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TRANSCRIPT
Arlin’s Watch
By Jesse Tucker
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Degree in Writing
General Writing
May 11, 2010
Prof. John Briggs WRT465
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This thesis project contains four chapters of the science-fiction novel, Arlin’s
Watch, as well as a chapter outline of the rest of the novel. The novel follows the
journey of a man, along with his uninvited canine companion as he travels across
different worlds by the use of a mysterious device known as the watch. Arlin
longs to find a place to call home, but in every unique world he visits, from the
viciously primitive to the unimaginably high-tech, there is only one person left.
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Chapter Outline
Prologue: World A
Arlin begins his journey on his savage jungle home world, which is infested with
killer demonic creatures, man-eating plants, and very few people who all kill each
other and steal from each other to survive. We can see how skilled a scavenger he
is, caring little for the lives of other people, and we witness his top-notch survival
skills. He finds a man with a mysterious four-legged creature as a companion.
He kills the man while the creature runs off. He takes his clothes and the strange
device he was carrying, accidentally activating it and sending himself on his
world-traveling journey.
Chapter 1: World N
Arlin finds himself on a barren desert world where he has traveled long and far,
only to find a dog as the world’s intelligent life form. He leaves, disappointed.
Chapter 2: World M
Arlin finds himself in a cave where he is chased by vicious creatures into a
control room of some sort. He finds that the dog has followed him across worlds
somehow. He meets a man who recounts how their highly advanced civilization
froze to death when they ran out of energy to support their underground heating
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systems. The heating systems were required to live because their planet was
ejected from the solar system after they unsuccessfully tried to use wormholes to
import a new sun after their old sun died. They survived the death of the original
sun by using a force field that also absorbed the sun’s energy and powered their
cities.
Eventually, energy completely runs out, the man dies, and Arlin is forced to climb
to the world’s surface to escape the vicious creatures. Here he sees that the
wormhole actually caused the planet’s replacement sun to move not so far away,
and the planet is set on a course to potentially reenter the star’s orbit.
Chapter 3: World O
Arlin encounters a boar-like person who explains that his simple, caveman-like
race didn’t last long because they were the only life forms in the entire world.
The man faintly remembers other life forms existing, but doesn’t know what
happened to them. The boar people were forced to eat each other to survive, and
being very low in intelligence, they ate each other to extinction. The dog has
followed Arlin again.
Chapter 4: World L
Arlin encounters a member of another primitive race, but this time he is human.
The man explains that there was once a great veil of rainbow light that covered
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the sky. One day, the rainbow light disappeared and the world got extremely
cold. The young and underdeveloped civilization was not even close to being
equipped to handle the temperatures, and slowly they died from the cold. The dog
has again followed Arlin, and from this point on, it follows him to every world.
Chapter 5: World P
Arlin arrives in a very clean and advanced city where he sees no people, but
clothes and other objects are floating everywhere, going about daily routines as if
worn by invisible people. He meets a scientist who explains to him that the world
is how it is because the people tried to create and use a world transport device to
escape a horrible fate that their holy scriptures predicted for them. Unfortunately,
it turns out that the fate the scriptures predicted was the very one they brought
upon themselves by attempting to escape it. The scientist willingly inflicts the
same fate upon himself. Arlin gains a new appreciation for companionship and
shows himself to be slightly more appreciative of the dog’s presence.
Chapter 6: World K
Arlin finds himself in a small, seemingly inescapable underground cavern where
he encounters an unusual creature that is disfigured, but faintly bears a
resemblance to a human. It can be considered the lowest form of intelligent life
one can imagine and it is incapable of talking or doing much at all. It only lurks
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slowly to a small body of water and drinks from it, then uses a rock to draw crude
pictures on the cave walls. Arlin observes it for days as he waits for the watch to
recharge. Eventually, he is forced to kill it and eat to avoid starving to death.
Chapter 7: World Q
Arlin arrives on a modern-looking world where he finds a woman who tries to
explain how a special drug was developed in her world that allowed the users to
rid themselves of all psychological pain to make life easier. Everyone wanted to
eliminate sadness from their lives and took the drugs. The effects of the drugs
eventually advanced to a point where the people forgot any reasons they had for
why they shouldn’t kill, and thanks to the drugs, felt no remorse or sadness from
killing. They killed each other for any and every reason they desired until only
the woman was left. The woman doesn’t seem to understand, however, why this
was a bad thing, and what reason there was to live.
Chapter 8: World J
Arlin finds the dying survivor of a race of fish-like people who lived under water,
which was under ice, which was under ground. One day, the ice all melted, and
the water became warmer. Then the water was mostly all drained from the cave
where they live into an unknown area where they could not reach. They couldn’t
breathe out of water and all died, except for a few who could fit into the tiny pool
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of water that remained in their cave. Eventually, the rest all died until only the
one person remained.
Chapter 9: World R
Arlin finds the sole survivor of a modern world where people were executed for
breaking the smallest, stupidest laws. Eventually, everyone was killed and the
world’s ruler remained by himself.
Chapter 10: World I
Arlin finds the last of a race of small, water-thriving, half-plant, creatures that
again live in a large body of water underground. They lived off of photosynthesis
conducted with the light from underground jets known as black smokers. The
water suddenly became freezing one day, and the creatures all froze to death in
the water.
Chapter 11: World S
Arlin finds a world where the last human explains that they became extremely
advanced and everyone became completely dependent on their technology. When
they used up all of the planet’s resources and could no longer support their
technology, they died of ignorance in the ways of leading a simple life.
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Chapter 12: World H
Arlin encounters the last of a race of humans who lived in an advanced
civilization, but once again underground. Massive earthquakes destroyed the
entire civilization’s cities. The man recounts how many of the citizens tried to
move to another part of the planet, but he doesn’t know what became of them
because he decided to stay behind. Arlin informs him that, based on the watch’s
tracker, they’re all dead.
Chapter 13: World T
Arlin finds the last woman on a futuristic world where the people once tried to
build highly advanced structures on their planet that would allow them to
essentially “drive” it wherever in space they wanted. The structures malfunction
and send the planet too far from the sun where the people all die from lack of
heat.
Chapter 14: World G
Arlin encounters the last of a race of humanoids that have evolved from desert
plants such as cacti. The heat of the world increased to a point where all the water
dried up and the people could no longer survive without it.
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Chapter 15: World U
Arlin arrives on a world where the intelligent life form turns out to be a computer.
