinging pain in my deeply cut right hand, though. "This. Is. Bullshit." I panted as I continued to climb upwards. Every single time I hoisted myself further up I felt a mixture of pains; from the soreness in my ankle, to the cut in my hand, to the general exhaustion of my body. I was getting so exhausted from the climbing I oh, so badly wanted to give up, let myself fall to the ground and rest, and try later. But looking down I could see I was three quarters of the way up. Falling down from here would mean death. I was Almost there. The pain in my hand was driving me insane. It was still bleeding quite a bit. Not to mention the blood was making it even harder to keep my grip. Ready to pass out from the exhaustion, I propelled my arm upwards to find another grip, but instead, found a ledge. Giving myself one last hoist, I set both hands over the ledge and pushed downwards, hauling myself upwards, and over the edge. The light from the exit was near blinding. But it didn't matter, I was free. Laying down for a moment to rest, I relished in the fact I was finally out of the cave, and eventually I would find myself at home. But first, to figure out where I got sent to in the first place. Jesus, there should be a law against performing experiments on people without their consent! I'm going to inform the authorities, and put, ALL those sons of bitches right in the slammer, especially that one guy on the intercom! What was his name again? Roper? Yes... I'll be sure to remember you... After many minutes of rest, I stood up and slowly limped forward towards the exit of this godforsaken cave. Squinting from the sunset's bright light, I walked onto an inclined dirt path, that led upwards towards my left, or downwards towards my right. As my eyes got used to the light, I looked in awe at the sight before me. The first thing I noticed is I must have came out of a mountain, as ground level was easily hundreds of feet below me. But I could see for miles, plains of snow covered fields, and majestic mountains over yonder. Is that a village over there? I could see a small town miles away, with a huge dense forest behind it. This doesn't look like anywhere in Utah I could recognize, where the hell am I? The smarting pain in my hand reminded of my injury, it had stopped bleeding, but it was still susceptible to infection, I need to get it looked at soon. I would choose to go down the mountain and head towards that village, but it will be night soon. This dirt path hadn't been used in awhile, but why would the path lead upwards? It had to go somewhere, it's my best option for right now. I started to limp up the dirt road, despite the exhaustion in my muscles. I can't wait to be able to rest, and get something to eat. Shit i'm starving. ... Limping up the steep incline proved to be an exhausting endeavor, after hours of walking up the path that spiraled up the mountain side I was quite ready to fall asleep for a few weeks, it didn't help that it was night time, and it was pitch black outside, with very little light coming from the moon. But as I continued forward I saw something that kept my spirits high, a train chugging along through the neighboring mountains, heading towards my direction. Could there be a train station up here? As I limped along, the dirt path started to turn into cobblestone. I must be close to something! I could also start to see a faint glow emanating from over a sharp incline of the road up ahead, the lights of a city. I started to walk faster, and faster, until I was going at an awkward jog up the incline to get to this new found sanctuary as fast as I can. I was not quite expecting what I saw when I climbed over the small hill. "Oh, my..." Calling this city "grand" would be an understatement, the city's entrance was a drawbridge that gave passageway over a moat. The city was brightly lit up, and I could easily see many gigantic towers made of white polished stone, and was that a castle I could see? Am I in some foreign Disneyland? Seriously, I have never heard of something like this, a... Palace built on the side of the mountain? With how well lit the city is there has to be people there. Breathing a deep sigh I weakly started to limp towards the drawbridge. ... Canterlot Castle ... It was New Year's Eve in Equestria, a monumental occasion for all, especially the ponies of Canterlot. The year would be 3 L.R. The third year of Princess Luna's return to the diarchy. Once Princess Luna's moon reached it's full height in the sky at 12 o' clock the pyrotechnic unicorns will cast a colorful light show for all to see. The entire population of Canterlot was on castle grounds, including the guards, many of the guests spending their time in the dining room, and famous statue gardens, listening to the symphonies played by the best musicians in the city. The Alicorn diarch, Celestia, sat in the castle foyer, greeting the prestigious guests as she would during the Grand Galloping Gala. "It's good to see you