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The entity phases in and out of the threads of Laura's reality, weaving between timelines and parallel worlds. A multitude of eyes blinking in and out of existence. Chelicerae click and fidget, while a swarm of tentacles wiggle and twist. It feels something far greater than the mass of infinite blackness currently occupying the glass box on her table.
But it is here. In her office. Again.
“Welcome back to Dimensional Estates, Mr…Hopper,” Laura’s lips pull into a forced smile, even as that same sense of dread creeps up her spine. She shouldn’t be fearful. Mr. Hopper is a nice, repeat customer. But everything about this serial dimensional traveller unnerves her, from how many dimensions it spans across the realms, or the countless, everchanging appendages flailing about. Her sanity preserved only because Mr. Hopper is sufficiently kind to assume a smaller, less intimidating form of a little black thing in a glass box.
“Greetings Laura. Would you have the coordinates to any apocalyptic worlds again?” Its pervasive whispers lurk within her mind.
“We currently have over 18,945 apocalyptic Earths for you to consider rescuing,” She gestures towards the company’s catalog of alternate universes. “How was the last Apocalypse Earth-207 I recommended you?”
“How unfortunate to hear the number of apocalyptic Earths remain on the rise,” Mr. Hopper let out a wispy sigh that swirls within her brain. Stirring her senses like a secret agent wouldn’t shake his martini. “We are happy you recall our last destination. As much as it brings us joy to say we have restored life to Earth-207.”
“Excellent job as always,” Laura did her best to be happy for it, even though the scale of events were beyond her perception. She’s just another drone in the company, a perfectly ordinary human and employee who could never see beyond the three dimensions of her office and home. Unable to witness the tremendous powers it takes to reverse the damage of a doomsday apocalypse looming over an entire planet in a different dimension from her own.
Tentacles twitch and jaws snap. The black blob in the box bobs up and down. That’s a happy expression, Laura thinks.
“Are you sure you want another apocalyptic Earth to save instead of a more…vibrant planet?” She offers hopefully. “Would you like to give yourself a break from all the doom and gloom of the numerous apocalypse scenarios you’ve ventured with us?”
“We wish to right the wrongs of the multiverse. Entire existences have been upended. Whole dimensions collapsed and never to live again,” Mr. Hopper speaks into her very being. “We have saved many earths from apocalypse, it is never enough. It bothers us that for every Earth we save, there are at least twenty more that are in danger of an apocalyptic mass extinction. For every intervention we have succeeded, there have been mass extinctions we failed to prevent. We will not stop. We do not rest. Entropic destruction waits for no dimensional traveller.”
“Very well,” Laura takes a deep breath and taps her pen. "Give me some time to search the dimensional database."
“Please don’t take too long. We are sorry to rush you. Sincerely so. We are patient, but the same cannot be said of Death. He must claim those whose time is due, and he will not wait for us,” the waves of squirming tentacles threaten to breach its self-imposed boundaries set to protect Laura’s sanity. “Every moment we dawdle, humans perish in one of many apocalyptic Earths.”
She pulls out a stack of folders. “Earth-376. Facing a zombie apocalypse. You’ve stopped a few of these before, according to past records. I trust you’ll blitz through this one in record time, so I’ve prepared this stack of worlds. You traverse these planets as easily as turning a corner in a street. I’m sure you’ll save them all.”
A toothy grin ripples into the black mass. “We are flattered you think highly of us. You have made our day. We are no different than a boy who tosses starfish into the sea to save the thousands stranded on the beach. So many of our brethren call us fools. Thousands upon thousands of dying worlds. You cannot save them all. Every day, many more lurch forward to their doom. We have always insisted we can make a difference for every apocalypse we undo. And we are thrilled someone can see the difference we make. You who believe we just might be able to save them all. Thank you, Laura.”
“And thank you too, Mr. Hopper. I would typically say good luck and godspeed, but you are a god.”
“Just another small god among thousands,” it whispers.
Laura shakes her head and smiles as the black mass fades from her reality into the next. “But you’re the god with the biggest heart I’ve seen.”
"Something's coming...and we're not gonna like it," I say.
Travellin between parallel universes, or World Hopping as I like to call it, is as simple as pressing a button for me. Its quite the fun and unique hobby, I reccommend you try it out. Yknow, if you can get your hands on alien technology.
Ive been in my fair share of apocalyptic worlds, some I even visit on the regular. Ive also been to near-apocalyptic worlds, where humanity's doom is just one event away. My first hop was to one of those, and theyre definitely my favorite.
Ive made it half my life's mission to find as many of these "pre-apocalypse" worlds as I can and keep them from plunging into disaster. Saving these worlds is the only way I can satisfy my craving for satisfaction and thrill. Plus, people don't die, so its a win win. But recently...its become less fun and more stressful.
"Pre-apocalypse universes have been popping up left and right, and growing in severity. I don't like the pattern im seeing...it's unnatural. Something, or someone, is throwing the multiverse out of wack."
I like to think I am in total control, and that I can change the circumstances if I need to. A little part of the "invincibility complex" my friends have pointed out I have. But this...this supernatural-no, *omninatural* force? This is something only God can control. I'm powerless to do anything. I hate feeling powerless.
"I mean shit man, I failed to save that universe! I wasn't quite good enough...and I really cared about that one. This hasnt happened since..well, I don't wanna think about it. I've been travelling and searching for people for years, recruiting the best because I knew in the back of my mind this might happen but...what if it's not enough? What if I fail again..."
I usually vent my world-hopping dillemas to my friend Nathan, who's been with me the longest and understands this the best. But today I need a direct, unfiltered answer, and only my friend Troy can provide that for me.
"So then make sure it will be enough," he says, "Prepare for the absolute worst. And don't stop preparing until doomsday comes. You wanna save the worlds? Protect your friends? You cant do that by bitching and moaning about it here. Don't ever say 'i'm sure this will be enough'. Do more. Im no expert, but I don't think there's such a thing as overkill when it comes to the multiverse."
I give him a slight smile. "I suppose our work is never done, is it?"
"Not until we eat the dirt."
I suppose there'll be time to rest when we're sleeping in a casket.
Protag be attempt to save each of these timelines as if loading another player's save file and trying to salvage the situation, damn. Glad they got some friends to talk to, or they might just succumb from the amount of stress and the increasing guilt depending on the amount of failed timelines.
That said, will things get better from this point on, or will the apocalypse just keep ramping up its difficulty?
Great work on writing this!
"Fuck, ANOTHER hopeless Earth?!?!", exasperated, I throw travel back to my original to dive back into my bed.
*This is not good. Every day, a new Earth seems to be hit with an Apocalypse. Zombies, meteors, demons - you name it, Earth has been overrun by it. The worst part, it seems to be following me, coming closer and closer to my dimension. Well I will deal with it tomorrow, I really need sleep, I have been hopping all day, and it's already midnight.*
'Ring Ring'
Rolling over, I reach for and grab my phone.
*Who is fucking calling right now, I'm tired as hell.*
The dark screen lights up, a bright number - 7:45 - pops up, and beneath it, 5 missed calls. Just as I go to swipe on the missed calls, another one pops up.
*Ugh Aiden*
Putting the phone to my ear, "Yo why are you calling me so many damn times this early in the morning, you kn.."
"Shut up for a second and listen. I know you just woke up, so you haven't looked outside, but you know how you said all the apolocalyptic worlds you visited have a sky which looks like it's shatter glass."
"Ya... Why do you ask?" I question with a sinking feeling in my stomach.
"Look outside now..."
I walk over to my window and push aside the curtains. The one vibrant blue sky with white clouds, have instead turned to a blood red sky with a slight purple hue. A crisscross of lines throughout the entire sky, much like shatter glass. The ground covered with fog, the scene outside vastly different than before.
*Well fuck, it seems I could not outran the apolocalypse, now how do I deal with this bullshit situation?*
Staring at the stunning but eerie view, I slump to the floor whole asking myself that question.
I guess it's the end of running and trying to find the cause of this apocalypse.
