Hexad: The Ward (13 page)

As soon as they could, they'd crossed a two-lane road and headed down a street, only to find themselves in the suburbs. Amanda couldn't help getting even more freaked out at the sudden change in atmosphere: going from spooky old mental asylum cliché to the quiet formality of rows of houses with neatly cut lawns was too severe a contrast to do anything but make her head spin.

"Let's stop." Amanda slowed even as Dale kept tugging for her to move faster. "I think Laffer's gone. Let's just walk, catch our breath." Amanda stopped and Dale relinquished his hold.

"Okay, but just for a minute. You can bet he'll be after us soon enough."

"I know, but we need to come up with a plan. What are we going to do?" Amanda was lost, unable to think straight. Feelings welled up inside her that were alien yet hinted at a familiarity nudging at her consciousness, as if memories she didn't even have were clawing their way into her mind, threatening to overwhelm her and send her spiraling out of control.

"Amanda, are you okay? You look odd." Dale looked at her with concern, staring into her eyes as if searching for the answer.

"It's just a bit much to take, that's all. Dale, they were other versions of me. We've affected the future and now we have to find a way to fix it."

"And we will, don't worry. We'll sort it all out." Dale looked anything but confident, and Amanda knew he had absolutely no idea what to do; neither did she.

"You guys need to run slower. Ugh... wait a minute." Peter bent over again, speaking fast then breathing hard, his face almost purple. Wozzy clambered up onto his back as his bed moved, almost dislodging him.

Meow.

"Sorry, Wozzy, but I'm knackered. Jump down, there's a good kitty."

"Peter! What the hell are you doing?" shouted Amanda.

What is he thinking, at a time like this?

"I'm... going to die... if I don't... rest." Peter sank to the ground, just sat on the curb like he was at home and relaxing, rather than being chased and in the middle of the suburbs in the future. Wozzy meowed at him, but jumped down and took the opportunity to mark a lamppost, claiming the new territory as his own.

What is wrong with him? How can he just sit there?

Peter didn't look well: his breathing was terrible, his face was red, and his neck visibly throbbed with the increased blood pumping through his unhealthy veins.

"You need to start getting some exercise," admonished Dale, before he checked down the street for signs of Laffer.

"Yeah, well, I don't normally get chased by giants in the future, do I?" Peter looked like he would throw up at any moment. "Bloody hell, who knew running was so tiring?"

Amanda and Dale exchanged glances; they couldn't help themselves; they burst out laughing, nervous tension released.

"Of course it's tiring," chortled Dale, "it's running."

"Whatever." Peter waved away the laughs with a lazy swipe of the hand, slowly getting his body under control. "Okay, what's the plan?"

"Um..."

"Er..."

"Thought so. Nobody?" Peter got awkwardly to his feet and stared around for the first time, able to focus on something apart from just running. "Weird cars."

Amanda and Dale looked at the few cars parked by the side of the road or in people's drives — they were somewhat futuristic in design, although Amanda kind of thought things would look a little more space-age. They just looked curvier and lighter than those from their own time — there were no flying cars or even hovercraft as far as she could tell, only modern looking designs that were now clearly the norm. It was a bit of a letdown.

Now that they had stopped, Amanda glanced up and down the street for the first time too, and everything seemed normal. There were a couple of people walking — they got a few odd looks, probably as it didn't seem like the kind of neighborhood that had passers-by — but their clothes looked fairly normal. Nobody walked around in silver jumpsuits or had strange haircuts or anything, life just went on as it always had.

"It doesn't even seem like the future at all," noted Amanda, a little disappointment creeping into her voice.

"It's only thirty-seven years, what do you think would happen?" asked Dale.

"Dunno. Jetpacks, funny clothes, hologram billboards in the sky, something. Even the roads and lampposts look the same as ours."

"Well, that's the future for you," noted Peter. "Everything just goes on the same way."

"At least people are still here, that's a good sign. It means that everyone hasn't got a Hexad and isn't jumping all over the place yet."

