Down in central London lay the time travelers house. It was a of tourist attraction that didn't really get much attention but it was nonetheless still a kind of attraction. It had just closed now that it was about 6 PM however the owner had allowed them to look around and Jeffrey thanked him and said he would lock up after. With that, he waited for his friend Christy and brought in the time machine he had been working on with her. It was almost exactly the same only it included two seats with the gold body and even as far as the same glass bars that controlled the machine. This was it, they now had the power to travel through time and go wherever they pleased. He couldn't wait and sat there.

It couldn't work...could it?

Christy sat in the black cab, anticipating the jolts in the roads as it raced towards their destination. Her bag was leant against her knees, almost overflowing with rolls of paper, full of scribble blueprinting the plans for the most fantastical thing she'd ever heard of; let alone actually done. She glanced down at it, affectionately. This could be either something amazing...or something disappointing. And though she wanted to bank on the former, the doubts of the latter still boiled in the forefront of her mind.

London was a nice city. It was large - much more busy than the understated academic bustle of Oxford - but still had that same English feel about it. Terraced houses blurred past the cab windows, faintly aglow under the yellow lights of street lamps which were just beginning to come alive as dusk fell. The sky had darkened slightly and maybe it was just wishful thinking, but somehow it felt full of promise.

The cab drew to a halt.

She thanked the cab driver, paid hastily and tumbled out into the dimming streets. Before her, it stood proudly. The time traveller's house; shut to the public but not to her. Or Jeffrey. Hopefully, he would be waiting inside.

Pushing away her nerves, she knocked, before opening the door anyway and striding inside. The lights were on and Jeffrey was sat besides the contraption they'd been jointly working on for ages. Everyone had said they were crazy but now, they were about to be proved wrong. Her face broke into a broad smile as she glimpsed back and forth between Jeffrey and the magnificent, gold-lined machine.

"I know it sounds crazy," she began, grinning, "But it looks even better here than it did in the lab! Let's get this thing powered up and see what happens!"

She had been slightly more sceptical than her dark-haired colleague but here, in the alleged time traveller's very house, it seemed possible. In fact, more than possible; it seemed likely. Definite. She shrugged off her coat and draped it over her bag, pushing them into the corner of the room, preparing herself.

Jeffrey had been sitting there for what felt like hours. He was really anxious to go on this little adventure of theirs and smiled widely seeing Christy arrive at the home of the time traveler. Tonight was the night when they would finally go on their adventure through space and time. He opened the door to greet her "hey Christy, hope you had a safe trip here. Let's not waste any time then, come on!" he said excitedly then went over to the lab where it was. He checked it once more before they set off. Everything from the dials to even the smallest crack. Luckily for them there were none and he looked back at her "ah yes, tonight is the night Christy. We will travel through time and see a whole new world. Are you ready?" he asked sitting down in one seat of the machine waiting for her to join him.

Christy watched Jeffrey as he made the final adjustments to the machine's controls and took this as a cue to double checked the safety override feature which would activate if the time machine begun to overheat, or threaten to explode. It was activated but glowing green feebly - a good sign and suggesting that everything was in full working order. When she glanced back at Jeffrey, he had already settled in one of the seats, looking at her expectantly.

"Ah yes, tonight is the night Christy. We will travel through time and see a whole new world. Are you ready?"

"Definitely", Christy replied, grinning. She stepped up and eased in the seat besides him. She felt her hands begin to tremble slightly as nerves kicked in - what if it didn't work? Of course it would, she reassured herself.

"I'll let you have the honours," she said to Jeffrey, gesturing towards the final switch, "Goodbye to the present, I guess!"

He sat there and looked around and took a few deep breaths. He looked over at Christy and laughed a little "were not going forever. Unless you know, we find a world we like and never come back. Then we can go away forever" He laughed. He then looked at the control bars and wondered what the time traveler felt in this exact moment as he was about to go through time.