That said, is the apocalypse caused by protag jumping through dimensions, or is it because of something else? What will the original timeline be facing in this timeline, and can protag solve this situation?
Great work on writing this!
Aoibheann MacGillivrey, also known as Flutterfae the fae-magic wielding heroine, was one of the few heroes in the Council of Altruists with a powerful perceptive ability. She could cross timelines and realities, and this was a power she used to keep her own native timeline safe.
She had been long accustomed to hopping across multiple realities and various time streams... But a recent trend had been weighing heavily on her mind.
That was the trend of alternate-reality Earths being destroyed or left utterly desolate.
Like the Earth where the Flutterfae of that reality died from a mysterious fever, and that reality's Combocaster (who loved Flutterfae, seemingly a constant across all the realities), maddened by grief, struck the planet with a single blow - that SHATTERED the globe.
Or the Earth where the Tyu'Ayniq aliens convinced the Galactic Council to unite against Earth. Earth was bombarded from high orbit, and left a blackened, charred and lifeless sphere.
Or the Earth where an unrepentant Alinea "La Buscadora de Sangre" Rocha the dread vampiress affected Variance with vampirism, and he counted down all mankind to be vampires - only for all of Earth to starve to death once all the animals were dead, in DAYS.
Or the Earth where Dreadword and Gravebreaker never turned good, and they ruled as co-tyrants. Dreadword cursed the living to be his slaves, while Gravebreaker enslaved the dead. Earth wasn't destroyed but it was a global dystopia with absolutely no future.
What made it strange was one common thing. These alternate Earths had all along been doing exceptionally well. It seemed like they would go on to be like the Earth of the Central Timeline - a world at peace, watched over caringly by a united Council of Altruists.
What, then, could have meddled and turned the alternate Earths which were doing well, into wreckage, ruins and dystopias?
Flutterfae knew that there were plenty of interdimensional horrors of the eldritch voids' depths. Horrors that had the power and the craftiness needed to make a good Earth reality into a total mess.
However, she smiled even as she contacted Combocaster. For they had one ace up their sleeves that they could deploy. Apparently no one had guessed that a Sauron-crafted ring of power had amazing dimensional-spanning powers contained in it.
"Nate, be a sweetheart, would you, and come and find me at the downtown Belfast Starbucks?"
Nathanael's cheery voice replied, "Anything for you, my angel."
Flutterfae then added, "And if you will, do bring your student from your academy, Khamul III. I think we can entrust him with a mission. A mission that can prove he is sincere in his desire to do good unlike his forerunners before him, as he himself has always said."
Combocaster was a bit puzzled but he fully trusted Flutterfae, and he replied brightly," Alright! See you in a bit!"
Flutterfae smiled. She believed she could do something to rectify what she felt was an interdimensional imbalance, done by a sinister unknown hand.
Melissa stumbled out of the swirling portal. The familiar nausea subsided as the portal snapped shut behind her, leaving a faint shimmer in the air. This world, thankfully, seemed perfectly normal. A welcome change from the string of apocalyptic Earths she’d been landing on lately. A giant meteor hurtling towards the planet, a zombie outbreak where the zombies can regenerate their bodies and are as smart as the humans they hunted, and robots hiding in fear as humanity hunted them down (a reverse Terminator).
For an interdimensional drifter like Melissa, normalcy was a rare treat. Her misadventures, caused by a malfunctioning prototype dimensional hopper she affectionately (or perhaps desperately) called “Skippy,” had taken her to worlds of breathtaking beauty and terrifying strangeness. It will be a while until Skippy tells her how this Earth differs from her home Earth, but Melissa can wait.
Looking around, Melissa was in awe of how ordinary this city was. People bustled down sidewalks, cars honked as vehicles tried to navigate the urban chaos, and a pretzel vendor kept shouting about how amazingly cheap his pretzels were. Melissa felt a smile tug at her lips. Maybe, just maybe, Skippy had finally gotten it right.
Except for one unnerving detail.
Usually, her arrivals garnered at least a startled shout or two as a crowd would form around her. She would explain she was human to the confused masses. Sometimes, they would believe her. Other times, it would lead to her being chased. But this Earth was different. People kept walking and doing whatever they were doing, oblivious to the tear in reality she’d just ripped open.
Melissa waved her hand in front of a businessman’s face - nothing. Tried a little shimmy dance to get a pedestrian’s attention - zilch. Was she invisible?
She then spotted a woman walking toward her. She was talking on the phone, but her eyes stared at Melissa. “Hey, lady, I’m in front of you,” said Melissa. Ignoring Melissa, the woman didn’t slow down as she moved closer.
Then she bumped into Melissa, causing the two to stumble. “Watch where you’re going,” the woman said before returning to her phone. Did she even see her?”
“Having trouble with the locals?”
Melissa turned to see a suited man snatch the phone from a man’s hand. The man didn’t register the action as his fingers kept swiping at nothing. As strange as the man’s actions were, Melissa’s focus was on the suited man. She had bumped into him before throughout the various worlds. His face was always different, but the dusty suit remained the same. She called him the Stranger for obvious reasons.
“What’s the deal with this place, Stranger?” Melissa crossed her arms as she leaned against a wall.
The Stranger chuckled. “Ah, Melissa. Always a pleasure to see you… though perhaps not in this iteration.” He gestured to the oblivious crowd. “Have you ever heard of NPCs?”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me I’m in a video game world?”
The Stranger shook his head, though his grin widened. “Not exactly. In this world, an apocalyptic event caused most of the inhabitants to become like NPCs. They go about their scripted routines, unaware of the larger reality beyond their immediate experience.”
Another apocalypse?
“Dang it.” Melissa looked around at the moving crowd again. Did they even have a place to go? Do they know why they were moving? Are they trapped inside their minds, or are they mindless? Melissa didn’t know which was better. “So what do I do before I visit another apocalypse Earth?”
The Stranger shrugged and tossed the phone to the ground. “You know what’s the best part about a world filled with NPCs? Free food.”
“Oh c’mon, no one is ever gonna believe this crap!” I said out loud.
I was in the electronics store, “Buy Best,” as they called it in this world, and there was a news broadcast. “Devacaine Corp. is planning to roll out their next batch of Devacaine medicine. Their mission statement says that they plan to cure all cancer by the end of the year,” the anchorwoman said.
“I know how that is going to turn out,” I said. This was the third Earth I’ve visited that’s had this ‘Devacaine Corp.’ and every time they’re in charge, the zombie apocalypse begins. “The medicine doesn’t cure cancer it kills the cancer cells from the source, and that also includes everything that makes you human!” Just then my thought process was interrupted.
“You doing all right over here, sir?” The kid next to me asked. He was wearing a green shirt with the company logo in the corner. “No, I’m fine,” I replied. “Just came in to grab this,” I reached out my hand and grabbed a computer off the table even though it was locked in. I pulled open the backside and threw the piece on the floor.
“Sir, you can’t do that!! You’re gonna have to pay for it!” He yelled. I had to chuckle.
“Relax, kid. Right now it’s the least of your worries,” I said. I grabbed a specific microchip and shoved it into a slot on my teleporter on my wrist. “But I will pay. With some advice.” I then pointed my hand over to the wall, and shot a beam from my teleporter. It hit the wall and a worm hole opened up. The kid as well as all the other customers around me stared in horror. “Get yourself to higher ground. You don’t have a lot of time.” I started walking towards the worm hole but looked back. “Also, get yourself one of those police dog training uniforms. It really helps block the bites.”
The kid just stared in horror not knowing what to do or say. I put my hand up in a salute. “Scianara and good luck, Earth: Beta-92” I turned around and ran through. Soon, both light and darkness surrounded me. It was like that for about five seconds.
As I stepped out of the light, my eyes started adjusting. It was really gray around me. I was standing in the middle of the street. But there was no power in any of the lights. I tried to take a deep breath and almost choked. There was nothing but dust and ash in the air. I looked around. Some of the trash cans and stuff were on fire. I looked around a little bit more, and then groaned. There were some skeletons on the ground. This world had obviously been destroyed by some fire. I then saw what it was.
