Epiworld

by Morait, Tracey

  ‘What?’

  ‘I think – I’m not sure, mind, ‘cos it was all really chaotic, but I think he looked like – your – your – it was...’

  Suddenly I’m excited. ‘It was Chase, wasn’t it?’

  She doesn’t answer.

  ‘He was looking for me,’ I say triumphantly. ‘He knows I’m here! Did Alex recognise him?’

  ‘I asked him afterwards, but he didn’t say much. They weren’t around long. You see Alex...’

  I look at her, tilting my head to one side.

  ‘Alex shot at them with the acid gun,’ she finishes, her face drained of all colour. ‘The Nazis didn’t stand a chance. It’s horrible what that gun can do to people, Travis, reducing them to dust like that!’

  My voice is barely a whisper. ‘Did Alex kill Chase?’ As much as I want Chase dead I don’t want to be cheated out of killing him myself!

  ‘No,’ says Demi. ‘You see, you had a fit...’

  I help her out. ‘There was a portal.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘...and he went through it? Brilliant!’

  ‘He – he always comes back, Travis,’ she says lamely.

  ‘Yeah.’ I kick the floor with my good leg. ‘He always comes back.’ Meanwhile I’m stuck here doing bugger all.

  ‘I don’t want to talk about Chas any more, Travis. I...’

  ‘Yeah, all right. Where are the lorries they came in?’

  ‘Alex destroyed them with the gun; said he couldn’t risk them being found if more soldiers came.’

  ‘Sounds reasonable enough.’

  She quickly changes the subject, starts chatting about I don’t know what, but I’m not listening. Bits of information I’ve stored in my head about portals are coming back to me, one of them being I’m able to call them at my whim to get me out of tight spots. I’m still here, though, aren’t I? There has to be a reason for that, and as I think about it I come to the conclusion that Alex is deliberately stopping us from leaving – and I need to find out why – or I’m supposed to stay where I am.

  If I can call up a portal to help me out, perhaps I can also, subconsciously, stop it from taking me.

  I hold on to that thought.

  Alex says I’m searching for something, and I’m sure now that something – someone – is Chase. He knows where I am. He’s obviously tricked the Nazis into thinking he’s one of them, persuading them to search the farm; hypnotising a couple of them, maybe, like the police at Demi’s farm. Demi’s right, he’ll come again, so it could be I’m meant to face him in this house, and kill him.

  I can’t help thinking, though, that Alex has some sort of hidden agenda up his sleeve by keeping me sedated, and I need to find out what that is.

  As I’m trying to work all this out in my head the door flies open with a bang, and Alex comes rushing in, throwing a sack of stuff onto the floor.

  ‘They’re back!’ he pants. With a yelp Demi jumps to her feet.

  ‘How many?’ I ask.

  ‘I don’t know. I saw three lorries, with a car, coming over the hill behind us. They’re heading this way.’

  ‘Where’s the acid gun?’

  ‘Here.’ He takes it out of his jeans pocket, and points it at the curtain. A jet of yellow disintegrates it. ‘It’s still working.’

  ‘Alex,’ gasps Demi, ‘where can we go?’

  ‘Nowhere,’ he tells her. ‘We can’t leave Travis, anyway. If they find us here we’ll be sitting ducks. Nothing else for it, we’re just going to have to shoot our way out.’

  He’s standing very close to my good leg. I don’t think about it, I extend my foot, and he trips and falls against the table. The gun clatters to the ground, so I grab it.

  ‘Travis!’ cries Demi, shaking. Alex has rolled onto his side, staring at the gun pointing at his head. ‘What are you doing? Now isn’t the time!’

  ‘Give me the gun, Travis,’ orders Alex.

  ‘No.’ My hand doesn’t waver. ‘I want to know why you’ve been keeping us here.’

  ‘Can’t it wait? Right now we have more pressing matters!’

  ‘Travis!’ cries Demi again.

  They’re outside, their loud voices, that strange language, getting closer and closer.

  ‘I’m keeping this,’ I snarl at Alex. ‘I’ll deal with them.’

  ‘What if you have a seizure?’

  ‘Then a portal will come, and we can all go through it.’

  Alex snorts. ‘You think it’s that simple, eh?’

