MAXIMUS

I watched my brothers enter John’s apartment, the many looks of concern and despair and confusion upon their faces and I felt full responsibility to lead them through this dangerous battle for our very lives. As they settled, John nodded that both Dr. Maturin and Lachlan Curry were accounted for and present on the speaker phones. I wasted no time with foolishness.

“Brothers, there is something seriously dangerous at play and I wished to speak with you all. Several weeks ago, I found myself in the midst of a frightening vision … one so powerful I swear by all the gods that it was truly happening to me … again. Happening again, I say … because it is exactly a few moments from my life before crossing over to this world. I stood, solid as you see me now, in the bowls of the Coliseum preparing to fight Tigris of Gaul.”

I watched many look to each other and most instantly noted the terrified expressions on a few faces.

“I know that I am not the only one of us to have experienced this strange occurrence. John has, Captain Aubrey has as well as Stephan. I ask you now, who else has had such an experience, as I fear there is some terrible reason for these and we must know all we can to fight it.”

TERRY

This morning I purposely passed on the bloody pain meds, wanting to not only begin to gage my healing, but have a clear head for what lie ahead. Maximus wasn’t fooling around and I should have suspected this big powwow had something to do with that odd vision I had. I reckon I’ve had a bit on my mind that might have muddled the facts for me, that’s all.

I cleared my throat and told my story, and even as I told it, I could feel the stink of sweat and the smell of the Tacalan jungle on me. They were pretty bloody quiet when I finished and I rolled my neck, trying not to think about what that imaginary ghost of an old mate told me. Brian said, the family was gonna need me. Me? Me? I’m in no fuckin’ condition to help myself, much less this family.

With John, Jack, Stephan and the Roman General himself also having visions, I gotta admit, I was getting really bloody worried now. What good am I if I can’t take care of them? It’s my job to take care of them all. It’s what I fuckin’ do!

DINO

Fuck! I could see it in my main man’s eyes, knew exactly where Terry’s head was going. This wasn’t good, not good at all. Why the fuck can’t Terry learn to take a fucking back seat once in a goddamn while? I mean, the whole world isn’t his fucking responsibility … and Lord knew, he was in no shape to be playing Atlas.

“I’m a negative, everyone, no visions here,” I said and eyed a few of the young ones. “How about you guys. Hando?”

The skinhead shook his head.

“Col?”

“Bloody hell no, thank’ fuckin’ God.”

I eyed Andy and he simply shrugged, said he hasn’t had any strange experiences then I looked at poor Kim. The dude looked like he’d piss his pants, he was so scared.

“Kim?”

KIM

I could feel my hands shaking as I listened to the others tell of their experiences and I balled them into tight fists and slipped them into the pockets of my jacket. Even Thorne was out of sorts, and I think I found that most disturbing of all. I can’t understand why neither Hando, Colin, Andy nor I haven’t had anything like this happen to us, and the realization that it could yet happen was kind of like having a death sentence hanging over our heads.

Not too long ago, I wouldn’t have really minded all that much if I had somehow managed to go back, but as with the rest of us, so much had changed since we first crossed over. I don’t know how I can face the possibility of leaving when so much of my life is here, right now. How bloody ironic – I’ve finally begun to feel that I’ve been accepted and belong, and while I have no wife or girlfriend or children of my own, all I can think of is how I don’t want to leave Emily behind. Please, dear Lord, if there is a way around this, I promise I’ll come clean to her and make it up in any way I possibly can.

“No mate. Not me, no visions here,” I said.

Dino nodded. “What about you, Lach?”

LACHLAN

“Yeah, I did, mates,” I shouted into the receiver for them all to hear then told my own story.

I’m simply not prepared for the magnitude of what’s been happening. It’s terrifying enough when I recall my own experience of being pulled back into a past where I no longer belong, but to hear the others’ accounts of their experiences borders on the unthinkable. I couldn’t see their faces as I listened in on the phone, but I could hear the fear reflected in their voices. It doesn’t make any sense – why did I cross over while the others my age haven’t? Are their experiences yet to come? I can only imagine what must be going through Colin and Hando’s minds. Bloody hell, to relive the horror of going back right to the moments before death? I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

The conversation grew quiet and I was lost in my own thoughts when I heard Dino asking Ben Wade if he’d experienced his own vision. I certainly wasn’t bloody prepared for his answer.

