CHAPTER 2

  "All that is, was and will be

  Universe much too big to see

  Time and space never ending

  Disturbing thoughts, questions pending

  Limitations of human understanding..."

  -Metallica

  ...

  "If Kane is a demon..."

  "We don't know that he is Carl."

  "...if he is. Does that mean hell is a pocket dimension? A construct created to trap people."

  "It is a possibility."

  "Wait...if earth, our universe, is a construct then there has to be a creator. So...gods are just engineers within this, whatever the fuck this is...this void."

  "Theoretically, but youre making some big leaps Carl."

  "Hmm...fair point. This could be purgatory though right?"

  "It fits the description."

  "Well...whatever this place is, I want out. Can you scan for signals?"

  "I have been. I'm only getting faint signals, too faint to track."

  "Shit. What about visual? Let's try thermal."

  His helmets visor clicked as it switched to thermal.

  "Ahh! Crap! Too bright!...shaded thermal!"

  "Sorry Carl."

  "No worries...the spots will go away."

  He blinked his eyes rapidly until his vision had returned.

  "Hey! I see stuff! Thermal flares!"

  He flew toward a thermal flare, expecting to reach it, but it almost seemed to be getting farther away.

  "Is it a false thermal reading?"

  "I do not know Carl."

  He fired a pulse blast toward it. He watched it get smaller and smaller then there was the tiniest plume of blue energy as it hit something.

  "Did you see that? There is something solid there."

  "Do not injure yourself flying into it."

  "Yeah, yeah I know."

  He flew for hours, never seeming to get any closer.

  "I dont understand...how can it look like its right there?"

  "We do not know if it is anything at all Carl."

  "Fuck. I know."

  His stomach grumbled at him. He stopped flying and just floated there. It was impossible to tell which way was up.

  "I need food and sleep...theres no food out here, so I'm going to take a nap. Keep scanning if you want. Not that it matters."

  He closed his eyes and tried to relax. It took time, but sleep finally took him. He snored in his helmet as his body floated through endless white empty space.

  When he woke Nano was calling to him.

  "Carl?"

  "I'm awake...you see something?"

  "Your foot is touching something."

  Carl wiggled his feet, his left foot was nudging against something. It was soft, like a pillow.

  "Relocate small thrusters to my arms so I can turn toward it."

  Little thrusters appeared on his arms near the elbows. They fired sporadically and rotated Carl toward the area where his foot had been. He reached out. It was like putting his hand into a giant marshmallow. Touching it pushed him away in the zero-gravity environment, he had to keep flying towards it.

  "What do I do?"

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  "Can you push your hand into it?"

  "No, I tried, its too spongey. Whenever I try to push into it, it pushes me away from it...theres nothing to hold on to."

  "Can you cut it?"

  A blade slid from under his right wrist, he poked the nothingness. It resisted at first, then the blade went through. He withdrew it and shoved his hand in the tear. It looked like he had no hand now. He pushed his arm further in. There was something hard, a wall.

  He punched it.

  Big mistake.

  It pushed him away from the spot.

  "No! We can't lose this..."

  He flew back to the tiny tear in the whiteness. It was barely visible, just a thin line. He found it again and shoved his hand in.

  "Give me full power, lets blast through."

  His blaster whirred with energy, crackling and popping. He fired.

  It exploded the tiny tear into a three inch hole and threw him back.

  He fired the thrusters and flew back to the hole.

  He stuck his face to the hole, it was pitch black. He reached in, he had chipped away some of the wall.

  "Let's hit it again."

  Again his blaster filled with energy and he fired.

  Again he was blasted away from it. He flew back.

  He repeated this process four more times. The hole was big enough now for him to climb in.

  It wasnt real spacious, but he could duck down and sit on the edge.

  "Well...its progress. Let's try the big barrel. Even if it overheats, at least I can wait here instead of floating in the nothing."

  He got out of the hole and put his hands together. The mag locks connected and locked into place, he was ready.

  He charged it up and fired. The blast sent rocks and debris flying out into the void. He was thrown a good distance away, he recovered and flew back to the hole. He poked his head into the much larger hole. Something bright blue shone at the back of the tunnel.

