Together

Baruti

Baruti before the Cataclysm.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth 2 years after the Cataclysm.

Shards

Baruti who had moved into the room next to hers ran along the beach after her. Elizabeth knelt down next to the man on the beach a ball of tension she hadn’t even known she was carrying left. It was not her father just an older man. He was maybe in his late middle years he was balding and he had almost as much gray hair as he did black. He was defiantly pudgy and his flannel jacket was ripped and torn in several places.

“Hello are you ok?” she asked. The man opened his eyes stared right at her.

“English thank goodness its English, where am I girl.” He released a long sigh and closed his gray eyes, there was something funny about that.

“You are… in the Bahamas” Elizabeth said. “How could you not know that you swam here?”

The man started laughing deep in his chest as if there was something funny and he was the only one that got it. The man ignored her question and instead he asked. “What year is it? Tell me what year?”

“It’s 2012 what are you talking about? How did you swim here? Where did you come from?” she had just noticed his English was a little off.

“Me girl I’m from Detroit, and I got here through the shards. I had to take six different paths and almost died three times.” He said his eyes still closed.

“What are you talking about paths and shards? What’s a shard?”Baruti asked over my shoulder.

“What is a shard well it that broken place right over there. It’s how I got here from Detroit. I left Detroit looking for my son; he was at a university in New York. I headed up north and pretty soon I couldn’t avoid it any longer I had to go through one of the shards. I was transported like Captain Kierk in Star Track. It felt like someone had stretched me out and scrubbed each one of my molecules. I ended up in the middle of a battle, medieval style everyone was trying to kill each other with swords. That was the first time I almost died with everyone trying to shish kabob me. I went back through the shard that I came there in but I didn’t go back to Detroit instead I was in one of the arctic’s I swear I almost died from the cold on that one. Although the last place I jumped from was jungle almost got bit by a snake there. And let me just tell you that right now, there is nothing more dangerous than trying to travel those shards.” He ran a hand through his balding pepper black hair. “Is there any chance that you have some food to spare? I don’t know when I ate last. And if you have something stiff to drink I don’t think that would go amiss either. I don’t know what’s going on but I swear there’re ghost in between the shards and they almost got me last time”

“Baruti could you take him to the house and get him feed I want to think for a little bit.” Baruti helped the man up and they headed to the house. Elizabeth waited until she couldn’t hear them anymore. She slowly went down and then grabbed one of the kayaks and headed into the surf. If the man from Detroit could survive and make it here, she started thinking. Than she could make it out there, and find her mother and father. She neared the shard and felt a moment of panic. Thinking about the stories the man had said about ending up in the middle of a battle. What scared her even more than that was going through and not being able to find her why back here. Taking hold of herself she went through. She had to find them.

Time seamed to stretch and she felt like she was pulled in so many directions at once. She kept going though not know what else to do. The feeling of being pulled in so many different directions didn’t lessen. Suddenly she was surrounded by figures of light. They swam around her some of them came very near and she felt her body convulse as they did. It was the ghost that the man had talked about. She was too scared to scream and started swinging wildly with her paddle. In the back of her mind she realized that she was shaking. The lights continued to flout around her some of them came closer and again her body convulsed. Somehow she was sure that if one of them touched her it would all be over. Abruptly the light started taking on panicky movements and then they all started taking off into all directions. I light much larger and brighter than the others flouted up and stopped right in front of her.

I voice entered her mind vast and powerful it said. “I know what you seek, let me reside within you and I shall give you the power to find it.” It rang in Elizabeth’s mind she could hear it going on forever rolling over time and space.

“Are you an angel, or God?” Man she thought to herself that was a stupid question to ask, but she was having trouble thinking right now. There was a moment’s hesitation and it felt like someone was shuffling papers in her brain looking for information. Finally the voice returned a little softer this time so that she could actually think.

“No we are not angels. Give me residence and I will give you the power so see the paths.” Again the voice sounded like it went on forever. “You shall have eyes to see beyond the shards. You shall always know what path to take to were you need to go all this I give for residence. You may even keep your own will.” Elizabeth thought about this she didn’t know what was going on but the little lights had backed away for this one so maybe it could protect her from them. And if it was right about seeing past the shards she could find her way back to the mansion and Baruti. If what the light said was true she wouldn’t have to walk into a battlefield.

