Tontine

I couldn't decide which Me to shoot first.

Me number One was sitting by the vault door, while Mes Two, Three, and Four all sat next to the walls adjacent to me. Me Five was moaning and shaking near me, against the wall opposite the door, while I tried to stay out of his blood puddle.

I'd never thought of a wizard as a bank robber before. I mean, why do the work yourself when you can summon a demon or something to do it for you.

But Cranston, he was a temporal wizard who liked to take risks. He risked that he could disable the bank's security by aging the wires, and he risked that he could open the vault door by warping the time around the vault's clock. But best of all he risked that I'd have picked that night to tail him, and that I wouldn't think he was setting a trap for me. I step in the vault, and Cranston clubs me in the back of the head. The nice thing about unconsciousness is that you don't have to deal with little things like copies of yourself from alternate futures with guns or a limited air supply. It all just kind of takes a back seat while you sleep.

But, once you wake up, you have to deal with the real world and your problems again. In this case, I was looking at five duplicates of myself, each one a potential future self. Problem is, is that made me from being a "certain future" into a "potential one" too. I gotta' give Cranston credit.

Temporal manipulation on this level must have put him deep in mystical debt.

The Agency's files on him said he was powerful, and that he'd wasted a field team or two, but even they didn't think he could do this kind of stuff.

If it isn't alien suppositories or transdimensional prophylactics the Agency doesn't care. Not only that, but Cranston had picked a vault big and tough enough to hold all of six of us, with plenty of arm room. So, I followed the Agency's guidelines, got cocky, didn't cover my ass, and now I'm trapped in a vault with five alter egos and maybe enough air for one person to make it until the automated clock opens the vault in the morning.

I know, I know. You're thinking, "what's the deal? If you're all the same, just kill the extra five of you and be done with it. Your selves will understand." Well riddle me this, how much are -you- willing to die?

About 12 minutes ago, when we all woke up together, we came to that same conclusion at the same time. I've always been a lousy shot, but I learned how to not get hit a long time ago, which led to a lot of Mes running and shooting for a few seconds. I don't think any of us would have been able to hit one another if it wasn't for the vault walls causing a bullet to ricochet into Me Five's guts, and slowly killing him.

So I watched the other Mes, who in turn watched each other and myself.

And I began to try to figure out not only what I would do, but what they would do. I figured that Two, Three and Four would attack, except doing so would open them up to a fire from One. If One and I teamed up on Two, Three and Four would get us. If we all ganged up on One, we'd be open to Four shooting us in the backs. Four was out since that'd open us to One shooting us all. Which only left us to gang up on Three, but if we did that then Three'd likely try to take me-

I dodged to the left as One, Two, and Four decided that attacking Three would cause him to shoot for me. Three's bullet grazed me, desperation helping his aim, while bullets from One Two and Four took Three down.

Four, facing One and Two, kept firing, as Two tried to dodge and One fired back.

Two took a pair of bullets in the back of the head, as Four's gun emptied.

One shot Four in the heart and then turned to me. A single shot was fired, and I fell down.

It probably took me a minute to realize that One had been killed. I looked over at Five, and saw him clutching his gun and grinning. I knew what he was thinking. He was laughing. He hadn't saved me, he simply lost track of me in the confusion. And he was out of bullets. Desperation made his hit on One good, but I didn't need any help now. I raised my pistol and walked over to Five, knowing who would shape my future.