Timecaster: Supersymmetry

by Konrath, J. A.

  The bag!

  I stared at it, blinking to increase magnification, and immediately spotted three syringes.

  Then the squid’s throat closed tight around me, squeezing the air from my lungs.

  I panicked, revving the saw, cutting a wide circle around me. Warm blood flooded in from all sides, getting in my eyes, making it impossible to see. I felt around for the bag, but it was gone.

  Wit

  h only a few seconds left before I passed out, I locked the chainsaw to ON, and pushed it as hard as I could, forcing it into the side of the esophagus, sawing back and forth and pulling myself through the bleeding, sticky, newly-formed hole.

  Then my blade broke through its outer skin, and I popped one arm and my head through the opening.

  I took a massive, life-giving gasp, like I was a newborn baby.

  The squid lurched, crawling away from the cabin, taking me with it into the woods. I tried to get my shoulders through the hole I’d made, but its skin was too tight, too thick.

  I was stuck. Boise, IdahoE anythinget

  I swung the chainsaw, but I had no leverage. I couldn’t even turn it around to connect with the squid’s body. Then the monster crawled through the trees and scraped against a branch, knocking the saw from my hand.

  I still fought, still struggled, refusing to give up. Pulled and kicked and strained, swearing this squid wouldn’t beat me, I wouldn’t ever let it beat me, fighting right up until the point where I realized it beat me and I gave up.

  What did it matter anyway? Vicki was dead. I didn’t get the serum. And even if I had gotten it, we wouldn’t be able to return to Sata’s in time.

  I was too late. I’d failed.

  Which was when when something grabbed my hand.

  I flinched, trying to pull away, and then peered through the darkness and saw I was being attacked by a skeleton.

  No, wait. That was the X-ray vision. I switched focus to the other eye and saw—

  —Talon 2.

  He was hanging on my arm, both feet planted on the side of the retreating squid, grunting hard.

  “Little help here.”

  I wasn’t sure why I still had the will to live, but I began to fight again, strain again, and then my shoulder popped through and I was falling out of the squid, landing on top of Talon 2.

  “Thought I lost you there, buddy,” he said, embracing me.

  “I… shit… I didn’t get it,” I said, heavy with defeat.

  “I know. The bag dropped out of its beak once it began to retreat.”

  “You mean—?”

  “There are two syringes left,” Talon 2 said triumphantly. “What’s the time?”

  I wiped slime off my DT.

  2:45

  2:44

  “

  We can’t make it. It’s too late.”

  “Someone important once told me it’s better to die trying than to live with regret.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Our wife. Now let’s stop talking and try to save her.”

  Chapter 3

  T-minus 3 minutes

  Talon 2

  I pet the bunny, got back to the previous earth, and we ran like crazy back to Phin’s cabin. over, unconscious.

  sCan you green“Yes.”

  We got to the heliplane with two minutes and fifteen seconds left. But Yummi wasn’t in the cockpit. She was standing next to her craft, looking forlorn.

  “Boys, I’m so, so, so sorry. I was meaning to get biofuel tomorrow. I didn’t plan to do all this flying today.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

  “You’re out of fuel?” Talon asked.

  She nodded.

  My heart sank. I could only imagine what Talon was feeling.

  “Is there any in the cabin?” Talon asked. “Phin has a motorcycle.”

  “Regular biofuel doesn’t work in heliplanes. They use jet biofuel.”

  “Can’t we at least try?” Talon said.

  “Sure,” she said. “We can try.”

  Talon and I ran around the cabin, looking for a fuel tank. After a minute of searching, we found a pump hidden among the hemp bushes. I checked the gauge.

  “Empty,” I said.

  Talon tried the handle anyway, but only a few drops came out.

  0:22

  0:21

  We’d come so far, just to fail.

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “I know you don’t want to hear this, especially right now, but there are other Vickis in the multiverse. Vickis who need saving. I found one. I’ll help you find one as well.”

