Paraplex: Archival

The third punch knocked the heavy metal door off its hinges. After the clanging, silence. Some oddly coloured vapours drifted from the dimly lit room. Strange smelling too but since the Upgrade toxins didn't seem to affect her anymore.

She was here to try and understand how and why the Upgrade had happened. She was here to try and learn what was happening to Max, if he was having another breakdown or if everyone else was or both.

A man named Marshal had texted her this location. She thought she recognized the name but couldn't be sure. Couldn't be sure if her memories of being a secret operative throughout history were real or just TV shows she had watched once. Had she always been like this or was this something Max had done to her?

Stepping into the chamber. 

Six suspension-tanks. Not unlike the ones she and Max had climbed out of in the Atlantis base one of the first times they had met. I think I was blonde then. She couldn't make out the figures floating inside them but each one had a digital screen.

Riveta - Status Unknown

Stone - Version Indigo

Scorpio - Version Elephant Tiger

Mayganne - Version Sting Ray

Donnelly - Signal Lost

Susanna - Signal Corrupted

That made her feel sad. She had vague, dream-like memories of a woman with that name who took care of her at a time she was lost and alone and hurting.

Beyond the tanks and the clusters of wires and tubing that fed into them were four doors. Each had a label.

PROJECT ELLIPSES

PROJECT HORIZON

PROJECT BEAST

SUBJECT A-443-C 

Maggie suddenly felt afraid.

Like Water For Chocolate

"You should ask him out," Mayganne said.

Aqua stood there looking at her and contemplated the statement. Mayganne could see the little wheels turning behind those eyes of hers and thought the hamster was working overtime. Then she let out a chuckle with that image in her head.

"What's so funny?" Aqua asked her.

"Oh nothing," Mayganne replied.

"You don't think I will do it, do you?" Aqua said. "You don't think I could ask him out to see Veronica Mars."

"Oh, it wasn't that..." Mayganne started but couldn't finish when Aqua stomped off.

For some reason the staff room at the Hubert H. Humphrey Secondary School was quiet. Mayganne knew she shouldn't have laughed but the imagery of an animated hamster moving around in Aqua's head made her chuckle. Somehow that seemed fitting.

A student was approaching Aqua as she stormed down the corridor; he thought better of asking her a question, seeing that Ms. Marine seemed to be troubled by something, and steered clear.

Aqua went into the staff washroom and slammed her fist into the wall, then she gathered her composure and walked to the sink. 

She cooled her jets in the staff washroom, splashing water on her face and taking deep breaths. Aqua didn't really know why she had become a substitute teacher in the first place, when she was dealing with anger issues. She thought that she had it under control but every now and then a word or something said would get to her.

She felt much calmer and cooler with the sound of running water from the tap.

"I got this," she said.

Channel Plex: Fandom

Mayganne shrugged. "I know, it sounds silly. But when I stream the latest episode, and I know that there are thousands of other people like me watching it too... And then I check the sites, and I check in on tumblr, and everyone is posting and reacting and speculating and making gifs... And this thing, this thing that's fake and made up and not really real, but it makes me feel so much, and makes all these other people feel so much... And it's like it matters, like we all matter. We're all in it together and we all matter."

Goner smiled. "That's not silly at all. That's probably the same reason I want to join the army."

Mayganne stopped herself from making a comment along the lines of, "Yeah, but with less invading and killing." It was an argument they had had before, and they would have it again before the end of high school. He was really listening to her though, and being sweet, and he didn't deserve it. They were both lost and both searching.

Instead, in that moment, feeling close to him and welcomed, she chose to ask the question that had always gone unspoken.

"Goner... Do you ever think it's strange that we can't remember how we met?"

Channel Plex: Lunchtime in the Cafeteria Part Three

Goner swirled the fry in the gravy, slow brown waves. Mayganne kept reading. Angie scrolled through the playlist, picked a track, adjusted the earphones. Goner ate the fry. He couldn't wait anymore. 

"So how is it?" he asked Mayganne. Angie turned up the volume. Mayganne looked up from the comic book. 

"You will not believe what happens." Goner grinned. He felt great.

Channel Plex: Lunchtime in the Cafeteria Part One

"I can't believe he took marks off for that," Mayganne said. 

Goner nodded. "So, yeah. Which means my average won't be high enough for the scholarship-thingy. Which means, well shit. It means next year will be shit." He sighed. "Hey, can I have a fry?" 

