Fletcher groaned and rubbed his temples, the pain in his head intensifying with each passing moment.

He tried to remember what had happened, but all he could recall was being knocked out with sleeping gas. He looked around his cell, taking in the dismal surroundings, and listened to the groans and curses coming from the other cells. It seemed that everyone was feeling the same way he was.

"Ed! Ed, you there?" Fletcher called the cell next to him, but he heard no response. He tried again, but there was still no answer.

"Hey, Fletcher, Ed's not here. They probably took him when they knocked us out with the sleeping gas," said his cellmate, whose name Fletcher couldn't remember.

Fletcher tried to sit up, but his head was spinning, and his vision was blurry. He closed his eyes, trying to focus his mind, but it only made his headache worse.

A few hours later.

Fletcher sat down trying to piece together what had happened since he'd been knocked out. "Why did they take a bunch of prisoners? Something fucked up is going on here."

A few weeks ago, the army had taken over the prison, and all contact with the outside world had been cut off. Obviously, there were a lot of prisoners who tried to find out what was going on, but to no avail. There had even been a prison riot protesting the lockdown, but it was met with extreme violence, and a bunch of inmates were gunned down. Since then, no one had tried anything, and it looked like these soldiers were on edge all the time, like they were scared of something on the outside.

Fletcher sat down racking his brain, trying to make sense of this messed up situation, he thought “The only explanation I could think of is that something big is happening outside. A war, natural disaster, deadly virus outbreak... Only something so drastic would demand such drastic action from the government, and they are experimenting on prisoners. Fuck, I need to get out of here. As someone sentenced to the death penalty for multiple homicides, I'll be on the top of the list”.

Fletcher cut a piece of his sheet and made it into a mask with straps on the side. It was crude, but it would do the job.

During the lunch break, Fletcher put on his homemade mask and sat away from others. "Look like others also have the same idea as me," he looked around and smirked.

A few people also put their own versions of masks on and distanced themselves from others, while the rest just looked at them. Some tried to mimic them by pulling their shirts up to their nose, and some just sat away feeling scared and stranded.

A tall, slim white man with a face full of tattoos approached. "Hey, Fletcher, you also figured out what's going on?" He sat a few feet away from Fletcher, who nodded his head in response. "Poker, so what? It doesn't change a thing. We are in a confined space breathing the same air. If there is a disease and it's airborne, sooner or later, we will all get infected."

"Remember how the prison guards suddenly put us on lockdown and disappeared?" Poker asked Fletcher. "Well, one of them who was on my payroll slipped me this. Do you know what was on it? Better yet, how about you read it yourself?"

Poker handed Fletcher a copy of an Emergency Alert . Fletcher hesitated at first but his curiosity took the best of him, and he took the paper and read it.

Attention All,

It is with great regret that we must inform you that our recent dimensional exploration has failed. However, the consequences of this failure are far greater than we could have ever imagined.

Through our experimentation, we have inadvertently created dimensional cracks and overlaps that have allowed monsters from other universes to invade our world. These monsters possess extraordinary abilities, and we are unsure of how to stop them.

But the horrors don't stop there. We have also discovered that humans exposed to these dimensional cracks and overlaps have developed strange and unpredictable abilities. The extent of these abilities is unknown, and we cannot predict how they will manifest in different individuals.

We urge everyone to exercise extreme caution and stay vigilant. If you notice any unusual abilities, report them immediately to the authorities. We are working tirelessly to rectify this situation and restore order to our world, but we need your help to do so.

 Fletcher read silently.

"Is this real, Poker? It's not a joke. Is it?" Fletcher asked, staring at Poker.

"I wish it was. The only reason I'm showing you this is that you're the only person with a brain here, and I don't understand any of that science gibberish in there. Tell me what it all means?" Poker said.

"I'm not sure either, but from what I can gather, how can I put it, imagining that our world is inside a cell. Now, what if all other cells are also worlds of their own? They could be exactly like ours or completely different or anything in between. Now, what if we dig through the walls of the cells next to us? What would happen?" Fletcher explained.

"What ?" Poker asked impatiently

"Well, these world will no longer be separated and whatever lives inside monsters or humans or whatever can now travel freely between them" Fletcher responded in a serious tone.

"What? WTF is this even possible?" Poker asked in disbelieve.

"In theory, it is, and according to the paper, it looks like it is," Fletcher said.

"Then what do you think the army wants from us?" Poker asked.

"It's probably because of the this line on the paper," Fletcher said.

Poker took the paper back from Fletcher and looked at it. "Humans develop strange abilities."

"I think they are taking people who have these abilities, but I don't know how they identify them," Fletcher said.

After lunchtime was over, Fletcher was back in his cell, thinking about everything that was going on. "I need to figure this out soon. How do they identify the people?" he asked himself.

Fletcher lay on his bed and closed his eyes, trying to recall his interactions with Ed, the only person he knew who had been taken by the army. He recalled yesterday's events, waking up and having breakfast with Ed, what they talked about. He recalled everything he could remember, and when it seemed like there was nothing.

"Wait, yesterday during breakfast, Ed told me about the dream he had. It was memorable for him because he did not have one in a long time.

'I had a bizarre dream last night. I was floating around and felt very real, like I'm really capable of doing it. Even now, I feel like I can do it if I try,' Ed said. I remember we laughed at that, but what if that was true and not just a dream?" Fletcher thought to himself.