BEN

After that speaker phone contraption shouted a man named Curry’s experience, Dino gave me a glare he might’ve thought would intimidate me and asked if I’d ‘done any traveling’. Maybe they were afraid to go back but I admit, I sure ain’t. Fuck, I’m hoping to go back.

I sipped whisky and gave a crooked grin then told them what I felt and saw. The only thing I didn’t tell them was what I was planning when it happened. A robbery … and I wondered if maybe that was why I had the … vision. Was that why the others had their visions? ‘Cause maybe they too were wishin’ for it?

I grunted, stood and stared out the window. “I’d go back if I got the chance,” I returned to my seat and gave them all a glare. “I’d go back … fuck yeah, I would.”

That’s when that old coot Wigand gave me a nastier look than I was giving them and simply grunted, “Watch what you wish for, buddy.” 

JACK

I had been listening with rapt interest, particularly regarding the discovery that many of us had not had a vision. I set my mind to the problem to find a pattern, a plan behind who had these experiences and who had not. Perhaps that would help in charting a course for ourselves when Mr. Wade’s declaration struck a particular minor chord.

“Go back?” I stood and began to pace. “Abandon ship and leave the rest of us adrift? Are you mad, sir? We all play an important part in this battle and we must stand together. Otherwise, we will fail. Without every one of us lending our courage and support, we will lose this battle and possibly our very lives.” I turned back to Mr. Wade. “And that includes you, sir.”

I looked to my gathered brothers, and truly brothers we are. “We are family, Mr. Wade, maybe not in name but definitely in flesh and blood. To lose even one brother will diminish us all. This is a true test of that bond, and we cannot allow ourselves to fall prey to division and strife in the face of our greatest challenge.We need you Mr. Wade. We need your intellect in planning a course of action. You are a member of this family, sir, whether you appreciate that fact or not.”

ANTONY

Hearing the sea captain’s impassioned speech, fear rose like fire from my gut. Fight? Battle? Family? Was I too family? And what was he proposing we are fighting.

“Pardon, General, Captain, brothers … but exactly what are you thinking? Are you suggesting that we may be sucked back into our previous lives, because unlike Mr. Wade there, I have no fucking life to return to! I lay on the Egyptian Palace floor with a Roman sword in my chest!”

“Calm yourself, brother,” Pullo gripped my shoulder and pulled me to my chair. I did not even realize I had risen, begun to shout, exposed my deepest terror as a man and soldier.

Pullo sighed and shrugged. “I’m not dead back in that life, but I will say, I’ve no interest in going back there. I have Valerie to care for, and the vineyard. A full life here. We must all pull together to figure this out, or we all stand to lose a lot.”

A lot was a bit of an understatement, for as Pullo had his daughter and vineyard … I have Claudia and I will not sacrifice the future I wish for with her. “I will not go, I say. I will not.”

JEFF

I listened to Pullo and Antony’s fear, to the others as they gave their own accounts of what they’d experienced. And as I had been doing all day yesterday and today, I was again trying to come up with some sort of scientific explanation for what was happening. I’d been scribbling notes all throughout our meeting, trying to graph some sort of commonality that must have existed, wholly believing that the answer would be a matter involving some sort of quantum physics. However, I’m hardly an expert in this area. 

I glanced over at Thorne and then at Aubrey, their expressions grim and full of worry. “I had my own similar experience just yesterday morning gentlemen,” I began. “Everything from that moment was brought back again and I have no doubt that for that brief span of time, I was actually physically back in my old element.”

I didn’t mention how I had seen my daughters once again and how I’m still trying to come to terms with that. I held up a graph I had made in an attempt to chart some sort of pattern as to why some of us had shifted back and yet others hadn’t, but they only looked upon it with questioning eyes. Is there a bigger power at play somehow? Why is all this happening now, years after several of us had originally crossed over to this existence?

