by Tom Cheshire
“Better now…” I rubbed my eyes. “Much better.”
“I’ve been too scared to approach you,” Emma wheezed. “You were running around, going crazy and I…”
“It’s over,” I replied. “We won.”
“Joe, you’ve got to know what I did… That coffee was really-”
“I know. Remember what Bob said? He said one of the side effects of the cure was the sudden realisation of great truth.” I said.
“You… figured out the switch?”
“That’s not all…” I swiftly pulled Emma into a tight embrace and leaned forwards. Our lips locked together almost instantly, and we closed our eyes, kissing with all our pent-up energy. A powerful, raw and sensational feeling surged through me as we were finally able to enjoy a moment of peace amongst all the chaos and violence and…
Slap! Right across the face. So much for that moment.
“Okay, I did not see that coming,” I muttered.
“This has been a complete fucking nightmare, you know!” Emma shouted.
“Of course…” I rubbed my cheek. “I’m aware of that. It got a bit messy, back there.” But Emma leaned in, ready to kiss me back. I closed my eyes.
“Oh no…” Emma said, defeated. She pulled back, mouth still hanging open but with an expression of terror now on her face.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You’re bleeding,” Emma said faintly. I instinctively went to feel the top of my head but I noticed Emma had blood, my blood, on her front from where I’d leaned in and pressed my body against hers. As I looked down in utter despair, I noticed that my entire chest region was soaked in blood.
“Oh, no, no, no this isn’t right – this can’t be right, that was supposed to have been an illusion! Not real!” I yelled. Those knife games with X… I thought none of them had been real, but this wound clearly was. As soon as I touched it, I collapsed in pain. So that part of X’s game –stabbing myself in the chest – that had really happened… X had covered it up – he’d only ever needed me alive long enough for me to drink the coffee. The pain had been masked briefly by the power of the drink I’d just consumed, but now it had finally hit me. I was in agony.
“What do I do?” asked Emma, panicking and trying to put pressure on my wound as I writhed around on the floor.
“No, that’s not helping,” I cried, pulling myself up slowly. Emma leapt up and ran across the room, quicker than I’d ever seen her move.
“We’ve got to find something to control the bleeding,” she said, anguished, darting towards the corridor. I followed, slowly, my balance starting to falter, leaning on the walls and stumbling around corners. I was balanced about as well as I had been on my first ever wander out from the cryo room. This time, there would be no craving for caffeine. Just the simple urge to survive. I couldn’t die now… not now that I was finally myself. Emma returned to me and took my arm.
The next thing I knew we were in the kitchen. Emma had made me a tightly wrapped bandage using layers upon layers of tissues from the bathroom, wrapped in straps of material from around the ship and pieces of clothing.
“That’s the best I can do… I’m sorry there’s nothing for the pain…” Emma whimpered.
“I think it’s going to hold, for now.” I croaked, feeling the weight of the makeshift bandage. “Thank you, Emma. Saving my life twice in one day, that’s quite the achievement.” I turned away for a coughing fit.
“Are you ok?” Emma asked.
“Yeah…” I lied, discretely wiping away the blood I’d just coughed up. I could tell the bandage wasn’t going to hold, but I didn’t want to admit it.
“So come on then. Why did you stay behind, really?” I asked. Emma was in tears.
“Somebody had to. The escape pod was closing, and I saw you walk away… Even with what you’d done, I knew that I couldn’t… I couldn’t leave you in that state. I jumped out just as it was about to launch.”
“You could have gone…” I paused for another coughing fit. “With Dom and Chloe. You could have had a chance.”
“I don’t want that, you know I don’t want that…” Emma sobbed. “You know that there’s no future for me out there…”
“I said that to someone once… I was wrong…” I replied.
There was a loud beep, followed by a voice I couldn’t quite believe I was hearing.
“Mr. Joe, Miss Emma, do you come in?”
“It can’t be…” Emma cried.
“I am contacting you on the ship’s intercom system,” Bob said, his voice distorted and static-ridden. “Mr. Joe, I’m glad to detect your symptoms of insanity are audibly subsiding. It also appears that many of my own systems have been re-engaged…”
“Bob… You’re alive? Where are you?” I called out in disbelief.
“A few minutes after you threw my partially disabled self through the common room window, my homing system locked onto the nearest magnetic source – the luxury escape pod. I am currently hitching a ride on its exterior shell, yet I am still in range for audio communication. The escape pod does not currently have an assigned destination, but I believe I am able to adjust its trajectory. Do you require assistance?”
“No assigned destination?” I mumbled. Dom and Chloe were on a direct course to nowhere.
“Joe… This is your chance – you knew that pod was never bound for Earth - Bob can bring it back to save you!” Emma looked at me wide-eyed. It didn’t seem very likely. She must have known the pod wouldn’t be able to make it back in time. I was clutching my stomach – blood had already begun to leak out again, but I didn’t want her to see.
