Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE: Your Order Has Been Delivered… Somewhere
If Zarah Okonkwo could sum up her life in three words, it would be:
“This again? Seriously?”
It was a phrase she muttered daily—when her alarm went off before her soul was ready, when the math teacher asked for the homework she “definitely did,” and especially when her little brother poured orange juice into her cereal and called it “a flavor remix.”
So when her Sunday afternoon got weird, her reaction wasn’t fear or panic.
It was pure, exhausted disbelief.
🛏️ Scene 1: Pizza Is a Human Right
Zarah was lying on her bed, tangled in the remains of a blanket she hadn’t properly folded since 2023. Her afro puffed up around her head like a glorious halo of sleep-deprivation. Her phone, of course, was resting on her face, where it had slid after fifteen minutes of scrolling aimlessly through food apps.
“Why does every pizza place take an hour to deliver?” she mumbled. “I don’t wanna wait for disappointment.”
She opened yet another app, her thumb barely moving, just committed enough to keep the illusion of productivity alive. Every app offered the same things: cold crusts, fake cheese, and overpriced delivery fees. She was about to give up when something new popped up.
An icon she hadn’t seen before.
Bright red. Glowing faintly. A spinning slice of pizza, orbiting itself like a mini planet.
Underneath:
SliceShift™
“Pizza So Good, It’ll Shift Your Timeline™”
Zarah raised an eyebrow. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. And I follow three conspiracy theory accounts.”
She tapped it anyway.
Because that’s what humans do. We press buttons we shouldn’t.
📱 Scene 2: The App That Glitched Reality
The app launched instantly—no loading time, no welcome screen. Just a glowing message:
Welcome, Zarah. We’ve been expecting you.
Preparing your Quantum Pizza… Please stand by.
Estimated delivery: Yesterday.
Zarah blinked.
“Excuse me?”
Then the phone screen glitched. Colors inverted. Her wallpaper turned into a series of rapidly spinning mathematical equations. A robotic voice echoed through the room:
“DO NOT PANIC. THIS IS A SCHEDULED TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT.”
“Scheduled by who?!” Zarah yelped.
The phone vibrated like a jackhammer. Sparks flickered from the charging port. Her lights flickered, her ceiling cracked with glowing blue lines, and then—
With a sound like a thousand rubber bands snapping at once—
ZARAH DISAPPEARED.
💥 Scene 3: Welcome to Chrono-Zone 9B
Zarah landed on a sidewalk. Face first.
“I taste... pavement,” she groaned.
She pushed herself up on her elbows and stared in awe.
This was not Lagos. Or Earth. Or anywhere on the periodic table of normal.
The sky above was a soft pink gradient, scattered with floating billboards advertising “NanoNachos” and “Emotion-Enhancing Bubble Gum.” A building shaped like a giant boot hovered above a fountain of neon soda. People passed by on hoverboards wearing light-reactive clothes and AI hairdos that changed shape every five seconds.
Someone zipped by on a pogo stick labeled “Time Jumper Pro.”
“Yup,” Zarah said aloud. “I’ve officially cracked my brain. This is what happens when you skip breakfast and wish too hard for cheese.”
Then, just to confirm that she had indeed become a walking glitch, her phone buzzed.
SLICESHIFT DELIVERY STATUS: CONFIRMED
Your pizza will be ready in 34 paradox minutes.
Thank you for choosing future food.
Zarah stared. “I didn’t choose future food! I wanted—ugh!—I WANTED pepperoni and peace of mind!”
A passing man with three pairs of glasses raised an eyebrow. “First time?”
🤖 Scene 4: Drones, Arrests, and Low-Battery Anxiety
As she wandered through the glowing streets, Zarah’s anxiety skyrocketed.
Where was she? Why did her phone sound like a Bond villain’s microwave? Was that vending machine growling?
Then came the drone.
It hovered directly in front of her face, blinking red.
“SCAN COMPLETE. UNREGISTERED TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED.
PLEASE REPORT TO THE MINISTRY OF MILD CATASTROPHES.”
“Mild?!” she shrieked. “I literally exploded through time in my pajamas. That’s not mild!”
The drone extended a mechanical claw. Zarah ducked and ran.
“I am not going to a Ministry! I don’t even go to my own school office!”
She bolted past a robotic hotdog vendor and a statue of a llama wearing VR goggles. Her slippers slapped uselessly against the ground, her phone screaming nonsense:
“WARNING: Crossing Interdimensional Traffic Without Clearance.”
“Reminder: You have three missed calls from Destiny.”
“Update: Pizza 72% Materialized.”
Then she turned a corner—and crashed into someone.
Correction: two someones.
🧠 Scene 5: Meet Milo and Nova (Probably Wanted in Four Realities)
The taller one—a boy with a lopsided grin, glow-in-the-dark braces, and a robotic arm—stared down at her and said, “Whoa. Another one.”
The shorter one—girl, maybe, wearing a cape, spiky boots, and a watch that looked like it belonged on a spaceship—sighed. “That’s the fifth glitch jumper this week.”
“Hi,” Zarah croaked. “I think I broke the universe.”
The boy held out a hand. “Cool. I’m Milo. This is Nova. Welcome to Chrono-Zone 9B. You’ve probably violated at least six laws just by standing here.”
Nova added, “And since you’re clearly not wearing a PhasePass or a Reality Sticker, you’re gonna want to hide. Now.”
Behind them, the drone beeped louder.
Milo smirked. “Run first, cry later?”
Zarah grinned. “Finally. A plan I understand.”
And the three of them bolted—into an alleyway glowing with graffiti that read:
TIME IS BROKEN. DO NOT LICK THE WALLS.
