It’s a Brave New World

I stared blankly at the door to Room 225, at my door. For about half a minute I thought about walking away and getting something to eat. I would come back when reality decided to play fair. But a growing irritation was building in me and I decided it was time to get some answers.

I banged on the door with my fist. I only did this a few times, before I realized how stupid I was being. I had my keys and there was no point in beating on my own door. I quickly pulled my room key out. Like everything else in this old dorm the doors and the keys had been around before I was born. The key was stiff in the door's lock but turned without complaint.

In my room, Abby was on her feet and heading towards the door, apparently from my knocking. She started in surprise when she saw me open the door and enter the room. She frowned at me with evident confusion at how I had opened the door. It didn't last long, her puzzlement turned to irritation.

"Oh, you got my spare set from Cindy," she said as she stuck her hand out, apparently wanting my keys.

I wasn't in the mood for whatever games she was playing. Even if she played the naked Abby card again, I wasn't going to be deterred in finding out what was going on. But as I stood there looking at her with those green eyes and her still damp flame red hair I felt myself waiver.

Abby's annoyance with me was growing. She reached out again, insistent on retrieving what she thought were her spare keys. "Com'on Jason," she said glowering at me, "don't get all clingy with me. I want my keys back."

I pushed my lingering thoughts about Abby away. I closed the door behind me and returned her glare. "What the hell is going on?" I held up my keys and jingled them for effect. "These are my keys to my room." I made a vague gesture to my room and continued, "And this is my room. Where's my laptop and stuff!?"

Abby continued to stare at me for long seconds and then shook her head slowly. Her still drying hair swished about as she shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about," she began as she stopped trying to retrieve my keys and pulled her hand back. Her earlier look of irritation changed to a mix of confusion and apprehension. She pointed to the floor and said quietly, "This is my room. I've had it since the beginning of the semester." Turning quickly around she indicated the tiny dorm and added sarcastically, "I think I would have noticed if you were here."

"Yeah, same here," I snorted. "I've been in this little hole since last fall." I pointed at her as my anger grew. "I don't what weird joke you're playing. Did you pull all my stuff out last night while I was passed out on the floor?"

"What!?" cried Abby. "When were you passed out on my floor? You weren't here last night or when I woke up this morning..." She trailed off and I could see a realization grow in her furious green eyes. "Cindy didn't send you! Did you think because it was my time of the month I would just jump the first person I saw?"

Her last sentence was such a twisting of concepts I couldn't even begin to make sense of her side of this conversation. Time of the month? It was her period? I might not be the swiftest guy in the world, but I was pretty sure I would have noticed that with all the early morning sex. I did manage to lock on to her last few words and threw them back at her. "Yeah, well, you walked in and pretty much did jump me on the spot."

Abby's face was turning red, either from embarrassment or anger, likely both. Looking down at her feet, she sputtered out, "I...I thought you were...Cindy would get someone who would be...helpful." She said the last word 'helpful' so faintly I could barely hear her. She let out a shaky sigh and turned her angry glare back at me. "I'm calling Campus Security."

I had been thinking about getting my RA involved in this craziness, but was pretty sure Lawrence would have just laughed his ass off once he heard my story. Not that I relished the idea of explaining all this to the campus cops, but I sure the hell wasn't going to let this crazy Abby girl paint me as some type of rapist.

"Fine, we'll both call," I said as she went for an old-style rotary phone I hadn't noticed before by the bed and I began fishing my iPhone out of my pocket. The little black device switched on and I went to unlock my phone. I was scrolling through my address book for campus emergency numbers when I saw Abby had stopped dialing the old land line phone. Instead, she was staring at me with a look of complete astonishment on her face as I operated my phone.

"What is that?" she asked as she continued to gape at my cell phone.

Still looking through my contacts I answered distractedly, "It's my iPhone."

"Eye-Phone?" she asked hesitantly.

I found the number but was stymied but the lack of a cell signal. That had never been a problem before, even in the old Anderson Hall. This weirdness was just growing too much for me. I turned to Abby and spat out, "Yes iPhone! You know Apple, Steve Jobs, the whole bit with convoluted two-year contracts!"

