Introduction

Truthful is a story about a very intelligent young scientist who during experimentation on his new device accidentally gets transported to a parallel universe in which the most normal thing for people to do is to lie. How does the world of lies live? It is up to this bright guy to find out and to find a way to either get back to his home world or to make some changes in this new mysterious world.





The above picture represents different forms of lying. In the centre we see a truthful person. He's illustrated in a different colour to everyone else, because he is different and outcasted. Around him there are 5 liars (with many others on the background). Clockwise from bottom left: 1) A guy with a grenade and a rose attached to it - covering up something bad with something good, 2) A two-faced man - Saying one thing, meaning another, 3) A man wearing a mask - hiding true intentions, 4) A man hiding a safe - hiding the truth and keeping it in secret, 5) a guy with a gun behind his back - hiding bad intentions.

Chapter 22 – The Result

by Vincent Tyler

We’ve woken up the next morning feeling way too wound up. It was a mixture of excitement and anxiety. We all really wanted for the world to be back to how it was before; therefore we bravely stepped outside and began making observations.
After observing the world and ourselves for a couple of hours I made the following conclusion.
My fix of the machine had worked. The people stopped lying. Not completely of course, but just stopped letting it govern their thoughts. The humanity was more or less back to normal. However that came at a price. Everyone had lost some blocks of their memory. It’s as if the wave randomly erased parts of our minds. It was just like a Queen’s gambit in chess. You sacrifice your Queen – the best piece on the board in order to checkmate an opponent and achieve victory. I could hardly remember much about my life in my universe which I came from, the names of people went all blurry and it’s as if I got a fresh start at life since I arrived here with some memories of the one before. Christina also forgot a lot about her past. For her it was good, since a lot of her past troubled her, but now those painful memories were gone. Pete… poor Pete, he forgot a lot of what he studied in his course at university. Looks like he has to go back to university and study his course all over again. But even if that didn’t happen to him, he might’ve had to do it anyway because of a few months all education went offline during the apocalypse of lies.
The president Gar McKin completely forgot of how he came about to be one, so he quit. We still don’t know if he would’ve made a good president now that he wasn’t tempted to lie anymore. However someone better took his place anyway. It was Sam Thompson – the former right-hand man of the president.
For the most part, the three of us were safe now. The memory trick also worked on police who had forgotten about us and so we weren’t being chased anymore. We had a chance to start life once again. I lived with Christina and Pete. After having found a new job in a different lab complex, I could bring some good money into the house and hopefully they’d be able to afford to buy more expensive stuff now than they could before. I was happy I could help them out. Christina and I discussed of possibly having a future together. She seemed very eager about it. I said that we should wait until the world gets back in shape and from then on we’ll see what happens. I really cared for her, but I had this strange feeling at the back of my head that told me not to rush into it because my job will take up a lot of my time and so could get in the way of a relationship. I don’t know where that strong feeling came from, but it was definitely trying to protect me from disappointment in the future.
Overall the life in the city was still in a dip. It took us time to restart everything and to reconnect back with the rest of the world. Although it was still difficult, we were rising back up slowly but surely. The future is full of excitement. We just need to get past these dark times first. Defeating the apocalypse of lies was only the first step. Restarting life is the next one. It’s the same thing as battling a disease. You kill the infection first, but afterwards the body still needs to repair the damage that’s been done to it.

Regards

Dr Vincent Tyler


The end

© Matthew Ashworth, 2008-2009

Chapter 21 – Risk taking

Vince got down to working on the machine again and by late night he was finished. He wasn’t still sure if he’s done everything that he wanted to get done.
- “I finished.” He then said.
Christina quickly snapped out of the nap she was having.
- “What? The machine is done?”
- “Yes… I think so.” Vince was unsure.
- “So? When are we starting it up?” Christina asked.
- “We can start it up now if you wish. I don’t see any reason to wait.” Vince advised.
- “All right. Pete!” she called Pete who was in the next door room.
After a few seconds Pete walked in.
- “What is it?”
- “Vince says the machine is ready, so we’re thinking of executing it.” Christina told him.
- “Brilliant. What are we waiting for then? I hope it works.”
- “I hope so too, but we can’t be sure.” Vince said.
- “What did you do to it anyway?” Pete wondered.
- “Long story short – I changed a few gears, changed the frequency of the wave it will send out and just fixed its state after it got damaged.” Vince explained.
- “OK, well we don’t have much to lose, so I am eager for this to go off.” Pete said.
- “I am anxious about this, but I do trust you, Vince.” Christina said honestly.
- “I am anxious myself. If something goes wrong then I’m the one to blame, and I won’t ever forgive myself if I worsen the situation.” Vince said.
The three of them then began activating the machine. Vince was taking control of the main panel and was telling Pete and Christina if he needed them to do something, like flipping some switch on a different panel for example.
The machine got started and buzzed slightly.
- “Vince, is this noise normal?” Christina asked about the buzzing.
- “I would think so. A machine of this size can’t be noiseless.” Vince predicted.
Vince then pressed a few buttons in the correct order and the machine went on full power.
- “Now, time to find out the inevitable.” Vince said, then took a deep breath and flipped the final switch on.
The machine gave off a strange sound and then began radiating out some waves.
- “We need to exit the room in case something happens to the machine.” Vince then advised and the three of them exited and stood in the hallway.
The machine was giving off very strange sounds and those sounds made the trio very anxious.
- “By the plan the main wave should be emitted any second now.” Vincent said.
As soon as he said it the machine gave off an extremely loud sound and a bright flash. Vince, Christina and Pete had to look away and even felt dizzy. Once they recovered their senses they looked back. The machine was now making only very gentle sounds.
- “It has been done… and we’re alive. So it didn’t do anything bad, but I wonder if it did anything good.” Vince said.
- “I’m sleepy now. I’ll probably find out in the morning.” Christina said.
- “Me too, but I’m too curious.” Pete said.
- “At least we can sleep all right tonight since nothing bad has happened.” Vince reassured them and then walked up to the main panel and switched the machine off.
- “All right, in that case come soon tomorrow morning.” Christina said with slight excitement.

Chapter 20 – Losing the heat

Vince and Christina got into the car back seat as quickly as they could and Pete wasted no time with driving off. The cops now exited their house and saw them driving off.
- “I see them!” one of them told the others.
- “I don’t.” another one said.
All the six cops quickly rushed around the corner where they hid their police cars and got inside as quickly as they could.
Both cop cars got onto their tail. Pete was driving through the traffic very fast so to lose the cops, but it was very tricky.
Vince then decided to do something he never would’ve even considered of doing. He poked out of the window and began shooting back at the police cars from the gun he got from the cops. He kept missing however.
- “Guys, I’m scared.” Christina said in panic.
- “It will be all right.” Pete quickly responded without taking his eyes off the road.
He then made a sharp turn to the right. The cars on the junction had to stop suddenly because of that, creating some obstacles for the police cars. One of the cop cars still managed to get through though and a few seconds later the second one did too.
Vince quickly reloaded the gun with the only other clip he had and then aimed back at the nearest police car. After a few seconds of anticipating a shot he made it, getting the cop car in the windscreen. That created a big crack and so the car eventually crashed into a couple of civilian cars due to obscured visibility.
- “Good job, Vince. And now the other one.” Pete said.
- “It’s too far at the moment.” Vince replied.
- “That will make it easy to lose them then.” Pete said.
Pete increased the speed even more and headed along the straight road, dodging all the cars. He then slowed down very quickly and made another sharp turn to the right. Straight after that he made another turn to the left. The cops started to lose them due to all the turns.
Pete then made a few more turns and eventually managed to lose the cops.
- “I think this is it.” Vince said after looking backwards.
- “Good. Now, which way were the labs again?” Pete asked.
- “Just carry on straight for now.” Christina said, “I’ll tell you when to take the next turn.”
- “We better get there quick, because we must lose the car.” Vince warned them, “Other cops in town will be looking out for this car.”
- “Good point.” Pete agreed.
They decided to take smaller, more private roads so that not to be seen by many people and not to be where cops are likely to be.
They eventually reached the outskirts of the city and abandoned the car. They made sure they did so well away from the labs so that cops won’t find them there should they inspect the area where the car was left.

Chapter 19 – Is it safe?