  He looked up at me, tears streaming down his scabby cheeks.

  “You know what kills me? I lost hope so many times in the past few days. Each time I thought it was over. I was dead. Or she was dead. Or we both were dead.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  “Then you know that every time, every single fucking time, we got through it. Like we were the heroes in some silly science fiction novel. No matter how bad it got, we always made it. Always prevailed. It was never truly over.”

  We watched his DT tick down.

  0:03

  0:02

  0:01

  “Well, now it’s over,” Talon said.

  I sat down next to him, not knowing what to say.

  “Hey, boys!” Yummi called. “Someone’s here!”

  Talon and I looked up, saw a headlight cut across the yard. on an alternate earthat Boise, Idaho, which p

  Grandpa. On his Harley.

  And on his shoulder, wrapped in a blanket, a woman with long, red hair.

  “We took a chance,” he said, climbing off. He lowered Vicki to the ground, and I saw my wife had been riding behind him.

  “I gave her my blood,” Vicki said. “Did you get the serum?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But we’re too late.”

  “How late?” Grandpa asked.

  “A few seconds.”

  “Well, hell, give it a shot.”

  Talon and I exchanged glances. We didn’t need to be told twice. He unwrapped the blanket, then ripped open her shirt.

  “In the heart,” Grandpa said. “Like Pulp Fiction.”

  “Like what?” Talon and I both asked at the same time.

  “A movie. Before your time. Gimme the goddamn needle.”

  Grandpa raised it like a dagger, then drove it into Vicki’s chest, pressing the plunger with his thumb. Then he pulled out the syringe and began to do chest compressions.

  After fifteen seconds he stopped.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “Now we wait.”

  Vicki, my Vicki, knelt next to me and held my hand.

  Grandpa walked off.

  When he returned a few minutes later, he had a revolver in his hand. He held it at his side, looking grim.

  “How long does it take until we know?” Talon asked.

  “We’ll know when we know,” Grandpa said. “We’ll know when we know.”

  Chapter 4

  Alter-Talon was lying on his back. He couldn’t see anything. His eyes were too swollen to open.

  He had no idea where he was. But it was hot. And he was in pain. He was in pain all over. Familiar pain, in his extremities. And new pain, in his mouth, his nose, his face and head.

  He felt the ground beneath him.

  Sand. Hot sand.

  A desert?

  “Is anyone here?” he croaked, his throat dry.

  “I am.”

  Alter-Talon recognized the voice as his own. It was his dark counterpart. the antidote for the nanopoisonndthere wass

  quTel

  “Can you see?” he asked.

  “No. You?”

  Alter-Talon risked a touch. “Someone shot us in the face with a Glock. I feel the needles.”

  “My TEV is gone.”

  “Mine too.”

  This was terrible. A disaster of major proportion. It was so awful, it was almost comedic. Left to die, beaten and blind, in a desert. How c
ould it possibly get any worse?

  Then he felt it. Something long and thin, probing his neck.

  Alter-Talon slapped it away. He instantly knew what it was. He’d seen it feed often enough.

  A stylet fascicle.

  “There’s a byter,” he whispered, too frightened to speak. “It’s here with us.”

  “Oh, no. Oh no no no…”

  Dark Alter-Talon began to wail.

  Alter-Talon joined in the wailing.

  They tried to crawl away, making confused circles in the sand, not going anywhere because there wasn’t anywhere to go.

  The byter watched them, waiting for one to fall asleep.

  Chapter 5

  The pain was almost unbearable.

  Alter-Sata closed his swollen eyes, trying to think about something else. But when most of your body is covered with second degree burns, it was tough to focus on other topics.

  He had no idea where he and Dark Alter-Sata were, but the buildings around them were reduced to rubble, and there were thick, gray clouds in the sky. If he had to hazard a guess, he’d say it was a nuclear winter. This earth had suffered a devastating war.