“Ok. But…” she never got to finish her sentence she was filled with light and fell out of the space in-between the shards. The kayak stopped suddenly no longer in water and she rolled out onto solid ground but she couldn’t see. What was going on, why couldn’t she see. Shakily she got to her feat and took a step suddenly the world burst into view but there was no color she took another step and the world burst into view again responding to the vibrations. She took another step and tripped and fell on her hands and knees. The world still burst into view as she moved around like that it was all so deferent. There was no color just lights and outlines nothing she could recognize she turned to where she had come from and she could see without seeing a map past the shard she had come from to all the different shards there were.

It made a spider’s web look simple. She looked closer at the intricate web now that she was looking closer she couldn’t see everything that farthest paths wear shadowed. Actually all the different shards were hazy but she could see what paths she had to take to get to any shard. Along three paths was the mansion, that was funny the shard with the mansion was clear as day unlike all the others. She could see it in her mind and every shard she had to take to get there. She noticed that some of the shards had different tones of color on them. Now that she looked closer she could see that there was a shard with a red mist around it on the path she deeded to take to the mansion. She screamed and slammed he fist into the ground.

“What is going one? what happened to me?” She started crying tears cascading down her face. As they hit the ground they made small spots of light in her dark vision of the world. “What happened to me?”

“You have become my host.” The voice came into her head and shocked Elizabeth out of her tears. Than anger came it had done this to her. Elizabeth started swinging around wildly with her hands hopping she could at least hit the ball of light.

“Where are you?” she screamed. Again the voice answered her in her head.

“I am here inside you. As I said you have become my host.” That shocked Elizabeth into silence again and she timidly reached her hand up and touched her head.

“What are you doing in there? Get out! Get out!” she screamed at the voice now in her head.

“I cannot and will not.” The voice answered her comely. “I gave you a choice and you chose.”

“Like spite I did. I didn’t even know what was going on.”

“That is not my fault I gave you a choice and was much kinder about it than others of my kind would have been. Well I know now that it was the kind way because of your mind and memories.” The voice replied almost cordially. Something about what the voice said got to Elisabeth.

“What are you?” she asked.

“I am an Ethrea. I don’t know anything more than a couple days ago. I woke up with others of my kind in the places between. We shortly found out that we could not survive going beyond that and so we now have to take hosts. I at least gave you your own will. Some of my kind takes that away while inhabiting.”

“Why can’t I see?”

“That is payment for the gift. You will have to see as I do from now on. In time you may find it unhindering. For now I will stay and look at the world through your eyes. Be careful of the shards of different colors those can be dangerous to you.” Elizabeth felt that the being the ethrea had retreated to the back of her mind. She stood shakily the world popping in and out. Slowly she turned to face the shard.

She took another step and the world came again the real world responding to the vibrations it looked almost as if she was looking through night vision goggles but instead of everything being green it was all white. She needed to get back she needed help and to find out more about what was going on to her. She needed to get to the mansion and the only way to do that was to go through the shards. She noticed that the mansions shard was almost all surrounded by the red mist and only had a couple of places to get to it safely. Taking a deep breath she walked through the shard she had come from. She would never to be bothered by other Ethrea now being possessed by one of the greatest.

The Solitude of Loneliness

Holding his gun out in front of him he slowly moved through the building. Lights off, emergency lights spinning around in a frenzy, Phil always had his gun pointing at what he was looking at. He wasn't scared. He had had too much training to be scared. The server room had no signs of life. He went upstairs to the guard tower. Opening the hatch to the lookout, his view reached out into the misty fog of a Jurassic looking jungle. It was too cold to be outside with a jacket yet the green plants were still there intermixed with the smog and fog of war cleansing the land. He looked around and with each horizon that he saw nothing looked upset or agitated. The trees weren't moving, the bugs all dead from the failing fall season.

"Funny," thought Commander Phil. Such a scene would be entirely unnatural before the shards. The shards! He quickly climbed back inside the makeshift bunker and looked for any trace of shard dust. Shard dust was the unofficial name of a situation that looks like a shard had passed through it. His eyes were fixed on trying to locate any possible torn fabric of space. The sight was all too familiar, a basic part of Genesis military training.

