"Oh, popcorn and Coke!" "Man, I cannot tell you what a joy it is to slide into a world where we can take in a movie." "Sorry, guys." "Time is something we are out of." "All right, this Gable guy I can sort of understand, but what kind of world would make Bogart a star?" "He's short, he lisps..." "Girl, if you don't get it, I can't explain it to you." "Counting down." "Six, five..." "Come on." "Well, it's still San Francisco." "400-mile radius and we don't go four feet." "Welcome to the same old same old." "Not exactly." "I guess the convention's not in town." "Bet it won't be hard getting a room." "No bodies." "Looks like everyone just took a powder." "Well, whatever the story is, we're here for a week." "Okay." "Hey!" "Hello!" "Anybody!" "Looks like we missed it by a couple of years." "You think maybe Kromaggs?" "No blast marks, no rubble." "They're generally a lot showier." "Hey!" "I've heard of bio-warfare experiments." "So what're you saying?" "That everything is dead?" "Not everything." "What if you found a portal to a parallel universe?" "What if you could slide into a thousand different worlds where it's the same year and you're the same person, but everything else is different?" "And what if you can't find your way home?" "Get out of here!" "Move!" "It's a good thing the keys were in the door." "You'd be Puppy Chow." "Family home's still here." "It looks a little worse for wear." "Oh, please." "Hello?" "Hello?" "Any Mallorys on the premises?" "Nada." "Hey, get a load of this." ""To Quinn Mallory. "" "That's the McKay Prize for Scholarship, that's the Pedderson Award." "I tried for these, but never won." "Looks like the Quinn on this world is more of an egghead than you are." "If that's possible." "Quinn." "On this world, my mom died when I was a little kid, and I was raised by my dad." "The other me turned out to be somebody." "You know, you're no slouch." "Yeah." "Except every time I try to retool this to accept my brother's coordinates..." "Each world, I keep hoping for a physicist to help me, but with every slide, we just get farther and farther away." "Quinn!" "Come on, let's check out the basement." "Whoa!" "Well, it looks like they had one hell of a party." "More like one hell of a tantrum." "When did this happen, and why?" "So what's to do?" "We find food we can eat, keep clear of anything that can eat us, and make it through the week." "You guys head on up." "I'm gonna have another look around." "Don't take too long." "He's hurting, Rembrandt." "Lost." "I know that feeling." "Well, Quinn finds out he's from another world, your home is blown up, and mine is taken over by Kromaggots." "I guess we're all shipwrecked in one way or another." "But at least we're all floating on the same piece of driftwood." "What's taking him so long?" "Yeah." "Hey, Q-Ball!" "Shake a leg, man!" "We got places to go!" "People to see." "Oh, my God!" "Oh, my God, who are you?" "Where have you been?" "How did you survive?" "It's Quinn." "We just got here." "You stay back." "I'm alone." "I'm alone, I'm alone." "We're as real as you are." "We're just not from here." "I don't understand." "Look, friend, we'll tell you the whole nine yards." "But, first, where in the devil is everybody?" "I built a machine in my basement." "An antigravitational device, or that's what I thought it was." "But when I..." "When I threw the switch, it wiped every human being off the face of the Earth." "Funny thing, I've traveled all over, and somehow I always end up back here." "It's a good thing I did." "So for three years, you thought you were the last man on Earth?" "I was the last man." "It took a while to dawn on me, but, you know, at first I thought it was just local, and then..." "Then I realized it was everywhere." "We all tell ourselves, "I feel so alone,"" "but you have no idea." "I'd..." "I'd listen to old records, watch old movies, just to hear a voice that wasn't my own." "The device you built must've been a lot more powerful than mine." "This wave of light surged out and covered everything, and when it cleared, they were gone." "A slide wave." "And being in the eye of the storm, it didn't take you." "It shouldn't have happened." "I did everything right." "Except test it." "That was the test!" "Look, I'm sorry." "I know how you must feel about me, but..." "Look around!" "I've paid the price!" "You have?" "What about everyone else?" "Didn't you ever think that they might not be dead?" "I realized they might've been sent to another time or another dimension." "But what difference did it make?" "The difference between them being dead and alive!" "I mean, what difference did it make, in the sense that I couldn't get them back?" "So you tried to