  "I see something! We're almost through!"

  He could crouch in the opening now, he formed a regular blaster on his right hand and started firing at the back of the hole.

  "Carl! STOP!"

  "What? Why?"

  "I'm detecting..."

  Nano couldn't finish, Carl unconciously fired again and an explosion blew out of the hole. It threw Carl end over end through the void.

  "Carl? Are you still concious?"

  Carl was out.

  "Assuming control of the armor."

  Nano flew Carl back to the hole that was now smoking. Debris floated all around the tear in the void. Nano gripped the side of the hole and scanned the air. Methane levels were down, the explosion had burned most of it off, the rest was leaking into the void. Nano could see a tiny hole at the end of the tunnel they had made. The rock was a reddish color, possibly sandstone. A brittle rock, they should be able to get through the remainder of the wall.

  "Carl?"

  Still no response.

  Nano sat down in the tunnel and waited for Carl to regain conciousness. There was a bright blue light coming through the hole. Maybe they were saved.

  Carl groaned as he came to.

  "Ugh."

  "Carl?"

  "My head is killing me."

  "We must find you some food and water. Hang on a little longer Carl."

  "I know buddy."

  He turned and looked at the hole they had made. A blue light shone at the end. He stood up on weak legs, he felt awful, like his stomach wanted to eat itself. He ducked and crawled to the blue light. It appeared to be some kind of crystal within the sandstone.

  "You ever see anything like this?"

  "No Carl."

  "Huh. How's the power source?"

  "Ready to use. I tried to move as little as possible while you were out."

  "Thanks."

  He formed a blaster and shot at the end of the tunnel, angling at the sides, away from the crystal. After the third shot the right side revealed a shadowy hole, much larger than before.

  "We're through...to something."

  A faint blue glow illuminated the interior of whatever was on the other side.

  "Looks like more of those crystals on the other side. I think im gonna try and kick through, dont want to find out those crystals are explosive or something!"

  "That is probably wise Carl."

  Carl sat on the ground, braced himself with his hands on both sides of the little tunnel and began kicking at the wall. The sandstone began to crumble and it wasnt long before he had kicked his way into a small chamber. The wall he had come through stretched about fifteen feet on either side, and it was covered with the glowing blue crystals. He picked up one of the ones on the ground, from the part of the wall he had kicked through. He held it up in the dim light, the glowing blue inside criss-crossed through the crystal like veins. It was quite beautiful, Carl found it hard to look away.

  "I'm taking some of these...if I ever get back to Skeever, he'll want to see these."

  He collected three small crystals, all roughly the size of a penny roll. The armor on his right leg split open and he dropped them into his cargo pocket.

  As the armor closed he looked down at himself.

  "We can go back to the default chrome armor buddy, we're not in that fake hell anymore."

  His armor reverted to his standard chrome, the spikes disappeared, his helmets eyes changed from red back to their bright neon blue.

  "Now...to find a way out."

  The cavern was small but had a few tunnels connected to it. He picked one at random and began climbing through the cracks. So far they were all spacious and accommodating. He dodged stalagtites that reached all the way to the floor, swinging around them like Fred Astaire on a lamppost. The tunnels seemed to go on forever. After pushing forward for a solid twenty minutes, he found himself at an intersection. The tunnel on the left appeared to descend while the tunnel on the right stayed level. Carl went right. A few minutes into the tunnel Nano broke the silence.

  "I am beginning to pick up signals, radio mostly."

  "So we're getting close to the surface. Good. I can't keep going much longer. My head feels like its going to explode."

  They continued down the tunnel, eventually coming to a small chamber, a dip on its floor was filled with murky water.

  "The signals are very strong above Carl, if you still have the strength, you might be able to punch through."

  The ceiling was about 10 feet up.

  "I can't reach it!"

  He looked around, maybe there was a rock or something he could stand on. There was nothing. He thought about trying to use his thrusters, but in this small of a space, that was no bueno. He stood staring at the room around him. Nothing but the ever present stalagtites and the water. He walked to one of the stalagtites and punched through it at waist level, then started knocking the stuff hanging down off. It left a pedestal about six inches around. He repeated the process on one next to it, then carefully put his foot on the first one.

