The Place Beyond

by Ryan Lohner

  Before long everything was finished, and Matt was feeling a good deal more comfortable. Of course, there was still the thought that he might die soon to consider, but at least the immediate problem was over. And as for what came next, Lilah leaned over the table and said, “So, I think it’s time you met our leader.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “So … your actual leader?” said Jim.

  Lilah looked confused. “Who else would I mean?”

  Matt said, “I think what he’s getting at is, we’re really not that important. Like Bram told you.”

  Lilah replied, “Well, why should that mean he wouldn’t want to meet you? You’re the first people from the other side we’ve actually met. Everyone’s been so worried about what a whole other universe will mean for us, and from what I’ve seen so far, you three could go a long way to allay those fears.”

  Jim chuckled. “You mean because we’re so pathetic? Thanks for that.”

  Lilah frowned. “No. Because you’re so much like us. Some of the others were worried you’d be some kind of evil space monsters. I never bought into that myself, of course.” Was her smile afterwards just a little too rigid? “But you’re just … normal. Besides, we also need to get you back there in the next six days, and I’m sure he’ll want to do all he can to make that happen.”

  So they followed her back into the hall, passed a few more doors, and entered the one all the way at the end, on the left, from where they’d started. Inside was a remarkably normal looking office by the terms of Matt’s world, with a desk and chair, and a cabinet in the corner. About the only thing missing was a window. However, the man sitting at the desk was quite a bit other than normal. He was bald as an egg and had bright blue eyes that seemed just a little too large for his face. Floating in front of him was a translucent glowing screen, but as they came in he made a waving motion and it closed. Then he folded his arms and said, “Well, this is pretty much exactly what I expected, and that’s not a compliment. Bram let me know about you three. And I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to work off what he used up to get you out.” Matt was instantly intimidated, and he suspected Jane and Jim were too. “And now we’re supposed to use more of our time and energy, which is far from an infinite resource, by the way, to get you back home. For the record, that would involve breaking back into the corridor headquarters, getting past any men inside, and convincing the technicians to work it for you. Because I guarantee you none of our people has that kind of skill. I don’t suppose you’d have any ideas on how we could do all that?” He stopped talking and leaned on his hands, staring at them with those too-large eyes.

  A few seconds passed by, after which Matt realized the man was being serious.

  Then Jim spoke up. “I … well, you see … do you think we could get a better idea of the kind of people you have first?”

  The man nodded gravely. “I thought so. No use at all. Just a few more mouths to feed in the time you’ll be staying with us. Bram really screwed up this time.”

  Summoning all his courage, Matt said, “I told Lilah before, sir. We’re willing to do whatever we can to help out while we’re here.”

  He simply barked out a laugh. “And little good that’ll do us. I can tell just by looking at you, you’ve got absolutely no skills we need. Well, at least you won’t be on my hands long either way.”

  At that, Jane spoke up. “Okay, that’s going too far. We were dragged here just because we wanted to find our friend, and I for one have just been terrified the whole time. So there’s really no more scared I can get of you, so you can just quit trying. Maybe we can’t help you, but that doesn’t mean you helping us isn’t the right thing to do. Isn’t that what this place is all about, helping people who can’t help themselves?”

  The man’s eyes widened slightly, a quite uncomfortable sight given how big they were already, and while he gave another laugh, it was lower and rueful. “Now you, I might just be able to work with after all.” His gaze expanded to all of them as he said, “Everyone here calls me Charlie. Not my real name. I won’t give those people any way to track me down that I can avoid. It’s based on old military slang for the enemy. Seemed fitting.”

  He stood up and came around the desk, and Matt, who’d been expecting an old man given how crotchety he was, saw that he was actually quite muscular, obvious even under the long coat he wore.

  “Don’t think this means I’ll be going any easier on you, though. Everyone here has jobs to do, and that means you, too. I’ll also expect you to get fighting training as best you can. It’ll have to be the old-fashioned way, since we don’t have any training programs at the moment. And since you only have a week, I doubt you’ll be able to improve much, but hey, when you have a choice between doing something or nothing, I know which way I always go.”

  As Matt struggled to work out what to say to any of that, Lilah broke in. “So, should I just show them around more?”

  Charlie made a brushing away gesture and said, “Yeah, sure. Let me get back to some real work.”

  As they went back to the hall, Jim said, “Well, I feel a lot better about this, now. How about you guys?”

  Lilah gave a pained smile. “Yeah, he can be pretty … brusque. But you get used to it. Before he came along, people like me had no one looking out for them. He brought us together and gave us a purpose. So he sees that as entitling him to be as rude as he wants. And trust me, if there is a way to get you what you need, he’ll find it. He’s very good at that.”

  Jane said, “People like you? So what exactly does that mean?”

  Lilah waved her arms around. “Everyone here. You saw what the street level is like on your way here, right?” After they nodded, she went on, “Well, imagine that’s your whole life. And there’s nothing to do but get used to it, because there’s no way it can ever get any better. You were born on the street, and nothing can change that. Even if you do somehow sneak into some upper level place, the smell is such a part of you that everyone knows what you are. That’s what I had to live with until about five years ago. That’s when I found out about this place. Charlie was pretty rough with me at first, too, but then he saw what I could do, and he even let me stay here.”

