SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension

by Ann Hite Kemp

  Tammy walked closer to the tree and tried to see past the many leaves in search of birds.

  “We are all very hungry,” she said to Ulrich when he looked questioningly at her. “We’re looking for birds to eat.”

  “What?” There was disapproval on Ulrich’s face.

  “Wait until you’ve missed two or three meals, then you’ll eat absolutely anything too,” Tammy protested and saw Etsu smiling at her.

  “Maybe,” Ulrich admitted, and Tammy saw something like pity in his eyes. Perhaps he now felt some sympathy for her.

  “This tree’s branches and the ground is only five meters wide,” Hiroshi said. He had quickly walked around the tree and came to a standstill in the opening. “It seems to me everything in this place fits into a five meter square. Past that the grayness takes over. There are three different birds in the tree. One is very little. A finch, or something. The other two look like doves. Then there’s also a nest. If we’re lucky, there can be eggs in it.”

  Hiroshi looked at Tammy.

  “I don’t know how we’re going to catch these birds. This tree is bigger than the few branches in your window. Here the birds will easily give us the slip. And here’s this big opening in front.”

  Tammy nodded. She knew exactly what Hiroshi meant. Her window had glass in front of the branches. This tree had a huge opening through which the birds could escape. And if they flew off into the grayness, they would be lost forever.

  Hiroshi turned towards Ulrich.

  “Take the sword, Ulrich. I’m going to see what’s in the nest.”

  Ulrich took the sword. Catlike, Hiroshi jumped onto a low branch and without much effort climbed into the tree.

  Tammy saw the three birds now. Hiroshi had scared them and they tried to fly away as high as possible. There they struck the invisible roof and soon settled on the nearest branches.

  We have to chase them into the corners and knock them down with something, Tammy thought while watching the birds.

  Immediately she reprimanded herself. How wrong such thoughts felt! Was this what survival does to someone? Can a little hunger make folk so barbarous? Create killers and destroyers of helpless, harmless creatures? Will civilized people, the highest form of life on earth, the top of nature’s food chain (as her Biology teacher said), do absolutely anything to survive?

  She watched Hiroshi as he climbed from one branch to the other. At last she saw the nest. It consisted of a few twigs that were artistically woven into a perfect little basket. And this basket was attached soundly to the fork of two thinner branches.

  Hiroshi put his hand into the nest.

  “Here are two eggs inside.” He sounded excited. “It’s better than nothing.”

  Cautiously Hiroshi put the eggs one by one inside the pocket of his shirt and climbed down again. As soon as he landed on the little hill next to the tree, he broke a twig from a branch and looked at it closely. Then he plucked a leaf, put it in his mouth and chewed it. Tammy froze. One should never eat anything from a tree if you don’t know what type of tree it is. Leaves and fruits can be poisonous and even deadly, like the Ceylon rose, that a kindly neighbor in Pretoria had pointed out and warned her about.

  “If my stomach starts to ache or I die, you will know not to eat from this tree,” Hiroshi said. “If nothing happens to me, we can dig here and try the roots. Maybe they’re edible!”

  “Hiroshi! How could you?” Etsu gasped. “You can’t die and leave me here, alone.” She hammered with her fists on his arm.

  “We need food, Etsu, and this tree may keep us going. The tree in Tammy’s window came without roots. Someone must try these things,” Hiroshi answered, protecting the precious eggs as his sister’s anger abated. He looked at Tammy and Ulrich. “Besides, Japanese are very brave people. I’m honored to be the guinea-pig.” Then he paused. “But I’ve some bad news. . . ”

  “What? Your stomach aches already?” Etsu asked anxiously.

  “No. We will not be able to explore this place any further.” The others looked at him in bewilderment, so he continued to explain. “We’ll have to stay here and protect the tree. Our alter egos now know of the birds and that we are planning to eat this tree’s leaves and roots. They know whatever we think!”

  “Do they really know?” Ulrich asked. “Are you sure?”

  Hiroshi frowned, struggling to articulate his thoughts.

