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Chapter 1- Down the Rabbit Hole
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. – Alice in Wonderland
"What is this?! It's just a buncha gibberish!"
He was so loud but Elizabeth couldn't understand what he was saying.
"What does this say, you little whore?!"
The pain was so intense that she could barely stay coherent.
"Hey- hey, hey, hey! . !"
In a flash between realities she saw exactly what she was meant to see as the universes aligned.
In a strained, malice laced tone she said, "It says… Would you kindly."
She saw Atlas open his mouth but didn't hear what he said and then another flash of pain. Elizabeth didn't know if she could take much more but as soon as the pain seemed to be too much to bear, she heard a beautiful voice singing. The sad melody would become the lullaby to her death, but not the end of her existence.
Have I been sent to hell?
Vision after vision of death and destruction blasted her very being and she felt the simultaneous suffering of an entire galaxy as it was slowly destroyed and consumed before her eyes over and over in an unending cycle. The feeling of complete and absolute despair began to consume her.
"The cycle must continue."
Elizabeth heard the voice that came from the infinite darkness that had encompassed her.
"Without the cycle, there is chaos. Order must be maintained. We are the keepers of this realm, we are the Reapers."
As hard as she tried, Elizabeth couldn't speak or refute this as the sorrow of an uncountable number of souls poured their sorrow and malice into her. She knew she was slowly being consumed but the force of their emotions were overwhelming her very existence despite her best efforts.
Booker…
"We do not know what you are, but you cannot stop the coming harvest. The cycle has continued for an unfathomable number of eons. We are absolute. Leave this place being, there is nothing here for you. No variable is unaccounted for. The cycle must continue."
Elizabeth finally couldn't stop it and allowed for the forces that had been crushing her to consume her. Suddenly she heard a second voice, "Thank you… You are the only hope we have…"
"There is no hope for them. The Cycle must cont…"
Elizabeth suddenly interrupted the first voice,
"No."
Her voice had a certain finality that made the voice wait a moment before responding.
"You dare think a single organic can stop the might of the Reapers? That you can end the Cycle that has outlasted an uncountable number of civilizations? You will not defeat us. It is impossible."
Elizabeth felt the doors again and began to reconnect with existence,
"I have walked in the in between. I am, I am not. I am constant and I am perpetually changing." Anger began to well up in her being, "I have watched entire existences cease and have been the cause of others! I do not merely exist in time. You could not begin to fathom the journey I have travelled to be in the very place I was always meant to be!"
"INSOLENT ORGANIC! YOU WILL BE REAPED WITH THE OTHERS AND YOUR RESISTENCE WILL FAIL AS ALL OTHERS HAVE BEFORE YOU! YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT US! YOU WILL NOT END THE CYCLE! YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW AND OUR HARVEST IS COMING!"
There was a tense silence and Elizabeth started to feel a tingling from within her. Her tone softened,
"I have seen all of the doors and what is behind all the doors. And behind one of them… is him."
She paused and felt comforting warmth envelope her in hope as she gazed upon the face of this universe's savior.
"The one that can stop the harvest and end the cycle."
Immediately pain engulfed her as a rush of sensory overload filled her and she entered the physical realm.
"Contact 12 O'clock!"
Elizabeth opened her eyes in a rush as she heard the sound of gunfire.
Where am I? What's going on…
Before she could gather her bearings she heard another shout,
"INCOMING!"
Just as her senses were coming back, something exploded off to her right sending her backwards and landing roughly. Coughing up some blood and ears ringing, Elizabeth quickly regained her senses as adrenaline began pumping into her veins. Knowing that she could very well die in the following moments, she decided to take in as much information as possible to figure out what her first move would be. She was in the middle of some battle but curiously enough she also noted that she was behind a structure of some kind, slightly protected from the immediate danger.
This isn't good.
Elizabeth quickly ducked out from the crossfire and addressed her wounds. One of her ribs was definitely broken and she thought she might have broken her ankle.
Not to mention I'm occasionally coughing up blood…
"Hey, what the fuck are you doing here?!"