"Finish them," Mayganne said with sympathy. "I'm sorry..." 

Goner pouted. He felt like crap. Angie strolled down the aisle towards them, with a bag from the local comic shop.

Channel Plex: #generationplex

Mayganne and Goner (version.Teenager)

Channel Plex: Release Date

Goner had just turned 16, driver’s license incoming, two long phone-calls plus a decent amount of texting with the new girl in class, Angie, and now Mayganne was about to play him the latest download from Cube Life. So yeah, things were pretty awesome.

“I’m tired of feeling older than everyone else in school,” he said, lounging in her easy chair. It didn’t sound right when he said it, sounded like a bored teenager, but he actually meant it, literally felt like he’d been around longer than he had. Or around wider maybe? How would you describe traveling sideways in time?

“Maybe you’re using too much energy feeling so smugly superior,” Mayganne shot back, like he knew she would, her wink, his smile, and right on cue she tapped Play, the speakers fuzzed. Her laptop screen went into image. And the music started. And it felt alright again, Goner felt okay again, even though he always felt different, and had thoughts he couldn’t figure out how to explain to anyone even Mayganne, definitely not Angie, wouldn’t want to spook her. And the music coming in and the anime video playing, j-pop-punk-electronica mashup, Cube Life just starting to hit it big, he loved their whole sound and style, and so laying there it felt alright, feeling different and lost and clichéd and too old and too young. Horny, angry, curious, bored, scared.

Mayganne singing along – somehow she already knew the lyrics - with Suki’s voice from the speakers:

そしてすべてはすべてがほしいと思ったように私から押されたいと思い、あなたまで押されて自由である必要があった

Logo Hunter

Logollos put the phone down on the receiver and cracked a vicious smile and said to no one in particular, "'And that's how the game is played."

"Don't you know that in games you can bend the rules here and there?" said a voice from the shadows, which startled the hell out of him. Logollos scanned his office and couldn't find the form. He had to have the bio-detectors checked once again; this was the third time in a month they didn't scan anyone out of the ordinary. He didn't panic, instead quickly moved his foot over to the alarm switch underneath his desk. All he had to do now was stall the intruder for thirty seconds.

"I don't know who you are and how you came in here," he said with all the charm and charisma of a snake-oil salesman. "But it's the last thing that you'll ever do."

"Precisely," Mayganne said as she stepped into the light, holding one hell of a handgun. It looked like an arquebus.

Before Logollos had a chance to reply she pulled the trigger and a blue ball of energy shot out of the barrel.

The top ten floors of the Legacy Tower erupted into a brilliant ball of light which could be seen for miles around.

Open File

The clatter of the tracks suddenly got louder as the car entered a tunnel. Riveta grabbed a railing and stood up.

"Where's Mayganne?" she asked, her voice panicked.

Stone glanced around, blinking. "Ok... calm down..." he said softly, maybe to his former-partner, maybe to himself.

Riveta had the truth of it, though: Mayganne wasn't with them. Scorpio's cell-phone was ringing.

Donnelly turned to them, looking disoriented. "There's some people... in the next car... strange..."

Riveta turned, checking for her pistol under her jacket, relieved at the feel of the steel. Looked past the Father, through the window in the door at the end of the car.

A girl in a tattered sweater talking to a huge man, his blond hair tied in a top-knot. A cheerleader and another teenage girl in a cowboy hat. Two other men.

Simon put a hand out to steady Riveta. "It's okay," he said. He looked exhausted. "We'll be okay."

Scorpio snapped his cell-phone shut, ending his quick call with Greg Logollos. From LEGACY.

"That was the Professor," Scorpio said. "We're supposed to kill the people in the next car."

To Be Continued

The Professor addressed the latest team. The newest Dragons. It wasn't the first time the roster had been replaced, or recombined. He had worked with so many of them throughout the strange non-years of the Metaplex, the liquid time of plureality. All of the lost and the found, the warriors, the outcasts, knights and assassins, witches and spies. The different teams gathered and sent on their missions, and always The Professor there to guide them, to never really be a part of them. Except the times that he had been, or the times he was never there at all - though most of those he couldn't remember... 