There’s been about two weeks now. Vince was busy working on the machine and he thought that it was nearly done. Pete and Christina couldn’t wait. They were helping him out loads during these two weeks.
On one of the mornings they decided to take a risk and to go back to their house for a bit to see if it was safe.
- “I hope the cops have forgotten about that incidence in the White House.” Christina said.
- “I hope so too.” Vince agreed.
- “Well in that case we should go there and check.” Christina suggested.
- “We should leave all the stuff here though. Do a few frequent checks and if it’s completely safe then we move back.” Pete told them.
- “Yeah I agree.” Vince said.
- “I miss our home.” Christina admitted.
- “I think we definitely should go and take a look. When do you want to go?” Vince asked.
- “I am ready any time.” Pete said.
- “Just give me five minutes.” Christina said.
Once she got ready, the three of them went downstairs, exited the ruined lab building and headed home. They also risked going on the bus. It seemed that no-one was giving them strange looks, so they felt a bit relieved.
They got to their house within 20 minutes by taking a bus.
- “Home sweet home.” Christina said and unlocked the front door.
Three of them went in. It was so quiet in the house. It was truly lifeless for 2 weeks. They went further inside. Pete collapsed onto the sofa in the living room.
- “I see you missed your living room.” Vince commented.
- “I did.” Pete answered.
Christina then looked out of the window.
- “I see that nobody is watching our house. It must be safe. I have a strong feeling.”
At that moment the door to the bedroom opened and a couple of cops came out of there.
- “Freeze! All three of you!” One of them shouted.
Their sudden appearance almost gave Christina a heart attack. Pete quickly jumped from the sofa. Two more cops exited from the bedroom. The front door also opened and more cops went in. It looked like an ambush.
- “OK, we surrender.” Vince tricked.
The cops who were hiding in the bedroom then went up to them all. One of them grabbed Vince, one grabbed Pete, one grabbed Christina and the last one was just aiming his gun in case any of them resisted.
Just as the first cop was about to lead Vince through the front door, Vince put his foot against the wall and pushed himself backwards, causing both himself and the cop to fall on the floor. Pete quickly saw that the cops were distracted and took this chance to turn around swiftly and to punch the cop who was holding him square in the face. The cop who was aiming at them with a gun was about to take a shot at Vincent, when Pete quickly came up to him and tripped him up.
The two cops by the front door also got alerted to it and both aimed their guns at Pete.
- “Stop right there or we will shoot!” one of them yelled.
- “You heard him!” another one added.
Pete stopped, but Vince quickly got up and tackled both of those cops. The one holding Christina quickly let go off her and went for Vince. But just as he did so, Christina put her foot on the way, tripping him up. Pete picked up a chair and then smacked that cop with it. The next cop who tried to get up was smacked with a chair as well.
The two cops who were pounced on by Vince now got up and grabbed him. However Christina came up to them and punched one of them in the nose. This gave time for Vince to elbow another one in the stomach and then to knock him onto the ground with a punch to the face.
Here Pete quickly picked up two guns from the two cops he smacked with a chair.
- “Vince, catch!” he said and threw Vincent one of the guns.
- “Thanks.” Vince said.
While all of the cops were down, three of them quickly ran out of the house and headed for the nearby car.
- “Pete, we can’t just steal a car.” Christina said to him.
- “We have to or else those cops will catch us.” He justified.
Two of the cops began exiting their house too, but Pete quickly shot in that direction, so the cops were forced to take cover and so to waste their time.
Vince, Christina and Pete finally got to one of the cars. Pete smashed the driver’s window with the gun that he got from the cops and unlocked the door. He then swiftly got inside and unlocked all the other doors.
- “Quick! Get inside!” he hurried Vince and Christina.

Chapter 18 - Relocation

They came back home. Pete was up already, so they confronted him and told him that they must spend a few days in the Redwell lab. That way they’d be safe from police and also will get Vince more time to work on the machine. Pete somewhat agreed to that.
- “All right. In that case we should take off there today.” Vince suggested, “The earlier we go the less chances of getting caught.”
- “OK. Let’s spend the next couple of hours deciding what to take. We’ll need food, and also…” Christina was saying.
- “We can always buy food.” Pete spoke.
- “Yes, but we also better take as much as we can too so we won’t have to go shopping too much. The less we show ourselves the safer it is.” Christina said.
- “Exactly.” Vince agreed.
- “Whilst there, could you also create a machine that will make people think we’re celebrities?” Pete said to Vince.
- “I don’t think…” Vince began, but then Pete interrupted him.
- “I’m just kidding, man.”
Vince smiled.
- “OK, I’ll get onto it then.” Christina said and went off to collect the stuff they’ll take.
- “All right. I’ll just spend some time looking through those files Robert gave me.” Vince responded.
Pete went to help Christina pack useful stuff, while Vince began reading the files again. One of the files caught his eyes. It was a rather scrunched sheet of paper trapped in between the rest of the documents. Vince just read it out of curiosity.

Dear Robert
It came to my knowledge that we aren’t allowed to test our newest invention – the IQ amplifier. I am very disappointed by this. The reason for that is that it’s not safe just yet and that we should use it on a small scale first, like a miniature version of it. Personally I don’t want to waste time on that. I want you to assemble everyone in your lab and to fire it up tonight. I’ll be there to experience it too. They’ll be sorry they refused to let us put it to use. This invention can revolutionise the world.

Vince looked up after having read that. This really made him think. The last he remembered, Robert told them they were allowed to put this machine to use. It seems that they forced this invention upon the world, creating their so-called revolution. Pete was right. Robert did lie to them, also meaning that he wasn’t immune to the effect of the machine. Vince didn’t approve of being lied to like that. If not this persistence then the whole apocalypse would’ve never happened. It’s scientists like that which he despised, those who took risks too early and ended up corrupting a huge community of people.
He quickly went over to Christina and Pete and let them read the note.
- “So he lied to us then?” Pete asked with slight anger when he finished reading.
- “Yes he did. They were never allowed to conduct that experiment. However they decided to still go on with it in secrecy, bringing about this nightmare upon us.” Vince explained.
- “We have got to go back to those labs. I am so going to strangle that foolish scientist.” Christina said.
- “I’ll help you with that.” Pete added.
- “Guys, guys! Let’s not overreact. What’s done is done. There is no point regretting it. All we can do now is to attempt to fix it.” Vince cooled them off.
The three of them then continued packing and soon were ready to head out to the Redwell labs. They made sure to take very little so that they didn’t have to carry much up there. They didn’t have a car, and public transport isn’t a good idea if they wanted to stay relatively unseen.
The walk was long and tiring, but in the end they reached the labs building in one peace. They cautiously headed upstairs to the room with the device and left their stuff in a next door room. Pete then began heading for the 6th floor where they remembered Robert was staying. Vince and Christina quickly joined him and decided to confront Robert together. When they went upstairs and entered the tiny 6th floor consisting of only one average room, Robert was long gone. He didn’t leave any messages behind; he just vanished and took some of his stuff with him.
- “Damn it.” Pete cursed, “He knew we’ll figure it out.”
- “Don’t worry about him.” Vince said, “He won’t do anything. Afterall he is not a criminal. He’s just unlucky that his experiment went wrong.”
- “Well he brought his bad luck on all of us.” Pete said back.
- “True, but it’s also a risk of being a scientist. However I do still blame them for doing what they were not allowed to do.” Vince explained.
- “Well if there is nothing else to do here then I’m going to go downstairs and make the place tidy enough for us to stay for a few days.” Christina brought up.
- “Sure, I’ll help you out.” Vince said.
Three of them then went back down to the 5th floor. Though the state of the place was horrid, they’ve still managed to set up a little living area where they could chill out for a bit, but most of the time Vince was working on the machine and Christina and Pete were helping him out. Whenever they needed any tools, they had to go out and buy them. Their money was running out and it was also dangerous to be out for too long. However no danger came to them during that so all was good.

Chapter 17 – Self-denial

The next morning Vince and Christina decided to go and to change their names. Pete refused to do that, but then his name wasn’t of so much danger anyway, because he hid it the day before.
- “If we’re changing our names, we might also want to stay somewhere else in a meantime while police is looking for us.” Vince suggested.
- “Yeah, but this is impossible, because Pete and I don’t have any relatives and we’re too poor to buy another house.” Christina admitted.
- “Maybe we can spend some time in the lab, make it a comfortable place, and let the heat of the incidence pass before coming back.” Vince suggested, “I’ll need to spend most of the time there anyway if I’m to fix the machine and to reverse it.”
- “Yeah I guess it’s the only way really. I wonder what Pete will say. He won’t be pleased to hear that.”
- “I’m sure he will understand. With what happened yesterday it would be too dangerous for us to just stay at your house.”
- “I agree.”
The two of them headed for the bureau where they could change their names. They had to act clever with the people there and to deceive those to change their names without any paperwork. Lying should do the trick. It was time to use the disease against the diseased once again.
At one moment they saw a couple of policemen walking along the street in their direction. They quickly turned and headed off in a different direction so not to attract any attention in case the cops recognized them.
- “I hate this.” Christina told Vince.
- “I know. Not long left. We’ll get through this, I promise, and it is not a lie.” Vince responded.
- “I trust you.” Christina smiled.
She knew that Vince was a trustworthy person. He’d helped them out so much already during the short time he’s been here so far. Knowing that he was there made Christina calm down a bit.
After a few more minutes they reached the agency that deals with name changing. It really has turned into chaos. When they reached the front doors, there were lots of people there. There was no-one at the desk. The place was a real mess. People were just doing whatever they pleased.
- “So much for changing our names.” Christina commented.
- “You know what?” Vince suddenly spoke.
- “What?”
- “I…don’t want to do this. It’s self-denial. This is us lying to ourselves.”
- “What do you mean?”
- “We’re denying our true nature, our real names. This is one of the worst forms of lying and I don’t think I can bring myself down to do that.”
- “But it will help us to mask from the cops.”
- “I doubt it. Take a look at the place. No-one knows anyone anymore. Everyone is a bunch of fakes.” Vince explained.
- “I suppose you do have a point. So you don’t want to do this?”
- “We might as well call each other by different names and it will be as useful as going through the ‘formal’ procedure of doing it.”
- “Well OK then. It makes sense.”
- “If we just hide away in the labs for the meantime, it should be good enough. No-one knows we’ll be there.”
- “Well OK, in that case let’s head back and tell Pete about this.”
The two truthful people headed back home, making sure not to be seen by cops or any suspicious figures. On the way back Christina was getting worried again. The things were really tumbling over and getting muddled up like a huge dirty pile of waste. She hated every minute of it and hoped that soon this will be over.

