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[germhating_hypochondriac]

[Eddie paces as he talks. There's a cast on his arm with the word loser written in black, with a red V written over the s to spell lover.]

Hello? Can you hear me? We're all kidnapping victims here; you guys know that right?

This nanite stuff sucks. There are tiny germ sized robots crawling around inside us! Something's gotta be powering them. They could be hanging out in our stomachs eating our food. Or they could be eating us and making tiny little holes inside our bodies. They could all build up in one place and block off the blood flowing through our arteries and our veins. Or build up in our organs, our lungs and our brains! And, our bodies are mostly water. They could be rusting inside us.

[He stops pacing and starts scratching his face with his cast-free hand]

I think I'm allergic to them! Everything's itchy. I'm gonna break out into hives!

[He starts wheezing and rubs his chest.]

I could be allergic to the tattoo too. I'm just a kid. I shouldn't have one. I think it's starting to swell up. I could have an infection. Or a blood disease. I don't trust these government people to be clean.

[The wheezing continues and his voice becomes strained with each word. He takes his inhaler out of a fanny pack and uses it, only speaking again when he's breathing is back to normal.]

How are we supposed to deal with this shit?

Comments

[continuousgroaning]

Ugh, that sucks. Luckily this world is pretty normal. ... although that doesn't help when we all come from different places, does it? If you're from Earth, though, that gives you a frame of reference.

[Tina wrinkles her nose at that.]

That's awful. I mean, really, REALLY awful. Did you end up being able to beat him? [She nods.] Horses are prey animals, so it's rare for them to just up and decide to kill someone. Of course, that doesn't stop some of them from just being mean.

Oh, there's a lot. I mostly play dating sims, but there's puzzles or shooting games... anything you can imagine, really.

Bullies suck. I try my best to be kind to everyone, myself.

[germhating_hypochondriac]

Yeah, I'm from Earth.  An Earth without porters.  And superpowers were only in movies, comic books and TV. 

[Eddie nods.]

Yeah, me and my friends killed him.  We had to all work together and not be scared, so his powers couldn't work on us.  Like our friendship was stronger than his evilness.

Horses sound a lot like people.

That's so cool.  The games in this world are way better than the one at home.   I guess 'cause this is the future.

That's cool too.  My friends are like that, nice to everyone.  That's kind of how we met.  Ben got hurt and we all helped him.  And when Mike was in trouble,we helped him too.  And then Ben and Mike became our friends.

[continuousgroaning]

Same here. So coming here was... super bizarre to me at first. Although I'm sure the people that came from, like, medieval worlds that didn't even have phones or the internet yet had it worse.

[She listens with interest.]

I'm glad to hear that. Friendship and kindness can go a long way sometimes, even if it can't fix everything.

[She smiles.]

It's good to have people around you who are on your side. My siblings are my best friends, but they're not here... luckily I've still made a lot of friends here.

[germhating_hypochondriac]

The phones back home weren't like these communicator things. They had cords. We didn't have internet, at least not in Derry. It was 1989. Medieval times would be worse. They wouldn't know about vaccines or hand sanitizer or anything important.

[He smiles back.]

Yeah, the losers' club, that's what we called each other, we were best friends. Most of us didn't have siblings. We all got bullied at school, so that's how we came up with the name. I think the rest of them will show up here or me and Richie will get sent back. Losers always stick together.

[continuousgroaning]

We had the internet back home, but my family could only afford one computer for the 5 of us to share. And the one time we got a router for wi-fi in our restaurant it ended up being confiscated as evidence for a police case.

[She laughs.]

Hey, I like that name. If everyone else called you losers, it's better to embrace it, right? I'm glad to hear you and your friend are together.