The Place Beyond

by Ryan Lohner

  And like that, it was over. The soldiers lay scattered on the forest floor, all unconscious. Jane walked among them in a daze. “As hard as it was going back to a regular school day before, I think now it’s going to be worse.”

  Matt said, “Well, I’ll help you out. And Jim too. Speaking of …”

  The Serrises didn’t need any more prompting and stripped the armor off two soldiers. Jane was surprised to see one of them was a woman.

  Mary noticed her reaction. “As bad as Krell was, I do have to admit they’re ahead of this place in a few areas.”

  She and Tom put the armor on themselves and then activated the helmets. Suddenly all of their faces were hidden except their mouths and they looked no different from the two they’d just beaten up. Tom rummaged through more bodies and came up with the device Chapman had used to open the corridor. He pushed the button and the portal opened up just as before, the corridor failsafe room visible in the air.

  Matt started forward, but then Mary put her hand out. “Just so we’re clear, you really want to do this? Knowing that it’ll give you just another week to live without Neserene? Because this is absolutely the last chance to turn back.”

  Matt and Jane nodded. Matt said, “We didn’t know Jim well before. To be honest, we didn’t even like him that much. But that changed during our time in Krell. He’s our friend, and this is the only thing I can do and be able to look at myself in the mirror.”

  Jane added, “Never leave a man behind. That’s a saying you’ve heard in your time here, right?”

  Mary smiled. “And there, too. He’s lucky to have friends like you. So, I guess this is it.”

  Matt took Jane’s hand, causing her to briefly forget herself, before he said, “Well, here goes nothing.” They stepped through together.

  Chapter Thirty

  Matt and Jane emerged into the failsafe room as before. As they’d expected, the corridor to the control room opened the same way it had when they’d left; they could see through it but not step through. The technicians looked up and stared at them in disbelief and Matt amused himself imagining how they must be freaking out. But it didn’t last long, as Tom and Mary stepped in right behind them. “It’s all right,” Tom said. “We caught them trying to open their own way back here. Turns out the place had a secret project none of us knew about, and as soon as our corridors were detected they started working on killing us all. But that’s all done with, now that we’ve caught these two. I imagine their stay this time will be quite short indeed, if you’d just let us in so we can report to the general.”

  The technicians looked at each other and then one replied, “If you’ll excuse us, we’ll need to get some higher authority in here before we do that. This isn’t exactly a situation that any of our training prepared us for.”

  This was something Matt had worried would happen, but when he had brought it up, Tom and Mary had simply grinned at each other and said, “Oh, we have a plan for that.” And now he saw what it was, as Mary walked up to the corridor and banged her pulser against it, an odd sight as it seemed to be ricocheting off thin air with no sound. Then she spoke and it was in a tone Matt had never heard her use before. He couldn’t call it shouting, because she didn’t seem to be straining at all, but there was a hard fury to her words that gave him chills despite knowing the kind of person she really was. He shuddered to think of the effect it was having on the men on the other side.

  “Now you listen to me. We caught these two, but who knows what else is still out there waiting for us? No one in this world knows, but they do. Which means we need to get them into interrogation as quickly as possible. It might even already be too late, but on the off-chance it’s not, I very much suggest you let us in, unless you want to explain to everyone as our world is burning how you could have stopped it, but didn’t.”

  The three faces had grown seemingly more wide-eyed with each word, and now the spokesman said, “Yes, ma’am, right away.” He hit a few of the controls in front of him. There was a brief rush of air as the corridor opened. “You can come in now.”

  Still playing their parts, Matt and Jane entered the room first, and once they’d walked past all the technicians they turned, just in time to see Tom and Mary shooting all of them. Even having witnessed their fighting skills, it was a shocking sight from the two, but then Mary, now back to her regular voice, said, “They’ll be knocked out for about an hour. Any more might have killed them and we didn’t want to take the risk. So let’s get going.”

  They raced outside and down the hall, which, as Matt remembered, gave a straight shot between the corridor control room and the teleporter.

  Once inside, Tom said, “Ground floor.”

  This was the place where their plan’s success was entirely out of their hands, but there was no way to avoid it given the building’s setup. Either Tom and Mary’s voices were still in use for the teleporter system or they had been removed after their escape. The need for the government to cover up that escape as much as possible had led Tom and Mary to hope that there wouldn’t be any activity like going into the system to remove their voices for someone to pick up on, plus the whole thing was stored digitally, so there wouldn’t be wasted space to worry about, but Matt was still extremely nervous. However, luck was on their side as the bright light flashed, and they found themselves in the lobby again. Tom’s breath also turned out to still be on file, and they were able to walk straight out.

  Once on the street, Matt said, “So is everything coming back okay?” If the business with the teleporter was the riskiest part of the plan, this part took second place: relying on memories more than a decade old to find their way around.

  Tom smiled. “Better than I thought it would, actually. Whatever we removed from our minds, actually being back here, seeing and hearing and smelling it, is doing wonders for the old puzzler. How about you, dear?”