Chapter 16 – Disease and liability

- “What do you want to discuss with me then?” Sam asked, even though he kind of knew what this was about.
- “Where to start?” Christina said quietly to herself, “OK, yesterday’s rioting…”
- “Yes.”
- “That is just the beginning. There will be more, much more.”
- “Oh I know.”
- “All because our president is giving false promises.” Vince added.
- “I agree with you there. Unfortunately he can’t fight the lying temptation. It’s a disease and it has befallen upon us. Most people are too weak to fight it.” Sam said.
- “So you managed to overcome it?” Christina asked.
- “Yes I have, more or less. I see you guys have as well.”
- “Yes, though Vince is not from around here, so he never had that disease.”
- “Interesting. So did you willingly come here, knowing the problem in these areas?” he asked Vince.
- “Not entirely. But I am willing to cure it, or whatever is the best word. I’m a scientist.”
- “Well I can only wish you good luck. I’m afraid there’s not much else I can do.”
- “Can’t you influence the president in any way?” Christina asked.
- “I don’t think so. He’s way too obstinate and thinks that he knows everything. I’m afraid the lies have changed all of us for the worse. He used to be a good person before.”
- “Well, we will be trying. But we wish in a meantime our leader – the president, could at least speak the truth.” Vince said.
- “I wish so too. I will try to do everything to the best of my ability. But I can’t leave you with any false promises.”
- “Sure, we understand.”
- “Thanks a lot for everything.” Christina thanked Sam Thompson.
Vince, Pete and Christina exited his office and began going back to the stairs, when that guard from before walked up to them angrily and said:
- “You said you’ll be here only for 5 seconds. So you lied to me?!”
- “No, this is not what you think…” Vince began justifying himself.
- “Guards! Grab them!” the guard shouted, and suddenly several guards came out of nowhere and ran towards the trio.
Pete suddenly punched the angry guard in the stomach and then kicked him in the face to cause him to pass out.
- “Come on guys, we must get out of here.” He shouted.
- “Pete, why?” Christina didn’t like his approach.
- “Not now.” Pete said and grabbed her so he could drag her out.
Three of them rushed down the stairs. A couple of the guards caught up with them and grabbed Christina into bearhug and headlock. Vince quickly laid a punch to each of their faces, causing them to release her.
They were running down the stairs so fast, that all of them almost tripped up at least once. Some of the guards though did trip up, causing the ones behind them to also fall down.
Lots of adrenaline was rushing through Vince’s body. He never had to run away from the guards of the White House. The idea that they could be arrested was truly scary.
They then reached the ground floor and ran in through the doors into the corridor leading out of the stairs area.
- “Come on!” Pete shouted, “before the guards on this floor get alerted.”
However they were too late, because the guards on this floor already have been alerted and were now coming in from the other end of the corridor.
- “Uh oh, we’re trapped.” Vince said.
- “No, over here.” Pete quickly said and burst in through one of the doors on the side.
Vince and Christina just followed where Pete was leading them. They ran into a computer room as it seemed and headed for another door in the room. A guard came out of there, but Pete quickly pounced on him and knocked him to the floor.
Through the door they entered some office room, and then exited through the next door into the main lobby.
- “Good job, Peter.” Vince congratulated him.
- “We’re not done yet.” Pete pointed forward, showing several guards running in from outside.
- “What now?” Christina asked.
- “The back door.” Pete said, and all three of them turned in the opposite direction of the front door and ran towards the backside of the building.
Only two guards were patrolling the back area, and one of them seemed to be sleeping on his post. Vince, Pete and Christina just ran past them both, into a small corridor with a door at the end.
- “Locked!” Vince said.
- “No worries. It’s just a basement door. They use it as fire exit, so no strong locks on here.” Pete reassured him and got his lockpick out.
He stuck the lockpick into the lock, twisted it a couple of times and unlocked it quickly. They then opened the door and ran in. The guards were close behind.
It seemed like a pretty nice area for a basement. There wasn’t much sign of dirt or dust around here. Not even a single rat. Three of them headed for the door at the end and opened it. There were three guards standing outside there, but those ones didn’t know anything, so when they saw the trio, they didn’t know they had to catch them.
- “All right fellas?” Vince said casually.
- “Yep.” One of the guards nodded.
The three of them then ran off where they wouldn’t be seen. When the remaining guards exited through the back door, they couldn’t see Vince, Pete or Christina, so one of those guards asked one of the ones who was outside:
- “Which way did they go?”
- “Over there.” The outside guard pointed in a completely opposite direction.
- “Come on.” the other guards then ran to where he pointed.
Once again, lying proved to be a liability for the guards when performing their job.
The trio managed to walk into the streets by now without the guards seeing them. They all were worried and nervous though.
- “Now we can’t be seen outside, because the guards will recognize us.” Christina said.
- “Pete, why such extreme measures?” Vince asked.
- “They weren’t gonna let us go. Trust me.” Pete said, “It was the best way.”
- “Well now we have to change our identities or something.” Vince suggested.
- “Good idea. Unfortunately we’ll have to resort to that.” Christina said.
- “And probably relocate somewhere else to live.” Vince added.
- “Woah, we can’t afford that though.” Christina disagreed.
- “I don’t know what else we could do.” Vince said.
- “Well maybe we can temporarily stay somewhere for now. I wonder where though.” Christina wondered.
- “Perhaps somewhere closer to the Redwell labs if we can. This way I’ll be able to visit it every day and work on the machine.” Vince suggested.
- “I like your idea.” Christina agreed.

Chapter 15 – Bypass

The White House was truly beautiful inside. How surprising that the lying hasn’t destroyed it yet just like some of those streets of the city.
- “Which way are we gonna be heading then?” Vince asked.
- “It’s always up.” Christina answered.
- “We’ll need to ask someone to help us find that Sam Thompson person.”
- “Will be hard to find the truthful guide though.”
- “Unfortunately yes.”
They proceeded towards the stairs. Those were at the end of a corridor, so three of them had to walk across the whole building pretty much, with guards looking at them in a menacing fashion.
- “I hate being in situations like these.” Christina admitted, “You know, hiding things from others.”
- “I understand. It’s not an easy feeling, but best thing to do is to think about your goal ahead. Concentrating on that causes you to become kind of numb to everything else.” Vince explained.
- “I guess that makes sense. I will try that. Thanks.”
- “You’ll get used to it soon enough.” Pete added, “Because I bet we’ll need to do more of that if we are to succeed.”
Christina knew that Vince and Pete were used to the situations like these already, but she wasn’t yet. She hated getting into trouble. It was really worrying her and giving her a stomach-ache.
They reached the staircase now. It proceeded all the way to every floor.
- “Right then. We need to look for him on every floor then or does any of you have a better idea?” Vince began.
- “We’ll probably need to take our chances with one of the guards and hope he speaks the truth.” Christina said.
- “Slim chance, but what the heck, let’s try.”
Three of them went up to the first floor and entered the hallway there. The first guard they saw, they approached and Vince spoke:
- “Could you tell us where Sam Thompson would be?”
- “That way.” The guard pointed back at the stairs where they came from.
- “Let’s try another one.” Vince said quietly to Christina and they moved away from the guard.
- “Shouldn’t they be like escorting us anyway?” Pete brought up.
- “Yeah, I am surprised they just let us walk around the White House like this.” Vince agreed.
They then approached another guard.
- “Excuse me, could you…” Vince began, but the guard was stuffing his face with food and not paying attention at all, so he stopped talking there.
- “Vince.” Christina suddenly called and ran up to something, “a map.”
- “Excellent. Let’s have a look at it.”
The map hung on the wall and featured every floor of the building. Vince was pretty good at reading maps, but this one was pretty complex still. They looked around the map of each floor there. It seemed that more important people seemed to be on higher floors.
- “His office should be there.” Christina pointed at the 4th floor.
- “Let’s give it a try then.” Pete agreed.
Three of them headed back for the stairs and climbed to the 4th floor. They then proceeded through a small corridor and entered the lobby there. One of the guards approached them:
- “Who are you? You shouldn’t be here.”
- “We know, we’ll be out in 5 seconds.” Vince told him.
- “OK.” The guard said and then left them.
They carried on forwards through the lobby until Christina said:
- “There he is.” And pointed at a rather small guy not too far away, talking to one of the guards.
- “This is our chance. Let’s go.” Vince told them.
- “What are we going to say?” Pete asked.
- “Don’t you worry about it. Let Chrissie and myself do the talking.”
They quickly walked up to him. He couldn’t help but notice them and so asked:
- “I am sorry, could I help you?”
- “Yes, we must have a word with you. It won’t take long.” Christina said.
- “All right. And who would you be?
- “I am Vince.”
- “And I am Christina. We live not far from here.”
- “My name is John.” Pete lied, which caused a slightly disapproving look from Vince and Christina for a second.
- “Follow me to my office then.” Sam said.
The guard followed but Sam gave him a sign, meaning everything is OK. His office was just around the corner. He opened the door and all of them entered.

