Hexad: The Chamber (15 page)

"You fucking traitor bitch," shouted Amanda back at the woman, using language Dale had hardly ever heard her use in their many years together. If Amanda swore then you knew she was angry. Really, really angry.

"Come on, we gotta go. Now!" Dale grabbed Amanda and they ran from the scene of voluntary prostitution — it was the only way Dale could think of it now — scores of Amandas lining up like cattle to let themselves be milked of their cerebrospinal fluid, to allow the existence of functioning Hexads to continue, all so they could ensure that their lives didn't disappear in the blink of an eye.

"Help me," came the scream of the released Amanda behind them, shouting shrilly from the doorway, pointing at them as if there could be any mistake as to who she was accusing.

They ran away from the building, down land that made Dale, and Amanda too judging by the way she kept almost falling over, feel dizzy and disorientated. He could see the ground curving below and in front of them, as if he was running down a hill, but his body was telling him he was on the flat, so his posture was all wrong — he was trying to run like he was going downhill, holding himself back, leaning away from the steep slope, but in reality he was, for all intents and purposes, moving across flat ground.

The subtly subdued gravity didn't help — you noticed it a lot more when moving fast, and Dale knew that one of them was going to go crashing to the ground at any second if they tried to keep up such a pace.

"They know, they know," came the voice of the woman behind them, which to Dale sounded contradictory as surely they would have to tell Amanda sooner or later if she was to be a part of their terrible trade-off. Thoughts whirled as they ran, Dale holding onto Amanda tightly, slowing her down so she didn't fall.

What were they doing? How could they be a part of such a terrible giving of themselves? This was nothing more than an alternate version of the huge warehouse Amanda had told him of, the only difference being this time it was voluntary.

Why would they do it? Was it simply that they valued their lives more than those of the worlds they were allowing to be emptied by the continuing existence of Hexads?

It was a terrible price to pay, but maybe he would do the same in their shoes? Just what lengths would you go to when it came to ensuring your own survival?

No matter, he wasn't going to play any part in it — they were getting out of The Chamber, and now seemed like as good a time as any. They'd got the information they wanted, understood enough of what was going on to have made their minds up about whether or not they wanted to continue trying to put things right. Now there was no question: the rest of the universes were worth more than these pitiful, subjected women and—

Ooooof.

Dale hit the ground hard, dragged over by Amanda who was still trying to run away as fast as possible.

"Bugger," moaned Amanda, getting to her knees, looking down the sloping landscape in horror.

Dale grabbed her a little sharply and yanked her to her feet, caring less about manners than about the horde of Amandas descending on them from all directions.

"I don't think you are very happy about what we just did," said Dale.

Amanda stared at him crossly. "Seriously? You're trying to crack a joke at a time like this?"

Dale shrugged. "Gotta stay positive babe. Come on, to the Batmobile."

Amanda just stared at him, before Dale pulled her along and they started running again. The Amandas were closing and none of them looked in the least bit happy. They weren't running though — after all, what was the point? Dale realized this as the women took their time slowly closing in on them from all sides. Why run when there is nowhere to go?

"Okay, here goes nothing," said Dale. He crossed his fingers, said a little prayer, and thought harder than he'd ever thought before in his life. Dale scanned the area quickly; he saw their salvation and turned Amanda in the right direction before starting to run again. He punched the air and said, "Yes!"

"What? What did you do? What's happening?"

"There, in front of us."

Amanda shifted her gaze from focusing on her feet, trying to keep her balance better by not looking at the landscape. Dale pointed.

He'd done it.

"It's a hatch. A hatch!"

"Yup." Dale smiled. "I told you I had a plan. Can't believe it worked though, but goes to show that we were destined to get out of here. Come on, run, run fast. Keep looking at your feet, make sure they keep moving, and leave the rest up to me. You know what honey? You are one crazy lady."

Amanda took a moment to register what he meant, then said, "Those deranged bitches are not me, I am absolutely not like that."

