by Simon Rose
“Isn’t anywhere better than this?” said Max.
He grabbed both her hands tightly.
“Focus, Julia! It’s our only chance!”
She closed her eyes and her brow furrowed. She looked to be in pain and almost crushed Max’s hands in hers.
“We have to go, now!” said Max. “Julia!”
The last thing Max saw was three men bursting through the laboratory door and racing towards them before everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Family Man
HAMMOND APPEARED IN the same location as before, standing on the driveway beside the blue car. Quickly examining his surroundings, everything in the neighbourhood appeared to be exactly as he’d expected. He also felt no disorientation or any ill effects from the enhanced serum as he arrived. His heartbeat and pulse were normal and even the slight discomfort he’d sometimes experienced on previous journeys was absent. This time he walked straight up to the front of the house and opened the door.
He heard the sound of voices coming from the kitchen. On top of the oak cabinet, the framed photographs of his wife and children portrayed them as older than the age at which they’d died. He smiled. Finally, he was really home, and this time it was for good.
He walked over to the doorway that led into the kitchen. Once again, Madeleine and Abigail were baking and Noah was busy at the table with his colouring book.
“Oh, hi,” said Madeleine. “I never heard you come in.”
“Hi, Dad,” said Noah, barely looking up.
“Dad!” exclaimed Abigail, running over to him.
Hammond hugged her and smiled.
“I didn’t know you’d be home early?” said Madeleine. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes,” Hammond replied, as Abigail returned to helping her mother over by the stove. “Everything’s fine now.”
As his wife smiled, Hammond clearly recalled the unimaginable pain he’d experienced in his chest on his previous visit to this reality. This was the point at which he’d abruptly returned to Bethany at the clinic but this time he felt perfectly fine. He was even beginning to remember things from his current reality, including how he’d managed to avoid a potentially fatal car crash that would have killed his family several years earlier. There were other memories too, of vacations, birthdays, and Christmas celebrations, all the things that he’d missed in the other world in which he’d been forced to live for so long. Hammond wondered if he’d forget his other life or if those memories would always be with him, rather than vanishing from his mind completely.
“You seem a little preoccupied,” said Madeleine. “Is everything okay at the clinic?”
“Yes, it’s all good,” he replied, smiling as he stepped over to the kitchen window.
In the bright afternoon sunshine, the back garden wasn’t quite exactly as he remembered it from before the accident, but the wooden gazebo was there in the corner, along with the children’s swing set, slide, and trampoline. The garden’s shrubs were a little fuller and the trees were slightly taller. There were even a couple of newer trees that Hammond now recalled planting with Noah the previous summer. For a fleeting second, he felt a little dizzy, which he attributed to effect of the memories from this timeline steadily seeping into his brain. He suspected that he might experience similar sensations as things settled down before everything would presumably merge relatively seamlessly.
He was about to turn back to face his family when he noticed something odd at the entrance to the gazebo. There was a slight shimmering haze in the air and he thought that he saw something inside the structure. The haze quickly disappeared but then he saw two figures emerging from the gazebo. It was Madeleine and Abigail. Hammond whirled around in alarm. His wife and daughter were in the kitchen right in front of him, along with Noah, who was still sitting at the table.
“Alastair,” said Madeleine. “What is it?”
He didn’t respond but turned back to the window, through which he could now see himself and Noah planting a tree on the back lawn. Hammond looked back over at the gazebo, where there were now two versions of Madeleine and Abigail. These then began to rapidly multiply, as did the image of himself and Noah standing beside the newly planted tree. The landscape in the view from the window was being transformed too, as different versions of the back garden appeared from nowhere and quickly began overlapping each other.
Hammond turned back toward the kitchen and to his horror saw the same phenomenon, as multiple copies of his family continued to form and overlap. Madeleine and the children were talking to him simultaneously, as countless versions of their voices all merged together. Hammond could even see images of himself appearing at high speed, showing him entering the house and also at different stages as he walked from the front door to the kitchen. All the potential realities that could ever exist were combining and there was no way to stop it. Not only that, the countless memories from an infinite number of parallel worlds were flooding into Hammond’s brain, the pace increasing until he felt as if his head was about to explode. Even his surroundings inside the house started to blur and then dissolve as everything disintegrated into everything else. Hammond screamed, his own voice instantly being replicated by the multiple versions of himself.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Unexpected Developments
AT HIS DESK in his office at Mountain View Hospital, Douglas Eastwood was about to shut down his computer and head home for the day when his assistant knocked on the door.
“Dr. Eastwood, there are a couple of people here to see you.”
“Who is it?” he asked. “I was just leaving.”
“They’re police officers.”
“Police officers? Is this about that Jane Doe we had here?”
His assistant shrugged.
“They wouldn’t tell me,” she replied. “They said that they need to speak to you.”
“Okay, show them in, I guess.”
His assistant turned back to the reception area. Eastwood heard her speak to someone before a man and a woman, both in their mid-thirties, arrived at the office door.
