Shattered Dimensions

Chapter 9, Memories Part 1

Nobody's POV

The Serpent's Pass

Roask and Zhianwuo travelled alone down the Serpent's Pass. Roask could feel watchful eyes on them. They were getting close. More eyes began to join those already watching. Roask looked over to Zhianwuo and they both nodded. As they continued walking, a creature ran passed them, and stopped in front of them. It was a feathered bipedal creature, with a long snout and tail. It bore its teeth and growled at the two hikers. More of these creatures approached from the bushes along the path. Zhianwuo leaned over to Roask.

"I don't think he likes you very much, master," Zhianwuo whispered. Roask nodded. He extended his arm, palm facing the creature. It stopped growling and cocked its head to one side. I flash of light came from Roask's hand. A beam of fire shot from his palm and struck the creature, engulfing it and then vaporizing it. The other creatures then shrieked and backed into the bushes for fear of sharing the same fate as their comrade. Zhianwuo chuckled at this.

"I'm pretty sure he was just being defensive master. We were supposed to be negotiating with them," Zhianwuo said, then with a sadistic smile, "I do like the way they burn though." The bushes grew silent shortly afterwards. A larger version of the creatures stepped out of the bushes in front of the two humans. It had a blue stripe running from nose to tail, along with black, tiger stripes across its back. A massive scar ran from its right eye, hooked across its nose, and trailed down the left side of its mouth. From what he saw in the future, these creatures could understand English.

"You must be Scarface," Roask said to the creature. Zhianwuo translated everything said by Scarface.

"You must be Roask," Scarface said.

"Yes, let us skip the formalities," Roask said, "We both showed up to this meeting, so we both want the same thing, to see our enemies eliminated." Scarface nodded slightly at this.

"Why do you need my help Emperor? From what we have seen, you have more than the means to do it," Scarface asked.

"This is true, but there is nothing quite like the feeling of crushing your adversaries yourself," Roask replied. There was a minute of silence, before Scarface responded.

"We will do this if you grant us our terms," Scarface said. Zhianwuo knew that look on the creature's face. The creature had its own, most likely conflicting, agenda. But, as the creature had its own agenda, so did Zhianwuo. He chose not to alert Roask of the creature's hidden agenda.

"What are your terms?" Roask asked, aloof to the situation of Zhianwuo's and Scarface's agendas. As Scarface was about to speak, he froze in place for a second.

"Someone is coming," he said, before retreating into the bushes. It was strange for this fearless creature to make that move. Roask and Zhianwuo soon did the same. Zhianwuo and Roask crept down behind a bush and stared out of it. Soon, the bushes to the left of the clearing rustled as if someone stepped through it, into the clearing. A figure appeared out of thin air, kneeling on the ground. It scooped up dirt into its hands and examined it.

"Master, I think it is looking for you," Zhianwuo whispered to Roask, noticing it was examining the spot that Roask stood at in the clearing.

"What do you advise we do?" Roask whispered back. Zhianwuo thought on his options for a second.

"I suggest we leave this place now and reinitiate the talks with the raptor creature later," Zhianwuo replied quietly.

"Agreed," Roask said quietly. They both then slowly backed away from the clearing, heading back to Roask's empire.

Shoreline near Tyler's Flagship

Jake's POV

It was early morning. I had gone for my daily run along the beach of a large cove, towering ship just offshore. There was a light fog over the ground and water, making it seem eerie. It has been almost a week since I had made my way to the ship for the first time. Everyone had their opinions and speculation about me, being I had shown up out of nowhere. Tyler seems to have some sort of friendship with the version of me from this dimension. Clayton distrusts me. Amy seems to be the same way, but is more reserved about it. I looked up at the ship looming in the surprisingly deep water. This was the perfect, but clichéd, setup for something extremely weird to happen. I heard the bushes behind me move, right on time. Fearlessly, I turned and slowly, and cockily, walked towards the bushes. I chuckled a little bit.

"Alright come on out. Otherwise I'm going to come in there and kick your ass," I said. Stepping through the bushes, I entered a clearing and froze midstride. I saw Amy sprawled out, face down, on the ground. After a few moments, it clicked in my brain that she was face down and she did not appear to be breathing. Knowing this could very well be a trap, I ran over to her.

"Amy?" I asked. When I did not get a response, I instinctively Kneeled down and checked her neck for a pulse. There was a slow but steady heartbeat. I then gently, as to not cause any more physical harm if there was any already, rolled her on to her side. I could not see her chest move to indicate breathing, so I put my index and middle finger under her nose to check. She was still breathing, but barely. She did not have any marks on her, at least where the skin is exposed. I do not feel like having to fight Clayton again if I did a more thorough check and she woke up. I got that clichéd feeling of someone watching me. I ignored the feeling and lightly pushed on Amy's shoulder.

"Amy. Wake up." I said in an unintentional whisper. I grabbed her shoulder and began to lightly shake her, repeating the same words as before. I stopped after a few minutes of this and began to wipe the dirt off of her face. While doing this, her face twitched a little. My hand immediately recoiled at this. Slowly but surely, she began to wake up. I moved back about a foot and sat down to give her room, but stay close if she started seizing or something. Slowly, her eyes opened to stare directly at me.

"Good morning sleeping beauty, Enjoy your nap?" I said sarcastically. I expected her to have a comeback, but I was met with something else entirely.

"It was wonderful, thank you for asking," she replied innocently. I raised an eyebrow in confusion and curiosity. Deciding to test a theory I formed in my head, I asked her two basic questions.

"What is your name?" I asked her.

"Amy," she replied. Something was up with her.

"What is my name?" I asked. She thought on this for a second.

