Chapter 2 - First steps in the new world.

[br]Vincent and Holden briefly explained to Jill and Alexis what had happened to them at the mall to bring them here.

It was a similar story to Jill's and Alex's, except the boys had been dual racing each other on Formula One at the arcade. Strange things had started to happen during the race. Voices in their heads. Then sleep inducing sounds.

They had awakened in the room all four of them were now in. Jill and Alexis were already here but were still in some kind of deep sleep. For some reason the drug (or whatever had been used to render them unconscious) seemed to have had a greater effect on the girls.

"Maybe we were simply given higher doses than you two." suggested Jill, feeling she ought to say something in support of girl power.

"And I just finished having my period." added Alex. "I always get extra tired when that happens."

"Er? What's a period?" Vincent asked cautiously.

Holden gave his brother a sideways embrace.

"Er ... you and I need to have a little talk bro." he whispered comfortingly. "Remind me as soon as we get home, eh?"

The girls giggled.

"Whatever." said Vincent, before quickly changing the subject by asking. "Maybe we should set about seeing what there is around here, eh?"

*

The room they had woken up in had the form of a small dormatory with two pairs of bunk beds.

At one side of the door were two illuminated buttons - one green and one blue. Vincent pressed green. Immediately the door slid open.

"Well, wha' d'ya know. Green for go!" Vincent said with a grin.

They emerged into a short corridor which, in either direction, led to a stairway - one going up, the other going down.

There were no windows, so they had no way of knowing whether up or down would lead them out of the building.

"Which way shall we go? Up or down?" asked Jill.

"Well," offered Alex. "assuming we're more likely above ground than below, I say we go down."

"I'm for going down also." seconded Holden, adding. "I get claustrophobic just thinking we could be somewhere subterranean."

All eyes were on Vincent.

"This is all wonderfully democratic," sighed Vincent, "but I hope we aren't going to make EVERY decision this way."

"Jill looked first at Alex, then at Holden then asked. "What do you two think?"

"Ok, ok. make mine a 'down' too!" Interjected Vincent somewhat brusquely. "That makes three votes for 'down' - a majority - now, can we PLEASE get going?"

*

Vincent led as they started to descend the stairs. At the bottom of the first flight of steps the number 68 was painted on the wall in large figures.

"Maybe we should have gone up." remarked Jill, thinking most buildings don't usually go higher than seventy or eighty floors.

"Nahh!" insisted Holden. "My mum says it's bad luck to change your mind."

"You'd think whoever had designed this place would have thought about installing a lift." observed Alex.

"Good point Alex." responded Vincent. "Remind me to put that in as a suggestion to the management before we go home."

*

Eventually they reached the ground floor - only to find the three metre space leading from the bottom step blocked off by an all too solid stone wall.

"Bummer!" exclaimed Vincent as he crossed over to the wall. "Looks like we goofed."

"Now what shall we do?" asked Alex.

"All the way back up I suppose. What else is there?" answered Holden

"OK." said Vincent, turning to face his comrades. "But I think we all need a break first."

While the others slumped to the floor where they stood, Vincent leaned against the wall behind him. To his surprise he felt it move slightly under his weight.

"Hey guys!" he called. "Come over here and help me push this thing."

*

What they'd thought was a solid wall was in fact one face of a six foot hollow cube made to look like it was made of stone. They slid it as far as it would go, revealing a side passage in the process.

Vincent entered first, followed by the others. The passage's walls seemed to have been hewn from solid rock.

At first sight it didn't seem there'd be enough light to see where they were going. Suddenly, however, a lamp mounted on the wall illuminated itself on thier approach. The lamp extinguished as they got further on, but not before another had lit itself.

"At least the designer got this right." quipped Vincent. "Remind me to compliment him on that in my letter."

*

Eventually the rock passage widened out into a large chamber on the far side of which a door could be seen. Shafts of orange light illuminated the airborne dust particles high above their heads. Their footsteps echoed as they crossed the chamber.

They reached the door where once again there were the now familiar green and blue illuminated buttons. Vincent smiled and pressed green again. His smile didn't last long.

The ground they were standing on was in fact a huge trap door. With a screech and a lot of clanking the two halves of the trapdoor swung open and the startled four suddenly found themselves chaotically slithering down a long, smooth slope. They finally came dizzily to a stop when the slope spewed them tangentially into a bowl shaped portion.

The good news, however, was that they were out of that wretched building at last. The sky was a sumptuous blend of blue directly overhead beckoming more orange the nearer the horizon.

"Wow!" gasped Vincent hesitantly smiling. "It truly was someone with a WICKED sense of humour who designed this place!"

*

Holden, with Vincent's help, was first to climb over the brow of the bowl. The two brothers, one above, the other below, then helped Jill and Alex get out. Finally Vincent took a running jump at the brim where Holden and Jill each grabbed one of his hands.

Looking back in the direction they had come from (at what they had thought to be a building), all that could be seen was a sheer cliff that must have been at least a thousand feet in height.

The orange glow towards the horizon was darkening and some sort of twilight seemed to be encroaching. Only the top of the cliff was still in sunlight. Several areas near the top appeared to have a mottled texture. On closer scrutiny these turned out to be colonies of birds of some kind. Occasionally an individual bird could be seen taking a brief flight in the hope of finding itself a better position for the night.

"Maybe we should look for somewhere we can get some sleep?" suggested Vincent.

"And for something to eat and drink." added Alex, who was finding it harder and harder to keep from thinking of the double cheeseburger, the large fries and the medium Coke she had anticipated enjoying after her manicure.

"I wonder what that is over there?" interrupted Jill pointing towards a faintly incandescent spot at the other side of the bowl.

When they arrived at the object, 'it' turned out to be not one object but four.

What luck! They had discovered four suvival packs, each of which contained food, drink and a sleeping bag.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Alex as she tore the wrapper from an energy bar. "I'm beginning to suspect someone knew we'd be coming here."

"Just what I was thinking." Jill concurred.

Jill and Alex were too busy tucking into their second energy bar each to notice the momentary glance that occurred between Vincent and Holden.

"Yeh," said Vincent. "you girls might have a point."[br]

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