New Shifters

Chapter 1

“You have to get out of here.”  Mr. Tyler whispered as the last of the swim team students were shuffling out the door.

“What do you mean?  Don’t I have extra practice today?”  I stopped treading water and grabbed the edge of the pool.  I was the last student left.

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

My thoughts spread farther than swim team.  Maybe he was talking about the whole school.  My suspicions had been building since the moment I got here.  There were too many security measures, too many surveillance cameras, and most of all, there were too many secrets.

When we first heard about the school being built for gifted young adults our parents were so committed to having their own child attending.  They bent over backwards to meet the specifications, pay the fees, and brag to all the neighbours.  My child made it into Y.A.C.  Y.A.C. stood for Young Adult Colligate.  The Canadian Government had created a new branch called the “Special Force” to be in charge of restructuring the educational system.  They were amalgamating high school and college level classes, allowing students to specialize sooner and graduate sooner.  We were excited because there would be no compulsory classes, we could choose any electives we wanted, plus we would be hanging with the big kids.  Supposedly it would solidify our career choices, eliminating wishy washy decision making early, so we wouldn’t be wasting our parents’ tuition money.  I no longer had to argue with my parents about having to take all those stupid math classes.  They were no longer necessary.  It was a win win situation.  I picked anything from fine arts to advertizing to swim team.  I was a good swimmer, but I had ulterior motives for wanting to be close to Mr. Gerome Tyler.  Now he seemed too close and in all the wrong ways.

“It’s not just the school.”  Mr. Tyler read my mind, pausing as another student came out of the locker room and went outside.  His eyes lingered on the door, “It’s everywhere.”

He paused again, allowing me to process what he had said.  I peered through my goggles at my swim coach, trying to understand his logic.  Sandy blond, blue eyed and young enough to expect a crush or two from his teenage students.  Me included.  Finally he looks straight into my eyes.  I took my goggles off and sat them on the edge of the pool.  I tucked a piece of my unruly red hair back under my swim cap.

 He crouched down closer to me.  “Miss Pawlak.”  Closer still, “Halina, you can’t be here anymore.  You’ve compromised your standing, you have to leave.”  The close proximity to my coach would usually elicit an intense fluttery feeling under my sternum, but this did not seem to be the time for a crush rush.

Defensively, I tried to argue with him, “Listen, I know I’ve missed and couple curfews and practices, but I think kicking me out is unjustified and unfair...” 

“I’m not expelling you.” He interrupted.  Silence again.  Was I supposed to be reading into this?  Surely he didn’t know about what my friends and I had really been up to.  Or did he?

“It’s the whole planet!”  He started to sound desperate,” The Special Force is not what you think it is.”

 I already knew that.  It was the mother of all conspiracies.

***

The first red flags went up for me when we heard about the new stipulations Principal Arter was putting into force.  First assembly of our first year, sitting with my friends, we seemed like the only ones who were suspicious of his announcement.

“The curfew I can understand, they need to keep a good rep, but the security gates and I.D. imprints are a bit much”.  Glynis mumbled under her breath.

 Instead of a card or barcode, they were going to insert a tattoo under our skin on the side of our neck.

 “Apparently my parents are so blinded with school pride that they already gave the go-ahead for this.”  Jan grumbled.  “We are fixed up whether we want it or not.”

“I’m an independent student so they didn’t ask my parents.”  Torvald flexed his neck muscles, showing off to Glynis.  “Of course, if I don’t consent, I’m no longer allowed in.”

Yusef turned to us, “This is the beginning of the end.” He ran his brown hands through his black hair. 

“The end of what?”  Jan squinted her Asian eyes.

Yusef stared forward at the Principal and set his jaw, “The end of education and the beginning of prison.”

I thought, at the time, that he was being a bit over dramatic.

The procedure was painless.  I didn’t even know what they did, but when it was over everyone had this iridescent, silver bar under the skin on the left side of the neck.   It was faint, but it was a constant reminder that they kept tabs on our every move.  When we walked into class we walked through a security gate that counted our attendance.  There were gates into the dorms to make sure we didn’t break curfew.  The imprints were also able to hold data in memory.  Any time we wanted to know our marks they would scan our necks with a little portable screen.  All the teachers carried them to check up on us anytime they wanted to.

Being the genius that he was, Yusef wanted to find a way to crash their system.   He said it was a revolution.  He had figured out simple ways around the system, so we could sneak out to the late show, or so Glynis could see her guy after hours.  Basically he found ways to sneak past the gates.  There were gates on all the doors, but not on the windows.  The dorms were split levels so the windows were just a short climb up the trellis.  We got caught a couple of times, and stared down Principal Arter as he lectured us about attitude and respect.  Nothing we hadn’t heard before, but the threat of expulsion was scarier, knowing this school qualified as a post secondary institution.  We wanted freedom, but not at the cost of our future careers.  Arter was scary.  He seemed to pick me out of the crowd the instant there was a disturbance of any kind.   Anytime he even looked at me it felt like the devil himself was biding his time before he dragged me down to hell.

Yusef said he’d had enough and sent us on a mission to find the main computer.

First thing was to check if Yusef could find the school network.  We were all gathered in the computer lab while he did a little illegal research.  We came to support him, but really didn’t know what he was doing.  We were basically extra bodies.   Jan and I were checking Facebook.  Torvald and Glynis were snuggling at the desk behind us.

“I don’t understand why I can’t hack in from the lab.” The monitor lit up his face while he clicked away on the mouse,” It’s like their system is completely isolated.  I can’t see how that would be practical.  They don’t even use a network.  How do the teachers submit marks or attendance records?  The security gates must be keeping a tally on some hard drive somewhere.  How can a school function without this stuff? ”

“Maybe they do it the old fashioned way and chisel it into a slab of rock.” Torvald leaned over the desk.  He draped his majorly buff arm around Glynis’ neck.  He was obviously more interested in her than fiddling on the computer.

Glynis licked her lips and squeezed Torvald’s biceps.  Her streaky, blond hair was tied up in a messy knot.  Her Australian accent was thick, “Well, something around here sure is chiselled.” 

Jan rolled her eyes and rested her hands on her chin.  She turned back to Yusef.  “What about their web site?  Doesn’t that at least have our profiles on it?”

“Yeah, but all that information gets updated here manually by the students.”  Yusef ran his hands through his hair.

“That seems archaic and time consuming.”  Jan flipped her long, tight braids over her shoulder.

Back home we used to have our own blog pages connected with the school’s site.  There were monitors who shut down anyone’s sight that was posting inappropriate material.  After a while, there were so many pages shut down that the school abandoned the whole idea.  We weren’t surprised when Y.A.C.  refused to provide any type of on-line social program for the students – not even a messenger service.

Yusef’s research recovered nothing about Y.A.C. There was no blueprint for the school building, no architect, and all construction contracts had been done in-house within Special Force.  Nobody could tell us where they kept their mainframe.   It was like it didn’t exist.  So Yusef gave us all cartography assignments to map out the school and find a supposedly hidden room.  We measured using our feet.  We silently counted steps on the way to class.  We counted steps from one wall to another, despite puzzled expressions from our peers.  Soon we had everything drawn out:  windows, doors, closets, stairways.  Skipping class was the best way to get lectured and a chance to survey the teacher’s private offices.

Meanwhile strange things began happening.  If a student’s mark dropped too low, they would be asked to leave.  If you failed, there were no repeating courses.  Teachers would decide if you failed even before the semester was over.  They were trying to motivate us to perform, with no threats and no warnings, just punishment.  Thank goodness I didn’t have to take math.  The worst was when a kid in my neighbourhood, Spencer Wright, got kicked out near the end of the year.  Worse still, when I got home for the summer, he wasn't there.

Chapter 2

Summers in Victoria were the best.  I appreciated it even more now that I had spent a winter on the cold prairies.  The ocean brought fresh, warm winds to the Island.  Everyone’s lawns had the greenest grass and an overabundance of flowers.  Every once in a while a humming bird would show up at the bird feeder outside my window.

My parents were great.  I know they spoiled me.  I was an only child.

I tried to sleep in those first couple days, but my body was too well trained.  I took the opportunity to come downstairs and eat breakfast with the folks before they both went off to work.  Dad was sitting reading the paper and Mom was eating a breakfast bagel.  The sun shone through the lacy curtains, casting shadows from the holly hocks growing outside.

“Mom, what did Spencer’s parent’s say when he got sent home?”  I asked because I wanted to get updated on his situation before I called over there.  I wanted to make sure whatever punishment his parents had given him for being expelled wasn’t going to interfere with my plans to hang out.  His mother was well known for being a stick in the mud.

“Hasn’t anyone told you?” Mom put her breakfast bagel down on the plate in front of her.

“Told me what?”

“They didn’t even announce it at school?” Dad peered over his paper. “I’m calling Principal Arter.  When something like this happens the rest of the kids have a right to know, even if he’s no longer a student.”  He tossed down his napkin and straightened his tie. 

 It was the first time I’d heard him express a negative comment about the school.

“What happened?” I looked to Mom again.

“Honey...” She only called me honey if it was bad news.”Spencer went missing a few days after he was rejected from Y.A.C.  His parents have been looking for him for over a month.”

I was shocked.  Spencer had been my neighbour most of my life.  We used to go trick or treating together.  I helped him make his costumes.  He would hide his candy at my house so that his mom wouldn’t catch him.  I used to bring an extra piece to school for him every day.  How could he be missing?

“I...I’m going over there.” I left the table with my breakfast still sitting there.

“That would be nice.  Mrs. Wright could use some cheering up.”  Mom said.

That wasn’t my reasoning, but I didn’t say anything.

 I walked down the old street looking at the mature elm trees on either side.  Bright blue-green moss clutched onto the corrugated bark.  The fingers of branches nearly touched each other in the middle, giving the road the appearance that it was covered with a net of leaves arching overhead.

A chill pulled at my scalp.  I ran my fingers through my curls, but the shiver didn’t subside.  I couldn’t push out the thought that the school had something to do with his disappearance.

His house was only five away from mine.  When I rang the bell, Mrs. Wright answered the door in her housecoat, looking tired and dishevelled.

“Oh Halina, how have you been?”

“What happened?” I asked.

She slumped her shoulders, “You better come in.”

The living room had heavy curtains drawn leaving it shaded despite the sunshine outside.  The desk in the corner was crowded with equipment; computers, tracking devices, and at least three phones.  There was a stack of long posters on the floor.  I read the page on top:

MISSING:        Spencer Wright            Age 17             Born December 15, 1993        Height 6’                                 Brown hair                   Blue eyes

Last seen in his house on Portland Lane, Victoria, B.C.  If you have any information regarding his whereabouts contact the Victoria Police.

I stopped reading.  At the bottom was his picture with the huge smile was so typical of Spencer.  I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose.  It all seemed so unreal.

“We’ve done everything we can.”  Mrs Wright held out a dainty tea cup for me, “The police have come up with nothing.” 

I took the cup and blew across the hot liquid.  We sat down on two antique rocking chairs opposite each other with a glass coffee table between us.  It was hard to think of something to say.  I sipped my tea for a moment.  She had probably already heard words of comfort from so many others.  She had probably told the story to a million people.  I figured I might as well be blunt.