He looked at Christy "alright, here we go" He said. He slowly pushed one of the bars forward slowly and all of a sudden everything around them seemed to zip and almost contort with the digital display that told them what year it was moving as fast as seconds on a clock and the sun and moon rising and falling every minute. He looked over at Christy wondering what she was thinking as the years were flying by and time was going faster and faster. A snail on the ground seemed to zip around faster than the blink of an eye and the house around them had crumbled into dust as they were making their way into the distant future. Jeffery looked at the time meter which said 3019 and the numbers only went up from there going to 3050 and 3091. He looked over at Christy once again "when should we stop?" he asked over the loud sound of time passing them by.

"Forever?" she echoed, as she adjusted her position in the seat and she watched Jeffrey regard the controls. He altered them accordingly and she leant back in the chair and closed her eyes, allowing herself to savour the moment. She could feel victory dancing within reach.

And then, it happened.

Time travelling - if that, indeed, was what it was - was like nothing she had ever experienced before. It felt like falling, leaping, slowing, stopping and accelerating all at once and in every conceivable direction. Their immediate surrounding blurred into mere colours, as though someone was flicking through a book of reality at lightening speed. She marvelled at the sensation and clutched at Jeffrey's arm, to reassure herself that there was something still corporeal in the world.

It was only when Jeffrey asked her when they should stop that she thought to glance across at the dials, currently flickering past the 3000s. The 3000s! She felt a laugh bubbled up in her chest and release in a breathless chuckle, which was snatched away in the carcophony of years' worth of noise compressed into mere seconds.

"Now!" she yelled, hoping he would hear her over the whirring of time, and tearing her gaze from the electronic display. She wanted their destination to be a mystery to her.

Jeffrey had been looking at the scenery around them as their exploration in time was going on. It went by at a fast but steady pace and had watched as buildings had risen and fallen in almost an instant and the machine's time meter which now read 4045 and again kept going up.

It was amazing as they went through time, aside from the buildings rising and falling it all of a sudden turned into a wasteland as a bright flash, almost like a camera flash had cracked the sky and Jeffrey had hugged Christy tightly to shield her eyes from the light in the distance. A great mushroom cloud followed by others around them in the distance appeared as London was destroyed and the wasteland contained chunks of buildings and debris everywhere. Jeffrey looked at Christy and decided to keep going through the years as the land would be radioactive for them to be there and therefore would be dangerous. He waited another twenty years before he heard Christy yell stop to him. He nodded and slowly pulled back the control bars purposely to get in a few more years just to be sure that there were no gamma rays around them.

After stopping, he needed a minute to compose himself and held his head and closed his eyes and was very much dizzy from traveling through time and didn't ever wanna do that again. Unfortunately they would have to in order to get back to their own time and he dreaded the thought of going through time again. After about 5 minutes of him holding his forehead he looked up and opened his eyes and looked at Christy "are you alright Christy?" he asked as he examined the scenery around them. It seemed to be safe and a reading on a phone app he created for himself showed no signs of contamination or anything. As his phone adjusted itself into the time they were in he looked at the year and it said 4096. He looked at the time machine's time meter and it said the same thing. He looked at the scenery and around them were the still debris of the destroyed buildings with foliage growing out of them. The earth had begun to take back the land and it seemed like nothing lived there at all. "What the fuck...?" he said to himself as he tried to comprehend where they were. It was still in Great Britain but he didn't know nothing about what happened during the two, almost three millennia they went through and wanted to find out. He looked back to Christy to see how she was holding up now that they had arrived in some unknown future.

As the world stopped spinning around them, Christy finally allowed herself to crack her eyes open. The scenery around her spun as her head continued to reel from the intense journey she'd just endured and she had to wait for a few moments, to adjust. Though to what, she had yet to found out. Embarrassed, she released Jeffrey and rubbed her forehead. Though she had barely twitched, she felt exhausted - as though she had exerted a large amount of effort. How odd.

Their surroundings had clearly altered drastically. It was nothing like the cosy, antique time-travellers' house they'd left behind. Instead, dusty rubble remains mattered the floor around them and the only signs of life was the thick, green coating of weeds that burst from the crumbling, abandoned bricks. It was both disorientating...and sad.

