~ 20 ~

Page Twelve

Date: May 22nd, 1999

Place: Just outside of Philadelphia, Pa (2 days after the emergency landing)

Time: Early afternoon

+ Kevin +

As Charlie and I plus two others were driving down the deserted streets of Philly heading towards the highway I felt anxious about going back to the scene where this nightmare started. Things were so unbelievable here that I found myself having doubts about my own story. What if when we got there, the plane was nowhere to be found? What if this was a figment of my imagination? Would it be anymore off base than being caught in what started to feel more and more like an alternate universe?

Jesus, I sound like a lunatic.

“Should we take the highway?”

I was broken out of my thoughts by the guy who was driving the van we were in. I was surprised to see the big selection of vehicles we had to choose from for this little trip. They had two motorcycles, three regular economy class cars, and two vans. We decided on a van because it apparently had better traction, which meant less slippage on the ice.

Charlie looked over at me, “How was the highway?”

“Bumpy. We walked most of the way. There were a lot of dead birds.”

“Let’s take the side roads, just go slow and watch for traps.”

 “Traps?”

Charlie nodded at me, “They booby trapped some of the side roads. We found most and Don was able to detonate them.”

“Detonate? They hid bombs?”

“They used old school land mines. You probably want to put on your seatbelt just in case though.”

I reached over and did just that.

The two of us were sitting in the back, he was looking out the window as we passed tons of abandoned, and half burned down houses. I wanted to ask him so many questions, starting with who was actually doing all of these horrible things, but I also didn’t want him to be even more suspicious of me.

The van almost spun out a few times as we went from one small road to the next. I wasn’t even sure how to tell them to get where they needed to go from here. “I only know where the plane is off of the highway.”

“If there really is a plane lying in a field, we’ll be able to see it from here. It’s not like you can just miss something like that.”

“True.” Once again I started to doubt myself. So, I dug deep down and thought I could at least ask him an easy question, “So, what did you do before all this happened?”

“Before the attacks?”

I nodded, but was hoping that maybe he would elaborate on what those attacks entailed. Were they nuclear, Germ warfare or just random bombs falling from the sky? And who was doing the attacking? Was it the Middle East? They hated us.

“I was a math professor at Cal-Tech.”

I wasn’t expecting that one. “Cal Tech? Why were you here in Philly?”

He laughed, “I was asked to do a lecture on Quantum Theory and how it relates to the universe in general so I thought I’d make a vacation out of it. I invited my dad, brother and girlfriend along for the ride and then the world decided to end, besides that it’s been a nice long vacation.”

I had no idea what he was talking about and wasn’t even going to attempt to seem like I did.

“What about you?”

I should have expected that. As a matter of fact, as the question was coming out of my mouth I was trying to come up with some stupid answer. I decided on a little white lie.

“I was working as Aladdin at Disney World.”

He seemed amused and surprised by my answer, almost like he was expecting me to mess up or something.

“And why were you in New York?”

“Vacation.”

“With the other four guys?”

I nodded as his questions got a little more rapid fire.

“How do you know them?”

“Brian is my cousin and Howie and I work at the park together.” I wasn’t sure how my brain was doing this. I almost felt disconnected from the lies I was spewing. It was as if they were coming from someone or some place else.

“And the other two?”

“AJ is Howie’s cousin and Nick is Brian’s best friend.”

He smiled at that, “And they all tagged along on your vacation?”

“Just like your family, I guess.”

“And everything was fine and dandy until yesterday when you ended up here.”

I didn’t like how this conversation was going. It was clear he thought I was lying to him and obviously he was a smart guy. I thought about changing the topic of conversation but it was safer just not to talk so I turned away from Charlie and looked out the window instead.

We drove pretty much in silence for the next ten to fifteen minutes before I saw it still smoldering in the field. It’s amazing how fast we got here considering how long it took us to get away. “Over there!” I pointed at the flume of smoke.

“I’ll be damned.” There was a mixture of awe and happiness in Charlie’s voice as we got closer to the plane, or what was left of it. Once we turned on to the small road that led directly to the field, I was really able to see how much damage was done to the plane after we got off.

If there weren’t two huge wings randomly splattered across the field in about five pieces, you might not even be able to tell the thing was a plane at all. Most of it was completely gone except for a little bit of the middle section. Annihilated is the word that keeps coming to mind. I can’t believe we were actually on that plane.

Charlie had a smile on his face as if he was a kid going to a circus for the first time. His look of wonder sent chills down my spine.

One of the guys we were with turned to me, “I don’t understand this, it’s impossible…”

“Nothing is impossible, Jim.” Charlie said as he gained some momentum and ran towards the remains of the plane.

He grabbed out one of those old Polaroid cameras and started taking pictures as the other two joined him. I had no desire to get that close so I just kind of stayed back by the van, nervous that whatever had blown that thing to bits was going to come back and take a shot at us.

After taking his pictures, Charlie started walking towards the van again, stopping briefly to take one last look at the wreckage. I guess the one positive to all this was that I really am not insane, this really did happen.