“Do you think he’s dead?”  I asked

She already had an answer to this question even if it was harsh.  She didn’t hesitate, “No, oh no, the police don’t suspect foul play and if he had an accident we would have found him by now.  He never went anywhere without telling me.”

I smirked at the comment.  Little did she know.

” I think he is a run away.”  She continued. “He was always threatening that he would leave.  He was always so defiant - never very stable.”

“Stable?  What is that supposed to mean?”

“Come on now Halina, surely you noticed.  He had a real problem following a regular schedule, he opposed authority, he was smart, but he could have done so much better if he put his mind to it.  Getting kicked out of Young Adult Colligate was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Are you sure that’s what did it?” I shouldn’t have said that out loud, but I was done being superficially respectful.   I hid my face behind my cup as I tipped it back, building up some courage to speak out against her.  I gulped the rest of the tea even though it burned my throat.

“Pardon me?  What did you say?”

“Maybe that preverbal straw had to do with the fact that he had to come back here and face you.”

“Yes, he was probably overwhelmed with shame.”  She slowly shook her head, turning her teacup in her hands.

I bit my lip.  That was not what I meant.  Why would he want to stick around and deal with a mother who was constantly degrading him?  Even when we were kids, she had unattainable expectations.  I put my empty cup down on the coffee table.

It made her cringe to see my cup on the bare glass.  “It was hard enough getting him to put forth the effort to make it into that school in the first place.”

“Well, I hope he is somewhere better than here; somewhere he can be happy.” 

She sucked in a tiny squeak.   This time she understood my meaning alright.  She glared like her eyes could punish me.  “I think you should leave.”

“Of course you do.”  I got up.  If Spence ran away, I could see the reason why.  Good for him.  Still, it bothered me that nobody had heard from him or seen him.  Where had he gone?

***

Spence wasn’t one of my best buds but I figured someone would hear from him.  If he was going to call someone it wouldn’t be me, but it might be Yusef. 

“Maybe he’s changed his identity.  You know, like the witness protection program.”  Yusef was tapping at his computer, searching Spencer’s name.  He had been at it for an hour, but nothing helpful had come up.

“Well, can you find out?”  I asked.

“I could, but I’m not going to.  That would be illegal.”  He said “illegal” in slow motion like his brother, Ibram always did.  Ibram, the con man, was sneaking us into a gig later that night.

Giving up on the search for Spencer was hard to do, but I had to admit it, there was nothing to go on. 

“Come on computer geek, let’s get ready.”  I grabbed the mouse from him and clicked shut down.

He stood up, “I’m not a computer geek.  I don’t go to Star Trek conventions or play Halo or own a Wii.  I don’t illegally download music and I especially don’t hack into police files or the CESUS database.  I just like computers.  My idea of fun is taking cute chicks out dancing.  A computer geek doesn’t do that. “

“Well, I’ll never make that mistake again.” I mimicked crossing my heart. “Come on, we have to get over to the show.  The Consonant C is one of my favourite indie-tronica groups.”

We were all decked out in our finest.  Jan had on Kabuki make-up.  Glynis dyed her hair bright pink.  I had backcombed my hair until it was piled on my head like a curly pom-pom. Yusef had a black toque pulled right down to his eyes.   It was our first break-in to a no-minors gig.  The halls in Edmonton scanned our imprints to check our birthdates.  It was impossible to sneak in.  The city wanted to expand the use of the imprints to include banking information and purchasing.  Luckily Victoria hadn’t caught onto that fad yet and this hall used old-fashioned paper tickets to pass through the doors.   Ibram went ahead of us with five of his friends, all of whom had legit’ tickets.  Once they were inside, he collected their ticket stubs and brought them out for us.  It was as easy as pie.

Chapter 3

“It must be a secret door.”  Jan said when we got back from summer holidays. “It seems silly, but it’s the only logical explanation.”  So the search for a secret door became our first assignment of the new semester.

My first year gave me ample time to be noticed by Mr. Tyler and sure enough he called me over when practices resumed.  I was shivering, not just from the water evaporating on my skin.

“Miss Pawlak” his voice was commanding when he coached, but now it was more relaxed.

“Yes Sir.”  I blinked the dripping water out of my eyes to keep a better gaze on him.  He couldn’t be more than twenty-two.  That was only 5 years older than me - hardly criminal.

“I have noticed a great improvement in your concentration.   You seem more determined, more dedicated.”

“Thank you.” My teeth chattered a bit and he handed me a towel.

“I think with a little more effort you could be ready to compete in the Summer Games in July.”

Maybe that was encouragement.  Maybe not.  He expected me to be flattered, and just to impress him I made it look like I was.

“That would be great.”  My intonation sounded forced to me, but he bought it.

“I’m wondering if you would be willing to stay after practice for some extra coaching.”

“From you?”

“Yes of course.”

My mind began tossing out imaginative motivations.  I drew a picture of him and me together in our swim suits with no one else in the pool.  The sun setting through the big picture windows...

“What about Fridays?” I suggested.

“I only work here on Tuesdays and Thursdays no exceptions.  It will push your limits to add an extra hour to your practices, but I think that will be the kind of conditioning you need.”

“Have you asked anyone else on the team?”  Not that I was jealous, I just wondered about crowd control.

“Just you so far.”  I knew I wasn’t the best on the team.  He hadn’t picked me for my skill and that must mean something.  He must have picked me for “other” reasons.

The extra practices were hard. We did water rescue training as well as prepare for the Summer Games.  I pushed myself, hoping that my dedication would impress him.  If he was trying to hint towards a relationship, I never caught it.  Still I clung to some hope, that he would let the cat out of the bag any day.   In the meantime, he was hot, and I got to spend time with him.  The down side was I had less time with my friends.   I came back to the dorms exhausted after practice.  That meant less late shows and less evil eyes from the Principal.

With the extra practices I hardly had time for myself, let alone Yusef’s quest to find the magical secret door to his vengeful crash project.  But I didn’t have to find it, Jan did.

***

We were walking to our Logic class together, when Jan stopped in the middle of the hall.  Her almond eyes narrowed to black slits.

“What are you staring at?” I looked in the same direction, but noted nothing exceptional.

“The ped-way.”  Yes, there was a ped-way that reached across a court yard from the main building to the fitness centre, “The mainframe is in the ped-way.”

I looked again.  The walls were glass and we could see students with gym bags, walking across.  We had already counted steps on the ped-way.  We had... hadn’t counted the height of the ped-way.  Above the corridor, where a sloping roof should have been, there was enough space for a kind-of attic.  For a kind-of room.

“Good job, girl!”  I complimented as we sped towards the fitness centre.  Running up a flight of stairs we began feeling the walls for grooves.  Students passed us, but they were too focused to notice our odd behaviour.

“Lina!” Jan’s own shout startled her and she quickly covered her mouth.  She lowered her voice,” I’ve got something”

 I slipped in front of some guys coming up the stairs and smiled awkwardly as an apology for cutting them off.

“Look right in the frame of the first window.”

 I saw it.  The frame had designs in the wood, small rectangles cut with a router.  The indentations went in about a centimetre, but one of them at about knee level, was cut all the way through the frame.  The grain in the wood wasn’t even the same.

“You girls will be late for class.”  We both sucked in a breath as we became aware that Mr. Tyler was standing at the top of the stairs.  I stood up feeling like a jewel thief caught red handed.  Jan remained crouched with her back to him.

“What are you doing?”  He asked.

 I had no answer except a silent open mouth.

 Jan quickly thought of a cover-up. “I... I just dropped my cell phone.”  She mimed putting it back it her purse.  “Sorry we’ll try not to be late.”  She grabbed me and we ran across the ped-way.

I snuck a peek back to see if Mr Tyler was looking at us.  If he knew about the secret door, he would acknowledge it in some way, but he just turned and left.  Maybe he didn’t know about it either.  Maybe we got away scot-clear.

***

That night Yusef and Torvald came climbing up the trellis to our window.  Jan gave the message to Yusef that afternoon in their web design class.  The doors were able to tattle on us, but the windows weren’t.  It seemed like a major oversight on Arter’s part.  Sneaking out of windows was a time honoured tradition.

“Hey girls!” Torvald booming voice brought Glynis over from across the hall. She practically jumped on him when she came through the door. They always got in a little make-out time whenever they were away from Glynis’ roommate, Paula, who couldn’t stand it.  Paula wouldn’t even let them hold hands in front of her.  Some people just can’t get past the ickyness.   I might be desperate for my swim coach, but I wasn’t spiteful enough to disapprove of their shmoopiness.   I might gross me out on occasion, but nothing I couldn’t handle.  We just rolled our eyes and told them to go in the bathroom or something.

Besides the magnet mouths, the rest of us were single.  Yusef had shown interest in Jan once, but she made it very clear that she was a career woman with enough meat on her plate to forgo any other persona besides tough tank-chick.  Even if nothing ever got started he kept hanging close, glad to be our friend.

Together we were out for adventure.  Our thirst for adrenalin had kept us tight knit.  We would never leave each other out of anything fun. We made a good team; always had each other’s backs.   Anti-authority was our specialty.  Any door that said” authorized personal” or fence that said “no trespassing” was just an invitation to us.  We weren’t vandals, just curious.  We were often misinterpreted and classified with the druggies and gang-bangers, but we were clean.  We weren’t violent or vulgar, we just didn’t want to get sucked into the machine.

Jan and Yusef were sitting cross-legged on the floor, discussing the way the school was run, trying to comprehend the reasoning behind the Big Brother conspiracy.  I watched their conversation for a bit, enjoying this time we had together.  I would have freaked out if any of them hadn’t been accepted to the school. We were all from Victoria, went to grade school together, except Torvald, the popcorn martial artist.  Glynis had picked him up right when she got here, but he fit into the group like a glove.  Torvald took Yusef under his wing and started him on a personal fitness plan.  Yusef loved the challenge, but he was still as skinny as ever. According to my interpretations Jan was an open book, Glynis was little Miss Party, but Yusef was... mysterious sometimes.  He looked over to me.  His expression changed but what it meant, I don’t know.

“Come on guys, detach yourselves.  Let’s go.”  I got up and banged on the bathroom door.

The moon was high and bright as we silently snuck across the courtyard towards the ped-way.  The notch in the window frame pushed in easily, popping out a panel in the wall.  Our flashlights revealed a narrow staircase leading to the space above the ped-way.  A faint blue glow was coming from the top.

 “Bingo.” Said Yusef as he climbed the stairs.  We all followed.

The room was a dark corridor running the length of the ped-way.  Along one wall there was a blue glowing machine that I assumed was the main frame.  It didn’t look like any computer I’d ever seen.  Seeing the blank expression on Yusef’s face I could guess that he had never seen anything like it either.   That same iridescent silver as our imprints was flowing over the screen like a slow moving waterfall of plasma, but it was dry when we touched it.  The keyboard had hundreds of extra keys in odd symbols, some of them unrecognizable.  As soon as Yusef put his fingers to the keys a message floated out of the moving waterfall.  Unknown User.  Yusef’s face lit up with the challenge of cracking the protection and he began to concentrate in earnest.

I turned to study the room more carefully.

