Albert Head, Victoria, British Columbia - June 16, 2043, 11:23 PM
- - - - -
The wooden floorboards creak under my feet—I can practically smell the unholy mix of body spray and thirty teenagers’ body odor. Some of it’s probably mine, and a lot of it’s definitely Alice’s. I don’t need my eyes to know exactly where I am. West End High. The gymnasium.
Alice loved it here. I never did.
I’ve had my eyes squeezed shut after a too-intense PE session far too often to not recognize it by smell and by echo. In fact, I don’t even need to look to make it to the locker room—and from there to the stairs leading up to the second-floor spectator seating. It’s still nice when the lights flip on a moment later.
[I have a partial connection here. This is SHOCKS Auxiliary Research Site Forty-Five—West End High. Until a couple of days ago, Director Ramirez was defending it with a squad of agents to allow research to occur, but he pulled everyone back to SHOCKS Headquarters before sending the Recovery and Stabilization Teams through the merge generator,] James says. [The research teams were trying to figure out what triggered the initial merge, then work backward until they figured out how to stop future ones. As far as I could tell, it didn’t work.]
James rambles on about security measures and the withdrawal, but I’m only half-listening. He’s just talking to talk, unlocking SHOCKS security doors and moving cameras to show that he can. He’s been all but powerless for quite a while.
And I’m exhausted. The last day’s been so much, and now that I’m home and safe, I just want to…no, I need to sleep. I need to rest.
I can’t. Not yet. There’s too much to do.
My gaze pans across the gym, then to the double doors leading outside to the soccer field. The gym floor’s covered in gizmos and computers; SHOCKS was serious about whatever they were trying to learn, and they either thought they’d be coming back or didn’t care how many hundreds of thousands of dollars of stuff they left behind. And they interviewed enough people to know exactly where the West End merge started.
That means their research had to start at the circle where the Truth Club used to meet.
I push through the door. It resists momentarily, then clicks open as James activates the digital lock. The soccer field’s pretty much shredded; there are a few thinling corpses still in place, and more plastic tents that might be sterile spaces where other bodies are. Other than that, the grass has all been uprooted, and a massive mound of sifted soil sits off behind the west goal. The field’s got to be a foot lower than it was—maybe more. The bleachers are gone; SHOCKS took a saw to them and dragged the parts away.
There’s another plastic tent over the place the Truth Club met. I head for it, then stop. “James, do you have contact with SHOCKS at all?”
[I have contact with Director Ramirez, L4-4 Daley, and a few dozen agents. L4-5 is not responding and is presumably still inside SHOCKS Headquarters, L4-1 and L4-2 are both unconscious but in vehicles, and your dad, the Landsdowne folks, and the Itos are with them. They’re moving toward the cruise ship docks off James Bay.]
To say that’s a relief would be an understatement. Strauss is still in danger—and so is Alice. She’s in so much danger, and I can’t help her. But everyone else is out, more or less. “How many people?”
[We’ve lost contact with Lambda-Five, L4-5, and four agents. We’ve also lost thirteen researchers who chose to maintain containment on three Qishi-Danger anomalies rather than retreating. It’s possible that Li Mei will be more interested in escaping than in killing them.] James doesn’t sound convincing; he doesn’t even sound like he believes himself.
“I know what she’s doing. Struass is dead.” The words are hard to say, but they’re the truth. There’s no way she left him alive—not when she’s got everything she wishes she had with me a few weeks back. Alice is the perfect host for her right now. “Can we take away Alice’s clearance?”
[Not without accessing SHOCKS’s systems, and that’d mean taking over SHOCKS Headquarters.]
Okay. Okay. This is…better than I expected, actually. I expected to get dropped into a SHOCKS Headquarters that was burning to the ground, with zero resources, no Stability, and a sister/infovampire hybrid that wanted me dead. Instead, I have time to think, and the only person who’s in danger and alive…is Alice, and she’s already in as much trouble as she can possibly get into.
“Li Mei won’t kill Alice, will she?”
[I don’t know.]
I don’t need to ask if that’s the truth.
The Truth Club’s circle looks almost exactly like it did when Sora and I met there for the last time. Every cigarette butt, every candy wrapper—they’re all exactly where we left them, scattered carelessly on the ground. The dirt’s still got my shoe-print in it, and the place where Sora put her coat so she wouldn’t get her knees muddy. It’s all the same.