“Come in, please. I’m Douglas Eastwood,” he said, as he stood up.
“Good afternoon, Dr. Eastwood,” said the woman. “I’m Detective Linda Gibson and this is Detective Nicholas Spencer.”
They all shook hands and Eastwood invited the detectives to sit down.
“Is this about the Jane Doe that was admitted?” Eastwood asked. “I realize there are going to be further inquiries but I’m afraid she’s been transferred to a private clinic where she’ll be better cared for.”
“I’ll come straight to the point, Dr. Eastwood,” said Gibson. “We’re investigating the deaths last year of two women who were in your care here at the hospital. A few questions have been asked about the circumstances of their deaths, and there appear to have been some inconsistencies with some of the paperwork issued by Mountain View Hospital.”
“Okay,” said Eastwood, attempting to remain calm. “I’ll be happy to provide you with any information that might be of help.”
“We’ve also reopened our investigation into the death of Elvira Callas, who I believe worked with you here,” Spencer added.
“Yes, that’s correct,” said Eastwood. “She had a car accident, so terrible for her family. I wasn’t aware that the police were involved.”
“How well do you know Dr. Alastair Hammond?” asked Gibson. “And Dr. Suzanne Bethany? We’re obviously aware of some connections between Dr. Hammond’s clinic and the city’s hospitals and within the medical community, but wondered how closely you might work with them.”
“I know them, of course,” Eastwood replied. “And they spend some time here, but I wouldn’t exactly say that I work closely with them.”
“Are you also acquainted with Anthony Krieger?” Gibson asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Eastwood.
“Really? I thought you might know him,” said Gibson. “He was the manager at the Oa
kbriar Crematorium. I’m sure that there would sometimes have been some traffic from here to there, but perhaps you’d never be directly involved in things like that.”
“Yes,” said Eastwood. “Yes, that’s right, I, I wouldn’t be that closely involved.”
Gibson smiled.
“Perhaps we should continue this discussion at our office, Dr. Eastwood?” she said.
“At your office?” said Eastwood, trying not to panic. “But my wife, she’s expecting me. We have plans for this evening.”
“You can call her, once we get there,” said Spencer. “Hopefully this won’t take too long.”
BETHANY HAD CONTINUED to monitor Hammond since she’d first administered the serum. He’d never been gone for this long before but the equipment monitoring his vital signs had given her no cause for concern. She’d been worried that there was considerable risk attached to enhancing the serum but so far, at least, her fears appeared to have been unfounded. She had to assume that Hammond either hadn’t located the children yet in the reality that he’d first visited or was still traveling between different worlds searching for them. He had the mobile dispenser, which had disappeared from his hand the instant that the serum had taken effect. It was with him in another world and he should be able to use it to get back safely at a time of his own choosing. She accepted that Hammond might be unable to return to her for some reason but she had no way of knowing that for sure. According to all the monitoring equipment, he was perfectly fine. She’d simply have to wait until he was ready to come back.
Suddenly, all the monitors registered an abrupt change. Hammond’s pulse rate began to quicken and his blood pressure was rapidly rising. His breathing was getting faster and faster. It seemed as if he was starting to have convulsions. Bethany could hardly believe what she was seeing. All the readings were moving almost off the scale. Everything had been going fine, it had all happened so fast. She had to bring him out of it. As soon as she’d done so, Hammond unexpectedly sat upright on the bed.
“No!” he screamed.
He stared wide-eyed at Bethany and swung out his arm, sending her crashing to the floor, along with the nearest monitor. Hammond continued to scream and babble incoherently as he frantically tore at the tape attaching the cables and tubes to his body.
He leapt off the bed, shaking his head repeatedly as he looked all around him, not seeming to know where he was. Bethany tried to stand but Hammond lashed out at her again, hitting her in the face, and she fell back to the floor. She crawled in the direction of the alarm but Mark and one of the other staff members had heard the commotion and rushed into the lab.
“Dr. Hammond?” said Mark. “Dr. Hammond, are you all right?”
“No!” Hammond roared. “It’s all the same! It’s all mixed together! No one could take this! No one!”
He lunged at Mark, who dodged as his colleague tried to grab Hammond, but he fought back furiously. He swung punches and aimed kicks as the three men struggled together.
“Dr. Bethany!” Mark yelled, once they’d finally pinned Hammond to the floor. “What do we do?”
“We have to sedate him!” she yelled. “Use anything we have to stop him!”
She got to her feet and quickly grabbed one of the syringes from the nearby counter. Hammond was still shouting and now had tears in his eyes and was foaming at the mouth.
“Hold him!” yelled Bethany.
She plunged the needle into Hammond’s upper arm and depressed the plunger, giving him a full dose of the most powerful sedative that she had available.
“There’s no world at all! It’s all the same!” Hammond shouted. “They’re gone! Gone!”
His voice grew fainter as the drug quickly took effect.
“There’s no time, or place, there’s no anything,” he mumbled, until his head finally slumped to his chest.
