by S. Harrison
“You’re a brave young woman, Finn,” she says, smiling warmly. “Creating a breach will be difficult, but to keep it open, I will have to leave some of my code inside the dome wall. Once I do that, I may lose my ability to manipulate the quantum grains altogether, and if that happens, you must be prepared. Theresa will stop at nothing to prevent you from leaving.”
“I understand. How long will you need to create a breach?” I ask as Nanny Theresa slams her spear-tipped arms through the enclosure wall again.
“I’m not sure,” my mother says as she waves her hand at the holes. “I’ll be as quick as I can, but it may still take me thirty or forty seconds, a minute at the most.”
“I’ll get you the time.”
My mother looks at me with a mixed expression of concern and pride. “Then let’s get you to the main wall,” she says with a determined glare. My mother waves her hands, and the small dome opens up and drops into the floor, revealing Nanny Theresa standing before us in all her fearsome glory, her arms rearing back for another strike. My mother grasps the empty air right in front of her, and suddenly a huge glossy white copy of her own hand lunges up out of the floor at her feet and grabs Nanny Theresa’s whole body in a giant fist, lifting her up off the ground. Before Nanny has a chance to escape, my mother quickly swipes her hand through the air, and the giant, shiny copy of her arm mimics her movement exactly as it forcefully tosses Nanny Theresa away like a tiny rag doll. In midflight Nanny Theresa splatters apart into a shower of black droplets, and my mother quickly turns to me. “Hurry, join your friends.”
I nod without question and dash over to the others. Brody is still gently embracing Bit; Gazelle is on guard, glaring warily from side to side for any sign of Nanny Theresa; Dr. Pierce is still bound and gagged with strips of shiny black; and Dean is sitting cross-legged on the ground, smiling happily at the black curve of the dome high above him. I stand beside Brody and Bit and look back at my mother.
“Hold on!” she yells as she thrusts her open palm toward our little group. Brody and I both gasp, and Bit lets out a little screech as the floor bulges, rising like an ocean wave, sweeping us off our feet and sending us slipping along the glossy floor, carried by a gigantic ripple of shiny black. The base of the wave is so smooth that it’s like riding a perpetually moving slide at a children’s playground. Gazelle manages to maneuver around into a low crouch of sorts and kinda surfs the ripple; in fact she glances back at me with a look of delight on her face as we all speed toward the towering wall of the dome. Dean is skimming along on his back, a grunting Dr. Pierce is lying down, drifting sideways, and Brody is clutching on to Bit as they glide alongside me.
As we approach the curving boundary of Dome Two, the wave begins to wane, sinking back down into the floor as all of us come to a gentle stop ten feet from the dome wall.
I look back at my mother and see her quickly turn and dive in our direction, disappearing into the surface of the floor.
“We’re gonna open a breach in the wall,” I bark at Gazelle. “Get everyone through it as soon as you can.”
“Of course, Commander,” she replies.
“Commander?” Bit says, looking from me to Gazelle and back again.
Gazelle puts a hand on Bit’s shoulder. “It’s a long story,” she says, mimicking my voice, then she glances at me with a cheeky smile.
I smile back. “It really is,” I say to a very confused-looking Bit.
Suddenly a glossy black form hisses up from the floor, rising right beside me. Bit, Brody, Gazelle, and I all flinch, and I’m immediately on guard, but relief washes through me as the shape morphs into my mother.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” she says, clearly not wasting any time as she strides over to the wall of the dome and presses her open palms against it. She groans quietly, her head droops forward, and she goes as still as a statue.
“Mother?” I say, looking over at her in concern.
She doesn’t answer. But it makes sense; she did say it would take all of her focus to do this.
“That’s your mom?” asks Brody.
“Yes,” I reply. “And she’s gonna need a minute to get us out of here, so I’m going to buy her some time.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but . . . please be careful, Finn,” says a clearly worried Bit.
I nod, take a deep breath, then turn and walk away from the group into the wide-open space of the dome floor.
“I’m here!” My voice echoes out into the cavernous area. “I’m facing you just like you wan—”
Suddenly there’s a spitting hiss. I feel a sharp, searing pain, and a woeful groan croaks from my lips.
“Finn!” Bit screeches.
