Aliens From the Multiverse

Chapter 7

Once the Metro doors opened and both Matts stepped out, did the original Matt feel a sense of relief that they had escaped danger. Inside a public restroom in the train station, the double stitched their wounds with they type of sewing kit given away at hotels and thrift stores. The wounds should heal with no problem and they should avoid breaking the stitches by running or some other rigorous activity. When they left the restroom, he noticed his old high school crush leaving a train. Matt was an idealist and a romanticist, but he hadn't the courage to put his ideas into action. So he stood still, looking wistfully at the curly headed brunette carrying a black satchel, feeling both fearful of and aching to be seen.

"What's wrong," his double asked. "You look like a clam, always shut up inside with your emotions. You've got to open yourself up more so the rest of us can see the pearl inside of you. Remember, it's not your slouchy, slovenly and overall distressed appearance that counts when you're in public, but you're beautiful mind."

"Shut up", the original Matt said. Though he felt usually reserved with strangers, he felt he could be honest with this person, because chatting with him almost felt like talking to himself, something he did more than he'd like to admit. "It's that brunette," he admitted. "Ever since we took the same class in high school, I've dreamed of getting to know her better. Her name's Joyce and she's the most saintly creature in the world, and when she laughs it's like diamonds are showered across the floor," he hesitated as if embarrassed of what he was about to say. "One time I asked her out to the school prom, and I was so overwhelmed when she agreed that I couldn't believe it. It was only a few hours later that she told me she couldn't go to the prom with me, for reasons unspoken."

His double had been listening seriously up until now, but was guffawing by the time he finished. "You crack me up man. This girl here, I've seen a thousand just like her, she's not all so special as you make her out to be. The problem with you is that you live in lala land. You project your ideals onto others, and build them up to what they are not. So they don't live up to your expectations or even worse, you don't have the courage to even approach them. Let me show you how easy it is."

As he got up to leave, the original Matt gripped his wrist.

"Wait, if you didn't know that was Joyce, that must mean she belongs to your universe. What happens to the Joyce in the universe I'm from?"

"Can't you see? There is no my universe and your universe. There is one universe, and we're living in it. We're creating a new universe Matt that is greater that is the sum total of our universes. The best parts of every universe will go into this universe. There doesn't need to be a lonely Matt wasting away in a cacoon hardened by fear. We can help each other lead the lives we want. What's good for me is good for you."

"What about what's good for Joyce?"

"Joyce can't even tell you what's good for herself. Only we are in a position to say what is good for everyone. We are elevated beings with the ability to peer into different realms of the universe, weigh the consequences of our actions and chart the best path forward. I assure you, what's good for us will also be what's good for Joyce."

With that, Matt saw his double approaching his crush, waving and yelling above the din, "Joyce, never thought I'd see you here!" Joyce turned toward his double and smiled radiantly, "Whatt's up Matt? Where are you off to?" The original Matt blinked twice and saw the same Joyce departing as if she had never struck up a conversation, his double nowhere to be seen.

Matt rubbed his eyes, struggling to discern what was real. And the curly wisps of Joyce's hair and her deep green eyes manifested themselves again into a vision of his double chatting up Joyce, before they parted amicably with the double triumphantly holding up a slip of paper in his hand. Though his double hadn't the slightest idea who Joyce was before, she had appeared to recognize him. Maybe this was a new universe after all, and they were rewriting history. The double handed Matt the slip of paper, which had Joyce's number on it.

"That wasn't so hard was it," he said. "She digs you, but she says you're super shy and awkward. We can work on that."

Matt blushed and glowed inwardly, but felt a vague uneasiness that his double was privy to one of the most intimate details of his life. As he stuffed the phone number in his wallet, a rumbling shook the platform as the PA system announced, "Train 666 arriving." Onlookers were running away from the platform as the grinding of wheels against rail came to a crescendo. Then all hell broke loose. The 55 ton train with more than 200 passengers aboard smashed into the terminal, sending pieces of panels flying in all directions and in some cases decapitating bystanders. The passengers inside the train were thrown around like rag dolls, with several sent flying through the windows of the train onto the platform. The onlookers who didn't have time to get off the platform were either struck by parts of the train, of which only a blazing heap of metal remained, or were caught up in the inferno. Amazingly, Matt and his double had been unscathed by the ordeal though debris littered the concrete around them. His clone looked unperturbed over the entire scene.

"It's just as I thought," the double murmured. "Our coexistence is a cancer to the multiverse. Since the overlords don't know about our existence yet, they are trying to get rid of everyone who might know us in order to cut us off from the world. We must not delay, it's only a matter of time before they are able to pinpoint our identities and eradicate every contact we've had across the multiverse."

"Were those people I knew or would've known," Matt asked, repressing the urge to ask whether Joyce had been one of the victims of the train wreck.

The double divined Matt's reason for asking. "Not to worry, Joyce is fine. You can even call her yourself, it might even show her that you care for her. That accident wasn't directly connected to us, though the algorithm governing the multiverse has guessed the general proximity the thread, which is us, is coming from. Which is yet another reason we've got to get moving. That attack was way too close for comfort. The more versions of ourselves we can reunite, the closer we will be to breaking out of the simulation. You can see the reaction we've provoked from one thread of time merging with another, just imagine what will happen if we've brought all threads of time into the present universe."

"I don't know," Matt said hesitantly. "Even if what you say is true, that those alien creatures are subjugating humanity in the confines of a simulated universe, what would the end goal be? Would it be worth the cost that may be several magnitudes of what we just witnessed?"

"Freedom is worth any price," the double said. "It is the axel upon which our lives revolve. So far that axel has spun the cogs of a master race, sucking up all individual creativity to feed an insatiable appetite to survive at the expense of everyone else. It may not mean much to someone without perspective, but even if you step back you can appreciate how undesirable your circumstances have become. The entire race has participated in the rats race from the start with our overlords the apex predators. The only thing from keeping this totem pole of human hierarchy from toppling is the fear of ending up as the next rung down. If people wake up to this fact they will wake up to the evil underpinnings of the multiverse and join us in our fight for freedom."