Chapter 12: Sitting On A Corn Flake

All things considered, it was a lovely brunch, even if it took several napkins to get all of the chocolate out of Sierra’s nasal canal. It was rather strange, Sam thought, how the two of them had started to find each other in, well, dying together. It gave the world a surreal quality, and a sense of impermanence. It didn’t really matter what might happen next, as long as they were together. 

Maybe that was wishful thinking. Maybe it wasn’t sustainable after all, and this whole flight of fancy would come to an end soon. But maybe not, and for Sam that was enough. She would happily go through as many loops as she had to as long as she got to hear Sierra laugh at the end of it. 

Neither of them was particularly upset when a car-sized air-conditioning unit crashed through the ceiling and smashed into the ground next to them, although they both jumped out of their seats in surprise. Looking at each other for only the briefest instance, both of them bolted for the exit. 

“It’s starting already?” Sierra asked as she smashed shoulder-first into the door. It came off its hinges and Sam watched it bounce on a corner and crash through a window. Sierra stared at her hands. “?” she said. 

“Looks like it!” Sam said, taking her by the hand and going down the hall. A small clock that hung on the wall suffered a major malfunction, all of its springs unspooling at the same time. The face of the clock thudded into the wall next to Sam’s head with a loud and angry ‘FHRRRR’. She didn’t take the time to see what time it was, dodging the rain of cogs that followed, instead just checking on Sierra. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Sierra said, keeping pace. “What are you thinking? I don’t want to just lay down and… well, yknow…” She jumped aside just in time for an empty motorized wheelchair to come zooming past and crash through a door. 

“Me neither,” Sam said as they made their way to the front door. Behind them, a freak electrical surge caused every light bulb in the hospital to explode simultaneously. The sprinklers turned on just as the same surge electrified the hospital floor. “Though I don’t think we have very long this time. Whatever it is, it’s getting worse.” She rubbed her face as they stepped into the parking lot. The odds of something falling on them in a mostly empty lot was a lot smaller. “This means that, not only did it not work, the extra time I thought I’d bought us by separating from my main body is already spent.”

“That sucks,” Sierra said. “Any ideas?”

“I’m working through some,” Sam said as she made her way to the car, careful to avoid any other vehicles in case they might decide to randomly explode or start driving. “Nothing I’m comfortable, confident or certain of at the moment, though.” All four hubcaps of a nearby large SUV detached simultaneously and rolled in her direction. She looked at them curiously as she stepped over them. 

“So what now, then? Find a comfy place, think, and wait for the whole thing to literally crash down on us again?” Sierra asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m down, but I just want to be on the same page, you know?” She opened the door and the two of them got in. “Here goes nothing,” Sierra said, and turned the key. The car spectacularly failed to blow up.

“If you like.” Sam buckled her seatbelt, and then looked at her. In the distance, a transformer went up in a shower of sparks, the power cutting out at the nearby intersection. The sound of cars crashing into each other and alarms going off was audible all the way over to where they were. She looked Sierra in the eyes, and her stomach did a subtle double-backflip. “Is there something you’ve always wanted to do? If there were, say, no consequences?” Sierra blinked once, twice, and then smiled. 

“I can think of something,” she said, and stepped on the gas. The smile on her face never wavered and never went away, even when they found themselves dodging cars on the highway. The other drivers, having no idea what was going on, suddenly had to turn their car into a ditch when the doors suddenly came off, or the speedometer suddenly told them they were moving two-hundred golf balls per microwave, or their steering wheel coming off in their hands. 

“Where are we going?” Sam asked just as Sierra swerved to dodge a sedan that had sort of split lengthwise down the middle and was trying to keep going nonetheless. She looked around, tried to dig through Abe’s memories for a hint. “We’re going to… the coast?”

“Yup!” Sierra said as she hit the gas. They drove for an hour or two before a police cruiser behind them turned its siren on, tried to depart without its axle and immediately caught fire. Sam saw her look in her rear-view mirror for a moment, before shaking her head.

“You don’t—”

“If and when we break this loop,” Sierra said calmly, “I’m more than happy to explain the rich history of cops in this country.” She flashed Sam a wide grin. “But no, I’m not worried about them. Oh, this is our exit!” She turned off the off ramp and ducked just in time for a nail that had dropped down from a sign to shatter the windshield and impale itself in the driver seat’s headrest. 

The car came to a skidding halt. Sierra and Sam were both out of breath, looking at each other and then at the large rusty nail. They burst out laughing, partially from the adrenalin and partly because sometimes it was the only thing that made sense to do. Getting out, Sierra popped the trunk and grabbed a bottle of water and a backpack.

