Alex watched as the cab driver got into the driver’s side of the cab and drove away. Alex then waited for fifteen minutes for Randy to return. When he didn’t return Alex got into his car and drove away.
Tuesday, October 19, at 11:10 A.M., Alex rang Randy’s doorbell. He waited for Randy to answer for only a short time before knocking hard. After a few more seconds of waiting he reared back and as he was about ready to pound, Randy opened the door. Randy didn’t look at Alex when the door opened, but stood in the doorway while writing in a notebook. Randy was ten days unshaven and his hair was a mess.
“Randy, you’ve been absent from school for two weeks,” Alex pointed out. When Randy didn’t respond Alex tapped Randy’s notebook. “Hey!”
Randy looked at Alex before saying, “I’m glad you came by.” Randy then walked away from the door while not paying attention as to if Alex was going to follow. “There is something I want to show you.”
“Randy, I just came by to give you a warning from Prof. Blumberg,” Alex said as he did follow.
Randy faced Alex before saying, “I’m not concerned about his empty threats.”
“Randy, I don’t think he’s threatening. He’s tired of your absentees and your joke science papers that you are emailing him as your assignments.”
“Those papers I send him aren’t jokes. I’m very serious about those papers.” Randy gestured into the direction of his makeshift lab as he continued to say, “In fact, come with me. I want to show you a breakthrough I had.”
“As long as it is not on your alternate reality theory I will see your breakthrough.”
“Alternate reality is real and I can prove it within a day or two.”
Alex gave Randy a curious look while questioning, “What do you mean you can prove it?”
“If you come with me I will show you what I mean.”
“Randy, we’ve been friends since the first grade so I’m saying this as a good friend. You need to come back to reality before it is too late. Now you are the best science student Harvard has seen in a long time, and if it wasn’t for those papers you are sending Prof. Blumberg even he would see that, but as it is, you are about ready to be expelled.”
“Alex, come with me and I will show you what I learned.”
“No, I won’t,” Alex said while taking a stand. “Prof. Blumberg is right. Traveling into another reality is nothing more than a science fiction writer’s imagination. A person can not travel into a different reality like in that TV show.”
“You’re wrong and I will prove it.”
“Randy, you need to see someone about this obsession of yours. I see now why Amanda dumped you.”
“Amanda just didn’t understand why this was important to me.”
“She’s not the only one. Now I’m going back to Harvard and I suggest you do the same before you are no longer a student there.”
“In a day or two I will prove to you that alternate reality is not just a science fiction story.”
Alex shook his head in frustration before turning towards the door and walking out.
Randy walked back into his makeshift lab. The lab had a dry erase board with an equation written on it. Not too far from the dry erase board was a workbench with pieces of a remote spread about. He sat down at the workbench, placed the notebook to where he could see it, picked up a small resister and soldered it to the main portion to the remote.
Thursday, October 21, at 12:35 P.M., Randy knocked on Alex and Doug’s dormitory door.
Doug opened the door and when he saw Randy standing there with a remote in his hand he said, “So you didn’t fall off the edge of the universe as the rumors have been saying.”
“Very funny,” Randy said before holding up his remote, almost at eye level. “I did it, and I want to show Alex. Where is he?”
“He is at the library.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”
When Randy went to leave, Doug uttered while stepping into the hallway, “Wait! I’m going with you.”
In the library, Alex and four others, Kenny Johnson, Brandy Harrison, Cindy Hartford and Benjamin Bell were sitting at a table not too far from the exit.
Randy and Doug saw Alex and the others as they entered. As Randy and Doug stepped up, Alex faced Randy and said, “Wow, your record in solitude is fifteen days.”
“Alex, I did it,” Randy said as he again held up the remote. Everyone at the table gave Randy a confused look. “I haven’t tested it yet, but I didn’t want to test it without a witness.”
Alex shook his head while saying, “Test it right here and now. And when it fails, I want you to drop this obsession with AR traveling.”
“It won’t fail,” Randy said before pointing his remote towards an open area and pressing the button.
At first nothing happened, but then all of a sudden an intense feeling as though their bodies were being ripped apart came over Randy, Doug, Alex and Alex’s study group. Within seconds everyone blacked out from the pain.
In the reality Alpha 0.0.0.1.0.0.0, at the library, Kenny, Brandy and Cindy were together at the same table, but on the opposite side of the library. They were faced down, passed out on their books. The librarian walked up to the table and as he shook them awake, he said, “Hey, wake up. You three can’t sleep here.”
After waking up, Kenny looked around before asking, “What happen to Alex, Doug, Randy and Ben?”
Brandy had a confused expression on her face before asking, “How did we get at this table?”
In Ben’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, Ben woke up at a local tire and auto shop while wearing the shop’s uniform. Other workers and customers were standing over him while giving him a deeply concerned look.
Doug woke up in his dorm room with Richard Hawkins standing over him with a worried look on his face.
When Doug saw Richard hovering over him, he sat up and asked, “What happened?”
“Dude, you just collapsed to the floor for no apparent reason,” Richard answered.
Doug looked around without standing up and saw that he was in his dorm room. After refocusing on Richard he asked, “Okay, I’ve seen you around campus, but who are you and why are you in my dorm?”
Richard stared at Doug as if he had lost his mind before asking, “Did you hit your head when you fell, Dude?”
Doug thought about his condition for a moment before saying, “My head is killing me. Who are you though?”
“I’m Richard; your roommate,” he pointed out. “I think you better go and get checked out at the hospital.”
“You’re not my roommate,” Doug said with strong certainty in his tone.
“Yes, Dude, I am,” Richard corrected. “We have been roommates since our freshmen year.”
“My brother is my roommate.”
“What brother? You don’t have a brother.”
Doug said sarcastically, “My twin brother Alex. We have been roommates all our lives.”
“Now I know you hit your head when you fell if you’re thinking that Alex is your twin brother.”
“He is my twin brother,” Doug insisted.
“No, Dude; Alex is your twin sister.”
A shock expression flashed across Doug’s face while uttering, “What?!”