Chapter Text
When Jedediah had fallen asleep for the last time, alone in a canvas tent in a Rocky Mountain blizzard, he had assumed it would be the last time he would ever see the wild land he’d grown to love. Now, as he looks out at the lifeless rocks around him, he’s realizing that he was right. But it’s a little late for celebrating; this landscape is nothing like the mountainous forests he’s used to. This is the deadest desert he’s ever seen.
It’s not entirely lifeless, though. Sheer rock cliffs rise sky-high on all sides. In the dip in the center, there’s a town that Jed feels like he should recognize, but he doesn't.
Noises behind him catch his attention and he turns around, but the sight that meets him there is enough to knock him flat.
There’s no other wall to this canyon. There’s nothing there at all.
His mind races with possible explanations, but he discards each one as soon as it occurs to him. He turns his back on the missing half of the world and starts walking. Is this a dream? He doesn’t feel like he’s dreaming. He needs information, that’s what he needs. That’s what he’s always done when he’s in an unfamiliar situation and he ain’t about to throw away a perfectly good process just because one tiny little thing is wrong.
(It is not tiny. It’s half the fucking world.)
“Excuse me, I don’t believe we’ve met,” a young woman says, stepping in front of him and knocking him out of the loop in his own head. She sticks her hand out – pale skin, no scars. When he looks at her face, he notes the red braid on her right shoulder and the marksman's rifle resting against her left.
He shakes her hand and doesn’t comment on anything. He may not be some high-class gentleman, but he’s not a barbarian, either. “No, miss, I don’t think we have,” he says instead. “My name’s Jedediah.”
“I’m Annie,” she says, “Annie Ogden, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, Jedediah. Now, I apologize for skippin’ over all the pleasantries, but do you know what on Earth is going on?”
So it’s not just him. Thank God.
“No, Miss Ogden, I don’t have a clue. Last thing I knew, I was in the Rockies.”
She hums, planting her free hand on her hips. The rifle sways worryingly as she moves. “The Rockies! Ain’t that interesting. I was in South Dakota.”
He looks out at the dry rock surrounding them. “South Dakota,” he repeats. “Now, I’ve never been there, but I don’t think it looks much like this.”
She shakes her head. “No, sir, it doesn’t. Home’s as flat as the eye can see. I ain’t never seen cliffs like this.”
“Neither have I,” he says distantly. A sudden thought strikes him. “Is this Indian country?”
“I don’t think so,” the young lady says. “Well, maybe it used to be, but it sure ain’t anymore. So far, I’ve talked to eight different people, and every one of them has been speakin’ English.”
Jed’s line of sight falls across a group of men in Chinese clothes and he raises an eyebrow.
“I know,” she says, lifting a hand, “but it’s true. I’m telling you, somethin’ fishy is going on here.”
“I believe you, miss.” He turns halfway toward the open hole at the side of the world and pauses. “When you were talkin’ to people, did anybody mention... that?”
She glances over his shoulder and grimaces. “I think most of ‘em are trying to ignore it. Why? Do you know what it is?”
That’s when Jed feels it – the pull. He knows that feeling well. It’s the desire to go out into the world and sate the curiosity that’s burning a cigarette hole in his stomach. It’s the duty to come back and tell people what he's seen.
Also, if he listens over the sounds of the people in the town, he can hear muffled voices from beyond the cliffs. This new world might not be one he’s ever seen before, but he’s still an explorer.
“No, I don’t,” he says. “But I think I’m gonna go find out.”
When Octavius opens his eyes for the first time in two millennia, he knows immediately that something is wrong. Whatever this place is, it is not Rome. He knows the area surrounding the Colosseum. These streets are not the streets he remembers. The square is too open – where are all the people? – and on second inspection, the Colosseum isn’t even there. What he had originally assumed to be a building is nothing but a flat painting. It may be the largest painting he’s ever seen, but it still isn’t real.
He turns slowly on his heels, taking in every detail of the imitation world surrounding him. Every new sight unsettles him further.
Something dark catches the corner of his eye. When he turns to look at it directly, his mind goes blank.
The world is missing.
No, he realizes after a moment, it's not. Of course it’s not. That would be ridiculous. But he can’t deny the evidence his own eyes are showing him, and there is definitely a very large hole where the other half of the city should be.
He takes one careful step closer to the border, then another. He doesn’t trust the ground under his feet. None of this is real. He’s sure of it. Every possible piece of evidence is building up in his mind to the same conclusion.
The edge of the world approaches much more quickly than he was expecting. But this, too, doesn’t surprise him, because it’s not real. Why should anything make sense? The only thing that makes sense is that nothing makes sense, and he can’t even think about the logical errors in that sentence because his mind is too busy fighting off the urge to scream.