Chapter 14 – It begins

The next morning Vince woke up early because he wanted to get started on building the machine, so he began going through Robert’s files. The files mostly consisted of various sketches of all the different parts of the machine. It was pretty complex, but nothing that Vince couldn’t understand.
He spent most of the morning reading them and getting his head round the unfamiliar parts. Christina and Pete already woke up when he was still going through that.
- “I’ve decided.” Christina said as she walked up to Vince.
- “Great. What will it be then?”
- “Let’s do this. Today.”
- “Oh yeah!” Vince was pleased and gave her a hug.
Three of them began preparing themselves to visit the White House sometime in mid afternoon. They needed to make sure that nothing goes wrong as this was a very delicate situation. They mustn’t take anything that can be used as a weapon, even though there might been a necessity for it should they run into trouble.
- “So we’re going to whizz in there, talk to the guy and get the hell out of there?” Pete asked.
- “Yes, speaking of whom, what’s his name, of the guy we’re looking for?” Vince asked Christina.
- “His name is Sam Thompson. It won’t be hard to find him.” She reassured them.
- “Good. How do you know it won’t be hard?” Vince asked.
- “Because he takes more control than the president does, so we’re bound to run into him quickly.”
- “Oh OK. Well if we’re ready, then let’s get going.”
All three of them breathed deeply and took off. It wasn’t a long walk to the White house as they already were more or less in the centre of the city. And yes, it was located here in LA, which to Vince was strange as it was different to what he used to know.
They arrived at the White House finally. It was way different to how it was in Vince’s universe. He didn’t let that occupy too much of his thinking time though, and the three of them proceeded to the entrance. The amount of guards there was enormous, even more than at the entrance of the police station.
- “Well, let’s just relax and go on. Use lying if we have to.” Vince warned his friends.
They went up firstly to the main gates. The 4 guards that stood there had a grim look on their face. One of them then said:
- “You three, what business do you have in here?”
- “We need to speak to Sam Thompson.” Christina said and then followed through with a lie, “He arranged to meet us.”
- “Oh. Go sign in over there then.” The guard pointed in a random direction, but Vince and the team knew that it had to be done at the doors.
Three of them went through the gates as guards opened those. They then headed for the main doors. One guard there was with a list.
- “Your name and purpose of visit.” The guard said sternly.
- “We…” Vince began, but the guard interrupted him:
- “Just write your name down here.”
- “Can we do that afterwards?” Vince asked.
- “Err, yes sure.” The guard fell for his lie.
- “So can we go in?”
- “Any time.”
The three of them went in then. It was as easy as pie as it seemed.
Another guard walked up to this one and asked:
- “What did they want?”
- “I don’t know, they said they brought some presents or something.” The first guard replied.
- “Do we get any?”
- “Probably yes.”
- “Ah, well hope we can get them later tonight. When does your shift end?” the second guard got interested.
- “Now actually.” First guard lied.
- “Oh OK, in that case I must take up your place.”
- “Yes you do.”
- “OK, well I’ve got to go to the toilet, so will be back in 5 minutes.”
The second guard then ran off. The first guard never realised he was fooled. Such is the tough life of the guards who lie to each other, and not just of the guards, but all the people.

Chapter 13 – Time for infiltration

In the evening the president did another one of his speeches live. The speech was about today’s rioting in the centre of town.
- “He’s back with more bullshit.” Pete said.
- “Let’s hear him out then.” Christina said.
Three of them began listening to president’s speech on TV. Vince didn’t feel any more pain in his arm, for now.
- “It appears we’ve had a rebellion today.” The president began, “Lots of lives were lost. ‘Why?’ I ask you. Why? This only makes things worse. Now lots of our budget will have to go on getting the place back in shape, as well as hiring more police officers in case any more riots happen…”
- “I wonder how much it can possibly cost.” Christina said with sarcasm in her voice.
- “Probably lots actually since I predict soon policemen themselves will begin to riot.” Vince said.
President’s speech continued:
- “We still have no news on the origins of the accident. I don’t know why some of you keep asking about this. Like I said once already – it’s in the past…”
- “Once? More like every time.” Pete commented.
- “You know, we have to do something about this.” Vince suggested.
- “What CAN we do?” Christina wondered once again.
- “Well a new leader. Someone like that former president that you told me about.”
- “Hmm, now that you mention it, president’s right hand man doesn’t seem to be too bad.” Christina said.
- “Well maybe we should arrange a meeting with him or something, to discuss things.” Vince said.
- “They won’t let us in the White House. Besides he can’t do anything so long as that pig is still the president.”
- “We must infiltrate it, find the second in command and speak to him. You say he’s more reasonable?” Vince suggested.
- “We should kill that president.” Pete said.
- “That’s too extreme.” Vince said, “It would sort the problems out, but it’s extreme.”
- “How are we going to infiltrate it?” Christina asked.
- “Shouldn’t be hard if we lie.” Vince said.
- “So we’re now going to use something that we’re fighting against?”
- “Sometimes you’ve got to use weapons the enemy uses against them in order to win.”
- “I see. Well let me think about it, OK? Give me till tomorrow morning.”
- “Of course. But in the meantime I’ll be working on that machine. Will have to have frequent visits to that lab.”
The president’s speech on TV still continued. He kept on repeating the same old lies and false hopes about how he will restore the world back to normality.
- “There will be paradise here. But until then, we’ll need you to stop the rioting. Afterall most of us here work 19 hours a day, me included, and we try very hard to get the economy back on track, as well as the living in the city. So, think about your actions before you decide to put them to use.”
And on this note the speech ended. Vince then commented:
- “Well at least he is right about that last sentence.”
- “Yes, we better think before our actions too.” Christina said.
- “Of course. Well let’s see what happens tomorrow. If you do agree on this, then we’ll give it a try tomorrow.” Vince said.
- “Sounds reasonable.” Christina agreed.

Chapter 12 – The massacre

It was still mid afternoon and sun was still shining brightly. The air wasn’t too hot or too cold, it was just perfect. Vince, Christina and Pete were actually enjoying their walk. Whilst caught in the good times of the day they were planning their next step. Vince was hoping to build a machine that will reverse this so called curse that is present in this city along with nearby cities.
- “How long do you think it will take you to build it?” Christina asked.
- “That depends. But I’d gamble on at least a couple of years.”
- “The city will be in chaos by then.”
- “That’s what I thought too. Unless…”
Vince got an idea. Christina and Pete looked at him anxiously, waiting for a clever answer.
- “Unless what?” Pete asked.
- “That device back in the lab, it was still in a pretty good shape. Maybe I can re-modify it for the reverse purpose, and this way it should take much less time.” Vince suggested.
- “That’s a brilliant idea!” Christina agreed, “Why create things from scratch when you can just fix an already existing one.”
- “Hey wait up.” Pete suddenly said, “Can you hear that?”
- “Yeah. What is that?” Christina wondered too.
There was a faint sound of people shouting and screaming a long distance away. It seemed that it was coming from where they were heading.
- “This might just be another riot.” Pete said.
All three of them hurried forwards. The screams were getting louder and so they knew they were on the right track. Soon they saw a massive crowd of people. They could barely see anything in there. All they could see was a huge crowd of people, pushing each other, as if they were poor beggars fighting for a solitary gold coin.
- “I don’t like the look of this.” Vince said, “Do these riots happen often?”
- “Relatively, but not quite as big as this.” Christina admitted.
Suddenly several gunshots were heard, followed by some pain-driven screams. Each of those extreme sounds made Vince, Christina and Pete jump from fear. The atmosphere of the place was more negative than anything ever before in this city. More gunshots were heard and more screams after that. The crowd of people got more frantic. It began to clear out a little bit now as many people were getting shot. Vince and his friends could now make out what people were shouting about.
- “What are they saying?” Christina could barely understand it.
- “Something about the shops lying.” Vince said, “about prices.”
- “Tell me about it. I’ve experienced first hand of what it feels like.” She commented.
- “We better hurry home. The sooner we fix this, the sooner this massacre will end.” Vince said.
- “You’re right.” Christina agreed.
More gunshots followed here. A lot of rebels were getting shot down, and now that the crowd cleared a bit more, Vince and his friends could now see a line of troopers further along the street, facing in their direction.
However some more gangs of rebels were coming and this time they threw some explosives at the troopers. Some loud explosions were heard. Vince, Christina and Pete began getting the hell away from this place.
There was so much blood and fire everywhere that it looked like a torture chamber from hell. Citizens seemed very angry and were fighting to the death. It’s as if they had nothing to lose anymore. There were gunshots everywhere.
Suddenly Vincent heard an ear-piercing whistle to his right and a second after that an enormous pain flowed through his right arm.
- “Vince!” Christina shouted.
One of the bullets escaped the battlefield and hit Vince on the arm. He began to bleed from it. Christina quickly grabbed his arm.
- “I’ll be OK.” Vince said through his teeth while enduring the pain.
- “We must get back home quickly.” Christina said nervously.
The three of them added some speed and ran on the very outer side of the battlefield. Managing to get to the other side safely they felt a bit relieved and the further from it they ran the more the painful screams died down.
Only ten more minutes and the trio was back home. Christina quickly got the first aid kit out and ran to get Vince’s arm fixed up. It only got him near the elbow and wasn’t too deep. It looked like it just hit a vein. They were lucky none of them was shot dead. That riot was the beginning of many more to come in the future, and they knew it. Their city began to fall apart once again.
- “You’ll make it, Vince.” Christina said still a bit nervously.
- “Thank you. Don’t worry about me. We all are very lucky that this is all we’ve received from that bloodbath.” Vince admitted.
- “Me and my friends have always been targets of collateral damage.” Christina said sadly.

