"Yeah, man," I said into my phone. "I've been throwing up all morning, I'm lightheaded, didn't sleep last night, there's just no way I can make it in today."
I listened to the person on the other end of the line for a moment before saying, "Okay. Yeah, will do. Thanks, Boss, I really appreciate it."
I ended the phonecall and returned my phone to my pocket, and I looked around to see Gibbs watching me with a grin. "Your boss really buy all that, Jack?" he asked.
"Nope," I answered. "But he also knows me well enough to know that if I'm calling in, it's for a damn good reason." As I said this, I glanced over at our living room wall that had been destroyed in the incursion with the Universal Keepers. I quickly looked away from it, hoping no one had noticed.
Gibbs nodded, and he took a sip of coffee from the pot he and Sarah were sharing. He then looked around to see our kitchen table. On it was Gibbs's Colt, his pocket knife, a Smith & Wesson 22A, a large hunting knife, and a compound bow with arrows. There were also several dozen rounds of ammunition. Sitting at the edge of the table was the large, silver rifle that had been utilized by the Keeper that Gibbs had killed. Gibbs was staring at the bow and arrow incredulously, and after a moment he looked at me and said, "Really?"
"Quieter than a gun," I told him with a grin.
"Gonna be tough to get that through downtown Indy unnoticed," he commented as he holstered his Colt.
"That's why I'm not bringing it with us," I told him. I grabbed the 22A, loading a clip into it and offering the handle to Sarah.
She took it and put it on her waist holster, looking at me with some concern. "What happens if we have to fight off more Universal Keepers?" she asked.
I grabbed the hunting knife and strapped it to my belt. "Then we fight them," I answered.
"Okay, and when we find whatever is waiting for us in the city," Gibbs asked, "what do we do with them?"
"I...don't know," I admitted. "I guess provide them refuge for now while we find a way to get you all home. That's...that's the best I've got for now."
Gibbs nodded, and neither he nor Sarah had any ulterior suggestions. "Look, we'll figure it out," Sarah said. "Let's just get there and get to them before the Universal Keepers do."
This was something we could all agree on, and we moved towards my car. My vehicle was brand new, purchased this year, with a sleek, shiny silver design and a narrow body style. I took the driver's seat while Sarah was in the passenger's seat. Gibbs buckled himself behind Sarah, and I started the keyless ignition while Sarah was examining the tablet we acquired from the Universal Keepers. I pulled out of my driveway, driving out of the neighborhood and hitting the highway. It had been a day since Gibbs had arrived, and we had offered him the spare bedroom to crash in for the night. I doubted rather he actually managed any sleep.
"It's a little over an hour to get to Indy," I explained while consulting the GPS on my phone.
"The one we're after is moving," Sarah reported. "They're northeast of downtown and moving towards the city center. They're slow, it looks like they're moving on foot."
"Alright, whoever it is, they're gonna be scared and confused," I interceded. "We go in and approach them slow. Don't draw attention, earn their trust, bring them in willingly."
I saw Gibbs through the rearview mirror, smiling seemingly in spite of himself. I looked at him, and he said, "You know I've done this a couple times?"
I shrugged, and we continued the drive; Sarah was constantly monitoring the position of our target, and Gibbs had a small white cloth he was using to clean his Colt. We eventually arrived into Indianapolis, but we still had several blocks of morning traffic to fight through to get to the target. Sarah indicated to me a public parking lot, and I pulled into a spot and shut the car off. We checked our weapons and supplies before taking to the streets. We were about three blocks away from the target, but he was moving away from us, so we needed to move quickly. After about another twenty minutes, we were on the same block as the target, and Sarah's eyes were plastered to the tablet while Gibbs and I were observing every passersby on the sidewalk.
After a few minutes, Gibbs slowed to a stop, a wide smile on his face. I saw this, and I looked to where he was seeing to see a man walking hurriedly away from us. I couldn't see his face, but he was wearing a cap and had dark hair. He was walking with the air of someone who knew he wasn't supposed to be there.
"Luca!" Gibbs called.
The man came to an abrupt stop, and I raised an eyebrow. The target slowly turned around, and as Luca Sciuto spotted Gibbs, he couldn't help but laugh in relief. Gibbs and Luca walked towards each other, embracing each other like long lost brothers. Sarah and I walked towards them, maintaining our distance as they greeted each other. Gibbs patted Luca on the back of his head before bringing him over to us.
