Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (12 page)

So he got in line, standing
behind a young man who was both very hungry and who
kind
of wanted to
have sex with Merry. His shadow went on about it, yammering about clever sexual
positions, interspersed with a desire for fried rice, eggs rolls, and General
Tso's Chicken. Not at the same time, thankfully.

That would have been messy.

Still, he was polite to Merry,
not even asking if she was single, being a little bit shy like he was. After
paying for the food, Merry smiled at him, her inner self having been aware of
him the whole time.

"Husband! Go, sit, I'll
bring you something to eat..." She worried that her performance, and even
having a job, was going to stress their relationship. Her inner glowing self
worried about it constantly around him, but Zack smiled at her and shook his
head.

"Or, I don't know, I
could
just get a tray like everyone else? Are you working late tonight?"

"I think so. My brother is
in charge of Mae's location. She was needed by Riley, the Trickster, to go and
perform a service for him. We decided it was better for her to simply do it,
than to fight against what must be anyway." She looked at him, her inner
being looking at him closely.

Is it time?

The thought carried a lot of
weight with it,
and
information that Zack had always ignored before. She
had always hinted that she had a duty to perform for him, at the right time.
One ordered by her king. Something to tell him, as well. Or, at any rate, say
at the right time.

Now, given what he'd figured out,
he knew what both of those things were. The duty, in the end, would be to kill
him. To prevent him from faltering, and letting the darkness into reality. She
might not have to do that now, thankfully. After all, she truly loved him, in
her own way. If Zack could keep that from happening, then it was all to the
good.

The message, a thing she was
supposed to whisper to him as he died, to the air over him, as he moved into
the void itself, for the last time, was expected too.

That
he
was the
Gatekeeper. More exactly, she was to say '
you are the Gatekeeper'
, which
could mean something else, but was kind of telling, given the time that had to
take place, right after he died.

Big Shadow was that being, though
she didn't know to call him that in particular.

If she, or really, Zack, failed
at any point, then the world and all reality would be destroyed. If on the
other hand, he succeeded, then he would live horrors that no one ever should
have too. A dead woman had explained that to him once. Now he thought he
understood.

So he tilted his head.

"I...
Think
we get a
bit of time. I need to get everyone ready, and of course, make sure that it all
goes correctly. So, spring rolls, rice, sweat and sour?" He didn't eat
meat, the life of the being it once was always handing off the pain of its
death to him like it did. The fear of its passing, too.

Merry didn't even pretend not to
understand, her eyes going wide, and then becoming worried.

"Husband? What will we
do?"

It was a bit strange, but he had
some things that
were
needed first. Before anything else could be done.
One of them was saving Claire. As it stood, at that moment, they were tied
together. In a way that meant if either of them ever died, the other would too.
It wouldn't be right to take her with him, if he had to go soon.

Then, thinking about it,
if
he were Big Shadow, then that might be enough. She lived, with him being off in
the void now, even if he were gone for days at a time. In other realities, as
well. It needed to be tested, but that might be all right. Other than that, it
was all about making sure his friends were cared for and safe. As much as he
could make them. No one ever got to be perfectly safe, but he could do his best
for them.

"I need to make certain that
we can train more line walkers. If I have it right, then I won't be around to
do that part of things. Not dead, just gone?"

That got her to stop for a
second, then start making up three large plates of food for him. He ate a lot
now.

"If you do not fail... Again.
This isn't the first time this has happened, and cannot be the last. In this
part of reality there is always a Hartley to either fail, or protect us all. No
one can know what will be, until it happens. Mae told me that." She made a
face, one that was actually angry, and shook her tiny head. She looked taller
than normal, standing on a raised platform behind the counter like she was. It
made her slightly over four feet tall at the moment. She had on an apron, and
her hair was held up in a complicated style on top of her head. The red from it
gleamed in the lights from the mall.

"It is
always
different, or so the legends go. Each place has its own version of what will
be. Soon though, or maybe never, there will be a coming together. Mae told me
this. It is a true telling, but also a confused thing. Even to one such as her.
You met a different you already, so that fits. It is why I must worry about you
now." She shrugged, feeling bad, and angry that her life was going to
change so soon.

Even though it had always been
going to have been that way for her.

The food was passed over, and she
didn't give him a drink, since to her way of thinking good food didn't need to
be washed down like some kind of foul tasting medicine. Then, as he watched, her,
she changed inside. Her inner self smiled at him, and removed what they'd
spoken of from her mind very neatly, so she could go on with her work.

It is not yet time
.

That surprised Zack, but he
nodded, inside, understanding that he was being told something very special.
Not that he wasn't going to have to see to protecting reality, but that he had
a luxury that wasn't expected. Time.

Smiling he took his tray, which
was well loaded down, and moved to one of the glass topped tables. He ate in
silence for a while, not looking up until a familiar black man sat with him.
Riley, the Trickster. The man was wearing his Fun Zone shirt, and gave him a
grin. He had a plate of steamed rice and some fried vegetables, which weren't
things offered at the mall.

Zack pointed at the plate, and
grinned.

"Special order? That looks
more Japanese."

That got a laugh, since Riley did
that kind of thing a lot.

