Chapter 8 - The Machine of Curiosity

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~Parker's P.O.V.~

The door opened much louder than I'd expected and in that moment, I wondered to myself why on earth I'd chosen to do what I'd just done. Out of boredom, maybe. Why else would I sneak around unauthorized areas of a laboratory. Down nearly abandoned halls, following suspicious characters, typing lock codes into door after door that spiraled deeper into this building?

  As the stairs dropped, I realized it was simply because my curiosity had gotten the better of me and like most guys my age, I was hungering for adventure by doing stupid things. Grayson, or Gray, as he's recently been urging me to call him, was no exception. He was honestly worse that I was in terms of being sensible....Which I usually was. Just not today. 

I crept down the rickety stairs as my heart raced faster and faster. 

Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I should turn back. Obviously this was impulsive. Maybe I'd regret it later. But gosh, there was so much to explore. Something was pulling me in. I wasn't backing out now. Gosh, dang it. 

My feet hit the floor and before my eyes could adjust, a voice cut the eerie silence. 

"Hey, yo, Frank, is that you? Will you go get me another roll of paper towels? I need to clean up all this blood before Chousa gets back. And bring a trash bag too. The body isn't exactly in one piece, if you know what I mean...." the voice chuckled evilly, drowning out my short gasp and pounding heart. 

I remained silent as I slowly backed up towards the stairs. 
Then, it happened.
I tripped over the stairs and fell on my chest. 
As I stumbled to my feet, a light shone in my face followed by a string of curse words. "Who are you?? What are you doing here??"
I jumped to my feet, climbed the stairs and slammed the door as fast as I could.
"Parker, are you okay??" Amber whispered as I sat on the ground, trying to catch my breath.
My three friends all held worried looks.
"Guys..." I panted. "Run. We need to get out of here!"

Amber didn't need to be told twice. She rushed for the door, when suddenly, she turned back around. "Gray? What's the code?" 

The boy shook his head in panic. "I-I don't know. I-" 

"Guys, we don't have time for this!" Joy interrupted, jamming buttons on the machine she'd climbed into earlier. It lit up and started making loud noises.

Parker had shoved a heavy metal box on top of the door but suddenly, gunshots sounded and bullets went through the boxes. 

"C'mon. This thing is supposed to work. I bet it's a time machine and it's our only chance. Guysss."

"How do we know??" I demanded. "That isn't real!"

"Welcome to the machine of curiosity. Please type in how many will be travelling today." the machine said in a computerized voice.

"Holy crap..." I muttered.

"GET IN!!!" she screamed as three more bullets shot from the floor. 

Amber was the first to join her. Then Grayson.

I stood and looked at the box on top of the door. It was failing. Any minute the armed man could be free and we could be just like the dead body he'd just spoken of. 

With no other choice. I raced into the cramped machine as the doors slid closed. 

I peeked out of the glass window just as the man was pulling himself out of the underground room and his glare said "death." 

He slowly got to his feet as Joy continued to press buttons on this elevator time machine thing. As soon as he was on his feet with his gun cocked at us, I felt a gust of wind and then nothing but darkness outside of the window. a thin curtain of metal, with edges probably sharp enough to slice someone's hand off, fell in front of the window making it impossible for us to see where we were or where we were headed. I then felt Amber hug my arm. It was...really nice actually. She was scared and probably not thinking about what she was doing. All she wanted was a sense of security, so I in turn wrapped my arm around her. As I did so, a shock of electricity jolted through my body, causing us both to yelp in pain and quickly draw back...as well as we could in such a tiny space.

The machine jolted and jerked for several seconds and then - silence.

Short chapter but comment anyway because I love you more than smoothies. Also, I had this really awkward romantic dream last night and it wasn't exactly with someone I'm in love with so yeah. XD KBYE

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