Short story 42

Ten years ago a drunk driver had killed my parents. He’d been driving on the wrong side of the road. Blew a 0.22. At ten years old, my twin sister May and I became orphans. Ten years and the pain of it had mostly subsided, though not entirely.

There were still days I missed my parents, the way my mom used to kiss my forehead in the mornings before school. The way my dad’s laugh used to fill a whole room with happiness.

May and I had gone to live with our grandfather, our “papa” as we had called him, and for a while life went on. We had been close with him before, and he was more than kind to us. He really did his best to fill the void of our parents. It wasn’t perfect but we loved him for it.

May and I stayed close, grew up, go to the same state college. Life went on as it always does. That was until earlier this year when our papa was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and then he too was torn away from our lives.

The funeral was small, just us, a few family friends, and his brother- we had little family left other than papa’s estranged brother, Tom. Tom actually lived close by, but he and papa didn’t get on well, though neither May or I knew why. It was actually a shock when he showed up to the funeral. Didn't say much though, and left pretty quickly.

May and I had returned from our school to deal with the funeral proceedings and to clean out papa’s house. I say house but really it's a mansion. A gargantuan old gothic structure sitting on 10 acres of land snuggling up close to a dense forest. It would be creepy to anyone else, but to me and May it was home. A shining beacon of light in a world of shittiness. Papa had left the estate, all his possessions, and a very large bank account to us. On top of that, he’d left a us a slightly disturbing letter. This is what it said:

You both deserve the very best in life, and I’m sorry to say you haven't gotten that from me. In the time after my death, you’ll both come to realize that I’m not the man you thought I was. Sometimes we do things we feel are necessary, and those things can haunt us. Tom has agreed to explain some things to you both, and I just hope you won’t judge me too harshly.

Papa was a saint and neither May nor myself had any idea what the note was talking about at the time.

We'd come to find out.

Papa was also a serial hoarder. The house was full of junk he’d collected over the years. We’d used some of the money he left us to rent some storage units and a truck, but clearing out the house was no small task. Papa had always been a private person and wouldn’t have wanted strangers coming through and tearing the place up, so neither of us felt comfortable having movers come in. Still, that meant it was left to May and me. We worked tirelessly for days until finally, we’d made our way to the basement.

I flipped the basement light on from the top of the steps and sighed in annoyance when no light turned on in return. May and I peered down into the pitch darkness below. The concrete stairs seemed to stretch endlessly into the dark, even though I knew it only went down about 20 feet.

“This basement always creeped me out. The way papa locked it up so tight. I swear I used to hear weird noises from down here when we were younger.”

“We’ve been down there before though” I objected. “It's just boxes of papa’s old shit.”

“Once! We’ve been down there once for like two minutes when we were little! If it's just boxes why would papa have three deadbolts on the door?” May held up the ring of keys as if to emphasize her point.

“Hell if I know. Maybe he was worried someone will get hurt because the lights don’t work?” I responded jokingly, taking a step down the stairs.

“I have an idea! You figure out how to make the lights work in the creepy basement and I’ll go into town to pick up lunch!” My sister responded in a tone of voice that let me know she would not be going into the creepy basement.

“Sure, May.” I rolled my eyes and let out a small chuckle.

“Thanks Aaron.” May rested her pale blue eyes on me and smiled warmly before scurrying off, long dark hair trailing behind her.

I pulled out my phone flashlight and cautiously walked down the steps. As I made my way into the only part of the house we had never been allowed in, an unpleasant and musky scent filled the air. My nostrils began to sting and my stomach turned. The smell increased in power with each step and I had to make a conscious effort not to breathe through my nose. Something absolutely rotten was down here.

Upon reaching the bottom of the steps I noticed another light switch and decided to give it a try. For a second nothing happened, and then slowly a few dim yellow lights buzzed to life.

Gazing around, I saw nothing that would be giving off such a foul odor, but I had to admit that May had a point: this basement was creepy.

I could only see faintly by the flickering light that barely permeated across the basement, and the walls needed desperate help as the paint was hanging off in strips everywhere. On the far side of the room blocked by several boxes was a small door that presumably led to the septic tank. The place looked like a dungeon to be entirely honest.

Countless stacks of unmarked boxes were piled high around me, and I realized this was going to take hours. I let out a long sigh before beginning the laborious task of transporting them to the U-haul in the driveway.

An hour later, I’d barely made a dent and my back was aching. Deciding to take a break after the next box, I bent down and as I attempted to lift it up, the bottom gave away and its contents haphazardly spilled out over the ground.

“Damnit!” I shouted into the musky, humid air.

I looked down at the spilled contents and realized there was a pile of leather journals at my feet. Defeated, I sat down on the cold concrete ground and grabbed the journal closest to me. It looked ancient, and the leather was soft and worn. I flipped the book around in my hands, and noticed stitching on the spine: June, 1950.

Curiously, I unclasped the leather buckle of the journal and opened the front cover. Inside, there was a photograph taped to the back of the cover and I pulled it closer to inspect it.

The photo contained a couple in front of a few apple trees. The man looked familiar, and appeared to be in his mid twenties. He was smiling happily, and I noticed he was holding a small baby cocooned in a blanket. Laying her head against the man’s shoulder was probably the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. She had a pale complexion contrasted by long jet-black hair.

Her most captivating feature was probably her emerald-colored eyes that seemed to shine. I stared at her, mesmerized by her beauty. Eventually, my eyes darted to the familiar tooth-filled smile of the man for a few more seconds before realization dawned on me- this was a photograph of my grandfather. Decades younger than I’d ever seen him, but him all the same.

I wasn’t sure why, but I started to feel uneasy. There was nothing wrong with the scene in the image itself, but something was poking at the corner of my mind, putting my flight or fight response on edge. I couldn’t explain what, but there was definitely something very wrong with this picture. I stared blankly for a few moments before my eyes widened in disbelief.

The image I was looking at was clearly old and the journal was dated to 1950, but this picture was high-resolution with brilliant, vibrant color. Clearly taken by an advanced camera, even by today’s standards.

I quickly flipped through the pages of the journal only to see page after page of handwritten words. I recognized my papa’s handwriting and noticed each entry was signed by him. I set the journal down and opened another, only to see it too had a high-definition photograph of my papa. This time however, he was dressed in an army uniform, smiling from on top of the largest horse I’d ever seen. Not just a big horse, but impossibly big. It was hard to tell without a better frame of reference, but the horse had to be nearly the size of an elephant. My papa had never been in the army- He’d been an investment banker. This journal was also filled with handwritten entries from my grandfather.

Confusion swirling in my mind, I opened journal after journal. I saw more photos, one with my grandpa and a group of young men in army uniforms, all smiling on top of what looked to be an airship. Another with him in civilian clothes with the same green-eyed woman to his right, and to his left there was a boy in his late teens that I recognized to be Tom. My jaw dropped when I noticed an under-construction Eiffel tower in the background.

Some journals had photos, while some did not, but they all were dated between 1948 to 1955. I found the earliest journal which began on March of 1948, and began to read:

I’m not entirely sure what I should be writing here. Jade says to just write about my days and what happened, but it feels odd. It's for her though, so I’ll write. She told me she’ll want to read all about my adventures after I get home from the war, and I suppose I best make life sound interesting for her. I’m at the station now and I ship out in a few hours to Germany. The British Republic is advancing on Berlin at this very moment, and if the American forces can’t repel the Unified Powers, then there really is no hope for any of us. There’s even been talk of the Unified Powers developing a new type of soldier, people with unimaginable strength and speed that can take down entire companies-

“Hey Aaron, food’s here! I’m going to go hang out with Chelsea for a bit...Make sure you eat, okay?” May called from the top of the steps, her voice ripping me from the journal.

“Yea thanks. See you later.” I mumbled as she left.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was reading yet, but I dove back in.

-without losing a single man. I’m not sure how much I buy into it all yet. Sounds like ghost stories if you ask me. The Koreans may have a disgusting interest in eugenics, but something like that would be too much, even for them. Anyways, at least I get to ride the TransAtlantic HyperLoop on my way to Europe. They say it'll only take 5 hours to get across the pond in it!

I Love you my dearest Jade.

Just as I finished reading the entry, I heard a loud thump and the sound of metal scratching against metal. I froze and listened again for several seconds until I heard the same metallic sound again, followed by a deep rumbling and hacking cough. My head whipped around trying to zero in on the sound. The metallic scratching started again, lasting longer this time and my stomach sank as I realized it was coming from the door to the septic tank area.

Something, or someone was in there making that sound.

Now, I’m pretty fit and I wrestled in high school, and admittedly I have a decently sized ego. While it may not have been the smartest thing to do, I wasn’t too scared as I approached the door. Confident that I would be able to handle whatever was on the other side,

I wrapped my hand around the doorknob. After a deep breath, I threw the door open with one hand, and with my other hand I used my phone light to illuminate the dark space beyond. I gagged as a much stronger version of the horrid smell I’d almost grown accustomed to gushed into my nostrils, and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw inside the room.

The floor and walls were encased in concrete. The ceiling looked to be made of steel, and a couple feet past the doorway, thick steel beams descended from the ceiling every few inches. It was a giant cage, and in that cage was the most horrific creature I’d ever laid eyes on.

It was laying down, but I could tell it was easily seven feet tall. Its skin was a sickly grey and littered with bumps and sores. Its muscles seemed ready to pop out of its skin. Around its neck was a sturdy looking metal collar that had a long chain leading into the concrete of the far wall.

Between the smell and the sight, I bent over and puked my guts out.

When I looked back up, the creature staring at me and I saw its horrid, elongated face twisted into a nasty snarl. It bared its huge fangs at me and had moved into a predatory stance on all fours. It looked ready to pounce.

My heart was pounding so desperately I thought I was for sure having a heart attack. I stood there frozen in fear. Just when I thought I was going to faint, I heard a voice from behind me.

“Ah...Fucken Shit.”

Still holding the creature’s stare, I slowly turned around to see my great uncle Tom standing behind me, a huge slab of meat in his hands.

I heard the screech of metal and whipped back around to see the creature launching itself at me, only to be yanked back by chain. It snarled as it rose to all fours. Now that it was closer into the light, I could fully see its eyes.

Its piercing, emerald-green eyes.

****

As I stared into those captivating green eyes, all sound seemed to fade away until I could only hear my heart pounding wildly in my chest.

My mind flashed back to the photos of my grandpa and Jade, how her eyes had also been emerald-green. The exact same emerald-green. I stood there shell-shocked for what felt like ages until Tom roughly grabbed a hold of my shoulder and spun me around.

“You got questions kid. I suppose I got answers. Go wait for me upstairs” His thick southern drawl hung over his words like a fog. His voice sounded almost identical to my papa’s, save for the accent.

Finally, I broke out of my trance-like state. “What. Is. That. Thing?”

Tension filled the air. Tom eyed me flatly, not giving away a single emotion on his blank face.

“She’s…” He trailed off, trying to find his words before starting up again. “Listen kid, I promise I’ll answer all your questions but just go wait upstairs. She ain’t been fed in days and I promised my brother I’d take care of her.

“Papa knew about-” I started loudly before I was cut off by a shrill howl from the creature.

Tom aggressively threw his pointer finger at the stairs, indicating for me to leave the room. Weighing my options, I decided to listen and stepped over towards the stairs. I looked back at Tom just as he slammed the door shut.

I made my way through the long hallway that connected the east end of the house with the central hallway. I looked at the markings on the wall where papa had liked to measure mine and May’s heights for the first few years he’d had us, when we were still young enough to enjoy that sort of thing.

I laid my hands on the grooves in the wood. The house that had been my home for the past 10 years now felt alien to me, like I was trespassing in a stranger’s dwelling.

Questions swirled through my mind: What the fuck was that thing? How long had it been here? What the hell were those journals? But above all, there was one question haunting me most- Just who exactly was my grandfather?

I sat impatiently at the kitchen table for several minutes until I heard Tom make his way up the stairs. Without looking at me, he went to the kitchen sink and began thoroughly washing his hands. He sat down across from me, and finally met my gaze. For some reason, I looked away sheepishly.