He find from searching it that the planet had been thrust from its solar system by a
careless operator of advance machines attached to the planet. Arlin simply
converses with the computer about the origins of mankind and tries to find
answers about his travels and his purpose.
Chapter 16: World F
Arlin encounters the last of a race of more humanoid people who evolved from
plants, but this time it is a jungle plant. Once again, the water supply got too short
to sustain the lives of the plants because of the increasing temperature.
Chapter 17: World V
Arlin finds a futuristic world where the planet has a mysterious giant door in its
orbit around the sun. The civilization was able to use old machines that were built
on the planet by a previous civilization to slow the planet’s orbit and speed it up
to get through the door during the brief periods when it opened. One day, a
second door appeared, but this one did not open. The people were forced to slow
the planet as much as possible, but could not stop the planet entirely. When it
crashed into the door, the people were killed, but one man survived because he
was off the planet, operating the structures. Arlin and the man travel down onto
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the door to find out more about it, finding evidence of a civilization with the
power to manipulate space and time. Their findings allude to the possible origins
of the watch, but there is not enough information to confirm anything. Before
they leave, they are able to open the door and get the damaged planet back on
track.
Chapter 18: World E
Arlin encounters the last of a race of humanoids that evolved from half-plant sea
slugs. There is no food on their world because all the plants are poisonous, so
only the sea slugs could survive because they are capable of conducting
photosynthesis and don’t need food. When the world became too hot, however,
they couldn’t last in the heat.
Chapter 19: World W
Arlin arrives on a ruined world that appears to have once housed an advanced
civilization hundreds of years ago. He finds that the sole remaining life form is an
alien, though it appears human. The aliens lived on a dying planet and tried to use
this world as a new home. They all moved onto the planet, but soon found that
old security systems left by the world’s previous inhabitants would make short
work of them. The one alien was the only one who survived.
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Chapter 20: World D
Arlin encounters the last of a race of humanoid deer people. The race once
thrived, but died off because the plants in the jungle world all evolved to a point
of being capable of killing the deer people, and all other plants were poisonous.
Chapter 21: World X
Arlin finds that the life form on this world is a robot. Many robots lived on the
world in the ruins of an ancient civilization that built them. They defended the
world for centuries, learning how to rebuild themselves and make each other
stronger. However, the robots required more and more fuel as they became more
advanced, and eventually they began to fight each other for it, destroying all but
the one remaining robot.
Chapter 22: World C
Arlin encounters a jungle world overrun with demonic creatures. He finds that
the intelligent life form is a single brain demon that controls them all. For his
own survival, he winds up killing the brain, an act that causes the death of every
demon creature in the world.
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Chapter 23: World Y
Arlin meets a woman who is the sole survivor of her violent, warring people.
When Arlin arrives, he is immediately attacked by a large monster and knocked
unconscious. We later find that the watch has been lost and the dog has been
killed. Arlin is at first confused by the woman’s compassion because she comes
from a world similar to his, yet she is not bloodthirsty, and helps Arlin recover
from the monster attack. He falls in love with her, they have a son, and he stays
on this world for 20 years, happy with his family. Eventually, the same monster
attacks again and kills Arlin’s wife and son. The watch is found near their bodies.
He leaves, traumatized.
Chapter 24: World B
Arlin arrives on another jungle world overrun by demons. This time he finds a
demon that is highly intelligent and claims that many demons gained such
intelligence, but he killed them all. The demon tries to kill Arlin, but he narrowly
manages to escape.
Chapter 25: World Z
Arlin arrives to find a modern world decimated by nuclear war. He finds that one
frightened, naked boy is the only survivor. The boy is about to be crushed by a
large piece of metal left over from a crashed plane. Arlin sees his son in the boy
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and saves him, sacrificing his own life in the process. The watch is damaged by
the metal and surges with electricity for a while. Before he dies, he tells the boy
his name and tells him to take his clothes and the watch, also telling him to search
for a better world with them. The boys accepts Arlin’s final request and uses the
watch to leave the world.
Epilogue: World Y
The boy arrives in the same world Y from chapter 23, at the same time that Arlin
did in chapter 23. His smaller size allows him to narrowly escape the monster
that attacked Arlin in chapter 23. He then meets the woman, and when she asks
for his name, he decides to call himself Arlin, in honor of the man who saved his
life.
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Arlin’s Watch
Prologue: World A
Arlin plunged his saw-toothed knife deeper into his victim's gut, pushing
upward and twisting clockwise.
The grunting man with the knife jammed in his stomach gritted his teeth
and grabbed Arlin's right arm with his left hand. He gripped his own knife in his
right hand and weakly pointed it in Arlin's direction.
Arlin stared into the eyes of his opponent with a gaze colder than any
winter their cauldron of a world had ever known.
The dying man squeezed Arlin's arm with every ounce of strength left in
his body. He looked straight back into Arlin's eyes, but did not meet his coldness
with a look of resentment or fury, but one more of relief. An acceptance of the
inevitable.
All men on his world knew death constantly followed just a few steps
behind them, and any drop in pace assured a swift end by the blade of another
scavenger or the claws and fangs of a hungry demon--or perhaps a slow and
painful death inside the belly of a man-eating plant. Any man who thought
further ahead than the day he woke was labeled a fool. They struggled daily to
survive in their jungle world, and only the lucky lived to see the next sunrise.
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The victim released his grip from Arlin's arm and let the knife slip from
his hand. He closed his eyes and, in his final moments, seemed to simply ponder
how he'd made it so far.
Arlin quickly picked up the knife and slid it through the tie on his loin
cloth, keeping his own knife still secure in his hand. Now that the smell of blood
had hit the air, demons would come to find the source. And not only that, but the
plants fed on flesh as well, and there were few places one could go to escape
them. Arlin rumaged through the pack strapped across the man's back and added
a few items to his own pack, which sat just above his waist.
He heard the yell of a hungry creature in the distance and could tell from
the sound that it was the six-legged variety. They moved fast on the ground, but
couldn't climb the gigantic jungle trees at all. Arlin scrambled to the nearest tree
and climbed a few branches up before looking back down at the scene of his
battle.
The man once thought dead now began to squirm like a two-legged lizard
on the ground below. He was no doubt displeased to still be alive, but still he
couldn't help but continue his struggle to prolong life just a little bit longer. Each
second of life could lead to one more, and one more after that. There were no
odds in this world, just life or death.
Arlin regretted not confirming the kill, but now it was too late to grant his
victim a merciful death.
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The six-legged, spider-like demonic creature came scampering out from
the trees and spotted its meal. It scuttled sideways around the panicked man,
striking at different parts of his body with the long needle-covered mandibles that
protruded from its face.