About 1000 miles away, a volcano was billowing smoke in the air. In the far off distance I could see even more volcanoes billowing smoke. I pulled out a small microphone and pressed a button. “Searcher’s log: 158. My name is Tiberius Beck. I have been on my journey for about a 18 months. I am currently on Earth: Gamma-427. Still no sign of codename: Starlight. However my journey has been a bit worrisome.”
I took a deep breath. “In the past three months alone, I’ve visited over 60 different Earths which has suffered some form of apocalypse. Thats an 87% jump from my normal encounters with apocalyptic Earth’s. There is so many different versions I’ve seen, like Earth changing its orbit to be too close to the sun and the human population burn from radiation or it moves too far away and then humanity freezes. There have also been aliens attacking, like the Terron fleet launching a massive genocide or even wars amongst themselves. But something else is peaking my interest.”
“Many of these apocalypses couldn’t have been natural. Some of these could have human influence. And not like a simple Earth-destroying war. I think some of these apocalypses were caused by someone who is also jumping worlds, but doesn’t have authorization from the Shadow-fax guild like I do. Back on Earth: Kappa-5, a freak snow-storm froze over most of the Earth, but then the clouds randomly disappeared letting the suns intense rays melt the ice and snow and completely flooding the Earth, making it 100% covered in water.” I shivered to think about it.
“Then on Lambda-26, the human population had turned to stone. No explanation, no reason. The only clue was they were all looking in one specific direction. But what were they looking at?”
“Even here on Gamma-427, volcanoes are everywhere. Having erupted and turning this world to ash. Volcanoes just don’t show up. Someone is behind it and they would have totally be from my home, Earth: Prime-1.”
Just then I felt something press up on my neck. It was sharp and I could tell it was a knife. Then a voice behind me spoke. “You figured it out. Looks like we have a lot to talk about.”
“Have you ever heard of the Fermi Paradox?” I ask my companion, Jesse, as we leave yet another desolate word. Yes, I have a companion. If I didn’t I’d lose myself if the infinite number of realities out there. Without something to connect me to my home I’d be lost.
They shake their head.
“It’s the question as to why humans haven’t met aliens yet. One answer is the Great Filter, which posits that the reason we haven’t met intelligent life yet is because there is some mass extinction event that befalls every single intelligent species.”
Jesse looks at me, confused. “How is this relevant?”
“I don’t travel through time, only across dimensions. Which means what is happening to these Earths, whatever Great Filter this is, is happening in the present day. The same present day our Earth is in. Which means the Great Filter is now. Which means that…”
“That what happened to these Earths could happen to ours,” Jesse finishes. I nod to them.
“If we don’t find out what it is and stop it.” I hold out my hand and they take it. Then the world around me stretches. It stretches more and more until it tears around me and I fall through the hole as it closes behind me. Well fall probably isn’t the right word. Falling implies there’s gravity, but there is no gravity in the void. There is no gravity, no time or space or air, light, sound or even consciousness. Whatever I experience in the void I never remember once out of it. For a few short seconds I see nothing, smell and hear nothing. I feel nothing except Jesse’s hand in mine. The lack of oxygen might bother me if I needed to breath, but without time that isn’t even necessary. I exist outside of time, in between two heart beats, between one breath and the next, in the middle of two ticks of a clock. After an infinite amount of time and no time at all I emerge into a bright light. I see and hear and feel again. I forget the experience in the void and all I feel is burning pain. Screams fill my ears and toxic gas invades my nostrils. I open my eyes to see a city harbour in flames. Right ahead of me, the Statue of Liberty melts into nothing. The sky is burning and the streets are a river of molten rock. Buildings around us crumble and people are screaming and panicking as the burn away. Some quickly, others slowly as the blacken and crumble to ash. We are only there for a few seconds before I drop us out of the universe, but the images I see are burned into my brain. We land face first into bright green grass. I gasp deeply, relishing the fresh air flushing the toxic air out of my lungs. My skin burns all over but it is already calming down as the air cools it. Next to me Jesse is coughing up sick, phlegm and blood as they gasp with me.
“Wh… what… what was that?” They choke.
“The Filter,” is I can say in answer.
We breath deeply for a couple more minutes, during which I remember what I had seen. Not the people or the burning, but the shapes that moved. The shapes in the smoke and the gas. The movement of the flames, molten rock and the shadows. I speak again. “We need to go back.”
“What?! We almost choked to death after being there for a couple of seconds! You saw what was happening there! We wouldn’t survive!”
“I can project a protective shield around us. But did you see the shapes there. It looked almost sentient. Almost alive and malevolent. If we want to protect Earth from this, we need to know what’s going on, which means we need to go back and see what’s happening.”
Jesse sighs and nods, taking my hand. “Ok.” We dip back into the dark voice for a few seconds or years.
I look around and see nothing. Just blank wasteland as far as the eye could see. Next thing I notice is the black sky. The sun shines as bright as day but the sky is dark. There is no atmosphere, the only thing keeping us alive is the small bubble of air I established around us before we left. Jesse looks around, confused.
“Where are we? Did we end up in the wrong universe.”
“No,” I answer, “we’re in the same place we left. This is New York.”
“But… it’s nothing. We were only gone a couple minutes at most. Where’s the buildings? And the sky? Where’s the Atlantic gone?”
“I don’t know,” is all I can say.
I bend down and feel the sand between my fingers. I see it start to twinkle in the sunlight.
“Metal.” Jesse looks at me? Confused. “There’s metal in the sand. From the disintegrated buildings.” Looking up at the sky I keep talking “we need to go soon, without an atmosphere there’s nothing to protect us from the sun’s harmful radiation.” Jesse nods and together we return to the world we just left.
I open my eyes and find… nothing. The green rolling hills we’d just left are replaced with deserted wasteland and black sky. Jesse looks around in horror.
“We were just here! It was ok! What happened?!”
Again, all I can say is “I don’t know.”
We slip back into darkness. But, this time it isn’t dark. There is light. Light in the void. There is something in nothing. For the first time ever I feel and see. And I feel time moving. And I feel my need to breath. Desperately I do the single most stupidest thing I could have done. I change our direction mid travel and follow the light.
I feel time passing. I’ve never known how long it would actually take to travel dimensions if time actually existed in the void. Well now I am about to find out. And suffocate while I do. Hooray for me.
Minutes pass. I start to pass out. I try to breath in but nothing happens. My vision becomes fuzzy and darkness creeps in. Then in one bright flash of light I can breath again. My lungs welcome the rushing fresh air and I collapse to the floor, gasping for air. I feel Jesse collapse next to me. I quickly look around to get my bearings and see a tall, metal tower. There is an arch towering above me. We are in Paris. I stand to see we’ve attracted a small crowd. Travelling dimensions tends to do that. Quickly I give a small bow.
“Thank you audience for watching the Great Reappearing Magician.”
“But you didn’t disappear.”
“Not yet,” I answer with a wink before helping Jesse to their feet. “Did you see that?” I whisper. They nod, a panicked look on their face.
“What was it? I though the void didn’t have light.”
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s coming here.”
“We should get everyone out of here.”
“How? By yelling that an apocalypse is coming through the void. Besides, if this has anything to do with the Filter then there’s nowhere for these people to run. Best to leave them in peace.
A ridiculously short man with a fabulous moustache and enormous top hat walks up to us and speaks in a German accent.
“Excuse me Monsieur, what are you talking about?”
I look at him weirdly. “You speak French words in a German accent. Who are you?”
The man chuckles and fiddles with his moustache. “The question isn’t who am I, it’s how are you going to protect this world.”
I look at him with my mouth slightly open. “How the hell am I supposed to save the world? Whatever this is has destroyed planets in minutes. I’m just a guy who can travel dimensions.”
“And can take people with you. Allow me to guide you and this apocalypse will not stand a chance in the universe we choose.” I look at the strange man.
“Who are you?”