Silence filled the room and I jumped when he reached into his jacket and slapped down a few of the journals I’d found. He folded his hands on the table and leaned back, still saying nothing.

Throughout my life, I had never gotten to know my great-uncle very well, despite him only living twenty minutes down the road. As far as I knew, he was a very smart man, though you’d never know it from the way he spoke. I knew he’d made quite a career for himself working as some sort of military contractor. Weapons development, or something like that.

Tom had never gotten on well with grandpa, only speaking to his older brother on rare occasions, and he spoke to May and I even less, regarding us with sheer indifference whenever he was around.

His disinterest in us had always stuck with me, but now I finally seemed to have his attention.

“How much of these you read kid?” He asked curiously.

“Some. Not much” I replied vaguely. “Is that her down there? Jade?”

“Nah...not for a long time now. That down there is what’s called a failed fucken experiment. During the war, the Unified Powers were trying to create a super soldier of sorts to fight on the front lines. Almost did it too, until the US developed the atom bomb and threatened to use it. Brought things to a tidy, neat close. After the war, we confiscated the British and Korean research and-”

“Stop fucking with me!” I suddenly shouted as I pounded my fist down on the table.

“There was no war in the 50’s where we fought the British! So stop fucking with me and start telling the god damn truth or I swear to god I’ll just call the police and let them deal with you and that fucking thing downstairs!”

I could feel my face growing red with anger. If Tom was surprised by my outburst, he didn’t show it. If anything he looked almost amused, which just served to piss me off even more.

“Right. I thought maybe you’d put it together by now. My brother said you was intelligent and all” He pondered for a moment before going on “Kid, I don’t reckon you know much of quantum physics? String theory? Einstein-Rosen bridges? ringin’ a bell in that hot head of yours?”

It wasn’t, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of telling him that.

“Get to the point.”

He smiled in a not-unkind way. “Over here, Einstein and Rosen theorized that we were surrounded by microscopic wormholes that could theoretically traverse one through space and time. Neat theory and all, and they actually got most of it right. The distinction between ‘most’ and ‘all’ though, is found in the actual function of said wormholes. Instead of simply connectin’ to a different point in time or space, they connect to different points in time, space, and realities.”

I wanted to yell again, tell Tom what he was saying was insane, but I held myself back. Mostly because he seemed to be confirming what I had begun to suspect.

He paused for a moment, sensing my indecision to protest his words. Once he was satisfied that I’d stay quiet he went on.

“You get what I’m sayin? Each of these bridges connect to different realities. Different universes. Some are similar to yours. Ours. Some aren’t so much. They all start the same way- with a big bang, and they all have the same fundamental laws of physics because of that, but at some point, they all go ahead and diverge. You still with me kid?” He paused for a moment as if to get confirmation from me.

“They have some event that does or doesn’t happen and they all progressively get more different. Me, your momma, Jade, and my big brother Justin? We’re from one that’s pretty close to this one, all things considered. Far as I can tell, divergence happened in 1678 when America split off from Britain almost a hundred years before they did here. Somehow through a series of cause and effect, that event culminated in a different world. My world. Where technology was pretty damn far ahead of where it is here, amongst some other things. Like wars bein’ fought on different schedules, with some different players involved. People there are different too, more...intuitive,”

My mouth hung wide open at this point. This was fucking insane.

“You said ‘was’. What do you mean ‘technology was pretty far ahead” I asked suspiciously.

“Well I was gettin to that. After the war, we confiscated their research. Turns out they were usin’ a strain of man-made virus to infect and alter people’s DNA, turnin’ them into stronger and faster things. I was just barely outta college when they brought the virus into the paramilitary facility I’d landed a job at. It shoulda been destroyed. It's unnatural changin’ a human body like that. Eventually, virus did what viruses do and it got out. It infected people. It mutated. It started changin’ people way past the initial scope of the project, turnin’ them into mindless beasts. It spread like a goddamn wild-fire. Within a matter of weeks, the whole world was either turned or eaten. Travels through fluids, so most bites will do the trick.

That's what happened to poor Jade down there. I didn’t know she was infected until after we got here and I never would have let her come otherwise. I’ve wanted to put her down for the last 40 years of course, but my brother refused. Unable to part with the love of his life. God, we used to argue about it...But on his deathbed, my big brother begged me to take care of her until I couldn’t and of course I couldn’t deny an askin like that, could I?

So here we are kid. I get keep her alive because to not would be spittin’ on my brother’s memory”

Upon finishing, Tom laid back in the chair and nodded towards me, as if to indicate that it was my turn to speak again. I was still unsure of what to believe at this point, but in my heart I felt like what he was saying was true, however improbable.

“Prove what you're saying is true. Show me.” I demanded.

“Your grandmother downstairs ain’t enough for you?” He gave a sharp laugh before standing up from his chair. “Come on then.”

Tom started walking out the back door that led to the yard and forest beyond. He beckoned for me to follow and we hastily made our way into the crisp winter air. I was led to the back end of the property where my papa’s tool shed sat. Although we never had any reason to enter it, papa had always kept it locked, citing theft concerns. Now I know that wasn’t the only reason.

Tom entered the combination to the lock and swung the door open to reveal the shed’s rather unimpressive contents. Tools layered the walls along with cobwebs , and dirt coated the floor in a thick grime. It was clear no one had been in here for years.

Going to the back corner, Tom began tapping around the floor with his heavy boot, listening closely as he did so. Suddenly, he grabbed a crowbar from the wall and began prying up floorboards.

“Come help me with this.” He commanded and I quickly stepped over to him and saw a large cube-shaped brown safe had been revealed under the floor. Probably about two feet tall and two feet wide. I felt another pang of betrayal at yet another secret my papa had hid.

The safe was deceivingly heavy and it took us a couple minutes to fully extract it from the floor and up onto the worktable. Without me needing to prompt him, Tom entered in a combination and the safe swung open. Tom began carefully removing its contents.

First, there was a picture of who I assumed to be my papa and Tom with their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders, both young children. They were in New York City. I only knew it was New York because of the Twin Towers in the background, filling up the skyline.

Next, he pulled out a wallet and removed several dollars of different denominations from it. The catch though, was that these dollars were blue and had the faces of men and women I’ve never seen before. I inspected them closely, and they certainly felt real.

After that, he pulled out a revolver that belonged in a sci-fi movie. I don’t know how to explain it, but when Tom lifted it up it almost became alive. It morphed into around his hand.

“Neural interface. Designed this myself actually.” Tom said as the gun morphed back into its original form. He set it down carefully.

At this point, I had to say I was pretty convinced, but the next item he pulled out shred any modicum of doubt I may have still been harboring. Tom pulled out a large sphere that swirled with cosmic colors. Just by looking at it, it was clear that this was an alien object. I watched as it turned blood red at Tom’s touch, and then swirled to a cosmic purple and then a deep ocean blue.

I reached for it, and Tom gripped my hand painfully.

“Don’t. Don’t touch this. Touchy and volatile to begin with. Might have gotten worse after all this time.”

I looked at him quizzically. “That's what got you here isn’t it?”

He nodded very seriously.

And then my world came shattering down, because it was at that exact moment I heard a ear-splitting scream echo across the yard from the house. My blood turned ice cold and my heart skipped a beat. I recognized that scream. That scream belonged to my sister. Without thinking, I grabbed the revolver sitting on the table behind me, and sprinted towards the house, ignoring Tom’s calls after me.

As I burst through the backdoor I immediately recognized the unmistakable scent of blood. I heard a soft cry from the hallway leading to the basement and quickly turned the corner to see my twin sister collapsed against the wall. All around her was a pool of dark red blood, that led down the hall to the basement.

As I got closer I realized the true horror of her wound- her arm from her elbow down had been torn completely off, shreds of skin hung loosely over the wound as it poured a seemingly endless fountain of blood. Tom arrived behind me then, letting out a sharp gasp.

“It seemed nice...My arm Aaron..it took my arm...It seemed nice...I...” she weakly croaked out as I knelt down next to her.

“Shh. You’re okay. It's going to be okay.” I said in an attempt to be calming, even though my voice was shaking and cracking as I watched my sister bleed out. I pulled off my belt and began tying a tourniquet as I screamed for Tom to call an ambulance.

“No point, kid. She ain’t gonna die. She’s gonna turn. We gotta...we can’t let her” He said softly. His face still conveyed little emotion, but I thought I saw something like sadness flash in his eyes. Ignoring him, I pulled out my own phone and called 911, giving them directions to my house before hanging up. I looked back at May and saw her eyes had rolled back into her head. She looked so pale.

“Save her! PLEASE!” I looked at Tom, tears now streaming down my face.

He looked down at the ground before responding “Kid, I hopped universes to get away. There ain’t no cure. My facility came the closest before I left, but we were still weeks, months away. We were gettin’ overrun. She wont bleed out, but she’s gonna go into a coma and start changin. Couple days. More if she’s lucky, less if she ain’t.”

I felt a rage boil through me as I grabbed the gun and sprinted down the basement steps.

“Aaron no! Tom bellowed after me as I bolted into the room that held the creature. I slammed the door shut and locked it as Tom’s body pounded into it on the other side. I felt a new wave of red hot anger as I turned and saw the creature gnawing on my sister’s arm.

It paid me no attention as I leveled the revolver at its head. I felt the cool metal morph around my hand. It was an odd sensation, but I felt the neural interface working and somehow knew the bullet would find its mark.

With a simple thought the gun blew a hole the size of a quarter through the head of the thing that had once been my grandmother. No sound, no recoil. The creature howled and I shot again, and again, and again. Finally it collapsed on the ground. Dead.

Tom was still pounding on the other side of the door, and as I opened it he came crashing inside and looked at me with a fury I’d never seen before. He took a step towards me but I leveled the gun at him and he stopped in his tracks.

“You gonna fucken shoot me? I swore to my brother I would keep her safe but now look what you went and fucken’ did.” He spoke in a tone that was full of ice and fury.

I took a deep breath, and steadied my breathing as I continued to aim down my great uncle. I had a plan, albeit a shitty one. If I was right, I’d be able to save May. If I was wrong… I’d probably die for it, but I had to try. I had to try and save the only family I had left. I realized I could hear ambulance sirens in the distance, growing louder. I steeled my resolve. The time was now or never.

“You said it yourself Tom, your facility came closest to a cure. We need to go there. You’re taking me there.”

The anger in Tom’s face disintegrated instantly, replaced by pure terror.

“No” Tom whispered, his face now white as a ghost. The ambulance sirens were growing in volume. We had to go now. I wasted no time in pushing Tom towards the stairs, poking the gun barrel into his back.

“Aaron, you need to stop this. I can’t go back, you have no idea what was happenin’ when we left. We’ll die.” Tom’s voice was almost whining as he pleaded to me.

We crossed from the top of the stairs into the threshold of the hallway and I was shocked to see May’s arm had stopped bleeding. She was now laying down in the pool of blood, her long dark hair soaked with crimson. Her breathing was short and shallow, and her eyes were open but still turned into the back of her head, the whites of them facing into the ceiling. Seeing her in this state was painful, and it took everything I had not to stay with her. The only way I could help her now was to keep going with my plan.

I shoved Tom through the hallway and out the back door, towards the shed. His begging had turned into stoic silence. Neither of us said anything as we approached the shed. Every few feet I had to shove him forward as his feet dragged along. The only sound being the shrill of sirens, louder each second.

I looked back towards the house, the front road and driveway not visible from this angle. If I had to guess, they were going to reach the house any second now. My hope was that the ambulance would rush May to the emergency room and there the doctors might be able to slow down the virus and buy me some extra time.

I stumbled into Tom as he froze like a statue in the doorway and began to speak.

“Kid, there's somethin’ about all this I haven’t told you. The device- it can’t correctly account for temporal variance. It was just a prototype and it never got figured out. You hear me? I’m sayin I don’t know what year we’ll be comin’ out, and if against all fuckin’ odds we make it back I don’t know what year it will be here. We got here five years after we left in my world. I don’t even know for sure if this damn thing still works and if we’ll be going to the right place. You need to stop this before you get us both killed.”

