“Yes,” said Tyree. “Musterion prolongs life.”
Jack looked around at the moss covered brick tunnel then turned to his team. “Are you all okay?” Bogdan stepped forward. Despite the lion head complete with canine filled maw, he still sounded exactly the same, “I believe so. But the consensus is that if these changes are permanent, the pay will need to be a lot higher if we get back to earth.”
Jack nodded, “To be expected. You know I’m good for it.”
Sasha had found a mirror and was inspecting her image, “I don’t… need extra pay.”
Jack and Tyree laughed then Tyree said, “It is good to see you Sasha.”
She walked over to Tyree and hugged him, “I am sorry for the trauma that this ordeal has caused you. Have you found Omar?”
Tyree nodded, “Yes, he is on another world. There are many portals here and I am sure one will lead to him.” Jack turned to the rest of his crew, “Alright, we are going to follow Tyree as our guide here as he has been here much longer than us. Tyree, please lead the way.”
They followed the tunnel and it did not take long before they came to an intersection going in four different directions. There were four tunnels but a blinding light was coming from each. A light like that of the portal they had just entered. Jack looked to Tyree, “Well, where to?”
Tyree shook his head, “This is different. In my experience it's always a painting. But this is the only way to go. I suggest we split up; two people per portal.”
Jack nodded, “Alright,” then he turned around. “I am going with Tyree. Sasha, you go with Bogdan. Charli and Ignacio together, and Owen and Caleb team up.”
There was no argument. There never was from Jack’s team. He had thought one of those new to working with him would have some form of protest, but even Tyree was good with the plan.
Bogdan approached Jack, “What of the supplies? I see the benefit in being able to find Dr. Metzger, though I’m sure you are aware that we can be permanently separated.”
Jack thought for a moment, “You have a point. Everyone should have a chance to go through the supplies and decide what they want to take. I will send the rest with you and Sasha. There is a lot of scientific equipment in there, and I want her to be able to analyze anything she needs to. You are the team leader as far as the others go so your survival is paramount.”
Bogdan nodded, “Very well, I will do this.” Then Bogdan walked over to Tyree and got dangerously close to his face. Jack imagined it must be intimidating to stare a lion in the face but Tyree didn’t flinch. He had changed so much. Bogdan said, “You bring him back alive or you will not live long when you return.”
Tyree went to push Bogdan away from him but Bogdan had caught his hand before he was able to. “None of the repressed teen angst for me, just bring him back alive.”
Tyree shook his head, “I was planning on it.”
Bogdan smiled a sharp toothed smile, “Good.” While they had been talking Owen and Caleb had grabbed their equipment and went to the farthest right portal. Right behind them was Ignacio and Charlie. Then Bogdan and Sasha went through the tunnel the furthest to the left with the supply wagon. After everyone else had gone, Jack and Tyree went through the remaining one, blinding light surrounding their passage.
QUEEN ELISE HAD REQUESTED OMAR’S PRESENCE at City Hall. He filled her in on all of the information he had about Earth, Soterion, and Musterion. She was particularly interested to hear about Caelsis.
“Your descendant, Queen Ariana, now rules. She is named after your sister,” said Omar. “I really do hate that I was not there to pass my wisdom down through the ages, but it seems they have done fine. I still plan to see that my support is given there, but I must rule here and bring order to this planet,” she said.
Omar laughed, “Well, I am glad and will be willing to hand any message along once I get back from earth.”
“How do you plan to do that?” Omar sighed and shook his head, “I guess I am going to have to enter the maze in hopes of finding the way. Nekar said it’s never been done, though. It is… discouraging.”
The Queen giggled, “It’s been done before you silly goose. Nekar just doesn’t know about it. I have been to Earth. I had to go, I was too curious when I found the words of the Book. To find the way to Soterion you need a human, but to find the way to Earth you need a Kat-ken. Of which I have many,” she beamed with pride.
“Well, can I borrow one on my quest? Can you tell me the way to go to get there?”
