Hexad: The Chamber (5 page)

Tellan was gone, Dale didn't even see him use a Hexad.

"Did he mean... You know?"

"What do you think?"

"I think I want a lie down."

"Dale?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I have a hug please?"

Dale stared at Amanda, really, truly seeing her for the first time as the new her.

Shit, I'm being an idiot.

Dale wrapped his arms tight around her, the embrace promising he would always be by her side, would never let her go even when his arms weren't wrapping her tight. How could he have been so blind? Missed such obvious hurt? After everything she had told him, everything she had been through and shown him, it should have been obvious: she was terrified, distraught, alone yet no longer alone, worried if he would accept her and completely and utterly bewildered at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I'm here now. I'm here."

Amanda pushed him back and stared deep into his eyes, her own eyes questioning as much as they were full of hope. "Promise?"

"I promise honey. I promise."

Amanda cried. And cried, and cried. Great wracking sobs that broke his heart and made him resolute — whatever the hell was going on then he would help as best he could, do what had to be done so that Amanda, the first, the only love of his life, could be happy.

Explanations, of a Sort

2817 Years Future

"Oh boy, did I need that," whispered Amanda, wiping away the tears, running her hands obsessively through her hair.

"What, even more than the hot sex?"

"Much more, although that wasn't bad either." Amanda laughed, then smiled coyly.

Here's my girl, no mistaking that smile, or that scent.

"Okay, what now then?"

"Now we save the world. Again."

"Hey, be gentle, it's my first time you know?"

"Oh yeah, right. Sorry, I forgot. But to be honest it's mine too, all joking aside. I was... away, when, um, a Dale and Amanda did what they did."

"So we're both saving the world virgins then?"

"Kind of, although after what I've been through I wouldn't exactly say I'm inexperienced."

"No, it didn't sound like it. It all just sounds crazy. Look, what happened? Where were you then when it all went down?"

"Dale, it was too, too bizarre. Let's just say I was in the company of The Caretaker and leave it at that. If you think time travel sounds impossible then you don't even want to think about him, let alone know the kind of life he leads. Let's just get on with this. Please? For me?"

"For you, anything. What do I have to do?"

"That's just it, I'm not sure. I think me even being here has messed everything up, but I'm not sure how. I really thought I was doing the right thing, making the other Amanda disappear, but clearly it didn't make any difference... Actually, I knew it wouldn't."

"What do you mean?" Dale got a sinking feeling, a familiar feeling yet new, like... like he'd felt it in a different lifetime, maybe a different him, cracks in reality? He shook it off. "Tell me."

"Okay, I wasn't lying when I said that you and the Amanda I got rid of were in the pub, remember?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if I made her vanish then that shouldn't have happened, right? But I've seen it, gone back, got there late and saw you and her go to the pub. Then I came back to when you saw me and you know the rest."

"So, maybe she isn't there now?"

"If not, then where were you? You wouldn't have gone alone if I, her, suddenly disappeared."

"You know what? I fucking hate time travel!"

"Ha, don't even get me started. Look, I'm sorry, I don't know what's happening."

Dale thought for a moment. "So let's go find out. First, why don't you show me how these things work?"

~~~

3 Hours 9 Minutes Future

Dale was on the verge of totally freaking out. It was too surreal, too damn surreal for words. It was one thing seeing two Amandas earlier in the day, quite another to be confronted with himself. Not only that, but now there were three Amandas.

He watched as he and Amanda walked into the pub — did he really look so scrawny? He could imagine the gruff greeting from Steve behind the bar, the usual sticky table and the crap warm beer. That was bad enough, but he could also see Amanda, the one beside him, on the opposite side of the street, trying to act all casual and peeking out from behind a lamppost like the worst detective you could possibly imagine. He had to look at Amanda beside him just to make sure she was really there. She was.

"Well I'll be... This is mad." Dale had a strong urge to run up to the pub, grab a beer and go sit at the table with himself — it was almost an impossible urge to resist. But he had no plans on testing out paradoxes. Not now, not ever.

Dale fiddled with the Hexad nervously, then grabbed hold of Amanda without a word and went, "Whooooooooooooooooooosh," for some strange reason, before they vanished from outside the fish and chip shop much to the confusion of a bull terrier tied up outside, sitting and vibing them in the hope that they had some spare food for him. Dale was sure he heard it yelp before he found himself falling into an abyss, sure his life was at an end.

Action Stations

67 Years Future

"I forgot you were really bad at this," said Amanda, picking herself up off the floor.

"Oh my god, I thought I was dead for sure. What happened?"

"You have, had, will have, ugh..." Amanda shook her head to stop the confusion, blond hair dancing gently. "Anyway, you have a habit of not really focusing and you end up making the jump without really thinking clearly, so we end up just a little above the ground. It's really off-putting."

"You can say that again, haha. Phew, that wasn't fun." Dale stared around him, then checked the Hexad. A 4 flashed blue on the dome. He checked the dials, realizing that in his haste he hadn't really cared about when they went — he just had to get away.

Sixty-seven years. Wow.

Dale took in his surroundings. It was, to put it mildly, rather unexpected. "Okay, before I even ask about this place, can you explain how the other Amanda is still alive when you made her disappear?"

"I've thought about it and the only thing I can come up with is that the Universe, or rather, the universes, are making sure that what happened will happen." Dale raised an eyebrow, showing he had no clue what she meant. "Look, her, and you, the other you, do all the stuff I told you, or a version so close as to make no difference. I guess it would have played out similarly in a number of different timelines. So for us to put the mess right it means that all the things we did had to happen. So as soon as I got rid of Amanda at home then everything kind of just jumped a little so things could carry on being set right. The real hundred-percent-right Amanda would then have replaced her, just so things were totally as they should be."

"Except they aren't, are they?"

"No, not quite. But in most realities they are, just not in this one, or this sort of convoluted one anyway. But that's better, and makes more sense according to the rules of time, than for all realities to be messed up. It's just this one."

"So even though you are here, she is still here too, doing what you have already done in the past, or the future, whatever, to make sure that most futures happen? That people carry on living?"

"Exactly! So let's just sort out this one and we are done."

"But how?"

"Easy, we just have to ensure that we stay in this reality, and stop Hexads from being available here. As soon as the other versions of us begin all their crazy running around, well, they jump universes anyway, so chances are that none of what they do will matter here, it was all so jumbled up. The Caretaker said this is kind of more like an oversight than anything else, that this reality was sort of just overlooked because of all that went on."

"Okay, enough. Let's agree on one thing from now on."

"What?"

"Let's just do what we have to do and not talk about all this bloody timeline and universes and reality stuff any more. I haven't even got a clue what the difference is between all those words anyway."

"Easy. When I say timeline I mean—" Dale just stared at her. "Sorry."

"Right, so, what do we do? And more to the point, where the bloody hell are we?"

Amanda explained as best she could what they had to do, at least what The Caretaker had hinted at in his usual cryptic way — she had pieced together the rest herself. It all came down to one thing: doing all in their power to ensure that Hexads were never a part of this world. She chose her words carefully, skirting around the issue of divergent realities and parallel universes, and stopped whenever Dale gave her a dirty look for talking about infinite versions of them where every possible future played out in slight variations.

The plan sounded simple: they had to stop time machines being in the world. Dale began to get confused, which he didn't think was at all surprising, but Amanda made it easier for him by saying that as it was obvious that what the other version of them did in the world ended up with the problem being solved everywhere but here, then they had to let all of that happen and act in such a way so as not to interfere with the saving of all other realities.

"Sorry, I didn't know what other word to use."

"It's okay, I'll let you have one. So how do we do it? If we have to let them do it here then surely the point is moot? What happens will happen regardless, as we can't interfere with anything they do if we want the rest of it to work out."

"I think we have to go somewhere where we won't interfere with what happens, but where we can still make a difference to the outcome."

"And that is?"

"No idea. You?"

Dale just put his head in his hands. He needed time to think, and he really needed a drink.

A strong one. Very strong.

