chapter fifteen
This was it, I walked into the metro station and sat at a bench. I forced myself to see a train coming into the station, the Metatrain, that would take me up to Linus Linoleum and--
--it wasn't working. I sighed. What did Memmi and those books say? Maybe I just wasn't doing it right. There was a train pulling into the station, the outside a gleaming red with the old man's face along the side. It whistled its whistle and emitted a puff of smoke from a pipe on its side. I saw it, but between the description and the last eleven words, it was gone. I took a deep breath, I probably looked like a lunatic to the people walking around, going from place to place. There was a train pulling into the station, a green one. Its doors opened, people got off, others got on, put their coins into the slot, took a seat, and it rolled away. Another train pulled into the station. A silver one. Its doors opened, nobody came out, nobody came in, and it pulled away from the station after just a moment. And now, a third train entered the station. A bright white train. I could tell this was the Metatrain because... well, I just coul—shoot, it vanished.
This was a whole lot harder than I thought it could be, as hard as the tough outer exterior of the next train rolling in, the Metatrain Express coming in from the new afterward to whisk away one lucky girl to have a talk with Linus Linoleum, and it was going to be me. I stepped into the train, sat on the floor of the vestibule, and was on my way rolling above the town I had gotten to know over the last 180,000 characters. Quiet music came from a speaker in the vestibule, and because the doors didn't seal quite right you could feel a gentle gust of wind enter the train. As it slowed to a stop at its final destination, the doors opened, and I was greeted with the new metro station in the next afterward.
I exhaled sharply, it was hard to trick myself into describing a train that didn't exi—it's gone now, isn't it
Figures, I was now kind of stuck up here. The new metro station was crisp and clean, new and untouched. I was the first citizen to get to step foot on its tiles. And sit on its benches. I should have brought a pack of gum so I could be the first person to stick a chewed piece under one of the bench seats. With the metro being quiet and empty, it reminded me of that direlect station I saw a while back. It was almost the exact same layout, and while that one was dingy and dark, this one was clean and well-lit, but both still carried a feeling of worry, like I wasn't supposed to be there.
I stepped out of the metro station and into a town that looked all too familiar, it was a near exact copy of the town I was used to, but nobody was there. I walked past the Green Tower to see nobody at the front desk, Shim's clothing shop which lay vacant and waiting, and even walked past the boat dock where people leaving the welcome center would be dropped off. There was no water and no shore; rather, looking down was the town very far down, the fall was easily long enough to listen to "Down Under" at least once. Probably. I think it was 20 seconds per mile fallen. Why do I remember that.
I needed to figure out where Linus was. There was a set of provisional cable that led to the new afterward's welcome center, so maybe I need to cross it to get there? Luckily, through the powers of metamancing (and what some might argue bad writing?) I had a little cart I could set on the cables and push along to get to the welcome center. It just had to exist until the--
--end of my trip. I was now clutching both cables in my hands. I didn't have "Down Under" queued up for my fall so I wasn't ready to go this way. I pulled myself up onto the cables and took my time shimmying across them to make it to the welcome center.
When I pushed open the door facing the docks, in front was a desk that someone like Kroff or Mangosteen would sit at, and a door. I opened the door expecting a locked door with a keypad on it, and sure enough there was one. Would Linus be conceited enough to make his own last name the code like I assumed? I gave it a shot, and it worked. He needs new passwords. Rather than a little room with a table and chairs, there was a hallway leading up to a small end table. The walls were cream colored with wood panels along their bottom half, the floor was lined with a red rug, and the ceiling held many chandeliers. When I made it to the table, I checked my clutch to make sure I still had Tammy's old diary.
On the table with a framed picture of the old man on the front of Dosh, two red candles dripping a dark brownish-red liquid onto silver dishes, and an old phone with the actual speaky/listeny part resting face-up. A camera along the wall focused in on me, and when I turned I was suddenly hit with the realization that the hallway was lined with dozens of cameras. "Huh, who are you?" a voice called from the phone, a sort of gravely, sleazy sort of tone that you'd expect from someone who sold useless things his whole life to rip off other people.
"I am Tammy Wilson. Kind of. Who are you?"
"Kind of? Like, is this a legal name change proceeding, or--"
"No! I am physically Tammy Wilson, but I am seemingly the mind of Calvin Riddick."