And then, right at the edge, it’s completely different.
The yellow plastic structure’s being battered by a late-night rain storm. It sounds like a hundred tiny horses stampeding back and forth across the roof, and I’m a little worried about water coming in under the tent’s edges. SHOCKS has a whole universal reality anchor set up and running right here, along with a dozen other gizmos; I push through the Jell-O with every step, and James is cut off from me by the multi-layered Faraday Cage—he has to use a computer speaker to talk to me.
Yeah, there are also a dozen running computers, but they’re on the outside, and right now, I’m here. At Ground Zero—where everything started.
James is checking out the computers. I’m taking pictures, shooting videos, and trying my best to understand what I’m seeing.
There’s still a merge here—or at least the echo of a thinning. It’s just the barest glimmer in the hard, dry mud at the circle’s center, but every camera and sensor SHOCKS has is pointed right at it. “James, did you know about this?”
[I knew they were investigating the merge here,] he says through the computer monitor. Communicating without my augs is a pain in the ass, but it’s the best I’ve got right now. [This whole area’s air-gapped and on its own network. I can only scrape its surface because you’re physically here. Otherwise, it might as well all be invisible.]
“I don’t think the first merge of Merge Prime ever closed. It’s still running. They weren’t just studying this; they were containing it,” I mutter. Next school year wouldn’t have happened for the moose even without Merge Prime—at least not at West End High.
[I agree. What I’m seeing here is interesting. There’s a cascading effect going on, an exponential growth curve just like we saw with Merge Prime, but it’s in pulses. Almost like this one merge’s activations are lining up perfectly with almost all the other ones around R-0. In fact, SHOCKS recorded a ninety-eight point eight percent match-up, which is—]
“Statistically highly unlikely, right?” I interrupt, shutting down the Faraday Cage and stepping through it before it sparks and crackles back on.
[Statistically almost impossible. There are a handful of merges that can’t be explained by the pulses. Most of those come from one location—the Experimental Sector. The rest are no more or less frequent than the typical number of merges and potential merges for R-0. This thing could have been a map.]
It hits me then; this is the core. Whatever started Merge Prime, it happened under the bleachers at Alice’s high school graduation. That alone isn’t the revelation, though; it’s that it kept happening—and that SHOCKS knew it was happening. “Had they made the connection?” I ask, throat suddenly dry.
[Absolutely.]
“Then why did they leave here? Why not move their whole operation to West End?”
[Because they couldn’t do anything about it. Read this.] James pulls an article onto my optic aug. For a second, it’s covered in redactions and black marks—then they all disappear.
Auxiliary Research Site Forty-Five Intelligence Briefing, June 09, 2043, 10:50 PM
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
[Anomaly] Event - 0-G-4/U1, Merge Prime
[Status] Uncontained
[Type] Ongoing
[Danger] Qishi
[Containment] None
Update:
All current containment methods do is serve to hide the core components of Merge Prime from discovery. Attempts to disable the ongoing merge with a device like Sergeant Strauss has used multiple times have been denied by Command, citing unknown consequences to both the merged reality and extreme damage to our own if the device interacts in an unexpected way. Given what we believe the ongoing even is, and that we have it ‘contained’ from discovery, we agree with Command’s assessment.
Researcher Phillips made a breakthrough today that’s both revolutionary and trivial at the same time. By timing the pulses’ length and frequency, we can build a map of R-0 and uncover where realities are intersecting with it. If we could have communicated this information to other SHOCKS Areas of Control, this could have given them more of a fighting chance against Merge Prime. However, without a line of communication, this is little more than a curiosity. Researcher Phillips has been put in charge of the mapping, on the off-chance that it’s useful should we regain control.
Tomorrow is our last day on-site. Command has ordered us to pull back, but leave all equipment in place and running. The goal is to hide what’s happening here for as long as we can, but Command believes there’s a different, better way to understand what’s happening and to counter it.
Speaking freely, I’m not so sure. We should be trying to neutralize this ongoing merge, not playing with opening new ones
- Researcher Bradley
The conundrum in front of me is shockingly clear, but frustratingly muddled at the same time.
