Hexad: The Chamber (26 page)

~~~

The stark interior was almost blinding, bringing home just how wrong the light was outside the room. As he got accustomed to the change, his pupils constricting in reaction to the light, he took in the familiar surroundings of probably the worst place he had been in his entire life.

"It's not working, it's supposed to work."

Dale spun at the voice, Amanda's voice. "I thought you were going to wait...?" It wasn't her, it was a Chamber Amanda, clearly institutionalized to a high degree. She paid little attention to Dale, simply stood by the machine, waiting for it to take her, carry out its terrible operation. The Amanda turned to look at him again, before seeming to come to a decision.

"You're here to fix it," she stated with conviction. "Yes, yes. You've come to fix it, to fix everything. You'll make it okay, you will, won't you?"

"I don't think anyone can do that, not now." Dale almost broke. He could feel it inside himself, feel the will to forge on waning, his ability to not get caught up in the pity and the disgust for what had happened to these women almost leaving him. The shame that he knew could be his if he let it, that every person had a breaking point, however strong they believed themselves to be — given enough stress anyone could break, lose their mind, lose their dignity. Lose their very souls.

"You've got to, you must!" shrieked the Amanda, banging her fists into the machine. "It's how things are, what's meant to happen. We give of ourselves so The Chamber endures. This is all there is for Amanda, and we must give of ourselves to receive. There is no other way."

"Where are the others?"

"All gone now, just me and the old crone left. Nobody comes, nothing happens. I come every day, like a good girl, like the Mothers said I should, but then they got old, and they died. Everyone died. I come, I wait. It doesn't work, it's supposed to work." She banged on the machine again, fresh blood shining bright against faded brown smudges where she must have repeated her pleas for years.

Dale left her to her madness, his heart breaking as he closed the door on his way out, the sound of battered flesh smacking against the machine his only farewell.

He walked slowly to where Amanda was standing, leg shaking with an unnoticed nervous tic as she stared at the curving landscape, her back to the scene of so much distress.

"It's not working."

"Anything else in there? Any clues?"

"No, nothing. Come on, let's get to the dome, see if there is anything there before we try to get out of this place, make this bloody obscenity disappear like it's never been."

Neither of them spoke as they made their way across the empty landscape, feeling sicker as they got closer to the dome. Dale wondered if it was some kind of radiation leak or something — would they be riddled with fast-growing cancers and tumors, live out stunted lives in a hospital ward even if they did escape with their lives?

We've got to get out of here, this place is doing funny things to my head.

Judging by the grim set to Amanda's face she was faring a lot worse — Dale knew he'd made the right decision not telling of the Amanda in the room, it could be the last straw.

They kept moving, skirting empty homes and dying vegetation, hope almost lost, but not quite.

~~~

"Look," said Amanda, pointing ahead at the dome, now no more than a minute away.

Dale lifted his head from staring at his feet and looked where she was pointing, turning to shield his eyes against the blue. It was a figure, no doubt about it, and male, so not an Amanda then. Could it be one of him, a Dale? He really hoped not, as, quite frankly, he was the last person he wanted to meet at the moment.

Almost the last.

It was Cray.

Familiar Faces

Time Unknown

"What should we do?" asked Amanda in a whisper.

"I think we should go have a little chat. There's no point trying to hide in here, is there?"

"But he could kill us, do anything."

"I don't think so, not in here."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm not. Come on." The only thing giving Dale even a semblance of confidence was the fact that they themselves had made them come into The Chamber, meaning they'd survived, left somehow and managed to jump to do it. Plus the book; it gave him hope.

He was terrified.

"Ah, Dale. Amanda. Oh, 'the' Dale and Amanda, what a nice surprise."

"You mean you weren't expecting us?" said Dale. "I very much doubt that."

"I wasn't, but he was," said Cray, staring in disgust mixed with disappointment at a much older version of himself lying dead and mangled on the ground, blue light highlighting the lumps on his face, distorting his features.

"You beat yourself to death then? How very insane of you."

"It's not madness," spat Cray, "it's justice. This idiot of an old man was in no way me. No way. I hunted high and low for you two, but in the end I couldn't catch you, but I knew you'd be watching, somehow. So I moved The Chamber, started it all over again some place new."

"We know," said Dale. "We told ourselves."

Cray looked at him, nonplussed for a moment until he understood, then waved it away as unimportant. "I found you'd been watching so changed things, but then I had to be sure to see it through to the end. To make certain The Chamber endured, did what it was designed to do when the time came, so I checked. It all fell apart, everything got worse, just terrible. This wasn't what I wanted at all."

"What did you do Cray? What have you done?"

Cray stood, unapologetic yet the burden of failure hung heavy, that was clear. "It wasn't me, it was this idiot." Cray kicked the dead Cray, pure hatred dominating his features. "This idiot, this last Cray to ensure what was done came to pass, he ruined it. There have been many, I am sure you know from your spying, countless versions of me I have taken from various times, some willing to carry the burden, others nothing but cowards, as I couldn't live forever through the time it would take for The Chamber to be ready, but I wanted to watch it develop, become what it was meant to be, but this one, this last guardian of all my work, he has let it degenerate into this. The fool." Cray kicked the body again, then sagged as if the fight had left him.

"Where are the Amandas, Cray? What happened to them all?"

"They're all gone, all used up. None left now."

"What do you mean," shrieked Amanda, "all used up? You bastard, you treated them like cattle. You abused them, you locked them up and you took everything away from them."

"And what would you do? You would see to it that they never existed, that none but you ever even had the chance to live," shouted Cray. "At least I wanted to give them life. The Hexad created life in countless universes and that is down to me. Me! I created worlds, I created infinite people to live their lives in infinite ways and you dare to accuse me of anything? You, both of you, would see to it that none of it ever happened."

