The Mirrorverse
Chapter 57

Syrhahn

Syrhahn was beginning to lose the feeling in his legs, though he suspected it was more the amount of time he had been hemmed in by the strange root like tentacles that were restraining him than being digested.

April was sat at his feet staring up at him, unfazed that she could become victim to the roots, as she was certain she would engulf if her life depended on it. Besides, as she had pointed out, if it was going to grab her, it would have done so already.

He closed his eyes, feeling the pins and needles in his lower legs slowly ebb away, which wasn’t a good sign.

Behind his eyelids, glowing red from the invading sunlight, Syrhahn stared at nothing, and tried to think of nothing. He refused to let in the thoughts he had on the ship, refused to think of death, regrets and all that comes with it.

He felt movement, and the tendrils loosened their hold on him, finally releasing him from plant prison.

He collapsed on the floor, his body not kicking in to take his weight as the support suddenly vanished.

April was squealed with delight and hugged him as he got shakily to his feet. He felt neither jubilation nor anger. Saved from death for the second time in as many days, he was becoming despondent, or perhaps just numb.

Where joy should have reigned at the possibility of seeing Viskra again, there was just adrenaline. He felt like he was at the top of a roller coaster, ready to drop at any second, adrenaline coursing through his veins yet no emotions like happiness or sadness.

A new onslaught of gunfire brought him out of his reverie. April opened a portal and took his hand, but he shook his head no, he must replace the others.

They ran between the trees, the gunfire a good enough distance away to not pose a threat to them, but more could arrive any moment. They saw that the clearing was empty, the others had gone. Where was anybody’s guess.

April opened another portal and they stepped through, away from the carnage that Eden had become.

It was dark and cold where they stepped out. Cold, wet things were slapping Syrhahn’s head and he realised they were stood in bushes, and leaves were the culprits for the wet welcome.

“Where are we?” he whispered, wondering if she knew where she’d brought them.

“Where I grew up,” she whispered back. “We used to come here to smoke, when things were, you know, normal.”

Syrhahn realised she meant other children, and that they were in an urban area, unlikely to be in danger for their lives.

“We need to run and portal,” said Syrhahn as quietly as he could. He felt April’s little hand slip into his big bear hand, pulling him to run.

They burst from the bushes startling an animal the size of a large dog. A side glance revealed that it was actually a cat. Maybe they had pet cat beasts in April’s world.

He followed April through an enchantingly beautiful portal, while he thought he might never get accustomed to its pure radiance.

The heat hit them as they emerged into a moonlit seashore. Palm trees flanked the sandy shore while the waves crashed, sparkling white and silver under the waxing gibbous moon.

It was oppressively humid. Cxielo never got hot and humid, it was a cool, arid climate through the habitable lands. The remainder of Cxielo was freezing, far too cold for human habitation, apart from the odd nutter in an igloo or research station.

The beach was idyllic. Syrhahn saw no-one, nor any signs of inhabitation. April confirmed that they were alone there.

Syrhahn sat in the sand, running the minute silica particles through his fingers, watching them glint in the moonlight.

April sat beside him, her fingers tensing into the mobile substrate before beginning to strip off her warm clothing. Syrhahn followed suit, the heat seeping into his bones.

“So what now?” April challenged him, hoping he had an answer. He reached into his jacket pocket for the photo of Viskra’s abductors.

“Where is that?” asked April, scrutinising the photo of the one who was Brecht, or Brian.

“Military facility on Cxielo,” he informed her wearily, not caring why she wanted to know.

“We need weapons,” she stated simply, still looking at the photo.

“What are you thinking?” he wondered softly, his eyebrows raising slightly.

“Military facility will have weapons. I can take us into a photo, we can get guns.”

It was genius. Syrhahn knew that Xhisara could walk through walls without knowing what was on the other side, thus so could April.

“They will be waiting for another person who walks through walls,” he warned.

