Madison Cartwright straightened the Purple Heart pinned to her uniform. She was sitting smack dab in the middle of the White House, towards the end of a table filled with US soldiers like herself.

Picking at her salad, she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. It was one hell of a time to get her period, that was for sure. Not to mention that she needed a cigarette so badly she would hop the next plane back to Afghanistan if she could get it.

She took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, looked over at President Bush. He was laughing at some comment that his daughter made, his weary face lighting up into a more youthful one. Nibbling on a piece of lettuce, she looked down the table. Her fellow soldiers seemed to be having the time of their lives. One week out of forsaken Afghanistan with it's car bombings, mortars flying, and those fucking OPs. She personally thought the OPs were worse then being shot at. High above the world and looking into the city with nothing to do but chain smoke for 13 hours. Or how about lugging 80 pounds on your bag as you lie in some ant hill in the middle of the desert, sweat pouring down your face from the 115 degree weather. Those fucking disease spreading insects biting at your exposed skin.

Sure. The White House was a breath of fresh air, and being back in the States was a relief beyond words. But her family was still in Afghanistan. The soldiers she had met in her platoon, the ones who saved her ass more then a few times. The States held no family for her. Her Father left when she was four and her Mother and grandparents died on September 11th. It was the whole reason she signed up for the Army.

It was when she took the next bite of her salad that everything happened. When even the States--home, turned into a fucking war.

Military personal came flying into the room, heading straight for the President. The man who had grabbed his arm kept his voice lowered but the whole room heard everything in their deathly silence.

"...bomb shelter, Mr. President. There are five missiles heading for DC as we speak. They should be here in four minutes, Sir."

The whole room exploded in panic. Soldiers jumped up and ran in every direction. Screams filled the entire room, bouncing off the walls and becoming hollow in Madison's brain. A coldness spread across her. The same coldness that came every time something bad had happened and it was life or death based on her next decision. Her cool gray eyes were locked on the President as she stood, making her way through the panicked crowd towards the Bush family. She followed them out of the room, followed them down hallways and through a door. Down a staircase that wound and wound until it was no longer walls around them but cement. A man behind the frightened Bush family turned to look at her but said nothing as she followed.

The staircase cleared to a small room. So small you could only fit maybe three people in it. The man pressed himself against the cement wall, a spider crawling off its web and onto his shoulder. He brushed it aside hastily, leaning down to a small black latch in the ground. Another man came to help him, both of them groaning as they lifted up the metal door. A ladder hung from the side, providing a way down into what Madison could only guess was the bomb shelter. Right under the White House.

The Bush family, that had no idea of her presence, went one by one down the ladder. The First Lady was last, looking up at Madison with deranged fear and confusion. Madison stepped forward, an arm flying into her abdomen.

"This shelter is strictly for the President and his family. No--" The man started.

"Shut the fuck up, Henry," The second man spoke, turning his eyes to Madison. "Hurry up and get down there before we all fucking rot up here."

Madison didn't have to be told twice, only gripping onto the sides of the ladder. Her feet clung to the sides as well and she let herself slide down it, her hands burning as she reached the bottom. Henry followed down in much the same way, waiting for his friend to follow after.

Madison felt the hot waves of panic creeping up into her heart. It bit at the edges of her brain, her palms starting to sweat. She rubbed them against the sides of her uniform, swallowing the lump in her throat. She was safe now, right? No reason to panic. That still didn't stop the rapid beating of her heart or the lump that kept forcing it's way back up.

She breathed deeply, looking around the large shelter. The walls were a grimy cement but she guessed the rest was as plush as possible. The floor was carpeted, two couches and a recliner stood in the center and faced a TV. Towards the left corner of the far wall were shelves stacked with food. The far right corner were shelves stacked with everything else. Can openers, batteries, flashlights, medical kits, duct tape, et. There were two king sized beds against the right wall, small folded up cots were lined up near them. To her left were tables, two men already standing post. Radios and computers filled all the tables and desks, shouting filled the room. The wall behind her was where the table was and another door leading to what she guessed had to be the bathroom. A chess set stood--the door above the ladder slammed and she jumped.