~~~

Present Day

Dale decided that rather than try to force some kind of a solution to what was clearly not just a simple problem, they should take advantage of where they were now that Amanda had cleared up the mess that he'd made of their jump. She'd grabbed him and made a jump of her own, and as he whooooooooooooooooooosh'ed his way to an unknown location he was vastly relieved to discover that he landed with his feet firmly on the ground.

Amanda explained to him that he really needed to focus on that, but more importantly that he needed to be specific with his thoughts concerning exactly where he wanted to jump to — the less of an idea you had, the more likely you could end up anywhere. Like in the middle of the sea, ripped apart by a plane, shot as you appeared in the middle of a police station, decapitated by a samurai warrior. That kind of thing, or worse. Dale didn't know what was worse, but he didn't ask either.

He'd actually jumped to the top of a building that they had both been to when on vacation years ago, only problem being that he had no idea that Venice was kind of overrun by cats by now, and that the buildings were less than stable. Just before the entire thing collapsed around them she'd jumped them to a much better, and altogether more exotic location.

With nerves frayed as he watched the ancient building crumble beneath his feet before he inexplicably made his jump noise — how weird was that? — he was pleased that he could relax, sort of, in the beautiful setting he found himself in.

Just sitting there was proof enough that Amanda knew him only too well. It was perfect.

Dale turned, just to look at her face — still as beautiful as it had ever been despite there now being an age difference. They had been through so much of their lives together, and every day he still felt himself inordinately lucky to have met and kept such a great woman. Her profile was strong and proud, her face, paler than usual — as she obviously hadn't been spending her time sunning herself lately — was lightly dusted with freckles that were always a surprise to him for some reason. And that hair — stunning.

"What?" asked Amanda, turning to him and smiling. A relaxed smile, like the day so far had never happened.

"Nothing, just looking." Dale smiled back, then looked out at the still, turquoise ocean.

The beach was busy but not crowded, and they had jumped to a quiet corner where nobody noticed their rather sudden arrival. Further up the sand, closer to a number of rustic, but he knew would be expensive, palm thatched huts, fish was cooking on a charcoal barbecue, the smoke wafting down to them and mingling with the tangy salt spray cooling them slightly as a gentle breeze blew in from the ocean.

The Bahamas. Perfect.

Dale lay back in the white sand, letting the warmth seep into his bones and burn away the crazy day like it was nothing but a sun-induced dream as he fell asleep listening to the gentle lapping of the waves on the idyllic shoreline.

But that wasn't the case, not really — as much as he wished it was he knew that life for the foreseeable future was going to be anything but tranquil.

Still, there was the moment, and Dale was going to do his best to make the most of it. He took off his battered boots, pulled off his socks, then rolled up his jeans to just below the knee. Standing up he let out a "Hot, hot, hot," dancing around like he was walking across red-hot coals as the burning sand made it impossible to stand still.

Amanda started laughing at the sight, and all Dale could manage was a "You coming?" before he dashed for the shallows in an attempt to cool his feet down.

It's nearly as hot as the sand.

Dale stood with the water halfway up his shins, amazed at the temperature. It was like getting into the bath rather than the cool sea he was used to in England, but he'd been abroad enough to know that he shouldn't have expected it to be cold. Still, it was better than the sand.

Amanda joined him, and for a moment there was nothing but the sound of the waves, the shouts of the cook touting for business for his freshly cooked fish, and the sun sparkling white off the ocean.