The man screamed out in pain as the demon moved in to start digging
apart his body with its sharp legs. Every man in this world strove to live a second
longer, but those who met their time often found themselves wishing it had come
sooner rather than later.
Arlin raced across the thickly laden branches near the tree tops. If he
didn't find water to wash the smell of blood from his hands, the demons would
soon be after him as well.
Few men knew the terrain in Arlin's world. No one had a home--everyone
picked a direction and just kept moving. When a person passed through one area,
he generally never went back, always moving forward in hopes of finding an end
to the jungle.
Chancing across a small river, Arlin jumped down from the trees, picked
up a large rock, and threw it into the water close to the edge. He dipped his hands
in quickly and splashed some water on himself. Then he moved upstream and
repeated the process, this time rubbing his hands together. He watched as the
blood-thirsty fish that plagued the waters reconvened near the edge and nibbled at
the clouds of blood he left behind. Then he took one drop of blood onto his finger
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from the edge of his knife and dangled the finger a couple feet above the water,
with his knife readied at his side. As soon as the drop of blood slid off his finger,
a fish jumped out to nab it in mid-air and Arlin stabbed it through its side. He
swashed the knife through the water to wash off the human blood and got ready to
wet it with fish blood while he prepared his dinner.
After eating, Arlin climbed up high into the trees and found a large branch
to lie down on. Nights were typically spent in tree tops, which offered protection
from certain demons, but one had to hope a poisonous vine hungry for a ray of
moonlight didn't thread its way up to the top of the tree. A single brush could be
fatal.
Tree-climbing demons were only slightly less threatening due to the loud
noises they made that warned of their approach as they pounced across the
branches.
Other scavenging humans also posed a constant threat, ready to kill any
other man they encountered and steal his food and supplies--especially while he
slept. The last man had spotted Arlin and attacked him as he passed through, only
to meet misfortune. But neither Arlin nor anyone else in this world considered
potential consequences when attacking other humans. They saw the items others
carried as food and tools that could be obtained for their own use and survival, not
as weapons that could be used to deliver their own deaths. Women had become
increasingly more rare, and would often be raped if defeated by another man, then
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killed afterward. Only two rules existed in this world. One: Take what's yours.
Two: What's yours is what you can take.
It was a total mystery to Arlin how human life even existed on this world.
He wondered if perhaps the world wasn't always like this. With people constantly
dying and new children rarely ever allowed to be born, let alone raised to
adulthood, it was a wonder human life still carried on. In truth, his recent
assailant was the last person he'd seen in months. People had attacked much more
frequently in past years. He felt certain that the human population had reached an
all-time low, but he had no idea just how low it had gotten.
Arlin awoke the next morning before sunrise to the sound of a strange
beeping coming from the ground below. He had never heard anything quite like
it, so he decided to move closer for a better look. Moving across the trees
horizontally before daring to descend, he noticed that the beeping sound got faster
as he approached it. He quietly dropped down a few branches. The beeping
continued to get louder and faster until Arlin could tell it was directly below, no
more than perhaps a dozen meters down.
Peering through the darkness, he could barely make out the silhouette of
what appeared to be a man walking along the ground. Madness, Arlin though.
What sort of fool would walk across the ground at this hour? He'll be ambushed
by a demon before he knows it, and with that obnoxious noise he's making down
there, they'll surely have no problem finding him.
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Arlin decided he might just stick around and watch. After all, if he were
patient enough to wait for the demon to finish this poor fool off, he could swoop
in and snatch the man's supplies once the deed was done.
The belongings of another human were more coveted than anything else in
his world. There were foods the man had gone through great trouble to obtain and
tools he had gone through great trouble to forge. Growing up largely independent
of one another, different people tended to carry different tools, often ingenious
objects of their own invention that another scavenger may never think of. And
the older the person, the more tools he likely possessed.
Arlin deduced from the size and shape of the man's silhouette that he was
much older than himself. Arlin praised his good fortune that such a foolish old
man would appear before him like this. He wouldn't even have to lift a finger
before the man would be ripped to shreds by some merciless demon and left ripe
for the looting.
Arlin dropped down one more branch to get a better look.
The rapid beeping noise just then turned to a loud, sustained beep, and the man
started shuffling every which way, looking all directions, then focusing his
attention above him and slowly scanning the branches. Arlin quickly slid to the
back side of a larger tree to escape the man's view. What's he looking for? Does
he know I'm up here? Impossible; there's no way he heard my climbing over all
the loud jungle noises, not to mention that weird noise that's coming from him.
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What is with that noise, anyway? Why can't some goddamn demon just kill him
alread--wait, what's that? Arlin peeked around the side of the tree when he heard
some extra footsteps nearby. He could now make out the silhouette of a four-
legged creature not far from where the death-wishing man stood.
He was sure it was a demon come to finish the fool off, but as he watched,
the creature did not attack. In fact, it closely followed the man and made no
action but to shuffle around a bit when the man moved. Arlin had never seen
anything like it. There didn't exist a single creature in this world that wouldn't
attack a man on sight. He waited a bit longer and watched the two as they simply
continued walking in small circles and looking around toward the tree tops as the
loud noise he produced changed from sustained to rapid and back again. The man
called out, "Hello? Is anyone out there?"
Arlin's eyes widened and his heart began to race. Hello?! Who does this
moron think he is? I've never seen someone so determined to bring death upon
himself!
The man moved toward the base of the tree Arlin was hiding in, which
seemed to be the center of the circle he was walking prior. He jumped up to the
lowest branch and began climbing the tree.
A sharp pain pierced Arlin's chest. He does know I'm here. He's coming
for me! Maybe there's something about this man that makes him less a fool, after
all. Arlin decided he couldn't take any chances with this guy. He moved one
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branch down and pulled a small pellet from the pouch on his back. He waited for
the man to get a little bit higher and then chucked the pellet at him hard.
It exploded into a cloud of smoky yellow pollen. The pollen contained poisonous
spores, and would surely greet this man to his demise within a few minutes while
paralyzing him in the mean time.
The mysterious stranger fell from the tree and down to the ground. The
creature on the ground jumped when the man's body came crashing next to him.
Arlin swiftly hopped down a few branches, drew his knife, and aimed it
squarely at the man's neck as he lunged down upon him. His knife hit its mark
perfectly, plunging deep into the man’s neck.
The four-legged creature jumped again and Arlin swung at it with his
knife. It let out a yelp and ran off into the forest.
