We stay quiet, not communicating with each other, except for the occasional worried look. The ride itself is devoid of any noise except for the occasional sound of movement against the seats, or someone breathing a bit too loud, and it’s weird to see the landscape blurring by us in such silence. I keep looking back to check for police cars chasing us, but I guess Amelia knew that wouldn’t be happening, or else she wouldn’t have taken us in the first place. I end up semi-relaxed after a few minutes, and simply watch the world beyond the tinted widow. I notice another two Your Company trucks – I think. I don’t have time to read the words on the sides, but the colour scheme seems correct. These ones haven’t crashed, but have just been abandoned by the side of the road. Nikki is concerned by it, and so am I.
“Something has gone wrong,” they whisper, as the second truck rapidly disappears from our sight.
Amelia nods. “You’re on the mark, pal. Something has gone wrong, and that’s because JC underestimated people. She didn’t expect them to be so hostile towards these books, to go so far as to purposely crash the trucks, or ban them. In retrospect, she probably should have, but none of us ever questioned her.”
“Who is JC?” I ask, but too quietly and only Nikki hears me. They reiterate the question louder and Amelia responds.
“The one who made this all possible. I’ll tell you later, but for now please stop talking – it’s hard enough to drive this fast even when I’m concentrating.”
We return to silence. The car eventually slows down to an appropriate speed. After maybe another twenty minutes we finally stop, on a dirtroad partway into a forest. We get out and Amelia and Nikki stretch. “I’m still worried we’re not going to be the first people there. Try to keep up with me.” And she runs, a lot faster than I expected, into the woods. Nikki and I follow immediately, but we can barely keep up. Soon, I lose sight of her, but not Nikki, so I follow them instead. After about three minutes, going mostly uphill, we finally arrive at a small cabin.
Out of breath again, we follow Amelia inside, and see that it’s entirely bare, but Amelia leans down and begins tracing her hand over the floor. She mutters, “I can never find the damn keyhole,” before she finds the damn keyhole and puts a key inside. This makes a small hatch open up, and she directs us to go down first – we don’t have anywhere else to hide, and if she is the only person here we might be able to overpower her if we need to. But she probably weighs more than Nikki and me together, so I wouldn’t count on that. She descends after us, but we’re not even halfway by the time she’s caught up with us. Looking down the whole way, I eventually reach the bottom.
We’re standing around in a barely shoulder width hallway, which has four doors to either side, and one more at the back. Every door has a label, so we know exactly what’s in each: there are four bedrooms to the back, two food-storage rooms immediately to our right and left, a shower room next to the left storage room, and one for medicine next to the right storage room. The final door is labelled “Control Room”
“We’ll be safe here. Go relax.” She walks along the hallway and enters the control room.
Nikki checks if she locked it and confirms she did. “I guess we’re stuck here for now. Let’s get a weapon, just in case.” They open the first food storage room – there are cabinets lining the walls, each filled with cereal, tinned food, and bottles of water, although there’s a sink in the room as well. There’s also some cooking utensils, but only one knife large enough to be used as a weapon. Nikki takes that, and we try the second food-storage room, but it’s locked.
While we attempt to relax in the hallway, Amelia returns from the control room. “Alright, I changed the code, so now only this key and James’s will work. No-one will be able to get to this place, and the police don’t even know about it. I don’t think anyone will bother coming back here, but I just want to be safe.”
“Safe from what?”
“Anything. I know more than you, but I still don’t a clue what’s going on. Anyway, both of you, where’s the gratitude, huh? You’d be arrested by now, but I helped you out.”
Nikki considers this for a few moments, but I end up saying, “Thank you.”
“Oh wow, you actually speak.”
I don’t respond to her mock, nor does Nikki. Instead they say, “Thanks; you did help us out. But I don’t trust you just yet.”
“That’s why you took a knife? Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same, but I had to lock that third room, because there is another knife in there. I have a gun, so I can handle one of you, even if armed. Maybe not two, but I don’t think we’ll have to fight.” I take note of her modesty; even if we were both armed, I really doubt she’d have any trouble dealing with us both.
