by Eric Vall
Karla flipped on the lights, and I felt a lump hop up into my throat.
The room was made up completely of concrete from top to bottom. At its center sat what looked to be a large operating table on a horizontal pivot, something like you’d see in an old monster movie. Right next to the table was a cart full of all sorts of small tools, tools whose functions I didn’t even want to think about right now.
“Come,” Karla ordered, “lay down on the table, and we can begin.”
“Hold on here,” I said as I raised my hands. “Is this some sort of weird kink thing? Like, are you gonna tie me up on the table and then do all sorts of weird, BDSM stuff to me?”
“You wish,” the brunette woman scoffed. “No… In this case, this room is just what it looks like. There is one more step in the preparation process before we can send you off on your first mission.”
“I dunno… ” I hesitated. “How bad is this gonna hurt?”
“Not at all,” she promised, “I’m a trained professional.”
“Yeah, no,” I sighed. “Sorry, but I’m—”
“Don’t you want to get paid?” she scoffed. “Isn’t that all you care about anyways?”
“You’ve never been poor, have you?” I growled as I stared into her green eyes. “Must be fucking nice.”
Karla opened her mouth to respond, closed it, and then let out a long sigh. Then she shook her head and let out another long breath.
“Okay, sorry. That was rude of me.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry I’m not really feeling you and your dad’s LARP thingy anymore, so I’m going to—”
“What?” she asked.
“Live action role playing,” I clarified. “I was fine because you were talking about the money, and I figured rich people were weird as fuck, but I’m not getting in that chair.”
“You need to,” she sighed. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
“Then you can pay me first.” I shrugged.
The beautiful woman huffed in annoyance, and then she pulled out her phone and began to dance her fingers across the screen. “What’s your account number and routing number? I’ll have to route the money transfer through several offshore accounts to avoid detection.”
“Uhh, crap. I don’t know,” I laughed as I pulled out my own phone. “I still think you are just fucking with me. Let me check.”
I logged into my mobile bank app and then read the numbers off to her. She repeated each number before she typed it in, and then she gave me a smirk and put her phone back into her pocket.
“Check your account,” she stated.
I hit refresh on my app, but nothing happened. I almost told her to fuck off, but then I hit refresh one more time.
And suddenly my checking account had $125,345.89 in it.
“Holy shit,” I gasped. It was the most money I’d ever seen, and even though it was digital numbers in an account, I could almost smell the cash in my hands.
“I just put in half,” Karla said. “You’ll get the rest when you finish your mission. Now, sit down.”
“Uhhh, okay.” I walked over to the table, placed my back against the cold metal, and then stood still as Karla tightened the straps on my wrists and ankles.
“Uhhhhh, wait. Why am I being strapped in like Frankenstein’s monster?” I questioned as she leaned the table back, and I was blinded by the large fluorescent lights above.
“You worry too much,” Karla chuckled. “This is a simple, non-invasive procedure that will be completely painless and quick. Provided you don’t start to panic and flail around like a dying fish. That’s why the straps are there. I’m going to be putting a transmitter in your head, and if you make one wrong move… Well, I’ll just leave it at ‘stay as completely still as you possibly can.’”
A procedure? I definitely didn’t sign up for this.
Suddenly, I heard the whirring of a drill, and my whole body tensed up.
“What is that?” I demanded. “You never said anything about a drill!”
“It’s non-invasive and painless,” she reminded me. “Just hold still, and it will all be over in a few seconds.”
As the sound of the drill grew closer and closer, I could feel the cold sweat begin to pour down my face. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rip off these restraints and run for the hills.
But I didn’t dare move an inch. I didn’t want to find out what happened to people who messed up this procedure.
There was a brief shot of pain in my left temple, and then the sound of the drill stopped.
“Is--Is it over?” I sighed.
“See?” Karla chuckled. “That wasn’t so bad. Actually, I’m pretty impressed. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, especially since you’re my first human subject.”
“Wait, what?” I gasped.
“Well, yeah,” the brunette admitted as she untied my straps, “you’re the only Wayfarer of this world, remember? There really wasn’t anyone else I could practice on… ”
“I thought you said--”
“I’m fucking with you,” she snickered, “all is well. In fact, I’d say it’s better than well. Check this out.”
Karla plucked a small, walkie talkie shaped object from the cart, held it up to her mouth, and pressed the button.
“We really need to talk about boundaries,” I started. “Like, seriously, you can’t--”
Before I could finish, a sound appeared in my head.
“Testing, one-two,” Karla’s soft voice announced. “Testing, one-two. Hunter, can you hear me?”
“Of course I can hear you,” I chuckled, “you’re standing right there.”
“Watch this,” she said with a smile before she dashed out of the room.
How about now? Still coming in loud and clear?
Holy crap… Even though Karla wasn’t anywhere close, I could still hear her voice as if she were standing right next to me.
The brunette popped her head back into the room, and a coy smile rose at the corners of her pretty mouth.
“How are you doing that?” I demanded.
