Mind's Horizon

by Eric Malikyte

  Perhaps this creature is capable of seeing the future by some unknown mechanism? he thought. But, how could he communicate? Could he just think of what he'd like to ask, would it understand?

  The nebulous orange cloud seemed to be pacing around Mathias. Studying him.

  He tried thinking of his own world, what had happened to it. The civil war and the ice age that had followed it. How his species was slowly being pushed to extinction.

  And, the experiment chamber, the log video, Weber's notes. The possibility of a way out.

  The orange being stopped moving.

  This time, only a single image flooded into Mathias's mind: the infinite black of an abyss, and a single thing in the center—an ancient mask.

  A familiar mask.

  And then, he's seeing an experiment chamber as if through his own flesh-and-blood-eyes. He's peering down at his hands. They look oddly gray.

  Then he's flipping a switch.

  A bright flash of light engulfs the experiment chamber.

  The being pulled away from him. It floated there for a few moments before retreating to its world. And Mathias was left alone to wonder what that meant.

  He clawed his way out of the tank. Colors swam before his eyes.

  The effects of the LSD made getting to his feet quite difficult...but he knew what he had to do.

  The clock read 3:00 am.

  Everyone was asleep.

  And Eddy was waiting.

  2

  The stream was calm today. Alone in his boat, Eddy tilted his head back, feeling the cool breeze, and arched back against the rear wall. His fishing rod hadn't moved in a while, but he was content enough with the peace and quiet. The fish would come later. They always did.

  When he was a boy, his whole family would come here to get away from their slum home in Fontana. It had been hell scraping enough gas money to get up the mountain, but it was well worth it.

  He remembered his mother, showing her pearly whites, resting on a beat-up pool recliner.

  He and his brothers would be getting into trouble in the lake, trying to get out of sight so they could have some real fun, when they'd hear her scream something in Spanish. Then his dad, looking like an angry African god, would toss them a look, and they'd all sulk back where they could see them.

  Those had been the days.

  He hadn't thought of his family in so long...he wondered where they all were now...

  For some reason, the thought saddened him.

  He could feel the boat slowly drifting across the lake. There was more of a current than there should have been; it only added to the mood.

  The tree line was silhouetted by the clear sky; the sun seemed as if it had taken up perch beneath the tops of the trees. It was almost too perfect. This view. And he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for enjoying it while the country was tearing itself apart after the bombing in Nevada.

  There were even rumors of an uprising having been stopped in the West. These were uncertain times, at least, as far as humans were concerned. The Earth might have been warming up, uncontrollably even, but nature was still nature.

  At least he still had that. At least he still had his life, his family.

  That's why he’d gone and done it. They’d told him he was too young to marry, but he hadn’t listened, and he was better off for it. His daughter would be a full year old next month, and that alone showed how little they’d known. Even with the world falling to pieces, protests spreading from shore to shore, life had to march on, and he had to find some measure of happiness in it.

  The boat continued to drift with the breeze and the current that shouldn't have been. He fought the urge to fall asleep.

  3

  The gurney's wheels squeaked, echoing through the curvature of the tunnel corridor; for a moment, only a fleeting moment, Mathias felt a pang of guilt. He reminded himself that he was saving this man, this longtime victim of a war long since buried in the ice.

  They made their way to the elevator, and Mathias wheeled him in. The descent seemed to last forever. He found himself checking the biometric reader on Eddy's forehead, hoping that his new subject wouldn't pass on the way to the chamber. He figured that Lena had left it there to monitor his vitals from afar. At first, that had seemed like defeat, but, after discovering that the monitor had its own independent battery supply, he’d continued with his plan.

  Mathias tried not to think of the aftermath of his experiment. If they discovered him in the act, it would be disastrous to his efforts. Eddy had to go, though, for him to get closer to Ira, to get the data he needed. There was only one way to make the man vanish without any evidence.

  Why was he doing this?

