Voices floated somewhere above him in a dream as fragments of reality floating on a cool breeze. His mind tried to piece the words around him together, but only managed a brief awareness of conversation he couldn’t understand. He opened his eyes. The light was too bright, and his eyelids too heavy. He closed his eyes again. Something burned, a far off sensation he couldn’t identify. He tried to speak. “Doctor, he’s awake again.” “Put him back under.” “I’ve already given him the maximum recommended amount for an Aeden his age.” “It could be his genetic modifications are rejecting the general, use a regional.” The burning sensation disappeared and he drifted away on a velvet river under a starry night. The stars drifted along with him and sparkled their distant light. He lay on a raft with the current slipping silently under him. His eyes fluttered. “Doctor, his eyes are open.” “He’s already had enough to numb a Desert Walker. He’ll have to endure, I’m almost finished.” Demons hovered over him, burning him with their flames. The flames crawled across his belly and he shouted his rage at them. The demons cowered in fear at his power as he called upon the sun to defend himself. “He’s mumbling something and clenching his fist.” “He’s in a waking dream state, he shouldn’t remember any of this. There, I’m done.” The demons fled in terror at his fierceness. He closed his eyes and opened them as a great weight held him in the darkness. A tiger’s face loomed over him. “Is he dead?” asked Dash. “He not dead,” replied Shadow. “He not breathing,” said Dash. “Get off his chest,” replied Shadow. “What is going on here,” a voice from the door shouted. “All of you, get out!” Dash jumped down and with the other cubs ran for the apeirogon door as Jack-Mischief came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. “Could we get some more towels?” asked Mischief with a broad smile as he pulled his damp towel off and handed it to Jack-Charisma. He stepped through the apeirogon door to the camp beyond in the ruins of the ancient library. Charisma tossed the towel over his shoulder and gave the nurse a wink before closing the door to the bathroom. The nurse looked through the apeirogon door at the long line of Jacks waiting to use the shower. “The bathroom is for patients!” protested the nurse. “We are the patient,” replied Warrior from one of the two comfortable guest chairs and working on a crossword puzzle. “We are Jack, and it’s not our fault if we’re not contained in one body. No rules are being broken. What’s a three-letter word for ‘picnic crasher’?” Jack-Curious was next in line and stuck his head through the apeirogon door. “Ant.” “Ah, of course,” said Warrior. The nurse glanced back through the apeirogon door and had a vision of the line of Jacks as ants headed to a picnic. “I want everyone out and this apeirogon door closed now!” Warrior looked up from his puzzle. “What’s a three letter word for ‘race position next to inside rail?” “Sir, I will have security remove you.” “Cop, sop, pop, lop, fop, top,” muttered Warrior, still trying to find the 3-letter word he needed for his crossword puzzle. Jack sat up suddenly in his bed and threw up. The nurse spun around, but Jack-Medic was already through the door and at Jack’s side with a damp towel cleaning him off. The nurse put her hands on her hips. “Do you mind if I take care of my patient.” “We were Medic’s patient long before you, Ma’am,” said Warrior. Jack-Charisma emerged from the bathroom and scowled at Warrior. “How is a guy supposed to enjoy a shower with all this shouting out here? You do know there’s a sick boy in here, right?” Charisma went over to the nurse and flashed a smile that could have melted a glacier. “And a little respect for this fine woman that only wants to help our little brother.” Charisma put an arm around the nurse. “You are doing the work of angels, and I only hope if I am ever in need of care, that it is your face that appears over me like a heavenly vision.” The nurse frowned and pulled away from Charisma. “I am a professional, Sir, your sweet talk will not work on me. I want everyone out of this room.” Charisma lowered his head just enough that he had to look at her through dark thick eyelashes that accented his blue eyes. “Then if not my heartfelt words for the professional care you have given my brother, then hear my pleas for mercy. This simple shower is the first comfort we’ve had in over three-hundred years as we huddled in the cold mud of a prison we do not deserve. I beseech you, dear guardian angel, administer your healing to us all, we have suffered so much.” A single tear fell down Charisma’s cheek as the nurse frowned and looked back through the apeirogon door at all the Jacks waiting for a turn in the shower. She had to admit they were as a filthy and pathetic looking group of men and boys as she had ever seen. The boys with their sky-blue pleading eyes more than anything melted the ice from her heart. “I want no more tigers in here, and only one person at a time.” “And me,” added Warrior. “I’m not leaving. An Eroden murderer was permitted into this room and I won’t leave Dreamer unguarded again.” The nurse ignored Warrior and pointed at an elderly man waiting in line. The man had a dirty bandage wrapped around his head. “I want to see that man with the bandage immediately, and anyone else with injuries.” “You are a true angel,” said Charisma as he motioned for the elderly man with the head bandage to come into the room. The man left the line and entered the room. Charisma clasped a hand on the elderly man’s shoulder. “This is