by Sean McMahon
Kara sat up, her interest piqued, excitement brewing deep inside of her. This was the Hal she remembered. What’s more, it also felt a lot like the cure to the boredom she was so thirsty for.
‘What if we got some other input,’ said Hal. ‘Perhaps from some Restarters past-you doesn’t even know about.’
‘What are you talking about,’ said Malcolm, a slight snappiness in his words.
Hal smiled. There was something innately rewarding in frustrating a time traveller from the future. Like thinking of an idea before your boss does and everyone loving it.
‘Is that even possible?’ asked Kara, seeing where he was going.
‘I don’t see why not…’
Kara clambered to her feet, her eyes bright. Not blue with restarter energy, but infused with intrigue thanks to Hal’s mischievous smirk.
‘What other Restarters,’ said Malcolm, all but losing his shit.
He had explored almost every one of their restarts in minute detail. But not once had he come across an instance where other Restarters had been added to the mix, with the exception of Robert of course.
Hal and Kara grinned, feeling elated that they had information that Malcolm didn’t.
‘Well, what are we waiting for,’ said Kara, clapping her hands with a new lease of invigoration. ‘Let’s go get the band back together.’
And with that, she span around and walked off in the direction of the Restart Point.
‘You’re all insane. What is happening right now?’ grumbled Malcolm, feeling like he had just lost complete control of the situation.
Hal thought about the best way to word it, recalling the intro from a TV show from the 80’s, trying to remember how it went.
‘Where everyone goes if they have a problem,’ the Restarter hummed. ‘When no one else can help, and if you can find them…maybe we need to hire ourselves some soldiers of fortune,’ said Hal, resting his hand on the grip of his holstered gun and clucking his tongue, just to really wind Malcolm up and send him over the edge.
Hal noted the flicker of red in the two eyes latching onto him. Eyes which eventually fluttered and returned to their regular colour. He decided it may be prudent to put Malcolm out of his misery.
‘You’re taking us to The White Lodge, Jeeves,’ said Hal. ‘We need your help to find something.’
‘And what could possibly be of use in that cursed place?!’ said Malcolm, adding extra emphasis to the last syllable of the word, in a way usually reserved for those reciting Shakespeare.
Hal grinned at him and set off after Kara, shouting two words back at Malcolm without so much as looking back over his shoulder.
‘Smoke signals,’ said Hal, with a hearty chuckle.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
The A-Team
187th Restart – Friday, August 24th, 2018, 3:32pm
The four Restarters reached the boundary line of Pentney Lakes, which meant only one thing; it was time for Malcolm to stress his relentless objections for the eighth time in as many minutes.
‘Absolutely not,’ said Malcolm.
‘You said that already,’ said Kara.
‘This is a complete waste of time that we simply do not have.’
‘You’ve said that already too’ said Hal. ‘And like I said before, we’ve got nothing but time.’
‘Relatively speaking, perhaps,’ conceded Malcolm, ‘but from a chronological standpoint this little excursion of yours is, at best, muddying a timeline already fraught with paradoxes.’
Hal had thought of everything. He knew precisely when he wanted to travel to, and knew Malcolm could get them there. Seeing Hal throw Malcolm’s plans completely out the window seemed to breathe new life into Fearne, who was considerably more present and lucid. If nothing else, Hal’s plan was already proving to be worth it, if only to bring Fearne back to them, even just a little.
‘We’re really going to see Alex and Rachel?!’ said Fearne excitedly. ‘And they’ll be able to see us?!’
‘Better than that,’ said Kara, equally relieved to see their friend opening up to them once again. ‘They’ll be able to talk to us too!’
Truth be told, Hal’s plan wasn’t really much of a plan at all. Once they reached the desired moment in time, Hal was hoping for good ol’ fashioned free-will to take the wheel. He knew Rachel and his brother Alex would see their situation with fresh eyes.
