The man was about to lose his head until he saw the sorry state Alex was in. He wished he could be heartless right now, he had too much going on and didn't have time to deal with a stowaway. But he couldn't ignore him either. It was not in his nature. His mind always thought, what would Rosa think of him? And that was enough for him to do the right thing.
The man pressed a few buttons on his wrist and another smaller shimmer appeared right next to him. Alex would have asked him about the shimmers if he could think properly at that moment. It was just too cold!
"Here take this." The man pulled something out of the shimmer and threw it at him. Alex grabbed it out of the air as best he could. It was warm and furry. He quickly wrapped it around his exposed skin and immediately felt the warmth spread through his body. It was like a blanket that was just pulled out of a dryer.
"T-thanks..." Alex stammered.
"Just try not to die until I figure out what to do with you." The man replied.
"Can't you just send me back?" Alex regretted the words as soon as they left his blue mouth. He couldn't stand the idea of going back to that place. Even if it meant staying here in this frozen wasteland.
The man sighed. "It wouldn't be that big of a problem if I could just send you back now would it?" He looked over Alex's shoulder where the original shimmer was. To Alex's surprise, it was still open. "What's taking them so long?" The man said.
So he wasn't alone? Just as Alex thought this-a noise came from the shimmer. It was another person. A kid. And then right after another person jumped through and landed in the snow. This time a woman.
"Finally, what took you guys so long?" The man asked.
The women took a quick look around before replying. "Your little brother fell after you jumped through the rift." She said with a huff.
"Shit, sorry I didn't know. Are you alright?"
"Yeah Tom, were okay now." She said. So his name is Tom Alex thought to himself. He doesn't look much like a Tom though.
The kid ran over and hugged Tom while the woman, once she got her bearings, finally noticed Alex just standing there. "Tom? Who is this?"
Tom lifted his younger brother up into his arms. "This is our new stowaway from the last world. He just followed me through."
They all looked at Alex as if he was a crazy person. He felt the need to defend himself but didn't really know how to. "I didn't mean to cause you any trouble. You just appeared right in the middle of class and my legs moved on their own..." Alex explained.
"Well whatever the reason, your stuck with us for now. Unless you want to try going out on your own."
"Tom! We will not just abandon him like that. He wouldn't last five minutes on a world like this. "She looked Alex up and down. "No offence. I'm Rose by the way."
"I'm Alex." He stuttered. His mouth was so cold it was getting hard to move it. "What do you mean "World like this" are you saying were on a different world right now?"
Tom was the first to answer. "Yes. Everybody knows about this. You cant seriously think your world was the only one, right?"
Alex was dumbstruck. He had never heard of such a thing and was pretty sure nobody from earth knew either.
That was when he noticed something strange. He was the only one reacting to the cold. It was like they were all immune to it. "Hey, aren't you guys cold? Your not wearing much more than I am."
Rose hesitated to answer and looked over at Tom. "Lets just get moving for now. Find somewhere to hold up." He completely brushed off Alex's question. Alex got the feeling they were hiding something, which seemed obvious. For now he just decided to follow them as they started walking through the heavy layer of snow.
It looked like Tom had picked a random direction and started walking, but he kept checking that device on his wrist. Alex assumed he had a compass or something. He couldn't really get a good look at it from behind.
"My feet hurts." Toms little brother complained.
"Alright alright, come here." Rose lifted him up with ease and carried him on her back. She didn't struggle at all even though he looked to be around ten years old and wasn't the smallest of kids.
Another question Alex wanted to ask but didn't. Just who were these people? And why were they here? He didn't know. And considering they were the only ones he could rely on-he didn't want to anger them by constantly throwing questions at them. He would follow for now.
So he did. They walked for what seemed like hours through the snowy hills. They didn't speak much, only a few words here and there. "Tom kept giving him a look of annoyance. Or something similar. Alex got the sense that there was more going on here than he knew.
Fortunately, the fur that Tom gave him never lost its warmth the whole time. Alex kept looking at their surroundings, hoping to see proof of other people living here. Abandoned building, campsites, hell even footprints.
But there was nothing. For hours there was nothing but snow. Pretty soon it would be dark and the temperature would drop even farther. He was not looking forward to stumbling around in the snow at night.
Thankfully Tom had the same idea. He slowed his pace. "We need to find some shelter before it gets dark out."
"That's sounds good, but we haven't seen anything since we got here." Rose replied, still holding Toms brother on her back. Both her and Tom had taken turns carrying him and now it was her turn again. "Daniels getting hungry too." She added, referring to Toms little brother.
"Stay here for a second. I'll get a better look at the top of this hill here." Tom said and started climbing up the snowy hill with a speed that shocked Alex. With the foot or so of snow covering the ground it was extremely hard to move through it. But Tom moved as if the snow was weightless. Like it was powder.
"Are they aliens?" Alex thought. It would make sense. They came from somewhere using those shimmers. They looked like normal humans yet they didn't act like it. He was about to burst with all the questions he had. Now was as good a time as any to get some answers.
Alex approached Rose and Daniel. "So who are you guys anyway?"
Rose looked apprehensive. Like she wanted to answer but didn't know what to say. Then her face changed to that of a look of pity. "Look, were not usually allowed to speak to outsiders like you."
"I'm an outsider? You also called me a stowaway. What does that even mean? And why are you guys not affected by the cold? Its freezing out here!"
Rose took a few steps closer to Alex before speaking in a hushed voice. She kept looking up the hill to make sure Tom couldn't hear her. "I could get in a lot of trouble just talking to you, but I would feel terrible if something happened to someone so young. So listen, travelling through worlds like this is strictly forbidden where we come from. Surely your world has laws against travelling too."
Alex shook his head. "That is what bothers me. Nobody on earth is able to do what you guys are doing."
"Damn. We must have gone farther than we thought. To run into a world like yours we must be closer to the edge than we thought." Rose started mumbling to herself, lost in thought.
Alex was about to ask her what that meant, to be on the "Edge" He started to feel overloaded. So much has happened so quickly he couldn't wrap his head around everything.
Alex heard something in the distance. He began looking around for the source when his eyes landed on the hill that Tom climbed up to see him shouting and running full speed back towards them.
For a brief moment Alex was confused, until he saw something appear behind Tom. At first glance it looked like he was running from an avalanche. Tons of snow was rushing down the steep hill just behind Tom who was waving his arms and shouting.
Thankfully he seemed to be just fast enough to stay ahead of it. At least, that's what he thought, until something emerged from the snow for just a quick moment shocking Alex to his core.
It was a giant worm? Absolutely massive is what it was. Barreling down the hill.