  Mary nodded. “Amazing thing, the human brain. And as I recall, Jasper’s isn’t too far from here. It is an upscale place, after all.”

  After the plan to get this far had been outlined, Matt and Jane joined in and had decided their best chances were to meet up with the rebels again. They also hoped that having two adults along would make them better able to stand up to any resistance Charlie might try to put up. The other rebels would be sympathetic to the Serrises’ need to reunite with their son, and perhaps Charlie would recognize that and not try anything this time. That discussion had then turned to where they could go to find them, since there was no way Matt and Jane could find their way back through the maze of streets to the places the rebels’ teleporter led, and they couldn’t provide any landmarks for Tom and Mary, thanks to how everything on these streets looked the same. Then Jane had remembered Sam, and the restaurant he served his vital role in. It was the one place they had even a name for, so Jasper’s would have to do.

  As they walked along, Tom asked his wife, “Is it just me, or have the buildings around here got taller?”

  She shrugged. “After all those years in suburbia, our eyes could just be playing tricks on us. But maybe they really did need to add some things on, giving the elite more space to get away from the hoi polloi.” She spat, “I’m really starting to remember why I grew to hate this place.”

  Matt said, “Wait, so all the upper-class people live off the ground?”

  Tom scowled. “Yes, as surprising at it must seem to you, that’s the way things work here. They just use teleporters to get around, or sky bridges if they want to show off.”

  Matt shook his head. “We heard something about that, but I just figured it was some kind of metaphor. I mean, we do have lower class ghettoes ourselves, but this whole thing … I just can’t picture it.”

  Jane said, “Wait, does that mean this Jasper’s place is high off the ground, too?”

  Mary nodded. “Yes, it does.”

  “Well, how do we get there, then?”

  Tom said, “The lower class people may live down here, but some of them are lucky enough to ge
t jobs in the higher levels, like your friend Sam. Which means they need ways to get to them, which is handy for us.”

  A few blocks later, Tom announced, “We’re here,” and peeled back a panel on the corner of a building that appeared to be just part of the wall when closed. Under it was a button, which he pushed.

  Matt said, “You know, that’s actually the first one of those we’ve seen in this place.”

  Mary replied, “And it’s connected to a good old-fashioned elevator. It’s kind of embarrassing how long it took us to stop feeling like we were slumming it when we used them.” After half a minute, the wall near the control parted to reveal what looked more like a dumbwaiter blown up to elevator size. “Of course, them being so fancy helped us get over it.”

  It was an unnervingly rickety ride up and Jane said after a few seconds, “I hate to ask now, but do these things break very much?”

  “On occasion,” said Tom. “But not as much as you might think. It’s not good business to kill your employees, after all.”

  Matt couldn’t help adding his own line. “Yes, thank you, Jane, for giving me that to think about for however much longer this takes.”

  How long it was probably had little to do with how long it felt like, but at last the doors opened again and they found themselves at the restaurant’s service entrance. It was a cramped hallway that was empty at the moment, but not long afterwards none other than Sam appeared carrying a tray of leftovers that was now probably headed for the rebels. Upon seeing them he nearly dropped it.

  “Is it really you?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Matt. “It’s kind of a long story, but would you happen to know where Jim is?”

  At this Sam got an expression on his face that Matt had a frustratingly hard time reading. “Well, about that …”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  As Jim watched Charlie point the pulser at him, with a glint in his eye that no one else noticed, he held up a hand. “Wait a minute. I don’t feel anything.”

  Lilah looked confused. “That’s a good thing, right? This is all so you won’t have to go through any pain.”

  Jim shook his head. “I mean, I’ve been keeping track of time thanks to getting my phone back, and I’m pretty sure this is when it should be starting.”

  “So what are you saying?” said Mike.

  “I don’t know. All I can say is that nothing seems to be happening.”

  “Could you have miscalculated?” said Charlie.

  Jim shrugged. “I guess so. But given how bad this thing is supposed to be, I’d still be feeling something before the really bad stuff, right?”

  Lilah said, “That’s true. Bram told me about one early Neserene test he looked up while he was scouting out the police station. The control subject got an upset stomach hours before any other symptoms. I figured that when you didn’t, it was just because everyone reacts differently, but now I wonder.”

  CJ coughed as he reminded everyone he was there. “So we’re right back to, what does it mean?”

  Jim took a few deep breaths, struggling to accept the reality in front of him. “I think … it means I’m okay.”

  Lilah said, “Well, how can that be?”

  “I have no idea. But it’s what seems to be happening, isn’t it?”

  Having just begun to consider the possibility, he wasn’t surprised at all when Charlie had to try to ruin his newfound ray of hope. “Let’s not get our hopes up. We have no real idea what’s going on here, after all.”

  “Well, could you put the pulser down for the moment, at least?” That came from Lilah. “I think we should at least proceed assuming he’s not going to die. It’s easier to correct than going the other way, know what I mean?”

  Jim was surprised at this; it seemed there was at least one person in this group who was not a blind follower of their leader. Now that he thought about it, he recalled Lilah’s confusion at Charlie’s animosity towards him and his friends and felt relief that he had at least one potential ally here if this went as bad as he now feared it might.