Elizabeth turned around, still a bit disoriented, to see a soldier, "I'm sorry?"
He looked at her bewildered, "They put a mandatory evac an hour ago! How the hell are you still here? You need to be in the bunkers with the other civilians."
He grabbed her arm and helped her up but Elizabeth immediately fell back down.
"My ankle! I think my ankle is broken."
The soldier looked up past the blockade they were taking cover behind then back down to her,
"Shit! Ok, look. This area is crawling with Dodos and they're going to be on top of us in a hurry. I'm going to have to carry you ok?"
Elizabeth nodded and the young man picked her up and began to carry her past the destroyed buildings in a sprint. Seeing different crumbling buildings, she noticed that a lot of them seemed to reference Shanxi.
Maybe that is the name of this place.
As they got further from the sounds of battle he began to walk a little slower and breathing slightly harder. Elizabeth smiled in spite of the situation, perhaps due to her physical condition and disorientation, and said, "Thank you. I'm not sure what would have happened if you hadn't shown up."
The young man looked down at her and smiled, "No problem but if you don't mind me asking, why didn't you go to the evac zones?"
It was at this moment that she noticed that, despite the man having a weapon, he was not a soldier. She saw different boxed items hanging out of his backpack.
Looter from the looks of it but why is he by himself?
In fact, he sounded like he was younger than she was.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you…"
The young man laughed, "Alright, well can I at least ask your name?"
Elizabeth waited a moment and finally said, "My name is Anna. Anna Dewitt."
"Anna huh? That's beautiful name."
Elizabeth gave a gentle smile, "Trying to put moves on a girl in a vulnerable position are we?"
The young man began to stutter but Elizabeth just said, "So what's your name?"
He immediately stopped his stuttering and grew quiet, "Umm, well… I don't really know. I grew up in an orphanage back on Earth and when it started to get over populated, they sent me to this colony to work. You can just call me Zero, that's what my foreman calls me..."
It was this moment that the all too familiar sound of an explosion boomed from just a city block away.
"Oh shit! We got to move Anna! We need to get you to th… ugh"
Zero fell to the ground, Elizabeth falling out of his arms roughly. She looked over at her fallen companion to see a sizable piece of metal sticking out of his abdomen, gasping to breathe to no avail. The scene made Elizabeth go into a shocked state.
Zero, gasping and clutching his hands to his bleeding wound, wheezed out, "Run… Anna.. Run…"
Elizabeth allowed the adrenaline to start pumping and felt a familiar energy start to course its way through her body. She grabbed one of his hands, looked him in the eyes with all of the courage she could muster, "Zero... I'm not going to let you die. I'll be right back with help. Hang on. " Zero breathing, if one could call it that, smiled slightly, "No, just go. I don't think I'm going to make it. Just go…" Elizabeth bent over Zero and grabbed his knife then gave Zero a small kiss on his forehead, surprising the young man and stood up despite her ankle. Her mind's eye looked through the doors as fast as she could until she found the type of person she was looking for, a person that could help her new friend… and had the knowledge to quietly get out of this warzone.
Behind another door
October 9th, 1967
Bolivia
He sat on the floor of the dilapidated mud schoolhouse tired, thirsty, and hungry. It had been over 24 hours since his guerrilla detachment was encircled and killed. He had been taken alive but did not come out of the firefight unharmed. Looking down at his calf, he couldn't help but to think,
That is going to get infected soon. Not that it matters…
He was fairly certain that the Bolivian Army was waiting for confirmation from the CIA to execute him. If that was the case, he didn't suppose he had too long left in this world. A noise made him stir from his thoughts and as if out of a children's storybook, a beautiful girl appeared out of thin air before him. Unlike a children's bedtime story however, this princess looked a bit worse for wear.
She is not Bolivian, that's for sure. A Yankee maybe? No, why would a girl dressed like she just walked out of the times of Lenin be in the middle of the Bolivian jungle?
It took him a full 5 seconds to realize she was limping toward him with a knife.