The world does not end at the edge of Rome. Below him – far below, perhaps a hundred feet or more – is a tile floor. When he looks out, he sees a bench and a barrel that look like they’re sized for giants.
He looks to his right, where clear daylight falls through another window, and there, standing on another wooden ledge, is a man.
He’s too far away for any real detail to be visible, but it’s clear when he sees Octavius, because he jumps and nearly stumbles off the ledge. Then he raises one arm and points right at Octavius.
He looks down at himself self-consciously and freezes.
He’s blank. The familiar lines that used to slash across his forearms are gone, leaving him with skin as unblemished as a newborn. This, more than any of the previous sights, sets him on edge. He, too, staggers back, and now that he’s really looking, all the old scars are missing from his legs, too. There isn’t so much as a scratch on him.
Where is he?
Jed stumbles back from the edge and lets his arm fall to his side. “Oh my God,” he says shakily. His mind can’t formulate a more cohesive thought.
“What?” She grabs him by the shoulder, steadying him. “What did you see?”
Her stare is intense. He can only meet her eyes for a moment before he looks back out into the giant-sized world.
“There’s others,” he manages. “It’s not just us. There’s more of ‘em out there.”
She lets him go and leans back. “Oh my God.”
“And there’s a bench,” he adds. “Huge. It’s got to be two hundred feet tall. Like it was built for giants.”
“Well, I knew that.”
That catches him off guard. “What?”
“It was the first thing I noticed when I woke up today. It's right there. Didn’t you see it?” She looks at him like he’s an idiot.
“No, I – I didn’t really look.”
“Well,” she huffs. “I’m sorry you missed that, cause I thought you already knew about it. I’d’a said something if I realized. But you do know what this means, right?”
“No,” he says.
She grabs him by the gloved hand and yanks him along. “We oughta tell the others about it.” She twists halfway around and winks at him. “I love a good mystery, you know. This’d be fun if I had any clue what was happening.”
Jed follows. Others?
They stride into the center of town. Well, Annie strides. Jed still feels like he’s walking on the wrong feet. The hair on the back of his neck hasn’t laid back down yet. He can’t shake the feeling that something is deeply wrong.
The center of town, for what it’s worth, is more like a dirt patch in the middle of a loose ring of buildings. It seems that while Jed was hiking out to hell and back, every person in the valley collected here.
Annie steps up onto the porch of the nearest building – SALOON, it says in big, comical letters across the front – and clears her throat. She stands with her head held high and her gun steady on her shoulder. If Jed was fool enough to make a guess at her age, he’d be surprised that such a young lady was so self-possessed. Then again, he’s never been that good with ladies. He might have thought she was twenty at first, but she could be anything from fifteen to fifty and he wouldn’t know the difference.
“Excuse me!” she shouts.
One or two heads turn, but it’s nowhere near the consideration she’s clearly hoping for.
“Can I have your attention!”
Nothing continues to happen.
She crosses her arms and looks at Jed. “I need a better idea. This ain’t working.”
“S’cuse me,” says a mild voice.
Jed looks over. The voice belongs to a Chinese woman in a fancy dress, leaning against the outside wall of the saloon.
“Did you need something?” she asks, gaze flicking between Jed and Annie.
Jed has never done well with meeting new people, but Annie clearly has no such issues. “Yes, and it’s important!” she says immediately. “I’m trying to get these people to listen, but nobody will even look at me. I can't get their attention.”
“Well, you got mine.” The woman sizes her up and Annie blushes.
Jed looks away. Even he can tell when he’s intruding on something.
“It’s just – we’re trying to figure out where we are,” she says. “Look, I’ve been talkin’ to a few people and I met this nice boy along the way. Well, he went out to the edge of that big ol’ hole in the wall, and do you know what he saw?”
The lady leans forward. “He really went out there?”
“Not all the way. Just to the edge of the wood part.”
“Well, you’d have to be insane to go further out than that.”
“I am right here,” he mutters.
The women ignore him. Well, it’s good to know some things never change.
“Of course, there’s that big old bench that looks like it’s a hundred feet tall,” Annie says.
“Hard to miss that one,” the lady agrees.
“Ain’t it? More important, though, is the other people out there. There was a man, our size, standing out on a ledge just like the one we’ve got, but about two hundred yards to the left side. He must have seen us, 'cause he turned and left pretty quick.” She straightens up. “That’s what he saw. Ain’t that right, Jedediah?”
“You can just call me Jed,” he says. “And yeah, that’s it. I didn’t think it was that interesting, to be honest.”
“No, it’s very interesting. And you, you wanted to talk to the townsfolk about it?” she asks, looking at Annie.
Annie nods.
“I can get that for you,” the lady says, and she straightens up. “HEY!” she barks.
