by Grant Pies
He pulled the rectangular object out of the cloth bag. It was constructed of a material Ransom had never seen. It appeared advanced, yet simple at the same time, with only few buttons and a couple of lights. In the center was the indented shape of a hand. He sat with the metal device on his lap, staring at it. Like most things he saw down in this vault, the device made Ransom’s hair stand on end. It made his stomach move and contort in discomfort.
Ransom felt the life draining from him. It flowed out of his body through his stab wound, and pooled on the floor. Images of Aurora and Gray flashed through his mind. As with much of his life, he hoped he was wrong. He hoped his idea of eternity wasn’t the right one. Once again, he found himself regretting the time he’d wasted holding onto beliefs that, in the end, served him no purpose other than to make him angry. Angry with the world around him. Angry with his family. Angry at the people who travelled through time and brought his ancestors here, if that were even true. He thought back on all of the moments he had missed out on because he had let bitterness seep into his life.
Ransom ran his hand along the rectangular device, fumbling with one of the only buttons. In an instant, the device flashed to life, blinking and humming. When he turned the box on, he felt the same uneasiness that had accompanied each step that led him deeper into this place.
In the distance, he heard more crazed cannibals rummage in the halls. He ran his bloody palm over the device and stared at the indented handprint. He wondered whose hand had rested here centuries ago. Maybe no one’s hand had ever touched it. He realized he was crying when a tear dripped from his face onto the box in his lap. It swirled and mixed with the blood on the box. As he ran his hand over the device, his fingers fell into the indentations. Sharp accents of pain shot through him. His body clenched, and he pressed his hand on the box to brace himself. His palm slid on the device until his hand fit firmly into the imprint. The device lit up illuminating the armory with white light, or maybe the light was just in his mind.
In a single moment, his vision disappeared, but he was still aware. It was as if his mind floated in an endless pool, or the black night sky. There were no limitations on where he could go. For a brief second he felt free and untethered. He wondered if he was dead, or dying. In that moment he left everything behind him. He left any hope of surviving his time in the vault underground. He left any hope of saving his son, or seeing his wife again. He didn’t know if he was dead, and he didn’t care. The only thing he had to look forward to was learning what eternity really felt like.
CHAPTER 64
2075
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE
The guards shouted outside the thick metal door of the armory. Vesa and I both breathed heavily. It took me only seconds to look around the room and realize we were trapped. Vesa leaned against the only door leading out of this place. I looked in the bag at the device, just to make sure the last time wasn’t my imagination. The lights on the device were lit.
“At least it’s charged,” I said.
“I told you! I told you this wouldn’t end well for us!” Vesa held her hands around her head like she was trying to push an idea out, or perhaps hold in what little sanity she had left. She shook her head as she tried to find a way out of all of this, but I knew there was no way out. This was the end. “You swore this would work. You were so confident.”
I leaned against the back wall of the armory and stared at the single egress. Rifles, knives, grenades, and other weapons that I didn’t even recognize lined the walls. Beyond the door, beyond the screaming guards who were surely planting small blocks of C-4 on the other side and running wires from the explosive clay to a detonator, beyond the winding entanglement of hallways, and the layers of cement that buried us underground—beyond all of that was the afternoon sun. The desert. The blue sky, and the thin, white clouds that cast even thinner shadows on the hardpan. I imagined I was out there. Like I could just transport myself there, like Quinn and the Golden Dawn. I shut my eyes, and for a moment I thought it might really be possible.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say, my voice barely audible over the clamoring guards outside. “I’m sorry about Whitman. I’m sorry about all of this.” I placed the bag on the floor. “I thought we could do it. I wanted to, Vesa. I really did. I’ve lost people too. They,” I said and pointed to the small explosives crew outside the armory, but I really meant the government, the Ministry of Science, or Wayfield Industries, “they took people away from me too. They took time from me. They made me into a person that I never imagined I could be.”
Now my mind drifted not to the desert outside, but to another time and place. Another desert. In the fraction of time it took me to start my next sentence, I dreamt of a lifetime in Buford. A lifetime I had lost. That the Ministry had taken from my family and me.
“I let that cloud my judgment. I let that make me more confident than I should have been. I learned some time ago that all there is in life are lies and broken promises. The only difference is the intentions behind them. Everyone is let down at some point. In the end, everyone’s life is a disappointment. I’m no different. I made promises to you that I couldn’t keep. So here we are. I don’t know what, if anything, is in store for us.”
Vesa motioned toward the door and started to speak.
“I mean what is really after all of this,” I interrupted. “After that door gets blown from the hinges and collapses. After the smoke clears and the guards capture us. After they interrogate and torture us. After they kill us or send us to New Alcatraz. That is what I’m talking about. After all of that. That is all we have to look forward to now. The after. Because what comes next, what comes before that, will be excruciating.
“Long ago, I thought maybe things would start over. Rinse and repeat. I’m not sure about that anymore. That’s the downside to immortality, the downside to this device and the Golden Dawn. Living forever stops you from moving beyond this world. You never get to see what’s next. Maybe it’s better than this.”