“You have cameras?”
“Yep. One in every room. I won’t spy on you, don’t worry. Although, I don’t know how to turn them off.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, you two must both be tired. Why don’t you go rest until James is here? He’s my partner, the other detective by the wreckage. The old man.” Nikki nods. I feel tired too, and we head past Amelia into one of the rooms. We notice these have mechanical locks, and there’s a key on the inside, so Nikki locks it. They sit on the bed and sigh. I lie down on the floor – carpeted, and surprisingly clean – beneath a vent and close my eyes. I’ve not exercised so much in a long time and I’m already aching. I focus on the cold air blowing over my face.
“This is a lot to take in. We’re in a completely different situation than I thought,” Nikki tells me. “We really don’t have any advantage here. We don’t know as much, and we can’t overpower two of them.”
“At least they’re not hostile,” I say.
“There is that, but they might turn on us. We don’t know what they want yet. Wait, do these cameras have microphones?” Nikki stands up and looks for the camera. It’s at the corner of the room. They take a chair from under a desk and stand on it to see. “There are two holes here. It probably doesn’t have the best quality, but pass me my notebook.” I do as I’m instructed. Nikki takes out a small piece of paper and chews it into a pulp, before sticking bits of it into the holes. “That should be fine. I don’t think they’ll be able to hear us now.” They jump down and take me to the corner of the bed, in the corner of the room farthest from the camera. “Right, we can make plans now.” I nod. “Okay, so we do have one advantage. I don’t think she sees us as more than two confused teenagers, so she may underestimate us. I don’t know how to exploit that yet. But if there is a way, I’ll use it.”
“Maybe you should rest, Nikki. We only woke up an hour ago, but I’m so tired now.”
“I guess we should … we might not get a chance for a while. I don’t know if either of us should keep watch. Perhaps not; I think we’re safe for now.” I nod. “Right, I’m going to nap.” I say I will too and get off the bed and lie on the floor, where I was lying a few moments ago, but this makes Nikki laugh. “You can lie in the bed, you know? Unless you happen to prefer the floor, but I really don’t mind.”
I blink. “It’s small, though …”
“It’s your choice.” Nikki closes their eyes and turns to face the wall. I close mine too, and manage to fall asleep for a bit.
#
We only sleep for about an hour, and happen to wake up a few minutes before Amelia knocks on our door. “James is here. Come to the control room when you’re ready.” Nikki says we’ll be there in a few minutes and stretches. I do too – the cold air has left my face a bit numb and I need to warm up.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I packed some deodorant. I think we both need it,” Nikki tells me and hands me a canister. I apply it and thank them. They apply it more generously, and now we both smell of pomegranate. They unlock the door and we head to the control room, now unlocked, where we find Amelia and James sitting next to each other at a table, a large screen behind them. James offers a smile and Amelia nods to acknowledge our entry.
“Right, we’ve had a communication from JC, and it basically confirms what we already figured out. Everything has gone wrong, and the project is being abandoned. It’s –”
“I’d like to see the video,” says Nikki.
“Don’t trust me?”
“Nope.”
“Fine, then. But sit in front, knife-boy.” Nikki and I exchange seats with James and Amelia. I can hear James whisper a query about her use of the phrase “knife-boy” and she informs him of Nikki’s theft. James doesn’t say more after this. Then the video plays.
