by Adam Moon
Sandy said quietly, “You better have a good reason for what you did.”
“I do but I can’t tell you. I’m sorry but I can’t.”
“Why would you try and do something so awful to all of us? It makes no sense.”
“It did at the time. I did something I’m not proud of and I didn’t want you to find out. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Beth stood and said, “Then we should leave you behind. It sounds like you knew your actions put everyone’s lives at risk and you did it anyway.”
Kara nodded. “I don’t know how safe we are with this saboteur among us.”
Sandy said firmly to her half brother, “Tell us what you did or they’ll strand you here and I won’t stop them.”
Steve didn’t succumb to the threat. “I’m sorry. I won’t. I’d rather be left behind.”
Kara finished installing the same type of fuse as the one Steve had destroyed and then she snapped the device closed. The screen blinked to life. “We’re ready.” To Steve she asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to explain yourself. The train’s leaving the station. Choo-choo.”
Sandy snarled, “He’s coming with us. He can explain himself later.”
Beth snarled back, “That would be a mistake.”
“You don’t get a vote, you dirty bitch. You’re new. Keep your opinions to yourself.”
Neil looked into Steve’s eyes and said, “I don’t think we should leave him. If I promise to keep an eye on him and he promises to keep away from the device then I vote that we take him with us.”
Pam and Jim both raised their hands and said in unison, “I do to.”
Kim whispered, “I think we should bring him with us,” but Neil cut her off with, “You’re too young to vote on something of this magnitude. I don’t want my baby girl to lose sleep over this. You deserve better.”
Sandy smiled gently and said, “I agree. This is for the adults to decide. I want you to know that no matter what happens you had no say in the matter.”
Kim buried her head in her folded arms and Beth counted the yes and no votes on each hand. “Three votes for and three against. It’s a tie.”
Steve said, “I get a vote, don’t I?”
Sandy nodded. “Of course you do. It’s your life on the line, after all.”
“Then I vote no.”
Sandy stammered and Jim let out a tiny gasp. Steve added, “But I have a request. I don’t want to be stranded here. Take me to a world with people.”
Neil said, “That sounds fair but it’s probably not safe to revisit any of the worlds we saw because the Morians might be waiting for us.” To Kara he said, “Look for Earths with humans that closely resemble our own world. We can drop him off there.”
Sandy sat down beside Steve and said, “I wish you’d explain yourself, at least to me. I’m your sister.”
“That’s why I can’t. I’m too ashamed.”
“Whatever you did can’t be as bad as what you did to try and cover it up. You could have doomed us when you broke the device and hid the fuses.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to leave us. I want you to stay.”
“I’ve made my decision and I’m not going to change my mind.”
Beth looked around at her meager existence and said, “I don’t think I need to bring any belongings. Let’s go.”
Kara showed her the screen on the device and asked, “Is this world the right fit for Steve?”
“It’s pretty close. It’s better than he deserves.”
“Okay then. Is everybody ready?”
Just then they heard a loud hiss that came from outside.
Beth said, “That’s one of the big carnivores. They only make that noise when they stumble across humanoids. We need to go. I think the Morians are here.”
As if on cue, a loud explosion hit their ears and the hill started to cave in around them. Kara hit the button and they vanished, along with the hill.
Samantha’s Return
✨
THE DOOR NEEDED to be pried open because of the fallen dirt and when they emerged outside, a Morian was dead, cut in half from top to bottom by the jump field. His eyes blinked once and then closed forever.
Steve ran off and yelled behind him, “Thanks for the lift. I’m so sorry. I love you sis. I’ll pray for you.”
Sandy’s eyes misted as she shook her head. She whispered to herself, “It didn’t have to be like this.”
Neil looked at Kara and she said to the group, “I guess we can go whenever we’re ready.”
Everyone nodded so she input the coordinates to the world they’d left the wild woman on.
She waited for Sandy to agree who finally wiped her eyes and said, “Let’s go.”
Kara hit the button and thankfully no Morians were waiting to ambush them on the drone planet.
Neil said, “We’ll stick together. If we don’t find Samantha by nightfall then we should forget about it. This world nearly killed us once already.”
Beth looked around and said, “I’ve been here. It sucks. They’re all imprisoned by their own inventions. I had to make a quick getaway when some type of flying drone tried to kill me. We need to be vigilant. This place is dangerous.”
Sandy overheard her and chuckled. It was cathartic to laugh and talking helped take her mind off of her half brother. She said, “We took care of their drone problem the last time we were here. In fact, that reminds me, we should see if they’ve patched the hole we accidentally made.”
“What hole?”
“The device malfunctioned and ripped a hole between universes. One of the drones went through and its buddies followed it.”
“And the hole didn’t shrink?”
“No.”
“That’s not good.” She turned to Neil. “That means you unleashed those killer drones on some unsuspecting alternate universe.”
Neil shrugged, lost for words.