I considered Tom’s words for a moment. If what he was saying was true, then this whole thing could be less than hopeless. But he could just as easily be lying to avoid going back to his world.

“I’ll take our chances,” I told him, while simultaneously shoving him the rest of the way into the shed. The orb was still sitting on the work-table, now devoid of any color other than the opaque, milky white that seemed to signify the off-mode. Tom stood there, not moving a muscle.

“I’m not going to say it again Tom. I will fucking shoot you right now to save her. You might be a coward who’s willing to let May die, but I’m not. I won’t. I don’t want to hurt you, but you need to take us there now!” I exclaimed.

Now I could hear voices coming from the house. It wouldn’t be long until first responders and police were swarming the property.

Tom let out a resigned sigh before picking up the device. When he did so, it came to life and swirled with a beautiful shade of orange that reminded me of a cloudless sunset. Foreign symbols suddenly appeared around the orb and Tom began tapping them in a sequence.

When he seemed to be done, Tom turned to face me. He stood staring at me for a moment before looking back at the orb and tapping a few more symbols.

Tom removed his hands from the orb, and to my amazement it hung there, suspended in mid air.

“Last chance kid.”

I forcefully dug the gun into his back.

Tom said nothing, and placed a finger onto the orb, and gave it a quick spin. The orb swirled with color and began to spin faster, and faster until it became a blur. The air pressure in the shed changed, and a heat began to emanate from it. The temperature of the room quickly rose.

“Stand close kid. When you feel yourself go, expel all the air from your lungs. It ain’t fun and it hurts real bad.” Tom told me.

I inched slightly closer to the spinning orb, but the heat coming from it felt like it was searing my face. I was beginning to sweat now and still the orb seemed to spin impossibly faster. A roaring that came everywhere filled my ears and I felt dizzy. I thought I could hear Tom praying, but the deep roaring was so loud I wasn’t sure.

Suddenly, every atom in my body screamed with pain. It was like someone was sticking every single bit of my body with white hot knives, and twisting them for good measure. I screamed. My vision started to fade to black and I exhaled deeply.

And then falling.

Falling.

But I wasn't falling through the air. Just falling through nothing. A void. The pain stopped as quickly as it had come and a sensation of peace filled my being. Blissful nothingness continued. It just went on and on. Falling through an infinity of nothing for eternity.

Maybe it went on for seconds, or minutes, or days, or years. Maybe it never happened at all.

I remembered where I was, what was happening. I attempted to breathe but it was like trying to breathe underwater. The calmness that had come over me was replaced with a panic. Finally, just as I thought I’d suffocate, I could feel a breeze gently flowing by me and I opened my mouth to gulp in the cool air.

Impact.

My head bounced as my back collided into the ground. The gun I’d been holding was knocked out of my hand and the world faded to black.

Sometime later I regained consciousness and felt a sharp pain where my head had collided with the ground. I opened my eyes and could see a sunny blue sky above me. The sky seemed a brighter blue than normal, actually.

Slowly, I turned my head over and realized that I was laying in the tall grass of a meadow. Surrounding the meadow, there was a thick forest of trees. I sat up, still struggling to take full breaths. Fortunately though, it didn’t feel like I’d broken anything. Looking around, I saw Tom lying face-first in the tall grass a few feet away from me, and the orb sat on the ground between us.

“Tom?” I asked. My heart began to race as Tom didn’t respond.

“Tom?” I asked again, urgency beginning to fill my voice. I pushed grass out of my face as I crawled closer to him. I flipped him over on his back and began shaking him to no response. Dread began to set in. There's no way I’d be able to survive here without Tom. If he was dead, then I was beyond fucked, and so was May.

Suddenly he groaned and his body shifted slightly. He was alive, thank god. Relief flooded over me as his eyes snapped open.

“Jesus, I thought you were dead!” I said as I helped him sit up.

“Might as well be,” he muttered, “We’ll both be dead within the day.”

He narrowed his icy gaze at me and I began to reply before I was cut off by a loud animalistic howl in the trees at the far side of the meadow, followed by what sounded like running. Tom and I both froze as a gargantuan horse the size of an elephant burst from the trees into the far side of the meadow. I remembered seeing the photo of my papa riding on one of these creatures.

“We bred them to be much larger here,” Tom commented as the horse galloped away.

Something wasn’t right though.

“What spooked it?” I wondered aloud. As if on cue, three humanoid creatures came crashing into the meadow on all fours, bounding after the horse. My heart sank as I immediately recognized them to be the same type of creature as Jade. These were much larger though, and seemed to be in much better shape. They howled gleefully as they closed in on their prey.

Tom threw his hand over my chest and brought us both back against the ground, trying to hide in the tall grass that surrounded us. He looked at me and brought a finger to his lips indicating silence. As if I’d dare make a sound right now.

We heard the screams of pain that could only be the horse getting caught. It called out in agony for several minutes. I felt terrible, but there was nothing to be done. After what felt like forever, the horse’s cries finally stopped and then only the sound of tearing flesh was left.

Just as I started to think that maybe I’d make it out alive, my phone began to buzz in my pocket and my morning alarm chimed through the air.

I had two thoughts at that moment. The first was that at least half a day had passed since we’d left. The second thought was that I was going to die. Right now.

Tom looked at me with a mix between fury and terror and my hands fumbled as I attempted to silence my phone. After several long seconds I managed to stop the alarm. I turned my head towards where the creatures had been and to my dismay all three stood straight up and motionless, staring at me. Their faces were soaked in blood and they had a ravenous, predatory look in their eyes. The tallest of them was easily over nine feet tall, and I cringed as its brown eyes met mine. It opened its mouth in a twisted version of a smile to reveal its long, yellow canines.

Suddenly it began to scream, followed by the other two. The sound was horrid but just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. It snapped its jaw shut, and got back down on all fours, still staring at me.

“Fuck” I heard Tom say from behind me.

At the sound of Tom’s voice, the creatures began sprinting towards us, with impossible speed. Their skin bulged with dense muscle as they bounded towards us, thrilled with the notion of fresh prey.

I had to agree with Tom. Fuck.

From movies and TV, I’ve always heard that your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die. Time supposedly moves down to less than a crawl, and everything you’ve ever experienced runs through your brain at lightning speed. Maybe as the universe’s way of rewarding you for a happy life, letting you live it all one last time. Or punishing you if you’ve lived a bad one.

In my case, as the mutant creatures sprinted towards Tom and me at an impossible speed, time did move down to a crawl. However, instead of my entire life replaying, my only thought was of my sister, May. Lying mutilated and unconscious on the floor of our house, awaiting her inevitable transformation into one of these creatures that was now going to end my life.

The creature closest to me had its mouth open, and I could see its long canines were stained red with blood. It was only about thirty meters away now, and I knew outrunning it would be hopeless.

But still, humans were the product of eons of evolution, and buried deep inside all of us is a survival instinct that kept us alive throughout history, and will keep you fighting until the very end, even against insurmountable odds. Even against three impossible monsters whose only purpose is to kill. I jumped up and faced the creatures.

“RUN!” I screamed to Tom. Glancing over, I saw he was already booking it for the treeline.

I didn’t have time to see whether he made it though, because the closest mutant had closed the distance to me. As it lunged towards my neck, I attempted to dive out of the way. By mere inches, I managed to avoid the creature’s teeth and my body slammed into the ground, knocking the air from my lungs. With no time to react, I felt my body being violently hoisted up by my arm. My shoulder ripped out of its socket with a sickening pop as the mutant dangled me in front of its face.

I screamed in agony and fear as it brought my head closer to its mouth which was opened unnaturally wide. Hot, putrid breath filled my screaming mouth and I could see bits of flesh dangling between its teeth. Behind the one that held me, I could see the other two had reached us and were circling us in excitement. Tom was nowhere to be found.

Acting on pure instinct, I did the only thing I could do- I pulled my head back, and then with all the force I could gather, I smashed my forehead into the creature's long nose.

It was like slamming into concrete. Blood began to pour down my head and I saw stars. However, my head-butt had done the trick. The creature let out an annoyed yip and tossed me away from it, sending me careening through the air. I landed face down on the ground, sending yet again another wave of pain through my body. Blood filled my mouth and gushed out my likely-broken nose. Using my good arm, I began to crawl. I felt my hand come into contact with smooth metal and despite everything, I gave a small smile.

A faint sliver of hope started to grow in my mind as my fingers closed around the gun that I had dropped when we first arrived. Forgetting the waves of agony that shredded through me every time I moved, I flipped my body over and sent a bullet straight at the mutant that was now towering over me.

The bullet ripped through the top of its mouth and exited out its long nose, but it didn’t kill it. Instead, the mutant screamed as it reared back to land a blow on me. Before I could shoot again, the creature’s head exploded and the sound of what seemed to be thunder cracked through the meadow. It’s body dropped lifelessly in front of me. The other two creatures howled at this, and glared at me with vicious hatred.

Another deafening BOOM split through the air and the mutant closest to me had its arm majority of torso blown away. Although they were probably twenty feet away from me, I felt hot blood and bits splatter across my face.

Before I could understand what had happened, the other mutant began to sprint away towards the trees, completely forgetting about me. Again, a BOOM sounded and the mutant’s leg nearly tore off, only held together by strings of flesh. The creature fell forward and rolled, letting out a terrified scream as it began frantically pulling itself towards the treeline. Finally, one more BOOM rang out and the mutant dropped dead as a hole the size of a dinner plate appeared in its torso.

For a moment, there was an eerie silence that filled the area.

I was alive.

“Tom? Tom?!” I called out. My voice sounded harsh in the total silence, and blood filled my mouth, making it difficult to speak.

The world came alive again as several dark-grey figures materialized from the tree line. My heart jumped at the thought of more of the mutants entering the meadow, but I was quickly relieved once I recognized them to be human. My vision was blurry from pain and fatigue, but they seemed to be wearing dark grey body armor with helmets that covered their faces. They were distinctly military and almost looked like storm-troopers. I would have laughed if I hadn’t almost just died.

There were about 20 soldiers or so, and most of them were holding what seemed to be grey Assault-rifle versions of the pistol that I still held in my hand, but two of them were holding what looked like a cross between a cannon and a sniper rifle with a large folding tripod attached to the fronts. Those must be what had made the thunder-sound.

As the soldiers were closing in on me, I could tell they were saying something but I couldn’t quite make out what. They stopped several yards away and raised their guns at me.

“PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN NOW!”

I realized I was still holding the pistol and dropped it to the ground. They kept their guns leveled at me and began to move closer before abruptly stopping again.

“Blood on him! Medic up front” the lead soldier called out in a female voice. I noticed she had a black stripe down her shoulder pieces.

Shit. I had completely forgotten about the creature's blood hitting my face when the soldiers had killed it. Terror began to rip through my body as I remembered what Tom had told me. The infection spreads with fluids.

I was pretty sure none had gotten in my mouth or eyes, but it had all happened fast and I couldn’t be positive.

“On it.”

One of the soldiers moved forward from the back, as he approached me I noticed he was carrying a small duffel bag. The soldier knelt down in front of me, tossing my pistol back towards the others, who were still pointing their guns at me. He opened the bag and removed a small case, which he then flipped open. Inside was the largest syringe I’d ever seen, filled with a faintly yellow liquid.

Now, I consider myself a fairly brave person, but there’s something about needles that have always fucked with me, and this needle was gigantic. I had been silent up until this point, but I’d be damned if someone was just gonna jam me with a needle without my permission.

“What the FUCK is that? No FUCKING way” I yelled, desperately trying to pull away.

The soldier didn’t respond, and instead I felt his fist collide with my jaw, knocking me to the ground. Putting all his weight on me, he dug his elbow into my back before I felt the needle pinch into the base of my neck. In my pitiful state, there wasn’t much I could do to fight back.

