I was roughly shoved to the ground, and Billy ordered all the others to leave us. This was the most frightening part of the whole ordeal. I remembered the first time I encountered others here, and wasn't entirely sure he wasn't one of the boys I saw that day.

"Tell me everything you know about jumping, from start to finish," he commanded.

"Jumping?" I asked, "You mean The Other? Coming here, you mean?"

Again, he laughed. "Tell me all you know about this Hell."

For a moment, I considered remaining stubbornly silent, but I knew he would get the information from me anyway, so I decided to tell him. I made sure to leave any details out that would enable him to trace me to my home, my family, and Amanda, but I told him everything else. I told him how I first found The Other, and how long I'd been coming here.

He interrupted me many times, saying the information wasn't important. He didn't want to know, or didn't care, about my first time here, or about things Amanda and I did. He asked for more information, however, about the two boys I first encountered. What they looked like, what their names were, as much as I could tell him. What I could remember was not enough, I could tell, and this made him very angry. Finally, after I felt I could tell him no more, he stood and faced me.

"You need to make a decision," he said, almost softly. "You need to decide right now if you will join us or oppose us. There are only those two decisions. The two boys you spoke of are not with us. If you do not join with us, we will consider you to have joined them. Then we will hunt you down and kill you."

With that, he left. I was sitting on the cold cement with only my thoughts. I felt as if I had no choice. I would have preferred to remain uncommitted to either side, but I felt that both sides were The Other's form of Reds and Blues. I needed The Other to be a place of safety, not merely an extension of the real outside world. I felt it all crumbling around me, and I never needed to talk to Amanda so badly. Of all the times for me to be alone.

Deep in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed that I was joined by a young girl. It was the girl with the stringy hair, one of the Scouts who discovered me. She looked very unkempt in dirty clothes with unwashed hands, but she had beautiful, soft eyes. "He's mostly full of hot air, but he means what he says," she said. "If you don't say you're with him, he'll kill you."

"Is that why you're with him?" I asked her.

"Well, it's why I joined in the beginning," she answered. "But it's not why I stayed. I've seen the alternatives, and there's safety with Billy and the others. It's not much safer in this time than in real time, you know. The people here are even deadlier than those in real time, because there's no police here. Fortunately, there's not as many of them, and it's easier to hide from them. Also, we can get whatever weapons we need to survive. Besides, I think Billy wants to make a difference. He wants to make it better for us, in this time."

"You keep talking about time," I said. "What do you mean?"

"Ask Billy," she shrugged, and left me there, alone again.

Billy returned moments later, and didn't say a word. He just looked at me with his cold eyes. The expression on his face was unreadable. I had the feeling he didn't care what my decision was.

"The friend I told you about," I asked, "can I discuss this with her, then let you know of my decision?"

"No," he answered, his tone said it was not negotiable.

"Then I'm with you," I said. His expression didn't change. He turned and left.

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