The Wonders Of Vast Emptiness

Chapter Ten: Explorations and Eateries

Something that was good luck to both Sam and Dr. Twolson was that their wallets weren't confiscated, as the leader had enough money to buy and do whatever he wanted. He didn't bother with silly things like taking other people's wallets. This was good news, as every restaurant was wicked cheap, and that meant they could eat good food for another year if they wanted too.

But, based on the experiences both of them had run into with Tlio so far, they wouldn't want to stay a year. Or even another 24 hours. This question was first asked by Sam. "How soon can we get back?" Dr. Twolson, who along with Sam, had gotten their energy back by eating lots of proteinous meals that day, replied with:

"My dear boy, I don't know. As I said, the gateways can turn up when you least expect them, and what timetable that is, I don't know. In the prototyping, I have managed to get back pretty quickly most of the time. But one time, I actually spent six months inside one place. Good thing the people were nice. You can't really be expecting it for one day, is all I am saying. We just have to hide, and find places where they can't catch us."

At the mention of 'six months' Sam shuddered. Would they really have to be here for 5 more months, constantly on the run? The thought of it sent chills down Sam's spine. It wouldn't work.

So getting back home to Earth was just like a coin toss, was basically what Dr. Twolson was saying. He soon learned from Dr. Twolson how to recognize a gateway if it ever did come to them. "It looks like the transparent blue thing you saw, and it could be anywhere."

They eventually figured out a game plan about their locations. They had 8 different locations, 3 to sleep in, 5 to talk in, and they just went all around for food. If you are wondering what happened to Dr. Twolson's and Sam's transportation device, it was confiscated by the large men. This meant that they had to walk everywhere.

It was convenient that Tlio had many restaurants, and as I mentioned before, that it was cheap. As they were walking, many times they found themselves in need of food, as many of the places were as much as 10 miles from each other, and it would tire out even the fastest runner.

One day, they were walking around a street they never had searched before, and Sam stumbled. It felt like a handle? Upon closer inspection, Sam realized it was a trap door. "Dr. Twolson! Look at this." Sam was excited, and he opened the trap door, which was unlocked.

It led to a staircase. Both of them walked down it, and they both knew that this could easily lead to a gateway.

And they were right. A shining, transparent blue, rectangle was there. The note seemed to be ancient Greek, and Dr. Twolson was very skilled at this language, so he read it out:

"Gateway To Earth" The two could barely believe it. After everything, after all of this mess, they were finally returning. Now, before you get too excited, I must tell you about an old saying which is: "Don't celebrate too early." And this is the case with this, I'm afraid.

After they were about to walk through, they were met with the two large men, and the leader, who's hair was all frizzy. "Get-Them" he angrily breathed and then the two men began to approach them.

Instantly, Dr. Twolson and Sam ran out of the trap door, and up into the street. To buy them some time, both of them moved a boulder, to block the trap door from being opened again. As they were running, they managed to hear a nasty thump, and the leader's unique voice cursing and shouting.

The boulder wasn't budging, and they ran. They ran until they couldn't anymore, as their legs were so tired and scraped (they tripped many times) that they couldn't carry on. They were in one of their hiding places, and Sam thought this to be like a twisted version of hide-and-seek.

For many hours, they didn't dare go outside, they had brought lots of water along, and just a nibble of food for each of them. It was hard to not eat all of the rations at once, but based on if they did, they would soon starve, Dr. Twolson and Sam managed it. They had been so close- so close to the gateway, and it was snatched from them.

They waited many more hours, being sparing with their last food, being not so sparing with the water, as they had lots. They thought since it was nighttime, they might as well go out, but stamped this thought out of their minds as soon as it had come in. The food wasn't something to be preserved for a while, and eating moldy food was surely a lot worse than being hungry. So they divided it up, and then went to sleep.

It was hard to sleep on the cold, damp floor, as this was not one of their preferred places for sleeping, but instead it was one of their talking and eating ones. Sam woke up about an hour later, trying to go to sleep, but he couldn't.

And then he heard a crunch. And then a smashing noise. And then voices.