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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.