There were other odd apparatuses that made me feel like we were in some kind of sci-fi dream.  There were tall glass tubes full of small black hockey pucks.  Well, they looked like hockey pucks.  I stretched my hand out to the glass which seemed to dissolve as I touched it, allowing me to grab one of the “pucks”  It was the size of a button, but thicker, and there was a series of six numbers engraved, the same on both sides. 837120.  There was a collection of syringes and needles that seemed to morph into different widths like they were made of expanding clear rubber.  One syringe had the silver stuff inside.  I squeezed a little bit out onto my hand, but it evaporated instantly.

Glynis, who was into history and not technology, looked doubtfully at the screen. “Is this even a computer mate?  It looks more like a lava lamp.”

“Of course it is.” Yusef was pointing at the screen and it shifted into a list of numbers,” Otherwise I couldn’t do this.” He pointed again and a message floated out.  Welcome to the Real Administration System. R.A.S.

“I didn’t even think this kind of thing had been invented yet.” He said. “It’s a touch screen that you don’t have to touch.  It even knows where you are looking at it and enlarges that section to see it better.  I bet it even has... activate audio response.” 

A sickly sweet female voice with an Irish accent said the words we had just read.  “Audio response activated.  Welcome to the Real Administration System.”   Torvald gave a low whistle.  The most he knew about computers was how to run his i-pod during his fitness training.  He and Glynis were perfect for each other.  They had endless discussions on the philosophy and historical impact of martial arts on its various countries of origin.  Their discussions were enthralling, endearing, ultra-entertaining and simultaneously ultra-boring.

“Show me student profiles. Specifically Yusef Hassam.”  Yusef’s picture and a long list of numbers came floating out of the waterfall.  All his classes, attendance, marks and every other piece of info they had on him were listed. At the very top were two stats in bold:

 Location: R.A.S. 15-90-n7-w467

Status: Stationary 047829

“What does that mean?” Jan pointed towards the bold words and numbers and the computer magnified them.  The voice came on again,” Yusef Hassam is the current user.  Yusef Hassam has been scanned.  A Stationary Status implies that Yusef Hassam has never shifted from Reality 047829.”

Shifting from reality?  It didn’t sound real.  What kind of malarkey statement was that?

We were dumfounded. 

Yusef comprehended the message faster than the rest of us.  “Show me the profiles with a non-stationary status.”

 All the teacher’s faces floated out. I gasped.  There was Mr. Tyler.  Every teacher’s status was labelled “Shifter”.

I stepped forward and blurted out, “Show me Status History of Gerome Tyler.”  His face magnified and a series of numbers began scrolling down the screen.  There were only two that kept interchanging with a date and time beside each.

 047829                       Tuesday Oct 5th 2011 8:01 am

346181                        Tuesday Oct. 5th 2011 17:49 pm

047829                        Thursday Oct 7th 2011 7:58 am

346181                        Thursday Oct 7th 2011 19:12 pm

It went on.  “Is this an attendance log?” I asked

“Negative.  This is a Real Status log.”

“Show me Attendance log.”

Another series of the same dates and times showing him entering the swimming pool before each practice and leaving sometime after.

Fitness Center NW exterior door 15-19-n7-w451 Oct 5th 2011 8:01 am

Ped-way West Entrance Oct 5th 2011 11:53 am

Ped-way East Entrance Oct 5th 2011 11:54

Cafeteria N Entrance Oct 5th 2011 11:58

This was really weird.  It was a giant surveillance record of everybody who had these stupid I.D. imprints.  They might as well just put collars and leashes on us.

“So much for the Protection of Personal Privacy Act.”  Besides our mutual Logic class, Jan was also studying law, “I wonder if the Government knows what the Special Force is doing to the educational system in this country and who knows what else.”

“Right now I would worry less about that and more about the fact that we are about to get caught.” Yusef had brought his own file back up and enlarged the Location again. R.A.S 15-19 n7 w467. The main frame.  “They know I’m in here.  They know we’re all in here.”  Pictures of our faces popped up showing the same location.  There was a security gate over the secret door.

“Now what?” Jan asked.

“This is a long shot but I’ll try it...Delete last location.” Yusef commanded, and miraculously it worked.  The locations all switched to “Ped-way”.  He tinkered a bit more until the screen showed we were all safely tucked into our beds.

“Hey, good job.  That could come in useful!  We wouldn’t have to sneak through the windows anymore.”  Torvald’s grip around Glynis’ waist tightened.  Yusef muttered something sceptical under his breath, and then announced it was probably time to go.

“I’ll need a month to figure this all out.”  He tried to shut down the computer but the girly voice spoke up again.

“Shut down cannot commence until the removal of Plug 837120 is authorized.”

“What?”

“Shut down cannot commence until removal of Plug 837120 is authorized.”

Yusef turned to look at us.  “OK, what did you guys touch?”

“Lina took something from one of those glass tubes.” Glynis reminded me I still had that black mini-puck in my hand.  Sure enough it had the number 837120 etched on the back.

“Halina Pawlak does not have authorization to remove Plug 837120.”  The sugary voice was beginning to bother me.

“Can’t I just put it back?” I asked.

“Certainly.”  The tone in her syrupy voice made me wonder if this computer was capable of condescension.

I walked back over to the tubes.  There must have been thousands of those “plugs” stacked on top of each other.  The glass disintegrated at my touch and I wedged the plug back into place.  As soon as I let go the glass seemed to grow back into place like nothing had disturbed it.

“That is freaky.” I said, pointing at the glass.

“This whole thing is Freaky with a capital F.” Glynis added.

“Commencing Shut down.”

“We hope you enjoyed flying with us.”  Jan mimicked the artificial voice, turning her into a flight attendant.

Everyone chuckled.  We snuck out as our faces on the screen melted away into a river of glowing blue plasma.  As we tiptoed across the courtyard back to our dorms we congratulated each other on another mission accomplished.  Still, we were unsettled.  Our little moment of recon-espionage had opened up a whole new bucket of worms.   What the heck was going on?  What did all of that mean?  What exactly was a Shifter and why was Mr. Tyler one of them?

Chapter 4

“I’m not talking about school, I mean the planet.”  Mr. Tyler was whispering even though we were the only ones at the pool. I squinted at him in doubt, climbing out of the water and pulling my towel around me.

“The Special Force doesn’t exist only in Canada.  They are infiltrating other governments under different names and guises.  The U.S. is using the I.D. imprints instead of dog tags for their military because some Shifter showed them how useful they would be...”

“Wait, you lost me.  What is a Shifter?”  Our after-practice discussion was making less and less sense.

He straightened his back, “Don’t pretend I don’t know where you’ve been Miss Pawlak, and if I were you I’d be more discreet about it before Principal Arter finds out.”

So he did know.  I thought we were being discreet about it.  Judging by his assumptions he thought I knew what it all meant.  He was giving me more credit than I deserved.  I decided the only way to get him to spill the beans was to play along.

“How did you know?” after no response I continued,” My last location was deleted?”

“Halina, you are obviously very bright to have found R.A.S. in the first place, but you’ve got to cover your tracks.  You didn’t delete the last user of the plug you took.  Luckily I found it and deleted it for you before anyone else noticed.  The Special Force is recruiting kids for their Over ride project.  Do you want to become one of their clones? Do you want to get expelled and then go missing just like your friend Spencer did?  I care about you enough to stop that from happening.”

That last sentence sucked my breath away.  This huge conspiracy was just the tip of the iceberg if he just said what I think he said.  To confirm my suspicions he put his hand on my shoulder, “I need you to be safe.  Stop fiddling around with R.A.S. and if you start shifting you’ve got to make sure you don’t get caught.”

I opened my mouth to speak and then closed it again.  He was unaware of the others who were with me last night.  I was the only one who left evidence he had found.  He must have thought I was a super genius if I did all of that on my own.

“Ok” I turned to go, brooding over this information over load.  Then he called me back.

“Wait.  You may need this.” He took my hand and placed a black plug into it, ”If you’re going to shift,  this one is safe.  Use it only if you get into a situation you can’t get out of. And don’t let anyone catch you with it.”  I looked down at the thick, black button in my hand.  I read the numbers – 346181.

He didn’t explain himself, he just turned and left.  I didn’t have extra practice after all.

 ***

I should have gone straight back to my friends and told them everything Mr. Tyler had said.  I should have warned them that what we were doing was dangerous.  Yusef probably could have explained to me what all that crap was about the Over-ride Project.  I should have told him, but instead I went to the computer lab and googled Spencer’s name.

Spencer Wright, 17 years of age, went missing from his south side Victoria Home on June the 2nd. Four months of searching and the Police have come up with no leads. He had just recently been expelled from The Young Adult Colligate: a Special Group Institute.   It is the Government’s new education project for young people.

His parents fear the worst.  “His school meant everything to him.” Mrs. Wright told police. “He was devastated. “

Yah right, Mrs. Wright.

“He was so depressed when Y.A.C. rejected him, he became suicidal. I fear the worst.”  She stated through flowing tears.

That just didn’t sound like him at all. Being depressed was one of the last things he was.  Did his mother not know her son, or was she lying through her teeth?  She was covering up her bad parenting by blaming her son.  I read further.

If you have any information about the whereabouts of Spencer, please contact the Victoria Police Department.  Search and rescue teams have been keeping an eye on all shorelines in case a body washes up.

Unbelievable.  On a whim I tried googling another student who had failed last year and never came back.  What was her name again? Loni... Pitcher.  Another news report was at the top of the search list.  Ex-Y.A.C. student gone missing.  The paper was the Toronto Star.

“That is really weird” I whispered to myself, unaware if I might be disturbing other students.  To make it worse, I nudged the girl beside me,” Hey,” I whispered,” Do you know the name of a student who dropped out or was expelled last year?”

She seemed p.o.ed that I had interrupted her, ”Yeah, there was a guy in my Physics class.  Clive Navien.”

I typed in the name.  My heart thudded in my chest.  The Winnipeg Reporter’s title page had a big picture of Clive with “Child Find” written under his face.  I didn’t even read it.  Seeing three ex-students and three missing persons reports was a serious red flag. It was time to go tell the others.

Chapter 5

“Explain “Over-Ride” project.”  This time it was me sitting at R.A.S., giving her orders while the others looked on.

Pages of text came flowing out of the screen.

“Can you please summarize?”

“Over-Ride Project was initiated by several government groups around the world, including Special Force in Canada.  The goal is to create a superior human species through processes of eliminating unfit candidates.”  She stopped.  She was blunt, like that was all there was to say.

“This is unreal!” Jan was red in the face with anger, ”This is genocide!  What gives them the right...?”

“Define unfit candidate.” Yusef interrupted her before she exploded.

“All candidates are put through a screening process.  Judges determine if their DNA is corrupted, thus unfit for integration into the human species.  They are labelled undesirable.”

“Define corrupt DNA.”

“That decision is left up to the judges.”

“Is Principal Arter a Judge?”

“Affirmative.”

“Show me all students who have been judged to have corrupt DNA.”

Faces floated out of the screen.  Among them were Spencer Wright, Loni Pitcher and Clive Navien.  In fact, every face up there was that of a student who had been kicked out.  We all gasped.  Each one of them had:

 Location:  008610  Status: Exile

Written above their heads. 

We stood in front of the RAS computer with our mouths dropped.  The corridor was dark except the pale blue light shining in our eyes.

“I need to show you guys something.” I removed the plug from my pocket, ”Mr. Tyler said I might need this and not to get caught with it.  He knew I was in here.”

