Fallout

by Chris Morphew

  I spun around, looking to the doorway as footsteps came pounding up the corridor towards us.

  Cathryn, I thought bitterly, striding out to meet her. If you’ve –

  But it wasn’t Cathryn.

  It was Bill.

  He reached out to Luke and me with filthy hands, his eyes wide and glistening with tears. Bill’s mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, slowly opening and closing, before the words finally escaped his throat in a wild, breathless whisper. ‘It’s time.’

  Chapter 34

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

  1 DAY

  Bill leapt forward. He latched onto Luke and me, fingers closing around my arm with shocking strength. ‘Quickly! You must come with me. You have a role. You must fulfil your function.’

  ‘What –?’ I jerked back my shoulder. ‘Bill, what do you need us to do?’

  ‘I need you to hurry!’ said Bill, face contorted in a kind of wild, desperate glee. He dragged us into the corridor.

  Ms Hunter’s barely-contained panic was still streaming out from the lab. ‘Okay – it’s – oh. Oh my –’ She swore loudly. ‘Here it comes. Just – just –’

  Mum screamed again, long and gut-wrenching, like she was being torn apart. I started for the lab door, but Bill yanked me roughly away. Finally, the screaming stopped. Mum shuddered for breath, and a tiny, strangled cry rose up in her place. Bill kept hauling us away out of earshot, forcing us down into the bowels of the complex.

  ‘Let me go!’ I said, almost skewering my head on a bit of pipe as I fought to get free of him. ‘I need to make sure my mum’s okay.’

  ‘She’s fine,’ Bill grumbled.

  ‘You don’t know that! Look, please, just give me five minutes to –’

  ‘WE DON’T HAVE FIVE MINUTES!’

  He pressed on, faster now, shoving me in front and dragging Luke along behind him.

  We reached the open area outside Peter’s room, and it wasn’t until Bill crashed into me that I realised I’d stopped walking.

  ‘Oh, crap,’ said Luke behind me, sounding sick.

  The concrete slab we’d used to block the door was now lying in two pieces across the old couch on the other side. Peter’s door was open a crack, the barricades scattered on the floor. I could hear him murmuring inside.

  ‘You,’ I said, stumbling forward as Bill forced us on again. ‘You did this! Bill, stop, we have to close it again. If Peter gets out –’

  ‘Inevitable,’ said Bill. ‘It has already happened.’

  ‘No, it’s not inevitable! Not if you –’

  Bill twisted my arm behind my back, heaving me deeper into the research module. ‘There is no time! No time! The ends are connecting. The timing – this is critical. Critical.’ He kept going, muttering to himself, more agitated with every step.

  I kept struggling, but it was pointless. He was too strong.

  I tensed up as we approached the tunnel Soren had dug into the side of the wall. The place where Luke was supposed to die.

  ‘Go!’ said Bill, pushing me straight past it.

  ‘Can you at least explain what you’re planning here?’ said Luke. ‘I mean, how are we supposed to help you if we don’t even –?’

  ‘Redundant!’ said Bill, stumbling into me as he tripped on something. ‘You will know. When it begins, you will know what is required of you. Now turn on my light.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘You mean this?’ I said, turning on his helmet lamp. It blinked on, blindingly bright against my face.

  ‘Good,’ said Bill, bumping into me again. ‘Good.’

  We reached the room where Bill had first started his excavation. He brought Luke and me through the mess of smashed furniture and computer parts, and shoved us through the gap he’d made in the wall.

  We stumbled into the blocked-up corridor I’d visited when I came to tie him up. The section of the opposite wall he’d been attacking back then was now a second gaping hole, big enough to crawl through. I clambered inside before Bill pushed me again.

  Bill’s helmet flashed around the room as he climbed in after us. Mouldy concrete spilled down two of the walls, but apart from that, it was completely empty. I glanced around, searching for another hole in the wall or whatever that was going to lead us on to the place Bill was so desperate to show us. But apparently this was all there was.

