1 Prologue 1 - Chick-fil-a

Location: Austin, Texas, USA

"5 spicy chicken sandwiches please."

"That will be $22.54. Please insert the card into the card reader."

"You're up next Bryan. I'll go sit over there." I told Bryan, and went to find an open table. With finals around the corner, my shoulders were getting used to carrying around my laptop bag, but the ache had yet to disappear. Placing the bag leaning on the chair, I sat down on the chair's edge waiting for my order while looking at Bryan making his.

"That last game was pretty good. I got a couple of good spikes in. Anyways, how far have you gone through your review material? I've still got to work on organic chemistry, but the others look good right now." Bryan asked as he walked over glancing at his receipt.

"Yeah, you did get some good spikes. I'm honestly just happy that my sets are getting better. So, I'm still working on my physics and calculus reviews, but am pretty confident on music appreciation. The professor's reviews are really similar to his exams, so I'll probably do pretty good."

" Jacob! Matthew! Raj!" A Chick-fil-a employee called from the pick-up window. I got up and picked up the 2 paper bags he passed over. When I came back, I placed the bags into my laptop bag, which was in fact a backpack.

"So, what did you order?" I asked Bryan, who was sitting in a chair next to my stuff.

"I decided to order a deal I found online: 2 sandwiches, medium fries and a large drink for $10.99. It was a really good deal considering one sandwich is like $6." Bryan responded.

"Rachel! Bryan!" An employee called from the pick-up window. Bryan got up to get his order, and I started making my way to the bike stand. Unlocking my bike lock, I noticed Bryan walking up behind me.

"Can I put my stuff in your bag?"

"Sure" I answered, and placed his order into my bag.

Backing our bikes into the parking lot, we decided to take San Antonio Street to get back to our apartment. Making our way to 23rd Street near the University of Texas at Austin, I was pushing down on each pedal again and again, in a trance, just to start over after each stop sign or cross walk. We turned into an alley running in between our apartment building, Skyloft Austin, and the University Co-op parking garage, reaching the service parking garage's entrance. Braking to a stop in the hallway outside the bike garage door, I scrambled with my bag to get my key fob to open the door.

"I got it." Bryan said reaching into his jacket pocket. The door opened to reveal a dark room lit up by the light from the hallway we were in. As Bryan began walking his bike through the door, I reached out to hold the door just as the interior lights snapped on. Pushing aside a bike that had fallen on the ground, Bryan lifted his bike onto its rear wheel as I was shimmying my bike through the door. Rolling his bike through the hallway made by the wall mounted bike racks, Bryan glanced back to see me standing right behind him with my bike—on its rear wheel—in between us.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I don't know. Doesn't it feel a little cold in here? I mean, it was pretty humid outside, right?" Bryan asked.

"Now that you mention it, it does feel pretty chilly in here. Maybe it's the air conditioner." I replied.

That's when it happened. We were suddenly surrounded by blinding light. I thought someone had targeted a spot light on us. But my eyes didn't adjust to the sudden brightness like I had hoped. Following the spontaneity of the light, the temperature drop gave me goose bumps in places I have never felt any. The raised hair began to give static shocks everywhere they contacted my jeans. Feeling unevenly placed pin pricks in erroneous locations, I tried to move my left arm off of the bike handles, just to find that I couldn't move it.

Frozen in place, attached to my bike, I felt myself go through something similar to a ride at an amusement park, the drop. Feeling like I just went into freefall made me want to just curl up on my bed. A mindset that I abhorred about myself, my fear of sudden altitude drops had shown its face.

As suddenly everything happened, everything stopped in the reverse order. The notion of freefall disappeared. The temperature rose to what I would consider room temperature. Now that the temperature was at a tolerable level, the goosebumps went away, and I could see that my eyes were closing slowly. Soon my eyes were closed shut, but were opening up again. Just as I saw the light again in the form of a diamond ring you see as an eclipse begins to end, it disappeared.