"Luca, this is Jack and Sarah Fosse," Gibbs introduced.
"Uh, hello," Luca said nervously with a sheepish wave. "Are you universally displaced too?"
"Nope," I answered. "We're just trying to help."
The four of us had made it back to our car, and Gibbs and Luca had discussed a variety of topics. They hadn't even mentioned the fact that the two had jumped universes; it had been several years since they had seen each other, and therefore they spent the first couple of hours catching up on their own lives. Sarah and I were mostly silent through the drive back to Veedersburg.
"I'm surprised the Keepers didn't come for him," Sarah said quietly.
I looked in the rearview mirror to make sure Luca hadn't heard this. Learning that interdimensional hunters might be coming for him would probably not be healthy for his blood pressure. "I wouldn't put it past them to try and attack us at home again," I replied. "Especially with us having two of them now. That could be dangerous."
"So does this mean we have to put off having kids?" Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow. I smiled in amusement, but I didn't reply.
"So, uh...what do you guys do for a living?" Luca asked us.
"I run a pizza shop," I replied.
"I'm head of distribution management for a multi-billion dollar corporation," Sarah explained.
Gibbs and Luca both stared at her, and I was grinning. "She's way cooler than I am," I told them.
We pulled into the garage at home, and Sarah and I walked inside while Gibbs followed Luca in.
"So...so what do we do?" Luca asked as we all sat around the kitchen table.
"Still working on that," Gibbs answered.
"I mean, it's not like we can really establish ourselves here," Luca explained. He got up and started walking around, his brain working furiously. "We don't have social security cards, much less IDs, so we can't purchase homes. Our credit cards are going to be worthless since the banks won't have our information on file. We also can't get jobs, because we don't have addresses, because we don't have IDs, because, technically, we don't exist." He said this last bit with a derisive albeit nervous laugh.
"Mmhmm," Gibbs agreed.
"Look," I said to them both. I glanced at Sarah for reinforcement, who gave me a raised eyebrow. "We're not hurting," I informed them. "We can help you guys for a while until we can find a way to get you all back home."
Luca was looking somewhat relieved, but somewhat guilty at the same time. Gibbs didn't respond, but I could tell he wasn't an enormous fan of this idea either.
"It looks like whatever hole opened that brought you here, it's still there," I explained. "So, if more people start coming through, we can gather together and work with each other to figure out what's going on."
"I mean, how does that even work, though?" Luca asked. "How does a hole in the universe just rip itself open? It seems weird, though, because it wasn't a wormhole, otherwise we could see it, and we could go back through. No, it was almost like some kind of displacement. Agh, where is Tim when you need him?"
Before Luca's thought train could continue, he was abruptly cut off by a monstrous roar that shook the whole neighborhood. We all looked around, and Luca yelped before stepping closer to the wall behind him, as if hoping he could somehow meld into it.
"That can only be good," Gibbs commented as he pulled his Colt out of the holster. Sarah pulled her 22A as well, and I grabbed my compound bow. Luca looked at me in bewilderment, but I ignored him as we all stepped towards the front door. Our mouths all fell open as we gazed upon the beast that had arrived. It was like a centaur, if it had been fused with the Incredible Hulk. Standing at ten feet tall, it had gray skin and enormous muscles. It had a cloth wrapped around its groin, and it was staring at us mutinously while wielding a sword almost as tall as me with a dark, crescent-shaped blade.
"Uh, um," Luca stuttered nervously, "are those normal in this universe?"
"No," I answered matter-of-factly. "No, they are not."
Luca stayed back while Gibbs and Sarah aimed their guns and I nocked an arrow. We all stepped towards the beast, aiming our weapons at it, but the beast looked unimpressed. I looked around quickly, noticing that none of our neighbors had come out of their residences to find the source of the disturbance. That seemed strange to me. Had they all seen the creature from their window and decided they wanted no part of the discussion? That didn't seem quite right to me. The centaur was eyeballing all three of us analytically, sizing us up as though deciding who he wanted to skewer first.
"What are you?" I asked.
"I am a Spatial Hunter," the centaur replied in a low, gravelly voice. He raised his sword, aiming the tip of it at Gibbs, quite indicative of his intentions. Gibbs kept his expression even, his gun unwavering. "My name is Algaltha," he informed us. "I exist to hunt down Spatial Anomalies. You are my prey." He indicated Gibbs again, who didn't respond.
