Twin Earth
Chapter 42

“There must be a way out of here,” Rachel asked hopeful.

“Trust me, there isn’t,” I replied, finally sitting down across from Rachel whilst simultaneously nursing my head and finger.

“What happened to your hand?” Rachel asked with a sudden horrified expression on her face.

“Let’s just say... I don’t recommend a walk outside. The weather is a bit cold.”

“I see,” Rachel mumbled worriedly, following my gaze to look outside.

Not much had changed since Rachel had arrived bar the ellipse closing. The landscape was still being sucked into its nearby star and there was still no sign of life for miles. Thankfully, it seemed that this planet’s demise was a slow one and it didn’t seem to be suffering from any terrifying earthquakes or tsunamis, which had begun to become the norm for me lately. If anything, the pull of the huge nearby sun seemed to be keeping the planet in a relatively stable condition, not that that helped our plight at all.

“There must be something in here that can help us?” Rachel continued, attempting to scramble around the room on all fours. “The creators must have left something. We can’t stay here forever.”

“There is nothing in here I tell you. It’s just us and this weird glue like substance that’s keeping us safe from that unpleasant environment out there.”

“So what did you hit your head on then?” Rachel asked, turning to stare at me as I continued to rub my now throbbing injury on the back of my skull with my good hand.

“The floor I guess?” I replied, but even as I said it I wasn’t convinced at my own answer. The floor was just as gloopy and as soft as the walls.

“No, you must have hit it on something hard for you to be that bothered by it. I know you.”

“You know me?” I retorted in surprise, finally pulling my hand away from my head.

“Yes, you’re usually doing one of two things, being a martyr or complaining. Either way, you like to make a point of something. So whatever you’ve done to your head, it had to be on something hard,” Rachel replied, looking around the floor once again. She had me there, so I reluctantly joined her in scrambling around the floor to find whatever it was we were looking for.

“I’m not sure I like how well you seem to know me,” I mumbled in annoyance. “We barely know each other.”

“Barely know each other?” Rachel grunted, looking up at me. “If this kind of experience doesn’t bond two people, then tell me, what does?”

“Oh, so we’re bonding now are we?” I replied in amusement.

“Oh shut up, you know what I mean.”

“Indeed I do,” I replied sarcastically, smiling at how red Rachel had turned.

“Look, here,” Rachel interrupted, pointing to yet another gloopy place on the floor.

“What is it? It looks the same as everywhere else.”

“No it’s hard. Feel here.”

I did as she suggested and was surprised to feel a hard, plate like structure underneath the gloop.

“What is it?” I whispered, feeling around to try and see what it was.

“I don’t know. Can you get to it?”

“No. I can’t shift this disgusting gunk out of the way. What do you think it is?” I replied, but before Rachel could answer our attention was caught by another blob like structure suddenly appearing just outside our own blob cage. “What the hell,” I whispered, standing up.

“What is that?” Rachel asked fearfully, reluctantly clinging to me as I helped her to her feet.

“It’s another one of these gluey pods,” I marvelled as I watched the phlegm like structure wobble and ripple around its circular structure.

“But where did it come from?”

“I have no idea,” I whispered.

“Why can’t we see inside it, like we can see out this one?” Rachel asked confused.

“Well, when I first arrived here, I couldn’t see out of this one either. It only cleared and became transparent after I stupidly put my hand through it.”

“So, you’re telling me someone is in there too? Like we are in here?”

“Maybe these pods are designed to appear when someone travels here, like a bubble of protection around an ellipse,” I replied.

“But, there was no ellipse out there before it arrived, was there?” Rachel asked.

Walking over to the edge of our own blob, I peered as closely as I could to our new neighbour, but as hard as I tried I couldn’t see anything that looked like an ellipse or a way out of here, if we could even get over there in the first place.

“This is hopeless,” Rachel moaned, looking away.

“Wait,” I whispered, pulling her arm to catch her attention. “It’s clearing, just like this one did. The walls are morphing into transparent frames.”

“Oh my god,” Rachel replied, staring in disbelief. “Who the hell is that?”

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