Ida the Tornado

My back hurt. Ralf punched me, and I hit the ground hard. Again and Again. I was weak, weaker than everyone else. “You need to focus,” he said, pointing at me. Every time I hit the ground, I thought about not standing up. It was the easiest way out. 

Ralf was the commander of Steve’s Head team. He was tough and strong, both mentally – more importantly, mentally – and physically. He looked angry, but he was not that aggressive. It was just because of his eyebrows. It made him look scary.

I stood up near the big circle window. Looking at the sun. Well, not the sun I used to know. The sun of Polkamo Way. It was not as big as the sun in the milky way sun, but still.

“You are going to get through this. I heard you have not eaten in 2 days! Maybe you should consider it.” Ralf said.

I looked at him, handing him the stick I was fighting with. “I drank some juice. I don’t feel comfortable having pills instead of real food.” I said, facing the window.

“You will if you want to be strong enough to protect yourself at least,” he said, took the stick, and left.

So calm out there. I thought about the man I saw in the woods so much lately. I had some strange feeling I didn’t know what to call it. Something told me that I knew him. I wanted to find him, but there was nothing I could do now. And the baby! They will come for him. He is the only hope for the people of that village.

And the village! Nothing about that village is clear to me. My memories were so clouded I felt like it was just a dream. The only thing that made me believe it was not all my imagination was the pain. I asked myself why all this had happened to me for the past six months. Maybe it wrong place, wrong time, maybe not. After everything I have been through, I hardly believe in coincidences.

“General always thought, believed you were special,” Steve said, chewing on his thin lips standing up. 

“He believed wrong,” I said, looking at my hands.

“How did you even end up with him,” Jake asked.

“You don’t know?” I breathe out. “Three years ago he came to me, well if you count my time travels, it would be 18 years ago. He thought I could save the world. He showed me the future, the explosion of the sun in 11 years, said there are only eight people who can save the world. I only knew 3, the General himself, I, and Boris the traitor I followed to that village. I thought he was going to the future, and maybe the key to saving the future is already there. But I was wrong. We were not in the future or past; the village moved. It doesn’t follow the laws of physics. It’s in all the universes all the time, somewhere outside the boundaries of time and space. without a cube you can’t get out of there. I was there for six months; from the day I went there till the day you found me, it had been about 48 years,” tears were coming up on my cheeks. I had no control over them.

“and now it has been seven years since the explosion I was supposed to prevent. I failed.” I said, wiping off my tears.

Steve looked at Jake like there was something they knew and they were deciding to tell me or not. ”If it makes you feel any better, the sun exploded in our universe, not yours,” Steve said.

“what?” I said in shock. I had so much faith in the general that I could not believe he would lie to me. I had to question everything from the beginning.

“The general was from our universe. He wanted to prevent it. So he chose one person of each universe he could access. So they become an anchor. This way, he could divide the energy release of the sun explosion between 8 universes. A small part of each universe might have been destroyed, but life would have continued on all of them.” Steve said.

“How did he choose those eight people?” I said. I could barely hear myself.

“We don’t know, but I’m sure you all had something in common. Otherwise, he could choose anyone.” Steve said. I knew that look. He was thinking about the reason general didn’t choose him.

I felt betrayed. Like I have been through all this without even knowing the truth. What if the rest is also a lie. How can I trust them after this? I kept my thoughts to myself.

“We had 11 years to prevent it, but the last year he said we need to move as many people as we could to other galaxies. We could only save about half.” Steve said, looking down. 

I felt like the room was getting smaller. Walls were moving towards each other like they wanted to eat me alive. My head felt so heavy, like a bowling ball.

Steve came closer to me sat on the floor in front of me. “He lied to you to do something good. We are not lying anymore because you are already in this. You can see for yourself, and decide if you want to help us. I know all of this is too much to take in, but what you have been through, what you experienced, was just the beginning. Our universe is now their target. First the milky way, now the Polkamo way, and the rest. Could you save them, everything? Do you think you are ready?” he said, looking me in the eyes.

