by Simon Rose
“You’ll never get away with this,” said Max. “I know the truth.”
“Yes, you do, but no one will ever believe you. In this reality, Officer Jensen only knows you from when you were arrested, as does Riley. The reason you’re here is that you’re considered to be violent and dangerous and have been assigned to us here for treatment. I was also able to persuade the police to bring Julia here so that we could attempt to deal with her injuries. They’ll be informed that you escaped here in the clinic, found Julia, then finished the job that you started in the park and killed her. You’ll then be declared unfit to stand trial by virtue of insanity and sent to an institution for the criminally insane.”
“But she’s not even dead,” said Max.
“After the last extraction of her brain fluid, she’ll be dead by now for sure,” Hammond replied. “And now I need to make my final journey. Goodbye, Max.”
He turned toward the door.
“You can’t do this!” Max yelled.
He sprang up from his chair and lunged at Hammond, grabbing him by the throat. They both tumbled to the floor, as Hammond struggled to free himself from Max’s grip. Mark must have heard the commotion and burst into the room as Hammond broke away, shoving Max hard against the wall.
“Sedate him!” roared Hammond.
Before Max could struggle to his feet, Mark produced a syringe and thrust the needle deep into Max’s upper arm. The sedative’s effect was almost instantaneous.
“You can’t do this!” Max mumbled. “I’ll stop you.”
“Take him to his room and keep him sedated until at least tomorrow morning,” said Hammond, as Max felt himself fading away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A Glimmer of Hope
A THICK WHITE mist that his vision couldn’t penetrate in any direction surrounded Max once more. He appeared to be alone, but then he saw a shape in the distance ahead of him. Slowly, the shape moved closer until he could make it out clearly. It was Julia, dressed in her leather jacket and torn jeans, her hair once again long and jet black featuring the familiar red streak. Was this a ghost or a version of Julia from another reality?
“Julia?” said Max, softly. “Is that you? Are you really here?”
The figure ahead of him didn’t respond but then turned around and slowly walked away, disappearing into the mist.
“Julia!” Max yelled and ran after her, but she was gone.
He was alone again, surrounded by the mist. Then he saw something else up ahead, a blurred rectangular shape. He approached it cautiously, and when it came into a clear view, Max could see that it was a long table that might be normally found in an operating theatre. There was a body lying on the table, draped in a simple white sheet. Fearing the worst, Max approached the table. There was no discernible movement from the body and no breathing that he could determine. Max gulped as he reached for the sheet, his hands trembling. He swallowed hard as he lifted the sheet and gasped when he saw Julia’s face, utterly devoid of colour. Then Max watched in horror as Julia’s face rapidly disintegrated until only a skull remained. Max screamed, and the table along with Julia disappeared and he was once again alone.
“Max.”
He whirled around, and there was Julia, this time with shorter hair, wearing the now familiar plain white tee shirt and black jeans.
“Julia? What’s going on? Are you dead? Am I dead?”
“It’s not too late, Max,” she said, softly. “You must find me. It’s not too late.”
“I don’t understand. Where are you?”
“It’s not too late,” she repeated. “You must find me.”
“I don’t understand,” said Max. “Where can I find you?”
Julia then stepped back into the mist and disappeared.
“Julia!” he cried, his own voice echoing into the nothingness that enveloped him.
MAX AWOKE IN a room at the clinic, gasping for breath. The room had no windows but it didn’t seem to be the same one where he’d been imprisoned before. There was no chain embedded in the wall and he hadn’t been handcuffed. What the hell had he just seen? Was Julia now dead? She’d certainly seemed to be dead when he’d pulled back the sheet. But then she’d appeared again, asking him to find her. Did that mean that she was alive? Hammond had said that she was living when he’d brought her into the clinic but he’d now taken all her brain fluid, or at least as much as he needed. Was it even possible that Julia was alive? How else could she be contacting him? Unless it had all just been a dream, or even a hallucination from all the sedatives. However, he was also well aware that he’d previously been contacted by ghosts, so Max couldn’t rule out that Julia had indeed died.
At least Max wasn’t confined by the chain this time, but he still had no idea if he’d be able to get out of the clinic. He vaguely recalled Hammond saying that there was limited security that evening since Max was the clinic’s only inhabitant. But that didn’t necessarily mean that Max could get to the outside. He knew that he had to find Julia, and if she were still alive, she’d help them both to escape, somehow.
He heard the sound of a door opening in the corridor outside his room. Someone was coming, presumably to check on him if he was the only patient there. Max lay down on the bed and pretended to be asleep. He knew that he’d only have one chance to overpower whoever it was and get out of the room. Whether he’d be able to make it past the security doors and get any further was another thing altogether. The footsteps came closer. Then Max heard the sound of a key being turned in the lock. He remained still and kept his eyes closed as the door opened. When he heard the door being closed again, he briefly opened his eyes to see who it was. As he’d suspected, it was Mark. He was holding yet another syringe and needle, presumably complying with Hammond’s instructions to keep Max under sedation until the following morning. Max could hear Mark’s breathing as he stood near the door, probably studying Max as he lay sleeping on the bed. He then heard Mark approach and knew that he had to act. When Max felt Mark gently touch his wrist in order to turn his arm over for the injection, he sprang into action.