Jack-Climber, he likes to climb. When we first found him, he was half way up a cliff on a ledge.” Climber shrugged. “That ledge was my home, it was the only safe place I could find to sleep, until Jack-Humor and five of the other Jacks found me.” The nurse pulled the head bandage up to reveal a nasty cut that looked infected. “How did you cut your head?” “I slipped and fell out of a tree.” “You were climbing a tree at your age?” The man shrugged. “True freedom is at the top of a tree, and I’ve been climbing trees for a very long time. I’m not stopping now.” “How old are you?” “I’m Jack 32. They didn’t keep records until the thousandth Jack, so I have no idea how old I am.” Jack Dreamer was only partially aware that his room had been turned into a clinic to treat Jacks with minor cuts, scrapes, bruises, and even a broken bone. The nurse had become too side-tracked to notice that Dash had snuck back in and was up on the bed with Jack. Dash cuddled against Jack as he faded in and out of consciousness. Dash had his head on Jack’s chest listening to his heartbeat when the thumping began sounding odd. Dash raised his head and roared. “Something wrong,” shouted Dash. The nurse rushed to Jack’s side and listened to his heartbeat. “He’s going into cardiac arrest.” Warrior threw his crossword puzzle aside and stood. “What happened?” “The code blue team is coming,” said the nurse. “He was having a bad reaction to the anesthesia during surgery. Are you guys allergic to anesthesia?” “I don’t know, we’ve never had surgery before,” replied Warrior. The heart monitor alarm continued to sound its urgency as a doctor with his team rushed into the room. The doctor with the code blue team shouted. “Clear the room!” Warrior lifted Dash off the bed and stepping back, put the little tiger on the floor. The code blue team surrounded Jack and began working. “Possible allergic reaction to anesthesia… He’s in arrhythmia… 1 mg adrenaline… he’s still crashing… charge the defibrillator…” Warrior grabbed the doctor and yanked him back. “Is his heart beating right now?” “Nurse, call security!” shouted the startled doctor. Warrior’s hand tightened on the doctor’s neck. “Is the heart beating, answer me!” “Y-y-yes, but only for a few more seconds,” stuttered the doctor, suddenly realizing the danger he was in. Warrior pushed the doctor away. “Everyone get back, the surgery went wrong. I’m resetting him.” Charisma put a hand out. “We can’t afford to lose you back to sixteen. I’ll go.” “We can’t lose either of you,” said Climber. “I have more experience out there than both of you put together. I’ll take care of him until you find us.” Warrior reluctantly nodded. “Alright, protect him, our future is in your hands now, go.” Warrior looked back at the doorway. “Search and recovery mission, prepare the wagons, we move out in twenty minutes.” Warrior looked back at Dreamer in time to see Climber pull Jack into his arms and the fabric of reality twist and warp, but not in time to stop Dash from jumping back up on the bed and placing his paws on Jack. Climber, Dreamer, and Dash vanished. “The apeirogon door is gone,” said Charisma. “I know, it’ll be back in a moment,” replied Warrior. It was almost ten minutes before the door re-opened and Toran’Sar stepped through holding Dreamer’s library card in his hand. “I did not know today was the day it began, it was so long ago and I forgot how it happened.” “You knew this was going to happen?” asked Warrior. “I knew, but I did not remember, it was a lifetime ago, and I was so young,” replied Toran’Sar. “Gather a raid team, we have to hurry, the Ravens are still on the other side of the river watching and won’t be expecting our next move.” “What are you talking about?” asked Warrior. “I’ll explain it to you some day, but for now, we need to hurry,” said Toran’Sar. “What is the raid team for?” asked Charisma. “Dreamer reset, but the card wasn’t in his possession when he first entered the Crystal Universe, so the card reset to its original position – my pocket. He has no way to get back here,” said Toran’Sar. “I know that,” said Warrior. “We’re getting ready to leave now to find them.” Toran’Sar shook his head. “They could drop into any one of ten thousand crystal worlds, it would take us years to find them. We’re going to steal the Raven’s train and use it to search much faster than we could by wagon and hoof.” Warrior grinned. “I’m in, but I wouldn’t call it stealing, we’re just recovering stolen Aeden property. Charisma, grab Engineer, Pilot, Techno, and five of your best fighters. Where’s Scholar?” Scholar stuck his head through the apeirogon door. “I’m here.” “How many people do you think that train can carry?” “It’s not a normal train, it’s a specialized touring train for the wealthy. I’d say probably four hundred.” “Okay, I want 200 fighting Jacks and 200 tigers ready to go when we get back. You’ll setup a Command Center here and we’ll pass our progress back daily through an apeirogon door. Keep a good map of where we’ve been so we don’t backtrack. Alright, let’s move, we’ve got a train to catch.” Mara came through the apeirogon door and looked up at Toran’Sar. Toran’Sar knelt and wrapped his arms around the tiger’s neck in a hug. “Don’t worry, mother, I’ll find them.” Warrior shook his head. Mara had taken an unusual liking to the Gunslinger, which was a little strange, the tigers didn’t typically like outsiders, and the way Toran’Sar kept calling all the Mara’s, mother, was a little creepy. Warrior shrugged it off, he had more important things to worry about. (special note: image from pixabay, no attribution required)