At the front of the plane, the cabin door suddenly slid open and a man dressed sharply in a pilot's uniform stepped out. "Excuse me, folks," he said, in a nervous, unsteady voice. "Does anyone here know how to fly a plane?"
The woman sitting next to Donna suddenly grabbed her hand and clutched it, probably as a reflex to the possibility that the plane was without a pilot. A second later, the woman's hand loosened and fell away. "Where am I?" she asked, looking around.
On the other side of the cabin, Donna heard a woman scream and then a man shouted "How did I get here?"
Across the aisle, a seven-year old girl was playing a hand-held video game, then she suddenly dropped it on the floor and looked dazed. Then, after looking down at herself, she said "What the fuck am I wearing?"
The woman sitting beside the girl, who was probably the girl's mother, turned towards her with shocked eyes. "Lisa! Where did you learn that filthy language from?"
The girl turned towards her and said "Who the fuck are you?"
Tim Brant (one of Jon and Karyn's friends) stretched and yawned as he walked out of his bedroom and into the living room. As always, he slept in on Saturdays, so he missed out on the bizarre phenomenon that was hitting the town.
He saw his parents sitting on the couch, intently watching a local news channel.
"What's so interesting?" he asked.
His mom turned and looked at him. "There's a mandatory evacuation."
"Evacuation? Of what?"
"Of the town," she said.
Tim was confused. What did he miss while he was asleep? Was there some sort of natural disaster? He walked to the window and looked outside. Everything seemed perfectly normal. It didn't make sense. "Why are we supposed to leave?" he asked.
"They're saying that people are swapping bodies. The news is reporting that possibly thousands of people have already been affected," his dad said.
"That's ridiculous," Tim said. "People can't swap bodies. That stuff only happens in science fiction and stuff."
"It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. The evacuation is mandatory. That means we have to do it," his mom said.
His parents turned off the TV and headed to the door.
"Don't bother bringing anything," his mom said. "We don't have time to ..." She stopped in mid-sentence, as a confused look came over her face. She looked around, like she didn't know where she was, then said "How did I get here?"
"Mom? Are you okay?" Tim asked, approaching her.
Jon sat on his bed, feeling dazed. He had no idea who had his stone. And even if he did, how would he find them? With all the body-swapping going on, it was much more of a difficult task than it should have been.
"Jon," Karyn said. She was standing next to the window.
He stood up from his bed and looked out onto the street. A few police cars and black cars (presumably government-owned) were parked along the street right in front of Jon's house.
"What are they doing here?" Karyn asked.
"I don't know."
Outside, a government man in a suit and tie (possibly FBI) stood on Jon's lawn. "Are you sure this is the place?"
Another man, dressed down a bit, walked up next to him. "All our calculations place the center of the phenomenon at this location. Whatever happened to make all of this possible started in that house," he said, pointing at Jon's house.