“This is royally messed up.”  Yusef ran his fingers through his black hair and stared at me,” Why did he give you that?  Why did he think you’ll need that and what is it for?”

“I don’t know!  I thought you would know.  You know computers better than anyone.”

We all waited for his answer.

“I don’t know.  It’s some kind of memory chip with a program on it,  it has no port so it needs a scanning device to work.”

“Do you think our imprints could scan it?”  I brought the plug up ...

“No! Are you stupid!” Yusef grabbed the plug out of my hand, “You can’t do that!  If our imprints are scanners, they’re catalysts to some inter-dimensional portal.  You’ll be transported into another universe or something, then how will you get back?”

My heart jumped into my throat.   If anyone else had said that I would have laughed and called it a pile of BS, but Yusef didn’t advocate nonsense like this.  Not unless he believed it was true.   

“You know I think this is way over our heads.” Jan was almost whispering, “We should just go back to our dorms and act like we never found this... stuff.  If we get caught, we’re not just talking expulsion, we are going to disappear like those other kids.  This is not cool.”

Glynis spoke up,” I don’t think those other kids knew about RAS and the ability to shift between realities.  They disappeared for other reasons.  Some lame discriminatory teacher decided they weren’t cool enough to integrate with the human race and sent them packing to some colony for rejects so the world could be left with some snobby elitist clique. ” 

The two of them started debating the danger we were all in while Yusef and I turned back to the screen.

He tuned them out, “Before we test this we have to take precautions.  There has to be two plugs; one to get you there and one to get you back.   Show me the plug for this reality.” He addressed the computer. 

“Plug for Reality 047829 is not available.”

“Define not available.”

“Plug for Reality 047829 is in use.  It was removed by Gerome Tyler at 0700.”

I gasped.  I didn’t know what it all meant but I would find out.

“Sounds like your favourite swim coach has been keeping nasty secrets.”  Torvald smirked.

“We don’t know what this means,” I replied, “It could be some harmless game.”

“Or a satanic cult with alien technology plotting to take over the world.” He remarked.

“You watch too many movies.” Yusef muttered, “We need to tell somebody about this.”

“What would you tell them and who could you trust?” Jan asked, “This is a government conspiracy.  Probably an international project.  We are trapped in it.”

 She sounded crazy.  It was freaking me out.

Everyone started arguing.  I was flabbergasted by the entire situation.  I needed more information before I could assess if we were in real danger or not.  Jan had already determined that we were.  Yusef was still shocked by the existence of this extreme technology.  Glynis was ready to butt heads with the first person she saw and Torvald didn’t seem to care at all.  The noise in the room was getting high.

“Guys, keep it down! Someone might hear us.”  I walked over to the door and peeked down the stairs.

“Lina’s right we should leave.” Yusef deleted our last locations.  I crept down to the ped-way and peered out the glass onto the darkened court yard.  There were lampposts along the sidewalks that usually stayed lit all night, but tonight they were as black as the sky.  Hardly any of the dorm lights were on either.  I couldn’t see anything, but my guts started churning and I felt something... something wrong.

“Guys? I whispered up the stairs.  They were about to come stomping down when I raised my hand, fingers spread wide.  Jan’s eyes met mine and she felt what I felt.  Fear.

***

 Small drops of precipitation were sliding down the outside of the glass, distorting our view of the night.  The darkness was like a thick vapour, alive and breathing against the glass.  We waited in stillness amid pounding hearts.  Jan put her hand on my shoulder, trying to read my mind.  I shook my head.  My eyes strained through the dark, making out the shadows of buildings, the pathway... something moved!  Jan saw it too.  She pulled me backwards into the fitness centre and we glided down the stairs towards the pool.  It was a good thing we had so much practice at being sneaky, there wasn’t a peep from anybody.  Yusef waved us to the north door, away from the dorms.  He opened the locks and let in the night air.  It was cold enough we could see our breath.  That’s what I had seen!  A fog of breath!  We all broke into a run, crouching over the frosted grass, heading for the shelter of the trees.

Getting caught out of our dorms was one thing, but this seemed almost life threatening.  We had stumbled across some government secret that would eliminate any form of resistance in order to remain protected.  My friends and I were tight knit before, but now that we were in over our heads the bonds of friendship had strengthened.  We had just hit the trees when we heard the north door to the pool slam shut.  Torvald gave the signal to split up, fingers flat then opening out.  We silently obeyed, except for Glynis of course.  Yusef ran off campus, Jan ran towards the law buildings and I stealthily manoeuvred round about towards the dorms again.  We would all meet back at the girls dorms like we had in the past.  I breathed into my sleeve so my foggy breath wouldn’t give me away.  I slid from one tree to another making sure the shuffling noise I heard was slowly going past me.  I caught a glimpse of them at one point.  It was some sort of cult.  They were all wearing black cloaks, hooded faces and hidden hands.  There were four of them, too bulgy and slow to be other teens.  They must have been professors; old ones.  I stayed in the shadows and let them past.  As soon as I was out of earshot I bolted for the dorms.

When I got to my room I was the only one there.  I had taken the most risky but shortest route back so I wasn’t surprised.  First thing I did was call my parents. 

A groggy voice answered and I winced knowing I had woken them up.  As I spat out my story I threw on my backpack.  I was getting out of here.

“Halina? What on earth are you calling for?  It’s 1:30!”

“Sorry Mom, it’s an emergency!  Remember what you said about Spencer?  He wasn’t the only student who has disappeared!  There are more...”  I stopped.  There was someone out in the hallway.  Thank goodness someone else made it back.  The door knob turned...

“Halina what are you saying?  Is it not safe for you?  Halina?”  I could hear my mom’s voice in the receiver, but I had pulled the phone away from my ear and dropped it on the bed.  The person at the door was not one of my friends.  It was a man in a long black cloak.  It was Principal Arter.

 ***

I backed up until my legs hit the side of my bed.  The open window behind me was my only escape.  If I could only get around the bed before...

“Miss Pawlak.  It seems you’re in a heap of trouble young lady.”  Arter’s jowls shook.  His huge lips protruded over his long teeth.  His hands were hidden in his cloak.  He could be holding anything under there; pointing anything at me.  “Where are the others? Mr. Hassan, Mr. Peters, Miss Kurauchi and Miss Thatcher?”

“I don’t know...” I side stepped the foot of the bed, then froze as three more hooded figured blocked the door.  An unknown voice rose from beneath a hood,” We have secured Miss Kurauchi.”

“Excellent.”

No!  Not Jan!  I tried to keep my composure.  Then I remembered the plug in my pocket.  The plug I wasn’t supposed to use except in an emergency.  I had told my mom this was an emergency.  My mom!  Was she still on the line?  The principal grabbed my arm so I started yelling at the phone.

“Mom!  They’re kidnapping me!  Send Help!”   Arter ‘s eyes bugged out and he released me to dash to the phone.  He grabbed it off the bed to hang it up.  This was my chance.  I plunged backwards, grabbing the edge of the window sill.  I shoved my head though the opening and came face to face with Yusef as he was climbing up the trellis.  I almost kissed him, he was so close.  He must have heard the voices in my room. He knew the trouble I was in and silently mouthed my name.   I shook my head warning him to remain quiet.  I could have made it out if he hadn’t stalled me, but hands grabbed my legs pulling me backwards.  I strained to keep hold of the ledge.  Yusef grabbed my arms trying to pull me towards him.

“No!” I shouted, looking into his fearful eyes.  I wasn’t going to let him get caught too.  Someone had to escape to tell our parents; to put a stop to this.  Yusef squeezed his eyes shut but he did not let go.  I was being ripped in half.

“Miss Pawlak!” Arter was growling, ”Let go immediately!”

Yusef remained quietly struggling.  He looked desperate to help me.

“Let go...” I winced, directing my comment at both ends of my body.

Yusef’s footing on the trellis was slipping.  He lost his grip and fell to the ground. My hold on the window sill tore at the muscles in my fingers until I had to let go.  I was dragged backwards by my legs onto the floor.

“What’s your problem?” I yelled rubbing my legs where I was soon to have hand shaped bruises.  If I could keep their attention on me, Yusef might have a chance to escape.

Arter’s face was invading my space, ”You are going to regret your actions tonight.” His droopy mouth spraying spit on me.

“Well, so are you!” I sprayed back.

 He slapped my face.  I gasped.

 “Get her up!” he growled.  Another hooded man grabbed my shoulders and hauled me to my feet. They pulled off my pack and rifled through it.  They confiscated my wallet and my phone.

“Let’s go.”  They escorted me out the door.  One of them peered out the window, but Yusef had already run out of sight.

As we stepped out into the chilli night air my eyes searched for any sign of my friends.  I found Yusef spying around the corner of the building.  He must still be determined to free me.  I sized up the four hooded men and knew Yusef couldn’t beat them. When my captor bumped beside me I could feel the handle of a gun under his cloak.  It was too risky for Yusef to try anything.  The plug was the only choice I had left.  It was the only way.

With all my strength I yanked free of my captor’s grasp and ran in the opposite direction of Yusef.  I only had seconds before they caught up to me.

“Get back here!”  I heard the safety click off of the gun, but I didn’t look back.  I dove my hand into my pocket and ripped the plug out.  A shot fired, snapping off a lock of my hair.  Gasping, I brought the plug up to my neck and touched it to the imprint.  Then, there was darkness.

Chapter 6

I awoke to the buzzing of my alarm clock.  I was lying in my dorm room bed; Jan was in the bed beside me, mashing a pillow over her head.  It was 7:00 am.  I bolted up right.

“What happened?  How long have I been sleeping?”

“Arg, stop yelling!” Jan’s voice came out from under the pillow.  I leapt over to her, shaking her hard.

“How did you get here?  How did I get here?”

“Stop shaking me!” she threw the pillow in my face,” You must have had a nightmare.”

A nightmare?  No, it was real.  It had to be.  But Jan had been caught!  I had been caught.  “What did we do last night?”  I had somehow gotten into my pink pyjamas.  As I changed I noticed the bruises on my arms and legs.

Jan already had her nose in a book, ”Studied.  We have a Logic exam an Friday.”

“You don’t remember sneaking out to hack into R.A.S.?”

She looked up, “I don’t sneak out.  Hey where did you get those bruises from?  And what is R.A.S.”

“I got them when Principal Arter hauled me through a window.   R.A.S. is the mainframe for this school’s criminal security system and you do sneak out all the time!  You see this?” I grabbed the chopped off lock of hair, ”This happened when a bullet whizzed past my head!”

Maybe they zapped her brain.  Maybe they erased her memory.  If that were the case then how come I could remember?  It must be because of the plug.  Where was it?  I checked my pockets.  I checked the floor.   I rummaged through my bed sheets and found it beside my pillow.

“Recognize this?” I shoved the plug up to her face.  She shook her head, “Come on Jan, I need you to remember.  I need to know what happened to you.”

“You are going psycho.” She stated.

“These plugs are like portals into some new reality.  I must have shifted when I touched it to my imprint.”

“Whoa.  When did you get that silver tattoo?”

“We all have one!”

“Well who’s we? Because I would never get a tattoo.”  She lifted up her black hair and showed me her neck.  There was nothing there, “And the principal’s name is Nelsen.” She reluctantly got up and locked herself in the bathroom.

