Frames Per Second. Part 5.

Jenny drove them around for a while, as Gavin and David conveyed the last few days to her. She had never seen anything like this, and as a skeptic, had always shrugged off anything supernatural as something that could be explained in a calm, rational manner.

“Should we call anyone? Call the government?” She asked.

“I don’t think they would believe us anyway,” Gavin grunted, “I wouldn’t have believed it. Help!,” he said in mock panic, “there are polydimensional beings running around the city! … Suuuure, have a nice day, buddy.” He mimed hanging up a phone.

“Plus,” David piped in, “If they keep at it like this, I’m sure everyone will know about them soon enough.”

Jenny felt like she was drowning; not able to take a full, complete breath. Eventually they decided to drive towards the outskirts of town, figuring that by driving to someplace new, even their monstrous doubles wouldn't be able to deduce where they had gone.

________________________________________

David pulled open the rusty chain link gate, and watched as the slightly worse for wear SUV pulled into the cracked, sun baked parking lot of an abandoned motel. "Looks as good as anywhere to me," David said to Jenny and Gavin as they pulled themselves out of the vehicle.

Jenny looked around worriedly as she surveyed the motel. It was an older style place, not one of the franchises of the modern world. She peered at the worn sign, shaped in the shape of a sun which conveniently read: 'Sunshine Motel'. "Looks pretty abandoned," she said, "I don't even think there are any squatters or hobos around."

Gavin nodded, for being an abandoned building, it was in pretty good shape, there wasn't any graffiti or a copious amount of trash around the place. A few old cars littered the parking lot, covered in dust and sagging on dry rotted tires. David meandered towards one of the cars and ran his finger along its dusty hood. He whistled lowly, "'67' Impala," he said, "who would leave this baby rotting at a crappy motel?"

Gavin ignored him as he climbed the outdoor stairs, he didn't know why, but he figured if they were going to stay the night, he'd rather be off the ground floor. He peeked through a few windows, until he found a room that didn't look too ran down. Jenny and David followed him up and they all stood outside the door.

"Uh, now what?" David asked.

Gavin shrugged as Jenny jiggled the knob. "I don't know," he replied, "I've never had to break in anywhere."

They stood for a few minutes thinking.

"This is pretty pathetic," Jenny said with a nervous laugh.

"I'll go look for something flat, so we can try to get it open," David said as he turned and went back down the stairs.

After a few minutes, Jenny gave up on trying to open the window and leaned against the railing with Gavin while they watched David scrounge around the motel's perimeter, his dark, shaggy hair blowing in the wind. Eventually they heard an 'Ah-ha!', and David came back into view brandishing a flat piece of metal.

As he clomped up the stairs, Jenny rolled her eyes at his wide, goofy grin. "Hey, I'm excited, give me a break," he said, moving past her and towards the door, "it's not every day I get to vandalize something." It took a few minutes of effort, but eventually he got the metal in between the door frame and pried it open.

"Good job," Gavin commented and pulled out his cell phone. He flicked through the apps and opened one. "God, I love technology," he said as he flashed the cell phone's flashlight into the dusty room, "not only is it a phone, but I have a calculator, flashlight, camera, and games, what else could a nerd ask for?"

Now Jenny rolled her eyes at Gavin, and followed him into the room. The bed was gone, but there were a few chairs and some odd bits of furniture, a few lamps, end tables, and other assorted junk. “Well, this should do,” she said, drawing the curtains open further, letting light spill into the room.

After a couple hours, they had brought in most of their stuff; a quick assortment of supplies they had grabbed from Gavin’s place before leaving. “Uh guys,” David said from the balcony after they stashed their stuff, “I think you should come see this.”

They gathered outside the motel door, and looked out towards the city. The motel sat higher and looked back down into the valley that the city nestled into. As the sky dimmed, the city began to glow in sporadic places. “I think those are fires,” Gavin said, his hands gripping tight on the railing.

“You don’t think its-“ Jenny said, her voice fading out at the end of the sentence.

“What else could it be?” David asked.

Gavin turned and moved into the room, after a few seconds, he dragged the camera and tripod out onto the balcony. David watched the city as Gavin worked behind him, and now that they had noticed it, he heard faint sirens in the air.

“Damn it, they must be invading the city…” David mumbled. He turned his back to the glowing visage and helped Gavin set up the camera.

________________________________________

The image opened on the laptop’s screen; Gavin brought his hand up to his mouth, and Jenny gasped. The city they knew was gone, as if half the city had been exploded and turned into rubble.

“What the hell?” David mumbled, “Isn’t that their own city? Why would they destroy it?”

“I have no idea,” Gavin replied, “Maybe after they found out we were here they all just… Became hell-bent on destroying us; not letting anything get in their way.”

“And it caused them to turn half their city into dust?” Jenny asked.

Gavin just shrugged.

The glow from their own city lit up their faces, the fires beginning to rage. David pointed toward the laptop. “There,” he said excitedly, “What’s that? There in the middle of the rubble.”

Gavin peered in close and examined where he was pointing. There was a soft blue glow which looked as if it were right in the middle of the epicenter of whatever had caused the buildings to be demolished.

“Could that have been what caused the destruction?” Jenny asked, “What is it? Remnants of a bomb?”

Gavin thought for a minute, chewing on his lip, “Maybe its not a bomb…”

David looked at him confused, “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know… Maybe whatever they did, they had to do…”

The other two waited for him to finish.

“”Maybe… It’s some sort of door. They just showed up, didn’t they? Maybe that’s how they got through.”

“A door?” David asked, “And it destroyed their city?”

“Hear me out,” Gavin said slowly, trying to come up with a suitable analogy, “Imagine a regular old door, and there is a bunch of stuff on either side of it, like shoes or something.”

“Shoes?” Jenny asked, raising her eyebrow.

“It doesn’t matter,” Gavin said, waving his hand dismissively, “just stuff; a bunch of shoes on each side. Well, now you need to go through that door. Whichever way you open it, either toward you or away from you, you have to knock stuff out of the way. Shoving shoes in whatever direction you open the door.”

“So, you’re saying that they opened this door inwardly,” David contemplated, “and it knocked everything down on their side?”

“I guess,” Gavin replied, “Its just a theory.”

They all sat quietly for a moment, and the wind changed direction, bringing with it the smell of smoke, and the sounds of wailing sirens. Or maybe those were screams?

“I think we should go check it out,” David said, matter-of-factly.

Jenny turned and looked at him, dumbfounded. “Are you crazy? If Gavin is right, that’s where they came from! Why would you run towards the beehive?”

David waved his arm at the city, “Look at it. It’s burning,” He said, a twinge of sadness in his voice, “This is our home. Those are our friends.”

“How is it our problem? We’re just a couple of late 20 somethings, holed up in a crumbling motel. Let the government or the police deal with it.” Jenny said, shooting a pleading glance towards Gavin.

“How would they even know our theory?” David asked, and then cocked his head towards the camera, “We’re the only ones.”

Gavin looked thoughtfully at David and then Jenny, he sighed and turned to look at the city, a mess of growing flames and creeping darkness.