Black Mirror

Chapter 29 - Hanno Ucciso L'Uomo Ragno

***ALEX***

"Guys!" Annie's voice calls out somewhere in the middle of all this opaque light. I blink, and every time I do so, the light dims just a bit, revealing a row of metal cylinders in front of me, and another row behind me when I turn around. Also behind me is Harlan, who stands out even with his white skin almost blending into the light.

"Where are we?" I scratch my head. "Did...did Alicia teleport us?"

"She did." Harlan clears his throat and looks around, still blinking rapidly. "Uh...well, I know some light scrivs can do that, but it's one of those powers that's super-rare, you know?"

To my left, feet slap against the floor. It's Annie, and she's looking frantic. "Guys...guys..." She pants, stopping to catch her breath. "Over here..." She jerks her thumb back into the infinite light around us, somewhere behind her.

"What is it?" I follow Harlan as we walk that way.

"It's...well, you should see it for yourself." She leads us to a point in one of the rows of cylinders where the otherwise uninterrupted row is broken. One cylinder is about a foot out from its neighbors, with steam issuing from a set of small holes near the bottom.

Near the top is a window through which we can see the cylinder's contents.

It's Russell, looking strangely serene as he stands with his eyes and mouth closed - not exactly his natural state, either of those. No glasses, either. And visible at the very bottom of the window is a set of two or three IV lines connecting to some artery - subclavian, I think. They stick out of his bare chest like he's in a hospital bed.

"Holy shit..." I blink, unable to believe what I'm seeing. Now I'm remembering how Alicia said Russell was dead, though I'd disregarded it in the heat of the moment to work at pissing her off.

"Y-Y-You didn't know?" Harlan gulps, and I see him sobbing, as is Annie. "You saw the bombing at the Guardian building, right? H-He was there."

"Wait, but that means..." I gasp. "How the hell did we get here?"

Faintly, I hear the sound of music coming towards us. Not just any music, either - I think it's the theme from Ghostbusters. And it's not only tinny, like it's coming from someone's earbuds, but I also hear, more loudly and clearly, a guy whistling the tune. I turn to look at the music's source and spot it coming out of the light - another guy in glasses, one I haven't seen in the flesh in a long, long time.

He stops short upon seeing us, then takes his earbuds out and adjusts his glasses. "Hmm. Last time I saw you, lady, you basically condemned me to die. Again."

"Steve?" I approach him first.

Steve Walker pockets his earbuds (better hope he doesn't have Elves in tow) and waves one hand in the air. The light assault on our eyes dims away, and instead, we mostly see the shiny stainless-steel color of the rows of cylinders around us. "Didn't I say I was gonna send a postcard? You guys got it, right? The postcard, and the first part of the map to that Black Mirror thing? Did you use it? Thompson really wants to know, but he's been stuck in his pod for a while. Charging, you know?"

I clear my throat to stop his rambling. "Steve...are we in the Third 'Verse?"

"Shit, the secret's out..." He looks around, as if expecting people to start coming out of the cylinders and form a zombie army against us. A naked zombie army, I bet, based on what we saw of Russell. Upper chest and above only, but anything else would have been TMI, especially for his siblings. "Well...wait, you're not dead, are you? This whole row here just filled up, like, an hour ago...you're not from...wait, no, you wouldn't be." He chuckles under his breath. "No, not when you've still got your threads. I had to steal these from back in the Second last time I went through there. So...no, I guess you're still alive.