Read Online Test of Magnitude (The Torian Reclamation) by Andy Kasch - Free Book Online Page A

cigar was making me feel better. It was night. I was outside. It was nice. I think I was in a park…”
    More images flashed, like a horror movie on fast-forward. They became clear. This time, it was Brandon who stood up and dropped his cup.
    “Nooooooooooooooooo!” Brandon yelled.
    Derek jumped up in response. The terror of Brandon’s memory must have triggered something in Derek’s, because he now looked petrified as well.
    Just then, the voice came over the intercom again, as the two of them remained frozen in place.
    “We apologize for the prior miscommunication. Please forgive the translation error. The two doors on the wall lead to personal waste rooms. Please, feel free to use them to urinate or defecate at your convenience. They are completely private.”
    “Kidnapped!” Derek said. “We were kidnapped! They were …freaky lizard men or something!”
    Brandon nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, yes, I remember it now, too. They grabbed me. I didn’t make it back to the party.”
    “Oh, man!” Derek yelled. “I might have missed the show!”
    Both men darted their eyes around the room repeatedly. Brandon had come to his full senses now. This was no dream. Derek seemed to be in agreement. Where the hell were they, then? There was no visible way out of the room they were in, except for the doors, which, according to the last audio voice, both led to a restroom.
    “I’m going to use the bathroom,” Brandon said.
    “No, man! Don’t do it!”
    “The thing is,” Brandon said, “I actually need to go. Plus, there doesn’t appear to be another way out of here at the moment. I’m going to check it out.”
    Derek climbed up on his chair. “Well, be careful, man!”
    Brandon walked up to one of the doors and it slid open. No hyenas came out. The room inside was small, like you would expect a bathroom to be. There was a strange looking object near the entrance that resembled a sink in structure. Inside, there were four or five urinals, all different sizes, and several stalls. The urinals were made of a material Brandon didn’t recognize, perhaps some kind of rock. There was no water in them. When he was done peeing, a pleasant dim blue light illuminated the inside of the urinal for several seconds, and then it looked clean again.
    He walked over to the sink-looking fixture and placed his hands under a metallic protrusion above a plastic flat table that seemed like it should be where the facet goes. The same dim blue light then shone on his hands for a few seconds. It felt good.
    “It’s all right, it’s just a futuristic men’s room,” he said as he came out. “It’s actually kind of cool.”
    Derek jumped down from the chair and ran across the room towards the door. “Good, ‘cause I really gotta go, too!”
    When Derek returned, they both decided to walk around the perimeter of the room and check the walls closely for signs of hidden doors. As soon as they started, the voice came across the audio system again.
    “Your orientation video countdown has begun. The film will start in 200, 199, 198.” The audio voice stopped, but the screen was now filled with dots that were vanishing one by one.
    “I think,” Brandon said, “as soon as those dots are all gone, our captors are going to show us a video. Hopefully, it will explain something about our situation.”
    “A TV show made just for us?”
    “Right.”
    Brandon had an idea about what was happening to them now, but he decided not to risk freaking Derek out any more by voicing his thoughts. Brandon figured they had both been asleep for a very long time, in some kind of a coma, possibly the victims of mad-scientist type experiments, maybe even by their own government. Everyone knew Walt Disney had his body cryogenically frozen upon his death. Maybe something like that happened to them, only while they were still alive.
    “We may as well go back over and watch it,” Brandon said.
    They walked back to their chairs and sat down. Within a couple