Sam wasn't sure why he woke up. He hadn't set an alarm and the day looked dreary - the worst kind of day for him. Sam wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep but there was a feeling that he couldn't shake. It was the feeling that something was happening. That's when he rolled over to see his computer. There was a word on the black command screen that sat at the center of the screen.

CONNECTING...

'What the?' Sam got up from his bed and sat in front of his computer. However just as he sat down, the command window disappeared. Sam sat there confused for a second before another window popped up with what looked like music visualizations. There was also an eerie sound coming from his speakers. Sam didn't understand what was happening but he was sure he didn't like it. Sam pressed "Control W", attempting to close the window. When the window didn't close, Sam had a thought. He pulled out his palm top and sent the window to his palm top. Sam left for the shower, intent on running a diagnosis on the mysterious program later at school. What Sam couldn't have seen after he left his computer, was the message on it.

STILL CONNECTING...

Samuel Ellen was a seventeen year old with fair hair and brown eyes. He had a gift for computers that he didn't quite understand himself. Everything about him screamed beach-going-athlete yet, his favorite day consisted of him sitting outside with his laptop, illegally pirating movies and listening to a "borrowed" police scanner just for fun. He considered himself in the awkward space between nerd and jock.

Ever since he met Sarah Porter- his next door neighbor and love of his life- in the eighth grade, he'd never acted the same. He'd done away with his spectacles and started wearing contacts. He'd quit the chess club and joined the ice hockey team. It was nothing but ironic that he'd done this all in the name of a girl he hadn't worked up the guts to ask out yet.

After managing to drag himself into the bathroom and have a shower, he walked back into his room and got dressed. Before he could find a descent shirt that some-what matched his favorite tracksuit pants- that he loved solely because of the waterproof pockets he could keep his palmtop in- he caught a glimpse of her through his window. Her room was adjacent to his which meant when the curtain weren't closed, he could see right into her room. It was bliss living in Toronto. At the moment she was sitting in front of her dressing table, brushing her still wet hair wearing nothing but a towel.

Sam couldn't move. It was like he was in some kind of trance. He couldn't help himself. She was so beautiful. It was the perfect moment. Just as she got up to most likely get changed for school, the moment was interrupted.

'Sam! Time to go to school.' It was like his mom was hard-wired into the parental system that was dedicated to ruining teenage moments.

'Coming Mom!' Sam shouted back. He broke his concentration to pick up his white sweater from the floor and his grey hoodie and quickly put them on. It was just as well his Mother had called him, otherwise the moment could have quickly turned into perverted scene from a movie. Sam grabbed his laptop and palmtop and ran down the stairs.

'Breakfast honey. You don't wanna be late for school.'

Sam eyes eyed the fruit basket over the plate on the counter. 'Mom, when did you bring back my power cord for my desktop?'

'I didn't give it back to you?'

'But my computer was on this morning. Are you saying that wasn't you?'

She shook her head. 'I told you; I'm not giving you your cord back until you learn to be more social and not just sit on your computer as soon as you get home.'

Sam sighed. She knew that he was right. Even though he attended ice hockey practice after school, he didn't go out much. But what could he say; he simply loved the digital world. His mother pointed to his untouched plate.

'Thanks Mom, but I think I'll just have an apple on the way to school.'

She frowned. 'You can't expect an apple to sustain your appetite until lunch. Besides, it's not like you're gonna walk when there's the bus.'

'An apple a day keeps the doctor away, Mom.'

'Yes, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Now eat up so you can get to the bus stop on time.'

After gobbling down the bacon and eggs his mom had made for him, Sam ran for the bus stop to find the bus was already there. Sarah must have already been inside. Usually the bus stop was the only place they actually got to talk- if saying hello and speaking about the day before in school counted as actually talking.

The rain had subsided for the time being. When Sam got inside, he took his usual seat next to his best friend Doug Jackson despite the bus being virtually empty- complements of living the farthest distance from school. The five of them: Sam, Doug, Sarah; the Latino loner who always sat at the back and Selena- the Gothic loner were always the first in the bus in the morning and the last in the bus in the afternoon.

'So,' said Doug.

'So,' said Sam, 'I found a program running on my desktop when I woke up. But get this: my power cord was disconnected.'

Doug gave him a blank look. 'What the hell are you talking about? I'm talking about,' he finished his sentence by subtly gesturing toward Sarah, who was sitting at the back of the bus. 'How's the hunt for the pop beauty going?'

Sam shook his head. 'It isn't going anywhere.'

