Zero Matter 13 Epilogue

Geilman/Zero-Matter/1 Chapter 13 Laura was sound asleep when I got up. After half a year of no practice, absorbing a body had taken more out of me than expected. Laura understood and settled for sleeping in my arms to what we both wanted to do. I was disappointed but at the same time relieved that it didn’t happen. I’d made my choice and knew that someday it would be in our future but for now, it was better to wait, better to do what Dr. Marcus asked and learn everything about myself that he had prepared. It would be my luck to make love with Laura for the first time and have her get pregnant with a child of zero-matter. I could reason myself out of it, tell myself over and over again that my entire superstructure was filled with regular matter, including my swimmers, but the tiny part of reason that told me to be careful was enough to keep me on the side of caution. And to keep me awake even though I craved sleep. I brought the computer out of hibernation and while it warmed up, grabbed some clothes from one of the cabinets and cringed. It was disappointing to hold them to my face and not feel the softness or warm scent I remembered from Red Water. The scratchiness and stale smell of the stored clothing struck me as something military and as something I could not wait to leave behind. Dr. Marcus had obviously done the shopping. The shirt, a solid blue polo wasn’t bad but the jeans were a nightmare – pleated with an elastic waist band. I looked for a different pair but all were the same. I’d left my clothes in the car and didn’t want to open the door and accidentally wake Laura in the process so I reluctantly put on the old-man pants. At least I had my own underwear. Dr. Marcus either went natural all the time or had forgotten that piece of attire. I decided it was the latter since it didn’t conjure the same mental image as the first.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/2 File two on the computer was another video but did not feature Dr. Marcus narration. It was a black and white video recorded through a microscope. The first part showed a mess of wriggling sperm with an unfamiliar voice counting backwards. At zero, there was a tremendous boom that stirred Laura in her sleep and then the cheers of several individuals. I could make out only a few partial sentences through the sounds of clapping and congratulations being passed. I gathered it was the first successful de-charging out of several hundred attempts. The video ended so I went to file three. It was similar but showed a collection of eggs going through the same process. Files four through twelve showed various stages of development, including when it was noticed that there were two embryos growing in the incubator. File thirteen showed a decrepitly aged Dr. Marcus when our gestation was complete. His back was curved painfully forward and his head projected from his shoulders like a vulture’s. The tight skin across the top of his bald head was mottled with scabby discolorations and the hair on his temples was scraggly and thin. He had to be helped into a chair and was handed my brother and me. “I am proud to present Adam and Seth,” his ancient voice cackled. “First of a new breed of super-humans.” The next eleven files I almost didn’t watch. There were the type of videos I should’ve been watching with Laura sitting next to me in my parents’ home. Seth should’ve been there too with his wife or girlfriend and our parents should have laughed and told embarrassing stories the entire time. I couldn’t tell which one was me and which one was Seth unless Dr. Marcus, looking younger and younger in each video, or Dr. Swanson, following the same pattern, said our names. I watched my brother and I have all of our firsts. Our first words were both no. His

Geilman/Zero-Matter/3 first steps were almost a week before mine. Our first birthday and the horrible mess we made with our cake. And then, shortly after our third birthday party, I watched them separate us. Dr. Swanson held me as Dr. Marcus bundled Seth in a shield suit. Seth laughed like he was being tickled the entire time. Then Dr. Marcus brought him over to me. “Say goodbye to Adam, Seth,” he said, choking on the words. We both started to cry, probably scared by the fact that Dr. Swanson and Dr. Marcus were crying. Dr. Marcus picked Seth up and carried him out the door. I fought against Dr. Swanson, trying to get out of her arms and to my brother but she held tight. Even when I arched back and slammed my head into her nose, she held on to me, whispering that it would be okay, that they were just taking Seth to a safe place and I would see him again soon. It took several minutes before I was able to open another file. Number twenty-five showed something I’d experienced countless times but never seen from a third person perspective. “Are you ready, Seth?” I heard an unfamiliar voice ask. Seth, strapped to a T-shaped table, nodded his head. “Ready to rock and roll,” he said. His voice sounded like mine had at that age, not sure which octave it belonged to. I watched him absorb a body and then watched him shed. It looked as grotesque as it felt. He reached a point that he couldn’t get past and the technician told him he was charging the magnets. The frequency whine went out of hearing range and then there was an explosion. Smoke and fire poured out of the walls. People started screaming, saying one of the electromagnets had shorted and Seth was dying. Alarms were blaring and fire sprinklers kicked on.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/4 Through the shouting of orders and screams of panic, I heard Seth wailing as he died. One foot in each world. Half mortal, half immortal and the weak, corruptible half won. “Adam, I am so sorry.” My hands instinctively went to my face to wipe away the tear tracks at hearing Laura’s voice. She came to me, sat on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck. She pulled my head into her chest and held me. The tears came again the moment I heard her heart beat. When the racking sobs were over, she said, “It’s not fair to find out you had a brother after he’s already gone. Why would Dr. Marcus make you watch that? Why would he do that to you?” “Dr. Marcus is…was a good man. I needed to see all of that, needed to know about Seth as much as possible. Maybe it wasn’t the best way to do it but Dr. Marcus wasn’t that great at people stuff. Worse than watching all of this though is knowing that I don’t remember him at all. He was my brother and I loved him. I saw how much I loved him and how much it hurt both of us when they took him away. How could I have forgotten about him?” “You were both almost babies when they separated you. You can’t blame yourself for not having memories of him. It’s not your fault.” “I know,” I said. “I know that in my head but it doesn’t make this any easier.” “I don’t expect it to.” She kissed me gently. “Why don’t you take a break and have something to eat? I can whip together a powdered egg and cheese omelet if you’re hungry.” “I’m starving but let’s finish the files first. I’m afraid if I stop now, I’ll never get back into them,” I said. “Besides, I don’t think there will be anymore of Seth. Everything else should be a piece of cake in comparison.” “Deal but as soon as the files are over, we’re eating.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/5 “Fine but let me warn you, if there are any more vids of shedding matter, you probably won’t want to.” The next file fulfilled my warning. It showed half a dozen soldiers strapped to tables and targeted by the Dr. Marcus’ electromagnets. The effects were gruesome. The video ended with Dr. Marcus addressing the camera. “General Brayton, as you can clearly see, it is not plausible to construct an army in this manner. Though several of your volunteers did experience moments of zero-matter structure dominance, none were able to maintain it longer than a few excruciating moments. It is not possible to remove charge from particles in living tissue beyond the sperm and egg stage as I have tried to explain to you repeatedly. Perhaps now, your crippled soldiers might convince you. If they have no success, consider what the dead ones would say. I am not a torturer or an executioner. I do not care how many so called volunteers you send me or what affects this will have on your support, but I will not conduct any more experiments on your men. Adam and Seth are the products of decades of work and only exist as zero-matter because they were created from zero-matter. You cannot duplicate them without duplicating the process that created them. There are no short cuts to building your super army.” “Still hungry?” I asked. “I will kill you if you mention food again,” Laura said as she covered her mouth with her hand. File twenty-seven showed the Source Guardians. The video pixilated every few seconds but showed enough to put a definite face on the fear. It started with a crashing, ripping, exploding noise just like the one the day of my escape. Men and women in white coats and

Geilman/Zero-Matter/6 black military uniforms scrambled through the camera’s set frame and suddenly, the door burst open and nine Source Guardians charged into the room. The commotion of the lab stopped instantly. No words were spoken, no orders given but slowly, the group of scientists and soldiers gathered in the middle of the room. The Source Guardians spread out into a half circle and extended their right arms with their palms out. Beams of light shot from their hands, joined in the middle of the huddled victims and burned the people to ashes before any screams of pain were sounded. The Source Guardians turned from the smoldering pile of remains and began destroying the complex walls and equipment with the death rays from their hands. One marched up to the camera and tapped the lens. The message was clear. They knew they had been seen and this was to let us know they didn’t care. Keep the video as a warning. File twenty-eight was in the Custom Covers building again. Dr. Marcus in front of his Tesla coils. “I wish there was more to tell you about them. The previous video was from their destruction of the lab where you and Seth were created. They left no survivors so we are left to guess why the staff and guards submitted so passively to destruction. How they learned of the laboratory’s location is a mystery but I believe we can assume that any facility we are currently using is at risk. What we do know about the Source Guardians is extremely limited. I suspect that there have been many more messages since their original warning to cease work with zero-matter but have no concrete proof. What I can substantiate however, are the limits applied to their ability to cross dimensional lines. In effort to ensure our facilities were properly hidden, General Brayton laid several traps to, in his words, “Test the capabilities of our enemy.” The end result of his testing was the knowledge that the Source Guardian’s could peer into our world at any time but