  Hopefully it was still riddled with radiation, and hopefully it would kill them soon. He was growing tired of the agony, and of listening to Dark Alter-Sata weep.

  “I had such high hopes for you,” a familiar voice said.

  Mu.

  Alter-Sata searched for his god, his savior, and saw him hovering above them.

  “You were doing so well,” Mu said. “Countless destruction on countless earths. Your accomplishments were beyond my wildest predictions.”

  “We are but your humble servants, mighty Mu. We have followed your every wish and command. Have pity on us.”

  The banana laughed. “Like you had pity on the billions you killed?”

  Alter-Sata coughed. “That was your too much woman for that.”

  “t Judge CrouchflaTel will, my lord.”

  “No it wasn’t. I knew it would happen, because I know human nature. But for every evil Sata who killed billions, there was a good Sata who chose to stand up to you. With the TEV, I gave you the means to change worlds. But the choice was always yours.”

  “Please, my lord. Do not leave us alone to die on this desolate planet.”

  “You are not alone, Sata.”

  “We’re not?”

  “No. This earth is teaming with radioactive sandworms. They’ll lay their eggs in your burned skin. After all the death you’ve caused, isn’t it ironic that you’ll soon be the host for thousands of new lives?”

  “Please, Mu. I beg you.”

  “Haven’t you heard? I don’t respond to prayers.”

  “No…”

  “I’ll come back in a few days, to see how you both are doing, and meet your new families.”

  Mu disappeared.

  Dark Alter-Sata began to weep louder.

  Alter-Sata joined him.

  Chapter 6

  Talon 2

  Vicki’s bloodshot eyes popped open. She jack-knifed into a sitting position and latched her teeth onto Phin’s throat, tearing it out. Then she attacked us before we had a chance to defend ourselves, and the zombie virus spread throughout the globe and eventually wiped out all human life.

  At least, that’s what it probably did on an infinite number of alternate earths.

  On this earth, Vicki opened her eyes gently, then smiled at us.

  “I knew you’d save me,” she said to Talon.

  He took her in his arms.

  I knew a thing or two about love. I loved my wife as much one person could love another. But when Talon and Vicki kissed, it had to have been one of the most passionate, most intense, most loving kisses in the history of humankind. And it made sense that it was. They’d conquered time and conquered death and traversed the multiverse for that kiss.

  How many marriages could boast that?

  Well, I guess mine could.

  I turned to my wife, and planted a pretty good one on her as well.

  Then the others showed up. Harry. Grandma. Sata. The doctor. We did a big round of introductions, followed by some hugs.

  “That Mustang kicks ass,” McGlade said. Apparently he’d been the one to drivet was to press the release button on the weaponow watch of theTel. “I think I’m going to get me one.”

  Jack shook her head. “This guy.” She pointed her thumb at Harry. “And I thought his grandfather was obnoxious.”

  “Did you guys find me any singing vegetation?” Harry asked.

  “Just a giant, man-eating squid.”

  “Did it sing?”

  “No.”

  “Shit. Some help you were.”

  “So this isn’t our earth?” Talon’s wife asked.

  “No,” Talon answered.

  “When will we go back?”

  He cleared his throat. “I’m still wanted there. If they catch me, they’ll execute me. Because of… uh… Boise.”

  Talon’s wife narrowed her eyes. I knew where this was going, because I’d lived through the same thing he had. Both he and I had promised our wives that if given the choice we’d try to rescue the city of Boise before we rescued them. Boise, which our evil doppelgängers had sent to an earth ruled by hyper-intelligent dinosaurs.

  “You promised me,” she said.

  “I know. Look, I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “There are half a million people in Boise, Talon. And they’re fighting for their lives against a planet filled with talking dinosaurs. How could you choose me over the lives of that many?”

  “I love you Vicki, and I…”

  I remembered the TEV I’d ditched at the Milwaukee Brewing Company—the one that was already programmed to open a wormhole to Boise. Then I said, “We’ll do it.”