“Commander!” shouts Gazelle.
I can’t move my legs, and my mind has gone white with shock. I’m rapidly gasping at the air, and adrenaline is pumping through my body as I slowly and reluctantly look down to see a four-foot-long shiny black spike jutting from the floor in front of me. With wide, tear-filled eyes, I trace along its length, from its base all the way up to where my blood is beginning to soak my hooded top. The spike has skewered a fist-size hole right through my stomach. Blind panic surges through me as I stare in disbelief at the thick lance impaling my gut, the gruesome sight framed on either side by my hovering hands and trembling fingers. A glossy black blob begins rising from the floor in front of me, and to my absolute horror, the spike begins to move with it. I grab a tight hold of the spike and throw my head back, screaming out in agonizing pain as I’m lifted clean off the shiny black ground, with my feet dangling uselessly beneath me.
The oily covering on the shape drips away, revealing Nanny Theresa underneath, and I glance down to see that the spike is an extension of her left arm. She hoists me higher. Agony ripples through me as tears stream down my face, and spittle flecks on short, shallow breaths from my lips.
Nanny Theresa glares at me with her dead gray eyes. “You killed Genevieve,” she whispers. “You drove Richard insane. You were the reason I was killed,” she hisses. “And now finally, when you die, the whole world will be saved from a fate worse than death.”
The pain is too much to bear. I can’t speak as Nanny Theresa holds her other arm out to the side, and it begins changing shape from the elbow down, tapering and flattening into a two-foot-long black blade. I lash out with my hand, digging my thumb into Nanny Theresa’s eye, but she isn’t made of flesh, and she doesn’t even blink or flinch away as my fingernail scratches across the hard surface of her eyeball as if it were made of glass.
“Someone do something!” screams Bit.
“I know that this won’t kill you.” Nanny Theresa jiggles the spike in my gut, and I groan. “But taking your head off will.” She brings her blade arm between us and presses it against the skin of my neck. “The Infinity Project ends now.”
“Noooo!” wails my tortured mother’s voice. Then a strange sound begins emanating from somewhere. It’s a hissing, creaking noise, and it could only be one thing. I painfully glance over at my mother and see a vertical gap beginning to form on the curve of the dome, between her hands. Nanny Theresa’s blade presses harder against my throat, and my eyes flick back to her wrinkled face.
“There’s no need to mourn for Infinity, Genevieve,” Nanny Theresa calls out to my mother. “This is a victory for humanity.”
My heart hammers in my chest, tears stream down my face, and my eyes go wide with absolute terror as Nanny Theresa slowly draws her blade arm across her chest . . . and slits my throat.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
There’s a flash of movement and a swift rush of air. Time seems to slow to a crawl as Nanny Theresa’s entire head violently explodes right in front of my eyes, like a glass vase hit by a baseball bat. I watch Gazelle’s foot sweeping through the twinkling black shrapnel remnants of Nanny Theresa’s face as her now headless body, including the spike impaling me, instantly disintegrates into black liquid and splashes in an oily torrent onto the ground. I drop, crumpling heavily to the floor as blood
spills from the gaping hole in my stomach and sprays from the open gash in my throat. I roll onto my back, with one hand holding my neck and the other clutching my stomach.
Gazelle dashes forward and kneels by my side, looking down at me in absolute horror as blood gushes freely from my wounds, pouring through my fingers. “Commander!” she wails as her unsure hands hover shakily over me.
“I’ll be OK,” I gurgle as blood coughs from my lips and dribbles down my chin.
“Seriously?!” Gazelle blurts, staring down at me bewilderedly.
“Yeah . . . I’ll be fine,” I burble through mouthfuls of blood and with winces of extreme agony. “Get everyone out of here.”
Gazelle looks at me like I’m crazy.
“Now, soldier!” I insist, accidentally spitting blood at her.
She wipes her face on the back of her sleeve, but then she nods, and with one last look of doubt, she lunges out of sight behind me. The bleeding at my neck begins to slow, and I can feel the edges of the heinous wound in my abdomen gradually starting to close.
