PARALLEL : A Short Story

PARALLEL

Zoe

I heave a deep stale breath as Coby shoves me forward. "Cummon Zoe! There's nothing in there except goddamn lab equipment!" I inch closer toward the entrance. I put my greasy palm on the rough, paint scraped door. I close my eyes and open it. The place is a mess. Test tubes with spilled liquid lay broken on the smooth concrete floor. Books with shrivelled, stained pages dot the room, and frosted glass doors open to other, smaller rooms, used for intense experiments. I should know. My father worked in a university lab himself.
***
"Woah", Mara exclaims, as she dodges another piece of shattered test tube. Microscopes sit on every corner of the room, next to Bunsen burners and boxes of liquids. "This place is so awesome", Coby whisper-shouts, while opening a cupboard, then discovering racks of Petri dishes, followed by Astin yanking a clamp off the island bench. Misty smoke creeps out from the door in front of me. I would have a good look, but I don't have much time before someone speaks. "Guys, you need to come and have a look at this", José insists. Next to a shelf of chemicals and syringes, is an odd, futuristic-looking cylinder-shaped object.
***
It looks like it is made of solely just black frosted glass, with a glowing aqua pad on the bottom. Printed in glowing black letters, it reads "for those adventurous". I frown, while Astin and Coby exchange a look. Before I can think to back away or do anything or even before another thought comes into my mind, Coby shoves in front of everyone, and we watch him, us still and stiff, disintegrate through the curved glass. I scream. Mara screams. Astin yells. Jose opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. We have to know what that did to him. We have to get him back.

Astin

"I'll go and see where he's gone", I say confidently. "No! I'm coming with you", Zoe reaches for my hand, and squeezes it. I give a faint smile. "Everyone, please don't worry, I promise I'll be back very soon, with Coby hopefully." I half-sigh, reassuring my friends. She jumps into my chest. "Be brave", I hear her whisper.
***
I step forward, and walk to the capsule that looked like it came out of a sci-fi movie. I step inside. My vision blurs into navy glitter. Then, darkness swallow it, and I jolt upright, like waking from a horrifying dream. Four other bodies lay perfectly placed around in a circle, across and next to me. I look up, down and around, and white light comes through the top, even though there is no window. Darkness expands infinitely throughout this thing, whatever it is.
***
Then, a hard rumbling comes from beneath us, even though there is no floor, but I am not falling. Between all of us, something catches my eye. A large, inky-coloured tube with a smooth warmth vibrating from it. I pick it up, flipping it in my palm. Then I realise. I look around at everyone. Mara's soft ombré curls, Zoe's aqua plats, Coby's spiky black hair, and José's pearl-rimmed glasses. They followed Coby just as I did. To save us. "Guys". I brush tricking sweat from my head with my forearm. "Guys", I manage to whisper-shout a second time over the loud rumbling.
***
I'm about to yell out again, but an ear-splitting crack pierced over the tremors. Now everyone is awake screaming so loud I can't even hear them. I find a small cavity, bordered with small green fluorescent light beads. I look back at the tube, then at the cavity numerous times. Everything starts to split into odd kaleidoscope-like shapes, and blood trickles down my thin stubble, and black dots slide into place across my view. At the last second, when my friends screams fall, when I feel like we are going to die, I lurch forward and jab the tube in.

Coby

This is a horrifying place. I don't even know why I even jumped in that peculiar machine first. The second Astin jabbed that tube into the cavity, I'm pretty sure all of us snapped back to some sort of reality. A loud, booming voice settles the aftermath of the storm down to a single atom. "Welcome adventurers. We need your help." Astin and I exchange another look. "Wh-what are you." I tremble. "Welcome, my name is RX, and you are present in RITAS, the acronym for Rift in Time and Space, the void between time and space."

My heart skips a beat.

I'm confused. Did that machine lead us to this place? That thing must be decades, if not hundreds of years ahead of its time. "We have a mission for you. We would like you 5 brave and strong"- wait, what!! strong! - "warriors to help us complete a very important galactic crisis. Otherwise your galaxy will be under threat, and soon after, destroyed, with everything in it. You, you're family, everything you know and love will be at the test. "Just tell us what we need to do already", José mutters, his words bouncing. 'RX' seems to notice. "Fine then. From here, there is a path to the 6 main parallel dimensions. Each one handles the different possible outcomes to every situation."

José

"Helix for anger, rage and nervousness, Jade for calm, peace and presence, Trix for sadness and grief, Tarnis for bravery, risk and strength, Sobris for envy, jealousness and betrayal, and, finally, last but not least, Cyrrus for joy, happiness and laughter. Now, you probably don't know what any of this is, but, therefore, that is why we are telling you." "What the hell are you telling us?", I interrupt. "And what do you mean by 'we'? Are there more of your kind out there?" "Yes, we built this prison 'for those adventurous', we live in a world called Hydra. The only way you can get to your own world is to help us complete the mission".

Mara moans. "We just want to get back to university, we found an old lab that we thought we could find some ideas for an group experiment for our science degrees, and then our friend, COBY, jumped in to a weird machine, and of course we had to go after him". We are all dead silent. No one speaks. Even the weird voice.

Mara

"And now we are here, separated from our families, our school, other friends, the ones we love, everything is lost." RX tries to start saying something, but I continue, "But even the short time that we are here, we have noticed that you want us to do something that we have no idea about"."Well, suit yourselves, I'm afraid, because this is the only way out"."Are you sure? You might be hiding something". Zoe speaks up in a croaky voice. "Yes, and you have to do it, or you will stay here for the rest of existence". "The rest of existence? On Earth, we only live for approximately 100 years", Coby states.

I roll my eyes, sick of the 'info' that comes out of Coby's mouth. "Well, this prison has been built from the ground up with new, useful futuristic technologies. Including feelings of strangeness and illusion that is carried through the codable air throughout. Anyways, we will leave you to it, to decide your fate. Help us, live and go back to your home planet, or die here. The choice is yours!", the voice says brightly, before a crackle, and then nothing. Dead, dead silence that is almost painful, before Astin speaks up. "What are we gonna do?". "The choice was really cut out for us, really from the beginning of when we got here." We all link hands and look each other in their eyes with a deadly, yet insistent stare. "Hey, at least we won't have to do our science homework", Coby nudges me, and I roll my eyes. Now is not the time, I think, and Coby slowly nods, as if reading my mind. "Here we go", I say between clenched teeth.