replicate the experiment?" "Yeah, yeah, but I..." "I couldn't get the exact parameters." "So, in the end, I just got so crazy-mad" "I just smashed it all to pieces." "Yeah, we saw that." "You got any notes or diagrams?" "Why?" "We might be able to rebuild your equipment, get a line on where you sent everyone." "I told you, that's impossible." "Well, every now and then, we've managed to do the impossible." "We've been sliding for a while now." "We might know a trick or two that you don't." "There might be some notes in the storeroom." "That is one cold-hearted "hombre. "" "It's like nothing else matters but him." "Destroying your world is a hard thing to face." "He's been through a lot." "And hope is a dangerous thing." "Yeah, maybe this kid is cut from a different cloth, Q-Ball." "What're you saying?" "I'm saying that what keeps you up at night, maybe he sleeps through it." "Notes should be in here somewhere, if the rats and spiders haven't gotten to them first." "Ah!" "Ah!" "Ah!" "Ah!" "Careful with that." "It's the Nobel Prize." "My dad won it." "Not that he cared much." "Till the day he died, all he ever valued was pure science." "Quite a collection between the two of you." "Oh, mine?" "Kid stuff." "Meant nothing." "He was a tough act to follow." "You have no idea." "Maybe I do." "Distinguished Flying Cross," "Silver Palm with cluster," "Congressional Medal of Honor..." "At home, we called him "the General. "" "Lots of us have ghosts." "Oh!" "Ah!" "You don't think small, do you?" "Remember, skip anything with water damage or corrosion." "Did you get those lithium batteries?" "Yeah, I got 10 of them." "Get 12." "This world gives self-service a whole new meaning." "A little rusty, but they'll do." "Not that any of this is gonna work, though, you know." "I tried." "You don't like someone doing something you can't." "I don't like the idea of wasted time." "It can't be done." "You're afraid." "What of?" "Nothing." "Let's just get this over with." "Oh, yes!" "Hey, what's the deal?" "That's not on the list." "It's a bio-med scanner." "If the world he slid everyone to already had people on it, we'll need some way to differentiate the ones from here so we can slide them back." "I might be able to adapt this to detect a trace sliding signature in their cells." "You know, I was just gonna suggest that very same thing." "Come on, guys, we have to move on." "We have everything we need?" "Yeah." "Yeah, now all we got to do is put it together." "That is powerful enough to slide the whole planet?" "The original was a lot smaller, but I had to make do." "What's the matter, Quinn?" "Got device envy?" "So, when we jump to the other world, this will send out a slide wave?" "No, we reset it for a narrower field." "Besides, it'd take a lot more juice than this battery could crank out." "The first time, I crashed the entire West Coast power grid." "For a test?" "Hey, gizmo looks pretty good." "Hey, Rembrandt, where have you been?" "Well, you never can tell what kind of world you might be sliding into." "While you two eggheads were jerry-rigging this baby," "I figured I'd get us some coin of the realm." "Ho, ho!" "Not to mention a mint copy of "Superman" Number 1." "This world might be dead, but it still has its advantages." "So, the big moment." "You want the honors?" "I'll take point." "Never argue with a lady who's got a gun." "The world you made." "Not up to it?" "Is it always that rough?" "You mean like being dragged behind a truck in a canvas sack?" "The slide wave must have damaged the dimensional pathway." "What'll that do?" "I don't know yet." "So, how's the machine?" "Cooling down." "But I want to run a diagnostic." "But I'll say this for it." "It landed us just where we set it to go." "Pretty wild, huh?" "You travel to different dimensions, only to wind up in the same room." "Yeah." "But this ain't my room." "Hey!" "How you doing, there, little fellow?" "Hey, kid!" "Maggie, no!" "Sister!" "Sister!" "Hey!" "Hey, where've they been?" "Hey!" "What are you doing?" "Get that weapon away from me." "Back off!" "Now!" "And as for you, put up your weapon, or you are going to be one less soul on this blighted Earth." "You better do what she says." "She's not one to bluff." "Quiet!" "Quiet!" "I can't hear myself think!" "Well, you got rivets, I'll give you that." "And how you got past the tripwire, the razor blades, and not to mention the dogs..." "I'm telling you we didn't break in, we..." "Materialized, right." "You're three years too late." "The little kid saw us." "Last week he saw the Easter Bunny." "Look, we got no drugs, no fuel, and this shelter can't half-feed the mouths it's already got." "So you've had some hard times." "What gave you