Sandy took over the conversation once more. “The jump device malfunctioned. One of the locals helped us diagnose it and he must’ve touched something that he wasn’t supposed to touch. It killed him on the spot and then opened up the hole.”
Beth nodded but it was clear she barely understood what the device was capable of besides its basic presets. “We should see if we can close it somehow.”
“Neil already told the mayor to seal it up. I hope she did.”
“Let’s go see if she did. If not, we need to seal it. Where did this happen?”
Sandy pointed towards town with her chin. “That’s probably where we should start looking for Samantha too.”
“Samantha’s the name of the wild woman? That’s a pretty fancy name. Are you sure she’s wild?”
Neil said, “She has an English accent. She didn’t grow up in the wild. She said she was born into a civilization that was ruined by your people. To survive she abandoned her humanity.”
“Which world did she come from?”
Kara scrolled through the listings of destinations and then stopped and pointed at the screen. “I think it was this one.”
Beth looked at it. “Yep, we pillaged her planet some time ago. I hope she can forgive me if we find her.”
“Be ready to defend yourself. She knew Henry was from your Earth on sight. She’ll know you are too.”
Beth reached an arm behind her and touched her lower back.
Kara watched her and then asked, “Is that where the bluish mark is on all of your people? Henry had one too. We saw it.”
She paused, to consider whether she should answer but eventually said, “Yes. We haven’t found another race of humans with
it yet. Our blue backs make us special, I suppose.”
“After everything your people have done to the multiverse, I think you should view it as a bull’s-eye. I’m pretty sure a lot of humans from other dimensions would like to punch you in the face for exploiting them.”
“I’d deserve it too. But hopefully I can get home and convince my people that we’re misusing interdimensional travel. They need to understand how selfish they’re being.”
Neil asked, “Do you think they’ll listen? The Morians threatened them and they ignored the threats. I’m not sure they’ll be so easily persuaded by you.”
“You might be right but it’s worth a shot.” Her head swiveled around when a car drove by on the overhead road. She said wistfully, “I haven’t seen real technology in a long time. You don’t think you’ll miss it but it’s the one thing I missed the most. I can’t wait to get home.” She locked eyes with Neil and then sidled over to him. She added slyly, “Well, it’s not the only thing I missed,” as she ran a finger down the center of his back.
Neil smiled out of kindness and then looked away. She stunk and even with a hot bath, he wasn’t sure if she would ever be his type. It didn’t help that he barely trusted her. To move on from the awkwardness he asked, “Why did the Morians introduce themselves to your people but not to mine? Are you that different from us?”
She sighed. “They might have gone on to reveal themselves and their capabilities to the other universes but I think we soured them on the idea. After we betrayed their trust, I think they decided that caution should be used at all times. We’re really not that different from most of the humans we’ve seen. In fact, you and I are probably perfectly compatible, if you know what I mean.” Her advances were almost barbaric and totally devoid of any subtlety.
Luckily, Kim took Neil’s opposite hand which gave him the perfect excuse to look away from Beth.
Beth gave Kim a look that could kill and then edged away from them.
They rounded a corner and saw at least a thousand people milling around anxiously. They surrounded the torn hole between universes that had been created the last time they were there. A woman’s head bobbed above the crowd as she jumped up and down to get a look at Neil and his companions and she yelled, “He’s the one.”
Neil cocked his head to the side and watched as she screamed. The crowd turned and stared at them like a demented mob but instead of rushing them they approached with smiles and open arms.
The mayor shoved through and took Neil’s hand in hers. “Thank you so much for ridding us of our blight. The protector drones are all gone now.”
Neil smiled and nodded curtly.
Kara said, “It was our pleasure. Have you managed to seal up the hole yet?”
“We’re waiting to see if this new configuration of materials holds and so far it looks like it will. We tried to dig under it, to see what it was made of but it’s perfectly two dimensional. In fact, if you look closely you’ll see that it actually hovers just above the ground. Of course, I advise against getting that close to it.” She looked at Neil and said, “Thank you for warning me about it and for your suggestions to seal it off. I might have been sucked out with the drones if you hadn’t spoken up and forced me to think things through.”
“You’re welcome.”
“The last time I saw you, you tried to explain what it was. You said that you’d accidentally torn a hole between dimensions or something like that. What did you mean?”
Beth stepped in front of Neil and whispered, “Don’t answer her,” but Kara was already mid-sentence, saying, “We were trying to fix our interdimensional device and it malfunctioned for just a brief moment. It was a total accident.”
“Can I see it?” she asked, without a hint of incredulity.
Beth stiffened and shot a look at Kara. Kara understood the gravity of the mistake she’d just made so she lied to the mayor, “It’s not here with us. It’s somewhere safe.”
“Where is it?” Her tone had suddenly become stiff and menacing.
Kara’s eyes rolled over Neil and Jim, Beth and Pam. Everyone was on edge. Kara had allowed herself to be verbally cornered by the wily politician.