Geilman/Zero-Matter/7 travel across the great divide was limited to within eighty-four hours on either side of the lunar orbit perigee. I can only guess at the correspondence but would assume that breaching the dimensional wall requires fantastic amounts of energy and they have somehow harnessed the gravitational force of the earth and moon at their nearest point. I hope you never have need of this information but here are the dates and times of the next hundred perigees.” A data sheet filled the display listing the dates with the plus and minus windows surrounding them. March twenty-first, my eighteenth birthday, fell inside the first red highlighted block. April nineteenth, the date of Dr. Marcus’ death, fell in the second window. The next eight meant nothing but the ninth window, opening in less than nine hours at ten-ten p.m. universal time, was terrifying. “Are you sure your Dad believed you? Is there any chance he didn’t get everyone out of town?” I asked. “I thought so but now I’m not sure. What if he didn’t? Do you still think the Source Guardians will go to Red Water?” Her hands and bottom lip were trembling with worry and her eyes were already clouding. “I don’t know. They should’ve seen me on the mountain but if they don’t find me there, we have to assume they’ll go everyplace I registered on their sensors.” “I’m sure they left. They’ll be fine,” she said weakly. “Liar, you’re scared to death,” I said softly and touched my forehead to hers. “I won’t let anyone hurt them. We should call them, just to make sure they got out.” “Really?” she said hopefully. “Yeah, really. We’ve been here long enough that if General Brayton knew where we were, he would’ve knocked down the walls by now. I think we’re off the map and as long as we

Geilman/Zero-Matter/8 get moving as soon as the call’s over, we should be fine,” I said. “Let’s see the last file, clear out the safe and go to the other side of town first. We might need this place again.” “Sure, just hurry.” The last file was a simple data sheet with cryptic names and contact information for different illegal service providers. The list was short but still made me wonder how an uptight, straight laced scientist like Dr. Marcus had managed to assemble such a roster of underground support. The primary person of concern was an I.D. cylinder programmer here in Denver that could be bribed to create whatever types of permits, identities and lives I might ever need. I made the assumption that the same could be said for anybody else I was willing to pay for. It wasn’t great news, considering the funds left in Laura’s purse, but it was good to know. I shut down the computer and pocketed my cylinder before moving to the safe. It had a dial style combination lock on the front. Laura suggested one as a substitution for Genesis and then one then twenty six. The door popped open on the first attempt. The three foot cube was loaded to the edges with stacks of crisp bills. My mouth dropped open and suddenly the information about the corrupt I.D. programmer became much more valuable. I pulled an empty duffle bag out of the clothing cabinet and stuffed it with half the contents of the safe. “How much do you think is there?” Laura asked as she stooped to pick up a piece of paper that had fallen out of the safe when I started plundering the stock of cash. “No clue but I bet it’s more than enough to buy new lives for everyone in Red Water if we need to.” She laughed as I swung the door closed and spun the dial. “We’ll leave some here just in case,” I said and then read the paper she held out to me.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/9 “‘The most powerful force in the universe is compounding interest’ Albert Einstein (maybe),” was written in Dr. Marcus’ hand, followed by, “A small thank you for the extra years of life.” “I guess we just found my college fund,” I said after reading the note. “That’s good because I wouldn’t be able to support you through school and I don’t think Mom and Dad could handle you either. You eat way too much.” We laughed and shared a kiss that threatened to derail us if we didn’t cut it short. Laura ran out to get my clothes and boots. I changed quickly, happy to leave Dr. Marcus’ wardrobe behind, and we went outside. The sun was up, reflecting brightly off the snow covered ground forcing us to squint against the painful light. I put the bag of money and as a precaution against the worst, the shield suit, in the small trunk of the car. “Thirty miles. Then we’ll make the call,” I said and opened the driver’s door. Laura stepped into the opening. “What a gentleman,” she said. “I’m glad you think so but I was actually planning on driving.” “Why would I let you drive my car?” she asked, playfully innocent. “Your car? I believe you bought it with my money?” “Details, details,” she said glibly. “My car or your car, you’re wasting time and I’m already in the driver’s seat.” “You are a piece of work,” I said and walked around to the passenger side. “Once again, who taught you how to talk?” she said when I was in. “Besides, I thought I was amazing.” “You’re a lot of things,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/10 # We drove towards the heart of Denver and got gridlocked in traffic. We found a local radio station reporting a wreck that had closed two lanes of inbound traffic.

With every ticking

minute, Laura fidgeted more and more in her seat. She drummed the steering wheel, flipped through every listenable station on the radio and dove into the few bags of snacks that had survived the previous night’s drive. It took half an hour to reach the nearest exit and get out of the mess of cars and by then, we were within eight hours of the Source Guardian’s window. I wanted to get further from the Custom Covers building but the time wasted on the freeway had erased Laura’s patience. I tried to talk her out of it but couldn’t blame her when she decided there was too little time left and she had to call now. We stopped at a small restaurant and ordered some breakfast since both of us were suddenly starving before powering on her phone. “Hi, Aunt Christie, it’s Laura,” she said expectantly after the call connected. “Laura, honey! It’s so good to hear from you. Are you coming for Christmas with your parents?” Laura’s face went white as paper and my stomach knotted the moment I heard the cheerful tone of her aunt’s voice. Her hand holding the phone started shaking violently against her ear. “Have you heard from Mom and Dad?” she asked, ignoring her aunt’s perky questioning. “No, not since last week. Why? Is something wrong?” “No, nothing to worry about, but I’ve got another call coming in. I have to go.” Laura hung up and dropped her phone to the table. It bounced and landed on its back before chiming. The screen lit up with a message that she had thirty-two missed calls. She

Geilman/Zero-Matter/11 leaned back from the phone, pulling her chin up like it was a monster ready to attack. I picked it up and tried to grab her hand. “Laura, it’s okay. It will be okay,” I said but didn’t expect her to believe the lie. I hit the send button to check who the calls were from and when they’d been made. The first one was about two hours after we’d abandoned General Brayton. The last one was from five minutes ago. All were from Sheriff Dawson’s phone. “What do we do?” Laura asked, still pale as a ghost and wide eyed. “I don’t think we have another choice.”