I’ve lost a hell of a lot of blood. I’m completely soaked and lying in a pool of it for god’s sake, and even though my wounds are steadily healing and the sensation is returning to my legs, I feel like all my strength is draining away as my regenerative abilities are taxed to their limits. Frankly I’m not surprised. I’m not a doctor, but even I have a fair idea of how serious and extensive my injuries are. I just had my throat slit all the way to the bone, and that spike went through my gut and exited through my back, shredding who knows how many vital organs on the way and severing my spinal column for good measure. Anyone else would be dead, and I’m glad that I’m not, but right now, I feel as weak as a newborn kitten.
I wearily look back over my shoulder to see Gazelle pick Dean up off the floor as Bit and Brody stare at me in abject horror. I manage to half sit up and hold a hand up to them to show them I’m OK.
The gap in the dome has grown and is now a couple of feet across at its widest and reaches eight feet high to a tapered point at the top. The hissing, creaking sound coming from the wall ceases. My mother moans, releases her hands, and falls into a crumpled heap on the floor.
Gazelle is true to her word and carries out my orders as she unceremoniously stuffs a stumbling Dean headfirst out through the gap. Bit and Brody quickly shuffle to the breach, and Bit sidles through with Brody close behind her. Then Gazelle drags Dr. Pierce toward the gap by the collar of his coat.
My neck has completely healed. I pull my top up a little and smear the blood aside to see the skin sealing closed over the wound in my stomach. Something moves against my chest, drops down inside my shirt, and slides onto the skin of my healed stomach. It’s my black diamond pendant. I pick it up with a trembling hand and clutch it in my fist. Nanny Theresa’s blade sliced right through the chain. I feel so feeble; my strength has been completely sapped. Clutching my pendant in my hand, I roll over onto my knees, slipping awkwardly in the huge pool of my own blood as I try to get to my feet.
I look over at my mother. She’s still lying motionless on the floor beside the breach. I’m worried but not as worried as I would be if she were a real person. I know she’ll be fine. Right now I’m much more concerned about getting out of here alive before Nanny Theresa comes back to finish me off.
“Finn! C’mon!” Brody shouts through the gap.
“I’ll get the Commander,” Gazelle says to Brody as she tries to maneuver a grunting Dr. Pierce into the breach. “Here, take the old man.”
Through the gap I see Brody dash forward and roughly pull Dr. Pierce outside as Gazelle turns toward me. Suddenly a dark shape rises behind her. “Look out!” I shout.
As Gazelle glances over her shoulder, a fully formed Nanny Theresa swings her arm and backhands Gazelle hard across the face. The brutal impact spins Gazelle off her feet, and she crumples heavily to the floor, unconscious. Nanny Theresa steps over her, like she would a piece of garbage on the ground, and walks toward me. Her arm hisses and sharpens into a blade once again. Without a word she stands over me, and I hold my hand up in futile defense, my heart pounding in my chest, too weak to stand let alone run, as she raises her arm above her head.
“Theresa!” shouts Dr. Pierce. “Don’t kill the girl!” I look over and see him standing just outside the gap in the dome wall; the shiny black bonds and the gag that was silencing him have completely vanished.
“Quiet, Graham!” Nanny Theresa bellows as she glares down at me.
“Please, Theresa,” Dr. Pierce begs. “Infinity is the only one who can finish what Richard started. You’re my wife, Theresa, and I love you. We can be together again. We can be young again. He promised. Richard promised that to me.”
“Shut up, Graham!” Nanny Theresa shouts as she turns and looks at him through the breach.
He’s standing just outside, looking at her pleadingly. “Please, my darling,” he begs. “I need you back. I’m lost without you.”
“Why can’t you just be quiet!” Nanny Theresa screeches. She waves her hand at Dr. Pierce, and a strip of black suddenly peels from the floor and speeds through the air in the direction of his mouth. He raises his arm to shield himself, but as the gag sails through the breach, it immediately disintegrates into a puff of black powder, speckling his face and glasses.
“The quantum field ends at the boundary of the dome,” he says as he removes his glasses and wipes them on his coat. “You can’t silence me any longer.” Dr. Pierce looks longingly at Nanny Theresa. “I love you. We can be together again, forever.”