“We need to have a talk, you and I.” was the first thing that came out of his mouth. He grabbed me by my shoulder, grabbed a paper bag out of the van, and led us to the barn where we had all taken refuge from the snow our first go round out here.

I found myself wondering what was in the bag. I did see him take it out with him when we left but thought nothing of it. Now I found myself beginning to wonder if maybe there was a gun in that bag. Maybe now that I had given him the information he wanted, he was going to take me out back and shoot me. He seemed like he was on that kind of mission as he opened the barn door and led us both inside.

“I just needed to see it with my own eyes.” He said as he pointed to the very same bale of hay I had sat on before.

“The plane?”

He nodded, “Things are making a little more sense now.”

“They are?” I wasn’t sure how seeing the plane made more sense than not seeing the plane.

“Not only that, but this.” He said reaching into his paper bag and pulling out a newspaper.

He hesitated briefly before giving it to me, “Do you have an explanation for this?”

I grabbed it and looked at the front cover. In huge bold letters it said, “STAR TROOPERS START WIPING OUT FAMILIAR FACES OF POP!”

And right under that headline was a picture of Mariah Carey, Nsync and us. “I don’t understand…” I whispered.

“Turn to the page where the article continues…” He urged but just by the tone of his voice, I definitely didn’t want to. I looked up at him as he nodded, “Do it.”

I took in a deep breath and let out a sigh as I turned to page 12.

There were more pictures accompanying the small article which I temporarily ignored. I couldn’t help it. There in black and white were four out of the five of us lying on the ground surrounded by masked gunmen. “What is this, some kind of joke?”

Charlie had an intense look on his face, “You tell me, how can you be dead and still be talking to me about random plane crashes?”

“This has to be a doctored photo. I’m alive…” I pointed at myself, “Obviously!”

He grabbed the photo and pointed to my body, clearly bloody around my head where I had just been shot, “You look dead there! They showed it on the news too, it was the trend when this first started, before they took most of the power away. Now they don’t care anymore, no one does. Killing celebrities has become as exciting as shooting pigeons. That’s why they are offering money to people now.”

Even though I heard every word Charlie was saying, loud and clear, I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was looking at. I swear if I didn’t know any better it did look like we were dead. The pictures looked as real as real could be. Brian, Howie, AJ and I all on the ground as the gunmen stood around us.

“Nick is missing in this picture.”

“They took him away because he was underage but he watched you all die first.” He pointed to the picture of Nick they used. He had tears in his eyes and was looking down as he was being led away by someone in a mask. “I knew you all looked familiar, this is why. After you showed up I went back and looked at this paper. I recognized Nick.”

“So, if you knew I was lying to you, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I had to be sure I was right. When you started talking about plane crashes and just showing up here…I needed to see it for myself.”

“I’m still alive. I don’t understand this picture. It looks real, I’ll give them that but clearly, I am here talking to.”

He grabbed the paper out of my hand, “You are but he isn’t. Don’t you see?”

I wanted to see, but I wasn’t getting it. The more excited he seemed to be getting the more I wanted to get away from him. He was mad scientist crazy at the moment. All he needed was a lab coat and evil laugh.

“See what?”

“Everything I have ever worked for, all the research I have done on quantum theory. You are a result of all that work. To think I was ACTUALLY doing a seminar on this before it all happened. I could have used the five of you as living proof!”

“Charlie, I don’t understand what the hell you’re talking about.”

“You my friend, you are from a different time and place. You have to be. The plane,” he pointed to the article, “This…there’s no other explanation. Admit it Kevin, none of this was happening when you left New York. Am I right?”

For the first time since we landed in this Godforsaken place, I suddenly felt some relief. Maybe finally someone was getting it, even if he was making absolutely no sense.

“Yes, that’s true. We were in the middle of promo for our new CD, Millennium. We had done a ton of interviews and were coming to Philly for some more when all of the sudden we landed here.”

Charlie smiled and laughed, “There was no war or attacks?”

I shook my head at him, “No, we were at peace.”

We stood up and he placed both of his hands on my shoulders, “We need to find a way back to that place!”

Finally, the answer I was looking for.

As we walked back to the car, ready to get in and make our way back to the guys he whispered in my ear, “It’s important that we keep this to ourselves, Kevin. No talk of you not knowing what’s going on and most importantly, no talk of being a celebrity. My people are pretty cool but you never know.”

I nodded, “I won’t tell a soul, except for the guys. They deserve to know the truth.”

“I agree! Now let’s get back so we can come up with a game plan.”

We drove back in silence. I could tell Charlie’s brain was running a mile a minute, but so was mine. Was it really possible, all of the things he was saying? Did I really die here and if I did wouldn’t’ I have been able to feel it? So many thoughts running through my head that it seemed like the trip back to our make shift home took only minutes. I was so anxious to let the guys know about this. Let them know that maybe we weren’t all crazy after all. Maybe there was a way out of this mess.

It was nice having happy thoughts if only for a few fleeting moments because the second we made our way inside we were greeted with a very anxious and angry Howie.

“Nicky is missing!” He said with a look of panic so intense I actually turned and vomited.