SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension Read Online Free PDF Page A

shrugged. “Perhaps they don’t have to eat. Perhaps they only wake up when they go and take our place on earth. Perhaps that’s why there’s nothing here. Only this grayness. The wall with the sword hanging there came with us when we were transferred here by the
Snap
game. Like this window with the curtains and the piece of wall here behind you. I believe it’s yours?”
    Tammy nodded. No food and water? she pondered. This was terrible. Was that what alter Tammy had meant when she said: “As long as somebody is here, the alter ego will overpower him sooner or later”?
    Etsu nodded to show that she agreed with her brother. Her thick shoulder-length hair bounced gracefully up and down.
    “That’s how they’re going to get us. With no food and water we tire and weaken.” Then Etsu abruptly changed the subject. “What is your name?” she asked, “and how old are you?”
    “I’m seventeen. My name is Tammy Delport and I’m from Pretoria in South Africa.”
    “South Africa. I know, I know.” she said excitedly. “Where the twenty-ten Football World Cup was held. I sixteen, my brother eighteen. Hiroshi will look after you. Your alter ego will not win you. You stay with us.”
    “Thank you, Etsu. Thank you, Hiroshi,” Tammy smiled at her newfound friends.
    Hiroshi nodded his head in acceptance and smiled back at Tammy. Then he looked past her to the window at her back. He moved quickly towards the window and pulled Etsu with him. He held the sword in his right hand.
    “Birds. Look, Etsu, here are birds. Did they come with you, Tammy?” Hiroshi asked while his eyes were fixed on the birds.
    Tammy noticed that his English was better than Etsu’s, although he still spoke with a strong accent.
    “Yes, they came with the branches outside the window,” Tammy said.
    Hiroshi and Etsu went to the window and stood still right in front of it. Frightened, the birds hopped to another branch. Hiroshi pulled slightly at the burglar bars that were attached to the wooden window-frame.
    “May we have the birds?” he asked Tammy.
    “What do you want to do with the birds?” she wanted to know.
    “Eat.” Hiroshi answered laconically. His voice was at odds with the kind smile on his face.
    Tammy was shocked, momentarily speechless. But as she thought about their predicament she could see that Hiroshi was being . . . practical.
    “You want to eat those beautiful birds?” Tammy could see the logic and necessity of eating something, but to kill the little birds? There wasn’t even much meat on them. Perhaps in three days she would feel the same, but at the moment her stomach churned at the thought of eating the poor things.
    “It has been three days since we came here, Tammy. We are extremely hungry and thirsty. The birds will also die soon from hunger and thirst,” explained Hiroshi.
    “How . . . ?” Tammy wanted to ask how they were planning to cook the birds, but decided against it. If you’re really hungry, she supposed, you’ll eat anything in any way. And these two youngsters had been completely without food and water for three days. How long can one survive without food and water? If she remembered correctly, thirst could kill in not much more than three days.
    “Never mind. You go ahead and catch the birds if you can,” she gave her permission.
    Tammy shivered. She was getting cold. Her arms and legs were covered in gooseflesh. This gray place was much cooler than Pretoria, the city where she lived. Etsu and Hiroshi were dressed in winter clothes and Tammy knew that it was currently winter in Japan and the whole of the Northern hemisphere. Pretoria was basking in summer sunshine.
    Hiroshi started to pull viciously with one hand at the burglar bars. They wouldn’t budge. The terrified birds tried to fly away, but it seemed as if they were in an invisible cube. Where the branches of the tree stopped they flew head first into the edge of the blue sky without even a thud. They flapped downwards to land on