"Yeah, so it should be a lot easier to stop Hector from making them, if that was him and it's what will happen," said Dale.

He was right, they had no real clue if what they'd been told had happened to them in the past, or other versions of them, would repeat itself in a similar fashion now. They had just jumped to the worst conclusion once they saw the Amandas, assuming that reality would warp once again and everything would go into free fall. "Come on, let's just walk. We need to get as far away from here as possible. Laffer is bound to be after us soon enough, let's go."

Amanda retook Dale's hand and they walked down the street. Wozzy tagged along and kept brushing his side against Amanda's leg — it was good to know there were no hard feelings. "Sorry about earlier, Wozzy, I hope he didn't hurt you?"

Wozzy ignored her and turned to meow at Peter.

"Okay, I'm coming. Man, now even the cat is giving me grief." Peter picked up his pace and caught up with Dale and Amanda. "Where to?"

"Let's keep moving and see where we end up. And we need to come up with a plan, we need to get home." Amanda didn't have a clue what to do, but something would turn up. Something would allow them to get home, wouldn't it?

Shiny Futures

37 Years Future

"Well, you got your futuristic stuff at last," said Dale, having to shout above the noise of the people staring up at the massive screen, the same as them. The voice boomed up and down the crowded streets, echoing off the buildings.

Amanda felt the deep bass reverberate right through her bones, like the female speaking from the screen was trying to insinuate herself into her very core.

They'd walked past endless rows of uniform houses and neat lawns until they gave way to the city center, a place called Tappleford according to the signs — none of them had ever heard of it. As they left the ticky-tacky houses behind, the sounds of activity increased. There were more people, more vehicles, although pollution seemed nonexistent so there was more to the new transport than was clear from just looking at it, and soon they were at the center of a huge crowd of people, surrounded on all sides by screaming multimedia signs and billboards. It paled into insignificance compared to a huge display high on a shopping center building that must have taken up the length of the whole street.

They were in a large open space, a junction for two roads that intersected with countless crossings and strange, esoteric signs the traffic seemed to follow exactly, although the mix of vehicles were stationary as people craned their heads out of the windows to listen to the beautiful female announcer's voice as it rattled the windows and echoed in their skulls like an angel.

Amanda thought it looked like how she imagined the heart of Tokyo to be, all vibrant technology and dense crowds of shoppers caught up in the cutting edge of consumerism, but magnified tenfold and a hell of a lot louder.

They stood close together, squashed by the crowd, the people entranced by the repeating voice on the screen. Amanda wondered how long it had been playing on a loop and if the crowd would ever grow bored of what the woman promised. It didn't seem like it, they'd already heard it three times and Amanda really wanted to hear it again. She turned to Peter and Dale, unsurprised to find their eyes locked to the massive image, attention rapt, smiling despite the dire warning carried to their ears.

"It's almost time, or, haha, almost no time. In just one more week the first ever Hexad will be purchased by Max Overtone, the richest man alive. Yes, he is giving everything he owns to buy this first Hexad, and yes, he will be the first man in history to jump apart from the inventor, that mysterious individual we would all like to know more about. But we've all seen the footage, all seen the proof that time travel is real, and soon, very soon, you too can own a personal time travel device. Get ready for the future, it's coming. And soon."

Much of the talk didn't quite make sense. Amanda wondered what proof had been shown to people to convince them time travel was real, but she supposed it didn't really matter — she already knew it was. But this wasn't saying people could buy one immediately, this was announcing a single sale, for who knew how many billions, and it was probably all just tied up to some massive advertising campaign — having a billionaire give up everything to be the first to own one officially was without doubt a great marketing device.

All Amanda knew was that once the floodgates opened, and they became commercially available, then all hell would break loose and the universe, or the universes that would be created to try to cope with such comings and goings, would eventually shut down once again and humanity would become nonexistent, wiped away as nothing but a great stain on the fabric of reality itself.

