\ Collapse, Pt. 2: Dextra \

“There,” Dr. White said, lowering the pistol. “That’ll shut you up.”

Ghiles’s corpse laid across the sandy floor, twitching as blood spurted from its forehead. Marsia wanted to throw up, but there was nothing in her stomach to vomit.

“Now, you three,” she continued. “I’m a merciful woman. And honestly, I don’t need you anymore. So, out of the kindness of my heart, I’ll be sending a couple of you back to your worlds.”

Q

“What kindness? You’re heartless!” Locri spat.

“Alright, you’ll be first, then. Just to prove it,” the scientist replied. She kicked Ghiles’s body out of the way and walked calmly to the machine.

Marsia watched her begin to type, her fingers crossing each other at breakneck speed. She was determined and sure of herself, but not in quite the same way Arufa had been in X2.

The noble Arufa, though, had been diminished to a husk after watching Ghiles die. Marsia felt more hollow and emotionless than she did traumatized—death scared her less every second.

“Alright, Locri, I’ve found your parallel. You can go back to killing anyone you want,” she grumbled. “What a waste.”

“I’m not going to–”

k

The wires on her outfit shut off as she fell to the floor, completely and totally unconscious. Her head cracked as she hit the tile—Marsia didn’t even flinch.

“So long, bodyguard,” she said.

Arufa’s lip quivered. “Is she…?”

“Her body will be dead soon. But her consciousness is back in her world now,” White said coldly. “Arufa, I’m tracking your parallel, too.”

“How long do I have to say goodbye?”

“Well, it would’ve been halfway through that sentence. But we have a complication.”

Marsia peered at the screen, shifting her feet in the sand. “Can we just get this over with?”

Arufa pouted. “Marsia…!”

“Shush. I want to see my world again. You’d act the same way in my shoes.”

V

“…”

White shrugged. “Well, it looks like she won’t be going anywhere. It says she’s already there.”

“Already where?” Arufa asked.

“Your parallel of origin. Where you came from—it says your consciousness is already where I tried to route in causal space-time.”

Marsia crossed her arms. “What’s that?”

“Doesn’t matter. All it means is, you’ll both be tagging along while I try to escape this nightmare.” Dr. White spun around and stepped towards Arufa. “Give me that flashlight.”

“So I just… don’t get to go home?” she questioned, tossing her the light.

L

“I’m not wasting any more reserve power on recalculations. Look at it this way: you’ll get some quality bonding time with your little sis. Now let’s book it before we suffocate down here.”

Marsia would have asked what she’d meant by ‘little sis’, but she found herself in a state of apathy. As her memories became more vibrant, she remembered more and more of herself.

She remembered being ruthless. Somehow, that made her care just a little less about her friend.

As more sand leaked into the building, Dr. White walked with determination through the hallways. Marsia followed blindly—Arufa belittled herself by asking pointless questions.

“Where are we going? How far down are we?”

“Fire exit. Eight floors down. But sand’s going to be a bigger problem as we get higher, so expect to take some detours.”

S

They approached the fire exit and opened the door quickly, moving at a brisk walking pace—save for Arufa, who seemed jittery and over-prepared to run. Marsia pitied her a little.

Walking up the spiraling stairs under the high-pitched sirens, Marsia’s thoughts drifted. She thought of the person she’d been in X2 and felt repulsed. Singing? Wealth? Philanthropy? What a strange thought.

She knew the real world didn’t care about those things. It was a game of survival out there, one she’d won for many years. Natural selection favored the unfazed killers, not the high and mighty philosophers.

U

At the same time, the other half of her mind rejected that notion. It mattered how she treated people—she learned that in X2. She learned that from Arufa, and from Skyler and Locri. But despite that, she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

Arufa’s wellbeing mattered to Marsia—immensely, in fact. She’d felt a twang of anger when White had dismissed the idea of Arufa returning to her reality. But their relationship was less one of friendship and more one of tolerance. They hadn’t known each other nearly long enough, and she didn’t have enough emotional attachment to care.

