“It’s been two days, do you think she’s coming?” Kevin chewed on a pack of dry Ramen noodles and spun in one of the Pathfinder’s bucket seats while Mel checked their supplies. “I mean, I still don’t really understand anything what’s going on but it seemed like she needed this ship for something right?
“Oh, she’s dead for sure.” Mel deadpanned without looking. The sound of Kevin perking up nervously in his seat made her smirk. “Probably got ripped in half during the jump and scattered between worlds. Happens sometimes, you know.”
“You’re messing with me again.” Kevin said it as a statement but Mel could hear the hint of unease in his tone. She’d come to enjoy making him squirm in the two straight days they’d spent together. Mel hadn’t made a real human connection since elementary school and was surprised to find she mostly enjoyed his company.
“Look, I don’t know where she is or if she’s coming but we gotta start thinking about contingencies. We can’t live on this fucking roof forever.” Mel looked over the pile of supplies they’d bought and stolen and grabbed a couple cans of spray paint.
“What are those for?” Kevin asked with his head tilted curiously.
“You and I are going to go find some help. Fire up the ship, I’ll leave robocop a message just in case she finds her way back here.” Mel walked out of the Pathfinder as Kevin shrugged.
“Turn on. Start engine.” Kevin spoke with a hint of uncertainty, his hand resting on the dash. The Pathfinder didn’t budge as he tried several more phrases. He let out an exasperated sigh then glanced out a viewing window and watched as Mel signed her graffiti note with a giant red middle finger.
“Good news, the ship doesn’t listen to me.” Kevin greeted Mel as she stepped back inside. He sat with his arm crossed in his chair like a pouting child. Mel cracked a smile at the sight and walked over to try for herself.
“Fly. Up. Go. Fuck you then.” Mel returned to the pile of supplies and began packing a children’s Spider-Man backpack. “We’ll go on foot then, we can always come back.”
“On foot to where?” Kevin stood and moved to help her. In their two days here, Kevin and Mel had been actively moving around Phoenix and had amassed about $400 and collected a few duffle bags of supplies. Kevin looked at the assortment and tried to figure out what Mel wanted to take and leave behind. She was currently tucking a compact 9mm pistol into some kind of tactical utility belt she had under her shirt. He picked up the matching handgun, checked the safety like Mel had taught him, then put it into a small North Face hiking pack. From there he haphazardly grabbed items to pack. A hint of a smile played on Mel’s face as she watched out of the corner of her eye as Kevin picked up a pair of brass knuckles and a can of aerosol hairspray.
“We’ll snatch another car and take a little day trip. I know a guy that we should talk to. I’ll see what he knows about our missing acquaintance and if we’re lucky he can help us figure out where to go from here to lay low. You’re a fugitive too now, after all. You better start taking notes if you wanna get as good at surviving as me.” She couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Kevin as he let out a groan and rubbed his face with both hands. She’d been lost and confused like him before and gave him a gentle clap on the shoulder before shouldering her bag and heading for the door.
“So we’re driving to meet a person, how do you know them if you don’t even know what Earth this is? Isn’t it most likely that they don’t know you here?” Kevin followed Mel, making sure the ship shut and cloaked itself behind them.
“Elias Thorn will know me for sure. I’ve got a bit of a reputation with certain elements across the multiverse. Thorn is of them. He’s a little eccentric, but if it’s worth knowing across the Earths, he does. Given me a job or two here and there and helped me stay a step ahead of IPF. On many Earth’s he is the only person who knows me.”
“Ok, so he knows you or will know you and he might be able to help us. How is that better than staying here and waiting for Cassia to show up right where she left us?” Kevin’s tone was curious, not rude and his face showed genuine concern. “She could come back any moment, she said she needs you right? She’ll come back.”
“Or she’s dead. Either way I left a note. Shit obviously went sideways, as it often does when you’re a multiverse jumping criminal. She’ll follow us when she can.” Mel shrugged. She was a survivor and doing an oddjob for Thorn in exchange for access to a safe house seemed a hell of a lot more appealing than playing campout on a mall for the foreseeable future. The pair passed through the access door and were almost out into the parking lot again before Kevin spoke.
“It’s strange how similar it is.” He gestured around them. “I haven’t noticed much of a difference really.”
“The hundred or so Earths closest to Earth Zero aren’t very exciting.” Clicking the lock button on a set of keys she’d lifted on the way out, Mel guided them around the lot till they found their next ride, a beat up truck with a dented camper shell featuring a bumper sticker that said If You Can Read This You’re in My Crosshair. As they climbed in, Mel looked into the back at a hunters rack complete with a rifle and a shotgun.
“Ain’t that lucky, maybe you’re my good luck charm or something.” Mel ruffled Kevin’s hair and he batted at her hand then fiddled with the radio. It crackled to life on an AM news show.
“The European Coalition has launched offensives from the gulf coast area and rumors suggest they’ve fully occupied the southern border and it’s only a matter of time before advances northward begin.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Turn that shit off, never ever get caught up in local news.” She swatted at the radio until a whir of electronic pop music burst from the speakers.
“A world war hardly seems local!” Kevin retorted and began rolling down his window.
