Chapter 2

I woke up in a cold, dark room. Bars were the front door of my four by six meter cell with a thin mat stuffed with straw on the floor, a rusty, foul-smelling bucket, and a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. The cell floor was damp and hard as I sat up groggily. I scanned the room more and saw a faint red light looking right at me. I squinted, my eyes adjusting and saw a tiny lens poking from below the button. I remembered the medicine chase and groaned. A shuffling sound emitted from down the hall. I slipped into invisibility, hoping the guard wouldn’t see me and open the cell to search for me and I would escape. 

It didn’t work. The guard immediately opened the cell and grabbed me forcefully by the arm. 

“Don’t try anything stupid,” he growled. “We’ve had your filth here before.”

I wondered what he meant as he dragged me down a long, dark hallway. I breathed in the scent of disinfectant and body odor. I glanced at the other cells nearby, all of them empty. In the final cell nearest to a door which looked like a light was shining through the cracks was a girl. Her clothes were tattered and her hair was in tangles. She was positively disheveled. I’m sure I didn’t look better, with my jet black hair reaching down and slightly covering my blood-red eyes. I had a leaner body, and was slightly taller than other boys I saw my age, which was thirteen. The girl was taller than me, with white hair and sea-blue eyes.

The guard grabbed her in the other arm, and another guard came from one of the identical hallways of the place we were in. He was holding two other kids my age. One girl, with a short but strong frame, and another boy who was a little shorter than me. 

The guards nodded to each other, and then continued down the hallway. Steadily, the hallway became more comfortable and beautiful. Finally, they came to the end of the luxurious hallway. 

As they pushed us down the hall, I sized up the other kids. The short boy had curly red hair with orange tips, red eyes, and a nervous look about him. He was relatively blurry as if someone had fogged him up like a mirror. 

The taller girl had white hair with cerulean blue eyes. She was about a half inch taller and had sharp looking eyes. As I was looking her over, I noticed a small chip embedded near her left eye. She had a cold demeanor, and was pretty, even with a black eye and bruises across her arms and face.

The short girl had blond hair in a ponytail and a muscular build. She was practically skipping and making funny faces at the guards as they pulled her along. They were growling at her as if they were animals, but didn’t hurt her.

Finally, the endless maze of hallways came to an end. The guards stood straight, more professional than they had been while escorting us. One of them went over to a hover-globe system, and lifted it out of its place. The globe that was lifted was of Nearoe*, one of the latest planets colonized by humans, and when it was lifted, a door appeared where a bookshelf had once been. The guard to my left rustled me forward and I realized that now was the time to strike. I went limp, and the guards, surprised, let their grip on me relax. I slipped, and sprung forward as the guards each let out a surprised yelp. I quickly ducked into the shadow of a nearby bookcase. The plastic wood held books smelling unique, and old. I hadn’t seen a paper book before. The books were yellowish, whatever that meant, and were creased all over the pages and cover. My guards were now searching corners of the room, feeling around. I was about to make a break for the door when another me crept towards it. I was dumbfounded and accidentally let my invisibility slip. Luckily I was in the shadows still, and the guards that were supposed to be holding the other boy noticed that he was gone. They looked at each other in alarm, and jumped after my copy. While I was wondering why the other boy’s guards weren’t looking for him, my own guards noticed the fake me running. They each turned and sprinted after it. Now there were only four guards in the room, two for each of the girls.

I was still dumbfounded from the fake me and hadn’t slipped again, and a guard noticed me in the shadows. He alerted the other guards, and I started to slip, when I stopped with my arm in invisibility. I looked in horror at what was coming out of my invisible arm. Blood! 

BAM! CRACK! SLAM! BOOM!

All four of the guards went down, with the short but strong girl standing behind them.

“I say, those guards aren’t very good at their jobs!” She said in a proper British accent, “They went for you, and forgot about me!” She looked mortified at the thought of being forgotten. “Er, is that arm ok, old chap? It looks a little bit, er, messy, if you know what I mean,” She winked. 

“Um yeah, I didn’t do that,” I said as I pulled my arm back into visibility, “My name’s James, but my friends call me Viz, as in inVISibility,” I said as I put my hand out to shake. The blood stopped flowing.

“My name is Julia Windsor, but call me Jinx,” She said as she shook my hand.

 I flinched at her strong grip.

            I heard a shout of pain, and Jinx ran faster than any human could toward the shout. I heard more fighting, and then she walked out with the other boy following her.

           “Well, looks like your copy is actually this guy. I don’t understand,” said Jinx.

The boy nervously said, “Hi! I’m Faze. I don’t have a real name, so don’t bother asking.”

Just for kicks, I said, “Cool! I’m James, but you can call me Viz. Hey, what’s your real name?”

“You and I,” Jinx said, grinning while pointing at me, “are going to get along splendidly.” 

Faze glowered, but then shook it off, “What ‘tis your name, Ms. Not Speaking?”

“Someone likes Shakespeare,” I muttered to Jinx, who cracked up. 

We earned another dark look from Faze who promptly said, in the most fanciful way possible, “Shut up.”

Ms. Not Speaking quietly said, “I‘m Elizabeth, but you can call me Lizzy.” I started walking towards her for a handshake when her eyes glazed over and she fell to the floor. Faze tried to catch her but she fell right through him. He muttered something about a walrus but then he toppled over and one arm went into the floor. Jinx was the last to go, knowing she would promptly lay down and closed her eyes. I did as well and waited for loss of consciousness but it never came. I sat up after one or two moments and took stock of what was around me. Three unconscious bodies and a room full of bookshelves surrounding a hover-globe. It was still pulsing with light and a map but something was odd. There seemed to be some kind of rivet the size of a small oval. As I looked closer, I noticed a little pinprick in the center and pushed on it with my finger to see if it would give. It didn’t, I did. I stifled a grimace and saw that the pinprick had pierced my finger. A voice from a hidden speaker said in an accentless voice. 

“Access granted. Welcome Subject Surreal.” A book shelf suddenly opened to reveal a dimly lit, wooden-floored room that curved  to the right and out of sight. I glimpsed back at the other kids. All unconscious and all like me. I wondered if I would meet them again.