  Tammy answered for him. “Oh yes. My other self knew I would use martial art moves when we fought. She knew every move before I did. She would have easily beaten me if sword-wielding Hiroshi hadn’t shown up when he did.”

  “Schweinhund!” For the first time Ulrich looked forlorn. “We’re never going to get out of here, then.”

  Etsu ignored Ulrich. “We’re not going to sleep on our beds?”

  “Not before we eat something.” Hiroshi answered.

  Tammy nodded. She felt very tired. Sleepy tired. It must be way past her bedtime. It wouldn’t even help asking her friends for the time, because she had no idea what the time difference between their various countries was. Perhaps Germany was on the same time zone as South Africa. But Japan? Six hours, twelve hours difference? She didn’t have a clue. But sleep was the least of her problems, hunger and a grumbling stomach would keep her awake for hours. Food was her priority.

  Moving about two meters away from the tree trunk, she crouched down on her knees and started to clear the grass from the ground. Hiroshi handed the eggs to Etsu and went over to help by making a hole in the dark ground with the tip of the sword.

  “Be careful not to break the sword, Hiroshi,” Ulrich said. “It’s our only weapon. I’ll help with the digging. Are you looking for roots, Tammy?”

  “Yes. I’m going to be useless to you all if I don’t eat soon.”

  Ulrich joined Tammy on his knees and helped dig the hole deeper and wider. There were lots of grass and thicker plant roots being exposed as they cleared the soil.

  Etsu put the two precious eggs against the tree trunk and then she began to dig a hole a short distance from where Tammy and Ulrich were digging.

  The digging went faster than they thought it would because the soil was light and damp. Tammy knew that her fingernails would be in a poor state later, but at this moment she couldn’t give a damn. She had to eat and survive and make plans to escape from this godforsaken place.

  “Ulrich,” she spoke hesitantly to him as she worked. “Do you have a friend . . . a girlfriend back home in Frankfurt who’d be missing you . . . perhaps wondering where you are?” She glanced shyly at him, noticing tiny beads of sweat on his upper lip and the strong, soiled hands he scooped the dirt away with.

  With his head bent sideways, he looked back at her. “No one special,” he replied. “No time, I’m too busy with my schoolwork. I’m not nerdy, just busy. If I want to be a top physicist like my father, I need to work real hard. There’s not much time left for parties.” He scraped soil from his hands before continuing. “And you? Someone special in your life?”

  Before Tammy could formulate an answer there came a sound like wind through a tunnel and she stiffened. For a second she stopped digging and listened, then jumped up and rushed close to Hiroshi. He was already on his feet with the sword clutched menacingly in his hands. Combat ready.

  “Ulrich! Come closer!” said Tammy.

  Ulrich didn’t ask why. He scrambled over on all fours before standing poised, copying Hiroshi.

  “What’s going on?” he hissed, fully alert.

  “Somebody’s just lost at Snap,” Tammy said, laconically.

  In front of them, just inside the radius visible from beside the tree, appeared a man in a bright, white shirt and dark brown pants, holding a coffee mug in his left hand. At first, he appeared to be squatting, as if on an invisible chair, and for a moment appeared to be trying to stand, his body convulsing as his arms went up and out. The mug tumbled from his hand as he overbalanced and fell forward.. His white shirt turned crimson as a bloody stain spread across his
back.

  Seconds later, another man appeared behind the first, pointing a handgun at the body on the floor. He held the gun firmly in both hands. He looked around startled, saw Tammy and her friends and raised the weapon threateningly at them. Hiroshi’s sword swung back, as he stepped forward.

  Chapter Nine

  "DON’T SHOOT!” Tammy shouted, her sudden shriek stopping a startled Hiroshi.

  At the same time, Ulrich grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him, using his own body as a shield.

  Tammy’s heart pounded.

  What if the man shot Ulrich right in front of me? What if he shot them all? What if he let me live and gave me to my other self? What if I was left alone again in this horrible place?

  She peered past Ulrich at the red stain on the fallen man’s shirt. It was still expanding as she watched, soaking through the cotton. Was this a murder scene brought from earth, or were the alter egos shooting each other?