I heard the guards outside call out orders. Boots landed on the hard ground, and the metal clips on their gun slings clanked against their weapons. Over our heads, a bright red light spun and flashed. Vesa walked in circles around the armory, brushing her hand over the weapons. Her hand fluttered over the long rifles and knives. She stopped when she reached the small side arms. She pulled a single gun from the wall.
“It’s pointless, Vesa. If you point a gun at that door, you will be murdered before you get a round off. For every bullet you have, they have fifty.”
Vesa looked at me. She was crying. Her tears streaked through the dirt and dust coating her face.
“I know,” she said. The words were weak. Barely there. She pulled the slide back on the pistol. “You were right, Powell. I hate to say it, but you were right in the worst way.” She paused. Her hand gripped around the pistol. “Lies. That is all there is in this life.” Vesa lifted her arm, the barrel of her newly acquired gun pointing at me. My brain ran through some scenario that would make sense of this, but I couldn’t find anything.
“I lied, Powell. I lied about my brother. He isn’t dead. He is captured. Held prisoner by the Ministry of Science.”
“Oh, shit.” I sighed as everything clicked in my mind. I already knew what that meant. And part of me didn’t blame her.
“They captured him after we switched Whitman out for the other android, and they wanted me to work with my group to get this device built,” she said, pointing at the bag sitting next to me. “They knew they couldn’t do it. They needed us. If I did that, then my brother and I walked free.”
“And you believed them?” I said. “You really think either of us is getting out?”
“I have no choice. He is my brother and they have kept him captive for five years while I waited for this device to be built. He is my family. I wanted to find a way to get them the device without anyone getting hurt. I didn’t want to come here, but you kept pushing this plan. I thought I could maybe protect everyone. Get
all of us out safe but leave the device behind.” She said all of this with the gun pointed squarely at my chest. The black hole of the barrel taunted me.
The outcome of my life hadn’t changed in the last few seconds; I was still a dead man, but I was more upset about how I would get there now. The betrayal stung, and made my impending capture and death sting much more.
“You can’t give them what they want,” I said. “If they get this device, there will be no stopping them. There will be no killing them. They will jump from person to person. Mind to mind. The small group of people who matter, really matter, they will be unreachable. They will send wave after wave of armed, mindless idiots, just like the ones on the other side of this door.” I pointed behind her. “We will kill them. They will kill us. And this device will ensure that the ones causing it will live on forever.”
“I have to. They have Cooper.” She flexed her hands and her finger pressed on the trigger.
“Wait! Wait! Wait!” I screamed at the very last possible second. “Give them me,” I said and slapped my chest, mostly to see if there was a hole in the middle of it. “Give them me, and hide the device. It isn’t the device, but it’s enough to get your brother back.”
“You? What can you offer them?”
“I’m the only living person to escape New Alcatraz. You don’t think knowledge of how I pulled that off would be sought after?”
“Yeah. Time travel. No big secret there.”
“Okay.” I paused briefly to think of a second compromise, adjusting my argument like I would if I saw the slightest adverse reaction in the face of a lone juror. “Then give them my body. Not my mind. Whatever was inside of Whitman is now inside of me. I have James Wayfield’s DNA inside of me. I have the cure for dark time inside of me. That is just as valuable to them.”
“Powell, I overheard you talking to Whitman back at the motel.” Vesa shook her head. “You injected yourself with the DNA of the android I swapped Whitman out with. Not Whitman.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Whitman is captured now. As we speak, his body is being prepped for transport to be housed beneath the Denver airport with all of the other androids. He will be stored there, and in three thousand years I will inject myself with the DNA inside of that android.” I didn’t even know if this was accurate, but it was all I could come up with. “Think about it, Vesa. Whitman is captured. What’s inside of him is in me.”
“Let me use the device.”
My words shook Vesa from whatever time travel paradox debate brewed inside of her mind.
“It’s charged. Let me try it. See what happens. My body will still be here for them to take and experiment on. They can cut me open, extract DNA from me, or whatever they want. But they won’t be able to question me. They won’t learn anything about my life, how I got here, or what I have been through in the last five years. You will give them something they want. Get your brother back.”
“And your mind?” she asked. “What becomes of your mind?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but I do know it won’t fall into their hands. That’s all I care about. They can’t question me. They can’t find out about my life, or else I don’t know what would happen. Whitman didn’t even know what would happen with this device. My guess,” I said and pulled the box out of the bag, “my guess is my mind is pulled into some abyss deep inside the circuitry of this machine. My body will be a vegetable. But that’s better than handing me over to the Ministry in one piece.” I brushed my hand over the device. I tried to let my mind wander. Perhaps prepare myself for what was to come.
“My mind has travelled from my body before, back at the Golden Dawn. Maybe it’ll do it again. Maybe I’ll end up with my parents back in Buford.” I closed my eyes and pictured my old house. I pictured the broken down schoolhouse in Buford and the grass that stretched over the distant hills. “That won’t be too bad.”
“And if it just erases your mind, if it makes you a brain-dead zombie, what then?” Vesa asked.
I opened my eyes to see that she had lowered her gun to her side. All I could do was shrug.
“Then this will be where things end for me. This will be it. It’s better than turning myself over to them. At least I won’t be here to feel whatever it is they’ll do to my body.” I nodded toward the door.
