Trapped In Time - Chapter 104

At present they had managed to finish off three machines at Town M, Town I and Town J and freed the scientists of Town I and Town J only. They still had to take care of the Time Machines at Town K and Town L as well as release the scientists of the other three towns, Town K, Town L, and Town M.

Mono also informed them that all those theories he had told were wrong just to confuse them. Their time had been stopped by the Orbs as the Orbs and Mono did not know how long their plan to destroy the time machines as well as deal with the corrupted administrators and rescue the scientists and political prisoners would take.

The Utopians could have done it by themselves but they could not have left the trekkers to fend for themselves as they did not know the way around Utopia. So the trekkers were asked to tag along and experience their advanced civilization.

Mono further explained that even if the trekkers spent their whole lifetime here, it will just be a few seconds of time spent with us when you get back. It would be like a life dream for them when they went back to the city above. We were literally trapped in Utopia’s time.

This time they could see the Town as it was daylight. The planning of the Town was like the ancient Indian cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro and the present city of Chandigarh in India. These ancient cities were made in such a way that the blowing winds would clean them. The back of the houses was towards the main roads. The front of the houses opened into the inner lanes of the colonies. It seems that the idea for their towns was taken from the information about these cities available on the net or maybe they were already aware of it since these people had settled here 250 years ago.

Soon they passed the Time Machine cave and went further to enter the tunnel for a 10 minutes walking distance to the exit of the tunnel which housed the launching Pads of the cars they needed to take to the next Town K. It was now 12 noon and they had another 20 minutes to travel to reach their next Town.

They all passed the Time Machine experiment cave and continued walking further into the tunnel that led to the launching pad all the time being protected by the 125 Orbs. That is actually, quite a lot of Orbs. When they hovered around everyone’s heads they resembled a pearl necklace with huge light-emitting beads. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

They soon reached the launching pad. The 3 attendants were still there frozen as statues and in various stages of doing work at their respective areas.

The launching pad had an arrival area where the cars coming from Town I and Town K and docked. On the departure area were the cars which would be leaving for Town I and Town K. They were going to use the launchpad to take them to the next Town K. It was already 12 noon and they had another 20 minutes to travel to reach their next Town.

Mono explained to them that the direct link to Town M was only with Town I. The other towns were interconnected via a hopping system of connectivity. They could not go directly to Town M, they all had to travel to Town I first even if they belonged to Town L. Town L no longer exists as a Town. It was abandoned and the reason for so doing was not known to the society here. It is still a mystery and no one lives there. Even they could not go to Town M but had to travel from Town L to Town K then from Town K to Town J and then from Town J to Town I and then from Town I to Town M.

Mono told them that they will be going to the other side and take the Cars for Town K.

He also informed that there was no way directly to Town M from any other town, except Town I. The direct tunnels to Town M from all the other towns had caved in. Maybe it was done deliberately.

To go to Town K they would proceed in the four electric cars moving in the travel tunnels. The cars worked on electric energy harnessed from the small waterfalls at all the towns. He also explained that they all would each Town K in less than 25 minutes as the cars moved fast and the distance was only 90 km away. The Town was parallel to Town I and J and was on the other side of the snow-covered mountains.

The Orbs kept them covered in spite of all persons having turned to statues and the CCTV cameras being stopped, they were not taking any chances. Even if one person escaped becoming a statue then there could be a witness who could see them passing through these tunnels.

They all sat in 4 cars as before. The 125 Orbs did not need cars. They just hovered above the cars in a ring-like manner. Mono pressed a few buttons in the lead car and all the cars started moving together with one another through the long tunnel.

Again there was nothing to see outside except a long winding tunnel with lights at regular intervals to ensure that the tunnel would not be in dark. The journey was quite tedious as there was nothing to do. Some persons took a short nap.

They also felt thirsty and hungry. After hunting the car pockets for something to eat, they found packets of snacks and cool drinks. The packets seem to be made of a biodegradable substance. The tetra packets containing the cold drinks also seemed to be made of biodegradable stuff. There was a sign on the packets to dump them in a dustbin kept inside the car. The stuff inside tasted like fried popcorn and the cold drink seemed to be cold and greenish in color. They all wondered what the snacks were made of and what was the cold drink made of? They would ask Mono when they got down from the cars.