She had moved closer to me to get a better look at my phone but still remained wary. A deep frown formed on her face and she said, "I've never seen anything like it." A slightly confused look on her face fought with her earlier anger. She asked, "What do apples have to do with it?"

"Jesus! Where are you from?" I demanded as threw my arms up in exasperation and then I stopped. Somewhere in the back of my head I was finally putting several minor but very odd things together. The old TV set, the old rotary phone, and Abby's seemingly complete lack of knowledge about modern technology.

"What year is it?" I couldn't believe I had just asked that question. It was from all the dumbest clichéd sci-fi shows I had ever seen about time travel.

Abby face screwed up in outright confusion. She looked between me and then my phone and then back again. Finally shrugging she said, "2014"

So much for my stupid ideas about time travel I thought to myself. "And you've never heard of an iPhone or Apple?" I said blankly.

Abby shook her head slowly. Her confusion broke suddenly when she said, "Just like you never heard of Bonding when a woman is in...heat. I thought you were just playing around about...Bonding. But you really don't know."

I finally couldn't take anymore. In this small room it was easy to cover the distance to the narrow bed. I flopped down on it and ran my hands through my hair. I stared up at the ceiling, willing that some sort of answer would come. "Could someone please explain to me what is going on?"

In response, Abby went to the small TV on the old dresser and turned it on. A grainy image of some TV show popped into existence on the screen, Abby watched the channel intently. I growled to myself in frustration. I gave up trying to figure this woman out and went back to fiddling with my phone. No matter what I did I couldn't get a signal. Nor could I pick up the campus Wi-Fi service. My increasing frustration was getting the better of me as angrily stabbed at the screen in an attempt to get a connection to anything. Finally, Abby turned the TV off and walked back to the bed.

"Alright," she said in straight-laced tone. "Everything on the TV looks like the regular world I know. So I'm normal, it seems you're the strange one."

"Yeah...I'm strange." I shot back sarcastically. "Beautiful woman who strip naked and have sex with some random guy they find in 'their' room while going on about 'bonding' are so normal."

"It is normal when you need to rebalance your hormones, you jerk," replied Abby with a scowl. Then she stopped and said in a rush, "Wait, you think I'm beautiful?"

I turned from my phone and glanced at her. Her creamy white skin had taken on a flushed tone and she was biting her lower lip lightly. I might have been imagining it, but I thought I caught the same spicy aroma coming from her when she first had entered the room.

Abby clenched her eyes shut. "Focus Abby," she said as she chastised herself. After taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and started over. "Jason, I'm really not sure what's happening. I know I'm Abigail McGillen and its March 22nd, 2014." She pointed at my iPhone and said, "You call that an Eye-Phone? It looks like something off a future-fiction show."

I wanted to stay angry with Abby, but I just couldn't. Everything was just too strange. This was too far past the point of any type of prank. If Abby was acting out some bit, she was a fantastic actress. I pushed myself up to a sitting position on the bed and Abby sat down. She continued to keep a guarded distance from me but she wasn't mad anymore.

"Alright, I'm Jason Hightman and it March 22nd, 2014 for me as well." I held out my phone and she took it gingerly from my hand. She looked the small black rectangle over carefully and then began running her fingers over the screen. I continued as she marveled at the iPhone the overly aggressive Verizon sales rep had talked me into buying six months ago. "It's called an iPhone or a smartphone and pretty much anyone going to college has one."

"Be the first one here," replied Abby with a shake of her head. She then blinked in surprise as the little screen produced a mirror image of her face. She had accessed the phone's camera. "How does it do that?" she asked in awe of the small screen.

"Built in camera," I said with a shrug. I held out my hand and she reluctantly returned my phone. I swallowed nervously. A small voice in the back of my head was telling me I might not like the answer to the question I was about to ask. "Can...you explain what happened...earlier?

