Friday, September 1, 2017

A Dancer in the Infinite - Chapter 66


Chapter 66  The Fourth Trip

If I have to have a past, then I prefer it to be multiple choice. – Alan Moore

Life is a memory, and then it is nothing. – Cormac McCarthy

     “Looks like we have a Marie, incoming” she heard on the intercom from the Egg, it sounded like Jenkins.  Had she travelled?  She remembered crossing the veils, but it was very much like she had gone back exactly as quickly as she left.

     “Lovely timing,” a vaguely familiar voice said.  “Somebody get up on the fucking battlements with the AR15!”

     She heard gunfire through the thick stone walls of the castle as the Egg opened.  There were Jackie and Jenkins looking at her with some small surprise.

     “Seriously,” said the other voice, “She’s here, you’re done…take the fucking machine gun and get up on the battlement.  Stan can’t hold them off all by himself.  Rian and I can handle Marie.”

     Her heart stopped when she saw him, throwing the AR-15 to Jackie.  “Go!” he commanded.  It was Wallace Patel.  “Go, or Barry will be in here any fucking minute!”

     “What the…?” Marie gasped.  She turned to Jenkins, “What’s he doing here?”

     “Wally works here, remember?” Jenkins replied rather nonchalantly, she thought.

     “Oh crap,” she said, “Okay, sorry…I guess I’m in a different universe than where I started after all.”

     “Fraid so, kiddo,” said Patel in a friendly voice, “Our Marie was just shot on the roof about five minutes ago.  You picked a bad time to come a-visiting.”

     Gun shots from semi and automatic weapons punctuated his sentence with dramatic flair outside and above them.

     “Why have you come?” asked Jenkins.

     “Um…I’m looking for…the…Right Jenkins.  I don’t suppose you’re…?”

     “I’m not sure how I would know if I were, but I suspect…if I were the so-called Right Jenkins, I probably would still have a living Marie and not be in this bit of a pickle I find myself in.”

     “That’s a fair point.” Marie conceded.

     “But, you must know something that can help me, or I wouldn’t have come here….”

     “She’s been talking to Mike, then I’ll wager,” observed Wally.  “That sounds like his trippy type of explanation, at least according to what our Marie said.”

     “What day is it here?” Marie thought to ask.

     “It’s Wednesday.” answered Wally.  Jenkins was lost in thought.

     “Alright, then that makes sense….where I come from Wally and the Toxies warned us they would attack on Wednesday…oh, yeah, sorry in my universe…you’re the bad guy.”

     He shrugged, “I’m sure you’ll find plenty of ladies in this universe to agree with that assessment, but here Barry Allen is the Toxie agent.”

     “How many Maries aside from your Marie have you guys encountered?” she asked.

     Wally turned to Jenkins, “What, three?”

     “Yes, indeed, we’ve had three…including you that weren’t our Marie…they all got here this morning as it so happens.  One of them had a chance to meet our Marie before she jumped between worlds again…and all shit broke loss here and Barry came with his army of infected and begin this siege…which from the sounds of lack of machine gun fire from our battlements, I’d say is about over.  We started getting readings that an Egg was coming right after Marie, our Marie died.”

     “Okay, okay….” And then she felt herself being pulled away from the world, she yoke suit began to glow with golden light.

     “Good luck, Marie,” said Wally with genuine kindness.  And the lab and the Egg room were gone.

copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt

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