Seven hours, twenty minutes, and thirty four seconds. That’s how it had been since Alison last heard her beloved’s voice over the phone. Granted Devin’s working hours of late have been longer than that amount of time, so it wasn’t new to Alison to go so long without hearing his voice, seeing his face, or feeling his touch. When they first got together Alison wouldn’t have been able to last a single hour away from her beloved, but over time and encouragement from Devin himself, Alison was able to cope with longer times apart from her reason for living. 

But this was different.

Devin wasn’t just at work. Or at the store. Or in the bathroom. He was gone. Even if Alison wanted to see him, which every fiber of her being longed for just that, she wasn’t able to. The only thing that kept her mind from the steep cliff of insanity was the knowledge that her beloved was not dead.

Not dead. Just taken. Not dead. Just taken. Not dead. Just taken. Not dead. Just taken. 

The running mantra in her head kept her focused, but it did little to calm the roaring furnace of fear and worry burning through her heart. To ease her own symptoms, Alison reached into her handbag and removed a zip lock plastic bag. Alison opened the compressed bag and removed a crumpled shirt from inside. She held the wrinkled garment up to her face and breathed deeply.

Devin…

Even though this t-shirt was the last article of clothing he wore before leaving for work yesterday his smell was still fading faster than Alison wanted. She quickly took one last huff of the shirt before returning it into its sealed container.

“Are you… doing okay?” Came a timid question from the only other person within the empty factory floor.

Alison didn’t look his way as she returned the zip lock bag to her handbag. “I’m fine Charles.”

Their voices echoed around the metallic space. Though all outer appearances would lead you to believe this factory was long abandoned Alison learned the truth about this work space earlier.

“So how long are we waiting here?” The plump man next to her yawned loudly and leaned against the rusty wall behind him. “I thought we’d be going somewhere… well I’m not sure what I expected to be honest, but…”

Alison held up a hand to stop Charles from speaking further.

“Listen.” She whispered.

The faint sound of an approaching vehicle could be heard through the thin outer walls of the abandoned facility.

“No matter what happens, stay behind me and follow my lead.” Alison instructed Charles as she fished the metallic detonator out of her handbag and held it loosely in her left hand.

“Um…” Charles’ eyes grew wide as he recognized the object in Alison’s hand. “So…”

“Follow my lead.” Alison snapped as the engine noises from outside grew louder.

There wasn’t just one vehicle approaching. Alison counted at least eight large diesel trucks circling the building outside. On the far side of the open factory floor, a floodlight ignited, briefly blinding both Charles and Alison. A mechanical whirl sounded and a large garage door groaned as it was lifted open. A large white delivery truck entered the facility at a slow pace, its tires squeaking against the dusty smooth floor as it turned fully towards the factory’s only occupants.

Charles sucked in a sudden breath as he recognized the slowly approaching vehicle. “Truck kun.”

Alison lifted her hand with the detonator up into the beams of light emanating from the front of the white truck and held it there firmly. The truck stopped its slow approach and hissed loudly as its air brakes halted its wheels.

“No one has to get hurt here.” Alison called out to the idling truck. “I only have one simple demand.”

The truck revved its engine loudly but remained stationary.

Alison grinned triumphantly. “Excellent.”

Behind her, Alison heard Charles slap his own face with his hands.

“This is just some crazy dream right? Yeah, or I died  of a heart attack after I finished that deep dish pizza. That’s it. I’m not actually in some abandoned factory surrounded by angry trucks negotiating with a mystery machine that sends people to other worlds. No. That would be ridiculous…” Charles whispered to himself with a desperate laugh.

“He won’t hurt us Charles.” Alison reassured him.

“That’s not the issue here.”

She turned her head enough to look at him directly and held up the detonator for him to see. “I’ve rigged up this factory with explosives. This is where he creates new smaller forms of public transportation to do his bidding for him. He doesn’t want to risk the safety of his young.”

Charles’ eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “We’re threatening his kids!?!”

Alison ignored his outburst and turned back to the idling truck before them. “My demands are simple. My husband was sent to another world utilizing the services of one in your employment. I want to be sent to the same world after him. That is all.”

The truck continued idling for a few moments before it honked once loudly. The gears shifted internally and the truck began to approach the pair once again.

“What was that?” Charles yelped and cowered close behind Alison’s back. “Did he reject your demands?”

Alison shook her head as the truck turned its wheels slightly and pulled up alongside the pair of them.

“He’s agreed to send us.”

Charles flinched. “Wait… both of us? I never said I wanted to go.”

Carefully, as to not touch another man other than Devin more than she had to, Alison pushed Charle’s away from her and out of the shadow of the truck.

Alison hesitated. Though she didn’t care for Charles personally, he was one of Devin’s few friends that stuck around after Alison and Devin started dating. Truthfully, part of the reason Alison had gone to Charles for help in the first place was the small hope that maybe he’d want to rekindle his friendship with Devin once more.

Alison had grown enough to acknowledge that Devin could use one or two guy friends… sometimes… Only when Alison herself wasn’t around to be Devin’s everything…

“You can go home if you’d like Charles… or, if you would consider, possibly, coming with me to find Devin in the other world?” Alison mumbled quietly.

“Really?” Charles scratched his sizable chin. “You’d want me to tag along?”

Alison felt her gaze grow cold. “I don’t want you in any way Charles. My devotion to my husband is something that will never waiver…… but… Maybe Devin wouldn’t mind if you came to see him again.”

Charles looked around at the abandoned factory, the headlights of numerous surrounding trucks, and back to Alison. Charles then looked down at himself and sighed deeply.

“I’ll be honest, Alison. I’m not doing anything meaningful with my life. A part of me is jealous that Devin, a guy who I thought had everything worked out in this life, was the one to get summoned to another world. I want to start over and make something of myself.” He looked up at Alison and nodded. “I’ll come with you. This may be my only chance at something like this.”

Alison nodded. “Okay then.”

Without further discussion, Alison turned towards the truck idling next to them and nodded towards the empty cab. The truck groaned slightly and began to tip over on its side towards them.

I’m coming my beloved. Please be safe. Alison silently prayed as the truck crushed the pair of them into the floor.

JTNestman

A bit late to get this one out of the door. I apologize about that. My day got filled up with tasks that I didn't anticipate. Oh well. We got there in the end. If there are any notable misspellings, grammatical errors, etc. let me know. I didn't have as much time to vet this chapter before pushing it out.

As always thanks for reading. More to come.