The Future Next Door Boxed Set, page 132
“It’s happened already, yes, Jack. We’re here to convince you not to do what you’re going to...”
“Didn’t you die? Didn’t I kill you? Oh, Dakota, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to...”
“I survived, Jack. I survived.”
“And the boy? Is that the boy behind you? The boy I killed?”
“That’s me,” Danny said. “I didn’t survive.”
“Oh. Oh.” Jack choked up. “I’m...I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ve had so much time...so much time down here...for regret...”
“You’ve been down here all this time, Jack?” Tayisha asked. “Twenty-one years?”
“I came up once,” he said. “A few years ago, when the cash in my pocket was valid again. To get some things I’d need. But I ran out of money, and I still needed...I had to steal some things...I’ve tried so hard not to change anything. Not to make an impact. But now...now it’s safe. Now I can change everything.”
Mark stepped closer to the light, shielding his eyes. “We’re not gonna let you, old man! We’ll stop you!”
Dakota put a hand on his shoulder, pulling him back a step. “Jack. Come forward. Come out where we can see you.”
The shadowy figure hesitated for a moment, then shuffled forward. As Jack moved out from behind the light, he became more and more distinct, until he was standing clear as day before them.
Tayisha gasped.
He looked exactly the same. He hadn’t aged a day. Even the charcoal-gray business suit he had been wearing in the wormhole generator room when everything had begun was the same, completely clean and unwrinkled.
“How...?” Caitlin asked.
Dakota pointed to his right hand. “He used the egg.”
Jack held up the silver egg, now tarnished with age. “Yes. The egg. It’s kept me alive.”
“But the egg doesn’t work,” Tayisha protested.
“It does,” Jack said. “It works perfectly. When I use it on myself, I’m restored just as I was when I was first scanned. I’m not hungry, or thirsty, or tired. Any injuries are wiped away.”
“But it’s fatal! It killed all of those copies of you!”
“He has to keep using it,” Dakota said. “When his body starts to break down, he uses the egg again. How often, Jack?”
Jack rubbed his chin as he thought. “Oh, fairly often. Used to be every four or five hours, now it’s every hour or so.”
“Every hour?” Alan asked. “You’ve been sitting down here in the dark for twenty-one years, not eating, not sleeping, just...rebooting your body?”
Jack nodded. “And hiding. There were more people down here in the early days, before they sealed the entrances. I would hide in the tunnel when someone came down, but that hasn’t been necessary for a very long time.”
“But that’s crazy!” Caitlin said. “You couldn’t have survived like that!”
“I had no choice!” Jack’s face twisted in rage and his voice erupted into a roar, echoing down the tunnel. “You think I would have done this if I had any other way? I needed a quiet place to work, away from people. I needed to be somewhere I couldn’t change history any more...” He looked at Danny, and his expression softened. “...any more than I already had. That meant using the egg. I had no choice.” He nodded, as if convincing himself. “I had no choice.”
“What do you mean, to work?” Dakota asked. “What have you been working on, down here?”
“Being stranded in the past was almost a blessing,” he replied. “It gave me time. Dr. Cheek’s virus, the one he put on the tesseract drive. It was...insidious. It used the resources of the drive to protect itself, to grow. It could have spread out across the world if I had connected the drive to the internet. I had to fight it. And I won, I eliminated the virus a few years back. The drive is safe to use again, but the copy of me on it was destroyed in the fight, I think. I can’t feel it anymore, I can’t access its increased intelligence. I need to upload a new copy of myself.”
“Is that the plan? Put yourself back on the drive, connect it to my parents’ computer, then connect to something with Wi-Fi, like your phone?”
Jack smiled and nodded. “Yes, yes, exactly! Nothing complicated, nothing evil! I’m just going to put myself out into the world. I’ll find these creatures as they’re being born and snuff them out! Nobody will ever even have to know! The world will go on as it was!” He gestured behind him. “Everything’s ready! I made the adjustments to the computer and to my phone years ago! I can go and save humanity from extinction right now! Except...” He frowned, and rubbed his temples. “Except I’m finding it so hard to concentrate, lately...”