"Language," admonished Dale.

"Sorry, but, well, this is a little stressful Dale, in case you hadn't noticed. We're being chased by hordes of me!"

"I know, almost there. Look up now and get ready to leave this hellhole."

Dale could see the opening in front of them, it couldn't be more than a hundred meter sprint now. All they had to do was keep on their feet and get in the damn hole. He held his breath as he picked up speed, letting it out once he realized he was starving his body of much needed oxygen. Also realizing he was extremely out of shape — too much booze, not enough exercise.

The dark patch on the ground was about two meters square, easily large enough to get through, the open hatch revealing the murky interior where he really hoped they could make their escape.

Amanda began to slow but Dale dragged her along, pulling at her arm until she increased her speed.

They were there, at the hole. Dale could make out a steep staircase leading down where the light was a subdued blue of the Hexad. "Go." He held on to Amanda's hand as she knelt then put her foot on a step, letting go as she clambered down, glancing to the right as she did so, her head now level with the ground.

"Hurry up Dale," she said, before she disappeared.

"I'm right behind you." Dale dropped on all fours, quickly inspected the hatch as he climbed in, and pressed a simple button before turning and beginning his descent. The hatch lifted up on pneumatics with a hiss and Dale turned and jumped down a couple of steps, crouching low as it slammed shut behind him, almost hitting him on the head.

The sound of the women above disappeared, replaced with the voice of what Dale knew was a version of himself going "Whooooooooooooooooooosh," then jumping before Dale could set eyes on him. He made a mental note to be sure to make that task a priority as soon as he was able.

"Where did that come from?" said Amanda breathlessly, bending over, hands on her thighs trying to force air into her lungs.

"I opened it," said Dale. "Told you I had a plan."

"You opened it? How?"

"You gave me the idea, all that talk about saying you would do things in the future so that they happened when you wanted. Well, I promised that in the future, after we escaped The Chamber, I would jump back to here at this time and open up the hatch. So that's what I did." Dale smiled smugly, he couldn't help himself. It was a damn good plan.

"You know what?"

"What?"

"Sometimes I like paradoxes." Amanda smiled, then moved to Dale and gave him a huge hug. "Dale, those women, those, ugh, women that were me, what do you think they would have done if they'd caught us?"

Dale held onto Amanda's arms and drew her back so they were looking at each other. "Honestly? I don't know. But they weren't you, okay?"

Amanda just nodded, clearly unconvinced.

"They weren't, honey, not any longer. Look, some of them were probably in here for years and years. I don't know how long it would take before anyone caved and began to do what they were doing, but who are we to judge? Maybe it's part of the rules: give up the spinal fluid or, you know..." Dale made a slicing action across his throat.

"Dale!"

"What? Look, I don't know what was going on there, what was driving them to do such a thing. Maybe they would just blink out of existence if they didn't do it, didn't stay a part of the system so that all the other universes could be available to jump into. I just don't know. And right now I don't care. I just want us to get out of here."

Amanda looked around the small room they found themselves in; Dale followed her gaze to find that the space was rather nondescript: there was the staircase, the closed hatch, blue lights dotted around the ceiling and not a lot else.

"Good idea, let's go." Dale made to move off toward a corridor to their right, but Amanda stopped him.

"Dale, where is here? Shouldn't we jump?"

"Jump? I don't think so, not yet. Not until we find out what the hell that place was. We're on the outside now and I want to find out what it is and where it is."

Amanda was beginning to panic, Dale too, even though he was trying to hide it, but he could see that his leg was shaking like he was trying to get a ferret out of his pants.

"What if there's an alarm? Someone might come."

"I expect they will, so let's be ready. First, can you come here?" Dale had moved back to the stairs while talking so Amanda followed him over. "Look, wait here for a minute. No, a second." Dale pulled a Hexad out of his bag, set the dials, grabbed hold of Amanda and pushed the dome. They jumped.