your first clue?" "And if this box is some scam that you're running..." "Don't touch that!" "Believe me, you won't like it." "All right, so what do we do now?" "Play board games?" "Get rid of them." "Throw them out." "Come on, let's go." "Come on!" "Wait a minute!" "Hey!" "I know you don't buy what we're saying, so why don't you tell us what happened three years ago?" "And why don't you drop the act?" "It's not going to get you anything." "It started a long time ago." "God saw what became of the world, and he made a terrible rain." "And he told Noah, "Bring the animals two by two. "" "And he spared them." "But in time, the world became as it had been:" "Unholy, corrupt." "And so God brought his terrible judgment." "He made two by two," "only this time it was with people." "What had been one became two." "Five billion became ten." "And so hell was made manifest." "So we could see what we had done to his beautiful creation." "This is our penance" "and our shame." "Well, that's just one theory." "There are plenty to go around." "Oh, my Lord." "I did it." "What?" "What did he say?" "What?" "It wasn't God." "I did it." "You did?" "Clear away." "Clear away." "No, no, no, no, no." "It needs to be checked out." "Oh." "Okay." "Don't!" "I'll show you!" "Shut it down!" "Now!" "Shut it down!" "Great!" "This is just great!" "Well?" "I've seen magicians pull stunts like that." "Are you on crack, Sister?" "Then maybe we should do something that they can't." "Look at that!" "With all of this, why would we need to rob you?" "But I guess you could rob us." "You got to have some trust." "Perkins!" "Where's Perkins?" "Perkins?" "Here he is!" "Now, what you saw in the basement," "are you sure about that?" "Yeah!" "They came out of nothing!" "They weren't there, and then they were!" "So just what do you want?" "The wrath of the great unwashed." "And you wonder why I feel superior?" "You set something on fire." "They put it out." "Yes, I wonder how that makes you superior." "Whatever you say, pal." "We're not like them." "I'll give you this." "You may have a losing personality, but it really is an amazing design." "This is just for starters." "I've got lots..." "Hey, Q-Ball, I'm scanning these folk, but I can't make heads or tails of these numbers." "Just jot them down." "Unless we can zero in on their trace signature, we won't be able to ship these people back." "Of course, that's assuming we ever get this running." "We needed a visual aid." "I turned it on." "We had to show them something." "Yes." "But not that." "Do you have to stand so close, Sister Rambo?" "Word's gotten out about you." "They all know you did this to them." "So maybe you better be grateful for a bodyguard." "You hate me, too?" "How's it looking?" "Not good." "We need replacement parts, and we can't exactly go back to where we came from." "So we go around the corner to the radio shed." "Let me clue you in." "This ain't no Mayberry." "When the federal government collapsed, all these warlords sprung up." "The one we got here's just called "the Boss. "" "His cops run the streets, and you don't want to mess with them." "So what are you saying?" "Do what you have to, but do it fast." "Boy, their curfew must be strict." "The streets aren't too crowded." "Hold on." "I'll take that." "I don't think so." "Give him the gun, Maggie." "No way." "We need those parts, Maggie." "Do I get a claim check?" "This ain't no coat check, sweetheart." "We keep it." "Why do I get the feeling that the customer is always wrong?" "Okay, how much for all this stuff?" "What do you got?" "I bet we got just enough." "Well, well!" "Made out like bandits, didn't you?" "Come on." "Come on." "You know, I've been thinking." "You and I make a good team." "This doesn't have to be the end of things." "It could be the start." "What are you saying?" "We get back, maybe you miss the slide window, we build another one of these, a better one." "My father was right." "I get impatient, make mistakes." "But you, you're slow, you're steady." "For you, the equations..." "Wait a minute." "You're talking about a mathematical mistake." "What else?" "I was trying to cut across the continuum without..." "Doesn't matter." "Most of the world's greatest discoveries were an accident." "Together, we could do something with this, show them it was worth the cost!" "That's still what this is about for you!" "Proving your genius." "Haven't you seen?" "Heard?" "Haven't you looked around?" "Hasn't any of this affected you at all?" "Of course." "But what happened happened." "Hey, in science, you can't control every..." "Science didn't throw that switch, you did!" "Hey, Quinn!" "When I first tested it, it was small, and on myself." "Not on