As quickly as it happened, the soldier was off of me and I laid there in the grass breathing heavily.

“He’s clear ma’am.” announced the soldier that had stuck me with the needle. It dawned on me that I may have just been injected with a cure. My mind raced at the possibility of using it for May.

I noticed the soldiers had started to fan out a bit and were inspecting the meadow and bodies of the mutants they had killed, although a few had stayed with their guns still on me. I turned towards the soldier that seemed to be in charge.

“Thank you. For saving me. Please, did you see another man here? My Great Uncle was with me and -” She held up a hand to cut me off.

“Colonel Bradis of the NUSR. We picked up an energy signature from this location. Tell me what happened here,” She commanded in an authoritative voice.

I also noticed she had the exact same southern accent as Tom.

I opened my mouth to talk, before closing it again. Despite saving my life moments ago, she didn’t seem as though she wanted to help me. I had a strong feeling that I shouldn’t be too open with her about my origins.

“Don’t make me say it again.” She said in a sinister tone.

Before I could think of a convincing lie, her attention was drawn away from me and to another soldier.

“Ma'am.”

I turned my attention towards the soldier and saw with dismay that he was picking up the orb. The Colonel stared at it for a moment before removing her helmet and handing it to another soldier. I couldn’t see her face since her back was to me, but short blonde hair covered her head. She stared at the orb for a few more moments before finally turning around to face me, a ravenous smile plastered across her face.

Now that I could see her, I would have considered her pretty if she wasn’t so fucking terrifying. She was probably late thirties, her hair almost a goldish-white that I don’t think exists in my universe, and her eyes were a light amber color that bore into my being.

“Now just where did you get that?” She asked in a clearly fake-sweet voice. I kept my mouth shut, and her fake-smile was replaced by a quick flash of anger before she went on, “If you’d believe it, I used to have one of those before it got stolen! Someone took it from me before leavin’ us all to die almost 10 years ago. He took a few people with him, and I just keep wonderin’ where they all got off to.”

I kept my face as emotionless as possible, returning her angry stare with what I hoped was equal intensity. Though I’m sure it wasn't, seeing as how fucked up and broken I was. She considered me for a few more moments before switching back to her overzealous grin, revealing a set of pristine white teeth as she continued on in her fake-sweet voice.

“Let's start over. You said you was lookin’ for someone right? Your great-uncle? I think he and I might have a few things to talk about.”

As I kneeled in the meadow, gun to my temple, I wondered how everything went to shit so fucking fast. Then I just remembered that my whole life was shit and everything made sense.

Colonel Bradis began shouting towards the trees again.

“You have exactly ten seconds to show yourself before I turn this young boy’s brains into jelly. Ten. Nine.”

I winced as the soldier pointing his rifle at me dug the barrel into my temple. Once I’d refused to tell them where Tom was (only because I didn’t know) they’d dragged me into the middle of the clearing and started this shit.

“Eight. Seven. Six.”

I wondered if Tom was even still around.

“Five. Four.”

I wondered what it was like to die. Maybe it was just like hopping universes: an endless bliss of nothing.

“Three. Two.

Forgive me, May.

“One.”

Just then I heard Tom shout from somewhere amongst the treeline.

“Fucks sake Helena, he's just a fucken kid!” Tom called out as he emerged from the forest, hands high in the air.

Helena? Tom knew this bitch? Honestly, I was surprised he came to my rescue, seeing as I’d threatened to kill him if we wouldn’t take me here, just a bit ago.

Colonel Bradis’ eyes widened as the rest of the soldiers converged on Tom, forcing him to his knees. She approached him with awe, and the soldier with a gun to my head dragged me along. My body screamed in pain from all the injuries I had sustained.

“I truly can’t believe my eyes. Tommy is that you? It is you, aint it. Tom Lancing in the fucken flesh!” She gave what looked to be an actually genuine smile. “You got old, Tommy.”

Tommy? What the fuck?

Colonel Bradis approached Tom and gently placed her hand on the side of his face. Neither of them said anything for a moment, and it was clear a lot of unspoken words were exchanged. Tom seemed almost embarrassed while the colonel looked unmistakably sad before noticeably becoming angry.

Finally Tom opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Colonel Bradis’ gentle touch becoming a harsh blow to his face. She struck him again. And again.

He spat out a mouthful of blood.

Just then the Colonel raised a hand to her ear and I noticed she had a small earpiece in. She listened intently for a moment and then began barking orders at the soldiers. The ones not securing Tom and I bolted into action and began packing everything up. She turned back to Tom who began to speak.

“I never meant for it to happen like that Helena, you know I-”

Colonel Bradis held up a hand and the soldier closest to him slammed the butt of his rifle into Tom’s head. He collapsed forward onto the ground and let out a long moan.

“All this time and still nothin’ but empty lies,” Colonel Bradis spat, “ You took something that belonged to me. You tried to kill me. We don’t have time anyways. My pilot just tagged a horde of them things comin’ right at us, just a few moments ago. As much as I’d love to watch you get torn to shreds, I don’t think the higher-ups would be too happy.”

Just then I heard the purr of a rapidly-approaching engine. I stared in awe at the hovercraft making its way over the meadow. It was shaped like an oblong spaceship with a huge whirring fan on its belly, and two more jutting out from the back.

As it began to land on the other side of the meadow, legs extended from the craft’s body, keeping the whole thing a few feet off the ground. One side of the craft was open and had no door, similar to what you’d see on a military helicopter.

The soldiers flew into motion, quickly packing up those cannon weapons and dragging Tom and I into the hovercraft. I screamed and held back tears as my still-dislocated arm was yanked in front of me and thick metal cuffs were slapped on my wrists.

Rows of seats with windows lined the inside, with an open pilot’s compartment in the front. As they loaded me up I glanced into the pilot’s area and was surprised to see it looked fairly straightforward, with only a touchscreen and steering unit.

I was shoved into a window seat opposite the opening in the craft behind Tom, just as inhuman howls permeated through the trees. The soldiers froze for a moment before jumping back into action.

If I thought they were rushing before, they were in overdrive now. The howls of the creatures were getting louder, and more numerous. I suspected dozens of them were nearby. Even with the weaponry these soldiers had it was far too many to fight.

From my spot in the craft, I could look out the opening and see the soldier tasked with securing the orb. It was the medic who had injected me with the syringe. He had dumped some of the medical contents of his duffel bag on the ground, desperately trying to make room for the orb. The sound of the mutants was becoming deafening and he was moving frantically. His hands were noticeably shaking and he was having trouble with a caught zipper on the bag.

The first of the mutants cleared the treeline and Colonel Bradis started screaming at him from the entrance of the craft. The soldier grabbed the still-open bag and began running as fast as he could manage.

For a moment he seemed like he might make it, but the bag was bouncing wildly as he sprinted and the goddamn orb bounced right out of the bag and onto the ground, rolling a few feet away.

Colonel Bradis started shouting obscenities at the men inside the craft and a few of them jumped out and opened fire on the creature closest to the medic. They downed it, but several more had entered the clearing now. The medic dropped the bag and grabbed the orb, continuing his sprint towards us.

The hovercraft began to rise and Colonel Bradis turned her fury towards the fearful pilot, demanding that he stop the ascent. He began arguing with her and they exchanged some angry words before the Colonel pointed her gun at him. The pilot angrily slammed a button on the touch screen and the craft’s ascent halted.

A few more men jumped out and opened fire, but the mutants were flowing into the meadow en masse. The man carrying the orb was moving fast, but still thirty feet away or so. It was clear he wouldn't make it.

One of the creatures took a leap and sailed through the air, landing directly on top of the soldier. The orb went careening away, landing with a dull thud. It must have been sturdier than its glass-like appearance made it seem, because it sat unharmed where it landed. Though it was quickly engulfed by the startlingly-close herd of mutants charging towards us.

The Colonel was still shouting. The rest of the soldiers who had jumped out to help the medic were trying to reboard the craft, but the pilot had begun to raise the craft again and had taken it a little too high for them. Three of them jumped for the opening and began to heave themselves inside.

Mutants leapt in the air towards the craft and grabbed a hold of two of them, dragging them back down to the ground. Their screams as they were eaten alive echoed through the air.

The third soldier was slightly luckier, or so I thought. A mutant had jumped through and bitten his leg clean off, instead of dragging him back down with it. Another soldier pulled him inside the craft before Colonel Bradis promptly shot the wounded man through the head. A look of disgust filled her face and she used her foot to push him back out the opening.

She smiled when she saw my horrified expression.

“All my serum is down there with my medic.”

We were about twenty feet in the air when a particularly large mutant made a bounding leap for the open door that was thankfully opposite of me. The craft lurched violently as the front half of the mutant landed inside, scrambling to find purchase. It dug its long claws into the side of the soldier closest to it, the same one who had just pulled in his friend.

The soldier began screaming before Colonel Bradis used her pistol to put several bullets through the mutant's head. Its lifeless body slid back out, dragging the still-screaming man with it.

As the craft gained altitude I was able to see just how wrong my assumption of the mutant’s numbers were. There were not dozens entering the meadow like I had assumed.

There were hundreds. A sea of writhing grey and yellow all climbing over each other.

And somewhere down below in all that, was the orb. My only way home. My only way to save May.

*****

We flew in silence. Every time I tried to speak I was met with a hard hit from the soldier next to me, so finally I just stopped trying. Colonel Bradis was on the other side of the craft staring at me, looking furious. Fortunately my seat had a window which gave me something to look at other than her scalding gaze.

For a while we flew over a forest that seemed to stretch on forever. After about an hour we began to approach a city and I was again reminded of how much farther along this universe had been. Apart from regular buildings and skyscrapers, this city boasted a futuristic highway system with shiny tunnels creating a maze between it all.

Once we got closer, I could see just how well and truly fucked this place really was.

Buildings and skyscrapers were destroyed, windows shattered everywhere. The long tunnels intertwined through the city were blown apart and missing sections everywhere. Dead vehicles and rubble littered the streets. Scorch marks covering almost every surface.

The smell of death filled my nostrils as we passed over it all. Packs of the mutants could be seen roaming the streets, their howls floating up to the craft as our pilot weaved us through the city. It was desolate.

This world was dead.

I heard soft crying from in front of me where Tom was sitting as he watched the scenery below. I felt a pang of regret. Coming back here and seeing all of this had to be painful, if not outright traumatizing. More than that, I was the one who forced him back here.

I couldn’t see him well from my seat, save for a small opening between his seat and the wall of the craft where part of his hand was visible. He was hunched away from the soldier next to him. I wasn’t sure, but he looked to be holding a pen, scribbling on something.

We began to approach what looked like a military compound on the outskirts of the city. Forty-foot tall, mile-long walls surrounded a spattering of buildings. I could make out more soldiers along the top of the walls with those portable cannons, and thunderous cracks sounded as they opened fire on any of the mutants who got too close.

I wondered if this was a constant way of life. Had these people really been repelling the mutants day-in and day-out for years? How did they not run out of bullets or food?

Along the side of one of the walls were big letters reading “New United Syndicate for Reclamation.” I guess thats what NUSR stood for.

The craft touched down on a large helipad in the middle of the compound, and I could see more people walking to and from the buildings. Once the engines stopped, Tom and I were forcefully pushed outside the craft. We landed in a heap and I screamed as Tom’s weight landed on my dislocated shoulder.

I was in so much pain I almost didn't notice Tom shove his hand inside my back pocket.

Soldiers hauled us to our feet and I tried to catch Tom’s eye but he stared silently at the ground, unwilling to give away anything. After aiming their guns at us, the soldiers ordered us to face towards the hovercraft.

On the shiny surface of the metal craft I was able to get a look at my reflection. I wish I hadn't- what I saw horrified me.

My nose was clearly broken, slanted very sharply. Large cuts filled my face and dried blood was painting the entire front of my body. I was unrecognizable at this point.

Too busy studying my hideous reflection, I barely noticed Colonel Bradis shoot the pilot through the head as he exited the craft. His body landed inches away from my feet and I jolted in surprise.