  ‘You said it’s what I do.’

  ‘It is, but I’m afraid there may be obstacles in your way.’

  ‘Like you, you mean?’ I wave the gun at him again.

  ‘Oh, stop it, both of you!’ shouts Demi. Alex gets to his feet.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I demand.

  ‘Demi and I are going to need weapons, too.’ He rummages in the sack. ‘Here,’ he throws Demi a rifle, ‘you said you know how to use one of these.’ Demi’s shaking hand tries to load bullets into the rifle, while Alex produces yet another acid gun, but I don’t have a chance to ask where it’s come from, because the door handle rattles, and together we turn our weapons.

  The air rings with the sound of gunfire. We’re crouching down, giving back as good as we get. The acid guns protect us as we pick off the Nazis one by one; they’re pouring into the room like rats. The bodies fall as the bullets fly from Demi’s rifle. She’s a good shot. A soldier lands on my bad leg. I have to use my gun on the corpses, too, or we’ll be in danger of suffocating in a crowd.

  No way can we survive this! We’re outnumbered, dead for sure!

  Then the unthinkable happens. The excitement and the stress plunges me into a whirl. I see the strange light, I still hear the guns and the shouting – until at last there’s only silence.

  Demi whispers my name as I open my eyes. The room is the same, except for the bullet holes, the broken table and chair, and the burnt dust on the ground.

  ‘Did we get them all?’ My voice is thick. I’ve bitten my tongue.

  ‘The portal!’ That’s Alexander’s voice. ‘It sucked them in, every last one of them.’

  ‘You saved us, Travis!’ Demi, her voice cracked with emotion, throws her arms around my neck. When she finally releases me I drag myself into a sitting position, worn out by the fit, and the excitement of the shoot-out.

  ‘We have to go now,’ says Alexander gruffly, while I’m trying to take in what the portal has done. ‘It’s time.’

  ‘We could’ve left well before now, through the other portals,’ I remind him.

  ‘Doc!’ says another voice weakly. It’s one I think I know well, but for now I can’t make the connection.

  Alexander runs to the door. ‘Oh, God!’

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘He’s been hit!’

  There are feet sticking out from behind the door, and a pool of blood surrounding them. Alex drags the body into full view.

  ‘What the f...’

  ‘Bandages, Demi,’ he instructs, and she grabs the rags lying by her side. ‘He’s been shot in both legs. He’s losing a lot of blood.’

  I need to see what’s going on. I’m on all fours now, bad leg and all, moving in on the scene.

  ‘Give us room, Travis,’ says Alex as he stoops down by the wounded leg. I look at the face I know so well. Hudson smiles weakly at me, raises a hand.

  ‘Hiya, mate!’

  ‘Hudson!’

  I lock my hand with his. That smiling face, those bright white teeth; it really is Hudson!

  ‘Don’t tell me,’ I say, ‘you got here through a portal!’

  ‘Mate,’ gasps Hudson as Alex rips his trouser leg to get to the wound, ‘I had to come and find you! The doc told me Chase was looking for you, so I went into your room, read your thoughts with the cortexoscope...’

  ‘You’re mad!’ I’m laughing. I’m chuffed to see him. ‘I bet they zapped your probe when they realised what you were up to!’

  ‘They didn�
�t get a chance to catch me! I’d hardly finished reading your brain when a portal came. I didn’t stop to think, I just leapt through it – argh!’ He flinches as Demi holds up his leg for Alex to bandage.

  ‘Great!’ Alex growls. ‘Two casualties we’ve got now! What the hell are you doing here, Hudson? I told you not to follow me!’

  ‘I was going mad not knowing what was happening to you and Travis,’ says Hudson.

  ‘Ignore him, Hudson.’ I squeeze his hand. ‘I’m glad you’re here, but how come you knew exactly where to look for us?’

  ‘Your thoughts told me, didn’t they?’ He laughs despite his pain. ‘So I came, only I didn’t appear where I expected to, in this room. I came out in the middle of the road back there, just as three lorry-loads of soldiers were coming along. One had to swerve to avoid me. It hacked them off a bit, so they came after me.’

  ‘And you led them here,’ stated Alex, shaking his head.

