"It's quite simple," Dr.Xander handed all three of them a gameboy each, "Where I'm sending you three, your phones will be useless and you'll need some sort of navigational device," he then pulled out some odd looking raygun.
"'Where we're going?' What do you excatly mean by that? Our we have data and it's not like we're going to somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa," Vanessa said.
"Well," he pointed to the raygun, "Did you read the job description," he pointed to the raygun again, "Did any of you?"
"No fucking duh Point Dexter, but did you read what you wrote in the job description? 'Come on down to Dr.Xanders Exquisite Emporium. If you join my team, you'll run deliveries for me without a moments waste. In this job, you'll learn to build up cardio.'"
"You remembered all of it," I looked at Sydney astonished.
"Oh, did I now," Dr.Xander pointed the raygun at Sydney, "Then I'll just send them in after you too," with a pull of a trigger, he shot Sydney with a beam of light.
Shocked, Vanessa and I watched as Sydney just disappeared before our very eyes.
"YOU KILLED HER," I fell on my rear.
"Are you g-g-gonna kill us nex-x-xt?"
"No you moronic fools: fucking Gen Z," he mumbled the last part, "This raygun will teleport you were I need you for the job. Since Diana seems capable, I'll give her a copy so you all can get back."
"So what is this job really?"
"Interdimensional, time travel, and multiverse too, delivery slash any request kind of business," Dr.Xander blasted Vanessa, "By the way," he looked in my eyes, "What you're retrieving are gameboys similar to what you have. I know you can find them. If you don't, you'll die," he then shot me too.
Waking up in a ditch, beside me were Vanessa and Sydney.
"Old piece of shit. Got rid of me before I knew what the hell we're looking for," Sydney chucked a pebble at an oddly curved blue root that resembled a tree.
"Well, Diana must've heard," Vanessa tried to stay optimistic while trying to ignore our alien surroundings.
"Is it me, or does this place make me feel like we're in a cotton candy?"
"I know. Disgusting," Sydney pulled out her gameboy, "Holy."
Copying her, I pulled mine out too, "Now that's sick," what was being displayed on the screen was a three-dimensional view of the surface. There were three markers in my center. From assumptions, I was one and the girls were the other two. Off on the edge of the screen, there were three more markers, "Dr.Xander said our mission was to retrieve devices similar to ours."
"You know what that means," Sydney got up in my face.
"What?"
"Others died before us," she giggled, "You know, I might enjoy this more now," she smiled despite the discovery.
"C'mon Sydney. No way he'd have an operational business if it fed on the deaths kids," Vanessa said doubtingly.
"It's possible. The fact we're in such a strange place," I picked up a slug that changed colours everytime it moved, "Plus the way our gameboys display a map like that....he could just find a way to remove us from people's memories and society as a whole."
"Sweet," Sydney reached her arm into a small hole.
"You shouldn't do that Sydney. After what Diana just sa-"
"You're seriously not gonna listen to some popular piece of shit, are you?"
"What's that suppose to mean," I threw the slug aside.
"Well let's see; you don't give a shit about people like us and that any popular kid gets away with whatever you feel like," she kept her arm in the hole, trying to reach whatever was inside.
"Vanessa, what does she mean?"
She broke eye contact with me, "Well, we both go to the same school as you..."
"Really? I haven't seen you two around," I was immediately hit in the face by something hard, "What the heck man!"
"You piece of shit," Sydney had a bunch of purple pebbles, "You and your prick friends pick on me everyday! This or that, 'Well if you hate us picking on you so much, get your parents to stop us-Oh wait, you were an accident,' or my favorite, 'Hey Vanessa! Mrs.Vohn's project is due next and I got a track meet today. Do it for me?'"
"Oh-"
Sydney chucked another pebble at me, "Now go fuck yourself."
"Sydney, I know how you feel, but she's our coworker so we gotta get through this together," Vanessa grabbed her arms gently, "Sooooo?"
"Fine."
Watching as Sydney shoved her arm back in the hole and pull out an odd contraption. It's base was spherical and then extended outward. It had a handle with a trigger attached and rings that were floating around the, what I assumed, barrel. "That's a gun."