The soldiers were still training their guns at us and I didn’t dare turn around, but through the reflection of the metal I could see Colonel Bradis close her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration. She waved her hand and a few soldiers grabbed the now-dead pilot and began dragging him off to wherever they drag off dead people in this fucked-up place.

“Find me a new pilot, please,” she told one of her men who promptly hurried off. “One that follows orders!” She added.

Colonel Bradis ordered me and Tom to turn around. Most of the soldiers had cleared out and only a few remained with their guns aimed steadily towards us.

Further away I could see a soldier and few people in lab coats had stopped to stare. One of them, a woman with long dark hair, locked eyes with me and concern filled her face. She finally looked away when the soldier began ushering them forwards towards a large grey building.

Colonel Bradis snapped her fingers in front of my face twice.

“Me. Look at me. Next time I snap, you die.” She said in a very serious tone.

I nodded. I knew she wasn’t joking. She took a deep breath before speaking, this time addressing Tom.

“Despite everythin’, I really am happy to see you Tommy.” She paused for a moment. “But I’m more unhappy about havin’ to leave the Bridge back there and losin’ so many men. I’m not as patient as I used to be, I’m out of time, and I’m gonna need answers from you. Tell me you understand.”

“You were ever patient?” Tom didn’t miss a beat.

The Colonel let out a shrill laugh, and then she turned her pistol towards me and put a bullet through my injured shoulder.

Agony sliced through me and I dropped to the ground. Maybe due to shock, but I was unable to even scream. Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision.

Colonel Bradis scratched her head and began again, this time using that disgusting fake-sweet voice from earlier, “It's been so long, and I just can't believe you’d talk to me like that.”

“Not long enough,” Tom’s voice was dripping with venom, “I shoulda killed you when I had the chance, you sadistic, vile, evil spawn of a swine-fuckin’ whore. You know why I left you here to die? Because your head is broke. So fucken broke that even I can't fix it! You’re more fucked up than a clock with no numbers and I couldn’t have your vileness infectin’ a whole nother god damn innocent universe.”

Colonel Bradis simply nodded, as if getting confirmation on what she already knew. Tom looked down at me with sadness in his eyes.

“I hate to say I told you so,” he said with a wink, “good luck, kid.”

Colonel Bradis once again fired her gun, this time right into Tom’s temple. My great-uncle’s lifeless body dropped to the ground in front of me with a thud, eyes open and unfocusing. Blood pooled out from the hole in his head.

“Jesus christ. Someone find me a new fucken medic too! Make sure this kid don’t bleed out!” Colonel Bradis shouted.

As people rushed to save my life, the true gravity of my situation began to sink in. I was so far in over my fucking head it was laughable. Tom was dead and I surely wasn’t far behind. My sister was going to turn into a monster and quite possibly be patient zero for a mutant apocalypse on my world. I had completely and totally failed.

Despite the excruciating pain I was in and my severe blood loss, I began thrashing against the hands on me. I launched every single threat and insult I knew at the Colonel, and she just stood there unfazed, wearing an amused look.

The only thing that made me eventually stop was when someone stuck a needle into my neck, and my world faded to darkness.

*****

“I’ll give you two a minute,” Papa said with a sad smile, setting down his flowers and walking back towards the car.

May put a comforting arm around me as I stood awkwardly in front of our parent’s graves. I leaned into her and wiped the tears from my face. May was only nine minutes older, but sometimes the difference felt like years. It was always her taking care of me.

Exactly one year had passed since they died, and the pain hadn’t subsided at all. Most nights I still woke up crying, in a cold sweat.

Then I’d hear a knock on my door, and May’s soft voice asking if she could come in. We shared a wall and my sleepless nights meant she would not sleep either.

We’d sit on my bed and just talk about anything, sometimes for hours. Finally I’d be able to fall back asleep and she’d slip away back to her room.

“They left,” I choked out through tears.

May leaned her head into mine, “I know.”

“What if you leave too?”

“I’ll never leave, I promise. But you need to wake up, Aaron. Wake up.”

*****

My eyes snapped open and for a moment there was nothing but bright blinding light. At first I had no idea where I was, and I tried to make sense of what was happening but my mind felt sluggish, like it was moving through molasses. I knew the dots were there, I just couldn’t connect them.

“He’s awake” I heard a voice from off to the side.

My vision finally cleared and everything came together once again. I took a look around and saw I was in a matte white room, laying in a hospital bed. I was wearing a hospital gown and noticed my folded clothes sitting on a small table next to my bed. Someone must have washed them though since they were no longer red from all the blood. To my side I saw a woman in scrubs tending to an IV that led into my arm.

My arm that was cuffed to the metal rail of the bed. I jolted upright and yelped as I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, now held in a sling and covered with bandages.

Oh right, the crazy bitch shot me.

“I just spent hours reconstructing that shoulder, don’t you dare mess it up again!” the doctor scolded me, “Fixed that pretty face of yours too. You’re going to feel out of it for a while, I had to use some pretty strong painkillers. Reconstructing bone and tendons- its nasty stuff. Takes a lot. You must be pretty important for the colonel to use all of these resources on you.”

Staring at the doctor, I realized she was the same woman wearing a labcoat that I’d seen when we first landed. Before Bradis had shot me, and killed Tom.

“Don’t know why she would. She’s the one who fucking shot me,” I muttered angrily.

“Oh, you mean the lieutenant colonel. No, I’m not talking about Helena Bradis,” the doctor spat the name with disgust, “If it was up to her I would have cauterized your wound with rusty metal and woke you up with a bucket of cold water. Colonel Fenway is the one who gave the order- he’s in charge here. From what I could tell, he wasn’t very happy with Bradis either. You’ll get to meet him soon; he’s on his way over here right now.”

The doctor’s words surprised me. From what I had seen, Bradis had been unchallenged in her authority, other than the dead pilot. The possibility of her answering to someone hadn’t even occurred to me.

The door to my room hissed and slid open to reveal a man in plainclothes who I assumed to be Colonel Fenway, followed by two soldiers in body armor. One of the soldiers carried a chair and sat it down next to my bed.

“If you could give us the room, Tara,” Fenway told the doctor who quickly exited the room. He pointed at my restraints and one of the soldiers produced a key and unlocked the cuffs, and then they too left the room.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting the Colonel to be like, but Fenway wasn’t it. I guess I just thought anyone who could keep someone like Bradis on a leash would be more… just, more. What stood in front of me was an incredibly unassuming man. Looking to be in his late forties, Fenway wasn’t very large. A little on the shorter side and pretty skinny. Not bone-thin or anything, but not muscular in any sense.

Still, maybe it was in the way he carried himself, but something about the man commanded my attention. My respect.

Fenway grabbed the chair and sat a few feet away from me, clasping his hands together before beginning to speak.

“Colonel Fenway of the New United Syndicate for Reclamation. Your name is Aaron?” Fenway held up my wallet, producing my driver’s license from it. I nodded. “Aaron I’d like to start by apologizing for how you’ve been treated by Lieutenant Colonel Bradis and I want you to know she’s been punished. We’re all under a lot of stress here”

I laughed, “Tell that to my great-uncle, I’m sure he’ll feel a lot better. Oh wait! He’s fucking dead.”

Fenway sighed, “Bradis is...harsh, but effective. Sometimes a necessary evil in times like these. She's been punished, you have my word. I do want to talk about your great-uncle though, and you look like a man with a story, Aaron. I’d love to hear it.”

Fenway seemed genuine, and I decided that this could be my only chance to achieve what I had come here to do. I proceeded to tell Fenway absolutely everything. I didn’t mean to, but the man got my whole life story. How May and I had been orphaned, how my grandfather had also eventually died. How I had discovered the mutant in my basement that attacked May and forced Tom to take me to this world. All the while Fenway sat there, listening to every word. When I had finally caught up to the present, Fenway started to speak.

“You see, I knew Tom Lancing. He was brilliant, and thirteen years ago, he worked here as a part of Project Cronos. The purpose of the project was clear: harness a Tesla-Fermi bridge to climb through the fabric of space-time. Time-travel, in layman's terms. They were on the precipice of achieving it too, before the world went to shit.”

Fenway paused, gauging my interest. Satisfied, he began again, “Once it became clear that no cure was possible-”

“But isn’t there one?” I interrupted, “ I got injected with something after some of their blood got on my face.”

“The serum you were injected with will only halt the process at whatever stage it's at. Hard to make, and it has to be used quickly after infection. Nothing more than a half-measure, I’m afraid.

Anyways, once the world went to shit, Project Cronos became everything. Eventually they realized the Tesla-Fermi bridges weren’t just portals into time, but also universes. Still though, it didn’t matter. It was a way out, a lifeboat in all this,” Fenway waved his hand around.

“We identified three possible universes we could escape to: Beta, Charlie, and Zulu. Obviously if we had kept analyzing the data I’m sure we could have found more, but time was short and we identified three candidates we were reasonably sure had timelines similar enough to our own.

During this, the scientists working on it had their families moved into the compound. In Tom’s case it was his brother, sister in law, and their little girl- your mother, I presume. A promise of their safety as motivation to continue the project: complete it, and they would be allowed to bring their families. But it was a cruel lie.

You see, at maximum occupancy the Bridge creates a field to cover around 200 people, and its power is not limitless. Within that orb is an experimental antimatter reactor and with the world the way it is, we have absolutely no way to get more antimatter. Three trips, at most. 400 people in total. The scientists and their families would never be allowed to go, only the most elite of the elite would have a ticket.

Tom, being the smart man that he was, put two and two together. I don't blame him for what he did though, I probably would have done the same in his shoes. One night he and his brother snuck into the facility and killed the entire project’s security team. The only one that lived through the attack was Helena Bradis. I never knew if it was because her and Tom were...friendly, or if it was because Tom was a lousy shot. They took the Bridge, crashed an armored car through the main gate and escaped into the city with his brother’s wife and their girl. Two days later our satellites detected gamma rays emitted from the antimatter reactor and we knew Tom was gone. Ten years later, we detected them again when you arrived. ”

Throughout Fenway’s recounting of the story, I had listened intently. It felt amazing to finally understand everything, to put all the puzzle pieces together. It felt even better to know that if I could get back home with some of that serum, maybe I could still save May.

Fenway, as if reading my mind, brought those hopes crashing down in spectacular fashion.

“Aaron, my men were able to recover the bridge from the meadow you arrived at, and are on their way back here right now, but I can't send you home.”

“Why the hell not?!”

Fenway reached inside his jacket and produced a ripped piece of fabric with symbols scribbled on it, and I recognized it to be a piece of Tom’s coat, “We found this in your back pocket. These symbols are the identifiers for universe Zulu- what I assume to be your home universe. If you enter these into the bridge, it’ll take you there.”

I realized what Tom had been scribbling on the flight over here, which he must have then shoved in my pocket when he fell on me while exiting the hovercraft. Tears filled my eyes. Despite everything I had done to him, he had been thinking about me, doing his best to make sure I could still get home.

“Three trips, Aaron. Three,” Fenway handed me the piece of fabric and went on, “The Bridge has been used twice. One trip left. Your sister has been infected, which means she might infect the rest of your world. One trip left, and I can’t risk going somewhere with more of those fucking things. What would you do in my position? Sacrifice the safety and futures of 200 people, good people? I will let you come with us to Beta, as thanks for returning the bridge, but that's all I can do for you.”

I was about to start arguing when the two soldiers who had been waiting outside suddenly reentered the room.

“Sir, they’ve returned with the bridge”

Fenway looked at me again, “I’m truly sorry. I hope you see what I’m doing as necessary, Aaron. I’ll be back for you once-”

Yet again, someone had their brains blown out in front of me. It was really starting to get old.

One of the two soldiers had just shot the other, and was now pointing his gun at a shocked Fenway and me.

“Colonel Bradis has requested to see you both.”

Fenway reached for the pistol on his hip, but froze when the soldier aimed the rifle at his head.

“I need you to hand that over, sir.”

