The world lurched and spun, crackled and flashed. Xandra was assaulted by sizzling energy as sparks ignited and smoke swirled. The static power pack ignited and the belt holding it around Xandra’s waist gave way and it fell from her.
Xandra collapsed onto the grass and looked around for her twin.
‘That was worse than the last time,’ groaned Lex.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Xandra. ‘But at least we’re home.’
Lex groggily got to his feet and extended a hand to Xandra. She grabbed it and he pulled her up.
Her legs gave way and she fell to the ground.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Lex, crouching beside her.
Xandra panicked, but strove to suppress it. ‘My legs,’ she finally gasped. ‘They’re not working.’ She scrabbled to lift up her skirt. The wires had all fallen away, the metal struts were charred and bent. Touching her waist she realised the power pack was gone. She was overcome by a wave of sadness. ‘I think my days of walking are done.’
‘No!’ shouted Lex. ‘That’s not fair.’
Xandra slowly undid the straps that held the exoskeleton to her legs. There were a few small cuts and burns on her skin but she was otherwise unharmed.
‘Oh well,’ she lamented. ‘Back to normal.’
She saw tears in her brother’s eyes and touched his cheek. ‘It’s okay,’ she said, knowing that she would cope. She had a lifetime of experience. ‘Really. Getting a chance to walk for a while was nice, but … my life was pretty good before then.’
‘You’ll be back in a wheelchair,’ whispered Lex.
‘Have you ever known that to stop me from doing whatever I wanted?’
‘No.’ He smiled.
There are all sorts of bravery, thought Xandra. The bravery of standing up to a giant robot; and the bravery of everyday life.
‘Our lives are good,’ said Xandra. ‘We have a great mum and dad. We have everything we need. And we have each other. That’s all that matters.’
‘Hey,’ someone shouted. ‘It’s those missing kids.’
‘What are we going to tell everyone?’ asked Lex. ‘They’ll never believe the truth.’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Xandra. ‘Much as I hate to lie, I reckon we pretend we don’t remember anything.’
The following day, Xandra was in the living room, watching a news report about herself, a university science prospectus on her lap.
‘The two thirteen-year-old twins who disappeared from the Southwest Museum last Friday during a school excursion, were discovered in City Park yesterday afternoon,’ said the reporter. ‘There has been no explanation as to what happened to them, and they have no memory of the intervening days. There has been much speculation, but little in the way of evidence. The teacher in charge of the excursion insists that they physically disappeared.’
The screen cut away to Mr Quan. ‘I know this is hard to accept. But there was this shimmering in the air. And then a blinding flash and they were gone. Gone!’
‘The museum reports that a valuable painting also went missing at the same time as the children,’ continued the reporter. ‘Police believe that the children may have stumbled onto a burglary, and that the distortion and flash seen by the teacher was in fact some sort of explosive device. That could also explain the children’s memory loss. Why the thieves would have taken the children and then released them several days later is unknown. In fact, there are a number of things in this mystery that seem to make no sense. Both children were in different clothes from when –’
Xandra muted the TV as Lex walked into the room. He crouched down beside her and leaned on the arm of her wheelchair. ‘I’ve been doing some research online.’
‘And?’
‘I found this website called OTHER WORLDS. It claims that what happened to us – going to another world – has happened to other people.’
‘What do you think?’ asked Xandra.
‘Don’t know,’ admitted Lex. ‘But it’s asking people for their stories. I don’t know about you, but I really need to tell someone. And since no one else will believe us …’
Xandra nodded. ‘Maybe.’
‘What’s this?’ asked Lex, picking up the prospectus.
‘I’ve just been reading up about university courses,’ said Xandra.
‘We’ve got a few years before that.’
‘Yeah, but there’s nothing wrong with planning ahead.’ She took the brochure back and flipped through it. ‘There’s stuff in here about prosthetics and robotics being used to help people … well, people like me. I think that maybe I’d like to be an inventor like Nikole Tesla.’
‘And invent an exoskeleton?’ asked Lex.
‘Why not?’ Xandra shrugged.
‘Well, if anyone could,’ said Lex. ‘It would be you.’
He gave his sister a hug and headed for the door.
‘Where are you off to?’
‘Scouts,’ answered Lex. ‘Orienteering.’
As Lex left, Xandra looked at the prospectus with renewed hope. ‘Yeah,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe I will.’
In City Park the air shimmered. A wisp of thick black smoke squeezed through the shimmer. It curled through the air and twisted towards the city buildings.
It moved quickly.
It moved with purpose.
It moved with anger.
It moved with hate.
It was dissipating by the time it got to the buildings. As a bird flew through it, the darkness dispersed and vanished.
Books by George Ivanoff
You Choose 1: The Treasure of Dead Man’s Cove
You Choose 2: Mayhem at Magic School
You Choose 3: Maze of Doom
You Choose 4: The Haunting of Spook House
You Choose 5: Night of the Creepy Carnival
You Choose 6: Alien Invaders from Beyond the Stars
You Choose 7: Super Sports Spectacular
You Choose 8: Trapped in the Games Grid
You Choose 9: Extreme Machine Challenge
You Choose 10: In the Realm of Dragons
You Choose 11: Creepy Crawly Chaos
You Choose 12: City of Robots
You Choose AFL: Footy Fever
Royal Flying Doctor Service 1: Remote Rescue
Royal Flying Doctor Service 2: Emergency Echo
Royal Flying Doctor Service 3: Medical Mission
Royal Flying Doctor Service 4: Fast Flight
Meet … The Flying Doctors
(Illustrated by Ben Wood)
OTHER WORLDS 1: Perfect World
OTHER WORLDS 2: Beast World
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Version 1.0
OTHER WORLDS: Beast World
ePub ISBN – 9780143786221
First published by Random House Australia in 2018
Copyright © George Ivanoff, 2018
Illustration copyright © James Hart, 2018
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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Cover and internal illustrations by James Hart
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