Dawn breaks, and the sun casts the sky in deep reds, oranges, infrareds, and slight shades of ultraviolet. With the dawn, comes a new shift of soldiers. Sergeant Callisto’s 2nd Squad takes the place of another. She comes to join me in the early morning light, her breath leaving clouds of fog in the chilly east coast spring.

  “Good morning, Mr. Ryans,” she says with a yawn.

  “Good morning, Sergeant Callisto.”

  She sips at a cup of coffee in her hands as it steams in the air.

  “Been up all night?”

  “I don’t sleep anymore.”

  She snorts before taking another sip.

  “That must be nice, imagine all the stuff I could get done if I didn’t have to sleep.”

  I laugh.

  “Yes, well, on the other hand? No breaks.”

  She grimaces at that.

  “Right. Never mind. Well, figure out anything useful?”

  I shrug.

  “It’s a work in progress. The Fractures violate several core laws of cosmology and astrophysics. The DARPA team has deeply mixed feelings on it.”

  Callisto laughs again.

  “Yeah, I bet. Well, I’m off to make sure my boys don’t get their dicks stuck in some toasters. Let me know if you figure anything out.”

  I give her a wave as she walks away.

  I hear 2nd Squad laughing as they make breakfast. Despite all the horror over the last five days, they still stand ready, willing, and able. Despite the devastation and chaos that magic has brought to Earth, the National Guard still stands. Some things are immortal, I suppose. Courage in the face of danger, desperate last stands, and unwavering defense of your fellow human. I walk over to 2nd Squad. I’d like to get to know those who would face down magical monsters from beyond time and space with nothing but a rifle and courage.

  They all quiet down as I come closer, and give each other looks. Private Eric looks a little awkward. Sergeant Callisto clears her throat.

  “Uh, Mr. Ryans? Is there anything we can do for you?”

  I sit down on the grass with a dull thud.

  “No, I was just wondering more about the guardsmen I’ll be fighting with.”

  Even sitting on the ground, I’m eye level with all of them as they sit in camp chairs around a camp stove.

  Callisto points at a shorter, tanned man.

  “You already know the moron known as Private Eric, and the one next to him is his brother, Private Jericho.”

  Eric looks a little sheepish while Jericho gives me a friendly wave.

  “Why did you two sign up for the National Guard?” I ask.

  Jericho laughs.

  “It was for a girl! I wanted to seem like a badass, but I wasn’t really interested in heading overseas, you know? And besides, the National Guard does good work.”

  Eric cuts in, laughing.

  “And I couldn’t let him be stupid by himself!”

  Jericho continues.

  “And the National Guard was out in force a few times after hurricanes when it got real bad. Handing out water, evacuating people. Real hero stuff.”

  “I didn’t think DC got hurricanes. Are you from here?”

  “Oh, we ain’t. We’re from Greensboro, just outside of Raleigh. We got pulled up here when all the other Fractures down south ruptured. Only Fractures left on the Eastern Seaboard are Washington, Philly, and New York, you see.”

  I nod, and turn to Sergeant Callisto.

  Before I can say anything, she chuckles.

  “Yeah, sure my turn. I’m from Kitty Hawk. Signed up for the same reason, really. National Guard saved my family, yeah? A real bad hurricane few years back came through, wiped out pretty much everything. It got real bad, both bridges got knocked down, we were kinda fucked. The National Guard saved our asses. Figured I should return the favor, yeah?”

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  She points to a tall, lanky young man with glasses.

  “That’s Doc. Well, Private Richardson. He’s the squad’s medic.”

  He waves at me.

  “I’m an EMT down in Raleigh normally, figured signing up as a medic for the National Guard would be good for the resume.”

  He flexes an arm and gives me a sly grin.

  “And for the ladies.”

  Callisto rolls her eyes.

  “Yeah, good luck with that.”

  She then points at another man, and he towers over everyone else. Between his height and bulk, comparing him to me is less comedic and more realistic. Easily 6’10’’ and 350 pounds of all muscle, he has a long, bushy beard and long blonde hair tied into braids cascading down his shoulders.

  “That’s Thor. He doesn’t talk much.”

  He has a foot resting on an LMG, and the camp chair he’s sitting on is clearly struggling to hold its own. He raises a hand.

  “Hello,” he rumbles out, his voice deep and gravely. “I’m a librarian at North Carolina State.”

  I would have raised my eyebrows, if I had any.

  “I know I don’t look the part. I have a PhD in Library Science. I joined for adoption assistance. My husband and I have two children.”

  As Callisto narrows her eyes at me.

  “What about you, Mr. Ryans? Your turn.”

  I shrug.

