The Immortals: Chapter Three, Part Three

                “And the man then tried to attack you with a machete, correct?”

                “Yeah…” Kendra tried to not lift her hand up to touch her wounded shoulder. The pain that oozed from underneath the bandages like a running sore made that easier than it would have been before a psycho tried to hack her head off with a weapon she associated more with Rwanda and jungles and maybe a few really cheesy slasher movies than with real life.

                Wait, since when was Rwanda fictional?

                She ignored that thought, instead looking back up at the pair of officers who were talking to her. Both of them looked so similar – despite being opposite races, genders and varying heights – that she had a hard time remembering which one was which. One of them had a small pad of paper which was socketed into a larger hunk of plastic and metal. He was using a mechanical pencil to make scribbling notes that were far shorter than the sentences she was saying.

                That, plus the sunglasses that the other officer wore despite being inside, gave Kendra a distinct feeling of being untrustworthy. She found it far too easy to imagine that the officer was writing nothing but the words ‘totally nuts’ over and over and over again.  

                “And you had never seen him before in your life?”

                “Now, just wait a second here!” Dad cut in. Dad was tall and stork-like, complete with a too long, too thin neck. He thrust it forward at this moment, showing off the bad posture that comes from decades sitting at a desk. “This…crazy person was some PMC operator, right? How would my daughter have met him before?”

                “That is just what we were going to ask her, sir.” The officer clicked the mechanical pencil he was using, then scribbled again as Kendra shook her head.

                Mom, Kendra saw, had put her hand on Dad’s shoulder. Kendra was pretty sure that she had just stopped him from asking for the fifth time if they had read her her Miranda rights…despite those for being when people were being arrested. Right now, they weren’t arresting her. Kendra wasn’t really sure if that was actually true, but even if they had been arresting her, she didn’t have anything she particularly wanted to hide.

                Except for, well…you know, the whole being an immortal.

                That part, she definitely did want to hide.

                “Do you know why he kidnapped the student Marshal Kliner as well?”

                Kendra closed her eyes, then said: “Because he tried to rescue me. Kind of. Okay, like…” She paused. Weird. The events that had happened were so clear, at the time – everything happening in a kind of crystal focus. But now that it was over, everything became blurry. Had Marshal come out to rescue her, or had he just been curious? Had they grabbed him just to stop her, or…or…

                She shook her head. “No, no, he wasn’t trying to rescue me. Sorry, he…we were practicing. Uh, that is, the saxophone section…” She continued to explain, shakily. And, like picking at a scab, tears started to prick at the corners of her eyes.

                Kendra decided right then that she preferred how Bijay had let her talk to this questioning. After managing to get the lump out of her throat and continue speaking – detailing what she remembered the goons – she realized that the big part was that Bijay knew what was going on. She didn’t need to explain it. Also, she didn’t need to lie.

                At least the lies were by omission…

                When the two officers left, the one with the sunglasses said something that might have been meant for comforting: “Don’t worry, this is a clear cut case of self-defense. You’ll probably be fine.”

                “Probably!?” Dad exclaimed as the door swung shut behind the officers. He stepped over to stand beside Kendra’s bed. “You’ll probably be fine? That’s ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous! This man kidnapped you and-“

                “Harold.” Kendra’s mother managed to stop Dad’s whole tirade with a single word and a soft touch. Once he stopped raging, Dad let Mom speak. “They say that you should be out of the hospital in a week or two...but we know that you like your cartoons and your pony things, so we will swing by every day with your laptop!”

                “Um, they’re anime, Mom-“

                “And…oh! Oh!” Mom reached behind her back and pulled out a large card that had a cardboard angel pinned to the front. Opening it, she saw half a dozen names had been scribbled in there – along with a few sentences, the best being “Sorry you god kidnapped and machete’d – J&T” – and a smile came to her lips.

                “Your friends signed it and dropped it off at the house,” Dad said, nodding sagely. Kendra sighed, softly, closing her card up and sliding it under her pillow.

