You're not going to believe me when I tell you this, but I've been to year 2050. I time traveled. I know it's crazy, but hear me out. My geek brother actually made a time machine. I didn't believe it was real until I stepped inside of it. I was overwhelmed by the number of buttons and flashing lights that surrounded me. I tripped over a wire my brother left exposed on the ground. My hand hit a red button and I thought to myself, “Oh goodness, red buttons are never a good sign”. The small metal contraption started to spin. I hear my brother screaming my name and suddenly all is silent. I know I'm not in my backyard anymore. Here is the rest of the story;

      After my head stopped spinning and I was on solid ground I opened the door. I was in the middle of a city with gigantic TVs everywhere. On every wall of every building in sight. I’d never seen anything like it. People never touched the floor. Every single person had a motorized wheelchair to roll around in. It was almost as if  they’ve never seen anyone on solid ground, even the children were handicapped because of their weight. I was confused, lost and scared. I had no idea where this contraption took me.
“Watch where you’re going,” a woman with a mauve scooter said after I accidentally hit her scooter.
“Sorry!” I yelled after her but she kept going without another word.
Back in my hometown of Jupiter, Florida, I’d never seen people this big or seen so many televisions in one place. I stepped cautiously out of the cold metal box and on to the almost spotless white cement trying not to collide with the. The people who passed me on the sidewalk looked disgusted toward my appearance and I didn't understand why. I thought I looked fine...enough. Walking a little further, I look to my right and see something disappear swiftly around a corner and into an alley. That was way too fast to be a person on wheels I thought to myself. Walking faster, I reached the alley to see a girl with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes standing in the middle of the surprisingly clean gap between the skyscrapers.
     "Are you following me?" she asked accusingly. I stuttered, not quite sure what to say without sounding like some kind of stalker.
     "No, I mean yeah I saw you weren't like the other people here. You know, all...fat.”
The girl looked at me with a sudden unexpected friendliness.
      "Fair enough, Hi, I'm Beatrice. And you are?..."
      "I'm Lauren."
      "You're not from here are you?”
      "No, I'm not actually, I'm from Florida." Beatrice's eyes lit up.
      "The Florida?!" she asked excitedly “Wow, it must’ve been great.”
      "It must be. There’s only one Florida right” I said a little confused. I don’t know what’s so great about Florida. I mean there’s Disneyworld, and beaches, but nothing spectacular. Especially back in Jupiter where I came from.
“I said the Florida because we’re in Florida right now, except it’s been renamed. It’s the year 2050. I saw pictures of the old Florida and I thought I would belong there because everyone was so small. You’re really lucky you know.” Her face changed for a split second. Almost  sympathetic. As soon as I thought I saw something it was gone.
Beatrice clears her throat, “So should we get going?” 
Beatrice grabbed my arm and pulled me towards another corner. I stopped.
     "Wait," I pulled her hand away. "Where are you taking me? I just met you.”
“Oh yeah I just kinda dragged you.” said Beatrice apologetically “I was on my way to a meeting and I thought since you don’t know anyone you might want to come.” She looks at me. I don’t object.
“Okay.” I say.
“Great.” she responds.
Beatrice, taking my  hand, walked hurriedly in the direction of ongoing traffic paying little to no attention to the envious glares of the people she passed on the sidewalk. Away from the busy streets of the city into a more run down part of town, Beatrice led me to an abandoned building.
”Where are we going?!' I shout over the wind rushing past my ears as we start to jog. Beatrice looks at me with a mischievous smile.
“Are you afraid of heights?” Is all she says. I thought we were on our way to a meeting, what are we doing at what looks like a fifty story abandoned office building? The only thing left of the grand entrance is the metal frame.
"This..." she motions toward the building, "Is where things get fun"
“This place doesn’t look very fun if you ask me."  I honestly didn't understand what was going on but I went along with it anyway. For some odd reason, I felt like I could trust her.
"Wait in the lobby, I'll be right back." Beatrice says as she runs around the corner.
“Okay?” I say aloud to myself.
There are paintings on the walls. Some are ripped to shreds. Many of them are of a burning city. People screaming in pain. No one is trying to help stop the fire. Looking in through the windows, I see families gathered around a TV with food in their laps acting as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening outside of their apartment.
"Are you just gonna stand there or are you getting in?"
Beatrice stands by an open elevator motioning for me to get in. I didn’t notice she was speaking to me. I was too captivated by the disturbing paintings.
"Where are we going?" I ask curiously. “I thought you said you said you had to go to a meeting.”
