The moon clawed its way into the night sky; a perfect gray orb providing more light than Jack wanted. It was in the shadows he was concealed from any eyes searching for him. Would the winged people come looking for him out here among the shifting sands of the desert? Would the Marshal come for him, or perhaps General Cluth? His eyes kept closing and begging for the velvet touch of sleep. Mara had pushed him back onto the road several times now. Without her he would have wandered off into the desert and been lost. The wind grew and ebbed like the tides of the ocean, blowing sand across the road, but the sand never remained on the road. It was another mystery to add to all the others. He’d even tried to throw a handful of sand on the road, but the sand only skittered to the side as if the road were made of ice. A short-lived windstorm had risen and brought a wall of sand towards them. Jack and Mara had huddled down, expecting a choking brutal storm that would flay the flesh from their bones, but the sand had passed over the road just above them without so much as a grain of sand touching them. Whatever technology was built into the road, it was more advanced than anything he’d ever seen. Even more disturbing than the odd properties of the road, was its perfect straightness and unnatural evenness. The road cut across the desert like a surgeon cutting a perfect line with a scalpel. “You can’t stay awake, maybe we should stop and sleep?” said Mara. Jack shook his head, more to clear the fog than to disagree. “It was hot in the park during the day, and that was with all the shade trees, but out here it’s going to be unbearable. We’ll walk as far as we can tonight, and when the sun comes up, we’ll use my coat and shirt to make a shelter and sleep.” The moon reached its zenith and began the descent towards sunrise. The temperature dropped until Jack was shivering and his fingers ached. He felt Mara grab his arm in her jaws and pull him down. There wasn’t even the barest residual heat left from the day in the road. “That’s enough,” said Mara. “You can’t go any further, you’ll freeze.” Jack didn’t have enough strength left to argue. He curled up on the road and Mara draped herself across him. She nuzzled her head next to his and he could feel her warm breath on his face. He cuddled into her, shivering, but there was so much heat coming from her body he began to feel warm. He hadn’t known tigers produced so much heat. It wasn’t a wonder she rested so often during the heat of the day. His eyes closed and he drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Too soon the light of day stabbed at his eyes. He tried to stretch, but Mara was firmly pressed against his back… no… she was cuddled against his front… but, he could feel two warm breaths against him, and multiple tiger purrs. He opened his eyes and squinted against the growing light of day, then raised his head. He was surrounded by tigers like a baby swaddled in warm blankets, and all of them were Mara. He looked beyond the pile of tigers. Men and boys of all ages, hundreds of them, maybe thousands were all around him. Some sat on the road close to the tigers and burrowed inside thick parkas with fur around the hoods. Others stood off to the side talking among themselves, and others were eating something from plates that smelled like sausage. His eyes followed the line of men and boys to a wagon with smoke gently rising from a stove. And they all looked either like him, his father, or his grandfather! “Hey, Dreamers awake,” said one of the boys, in not quite a shout, but loud enough for the others to hear. Jack sat up and looked around. A man knelt and smiled at him. Jack blinked and shook his head. The man could have been his father, and he had a smile that instantly made Jack like him. “Good morning, sunshine, I thought you’d sleep forever,” said the man. Another man with a worried expression looked down at Jack and frowned. “What were you thinking, coming out into the desert without any supplies, or warm clothes, or even a proper pair of mittens?” “Oh hush, Planner,” said the first man, flashing a smile like his father used to give him. “Like you were doing any better when we found you wandering around the dinosaur planet?” “Move aside, move aside,” said a deep voice. Another man, but older and with the beginning of the salt and pepper hair common to the men of his family approached. The man could have been his grandfather from when Jack was a little boy. “Go get some breakfast, Charisma, and you too, Planner,” ordered the man. The man stood over Jack and put his hands on his hips. He had a scar on his cheek, and another across his brow. Jack knew a commander when he saw one, and this man was a commander. “What’s going on?” asked Jack. “Who are you?” “Don’t look so surprised, did you think we were going to stay sixteen forever. I’m Warrior, or you might know me as Jack 432, but it’s better you just call me Warrior, it’s less confusing that way.” The man jerked his head at the two men walking away. “That’s Charisma, and that’s Planner.” The man pointed at a few of the others. “That one over next to the wagon refusing to eat is Obstinate, and there’s Humor, he started this whole mess, and there’s Scholar, Engineer, Pilot, Loyal, Lover boy, Confused, Idealist, Giver… and well, it would take all day to introduce everyone, but you get the idea.” Jack shook his head. “Not really.” Jack 432 turned his head towards the main group. “Everyone get some breakfast, we move out in twenty-minutes, I want to cross the river before nightfall.” The man looked back to Jack and crouched down. “I’ll make this short and sweet, if you want details, talk to Scholar. So, big anti-matter explosion - ripped time and space - all was good - rips in the fabric of space heal on their own - we arrive – accidently cross the Event Horizon – the time-line didn’t shatter - we did – Jon Black got it wrong - when one of us die, the time-line resets to the beginning to let the next Jack have a turn. The Eroden are only a small part of this whole mess. Jon Black got most of it wrong.” “But…” “But nothing. When you went across Mara’s