  Bill reached back through the gap in the wall and picked up a faded yellow camping lantern. He switched it on, gave it a whack, and it flickered to life. The battery seemed to be almost dead, but it lit up the room more brightly than his little helmet torch – enough to prove that there really was nothing in here.

  Bill straightened up, rubbing his hands together, staring expectantly at Luke and me. Like either of us had any idea what was going on.

  ‘Well?’ I said.

  Bill kept staring, eyes tearing up again, chest heaving under the filthy hospital gown he’d been wearing since we brought him down here. ‘Here I come. Here I come, Jordan. Get ready.’

  ‘For what? What are you expecting me to…?’

  I swayed sideways, crashing into Luke, head swimming with an all-too-familiar nausea. But worse. Even worse than before. The ground warped under my feet, concrete reverting back to sludge, the whole room running together into a dull grey nothingness.

  ‘No…’ I murmured, eyes rolling back into my head, chest and throat heaving. Not now. Not with Bill right there, threatening to lose it if we didn’t do what he wanted.

  I tried to will myself out of it, to swallow it down and get back to reality, but since when had that ever worked? Luke held me for as long as he could, but I slipped away from him and crumbled to the ground.

  And then Bill began to laugh. Wild, breathless, out-of-his-mind laughter, like he might explode from the excitement of it all.

  ‘YES!’ he cried. ‘Oh – Oh, yes! At last! Here I – here I come! Oh, Jordan – Jordan, I’m –!’

  His voice cut out and the room fell silent. I shuddered on the floor, cradling my head to keep it from smashing against the concrete, until the world finally straightened itself back out and my body settled down again.

  Someone was crying. Sobbing.

  I opened my eyes. Luke and Bill were gone. Cracks had appeared in the walls around me, and there were bits of concrete strewn across the floor, but everything else looked pretty much the same. I got up, spinning around to locate the source of the tears.

  It was me. Some future version of myself, collapsed on the floor, half-hidden in the shadows in the corner. Mouth open. Nose running. Face twisted up in desperate, uncontrolled misery.

  ‘Luke…’ she moaned, sucking in a spluttering breath. ‘Luke…’

  My insides went cold. I felt my hands rise to my face, knowing what this meant.

  It had happened. Not just in a grainy image on some old surveillance tape. It had actually happened. Here, in the real world – or future, or whatever. He was gone.

  I staggered back from the other Jordan, distancing myself, wanting to run screaming from the room.

  The light from Bill’s lamp caught me in the face. It was still there, still glowing. How long did the batteries last in those things? Surely I couldn’t have jumped ahead more than a few hours.

  I gasped as Luke burst into view in front of me, arms already outstretched to bring me back, but we passed straight through each other. He reached for me again, glancing sideways at the hole in the wall. Whatever Bill was doing back there, Luke didn’t like it. I reached out my hands, getting ready to head back.

  Surprisingly quickly, Luke and I made contact again, and I felt myself being drawn back to the present. The gagging started up again and Luke wrapped his arms around me, holding me steady as my body was wracked with shakes.

  Everything spun out of focus for a second, and then the two timeframes collided. I could still see the other Jordan, but I could see Bill again too. He was even more worked up than before. Laughing, bouncing from foot to foot, eyes streaming.

  Why? Did he
even understand what was going on? Had someone told him about my visions?

  It almost seemed like he’d known this was going to happen. But how was that possible? There was no way to predict my visions until they happened.

  The other Jordan sat up. She stared straight at me, like she knew I was there. Which I guess she did, given that she was me only a few hours ago. She wiped her eyes, breathing deeply, like she was trying to get herself together enough to speak.

  But she was already evaporating, growing fainter as I was sucked back into the present. I clamped down on Luke’s arms, swallowing hard, trying to hold on, to calm the shakes, to stay connected to the vision long enough to hear what the other Jordan had to say.

  Luke jolted back from me, staring into my eyes like something horrible was happening. I remembered what he’d said before about me glowing or whatever.

  Fine. Let me glow. Just as long as I got to hear whatever Future Jordan was trying to tell me.