She looks at me, puts her finger to her lips and smiles. "Well, we can only go up from here."
I get in. The doors close behind us with no sound.
"You ready?" Beatrice asks with a huge grin on her face.
"As I’ll ever be.”  I respond.
She presses the last button. 89. My judgement on floors was off by a long shot. The elevator shot straight up making my stomach drop. The doors open onto a roof.
"Uh.. what exactly are we doing?"  I ask getting nervous. The skyline of the city was absolutely breathtaking. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Also, I don’t like heights very much and being up here isn’t helping the situation at all.
"You'll see." she says as she stands dangerously close to the edge of the building. "Well..?" I ask.
Beatrice turns to face me. She climbs onto the ledge.
"Jump." she says as she falls back. Off of  the building. I run to the edge screaming her name. But she already started her free fall.
                                           

Leaning over the edge , I gasp for air.  I see her falling. Faster and faster with each passing second. Her eyes are closed, but she’s not panicked.  A bit peaceful even. Tears form in my eyes. I just met this girl and she throws herself off the edge of a building. Just when I thought she was going to hit the ground, she falls straight through it.
"What the hell just happened?" I say aloud as I pace back and forth "Why is she not dead on the sidewalk? How is it possible to fall through the ground?  Should I follow her?" I think of my options for a good five minutes as I pace and wipe my eyes.
"Alright. It seems to me the only way I can tell if she's okay is if I follow suit. It can't be that bad, right? I don't think she was hurt."
I climb on to the ledge. "Alright Lauren, now it's time to jump. You'll be fine, You can do it." I count myself off. "1,2,3." I push off of the ledge into a freefall of my own. The wind is curling around me. I want to scream but I don't have the air in my lungs. As the street gets closer. I squeeze my eyes shut and hope I don't feel the impact of the black asphalt as my body slams into it. Nothing. I felt nothing. When I opened my eyes again I was standing in what looked like a gaping hole. Looking up, you could see the whole city, from the top the city cannot see you. Beatrice is leaning against the damp cavern wall picking at her nail polish .
"Well it took you long enough." she said with a slight attitude.
I was stunned to see her reaction, “Well you just threw yourself off of a building. What was I supposed to do? You didn’t tell me what would happen and you just expect me to do the same as you? I say angrily.
She pushes from off the wall and walks toward me.
“Well you did, didn't you?”
“I thought you died. I was scared because I didn't know what happened to you.” I say. my voice quivering ever so slightly.
“You should’ve at least given me a warning.”
“Sorry,” Beatrice says “No more surprises starting...now.”
“Thanks,” I said “But where are we?” I tried to jump and touch the roof of the cave but it was just out of reach.
"Even if you were tall enough to reach it.."  Beatrice began, "You wouldn't feel anything"
I walked deeper into the cold damp cavern. I shivered but kept going curious to see what was ahead. The path I was on split into two and I didn’t bother going any further.
It was hard to see anything because the lighting was so poor. It took a while for my eyes to adjust. 
“So where exactly are we?” I asked for the second time as I move back towards Beatrice.
“Well,” she stopped for a second as if she was stumped by my question.
“I don’t really know actually, But it doesn’t matter because this place is so cool.” she said excitedly
I looked  up again, not over the fact that we both just fell through the asphalt.
“This place is giving me the creeps, can we keep moving?” I said looking over at Beatrice.
She sighed disapprovingly, but perked up and said “Yeah, follow me.”
Walking through the cavern with a girl I barely met wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be. We occasionally made small talk,although Beatrice did most of the talking. I just nodded my head and occasionally said “Yeah” or “Uh huh” to show her I was still following. She talked mostly about her childhood and how she lost both her mom and her dad to heart complications caused by their drastic weight gain when she was 6. Ever since then she hasn’t liked obese people and it’s pretty obvious they don’t like her either. She explained to me how she didn’t have very many friends because she often lashed out on the people at her school. She was 16 and so was I. Her story was cut short when we arrived at a metal door that took up the entire space of the tunnel ahead of us. Beatrice knocked on the door three times, twice, and then one final time. A tall guy of maybe 18 opened the door. His hair the deepest shade of brown, it almost looked black. His face was so delicately structured. His chiselled angular features were enough to cut glass. I caught myself staring at the piece of perfection right in front of me, not yet meeting his eyes. When I finally did, the eyes staring back at me were as dark as the beer bottle in his hand.
He cleared his throat
“Hey Bea,” he said. “Who’s your friend” he looked at me and smiled.
