CHAPTER SEVEN
Sand
Ruth dug frantically at the base of the wall. She threw sand and rocks out of the way in an attempt to build a gap underneath. She uncovered that the wall submerged in the ground. Her mind raced with the idea that the next inch would be the bottom of the wall. When it was revealed that the next inch was more wall, she convinced herself to keep digging. After all, it could be the next inch.
About a foot down into the soil, the sirens from all around Ruth went silent. As Ruth stopped and looked around, she saw she was surrounded by floating black ink creatures. Blood and sweat dripped down her face as she looked wildly for escape. She picked up a nearby rock and tried to hold it in a menacing manner.
One of the black ink creatures floated forward slightly. A soft male voice came from the creature. The voice wasn’t metallic or far away, it was as if a person stood in front of Ruth.
“Hello there. My name is Ryan. Are you okay? You seem hurt.” came the polite voice from the creature.
“Stand back! I am warning you. I am at my limit here!” Ruth shrieked at the creature.
The creature floated back just a little. “Okay. That’s fair. I am not here to threaten you. I just want to explain.”
Ruth didn’t say anything, she just raised the rock a little higher and did a menacing step forward. She pounded her foot forward as if that would give her strength in her throw.
“You’re scared. I get that.” Said the floating ink creature known as Ryan. “What do you want to know? How can I help you?”
“Who are you? Why won’t you let me escape?” said Ruth, using the rock to point to the wall.
“We are Xenophen. We come from very far away. You can leave, but first we need to make sure you understand. In the park, you hurt yourself because you didn’t understand. We want to ensure you understand.”
Ruth touched near her eye and felt the blood that had been trickling down. It wasn’t a gushing sensation, and she barely felt it. Perhaps she barely felt it because of the adrenaline.
“What do I need to know? Then I can leave?” Ruth said, slowly lowering the rock.
“Yes, you’ll be free to go. We just need to explain why we’ve put you through what we did,” said Ryan the Xenophen.
“When we first arrived,” Ryan continued, “we noticed you were behind us from a technological standpoint. If we simply started using what we had, our collective conscious was worried it would cause your species to grow lazy and stagnate. We needed to slowly teach you the technology. That’s why we implemented the caretaker program.”
“That’s why people keep calling me a caretaker?” Ruth asked.
“Yes,” replied Ryan floating down slightly. “You were chosen to be a caretaker. We were looking to bring you to this setting to learn the technology.”
“What technology?” Ruth asked.
“Well, that’s the cog and sprocket of this thing, you haven’t been exposed to it yet. I have in our records that we tried a sleep light on you. The original plan was to show you the technology, and you could test it in this environment. If something went wrong with the technology, it wouldn’t be a big deal. The only people in this town are shadow robots. When you woke up, you had a new ability for numbers. We maneuvered ourselves to watch you grow.”
“What was the technology going to be?” Ruth asked again.
“A form of mild telepathy. Nothing wild. Just enough where two people could express emotions for each other.” said Ryan. “This town was supposed to help you train the ability. The shadow robots could help buffer the initial use. They are close enough to human consciousness that they would respond to your telepathy.”
“So, what are the reality bubbles then?” Ruth backed away slowly, leaning against the wall.
“That was another unexpected twist. Our records indicate you weren’t supposed to wake up until we brought you here. The best we’ve been able to come up with is that you’ve slipped slightly out of the dimension.”
“Out of the dimension?” Ruth asked, tilting her head.
“Yes. It’s kind of like a record skipping when it hits a scratch. For some people, it causes a repeating. The events of a day play over and over. For others, like yourself, it pushes you to a different point in that record.” replied Ryan.
Ruth said nothing and just absorbed the information.
“So,” Ryan continued, “we may not be able to fix the record, but we can help you determine when you’ll ‘skip’ to another dimension. Tell me, what do these dimensions look like from your perspective?”
“Bubbles. Like floating bubbles.” Ruth replied, letting the rock clatter to the ground.
“Ah. So it sounds like you use a bubble analogy. That means that your consciousness uses a mix of feelings and water. That makes sense.”
“So, how do I use this?” Ruth asked.
“I am sorry,” Ryan shifted color to a greyish-blue, “I don’t know. It’s a slip from your personal dimension. I am aware that this was inside you before we came, though maybe it wouldn’t have awoken without our help. The best solace I can offer is that you need to think of these as emotions in a bubble.”
The other Xenophen floated away slowly until it was only Ryan and Ruth near the wall. Ruth watched them slowly disappear. The feeling of not being surrounded helped Ruth relax a little. It was nice knowing she had directions to run if she needed.
“So, what now? Can I go home?” Ruth asked.
“I told you that you could go after I told you the truth. I’ve told you the truth,” said Ryan.
“You’re letting me go?” asked Ruth, skeptically, with a sneer on her lips.
“Of course.” Ryan opened a small compartment, and a metallic tentacle appeared. It shined a light on Ruth. Unlike in the alley, this light was hot and felt like it was pulling her apart. She was a piece of taffy, stretched from all angles.
Realization struck Ruth. Ryan was trying to disintegrate her. She held onto her thoughts as they tried to pull away into nothingness. She realized that her body was made of mostly water. She thought of a bubble popping. After the bubble popped, her spirit would remain standing. That was the only way these floating creatures would let her escape. They wouldn’t stop until she was dead. She continued to focus on a bubble popping and leaving her a spirit. Her physical form then exploded everywhere. She was a spirit exactly where her physical form had been a second ago.
As the metallic tentacle slid back, the Xenophen said, “I am sorry. You were an unanticipated side effect. We couldn’t let you hurt others. Balance before all else.” Ryan began to float away.
The creature then spoke to someone outside of Ruth’s perception. “I don’t know. Was that more dignifying? To know beforehand, I mean... yes? … No, I … alright, another one. Yes, sir.” The Xenophen continued to float away.
Ruth, or the essence of Ruth, watched as the creature floated away. She looked at her ghostly hands and worried about the afterlife. A thought then crossed her mind. If she could still reason, if she could still think, then she wasn’t actually dead. Perhaps she had used the image of a bubble popping to help escape this dimension. Could she then go back into their reality? She thought about this and felt comforted. If you think, you exist.
She looked down at the desperate patch of earth she had been digging a moment earlier. It was now filled with her blood and gore from her physical body. She began to think of that circle under the wall as a pool or bubble. She would dive into the earth and see where it took her. She sucked in a breath, then smiled to herself, letting the breath out. She didn’t have a physical form anymore, why did she need to hold her breath? She looked down at the hole filled with blood and saw it reflect a bright sunlight. A sunshine of freedom. She dove into the pool.
Moments later, she felt her body, a physical body, tumbling down sand dunes. She upended over and over again. The world swirled like she was in a washing machine. It was a blur of beige motion and sunshine. Slowly she came to a skidding stop.
As Ruth breathe
d in and out, she wondered where she had ended up. She slowly got up and felt an intense heat. Sweat was nearly an instinct in this hot environment. In the distance, a small dot bobbed up and down. It looked like a floating ship that was sailing on the sand. Ruth could tell that it was heading toward her by how large it was slowly becoming. She threw her arms up to signal and started walking toward it. She needed to know where she was and find a new place called home. Henry had his quiet home in the woods. She needed to find where she could live in safety and comfort. Perhaps this upcoming vessel had the answers about her new home.
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Meet the Author:
James Livingood was born in Montana, raised with three brothers, and provided trouble for two parents. In his 20's he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. He moved out to Seattle after college and started a life by providing IT Consulting. In 2014, he started the writing adventure.
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