Inhuman(28)

“Oh dear God,” Thel uttered, terror-stricken as she struggled to keep James’s face above the water.

His eyes continued to flutter, but it was clear that he had no idea where he was.

“If you and I can hold our breath for thirty seconds, the locks should release. Then we’ll be able to open the doors to escape. After that, it’s a matter of swimming to the surface before our lungs give out.”

“That’s not a plan! It’s insanity!” Thel shouted, her face pointing upward, where only a half-dozen centimeters separated the top of the water from the ceiling. She pulled on the hair on the back of James’s head to force his face upward as well, but she knew there were only seconds before he’d inevitably inhale water. “If the locks don’t fail, we’re just going to drown like rats in here!”

“Our chances of survival are low,” the A.I. conceded, his face pointing upward as well.

The car had now gone completely under the surface of the water, and the candidate’s image rippled above them in the dark sky.

The A.I. met his eyes one last time before the abyss had taken them. “But we’re not dead yet. When James takes in his first water, he’ll panic. Get away from him. When he lashes out, you might be injured if you’re too close.”

“So I just let go? Just let him drown?” Thel shouted, spitting out saltwater, trying to take advantage of the agonizingly small pocket of remaining air. “You son-of-a-bitch! You’re inhuman! Goddamn you!”

“Calm down, Thel. Take in a deep breath, then get away from him.”

“Go to hell!”

“His life depends on you!” the A.I. suddenly shouted, his voice reaching a tenor that shocked her. “Take your breath now!” he commanded. He knew their lives depended on her following through.

She did as instructed and inhaled as deeply as she could before letting her face sink below the surface.

The A.I. took in his last breath simultaneously and also sank, keeping his eyes on the implacable artificial eyes above them, wobbling and distorted, like the eyes of God, unwilling to intervene to save them from their impending, horrific fate.





5



“We’re not as vulnerable as you think we are,” Old-timer replied, remembering his promise to report back to James and the A.I. fifteen minutes after entering Universe 332. “How long have I been here?”

“That’s a helluva good question,” Paine replied. “Time’s pretty much irrelevant here.”

“Let’s not be glib,” Aldous cut in. “We have to be as clear as possible with him.” He turned to Old-timer. “We were brought out of hibernation automatically when you opened your Planck portal. For us, time is now linked to the time for you and your…” Aldous gestured with a tilt of his head toward Rich and Djanet. “Your, uh...compatriots,” he finished.

Old-timer tried to access his mind’s eye, to no avail. “I have to report back,” he said, a look of concern flashing across his face. “I only had fifteen minutes.”

“Until what?” Paine asked, his tone suddenly suspicious.

“Until…” His sentence drifted away for a moment as he tried to figure out a way to explain forces like James and the A.I. to the ghosts from another dimension. “They’ll come looking for me.”

“But you can’t leave,” Samantha suddenly insisted, her wet face now calm, though her expression remained tormented. “You’re our only chance.”

“For what?” Old-timer asked, his voice hoarse, his shock constricting his vocal chords and making it difficult for him to speak.

“To help us live again,” Aldous replied.

Old-timer’s eyes were wide. “Live again?”

He turned back to the Planck platform. Rich and Djanet continued to kneel, but they were no longer working on Old-timer’s body. They’d given up and were now kneeling next to each other, looking down at Old-timer’s crumpled form. Djanet’s arm was over Rich’s shoulders as they consoled each other.

“We’re dead?”

“We’re ghosts,” Paine confirmed. “Ghosts in a machine.”

“As Samantha told you earlier,” Aldous elaborated, “we call this the void. It’s not really a time, nor is it a place. It’s just a storage space for our consciousnesses.”

“We should’ve called it Hell,” Samantha scoffed.

“Maybe it’s Purgatory,” Paine mused.

Old-timer’s eyes narrowed; he’d been thinking the same thing.

“At any rate,” Aldous pressed on, “we don’t have bodies. We couldn’t spare the energy.”