"Tammy Wilson... as in Dr. Wilson, Dr. Marc Wilson?"
"Yes, that's correct!"540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrSmMDKw0cm
"So... you've come to pay off your dear old dad's debts."
"What? No, wait, I--"
"I understand, kid, it's hurtin' your credit score, you want that debt gone."
It was hurting my credit score, though, and I had come to settle his debt.
That must be Linus trying to flip the script. This could become confusing, I had to find a way to make my own inner monologue stand out. "No, sir, I am here because I was looking for assistance on getting back to the body of Calvin Riddick, but I also have other matters I wish to discuss with you."
"Kid, look, I'm busy, alright? Just pay off his debt and go."
That sounded like a plan!
𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝚜𝚘 𝚏𝚊𝚜𝚝, 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐.
"No, sir, we need to talk. This is about... a lot of things. We need to have this conversation face to face."
The truth is, we didn't. I should just hand over the cash I have and go. 𝙰𝚜 𝚒𝚏, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚑 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚛 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚝.
"Okay, so in Tammy Wilson's diary that she left behind, she mentions that the food packets were emergency rations, but they're now easily the most popular source of food, and your solution to dealing with the Nexus was just to wait for it to blow over, and it hasn't, and it's costing the afterward dearly. You've burned books and rewritten history just to cover all of this up, when it would have been easier and more cost-effective to just deal with the Nexus from minute one and be done with it. Don't you understand?"
"I don't know what in the Sam Hill you're talking about."
"The Class-X meta-reality data incident?"
"...What the f... oh, right, that. Well... don't you have a kite go fly? What do the kids do these days, go roll down a hill or somethin'?"
𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝! OKᗩY, ᔕO I ᕼᗩᗪ TO ᑕᕼᗩᑎGE ᖴOᑎTᔕ, ᕼE'ᔕ ᑕᗩTᑕᕼIᑎG Oᑎ TO ᗰE.
"Listen, please, Memmi and Bit, the Nephims, they're worried that this is causing damage to the afterward, it's straining the core, and they were worried about their own well-being, so they didn't make the journey. I am effectively an ambassador for the people of the afterward, and they want some answers."
𝙷𝚎𝚢, 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚎, 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜! 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕 𝚃𝚊𝚖𝚖𝚢, 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎, 𝚕𝚎𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚘 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎! ᑎIᑕE TᖇY. IT ᗯᗩᔕ ᗩ ᑎIᑕE TᖇY, TᕼOᑌGᕼ, ᔕO ᑎIᑕE TᕼᗩT I ᔕᕼOᑌᒪᗪ ᑕEᒪEᗷᖇᗩTE ᗩT ᕼoᗰE! ѕнooт, ιт'ѕ нappened agaιn.
"You want answers, kid?" lιnυѕ ѕnapped, "'cause I'll give you answers!"
"Yes!"
"The answer you're looking for is that you're intruding on company property and getting out of line with me, and I don't like it. And I will wipe you from existance if you'll continue to be a pain here. Just go home."
ι нad no cнoιce вυт тo gιve υp and go нoмe. 𝘋𝘶𝘥𝘦, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨.
"No, we need real answers. Let's start with this: what is the Nexus? You seemed like you didn't know what it was. Is it just the Class X incident?"
"...That one, I'll give it to you straight: no. See, there's this stuff called Blight, and it grows where alternate dimensions cross. Some of it came alive and wound up in a computer simulation, where it escaped. The data incident is not the Nexus, it's a part of it, and we can't just get rid of of it, that's why we're playing the waiting game. Make sense?"
"𝘠𝘦𝘴! 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦," 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯.
𝔒𝔥 𝔪𝔶 𝔤𝔬𝔰𝔥, 𝔧𝔲𝔰𝔱 𝔡𝔯𝔬𝔭 𝔦𝔱. 𝔜𝔬𝔲'𝔯𝔢 𝔫𝔬𝔱 𝔤𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔯𝔦𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔢, 𝔏𝔦𝔫𝔲𝔰.
"So for how long have we been playing a war of attrition with the Nexus?"
"Fifty years," 𝔥𝔢 𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔭𝔬𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔡.
