FicWad

The next morning Cal was the first to wake up. He crawled out of his tent and looked around. Then in disbelief he rubbed his eyes. The scenery had completely changed.

Alex, who had just crawled out of his tent, walked up and stood beside Cal looking around.

The sky had turned into a swirl of green, orange, blue and yellow. Looking down at the ground they saw that the grass had turned pink. Hills had popped up where it had been a flat prairie before. Some of the colours they saw were completely new to them.

Suddenly they heard a large snore. They looked over to see Joe fast asleep on the ground a few feet away from them.

“He slept out here?” Alex asked laughing. “Watch this,” he told Cal as he walked over to Joe.

“Leave him alone. Honestly, you’re so immature.”

Cal and Alex jumped. Lara had appeared out of nowhere behind them, reaching her arms out in a wide stretch.

“Don’t do that!” Cal cried his eyes wide open.

Lara stopped and looked around. “Where are we?”

Cal shrugged and shook his head.

Suddenly moans and groans filled the air. They heard a scream and turned to see Joe sitting bolt up right with cold sweat running down his face. He was breathing heavily, taking in shaky breaths. His hat had fallen to the ground beside him and his jacket slid off his chest and now lay in his lap.

“Whoa, calm down buddy. It was just a dream,” Alex said trying to stifle a laugh.

Joe buried his face in his arms and gathered his nerves before looking up again. He picked up his hat, put it on his head then looked around. “What happened?” he asked as he noticed the change in scenery.

“It must be what happens here, wherever this is,” Lara stated.

“Where this is, is the fifth dimension.”

Lara, Alex and Joe turned around to see that this time Cal had pressed the green button.

“You’re on a planet called Argon, to be more precise. Since there is no weather, its topography changes instead,” Jerry explained.

“If there is no weather, then how is it cold at night?” Lara wondered.

“Same way as on earth; the sun doesn’t shine.Cold is simply the absense of warmth. As darkness is simply the absense of light or evil is simply the absense of good.”

“Wait, how can we be in the fifth dimension when the fifth dimension doesn’t exist?” Cal asked confused.

“If it doesn’t exist then you wouldn’t be here, now would you?” Jerry retorted before disappearing into Cal’s POD. Lara had reached over and pressed the button.

“I guess that answers our question,” she said smugly.

“We better get moving,” Joe grunted obviously hiding his embarrassment over his dream.

Joe got up and said, “Uh, get rid of the tents,” into his P.O.D the tents and sleeping bags were sucked back into the PODs. “Cool.”

Joe put his jacket back in his bag then put the bag on his back and started to walk.

Alex stopped what he was doing as his stomach growled. “What about breakfast?” he mumbled.

“Use you’re PODs. We can eat on the way,” Joe commanded.

“What’s your hurry?” wondered Cal taking his time.

Joe didn’t answer but Lara knew something was bothering him.

Joe took off leaving the three other teens to tag behind him. He walked briskly with long strides. Lara ran up to walk beside him.

“What’s wrong?” she quietly asked.

Joe didn’t answer but just kept walking. Lara couldn’t help noticing him glance up at the sky.

“Is this about that dream?” Joe glanced at her with a hurt look then continued walking without answering. “You don’t have to answer, but, if you need to talk I’m here.”

There was along pause where all that could be heard was Alex and Cal noisily eating their breakfast.

“They happen quite often, these nightmares,” Joe suddenly blurted out, breaking the silence.

Lara looked up surprised at the sudden outburst.

“I’ve been having them ever since…”

“Since what?” Lara prodded.

Joe stopped and shook his head. A silent tear ran down his face.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “It’s ok. I know it’s a hard subject. If you can’t talk about it, I understand.”

He stopped and looked at her with a frown pulling at the corners of his lips. Then with a small laugh and a weak smile he said, “You’re right, you’re usual actions are just a façade.”

Lara didn’t have time to process what he had said because right as he had said this Cal and Alex caught up to them.

“What are you two love birds doing?” Alex teased.

Lara turned on him and stared him down, red in the face. “What is wrong with you?”

Alex laughed at her then glanced at Cal who was hiding a laugh with a cough.

“You know what? I’ve had enough of you two! If you haven’t noticed-,” she yelled at them but Alex interrupted her.

“Is he crying?” He asked letting out a snort of laughter.

“That’s it! Go!” she screamed at them then when they didn’t move she yelled, “Now!”

Scared, they hurried off but still wore a pair of smirks.

“Don’t listen to them, they’re jerks.”

Turning around she saw him squinting at the sun. “It’s already eleven. We should get moving,” he said starting to walk off towards Cal and Alex.

Lara grabbed his arm and said, “You’ve had a harsh morning. You should rest. Just for a moment,” She pulled him over to a big rock which had conveniently just sprung up beside them.

He sat down with a sigh and hung his head between his knees before looking up at the sky again.

“Can you really tell what time it is just by looking at the sun?” Lara inquired in amazement.

Joe nodded then looked up again. “Approximately. That’s assuming that this world has a twenty-four hour clock as earth does.” Joe looked down at his P.O.D and noticed a date and time flashing in the top right corner. It was labelled, ‘Earth’. Beside that was another date and time labelled, ‘Kxzron’. The two times were only a few hours apart, the date was a day off and the year was the same. “It seems to be a twenty four hour day according to the P.O.D. The dates and times aren’t that far off. Anyways, I can’t tell the exact time and it’s not always accurate,” He went on to explain how the sun moves as time passes. “It’s like using a sundial except instead of looking at the shadow you look at where the sun is in the sky. The sun’s almost right overhead of us so I know that it’s almost noon.” Joe explained all of this, animating it with his arms.

Lara looked at him and noticed that he had cheered up, obviously forgetting his troubles. “Well, should we get going?” she suggested getting up.

“When I was fourteen me and my brother were playing by the river,” Joe suddenly blurted out in a soft voice.

Surprised by this second outburst Lara sat back down. This seemed to be a habit of his. She gave him a look telling him that she was listening.

“I fell in and since I’m not a good swimmer, I couldn’t stay above water that long,” he continued. “My brother jumped in after me and pushed me to shore. He was so tired that he couldn’t get to shore himself and got swept away by the current. His body was found a mile down the river the next day,” he quietly continued as tears welled up in his eyes. “I should be the one that’s dead, not him. It’s my fault that he drowned,” he choked and buried his face in his hands.

“Hey, hey, don’t blame yourself.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Your brother loved you. He gave up his life to save you. Do you really think he wants you to go on grieving and blaming yourself? He did it so you could live a full life,” she comforted him sympathetically.

Joe nodded and forced a smile. “You’re right. Let’s go,” he gathered his nerves and stood up heading in the direction that Alex and Cal had gone.

Lara and Joe walked in silence and in no time caught up to Alex and Cal. The two boys were talking and laughing but stopped dead when they saw Lara.

Lara gave them a scowl before Cal said in haste, “Listen, we were just joking.”

Lara raised a fist but Joe grabbed her arm and replied, “It’s all right. You didn’t do any harm.”

Lara looked at him inquisitively before staring ahead at the scenery, which had changed to a reddish purple hue, and walked away still fuming.