"Because you took people from those worlds Cray, the time travel closed the universes down, the people eradicated to restore the balance. You broke the rules."

"Rules? Ha, there are no rules. At least I did something. I controlled this world for many years until the populace disappeared. But it didn't matter, I had The Chamber, the last chance, and I had the other universes, the closed ones. With The Chamber I could access them, go back to before Hexads became common technology, live in countless pasts, explore more than one man could ever grow bored of, and it almost all came to nothing. I was so close, and almost failed, but now..." Cray smiled, a madman, his prize almost ready.

"Almost failed?" Dale knew he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Yes. This idiot, this old Cray, he was to get everything ready, I was to come as I did now, in here we could meet without fear of a paradox, but he mis-calculated, we needed three when there were only two, and the two here are pathetic specimens so the third needs to be very strong. What better than the original? The true source of all of this?"

Dale knew what he was talking about, Amanda didn't seem to be following what Cray was saying. One thing he was sure of: Cray was genuinely insane. He was talking too much, telling them things, this wasn't how Cray in his right mind would act — he was always tight-lipped. He obviously thought himself unstoppable.

"Amanda." said Dale.

"Amanda," said Cray. "The final piece of the puzzle, the last drop of power needed to send The Chamber and all it touches, its machines to make it function, everything, wherever I want in time, where I can begin again, let the paradoxes unfold and a whole new world of Amandas will be there to power me on to the next and the next."

"Why?" came the simple question from Amanda. "Why this? Why this madness?"

"Because he loves you," said Dale. "This was to be his life, once he knew he was above the restraints of the effects of time travel, once he had what he wanted from all the Amandas to power this thing, then he was going to live here, live amongst countless Amandas, forever. Right?"

Cray nodded, almost shy with his movements. "Don't you see Amanda? You are the most special woman that there has ever been. You are the changer of worlds, the creator of universes, the reason why The Chamber exists, the whole point to the whole future of humanity. This is all for you." Cray swept an arm, indicating The Chamber. "You did this Amanda, you brought me Hexads, you set this path, you brought the universes into being. I just wanted to share it with you."

"No, no, no, no, no. It's not my fault, it isn't. I'm not to blame. I just want to go home. I don't want this."

"You'll see, we will jump to a new world, full of Amandas on countless paths and we shall populate The Chamber and make it as it once was. We shall have a beautiful life together. All of us."

"No," said Dale.

"No? You think you can change this? The path has already been set Dale, this is the future, this is here, this is happening, and I will have Amanda, all of her."

"No, you won't."

Is it Love?

Time Unknown

I can't believe I missed this all along.
He loves her and he's done all of this just so he can be with her, all of her, all the versions of her there have ever been. But he's ruined it, he's already used so many of her to produce Hexads, and to get this insane Chamber ready, and now he's gone completely mad.

"Don't you see?" said Cray, almost pleading. "You're so special Amanda, I knew it the moment I set eyes on you. Just like the other me told me I would before I got rid of him to ensure things worked out the right way. Just before I ended his life he told me how beautiful you were, how special. I almost didn't believe him, myself, until I saw you, then I knew. I've always known. It's you. And me."

"No, you're mad. You can't think that I want anything to do with you after what you've done. Do you?"

"You'll see, give it time. And anyway, there have already been countless Amandas that felt differently. Many that have stayed here have been more than happy to spend time with me." Cray almost leered, and was lost in memories of Amanda for a while by the faraway look in his eyes.

"I'm sure they were quite mad then. You locked them up in this strange place, created it so this is where they would appear, or where you could bring them, and what choice did they have?" said Dale.

"There is always a choice. Always," said Cray defensively.

"And I've got choices too. I will never be yours. Never." Amanda stared into Cray's eyes and Dale knew he found no uncertainty there.

She was resolute; what else did he expect? Had Amandas really given themselves to this man? This monster that kept them locked up for his own amusement, that created their prison by what he did to them? Creating more and more Hexads so more and more people jumped and caused more and more worlds to be created where more Amandas got caught in paradox after paradox and vanished from the world, ending up inside The Chamber?

Cray was insane, totally and utterly insane.

"You will be mine," shouted Cray, one arm shooting out and grabbing Amanda roughly by the neck. Amanda began to go purple, blood flow cut off, her breathing coming in gasps, rattling like she was coughing on smoke.

Dale moved to release her but Cray stared at him and said, "You make one more move and she's dead. Gone forever."

Dale was full of uncertainty. What should he do? Would Cray really kill her? Now, when he needed her more than ever? He doubted it, but was it worth the risk? Surely he wouldn't?

Cray loosened his grip, still clutching her tight, but Amanda was at least able to breathe. She took in deep lungsful of air as her color faded, hands clawing ineffectively at the steel grip still pushing into her delicate flesh.

Cray moved his gun from where it was digging into her side and lifted it to her head, fingers leaving deep marks on Amanda's neck as he let go, taking a step back.

"I will shoot her Dale, you too. Don't test me, you'll regret it if you do."

"Okay, okay. This is pointless you know? It's not going to work."

"You have no idea what you're talking about. You think I don't know what I'm doing? I've worked too long and too hard for this to fail. Countless Crays have worked for endless years to make this a success, and if it wasn't for this idiot," Cray kicked the body on the ground, "then it would all be ready right now. But it doesn't matter, there's still time for everything to work out. There's always time."

Cray waved them off to the right, the direction of the foul machine and the two Amandas that still remained. Amanda understood instantly and tried to run, fear overcoming everything but the need to get away.

There was nowhere to go; there was no escape.

"Stop," said Cray calmly. "If you run I'll shoot him Amanda. I may do it anyway, just because he's so damn annoying."