“It’s a microchip implant,” she explained, “my father’s design, of course. Basically, it will allow you and I to communicate back and forth, any time, any place, and most importantly, any dimension.”
“So, you guys can help me along on this mission?” I questioned.
“It’ll be like I’m standing right next to you.” Karla nodded. “The chip is also essential in allowing you to dimension hop without having the IFDR present. It’s programming is linked to my father’s A.I., which will allow you to always find your way back to Dimension One. Think of it as a cybernetic lighthouse that will help you see through the interdimensional fog.”
“Then why do we need the Roosevelt at all?” I pondered aloud. “If the chip lets me travel--”
“The chip isn’t what makes you travel. Think of it this way… ” Karla tried again. “Have you ever forgotten where you parked your vehicle in a giant parking lot and then walked around beeping your fob until you heard it chirp?”
“Uh-huh… ”
“Well, this implant is the fob in this situation,” she noted. “Without it, you’d be lost to space and time unless you by chance stumbled across another ‘car’ with the same frequency. And the chances of just coming across another dimension’s IFDR is nearly five-billion to one, so I wouldn’t count on it.”
The beautiful brunette walked over to the cart, picked up a small gauze bandage, and then placed it up against the microscopic wound on my head.
“Is that really necessary?” I chuckled. “I feel fine.”
“Trust me,” Karla warned, “in the minute chance I fucked up the operation, that bandage is the only thing standing between you and your brains leaking out onto the floor like a strawberry ice cream machine.”
“Noted.” I shuddered. “So, if my brains do decide to stay in my head for the time being, how does this thing work?”
Karla looked me dead in the eyes and became
extremely straight-faced.
“This is very important, Hunter,” she explained. “So listen very, very closely. If you don’t follow my instructions step-by-step, the chip could malfunction, which would then cause it to short circuit and fry every neuron in your brain… Whatever you do, don’t get electrocuted. You can get set on fire. You can get the shit beat out of you until you’re bruised and bloodied. You can even swim through raw sewage if you have to. But if you get electrocuted, you’re completely fucked.”
“I’m definitely not planning on doing that,” I noted.
“Good.” The brunette nodded, and then she stood up from her chair. “Then you should be all set to go. Let’s head back out to my father.”
I slid out of the mad scientist dentist’s chair and followed Karla into the main section of the lab.
The face of Dr. Nash lit up when he saw me in all of my gear, and a huge smile spread across his digital cheeks.
“Alright, so run me through this mission again,” I prompted. “I go to this other timeline and try to stop Doomsday from happening?”
“No, no.” Dr. Nash shook his head. “In this dimension, the Doomsday Event has already begun. The bombs have hit, and nuclear mutations are upon them. However, there is still hope for the human race. If a certain factor is removed, of course, the path should right itself.”
“The crazed humans,” I interjected.
“That is correct,” the scientist continued. “All simulations I’ve run show if the mutated humans are taken out of the greater Chicago area, the chance of humanity’s survival goes up to ninety percent.”
“How does that work?” I questioned.
“I don’t understand the algorithms, Hunter,” the man in the computer noted, “I didn’t build this machine, remember? The Dr. Nash of Dimension One did. And all of the predictions run through this machine so far have been accurate down to a thousandth of a percentile.”
“Go to Dimension Nine-Fifty-One, figure out a way to eliminate the threat to the timeline, and save the future,” Karla added, “it’s simple.”
Oh, was that all I had to do? Super simple.
Now that I was standing here with a chip in my head and hearing my mission one last time, everything started to feel real.
Even though I was still holding out hope these people were just rich, eccentric crazies who dug a little bit too deep into conspiracy theories, a little voice in the back of my head told me the crap was about to hit the fan.
Then again, that could have just been the voice Karla literally put into my brain.
“Are you ready to embark, Wayfarer?” Dr. Nash asked.
I felt my heart skip a beat.
“Don’t you want to send me off with anything else?” I chuckled nervously. “I mean, I’m going into the future—”
“Different dimension,” Karla corrected.
“Actually,” her AI father corrected. “This one is a few months ahead of our timeline, so future also.”
“—With literally nothing but the clothes on my back and the chip in my brain?” I continued.
“Told you we needed a Marine,” Karla sighed.
“I’m afraid that’s all we can send you with,” Dr. Nash apologized. “For all our scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to figure out how to create organic weaponry or tools that can survive interdimensional travel.”
“You said you were a survivalist expert.” Karla smacked me on the arm playfully. “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out once you get there.”
“Luckily for you, Hunter, this dimension is very similar to our own,” the face on the screen pointed out. “The cultures, languages, tools, and weaponry will all be familiar to you in Dimension Nine-Fifty-One, so that gives you a bit of an advantage.”
“Wait… ” I gasped. “There are dimensions that don’t look like our own?”
Karla and Dr. Nash shared a quick glance.
“Let’s just start with one of the simpler ones.” Karla cleared her throat.