“Local means on this world. I hate to break it to you, but you don’t have a world anymore. We jump to survive, we don’t stay long, and we never get caught up in local affairs. That’s how you die, or worse, get pinched again.” Kevin rubbed the bridge of his nose at this but clearly didn’t have the strength to argue, choosing instead to gaze out the window.
“Where are we going anyways?”
“Ever heard of the Vegas strip?”
What Mel anticipated would be an easy four hour drive sprawled into nearly six as they ran into several military checkpoints and had nearly a 45 minute wait for a convoy to cross the highway. As it turned out, the local news was important and they were just ahead of an invading force. When they rolled to a stop at the valet station in front of the Bellagio, it was eerily calm. The Strip was not nearly as crowded as every other visit Mel had paid to it on dozens of Earths.
“I thought it would be a little more peppy.” Kevin stretched and looked around at the small number of tourists making their way quickly between casinos.
“Seems like World War IV breaking out will do that.”
“You mean three? World War III.” Kevin tilted his head.
“Oh right. I always forget my third one happened on like only four Earths. Just my fucking luck, right?” Mel tossed the keys to an older man in a dapper valet suit and headed inside.
On the way to the bank of elevators that Mel typically used to get to Thorn’s high roller suite, she tried her best to fill in Kevin on anything he needed to know. She could tell he was getting nervous and she couldn’t have him screwing this meeting up.
“He’s a bit of an odd guy so just try to stay focused and let me do the talking. We’re in and out here, just getting some information and we’re on our way. Don’t get sucked into a conversation about building cities to scale with LEGO or South American bird diets. I’m serious, he’ll talk even your polite ass off and long before that I will have hung myself with an extension cord so stay away from the chit chat, alright?” Mel scanned the casino floor as she lectured, looking for anomalies. Thorn was active in the multiverse and the unusual was often drawn to his door.
“I get it, you hate my small talk. I’ll pretend to be mute, let’s just figure out where Cassia is or whatever and get out of here.” Kevin scratched his neck nervously and patted his backpack for the fifth time. He was clearly uncomfortable lugging around a gun.
Arriving outside Thorns door, Mel felt a wave of relief. After a whirlwind several days, it would be nice to be around something familiar. The pair were led into a smoke room with large leather armchairs but didn’t need to wait long for Thorns to make his appearance. They’d barely sat down when he came zipping in.
Kevin’s eyes widened as he took in Elias Thorn for the first time. The man had a slight pudge and was dressed in tight fitting shiny black leather pants that did him no favors. As he entered he drew Mel into an awkward almost air hug, barely touching her before sitting down. He smoothed a dark maroon blazer that he wore over a Guns N Roses T shirt and adjusted his sandy brown ponytail. His face was split into a wide smile that revealed a mouth full of teeth made of different stones, gold, silver, even crystal. The smile turned south as he turned his attention to Kevin and he lowered a pair of rosy hued round glasses to look at him closer.
“Mel, who is this man in my house?” Thorn leaned over to whisper to her.
“Yes, sorry, I’m Kevin. I’m sort of tagging along with Mel right now.” Kevin led out an awkward chuckle then extended a hand.
“I don’t shake.” Thorn bit his lip then turned to whisper loudly to Mel. “I simply don’t like him, can you send him to the hall?”
“Kevin, do you mind waiting outside?” Mel asked, barely suppressing a laugh.
“Of course.” Kevin plastered on a false smile and rose to leave. As he walked out the door, he heard Thorn let out a huge breath of air. “Thank Gaia, he reeked of hydrogen, is his odor toxic.” With a half turn Kevin put on his best scowl and flipped off Mel behind Thorn’s back.
In the hall, Kevin paced while Mel spoke with Thorn. She’d warned him that he was eccentric but this was beyond his expectations. Kevin retraced the path to the front door of the suite but froze in his tracks as he got to the entry.
“Oh shit. Uhhhh, MEL!” Kevin broke into a sprint back towards the smoke room nearly tripping over one of Thorn’s guards who was laying in a pool of blood. “Attack, Mel, it’s some kind of attack!”
The entry room had been painted with blood and two of Thorn’s bodyguards had lain with various levels of their limbs removed. As Kevin ran a flurry of gunfire erupted from an adjacent hallway and a mountain of a man collapsed into his path full of holes. Mel’s training from their first day together popped into his head and he went into a crouch, moving swiftly between furniture items for cover.
In another room, he got a glimpse of three of Thorn’s guards fighting off a petite red headed woman who was swinging a katana in a wide circle. Blood sprayed Kevin’s shoes and he sprinted forward smacking into the door to the smoke room and knocking furiously.
“Mel, please, something is going on out here!” He was pulled roughly through the door as it opened and collapsed in a heap next to Thorn.
“Who the fuck is this?” Mel shouted at Thorn and pointed her pistol at a bullet hole filled corpse on the carpet.
“I’ll find whoever you want, Mel! I’ll pay good money, I’ll owe you one favor, anything! You have to get me out, you can’t let them take me!” Thorn’s eyes whipped around the room wildly looking from the dead assailant to Mel to Kevin. “It’s those Singularity bastards, they’ve been hunting for me all across the verse!”