                There was a moment of silence, where the only noise was the faint mutter and murmur of the P.A system – paging someone, without a doubt.

                Then Dad spoke up: “So, why did he kidnap you?”

                “I already said!” Kendra looked at her parents. Mom was looking exasperated, but Dad ignored her for the moment. “I have no idea.”

                “But we’re not even rich!”

                “He tried to…” Mom cut herself off – clearly unwilling to say the words ‘kill her.’ Instead, she leaned Kendra gently.

                “Dad, I don’t know why crazy people do crazy t-things, that’s why they’re c-crazy!” Kendra’s voice caught and she shook her head. “I…I was too busy being scared…”

                Dad sighed, then reached down to pat her unhurt shoulder carefully. That didn’t seem to be enough, so he also ruffled her hair – eliciting a ‘Dad!’ from her.

                “You showed him what a Watt can do!” He said, sounding very proud. Kendra knew that the only reason why he was proud was because he didn’t think about how she had ‘showed’ Adder what a Watt can do.

                “Yeah, Dad…” Kendra gulped. She smiled at her parents…

                And was already wondering when she’d never talk to them like this again. How long would it take?

                As her parents left without her saying a single true thing to them, she realized…it had already happened.

###

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The Immortals: Chapter Three, Part Two

                Kendra ducked. The machete came down on her shoulder – skidded against bone, then sunk deep into flesh. She felt a moment of pure, hot white pain, and then fell to the side, the machete jerking free. She expected – for a few seconds – to feel the dislocation of shifting to another universe or changing the past or whatever it was that she did. But instead, she felt pain and the hot, sticky blood pouring from the deep cut. She felt her bone grate against itself, and she looked up at Adder, grinning manically as he lifted his machete for another blow.

                She kicked at him, desperately. Her shoulder screamed, she screamed – a kind of agonized yelp that didn’t even sound like her. But her foot still connected to Adder’s gut. He took it like a battleship taking a pea fired by a bored student – he didn’t even rock. He grabbed her ankle before it fell, and twisted it. Against the shoulder, the ankle breaking like a twig shouldn’t have felt that bad.

                Instead, it felt even worse. Kendra closed her eyes, arched her back, and made a noise that wasn’t even a noise. She couldn’t scream, because she was trying to scream too hard. Adder let go of her leg and when she opened her eyes, she saw that he was kneeling down beside her, his grin and his glowing maniacal eyes lost in the sunlight that shone behind his head. Kendra gasped, her throat raw, her eyes burning with tears.

                “It’s okay, you’ll be free soon-“

                Her good hand scrabbled, and more by chance than anything else, found a large, sharp rock. She clenched it, tensed.

                Adder set the machete against her head, like someone setting a hammer, testing the angle before he would bring it back-

                He brought his arm back…

                -and smash down like a-

                Kendra rolled. Her bone grated, her ankle sent popping-white flashes through her eyes. She made a wet, gasping noise, but that didn’t cover the loud CRACK of the stone hitting Adder in the temple. The sharp point drove home a small amount, leaving a little dimple in his head. He peeled to the side. Kendra got her knees under her and – feeling faint from the hot flow of blood that ran along her arm and dripped from her fingers – brought her rock up.

                Adder slashed with his machete. The blade opened her rock-carrying arm open, blood soaking her sleeve. But her hand still came down, smashing the rock into his nose. He made a shocked noise and Kendra sobbed, her eyes closed tight.                

                “Mother…” She gasped, not sure if she was going to swear or if she was just wishing Mom was there to help. She lifted the rock with her arm, her fingers refusing to open – maybe he’d missed the tendons, and she could still grip. Maybe it was just adrenaline, holding her body together by spit and bailing wire.

                Adder’s nose had been broken and his eyes looked dazed and slightly confused. She brought her rock down against his forehead. She could hear the crunch and felt sick. She almost wanted to stop…

                But then she brought the rock down again. The rock’s weight was almost impossible to lift, but bringing it down was…easy…

                Crunch.

                Crunch.