“It won’t be us Graham,” Nanny Theresa sighs as her blade arm begins to shrink back down to normal. “Just hollow copies filled with nothing but faded memories of what it was like to be human. Do you really want to become this?” Nanny Theresa says, gesturing at herself. “An abomination like me? Trapped in this cage?” she says, looking around at the high, curving wall of the dome.
Dr. Pierce leans into the breach and smiles warmly at Nanny Theresa as his eyes begin glistening with tears. “If I can stand beside you, and touch your face again, my dear. Then my answer is . . . yes.”
“Oh, Graham,” Nanny Theresa whispers gently as she slowly shakes her head. She smiles and holds her arms out toward him. “Come here, you romantic old fool.”
A sniffling Dr. Pierce steps through the gap, over a motionless Gazelle, and walks toward Nanny Theresa. She goes to him, and they fold their arms around each other in a warm embrace. Dr. Pierce rests his chin on her shoulder and holds her tightly to him. “I love you, Theresa,” he whispers gently.
“I love you, too,” she replies. “But I’m afraid the love I have for you is only an illusion, Graham, nothing more than a digital shadow of what the real Theresa used to feel.”
Suddenly Dr. Pierce shudders, and his eyes go wide as a strained groan issues from his lips. His face contorts with pain, his legs buckle underneath him, and he glares up at Nanny Theresa in mortified shock as she gently lowers him to the floor and slowly extracts a thin black blade from his chest.
“I’m sorry it had to end this way, Graham. But this is for the best,” she whispers as Dr. Pierce gurgles and twitches on the floor beside her. “You’ve lost sight of the danger and discarded the value of humanity, just like Richard did. I’m afraid I can’t allow you to help him anymore.” The blade transforms back into a gnarled and leathery hand, and she presses her fingertips to her lips, then touches them to Dr. Pierce’s cheek. “The Theresa Pierce you knew was murdered two years ago,” Nanny whispers menacingly. “And the day of her vengeance has finally arrived.”
Nanny Theresa stands over the body of her husband and waves her hand toward the breach in the dome wall. All of a sudden, an eight-foot-high glossy black barrier hisses up from the floor, sealing over our escape route, blocking it completely. Nanny Theresa slowly turns her head and looks at me with a cold fire of revenge burning in her silvery eyes.
By the wall I see my mother groggily raise her head, but her drowsy eyes in
stantly go wide with shock as she sees Dr. Pierce lying at Nanny Theresa’s feet.
“Father!” she wails, and like a lioness targeting her prey, she immediately launches from the floor into a sprint toward Nanny Theresa and dives through the air, brutally tackling her to the ground. The two women slide across the floor, coming to a stop only a few feet away from me. My mother is on top of Nanny Theresa, landing punch after thudding punch on her face. Nanny Theresa doesn’t even wince at the blows as her right hand morphs into a hammer shape, and she swings it at my mother’s head. My mother blocks the attack with her forearm and grabs both of Nanny Theresa’s wrists. Suddenly Nanny Theresa disintegrates into a human-size mass of black liquid and splashes onto the floor, vanishing into it.
“Dammit!” my mother curses as she quickly lunges over beside me. “Finn, listen, part of my code is keeping the dome wall open, so I’m barely holding myself together, and I’ve lost the ability to change shape. Theresa will be back soon, and I’ll try to keep her occupied, but it’s up to you to break through that barrier.”
“Lost too much blood. Too weak,” I mutter.
“Call it back!” my mother shouts.
“What?” I ask, looking at my mother in confusion.
My mother grabs my wrist and slaps my open palm onto the wide puddle of my own blood.
“Regain your strength. Call it back to you.”
“Call what back to where?” I say, staring at her bewilderedly.
“It’s part of you, Finn,” she says, looking down at the blood. “It will do what you say. All you have to do . . . is command it.”
“What do you mean?” I ask as an oily black Nanny Theresa–shaped blob begins rising from the floor a few feet away from us.
My mother strokes her thumb across my forehead. “You are like no one else who has ever existed, Finn. Your muscles, bones, and even your blood listen to your conscious commands and carry out your orders obediently. Trust me. Call it back to you, and reclaim your strength . . . you can do this,” she says as she gets to her feet and stands between me and the quickly re-forming Nanny Theresa. “You can do it. I know you can.”