Oh.  Things must have really changed.  I did sound a bit psychotic.  I looked at the plug and read the number  346181.  The words “Safe Place” were etched on the side. Jan’s memory wasn’t erased.  This was a completely different Jan.  This was a completely different reality. I sped across the hall and burst into Glynis’ room.

“Hey! Do you mind?”  A black girl was standing by the window brushing her teeth.  I don’t know who she was, but she wasn’t Glynis or Paula.

“Where’s Glynis Thatcher?”

“Honey, I don’t know who you talking ‘bout, but there ain’t no Glynis livin’ in this room.”

“What about Paula?”

“Nu-uh.  You got the wrong room girl.”

“Oh. Sorry for barging in on you.”  I closed the door.  I ran down the hall to the stairway window.  I could see the ped-way across the courtyard but there was no attic space above it.  No secret room.  No R.A.S.  No girly message to say Halina Pawlak:  Status: Shifter

***

I had to find out what was going on.  Yusef would know.  I knew he would be in the computer lab so I skipped my first class and went to find him.  The lab was packed with early morning students trying to finish their various assignments.  The first person I noticed was Spencer Wright.  A wave of relief flooded over me.  He was fine! He wasn’t even expelled!

“Spencer!  Hey are you ok?” I went up and hugged him.

“Hey Lina, wassup?”  His big infectious smile lit up his face.

“Well...”  I paused.  This version of Spencer probably didn’t even know about his own traumatic experience.  I couldn’t even tell him.  I stumbled my way through a superficial cover-up.  “I just...wanted to check up on you.  See how you were doing.”  I stifled my feelings, knowing he wouldn’t have a clue why I was being so emotional.  Luckily, he didn’t notice.

“Same old.  Loaded with homework and no time to finish it.  Hey you don’t usually have a spare now?  Are you skipping again?”

“Ha, you know me.”  My eyes evaded his and wandered across the room.  I spotted Yusef.  I quickly freed myself from my current conversation.  ”I’ll catch ya later Spence.”

“Ya, catch ya.” Spencer immediately had another conversation going with other friends.

 I threw my backpack to the floor beside Yusef and hugged him.

“Um, what are you doing?” he asked, looking surprised.

“Sorry, I can’t explain, I’m just glad to see you.”  I sat down beside him.  Just to be sure, I glanced at his neck.  No imprint.  Nobody had one except me.

“Um, can you remind me what your name is again?” he asked with a look of bewilderment.

I stared at him, wondering what sort of game he was playing. “Halina.” I answered.

“Oh right, sorry I forgot.  So, Halina, what do you want?”

This was wrong.  “You always call me Lina.”  My hands shook a little at the prospect of the lack of best friends I had in this place.  It was starting to scare me.

“Halina, I haven’t talked to you since grade seven.  I have homework to do so what do you want?”

This was a nightmare, just like Jan had said.  A nightmare that was real.  “Nothing I guess.  Sorry to bug you.  No wait.  Do you know where the school’s main computer is?”

“Yah, it’s in Nelsen’s office of course.”  He turned back to his screen.

“Thanks.  Sorry for bugging you.” I touched his hand before I left.  As I walked away I saw him look at his hand then look at me and smile.

I walked out to the courtyard and slumped onto a concrete bench.   A cold breeze rustled the leaves in the trees.  The sound reminded me that an Alberta winter was on its way.  I shivered.  Could I really stay in this place when Jan was so weird, Glynis was nowhere to be found and Yusef hardly knew who I was?  At least Spencer was ok.  Still, I felt trapped.  I had to find a way out of here.

There was a group of boys across the courtyard laughing and teasing each other.  They were being noisy and obnoxious.   I realized one of them was Torvald.  I ran over.

“Hey, Tor.”

 He turned to me.“Do I know you?”  He looked down on me, his friends snickering behind him.

“Yah, it’s Halina.  Uh, you used to date a friend of mine.  Uh, could I talk to you for a minute.?”  By this time it didn’t surprise me that he didn’t know me.  Everything had shifted.   His friends snickered louder as we walked away.

“So I was wondering if you could help me out with something.”  I shoved my hands in my pockets trying to avoid exposing them to the frigid air.  The plug was in there and I gripped it tightly.

“I don’t think so, but hit me with it.” He was tall, especially when he stared down to me.

“I need you to get us sent to the principal’s office.”

 He laughed, huge and wide.  “Why would I do that?”

“I need to see Ar... Nelsen’s computer.”

“Listen Hon, I’ve been in that office plenty, what do you need to know about her ‘puter?”

“Is it big? Like a screen with blue plasma that flows down it?  Are there these glass tubes filled with black plugs that look like this?”  I held up the plug.

“What pills you been popping?”  He stopped walking and glared at me, ”Are you mad?  It’s a Mac; A pink one.  It’s butt ugly and it crashes on her all the time.  Now, if you didn’t come here to ask me out then don’t bother me.”  He folded his muscular arms across his muscular chest and stared down at me again.  

I rolled my eyes.  He never treated me this way.  “Out of respect for Glynis I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”

 I walked away as he said, “Who’s Glynis?”

***

 If I had this figured this out right Mr. Tyler shifted here on his days off.  If I saw him yesterday back in that...old place, whatever I should call it, then he should be here today in this... new place.

Bursting through the doors to the pool I saw him right away, gorgeous, as always.  He focused on me, blue eyes peering into my soul like he was trying to read my thoughts.

“Mr Tyler?  Can I speak with you?”  When I approached him he put his arms on my shoulders.  His hands were warm.

“Miss Pawlak, training is about to start.”

“I know but I need to talk to you about what happened...”

“Last night?”

I nodded.  He knew.  What a relief.

“You need to go change.  You have training right now.”

Other students were coming in and out of the change room.  We couldn’t talk right now, so I went and got changed.  At least he knew.  At last someone could explain this whole thing.

During practice he kept his eyes on me.  He was watching me like I was going to disappear right in front of him.  I pushed myself to race through a couple of laps.  After the front stroke I flipped to my back.  I watched the ceiling markers as they swiftly went by.  All of this extra training had really increased my speed.  I waited until everyone else had left.  When I got to the edge of the pool, Mr. Tyler’s face loomed over the edge. 

“So this is where you go on your days off.” I sat on the edge of the pool with a towel wrapped around me.

“I’m keeping my options open.” He sat down beside me, leaning his arm on his knee.  “Now I’ve given those options to you.  You have merged with your alternate self.  Now you are one person.  Your alternate has a whole life full of different memories.  The longer you stay here the more you will regain those memories.”

“So if I leave this reality, there won’t be an alternate me to fill in the gap?  I’ll just disappear?”

“You’ll go missing.  It’s a side effect of shifting realities.  But why would you leave? You don’t ever need to.  The Special Force doesn’t exist in this reality so you are safe.  That’s what I call this one:  Safe Place.  You could call them by their plug number, but I prefer giving them names.  Your home reality I call Big Brother.”

I stared at him.  As tempting as it was to be this close, I felt that he was wrong.   I would want to go back.

“What about Glynis, where is she?”

“She doesn’t exist here.”

That wouldn’t do.  I had to fix it.  “What if she shifted here?”

“You can’t force something to exist in another reality.  She would appear, but she wouldn’t be registered at school and people wouldn’t know her.  She would be a stranger to everyone but you and me.”  I was about to get upset but he was starring me down again.  He held his chin while he ran his finger across his lips.  I tried so hard not to get distracted by the movement.  This shifting business finally gave me a good reason to have a one-on-one conversation with him.   I had to pay attention to what he was telling me.   I snapped out of my daze and tried to listen to him. 

“There are times when certain objects do not fit into the reality.  That object would automatically take the form of something that fit here.”

“Like what?”

“If you create something, like a homework assignment, then try to shift with it.  It will appear as a blank piece of paper.  The paper exists, but your creation doesn’t.  You would have to rewrite it.”

He was filling my mind with unfathomable things, verbal and non-verbal.   I was trying to grasp my head around this metaphysical knowledge while my heart was dealing with the close proximity of Mr. Tyler’s body.

“Do you think you’ll be ok?”  He asked.

“Ok with what?”

“With staying here in Safe Place.”

“With my friends all back there in Big Brother Regime-land getting caught and punished, maybe even killed?  I don’t think so!”  I snapped out of Gerome Tyler heaven and remembered the fear I had felt last night.

“Yes, but here they are all fine.”

“They are not fine!  They are all weird.  And Glynis, what about her?”

“You can’t save everyone’s alternate in every reality.  That is impossible.  You could go back to get her, but that would only get you killed.  Safe Place may have a few differences, but it is by far the better choice.  Lina, you just have to cut your losses.”

He had never called me Lina before.  There was a new glint in his eyes.  He leaned closer, “And besides,” he flashed his brilliant, dimpled smile, ”In this reality you and I are together.”  In case I didn’t catch his drift he bent his head down and kissed me.  It was a long imagined kiss.  I pushed my lips against his and combed my fingers into his perfect hair.  It was bliss.  It was euphoric.  It was everything.

I was left speechless.  My lips tingled in after shock.  He could see my shock and chuckled, “Acting professional and distant with you in Reality Big Brother was quite amusing.” He helped me to my feet,  “No extra practice today, the pool is getting drained.”  Noticing his complete recovery from the kiss begged a question,

“Mr. Tyler, that wasn’t our first kiss was it?”

“No, it wasn’t.” His dimples appeared again, “Give it a couple of days, you’ll remember.  And in private, you call me Gerome.”

Chapter 7

I sat at my dorm room desk pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to decide how I felt.  Ecstatic and full of dread mixed together will a bit of disappointment.  I actually made it to classes today.  None of my teachers were the same.  No one had imprints.  There were no security doors clocking my every move.  Torvald laughed at me when I passed him in the hall.  Could I live with this?  In a place I didn’t belong?  I could shift again, but any other world would be just as weird or worse.  Was Reality Big Brother so dangerous that I could really never go back?  During that same thought I could feel my heart race remembering Mr. Tyler.  Gerome.  And we were together!  I wanted to squeal like the little school girl I was.  Dating my swim coach was such a dream.

“Hey, you ok?” it was Jan. “I hope you’re not worried about the exam on Friday, you’ll do great.”

Her face was back in a book before I could think of something to tell her.  The last two days had thrown a bucket-load of stress in my face.  Some of my long term memories seemed like they were warping and changing.  The major decisions seemed the same, but the details were changing.  Like the fact that Glynis wasn’t in any of them.  I was afraid I would forget her completely.  I looked at Jan and her new straight-edge ways, my only friend that supposedly knew me.  I couldn’t blame her for not seeing my dilemma.  How could anyone? 

“I’m going to do some laps at the pool.” Maybe it would calm me down.

“Mr. Tyler doesn’t work today.”

“No really, I’m just going to swim.”

She picked up on my comment, “Really? I thought you were motivated more by a passion for your coach, not a passion for the sport.”

“Yah.  Well... not this time.”

“Know what? I’ll come with you.  Could you use the company?”

“Yah.”

It was good to know this strange version of Jan was still my best friend.

As we walked I started to feel light headed.  Images of my past started flashing through my mind.  I tried to blink them out of my head, but I was almost blinded by them.  They were memories I hadn’t had; Memories of hanging out with my friends, but Glynis wasn’t among them.  I stopped.

