Logan St. Claire exited the vortex from which she was sucked into. "Damn you Mallory!" She fell to the ground as a sharp pain hit her right shoulder. Logan grabbed her shoulder with her left hand. She was bleeding.
Looking to the timer in her hand her pulse quickened. "Only five seconds on this world?"
As the timer hit zero the vortex opened up and sucked her in again. Again she went through and exited landing in almost the exact same spot. "Why didn't I burn up?" She wondered. Looking back at the timer she read the coordinates, it was the same world. She didn't move on to a different world at all. It was the same world.
"I have two days before I slide again. I have two days to figure out how to make this blasted thing not burn me up and not loop around to the same damn world slide after slide."
The pain in her shoulder increased. She had to take care of it. She took a look around. Off in the distance stood the Golden Gate Bridge. "I'm still in San Angeles, at least I'll know where I am." She headed into town.
She hadn't been walking too long before a motor cycle came up. The man riding the bike had blue eyes and blonde hair. "Need a lift?"
Logan, still clutching her arm, looked over "Sure, just take me to the nearest hospital."
"Hop on."
Logan did as invited and they were off.
As they came into town, Logan looked around. Where did all of the cars come from? People weren't riding skateboards or even walking around. Everyone had a car.
They came upon a hospital. "Here ya go." The man said. "Be safe now." He road off.
Logan stumbled into the Emergency Room of San Francisco General Hospital. She was met by a nurse who at one look at Logan got a wheelchair.
"Let's get you taken care of." She wheeled Logan to a bed and started an IV. Inspecting the wound she pulled a bottle out. "I won't lie. This will hurt."
Logan nodded.
The woman poured a blue substance out from the bottle into the wound.
Logan squirrmed and held onto the bed tight. "Ow!"
"Almost done." The woman said. "There we go."
Logan looked down to her shoulder, the wound was gone. The bullet was sitting on top of her shoulder.
"How does that feel?" The nurse asked.
Logan, still in shock, nodded slowly. "How did you do that?" She started to sit up. The bullet rolled down her yellow orange blouse and into her hand. She looked over the bullet in her hand. "Thanks."
The nurse nodded. "You're welcome. I'd like to keep you here for a few days just to make sure you're all healed."
Logan shook her head. "I don't have time for that. I have to get going." She started to get up but was knocked back down on the bed.
"You're in no condition to go anywhere." The nurse said as she laid Logan back down on the bed.
"What did you do to me?" Logan asked as she lost consciousness.
A doctor entered the room. "Everything okay here? I heard you had a gunshot victim."
The nurse nodded. "Evtherything's good now doctor. I used the new formula. Worked like a charm. She's resting now."
"Good, carry on."
A day later, Logan woke up. Looking down at herself, she was dressed in a hospital gown. The IV had been removed. Sitting up in bed, she put her hands to her head. "Talk about a hangover." She said.
Logan looked around the room. It wsa a typical hospital room. Nothing special. Standing up, she walked over to a drawer. Opening the drawer she found it to be empty.
The timer, where was the timer?
Opening another drawer she again found nothing. She moved to a closet and opened it. There were her clothes that she had arrived in. She checked the pockets frantically.
Pulling out the timer, she sighed. "Thought I lost you!" She said to the device. "Don't do that again." She looked to the time left, less than 20 hours.
She searched the rest of the pockets, her gun was missing. "Damn you!"
Logan put her own clothes on and made her way out of the hospital.
As she exited the hospital, Logan looked around. She obviously wasn't home. Whatever Quinn had done to her timer made it so she went someplace else, that much was certain. Logan walked away from the hospital, she needed to find tools. Walking down the street she stopped at a street vendor. Pickingu p a newspaper, Logan read the headlines.
Thousands Die In Rockslide
War On Terror Escalating
President Clinton Exonorated
Logan flipped through the several pages. She had never seen a paper quite this large. "This world would have been perfect to grab resources from." She said. "Maybe it still will be if I ever get back."
As Logan walked around town she was amazed at how foolishly people were wasting resources. Sprinkling systems being left on during the day, cars being left idling while people were in stores. She came upon an electronic store and walked in.
After looking around a bit, Logan found the tools she needed to make modifications to the timer. Walking up to the counter she placed the items down on the counter.
The clerk looked at her. "Woah, I can't have no bomb making purchases going through my store now honey."