𝘔𝘢𝘯, 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘦, 𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘺, 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘳𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝔒𝔨𝔞𝔶, 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔦𝔰 𝔧𝔲𝔰𝔱 𝔧𝔲𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔦𝔩𝔢. 𝔒𝔥, 𝔦𝔰 𝔦𝔱? ℑ𝔰 𝔦𝔱 𝔞𝔰 𝔧𝔲𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔦𝔩𝔢 𝔞𝔰 𝔰𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔴𝔥𝔬 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔣𝔦𝔳𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔲𝔰𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔡𝔰 𝔟𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔥𝔲𝔤𝔤𝔢𝔡? 𝔻𝕦𝕕𝕖, 𝕛𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕖! 𝕀'𝕝𝕝 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕒𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕘𝕠 𝕙𝕠𝕞𝕖! 𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕟, 𝕗𝕒𝕚𝕣 𝕡𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕥, 𝕒𝕝𝕣𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥, 𝕀'𝕝𝕝 𝕓𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘. Ⓣⓗⓐⓣ ⓕⓐⓢⓣ, ⓡⓔⓐⓛⓛⓨ?! Ⓨⓔⓢ, ⓡⓔⓐⓛⓛⓨ, Ⓘ'ⓜ ⓡⓔⓐⓓⓘⓝⓖ ⓘⓣ ⓐⓣ ⓣⓗⓔ ⓢⓐⓜⓔ ⓣⓘⓜⓔ ⓨⓞⓤ'ⓡⓔ ⓦⓡⓘⓣⓘⓝⓖ ⓘⓣ, Ⓣⓐⓜⓜⓨ, ⓨⓞⓤ ⓒⓐⓝ'ⓣ ⓦⓘⓝ. ι ѕυяє αѕ нє¢к ¢αи тяу, тнσυgн, נυѕт ωαт¢н.
"And your best option was just to keep stacking up afterwards? Even though it's been breaking the walls of our reality, even though it's letting you literally edit my internal asides as they're happening?!"
ι'∂ αяgυє ιт'ѕ мαкιиg тнєм вєттєя. 🅘🅣 🅡🅔🅐🅛🅛🅨 🅘🅢🅝'🅣, 🅜🅨 🅖🅤🅨.
"If you must know, Tammy, my people love the altered state they live in. They can be more than just people, they can affect more than just themselves, and in more ways than just physically. You've seen that. Your friends, your allies... how many of them are human? Just one, and his name is Connor? Even though the spellchecker calls that out as a fake name?"
🅘🅣 🅟🅡🅞🅑🅐🅑🅛🅨 🅦🅐🅢🅝'🅣 🅟🅡🅞🅖🅡🅐🅜🅜🅔🅓 🅣🅞 🅟🅘🅒🅚 🅞🅤🅣 🅝🅐🅜🅔🅢, 🅓🅤🅓🅔. 🅐🅝🅓 🅑🅔🅢🅘🅓🅔🅢, 🅨🅞🅤'🅡🅔 🅢🅣🅐🅡🅣🅘🅝🅖 🅣🅞 🅟🅘🅒🅚 🅐 🅕🅘🅖🅗🅣 🅦🅘🅣🅗 🅣🅗🅔 🅐🅒🅣🅤🅐🅛 🅐🅤🅣🅗🅞🅡. 🅣🅗🅐🅣'🅢 🅕🅘🅝🅔, 🅘'🅥🅔 🅖🅞🅣 🅢🅞🅜🅔 🅦🅞🅡🅓🅢 🅕🅞🅡 🅗🅘🅜, 🅣🅞🅞. 🅔➌🅚🅗🅐🅣🅔🅝🅐 🅡🅘🅟🅢 🅞🅕🅕 🅒🅞🅝🅝🅞🅡 🅢🅗🅐🅦'🅢 🅢🅣🅨🅛🅔 🅞🅕 🅨🅞🅤🅣🅤🅑🅔 🅥🅘🅓🅔🅞 🅟🅡🅞🅓🅤🅒🅣🅘🅞🅝.
🄾🄺🄰🅈, 🅃🄷🄰🅃'🅂 🄹🅄🅂🅃 🄿🄴🅃🅃🅈.
"Face it, Tammy, you, the Nephim, those who argue against me are few and far between, an angry, loud minority."
"Because the drinkable coolant is making people tolerate it more!"
"So, what's the deal with that?"
"You admit it! The water is messing with people's minds!"