                Then there was a wet noise, a bit like when she had dropped a bowl full of jello. Remove the crashing noise of ceramic, and replace it with the crunch of bone snapping between some evil giant’s teeth and…

                She saw what she had done…

                Bits of purple and-

                Oh…

                Kendra closed her eyes, then somehow managed to stand. Her head swam and she staggered backwards, her back caught by the chainlink fence. Her mangled arm dripped down her fingers and she panted, her breath coming in quick gasps.

                For a moment, when Kendra opened her eyes, the world seemed dim. No, it didn’t seem dim. It was growing dim. The space around her started to fade, creating a tunnel that stretched before her. But as she looked, the tunnel grew longer, then split again and again. Down one of them, a glowing hand reached towards her.

                Come on… A voice that wasn’t a voice spoke and she trembled as she felt the great stillness of the universe.

                Take my hand.

                Kendra untangled her arms from the fence. No. She didn’t move. Someone else was holding her.

                Take…

                Kendra tried to reach, but someone was holding her down.

                …my hand…

                Kendra felt something slide into her neck, and heard the voices.

                “She’s going into shock.”

                “Type?”

                “AB+.”

                “She’s a lucky one. All right, what about-“

                Kendra heard the door slam. But at the same time – echoing through the tunnels of the universe, she heard a single word.

                Dead. 

                ###

                Kendra’s eyes opened. She was lying in a clean white room,  and her arm and shoulder both felt as if they had been completely wrapped in warm, gauzy stuff that made her feel one half marshmallow. Her head felt as if someone had shoved more of that marshmellow stuff between her ears, but it had been quite cleverly targeted. Rather than just insulating her brain, it just insulated the bits that had to think about stuff.

                “That…” Her voice startled her – it felt scratch, and it sounded like it came from someone who smoked too much. She tried again. “That’s a stupid thing to think…”

                She looked around the room again. She saw the things that went ping and blip and boob and had lines that ran along them. She saw a hanging curtain that blocked off the part of the room that held another bed – that other bed was empty right now, so she had no company, and so the curtain hadn’t been drawn either. She saw the window that looked out on…was that the San Pedro expressway? She knew that expressway, she had marched down it every year for…

                Band! Marshal! Machetes!

                Kendra looked back at the door – there was no one beside it. Then she saw something sticking into her vision, thrust almost into her eye it felt. She slowly tilted her head down and saw that there was her thermos, sitting right there on the nightstand.

                Kendra grinned, weakly.

                When she laid back in bed, though, she wasn’t able to just go back to sleep. First, the pains and aches of her immobilized body parts started to reassert themselves. Second, it was the fact that the door opened and a nurse came in, checking her over.

                “You had a bit of a close call, there…” The nurse murmured.

                “A bit…” Kendra said. “Where are my parents?”

                “They’re waiting in the lobby. We weren’t sure your condition would stabilize this fast, but you…were pretty lucky.” The nurse smiled at her, his face more wan and thin than she’d have expected.

                “Great…” Kendra nodded, her eyes closing.

                When the nurse stepped out, she found that the aches had faded – maybe he’d upped the painkillers? But she still couldn’t get to sleep, because as the nurse slipped out, the door opened and in came…

                “Bijay!” Kendra’s eyes widened. He came in wearing a nurse’s outfit. “Do you work here?”

                “I do now,” he said, smirking as he walked over to her. “I’m sorry about that…are…do you want to talk about it?”

                Kendra paused, thinking for a while. She remembered the feel of the stone. She remembered the hand, reaching to her from…where? Heaven? Hell? Nothing, but her own brain hallucinating? She remembered the Holy Ground, and the view from the other side.

                “Nah.” She shook her head.

                Bijay nodded, then smiled at her. His hand found hers, squeezed, and he stood.

                “So, not going to work your mojo?” She asked. “Make it so the fight never happened?”

                Bijay sighed. “Too much depends on the fights happening…Crichton made sure of that…”

                Kendra sighed. “All right then…”

                Bijay squeezed her hand, then turned to go, his fingers sliding from her grip. She shifted, moving ever so slightly, to grab and hold onto his hand.