Logan rolled her eyes. "I'm not making a bomb you twit." She replied.
The clerk looked at her. "Uh huh. Well whatever you're doing with this stuff... whatever. That'll be fifty three dollars and fourty two cents."
Logan pulled out a small wallet and handed him the money.
"Right, have a nice day."
"Thanks." Logan said. "Hey, any good hotels in the area?"
The man nodded. "Yeah, just up the street. The Dominion."
Logan smiled. "Thank you for your help."
"If you need some company, don't hesitate to ring me." The clerk said handing Logan a card. "I'm always up late."
"I bet you are." She exited the shop putting the business card in a pocket.
The Dominion Hotel was empty. Almost like a ghost town. Logan walked up to the front desk and rang the bell. Leaning against the desk she looked around. A dull room with dull drapes. Dull. Dull. Dull.
"Ah a visitor. How may I help you?" A woman asked.
Logan turned around. "I'd like a room please. 1215 if you have it?"
The woman checked. "I'm sorry, that room is currently occupied. How about one of our suites instead?"
Logan nodded "Whatever fine."
"Here you are, room 107." She handed Logan a key. "Checkout time is noon tomorrow morning."
Logan smiled. "Thank you." Taking the key, she headed upstairs.
Room 107 was a good sized room. As soon as she enterd Logan set her bag from the elecronic shop down on a table in the entry way. Off to the left was a small kitchen, and off to the right was a bedroom. Complete with a king size bed. "This will do." She said.
Sitting down at the table she started working on the timer. Pulling wires here, pushing in chips there. Soldering pieces together. It wasn't the prettiest job but if it did what she needed it to do it wouldn't be that bad.
Ten hours later her changes were complete. She could sleep for six hours and have plenty of time to slide... to wherever the device wanted to send her. At best she hoped she had figured out the burning things to a crisp part. Putting the device back together she flipped on the switch and looked at the time.
"Oh no." Logan let out a gasp. The timer again read five seconds.
04
03
02
01
The timer beeped as the numbers cycled around to zero. "Time's up."
The vortex opened and sucked Logan into it. As she traveled through the orange interdimensional wormhole, she held her breath. In a second or two she would either know if she would survive or burn up on re-entry.
The vortex opened.
Logan was thrown back into the hotel room. She landed with a hard thud on the floor. The timer flew out of her hands and landed next to the wall.
"I'm alive?" Logan said in disbelief.
Standing up, she walked over to the timer and picked it up. It read forty-five minutes. Looking to the table, it was just as it had been.
"I didn't move to a different world." She said. "I really didn't slide."
Logan sat back down at the table and started to work on the device again. She wondered how many more slides she would be through before correcting the problem. Mallory had managed to mess her over good. "Dam kid." She said.
There was a knock at the door.
Logan looked up from her work. Who could be bothering her now? She stood, walked over to the door and opened it.
"Mallory" Logan said as she saw who was on the other side of the door.
Quinn looked at her. "I'm sorry have we met?"
In his hand was a device. It wasn't a timer, it was something else. She took a quick look at the screen. There were what appeard to be spacial coordinates on it. Was he tracking her?
He didn't recognize her though. Possibly a double of the Quinn she had run into? Looking back to him she smiled. "No we haven't. I'm Logan. What can I do for you?"
Quinn smiled. "Are you by chance using Sliding technology? There are some strange spikes coming from this room."
Logan looked over her shoulder to the table. "Yes yes I sure am. Come in."
She moved over to the table and handed him her device. "It keeps opening a portal to this same world and won't let me go anywhere else. I don't get it." She said. "Could you maybe take a look?" She bit her lip flirting with him.
Quinn sat down and worked with Logan's timer. She took the time to rub his shoulders.
A half hour passed. Quinn closed the back of the timer and handed it back to Logan. "That should do it." He said. "Now if you'll excuse me I have a slide to catch."
"Thanks again." Logan said as she showed Quinn the way out. "Stupid doubles."
Her timer beeped, it was time to go. As the vortex opened that familiar orange color showed up. It was time to tell if his changes worked. She jumped into the vortex.
Logan exited the vortex. She was standing in the middle of a forrest. She had made it. But where was she? Was she home? Was she in the same place? She looked at the timer and checked how much time she had left on this world. A week and change. She had time to find out. The good news, she wasn't dead.
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