The Other Skin

Chapter one

Andreas 3670
(20 years old now.)

He is tired and raises a fevered look around. He looks at himself in the large mirror, which has been put on the wall, of his hiding place, an old little room. There are many cracks in the mirror but after all those years he doesn't even pay attention to it, as long as he can see himself, he doesn't mind.

He goes with his fingers through his brown hair and he is so tall that he cannot completely see himself in the mirror, he is almost six feet tall. He is wearing brown trousers and a light blue shirt, that he had found in trash cans in the suburbs of Seattle.

He looks around in the hope that it's safe and he is coming out of his hiding place carefully. He pays attention to the trash cans, whom are already filled, from the restaurant on the opposite side of the street. On Monday mornings they throw away the food that people couldn't eat because they had enough. How can someone ever have enough? He asks himself.

He returns with a bag full of food back to his cold but comfortable hideaway. It is now winter and he begins to get cold. He wants to begin the food that he just had taken but there is a rough knock on the door. He scalps his throat because he has not talked in a while.

With a raw voice he asks : "Who is there?"

- "Open the door."

Reluctantly he gets up and opens the door carefully. The man pushes the door almost against his nose and comes within the little room:

"Can you come with me?"

It is more a command than a question. He takes a look at the man and looks confused. He is wearing a black trousers with a glossy black belt and a sparkling white shirt, the shirt is sloppy crammed in his trousers. Would he come and get Andreas for that one thing he had signed up for? But, it was months ago.

He reluctantly agrees and goes with this man. What could he possibly lose? If he sees the man's profile, he notices that he must be old. Once they are outside, he takes Andreas a bit farther. A girl is falling right in front of their feet and looks Andreas right in the eyes. She is wearing long trousers and a wide blouse. The man pulls Andreas, past the girl and throws the boy in a sort of jet. He did not even have the time to look at the girl.

The jet is full of other people, he looks at the blinking lights on the ceiling and on the chairs and he cannot resist to push one of them in. A drink comes out, he decides not to drink, and who knows what is in it, maybe a type of drugs. His thirst overcomes his stubbornness and he takes a sip of it carefully. The drink is surprisingly fresh and leaves a sweet taste on his tongue.

Then he focuses on the people. They seem tired and afraid as well. Is this the end or is it the project? The jet starts to move and is invisible to the outside world. The boy holds on onto the armrest of a chair where a young girl sits on. He knew that this modern vehicle went to the new dimension, he had already heard a lot of people talk about it. But he had never read about it.

Apparently they would get you and bring you to the future. It had to be some day... It was almost six months ago that he had signed up for this and the hope was long faded away with time, the days which he waited in his hiding place. But no one was aware of it. He looks at the girl and sees that she has a frightened look in her eyes.

He overlooks a small window , which is located in the door of the jet, to the outside and he looks at how the road is becoming larger and larger from where he is now and from where they found him. How did they find him in the first place? He didn't had to fill in his residence. Only his name and he had to check a little box wherein was written that he was prepared to join this project. What he can't understand is why all these people are afraid if they signed themselves up for this.