World Bridge, you were six billion years in the future, we all went there, and guess what?” “What?” “We move out in twenty-minutes, that’s what. Now get some breakfast, don’t make me tell you twice.” Jack 432 stood and walked away barking orders at other boys and men. Another man walked over with a plate of food and handed it to Jack. “Hey Dreamer, I’m Scholar. Warrior is a bit rough to deal with, but he’s kept most of us alive. We’ve only lost 117 Jacks, and that’s pretty good considering where we are and how this place works.” “How what place works? Are you… me?” said Jack. “I’m Jack 832, also known as, Scholar. We all went 6 billion years into the future, and the Universe and all the people were still there, but the battle had been over for six billion years, everyone should have been gone if what Jon Black says is true. If it was the time-line that shattered, we would be 2,347 whole Jacks, not 2,347 fragmented Jacks. Jon Black is wrong, but we don’t have any way to tell him.” “Where am I?” asked Jack in a very small voice, he had never expected whatever this was. “Calm down, little brother. This is the Crystal Universe, or… as you know it, The Land of the Dead.” Jack’s face turned pale. “I’m dead?” “No, and neither are we, at least not completely. Nothing really ever dies, it just returns here. You do have some choices when you come here, sort of. You can cross the Crystal Bridge to the next universe and be a brand new person, or go back through the Gates of the Living and be reborn with a few Deja’vu memories and live again, or stay here. There is a final choice, but it’s not a good one. If you’re killed here, you cease to exist.” “This sounds horrible.” “Yes it does, and it’s a constant fight to survive. Remember, everything that ever existed and died in real space is here. All the dinosaurs, monsters, creepy crawlers, trees, grass – you name it, it’s here, and most of them are drawn to the Crystal Bridge and the Gates of the Living, but can’t figure out how to use them, or their species time is done and the Great All Knowing Universe,” the man waved his hand in a circle, “won’t let them back through the Gates of the Living. Let me tell you, don’t bother trying to get to the Bridge, or the Gates, its suicide to try and make a run for the exit. The beasties there are all in a very foul mood. So, our choice is to stay far away from the exit and survive. But we’re okay, mostly. We know we can trust each other.” “You called me, Dreamer?” said Jack. “Yep, that’s you, and who would have thought that the dreamer part of us was the strongest. You are really amazing.” “I haven’t done anything amazing.” “Oh really? Let’s see. Escaping from a Raven is nearly impossible, but you walked away with a wave of your hand. Then the Gunslingers came along, and they’re the best man-hunters in the universe, probably better than the Ravens, but you slipped away from them like they were amateurs. Then there were the Eroden, and I’m here to tell you, you don’t escape an Eroden, but you just grinned and walked away. You’re the Dreamer, you can dream the impossible and make it happen, that’s a heck of a talent.” Jack looked around at all the Mara’s he was still sitting in the middle of. “But Mara wasn’t on the Pyramid planet with us, why is she fragmented, and what about Bowan?” “The edge of the Event Horizon was inside the computer storage room, Bowan never went in there, so he’s okay. And Mara, well, I’ll tell you if you really want to know, but you’ll spend the rest of the day hugging tigers and crying.” Jack grinned, feeling a little better. “I’m not Cry Baby Jack, tell me.” Scholar returned the grin with a laugh. “You’re catching on. Okay, Jack-Humor was the first. Mara fell in love with him, and four days later watched him die, and then Aya figured it all out, but too late. So, Aya laid out a plan to Mara, and instead of dying in vain next to Jack, Aya got Mara out of there, and they took the Survey Ship and flew to Planet 1.” “Oh my gosh, they didn’t?” “They did. Aya flew into the Event Horizon of the rip in time-space and shattered Mara. The problem is though, Aya resets with everyone else and doesn’t remember what the master plan was, and the fragmented Mara’s don’t remember the plan either, because they weren’t there, same as us.” “Just ask the first Mara,” said Jack. “We never found her, I’m sorry, but Jacks aren’t the only casualties we’ve had.” Jack glanced at his Mara. “Which Mara do I have?” “Mostly we all have the same or similar counter-part, but not always. Mara is her own person, and a different species than us, so her personality fragments don’t always match up perfectly. You have Mara the Innocent.” Jack was about to ask another question when someone shouted. “DESERT WALKERS, THREE POINTS TO THE SOUTHWEST.” Warrior immediately began shouting orders. “Cubs, injured, and elderly up on the wagons! We’re moving out now! Guards on the west flank, and watch for snake trail, the sand vipers always proceed the Walkers.” Jack’s head whipped around. They had cubs? But how with only female tigers? Scholar stood and looked out across the desert. “It’s going to be a hard run to make it across the river before they catch up with us.” The man looked back down at Jack. “Are you rested enough to run?” Jack got up. “I’m good, what’s a Desert Walker?” “A very big beastie half as tall as the RS-40. If you cramp up or can’t run any further, don’t try to be a hero, get on a wagon. You’re in my Company, so stay close, and stay in the middle of the road, the snakes can’t come onto the road, but they can strike if you get too close to the sand.” Scholar’s eyes flicked to one of the tigers. “Valiant, you run with Innocence and Dreamer.” A tiger with just a speck of gray in her whiskers growled softly. “I’ll take care of them.” The tiger looked at Jack. “Toss your backpack on a wagon, it’ll only weigh you down. And breathe through your nose or you’ll dehydrate, it’s going to get very hot.” The tiger looked to Mara next. “Put that silly crown in Jack’s backpack with his, you can keep them as a momentum of your time in the Storybook Forest, but I’m the Queen in this Company.”