Hexad: The Chamber (10 page)

Amanda led the way across the open ground and very soon they were making their way between deep borders packed with flowers, reminiscent of their own garden back home — Amanda's taste obviously translating to the new environment. The house was simple, yet well built out of stone that seemed to be the main material for all the buildings Dale could see. He didn't even want to think about the logistics of building something on such a curved surface — anything of any size would give you a serious headache just trying to get things flat or straight.

As they approached the house Dale tried to see what was at either end of the cylinder he found himself in, but it was mostly just haze — they must have landed fairly close to the center of the strange world. One end was fairly bright though, a pale blue that may have been the light source, or may have been just open to whatever lay beyond. The other end was more of a dull gray, although again he couldn't be certain if it was closed-off or open.

"Dale."

"Eh? Oh, sorry, I was miles away."

"You coming in?" asked Amanda, his Amanda, as she followed the other one through the front door.

"Yeah, sure, I'm coming."

Dale stepped out of insanity and into what was nothing more than a nicely decorated home with all the trademark touches he'd come to expect of Amanda.

That just made it even weirder — it was like stepping into an alternate home, just one with no sign of him having ever been a part of it.

A Nice Cuppa

Time Unknown

"Take a seat," said Amanda genially, as she moved over to the counter top and switched on the kettle.

Dale and Amanda sat at the chairs around the compact kitchen table — the room was clean and well laid out but the kitchen was still a little cramped.

"Sorry, but all I have is instant. But then, I know neither of you mind that, it's what you usually have anyway, isn't it?"

"You know us only too well," said Dale, not really amused by such a comment, more concerned about stopping himself slipping into insanity.

"I can't stand this." Amanda stood and stared at their host, eyes wide and frightened. "What on earth is going on? And Dale," Amanda turned to him, scabbard banging against the side of her chair before she shifted it in annoyance, "where did you jump us to? You must know where you were going."

"I didn't, honest." Dale held up his hands, protesting his innocence. "I let my fingers do the decision making. I figured maybe my subconscious would send us to where the Hexads were being made so we could stop it all and that would be the end of it. Stupid brain, never should have trusted it."

Amanda turned at Dale's words, shock registering on her face. "You made the jump? Not Amanda? Interesting." She turned back to the counter, then remembered something and went over to the fridge for the milk.

Dale didn't like it. Having the same woman in front of you twice, both knowing everything about you, was simply too eerie.

As Dale listened to the teaspoon clattering in the mug while Amanda stirred his coffee he stared out of the window, a nice view over the kitchen sink — at least it would be if the artist's perspective on the world wasn't so skewed. Seeing just a slice of the strange world allowed him to get it a little more organized in his head, although it still defied all logic he could accept as a physical reality. But then, Hexads broke all the rules so why should anything surprise him now?

The window framed a view up what he had to think of as the side of the tube, where there were small parcels of land sectioned off by neat hedges or drystone walls. Everything was idyllic, orderly, clearly well-maintained, and the land was productive: a mixture of pasture land for small herds of animals and arable land for crops. Dale got the impression that the whole inverse world was self sufficient to a high degree.

It was the actual way the view played with your mind that took a while to come to terms with, although now Dale could look at just a small section it seemed to be making more sense. He focused on a green strip of land laid to grass that seemed to run right up the side of the cylinder, stopping almost above his head, although he couldn't see that far from inside. At first, as his eyes followed the land, perspective worked normally: lines began to converge the further away they got, but then it got freaky. Dale had to get up and peer out the window with his nose almost touching, craning to see the lines move away from a vanishing point and actually spread wider apart, defying both logic and gravity as he knew it.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to make sense of this place," said Dale, suddenly realizing what he'd done. He returned to his seat, doing terribly rudimentary math that he could remember, and trying to dig up information locked in his mind on vanishing points and how it would apply to a cylinder if you were inside it.

"That's okay, it takes a while before you get used to it, but you will." Amanda placed two mugs on the table, moving coasters from the center and putting them in front of three of the four chairs. She then returned with her own coffee a moment later.

Dale became lost deep in thought again, accepting the landscape, but unable to comprehend how everything didn't just slide to the bottom.
Because there isn't one, obviously.
That was the only sensible answer, one he knew immediately but couldn't quite come to terms with. There was no bottom, the same as there wasn't on the earth. This was just inverted but the same rules of physics still applied. All that really remained to be answered was how was it possible for gravity to work normally in such a place?

Dale sipped his coffee absentmindedly, then looked up. Both Amandas were staring at him, as if waiting for him to do something.

"Oh, sorry, I was miles away. Was I being rude? I didn't mean to be. This is just a lot to take in you know?" Dale pointed out the window, as if neither Amanda was aware of their environment.

"I understand," said the new Amanda. "You should have seen me when I first arrived. I was a wreck for weeks."

"And when was that?" asked Amanda. "Just how long have you been here? More importantly, what is this place and how on earth are you even here? How are we able to both be here? Dale, I want to go, I don't like this. I don't like it one little bit."

"It's okay honey, it's okay." Dale reached out and grabbed Amanda's hand, trying to give her reassurance he sorely felt in need of himself. "Look, um, Amanda," Dale turned to the new Amanda, "can you please tell us what is going on?"

"Of course. I'm sorry, I forget that this takes some getting used to. But trust me, after a while you'll love it."

"We won't be staying here long," said Amanda. "Wherever 'here' actually is."

"Here, our home, is all there is for us now."

"Us? Who's us?" asked Dale cautiously.

"Why, all the Amandas of course. I thought you knew, I thought that was why you were here. Although we don't normally get many Dales, not for long anyway." Sadness tugged at the corners of her mouth before she put on a smile, definitely just for them, Dale was sure.

