Six Symbols

Chapter 4. History Lesson

A new reality assaulted their senses, all of their senses, it was as if they had just awaken in a strange place, but the sights were surreal. The people around them were all regular people, even when their choice of clothes seemed a little odd, they were clearly in a train station of some sort, a very modern instalation, and it seemed like a busy day. They could hear announcements in the speaker system but the language was not familiar to Leon or Kate, people were walking in small groups, some seemed like families, some like groups of friends or co-workers, a small portion walked alone, inside each group they could hear different languages spoken, English, Spanish, German, and others they could recognize from the sound, however the signs around them were written in a single language, presumably the same language that was used in for voicing out information, a common language they all seem to understand and talk between them when communicating with people from other groups.

There were holographic images of arrows with numbers and letters floating above the crowd, William waited while his companions assimilated the situation, a short pale bold man was walking directly towards them, it seemed like he was going to bump into William, instead he passed trough him, without ever noticing he was there, then they remembered this was all suppose to be a "Mirage", an illusion, but much more real that either of them could have expected.

- This is the place I came from, and the day your parents and I traveled to your world - William explained - It is a reconstruction from my memories and those of other people in the station who volunteered to recreate certain events, only sensory information is collected, to preserve the privacy of the people involved.

- Is this 1980? - Leon asked, knowing the year his real parents had died.

- No, 1979, you and your parents had lived close to a year in your reality before the accident.

As William replied, to both of them seemed impossible, they had thought they were transported to the future, the installations, the holograms, manhood finally adopting a common neutral language, all seemed to be still futuristic concepts even in 2011.

William started climbing the stairs towards the exit doors, behind them a train was coming to a stop, it barely made a sound, a modern monorail had stopped at the station, the doors opened with a hiss, and people started to orderly walk out, they turn back to follow William, as they came to the crystal doors they could see the the street in front of the building, the vehicles kept some of the familiarity that allowed them to distinguish between cars, buses, public transportation, and others, but the designs were totally different to those on Earth, except for a White Volkswagen beetle parked close to the door, it looked brand new, the building doors opened as some people passed by, the moved with them to the outside, they suddenly noticed that they were walking asides a younger version of William, a young couple and a small kid, the husband looked a bit like Leon but taller and more elegant, the wife was a pretty blond, very white, who held her son's hand tenderly.

- Look Leon, you were so cute! - Said Katherine with that typical inflection in her voice women make when they see a baby or a puppy.

- And he was the whole reason for this assignment - William added in a colder tone - none of us really like to venture into Earth, even when we all came from there, or at least one of our ancestors did.

- What is this place? - Leon murmured more to himself than to the others, he had a vague memory, but he always supposed they were infantile fantasies.

William pressed a button in his unit, everything stopped, as if time stood still, the sounds were interrupted, the air stopped blowing, smells ceased to exist, they both looked at him, as he started to speak.

- During the course of history people had disappeared from all places on Earth, inexplicably, groups of people, complete cities and civilizations, sometimes single individuals, suddenly vanished, some leaving witnesses, some are attributed to mythical creatures, some just considered unsolvable mysteries or legends.