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Back Extinction Game Save as PDF
Chapters (33)
  1. Title page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. Acknowledgements
  32. By Gary Gibson
  33. Copyright page

‘A stage-builder?’ I said. ‘Why not? Nothing else makes sense. There’s no reason to imagine that the Authority are the only ones exploring the multiverse. I think that’s why we never got visitors from outer space, or flying saucers landing in front of the White House. Any sufficiently advanced race probably figures out how to build transfer stages first. And it’s a lot easier to go exploring parallel versions of your own reality than deep space.’

We kept walking. A breeze caught my hair, and I felt rain on my skin. ‘And maybe some of those people exploring our little corner of the multiverse are friendly, like Haden, and maybe some of them aren’t. But all the evidence points to something scaring the hell out of whatever civilization built our stages, after all.’

‘I wonder if things can ever really go back to normal now,’ said Chloe. ‘Do you think they’ll really bring back alternate versions of the others?’

‘That’s what Bramnik told me. But, to be honest,’ I said, looking along the road back into town, thinking it was about time to go to the Mauna Loa for something to eat, ‘I’m not sure if things were ever remotely normal here in the first place.’

Her hand held mine more tightly. ‘And if things ever start to go wrong again, we can escape.’

‘We can escape,’ I said, squeezing back. I felt more optimistic than I had in as long as I could remember, even if I still harboured some doubts about remaining on the island. The one thing I knew for certain was that the events of the past several days had changed the dynamic between the Pathfinders and the Authority forever.

TWENTY-EIGHT

A few days later those of us who were left held a memorial service for everyone we had lost. This took place in the little cemetery past the runway, not far from where my predecessor lay buried. There wasn’t a Pathfinder on the island who didn’t know the truth about Selwyn, Randall and Haden. But, with Bramnik and Mayer present, we had to act otherwise. Before long, Bramnik had new schedules posted, and we prepared to return to something like our old routines.

This time, however, something was different. Some of our first missions were to retrieve people, instead of artefacts or information.

Three months after Casey tried to murder a world, I drove up to the front of the base hospital and saw Nadia and Rozalia standing together outside, blinking in the sunshine. They looked younger than I remembered. But they were younger, I reminded myself, than the originals by a good few years.

‘There you are,’ I said, pulling up next to them and climbing out. ‘Name’s Jerry,’ I said, reaching out a hand to each in turn. ‘Jerry Beche.’

‘Jerry . . .’ wheels turned in the new Nadia’s head. ‘I’ve heard about you. You were a friend of . . . ?’