Researcher Bradley is right. If there’s a chance of eliminating the ongoing merges and reducing the number of problems our reality is facing, setting up a Strauss bomb and detonating it is the right choice. In an equation this complicated, with more variables being added to the world by the minute, reducing complexity is the most important thing—even if we have to use brute force. If I were him, I would have done it days ago, or maybe even weeks.
But Director Ramirez is right, too. There’s a good chance this won’t stop the ongoing merges and an equally good chance that stopping the merges does nothing to save R-0. If that’s the case, the longer-term learning from recording the blips and shimmers has more value than destroying it. James knows where everything is happening because the Halcyon System’s connecting to people as they bond with anomalies, and Alice and I aren’t the only ones who’ve done it. But if SHOCKS could react, that might change the whole fight.
I watch the thinning pulse and shimmer, my ears ringing and vision blurring as a migraine builds. After a minute, I know what the answer is, but not whether I’m willing to do it.
I leave instead.
The window into Mrs. Helquist’s room is still busted out; there’s yellow tape across it, but I tear it down without a problem and climb inside. I never looked back into her room when I fled from the thinling; it’s completely destroyed, with the beautiful, straight rows of desks scattered and the posters for theorems and formulae in tatters. Everything about my favorite teacher’s perfectly organized space is in shambles.
There’s a metaphor there. Or a simile. Some sort of figurative language Mrs. Lightsen probably tried to teach me but that just bounced off my head. More importantly, there’s a truth there. A little fragment of the nature of reality—that there’s always going to be entropy, and that things will always fall apart. It’s not enough to be a Truth or solve any of my Inquiries, but there’s something there.
I’m less curious about metaphors and more concerned with the girl’s bathroom, though. SHOCKS knows I was there, and they know that’s where I got the Revolver. It’s where James made contact with me for the first time.
I head down the hall. The Revolver’s out, but there’s nothing to shoot.
What I should be doing is leaving West End High and running. If I sprint all-out and my Endurance doesn’t fail me, I can be in James Bay in an hour or two. Maybe that won’t be too late to make a difference.
But that? That is a lie. I’m lying to myself, pretending I can change something that already happened. There’s no time loop anomaly, and even if there was, I don’t have access to it right now, so all I can do is try to make sure that things don’t get worse. Besides…
[Claire, I’ve made contact with Director Ramirez. He says they’re heading for the cruise ship piers.]
“You already told me that,” I say.
[Yes, but they’re heading toward SHOCKS Headquarters Olympia. I lost contact with them after every facility went air-gapped, and no one inside bonded with an anomaly, so I haven’t been able to check in on them. This is an opportunity for us to make contact and get some extra help. Our list of allies is getting pretty depleted.]
James is right. I should be heading for the port—especially if they’ve got a way off this island.
The bathroom’s right there, though. And I’ve got a hunch.
“We’ll catch up to them,” I say confidently. More confidently than I feel, and way more confidently than I have any right to. “As long as Dad and Sora are safe, I don’t want to deal with SHOCKS right now.”
[Understood. I’ll be able to do everything I want to through Director Ramirez’s augs, anyway.] James goes silent as I step into the bathroom.
I’m not sure what I expected.
Glowing lights. A shimmering under the bathroom stall. The ringing in my ears just like last time. Anything like that.
But no. It’s just the fucking girl’s bathroom. The same graffiti on the stalls, the same lipstick stain on the mirror that’s shattered on the floor now, the same stupid signs about cleaning up after yourself and throwing away your pads instead of flushing them so the toilets don’t clog again. If it weren’t for the camera that’s running facing the stall my Revolver showed up in, I’d think school was still in session.
I knock the camera down. James starts to say something about how much it cost, but I ignore him. Instead, I jerk the door open.
It’s empty. There’s no shimmering portal, no flashing point in space. There’s nothing to suggest that my Revolver came from here—just a hand-written note about how Candice is a bitch.
That gets a quick smile. She kind of is one.
Then I’m moving again. I head back outside; I don’t need to see the shelter or the counselors’ office. It’ll just be cameras, sensors, and maybe a reality anchor or two. I’ve already learned what I need to; the math’s coming together.
I was at ground zero, and everything echoed out from here. That makes West End critically important to SHOCKS. But it doesn’t matter to me.
