FULL OBLITERATION (Book #3)

𝕾𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

"How do we stop it?" is my next question.

There's no fooling around. Nika's name is still written on my death note but Ima need all the information outta her before I put this bullet between her eyes. If she thinks she can get away with this, she needs to think again.

"There's only one way I know how.."

"Tell me."

"Depressants," she says. "We made these special capsules that counterbalance the quantum leaping reflexes, like insurance, something to tame the aftermath of our work if it went out of control."

I scoff, "I reckon a zombie apocalypse definitely counts as 'out of control'."

She nods. "Purple Haze was just a serum to slow down the virus in infected humans, but these capsules, they were made specially for the jumpers. It's easy – take a pill a day and you won't leap anymore. Whichever reality you choose to take them in, that's the reality that exists for you."

"So let me get this straight," I chuckle in irritation. "You ruined my life and now you're giving me pills to fix it? A pill that I haveta take every day for the rest of my life?"

"I... Yes, Dean."

"If that ain't a bandaid, I dunno what it is."

"I am profoundly sorry that this happened. We thought the formula failed. I mean, considering this is the outcome, I guess we never succeeded in the first place. Dean, I am not asking for your forgiveness. I am asking for you to understand that we.. I never anticipated that it would go down like this. I just wanted to study quantum leaps."

"So.. So what is this? Are we in another dimension? Or is this a result of your own catastrophe?"

"You're in another dimension where a zombie apocalypse broke loose from a failed study. In other words, there's another dimension out there where there is no apocalypse and just quantum leaps – a successful study. And there is another dimension with no study at all. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of dimensions."

"So what dimension am I leaping to then?"

"I believe, you're in a dimension where the study is ongoing – it has neither failed nor succeeded. The only reason you can jump is due to this dimension."

"This is fucking up my mind. What if the only way to stop it is to die?"

"No. That's the last thing you want happening, trust me. You must die as 'you'."

"What the fuck does that even mean? I am me."

"Through extensive years of study, I figure that, due to you being a jumper, if you were to die in one reality, you would then be left in a catatonic state in the other reality."

"So if I die here, I will be a fucking vegetable in the other dimension?"

"Vice versa, correct."

I groan exasperatedly, looking up at the ceiling. "What have you done to me?"

"Those capsules will help you to avoid that unfavourable outcome. I have the capsules in cryogenic storage here at the ARC, although, I'm sure this isn't the reality you want to take them in?"

"Do you really think I wanna stay in a world where I've lost everyone?" I ask her, rhetoric. "So if I take these pills back in the other world, what happens to me here?"

"The same thing that has always happened to you here when you had those blackouts. But through prolonged capsule use, when 'you' becomes 'you', pieces of you will start to disconnect, you'll become your own oneself again."

I frown, muddled.

"How do I explain this?" she struggles. "Okay, let me think of something... Having the ability to jump will sometimes cause a tear in the spectrum, you may sometimes bring something from one dimension to another without even realising it. Something so small. It's very, very rare for this to happen. Has this ever happened to you?"

"Gauze..." I recall. "I-I-I hurt my elbow in the other dimension in a basketball match between students vs teachers. It was one nasty gash. The sickbay nurse put some gauze over it. That gauze made it to this dimension. At first, I didn't even realise it." I turn my elbow over to show her my scar.

"Exactly! That's it!" she points to it. "The fact that you didn't realise it, it's because 'you' are 'you'. In essence, you have morphed into yourself here in this dimension but you don't know that because you are you. Once you take the pills, 'you' become separated from the 'you' here – you both will have your own lives. Two dimensions, two different lives, not as one."

"So my other me, the one I replaced, will exist here?"

"Correct, Dean. It would be as if you never left."

"And if I stop taking the pills?" I ask.

"Then back to square one: you'll start to have headaches, you'll start to blackout, you'll start quantum leaping to this dimension, and you'll morph into the 'you' here. Whatever you missed out on in this dimension, your brain will morph it into one and you'll remember everything that happened to the other you here."

"'Like as if I never left'..." I repeat her words to myself. "How do I get a hold of those capsules back at home?"

"Here's my number," she hands me a card. "All you need to say is the serum's name: Q-Y-Z-X-01. Nobody outside of NOIR HQ knows what we are working on so it'll be practically impossible for me to dismiss you."

The doorknob rattles.

"Hey, Dean, you in there?" Carmen's voice arises from behind it.

"What do you want, Carmen?"

"Your uncle wants to regroup."

"Okay, I'll be right over."

I tear my eyes away from Nika and enter the glass room the lurker is in. With all the thoughts of guilt, sorrow and brutally happy memories running through my mind, I finally point the gun at the lurker's head and shut my eyes. One breath, one shot, one time.

"Love you, brother."

I pull the trigger.

❖

Uncle Emmett held a meeting with all the people of Safe Zone 2. He informed everyone that there's another place, a much safer place called 'Arcadia'. And that whoever wanted to come is welcome to come. Many agreed to come with us. Tamara with the sprained ankle, Sterlin, Jace, Carmen, me and Amber, amongst so many more. Dad would've wanted us all to be safe in Arcadia. He didn't just sacrifice himself for no reason. This is for them, for Bray, for Mum.

Arcadia.