"Fifteen seconds!" A man near the tables shouted. Henry and Unnamed ran over to them, hands flying against radio dials and keyboards.

The Bush family had sat down on the couch, some paleness washing from their faces. They knew they were just as safe. They were so deep in the earth that the only thing threatening them was if the entire world blew up. Behind Madison, the countdown from ten had begun. When they reached one, only a single thing happened. The power went off. Seconds later it came back up, run on generators and batteries.

"Hello?" A radio man asked, flipping switches on the device.

"It...it hit. Lost power in bomb shelter 9DC. Generators just came on." Sounded through the radio. Every other bomb shelter checked in afterwards, but all were frantically trying to get a hold of the radio men on land.

"All those people." One of Bush's daughter cried.

Madison stared intensely at the radio. All her friends were in Manhattan but still...the devastation. Those soldiers. Her hand jerked to her mouth, her eyes wide and scared above her fingers. She closed them and prayed. Prayed for something.

"Post...29. Third missile...on way..."The radio fizzled, static interrupting before a strange popping noise. "Land...flattened. All was destroyed. Fu--" The voice cut off with a small whine, a loud explosion blasting through the speakers.

"Fuck," A radio man cried, jumping to his feet and throwing his pen across the room. "Fuck!"

Henry swirled around in his chair, his face grave and his eyes searching for the Presidents.

"Mr. President. The fourth missile seems to be headed straight for the White House, Sir. It should be here in 30 seconds, Sir."

Bush simply nodded, holding his wives head closer to his chest. His eyes were cold, numb. He was staring dimly at the far wall, his wrinkled hand sliding against his wives hair. His daughters were shaking their heads, crying and huddled against one another.

Madison's head jerked towards the roof as an explosion sounded off above them. Screams sliced into the air, pieces of house and staircase falling on top of the bomb shelter and death hung around them...thick and suffocating.

For a brief moment it felt as if the bomb shelter would explode. As if the ceiling would simply crack and fall down on them, and the ones still alive after would surely die from the burning pieces of the White House falling through.

But after a few breathless seconds, after a few frozen minutes, silence was all that pierced the air. Madison let out a shaky breath, the Bush family suddenly aware of her presence as all of their heads turned towards her.

"The fifth one hit at about the same time." Unnamed announced.

"There's no more heading for DC, Sir. But...there are hundreds of others," Henry tapped the screen. "They are headed towards a few country places, the Poconos and such. Others are headed towards amusement parks. More are headed towards suburbs all over the country. But the most of them are heading to all the major cities. They'll hit Pittsburgh, Scranton, and Philadelphia first. After that they hit St. Louis, Cleveland, Chicago, LA, Malibu, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Boston, NYC...everything, Mr. President. They're destroying America."

Madison now had tears streaming down her face, thinking of her friends in Manhattan. Hoping they get out in time and find somewhere to hide. She saw them all in her mind, a sob escaping her lips. She wiped the tears away with anger, turning towards the President.

"How come you didn't see this coming? How come you didn't know until the last second? The last three fucking minutes? Shouldn't you have seen this hours ago when the fucking things came into our radar's? We could have actually fucking did something then! We could have saved peoples lives!" She shouted, the tears she willed back still coming like a rainstorm.

"Sir, we're lifting a scope to land level." Unnamed announced, taking Madison's arm and yanking her towards the tables and desks. "Calm yourself, Soldier. This is no fucking time to be kicked out of a bomb shelter, do you understand? Calm the fuck down and shut your mouth." He hissed in her ear, swinging her down onto a chair.

A cold rage settled over her heart and she was thankful she didn't have the gun that was normally equipped with the uniform she wore. If she did have it, she felt sure she would have blown everyone in the room to pieces. Her heart pulsed quick in her jugular, her teeth grinding as she tried to cool her blood.

The screen was black at first as it began to escalate from the air tight seal it had been held in so long. Madison's hands tightened on the arms of her chair, her knuckles turning white as she pressed her fingers into the hard rubber. Her lips moved in a silent prayer she was hardly aware she was making, her toes curled with hope inside her boots.