“What’s up?” Jan asked

“I don’t know...” I watched my life like it was a movie.  The memories were real.  They were a part of me. 

“Do you remember riding the bus home from Middle School?”  I could hear the clunky engine gearing down at every stop.  I could smell sweet peas and the ocean, even though I knew I wasn’t back home in Victoria.

“Yah.”

“Where was Glynis?  I’m sure she was with us.”

“Who is Glynis?”

I shook my head.  I would never get used to this.  I forced myself to remember a time we had been with Glynis.  I remembered that rave we went to during the summer.

“Come one Jan, don’t be so scared.”  Glynis was trying to convince her it was alright to sneak in without paying, “What’s the worst that could happen, we get kicked out?  Nothing new.”

“Besides,” I said, “I’m not going to miss The Consonant  C!  They are the best indie-tronica on earth!”

We were standing in the parking lot waiting for Yusef’s brother Ibram to come outside.

“You better not jump out or you’ll make Jan pee her pants!” Yusef yelled seemingly to no one.

Ibram came out from behind a parked car, laughing.  “How did you know I was there?”

Yusef snickered, “Years of practice.”

They laughed and punched each other.

Ibram handed us his friends’ tickets.  “Everyone else is already inside. Give these back when you get in.”

We approached the door, fake ID’s in hand.  The ambient music pulsing from inside...

The memory started to white out.  I tried to focus on it and remember what happened next but it disappeared like someone hit the stop button.  I looked at Jan.

“That’s why you’re so uptight.  You never had Glynis to encourage you.  She was our momentum.  She convinced you to sneak into the rave last summer...”

“Rave?  We never went to a rave.”

I could tell she was not following me.  I couldn’t get through to her.  Not this way.

We walked the rest of the way in silence.

When we got there the pool was drained.  I had forgotten.  We stood there for a moment.  My sense of purpose was scrambled like an omelette.   I felt defeated from a battle I hadn’t even fought yet.  I felt lost.  As I wallowed in my self-pity my eyes were absently staring at the walls of the pool.  It was strange how different they looked when they weren’t under water.  Very strange.  There was a pattern in the blue and white tiles that I hadn’t noticed before.  Simple rectangles that reminded me of the ones framing the secret door...  I walked down into the bottom of the pool to get a closer look.

“Lina?  What are you doing?” I jumped at Jan’s voice

“I’ll be there in a sec.  Why don’t you go save us a seat in the cafeteria, it’s almost supper.” I dragged my hand along the tiles.

“What’s that?” she asked

“I never noticed before...”  I looked up and noticed she was pointing at something.  I followed her finger.  She came down the slanted floor of the pool and touched the tile before I saw it.  It wasn’t a tile at all.  It was made of rubber.  A square, blue, rubber button made to look like a tile.  I had felt this weird feeling before.  It was just like the time Jan had found the secret room.

“Go up top and tell me what happens when I push this.” 

She obeyed.  I pressed it.  I heard a soft thump that matched the thumping in my chest.

“Oh, wow.” Is all she said.

 I ran up the slanted floor and up the steps.  Again, Jan was pointing her finger and I followed her gaze.  She was looking through the glass window  into Mr. Tyler’s office.   There was usually a row of small lockers on the far wall.  They were still there, but now they were jutting out from the wall like a hinged door.  There was a room behind them.  Inside the room I could see a faint blue glow.

I gasped and ran forward.  Jan held up her hands, “Um, I think we should go.  We have an exam tomorrow, we should go eat and then go back to our dorms and stay there and study.”

I turned to her, “Jan, you’re not like this.  You have a spirit of adventure, you have courage, and I’ve seen it! Come on this is important.”

“We are not supposed to go into teacher’s offices, especially ones with secret rooms.”

I grabbed her arm, ”This is my boyfriend’s office, I’m sure I’ve been in here before.”

The door to the office was surprisingly not locked.  We crept in and pushed the lockers out of the way.  It was déjà vu in a major way.  There was a Real Administration System, but it was smaller, cruder, with no fancy graphics or glass tubes.  The plugs were stored in a cardboard box.  I tried to explain it all to Jan, but I didn’t know what she would understand, so I tried to show her.  I dropped my backpack and sat down in front of the computer.  There was no audio response to my utter relief.  I tried to find student files, but there were none.  So I found the Shifters.

“See there’s me:

Halina Pawlak  Status: Shifter.            Location: 346181”

Jan hadn’t said anything so I went on, “And there is Gerome Tyler. He shifts to 346181 on his days off.”

“But Lina, his location says that’s where is now.” Jan pointed to the numbers.  346181.

“Oh crap.  We have to get out of here.”

“Wait!  I believe you!  You need to give me one of those tattoos.”

“What!  I don’t know how!”

“Well figure it out! Fast!”

I typed in identification imprints into the search bar.  My fingers weren’t working and I had to delete a few typos.  There were no instructions on how to apply one.

“I c..c..can’t” I stuttered,” There’s no equipment.  I need a syringe with this gel stuff and a barcode imprint machine and, well I wasn’t even looking when they did it to me!” Jan was pawing through the junk on the desk.

“There’s no syringes or anything!” she was beginning to panic., “What do I do?”

I stopped and scrunched up my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose.  Think think!  When I came here I kept my imprint even though I merged with an alternate that didn’t have one.  That was it.  “Your other self has an imprint.  If she shifts here she will merge with you.  You’ll keep the imprint.”

“Well can you go and get her?”

“I can’t! She was captured, I don’t know where she is.”

“What?”

Suddenly there was a noise:  a door closing. Jan brought a hand over her mouth. We couldn’t get caught in here.  Not just because it was a teacher’s office, but because it was a secret room holding the mother of all conspiracies.   I peered from behind the door made of lockers and into Gerome’s office.  I looked through the windows out to the pool.  I didn’t see anyone.

“Quick.. let’s get out of here.”

“Wait, you should take these with you.” She pointed to the box full of plugs.

“Yah. Good idea.” I carefully tipped the box into my back pack.  I cringed at the clunking noise.  Standing back up I entered the office once again, in time to see Gerome staring at me through the glass.  My heart burst like a cannon.  Sweat was suddenly covering my skin.  He hadn’t seen Jan yet, so I closed the door of lockers and hid her inside.  I just hope she would take the hint and not try to come out.

“Lina?” he approached the door quickly,” What were you doing in there?” He looked in my eyes and sudden flashes of unknown memories blocked my vision.  Memories of us texting each other, meeting at a cafe down the street, holding hands across the table...  I shook my head trying to focus. 

“Why do you have a R.A.S. computer hidden in your office?” I countered

He halted, “They’ve found you.  They will be here any minute.”

“What? How?” the extra weight of the plugs in my back pack seemed like a pile of rocks.  Would he notice?

“The security door to my office!  Didn’t you see it?” I looked up and sure enough there was a metal strip across the top.  That metal strip had been on the top of every single door of the school in 047829.  I kicked myself for not noticing it.

“I thought you said there weren’t any.  You said the Special Force doesn’t exist here!”

He approached me cautiously and clasped his hands to my arms.  “There’s only this one, to keep tabs on me.”

“You lied to me.” I accused,  ”You exist here.  You are a judge for the Over-Ride Project.  You are Special Force!  You brought me to Safe Place to prevent me from opposing it. You didn’t even give me a plug for Big Brother, so I could never get back.  You thought I would just settle right in and forget all about the tyrannical oppression ruining my world as we speak.  Have you done anything to stop it or do you  even want it stopped?”

“Nobody can stop it.  But we can escape it.  I’ll grab you another plug.  Send you away for a while, and when it’s safe...”

“No!” I blocked him from moving closer to the hidden room. I couldn’t let him discover  Jan!  Plus,  he would find out I had stolen all the plugs.  “Why have there been people going missing?” I rerouted, trying to sound strong but shaking inside.

He turned to me, “They  are classified undesirables.  They don’t qualify.” He stated.

“Don’t qualify for what?”

“To be members of Special Force: to be candidates for Over-Ride. They are using Big Brother and a few other realities to create a superior army. It has nothing to do with race or religion or station, this is about all humans.   Corrupted DNA has been allowed to integrate and mingle with ours for generations.  Humans have abandoned the concept of survival of the fittest and allowed even the unfit to survive.  Where nature would have weeded them out a long time ago, we build hospitals and social programs that allow them to live and procreate and pass on their sicknesses and deformities until our species is a watered down image of non-perfection.  We will never be able to reach our full potential if they are allowed to live among us.”

I was shocked at the things coming out of his mouth.   “ So.. You have them murdered?”

“No! Come on, Over-Ride is not some annihilation project or communist regime.  We just send them away.  That’s why I was trying to work you so hard on the swim team.  I was giving you extra training to increase you fitness level so you would qualify as a candidate.  Being chosen for Over-Ride is a great honour. I didn’t want to lose you.  I didn’t want you to be sent away.”

I knew I was not the best on the swim team,  and now I knew he had lied to me about his motives.

“You would have left me here.”  I took my accusation one step further, hoping I was wrong.” You don’t care about me, you were just abusing my feelings for you so I wouldn’t go back and find out who you really are.”  I studied his face for a sign to show me I was wrong.

 His response cut deep,” You should have listened to me, but you are so stubborn.  I gave you what you wanted, but it wasn’t enough.”

This man with the face of an angel had something seriously wrong with him.  My heart broke realizing I couldn’t have him.  Not like this.

“Where do you send them?  The people who don’t reach the bar?”

“Some other reality where they can live their lives like nothing is wrong with them.”

“Have you been there?”

“Of course not.  Once you go there you can’t come back.”

Something moved in my peripheral vision.  Out the office window I could see dark figures entering the pool room.  They were wearing dark, hooded cloaks like devilish spectres.  How ridiculous.  I turned back to Gerome.

“That’s right. You would never stoop so low.  You would never be caught mingling with the commoners.  You wouldn’t even date me until I reached your level of expectation.” I backed up.

“It’s my job to judge you.”

“Yah, just like Principal Arter did to me and all my friends.” I slowly lowered my backpack until I could  reach the zipper and slide it up just enough to get my hand inside.  “If you thought I would just hang out here for the rest of my life and pretend nothing was wrong, then you don’t know me.  I’m no coward.” The hooded figures were quickly approaching the office.  My fingers grabbed the first plug I could reach.  “If you were a good boyfriend you should know me better than that.”

“Lina, what are you doing?” he tried to lunge for me but I was faster.  I whipped my hand up and touched the plug to my neck before he could stop me.

Chapter 8

The air was cold.  There was a strong wind.  I opened my eyes and looked across a rolling field of barley, lined with clumps of trees.  There was no pool, no school, no buildings at all except a small farm house tucked in between a wooden grainery and a red roofed barn.  It reminded me of a scene out of “Little House on the Prairie”.  I must have been displaced a great distance because this was nowhere near the city, but everything felt wrong. I stood up.  I could see the North Saskatchewan River in the distance.  It was positioned exactly how it would be winding through the city, but the city wasn’t there.  Instead there was a small fort on the north bank.  Fort Edmonton.  It was just like the replicated tourist attraction I had visited during a school field trip.  I remembered all of the employees were in period costumes.   Looking down I saw I was wearing one of those same costumes;  a long, checkered dress and white apron.  I had a pioneer bonnet on my head.  My backpack was gone replaced with a kerchief tied to a stick. I picked it up, not sure how to hold it.  I checked to make sure the plugs were still inside.  What the heck?  Had I gone back in time?  I didn’t think that was possible.