I see my brother’s face in a room so dark I can’t make out the background. He looks just the same as the day he left, tired, kinda happy, but most like he’s not in the same place as you; like he’s seeing different things, and talking to different people. He says: “Hey, co-workers. I guess you’re all pretty mad at me? I am too, you know. I didn’t want this to happen, and I didn’t expect it. I don’t know why they want to stop this. I knew there’d be opposition, and some accidents were inevitable, but I didn’t expect everyone to be so damn hostile. Thirty-seven trucks have been crashed, and just about everyone else is jumping ship, abandoning the project. I am too. I can’t do it without you guys. Look, sorry, alright? I believed it in just as much as you did, and I know some of you thought I’d be able to protect you from this thing, but I’m not that powerful – well, I am, I mean, but, but, but what I mean is I can’t use my power like that. Not without putting everyone in more danger. If you still want to continue playing, then you can. Everything will work exactly as we made it until the last date in the books, but after then it’s up to the players to do what they want. If there are any left by then – they’re really really set on collecting all these books. Anyway, sorry again, guys. I’m going to take a really long nap now, so if you need me, too bad. This is Jesus Christ, signing out.” The camera switches off.
Amelia yawns. “I used to think she was pretty cool, but she’s just a bit … weird. She doesn’t really have any ambition.”
“She?” I ask.
“Oh, did they appear male to you? I guess I should have told you. They appear differently to everyone. They look like Madonna to me.”
“That’s a relief,” Nikki says.
“What did they look like to you?”
“Myself.”
“Never heard of that before, but anyway at least I don’t have to explain what’s going on any more.”
James laughs a bit. “You haven’t explained why we want to work with them, Amy.” She rolls her eyes, but does look a bit embarrassed.
“I suppose I haven’t. Alright then: JC felt it was unfair that she was the only one with this sort of power. They could have given it to everyone right from the start, but I don’t even have to explain why that’s a bad idea. So, they came up with this instead – a fun game for people to play. They’d get used to the idea of changing reality, in relative safety, and it’d give all the new worlds time to ‘harden’, before part two of the project begins. That’s what she said, anyway. I don’t know exactly what she meant by that, but she said that new, softer worlds are more prone to being visited by non-entities. I also don’t know what those are, but JC always looked very serious when they talked about them.”
“You met them in person?” Nikki asks.
“Oh, no. She just sends videos to the people working for her. Most of them weren’t work related, though …” Amelia smiles, remembering something. “She sent everyone a personalised message on their birthday. Anyway, let’s get back to why we want to work with you. The non-entities. JC was afraid of them, I think, which means they must be really bad news. But they can’t be stopped with JC’s power. Which is exactly what we need, if we’re going to be overthrowing her.” Amelia pauses. “Oh, I never said exactly what part two is. Right … when the six remaining weeks are up, we’ll all receive our ideal world, our personal heaven. But there’s a trade-off: our bodies here will die, we’ll be sealed off from the other worlds.”
“Jesus told us we won’t be separate forever,” James begins. “He also said that unless we let it, no harm would come to us. I believe this means we will get to make contact with others, but only if both parties agree. I’m not happy with that. Amelia isn’t either. From what I’ve seen, I don’t think you would be.” He addresses Nikki directly.
Why wouldn’t someone be happy with that? Infinite power, just with some precautions in place for safety. I guess … it’s not truly infinite, though. We have no power over this world, nor do we have any over any of the billions of others that have been created, or the people who inhabit them. Nikki would never be satisfied with that if they knew there was more to gain, and so they nod and say, “You’re right.”
Amelia grins. “Yes! I knew you would say that, but I’m really relieved you did. If you didn’t we’d have to kill you. But anyway, let’s get back to the plan. We think we can do it, if we get just a bit lucky, because we already have a major advantage. I have five seconds.
“You have five seconds?” Nikki asks.
James confirms. “Yes. In exchange for us working for him, we made deals. Everyone did. Depending on how useful they could be, the more we could all ask for. Amelia and I happened to be asked at the same time, and after some discussion he decided to employ us both. Amelia gets her ideal world five seconds early. Unfortunately, that’s all we could push for.”
“But we can extend the time,” Amelia adds. “We can use the non-entities, but …” Amelia yawns, then laughs. “That was good timing. I was just about to say we’re all very tired right now. We had our first point collection events last night, so we didn’t really sleep. JC mentioned it, and so we’re all in need of some rest. If it’s alright with you two, we can discuss this tomorrow, yeah?”