  I looked back. Her face was in her hands again. Come on! I thought. If you’ve got something to say, then – Luke whirled around, letting go of me with one hand. A dark silhouette had appeared through the hole in the wall.

  Peter.

  He skulked through the shadows, and for a moment I couldn’t work out what timeframe he was in. But, no, of course, if Luke could see him, then he must be in the present. He must have –

  Peter leapt through the hole, sights locked on Luke. His hands were flecked with blood.

  Luke panicked, letting go of me completely and drawing the pistol that was still stuffed down the back of his jeans. He thrust the weapon out at Peter.

  I grabbed my stomach with one hand as the nausea soared to new heights. I opened my mouth to yell at Peter, but I couldn’t get the words out. Everything was blurring. But not like before. Not like the room was collapsing. This time, I was collapsing.

  Luke took a shaky step forward, waving the pistol, and Peter backed off, shouting something I couldn’t hear. I glanced back at the other Jordan. She was down on the ground again.

  The room was getting even hazier now, like I was staring at it through a thick fog. A wall of sound rose up against my ears, like rushing wind, blocking out everything else. I squeezed my eyes shut against it all, trying to pull myself together.

  When I opened them again, Bill was striding towards me. He’d stopped laughing, but the crazed, ecstatic look was still etched across his face. He kept coming until we were face to face. Hesitated for a moment, taking a breath.

  And then he dived. Straight into me. Straight through me.

  I whirled around to where he should have landed, but he wasn’t there. He’d just disappeared. I stared down at my chest, as if I was expecting to find him hiding inside me or something. But, no, he was definitely gone. I turned around again. Past Luke, trying to focus on me and fend Peter off at the same time. There had to be something I’d missed. Something –

  And then Bill was back, soaring through the air like there’d been no interruption to his dive. He crashed to the ground next to Future Jordan.

  She looked up. Her expression turned dark. She scrambled to her feet, backing up against the wall. She could see him.

  Bill advanced on her, weeping openly, reaching out to Future Jordan like she was his long-lost child or something. She opened her mouth, but whatever she said to him was drowned out by the roar of noise in my ears.

  The fog around me was so thick that I could barely see anything now. Just glimpses. Jordan slamming a fist into the side of Bill’s face. Bill waving his arms, trying to say something. Jordan lashing out, screaming.

  I blinked hard, swaying on legs that were barely there anymore. The fog swirled around my head. The wind howled. I was falling to pieces.

  Somewhere through it all, I saw Bill looking back at me, a horrified expression on his face. He glanced at the Future Jordan, mouth open, hands clutching his head. Then he ran at me again – whatever was left of me – diving through my body and disappearing again and finally coming out the other side. Luke gasped, reeling back.

  And then all of it collapsed and I blacked out. When I came around, the fog and the noise were gone and I was on the ground, convulsing as if my whole body was trying to turn itself inside out. Everything was shaking. There was a loud cracking sound as chunks of concrete rained down around the room, and then I must have blacked out again because suddenly Luke was kneeling under me, stroking my face, begging me to wake up.

  I opened my eyes. Luke shuddered with relief and bent down to kiss me on the forehead. I took hold of his arm and he helped me sit up.

  ‘Where’s Peter?’ I asked, looking around, still struggling to focus on anything.

  ‘Gone,’ said Luke. ‘He ran when he saw the gun. But, Jordan, what just happened? Bill was right there, and then he was gone, and then –’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘In my vision, I was – it must have been tomorrow. I saw myself. A future version of myself. I think she was trying to tell me something. You started to bring me back to the present, but I held on again. Tried to hold onto both timeframes at once. You know, like I did out in the bush.’

  ‘Yeah, you were – you were doing the glowing thing again. But so much – so much worse this time. When Peter ran, I looked back and – you were getting all, like, sucked up into this mist stuff. Like you were fading out, but also kind of – I don’t know. I don’t even know how to describe it. But it looked like…’ He trailed off, pale and shell-shocked. ‘Well, it looked like…’

  ‘Like the thing you appeared through in the video,’ I finished, feeling suddenly hollow. ‘Right before you got stabbed.’

