Chapter 2
I told Sam of my mini-adventure in this white landscape, making sure not to tell him about me screaming. “So,” I heard Sam begin, “What now?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “the voice said that it’ll start answering after the others wake up.”
“Sounds simple enough,”
“Tell me about it,”
I began to pace, this feeling in the back of my head telling me something. This was starting to feel real, but it can’t be. It’s not possible for this to be real. It can’t be…
“Hey Sam,” I spoke, breaking the silence, “I’m starting to get this feeling that this is real,”
No reply. He is staring isn’t he? I turn towards him to see if I am right. Aaannd I am.
“Sam,” I slowly approached him, “Stop staring,”
He seemed to jump after I said that. “Oh sorry,” He apologised.
I sighed, “So do you have a feeling that this is more than a dream?” I asked Sam.
He thought for a moment then answered, “sort of,”
“Hey Andrew,” Wait, who said that?
I spun on the spot to see the source of the voice to see Tim. “Sup?”
Tim is Sam’s twin brother, non-identical. He is slightly taller than Sam, has a lighter brown hair than his brother and wore a black shirt and pants. “Where am I?”
“I’m going to get asked those questions every time someone wakes up aren’t I,” I complained.
Before I could complain more, Sam interrupted. “We don’t know,” he began, “all we know is that there is a big voice, 6 of us and lots of white,”
Tim smirked, “So someone’s been busy,”
“Really Tim,” I said, unamused by his comment, “Really.”
“Yes,” he said, maintaining his grin, “I went there.”
Shaking my head, I turn to see another person standing. She smiled at us. “Hey guys,” she greeted, getting the twins to spin around to face her.
Cloe is about the same height as me with bright orange hair, wearing a denim pair of pants and a green singlet. “Sup,” I said, extending my fist out for a Brohoof. YEAH, didn’t see that one didn’t you. Actually you probably did. “Fancy seeing you here,”
She accepted my Brohoof and asked the question that begs to get asked. “Where am I?”
“Tim,” I said, grinning, “your turn to answer,”
“Aw come on!” Tim started whining, “Why me, you know a lot more than I do,”
“Because you haven’t answered the question before and also know about as much as I do,”
Tim groaned and answered Cloe, “Ok, so we have no idea where we are and the big voice won’t talk until we are all awake,” Tim said more but I couldn’t hear him.
“Ok,” Cloe said, preparing to ask Question that begs to be asked #2. “So who is the voice?” and there it is.
“We don’t know, it refuses to talk until everyone is awake.”
“NO I DON’T!” The Voice shouted in annoyance, startling me and the others. Well I think the others. “I said the questions can wait until everyone is awake,” Well, that was unexpected.
“Anyway,” I said, “While we wait, what were you guys doing before this,” indicating towards the environment, “because I know I was definitely asleep.”
“Sleeping,” Sam answered.
“Sleeping,” Tim followed.
“No way,” Cloe started, “we were all sleeping,”
A groan coming from one of the two still sleeping individuals made me spin to see who it was. “Sup,” I greeted, “have a nice sleep there I hope.”
Tony got up slowly, adjusting to the fairly bright room. He is taller than me, with brown hair similar to Sam’s and wearing grey pants and a white shirt. The next thing he will say is ‘where am I’, I bet.
“Where am I?” There it is!
I turned to Cloe. “Your turn,”
“Ok,” she replied vibrantly, “So we have no real idea of where we are other than the fact that there is a big voice that I think is in control of this entire place.”
Tony seemed to stand there for a moment, shocked at the answer that he got. He probably has a ton of questions going through his head right now. The question in my head was whether he was going to ask the same question as Cloe.
“So what now?”
His question caught me off guard. I didn’t expect him to ask that yet. “Well,” I began, “we wait until she wakes up. Have I told you that I have no idea why she is here?”
“No but I don’t really care,” Sam almost predictably said.
A quiet moan alerted us of her waking up. I was about to greet her but Sam cut me off.
“Hey,” he greeted, a smile on his face, “Have a good sleep there?”
This comment seemed to cause her to react badly. She jumped up suddenly and backed away from us. “Where am I?” she demanded.
Before I could turn to Tony and ask him to fill her in, Sam began to explain.
“We don’t know.” Well that explanation was short.
She is a rather short individual with long brown hair, an orange shirt and brown pants. Her caution was notable, being that the only one she recognises as a friend is Sam.
“Now then,” the voice began, “since everyone is awake, the questions can begin,”
Before I could even think of a question, she interrupted my thoughts. “What was that?”
“That was me,” the voice answered, making an obvious comment. “Now I’m going to guess that you are wondering where you are.”
“Yeah,” all of us answered at once, which was pretty cool.