  ‘I didn’t think, Doc, I just ran,’ says Hudson apologetically. ‘They were firing bullets at me. I wasn’t going to let them kill me, was I? I legged it down the road, then when I saw the farmhouse...’

  ‘If you hadn’t come here, they wouldn’t have been sucked through the portal,’ says Demi. ‘Hello, I’m Demi, Travis’s friend.’

  ‘I know.’ Hudson winks at me. ‘You’re in his thoughts all the time.’

  ‘They could’ve killed us all!’ snaps Alex, ‘and now you’re injured...’

  ‘The lorries!’ I interrupt.

  ‘What about them?’ Alex asks.

  ‘We can escape in one, unless you have any objection.’

  ‘We’ve been stuck here for weeks, Alex,’ says Demi, ‘and Travis hasn’t seen the light of day for ages. You said you’d help him go after Chas.’

  ‘That’s right; you did,’ I chip in, ‘unless you have a specific reason why you don’t want us to leave?’

  ‘Come on,’ he says to Demi, ‘let’s pack everything together. I’ll bring one of the lorries around to the door.’

  ‘Tell me what I want to know, Doc!’

  Alex sighs. ‘I knew you’d forget everything I told you before you fell ill, so I’ll explain again; and put the gun down, Travis, it’s losing power.’

  The indicator is pulsating. If I shoot Alex now I’ll be wasting acid, and he has a gun as well. He might shoot back, so I drop it. Demi lets out a frustrated noise, and grabs the blankets from the floor.

  ‘I kept you sedated to stop you from leaving nineteen forty-two,’ says Alex, ‘not the farm. We have to stay in this time period because Chase is close, and at some point you will both go through a portal at the same time, meeting on a beach. When he came with the soldiers that night I had to stop him from shooting you. He had an acid gun. I shot it out of his hand, and he dropped it before he escaped. I have it now. He is your quest, but you’re not going to kill him just because you hate him, or because he’s trying to kill you, you’re going to kill him to save your future.’ He pauses, looking at me for some recognition of what he’s telling me, but there’s nothing.

  ‘Well, tell me the rest!’

  ‘Everything else I told you will come back to you soon,’ he says patiently. ‘Demi is right, we’ve got no time for this.’

  Before I know it his fist has made contact with my face. I come to in the back of the lorry with Hudson and Demi for company.

  ‘How’s the jaw, mate?’ asks Hudson.

  I shrug, rubbing it, before lying back in a huff.

  16. Mother

  ‘Hold on!’ cries Alexander as the lorry accelerates.

  That’s the unmistakable sound of wood splintering. Something is forced through the cab window, narrowly missing Alex’s head. He swerves to avoid it. The lorry swerves as well, its screeching wheels mingling with Demi’s muffled cries as she buries her head in her lap to avoid the flying glass.

  There’s blood trickling down my face; a small piece of glass has cut me. The lorry is moving in a zigzag, and we’re rolling around in the back. There’s gunfire behind us, and loud German accents. Alex picks up speed.

  ‘We’re being followed! Shoot at them! Here,’ he chucks the acid gun at me, ‘use this! It’s practically full.’

  Demi flicks the safety catch on her rifle. I crawl to the back of the lorry, pull the canvas aside, and look out. Two soldiers on a motorbike are on our tail. Behind them I see a wooden hut, and the broken wood of the road block.

  Zap! My aim is true, but the acid narrowly misses them, and they duck to avoid its range.

  ‘I’ll aim for the tyres,’ says Demi, but the rider skilfully manoeuvres the bike so that her shots only hit the ground. His passenger draws a pistol. We crouch down as he shoots, having no idea where the bullet lands.

  ‘What’s happening back there?’ yells Alex. ‘They’re gaining on us.’

  ‘We missed,’ I yell back.

  ‘Help,’ mutters Hudson, who is now lying flat on his stomach.

  ‘So shoot them again!’

  ‘Drive in a straight line, then! I can hardly grip the rifle!’ shouts Demi.

  I try again, aiming for the rider, but he’s too clever with the bike to allow me to get him. Instead the acid hits another target, his passenger’s arm. We cheer, expecting him to fizzle into dust like they always do, but instead...

  ‘Urgh!’ exclaims Demi. ‘Look at that!’