here, tonight! "Good evening i'm glad to see you made it!" Celestia gave each individual guest a pleasant welcome, albeit not personally knowing most of them. Celestia was finishing greeting a duchess from Trottingham when her sister, Princess Luna, flew into the room and landed by her side. "Ah, Luna! Just give me a moment to..." Celestia turned to greet the next guest, but apparently everypony had arrived. Luna chuckled slightly, "Don't worry, sister, all guests have been accounted for." "Good, then let us proceed to the gardens. The fireworks show will start any minute now." ... This is goddamn weird. I had just crossed the drawbridge into the city, but there was no person in sight. The city was as strange looking on the inside as it had been on the outside. The buildings looked like they were from times of old, and the lights of the city were coming from oil fueled streetlights on top of a tall pole. These kinds of street lights hadn't been used in decades. What is with this place? My tennis shoes and socks were soaked from the slush covered streets, but besides the snow on the ground, there had been evidence of a celebration of some sort, streamers and empty drink bottles of all kinds littered about. But still nobody in sight. I walked up to many of the buildings and peered inside. All types of different kinds of restaurants and confectioneries with strange names such as "The Golden Bridle" or "The Stuffed Saddlebag". I walked down the street further and discovered what might have been the cause of the town's celebration; a sign that read: Happy New Year! 3 L.R. The year... 3? Where am I?! Some strange secluded foreign country? But the sign is in English... Wait. The old timey architecture. The primitive technology... I could have been only sent one place. I was sent back in time. "NOOOooooo!" I yelled up towards the sky. I buried my hands in my face. A time machine... It's perfect, It explains why the people back in the Dream Mine had been so secretive. A time machine... I'll never see my family again... I'll never be able to kick the shit out of Zeke! I angrily tried to kick an empty drink bottle with my sore ankle. Causing me to grunt in pain. "Ah!" I backed up and leaned against a wall and sulked for a few minutes. I suppose i'd better get used to my new life in the year "3" but still, this doesn't answer where everybody is! Kicking myself away from the wall I continued to limp down the slushy streets towards the huge-ass castle I saw earlier. Maybe everybody is in there? I limped down the street towards the castle entrance. ... Canterlot Gardens ... Princess Luna watched as her sister gave the "New Year's speech" she gave every year, 'this year was a great one, look forward to the next year, it's good to have my sister back for a third year now, yadda yadda.' As Celestia walked off the podium the crowd was informed that it would strike midnight in exactly one minute. Celestia joined her sister's side at the back of the crowd as they waited for the countdown to start. 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! "Happy New Year!" Everypony cheered as the pyrotechnic magicians let off a spectacular light show, lights in the sky forming shapes such as flowers, jewels and other things in all the colors of the rainbow. As the crowd 'Ooed' and "Awed' at the the spectacle the two Princesses conversed to each other. "It's unfortunate Twilight Sparkle and her friends could not have attended, i'm sure they would have made the celebration more... lively as they did at the Gala." Celestia smiled. "I offered for her and her friends to attend, but Twilight said her friends had already planned their celebration in Ponyville." "Ah, well, the display is about to end, and the crowd will start to return to their homes, I'll go inform the guards to return to their posts." "Alright, i'll stay out here and enjoy the rest of the celebration." Celestia had a feeling the excitement hadn't ended just yet. ... As I neared the castle, fireworks just started erupting from it out of fucking nowhere, scaring the shit out of me. But it did reassure me if anybody was around, it'd be in there. Walking up the steps towards the front entrance I could see it wasn't guarded, which was weird. 