Into Thin Air: Omnibus Edition Parts 1 - 3

by Mark R Silgram

  “To get us all in one place,” David said walking into the room with his hands in the air with a guard prodding him in the back with an assault rifle. “She wants our powers!”

  “So you’re not just a pretty face and a great fuck.” Older Charlotte said before barking at a guard. “Take them away and prepare them for extraction.”

  “Where’s Ellie?”

  “Don’t worry she’s safe and when this is over you’ll have a normal daughter again. I’m doing you a favour!”

  “But I thought you wanted to reverse our mistake?” Charlotte croaked trying desperately to open a tear. “What about all those billions of people we wiped out?”

  “Who fucking cares in a few hours time I’ll be more powerful then god!”

  Six months later…

  Charlotte couldn’t remember which day it was and she had stopped counting how many days she’d spent chained up. Her older self or rather The Man had failed to gain their powers because she needed Richard for some reason they were all linked. Frustrated she had them all locked up in one of Rainbow’s military bases somewhere in Nevada. She hadn’t showered in months and her face and hair was caked in grime. She’d lost so much weight she looked like a skeleton and her wrists hurt due to the chains biting into her skin drawing blood. She wondered how she became so evil but then again being responsible for the near extinction of the entire human race would send anyone insane.

  “Tell me where he is and this will all be over,” The Man said slapping Charlotte in the face as she stood over her. Her older self sounded bored and pissed off having to ask the same question over and over again.

  “I’ve already told you I don’t know,” Charlotte rasped. “You were once me so must know that already?”

  “I’m extracting Ellie’s powers tonight,” The Man said ignoring her. “And if she turns into a vegetable then you’ve only got yourself to blame.”

  “Obviously” Charlotte said with a laugh rolling her eyes.

  “Do you think this is funny do you?” The Man said slapping so hard in the face she broke her nose.

  “Don’t you remember that time we saw Richard at the doctors surgery?” Just for a brief moment that only lasted a second or two Charlotte could see a spark of warmth in The Man’s eyes but just as quick it was gone replaced by the same cold menace.

  “For that memory I’ll give you until dawn tomorrow and then my surgeons will be preforming the procedure with or without your help.” And then she was gone slamming her cell door.

  Charlotte must’ve nodded off for she awoke by the smell of chips! She thought she was still dreaming when a plate of chips was shoved in her face.

  “Don’t make a sound man,” Milton whispered putting a finger to his lips. “It’s taken me six months to hack that damn dampening field and disable it and it will be back up in a few minutes. Me and Taylor know where they’re keeping Ellie and David’s found his time ship.”

  “So lets go and get her now,” Charlotte whispered.

  “No David reckons we need to wait until their about to perform the procedure.” Milton said feeding her chips.

  “Why?” Charlotte said through gritted teeth getting frustrated.

  “Because they’ll be caught with their pants down.”

  “Shit you shouldn’t of told me!”

  “Why?”

  “The Man is my future self remember what if she remembers this conservation?”

  “We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. I better get back to my cell before the guards notice I’m missing”

  All through the night Charlotte kept waking up wondering if her older self already knew what they were planning to do and when morning came she was so anxious she could probably chew through her chains. A guard came into her cell to feed her some slop otherwise known as breakfast and she was relived when he freed her from her chains. Winking at her she knew instantly what was going on; Milton was using his mind control. She was escorted through the facility right up to the operating theatre where Ellie was. An alarm sounded as she saw surgeons flung about the room like rag dolls. Blood was splattered everywhere as she saw Ellie standing over one of them her eyes ablaze with fire and fury.

  “Oh god please help me” the last remaining surgeon whimpered kneeling on the floor praying. Shooting out a hand she grabbed his wind pipe and proceeded to squeeze it. Smoke started billowing out of his eye sockets as he started melting. Within a few moments he was nothing but a puddle of melting flesh.

  “That’s enough Ellie” Charlotte shouted running into the room “it’s time to go home now.”

  When David activated the teleport to get Taylor and Ellie to safety Charlotte felt the relief wash over her but that soon turned into absolute horror when she saw Taylor biting Ellie’s neck. Blood sprayed everywhere as he proper went for it draining all the blood from her until her skin looked as grey as a dead fish. He then dropped her floppy body to the floor like he was throwing away an empty can of coke. She saw red and started raining down blows kicking and punching him until he lay on the floor in a blooded mess. She only stopped when David dragged her off him kicking and screaming. The teleporter room looked like something from a horror film as it was awash with blood. Sinking to her knees she cradled Ellie in her arms and screamed.

  “Use the time ship and go back in time and change it.” Charlotte demanded as she beat David’s chest as he tried to comfort her.

  “We can’t it will create a paradox. We’ll be stuck in a loop of infinite.”

  “I don’t care! There must be something we can do.” Charlotte said sobbing.

