ZAP Guild

Relatively Speaking

A thousand mirrors stretched out before Zak. Each mirror reflected him, but some looked slightly different. In one mirror, he had dark brown hair. In another mirror, he had black hair. Also, the mirrors didn't reflect what he was doing. One mirror showed him in a classroom taking an exam. Another showed him working at a fast food restaurant. One just reflected back a blue jay building a nest.

"Out of a near infinite number of realms, there has to be one with a 'happy ending.'"

Zak scratched his head as he stared at the reflection where he led a yoga class. Zak never saw his attacker; something had smacked into him with a tackle. This all black force tried to strangle him. Zak fought back as the two figures spiraled through the white emptiness. For a moment Zak wondered if the old man he met in the Wastelands had set him up.

***

Zak gasped. He'd only been conscious for a moment, but he could already feel the oppressive heat. The sky was a very pale blue with no clouds in sight. The sand felt hot caused by the heat of the burning orb in the sky.

A staff smacked Zak's side. "You alive?" an elderly, yet strong, voice said.

Zak slowly turned his head to face an old man in a white robe with a white, chest-long beard. He also had shoulder length white hair that seemed...poofy. He reminded Zak of a cartoon character. "I'm alive."

"Good. It'd been a real pain to bury you. So, welcome to the Wastelands. Enjoy a lifetime of avoiding Death Bandits and scrounging for water and resources." The man turned and started walking away. "See ya."

"But...I got to get back to the Company."

The old man stopped. "Oh, so you're one of them." He once again faced Zak. "That's too bad. There's no way out of the Wastelands. If there was, it wouldn't be called the Wastelands." He smiled broadly showing his surprisingly white teeth. Zak, who'd sat up by now, bent over in defeat. His head hung in depression. The old man grumbled for a second then leaned on his staff and sighed. "Oh, alright, there is one way to escape."

Zak practically leapt as he stood. "How?"

The old man gave a "duh" shrug, "Same way you always travel the realms: a ZAP Gate. Shame, none exist in the Wastelands."

"But you said—"

"Calm yourself, Zachary."

"How'd you know my name?"

The old man gave a pfft as he ignored Zak's question. "Do you even know what a ZAP Gate is?" By now Zak was sick of the riddles and just gave the man a dirty, annoyed look. "It's choice. Being a Zapper, you know that each realm was created by choice. One day, you are given the choice between becoming a plumber or a cop. At this point, Uncertainty makes it so that you are both a cop and a plumber. But then you choose to become a cop. And since matter and energy can't be destroyed, the choice of you becoming a plumber still exists."

Zak urged the man to continue. "You've observed that world where you became a cop. But what if you observed the world where you became a plumber? You'd be in that world where you became a plumber, but the cop-world would still exist. It's the same reason why those who can see the future only see fragments or symbols. If they saw the whole thing then we would be doomed to live what they saw; they observed the 'future-world' and so Uncertainty was removed."

All Zak could do was blink at the man. The old man sighed. "Let's try this. A rocket is going super fast, but the person on the rocket doesn't feel it. To them everything is going normally. But to anyone outside the rocket, it's a blur. Or how 30 minutes in a doctor's waiting room can feel like an eternity while 30 minutes of your favorite TV show feels like only a second. To everyone else, it was 30 minutes, but to you...it was different. Reality is, relatively speaking, different for you."

"So then why isn't everyone hopping reality all the time?"

"First, you'd have to observe the other world, which can be difficult. Second, you're not quite like everyone else." Zak started to panic; how could this old man know. "You can program matter, even on yourself, which gives you your copy and creative abilities. You've been through the gates so many time, you know the way to the Everything by heart. You can observe the other worlds and find the one where you chose not go to that dying world."

"So...what you're saying is that reality is what I make it...?"

The old man gave Zak a couple of thumbs up. "Bingo, bright boy. Attitude, heh-heh, is everything."

"But the Everything is a mess of every moment in time, every spot in space, and every reality all happening at once."

"But," said the old man holding up a finger, "that is only relative to you," he then pointed a finger to Zak's chest. "People can slow down their perception of time in moments of danger or when they're waiting in the doctor's office. You can slow down the Everything and find your way home."

"How do I get to the Everything without a gate?"

The old man spread his arms out and spun slowly. "It is all around us. It flows through all time and space."

"I swear if you say, it binds us all, I'll hurt you."

The old man shrugged then said, "Give it a shot. The worst that can happen is it won't work and you'll be trapped here forever."

Zak made an uncertain smirk. "I think I prefer Yoda's saying better." Zak shook his arms and took a few deep breaths in order to relax. He then pulled his goggles over his eyes and closed them.

"Feel the harmony of the universe," said the old man. "Don't command it or fight it. Just let it be. Know it and it's purpose as well as you. Slow down the Every..."

Suddenly, the old man's voice was gone. Zak opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by thousands of mirrors.

***

After finally coming to a stop, Zak found himself in a place worst than the Wastelands: the rim of an active volcano.

A man in a black business suit began to approach Zak. The man's skin looked similar to ash and his business suit had sharp looking shoulder pads. "You just had to mess around. But at least you can't go back home." Zak's confused expression said everything. "You didn't make a choice to go to that dying world; you blindly followed what THEY said. You made no choice, so there is no world where you made the opposite. Now the best you can do is be stuck on a volcano...with me." The man faced the volcano as embers of fire shot skyward; he then began to chant.

The volcano started to shake more. The ground began to crack. Molten rock started to bubble out. The man began to laugh as the volcano's smoke covered him. Soon, he was gone. Zak finally gathered his wits and ran. He started sliding down the side of the mountain. But, it was pointless. The volcano exploded into a fiery storm of rocks, ash, and lava. Zak was blown into the air. As Zak spun through the air like a sock in a dryer, he regretted having come in to work today.

Wait a minute, thought Zak. I didn't decide to go to the dying world. But I did decide to go into work. After his kiss with Jess in the date planner world, he'd thought about skipping work and talking to Jess about what the kiss meant. Was she just playing her part as the story's Love Interest or had she really wanted to kiss him. Did she feel the same way he did?

Zak closed his eyes and wondered what would have happened had he gone after Jess instead of going to work. A smile crept across his face.

"Zak," came a familiar voice.

Zak opened his eyes to see Jess's caring face. He barely had a chance to say anything before Jess kissed him.

Yeah, thought Zak, this is a much better ending.
_____
My entry for the ScienceFiction SciFi Competitions and Challenges May prompt "Perception."