Year One

by Jason Hamilton

  "Now that's a much more complicated question." Anti-Sergio sat back in his chair, his eyes staring at the ceiling in thought. Sergio glanced at Kat. Perhaps if they kept this man talking, they'd get a chance to disarm him.

  But before they could do anything, the man met their eyes again. "How much do you know about Invergence?"

  Sergio answered. "We know you're after Alice, and that you're trying to take down Argo Force."

  "And has it ever occurred to you why we might hold such a grudging relationship with those snobs? Apart from their monochromatic fashion sense? I'm telling you, white is so unimaginative."

  To be honest, neither Kat or Sergio had put much thought into it. All they knew is that Invergence wanted to kill or capture their daughter, and they needed no more than that to know they were bad news.

  "They helped us," Kat responded. "You came at us with monsters and...and guns. They saved us. That girl, Kira, we would have died without her." Kat's emotions were on edge and her voice began to rise in volume, "You want to know why we don't trust you? Because normal people don't make nice with lunatics who TRY TO KILL THEM." Her face was flushed, and she looked about to launch herself at the man. Sergio put an arm around her for safe measure. Little Alice, despite the tension of the situation, had fallen asleep. It almost seemed comical to Sergio.

  Oddly, Anti-Sergio didn't react. He sat there quietly, long enough for Sergio to wonder if he had spaced out for some reason. Perhaps now might be a good time to...

  "You make some good points," he said, finally. Kat let out a breath, exasperated. The man continued. "But as I said, Invergence doesn't know I'm here. I came to talk to you personally before those corporate know-it-alls do something they'll regret."

  He turned to look at Sergio. "I still haven't answered your question. Why do I look like you? I will tell you, but only because I, unlike my superiors, think you deserve to know why we want your child before we take her."

  Sergio swallowed. So he did intend to take Alice, with or without their consent. He began looking desperately for a way out, some way to distract the reverse-version of himself. For now, letting him talk seemed to be the only option.

  "This Argo Force you encountered, it's not all you know it to be. You only met one person, I'm stunned that you haven't figured out her real name by the way, but she's hardly a fitting representative of the group."

  As he spoke, Sergio suddenly had an idea. The ring. Before Kira had left them, she had given them a ring that supposedly called someone from Argo Force to help. If they could activate it now, perhaps someone would come to rescue them. He looked around to find Kat's purse where they kept it hidden. It lay on a shelf near the bed, but Kat was closer. Sergio did his best to grab her attention as the anti-Sergio rambled on.

  "Argo Force is supposed to help people, make their lives easier by changing the timeline. But in truth, they only replace one problem with another. You see it all the time. Take away a man's problems and he'll always find more to busy himself with. That's how we came into being. Argo Force made a mistake. Argo Force created us."

  "What do you mean?" Kat sounded concerned. Sergio kept trying to catch her eye, but she seemed interested in what their intruder had to say.

  "Someone in Argo Force changed too much early in history, and the ripples were violent enough to split the timeline in two. I'm sure you're familiar with the multiverse theory? I know you have that here, I saw it in a...what do you call it...YouTube video."

  "Yes, we know of it."

  "Well it's complete rubbish," anti-Sergio said abruptly. "To our knowledge there is no such multiverse, or if there is, it's completely beyond our reach. With one, big exception."

  "Is that where you come from, another universe?" Sergio said, momentarily forgetting the ring in his wife's purse.

  "Everything has an opposite to prove its existence. Hot has cold, good has evil, light has dark. We are not simply another universe; our universes inherently connect. Like two sides of a coin, a complete whole. Your Argo Force--" he spat the name, "--created us when they changed the past too far, and now they wish to destroy us. We are only acting for our own self-preservation: to protect the whole."

  Sergio finally caught Kat's eye now. He glanced down at her purse, then back up at her. She looked down where his eyes indicated. At first her eyebrows knit in confusion, then comprehension dawned on her face. She looked back at Sergio and gave the smallest nod in confirmation. Anti-Sergio was still talking.