Evidence. It was indeed as if everything had just got up and left like mindless zombies. There was the coffee, there was the phone, the instruments, the recording equipment. How could a shard pass by the battlefield but not having touched me? Normally the shards were miles long. All of his platoon had disappeared. They had all been carried off to some other reality, past, present, future, who knew where. The shards weren't a "science" that anyone had figured out. Most of what was known about shards was only displayed to top secret clearance holders. The general public only were alarmed to not go near the glassy areas of space surrounding them, torn fabrics of space in their broken world. "This never happened in Iraq," thought the Commander.

Phil reached for the phone. The shards acted as transmutation devices. They could transport any human or insect or other animal along with their clothes and immediate necessary supplies to anywhere. Phil was even surprised at the vast amount of stuff that stayed behind when this shard must have passed through. "Commander Phil Genesis 124.5.1 Code 'Fracture.' My entire regiment has disappeared. Unknown confirmed reason but assumed to have been caused by a shard passing by the battlefield." He left a message for the "busy" military lines. He was a part of the 24th regiment in the European 100-199 numbers, 5th platoon, commander.

Was the enemy alive? Northern Europe, or what was left of it? Gosh, what a nightmare.

He reviewed the facts in his head. The squad was gone. The enemy had possibly been carried off by the shard as well. He was alone with limited food and communications array. Sometimes the shards would even disrupt communications carrying the electric signals off just like anything else. It was as if the shards had a mind of their own, inflicting the max damage possible.

Gosh darn it! Shards shards shards! Phil had to keep his mind focused. His options were to stay put or move. He would head west back to friendly soil. There is no telling how big the shard was or who is alive out there. His decision was made quick. What was left behind to hold on to? He went through the camp gathering his necessary supplies. He gathered up two knives, his M1 Garand, two pistols with ammo, and a back pack of food and equipment for the evenings. Who knew how long it would take to get back? With the shards ripping through the fabrics of space who knew how long it would take him to get back to HQ. Making the last of his preparations he moved down into the went into the depths of the tower. Under the server rooms and down the stairs he entered into a secret room. Staring ahead there was a red glow. This was the hardest part. He put on the radiation gloves and reached into the contraption, a casing holding a crystal. He grabbed the blood-moon crystal, the size of a nice engagement ring, and carefully removed it from the encasement. All the lights slowly dimmed and died. Power was gone. He held the ring, staring at the radiating red glowing from it, and put it into the back of hid back pack. His back pack became alive with light, his M1 Garand became weightless. He felt invigorated. So much war over such a small thing...

He walked out of the building and went to the edge of the clearing. He didn't want to think of the dangers ahead, the dangers the shards had produced. Who knew what mystery he would find? The only protection had been the security around the camp, energized by the bloodmoon crystal. Now his only security was the structure of his armor and the great energy he could feel on his back. Shards... he hated shards.

Slowly he pressed the detonator and explosions rose into the sky. The building was destroyed, the security fence disabled and thrown everywhere in the mass of chaos. The one benefit and curse of the shards was the crystals.

Shards! He couldn't keep them out of his mind as he ran off into the cold but thriving jungle of what remained of northern Europe mixed with fog and smog and the coat of war praying that he didn't run into any changelings.

Waking Up

Commander Phil always slept peacefully. In his half-dream he smiled and thought about life. He always slept well. Why? Because he was the commander.

Phil was considered entirely strange by his company. He was a mild mannered man that hated authority but thrived in giving it, a hypocrite. As a reason he always demanded his soldiers call him Phil. He got angry quick when soldiers failed to perform their duties but kept a fresh head and point of view when pressure was closing in. Insubordination was a loss of privilege, clear as Luno, the small blue moon. Having served in the Genesis military force for many years he was well acquainted with war and knew that when sleep came it should be taken advantage of. As long as he was loyal to his soldiers they would be loyal back.

No gun fire. It had been a peaceful night. He woke up and slid out of bed. "Horas!" he screamed. Nothing happened. He had expected his 'secretary' to enter in and give a nightly report of all activity. This was war. He put on his cap and buckled his coat over him. He went to his door and opened the latch.

Everything seemed normal. His tent was behind all the lines of fighting, south-east of all the fox holes. Another benefit of being commander. He gazed around in the fog that had covered the battlefield. No shots, no cannons, no smoke, just fog. Phil walked west towards the outpost of operations, looking for Horas. He met no soldiers on the way. Finally he saw the light of the tower, connected to the outpost. Moving toward the entrance he called out, "Rob!" Rob was in charge of the light on top and upon hearing his commander's voice was bound by Genesis rules to check in. The light didn't move.

