Chapter 1

I shut the door after the last of my friends walked out, saying goodbye and good night. My graduation party just ended and, it's almost midnight, and I'm ready to wind down for the night.

The couch sinks with a whoosh as I sit down and grab the remote from the coffee table. I turn on the TV, going straight to my Netflix app. It's time to watch one of my favorite TV shows, Transformers: Prime. The show is about this race of aliens called Cybertronians, who live in an abandoned missile silo on Earth. The good guys are called Autobots, and the bad guys are Decepticons. Autobots protect the human race from the Decepticons while also trying to find a way to revive their planet and go home. In doing so, they must remain invisible from human eyes. Hence their motto, "Robots in disguise." But, some humans do end up finding out about their existence. Agent William Fowler was one of the first, as the liaison between the Autobots and the US government. Silas (CYLAS), former Colonel Leland Bishop, is a villain that runs MECH and is obsessed with Cybertronians overall. Then, there are three children under the Autobots' protection. Jackson Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Rafael Esquivel. They're all friends who go to Jasper High School. Jack is a typical teenager, has a job at the KO. Drive-In fast food joint. Miko is a foreign exchange student from Japan with a knack for extreme undertakings. Raf is a 12-year-old boy in high school with a genius IQ and a proficiency for computers. Eventually, later on in season 1, June Darby finds out when a Decepticon named Airachnid kidnaps her. She's Jack's mother, a nurse, and the only one who's taking care of her son beside the Autobots.

I've only watched this show a total of 136 times, but who's counting. I'm a nerd. So what?

Anyway, I select Transformers: Prime and start the playback of the first episode, "Darkness Rising: Part 1." As it loads, the lights start acting funny. They're flickering sporadically. Confused, I get up so I can check the breaker box in the laundry area. All electricity goes out right as I stand up, the only light coming from the window in the kitchen. I stand in the middle of the living room for a moment, careful not to panic. There's a flashlight in one of the kitchen drawers. I'm about to slowly walk over there when the TV suddenly comes back on in a burst of static. It makes me jump for a millisecond, my head jerking to look at it. How come that's the first thing that comes on, but nothing else does, not even the lights? I'm getting a little crept out here. There has to be a logical explanation for this. It's either logical or paranormal, the latter of which I don't believe.

Just as I'm about to turn and go back to looking for that flashlight, an eerie green light appears. It casts my shadow on the wall in front of me; it's coming from behind me. I turn around.

No way.

There's what looks like a groundbridge portal in my living room, behind the couch. I don't know what to do or say, I'm frozen where I stand with my mouth slightly agape. I'm a rational man who's set of beliefs revolve around science's many principles. This incident may just redefine them once I figure out if I'm hallucinating.

I start to feel a pull like I'm gravitating toward the portal. My feet slide out from under me, and I fall to the floor. I grab the couch to stop myself from going any further, afraid of what could be on the other side of the rip in space-time. Eventually, my grip fails as my hands become too sweaty to hang onto the leather furniture. Then I'm falling through black nothing.

I'm waking up, my head pounding to the steady beat of my heart. The first thing I notice before I open my eyes is that the temperature is very much higher than my apartment. This fact alone makes me wary of opening my eyes, but I know I have to. I need to find out what happened to me.

I slowly crack open my eyelids, then close them again when I'm faced with the hot sun that's high in the sky. I open them again, repeatedly blinking to adjust to the brightness. Now that my headache has calmed down a little, I sit up and observe my surroundings. I'm in a desert, in the middle of nowhere. The only thing I can deduce is that I'm somewhere in the western United States. The rock formations and mostly flat and rocky terrain lend to that hypothesis.

I stand up to see if there are any populated areas nearby, or even a road to follow. It's nothing but desert all around. I guess there's only one way to get myself out of here; head in one direction until I stumble upon something or someone.

It feels like I've been out here for an hour, maybe more. I lost my perception of time. The sun is already approaching the horizon. There isn't any sign of civilization for miles. My legs don't feel like walking anymore, my throat is parched, but I can't stop. If I don't make it somewhere safe by sundown, I'll be subject to biting cold temperatures and the unforgiving circle of life. So, I keep trekking.

While I wander, I think about what got me to this point and where I could've possibly ended up. If I remember correctly, the portal that appeared in my living room looked exactly like a groundbridge from the TV show I was about to watch. Even though it seems impossible, that seemed very real. It can't be a coincidence. Maybe it was some sort of experiment, the government was messing around with portal technology. There isn't desert anywhere in Tennessee, much less near Townsend. Something that transports a human across states is no joke. I may have two doctorates in Mechanical and Biochemical Engineering, but this is out of my league.

It looks like I'm lost in more ways than one.

My skin no longer feels sweaty, which is a bad sign. If I looked in a mirror right now, my skin is probably as red as a tomato. Heatstroke and dehydration are imminent risks. I need to find somewhere shaded to sit down, even more so because I don't have any water on me. That, and I'm wearing my dress shirt and pants from last night.

As I realize these facts, I see a massive rock formation a few hundred feet away.

Hallelujah!

I would sprint if I could, my legs are like jello.

Eventually, I feel the cooling relief from the sun's heat. My eyes can have a break, and so can the rest of me. I sit down, leaning against the rock. Now I'm tip-toeing away from the danger zone as I close my eyes and take deep, cooling breaths. As my core temperature goes down, I don't feel as better as I thought I would. I don't feel as bad, but I feel fatigued.

I have to stay awake.

When a loud noise startles me to full awareness, that's not a problem anymore. I stand up quickly with the rush of adrenaline preparing me for fight or flight. The noise came from behind me, so I turn around. I don't see anything there; it's just solid rock.

Unless there's something on the other side?

I put my arm up to block the sun as I walk around to the other side. It's a prominent structure, that's for sure. There's nothing of consequence here so far, not even when I get to halfway around its circumference. If I'm not already losing my hearing, this should be where the noise came from, but there's nothing here...

...Except a road leading to a wall. The asphalt is old but doesn't look worn that much. Not many people have used it.

It just occurs to me as, suddenly, all the clues add up. The groundbridge portal, the desert, this road leading into the rock...

...and the booming footsteps right behind me.

I turn around slowly, coming face to legs with a giant red robot. Taking a few steps back to avoid being squished, I finally see a face and surprised optics looking back at me.

Cliffjumper.