"Ugh, stop it, stop it, stop it!" Amanda put her head in her hands, hair tumbling onto the spotless table, almost falling into the untouched coffee.

"Can you please tell us what the hell is happening here? Now," said Dale.

Dale and Amanda listened while Amanda explained — he wished they hadn't asked.

~~~

Amanda put fresh coffee down in front of them, but Dale was feeling claustrophobic in the cramped kitchen, and both Amandas readily agreed to go back outside. Even the strange landscape was better than being cooped up inside as far as Dale was concerned.

The air outside was fresh and there was a subtle fragrance coming from the multitudinous flowers in bloom. There were even bees, Dale noted with interest. Now that he came to think of it there was also a gentle breeze, carrying the scent of freshly mowed grass, fertilizer and other smells familiar to the countryside, all mixed in with smoke from fires warming the interiors of the stone cottages.

What kind of systems could possibly be in place to allow for a breeze, let alone light, heat and most disturbing of all: gravity?

Dale fiddled with the Hexad he'd used, watching the 5 blink in a way that was becoming all too familiar.

Maybe he should just set it, grab his Amanda and jump?

The new Amanda must have picked up on his musings. "It won't work, not here."

"What do you mean it won't work? It's a Hexad."

"I know what it is, we all do. How do you think we all got here? It won't work."

Dale stared at the device, then at his Amanda, who walked over to him, grabbed his hand and nodded. Dale pressed down on the dome, thinking it was better to leave and have the world make sense than have his curiosity satisfied.

Nothing happened, as deep down he knew it wouldn't. "Okay, first things first. How are you here, and what's all this talk of 'we' anyway?"

New Amanda gestured to a rudimentary picnic bench and they all sat, placing mugs on the silver wood.

"You don't get it, do you? You aren't supposed to be here, at least I don't think you are. By 'we' I am talking about all the other Amandas, the ones that have been misplaced through the effects of the Hexads, or the ones that are supposed to be here, we have never really been sure. But there are a lot of us, hundreds. Some have been here longer than they can remember, some just a few weeks, one even came in today, and I'm guessing that is because of you?" She stared at Amanda expectantly.

"I don't understand," said Amanda.

"Let me explain. The Hexads inevitably lead to paradoxes, and when that happens usually one Amanda disappears, right? Well, this is where we come when we disappear from the real world. We come here, and then we have to decide if we want to stay or not. It's nice really, once you get used to it, but nobody ever came here by choice before, not like you two have, and a Dale has never been the one to make the jump, not ever."

"But how? I don't get it," said Dale. "Amanda told me that all the problems that arose from the Hexads had been solved, that everything had returned to normal, as if they had never been, all apart from in our own world, in our own time."

"Dale, you are being somewhat naive, if you don't mind me saying so. You too Amanda. I don't know what has been going on for you two, we don't get news in here, but don't you get it? There is no stopping the Hexad, it is a constant. Always has been, always will be. Whatever trifling problems you have been experiencing means nothing, not on the scale of things. The only truth is that it is all tied up to us, the Amandas, and whatever any of us have ever tried to do, and trust me there are no end to the stories of weird futures and jumping around the universes, crazy adventures and others where they simply woke up one morning, got shouted at by a Dale before catching a glimpse of another Amanda and disappearing from their reality to find themselves here, it never ends, the Hexad finds a way to return, to insinuate itself into our lives, and on and on it goes.

"You two are responsible for the Amanda that arrived today, I'm sure, so I guess you have your own problems right about now, probably all tied up with Detective Inspector Cray, The Caretaker, maybe even Laffer and Hector." Amanda waved away Dale and Amanda before they could interrupt. "But trust me when I tell you that you aren't the first, and you definitely won't be the last."

"But we are," said Dale. "Amanda here, and a version of me, set everything right in all possible realities. Ours is the only one left that still has Hexads now, and that's only because she jumped back to find me. Right Amanda?"

"Right. Every other reality was normal. Futures were full of people, there were no Hexads. It was normal."

"That may be, but we are the misplaced, and if what you say is true then we wouldn't be here, would we? We are the ones displaced by the actions of time travel, but we are also the ones that ensure the Hexad continues to exist, that we continue to exist."

"What does that mean?" Dale knew they weren't being told the whole story.

"Later. First I want you to understand that this is our home. We live here, best we can."

"Why? Why don't you leave?"

"Because we can't. Don't you think we haven't tried? Don't you think that countless women, all almost identical, want to leave this place and get their lives back? Many have gone insane, taken their own lives, or are recluses, refusing to ever talk to another Amanda, but some of us just get on with things, accept our lives now, and make the most of it. We can't leave."

"So this whole place is just full of versions of you that somehow got caught up in the effects of other Dales and Amandas traveling around in time?" asked Dale.

"Yes, sort of. It goes deeper than that, way deeper. Some were directly involved, trying to break the cycle, trying to put things right, let the future be normal, free of the crazy things people do when time travel becomes a reality, but others have no knowledge of being involved in anything of the sort, they just suddenly appeared here and don't know why. Although they were still clearly somehow caught up in it, maybe simply touched by another Amanda while they slept, one that couldn't live without a version of you Dale, and risked blinking out of existence rather than being alone."

Dale leaned back, almost toppling over before he remembered he was on a bench not a chair. "Bloody hell, this is insane."

"I know."

The questions continued for a while, but Dale didn't feel like they were getting any closer to the truth of the matter, aware that things were being kept from them, half-truths being told, Amanda probably assuming it was for their own good.

By the time Amanda had finished answering their questions, sharing her story and experiences so far, and they had time to then ask more questions they felt were important, the light had begun to fade, almost like they were in the real world, not some kind of... Well, that was one question that still remained.

"Okay, one last question please," said Dale.