He opened the door and was stunned. Everything was in order. Lights were busy blinking on all the controls, radio fuzz was audible, and even some food was left on the counter. There was not a soul in the building and no sign of a struggle. He reached for the pistol to his right and aimed it in front of him. The emergency lights weren't even on. It was as if everyone had decided to get up and leave.

After 72 Hours

It lasted for three nightmarish sweat soaked days. The ground shook and heaved the walls of the safe room groaned from the strain of trying to stay together. It felt like at any moment they would all be torn apart or just crushed to death by the collapsing walls. Elizabeth was pressed against one of the walls clutching her cell phone to her chest. She had tried making contact with her parents to no avail. She had tried contacting anyone to tell them about their predicament but nothing got threw. The phone was now dead from constantly being opened and closed but she couldn’t stop herself from checking she couldn’t stop herself from looking for an answer.

Baruti had told her after she had stopped screaming that it was a tsunami. As he was about to go for a swim he saw the water rush away exposing a good hundred yards of new beach. Remembering his survival training he ran back to the mansion telling everyone on the way to get to the safe room. After seeing that she was safely in the room he went to his room and grabbed some boots and extra cloths for himself then hurried to the kitchen and grabbed as much food as he could; hopping that it would be enough for all the people for at least a week until help arrived.

She turned on her flashlight and looked around the room. They had stopped using the flashlights constantly after the first 24 hours now they only turned them on when they ate and went to the little cubicle latrine in the corner. There was close to twenty of them everyone except for herself and Baruti were the workers that kept the place running. Mostly all of them were islanders there English wasn’t really good and she wasn’t really good at their language. They all looked disheartened their faces long and downcast. Most were asleep probably feeling that it was better to die asleep then awake. She quickly turned off her light not wanting to see those faces anymore.

The room shook again and Elizabeth braced herself against the wall but then everything went silent. After three days of constant bombardment and noise the silence was deafening. Lights started coming on all over the bunker and the workers started to look around expectantly. They waited another hour with no other sound than the quick exchange of speech. After some quick discussion with the islanders, Baruti somehow new their language perfectly, they decided to try opening the doors after five hours to give the water time to recede. They really didn’t have that much choice in the matter they were sealed in a room and the oxygen tanks only had enough air in them for another ten hours.

They hours seemed to drag into days everyone was whispering excitedly with each other. Baruti went around making sure that everyone had the proper footwear on. He didn’t want anyone to cut their feet on the glass sure to be there from the broken building. He instructed some of the islanders to wrap cloths around their feet if he wasn’t satisfied with what they wear already wearing. Finally the time came to open the door and everyone was looking at it expectantly. Baruti unsealed the doors keeping the bolt in place and checking the edges looking for water coming inside ready to seal it in a moment’s notice if any water came in from the top. No water came in and Baruti looked a little confused but slowly he unlocked the door and opened it to the outside.

The light was blinding and Elizabeth held up her hand to shield her eyes. Baruti was the first one out and everyone else followed and then stopped to stair around in amazement. It was the strangest sight that Elizabeth had ever seen, nothing was wrong. Elizabeth looked around in bewilderment she had seen pictures of natural disaster sights and they were nothing like this. Nothing was wrong the mansion was their looking exactly like it did right before she went into the safe room. In a daze she went over to one of the walls and put her hand on it. It felt solid she pushed a little harder yep defiantly solid. How was this possible she had felt the tremendous blows of the tsunami she had heard the house fall breaking into a million pieces.

She ran around the mansion checking on everything, it was all there, nothing was out of place. She ran into her room all of her clothes were still their even her sandals that she had kicked off before changing. She went over to her desk her charger was there and she bent down and plugged her cell phone in. The screen light up and the charging sign appeared on the display. Nothing was wet and everything still worked even the electricity. She noticed something out of the corner of her eye and turned to look out of her big bay window at Baruti who was standing their looking out at the ocean. She went out and stood next to him, he didn’t even look at her, she looked at what he was staring at and almost swallowed her tongue.

Out to the horizon maybe 30 yards from shore the earth was splintered. It almost looked like a very realistic water coloring or looking through a pane of glass one that seemed to follow the curvature of the island. A bird took off from one of the trees and flew to the spot were space did not match up before it could get to close it whiled away and went over the island. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing it didn’t make since it looked like something out of a freaky sci-fi movie.

