Hexad: The Chamber (28 page)

As she hopped into place, surprisingly calm and moving sedately after her manic actions just a moment ago, Dale noticed a change in the background noise of The Chamber. The blue light coming from the outside, where the door was still open, seemed to intensify, and Dale wasn't sure but it felt like he was a little heavier, like The Chamber had begun to speed up, increasing the gravity.

"It's beginning, the energy is powering up The Chamber, soon it will be The Hexad, the largest time travel machine to have ever made a jump, and we will be a part of it. We'll be free to move through new universes, where there will be countless new Amandas with every subsequent jump." Cray was smiling like Dale had never seen before, lost in anticipation of what he saw as the perfect life waiting for him.

"You're mad," said Dale, hand numb where Amanda was squeezing it so tightly.

"Am I? I don't think so."

"I give myself to the machine," said the insane Amanda as she was held tight by the metal bands and the needle pushed against her skin before piercing it. She let out a blissful moan as it went deeper, eyes rolling back in her head in pure ecstasy.

We have to get out of here.

Dale was beginning to seriously panic. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he think straight, do something to get them out? Was it from the blow to the cheek? Dale put a hand up instinctively, wincing with the pain as he felt the large gash with fingers coated in dry blood. No, it wasn't that, it was... It was The Chamber, the fact he wasn't supposed to be inside. He was fading, becoming less than a full person, already losing parts of himself to the nothingness he was going to become if he didn't act fast.

What could he do? He needed to do something to save them, before it was too late. There were no hatches apart from the one far away, not as far as he knew anyway, so what other way was there to get out? There were the large access points for the staff that had come and gone long ago, but none of that was any use, even if he could have opened them somehow as another version of himself. He needed something to do right here and now, a way to stop this before Amanda was taken by the machine and they all jumped away forever.

Something changed again; this time Dale felt lighter than ever, the burst of heaviness gone. A moment later and it felt normal once more.

"Your turn Amanda. Come on, it isn't so bad," said Cray, smiling as the world changed and the buzzing inside The Chamber grew louder and louder. The insane Amanda was dancing around again, buttoning up her blouse after giving of herself, skipping to the door, before moving outside, growing more and more manic as the buzzing increased.

The light grew bright, the blue seeping into the room, casting its glow on the white interior.

"Can you feel it? It's going to happen. Give to the machine and then we shall be gods, out of space and time, untouchable. Forever."

"No, no, you can't make me. You can't," shrieked Amanda.

Dale focused with every ounce of his being and shoved Amanda to the side, towards the door where she stopped, unable to run and leave Dale behind. "Go," shouted Dale, lunging after her as she ran outside, Cray right behind them. "Keep going," shouted Dale, as Amanda stopped again, knowing Dale would be killed if she tried to escape.

"I can't, he'll kill you."

"Just go, trust me."

Amanda ran down the path, Dale close behind, but Cray shouted, "Stop."

Dale knew what he had to do, he just needed a few seconds. The buzzing increased, the gravity pitched low once more right as Cray shouted above the noise, "I warned you Dale," and fired.

Dale prayed, and when he found he was still alive, he leapt at Cray in the temporarily lowered gravity, thinking to reach him before he fired again. His instincts had been right, the changing gravity fields as The Chamber got ready to jump meant that the aim of the gun could never be calculated — as soon as the bullet left the chamber it was skewed by the warped gravity, veering well off its mark. But close to Cray it wouldn't matter, especially not if the gravity returned to normal.

Dale's leap brought him near to Cray, but not near enough. Cray took aim again.

This was it, he couldn't possibly miss, then Amanda would be all alone and he'd be dead. Normal gravity returned even as the buzzing increased and the light from the end of The Chamber began to pulse rhythmically. Dale stared into Cray's eyes and knew this was the end.

A blur of movement streaked from the right and Cray went down in a confusion of limbs. It was the insane Amanda, she'd attacked Cray out of nowhere — nobody had given her a thought, Dale certainly didn't think she would do such a thing, and Cray definitely believed her to be harmless.