Beth stepped forward and said sternly, “If you try to take it from us we’ll be forced to defend ourselves. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The mayor smiled sweetly and shook her head. “You saved our country, and possibly our entire planet. We owe you a debt of gratitude. I was just curious to see this device of yours.”
Kara nodded. The mayor was curious and who wouldn’t be? She inadvertently touched the bulge in her pant leg where the device was tucked away and the mayor zeroed in on it like a hawk.
Beth’s face flushed and she yelled, “Get away from her!”
Like a flash the mayor rushed forward and dug into Kara’s pocket. She got it out but Kara grabbed her wrist and then got a hand on the device too. The mayor screamed to the crowd around them, “Help me. They have technology that could change our world forever.”
The crowd paused, confused, but the mayor’s screams brought them inward, closing the circle like a noose.
Just then, a female figure flew over the crowd, screaming like a banshee. It was Samantha, the wild woman, and her body flew like a dart right at Beth. She wasn’t as dirty as the last time they’d seen her but she was the same savage beast, just better dressed and bathed.
The crowd panicked and started to back away from the skirmish.
Neil yelled to Kara, “Get us out of here.”
Kara struggled for a second and finally the world disappeared.
The mayor was still struggling with Kara, and Samantha and Beth were rolling around on the ground like dueling lions, clawing and biting, punching and kicking. It was mayhem but at least they’d eliminated the crowd. It was containable now on a different Earth.
Neil yanked the gun from his waistband and fired a single round into the sky. Everyone stopped except for Samantha so Jim helped subdue her. He held her like an anaconda and Neil shoved the mayor in the chest to get her away from Kara and the device.
Beth slapped her and then turned on Samantha. She said, “You must be Samantha. I know you must hate me for what my people did to your world but I’m not like them. I’ve changed.”
In her high falutin accent, Samantha said, “I don’t just hate you. I hate everyone here. You’ve all wronged me.”
Jim asked, “How have we wronged you? We tied you up but that was justifiable. You killed one of us.”
“You left me tied up with a sadistic sexual deviant.”
Sandy asked, “You mean Steve?”
Jim furrowed his brow and then asked the group, “Should we believe her? Does anyone here think Steve could have done something like that?”
Sandy whispered, “That must’ve been what he was so ashamed of.” She shook her head and turned her back on the others.
Samantha heard her and said, “I could smell the insanity on his skin, even if none of you could see it with your own eyes. I was lucky to escape with my life.”
Sandy said evenly to the group, “We need to get rid of her. She’s already killed one of us and from the look in her eyes I’d say she won’t be satisfied until we’re all dead.”
Samantha hissed, “I’d let the kid live.” She stared at Neil for several seconds and then said, “He can live too. He’s innocent. The rest of you are not.”
Jim tried to explain, “We didn’t know Steve would try anything with you. We barely knew him.”
“From my point of view, you people showed up, uninvited on my world. I saw the monster in your midst, hiding in plain sight and I took care of him for you. You repaid the kindness by binding my hands and feet together and leaving me alone with a sexual pervert. Then afte
r I escaped the depraved madman you left me with, you showed up again with another monster.” She nodded towards Beth. “I detest all of you and I hope you can understand why because when I kill you I want you to know why you’re being killed. I want you to understand that you deserve it.”
Neil looked around at the barren planet and said casually, “We came back to rescue you but apparently you’re not worth saving.” Then he said to everyone else, “We can’t leave her here. This place is practically a desert.” He was right. They were surrounded by huge sand-covered rocks. Everything was brown, as far as the eye could see, including the sky. To Samantha he asked, “Do you want us to take you home?”
She spat at his feet and struggled against Jim.
The mayor had slowly edged closer to Kara, moving incrementally, inch by inch so that no one noticed, but when Beth saw her, she rushed over and punched her in the face, bloodying her nose. The mayor stumbled back and fell to a knee, clutching her face, screaming in anger.
Samantha stared at Beth intently. “You’re different from the other blue-backs. You’re a bad-ass but I bet you’re still a double-crossing murderer when your back’s against the wall.”
“I’ve had to fend for myself, much like you have. The Morians stranded me on a planet alone. I’ve changed since then.”
“What’s a Morian?”
Neil sighed. “They’re dog-faced humans from the dimension that invented dimensional jumping. They’ve been tracking the jumpers down. They’re trying to kill us.”
“Good.”
Neil ignored her and helped the mayor to her feet. The mayor gave him a look to kill but she didn’t make a move towards the device this time. Neil pointed to her and said to the group, “We have to take her back to her planet before this gets any more out of hand.”
Their rescue mission had ended farcically and now they had to figure out what to do next. Both missions, to retrieve Samantha and Larry, were pointless wastes of time.
A loud sonic boom reached them and they watched a tiny white light in the distant sky come closer. The mayor used the distraction to her advantage. She sidestepped Neil and leapt on Kara, trying to pry the device from her fingers. She pled, “My world is in ruins but this contraption will give my people endless possibilities. You could save us if you’d just hand it over.”