'Are you using your good looks like I told you to?'

'Just because you think I got good looks to exploit, doesn't mean she will. Besides, it's easy for you to say.'

'What are you talking about son, I'm black. Black fellas are born with swagger. You see, I just ooze charm.'

'My point exactly.'

Doug couldn't help but smile. He had always been full of himself. Sam had known that ever since he'd met him in eighth grade. Always the smooth operating charmer. And now he wanted the gadgets to go with it.

'So how's the secret operation going?'

'Well as you know I've completed some of the stuff you've asked me for but others, you've got to be patient.'

'I can be patient.'

Sam looked at him through the corner of his eyes.

'What?' Doug shrugged his shoulders.

The rest of the trip was boring as the bus crossed the street bridge of the Cullen river at a snail's pace (most likely in response to the rain) and proceeded to pick up the rest of the passengers along the way.

* * *

The morning had been bearable for Sam and Doug, but Sarah was having the day of her life. At least that's what anyone looking at her would think. But the truth was that a lot was on her mind. She sat at her usual place in the cafeteria with her best friend Isabel. She was sipping at her milkshake staring out into space.

'What are you day-dreaming about now?' Isabel asked, used to the aloneness she felt when she was around Sarah.

'Nothing,' said Sarah quickly.

'Oh c'mon. If you're gonna check out while I'm sitting right next to you, the least you can do is tell me what's on your mind.'

Sarah thought about it for a second then caved. 'Have you ever got the feeling that there's... I don't know... more to life then what we see, hear, smell and feel?'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'I don't know. It's just that I feel like there's something else out there. Something important that has to be done. Something bigger than us that we're just not seeing.'

'Wow, that's deep. You taken all your medication today, Sarah?'

'Bell, I'm serious.'

'And so am I. You're scaring me'

'Sorry I'm just... Never mind.' Sarah went back to sipping her milkshake. She couldn't help but overhear a conversation at the table behind her between a boy and a girl she went to astronomy class with.

'That's strange,' said the boy.

'What?' said the girl curiously.

The boy tapped away at his laptop. 'I'm picking up some strange frequency on The Waves here.'

'What kind of frequency?'

'It's something I've never seen before.'

The girl shifted to look over at the boy's laptop. 'Probably some interference from somewhere.'

'That's exactly what it is. But it's strong. Stronger than any other frequency's on The Waves. This thing is huge.'

'Well what is it?'

'I don't know, but it's nothing on Earth I've ever seen.'

'What are you suggesting? That it's alien.'

They both must have looked at each other. The girl spoke first.

'Oh c'mon. You know that Transformers was just a movie, right? And that they are no such things as aliens.'

'I know, but imagine if they were... And we were the ones who discovered them.'

'Trust me, if they were aliens, not only would the government know about it but they'd make damn sure no one discovered it by accident.'

Sarah stopped listening, not wanting to hear any more about alien conspiracies. Sarah stood up.

'Where are you going?'

'I just need some fresh air.' Sarah's need for fresh air got her all the way to the library. She walked right past a science fiction display case. A boy her age who was standing next to stand noticed her.

'Hey.' They exchanged greetings. 'Do you like science fiction?'

'Why do you ask?'

'Because I was looking at this book and I thought that you might enjoy it?' Sarah looked at the book. It was  The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Sarah tried to hold in a laugh which the boy noticed. 'Okay, even I have to admit that was a horrible line even for me.'

'Yes it was.' Sarah realized she must have said the words too flirtatiously because he didn't take the hint.

'I know about you and Bobby and I just that since you two-'

Sarah quickly took the book. 'Thanks for the book. I might actually borrow it.' Sarah turned around and made her exit but not before rolling her eyes. Hopefully this book will less mysterious than boys.

* * *

Sam's day went on without much of a hassle. In fact boring was the word that came to mind when he thought of the events of the day. At the school bus stop, he sat down and waited for Doug. He knew he had a full thirty minutes before the bus arrived so he took out his laptop and started scrolling through the radio frequencies on The Waves to see if there was any interesting chatter going on. That was when he stumbled on to an interference he'd never seen or heard before. Except that he had... on the mysterious program he'd been trying to figure out. So it wasn't a program. It was an interference frequency! It was stronger than most frequency's he had on The Waves. In fact, it was a frequency on it's own.

Doug joined him five minutes later. 'What's up, dawg?'

'I don't know. But it's something weird.'

Doug noticed the confused expression on his friends face. 'What?'

