Sunday, September 3, 2017

A Dancer in the Infinite - Chapter 72


Chapter 72 Boojum Marie

Come...dry your eyes. For you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly. Dry your eyes... and let's go home.  – Alan Moore



     “Good Heaven” said Rian Jenkins, “Here comes another one!”

     And she was back in the Egg again, in the Egg room.

     “Quick, open this damn thing,” she shouted.

     The Egg opened and there was Jenkins and Jackie.  Marie wasted no time.

     “Another Marie just got here before me?”

     “Yes”

     “Where’d she go?”

     “Up to the roof to meet our Marie.”

     “Fuck,” she shouted and leapt from the Egg, bolted across and out of the room before her started hosts.  She dashed across the Freezer, nodded to a surprised Renee Friese, and up the ancient stone stair case twisting upwards.  She was jumping up the stairs more than climbing them.  She pushed her muscles with everything they had.  She could hear the gun fire above and around her.  Lots and lots of gunfire.  She pushed herself harder up the stairs until she went through the open door to the rooftop battlements of the castle.

     She took the scene in as quickly as she could.  There was Barry, Luke, and Stan all with AR15s, taking turns taking cover behind the battlements and firing down below.  The air screamed with gunshots, and bullets.

     “Hello, Marie,” said a female voice behind her.  It was strangely familiar.

     She turned to see herself standing there with a smoking handgun over the body of…herself.  She was stunned.

     “It’s lovely to finally meet you.” She said politely.

     “You just killed her!”

     “Yes, I did.  It was necessary for our conquest.”

     “Our conquest?  What the fuck are you talking about?”

     “Isn’t it terrible to find out you’ve been playing a game, you didn’t even know you were playing, and that you have no idea what the rules are?”  She raised the gun and pointed at Marie.

     “Why?”

     “Why what?  Why kill her?  Why not?  She’s inconsequential really, not like you or me.  We’re the only two that matter, don’t you see that?”

     “What?  I’m not like you.  I would never murder people?”

     “No, you aren’t and no you wouldn’t.  But, my creatures…your Toxies, I believe your people call them, have helped me transcend your simple moral paradigms in ways you can’t even imagine.  Together, we’re taking over the multiverse.  That’s certainly an ambition, I think I can safely say…you’ve never held.”

     “You work for Them?”

     “Or do they work for me?  It’s a tricky question.  Let’s just say that our interests are aligned, and that our relationship is mutually beneficial.”

     The other Marie lowered her gun.  “No, I’m not going to kill you.  I want you to exist.  I probably couldn’t shoot you anyway, could I?  Your Wally told us all about that little incident at Lastours.  You certainly are ahead of the curve…just like me in some ways.  But, we’re different, you and I.  Almost opposites really.  Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but my work here is done…I’ve got to dash…a lot more Maries to kill, you know.”

     Her yoke suit glowed with a brilliant golden light and she was gone.

     So, that’s what that looks like Marie thought.

     “Marie’s dead,” she shouted to the defenders.  “She’s been shot.  I’ve got to go talk to Jenkins.  Hold on as long as you can.”

     “She hurried down the steps as quickly as she could.  Again, she had no idea how much time she would have.  When she got back downstairs to the Freezer, she called Jenkins and Jackie from the Egg room.

     “Your Marie is dead.  The other Marie killed her.  It wasn’t the infected attackers.  It was her.  She’s insane.  Completely insane.  You’ve got to warn as many of the others as you can on the Mawacky.”

     They stared at her in confused horror.  “Hurry.” She commanded.  “Do it!  Do it now!”

     Then an idea popped into her head.  “Tell them to send all the Maries then can to my Chateau, the one in my universe.  I’ve got an idea.”

     She saw her yoke suit begin to glow and she felt herself fade from that reality back across the Veils.



copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt

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