Chapter 11 – A mysterious dweller

- “Who are you, people?” a voice came from the entrance of the room.
Vince, Christina and Pete, all simultaneously jumped from their skin and turned around.
A mysterious guy stood in the doorway. He looked like he was badly injured as he was barely standing up. He wore really old clothes and had a band tied around his whole face, except for the eyes.
- “We’re sorry…” Vince began but got interrupted by that man:
- “Don’t be. I haven’t had visitors here in ages.”
- “Who are you?” Christina asked the man.
The man slowly began walking up to them. They walked up to him too. He then sat down on the floor and began talking:
- “My name is Robert Cran, and I am responsible for this mess. You see…”
- “Wait, you invented this machine?” Vincent asked.
- “Yes. That’s right.”
- “What went wrong?”
- “Ahh, let me explain everything. We were working on a machine that will boost the human intelligence. By tweaking the brainwaves slightly can help the human IQ rise. Of course it won’t make you know more; it would’ve only improved the way you used your knowledge. However it looks like we didn’t get the results we’ve desired.”
- “So why hasn’t it worked on you? Or are you lying right now?” Christina asked.
- “I don’t know why it hasn’t worked on me. It grasped my mind a bit in the beginning, but it left me quickly.”
- “So, you’re immune to it?” Vince asked.
- “Lying is not an infection. Maybe my brain is somehow adapted to it. Afterall, it’s a bit of a mess, since I’ve been a test subject for many neurological experiments when I first began my science career.”
- “You got that right.” Pete insulted.
- “Pete! Be quiet.” Christina snapped at him.
- “No it’s OK. I know I’m crazy. Maybe that’s why my research didn’t work out.” Robert said.
- “Hey now. The greatest minds are also the craziest.” Vince said to him.
- “Well, is there any way we can fix this now?” Christina asked.
- “Doubt it. It needs years of designing a device that can reverse the effect. And you definitely can’t do it without the equipment we have here.”
- “Can I ask a question?” Pete barged in again.
- “Sure.”
- “Were you even given permission to conduct your experiment? Because I didn’t hear anything about it.”
- “Yes we have been. But only if we conduct it on a minor scale. The thing is… the machine went berserk. We were only gonna test it on the people in a room, but the machine took effect on several miles-worth of area.”
- “Science projects.” Pete shook his head and then turned away to go keep looking for stuff.
- “So, would you help us fix this? I am determined to change things back.” Vince said.
- “Ah sure. You can have all the documents I’ve managed to save. As for me, I am not in a condition to do anything. I’m sorry.” Robert explained.
- “Thanks.”
Robert got up and went to the tiny 6th floor where he stayed most of the time and brought all of the sketches and other important documents concerning the device. Vince thanked him, and him together with Christina and Pete took off.
- “Strange guy.” Pete said.
- “You’ve been kinda mean to him.” Christina brought up.
- “Yeah well, it’s because idiots like him make me angry. Their little science projects ruin other people’s lives.”
- “I’m sorry.” Vince said.
- “You haven’t done anything.” Pete looked at him strangely.
- “Yeah, but I am one of those people with little science projects that go wrong.”
- “Well at least you’re someone who is willing to help us. I mean, you very well could’ve been working on a machine to get you out of here.” Pete admitted.
- “That is true, but I won’t leave, and I am saying the truth.”

Chapter 10 – In search of clues

Vince woke up quite early in the morning because constant thinking on the night before didn’t let him go into deep sleep. He woke up feeling slightly tired, but he was still determined to go to Redwell labs and find out as much as he could about the lab accident.
He still stayed in bed for a bit because he didn’t want to wake up Pete and Christina at such an early hour. He was wondering whether he’d be able to fix the problem after they find out its origins. He wasn’t so sure of his abilities because this seemed like an impossible thing to reverse. Lies – that is a human consciousness and it’s impossible to fix that. However the desire to lie might be fixed. It might take him years, but he was determined to spend the rest of his life on that.
After waiting for about half an hour and singing his favourite songs in his head, Vincent got up and began getting ready.
Very soon he went into the lounge room and saw Christina there watching TV on a quiet volume.
- “You’re up pretty early.” He said.
- “I couldn’t sleep last night because of all that was happening, so I just read for a few hours and then came here.” Christina explained.
- “Me too. I slept for only about 5 hours.” Vince admitted, “Been thinking too much of our little quest today.”
- “I hope this little quest will prove to be quite big and important in the long run.”
- “It will. I have a feeling it’s gonna be our breakthrough.”
- “Great! I am ready to go anytime. But I think Pete is really enjoying his sleep so we probably should wait till he wakes up.”
- “That’s fine. It’s really early still.”
The two of them watched TV for about an hour and a bit, chatting a bit about life and when Pete woke up, all were ready to set off. Redwell labs were on the outskirts of the city, so it would take a while to get there. They didn’t have a car, and bus drivers can’t be trusted anymore with all the lying going around, so the only way was to walk there.
The walk lasted about an hour. Although it was rather tiring, all three of them enjoyed it. The labs were in a sort of remote location, away from any person’s house. The lab building was 5 storeys high, with an extra mini-floor on the roof. By the outside of the building, they could already tell it was battered and derelict.
- “This place gives me the chills.” Christina said as soon as she stepped through the front door.
- “Ruins of labs are never pleasant. Been to one of those before. On top of it looking unwelcoming already, it also had tonnes of poison gases in some rooms because of the volatile chemicals being spilled after the accident that was its doom. I’ve seen one of my co-workers die in a hospital bed after he breathed in too much of that.” Vince explained.
- “Really? Aw, I am sorry to hear that. It seems you’ve seen so much suffering in your life already. So we might run into some of those here as well?”
- “It’s possible, though by the looks of this place it seems more of a lab for building devices rather than conducting research with dangerous substances.”
- “So what exactly are we looking for?” Pete barged in.
- “Some huge machine that exploded and spread the lies.” Vince answered.
Once they reached a slightly worn out panel on the wall they read it. It mentioned what kind of research was conducted on which floor. It seemed that neurological research was taking place on the fifth floor, so the three of them headed straight there.
That floor was a total mess. Most of the walls were knocked down from a powerful explosion, there were some skeletons there of those who were caught in it, and the big bad device caught their eyes pretty quickly. It was gigantic and occupied nearly a third of the whole floor.
- “This thing looks like some probe that fell out of space.” Christina commented.
- “Meh, I’ve seen better.” Pete lied.
Vince didn’t say anything. He was also awed by the sight of the broken device. He approached it slowly and began looking at it from every side.
- “Want to take it home?” Pete asked.
- “Sorry, I got carried away. This device is massive. I wonder how long it took them to build something like this.”
- “Probably ages.” Christina said.
- “All right, well we better find something that might be of value for our dilemma.” Vince suggested.
They began looking around the trashed place for something useful. It was like looking for a trace of gold among all the dirt. But the place was such a mess that it seemed hopeless.

Chapter 9 – Breaking and entering

Once it got dark, the trio got ready and set off. They put black clothes on to make sure that they were well camouflaged in the darkness of the night, so that nobody would catch them. The last thing they wanted now was to be in jail, and breaking into the police station is the easiest way for that to happen.
- “Which part of the police station exactly do we need to reach?” Christina asked.
- “I assume the data vault in the basement section.” Pete replied.
- “That’s most likely gonna be locked.” She predicted.
- “No worries. I brought with myself a few lockpicks.” Pete said.
- “Make sure to watch out for the guards.” Vince reminded them, “They were all over the place earlier.”
The three of them crept through the empty streets until they reached the police station. They went around it until they reached a back door. That way there’d be less security and also closer to the data vault whilst inside the station. Pete got out one of the lockpicks and shoved it into the lock. He then began picking it.
- “You guys keep your eyes peeled.” Pete suggested.
- “Don’t worry. I’m the eyes on the back of your head.” Vince reassured him.
Pete kept on picking the lock and finally succeeded. He was skilled at that as he did it many times before.
Vince gave it a one last look around to make sure nobody was watching and then proceeded inside after Pete and Christina.
- “Do you know the way?” he asked them.
- “Yes.” Pete answered.
Three of them moved through the dark corridors. There were no cameras in the back corridors so they didn’t have to be wary of them. The data vault was not too far away, but it’s likely to be well guarded.
They went through several corridors and finally reached one of the ends of this corridor with a metal door. It had a retinal scanner by it as well as a keypad for a code.
- “I’m sorry I don’t know the code.” Christina said.
- “You’re excused.” Vincent joked.
- “This will take some time, so be patient.” Pete said.
He undid the keypad first and began fiddling with the wires. One wrong move and an alarm could ring, but Pete was relatively familiar with electronic stuff.
- “What do you think we will find?” Christina asked Vince meanwhile.
- “Well I think it’s most likely to be some lab accident. Someone’s device probably backfired. That’s the risk of being a scientist.” Vince explained.
- “Yeah, it’s definitely a risky job.”
- “I once nearly lost my life because one of the devices I was working on backfired.”
- “Really? I’m so sorry to hear that. I am glad you made it though.”
- “Yeah. I spent nearly a month in a coma and then 7 more months I had to stay in the hospital to properly heal. Nevertheless, I returned to my work. I never abandoned it after what happened to me.”
- “Well you are someone who pursues his goals. That is why I trust you. Because I know you won’t bail out on us and our situation.”
At this moment Pete sorted out the keypad.
- “One down, one to go.” He said.
- “Good job, Pete. Keep it up.” Christina said, then turned back to Vince and continued “hey I feel bad for something.”
- “For what?”
- “Well I lied to you earlier. I said I was 28. I’m actually 30... and a half”
- “It’s OK. I understand.”
- “I must say, at this age I’ve already lost much hope in life. But you know, your arrival here gave me hope.”
- “I am glad it did…”
- “You probably don’t know what I mean though. It’s a wonderful feeling. Suddenly I know that my life will be OK and that we’ll get through this.”
Here Vince gave her a hug. Christina felt all warm inside. Vince was truly a great guy. He was different to most people that she knew, even before the accident that turned people into liars. She thought of maybe two of them could have a future together, but it was still too early to plan things like that. Right now they had a different problem to worry about.
Pete finally sorted out the retinal scanner too and now the huge metal door unlocked, so Pete pulled on its handle and it opened.
- “Great job, Pete.” Vince congratulated him.
- “There’s only one problem though. I won’t be able to put everything back to normal when we’re done, so the cops will know that somebody broke in over the night.” Pete explained.
- “That shouldn’t be a problem I hope.” Vince said, “just hope that nobody saw us break in and that there are no security cameras around here that we’re not aware of.”
All three of them went into the data vault. It had lots of shelves full of files. There was also a computer in the centre of the room. All of the files in the vault were also recorded on the computer, so that they’d be easier to find.
- “Be careful!” Pete suddenly stopped them, “There is a camera in here.”
Vince and Christina stopped by the entrance. Pete walked over to the camera that hung on the ceiling. It most likely would have seen them. But it didn’t matter since their clothing covered their faces and nobody would recognize them. Pete just turned the camera away, so that it couldn’t record what they were doing.
- “You can come in now.” He told them.
Vince then approached the data vault computer and switched it on. The files in the database were arranged in different formats. He then refreshed the arrangement to make sure that it would sort everything out by date.
- “Christina, what’s the exact date of the accident?” he asked.
- “I am not entirely sure, but the morning when I noticed the changes was 3rd of January.”
- “So the accident is likely to have happened the day before that then.” Vince assumed.
He went into the folder with files of that date. It took him quite a while to find his way round there and he needed to check a few days after that, because it’s likely to have been filed after that date. Finally he found a file by the title ‘Freak accident ruins the life in America’.
- “This could be it.” He said.
He went into the file and all three of them began reading various listed reports of what government found.
It turned out that the accident happened in Redwell labs when some kind of non-fully-built mind controlling machine went out of control and sent a horrible radioactive wave outwards, covering a huge area, before it blew up, severely damaging the building. After that the Redwell labs went out of business. The building got abandoned, and nobody visited it for a while.
- “Reminds me of what happened to me when I got transported here.” Vince said, “I hope my lab building didn’t blow up like that. I hope all my friends are OK.”
- “I am sure it can’t be just as bad. With your bright mind things can’t go too bad.” Christina said to him.
- “Thanks. I hope you’re right.”
On this note they shut down the computer and exited the data vault. Pete shut the metal door and all three of them quickly got through the corridors and exited through the back entrance. They made sure no-one was looking and crept through the dark parts of the street until they got close to home, where they relaxed a little bit.
- “Well that was fun.” Pete said.
- “I disagree.” Christina said.
- “I was being sarcastic.” He said back.
- “So, we’ll need to find Redwell labs tomorrow.” Vince transferred the subject onto a more serious note.
- “Yes. But we’ll need to check the online maps for where it is.” Christina said, “because I don’t think I know where they are.”
- “That’s fine.” Vince agreed.
At this moment they reached home, looked through online maps for Redwell labs, had a cup of tea and finally a good night’s rest.

