Touched - Order of Odium: Book One

Together - 3

They arrived just as suddenly in U20 as they did in U10, in almost the same spot as before, but it was becoming harder to tell with the various changes that appear with each new universe they teleport to. Michelle and Daniel looked around at their surroundings. Many things were similar, such as there being makeshift housing located at varying places along the grounds underneath the Warehouse. In this universe, the "houses" were much more run-down than in U10, with half of them not even having much of a roof aside from a few scraps of plastic or tarp.

Michelle spoke first. "Wow, this place is worse than the other. I wonder what the problem is here? The economy? Police?"

Daniel shook his head as he stared at differing points of what used to be his home in his own universe. "I don't know. It was bad in our universe too, but you had to live inside the area to notice the worst of it. Here..." he stopped talking for a moment to gather his thoughts. "It's like they don't even have the black market economy we had in our universe. We all did and sold things that I'm not proud of, but it kept us and the others alive. It looks like they don't even have that here."

They stood silently for a moment, taking in their surroundings and noting the differences.

Daniel sighed and said, "Okay, nothing we can do here anyway, I guess. Do you want to go ahead and jump to U30?"

"Yeah, but I have a question first. Did Alek or Steven tell you where the artifact we are supposed to get is going to be located? They didn't mention it to me."

Daniel nodded. "They said it would be here, well, where what we used to call 'The Shade' is. The encampment that I used to live in before being arrested by the police. We never really had time to talk about our lives outside of The Order, have we?" he said, looking at Michelle.

"No, I guess we haven't. We just got sort of thrown together to do this at the last second, huh? How long did you live in 'The Shade?', and seriously, you guys couldn't come up with a better name than 'The Shade'? It sounds like a second grader came up with the name." Michelle said, attempting to get Daniel not to look so sullen.

"I lived there, for, I don't know, most of my life. I left my family when I was fourteen. We were poor and lived in group homes or were homeless for the most part, and I was tired of it. My parents tried to make money to help us get by, but you know how the economy is, or was, in our universe. Too many people, not enough jobs, and so many of the old jobs were taken over by machinery. Why pay for labor when you can buy a machine once and only have to get it occasionally serviced, you know? We had the universal basic income, sure, but the people in charge made it so low that we still struggled to buy groceries, let alone afford somewhere to live."

Daniel stopped speaking for a moment, staring out at the encampment once again. He sighed and continued, "After I left home I found this place. Everyone at my school knew about it or at least heard rumors about it, but I figured if the rumors weren't true, I could always just go back to my shitty life at home. It turned out to be true, and one of the founders 'took me under his wing' so to speak. He taught me how to survive out there. How to make money. Selling drugs like Haze to people on the outside who could not only afford it but would pay a good amount for it, unlike the users we had that live in these shacks here. We had a good thing going there, for all the bad we caused.

We had lights and power for everyone in the camp, and we even had plumbing, can you believe that? Fucking working bathrooms and showers in the middle of nowhere. All kinds of people were put out of jobs by overpopulation, the shitty economy, or machinery that we had people who could do almost anything. That's how we got the plumbing, the lights, the nicer houses closer to the middle of the camp. It was much better than my old life; even if I was helping to ruin others by selling drugs, I knew they could get addicted to, psychologically at least. It wasn't the best life, but it was a life, you know?"

Michelle nodded. No, she didn't know. She had lived pretty much the opposite of Daniel, but it didn't feel like the right time to mention that.

"Is that why you seem sad right now? Because of how dilapidated everything looks here? Compared to our universe, anyway." Michelle said.

"Dilapidated? You mean 'how much of a shithole this place looks?' Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, I know this isn't where I used to live, but thinking about all the people I might know from our universe that might be struggling so much more here. I know I can't help them, but it still feels bad. And if it's this bad in this universe, imagine how bad it is going to be in U30 and U39. It might make this place look like fucking Disneyland."

"Disneyland? What's that?" Michelle asked.

"What? They don't teach history in your school?"

"They did, but they never mentioned anything about a 'Disneyland.' Is it the same thing as those people who used to make movies a long time ago?"

Daniel nodded, "'A long time ago' is an understatement, but yeah, it was the same company. Disneyland was an amusement park based on characters from Disney movies. It was pretty extravagant. Apparently, there was another place like it called 'Disney World,' but my mentor couldn't remember where it was, or even if it was real or just a rumor. Not that it matters now that Disney is gone, anyway.

Okay, I've had enough of a walk down memory lane if that's okay with you. Let's get the fuck out of here. It's depressing."

Michelle didn't want to push it, so she nodded and took her bottle of water from her cargo pocket and opened it. Daniel did the same.

Daniel looked at the bottle for a second before taking another drink. "At least the damn water still tastes like water here. You ready?"

"Yeah, let's go," Michelle said.

Daniel put his hand out to Michelle, and she grabbed it.

"Here we go," Daniel said, "Let's see what's behind door number three, shall we?"

He touched the artifact in his pocket.

***

U30 was much the same as the universes they had traveled to, with the surrounding area seeming worse for wear than the previous universe they had visited. Daniel's countenance grew grimmer as he took a quick look around at the squalor and asked if Michelle was ready to go on to U39.

Michelle didn't see a need to stay any longer than they had too but did want to check that she could still summon using the artifact, so she got a few more water bottles for them. They greedily drank one each and saved the other for later. Absentmindedly Michelle wondered if somewhere in the floating Warehouse building four water bottles had just gone missing from a cooler and if anyone had noticed. She glanced up at the Warehouse, now more star-shaped than pyramid-shaped, and told Daniel she was ready. He reached into his pocket and they traveled to U39.

***

The first thing they both noticed when they arrived nanoseconds later was the complete turnaround the encampment the "shaders" lived in had taken. Rather than small almost non-existent huts on the outskirts of the Warehouse's shadow, there were now small homes with electricity. Some had their own small gardens while others had ATV-like vehicles parked beside or in front. Every one of the homes seemed well cared for, something that Daniel noted was rare even in the innermost section of the encampment on their universe.

The second thing they noticed was the appearance of armed men and women walking out from behind those houses, the majority carrying flechette rifles, handguns, or other small arms weaponry. A few were holding grenades, grenade launchers, and two men armed two large trucks mounted guns with belt-fed ammo. Every weapon was pointed at Michelle and Daniel.

Suddenly a voice boomed from one of the trucks.

"Michelle Floretta and Daniel Baker, we know why you are here. Do not move. Put your hands in the air and slowly lower yourself to the ground."

Daniel's hand was still in his pocket from touching the artifact to travel to this dimension. Without thinking, he grabbed Michelle's hand and touched the artifact again, praying that he was quick enough to grab Michelle's hand before thousands of flechettes tore through their bodies.

~ ~ ~

If you've enjoyed this, please consider following, commenting, and voting! Thanks for reading!