“Baruti what’s going on?” Elizabeth asked her voice sounded hollow to her own ears.

“I don’t know Miss Ammons I just don’t know.” suddenly something caught his eye down on the beach right next to the dock. “No! What are you doing come back here.” He switched to the islanders language and kept on yelling running down to the dock.

Elizabeth ran next to him seeing now what he had seen. Some of the islanders had grabbed some of the kayaks and began to paddle them out into the sea towards the huge wall of what looked like glass. Baruti stopped at the water’s edge and started yelling at the men in the kayaks in their islander tongue. They started yelling back and Baruti started yelling again shaking his head and making motions to come back to shore. They shook their heads and continued to head to the fractured space

“Baruti, Baruti what is going on?” surprisingly my voice was choked up with emotion, for some reason I already knew the answer.

“They are leaving Miss Ammons to go to their home island and find their family.” Baruti started yelling at them again telling them to come back to shore; there was now a frantic edge to his tone. One of the kayaks had already made it to the fractured space and slowed down. Then with determined strokes the islander headed right into it and disappeared. The man in the kayak right in back of him screamed and threw himself off his kayak and started swimming to the shore the kayak he was on slowly hit the wall gliding into it and then it to was gone disappearing right in front of their eyes.

Word spread among the islanders and none of them would even go close to anything that looked remotely like fractured space. But Elizabeth couldn’t really care the only thing she was thinking about was her mother and father. She had tried calling them when her phone was charged but she didn’t have any bars so none of her calls made it out. She hardly slept at all she just looked out into the distance at the docks where her mother and fathers boat should pull up when they arrived. Somehow Baruti convinced the islanders to continue working as if nothing had happened but he was the one that came to her room with food he kept talking to her about the different things that were happening. How the food never ran out how they always seemed to have running water and electricity how one of the workers cut her arm and it had healed by the next day. Elisabeth didn’t know how long she had been like this maybe a couple of days maybe a week but it was she that first saw the newcomer. He came swimming through the waves crawled onto the shore and laid down on his back. Before she could think she was screaming for Baruti and running down to the beach.

Cataclysm

‘im so bored…’

The words blinked from the cell phone and Elisabeth Ammons stared at it a moment longer before sending it off. She sighed and leaned back in the pool chair trying to soak up the sun. It had happened again her dad and mom had brought her here with the promise of spending family time but again something came up and off they went trying to fix whatever it was. The world had gone to pot but still her parents were determined to fix it.

It had started two years ago in 2010 all those natural disasters that kept coming up all over the world. From there the problems had escaladed making the first seem like play days. It had all seemed so far away then something happening to someone else. Of course her parents had always been gone then to. Well of course those things were well natural it had become really scary when things began to be unnatural.

The world had been turned upside down when people started to disappear. There had always been missing people photos that people sometimes looked at as they went through Wal-Mart but it was nothing like this. Elisabeth didn’t think there was a Wal-Mart big enough to hold all the missing persons photos now. The missing persons list was now somewhere in the high millions and some people even said a billion people had disappeared over the last two years. Some others said in whispers as if they were afraid to say it themselves that it was closer to three billion now. The scariest incident had happened six months ago a whole town in Colorado had just disappeared some 300 thousand people. The only one left was a little boy maybe six years old. He had been all over the internet and news his big brown eyes wide has if looking at something no one else could see. No one could get him to talk he just stared wide eyed at everyone as if he was surprised to see them. He didn’t last long a week after they had found him he died, the doctors said that there was nothing wrong with him, he just quit wanting to live.

The world had been rocked on its axis. Some countries didn’t even exist anymore just torn apart by desperate men looking for answers. Even the United States was not immune to the madness although they had held on to sanity better than any other country. Martial law had had to be placed on many towns and cities. Travel now between countries was almost nonexistent. The only reason Elisabeth was here now was because of her parent’s money and political influence. Well also because they had said they wanted to spend family time together. Elisabeth let out another sigh and felt her cell phone buzz she flipped it open to look at the message.

‘wth r y talking about your in the bahamas and away from the DC madness and snow you’re in paradise.’

Elisabeth sighed again she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Her friend was right she had escaped the snow and madness of Washington D.C. She was on Christmas break that’s why her parents had brought her here now. Really, and she hated to admit this to herself, she had only sent the text to make sure her friend was still there. She had had a scary experience a couple of weeks ago in school. She had been following a boy as they both walked to get their photos taken for their senior pictures. As they walked up the stairs the boy tickled her and ran away around a corner and when she ran after him she turned the corner and he was gone. He didn’t show up at home and after three days of no one seeing him he was added to the missing persons list; Just another name among the billion already there.