Chapter 14 I hit send, calling her father’s phone. “You’ve got to stop running away from home, kid.” “Let me talk to Sheriff Dawson,” I said to Tanner. He laughed. “I would but I don’t think he can talk to you right now. Old guy kept causing us more trouble than it was worth. After the second broken nose on one of my boys, we had to knock him out. The missus is here though if you need proof we’ve got them both.” “Adam? Adam, is Laura alright? Tell me she’s with you,” Mrs. Dawson’s frantic voice came on the line moments later. “She’s with me. She’s fine,” I said while staring into Laura’s terrified face. “What happened?”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/12 “David was out helping the Bakers get out of town and I was home packing when the army showed up. He tried to fight when he got home but there are too many of them. I’m sorry, Adam. We should’ve been on the road hours ago but we had to make sure everyone else was out first.” Of anyone in the world, Mrs. Dawson would be the one to apologize to me when everything was actually my fault. “Don’t worry about us,” she said quickly. “We’ll be fine. Take care of Laura…” Tanner came back on the line. “We’ve got them but we’ll let them go as long as you let us do this the easy way. Stay where you are and a car will be there in forty minutes.” “What about Laura?” I asked. Her look could’ve melted the Antarctic shelf. “You are not going back to them, to that prison,” she whispered. “We can figure something out.” I covered the microphone with my finger. “Figure what out? They’ve got your parents. What am I supposed to do?” “General Brayton wants to talk to you, kid,” Tanner said. “Hang up, Adam,” Laura pleaded. “There has to be another way.” “Not without your parents getting hurt. I can’t let that happen,” I whispered harshly. “I should let them kill you,” General Brayton said bluntly. His voice was just as calm and dispassionate as ever, convincing me completely that he would do it without hesitation. “Your actions have put not just this program but the entire world in jeopardy from these fanatics.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/13 You need to come back into our custody or every person the Source Guardians kill will be on your head. Do you understand me?” “I do. But what about Laura and her parents? I need your word that they will not be hurt in any way.” “No, Adam,” Laura whispered desperately. “Don’t do this.” “You have my word. Now stay where you are. A car will be there shortly.” “No, that doesn’t work for me,” I said and without giving General Brayton a chance to argue, continued. “I’ll meet you in Red Water in seven hours. You’ll let the Dawson’s go. You will have a helicopter waiting to take them and Laura to an airport where they will have plane tickets to Brazil waiting and their I.D.’s will be programmed with all the documentation they need to get out of the country. You know where we’re coming from by now and better make sure the route is clear from here to Red Water. It will be you, Tanner, the helicopter pilot and that’s it. If I see, hear, smell or even think there any more soldiers than that, it’s off. If you want me to do this the easy way, those are my conditions.” I wished I could see his face, wished I could see how the wheels were turned as we waited in silence. “I assume you’ve absorbed a body,” he said. “Yes.” “I’ll accept your terms then. Meet me in Red Water and we’ll try to clean up the mess you’ve made.” I popped the battery out of the phone before setting it on the table and put my head in my hands. I could feel Laura’s eyes piercing me.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/14 “There’s no other way,” I said without looking up. “As long as I’m free, you and your parents are in danger. I can’t live with that.” “Do you really think he’ll live up to his side of the bargain? Do you honestly believe that he will just let us go?” she asked accusingly. “Not a chance in hell but he needed to think I believed him. At least now, we’ve got a few hours to figure out how to get you and your parents out of his reach,” I said. “Figure out what, Adam? We go there and he’ll pretend to send us to an airport but we know he won’t. He’ll have the pilot take us for a little ride to whatever prison he has set up. We know too much and even if we didn’t know a damn thing, he’ll use us to keep you in check.” “Don’t you think I know that?” I said, almost yelling and raising several heads in the diner. I stood up and glared at all the restaurant patrons looking our direction. All heads turned down to a careful study of their plates and tables. “We need to leave before soldiers come crashing through the windows.” I offered a hand to Laura. She slid out of the booth and brushed by me with her head down. We got in the car, this time with me taking the driver’s seat without any argument. She didn’t say a single word until we were well outside the city. I thought about taking her back to Dr. Marcus’ building but knew she would never allow it. I played out dozens of approaches and arguments in my head but lost every one of them. Whether it was to keep her safe, make it harder on General Brayton, or make it easier for me to enter Red Water without the anxiety of protecting her, I knew I couldn’t convince her. She needed to see her parents and know they were safe even more than I did. Her coming with me was not debatable.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/15 “I know what you’re thinking. I’m not an idiot,” she eventually said. “I never said you were but I don’t even know what I’m thinking right now.” “Yes you do. You knew it when you told General Brayton seven hours. You’re waiting for the window to open. You’re going to use the Source Guardians as a threat to get us clear.” “I’m that obvious, huh?” “Crystal clear but don’t you think General Brayton knows what you’re up to? He’ll have plans to stop you.” “Probably but there’s a good chance that he doesn’t realize that I know when the Source Guardians can come. I’m hoping that revelation will throw him off his game. All I have to do is shed as little as a toenail and he’ll be up the creek.” “What if he thinks you’re bluffing before we can get out of there? The Source Guardians will kill us all if you do that.” “It’s not going to happen. He won’t try anything. He might be willing to kidnap and maybe even kill to keep me locked away but he won’t risk his own life. He proved that when he took us out of the base. When it comes to saving his own skin, he’s willing to do just about anything.” “What about the helicopter? Once we’re on that…” “You won’t be taking the helicopter. You’ll drive out of Red Water with your parents, south into Mexico. I’ll keep your phone so you can call me when you’re across the border. Once you’re there, use Dr. Marcus’ contacts and the money to start new lives. It won’t replace what you’re giving up but it’ll be better than being prisoners.” “You didn’t just come up with this, did you?” she said with deep hurt in her voice. “How long have you been planning this?”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/16 There was no point in lying. “I’ve been thinking about it since I shed my arm but Source Guardians’ schedule was the last piece in the puzzle. I knew there was a chance your parents or the Bakers or anybody else from Red Water would get picked up by the Army and I needed a plan against General Brayton taking hostages. This was the best I could come up with.” “This can’t be the only way, Adam,” Laura argued. “What about the files on your ID? Why can’t we use those, threaten to expose the project and the Source Guardians if General Brayton doesn’t let us go?” I shook my head. “That was my first thought but the price would be too high and he knows it. We tell the world about inter-dimensional aliens and countless people will get hurt. There will be fighting all across the planet as other countries blame the U.S. for keeping me hidden and causing this problem but that will be nothing compared to what the Source Guardians will do. So far, they’ve stayed discrete like Dr. Marcus said, but if we tell the world about them, all bets will be off. Humanity will be like sheep running to slaughter. You saw the vid. You saw how the scientists and soldiers were. They had no will to fight, just walked to the center of the room and let themselves be killed. Imagine the whole of humanity being forced to do that. There’s too much to lose in exposing the project. I can’t do it and General Brayton knows I can’t do it.” “You think you’ve thought of everything, don’t you?” she said. Her voice had a bitter edge of accusation but the tears on her cheeks showed there was more involved in the emotion. “But what about me? Did you think about me at all?” “Of course I did. Everything I was thinking revolves around getting you and your parents to a safe place,” I said in exasperation. How could she have missed that? It was the whole point.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/17 “No, not that,” she said, the bitterness fading fast under her sobs. “You did think of me like that and I love you for it but you didn’t stop to think what I want. And that’s you.” “You can’t mean that,” I said and hated myself. This was going to hurt, me as much as her but it had to happen. I had to drive her away from me. This was something else I’d considered ever since I stupidly told her the truth about how I felt. It was time to pay the price for giving her hope in something that never stood a chance. “You barely know me. You can’t be ready to give up the rest of your life to stay with me. There is no way I’m getting out of this without your parents getting hurt.” “Don’t you get it, Adam. I want to stay with you. We’ll follow your plan, get my parents out of the country and give them whatever they’ll need to start over but I’m staying with you. I love you.” Time for the big hurt. “You don’t love me, you only think you do. I’m a rebound from Richard compounded with all the excitement of a life and death chase. You’re just a silly girl if you don’t realize that.” She froze and the tears dripping from her eyes stopped. Her face turned hard as stone and then she slapped me across the face. She was almost where I needed her to be. “Feel better?” I asked sarcastically. She slapped me again. “How about now? Did that do it for you?” Another slap. “Was that one cause I’m wrong or because you realized I’m right?” This time she hit me with a fist.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/18 “Anymore?” She looked down and rubbed her knuckles. I watched a solitary tear drop from her chin onto her hands. She turned her head and looked out the window. My face stung where she slapped and punched me but it didn’t matter. That pain would fade. # The wind was shaking the small yellow car when we pulled into Red Water. The wide snow covered plains did nothing to stop or interrupt the rush of biting air. The empty horizon, the dead fields and empty town deepened the sense of doom as we passed the welcome sign decorated with a small blue and pink banner announcing the birth of the Baker twins. Its edges were already tattered and frayed under the constant whip of the wind. There were no cars, no trucks in any of the driveways and almost all the lights of the town were dead. The municipal building, Sheriff Dawson’s jail, was the only building with life. A heavy looking military green helicopter dominated the street in front of it. The door slid open and General Brayton jumped out with Tanner right behind him. I drove forward slowly, trying to expect a trap but not seeing anything that could tip me off. Any one of the abandoned houses could be holding a force of men ready to run out with guns pointed at Laura and demands that I get in a shielded coffin. I took pressure off the gas pedal and looked around, letting the car roll forward under its idle power. I tried to look past Laura, out of her window to see anything on her side. When I saw her face, it took all the control I had to keep from telling her I was sorry, that I hadn’t meant a word of it. I looked back to General Brayton and thought I saw the brief flash of a smile on his face. I snapped my head around looking for what had caused the smile and saw a small mound of