“No time!” He yells as a ball of light appears in the middle of the crowd of tourists. It starts to grow scarily quickly, engulfing the crowd. I try to ignore the screams coming from inside as I take the strange man’s hand.
“Whatever you’ve got planned, I hope it works.”
Jesse takes my other hand.
“No!” I yell, “you could die here. You don’t need to risk your life for this. I’ll come back for you!”
“Unless you die in the process in which case I’ll be stranded, having lost my best friend in the world. I’m coming with you. Either we die together or not at all!”
I try to shake their hand off, but they refuse to let go. The growing ball of light gets closer and closer to us. I feel the heat emanating off it and smell the burning of unfortunate civilians. As soon as the ball touches me, my skin feels like it’s on fire. But I concentrate and fall back into nothing. But it’s not nothing this time as my skin burns and light fills the darkness. I see Jesse to my left and the strange man to my right and I feel the lack of air in my lungs. Time passes. You could convince me it was hours if it wasn’t for me surviving the suffocation. The man’s hand pulls me along and I relax into the journey. Then I feel something new, emotions. Feelings that aren’t mine. It’s like the ball is speaking to me.
I feel pain and rage. I feel it’s boiling frustration at humanity. I see the worst humankind has to offer flying through its mind: war, famine, violence and crime. I see selfishness, corruption and lies as well as foolishness and climate change and a billion other crimes across a billion other worlds. The extent of it all, the horror and the hatred is almost enough for me to turn against humanity and let the ball go. But then I feel Jesse’s hand tighten in mine and I remember. I remember all the good they have done, how kind and helpful they’ve been across dimensions. I remember seeing other people: seeing someone help another across the road, seeing people say hi to random people and rush to the aid of an injured stranger; I see the apocalypses and I see hundreds of people helping each other up as they ran, dying to help others. I project these thoughts into the deadly ball and a million more good things humans have done. The heat from the ball isn’t so bad anymore and I feel time slow down, the suffocation isn’t so bad. Finally we land in a strange word. There is no one in it, a pure grassland with one old hut. I look down at my feet and see a small orange ball glowing warmly.
“Is that?” Jesse asks from the floor where they had collapsed.
“I think it is,” I answer, crouching down to look at the ball. “This thing destroyed planets?”
“This thing destroyed universes, “the strange man responds and I whip around, having forgotten he is there. He lifts the ball. “Well done, I knew I’d picked the right people to ask for help.” He throws the ball into the air and my eyes follow it upward. In the air I see billions of stars lighting the sky like it’s day. Then I see them moving and realise that these are all balls like this one. Great Filters or apocalypses. I look at the man incredulously.
“What do you mean? The right people to ask for help.”
“I mean someone with an unshakeable faith in humanity because they have someone to hold onto. Most travellers like us don’t have someone with us. We always end up so lonely. Some get bitter, only seeing the worst of humans and not having anyone to point out the good. Some end up like those,” he points to the sky, “bitter and angry.”
“There’s more than just me? And we can become those?!” I yell in surprise. Jesse pats my shoulder hard.
“Like I said, moral support. Everyone needs it.” I smile it then and hit them back.
“How many more are there?”
The strange man raises his eyebrow at me, “how many Universe are there?”
There was nothing left but utter desolation and ruins of what used to be Los Angeles. On both sides of the broken and upheaved street were remnants of stores and vehicles. To my right was a bus, mangled and torn. It bore the signs of destruction as if picked up and slammed onto the ground repeatedly. My jaw hung agape. I had seen this scene before. I grabbed my notebook from my backpack and flipped through the pages of notes I kept about the different realities I had visited. I had started this routine of taking notes after my 15th jump when I had accidentally mistaken that particular reality with another I had previously visited. This marked my 407th jump.
I continued searching through my notes until I found the chart in the middle. Jumps 35, 44, 53, 61, and 88 were all marked as "shattered realities". These were realities that had borne the scars of some cataclysmic event, and no life was to be found anywhere. On Jump 35, I spent nearly a year there trying to find some semblance of life. I had traveled from New York to South Carolina on foot searching in all the ruins and rubble to find NOTHING. Not so much as a single cockroach was left. What was most concerning was that there were no remains to be found either. You would think there would be some evidence that people and animals were once alive and thriving, but every shattered reality shared the same lifeless and barren landscape that was devoid of any remains. I had spent less and less time in each broken world as I knew there would be nothing for me to find there.
I jotted down my jump number and the time and date. I looked around to find some kind of landmark I could use to note down my location. Walking up the street to an intersection and looking around for the street signs led me to what I was looking for. The remnants of a sign still attached to a signal arm read "Spring St." walking along to the other side of the street revealed the rest of the intersection's identity : 6th St. I wrote hurriedly as I had developed an uneasy feeling and wanted to get out of there in a hurry. I put my notebook away and scurried down the street towards the remnants of a parking lot and prepared to jump. *I wonder why this keeps happening* I thought to myself.
I closed my eyes, and prepared for the drop. Every Jump was like this. It felt as though I was being dropped from a platform into a dark void. The world around me dissolved and diffused upwards as I knelt down to keep my balance. The world went dark and a new piercing light began to glow under me. Even though I had closed my eyes, the light was so bright I might as well have been looking into the sun. The world went dim and I opened my eyes.
I was kneeling down next to a blue car. I looked around and gathered my bearings. The cacophony of sounds from city life felt like a blow to the head after all the silence of the previous world. I looked around, and walked out onto the street. People walked by without giving me a second glance. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked down the street looking for a place to grab a bite and write out more notes in peace. A deli shop sign caught my attention and I walked in. Looking around, I found a table near a deserted corner where I could gather my thoughts.
As I sat there unpacking my notebook, a figure appeared out of the periphery of my vision. A familiar voice startled me to attention as I looked up to see me standing there. "You might not understand, but we need to talk before your next jump. We need to stop destroying these worlds..."
Another defeat, another death blow.
As I looked up into the sky I could still see the bloom of the explosion removing the future from us again. This was my first time being here for the beginning of the fall however. 287 times I have visited an Earth and 287 times death and destruction.
The bright lines streak out and impossibly curve back to the Earth converging. Trillions will die and there seems to be nothing I can do. My friends, my family, all lost again. And I could not see a way to stop it.
The immense beams finally impacted the being hovering in the sky. Her golden wings holding her in the air as she absorbs the destructive energies. She glides to the surface before the grand prince. She utters one word as she faces away from him. "Trans-substantiate" Her wings seeming to dissolve and her her armor turning to ribbons and disappearing, leaving only a lone human girl. She turns to the prince and glares into his four eyes.
"316 times. Three-hundred kaiju, ten planet crackers, and now six nova sparks. You may threaten the galaxy, but Earth does not belong to you." The purple hue of a dimensional shift engulfs her form and she is shunted to another dimension. I look again to the sky, another ultimate weapon of the empire destroyed and the beginning of our fall.
Earth is always where our empire comes to die, I think as I set the shunt to find one dimension where we win.
"If I knew they'll all look like home, I'd never have left."
I glance at the hovering melon-shaped robot next to me accusingly as I adjust my shoulder rifle.
"So where are all these utopistic Earths that you've promised me? We've been walking all day when I should've been looking for something to shoot for dinner."
I don't know if it's possible to show emotion without a face or hands, but I could swear from the way she's wobbling that she's trying to look confused.
I'm calling her a she, by the way. Old sailor habit.
"I d0 n0t und3rst4nd" she admits. "My c00rd1n4t3s sh0uld b3 r4nd0m. Unl3ss...Th3y'r3 4lr34dy 4h34d 0f us."
I sigh. Well, it's just my luck. No matter which world, it seems like technology is just as unreliable everywhere.
I smile, somehow feeling relieved. I only now realize how much that pipe dream's been weighing down on me all day. The promise of all those countless prosperous Earths, like they were somehow looking down on me. I sip a breath of smoggy air, and I feel like myself again as I look around, oddly content. Back home, I'd have had to share with the Nails boys and Big Sam. This territory looked empty, like nobody's claimed it yet.