“A coup?” Fenway asked incredulously. “Think very, very carefully about your next move, Conell. This won’t go the way you think it will, I promise you that.” Fenway told him matter-of-factly.

Conell apparently didn’t care, since he ignored Fenway’s words. He turned his attention to me, “Get dressed.”

I removed the IV from my arm and slowly stood up. I instantly became lightheaded and my legs collapsed beneath me. Probably from all the meds they had pumped me with. Fenway tried to help me to my feet, but I angrily shoved him off me. He had been pretty kind to me, but his refusal to let me return home still had me fuming.

I had to remove the hospital gown and get dressed in front of them both, which was a somewhat awkward experience. Unslinging my arm and getting it through my shirt was a painstaking endeavor, but I didn’t hurt quite as bad as I expected. Whatever they had done to fix my shoulder was working quick, and it was healing much faster than medicine in my universe would have allowed.

Conell pointed towards the handcuffs that had previously been tethering my arm to the hospital bed and instructed me to place them on Fenway. I guess Fenway was seen as the bigger threat between us. Probably true.

Fenway, for his part, kept trying to convince Conell to give this up but I knew he was wasting his breath. If this man was following someone like Bradis, killing for someone like her, that meant he was a fanatic. Couldn’t be reasoned with.

Conell ushered us out of the room into an empty hallway. At the end of the hallway was a pair of doors that led out into the courtyard of the compound. As we walked, I could see rooms on either side filled with scientific equipment that went way over my head

As we neared the end of the hall, gunfire could be heard from outside the doors. At first I just assumed it was mutant-killing cannons from atop the walls, but as we got closer and I could see through small windows in the door I realized what it was. Fenway and I froze, staring out at the carnage taking place.

Outside a full-scale fire fight was taking place. All over, soldiers from the ground were using their rifles to shoot up towards the soldiers manning the walls, and the soldiers up there were returning fire with their cannons. A dozen yards away a group of soldiers were running towards our building, carrying another whose leg was missing below the knee.

I watched as they approached and a round from a wall-cannon exploded at their feet, sending them all flying. Smoke and dust filled the air and I instinctively ducked as bits of flesh sprayed against the window.

I was definitely going to need therapy once all this was over.

From behind me, the sound of pounding footsteps erupted and I whipped around just in time to see someone barrel into Conell. Conell’s rifle went flying out of his hands, and the two landed in a tangle on the ground. Conell quickly emerged on top, however, and he sent a flurry of powerful fists into his attacker's face which prompted several shrieks of pain. As Conell pulled back to deliver another blow, I was shocked to realize his assailant was my surgeon -Tara.

For some reason, I couldn’t help but notice that although I had initially thought Tara to be a decade my senior, now that she had changed out of the doctors scrubs it was clear she was probably only a few years older than me. The stunt she just pulled was pretty bad-ass too.

I know, I know. Not the time or place.

Fenway wasted no time; he delivered a powerful kick to Conell’s temple causing the latter to roll off of Tara. Dropping to the ground, Fenway pulled the chain of his handcuffs under Conell’s neck and began strangling him.

Conell scrambled to escape, and began desperately trying to dig his fingers under the chain. When that wouldn't work, he reached his arms back to attack Fenway’s face and managed to land a few deep gashes on his cheek.

“WHY?” Fenway screamed out, “WHY? WHY?”

He gave just enough slack in the chain for Conell to choke out an answer, “She... promised me a spot.”

Enraged, Fenway began slamming Conell’s head into the ground, over and over. He continued long after Conell’s’ face had turned to a bloody pulp. The man was certainly dead but Fenway continued until Tara let out a pained moan. Fenway gave a look of concern and finally dropped the lifeless body to the ground and used Conell’s keys to uncuff himself.

Fenway began gingerly checking over Tara, who had managed to pull herself a few feet away. Her eye was badly swollen and her nose was leaking blood, but she seemed fine, all things considered. She’d live, at least.

“Aaron, help me get her up. We have to-”

“No,” I interrupted. Fenway looked up at me and anger and annoyance filled his face as he realized his mistake. While he had been dealing with Conell, I had picked up the dropped rifle and was using my good arm to point it at him.

“I. Am. Going. The. Fuck. Home.” I said slowly, to emphasize my point. “I am going to go home, save my sister, and forget about this cursed fucking place.”

“Take a look outside, Aaron. How do you think you’re going to do that? If Bradis wins, do you think for a second she’s just going to hand over the Bridge and let you be on your way? If my men win, do you think they’ll just let you go after shooting me?” Fenway pointed to a security camera above us, showing that everything happening was on record. “I’m your best chance to survive right now. Your only chance.”

I frowned. I hated to admit it but Fenway was right. But I also couldn’t just give up the only leverage I’d had in my entire time on this cursed planet*. Fuck.*

“Then we go to my universe. I don’t care if you don’t think it's safe. That’s’ the only way you live right now: you give me your word that you will let me go home. That’s your only chance to survival right now.”

I truly don’t know if I actually could have shot Fenway in that moment, or if it was just a convincing bluff. Luckily, I didn't have to find out.

Fenway cursed and thought it over for a moment, “Fine! We’ll go to your universe, you have my word.”

He could have just as easily been lying, but Fenway didn’t strike me as the type. I handed the rifle to him and helped him lift Tara to a sitting position against the wall. The bleeding had stopped but she still seemed a little out of it.

Fenway and I made our way back to the windows to get a better look at the battle still raging outside. According to Fenway, it seemed that the 150 or so soldiers fighting from the ground were loyal to him. The remaining few dozen soldiers manning the wall had been trained under Bradis and were her’s, though she herself was nowhere to be seen. The couple staircases leading to the top of the wall had been barricaded as well, and any attempt to approach them by Fenway’s men was quickly met with a barrage of cannon-rounds.

Luckily, both sides seemed to be ignoring the housing building, which according to Fenway contained all of the soldiers' families. Instead, most of the fighting was focused further out towards the helipad. The hovercraft returning with the Bridge- Fenway’s men- was attempting to land, but whenever it started to descend, soldiers from the wall would fire their cannons at the ground beneath it, forcing it back into the air. Fenway’s men were attempting to provide cover fire, but every time they’d show themselves, a cannon-round would blast them apart.

“It’s smart. I have the numbers so she made sure she’d have the high ground and superior fire power.” Fenway pointed towards the hovercraft, “there’s another helipad on top of the wall. She knows the craft won't have much fuel left after the trip and they're trying to force it to land up there. That way they can take control of the Bridge. I bet you anything Bradis is waiting up there too, so she can use it as soon as possible. That's probably why she didn’t have Conell just kill us, she doesn’t know how to operate it so she needs one of us to.”

“So...you got a plan or something?” I asked skeptically.

“Or something.”

*****

Fenway’s plan was shitty, but when I told him so he had just asked if I had a better one. I didn’t, but that still didn’t make his plan any less shitty.

Since most of the fighting had centered around the hovercraft on the other side of the compound, that meant there were only a couple on the end we were near. The two soldiers were clearly focused on the battle, which meant that Fenway, Tara and I were able to use the buildings as cover and approach them undetected. With expert aim, Fenway fired two rounds in quick succession and dropped both the soldiers instantly.

Fenway wasn’t too happy about Tara coming along in her injured state, but she had recovered her senses and quite forcefully stated she wasn’t staying behind. I was pretty shocked she was so willing to argue with her superior, and even more shocked that the Colonel relented. Ultimately though, I had seen weirder since arriving here.

Fenway had explained that on either side of the wall were six-inch thick metal sliding doors, and between those doors the wall was hollow. Sort of like an air lock. Inside the compartment there were also maintenance entrances that lead to the wall's top surface.

“With the men on the walls not shooting them, the mutants will be starting to pile up out there. I’ll use my override code to open the outer door for a moment, and then open the maintenance doors. We’ll just let a couple get in. They won’t be expecting it at all so I bet they get the majority of Bradis’ people. At the very least they’ll cause a good distraction.

“And if more than a couple get in?” I had asked, to which Fenway said “They wont.”

I said it was a shitty plan.

“And if they get loose inside the compound?” I had asked, to which Fenway had just said “They won't.”

I said it was a shitty plan.

As we approached the large touchscreen on the wall, Fenway gazed up and cursed. The crew in the hovercraft seemed to be finally giving up, and they were floating it towards the helipad on the wall.

“Voice authorization required,” the touchscreen announced.

“James Fenway confirmed. Tango, Charlie, Foxtrott…” Fenway continued rattling off his code. When he was done, I heard a hydraulic hissing sound coming from the wall and immediately my ears filled with the sound of howling mutants. I shivered knowing the only thing between us was six inches of metal. After seeing what they could do, it didn’t feel like nearly enough.

Fenway slammed a red button on the screen and the hydraulics hissed again before most of the howls were cut off. Now only a couple snarls could be heard from within the compartment. Fenway touched another button and we heard the maintenance doors slide open, and the creature’s snarls dissipated as they made their way inside the wall. We waited a few minutes and watched as the hovercraft descended before getting obscured by the wall.

“Should be long enough. Let’s go,” Fenway said. He opened the front gate of the wall and gestured towards the dark maintenance entrance inside the now-empty compartment.

Shitty. Plan.

Fenway took the lead, followed by myself, with Tara bringing up the rear. Somehow Fenway led us through the pitch darkness, and as we blindly moved up and through the wall, I began to wonder if the mutants had even reached the top. Maybe they were still inside here with us, waiting in the shadows to rip our throats out as we walked by. From far off, an inhuman howl rang out and I jumped back into Tara, almost sending us both tumbling. Luckily, she caught us and without a word grabbed my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Soon after, we heard the sounds of screams mixed with inhuman howling. The mutants had made their way to the top and were hopefully decimating Bradis’ soldiers.

As we reached the top, we could see the metal hatch leading to the surface was torn to shreds. Fenway told us to stick close and peaked his head through before motioning us to follow into the daylight.

We emerged into a blood-filled nightmare scene. Body parts and unidentifiable pieces of flesh covered almost every surface. Deep claw marks lined the floor beneath us. A few hundred feet or so down the wall was the helipad, and I could see two mutants laying waste to the soldiers above the wall.

On the ground, Fenway’s soldiers were using the chaos up here to regroup. They began dismantling the barricades, but it was slow work. On the helipad, the few who remained of Bradis’s soldiers were desperately trying to fend off the mutants, but up close like this the mutants were too quick. We ducked down and watched as they were quickly sliced to shreds. After a moment they seemed to lose interest though, and began sprinting along the wall towards a few more of Bradis’s men who were making a break for it. Luckily away from us.

“I don’t see Bradis anywhere.” I whispered to Fenway as we cautiously approached the helipad.

“Maybe they got her,” he responded.

I had to hold back a chuckle. That’d be way too lucky.

It wasn’t long before I was proven wrong though. Recently, I had day dreamed about shooting Helena Bradis quite often, so I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I was actually pretty disappointed when we found her dismembered head lying on the ground next to the hovercraft. Her mouth was frozen open in an endless silent scream, and her eyes were wide. A few feet away the rest of her body lay on the ground, still clutching a metal case. I quickly snatched the case and opened it to see the milky white orb sitting inside. I hugged it to my chest.

Awesome fucking plan.

Fenway walked towards me and bent down to examine Bradis’ head and body. With a look of disgust, he grabbed the head by her short blonde hair and chucked it over the wall.

“Good riddance,” Fenway muttered before turning to look at me. His eyes grew wide and he immediately raised his rifle to aim at something beyond me. Without looking, I knew the two mutants were returning, because of course they were.

I turned around and saw two giant blurs of grey hurtling towards us at an alarming rate. Fenway began firing, and he managed to drop one before the rifle clicked empty. He threw the weapon down in disgust before drawing his pistol.

“Get behind me, Aaron.”

Shitty. Fucking. Pla-

BOOM

A deafening roar cracked through the air, and the mutant’s arm evaporated. However, the thing barely seemed to notice and continued bounding towards. I turned around to see Tara holding a blood-covered cannon. She fired again and this time the mutant’s head exploded.