Geilman/Zero-Matter/19 disturbed earth and snow on my side of the road even with my window. I tried to throw the car into reverse and pound the gas to get us out of the way but it was too late. An explosion burst out of the disturbed ground, rocking the car up on the passenger’s side wheels. Laura screamed as the window shattered and threw shards of glass at our faces. I felt warm blood trickling down my cheek as the car continued rolling away from the center of the explosion. I watched the world turn upside down as the car flipped on its top. The thin metal supports never meant to support more weight than the roof crumpled and the surviving glass burst like another explosion had gone off inside the car. I slammed down on the top of my head and saw stars bursting across my field of vision. The doors to the houses in front of us were thrown open and black clad legs ran into view. I heard a weak whimper next to me. “Laura! Laura! Talk to me!” I realized I was yelling inside my own head. No words were actually coming out of my mouth because I could not move my jaw. I fought against the encroaching blackness, fading in and out of consciousness. I heard a groan of twisted metal and felt rough hands grab me. My seat belt was cut and I was pulled out of the car. I tried to raise my head and find Laura to make sure they were getting her out of the car as well but could not find the strength. “Adam!” Laura’s voice. She was alive. “Put her under!” I heard General Brayton shout. I tried to turn my head to see her but couldn’t move a muscle. I heard the sounds of her struggling and the start of a scream that faded to a whimper. “Is he alive?” General Brayton’s voice again. “Yes, sir,” one of the soldier’s answered. “But he needs medical attention.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/20 “Just put him in the box, soldier!” Tanner this time. “Sir!” Another soldier I couldn’t see. “The girl’s under.” “Get him in the box and both of them on the chopper in two minutes. Move it!” I heard a heavy thump behind me and felt hands on my body. They started lifting me and I knew what the heavy thump was from. It was the box and I was helpless to resist them putting me in. I knew I couldn’t yell, couldn’t fight, couldn’t show any sign that I could shed and end General Brayton’s victory. I was so stupid to not expect this, so foolish to think I could out plot a man that had been planning and plotting his whole life. I was certain my neck was broken since my limbs and the rough hands lifting me felt like they were a million miles away. And then I remembered my hand from the last prison, when I snapped my fingers punching the observation window and the sensation of my superstructure under the bones, fighting to pull the broken pieces back together. I tried to concentrate and shut out the sounds of the soldiers and the dimming sensations of my body being moved. I knew I could be inside the box at any moment and that the only way to get out was to shed but doing that would invite the Source Guardians before Laura and her parents were safely out of Red Water. I had to fix myself fast, had to give a sign of life and consciousness before the soldiers could close the lid on me. I tried to feel my back, feel the stacked vertebrae and find the break. There was nothing but a dull ache as my conscious mind tried to make coherent thought out of the subconscious part’s territory. It seemed futile until I was dropped into the box. The jarring impact sent a burst of pain out of my neck and pulled my attention to the spot just above my shoulders. There it was, the break in the bones and the zeromatter superstructure fighting to correct it. I put everything I had into assisting what my true body was doing naturally and felt the matter of the broken bones realign to the template.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/21 I opened my eyes in time to see the lid of the box coming down and shot up my arms, stopping it cold. “He’s awake!” a soldier shouted and I heard them jump back from the shield box. “Get the lid closed!” General Brayton yelled. “Go ahead and try! I’ll shed half this body before any of you can even move. Try it if you don’t believe me!” I pushed the lid off and jumped out of the box. A dozen soldiers surrounded me with weapons aimed at my head but gave me a wide birth. I wasn’t surprised. Half my face was sticky with blood and moments earlier, my neck had been broken. I must have looked like a zombie rising from the grave to them and doubted that General Brayton had told them all the details of our relationship. I looked for Laura and saw her strapped helplessly to a rolling stretcher next to the helicopter and General Brayton. Tanner was standing next to him with a machine gun slung around his shoulder and casually pointed Laura’s direction. “What did you do to her?” I asked, quivering with anger. “Don’t worry. Just a little sedative to make the trip easier,” General Brayton said evenly. “You almost killed us!” I shouted. “You could’ve killed her!” “Not a chance,” he said. “She’s almost as valuable to me as you now. If we had wanted to kill either of you, you would be dead. We knew what we were doing.” I glanced to the open cargo doors of the helicopter. Laura’s parents were not inside. “Where are the Dawsons?” I said. General Brayton smiled with half of his mouth. “Inside, in the jail just in case they decided to cause trouble,” he said.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/22 “Get them out and in the helicopter!” “Or what? You’ll shed and summon the Source Guardians while your pretend family is still in range?” “You know I won’t,” I said. General Brayton smiled triumphantly until I pulled his gun from behind my back and stuck the barrel under my chin. An hour outside of Red Water, I’d stuffed it into the waistband of my pants at the small of my back. It was a miracle it hadn’t come loose when the soldiers pulled me out of the car. “I was concerned you might not honor our previous deal so I held on to this. And just in case, it isn’t clear to you - I pull the trigger and this is over.” “For all the trouble you’ve caused, I should just let you do it.” “You should but you can’t. I can’t get a straight answer why I’m so important to you but it doesn’t matter as long as that’s true. You won’t let me do this.” “Tanner, fetch the Dawsons. Looks like our friend came ready to play,” General Brayton said without looking away from me. Tanner flipped his assault rifle around his back and took several quick steps to reach the jailhouse. Moments later, Sheriff and Mrs. Dawson came through the door with Tanner right behind them. “Laura!” screamed Mrs. Dawson and ran to her daughter. Sheriff Dawson was on her heels. “STOP!” General Brayton yelled and pulled his pistol from the holster on his hip. He pointed it at Laura’s stomach. The Dawson’s stopped like they’d hit an invisible wall. “We need to work out the terms of a new deal.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/23 “Fine. New deal. Just don’t do anything stupid,” I warned and continued to walk forward with the gun under my jaw. “You don’t have a damn clue about what stupid is,” he said, his typically even voice fluctuating angrily. “Stupid is getting a genius like Dr. Marcus killed. Stupid is running off half cocked and dragging this entire town into your life. Stupid is running around thinking you’ve got any control over anything.” I was close enough to see an unnerving gleam in his eyes. It was the same one I’d seen when I left him in his car in the mountains. I was on fragilely thin ice and the slightest misstep would send my plunging through. “You think you can disappear and the Source Guardians will leave you alone. You think we’ll leave you alone. That’s what is stupid is!” He was spitting each word out of his mouth like it had a bitter taste. “You’re risking a massacre to save these meaningless people. They will wipe out everyone and everything if they need to in order to find you. So go ahead and shed! Let them know you’re here. You’ll be damning the whole world.” “No, I won’t,” I said. “You already did it when you decided to ignore them and make me anyway. You set this up. Not me. The only thing that’s my fault is the involvement of these good people and all I want is to fix that. I’m your real objective, aren’t I? They’re small potatoes in this whole program so why don’t you let them go?” Sheriff and Mrs. Dawson were holding each other, watching the words fly between General Brayton and me and looking in terror at their daughter’s prone body. Tanner moved from the back to stand between them and Laura, keeping his rifle aimed their direction. Out of the corners of my eyes, I could see soldiers with weapons raised on each side but did not dare take my eyes off General Brayton to verify that all twelve were still there.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/24 “Do you want to know why you’re so important?” General Brayton barked. “I’ll tell you right now if you put the gun on the ground. Would that make you happy to know the mystery of your life?” “No, not at that high of a price.” “Fine, then I’ll tell you for free as a show of good faith,” he said with a wicked smile. “You’re so damned important because we’ve got no idea why you’re important. When they told us to give up on zero-matter, they were especially adamant that we not create life with it. Why would that be so important, we wondered, that it deserved the extra emphasis. Dr. Marcus was already planning you so we simply let him continue, hoping that we would find out. As far as I’ve been able to see, you haven’t done anything to merit the special attention.” I could see it on his face, the hope that his revelation would crush my spirit. I laughed at him. “Really? You think telling me I’ve not impressed you is going to make me drop the gun, hang my head and cry? Talk about stupid,” I said. “Look around you. Whether I’ve knocked your socks off or not, I am important to you and I am important to the Source Guardians. Call me names. Tell me I’m stupid. Do whatever makes you happy as long as you let Laura and her parents drive off into the sunset.” “You’re delusional if you really believe I’ll just let these people go.” “And you’re just as deluded if you think they’re not worth my life,” I said and started walking again. Time to prove I meant it. “What time is it, Sheriff Dawson?” He jumped a little, surprised at being pulled into the two-way conversation. “Five o’clock sharp,” he said after checking his watch.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/25 “We’ve got ten minutes,” I said to General Brayton. “And I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to walk to the silos over there and at five-o-five, the Dawsons will be in their car driving away from here. If they are not, at five fifteen, if the Source Guardians haven’t shown up already, I’m going to shed. You can stay and watch if you want but I’d recommend you get out of here too.” I walked past General Brayton in a wide arch until I was on the other side of the helicopter. “Stop where you are, drop the gun or I will shoot!” General Brayton warned, shifting his aim from Laura to me. “Kind of a silly move, don’t you think since I’ve already a got a better shot than you,” I said. “I’m not shooting to kill. I just need to stop you and you just gave me my shot.” I heard the bang of his gun the same instant I felt the impact in my right shoulder. My arm went numb and my hand flung out from under my chin of its own accord. The gun flew out of my useless fingers. “Now, to keep you from shedding,” he said and turned his arm to Laura again. “NO!” I shouted at the same time as the Dawson’s. The shattering pain in my shoulder vanished as I watched General Brayton’s face twist to a grotesque expression of power and spite. I was dimly aware of my body ejecting the bullet from my flesh and repairing the damage as I saw flame spit from the muzzle of his gun. Laura’s body, laid flat on the stretcher jerked under the impact of the bullet to her stomach. Mrs. Dawson screamed, a raw animal sound of torture, and fell to her knees. Sheriff Dawson lunged at General Brayton but was clubbed down by Tanner with the butt of his rifle.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/26 General Brayton pulled the trigger again, sending another bullet into Laura’s abdomen. Crimson red blood seeped and stained the light blanket covering her body. “Now, we’re all getting in the chopper and if you’re lucky, we’ll get her to a base in time to save her life. You make the call.” Two bullets into her belly. There was no time to go anywhere. She would bleed out before we got off the ground. I charged at General Brayton, fists raised to crush him. Tanner stepped in the way to deflect me. His training and mean streak were outmatched by my fury. Without thought, driven to action by animalistic anger, I dodged the swing of his rifle and hit him in the stomach with my shoulder. My arms wrapped around his back, constricting like a snake and locking him to me. I continued running, carrying him in front and charged into General Brayton. I smashed both men into the helicopter with every ounce of force in my body. There was a sickening crack and a moan. I let go of Tanner and straightened up. I looked at them just long enough to see Tanner’s back bent the wrong way and General Brayton’s head covered in blood. I ran to Laura’s stretcher with angry tears coursing down my cheeks. I saw the surrounding soldiers aim track me with their weapons but knew they would not fire. None of them would want to bear responsibility for killing me. I knelt next to the stretcher, abhorred by the blood dripping down the rails and soaking the ground. Mrs. Dawson was draped across her daughter, holding her hand and weeping against her neck. “Can’t you do something?” she said mournfully. “I don’t know but I’ll try.” I put my hands on Mrs. Dawson’s shoulders gently. “I need you to move.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/27 She looked up, her red eyes showing more hope than they should have. I had no real confidence in what I was about to do but knew I could never live with myself if I didn’t try. She backed away slowly and crouched next to Sheriff Dawson, who was shaking his head like a great shaggy buffalo. “What happened?” he asked groggily. Mrs. Dawson hushed him. I took a deep breath and pressed my hands against the sides of Laura’s head. I let the air out through my lips slowly and concentrated. My focus was interrupted by a shrill cry. “Adam, look out!” Mrs. Dawson screamed. It was too late. I felt the cold metal of a gun barrel against my scalp and heard General Brayton’s voice. “You do anything but climb into that box and I will put a bullet in your brain.” “If you could, you would’ve already,” I said through clenched teeth. “I wasn’t angry before.” He pulled the gun around my head, digging the front of the cold barrel into my scalp and dragging it from the back of my skull until it was next to my right eye. “Get up and go to the box,” he said. I looked at Sheriff and Mrs. Dawson and saw the desperation on their faces. I shifted my eyes to the side and glimpsed the stern resolution in the general’s jaw. Then I looked down to Laura’s face. Her lips had turned bluish and her soft pink cheeks were pale and hollow. “No,” I whispered and closed my eyes.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/28 I felt the explosion of the gun against my skull and the shattering of bone as the bullet tore into my brain. But it was too late. The process was already started. The bullet disintegrated under the onslaught of billions of atoms and molecules being exorcized. I directed the force of the matter away from Laura, backwards and to the sides, the tiny building blocks of the universe racing away from me like a nuclear bomb had been set off in my stomach. General Brayton was knocked from his feet and torn apart by the countless projectiles fleeing my superstructure like atomic shrapnel. I focused deeper, summoning strength from unknown places to remove every shred of coarse matter. I could hear nothing over the sounds of the explosion generated by me but knew when I opened my eyes, there would be no weapons pointed my direction and no soldiers keeping guard. It was like I could feel the matter of their bodies running away from me. And then it was done. Every organ, every tissue, every cell, molecule, and atom of my body was clean. I opened my eyes, wishing to see Laura staring back at me, healed, restored and vibrant. Instead, I saw death and felt the chill in her flesh. All thoughts of my nakedness, my stripped state were overpowered by the onslaught of guilt and grief pouring through me. The feelings were only intensified by the wailing of her mother and the deep sobs of her father. “My girl! My little girl!” Sheriff Dawson cried over and over. Mrs. Dawson did not have the control to form words for her suffering. I forced myself past the agony in my chest, the pain coursing through me for my loss and theirs. I had to think, I had to act. Under the palms of my hands I could feel life, dimming and vanishing rapidly, but still life in her body. My hope had been the healing nature of my presence that had taken years from Dr. Swanson’s body would be enough to reverse the damage done by

