I unloaded Samuel and the others at the airport and drove back out of the airport grounds where I left the truck parked next to a gas station and shifted it back to reality. I would forward the truck’s coordinates to Shauna right before my flight took off and she’d arrange for someone to get it.
It was a half hour walk back to the airport, but I wasn’t in any rush. The flight back home wouldn’t leave for another four hours and the only thing I had left to do was gather up the people I’d freed and move them onto the plane.
Even though I’d spent most of the day in L2, I found it eerie and strange. I’d been too busy to notice it until now. L2 was so quiet. Sound existed, only there was nothing around that could make sounds. My footfalls, normally completely unnoticed by me, were louder to my ears than the beating of the tell-tale heart. There were no other sounds to compete with them. I like the quiet. It’s soothing and I stopped to take it in and appreciate it.
That pause of utter quiet was what allowed me to notice that wrongness coming from nearby. Like the last time I’d had this feeling, it wasn’t a wrongness that was scary or evil in nature. It was of something not fitting in. I’d felt this feeling once before, on the day that I’d discovered how to get into L2 for the first time. The pen that I’d sent into L2 had felt that way and I was wondering if the feeling was coming from the people that I’d left at the airport. They probably were giving off that wrongness, but I was too far away from the airport for this feeling to be coming from them.
I spun in a circle, trying to figure out from which direction the feeling was coming from. I still couldn’t pinpoint it so I took a few steps in different directions until I knew where to go. It was coming from my right side and I headed slowly in that direction, unsure of what I’d find. Wondering why I hadn’t thought of it right away, I sent out my field in that direction to see what was there. I found something about two hundred feet away. It was a rock. Why would a rock be giving off an ‘I don’t belong here vibe’? It was roughly circular in form with a diameter that the field was telling me was twenty-two inches. I kept my scan on it and couldn’t determine what type of rock it was. It wasn’t like any other rock I’d ever scanned and I’d scanned loads of different ones at the Galt Geology Center back home and on my trip to the mines.
As I got closer, I could see that the rock was dark gray in color and was pitted. It looked like a meteorite. I brought my hand closer and didn’t feel any heat coming off of it. Like everything else in L2, you couldn’t tell if it just got there or if it had been there for all of eternity. I wondered how it could have gotten into L2. Although the meteorite was sitting there as if it had been placed there specifically, I didn’t think that it had been. If the meteorite had somehow broken into L2, then gravity would have pulled it down. So far, gravity, air and light existed in all the layers and I idly wondered if there were layers without them. The impact of the meteorite couldn’t have even scratched the ground in L2. Meanwhile, the meteorite would have been in stasis as soon as it entered L2 and so could not have been damaged in the fall. Like an immutable object meeting another immutable object. Perhaps the meteorite bounced upon impact and rolled around, much like the pen I had sent into L2 had rolled when I kicked it, but it and the ground were undamaged.
I touched the rock and pushed on it a little. It moved and did a full revolution before it stopped. What the hell? I’d barely pushed on it. It’s movement suggested that the meteorite wasn’t composed of a heavy metal. Also, my scans showed that it wasn’t hollow. Using both hands, I lifted up the rock easily and felt like I was holding up a movie set prop. At almost two feet in diameter, this rock shouldn’t be this light.
I scanned the rock again, trying to get some clues as to what it was made from, but didn’t get any new information. I mentally shrugged and placed the meteorite in my supply duffel bag. I’d forgotten to leave it with Samuel and my gear at the airport and I’d grabbed it before leaving the truck. I continued walking back to the airport while I sent scans out for miles in all directions, looking to see if there were any more of the meteorites around. The scans didn’t find anything interesting and I wondered at the odds of the only person on Earth who could get into L2 almost stumbling upon an object in L2 that didn’t belong there. It seemed more than unlikely and the idea opened up a couple of possible explanations. Maybe there were lots of things in L2 and I’d just never looked for them. I was pretty new to all this. Alternatively, it could be exceeding rare for anything so foreign to be in L2 and I was somehow drawn to it, subconsciously or by fate. I could have taken the truck and parked it in any number of places and I had randomly chosen this one, or so I thought. Maybe the wrongness called to me.
