“This is very important, Hunter,” she explained. “So listen very, very closely. If you don’t follow my instructions step-by-step, the chip could malfunction, which would then cause it to short circuit and fry every neuron in your brain… Whatever you do, don’t get electrocuted. You can get set on fire. You can get the shit beat out of you until you’re bruised and bloodied. You can even swim through raw sewage if you have to. But if you get electrocuted, you’re completely fucked.”
“I’m definitely not planning on doing that,” I noted.
“Good.” The brunette nodded, and then she stood up from her chair. “Then you should be all set to go. Let’s head back out to my father.”
I slid out of the mad scientist dentist’s chair and followed Karla into the main section of the lab.
The face of Dr. Nash lit up when he saw me in all of my gear, and a huge smile spread across his digital cheeks.
“Alright, so run me through this mission again,” I prompted. “I go to this other timeline and try to stop Doomsday from happening?”
“No, no.” Dr. Nash shook his head. “In this dimension, the Doomsday Event has already begun. The bombs have hit, and nuclear mutations are upon them. However, there is still hope for the human race. If a certain factor is removed, of course, the path should right itself.”
“The crazed humans,” I interjected.
“That is correct,” the scientist continued. “All simulations I’ve run show if the mutated humans are taken out of the greater Chicago area, the chance of humanity’s survival goes up to ninety percent.”
“How does that work?” I questioned.
“I don’t understand the algorithms, Hunter,” the man in the computer noted, “I didn’t build this machine, remember? The Dr. Nash of Dimension One did. And all of the predictions run through this machine so far have been accurate down to a thousandth of a percentile.”
“Go to Dimension Nine-Fifty-One, figure out a way to eliminate the threat to the timeline, and save the future,” Karla added, “it’s simple.”
Oh, was that all I had to do? Super simple.
Now that I was standing here with a chip in my head and hearing my mission one last time, everything started to feel real.
Even though I was still holding out hope these people were just rich, eccentric crazies who dug a little bit too deep into conspiracy theories, a little voice in the back of my head told me the crap was about to hit the fan.
Then again, that could have just been the voice Karla literally put into my brain.
“Are you ready to embark, Wayfarer?” Dr. Nash asked.
I felt my heart skip a beat.
“Don’t you want to send me off with anything else?” I chuckled nervously. “I mean, I’m going into the future—”
“Different dimension,” Karla corrected.
“Actually,” her AI father corrected. “This one is a few months ahead of our timeline, so future also.”
“—With literally nothing but the clothes on my back and the chip in my brain?” I continued.
“Told you we needed a Marine,” Karla sighed.
“I’m afraid that’s all we can send you with,” Dr. Nash apologized. “For all our scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to figure out how to create organic weaponry or tools that can survive interdimensional travel.”
“You said you were a survivalist expert.” Karla smacked me on the arm playfully. “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out once you get there.”
“Luckily for you, Hunter, this dimension is very similar to our own,” the face on the screen pointed out. “The cultures, languages, tools, and weaponry will all be familiar to you in Dimension Nine-Fifty-One, so that gives you a bit of an advantage.”
“Wait… ” I gasped. “There are dimensions that don’t look like our own?”
Karla and Dr. Nash shared a quick glance.
“Let’s just start with one of the simpler ones.” Karla cleared her throat.
The dimension with the nuclear holocaust and mutated virus was one of the simple ones?
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Please, please, please let these people just be bugnuts insane actors.
“I guess if this is all I can take,” I said as I motioned to myself, “then I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Good.” Dr. Nash’s face suddenly changed into a serious expression. “Please step right this way. Just in front of the transport.”
As I walked toward the machine, the large, retro-futuristic looking guns began to move into position. There was a small box on the floor drawn in chalk, and I was assuming that’s where the doctor wanted me to stand. I placed both my feet squarely at the box’s center, and the guns moved closer and closer until their bulbs were right next to my temples.
The glass-like material was cold against my skin, and I swore they were radiating some sort of frigid energy waves. My entire body shivered as the cool energy traveled down my spine.
Then again, I was from Minnesota. A little bit of a chill was nothing compared to our winters.
Behind me, the IFDR sprang to life with the sound of a nineties-era computer booting up. Gears whirred, monitors flashed, and the whole contraption beeped like crazy. Then there was the sound of charging energy all around my head.
“Any final questions before we send you off?” Dr. Nash spoke up.
“Uh, one more… ” I admitted. “How am I going to wipe out an entire group of crazed humans? Is there a way to turn them back to normal or—”
“You’ll have to figure that one out on your own, Hunter.” Karla shrugged. “If all else fails, you’re an exterminator. Just do your job.”
“I’m actually a Pest Control Tech—” I began, but my voice was cut off by the sound of electricity as it blasted through my skull.
For a brief moment, I felt myself convulsing at my very core. Then the world turned white as I was engulfed by the glow of the IFDR’s energy.
Did—Did they just kill me? Was this Heaven?
There was no sound and, perhaps even more eerie, there was no sensation anywhere in my body. I just felt… numb.
Then, as soon as it had disappeared, the world began to fade back into view.
However, it wasn’t the world I knew.
All around me were giant piles of rubble, mountains of cement, glass, steel, and an assortment of random objects. Some of the piles were attached to half-destroyed buildings, while I assumed others were the remnants of a whole building themselves.
I could see the sun high up in the sky, but it was covered by a thick haze of blood-red mist. The air was pungent with an iron-y smell, almost like somebody had melted down a ton of old coins and then released the smog into the air.
I quickly patted myself down to make sure I was still in one piece, and then I leaned up against a melted beam to stabilize myself.
The Nashes weren’t crazy after all. Their machine had worked.
I was in another timeline.
Hunter, can you hear me? Karla’s voice crackled in my head. Hunter, come in.
“I hear you loud and clear,” I mumbled. “I’m not gonna lie… I thought you were still pulling my leg all the way until I opened my eyes just now.”
We told you we were serious, Miss Nash snarked. Now, tell me what you see.
“Well… ” I looked around cautiously. “It definitely looks like nuclear proliferation. The air smells like iron, and there’s nothing but rubble as far as the eye can see.”
Wait… Karla’s voice turned serious. Where did the IFDR drop you off?
Far off in the distance, I could see the crumbling remnants of the Sears Tower, right next to so many of Chicago’s other iconic buildings.
Or, at least, what was left of them.