The flipside, p.3
The FlipSide, page 3
part #1 of The Connected Worlds Series
Not knowing what to do next, the cave seemed like the only option of a place to go. The gray rocks seemed to make for an inviting entrance and as he passed beneath the rock arch the sound of water could be heard again. The cave wasn’t too deep, so the light from the outside clearing peered inside to provide visibility. Around the corner there was a small room that seemed to have been man made. There was a small ten-foot-wide water way that was still. On one end of the water way there was brick, and on the other side a steel gate blocked anyone from being able to pass through to continue down the calm water way. Axel looked around for some sort of lever to open it but couldn’t find one. I guess I’ve seen enough water for one day. While exiting the cave, it occurred to Axel that he had absolutely no idea what time of the day it was. The lighting around the clearing didn’t seem natural. It was too bright for no visible amount of sunlight to be seen through the trees. The number of trees weren’t too dense to walk through, but it was impossible to choose which way to walk since they all looked just as likely to lead to nowhere. All he could think about what getting home, but there was no way of telling which direction that was or where he was. The best thing he could do was to find someone that could tell him where he was and a phone so that he could call his parents. Oh god, my parents. They probably are freaking out right now about where I’m at. I didn’t even text my mom I was going out after school. Axel tried to put the thought of how much trouble he’d be in once he got home out of his head. I’m sure being chased by some psycho in a suit is a good enough excuse for not coming home.
By using only his instinct for direction, Axel began walking forward through the trees directly in front of the cave entrance. As he pressed on through the maze of trees, the illumination of the clearing seemed to fade. Still, the entire forest had a glowing presence that comforted him – the complete opposite of how he felt in the darkness of the street or in the sewer. After several minutes of walking and no end in sight, Axel stopped to look back toward the direction of the clearing. There was nothing but more trees behind him. The clearing was long gone. In every direction the maze of trees seemed to go on forever. After turning around to look in each direction it became hard to tell which way he had been coming from originally before stopping. Panic began to set in as he realized he might not be able to find a way of the forest. Axel’s stomach rumbled and a sense of fear overtook him. He chose a direction and began running, frantically looking left and right to notice anything different that could be reached. There seemed to be no hope, and Axel eventually gave up and slumped his back against the tree. Now that the adrenaline was fading again, the realization that Axel’s body was too sore from all the falls and cuts kicked in. He ached quietly at the tree alone. Looking up at where the sky should be and still only seeing the large canopy of leaves. The wind rustled all the leaves above, but it was still impossible to see anything. If only I could see above all the trees to see where I’m at. The wide trunks of the trees stood tall and strong in front of him. It would be too difficult to wrap his body around the tree and climb it, and there were no branches within jumping height to grab onto. The illumination of the forest surrounding him seemed to be getting darker. Axel’s eyes began to close out of exhaustion when a glimmer caught his eye between some trees ahead. A small beam of light seemed to be coming between two trees about a football field away from him. With a renewed sense of hope, he sprung up quicker than his body would have liked and began walking quickly toward the light. After turning around the corner of the tree where the light was coming from, he was met with a large hedge of bushes. It was different than anything that he encountered thus far in the forest. The denseness of the bushes prevented any light from coming through them, but there was small opening of leaves between two of them. Axel stepped toward it and put his hands in the opening to push them apart. The hedge was too thick to see through without going into it himself. He pushed his body through the hedge with both arms and legs. It seemed impossible to get through and the leaves began to strike him in the face. With one final push, Axel fell through to the other side and hit the ground. Brushing off his arm and looking up, Axel’s eyes widened.
In front of him lay a vast city that spread out farther than he could see. High rises bigger than any tower he had ever seen in Chicago, all coated with different colors of a glowing neon aura. The city seemed to be radiating neon colors that made his eyes twitch from brightness. The sky was blue, but not the kind of blue sky that he was used to seeing. The blue had a gold like glow to it, and it seemed to be closer somehow than the sky in Chicago. The glowing lights seemed to bounce off the sky to create a sense of glowing light throughout the entire city. It reminded him of pictures he had seen of the aurora and northern lights. The sky didn’t make it obvious if it was daytime or nighttime, it just seemed to exist. To his right he could see a large wall in the far-off distance that surrounded the city. The wall was a gray like silver and seemed to go all the way past where Axel was and behind the forest that he had come out of. I hope being inside the wall is better than being outside it.
