Flux by Beth Goobie

real , not like our home level. Once we get back, it’ll fade like a dream. You’ll see.”
    Another cry wavered in the distance, and Deller’s grip tightened. “We can’t go,” he said thickly, “until we get him out.”
    Fear turned cartwheels in Nellie’s head. The guy was a lunatic. She had to dump him, and fast. “You go rescue him,” she hissed, “and I’ll wait here. That ain’t my kind of foolishness.”
    “I can’t get back without you,” Deller said doggedly. “Either you come with me, or I start yelling so loud they’ll find us in five seconds flat.”
    Nellie’s brain blew itself out with shock. “You got a death wish?” she squeaked. “He’s just a stupid double.”
    “What kind of a rerraren are you?” Deller leaned so close she could smell each word. “Don’t you know what a double means, Bunny? You ever seen what happens to a person who goes on living after his soul’s died?”
    “But you’ve got hundreds of doubles,” Nellie protested. She wanted to rake her fingers across his face, scratch some sense into him. “What does one matter?”
    “Do I start yelling now?” Deller whispered threateningly.
    Another scream stroked the air. Nellie hesitated, pondering her options. She could try slowing down the molecular field so Deller couldn’t move, then speed it up again and count on his disorientation to jerk her arm free of his grip. But then what? Better to fool him into thinking she was going along with him, then make her escape when he wasn’t breathing down her neck.
    “I guess not,” she muttered, faking passivity as he started pulling her across the room. Hissing at a bumped shin, she fumbled with her free hand, feeling her way in the dark.
    “Here’s the door,” Deller whispered.
    Nellie sent up a fervent prayer to the Goddess, hoping it was locked, but the door creaked open to reveal another shadowy hallway. Domed and narrow, its only light came from an entranceway to the right. The sanctuary , Nellie thought, looking at it in dread. Muffled voices could be heard through the opening—short staccato questions, interspersed with whimpering replies. Tightening his grip on her arm, Deller started down the hall. Another scream cut the air, rising as if it had wings.
    “Wait a minute,” Nellie muttered, fighting the ooze in her knees. “Can’t you just wait ?”
    “Ssst,” hissed Deller, flattening himself against the doorjamb and peering around it. “They’re right over there.”
    Peering over his shoulder, Nellie saw the men at the front of the sanctuary, swarming beneath the floor-to-ceiling statue of the Goddess. Lit by candles and EXIT signs, the room was a dance of elongated shadows, but she could make out the priest in his green robe and the Interior agent, body tensed snakelike to strike. A space opened between the swarming men and she caught sight of Deller’s double with his arms raised, trying to protect his head. The men seemed to be doing more yelling than hitting, but there was blood on the boy’s face and he kept shifting his arms, as if unsure which part of himself to protect.
    “We need a decoy,” whispered Deller. “If I run across and lead them off, can you get him out?”
    “They won’t all go after you.” Nellie fought the urge to claw his hand from her arm. “They’ll see doubles and know it’s a trick.”
    “Huh,” Deller grunted, his eyes running restlessly across the sanctuary. Nellie had to give him credit—all he’d let go upon seeing his double was a single muttered gasp. Scanning the room, she noted the back entrance next to the confessional booth. That escape route wouldn’t help this time—the gate to their own level had to be opened from the wall in the storage room. Grimly she scanned the sanctuary again. The place was a mirage of flickering candles, voices of fire crying out to the Goddess. Shadows and light danced across the tapestries on the walls, the room’s molecular field pulsed like a long slow ache. At