“You read a lot of sci-fi books, right?”
He looks up from his phone. “Yeah, why? Want to borrow one? I think I have a few in my locker I could lend to you.”
I shake my head and glance around to make sure no one is paying attention to us and lean a little closer. “Have you ever read anything about other dimensions?”
He gives me a confused smile and starts to shake his head but stops as he takes in my meaning. “Really? That’s pretty far out there, Tor.”
I shrug. “Sure. But so’s some of that shit we heard on the radio earlier. Also, did you see the moon? I’m just trying to figure out what’s happening here. Strange powers, disappearing towns, and weird animals? This is either the biggest hoax ever played on mankind or something seriously fucked up has shifted. So… what do you know about alternate dimensions?”
He opens his mouth, closes it, and then rubs between his eyes before meeting my gaze again. “Alright, I’ll play. Now, keep in mind this is all fantasy theory, not real science.” When I nod in agreement, he goes on. “Think about it like layers of paper stacked on top of each other. Each piece is a different dimension that lies on top of the other. I’m not going to get into string theory here, so let’s keep it to fantasy. So, each dimension couldbe a different timeline of ours. Like every choice you make will splinter to a different timeline in a different dimension.”
I start shaking my head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I agree with the first part, the layers thing. But what if it’s not different timelines but different versions of Earth? Like, what if it’s Earth but with different types of animals, different towns and cities in different locations than ours? What if it’s an earth that has…magic?”
He lets out a laugh while looking at me like I’m crazy. “You’re really freaked out if you think we’re in some random parallel dimension. Have you eaten anything today? Get much sleep last night?”
I wave his concerns away with an impatient swipe of my hand. “No, I’m serious about this. I don’t think we are in a parallel anything, but maybe, just maybe - when the moon came at us, we were, I don’t know… pushed… into somewhere else for a few seconds. What if during that weird ripple that happened, when everything disappeared, we dipped into somewhere else briefly? And what if we…our… Earth left some things behind - like towns and people, and when we bounced back, we brought some things from there. Strange buildings, weird animals, and powers that sound a lot like magic? What if we brought those back with us, Lanny? Wouldn’t that explain all this?”
All the concern and amusement are gone from his expression as he stares at me with his mouth open and a lost look on his face. When he finally begins to respond, panicked yelling from further down the hall cuts him off. We jump to our feet and rush that way. A group of our teammates is pressed against a bank of glass, looking out on the parking lot. We squeeze in to see what’s caused them to be so upset and my mind feels paralyzed by what should never be possible. It’s one thing to hear about vague reports of people with strange abilities over the radio and a completely different thing to see it in real life.
There’s a group of three men and one woman out by the parking lot entrance, grouped near a mash-up of wrecked cars. I can’t believe what I’m seeing as one of the men lifts his hands above his head and a smashed car rises into the air. He turns and motions with his arms, and the floating car goes sailing into the parking lot, landing with a huge crash of bent metal and broken glass to slide halfway to where we are standing inside. We all take a step back, and a few of the guys even turn and dart away. I can’t seem to move my feet as I watch the group move closer to the smashed car. The woman with them thrusts her hands out toward the wreck and a ball of fire hits the twisted metal. They all start cheering like this is the best day of their lives.
Another of the men steps forward, thrusts one arm straight up to the air, makes a fist like he’s grabbing something and then yanks it down toward the car. There is a flash of light and sparks fly as the burning car breaks in two. Jesus, was that a lightning bolt? Pieces of metal fly everywhere, some smashing into the glass near where I'm standing causing spiderwebs of cracks to appear. I gape at the display we just witnessed and anger and fear flood through me. How could anyone fight against something like that? Our entire world has just changed, and from where I’m standing, it does not look like it has changed for the better.
The laughing group circles around the burning pieces of what’s left of the car and one of them spots us standing at the window. He calls out and points toward us, drawing the attention of his friends. A shiver races down my back at the look in their eyes. They look drunk with these powers they have. And beyond dangerous. Something makes me lift my hands and press them against the cracked window. It's a gesture of peace, a plea for them to not do anything that will harm anyone. As soon as I make contact with the window, dark emotions and intentroll over me and somehow I know without a doubt that no plea will stop these people from doing whatever they want.