The screen turned a shade of neon green before darkening, the color slowly draining out towards the edges. The screen wavered, broke apart, ran diagonally, came back again. Not a mutter or a single breath ran through the dimly lit shelter. Madison's hands slowly released their clutch, her eyes brimming with tears.

"My God." It came out in a mere breath of words.

The screen showed nothing. Where buildings stood and people walked, the world was simply nonexistent. There was dirt, there was bits of torn away sidewalk and street. Scattered metal and debris...bodies. All the bodies.

Washington DC had been flattened to nothing more than a city in the history books.

"Sir, in the past ten minutes, half of The United States has been hit." A radio man whispered, not daring to turn to face some of the last remaining citizens.

"Jesus...Jesus Christ!" The First Lady screamed, jumping up from the couch. Tears streamed down and she slapped them away from her face, looking down with rage upon her husband. "Did you know about this, George?"

"No, Laura! If I had known! My God, don't you think I would have done something?" He exclaimed, jumping up from the couch with astonishment written all over his wrinkled features.

"Mr. President?" Henry asked, a whisper that shuddered the room.

"What?" He yelled.

"Mr. President...we've been destroyed." Henry whispered.

"What do you mean, we've been destroyed?" The First Lady asked, her knees giving out as she fell back onto the couch next to her daughters.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Bush asked.

"Well, just that, Sir-" Henry began.

"Basically, Sir," A radio man turned, tears streaming down his plump cheeks. "Sir, America has been wiped from existence."

Madison's breath caught in her throat, her lungs closing in on eachother. Her heart suddenly dropped to her stomach, a sob erupting the silence of the room. She slowly pinched her arm, shook her head, clutched the arms of the chair, breathed out a shaky breath that ended in another sob.

"I mean, Sir...we still have the land. Some country towns and such but...most of the population--" The man cut himself off.

"And within the next 24 hours, all of human existence in America not in a bomb shelter will be dead from the gas. These 'missiles' were nuclear war heads, Mr. President." All heads turned towards the voice. It was a short man with fiery red curls, his face pale and dotted with freckles. He wore all black, standing in front of a door near the beds that had never been there before.

"Nuclear?" Henry asked.

"Yes. Nuclear. It'll spread through the air to these small towns, carried in with the wind. Earthens, live stocks, anything that can breath will be killed. As far as the towns far in the middle of nowhere, it will come in like a strain of disease. Become part of the air they breath. It might not be enough to kill them immediately, but enough to kill them slowly. Which, perhaps, is much worse."

"So, we can rebuild...right?" Henry asked. He had suddenly turned from a man of the Military to nothing more then a small boy.

"Rebuild a whole country? How many people do you think will be left?" The redhead laughed sarcastically. "The ones who are in the bomb shelters, the ones who are normal civilians and somehow got the news just in time, will stay down in there holes until the food or water runs out. After a week or so of not hearing anymore explosions, after a day of nothing to eat or drink, the moles come out of their underground homes. Clueless of what lurks within the air, of what they'll breath in and die from."

Madison tilted her head at this man, her jaw locked. He spoke as if he didn't give a damn. Did he really just call those innocent people 'moles'? Her fingers dug stiffly into the rubber, deeper and deeper until she no longer had the strength to squeeze. A hand was placed gently on her shoulder but she shook it off, her wild eyes narrowed at this man.

"Who are you?" Unknown growled through his clenched teeth behind her.

"I don't matter-" He started.

"No. I agree." Madison nearly spit the words out, but the man just smirked.

"Mr. President?" The red head asked, still smirking at Madison. That gentle hand settled back on her shoulder, but now it was firm enough to keep her down when she lurched forward.

"Oh...yes. Yes." He stood, walking towards the man and the door.

"And you two," He pointed at Madison and somewhere behind her. "You both follow me. You've been called upon by the United States Government to assist Code 20-32A. But, more on that later."

Madison didn't want to go. Even thought about saying no. But the fingers that jabbed into her right shoulder blade got her up and walking. She followed behind the President, footsteps of someone falling behind her.