"You were going to force her, make her give herself when she didn't want to," screamed the Amanda, arms flying wildly, hitting at Cray's face, trying to bite him and kick him as they rolled on the floor.

"No worms, need worms," screamed the old Amanda, now crouched down again, digging futilely with her stick.

The buzzing got louder, the blue pulsing faster and faster as Dale ran for the prone figures, praying once again he didn't get shot.

"Get off me, get off!" shouted Cray, trying to get away from the Amanda that had morphed into a berserker, frenzied and relentless.

"I'm the one. I'm the special one," she screamed, tearing at Cray's clothes with her teeth, out of control and truly lost.

But not quite. Dale understood with a flash of insight that the real Amanda was still in there somewhere, still able to understand what was happening on some level, and had reacted instinctively to stop Cray, albeit in a rather delayed way. Maybe it was the locked-down memory of when she first had to give herself to the machine, the memory surfacing, hate boiling over.

It didn't matter. Dale grabbed for Cray's arm holding the gun that was being used to hit the demented Amanda over the head — she didn't even notice the blows. Dale caught a finger, and twisted viciously, a satisfying crack the result. Cray howled in pain while Dale prized the gun out of his hand, standing just in time as Cray finally managed to roll the Amanda off him, who seemed to suddenly lose herself once more and just sat on the floor, rocking back and forth, cradling her head, moaning as blood trickled out of her ear, her face a mess of scratches and already beginning to bruise from the fight.

Cray moved to stand, dazed from the attack, totally unprepared for the onslaught from such an unexpected source.

"Stay right where you are," said Dale, pointing the gun at Cray in a reversal of roles. Dale looked around and saw that Amanda was moving back up the path fast. "Okay, inside," Dale ordered Cray, as Amanda finally got back to him.

"What happened?" asked Amanda, out of breath, staring in wonder at the mess that was Cray, standing and glaring at his attacker with hate.

"She went crazy at him," said Dale, nodding at the insane Amanda. "I think it must have finally hit home what he was about to do to you. She saved us."

Amanda stared at the woman, who looked anything but a fearless attacker. "Well, that was close."

"You can say that again, but it isn't over yet. Not quite." Dale turned his full attention back to Cray, and said, "Move," once more, indicating the room. "Inside."

Cray walked silently towards the open doorway, grimacing in obvious pain from the swollen finger poking out at a weird angle.

"Dale, what are you doing?" Amanda looked confused, but Dale knew what he had to do and wasn't going to waste any time.

"Wait here, I'll be back out in a minute. Just keep an eye on her." Dale indicated the insane Amanda. "She's not stable." Dale gave Amanda a kiss, the contact giving him the resolve he needed, then pushed Cray into the room once more.

Payback

Time Unknown

"Take off your jacket," ordered Dale, every word sending pain shooting through his head. "Now!" he barked, when Cray didn't instantly do as ordered. Cray carefully pulled the sleeve over his mangled hand, then dropped it off the other, letting it fall to the floor. "Now your shirt."

Realization hit home and Cray panicked, looking around the room as if there was something that would save him.

"Take it off."

Cray unbuttoned the shirt; Dale kept the gun firmly aimed at his head.

"You can't do this, you don't know what will happen if you do," pleaded Cray, panic building, his usually gravelly voice rising in pitch.

"I think I know exactly what will happen, and I think it's not even close to the punishment that you deserve," said Dale, motioning for Cray to take off the unbuttoned shirt. Cray fumbled with the buttons on his left cuff, wincing with the pain — he finally managed it before then undoing the right arm. Cray let the shirt drop to the floor. Dale noticed with satisfaction the dark stains under the armpits — it was about time it was someone else doing the sweating.

"Now, get in."

"No, I won't."

"You have two choices: either you get in, or I shoot out your kneecaps and I drag you in myself."

Cray stared at him full of hate, but moved into the machine that he had made countless Amandas from endless worlds enter before they gradually closed down on him and he was left with an ever-dwindling population.