I didn’t know if I should answer or if I should let Beatrice.
“Uh this is Lauren, she’s not from here.” she looked from me to him and back again. “Lauren this is Ryan. Ryan, Lauren.”
He held out his free hand and shook it politely. His hands were ice cold taking me by surprise.
“Nice to meet you Lauren,” He winked at me. “Come in, make yourself at home, and excuse the mess.”
Beatrice walked through the door first  and I followed into a wide open space, much too big for one person. There was a black leather couch in the corner and a kitchen off to the side. Ryan’s house was surprisingly clean for a guy. I liked that.
“I’m glad you made it today. It took you longer than usual, I was worried you weren’t coming.” he said to Beatrice.
“Sorry, I was on my way here when I met Lauren,” she gestures to me from my spot on the edge of the couch.
I look at Ryan and Beatrice carefully. They don’t look like they’re in a relationship at the present moment, but there is definitely a warm ember lit between them. As they converse about what seem to be secret matters, I pick at my nail polish; a nervous habit I picked up as a kid.
“Hey,” Beatrice says to me “Follow me. We’ve got to get ready.”
I stand up and start to follow her out of the living room.
“Get ready for what?” I ask to no one in particular.
Ryan answers, “The rebellion.”
“If you expect me to know what that means, you’re wrong,” I say a little more sassy than I intended to be.
Beatrice doesn’t say anything and stops in front of a wide door with a passcode lock. She presses the number pad seven times. Her finger pressed the numbers 0827426. I’ve always been good at memorizing things because you never know what you might need in the future. The door in front of us unlocks and swings open slowly. Inside, there are rows of weapons ranging from small handguns to full on grenades. I was speechless. I’ve never seen a gun in my life, let alone a room filled with hundreds of them.
“What is this place?” I ask
Ryan steps by my side and says “It’s the weaponry,” he said in a nonchalant matter. “Only the best.”
Beatrice disappeared into a room adjacent to the one they were in now. She came back bearing black clothes for me to put on.
“Here,” she tossed the clothes at me. “They’ll fit you. We have to move fast if we want to get this done.
“Get what done exactly?” I ask concerned.
Ryan’s eyebrows furrowed. “Bea didn’t tell you why she came down here?”
“Well she said she was on her way to a meeting, but I didn’t know I signed myself up to be part of a rebellion.”
“You already have, sweetheart.” Ryan said in a way that made my heart melt.
“How did I sign up for something I didn’t even know was happening?”
“You’re skinny,” he said “Notice how no one else in this city is less than 200 Lbs. That already makes you a rebel working against the system. There’s only one person to blame for everyone being the size they are, Janice Martin.”
Just by Ryan telling me the name, I could tell she was bad news. I’ve never heard that name before, so I was genuinely curious about this woman.
“Who is she?” I ask Ryan. But instead Beatrice answered.
“She’s the b**** that’s killed over half of this city’s population in less than two years, including my parents. She’s making everyone unable to lose the weight they’ve gained because she wants to remain the superior little twig who thinks she’s better than everyone else. That’s all there is to her.” Beatrice just kept going on with her stream of never ending words, “She’s getting away with murder here and no one is doing anything about it! How is this okay? Trick question, it’s not. Everyone who tries to go against her gets executed, shot in the head and they’re never heard from again. We’re going to reverse the roles and do the same thing she did to the hundreds of people to her. We’re going to make her pay for what she did. Next thing you know she’ll be six feet under with no one at her funeral.”
Whoa, in the short time I’ve known her, I’ve never heard her go off the way she did just now. Ryan touched her gently on the shoulder. By the look on Beatrice’s face I could tell she was about to cry, but I wasn’t positive for what. Was it because she was sad about her parents dying or did it have to do with the hatred she felt toward Janice Martin.
“Hey, it’s okay Bea, We’ll get her back. We can do it, together,” Ryan said softly into her ear. Watching the two of them together made me feel lonely, out of place almost. Beatrice sniffled and started filling her black belt with weapons. Ryan did the same. I just sat awkwardly on a barrel labeled DYNAMITE hoping that I wouldn’t blow up the place. Because both of them knew I had no experience with weapons of any sort, Ryan gave me a belt with a taser, handgun, one grenade, three throwing knives and amo. I stood up and he bent down and carefully put in on for me. I could feel the coolness of his hands through the fabric of the thin black clothes. Tingles shot up my spine and I couldn’t help but gasp. Beatrice shot me a look, her eyes like daggers, threatening to pierce my heart if I made a move. As Ryan finishes securing the belt he clears his throat.