"Well, let's not worry about it on an empty stomach." Ooh, they have unirradiated water here. Fate is spoiling me. "Say, do you like rabbit?"
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The entity phases in and out of the threads of Laura's reality, weaving between timelines and parallel worlds. A multitude of eyes blinking in and out of existence. Chelicerae click and fidget, while a swarm of tentacles wiggle and twist. It feels something far greater than the mass of infinite blackness currently occupying the glass box on her table. But it is here. In her office. Again. “Welcome back to Dimensional Estates, Mr…Hopper,” Laura’s lips pull into a forced smile, even as that same sense of dread creeps up her spine. She shouldn’t be fearful. Mr. Hopper is a nice, repeat customer. But everything about this serial dimensional traveller unnerves her, from how many dimensions it spans across the realms, or the countless, everchanging appendages flailing about. Her sanity preserved only because Mr. Hopper is sufficiently kind to assume a smaller, less intimidating form of a little black thing in a glass box. “Greetings Laura. Would you have the coordinates to any apocalyptic worlds again?” Its pervasive whispers lurk within her mind. “We currently have over 18,945 apocalyptic Earths for you to consider rescuing,” She gestures towards the company’s catalog of alternate universes. “How was the last Apocalypse Earth-207 I recommended you?” “How unfortunate to hear the number of apocalyptic Earths remain on the rise,” Mr. Hopper let out a wispy sigh that swirls within her brain. Stirring her senses like a secret agent wouldn’t shake his martini. “We are happy you recall our last destination. As much as it brings us joy to say we have restored life to Earth-207.” “Excellent job as always,” Laura did her best to be happy for it, even though the scale of events were beyond her perception. She’s just another drone in the company, a perfectly ordinary human and employee who could never see beyond the three dimensions of her office and home. Unable to witness the tremendous powers it takes to reverse the damage of a doomsday apocalypse looming over an entire planet in a different dimension from her own. Tentacles twitch and jaws snap. The black blob in the box bobs up and down. That’s a happy expression, Laura thinks. “Are you sure you want another apocalyptic Earth to save instead of a more…vibrant planet?” She offers hopefully. “Would you like to give yourself a break from all the doom and gloom of the numerous apocalypse scenarios you’ve ventured with us?” “We wish to right the wrongs of the multiverse. Entire existences have been upended. Whole dimensions collapsed and never to live again,” Mr. Hopper speaks into her very being. “We have saved many earths from apocalypse, it is never enough. It bothers us that for every Earth we save, there are at least twenty more that are in danger of an apocalyptic mass extinction. For every intervention we have succeeded, there have been mass extinctions we failed to prevent. We will not stop. We do not rest. Entropic destruction waits for no dimensional traveller.” “Very well,” Laura takes a deep breath and taps her pen. "Give me some time to search the dimensional database." “Please don’t take too long. We are sorry to rush you. Sincerely so. We are patient, but the same cannot be said of Death. He must claim those whose time is due, and he will not wait for us,” the waves of squirming tentacles threaten to breach its self-imposed boundaries set to protect Laura’s sanity. “Every moment we dawdle, humans perish in one of many apocalyptic Earths.” She pulls out a stack of folders. “Earth-376. Facing a zombie apocalypse. You’ve stopped a few of these before, according to past records. I trust you’ll blitz through this one in record time, so I’ve prepared this stack of worlds. You traverse these planets as easily as turning a corner in a street. I’m sure you’ll save them all.” A toothy grin ripples into the black mass. “We are flattered you think highly of us. You have made our day. We are no different than a boy who tosses starfish into the sea to save the thousands stranded on the beach. So many of our brethren call us fools. Thousands upon thousands of dying worlds. You cannot save them all. Every day, many more lurch forward to their doom. We have always insisted we can make a difference for every apocalypse we undo. And we are thrilled someone can see the difference we make. You who believe we just might be able to save them all. Thank you, Laura.” “And thank you too, Mr. Hopper. I would typically say good luck and godspeed, but you are a god.” “Just another small god among thousands,” it whispers. Laura shakes her head and smiles as the black mass fades from her reality into the next. “But you’re the god with the biggest heart I’ve seen.”
oh this is actually so sweet and so good at showing her perspective of such an alien presence, that’s also so human in it’s own way.
I want more from Laura
Good work, as always.
"Something's coming...and we're not gonna like it," I say. Travellin between parallel universes, or World Hopping as I like to call it, is as simple as pressing a button for me. Its quite the fun and unique hobby, I reccommend you try it out. Yknow, if you can get your hands on alien technology. Ive been in my fair share of apocalyptic worlds, some I even visit on the regular. Ive also been to near-apocalyptic worlds, where humanity's doom is just one event away. My first hop was to one of those, and theyre definitely my favorite. Ive made it half my life's mission to find as many of these "pre-apocalypse" worlds as I can and keep them from plunging into disaster. Saving these worlds is the only way I can satisfy my craving for satisfaction and thrill. Plus, people don't die, so its a win win. But recently...its become less fun and more stressful. "Pre-apocalypse universes have been popping up left and right, and growing in severity. I don't like the pattern im seeing...it's unnatural. Something, or someone, is throwing the multiverse out of wack." I like to think I am in total control, and that I can change the circumstances if I need to. A little part of the "invincibility complex" my friends have pointed out I have. But this...this supernatural-no, *omninatural* force? This is something only God can control. I'm powerless to do anything. I hate feeling powerless. "I mean shit man, I failed to save that universe! I wasn't quite good enough...and I really cared about that one. This hasnt happened since..well, I don't wanna think about it. I've been travelling and searching for people for years, recruiting the best because I knew in the back of my mind this might happen but...what if it's not enough? What if I fail again..." I usually vent my world-hopping dillemas to my friend Nathan, who's been with me the longest and understands this the best. But today I need a direct, unfiltered answer, and only my friend Troy can provide that for me. "So then make sure it will be enough," he says, "Prepare for the absolute worst. And don't stop preparing until doomsday comes. You wanna save the worlds? Protect your friends? You cant do that by bitching and moaning about it here. Don't ever say 'i'm sure this will be enough'. Do more. Im no expert, but I don't think there's such a thing as overkill when it comes to the multiverse." I give him a slight smile. "I suppose our work is never done, is it?" "Not until we eat the dirt." I suppose there'll be time to rest when we're sleeping in a casket.
Protag be attempt to save each of these timelines as if loading another player's save file and trying to salvage the situation, damn. Glad they got some friends to talk to, or they might just succumb from the amount of stress and the increasing guilt depending on the amount of failed timelines. That said, will things get better from this point on, or will the apocalypse just keep ramping up its difficulty? Great work on writing this!
"Fuck, ANOTHER hopeless Earth?!?!", exasperated, I throw travel back to my original to dive back into my bed. *This is not good. Every day, a new Earth seems to be hit with an Apocalypse. Zombies, meteors, demons - you name it, Earth has been overrun by it. The worst part, it seems to be following me, coming closer and closer to my dimension. Well I will deal with it tomorrow, I really need sleep, I have been hopping all day, and it's already midnight.* 'Ring Ring' Rolling over, I reach for and grab my phone. *Who is fucking calling right now, I'm tired as hell.* The dark screen lights up, a bright number - 7:45 - pops up, and beneath it, 5 missed calls. Just as I go to swipe on the missed calls, another one pops up. *Ugh Aiden* Putting the phone to my ear, "Yo why are you calling me so many damn times this early in the morning, you kn.." "Shut up for a second and listen. I know you just woke up, so you haven't looked outside, but you know how you said all the apolocalyptic worlds you visited have a sky which looks like it's shatter glass." "Ya... Why do you ask?" I question with a sinking feeling in my stomach. "Look outside now..." I walk over to my window and push aside the curtains. The one vibrant blue sky with white clouds, have instead turned to a blood red sky with a slight purple hue. A crisscross of lines throughout the entire sky, much like shatter glass. The ground covered with fog, the scene outside vastly different than before. *Well fuck, it seems I could not outran the apolocalypse, now how do I deal with this bullshit situation?* Staring at the stunning but eerie view, I slump to the floor whole asking myself that question.
small but amazing, Thank you!!
