Nayan pulls the garage door up, one of the first mechanical things in a long time that doesn't make an awful creaking or scratching noise when opened. Fluorescent light floods the driveway and my eyes have to readjust to get used to the artificial lighting, I glance over to Nayan who has to squint his eyelids to look inside.
Once my eyes adjust I can finally see what my anticipation has been growing too, a car.
What?
This is a perfectly normal garage that I'd see back on the Earth dimension, with lights on and a fancy black truck inside. Everything else inside fits the Avex norm, rusty and dusty, but the car itself looks like it belongs on roads back home.
I don't know what I was expecting, warehouse? Agent's with mirror glasses and assault rifles aimed at us? I think I expected a giant blue portal more than I did a garage filled with rusted training bikes, falling apart yard equipment, and a seemingly functional car.
"Do you think it works?" I ask.
He smirks while still cautionatly looking around, "Even if it does, I won't be getting in a car with you."
Yeah, I didn't finish my driver's ed class, and even if I was still on the Earth dimension to finish the class I don't think I would've gotten my license anyway. Lola won't get in a car with me either after catching wind of my brick wall incident.
"Ha-Ha, Not funny," I deadpan, cupping my hands around my eyes to try and see the inside of the car, "I Wonder why someone would bother with bringing a car here."
The glass is deeply shaded, even in the driver's window which looks like a huge hazard, but If this belongs to who I think it does, I don't give a damn. I can't see much inside but I can see the faint outline of an array of computer screens and black seats the same color as the outside.
"Well did you really think they just threw us out of the portal and went back home like nothing happened?" He walks around the perimeter of the brightly lit garage.
I pull my eyes from the dark window, "I used to," His eyes meet mine, "I used to think that we were just randomly chosen, struck of bad luck, I guess."
"I thought that too," He pokes around behind a plastic sled, "If you forget the whole dying and coming back to life thing, and the weird eyes, we're no different than anyone else."
I nod at the ground solemnly, "Do you think it would've been better if it was just a wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing? If we really were no different than anyone else?"
"How could that make it any better?" He says, "If anything this gives us some meaning for being here."
"A shitty one," I mutter, "If It was bad luck then we'd be victims of, well, bad people doing bad things. But with this, it's like there's something wrong with us just for existing, but we didn't do anything."
He deeply sighs, "In a way, it's both," His features darken with pain, "No good person would do this to someone else, especially not for something like this."
"They're-" I find myself not able to find the right word, no single word could be used to describe how horrible it is that someone would do this to us, "-They're Monsters."
He crouches down to look at the license plate of the car, "Couldn't have put it better myself, and hey, don't get it in your head that there's something wrong with you."
I laugh quietly, my cheeks reddening, "Thank you, and you know, one good thing came out of all this."
He shoots me a questioning look, "And what is that?"
"Me, you, and Lola wouldn't have met orherwise."
He laughs, far longer than necessary, long enough that I begin to grow concerned, It wasn't much of a joke, and even if it was, It wasn't a good one, "What is it? What's so funny?"
"Good job finding the bright side of being kind of killed, and then abandoned in a dimension where you are left eating stale rice and starfruit," He cracks into another bout of laughter.
"Ok, ok, super funny, I found a semi-good part of being stuck here," I cross my arms and glare at him, "Sue me."
His laughter cools into a smile, "I'll consider it, until then, let's find a door."
I had gotten so lost in the conversation that it slipped my mind how this was probably the worst place to be doing anything other than sneaking around, I point behind a set of wooden crates that I had previously seen Nayan eyeing up, "Behind there?"
We gather around the two tall and thin crates stacked next to each other against the wall, I hadn't even noticed them before because they fit in so well.
"Bet it is."
We watch the wooden crates for a minute or two, both walking Back and forth trying to create a plan, it just looks like normal wood boxes, but it perfectly fits the shape of a door.
"So do you think we'd just pull it open like a door?" He asks.
"Only one way to find out."
He tugs on one side of the massive crate with more effort than necessary, the crate proving to be nothing more than a flimsy half a foot extension on the existing sturdy door. I'm ashamed to admit that whoever built this did a good job, but we're lucky this time to find the door so quick, we might not be next time.
The heavy door opens to a hallway that looks far more fitting than a garage for the base of an interdimensional kidnapping scheme. A clean white tile creates a runway to wherever our mission takes us next, can lights from the ceiling flood the room in a light that even after a few minutes is still foreign.
A shudder rips down my spine thinking of how unfamiliar the little things of the real world feel. I look over to Nayan who just looks like he walked into a third dimension. Have we really been gone that long? I stopped counting at around fifty days for the sake of sanity, but by my guess, I've been here less than half a year.
How is that enough time to make a clean and well lit building feel so crazy?
Nayan gazes at the hall in amazement, "It's been way too long, was starting to forget what this kind of thing looks like."
He starts walking and I trail next to him, empathy running through me, four years. Almost always Alone.