  “There might be a way, hang-on.” David said running out of the teleport room. A few minutes later he came back with a model of a Spanish gallon “Milton get in here I’ll need your help,” He then turned to Charlotte who was still in pieces. “I’m sorry to do this but we need him.” He then activated the teleport and Troy suddenly appeared looking like is was in the middle of having a piss or something equally private.

  “What the fuck happened here?” Troy said with a smirk as he did up his flies.

  “You fucking knew didn’t you.” Charlotte snarled punching in the face sending him flying to the floor.

  “Yeah,” Troy said wiping blood from his busted nose. “And it was worth it!”

  “You can batter each other to death later,” David said coming in between them “Right now we’ve got work to do. We’ve got a very small window to save our daughter.”

  “What you’ve got in mind man?” Milton said equally distraught. Ellie was like a niece to him.

  “We can use the same technology that I used to shrink the time ship to shrink us and that Spanish gallon. Milton will then inject Ellie with us on board the gallon into Ellie’s body. There’s a slight chance we can repair her body from the inside and revive her.”

  “I’m coming with you!” Troy said much to everyone’s shock.

  “Good that’s why you’re here.” David said slapping him on the back. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

  “What about him?” Milton nodded to Taylor’s lifeless blooded body.

  “We’ve got no other choice but to burn his body and inject it into space,” David said grimly. “Let’s get to work.”

  After they had fired Taylor’s ashes into space David shrank the three of them and the ship. Climbing aboard the gallon Charlotte saw Milton looming over them using a a microscope.

  “Alice cloak the gallon in a force field.” David said to the ship’s A.I

  “Yes boss!” Alice said sounding sexier then usual.

  “Has she still got that crush on you?” Charlotte asked bemused. For the first few months they were dating Alice and Charlotte didn’t get on and sometimes the A.I would trap her in the ships lift.

  “She said she liked my aftershave the other day.” David said embarrassed before they felt the Spanish gallon shake as the Petri dish they were in became flooded with fluid. Milton then sucked up the liquid into a syringe and injected the
m into Elle’s arm.

  To be continued in Part 4: The Shrank Patrol.

  Book Interview (warning this interview contains spoilers don’t read this until you’ve read all three parts)

  Q: Did you know right from the start that Charles Taylor was going to turn into a bad guy?

  A: No it happened organically but once I decided that his “powers” were that of a vampire he was on a slippery slope from there. Having to lie to Charlotte put a barrier between them and the fact that he couldn’t control the nature of the monster he’d been become only led to his fall from grace.

  Q: Do you feel sad he’s now dead and is he really gone for good?

  A: Yes it came as a complete shock and yes sadly he’s now gone for good.

  Q: Richard only had a brief cameo in part 3. Will we see him again or is his story finished?

  A: I planned a lot more to Richard’s back story then what eventually ended up in the books involving him conning rich women into believing he was an MI5 agent so he could steal their money but I never got round to it. It is possible he’ll come back at some point as we don’t actually see him die.

  Q: It now looks like Troy could be filling Taylor’s shoes as the “good” guy will he stay that way?

  A: Troy only looks out for himself and he can swing either way so we’ll see.

  B: Was there any parts of the series that you felt difficult to write?

  A: Chapter 2 was a bit of a pain to write having to fit all the pieces together from part 1 and it put me off writing part 3 for a long time that’s why there’s a years gap between parts 2 and 3.

  Q: How did you come up with the concept of Into Thin Air and how many parts will there finally be.

  A: I’ve had bits of science fiction stories floating around my head for years but rather then turn them into full length books or short stories I thought it might be a good idea to lump them all together and see what happens. I’ve roughly planned out six parts and there maybe a second series but we’ll see.

  Q: Part 3 seems to be a lot darker then the previous two but with more humour. How did that happen?

  A: It’s because the story is darker that I included more humour and also I’ve gotten more comfortable with the characters.

  Q: Is there any Easter eggs we should be looking out for when reading your books?

  A: I never plan on putting Easter eggs in on purpose but I do have a habit of reusing “sets” so to speak. The time machine in part 2 for example also appears in one of my children’s books but it doesn’t mean its based in the same universe. Although it might be.

  Q: What else can we expect from your work in the future?

  A: I’ve literally got a stack of ideas that I’m slowly working my through after just getting the hang of the concept of working on one project at a time and finishing it. There’s also a children’s time travel trilogy that I dip in and out of and want to get finished.

  Q: What advice do you have for any budding authors?

  A: Write everyday and don’t wait for inspiration to hit you. I learnt that lesson the hard way for every time I take a break from writing it’s always hard to get back into it again not that I don’t enjoy it or it’s not my main passion in life but it’s still hard work and sometimes I just want to chill out and watch a film instead. Also never give up!

  Q: To end this interview is there anything you’d like to say to your readers?

  A: As usual thanks for reading my books and giving me support!

  Into Thin Air Part 4: The Shrank Patrol

  Chapter 1 - Flying Cows

  They met in a field in the dead of night with only cows and sheep as witnesses. In fact they couldn’t have picked a more perfect night with not a single cloud in the sky. She could see the stairs twinkling down at them with only the odd gust of wind now and then blowing her dress up. She should of worn boots instead of high heals as It was muddy as fuck and her mum was going to kill her when she got home.

