by Adam Moon
Alternate Neil walked them out through the front doors. A squad of six men saw them and approached. Alternate Neil said, “These reporters are with me. I want your squad to sweep Fifth and Sixth Street. I heard there are some holdouts there. Rendezvous with K-team when you’re done and then we’ll start tracking the stragglers.”
One of the squad asked, “Do we have to use the trackers or can we track them ourselves? We could use the experience.”
“Not on my watch. Use the trackers first. Once those are all accounted for, we’ll resort to other methods.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alternate Neil whispered to Neil, “Some of these assholes treat this like a war-game. There’s always some jerk who wants to make it a sport, and use infrared or night vision. They want to put up flares and chase people through the streets but I won’t allow that. If I have to do this, it will be as merciful as I can make it.”
Neil felt like rolling his eyes. If his alternate self was so opposed to it, then he should have found a way out. Then again, his alternate self had been through more hardships than he cared to imagine. He was probably made of stronger stuff than Neil was. Death surrounded him, starting with his own loved ones.
“When will this be over?”
“We try to end it before it gets too dark outside. One cleansing went late and some of the troops were caught in a crossfire and killed. We know to avoid that now. We should be making our final sweep in an hour.”
Kim spoke up. “Isn’t there an easier way to do this? Couldn’t you convince people to have less babies?”
“We’ve done that but it was too late. We had to cut the population down drastically and quickly. I know this must look terrible to you but it has made our world a better place. Sometimes the only solution is the worst solution.”
Kim started to cry and both Neil’s moved towards her. Alternate Neil realized what he was doing and stopped before he overstepped his bounds.
Neil’s heart broke for him, but he was a twisted up version of himself, undeserving of too much pity.
And then, a surreal sight appeared overhead. A craft flew across the sky and landed just a few blocks away. Neil knew he was screwed.
Alternate Neil asked, “What the hell was that?”
“It’s the dog men I told you about. That’s their ship or plane, or whatever you want to call it.”
“Are they here for you?”
“They must be.”
“I need to get you to safety then.” He keyed his radio and said into it, “We have hostile forces somewhere near Eighth and Main. Fire at will.”
Gunfire erupted nearby but Alternate Neil was leading them away from it.
And then his radio emitted screams of terror. One of his men said, “They’re aliens or something, sir. We fired into them but that just made them mad. Now they’re attacking us. What should we do?”
“Hold your ground, soldier. You’ve been trained for this.”
“I sure as hell haven’t trained to fight mutt-faced aliens but I’ll do my best. Send reinforcements.”
He barked into his radio, “I want all ground personnel to converge upon Eighth and Main with weapons ready. We’re under attack.” Alternate Neil holstered the radio and then started to jog. He yelled, “In all of the confusion, I might be able to get you out now instead of later. Hurry up.”
They chased after him. Neil saw a line of soldiers pass by at the end of a cross street. They were already firing from the hip. One of them exploded like a balloon full of jelly, spraying blood and entrails across his comrades. Then the troops turned and retreated as a single dog man gave chase. The sight of it made Neil’s heart leap into his throat. He was relieved when the dog man didn’t spot him down the street.
Alternate Neil drew his sidearm as he ran. He let off a shot to his left at something Neil couldn’t see. Then he stopped and fired again several times before jogging on.
Neil picked up Kim and carried her when she lagged too far behind. He wished he could cover her in flak jackets, or better yet, he wished he was a better dad and instead of risking her life to find Steve, he should’ve kept her out of harm’s way. He’d made many mistakes in his life but this was the worst yet. His daughter was now in the middle of a war zone and she was a target.
The dog men’s ship took to the skies again, sustaining rapid fire from the soldiers below. But it wasn’t retreating; it was simply moving on in search of Neil and his fellow travelers.
Alternate Neil slowed down and said, “Take cover in that store over there and I’ll see if the perimeter is clear. It’ll only take a minute.”
“I don’t know if we have a minute.”
Just then the ship veered towards them and landed.
Alternate Neil shoved them towards the store and joined them inside. He stammered, “What the hell do they want with you?”
“I don’t know. I think they want us to stop hopping across dimensions. I think they’re trying to kill us.”
Alternate Neil looked at Kim, the ghost of his dead daughter, and his eyes misted. “They’ll have to get through me first,” he hissed as he drew his sidearm.
The dog men burst forth from their weird ship and headed at the store front like maniacs. They were just as fearsome as the last time.
Alternate Neil raised his weapon and shot one of them dead center in the chest, knocking it backwards. It didn’t fall but it stayed behind as the rest surged onward regardless of the dangers the humans presented them. The difference was that now that the first shot had been fired, the dog men all drew weapons of their own and began to fire. The glass in the doors smashed and the windows on either side blew apart. The three humans inside backed away just as an explosive boom knocked them to the ground. The front of the store caved in from the impact and the dog men came through. Both Neil’s were down and Kim had been thrown twenty feet further back.
She got to her feet, stumbled and fell again.
