“And the other reality left its mark on our own, replacing what had been here before?” Carlee opened her eyes.
“I . . . Wow.”
“Pretty cool, eh, Handsome?” Stefani said.
“It’s . . . it makes sense . . . somehow . . . I mean, it doesn’t make any sense, but at the same time, it all just . . . fits.”
“In a way, it’s very simple. We press two realities together, imprinting from another onto our own. And with the infinite realities, with more time lines created every second, it opens up a range of possibilities.”
“So how do I do it?” Jeff asked. He squeezed his eyes shut. “You said you strengthen that connection . . .”
“That is, unfortunately, where things are not quite so simple. It’s difficult to describe. In many ways, it’s more of an art form than a science.”
“It’s easy,” Stefani said over her shoulder. “But no more pressing. I’m not that eager to die.”
“It’s not easy,” Carlee said. “Everyone manages it a bit differently, but to me, the most important aspect is confidence. People have been forming connections with different realities throughout history. Most of them simply get a feeling, or have déjà vu, or have a powerful dream. Those are glimpses of realities, but the truly great people, the ones who rose above the rest, were able to bridge realities much more completely.”
“I don’t remember hearing stories about people turning rags into body armor.”
“That’s because that’s only the most obvious way to press. You’ve already had connections with other realities during a fight—when you knew what to do. You learned from another reality and applied that to your own. You didn’t pull any material over directly, but in a way, you made this reality match another. Press. Scientists who suddenly get hit with a breakthrough discovery, an athlete who knows a shot is perfect before it connects, a general who pulls off unbelievable victories—things don’t just happen.”
“Apparently not.”
“And what did all those people have in common? Confidence. They knew they were capable of something, or they knew it was going to happen before it did. If I don’t know for certain that I can press body armor where your clothing used to be, then I can’t do it.”
“But how can you know that? Especially if you’ve never done it before?” Jeff was equal parts amazed and frustrated. As hard as he’d tried to press things before, it had never happened. If there was one thing he did know, it was that he couldn’t press.
“That’s why some people think imagination is more important. Find the reality you want, and then force yourself to believe that it’s real. Others claim that visualizing things is the most important. That way, your mind knows what reality it wants, and then it connects to that reality and makes it happen.”
“That’s the right way,” Stefani chirped in. She was still glued to her gun, checking the horizon. Carlee insisted that the caravan had sophisticated scanners that would pick up on threats far faster and more accurately than Stefani could, but it didn’t prevent her from keeping watch anyway.
“Talon gets angry and uses willpower to demand that realities collide with each other. But in the end, we are all trying to do the same thing: create a connection between realities.”
“Do I have to close my eyes?” Jeff asked. Most of what Carlee was saying was washing over his head, but he hoped he would understand it all someday.
“No,” Carlee said. “But I’ve found it helps the mind to form a strong connection. That way, our reality only exists in your head as well since your eyes are no longer showing it to you. That may be part of the reason why blind people tend to be natural vagrants; they don’t let what they see keep them from knowing they can change things.”
“Closing your eyes is for wimps,” Stefani said. “It also tends to get you shot more often.”
“So, let me get this straight. I imagine what I want to happen, and then I close my eyes and visualize it while telling myself that it is going to happen?”
“If that makes sense to you,” Carlee said.
“Yeah,” Jeff said. He closed his eyes and visualized his old clothes that should have been by his feet. It wasn’t a stretch to think of a reality where Carlee hadn’t changed them. He told himself over and over in his mind that it was going to work, pushing himself to bridge realities.
“Oh my—”
Something clicked on by the central panel of their transport, and an audio channel filled the vehicle.
“Scatter; regroup thirty miles from Petra. I’m sorry,” Jane’s voice filled the cabin.
Jeff opened his eyes to see Carlee and Stefani rushing about. The transport veered into a new course. Wind suddenly rushed by his face as Stefani pushed a strange device into the force field that created a hole to fire from. She jammed her gun through the opening and started shooting.
“What is it?” Carlee asked.
“Leeches, lots of them!” Stefani shouted.
“Why didn’t we see them coming?” Carlee asked.
Stefani was too busy firing her gun to respond. Jeff looked over the force field to see vagrant transports fleeing in all directions. Leeches of all kinds were pursuing them, firing energy blasts and other projectiles with deadly precision.
“They’re on us,” Carlee said.
“I see that!” Stefani shouted.
Jeff looked up to see a leech that looked like a cross between a giant spider and an enormous bird soar over them and smash into the ground directly in their path. Their transport cut to the right just as the ground below the leech exploded, shattering their enemy. Jeff looked over to see Carlee opening her eyes.
He looked down at his feet and saw a spare vagrant uniform just as a metal harpoon smashed into their antigravity vehicle.
19 HUNTED
JEFF JAMMED HIS METAL ARM down into the transport, forcing his metallic fingers into the vehicle, anchoring himself. The momentum of his body almost ripped him apart, but he managed to keep himself from smashing into the force field.
The antigravity technology failed, sending the transport skidding into the ground. He caught flashes of fighting in the sky as their vehicle came grinding to a stop. His head was rattled, but he was alive. He pulled himself up just as a metal tentacle appeared in the air above him. The razor-sharp metal prongs on the end of the long, snakelike tentacle flashed open as it swung down for him.
He raised his metal arm to block it, but the tentacle fell limp on his body. It was severed by a long force field in the shape of a spear. Carlee stood not far from him, already spinning her weapon around to slice off another leech arm.
“Thanks!” Jeff shouted. He made it to his feet this time, feeling only slightly dizzy. Transports and leeches were scattered about, some still engaging in fighting while others lay burning on the ground. His eyes caught some projectiles flying through the air; he focused on them to see that they were humans, rocketing through the air in what looked to be force-field armor.
He jumped out of the broken transport to where Stefani was kneeling on the ground, firing her sniper rifle. The blast from her weapon caught a leech and irreversibly disfigured it. Of the six or so shots she fired, none of them failed to destroy at least part of a leech. But it wasn’t enough. Somehow, they had ended up running into a leech army, and more leeches were approaching faster than Stefani could shoot them down.
“We gotta get out of here,” Jeff said.
“Press us some flying suits, Carl.”
“He doesn’t know how to use them!” Carlee shouted. “Bikes.”
Stefani growled as she unleashed another white-hot particle blast from her rifle. It shot through the air and hit the shields on a circular leech flying through the air, which caused the leech to falter. Another shot from Stefani broke through the shields and smashed into the leech, exploding it in a ball of fire.