"Did the Universal Keepers send you?" Sarah asked.
Algaltha smiled viciously, and he said, "Not in the slightest. The Keepers are often too slow to stop us from our hunt."
I let out a sigh of exasperation, and I said, "Any chance we can convince you to come back some other time?"
Algaltha immediately charged us, his four legs pounding the pavement as the ground shuddered with his weight. Gibbs and Sarah opened fire, hitting him with a barrage of shots that did little to impede him. I fired my arrow, but he swung his sword and knocked it aside as he closed in on us. All three of us dove in different directions, and Algaltha came within inches of bulldozing the front wall of our house as he galloped around, closing in on Gibbs. Gibbs came to one knee and aimed his gun, but he was forced down again, only narrowly evading Algaltha's sword blade as the beast swung it.
I quickly nocked another arrow, and Sarah opened fire, emptying her clip yet to no avail. She stepped back to reload, and I fired my arrow again. The arrow shattered on impact with the beast's muscular skin, and he looked around at us malevolently.
"Hey!" Gibbs yelled. "You look at me! Down here!" He fired his gun, but Algaltha kicked him with a hind leg, knocking him back through the air and sending him tumbling across the ground. Luca yelled out while Sarah gasped, and I gritted my teeth while trying to devise a strategy. Gibbs was on the ground, groaning and writhing as he held his gut where Algaltha's foot had slammed into him.
Algaltha shot straight at us, and Sarah moved quickly while I pulled out my hunting knife.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Sarah screamed at me.
The rational part of my brain was asking the same question, and I didn't quite have an answer. Rather it was because I had a deathwish, or because nothing else had worked and we couldn't run forever, I wasn't sure. I held my hunting knife up to defend myself, and Algaltha swung his enormous sword down at me. His blade collided into mine, shattering the knife completely and knocking me off my feet. My arm hit the pavement, smearing blood as I tried to scramble away. Algaltha bore down on me, his sword prepared to finish me, and just before he swung it down, he was hit with a barrage of blue energy blasts, causing him to stumble back.
Sarah moved in, aiming the rifle we had acquired from the Universal Keepers, and she continued firing on Algaltha. Algaltha put his sword out in front of him to defend himself, but he still struggled against the assault. Gibbs, Luca, and I all watched in astonishment. Sarah didn't let up, and after Algaltha's body and face had taken serious injury, she aimed at his legs. Several blasts knocked Algaltha's feet out from under him, and he came crashing down while his sword went clattering out of reach. I managed to get to my feet, and I scooped my bow off the ground and pulled an arrow out. Gibbs, Sarah, and I all closed in, aiming our weapons down at Algaltha.
Algaltha, who was starting to recover from Sarah's assault, looked around at us mutinously. He paid particularly close attention to Sarah, who kept her rifle trained directly at his eyes. "You surprised me," he stated, seeming to address Sarah more than anyone else. "I'll come back, and this will not end the same way."
The air around him condensed, and Algaltha faded into ash before dispersing in the wind. After a moment of looking around for a sign of threat, we all lowered our weapons and looked at each other.
I looked over at Gibbs, who had his face set tight and was sweating profusely. He finally holstered his gun, and while he didn't say anything, I could tell he was in a lot of pain. He started limping, and I ran over. "Hey," I said as I offered an arm. I supported him as he walked, taking slow, careful steps while grunting in pain.
"What's your take?" I asked Gibbs.
He shook his head, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I had to imagine he was still trying to process everything he was experiencing. Luca walked tentatively up to us, examining the spot where Algaltha had disappeared.
"What is going on?" he asked. "What is this? What is happening?"
"And that, my friends, is why you should have listened to us the first time."
We all looked around in alarm. We finally spotted him, standing near our front door, watching all of us with a small smile. It was the Lead Keeper that had come to our residence the previous day. Gibbs, Sarah and I all aimed our weapons at him, but he put his arms up in a surrendering gesture.
"I'm not here to fight," he assured us. "And I don't mean you any harm. Look, I'll even go so far as to admit that my methods last time we met were...unorthodox."
"Yeah, I'll say," Gibbs replied firmly, not taking his aim off the Keeper.
The Lead Keeper scoffed in a bit of amusement, and he said, "Listen, you can choose not to trust me, but the next time that behemoth comes back, you're gonna want me on your side." None of us responded. None of us lowered our weapons. "My name is Theas. And you were just dropped into the biggest war in the multiverse."