Not willing to kill them a second time – primarily because the last thing they needed was Malcolm’s murderous past-self knowing that blowing up Fir Lodge was even remotely an option – they had decided to take a more low-key approach. All they had to do was return to The White Lodge, locate the Restarter versions of both Alex and Rachel, allow their previous conversation to play out. And then, when past-Restarter-Hal-and-Kara triggered the restart, the current Hal and Kara could continue their conversation right where they left off.
‘If what you’re saying is accurate,’ said Malcolm brashly, ‘you will have but a moment before the restart sends them hurtling back to the land of the living.’
‘Oh, come on Malc’, you’re not even trying. You can slow down time like you did for Fearne and…’ Hal hesitated, but Fearne gave him a nod that it was okay to say his name. ‘…Peter,’ referring to the way Future Malcolm had done just that when they came back into phase with the Dark Restarter so the killer couldn’t see them.
‘It is…not an exact science,’ said Malcolm cagily. ‘And we have no way of knowing how long I can sustain it with a restart licking at our heels.’
‘Fine,’ said Kara, not ready to be dissuaded by what was clearly an excuse. ‘Then we bring them to The White Lodge, say what needs to be said, then you pop them back.’
‘They will not be easy to locate,’ said Malcolm, clutching a straw that Hal was already prepared to cut into pieces. ‘From what you’ve described, they exist in an alternate restart that–’
‘I know,’ said Hal, hoovering up the aforementioned metaphoric straw into the woodchipper of proactive time travelling. ‘But we don’t need to look for them exactly, we just need to look for the smoke signal they don’t even know they’re generating.’
Malcolm stared blankly, not even dignifying the obtuse words Hal was uttering with a verbal response.
‘We just need to look for a lodge on fire,’ added Hal helpfully, before fully explained how his brother and best friend had even made their way into a restart in the first place.
Malcolm grumbled, clearly unhappy, but finding himself unable to offer a counter-argument meaty enough to sway them.
The echoes of a burning lodge would indeed be easy to find. He had even caught glimpses of such a sight whilst the multiple timelines had cycled before him, now possessing the answer to a riddle he had not bothered to seek a resolution to.
‘Fine,’ said Malcolm, firing the word at them with more than just a sprinkle of unwarranted salt. ‘If you are adamant on taking this route, I’d rather leave immediately.
‘Sure,’ said Hal. ‘But first, I’m going to need a moment with the others.’
‘Now is not the time to be harbouring secrets, Harold,’ his stare piercing through the Restarter as if trying to read his mind.
Actually, his eyes looked more like they were trying to carve whatever Hal was contemplating hiding from his very soul.
‘Just piss off over there for a minute, not everything is about you Malcolm,’ said Hal, using the former-killer’s full name in the hope it would facilitate a granting of his request.
‘Hrrrm,’ Malcolm mumbled unhappily, before putting some distance between him and the three Restarters.
Hal gestured for them to huddle round, speaking in a hushed voice to Kara and Fearne.
‘Look, I know I’m selling this thing as a means for chuckles over there to get to Sunday, but I want us to be on the same page before we get to where we’re going.’
‘Oh God, is this a Hal plan?’ said Fearne wearily.
‘What do you mean,’ said Kara, ignoring her friend’s fro
stiness.
Hal shot her a smile, realising that he often took Kara’s willingness to follow his ideas for granted.
‘Dark Malcolm said he wasn’t responsible for bringing us back here.’
‘Here being back into the Restarter life?’ asked Fearne.
‘Exactly that,’ beamed Hal. ‘Which means Captain Future here may have been economic with the truth in terms of his part in that.’
‘So you want to see if Alex and Rachel can come up with ideas on what he may have changed?’ confirmed Kara.
‘When in Rome, right?’
‘If we can’t figure that out,’ said Fearne, clearly having bought shares in negatively reinforced de-motivational speaking, ‘what makes you think Rach’ and Alex will fare any better?’
‘Because,’ said Hal, ‘they’re smarter than us.’
‘Speak for yourself,’ said Fearne.
Malcolm, having had enough of the incessant whispers, made his way back over to them.
‘Allons-y then,’ said Hal happily, indicating that the conversation was, at least for now, over.