The man who had lifted and thrown the car meets my gaze and a taunting smirk forms on his face. He takes two steps toward the window. As he starts to lift his hands, a buzzing charge races across my skin and I press my hands harder against the glass, making it creak.
“NO, STOP!” I bark out.
The man freezes in place and his expression turns blank. I stare at his half-raised hands, waiting, but he doesn’t move a muscle. My eyes dart to his friends but they also seem to be frozen in place. My pulse is a ragged drumbeat in my ears as I swallow down a surge of acid that rises in my throat.
“Fuuuuck, is this real? Try telling them to leave,” Lanny says in a hoarse voice that has me slowly nodding my head.
“Go away and don’t come back,” I yell through the glass and watch in amazement as all four of them turn like marionettes and start walking away. I keep my hands pressed against the glass until they leave the parking lot and disappear from sight. Once they’re gone, I yank my hands away and jam them into my hair where I grip and pull. What the fuck just happened? Did Imakethose people do what I wanted? I take three deep breaths and look away from the parking lot to Lanny.
What I see on his face has me taking a step back. He’s looking at me with fear.
Chapter 46 - Reid
Julian stays close beside me as we start swimming again. I have no idea what that tornado of water was but I’m grateful for it. Jules would have drowned if it hadn't shown up and pulled the water back. I glance over at him with every third stroke of our arms. The questions bouncing around in my mind will have to wait. Right now, we just have to keep moving.
A splash to my left has my head turning that way in time to see one of the floating bodies being pulled under. Panic and terror creep into me at the thought of what could have pulled that body under the water.
“Jules, we need to get out of the water,” I tell him in a quiet voice, worried about drawing attention to us, but he keeps swimming. “Julian!” I yell this time to get his attention. “We need to get out of the water! There’s something under us pulling down bodies.”
He stops to tread water and slowly turns in a circle, looking for threats and a direction to go. He jabs a finger toward an office tower with smashed-out windows and we start swimmingtoward it. We're almost there when a pressure wave in the water moves me to the side and something large brushes past. My heart skips a beat and then begins to race as my breathing becomes frantic. The word ‘shark’ is on repeat in my terror-soaked brain as I stumble over the metal windowsill into an office of some kind and go under the water that’s half flooded it. Jules hauls me back up and screams, “Get up on one of those desks!”
I wade through the water, going right while Julian goes left, and kick things out of my way under the water that threaten to trip me up until I crash into a desk and haul myself up onto it. Julian has climbed onto his own desk and as soon as I see he’s safe, my eyes drop to the water to try and see if anything has followed us in. It's hard to see around the partially submerged, debris-strewn room; water laps at the edges of desks with scattered papers floating everywhere.
Julian steadies himself on top of his desk and calls out to me, “It’s OK, Reid. Everything is going to be alright!”
I know he’s just trying to reassure me but I’m feeling borderline hysterical when I yell back, “Pretty sure that’s a conspiracy theory at this point, Jules!”
My gaze lifts from the rippling water to look his way just as his head whips toward a splashing noise near the open window. His eyes open so wide it would be comical if I wasn't so scared. Then I see it. 'Shark!' My mind screams at me again when I see the dorsal fin and my body goes straight into flight mode. I kick over a computer monitor in my haste to get further away from what I saw entering the building. I jump to the next desk and then haul myself up on a metal filing cabinet so I’m completely clear of the water. The sound of rushing water and creaking metal fills the room while Julian yanks a desk lamp into his hands and holds it over his head. What on earth does he think he is going to do with that?
"What the hell is that?" Julian barks out, his tone shaky. We both freeze in place, our eyes glued to the black dorsal fin that makes another pass by the window and then slides under the surface. That fin, something about that fin. Suddenly, the fin disappears under the water and it clicks in my brain. That fin was black and glossy, not gray – and the back edge wasn't curved!
"Jules! That isn't a shark, I think it’s a killer whale, an Orca!"