It was a long hallway made of cement, buried underground in utter silence. The dim lights shining down made shadows bounce of the walls and Madison could feel her heart start an irregular pace. The door they had entered from slammed shut behind them. Color rose up into her cheeks as she gave a slight jump, but that hand came back upon her shoulder. Who the hell was this guy? One of those men who thought woman were little and needed to be comforted at all times or they would surely break down or faint, she thought. Her frown deepened as she shook the hand off of her again.

They stopped at a door at the very end of the hallway, a blue laser beam shooting out from the wall and into the eyes of the redhead.

"Please wait for confirmation." The robotic voice bounced down the hallway, echoing back into their ears. The laser suddenly disappeared, the door breaking in half and retracting into the wall.

The hallway was filled with frantic people, all dressed in black like the man they were following. People were screaming back and forth, one man was slamming another against the wall. Another man punched the cement wall, pulling back his bloody fist. People ran through the hallway, in and out of rooms. But not two seconds from when they stepped into the hall, they all stopped and turned towards them. Silence hung heavy in the room, weighing them all down.

"Those two?" A man spoke, shaking his bloody fist in the air. That was when Madison realized that not a single one was actually looking at the President. All eyes were burning into Madison and the man behind her.

"Do we have any other choice?" The redhead asked, walking forward.

"Well, shit! One of us could fucking go! Look at them! What, are you out of your fucking mind? You dumbass! These peo-" The man started, cutting off in a scream as the red head grabbed his bloody fist and squeezed it within his own. All heard two distinctive cracks as two of his bones broke.

"Are you questioning me?" He gritted out.

"No." The man gasped out, ripping his hand away as the redhead let go.

"We can't send one of our own," The red head was now directing his attention to all the men in the hall. "Everyone here, we need. We're better off with two soldiers than two radiomen. We have another man in there looking at the boards, two men on the radio, and every one of you need to be here for your own duties. These our only choice. It's not like they can turn them around. They need all the help they can fucking get."

All the men seemed to finally get this, nodding their heads with wide eyes of understanding. One stepped forward, taking the President by the elbow.

"Sir, let me show you to our Coffee room." He smiled, leading Bush towards a door.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?" Unknown stepped up beside Madison, asking the question she had opened her mouth for.

Madison studied him. Square jaw, big build, tall frame. Stubble's were taking over half his face, bushy eyebrows set above amazing green eyes. His thin lips were curved into a deep frown, his well defined arms were crossed in front of a chest she was sure could stand on it's own. She unconsciously took a step away from him, slightly intimidated by him suddenly.

"You'll find out soon enough." Redhead spoke up, not even bothering to turn around to face him.

"I want to find out now." Madison cocked her head slightly at the southern drawl, her eyes still trained on the men in front of her. This comment seemed to cause an upstart in the crowd and Madison took a step slightly behind Unknown, in no shape to fight with her emotions and thoughts so out of whack.

"You'll find out...,"

"Kevin."

"Kevin, when I'm fucking ready to tell you." Redhead replied heatedly.

"I think you'll tell me now."

"No, I really don't think I will." Red head snarled, sweeping his fingertips across the gun in the holster at his thin hips. Madison scoffed at this, muttering something unintelligible under her breath. "Now, if you'll follow me."

Madison fell behind Kevin, once again following the redhead towards a door. Redhead opened it, stepping aside to let the two of them walk in ahead of him.

The room was large, maps covering almost every inch of the walls. Madison counted nine TV monitors in one corner, and besides these, most of the room was empty besides the table. A large conference table was set in the middle of the room. The redhead took the seat at the very far end. Kevin took the seat directly opposite on the end closest to the door. Madison gazed over at the red head and then Kevin, choosing the seat nearest to Kevin. They might not be friends but they were certainly allies in whatever the hell it was that was going on.

Kevin stared at her, his eyes seeming to penetrate right through her. Do you know anything about this shit? That look asked. Madison shook her head, glancing at the door before steadying her gaze on the red head. That last thing she needed was the angry crowd of men in black to rush into the room and kill them. Maybe this was a stupid or silly thought, but on this day? You couldn't put anything past her wall of reality. As far as she was concerned, anything could happen and very well might.