Unspeaking, Christy untangled herself from the seat and stepped forward, caution colouring her confidence. She listened - no talking, engine sounds or car alarms. It was the oddest thing. She swivelled on her heel to look at Jeffrey, who was muttering to himself and looking just as disconcerted as she felt. It occurred to her to glance back at the display which blinked the year - 4096.

"4096? What happened?!" she spluttered, "Did the machine work? Is this what becomes of London?"

It was a sobering revelation.

He took a few deep breaths feeling better after a while and stood up after a minute of sitting down. He stretched out after sighing and moaning in relief as his body felt stiff throughout that whole thing. After all they did just sit there staring at the world around them. He heard Christy mention the time they were in as she sounded very much surprised. He didn't blame her, as after all, this was a strange time for both of them. He looked around though and loaded a 9mm pistol he brought with him just in case of anything hostile like the Morlocks he read about the time traveler seeing before. This was way before that time though but you can never be too careful.

He looked to Christy again after concealing his weapon "Christy, I think it'll do us good to go exploring, what do you say? On the other hand though, in a world unpredictable as it is now that'd be very much dangerous. So, since I kinda dragged you along, I'll let you decide what we do. Either way, I'm fine with your decision" he smiled letting her decide what they should do. He did want to explore this world though and see what happened to Great Britain and the rest of the world.

Christy was marvelling at the world around her, her mouth gaping open. When she looked across, in her peripheral vision, she saw Jeffrey slide a gleaming, metallic object out of sight. The action was so smooth and quick, that she presumed she must've imagined it. But it made her realise how isolated she now was. The only person she knew in this world was Jeffrey...and how well did she really know him? They'd been colleagues, drawn to work together towards a common goal - she heard word of his intentions and been fascinated, offering her help - which they had done so quite companionably for several months. But they never talked about anything other than work.

"Christy, I think it'll do us good to go exploring, what do you say? On the other hand though, in a world unpredictable as it is now that'd be very much dangerous. So, since I kinda dragged you along, I'll let you decide what we do. Either way, I'm fine with your decision"

She could tell he was being considerate and for that, she felt grateful. But it was impossible to ignore the gleam of excitement that shone in his eyes as he spoke. And naturally, being a scientist by trade, she too was curious. Slowly, she nodded. What was the point of travelling all this way without gaining something? Even if the result was merely knowledge. Or perhaps they might stumble across some futuristic technology! Now, that was an intriguing and compelling idea.

"Yes, of course" she said carefully, but letting a small smile creep onto her face "We couldn't possibly leave without checking this era out!"

She took some steps forward, picking her way over lattices of bricks and weeds, with visible caution. Outwardly, she couldn't sense a difference in atmospheric pressure or temperature - maybe a little warmer than the chilly London evening they'd left behind but nothing extreme. She took a deep breath. No toxic gas..or at least none with distinctive odours.

So good, so far, she guessed.

He had stood there examining the area while he waited for her response. He noticed she seemed fascinated by the world around them and was actually happy to know that she was at least enjoying the expedition they were on to an extent. He noticed her nod, a little hesitantly, but then she became more excited almost instantly. He smiled back at her "that's what I like to hear, come on then let's go" he said. But before he had a chance to walk around she was already leading the way, picking at some bricks with weeds growing out of them.

He squatted next to her and began to examine the vegetation as well as the chunks of buildings everywhere. He then stood up and walked on top of the pile of rubble and went to the other side. Still nothing of interest. He thought back to the nuclear explosions that formed the mushroom clouds. That was definitely the reason for London's destruction but it wasn't clear what caused it. He went back over to Christy to see if she found anything "find anything yet?" he asked as he stood there with her.

He took out his binoculars that he brought with him and stood there with her looking around for any signs of life. This place was dead and he was sure he wouldn't see anything. Until he saw something moving in the overgrown vegetation far away. He was startled and almost excited "Christy! Christy I think I saw something!" he said to her looking down at her.

"Find anything yet?"

A few moments after Jeffrey had wandered off in a slightly different direction to her, she heard him call back to her. He sounded pensive, his voice echoing in the silence and she blinked.

