Multiverse

Chapter 1

40 years later. The present.

Zane raced towards the junkyard, an amazing piece of engineering already forming in his head. He felt the wind rushing past him, when he heard the sirens. It was the police. But he didn't care, he often had cops trailing behind him, so he had built a bike from the things he had found in the junkyard, a place from where he stole things to build stuff to earn a living, a bike which could reach incredible speeds. He saw that the cops were closing on him.

He raced forward, his face turning from red to blue and from blue to red. His face became clear. He looked perfect. He had long and silky black hair that ran up like a wave. He was quite fair and was tall for his age. His blue eyes were striking and looked very intelligent, although they also seemed to be tired and sad.

The cops were losing him now, and he could see the junkyard close by. He turned and raced all the way round to the back, where a plank stood, tilted to form a ramp, giving him access to the junkyard. He drove towards the plank, and went on it. The vehicle flew over the fence and skidded to a halt, leaving black marks behind him. He was quite surprised that no one had ever noticed all those marks before.

He strolled over to a big heap of metal, where he found all the things he was searching for, but one, to create a fully functional hologram. He had found all the parts needed, except for the lenses.

There was an unexplored part of the junkyard where he hadn't been able to go to, and which could be dangerous. Nevertheless, he decided to take the risk, but was fully aware of any CCTV or any patrolling guards. He crept forward in complete silence. The night was pitch black, and he had to rely on his sense of sound and hearing, so he made a mental note to create a pair of night vision goggles.

He found something better than a lens. He found an entire hologram here. Although it was busted, he could repair it in no time. The backpack he brought was running out of space, so he had to go. But when he turned, something caught his eye. There was a black Toyota a few feet away. It was badly damaged. The person who drove it must have had fatal wounds. Zane walked towards the car. There seemed to be a faint light coming from it. He opened the door, but it fell off its hinges. Someone must have heard it, he had to get out of here. Now.

But curiosity took hold of him. The light seemed to be coming from a briefcase, hidden halfway under the seat. When Zane bent to pick it up, someone switched on a flashlight. It must be the guard, it was obvious, anyone could have heard that door when it fell down.

"Who's there?" he shouted.

Zane grabbed the briefcase and dashed towards his bike. He didn't care about stealth anymore. He started his bike and rode to the plank. He had kept it on this side of the fence before he came, but it had been removed.

"Seriously!"

He did a quick search for any other escape routes and found an old refrigerator leaning against a big pile of old kitchen equipment. A plan materialized in his head. He raced towards it. There was a gas cooker in front of it, enabling him to drive onto the fridge. He drove onto the cooker, then onto the refrigerator, flew over the fence and landed on the other side. Without hesitation, he raced away from the junkyard towards his home.

He lived in a garage, so he didn't have much furniture. There was only a sofa, a TV, a refrigerator, and his workspace. His only companion was a Labrador Retriever named Dexter.

"Ah, peace at last," he said as he returned home and took out a half filled bottle of Coke. He wondered if his parents would have let him drink so many of these; if they were here, at least in this world, he would have known.But they both died in a car accident. It happened when they were heading home from a funeral. Those places were always bad luck. He had stayed home because the journey was long and tiring, so he had refused to come, and because of that, he had survived. And it had all happened when he was only nine years old.

He had lived with his foster parents ever since. They were pure evil and treated him like dirt. So he ran away from them at the age of thirteen, and from that day onwards, for three years, he lived here, earning a living by using his knowledge of engineering. Which he had from birth.

He walked over to his backpack and looked at what he had stolen today (sort of borrowed, they won't mind right?). That's when he remembered the briefcase. It could contain some cool equipment, or a lot of money, or some useless business files. He will find out soon.

But when he opened it, all he found was a black box with a satellite dish in the middle. The light he had seen before had come from a small red bulb in one corner of the box. There was a yellow button in another corner, and next to it, was a red button. Zane pushed the red one, since most of the time, red buttons are the important ones. The light stopped blinking.

"Welcome to Multiverse," said a robotic voice which seemed to be coming from inside the box. "Where virtual reality becomes reality."