“What happened?” said Mark.
“I don’t know,” Bethany replied. “He was out for much longer this time. He may have experienced something in one of the other worlds.”
“Was it the serum?” asked Mark. “You said you were going to enhance it, but you were worried that it might not be safe.”
Bethany shook her head.
“No, I was constantly monitoring him. There was no sign that anything was wrong until just now.”
“Well, he’s still breathing anyway,” Mark added, wincing a little as he rubbed his jaw.
“Get him to one of the private rooms,” said Bethany. “And post security at all the nearby doors. Make sure he’s restrained and that his mouth is covered so that he can’t make any noise. We’ll also have to keep him continually sedated until we can sort this out. Let’s get him over to the bed.”
Mark turned to his colleague.
“Are you okay, Steve?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I almost lost a couple of teeth but I think I’ll be fine.”
Mark smiled.
“Okay, give me a hand.”
Bethany helped Mark and Steve lift the unconscious Hammond onto the bed. As she watched them wheel Hammond out of the lab, she had no idea what she was going to do. During previous sessions using the serum, especially in the early days, there had been a few issues when she’d had to bring Hammond back early, but that was to be expected since they were still testing the theories. There had been a problem too the first time that they’d used the girl’s fluids to enhance the serum. Hammond had almost died on that occasion. Yet although she’d had misgivings about this latest mission, the equipment hadn’t detected anything in all the time that Hammond was gone. It had to be something he’d seen or experienced in one of the other universes, but what had happened to him? And was it something that could be fixed? She was about to study the details that the equipment had recorded just before Hammond had woken up and gone berserk when a voice came over the wall intercom.
“Dr. Bethany,” said the receptionist.
Bethany walked over to the intercom and pressed the button.
“Yes,” she said, still a little breathless. “What is it?”
“Can you come to the front please?”
“Not right now, Elise, we’re very busy back here.”
“Officer Jensen is here to see you.”
Jensen, thought Bethany. Why does that name seem familiar?
“Dr. Bethany?” said Elise. “He said it won’t take a moment. He said to remind you that he was here before, with the young boy that was attacked by the patient that escaped from the hospital.”
Of course, thought Bethany. It was the police officer that had brought Max Garrison over to the clinic when they were trying to assess if he knew the girl. What did he want? She quickly straightened her hair in the mirror and wiped some blood from her cheek. Satisfied that she looked presentable, she put on her glasses and made her way to the front reception area.
BETHANY STEPPED THROUGH the security doorway to find Officer Jensen waiting beside the front desk. A man in a dark business suit stood facing the tropical fish tank.
“Officer Jensen,” she said, smiling. “It’s so nice to see you again. What can I do for you?”
She then glanced over at the front doors and saw a number of police cars and vans parked outside. There also seemed to be quite a few uniformed officers walking around the grounds of the clinic.
“What’s going on?” said Bethany.
The man in the suit then turned around.
“Dr. Bethany,” he said. “I’m Detective John Cartwright. I have a warrant to search the clinic and the surrounding premises. I hope that we can rely on your cooperation, and that of Dr. Hammond.”
“A search warrant?” said Bethany. “What are you looking for?”
“I’m afraid I can’t be any more specific right now, Doctor,” Cartwright replied. “But we’d certainly appreciate any help that you can give us.”
Bethany gulped and didn’t respond, as two more police officers entered through the front doors.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The Persistence of
Memory
THERE WAS A brilliant burst of white light, and Max and Julia had returned to the circular room, surrounded by the mosaic made up of multiple fragments. Julia was still gripping his hands but was very unsteady on her feet.
“Are you okay?” said Max.
“Yes, just very weak,” she replied. “I need to sit down.”
Max gently lowered her to the floor and quickly examined his surroundings. The shards of glass on the walls displayed scenes from countless realities, as the barriers between all the different universes were close to being totally broken. Some of the fragments were beginning to vibrate and areas of the floor, walls, and ceiling were beginning to dissolve.
“This wasn’t happening here before,” said Max.
“It’s Hammond,” said Julia. “He must have made it to the world where his family is.”
“So, we’re too late. He’s combining everything, like he said he would.”
“Wait,” she said, her brow furrowing again as she seemed to be in intense pain. “No, I can sense him. He’s still linked to me because he used my brain fluid in the serum. Something’s gone wrong.”
She got to her feet, still unsteady, and Max held her arm to stop her from falling.
“I can sense him,” she repeated. “He was in that world but then he went back, quite abruptly. Something bad happened.”
She walked over to the nearby wall and frantically began scanning the shards in which everything was moving, as the individual pieces continued to vibrate.
“There!” she exclaimed. “There he is.”
Max looked into the fragment she’d indicated and was astonished as they both saw Hammond entering a house and appearing to be reunited with his family. Then everything changed, as different versions of Hammond and his family suddenly appeared and continued to multiply.
“What’s happening?” said Max.
“No idea,” she replied. “It must be the effect of him trying to combine everything. It didn’t work.”
