Inhuman(25)

James’s eyes widened as the front windshield revealed a horrifying kaleidoscope of blurry visions: city lights, an inverted view of the bridge, the north shore mountains, and, finally, the nearly black water below. “We’re falling! For Christ’s sake! Hang on!”





PART 2





1





“I never thought anything could make me believe in a god, but Craig, for you to be here now, for it to have been you who walked through that Planck portal...what are the chances?”

“I-I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Old-timer uttered in reply as he looked down, disbelieving, at Samantha’s wet eyes, glistening up at him, not a trace of anything impure or deceptive in her earnest expression of love.

“That makes two of us,” Samantha replied, a brief, disbelieving laugh interrupting the soft crying from her joy. She shook her head before the look of happiness was replaced with a sudden onset of pain. “Craig, I thought you were gone forever. I didn’t think...I thought I’d never see you again!”

Old-timer wasn’t sure what to say. In fact, he still wasn’t certain he was even alive. He narrowed his eyes to peer into the nothingness from which Samantha had emerged. Then he turned back to make sure his friends were still there, still standing on the Planck platform, and he was relieved to see that they were. “Where is this?” he asked as he turned back to Samantha. “Where am I?”

“The void,” Samantha replied flatly, as if common sense should have told him so. “Don’t you remember?” she asked, suddenly studying his eyes, seemingly scrutinizing every twitch of his eyelids, every dilation of his pupils. “We talked about this,” she said, emphasizing each syllable in an effort to reach his memory.

“I-I—”

“It’s not him, Sam,” said another familiar voice, and an instant later, Aldous Gibson appeared from out of the blackness.

Though Old-timer saw no light source, the figures were plain to see once they chose to appear.

“Use your reason,” Aldous continued. “He came from the portal.” He pointed her to the Planck platform, where Rich and Djanet were frantically trying to rouse Old-timer’s crumpled form.

“You can’t know that,” Sam replied, turning back to Old-timer, desperation in her eyes. “You don’t know what’s happened out there. It could be him. Maybe he entered Universe X and then—”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Aldous replied, his tone sympathetic as he laid eyes on Old-timer. He gestured with his hand. “Go ahead. Ask him.”

Samantha looked up at Old-timer and grasped his hands tightly as she prepared to speak. “Craig, it is you, isn’t it? You remember me, right? You’ve come back?”

“I remember you,” Old-timer answered, causing Samantha’s face to light up for an instant before he quashed all hope with his follow up: “But I’m not him. I’m not from this universe.”

Her face fell, and she abruptly let go of his hands as the hurt suddenly rushed back in. She shook her head, trembling as she stepped back. “You’re not...you’re...”

Aldous put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest, trying in vain to comfort a loss that he knew could never truly be comforted.

“I-I’m sorry, Sam,” Old-timer offered. His arms fell to his sides, as he was entirely helpless.

Aldous’s eyes narrowed and locked on the alien entity before him.

“Am I... Is the me from this universe…dead?” Old-timer finally asked.

Aldous nodded. “All too recently, I’m afraid. Your appearance here has reopened a very fresh wound.”

“But how?” Old-timer asked. “I mean, how did it happen?”

Aldous shook his head, not sure how to even begin such a complex answer. “It was—” he began, only to be cut off by yet a third voice echoing from the void.

“You died in the most heroic way a soldier can, Doc,” Colonel Paine said. “You died trying to save us all.”





2





“Don’t lock your arms!” the A.I. called out, struggling to speak as the g-force pulled his neck painfully while the car entered a flat spin, thankfully right side up. “Protect your head!”

Thel tried to put her arms up around her head, but the centrifugal force was forcing her to flatten, causing her arms to reach out to the passenger side of the vehicle.

James kept his place in the driver’s seat, with his arms extended against the dash and his elbows unlocked. The airbag had mostly deflated, and would do them no good when they collided with the surface. “We’re gonna hit, but we can survive this! Stay—”