Chapter 8 – Decline and ignore

Vince and Christina then headed to the police station. Vince didn’t know where it was, so Christina showed him the way. It was truly a huge building and there were guards everywhere.
- “Someone must be paranoid.” Vince commented.
- “Nah, we just have a lot of policemen in town because of all the riots. Salary for being in police has increased dramatically in order to persuade people to defend the law.”
- “Well that’s kinda clever in a way, but also sucks, because then people won’t be doing what they enjoy and just join police for the sake of money.”
- “I agree with you.”
- “There must be a lot of crap policemen around then.”
- “There are.”
The two of them walked up to the front door and one of the particularly intimidating guards asked them:
- “Who are you and who are you working for?”
- “We need to speak to the chief of police.” Vince politely said.
- “I am the chief of police.” The guard said.
- “Can we speak to the other chief of police, please?” Christina joined into the conversation.
- “Err, he is somewhere inside.”
- “Can we enter?”
- “No.”
Vince understood that ‘no’ meant ‘yes’, so him and Christina went in. The two guards didn’t even move a muscle.
Vince and Christina walked down the main hall. It was pretty beautiful in there. There weren’t as many cops inside as outside, but still quite a few were around.
- “It will be hard asking around with everyone lying.” Vince said.
- “Don’t worry I know who chief of police is, so I’d recognize him.” Christina calmed him.
- “Ah, good then. Just tell me when you see him.”
- “Sure.”
Both of them came up to the reception, but then realised there was no point in asking any questions, so proceeded forwards to a few rooms. Chief of police was sitting in one of the bigger rooms which seemed to be like a lounge where cops can take a break and eat some doughnuts and watch TV.
- “That’s him.” Christina pointed at the chief.
- “Excellent. Time to question spot.”
The two of them walked up to the chief of police. Vince took a deep breath and was about to ask a question, when chief interrupted him:
- “Are you two lost?”
- “No Mr Hackwell.” Christina said, “We need to ask you something.”
- “How about I ask you something?”
- “OK.”
- “I don’t have anything to ask.”
- “Can we ask you something about the accident in the lab 9 months ago?” Vince asked suddenly.
- “What accident. We didn’t have any accident 9 months ago.” Chief denied it.
- “The one that started numerous riots on the streets back then.” Christina reminded him.
- “No, sorry. I wish I could help you.”
Vince didn’t know what kind of mind game to play here. The cop completely 100% refused to say anything. It was clear though that he was hiding something.
- “Do you know of any labs around here?” Vince then asked.
The chief of police ignored him and continued watching TV.
- “Cid lied as it seems.” Vince said as they walked out of the room.
- “Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe this guy did.” Christina said.
- “Maybe you’re right. But it looks like we must come up with some further strategy. Maybe asking around won’t help anymore.”
- “What do you have in mind?”
Both of them exited the station at this moment and Vince also waited once they cleared all the guards until he spoke:
- “We probably need to break into the station tonight and to check up on any documents concerning the accident we can find.”
- “Sounds risky.”
- “It’s our only option now.”
- “OK, we’ll need to talk to my brother. He’s ace at anything combat related, so maybe he knows a lot about sneaking around too.”
When the two of them arrived back home, Christina explained their plan to Pete and asked for his help. He agreed to help. In fact he was thrilled to help. It seemed that quests like that really inspired him.
All that was left for them now was to wait for nightfall.

Chapter 7 – Breaking the barrier

Christina returned at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Her shift for today was over and she was pretty tired already.
- “What have you two been up to then?” she asked the guys.
- “Just watching random movies.” Pete said.
- “I’ve been thinking and I reckon we need to find out as much as we can about the accident.” Vince said.
- “But no-one will tell us the truth. I bet president and his people already know it all, but they won’t tell it to the public.” Christina said.
- “I know, but we need to find someone who we can interrogate and eventually squeeze the truth out of.”
- “Hmm… I think I know of someone who has some useful knowledge.”
- “And who would that be?”
- “Cid. That same shopkeeper that was rude to us yesterday.”
- “How would he know?”
- “He has friends high-up. I just know it; you’ve got to trust me.”
- “I do. In that case let’s head there now and find out.”
- “Do you two need me?” Pete asked.
- “Not yet.” Christina replied, “but if we will, then we’ll let you know.”
Vince and Christina left the house and headed for that electronics shop. They entered it and already a rude remark came from Cid:
- “The unfortunate duo is back for more fighting.”
- “No, we don’t want to fight.” Vince said.
- “What do you want then?”
- “Well, we wanted to ask you if you knew something about the accident.” Vince began.
- “What accident. I know of no accident.”
- “The one that happened nearly 9 months ago.” Christina reminded him as if he truly did forget.
- “Nope, sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
- “We want to hear all about it.” Vince continued.
- “I told you, you’re wasting your time. Go and bother someone else.”
- “Are you telling the truth?” Vince asked.
- “Yes I am.”
- “Am I?”
- “No.”
- “Wrong. So you’re not telling the truth.”
- “I am confused.”
- “Now you’re speaking the truth.”
Vince played a little game with Cid’s mind and it seemed to have worked.
- “I am not speaking the truth.” Cid negated.
- “There you go again. You just spoke the truth.”
- “Ahhh what do you want?”
- “The truth.”
- “Fine, if you want some truth then go and speak to the chief of police. He might be of help.”
- “Thank you.” Vince thanked the shopkeeper.
Him and Christina then turned around and proceeded to exit the shop. Cid was still very confused. He couldn’t understand what kind of manipulative trick Vince just played on him, but at least it didn’t give him a panic attack, even though he apparently spoke some truth during this conversation. Cid liked it.
- “That was amazing!” Christina congratulated Vince.
- “Thank you. But I am sure this won’t work on everyone. I just know that Cid is a bit of an absent-minded person judging from his fight with you yesterday, so I used a simple technique to confuse him. You see mind may have the information, but how it shares with it depends on whether it chooses to be open with it or not. Lying is a sign of a closed mind. I just simply broke into it and snatched a small portion of its information.”
- “It was genius I must say, and I am not lying.” Christina told him.