Arlin turned around to face his victim. This time, he would confirm the
kill. He flipped the man face down and ran his knife across his throat, which
already spat blood out of the hole from the first stab wound.
He wiped the blood off his knife on a nearby leaf and began to rummage
through the man's supplies. Oddly enough, he was dressed quite heavily, a fact
that confirmed this man's madness. Anyone wearing such clothing in this
sweltering jungle would have the life sweat out of him during the day. Such
clothing might prove suitable for the cold nights, but no one could afford the extra
baggage slowing him down during the day.
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Still being the cold night, however, Arlin decided to try the clothes on.
The entire outfit was brown and ragged. There was a pair of leather boots, a pair
of heavy cotton pants with a leather belt, a long-sleeved heavy cotton shirt, a
wrap-around shawl, and even a scarf. He inspected the man's back pouch, which
oddly contained all of the same items already contained in Arlin's pouch, and two
similar knives strapped beside it. Considering there was nothing new there, he
decided to leave it behind.
He looked over toward a rock on his left and noticed a suspicious black
object about half the size of his hand. It lightly trickled with electricity for a
moment, then stopped. This must have been what made that awful beeping
sound, but it had stopped since the man dropped it while falling from the tree.
Arlin walked over and picked the object up. A digital display on its face
frantically flashed a variety of different symbols. He shook it up a bit and nothing
happened. Then he slammed it into the rock. It let out a jutted beep, then the
display froze on what appeared to be the number zero. He pressed a button on the
side. The object simply buzzed back at him. He pressed a button on the top and a
light on the face turned green while the button was down. Curiously, he held the
button down longer--for about five seconds. A rainbow-colored light washed
over his vision... and he was gone.
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Chapter 1: World N
Arlin stared out at the desolate wasteland that lay before him and let out a
heavy sigh. How many more worlds could there be in this condition? How
many more civilizations had been left to the dust and the wind?
Sure, not every world looked like this one--a hallow, barren desert where
Arlin couldn't even imagine a civilization had ever existed--but they might as well
had. Twelve worlds before this one, and only twelve people to talk about them.
Just one person to each world, and a world without people made for as empty a
wasteland as any stretch of desert.
With the wind blowing sand into his beard and his ragged clothing into his
face, Arlin looked around, wondering where this world's intelligent life form
might be hiding, but he saw only endless desert wherever he looked. That is,
except when he looked down at his right hand, where he firmly held the watch in
front of his chest. And when he looked just beyond that, where a peculiar dog-
like creature sat glossy-eyed, staring happily back at him.
The dog, which could easily had been taken for a light brown border collie
had it not been for the two, long, ear-like extensions sprouting from the top of its
head and running down its back, had more water dripping from its tongue than it
seemed the world had drip from its skies in its entire existence.
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Arlin couldn't help but wonder where all that saliva came from, but it was far
from the strangest thing he had encountered on his travels.
This dog did have one especially curious trait about it that made it
impossible for him to ignore, however.
Arlin looked back down at the watch, which screamed with a high-
pitched, sustained beep noise. Arlin knew this meant that the watch had located
the world's intelligent life form--it's only remaining intelligent life form as
indicated by the small number one on the watch's face. But still he stood there
staring at something that appeared to be a simple beast.
Walking forward past the dog, but never removing his eyes from the
watch, Arlin got just far enough away for the watch's sustained beep sound to
change to a series of rapid beeps. He walked in a circle around the vicinity of the
dog, still staring at the watch, expecting some sort of change. The rapid beeping
continued, and as he moved close to the dog again, the beep once again became
sustained.
The dog sat and watched patiently as Arlin ran circles around him.
"Ugh, this just doesn't even make sense," said Arlin. He squeezed the
watch and pressed a button on the side with his thumb. The noise stopped. He
slipped the watch into his pocket as he moved back toward the dog. "Every
intelligent creature I've found so far has been quite capable of speaking, of telling
me what the hell is going on, of offering some sort of conversation to pass the
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time and prevent me from going completely mad... but you can't speak, now, can
you?" Arlin stood with his hands on his hips, looking downward, his dry eyes
locked in the dog's carefree gaze.
The dog let out a loud bark that echoed throughout the desert, as if he
genuinely tried to respond to Arlin's question, but the sound came through as only
that--a bark. The watch could translate the speech of many languages, making
them sound like Arlin's own language when the words met his ears, but even the
power of the watch could not translate words with no meaning.
What were the worlds coming to that this slobbering furball could be
considered intelligent life? Arlin wasted so much time on this world trying to find
a source of knowledge, when endless dry air and sand—and this beast—were all
that awaited him.
He only wanted to find a world where people and civilization existed once
again. A place he could finally call his new home. A great place with green
grass, big houses, all four seasons, and lots of people would be best. He had a
place like that once, but it's a place that disappeared. A place he can never go
back to. Ever again.
But he would even settle for a wasteland like this one if there were just
people here to live with. He needed intelligent social interaction with other
people, and although, even through twelve different worlds, he still couldn't find a
living civilization, there had always been one person to tell the tale of his or her
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world. Arlin kept moving forward through these stories alone. They were all he
had to assure himself that he hadn't somehow caused the destruction of every
civilization that existed only a few years or sometimes even just a few moments
before his arrival.
This dog could offer him no reassurance in this world, but he also didn't
see any evidence that a civilization had ever existed here at all, or even could have
existed. However, the very presence and survival of this dog remained a concern
that pressed on his mind. But it pressed more loosely as frustration took over.
Arlin just wanted to leave.
"Well, sorry, mutt, but you can't help me, and I can't help you, so I guess
that's it," Arlin pouted. "Time for me to get the hell out of here." Arlin's watch
had actually recharged only moments after his arrival in this world, but he
refrained from using it until now because he needed to see if intelligent life truly
existed here. Sadly, his journey through this god-forsaken land had proved
fruitless.
The dog let out another bark and looked up at Arlin, as if trying to
apologize for wasting his time.
He didn't necessarily want to leave the dog alone in such a horrible place,
but he'd tried to take people with him before, and it never worked. Even food,
clothing, supplies, and other objects got left behind. The watch would only allow
him to take what he had started with, his memories, and never anything more. He
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felt bad for the dog, but this was just the way of things, and he had no control over
it.
"Later." He could only offer a quick and painless farewell. Arlin took the
watch back out of his pocket and held the top button down for five seconds. A
rainbow-colored light washed over his vision... and he was gone.
