Chapter 4 – I can’t stop screaming

To explain where the mirror took me, I need to do a little more than just explaining.

For starters, take a piece of paper, draw two dots on either end and connect them with a line. This is how we view time, going forward in seconds, minutes, hours, and years. Now, fold the paper in half with the dots directly on top of each other, then punching a hole directly through both, cutting the distance between both dots from a few inches to nothing. (If you have seen that space movie with Matthew Mcconaughey then you know what I’m talking about) This is how we thought the mirror worked originally. To get to “The Other Side”, step through the portal and you’ve punched all the way through.

This is all wrong.

Now instead of the previous example, take that piece of paper and replace it with the biggest phone book (or textbook) known to man, doing the same thing with dots on either side. Draw a line across every page in the book, from side to side until the two lines meet, connecting the two dots by a very very long line (If laid out) Now that you have wasted days of your life drawing a single line, try to punch a hole between the two dots on either side of the book, pushing through all the pages until you have a hole going directly through both dots.

Not so easy anymore, is it?

Reality works like that. We have here, and then there is “There”. We call it that, partially because we have no idea what “There” is. Imagine everything you know but it’s always opposite day. A light world and a dark world, just someplace different from what we know, at least that’s the theory. Our world is one dot on that phone book, and “There” is the other. If we wanted to get there by natural means (How or why is still under question), we simply would never make it, as it is simply too far, difficult or even possible for us to travel.

That’s where the mirror comes in. From what we know, in very specific places with exactly the right circumstances, the walls between realities are a bit thinner. The mirror acts as the pencil, jamming through a few pages (or Realities) before stopping in its tracks, spitting out into one of the billions of possible places. From there, one need only find another weakened wall, and continue the journey reality by reality until they reached “There”.

So that’s my job. Find the weaknesses, set up safe places for expansion of safe houses and colonies before pushing through to the next layer. Reality hopping is nothing like teleportation seen in the movies these days, as every reality will share the same landscape (For the most part), so despite reaching the next reality, if the following opening is miles away, you would still have to travel that entire distance (By boat, plane, whatever we can fit into the mirror and construct on the other side) Hopping through the mirror will reveal that very same cavern where we found the mirror in the first place… just different. Because of the need for such travel regardless, you can see why this would become both a headache and a major operation for Artemis.

I’ll try to describe the first reality; each subsequent reality being labeled with a level.

Level 1: Abandon

Abandon is almost a carbon copy of our world, albeit an empty one. Things such as buildings and trees are all in the same places as the “real” world, despite being mostly bare of anything of interest. Furniture, trash, even animal life is missing, replaced by a silent void that stretches to the ends of the Earth. Many of the structures suffer from environmental damage, making some areas deadly to traverse as no-one maintains the buildings. We aren’t sure how the buildings are added to the landscape or how they even got there, if they just suddenly appear when a new one is created in our world or if they remain stagnant now that we have breached into the dimension.

At first, I was very uncomfortable with the whole trip, partly from June’s Song threatening to kill me and partly from how empty the world was. We exited the cavern, silently noticing the feeling of impending doom was absent from the surroundings (Something unique to our cave apparently). Viewing the town in its decrepit state was disconcerting, but nothing too spectacular hindered our progress. We set up a base camp just outside the portal, and collected samples of everything from the rocks to vials of fresh water. This would later become the first safe house on our journey, as the next portal was luckily just a short drive through the woods.

As our first expedition was meant to be short and sweet, we returned shortly after to Artemis proper, greeted by a wave of applause that shook the earth. Apparently, not a single person had noticed my blind charge into the mirror after the deer, instead believing June’s Song had been the first to travel dimensions as previously intended. She was applauded by everyone, but deep down she still hated me for stealing the actual honor.

I told her about the deer, but you can imagine how that went.

Is it dangerous?

Yes…if you aren’t careful.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do believe in Banshees (My nickname for the things) I was the unlucky one to find it on our second expedition, a sort of phenomenon that makes up the only intelligence found in Abandon. At first you hear this whispering, a jumble of words that your mind tries to comprehend without much success. Due to the mind shattering silence, sudden noises are pretty freaking terrifying, especially how it perfectly mimics sound. Some hear voices from long lost family members, others the voices of those mere feet in distance from them. As for me, I thought it was the deer again (if you haven’t read the other posts, you must be all sorts of confused) I had passed a fallen tree as we neared our destination, using a device that somehow can detect weaknesses in realities (Don’t ask me, I seriously thought it was vacuum cleaner at first) when I heard that stupid voice. I was ready to throw down with that abomination of nature when I heard rapidly approaching footsteps (Of the human variety) Luckily, being a coward saved my skin as the thing nearly had me, choosing instead to retreat just as I barged into Sailor’s sight. It was only later that we learned what the Banshee does to its victims, hanging them in trees with their arms splayed out completely void of all organs or bodily fluids.

Now, I know this is a controversial statement, but I wished with all my heart that the Banshee would catch that deer to sate my infernal desire for revenge. Apparently not even hellish creatures from alternate dimensions can stop our two-legged (Sometimes one legged) friend, as I keep seeing it’s footprints scampering deeper into the woods. The oddest thing I ever saw in Abandon was muddy hoof prints ascending a tree, but as this point it didn’t surprise me that the deer can defy the laws of gravity… Freaking Weirdo…

We caught a Banshee for further testing, taking it back to base via a crew of heavily armed guards. I didn’t get to see the thing sadly, but from what I’ve heard from Sailor is that it resembled a translucent skeleton with long, knotted black hair. The being can’t seem to do any harm as long as there are two people together, but as soon as they move just out of view, the thing attacks. It likes to play with its victim with voices to draw it further from the group. How it knew I would blindly dive through the wilderness to even the score with a bipedal deer beats me.

There is a side effect with traveling through Abandon, one that has led to supplemental oxygen for every single person who braves the reality. In the air (Perfectly breathable) are small pockets of helium-like elements. I don’t understand the science of this, or if that should even be possible, as you’ll be walking and suddenly BOOM, you can sing notes not even a grand piano (With half the keys missing) can hit! The problem is, something is seriously wrong with these pockets as they contain a nerve agent or something that hijacks the brain to repeat the same process. If you walk through it, you can’t stop walking. If you are eating while you breath it, you will continue eating until it leaves your system (One of the scientists ate their entire hand, completely unable to stop following a badly cooked hot-dog)

As for me, I happened to stub my toe and began screaming when I inhaled the stuff.

Do you know what it’s like to scream nonstop for four hours straight? I’m going to be honest, if it weren’t for the gazillions of dollars in the program and the greatest doctors in the known world, I would not be able to speak ever again. My vocal cords were a bloody mess, torn and shredded like lettuce shavings. Luckily my voice is now back to normal, despite itching like crazy when I feel inclined to scream or when danger is afoot (My spider-sense heheh). By the time I left the infirmary back in Artemis, the team had already discovered the next weakness, having prepared an entire fortification just outside the next reality.

I will describe about the other realities soon enough. My throat is itching like crazy and the Librarian is nowhere to be seen, so I’m going to take that as a bad sign for the time being. The only good news I really have is that Zeus is back on his foot (Not feet, due to his injuries he can only levitate with half of his body, with his other foot holding the rest of the weight) I’ll try to talk to him sometime, maybe apologize for the whole incident, maybe even get an autograph, you never know.