"It is, at that. I need you
to do something for me, if you will?" It was a
question
, which was
odd. Normally Tricksters just
assumed
you weren't going to help them
out. It was a bit hazy, but the idea was that they knew, innately, how to keep
reality together. It was their power, and if others wouldn't help them, they
tended to find ways to get it done anyway. Lying and trickery, for the most
part.

Which given what he'd just been
thinking made sense.

"Sure. Now, or can we finish
eating first?" It could be that important, and if he had to miss a few
meals, Zack would live.

Riley waved at the food and used
chopsticks to shovel seasoned vegetables into his mouth, chewing carefully
before speaking.

"Eat. This isn't something
that pressing. I need you to deliver a letter for me? A couple of them. The
trick here is that they're all in different realities. You can do that kind of
thing now though, so it won't be that huge of an issue, right?" There was
a tricky seeming grin, and the shadow of the man turned from a large rabbit
into something very strange indeed.

He turned into... Zack.

Blinking Zack looked away, not
knowing what that was about. He was nearly certain that he was himself, at
least for the universe they were in.

Then the Trickster explained. If
the words held truth, it was impossible to know.

"The people we need to get
the letters, all of them are you. Only
not
. You'll see. They won't be
that hard to find, for you, but you'll want to be careful. You're
kind
of high strung, after all. Well, you know how you are. On the good side you can
send one of them back with my new girlfriend Eve."

Zack nodded, understanding.

"I didn't know you were
dating. Fast work there."

Riley smiled, his dark skin
contrasting with his very white teeth nicely.

"Neither does she. It will
probably
make date night awkward, but that isn't my problem. That other me is dealing
with it, in her world. There will be more than that, but that's why the letters
need to go out. In a few days?"

Eating, he nodded.

"Sure. I might be running
out of time here, so we should get right on that." He didn't let himself
sound worried about it, but Riley nodded at him, his face more serious now.

"Yeah. One of you has to do
it, and you're the old one.
Ancient
. You'll be much older in the end,
too. You can't shuffle that duty off onto the kids. That never works out. On
the good side, I hear tell that being you can be kind of interesting at times.
Boring too, but that's why
I'm
not you." Then the man ate quickly,
smiling occasionally.

When most of the steamed rice was
gone, Riley winked at him.

"I'm almost certain you get
a few weeks. Longer than that really, with all the time in the void. This isn't
the end. It never is."

He was being cagey on purpose, so
Zack just looked at him, and waited. For once that actually worked for him and
someone just explained what they meant.

"Look. It's hard to tell
most people this, because reality is so big and complex, but... You're all
immortal. We
all
are. As you die in one place, you mind consolidates to
another reality where you didn't die. Even better, there are trillions of
versions of all of us! Millions and millions of lines. Places that have you and
I, exactly like we are here, or close enough no one would be able to tell any
different. Each of those will end up with just one of us at the end." He
took another bite of his strange food and locked eyes with Zack.

Then he went on, after he wiped
his mouth, politely.

"So there are infinite
worlds, and unlimited things will happen, but in the end they all distill down
into main lines. You, your consciousness, will be in one of them, alive and
well, and I'll be there too, with you. Even if I see you die
here
, now
or later, in the end there is
only
the line of people that never died.
You won't know the difference really. It's a neat effect that way. To you, in
the end you'll have always been alive. Even if it means dying nearly an
infinite amount of times to get there."

Zack had to focus to follow the
words, and stopped eating, so he could do it.

"I see? So really, in the
end, each reality ends up being a person? A being?"

"Right! Two, really. One of
them will be on the side here, the good one, and the other will be in the
darkness. Tortured and punished for all eternity. See, that part is what we
have to try and prevent. It all hinges on you, for everyone. Either you open
that gate, or you don't. The thing there is that there are a lot of you, and
people that are
nearly
you. Your part in the whole thing is to lock out
the bad things. If you ever fail, then in the end, everyone suffers. It's a
coin toss that way. So no pressure."

Then the man wrinkled his nose.

"Confused yet? I've lived
this my entire life and barely get it. The real point is that you have to win,
or
I
suffer forever. So, if you need my help doing that, I'm in. I'll
have those letters for you? Call it tomorrow, though you won't have to leave
for a while. Just whenever you get time."

Then the man stood, cleaned up
the space where he'd dropped a few bits of rice, and left. He just walked away,
but Zack couldn't track him after a moment. How that was done he couldn't
figure out at all.

For a moment he wondered if Riley
had told him all he just had to trick him somehow, that being how the man
normally worked his magic. It really could have been that, but after a moment,
thinking about what he probably had to do, he got that it didn't
really
matter. Either he was going to do the right thing, or not, and even if it was
hard, that path, the good one, was the road he wanted.

That the end stakes of everything
were being left on his shoulders was less than fun, but it probably had to go
somewhere. So for his reality, he was needed to do his part, or so it seemed.

His head hurt a bit from trying
to keep it all in place.
Every
unique being was immortal. He thought
that one made sense. When they died they would simply skip to a reality where
they
hadn't
, to their own perspective. That was a theory that had come
up before. He didn't know if it was true, but it might be. Even some scientists
thought so. Fringe ones that the others scoffed at and mocked, but they
did
exist.

So
he
was one being, and
the other Zack Hartley, the greater demon, he was one, too. Separate and
different enough that their lines would never meet up, even if they
were
kind of the same person for their own worlds. The same would be true for Lyn
and Kate then, too. They were identical, but also so different that they were
separate that way.