'I' personally would want 'my' super castle protected at ALL times, even during a holiday. The front entrance doors were open, so I just walked in and into the grand foyer. It was awesome. A lush red carpet that led up a set of stairs which forked off deeper into the castle. Looking towards the walls I could see many beautifully crafted stained glass windows, but the windows pictured scenes of colored horses doing different things, some horses having wings, and some with horns. What is with this place and goddamn horses? And I still haven't seen anyone yet! I then heard a voice from my left. "What in Celestia's name is that?!" "Hmm?" I turned towards where the voice came from. Holy shit. It was a trio of horses in golden armor! I could see all three of them had a short white coat of fur, and were looking at me apprehensively with HUGE eyes. They stood at about my lower ribs at the top of their heads. Yeah, what is it with this place and horses?... Wait, did they just talk? "G- Go away! Vile beast!" The one in the front yelled at me. I stared at them slack jawed with my eyes as wide as they could go. One of the other horses prodded the one who just... yelled at me. "I doubt the thing speaks Equestrain you dolt!" "Oh! Um... Shoo! Shoo!" The leader of the pack started to do a 'Shoo'-ing motion with it's hoof. We stood there and stared at each other for a few moments. I must have gone insane. What the hell? Maybe if I ignore them they will go away. I started to walk towards them, to try to get past. But the one in the lead saw me coming towards him. "Back! Back I say!" I continued to limp towards them. "I'm warning you!" Silly hallucination. I was about to reach them but the three horses went into a defensive looking stance and then a two-foot long sword was brandished, floating in mid-air, and was encased in a soft blue glow. "What the hell?" "Y- you DO talk! Leave! Now!" The floating sword barreled towards me and stopped with the blade inches from my face. I raised my hand and tapped the tip of the blade with my finger. It was real. Floating swords? This could only mean one thing. These talking mini horses have ghosts in their arsenal. "You stupid quadrupeds! Your ghosts can't hurt me!" I yelled at them. They looked confused for a minute before one of them muttered, "What?" I ran past the sword and towards the trio of horses, surprising them. I shoved them out of the way and sprinted as hard as my ankle would let me down the hallway. "Stop! Wait!" Where have I heard that before? I was getting close to a large double door with a bright light shining from under it. I got close until I was tackled to the ground, face planting into the shiny marble floor. I looked up at my assailant to see one of the horses in armor, but what I didn't see earlier was that this one had a horn coming out of his forehead. The fuck? A unicorn? "Whatever you are, you're not going anywhere near the Princess!" The Princess? I had to get away from this crazy Equine. With my still bloody right hand I proceeded to smack him right in the face. "Bitch!" "Augh!" Some of the blood must have splattered into his eye, with him grimacing, I shoved him off of me with my legs and stood up as fast as I could and ran towards the doors. I could hear music coming from the room ahead of me, there must be people inside! I quickly kicked the doors open and dashed into what looked like a huge dining room of some sort. The music abruptly stopped. I looked around the room to see more mini horses, many of them different colors and wearing an assortment of... clothes? They all looked at me with the same look of shock and awe at the biped that had just crashed their party. One of the horses caught my eye though. A really big one, about as tall as me, and white as snow, with large wings and a long horn poking from it's head. It was giving me a look of surprise, but not the shock of the rest of the room. "Uh..." I started to say, but out of the corner of my eye I could see a large full bottle of liquid was tossed in my direction. Impacting me directly in the head, I quickly started to black out. I fell onto a table face first, crushing it under my weight. This has been the second time in 24 hours I have been knocked out. Great.
A Promising DevelopmentA Promising Development The doors to the test chamber swung wide open as Mr. William Roper walked in, coffee in hand, and wearing his usual beige business suit. Once the team of scientists recognized who it was, they returned to their work. Typing on keyboards and eyeing over diagnostic reading and such. William Roper is a 62 year old, retired entrepreneur who, with his immense wealth, was single-handedly funding the STRA, the Search for Trans-dimensional Resources Association. All the technology, the staff, even the mine they bought and used as their laboratory was being funded by him and him only. He had gray, balding hair and a full scruffy beard of the same color. Mr. Roper's shoes clacked against the steel floor as he approached a skinny bald man in a white lab coat. The man looked up from his computer. "Ah, Mr. Roper, um. How is your morning?" Mr. Roper smiled at the pleasantry, "Oh, it's going swell, Dr. Brennan! Tell me, have we had any readings from the poor lad we sent through the other day?" "Um, no sir. No vital signs at all." Dr. Brennan frowned slightly. Mr. Roper's smile turned into a scowl, "Damn! You don't think they'd be dying instantly, would they? I'd think their hearts would continue to beat, they'd continue to respirate, at least for a second!" "Well sir," Dr. Brennan started, "we can only get the signal the trackers give off from the portal itself, and the signal might be getting lost on the way back