Dexter, Wraith, Darius, Callan. Frank, Goner, Angst, Suki, Aqua. Akimoto, Tatterdemallion. Cromwell, Bern, Caden. Siltailus, Falador, Rickson, Cloak, Nurendemyr. The Kat, Misfit, Silver. Odin, Merlin, Kele-De. Mick. Marshal, Michelle, Nick and Jonas. Nick, Pat and Charlotte. Soma and Heresy. All the Travelers, the Blueberry Hill Gang, the Shelter Team. Bishop, Twofeathers, Trump. Pretty George. Maggie Magenta.

And now, Stone and Riveta, Donnelly and Mayganne, Scorpio. He had explained to them as much as he could, what he was allowed to, what he was able to. And what the plan was. Desperate and uncertain, but the only way the Professor could think to turn this situation around. It wasn't safe to contact Simon Light in any local versions - the Professor had had to quarantine him. But maybe if they went far enough around... Find him, some version of him, somewhere else...

There was no telling if any of them would make it, or who they would be. If they would remember or understand anything. If they would find him and reach him. If that would be enough of a convergence to change things. If this would save things or end them.

The Professor had briefed them. He had taught them all the mantras and visualizations that he knew for transferals. Had exposed them to specifically modulated energy fields. Had read them modernist poetry, shown them certain movies. Tried anything he could think of to help them.

And now he was going to send them into another world and hope that they would somehow return...

23rd Century Party People

Today's meeting was in a conference room in a downtown hotel. The Professor had a laptop set-up at the head of the table. Beside it there was another one of his strange devices - wires and winking lights and whirring parts. No one had asked the rumpled old man what these objects were for; there had been too many bizarre answers to other simple questions already. 

"Why isn't Susannah here?" Donnelly asked.

"It turns out that she's not a part of this. Not exactly." Things had continued to cohere, to synchronize, since everyone had been gathered. Or reunited. Some memories had become clear, while others were still cloudy, and others still pitch black. At each meeting the Professor had new files that he had compiled from whatever mysterious sources he had. A picture had started to emerge, but it was one of wavering lines and shifting colours and impossible angles, like a Cubist painting.

"Where is she then?" Riveta asked.

"I don't have the ability to remove her from this thread; it's not part of what I do. But I have made arrangements for her to be kept safe."

Scorpio studied the newest folder intently. LEGACY was mentioned a few more times in some documents, but there was still no record of him being in contact with Greg Logollos. Each night Scorpio thought about trying to contact Greg. He hadn't yet.

Stone resisted the urge to question the Professor, to ask what guarantees he could provide that Susannah was safe. He knew that there were none. From all the sci-fi technology, mutant attack dogs, and psychedelic metaphyiscs it was obvious to Stone that there weren't any certainties anymore. His training as a detective told him to keep asking, to keep digging, keep trying to solve the mystery of it all. His training as a soldier told him to keep quiet and follow orders.

Riveta seemed to be dealing with it all fairly well. Maybe because she had been in contact with the Professor the longest. It was almost as if she had somehow learned something from undergoing all this weirdness. Stone was so glad to have her back. He knew that they could get through anything together.

"So what's next then?" Mayganne asked.

Donnelly looked at the teenager he knew from his school. She had always been a quiet girl, shy, a little gloomy. Now she came to the meetings smiling and eager. School had never seemed a good fit for Mayganne, but this - whatever it was - had opened something up inside her. Donnelly knew that he still had to have a stern talk with her about breaking into that bank, but for now he was using her enthusiasm as a way to stay grounded amidst the chaos. He had wondered a lot lately about starting to pray again...

"Well," the Professor said, tapping some keys on the laptop and glancing at the device. "What's next is that we're going to try and change the world. Or one of them anyway."

Same Time Same Page

The Professor circled the table, handing out the file folders. 

"Hopefully some of the materials in these will start to generate trans-version connections," he said. "And you will all start to remember what happened." 

Riveta began scanning the contents of her folder right away. Police reports from some recent investigations she didn't remember undertaking. Photos of a diner that looked familiar. A picture of a man who she didn't recognize, but who had the saddest looking eyes she had ever seen. 

Stone sat beside her; he hadn't been more than a few feet from her since the night on the street, when he had found her again. When the impossible had started to happen. Except the impossible had started to happen some time ago, he was realizing now, as memories of certain crime scenes started to return.  

"Who is this man?" Donnelly asked. He held up his own copy of the photo Riveta was looking at.  

Mayganne studied her copy. "He looks familiar, sorta..."

The Professor had taken a seat at the head of the table. "His name is Simon Light. He is very important. Hopefully, you will be meeting him - again - very soon."
 
