CHAPTER 9.

It was now Melody's turn to be stared at in confusion, the confusion on our faces clearly mirrored on hers. At first the idea that came to mind was that maybe our captors added mind altering drugs mixed into whatever they gave us to survive on this planet.

Were we even on another planet? Maybe this is all a hallucination caused by all the trauma I'd received since I was kidnapped.

But I rejected the idea after I did a few highly scientific and complex tests like pinching myself, in order to confirm this was not a dream.

By the look on the faces of everyone; except the unconscious guy at the opposite end of the room, they were also carrying out their own version of reality tests.

Minnie was the first to speak up, her voice a small squeak, "Today is obviously July 11 2046." Like adding obviously was going to alter the bizarre nature of the silent argument we were all having with ourselves and each other.

Zubyr looked at Minnie, a pensive look on his face" I'm pretty sure today is December 25th 2007."

I noticed the two women at the other end of the room had perked up at our debate.

"Hi, I'm William, please, what do you think today's date?" I said to them, at this point, if they told me they were from the year 3000, I would have no choice than to take it in stride.

The older woman hesitated for a moment and then said with an Irish accent, "My name is Siobhán Doyle and this is my daughter Ainsling. I'm a marine biologist and my daughter and I were taken from our research vessel, the monster that took us killed our entire crew." She paused, her face strained, as if the simple recollection had taken a lot from her and then she continued. And to answer your question, as far as I'm aware of, today's date is the 24th of September 2032."

We all froze, lost in the absurdity of our situation, panic slowly creeping in on each of us.

"This is impossible," Zubyr said in a slightly panicked voice, "am I supposed to believe young lady, that you and your daughter are from the future, the year 2032 and Miss Minnie is also from a future even further ahead. This is simply impossible." The old man kept emphasising on the word impossible, like saying it over and over again would change anything.

Melody suddenly stood up with a determined look on her face and stared at all of us "How do you expect me to feel, you all just claimed to be from the future, I'm the one who should be insisting that this is impossible. For now, we must suspend our disbelief. My captor did things that I would have considered impossible yesterday, but today if we want to survive and better yet, escape, we would need to keep an open mind"

"And who made you the boss of us?" Lucas stood a sneer on his face, his words a clear challenge against an authority he clearly did not approve of. I guess he felt now was a good time to begin his play for the alpha of our pack.

"I'm just trying to help us all get through whatever this is, if you cannot offer positive solutions or ideas to resolve our current situation, I suggest you remain silent."

She took a deep breath to calm herself and after a few moments, continued.

"I know we're all on edge after everything we've experienced, let's just calm down and talk in a more reasonable manner."

She turned back to Lukas, "Mr Lukas can you tell me what date you were taken. The more we know, the better our chances of getting out of here alive.

Clearly this was a ploy to get more information from Lukas regarding himself, but he merely turned back and spat in the corner; a clear sign of scorn for her implied authority.

Zubyr spoke up in an attempt to defuse what was a clearly heated situation. "Lukas and I were taken together, he is a janitor at the lab I worked in, we were brought here together."

Lukas swung his gaze to the old man, his face beet red in anger, "Nobody asked you for my life story old man, we're not in the lab any longer, you can't look down your frikin' nose at me."

I had to give it to the old man, but Zubyr did not back down in the face of a clearly younger, bigger and obviously stronger Lukas. Clearly the old man was made of sterner stuff.

Melody was already tensed in anticipation of violence and her hands were already folded into fists, her body primed to attack as she stared with laser focus at Lucas. I decided that it was time for me to also put Lukas in his place. Bullies are a big no-no in my book.

I stood up, all 6ft 8 inches of me, clearly towering over the asshole with a scowl on my face, "listen me asshat, since you've opened your mouth, all we've heard from you are abuses and insults. Maybe it's because you're scared, guess what we're all scared. Or maybe you're one of those naturally occurring dickheads that tend to spring up in any group who feel that they should be the one in charge, if so then you've got shit luck buddy, because the next time I hear a rude or derogatory word from you, I'm going my foot so far up your ass that you'll be able to taste my foot. Now listen to the agent here and Sit! The fuck! Down!