“There has to be some sort of pattern, but I’m at a loss as to what it could be.” I regarded each one of them, frustrated over my ineffectiveness. “We need some help here, someone who can figure this stuff out. And we’re obviously not it.”

“Dr. Wigand,” came Stephen’s voice over the speaker phone. “My dear brother and colleague, I too have been attempting to decipher this quandary. I most wholeheartedly agree that we will need assistance, but for now, I will say that I have made arrangements to arrive in Vermont by tomorrow afternoon and we can begin working together.”

“Wonderful, Stephen. Perfect.” I groaned then rubbed my eyes. “Lach? What about you, son? Any chance you too can get closer to home?”

“Not possible,” Lachlan’s voice rumbled and we all shook our heads, not liking the fact that he’d be so far away at a time like this. “I’ve got no grounds to ask for leave, mates. Just keep in touch. Max, I’ll e-mail my sheila’s phone and e-mail address. She’ll contact you if … if … ya know, if I just disappear or somethin’. And if ya can’t reach me, you contact her if anything develops there.”

CORY

The room fell dead silent and I ain’t gonna lie, I was fuckin’ terrified. Could hardly believe what I was hearing. But … I was thinking maybe I had a little guidance they could use. I simply walked over to the General and stood beside him. Yeah, he grinned, real tolerant dude for a Roman General, ya know.

“Um, I got something to say here,” I said. “That okay?”

Maximus gave me this regal, tilted nod and I cleared my throat, rubbed my hand over the fuzz that was once my long hair.

“Okay. Listen,” I started. “I know you all think I have no rights to talk here and nothing I’m about to say could possibly help … but I really do have a lot to say. See, last night I was up in that left tower and me and my granddad had us a long talk. See, Bud White, he has a few ideas about what might be happening here.”

I watched them all roll their eyes and listened to them grumble under their breath but that all stopped the minute the opened bedroom door suddenly slammed shut … real fucking loud. Fuck, it was a hoot, they all jumped and were startled but not me. I just shrugged and said, “Uh … granddad says to shut the fuck up and listen.” Everyone shut the fuck up … every single one of them.

“Okay, granddad is sure this has to do with the portals. He said from his side, he’s seeing the fluctuations in energy,” Biebe gave me a glare and I clarified. “Of course, he didn’t say ‘fluctuations in energy’. What he said was that the balance was all fucked up, kinda like an earthquake and he could feel it. He talked about some sort of outside manipulation and,” damn, their eyes were all glazing over. “Well, listen to me, I’ve got a really good suggestion you’re all probably gonna hate, but I swear to God, it’s a really good shot at getting a few answers.”

Maximus straightened in his chair. “Go on, Cory.”

“Gemma. Yeah, yeah, you all think she’s some kind of crackpot but I swear, she’s the best damn psychic and medium I ever saw in my life … and that’s what I do, guys. I study people with these kinds of powers. She’s amazing … and already sensing something very strong here and may already be primed to get to the bottom of this.”

No one said a word. I grunted, shrugged. “Fuck, anybody here got a better idea?”

It was Terry Thorne who simply sighed. “Go for it, mate. Go get her and bring her here.”

This should be fucking interesting as hell,” Biebe groaned and went for beers all around. Me, I rushed from the apartment and trotted downstairs to find Gemma Kane.

GEMMA

Where have all the women gone? I’ve never seen it so quiet at the Inn and I’ve been staying here for two solid weeks. Marla at the front desk explained that all the ladies (including little Valerie) who live at the Inn or are related to the owners have gone to New York for a day of beauty. I admit, I was privately jealous and started to seriously wonder …  then … where are all the men? Where’s Cory? Obviously even Daisy was invited for the outing and that made sense, after all, Cory is family, right. What would I have to do to get sent off for a day of beauty in fancy Manhattan?  

“You gotta come with me and Gemma … you gotta open your mind … and your heart. Ready?”