The machine sensed his presence, maybe there were pressure pads in the floor? The uncaring metal bands held Cray fast.

"You're going to regret this," spat Cray.

"Not as much as you are buddy," said Dale. He walked out of the room as the needle pierced Cray's skin.

~~~

"Right, now we just need to run, really fast," said Dale.

"Where to? There's nowhere to go. What did you do in there Dale? What's happened to Cray?"

"I put him in the machine. Right about now he'll be having the fluid sucked out of him, so we won't have long before, um..."

"Good, he deserves it. He deserves worse," said Amanda, looking nowhere like it was enough punishment for all that he'd done.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure what's going to happen now. He needed you as the last offering to get The Chamber to jump to a new universe, or create its own, but now I'm not really sure what it will do. We need to get out of here and we need to change wherever it was Cray set The Chamber to go to. It needs to jump back before any of this madness happened, so everything goes back to normal."

"You think it will?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure. Come on, we have to run, fast."

"Where?" asked Amanda, running beside Dale as he picked up speed.

"The same way we left before. Down the hatch. I just pray that what I'm thinking really does happen by the time we get there. Let's go. Faster."

They ran like their lives depended on it, which Dale suspected they did, heading for the spot where the hatch was the last time. Dale focused all his attention on hoping beyond hope that what he prayed he would do would actually come to pass. If not...

"There, it worked," said Dale, panting hard, his face throbbing with every footfall, a cramp in his side threatening to stop him dead in his tracks. But up ahead the hatch was opening and the top of a hat could be seen rising from the welcome sight of the hole in the ground.

As they got closer the buzzing inside The Chamber grew louder and louder — Dale understood that they wouldn't have long before it either jumped, or exploded. He really had no idea what it would do now he'd hooked Cray up to the machine rather than it being Amanda.

Damn, the other Amandas!

In their rush to get away Dale hadn't given them a second thought. It was too late now, and they couldn't go with them at any rate — outside The Chamber the paradoxes would build in a way Dale didn't want to imagine, but still, it felt wrong. He glanced back as they got close to the hatch; Amanda caught him doing it.

"Don't worry, it's what I would have wanted. There's no other way. It's just us now."

Dale nodded, smiling as The Caretaker's head popped up through the hatch; he didn't look happy, not in the least.

"This was not part of the deal Dale," said The Caretaker, before his head disappeared below ground-level. Moments later he re-appeared. "Oh, hello Amanda, do excuse my manners, but someone," he gave Dale the daggers, "has been rather rude and interrupted me from some very important work." He was gone again.

Dale just shrugged and helped Amanda down the hatch onto the steps. He was right behind her pressing the button so it closed behind him.

The buzzing was much louder outside of The Chamber, almost deafening, and he knew it would be impossible for them to talk. Dale just pointed down the corridor in the direction of the exit; The Caretaker and Amanda nodded.

They ran, the sound of their footsteps lost, the buzzing getting unbearable, gravity feeling skewed, as if it was lighter at Dale's head than at his feet. The coriolis effect, he'd heard of it, and it was almost as confusing as time travel, but not quite. Nothing was.

As they ran, with The Caretaker and Amanda in front, Dale could tell they were having the same issues with the gravity. Both were moving strangely, battling on but it was as if their bodies were trying to lean back, twisting to the side. It was completely disorientating and utterly exhausting. Dale just hoped they had time.

They moved as well as they could, no time for talking, but made it to the door. Tellan, a.k.a. The Caretaker, pulled it open without hesitating and said, "Hold on," as he pulled out a Hexad and slammed the blue dome into the bare concrete wall.

Dale definitely didn't have time to make his time travel noise, nor did he have the inclination, before all three disappeared.

~~~

"Wow, this is going to get messy really fast," said Dale, trying to take in the space The Chamber was housed in. It was different to the previous one they'd encountered and Dale wondered where they were, when, too.

The rock was dark, almost obsidian, although the huge cavern that housed The Chamber was just as devoid of life as it had been at the end in the alternate one.