Starfall

Agent Flint and Dr. Miles found me in a pretty sorry state. I was curled up in the corner of my room, shaking and muttering about how “I couldn’t stop it.” Not the sort of condition I’d want to be seen in, but I wasn’t feeling too confident at the time.

“I’ve gotten news from the Management Committee.” Flint said. “Given the worsening situation with the Quiet, they have decided to give in to EAT’s demands.”

This was it. Time to fight my way out. I knew where the exit was this time, so I could warp there, take out the guards, and make it past the door….

“But I disagree with their decision, so we’re moving you to another facility before you can be taken by them.”

… or we could do that. That works too.

Normally I would have been happy about that kind of news, but I was still preoccupied with the issues of time. There were only three timelines by the time Agent Flint spoke to me. And one of them had almost entirely cracked apart.

Dr. Miles went ahead of us to the exit. “I’ve modified out files so they’ll say you’re still here. That will buy us some time before the Committee realizes we’ve moved you.” As he spoke, one timeline vanished, and the cracks spread to the second.

Miles and Flint input codes on a computer panel, and the huge steel exit slid open. We were in the warehouse district of some city I didn’t recognize. Though my lack of recognition may have just been from distraction. The cracks had almost entirely consumed the second timeline.

Flint must have noticed I was shaking, because he asked if I was okay. Shook my head. “No. It’s too late. It doesn’t matter if you move me or if we wait for the Committee. We’ve failed either way.”

As I said that, the second timeline was destroyed. In that moment, the cracks spread to the last timeline left in existence. And as they did, the sky above us was torn in half by a massive tear of emptiness. In seconds, smaller cracks spread from it, heading down to the city below.

They were moving too fast for us to do anything. Running would have been just as pointless as standing still. I closed my eye, and waited for the onrushing oblivion.

It never came. Instead of silence, I began to hear screams. I opened my eye, and saw a huge steel tower had appeared in the city. Wires and gears came out of the Tower, and clashed with the cracks. Where they met, the tears were stopped, creating a shattered pattern of wires and meeting across the sky. Power lines lashed down at the streets, grabbing the people below. They were torn apart, and their bones and flesh were used to make more wires. A canopy of bone and steel began to be created over the sky, blocking off the crack above us.

“Get to the cars! Flint shouted as the streets in front were torn apart as the steel pipes beneath them burst from the ground. Started to run, but the wires moved after us faster than we could move. They started to pick the guards off, plucking them from the ground and ripping them to pieces. One of the wires came for me, and instinctively I reached for time. But there were no timelines left to grab.

I couldn’t teleport anymore.

Fuck.

Time to stand and fight, then. I turned around, and my left arm shifted into a blade. I cut down the wire, and the ones which followed after it. By the time I’d sliced them all apart, Flint and Miles had gotten a car started and were shouting for me. I ran over and dived in the car door. One guard was left, but before he could make it to the car another wire grabbed him. With just the three of us left, Flint slammed on the accelerator and we sped out of the city.