As soon as the light disappeared, my eye lids popped open. As the eyes were adjusting to the lack of light, my ears picked up sounds of metal falling to the ground. The first thing I saw clearly, expectedly, was the flashlight mounted on the handlebar of my bike. In front of my bike I saw Bryan with his bike, as expected. Still holding onto the handlebar, I looked past Bryan expecting to see bikes on bike racks.

Instead of bike racks, I saw control consoles with holographic displays like from a science fiction movie through a see-through glass surface. And like those sci-fi movies, the control consoles were surrounded by people in what looked like white HAZMAT suits. I turned my head to look to my right, and took an abrupt jerk to my left, only to drop my bike on its side.

Staring with his eyes popping out and his jaw dropped, a man slowly reached over to get his partner's attention. His partner, looked up from his console, only to find the man not moving his head from looking at me. Following the man's gaze, his partner turned his head to look at me. Unlike the first man's reaction, his partner jumped back and fell on the floor in surprise, as soon as we made eye contact.

"Bryan? You seeing this?" I asked. Bryan responded by dropping his bike on the ground next to mine. I walked closer to see what he was looking at, only to see a man in a dark HAZMAT suit pointing a weird looking gun at Bryan. I immediately threw my hands up, and began nudging Bryan to do the same. Following suit, Bryan slowly lifted his hands, and both of us just froze.

Looking at our immediate surroundings, I noticed that there were bike wheels and parts of bike frames on the ground next to our feet. Remembering hearing metal hitting the ground, I observed the armed man shouting at the people around him. Based on their reactions, he was telling them to clear the room. Soon, an alarm that blared so loud that my ear drums started aching. Just before I was going to cover my ears, the sound diminished to a tolerable level.

"So, what just happened Ray? I'm pretty sure this isn't a dream. I can feel the pain in my elbow, and smell the sweat in my hair." Bryan thought out loud.

"I can't really tell. I mean, why would someone point a gun at us in the first place? I'm pretty sure that this isn't a dream, I mean, I can smell the sandwiches we just bought." I retorted.

As we watched the gunman, the latter slowly lowered the barrel and started yelling into his handheld communicator. Shortly after, a dozen or so guards filed into the lab from sliding door to the gunman's right. Leading the guards was a man with a commanding figure and a buzz cut, the stereotypical features of a military officer. Following Mr. Buzz Cut's' instructions, the new and old guards surrounded the glass cylinder Bryan and I were apparently housed in.

Positioned around us, the guards began to stare at us without moving a muscle. After what seemed like 5 minutes, Bryan and I lowered our arms keeping our eyes on the guards. Seeing that the guards didn't take any action, our legs gave in to the pressure we felt from our predicament.

Landing on my butt, I took out my phone to find it dead. Noticing Bryan finding the same thing with his phone, I began taking in the lab around us. A lab right out of science-fiction was what I found. Nothing was familiar except for a tool that looked like a microscope, and some beakers at a far table. Everything around us was foreign, further confirming the notion that we were in an alien environment to what one can find on Earth.

Bryan and I sat that there frozen for what seemed like an eternity before my nervousness got the better of me. I took out a sandwich and began eating it to calm down…followed by another…and followed by another. By the time I finished my third sandwich, Bryan had joined me with his second. Since we had nothing better to do, and we hadn't eaten anything since we had arrived, this didn't seem strange to either of us.

After we finished our meals, I could still smell the sandwich that I had just finished when I suddenly found it hard to breathe. I turned toward Bryan, who was also staring at me having noticed the change as well.

"They let the air out…" Bryan whispered at me, shock filling his eyes.

"I don't want to go out like this…" I thought, trying to stand up. Finding no strength left in my legs, I just fell down on my back and closed my eyes.

"So, this is how it feels to have a lack of oxygen…" I whispered back to Bryan dejected. "At least, I am not going to give them the satisfaction of my suffering. Bryan, I'm going to try to sleep. It was nice knowing you." I told Bryan, resigning myself to fate. I didn't know what happened to us or why, but I knew we didn't have control over what happens next.

Thinking back on my life, what defined me were my family and my passion for designing whatever came to mind. Considering all that happened, I felt happy that I had spent my life to the best of my abilities. Thinking about my parents I fell asleep.