Otto picked his way across the rubble, forgetting everything that was behind him. What was in front of him was a strange mix of familiar buildings that caused a feeling of vertigo to run through him. Between some of the buildings were pieces of corn fields and trees—their branches scraping windows.
As the night set in the temperature dropped and Otto, still wet from the tsunami, started peeking into windows to find a warm place to sleep. Across the street, he spotted a familiar glowing light. He climbed over a downed power line that lay lifeless across a fissure and ran to the door of the townhouse.
"Ruskin!" Otto said as he pushed through the door. Inside, Ruskin sat, glowing nose, in the living room with Lancret. The floor in front of them was covered in couch cushions and blankets and on top of them, a litter of children staring wide-eyed at Otto.
"Otto!" Ruskin said. He looked Otto over. "Why are you wet?"
"Long story," Otto said and sat down on a cushionless armchair. "There was a tsunami. I guess you guys missed that catastrophe."
"A tsunami?" Lancret said. "How did we miss that?"
"I don't know. It happened before the ground broke up. There's a lot of crazy stuff happening. Have you seen the jackalopes?"
"I guess that confirms the rumors," Ruskin said.
"What rumors?"
"That some crazy guy is running around town pushing people's buttons. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
"What, you think I'm doing it?" Otto said, offended at the implication. "The toddler pushed his own damn button!"
A child gasped.
"Hush," Lancret said. "Don't talk like that in front of the kids."
Otto rolled his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Ruskin said.
"Never mind," Otto said. "I don't know anything about some crazy guy pushing buttons. But if that's true, my guess is that it's Pieter. That's the only crazy guy I know. And I'm not crazy," he added.
"I didn't say you were," Ruskin said. "I just meant that you seem to be in the middle of all the crazy."
"Thanks." Otto paused and looked around. "Speaking of which, have you by any chance seen a girl in a gray hoody come this way?"
"Friend of yours from the crazy house?" Ruskin teased.
"Something like that."
"Haven't noticed. I haven't really been looking for random people I don't know. And Lancret is the only person I've found that I do know."
"Well how sweet." Otto said. He leaned back uncomfortably in the chair. "I was with Mr. Detroy for a little while there," he said to the ceiling. "But then I left him to look for Amelie. I guess that was stupid."
"Detroy," Ruskin said. "Never thought he'd be out of prison or wherever he was being kept."
"Yeah well, apparently everyone is out of everywhere," Otto said in his sleepy trance-like voice, "They were talking about trying to get everyone at Center Square Park to sort things out, but then the whole city got mixed up and now no one knows where Center Square Park is or which way is the center of anything."
The room went quiet. Children's faces, highlighted by the soft glow of Ruskin's nose-button, looked from one teenager to the next, not scared or sad, but rather content and a little expectant of what would come next.
"You hungry?" Lancret asked. "Merisi here can make fruit." She gestured towards a boy who looked to be twelve—the oldest of the bunch. His hair and eyes were black in the low light of the room.
In the distance, there was a thrumming. It was far away, but it was not small. "Is that a helicopter?" Ruskin said, sitting up straight. The children, like puppies all sat up at once and looked out the window. Then all at once, Otto, Ruskin, Lancret and all the kids went outside in the cold to look at the sky.
The stars looked like specks of frost on dark glass. They were brighter and closer than Otto had ever seen before. There was no other light to outshine them. But somewhere behind discombobulated buildings the sound of helicopter rudders grew louder. A searchlight appeared from behind a high rise. It swept over the town slowly as the helicopter moved towards them.
"There's another one!" One of the kids said, pointing at another searchlight in the distance.
"Where do you think they're coming from?" Lancret asked.
"Who knows," Ruskin said.
"Before the power went out, there was something on the national news about investigating what was happening here," Otto said. "I didn't get to hear the end of it, but it sounded like the rest of the country is in tact."
"So maybe it's the military," Lancret said. "What should we do?"
"Stay where we are," Ruskin said. If they're here to help the city then they'll find us and fix all this.
"I wonder what Pieter will do when he finds out the military is here," Otto mumbled to himself. His answer came quickly. A scream echoed off the buildings—high-pitched and haunting.
"What was that?" Lancret said.