Abby nodded and said softly, "You act like you don't know about a woman's change, about the monthly cycle. Only I don't think your acting. You really don't know." She stared at me for a long moment and with an audible sigh said, "I would think you're crazy, but you've got that little device and it looks like its from the future. It's like you're from some other time or place."

"This is planet Earth, right?" I asked with a grin.

"Yes it is," replied Abby with a grin of her own.

I thought about the older technology I saw around the dorm room. "You say my phone looks like it's from the future. But you've got an old-fashioned tube TV and rotary phone. Yet we both say it's the same year, how can that be?"

"Well, they might not be brand new, but they certainly not old fashion...at least not to me," replied Abby as she tried to make sense of my view of her older technology.

I felt we'd beat around the bush, so to speak, long enough. "So you're...in heat. Like sexually in heat?" I asked softly.

A blush rapidly grew on Abby's face. I suspected her flush of pink went from the top of her head to the very tips of her toes. She squirmed in the bed for a bit and then forced herself to relax. "Yeah," she said after letting out an unsteady breath. "It varies in strength from month to month. This time it was particularly hard. Since I'm not with...anyone I was looking for someone to...help me."

Abby gave me an almost friendly smirk. "Usually a good romp in the bed helps balance out the stronger...desires." She shifted on the bed and grew a little reproachful. "But it's not like I just hook up with someone random. I thought you were Cindy's friend."

A rather bashful smile formed on lips. "Sorry," I managed to say without sounding too patronizing. "And this is all pretty routine for you and everyone else?" I asked even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"It is," replied Abby with a nod of her head. "And this isn't normal for you?"

I shook my head, still trying to wrap my head around what she was telling me. "No, it isn't. Has it always been this way?"

Abby's eyes were wide as she answered me. "Ever since the Pale Plague almost a century ago."

"The what!?"

*****

Abby reluctantly believed me when I told her that I had no idea what the Pale Plague was or any of the changes it brought about. She tried to explain the pandemic but quickly gave up as I only grew more confused. Ultimately we decided to go to the library. It would give Abby time to work on her paper and for me to work out what the hell was going on.

As we walked to the library, I saw there was no way this could be a mistake or prank. Yes, it was the same college campus I had been going to for the last two years but everything was subtly different. The cars and trucks in the nearby parking lot looked like cars and trucks, but were not of any model I was accustomed to. The attire wasn't too far different. My simple jeans and t-shirt didn't standout too much. But there was certainly a different style to the clothing everyone was wearing. It looked like mid-80's fashion had made a dramatic come back.

Cell phones, laptops, and other standard electronic devices were absent from students we passed. I saw a few students walking with what looked like an outdated Walkman. At the library, we went pass what Abby described as the computer lab. In the room large square dark monitors stood atop bulky white boxes. They looked like computers, but models from thirty years ago.

It was helpful Abby's paper was on history. In reading through her history books, I began to put together what had happened. Her past was apparently quite different from the version I knew. Not that it made even a bit of sense. I didn't know how or why but somehow between last night and this morning I ended up in a world very much like my own. But this world was most certainly not mine.

In 1935 on this world, a new disease appeared in the Middle East. It quickly spread around the globe and became a major pandemic. The virus easily spread by air or water and the infection rate quickly approached 99%. Within the first six months, the death toll was over 100 million. Anyone with the illness would start off with flu-like symptoms, but the sickness would rapidly progress to an intense fever. The skin of the infected would take on a chalky white color, hence the name "Pale Plague." Once the skin change occurred death often quickly followed.

By the time the plague ran it course, more than 200 million were dead. Worse, many of the survivors of the disease were left sterile from the high fever. In the following years, the overall population of the world began to drop to dangerous levels in many countries. The end result was a massive disruption to society that took decades to recover.

Now the technology lag I saw made sense. In this world, World War II never happened. There was never the massive push for new technology to win the war. Instead, most countries were left depopulated and struggling to keep a very fragile order in place. Progress in science and engineering on this world lagged behind mine. I was quite stunned when I read on this Earth the Chinese were first to reach the moon - in 1995.

