Elias Winzer
Some time later.
The cafeteria got quiet the moment a line or service bots walked in. The uniformed abductees watched as they rolled in a series of projection equipment. And at the end of the line was their gracious host – Eli. He walked behind them, turning his head for a few seconds worth of a glance at the crowd seated around the chairs and tables. All two-hundred and seventeen of them. Hopefully. And over on one side was Henry, waving his hand as if he was going to get a wave back. He, of course, did
not.
The service bots positioned the equipment at the front of the crowd where the empty food aisles were situated. They rolled down a large sheet of white, synthetic fabric with a small, two-dimensional holographic projector clamped on the top. As they monitored the cable box rolled alongside the projector, another one of them handed Eli a remote. He promptly hit the power button and watched the initialization process start up on the synthetic screen. Before it finished, he turned to the crowd as one of the service bots dimmed the lights.
“Everybody know why they’re here?” He asked aloud, arms raised in a questioning gesture.
Henry raised his hand high in the air, waving it back and forth. You could almost hear the sound of utter annoyance resonating in Eli's head.
"Rhetorical question...
Henry." He responded. Henry pulled his hand down.
The screen lit up with a series of footage cuts from recent news reports, clear and crisp for all the room to see. The attacks in the southwestern US, the ones in Singapore, Vancouver, everywhere of major impact. The otherwordly beings just... ravaging, everything. Eli spoke up again with, "I'm not stupid. And none of you are either, I hope." He pointed to the screen and said, "Been following this? If you were more focused on anything else, it'd have to be for a really good reason. Because let's not forget...
this is an invasion."
Henry raised his hand again. He'd been following it.
"Henry put your GODDAMN hand down."
Henry put his hand down again.
Eli continued. "You've all had a chance to talk since you got here so I'm going to go on my current understanding that you know the deal here." He paced around a bit. "Your dreams. Or, your nightmares. Depends on who I'm asking. Lot of you have been running around in places
not of this world. Let me clear things up for you,
you're not dreaming. You are literally controlling another version of yourself somewhere else in space-time."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"Each and every one of you has rolled up the lucky number. You've all got a link to the worlds these things are coming from. You've been seeing a... red city? Like, really red? Foggy wilderness with weird clouds? Place that looks right out of one of those old Saw movies?" He paused and gauged the crowd's reactions, of which, there were few. Save for one.
Henry raised his hand again, waving it wildly this time.
"Somebody smack him."
Henry pulled his hand down again. There was what seemed to be a "No, no please dont." from his position in the crowd. Nora removed the spork she had managed to pilfer from the flatware rack from her pocket and jabbed it, with an artisan's precision, into the side of Henry's thigh.
"Ow! What the hell!"
"What?" She asked, genuinely confused. She waved a hand vaguely. "The man incited violence."
"Not what I expected but okay." Eli responded after a brief period of disbelief. With a hint of humor. He hit another button on the remote, initiating a stream of new footage – this time, of the places he had described just prior. The red city. The foggy wilderness. The mega-factory. “The Zones.” He said aloud, “Or so we have branded them. We, being, myself and the organization I work for.” Another press of a button, and a logo akin to the one printed on Eli’s lapel badge came into view. A man’s head with an ethereal apparition floating before it. “Somniatis APR. Astral Projection Research.”
“Sounds like a disease!” Miriam called out.
Oh for the love of God.Eli hung his head and pinched his nose in a sense of defeat. Another moment passed by before he raised back up and said, “’Kay, you know what? Cutting to the chase. You’ve all been brought here so we can form a preemptive defense team against the things in the Zones before they bleed out into our reality. And to help do that, we constructed a machine that will allow you to travel to the other Zones. The ones you’ve been
relatively oblivious towards so far.” He looked around the room, dropping his rushed, snarky attitude. “I don’t know how the rest of you feel about this, but you need to understand something. Our world is in
danger. This is a
real,
living threat. I know most of you may not want to be here. And I’m sorry this happened to you. But I’m
not kidding when I tell you it’s all for the greater good. Your families are being taken care of by our own personnel. They’re
safe. And you will rejoin them once we’ve put a stop to this invasion.”
Another press of the button. The projector shut down, and one of the service bots raised the lights. Eli stood before the crowd and continued speaking. “The machine I mentioned, we call it the Nexus Projector. It has only recently exited its prototype stage. So what I need from you now, is some volunteers. For the inaugural run into Zone 1. The red city.”
He crossed his arms.
“Who’s up for it?”
Member
ML
Enarr