The entire city seemed to be like nothing Axel had ever seen. His body seemed to go on automatic again and he began descending down the hill he was on to get to the city. The hill weaved back and forth, but before he was even able to reach the bottom, he began to notice an abundance of people all walking throughout the street. There was no presence of cars, and there didn’t seem to be a sidewalk of any kind. People just walking in every direction – all seeming to have some sort of agenda and place to be that he wasn’t aware of. The dirt pathway of the hill abruptly ended once he got to the “start” of the city. The entire road glowed white, and as he watched each person’s foot make contact with it, the road seemed to illuminate more around their foot; as if reacting back to the force. Axel hesitantly put one foot out and let the toes of his Jordan shoes touch the road. The road seemed to be pushing down with the slight pressure, almost as if it was going to fall through if all of his weight was put down. He retracted his foot back, once more looking around at everyone that seemed to have no problem with walking on the road. Alright it’s not like I’m going to break the whole place by just walking on the street, right? Axel raised his foot once more and this time fully stepped forward with one foot on the road. His foot seemed to tingle as the road bounced back up at his foot, as if it was making contact back with him. With less hesitation, Axel stepped with his other foot so that both feet were on the glowing white road. To his back the dirt road and large forest lay swaying in the wind, and in front of him the glow of the city seemed to draw him in like a bug to a light.
The initial excitement of being in such a new strange place began to wear down. Everything around him was not like anything he had ever seen, and although Axel didn’t have much experience with anywhere outside of Chicago, he was smart enough to know that a place like this was nowhere close to home. It didn’t even seem like anything that would be found in the United States. To him this city didn’t seem like it should be on this planet. Now that he was closer to the street, he began to notice that even the clothes everyone was wearing seemed different. It was fashion unlike anything that he had ever seen. Everyone seemed to be wearing the same bright white shoes and gliding across the street instead of clumsily stepping like him. There weren’t any brands on any clothing he could see, just plain shirts and pants of an unknown looking material. Everyone around him looked so busy that it would be hard trying to stop one of them to ask where they were exactly. Without any hesitation like before, Axel began walking down the street and assimilating into the crowd around him. He looked around for anyone that seemed friendly that would let him ask some questions. On the corner of the street there was a white bench, that glowed like everything else seemingly did in this town. An old man sat on it, doing nothing but staring out at the sea of people – enjoying the morning or evening, whatever it was. Axel approached and sat down next to him. As he sat, he felt the bench react back to his pressure the same way the street did.
“Hey there sir, could you tell me what city we’re in right now?”
The man looked bewildered and stared at Axel as if he didn’t know what to say. He eventually spoke, “What city you ask? You don’t know what city you’re in?”
“No, I don’t actually. It’s a long story of how I ended up here, but just need to know where exactly I am.”
“So, you’re saying you have no idea where you are? I’m sorry I can’t help you young man.”
“What do you mean? You must know where this is,” Axel tried to keep his temper down, but couldn’t help himself, “You have the same shoes and stuff as everyone else here!”
The old man scanned Axel’s body up and down, stopping to stare at each piece of clothing, especially at his all black high top shoes. He shook his head, “I can’t help someone like you.”
Axel opened his mouth to protest once more, but the old man got up quickly and made his way to join the crowd of moving people; walking as if he was gliding just like everyone else. With a look of defeat, Axel slumped against the bench. As his back made contact with the bench it seemed to wrap around him, as if hugging him stuck to the seat. As he stared out into the crowd as the old man did, Axel realized that a lot of people were staring at him and scanning him over in a similar fashion like the old man. I guess I do look pretty obvious as an outsider, but at least one person here should be nice enough to give me an explanation of what this place is.
Axel stood up from the bench and continued down the street. The buildings around him before seemed to just be residential with no kind of advertising or signs. Some of these residential buildings began to resemble store fronts, different places to eat or shop. One of the restaurants read “Clyde’s Burgers. Best on this Side!”. Seeing another burger joint made Axel think of how he had been sitting in one with Lexa not all that long ago. Although it seemed like an eternity had passed since then, it must have only been less than twelve hours; at least he hoped he hadn’t been knocked out for days.
A loud banging sound came from above him up ahead. For the first time he saw a large metal beam that seemed to zig-zag between all of the buildings. A train-like contraption came zooming through the buildings, faster than any train that was in Chicago. The contraption seemed to be attached to the top of the beam. It seemed just as big and heavy as a normal train one would see at home, and it was a miracle that it managed to be supported by just that metal beam. With the train passing quickly, it was impossible to tell whether it was carrying cargo or people. The entire contraption was coated in silver that seemed to reflect the entire aura of the city around it. Axel noticed some stairs that looked like they lead up to where people could board the train. It seemed like the perfect place where people would be waiting and not be able to evade any questions. He hurried up the stairs – seemingly bouncing off each one as he stepped. There were three people waiting on the platform for the next train to come by; two were male and one was female. The men both looked seriously forward with little to no expression, while the lady seemed to have a more inviting presence.
He approached her, “Excuse me, could you help me out?”
“Yes, how can I...” she turned to look at him and paused for a moment, “...help you?”
“I’m having a really tough day, I’m a little lost, and just need to know where exactly we are.”