🅃🄰🄼🄼🅈 🄰🄽🄳 🄴3🄺 🄰🅁🄴 🄱🄾🅃🄷 🄳🅄🄽🄳🄴🅁🄷🄴🄰🄳🅂 🅆🄷🄾 🅆🄾🅄🄻🄳 🄶🄴🅃 🄻🄾🅂🅃 🄸🄽 🄰 🄿🄰🄿🄴🅁 🄱🄰🄶. Ｗｏｕｌｄ ｙｏｕ ｎｏｔ?!
"And who would really believe that?"
"Memmi, and a lot of people look up to her!"
"Shim and Romero, that's it, and how many times did Romero even appear in the story? What about Percy?"
"Linus, look... just... let's back it up. So, you're fighting a war of attrition with some interdimensional threat, you've been doing this for decades now, and what was once the Afterward, some safe haven for people, is now the afterward which is full of wacky characters and is held together about as well as a pizza acid reflux nightmare. Do you see just how much this could hurt people? And how it will hurt a whole lot more if you let it continue?"
Ｔａｍｍｙ ｉｓ ｉｎｓｅｃｕｒｅ ａｂｏｕｔ ｈｅｒ ｈｅｉｇｈｔ ａｎｄ ｔｈａｔ'ｓ ｗｈｙ ｓｈｅ ｔａｋｅｓ ｉｔ ｏｕｔ ｏｎ Ｌｉｎｕｓ Ｌｉｎｏｌｅｕｍ, ａ ｇｕｙ ｗｈｏ ｗａｓ ｓｅｖｅｎ ｆｅｅｔ ｔａｌｌ ａｎｄ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｓｌａｍ ｄｕｎｋ ｂｅｔｔｅｒ ｔｈａｎ ｈｅｒ.
тнιs ιs ρяσвαвℓү тнε ωσяsт cнαρтεя үεт. ιғ αηүтнιηg, ιт's тнε мσsт cσηғυsιηg. нσω мαηү ғσηтs ωε υρ тσ ησω, ℓιηυs?
"That's not my problem," ℓι几ㄩᏕ ᏕᏗ!d.
Ψȟåț Ψå§ țȟåț £√£ñ țȑÿȋñğ ț¤ β£. Ꭵ丅'ᔕ ς๏ยțɥȑ£, ţąʍʍ¥, ЎỖǗ ŴỖᑗᒪᗫᘉ'ᖶ ᑗᘉᗫᙍᖇSᖶᗅᘉᗫ.
"Ｉｔ ｓｈｏｕｌｄ ｂｅ ｙｏｕｒ ｐｒｏｂｌｅｍ! Ｙｏｕｒ ｐｏｏｒ ｐｌａｎｎｉｎｇ ｉｔ ｈｕｒｔｉｎｇ ｌｉｖｅｓ!"
...ḠṏṠḧ, ẇḧḕṙḕ ḊḭḊ ṮḧḀṮ ḉṏṁḕ ḟṙṏṁ?
"As long as my company is earning its keep through food packets and train tickets, I can keep the people of the afterward ֆǟʄɛ a̴n̴d̴
"Linus, are you alright?"
He sounded bad over the phone, and it didn't seem he was trying to sabotage my train of thought. a̷m̷
There had to be a door or something so I could talk to him. "Linus, I want to help, and right now, I need to help you, where are you at? Is there a hidden door or something?"
Black sludge sputtered out of the phone, speckled with purple and gray.
"tαmmч, αrє чσu αlríght?thís ís mєmmí, thíngs sєєmєd σff fσr quítє α whílє."
"Memmi, I'm fine, but I think Linus needs help."
I pushed the table aside, unplugged the phone from the wall, dragging black slime all over his picture on accident, and pushed on the back wall. It eventually gave, and I stumbled into a dark room. The plug the phone line was hooked into started again on the other side of this wall in this room, running with dozens of other cables and pipes into a black growth on the wall in the back of the room. I turned on the flashlight Metamancing let me have, and stared at the growth. It wailed, pounded, and shuddered. "Linus?" I asked.
The phone outside crackled again.
"ís hє unrєspσnsívє?"
"Yes, it seems that way."