She sat up on her chair, she needed to get up and get moving again, it didn’t seem like she had any more tears to cry but she was sure that if she stayed their she would start doing just that. She walked along the beach felling the nice breeze coming off of the ocean. Her parents owned the island and it wasn’t a small one either, it was now their private getaway, their haven in a torn world. She started up the path that lead to their mansion a shining complex of glass catching the sun and throwing it in a thousand different directions. It looked more like a small hotel then a mansion spreading out over the land like that and just like a hotel it took a lot of hands to keep it as pristine as it was. And of course her parents didn’t just keep this place to themselves friends and family could use it as well. The only other person here besides herself and the couple dozen workers was there family lawyer. And as she went up the path to the mansion he came down it.

He didn’t look anything like a lawyer at all and if you didn’t know him you would probably think he was a professional athlete or a body builder. He had on a white bath robe from the mansion and white swim trunks bordered in red with bright red flip-flops. All the white only emphasized the fact that he was darker than dark chocolate. He was at least six foot eight and so heavily muscled he looked like a linebacker in the NFL with none of the fat. He was in his thirties and had been friends with her dad for years even though he was at least ten years younger. He intimidated her and probably anyone else on the other side of a courtroom but that’s not why he always won. Her father always said that he was the smartest man he knew and her father knew a lot of smart men. He had shaved his head and it sparkled in the sun and as she came close to him he smiled at her showing of way to white teeth.

“Miss Ammons I was on my way to tell you that your mother and father are on their way back.” Baruti said his words heavy with an African accent. She couldn’t help a smile spreading across her face and he smiled at her in turn showing again his way to white teeth. “But I’m off for a swim Miss Ammons. I will see you at dinner.”

Elisabeth happily ran back to her room going straight to it from the beachfront. She hadn’t expected them to come back so soon. She changed form he swimsuit into a pair of khakis and a tank top looked at herself in the mirror. She knew she was pretty but liked to downplay the fact by not wearing makeup. She liked being normal and even tried making a point of it demanding to go to a regular high school. She had long curly blond hair, almost white, and bright blue eyes with a fit body. Not that she would be anything else not when she had to do gymnastics all the time. But she had not really had the gymnastic type of body either. She was skinny in some places and to big in others. But she had heard other girls say they would kill to have her body so she just went with it. She was just contemplating if she wanted to put on a little makeup when Baruti ran into her room.

“Miss Ammons you must come quickly.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Grab anything you need for two days, but we must hurry, we need to get to the safe room.” He let her grab some cloths and then he was pulling her through the halls yelling at anyone he saw to get to the safe room quickly and when a tall black man that could rip you apart without breathing hard yelled at you you just did what he said no arguing.

In the center of the complex was a large concrete room. Her father was a very cautious man and had a safe room made in case of emergencies. So even though the mansion was made mostly out of glass you would be safe in the concrete room, the builders had said that it could withstand tsunamis. There were already some people in the room when Baruti pushed her inside.

“Stay in here and if I’m not back in ten minutes close the door and lock it.” She saw the worry on his face and couldn’t stop herself from asking what was going on. “No time to explain I have to get the others if I can.” And with that he was gone.

The ten minutes stretched into eternity others arrived and sat down around the safe room everyone had the common mask of fear etched on their faces. Sooner than ten minutes but she had been certain it was hours Baruti was back pushing others in front of him into the safe room. He was also caring a large laundry basket full of food from the kitchen. He sat the basket down and started to close the door but before the door was halfway closed there was a loud rushing noise and the lights went out. Not just in the safe room but all light went out. It was as if someone had put a blanket over the sun. The door clicked shut and there was the hiss as it sealed itself shut and then there was silence.

The roar that was cut off from the door closing was back only louder and then the sound of glass breaking it was the sound of all the glass in the world breaking at once and Elisabeth knew it was the mansion falling down around the safe room. Then the safe room itself moved as if a giant hand had smacked it with a hammer. The sound was thunder and drowned everything out even her desperate screams. She had no idea when she started doing that but she could not stop.

