When the fuchsia glow cleared, the nine people traveling through time were greatly relieved, for they were no longer in old England. Now they stood in a mysterious wide corridor with reddish stone walls, and cave ceiling. The travelers looked around, wondering where they were. They saw people walking past, dressed in unfamiliar clothes. This place looked queer, like nowhere they had seen before.
“Where are we?” Grant looked up curiously at the tubular lights along the top of the stone walls. “What kind of light is that? It shines like halogen light, but it’s less stark.”
“This place doesn’t look like America,” said Prescott.
Danville stated, “No, it doesn’t. But I assure you, we’re in 2004.”
“But where?” asked Dexter.
“Everything looks so, so different, strange,” Meg muttered.
“It’s a simple matter to learn where we are, then we’ll get back to the U.S.,” attested Danville. “Let’s go this way.”
With most of the men wearing 17th century hats and jackets, and Meg and Lisa in flowing Elizabethan gowns, the time travelers walked down the corridor-street, which resembled a cave tunnel. The people they passed appeared somewhat oriental with large eyes. The women’s wraparound skirts with unknown print designs looked totally foreign. Also unfamiliar were the men’s loose fitting clothes. All their clothes were dark, rich earth colors, and the people wore strange thick sandals.
Perplexed, Grant spoke cautiously, “This place is remarkably odd.”
“Oh god, where are we?” exclaimed Lisa.
“I don’t like this place,” added Bill.
Danville replied, “Before you assess the place, let’s find out where we are.”
“And the date,” stated Dexter.
At the end of the corridor, they turned into a wider, long street. More people walked here, chatting in an unknown language. Doors along the red cave walls were made of strange purple, brown and teal metals. Shorter streets branched off from this one and there, too, were more doors, with queer ancient-type ceramic containers before them. The travelers were baffled, wondering where they could be.
Meg described, “The artwork on those ceramic urns look ancient, but I’ve never seen that style in museums or art books.”
“The women’s jewelry look old worldly, but not from any culture I know,” noted Dr. Haku.
An hour later, the travelers came from a long street with a crowd and arrived at a marketplace to their surprise. It had a wide arched entrance door and they slowly entered. It was like olden bazaars with booths close together and merchants holding up goods to persuade people to buy. The booths were crammed with all sorts of merchandise, foods, fabrics, art objects, pottery. The time travelers did not venture too deeply into the marketplace, staying near the door, puzzled as they observed the bazaar.
“It smells strange here, strange spices,” Lisa noted.
Meg looked at some fabrics of earth colors at a booth. “These designs are unlike any I’ve ever seen?”
Grant also noticed that none of the merchandise here was like anything he’d seen before. Everything he saw in this society was unlike anything he knew. The clothes, the pottery, the doors, this strange language, all unfamiliar. The technology they saw was also unknown, like those halogen-type lights in the corridors. And smells were different here. In this bazaar were aromas of unfamiliar spices, which were actually pleasant pungent aromas. Be it they transported to the wrong date, the peculiar culture of this land was unlike any on Earth in any era, even ancient times. It seemed a different world. Looking around this bazaar gave Grant not a clue to where they were. Grant and the others felt lost.
“Let’s get out of here,” demanded Grant.
They quickly left the bazaar. Outside, they headed into another corridor-street, and soon entered a high-ceiling street. A number of people moved through this street. There were no doors on this street, merely window shutters on the second floor level. One second floor shutter was open. It was one of several windows to an enclosed patio. The Great Magician stood at the open window, looking down at the time travelers.
* * *
After three hours, the travelers entered a quiet street with few doors and saw another large window with a view of the ocean. Through this window, however, sunlight shone more brightly. The time travelers stood baffled, even more mystified. The young woman following them stopped twenty feet away and stood near the wall.
Grant turned and saw the young woman standing down the street. Grant nudged Dexter.
“She’s been watching us,” Dexter whispered. “I noticed her two hours ago. Maybe she can communicate something to us.” Dexter took a good look at her now and exclaimed, “Look! She’s not wearing these exotic clothes. Her clothes are like ours.”
Grant whispered, “Danville, don’t look now, but that lady is watching us. We’ll try to speak to her.”
“We have to speak to someone here, real soon,” said Danville. “A young woman should be safe. Let’s approach her carefully and see if we can find some way to communicate with her and get her help.”
To their surprise, the young woman walked over to them. She had a reserved voice. "Hello. You’re from Above.”
All of them were stunned.
“You speak English!” said Prescott.
“Yes.”
“Thank god!” exclaimed Lisa.
The travelers were all greatly relieved.
“I’m from Above, too,” she whispered.
“Above?” said Grant.
“From the clothes some of you wear, I could tell you’re from Above. I’m from Philadelphia.”
The nine travelers looked at each other totally delighted.
“Do you know the date! The year!” asked Dexter.
“It’s 2004, October, 2004.”
“Hallelujah! We’ve found our way home!” said Meg.
“I’m Dr. Danville Chandler. Yes, we’re from Above, if that’s what you call it. We want to get back there. We’re from Chicago.”
The young woman was very pleased to hear this, for it confirmed what she perceived while listening as she had followed them, and she had soon surmised that they were decent people she could trust. “Yes, Illinois!”
“Where is this place? Where are we?” asked Grant.
“This is Atlantis.”
The time travelers were again stunned.
“You mean, the Atlantis that is said to have fallen into the ocean thousands of years ago?” asked Dr. Haku.
“Atlantis really exists?” exclaimed Meg.
“Yes, this is it. Atlantis is a world under the ocean and Above is the land on the surface of Earth, where we’re from.”
“Atlantis,” muttered Grant, wrestling with the thought. Like the rest of them, he had known Atlantis to be merely a myth.
“I first saw you all yesterday. My name’s Karen Schaffer. My father’s Dr. Curtis Schaffer...”
“Curtis Schaffer!” said Danville, wide-eyed. “He’s the physicist who disappeared with his family after he exposed a secret government project and they indicted him for espionage. You’re his daughter?”
“Yes. This is where my father came when he disappeared. He brought my mother and I to Atlantis fourteen years ago, when I was ten.”
“Where’s your father right now? I must talk with him!” exclaimed Danville.
“My father went missing seven months ago. My mother died nine years ago. And gee, I’m happy to see you here. Not many people from Above come to Atlantis.”
“Sorry, to hear about your parents. It would’ve been valuable to talk to your father,” said Danville. “We just arrived here yesterday. Now, how do we get out of here, go Above, as you say? That’s what we need to know?”