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Chapter 2: World M
As the rainbow light faded and Arlin's vision slowly came back into focus,
he could already feel the death and hopelessness of this new world flowing into
him. He tried to take a look around, but only pitch-black darkness surrounded
him. Although he knew his immediate surroundings didn't necessarily indicate
the condition of the entire world, he still couldn't help but cling to his pessimism
at this point. A dreary beginning had never led to a happy ending for him. Still,
his pessimism could never overcome his curiosity, and he wasn’t one to give up
so easily.
Arlin looked down toward his right hand, attempting to peer through the
darkness. The object in his hand could perform wondrous feats that ranged far
beyond his level of comprehension. Yet without the simple perk of a back-lit
screen, the watch could never shake a certain archaic quality.
He pressed the button on the right side with his thumb and the watch
began to beep. Much to Arlin's surprise, the sound proceeded quite rapidly,
meaning that an intelligent life form hid somewhere nearby, probably less than a
quarter mile away. It also sounded with a narrow echo, suggesting Arlin was in
an enclosed passageway of some sort.
He moved forward, his left arm outstretched and waving side to side to
feel for obstructions.
28
The beeping slowed, indicating that he was moving in the wrong direction.
He turned 90 degrees to his right and began walking that way.
The watch’s noise increased in speed, but only seconds later, Arlin's hand met
with a jagged surface, making it apparent that he was in a cave of some sort.
Relieved to have some idea of where he was, he decided to feel around a
bit more. He found another wall not far behind him, parallel to the first one. A
newfound sense of hope rushed over him and his heart began to beat rapidly. If
he could only find a way out of this cave, there could be a whole civilization
outside--a normal world at last!
Arlin jerked his head as an ear-piercing shrieking sound echoed through
the cave. He couldn't tell which direction it came from, but it did not sound
friendly, and he hoped that whatever it was, it was not the intelligent life form that
the watch was leading him to. His heart began to beat even faster, this time even
outpacing the watch’s beeping, and a cold chill ran down his spine. This chill was
not simply a product of fear, however. The cave felt like a freezer.
Arlin’s usual ragged clothing actually provided more than adequate
warmth for colder environments, but without any gloves, he could still feel some
numbness in his fingers.
The watch’s noise suggested that Arlin move in a direction where one of
the cave's walls obstructed his advance. He would have to find a way around. He
29
chose the path to his right and started on, hoping that if would lead him in the
opposite direction of whatever made that noise.
Proceeding carefully and hugging the wall with his left hand, Arlin heard
another shriek. This time he felt certain it came from behind him, but it sounded
closer than before.
The watch had steadily increased the rate of its beeping, but it now echoed
quite loudly throughout the cave. Fearing that his tracking device allowed this
unfriendly-sounding creature to track him, Arlin shut off the watch and put it back
in his pocket. He couldn't be far from his target at this point, anyhow.
He continued to hug the left wall, and made sure to walk softly so that his
footsteps wouldn't give him away. However, in this new silence, he heard more
footsteps than just his own. They sounded lighter than his, but less muffled,
almost like claws clacking against the rock floor, and they moved at twice the
pace of his own.
Arlin's heart was beating faster than ever now. He came to a complete
stop, not moving a single muscle or breathing a single breath.
The other footsteps stopped as well, but not before taking a few steps more than
Arlin had.
He could tell the footsteps came from close by--very close by, possibly no
more than a few yards away. He stood in total silence for a moment, waiting for
any movement on the unknown creature's part. It was so quiet that he could
30
almost hear the echo of his own heart beat. Could this thing be the one that made
those awful shrieks? How could it have caught up to me so quickly without me
noticing at all?
Arlin waited. Why won't it move? He wondered if this creature was also
blind in the dark, as he was. He decided to slowly take one step forward, placing
his boot softly on the ground. He heard no other noises.
He dared to take one more step, and then the clacking on the rock floor started up
again. Not knowing what else to do, he ran as fast as he could. His footsteps
echoed strongly throughout the cave, and the double-paced clacking footsteps
sounded within arm's length now.
He kept running forward, keeping his left arm against the wall and his
right arm out in front of him. He felt a sharp curve in the wall that led around to
the left. He rounded the corner and could see a light down the tunnel in front of
him, but the light was small and green and didn't provide any clearer view of the
cave itself. All Arlin could think to do was run directly for it.
Both of his cold, stiff hands slammed directly into the wall. He started
pawing at the area around the light furiously, hoping that something--anything--
would happen.
The wall felt cold and metal, and despite the many frantic thoughts in
Arlin's head at the moment, new ones managed to find their way in: technology,
civilization, people! This must be the place the watch was leading me to! An
31
area of the wall slightly above the light moved inward, like Arlin had pressed a
button. Just then, a door on the wall slid open and a light flashed out into the
cave. Arlin squinted his eyes and quickly slipped inside. He spun around and
could barely make out a rectangular button to the left of the door. He slammed
his palm on it and the door slid shut, sealing tightly.
Arlin spun around and frantically surveyed the floor around him, using his
hands to shade his eyes from the lights overhead while he adjusted. He was
startled to see that the creature had made it inside with him, but even more
shocked by what the creature looked like.
“You!” Arlin shouted, pointing at the dog. He flinched from the light
pouring into his now unprotected pupils. “What the heck are you doing here? H-
How did you get here?”
The dog sat panting and dumbfounded, the long ear-like extensions on his
head hanging to the ground beside him.
Arlin considered the possibility that it was a different dog that just
happened to look similar, but he quickly shot that theory down. The resemblance
was too perfect. Then he remembered the watch—yes, what did the watch have
to say about this? In the last world, it had shown this dog as the only intelligent
life form, but if that were still the case, the watch’s tracker would have held a
sustained beep from the moment he activated it. He suspected this dog must have
been following close to him since he first arrived in this world.
32
He slowly pulled the watch out of his pocket, fearing what it may read on
its face. This would be the moment that defined this world’s worth. Please let it
read more than one. Please. He began to move his gaze downward, trying to
lower his expectations as he did, so as to avoid as much disappointment as he
could. He could read the screen clearly now in the light of the room… one. He
breathed in deeply and then let out a heavy sigh.
“Damnit!” he spat, and punch the wall. “That’s what I get for putting my
hopes up. If only I’d been able to see the thing when I first got here, then it
wouldn’t even have fazed me.” He looked up at the dog, who stared back at him
with its head cocked to the side. “And what about you, eh? What’s your story?”
