Free SNAP! and the Alter Ego Dimension by Ann Hite Kemp

appeared next to him. Tammy was now certain she was witnessing an unfinished murder scene. A murder transferred here from another world.
    She still stood dead still. Hiroshi, next to her, was also absolutely motionless, but remained clutching his sword tightly. A grimace betrayed his indecision over whether to strike at the gunman, his alter self or await events. Ulrich breathed deeply. Tammy was afraid to turn her head to look at Etsu, but guessed she was as petrified as the rest of them. They all stared at the strange scene unfolding right in front of their eyes.
    “What the hell?” the armed man cried while he looked into the face of his counterpart. Tammy estimated that the gunman was around thirty years old.
    “What’s going on? Where am I?”
    The accent was Australian,
or perhaps New Zealand?
Tammy thought. Then she realized he was lifting his pistol to shoot his alter ego.
    “Welcome to the Alter Ego Dimension,” the alter ego answered. “I’m your other self. Give the pistol to me. Here there are no policemen. Here nobody will ever know what you did today.” As the weapon continued to track the man’s other self, the alter ego lost its color and he backed away. “I know what you think,” it blustered. “Wait. Don’t shoot. Wait! Don’t!”
    Then the alter ego turned and ran off into the grayness.
    With total disbelief, Tammy saw the wounded man’s other self crawling from the grayness. It crawled slowly as if there was little strength left in his body. He crawled next to the wounded man and muttered softly, “
Snap
,” his lips barely moving.
    Then he vaporized like mist before a hot sun.
    Tammy knew that the man lying in the pool of blood had just died. And, she had no doubt; the Australian gunman was a cold-blooded killer.
    She stared at the dead man, revolted by his death, but curious about what would happen next.
Would he be transferred back to earth?
    Everyone must be thinking the same
, she reasoned, for still none of her friends moved. When a few seconds passed and he was still lying there motionless, Tammy felt he would stay.
Would anybody even know that he was murdered, or would he be missing from earth forever? Where did his alter ego go? Did it go to earth to die there instead of him, or was it now dead, too?
    She wondered if all the missing people that were never found had been transferred here.
Probably not
, she reasoned, because their alter egos would have taken their place. Unless . . . unless earth people and their other selves died together here and it happened too quickly for the transfer . . .
    Again the murderer swung his pistol in their direction. Tammy peered over Ulrich’s shoulder right into the muzzle. Her blood ran cold. Should the man shoot now, he couldn’t miss. Perhaps Ulrich and she would be killed by the same shot, but it was more likely he would take out the armed Hiroshi first.
    “Please, sir, don’t shoot,” begged Tammy. “I’m Tammy Delport from South Africa. Etsu and Hiroshi are Japanese and Ulrich is from Germany. We don’t know why we’re here, but we know a bit about this place. Lower the gun and we can talk. We’ll tell you what we know . . . ” She pleaded.
    The gunman glanced about him, his eyes darting nervously from side to side. Then he seemed to relax a little, motioned Hiroshi away and slowly eased the pistol’s hammer forward. Appearing calmer, he put the weapon in his jacket pocket.
    The murderer was dressed surprisingly neat
, Tammy thought as she cautiously emerged from behind Ulrich. He was dressed in a dark beige suit with a white shirt and a striped tie. Not exactly how she’d expect someone to dress to kill. The tubes and sliding doors looked like they belonged in a warehouse or shed of some type, but unfortunately nothing of the warehouse’s contents had been brought here. It was only the air conditioning’s aluminum tubes, iron panel and the galvanized iron door, that had come through.
    “Where am I? . . . Where are we?”