Dakota stepped towards him slowly, keeping her motions gentle and nonthreatening. “Jack, you’ve been down here for too long. You haven’t slept, you’ve been alone...your mental health isn’t in the best state...”
Mark snorted. “It wasn’t that great to begin with...”
She gestured behind herself for him to be quiet. “Let us take you out of here. There’s time, now. We’ll go back to your apartment, you can rest...” Light reflected off the egg, and she stopped.
“I’ll rest when this is over, Dakota. Once I’ve put myself onto the drive I can finally let this body go.” He sighed. “You’re here to stop me, I assume?”
“Yes.”
“So self-righteous.” He laughed sadly. “We have that in common. I suppose I’d better get it over with then.” He backed up, retreating into the darkness. “I don’t have to worry about changing the past anymore. Time to change the future.”
Caitlin stepped forward. “Don’t make me chase you, Jack. You’re in no condition to fight back.”
“I’m not,” Jack said. “But they are. You should really run. They’re not exactly like me – they might hurt you.”
Figures moved in the darkness, beyond the light. Jack passed them, disappearing as the shadowy shapes moved closer. They were all roughly the same size, the height and shape of a man. Some walked quickly and surely, while others stooped and shuffled.
The first of them came into view. Tayisha screamed. Dakota and her friends backed up.
“Oh, god,” Alan said. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Don’t let them touch me,” Tayisha said softly. “Don’t let them touch me.”
Dakota tried to fight her revulsion with logic. She examined the monstrosity before her and tried to make sense of it.
The thing advancing on them was a copy of Jack, obviously made by the egg. Jack would have needed some type of living material to make it, but, she realized, he wouldn’t have wanted to kill a person and risk disrupting history. So he had made do with what he had on hand.
The thing resembled Jack, in places. Its jaw and the left side of its head were identical to his, but in place of the top right quarter of its head was a living rat, thrashing madly against its unnatural captivity. The rat flesh fused with the human flesh, tanned skin turning smoothly to brown fur. The head was where the human right eye should be. The rodent hissed at them, baring its sharp teeth.
Most of the rest of the creature’s body was hidden by a copy of Jack’s suit, though the cloth was faded and torn, and there was unsettling movement coming from beneath in places where a body shouldn’t move. The stomach pulsed once, something pushing against the white dress shirt.
It reached out for them as it walked forward. The right hand was normal. The left was black and shining. There were no fingers. Instead, the hand was a thick block of roach carapaces fused together, still squirming, antennae twitching.
More of the creatures emerged into the light. Some were other patchwork Jacks stitched together from vermin. One opened its mouth wide and a gargantuan roach darted around inside where a tongue should be. Another limped along, dragging a foot made from the underside of a rat beneath it. Other creatures were true hybrids – one had a face halfway between Jack’s and a rat’s, with pink eyes and sharp teeth, while its right arm was a roach’s leg, scaled up to human size, the suit jacket flopping around the thin, segmented appendage.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Alan said. He was breathing heavily. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can.”
“Don’t panic,” Dakota said. Focusing on her friends’ fears was helping her conquer her own. “Just move back. Back the way we came.”
“Too late,” Caitlin said.
More of the creatures were coming from behind them. They had been hiding at the top of the sealed-off staircases, shielded from view as the friends had passed. Still more were coming from the tracks beside them, dripping fetid water as they pulled themselves up from just beneath the platform where they had been crouched. There were dozens of the monstrosities advancing on them, pinning them back against the wall.
Caitlin put her fists up, ready to fight. Mark and Danny followed her lead, but Alan and Tayisha looked on the verge of panic.
There has to be a way out, Dakota thought. There’s always a way out.
