Apocalypse: A New World

Chapter XXI: Infinite Multiplication

The spaceship went headfirst into the black hole. The lights all went out and the glass began to crack. I wheeled as fast as I could to the locker where we had stored our spacesuits. I wore one myself, and threw the other spacesuits to the others. Luckily, Melissa's spacesuit had been in her vessel before she had left.

It turned dark. The oxygen supply was now limited. Everything began to fall towards the front. However, now that everyone had put on their spacesuits, I could not tell who was who here.

Then I felt the jolt. The spaceship was increasing its speed all of a sudden. We began to get thinner and thinner. This was alarmingly painful. But the ship was not affected. The graphene of this universe was stronger than a black hole's gravity.

I was in more and more pain. In fact I was in so much pain that it was the only thing I could focus on. After that, I blacked out.

When I woke up, the spaceship was intact. And I saw someone in front of me. But I wasn't facing them. I couldn't talk either. So to get their attention, I knocked on their helmet. As soon as I did, I felt a tap on my own helmet. This shocked me. I tried it again and felt the tapping again. Then I looked around.

Then it hit me. The bodies I had seen while coming inside the black hole, were all me. Me in distorted spacetime. I looked around, and sure enough, there were many Apollos in the ship, doing the exact thing they were. Where were the others then?

Then I noticed something else. I was no longer inside the spaceship. There was a light ahead. But why could I see more of me now than before? I just couldn't understand it. Everything around me was multiplied.

I tried to call Phoenix, but my voice wouldn't work. It was then that I realised that I was floating again. Then I remembered I could change time here. I did, until I saw Phoenix. He stared at me, wondering how he got there.

But that wasn't it. Now there were infinite Phoenixes around me as well, with their metal arms sticking out of the suit as usual. He looked at me, confused and then he waved his metal arm. So did the other Phoenixes. To be honest, I did not even know who the real Phoenix was.

So this was how I was going to die. There was no way I'd be able to take that pressure again. And even if this spaceship survived, there was no way we would. We were truly inside the black hole. The spherical black hole yet again.

Then it hit me. If I could reverse time, I could repair the spaceship. While we'd be moving in one direction continuously, the spaceship would at least become what it was again.

So I did it. I reversed time. And here it was. The insides of the spaceship, as good as new! But inside, it still remained dark. The windows were still cracked. The glass on the floor from the bulbs remained as it was, on the floor. It looked like all the graphene here had been wasted. It had been a lie, to give us confidence to escape. It obviously could not be used to be strong enough to repair the ship. There were millions of Apollos inside anyways. I had to move myself and Phoenix in certain ways such that the other Apollos and Phoenixes would not get hurt as I fixed the ship. But I could not see anyone else there. Even after that, I was unable to repair the ship after a certain point.

"Come on!" I thought.

Then I realised that the ship had already begun to break the moment we had gotten too close to the black hole. It wasn't inside the black hole, so I could bring its back to the original state inside the black hole, because it had never been in its original state inside the black hole.

And then I had noticed something else.

My vision had cleared up. There were no more mini-black holes around me anymore. Nothing that would follow me wherever I went. But that was far from my concern now. My only concern was the black hole we were inside.

Even though we had come out of one before, I did not understand a lot of things. The things that were too much for my brain to process gave me a headache. I reversed time on myself so that I wouldn't. I began to feel hungry as well. So, I had to reverse time for that as well. I can't really explain how I did it. I just knew I could. And I did.

The ship headed straight for the bright portion which was going to crush us. Except, after that, if it succeeded in crushing the graphene spaceship we were all goners. Not that we weren't, anyways. I kept refilling all oxygen tanks using time.

I took a seat and looked outside, scared nevertheless. I could stand while I was inside the black hole. It felt like my legs were back.

Even if we did make it back to our universe, any planet would have to be really far away. And would our universe even exist? I mean, millions of years would definitely have passed around a black hole. And inside? It would probably be infinite amount of time, which could lead to the end of out universe. It could be a universe in fragments, or a universe too compact. If we were lucky, it wouldn't be too different from the universe we knew.

Everything was undetermined. I couldn't see how we'd be able to get out of this. I wanted to hug Phoenix, but I didn't want to risk anything. However, he came and sat next to me. The smile from his helmet said wonderful things, and it was more than words can describe.

But where were the others? I got up and began searching for them. To my horror, as soon as I stumbled upon George, I saw him bleeding. I bent down to check his heartbeat. There was no pulse. He was dead. His spacesuit had come off. The blood on him was still fresh. He had been on the edge of the spaceship, when it was being fixed.

I had killed George. As soon as I saw his body, it multiplied all over the ship, making me feel just as many times as guilty. But then, of course, I did the thing that I was getting used to. Reversed time on his body. He got up and looked at me, as did all of his doppelgangers here.

The spacesuit was back on his body, and he stood up, looking confused. I knew the brain did not forget events that happened inside the black hole. But then, George hugged me so suddenly, it scared me. I was glad, for the first time, that I couldn't speak. He knew I had saved his life. He also looked confused since I was standing.

I went to look for Tom and Fred. They were both fine, and they multiplied too. They did not have the expressionless faces on. And this was the second time I had seen them with expressions. This time, they were actually scared too.

Why had I agreed to this mission? It was suicide, which would mean the death of everyone here. Everyone's lives here were at risk, because of me. If I survived this trip, I did not know how I'd face others. I had brought them into this. We could have waited on Earth longer. Instead, I made a rash decisions, which endangered all my friends, including doppelganger Melissa.

The Earth's destruction felt like it had happened so long ago. Like a lifetime ago. Which it had. Definitely a lot more than a lifetime. But for us, it had only been about three years. So much had happened in about three years.

I gestured everyone to take a seat. Outside the spaceship window, I saw more spaceships. The seats began multiplying. The pace of multiplying of it all was increasing.

But I had not noticed the bright source of light that was getting closer to us this whole time. By that time, it was too late.

The spaceship headed for that white source of light. The dust inside fell, and we all felt a force pushing us inwards. We all bounced along the ship, and with a speed almost as much as the speed of light, we were shot out of the white hole.

But then I noticed several things.

Everything here seemed to have been stretched out all over. Stars were further away than they normally were. The spaceship was extra thick and large. Everyone was bigger, including...

Fred's body. It lay motionless on the floor and his body clearly showed he was dead. I was bleeding all over. My body ached all over. I had also grown to fit the environment.

"No, no, no, no," muttered Phoenix, hurryingover to me. I could no longer feel my legs, yet again. But the rest of my bodyached. And then I blacked out.