                “I was so scared…” She whispered, so softly that she barely heard it herself. “I was scared a-and…”

                And it all came out.

                Bijay listened, and didn’t say a thing. 

###

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The Immortals: Chapter Three, Part One

Chapter 3: The Multiverse.

                Kendra stepped through the doors of the factory, her back tensed – not sure if she was going to find some dastardly device or a moldering maze of manufacturing machines left to malinger in the mires of mercantile malaise. She had to move through a hanging curtain of plastic strips – the kinds that existed in some places, but she never could for the life of her determine what they did – and then open another door at Adder’s prompting.

                And then she stopped. Her eyes were wide, and her back was even straighter than before. She didn’t see what Adder wanted her to see…she felt what he wanted her to feel.

                The factory looked perfectly normal. The floors were covered with a fine layer of dust – only marred by the occasional track of footsteps, some of them large and human, some of them tiny and made by animals. The machinery that had once pumped out whatever this factory had built sat in long rows of rusting machinery – the metal’s gleam faded and the plastic bits starting to go knatty and worn away in places.

                But what she felt…was an utter stillness. The universe seemed to have held its breath here, and never let it go. The stillness was more complete than just a lack of air blowing, or a lack of sound, a lack of life. It went deeper, to the bone. Through the bone. Into the place between bone and the universe. Maybe even into the soul that Kendra had never really even thought of. She closed her eyes and in the stillness, she was pretty sure that she had a soul.

                It was…more of a religious experience than anything she had ever had in her life – which more and more felt like a short prelude to a much longer, much stranger life. That feeling intensified and she trembled, her eyes closed as she…stepped back. She tried to…not feel the divine stillness of the universe…she tried to return to herself. To the simple lack of caring – she had been raised Christian, but not very rigorously, and it only crossed her mind every once in a while, or when she really needed to swear, or something.

                She stepped backwards, almost running into Adder.

                “Do you feel it, Kendra?” He asked, sounding pleased.

                She turned around. “Stop it!” She glared at him. Anger didn’t seem to work to drive the feeling away. If anything, it just made it stronger.

                “I’m not doing anything.”

                She stepped back a bit, wanting to put some space between her and the psycho who had had her kidnapped. Even that thought didn’t drive the feeling of religiosity away from her mind – it flowed around her thoughts like water. That…that more than anything else made her think that it was forced on her.

                Of course, Immortals – as far as you know – can’t do things like that. She thought to herself. That was the sticky part. As far as she knew.

                “This…is Holy Ground.” Adder stepped to the side, his hand sliding along the bars that crisscrossed across the window that they stood nearby. “Immortals have long had a rule that we do not fight in such places…not only does it simply feel wrong, but-“

                “Holy ground!? Holy flipping ground!? We’re in an old…old…” Kendra looked around. “Geejaw and widget factory! What did people worship here, outsourcing jobs to China!?”

                Adder laughed. His laugh was annoyingly infectious . “Mortals do not feel the same things we do. They cannot accomplish the same wonders as we…is it any wonder that their feeling for holy ground is lacking? Some churches, aye-“ Did he seriously just say aye?  “-are built on Holy Ground. But many are not. Some places of Holy Ground are not touched by humans at all, and are free for nature to keep and treasure.”

                “All right. How does this say anything about anything?” Kendra asked, her eyes closed as she rubbed her hands against her shoulders. “There are some places that make you feel…funny.”

                “Funny?” He seemed amused. “You can barely contain your tears.”

                Kendra’s eyes were closed even tighter. The feeling was growing more intense. She felt as if she could…touch the vastness of the universe. She could feel the benevolence and love of…God. The more she felt it, the more she became sure that it was God…no, she…

                She trembled and tried to not feel the stinging around her eyes.

                Adder seemed to be growing more excited – she could hear it in the tone of his voice. “Immortals do not fight in such places, we can feel their importance. Can you imagine drawing a blade here? I certainly cannot. Those that have tried, though, have always failed in their fights – for there is another facet of these places. Our powers do not touch these places!”