The first creature, the one with the live rat in his head, stopped. The rest of them followed his lead.
He opened his mouth. His teeth were black.
“I’m disappointed in you, Dakota.” His voice was harsh and raspy, but other than that it sounded just like Jack’s.
His human hand darted out like lightning and grabbed her by the throat. Dakota tensed up and tried to pull him off, but he was as strong as the real Jack.
The hand holding her felt wrong, despite its normal appearance – like cold, raw meat. But it was infinitely better, she thought, to the touch of the quivering roach appendage he gently, almost lovingly, stroked across her cheek.
“So disappointed,” he said.
Caitlin punched him in the rat. He fell back, losing his grip on Dakota, but the sudden violence was all the prompting his fellows needed. With roars and shrieks the horrible beast-men were on them.
Dakota had very little experience with fighting, despite all their adventures. The few lessons she had taken from Caitlin vanished from her memory as soon as she felt the hairy hands of another of the creatures grab her. He wrapped his arms around her ribcage while two others grabbed her flailing feet and lifted her off the ground.
“Watch,” he whispered. “Watch what we do to them.”
“Please,” she begged him, “if you’re Jack too, then you don’t want to hurt anyone.”
He just grinned as he took in the carnage. Whatever part of Jack was in there, she thought, must be buried under the horror of his transformation. These creatures didn’t care about saving the world. They just wanted blood.
Caitlin and Mark were back to back, doing a decent job of holding the monsters off. Danny and Tayisha were near the edge of the group. Danny knocked a few down and managed to yank Tayisha clear for a moment, but five or six of the creatures advanced on them again.
Alan, like Dakota, had gotten cut off from the others. Two of the distorted copies were holding him pinned against the wall. He kicked at them but they ignored his blows.
A third advanced on Alan, lifting his arm. In place of his hand was a rat, violently thrashing. He pressed it against Alan’s neck and it bit down. Alan screamed as blood poured from his neck.
“Alan!” Dakota cried.
Caitlin saw his plight and tried to get to him. She stepped away from Mark and was immediately knocked down from behind. While one of the creatures sat on her back and begin hitting her in the side of her ribcage, another stuck a mostly human hand into the pocket of her jeans. He pulled out the remote unit for the wormhole generator and ran off in the direction that Jack had gone.
Mark got one solid punch on a creature with a head covered in roaches. His fist sunk in with a squish and his revulsion caused him to freeze. His opponent kneed him in the stomach and Mark fell to the floor. One of the vermin-Jacks held an arm around his neck and squeezed, causing his eyes to bulge.
“Stop!” Dakota screamed. “Please, stop!”
They wouldn’t stop. Caitlin was trying to curl up into a ball to protect herself from the relentless blows. Alan’s eyes were completely white, his shirt stained with blood.
Danny and Tayisha were faring better, but only because in Danny’s wild thrashing he had managed to get them on the outside of the horde. Several of the creatures were advancing on them, backing them up further down the platform, back the way they had originally come. Danny was trying to knock them aside, to get back to help his friends, but the things swung and snapped at him, barring his progress.
The pressure around Dakota’s ribs increased. They had finished toying with her, evidently deciding she had seen enough of her friends’ torments. They were preparing to finish her off. The pain was intense, and getting worse.
Every problem has a solution, she kept repeating to herself. She could find it if she could think logically. She needed more time.
Time.
Thinking logically. One step after the other. That was her problem. She needed to think further ahead.
“Tayisha!” she cried out. “Run! Get out!”
“I’m not leaving you!” Tayisha yelled back.
A creature lunged for Tayisha, but Danny punched it in the side of the head, knocking it down onto the tracks.
“Turn and run!” Dakota was finding it harder to catch her breath as the pressure increased. “Remember this exact place! Remember this exact moment! And tell Eddie!” She gasped in pain. “If you stay, we die!”
Tayisha hesitated. She put a hand on Danny’s shoulder. He shook her off.
