《The mirror region》 Chapter 01 - From normal to chaos I was sweating. The killing was inevitable if I wanted to win, so the trigger went off, and the bullet did the job. I was shaking. The body disappeared after a few seconds. That¡¯s how I won the local e-sport tournament. It was some shooting game competition, and although I was 27 years old I really enjoyed online gaming. What I didn¡¯t enjoy are the events which took place at my friend¡¯s house. Joe was already in my apartment when I got home, laying on the couch and watching some no name Netflix show. I wasn¡¯t even surprised when I found out that he ate all the cookies my mother sent the other day. ¡°This couch is freaking killin¡¯ my back Seph, you should buy a new one with the tournament money,¡± he always calls me Seph, because Joe is a moron and thinks that Joseph is for men in their late 40¡¯s. ¡°You know, I was thinking,¡± I murmured, then I turned to Joe to catch his reaction, ¡°when the government said that next month we are going to send an experimental group to the 4th region, I was ¨C ¡° I couldn¡¯t finish because Joe interrupted. ¡°Oh, come on Seph, the government has been sending so called ¡°experimental¡± groups and people to the Regions since ages, don¡¯t tell me that you believe their ¡°official¡± statement that this will be the first time they send more than one person.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not my point. After the statement, I began thinking: why would they send there anybody officially, if they can¡¯t bring them back?¡± ¡°So you¡¯re saying that they figured that out? It¡¯s not a one-way ticket anymore? But then why would they keep that a secret? I mean, that is wonderful news, especially for the people who are in the Regions since years.¡± ¡°You know, this was my question too. I couldn¡¯t wrap my head around it. That¡¯s why I decided to go on to the dark web for the first time in months. But check this out! Immediately after I logged in to my old account in the Truthspeakersassemble forum, a message already was in my mailbox. And it was sent just minutes after the statement,¡± I know what Joe thinks about the dark net and its community, but I had to tell him the full truth and all the details. ¡°The strange thing was that the message had no sender, the username was hidden or something. The whole text was this: ¡°Let¡¯s meet at Joe¡¯s house, just the three of us. Tuesday 8pm. M.¡± ¡°What?¡± Joe shouted. ¡°What the fuck Seph, why didn¡¯t you call me? Melissa sent you a message 2 days ago and you didn¡¯t think you should share that information with me?¡± ¡°Wait, first of all, the fact that she didn¡¯t use a username is strange to say the least, and second, when Melissa left you 2 years ago, she explicitly said in her letter that she don¡¯t want us to contact her.¡± Looking at his face, I couldn¡¯t figure out if he was angry or sad or surprised. Probably all three at the same time. But we didn¡¯t have time to waste, because it was almost 8pm. On our way to the house, Joe was rather quiet. I knew him since we were 8 years old. Our friendship throughout the 18 years had its ups and downs, and most of the time we understood each other without saying a word. ¡°Did you find anything noteworthy in the dark web about the reason of the new experimental group?¡± Joe spoke silently, and I could tell that he wasn¡¯t really interested. ¡°Well, not really, just a few conspiracy theory. I think your dad could say a few things about it.¡± ¡°Yeah..¡± he let out a little giggle, but then he got serious, ¡°since they fired him¡­ He acts strange you know. He was always a weird guy, typical scientist spirit, but it¡¯s like he gave up on life since the incident. I don¡¯t mean like he¡¯s depressed or anything, he is just not his old self.¡± ¡°I can understand that. I always liked him, especially when the 3 of us went camping and fishing together. He always acted like a macho who knows every manly tricks. I liked his jokes as a kid. It¡¯s not fair from the NPUC that when their own idea backfired they blamed the scientists working for them. I mean, the Regions are similar, but curing a 81 years old guy¡¯s illness with a medication we haven¡¯t even heard of, just because they saw that this old man¡¯s mirror self in the 4th region took that same medicine? Come on, I am not a doctor but it looks stupid even for me. And the fact that your dad even raised his voice against it, but they didn¡¯t listen to him. So they fired the whole team because they did their job?