  "So you see, Argo Force from our perspective is no different than we are from yours. We're only trying to continue an existence that they started, rather than let them end us, as if we were a mistake. That is why I have your face, Sergio. In a very real sense, I am you, and you are me. We both want to continue existing."

  "You still haven't explained why you want Alice." said Sergio. He tried to keep Anti-Sergio's attention on him, letting Kat inch her fingers toward her purse.

  Anti-Sergio's brow furrowed then he stared at the sleeping Alice with a look of....longing?. "I honestly don't know what the others want with her. She's important but no more or less than any other Founder. That's why I came here first, because--" he hesitated, "I never had a child. My...wife, as you would call her, died before I could give her an heir. She looked like you." He nodded his head towards Kat, but suddenly noticed her hand that had just reached below the opening flap of her purse. All three of them froze.

  "Take your hand out of that bag," Anti-Sergio said. His voice was cold. Kat obeyed, visibly trembling. Sergio too felt his heart drop. This had been their best plan to escape.

  Anti-Sergio snatched up the purse and looked inside. After a few moments he withdrew the Argo Force ring, its embossed AF symbol gleaming in the dim light.

  "Oh, this is disappointing," Anti-Sergio said. "So disappointing. And I thought you were listening."

  He looked agitated, increasingly so, and his lips curled into a snarl.

  "I thought you were reasonable people!" His voice rose. "I thought you would be willing to talk to someone who shared a vested interest in the SAFETY OF YOUR DAUGHTER!"

  He was shouting now. Sergio stared at him. Was the man insane? Of course they wouldn't trust him after he threatened them with a gun and openly admitted a desire to take Alice away. But he kept his thoughts to himself as his reverse-version became more enraged. Alice was awake now, and the shouting upset her. She began to cry.

  Anti-Sergio pulled a small device from his belt, a transparent tube of some kind. He dropped the ring inside and it disintegrated before their eyes. Kat let out a soft groan, and Sergio's face fell. That was their only method of contacting Argo Force. What would they do now?

  "So disappointed," the man continued. "What am I going to do with you now?" He waved his gun in the air, and looked to the ceiling in exasperation. "I suppose--"

  Sergio lunged.

  His tackle caught the man completely off guard. Once on the floor he began to punch the man's face with all his might. His reverse-self recovered quickly, however, and soon blocked each blow and tried to reach the gun, which had fallen beside them. Then Kat joined in. She grabbed the clock from the side table and slammed it down on Anti-Sergio's head. He jerked and fell still. Both Kat and Sergio lay there panting, shocked at the violence they had just discovered they were capable of committing. It was a new sensation for both of them.

  "Grab what you need, fast." Sergio told Kat. They rose and took a few seconds to gather their most essential items from the hotel, leaving most of it behind.

  Kat ran outside to put Alice in her carseat while Sergio gathered any remaining supplies. Thankfully, most of what they needed was in the car already. As he exited the motel door, he heard a loud POP! Sergio stumbled and fell to the cement. Pain exploded in his calf.

  "Sergio!" Kat rushed to him. Another pop sounded, and Sergio realized that it was the sound of a pistol. He looked down at his leg as warm blood began to spread down his pant leg. Shocked, he looked back inside the hotel. The anti-Sergio was st
ill on the ground, but he was awake. His hand held the pistol, its lip smoking. Stupid! Sergio cursed himself, how could they forget the gun?

  "You won't get far!" Anti-Sergio snarled, "My men are coming. If you think you've been in danger before, it's nothing compared to the chase we'll give you now! I was going easy on you!"

  Kat slammed the motel door shut as anti-Sergio fired again. The bullet shot through the door an inch from Kat's head. Hastily, she helped Sergio rise to his feet. He almost passed out from the effort, but hopped to the passenger seat. Kat helped him enter the car, as more gunshots tore through the motel door.

  Kat entered the driver's seat and started the vehicle. Soon they were a safe distance away from the gunshots, but they didn't stop. If anti-Sergio was to be believed, Invergence was coming, and they needed to get as far away as possible.