through, it could take weeks even months to-" "Mr. Roper! Dr. Edgar wants you to see him in the conference room..." One of the numerous facility guards said as he barged in through the chamber entrance. Mr. Roper flailed his free arm in frustration, "God dammit! What does he want now?" The guard shrugged, "I don't know, sir. He didn't say." "Well, then," Mr. Roper turned towards Dr. Brennan, "I'm going to see what the old grouch wants. Be sure to let me know immediately if you see anything!" "Will do, sir!" Dr. Brennan waved as Mr. Roper left the room with the guard. ... The sound of two pairs of footsteps, clicking and clacking, resonated through the brightly lit halls of the Dream Mine. Roper looked through the small windows on the doors decorating the hallways. Teams of researches browsing their computers, calculating formulas, perusing statistics. He even saw an instructor giving a lecture to newcomers of the organization. It'll be nice to see new faces. Roper thought. "You know," Roper broke the silence, "It's astounding, really. We're doing ground breaking research, here. The very entirety of man kind is depending on us!" the guard watched Roper as he rambled on, "How does it feel to be part of this, young man?" "Um, it's pretty cool, man." Roper frowned, "Is that all? It's 'pretty cool'? Do you have any idea of the work we're doing here? The importance of our task? I'll have you know that-" "Oh, were here!" the intimidated man interrupted, Roper turned away from the source of his annoyance to see that, yes, they had arrived at the conference room. Breathing a deep sigh, Roper gave one last glare at the monstrously arrogant security guard before unlocking the door, and stepping into the room. The conference room was dimly lit, barely illuminating the large round table. The table was surrounded by multiple chairs, but only one of them was occupied. Roper raised his arm in a welcoming manner, "Hey, Jeremy!" Dr. Jeremy Edgar only held a flat face, "Don't call me that." he responded. Jeremy Edgar was quite young, for his brilliant scientific mind. He was only 36 years old. With a full head of light brown hair, which Roper envied, and very light stubble on the tip of his chin "Oh, come now, Dr. Edgar, can't we skip the formalities? We've known each other for almost a decade!" Roper pleaded. "Sit." Dr. Edgar pointed to the arm chair right across from him. Roper hesitantly pulled the chair out from under the table and sat in it. "So, uh. What is it you called me down for, Dr. Edgar?" Dr. Edgar's eyebrows instantly furrowed, "You know damn well why I brought you down here!" Roper recoiled slightly, "Um, Doctor?" Dr. Edgar slightly shook his head, "I heard about what you did two days ago. You sent another kid through?!" "Oh, ho ho ho," Roper laughed, which made Dr. Edgar frown even harder, "Yeah, another stupid kid busted in and saw the device. I thought, well, you see, We haven't gotten any readings from the, other subjects we sent through, so-" "So, WHAT?" Dr. Edgar yelled, "If you keep pulling this shit Roper, we could become compromised." Roper scoffed, "Gah, you're being too paranoid..." "Am I William? People are already suspicious of what's up here, if word got around that multiple people have gone missing in the area we'll have more, and more people snooping around! It is especially not worth it if you keep sending kids through and we don't get any results!" A quiet grew beneath the two for a short time. Roper sighed, "I see your point, Doctor. It won't happen again I assure you." A phone started to ring in Roper's front pocket. Dr. Edgar said nothing as he crossed his arms and sunk into his chair. Roper mouthed "I'm sorry." as he reached into his pocket and raised the cell phone to his ear. "What is it? I was in the middle of something!... Oh? Oh really?" Dr. Edgar lifted his eyes from the floor to Roper. "Oh, yes this is marvelous! I'll inform the good doctor right now!" Roper placed the phone back in his pocket as he smiled proudly at Dr. Edgar. "Well? What is it?" Dr. Edgar asked impatiently. "We've got a reading, a good one. The young women we sent in last month survived for at least two weeks. atmosphere is roughly 17.6% oxygen, and she consumed water at some point in the two week period." "Hmph." Dr. Edgar seemed impressed. "Well, you better get an exploration team ready." "Oh, right away, Doctor!" Roper said excitedly as he left for the door. "Wait." Roper stopped as he opened the door. "Yes, Doctor?" "Roper, would we be able to locate the kids you tracked once we got to the other side?" "Hmm." Roper contemplated, "Yes, we should from what the doctors down in the test chamber have told me." "You're going to have to find them, and kill them." Dr. Edgar took on a look of sorrow. Mr. Roper nodded, "Duly noted." before he left the room and took off down the hallway. Dr. Edgar sat in his chair for an extra few minutes as he said to himself, "Well, isn't this quite the promising development?"