  Sweat beaded atop his brow. The most rational part of his mind, the part that still thought his nightmares were mere dreams, told him this was madness, inhumane. That he was a monster for even thinking of it.

  He remembered his dream. What the masked man had shown him. The decrepit pyramid on a dead alien world. If Weber's chamber was the top of the facility, it was possible they were actually in a giant subterranean pyramid too.

  It made a certain amount of sense when he thought about it.

  Perhaps other civilizations had faced similar fates to that of Earth, and perhaps they had done as Weber had done?

  And if Weber had succeeded, then wasn't it his duty as a scientist to find out? To unlock the secrets of this facility?

  Mathias smiled.

  His guilt melted away.

  Sometimes, true science required making a few sacrifices for the greater good. And, besides, who knew, maybe the first time would work. Maybe Eddy would find himself in a new world.

  He was almost envious.

  4

  There was a loud ringing sound in the sky; the birds scattered from the trees. Eddy sat up in his boat, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. Something was wrong. He looked down at the boat and the lake; he didn't seem to be moving anymore.

  The sound faded, and he felt the boat begin to move with the current on the lake again.

  "What the hell?"

  He remembered now. It wasn't possible for him to be sitting on that boat, fishing, in Big Bear. This whole area was covered in ice and snow. The last thing he remembered was a cougar sinking its teeth into his shoulder, and him returning the favor with his pistol.

  Then...Nico. Had he really lost it? Had he really cut his throat?

  Was he dreaming...or dead? A rage quaked within him that he hadn't felt since the day he’d come home to find their bodies on the kitchen floor, bleeding out from holes in their heads.

  He punched the boat's wooden flooring.

  "Time to wake up." A familiar voice echoed through the sky above. "It's time to save the human race."

  5

  "Wake up, Eddy," Mathias said.

  Eddy opened his eyes to see Mathias standing over him. He tried to speak, but his neck and half of his face felt completely numb. The other half of his face could feel Mathias's hands slapping his numbed cheeks.

  "I wouldn't squirm, if I were you. Lena has medicated you very heavily."

  He tried to squirm anyway, but Mathias held his arms down.

  "You're a lucky man, really, Eddy. You almost died out there, but you've also lost a lot of blood. You could still die. Fortunately, I have a solution, and it's going to save your life."

  His eyes focused on the room around Mathias's head. Even though he couldn't turn his head to see, there were complex metallic plates on the walls, and wires suspended in the air. Lots of wires.

  They were in one of the experiment rooms!

  His pulse surged through the stitches in his throat, like pressure in a clogged engine.

  "Now, Ira and Nico agree that this is the best possible solution, Eddy. There's a sensory deprivation tank in this chamber where your body can float without restriction. It'll be like you're weightless. This should allow you to heal faster."

  Ira and Nico were okay with this? He wished he could ask to ge
t their verification. All he could do was continue to search the room with his eyes. His head was so foggy. He couldn't tell if any of it made sense or not.

  "You're wondering why they're not here? It's simple, really. They're busy securing the supplies and fortifying the entrance to this facility. There's a lot of work to do.

  "You understand, right? Of course you do. You're a soldier."

  Maybe he was telling the truth. Mathias had no reason to lie to him. What could he possibly gain from harming him?

  "Now, to the point. I need you to help me get you into the tank. Can you try to walk?"

  Mathias had probably already tried to lift him and failed. Wouldn't Nico have known that Mathias was too weak to lift him alone? It took some effort, but, with Mathias's help, he managed to sit up on the gurney. He could see the chamber better now; it was circular, with a large metal tube that ran along the wall. They seemed to be inside of some kind of glass pyramid shape. Metal wires were arranged in a strange pattern above and around them.

  His eyes scanned over the tank at the center of the room. There was a staircase attached to it for easy access; Mathias helped him over to it and popped the hatch. Together, they limped up the staircase.