"No..." she called back, kicking another lump of stone and sending it skittering across the barren, landscape. It was eventually stopped by a clump of thick, green grass, bouncing out of view. She said more quietly, "I think whatever wonders that once existed here have long gone...Eaten up by time"

She looked up at the sky, shielding her eyes. Something had definitely shifted though it was hard to put her finger on it - did the sun seemed a little brighter despite the clouds seeming fuller, thicker? Maybe her vision was simply still reeling from the journey here. Deep in thought, she stepped carefully over what seemed like the remains of a wall, but it appeared that any internal furnishing had long since disintegrated.

"Christy! Christy I think I saw something!"

With a start, Christy's head snapped up and she began rapidly making her way over to Jeffrey, scrambling up on the pile of rubble he'd positioned himself on. He was clutching a pair of binoculars and when she reached him, panting, she searched his expression for clues to what he was referring to. Mutely, she took the binoculars and peered through the lenses, curious. Whereas the majority of the landscape surrounding them was covered in tired, grey rubble swept into mounds like sand dunes, something stuck out. On the horizon, she could see a glint of bright blue, shimmering slightly. Hypnotised, she tried to focus the binoculars more but they had reached their maximum resolution limit. Lowering them, she handed them back to Jeffrey.

"I think it's a lake..." she said slowly, before murmuring "It's the most beautiful lake I think I've ever seen..."

She began walking forward, gesturing for Jeffrey to follow her as she stumbled over the brick, weed-encrusted wreckage in pursuit of the blue paradise. She couldn't eradict the intensity of the colour from her mind, as though it had burnt into the backs of her retinas and by extension, her memory. Sweat began beading on her forehead and she pushed up the sleeves of her jacket - she had left her lab-coat back in the time traveller's still-standing house, in the past.

As she approached, she began to falter. The lake was very much as beautiful as she had suspected but it was isolated; a small, glittering, cornflower-blue pool around the size of a football pitch and surrounded by a beach of cracked stones and dead weeds. Small waves rippled on the surface, glinting in the sunlight, inviting. However, on the far bank, she saw something move. Something huge, black and spine-chilling. The best description she could procure was to that of a spider - plump body, with wiry, spindly legs - the size of a small car, seemingly lapping at the surface of the lake. Ice seeped into her bloodstream as she froze in fear. She was still a considerable distance and it hadn't yet appeared to spot her, but the sight alone was enough to alarm the toughest of men.

"Er.....Jeffrey?" she whispered, her panic stealing the conviction from her tone.

He was on his tip toes trying to see whatever it was that he saw minute ago. He stood there waiting for her and when she finally came over he gave her the binoculars to see for herself if she saw what he saw. He pointed forward "in that general direction" he said looking at her while she looked at the distance. He stood there waiting and wondered what she saw and waited for her response. He was surprised though when she handed the binoculars back to him so quickly with her reply telling him that it was a lake. His eyes went wide "a lake? Here in the middle of London?" he asked.

He had put the binoculars away and looked back to Christy who was already walking towards it. His eyes went wide "Christy! Christy wait!" he said and began walking toward her but then looked back at the machine. He had read about the Morlocks taking the time machine from the time traveler before and didn't want that to happen to them so that they wouldn't be stuck there. So he took out his phone and pressed a button on an app he built for the machine and shrunk it to the size of a tissue box and put it in his backpack. Once that was done he ran over to Christy who was already far ahead of him and he ran to catch up.

Once he had caught up he caught his breath and looked at the lake, mesmerized by it's appearance much like Christy was. He smiled a little "it's a beautiful lake isn't it?" He asked as he looked upon it. He continued "it must've been made only a few decades ago as lakes can form in craters. I guess it just so happens that this one was formed out of a crater made by the nukes that hit England" he said. That was when she had whispered to him in a seemingly worried tone. He looked forward trying to see what she saw and indeed he saw it. A giant spider on the far bank on the other side of the lake. His eyes went wide and he pulled out his pistol and looked back to Christy. Jeffrey looked up and around them for anymore of these giant arachnids. Fortunately there weren't any that he could see but he used his non firing hang to motion for Christy to get back and into the nearby building, well whatever was left of it, so that they could hide in there until it left. "Go go go!" He said in a hurried whisper as he took her hand running inside it and didn't even think about the possibility of any other creature being in there.