Arlin looked around the room, but there was nothing to see. The room
was small, like a large closet. The walls were completely white and plain, with
nothing on them but the door he came in through, one large button and a light to
the side of it, and an identical scene on the opposite wall. He pressed the watch’s
side button again. This time it beeped extremely rapidly, but as he approached the
dog, the beeping did not change. “I guess you’re not so smart anymore, huh?” he
said to the dog, who barked back at him.
He walked toward the other door and pressed the button next to it. The
light by the door flashed red and Arlin heard a buzzing sound overhead. The door
did not open, but the watch had begun a sustained beep, indicating that some sort
of intelligent life form likely resided on the other side. He shut off the watch.
33
“Hello?!” Arlin called out.
After a few seconds, a voice emerged that sounded like it came from speakers
overhead. “Hello?” the voice said cautiously. “Did someone just try to open the
door?”
“Yes, it was me!” Arlin said anxiously. “Can you let me inside?”
“Wha- Who are you? How are you still alive? How did you get here?”
“Can’t we discuss this inside? I’m not here to hurt you or anything.”
“Well, even if you were, I suppose it wouldn’t matter. Okay, just a
minute. I’m letting you in.”
Arlin slipped the watch back in his pocket and waited patiently, tapping
his fingers on his thighs. He looked back at the dog. “What do you think he
looks like? Think he’s human like me?” he said to the dog. “Could be your new
owner, you know, unless you can find a way to jump on my ship again. Not that
I’d mind the company, but whatever you did to follow me the first time must have
been a fluke. I doubt if you can pull it off again.”
The dog just stared at him again, its tongue hanging from its face. Arlin
didn’t hear it panting back in the dark, but their mad dash down the cave must
have tired it out a bit.
Suddenly the room got warmer and Arlin felt his whole body relax as his
numbness began to fade. The light by the door turned green and the door slid
open, revealing a middle-aged human man on the other side.
34
“Hello, please come in,” the man said with a gentle smile on his face.
Arlin took a step forward and just then a loud smash came from the door
behind him. He jumped inside and watched the door shake as something pounded
on it furiously from the other side. The dog slipped in behind him as the door slid
closed and blocked off the noise, though a light vibration could still be felt
through the wall.
“Oh, a dog!” squealed the man. “I love dogs, but I haven’t seen one since
I was a child. Is he safe to pet?”
“I have no idea,” Arlin responded, feeling like he was the only one
concerned with what just happened. “What the heck was that at the door?”
“Oh, just a mole rhino, most likely,” the man said in a carefree tone.
Arlin made his own decision on what that might be. “Are they the ones
that make that loud shrieking noise?”
“Yep, it’s terribly annoying, isn’t it?” The man decided to take his
chances with the dog and knelt down to start petting it. The dog did not object.
“They started to sneak into the tunnels when the power went off, but they can’t
get through those doors, of course. They certainly are interesting creatures that
they can survive in that cold out there. All this time we thought they were
surviving off our heat, and turns out they didn’t even need it. Talk about cold-
blooded, eh? I don’t know how they do it, but too bad us humans weren’t built
more like them, eh?” The man looked up at Arlin suspiciously. “But then again,
35
you were alive out there, and this dog was, too. So who the heck are you
anyway?”
Arlin had been through this speech many times, and he learned quickly the
importance of hiding the watch’s existence from people, letting them believe he
himself possessed the powers of the watch. He rushed through his introduction.
“My name’s Arlin. I can travel to different worlds, but I can’t take anything else
with me.” He looked down at the dog. “Except for this thing, apparently, though
I don’t know how that happened or why. In any case, I can also control the
temperature around me to a certain extent. I’m assuming it’s a lot colder out there
than it felt to me.” The watch could manipulate Arlin’s body temperature so that
he couldn’t be harmed by extreme heat or cold, but the temperature it adjusted
him to always somewhat reflect the actual temperature, so Arlin always had some
idea of whether his environment was hot or cold. Apparently, this ability
somehow extended to the dog as well, only adding the creature’s myseteries.
“Travel worlds? Well I can’t say I’ve ever heard of such a thing or that I
understand at all, but it really doesn’t matter. I’ll be dead soon.”
Arlin was not surprised. “Can you tell me what exactly happened here?”
“Sure, why not? I’ll tell you as thanks for letting me pet a dog one last
time before I go. I never expected I’d see one again.”
The dog licked the man’s face.
36
The man smiled as he stood up and walked across the room, which was
only about four times the size of the last one, with similarly white whiles and a
large control panel of some sort on one side. He moved over to a chair with the
dog following behind him. “Everyone in the world is dead except for me.” He
looked at Arlin with a smirk. “I suppose you don’t really count. Anyway, yes,
it’s quite cold outside this room. I’m not sure the exact temperature, but I’m sure
it’s at least a couple hundred below zero at this point… Fahrenheit, that is.”
“I see, so everyone froze to death, I assume.”
“You got it, everyone but me because I’m in this controlled temperature
room… I guess I should start a lot farther back. You see, our solar system’s sun
died—”
“Ah ha! I knew there had to be at least one world that died that way,”
Arlin shouted without thinking.
The man looked at him crooked eyed. “I beg your pardon?”
“Oh, nothing, never mind. Please, continue.”
“Well, anyway, I’m getting into the history logs now, but that was billions
of years ago. We’ve always been a highly advanced world, technologically. Our
ancestors knew when the sun would die, and when it started getting too hot, they
moved the entire civilization underground. In the mean time, they were able to
develop an advanced force field system that would protect the planet from the
sun’s deadly nova phases while simultaneously absorbing the immense energy
37
given off and use it to power the underground cities and caverns, where the
temperature could be regulated to remain at a livable level. With nearly limitless
energy, they were able to create their own light, grow their own food, build
systems to recycle the water supply, and thrive underground for a long time.
“A few billion years later, after the sun progressed to its white dwarf
phase, it didn’t give off nearly enough energy to match the amount used by the
people, so they needed a new source of energy to survive. Just twenty years ago,
we used the immense energy reserves that were left to locate a star suitable to act
as a new sun for our solar system and create a wormhole that imported the star
into our solar system.”
Arlin interrupted with surprise. “Whoa, a wormhole? I’ve never
encountered anyone with technology like that before.”
“Yes, well like I said, we were very advanced. Would you like to know
how it works?”
“Uh, no thanks. I’ve barely been following the science this far, just tell
me what happened next.”
The man let out a chuckle. “Well, it was a risky, one-shot deal because it
used up the majority of our energy reserves, and since the planet was still orbiting
around the white dwarf, we knew that a new star’s gravity would interfere with
our orbit. If the perfect star wasn’t imported to the perfect place at the perfect
38
time, the dual gravity sources could cause our planet to be ejected from the solar
system. We knew the risks, but we had no other option.