 I thought of shifting again, but where would that get me?  Since I was here it wouldn’t hurt to look around.

A horse drawn cart was tottering across the field from the direction of the farm.  A man and wife sat up front looking just like Mr. and Mrs. Ingalls.  The rickety wheels were bumping between two muddy ruts.  As they approached, the man pulled back on the reins.

“Hello Stranger.”  He tipped his hat.  “Would you like a lift into town?”

“Um sure.  I mean yes, thank you”

“Hop in the back then.”

I walked around to the back of the cart and took a breath.  There were four children in the cart snuggled under a blanket between crates of live chickens. OK. I could handle this.  I found a space just big enough for my butt and dangled my legs over the edge.  The children’s eyes were constantly drilling into me.

“Hey, can you tell me what year it is?” I asked

They looked at each other, then back to me.  The oldest spoke up, ”Its twenty eleven, at least still for a couple months.”  His answer didn’t explain anything about the situation. 

“Oh, right. Of course.”  I felt stupid.

So if I hadn’t time traveled, this must be the way it was in this reality.  I took a discreet look at the plug I had used.  Over the numbers was the words “Wild West” in Gerome’s hand writing.  That was for sure.  I sat quietly as the cart bumped over the uneven ground.  Was Jan OK?  They probably found her by now and there was nothing I could do.

It seems to take a painfully long time to get to the fort.  Every bump in the meagre road was adding another bruise to my butt.  Then we had to ferry across the river because there was no bridge.  It took an hour.  They shared their supper with me which consisted of baked beans and bread.  By the time we reached the town-site it was dark.

“You’ve got a place to stay then?” The mother asked.

“Well no, not really.”

“Have you got any money?  There’s a hotel in town.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Well I can allow you to stay in the stable for now.” She pointed where the father was leading the horses around the side the house.  She handed me the wool blanket that the kids had been using  in the back of the cart.  It was extremely heavy and smelled like the excrement of chickens.  OK.  I could handle this.

I cautiously checked the lintel of the door for a security bar before I walked through.  I wondered how long should I stay here.  I had to come up with a plan. I stacked up a pile of hay and laid the blanket on top of it.  I assessed the situation.  I seemed whatever I was touching came with me when I shifted, however altered.  I had my bathing suit and towel in my back pack too.  I dumped the kerchief onto the floor.  There was a swimming suit and towel, but they had been altered the same way my clothes had been and the result was not pretty.  My iPod was a diner bell and my cell phone had turned into a horseshoe. Only the plugs remained the same.

 I thought about where I would reappear if I shifted back to my reality.  If I had an alternate self I would have ended up exactly where they were, merging instantly.  But what if there was no alternate me?  I had appeared in the middle of a field, did that mean the field was the same global position as Gerome’s office?  I assumed so.  So where did I want to be standing when I shifted?

 I sifted through the plugs, looking for one I recognized.  What was it? 04...1... no...7...something.  I was hoping I’d remember.  Then I found it. 047829. Oh good.  I wrapped the kerchief back together but I put that plug into my apron pocket.  Tomorrow I was going to go home, find everyone, and save them without getting caught.  The question was how?

***

I awoke to one of the pioneer children kicking my leg.  As soon as I moved, the child ran away.  There was a bowl of steaming, grey mush beside me. Yum.  After I ate it I left the stable so I wouldn’t keep mooching on this nice family.  Their property was just outside of the barricade to the fort.  The doors were open and unguarded so I entered.

It was loud and muddy.  Above all it smelled.  There was poo everywhere.  The horses were stepping in their own feces, and people stepping in it too.  I jumped up onto a boardwalk to avoid it, but there was poo up there too; hundreds of footprints made of poo.  It could be worse I thought.  Don’t make such a big deal.  To these people this is completely normal.  I reminded myself to memorize the number of this reality so I didn’t  come here too often.

Along the boardwalk there was a trading post, black smith, milliner, bakery, carpenter, even a barber.  Men with frizzy beards chewing tobacco sat outside a saloon, hats over their eyes.  Women in floor length skirts, holding babies and baskets would tisk and scold the men as they walked by.  For a brief moment I thought it might be a movie set and looked around for hidden cameras.  But then I realized a movie set wouldn’t use real poo.  I poked my head in the trading post.  The cashier stood behind a barred window, talking with the customer at the front of a long line.  I took a spot at the back and waited my turn.  What I had to find was some kind of tool or weapon I could use to rescue my friends.  Some way to get past the security gates.  Some help.  How was I going to pay for anything?  Maybe I could work in compensation.  As I stood there I noticed a small square cut out of the wall up by the ceiling.  The barrel of a rifle was conspicuously at the ready, aiming at the customers.  At first I thought I should yell and duck, but then I realized it was like a wild west version of a security camera.

When it was my turn I approached the man behind the bars, “What are the bars for?”

He spat towards a spittoon and missed, “Keep the injuns out.”

“Oh. Um I was wondering if you needed some help. I would like to work off the price of a gun.”

“I don’t need a hand, I already got one.”

“Oh, do you know where I could get a job?”

“Yah, second floor of the hotel.” He pointed across the street to the balcony of the hotel where two ladies were laughing with each other, wearing nothing but lacy underwear.  The men outside the saloon were whistling.  No wonder they sat there all day.

“Very funny.”

The cashier gave me a grin with his front teeth missing.  “You new in town?” he asked

“I guess you could call it that.”

“Someone was looking for you.” He grinned again

“What!” I yelled making everyone in the line behind me jump, “Were they wearing black cloaks?”  my heart thumped hard.

“Naw, it was my injun that works in the back.”

I composed myself,” I thought these bars were supposed to keep Indians out.”

“Hey Injun!” the loud call made everyone jump again.

The back door opened revealing a young man in grey trousers and suspenders over a dirty white shirt.  He was carrying a sack of flour in front of his face.  As he dropped it to the ground I squealed in shock.

“Yusef!”

“Halina!” he tried to run up to the counter but the cashier thumped him on the head.

“There ain’t no approaching the counter Injun!  Go ‘round back!”

“Yes sir.”  He ran out the door.

“You better go get him, he ain’t allowed in the store.”

 I blinked, “Oh.” and I ran out too.

***

As soon as I turned the corner he grabbed me in a hug that picked me up off the ground.

“I am so glad to see you!” he exploded

“You better stop doing this.” I said, my cheek squished against his chest.  “Let go before someone sees you.”

He let go,” These nut jobs think I’m an Indian.”

“Yusef, are an Indian.”

“No, like Native American Indian.  I’m not allowed in any of the shops, I only got a job because I promised to hide my face, and I have to sleep under the stairs.”

“I slept in a barn last night.”

“How did you get here?”  I showed him my hobo stick full of plugs.

“I stole them from Gerome.  He had a whole stash.”

“Is that horseshoe your cell phone?”

“Yah, how did you know?”

“Mine did the same thing.”

“Hey, how did you get here?”

Yusef sat down on an empty barrel, “That night you disappeared, Arter was enraged.  He stomped around on the grass throwing a temper tantrum.  He yelled at everyone saying, who gave her that plug, who is the traitor, if you don’t get her back I’m going to bla bla bla.  So they all went back to R.A.S. and began assigning themselves different realities to search and look for you.  I followed them.  They were on the ped-way and they began disappearing like you did.  At the last moment I reached out and touched Arter right as he disappeared.

Everything changed.  All of the sudden we were dressed like this, sitting at the same table at the saloon.  It was covered in empty whiskey glasses.   He might have recognized me, but I’m not sure.  He was suddenly slobbering drunk.  He just passed out.  As soon as other people saw me they booted me outside.  They said Injuns weren’t allowed.  I haven’t seen him since.”

“He had an alternate that he merged with.  If his alternate was drunk then he instantly became drunk.  No wonder he passed out.  How come Arter has an alternate here, but not us?”

“Who knows, it couldn’t have happens a million different ways, maybe our parents were killed.  Maybe they never even got married.  Every reality has its own story.”

“So why does everything look 400 years old?”

“Apparently the dark ages in Europe lasted a lot longer.  North America wasn’t settled till centuries later.”

“That sounds stupid.”

“Glynis would know how history’s progress could have halted, especially if it lacked a couple of influential people.”

“Like the guy who invented the printing press.” 

We paused our conversation to realize the situation we were in.  I noticed Yusef staring at me and it made me really uncomfortable.

“Lina, you look good.”  His warm eyes smiled.

Was he flirting with me?

“You look ... ridiculous.”

To prove my point he snapped his hokey suspenders and clicked his heels.  We both laughed.

My heart was still in upheaval from my two day rollercoaster with Gerome; so much work gone to waste so fast.  I couldn’t bear another plunge into hormone hell.  Not yet.  For the time being I would feign ignorance until we could get this all sorted out. Then maybe...

“So what now?” he asked

I refocused.  “You can help me.”

“With what?”

“With finding Jan, Glynis and Torvald and getting them out of there.”

He blanched, “You’re gonna what?  That is impossible.  Every single door has a security gate.  There are Special Force pawns everywhere. You’ll get caught.”

“The doors are monitored, but not the windows.” I smiled, “Come on Yusef, I need you.” Was I flirting too?  So much for feigning ignorance.   I was such a hypocrite.

He looked doubtful.  I had to encourage him.  “I got out of there.  You got out.  We can’t just leave them.”

“Well where would we go? We’re not coming back here!  I’m not going to be someone’s lackey for the rest of my life.”

“I’ve got about a hundred of these.” I said pulling the plug out of my apron pocket, “We’ll just try them all until we find the one we like.”

He pursed his lips, “Ok. You’ve converted me to your ways.  Let’s go.”

***

As we stepped out of the alley I knew something was wrong.  I heard a woman scream and a pane of glass smash.  There were six men in cloaks riding black horses.  They were all holding rifles and yelling.

“There is a stranger hiding in this town and I want ‘er found!  She’s got red hair and brown eyes.  I want her brought out or I’m gonna burn down this fort with all you nice people inside it!”  Two thugs dismounted and pulled the great barricade doors closed.  Two others were lighting torches.  They were Special Force and they were looking for me.  I guess they weren’t gonna sit around and wait for me to accidently step through a security gate again.  Yusef carefully backed up and pulled me with him.

“Not good.” He whispered, “If we shift now, they’ll burn everything.”

One of the drunks outside the saloon tipped up his hat,” I seen ‘er. She went in the alley behind the tradin’ post not more than half an hour ago.  I ain’t seen her come out.”

“Time to go !” Yusef tried to pull me farther back.

“No, they’ve got to catch me.  Otherwise they’ll kill these people!” I shoved the hobo stick full of plugs into his hand, “You can get out.  Try to find one of my alternates in another reality.  Make me be your friend. Good bye.” Before he could stop me  I ran out into the main street.

“I’m over here! Don’t kill me.”  The band leader spun his horse around and so he could point his rifle at my heart.  The onlookers didn’t try to help, they just stared.

“Ah, Miss Pawlak the little refugee.  I’m not going to kill you.  Not here anyways.  Arter wants to talk to you first.”  The other men were crowding in close.  I tried moving my hand into my pocket, but he noticed.  “Hands up in the air missy! No funny bisness!” He shoved his rifle closer to me.  “And you ugly Indjun you better step back!”