“Come on,” she said, “it’s still a small hike, and I want to get there before sunset.” It was a nice hike, all things considered, although things were starting to get… strange. “Hey, Sam?” Sierra asked with a frown while Sam took a sip of water. “The trees are moving, I think. But only when I’m not looking at them?” Sam shook her head as she handed her the bottle back. 

“Strictly speaking they’re not moving. They’re existing in a superposition of other trees that exist in adjacent realities. When you look at them, they collapse into one or the other.” She squinted. “It looks like not all of them are species native to this reality.” Sam thought about this. It was certainly a strange phenomenon. She’d never known reality to bounce around like this. The only one that did was her, and when she did, she never took anything with her. “Squeemp is off kilter.” Sierra stopped and looked at her. She looked back.

“You’re really not going to follow that one up, are you?”

“It’s easier to show you, and it’s easier to show you when we aren’t dying over and over again,” Sam said with a little shrug. They’d been walking downhill for a bit, and the sun was happily shining on their walk. “Just accept that more and more unlikely things are likely to happen as time goes on.”

“Do you think that’s related to…” Sierra asked as she led them down the path, which turned and became a driveway with a big gate halfway.

“Probably,” Sam said. “But without my full form, my understanding and ability to shape my own understanding is very limited.” They walked up to the gate. “Going back to that form is a last resort. I’m scared I’d lose…” She waved at herself and then at Sierra. “This.”

“I understand. Come on, give me a boost,” Sierra said as she tossed her bag over the gate. There was a fence that stretched in both directions. The gate itself wasn’t particularly high, but it was spiky at the top. Sam was more than a little bit skeptical over this avenue of approach. “It’ll be fine!” Sierra said. Despite her desire not to see Sierra turned into a kebab, she held her hands out anyway, putting her back up against the gate. “Ready?” Sierra said as she put her feet on Sam’s cupped hands.

“Ready!” Sam said, and hoisted. She realized she was not very good at hoisting people, and her body only barely did what she wanted it to, falling backwards, Sierra and all. The gate went with them, falling open. They scrambled up, dusting the dirt and dry leaves off of their clothes. “Uh,” Sam said. The gate had fallen out of its hinges, and seemed to be melting. 

“I don’t remember this being made of chocolate,” Sierra said, snapping a piece off and giving it an experimental nibble. “We should keep going.”

“What is this place?” Sam asked as they went the rest of the way up the driveway. There was a slight incline, and then the beach came into view. The building by the sea wasn’t huge, by any measure, but it was the kind of thing someone with too much money built several hundred years ago, and then went from wealthy to wealthy until, presumably… Sierra?

“I went up here with some friends in college once,” she said. She walked around the building, and Sam briefly heard the sound of shattering glass. A second later, the front door opened. “Welcome!” Sierra said. “The owners only come down here like once a year. She led Sam into the spacious living room and tossed her backpack on the sofa. “The liquor cabinet will be stocked, though. They might even have some champagne.”

“Why this place?” Sam asked as she looked around. Sierra took her hand and led her around back. There was a balcony that looked out over the beach and the ocean. The sun was not quite down, but it wasn’t high in the sky anymore, either. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful ocean sunset. “Ah,” Sam said.

“Yeah,” Sierra said. “Stay here for a moment.” She ran back inside, leaving a bemused but amused Sam with one hand on the wooden railing. 

Closing her eyes, she listened. The sound of the gulls, the water against the shore, the wind through the trees, the distant sound of a truck turning into a smaller truck. She’d come here for the music, but this whole planet made music, all the time. And she’d only ever really noticed thanks to Sierra, who was carrying two flute glasses, a bucket of ice, and a bottle. 

“I figured,” she said as she popped the cork, spilled a bunch of champagne and poured them both a glass, “that if this is all going to fall apart, then I want to do it in style.” She raised her champagne, and Sam gently clinked it. 

Her first sip of champagne was a lot more pleasant than her first sip of beer, but it was still a lot of sensation to take in all at once. The second sip was better, though. She looked at Sierra, who was observing her carefully and bit her lip. “What?” Sam asked, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. 

“It’s nice. Seeing you experience things for the first time. You always look so curious. Like you can’t be disappointed, but always pleasantly surprised.” Sam cocked her head. 

“That’s not true. I’m… upset when something happens to you,” she said. 

Sierra nodded and drank her champagne in silence. “But you are curious.”

“About a lot of things,” Sam admitted. “I’m still curious why this place. If everything will be reset, it’d be possible to just… go to a fancy restaurant. Rack up debt. Why come here?”

Sierra set her glass aside and put her hand on Sam’s. “Because,” she said, “this is where I kissed a woman for the first time.”

Sam blinked. “Ah, it’s nostalgic, then.”

“No,” Sierra said and kissed a woman for the second time.