“Well then, brace yourselves for the truth,”
We waited in anticipation for the answer to come. Damn It was taking It’s time. “You are in the Multiverse.”
... What? “Are you serious?”
“Yes I am,” its quick response came.
Wow, so this is the multiverse. Seems a bit blank really.
“Well, this isn’t exactly the multiverse,” it continued, “it’s more like a plane of existence above the multiverse where living beings are capable of being present. In between the multiple universes is nothing, therefore a living being will simply be obliterated if it went in there without proper protection, something you lack. Luckily I was paying attention and saved you all.”
“Ok,” I interjected, “thanks for that I guess.”
“So, moving on, I’m going to guess you want to know who I am,” The Voice guessed.
“You guessed correctly.”
“Many call me God, Odin, Zeus, Chuck Norris, Morgan Freeman, and Osiris,” The Voice said “but officially, I am known as the Guardian of Existence. Self-appointed of course.”
Wow, this guy has some pretty cool names. Now then to ask my question, “How did we get here?”
The Guardian seemed to mumble something illegible before starting. “Well, there seems to be a rift that happens to create an access point to a specific universe that happens to be able to take things from other universes that happened to have sucked the six of you and no one else through in which the process would have ripped you to pieces if I didn’t intervene.”
“Wait,” Sam said, “You mean only the six of us went through?”
“Well, yeah,” Guardian answered, “but the rift created holes in several other universes.”
“So we can still go back?” she asked.
“Well, no,” The Guardian answered, making my hopes of going home moot, “The holes are one way, for now.”
Wait, he said for now. Either he is working on it or there’s a catch somewhere. I need to ask about this. Also he’s a he now. Just remember all the badass names he has.
“So there is a way to get home?” I asked.
“Yeah, there is,” Is there a catch, “but I will need your help.” Yep, there is.
I turn to the others, silently asking them for their approval. If it is a way home, then I’m willing to take it. I’m just worried the others won’t want to risk it. A moment of thinking later and the others nod their heads, obviously as willing to do this as I am. “Ok, what do you want us to do?”
“Well first, you need weapons,”…
*20 minutes of explaining and arming later*
Now suited up in armour and armed with an arsenal of weapons, we were ready to go.
“Ok, so get in the drop pod and I’ll send you through,” The Guardian announced.
“So you are sure we’ll be fine, you said yourself energies from a different universe will kill us,” Tony asked, understanding his concern.
“You’ll be fine,” The Guardian reassured, “just go in, find the source and I’ll figure it out from there.”
To me, that didn’t sound very reassuring but we sort of have no choice so I’ll go with it. Watching as the others get into the pod, I grabbed my newly acquired weapons and headed for my seat in the pod.
“You all comfortable?” the guardian asked.
“Nope but I’m ready,” I replied sarcastically.
“Mostly,” Sam answered, obviously sitting next to her. I ought to get her name sometime.
“Yeah, sure,” Tim answered, obviously not caring.
“Yeah actually,” Tony threw his answer in.
“Not really,” Cloe answered.
“Let’s just get this over with,” the girl-that-I-ought-to-get-the-name-of-sometime said.
“Ok then,” The Guardian began, “hold on, I’m throwing you in at 2400 meters a second, but don’t worry, you will survive without so much as a bruise.”
As the door closed in front of me, worry set itself into my mind. The sound of mechanical work outside told me that we were being loaded into a launcher of sorts, or I assumed so. Soon after, I felt my insides go up as we were fired out of something, heading to the surface of wherever we’re going. The weightless feeling lasted only a moment before the loudest thump of steel on dirt was heard and all of my insides dropped really hard, leaving me dizzy from the feeling. After a moment, the dizzy feeling subsided, leaving me amazed to not be in pain. Wow, the guardian was right, we would be fine.
“Everyone alright?” I yelled out, hoping they could hear me.
Mixed replies could be heard from everyone, ranging from “Yeah, sorta,” to “Oh, my stomach.”
“Well, You’s are all good,” I assured, looking to the sides at my weapons, “so who has the door controls.”
“I do,” the enthusiastic voice of Sam answered.
“Ok, might as well do this fast,” I shouted through the steel that separated the sections of the pod, “everyone ready?”
A collection of affirmatives rang back. “Hit it.”
The synthetic voice of the drop pod chimed in as Sam pushed the button.
“Drop pod doors opening.”
As the hissing of the air seals releasing came, so did the burning pain. All my senses were assaulted by something. I started tasting metal for no reason, I smelt burning flesh, there is a constant ringing noise in my ears and my body felt as if it was on fire. I went to scream in pain, but no noise escaped my mouth. Getting a face of dirt as I fell out of the pod was the last thing I did before losing consciousness…