She saw her dad stand and look around, dazed and oblivious to the dangers that were rushing through the door to meet them. The other Neil was feeling around the floor for his weapon. He found it and shot the closest dog man in the head. The hairy man fell over, dead, and the others took cover around the store, firing off rounds blindly.
One round hit her dad in the arm and he spun around like he’d been hit by a car, but the impact seemed to bring him back out of his fugue state. He rushed to her and grabbed her by the hand. The other Neil was firing round after round at the dog men. He yelled to them, “Get to safety. I’ll hold them off. Go! Go! Go!”
Kim acted first, dragging her still confused father through the doors and away from the mayhem. She turned in time to see the dog men set upon the other version of her dad. She wished she could do something to help him. He seemed like a nice enough man, and he’d made the ultimate sacrifice to keep them safe, but they were unarmed and in hostile territory so there was nothing they could do except run for their lives.
Her dad turned to look at the chaos within the store and tried to head back to help his other self but Kim tugged on his hand and led him away. For once, she was the parent and he was in need of a guiding hand.
He suddenly seemed to come to his senses and picked her up, jogging out of town before the dog men had a chance to regroup. In his foggy state he stumbled and headed the wrong way until Kim pointed him towards the diner.
They heard a single shot ring out that was unmistakable. It was a round fired from one of the alien guns the dog men used. As soon as the echoes died out, they saw the ship rise into the sky once more. The dog men had executed the other Neil and now they were coming to finish everyone else off.
It was a matter of life or death and Neil was running faster than he knew he could. But the diner was now in view. He picked u
p speed, running until his lungs burned.
Sandy held her breath as she watched Neil outrun a damn spaceship. He was red and sweaty by the time he crashed through the doors. He placed Kim on the floor and whipped around in time to see the ship fire upon the diner.
A moment later they vanished.
Sandy chastised Kim for leaving them to go after her dad back in town but she did it gently as Kim had gone through enough already. Then she smoothed Neil’s hair back and gave him a cloth to dab his face. She said, “Steve is alright. He was actually already here when we got back. He went the right way when we took that wrong turn in town. I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that for nothing.”
Neil nodded and said, “I’m just glad everyone is alright.”
Kara smirked and said, “We’re better than alright. We have the fuses we needed and this planet looks harmless enough for us to take some time to repair the dimensional device. I’ll get to work on it right away.”
“Good.” Neil stared at Kim and then at the floor. “I met my alternate self in town. He died so we could live.”
Everyone went silent except for Sandy who whispered, “Oh my God. What was that like? Is that why you’re dressed like a soldier?”
“Yep. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever been through. That Neil was twice the man I am.”
“I doubt that.”
He sat down in the nearest booth and rubbed his temples. He held his arm out and Kim ducked under it, hugging him around the waist. He sobbed uncontrollably. “Those damn dog men killed him.”
Sandy rubbed the back of his neck and said, “I wish I knew what those ugly bastards wanted from us.”
Kara jiggled the dimensional device in the air and said, “I’m pretty sure they want to stop us from using this.”
Neil’s head wobbled and hit the table. He jolted awake and grabbed his shoulder. The arm of his shirt was slick with blood and a ragged hole in the material didn’t bode well for the carnage awaiting him beneath the shirt. He tore the fabric further and inspected the damage. It wasn’t deep but it was gory. He’d lost a lot of blood already.
Jack and Stacey cleaned the wound and dressed it in clean rags from the kitchen. Once the blood was wiped away the wound wasn’t so bad after all.
Jim and Pam helped their daughter with the dimensional device. Steve went out to explore the new world with his sister Sandy watching his back from within the diner. Kim stared at Neil like she was sure he was dying. She kept trying to help patch him up even though he reminded her time and again that he would be alright.
As soon as his shoulder was wrapped tight, he said, “I think I need to get some rest. That world really took it out of me. Can someone come and fetch me if the dimensional device gets fixed?”
Kim said, “I’ll keep watch over you, just in case.”
He smiled and his eyes welled with tears. He took her by the hand and led her towards the hallway before anyone saw him crying again. He leaned against the wall and winced when his shoulder touched, but the pain was fleeting and the exhaustion overwhelming. He passed out with Kim nestled against his side.
Part 2
✨
Fixing the Jumper
✨
KARA STARTED WITH the smallest fuse, just to be safe. If she used a fuse that was too large then she might fry the other components, rendering the device completely useless. By starting small she was only jeopardizing the fuse. None of the fuses matched up perfectly to the ports so she tore some wiring out of a toaster oven in the kitchen that looked like it was the right gauge to link the fuse to the ports on either side of the burnt out fuse. It was hardly neat work but she was confident it would do until they found a world with solder and an iron.
The first fuse popped before she even activated the device so she brushed it aside, making sure to be careful with the next install because one of the fuse ports was live. The next fuse tingled her forefinger and thumb, popping after smoking for a few seconds. She was close to the perfect size but she had to stop herself from jumping steps. She put the next fuse in, knowing it was probably still too small, and sure enough, it popped after a full minute of smoking.