Unfortunately there was, a giant mouse was munching on some food scraps but ran away as soon as it saw them. He didn't know what to make of the time they were in, only that he really wanted to know what was in this time. He looked back at Christy "are you alright?" he asked them peered out the door they had come in. He didn't see the giant spider. He heard the sound of the mouse that sounded like it was hurt and peeked out some more and saw the giant spider consuming it and taking it back into the wooded area where they first saw it near the bank. Jeffrey sighed out of relief and looked to Christy "oh my..." he said still not knowing what to make of it.

As he gestured for her to sprint into the skeleton of nearby building - that, amazingly, was still at least partially standing - she scrambled forward and darted into the entrance, feeling the temperature plunge as soon as she was out of the warmth of the sun's intense rays. The giant spider hadn't appeared to have spotted them but Christy was thankful for Jeffrey's caution. Panting, she slide down against a neighbouring wall, in a bid to catch her breath. As she sat, a cloud of dust puffed up around her and she coughed as the particles tickled her throat. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something scuttle into the depths of a shadowed doorway but since she hadn't had time to identify it as a threat, she pushed it out of her mind. It appeared they had bigger things to worry about. Quite literally.

"Are you alright?"

She barely had chance to open her mouth before the relative quiet was pierced by a horrific, piercing wail - it sounded as though a cat was being tortured. The sound lasted for several seconds and she grimaced, as it rattled her eardrums and filled her imagination with exaggerated images of monsters and mutated animals. When it finally stopped, the words she'd been about to reply with had dissipated into the abyss of sanity.

"oh my..." , she heard Jeffrey utter, glancing to her and she simply nodded mutely. Her jeans were covered in brick dust and she was pretty sure her neat bun hairstyle had deteriorated into a mess of curls. She braced herself against the floor, as she tried to gather her mental bearings.

"...well, that was unexpected..." she murmured, "But yes...I'm still alive"

She glanced at the gun still in his hand and nodded, slowly and soberly.

"I feel a little unprepared," she said with a watery grin, as she drew her knees up and rested her arms on them, "I didn't really bring anything with me, weapons-wise."

She traced circles in the dust, to give her trembling hands something to do. The dust felt thicker than usual dust and she pinched some between her finger and thumb, bringing it up to her eyes to study. On it were...words. As she stared, she realised that she was handling the remnants of books. She shivered, wondering who they had once belonged to.

As she looked closer - intriguied to see whether or not a book was still intact, to provide knowledge of the future - she noticed something long pointing out of the wall behind her. It had the dull gleam of aged metal and when she touched it, it was ice cold. It was balanced so that the action of touching it caused it to jerk down - it was a lever! She gasped as clicks echoed around her.

And then before their very eyes, a square of stones in between both Jeffrey and Christy collapsed downwards, causing her to stumble backwards to avoid being swallowed up by the widening gap. When it had settled, it became apparent that it had formed a stone staircase, leading down below floor level and into shadows. She wondered whether it was a sort of secret underground bunker that may have survived (it was rather sturdy, if it had) and she looked up excitedly at Jeffrey.

"You can have the honours," she said, smiling, "See - you didn't bring me along for nothing!"

He sighed in relief not seeing anymore of the giant creatures, as far as they could see anyway. He looked back to Christy and saw how dirty she was and chuckled a little "I remember reading about the original time traveler coming back to his dinner party all dirty like that, guess we really are time travelers then" he chuckled again joking.

He had put his weapon away and looked around then back to Christy again "oh don't worry, I have more weapons in the time machine. I came prepared you see, for we do not know what lies ahead in time. I'll give you a weapon later though. We should probably get out of here first though" he said turning to go to the door. However when he looked back to her, she was messing with books on the ground and hadn't even thought about reading them. This was probably important as this was the key to figuring out what went on in the millennia they were gone. He was about to pick one up but Christy had pulled a lever making a staircase in the middle of the floor and his eyes widened.