  “Not much to say, really. I was a mechanical engineering student at Colorado School of Mines. I dropped out a few months ago. I was on vacation in Korea when everything went down.”

  “Why’d you drop out?”

  I slide a hand over my face, a soft grinding noise whispering from it, rather than the screech of metal on metal.

  “…My parents died. Car accident. Just… couldn’t do it anymore, you know?”

  Callisto winces.

  “Ah, fuck. I’m sorry, Mr. Ry—”

  I wave her down.

  “It’s fine, you didn’t know. You can all call me Seth, by the way. If I’m being honest, I’m not really all that comfortable with the pomp and circumstance everyone is treating me with.”

  I sigh, and hold up my bulky metal gauntlets, now my hands.

  “Even with all the magic powers the world has, resurrection isn’t one of them. Ain’t that a fucking shame?”

  Doc sadly nods before turning to look at the Fracture.

  “Yeah. All we get are monsters from fucking holes in space.”

  Some were already here. Three of them wage war to conquer a continent, and the world can only watch.

  Before Callisto can introduce another member, a Lieutenant walks up to us.

  “Mr. Ryans? The Captain would like a word with you, if you would?”

  I slowly come to my feet.

  “I suppose duty calls. Thanks for your time.”

  They all give me a wave as I walk away.

  “I’m sorry, Captain. I wish I could give you more on the Fractures. Unfortunately, we’re still in very early stages of understanding them. Hell, we’re still trying to figure out what they actually look like.”

  Captain Rains sighs before chugging another cup of stale coffee.

  “What do you mean by that? We can see it right there.”

  “It’s… hard to explain. What you see is not the Fracture itself. It’s like trying to guess what a car looks like by just looking at the exhaust. The difference between me and you when it comes to that, is I can look down the tailpipe. Does that make sense?”

  “So, what am I seeing, then? When I look at it?”

  “The Fracture is a high dimensional object, we’re not entirely sure how high yet, but at least seven dimensions for sure. What you see is the ‘shadow’ of that higher dimensional object being projected into our reality. Like how a piece of paper on its side is a two dimensional object, a square, but has a one dimensional shadow, a line. Or like how a cube, a three dimensional object, has a two dimensional shadow, a square. With me so far?”

  The Captain slowly nods.

  “So a higher dimensional object has a lower dimensional shadow. And so we see a three dimensional shadow?”

  “Yes, because human eyes — and mind, for that matter— is only capable of seeing and thinking in three dimensions.”

  “And… you’re not? Limited, that is?”

  “Yes. I’m capable of seeing six dimensions.”

  “How do you know it’s seven dimensions, then?”

  “Lots of observations and extremely complex math done by lots of people far smarter than me.”

  Captain Rains looks down at the map of the city, with locations of various other units strewn all over it before looking back at me.

  “What does it look like to you?”

  I turn away, and look back at the Fracture through the canvas walls of the tent.

  “I cannot hope to describe it to you. It’s not a slight against your intelligence or creativity, it’s just… beyond human. It’s infinity wrapped into a tiny point. Every second I stare at it, I see something new. Something… beautiful. Just looking at it gives me the feeling that if I look for just a second longer, I’ll finally understand it. It’s an ever evolving, ever changing, infinite fractal that is both the same everywhere while never repeating. It is a paradox, forcing its way through into our world.”

  The Captain nods.

  “I can see why it’d be so hypnotizing, then.”

  “I wish you could see it the way I do,” I say sadly.

  He gives me a lopsided grin.

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Late into the afternoon, I find myself staring at the Fracture, once again doing my best to follow along with Doctor Patricks and his Fracture Research Team at DARPA. Honestly, most of my attention isn’t there. It’s on myself, at the moment. It sounds a little arrogant, or maybe narcissistic? Still, there’s much I still don’t understand about myself. I thought that heat, that burning feeling inside was raw, unabated fury, undiluted by human neurochemicals. But now I’m not sure. At least, I don’t think all of it is rage.

  It keeps growing. Moment by moment, hour by hour. It grows hotter, larger, faster, more. Like there’s a star burning brighter, a pulsar spinning faster, or a singularity growing hungrier and hungrier with each nanosecond. It’s terrifying, honestly.

  Mostly because I can’t control it. Even when I’m calm, it grows. When I’m awed by the new sights only I can see, it grows. When laughing at others’ antics, it still grows. It never stops. I don’t know what I can do with it. I don’t know what it’ll do to me, and I’m scared to find out.

  He's certainly changed a lot. I wonder what it would be like to see in the ultraviolet spectrum? In radio? Given how much modern life loves to to use the radio spectrum, it'd probably be very overwhelming.