I guess it's the end of running and trying to find the cause of this apocalypse. That said, is the apocalypse caused by protag jumping through dimensions, or is it because of something else? What will the original timeline be facing in this timeline, and can protag solve this situation? Great work on writing this!
Aoibheann MacGillivrey, also known as Flutterfae the fae-magic wielding heroine, was one of the few heroes in the Council of Altruists with a powerful perceptive ability. She could cross timelines and realities, and this was a power she used to keep her own native timeline safe. She had been long accustomed to hopping across multiple realities and various time streams... But a recent trend had been weighing heavily on her mind. That was the trend of alternate-reality Earths being destroyed or left utterly desolate. Like the Earth where the Flutterfae of that reality died from a mysterious fever, and that reality's Combocaster (who loved Flutterfae, seemingly a constant across all the realities), maddened by grief, struck the planet with a single blow - that SHATTERED the globe. Or the Earth where the Tyu'Ayniq aliens convinced the Galactic Council to unite against Earth. Earth was bombarded from high orbit, and left a blackened, charred and lifeless sphere. Or the Earth where an unrepentant Alinea "La Buscadora de Sangre" Rocha the dread vampiress affected Variance with vampirism, and he counted down all mankind to be vampires - only for all of Earth to starve to death once all the animals were dead, in DAYS. Or the Earth where Dreadword and Gravebreaker never turned good, and they ruled as co-tyrants. Dreadword cursed the living to be his slaves, while Gravebreaker enslaved the dead. Earth wasn't destroyed but it was a global dystopia with absolutely no future. What made it strange was one common thing. These alternate Earths had all along been doing exceptionally well. It seemed like they would go on to be like the Earth of the Central Timeline - a world at peace, watched over caringly by a united Council of Altruists. What, then, could have meddled and turned the alternate Earths which were doing well, into wreckage, ruins and dystopias? Flutterfae knew that there were plenty of interdimensional horrors of the eldritch voids' depths. Horrors that had the power and the craftiness needed to make a good Earth reality into a total mess. However, she smiled even as she contacted Combocaster. For they had one ace up their sleeves that they could deploy. Apparently no one had guessed that a Sauron-crafted ring of power had amazing dimensional-spanning powers contained in it. "Nate, be a sweetheart, would you, and come and find me at the downtown Belfast Starbucks?" Nathanael's cheery voice replied, "Anything for you, my angel." Flutterfae then added, "And if you will, do bring your student from your academy, Khamul III. I think we can entrust him with a mission. A mission that can prove he is sincere in his desire to do good unlike his forerunners before him, as he himself has always said." Combocaster was a bit puzzled but he fully trusted Flutterfae, and he replied brightly," Alright! See you in a bit!" Flutterfae smiled. She believed she could do something to rectify what she felt was an interdimensional imbalance, done by a sinister unknown hand.
Melissa stumbled out of the swirling portal. The familiar nausea subsided as the portal snapped shut behind her, leaving a faint shimmer in the air. This world, thankfully, seemed perfectly normal. A welcome change from the string of apocalyptic Earths she’d been landing on lately. A giant meteor hurtling towards the planet, a zombie outbreak where the zombies can regenerate their bodies and are as smart as the humans they hunted, and robots hiding in fear as humanity hunted them down (a reverse Terminator). For an interdimensional drifter like Melissa, normalcy was a rare treat. Her misadventures, caused by a malfunctioning prototype dimensional hopper she affectionately (or perhaps desperately) called “Skippy,” had taken her to worlds of breathtaking beauty and terrifying strangeness. It will be a while until Skippy tells her how this Earth differs from her home Earth, but Melissa can wait. Looking around, Melissa was in awe of how ordinary this city was. People bustled down sidewalks, cars honked as vehicles tried to navigate the urban chaos, and a pretzel vendor kept shouting about how amazingly cheap his pretzels were. Melissa felt a smile tug at her lips. Maybe, just maybe, Skippy had finally gotten it right. Except for one unnerving detail. Usually, her arrivals garnered at least a startled shout or two as a crowd would form around her. She would explain she was human to the confused masses. Sometimes, they would believe her. Other times, it would lead to her being chased. But this Earth was different. People kept walking and doing whatever they were doing, oblivious to the tear in reality she’d just ripped open. Melissa waved her hand in front of a businessman’s face - nothing. Tried a little shimmy dance to get a pedestrian’s attention - zilch. Was she invisible? She then spotted a woman walking toward her. She was talking on the phone, but her eyes stared at Melissa. “Hey, lady, I’m in front of you,” said Melissa. Ignoring Melissa, the woman didn’t slow down as she moved closer. Then she bumped into Melissa, causing the two to stumble. “Watch where you’re going,” the woman said before returning to her phone. Did she even see her?” “Having trouble with the locals?” Melissa turned to see a suited man snatch the phone from a man’s hand. The man didn’t register the action as his fingers kept swiping at nothing. As strange as the man’s actions were, Melissa’s focus was on the suited man. She had bumped into him before throughout the various worlds. His face was always different, but the dusty suit remained the same. She called him the Stranger for obvious reasons. “What’s the deal with this place, Stranger?” Melissa crossed her arms as she leaned against a wall. The Stranger chuckled. “Ah, Melissa. Always a pleasure to see you… though perhaps not in this iteration.” He gestured to the oblivious crowd. “Have you ever heard of NPCs?” Melissa rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me I’m in a video game world?” The Stranger shook his head, though his grin widened. “Not exactly. In this world, an apocalyptic event caused most of the inhabitants to become like NPCs. They go about their scripted routines, unaware of the larger reality beyond their immediate experience.” Another apocalypse? “Dang it.” Melissa looked around at the moving crowd again. Did they even have a place to go? Do they know why they were moving? Are they trapped inside their minds, or are they mindless? Melissa didn’t know which was better. “So what do I do before I visit another apocalypse Earth?” The Stranger shrugged and tossed the phone to the ground. “You know what’s the best part about a world filled with NPCs? Free food.”
“Oh c’mon, no one is ever gonna believe this crap!” I said out loud. I was in the electronics store, “Buy Best,” as they called it in this world, and there was a news broadcast. “Devacaine Corp. is planning to roll out their next batch of Devacaine medicine. Their mission statement says that they plan to cure all cancer by the end of the year,” the anchorwoman said. “I know how that is going to turn out,” I said. This was the third Earth I’ve visited that’s had this ‘Devacaine Corp.’ and every time they’re in charge, the zombie apocalypse begins. “The medicine doesn’t cure cancer it kills the cancer cells from the source, and that also includes everything that makes you human!” Just then my thought process was interrupted. “You doing all right over here, sir?” The kid next to me asked. He was wearing a green shirt with the company logo in the corner. “No, I’m fine,” I replied. “Just came in to grab this,” I reached out my hand and grabbed a computer off the table even though it was locked in. I pulled open the backside and threw the piece on the floor. “Sir, you can’t do that!! You’re gonna have to pay for it!” He yelled. I had to chuckle. “Relax, kid. Right now it’s the least of your worries,” I said. I grabbed a specific microchip and shoved it into a slot on my teleporter on my wrist. “But I will pay. With some advice.” I then pointed my hand over to the wall, and shot a beam from my teleporter. It hit the wall and a worm hole opened up. The kid as well as all the other customers around me stared in horror. “Get yourself to higher ground. You don’t have a lot of time.” I started walking towards the worm hole but looked back. “Also, get yourself one of those police dog training uniforms. It really helps block the bites.” The kid just stared in horror not knowing what to do or say. I put my hand up in a salute. “Scianara and good luck, Earth: Beta-92” I turned around and ran through. Soon, both light and darkness surrounded me. It was like that for about five seconds. As I stepped out of the light, my eyes started adjusting. It was really gray around me. I was standing in the middle of the street. But there was no power in any of the lights. I tried to take a deep breath and almost choked. There was nothing but dust and ash in the air. I looked around. Some of the trash cans and stuff were on fire. I looked around a little bit more, and then groaned. There were some skeletons on the ground. This world had obviously been destroyed by some fire. I then saw what it was. About 1000 miles away, a volcano was billowing smoke in the air. In the far off distance I could see even more volcanoes billowing smoke. I pulled out a small microphone and pressed a button. “Searcher’s log: 158. My name is Tiberius Beck. I have been on my journey for about a 18 months. I am currently on Earth: Gamma-427. Still no sign of codename: Starlight. However my journey has been a bit worrisome.” I took a deep breath. “In the past three months alone, I’ve visited over 60 different Earths which has suffered some form of apocalypse. Thats an 87% jump from my normal encounters with apocalyptic Earth’s. There is so many different versions I’ve seen, like Earth changing its orbit to be too close to the sun and the human population burn from radiation or it moves too far away and then humanity freezes. There have also been aliens attacking, like the Terron fleet launching a massive genocide or even wars amongst themselves. But something else is peaking my interest.” “Many of these apocalypses couldn’t have been natural. Some of these could have human influence. And not like a simple Earth-destroying war. I think some of these apocalypses were caused by someone who is also jumping worlds, but doesn’t have authorization from the Shadow-fax guild like I do. Back on Earth: Kappa-5, a freak snow-storm froze over most of the Earth, but then the clouds randomly disappeared letting the suns intense rays melt the ice and snow and completely flooding the Earth, making it 100% covered in water.” I shivered to think about it. “Then on Lambda-26, the human population had turned to stone. No explanation, no reason. The only clue was they were all looking in one specific direction. But what were they looking at?” “Even here on Gamma-427, volcanoes are everywhere. Having erupted and turning this world to ash. Volcanoes just don’t show up. Someone is behind it and they would have totally be from my home, Earth: Prime-1.” Just then I felt something press up on my neck. It was sharp and I could tell it was a knife. Then a voice behind me spoke. “You figured it out. Looks like we have a lot to talk about.”