Every mouth in the square closes. All eyes fall on her. Even though Jed is standing right next to her, no one is paying him any mind. Faintly, through the haze of existential confusion that stubbornly refuses to lift, he’s impressed.
She gestures to Annie. “This nice lady would like to talk to you.”
To her credit, Annie doesn’t miss a beat. “Good morning, neighbors! My name is Annie. I know we’re all very confused right now, and that’s why I am trying to figure it out. Can anyone raise their hand if they know what’s happening?”
No one moves.
“That’s what I thought,” she mutters. “Alright. And does anyone know where we are?”
“I do,” says one of the Chinese rail men. “I don’t know this exact place, but I remember this desert. They used to call it the Mojave."
“So we have a location,” she says. “This is good! Well, it’s a start. Listen, I and my friend here have been out scoutin’ a little bit and we have some information that I think you all ought to know.” She nudges him with her shoulder. “Tell ‘em.”
"What?"
"Just do it."
Ugh, he hates getting put on the spot. He takes a steadying breath and looks out at the crowd. “I went out to the edge. Wherever this is – whoever we are,” he says, “we’re not the only ones.”
The crowd erupts with shouts loud enough to make his ears hurt.
“Quiet!” the lady yells again, but this time, not even her voice is enough to hush the crowd.
“That went well,” Jed mutters, more to himself than anybody else.
“Shh,” Annie says. Then she turns to the lady and smiles. “I’m sorry, I’d thank you properly, but I don’t think we got acquainted yet. What’s your name?”
The woman looks surprised at the question. “Jane,” she says after a moment.
“Jane,” Annie repeats cheerfully. “A nice name for a very nice girl. Well, Jane, thank you very much for your assistance.” She half-turns to leave, but Jane catches her first.
“Hey. Do you and your friend want to come in? You can sit down for a minute.”
Jed’s not sure what he expected from the inside of the saloon, but he sighs in unashamed relief when he sees plain whitewashed walls and rickety furniture. There’s no way he could take any more surprises today.
Then the Chinese woman - Jane - slips behind the bar and uncaps a bottle faster than he can blink.
“Shouldn’t you ask the bartender about that?” he says uncertainly.
She looks him dead in the eye as she takes a swig. “That’d be me,” she says, wiping beer foam from her mouth with the back of her hand. “I was out on the porch when I first woke up and nobody else has been in here yet. And you wanna tell me,” she says, holding out the bottle, “that you wouldn’t want a drink, after the day we’ve had? Hell, I already broke a bottle and sliced myself open on the glass.” She glances down at her hand.
“Aw,” Annie says. “Do you think it’ll show up on someone else? I’d try to guess, but all of my scars are gone, so I don’t know if that even happens here.”
Jed really doesn’t want to have the soulmates conversation right now, so instead he looks over at Annie and asks, “So what do you think we should do next?”
“Oh, I couldn't say,” she demurs.
Jane leans on the bar and sets the bottle down with an audible clack. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I wanna know who our neighbors are.”
“Oh! We could go find out,” Annie says, brightening. She’s almost vibrating with excitement next to him at the prospect. “I saw a whole bunch of climbin’ equipment in the railroaders’ stuff. I bet we could get up and down with those!”
“Whoever they are, they might know more about this place than we do,” Jane adds.
Jed realizes that they’re both looking at him. “What? I ain’t got any ideas. I assumed I was getting dragged along with you no matter what you decide.”
“Sure, but we can’t go alone,” Annie says. She nods in the direction of the crowd gathered outside. “And you’ll have an easier time convincin’ the men out there than I will.”
Jane nods along with her. “Come on, Jedediah. Let the smart lady do the planning. All you have to do is be the spokesman.”
Now, he's made a lot of dumb decisions in his life, but even he knows better than to keep betting on a losing hand. “Alright,” he says. “What’s the plan?”
Jed regrets every single decision that led him here. He regrets living, he regrets dying, and he especially regrets talking to that crazy lady and letting her talk him and those two other suckers into this. The Chinese lady, on the other hand, seems real happy to be here, so he doesn’t feel bad about bringing her along.
He stares up at the edge and lets the rope fall slack in his hand.
“Annie,” he says, “are you sure about this?”
“Positive!”
His doubt must show on his face, because Jane scoffs at him from behind the two other men they dragged along.
“Come on, man. You’re actin’ like a coward. What’s the worst they can do?”
“We don’t know a thing about these people,” he shoots back. “What if they’re crazy, huh?”
“They can’t be crazier’n us!” Annie chirps.
Before he can say another word, she’s swinging the hook in tight circles and flinging it high into the air. It bites into the wooden ledge and she grins at him as she pulls the rope taut.
Well, too late to go back now, Jed thinks, and throws his own rope.