Geilman/Zero-Matter/29 General Brayton’s bullets but it was obviously not enough. I had to ask myself quickly if I had the right to do what I was thinking. When I answered myself, I swore. “Laura,” I whispered, leaning in close so the small part of her that was still alive might hear me. “I’m sorry. I love you but I can’t save you.” I tried to pull my hands from her face, tried to drop them to my sides and walk away, walk out to a clear open place where the Source Guardians could find me, erase my existence and return to their world with ease. But my hands would not leave her cheeks. At first I thought it was my will, my subconscious desires holding me to her, not allowing me to forsake what I ached to have but the longer I thought about, the more I realized it was not any part of me refusing to let go. It was her. It was Laura holding on and like a small voice had whispered the answer in the back of my mind, I knew why. “You don’t want this,” I said to her, moving my lips but not making a sound yet she still got the message. “Save me,” she said back, her words and thoughts travelling through my hands and into my mind. “No, they will destroy you too.” “Save me, Adam. I love you.” “I don’t know that I can.” “Please try…” The last thought was so dim, so weak I almost did not register it. Death was here, smothering the last spark of life in her. “Laura?” I asked, sending the thought through my hands. No answer.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/30 “Laura?” I said out loud. Nothing. I shifted my feet anxiously and felt my hands move on her face. Whatever power she had used to hold me to her was gone. She was gone. I cried out, the pain of a broken heart wrenching forth out of my mouth. I couldn’t accept it. I couldn’t allow it. She could not die. I pressed my hands into her cheeks again and forced my body into hers, forced my nature to probe into hers and find what was hidden. Trying to find in another body the pure level of matter, the template I needed to expose to repair the damage was like trying to pinch mercury between my fingers. Every time I thought I was close to isolating the zero-matter it slid away from me like lightning and disappeared. I moved from her cheeks to the top of her head, hoping that there might be a stronger presence of zero-matter in her mind but had no luck. I moved my hands down to her chest, feeling for her heart in the same hope and again, disappointment. I moved further south again, casting the blood soaked blanket off her body and pulling up her shirt to put my hands on the bare flesh of her stomach but still found nothing. I passed my hands over the gaping holes in her body, revolted by the blood that pumped weakly out of her flesh. There was hardly any pressure moving the red life. The wounds offered no handle to grasp onto, no trace of zero-matter to use a starting place. As I rubbed my hands over the surface of her body, I was ready to give up, certain that our final hope had been only a dream, a wish that could never be realized when I felt a tingle in my fingers. I swept my hands back to the place I had felt the sensation, low on her abdomen. I spread my hands, keeping one on the magic spot until the other found another place, symmetrical on her

Geilman/Zero-Matter/31 body. I hardly took time to recognize what the sources were before I latched onto the pulse of the zero-matter and channeled my energy into freeing the source material from its mortal covering. Her body changed under my hands, exploding outward just as mine had to reveal the innermost layer. It was harder than my change had been, more difficult since her body had never known what it felt like to be free, to exist without the crude covering it was used to. But it did change, eventually, almost willfully racing to match me. The first atoms infected their neighbors until entire molecules were converted and then tissues, organs and finally her entire body was changed, stripped down to the pure matter that organized the coarse covering. Her eyes flashed open and her mouth gaped wide to take a huge breath like she was coming up from under miles of water. She looked straight into my eyes and sat up. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. When she was finished, I was left gasping for air. “Thank you,” she said. “This is how it feels then, to be made of perfect material?” She raised her arm, twisting slowly it in front of her eyes. I was lost for words, dizzy by the effort of revealing her zero-matter body and the passion of her kiss but managed a weak nod. “Perfect on the outside, still working on the inside.” “Laura!” Mrs. Dawson shouted and sprang to her feet. She was next to her daughter in an instant, arms wrapped around her with no notice or fear of Laura’s glowing skin. Sheriff Dawson was right there with her, hugging both and crying. As they held on to one another, rejoicing, I looked at the watch on Sheriff Dawson’s wrist. There was not much time left.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/32 I grabbed two green blankets from inside the open helicopter, wrapped one around my waist and broke into their revelry. “Put this on,” I said, shamefully aware of Laura’s nakedness. Her parents barely moved to allow her to cover herself. “They’ll be here any minute. You need to get going now!” “What do you mean?” Laura asked defensively. “You and your parents,” I said so quickly my words jumbled together. “You need to get as far away from here as you can. Go back to Denver. There’s more than enough there for you to absorb another body. It’s more natural than it sounds. Just breathe it in and you’ll be fine. They’ll never find you.” “No, no!” Laura snapped. “I’m not leaving you here!” “You have to! With any luck they only know about me and if you can get to the lab fast enough, if you could absorb a body that they might not notice and even if they did, they’d never find you.” “What are you talking about, Adam?” Sheriff Dawson asked, completely lost in our argument. I felt ridiculous giving him the two sentence synopsis but since he was standing next to two glowing people and didn’t seem the least bit phased by it, I had nothing to lose. “Laura and I are now made of inter-dimensionally sacred material called zero-matter and any minute zealots from another dimension are going to rip a hole into our world and destroy me. If you get Laura out of here before they arrive, there’s a good chance they won’t come after her.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/33 “That explains a lot. Not a spaceman or an angel, just made of different stuff than the rest of us,” he said with a dry chuckle and hitched up his pants by his belt buckle. “What do I need to do?” “There’s a suit, looks like an old radiation suit, in the truck of our car. We need to get Laura into it so the Source Guardians can’t track her.” “The Source Guardians? Oh right, the zealots. I’m on it,” Sheriff Dawson said and headed out the door. “Adam, I am not going!” Laura said fiercely, stopping her dad in his tracks. “You have to go. I didn’t save your life to watch you die again.” “And I’m not leaving you to face them alone. I’m only leaving if you come with us.” “I can’t. There’s only one suit and they would follow us like blood hounds. The only way this works is if you go now! I love all of you too much to let that happen!” “Did you ever stop to think about how much we love you?” Laura asked, tears sparkling in her eyes like liquid diamonds. “How much I love you?” “I love you too but you can’t do this,” I said. “If you hadn’t changed me, I would be dead already.” “Yeah and that was my fault. Just another reason why you should be running away screaming.” She dismissed my argument with a wave. “At least now, I have the chance to say goodbye to my parents. You gave me that gift. Let me give you mine. Let me do this with you. You don’t need to do everything alone anymore.” Bear paw sized hands landed on my shoulders and Sheriff Dawson spoke from behind.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/34 “Don’t argue, son. Do you see the look on her face? It’s the same as her mother’s when I’m fighting a fight I can’t win. Let it go. Looks like we’re staying with you.” “No, Dad. You and Mom need to go. They don’t have any reason to follow you,” Laura said. Mrs. Dawson shook her head. “Do you really think I’d leave you to face this yourself? Like your father said, we’re staying with you.” I glanced at Sheriff Dawson’s watch. Less than two minutes left. “Fine, fine. Everybody stays then,” I said in frustration, “But you two stay inside the jail. You can watch from the windows even though I have no idea why you’d want to.” I turned around and hugged Sheriff Dawson. “Thank you for the life you gave me,” I whispered. I let go of him quickly and traded places with Laura. I gave the same gratitude to her mother. The watch hands clicked into place. Five ten.