  Matt said, “Wait, you live here?”

  Lilah nodded. “I’d been on my own for a while. My family never had much money, so we all just went out begging a lot of times. I count myself lucky my parents didn’t cut one of my arms or legs off so I’d get more money.” Matt supposed his shocked reaction was echoed in Jim and Jane’s faces.

  Lilah laughed darkly and said, “I suppose that kind of thing is unthinkable where you come from, huh? Well, it happens to a lot of people here.”

  Matt elected not to bring up that it did actually happen in their world, just not where they came from.

  All of them were silent, so Lilah went on. “Anyway, when I was thirteen I got out of there. It’s the minimum age for grunt work in factories. So I went to a place that made aircraft, and I spent years just cleaning machines, fixing them when they got jammed, basically all the stuff anyone else who worked in those places didn’t want to do. And they involved quite a few moving parts, which weren’t exactly built with the idea that someone would be climbing around inside them. There’s ways to make them without all that danger now, but they also cost money that the company didn’t have. So if I didn’t want to lose a limb, I had to get pretty good at moving around in them. Stuff like this.” She turned to the wall and without even any kind of running start ran up it and then backflipped off it.

  They all just stared for a second and then Jim said, “I want to applaud, but I’m too impressed to move.”

  Matt was just glad he had the good sense to not mention also being turned on, which he was sure was the case.

  Lilah went on, “So for right now, how about a look at the training room?”

  She took them to another door and Matt’s eyes widened at the sight beyond. The room was huge, with people practicing hand to hand combat and melee
weapons, and judging by the muffled sounds coming from behind the rear wall, he guessed there was a gun range as well.

  “Hey, Mike, CJ, come on, I want to introduce you to some people!” she shouted.

  One of the pairs practicing unarmed fighting stopped and ran over. “So, these are the people who Bram told us about,” one of them said. He was the first person Matt had seen in Krell who sported a mustache, if a rather thin one, the dark brown standing out against his pale skin. “I’m Mike Kazen,” he went on. “The toughest in the place, if I say so myself.”

  “Only because you get yourself in so much trouble, and me with you,” said the other one. Turning to them, he said, “And I’m Christopher John Damaro.” His skin was darker and he was as bald on top as Charlie but made up for it with a pair of rather scary-looking eyebrows. “Everyone calls me CJ. So, I suppose we’re going to have to whip you into shape somehow.”

  By now, Matt was feeling distinctly embarrassed at all these people thinking of him and his friends as useless, no matter how true it might be. So after they got done introducing themselves, he said, “Well, one of us is already in pretty good shape. How about it, Jim?”

  * * *

  Jim cringed inside as he heard Matt bring it up. “Uh, you know I don’t fight people, right?”

  Jane laughed. “You seemed to do okay from what I saw before.”

  “Well, that was just luck, mostly. The guy wasn’t trying to really hurt me, if you recall.” He immediately regretted the statement and saw Jane look at the floor and away from everyone as she remembered who Reeves had been trying to hurt. “Oh God, I’m sorry, Jane.”

  She didn’t look back as she said, “We really need to work on how we talk to each other.”

  CJ said, “So are we going to fight, or what?”

  Now Jim was emotional enough to want some release, so he dived at the man in a classic tackling move. CJ easily sidestepped him. “Is that it?” he said as Jim turned around.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” said Jim. “I don’t know if you have football here, but that’s the one real attacking move it prepares you for, and you’re wearing tons of padding, too.”

  Mike sighed. “Well, we all start somewhere.”

  Matt asked, “So while you’re training him, what do I do?”

  CJ said, “Pretty much the same thing. Though at least with him, we know we’ve got something to work with. You have any experience with this kind of thing?”

  Matt shook his head. “My parents got me to eat healthy, and that’s the closest I’ve got. They’re both writers, and I kind of thought I’d follow that way. Not much need to know how to fight in that job.”

  The looks on both their faces were quite comical, but Jim managed to restrain his amusement for Matt’s sake. “Look, I’ll help him, too,” he said. “We’re all in this together, right?”

  Mike replied, “In a week? Seriously, I’m not trying to put you down or anything, but we’re not miracle workers.” He and CJ glanced at each other and seemed to share some communication, though neither spoke. Then he turned back to them and said, “I guess we can show you just a few moves that can come in handy often. Anything else is really out of our hands, though.”

  Matt nodded. “I get it, believe me.”

  The two turned to Jane, and CJ said, “And that just leaves you. Is there a chance you already know something useful?”

  Jane shrugged. “When in doubt, go for the crotch.”