"I don't think I want to know," Ruskin said.
Otto sighed and his body slumped. "It's Pieter," he said.
There were more screams.
"We should probably get inside in case it starts raining hail or fire balls," Otto said.
The group huddled inside on the floor and listened to the distant screams of chaos. There was no sign of what was causing such panic. It made the night all the more ominous. The three teenagers sat around the younger children and watched out the window until the screams faded into the stillness. The helicopters moved away without ever coming close to the house. And the three finally fell asleep under a cloud of hopelessness.
When they awoke, things were different. It took a moment to realize what, exactly was so different. But just as the eerie mix of bizarre and familiar city streets had given him vertigo before, Otto was feeling his stomach turn again at the site of something so familiar, yet so very off. He stared at the light coming through the window and then at his hands. And then out the window again. He couldn't tell if it was the lighting or not, but his skin was definitely not the right color. In fact, it was nearly green—as if the green was shining through from beneath his normal skin. He rolled over and looked at the others in the group. Lancret was awake and staring at everyone with a look of silent panic.
"Are you seeing this?" She asked in a whisper. "Does your skin look... green to you?"
"Yes," Otto said, sitting up. And to be honest, he felt a twinge of panic run through him. But still, all he could say was, "I don't think this helps Pieter out at all."
"Are we stuck like this?" Lancret said, breaking her whisper with a little squeak in her voice. "I mean, if the same button could have changed us back, don't you think it would have by now? Why are we green?"
Otto shrugged. All things considered, this wasn't the worst that could happen. It just made him feel as though he was trapped in a dream that he couldn't escape. Hopefully it was a good dream.
"Stay here," he said, "I'll go see what's going on outside."
No one was outside. The streets were empty. Below him, he heard water running out of a broken pipe in the fissure. Somewhere a stone fell and the sound echoed off the buildings. He crossed the fissure and walked down part of Market Street before jumping another fissure and ending up on half of Maple Street. The sign was hanging in the gap—too wide at the top to fall in.
"Otto!" Reinhardt called from down a block and a half of a torn block. "I was wondering what happened to you." He jumped a fissure and headed towards Otto.
From behind a building, a dirty man—clothes hanging off of his slim figure—came running towards Reinhardt. It was Pieter. He jumped at Reinhardt and pushed his nose-button before Otto could give a warning. Everything went black. In a panic, Otto sat down on the ground and held his nose casing. Somewhere in the darkness, there was the distinct sound of a fist hitting a cheek bone. The skin muting the snap of bone on bone. And then someone hit the ground. "Jerk!" Reinhardt said and kicked Pieter. "Who the hell goes around pushing other people's buttons?"
Otto wanted to tell him who it was, but he didn't want Pieter to know he was there. So he sat in silence in darkness listening to Reinhardt's footsteps getting closer. "What are you doing?" Reinhardt said.
Otto motioned for Reinhardt to come close. When he felt Reinhardt near him he whispered, "That's the crazy guy."
"It is, huh?" Reinhardt said, not bothering to whisper. He thought through the situation carefully. "Well, he can't go too far in my blackness unless he wants to fall down a shaft, so let's consider him caught." He turned and smiled at Otto. Otto couldn't see the smile, but he could hear it in Reinhardt's voice. "Guess I'd make a good weaponized button after all!"
Otto smiled back weakly. "I guess I'm trapped here too, then, huh. Are you just going to sit here and wait for the military to find us? Are you going to turn me in too?"
"I'm not going back to HOME," Pieter said from where he lay on the ground. Otto couldn't tell if he was responding to their discussion, or if he was just murmuring to himself. "You can't make me go back," Pieter said.
"Well," Reinhardt said, as if in response to both of them, "If I can find some way to tie him down... Where do you think I could find some rope around here?"
"I have no clue," Otto said, "I don't even know where here is."
"We're right next to my sister's favorite music shop," Reinhardt said.
"That means nothing to me."
"Yeah... Looks like there's a pizza place, an ice-cream place, and I don't know what this building is. There's no name on it."
"Well, mystery building sounds more promising than the other two," Otto raised his hand in the direction of Reinhardt's voice and started grasping for Reinhardt. "Take me with you."