"That won't matter in a few minutes," Brooke said. "If a car comes and tries to hit our earlier versions, everything is okay."
"What if one doesn't come?" Jeremy said. "I don't remember being here."
Avery looked at him with concern and shook her head.
"We need to be careful," Brooke said.
"This is what Lenny warned us about," Wyatt said. "If we start to lose too much of our memories, we may need to travel again." He saw the way Brooke looked at him.
"You still remember the car?" Avery asked. "I remember it being a sedan but can't remember the color."
"I remember all of us jumping out of the way," Aldan said. "But I don't remember the car."
"Okay," Wyatt said. "We don't have all evening to debate this. That car should be coming along soon."
"What if it doesn't?" Avery asked. "Do we fix it by finding a car?"
"How would you suggest we find a car?" Jeremy asked.
Wyatt listened to their back-and-forth comments, but his mind swirled with another issue. He wanted to know if that older version of Hannah was lying about taking his wrist terminal. Had she left during the impulse of resonance they felt?
"What are you thinking about?" Brooke asked stepping a little away from Jeremy and Avery and Aldan. She held Wyatt's right arm.
"I don't understand any of what is going on," Wyatt said. "Hannah, the older version, said she didn't take my wrist terminal. How could she not remember that?"
"Time travel gets weird, sometimes," Brooke said, adding a little inflection as if it were a question more than a statement.
Wyatt shook his head and looked down at her hands that were wrapped around his arm. "This isn't supposed to be this way," he said. "The Machina is supposed to oversee time travel, using us to fix the issues that arise. But we don't have any contact with The Machina."
"And you think we are causing a bigger issue?" Brooke asked as the others quieted down and joined them.
"I don't know what to think," Wyatt said.
"My cousin had to be lying," Aldan said. "Did you see the corner of her mouth twitch as she answered your question about your wrist terminal?"
Wyatt shook his head. Brooke watched him closely but looked away as he looked at her.
"That was the way she would be when she was lying in the past." Aldan inhaled deeply and let out a sigh.
"Why didn't you challenge her on that?" Wyatt asked.
"I didn't want to tip her off that I suspected her," Aldan responded. He glanced toward the empty street and shook his head. "I still don't see a car. How much time did you say we stood there before it came?"
"Minutes, maybe," Wyatt said as his mind struggled to make sense of the double memories that formed. "I think we might be too late."
"I remember there was a car," Avery said. "But I also remember just walking along the street and going back to see what Lenny wanted us to do."
"It is too late," Brooke said. "Unless we are the ones that send the car after ourselves." She smiled at Wyatt, released his arm, and pointed toward his front pocket. "You could use that connection band to call a car and get it moving."
"But how are we going to send it down the street when there are people there?" Jeremy asked. "I seem to remember these cars driving themselves."
Wyatt remembered that as well. Sometime, before the future of 2089 and beyond, the cars became autonomous. The connection band he had been given would allow him to connect with certain vehicles and request rides. He wasn't quite sure how to call a car, but he was the only one with a connection band.
"Their safety programs surely won't let them run over anyone," Wyatt said.
"That's why we need to break them, slightly," Avery said. She stepped past Wyatt and Brooke to look at their earlier versions a block away. "We need to find a car and bring it to them."
"You really think that is the right thing for us to do?" Aldan asked. "I don't remember being struck by a car."
"It didn't hit any of us," Avery said.
"It almost got you," Wyatt said to Avery. She started to shake her head, but Brooke stepped between her and Wyatt. He looked down at her.
"You need to use that connection band and find a car," Brooke said. "I think that is the only way to save our memories."
Wyatt felt his mind beginning to ache again as he struggled to remember exactly how the car had looked. He turned and looked along the street in the direction of the restaurant where he had seen Hannah. No cars were in that area, but further in the distance, cars crossed that street.
He shook his head.
"Don't do that," Brooke said, grabbing both of his wrists in her hands. "You can't give up. Either find a car or give me that connection band, so I can go find one." Her eyes narrowed as she looked up into his. Determination set her mouth in a tight line. Under other circumstances, Wyatt thought it would be quite cute.
"Ok," Wyatt said, shaking his hands free. "I'll see if I can find one."
