The pair emerged upon the raised street of the futuristic city from a rather un-futuristic elevator. While Alice had been rather impressed by the contraption Jake found himself somewhat disappointed with how plain the machine was. It acted the same as any elevator back where he was from, enhanced with only a bit more window dressing in its futuristic design. Stepping out of the elevator though, this disappointment quickly dissipated into nothing as he took in the full scope of the city stretched out around him.

  He'd only been able to see glimpses of it from above, the shining splendor of metal, glass, and holographic material all spaced out in a grid of urban sprawl. Now, standing upon the crowded balcony-like street of the city, he felt his breath catching in his throat as he stood lost in a trance, taking in the splendor around him.

  He’d always been a nerd; he wasn’t too ashamed to admit that. He’d grown up watching Star Wars, playing with spaceship sets, and making rockets out of his Legos whenever he got the chance. When he was old enough, he transitioned to video games that let him explore the stars, the high-res graphics of his computer setups allowing him to simulate the latest in fictional technology. He’d been satisfied with this his whole life and never saw any reason to want more.

  Now though, he stood on the precipice of his obsessions. A whole life spent daydreaming of sci-fi and space, to suddenly find himself standing in a scene ripped straight out of his imagination was too much for the once chubby nerd to take in. Alice fared no better, enraptured by every little thing she saw. She had no concept of higher technology beyond what Jake explained to her, and these days Jake rarely explained much about where he was from. The corridor had been the highlight of science in her eyes, a marvel of machine and metal that had twisted and weaved and polluted the very planet that birthed it into existence. But this, all this…

  “Let’s go!” Jake called out next to her, grabbing hold of her hand as he took the lead now, dashing off in no particular direction. They didn’t know what there was to see, what there was to do. All that lay before them was the crowded street fit to bursting with bystanders, each hurrying about their day paying little to no attention to the rushing pair that forced their way past.

  Jake had been somewhat worried on the ride down the elevator that they would stand out, dressed in their tattered, bloodstained clothes. Yet now wandering the city proper he saw there was no reason to worry. The streets were packed with people dressed in all manner of outfits, from prim and proper formal wear to people wearing practically nothing at all. Mixed among that was a middle ground of people dressed nearly identically to Alice and Jake, though notably without as much blood staining their clothes. That did turn a few heads as they marched down the street. Though maybe that was because of the smell coming off the two.

  Wandering blindly down the street, Alice at first felt a desire to pull her hood up and bury herself out of sight in fear. Though she knew logically there was no reason to hide away, no reason to fear those around her as she did the unbroken, she found herself fighting a losing battle with her own inner turmoil with each step she took. It was only thanks to Jake, still grasping tight to her and pulling her along in an enraptured trance, that she didn’t stop walking altogether, didn’t try to hide away. Yet the longer she walked forward, the more she moved with her scars exposed and the truth of her curse laid bare, the easier each step seemed to be.

  All around her were people milling about in various states of disrepair. Some enjoyed completely mechanical limbs gleaming a metallic sheen similar to the landscape around her. They glittered like armor yet clanked with hidden mechanisms like those that had driven the voice. They fascinated her so, the way they moved so… freely. So unbothered by their disrepair, unbothered by the scars or injuries marring their bodies. With each step, each new person her worries seemed to melt away into nothing as she allowed herself to bury the past. Allowed herself the freedom to enjoy the present as she’d promised herself.

  Navigating the city blindly, the duo enjoyed random sightings together, taking in the most random thing the average passerby in the city probably would consider average yet stood out to the two as extraordinary. Yet eventually, the two could deny the truth no longer as their stomachs screamed in dissatisfaction demanding to be fed. Pulling to the side of the bustling street, the two leaned over a glass railing, enjoying the view of the drop below. In truth, they’d passed several restaurants and food stalls during their self-guided tour of the city, tantalized by the aromatic smells leaking into the air. Yet the two remained hungry, distant from all these possible venues that promised food for one simple reason.

  “We could just steal something,” Alice suggested, leaning back against the railing as her body slumped downward, defeated.

  “No way, not yet anyway. We don’t how long will be stuck here or what sort of Police they have. The last thing we need is to get separated by the police.” Jake countered, though in his heart the idea of nicking a few morsels of food sounded better and better with each passing second.

  “Well that is true, I guess…” Alice admitted, looking up toward the sky above. It was a bit crowded, hidden by the maze of twisting skyscrapers and whirling cars flying through the air, but from what they could see it looked as if the sun had barely moved at all. They’d been exploring the city for a while now, long ago deserting the initial street they started on, and if the sun had only made this much progress it was possible they could be stuck here a few days. “We have to do something though.”

  “I know. Last time I wanted to buy food I panhandled for cash. I ended up stealing it anyway but…”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You stealing?” Alice asked with a snort as she looked Jake up and down. In her mind’s eye, she couldn’t picture it. Especially given how he’d spent the last dozen minutes or so arguing against her plan to swipe something to eat.

  “Well yeah, ran through the store real quick. Was pretty nerve-racking to be…” He found himself interrupted by Alice who let out a snort before laughing in his face.

  “Ran through huh?” She asked, wiping a few small tears from her eyes, “Sound pretty chaotic. What were you being chased or something? Come on man, no wonder you're so scared to try grabbing anything! Do you think I went running screaming through the market every day?”

  “Look master thief,” Jake said, rolling his eyes as he grew more and more annoyed, “We can worry about this later. We should figure out how to actually pay for something to eat first. If that doesn’t work, you're free to run loose!”