Chapter 6 – Planning ahead

The next morning Christina had to go to work.
- “Pete, would you take care of our guest while I’m at work?”
- “Yeah.” Pete agreed.
- “Don’t lie to me.”
- “I’m not. Honestly.”
- “Good. In that case I’m off and will be back in 5 hours.”
Christina then left to work. Pete was watching TV and eating various snacks, while Vince was hoping to come up with a plan of what they, simple people, can possibly do in order to fix the things in this city.
He wanted to know how the whole thing started. For that he needed to find out where it happened and who was responsible for it. If president will keep on lying day after day and people not paying attention to that, then very soon everything will begin declining, at first slightly and then a bit later steeply.
These thoughts were troubling Vince, because he also realised that he is probably stuck here forever, he can’t go back and see all his friends. But maybe he can rebuild a similar machine that sent him here and hope for it to transport him back. But is there a guarantee that it will work, and that it will transport him home and not to some other parallel universe? Vince felt really sad here and tried to stop himself from thinking of things like that. He needed to concentrate only on one goal – he either finds a way of getting out of here, or he stays and finds a way to fix the problem this world is in. Vince was more inclined to the second option as he knew it was for the greater good. However both options couldn’t guarantee success, and Vince knew it.
He transported his thoughts back to the plan that he was trying to come up with. He wondered if someone knew about the lab accident. But even if they did, they’re likely not to tell the truth.
- “It’s so hard living with lies!” Vince thought to himself.
But then he thought about it more carefully and realised that lying is just a barrier and if you hit hard enough then that barrier will fall apart. Maybe some form of persuasion can do the job. Then he wondered who could be of great help, other than Christina and Pete. Maybe this is something he should discuss with Christina when she gets back.
Vince trusted her, and to a slightly lesser degree her brother too. He didn’t trust anybody else in this world just yet. Being truthful is not reflected in a person’s outer skin. It sat deep inside, while on the outside everyone looked the same.
He got tired of thinking and so went to the living room to join Pete in watching TV.
- “Anything interesting?” he asked.
- “Just a movie.” Pete said.
So Vince sat down and stared into the screen. However his mind was not on the movie, but on their situation and every possible scenario of things to try in order to better the bad fortune.

Chapter 5 – A big fat lie

In the evening when three of them were watching TV, there was president’s speech on.
- “Get ready to hear some lies.” Christina said.
- “You’re lying.” Pete told her.
- “Yes I am. Get ready to hear lots of lies.” She corrected herself.
- “Oh God, I wonder what kind of crap he is going to say.” Vince wondered.
- “He gives speeches 3 times a week.” Christina mentioned.
All three of them began carefully listening to president’s speech. The president looked like he was in his early 40s. He seemed to cough a lot, pretty much after every sentence. He also did weird eye movements as he spoke.
- “I am sure many of you are wondering where the world is heading right now. Well it still looks good, so don’t worry…” the president was saying.
- “Ah, I’m through with his bullshit.” Christina said and left to the kitchen.
- “Our shops are still in business, the buildings are standing, we’ve got everything under control…” the president kept on saying.
- “No, nothing is in control anymore.” Pete said.
- “What’s his name again?” Vince asked.
- “His name is Gar McKin.”
As president’s speech continued, there were a few ‘boos’ heard in the crowd. Nevertheless he continued speaking:
- “I know some of you might think that times are rough right now. But they really are not. Remember the first week since the accident? Do you remember the riots on the street, the smoke encasing the city, the lack of food and water? Well this is not happening right now. ‘Why?’ you might ask if you’re stupid enough. Because I won’t let that happen. I care for my country and I promise that we will crawl out of this crisis very soon.”
Here Christina came back into the room with a snack.
- “What is he saying now?” she asked.
- “Just same old promises as he says every single time.” Pete answered.
- “Which makes him the biggest liar in this city.” She responded.
Vince continued listening to the president, and the stuff that he was saying was making Vincent angry.
- “Currently no-one knows what caused the accident on the first place, but we’re all looking very hard for some clues. Nevertheless, that accident is in the past. It is not affecting us anymore, so we shouldn’t really be thinking about it. The world moved on…” President McKin was saying.
- “Yeah I can see what you mean now.” Vince said.
- “He’s a lying scum.” Christina said and switched the TV off, “there’s no point listening to his lies, because everyday it’s just the same.”
- “It was different one day.” Pete said.
- “No, it really wasn’t.” Christina disagreed.
- “Well, is someone going to do anything about the whole lying problem?” Vince asked.
- “People don’t care. They are fine like this. Except for us truthful ones of course.” Christina explained.
- “And is this the whole world that is affected?”
- “No, just several states of US. But the thing is, the rest of the world is now calling these states ‘The liars united’ and so no-one wants to fly here anymore.”
- “What about people flying out?”
- “They do not bother, because the few that did, ended up doing something so stupid and offensive that were put in jail or even executed.”
- “What about the truthful ones, like you? Why aren’t you getting out of here?”
- “Can’t afford it, unfortunately. Besides, it’s even worse. The more truthful people leave, the more outnumbered the remaining truthful people are by liars.”
- “That sucks. Well we must do something about it then.”
- “What CAN we do?”
- “I’ll try to think of something.” Vince reassured her.
- “Thanks. Maybe you truly were sent here by God.” She said.
- “Oh please, save me all the destiny talk.” Pete said negatively and got up to leave the room.
- “He doesn’t like it when I talk about God and destiny.” Christina explained to Vince.
Vince understood.

Chapter 4 – The truth

Christina’s home was pretty modest. It wasn’t big or shiny. In fact it consisted only of 2 bedrooms and a rather big lounge room with kitchen. She lived there with her brother.
- “Morning. Who is this?” he asked.
- “Hi Pete. This is Vince. Vince – Pete.” She introduced them.
- “Nice to meet you.” Vince said.
- “You’re one rude guy.” Pete commented.
- “Actually Vince is the first not rude person I’ve seen in a long while. That is why I brought him here.” Christina said, “Maybe he can help us.”
- “So… he doesn’t lie?” Pete asked with astonishment.
- “Yeah.”
- “What is he on about?” Vince asked Christina.
- “Well here’s the deal…” Christina began.
They all entered the lounge room and sat down. Christina began explaining and Vince listened, while Pete just sat there too.
- “A few months ago something happened. We’re unsure what, but one morning we all woke up and the world was different. It was different in a way that everybody was lying to each other. It’s as if some force grabbed a hold of our minds. We all have succumbed to it…” Christina began.
- “So wait a second. You aren’t consciously aware of lying?”
- “No, we are. We just do it because it makes us feel good. Whenever we don’t lie we don’t feel right. It’s like an OCD now – we get panic attacks when we speak truth. Most people don’t like to experience that and so they just keep on lying.”
- “That is something. So why aren’t you lying?”
- “I lie sometimes too. It’s just I made myself learn to speak the truth. I fought myself for 8 months. At first it wasn’t working, but eventually I grabbed a hold of myself and now I am more or less normal. I tend to lie less to people I trust. Pete too began the exact same a few weeks ago. It seems to go easier for him than it was for me.”
- “How does the world carry on with this? I would’ve expected it to be trashed within weeks.” Vince commented.
- “Oh it was heading that way. We had rebellions, riots, God knows what else. In fact the world was plunging down within days. It’s until Michael Cass became a president. He was the one who influenced me to fight myself, for he was the first person to overcome lies in his mind and spoke the truth. And he began convincing people to do the same. He brought the world more or less on track. But about a month and a half ago he was assassinated and now we have a new president Gar McKin, who is no different to most people – a.k.a. a liar. The world is going down once again.” Christina explained.
- “So you don’t know how it all began?” Vince asked just to be sure.
- “No, absolutely no idea. The thing is, now that everyone is lying, we don’t know who speaks the truth anymore and who doesn’t. 99% of people lie.” Christina replied.
- “Lying is fun, I mean it’s bad, but it’s fun sometimes.” Pete said.
- “I never approved it.” Vince admitted.
- “Me neither. I was horrified when I succumbed to it.” Christina said.
- “So where are you from then, Vince?” Pete asked.
- “I’m from LA.”
- “So you’re from around here?” Christina asked.
- “What? This is not LA.”
- “It is.”
- “You’re lying.”
- “No, honest to God truth this time.”
- “Where am I?” Vince said quietly to himself, “Have I been… oh no.”
- “What?” Christina and Pete asked in one voice.
- “I was trying to fix my wormhole machine. I think it transported me into a parallel universe.”
- “Now it sounds like you’re lying.” Pete said, “stuff like that doesn’t exist.”
- “It does. I’ve been working on it my whole life.” Vince said.
- “Looks like it worked then.” Christina smiled.
- “Yeah. And now I guess I can’t get back home.”
- “You are home. This is still your home town. Just a different take on it.” Christina reassured him.
- “I guess so. Well if I’ll stay here for the rest of my life then I must make sure the world snaps out of this nasty dream of lies.”
- “You can live with us if you wish.” Christina suggested.
- “Thanks. I guess I’ll need to know both of you a little bit better.”
- “Well you know me. I’m Christina, and I am 28. My job is…”
She paused here and didn’t want to say it.
- “Come on, go ahead.”
- “I’m a hairdresser. I know at my age I should be pursuing better jobs, but I enjoy it.”
- “Nothing wrong with that.” Vince reassured her.
- “Pete is a university student. He is 26 and is in the final year.”
- “Oh, what does he study?” Vince got interested.
- “Engineering.” Pete said.
- “Good speciality.” Vince commented.
- “No problem. Though the universities are not functional anymore, so I’m stuck.” Pete replied.
- “Well anyways, let us get you comfortable here so you can feel at home.” Christina said to Vincent.
- “Thank you again for doing this.”
- “Don’t mention it.”