'Remember that program I was talking about earlier. Well it isn't a program. It's an interference, a frequency. It's disturbing The Waves.'

'Those are the famous waves that everyone surfs? The ones that people are communicating on like always?'

'Yeah, so?'

'It's computer stuff, right?' Sam gave him a nod. 'So you know I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, right?'

Sam shook his head and continued looking over the anomaly that was nothing but strange to him. 'It's like it's made of code,' he said to himself. 'Pure unbreakable code.' Sam stretched his fingers and started hacking away at it, doing whatever he could to break it.

It began to rain again as the bus arrived. Sam covered up his laptop as he jogged to the bus. For most of the trip he tried to decode what looked like a heavily encrypted frequency. When there were just the five of them left, he finally caved to disturbing results.

'It's not a frequency.' Sam said with a confused look on his face.

'Then what is it?' said Doug somewhat interested in the thing his friend couldn't figure out.

'Ah, here listen.' Sam opened up the loudspeaker so that his friend- and anyone else on the bus could hear. The frequency sounded like an eerie electronic malfunction. Almost like a transformer gone wrong. Then Sam turned it off. 'It's like there's a hole in the very fabric of the Electromagnetic Spectrum!'

'A hole?' Doug asked skeptically.

'Wait up.' It was Sarah who spoke. She'd been reading a book. 'You're telling me that every nerd at school with a laptop is freaking out because of a hole in the... whatever you just called it!?'

There was silence as Sarah sat sideways in her seat facing Sam awaiting his answer. Doug elbowed the silent Sam who was either shocked into silence by Sarah's comment about nerds or the fact that she had just spoken to him.

Doug whispered in Sam's ear. 'This is your shot bro.'

'I'm waiting,' said Sarah.

Sam sighed. 'It's not just a hole in a piece of paper, Sarah.' It's something bigger. Something more important.'

Sarah seemed to be taken aback. 'Deja vu,' she muttered.

'What?' said Sam and Doug in unison.

'Nothing. Go on.'

'Right. The Electromagnetic Spectrum are where you'd find all the waves we learn about. Because of how waves flow, we can assume that it represents time. Now this is not just a hole. It's a rip.'

'What are you saying? That there's a rip in the fabric of time?' Sarah was beyond doubt and skepticism.

'Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. But that's not it. The frequency I'm getting here seems to be coming through the rip.'

'WHAT A BUNCH OF BULL!' It wasn't Sarah who spoke the words, but the Gothic loner, Selena Kain. 'There's no rip in time. You're just throwing around a theory like those other chumps.'

'Well have you got a better one?' said Doug in Sam's defense.

'Well I heard a theory about aliens?' said Sarah.

'Oh c'mon! You can't be serious. Can you honestly tell me that you believe that?' said Sam.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders.

'Well you never know,' said Doug, ever the turn-coat.

'Oh c'mon, Doug!' said Sam.

'Well it's better than a rip in time, COWBOY!' shouted Selena.

'No it's not!'

'Yes it is!'

'No it is not!'

Before long, they were all shouting at each other. Everyone was adding their own theory about what the frequency was. They were shouting so much that they didn't notice the frequency getting stronger. Then everything happened at once. The bus seemed to approach the bridge sooner and at a faster pace than usual. The bus driver turned around for a few short seconds to shut the group up while the pitch of the frequency started to increase exponentially .

When the driver turned back around to the road, the frequency reached it's peak while at the same time the driver realized that he miscalculated his entrance on to the bridge and crashed into the railing. The railing gave way and the bus started to hang off the side of the road. The teenagers all hung on to their seats as the bus leaned towards Cullen river.

It was raining too hard for the speed at which the bus entered the bridge. The bus started leaning over the edge. Gradually tipping over, the teenagers started hyperventilating. Sarah was closest to the front; then it was Sam and Doug; followed by the Latino loner and then Selena at the back. Selena was trying to get out the back door but it wouldn't budge. But Sam was inspired.

'Okay Doug, we have to try get to the back door!'

'And how do you suppose we do that?'

'By climbing over the seats!'

'HELP ME GUYS!' It was Sarah. She was crouched at her seat trying not to fall towards the front of the bus.

'Hold on Sarah! I'm coming!' said Sam.

'Are you crazy!?' shouted Doug. 'How do you plan on getting there?'

'I'm not leaving her!' Just as Sam had hopped over the first seat towards Sarah, the bus shifted downwards. 'DAMMIT! Doug! Get to the door, NOW!'

'I'm going! I'm going!'