                Kendra opened her eyes.

                “So, we’re mortal? In here?”

                “Yes!”

                “And we don’t fight in these places?”

                “Of course!”

                “God has a nasty sense of humor.” She grinned, shakily, and a hysterical laugh bubbled up through her teeth.

                Adder laughed as well, then took her arm, guiding her outside. “Come, young immortals do feel it more intensely. I think it may be because your powers are still intuitive rather than a learned skill, and so you don’t know to rein it in.”

                They walked outside and the feeling…didn’t vanish. Kendra didn’t feel as if some light switch had been turned off and her experience of touching, of feeling, of knowing God had gone away. The experience tingled in the back of her mind, though she no longer had to think about it. She shoved it into a box for thinking about…later.

                Adder, thankfully, distracted her by continuing his spiel: “And yet, our powers still impact Holy Ground.”

                “What?” She turned to face him, her brow furrowing.

                “When the world changes, dramatically. When a city that was to be built is built elsewhere. When a man who made great empires no longer lived. When a religion was never founded, and when billions no longer worshiped the God that they once did, buildings are unmade, churches uncreated, sacred places redefined. Immortals, it seems, can change even the unchangeable.”

                Kendra’s brow furrowed. “So…we can…make them change when we’re away from them, but not when we’re on them? That doesn’t make any sense…”

                Adder grinned. “You are right. It doesn’t. Unless…we don’t change things when we use our faculties.”

                Kendra blinked.

                “Have you ever heard of the double-slit experiment?” Adder asked. He didn’t even need her to respond, he just saw the look on her face and laughed. “It was an experiment to determine how light worked…and they found that it was a probabilities game, one that changes based on observation, not simply on action. But…” He pointed at the factory. “If one was to perform the experiment in there, there would be no wave pattern! DO you know what that means!?”

                “…what the flying flip are you taking about!?” Kendra asked, stepping backwards.

                Adder’s eyes gleamed – as if he was still in the Holy Ground and feeling the intense religion, and it was driving him more and more frantic. But, no, Kendra just saw that he was just like that.

                “Quantum mechanics are a function of connections between the myriad universes. Every quantum event, and everything that ripples from them, creates a nearby universe, an infinite number of Earths. We Immortals are NOT changing the world, Kendra! If we were changing it, how could we impact the places that we have no power over? We are not changing…Kendra…we are TRAVELING! We are traveling from world to world!”

                Kendra stepped back, and almost tripped over a bit of detritus behind her.

                “And that means…” Adder’s voice grew soft – and, paradoxically, more intense. “There is no guilt in what we do. If we move to a world where mortals suffer…we are not the cause of their suffering.”

                And Kendra saw it. Kendra saw the seductive, slithering appeal to the idea. Something inside of her – she was pretty sure…she hoped it was something inside of everyone – curved and wriggled towards the twisted glow of that idea. That she didn’t need to feel guilty…she could go to a universe where everyone loved her and she had everything she wanted.

                Who cared if it hurt other people? They were already hurt. They would always be hurt. There was nothing she...

                She shook her head, slowly. “How do you explain the other Immortals, then?”

                “Oh, simple. We are connected, both factions believe that. Your friends believed we are connected by awareness – we sense the changes. Mine – me, Crichton,  others – we believe that we are connected by shared travels. And there’s only one way to cast off, Kendra. Only one way.”

                Kendra didn’t like the look on his face.

                “If an Immortal dies, they still live. There are so many other universes, Kendra. They still live out there, but they don’t bother us anymore. They are free to travel…and so are we…” He stepped closer. “So stand still and let me free you…”

                Kendra gulped, took another step back, and found herself back to back with a chainlink fence.

                Adder reached into his vest and drew out a machete – one that couldn’t possibly have been there before, but one that was there now.

                “There can only be one in my universe…” Adder said, certainty dripping from his voice. He stepped closer, raising his machete.

                “There can only be one.” 

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