by D. L. Orton
As I hike up the mountain, I use a small hand ax to notch the sides of the trees, marking the trail back to camp. When I get up to the ledge, I cut down a pine bough and use it to sweep the dusting of snow off my pathway—the parallel lines of snow I crawled through last night still visible. Then I start lining the pathway back to the wall with rocks.
By the time I reach the end, the sun is overhead and I’m sweating hard.
“Beats freezing to death.”
I shimmy along the wall and peek around the corner of the tunnel. When I wave my jacket in the open space, nothing happens.
“Good.”
As I approach the blast door, the tunnel lights come on and the panel flashes red.
“Come on,” I say as I place my palm against the pad. “I need you to be here today.”
The computer barely has time to tell me “Security has been alerted.” before Jimbo’s smiling face fills the screen.
“Thank goodness,” I say, incredibly happy to see him. “I was worried about you. What happened? I waited for you all afternoon yesterday.”
He’s dancing around so much that the screen keeps getting blurry. “I figured out how to get you in, doc! How to work the airlock!”
“You did? That’s great news. How soon can I come inside?”
“Well,” he says, plopping down in the chair, “I have to cycle the lock by hand. It may take a while to get the inner door to open, but if you use the viracide gun, I think we can do it—even if it costs me some clean air.”
“The viracide gun?” I say, wondering how crazy he really is. “What is that?”
“Something my son and I cooked up while we were sitting on our butts in here.”
“You and your son invented a gun?”
“Well, mostly him. I just soldered the wires. We used it to kill the Doomsday virus back when this whole section was contaminated.”
“The Doomsday virus was inside?”
“Yeah, but we killed ’em all with the Ray Gun. Wasn’t hard. We just had to find the right frequencies—and believe me, we had plenty of time to figure it out.”
I nod, but I’m getting a bad feeling about this. “How does the Ray Gun work?”
“It’s ultrasonic. It uses high-pitched sound waves to vibrate the—what is the word?— the outer shell of the virus…”
“Capsid?” I say, surprised by his knowledge of genetics.
“Yeah, capsid. That’s the word. The viracide vibrates the capsid at resonant frequency until it tears the virus apart, rendering it harmless.” He looks up at me. “But it doesn’t hurt anything else. You can’t even feel it killing the little buggers. Works every time—at least it did the last time we tested it.”
“When was that?”
“Oh ten, twelve years ago, but the concept is sound.” He smiles. “Get it? The concept is sound.”
I force a laugh. “Good one.”
His face falls. “It wasn’t that funny, was it?”
For once in my life, I wish I were better at lying. “I’m sorry. Maybe when all my friends are safe, you can try it out on me again?”
“Yeah, sure. I understand.” He shrugs. “Do you still want to come inside?”
“Yes, I do.”
He gets an uncomfortable look on his face.
“Is everything okay in there? You didn’t… lose Benny or anything?”
“No, Benny’s fine.” He turns the camera so I can see Benny running on a wheel. “He’s exercising now—which is what I should be doing. I mean if I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Thanks for helping me, Jimbo. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
He half smiles and then looks down at his hands.
“What is it? Is there something wrong?”
“My name’s not Jimbo.” The corner of his mouth twitches. “In fact, the only person who ever called me Jimbo was Agent Dick, and he just did it to annoy me.” He glances away from the camera. “He was one of the first ones to go loco. Put on a space suit and walked out the front door. No one tried to stop him, least of all me. We thought he’d be back when his O2 ran low, but we never saw him again.” He exhales. “That was back before the power went off.”
“I see.” I shift my weight, imagining that skull tumbling down the mountainside. “How soon can you let me in?”
“Well, I could start right now if you’re ready? Did you bring me any coffee?”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, but I’ll do my best to get you some if you help save me and my friends.”
“Okay,” he says. “That’s a fair trade. Are you ready? Once I open the blast door, you’ll only have a few seconds to get inside.”
I consider going back to the tent to let the Bub know what’s happened, but I decide it’s not worth the risk of losing Jimbo or whatever his real name is—or having him change his mind.
“I’m ready,” I say. “What do I need to do?”
“Just come in once the door opens and bring your stuff. There isn’t a video screen in the airlock, but there’s an intercom so we’ll be able to talk.”
“Okay,” I say. “What happens if we can’t get the inner door to open? Would I be trapped in the airlock?”
He thinks about that for a minute, his nose scrunched up. Then he rubs his hand across his beard. “I’m not sure,” he says. “It’s possible you could be stuck forever.”
“There’s no other way out?”
“Not that I know of.”
The prospect of dying in there is not very appealing, but what other option do I have? “Are you sure you can get the inner door open?”
“Pretty positive,” he says. “But I won’t know for certain until I try.”
I hesitate.
“My wife always said a ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.”
“Smart woman, your wife. What happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” he says, his voice a whisper.
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugs. “She probably died when the virus mutated, same as everyone else.”
I take a deep breath and exhale, trying to decide what to do.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I’ll get you through the airlock one way or another.”