  Everyone looked at me.

  “Talon and I. We made that promise, and we’ll keep it. We’ll bring Boise back.”

  “Yeah,” Talon said, nodding. “After what we just went through, how hard can it be?”

  Grandma frowned. “You mean to tell me, after you two morons almost got killed a dozen times each in the past few days, you’re going to go rushing straight into danger again?”

  “Yes, Grandma,” Talon and I both said.

  Grandma smiled, then put her arm around Grandpa. “We’re in.”

  Grandpa smiled too. “Last few decades have been pretty boring. Wouldn’t hurt to have a little excitement again. But first I need to get my long lost wife home for a night.”

  They kissed and did that grinding thing again. Talon and I both looked away.# md Ralph.

  left

  “These dinosaurs can talk?” Harry said.

  “Yeah,” Talon answered.

  “If I brought one back, it would be worth a fortune. I’m in.”

  Yummi pouted. “I thought we were getting married, Harry-Berry.”

  “We will when I get back, sugar lumps.”

  Then there was a flash of light, and Mu appeared, floating before us.

  “I gotta tell you,” the banana said, “I’ve seen some shit in my life, but that whole scene with the giant squid. Now that was something else. Bravo.”

  “Why is there a flying, talking banana?” Talon’s wife asked.

  “CB!” Harry beamed. “I knew you’d come crawling back to me. The new terms are 90/10, plus I get all the merchandising rights.”

  “You’ve all agreed to save Boise,” Mu said, ignoring Harry, “and I’m very interested in seeing what happens. But let’s make it a bit harder this time.”

  There was a flash of light, and suddenly we weren’t at Grandpa’s cabin anymore. We were in a forest, the trees bigger than any I’d ever seen.

  “Did that little banana bastard just send us where I think he sent us?” my wife asked.

  “My TEV,” Sata said. “It’s gone.”

  I looked and so was mine.

  “My gun is missing,” Grandpa said.

  Then we heard it. A roar that was so horrif
ying, so terrible, and so close by, that it easily qualified as the scariest thing I’d ever experienced.

  Harry McGlade made a long face and verbalized what each of us was thinking.

  “Uh-oh.”

  The Timecaster trilogy will conclude with Timecaster Steampunk,

  coming whenever the author writes the damn thing

  About J.A. Konrath

  J.A. Konrath is the author of seven novels in the Jack Daniels series, along with dozens of short stories. The eighth Jack Daniels novel, STIRRED (with Blake Crouch), was published in 2011.

  Under the name Jack Kilborn, he wrote the horror novels AFRAID, ENDURANCE, TRAPPED, SERIAL UNCUT (with Blake Crouch) and DRACULAS (with Blake Crouch, Jeff beach, and F. Paul Wilson.)

  He writes the TIMECASTER sci-fi series under the name of Joe Kimball.

  Ebooks by J.A. Konrath

  t was to press the release button on the weapons the dissy">Jack Daniels thrillers

  Whiskey Sour

  Bloody Mary

  Rusty Nail

  Dirty Martini

  Fuzzy Navel

  Cherry Bomb

  Shaken

  Shot of Tequila

  Banana Hammock

  Jack Daniels Stories (collected stories)

  Serial Uncut with Blake Crouch

  Killers with Blake Crouch

  Suckers with Jeff Strand

  Planter’s Punch with Tom Schreck

  Floaters with Henry Perez

  Truck Stop

  Symbios (writing as Joe Kimball)

  Jailbait (with Ann Voss Peterson)

  Wild Night is Calling (with Ann Voss Peterson)

  Shapeshifters Anonymous

  The Screaming

  Other works

  Afraid

  Endurance

  Trapped

  Origin Man vs. Bytert pretty

  The List

  Disturb

  65 Proof (short story omnibus)

  Crime Stories (collected stories)

  Horror Stories (collected stories)