“We should get going. We don’t have much time. I’d say twenty minutes tops.”
He walks over to the door and Bea and I follow.
“You ready for the thrill of a lifetime?” Bea asks me. Ryan lets out a whoop and starts to run down his hall. I can’t help but let myself do the same.

The three of us run out of his front door and down the path in which we came to his house. There was a steel ladder leading to a manhole in the middle of the street. Ryan pushes the cover aside and starts to climb up onto the street. I don’t think of anything other than the fact that I just fell through this exact street and now I’m standing on top of it. How is this possible. Ryan helps Beatrice off of the ladder and says in a hushed voice
“There are cameras all over this city, Janice’s little minions are monitoring every single one of them. Follow exactly behind me and we wont have any problems. Got it?” Ryan looks directly at me while he is speaking.
“Got it,” Beatrice and I said in unison.
“Good,” says Ryan, as he darts down an alley to the right of where they were just standing. Avoiding all streets leading to the main intersections, Ryan leads the girls through a series of alleys, much dirtier than the one where Lauren first met Beatrice, and right to the back entrance of  Janice’s office building. Guards are standing by the door, gun in hand.
“Crap!” whispers Beatrice, “How are we going to get past them without making a ton of noise?” I think of the knives Ryan loaded onto my belt.
“Back home I used to throw darts with my brother. I hit the bullseye every time. Throwing a knife wouldn’t be much different. I could aim for the heart and take them both out.”
“Brilliant!” said beatrice, “Do it.”
I kneel down and take out one of the knives from my belt. I have a clear shot of the guard on the right. I close one eye and position my hand around the knife. I only get one shot, no time for screw ups. On the count of three I release the knife like I do with a dart flying towards the bullseye. I got him. Right in the heart. The guard collapses to the floor and the other on the left looks to his friend and tries to shake him awake. The blood not yet soaking through his uniform.
“Yes.” I say under my breath. The other guard is bent over. Easy target, the knife goes flying into the guard’s eye and he collapses to the floor. Ryan stands up and gives me a high five, so does Beatrice, but with a little less enthusiasm.
“I knew you would be good for something,” he says.
“Thanks,” I murmured back I don’t know why I didn’t feel bad. I mean I just killed two people! Innocent or not, they were still living, breathing, human beings and I stopped their chance of life ever continuing. Ryan gets up and leads the way through the door. No password was needed to enter surprisingly. We walked up seven flights of stairs with no trouble, that was until we got to the hallway of Janice’s office. From inside the stairwell, we saw guards of all shapes  lined up against the walls of the corridor making sure nothing and no one would get past them. It was almost as if they were the worker bees protecting their queen. Beatrice was reckless she loved the thrill. She walked straight into the hallway without a care in the world. One by one she flirted her way past the guards. Touching one's’ shoulder or squeezing one’s biceps, she did it, I don’t know how she pulled it off but she did. I was terrified. Ryan had the look of a proud parent at their little boy’s first little league game. Once Beatrice reached the end of the hallway she took the pen out the grenade bent over and said “Oops” as it rolled down the hall, Ryan shielded me from the shards that flew up from the explosion . I coughed, Beatrice came back down the hall wearing a smile way too big for her face and hugged Ryan. I felt a twinge of jealousy, but I didn’t let that get me off track. My only thought for the past 10 minutes has been KILL JANICE MARTIN. I walk down the hall stepping over body parts of guards strewn across the floor and the pools of blood they brought with them.

Pulling open Janice’s door I see her sitting at her desk with her hands crossed staring me dead in the face.
“Lauren,” she said, “Nice of you to finally join me.”
I was confused, I had no clue how this woman knew me and I didn’t really intend to find out. What happened next was a blur. I was on the floor, Ryan and Beatrice came in with guns in their hands, Janice is on her knees on the floor, Ryan’s holding a gun to her right temple, Beatrice is behind her tying her hands to the leg of her desk. Everything was sideways and my head was pounding, I must’ve got hit.
“No please! I’m begging! Don’t shoot me! You can have everything I promise. Just let me live.” Janice is pleading to Beatrice and Ryan. They don’t listen. The last thing I see before I hear the gun go off is the smirk on both of their faces. BANG. Everything goes black.

When I wake up I’m back in my backyard. Laying in the soft green grass. I don’t remember how I got back, or if any of what had happened was real. I reach into my pocket and feel a folded piece of paper. On it, three words are written. We did it. signed B and R.