by Karl Morgan
Three demons fought with Faith. She parried their blows but found she was moving backward to stay at a safe distance. After a few more minutes of fighting, Bill and Faith bumped into each other’s backs. They moved around and around to keep the enemy back. For some reason, the demons had moved away from the fight to allow the enforcers to carry the brunt of the battle. “This isn’t good Bill. We need to leave now!”
“Maybe you’re right,” he replied, but before they could act, the ground underneath them gave way and they disappeared through a hidden door, which closed instantly, leaving only the bloody grass and grisly remains as testament to the battle.
The enforcers and demons began to cheer. One of the demons moved to the center of the group. “Our emperor honors the sacrifice of your comrades. Your army performed magnificently today and you will all be rewarded.” More cheers erupted. “Now my brothers and I will make our report to the emperor and you may bury your dead and heal your wounded.” The demon turned and found Dom Emmanuel standing right in front of him. He was frowning and wearing long white robes and carrying a long staff. “How did you get out of the cell, old man?”
“Where is Bill Watson?” Dom shouted.
“He is gone forever along with one of your bitch daughters. Without their help, your time is at an end. Now it is the emperor’s time to rule!”
Dom wagged a finger in the demon’s face and said, “Now that’s where you are mistaken.” He slammed the end of the staff into the ground and a wave moved from it through the army. As it touched them, their bodies dissolved until there was nothing but the cold night air. “This isn’t good. I need to talk to the other Dom and Lou.” He disappeared.
Mary woke up trembling in the middle of the night, but did not know why. She tried to remember her dream. Bill had been telling her something important and he just disappeared midsentence. She wondered what it could have meant. She climbed slowly out of the small bed so as not to disturb Cassie and left to go to the bathroom. She opened the restroom door and stepped in. Another woman was sitting fully clothed on the toilet. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll come back.”
“Don’t go. Mary, I need to talk to you,” she said. “It’s me, Faith.”
“But you don’t look anything like her.”
“I know. Some people here know what I look like, so I changed my appearance so we could discuss Bill.”
“Faith, what’s wrong?”
She wrinkled her nose and said, “That’s a good question. Bill seems to have disappeared from the universe along with the angel Faith from this realm.”
“I just had a dream like that! He was talking to me and just disappeared in the middle of a sentence. He’s probably back in our universe, don’t you think?”
“If he was there, we’d know. He and the other Faith are just gone.”
“What do we do now?”
“I suppose that’s up to you.”
“Me?”
“Mary, we don’t know if we’ll ever find where they went or if they’re even alive. If you want to go back home, I’ll take you right now.”
“But what do we do about the enforcers trying to destroy our universe?”
“That doesn’t have to be your problem. Unfathomably evil things are happening in this reality. Those same forces may or may not win in our own universe. Let’s be realistic. I know you and Bill came here to stop the evil, but a big part of Bill’s reason was to save his wife and daughter. Now he’s gone. He can’t help you and you can’t help him. Maybe it’s better if we try to save our universe and forget about this one.”
Mary slid down the wall and sat on the floor, holding her head in her hands. After a moment, she looked up and asked, “Maybe I can find Bill, or at least maybe I can rescue his family? Isn’t it worth the risk?”
“As I said before, that’s up to you, but remember that even though you and Bill have incredible abilities, he is now gone, nowhere to be found. The same thing could easily happen to you.”
Mary sighed deeply and wiped her eyes. “I always believed that I was orphaned at a young age. I grew up thinking I was all alone. But now I’m part of this amazing family. Bill is my brother. His family is my family. Our mother sacrificed everything for us. The least I can do is to try to find him and stop this craziness.”
“I’m sorry, but of course you couldn’t know,” Faith said. She reached out and touched Mary’s shoulder. “Your mother is alive! Bill and I rescued her and she is now home with my family.”
Mary smiled and tears rolled down her cheeks. “I know. I guess Bill and I really do have a strong connection. When he found her, I could feel it in my heart.” She stood up and pulled Faith to her feet and hugged her tightly. “Don’t you see? This changes everything! Now if I save my brother, my whole family can be together again.”