I’m so goddamn tired.
The stall door swings shut behind me as I leave, heading for the nurse’s room. There’s a bed there, and I didn’t ever go there when I fled through the building, dragging Keith with me. SHOCKS shouldn’t have any interest in it, and I know the door locks from the inside—electronically. That means I’ll be at least a little secure.
The weight of everything presses down on me. I’ve got a next move—James told me what it was—but first, I need to get across the ocean. And I’m not going to make it as tired as I am. By the time my hand wraps around the door handle and I let James unlock it, I’m almost asleep just walking.
“James, what’s Dad’s status?” I ask
I don’t hear his reply; I’m already asleep the moment I hit the rubber-and-plastic, vomit-proof bed.
SHOCKS Headquarters, Victoria, British Columbia - June 16, 2043, 11:36 PM
- - - - -
Li Mei ignored the monstrous obsidian statue that stared at her from the containment cell. Instead, she focused on turning the last researcher—she hoped—into so much slurry, just like the plants the Stag Lord had tried to fight her with. She’d been thorough; every Qishi-Danger anomaly’s containment needed checking, and every one she could release without putting herself in danger needed to be freed and chased away.
She would have no competition to her rule over this place. None of the other anomalies could make anything of it anyway. They’d only destroy it or corrupt it, while she could benefit from the prize she’d found.
But she’d have to be careful. The JAMES Unit was everywhere. If she powered the facility back on, it’d start purging records or try to trigger the self-destruct, and she couldn’t allow either of those things. Cutting the building off from the outside world could take hours—or even days. But Li Mei wasn’t in a hurry.
She was hungry, but thanks to her kills, she wasn’t starving anymore.
She drove the Alice body back to her room and turned to smoke. As she drifted through the vents and landed on her bed, she closed her burning red eyes. The first step was waiting for the others to clear out. Then came checking for stragglers and turning the power back on.
After that, she’d be ready to feed.
The Mindscape
- - - - -
You wake up.
It always starts that way; with you waking up in your Mindscape. But this time, something is different.
Your garden is ruined. Nothing is the same; nothing is the way it should be.
The gate’s hanging wide open. There are children’s toys everywhere: a bright red tricycle, plastic digging tools, and jump ropes—so many jump ropes. They’re scattered and tossed about like something tore into the toy boxes you didn’t realize you had.
The cottage’s door’s hanging wide open, and as you look at the shattered window, you can’t help but wince.
{Mademoiselle, je m’excuse. I tried to stop her. However, she was like a storm crashing over the jetties. Once she came in, there was no reasoning with her. Only one thing calmed her down.}
You want to know who, but Madame Baudelaire only apologizes profusely when you ask. Her whole being is shaken—no, offended—by what’s happening. The only thing you get from her is that the interloper is inside.
You rush for the door. It’s not just hanging wide open; it’s off its hinges, and when you push it out of the way, it creaks and thuds to the stone path. A pair of socked feet hang from your chair, and a pair of wide, blue eyes peer at you over the oversized Dr. Seuss book that two hands hold like a shield.
Then Alice—the real Alice, not one of her masks—caroms off the chair, slips on one of the dozens of books covering the floor, and gets tangled in the plush blanket she’s got wrapped around her legs. She ignores the impact and scrambles back to her feet, then hits you in the stomach like a missile, head first. Her arms wrap around you in a gigantic hug.
{I knew you would not want her freezing outside, so I let her in. She destroyed everything, and I could not stop her until she reached the library. A thousand apologies,} Madame Baudelaire says.
You ignore her. You ignore the destruction—the torn, dog-eared pages and broken window, and even the soccer ball that’s half-deflated and punctured with glass shards in the corner. None of that matters.
What matters is that Alice is alive, and Li Mei didn’t kill her—at least, not all of her.
After an eternity that lasts the blink of an eye, Alice pulls back, and for the first time, a voice that’s not Madame Baudelaire’s echoes through your Mindscape.
“Nice wings, Claire.”
Knives Lead to Levels. It's a LitRPG Apocalypse about justice, power, blades, and stepping up when you have to. Zach is a phenomenal author. I loved Knights Apocalyptica, and I'm sure you'll enjoy this one. I did a big shout above, but check it out!
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