Soldier

The first thought that he had was that he was uncomfortable. That wasn’t a surprise considering sitting in a foxhole in the dead of winter on the northern front of Europe is not the most comfortable situations. He moved to see if he could find a more comfortable position before either the fighting started with the Nazies again or before his commander could wake him up to start it.

As he tried to go back to sleep something kept nagging him at the back of his mind. Then it dawned on him with light making a red glow through his eyelids. He wasn’t uncomfortable because of being cold he was uncomfortable because he was to warm, in fact he was sweating. His eyes shot open filled with light that was far to bright to be morning. The sounds of millions of insects availed his ears as he tried to orientate himself. Brian (because that was his name) looked around in utter astonishment this looked like the fox hole that he had fallen asleep in last night but everything else was wrong.

Over the top of Brian’s head he could see the canopy of thick jungle foliage. Now that he was awake he could no longer ignore the heat that came at him in waves. He ripped the front of his coat open and tried to concentrate on his surroundings instead of the damp heat that pressed almost gluing his cloths to his body. Franticly he checked to see if he had any of his gear. He felt all three of his knifes, something his mates had made fun of him for, and also his colt. All of this was on his person so he was not surprised it was still there. Luckily his backpack and M1 Garand were still resting beside him along with the two bags full of ammunition for his company. Brian felt a moment of relief that his commander was not there to yell at him for taking off with the company’s ammo.

Quickly Brian striped off his coat and shoved it into his backpack. Slinging the backpack and the two bags of ammunition onto his back he fixed one of his knifes, his bayonet, onto his rifle. He took a couple of quick breaths and then jumped up positioning his gun over the top of his fox whole and into the face of a possible enemy. All that he saw was a thick wall of very green jungle foliage. He started thinking fast maybe if he was here others of his company were as well.

“Jason.” He croaked barely addible. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Jason, Tubby, Phil is anyone there.”

No one responded the only sound that answered his cries were the buzzing of insects. He tried again this time calling out everyone’s name in the company a little louder. Nothing no other sounds came back besides those of the insects. He scrambled out of his fox whole turning to get a panoramic view of his surroundings. Even without his coat the heat was oppressive feeling like the middle of summer in his hometown in Utah. There was the crushing sound of breaking branches behind him and Brian turned around quickly to confront the noise.

On the other side of the fox hole from him was the biggest creature that he had ever seen. It looked like a giant lizard standing on two legs a thick tail stretched out in back of it. But right then the only thing that Brain was interested in was the things head. It looked big enough to swallow him whole and was full of what looked like extremely sharp teeth. Without realizing it he had set the butt of rifle in his shoulder and fired two quick shots. The shots sounded like thunder exploding the silence but were quickly drowned out by the roar of the giant lizard. It started swinging its head from side to side desperately trying to scratch at its face with two pitifully short arms. Taking the opportunity Brian turned and ran into the jungle.

For the moment he was alone followed only by the roar of the giant lizard he had left behind. That changed as the roar of the lizard subsided replaced by the sound of breaking foliage, the sure sound of pursuit. Brian ran desperately thinking, how this couldn’t be real it had to be a dream but being rapidly awakened to the fact of the very real leafs striking his face and the blood pounding in his ears. Brian burst into a clearing and started looping across the open field painfully aware of the sound of a much larger body following quickly gaining ground. He only had a moment of quick surprise as he realized that the space in front of him didn’t quit match up with its surroundings. It looked like a broken mirror cutting across the land everything behind it being somehow blurred.

That was all he had a moment and then he was hurtling through that broken space. He felt like every hair on his body was trying to stand on end everything in front of him blurred and shifted. Brian actually felt it shift, something tugged at his foot and he fell rolling across a wooden floor slamming hard into a wall. His vision blurred and for a moment he couldn’t see a thing his whole world was black. A loud crash and sound of breaking wood was barely audible to Brian followed by an earsplitting roar that Brian was vaguely aware happening nearby.

After a moment Brian lifted himself up onto his hands and knees and took in his surroundings. It looked like he was in a house the paint on the walls pilling and faded. The furniture was torn and everything was dust covered and dirty, no one had lived here in a very long time. He turned to look in back of him and quickly backed up to the wall, grabbing at his rifle and lifting it up to his shoulder. The giant lizard had followed him through the rift and impaled itself on one of crossbeams overhead. The large wooden beam had gone all the way through the lizard and been torn free from the ceiling. Its large head was near were Brian’s feet had most recently been the lizards eyes clouded by death.