“Okay,” I say, making up my mind. “I’m ready.”
“I’m starting the sequence now.”
I can hear gears turning, and a moment later, the huge door starts to pivot open. “It’s working!” I say. “The door’s opening!”
“Knew it would,” he says. “This place is built to last for centuries. If we can get the power back on, there’s even a bowling alley.”
I laugh.
“And doc?”
“Yes?” I pick up my stuff and move toward the gap that’s opening behind the blast door.
“My real name is James,” he says, sounding far away. “James Nadales.”
His words stab me like a katana. “Oh my God. It’s… you.”
“I guess you were hoping for someone else?”
I don’t know what to say.
“You still want to come in?”
“Yes, of course, James.”
“Okay. See you on the other side.”
23
Cross That Bridge
Diego
I sit on my ass in the C-Bay equivalent of jail for two days, my only contact with humanity the guy who drops off my food tray twice a day.
So far, our conversations have been pretty deep: me begging him to let me talk to Kirk and him saying “Breakfast” or “Dinner.”
On the morning of the third day, Soleil walks up carrying my breakfast tray, Mr. Blabbermouth on her heels.
“You gonna behave?” the guard asks me.
“Yeah,” I say and rub my hand across my scruffy chin. “Right up until King Claudius has me murdered.”
The guard doesn’t look amused. “Give a holler when you’re done, Dr. Nadales.” He lets her in and then locks the door behind her.
“Thanks,” s
he says, holding on to the tray like it’s a life preserver on the Titanic.
We both watch the guard walk away.
There’s a jangle of keys and a clank as he locks the outer door.
“Thanks for coming,” I say to fill the silence.
She stands, her back to the steel bars and her gaze on my breakfast. “I apologize for striking you in the face. It was… unprofessional. I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the better of me.”
“I’m sorry for snooping in your office,” I say and take the tray she’s holding. “I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the better of me.”
She presses her lips together and nods, looking like her mother.
“What do you say we call it even,” I say, “and start again?”
She looks up at me, her eyebrows knitted together. “If you don’t mind, I would prefer to skip the part where you show up unexpectedly at dinner impersonating my dead brother and scare the shit out of me.”
I suppress a smile. “Okay.” There aren’t any chairs, so I use one hand to tidy the blanket on my bunk. “Please. Sit down.”
She stands there, looking ill at ease.
“I promise I won’t bite.”
She sits down on the edge, her hands in her lap. “Why did you say all that stuff about the Magic Kingdom being under the ground?”
“Your mother told me about Lucas,” I say and sit down next to her. “She also told me you had… unusual dreams.”
“Did she also tell you she put me on antipsychotic drugs that turned me into a zombie?”
“No, she didn’t,” I say, wanting to put my arm around her, but afraid she’ll push me away. “She told me how worried she was about you.”
She takes a deep breath and lets it out.
“Do you still have the dreams?”
She shakes her head, her eyes downcast. “Not since Lucas died.”
I give her a confused look. “So you had the dreams before the car accident too?”
“No,” she says. “Lucas survived the crash. And so did Dad.”
I stare at her, all sorts of thoughts racing through my head. A lot of the details are altered—from the twins’ birth, to the car accident, to the arrival of the sphere—but in all the universes, the theme is the same: Someone wants me to disappear. “Tell me what happened after the car accident.”
“I started having dreams,” she says. “Maybe more like visions. Lucas and I always had some sort of… connection, and sometimes I could see what he was seeing, hear what he was hearing. At five years old, I thought it was perfectly normal—until I realized that no one else had those sorts of dreams.”
She hides it well, but I can still see the pain. “That must have been rough,” I say.
“Mom started taking me to a psychiatrist. The woman listened to my stories, decided I suffered from trauma-induced hallucinations, and tried to convince me I was imagining everything. I told Mom I didn’t want to talk to that lady anymore, that she made me say things that were untrue—like ‘Lucas and Daddy are dead.’ But Mom just cried and then sent me back to her.”
“She probably didn’t know what else to do,” I say.
“I trusted Mom,” Soleil says, her lips pressed together. “I assumed she was trying to help me…”
“I expect she was.”
She turns, her eyes flashing. “But she never listened to what I said. She insisted I was sick and that the drugs would help.” She exhales, the emotion draining out of her face. “Eventually I learned to keep my mouth shut, but by then it was too late.”
“Too late for what?”
“To save Lucas.” She drops her gaze. “I thought I was going crazy, that Mom and Uncle Dave and the psychiatrist might be right. But I knew things that were impossible to know.”
“Like what?”
“Like Lucas and Dad were trapped inside an underground city. And later, that Lucas was sick and needed help. No one believed me, but I knew it was true.”
“I believe you,” I say. “That city inside a cave is the Magic Kingdom.”
She stares at me for a moment. “Are you sure? Or is this your way of getting me to take you there?”