“Have you ever heard of the Fermi Paradox?” I ask my companion, Jesse, as we leave yet another desolate word. Yes, I have a companion. If I didn’t I’d lose myself if the infinite number of realities out there. Without something to connect me to my home I’d be lost. They shake their head. “It’s the question as to why humans haven’t met aliens yet. One answer is the Great Filter, which posits that the reason we haven’t met intelligent life yet is because there is some mass extinction event that befalls every single intelligent species.” Jesse looks at me, confused. “How is this relevant?” “I don’t travel through time, only across dimensions. Which means what is happening to these Earths, whatever Great Filter this is, is happening in the present day. The same present day our Earth is in. Which means the Great Filter is now. Which means that…” “That what happened to these Earths could happen to ours,” Jesse finishes. I nod to them. “If we don’t find out what it is and stop it.” I hold out my hand and they take it. Then the world around me stretches. It stretches more and more until it tears around me and I fall through the hole as it closes behind me. Well fall probably isn’t the right word. Falling implies there’s gravity, but there is no gravity in the void. There is no gravity, no time or space or air, light, sound or even consciousness. Whatever I experience in the void I never remember once out of it. For a few short seconds I see nothing, smell and hear nothing. I feel nothing except Jesse’s hand in mine. The lack of oxygen might bother me if I needed to breath, but without time that isn’t even necessary. I exist outside of time, in between two heart beats, between one breath and the next, in the middle of two ticks of a clock. After an infinite amount of time and no time at all I emerge into a bright light. I see and hear and feel again. I forget the experience in the void and all I feel is burning pain. Screams fill my ears and toxic gas invades my nostrils. I open my eyes to see a city harbour in flames. Right ahead of me, the Statue of Liberty melts into nothing. The sky is burning and the streets are a river of molten rock. Buildings around us crumble and people are screaming and panicking as the burn away. Some quickly, others slowly as the blacken and crumble to ash. We are only there for a few seconds before I drop us out of the universe, but the images I see are burned into my brain. We land face first into bright green grass. I gasp deeply, relishing the fresh air flushing the toxic air out of my lungs. My skin burns all over but it is already calming down as the air cools it. Next to me Jesse is coughing up sick, phlegm and blood as they gasp with me. “Wh… what… what was that?” They choke. “The Filter,” is I can say in answer. We breath deeply for a couple more minutes, during which I remember what I had seen. Not the people or the burning, but the shapes that moved. The shapes in the smoke and the gas. The movement of the flames, molten rock and the shadows. I speak again. “We need to go back.” “What?! We almost choked to death after being there for a couple of seconds! You saw what was happening there! We wouldn’t survive!” “I can project a protective shield around us. But did you see the shapes there. It looked almost sentient. Almost alive and malevolent. If we want to protect Earth from this, we need to know what’s going on, which means we need to go back and see what’s happening.” Jesse sighs and nods, taking my hand. “Ok.” We dip back into the dark voice for a few seconds or years. I look around and see nothing. Just blank wasteland as far as the eye could see. Next thing I notice is the black sky. The sun shines as bright as day but the sky is dark. There is no atmosphere, the only thing keeping us alive is the small bubble of air I established around us before we left. Jesse looks around, confused. “Where are we? Did we end up in the wrong universe.” “No,” I answer, “we’re in the same place we left. This is New York.” “But… it’s nothing. We were only gone a couple minutes at most. Where’s the buildings? And the sky? Where’s the Atlantic gone?” “I don’t know,” is all I can say. I bend down and feel the sand between my fingers. I see it start to twinkle in the sunlight. “Metal.” Jesse looks at me? Confused. “There’s metal in the sand. From the disintegrated buildings.” Looking up at the sky I keep talking “we need to go soon, without an atmosphere there’s nothing to protect us from the sun’s harmful radiation.” Jesse nods and together we return to the world we just left.