“So, you’ll stay?”
Mary grinned and said, “You’d have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming.” Faith kissed her cheeks and faded away. Mary relieved herself, washed her hands and left the restroom and found Princess Maggie standing outside the door. Mary curtsied and bowed her head. “Majesty, this is a surprise. Did I wake you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, silly girl. My chambers are nowhere near the slave quarters.” She took Mary’s arm and pulled her along. “Come with me.”
Bill Watson opened his eyes. He was lying in a bed looking up at a filthy ceiling. The memory of the battle with the enforcers seared into his mind and he jumped to his feet and looked around wildly. He appeared to be in a tiny tenement apartment. To his left was a doorway into a meager bathroom with a tiny sink, a shower stall with a ragged curtain and a grungy toilet. In front of him was a small table with two worn chairs in front of a small window covered with grime, almost completely obscuring the view on the other side of the glass. Just past that was a small counter with a single sink, a coffee maker, a hot plate and a small cupboard above. Under the counter were a narrow cabinet and a small refrigerator. A door with several locks and a clothes rack with a few tattered garments hanging were on his right. “Faith!” he shouted. “Faith, where are you?” Someone pounded on the wall behind the bed and he could hear faint cursing in the next room. Bill rushed over to the door and fumbled with the locks, finally pulling open the door. He started to rush out when a large man in a military uniform stepped in the way and shoved him back into the room and down to the floor. The soldier, who looked a lot like Bill, and two others came into the room and closed the door. The other soldiers had their weapons drawn. “What’s going on here? Who are you? Where am I?”
“You just don’t get it, do you, Mr. Watson?” the lead soldier said.
“What don’t I get, soldier?”
“Frankly, that answer is above my pay grade, Mr. Watson,” the man replied. He reached down and grabbed Bill and hoisted him over his head. The other soldiers holstered their weapons and moved over to the window. That was when Bill saw it. A right angle of light was aligned almost perfectly with the window sill. The two soldiers grabbed the corner and pulled open the door. The lead soldier took Bill over to the opening and tossed him through.
After a brief fall, Bill landed on a down comforter on a soft mattress. He rolled off the bed and scurried into a corner of the new room to guard his back and stood cautiously. It was a very large master bedroom that appeared to be in a mansion. Beautiful oil paintings hung on the walls and a fire burned in a fireplace that was large enough to stand in. The door opened and Bill was shocked to see Audrey, his wife, walk in. She was wearing a beautiful negligée that was very sheer and held a martini glass in her hand. “Honey?” he gasped.
The surprised look on her face changed quickly to an odd grin and she replied, “Hold that thought.” She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door open.
Yet another Bill Watson strode into the room. He was wearing pajamas and a monogrammed robe. His face was red and he looked very angry. “When are you bastards ever going to learn? I am sick and tired of dealing with your shit!” He grabbed Bill by
the shirt and lifted him up. He turned to his wife and said, “Get the door, sweetheart.”
“You’re me, right?” Bill asked.
“I was never that stupid,” the other Bill laughed.
Bill could see Audrey pulling open another lit right angle. “Please don’t do this, Audrey!” he begged.
“Hopefully, this will be the last time,” she smiled.
The other Bill said, “You really think this is the last version of me we’ll have to deal with?”
She replied, “I said I hope so.”
“You and me both,” he laughed. He carried him over to the open portal and tossed him through.
Bill was falling out of control. Everything was pitch black and he had no idea where he was or what would happen next. Suddenly he slammed into cold water and sank toward the bottom. He swam upward desperately and after a few moments broke the surface of the water and gasped for breath. The sound of falling water was deafening and he knew he was near a waterfall. He hoped he was past the edge. The cloud cover broke and he could see the faint outline of a shore not far away, so he swam for it. A minute later, he crawled up on the pebbly shore and passed out.
