As they got closer, they saw what it was.
"Well, isn't that convenient," Jon commented.
It was a gas station.
Jon drove the car, which was almost on empty, up to the pump. As he put new gas into the car, the three girls went inside the mini-mart to check it out.
It was a fairly new building and very clean.
Karyn walked up to the cash register and spoke to the guy behind the counter. "Hello."
The guy smiled. "Hi. What can I do for ya?"
"Can you tell us where we are?" Karyn said, hoping that they could get some answers.
"We're in the Place."
Karyn expected that. Apparently no one wanted to give them a straight answer about anything.
"What exactly is it? The Place, I mean."
"Well, it's all of this." He waved his arms around in the air.
"You mean the world?"
"No. It's not the whole world. Just a part of it." He took a breath. "You see ..."
The mini-mart door opened and the guy stopped talking.
"What do you think you're doing?" the man who entered said. He was a middle-aged man with a fair amount of brown hair, and he was wearing a white shirt and black tie. He reminded Karyn of the mysterious "men in black" that were part of all of those conspiracy theories.
"Nothing. I wasn't doing anything." The guy behind the counter looked scared.
"It wasn't nothing. You were telling them. You were told not to do that."
"Who are you?" Karyn asked.
He turned towards her and just glared at her, then looked back at the guy.
At that moment, Jon entered the mini-mart, ready to pay for the gas. At least that's what he would have done if he had any money. Mainly, he just wanted the owner of the gas station to know that he took some gas. Jon didn't want to feel like he was stealing, even in a place like this.
The middle-aged man looked at Jon. "Oh. Excuse me." And he left the store.
"What was all that about?" he asked.
But they were all too stunned by the "man in black", that they couldn't answer his question.