“The new star was imported properly and the planet was orbiting the two
stars in a figure eight pattern. The energy we gathered while passing around the
new sun was enough to sustain us during our time around the old sun. The
mission was a success, or so we thought.
“We had no experience using wormholes. The unexpected after-effects
caused our new star to become warped and disfigured over the course of a few
short years. By the time we noticed, it was too late, and we didn’t have nearly
enough energy stockpiled to do anything about it. Then one day, the star just
disappeared. Just like that.
“The change in gravitational force caused our planet to slingshot out of the
solar system, and we’ve been drifting through space for several years now. With
no sun to absorb energy from, we took down our force field and diverted the
remaining energy to our temperature control systems. But we had lost too much
energy to maintain heating conditions within the planet for long, so as soon as we
lost power, everyone froze to death within moments... That was only a few hours
ago. Of course, we all knew it was coming as soon as we lost our sun… I’ve
diverted the little remaining energy left into this one room, but soon this will be
out of power as well, and I’ll freeze like everyone else. So there you have it. Bet
you’ve never heard a story like that, even in another world, eh traveler?”
39
“Whelp… it’s a doozy,” said Arlin, his voice filled with more intrigue
than concern. The room started to feel a little colder.
The man got up and proceeded over to a control panel on the side of the small
room. “I’m going to shut off power to everything but the heating system and
divert all remaining energy to it. When that happens, the mole rhino behind the
door will be able to get through, and also the lights will go out. They’re very
vicious creatures, and I’m sure more will follow.”
Arlin felt a sharp pierce in his chest and he pulled the watch from his
pocket, turning around so that the man couldn’t see it. The watch required a
certain, arbitrary amount of time to recharge before it could jump worlds again.
He pressed the top button and a light on the watch flashed red. It had not finished
charging yet. If this man cut the lights and power now, then Arlin would be killed
for sure. In a panic, he turned back around and pleaded to the man. “No, wait!”
“I’m sorry… but I just want to live a little longer.” He pressed a few
buttons, flipped a switch, and Arlin could hear the systems powering down as the
lights dimmed.
Dammit! Arlin spotted a flashlight by the chair the man had been sitting
on and grabbed it right before the lights went out. The room was pitch black, and
he could hear the sound of the mole rhino pounding on the door quite clearly now.
It sounded like at least three or four of them at the door now. He turned on the
flashlight and looked around, spying a ladder leading up to a hatchway in the
40
corner of the room. He made a break for it, climbed the ladder, and opened the
hatch.
Cold air rushed into the room and he could hear the mole rhinos smash
down the first door. He got set to ascend the ladder when the sound of the dog
whimpering stopped him. He swept the light across the room and saw the dog
staring at the man’s cold statue of a corpse. The dog ran over to Arlin and
whimpered at his feet.
“Cripes,” Arlin spat. “Okay, mutt, c’mere.” He put the flashlight in his
mouth, picked up the dog, and threw it up over his shoulders, then started
ascending the ladder. He got through the opening and closed the hatch behind
him just as he heard the mole rhinos bust through the second door. He still didn’t
know what they looked like and he had no regrets about it.
The hatchway only went one way: up. And it went up quite some ways at
that. Looking up with the flashlight, Arlin couldn’t even see the top, only ladder
rungs and darkness. In any case, he didn’t know how long the watch might take
to recharge, so he had only one way to go.
Arlin climbed for at least thirty minutes and he still couldn’t see the top.
He leaned back on the wall behind him to rest, dropping the dog gently into his
arms. It seemed like the hatchway would never end, but he had to keep going.
He climbed for at least forty more minutes before he finally ran out of
rungs. He heaved the dog out through the hole and dragged himself out after it.
41
Lying on the ground with his eyes closed, sore and out of breath, he realized he
felt soil between his fingers, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a sea of stars
above him. He didn’t have the strength to stand, but scanning the flashlight
around him, he could see nothing but open space.
According to the man’s story, nobody had lived up here for billions of years, and
nobody had probably been up here at all since they took the force field down
years ago. Exhausted, Arlin lay back down and went to sleep.
He awoke hours later to dog slobber on his face and a faint light over the
horizon. He stood up, pulled the watch from his pocket, and pressed the top
button. This time, the light turned green. Arlin looked out at the far-off shining
orb in the sky. “I see. It disappeared, but it never went far… if only they had
lasted a little longer or just had a little more hope, maybe there was a chance… I
was only one day late this time... dammit…” He pushed down the top button
once more, and this time he held it. A rainbow-colored light washed over his
vision... and he was gone.
42
Chapter 5: World P
As the darkness cleared and his eyes came into focus, Arlin found himself
at the center of an advanced city where the technology ranked among the best he'd
seen yet. The buildings were tall, the windows clear, the vehicles sleek, and the
streets free of litter. The air was so clean that it felt as though his lungs were
being cleansed of all impurities with each breath. He found himself inhaling
deeply several times before deciding to take a better look around.
His traveling companion seemed even more eager to explore than he was.
It ran to the nearest vehicle, a small electric bike that somewhat resembled a
scooter, sniffed its fill, then ran to the next. It had been a while since either one of
them could inhale so freely.
Arlin looked down at the slowly beeping device in his hand and decided to
explore a bit and find some food before following the watch to that world's
intelligent life.
Most worlds had something to them that one might consider unusual, but
this world happened to have something that even Arlin had not seen yet, and he
couldn't make sense of it. Everywhere he looked, the streets and building were
crowded, but not quite with people. There were clothes floating all over the city.
Pants, shirts, hats, shoes, dresses and more all decorated the air above the
sidewalks and moved as if they were being worn by invisible people. In fact,
43
there was more than just clothing. Briefcases, newspapers, magazines, and other
objects floated by, as if being held by the invisible people wearing the clothes.
All of the floating objects seemed to be oblivious to the presence of Arlin and the
dog, and continued about their business without stopping.
Arlin could hear no speech, and no noise in the whole city aside from the
gathered rustling of clothing and newspapers and the stepping of shoes across the
sidewalks. Arlin carefully avoided the floating obstacles and made his way to the
nearest restaurant, where he sat down to order, happily noticing that the plates and
food floated as well.
"Hey, you!" Arlin said to some clothing that appeared to dress an invisible
waitress, but he got no response, and the clothing continued to move as if Arlin
were not there. "Hello, c’mon, can anyone hear me?!" shouted Arlin into the
crowd, but not a single object flinched. Boldly, he yanked a plate of food from a
nearby table with two sets of clothing sitting at it.