They were back exactly where they had been standing, and Dale released Amanda and ran up the stairs. He pushed the black button and the hatch began to lift.

"Okay, over here now."

They moved over to where Dale had heard himself a few moments ago and they both waited silently as they heard the sounds of countless Amandas shouting and screaming from within The Chamber. While they waited Dale set the Hexad again, staring at the 5. As they saw Amanda's feet come down the stairs Dale nodded to the Amanda beside him, and she held on as he went, "Whooooooooooooooooooosh," and they jumped once more.

All there is is Time

Time Unknown

Dale stared at the 4 on the Hexad then put it back in his satchel, buckling it safely.

They were just a few meters down the corridor now, but all was quiet.

"What did you do?" asked Amanda.

"I jumped us to here but ten minutes in the past, just so we don't bump into ourselves coming down the stairs or doing the jump to open the hatch. Damn this stuff is confusing. Now there are three of us right here."

"Yeah, and how many new worlds did we just create with those jumps?"

"I don't even want to think about it, but it doesn't matter. Right?"

"Right," said Amanda, nodding vigorously, hair shining weirdly in the blue light. "Now we put an end to this, all of it. For good."

"So let's go find out what this 'Chamber' really is."

They made their way down the corridor, all metal struts and thick coils of cables running along the walls, somehow just as Dale expected to find the working parts of a man-made world where gravity made no sense. Actually, now Dale thought about it, he wondered if they were even on the floor at all. They clearly must still be spinning at the same speed as The Chamber for gravity to still be working, so at some point they were going to come to a place where they'd have to step off and come back to earth, the real earth, where it wrapped around the globe, not some convoluted aberration of what reality was meant to be.

Dale tried not to think about how he'd even jumped with the Hexad, he didn't know when they were, and it seemed to be showing the neutral setting, so he'd just acted like it meant nothing, made his settings and prayed — everything else was so messed up, so why not that too? It had worked, but he really wished he knew when they were.

They walked.

And walked, and walked.

They didn't talk; couldn't. The claustrophobic atmosphere got worse the more they walked — a seemingly endless corridor of blue light, ducts and cables, their feet echoing dully on the bare-metal floor. Dale was sure they had been going for miles, but the truth was he had no idea. Surely it had to end soon, had to run out once they'd walked the length of The Chamber? Or maybe it kept on running and running, leading them away? Could that be the answer?

Eventually there was a door up ahead, a red, innocuous fire exit door that they'd both seen countless times in countless buildings. It even had the sign above it and the push down bar halfway up the plain surface.

Or halfway down,
thought Dale, smiling wryly to himself.

"What you smiling at?" asked Amanda, staring at him quizzically.

"Nothing. Fancy doing the honors?" Dale pointed at the bar.

"Ugh, no way. Be my guest."

Dale reached out for the bar, then pulled his hand back. "What if it just opens up into blank space? What if we're in a ship out a trillion miles into the Galaxy and we open the door and get sucked into a vacuum?"

"Dale, don't be daft, there aren't spaceships like this in our lifetime... Oh."

"Right? We could be anywhere, any time, in anything."

"Well, I doubt they'd have a simple red exit door if it meant we'd get sucked into space, would they?"

"I guess there's only one way to find out then."

Dale pressed down on the bar, sucked in his breath and closed his eyes.

~~~

"Shut the door, shut the door," shouted Amanda, almost hysterical.

Dale peeked and really wished he hadn't. It was impossible to get any kind of bearing or take in what was on the other side, apart from that it was a large open space and there were a lot of lights and machinery, maybe. Dale really couldn't begin to understand it in their current situation.

He didn't know how fast they were spinning but it was pretty fast, and judging by the bright blue light that was all around them then they were at the dome end of The Chamber.

Dale shut the door.

"Bloody hell, that made my head hurt more than a double paradox," panted Dale, trying to let gravity do what it did without him thinking about it.

"We're going really fast Dale. I never really thought about it in there but it must be quite fast for the gravity to work. How are we going to get out of here?"