Free The Fabric Of Reality by Benjamin Kelly Page B

anywhere. Oh, wait. Come closer to the tear.”
    Gil leaned down slightly, put his face directly beside their clasped hands, and Alesia kissed his lips.
    “For good luck,” she said, then disappeared.
    Gil stayed as still as possible to make it easier for her to find him when she returned.
    A few moments later, her face appeared in front of him. “Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for a while. It’s difficult to find the exact spot.”
    “Yes, the tear is growing smaller.”
    “I should have kissed you longer. Perhaps I would have had better luck. I found the slot, but it’s empty. There’s no black box.”
    He let his shoulders slump and nodded, unable to keep his disappointment from showing. “Well, I guess all that we can do is wait until the tear closes. And say good-bye.”
    Alesia gazed at him with determination in her eyes. “Come on, Gil, there has to be something we can do to make this tear larger. If we do, you could come through to my Reality and live in my village. The elders would gladly welcome a new man.” She grasped at the edges of the tear, but there was nothing to grab hold of.
    “If I came to your village with you, would you still have to marry the baron?”
    All the joy drained from her face. “I am legally bound to marry him, but there are so many single women, you could easily find one who would happily be your wife.”
    “I could never accept that.”
    She raised an eyebrow as a devious grin spread across her lips. “We could run away and make a home in the forest, just the two of us. It would be a difficult life. We would have to hunt wild game to survive, like my ancestors who first established our village, but we could do it together.”
    “That, I would accept.”
    Her face lit up with delight. “You would spend your life in the wilderness with only me?”
    “Yes, Alesia, if it were possible, I would.”
    She raised her hand and offered it to him. “Hold on tightly, and we’ll walk farther away. Maybe if we let go that will make a larger tear.”
    “My device is destroyed. We can’t manipulate this tear without it. If I had the time I could build another one, but the Barrier is failing. I estimate it will last a few more hours at most. Alesia, I want to tell you while I still have time, I wish with all my heart this was only our beginning, not our end. You’re an exceptionally beautiful woman and a wonderful person. I’m sorry we didn’t meet under better circumstances, but I’m glad we met. I wouldn’t trade these few hours we’ve spent together for an entire lifetime where I never met you.”
    “So that’s it, you’re giving up?”
    “When this tear closes, I want you to run away. Find another village and a good man who will love you. You deserve that, Alesia.”
    She shook her head, frowning at him. “There are no other villages. The war destroyed everything. Only a handful of humans survived. All that remains of humanity is here. Our ancestors traveled to this location after the war, from all over the world. For hundreds of years this was the only place on Earth capable of sustaining life. There are only thirty thousand of us now. Some biological agent left over from the war caused a Great Epidemic. We lost so many that our numbers have never recovered. Every year fewer and fewer male babies are born. The village elders say that if the trend continues, we’ll reach a point where everyone will be too closely related to sustain a viable population. That’s why the rich old men cast aside their wives who have only given them daughters and purchase the debts of orphan girls. They’re hoping to find one who will produce sons.”
    “Alesia, the male determines the gender of his offspring, not the female. If the women of your village are not having sons, it’s most likely because the men have some problem related to producing the Y chromosome. This epidemic you spoke of could have played a role.”
    “Vast sums of ancient knowledge have been lost. There may