“Didn’t think he’d need this anymore,” she said, gesturing towards half a body on the ground some distance away. She gave me a small smile which I weakly returned. She was really kind of bad-ass.

The rest of Fenway’s men had finally broken through the barricades, and the Colonel quickly snatched the metal case out of my hands. I began to protest but in an instant he had handed it off to another soldier.

“Major Ngyuen, gently take this and young Aaron here to my office, immediately. Don’t let either out of your sight, and keep Aaron in the hall with you until I arrive.”

*****

About three hours later, Fenway had finally arrived with Tara and the three of us entered his office while Major Ngyuen stood guard outside.

“My apologies for the wait Aaron. I had to make sure no more of the mutant’s were in the walls, and we had to round up the last of Bradis’ traitors.”

“Did you kill them?” I asked.

“Do you care?”

“Nope.”

Fenway grabbed the metal case and opened it, placing the Bridge down on the desk between us. Tara had randomly started crying and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, feeling awkward. Fenway gestured towards her and she placed a syringe full of the mutation-halting serum next to it.

“Go save your sister, Aaron.”

“You're ready to leave?” I asked.

Fenway smiled, but his eyes revealed sadness. “Apart from a trusted few, my people think the Bridge was destroyed in the battle. There’s hundreds of people here Aaron. More than could ever make the trip. I can’t make the choice of who comes and who gets left behind. I can't abandon them, either.”

Personally, I figured saving some would be better than none at all, but who was I to argue with the man. I also didn't care as long as I could go home.

“However, I do have one very selfish condition, Aaron. My daughter is coming with you. She deserves more than life behind these walls.” Fenway looked towards Tara, who wiped away a few tears.

“Your daughter...” I said in surprise. It made sense though. “Deal. Lets go.”

I smiled. A nice big full smile that felt like the first time I had smiled in years.

*****

As I input the symbols Tom had written down for me, the orb began to fill with a brilliant neon green, strands of cosmic purple lacing through. I remembered my great-uncle's words and told a nervous Tara to make sure she breathed out all the air in her lungs. She nodded and when I was done I gave the orb a small one-fingered push the same way I’d seen Tom do. It started to spin faster and faster and I prepared for the excruciating pain that would come next.

As I left this nightmare behind, I had only one thought in my mind.

Hang on May, I’m coming.

*****

Little did I know, I was only trading this nightmare for another.

*****

Consider the concept of infinity. It's jarring. Something so abstract that our brains can't count it or even properly imagine it. Go ahead, try.

You can’t, can you? Because whatever your imagination conjured up to represent it isn't enough. That's the thing, it doesn't make sense. Yet it exists everywhere.

If you take the numbers one and two, getting from one point to the other is easy. Start at one, end at two. One plus one equals two. Its easy, it makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is the infinity between the two numbers, because between one and two, there is indeed an infinity of decimals. So many that you, your children, and your children’s children could all count for the rest of your lives and you’d never even get close because it’s fucking infinity. Nevertheless, the infinity starts at one, and ends at two. Simple. Brain-numbingly complex.

Now that's what I call a god damn paradox.

Beginning. End.

Start. Finish.

Two points. Infinity between them.

I think somewhere in one of those small yet endless infinities is me. I started counting from one to two and I can't stop. Can I reach the end that I know has to exist? If I just keep counting will I get from one to two?

Can I stop myself from ever counting to begin with?

*****

Falling through the void was slightly different this time. I’m not quite sure how to explain but this time around it felt like maybe I was just more...awake? More conscious of what was happening.

I remembered the roaring had filled my ears, followed by the all-consuming pain and Tara had clutched my hand as we screamed in agony.

I could no longer feel her grip but somehow I knew she was still close. The peaceful bliss filled my soul and I fell through an endless void for an infinite amount of time.

Yet somehow it was only an instant.

Finally, I felt the movement of air and remembered how badly I need to breathe. I gasped for breath and icy air filled my lungs. I heard thunder and felt rain colliding with my body. Remembering what had happened on my first trip, I threw my good hand behind my head just as my body impacted with cold ground. My head crushed my hand, but at least I wouldn’t have a concussion.

I laid there for a while, motionless and staring up at the night sky that was dropping rain on my body. I flexed my hand that had been crushed. Felt like it would be bruised, but at least nothing was broken. It was freezing, but just knowing that it was my Earth made it feel amazing. I smiled.

“We made it, Tara,” I finally announced, “Welcome home.” Upon receiving no response a sense of unease came over me. I called out for Tara again, still hearing nothing back. I sat up and finally took a look around.

Fenway had told me that the Bridge should take us relatively close to where it was last used, and I was relieved to see he was correct and that I recognized the surrounding area.

I was about ten miles from home, laying in a field behind the highway that shoots through town. I knew so, because down the road a bit, a street light lit up the sign for the same exit I used to take to get to high school. All things considered, I wasn’t too far off course.

My relief was short lived though, as I still couldn't locate Tara anywhere. I pulled out my phone that had somehow survived my trip into hell with some battery life to spare. I was annoyed to see I had no service out here, which meant we’d have to walk a bit or try to flag down a car for a ride. Using the flashlight app on my phone, I began searching for Tara in the surrounding area. There was nothing but grass around me.

After a few minutes, I was still unable to find her and I was starting to get seriously worried. Not only was I worried for her safety, but she had also been carrying the syringe of serum for May in her bag. I tried to calm myself. I had felt Tara in the void with me and I knew she was close by.

After a few more minutes of fruitless shouting, I spotted a pickup truck coming around a bend in the highway. I decided to try and flag it down and ask if they could use their bights on the field so I could get a better look. Odd conversation to have with someone, but worth it to find Tara.

As I started to lightly jog towards the road, a knot began to form in my stomach and the sense of unease I felt started to grow. Soon, the wrongness of this began to fill my thoughts. Not just about Tara either, this somehow went deeper than that. I tried to shake it off and began waving my phone light at the truck. It was dark out so they’d certainly see the bright light.

To my annoyance they didn’t seem to be slowing down at all though. In fact, they were actually going pretty fast for this windy stretch of road.

This isn’t right.

I saw the lights of another car coming from the other direction and figured if the truck wouldn’t stop, I could always try to flag that one down instead.

I was still a little bit away from the road when the truck came around the bend and its headlights lit up the flat stretch of highway in front of me. My heart dropped when I spotted the unconscious form of who could only be Tara, lying right in the middle of the road. The driver must not have seen her, because they were still coming down the road at full speed. Not only that, but the truck seemed to be drifting within the lane, ever so slightly.

Holy shit this guy was going fast.

Why are they driving like that?

Fuck. I broke into a dead sprint, wildly waving my flashlight at the oncoming vehicle, screaming my head off. I was screaming Tara’s name but still she didn't move. The sedan on the other side of the road was approaching now as well and beginning to slow down, likely seeing Tara’s body in the road. I glanced over at the car and realized something about it was vaguely familiar, like it was small piece of a puzzle from a forgotten dream.

If they could see Tara, how the fuck could this asshole in the truck not?

The truck was practically on top of Tara now. There was no time to drag her out of the way, the only thing I could do was run into the middle of the road and flail my light around like a madman.

If I could survive murderous mutants from a hellish universe, playing chicken with a speeding pickup truck was child’s play.

At the last second the driver veered sharply and I heard the sound of brakes squealing.

But it was raining and the roads were wet and slick. Instead of regaining control, the pickup truck flew off the road and into the grassy median. It didn't stop there. The pickup truck popped out the median onto the opposite side of the road before once again swerving. I watched on helplessly.

“It can’t correctly account for temporal variance” Tom’s words echoed through my mind, and suddenly I knew what was happening, why everything felt so fucked up right now.

It was impossible. Yet happening all the same.

Instead of continuing in a straight fucking path that would have dispatched him safely in the field on the other side of the highway, he turned the fucking steering wheel again to try and stay on the highway.

They left.

I know.

Right before the pickup truck collided head-on with the small sedan that had come to a halt, for an endless moment it's headlights lit up the inside of the car-

He blew a 0.22

-and I saw two people inside. Their faces contorted into terrified screams that would haunt me for the rest of my life. My heart shattered into a million pieces as I watched their lives end.

Two people that I missed, very much.

Two people I was certain I’d never see again.

Two people whose graves I’d been visiting for the past ten years.

*****

A chilly fog enveloped me as I stepped out of my rental car and walked up the steps of the modest diner. It’d been a while, but I remembered the place well. Papa used to take May and I here every Monday night for dinner.

“Getting through a Monday deserves a reward,” he’d always say. I smiled at the memory.

Hearing the door chime open, the same sweet fifty-something waitress that was always here hurried over before leading me to a small booth. For the life of me I couldn't remember her name until she told me it was Delilah. That's right!

Delilah took my order, banana pancakes and sunny-side eggs. May's favorite. She turned and took a few steps before stopping and looking back, a small smile on her face.

“Hon, do I know you from somewhere? You sure look familiar,” she asked, slightly unsure.

I scratched the thick facial hair that now covered my face, along with a few extra wrinkles, “First time here actually- I’m just passing through. Guess I just have one of those faces,” I said, returning her smile.

Apparently content with my answer, Delilah left to relay my order to the kitchen. She returned with my meal several minutes later and as I sat there eating, I couldn’t help but think about that night, a little over ten years ago now.

*****

The front of the truck, much taller than my parent’s small sedan, had impacted their windshield and was sitting on top of the sedan now. Pieces of glass and metal covered the area, and plumes of smoke were rising from the front of the truck. I was frozen, unable to process. The terrified faces of my parents flashing through my mind, again and again.

“Aaron? What happened?” I heard Tara groggily ask from behind me. She had finally woken up.

The sound of her voice finally broke me out of my paralysis. Without responding, I dashed over to the wreckage, to the passenger side where my mom had been sitting. The window was shattered and the door was horribly bent. I peered through the opening where the window had been, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

I couldn't see my father due to the truck now inside the car, but my mother’s body was horribly mangled, blood and exposed bones everywhere. Her head was crushed up against the side of the car, and her neck twisted at an impossible angle so she was facing me. Her pale blue eyes that looked identical to May’s were still open, but not seeing anything.

I bent over and emptied my stomach onto the ground and sobs racked my body. My eyes burned as smoke from the truck filled the air.

Smoke. My heart dropped as I recalled another memory.

My parents' bodies hadn’t been unrecognizable due to the crash alone. No, the reason we had to have a closed casket funeral was because of the fire that came afterwards.

A desperate cry escaped my lips, “Mom!”

I began attempting to wrench open the car door using my good arm. It was badly bent and jammed shut, and no amount of pulling would open it. I kept trying though, unwilling to let the rest of history unfold. I removed my other arm from its sling and despite the shooting pain it caused I began using both arms to try to free the door.

It didn’t move an inch.

Tara had reappeared beside me now, trying to drag me away. I pulled away from her grip and screamed for her to help me.

“We have to go, this whole thing is about to go up!” She yelled, urgency filling her words.

I kicked the car in frustration. Smoke was burning my eyes and nostrils, and fire was beginning to dip out from beneath the hood of the truck.

I grabbed what was left of the window frame and began pulling frantically. The pieces of glass still lining it dug painfully into my fingers and blood trickled down my hands. I didn’t care.

“Aaron, he's unconscious but breathing. Quick, help me get him out!” I turned to look at Tara who had opened the truck’s driver-side door.

“Let him fucking burn!” I screamed back. Tara gave me a look of disappointment before trying to move the man’s body herself. I once again began trying to open the door, before catching my hand on another piece of glass. A long gash opened in my palm and I cursed.

I couldn’t change what was going to happen.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered as smoke poured out from the sedan. It was so thick that I couldn’t even see my mom’s face anymore. I looked back to Tara who had barely managed to move the man at all.

Without a word, I walked over to her and together we carried the man from his car over into the field next to the highway. I remembered him from the trial. 34 year-old Zachary Thomas. After Zachary had apparently called in the accident himself, police found him drunk and passed out in the field next to the flaming wreckage. He was on his way home from the bar. He said he had swerved to “avoid someone” on the road. I remembered how his wife and kids sobbed as the judge sentenced him to fifteen years.