She giggled again. “You must go to the center of Musterion to get to Earth, but without the Kat-ken it won't happen.” “But why? I understand why humans are the only ones who can solve the maze to Soterion. The maze requires a human mind to solve it along with the vast amount of skills a human can learn, but I don’t see what a Kat-ken can offer.” Omar tried to hide the annoyance from showing on his face. Besides, we are already at the core of Musterion.
“Some things are better seen than heard,” she responded. “I will send Alora with you.”
“You do realize that she tried her best to kill me,” he said shaking his head.
“And you will be taking her with you. I am done with you. I don’t want to see you until you return from earth.”
Omar blinked at her dismissal. What did I do? I better try harder not to upset her. “Yes, you’re Grace. Thank you for your help.” He stood up and walked out towards the square where he saw a crowd forming. He heard a familiar voice with a Russian accent to it. Omar began sprinting full forced to the square. That was the voice of Bogdan, one of Jack Raven’s people. When he reached the square he saw a lion headed Hybrid with black wings and a scorpion tail with Bogdan’s voice speaking to Nekar. Nekar looked over at Omar, pointed at him, and said, “There is your man.”
Before the Bogdan voiced creature could react, though, Omar noticed a Miyka flying straight towards him. He couldn’t move; it was too fast. She literally tackled him. Second time today...
They landed on the ground and when he heard her familiar voice a joy boiled up in him that he couldn't contain. “Omar Metzgar, I don’t care if you have blue skin with white polka-dots! I love you! I have missed you and worried about you for the past three months.” Sasha's voice was a comfort he had not had in 178 years. He had goose bumps all over his skin, his heart beat erratically, and he became short of breath. He had never felt this way before… it must be love. And then he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. It just happened. It was the first time in Omar’s life that he had held a woman that he cared for in such a way in his arms. He could not get enough. Her smell was intoxicating, she was so warm, and she was so soft.
Omar knew that everyone in the square was staring at them. All of the chatter had stopped, but he held her as tightly as he could. He wasn’t sure whom he had become, but Sasha reminded him of whom he was and the great love he had for his sister. She had been there for him for years. Of course she loved me, why couldn’t I see it? Maybe I didn’t want to. Not anymore, now I need it.
She whispered to him with a bit of a laugh, “I can’t breathe.” He loosened his grip on her. His face close to hers, he looked into her eyes and said, “I should have held you in my arms long ago.” He thought he might come off as nervous until he noticed that she was shaking. She had wanted this for as long as Omar had suppressed it.
Nekar cleared his throat. “I hate to break up you two love birds’ reunion, but Alora is in a hurry to show us the way to Earth.”
Omar looked over to see the Kat-ken perched on Nekar’s shoulder, and he did not look happy about her being there. He turned back to Sasha who was still in his arms and stroked her dark blue hair, “These changes have only improved your beauty. I didn’t think that possible, but you look good as a Miyka. Sasha, I've found a world called Soterion that is better than earth. I have not found Misaki, but I think she is there. Either way, I am going to stay there. "
She looked confused, “Then why are you trying to find earth?” How to explain it…
? While holding her, Omar thought of the room that he and Myles had discovered above Pneuma Carpos. For a moment they were in both places and then they were in that room. She gasped in surprise, “You did it!”
He pulled away, “What I was trying to get to is, will you stay with me if I stay on Soterion?” “Omar, I will follow you to the edge of the Universe. You are the most brilliant, motivated man I know. When Jack sent for me there was no question in my mind what I would do,” she admitted.
“So Jack did bring you. Where is he?”
She sighed, “He and the future Tyree stepped through a different portal.”
Omar put his hand to his mouth in shock. “Those portals lead to other worlds, Sasha… and other times. We may never see them again.”
She shook her head, “Poor Jack and Tyree. I hope they are okay.”
Omar sighed, “I guess we need to get back to the waiting crowd.” She nodded her agreement, and they stood up before he merged them back to their old location. The crowd had dispersed by then, but Alora, Nekar, and Bogdan were still waiting for them.
“Okay, we have had a private moment which is all we needed. We are ready to go,” he said with a sheepish grin.