  But if it was going to go that bad, it would not be happening today. Charlie was also clearly surprised at Lilah’s questioning of him, but seemed to come to the conclusion that fighting back wouldn’t be worth it. “Indeed,” he said, and lowered the pulser. “Very well, Jim, whatever this reprieve is, you’re free to enjoy it for as long as you can.”

  Any gratitude Jim might have felt was then extinguished as the man again found a way to turn this situation against him.

  “But this isn’t a free ride. If you’re going to stay here, then you’re going to earn that privilege. Up until now you’ve been a special case, but as far as I can tell, you’re now in the same boat as the rest of us. Which means you work as hard as the rest of us.”

  Despite his indignation, Jim couldn’t find a way to call this anything but fair. That was the worst thing about Charlie; he could make you miserable completely within the rules. So he just said, “Okay, fine. Whatever you want.”

  Charlie allowed himself a brief grin, which no one else seemed to notice. “During your time here, I’m sorry to say I haven’t seen anything that stands out much about your skills. At least, not anything that would be very useful to us. You spent most of your time back in your world throwing a ball around and tackling people, as I understand it?”

  With the imminent threat of death now gone, Jim was again having trouble meeting Charlie’s eyes. “That’s the basic idea, yes. I guess it’s not very useful. But there’s also the combat training I got on the mission.”

  Charlie shook his head. “It might come in handy later, but right now we’re certainly not at the point where I trust you on the kinds of assignments where you would be using it. So instead you’ll be starting out the way most people who find their way here do: janitorial work.”

  * * *

  “And that’s what he’s been doing for the past two months,” said Sam to Matt, Jane, and the Serrises. They were now on the street and heading toward an entrance to the headquarters as he pushed a cart of food. “He hasn’t complained once, even though some of the people … well, Charlie did a pretty good job turning them against you guys. So now that they can give him any job they want, it can get a bit demeaning. But he’s talked to me a couple times when he has a chance. He says he still just feels lucky for whatever miracle saved his life.”

  Matt smiled and copied Sam’s own delivery from when he started the story. “Yeah, about that.” He turned to Tom and Mary. “You want to explain?”

  * * *

  After hearing the whole thing, Sam blinked a couple of times. “Well, that certainly explains a lot.”

  Tom said, “So you can understand why we want to see him again and get him out of this place.”

  Sam nodded, then looked at Matt and Jane. “And you two risked your own deaths again. I have to question if I’d have that kind of courage.”

  Jane said, “After what we went through together, we just couldn’t back out of this one. But don’t sell yourself short – that whole place would collapse if everyone had to search for their own food, and your job is plenty dangerous, too.”

  “Ah, that’s nice of you. Well, here we are.” He tapped out his message on the street, which was followed by the old sensation of the rebels’ less advanced teleporter. Matt and Jane found themselves queasy but not actively nauseous, but Tom and Mary instantly ran for the bucket. “I don’t often get to see people go through it the first time,” said Sam. “And I really like it that way.”

  Tom and Mary made quite a sight, with their hair in disarray and pure embarrassment on their faces. But Matt and Jane were both sobered by the situation, and the anticipation of what would soon happen. And they didn’t have long to wait, as none other than Jim backed into the room, pulling cleaning supplies with him. “So you just took it upon yourself to bring in some new people, huh, Sam? Not even thinking …” and at that point he’d turned enough to spot who was in the room.

  “I know you have a l
ot of questions,” said Tom. “But right now …” he stopped there as Jim was clearly on the same page and raced forward to hug them both.

  “You’re the only ones who could make me this sappy,” he said.

  “It’s good to see you, Jim,” said Matt. And trust me, your parents have quite a story to tell you. But first we’d better get everyone together to hear it.”

  Jim laughed a bit. “So they’ll be getting group story time twice in two months. These guys are going to love you.”

  * * *

  Tom and Mary told their story first, with Jim utterly spellbound throughout the whole thing. Matt and Jane each took one of his hands. He didn’t say a word, but his thought process was clear. He didn’t want to believe it, and yet it was the only explanation for how he’d survived past the deadline. Matt didn’t envy him; he doubted he’d be able to take a similar reveal without breaking down completely, especially given how he’d already been given such confusion about his identity. After that story finished, Matt and Jane chimed in about how they got back. Finally, Jim said, “Something just occurred to me, about something that’s been bothering me for a while. I first got into this thing because I jumped at the offer to go look in the woods for someone I didn’t know at all. It was a crazy thing to do, and I even realized that, but I just couldn’t help doing it anyway. And these two weren’t really in the mood to question it, so we all pretty much just let it go. And now I’m wondering, does that have something to do with all this?”

  Mary frowned. “You realize our knowledge of how the corridor works is badly out of date, but with what you’re describing, I would certainly expect so. Perhaps your mind subconsciously wanted to get back to its home dimension and knew this was a chance to do it. Maybe the whole universe was bending to get you back here and help correct some imbalance. I just don’t know. But it’s as good an answer as any right now.”