‘Are we ready?’ Malcolm’s bitterness at being excluded more than evident.
‘Let’s do it,’ said Kara.
They formed an orderly line, taking each other’s hands, and traversed the extra few metres to the boundary line.
With the decision made, they stepped into the Restart Point, the space they were formerly occupying filling with a sharp snapping sound, reminiscent of someone shaking out a heavy tarpaulin, and vanished into the ether, The White Lodge embracing them with unusual enthusiasm.
*
Hal had instructed Malcolm on what they were looking for whilst within the realm of The White Lodge; a billowing smoke that filled the white sky, caused by the utter obliteration of Fir Lodge.
Once the correct cycle presented itself, Malcolm reached into a nearby shadow and pulled the four of them through the veil between timelines, into phase with the past version of themselves that were standing outside the destroyed building.
Under the cover of a dense patch of woodland, as the embers drifted down and fluttered amidst the Restarters, Kara and Hal both smiled, feeling a sense of relief as two of their closest friends walked towards them. Or rather, towards a past version of themselves from an alternate timeline.
Malcolm had in fact visited this restart before, but given the short duration of the restart, had assumed it was a mere anomaly, leaving it behind without much further thought. As he stared up at the inferno lighting up the sky, he couldn’t help but ask.
‘What did you use as an accelerant?’
But Hal offered little more in the way of explanation than a shrug.
‘Now what,’ said Fearne, watching as Alex and Rachel made their way from the burning structure towards a past version of Hal and Kara standing a fair distance away from them all.
‘Now we get to the boundary line and wait,’ said Kara.
*
‘This is going to be so much fun,’ said Hal excitedly, as they crouched down low and out of sight amidst the cover of a grassy knoll a few hundred yards from the Restart Point, waiting for their past-selves to bring David Bowie and an additional Ghostbuster closer to them. They’d gained a pretty decent head start, as the versions of themselves from an earlier restart tried to convince Rachel and Alex to follow them.
‘There’s something we need to discuss,’ said Kara, glancing over her shoulder at Malcolm, who was sulking and muttering to himself with his arms crossed and leaning against a nearby lodge. Satisfied that she, Hal and Fearne could not be overheard, she added ‘about Rachel.’
‘Shoot.’ Nothing could bring Hal down from the ninth cloud he was on, now that he was involved in a far more exciting stakeout than their last.
‘We can’t let on to Rachel that she’s pregnant in the future,’ said Kara, as if it was old news.
‘What are you talking about?’ said Hal, not even bothering to take his eyes off of the soon to be occupied road ahead. ‘Rach’ isn’t having a kid.’
‘Wait,’ said Kara, kicking herself. ‘You didn’t know?’
Hal turned to face both Kara and Fearne, his eyes narrowing as if he was being pranked. ‘Did my first “what” lack conviction?’
‘Why are boys so dumb, Fearne?’ she sighed, rolling onto her back and staring up at the amber, smoke-filled sky, realising she could have got away without even mentioning it. ‘Why do you think she was drinking lemonade at the funeral?’
‘Because not everyone drinks before noon like we do Kara,’ said Hal, before falling silent, then eventually feeling like a crap friend for not noticing the signs. Rachel had really hidden it well. ‘When did she tell you?’ he conceded, not taking it personally that Rachel hadn’t brought it up.
He knew there were a million reasons why people kept the early stages of pregnancy a secret, not least in case complications arose.
‘She didn’t. I just have a sense for these things. You must have known, Fearne?’
Fearne remained silent.
The truth was that Fearne didn’t remember anything from this alternate future they kept mentioning. Least of all Peter’s funeral.
‘I know what you’re like Hal, don’t tell her,’ said Kara, warning him. ‘I know how terrible you are at keeping secrets.’
‘Oh puh-lease,’ he scoffed. ‘I’m the bomb at keeping secrets.’
‘No, what you are is someone who gets all sweaty and makes stupid jokes when you’re anxious and only thinks he’s the bomb at keeping secrets.’
‘Wow, don’t hold back or anything.’