“Good,” said Alora. “Then follow me.” Alora walked to the edge of the city and moved some bricks on the wall around placing them in a different order as if it was a secret combination. The passage opened and she went through. Everyone followed; even Nekar. They had begun their journey to the center of Musterion, but Omar couldn’t help but worry about the rest of those who had come with Jack Raven.
CHARLIE REALLY LIKED HER NEW CAT FORM. She felt sharper and more alive. She followed Ignacio through the portal, but as she reached the other side, pain stabbed through her stomach in the form of his claws. She sank to the floor, unable to move. She had a gun but not the energy to grab it, and her telekinesis did not work when she was in a panic. Ignacio looked down at her with his crocodile eyes. “You know, it’s a shame I gotta kill you, but you're only going to get in the way. Plus, I don’t feel like having to lie to you the whole time in order to complete my job.”
“Your job is to find Omar Metzger,” she said in a cold tone as she tried desperately to hold her blood in her body. He shook his head. “No, you are wrong. My job is from my boss… not Jack “the fool” Raven. I am here to find and kill Myles Callaghan.”
“Myles who?” she asked as her vision began to blur. “Yeah, he is an illusionist con artist, I gotta go. You look well on your way to being dead.” Ignacio turned away and then walked down the tunnel in front of them until Charli could no longer hear him.
Her vision blurred some more and then everything went black. The next thing she knew she was standing in the spot where she had been stabbed. She felt weak but there were no wounds or scars on her body. It was not a time loop because she could see her own blood still on the ground and Ignacio was gone, but something had restored her to life. Lucky her. Oh he is going to really regret doing that to me…
It was completely dark when they emerged from the portal. It was a good thing Jack had grabbed two night vision goggles for him and Tyree. Their goggles revealed an artificially-made tunnel, seemingly abandoned. When they found subway tracks Jack declared, “It’s Earth.”
“Yes,” Tyree agreed, “but which earth?”
“There is more than one?” he asked with a confused look on his face. Tyree laughed, “Without getting too deep into the patchwork dimensional theory, I will say that there are possibly millions of dimensions of earth. Dr. Metzger believes that Musterion is the center of the dimensional galaxy spanning the entire universe; that you can map all dimensions back to Musterion in some way whether they are broken or working portals. But Musterion also leads to planes of existence; Soterion is a world of dream and Pneumatikos is the spirit world. These are two that we have defined. A new dimension of earth comes into existence every time you go right and could have gone left. It's more complicated than that, but we don’t have time for a lesson in theoretical physics.”
Jack laughed, “What I am experiencing is less theory and more fact.”
Tyree nodded, “This is true.” As they walked they could see light coming from an area ahead. In the subway, weeds and vines had begun to grow. Rats populated the area and occasionally, as they stepped, they would feel one scurrying away underfoot. When Tyree and Jack made it up from the subway they saw a dull grey world. It looked to be New York City but with less color and life to it. The sidewalks had grass and weeds growing through them and the city had not been maintained in years.
People walked around going about their daily business. Beyond the lack of color there seemed to be something very off about this place but they couldn’t put their fingers on it. Jack went to talk to someone walking by but they ignored him and kept going.
Jack turned to Tyree, “Come on, let’s get to the top of one of these buildings so we can get a better view.” As they walked along the side walk they saw a man step out to cross the street in front of a bus. Jack cried out in warning but the man ignored him and the bus did not stop in time. It hit the man hard, sending him flying through the air, and when he landed there was a loud smacking sound against the pavement. He lay there motionless and Jack ran towards him. Before he reached him, though, the man got up and continued walking across the street. Once he was out of the way, the bus kept on its route. No one but Jack had reacted to the accident.
Distraught, he walked back to where Tyree was. “What was that? He shouldn't have gotten up from that.” Tyree looked disturbed rubbing his chin in thought. “Take a look at these people. All of them look unkempt. Not in a way that would hinder daily tasks, but in a way that doesn’t ultimately matter. They have uncombed hair, some of their ties are not on straight or the buttons on their shirt are undone. None of the guys are shaved, and if you take a big whiff next to one you will notice that they stink.