the whole damn world." "You didn't have to use that much power." "Hey." "You just didn't give a damn!" "The universe has risks." "The universe has no conscience." "So we have to." "Let it in." "You blew it." "Quinn." "The answer's no!" "Hey, Maggie, Maggie, let them hatch it out for themselves." "Hey, watch out!" "Watch out." "Hey, whoa, come on!" "Hey, what did we do, Jaywalk?" "These aren't like the cops back home!" "Yeah, speak for yourself!" "Come on!" "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Through there!" "Let's go!" "You came back for me." "Not for you." "For who I'd be if I didn't." "All right, come on." "Brought you some stew." "Leave it on the step." "What do you see up there?" "What do you want me to see?" "My dark soul?" "Look, we're tired." "Why don't you give us both a break?" "I was just remembering." "Right after my mom died, my dad took me up to the roof and showed me the stars." "He said we're all made of star stuff, and it's up to us to blaze across the sky" "and burn ourselves into the world, so we'd never be forgotten." "There are other ways to matter." "I'll buy a dog." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry, I've got a headache and I'm just not in the mood for sympathy." "In some ways you're so different, and in some ways you're exactly the same." "Than Saint Quinn?" "He's not..." "He's no saint." "But he does care about people." "Sometimes too much." "And not about being some name in a history book." "I'll let you in on something." "Daddy's gone." "And unless you start caring about someone, even if you're not the last man on Earth," "you're gonna be alone." "I was right about the sliding signature." "We can realign the slide wave to return the population of your world anytime we'd like." "But there is a catch." "The next slide wave will collapse the path between the two worlds." "It should get everyone there safely..." "But it's just a one-way ticket." "Hold on a minute, Q-Ball." "I mean, the world's moved on since three years past." "Now, a woman I spoke to here married someone who "appeared,"" "and they had a kid." "Now, the slide takes everyone with a signature, right?" "We're gonna smash a lot of stuff up here." "Before the change," "I was half a person." "I'd do good works, touch the lives of others." "But somehow, no one ever touched me." "Then I met my other self." "It was like I'd found home." "I got to watch myself outside myself." "A mirror on all my flaws and my strengths." "Beyond all else," "I prize her, being with her." "I'd give my life for that." "But you've got to send us back." "Two worlds with abundance." "Not one that's dying." "All right." "All I got to do is throw the switch." "But we need power." "Stifle!" "I have a dream." "A bathtub full of soap bubbles." "Soft music playing." "And nothing else." "Maybe we all have a shot at that." "But we have to make it happen." "Electricity!" "The Boss doesn't care if the little people starve in the streets, freeze in the cold, huddle in the dark." ""Power to the people" means just his people." "The power station is part of his palace, fortress, whatever." "It's next to his throne room." "So just how do we get there?" "Roberto!" "This is my good right hand." "He can get anything, fix anything, knows a lot about a little and a little about a lot." "You forgot to kiss my ring." "And before he got the boot, was honcho at the power station." "Whatever you're thinking..." "We just got to borrow some juice." "Uh-uh!" "No way." "If we pull this off, everyone will have a second chance." "You'll all have hope again!" "And 250 in silver." "Just where were you hiding that?" "Feeder cable shaft will get us there." "But in and out, no photo ops." "So, where do we find this place?" "This way." "Look." "You can't miss it." "I would definitely call that a fortress." "The static from the feeder lines made the security cams all hinky." "After a while, they just stopped bothering." "Man, this was one cherry job." "Lived like Elvis if you toed the line, women, cars and a health plan." "So what got you canned?" "They wanted me to fry this guy, you know, wire up this urinal so that when he took a whiz, zap?" "But I couldn't." "I mean, him and me had been in Boy Scouts." "Let's just pretend I fired off a volley to get your attention." "Now, I don't want to do that, 'cause it's a mess patching equipment, prying out slugs." "So drop your weapons, okay?" "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again, Roberto." "Hey, Eldon." "We always treated each other square." "How about you let us go?" "If it was just me, maybe." "But these guys got big mouths." "They just can't be trusted." "Let's go." "Cubans." "Hard to come by