"I don't know, we just met. But I feel like I've known you for awhile. Probably just a coincidence," she said. Great she lost her memory.

"Is it kind of cold out here, or is it just me?" she asked. I didn't know if she was being serious or if it was a lame attempt at a joke. I ignored it and took off the jacket I was wearing over a white T-shirt. I moved closer and put the jacket over her shoulders. With her smaller frame, the coat was enough to cover her and then some. I expected her to jump back to her old self at any time to show some point she was trying to prove. But she just continued to watch me. After a short while, I decided to go back to the ship. I got up and walked over to her. I decided to play along with her whole amnesia situation.

"You don't look like you have anywhere to go, want to come back to where I live and meet the people that live there too?" I asked, playing along.

"I would love too," she replied. I gave her a helping hand up. As soon as she stood, she gave a small yelp before falling back down. Instinctively, I caught her half way down. Our faces were now mere inches apart. We stayed like that for a few seconds. I was not thinking anything. It was like my brain had shut down and started back up again.

"Well this is awkward," I said, coming around.

"Yeah," Amy replied. I helped her to the ground. I examined her leg.

"Is it serious?" she asked. I chuckled after a moment. This was new to me. Did the other me have these expressions?

"It is nothing more than a sprained ankle. You should be fine in a few seconds," I replied.

"Oh," she said, smiling and looking down weakly. I watched her with interest for a few seconds, as she thought about something. Her presence had changed. Her presence was now completely vulnerable, which, in this crazy world, was not good.

"We should probably get going," I said, looking up at a thin layer of clouds. I could tell it was around 9 am by how the sun shone through the clouds.

"Alright, you lead the way," she said, weakly standing up. In this moment, I wished for the old Amy back, this one was completely useless. When she rose fully, I could better see that she was covered in dirt.

"You should probably take a shower. Especially after your little," I thought for a moment to choose my next words, then spoke, "dirt nap." She looked at her arms.

"I think there is a place not far from here," she said. Was she starting to piece her memory back together?

"I think it is this way," she said, moving to head deeper into the forest.

"Hey, where I live should be just on the other side of these trees," I said. She stopped and turned around.

"Okay, lead the way," she said, walking towards me. I turned to exit the clear and head back to the cove. As soon as I started walking, I got that weird feeling of being watched again. I again ignored it and walked out to the beach, Amy close behind me. Upon arriving at the cove, I immediately noticed the lack of the ship. Either they left without Amy and I, or somebody is fucking with me. I turned to Amy, thinking of how I was going to tell her that where I stayed disappeared. She gave me a quick, innocent smile.

"Where was that place you were talking about?" I asked, a polite smile on my face.

"I think it is this way," Amy replied, pointing back the way we came.

"Lead the way," I said. She smiled and began walking into the forest. I followed quickly, as to not lose her. In her state, it would be unwise to. After awhile of following Amy, we reached a small clearing. There was a small river in the middle of it. It looked to be about waist deep, and wide enough for two people to stand side-by-side in it at the widest part. I dipped my hand in the river. It was surprisingly warm to the touch. Something about the water was off-putting to me. It was almost like it was calling me. I would think off it is weird, or even creepy, but it is all just white noise upon everything else in my life. I pulled my hand out of the water and stood to walk away.

"If you need me, I'll be close," I said, and walked into the forest. I stopped just out of sight of the clearing. I ran my hand through my hair, shaking off a strange feeling. Surprisingly, my hair has grown to almost shoulder length. I saw no reason to keep shaving my head, being that military regulations no longer applied to me. To keep it out of my face, I had slicked it back. At first it was strange but I grew used to it. As I stood, thinking, I heard what seemed to be a muffled shriek coming from the clearing. I had heard no one approach. I then heard something hit the ground in the clearing. I rushed back to the clearing, ignoring that fact that this could be something I didn't really care to know about. Bursting into the clearing, I saw that Amy lay on her side on the ground, naked as the day she was born. What was strange about it, besides the obvious, is that she did not even move upon my entering.

I could clearly see that she was still breathing, so she was not dead. She probably just tripped on a rock or something. As I turned to leave, I froze in place and then turned back towards Amy. I then saw that three black slash marks had formed on her stomach. They quickly faded. Slowly, Amy came to. She looked up at me from where she lie.

"Uhmm…Hello," she said. I realize she had come to when she spoke. I quickly turned around to preserve at least some decency in the situation.

"Sorry," I said quickly. Amy got back up and dressed.

Let's go to where you stay now, please," she said.

"Okay," I simply replied, no longer bothering to question her word choice. As we approached the same spot as before, a familiar gray object could be seen through the trees.

"Finally," I thought out loud. As we approached, it clearly was an aircraft carrier, just not the one I stayed on. This one looked abandoned; it was beached, managing to stay upright in the cove's shallow water. The hull was torn apart, like when someone sloppily tears aluminum paper. It was Tyler's flagship, emphasis on was.

"This is where you live?" Amy asked, confirming that I was not hallucinating. I just continued to stare at the shipwreck.

"I don't get it," I said after awhile.

"Don't get what?" Amy asked.

"This ship was fine, with people running it. The water was deep; I swam under the ship this morning, before my daily run, just before I found you. Now, the ship is dead, and the water is shallow. I don't get it," I explained. Amy tapped my shoulder.

"Uhmm," she paused, trying to remember my name.

"Jake, Jake Alverez," I answered.

"Uhmm, Jake," she said, "Look at the beach behind you." I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Slowly, I turned around. My other eyebrow went up upon seeing the beach. Parts of various skeletons stuck out of the beach. A metal object glared in the sunlight. I squinted to see it better. It was a metal forearm and hand. In its hand, it grasped a flag. I immediately swelled up with anger.

"Roask."