• • •

"I can't wait to leave this place"

"Let me guess Joe, you can't have sex with others from the opposite sex unless your married?"

"Laura, you don't have to rub it in. I would prefer to leave my mark on some of these worlds, and who knows, maybe one day, my kids from alternate mothers will rule the planet and I will be so proud of them"

"Keep dreaming"

Laura pats Joe on the back then gets beside Quinn, who is holding the timer. They enter the alley way and Arturo looks back to see if anyone was coming.

"It's all clear. Ready when you are Mr. Mallory"

Quinn opens the gateway with Laura entering first and the 3 guys follow. The ride around in the wormhole gets bumpy and it suddenly shifts into 2 wormhole trails, causing Laura to separate from the others. The vortex opens and pushes Laura to the floor of a subway station, and knocking her unconscious.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, another vortex opens, tossing out Quinn, Arturo and Joe. When standing up, they look around for Laura then Joe and Quinn look at Arturo, "What happened to Laura?

"Don't worry about it. This has happened to us before. I'm pretty sur if we can make it to the hotel, we should have no trouble finding Laura. I think I may have to explain why this happened due to an adjustment I made to the timer"

The 3 soon look around, noticing they were enclosed and several buildings on separate sides of the streets. They notice people living in poverty and as Joe looks up near a side of the wall, he sees a sign, reading "Welcome Home To The Bermuda Triangle"; Joe tells the others to look up and they are all shocked of what they may have gotten into.

-Laura awakens on the floor, to realize a man was beside her, she stands up, shocked to see the man someone else, "Are you okay miss?"

"Where am I? What happened?"

"You look as if someone robbed you, and from the looks of it, you have"

Laura looks herself over to notice her crumby clothes on, then back at the man, "Did you notice 3 men nearby?"

"No, just people walking by and I noticed you on the floor down here. Are you able to walk?"

"Yes, but I need to get in touch with my friends"

"Come with me back to my office, you can get your debit chips back and your I.D." Laura agrees to go with the man and they head up the stairs.

Back inside the compound, the 3 sliders continue to walk around, "Guys, I think it might be helpful if we got inside one of these buildings. I'll see about getting past those people over there"

Joe quickly walks up a couple of steps when a man stops him, "Sorry, this building is full"

"I don't want to move in, I just want to get to the top of the building, so I can see whats going on"

Arturo soon gets beside Joe, "Excuse me sir, we mean no harm. We have somehow got placed in here on accident and if there is a way out, we want to find it"

"No one leaves this place man, don't you know that us poor people are stuck here for life"

Quinn then gets on the other side of Joe, "Maybe you can fill us in, see we came here when we were drunk, so we kinda lost it when arriving"

"You all really must have drank a lot to not know whats going on. In 1997, the government decided that they were tired of poor people living in this country who were worthless, so I like thousands of people were placed in here, and like the rest of the country with each having their own Bermuda Triangle. Meanwhile out there, rich white folks walk around proud to be Americans"

"So when we enter here, we don't leave. But there is no possible escape at all?"

"If your lucky, you could try the sewers, but I heard people tried leaving and died from the stench in there"

"So what do you say man, can we look out from the roof"

"Sure, be my guest. Even if you tried jumping, the fall would kill you, since as you can notice these walls are at least 40 feet in the air" the 3 sliders pass the man and enter the building.

Over at Globe-EX Law Firm, Laura is using a phone and is able to get money and a new identification card. The man, known as Milo enters back into his office, with Laura finishing her conversation with someone on the other end of the phone line.

"Thanks for the phone. Those people were quite rude, but what can I say"

"You know those people, they try anything to screw with you"

"I guess they thought I was living in New Mexico with a man who is wanted on arrest charges. But they should be sending them here if you don't mind"

"No. And I also was also nice enough to get a room at the Concord Hotel. By the way, my office is having a party tomorrow night, if you can come your welcome, and bring your friends when you find them"

"I will, thanks for the offer. Well I should get down there to get my stuff, see you later"

"Bye Laura, nice meeting you" Laura exits the office and down a flight of stairs for her cash and identification card.

With walking down the stairs from the top of the building, they figure that they would have little hope of leaving this place.