He looked to Christy who had insisted he go first and he nodded hesitantly. He took out his pistol again and without thinking had grabbed Christy's hand beginning to descend the flight of stairs. He expected something like the movies and was waiting to see inscriptions on the walls of something ancient that told a story of some kind but didn't see any. The walls of the staircase were blank the whole way down and when they got to the bottom it appeared to be an underground cave system. By the looks of it compared to up there it seemed like it was used constantly. While it was all still stone everywhere, it wasn't as dusty as it was up there. They were now at an intersection where there were three hallways split up. He began to say "eani meani mini... Moe!" he said picking the one on the left of them. Still holding Christy's hand, he began walking down the hall slowly and carefully "how you holding up Christy?" he asked.

"How you holding up Christy?"

She trailed along after him and when he turned back to check how she was doing, she offered him a wan but genuine smile. The stairs and corridors seemed to go on for ever and all she could see was dirty, grey stone in whichever direction she looked. However, the dusty, decay of above appeared to have ebbed, replaced by a slightly more fresher, cleaner stone. The air was a lot colder and damp permeated the air.

"I'm still here," she responded "A little dusty and worst for wear, but functioning perfectly fine!"

His hand felt warm and reassuring in his, and she drew strength from the fact that she wasn't alone in this strange new world. She marvelled at the clever, stone maze construct, wondering who could have possibly devised or built it. Was it a post nuclear blast construction? Were there still people? Intelligent beings they could converse with and gain information of! They would go back to their own era as heroes!

"Maybe we'll come across people!" she said out loud to Jeffrey, her hand tightening in his, "We could talk to them, learn about their past and our future! Imagine..."

And then the giant arachnids sailed into her memories and a shiver slid down her spine - maybe, these were simply massive undergrounds warrens for beasts like those, or perhaps something worse. Her grin slipped, as she envisioned huge earthworms thrashing through the tunnels towards them. Her excitement dwindled slightly.

"Or maybe not," she said quietly, as an afterthought "Hopefully we'll stumble across a food source soon - I don't particularly want to begin the length trek back to time machine when we're this close to discovering something else"

He looked around and saw that daylight couldn't reach to where they were. So he took out his flashlight and began to walk around in the pitch black. This certainly was a strange world and he wanted to find out what happened. He chuckled a little when Christy started talking "maybe... Just maybe we'll find some people, and as for food, I do have some rations if you want them now? And by the way... I know you're fine, you always look so fine" he smirked little teasing her but implied a little interest in her as they went along the hallway.

He didn't see anything for a while until he stumbled upon a door up ahead. It was the size of a vault door and was simply a plain steel door with a door handle on it. He didn't hesitate to walk over with Christy and investigate it. He had put his weapon away and turned the door handle and with all his strength he pulled it open and the door made a loud creaking sound. He stood back and once more taking her hand, he went inside.

Inside it appeared to be an underground shelter, that's what it appeared to be at first until further investigation showed it was a lab. This was evident with all the beakers and test tubes out scattered everywhere. This was what appeared to be the lobby of the lab or something. He let go of Christy for a moment and found a newspaper that told of the events of 3079. "Christy look at this, a newspaper from the year 3079. Here's the headline: invading Russians continue through the UK" he said then began reading along.

He began reading and the story shocked him to his very core. His eyes went wide and he had to sit down being overwhelmed by the story. The story said that over 50 years of fighting, the US has been defeated and taken over by the Russians and Chinese in response to US nuclear weapons that hit each of these countries. The reason for these attacks were that Russia and China has made a nuclear threat a month ago and the US acted quickly hitting both of these nations with their nukes first. Many Americans fled to other countries while America and it's allies such as the UK help the millions of Americans escape. The Russians seeing this as an act of war have invaded the UK taking Wales and Ireland first and England is just barely hanging on.

All of this info almost instantly depressed Jeffrey as he dropped the newspaper sitting there in complete silence. "My country Christy... It's... It's gone..." he said in a very melancholy tone.

