“We are in an unknown world. Everyone that was once our friend wants us dead. We should stick together” I said, Bruno agreed. Gabriel paused, concerned with the train of thought I was following. He raised his eyebrow, considering asking something he hadn’t thought about.

“What do you want to do?” Gabriel inquired while looking at my expression. I twisted my lip and pondered the question. As someone that felt like he had no purpose in life, being thrown into the frying pan of a war felt exhilarating. Frankly, the thought that there was something only I could do (impersonate a dictator) that would help the world was strangely alluring to me, as if it made my wrongs right. I flirted with the thought that maybe if this world was saved by me, then maybe the mistakes and sins I had committed in the past would be corrected. Maybe she’d be glad I did a right so big, like it compensated not being able to save her. If I did that, then maybe my friends would see me someone who could help and not leave? I said maybe after maybe mulling over my ideas. However, I eventually looked at Gabriel again, who was glaring at me. I understood that a part of him probably also wanted to help this Resistance, but I knew what his priorities were. I swallowed my thoughts and answered.

“I want us to stick together. That’s what friends are for, no?”

“And you’d be fine with that?” Gabriel replied. I knew he was perhaps digging deeper to hear what I truly had to say, but he knew that’d be a tough nut to crack. Understanding, I decided to give a slight piece of my mind.

“We will be of no help if we just blindly follow one side. Let’s follow him and see where that leads us; we will act from there. We need to stick together.” Gabriel understood what I wanted, and how I had thrown it to the back of my head. I think for him it looked more like I was being a good friend, rather than a fearful one who was so scared of rejection by them, he had no will of his own.

“Aduna… you know this is going to be hard with no planning, right?” I put my hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, smiling.

“I know, but I’m asking you to trust me. When have I ever let you down?” I immediately wished I hadn’t said that.

“Well, there was this one time you told me I could go to the beach without sunscreen and you got me burned to a crisp.” I need to clarify he was in charge of our health during that trip; he should’ve not listened to my foolish advice. “Or that one time you said we could get drunk with 2 dollars and gave us cheap Tonayan liquor which gave me a pounding headache and made you puke 4 times.” For those who don’t know, Tonayan is a kind of alcohol that is unprocessed and sold in Mexico. It’s basically ethylic alcohol. It sounded like a good idea at first.

“Don’t forget the time he thought he knew where the beach was and made us walk circles around it for 2 hours!” Bruno interrupted, stupidly agreeing with Gabriel despite me trying to plead for his case.

“Yeah! That too! Or that time with the trasves-” I quickly moved towards Gabriel and put my hand against his mouth to stop him from carrying on.

“I got it! I got it! Ok? So I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed-”

“What was HIS name again? Pe-” Gabriel was clearly not letting go.

“For fuck’s sake! Look! We’re a team, alright? And we should stick together no matter what! Let’s explore, ok? If anything goes wrong, we will make sure to come back.” Gabriel hesitated. He turned to look at his backpack with the arrows coming out of it. He saw a ready Bruno, then went back to staring me.

“Alright” he said. “Let’s go.”

During out multiple rounds, we had encountered the exit to the building. It was a hatch past the ‘sacrificial grounds’ where we were going to be killed on day on. As a matter of fact, it was just above us that day. Slithering around in the darkness, we watched our step and made no noise as we walked through the base. We carefully moved without impediment, since everyone outside their quarters was actually doing something instead of just loitering around. Nobody noticed us as we reached the room. Gabriel and Bruno hastily threw themselves at the wall with the hatch, while I glanced around the room to ensure we were alone. Much to my surprise, I noticed the girl who I had met earlier looking at us while reclined against a wall. I blinked for a second, and she wasn’t there anymore. Instead, I felt someone behind me.

“You don’t seem like the kind to run away like this. Do you really want to go?” She asked me with the words dropping from her lips like dew from rose petals. I sighed and turned around to see her. She was glaring, slightly puffing her cheeks cartoonishly, likely annoyed by what seemed like me going against my word that I would help. Something in me wanted to look for an excuse, but looking at her eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to lie. In a strange fit for me, I blurted out my honest feelings.

“I don’t want to, but my friends will go anyway, and I don’t know what I would do if they left me behind” I said with a sigh. She unpuffed her cheeks, yet continued glaring.

“Do you fear losing them. If you don’t go along with their wishes?” She inquired again. I looked down at the ground, huffing as my eyes bounced back to the ceiling.

“Yeah, I guess I do.” A deep silence grew between both of us. Her glaring stopped and was replaced with a somewhat defeated expression.

“I guess I can understand that” she commented. She approached me and grabbed unto the edge of my jacket. I heard a small click, but neither of us looked down, locking eyes with each other. “Sometimes I feel the same with my sister.” She took a couple of steps back and gave me a key. I looked at her confused and she gave me a smile. “You didn’t really think the hatch to a secret labyrinth base was always unlocked, did you?” A small grin drew itself on my face. I guess it wouldn’t be. I then saw her take another step back, then she disappeared with a gust of wind. I noticed she was just running extremely fast, faster than my eye could catch. I pondered if she was some sort of super soldier. From what I gathered, it was perfectly possible in that world. With nothing much to say on the matter, I lingered on her face, small, delicate. Although melancholic, her eyes were beautiful. It was then that Gabriel’s voice broke me from my trance.