  His pistol has fallen to the ground because his arm is oozing white matter.

  ‘We can’t kill them, Demi, not like we can kill life,’ I tell her. ‘They’re droids.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Androids,’ clarifies Hudson, ‘synthetic life forms.’

  ‘OK,’ says Demi slowly. I can’t help being fascinated by how readily she believes everything she is told now, but like she keeps saying she’s seen so much recently she can’t deny the truth of it. ‘I’ve read about androids in sci-fi novels, and seen them in films. I suppose they came from your world?’

  Alex has been listening. ‘They’ve come with Chase; they’re helping him to catch us. They’ve learnt the German language so they can blend in.’

  ‘Something else you know from my thoughts?’ I ask.

  ‘Yeah; although I was hoping you would change the course of events by destroying them!’

  ‘Why are they dressed like those soldiers, though?’ says Hudson.

  ‘So they don’t cause suspicion, and not be detained as spies. No one suspects a Nazi soldier in this world. Chase has done his homework. Am I right, Demi?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘Hold on to your hats!’ cries Alex. ‘It’s time we got out of here!’

  We lurch forward as the lorry increases speed. Demi raises the rifle to her eye, but I put my hand on the barrel.

  ‘Don’t bother. They know how to dodge the bullets, and he can’t shoot at us now, anyway. Besides I don’t want to waste any more ammo. We might need it later! Our best chance is to lose them. Do we lose them, Alex?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he replies. ‘Like I told you the images I read in your thoughts weren’t always so clear. Now shut up, and let me concentrate on my driving!’

  We can’t shake them off. With each bend in the road they’re within our sight, and we’re within theirs. The only thing that could save us now is a portal, but as usual there isn’t one around when you need one! No sign of a seizure to bring one on, either.

  The hunt continues along the winding roads, sometimes darkened by thick wood on either side, sometimes brightened by open fields and sun. Alex is driving flat out, but it’s not enough.

  ‘Go faster!’ cries Demi. ‘They’re catching up!’

  ‘I going full pelt as it is!’ snaps Alex; then, ‘Uh-oh!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘We’re nearly out of gas, and – er – the clutch feels a bit loose! Ah!’

  ‘What now?’

  ‘The gear stick’s come off in my hand!’

  Demi shrieks, ‘Look!’

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! It’s not only the dro
ids we have to worry about now!

  The droids see it, too. The bike slows, and pulls over to the side of the road, letting the guard continue the chase. It doesn’t say anything, doesn’t tell us to stop. It just shoots its lasers at us.

  Screech! Alexander puts his foot hard on the brake, but he can’t stop the lorry from swerving off the road, and ending up in a ditch. We roll around in the back for what seems like an eternity, and when we finally do stop, I’m lying on my front on top of Hudson, and Demi is lying on top of me. The engine is still running. Alex is groaning.

  ‘Are you OK, Doc?’ asks Hudson.

  ‘Yeah,’ he replies faintly.

  He drags himself out of the smashed driver’s window. The noise has stopped; the guard must be very close, probably standing over us. I force back the canvas, but all I see is crushed metal, glass and earth. I crawl into the cab, and see Alex lying rigidly on the grass, looking up with wide, terrified eyes. The guard is looking down at him. I swallow the lump rising in my throat.

  ‘Did you see this in the cortexoscope?’ I whisper.

  A pause before he answers. ‘Not this part.’

  ‘What’s happening, Travis?’ asks Demi.

  I ignore her. ‘It doesn’t kill us, right? We meet Chase on the beach...’

  You meet Chase on the beach.’

  ‘But – you, Demi, Hudson...’

  ‘I didn’t see us there.’

  ‘How can I face him like this? Look at me, I can’t walk properly, I can’t run! I might not get through the portal without my injuries. Hudson’s injured, too. Demi – I can’t leave her!’

  ‘We’re doomed, Travis,’ he snaps. ‘There must be...’

  He goes no further. There’s the sound of grinding metal, and he looks up again. He opens his mouth to say something else, but I don’t hear what it is, because his face, and everything around him, suddenly begins to swirl, merging into one jumbled vision. My teeth bite into my tongue. The golden light appears, confused with sharp, bright red flashes.