Time Riders

CHAPTER 3

2001, New York

Falling, falling… falling.

Liam jerked awake, his legs kicking out. His eyes still clamped shut, he felt with his hands- material, dry and warm covering him. It was quiet, almost silent, except for the softrustle of breathing next to him, and a distant muted rumble somewhere far above him. He knewthat he was mysteriously somewhere else — that much wasobvious.

He was on a bed or a cot. He opened his eyes to see an arched ceiling of crumbling bricksabove him, whitewashed long ago with paint that was now flaking off like dandruff. From thetop of the arched ceiling a single flickering light bulb dangled from a dusty flex ofcable.

He lifted himself up on to his elbows.

He was in a brick alcove, somewhere underground, perhaps. Beyond the pool of light comingfrom the bulb above, a damp concrete floor spread out from the alcove into darkness.

Where am I?

He sat up, feeling groggy and light-headed, and found himself looking across a gap of threefeet at a bunk bed. In the lower bunk, he could see a girl a few years older than him stirringin an uneasy sleep. He guessed she might be eighteen, perhaps nineteen. More a young womanthan a girl.

Her eyes rolled beneath the lids; her voice whimpered pathetically. Her legstwitched and kicked, making the bunk squeak and rattle with every lurched movement.

Where the hell am I? he silently asked himself again.