¡±Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! I always talked intensively about this subject, and when I am passionate I am always flailing my hands. ¡°My dad talks about a lot of things. I heard so much variations of this story I don¡¯t know what to believe¡± he had just taken out his keys to open the door. I was disappointed to hear that his parents were out of town, I would have loved to hear some interesting stories from his father. A physicist who worked for the National Parallel Universes Council always has some good story. When we got in, for our biggest surprise, the backdoor was wide open. It was already dark, and the cold wind swept across the house. Somebody was in the garden already. But it wasn¡¯t Melissa. We slowly walked out to the garden, half scared and half excited, waiting for some explanation we deserved 2 years ago. ¡°Nice house you got there Joe, is there a chance that your dad used to work for the government?¡± It wasn¡¯t the voice we expected, but it was a voice I knew from a long time ago. She was an old friend of mine, we met in the dark web 5 years ago, and I only met her twice in real life, one time in an e-sport competition, and one time at Joe¡¯s 24th birthday. She was from Hungary, Europe. M¨®nika stood in the middle of the garden watching the sky, dressed all black. She didn¡¯t even looked at us while speaking. ¡°Sorry for the confusion. I know you expected Melissa, but I needed your attention and this was the only time I could show up here, and I have to talk to you in person. And, just to be clear, I didn¡¯t lie, the message didn¡¯t explicitly said Melissa.¡± She wasn¡¯t showing any sign of regret for tricking us to believe it was Joe¡¯s ex-girlfriend who wanted to meet up. Joe just stood there shocked, and I didn¡¯t know how to handle the situation. I was of course happy to see M¨®nika, but it was a cheap shot from her. ¡°Fuck you¡± my childhood friend was angry, confused, sad. ¡°What are you doing here M¨®ni? If you wanted to meet, why didn¡¯t you call? Why the message when you know I don¡¯t frequently visit the dark web anymore?¡± ¡°Before I explain anything, there is something I have to tell you¡± She spoke a little slow, which is weird because the one thing I was surprised about when we first met 3 years ago at Joe¡¯s, that she talked super fast. ¡°I¡¯m not the M¨®nika you know. I look the same, my name is the same, but I¡¯m from the 6th region.¡± She was staring at the grass the whole time, didn¡¯t even look at us. She didn¡¯t show any feelings. ¡°Seph, is she high?¡± Joe kindly asked. I was staring at her, a whole army of thoughts was fighting in my head, trying to figure out everything at once, but I was sure about one thing: she wasn¡¯t lying. ¡°When you¡­ I mean, the other M¨®nika. Where is she? Why are you here? How can you be here?¡± I needed answers. Joe calmed down in the meantime, and he didn¡¯t show any interest towards the conversation. ¡°Listen here. The whole thing is complicated, but I will tell you what I know¡± Finally she was speaking to us, not to the ground. Even her eyes were different from M¨®ni. ¡°As you know, this whole NPUC thing started 5 years ago, when the scientists proved that parallel universes exist, and they discovered 13 of them that are similar to this world. Everybody calls these universes The Regions. A few months go by, they announce that there are ways to communicate with them, and maybe the travelling is possible too, but only there, a one-way ticket. Their physics are similar too, but different enough to make commuting impossible. At least that¡¯s what they said. One year later, and strangely enough they are only interested in one of them: the 4th region. The most similar to this world. In ¡°secret¡±, they do experiments, expeditions, sending agents there, knowing that they can¡¯t return (at least, they thought).¡± She sighed in relief when she stopped. ¡°Well¡± Joe had an arrogance in his voice ¡°we knew all of this. They do a shitty job at keeping things secret. Tell us the interesting part: how do you know it¡¯s possible to come back from there. You said you¡¯re from the 6th Earth, which is basically just a big desert, a few million people, and very rudimentary technology. No internet, no phones, maybe even books are rare there.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not here to lie. I¡¯m here to help both of you.¡± Finally she showed some feelings, even if it was anger. ¡°It¡¯s true that my world is not that fancy as yours, but we do have something like an internet, a way of communication. And yes, we do have books. Back to my point and answer how I know that it''s not a one-way ticket, you have to come to Melissa¡¯s house. I can show you all the proofs in my computer. I know it can be upsetting to hear this, but you can¡¯t freak out: I and Melissa switched places, she is at the 6th region at the moment.