Of course, everyone wanted to know the significance of the oddities found in Philadelphia. Dr. Johnson was very hesitant to venture too much of a guess, but said that more samples were taken and several studies were underway.
Theo could tell that nobody was satisfied with these answers, but not a single person had the confidence to be the one to call out what appeared to be obvious: the Philadelphia the science team had discovered was not the one they knew.
Mayor Lucas, trying to maintain his own composure, thanked the science committee and everyone in attendance. He reminded the audience of the importance of keeping the information confidential. It seemed that these top tier employees were scared enough to keep their mouths shut. Besides, Theo reasoned, they wouldn’t want to be laughed at or thought crazy for telling what they knew.
As Theo went to leave, hoping he could catch up with Ryan for the walk home, Mayor Lucas took him aside. Theo saw Paul Tiberius over the mayor’s shoulder, glowering at him.
“Three nights from now I want to meet with my committee,” said Lucas. “It is going to be our job to decide what to tell the citizens on Halloween and what, if anything, we do beyond furthering the science team’s research. Please give it some serious thought, Theo. We are all in uncharted territory here and your opinion is just as valid as that of anybody else sitting at my table.”
Theo told the mayor he would give it all the thought he could. They said goodnight and Theo raced out into the streets of Atlantic Island, looking for Ryan. He found Ryan walking by himself, his head down. “Wait up, man,” called Theo.
Ryan looked over his shoulder and raised his hand to acknowledge Theo’s presence. He didn’t smile. Theo jogged up to him. “Do you get it now?” asked Ryan. “Do you get what I’ve been so damned crazy about these past few weeks?”
“Yeah,” said Theo, “I get it. I’m sorry you had to keep this to yourself for so long.”
“So what do you want to do about the others?”
“I think we should tell them, Ry.”
Ryan chuckled sarcastically. “Yeah, cause they’ll all believe that we magically appeared in another universe. You realize that’s what Dr. Johnson thinks happened, right?” He kicked at a chunk of asphalt by the edge of the road. “That’s what the big fancy science team came up with. Goddamned magic spell. Next we’ll report there’s a big problem with people pulling rabbits out of hats.”
“I’m not gonna say it doesn’t sound crazy,” said Theo, “but Jesus, we’ve been on this island for months now. I can see with my own eyes that there’s just water where there should be land. None of it makes any damn sense. At least this ‘other universe’ theory takes a stab at giving some answers.”
Ryan frowned. “What about the confidentiality thing?”
“I don’t know,” said Theo, “We have to trust our friends. I’m not interested in a rift developing with you and me on the inside and the rest on the outside. We have to give them the benefit of the doubt all the way around.
Ryan nodded. “So you think we can tell Michelle and the rest? That they won’t think we’ve lost our minds?”
Theo laughed. “Dude, I have to go sit with the mayor and his top advisors and decide how not to make the whole population think that we are all out of our minds. Seriously, our friends trust us. They trust you, Ry, just like I do. We can confide in them, believe me.”
“You’re screwing with me, right?” Bill laughed. The other teens around the living room had equally incredulous looks. Ryan looked at Theo for support.
“I wish we were,” said Theo. He was holding Kylee’s hand and had felt her nervously squeeze his as Ryan gave a summarized version of Dr. Johnson’s report. “This is the same stuff the science committee presented to the head people in the government.”
“And how did they take it?” asked Jamie.
“Just about as well as you guys,” said Theo.
Bill had stood from his seat and was pacing around the room. “Jeez, man, Nazis? Nazis?”
Ryan smiled. “If it helps, we’re pretty sure the Nazis are dead.”
“Okay, so I’m gonna try to be reasonable,” said Kylee, “and believe me, reason is a hard thing to hold on to at the moment. The science committee thinks the Event was us getting…yanked or something into another universe, right?”
“Yeah,” said Ryan, “that’s about right.”
“Okay… how?”
“What do you mean?”
Kylee ran her hand through her hair. Her loose chunk of bangs was long enough now that it stayed behind her ear. Theo assumed she had replaced one involuntary move with another. “I mean how did all this land and water and air and buildings and people get moved to another universe? How the hell does something like that happen?”
Ryan shrugged. “We don’t really know.” He glanced at Michelle who was sitting quiet but clearly uncomfortable. “What I mean is, we simply don’t have the kind of equipment we would need to be able to test that kind of stuff. Like the science team can analyze dirt, water, air, you name it… but to test their theory about the Event, I mean that’s beyond taking samples on Earth or any other planet… this is universe stuff we’re talking about. Quantum physics and wormholes. It’s not that the big brains don’t have any ideas. I know we don’t have access to the very smartest people in the world but our team is damned smart. Still, we just don’t have the capability to test something like that. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“Can we get back to the Nazis?” asked Bill.
“Actually I’d really love to talk about that a little,” said Theo. “I have to discuss all this stuff at a pretty high level in a few days, and I’m still way too confused about all of it. So this world we’re in now—” he held up a hand as his friends all started to jump in. “Give me a sec here. This world we’re in now…we know two things about it, right? There were Nazis in Philadelphia and everything at least from here to and including Philly is underwater, and for a long time, according to the science team. Does that make any sense to anyone?”
“How long is a long time underwater?” asked Kylee.
“Probably between thirty and forty years,” said Ryan. “Most I’ve talked to are leaning toward forty.”
“Okay,” said Theo, doing the math in his head, “So assuming this world is on the same year as ours, Philly has been underwater since somewhere between the early seventies to early eighties, and Ry’s guys think it’s more likely the seventies.”
“So much for disco fever,” said Bill.
“How do we know it’s like the real Nazis?” asked Michelle. “Couldn’t the flag belong to some kind of Nazi sympathizing group or something?”
“Seems possible,” said Theo, “but the flags were on City Hall. I can’t see a circumstance in any universe where a bunch of angry skinheads could overthrow an American city. I could be wrong.”
“So if we’re talking about the real Nazis,” said Jamie, “like German, Hitler Nazis, I guess they won World War II.”
“Makes sense to me,” said Theo. The others nodded.
“Nazis…damn,” said Bill.
“Can they do some more exploring down there? Find more artifacts or whatever?” asked Kylee.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Theo. “The science committee is already trying to prep the helicopters to go to New York, and they are building a boat of some kind.”
“A scientific exploratory vessel,” said Ryan.
“Nerd boat. Awesome,” said Bill. Jamie smacked his arm. “Sorry,” he said.