The clothing paid no mind and continued to sit and face forward. It was at
that moment that Arlin realized no one was actually eating. Plates of completely
normal, edible-looking food sat on the tables, but none of the customers moved to
eat them. They all just sat and stared forward, or moved in conversational
gestures toward others. Arlin felt a bit confused, but still he had seen stranger.
He picked the best looking dish from among the tables—some sort of finely
44
dressed cut of meat—sat at an empty booth, and ate his food, which, much to his
relief, tasted superb.
Just as he was about to get up, a t-shirt, a pair of shorts, and a baseball cap
decided they liked the looks of his booth. Before he could move out of the way,
the clothing sat down right on top of him. Arlin expected the weight of a human,
but instead felt only the weight of the clothing, which dropped to his lap upon
touching him. The waitress brought over a glass of water and a menu then
proceeded to move as if talking with the customer he had just dismantled.
Everyone continued about their days normally, as if they were all
programmed to a set, unchangeable path. Arlin wondered, was there still an
invisible body where the shirt, shorts, and hat had been? Was there someone
sitting on him right at that moment? He looked down at the sneakers and socks
that were lying sideways on the floor by his seat. He had no way of knowing.
The one thing he felt fairly sure of was that none of these invisible people
were intelligent life forms, otherwise the watch would have said so. However, the
watch did indeed indicate one person left in the world, so Arlin left the restaurant
and set off to find him or her, following the watch's tracker.
The dog followed closely behind, filled with even more energy after
having raided a corner food stand. The dog was quite intelligent and good at
fending for itself. Its intelligence held quite fortunate for the it because Arlin
would have left it for dead long ago had it not been able to survive unassisted.
45
Arlin had no interest in the troublesome business of fending for anyone
but himself. The only thing that concerned him was observing the worlds and
hopefully finding one where he could live a normal life, with other people to
entertain him, if such a place even still existed.
Swatting aside the floating clothes on his way, Arlin found himself at a
large building, where a sign indicated it to be a research center for new
technology.
Inside, the watch led him to the twelfth floor, where he found an old man
with a large gray beard, dressed in a dirty looking pair of pants and a dirty gray
shirt. The man tinkered with some sort of small machine as Arlin entered the
room. The dog waited outside.
Startled, the old man looked up at Arlin with wide eyes full of shock.
"A nonbeliever?!" said the old man. "I thought they were all killed! Who
are you, and how is it you still have your body? Are there others still alive?"
Arlin looked back with a confused lift of his eyebrow. "I'm a traveler of
different worlds, and I'm afraid that you're the only intelligent life form remaining
in this one."
"Of different worlds, you say? Tell me, have you ever visited a world of
people with no souls?!"
"No souls? I'm afraid I've never visited a world with more than one living
human, soulless or not."
46
"Then please, you must tell me how you travel between worlds, so I can
bring my people back!"
Arlin removed the watch from his pocket and showed the old man. "This
watch has a device that sends me to different worlds, but I have no control over
where it sends me, and I have no idea how it works."
The old man sat down with a depressed looked on his face. "Then there
truly is no hope."
"Can you tell me what happened to this world?" asked Arlin.
The old man hesitated a moment. "It was about seven months ago. This
world was once a great place. We all lived our lives according to a series of
ancient scriptures, which taught us to do good deeds, work hard, and live
peacefully. The city flourished under the rules of the scriptures, and we
experienced great breakthroughs in science and technology. But then we finally
translated the last passage in the scriptures, which told us the day the world would
end. It said that we needed to have ultimate faith in the scriptures, and we needed
to give up our material possessions, science, and technology. If we didn't, then on
the first day of the year 1000 the world would end, our souls would be ripped
from our bodies, our bodies banished to another dimension, and our material
possessions would bind our souls to the earth, preventing us from ever finding
peace in the afterlife.
47
“But we had already come too far to abandon our science and possessions,
so we tried to escape our fates by leaving this world. We figured if we could
create a device to transport us to another world, it wouldn't matter if our old one
were destroyed, and we would be able to escape the wrath that the scriptures
foretold.
“Then there were those of us who said we shouldn't listen to the scriptures.
Nonbelievers, we called them. They said that nothing written in the scriptures has
ever been proved before, and the revelations have only come to pass in the past
because we made them so. All self-fulfilling prophecies, or one fulfilled by us, if
you will. We called them crazy and simply ignored them at first, but then it got
out of hand..
“They went so far as to try and sabotage our efforts at creating the world
transport device. Certain schematics mysteriously disappeared, various ordered
parts would get ‘lost in the mail,’ and they even tried to force their way into the
building a few times. I couldn't risk their interference, so as the lead preacher of
the scriptures, I ordered my followers to have them all killed.
“We finished our device, and when the day came, everyone used it to
travel to the other world. No one knew where they would wind up, but we all
knew it had to be better than what was waiting for us in this world. But..."
Arlin was quite interested in this world's story and was eager to hear more.
"But what?”
48
The old man's face was overcome with a look of guilt. "The truth was that
the protests of the nonbelievers had gotten to me, and I began to doubt the
scriptures myself. I was scared of the other world, so I never used my transporter.
After everyone else had left, I saw the effects of our device. We knew nothing of
world travel, and we had too much faith in our technological knowledge; we were
foolish. The device transported everyone's bodies, but their souls remained
behind. And now they haunt this world, bound by material possessions, just as
the scriptures foretold."
The old man jumped to his feet and started shouting. "Our science was
our downfall, our bodies banished to another dimension, our souls ripped from
our bodies and held from peace in the afterlife! Everything came true, just as the
scriptures said! But if we had never listened to the scriptures in the first place,
none of it would have happened, and everyone would still be here, living
peacefully. What's worse is that I had all the nonbelievers killed, so I'm the only
one left! I can't take it anymore, I don't care if I lose my soul, or where I end up,
I'd rather be like everyone else than suffer living here with these damned ghosts!”
The old man grabbed the device he was tinkering with and ran out of the room.
Arlin didn't try to go after him. The old man had been alone for seven
months, but Arlin had been alone for years, and no one quite knew loneliness like
he did.
49
The dog walked into the room. He smiled at it and knelt down to pet it,
handing it a piece of meat he had saved from the restaurant. He looked down at
the watch as the number on it changed from one to zero. He pressed down the top
button and the light turned green, so he continued to hold it for five seconds. A
rainbow-colored light washed over his vision... and he was gone.
50