“It’s the truth. I was kidnapped and locked inside that mountain too—although it was years later. There are apartments, a hotel, laboratories, and offices—even a bowling alley and a rec room with a ping-pong table and some old video games. The buildings are spread around a big—”
“—lake,” she says, her face going pale. “But you weren’t allowed to drink the water.”
I nod, my chest tight.
She closes her eyes, her lips pressed together. “So I’m not crazy.”
“No. Not even close.” I rest my hand on her arm, and she doesn’t pull away. “How certain are you that Lucas and your father survived the crash?”
She shrugs. “I’m psychotic, remember?”
I laugh. “Join the club.”
A smile flits across her face but is quickly replaced by something darker. “So who are you?”
“Your father from another universe, one where things played out differently.”
One of her eyebrows rises precipitously.
“Trust me, you don’t have the market cornered on crazy. There have been plenty of times when I’ve doubted my own sanity. But just like you, I know things I shouldn’t.”
“So what happened to Lucas?”
I hesitate, struggling to say the words aloud. “In my world, you and your brother were stillborn.”
She nods, but I can see the disappointment.
I give an uncomfortable laugh. “You know that first day we talked—and I couldn’t stop staring at you? It’s because I couldn’t come to grips with the fact that it was actually you.” I try to clear the lump in my throat. “Christ, I’d held your tiny body in my hands, buried you in the dirt, and hated myself for letting it happen. And yet there you were.” I look over at her. “And here you are.”
She reaches over and takes my hand.
“The loss nearly killed your mother,” I say, fighting back my emotions. “And I still dream about that night—still wish there was something I could have done to save you and Lucas.”
I spend a minute looking at her, memorizing the way my daughter would have looked had she been given the chance to grow up.
She blinks, her lips pressed together.
“As far as I’m concerned,” I say, “the best thing about this universe is that you’re in it.”
She gives a self-conscious laugh and then pulls her hand away. “Do you know what happened to Lucas and my father—I mean in this universe?”
“If it’s anything like what happened to me, they were probably taken to the Magic Kingdom—just as you dreamed. But beyond that, I don’t know.”
We sit in silence for a bit, lost in our own worlds.
“How is the vaccine coming along?” I ask. “Have you made any progress?”
“Some. You’ll be happy to know that you were right: The biotechs only work on one person, and your DNA footprint is encoded in their little brains.”
“It sounds like you’re making headway.”
She nods. “I have the biotechs isolated in saline solution now—which makes it much easier to tinker with them.” She hesitates.
“What is it?”
“I’ve come up with a way to replace their target genome.”
“You have?” I can barely contain my excitement. “That’s awesome, Soleil. You’re almost there!”
“Not really,” she says, wincing. “The host’s immune system starts destroying the biotechs the moment they’re introduced into the bloodstream. I just started tests with the live virus, and the immunity only lasts for a few minutes.”
“But still, that sounds like great progress, ” I say, feeling a little deflated but still hopeful.
“I guess it is—except there’s no way to create new biotechs. All I can do is take the ones already in your blood and trick them into protecting someone else—and twenty minutes later, I ha
ve to start all over again.”
“You need to go to the Magic Kingdom, to the lab where the biotech was engineered.”
“Once it’s safe.” She glances at me and then drops her gaze. “Right now, I need more of your blood.”
“And you’re welcome to it.”
She gives me the eyebrow. “As long as you don’t do something stupid like getting yourself killed.”
“I need to get back to the Magic Kingdom, Soleil. The sooner, the better.”
She sighs. “I can’t let you out, Diego. Uncle Dave would be furious.”
I rub my face with my hands. “You saw the note. My world is on the line. I have to get back before it’s too late.”
“Why?” She looks up at me, her eyebrows furrowed. “Why do you need to go there?”
I exhale and then sit down next to her again. “There’s a time machine inside. The same one that brought me here. I’m convinced it can transport me home.”
“Even if I believed that,” she says, “it makes no sense to go there until the power is back on.”
“For all we know, it could be as simple as throwing a breaker. If you fly me out there, it could take ten minutes.”
“Or it could take ten months.”
“If it’s anything like the one in my world, it was designed to last decades—centuries even. I bet all I need to do is switch the power back on. If you’ll help me get there, I’m sure I can figure out what’s wrong. I’ve been there before. I know it like the back of my hand. Please.”
“I’m sorry, Diego. I really am, but I’m on the brink of a breakthrough that could mean life or death for thousands of people. If you leave now, you would be condemning what’s left of mankind to a short and grim future. Uncle Dave doesn’t want it to get out, but he thinks the Bub will collapse in as little as a month, and Catersville is unlikely to survive the year. Even C-Bay is degrading faster than anyone expected. I know you feel I’m being unfair to you, but try to see if from our side.”
“Come with me! There’s bound to be a treasure trove of information inside, maybe even the complete instructions on how to build the bionano from scratch.”
“Or there could be nothing,” she says, looking over at me and frowning. “And we’ll have wasted weeks or even months trying to get into the place. From what you’ve told me, your world played out very differently from this one, and that means you don’t know what’s inside the mountain any more than I do.”