Brian realized that he was lucky the same thing didn’t happen to him when had gone through that rift. Looking behind the lizard he saw the same ill fitting of space he had gone through. He made a mental note not to go anywhere near that jagged line of ill fitting space. Catching his breath he stood up and made his way carefully toward a door set in the wall. Reading his rifle and himself he pushed it open determined to find out what was going on.

Fracture-Speak

For those who are traveling between the shards of reality, the problem of communication is going to inescapably come up again and again. By Complete coincidence and not having Anything to do with making the story more than people trying to talk, one of the most useful abilities of Magic-users is the ability to understand various languages merely by listening for a couple of minutes and manipulating reality a tiny bit. Most shards of reality that see a lot of traffic generally have someone on hand who can help with translation problems, and travelers themselves generally have a magic-user among them. This type of communication, called Fracture-Speak, does an okay job for emergencies and random travelers, but actually speaking the language is always better.

Someone else might have the ethereal ability to understand and speak any language, with an appropriate Geise (they may be only able to speak in rhyme, lose the ability to stop talking, or be required to attack anyone who addresses them directly).

Particularly capable magic-wielders may be able to create charm bracelets or necklaces that allow the wearer the ability to understand and speak other languages, but of course wearing such an object while traveling from one shard to another is practically an invitation for Ethera interference.

Fractured Space

The best way to imagine Fractured Space is to think of a video game. Within the video game you have different areas, or levels. Usually they try to hide the edges of the map by putting obstacles there, such as cliffs, water, mountains, etc., but if you can ever manage to find those areas where they missed, you find a kind of blank wall that looks vaguely as if the map should keep extending beyond that point, but you can't pass it. With fractured space, the entire world, plus some, has been divided into large video game-type maps. If you get to the edge, then you are transported from one map to another map. The maps don't match up to each other exactly, and they are all jumbled together, so that a desert piece might be right next to an ocean piece and a frozen tundra piece. To make matters worse, you can't tell until you cross over what is in the next area. While most of the pieces transport you to the same place every time, some of them change. Traveling from one area to another, then, is a big deal.

For story purposes, this means that every time the characters travel from one slice of the world to another, they are in a completely different setting, from Victorian England to the Australian outback, from the wilds of a Jurassic jungle to a modern city, simply by stepping across an almost invisible line. Most people generally stay in the slice of world that they find themselves in, but some travelers search for family, a safer home, or even just business opportunities. In any event, traveling is a big deal.

GEISE

a GEISE is basically a 'magical', or in this case ethereal, prohibition or law. A good way to think of a Geise is the cost of the ethereal abilities. It is generally related in some way to the type of ethereal creature or magical ability. Geise generally come in four forms: Contracts, Limits, Constraints, and Provisos.

The first type, called a PROVISO, stipulates that a certain action or type of action cannot be taken. This includes provisions to never eat the flesh of an animal that walked on four legs, a prohibition against wearing a certain color or saying a certain word, etc. Generally it is a small, simple thing, easy to avoid, and easy to forget about. It can also include something that the person loves or feels a constant need to do. However, directly after breaking the Proviso, the person experiences great pain, extreme bad luck (including loss of loved ones, memory, health, etc.), or even, gruesome death.

The CONSTRAINT actually eliminates a certain behavior, so that the bearer of the Geise literally doesn't have the ability to do that anymore. This can include a vampire's inability to enter a house without verbal permission, an inability to say anything that is not true, an inability to kill, etc. They can also be silly, including the inability to touch fingernails, but in general tend to be a constant annoyance to the person who bears it.

Where a constraint limits taking certain actions, a LIMIT eliminates abilities. For example, a Constraint might eliminate a person from eating red fruit, but a Limit would eliminate the ability to even see the fruit. Limits include not being able to see certain colors (so that anything that color is invisible), or a loss of intelligence and emotional control during transformation (like a werewolf). The X-men Rogue's (r) inability to touch someone without almost killing them, or Cyclopes (r) inability to see someone without protective lenses, could be considered Limits.

Similar to the other three, a CONTRACT is an action that must be taken. There are Proviso Contracts, where a certain action needs to be taken to avoid pain; Constraint Contracts, where the person performs the Geise whether they want to or not; and Limit Contracts, where abilities have limits (such as being able to change into any type of mammal, but always being green in color.