  "Please hold my weight, please hold my weight..."

  The stone held. He put his other foot on the other pedestal he'd created and stood there a moment, his arms outstretched, getting his center balanced. Then he swung at the ceiling. Rocks and dust rained down on him with each hit. He wobbled, but kept his balance. Every couple of hits he would stop and breathe for a moment. His stomach was rumbling and he felt sick, but he couldn't stop now.

  "Margie! Where's that new doorknob I got?"

  "I put it in the garage!"

  Frank walked to his garage. It was a garage only in the sense that it had once been intended for housing a vehicle. His garage currently housed thirty years of collected junk. He saw the doorknob on his workbench and grabbed it. The door to the back porch had been broken for three weeks now, this was long overdue.

  There was a thud.

  Frank cocked his head.

  Another one.

  "Margie? What are you doing in there?"

  "My crossword. Why? I set the knob on your bench."

  THUMP.

  The floor was shaking beneath him now.

  THUMP.

  "Frank? What are you doing out there? Frank!"

  He ignored her. It was stronger near the driveway. He ran out the side door and looked around. Nothing.

  THUMP.

  It was louder now.

  "What the..."

  THUMP.

  A crack appeared and spread down his driveway.

  THUMP.

  Frank was about to run inside and tell Margie they needed to get under a doorframe when a fist shot up out of the middle of his driveway.

  It pulled back inside, then it shot up again, rocks and concrete flying into the air. Then two glowing blue eyes, something was emerging. Franks breathing was shallow. He stumbled backwards and froze as a figure emerged from the depths. He was snapped out of his frozen fear and ran into his garage and grabbed his axe. He went back out to his driveway. The "thing" was dusting itself off.

  "Wh...what are you?"

  The glowing blue eyes looked at him. Then it stepped toward him. He held the axe in front of him.

  "Stay back! I'm warning you."

  "I'm not here to hurt you. Please...put the axe down."

  His helmet snapped back and he smiled at the man.

  "You're human?"

  "Yeah, just a guy."

  Frank lowered the axe.

  "Well...you fucked up my driveway."

  "Sorry about that. I'm not from around here..."

  He looked around. It looked like a normal suburban neighborhood.

  "...I think."

  "What?"

  "It's a long story. Look, I'll find a way to pay you back for this. Ok?"

  "Uh, ok."

  "So, I know I'm asking a lot, but do you have any water?"

  Frank looked at the man, his armor, his pale face with dark circles under his eyes. He didnt look well.

  "Fine. You dont look healthy though, you stay in the garage. I can't afford to get sick and miss work."

  "Thank you sir. I understand."

  Frank gave him another wary look before waving him into the garage.

  "You sit there...and dont touch anything!"

  Carl sat at the mans workbench and looked around. An old riding mower sat in the corner. The walls were covered with tools, shovels, rakes, even pickaxes. Seemed pretty ordinary. Maybe he had just found a roundabout way back to his own world. One could hope.

  Frank returned with a plastic cup filled with tap water. Carl eagerly drank it down and handed the cup back.

  "Thank you. I'm Carl. Carl Maitland."

  "Frank Masterson."

  "Well Frank, could you tell me where I am?"

  "Krembolt, Taywanna."

  "Huh. Never heard of it."

  "Can you...go now?"

  "Oh. Yeah, sorry."

  Carl got up and headed for the side door. He turned to look at frank as he was about to leave.

  "I promise you, I will find a way to fix your driveway. Thank you for the water."

  Frank, still holding the axe, said nothing.

  Carl left and closed the door quietly behind him.

  He stood in the street, looking at the rows of houses. He looked back at the hole in the driveway. Movement caught his eye, frank looking through the window, a phone to his ear.

  "Shit."

  He started walking, hoping Frank was just telling his friend about his bizarre experience. He knew that wasnt the case when he saw the red and blue lights approaching, the sirens getting steadily louder.

  He didnt blame Frank. It must have been quite the sight seeing some random guy punch his way through a driveway.

  The cars were screeching to a halt around him. Doors opened, men piled out.

  A chorus of "get on the ground" and "dont move" echoed through the evening air. Carl held his hands up.

  "I didn't mean to scare anyone."