“I’ll cover you,” he said.
A copy of Jack, normal-looking except for large claws on its fingers, ran at Tayisha, but Danny intercepted it. He grabbed it by the wrists and the two grappled.
Tayisha took a step back, then stopped. “I can’t just...”
“Please,” Dakota yelled. “One last time, just do what I say! Go, find Eddie, and don’t come back!”
Tayisha turned and ran. Danny threw his foe to the ground, but two more were on him. He tackled them both, one arm around each of their stomachs, keeping them from pursuing Tayisha, but the first monster rejoined the fray and he was overwhelmed.
Dakota’s vision was blurring. She could just about make out Alan – the creatures supporting him had let him go, and he had slumped to the ground.
She couldn’t breathe.
I was wrong, she thought. I’ve killed us all.
She thought for a moment that her lack of breath was causing her vision to blur, that the yellow light on the edge of her field of view was a sign that she was about to pass out. It was only the sudden jolt she felt when the monster crushing her was struck in the head with a baseball bat and she sucked in a huge breath that she realized she was incorrect.
A woman dressed head to toe in black leather, wearing heavy black boots and a black ski mask, stood before her, bat in hand. She swung again and knocked away the two assailants holding her legs. They fell with a grunt and lay unmoving on the ground.
Dakota took another breath and stood up straight, looking the woman directly in her almond-colored eyes, the only part of her body visible. They were the exact same height.
The woman turned and swung at another creature charging them. Dakota’s attention was drawn back to her friends, who were being rescued by similarly garbed figures. There were six in all, three women and three men. One of the women was particularly fierce, despite her slight size. She was armed only with her gloved hands, but she punched and kicked and fought like she had been doing it all her life. She knocked the creature attacking Caitlin off, then struck it once in the face with the palm of her hand. It collapsed and lay still.
The third woman was heftier in stature. She was armed with a large hammer and stood behind Dakota’s rescuer, guarding her back closely. Two of the men were helping Mark. One was as big as him – exactly as big – and was unarmed. He used his brute strength to pull off the faux-Jack that was strangling Mark, while the second man, who was smaller and armed with another baseball bat, hit it in the stomach until it collapsed. He then started beating on the trio of creatures who had dog-piled on top of Danny, while the larger man fended off those who were still advancing.
The third man was also large, the leather accenting his musculature. He had gone straight for Alan and tore into the creatures attacking him like a devil. He had a small black bag in one hand and wielded a crowbar in the other, swinging it precisely. He crushed the heads of Alan’s tormentors then smashed the rat-hand to pulp. He dropped to his knees, put down the bloody crowbar and opened the bag, producing medical supplies. Alan yowled as the man poured antiseptic over the wound, then calmed, staring at his savior in confusion as the black-garbed figure began to bandage him.
The creatures were rallying. The newcomers had beaten back the first wave, but more were shuffling forward to fill their places. The woman who had saved Dakota grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around, facing her towards the darkness that had swallowed Jack. She pointed.
“I can’t leave you all here,” Dakota protested.
The woman didn’t answer. Her eyes wrinkled as if she were frowning, and she pointed again.
“I can’t...” Dakota faltered. “I don’t know how to stop him.”
The woman shook her head. “Yes, you do,” she said in Dakota’s voice. “Go. We’ll hold them off.”
She swung her bat at another of the monsters, knocking it to the ground, but there were more right behind. Dakota had a clear path towards the darkness, and she took it.
She shielded her eyes and slowed as she reached the floodlight. She kept looking forward so that her eyes would adjust as she left the light behind. She resisted the urge to glance back and see how her friends were faring.
About thirty feet away was the end of the tunnel. She could see the glow of a computer monitor lighting the immediate surroundings. It was running some early version of Windows, with a gray desktop and blocky icons. She squinted, trying to spot Jack, but the screen didn’t give off enough light to see much more than shadows.
“Hold her.”