I unceremoniously dropped his torso, prompting Tara to lose a grip on his leg. Zachary hit the ground with a thud. Tara gave me a "what the hell?" look to which I only responded,

“He’s fine.”

I searched his pockets and produced a flip phone. After dialing 911 and telling them the location of the accident, I hung up and dropped the phone next to him.

Tara and I quickly made our way around the cars now engulfed in flames and began walking back towards the field I’d arrived in. Tara grabbed her bag from the edge of the road, and as we walked through the grass in silence, the sound of sirens filled the night.

“I heard you say ‘mom’ back there. Those were your parents, weren’t they?” Tara said in a concerned tone. I didn’t answer.

Just as we reached the tree line, my foot bumped against something which rolled a few feet away. I bent down to inspect the object and realized it was the Bridge, though its milky white interior had been replaced with nothing but darkness. It looked plain now. Ordinary. Lifeless.

Three trips.

Rage bubbled up inside of me and I slammed it into the ground, expecting it to shatter. Instead, it did nothing but give a small bounce and remained completely unharmed. I picked it up and threw it into the think trunk of a nearby pine tree with every bit of force I could muster. Still, it didn’t break. Didn’t even scratch.

It just sat there, taunting me. So I furiously tried again. And again.

This went on for a few minutes while Tara watched, silently.

I finally collapsed on the ground, exhausted and panting heavily. Tara lowered herself to the ground next to me and without a word wrapped her arms around my body. I leaned into her and wept.

We stayed like that for a while. Me, crying. Tara, holding me. Eventually, I’d ran out of tears and finally realized how freezing it was. We were both soaked from the rain, and Tara was shivering against me.

“Lets go get warm,” I told her as I stood up, holding out my hand to her “I have a whole word to show you.”

Tara smiled and took my hand.

**

I guess I could have tried going home or to Tom’s, but Tara and I were worried about the implications of potentially creating a time-paradox. So we opted to stay away. We had nothing, which meant life was hard at first. But we made it work.

We survived, and then we lived. We built a life. Tara was a skilled doctor and just overall something of a genius, and I had knowledge of the future which led to some interesting ways to make money. We bought a house on the other side of the country, by the beach. Some days, when we sat on the sand and stared off into the ocean, I could almost forget everything that had happened. Maybe we were only victims of circumstance, but eventually we fell in love and got married. I like to think it goes deeper than that. I’m sure of it.

Of course, I missed May like hell. Every single day of it. But loving Tara, and being loved by her made it bearable.

Ten years went by, and the day finally came. I opened my safe and removed the infection-stopping serum and a few other souvenirs we’d kept safe all these years. I gave Tara a kiss, telling her I’d be back in a week. She smiled her big beautiful smile and wished me luck.

I grabbed my bag and left quickly, using the excuse of being late for the rental-pickup to explain my sudden departure. The truth was I just couldn’t hold in my tears any longer.

You see, as far as Tara knew, in order to preserve the timeline I was going to wait until my younger self and Tom left for the other universe, and then I was going to sneak in and give May the injection before the ambulance arrived. That way, everything would happen as it was supposed to. May would live, and Tara and I could continue our life together.

We’d just keep counting from one to two.

That is not what I was going to do. I do truly love Tara, but thanks to me, none of this was the way it was supposed to be. I had to fix it. I decided I had to kill my younger self before I ever got the chance to set everything in motion. I’d never meet Tara but she’d still be alive, my parents would live, May would be okay, and I should technically be fine too, right?

Right?

I had to stop myself from ever counting in the first place.

For the next few days, I made my way cross country. Whenever I stop after a day’s traveling, I’ve been writing these updates. I don’t know if they’ll keep existing after I’m done but I just wanted someone else to know this story. For it to exist somewhere, in the ether. It felt important.

*****

It was morning when I got to town and pulled into the hospital’s parking lot. Clouds filled the sky, and I could see a fog beginning to roll over the town. Somber weather for a somber day, I guess.

I sat down in the hospital room next to the sleeping old man. The cancer had progressed pretty far at this point, and I knew he wouldn’t be waking up again. I laid my hand on his.

“Hey papa. I’ve missed you so much,” I said through tears, “You wouldn’t believe the trip I’ve had.”

I watched him sleep for a while before eventually I heard a familiar voice at the door.

“Howdy! So how do you know my big brother?”

I looked up to see my great uncle, Tom, standing at the threshold with a polite smile on his face. I nervously rose to my feet, unsure of how to respond.

“Uh, I was... good friends with his daughter. Excuse me, I was actually just leaving.” I made my way for the door and stopped to look at Tom.

“I’m so sorry,” I said impulsively, which prompted a curious look from him, “for your loss, I mean,” I gestured at my grandfather.

Tom said nothing and continued to eye me. I slipped past him and reached the end of the hall before finally looking back. Tom was still standing in the doorway, staring at me and biting his cheek.

Shit. Had he recognized me?

It didn't matter though, I had only one place left to go at this point. May and my younger self would be getting back to town today. I remembered how I’d complained of being hungry and May pulled into our favorite little diner.

*****

I finished my meal and stared out the window into the parking lot. Any minute now. I gripped the gun in my lap, feeling it's cold metal under my fingers. I was so focused on waiting for May’s car to pull in that I almost didn’t notice the old man plopping himself down across from me. I looked over in confusion to see Tom sitting there, wearing a concerned look.

“Call me crazy, but it seems like you might be considerin’ somethin’ that ain’t so smart,” he said with a gesture towards the gun in my lap.

My jaw must have dropped because Tom just chuckled and said, “Close your mouth! You think I didn’t recognize you the second I saw you, kid?”

“Go home, Tom.” I was staring out the window again because May’s car had just pulled in. Tom clicked his tongue as he followed my gaze and saw my younger self beginning to exit the vehicle. I flipped the safety off on the gun.

“Look, kid. I don’t know what you think you have to do, but I do know that this ain’t gonna go how you think it will. Let’s go talk.”

Tears filled my eyes. Ten years, waiting for this moment.

“There is no other way!” I said rather loudly, causing Delilah to jump and stare at us, “This is how I save them. Her! You! This is how I fix everything! This is how I stop fucking counting!”

Tom paused for a moment before calmly replying, “Countin’...You’re countin’... I’m not sure exactly what kind of trouble you’re in, but I have an inklin’. You think you’re stuck? That killin’ him is the only way out,” Tom pointed out the window towards my younger self. When I didn’t object, he continued,

“But I don’t think you really know what's gonna happen when you shoot that poor boy out there. Maybe you think you'll stop existin’; you might. On the flip side of that coin, maybe you don’t. Maybe all that happens is you kill the boy and get arrested for murder. My money’s on the second one but Who. Fucken. Knows. Lets just go talk, and if you still feel this way you can come back and kill him later.”

I was shaking now. I glanced desperately back out the window, at May and I crossing the parking lot. We were laughing at something, and it hit me again how much I missed my sister.

I clicked the safety back on. Ten years.

Fuck it.

I left with Tom out the back entrance just as we heard May greeting the waitress. We snuck around front and hopped into my car.

After we drove back to Tom’s house, I explained everything that had happened leading up to that point. Starting from finding the journals in my basement, ending with him seeing me at the hospital an hour ago. If he was surprised at any of it, he didn’t show it. He wasn’t even fazed when I got to the part about Bradis shooting him. The only time he raised his eyebrows at all was when I mentioned the part about my parents. At the end of it all, he leaned back in his chair and asked if I still had the piece of his coat with the symbols on it. I did, and I produced it from my bag, handing it to him. He held it up to his face and squinted, inspecting it closely.

“Couple things, kid” he began, “For one, my brother and I put Jade down a couple years ago. For another, although this here is indeed the identifier for Universe Zulu,” he waved the piece of fabric in front of me,

“we are not in Universe Zulu. We are in Universe Sierra.”

Tom pointed at the last symbol on the piece of fabric, “See, this one here is different. Has an extra line through it, easy to mix up, I suppose. Lastly, just this year I finally fixed the issue of temporal variance with my device. Up to a decade, at least.”

I stared at him, dumbfounded.

“What?” I asked stupidly, not comprehending. Tom rolled his eyes at me and let out an exasperated sigh.

“Keep up, kid. You made a typo! A really costly, awful, fucken typo. You’re from Zulu, and this is Sierra. This ain’t your home. Never was. I’m not your great-uncle, and that's not you that you were about to shoot back at that diner for nothin’. You don’t belong here.”

His words sank in. A typo? This was all because of a typo? One single god damn typo? The last ten fucking years of my life were because of a typo? I began laughing uncontrollably. What a big fucking cosmic joke my life was. I continued laughing before the insanity of it all set in, and then laughing turned into crying.

Tom gave me and my antics a look of annoyance.

“So, my parents in my universe, in Zulu…?” I trailed off.

“Oh for fuck’s sake! Your parents were maybe killed because of another you. Or maybe they were just hit by a drunk driver who swerved. Maybe that event is the divergent event twixt the two universes. Who knows? Who cares? Either way just get the hell over it and move on!” I gave him a sharp look, but he just sneered at me before continuing,

“It happened. Your parents died. My brother died, I died, people died. Some might have been your fault. Some were your fault. Some had nothing to do with you. What's happened has happened and will always have happened and ain’t nothin’ you do gonna ever change any of that, so stop fucken worryin’ and cryin’ about it. Get over it. Move on. And never mind that you also saved some lives, you couldn’t care less!”

I opened my mouth to object but Tom quickly cut me off again,

“Do you even hear yourself speak? I mean, what kinda narcissistic, egotistical, self-absorbed savior complex do you got goin’ in that mopey fucken head of yours to actually think this whole damn thing starts and ends with you? Who the fuck are you. You, me, all of us are just redundant cogs in a vast machine that’s too complex for either of us to even begin to scratch the surface of comprehending, so get over yourself. I remember Fenway’s little girl too, and you mean to tell me that she married you? Smart as a whip, but she must be a real life, bonafide, god-sent angel too to put up with this shit. I can’t imagine why you think you’re so fucken special, but no one gets to stop countin’, kid. Not you, not me, no one. The only thing you can do is keep countin. Keep countin’ and someday, before you know it, you’ll reach the end.”

Tom’s words felt like the verbal equivalent of getting rammed by a ten-ton truck. I was completely stunned. My instinct was to argue back, to yell at him, but I couldn’t move my mouth. Probably because I knew he was right.

“Anyways, you're completely missing the bigger point here,” Tom said.

I wiped tears off my face and met his eyes, which had softened considerably.

“I can - I’m gonna send your whiny ass home.”

Tom’s definitely not the type, not in this universe or any other, and for that matter neither am I, but I couldn't help it. I threw myself into his arms and hugged him tight. I hugged him in thanks, for finally freeing me from this nightmare. I hugged him to say I was sorry for what happened, even though it wasn’t really him. I hugged him for it all. Eventually, he hugged me back, too.

Only for a moment though, and then he shrugged me off.

After that, Tom carefully calibrated his Bridge so that next time I activated it, it would take me back home to Universe Zulu, moments after I initially left. I went to leave but stopped just outside the door to thank him one more time.

“Good luck, kid” he said with a grin and a wink as he shut the door.

*****

So here we are, everyone.

As of right now I’m sitting in a motel room, with the Bridge in my bag next to me. No way it's leaving my sight. I’m about to get a few hours of sleep before I drive the rest of the way home to Tara.

Following my encounter with Tom, I called her and told her everything, begging for her forgiveness. Bless my wife, because I barely even finished before she asked when we were leaving.

“As soon as I’m back, if you're ready.”

“Of course! I can’t wait to finally meet May!” she had said excitedly.

“You’ll love her.” I said back.

**

Wish me luck. If all goes well -and I have a feeling it finally will- then this will be my last update.

Goodbye, people of Universe Sierra.

**

Hang on, May. I’m coming.

See you soon.

I Promise.