Chapter 15 Laura and I took each other’s hands and walked away. I didn’t look over my shoulder but knew Sheriff and Mrs. Dawson were already in the jailhouse and watching through the window, his arm around her shoulders and the side of her face pressed against his chest.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/35 I looked at Laura, her beautiful face radiating light. Her jaw was firmly set and she stared unblinkingly ahead. “How do you think it will happen?” she asked softly. “What do you mean?” “How will they destroy us?” Her voice cracked, betraying the fear masked by her stony expression. “I don’t know. Hadn’t thought about it.” We reached the large barriered lot of the old grain storage building. I pushed aside one of the water filled sections. We walked hand in hand to the middle of the lot and stopped. “How long?” she asked. “Any second I suppose.” As I said the words, the air around us began to tremble followed immediately by the ground. The subtle vibrations would probably have gone unnoticed but our senses, enhanced by our zero-matter bodies, picked up the disturbance. The ear shattering, dimension rending explosion struck us like a wave. We leaned into the force, keeping our feet under us and watched the derelict towering tubes crumble to the ground. Behind them, a bright light broke through the horizon, blocking our view of the rest of our Earth. Out of the light, nine figures came marching toward us. Each soldier leapt over the mound of ruin separating us from them like it was nothing more than an ant hill. They floated down gracefully like gravity had been reduced to moon like proportions. Their suits glistened in the sun and light reflected from the smooth face shields of their helmets. The gold emblazoned stars and their surrounding circles shone brightly on their

Geilman/Zero-Matter/36 breastplates. They fanned out into a semi-circle facing us. The center Source Guardian stepped forward, looked first at me and then moved towards Laura. I moved in front of her. He stopped and raised his hand slowly until he was pointing at us both. “Who is she?” The words were not spoken but arrived in my head, fully formed and real. It was a man’s voice, deep and full of authority. I squeezed Laura’s hand. “Did you hear that?” I whispered over my shoulder. “Hear what? The explosion? Kind of hard to miss, don’t you think?” “Not that. Just now. Did you hear him?” “No, he didn’t say anything.” “I am not speaking to her. I am speaking to you. She will not hear.” I turned my attention back to the leader. I wondered if I needed to speak or if he could hear my thoughts as clearly as he sent his. “I can understand you without words,” he said. “Adam, what’s happening? What’s going on?” “He’s some sort of telepath. He’s talking directly in my head. They want to know who you are.” “What are you going to tell them?” “The truth. I don’t think there’s another option.” “You are correct,” the voice said inside my head. “I will know your thoughts. I will know the truth of your heart. Now tell me, who is she?” “She is the woman I love,” I said boldly. “And I will not let you hurt her.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/37 “How did she become Source material? Was she created from corrupted dust like you?” “No, she wasn’t. I did this. I changed her to save her life. I found the Source material inside of her and revealed it.” Suddenly, several voices were in my head. “Blasphemer!” they shouted, their indignation and anger conveyed in the volume of their screams. The leader raised his hands, twisted to face his troops and the voices were silenced. I could see his helmet turn from side to side, as if moving his gaze from soldier to soldier in conversation. Eventually, he returned to me. “She is free of offense and will not be punished but she cannot remain in this profane state.” “What are you going to do?” “Bind her to this realm, restore her to how the Source intends.” The left most soldier stepped forward. Laura’s head jerked around and I could see from the expression on her face that he was speaking in her mind. He stopped advancing just outside of my reach. Laura clung to me, hiding behind my body. “How do I know you won’t hurt her?” I thought. “In the name of the Source, we will do her no harm.” Whether I believed the soldier or not, I realized, it didn’t matter. We came out here to be destroyed, wiped out of being and now they were offering to spare her, return her to the way she should be. There was no benefit to them lying. “Do whatever he says, Laura. He’s not going to hurt you.” “Oh really? They just leapt dimensions to tell us everything is okay and no harm done?”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/38 “You’re not why they came and they have no problem with you. They’re willing to undo what I did so you can go back to your normal life.” “No. I already told you that’s not what I want. I am doing this with you.” She stepped from behind me, stood at my side and stared at the soldier. “This man did nothing wrong. He did not make himself like this and the ones that did are all dead now. Why do I get a pass and he doesn’t? Why does he deserve your wrath and I don’t? Neither of us asked for this or want it. Why not do to him what you’re going to do to me and then leave us alone?” “You know nothing of your state, have violated none of the laws of the Source. He has worked in the mysteries and manipulated the sacred matter. His guilt is undeniable and unforgivable.” “But he didn’t know it was against your laws. He had no idea there was anything wrong with it. You can’t condemn him.” “Laura,” I whispered. “It’s no use. They’re here to kill me but you need to shut up if you want to save yourself.” “I already told you that you are not doing this alone. They can either let us both go or kill us together. Either way, our fate is the same.” “Then you reject our offer of absolution?” the leader said. The question was posed to both of us. Laura answered. “Yes, I do if he is not part of it.” The soldier that had stepped forward to change Laura returned to his place in the arc. “Then you have chosen unwisely and for the honor of the Source, I condemn you both.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/39 The arc of Source Guardians tightened around us and I could feel a change in the energy in the air. The stars on their breastplates changed from gold to a bright red that glowed against the deep red of their suits. The glow intensified until it was a light brighter than the sun and painful to look at directly. Laura pressed up against me, burying her face into my shoulder as the soldiers continued to approach. “Bet you wish you’d taken their offer now, huh?” I said, surprising myself with the levity in my voice as death approached with measured steps. “Never,” she said and looked up into my eyes. “I love you.” “I love you too.” They raised their hands, palms facing out and stopped. All went still for a moment and intense light shot out of the Source Guardians’ chests and hands, the separate beams converging on us. My skin, my perfect impervious flesh began to burn.