The grainy texture of sand made its way onto Marsia’s hands, then into her hair and on her lips. She could see it spilling from above, where cracks in the walls had formed from insurmountable pressure.

“Dr. White,” she said. “Will we be taking a ‘detour’ soon? The sand is getting harder to climb through.”

The scientist responded quickly. “We’re up to B2. We only have to make it up a couple more floors– gah!”

A tremor rocked the building, sending the three of them back a few steps. Arufa stumbled back all the way and landed on her butt in a pile of sand. With her weak muscles, she struggled to stand up.

“Marsia, help!”

Marsia brushed it off. “Get up. Use the rails. You’re fine.”

“I’m trying…!” Arufa grunted, hoisting herself up. “Wouldn’t have taken you any extra time to come help me, jeez.”

5

“Don’t patronize me.”

“You’re so rude!”

Marsia shot a glare with her camera lens eyes. “That’s who I am, the same way you’re afraid all the time. You can’t expect things to be the way they were in X2.”

“And you can’t expect to survive out there alone!”

“I can and I will, unless you shut your mouth.”

Arufa, distraught, stopped talking and ran up the steps in a simmering rage. When she caught up to Dr. White, she didn’t dare go any further ahead.

E

“Progress update,” the doctor said, “The surface floor lobby is blocked off with sand. I can see it from here. But, since that’s where our storerooms are, there should be a back exit through there.”

Marsia felt like she was digging more than ascending, clawing her way through sand to reach a floor labeled ‘A1’ in a dense, bold print. Arufa trailed just behind her as they entered the floor.

As Dr. White had said, the lobby was completely filled with sand. Through the very small cracks, Marsia could see the open air—and the sand flying through it. They were caught in a sandstorm.

Again, the laboratory tilted on its foundation, sending Marsia lurching forward. She almost lost her balance—Arufa did, planting into the tiles face-first.

“Get up!” Marsia shouted. “The whole place is crumbling!”

T

Without a word, Arufa struggled to rise to her feet. Clearly the climb had taken a toll on her, both physical and emotional. Marsia could see her face red with anger.

That voice of her better conscience, deep within her soul, told her to help her and apologize. She denied it, and instead grabbed Arufa by the wrist and dragged her along, annoyed at the girl’s slow pace.

“We can run now, c’mon. Since you’ve wanted to do that so much.”

The back hallways were falling apart—chunks of concrete fell and rippled the rising sands. Marsia noticed the doors getting larger as the trio raced through the collapsing corridors.

U

White narrowly avoided a falling tile above her as she counted each door. “We need the loading dock with the tallest entrance! That way, no matter how high the sand rises, we’ll be able to crawl out,” she explained.

“And where is that door?” Marsia asked.

“Number thirty-two! It’s hard to read with all this sand in my eyes, so I’m counting instead!”

Marsia let go of Arufa’s hand and ran down the hall, squinting her eyes to read the small numbers beside each frame. She was fully goal-oriented at that moment—she didn’t stop when she heard Arufa yelp from behind her.

“Here it is!” Marsia called. “It won’t open!”

F

“Try this,” White said, throwing her ID card to the scavenger. She plucked it from the sand and slipped it through the reader, which despite low power, unlocked the door.

When she opened it, she found a tall warehouse, spanning two stories with one massive garage-like pulley door. The metal on it was reinforced and sturdy—and therefore very heavy. If the mechanisms were down, she would have no way to open it.

She moved out of the way to let White in. “Will it still work?”

S

“Let’s find out.” The woman in her lab coat glanced around and found a control panel on a raised catwalk. She pulled herself up the ladder with haste and tried hitting the buttons.

As she toyed with the controls, Arufa stumbled in through the door. She was bleeding out of her leg and clutching her left arm, sand covering her face and hair. In totality, she was a mess.