¡± M¨®ni looked worried, which bothered me. ¡°Don¡¯t waste any time, Joe, let¡¯s go¡± I wasn¡¯t hesitating, I wanted to know everything. My heart was beating too fast. ¡°Before we go, I have to tell you something. I met your mirror-self in the 4th region before I-¡° Enormous noise. My ears rang, it hurt. Her head was covered in red, she fell to the ground. I threw up, Joe was screaming, my whole world was crushed. M¨®nika was shot. Chapter 02 - The chief and the rich I don¡¯t know how long I was unconscious. When I woke up, I couldn¡¯t see anything, and my head was spinning. I looked around hoping the world would become clear around me, but it didn¡¯t, it was total darkness. One thing I knew for sure: I wasn¡¯t in the garden anymore. ¡°Are you awake?¡± A silent, scared voice broke through the darkness. It was Joe. ¡°Joe?! Where are we? What is this¡­ are we in a car?¡± As all my senses started working again, I noticed that the ¡°room¡± was moving. It was moving fast. ¡°We¡¯re in a truck. After M¨®nika¡­ after they shot her¡­¡± Joe burst into tears. He was desperate. I was desperate. This whole thing was¡­ unreal. I wished it was just a nightmare. I was trying so hard to wake up, to really wake up this time. But it wasn¡¯t a dream, it was the cold reality: our friend¡¯s mirror-self was murdered in front of our eyes. ¡°Even if we didn¡¯t know her¡­ I mean, she was from the 6th region, why would anyone-¡° Joe suddenly fell silent as the vehicle stopped. Somebody slammed the door, probably the driver. And now he was walking towards the trailer. Somebody opened the doors. A tall man with a huge beard, around his forties, was looking at us. Then 3 other men in suits and with sunglasses (even though it was still dark), appeared behind him. The guy with the beard stepped back, and one of the bodyguards (at least they looked like bodyguards) got on the trailer, grabbed Joe, and just threw him out to the others. He tried to resist, but they were huge, we didn¡¯t have a chance. I tried to shout and help my friend, but at the same time, he threw me to the ground too. They picked us up, holding like some prisoners. No words were said, all of them, including the driver just did their job silently, and although we tried to escape from their hands, it was just unnecessary waste of energy. I wasn¡¯t a big fan of sports (except soccer which I enjoyed occasionally), so I had no big muscles, and even though Joe was quite tall, he was skinny, so he didn¡¯t put up much of a fight either. As I looked around, I noticed a huge, old-looking building in front of us. It resembled a factory, with two big chimneys. The construction had two small and one main building in the center. When we entered, I saw a few guards with guns. There was some sort of reception, where the driver held up a card and they let us in. They took us to a poorly lit room, with two chairs and a table in the middle. They released us and left without a word, locking the door behind them. When I looked at Joe, I let out a few tears. I sat down, ready to be digested by all my feelings, thoughts, worries. ¡°Seph¡­¡± Joe didn¡¯t sound that sad this time, rather than a person who lost hope. I could feel that. ¡°Right after M¨®nika¡­ collapsed, you immediately blacked out. When I became fully aware of what happened, that¡¯s when I realized that the guy with the beard, the truck driver, was standing in my garden with a gun.¡± His anger started to form, the sadness started to fade. ¡°That bastard¡­ I didn¡¯t know what to do, I was just sitting there in my own vomit, praying that he would just explode or something¡­ Then he came to me, pointing the gun right at my face: ¡°Grab Joseph and follow me¡±, so I did.¡± Joe¡¯s sadness didn¡¯t leave completely, and guiltiness appeared. ¡°I don¡¯t know how he knew your name, or if he knows us at all, or any other things. Just that I ended up carrying you to the truck¡­ I¡¯m sorry Seph, I was fucking afraid, he had a gun and he killed¡­ he¡­¡± I wasn¡¯t surprised Joe couldn¡¯t get his thoughts straight, all the things that happened were out of our world.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. We didn¡¯t belong here. This was a situation where I couldn¡¯t (although I wanted to) let my minds dwell on the horrible things that happened. So I tried my best to be rational, and figure out our chances. ¡°Did they¡­ did he take M¨®ni¡¯s body?¡± It was weird to know that my friend I knew, M¨®nika, was out there, while her mirror-self was murdered in front of our eyes. It was even weirder to know that somehow Joe¡¯s ex, Melissa was involved. ¡°No. He left the body there. When my parents get home, they will think I am dead. And looking at our current situation, maybe they won¡¯t be wrong.