"I still can't believe you were alone for over three years straight," With each occasional passing door I peek between the wooden frame and the tile, looking for the threatening light of an occupied room, "I think I'd go insane."
He smiles in a bittersweet way, "You know that bell in the front door of the coffee shop?"
I nod.
"I used to ring that bell for noise," He says, "Whenever talking to myself started to make me think I was going crazy."
I watch him sadly, he seems unfazed by the comment and turns a corner. I'm not entirely sure what we're looking for but all of the rooms we've passed so far are labeled storage closets or an empty conference room.
"That's so sad."
"It's really just-" he abruptly freezes in place.
"What is-"
"Shh."
It takes me an extra moment of intent listening to hear what he does.
Distant footsteps, coming straight in our direction.
We look to each other in a panic while the clicking of several shoes grows closer and closer, a faint conversation carried with them.
We look around frantically through the hall for some kind of rescue, I quickly start to regret coming here.
Why did I bring Nayan into this? Now he's going to get stuck here too!
I should have listened to Lola.
We're left in the deserted hallway, a small crowd seemingly just around the corner, My heart begins to race with desperity when the corner of my eye catches something just behind me. I grab Nayan's arm in a final hope and he sharply inhales with surprise.
I pull him behind me into a room labeled 'Conference Room B' with nothing more than an oval shaped table, I shut the wooden door as soon as we're inside. As if by one mind instead of two, without even a look at each other we huddle into the corner next to the closed door, too scared to open our mouths to speak.
My heart thumps wildly, louder than a drum, so loud that I begin to wonder if it's even mine.
The clicking of shoes grows closer, words no longer a faint hum but just outside the door. Nayan clenches his jaw and presses his eyes shut, I can't help but do the same.
The door opens and the cold wood brushes against invisible hairs on the tip of my nose, just a millimeter from alerting them of our presence.
The light flicks on with a small crowd making their way to squeaking chairs, "What is this all about, Whittle," A woman's voice says with a professional annoyance.
"Happy you asked," Says a male voice with a thick European accent I can't quite place-Whittle, "We've almost made it to our quota."
"And you couldn't tell us this at another hour?" Says another annoyed voice in the crowd.
"No, It couldn't wait," Whittle says, "With only a few escapists remaining, Fugitive 84 is in Olso, Norway-"
"That doesn't answer my question."
Who is Fugitive 84? I cautiously open my eyes as if the answer would be written on the door pressed against my face. I strain my eyes to see Nayan next to me, his eyes are still pressed shut and his chest remains still.
"He will only be accessible for twenty-four hours, We need to send a recon team and hunters out asap."
"Norway doesn't permit us in their territories, how do you plan to get us in?"
God, what Countries did let them in? Canada best've been like Norway. While Lola is much more of a realist than me who'd sometimes rather be oblivious, I'm well aware no world leader has a clean slate. But I really didn't think any of them would let in people with the objective to kidnap, they must've had either a damn good bribe or a threat.
"Window in the atmospheric radar, but it's a narrow gap to get in and out, so we'll need to cut some corners," Whittle says, "But I think we'll make it and out with the fugitive problem free."
"I can send my team in, do you know his exact coordinates?" A female voice says.
Something slides across the table, "It's all in this file."
A few pages are flipped through before the woman speaks up, "If you'll excuse me," her chair squeaks as she stands up.
I begin to fear the worst, what if she closes the door? What if just like that, I and Nayan get caught? As her heeled footsteps make their way through the doorframe I quietly release a relieved breath I didn't realize I was holding.
"You said we're approaching our quota, how far off are we?" Says a timid male voice.
Whittle clears his throat, "There should only be two more after him, if everything goes according to plan we'll be out of here in the coming months," He says it with a sickly satisfaction that truly fits a mastermind behind this.
Out of here? Fugitives? Plan?
"Well done, sir." Says the same timid voice.
Mellow staggered applause follows from the crowd.
Whittle breathes a laugh, "Thank you, all of you, I understand how difficult this has been, and may I assure you that soon enough we will be back on the Earth dimension with the newfound safety of the Avexian scum permanently back where they belong."
The realization of their plan slips in, they are going to keep us here permanently.
No, They can't...
They wouldn't.
I look over to Nayan, horror filling his widened eyes, all I can do is gape, though a combination of screaming and strangling these bastards sounds far more appealing.
I always knew it was a strong possibility this could happen but It doesn't make the news any less crazy.
In shock, I didn't notice it sooner but a pair of footsteps comes rushing in, panting.
"Sir!" A young male voice blurts.
"What is it, Agent Connors?" Says Whittle.
The person at the door takes a few steps in and whispers something too quiet for me to hear.
There are a few moments of deadly silence, fearful quiet that everyone else in the room must be feeling too.
After a few more seconds a voice of the crowd breaks in, "What is it?"
"We have a breach of security," a gasp of air catches in my throat, "Everyone report to your assigned exits immediately, this is a Lockdown."