"My name is Don. This isn't my real name, but it's the one you'll call me. As you know, America just suffered from great tragedy and complete destruction. To put the loss into words would be blasphemous, so I'm not going to even bother. I'm sure your minds will wrap around it tomorrow morning when you wake up and realize this is no dream. That you woke up this morning to a nightmare, your own personal living hell.
..You should realize the facts now. America is destroyed. This goes will all your favorite stores, your favorite restaurants. Your car, your clothes, all of your possessions. Your apartment, house, trailer, whatever. Your dog, cat, whatever...gone. Your friends, your family members...they are all dead. Or will be. Your entire life has been wiped away. Out there...you simply do not exist."

Madison tried to hold back the tears that welled up in her eyes, swallow the lump that formed in her throat, dislodge the dagger inside her heart. Don looked at her and a small smile of satisfaction pulled up the corners of his mouth.

"The question is...are you willing to risk any bit of your life that still exists to get it back?"

"The real question is, in what way?" Kevin's voice was cold.

"Does it matter? What is it that you have left? Don't you get it? You have no reason to live."

"Exactly, so why bother even risking it? At least this way we have awhile before the food runs out." Madison answered.

"Oh, what a way to spend out the rest of your days." Don rolled his eyes, clasping his hands on top of the table. His big blue eyes seemed beady, darting around the room.

"If you're not going to tell us how, then at least tell us why." Kevin demanded.

"I can't until you agree with th-"

"Why? Who in the great fuck of things are we going to tell?" Madison glared.

Don shifted in his seat, staring uncomfortably at the table. He sighed deeply, a man who didn't like to break the rules he lived by no matter the situation.

"It doesn't matter...?" Kevin began.

"Madison."

"It doesn't matter Madison. We have no choice. We either participate in this...situation. Or, they send our asses up onto land with the nuclear gas still floating around in heavy clouds." Kevin's voice was cold, his eyes were cold. His whole body was stiff and straight, his eyes never leaving Don.

"Kevin, you're a smart man. I expected as much from a Marine." The grin was sinister and Madison felt that dagger drive even deeper into her heart. "Basically, to lay it out on the table here...you have two choices. One, you say no and you die like the rest of them. Two, you do as we ask and gain the chance to live out your life happily until your old and gray. In option two, life is not a guarantee...but it's a possibility. Which is better then the first one."

"I though this was the land of the free. Wasn't that what I was fucking fighting for in Afghanistan?" Madison snarled.

"Lot of good that did ya." Don laughed wholeheartedly, his eyes squeezed shut and his head flung back.

Kevin's hand wasn't there this time to hold her back as she sprung up from her seat. She had almost made it all the way before Don yanked his gun out. She skidded to a halt as her eyes registered the barrel not half a foot from her forehead. Don turned the gun around in his hand, taking the butt of the gun and smashing it against her temple. Madison's body flung towards her left, throwing her against the wall face first. Black edged her vision and she felt herself falling, maps ripping from the wall with the weight of her body as the black closed all the way in.

The face was foggy when she opened her eyes, but she noticed the bright emerald eyes staring down at her and she breathed a thick sigh of relief.

"That's it. Come on now, Madison." The southern drawl floated into her head as she became slightly aware of the tapping hand on her cheek. More aware of another hand pinching her nostrils closed.

Pain suddenly roared up inside her head, banging against her brain like a hammer. She groaned loudly, letting her eyes roll up into head.

"Fuck." She muttered, feeling liquid squirt from her lips at the words. She wasn't sure if it was blood or spit, but she felt that cold metallic taste in the back of her throat that could only mean one thing.

She licked at her lips, her tongue flicking at the gash in the left of her lower lip. Blinking, she tried to clear her vision. Kevin wiped at her nose, tilted his head, and then let it go.

"You're all right." He told her loudly, letting his voice break through that fog. He gripped her shoulders and slowly pulled her to a sitting position. She tilted to the side before correcting herself, looking up at him with dazed eyes. They slowly cleared and anger replaced the confusion.

"That mother fucker." She spat, wiping the blood from her mouth and nose.

"Maybe you should try not come after me next time. Besides, I didn't mean for you to smash your face into the cement wall. That was just added bonus." Don snickered, looking at the blood that trailed down the wall. "Now, Kevin has agreed for this little journey. Do you, Madison?"