¡± ¡°M¨®ni, I mean, the 6th mirror-self of M¨®ni said that Melissa switched places with her, so that means: Melissa is out there, in a completely different universe, and the M¨®nika we know from this world¡­ is somewhere else, hopefully alive. Maybe she is with Melissa in the 6th region. Maybe someone is chasing both of them.¡± I tried to put together all the information. Even the thought that our friends might be in danger made me nauseous. ¡°Before they killed her, M¨®ni told us something about her computer and something about our 4th mirror-self¡­ that she met them.¡± Joe was as confused as I was. Somebody was whistling, and he was coming to the door. Keys started clinking, the door has been opened. A man with a very fancy suit stepped in. What was strange is that he didn¡¯t have a beard, and his clothes were much different, but he still looked identical to a man we just saw: the driver who took us here. ¡°I¡¯m not here to waste any time. I work for the government, I hope we can make a useful alliance¡± He closed the door behind him, and slowly walked towards us. ¡°First of all, I¡¯ve got to say that I am sorry for this whole situation you witnessed and lived through. If there was any better or easier way, I would¡¯ve chosen that.¡± I couldn¡¯t figure out anything from his face, the blue eyes were staring at us without any feelings. ¡°You piece of shit, you mercilessly shot a 26 years old girl in my garden and then kidnapped us!¡± Joe¡¯s face was all red from the anger. The man didn¡¯t even change his tone, as nothing happened. ¡°Here¡¯s the thing: your ¡°friend¡± tried to give you false pieces of information. She was an agent. The 4th and 6th universe are trying to start a war against us. She thought we didn¡¯t know her intentions, so we had to act quickly.¡± ¡°Why did you kill her? She was clearly defenseless! Why didn¡¯t you capture and interrogate her?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe there was no other way. ¡°It would have been pointless. Maybe she looked defenseless, but many of my men died because of her and her superiors. I couldn¡¯t afford to lose sight of her.¡± ¡°How the fuck are we connected to all this? We didn¡¯t know this version of her, we didn¡¯t set up the meeting!¡± Joe asked the same questions I was thinking about. ¡°Both of you are important for the government. Joseph, in the 4th region, you are the head of the ANPUC, which is an organization created solely for the purpose of destroying our world. Joe, in that universe, you are the richest person alive who funds the entire operation.¡± He spoke casually like we weren¡¯t locked in a room against our will. ¡°It¡¯s true that in this world, you are nobodies, but because of your mirror-selves, you matter.¡± It was all crazy. This whole room, this man in the suit, this kidnapping, the murder. The fact that we have anything to do with the government and the NPUC. One more thing was crazy: I believed him because I didn¡¯t think he had any reason to lie. ¡°Why do you look like that truck driver? Are you his mirror-thing?¡± Joe and his straightforward questions. ¡°Well, it depends on where you look from. Since we are in the 0th world, I would say that he is my mirror-self and not the other way around. He is from the 6th. I gathered every ¡°version¡± of me I could to stop this war.¡± ¡°Where is our world¡¯s M¨®nika? Where-¡° I suddenly stopped my second question because I didn¡¯t know if they knew anything about Melissa at all, or if she¡¯s involved or not. I don¡¯t want to get her in danger. For a second I could see a little, sly smile at his face. ¡°We don¡¯t know. We hoped you could help us out, Joseph¡± He sat down to the couch next to the wall. I just sat there, speechless. ¡°Let me call my parents¡± Joe said. ¡°You can¡¯t. We didn¡¯t take your phones just for fun. I know your dad is a scientist who worked for the country, but this thing is bigger than the government. There are important people even in this world whose intentions are questionable. Anyone outside of this facility can be an enemy.¡± ¡°What is your plan with M¨®ni?¡± I was afraid to ask, but I had to. The man chuckled as he stood up. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we don¡¯t consider 0th M¨®ni dangerous. But don¡¯t rush into things, there is a task I need you to do first. I understand that you don¡¯t trust me, and it¡¯s natural. After you finish, you¡¯re going to know who to trust.¡± ¡°Are you out of your fucking mind?¡± Joe was shouting again. ¡°We are not going to lift a finger for you! Just let us go!¡± That chuckle again. ¡°I¡¯m not asking, it¡¯s not a favor. This is my order.¡± He went to the door and when he opened it and the 3 bodyguards walked in. ¡°Take them to the truck.¡±