Chapter 8: The Buzz and the Breach
...Carter adjusted the shades covering his eyes, a look of steely resolve forming beneath them. He was alone, armed only with the planet's knowledge and his own lethal power. The game of survival had just begun.
He found a sacred, dark temple of Earth culture: the **movie theater**. After running from the attack outside the convenience store and securing his disguise, the System had guided him here for "cultural assimilation." He was now the sole patron, slapping his knee, howling, and tossing popcorn into the air while watching a film called *Friday*.
*"It is currently Tuesday night,"* Earth dryly stated in his mind. *"The Internet suggests movies are most attended on weekends. This auditorium is empty because 'no one goes to the movies anymore' on a Tuesday."*
"What is Tuesday?" Carter gasped, doubled over in a fit of laughter as he watched the large screen. He slapped his knee again, his eyes glued to the film. He jumped up, repeating the famous line with giddy abandon: **"It's Friday! You don't got no job! And you don't got sh\*t to do!"**
And that's when it happened.
The scene continued, showing two gentlemen smoking. But suddenly, the herb they were smoking started to materialize, becoming a **3D motion picture** experience unlike any special effect Earth had ever devised. Carter could smell the pungent, sweet odor of the marijuana—a scent unknown to him, yet strangely exhilarating. The character named Craig, played by Ice Cube, reached out, and his hand, joint and all, extended from the giant screen.
Carter giggled, reaching out and accepting the joint from the character, taking a deep drag as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
The laughter died instantly. A **Red Alert** blared across Carter's vision, courtesy of the **Earth System**.
**CAUTION! CAUTION! CAUTION!** The words flashed urgently in his mind.
Carter threw the popcorn at the screen, angry at Earth for ruining his moment. He was already feeling a dizzying, warm buzz from the single hit of marijuana—a first for him. "Hey, dude in my head! Why are you being a buzz kill?"
*"There is something seriously wrong with planet Earth—I mean, me,"* Earth replied, the System's voice now panicked. *"A movie is a two-dimensional projection of light. It should not walk out of the screen and engage with the audience. What just happened was **magic**, and that should not happen on this planet. This is a magicless planet. If this is happening all across the world, we might be in big trouble."*
The joint, which had felt so real, disappeared as soon as Carter's contact with the screen was broken. He snapped back to reality, his head swimming in a nervous mix of weed buzz and pure terror. The memories of *real* Earth movies the System had just downloaded confirmed it: that was not normal.
Carter calmly exited the movie theater and walked toward the small, cheap motel he had rented. He was still feeling the high, yet his panic was growing. He reached for the doorknob of his room, but paused. He looked back over his shoulder.
Far away, across the horizon of the urban sprawl, a spectacle was lighting up the night sky. It was the **Aurora Borealis**, the northern lights, yet it was shimmering in strange, violent hues of green and red, and it was far south of where the Internet told him it should be. The light was a magical manifestation, and it was unmistakable.
Carter took a deep, shaky breath, the residual marijuana buzz settling into a cold realization. He looked up at the impossible, beautiful, dangerous lights in the sky and spoke into the silence of his mind.
"Yeah," he said to Earth, the shadow of a dark smile touching his lips. "I think I fucked up coming here."
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