  She remembered Hiroshi had said that, in this dimension, there were no weapons. And there had been the distinctive sucking, whistling sound always heard before a real person appears. The same sound they heard when Ulrich materialized.

  She guessed that the wounded man had been playing Snap when this armed man shot him. The armed man must have been reflected in the monitor and brought here just as Hiroshi had been dragged through with his sister.

  The silence was shattered as a sheet of iron and a sliding-door appeared behind the armed man. Startled and still disoriented from the transfer, he swung around and looked at the door, waving his pistol menacingly. Above his head appeared huge sections of aluminum tubes suspended from the invisible ceiling.

  Tammy stood petrified. A growing pool of blood seeped across the grayness below the man on the floor. A twitching finger on his sprawled hand suggested he may still be alive.

  “Snap!” she heard, and looked past Ulrich at the armed man. His alter ego had appeared next to him. Tammy was now certain she was witnessing an unfinished murder scene. A murder transferred here from another world.

  She still stood dead still. Hiroshi, next to her, was also absolutely motionless, but remained clutching his sword tightly. A grimace betrayed his indecision over whether to strike at the gunman, his alter self or await events. Ulrich breathed deeply. Tammy was afraid to turn her head to look at Etsu, but guessed she was as petrified as the rest of them. They all stared at the strange scene unfolding right in front of their eyes.

  “What the hell?” the armed man cried while he looked into the face of his counterpart. Tammy estimated that the gunman was around thirty years old.

  “What’s going on? Where am I?”

  The accent was Australian, or perhaps New Zealand? Tammy thought. Then she realized he was lifting his pistol to shoot his alter ego.

  “Welcome to the Alter Ego Dimension,” the alter ego answered. “I’m your other self. Give the pistol to me. Here there are no policemen. Here nobody will ever know what you did today.” As the weapon continued to track the man’s other self, the alter ego lost its color and he backed away. “I know what you think,” it blustered. “Wait. Don’t shoot. Wait! Don’t!”

  Then the alter ego turned and ran off into the grayness.

  With total disbelief, Tammy saw the wounded man’s other self crawling from the grayness. It crawled slowly as if there was little strength left in his body. He crawled next to the wounded man and muttered softly, “Snap,” his lips barely moving.

  Then he vaporized like mist before a hot sun.

  Tammy knew that the man lying in the pool of blood had just died. And, she had no doubt; the Australian gunman was a cold-blooded killer.

  She stared at the dead man, revolted by his death, but curious about what would happen next. Would he be transferred back to earth?

  Everyone must be thinking the same, she reasoned, for still none of her friends moved. When a few seconds passed and he was still lying there motionless, Tammy felt he would stay. Would anybody even know that he was murdered, or would he be missing from earth forever? Where did his alter ego go? Did it go to earth to die there instead of him, or was it now dead, too?

  She wondered if all the missing people that were never found had been transferred here. Probably not, she reasoned, because their alter egos would have taken their place. Unless . . . unless earth people and their other selves died together here and it happened too quickly for the transfer . . .

  Again the murderer swung his pistol in their direction. Tammy peered over Ulrich’s shoulder right into the muzzle. Her blood ran cold. Should the man shoot now, he couldn’t miss. Perhaps Ulrich and she would be killed by the same shot, but it was more likely he would take out the armed Hiroshi first.

  “Please, sir, don’t shoot,” begged Tammy. “I’m Tammy Delport from South Africa. Etsu and Hiroshi are Japanese and Ulrich is from Germany. We don’t know why we’re here, but we know a bit about this place. Lower the gun and we can talk. We’ll tell you what we know . . . ” She pleaded.

  The gunman glanced about him, his eyes darting nervously from side to side. Then he seemed to relax a little, motioned Hiroshi away and slowly eased the pistol’s hammer forward. Appearing calmer, he put the weapon in his jacket pocket.

