Super World 2
By
Lawrence Ambrose
Copyright 2017
All Rights Are Reserved. No parts of this book may be used or reproduced without permission of the author.
Proofread and Edited by Sweet Syntax
Cover by Lawrence Ambrose
COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, OR COMPLAINTS? Please email me at: [email protected]
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
OF ALL THE STRANGE things Jamie had experienced – too many things to name and too odd to fully grasp – walking with a Dennis who wasn't truly her husband or the father of her child, was the strangest and most disorienting experience of her life. On the surface, he sounded and looked exactly like Dennis. Yet something was subtly off.
But then he's not my Dennis, and I'm not his ex-wife. I'm not even the person I was a few months ago.
"You sure you're not cold without a jacket?" He was eyeing her with puzzled concern. "It's barely fifty degrees out here."
"I'm fine." She picked at her blouse sleeves knowing how out of place she looked. She was dressed for a North Dakota summer, not late-March.
Dennis was frowning at her with fierce concentration, the look he had when one of his machines was misbehaving and he had his finger on the problem but hadn't quite got it.
"I'm not sure this is making sense, Jamie. I don't know if I can accept that you're from a parallel world, that you've come to save us from some alien threat..."
"When you put it that way, it almost does sound crazy."
Jamie offered him a dry smile, but his smile was more queasy than amused.
"I can't deny that you look and sound almost exactly like my wife."
"But I'm not claiming to be your wife, Dennis. Your wife died."
Too blunt, she thought, seeing the pain in his eyes while her own tongue burned from the words. For the first time during their private walk about the property – grudgingly agreed to by his girlfriend and their daughter...well, a daughter of her double here – Jamie began to doubt the wisdom of her decision to come here. Seeing Kylee the way she should be now had been an incredible rush, but who was she to step into another family's lives, to presume that she could be with them as if she were their actual mom and wife? Not to mention presuming that she could save them and their world.
That was how she thought as a commander of an elite Department of Augmented Regulation and Enforcement unit. She'd grown accustomed to taking charge, to solving what seemed unsolvable. She'd even learned to think of herself as being somewhat "kick ass." None of that prepared her for being a mother and a wife again.
"But," said Dennis in a low, quavering voice that told Jamie he was close to losing it, "you had a husband named Dennis you say died with his daughter, Kylee, in a car accident about three years ago. Someone who was basically identical to me and to my daughter?"
"That's true."
"Can you prove to me it's true?"
She caught him suddenly by the arm – very, very gingerly – and kissed him. Just a bare brushing of lips. He rocked back, his face stunned. Then he grabbed her arms and attempted to pull her to him. Jamie didn't budge for an instant – she had to calibrate how fast to move into his embrace – and in that instant, Dennis's eyes widened in shock.
"Your arms," he said, squeezing them. "They feel like stone."
Jamie registered his grip as the pressure her former self might've associated with the nudge of a light breeze. She hadn't thought much about how her body might feel to a normal person.
He touched her face. A single tear squeezed out of her left eye above where his fingers lingered.
"You're not human," he groaned. "That is not human skin."
A tidal wave of sadness rolled through her. Jamie concentrated on controlling it, afraid of what her thoughts might do.
"Are you an android? Some kind of artificial intelligence?"
Jamie made herself laugh. "I haven't told you a few things. I wanted to talk to you away from Kylee and..."
"Haley. Haley Lingstrom. You've already frightened my daughter with your talk of aliens."
"I'm sorry. I'm not sure how to handle this. I haven't really thought it all through. But not an android. I'm what they call on my version of Earth augmented. That happened to virtually everyone to one extent or another."
"Augmented? What does that mean?"
"It's funny because in my world it started right here, Dennis. Right on our property, when an object crushed one of the targets on your gun range. That object – what we call The Object – contained what scientists later learned were nanodevices that acted like an artificial virus which infected us all. That infection changed us in many different ways. Almost everyone got stronger and healthier. A few people a lot stronger. Some people developed special powers. Super powers, I guess you could say. I was one of those people."
"You have super powers?" Dennis was smiling.
"Yes."
"Can you demonstrate?"
Jamie lifted a few feet off the ground and hovered there. Dennis stopped smiling.
"It's an illusion," he said.
She held out one hand and the skid steer by the barn rose and floated over to them.
"No," Dennis whispered. "I'm imagining this."
"I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Fourth stage. Terminal. That went away after being exposed to the Object. Then the changes seriously started in me and others. Your father-in-law even enjoyed a stint in the NBA."
"Now I know you're shitting me." Dennis's smile returned – in a much paler and shakier form.
"Except the tractor is still floating and so am I."
"Right. Except for those things." He rubbed his temples with both hands. "How are you doing that, by the way? Assuming I'm not hallucinating."
"Telekinetics." She lowered herself and the tractor back to the ground.
"Okay. But how does telekinetics work?"