“What the hell!” Mark exclaimed.
Max swung his left leg, kicking Mark hard in the side of the head. He staggered backward and roared with rage, charging toward the bed, the syringe and needle still in his left hand. He shoved Max back and pinned him to the bed with his weight.
“Time to go to sleep again, kid,” he snarled, his left forearm firmly across Max’s chest and upper arms. “But I don’t think Dr. Hammond will mind if you have a few broken bones.”
He raised his right fist and was about to slam it down into Max’s face. Max fought back and succeeded in grabbing Mark’s wrist, forcing him to stab himself with the needle in his upper chest. Max pressed the plunger, injecting the full dose all at once.
“No!” Mark exclaimed.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell off the bed and onto the floor with a heavy thud. Before he lost consciousness, he struggled to reach for the security alert button on the cord around his neck. Max leapt from the bed and lunged for the button, brushing Mark’s hand away but couldn’t be certain that Mark hadn’t raised the alarm. Mark muttered something unintelligible, then closed his eyes and slipped into unconsciousness, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of this mouth.
Still catching his breath, Max shuffled along the floor to the opposite side of the room, leaning against the wall. He coughed, blood forming in his mouth and he spat onto the floor. Mark wasn’t moving. Max had no idea what had been in the syringe and wondered if Mark might even be dead, but there was no time to think about that. He had to get out, while he still had the chance.
IN THE CLINIC’S research laboratory, Hammond made careful preparations for his final journey. He’d already briefed Mark about his plan and had sent a message to the police that Max had killed Julia. Officers were already on their way to take Max into custody. He took care to mix the final dose of the serum, using all of Julia’s remaining brain fluid. He though
t briefly about Bethany, whom he’d last seen in another reality when he’d begun his search for Max and Julia. When he’d taken previous journeys she’d always brought him back if there was any sign of trouble or at a previously agreed time. Since he’d had the enhanced version of the serum and been able to use the mobile dispenser, Hammond had been able to undertake longer journeys. He had to admit that he’d been surprised at how long he’d been able to stay away from what he considered to be his real world. He’d travelled between several different realities, even visiting the surreal place where all realities intersected, but he assured himself that he must still be fine in the other world or Bethany would have woken him by now.
As he added the serum to the syringe, Hammond briefly contemplated going back to tell Bethany what he was planning to do, but then quickly dismissed the idea. Everything was about to change for him and nothing else mattered now. Taking a cotton swab, he quickly cleaned the area of his inner forearm where he planned to inject himself, and then went over to lie down on the operating table. It felt odd that the nearby monitors were silent and that Bethany was absent but this time he really didn’t need her. In less than a minute, his body wouldn’t exist in this reality and he wasn’t coming back. Hammond took a deep breath, inserted the needle into his skin and pressed the plunger. He soon felt himself beginning to fade away before his body vanished completely from the laboratory.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Last Exit to Nowhere
ONCE MAX HAD recovered a little, he considered his options. According to what Hammond had said before he’d left, Mark was the only person on duty that night, yet Max had to assume that there would always be some form of security in place at the clinic, in case of emergencies. Mark could have alerted someone before he passed out and they could be on their way. Max knew that he couldn’t waste any more time. Getting to his feet, he walked over to where Mark still lay on the floor and removed the security pass from the clip attached to the cord around his neck. Max turned to leave but then also ripped the medic alert cord from Mark’s unconscious body before he left the room, just as a precaution.
Mark hadn’t locked the door after he’d entered and Max didn’t bother to lock the door as he left. If Max’s previous experiences with the drugs were any indication, Mark would be out for quite a while. Max stepped out into the corridor, unsure which way he needed to go. Fortunately, there were no cameras on the walls or on the ceiling but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be some kind of surveillance in other parts of the clinic. This wasn’t the same room where he’d been held in the other reality, and this time there were secure doors at either end of the corridor. Which one was he supposed to take?
Max was suddenly startled by the appearance of Julia’s green eyes in his mind. Her voice was faint this time, as if she were fading away.
“This way.”
That was all Max heard, but it was enough, somehow, to identify the appropriate door. He ran to the one on his left and swiped the security pass to open the door. It led into another corridor and Max ran until he reached an intersection at the end. At first there was no further communication from Julia but then he sensed something that he couldn’t describe. He knew where she was.
Max was shocked when his surroundings began to shimmer. No, not when he was this close! If the barriers between realities broke down now he might never find Julia again. The shimmering abruptly ceased but he knew that there was no telling when it might start again and then the entire reality would dissolve.