The metal box was warm in my lap. It let out a soft hum, begging to be used.
“You think bringing you to them will get my brother out?” she asked.
“Honestly? No,” I said. Even after her betrayal, I felt I should be honest with her. “But I don’t think they would let him out even if you handed them both me and the device. These are not people to trust. As soon as they get this device, they won’t need you anymore. Give them something, but not exactly what they want. Earn their trust slowly. And then you will be reunited with your brother, but neither of you will ever get out. Once you get wrapped up with these people, you are trapped for life.”
I looked around the room. Next to me was a metal vent. I twisted my fingers around the screws. Once I got one of the corners loose, I pried my fingers between the vent and the wall. The vent came off and exposed a long shaft that likely twisted all throughout the facility.
“Once I use the device, hide it in here.” I proceeded to explain the plan like Vesa had already agreed to it. “Slide the bag back as far as you can, and then put the vent back. With any luck, it’ll be lost forever, or at least found years from now during their routine maintenance. The scientists back at the motel can build a new one. It’ll take them time, but they know how.”
Vesa nodded her head. She never explicitly agreed to my plan, but she seemed to go along.
I hovered my hand over the device. The warmth from it enveloped my hand, almost pulling at me, like it exerted its own gravitational force. My heart raced and pounded inside my chest. I felt my pulse throughout my whole body. The hair on my arms stood on end, and my vision blurred. Everything doubled. The sound of the guards beyond the door grew more and more muffled. The harsh, steady sound of the alarm fell into silence, and the air inside the armory stood still. Particles drifted in and out of my vision. Time seemed to slow down. Vesa watched me and braced herself for what would come next.
I could tell her body was tense. Her chest still thrusted in and out. Lines traced down her face where her tears had fallen. In all of the silence, I could hear the breath leave my body. It sounded like I was under water. I could hear noises around me, but I couldn’t define a source.
Vesa dropped the gun from her hand and stepped forward. She knelt down and wrapped her arms around me. Her body leaned into mine until I felt her heart beating against my chest. The warm device on my lap hummed between us. Vesa’s tears were damp against my cheek. She turned her head so her mouth was close to my ear.
“I’m glad you let me in your apartment,” Vesa whispered. Her fingers tensed and gripped my body. I held her face, so we could look at each other. Her piercing green eyes were red and swollen.
“Me too,” I said. “I hope we can meet again, Vesa.” I felt my own tears crawling down my face. “Good luck.”
She grinned, and sat back on the floor. Even through her grief, I knew she was still excited to see what happened. I couldn’t help but feel a touch of excitement too. I pressed my hand into the device. It felt like home. Like it belonged there all along.
The room spins and blurs. My heart races. The air around me is cold. Just as with the Golden Dawn, a pinpoint of light at some indeterminate distance appears in front of me. I brace myself for whatever comes next. This end is just as good as any other. I wish my parents could know what lengths I went to in order to keep their secret safe from the Ministry of Science. Maybe I’m wrong, and I won’t be cycled back around to relive my life. Maybe there will be an afterlife. Maybe my parents will be there.
As the room blinks, a similar feeling to when I was sent to New Alcatraz washes over me, but instead of the room blinking and turning into a future desert, it simply disappears, and is
replaced by darkness. Nothing more. The last thing I feel is a wave of energy shoot through my body, stretching out to my fingertips. My eyes are more alert than ever before and the lights in the room grow bright white until it’s blinding. I exhale and the room goes dark one final time. My mind goes blank, and then there is nothing more.
CHAPTER 65
5280
BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE
Did it not work? I thought to myself. Nothing happened. I still sat on the cold, cement floor of the armory, only the red light overhead wasn’t flashing anymore, and Vesa was nowhere to be seen. In fact, only the dim emergency lights were on. Their soft glow cast minimal shadows around me. Even the mind transfer device hummed in my lap, and the lights on it indicated a full charge. The door to the armory wasn’t blown off of its hinges by the angry agents outside, and the sound of their solid boots pounding on the ground was replaced by something else, a noise of pure madness. Sharp shrieks and harsh cackles echoed faintly beyond the armory door, like crazed animals had taken over the facility.
I stuffed the device back into the bag, and pushed my palm on the ground in an effort to slide myself up the wall I rested against. It was then that I realized my injuries were gone. The knife wound across my chest wasn’t there. My clothes weren’t even ripped. As if it never happened.
My delight was short-lived.
I glanced down to see my stomach bleeding. A piercing pain, that had until now gone unnoticed, coursed through my body, and forced me to collapse back down to the floor. I placed my hand over the bloody wound.
My hands, they were different—beaten and worn down, dirty, calloused, and covered in blood. They looked like my dad’s hands had after a long day of working in Buford. My fingers ached. One even felt broken. I balled my fingers into a fist as much as I could, marveling at this strange body part attached to my arm. I traced upwards from my hand to find clothes that weren’t mine. Some sort of homemade cloth wrapped around my arm and up my body. The clothing was a thick patchwork of burlap and animal skins. My arms were bigger. Stronger. I was not me. I was someone else.