  Sergio did his best to slow the bleeding on his leg, but he couldn't get a good look at it from inside the car. He couldn't tell if the bullet was still logged in his calf. Nevertheless he tore his shirt and gritted his teeth as he used the cloth to put pressure on the wound. He had bought a first-aid kit at the camp store, but that was buried somewhere in the trunk and they needed to put some distance between them and their motel before they could stop to retrieve it.

  They were now driving on a long country road going west. There was hardly any traffic so Kat sped up as much as she dared. Alice was still crying.

  "Are you okay?" Kat asked, concern etching her face.

  "I'll be fine," said Sergio. "Thankfully it missed the artery, it's not bleeding enough. I think..." he added hesitantly.

  "I'll pull over as soon as I--" she broke off as the engine made a heaving noise, sputtered, and died. Kat used the car's forward momentum to pull to the side of the road. "Oh no," she said, "we're out of gas."

  "What?" asked Sergio. "I filled it up before I went back to the motel."

  Kat exited the car and looked it over. "Gas leak," she called back to Sergio. "I think a bullet pierced the tank."

  Sergio let his head fall against the headrest. What were they going to do now? They had no gas, they were exposed on a little-traveled road, the temperature was dropping, and Invergence was almost certainly looking for them. Plus, they couldn't walk far due to Sergio's leg, which needed medical attention.

  Kat stood with her hands behind her head, trying to think of a solution, all while the sun lowered ahead of them in the west, and darkness fell.

  Episode 3

  “But regardless, it seemed that every time we felt hopeless, something or someone would come to our rescue.”

  Katariina Rios ran her hands through her hair, completely at the end of her rope. Her husband had been shot in the leg, their car had stopped working, the sun was setting, the air was getting colder, and they were likely being pursued. Oh, and little Alice was hungry.

  She had only given birth to Alice a month ago and was still recovering. And now all this. She simply couldn't take it. Her breathing increased. Was she having a panic attack? But no, she could hold it together, and the moment that panic began to set in, it spurred her to action.

  "Honey, can I assume you bought a first-aid-kit?" Her husband recently spent a fortune on survival equipment, all of which was stuffed in the back of the car. The overt spending was part of the reason they were in this predicament, but it might also save Sergio's leg.

  Sergio nodded through the pain. "In the trunk, under the sleeping bags I think."

  Kat opened the trunk and threw out the sleeping bags. After a quick search through the plastic shopping bags, she finally found a first-aid kit with bandages. It would do. She also grabbed a water bottle.

  She hurried to the passenger side of the car where Sergio sat trying to stop the flow of blood. Alice's cries called to her, but she had to prioritize. Gingerly she lifted her husband's leg outside of the car. Sergio winced as she handled his leg, cut away the cloth with some scissors she found in the first-aid kit, and took off his shoe and sock. The wound almost made her gag. What am I doing? she thought. She had no medical experience and yet here she was cleaning up a gunshot wound of all things. What she really needed was to get Sergio to a hospital. But the car wasn't going anywhere, and she didn't want to risk trying to wave down one of the cars passing by. They were still too close to the motel they had just left.

  Taking the water bottle, she poured it over the wound to clean it. Then she took an alcohol swab and gently dabbed around the wound. Again Sergio winced, but Kat breathed a sigh of relief. There was an exit wound! That meant the bullet wasn't still embedded in Sergio's leg. And it was off to the side as well, meaning the bullet probably missed the bone.

  After cleaning the wound as best she could, given the circumstances, Kat took a roll of medical bandages and began to wrap it around the calf. She tried to be as gentle as possible, but Sergio still whimpered through the pain. No, he wasn't just whimpering, he was praying. Kat never had understood Sergio's deeply-held Catholic beliefs. Growing up in Argentina had instilled that in him. Kat hadn't let religion get in the way of their marriage, but she now wondered why, if a God existed, that He would leave them in their current situation.

  She was just adding a safety pin to the bandage when she noticed that someone had pulled over just behind them. Sergio noticed too, and he froze, fear evident in his face. This road was not heavily trafficked, and it was dark. Who would be pulling over?