Chapter 3 – Rudeness

Vince took a few deep breaths and finally lifted himself up onto his feet, allowing the whole weight of his body to rest on them, hoping they have gained all of their strength back by now. The city seemed to be unknown to him, so he knew that he wasn’t there before. Curiosity took him over and lots of questions sprung up to his mind. He wanted to know where he was and what exactly did his machine to do to him in order to get him here.
He walked up to the first person he could see. It was a middle-aged man.
- “Hi. Could you please tell me where I am?” Vince asked.
- “You’re on the moon.” The guy replied.
- “Is that a sarcasm?” Vince asked after a slight pause because he was surprised by such an answer.
- “Do you want it to be?”
- “What city is this?”
- “New York.”
- “I don’t know what’s your problem with me, but we’re clearly not in New York, because I’ve been there before.”
Vince got angry and didn’t say anything else after that. He met rude people before, but this time he got pretty angry because he wasn’t in the mood for jokes or sarcasm.
He walked along the street, looking at the buildings, hoping that he could recognize the place perhaps, but nothing. The city was absolutely unknown to him.
He asked another person:
- “Could you please tell me what city is this?”
- “I’m sorry, but I’m busy right now.” The person clearly lied.
Vince ignored the guy and carried on. He entered an electronics shop, hoping maybe the shop keeper will answer his question.
The shop keeper was busy with a client at that moment. They were barbarically arguing with each other.
- “Stop this lying!” the young woman shouted at the shop keeper.
- “I told you I am not lying. That CD player costs $35.”
- “This is ridiculous. I can’t live like this.”
- “Then go and die.”
- “Maybe this is something you should do. We don’t need people like you.”
- “People like me don’t exist.”
- “What?”
- “You didn’t hear me?”
- “What?”
- “Stop with ‘what’s!”
- “You are not making any sense.”
- “I make more sense than the president. Now either buy the player according to the price I allocated to it or get out of this shop and never come back.”
- “Maybe I won’t!”
At this moment the young woman turned around and began storming out of the shop, when Vincent stopped her.
- “What’s going on here? Maybe I can help.” He suggested.
- “Your help is not needed. We were just having a cup of tea.” The shop keeper said.
- “Didn’t seem that way from where I was standing.” Vince said.
- “Maybe because you’re a moron.” The shop keeper insulted him.
- “What is it with rude people in this place?” Vince started to get cross.
- “Tell me about it.” The young woman agreed.
- “You mean to say that the place is abundant with people like that?”
- “No.” the shop keeper replied.
- “He wasn’t talking to you.” The woman snapped at him.
- “Then get out of the shop and have your little chit chat on the street where cars will hopefully run you over.”
- “Let’s go before he sinks his claws in our throats.” The woman advised Vince.
- “Good idea.” He agreed.
The two exited the shop and began walking somewhere.
- “So what city is this?” Vince asked.
- “London.” The woman replied.
- “Are you serious?”
- “I am always serious.”
- “I lived in London before. It could not have changed like this.”
- “Arrgh, sorry.”
- “For what?”
- “Maybe I should explain. Actually, perhaps better when we get to my house.”
- “What’s your name at least?” Vince asked.
- “It’s… Chris…err.”
- “Chris?”
- “Sorry. My name is Christina and there is a lot to explain.” She said.
- “I am Vincent.”
- “Nice to meet the only sane person here.” She said.

Chapter 2 - Unwanted transportation

- “Hi Vince.” Everybody at work was greeting him.
He was quite a well-liked figure in his work facility and people respected him as well as treated him as a close friend for he never let down anyone.
- “Morning.” Vincent said to one of his lab partners by the name of Duke.
- “Today might be the day.” Duke said happily.
- “Oh really? How’s the portal stability?” Vince asked.
- “It might be high enough to last a few seconds.” Duke replied.
- “That’s good news. Let’s fire it up in half an hour then.”
Vince, Duke and a couple of other guys set up the new device for desired conditions. The device occupied nearly a whole room and could’ve only been designed by rare geniuses. The time to start it up finally came. Now was the moment of truth, to find out whether the 3 years of their research was a success or whether they had to go back to the drawing board.
Duke pressed the ‘on’ switch that initiated the main mechanism and looked anxiously at Vince. In front of Vince was a complex electronic board full of various buttons and switches, but he knew his way around this for he contributed to 50% of the machine’s design and build. He began firing up the main engine, getting the device to increase the voltage very gradually so not to cause it to shut down suddenly or worse - to backfire.
By the sound of it the engine seemed to be working well. Vince now initiated a special command – the one that will help to create a small wormhole.
20 seconds have passed and nothing yet.
- “We probably need a bit more voltage.” Duke suggested.
- “That’s too risky. The wormhole should appear any second now. We can’t predict when as it’s a very fragile process.” Vince disagreed.
About a minute has gone now and Vince decided to add a tad bit of voltage. Suddenly something began to form at the heart of the machine.
- “I think it’s working!” Vince suddenly said.
Everyone looked at what he was pointing at and for real – a small wormhole formed. However it kept on increasing in size.
- “Vince, this is even better than we thought. It’s getting larger and seems to be very stable.” Duke said.
- “How much is it lasting already?”
- “15 seconds.”
The wormhole kept on growing. It now was the size of an apple.
- “That is one big wormhole.” Duke commented.
- “How long now?”
- “30 seconds. I think we can call it a success. Perhaps good to switch the machine off now.” Duke suggested.
- “Just give it a few more seconds. Let’s see if it can last a minute.” Vince was curious.
The wormhole was starting to grow faster now. It now filled the whole space of the inner chamber of the device.
- “All right, let’s turn this thing down.” Vincent said.
He began decreasing the voltage, but the wormhole didn’t decrease. Instead it continued increasing in size.
- “Vince, what is going on?” Duke asked.
- “Hang on a second.” Vince began pressing some buttons that will help cut power to the wormhole.
However the wormhole had itself up and didn’t need any more energy. In fact it had an excess energy, which caused it to keep growing.
- “Damn. We should’ve left its voltage as it was initially.” Vince said with frustration.
The wormhole now emerged from the inner chamber and outwards into lab space.
- “This isn’t safe. We need to evacuate the room, or possibly even the whole building.” Vince said anxiously to Duke.
- “Are you saying this wormhole will continue on growing?” Duke asked with fear.
- “It will stop eventually when it runs out of energy, but I don’t know how large it will be before that will happen. For the safety reasons we need to evacuate the area.”
The two other scientists who were in the room helping Duke and Vince have now run out in panic.
- “What will happen to our machine?” Duke asked.
- “We’ll be lucky if it remains undamaged, but if not at least we can recreate it again, but we can’t recreate human lives if this thing causes some casualties.” Vince replied.
- “OK, as you say.”
Duke began nervously storming out of the room. Vince was behind him, but then turned out and headed back for the machine.
- “I made you. This means I’ll be the one to unmake you.” He said under his breath and approached that electronic board again.
The wormhole now grew to be the size of a bus wheel and began eating the whole machine from inside.
- “This isn’t good.” Vince knew that he couldn’t do anything else here anymore.
He still was persistent enough and kept on trying to decrease the size of the wormhole at least if he couldn’t destroy it.
However the wormhole suddenly exploded and Vince got blinded.
The blinding light of the explosion was pure white. Vince’s ears also deafened even though there was no loud noise to have caused that. It seemed to him that all his senses began to fail. He now couldn’t feel his arms and legs. He thought to himself that he must be dying. He thought that this is perhaps how quick death feels like.
He tried to scream, but no voice came out. It felt as if he got cleanly wiped out from the face of the Earth, like a tiny dirt smudge from a clean surface.
He started hearing very peculiar voices suddenly. Those voices seemed to be his thoughts. He could’ve never imagined that he would be able to hear his own thoughts like that.
The amount of voices in his head was overwhelming and he couldn’t catch up. His brain felt like it was freezing over and finally switched off for eternity.
But as if by a miracle Vince heard the usual sounds again and his eyes suddenly opened to see a beautiful blue colour. He could now feel his limbs again and felt a breath of fresh air. After breathing in a few times, he looked around and realised he is lying face up into the sky. He still felt slight tingling in his muscles and so barely sat up. He didn’t know exactly where he was, but it definitely wasn’t his home town. It was time to find out the truth.

Chapter 1 - Vincent Tyler

This story begins on a very normal day without much going on. Vince Tyler is a 33-year old successful and very intelligent scientist, working in space and time research as well as designing possible devices that can serve many useful purposes. As a scientist he is very careful and extremely thoughtful. He always thinks, whether he is busy or relaxing. He is slightly autistic, but he always tried to make sure that his autism didn’t get on a way of his career as well as social life.
He had a girlfriend once, when he was 20. They suited each other very well. But when he finished university and started his intense job at the age of 22, he had to move to a different city and his work hours were very long. She was still in the university and so couldn’t move in with him. Due to such conflict of priorities as well as not being able to withstand a long distance relationship they had to break up. Vince always understood that, but he always missed his girl. She used to make him so happy. He still to this day keeps a picture of her in his room at home and they talk to each other via email from time to time, but they are nothing more than just friends now.
At the age of 26 Vince underwent a very horrible lab accident, when one of the machines that he worked on backfired and blew up. He ended up spending 8 months in a hospital, where first 3 weeks of that were in a coma. It was a miracle that he lived since the explosion caused a severe concussion to his head and if not for one of his co-workers then he wouldn’t have been delivered to hospital in time. He still has burn marks in some areas of his body to this day, but as far as he is concerned that accident is in the past. The only thing about it that changed him is his perception of life. He became very righteous and spiritual and values every good thing that happens to him.
For the last 3 years he and his team tried to create some machine that will create a small wormhole, perhaps establishing a faint link with a parallel universe. If they are on the right track then future research can be made to improve the current idea and in the distant future this then would be used as a basis of a new transporting system as well as unification of several worlds into one.
They are nearly on a breakthrough now and could possibly win a Nobel Prize if the result they’re willing to achieve comes true.
So the morning of this very normal day was beautiful and Vince got up on time, ready to go to work, feeling very enthusiastic. The radio played his favourite song on and he knew it was gonna be his day, not knowing that another accident is awaiting him.