It only took a few moments for the reporter and his father to hammer out a deal. The fact that Andy's father was a lawyer helped. Hill Valley News would negotiate story rights with other media on his behalf, in return for which, they'd get 20% of any revenues.<br/><br/>With that out of the way, Andy started in on his story, the camera running.<br/><br/>"So Mr Reynarder, it appears the memorial service they were holding here was premature. Would you care to tell us what really happened?"<br/><br/>"That portal you saw was a gateway to a parallel world. I know, it sounds like something out of a 20th century sci-fi show, but..." He'd already removed his flak jacket, and now he opened his shirt, turning to show the barely healed scar across his shoulders, outlined in white fur against his normal russet. "This isn't a DGI special effect."<br/><br/>He buttoned up his shirt, realising with some surprise that some of the other girls from his class, who'd never so much as glanced at him before, were now looking speculatively at him. Pity for them he was taken, and how.<br/><br/>"As far as I can tell, that world diverged from ours around about 2008/2009, but the date when I got there was only about 2021... Can't explain why, to be honest I had more important things to think about. Oh, which reminds me..." He rooted in a pocket of his flak jacket and pulled out an old fashioned USB memory.<br/><br/>"Evidence, a freebie, as I intent to put it up on the framework as soon as I get to a terminal. Fifteen years of half a dozen major newspapers, some of which disappeared during the plague years, at least in our version of things. I managed to find a public library computer that still had power and did some data transfers. It's something over a terabyte in old style PDFs. For too much for any reasonable hoax."<br/><br/>The reporter took the memory as Andy continued.<br/><br/>"The big thing, is no Bender's plague, and no splicing technology. I did a search on Dr Monx, and found a few obscure references to some biology journals. Looks like he never got the funding to do those experiments we learned about in school. However, the US did start to split, though not as obviously as here during the Collapse."<br/><br/>"Some of these groups of states had their own private armies, and mercenary forces. One of these, Omega Force, supposedly allied with the Eastern US states, who still considered themselves to be 'the' US, was at a disavantage in tech and hardware, but had soem sort of breakthrough in research." He indicated the device mounted on the back of the quad bike. "Dimensional Gate technology, obviously."<br/><br/>"They'd set up some sort of secret research base on an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Mexico, and started playing with the technology. Apparently they hoped to grab monsters from other dimensions, or advanced tech, to redress the force imbalance. Another group, the Skull Daggers... my name for them from the insignia they used, I can never remember what they called themselves, tried to sabotage it with a covert operation.<br/><br/>"But rather than destroying the main machine, they simply wrecked the controls, and set off one of the nastier 'Doomsday' programs. Somehow, it was programmed to search nearby dimensions for the meanest, nastiest predators it could and transport them in to a specified location, maybe as a sort of shock troop replacement. There were jsut two problems. With no destination programming, it started at the main lab, and started spreading out."<br/><br/>"The upshot was, both researchers and intruders were forced off the island, or killed before they could shut it down, and then it started spreading it's area of effect to the mainland. The things started appearaing all over the America, and then the entre planet. Result, an Apocalypse. Civilisation collapsed, and every attempt by the faction of Omega Force that knew about the lab to stop the machine failed, as the lab was hardened against nukes, no bio or chemical ganet could kill everything, and any direct attack by humans was detected and swarmed."<br/><br/>"Of course, I didn't know this when I was snatched. I was heading down to the river to fill canteens when that Dorogadon came up out of the waters, with intent to chew. Before I could try and climb a tree, one of the portals opened behind it, and sucked up both through. Thankfully it landed more heavily than me, so I had time to find cover, but when I took stock of my situation, I was half minded to stick a sprig of parsley on my head and go right back out there."