The dimension with the nuclear holocaust and mutated virus was one of the simple ones?
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Please, please, please let these people just be bugnuts insane actors.
“I guess if this is all I can take,” I said as I motioned to myself, “then I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good.” Dr. Nash’s face suddenly changed into a serious expression. “Please step right this way. Just in front of the transport.”
As I walked toward the machine, the large, retro-futuristic looking guns began to move into position. There was a small box on the floor drawn in chalk, and I was assuming that’s where the doctor wanted me to stand. I placed both my feet squarely at the box’s center, and the guns moved closer and closer until their bulbs were right next to my temples.
The glass-like material was cold against my skin, and I swore they were radiating some sort of frigid energy waves. My entire body shivered as the cool energy traveled down my spine.
Then again, I was from Minnesota. A little bit of a chill was nothing compared to our winters.
Behind me, the IFDR sprang to life with the sound of a nineties-era computer booting up. Gears whirred, monitors flashed, and the whole contraption beeped like crazy. Then there was the sound of charging energy all around my head.
“Any final questions before we send you off?” Dr. Nash spoke up.
“Uh, one more… ” I admitted. “How am I going to wipe out an entire group of crazed humans? Is there a way to turn them back to normal or--”
“You’ll have to figure that one out on your own, Hunter.” Karla shrugged. “If all else fails, you’re an exterminator. Just do your job.”
“I’m actually a Pest Control Tech--” I began, but my voice was cut off by the sound of electricity as it blasted through my skull.
For a brief moment, I felt myself convulsing at my very core. Then the world turned white as I was engulfed by the glow of the IFDR’s energy.
Did--Did they just kill me? Was this Heaven?
There was no sound and, perhaps even more eerie, there was no sensation anywhere in my body. I just felt… numb.
Then, as soon as it had disappeared, the world began to fade back into view.
However, it wasn’t the world I knew.
All around me were giant piles of rubble, mountains of cement, glass, steel, and an assortment of random objects. Some of the piles were attached to half-destroyed buildings, while I assumed others were the remnants of a whole building themselves.
I could see the sun high up in the sky, but it was covered by a thick haze of blood-red mist. The air was pungent with an iron-y smell, almost like somebody had melted down a ton of old coins and then released the smog into the air.
I quickly patted myself down to make sure I was still in one piece, and then I leaned up against a melted beam to stabilize myself.
The Nashes weren’t crazy after all. Their machine had worked.
I was in another timeline.
Hunter, can you hear me? Karla’s voice crackled in my head. Hunter, come in.
“I hear you loud and clear,” I mumbled. “I’m not gonna lie… I thought you were still pulling my leg all the way until I opened my eyes just now.”
We told you we were serious, Miss Nash snarked. Now, tell me what you see.
“Well… ” I looked around cautiously. “It definitely looks like nuclear proliferation. The air smells like iron, and there’s nothing but rubble as far as the eye can see.”
Wait… Karla’s voice turned serious. Where did the IFDR drop you off?
Far off in the distance, I could see the crumbling remnants of the Sears Tower, right next to so many of Chicago’s other iconic buildings.
Or, at least, what was left of them.
“If I had to guess,” I said as I racked my brain, “I’d say it put me somewhere on the west side of the city.”
There was silence on the other line.
It dropped you off inside of the
city? Karla was trying to keep her cool, but I could tell by her tone that something was wrong.
“Well, yeah,” I chuckled. “You said it yourself I was going to Chicago.”
Hunter, you need to move, now, Karla’s voice warned. We didn’t think it was going to put you smack dab in the middle of the city. The Roosevelt was supposed to drop you off in the suburbs, far away from the danger.
“Danger?” I gulped.
Just start heading west, the woman hissed. As inconspicuously as possible.
At this point, I wasn’t going to argue.
So, I put my head down and began to head west.
This whole city, once the sprawling metropolis of the Midwest, was now a freaking ghost town. There was not a single human anywhere in sight, and the closest thing I found to civilization was the remnants of demolished dwellings that now spilled out into the street.
Coffee shops sat abandoned, their facades completely faded and decaying. Shattered glass littered the street everywhere I went, and I had to take extra precautions to avoid any unstable sewer grates on the sidewalk.
There were still a few cars parked along the side of the roads, but their owners were long gone. Their paint had been chipped off, windows were broken, and rust threatened to devour their entire exteriors.
Just how long ago had this Doomsday happened, anyways?
Then I heard something. The distinct sound of falling rocks.
I spun around to check my surroundings, but there was nothing there.
What’s wrong, Hunter? Karla asked through my microchip. You’ve got to keep moving.
“I just thought I heard something,” I admitted. “But it’s nothing.”
Hunter… ? the woman’s voice trailed off. Run. Now.
However, before I could make a move, I heard something swishing through the air, and I immediately ducked down just as an arrow stabbed into the wooden telephone pole five feet in front of me.
If I hadn’t been so quick, that would have been my damn head.
I turned around to face my assailant and instantly felt fear overtake my body.
