by Al K. Line
~~~
46 Years Future
It was the same terrible return to reality, the same feeling of being a murderer, which is what he was, yet knowing it had to be done, the crime the only way to ensure that those he killed actually lived. If they were successful eradicating the existence of Hexads, then it would be as if none of it had ever happened. Hopefully.
Dale couldn't help feeling that it was all futile however, or that there had to be a better way. Why couldn't they simply go back and never have given away the plans? Never dug up the damn things? Or something else, there had to be something. But there wasn't, those things had already happened. There was no undoing them now, no way to stop what had been done. It was simply the past, unchangeable and terrible in its results, the loop of causality perverted by them in the future, manipulating a past that now was just part of history, no way to change it. What was done was done. Try as you might to alter the past it would find a way to win out in the end. It had done so countless times and Amanda herself, the one holding on tight to him now, had tried any number of different ways to stop the madness, and in each and every world where she tried the end result was the same: Hexads bring about the destruction of countless realities. This was all that was left; the only solution. Terrible as it was it was actually the only thing that made sense. Stop the production, stop it all.
The slaughter continued.
~~~
Days later, in terms of relative experience, after jumping one at a time for safety, returning to just a second after they jumped to minimize the chance of them ever being discovered, a body disappearing from the racks each time, as if none of it had ever happened, that they'd never been taken in the first place, each body gone meaning less Hexads would ever have been produced in the past, it seemed like it was finally over. They had eaten little, but drank huge quantities of water — pint after pint, each jump taking just that little bit more out of them both physically and emotionally.
Finally there was only one body left, and the number of Hexads was dangerously low too. All that remained was a large pile of spent machines, 0 flashing angrily on the top of them, as useless as if they never existed at all.
"If this works then this is the last of them, the last Amanda, so once she is gone then we should return to our normal lives." Cray was right, one more kill, then it was done, back to a world that made sense. It meant that whoever did the final act would be stuck though, no way to jump as with the fateful blow then reality would go back to normal, time travel a laughable concept, at least that's what Dale imaged would happen.
"What will happen to us?" said Dale. "I guess we need to jump back to make sure that we are in the right time, or will we simply disappear from here as it will never have happened, just wake up and not remember any of this?"
Amanda thought for a while. "I would assume yes, we will just vanish from here, go back where we should be, but I don't want to risk it, do you? We should jump back before one of us finishes this."
"I'll do it," said Cray. "I owe you that much. I'll do it, and if everything goes to plan then we should all go back to where we ought to be. If not, then, well, I guess I'll be stuck but at least I'll be alive. Confused but alive."
"You sure?" asked Dale.
"Yes, I'm sure. Goodbye. Go soon, I'm going to do this quick so don't hang about."
"No, wait, what about the other Amanda? My Amanda?"
It was too late, he was gone.
Dale could see the final body disappearing, nothing more than a ghost already. He set the Hexad, grabbed Amanda by the hand and jumped.
Back to Reality
Present Day
Dale woke up from a terrible dream. He was sweating heavily and his throat felt raw. What awful visions: bodies and time travel, murder on an epic scale, repeating the act over and over in a fever of desperate repetition.
Too much wine again.
"You okay?" asked Amanda sleepily, putting a hand onto Dale's chest. "Your heart's beating really fast."
"Sure, just a weird nightmare." Dale turned to Amanda; his heart froze in his chest.
This wasn't her, not his Amanda. This was someone else, a foreigner, an impostor. She looked different. Dale shook his head to clear the remnants of the dream and leaned in to take in her scent.
Dale would know the scent of Amanda anywhere, and this most definitely did not smell like the woman he had lived with for so long, done so much with, knew as well as he knew himself.
Who the hell is this woman?
Already the dream had faded, all memory of it gone. All that remained was a man in bed with a woman that he somehow knew wasn't the woman he had spent half a lifetime with.
The End
Book 2 in the series is Hexad: The Chamber
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page
Digging
Burying
Visitors
Confusion
Introductions
Brain Melt
Feeding the Ducks
Really Confusing
Bad News
Really Bad News
Home Again
An Explanation
A Long Story
Placing Blame
Nasty Surprises
What Price Freedom?
Time to Act
D-Day
An Unwanted Discovery
Back to the Past
Ending the World
A Strange Reunion
New but Old
Old Friends
Catching Up
How Many!?
The Cold Reality
What Now?
How to Rule the World
Absolute Power...
Convoluted Plans
Decision Made
Killing Spree
Broken Minds
Back to Reality