Date: May 30, 3023 (Same day)
Event # 2
If I had to choose between food poisoning and the feeling I had in that moment, I'd have chosen food poisoning without question. My eyesight took forever to adjust and my equilibrium was all over the place. There was no way I could stand on my own two feet. All I could think of was just trying to focus my brain on the sand below me. My sense of touch worked phenomenally but nothing was level to me, even though I knew it actually was, but my body couldn't find its center of gravity. No center of gravity, no balance, no control. Basic physics.
"By the masters, Ha! You did it!" the new girl said. "I actually thought we were Muckmeat, back there."
I wanted to ask what Muckmeat was but no words exited my mouth. I realized my muscles still weren't receiving any green lights from my brain. I wanted to ask for help but again nothing. I feared I had become paralyzed but I could sense her strange nonchalant demeanor around me. So maybe this random physical state I was in would eventually pass. When that would happen was a different question.
I couldn't turn to see what she was doing, but it sounded like she was looking for cell phone service or something. All I could hear were her boots trodding in the sand and she kept repeating something I didn't understand.
"This is TPMK3008, I got him...This is TPMK3008, I got him – anyone there?" She was clearly trying to contact someone but I didn't have a clue who it could be. Honestly I was hoping she would stay distracted because I probably looked like a complete moron about to hurl on the sand, unable to move.
Then she bent down in front of me and checked my eyes. "Don't force it. Your strength will start to return in a minute or two. When it does, move very slowly. Understand?"
I think I managed to moan a response that sounded more like a baboon than a human. Typical – first day I meet a gorgeous girl, who will actually talk to me longer than thirty seconds, and I have to be stuck like this. The embarrassment was worse than anything.
"Pupils are normal." She smiled slightly impressed. She tilted my head up gently and continued to examine me like I was at the doctors. Yes, her hands felt incredible on my temples, blah blah blah, you get the gist of how I felt about her. I didn't know who she was, or what she was doing to me, but in this particular moment I didn't care. It actually amazed me that she was able to move my body so easily, but I still wasn't.
"I have to say for a first time transmission you handled it like a champ." She carefully positioned me to a less embarrassing position. She was surprisingly strong, but then again, I didn't have much of a physique either. She angled me into an upright position and checked my heart rate.
"Incredible." She said more excited than she meant too, I thought. "Absolutely incredible."
"Wh—whats—g—go—going on?" I moaned.
"Save your strength." She said. "I know you have thousands of questions but first I need to carefully put your feet in front of you. It'll help your blood circulation."
This was honestly not how I expected being stranded on a beach with a gorgeous girl was going to go. I guess the saying be careful what you wish for is actually true. I felt like my grandparents would be looking down at this exact moment laughing in hysterics.
She pressed some button on her glove. "This is TPMK3008, I have Marton. Does anybody read me?" She put my arms around her, lifted me up shifting my body weight off my knees, and carefully pushed me backwards. I plopped backwards on the sand top heavy.
"Errrrrr," Is all I could moan. I did catch a tiny smile on her face smirking at my helplessness.
She then shifted my legs so they could be placed in front of me and sat me upright planting my hands in the sand at a forty-five degree angle behind me, so I wouldn't flop over again. I could just see her and the horizon.
Those freaking green eyes were so annoyingly beautiful, and the way the light just happened to gently illuminate each different shade of color. I knew she knew I was staring, but in my defense, I literally couldn't turn away. Plus she had an amazing backdrop of a turquoise ocean, white sand beach behind her, and a perfect gentle breeze. Oh the endless cliché's that surrounded this girl, and I was completely defenseless against them.
"In a few moments you should be able to wiggle your toes." She said. "Start there and then slowly begin to do the same with your fingers. I'm going to work on our exit."
She stood up and walked a few paces away toward the shoreline. She spoke into her wrist trying to get a response from whoever was on the other end. "This is TPMK3008, my porter is scrap. We're stranded in the Net Timeline and I need the location of the nearest Eject-house. TPHR3003 It's the real deal. Repeat. The real deal. Come in."
Again I had no idea what she was talking about. In other good news, I was able to move my toes a little bit. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. But they moved. Never thought I'd be so happy to think that. It was as if they had to crack through some sort of intense arthritis. Much like when you're waking up from an excellent sleep and it takes a while to get the body moving. Same thing went for wiggling my fingers. Tremendous effort, but eventually they began to function as normal.
"Meet me at those palm trees when you can move." The girl shouted from the beach pointing to the north. They had to be about seventy-three paces away from where I was sitting. I continued to wiggle my fingers and toes faster, as I watched the girl continue to talk to her wrist on her way to the palm trees. Maybe she just wanted some shade. I didn't know what she was up to.
I was able to grip the sand in my hands and felt my strength returning with each grip. Eventually I regained some control over my legs and pulled them in and pressed myself up on to them. I slowly stood to my feet still searching for my center of gravity. It was definitely missing. I took my first step and fell flat back into the sand. This is what it must be like to be piss drunk is all I could think. I wouldn't know because my parents let me try some wine at home and I didn't have the taste for it. So underage drinking at high school gatherings wasn't in the cards for me.