"One good thing about this situation is that we have the timer, but no Laura"

"Professor how about you explain that thing you were going to talk about"

"Well when I meant later, I meant when we could relax, but I guess I could quickly explain it. I've been working on equations for the timer to align our slide signatures with our home coordinates and then get us home, but like today, the wormhole must have created 2 stable wormholes. Except what I fear is that Laura may be on another earth if a second tunnel was established"

"If Laura is here, we still need to find her"

"Your right Quinn, but unless we can walk through the exit gate, we aren't leaving"

"Hey guys, what about the sewers. Think about it, even though there may be a heavy stench down there, we could try wrapping our faces with masks if there are any available"

"We could try that, but we will need time to plan it, possibly to ask our friend down below about how far it is to the exit from the sewer"

When the 3 guys continue walking around the area, they notice a short man who is holding a cell phone, but when he notices the sliders, he takes off, heading into an alley. Arturo looks to Joe and Quinn, "I wonder how that man was able to get a cell phone. I mean from what I can understand, this place has poor citizens, not the wealthy"

"Professor, you never know. Most of these people were probably wealthy and lost it all"

"Mr. LaFountain, I again say that the man seems suspicious, because if people had cell phones, most of them might be getting medical assistance or not even be in here"

"Whatever you say professor. Lets just go and find a line to get in so we can eat. I heard the food building was down Market Street, which is that way" Joe points to the left and the 3 head in that direction.

Down the alley, the man is talking to someone on the other line, "Its good that this place will be torn down soon. I have proof and just as soon as you get clearance to get in, the plan will be a go" the man tells the other person on the other line that he would stay in touch and hopes to leave since he can't stand living in terrible living conditions.

At the Concord Hotel, Laura is in her room, when she turns on the television and watches the news. A newswoman is talking of the harsh conditions reported for the poor in the Bermuda Triangle on Saint Street. The scene shifts with the man behind the idea, Dean Stockweld, who is trying to get to his car, is being mobbed by reporters who are asking if the poor were dying of poor living conditions or why they were placed in such a hell hole. The man doesn't answer the questions and takes off in his car.

Laura soon flips through the channels, but with nothing on, Laura uses the phone in the room and plans to get a hold of Milo Anderson as Globe-EX.

"Hi Laura, whats up?"

"Milo, do you know of anything about a place called The Bermuda Triangle on Saint Street?"

"Sure I do. My law firm has been trying to tear down the walls ever sinc the place went up. Why, what do you want to know about it?"

"I was thinking, you know that I lost my friends, and I was thinking that possibly, they were sent there and thats why I haven't found them"

"That could explain their disappearance. I'll talk with my boss today and see if I can head over there to check it out"

"I should come along, since my friends are missing"

"Fine, I'll call you back later if we can get in. If in fact your friends were sent there, we may have a case which could be finished off and make sure Dean Stockweld is put in jail for a long time" Laura tells Milo she would wait for his call and hangs up the phone. Laura then heads to the bed, lies down and tries to take a nap.

While the darkness covers the city of San Francisco, the 3 sliders still are stuck in the walls, and still walking around the area, this time with blankets, as people roam the streets and people getting near fires to keep warm. A young man rams into Arturo, with Arturo stopping the man, "Pardon me sir, but you bumped into me, I believe you owe me an apology"

The man gets in Arturo's face, "Sorry old man, but we don't have manners here"

"Come on professor, lets go before trouble starts up"

"Mr. Mallory, I have no intention to start a fight, but I feel that some people can at least be courteous when walking around"

The man tells Arturo to back off, or his gang would kill them all. Arturo listens and joins Quinn and Joe as they walk away. When they are far enough away from the young man, Arturo continues his speech, "I don't know why people like that can roam these streets. I mean look at him, he definately is a gang banger"

"Professor, just drop it. These streets are filled with people like that. I mean I used to hang with that crowd, and now, I wonder why I did"

The 3 soon find an alley and take seats on the ground. Arturo asks Joe to hand him a blanket and tells the guys to have a nice sleep, since they would need their strength to leave the hell hole.

In the room over at the hotel, Laura walks in and the phone begins ringing; Laura rushes to the phone, answering it with Milo on the other end of the line.

"It me Laura, Milo. I've spoken with my boss, we are a go. I'll pick you up about 9 a.m."

"Okay, I'll be outside of the hotel wiating, see you then" Laura hangs the phone and is glad that she hopefully would find her friends alive if in fact they were inside.

By the following mid morning, Laura and Milo arrive at the Bermuda Triangle and are soon let in to see a main manager of the place and the two take seats in chairs, in front of the manager's desk.

"Good morning, how may I be of help?"

"Mr. Langdon, my name is Milo Anderson, my associate Laura..."

"Its Cosgrove, Laura Cosgrove. I just transfered to the firm this morning"

"Anyway, we believe that you illegally pulled people off the streets and place them in the Bermuda Triangle. Is this true?"

"Of coarse it isn't. This Bermuda Triangle is for the poor people and psychotic type people of this world. I mean why would we let people like that out in our streets. I know I wouldn't tolerate some psycho around and killing people. We need standards for living in society, and due to the help of Dean Stockweld, we have made such a lifestyle for us all"

"But what about those poor people that can't survive without help from the government, you just throw them in here?!"

"I'm sorry miss, but I didn't think you were allowed to talk" Laura looks appauled, but doesn't say anything.