"More like a high-tech weapon from an alien civilization making this planet occupied," she looked at me, "But yeah, in popular people's perspective; a gun," Sydney gave it to Vanessa, "You're a good shot, bet you could figure it out."
"Maybe for a hunting rifle or some modified AR but this is alien."
"And Americans found a way to love Mexicans, so I think you got this seeing as you're not as racist as most of our presidents."
"Thanks, Syd," Vanessa pointed at one of the odd trees and placed vee finger beside the trigger. Sliding her finger infront of it, she pressed down on it. In that moment, some sort of light was emitted from the little antenna ontop of the gun, "These people are far more advanced than us."
"How so," I looked at the gun not firing anything.
"They figured out how to stop illegal shootings or to stop runaways," Vanessa threw the gun, "It must detect the individuals fingerprint and coalign it with the ID used to buy the weapon."
"And that is way better than our current situation in the U.S. We should take notes."
"Running is also important," Vanessa sounded even more panicked.
"Not to be rude bestfriend of mine, but we are in the middle of nowhere. The only things out here are those weird trees, the pebbles and rocks, and many many holes too small for us to fit in," Sydney proceeded to kick a pebble.
"Perhaps we can use the gameboys to find somewhere where the surface sinks inwards," I began pulling out my gameboy, "And look! A cave not to far from here!"
Hearing multiple sets of footsteps racing our way, the three of us began to book it. Since I ran track, I was way ahead of them. In contradiction, Sydney wasn't athletic and she was in boots. Stopping to let the other two pass me, I decided to run back and see what was excatly after us. Glancing over the hill we just ran over, I saw blue humanoids with pink tusk and ruff cowboy looks on blue looking horses with trunks and lanky looking legs. The aliens carried guns that looked like wacky versions of shotguns. After the stock, the body was shaped in a spherical form and had a long barrel that opened like trumpet or air horn. Running up to the others, I told the others what I saw.
"So every gun on this cotton candy fever dream of a planet has a round body, yet not a single one has a spot for a magazine."
"It's possible that the weapons harness energy from some other source and output it into a lethal blast of some sort," Vanessa tripped on a rock, "Ouch."
"Sydney, keep going!" I came back to help Vanessa up, "Just a little further. Their horse like creatures aren't the fastest compared to us."
Seeing a formation of a large hole with tree roots sticking out the sides, we all peered down it. At the bottom was a pool of water. The water was suprisingly clear. You could see our reflections and what was in the water. Tiny looking organisms, some vegetation growing underneath, and groups of rocks underneath.
"Ok, I'll climb down with the roots and see if it's safe for you guys to jump down," I made my way to the edge.
"Hurry."
Grabbing a root, I dropped my self over edge. As my body came swing into the side of the hole, I turned myself around and used my other hand to grab another root. Using the roots to slide closer and closer to the bottom, I saw a tree to jump on from where I was. Placing my feet against the dirt, I pushed myself off the side and for the moment I was airborne, I felt alive. Latching to the tree, I saw Sydny peer down at me.
"Hurry the fuck up!"
Kicking my shoes off I walked through the water. I felt nice and refreshing. Like taking a dip in a pool during a hot summer day. Walking on top of many groups of rocks, I found a spot deep enough to where they wouldn't kill themselves. "JUMP!"
Seeing both Sydney and Vanessa look at me, they jumped excatly to where I stood. As they made contact with the water, the water came back up and splashed me in the eyes. Blinking repeatedly, I helped them up and the three of us headed to my shoes.
"No sweat," I said panting.
With the three laying on the shore side by side, their chest rose and fell as they kept panting in exhaustion. Wet and soaked,they started to get up and move. I grabbed my shoes and pointed to somewhere were we could hide. Moving towards the spot, there was vines we could move. Doing so, there was a spot for us to sit. Moving behind the vines we all sat down.
Looking at Sydney and Vanessa, they sat close to one another and kept from me. Remembering what they said earlier, I could recall that moment and deserved this distance.