Perhaps he should have reacted in some way to this potential threat but if he had to choose to die at the hands of the Bolivian army, the CIA, or a beautiful time traveling woman, he supposed it wasn't the worse way to go. To his surprise she stopped just in front of him and carefully bent down to his level face to face, "Do you know English?"
He shook his head and she sighed frustrated. He asked in Spanish, "Do you know Spanish?"
It was her turn to shake her head, again frustrated with something. For a moment neither of them said a word. Taking a shot in the dark, he said in French, "Do you know French?"
It was at this moment that the girl smiled broadly and began to speak as if French was her native tongue, "We don't have much time so I will lay it out for you as simply as I can. I have a friend that is in need of medical attention in a warzone and you are the only one that can help us. It very difficult to explain but I promise I can reward you with something at some point but my friend is going to die without help… Please…"
Elizabeth became more and more panicked as the thought of Zero dying began to seem more and more real. She knew it was ridiculous, after all she had just met the young man yet she couldn't allow herself to lose him. Not after she lost the last person who saved her life…
Booker…
It was the extended hands of the tied up man that interrupted her thoughts, "Ernesto Guevara."
Without thinking she extended her delicate hand and responded, "Elizabeth Dewitt"
Elizabeth stared at him for a moment before continuing the conversation, "Will you help us?"
Ernesto, still baffled by the situation, stared at her, "Where are you from? How did you get here?"
Elizabeth sat on the floor exhausted from her injuries, "Where am I from? Columbia. As for how I came to be… wherever this is, I honestly don't know. The last thing I remember is being in Columbia with Booker…" Upon saying his name aloud, she became overcome with a sense of sorrow.
"Columbia? I guess that explains how you got to Bolivia. It's possible you were kidnapped. It's not an uncommon practice here."
Elizabeth seemed to even be more confused than before, "Bolivia? We're in South America?"
Now Ernesto was confused, "You did say you were from Columbia correct?"
Shaking her head, Elizabeth tried to explain, "I meant the city of Columbia in the United States."
Even though that wasn't entirely true, she wasn't sure that she should go into great detail of the floating city as to any normal person, it would seem ridiculous.
Perhaps just as ridiculous as appearing out of thin air…
"Well, I'm not sure how or why you are here but I am sure if you are an American citizen the soldiers outside may let you go. I swear to tell them you were not part of our struggle and that you were a non-combatant. They may not like me but my word still carries some weight."
Elizabeth nodded slowly allowing what he had just said to sink in. It would seem he was a man of sacrifice. Although she didn't quite remember how it was she came to be in that other world with Zero, she did know the fate of Zero's world. Sacrifice would be a necessity for victory.
"They are going to kill you aren't they?"
The question hung in the air for a full 5 minutes before Ernesto finally answered, "Yes."
Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, "What did you do to deserve death?"
Leaning his head back against the wall of the crumbling structure he said, "I attempted to overthrow the Bolivian government, if one can call Imperialist corruption such a thing."
Elizabeth seemed to be taken aback by this but didn't comment.
Another few minutes passed before they heard some soldiers talking outside.
Ernesto closed his eyes and didn't open them until he felt a hand on his, "Do you have any regrets?"
He took a long breath before saying with great resolve, "I don't care if I fall, as long as someone else picks up my gun and keeps shooting."
"Does it always have to end in violence?"
She seemed to be reflecting on something personal and Ernesto could only reply what was truly in his heart, "The Revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."
Elizabeth looked away sadly.
"So it does then?"
Ernesto voice softened, "In my experiences, armed struggle is the only path that leads to freedom."
Hearing the voices outside getting louder, Elizabeth said, "Will you help us?"
Ernesto took a breath and decided that yes, he would help this mysterious girl. Something deep within him kept telling him that he must keep her alive. "I will."
Elizabeth quickly cut his bindings and opened a tear but fell down when she put too much pressure on her ankle. Grabbing her before she could hit the floor Ernesto asked, "Do I… just walk through this thing?" Elizabeth, now being carried by another man she barely knew, nodded.
Ernesto turned toward the north and calmly said before entering the tear, "Hasta la victoria siempre."
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