“Well this here is the Epsilon Line platform”
The information helped him a little, but it still didn’t help piece together where that was, “Okay, great, but what city is this again?”
She paused in a similar way as the old man, “You’re the outsider, aren’t you?”
He bit his lip, “Well, I’m not from here, no.”
The lady abruptly turned forward again, “I can’t help you sorry.”
Axel refused to give up this time, “Why can’t you help me. You’re the second person to say that to me.” The lady stood silent and refused to look at him again. “Please just say something. I’m lost, where are we!”
The other two men on the platform began to take notice of the commotion. The train flashed into the platform area and seemed to stop on a dime with its car doors sliding open. The inside of the silver car was entirely white, it was almost impossible to tell whether it was just all standing room or if there were white seats camouflaged in.
“I’m getting on this train with you and won’t stop asking until you tell me anything.”
The lady moved toward the train, cleared her throat, and pointed down at her shoes as she boarded. Axel looked down at them and they resembled the same all white shoes that everyone else worse. As she stood in the train the floor of it seemed to move to wrap around both of her shoes. Trapping them into place so that she couldn’t move.
Axel started to move toward the train and the lady finally broke her silence, “I wouldn’t get on if I were you. The speed will send you flying around in here.”
It made sense to him. The shoes must have been designed to lock people into place as they stood on the train. It would’ve been nearly impossible to stay in once place with just a railing at the speeds they seemed to be traveling. The door closed and the woman stared back at him before disappearing in a flash. Once more walking in defeat, Axel turned around to head back down the stairs toward the street. Once back down at the street, he glanced left back at the burger joint. In the outside seating area, he noticed someone that stood out. A figure all in black. The bug-eyed man in black that had been chasing him in Chicago. Axel’s heart sank for a moment, but he didn’t seem to see him at the moment. Is it the same guy, or are there just an endless amount of these creeps? Axel quickly turned right and began walking as quickly as he could to get back with the crowd of people. As he turned the corner he glanced back at where he came from. Since he wasn’t looking where he was going, he bumped into someone walking the opposite direction and fell to ground.
Startled, he began to get up and quickly began apologizing, “I’m sorry I...” he looked at the face in front of him and stopped.
“I know this all seems crazy right now, but just come with me and I’ll explain everything” Lexa said.
Chapter 5
The only word that came to Axel’s mind when describing his surroundings was futuristic. This entire city seemed like something he would have drawn up as a kid if he was told to draw a future Chicago. He sat in what appeared to be the living room of a small apartment that Lexa had brought him to. The entire room had a similar glowing effect to how the rest of the city was, but the overall aura of it all was a pinkish red. Lexa returned to the room carrying two glasses of water.
Axel immediately took his glass and took a big gulp, “This water tastes weird.”
Lexa laughed, “You’re going to need to define weird for me!”
“It tastes like...nothing. It doesn’t have a taste.”
“Well its water. It’s not supposed to taste like anything.”
Axel raised his glass and looked at the liquid, “Well the water at home tastes like something.”
“That’s because the water at your home isn’t 100% pure.” she said matter of factly.
After sitting for a moment and thinking about what she had just said, Axel burst out, “What do you mean ‘your home’. You said that like it’s some other planet. How far away are we from Chicago, which, by the way, is your home now too!”
“Chicago isn’t my home; I just came there to find you and bring you here. It didn’t really work out how I planned since they found you quicker than I thought”
Axel had so many questions stirring in his head and he couldn’t think of what was the most important to get answered first. Where exactly are we? Who are they and what do they want from me?
Lexa noticed the prolonged concern on Axel’s face and spoke up, “I know this is all really confusing right now, but I can at least tell you that you’re safe for now here.”
“Okay, where is here?”
“The city that we’re in is called FlipSide. I can’t really tell you how far it is from Chicago exactly, since the distance is all relative. Technically FlipSide is right on top of Chicago.”
“What do you mean right on top of? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Lexa looked like she was struggling to put words together, “Well I think the better way to put it is that FlipSide is right next to and beneath Chicago...in another dimension… sort of.” Axel’s face didn’t look convinced, so she continued, “Okay, imagine Chicago right next to Lake Michigan. Now imagine Lake Michigan has a mirror that reflects another city right below it to be adjacent to Chicago. That’s what FlipSide is.”
“So I must have just been swept through the sewer system all the way till I got beneath Lake Michigan to get here? All the trees I saw when I woke up don’t really make sense then”
“Like I said, it’s all relative. While we’re still technically next to Chicago, we are still in an entirely different dimension and world than it, so all the rules of being underneath the lake don’t necessarily apply here. And while you go through the sewer system to get here, the door to FlipSide only opens to certain people, so your average city worker won’t end up here if they happen to take the same fall you did.”