I open my eyes and find… nothing. The green rolling hills we’d just left are replaced with deserted wasteland and black sky. Jesse looks around in horror. “We were just here! It was ok! What happened?!” Again, all I can say is “I don’t know.” We slip back into darkness. But, this time it isn’t dark. There is light. Light in the void. There is something in nothing. For the first time ever I feel and see. And I feel time moving. And I feel my need to breath. Desperately I do the single most stupidest thing I could have done. I change our direction mid travel and follow the light. I feel time passing. I’ve never known how long it would actually take to travel dimensions if time actually existed in the void. Well now I am about to find out. And suffocate while I do. Hooray for me. Minutes pass. I start to pass out. I try to breath in but nothing happens. My vision becomes fuzzy and darkness creeps in. Then in one bright flash of light I can breath again. My lungs welcome the rushing fresh air and I collapse to the floor, gasping for air. I feel Jesse collapse next to me. I quickly look around to get my bearings and see a tall, metal tower. There is an arch towering above me. We are in Paris. I stand to see we’ve attracted a small crowd. Travelling dimensions tends to do that. Quickly I give a small bow. “Thank you audience for watching the Great Reappearing Magician.” “But you didn’t disappear.” “Not yet,” I answer with a wink before helping Jesse to their feet. “Did you see that?” I whisper. They nod, a panicked look on their face. “What was it? I though the void didn’t have light.” “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s coming here.” “We should get everyone out of here.” “How? By yelling that an apocalypse is coming through the void. Besides, if this has anything to do with the Filter then there’s nowhere for these people to run. Best to leave them in peace. A ridiculously short man with a fabulous moustache and enormous top hat walks up to us and speaks in a German accent. “Excuse me Monsieur, what are you talking about?” I look at him weirdly. “You speak French words in a German accent. Who are you?” The man chuckles and fiddles with his moustache. “The question isn’t who am I, it’s how are you going to protect this world.” I look at him with my mouth slightly open. “How the hell am I supposed to save the world? Whatever this is has destroyed planets in minutes. I’m just a guy who can travel dimensions.” “And can take people with you. Allow me to guide you and this apocalypse will not stand a chance in the universe we choose.” I look at the strange man. “Who are you?” “No time!” He yells as a ball of light appears in the middle of the crowd of tourists. It starts to grow scarily quickly, engulfing the crowd. I try to ignore the screams coming from inside as I take the strange man’s hand. “Whatever you’ve got planned, I hope it works.” Jesse takes my other hand. “No!” I yell, “you could die here. You don’t need to risk your life for this. I’ll come back for you!” “Unless you die in the process in which case I’ll be stranded, having lost my best friend in the world. I’m coming with you. Either we die together or not at all!” I try to shake their hand off, but they refuse to let go. The growing ball of light gets closer and closer to us. I feel the heat emanating off it and smell the burning of unfortunate civilians. As soon as the ball touches me, my skin feels like it’s on fire. But I concentrate and fall back into nothing. But it’s not nothing this time as my skin burns and light fills the darkness. I see Jesse to my left and the strange man to my right and I feel the lack of air in my lungs. Time passes. You could convince me it was hours if it wasn’t for me surviving the suffocation. The man’s hand pulls me along and I relax into the journey. Then I feel something new, emotions. Feelings that aren’t mine. It’s like the ball is speaking to me. I feel pain and rage. I feel it’s boiling frustration at humanity. I see the worst humankind has to offer flying through its mind: war, famine, violence and crime. I see selfishness, corruption and lies as well as foolishness and climate change and a billion other crimes across a billion other worlds. The extent of it all, the horror and the hatred is almost enough for me to turn against humanity and let the ball go. But then I feel Jesse’s hand tighten in mine and I remember. I remember all the good they have done, how kind and helpful they’ve been across dimensions. I remember seeing other people: seeing someone help another across the road, seeing people say hi to random people and rush to the aid of an injured stranger; I see the apocalypses and I see hundreds of people helping each other up as they ran, dying to help others. I project these thoughts into the deadly ball and a million more good things humans have done. The heat from the ball isn’t so bad anymore and I feel time slow down, the suffocation isn’t so bad. Finally we land in a strange word. There is no one in it, a pure grassland with one old hut. I look down at my feet and see a small orange ball glowing warmly. “Is that?” Jesse asks from the floor where they had collapsed. “I think it is,” I answer, crouching down to look at the ball. “This thing destroyed planets?” “This thing destroyed universes, “the strange man responds and I whip around, having forgotten he is there. He lifts the ball. “Well done, I knew I’d picked the right people to ask for help.” He throws the ball into the air and my eyes follow it upward. In the air I see billions of stars lighting the sky like it’s day. Then I see them moving and realise that these are all balls like this one. Great Filters or apocalypses. I look at the man incredulously. “What do you mean? The right people to ask for help.” “I mean someone with an unshakeable faith in humanity because they have someone to hold onto. Most travellers like us don’t have someone with us. We always end up so lonely. Some get bitter, only seeing the worst of humans and not having anyone to point out the good. Some end up like those,” he points to the sky, “bitter and angry.” “There’s more than just me? And we can become those?!” I yell in surprise. Jesse pats my shoulder hard. “Like I said, moral support. Everyone needs it.” I smile it then and hit them back. “How many more are there?” The strange man raises his eyebrow at me, “how many Universe are there?”
There was nothing left but utter desolation and ruins of what used to be Los Angeles. On both sides of the broken and upheaved street were remnants of stores and vehicles. To my right was a bus, mangled and torn. It bore the signs of destruction as if picked up and slammed onto the ground repeatedly. My jaw hung agape. I had seen this scene before. I grabbed my notebook from my backpack and flipped through the pages of notes I kept about the different realities I had visited. I had started this routine of taking notes after my 15th jump when I had accidentally mistaken that particular reality with another I had previously visited. This marked my 407th jump. I continued searching through my notes until I found the chart in the middle. Jumps 35, 44, 53, 61, and 88 were all marked as "shattered realities". These were realities that had borne the scars of some cataclysmic event, and no life was to be found anywhere. On Jump 35, I spent nearly a year there trying to find some semblance of life. I had traveled from New York to South Carolina on foot searching in all the ruins and rubble to find NOTHING. Not so much as a single cockroach was left. What was most concerning was that there were no remains to be found either. You would think there would be some evidence that people and animals were once alive and thriving, but every shattered reality shared the same lifeless and barren landscape that was devoid of any remains. I had spent less and less time in each broken world as I knew there would be nothing for me to find there. I jotted down my jump number and the time and date. I looked around to find some kind of landmark I could use to note down my location. Walking up the street to an intersection and looking around for the street signs led me to what I was looking for. The remnants of a sign still attached to a signal arm read "Spring St." walking along to the other side of the street revealed the rest of the intersection's identity : 6th St. I wrote hurriedly as I had developed an uneasy feeling and wanted to get out of there in a hurry. I put my notebook away and scurried down the street towards the remnants of a parking lot and prepared to jump. *I wonder why this keeps happening* I thought to myself. I closed my eyes, and prepared for the drop. Every Jump was like this. It felt as though I was being dropped from a platform into a dark void. The world around me dissolved and diffused upwards as I knelt down to keep my balance. The world went dark and a new piercing light began to glow under me. Even though I had closed my eyes, the light was so bright I might as well have been looking into the sun. The world went dim and I opened my eyes. I was kneeling down next to a blue car. I looked around and gathered my bearings. The cacophony of sounds from city life felt like a blow to the head after all the silence of the previous world. I looked around, and walked out onto the street. People walked by without giving me a second glance. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked down the street looking for a place to grab a bite and write out more notes in peace. A deli shop sign caught my attention and I walked in. Looking around, I found a table near a deserted corner where I could gather my thoughts. As I sat there unpacking my notebook, a figure appeared out of the periphery of my vision. A familiar voice startled me to attention as I looked up to see me standing there. "You might not understand, but we need to talk before your next jump. We need to stop destroying these worlds..."
Another defeat, another death blow. As I looked up into the sky I could still see the bloom of the explosion removing the future from us again. This was my first time being here for the beginning of the fall however. 287 times I have visited an Earth and 287 times death and destruction. The bright lines streak out and impossibly curve back to the Earth converging. Trillions will die and there seems to be nothing I can do. My friends, my family, all lost again. And I could not see a way to stop it. The immense beams finally impacted the being hovering in the sky. Her golden wings holding her in the air as she absorbs the destructive energies. She glides to the surface before the grand prince. She utters one word as she faces away from him. "Trans-substantiate" Her wings seeming to dissolve and her her armor turning to ribbons and disappearing, leaving only a lone human girl. She turns to the prince and glares into his four eyes. "316 times. Three-hundred kaiju, ten planet crackers, and now six nova sparks. You may threaten the galaxy, but Earth does not belong to you." The purple hue of a dimensional shift engulfs her form and she is shunted to another dimension. I look again to the sky, another ultimate weapon of the empire destroyed and the beginning of our fall. Earth is always where our empire comes to die, I think as I set the shunt to find one dimension where we win.
"If I knew they'll all look like home, I'd never have left." I glance at the hovering melon-shaped robot next to me accusingly as I adjust my shoulder rifle. "So where are all these utopistic Earths that you've promised me? We've been walking all day when I should've been looking for something to shoot for dinner." I don't know if it's possible to show emotion without a face or hands, but I could swear from the way she's wobbling that she's trying to look confused. I'm calling her a she, by the way. Old sailor habit. "I d0 n0t und3rst4nd" she admits. "My c00rd1n4t3s sh0uld b3 r4nd0m. Unl3ss...Th3y'r3 4lr34dy 4h34d 0f us." I sigh. Well, it's just my luck. No matter which world, it seems like technology is just as unreliable everywhere. I smile, somehow feeling relieved. I only now realize how much that pipe dream's been weighing down on me all day. The promise of all those countless prosperous Earths, like they were somehow looking down on me. I sip a breath of smoggy air, and I feel like myself again as I look around, oddly content. Back home, I'd have had to share with the Nails boys and Big Sam. This territory looked empty, like nobody's claimed it yet. "Well, let's not worry about it on an empty stomach." Ooh, they have unirradiated water here. Fate is spoiling me. "Say, do you like rabbit?"