“Aduna, no use. The hatch is locked” he said with a hint of upset in his words. I turned around and saw him; I think they hadn’t noticed I was talking to someone in their efforts to reach the hatch (Bruno had gotten on top of Gabriel’s shoulders to reach).

“You didn’t think the hatch to a secret base would always be open, did you?” I ironically asked, feigning smarts. I showed him the key and his face lit up. I felt a little bad that the mysterious girl had had to help us and that it wasn’t actually me being smart, but well, whatever got us out faster, I assumed.

We climbed up the hatch with difficulty and found ourselves in a small hut in what seemed to be a small village full of poor houses. Our hut was made from old wood and ropes, while others around us seemed to have been made out of clay or other materials. Behind us, a rug seemed to hide the metal hatch, barely wide enough for one person to go through. I failed to notice, but Gabriel quickly pointed me to some pieces of cloth left in a nearby table with a note that said “cover your faces”. The cloths were red, and seemed to have been cut from an old lady’s dress or something; I say this because they definitely smelled like old lady perfume. We all put them on before walking out to see people living in extreme poverty.

Aside from the clay houses, the road was paved with dirt and many people were begging for food, often showing malformations of their body to win the pity of those passing by. One moved around showing his hand lacking three fingers, screaming how he had lost them in the fight against the “Aduna Corporation”. I got close to one of them to ask for directions, but was met with harsh words when I told him I had no money or food. Bruno was the one that managed to get us information on where we were: a small town that was a few miles away from Los Angeles. The lady that spoke to Bruno told us that Aduna Corporation’s main building was in LA, so the town was very well stocked on water and food, despite the poor look of everyone. The fact that we didn’t know where we were did not bother the lady; she noted that that town was a regular place for the Resistance to dump people in. I also highly doubted it was a coincidence for my dimensional counterpart’s HQ to be so near. Bruno thanked her, then jumped in excitement in front of a happy Gabriel and a wary me.

“Finally! Some good luck!” I didn’t really share Bruno’s excitement, but at least we could successfully meet ourselves and compare rather swiftly. We’d go to Los Angeles and hope to God I wasn’t as much of an asshole as I was told. I felt a strong rejection at the idea of visiting the city, caution grouching my stomach like a hand squeezing my thorax. Nontheless, seeing my friends so glad to be out made me second-guess my emotions and promptly shove them into the back of my head. I thought we could handle anything, but luck wouldn’t be on our side: once we reached our destination we were able to witness how truly repugnant I was first hand; I only wish I had known sooner.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Our first issue was getting to the main road, and then getting someone to give us a ride. We must’ve spent the better part of a day asking people if they had a car of some sorts to drive us to LA. There were cars, alright, but no one was willing to make the trip for some strangers. Nightfall hit while we were basically where we started. If I recall correctly, I think it was Gabriel the one who came up with a glorious plan which would get us out of a pinch more than once in the journey through that dimension.

We were near our hut when we saw a middle aged man walking around half drunk, looking for a car he had parked a few streets away. He looked at us with distrust since stealing vehicles was a very common practice in places sunk in poverty. Gabriel approached him with authority and stood right in front of him.

“Drive us to Los Angeles, you will be rewarded” the man, who we would later discover was called Rud, looked at Gabriel as if he were some kind of demented freak.

“Yah! And get to the chopper! Ah yeh argh!” Bruno said trying to quote the Finisher Robot movies but failing miserably… At least in reference, because the impersonation was spot on, if you ask me. Gabriel proceeded to uncover his face in front of our drunk stranger, much to his horror. His face quickly went completely pale, trying to utter some vague sentence that was complete blabbering without any real meaning.

“We had a mishap and are in need of assistance; we promise to give a very good compensation” Gabriel said, still stoic as a statue. The man spoke no words, he reserved himself to just nodding in agreement; I think he sobered up by just looking at Gabriel. He hurried up to fetch his keys and urged us to follow him with smiles and promises of a good service.

It took the man no more than 5 minutes to find his car: a very old, blue Mustang that could barely fit 3 people besides the driver in it. It served the purpose though, so we hopped in without a doubt. Gabriel looked at both Bruno and myself pleased by his good idea.

“It worked! I can’t believe it worked!” Gabriel said as he got red with excitement.

“Yeah! I can’t believe your ugliness scared him into cooperating!” Bruno jokingly answered Gabriel’s euphoria, since he shared the same delight. I, on the other hand, was a bit more bothered by the idea. What would I find at the end of this road trip? Could I truly understand a man who had done so much ill to the world, even if that man was …well, me?

There was nothing to be done. Rud told us his name, smiled and reverenced to Gabriel, and turned his engine on. At the end of this trip, I would meet a side of myself I never knew existed.