At the intersection there were three ways to go, yet Max instinctively seemed to know which direction was correct. He took the hallway to his right, running along it past a number of doors until he reached one that wasn’t locked. Hurrying inside, he found himself in a small research laboratory. A workstation to his left had a variety of drawers, cupboards, and a wide sink. There were also a couple of microscopes standing beside racks of empty test tubes and glass jars and a widescreen TV attached to the wall above the counter. On the right side of the room, there were separate workstations equipped with keyboards and computer monitors, although none of them were operative. Two of the monitors were connected by wires and cables to medical equipment surrounding an operating table located in the centre of the room. There was a shallow metal tray attached to one side of the table. It contained a single syringe and hypodermic needle, the tube empty of its contents. There was no sign of Hammond.
There was another door at the back of the room, and Max approached it warily, terrified of what he might find. He’d relied almost on instinct to get him this far. He hadn’t heard Julia’s voice recently. Could she really be dead? He reached the doorway and peered inside. In the small room there was a bed on which lay a body, the head and face covered by a white sheet. Max cautiously approached the bed, his hands trembling just as they’d done before as he gently pulled back the sheet. He gasped when he saw Julia. This time she had shorter light brown-hair but her face was still deathly white, just as it had been in his vision, and she wasn’t breathing. Max was about to take a step back but was shocked when Julia suddenly snapped open her eyes and gasped as she inhaled deeply.
“Oh, my God, Julia!” he exclaimed. “Julia, are you okay?”
He gently caressed her head as she closed her eyes again.
“Max?” Julia murmured. “Max, is that you?”
She could barely open her eyes. Her face had regained some of its colour but she remained very pale.
“Yes, it’s me. Thank God you’re okay.”
He helped Julia to sit up on the bed.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Hammond’s clinic,” Max replied. “In yet another universe.”
“I was with you,” she began. “Where all the realities intersect and he came out of nowhere. He injected me with something and that’s the last thing I remember.”
“He brought you here to take all your brain fluid and locked me in a room. When he left me, he didn’t expect you to still be alive.”
“Neither would I, if he’d taken all that fluid,” she said. “I can’t explain it, except that maybe it’s my ability to absorb pain that somehow allowed me to survive.”
“You came to me in a vision,” Max explained. “I saw you dead.”
“Maybe I was fighting for my life and that’s what you picked up on?”
Max nodded.
“Maybe. You said it wasn’t too late, that I should find you.”
“Well, I’m glad you did, Max,” she said, forcing a smile. “What are you doing here at the clinic though?”
“I’m going to be accused of your murder,” said Max.
“What?” said Julia. “But that doesn’t make any sense.”
“Hammond brought me to a reality where you were found badly injured in Castlegate Park, and he then planted all the evidence there to accuse me of beating you,” said Max. “He’s told the police that I escaped and killed you here. They’re going to declare me insane, and I’ll be in here until I’m sent to an institution for the rest of my life.”
“But how did you get out of your room?”
Max quickly explained what had happened with Mark and how, as far as he knew, there was no one else working at the clinic that night.
“Mark could have called for help,” he added. “I’m not sure if I grabbed his alert button in time.”
“And where’s Hammond now?”
“He’s gone, to that perfect world that he wants to stay in. He also said something about destroying all his other selves in the different realities once he had all your fluid to use in a last dose of the serum.”
“But that could destabilize everything,” said Julia, in horror. “He can’t merge all his other selves together.”
She got up from the bed but could hardly stand. The room began to shimmer again.
“Oh my God,” she said. “It’s already started.”
“We have to get back,” Max insisted, as the shimmering abruptly stopped. “Everything’s falling apart, just li
ke you said it would. It’s sure to start again. Then everything will dissolve. I’ve already seen it, when I was with Kane. We have to go, to the reality where we were after defeating Kovac and Kane.”
Julia shook her head.
“We can’t, at least not together. I don’t exist there, remember? And my being in that world was what started all this. Our changing the timelines was also what allowed Hammond to prove his theories.”
“What does it matter now?” said Max, in desperation, as the shimmering briefly returned and then stopped again. “Soon there might not be anything left.”
“I can’t, Max. My powers have gone. Somehow, I managed to repair myself after Hammond took the fluid but I don’t feel the same. I can’t move between realities anymore. He took that ability away from me. There’s only this reality for both of us now, even if it might not exist for much longer.”
“I can’t believe that,” said Max. “You contacted me. You must still have some power. Can you at least try to get us back to the place where all the realities intersect? Then we can travel to those places where we were safe, even if we can’t go together. Can you at least do that?”
“I don’t know, Max. I really don’t.”
They heard the sound of voices in one of the corridors. One of the security doors was being opened.
“What was that?”
“Mark must have alerted someone!” said Max. “They’re coming for us. Julia, please. You have to try this.”
“But there’s no guarantee we’ll end up in the place where everything intersects, whether we’re together or separate. You could end up back with Kane, and so could I. Or I could even just cease to exist like I was supposed to before. Or that could happen to both of us if my powers aren’t strong enough.”