What is that look? It made me very uncomfortable.

“Isn’t that the whole reason you saved me?” I said. I was waiting for something like, “yes, that is the only reason we saved you.” even though I didn’t want to hear it. 

Jake cleared his throat like he wanted to get out of that situation. “Tell me, how does it work? Your mind-reading ability.” Jake said it to change the subject.

I looked at him. I felt more comfortable around Jake lately. Maybe it was because he helped me get through things that had happened before. He was not the predator I imagined he would be. “It is not a mind-reading ability. Not exactly. It is more like becoming another person or object, knowing the history of things and people. When I touch someone Or something, I know everything that happened to them. If I hold on to an object enough, those things that happened to it, to every material, every molecule, it will go so far in the past that eventually, I will reach the Big bang.” 

“How long does it take?” Jake asked.

“Not long, just several minutes for objects,” I said, waiting for his next question.

“how about people?” Jake said.

“For people, it is much more complicated. People have so many dimensions. They have all sorts of emotions combined with logic and actions; All sorts of decision-making processes out of their curiosity, betrayal, and denial. I saw everything that happened to them, every thought, everything they have done, every feeling they have ever had; It is like I AM them, experiencing and feeling everything like them. Thinking like them.” I said.

“That should not be fun. Does it hurt? How far in the past can you get?” Steve said. He was standing near the window now.

“Sometimes. It took time. If I hold on enough, I will go back years. It is just too much information and doubts,” I said.

“wow. How far will you go? To the big bang?” Jake said.

“No, not for people. I only go to the time they were born. After that, it is just darkness. I have never held more than that to see if after darkness there will be something or not.” I continued, “At the end of seeing everything, I get to the beginning of everything. It is like reading history backward.” I said.

“How many people did you do this on?” Jake said.

“The only person I had time to do this and was there at the time was Matilda,” I said, “The woman I stayed with for four months; after I escaped the village, she helped me to hide,” I said

“Could you do this before the experiments?” Jake asked.

“Yes, I had this ability when the general’s crew first recruited me. Not this much though, I felt things. But after the experiments in the village, it evolved.” I said. Jake looked curious, more eager. 

“So If you make contact with the person, you know what we need to know?” Steve asked; he was excited. 

“Yes, skin to skin, and if you tell me what is it exactly you want me to find out, I can reach those parts faster,” I said.

I brought my hand closer to Steve. “Do you want to try?” I said,

of course, no one wants to try that. I would know all his secrets, experiences, and feelings, good, bad, and pain. He stared at me. “I would like to keep my privacy private, in my mind at least,” he said, chewing on his lower lip, staring at me like I can read his mind even by looking at him.

“It’s time,” Steve said, stood up, and walked to the door. “I’m gathering a team to prevent a catastrophe. It’s a fight we cannot lose. Not again.” he said, looking at me. “As the general said, you will play an extraordinary role in all of this. Are you afraid?” he said, looking at me with his deep green eyes. His hair grew since I came here, light brown hair, and his cheeks were red like he had some sunburn. It made him look more vigorous.

“Of course I’m afraid, I don’t even kn…” He didn’t let me finish

“You have to be brave,” he said, like being brave is an order.

“The fact that I’m admitting I’m Afraid comes from my bravery,” I said and stood up tried to look strong.

He smiled. Like he asked that question on purpose. Like he knew I would feel strong after saying that. Did he like me? It felt like he did, but he never let anything out.

“See you later then,” he said and left. 

I looked at Jake, sitting in his armchair and drinking something. “I don’t even know what I should be afraid of here. The fact that I might not be able to stop it again or the fact that we are all going to die?” I said, looking at him, waiting for an explanation.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but we will find out soon enough.” He said and then wiped something off of his left hand with a cloth.

Chapter two: The Hedonist, Part 1