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Reaching the airport, I put away from my ruminations on the meteorite for the moment and got back to my rescue operation. I still had eight people to haul to the boarding gate. A quick snack from the supply bag and a re-donning of my exosuit and I was ready. I scooped up my first customer, the oil executive’s assistant, and started walking her to the gate. Of course, the flight back was set at the furthest gate possible and after five minutes of walking my own stupidity finally dawned on me. Why didn’t I just load everyone onto a cart?
Twenty-five minutes later, I had everyone at the gate, still loaded like cord wood on the ‘oversized baggage cart’ that I’d found. They kind of looked like a stack of mannequins and I giggled at the though. Oh-oh. Giggling meant that I was tired. I hadn’t slept last night and I was starting to feel the effects of that lack of sleep. Maybe that’s why it had taken me so long to think of using a cart, at an airport. I still had a few hours until the flight, so I set seven alarms on my phone and lay down for a nap with my head on my duffel bag.
The fifth alarm did the trick and I woke up with half an hour to take-off. A check in R1 showed that greyed-out people were already in line boarding the plane. It also showed a ton of security all around, inspecting the plane and every person boarding it. It seemed that the escape had finally been detected. I ignored all that by shifting my loaded-up cart and myself into L1 and walking to the plane. Soon I had Samuel and the others in a neat pile at the front of the plane and I’d stowed the cart behind some bushes near the terminal.
Six hours later, we were all back on American soil and I was driving my truck, with the passengers stuffed in the back, to Hannah’s Home. I had set up one of my unused cottages on the property with extra blow-up beds from Wal-Mart. I didn’t think that any of the freed people would stay with us for longer than a few hours, but I wanted them to know that they had the option to stay until they could re-establish themselves. I gave Samuel and the secretary their own rooms and doubled up the rest or set them up in the common room. I’d also had the kitchen fridge and pantry stocked with some food, in case anyone wanted to make their own meals for a change. Finally, I laid out a set of clean clothes for everyone.
With everything prepared, I called Shauna.
“Hi Shauna! Roger just brought everyone back.”
“Really? Where’s here? He never told us how he was getting them back or where or when.”
“Oops. I guess I forgot to tell you that. We planned for him to bring them to Hannah’s Home and set them up in cottage three. I got extra beds and stocked the fridge last week.”
“You forgot to mention that? You just forgot to mention one of the most important details of the whole plan? I’m sitting here with literally no clue about my brother and you just forgot??” Shauna was right to be angry. I had kept her on pins and needles for the last ten hours, wondering if Roger got her brother out of the country and if he was ok. There was a reason for it though. If Shauna had known the when and where of Samuel’s return, then she’s have been waiting there for him and I would have had a much harder time sneaking him and the others in. However, even if she was right to be angry, there was no sense in letting it go on. Time for a guilt attack.
“Sooo… you don’t want to come see him and be there for him when he wakes up? Cause, I can stay with him for awhile, I guess. I was going to get together with my friends, but Samuel is your brother and for your sake I can make the sacrifice.” I made sure to sound very hesitant and put-upon. It worked like a charm.
“Which cottage was it again? I’m in the admin building. I’ll be there in five minutes.”
I told her and while I waited for her to show up, I shifted all eight of my guests back to reality. A few of them shifted positions in their sleep, but none of them woke up. From their perspective, they’d only been sleeping for a few hours before I shifted them to L2. I didn’t know if twelve hours of stasis in L2 counted as sleep time and so I didn’t know if they’d wake up quickly or in six hours. Of course, that presupposed that Shauna would let them sleep.
A few minutes later, Shauna came running up to the cottage.
“Did you say they were all sleeping?”, Shauna asked disbelievingly.
“Roger said that he had to drug everyone for the escape and he’s kept them sedated since then. He administered a counter-agent before he left, though. We can let them sleep or wake them up whenever we want.”
I led Shauna into the cottage and into Samuel’s room. She sat down next to him and just looked at him for a minute.
“It’s real, Abby. I knew it was happening and I got news from my contacts that those families were safe and sound, but…I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I kept expecting to hear that he was recaptured or that something went wrong. He’s really here and he looks so peaceful.” Shauna wiped tears from her eyes.
“Since Roger drugged him, he doesn’t even know he’s free. The last thing he’ll remember is going to sleep in a jail cell. Just take it slowly with him. It’ll be quite a shock to him.”, I said.
Shauna nodded and gently woke up her brother.