Scorpio tried to keep his breathing steady, trying one of the meditation techniques he was slowly starting to remember. Among the copies of police reports and photographs inside his folder, there were memos and press releases from the LEGACY Corporation. Many were signed by Greg Logollos. He glanced at the Professor... Did he know that Greg had been in contact with Scorpio? Recently? Or did they know each other already from before? It made Scorpio feel nervous, trapped. He wasn't sure who or what to trust.
 
Susanna stopped at a picture of an older woman holding a young girl on her lap. The older woman was holding a tattered pom-pom. The little girl was smiling.
 
The Professor spoke up. "Shortly I will be asking each of you to begin making notes on what the files mean to you, what you recognize, how they make you feel. My own picture of what happened is far from complete."
 
Stone looked at Riveta and smiled. He didn't care how weird all this was. She was alive.
 
"What we need to focus on right away," the Professor continued, "is the very grave threat facing each of you, and some other people who you may or may not know. Indeed, the very Metaplex itself is in danger."
 
"The meta-huh?" Mayganne asked.
 
"A threat from what?" Donnelly cut in.
 
The Professor adjusted his glasses.
 
"A man named Morganfokker."

The Great Convergence

Milton stood in the line outside the theatre. He didn't usually go to see plays, but after his meeting with Greg today he felt that things were changing in his life. That he was going to get a chance to become the man he always wanted to be. And he had always imagined himself reading literature and seeing plays. So he had a plastic bag from Good Tomes with copies of Shakespeare and Faulkner inside, and he was waiting to buy his ticket to a local company's production of an original work called Constellations. It seemed fitting somehow. Scorpio was becoming real.

Across the street Susanna checked her watch again. Riveta scanned the traffic walking and driving past.
 
"He was always really prompt at school," Susanna said.
 
"Relax," Riveta said, but there was edge to her voice.
 
As Mayganne rounded the corner she chuckled as she realized that all those uptight and closed-minded groups intent on policing society's morality were right. Playing videogames had led her to a life of crime. Immersing herself in the sci-fantastic world of Citadel she had started believing herself to be a version of the young rogue-adventurer Maus. She knew it wasn't real exactly, she wasn't delusional... But she had started to feel that if she started to think and act and behave like Maus, then in some sort of strange, maybe magical way, she would become her. And that's when the shoplifting started. And when she started picking fights with the bullies at school. Some bloodied lips and pockets full of useless crap later, she felt it taking hold. And so tonight it had been a full-scale break-in. Complete with black clothes and some tools in a satchel.
 
Susanna wrapped her arms about herself. She was shivering. Maybe since the attack last night at the store. She hadn't been home since. Hadn't called her family or friends or even work to explain why she had run off and left the store a disaster. How could she? 

"You'll explain everything when he gets here, right?" she asked the woman who had saved her and damned her at the same time.
 
Riveta glanced at her cell phone. "I'm hoping someone will..."
 
The line started to move. Milton took a deep breath of the mild spring air. He imagined himself as the man that he was sure he was going to become, working with Greg Logollos. Imagined being here at the theatre not to simply watch a play, but to meet with an important contact. Imagined being able to read the intentions of those in line by their postures and body language. Scanning the people passing by for movements that hinted at martial arts training or concealed weapons. That girl over there, in the black clothes, half-running, looking nervous, surely she was up to something dangerous, he imagined.

Mayganne had broken the window, the alarm sounding immediately, had smashed some furniture, the whole time being filmed by the security cameras. It was the type of brash and risky strike that Maus would make against an enemy stronghold. The bank was a kind of enemy, she figured. So she was like Maus, but at the same time she knew that she wasn't. She knew that Maus would escape in the Nexus Wave with her sister Kitty and the noble Serisia, with Vlad the celestial barbarian and the mysterious warrior Chem Finder - who she had a crush on. While Mayganne would no doubt be caught by the police. Which is really what she wanted. 

She had stood there, shouting at the cameras, "Make me Maus or make me Mayganne!" Because if she couldn't really be Maus, if this world wouldn't allow it, then she was done with this world. They could lock her away.
 
"No way," Detective Musharef said as he drove through the intersection. "Tell me, is that not the suspect they just put the bulletin out on?" He pointed up the block.
 
Stone peered ahead. His eyesight was sometimes tricky in the evening, with the city lights kalidescoping around him. "Could be..."
 
"Susanna!" Mr. Donnelly called from the opposite side of the street. He glanced right and left and braved the traffic.
 
