Machine. Chapter one. The kids in the dumpster.

Tell me what you think! This is the first story I've written that my brother actually likes. Hope you enjoy it too!

Chapter 1

The middle of a perfectly normal day ended when a girl ran into the CVS where I was buying some gum and, ran to me, panting and said “What year is it?!”

“Um... Two-thousand-twelve.” I said at a loss. A grin spread across her face as she ran back out the door, screaming “It works! It works!”

I blinked a few times before setting my gum down on a random table and walking out of the CVS. I saw the girl running down the street, still screaming. People watched her and I ran after her.

She ran into an ally and when I followed her, I saw a dumpster. She opened the lid and shouted “It's twenty-twelve! We did it!”

A boy stood, grinning and he climbed out of the dumpster. He looked at me and said “Who're you?”

“Uh, Janelle.” I replied. “Who are you?”

“I'm Grace and that's Matthew.” said the girl. She was wearing a brown woven cap and had black hair. She had on a white tee with the black picture of a woman. Over this tee was a pinstriped vest that closed with two hooks at the bottom. Her skirt was ruffled and blue and her leggings were black. She was wearing knee-length dark gray socks and purple and white sneakers. The boy, Matthew, was wearing a blue tee with black robotic designs, worn denim jeans and green sneakers. He also had dark brown hair that went to his shoulders.

They both had glasses on. Hers were black and rectangle with white on the inside and jewel flowers on the sides. His were just plain black and the sides were made of a black wire. There eyes were brown. Hers were lighter than his.

“What's your last name?” I asked.

“Blake.” Grace said, shrugging. “We're from the year twenty-one-twenty-one.”

I blinked and said “How?”

“This.” she said and she patted the dumpster. I blinked and said “That?”

“Yup.” Matthew said, looking annoyed. “Gray, I thought we weren't going to tell anyone here.”

“Oh, yeah... Oops.” Grace said. “Sorry, Math.”

“Are you two brother and sister?” I asked.

“Twins.” they both said at the same time.

I stared at the dumpster. It was unusually clean.

“Want to come in?” Grace asked.

“I'll pass.” I said. She shrugged and climbed to the rim and jumped in. To my great shock, her head disappeared. Matthew smiled and said “Yup.” and I said “Okay, I'm going in.” and I climbed in.

But I fell down and down and down, screaming. I hit something and bounced up and then down and up and down until I finally stopped. I was on a trampoline. I climbed off and looked around.

It looked complicated. There were buttons and knobs everywhere on the walls. There was a long, tube-like thing in the middle of the room and rooms led off.

Grace had walked over to a knob and turned. She smiled and said “I knew you'd come. C'mon. I'll show you around.

“This is the main control room. This is where we travel.”

“Like... Time travel?” I asked. She laughed and said “Oh, not just that. We can go wherever you like, whenever you like. This was just our first run, but it works.”

“Where did you get it?” I asked. She shifted uncomfortably. “Um... It's not... Exactly... Ours.”

“You stole a time machine?” I asked with a laugh.

“No! We just... Borrowed it.” Grace said.

“Dude, we stole it.” said Matthew, climbing down a ladder from the top. He jumped onto the trampoline.

“We're returning it.” Grace insisted.

“Why? They already know it's gone.” he said.

“Who?” I asked.

“Them. The Others.” Matthew said. “Look, the future isn't that great.”

“In the year Twenty-one-ten, the Others came to earth. They took over everything. They enslaved the humans and so forth. But there are some humans who rebel. We were trained by these humans and a few Others have joined us. Math and I were taught by one of the Others how this thing works. We sneaked into the Other's Capitol and stole this. This is the first time we've traveled.” said Grace.

“But the Others have probably noticed our theft and they're after us.” said Matthew.

Grace sighed and said “Yeah. And now we'll be running for the rest of our lives. Ah, well. May at least have fun while doing it.”

She showed me the rest and then we ended up back in the control room again.

“So, you wanna come?” she asked, a grin spreading over her face and her eyes sparkling behind her glasses.