The flame faintly illuminates each of us. I quickly drop Adam’s hand and step away from him before anyone notices. We’re all standing together except for Zoe, who’s kneeling, her hood pulled over her head, her arms wrapped around herself. Adam crouches beside her and puts a hand on her back, whispering softly.
From what I can see in the dim light, we’re in a wide-open space with cement floors, like the room with the accelerator. Only there’s nothing here but us.
Trent’s flame flickers out and we’re plunged into darkness again. My breath catches, but a second later he clicks it on again.
“Where are we?” he asks. “When are we?”
I look around again, but I can’t see anything beyond our small circle of light. “Pick a direction,” I say.
Adam helps Zoe up and we start walking. The room is so cold my breath makes little clouds in the air. Maybe it was good they had us wear these heavy jackets.
With each step I grow more confident we’re still in the basement of the Aether facility. The place matches up with my memory of the room, but the accelerator isn’t here. The scientists, the computer equipment…all gone.
“I think we’re in the same room,” I say. “It’s just…empty.”
“Wait, where’s the time machine thing?” Trent waves the lighter around to get a better look, but all I see is darkness and empty space. “How will we get back?”
“Oh my God, are we trapped here?” Zoe asks, grabbing Adam’s arm.
“No, the temporal aperture opens from the present,” Adam says. “We’ll be able to get back as long as we return to this spot in twenty-four hours.”
“The elevator’s over here,” Chris says from the edge of the light. When he pushes the button, nothing happens. Same thing when we find a light switch and flick it up and down. The building has no electricity.
“Dude, what happened to the power?” Trent asks. “And to the scientists who were supposed to meet us?”
No one answers. But I know what we’re all thinking—something isn’t right here.
There’s nothing to do but continue on. “The stairs must be nearby,” I say.
We cluster around the flickering flame and follow the walls until we find the door to the stairs. We climb them in the dark in a strange procession, the only sounds our heavy breathing and shoes pounding against metal steps. Trent leads the way with his lighter, and I try not to think about what might be lying in wait in the darkness around us.
We emerge in the lobby, which isn’t completely pitch-black for a nice change. Traces of sunlight filter into the room through boarded-up windows. The walls look dirty, and the floor is covered in a thick layer of dust. The receptionist desk I saw yesterday is gone, as is the Aether logo.
“What happened here?” I wrap my arms around myself to fight off a chill creeping into my bones that has nothing to do with the cold air.
Adam traces a finger in the dust, while Chris peers out of a crack in the window boards. Zoe stands near him in the brightest spot in the room. Her face is pale, but she isn’t whimpering any longer. I should say something—I’ve known many foster kids who were scared of the dark—but I can’t think of any comforting words right now.
“No one’s been here for a long time,” Adam says, wiping his hands on his jeans.
“No shit,” Chris says, pacing back and forth. “Five minutes into the mission and it’s already gone to hell.”
My watch says it’s actually been twenty-three minutes since we got here, but I don’t correct him.
“Okay, let’s think this through,” Adam says. “Aether told us they own this building and believed there would be scientists in the future to meet us. But we’re alone and this place is abandoned, so something must have gone wrong between our present and whenever this time is.” He pauses to study the room. “We should look around, try to figure out what happened in those years.”
“Screw that,” Chris says. “What happened is they lied to us. There’s no one here and we’re on our own.” He stabs a finger toward the front door. “We don’t even know if we’re in the future or not. We need to see what’s outside this building.”