Riveta slid a hand to the pistol under her jacket; she wasn't sure what to expect from this meeting.
 
Susanna hugged her former principal tightly, so relieved to see a familiar face. "What's the matter?" he asked her. "You sounded nervous on the message..."
 
"I'm pulling over," Musharef said. "That's definitely her. Look how freaked out she is. What did they say she answered to?"
 
"Mayganne?" Donnelly exclaimed as he saw his student jogging past them. She slowed and looked surprised to see him.
 
Milton saw the suspicious girl stopping by the man and two women. He imagined that the one woman's hand was tucked inside her jacket to be ready to draw a gun.
 
Musharef slid out of the car, assessing the group that the suspect had stopped by. Stone eased himself out of the passenger seat.
 
Donnelly looked confused. "What's going on? Who are you?" he asked the serious-looking woman standing beside his former teacher.
 
Stone's eyes widened. He felt like his heart stopped. "Riveta?"
 
Then Riveta's cell phone rang. And Donnelly's cell phone rang. And Mayganne's rang. And Stone's. And Scorpio's cell phone rang.

Under a Gaelic Moon

Underneath the starry sky Mayganne lay, her hands behind her head looking up at the distant twinkle of other suns. She always liked this time of the night, just so that it was dark and the city itself wasn't sleeping, just quiet at the moment. It was springtime in the city and the night was still cool; she lay on the roof of her apartment and had her digital audio player playing some podcast songs.

The past several days felt strange and weird; it was like seeing something through your eyes but from a distance. It was hard for her to explain it to her mother, brother, or Mr. Donnelly. She had a burst of anxiety the other day at school when she thought she saw a huge black dog patrolling around the school. A sense of dread filled her, she figured it was a Hound Of Ill Omen. Mr. Donnelly rushed out and scared it away as he called animal control from his cellphone. 
 
Things are becoming weird.

Too weird. Still, here at night on the rooftop she cleansed her mind of the past few days' events and looked absently at the stars, remembering weird vague dreams. And she was getting to that final level of the video game that she had usurped from her brother. It was cool and she was glad that she had stumbled upon it. She liked Maus. Somehow she identified with that pixelated character and the storyline as it unfolded.

I'm becoming a gamer.

She sat bolt upright as she heard the howl of a wolf...

Convergence Two

Detective Musharef offered to drive. Stone let him. He was a nice enough guy; Stone wanted to try and make this work.

They talked as they headed towards the crime scene. Musharef had just had a short story published in a magazine. He was about to test for his 2nd Degree black belt in Taekwondo. He volunteered at a local children's theatre company. It wasn't that he was bragging, only that wherever Stone tried to take the conversation, Musharef had an achievement waiting there. He offered them up humbly, as casual points of interest, not badges of honor. All that and the Lt. had said he was a great cop too.

Stone thought about Colleen, about his tour of duty. Thought about his therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Thought about his therapy after Riveta... Thought about Riveta. Wondered where everything had gone. Not gone wrong, or gone right. Just gone.

And he thought about that message on his answering machine. Just as Musharef started telling a story.

"So my girlfriend calls me and says 'Do you remember that dream I had last night?'. She had had this dream about being bitten by a spider and all these baby spiders growing inside her. Now at this point she didn't know I had been invited by my buddy to see the latest Spiderman movie yet. So she tells me how in the novel she's reading while she's waiting at the pharmacy, there's this character who collects spiders. And right then, this little girl who's there with her mom, says, 'Look mom-' and she holds up this tangled bit of string '-I made a spider!' Weird, huh?"

The same pattern occurring at all levels.

We have to find a way out.

A call came in on the police band. "All units be advised. A suspect has been spotted on foot in the Davis-Brockton area, female, mid-teens, brown skin, black hair, goes by the name Meagan."

"That's where we're headed," Musharef said.

"All units please be advised. A large animal, likely a canine, possibly rabid, has also been reported in that area..."

From This World to the Next

Version Elephant Cobra

Scorpio almost passed out. He grabbed hold of awake and clung to it, the weird lighting of the internet cafe punching into his eyes, his stomach wrestling with the deluge of coffee. He grit his teeth, he clenched his fists. He imagined Wolverine from X2 carving his way through the soldiers storming Xavier's. He took a deep breath. He almost passed out.