Nikki nods. “Yes, that’s fine.” I’m very aware of my own tiredness right then, and I guess they are too. “But can we eat first?”
James gets up. “You’re free to eat as you normally do, tonight. But we need to discuss rationing tomorrow. Don’t worry; it won’t be very strict.” He leaves and wishes us all a good afternoon. Amelia stands up next, then Nikki, then I do.
“Eating is a really good idea,” Amelia agrees. We follow her to the kitchen where we each make a sandwich, and since Amelia says that we might as well use the fresh ingredients before they expire, we slightly overload them. It tastes good though, especially after skipping breakfast. A few bites in, Amelia asks us, “So, you two still in college?”
“I left a year ago,” Nikki answers, and I add that I just finished.
“Guess this wasn’t what either of you were expecting. I certainly wasn’t.” Amelia swallows a large bite and drinks some water to wash it down. “But don’t you feel excited? I know we’re all tired, but I can’t stop thinking about what it’s going to be like.”
“I’m excited, too,” I say.
Nikki smiles. “Me too. This is a very rare opportunity.”
“It beats being a detective, definitely. I’m so fucking glad I won’t have to write another warrant, or surveillance report, or be called up right before a date. I thought it would be so much more exciting when I was kid, and before I knew it, I was so far in I couldn’t get out again.”
“At least you’re doing something,” Nikki laughs. “I said I’d decide what do with my life by the end of this year. I guess I have now, but I wasn’t anywhere near making a decision until today.”
“I didn’t join until I was twenty-two. You have plenty of time to figure this stuff out. Well, you did have. But even though you don’t have much choice left, I’m glad you’re happy with what’s going on. It might all fail, but I really think it won’t. If we trust each other.”
“That’s why you’re being so friendly?” Nikki asks. Amelia starts giggling and covers her mouth.
“I guess partly. I want you guys to trust me, and I want to trust you two. I don’t yet, not completely. But we will get to that point.” She looks at me. “In a way, it’s better we found both of you. If you two have each other things are a bit more even. You won’t feel like outcasts to James and me. Let’s make an effort to be friends, yeah?” She looks at us both, sweetly, smiling, and holds out both her hands.
Nikki looks to me as I look to them. They say, “I’m willing to try, if you are too.” I nod. I don’t trust James and Amelia yet, but if we do get to that point, where we all trust each other with our lives, then that’s so much better than the alternative, where we’re constantly looking for ways to betray each other. Six weeks in that state of mind … things would get uncomfortable So, Nikki shakes Amelia’s right hand and I shake her left. Her grip is firm and confident, and we all let go after a few seconds.
“Thanks,” she says. She finishes her sandwich, and wishes us a good afternoon. Nikki and I finish ours, quietly. We both know there’s a lot to discuss, but right now we need to sleep, and I just want to think for a bit. So, once I finish my food I sit in silence for a few minutes longer as Nikki eats. When they’re done we both wait a while longer before we talk.
“Let’s head back to our room.” We take the ten-step walk there and lock the door again. Once inside they motion to the corner where we talked before and asks: “Did you really mean it when you shook her hand?”
“I did,” I whisper. “You?”
“Yes, I did too. But that doesn’t mean I believe they’ve told us everything yet, nor that they will. Nor that we shouldn’t keep aware, or figure out some sort of failsafe.”
“A failsafe?”
“I don’t know yet. I just mean, if we get the chance to guarantee they can’t screw us over, then we should take that. Even if it means hiding something from them.” It makes me uncomfortable, but I agree. Nikki and I are the top priority, no matter how much we get to like James and Amelia. “But we’ll try to be friends. I think we can be. Amelia is so cool. And her arms … they’re massive.” Nikki raises their eyebrows and I laugh a bit at their excitement.
“It’s pretty impressive.”
“So impressive,” they yawn. They close their eyes and lie down. I get off the bed and curl up at the corner of the room, away from the vent. I fall asleep quickly.