nowadays." "$2,500 apiece." "But oh, so pleasurable." "These were a gift, brought to me by a petitioner." "So." "What have you brought me?" "Spiritual comfort?" "The optimism of youth?" "Roberto." "See, they don't know me, but you do." "Last time, you had a spare." "No such luxury this time." "Is there something you want to tell me, Roberto?" "Well, at least it isn't another cell." "Wonder what Roberto is telling him." "He's singing our praises, no doubt." "Listen, I got a plan." "We lay it all out for the Boss in exchange for our services." "Services?" "Like what?" "Designing armor, weapons, that kind of stuff." "In exchange for giving us what we need." "Like our lives?" "And research facilities." "So maybe this guy gets to be boss of sliding?" "Not if we play our cards right." "You want to work for this sociopath and give him more power?" "I owe you an apology." "The sister was right." "A mirror of our strengths and flaws." "When I first saw all those trophies and awards, there was a moment I envied you." "We both act like it's about what we do, not what we are." "Being smarter than anyone." "Remmy, what's important?" "Maggie?" "I'm sorry if I haven't gotten through to you." "But if you say a word, I'll still break your neck." "Ooh!" "Your presence is requested." "You know, I love this job." "You ask for things, and you get them!" "Come." "Roberto and I have been having the most stimulating chat." "A little hard to believe." "I mean, it's quite a fish story, that you, uh..." "You caused all this?" "But if it's true, I owe you quite a debt of thanks." "See, my life before that wasn't meeting my expectations." "What'd you do?" "Walk behind parades with a shovel?" "Ha!" "Sorry." "Close!" "I wrote greeting cards." "Listen, let's just plug it in, flip the switch." "World will be a much better place." "World looks pretty good from where I'm sitting." "Give it a rest." "The man's heart is made of solid meat." "Ooh!" "Not bad, though." "I may use that." "Eldon?" "Read it its rights." "Eldon, wait!" "What?" "You think you get a vote here?" "You don't get a vote." "Eldon, the way I see it, there are two kinds of cops." "The cowboy jerks and the regular guys who want to make things better, who don't always do what they're told." "Eldon." "Now, this can take this world back to the way it was, or at least closer." "You blow it to pieces, and it'll stay hell here forever." "Now, look," "I'd really like to help you." "But I'm no hero." "Eldon, wait!" "Your moving speech has changed my mind." "Read him his rights first." "No!" "Quinn!" "Hey, man, she's got a gun!" "You okay?" "You're still on our time!" "Come on!" "I owe you, man." "Go!" "Move it!" "Come on, man!" "Get going!" "Got the door!" "Damn." "You see what happens when you people get through to me?" "Talk me through it." "Now." "Grab that cable, hook the bare wire into your terminals." "Don't touch it until I turn it off." "Keep pressure on it." "The power!" "Can't we kill the power?" "Not from this side!" "You're a real beauty queen, you are." "A real champion!" "I want that door open now!" "Get back." "Clear!" "Go!" "Let's go!" "Move it!" "Move it!" "Move!" "Move!" "Check upstairs!" "Go!" "Shoot!" "Shoot!" "Shoot to kill!" "Fire!" "Fire!" "I'm out!" "If you got something to do, I'd do it now!" "Hit it!" "Remmy!" "Initiating sequence!" "Yeah!" "Now, that's a ride worth the ticket!" "Take it easy, fellows." "Put the guns on safety." "You're home." "Hey, Boss." "Because I care to send the very best." "Here." "You'll be okay." "Speak for yourself!" "I'm not used to getting shot." "I guess it woke me up, though." "Hey, you got everybody back." "But to what?" "We'll be getting you blankets and food shortly." "What?" "Well, that's just one thing..." "So, I'm taking the Mother Teresa route." "Might be a bad fit, but what the hell." "Almost time." "With the circuitry I've integrated from your specs, we should be able to slide to the coordinates of my brother's world." "If it doesn't burn out first." "Adopted, a brother, different worlds, different lives." "Infinite possibilities." "For them?" "They've got room to breathe now, thanks to you, buddy." "Yeah, but all they'll remember is that I sent them there in the first place." "You could come with us." "Fresh start." "No." "Thanks." "I've got some work to do." "Okay, then." "You could stay here, you know." "I got a room you can rent, or we could share one." "Thanks, but..." ""No. "" "He's a good guy." "Yeah." "All right." "Next stop, family reunion?" "Or God knows what." "My father once said," ""We can be the captain of our ship but not of the sea. "" "What does that mean?" "That we have to accept what the world hands us." "And ourselves."