Bill woke up hours later, still lying on the shore. The sun had started its upward march through the sky and the temperature was soaring. He rolled over and sat up. “This looks so familiar,” he gasped. “This couldn’t be Iguazu Falls, could it?” He was in a deep gorge and waterfalls were everywhere. As he looked about, the area did look much like the cascades in South America, but it was somehow different. The din of falling water was very loud, but there was another sound fighting for his attention. He spun around and saw a large puma moving slowly toward him. Before he could react, the beast charged and jumped toward him with claws extended and its fearsome fangs aiming for his throat. A shot rang out and the dead beast fell at his feet. Bill looked around frantically and finally noticed a man carrying a rifle and walking toward him. He was Bill Watson too.
As he approached, he smiled and extended his hand. “Welcome to the team, Bill.”
Bill shook his hand and replied, “You’re me, aren’t you?”
The other Bill nodded his head, smiled and said, “Yeah, it’s pretty freaky, but you get used to it. Come on, the others aren’t far from here.”
Princess Maggie and Mary Stewart rode in the back of the imperial limousine out of the glass dome and into the countryside. Maggie poured two glasses of champagne and handed one to Mary. “I think it’s time you and I had some fun. What do you think, Mary?”
“Whatever pleases your Majesty,” Mary replied.
Maggie moved from her seat and sat next to Mary. “Okay, this just isn’t going to work.”
“I apologize for upsetting you, milady.”
“Mary, shush!” Maggie complained. “Don’t talk and just listen, okay?” Mary nodded. “Good! First a toast, okay?” They touched their glasses together and sipped the wine. “Until we return to the compound, you are no longer a slave, okay? I mean yes you are still my slave, but for now you’re my friend first. Does that make any sense?”
Mary nodded and squeaked, “Whatever you wish.”
Maggie frowned. “Mary, kiss me.” Mary kissed the princess’s hand.
“Kiss me on the lips, Mary.”
“I could never take such advantage of my liege, milady,” Mary whimpered.
“Do you want to be my friend or not, Mary?” Maggie complained.
“Yes, I want to be your friend.”
“Then kiss me!” Mary pressed her lips to Maggie, who kissed her back and pulled Mary into her arms. When she released Mary she said, “That’s better. Now we’re friends, best friends actually. From this moment until we return to the compound, I’ll have no more ‘milady this’ or ‘milady that’, okay?”
“Yes, Maggie.”
The princess’s face lit up with a big smile. “That’s better, bestie! Do you know where we’re going, Mary?”
“No, Mags, where are we going?”
Maggie blushed and kissed Mary on the cheek. “I love that nickname Mary. Now this has to be our little secret, okay?”
“Of course, Mags, I would never tell on you.”
“Because you’re my slave?”
“Nah, because we’re besties!”
Maggie put her arms around Mary again and squeezed her tight. “That’s why I wanted you here, Mary. You get me; you know what a woman wants. Actually, we’re going to a different reality. I know that doesn’t make sense to a country girl like you, and that’s okay. There is another place where fun rules and hot young girls like us can really cut loose and have fun. It’s a city called Las Vegas and it’s all about party, party, party.”
“That sounds great Mags!”
Maggie’s expression turned dead serious. “Now I need to be honest. I love you, but I’m also bringing you here as cover.”
“I don’t understand.”
Maggie patted her knee and said, “Of course you don’t. You’re just a girl from a minor tribe living in the trees somewhere. You and I are going to have an amazing time together, but honestly, my brother is such a stick in the mud. If he thinks I’m in Las Vegas, he’s going to have a cow and whine at me about what a drunken slut I am and all that. Since we look a lot alike, I will tell him you’re the slut!”
“Huh?” Mary gasped.
“Shit, it’s not as bad as that!” Maggie laughed. “I’m not saying you’re a slut or anything. If Gaius thought I was a tramp, he’d be all in my face and this and that. This way, he will think I was foolish for taking you there, but since you’re just a slave, you’re entitled to be loose and all. We both have a bitching time and he’s none the wiser, get it?”
Mary kissed Maggie on the mouth sensuously and caressed her body. When she pulled back, Maggie had her eyes still closed and was breathing heavily. “Mags, as long as you have fun and are completely satisfied, then whatever you want is good with me.”