  That was how it was going to happen.

  That was how Luke and Peter would wind up rocketing back through time.

  It was me.

  ‘I’m so sorry…’ said Bill. ‘I’m so, so sorry…’

  My head snapped up. I’d forgotten he was even here.

  Bill was over in the corner where I’d seen the other Jordan. Slumped on the ground, crying, just like she had been. There was something different about him. Something about the way he moved, the sound of his voice, the way he put the words together. Somehow, he didn’t seem quite so out of his mind anymore.

  Bill’s teeth clenched. He held his head in both hands, fingers clawing into his scalp. ‘I’m so sorry…’

  I stood up, completely thrown by his sudden mood shift. ‘It’s – it’s okay. Just –’

  ‘No it’s not!’ he choked. ‘It’s not. Not after what I did.’ He stared up at the ceiling, mouth open in a silent wail.

  ‘Bill,’ I tried again. ‘Tell me what –’

  ‘I’m not Bill.’

  I shook my head. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘My name’s not Bill,’ he said. ‘It’s Peter.’

  Chapter 35

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12

  1 DAY

  ‘Peter,’ said Luke. ‘You have the same name as –?’

  ‘No,’ said Bill. He got up, wiping his face on the sleeve of his gown. ‘No, mate, I am Peter.’ He leant against the wall with one arm, head down, gathering himself. And again, I noticed the change in him. He was still a total emotional wreck, but he was here in a way he hadn’t been before.

  My brain was about ready to explode. ‘Bill, you’re not – what are you saying?’

  ‘Look,’ he said, ‘Kara and Soren showed you the video, right? They showed you what I did.’

  ‘The surveillance tape?’ said Luke. ‘Peter appearing through that portal thing and killing me?’

  ‘That was me. Twenty years ago. I was…’ Bill reached out for Luke, and he flinched away. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘That doesn’t even make sense!’ I said, struggling to understand, let alone figure out if I believed him. ‘Peter came back. We saw him go back through the portal again, right after he stabbed Luke.’

  Bill shook his head. ‘No. I tried to go back, but I never made it. The whole thing – the portal or whatever you want to call it – co
llapsed around me before I could get through. You must have broken the connection. It exploded – this massive bright light all around me – and I got spat back out again, into the past. And then this whole place started caving in, and –’ He shrugged, pulling an uncannily Peter-like face. ‘I must’ve got knocked out, I guess, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital.’

  I sat down again, the hollow feeling intensifying, as if someone was scooping out my insides like a jack-o’-lantern.

  ‘It was me,’ I said eventually. ‘All of it. If I was the one who sent you back there – if that portal thing we saw in the video was me – that means the explosion was me too. I was the one who destroyed the Vattel Complex.’

  It was insane. Unbelievable. All those people dead…

  ‘Jordan, listen,’ said Bill, ‘you’re not the one who –’

  ‘Wait,’ I said, realising something. ‘That portal – that was one of the “events” Kara was studying. That was why they built the Complex in the first place! To figure out what those things were! If that last one was me… Then all the others were me too, right?’

  I glanced between Luke and Bill, desperate for one of them to contradict me. ‘Right? Something to do with my visions. When I went back to their time, it must have left some kind of a trace or something. Something Kara’s people could measure with all their lab equipment. That’s what they were studying. Me.’

  Luke came over and joined me on the floor. ‘Jordan…even if that’s true – none of this is your fault. This isn’t something you did. It’s something that happened to you.’

  ‘He’s right,’ said Bill. ‘Nothing you could’ve done. This was already set in motion way before you guys got here. This is my fault. No-one else’s.’ He heaved a heavy sigh and went on with his story. ‘When the Vattel Complex collapsed, they flew emergency crews in to rescue the survivors, and I guess they picked me up along with them. No-one knew who I was, though. I mean, I hadn’t even been born yet. They questioned me in the hospital, but what could I tell them? Besides, you know what I was like. What your Peter is like now. They couldn’t have got a straight answer out of me even if they tried.’