The asshole stared up at me, nose flaring, trying to stare me down, but was having difficulty doing so from seven inches below, forced to crane his neck a bit to hold eye contact. I smirked at him in an annoying self possessed manner, daring him to try his luck against me.

To be honest, I was almost giddy with joy at the prospect. Finally someone to let out all the frustration and helplessness I've felt since leaving the shop, or maybe since prison or longer. Someone to leave a bloody mass of meat on the floor without any feelings of guilt or remorse. But sadly, bullies aren't known for their courage, and after holding my gaze in challenge, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of his breathing as he struggled with whatever decision he was going to come to. After a few more seconds, he grudgingly sat down, but not before making a murmured racist comment about my kind or something along that line. I was tempted to prove all his racist assumptions,but decided he was not worth the effort I'd put into giving his weak ass a beat down. I turned to Melody and said in an attempt to change the subject.

"I think Minnie and I are from the same timeline, cos' her date matches up exactly with my date. For me today is also june 11 2046."

"Amazing," Zubyr said with awe in his voice. "I imagine there have been so many advancements in the area of science and technology on your earth. Has the Higgs boson been discovered? Has a more efficient method of creating antimatter been found?"

Lukas snorted at the old man's question, "and how's a guy like him supposed to know what that Higgs thingy you're talking about."

I wanted to punch the small mindedness off his face, but I chose to ignore him.

I turned to Zubyr, a suspicion slowly starting to form within me. "Yes, Higgs boson was discovered in 2045 and like most complex quantum physics data, no one has been able to find real life applications for the data. As for antimatter, as far as I am aware of, there still is no efficient way to mass produce antiparticles."

"And how would you know any of this darkie?" Lukas demanded with scorn in his voice

I ignored him and continued speaking to Zubyr, " If we accept the possibility that we all come from different "timelines," we must also embrace the possibility that we also come from different realities."

Mr Zubyr's eyes widened as he became aware of my emphasis on timeline. " Young man, are you implying that we are not only from different times but also from completely different realities, alternates, if you may."

I smiled tightly to him, a bit pissed off at being called a boy, but glad that the sharp old man finally caught on to my emphasis on timeline. It also occurred to me that if I had no reason to be pissed at him for referring to me as a "boy," when my title for him in my head was "old man"

I turned to the others, "I suspect that apart from Minnie and myself, Siobhán and Ainsling, and Dr Zubyr and Lukas, each of us will have alternate accounts of our world's history."

Slowly, everyone shared bits and pieces of their world's history. As I suspected, Minnie and I had similar major world events in our "reality". Though, there was a slight possibility that she may be from an alternate timeline, one which may simply have very few divergences from my own.

Lukas and Zubyr came here together, same with Siobhán and her daughter. Only Melody came from a unique alternate reality. According to her, the September 11 terrorist attack never happened and at the time she was taken, there had been no major foreign attack on US soil. Also Nixon beat the Watergate scandal.

After the initial shock of learning we were from alternate realities, we talked about how to escape. I informed them that we were on a planet called Zomyr, according to the vampire.

Melody still had that look in her eyes that said she didn't completely trust me, but I ignored it this time.

My gaze landed on the uniformed man and I noticed he had moved slightly in the time we'd taken to discuss our situation. I decided to bring attention to the only person who had yet to introduce himself. Plus I was tired of Melody's pointed looks in my direction and needed someone else to take the brunt of her cop stare.

"Hey, anybody know who the guy in the uniform is?" I said pleased to finally be free of that pointed stare.

Everyone's eyes turned to that direction of the room, but it was Lukas who decided to take the initiative. He stood up, walked up to the slumped and possibly passed out man and positioned himself to kick the man. Melody and I were about to intervene, when the seemingly unconscious man, with some kind of complex acrobatic combat technique, latched onto Lukas's unbalanced leg, toppling him to the ground. Fast as a snake, he repositioned himself and placed his knee on Lukas's back and twisted his left arm in a locked position.

Then he pulled a shiv from God knows where and placed it on his throat.

"Touch me again and I'll cut off your balls and feed them to you."