  Mathias let out a groan as he helped Eddy slip into the water. It was warm. Comforting almost.

  "Good, very good, Eddy." Mathias's chapped lips stretched into a twisted grin. "There's just one last thing to do."

  Mathias placed a tube into Eddy's mouth and fixed a pair of goggles onto his face.

  "This is your lifeline. The rest of the tube is going to fill up with solution. If you spit this out, you will drown."

  That grin unsettled Eddy to no end. A kind of madness lurking in Mathias' bloodshot eyes. Yet, he seemed sincere.

  Mathias reached up and closed the hatch. Eddy could see nothing but darkness now, a formless void. He could hear a latch snap into place, and water filled up to cover his face completely. He tried to move his hands, but the water made it impossible to tell if it was working. He felt weightless now, like he no longer had a body at all.

  He wanted to scream.

  He wanted to find Ira...

  6

  Mathias could feel his heartbeat in his temples. For a moment, he thought he wouldn't get away with it, that Eddy would see through his lies and scream for help.

  What the hell was he thinking?

  When Nico and the others found out what he'd done...they were sure to exile him to walk the frozen Earth alone.

  He looked at himself in the two-way mirror. Sweat blanketed his skin; his eyes were crazed.

  "They wouldn't understand," he said. "I'm going to save them."

  His eyes returned to the gurney; he'd have to return it to the infirmary quickly for his plan to work. It had to look like Eddy had gotten up and walked away. He grabbed hold of the handles, pushed it back out of the chamber and into the elevator.

  He could hardly contain himself. In some ways, it was a thrill to have a subject in such an experiment. He felt like his old self again. Useful—important. He stifled that feeling.

  First things first.

  Mathias returned the gurney to where it had been before, but made sure to push it off to the side, so that it looked like Eddy had gotten up of his own accord and pushed it back.

  "What the hell are you doing here?"

  Her voice shocked him from his euphoria; Mathias turned around to face Lena. "I was looking for Eddy...but, it appears as if he isn't here."

  He watched her enter the room and examine it. She wasn't very bright, so as long as she hadn’t heard him pushing the gurney earlier, all would be well.

  "Damn it," she said. "He couldn't just fucking lay still, could he?"

  She checked a device in her pocket.

  "Something wrong, Lena?" Mathias asked.

  "His vitals are still registering. He probably went to his quarters when he woke up. I'm going to kill him."

  "That would be counterintuitive."

  "Shut up." She turned to leave, but hesitated. "Why did you want to see him, anyway?"

  "I couldn't sleep. Felt a little bad about what I said earlier...figured I should pay my respects, if things took a turn for the worst."

  "That ain't like you."

  "Depends on the day."

  "I'll be sure to tell him when he wakes."

  "Without killing him, I'm sure."

  She left the room, finally.

  Mathias sighed. His heart had felt as though it might rupture for a moment there.

  He returned to the elevator and headed back to his quarters. It'd been a long night. He was certain he was going to need his wits about him for what would come next.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The smell of burning flesh filled Nico's nostrils. Searing pain lit up his leg. When he opened his eyes, the sky was ash.

  Groaning, he sat up.

  "No," Nico said.

  The encampment was a smoldering firepit. His comrades—Hernandez, Boyd, Martinez, even his CO—all turned to ash.

  "You were right to cut his throat." The voice called to him from his right. When he turned his head, the striking image of Boyd was standing there, the musculature beneath his skin exposed.

  "You were nothing but ash..." Nico said. "How?"

  Boyd chuckled. "All things are possible in the Astral Lands."

  "Why am I here?"

  Boyd grinned. "Revolutionists can't be trusted. God gave us this great country, and they perverted it. You know this. This ice age is divine punishment. They must all be wiped out, along with their sympathizers."

  Staring at the smoldering firepit that had once been home to him, he couldn't help but agree with Boyd.

  "But you saved him, despite that fact." The joyful quality in Boyd's voice faded. "What happened to you, Hartman? You were once a God-fearing man."