I spit some sand out of my mouth and got back to my feet much faster the next time. I wobbled my way over to the palm trees and heard a male voice coming from the receiver of the girl's glove. Sounded like some random teenager on the other end playing a video game shooter. Immediately I could tell from the way this person spoke, they thought very highly of themselves, like a mistaken sense of pride or ego. It was just my analytical mind kicking in based on vocal tone and word enunciation.
"We're searching for the activation code for the Eject-House, standby."
"Why do you have to search?" She asked. "Doesn't it just come up? What's taking so long?" She mouthed the words keep moving around to me.
So I did. I felt like Jello just wobbling all over the place like a moron. She wasn't very good at hiding her amusement with my absurdity, and as embarrassing as it was for me, part of me liked being able to make her smile. It was just a good feeling. Horrible circumstance though. It was difficult to get my legs to feel like they were underneath me. I felt like my torso wanted to go left but my legs wanted to go right. Figure that one out, I dare you.
"It's an offline generator and in order for us to activate it on our end, it has to be manually turned on for a transmission to commence."
Annoyed, the girl responded, "Alright, send me the coordinates for the door and then the code once I manually turn on your piece of junk."
I looked around and again was dumbfounded. She was talking about opening some door and we're stranded on some island. There was no place for a door of any kind. Only a few palm trees on a very small island. "How – How did we get here?"
Her glove beeped. She pressed a couple buttons and a digitized wire frame map projection hovered above her wrist. "Got it."
"See you soon." The voice responded.
"Keep moving around." She said to me, "We have to walk to the other side of this island to get out of here, but your strength hasn't fully returned yet. Swing your arms, and legs, and let the blood really flow through your body. Don't be shy. It's important."
I did as she said, which was completely humiliating, but it did begin to feel better throughout my body. "What the hell happened? Who are you?"
"My name is MK3008."
"Are you a robot?" I had to ask.
"They told me you were exceptional, not stupid." She replied. "No, I'm human just like you, but I'm not from here."
"I was able to put that together myself," I said still swinging my body around like a complete dufus. "Where did you get that tech on your arm? Who were those people disguised as my teachers and principal?"
I didn't anticipate the answer she told me. "They were Timeporters."
It made absolutely no sense. I'm pretty sure my brain wasn't functioning properly, but when all logic fails you, you have to play along. "They were who now?"
"Timeporters." She said again.
I stopped flapping my arms and legs around. "Timeporters." I repeated back to her in complete disbelief.
She nodded her head. "Your physical responses are at fifty-two percent. You should be able to walk more easily now. Follow me." She didn't wait for me to keep up.
"Wait – where are we going? How did we get here?" I did my best to follow her. It was easier like she said, but not by much.
"One question at a time, Emit Marton. Too many answers, given too quickly, will cause your brain to shut down after a transmission. Then all this will be for nothing. Your body isn't strong enough to handle it, yet."
"Okay – How did we get here? One second we were getting shot at in my school library and the next I'm stuck in some sand about to hurl. "
"You transmitted us here." She smiled. "For which I'm grateful."
"Transmitted?" I had no idea what that meant.
"I guess the term that would make more sense to you is teleported." She continued to walk without facing me, completely casual about everything she was saying. "I would have done it myself but my Porter was hit." She held up the weird device in her hand.
It was completely fried. Wires and technology I had never seen before much like the glove with the advanced Dick Tracy communicator. "Keep up" she said.
"That's impossible." I said.
"So was flying an airplane, the internet, or telephones." She replied, "Yet that exists. Nothing is impossible. Just undiscovered." She had a point.
"Why did those Timeporter people attack my school?"
She stopped, and looked back at me, offended. "You think they attacked the school?" She looked like she was ready to smack me again. "By the masters, this is going to more difficult than I realized. You don't know anything about who you are, do you?"
I had no response.
"The Timeporters didn't attack the school. They were aiming for you."
"Me?"
"All that destruction, all that chaos, was because you didn't stay with me and all those innocent students, and teachers, are dead because you didn't follow my orders. This was supposed to be a simple Eject mission, and it's all your fault."
"My fault? I didn't do anything to them." I had no case to plea for my own innocence. She looked at me like I had committed some crime of the Gods but I was completely in the dark. The thought of so many deaths being my fault tore me apart. No one should ever have to deal with such guilt.
"You haven't done anything to them yet -- but you will." She said. "They already know that and are trying to prevent you from doing so before you become a threat."
"Before I become a threat?" None of this was making any sense to me. If I was understanding her correctly, it sounded like I was getting punished before I committed a crime. I would never do such a thing in my life. "There has to be a mistake. I would never do anything bad, ever. It's not my nature."
She chuckled at my naivety.
We arrived at a small circle of large rocks on the end. I didn't know what she was looking for, and I was too preoccupied with trying to understand what the hell she was talking about.
"What's your Birthday, Emit Marton?"
"October 19th, 1995."
"Nope." She said as she looked over another large rock searching for something. She found it. It was a camouflaged panel that she removed revealing some sort of control panel. I remember watching her flip some wiring around and then connect it to her glove. She then placed her gloved fist up against some sort touch screen and said, "TPMK3008."
Suddenly, some ocean water began to roil at the shoreline. I watched a section of the ocean in front us drain revealing a ramp to what appeared to be a futuristic underground bunker door.
"Emit Marton, You were born on October 19th, in the year 3005."