Orignal Fiction: JACKED, Book one of The Origin Dime Chronicles, Episode 12
In this episode, Jack and Madison are forced to flee to another dimension. And, more GIANT POSSUMS!
“Okay, so I think I get that, sort of, but what is consensus. What does that mean?” Jack asked, referring to what he had heard that afternoon.
“Consensus reality is what allows us to function together. For instance, we all believe in gravity on this planet.” Madison said.
Jack smiled, “So, if we stopped believing, it wouldn’t exist?”
Missing an episode? Find them all on my blog. Follow me for updates in your feed!
“No, probably not,” Madison said, “But it might make it difficult to invent around it. If everyone believed gravity was caused by an evil God with a giant vacuum, sucking us into the core of the planet, for example."
"Then airplanes might never have been invented. So, consensus in that way can be good.”
Madison looked serious, “But there’s more to what the Shadoes want. Their kind of consensus is dangerous. There are certain dimensions that are really entire timelines. They are seminal. Not all dimensions are capable of easily producing strong parallels."
"If one of these seminal dimensions is locked down, by getting the majority of its inhabitants believing the same things, it can become static and incapable of changing, or producing new parallels. Over time, it weakens and starts to fade without inventive support.”
“Is that why they need the keys, to lock it down?” Jack asked.
“Sort of; the Inventor created 39 master vortices at important divergences. Each vortex is like an inter dimensional seaport. Almost anything can come through one. It’s where most innovations in art, technology, music, fashion and film come from."
"If the Shadoes control the keys, they can lock the vortices, either open, or closed. If they close them, the dimension is then at their power. Big new ideas that might shake up the status quo become virtually impossible to get into that dimension and even harder to implement.”
Jack could see she was warming to her subject, “Then; they can introduce the kind of ideas they want, through the use of their soul surrogates. Picture an army of noshers all imagining the same thing, at exactly the same time. You might not fully appreciate that now, but think about yesterday, when you imagined that guard to sleep. Now, magnify that, times a billion. They can make this dimension anything they want.”
“So, I get that it sucks for those of us here. But why is this dimension so important? Why don’t we just give it to them, lock the doors on the way out and move everyone else to another dimension?” Jack asked.
Madison looked shocked, “You don’t know?” She looked at him for any hint of irony and finally decided he was serious.
“This is the seminal dimension. None of the others can be traced back to any other beginning but this one. This is where it all started. It is the Point of Origin. Without it, nothing else exists. Change this one dimension and you subvert the intention of The Inventor. Not only that, but you’re the last one.”
“The last what?” He laughed, “Come on, why so serious?”
“No, you don’t understand,” she said quietly. “In your dimension, pure imagination has been almost eradicated. You are the last Aedapt. You’re the only one that can reverse this.”
Jack swallowed hard. His pulse thudded in his throat. Every hair on his body stood on end. In that one single moment, the gravity of everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours hit him right between the eyes. He did not even know what an “Aedapt” really was, but he could feel the truth of what she was saying deep inside his bones.
He walked to the window and looked out. The sun was rising and the only home he had ever known, Clark City, was starting to come to life. Mr. Ricks, the mail carrier, was pulling up at the café across the street for breakfast.
Somewhere a lawnmower started.
Before long, he knew that Mrs. Baxter would be walking her pug down that sidewalk to the library as she did every morning. It was hard to believe that all of this continuing was up to him, but somehow he knew it was true.
“How am I supposed to do that?” He asked, “I didn’t even know any of this just the day before yesterday.”
Madison moved up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, “I understand. A year ago, I did not know any of this either. My parents disappeared two days before my twenty-first birthday, and then the Things showed up.”
He turned to face her; she smiled quietly, and brushed a lock of hair back on his forehead. He shivered. He had never wanted to kiss a girl so badly.
“Jack, get down!” Madison hissed, her eyes large, looked over his shoulder through the window as she dragged him to the floor.
“What is it?” He whispered.
“The guard, from yesterday, and I’m not sure, but I think he’s in this dimension. Sometimes I see more than one when something bad is about to go down.”
Jack peered through a corner of the window, trying to stay out of sight. He saw it too. The barrel chested guard was walking through the Mad-Cow parking lot, one giant possum on a leash in each hand. The man-sized marsupials were dragging him toward the barn.
A heavy strap cut across his bare chest. Jack could see the barrel of the weapon the guard had carried yesterday peeking over one shoulder. This could not be good.
They ducked. “What now,” Jack asked.
“Can you drive that?” She indicated the Rabbit that sat under the tarp.
He nodded. “Sort of.”
“Well, you better figure it out, because that is our only way out of this dimension. And leaving this dimension now is the best hope we have of getting that key to safety!” Madison crawled to the car and pulled the tarp off. She climbed into the passenger side.
“Wait, can’t we just dime hop using the Beans?” Jack asked.
Madison sighed, “No. It would take too long. Besides; they can scan multiple dimensions at this location and find us, but they can’t track us if we’re moving fast enough. Now come on.”
Jack crawled to the driver's side and got behind the wheel. He felt around on the console in the dark, searching for the key. He found it and slipped it into the ignition. He paused, last night he had locked the latch on the door behind him. He wondered whether the Rabbit could get up enough speed to break it. He decided not to try it and rolled out onto the floor.
He watched in the rearview mirror as the crack between the doors gradually widened. Jack floored the accelerator and popped the clutch, throwing the little car into reverse. The rear wheels shimmied as the front tires spun, then gained traction.
The surprised guard threw his weapon up, covering his face as the Rabbit rolled over him.
The car stopped as it reached his fat middle, the rear wheels spinning, inches from the pavement.
Jack faced front, threw the car into first and pulled hard right as he spun the Rabbit around and charged out of the parking lot. In the mirror, the guard lay helpless. A large puddle of black ooze leaked from his body as the two giant possums sniffed and lapped at it, like hungry puppies. Jack's stomach churned.
"I think I killed him!" Jack's hands shook on the wheel.
"Not a chance so long as his Shadoe is living," Madison said.
Jack dodged a nosher pirate tank materializing between them and the street and spun the wheel hard right, away from the only home he had ever known.
The Rabbit gained speed as he pushed the pedal all the way to the floor. He watched the tank in the mirror as the noshers assessed their position, then pulled out onto the road behind him. The chase was on.
nice1
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Nice job once again. What do you use to make those pictures?
It's all just photoshop picture compositing.
Well done
Thank, Albertogm