Switchback

Chapter 47

Richard woke on the ground, confused and surprised to be alive. His surroundings were a small section of the Morgue - about twenty feet in diameter. It contained part of the floor, half the examination table and a piece of wall. This stood in the middle of an enormous white room. There was nothing else around.

Morris sat up beside him and began to rub the head of his stolen body. Richard looked for Sands – he was nowhere to be seen.

"What the fuck just happened?" Richard asked. A sharp pain throbbed behind his eyes. He winced against it.

"Matter transport. It's called a Bubble. Sands came up with it years ago as an evacuation device. Never went public." Morris winced as well. "Side effect is a migraine. Never could figure out why. Goes away in exactly an hour."

He got up and stretched. Richard did the same and swayed slightly.

"Was this planned?"

"Of course!" Morris moved to the edge of the Morgue floor and hopped to the tile a short distance below. "Every minute."

"How is that even possible?"

Morris shrugged.

"Does he have a Time Machine?"

This summoned a chuckle. "No. Not that he hasn't tried. There were issues with Paradoxes that made him step away. As for what's going on now - it's just his talent for pushing the world in the direction he wants – consequences be damned."

Richard followed Morris and dropped to the ground. He was surprised to see the Bubble had also taken sections of the building's structure – chunks of concrete, steel beam, electrical conduit and plumbing.

They started across the room – Morris led. His confident stride made it clear he knew the space. Without him Richard would have been lost. Bright lights caused the white walls and floor to glow - this melted them into a void and blurred any sense of direction. The only point of reference was the chunk of Morgue behind them and it was fading into the distance.

"What is this place?" Richard asked.

"It's used for all sorts of things," said Morris. "Most of the unstable experiments get run in here. Designed to contain a lot of chaos - walls, roof and floor are thick and reinforced with some wild science."

After a significant walk a door appeared in the distance. Richard couldn't help but wonder if Morris had known it was there or if they had stumbled upon it by sheer luck.

"There's one of these every few feet," Morris said over his shoulder before Richard could ask. "Otherwise no one would get out of here."

Instead of a handle there was a black number pad. He punched in a sequence when they arrived and it opened without a sound.

On the other side was a round hallway. Following it delivered them to a familiar room – Sands enormous Lab.

"Welcome gentlemen!" Sands boomed. At first Richard didn't see him – he was hiding on the other side of a large drum covered in lights. When Sands stepped out from behind it his stomach dropped. He was still in Evs body and the grin on its face was terrifying – equal parts excitement and madness. "That was a hell of an adventure! Better than a shot of adrenaline. Woke me right up!"

Morris held out a hand to Richard. "I need what you grabbed."

Richard reached into his pocket and pulled out the small bag of hair. He gave it up without reluctance. His plans hadn't wavered at all despite Maxwell's warnings.

As soon as Morris had the bag he turned and walked away, navigating around a haphazard stack of machinery before disappearing behind a steel shelving unit.