Jamie smiled. Vintage Dennis. He'd always been a skeptic's skeptic when it came to psychic power or any form of unusual claims. He also had a strong mechanical intuition which Jamie didn't share. Studying engines and other mechanical systems had always been a hobby of his. He was a stickler about the specifics of how things worked.
"Our scientists were still working on that when I left," she said. "They had some theories which weren't satisfying even to them. About the best they achieved was classifying the powers and their strengths. I wasn't involved in the science end much."
We stopped at the front edge of their – his – land. Dennis drew his coat around himself and braced one gloved hand on the bleached wood fence which didn't exist in Jamie's world. She gazed out on the frostbitten farm fields across from them.
"I'm sorry I can't give you the explanations you want," Jamie said. "But that doesn't change the fact that I have these powers. Doesn't that prove what I'm telling you is true?"
"Let's say I believe you, Jamie," he said. "What do you think we should do?"
Jamie turned to him. He wore that earnest look he always did when he wanted her to take the lead. She for
got about his expression and just studied his face: the typical one to two day's stubble, the light-brown eyes separated by the permanent quizzical crease, the square jaw and slightly receding hairline. He looked upper Midwestern to the core. A nice-looking, solid family guy with a hint of a Midwest accent. Not the tall, dark, and handsome Zachary... She closed her eyes at the sharp pain of his memory – the angst over the road not taken. Dennis was a regular guy, and she loved him for that.
"Are you all right?" Dennis asked.
"I'm okay. Just taking some time to adjust."
"You need time to adjust?"
"In my world, you've been dead for three years. Kylee, too."
"Interesting that you've been dead here for about the same time."
"How's my father doing? I hope he's alive and well."
"Good, as far as I know. He owns a sports shop in Duluth – moved there after your car accident. Lives in an apartment on top of the store. Haven't talked to him for over a year."
"I'll have to go see him."
"He kind of went away after your – my wife's death. We both did. Even Kylee, though she was only four. I always liked your dad, though we butted heads on some stuff. I miss him."
Jamie gathered her thoughts. A north wind – the dreaded north wind – picked up, fluttering her blouse. Good thing it couldn't do anything to her now. She had something much more painful to face.
"You and...Haley. How serious is that?"
"We've been dating for about a year."
"Serious, then."
He shrugged.
"Do you love her?"
Dennis frowned at the ground. Not a question she could ever have imagined asking her husband. She hated to be a cliché, but there was no escaping it. The answer would set the stage for what happened next.
"I care about her," he said. "Not the way I cared about you. My wife."
"I think that means you love her at least a little bit."
"What about you?" His eyes flicked upward to meet hers. "You say I died three years ago. Enough time to get over your grief somewhat and meet someone new."
"Did you get over your grief?"
"No. But there was a time when I felt I could live again. What about you?"
"Not so much. I lost two people, not just one."
Dennis bowed his head. "I know. Both of us at once. I don't think I would've made it."
"I wouldn't have, either. Not without the Object."
"I'm glad it came, then."
"But..." Jamie bit the inside of her lip. She didn't want to say what she felt she had to. "To be honest, Dennis, there was someone else after that."
Jamie watched him breathe in and out a few times, wrestling with his demons. She wondered if telling him had been the right thing to do. Her only answer was that maybe it make him feel less guilty. She didn't want him making a choice out of guilt.
"Did you love him?"
"A little bit." She gave him a teary-eyed smile. "But I chose to leave him to come here. That should tell you something."
"Would you have come if you'd known I was with someone?"
Jamie steeled herself and nodded. "Yes. For Kylee. But I admit it would've been harder."
"So we're back to my original question, Jamie. What do you think we should do?"
What I want to do is get my family back. But she wasn't ready to say that, to place that kind of pressure on him. A pressure that could easily backfire.
"Take it slow, I guess," she said, the words tasting bitter to her lips.
"I guess that makes sense."
"What do you want to do, Dennis?"
He shifted his body on the top fence post and his eyes away from hers. "I don't know, Jamie. I need some time to think this through."
Jamie nodded. Dennis liked to make sure he was on firm footing before taking the next step. He was a practical man, despite being a bit of a dreamer, and Jamie had always appreciated that. Dennis didn't appreciate surprises and he could be counted on not to provide them. Except when he got himself killed.
"You're not the person my wife was," he said, his face struggling with sadness and inner turmoil. "I'm not saying that to be mean, Jamie, but you're more than just different because of life experiences or whatever. You're physically different. My Jamie was a strong woman but she couldn't lift a tractor even on a good day."
He managed a smile at the end, and Jamie worked hard not to feel the blows his words were landing, to see things from his point of view.
"I should tell you," she said, "that by being exposed to me, you and Kylee will almost certainly become augmented, too."
"What?"