Typing quickly, then slowly, sometimes needing to find each key, sometimes running across the keyboard, drunk tightrope, words mispelled, didn't matter these days. Bad spelling, new jargon, Scorpio caught between the two. Hoping he wouldn't fall asleep, didn't want to be awake anymore, caught between the two.

Couldn't let her go. Couldn't let her log out. Didn't know how to ask. Couldn't stay silent. Caught between. Could she tell, could she tell as his text appeared on her screen, wherever she was, whoever she was, how messed up he felt, how desperate he was. Did the stark lines and curves capture the apocalypse in him or erase it. Magic runes summoning the right feeling in her, or suburban architecture strip-malling the forest inside him.

He could just ask, but she was already asking. Would his question connect them or scare her off or worse sound contrived, his true desperate agenda inverted into a ploy, an online flash of a smile and a wink, boozy end-of-the-night lunge for the finish line.

And if she was asking then she couldn't tell him. But maybe he didn't really need to know, he only needed to know that others were asking too...

Except for all the typing he was doing, all the passing-out he wasn't doing, keeping the exchange running, lobbing text at each other across whatever was between them, he couldn't aim for what she had put on display - he envied her courage, he feared her intent. He almost typed about it, finally, but he had another strange flash of black-suited men storming the cafe and he almost passed out again.

He stared at the screen. The chat window open. Their exchange about politics and movies. Her name and quote in the top corner.

Mayganne - who is max cube?

A-B-B-A

Version Sting Ray

Mayganne closed her cellphone after chatting with Sheri. They had chatted for three hours about everything and nothing. It was a good time killer, she thought. 

She left her bedroom and entered the living room, where her brother had been playing a new video game. 

She could hear him out the front window playing street ball now. Denny must have conned him into leaving the new game because it was a rare thing for him to do. 

He had left the game on the pause screen, meaning that he was planning on getting back to it. 

Mayganne got herself a soda from the fridge and was about to head back into her room to listen to the new Max & The Mana Junkies track she had downloaded while chatting. 

She heard the whisper of wind and a space-like hymn coming from the television set. 

She walked over and was about to turn it off when she sat down and decided to give it a play; she reached over to the control pad and exited and hit the start button.  

Cool opening sequence of what appeared to be a cylindrical space station over a huge orange sun. The stars in the background. Then a ship flew from overhead and towards it, the faded name still readable: Nexus Wave. 

It was a old fashioned ship flying like the ones in that 'Pirates of The Caribbean' movie but it was flying through space. Then the word flashed upon the screen: Citadel.  

The next screen popped up and it was a huge array of characters to choose from. She scrolled through them all looking for a cool female character.

Serisia - Angel
Kitty - Street Thief
Maus - Warrior

She selected Maus and hit play.

The Principal of the Matter

Version Sting 

Donnelly turned the corner in the hallway to see Mayganne getting a sip of water from the fountain. 

"Mornin' Mr. Donnelly," she said as she stood up. 

"Hello Mayganne," he replied. "Shouldn't you be in class at this moment?" 

He suddenly felt uncomfortable, remembering a nightmare that he had about the student. It was like a distant memory of sitting around having coffee while the coffeeshop was burning. 

Mayganne nodded her head and moved along down the hall. She too had a strange feeling of deja vu, but yet she couldn't place it. As she walked away she cursed as her cellphone chimed.

REALTIME PICS

At the Diner - Max, Suki, Scorpio, Riveta, Stone

Outside the Diner - Max and Simon

Selfies - Donnelly and Mayganne / Suki

Max and Suki discuss who is driving.

DAY THIRTY 10:55AM

Homecoming

Father Donnelly drove the car down the dirt road, heading toward the chalet. He didn't want to do so, but it was what Suki had suggested. 

The morning sun was warm and inviting and his mind was flooding back to memories of the last month; it all had felt surreal like a dream. More akin to a nightmare.

Since his window was down, he thought he could hear the sound of children playing ahead. But that was impossible, since the fire... 

"How long have I been asleep?" a voice asked in the backseat; it startled the hell out of him.

"Mayganne?" Donnelly hit the brakes and he turned to see her lying in the backseat, covered in a blanket. 

"Yes?" Mayganne said as she sat up. She looked at Donnelly, trying to read his expression.

Donnelly's memories were like a tide, a floodgate of emotion, garble, transmissions of things that happened, or will happen or a dream of happening. "Well, how are you?" 

"I'm fine," Mayganne replied as she scrambled over onto the front seat. "But I sure could use a coffee."