  The murderer was dressed surprisingly neat, Tammy thought as she cautiously emerged from behind Ulrich. He was dressed in a dark beige suit with a white shirt and a striped tie. Not exactly how she’d expect someone to dress to kill. The tubes and sliding doors looked like they belonged in a warehouse or shed of some type, but unfortunately nothing of the warehouse’s contents had been brought here. It was only the air conditioning’s aluminum tubes, iron panel and the galvanized iron door, that had come through.

  “Where am I? . . . Where are we?” the man inquired again. “And what the hell’s going on here? Why is there a man that looks like my identical twin? Why is he dressed exactly like me? How did . . . did I . . . float here?”

  Hiroshi sighed aloud. Tammy thought he must be getting tired of repeating the same explanation over and over again. She definitely would be.

  The man is a murderer, she thought, should they be helping him? Perhaps they should just leave him, let him fend for himself.

  It should be fairly easy for him. After all, he was armed and could obviously defend himself against the other selves in this dimension. They should definitely not share their meager food supplies, the three little birds and the two tiny eggs, with a murderer.

  Tammy spoke up to save Hiroshi the effort of explaining everything again. “You’re not on earth anymore, Mister. The man that looked like you is a copy, a duplicate of . . . yourself.” She nearly said, ‘an evil copy’. But how could something be worse than the original, when the original was a cold blooded killer?

  “He’s your alter ego. Your good self, or your bad self, or your perfect self,” Ulrich put in. “We can’t tell.”

  “Go find him,” Tammy urged the man on. “Because he will keep trying to catch and overpower you. If he succeeds, you will be kept here, in storage, in this dimension, forever. Then he’ll replace you back on earth. You need to find him and kill him. Perhaps then you’ll return to earth. From wherever you came . . . ”

  The man looked at her without any expression on his face. Then he looked at the grayness that surrounded them all, to the tree with the perfect flat leaf canopy on a five meter square hill and the incongruous chunks of warehouse behind and above him. He shook his head in disbelief.

  “The man that you shot, it was him that was transferred here. You only came through because you were standing behind him. Everything that was reflected by that man’s computer screen, or stuff that the monitor could ‘see’ as if in a photo, came with him,” Tammy paused to let the man process what he heard.

  Hiroshi then added: “That’s how it works around here. And that is about all we know.”

  “Really?” the man asked, frowning. He rubbed his chin. “I’m not on planet earth anymore? We’re not on earth?”

  “Right. My other
self called it the Alter Ego Dimension,” Tammy said.

  “The what? That’s crazy.”

  Everything was too incredible to be easily believed. Tammy looked at her friends, unsure what else she could tell him.

  “What the hell are we supposed to do here?” the man demanded.

  “Nothing,” Hiroshi said.

  It was obviously not explanation enough for the gunman, so Ulrich spoke out to keep him talking and keep him calm.

  “A person gets trapped here, forever, if his other self can overpower him. Sort of shut down, we think, like switching off a computer program. Unless you can overpower him. That’s why he ran away when he realized you were about to shoot him.”

  “So, you should go now. Catch and kill your other self. It’s your only hope,” Tammy wanted to be rid of the killer. “Go find you alter ego.”

  “But he’s got pistol,” Etsu whispered as she stepped even closer to Tammy. “We need the gun. We can shoot alter egos when we’re too weak to fight hand to hand.” She looked at the murderer and asked more loudly. “Why did you kill that man?”

  The man stared at Etsu for a few seconds.

  “I didn’t set out to kill him,” he began, pointing at the corpse. “He, Chris, was my boss. He wouldn’t give me a pay rise, just because his wife was coming on to me,” the man spread his hands and, for a moment, looked really sad. “But I didn’t want anything to do with his damned wife. The more I told him that, the less he listened. He was depressed. He even took drugs to help him, but nothing worked. The depression drove his wife further away from him. He was so miserable. The saddest man I’ve ever seen.” He looked at the body on the floor with a sad expression on his face. “So, this morning I decided to help him out of his misery. To give him the gun.” His voice tailed off as he stared at the corpse. Tammy said nothing, waiting for him to continue. “The gun went off when I got frightened . . . I didn’t mean to . . . I didn’t know he would drag me with him to. . . wherever we are.”