  Nico held his head. "I...if I let him die, my sister...she'd never forgive me."

  "Revolutionists can't be trusted. They must be wiped out."

  "It's not that clear-cut..."

  "Look at me, Hartman, look at what they did to me!"

  Nico turned his head back to Boyd and screamed. His flesh melted from his face, and his skull crumbled to dust, followed by his insides. The dust mixed with the air and found its way into his lungs.

  "Kill them all, Nico. Kill them all."

  The nightmare faded, and Nico found that he'd been sitting on his cot, staring into the darkness.

  How long had he been like this?

  His heart was racing, his pulse pounding in his temples. The clock read 3:00 am. Another morning in this place.

  He reached for his CB. Went to the private channel they always used, and held the receiver to his face.

  "Lena, status update on Ramirez," he said.

  There was a ruffling sound, static.

  "Lena, wake up."

  He had a sinking feeling in his gut.

  "He's gone," Lena said. "Found the med bay empty last night."

  "Why didn't you come get me immediately?"

  "I didn't want to disturb you. Besides, he may have turned up by morning. I don't know."

  He let the receiver rest in his hands.

  Was it his fault?

  2

  Lena caught Ira pacing back and forth in front of the medical ward. At first, she tried to act as if she didn't see her, walk the other way; but it was too late, Ira's eyes were locked on her, and she was heading right for her. The bitch's hair was a rat's nest, least she could do was have some respect for herself and brush it.

  "I don't fucking understand!" Ira's shrill voice bounced off the concrete walls. "How the hell could he have just vanished?"

  She was acting hysterical and selfish. Lena's hands bunched up into fists.

  "Ira, calm the hell down," Lena said. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere."

  Ira screamed, then lunged into her, shoving her back against the curved stone wall, making a loud smacking sound that reverberated down the corridor. "No! You were the o
ne that was supposed to be keeping tabs on him!"

  "I was only keeping track of his vitals, which, by the way, haven't fucking changed!"

  "Why did you leave him in there unsupervised?"

  "How the hell was I supposed to know that he'd just walk off like that?"

  "You're the nurse, Lena, you tell me!"

  "What the hell is going on here?" Nico came in from the other end of the corridor, buttoning his shirt; Lena hoped Ira didn't put it together.

  "Eddy's missing," Ira said.

  "I know," he said. "That doesn't give you the right to assault the only person who can stitch him back together."

  Ira removed her forearm from Lena's collarbone and turned to her brother. "Why don't you organize a search party?"

  "He's not outside," Nico said. "Hugo and Mathias have been helping me fortify the entrance, and that's the only way in or out of here that I know of. If you're so determined to find him, then why don't you turn on the facility's security system, use the cameras to pinpoint a location?"

  "I will." Ira turned around and stormed down the corridor. "It's not like anyone else gives a damn."

  Then she was gone.

  "Your sister's out of control," Lena said.

  "I'll handle her," Nico said. "Get back to work. I know you haven't finished cataloging the tools in the medical bay."

  Lena watched Nico follow after Ira. She felt a scream threatening to burst from her lungs. Why was Ira always given a free pass to act like a total bitch, without any kind of consequence?

  If I pulled that crap, Nico would find someplace to lock me up in for at least a week, she thought.

  She’d known she hated Ira from the moment she met her. The way she flipped her hair, that fake-ass smile, and the way she extended her hand to shake. It had been obvious that Ira was jealous of Lena; before Lena had come along, she'd been the only female in the group.

  Lena reached down for her CB. "Hugo, come in."

  "What's up, baby?" he said. "What you need?"

  "Meet me in the med bay. I got some stress I need to relieve."

  "I don't think Nico would like me leaving my post right—"

  "Now, Hugo!"

  "I...I can't..."

  "Ugh, never mind, you're useless."

  Lena switched off her CB and headed for the med bay anyway.