Sam was about to hop over the next seat when the bus lost traction and the entire thing fell. Time seemed to move slowly as the bus fell. The frequency has gotten so strong that the speakers had malfunctioned. Sam managed to hang on to the seat as the bus fell the hundred feet. Sarah fell towards the driver's seat. She hit the windscreen just as the bus hit the water which somehow broke her fall.

It was like they were suspended in mid air at the moment of impact. Some sort of ripple shook through the bus which vibrated the entire vehicle just as a powerful electronic hum sounded through the entire bus. The bus filled with water within seconds. The entire thing under water within a minute.

Even the passengers of  Speed  fared better than this, thought Sam. He looked towards the back of the bus and saw that Doug and Selena had managed to get the back door opened. He swam out with them and the Latino loner when he noticed that Sarah wasn't following. He looked down to see Sarah struggling at the front of the bus. He swam back to the bus and just as he was about to swim in, an explosion of blue-white light came out of nowhere.

The whole river seemed to shake as they got sucked into some sort of vortex that had appeared out of nowhere. Sam hung on to the door for dear life as he tried desperately not to let his breath slip. When the light finally subsided and the vibrations had stopped. He realized that something was very different. He'd been facing downwards towards the river bed fifty feet below, but now he was facing up, with the bus above him sinking backwards.

It was like the entire river had flipped a hundred and eighty degrees vertically. Sam quickly swam into the bus and up to Sarah. He went over to the controls for the door and pressed the button. As the doors swung open, Sam and Sarah saw Selena, Doug and the Latino loner swimming to the surface. Sam grabbed Sarah's hand and they swam as if their lives- and their lives did depend on it.

They kicked for the surface as their lungs started to burn. It felt like their lungs were about to burst when they broke the surface. The fresh was replenishing. But the air wasn't fresh. It was ashy. The weather had also changed. It was no longer raining. Sam and Sarah looked up to the bridge which was still a hundred feet up, but it was now mangled metal: not something a car could drive on.

'What happened?' Sarah asked Sam. 'There was that light and then...' She trailed off.

'I don't know, Sarah. I don't know.'

'SAM!? SAM!?' It was Doug shouting, floating a couple of feet away. 'ARE YOU OKAY!?'

'Yeah! I'm okay. You!?'

'Yeah! I'm good.'

'Nice of you to ask about my well-being!' said Selena floating a couple of feet behind Doug. 'So what happened Cowboy?'

'We crashed,' answered Sam. 'Unless you missed that part. Hey where's the Latino?'

'He's over there,' said Doug pointing, 'screaming something in Spanish.'

Sam nodded.

'I noticed that jackass,' continued Selena sarcastically. 'I mean what happened to everything else? The bridge looks like it comes out of a Terminator movie.'

'Can we get out of the water guys,' said Sarah. ' I'm beginning to freeze here.'

'Yeah, sure,' said Sam.

They got out of the water and sat on the riverbank, too exhausted to get into what had happened. Silence passed for the next ten minutes before Doug got up and walked up the riverbank.

'Hey, where are you going?' asked Selena.

'We can't just sit here the whole day. We've got to find help. The driver's dead.'

Before anyone could answer, he disappeared over the side.

'Did anyone see the flash?' Sarah asked.

'Yeah, I saw it,' said Sam.

'I saw it too,' said Selena.

The Latino kept quiet. They all looked at each other as if they were wondering if they were somehow sharing the same dream or something. They could feel it. Something was different, and it wasn't the near-death experience that made it so. It was something different.

'Hey guys!' Doug shouted from out of site. 'You've got to come check this out!'

The four teenagers all got up and trekked over the riverbank and joined Doug. What they saw was nothing they could have ever imagined. They knew something had changed, but this was extremely far from what any of them could have expected. Before them, they saw a city in ruins. The top of building missing; other buildings torn apart. It all made the bridge look like paradise. Even Gotham looked better than what they saw on it's worst day.

'Guys,' said Doug. 'Where are we?'

'Well we're not on the island Charlie,' said Selena sarcastically.

'No. We're still in Toronto,' explained Sam. 'Look at the buildings... Or what's left of them.'

'Okay, so correction,' said Doug. 'When are we?'

'Good question,' complimented Selena.

'What happened?' asked Sarah. 'How did we get here?'

'I don't know.'

Just then, a stranger appeared behind them. They all turned around. They could immediately sensed that something was wrong. This person looked dead. What was this person, because they were all sure that this stranger, was not human!

TO BE CONTINUED . . .