In a moment of awareness, Marsia asked: “Arufa, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

She scowled and turned away. “That’s something the old Marsia would have said.”

It hit Marsia like a gut punch. She hadn’t realized she’d been pushing her only friend away until now. She’d sold herself on a narrative of survival and failed to realize it was only a cover for selfishness.

U

“Wait, Arufa, I’m sorry!” she said as Arufa approached the tall door. “Are you hurt? How can I help?”

“Am I talking to kind Marsia now?”

“I– yes, sure, whatever will get you to tell me what happened.”

“You yanked me a little when you ran off, and I fell over. Some concrete fell when I was down, and now I think my arm’s broken.”

0

“When we get out, I’ll find you a medic and get you fixed up, okay?”

“…Okay.”

“Back away from the door!” White called, pushing a lever into place. The gigantic metal door unwound, slowly moving back into the ceiling—sand poured through the bottom.

The duo moved back as the beige particles spread out. About a quarter-way up, rays of sun beamed through the opening, exposing the dark room to the amber light of sunset.

“Yes!” Marsia shouted. More sand filled in, but it didn’t matter. They would escape successfully.

White climbed down from the catwalk. “Be careful. These doors are finicky. Wait until it’s all the way open to climb out.”

l

“Agh, there’s more sand!” Arufa said, blocking her eyes with her good arm. The sandstorm blew into the warehouse, the wind pelting the coarse minerals on the three of them.

Sand worked its way into every crevice of the warehouse, eventually getting into the door’s mechanisms. It slowed, gears grinding, and eventually came to a halt just before it reached the top.

The air was dry and hot, but it felt so much better than the ice-cold quantum hell that was the lab. Marsia couldn’t help but feel relief.

“Freedom!” she exclaimed, running forward into the sands. Arufa followed right beside her—and as they crossed the threshold, they began to clamber up the pile before them.

White took a separate route, lining herself with the outside wall of the laboratory before pushing up. But the two subjects struggled to escape the roughly ten-foot slope which stood between them and the open desert.

Getting frustrated with her lack of success, Marsia pushed Arufa. “You’re moving the sand too much!”

“You’re moving too much! Just go slowly!”

B

Marsia gnashed her teeth. “There’s no rush. I don’t see why you’re so insistent on us doing this together.”

“Are you evil Marsia again?”

“If that makes you feel better about being a terrible climber, then yes.”

“My arm is broken, Marsia! That’s your fault! Own up to it!”

“It isn’t my fault, it’s yours! Stop being so clumsy!”

“Rude!”

“Ugh! Just… do it yourself!” Marsia growled, shoving Arufa’s hands out of place and sending her sliding back down the sand hill.

“You selfish jerk!” Arufa wailed, again struggling to stand upright. “Weren’t you the one who said you’d rather be the fake Marsia?”

“But I’m not, can’t you see that? I’m the real Marsia!”

“You’re the one who gave me hope! You made me think I could change!”

“Well clearly neither of us have!”

“At least I’m trying!”

“Maybe I’d have a better chance on my own!”

Arufa lowered her brow and stormed forward. Marsia realized what she was saying—she didn’t know how to take it back.

“Wait… I didn’t–”

“Shut up!”

Another loud crack came from within the laboratory. The ground began to shift again, the sands began to move along. A sickening snap resounded from the warehouse door.

“Arufa, get out of the way!”

“I said shut up, Marsia!”

...

What happened next, she wouldn’t dare reimagine.

In a quarter of a second, the steel door knocked off its catch and barreled downward. It cut through Arufa’s head and body like a full-body guillotine, as though it had been designed for something so sinister.

She stood for a moment, unmoving… then fell forward, her viscera exposed.

Arufa had been sliced in two.

...

'It isn't my fault, it's yours!' she'd said.

And Marsia felt all the guilt in the world, knowing she had been right.