Maggie opened her eyes and said, “It’s going to be bitching!”
Bill was led into a large hotel lobby a mile or so from the waterfall. The hotel and region appeared to have been abandoned some time ago and Nature was already working to retake the area. He stood open-mouthed and blinking repeatedly at the image of more than a hundred identical versions of himself seated at long tables filling the space. More versions of him were manning a long buffet line serving breakfast to the men. “I don’t know what to say,” he murmured.
“Don’t worry,” the Bill who shot the puma said. “We’ve all been in your shoes before, well, except for me. I suppose I was the first one. Bill, if you hadn’t guessed already, someone has been scouring the multiverse looking for us. I’m no astrophysicist, although we have several here who are, but apparently one version of us is obsessed with being the only one.”
“The only one?”
He slapped Bill on the back and said, “Look around! Why else does everyone here look just like us? How many other such guys did you encounter on your way here?” Bill looked back at him blankly.
Another Bill approached and said, “As a cosmologist, I can tell you this is proof positive that the multiverse does exist! All of us are identical in most ways, but for some reason, we all have some unique qualities. It’s like someone is trying to eliminate all Bill Stewarts from reality.”
“My name is Bill Watson,” he replied.
“Yeah, about one in four of us has that last name,” the cosmologist replied.
“That is odd,” noted the Bill who shot the puma. “How come most of us are Bill Stewarts, but a quarter are Bill Watsons?”
“I think I know, and I also know why he’s trying to get rid of all of us,” Bill interjected. He covered his eyes with his hands for a moment and then said, “This is too much for me to deal with. Can I get some food?”
Minutes later, he was sitting with the rifleman, the cosmologist and three other Bills at a table. He had been given a papaya, some scrambled eggs and a piece of steak along with a cup of coffee. While he a
te, the rifleman tried to explain what he knew. “I guess it’s obvious, but none of us call ourselves Bill here. It would just be confusing. Instead, we just go by numbers. Since this is the reality I was born in, I am called One. The cosmologist is called seventeen. I suppose that makes you 307.”
Bill looked about and said, “Where are the others then? There aren’t three hundred people here.”
“It’s life, you know. Some died of illness and others from accidents. A few were even killed by animals like the one that tried to eat you earlier,” One related.
“And quite a few left here, hoping to find other people or a way out of this place,” Seventeen interjected. “Only God knows if any of them are still alive.”
“Wait a minute there, are you both saying there are no other people left alive on Earth?” Bill asked. He finished the last of his coffee and pushed his dish to the center of the table.
“I don’t think we know enough to be sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true,” One replied. He went on to explain what had happened in this reality. It began the same as on Bill’s Earth with terrorist attacks and suitcase nuclear explosions. But the violence never stopped and only accelerated. Soon chemical and biological weapons were used around the globe and war broke out everywhere. Bill, who had been divorced for ten years, had moved into a remote area of Arizona to be away from population centers where most of the violence occurred. He and a few others formed a militia to control their area and stop further incursions by bands of hoodlums and terrorists that now wandered around the country, attacking, raping and pillaging towns and villages with impunity. The central governments of the world were in shambles and the world was reverting to an almost medieval state, except with advanced weaponry.
Little news or information seeped through now that the Internet, radio and television were gone. Only a few ham radio operators shared what they knew. Most of the radio chatter was about the location of good food and fresh water, or of known bands of outlaws. Over several weeks, the chatter changed in an ominous way. Word was beginning to spread about a bounty offered for any person named William or Mary Stewart. At first, it was just some mention of a crazed group of terrorists making the offer, but soon it became the hottest subject. More and more radio operators reported seeing their friends earning large amounts of gold for turning in someone with one of those names. It was also reported that everyone turned in was interviewed and then crucified, whether they were the specific person the terrorists were after or not. Bill had not heard from his sister Mary since the first nuclear explosions and had assumed she died in one of those cities, but he also noticed that the others in the local militia were eyeing him very carefully.