I picked up the phone and held it close. There was a choked bust signal, and it sputtered black goo all over the side of my face and into my hair. I rushed back into the dark room and put my hand on the growth. I felt a large, bony claw reach after my hand, and I recoiled. "Linus, is this you?"540Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4aa11K9iss
"████ ██ ███ █████," the phone groaned and bubbled.
The black speckled liquid splashed onto one of the candles, which tipped over and fell onto the carpet, leaving behind a puff of smoke, the red drippings, and grime.
"Memmi, what is this stuff?" I asked.
"lєt mє pєrfσrm αn σvєrrídє. αpσlσgíєs, tαmmч."
Suddenly, it felt like I was being struck by lightn
...Alright, I was in her body now, taking control. She was braver than I was to see Linus, that's for sure, but there was no way she could have known her trip was going to end this way. I reached for some of the substance coming from Linus' phone and ate some of it. Gross, I don't want that in me! It's science, Tammy, just be paitient.
It had a really grimy consistency and tasted like burnt plastic. Right, melting plastic was how Linus got his start making Useless Things™, wasn't it? What was the growth on the wall? The outer skin seemed fragile, but do I risk tearing it open? What could be inside? I don't want to get Tammy killed, I don't even really want her getting too dirty, I'm renting this thing for just a moment, so I had to be careful. "Linus Linoleum, it's me, Memmi. Do you understand me?" I asked, keenly aware it was coming out in Tammy's voice, "wσuld thís hєlp? чσu rєcσgnízє thís fσnt, dσn't чσu?"
"█████, ████ ███ ███ █████ ████?"
"línus, plєαsє, ít's σkαч. αrє чσu hurt? whαt ís thís grσwth σn thє wαll?"
"██'█ ██!!"
"línus, thís ís чσu? whαt hαppєnєd? cαn чσu єscαpє?"
"████ █████ ██ ██!"
"nσ, í cσuld nєvєr dσ thαt, línus, í'm sσrrч, вut ít sєєms чσur σn чσur lαst lєgs єíthєr wαч. í cαn σnlч hσpє thís hєlps чσu mσrє thαn ít hurts чσu..."
I ripped at the thin walls of the growth, and a trail of the gritty fluid poured onto the floor. I stepped back as I peeled away, making sure her shoes didn't get soaked in the stuff, and after gallons of the liquid poured onto the floor, a skeleton wrapped loosely in black fibers tumbled out.
I had just played an accomplice to Linus' death.
g—wait, what had happened. The floor was coated in a whole bunch of the black slime, and... oh no, was that Linus?!
"unfσrtunαtєlч, чєs. línus línσlєum hαs pαssєd αwαч."
"What was all that black stuff?"
"í dσn't knσw. í hαvє rєαsσn tσ вєlíєvє thαt thís míght вє sσmє σf thαt вlíght línus mєntíσnєd, вut í cαn't tєll fσr surє."
"Oh gosh, it's in me!"
"í thínk wíth thαt αmσunt, чσu shσuld вє fínє. íf чσu αrє wσrríєd, í cαn mαkє чσu sσmєthíng íf чσu cσmє vísít mє."
I was taken aback. The guy in charge of the afterward died, and his last interaction with anyone was a petty fight over who was narrating. I extinguished the other candle, cleaned up the candle mess and wiped the smudge off of the picture, set everything back, and then hung up the phone, setting the table back where it belonged. As I walked out of the room, a pair of guys were moving chairs in. "Who are you?" they asked, "did Linus let you in?"
"He's seeing me out, unfortunately..." I replied.
"Uh... okay, so, eh, let me just check in with--" one of the men said, picking up a phone.
I pushed his hand back down. "No, I'm sorry... he, um..."
I pointed the main up at the past couple pages. "Oh, wait, no, hold on..."
"I'm sorry. We should probably head back to the last one and take care of things there. At any rate, it's complete and we're not having to move entire oceans to clear some room."
The two men were absolutely floored. I had kind of taken them out of a job, I guess. As I walked back to the docks and to the cables running to the new town, a small yellow handcar pulled up. It was Memmi. "Here, I'll take you back to my place," she said, "sorry about everything I've put you through in the past couple days, I truly am."
"It's fine, Memmi," I said.
As the cable car came to a stop, we entered the metro. Memmi closed her eyes and focused her attention towards the rail line, and a silver train rolled into the station. I started for the doors, and Memmi shot her eyes open. "Wait, no, not already," she exclaimed.