The next fuse held out for a full ten minutes, but in the end, it made a little click sound and fell apart. She was pretty sure the next size up would do the trick and her hands trembled as she wrapped the wires around either end and attached them to the fuse ports. The fuse held up past ten minutes but it would take an actual jump before she could be sure it was the perfect match. She tucked the wires in and closed the device up tight.
Her mom and dad went off to wake up Neil and Kim while Sandy called for Steve.
While she waited she turned the device over in her hands. If this didn’t work there was no telling what might happen next. And then she noticed a new readout on the once blank screen. It had a list of numbers and words.
The last entry read, World #3,441, Safe, Humans, Diverged by one decade.
The entry before that read, World 837,142, Safe with breathing apparatus and inoculations, Devoid of humans, Diverged by five centuries.
The one before that read, World #83, Safe, Humans, Diverged by three decades.
She swiped her finger against the screen and it scrolled up, revealing an even longer list. She had an idea what the readouts meant. She thought they indicated worlds they’d already visited based on the last three entries because the last world had humans, the one before it required breathing apparatus (that they didn’t have at the time) and was devoid of humanity, and the one before it had humans too. It was a hunch and there was only one way to find out for sure if she was right. But she wanted Neil’s approval before she tested it.
Neil rubbed his eyes as he walked into the dining room. “I heard you fixed it.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. We have to test it first. How’s your shoulder?”
“It hurts. I got shot, you know?”
Kara laughed. “Are you going to survive?” she asked sarcastically.
“I think I’ll live. Let me see it.”
Kara handed it over and Neil stared at it for a few seconds. “Why don’t you test it out?”
“I was waiting for your approval. We’re waiting for Steve too. Sandy’s fetching him now.”
Neil sat down heavily in the closest booth. He rubbed his temples, like it was a new habit he’d picked up from all of the stresses in his life.
Kara pointed at the readouts on the device and explained her theory to Neil; that it kept a log of all the worlds they’d visited, in chronological order. Then she pointed to an empty rectangle on the screen and said, “I think this is where we input our next coordinates. I just have to figure out how to do that.”
“We could always go back to one of the worlds we already visited. That’s how we’ll find our way home.”
“I know that, but don’t you feel like taking this baby out for a spin?”
Before he could answer, her dad said, “Maybe it’s too dangerous to experiment with. Maybe that’s why the dog men disabled it.”
That was a good point. But they had to experiment, at least a bit, if they were to get home.
Sandy closed the door behind Steve and said, “We’re all here. I hope you know what you’re doing, young lady.”
Neil said, “I trust her. Go ahead. Let’s see what your handiwork has done.”
Kara’s hand wavered, and then she felt like a fool so she hit the button. This time coordinates appeared inside the once empty rectangle on the screen. She said, “It tracked our jump and logged our last coordinates. Now I’m going to try to input one of these coordinates that we already jumped from.” She held her finger over the last entry and dragged it up into the rectangular box. She wasn’t sure it would work but
it did. When she hit the button, they jumped right back to the last world. She leapt into the air and yelped, “I think it worked. We just have to figure out which world was ours from this list.”
Jim said in a serious tone, “Don’t you think we should go back for those we’ve lost along the way? What if Larry wants to go home, or that crazy woman, Samantha who hitchhiked with us? We should help them.”
Neil opened his mouth but then he shut it and looked around at the others.
Sandy looked torn but she said, “This should be a group vote. If we decide to go after them then we can drop off whoever doesn’t want to come with us.”
Jack’s hand shot up followed by Stacey’s. Everyone turned to face them and Jack said, “That wild woman doesn’t matter to any of us. Who cares if she’s okay? And Larry will kick and scream if you try to drag him home. It makes no sense to go and get them.”
Sandy shook her head. “I think we all knew you two were going to opt out. You’ve been worthless this entire trip.”
“Do you really see this as a trip, like a vacation? Are you stupid? We’ve been through life and death situations almost every place we’ve visited. Of course we want to quit. We didn’t sign up for this shit.”
Neil finally spoke. “Then it’s settled. We’ll drop you two off home and then we’ll go and see if we can find the others. Kara, I need you to try to figure out which world we lost Samantha on and which one Harry is on. But first, let’s take Jack and Stacey home.”
Only Sandy noticed that Neil confused Larry’s name. Then again, he didn’t know Larry well and he’d recently rattled his brain. She worried about him, but he already looked stronger than before so she was hopeful he’d be alright after everything he’d just been through.
Steve started to raise his hand to join Jack and Stacey, but then he lowered it. He’d lost his mind with that wild woman and nearly did something unthinkable. And now he was worried about the others finding out what he did, especially Sandy. She would never forgive him. She would probably punch him in the eye if she found out he tried to molest a bound stranger, and then she’d cut him out of her life. She was only his half sister and they had never been close, besides when she helped him out from time to time, but he didn’t want her to know what he was capable of. The more he thought about it the heavier his guilt became, so instead he thought of what he would do if they found her. He knew he had to silence her but he didn’t know how he’d do that yet.