“But it will have been so long now. We will just hurry,” April’s steely determination highlighted the only path for them to take. They were lost in the multiverse, their friends were either dead or lost, so they had only each other, and he owed it to her to protect her. They needed weapons.

Syrhahn looked back on the him that existed only months ago. Is it months? Is it weeks or only days? He had lost track of the time he had been separated from his son, from his life, whatever that was. He felt more alive than he had in years, but had lost his only reason to live. It was like before Angel, when he existed on adrenaline alone, only now he had a young person to protect.

“Okay,” he murmured, more as a spacer in time than a gesture of consent. “How are we going to do this?”

“Do you know the layout of the base?” April asked, looking from him to the photo. He breathed in deeply, admiring his surroundings before another suicide mission.

“Nope. I have no idea where the Armoury is. I don’t know it at all.”

“I should go alone, it will be safer for just me to slip through,” April said thoughtfully.

“Bollocks,” he had learnt that word from Les. “Not without me you’re not.”

They glared at each other for a short while before laughing.

“Okay, but always be touching me right? So we can always go?” April’s large green eyes stared up at Syrhahn’s and he nodded, throwing some warm sand into her lap.

“Is this Earth?” he mused idly, the surroundings soothing his ravaged soul.

“Yes,” April replied. “I think it’s before humans evolved. It’s perfect.”

“Doesn’t that mean there are fearsome predators around?” he wondered, suddenly ill at ease.

“Not here, this is an island, I’ve walked around it. I skipped across the sea and found apes on the mainland. It’s my paradise.”

“So we’re not going to get eaten by wolves?” he laughed.

“Nope, we’re good,” smiled the girl who sometimes seemed so much older than her years, and sometimes so much younger.

They rested there on the warm sand for an indeterminable amount of time before arising without a word.

“Better get a look at that photo then,” April said heavily, holding out her hand.

She stared at the photo before nodding,

“Let’s do it.”

The lab looked much like it had in the holovis recording Syrhahn had been shown by the colonel. That felt like an age ago to him.

There was no time to hang about Viskra’s last known place when they knew they were under surveillance and soldiers would be arriving imminently.

Rather than attempting the door, April opened a portal to directly the other side of the wall, or an estimate of it. It seemed April had had practice in walking through walls and had it off to a fine art. Syrhahn dreaded to think what the fourteen year old had been up to before he met her.

They moved rapidly down the corridor, past more unoccupied glass walled labs. It seemed they had struck gold as it didn’t appear to be normal working hours. There was no way they could have known what time it was before entering the lab, Syrhahn had no pictures of his house or anywhere else on Cxielo, and had lost his wrist watch somewhere along the way.

They hung a right, where the rooms had solid walls, making it less likely that someone would spot them. Syrhahn looked up and saw a cam with a flashing red light, causing him to stop outside the lifts.

“They’re coming!” he hissed, as they ran through a portal to the floor below.

He had already known the risks of entering the base before they set foot in it. He knew his face caught on camera meant he could never return to Cxielo again. But he figured there was no point in leaving it open to return when he wouldn’t survive to do so without weapons.

“This doesn’t look right,” he murmured, looking around at the doors in the same layout of the previous floor.

“Down?” asked April. Syrhahn nodded.

“Now that’s more like it,” he approved, as they looked on at a high security door set in a corridor with two dead ends. The only entrance or exit was the lifts, so they needed to get into the stores as soon as possible, before the lift doors opened.

Syrhahn followed April through the door, still replaceing it very strange. Before he was through the portal he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder.

Staying upright, he couldn’t catch his breath. He tried to breathe shallowly but nothing was happening. The room was dimly lit in red light, and he couldn’t see April. He tried to call her name but not even a croak came out. He heard the soldiers coming in behind him, heard the clank of their weapons.

He just wanted to shout to April to get out of there, leave him and go, but nothing came. They were Syrhahn’s last thoughts as his mind shut down.