They picked out a close sky scraper and entered; the security guard did not stop them. Electricity seemed to be working in certain parts of the city like this building. They walked to the elevator and pushed the button. There was no waiting but there was still a steady stream of people going up and coming down using the elevators.
They stepped in and pushed the button to go to the top floor. Most buildings like this had limitations as to who could go all the way to the top, but the security for this one seemed to be deactivated. When they reached their stop, they found the stairwell to get to the roof. The lock on the door had been broken and there was a line to the roof. What is going on here? It just gets weirder and weirder.
They waited in line with everyone else. Jack tried to start up conversations with people but the only response anyone ever gave him was glancing at him and then looking away. Tyree started to cough a little bit as they waited. Jack noticed he looked pale, “Are you alright, Tyree? You look a little under the weather.”
Tyree just nodded, “Yeah, just a bit.” The line moved forward out onto the roof and Jack turned his attention back to the people in front of him. They led to a make do shack with tinted windows. He could not see the person everyone was lined up to speak to.
Jack turned back to Tyree who looked to be getting worse by the minute. Jack helped him bumping into people as they walked. Tyree staggered and Jack dragged him across the flat roof to the shack.
Jack set Tyree down. Tyree's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he began to sweat. He coughed up blood and Jack started to ask the person at the front if he could cut but realized he would get no response. So Jack nudged him out of the way and the man just walked to the back of the line. Jack spoke into the vent of the window. “Hey, can you help me? I think my friend is dying. We are not from around here.”
There was no reply from the other side. Jack banged on the glass hard, “Hey! I have someone dying out here. Help!”
A guttural voice came from the other side of the glass, “Dach snei pu cheik snou.” It was not one of the five languages that Jack knew. Different parts sounded close
to several of the languages he knew, but the pronunciation were all wrong. Jack looked down at Tyree who was now motionless and got out of line to check his vitals. Tyree was dead. No. How? Why? No!
With tears in his eyes Jack walked around the shack to the door and opened it only to find an ugly demonic creature inside. It was a mix of shiny red flesh and metal. It stared at him with eyes that were completely black. It snarled at him through a large metallic muzzle with bolts in it and a strap that went around its head. It had long spiraling horns and green glowing tattoos all over its body. Each hand had three large clawed fingers. Each foot had three large clawed toes, and its long limbs were very muscular.
It was giving some kind of orders to these poor people and they were following them. Jack knew instinctively that it was not a benefactor, but a master of these people. Anger boiled inside of Jack; that he had lost Tyree that nothing had gone his way since he stepped into the portal, and that these creatures were manipulating all of mankind to do their bidding.
When the creature stood up, Jack drew his gun and emptied the clip of nine rounds into the thing. He reloaded the clip but saw that nine rounds may have been over-kill. The thing was dead. It let off an odd smell like that of a stink bug and then another showed up floating in the air behind the shack. Jack shot one round into its head and it died. Wish I would have known that before. They just look like they could take so much more.
Jack stepped out of the shack to look around and he saw Tyree getting up off of the ground. He ran to Tyree and shouted with joy, “You’re alive!” But as Jack approached Tyree he noticed that he had that same lifeless look in his eyes. “Tyree!” he yelled but Tyree only looked at him and then looked away as he walked to the shack where the demonic alien creature had been. Jack grabbed him by the arm and ran down the stairs to the elevator. Tyree didn’t fight him, he followed silently. Ugh, he is still dead but maybe I can save him somehow.
As Jack ran out the door he let go of Tyree. He looked and saw five more demons coming around the corner of the building. They started floating back and forth, barking orders at the zombie-like people in the streets... As a unit, all of the zombies turned their attention to Jack, walking towards him while moaning and grunting. Jack hesitated before putting several rounds in one of them but they just kept coming. He shot a man in the head and on each side of the chest but he seemed to be unaffected by the bullets except for the staggering from the force. Force… that’s it! Jack grabbed a collapsible metal stick that Omar had given him from under his vest and expanded it. This thing will send them reeling. Jack struck the end of it on the ground and it sent out a kinetic force all around Jack which knocked all of the undead back. Now I need to find a place to hide and make a game plan. He ran back to the subway as fast as possible.
Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux Page 14