‘I’m serious,’ pleaded Kara. ‘On the off chance she has even an inkling of what’s to come, you could screw up her entire future.’
‘Kara,’ said Hal, leaning on his elbow and propping his head up with his hand, ‘chill. I’ve got this.’
Though secretly, he simply knew Rachel wouldn’t retain anything he said when she returned to the present anyway, so it didn’t really matter what he said.
Before she could make him take a blood oath, their quarry arrived.
The Restarters stared in fascination, as the prospect of what they were witnessing sunk in. The three of them were more than accustomed to seeing echoes of themselves going about their business in the past, but this was so much more. They were witnessing time travelling versions of themselves recruiting additional support in the form of their friends Rachel and Alex, watching it unfold from an entirely new vantage point.
‘This is so cool!’ said Hal, craning his neck to get a better look but being pulled back down to the ground by Kara.
As the conversation played out just like it had before, Hal and Kara straightened up, as their past Restarter-selves approached the boundary line and said their goodbyes to Rachel and Alex.
‘Okay,’ said Kara, ‘you guys ready? We’re up.’
Fearne and Hal nodded, the latter shooting a short, sharp yet muted whistle to get Malcolm’s attention. Hal pointed to his own eyes with two splayed fingers, directing Malcom’s line of sight to the road over the mound of grass they were currently hiding behind.
Malcolm half-heartedly pushed himself away from the wall of the lodge and took a stroll towards them.
‘And remember Hal,’ said Kara sternly. ‘No baby talk.’
‘I’ve got this Kara, will you just relax already? You’re stressing me out.’
*
As Alex’s phone pinged to life in his hand, and a familiar fruit-shaped logo popped onto the screen, Alex raised the handset in an attempt to get his brother’s attention, but all he could muster was the start of a word, which for the first time Hal was in a position to hear in its entirety.
The current Restarters watched as their past-selves jumped into nothingness, and were pulled apart into shards of blue light.
‘–uck,’ said Alex, as he turned his back on the Restart Point, only to see his brother appearing from over the top of a small mound.
Alex wondered why Hal was waving his
arms, as if he were being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and was trying to give Alex the heads up so he could save himself.
Which wasn’t far from the truth, if the T-Rex in this equation represented the fast-moving mass of fog that was hot on his brother’s heels and obliterating everything it came into contact with.
Hal collided with his brother and grabbed him by the shoulders, as Kara did the same to Rachel, with Fearne and Malcolm creating a link between the six of them.
‘Hal,’ said Alex, his mind clearly overloaded. ‘The phone! It charged! Look!’
‘Way past that point bro’, but it was a great idea!’
‘Wait,’ said Rachel. ‘What’s with your clothes?’ suddenly feeling overdressed in her David Bowie getup.
‘Oooooh,’ said Alex excitedly, realising in that moment that this was not the version of his brother he had initially thought. It was a version of him from a different time.
‘Did you just Back to the Future Part Two us?!’ Alex swooned. ‘That. Is. Awesome!’
‘Harold,’ warned Malcolm. ‘It’s now or never.’
‘I know, I know! Nobody likes a backseat Restarter, Malcolm. You guys may want to…buckle up,’ said Hal, providing no time at all for Rachel or Alex to find a buckle at all.
As the fog surrounded them, accompanied by a deafening sound of rushing air, Hal and Kara – with considerable assistance from Malcolm – yanked Rachel, Fearne and Alex through the Restart Point, and into the Fir Lodge Nexus beyond.
OWT-YTFIF RETPAHC
The Nexus that Connects Us
RI Timestamp error: Recalculating…
Rachel and Alex couldn’t help but stare at the abrupt change in their surroundings. Everything was ice-white, as if it were the middle of winter, and a heavy snowfall had taken hold over the entire landscape. It was only when Alex took a closer look that he realised it wasn’t snow on the ground, but rather it was the ground.
Rachel swiped her hand with awestruck curiosity through the motes of temporally-distorted snowflakes that swam around them, as they bounced along the outskirts of her invisible, polarised aura.