"Let's get out of here." Nobody moved. "Dale, let's go, we need to get away from here." Amanda nudged him in the ribs, he didn't even notice.

The voice began again. Dale watched and listened like he could stand there all day. "Dale!" Amanda got some angry looks from the crowd but Dale finally tore his eyes from the screen.

"What?" he said crossly, his face softening as he realized it was Amanda.

"I said, we need to go. That thing," Amanda pointed to the screen, "is doing something weird to you, to everyone. It's like you can't stop watching it."

Dale frowned and almost turned back before he stopped himself just in time. "Ugh, I think you're right. Weird."

"Get Peter, and let's get the hell away from here," said Amanda, noticing that the only one not looking at the screen was Wozzy — he seemed to have fallen asleep again, draped over Peter's shoulder like a fluffy scarf.

Nobody's even staring at a man with a cat wrapped around his neck.
Amanda knew that the announcement was definitely not what it seemed. There was probably some kind of subliminal message going on along with the, she had to admit, incredible news for anyone that hadn't already had more than their fair share of time travel.

Amanda moved through the crowd, holding onto Dale with one hand, extremely conscious of the fact she held a Hexad in the other. She needed a bag, she needed some shoes, and she really needed to get home.

Everything was too much. She needed quiet, alone time. She was never any good in crowds, and even the company of a few people for more than an hour left her drained. The last few days held enough interaction with people to last her a lifetime. It was different with Dale, they were always together, but Peter had been around all the day before, and he'd been with them all day today too. That was enough, even without the added nightmare of what the day had brought so far.

Dale dragged a protesting Peter behind him, still complaining that he wanted to watch again even as they moved down a side street. He constantly turned to get a final glimpse of the beautiful woman and her mesmerizing voice.

Amanda needed to be alone, to regroup her thoughts, do what she wanted. Which was to be alone in a very dark and very quiet room — her room, in her life, in her world, whatever that meant now.

"But I want to watch it again," moaned Peter, turning yet again, even though the square was now out of sight.

"Peter, it's doing funny things to your head. You heard it already, you don't need to listen to it again," instructed Amanda.

"Um, yeah, I know. Man, that was odd, it really took a hold of me." Peter did one of his odd all-body shakes, starting at his head and moving down to his shoulders, then wiggling his middle before wobbling his legs — it was strange to watch, comical, yet he always had such a serious face when he did it. Wozzy fell off and gave him a seriously disapproving look.

Amanda scooped him up. He purred happily, the throwing incident seemingly forgotten. "Peter? Um... Doesn't matter."

"What? Hey, so that was weird, right? That woman sure cast a spell on me. Anyway, so this is the beginning of it all? They're going to sell one to some rich dude and then once the hype has built enough, and everyone finds out what he gets up to, then they will sell them to everyone else. Boy, it will be a right mess."

"You can say that again," said Amanda. "We have to stop them, but we have to get home. I need a rest, my mind's going too fast."

"Actually, I have an idea," said Dale, smiling and looking very pleased with himself.

"Well, spill it then. Anything is better than nothing. I want to go home." Amanda felt herself tire by the second, it was hard to know what time it was, when she'd last ate, and as she spoke she realized her lips were parched.

"Let's get somewhere a little more private first," said Dale. He searched up and down the narrow street to see if there was anywhere they could go.

"How about back at that little park we passed? There wasn't anyone there and we can sit on the bench," said Peter.

"Good idea, let's go."

~~~

A few minutes later, and there was a welcome rest from the constant bombardment of stress either from being chased or the huge screen blaring away at them. Amanda felt like she could almost relax for a moment, but the reminder that Laffer was probably still after them made her understandably anxious. What she wouldn't give for a nice fry-up, a drink and a shower.

"Okay, I don't know if this will work, but after all that's happened I don't see why not — everything else is just as crazy so why not this?" Dale fidgeted, looking a little anxious about telling what he had in mind.