Mind Over Matter

Chapter 15

The tunnel seemed to never end.

Don and I were talking for awhile. Then, all of a sudden I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. Literally. "Race ya!" I yelled. We both started running. The light got closer. Of course, I got there first. Don got there a few seconds later, out of breath. "You're fast too!" he said. I just stared out of the tunnel. "What?" he asked. "Look!" I said. He looked out of the tunnel. "Whoa!" he said. It was just this huge canyon. We were nowhere near a canyon before! There was no way down or up. I looked at Don. Somehow we were thinking the same thing. We both ran back into the tunnel. This time we seemed to get there quicker. But we weren't at the abandoned facility. We were in a jungle! We both ran back in. We ran into a fork in the tunnel. That wasn't there before! We went right. Then, there was a desert at the mouth of the tunnel. We went back in, and came to another fork, this time with three choices. We went left. This time, we came to an island. "If this is real," I said, "Then they could be anywhere!" "And how do we know if it isn't?" asked Don. Suddenly, I had an idea. I don't know how I came up with it. It seemed like I had thought about it before. "If I shoot a bunch of missiles at the same time," I said, "Then if this is a matrix the explosion should overload the system." "OK," said Don, "Try it." I shot the missiles in front of us about 100 feet away. There was an explosion, and I mean a huge explosion, but other than that nothing happened.

We ran back into the tunnel. "That settles it," I said, "This is real, so we need to find a way to Shadow or home." "OK," he said, "I say if we find another fork we split up." "Got it," I said. We both ran back in. There was a fork almost right away. I went left, and Don went right.

Don

I went left, and Carroll went right. I kept running. At the end of this tunnel, there was a forest and some mountains. Not familiar at all. I ran back in. I couldn't see very well, so I don't know if there were any more forks. At the end of this one, it was the inside of a volcano. Not what I was looking for. I run back in, trying to figure out how this is happening. At the end of this one is a building. An empty building. This one looks promising. I walk out of the tunnel. I go to the first door I see. I open it and see desert. Just desert. I run back to the tunnel, but it's gone. Oh no!

Carroll

I ran into another fork. I went left again. There was a cave at the end of the tunnel. I was about to turn around when I heard something. It was very faint. "H..p," I heard. I followed the sound. "Help," it got clearer. "Help," it got louder. The cave was kind of a maze, but I finally made it to the source. There was a man laying on the ground, his hands and feet tied up with rope. I ran over to him. It was Mark.

Don

"Agent X," I said into my walkie talkie, "Come in Agent X! Come in Agent Double R! This is Agent Don, come in anyone!" "This is Agent Max," came in a voice, "What do you need Agent Don?" "I don't know where I am!" I replied. "What else is new?" the voice replied. "This is serious Maxine!" I said. I knew her from awhile back. "OK, I'll try to locate you," she said. A few minutes passed. "You're on the outskirts of a town in New Mexico," she said, "Do you want me to send an agent to your coordinates?" "Yes please," I replied, "Also, can you locate Agent Double R?" A few minutes passed. "No," she finally replied, "She didn't show up anywhere, we'll keep an eye out for her though."

Carroll

He looked pale, and his voice sounded weak. "What did they do to you?" I asked. "They drained my powers," he said. I cut the ropes. "You're in trouble," he said. "Do you know a way out of here?" I asked. "No," he replied, "But we need to leave here... Where's that other guy?" "Don?" I replied, "He's probably lost in here to." "You don't understand," he said, "He's building a machine... The tunnels are just the start." He was having trouble talking he was so weak. I picked him up, and tried to find a way up. He started to close his eyes. "Stay awake!" I said. I could see the mouth of the cave. I get out, and I'm in a jungle.

Don

I didn't know what to do, so I waited. Fifteen minutes or so later, I heard a voice from my walkie talkie "We've found Agent Double R." "Where is she?" I asked. "She's in the Amazon jungle," she replied, "How did you two get separated?" "It's a long story," I replied, "Can you send someone to get her?" "Sure," she replied, "Over and out."

I waited for a few hours, then someone showed up to take me back to the agency.

Carroll

"We're coming to get you," said Maxine. "Thanks," I replied, "Please hurry!" "Copy that," she said, "Over and out!" "You... have... to... stop... them..." said Mark. "Who is 'them?'" I asked, but he just closed his eyes. I took his pulse. Phew! Still alive. I stretched out on the ground and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep, because it seemed like only a few minutes later Agent Max was there to rescue us.

-----

Back at HQ, Mark was sent to the medical section. I told Don about Mark. "Sounds like we need to keep our eyes peeled," he said, "It also sounds like that machine has something to do with the tunnels." "What's weird is that they didn't seem to have a purpose at all," I added. "No," he said, "What's weird is that one of them just 'happened' to take you to Mark." "Good point," I said, "I think we should go back in a day or two." "Go back?!?" he exclaimed, "In there!?!?!" "Well," I replied, "Where else do you suggest we go?" He calmed down a bit. "Good point," he said, "Good point." "Next time I want to go with Alex though," I said, "To see what he makes of it."

That night, I tried not sleep. Mainly because I wanted to see if I really have to. I tried to wrap my head around the tunnel issue. No good. I didn't see how anything could cause something like that. Then I thought about what Don said. He said he considered me a friend. I didn't think he considered anyone a friend. That meant a lot to me.

Suddenly I felt tired, so I went to sleep. Maybe I did need to sleep.

-----

I run through a tunnel. I end up on a field. I go back through the tunnel and there's a solid steel wall. I shoot like twenty missiles at the wall. Everything goes black.

Then, I see some light, and I can make out a blurred silhouette of somebody. "Collin, come quick!" he says. He didn't sound familiar at all. "What Seth?" said another voice. It sounded exactly like Shadow. I see another silhouette. "It's that glitch we told you about!" the first one said. "Awe man! We're gonna have to wipe her memory again!" the second one said. Wipe he memory?!?!? I tried to move. I couldn't. "Maybe we should disable the dream world," said a third voice. He sounded like Samson. "We can't do that Dejae," said a fourth voice, who sounded just like Casper. The last thing I heard was "Why not Collin..." Then, everything faded out.

I sat up in my bed. What a weird dream. Then, I all of a sudden forgot about it.