We fell to our knees, clinging to

each other. Laura whimpered as the searing energy intensified with every forward step of the soldiers. My attitude of fatalist acceptance evaporated at hearing her pain. “For the honor of the Source you condemn us?” I shouted at them, turning so each of our would-be-executioners could see my face. “But you’re not from the Source! You might be from a place close to it but the Source is not your home. Who gave you the right to enforce its laws? Who even gave you its laws in the first place?” There was no answer except another step forward. “You’re all pretenders trying to make yourselves more than what you are. If we are such an abomination to the Source, then why isn’t somebody or something from the Source dimension

Geilman/Zero-Matter/40 here doing the work? Let the Source judge us if it even cares! Let the Source punish me if I’ve committed a crime just by living!” The soldiers continued marching until they stood within a yard of one another. “Source! Source! If you even exist, come do your dirty work yourself! Come kill me if you can! Come and finish what your guardians have started!” “Silence! How dare you call on the name of the Source! You know nothing of its ways and laws. You are an abhorrence to the Source and must be purged from time and space!” I raised my head, fighting against the pain that forced my body to contract and draw inward. I looked right at the leader. “No, I’m not,” I grunted. “I’m just closer to the Source than you could ever be and that’s why you want me destroyed. I just remind you that no matter what, there will always be a difference between you and your god that you can’t overcome.” “Blasphemer!” the voice screamed in my head. I expected a blast, expected the power to increase by a hundred times. I’d said what I’d said just to make them angry enough to destroy us instantly instead of drawing out our agony. I was certain I’d provoked him sufficiently to get that response but when it didn’t happen, it was like a damn burst in my head and everything suddenly connected and made sense. The first revelation was that I was right about everything I’d said. And the second was that even if I was wrong, why would the Source Guardians have the power to destroy zero-matter? If the Source Guardians truly had the ability to destroy me, why wouldn’t they also have the power to destroy any creature or being from the Source dimension? Why would their gods give the Source Guardians knowledge of their mortality?

Geilman/Zero-Matter/41 The more I thought about it, the more it made sense and the less I felt the burning of my skin and bones. I started laughing as my body relaxed. The pain was still there but it was distant, separated now from what I knew had to be true. I looked at the extended arms and exposed palms and then to the blazing breast plates. Through the dimming pain, I realized what they were trying to do. They were in our heads, projecting the pain to hide the fact that they were trying to force matter upon us. A particle stream was coming from their chests, trying to change us to coarse matter so they could kill us. I could feel parts of my chest, my heart, my lungs had already absorbed a great deal while I’d been distracted by the false pain. If this continued much longer, they would see us die. It was time to end it. I forced myself to stand, fighting against my shaking legs. “Stop hurting her!” I ordered the leader of the Source Guardians. He screamed in my mind. “NO! NO! You are abominations! Unholy creations! You must perish!” “Maybe so but you’re not the one to do it,” I said and stepped up to him. I could feel power surging through my limbs. I curled my fingers of my right hand into a tight fist and reached through the particle beam with my left hand until I grabbed his breast plate. “Get out of her head! Get out of mine!” I ordered and lifted the Source Guardian from the ground. His voice was frantic. “NO! NO! NO! YOU CAN’T! YOU MUST BE DESTROYED!” I could still feel him inside my mind, trying to convince me that he was fulfilling his mission, burning my body to nothing. Laura writhed on the ground behind me, unaware that

Geilman/Zero-Matter/42 what she was feeling was all in her mind, impressions of suffering sent through their telekinetic links with our thoughts. I swung my fist up into the leader’s face shield. The dark material shattered under the blow and my fist kept pushing until it contacted his face. I tasted the layers of material as my hand broke through. The outer layer was zero-matter, protecting the inner layer of matter from his universe from the destructive effects of differently charged electrons. When my knuckles smashed his nose into his face, I felt his charge and knew that wherever the Source Guardians came from, their elementary charge was approximately a tenth of the matter of Earth. The force of my punch launched him back a dozen feet and he slammed into the ground. I was struck by how unremarkable he looked now that the shiny plate hiding his face was destroyed - two eyes, a mouth, receding hairline and pockmarked cheeks. He could have been a manager in a restaurant or an office drone in any business in the world. It was almost disappointing to see what I had been so afraid of in such a plain light: only a man, made of different material, but still just a man. He was struggling, fighting to hold his breath to keep the poisonous air from entering his lungs but it didn’t matter. He was exposed and the imbalanced electrons and protons began to react. It would not be long before his entire body was destroyed as the particles of equal mass but different charges crossed what should be un-crossable boundaries and destroyed themselves. He writhed as his body was torn apart like he was caught in a storm of radiation. It was over in less than a minute. I turned around and crouched next to Laura. I ran my hands over her body and forced out the layers of matter she’d unwittingly absorbed. She stared at me in wonder. “What happened?” she asked when I pulled her to her feet.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/43 “I’ll tell you in a minute,” I said and kissed her quickly before facing the remaining Source Guardians, still spread in a small arc. “Go back to your world and never come back. I don’t like killing but that won’t stop me from defending myself and the people I love. I don’t want this. I never asked for it and as soon as I can, I will take on a body just like everybody else in this world. Do not come looking for me.” The soldiers backed away, keeping their faces towards me until they reached their fallen companion. Four of them raised his body and leapt over the crumbled grain silos and through the shimmering rift. Three followed without a word. One remained behind. His voice inside my head was less harsh than his leader’s had been but carried just as much strength. “This is not over. You will be destroyed.” “You can’t do that if you can’t find me. This is the last time you’ll ever see me like this,” I said. “I pray it will be so” he whispered and leapt into the shimmering horizon. “It will make your destruction much easier to bring about.” His departing words echoed in my head even after the ground trembled and the waving light of the dimensional tear vanished. He was right. Taking a body might make it easier for them to kill me if they managed to surprise me. Vulnerability though was a small price to pay for the rewards of absorbing a body. And even then, I’d just survived a bullet to the brain. Let them come and see just how much they could hurt me. That is, if they could find me. Laura grabbed my shoulder and twisted me around until we were face to face. “Will you tell me now what happened? How did you do that?”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/44 “Do what?” I said casually, “Oh, you mean send inter-dimensional soldiers running home with their tails between their legs. That was nothing.” I smiled my most rakish smile. She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to stare my down. After only a few seconds, a grin slipped through her lips and she gave up trying to fight my smile. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me so hard I almost lost my balance “Now will you tell me?” she asked when she pulled away. “Is that how you get your way with guys? Get them all fired up and then have them at your mercy?” “I reserve that technique for special occasions.” “Works for me,” I said. Our conversation was interrupted by voices behind us. Sheriff and Mrs. Dawson were running from the jail towards, the sheriff lagging far behind his fitter wife. “Laura! Laura!” Mrs. Dawson screamed almost hysterically as she ran. She didn’t stop until she had her arms around her daughter. “Are you okay? Why did they leave? Did they hurt you?” The questions kept coming without time for answers. Laura managed to push her mother away enough to breath and stifle her questions when her dad reached us. “We’re fine. Just fine,” she said and pointed at me. “Adam was just about to tell me what happened.” “Before he does,” Sheriff Dawson panted. “Would you two mind putting your blankets back on?”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/45 We both turned bright red and our hands rushed to cover our exposed bodies. Sheriff and Mrs. Dawson kindly turned away while Laura and I tried to recover some of our dignity by covering ourselves with the blankets that had slipped off without notice during our ordeal. Laura whispered in my ear, “If you ever want to see any of this again, no more teasing.” “Fair enough,” I said. “Are you two decent yet?” Sheriff Dawson asked impatiently. “Both covered and ready to report.” He was crushing me in a hug instantly. “Would’ve done this earlier but I have a personal rule about touching naked men,” he said. “I can understand that,” I said and laughed. He let me go and moved to Laura. He and Mrs. Dawson kept protective arms around her shoulders as I told them what happened, how the Source Guardian’s telepathy helped me realize that they weren’t actually hurting us, just making us think they were to distract us from what they were actually doing. “Most importantly, there was the fact that I’ve never heard of any myth or legend where a god told its subjects how to kill it. What if the Source Guardians decided the Source was the root of all evil? I can’t imagine anyone or anything from the Source dimension thinking it would be a good idea for nut-job zealots to know how to erase them from the cosmic map. That was the thought that tied everything together and made me realize that no matter what they did or said, I was still more powerful than them,” I said proudly. “Really? That’s it?” Laura asked teasingly. “Seems like all this could’ve been avoided if you’d had that realization a month ago.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/46 “Like I told you before,” I said. “My brain runs pretty slow.” “Well, you’re still too smart for me,” Sheriff Dawson said. “And I’m just glad you’re both still here,” Mrs. Dawson said and kissed Laura’s cheek for the hundredth time. “That being said, I do believe it is time to get moving. We need to get back to Denver and absorb bodies again just in case I was wrong about the Source Guardians. But even if they never come back, I’d still like to get back to living a normal life.” “I second that,” Laura said, pulled free from her parents and came to my side. “Good,” I said, “but there’s something I have to do before we go.” We walked back to the helicopter. I asked them to wait outside. There was no sign of any remaining soldiers. “We’ll get the car,” Sheriff Dawson offered and ushered his wife and daughter around the side of the jail building. Tanner was in the exact same spot he’d fallen. I looked around for any sign of General Brayton’s remains but was not surprised that there was nothing discernable. I could sense deposits around the ground of the matter I’d shed, at least the elements that preferred solid to gaseous form and knew part of the mess was General Brayton’s body. I walked around Tanner and squatted in front of his face. His eyes were open and glaring with wild intensity. “Good, I was afraid you’d died,” I said. He laid perfectly still, saying nothing. “I need to make sure you understand me. So how about we use the old ‘one blink for yes and two for no’ system. Does that work for you?”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/47 The fire in his eyes was almost tangible. After a few moments of thought, he gave me one blink. “Good,” I said. “Here’s the deal. The Source Guardians are gone, whipped and out of here. They know and I know that they don’t have any real power over me so they shouldn’t be coming back. What I’m more worried about is Uncle Sam still thinking he owns me.” Tanner blinked once. “Was that intentional or accidental?” I asked. “Cause it looked like, to me, you were saying you do own me. Is that it?” Another defiant blink. “That’s where we have a problem. You don’t own me, nobody does. It might have been true once but never again. That’s why I’m in here talking to you. Tell your superiors to keep away. I’m leaving here for a little while but I will come back. Red Water is my home and everybody that lives here, knows anybody here, has ever stopped for gas here is my family. I might go away to school at some point but I will always come back here. If you or anybody above you thinks it might be prudent to interfere in anybody’s life, especially mine, I will come after them. Understand?” One blink. “Good. So you agree to pass the message along?” No blinks. “I suppose you’re wondering how that’s going to happen, given your current state. Right?” One blink.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/48 “I’m going to heal you. I’m going to fix your back so you can pass along the message. Believe me, if I didn’t have this job for you to do, I would leave you on the ground and never give you a second thought.” I reached out slowly with both hands, gently placing my finger tips on his temples. For a split second I reconsidered doing it, knowing it put the person that probably hated me the most back into fighting shape but considering I’d just sent a group of dimension hopping soldiers running, I wasn’t too concerned. He stared at me hatefully as I touched him but when I started to focus, prying into his body to realign what was broken, his eyes closed. His back was a mess, broken and shattered in multiple places. It was a miracle that he was only paralyzed. Atom by atom, I forced the bones to heal and the nerves to repair themselves. “Feel better?” I asked when I was finished. He sat up slowly, testing to see if his arms, legs and everything else really worked. He flexed his fingers and smiled before snatching a gun from his belt and putting it to my forehead. I knew he would try something like that so I let him. “You’re getting in the box and coming with me,” he said with a sick smile. I shook my head and laughed. “Go ahead. Shoot. You and I both know it won’t do anything to me,” I said. “But if you’re still not convinced…” I reached out, fast as lightning and grabbed the gun. I pulled it from his hand in the same movement and held it in the palm of my hand before he had time to react. The gun melted in my palm and I let the liquid metal form to the shape of my hand. I made a fist and rapped Tanner on