"How about you give us a tour of this facility and if we believe this place is satisfactory, then we will leave and you can forget we were in here"

"Fine, if that will get you off my back. I will have a police escort with you, because some of those people in there are quite crazy"

Laura and Milo exit the office and return to the lobby area, where Milo asks the receptionist for police escort, and the two wait. Milo looks to Laura, "I apologize for that. I guess some men believe that women aren't supposed to talk, just be there as window dressing"

"I don't get why this world could let that happen with being rude to the female sex, or even this facility to exist. I guess maybe it would be better to know that on some parallel world, this Bermuda Triangle doesn't exist"

Milo, Laura and the officer enter into the compound. Laura notices all the broken down buildings, and sickly people roaming the street. Milo looks around, then at Laura, "I think Mr. Stockweld is going to have a little trouble on his hands, since this place looks dispicable"

"I agree. But if my friends are in here, it could take months to find them"

Laura looks back at the officer behind them, "Do you know how large this compound is?"

"It's approximately 40,000 square feet in length. There are a lot of people in here"

Laura turns back around and continues to search, while Milo takes pictures of proof to return to his firm of the compound. The 3 turn down a side street and when looking around, Laura notices a man who looks like Quinn. Laura stops walking, heads to the man, "Quinn is that you?"

Laura touches the man and as he turns around, she realizes he was someone else, "Sorry, my mistake, I thought you were someone else" the man grunts at her and walks on. Laura joins Milo and the officer, as they continue walking.

Joe, Arturo and Quinn walk around, this time wearing large robes. Quinn stops the two, looking down a side street, "Hey, doesn't that look like Laura. I mean it could be her"

Joe starts to head for the woman, but stops with the officer looking at him and getting his hand close to his gun. Joe turns around and returns by the others, "I doubt it. She looks too dressy, and besides, that mysterious man may be part of the reason the woman is in here. Lets just keep walking. I'm hoping tonight, I can sleep on a bed for once"

Several hours later, as the sun began to go down, Quinn and Arturo help Joe down into the sewer. "Well if I survive this funky smell, I'll try to find Laura and hopefully we can get you out"

"Good luck Mr. LaFountain" Arturo helps Quinn return the cover to the sewer top, and they exit the area. The two start walking around, when they notice the man with the cell phone, Arturo stops Quinn, "I'm wondering about that man. I suggest we meet him and try to learn of his connection to the outside world"

Arturo and Quinn head to the man, but are stopped by the man who ran into Arturo the night before, "Excuse me gents, but I need your food card, so we can eat, since there isn't enough"

"Sorry to say man, but we're not going to give up our cards. If you have your own card, use it"

The man pushes Quinn back a few feet, "I must have lost my card man, so give it to me before things go a little farther"

Arturo taps the man on the shoulder, who turns around and Arturo whacks him with a metal pole, knocking the man to the ground and unconscious, leading for the two to rush off, before the man can come to.

By nightfall, people in the Bermuda Triangle are walking around and some eating, while others smoke and try to remain warm by the fires in trash barrels.

Arturo and Quinn come near one of the barrels, "Well so far, our friend hasn't found us. I hope to keep it that way"

"Professor, we should have just given our cards up. I mean if Joe succeeds, we should be out tomorrow"

The Skulls gang, who the 2 sliders fear have arrived and they managed to have possession of weapons, with firing them into the sky to get people's attention, "Now listen up, we are the Skulls and we plan to take this pad over, including control of the food supply!"

The man locates Arturo and Quinn, with pulling Arturo over near a car while 2 of the gang members hold Quinn.

"Now this man here refused to give help to his leader, so I plan to demonstrate on how not to act when we ask for things" the man backs away from Arturo and as he is about to pull the trigger, a man attacks the gang leader, and he gets shot, with the man falling to the pavement, and the gang rushing off. Arturo heads to man to realize it was too late and nothing could be done. Quinn joins Arturo and the two soon realize he was in fact the man with the cell phone, and he was trying to help. Quinn notices a CIA badge under his jacket, leaving the 2 unsure of what to do as helicopters fly over the area and soon disappear into the sky of darkness.

Over the Concord Hotel, Laura exits the bathroom after taking a shower and the door is knocked on. Laura is confused as to who would show up, but opens the door to see Joe there. The two hug, "I glad to see you Laura, I thought we lost you for good"

"Where is Arturo and Quinn?"

"They remained behind. I'm not sure if you've been paying attention, but there is a place called the Bermuda Triangle that we slid into"

"I was just there today trying to locate you. But why did they stay behind?"

"I'm not really sure, but I think they wanted to find out about this guy who had a cell phone. We figured he had to be with outside resistance or some organization. All I know is that we will need to meet up if we all want to make the slide"

Joe and Laura look at each other as the screen fades to black.

To Be Continued.....