I looked behind me and my heart sank.  Yusef had come out of hiding and was briskly marching up to us.

The gunman took aim.

“I said get back Injun!”

“No!” I yelled.

 Just as the man was about to shoot him, Yusef pulled the horseshoe out from kerchief and threw it at the man.  It hit him smack in the forehead and he fell off of his horse like a rock.  The next closest thug got the butt end the hobo stick in his gut.  The man behind me lifted his gun towards Yusef but I pushed it up and it fired into the air.  He growled in anger and grabbed my face, shoving me to the ground.

“Let me introduce myself.  Name’s Hill-Billy.  Don’t like it, you can complain to the boss-man when I take ya to ‘im.  Arter said don’t kill ya, but he didn’t say nothing about bringing you back with all your toes!”  His heavy boot came down on my ankle and the rifle jabbed into the top of my shoe.  I screamed.  Yusef had downed another crook and turned and bashed the man above me in the back with the stick. He let out a yelp. I dove out of the way. Hill Billy dropped his torch into the muddy road and it sputtered out.     A man still on his horse came galloping up to Yusef with his riffle poised ready to club him on the head.  Yusef stood right in the way.  He stepped back just in time and swung the stick around.  The kerchief full of plugs hit The man square on the neck.  He and his horse disappeared.  There were gasps coming from the crowd.

 “Where d’ya send ‘im?”  Hill -Billy demanded, clutching his back as he stood back up.

“A hundred different places at once!  Tell Arter to leave us alone or I’ll send him there too!” Yusef gripped the stick like a javelin and squared his jaw.  The remaining men looked at each other and began arguing.

“Screw Arter, Let’s just kill ‘em”

“I’m not going get in trouble from Arter! No way.”

“You are always such a wuss!”

Yusef eyes were animated.  This was our chance to escape while they were distracted.  He slowly crouched down to pick up the horseshoe that had fallen in the middle of the road.  The men weren’t watching.  Quickly he dove over to me and wrapped his arms around me.  I pulled the Big Brother plug out of my pocket.

“Hey! Stop!” the gun men  quit quarrelling and came at us, aiming their guns.

I touched the plug to my neck just as I heard the blast of the gunshot.

Chapter 9

Bright sun was filtering through the trees and onto a manicure lawn.  I could hear laughter.  I could smell club sandwiches and french fries. I blinked.  I couldn’t feel Yusef’s arms.  He was no longer there.  I looked around.  There were the dorms.  There were students lounging outside eating lunch.  This was the spot where I had shifted for the first time; two nights ago.  Both shifts had been motivated by danger that I was in; because I was being fired at.

 I had my normal clothes on again! I was back! I had to find Yusef.  He had all the plugs.  Yusef had been transported to the place where he last shifted.  He said he had touched Arter’s robes, but where had he been standing?  The ped-way!  I stood up and started walking over there.  Then I realized I should probably hide because it would be very bad if I got caught.  I swerved into a clump of trees and peered out.  I could see the court yard, full of kids eating and talking.  My stomach growled.  Those subs looked good.  I looked past the courtyard and I could see the ped-way, but it was too far to see who was on it.  There were two teachers in black robes sitting on a bench.  It looked like all of the staff had adopted the Special Force uniform.  They weren’t eating, they were just watching.  They were standing guard over the students, judging their every move. I was sure they were also there to keeping out people like me.

 How was I going to get past the sentinels?  How would I find my friends?  How would I escape?  Think!  Then I saw Yusef.  He was walking around the side of the fitness centre, wearing my back pack.  I whistled to him from my hiding spot.  He ducked into the trees.

“Where’s my phone?”

“I don’t know, it never appeared.  Maybe it merged with itself.”

The last time I used it here was to call my mom and try to tell her what was happening, but Arter picked it up and hung up.  So he probably still has it.  Where’s yours?”

“Back in the wild west, in my cubby hole under the stairs.  It was a horseshoe.   I don’t usually carry those around in my pocket.”

“Crap.  How did you get out of the ped-way without setting off a security gate?”

“I wasn’t in the ped-way.  When I shifted with Arter we were outside.  They said something about avoiding contact with R.A.S.”  He peaked over my head at the surveillance team on the bench.  “We need to find out where the others are.”

Just then I saw Glynis’ roommate Paula walking towards the dorms.  “Paula!” she stopped, not seeing me, wondering who had called her name.

“Over here!” I beckoned from behind a tree.

She squinted at me, “Halina?  I thought you got expelled? What are you doing here?  Yusef?  Where have you been for the last four days?  They’re gonna expel you too, if you ever showed up again.”

I bypassed all of her questions and asked my own.  “Where is Glynis?”

“Expelled along with her popcorn boyfriend.”

“And Jan? What about her?”

“Birds of a feather.  Such a tight knit little group you all are.”

“Listen Paula I really need you to do me a favour.  I need you to call Glynis’ parents and ask them where she is.  Can you do that for me.”

“Why don’t you call?”

I smiled through clenched teeth.  “Because I don’t have a phone.”

“Well mine’s in my dorm so you’ll have to come with me.”

Yusef spoke up, “Can you go call and then come back and tell us?”

“Are you guys hiding or something?  Am I going to regret helping you?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try.”  I was starting to sound like that sticky sweet voice of R.A.S.  “Please Paula.”

“I suppose... be right back.”  She said.

“Hey, are you gonna eat that?” Yusef pointed to her sub sandwich.

“Help yourself.” She tossed it to him as she sauntered off at a more then leisurely pace.

He broke it in half and gave half to me.  “Oh thank you!”  It took less than a second to eat it.

I turned to him, “By the way, nice rescue in the Wild West, what was that all about?”

“Uhh, Torvald’s been teaching me some stuff about confusing your opponents by exerting confidence even in the face of unlikely odds.”

“I don’t think he meant taking on six guys with guns.”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it.” He smiled.

 I smiled back, “It was pretty awesome.”

We waited forever for Paula to come back.  Lunch break was almost over.  When she finally returned she looked a bit scared.

“Something really creepy is going on!”  she said.

“We know.” Yusef and I said together

“I talked with Glynis’ parents and thy said she never made it home.  Jan’s parents said the same thing.  I don’t have Popcorn’s phone number, but I bet it’s the same.  They said they’ve launched an investigation with a bunch of parents of missing kids, including yours and his.” She tipped her head towards Yusef. “They received a phone call from you right before you were kidnapped.   Apparently the school is under suspicion, but nobody here has heard of that.”   She paused, looking me up and down.  “You don’t look kidnapped to me.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Well, I’m sure your parents will be relieved that you’re all right.”

“Did you tell them I was here.”

“Duh, I figured they’d want to know.”

“ARG! Paula!”

“What? “

Just then, two cops and Principal Arter came out of the cafeteria and walked towards the teachers on the bench in the court yard.

“Oh oh.  I think someone’s notified the authorities.” Yusef said. 

“If the others aren’t here then they must have been exiled.  See if you can find the exile plug.”

“How will I know which one it is?” he was sifting through my backpack.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember ....”

Paula interrupted, “You guys are about to get caught.” She sang.  The teachers on the bench stood up and began walking with the rest of the hoard.  They were on an interception course.

“If we shift together we could end up separated again.  How do we find each other?  We don’t have our phones.” I was really worried.

“With our luck they would end up as Horseshoes again.”

“Hey, that’s a good idea.  Let’s go back to the wild west, they won’t be looking for us there, those bad guys will be gone and we know we’ll be together .  We’ll be in the middle of the street.”

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but you better run before they see you.” Paula interrupted again. 

I gave her a sly smile as I found the wild west plug and grabbed Yusef around the waist, “You’re the only one who can see us.  We’re ghosts!”

“Boo!” Yusef laughed as we shifted.  Paula squealed.

Chapter 10

Dust sprayed into my mouth.  Yusef yelled for me to move and then he pushed me out of the way just as a horse and buggy ploughed through the main street of Fort Edmonton.

“Yikes.” I proclaimed, scooting out of the road.  I took a look at the two of us.  It almost felt relieving to be back in our old garb.  At least we knew what was going on around here.

“Let’s go get my horseshoe.” Yusef hoisted the hobo stick over his shoulder and we breezed past the startled onlookers outside the saloon. 

When we crept into the back of the trading post the cashier was leaning over his counter yapping with his customers.  “I knew that injun was full of Blackfoot voodoo.  He scooped up that poor red headed missy and whisked her away to no man’s land.  Who knows what kinda curse he left on all my goods in the back.  He touched every single one of ‘em.”  The customers guffawed at his story telling, but they all clammed up when they saw Yusef coming up from behind.

“I curse you Mr. Aims to go deaf!”  Yusef grabbed him and boxed his ears.

 He jumped so high he hit his head on the chandelier. 

“Blackfoot voodoo magic!” one of the patrons screamed and they all started stampeding for the door.  Mr. Aims was crying like a girl, “I can’t hear!  I can’t hear nothing!”

“Serves you right for treating me like a dog.” We were laughing so hard we couldn’t stand up straight.

“Come on you Indian, we better find your magic horseshoe.”  I teased.

“Lina, we have to think about how we are going to do this.  We can’t shift together.  You saw what happened last time.  We could end up anywhere our alternate selves are.” 

“Well I don’t want you to get stuck somewhere that I can’t find you.”

“We’re gonna have to split up.  Give me half of the plugs and hope by the time we’ve jumped to every reality we’ll find each other again.”

I did not like this idea.  It sounded so improbable; like putting a coin in the jelly bean machine and hoping you get all the black ones.

“That will never work.” I told him, “We would have to have two plugs that are the same in order to end up in the same place and it would have to be somewhere none of us had alternate selves.”

“It’s an alga-rhythm.  The more realities we go to, the fewer alternates we have.  By merging with each one, the possibilities of our location decreases.”  We’ll meet each other right here, down town Edmonton.  I’m guessing we’re close to the museum.”

“If the museum exists!  This isn’t like sneaking in the dorm windows.  Yusef, we can’t do this!”

“Yes, Lina, we can.”  He took me by the shoulders and looked straight into my eyes.  “Dorm windows was just a warm up to this.”

He was right.  I got my brain working again.  “If Gerome...Mr. Tyler gave me a plug to Safe Place, then he must have had one too.  That means there is more than one plug to each reality.  We just have to find them.”

There was a loud thump against the outside wall.  It sounded like there were people outside yelling something about voodoo. There was another thump.

“We better go.” I said.

“Give me the number to Safe Place.  I’ll find a plug with the same number and I’ll meet you there. “

“How?”

“I don’t know, I’ll figure that out.” 

I dumped out half of the plugs.  I sorted through them until I saw the Exile plug.  It gave me a bad feeling.  I didn’t want Yusef going there alone.  I carefully closed it in my fist so Yusef wouldn’t get it.  We wrapped his plugs in a potato sack with his horseshoe.  He said the Safe Place number to himself a few times so he wouldn’t forget it.

He took a deep, slow breath and said, ”OK.”

I backed up to make sure I wasn’t touching him.   He pulled out a random plug.  The look in his eyes was the same look he gave me when he was trying to pull me out the dorm window; helpless.  Then he was gone.  I had a foreboding feeling like I wasn’t ever going to see him again.