Joel Adrian - A Shattered Future

She could see Mona near the pool. Her counterpart was crouched over a small, holographic keyboard. There were two cords running out of it. One went to a black box that held a glowing, red stone. The other went to a trigger, a black button with a red tip.

“That’s the Requiem?” Emersyn asked as they approached.

“Indeed,” Mona replied without turning her head.

The keyboard was a holographic display, with a small, blue, pop-up imaging system. It felt like it was from the future, yet not nearly as high-tech as Emerysn expected. Her imagination was hewed by reality. But knowing this was the most significant discovery of all-time kept her eyes glued to the Requiem and the activator, a sense of wonder tickling her.

“Fancy,” Tanner said. “That mainstream 20 years from now?”

Mona chuckled. “We developed it specifically as an interface for the Requiem gem. Not mainstream at all.”

“Ah, balls.”

There was a loud groan from deeper into the cave, almost as if the mountain itself was bellowing. The walls seemed to rumble, everything felt like it was thrown off by a few inches for a moment, then snapped back.

“Yeah, that happened in my world, too,” Mona said. “You never quite get used to it.”

Joey Del Core scowled. “Can we get on with it?” He folded his weighty arms and sighed.

“Just a few more minutes, we’ll be ready.”

Reality slowly grabbed Emersyn, and unease choking her out. Within minutes now, they were going to attempt a defining scientific feat. Either they’d succeed, or they’d fail and die. The sound of going home and snuggling up in her crappy apartment didn’t sound so bad right now. Her stomach was twisting into knots.

“Okay, ready. The process takes about 30 seconds. Is everyone ready?” Mona turned to face the group.

“Clear out!” Bravon shouted.

The remaining guards and soldiers left the opening in the cave. He and the six crew members were the only ones who remained.

“All right. Men, women, soldiers. We’re going to do this, and we’re damn sure going to do it right. Follow what Mona says, don’t do anything you don’t need to do, and remember: our mission and goal are clear. We get as much evidence as we can, we come back. Got it?”

Everyone nodded and agreed, except for Joey Del Core. The big man merely grunted, the impatience fixed on his frowned expression.

Bravon sucked in a breath and turned to Mona. “We’re ready. What do we do?”

She raised a hand and turned back to the Requiem gem. “You don’t do anything It’s going to pulse, anyone in a ten-foot radius is going to be ripped from this universe and taken to mine. I’ve pre-programmed the dial for two weeks before the nuclear warfare starts. We land this right, and we’ll be able to get all the evidence we need from some TV reports and internet articles.”

She keyed in something on the holographic display, and the gem lit up brighter than it had been before. The walls of the cave were bathed in the red light from the Requiem. It started pulsing gently.

Mona reached down and picked up the trigger. “Okay, here we go. To hell and back, my friends.”

Emersyn couldn’t control her breaths: they ran in and out with an inexorable velocity. Her head started spinning as she concentrated on the button, mentally begging Mona not to push it. She didn’t know what she was going to experience, and the fear had taken its long, sharp knife and buried itself into her spine and gut simultaneously.

She concentrated on the button. A second later, and Mona pushed it.

It looked like the fabric of reality itself fragmented into a thousand pieces.

Emersyn watched as the walls of the damp cave fractured away. The spill of the waterfall shattered into tiny pieces. Her own body was ripped jaggedly apart into identical pea-sized pieces. The falling sensation of going over the hill of a rollercoaster rushed over her.

A bold white light splashed out from the Requiem gem. She clutched her eyes shut, but the beam radiated so brightly she could still see it through her eyelids.

The falling sensation was replaced by one of whirling. She could feel her body spinning around and around.

Somewhere to her left, she heard a loud scream. She made out the voice of Joey Del Core, but his scream was distant like he was back behind her.

The light fragmented, busting apart. The burning stench of smoldering embers overtook Emersyn, and she tried to pull a hand closer to her face, to cover her nose. Her arm wouldn’t budge: it was like she’d lost all limb willpower.

She was stuck lifeless, unable to move. She couldn’t even will her eyes open. The only thing she could see was the bright white light. The burning, acrid smell made her feel like she was going to hurl.

The light dimmed, and reality slowly set back in. There was a tingling in her fingertips and toes that crept all along her veins. It ran up her arms, to her chest, and through her legs.

Emersyn eased her eyes open, glancing around. They hadn’t come out in any sort of cave. They were in what looked like the middle of a wooded area. Trees and dense grass lined their immediate surroundings. Birds cawed and insects buzzed.

Mona was already up, though she was rubbing the side of her head.

“Hey,” Emersyn said. “You okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hit my head on this damn tree.” She kicked the large, gnarled trunk of a brown oak tree. When she turned, Emersyn saw the blood smeared on the side of her head. “Transitioning’s always unpredictable from what I’ve been told.”

“We… made it?” Naomi asked as she pulled herself to her knees. “Hot damn. That was a trip.”

Joey Del Core coughed, though he made no effort to get up.

Emersyn saw Sergeant Bravon Pearson groaning. She wobbled over to him, still struggling to find her balance. Vertigo had taken her in full stride.

Bravon was half on his side, half face down. Emersyn leaned down and put a hand on his shoulder. “Sarge?” she asked.

He groaned in response.

She pulled him over onto his side. Her eyes widened when she saw the stick emitting from his side. It was buried into the left side of his stomach, blood leaking out around the wound.

“Oh… guys!” she called.

Mona rushed over, stepping past Emersyn. She looked over the wound, but her expression didn’t change. She pointed at his left side. “Get over there, help me turn him up. We need to see how deep that wound goes.”

Emersyn swallowed hard. She tried to purge the idea that their only leader was wounded and bleeding and going to die from her mind. One thing at a time , she tried to remind herself. She scrambled to the other side of the Sergeant and helped Mona ease him onto his back. He yelped in pain when Emersyn turned him.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she whispered, trying to stay her shaking hands.

He reached a hand up impulsively, trying to pull the stick out.

“No, no!” Mona said, clutching his wrist before it touched the stick. “That could cause a lot of problems, Sarge. Stay put for a second.”

“What do we do here?” Emersyn asked, her eyes fixated on Bravon. He was sweating, and barely conscious.

Mona looked at the wound. “Damn it, damn it, damn it,” she whispered under her breath. “We don’t know how deep it goes. I’m not a medic, I can’t judge…” She brought a hand up, pulling a strand of frizzy graying hair from her face.

“We’ve got to get it out,” Naomi said, approaching from behind. She held a hand out in front of her, steadying herself. “Look, there's at least six inches coming out of him. My money says it doesn’t have much more length to it.”

“You willing to gamble your Sergeant’s life with that bet?” Mona gripped Bravon’s shoulder.