Shock and fear and more than a little anger snapped in that word and in the clenched muscles of his face. Jamie was suddenly how aware of how shocking and disturbing her casual announcement was. In her world the alien nanovirus was old news. Everyone took their changes for granted.
"I'm sorry to just spring that on you," Jamie said. "That's how the alien nanovirus works. But it's good news, I promise. I don't know how you'll change, but for sure you'll be healthier and stronger. And maybe you'll be able to lift tractors, too."
Her weak chuckle made no impression on her alternate world husband's grimly distraught expression. He was looking at her now the same way her dad had looked at her when she'd told him she had pancreatic cancer.
"You came here knowing you'd infect us?"
It was Jamie's turn to be shocked . In a flash she saw how foolish she'd been to just assume that would be no big deal. How could she have been so thoughtless?
"I..." She searched for an explanation that would make her seem less inconsiderate, but drew a blank. "Yes. I did. But if I came here there was no way to avoid that. And I think it's something that has to happen for this world to have a chance."
"Against the aliens?"
"Yes. They call themselves the 'Elementals,' by the way."
"The Elementals. Sounds so basic." Dennis shook his head. "We have to become a world of superheroes to fight them? Is that what you're saying?"
"That might be what's needed, yes. I doubt very much I can take them on alone."
Dennis stared at her and made a snorting sound, as if he'd never heard anything so preposterous.
"Maybe I should've given you a choice," Jamie said. "Ideally, everyone should have a choice. But then if they destroy this world, no one will have any choices."
"But if this is an alternate world, how do you know these 'Elementals' are after us?"
"Because of Brian Loving and the disappearing people. That happened on my world."
Dennis blinked away from her gaze with another shake of his head.
"I know," Jamie said softly. "I can't know for certain what's going on here. I could be wrong. I'm just using my best judgment, Dennis. All I know is that we saved our world."
"Could you tell me how you did that, exactly?"
She released a breath and gave him a weary smile. "It's kind of a long story. On my world, I became a member of a team of people possessing special powers..." She stopped and shook her head. "Why don't I give you some time to digest this, Dennis? Can I check back again after I've seen my dad and maybe looked into things a bit more here?"
He gave her such a classic Dennis hangdog look that Jamie's heart melted.
"But I have a million questions to ask you," he said.
"Hopefully, I can give you at least one or two hundred thousand answers."
He managed a grudging laugh. "I'm afraid you'll just disappear and I'll never see you again."
"Well..." Jamie made herself smile, and reached out with infinite care to touch his shoulder. "Don't worry, Dennis, I won't disappear. Though I can understand you might be sort of relieved if I did."
"I'd wake up and this was all a weird dream?"
"I've had that feeling too many times to count."
She held out her arms. He moved into them and she closed her arms around him cautiously.
"You act like I'm a fragile piece of china," he said.
"Maybe you won't be next time I see you."
Jamie didn't want to let go. She wanted to squeeze him until they were merged as they once were. But those kinds of thoughts could be dangerous. She eased out of his arms.
"How do you plan to get to your dad's?" he asked.
"Fly."
"Jamie, you can't just get on a plane or travel anywhere without the correct chip designation..." He cut himself off with a rueful shake of his head. "Oh. You meant literally fly?"
"Right. What's a 'chip designation'?"
"Microchip. They're imbedded in all of us...well, except for a few rebels. They communicate financial and other location to readers..." He frowned at her. "You're not chipped on your world."
"Not yet."
"Didn't Doomsday happen there?"
"No. I'm almost afraid to ask."
"North Korea didn't launch an EMP attack? Iran didn't release the weaponized Ebola virus?"
Jamie was shaking her head in horror. "No. The only major terrorist event we had was 9/11."
"We had that, too."
"When did these things happen?"
"About six years ago. Monday, October third. What we call 'Doomsday.' A few thousand died that day from catastrophes directly caused by the EMP blast, but the Ebola 'Omega Virus' was released in several major cities at the same time. There was also a nerve gas attack in the Mall of America. The death total stretched to over five million within a month."
"God, that's horrible."
"Yeah. It was a complete nightmare – a lot worse for those in the cities." He massaged the dark frown working into his face. "Anyway, after Doomsday the National DNA Registry was created. The TSA role was expanded to cover all forms of public transportation, including major highways. Checkpoints exist around all the big cities. Drones are everywhere, checking up on everything. Implanted I.D chips are mandatory. They're called Personal Location and Enabling Devices or PLEDs." He pronounced PLED as plead. "I guess you could say we took a sharp detour into a Brave New World."
"No kidding." Jamie brushed back her blond locks and tried to digest it all. It had never occurred to her that she could be entering a world significantly different from her own. Nothing she'd seen in her previous visit or since arriving had suggested a major terrorist event or this level of social change. "We were sort of headed in the same direction, I think. At least my dad believed that and never hesitated to tell me about his latest gloomy conspiracy predictions."
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