It took me a little while to get to the bottom, slipping and stumbling all the way down.  Once there, I stopped for a moment and caught my breath.  It was hard to breathe here, as though the air were thin.  I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my stomach as though I were going to be sick.  I hunched over and tried to control the sudden spasms radiating from within me.  The pain slowly subsided and with my head somewhat spinning, I stood back up.  I made the last distance to the vehicle in a short time.

Upon arriving, I saw the other man had already gotten there ahead of me, and was doubled over, one hand on the vehicle, violently throwing up on the ground.  Luckily, the vehicle blocked the most of his unfortunate activity.  I didn’t need anything to remind my stomach to start acting up again.  The man finished, and with what seemed to be a great deal of effort, eventually stood back up.  A wave of pain passed over his face and subsided.  Upon seeing him, my memory kicked into gear, and I immediately recognized him.  Ted.  His name was Ted.  He was a well built fellow, possibly someone from the military.  Perhaps the Marines or possibly the Army.  He was about as tall as me, being slightly over six feet tall, slim, and muscular.  He had a slim face, dark brown hair, and dark eyes.  He looked at me, and without saying anything, gave me a somewhat resistant nod that simply said, “yeah, still here.”  He looked down again, and starting kicking the ground, most likely trying to cover up that mess he just made.

I looked away from him, feeling a little queezy, and my eyes fell on the other two standing not far away.  The man seemed to be trying to comfort the woman who in her own turn, seemed to look as though she were sick as well.  She also seemed quite upset.  I saw him drop something into her hand, and she tossed it into the back of her mouth and swallowed it down.  He spoke to her again, and then, patting her on the shoulder, turned to walk away.

I then suddenly recognized him too.  His name was Allen.  He, like Ted, was about as tall as I am, though much slimmer than either I or Ted.  He had dark brown hair too, and wore thin rimmed glasses, which made him look quite brainy.  In fact, I would think, though not knowing for sure, he was most likely the smartest of all of us.

He walked over to me.  “How you feeling,” he asked. “Alright?”  I merely shrugged.  “Here, take this.  It will make you feel better.” he said.  I looked down, and he handed me a small blue oval pill.  It was smooth on its ends and jagged in the middle.  I put the pill in my mouth and forced it down my dry throat.  “Alright?”, he asked.  I nodded again, and then looked inquireingly at the woman.  I didn’t recognize her, and had no idea who she was.  Allen turned his head and followed my gaze to the woman.  She looked back at the two of us and Allen put out his hand as if to invite her to the conversation.

As she walked over, Allen said, “This is Sharon, we’ve apparently picked her up from our last jump.”  Sharon was about four inches shorter than the rest of us.  She was an average build, not quite slim, but not quite chubby either.  She had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.  She looked at me, and I looked at Allen.

“What do you mean our last jump?!”, I asked.