The voice was soft and lilting, but the cold command that laced the voice was unmistakable. He turned to rest us, who were staring at him slack-jawed.

Because he was a she and a very beautiful one at that. She looked to be barely 5ft 2inches tall, with night black close cropped hair. She looked barely legal with pale alabaster skin and asian features. Her arms were marred with cuts and bruises, but her soft porcelain like face was all but perfect marred only by a thin pale scar on her cheek. Her sloe shaped dark eyes gave the impression of experience and knowledge that belied her youthful features

We were all staring, amazed at the speed at which she disarmed Lukas."

Melody stepped forward clearly assigning herself as the spokesperson to the obviously dangerous person we were sharing what we now felt was a very small space with.

"Hello, I'm Melody, but I guess you already knew that, seeing as you have been awake the whole time. We are all in the same situation and Lukas's bad manners aside, we need to work together if we are to have any chance of getting out of here. Can you tell us your name?"

Despite her asian features, she sounded American. Her cold stare pierced each of us, even as the blade on Lukas's neck never wavered.

"My name is Suu Ling, and yes I've been listening to all your crazy theories about other earth's. But I've seen too much not to have an "open mind" like Melody said"

"On my "Earth" there is no America, not anymore. Half of the country was occupied by the japanese during world war two. The other half by the germans. And while your "Earth's" seem peaceful and free of war, mine is mostly a battleground, between all the major powers. A war that has lasted over half a century"

She said that last part with a hint of bitterness slipping out of her perfectly controlled mask of calm. I felt really bad for her, and I'm sure most of us empathized with her as well. What was it like being born and raised in a world constantly on the brink of violence? We must all sound like pansies talking of alternate realities and far flung futures without war. I wanted to to take her hand and tell her everything would be alright, but that was just empty nonsense, and by the cold look on her face that got colder as the looks of pity increased, I didn't think she would appreciate any attempt at sympathy, quite the opposite in fact.

Lukas tried to move, thinking that she would be distracted by her speech to let her guard down. He tried to use his weight to quickly buck her, but he had little leverage lying flat on his belly. Just as quick, her blade shallowly pierced his neck near his jugular, causing a bit of blood to trickle down towards the stone floor. Yelping in surprise and pain, he got the message and quieted down. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Through all this, her gaze never left the rest of us. After another pregnant pause, she continued as if she wasn't inches away from killing a man." For me, yesterday was October 11, 1991. My earth is clearly not the same as any of yours."

With her Asian features and her obvious martial prowess, I wondered what side of the world war she supported. She seemed very competent with that blade, and the strange uniform she wore made me question if she was truly American, or if she just told us he was to get us to lower our guard.

I spoke up trying to get us back to the subject of escape, now that we had our group's resident badass. “We need to get out of here, I don't know about any of you, but I really don't want to be vampire food."

"Why did they leave us unbound?" I turned to Suu,confused at that very odd question.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking for clarification as I finally remembered the nagging feeling I had soon after the vampire left the room.

"Why did they leave us unbound?" She asked again, but this time with an edge in her voice that put the rest of us on guard.

Suddenly it clicked for me, the thing that had been nagging a t me since the vampire left the room. They wanted us to talk and share information with one another, we just gave our captors free information without any form of coercion on their part.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain flash through my head, it felt like every part of me was on fire and I immediately fell to the ground clutching my chest.

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Warning; unknown aerial toxin detected in host bloodstream.

Warning, unknown energy detected within host, incompatible with host-implant symbiosis.

Warning, structural integrity of implant compromised.

Analysis; implant architecture has been attacked. Rogue energy source identified. Rogue energy source incompatible with implant architecture.

Recommendation; host should disconnect from rogue power source and contact a professional nano engineer and a neurologist for a thorough examination.

<><><><><><><><>

Gritting my teeth, I looked around me and saw the others writhing and twisting on the ground, they were all clearly in pain.

The air had a slight haze to it, it seemed to me that our captors flooded the room with some type of poisonous gas, although it did not make sense that they would kill us not long after capturing us.

The air became more obscured and the pain and background warnings increased in intensity. I began to see red from the intense pain and thinking became extremely difficult. Consciousness began to slip through my fingers and then everything went dark.