World's End Explorers

Chapter 3

"Hey, Richard"

"Yes, Mike, what?"

"Does this place have a security system control room?"

"Yeah, it does... And that is not a bad idea."

"So what are you two up to?"

"Mike and I are going to check some of the camera footage from the base after breakfast."

"Breakfast? C'mon, let's go now!", said Alice.

"What? Wait, I'm not done eating yet!" said Richard.

"You can eat and walk at the same time. Get you ass moving, GO!", shouted Alice while Michael laughed.

The control room was a small place with two computers and a few extra monitors. Michael didn't have any trouble finding the password to access the footage from the security system.

"Okay, we're all set. So what we looking for, lieutenant?"

"Select the camera from the main gate. There's always two guards standing there."

Michael started reverting footage to the time when the shift to the new dimension happened. The room was almost silent, with all three of them staring at the monitor screen. Only the sounds of the keyboard and mouse could be heard.

"This is odd," whispered Richard.

"What?" asked Alice.

"We have well over 48 hours of footage and we still got nothing. The soldiers are not there. I mean, we haven't been in this world for more than two days, right?"

"Yeah, not even close," answered Alice.

"So why can't we get to the time when the soldiers were there?" asked Richard.

"I think I might know the answer. Remember that our clocks are still stuck at midnight?" prompted Michael.

"Yeah, it's weird, right? Even analog clocks are stuck," explained Richard.

"I think we're in a dimension where time is not a thing."

"Are you saying there's no passage of time in this dimension? Then how am I able to talk to you right now?" asked Alice.

"I don't know, but that's the only logical explanation for what has been happening. It might be possible that, even though we're in this dimension, this world doesn't consider us as part of it and, for that reason, we're able to function like we normally would in our own world."

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone in the room tried to understand what was happening. The group knew that only one thing was clear: if they wanted to move forward, they would need to throw common sense out of the window. The new world was, indeed, a brand new world.

"So it is true we couldn't get what we wanted out of these cameras, but I did notice something weird going on there. It's just in this one frame, look," pointed Richard.

"What is that?" asked Alice.

"I'm not sure. The camera system here is pretty low res and it's not even in color, but it's definitely something, it's not just some blurriness in a random frame."

"Whatever it is, we have no time or means to analyse it here," said Richard.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go back to the cafeteria and finish our breakfast. From there we can discuss our next move," completed Alice.

----

At the base's cafeteria, Alice and Richard were eating sandwiches while Michael was typing on his laptop."Hey, are you not gonna eat anything?" asked Alice.

"I'm fine, I ate a protein bar earlier."

"Lad, you better eat something now 'cause we don't know what's ahead of us. Here, have some biscuits," offered Richard.

"Okay, I'll have some, thanks," replied Michael while still looking at the laptop screen.

"Interesting," noted Alice.

"What?" Richard said.

"Oh, nothing, really." The young woman was thinking about how Richard and Michael became so close in such a small amount of time. At that moment they looked like father and son, and that made Alice happy.

The three continued eating in silence for a few minutes until Alice decided to interfere: "Okay, boys, what now? What are we going to do?"

"I think it's obvious we can't stay here anymore. The state's capital is not that far and it's a much larger city. We might have a better chance of finding other survivors there".

"Yep, I agree with Richard. In fact, my dad lives there so we might find something useful at his house. He has a personal lab and I'm sure his computers have all sorts of data about the multiverse. What do you say?" proposed Michael.

"It's a plan then?" asked Alice.

"It is!" said Richard.

"Okay, so let's pack our stuff and get moving. Since there's no traffic, we can get there is less than two hours," the boy explained.

Richard smiled. "So the lad is acting like the owns the place now."

"He's the man with a plan, Richard, you've gotta give him that," joked Alice.

Even though their minds were still full of uncertainties, the three protagonists now had a plan, a goal, something they could work towards. They didn't know what to expect from this new world, but they were ready to discover it.