  As the two men tried to figure out what to make of that, Lilah chuckled and said, “Why don’t I take charge of this one? I’ve got a few ideas.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Matt woke up expecting the previous day to have been a dream. How could it have been anything else? But no; he was in the same dormitory he and his friends had been placed in last night, with the same dim lighting their cell in the corridor headquarters had had, though this time the light source was clearly visible as more luxium orbs floated above his head. Lilah had explained that many of the resistance members preferred to stay in contact with their families, but if for any reason they didn’t want that or it wasn’t possible, they came here. There were thirty beds, which had been taken through the teleporter piece by piece. Lilah had turned quite wistful as she recalled the headlines of several furniture stores being robbed, which no one had been able to make sense of. The result was naturally an absurd mishmash of styles, but he couldn’t care less. After the day he’d had, any kind of sleep was welcome. Even keeping their street clothes on, since the choices were either that or going nude, though that appeared to be less of a taboo to these people, given how some of them had gone to their own beds, hadn’t been much of an obstacle.

  Next to him were Jane, and then Jim in the next bed over, both still asleep. He’d never thought of himself as an early riser, but it seemed everything was relative. Then he turned to the other side and shrank back at the sight of Lilah sitting on the next bed, watching him. “Oh, that’s not creepy at all,” he said.

  She said, “Ten minutes more than me. Less than I was expecting, honestly. Maybe you’re underestimating yourself.” Unlike him, she made no effort to keep her voice down and Matt heard the sounds of his friends stirring out of their sleep.

  Jim mumbled, “Was that really necessary? I was having a lovely dream about …” Suddenly he snapped to full wakefulness as Jane sat up in front of him. His face turned red.

  Jane stretched her arms above her head and said, “Yeah, you should probably hold that thought.” She jumped off the bed and said, “So what’s up for today?”

  Matt just stared. He was still far from getting over the effects of sleep after waking up naturally. It wasn’t fair to see someone else able to do it like flicking a switch, no matter the circumstances.

  Apparently Matt wasn’t the only one who thought that way, as Jim said, “I didn’t see you wake up the first time. I don’t like it.”

  Jane simply closed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

  Lilah said, “Well, yesterday you did make some progress.”

  Matt wondered if he was only imagining a slight flicker of her eye, as spite for how poorly his own lessons had gone.

  “So today, I think we’ll see how much you remember on your own before I step back in. But first, breakfast.”

  Jane practically skipped out of the room with Lilah as Matt and Jim glared after them.

  “So, how screwed are you, exactly?” said Jim.

  Matt turned back to him. “And I suppose you did so much better?”

  Jim shrugged. “Well, from what I saw before Mike would yell at me not to get distracted, you were getting yelled at a lot, too.”

  Matt nodded. “That’s true. Though I can’t blame CJ too much.” He felt awkward referring to the man by his first name, or initials, as the case may be, but he had insisted, saying the group was built around everyone being equal, and even if it wasn’t he would still prefer it. Matt could only assume Mike had done the same with Jim, or else Jim was just that good at asking for trouble. “I get the feeling they’ve never had to train anyone from the ground up before. After all, usually the way things work here is you just watch some TV and the lesson’s over.”

  Jim groaned as he got out of bed. “Whatever. Let’s just get something to eat and try to forget about our impending horrible deaths.”

  Matt sighed. “Again, I had managed to not think about that for a while. Thank you.”

  * * *

  Mike rubbed his nose as Jim approached and said, “And here we go again. Show me the one-two again.”

  He raised his palms, covered by pads that looked similar to what Jim was used to, but Mike assured him could be adjusted to any firmness necessary, in front of his chest, and Jim aimed two punches at his right hand. His first reprimand yesterday had come after he aimed one at each hand; Mike said it would put him off-balance and increase the gaps in his own defense. It was impossible to defend your entire body at once, he said, but that was no excuse for a lazy guard.

  But thi
s improved strategy had its own flaws, as Jim saw it. Like how much more difficult it was to aim both your hands at the same spot. He’d only managed it twice yesterday, and he was pretty sure both were just down to luck. He tried not to let that thought show, and Mike hadn’t said anything about it, but he couldn’t drop the feeling that his instructor knew exactly what he was thinking.

  And this time, Mike’s right hand remained steady as a rock when Jim’s right fist hit it, but the left one flew to the outside nonetheless. “Other side,” said Mike.

  Jim obeyed, expecting nothing different as he aimed at Mike’s left hand, but to his surprise both hits connected. “Again,” said Mike.

  It didn’t happen again, but his second punch did come quite a bit closer to the hand than usual. Mike smiled and said, “I think we’ve found your dominant side. Just took you some practice to get there. If you find yourself in a bind, aim for your right. It’ll give you a better chance, at least.”

  Jim replied, “I still don’t see the point of this. We’ll be going up against people in armor, right?”

  The smile went away. “I’m doing what I can with what I have. Maybe it won’t help, but in the time we’ve got, it’s the best I know how to do. Besides, I heard you managed to get one of them to deactivate his own armor. Maybe you’ll pull it off again.” The smile was back by the end of the talk.

  “Now, moving to blocking,” he went on. “This is the basic move.” He slowly waved his arm in front of his chest. “And you just move it higher or lower as needed. Simple, but it’ll serve you well. And it still works if the person’s wearing armor.”

  Jim cringed; he had a feeling he wouldn’t be living down that remark any time soon.

  “So let’s try it out,” said Mike, and without further warning aimed a punch at the center of Jim’s chest.

  He did the block as shown, but only hit Mike’s arm after he’d finished the motion with his fist alarmingly close to connecting.