[WP] Every time you get sick in this life, it means you just died on another universe. Right now everyone on earth is ill but you.

If you are reading this, then I have taken my own life. It is my hope that by doing so I will save the world, or at the very least offer it some solace.

Three years ago I was the Lead engineer and solo pilot of the Punch project, a private endeavour to pioneer a new form of space travel which would in theory be able to send us further through space more quickly than ever before. It would have been a revolution in space travel, instead it became more than we could have imagined. Rather than punch through space to form a shortcut between destinations we punched through to a parallel universe and made discoveries which have changed the face of scientific knowledge.

Not only was a universe running parallel to ours, it was a perfect replica of our own down to every single human on parallel Earth. That was until the punch. The punch created a divergence from the parallel and from that point on we were distinct and separate entities. Both realities were now independent of each other. Whether the punch created the parallel, or discovered it, will be open for debate. But being perfectly parallel meant both myself and my parallel counterpart punched through at the same point at the same time, with the alternative of myself taking my place on what I will call Earth 1, while I was on Earth 2.

To me it seemed like a hurricane had passed over the Punch chamber, my mind was blurred and my stomach churned tumbling through the very essence of space and time. To the observers on Earth 2 the first launch appeared to be a failure. From their perspective the chamber had gone through the motions, but when the process ended the chamber remained in place and hadn’t disappeared as expected. It took some explaining to the crew on Earth 2 that the launch had in fact been successful, I had certainly passed through space, there was no mistaking my own experience or the instrument readings. At first I thought I had gone out and just returned home, but the disconnection between the observers’ account, my own experience, and the chamber’s readings, is what lead us towards the theory that this world wasn’t my own. My parallel had launched the opposite way and took my place on Earth 1.

On Earth 2 we began to discover and explore the unique links between parallel universes. Black holes seemed to be the anchor between us both. All forms of significant energy and life were linked, from the stars down to plants and bacteria. One of the most remarkable discoveries was that where deaths before the punch were parallel, since the divergence a death in one universe instead caused a disturbance, manifesting itself in animals as severe sickness in their parallel in the other. It wasn’t a scientific theory, but we saw this as an attempt by the universe to regain the old balance. A glitch in reality caused by our disruption of the natural order.

On Earth 2 the sickness began to spread now known as the great plague. It eventually struck everyone. Except me.

We exhausted all of our efforts until my colleagues could help no more. The only reasonable conclusion was that the parallel me had taken a different approach after landing on Earth 1. Our mission was to test the new form of travel, but also explore opportunities for Earth to capitalise on newly discovered resources. Where I diverted my attention towards researching this new discovery, my parallel self seems to have disregarded the life of the parallel humans and used whatever research and discoveries he made to take the approach of a conqueror. Given the spread of the sickness it appears he has now killed everyone on Earth 1 except himself.

With the world sick and only getting sicker I have two choices. I can exploit the circumstances or seek vengeance. The parallel sickness appears to be a death sentence if left untreated, with nobody left to treat the parallel of myself I will let that bastard die.

I must make clear, I am not a conqueror or a tyrant. The alter-me is a different man, a different will, a different decision made at the point of divergence. We were the same once, but now we are enemies. I can not put right what we started, but I can take revenge for what he has done. My only hope is that this Earth can recover from the devastation of its twin.

Man must never take this journey again.

Goodbye and good luck,

Adrian Walters

/r/WritingPrompts Thread