Black Mirror

Chapter 30 - Crossfire

***FIONNA***

Grace has to search around for the door to the Third 'Verse, and it takes her several tries to get the right one. Before she does so, she first opens doors to a teenage boy's messy room (probably belonging to Yash, or maybe his kid brother, whatever his name was), a kitchen crewed by a chain gang of pirates (the bandannas are the giveaway), and a yawning darkness interrupted only by a few distant, but somehow still burning-hot, flashes of fire. A Dantean Inferno if ever there was one, just minus the blood, guts, and shit. (And I do mean shit, by the way. Literally. In case you never read that book in freshman-year Honors English.)

And then finally she opens the right door, perhaps the most nondescript one in the entire Terminal. It's pretty much plain white, with no identifying symbol to suggest a Third 'Verse lying in wait on the other side. And inside, I'm actually more than a bit surprised to see rows upon infinite rows of steam-cloaked metal cryo-pods stretching into the light.

What do you know? Maybe Elijah was right about the Third 'Verse being some kind of dream machine. Is this where we all end up after we die?

Don't ask me, Grace thinks. I'll never get to live here, I don't think.

Not wanting to think about the ramifications of what she's just said, I move past her and walk down the first corridor directly in front of me. Somewhere way down the line, I hear a faint voice - male, I think. As I get closer to its source, the shapes of people form in the fog, and I recognize a few of them, even with their backs turned, based on their clothes. Annie, Harlan...and Alex. There's a fourth figure, a guy based on the shape of his body, standing kind of awkwardly between Alex and Annie and leaning to one side just a bit. He's much shorter than Alex, so I think I have an idea who he is.

He turns around and my guess is confirmed. Steve Walker. He nudges Alex, who gets a look at me, then waves me forward. "Just in time to fight the zombies, guys."

Now I realize how many of my friends are with me right now. A look around reveals Gabe, Kelly, and Gideon following closely behind me. Everyone else - I guess that means Grace too - must be back in the Terminal, keeping Alicia restrained. And those that are here? They're getting their elementals ready, as am I.

"Don't kill any of 'em," says Annie.

"Especially not Russell," Harlan chimes in.

"Uh, you realize all of them are technically twice dead, right?" Steve points out.

"Not Michael," says Alex.

I look over his shoulder, standing on tiptoe to do so. "I'm guessing Michael's the Brit? Blond, sorta looks like James Paxton's evil twin?"

"Who now?"

"Son of Bill."

Alex does a facepalm. "Oh. Yeah, I can sorta see it too now. But you don't think he looks like Gabe?"

Gabe shakes his head as he gets his own first glimpse of Mr. Michael the Brit Twit. "Like me? In his dreams. Though he does look more like an elf boy than I do."

Michael shakes his fluffy blond head. "You know I can hear you all chattering away, right? Are we gonna fight or what?"

"You really wanna do this?" Kelly calls out. "I'm pretty sure nobody sane wants to fight people he doesn't even know."

"True, I don't really know you." Michael snaps his fingers, and the crowd of people around him - people I'm only now noticing are all in their underwear - advance slowly. "But here's the thing. I've had enough of Alicia's experiments sending people to this 'verse where they don't belong, and of all the experiments that led you all here to this place." He cocks his head. "I'm especially looking at the two Breakers. If you hadn't been made the way you had, I'd have a lot less bullshit to put up with day in and day out."