  The new vehicle was an old, rusty pick-up truck. It carried only one man. Kat couldn't get a good look inside the car, but it wasn't long before the door opened and the man exited. He was an elderly man, probably in his late sixties. His face and clothes were worn, but clean. He had silver hair and wore plaid beneath a weathered jacket and jeans.

  His mouth turned into a warm smile. "Hello there!" he called out. Upon seeing Kat's suspicious look, he raised his hands slightly. "Do you need some assistance?" His brow furrowed as he saw Sergio's bandaged leg.

  "Don't come any closer!" was all Kat could think to say. She was surprised at how hysterical her voice sounded.

  The man stopped walking towards them. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not with them."

  It only vaguely occurred to Kat how significant that statement was. She looked around for something, anything she could use as a weapon. There was a crossbow in the back, but she'd never get it out of its packaging in time. Upon finding nothing, she stared back at the man, who still had his hands raised in a gesture of innocence.

  "How do we know you're not with them?" she said.

  "I'm afraid I don't have anything to prove it to you," the man replied. His eyes were wise and held a deepness that Kat had only seen once before, in the blonde girl who had come to rescue them the night of Alice's birth. She inexplicably wanted to trust him.

  Sergio suddenly spoke up, "Kat, what are our options?"

  Kat racked her brain. They couldn't stay put for long. They couldn't walk away with Sergio's leg. They needed this man's help, assuming he was genuine. They really had no other choice.

  "My husband needs medical attention. Can you help us?"

  He nodded. "I'm happy to help."

  He began to walk towards them again. Kat didn't stop him. Perhaps this man was a member of Invergence, but they honestly had no choice but to trust him for now. Staying put would almost certainly result in capture by Invergence. It was this or nothing.

  The old man approached and together, he and Kat helped Sergio to his feet, or rather to his one good foot. They hobbled towards the truck.

  He tilted his head, hearing Alice's cries from the car. "I don't have room in the front for all of you. I think we'd be best to put this young man in the back while you and the baby ride in the front with me."

  Sergio agreed so Kat nodded. They helped Sergio sit in the back of the truck, slowly sliding him backwards until he reached the corner. Then Kat answered Alice's cries that had been calling her throughout this whole ordeal. She opened the door and took Alice from her carseat, rocking her gently to try and calm he
r. But Alice was hungry and upset, so she continued to wail. Kat took her and her baby bag to the truck, leaving the rest of their stuff behind. The old man opened the door for her. He stared at the baby with a strange look on his face, but as soon as Kat saw it, it was gone. The man closed the door after her, circled round the truck, and got in the driver's seat. Soon, they were off.

  Kat wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but there was still something off about this old man. Everything was too convenient. And he seemed to have a knowledge of the danger the three of them were in. He kept checking his rearview mirror as if to make sure no one was following them.

  "My name is Simon," he said after they had driven for a minute.

  "I'm Kat," she said, before she cursed herself for giving up her real name. This is what we have aliases for, she thought. But the old man still didn't seem to be a threat, at least not so far. "Where are you taking us?" she asked a moment later.

  "My home," he replied, "It's not a big place, but there's room for the three of you if one doesn't mind taking the couch."

  "What about him?" Kat gestured to Sergio in the back of the truck.

  "I imagine you don't want to call too much attention by taking someone with a gunshot wound to the hospital, correct?" Kat said nothing, so the man continued. "I have some basic medical training from my time in Vietnam. I should be able to patch him up."

  Again, Kat said nothing. This all seemed too much of a good thing. If this man could pull through like he said, maybe then they could talk.

  They continued on the winding road until Simon turned onto a small dirt path. Kat winced as the truck bounced on the uneven road, knowing how much that probably hurt Sergio's leg. But soon enough they pulled into the dirt driveway of a small cottage. It was rustic and simplistic, but it looked quite lovely. Even with everything on Kat's mind, she was impressed with the look of the place. It spoke of a quiet life.

  They quickly exited the truck and helped Sergio out of the back.

  Once inside, Simon took them to what looked like a spare bedroom and they lay Sergio down. Sergio breathed out a sigh of relief as he was allowed to rest his leg. Simon quickly got to work preparing to stitch his leg. He gathered the tools he needed, then began taking the bandage off.