  “It won’t hurt will it?” She said to Troy who was equally muddy. “I’ve never done it before.”

  “I’ve only done it twice,” Troy blushed. “You wasn’t followed was you only your parents hate my guts!”

  “Nah I managed to slip out unnoticed.”

  “Great then let’s get started.” Troy said pulling out an inflatable sheep.

  “Wait what about protection?”

  “I’ve got this,” Troy said pulling out a gun and cocking it.

  “Can’t I practice on real sheep?” Ellie said trying to blow up the inflatable sheep and failing.

  “I wouldn’t advice it but its your choice”

  “That’s why your here in the first place just in case anything goes wrong. I don’t know how powerful my powers are.” Ellie said closing her eyes to concentrate. In her mind she could see the sheep. Putting out her hand she imagined lifting the animal up into the air.

  “Er Ellie?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Maybe you should keep your eyes open when you do this,” Troy said looking annoyed as he hovered over the muddy field.

  “Oh shit sorry,” Ellie said flinging him to the other side of the field by accident.

  “Where’s my fucking gun?” Troy said in a huff when he joined her again.

  “Fuck that look I’m doing it!” Ellie said excited with a gleam in her eyes as a whole field of cows and sheep hovered in the air.

  Six months later….

  The Spanish gallon fought for space with red blood cells as big as cars as they shot through Ellie’s veins. Troy wasn’t sure he made the right choice when he offered to join them after all he wasn’t exactly their best mate. Maybe he he should of offered to pilot the ship with Milton instead.

  “Thanks for offering to help,” Charlotte said placing a hand on his shoulder echoing his thoughts. “I know we’ve had our differences in the past but we really need your help”

  “It’s pretty mad isn’t it” Troy said as they stood on the ships deck whizzing alongside the veins walls. “First dinosaurs and now this!”

  “Yeah it’s-” But Charlotte didn’t have time to finished the sentence for David had grabbed hold of Troy’s neck and lifted him into the air and pressed a gun to his head. “David stop it!” She screamed.

  “He’s only here because I want to keep an eye on the little prick,” David said cocking the gun. “Now I’m going to ask this question once and once only. What are you really here for?”

  “Ellie’s pregnant” Troy croaked fighting back the tears as David squeezed his windpipe. “She told me she was pregnant with my baby!”

  Chapter 3 - Me, Myself and I

  Charlotte poured the coffee as she sat opposite her older self back at their apartment wondering how she had lost so much wait while David couldn’t help but stare at her breasts. Kicking David discreetly in the leg but really wanting to boot in the balls she asked her older self “You said you was going to explain about our powers about how we’ve got them and how we can control them”

  “First I owe you a confession” David said to Charlotte rubbing his leg.

  “Go on” younger Charlotte said wanting to smoke. She hadn’t craved a cigarette in years not since she climbed into Milton’s taxi on the day of her wedding all those years ago but she could sense I similar betrayal. Despite the wackiness of their lives the one thing that she felt that she could rely on was the solid bond between the pair of them and she hoped he wasn’t about to shatter it now.

  “It’s my fault really” Older Charlotte said taking out a packet of fags and tossing one to her younger self “Or really it’s our fault.” she lit the fag and blew smoke “It’s actually why we all ended up in that parallel world. Not long from now Charlotte you’ll struggle to contain your powers and it will create black-hole that will suck the this Earth inside it killing 7 billion people instantly. You and Ellie survive for she’ll create a powerful shield around you but the entire Earth will be engulfed in flames. A few hundred people who will be in the radius of Ellie’s sheild also
survive; their the descendants of the crew of the time ship. Don’t you see? We created a paradox for that’s why David and his crew were plucking people out of time to repopulate the planet.”

  “Woah back up your losing me” Charlotte said forgetting to flick her cigarette so she was just left with a stick of ash

  “To undo this mess I opened a tear to David’s time ship” Older Charlotte said barrelling ahead “But I arrived in the days before he knew me”

  “You actually appeared while me and Laura were having sex but go on” David interrupted as Charlotte didn’t know if she felt more sick of the thought of catching David and Laura banging or that she was responsible for the near extinction of the human race.

  “To reverse everything we needed your DNA”

  “How come you didn’t just take it from my future self” Charlotte said confused lighting another cigarette.

  “The DNA had to be from before you encountered the tears”

  “Ah” Charlotte said pretending she understood.

  “So we attempted another time jump but Laura became jealous of you and sabotaged the time ship and we ended up that in log cabin eventually meeting you and Taylor” David said continuing the story “I thought I had finally got through to Laura and she helped me build a crude time machine so we could attempt another jump but it turned out she was plotting behind my back”

  “And now you’re up to speed” Older Charlotte said.

  “Not quite” Charlotte said remembering how the other Taylor from the parallel world tried to kill them and take the time machine for himself. “What about the other Charles Taylor?”