"If it gets me the fuck away from you." She growled, spitting blood out onto the floor.

"Good. We have a deal. Now, let me explain what this is all about. First, I'll get you some Motrin for your cooperation. See how nice that is?" He snickered as he walked from the room.

"Kevin, may I ask you a question there, big guy?" Madison asked as he lifted her off the floor.

"What?" Kevin grunted, pulling out a seat and sitting her down.

"What in the hell have we got ourselves into?"

Kevin shrugged his broad shoulders, taking back his former seat. He sighed deeply and Madison saw the tears that welled up inside those cold eyes. As if sensing her sudden knowledge, the tears sunk back in and evaporated back into hollowness.

Madison crossed her arms over the table, letting them cradle her head as she closed her eyes against all of her emotions. She was only slightly aware of a door opening and then closing, of two pebbles of sound followed by a clunk.

"Okay. Where were we?" Don asked, walking back to his seat. Madison rolled her eyes beneath her eyelids, raising her head to take her pain relievers. Don watched with humor as she inspected each pill before putting them in her mouth. "It's not Anthrax."

"Yeah, well...you never know with you people. Whoever the hell 'you people' are." She muttered, taking another swallow of her water.

"Hmm, yes. Because we would poison you when we need you." Don pretended to ponder this, grinning with the color that rushed to Madison's cheeks.

"Let's cut the shit." Kevin sliced through the chitchat, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. Don pulled his chair in more, once again folding his hands on top of the table. His face became hard; eyes narrowed, eyebrows knitted together, jaw locked, lips in a thin white line.

"We're an 'underground' bureau of the government who go by Code 20-32A in government documents. We just call ourselves Code 20. What we deal in, in layman terms, is other worlds outside of our own," He paused at this for added affect to the two gasps across the room. "What you know of as 'Black Holes' are the doorways to these other worlds. No one inhabits our planets--Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and onwards, and these other worlds very well know how careful we are of not letting our Earthens know about them. The whole idea has been so over dramatized in the media and 'Alien abductions' that people are scared of these 'aliens', not to mention that people are naturally afraid of what they do not know. Sure, once in a while we get one of these jackasses from Nutaz or Lokry out here, taking a few people and scaring the shit out of them. But some of our Earthens have been murdered as well and we need to stop them from coming in, not only for our peoples state of minds, but to protect them as well. We've planned to slowly let our people realize these people, or that their have been people out there. A few scribbles on a rock in Mars, maybe a few pots and pans on the Moon. We don't want to rush them into anything, so while we are slowly letting this huge bit of information come into their minds, we have to protect them. Hence, Code 20.
...I'm not going any further into that department. I wont answer questions about how long we've known, what we've done, if Area 51 was anything all that real. It's off the point and it's top secret information that you don't need to know. Now, this is the reason why you're here." He sighed, digging his nails into the outside of his hands.
"About a month ago, Earth was approached with an offer from the Seven of Nadloh. These are seven planets in the Nadloh Dimension which have all suffered great losses. Much like our own. All seven of these planets had seen their devastations a few weeks before they actually happened. All seven then send two people from each planet to the Juk Dimension for safe keeping. They contacted us and said they saw much the same destruction on a part of Earth, America Earth. We thought they were out of their minds and we let their message go without even a response. About an hour ago, we finally sent back to response, but whether or not they received it is still up in the air.
"We don't know all the details. As much as we might not want to send two Earthens in with as little back detail as we have, we have no option. All we do know is that there is something out there that can literally turn back time to a point where we have time to stop whatever country or countries attacked us. To save every American life. You'll learn more about this when you get there, I'm sure. I have contracts for you to sign and then I'll show you to your sleeping quarters. You'll be leaving tomorrow."

Kevin looked at the room they had given him. A twin bed in the corner, a small desk, a small bed side table with a single drawer. It reminded him of those furnished dorm rooms.

He reached down and flicked on the lamp, plopping down onto the bed. Kevin pulled his leg on top of his lap, pulling off his boot and sock. He rubbed his toes and closed his eyes, wishing a way out of the nightmare.

