*~Altered States~*
by
Courtney Brown
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"A whole lot of emptiness..." Bush--"Altered States" The Science of Things
Chapter Two
The Bushmen made it out of the house just in time. A horrible sound of howling winds followed after them, threatening to suck them back into the house. The noise was deafening, terrifying. Gavin had to struggle to both get himself out of the house and to keep poor Winston from being sucked back in.
Dave, Gavin, Robin, and Nigel made it to a tree across the street from Gavin's flat, where they held on for dear life. In a few minutes, it was all over.
"Holy shit," Gavin said breathlessly, as he let go of the tree and of Winston. His firey hair was everywhere, his clothes wrinkled rags, as were the rest of the Bushmen, except for Nigel, who, of course, is bald.
"Gavin, what the fuck just happened?" Dave asked. "We almost got sucked into a goddamn black hole in your bedroom!!"
"Jesus, man, you think I know? Let's go inside and survey the damage," Gavin answered.
So they did. Everything was fine, still bare, that is, and now even Gavin's suitcases were gone. Winston ran from room to room barking at the sight of nothingness.
Robin rubbed his eyes. "My God, I wonder how many times this has happened?"
"Yeah," Nigel said. "And if it did happen before, how come Winston didn't get sucked into the hole?"
"Maybe it can't suck in anything that's alive," Robin suggested.
"It sure as hell tried to suck us in just now," Gavin noted.
"Do you want to try an experiment the next time that happens?" Dave asked. He looked over at Winston.
"Ah no, no way," Gavin said adamantly. "There's no way in bloody hell I'm going to send him in there."
"Well, what do suggest Gavin, that one of us go in there?" Dave asked.
"It was your idea," Gavin snapped.
"Hey, knock it off," Robin said. "Fighting's not going to solve anything. Besides, I want to go in there."
"Shut up Rob! Are you insane?" Nigel asked, in disbelief.
"No, really, I want to go in," Robin insisted. "I want to see what's in there."
"What if you never come back, dumb ass?" Dave asked. "What about your family, Glynis, and your daughter...us?"
"Don't forget our fans," Gavin said. "They would be devastated."
Robin thought for a moment. The other guys watched as a startled look came onto his face. "Uh, Gav?" he said slowly.
"What?" Gavin asked, rubbing his temples again.
"Where are the tapes?"
"What tapes?" Nigel asked,confused.
"Oh...SHIT," Gavin said slowly. "The fucking session tapes were in my room."
"What!?" Nigel gasped.
"I had the new album session tapes sent to my house before we got back. I wanted them to be there so we could start working on them again," Gavin said dejectedly. "Oh, goddamnit." He put his face in his hands.
Dave swore under his breath. "Do you know what this means? One of us has got to go into that fucking hole and go get them."
"No way," Nigel said, thinking of his pregnant wife Judith and what it would be like to leave hre all alone. "We can do it over again. They're not worth getting killed over."
For Robin, it was just an excuse to do something he had wanted to do all along. "I'm going in there to get our tapes back," he announced. He walked over to the closet door.
"Jesus, Robin, what if something happens to you?" Dave worried. "What if it's got some kind of acid that dissolves things when it sucks them in, or some shit like that?"
Gavin said, "Besides that, I think this hole may have already affected our world."
"Why?" Nigel asked.
"Look outside," Gavin replied.
They did. When they had all arrived, it had been about 11 pm, and it had been pouring down rain with lightning and thunder. Now it appeared to be about 2 in the afternoon, and the sun was up and shining, a rare day in London.
"What time is it?" Nigel wondered.
"I don't know, my watch stopped," Dave replied.
"Mine too," Gavin said. "See what I mean?"
"Yeah, I see that something really weird is going on here," Dave replied. "I think you should just move out of here, Gavin, and forget this ever happened."
Gavin thought that perhaps Dave was right, as much as he hated to leave the flat he loved so much. At least until he saw what happened next.
Chapter Three
Gavin decided to go stay with Nigel and Judith for a day or two, until he decided what he was going to do. The Bushmen prepared to leave the flat, after talking Robin out of going in to the hole, with Winston in tow.
"Damn, it's hot," Robin said, wiping the sweat off his forehead as they walked outside. "It's gotta be ninety." He took his shirt off.
All the weather stuff was giving them all the creeps, so they wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. They all piled into Nigel's old BMW, Robin and Dave opting not to call a cab. As they began to drive down the street, they noticed that something very strange was going on.
People were everywhere. They were hanging out on street corners, sitting on benches, standing in doorways. They were all dressed in extremely bright colors and strange styles of clothing. At least, the ones who were dressed. The Bushmen noticed that there were a lot of people who had not bothered to put any clothes on.
"What the hell is going on?" Nigel said, shocked.
"Damned if I know," Dave said. "But I bet that hole has something to do with this."
Besides the people, and there were thousands of them, there was stuff just lying everywhere. Nigel had to swerve to avoid tables and furniture in the middle of the road, and there were valuable paintings, shoes, clothes, tons of stuff. It was insane; there was no order to anything.
"Hey!" Gavin suddenly shouted. "That's my couch!"
Nigel stopped the car in the middle of the road, which was okay because there were no other cars. The Bushmen got out to inspect. It was, indeed, Gavin's blue sofa.
"What the bloody--" Gavin started, but he was interrupted by a sudden loud whooping.
Several people, all either naked or partly so, began screaming and running toward Nigel's car. They jumped inside it suddenly, and took off, doing ninety miles an hour down the crowded street. They were knocking people down left and right, and must have killed six people while speeding down the road.
"God damn it!" Nigel shouted. "Those bastards! Now what are we going to do?"
"I've got it," Gavin said, whipping out his mobile phone. "I'll call Gwen."
"Damn it, why didn't you think of this before?" Robin said, exasperated.
Gavin punched in the first number on his speed dial, and Gwen Stefani picked up after two rings. "Hello?" she said in her cheery voice.
"Hello, love, it's me," Gavin said. "Listen, the guys and I have a bit of a problem--"
"Who is this?" Gwen asked suspiciously, her voice growing cold.
"What the hell do you mean, 'who is this?'? It's Gavin. Jesus, Gwen--"
"GAVIN!' Gwen snapped. "I told you not to call me anymore, you bastard."
"What the fuck are you talking about, honey?" Gavin said, completely confused. "The guys and I are stranded in South London, and some mighty weird shit is going on."
"I don't care, Gavin. I told you, I don't want to see you anymore! You are stupid, boring, and you're an arrogant bastard. I hate you! Leave me alone! Don't ever call me again!" Gwen slammed the phone down in Gavin's ear.
Gavin stared at the cell phone. "What the fuck?"
"What?" Dave asked.
"She just bitched me out, and said she never wanted to see me again! And she acted as if she had done it before!" Gavin was devastated.
"I thought you guys were getting along well?" Robin asked.
"I thought so too!" Gavin looked as if he were going to cry.
Dave patted his back. "It was fake," he said. "I don't think any of this is really happening."
"What do you mean?" Gavin asked.
"Do you really think there are going to be naked people running aroud London in broad daylight?" Dave said skeptically. "Don't you all know what's going on?"
They looked at him, completely lost.
"You got your wish, Robin!" he said.
"Huh?" Robin said.
"Isn't it obvious?" Dave asked. "We're already in the damn hole! And I suspect we've been in here since it first tried to suck us in!"