Geilman/Zero-Matter/49 the forehead with my knuckles. He reacted like I hoped he would, like I’d just hit him with a hammer. I let the matter drip into a puddle on the floor. “I’ve figured out some new tricks,” I said. “Now go tell your bosses what I said and that they can’t make me do anything. If they think the Source Guardians were bad, try pissing me off and see if they still think that when I’m done. Your project is over.” “They’re not going to like that,” Tanner said while he got to his feet. “I don’t care. Like it or not, that’s the way it is.” The hate and anger was gone from his face. If I tilted my head and squinted just right, I might even have called his look admiring. But that would have been too much of a stretch. “You know they’ll be watching you.” “Watching is fine, as long as I don’t see them. Anything else and they’ll regret it.” Tanner shrugged his shoulders before turning and walking out the door. I watched as he looked for any soldiers or military vehicles to take him out of Red Water. Finding none, he started walking east and pulled a phone from his pocket. I dimly heard him when the call connected. “Yeah, this is Tanner…I’ll give the details during my debriefing. Send transport to my signal.” I walked to the destroyed yellow car and flipped over. Since the car was already in junkyard shape, I ripped open the trunk. I grabbed the bag of money but hesitated before actually taking hold of the shield suit. Just one wouldn’t do any good now and after I took on a regular body, I should never need it again. Still, better safe than sorry. I almost jumped out of my skin when a horn honked behind me. I turned around to see Sheriff Dawson behind the wheel of his wife’s car, looking comically crammed in the small

Geilman/Zero-Matter/50 space. He was definitely built more for a truck, but it was obvious why he’d chosen the car. The tinted windows would help hide Laura’s and my radiant bodies. Mrs. Dawson was next to him. I climbed in back with Laura after putting the bag and suit in the trunk. “What did you do?” she asked. I gave them the nutshell version. “Do you think he’ll do it?” Mrs. Dawson asked skeptically “I’m not worried about it,” I said. Sheriff Dawson put the car in drive and asked, “So where are we going?” “Outskirts of Denver. There’s a warehouse set up to take care of us.” “Denver it is then.” He turned the steering wheel all the way to the left and hit the gas hard. “Are you alright, Adam?” Laura asked and moved over until our hips touched. “Yeah, I’m fine. Ready to get back to real life.” “Tell me about it. Being like this, it’s almost a little too good - if that makes any sense.” “It does to me.” “Are you tired? Do you want to sleep? I’m sure Dad can get most of the way there safely.” “Maybe just for an hour or two.” I closed my eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/51 Epilogue I was so involved in the paper I was researching in the physics library that I had no idea how long Tanner had been sitting in the booth next to mine before he tapped me on the shoulder and got my attention. “What the hell?” I said when I saw the twisted smile on his face. “I could have put you out just now. One bullet to the brain and it would’ve been all over.” “You like to think that,” I said, “I would’ve shed faster than you could even dream and made you eat the melted lead.” “Could be,” he said. “But it’s your time of the month. Moon’s really close. You want to risk a massacre on campus?” It had been almost a year since I’d last seen him and none of the time apart had been spent missing Sergeant Tanner. I’d kept hoping we were done, that the Army would let me be but knew better. I wished they’d sent someone other than Tanner but that wasn’t my only irritation. It was also the timing of the annoying visit. My first year at the University of Kansas was winding down and I was lagging way behind in one of my physics classes. I was in the zone, making good progress on my project but now was hopelessly derailed. “What do you want?” I asked impatiently. “I never got a thank you card for the fondue pot I sent as a wedding present. Wanted to make sure you got it.” “Never saw it. Must have gotten lost in the mail,” I said. It had been about six months since the small wedding in Red Water and not one bit of me believed a gift had ever been sent. “Too bad. It was a real nice one too,” he said and laughed.

Geilman/Zero-Matter/52 “Cut the crap. Why are you here? What does the army want now?” I said. “Not here for old Uncle Sam. This is a personal visit. Thought you’d like to know that you’ve been unofficially put out to farm. We’re done with you as long as you keep your clothes on, so to speak.” “So this is a friendly visit then. Is that it? Are we friends now?” “Nope but I figured I owed you something after fixing my back.” “You never thanked me for that.” “Since it was you who broke it in the first place, I didn’t think that it was really that necessary. Kind of like thanking a guy for bringing a bag of ice after he kicked you in the nuts,” he said. “But you did more than just fix what you did. You actually made it better. Took fifteen years off of it and I’ll tell you what, I haven’t slept so good since I was a kid. That’s why I’m letting you know that you are free and clear.” “Seems like a lot of effort to come out here to deliver a message you could’ve just emailed. I’m sure you’ve got the address.” “Well,” he said while he stood and stretched. “Didn’t want to send classified information over the web. Plus, I’m not supposed to talking to you anyway.” “You don’t think you coming to Lawrence would make them suspicious?” “Nope. Gotta an old friend at Fort Leavenworth that I’m supposed to visit. Nobody’ll notice I made a pit stop on the way.” “Well, thanks for dropping by. Feel free to call first next time so I can lay out the welcome mat.” He laughed, not caring at all that I was ticked at seeing him. “Anyway, just thought you ought to know.”

Geilman/Zero-Matter/53 “Well thanks but as far as I’m concerned, I’ve been free for a long time.” He turned to walk away but before actually leaving the lab, he whipped around and crouched over my shoulder. “This information is a favor, kid. If you’d actually been in the Army instead of just being babysat by it, you would know that Uncle Sam doesn’t give anything up just because some snotty kid says he’s done. The only time we stop valuing something is when we find something better.” “What’s that supposed to mean to me?” I said. “Maybe nothing, but maybe not. Just thought you ought to know.” He patted my shoulder and walked away. I sat for several minutes puzzling over why it was so important Tanner let me know the military was working on something else. As long as I was in the clear and really could stop jumping at the sound of another student sneezing loudly that was enough. I glanced at the clock in the corner of my computer display. I was ten minutes late. Laura was reading something on her phone and smiled brightly when I approached. “Sorry,” I said. “I’m pretty to used to you keeping me waiting by now,” Laura said and gave me a peck on the lips. “Are you ready to go home?” “Yeah, let’s go.” I grabbed her bag and slung it over my shoulder with mine. She took my offered hand. “I’ve got some good news,” I said after making up my mind about Tanner’s visit. “Me too but you go first,” she said. #####

Geilman/Zero-Matter/54