  “ok, ok…” Alice said, slightly snickering, “Though I won't be running anywhere…”

  “Oh, would you…”

  “Panhandling huh? So, like, you begged for money?” Alice asked, interrupting Jake's angry response to her comment. She’d seen beggars before huddling on the street when she snuck through the market. In fact, they were in large part why her disguise worked so well. No one gave her a second look thinking she was just another beggar wandering the streets. Often more well-off Unbroken would go out of their way to avoid her.

  “Something like that yeah,” Jake said, annoyance still clear in his voice, “Though I had a cup back then…”

  “A cup?”

  “To collect money in.”

  “Ah, I see. Do we have anything that could work like that?” Alice asked, taking her bag off as she dug through the contents looking for some kind of container the pair could wander around and beg with. She couldn’t find anything, just their bundled clothes and fabric. With a sigh, she made to close her bag before she was interrupted by a rather rough jab to her side. Annoyed, she turned ready to shout at Jake only to stop when she caught sight of a young girl standing a few feet away from her holding her mother’s hands. Glancing toward Jake who stood next to her, she was met with a gaze that screamed “I don’t know what’s going on either, ok.”

  “Mommy, is she going to play for us?” The young girl asked, pointing toward Alice.

  “Wha…?” Alice said, before glancing down and noticing her busted harp lay next to her still, unpacked in her attempts to search through her bag. No longer having time to pack it, she scooped the harp up and stood in awkward silence. Eying the mother and daughter, unsure what they expected of her, she began to feel Jake stare at her with a look of pure bewilderment.

  “Looks like it dear…” The mother said, voice choked with emotion as she looked at Alice and Jake, eyes flooded with pity. Alice stood for a while, unsure what to do. She had absolutely no idea what the mother and daughter had said. She couldn’t understand what they’d said or why they were still standing across from her.

  “Play the harp…” Jake whispered to her as he moved to stand closer to her. She looked at him as if he was insane, failing to see how that could solve anything, but not having a better idea or anything to lose, she began to pluck the strings of the run-down harp as best she could. Same time as she did, Jake pulled the flute free from his pocket and began to blow into it, choppy uneven notes floating into the air to join the strumming of the heart. The child was delighted.

  “They're really bad mommy!” She called out, clapping with joy as she danced back and forth.

  “They sure are honey…” Her mother replied, shooting the duo an apologetic smile all the while a single tear rolled down her cheek. Alice meanwhile had absolutely no clue what had compelled this woman to cry, or why this child was bouncing around, but they seemed to be enjoying the sound of their terrible playing well enough.

  The horrid sounds of the pair's music continued for a minute or two longer before Alice began to feel far too uncomfortable with their audience's continued staring and stopped. Jake stopped in kind a few seconds later, a choked note escaping the flute as he pulled it free from his mouth. The child clapped again and laughed, while the mother wiped a tear from her eye, and stepped forward to push something into Jakes hand.

  “Take this… please…there’s a Medi-Clinic not far from here…” The mother quickly grabbed her delighted daughter's hand and dragged her away down the street, a choked “So young…” managing to reach Jake's ears before they were out of earshot.

  “The hell was that about?” Alice asked, the blemished harp hanging limp in her hand as she turned toward Jake, expression one of pure confusion.

  “You couldn’t understand them?” Jake asked, looking puzzled as he glanced from what had been forced into his hands toward Alice. Upon seeing her shake his hands, he fell into thought for a moment before saying, “They thought we were street performers, injured too I think based on what the mom said.”

  “You could understand them? Why?”

  “Not sure, though I have my suspicions…” Jake said, as internally he asked just what the hell Lana had done to him. “Anyway, she gave us enough… whatever this is for a ‘Medi-Clinic’ I’m sure that’s enough to buy a bite or two to eat.” Jake flashed a smile as he unfurled his hand revealing a small pile of metallic bar-shaped coins. Alice looked at the pile a moment before a wide grin broke out across her face.

  “Well then, lead the way Greenie!”

  “Hey, I played the flute!” Jake objected as the two began to walk off down the street toward the delicious smells of the city’s dining options.

  “Not good enough, not anymore!” Alice said with a laugh.

  The once abandoned lab was now alive with activity. Its massive machines whirled with life as they shook the dust and cobwebs loose from their frames running reboot sequences and diagnostic tests. Admits this maze of once dormant machines wandered a man, his appearance in a state of disrepair. He hadn’t expected to be this busy today, though he was more than happy with the sudden surge of life in the lab's equipment. Currently, he was holding a communicator, outdated by a few models and provided by government funding, up to his face.

  “I’m telling you, Simon, it’s not a drill or an accident. I triple-checked it! I’m quadruple-checking it now but I’m positive, more than positive. They’re here, two of them somewhere. Get here as soon as you can, I’ll need your help… I know I approved time off but things have changed… don’t give me that, interns aren’t even supposed to get time off! Get back here in the next hour Simon, before it’s too late!”

  He clicked the communicator closed cutting off Simon's grumbles, but he knew the young boy would be here in the next hour, if not sooner. He wouldn’t have taken this internship if he hadn’t invested in the project. The project itself was considered a joke, only receiving funding thanks to the prestige of its founder. But now, things have changed. Now they had a chance to change everything. Turning with a smile on his face, he read the flashing words splayed out on the monitor again.

  “TRANS-REALITY BREACH DETECTED: 2 FOREIGN OBJECTS FOUND”