He hadn't been especially shocked at the news he had gotten in the conference room. All you had to do was look at the maps. Half a wall was dedicated to Earth, but while Madison was staring at the TVs, he had been looking at the walls still. He guessed they held a map of every 'Dimension', and every planet to it. He only had to think the obvious to come up with the news. There were always plenty of secrets in the government, and though he was a man who had to see to believe, he surely believed in this one. He might have been self-centered at times, but not enough to think the whole universe could only contain a few planets. Or only one planet with human beings, or any living thing for that matter. It was rather ridiculous how people could follow the words of lying politicians so blindly.

He brought his other leg onto his lap, repeating the process. Jerking his head down to his right shoulder, he sighed contentedly at the pops and cracks. He lifted his shirt off of him, standing up and unbuttoning his pants.

Madison was simply shocked at the news, completely stunned and awed. He would have laughed at her zombie walk to her sleeping quarters, had it been a better situation. Kevin, himself, was simply relieved. The government wouldn't have told them all of this, the Code 20 men wouldn't have looked to them with hope, and the President wouldn't have come in to sign a contract if they were lying.

In short, there was something out there that could actually turn back the hands of time. Correct the mistake. Bring back to life his family (In which, he thought, weren't really dead. Just in a sort of limbo...on vacation, maybe. Yeah. Soaking up the sun in the Bahamas). No doubt he would have opted for death had there been no way of getting any of them back, but when he agreed to this...quest of sorts, he knew they had to have had something up their sleeve. Something.

He lied down on the bed, pulling the blanket up to his chin. His feet stuck out the bottom but that was fine by him, as a heater warmed up the room. He closed his eyes, burying his head into the pillow, and pushed all thoughts of his dead family out of his mind. It was simple, because in the end, he would save them all.


Madison bit at her bottom lip, the tears rolling down her cheeks. She had huddled herself into a corner, her head bent back against the wall.

She didn't understand how she could trust these people. What if what they said was total bullshit? How were they getting there in the first place? Had she died on some strip of desert and hadn't realized it yet? She 'woke up' in Hell, having had killed too many innocent people in war? So many questions, with answers that just didn't seem real or plausible in the slightest.

Her thoughts led her to a movie she had seen with a friend of hers. They had run out to the movie theater, hell bent on seeing the new movie with that older-but-still-gorgeous Tom Cruise. Vanilla Sky, the movie had been called. Her friend had walked away in total confusion, but it had become one of Madison's favorite movies and with nothing to do with Mr. Cruise. She wondered now if this was a Lucid Dream. If, at any minute now, Tech Support would show up. That him or her would make her realize that everything is from her imagination. That a bug got into the system. That it shouldn't be like this. That she could control everything.

Madison concentrated on the door, willing it to fly open. She gave up a few minutes later, slamming her hands down on the cold, hard floor in total exasperation.

I've lost my mind. She thought, fresh tears on her cheeks. I've totally gone off the wall. Moo horsey, moo.

She had lost her Mother and her grandparents not more then two years ago. Had lost them in one day and in a tragic way. Now, she had lost all her friends too. Not that she had a lot. Madison was a loner on all accords but she had three or four who she considered lifelong friendships. Three or four that were now dead.

And could she save them?

Could she really go to some other world and really turn back time? It was impossible. Completely impossible. Things like that didn't happen. Sure, the government kept its secrets but this one seemed too out there to even consider being true. People on Mars or something, yeah. That's fine. Other dimensions of the universe that no Astronomer, Scientist, or anyone else for that matter, ever knew about?

Madison snorted, heaved a sigh, and pushed herself off the floor. As much as she didn't believe things like this were true, as much as she believed her friends were dead and would remain so, she also knew that the answers weren't completely known, or complete answers. But they would be tomorrow.

She curled herself into bed, crying into her pillow, willing herself to fall asleep and to wake up to tomorrow. The further she got from today, the better.

However, she didn't fall asleep that night. Not until the sun had started to rise in the sky somewhere above her, and lit the world in it's strange blue twilight. Not until two hours before they woke her up, and showed her the door to the rest of her life.