Won't Catch Me!

Chapter 1 - The Key

Chapter 1 - The Key

“Cissy, I don’t want you to do this,” he stared into my eyes, his hands cupping my face.

I bit my lip and tried to avoid his piercing eyes, “Joel, we’ve been over this.  This is what has to happen.  You know this.”

His jaw muscles flinched as his eyes tightened.  I understood his frustration but there was nothing I could do about it.  So I ignored his impatient snort.

“This is the only way.  I have to try.  They have to find out if there is a threat and I have to know, you know, if what they say is true,” I cringed, “I doubt that I can even open the gate.  This is probably a lot of trouble for nothing.”

He dropped his hands to his side only to scrunch them into fists. Something told me he wasn’t convinced.

I looked away.  The courtyard around us was teeming with people.  Technicians were monitoring everything from my vitals’ to the air humidity level and latent heat levels.  A group of scientists were arguing using big words.  Several highly ranked officers of some army were discussing strategy using acronyms that meant nothing to me. There was even a delegation of senior management who stood back watching, writing reports and probably composing whole chapters of their memoirs as they chalked up this to a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I felt like a lab rat in more ways than one. 

Gavin seemed to be the only one enjoying this circus.  He was conversing with one of the generals about something called ‘AOC’ and finding a ‘POC’ and what to do if something called ‘FUBAR’ occurred, while checking out both the female and male medical staff who circled us and fussed over the blipping equipment.  He even teased Grant about missing his ‘hot-little-ass’ while Grant was glaring at us like everything was our fault. 

Maybe it was our fault.  Maybe it was my fault.  I just didn’t know and that was a big reason why I had to do this.

“I should be going with you,” Joel huffed for the millionth time. 

I couldn’t help the small smile.  I knew this was eating him up but his childish sulk was kind of cute.  I didn’t even both to speak the reply, it had all been said before.  He was the only dimensioneer that D-zero, his dimension, had so the Company couldn’t afford to risk him.  If something did happen to us then they wouldn’t have a hope of avoiding Dimension-One.  If D-one was set on conquering cross-dimensional then they needed someone who had the gene.  Joel was the only one that inherited the full dimensioneer gene from his father.  He could jump without fear of essence sickness. 

So they were sending Gavin and I - the aliens, the ring-ins, the stowaways who didn’t belong in this dimension.  I would have called us disposables but if this works then I would be more valuable to them than Joel.  Which was possibly another reason this wasn’t sitting right with him, but I didn’t want to think about that right now.    

 I was trying to stay positive about this.  But Joel’s mood was infectious.  Let’s face it, I didn’t like going without him either.  It was ironic really.  Joel and I ran from the company to prevent them from separating us.  We ran from Blair and Grant who chased us across the dimensions, because we refused to be used by the company.  Now, here we are - Dimension Zero, Company House, standing here waiting for the Dimension Gate to open that will take me away from Joel.  We are now working with the villains and doing exactly what we fought to avoid. 

It wasn’t like we really had a choice.  If we wanted to be together then I had to try this.  The company was convinced that I could open the gate between D-zero and D-one and nothing I could say or do would sway them from that belief.  According to them, after they had negotiated the treaty the dimension was locked to everyone except those who were created by D-one.  They think  that I, or should I say that Francis King clones, were created in the genetic material manufacturing laboratories of D-one and then planted into each dimension for some unknown purpose.  And this is what makes me a walking, talking key that will open the gate to this warmongering dimension.