Trapped In Time - Chapter 101

The Orbs that belonged to Town I told him to follow them. The 25 Orbs lead the entourage through the tunnel and the 75 Orbs covered the group as well as Mono. Soon they came to another side tunnel that led upwards and outwards to a residential hostel for the scientists. The residential hostel was two-storied and the roof was made of green cover that blended with the trees around the hostel. It was a good camouflage and no one could see it from the sky. First, the Orbs took Mono to the reception area where they found 7 empty rooms. The receptionist had also become a statue. Luckily, all the empty rooms were on the first floor and adjacent to each other. Mono shared the room with Luke. The rest adjusted as they had done in the tents @ 2 each i.e. Zia with Zoya, Cathy with Shana, Nanu with Tina, Zen with Chris, Ben with Danny and Sunny with Sherpa. The rooms that they occupied were the rooms that belonged to the scientists who had become Orbs. No one wants to become a scientist now in Utopia due to the horrendous experiment. The scientists had paid for the canteen bills earlier so the food bills were already accounted for.

They used the attached washrooms and were called down to the ground floor canteen for tea and snacks. It was not yet dinner time. They would be having dinner around 9 p.m. They all were accompanied by the Orbs. Upon reaching the canteen they found sandwiches, flavored milk, tea, coffee, biscuits, muffins, donuts, burgers too which was indeed very surprising.

They managed to take whatever they wanted to eat. Of course, the Orbs gave them cover as there were some scientists in the canteen, but all of the scientists were statues. There were the attendants and the cashier but they were also statues. The group and Mono could not risk being seen even as fleeting images. They wanted to visit the jail at around 9.30 p.m. after dinner, complete the work of Town I proceed to the next town, i.e. Town J.

The Orbs had slowed time, in that their 1 minute was equivalent to our 1 hour and since morning they had completed 9 hours but then they have also completed 9 minutes. Somehow, the statues would realize that something was wrong after seeing the destroyed machines, etc and would obviously alert the authorities. After all, their time had not been stopped. Mono discussed the matter with the Orbs of his grandfather and father who in turn discussed it with the rest of the Orbs. They all finished their tea and snacks and left for their respective rooms surrounded by the Orbs. They would rest in their rooms till 8.30 p.m. to be called for the execution of the rest of the Town I plan. In the meantime, all the Orbs assembled outside their rooms to discuss the matter.

At 8.30.p.m. they were woken up to proceed for a quick light dinner. Thereafter, they left to walk back through the tunnel so as to enter the parallel tunnel to take them to the other side where the jail was.

While they had all been resting, the Orbs had discussed the matter of slow time and freezing time for all the Towns. Slowing time would have had repercussions as the people would know something was happening but could figure out that destruction was being done. So it was agreed to freeze time for all the people. Hence, time for all the people of the Towns was frozen but their own time was kept normal. The Orbs could do anything. Except for the Orbs, the group of trekkers and Mono, everyone else had become human statues until they were made to become normal again.

The 25 Orbs liberated from the Time machine at Town I led the way to the Jail of Town I where innocent scientists were lodged. There also were lodged those persons who had protested against the wrong policies of the Administrator and his cronies. Surprisingly, Town I had its local government which was similar to that at Town M but on a lower scale.

They soon reached the Jail and by magic, all the locks opened as soon as the Orbs surrounded the gate. Upon entering the jail, they first went to the reception area and found the records. Quickly they identified the records of 20 scientists, who had been arrested quite some time back for refusing to work on the Time Machine experiment. They also located the records of the 15 political prisoners. The Orbs did a memory scan of the lists of scientists and the political prisoners and thereafter destroyed the entire records. All the attendants there were also statues.

The Orbs split into four groups. One group remained to surround them, another group floated to the compound of the 20 scientists. The third group moved to the compound that had lodged the 15 political prisoners. The fourth group moved to the local administrator’s building which housed the local administrator and his cronies. The Administrator and his cronies were still in office today as they were working late. All the lights in the building were on.

The question now arose as to how to get the prisoners out of jail and the local Administrator and his cronies into jail? They had been frozen into statues. The Orbs thought that they should hypnotize the prisoners and make them walk out of jail and into their homes where they would become statues again. How else would they be able to get these 20 scientists out of the jail? The same was the case of the 15 political prisoners. The Orbs huddled together to think for a solution to handle the issue. They then went in front of the prisoners and waved a thin lit torch like apparatus in front of the prisoners.

The Orb of Mono’s Dad was holding this thin lit torch stick-like apparatus in front of the scientists and his grandfather’s Orb was holding a similar lit torch like apparatus in front of the political prisoners.