"Maybe... Just maybe we'll find some people, and as for food, I do have some rations if you want them now?"

Christy shook her head gratefully, but was reassured by the affirmation that they did have access to something should she need it - a digestable safety net, of sorts. She wasn't quite hungry but she suspected she was burning a lot of nervous energy at present, which would in time need refuelling.

"And by the way... I know you're fine, you always look so fine"

Christy blushed, avoiding his eyes. His expression was teasing but she daren't let herself consider what she thought he may be implying. She was the scientist workaholic, permanently clad in lab coats and safety goggles. She'd never been the type that people noticed. Of course, he was only joking, she repeated to herself. But still the blush remained.

They stepped into part of large, white lab and though it was completely alien and foreign to her, she felt a shred of comfort at stepping into a familiar environment. She inhaled deeply - ah, there it was. That chemical lab smell, just like in her own era. She grinned.

"My country Christy... It's... It's gone..."

Christy's attention was drawn by the utter despair in Jeffrey's voice. Ignoring the desks she'd just been marvelling at, she approached him and caught sight of the headlines of the newspaper he was clutching. Wordlessly, she scanned to headline story and saw what he was referring to. At firstm she didn't believe it - the USA? How could anyone take that country on? But slowly, it dawned on her.

"J-Jeffrey, I'm so sorry," she said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. It was not the exciting discovery they had been anticipating and she stared at him, worriedly. Blessed with a brilliant memory and logical mind, empathic skills - such as reassurance - did not come naturally to her. She had emotions - oh, she definitely had them - but expressing them was a different matter altogether. She prised the article out of his hand and slid it into her bag, keeping her eyes trained on him.

"Give that to me," she said gently "Don't torture yourself by studying it further. You've heard the facts. But, more pressingly, we've got to discover who owns this lab. And whether they're friend or foe."

He sat there and felt her hand on his shoulder reassuring him. He looked up to her and nodded trying to stand. He tried not to show his sadness but it was still a lot to take in. He looked around "I um... Right, let's go then" he said once more walking around with her. He saw another door and pointed to it "there, let's try that door" he said walking to it and opened it. It led to another hallway and this time it was a metal walkway with glass walls on each side.

Once again he took her hand and walked around and looked out of the windows to see many giant tanks that were big enough to hold a person or large creatures. Suddenly a theory came to him and his eyes went wide. He looked to Christy "hey Christy... Call me crazy but... What if the giant creatures we saw... Came from this lab?... Like... What if the people here experimented on animals for some reason?..." he asked worried now. He continued walking through the glass hallway looking at some of the tanks which were broken. A lot of them were filled with formaldehyde or something which animal fetuses were housed inside.

They got to the end of the hall and he pulled out his pistol once more in case they encountered something worse than the giant spider or mouse they encountered. He however, also saw giant plants that were growing out of the walls and looked to Christy again "um... There must be a green house or room here or something. Whatever experiments took place here must've dealt with making animals and plants bigger... Um... Any thoughts? I really don't know anything about biology, I majored in physics" he said chuckling a little but wondered if she knew anything.

"hey Christy... Call me crazy but... What if the giant creatures we saw... Came from this lab?... Like... What if the people here experimented on animals for some reason?..."

The idea certainly seemed feasible. Genetic modification in typical, known earth species to make something entirely new...like giant mice and rats the size of houses...She shivered as they walked past the various tanks, filled with a sickening, semi-transparent liquid which seemed to be cultivating tiny beings. She reached out to touch the closest glass surface, as if to affirm to herself whether or not it was real. It was cool to touch - and definitely real. She recoiled, shuddering.

As they reached the end of the corridor, encountering a large greenhouse, they stumbled across plants. Large, multi-coloured ones that didn't seemed to identify with any known species (at least that she knew) on their earth. The problem, she supposed, was that it was no longer their earth.

"I studied engineering, pal," she said, slowly, refusing to budge her eyes from the weird and wonderful flora and fauna "About as far from biology as you can get. But as an engineer, I can conclude that these do not look natural. Just look at the symmetry. A typical signature of an engineer and in this case, I think we're dealing with a genetic engineer."