Abby had said she was in heat and the Pale Plague was responsible, however biology wasn't really my forte. I had to peruse several biology books until I began to understand the biggest transformation brought by the disease. Changes came to both men and women who survived the plague and remained fertile. The changes were the most pronounced for women, their regular menstrual cycle supplanted with an estrous cycle. Women became like many other female mammals, their monthly periods replaced with a massive increase of reproductive hormones during ovulation. Or in laymen's terms, once a month they got really horny.

There were other changes for women as well as men, in a more complex and subtle way. Men became both producers and receptors of a powerful form of pheromones. I vaguely recalled humans, or least the variety I was familiar with, lacked the actual ability to sense pheromones. Apparently in this world this was no longer the case. I couldn't follow all the biological reaction in the text box I was reading. But if I understood correctly, couples having sex could create an intense emotional and physical connection to each other through these pheromones. The term used was called Bonding.

I was still trying to get my head wrapped around all of this when I felt a headache coming on. I never realized how easy the web made researching topics. It was exhausting going through all these books. Abby put her pencil down and looked up from her writings as I sat across from her and started rubbing my temples in hopes to drive off the forming pain. She started at me and then the large pile of 20th-century history books I had been reading.

"So none of this is familiar to you?" she asked, correctly guessing from my befuddled look on my face.

"Nope," I replied with a sigh.

"How?" she asked with her own confused frown. "How are you possible?"

"I have an idea, but it's pretty far out there," I said. I studied Abby intently for a few seconds. Her green eyes watched me with a measure of confusion and astonishment, but not her earlier anger or suspicion. "You don't think I'm crazy, or just making this all up?"

Abby pondered my question for a moment and then answered. "I'll admit what you have told me sounds crazy. And if it weren't for your little device I would be a great deal more skeptical. What do you think happened?"

"Have you ever heard of the many-worlds hypothesis?" I asked as I got rummaged around in my pocket for some loose change.

"No," answered Abby with a shake of her head.

"Okay," I replied as I pulled a quarter out of my pocket. "There is a theory where ever action, say flipping a coin..." I held up my quarter for Abby to see and then flicked it into the air. It tumbled into the air for a second and then dropped. I caught it heads side up. "...produces a different universe for every possible outcome. In one universe, this coin flip is heads up. In another, it's tails. The two universes are exactly same except for the difference of the coin flip."

"So..." began Abby as she looked at the coin. She picked it up from my hand and examined it slowly. "There is another universe out there right now, with another copy of you and me looking at a coin that is tails side up?"

I nodded as I stretched out in the old soft wooden chair I was sitting in. If I really was in an alternative universe where a retrovirus plague had nearly destroyed humanity and subtly changed the surviving women into monthly sex freaks the two universes were still very similar. The library was almost exactly as I remembered it. But for some reasons the chairs in this library were much more comfortable than the one in my universe. For a dizzying moment of insanity, I wondered what set of outcomes led to these comfortable chairs instead of the hard plastic chairs of mine.

"But how does that explain why your world, universe, or whatever didn't have the Pale Plague?" asked Abby as she handed my coin back to me.

"Don't you see?" I said as I pulled myself forward in my seat. "In my universe the set of outcomes was different. Say the virus never developed into a virulent form or whoever first carried the virus in your world didn't in mine. Whatever it is, one little change ends up having massive consequences between our two worlds."

Abby considered my theory and then asked the next logical question. "But how did you get here?"

"That I don't know," I admitted. "If the theory is right, there should never be a way to get from one universe to another. But somehow I have." I hesitated before asking my next question, "Do you believe me?"

Abby was silent for nearly a minute and I grew uncomfortable in the silence. "I think I do," said Abby. "I'm not sure why. There is your little device. Maybe it's just a lot of different things. You felt...different in bed" Her blush came back, stronger than before.

I was silent, not sure what to say about her comment about me feeling different in bed. Abby appeared to want to change the subject as well. "So women in your world don't go into heat? Its still the old way for them? They actually bled from their bodies during their...What was it called, periods?" asked Abby. She looked mildly horrified at the concept.