That couldn’t be good.
Before I could move out of the way, there was another loud crack, and the floor gave out underneath me. Much to my surprise, there was no crawl space.
Nothing underneath me but a giant, open room.
I let out a gasp of surprise as I fumbled to grab onto something, anything, that would stop my fall.
But it was no use.
I felt the jagged wood and laminate scrape past my flesh as I plummeted downward and into the darkness below. The next thing I knew, my back slammed into a cold metal surface, and I bounced off it violently like a ragdoll. I slammed into a table, which promptly shattered under my weight, and then finally came to a stop on a cold, wet, concrete ground.
What the hell?
The space around me was dark, only illuminated by the soft light from the hole above.
There was a dull throbbing in my ribs as I slowly hobbled up to my feet, and a slight warm trickle of blood ran down my forehead. I wiped the trickle away with my open palm, smeared it against my jeans, and then pulled my phone out of my pocket.
When I finally switched on the flashlight app, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Before me stood a giant piece of machinery that took up the entire wall of the subterranean room. It appeared to be turned off at the moment, but even in the darkness I could see all the bells and whistles. Several red lights ran across the top, just above a massive screen equivalent to the jumbotron at a basketball game. Underneath that were a bunch of buttons, levers, and a screen with a keyboard.
I turned around and looked at the table that had broken my fall. It had been shattered straight in two, and handwritten notes now littered the ground around it.
Immediately to the right of the broken table, up against the wall, was a series of workbenches whose surfaces were covered with several small gadgets and machines, and as I surveyed my surroundings a bit more, realization started to set in.
This really was some sort of secret lab, ripped straight out of an old monster movie. All that was missing were the bubbling beakers, giant electrical conduit, and creepy mutated assistant.
“What the fuck?” I groaned as I limped over to the large machine and began to look it over.
As I glanced up and to my left, I saw a metal arm jutting out of the computer, and it had a strange, gun-like device attached to its end. The device looked like a stereotypical sci-fi blaster ripped straight out of a Marvin the Martian cartoon, complete with a ball attached to several spaced-out circular plates.
Maybe there was an electrical conduit, after all.
A sudden pain shot through my aching head, and I had to lean against the machine to keep myself from falling to my knees.
The second my hand touched the cold metal of the computer, though, a loud whirring sound filled the air.
Then the multicolored lights sprang to life as the whirring turned into a grating, dial-up internet like noise, and the jumbotron sprang to life.
There, on the massive screen, was the face of an older man. He had large, square-shaped glasses over his eyes and a horseshoe hairline on his dome. On his forehead rested a pair of strap-on goggles, which became somewhat redundant when you realized he already wore eye protection. The man’s face also sported a burly mustache that sat above his expressionless mouth.
In fact, the man’s whole face was completely stern and emotionless.
And it was surrounded by a turquoise, glowing aura.
Underneath the man’s face was a ticker that read “Blood sample identified. Wayfarer of Dimension One - Hunter Bragg” in bright red letters.
“Welcome, Hunter Bragg,” a voice arose from the figure on the screen. “Please allow me to introduce myself… My name is Dr. David Nash, and I have been expecting you for quite some time, Wayfarer.”
Chapter 2
“Uhhh… huh?” I slowly backed away from the seemingly sentient machine, and I refused to peel my eyes away from the glowing face the entire time.
The man on the large screen frowned when he saw I was trying to leave.
“There is no need to be afraid, Wayfarer,” Dr. Nash reassured me. “I’m just a state of the art, cognitive-based artificial intelligence. I couldn’t hurt you even if I wanted to.”
Oh, that was reassuring.
I continued to back away and didn’t even dignify the greeting with a response. I needed to figure out how to get out of here. Generally, people who had secret laboratories underneath their houses weren’t too happy when somebody wandered into them. It was only a matter of time before Karla came to inspect the loud crash, and then—
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a cocking shotgun.
“What the fuck did you do?” Karla growled from behind me.
“Calm down, daughter,” Dr. Nash implored. “It’s only natural for the asset to be a tad spooked. This is all a lot for him to take in… I’m assuming you didn’t inform him of my current state when you brought him here?”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Karla still had her gun aimed square at my back, though she now wore a concerned look on her face.
“What are you talking about, Dad?” the brunette asked. “We have a termite problem, and this is just our exterminator.”
“Pest Control Technician,” I corrected.
“Quiet!” Karla snapped as her eyes whipped back to me. “Now, I’m gonna ask again, what did you do to the IFDR? Did the government send you? Or was it Dr. Malice or Edward Parsons or another one of my father’s rivals?”
“I-I just fell through the floor,” I explained with my hands in the air as I pointed to the hole in the ceiling. “I was looking at the termite damage, and then the next thing I know, boom! I’m down in this place.”
“Likely story,” Karla growled. “An exterminator—”
“Technician,” I interjected, and she shot me a look that could peel paint off the walls.
“Whatever the fuck you are,” she continued, “a simple pest control idiot wouldn’t know how to operate an IFDR. How did you turn it on? It hasn’t been functional in almost five years.”
“Uhhh, I didn’t do anything!” I hissed as I waved my hands and tried to look away from her shotgun. “I just leaned against it so I didn’t fall over, and it booted up. I promise, I’m only a technician, not a spy or an agent or whatever you think I am.”
“Please put the gun down, daughter,” Dr. Nash implored once again. “This is no way to treat our Wayfarer.”
“This dumbass?” Karla scoffed. “The Wayfarer? Not a fucking chance.”
“It’s in his DNA, Karla,” the AI explained in a fatherly tone. “I got a sample of his blood when he placed his wounded hand on my console. That is why I have reactivated after all these years. Our mission is alive and well, daughter.”
“Ohhh!” Karla gasped, and then she bit her lip as if she were trying not to cry, but then she finally lowered the gun.
“I thought I’d never see you again.” She hung her head. “I mean, I know you’re not… you. But you’re the closest thing to… Well… him… It’s just—just nice to hear your voice again.”
“It’s good to see you again, too, Karla,” the face on the screen replied longingly. “Even though I know deep down I’m just a machine, a shadow of your father unable to grasp the concepts of emotion, it did make me sad to shut down indefinitely.”
Uh… what the fuck was going on? Actually, on second thought, I really didn’t care.
The shotgun wasn’t pointed at me anymore, and I could see a bit of light shining in from the staircase at the far end of the room like a shining beacon of freedom in the darkness.
All I had to do was run and hope Karla couldn’t get her weapon back into position before I was up the stairs.
“You can’t possibly believe this man is the Wayfarer,” the brunette woman argued. “I thought they were supposed to be the most important people of their timeline? This guy is just an exterminator.”