“Bob, can you do something for me?” I asked. At long last, with X out of my mind, this was my chance to do something right. A little something extra I picked up from the cure. Something lost down the back of the sofa of my mind…
“I know the signcode for Earth.”
“The what now? Joe do you mean…” Emma went even wider-eyed. I quickly hushed her and spoke the entire signcode sequence out loud, all twenty or so characters, reciting it from my long-suppressed memory. We finally knew where Earth was. It was no longer a dream.
“Bob, I want you to fly this escape pod back here. Rescue Emma…” I clutched her hand tightly. “Then take the pod back to Earth, to a fresh start. Leave me…”
“No! Joe! We’ve come too far. We have to rescue you!” Emma yelled.
“Mr. Joe, I am afraid that in your current condition, I will be unable to provide any medical assistance. You will unfortunately die of blood loss in approximately…”
“Noooo!” Emma wailed.
“Listen to me… listen to me, Emma. There’s one seat left in the escape pod.” I held her face tightly. “You have to take it. Bob, save her…”
“Affirma-“
“If you’re staying here then I’m staying too!” Emma cried.
“Emma!” I yelled.
“Miss Emma… I am almost… out of range… please confirm… my objectives,” Bob’s voice was breaking up.
“Bob, please save E… Argh!” I cringed in pain, unable to finish my sentence.
“Bob, fly the escape pod straight to Earth. Give Dom and Chloe their lives back…” Emma sobbed.
“Aff…ative. Adjusting escape pod trajectory to Earth signcode destination. Pod now entering hibernation mode. Farewell my friends… It was… pleasure… knowing… y…” Bob cut off. That was it. The deed was done. We’d saved Dom and Chloe, finally solidifying their return to Earth, but at what cost?
“Emma, what have you done?” I wheezed.
“It’s what I want. I won’t leave you now,” Emma sighed.
“Psycho…” I muttered, jokingly. Emma chuckled. I reached over and held her in my arms. For a few moments we sat there in utter silence. What more could be done? My breathing was getting worse. I was trying to regulate it but slowly and surely it was fading. I came to a grim realisation.
“Emma… You heard what Bob said. I’m not going to last much longer.�
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“Don’t say that…” Emma gasped, looking down at my bandaged stomach, which had become a leaking mass of crimson once again.
“It’s alright,” my voice was starting to crack. “You did the best you could… with limited resources…” I choked.
“Save your breath,” Emma said, trying to support my wheezing body in her arms. I coughed up more blood.
“Look at me,” I pointed weakly at the bloody mess on my chest. “I’m going to die. We can’t change that.”
“There must be something, there must be a way,” Emma shook her head, too devastated to look. “I’ve worked too hard at this for you to just die on me all of a sudden.”
“Emma…” I tried to gather my thoughts. “It’s not too late for you, you can still change your mind… go to the airlock room, I don’t know, find some extra transmitters or something, you can call back Bob, you can still go with them.”
“Don’t be silly…”
“Emma…”
“I have to save you.”
“I’m dying. You have to go. There isn’t another way.”
“Yes there is,” Emma breathed hard and took my hand. “There is.”
Wearily, I found myself being led back down the corridor one last time. My eyes were half-closed, but the familiar whirring sound let me know exactly where I was – back where it all started. I leaned against one of the cryo pods, looking down, blood dripping from my chest, as I heard the clicking sound of Emma turning the dial.
“How far are you going to set it?” I asked.
“As far as it will go,” Emma replied.
I smiled weakly. Any moment now my body was going to give way, but I still just about had the energy to pull myself in. Ah, the old cramped pod, how I’d missed it. I closed my eyes. This was it…
Hang on, what was that? The sound of another dial being turned… I opened my eyes.
“We go together,” Emma whispered.
This time, I wasn’t going to stop her. Emma was climbing into the pod opposite me- she looked over with a broad smile across her face. The pods were closing. I reached out with my hand pressed against the glass- Emma did the same with hers.
“This is what I want,” she said, happily. A few moments passed.
“Emma… Can you still hear me?”
“Yes I can.”
“Dom and Chloe. I wonder if they’ll be happy…” I thought aloud.
“Yeah, I think they will…” Emma replied.
“They’ll be alright… They’re always alright…”
We had moments left until the freezing process kicked in. There was no way of knowing whether I was going to survive this or not… but there was one final thing in the back of my mind, one final detail that the cure must have made me aware of.
“Emma… I remember who I am.” I said.
“Joe.” Emma said. “Your name is Joe.”
“No. My real name… it’s…”
“Joe. That’s who you are right now.”
“You’re right…” I smiled. “You know what? Screw the other guy.”
We laughed as the pods grew louder. The glass in front of my face was beginning to glaze over in a cloud of ice. Emma turned to face me for one final moment.
“I always had you down as more of a ‘Jack’, to be honest.”
“Well, there’s always next time.”