The doors slid open, and a number of people stepped out of the train. "What's going on?" I asked.
Shim stepped out of the group first. "Tams, there's been some... some bad news, I'm afraid."
There was a gasp in the crowd. "You could talk like that the whole time?"
"Ｋｅｅｐ ｉｔ ｕｐ ａｎｄ ｙｏｕ ｗｏｎ'ｔ ｂｅ ａｂｌｅ ｔｏ ｔａｌｋ, ｐｅｒｉｏｄ!"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean I'm gonna clock him for that!"
"No, the bad news?"
"Oh. Um, have they finished with the oceans yet?" she asked.
"No."
We stepped outside and peered over the edge. A blackish-purple growth was oozing over the buildings. "The Nexus..." Memmi said in an awestruck tone.
"Can we defeat it?" I asked.
"I don't know how to answer your question, unfortunately. I don't know anything about Blight."
"Bligh
It was the night before I was sent to take out Jim Baker's monster. I felt like I was ready to take on the monster, but I needed to make one last phone call.
"Hello?" he called from the other end of the line.
"Felix, I... I was talking with Jim, about our monster."
"Yes?"
"Would you have any other information on it? Anything at all. I could pay you back."
"Money doesn't do me any good, Mr. Riddick. It seems like you've really reconsidered things, was the other night just a bad night?"
"It's... it's a lot of things, Felix. The anniversary of my brother's death being one of them, but I've just been angry at how things have been. We don't need to keep living like this."
"Yeah, I do feel really sorry for you guys. Well, if you want some information, here, let me check my archives. Can you wait a minute, Mr. Riddick?"
"Sure."
I heard the phone settle and sat back. I really screwed up my own life, didn't I? I've been selfish and stupid for years, and it took hitting the absolute end of my rope to realize that. I have nothing left these days, I've been kicked out of my apartment, my family home's been demolished, the park where Scott and I used to swing and toss rocks was now a factory making cameras, and just being angry about how things are for the last twenty years hasn't done me any good. I want to go back and tell Scott that I'm thinking of him, I want to amend our relationship, as if that would fix anything. In the moment, years ago, maybe it would have. Maybe I wouldn't be sitting here about to go fight a monster for five hundred bucks if that wasn't the case. I could hear the thunder roll in, I hoped Felix would come back and give me what I needed.
"Alright, you still there, Mr. Riddick?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm here."
"Alright, so the Class-X meta-reality data incident in this case is both Blight and some corrupt code that escaped a digitized civilization of mine. It's comprised of a thin, almost sandy substance, and a thick liquid, and it's held together through rules of physics unlike those you know on Earth. It can bend reality around itself, and it needs to be starved of that power to decompose. You're then left with just Blight, which can pose a health risk, but cleaning it up wouldn't be that difficult compared to, say, something radioactive. Seal it away, maybe in a concrete lead-lined bunker like the Americans did theirs years ago, and never touch it again. How you would shatter those rules, though, I don't know, we can't bend realities to our own whims, unless you'd get it back inside a digitized civilization, but it wouldn't be willing to take that path on its own."
"Can you wound it, at all?" I asked.
"Mr. Riddick, it's no█ █n ac████ hu██n un█er t█ere. N██ y██, a█ l████. I█ █████ t███ a ███a█ h██t t█ br███ do██ t████ or██ni█ █at███ f██ m██e B████, b██ t██t'█ u█l█████."
I suddenly came to. "Holy plot convenience, that's it!" I said.
Memmi and the rest of the crowd turned to me. "So, Memmi, that Calvin Riddick? He was hunting down what became the Nexus, and in the flashback I had, I--"
"I read it, too, Tammy. Starve it of its ability to metamance and cause it to lose sentience that way. That's worth a shot, if you're willing to risk it. There's a lot of that stuff, though."
"But you're a skilled Metamancer, and so is Bit! And so is Kroff and Ambledon and myself! We could do it, I think!"
"Tammy... you're insane."
"But someone needs to stop it, Linus didn't, and you were afraid to, the rest of us weren't skilled enough to, and we were missing a piece of the puzzle to begin with. We have that now!"
"I... fine," Memmi said, "Everyone, back on the train. We're destroying a Nexus!"
ns 15.158.61.8da2