"Hurry," Avery said as he walked into the street. "We may only have a few minutes left."
Wyatt nodded his head and walked along the street. When he reached the restaurant on the corner, only a minute later, the tables out front were empty. He rounded that corner and walked in the same direction as he had seen Hannah move earlier. Two cars sat along that edge of the street, connected to the parking meter charging stations.
That side of the building changed slightly after passing the area that was the burger restaurant. The reddish colors inside the windows went more to black, and the granite façade changed to dark steel and glass.
The two cars were just in front of that area. One was blue and the other gray. They looked like sedans he was used to from 2039, except for the interiors. They were slightly larger and more luxurious. Driving cars seemed to have given way to riding in luxury. Their windows were dark and opaque.
He put on his connection band and gave it a moment for the advertisements and burst of other useless information to subside. His eyes felt overwhelmed with the flashes. He didn't understand how people could live with connection bands all the time.
Looking at the two vehicles, blue words stood above them in the air, indicating they were available. He stepped toward the gray one and touched the car's door.
Nothing happened.
"You have to select it with your connection band," a familiar voice said from behind him.
He whirled around and looked at a younger version of Hannah. She smiled at him. "Are you trying to get a ride somewhere?"
"What are you doing here?" Wyatt asked.
"I'm making your past easier to deal with," Hannah said. He saw her left wrist had the wrist terminal she had stolen from him.
"My past is my past," Wyatt said.
"But it gets worse," Hannah said. "You told me how to fix it."
Wyatt felt exasperated. "I didn't tell you any of that." He stepped closer to her but stopped. He didn't want to get too close. "What are you doing?"
Hannah frowned and glanced along the street. "Someone has to move the car, soon," she said. "Are you going to do it?"
"Were you the one that tried to run us over?" Wyatt asked. Could it be that simple? His mind ached as he thought through that. His head hurt also.
Hannah shook her head and shrugged. "I don't see any other cars moving along that street," she said, pointing toward the empty roadway. "You said you got a good look at the car." She turned toward the street and folded her arms. "But you aren't the same one that talked with me, not yet."
"What are you talking about?" Wyatt said. "Why did you take my wrist terminal?" He stepped closer but remained out of her arm's reach.
"I don't like this," Hannah said. "You said you were . . ." She trailed off as if thinking about what she had been about to say.
"What did I say?" Wyatt asked. "Come on. I don't have much time."
"Are you the one that drives that car, or am I?" Hannah asked. That question dug deep into Wyatt's mind.
"I don't know," Wyatt said. "I've never b
een here before."
She watched him, her frown softening as her eyebrows knit lower over her eyes. Something bothered her but she wouldn't speak about it.
"How long ago did you take my wrist terminal?" Wyatt asked. "Subjectively speaking."
She blinked a few times. "I'm not sure I should answer that," she responded.
"Then what do we do now?" Wyatt asked. "Are you someone I can trust, or are you destroying things?"
"I'm fixing them," Hannah said, her eyes shot toward the street. "Someone has to drive that car"—she pointed toward the gray car behind him—"is that the right color, from what you remember."
Wyatt couldn't remember the color of the car, even as he looked over his shoulder toward the car, nothing would come back. His memory consisted of some shouting by the others and a brief image of a shape coming straight toward him.
That wasn't right.
He had not been run over by the car. The car had nearly clipped Avery. He was sure of it, but he felt the pain of the impact as he stood there.
"What have you done?" Wyatt asked. "What happened to me?"
"I didn't do it," Hannah said. "I told you already, I'm only doing what you asked me to do when you gave this to me." She lifted her left arm showing him his wrist terminal.
"That's not right," Wyatt said as her eyes shot back to the corner.
"Your group is coming," Hannah said. "Either you get into that car, or I will. One of us has to manually drive it into your group and miss."
Wyatt glanced over his shoulder and saw Brooke standing on the other side of the corner, peering at him. He turned back toward the gray sedan and saw the blue lettering stating it was available. He focused on that lettering, and the connection band picked up his interest. The passenger side door of the car opened, and he stared into the tan plastic leather seats with their gray stitching.
"You have to move," Hannah said from behind him. She had stepped closer, and her voice was low. He thought he could smell the cigarette stench from Gene on her clothing and hair.
"I don't understand this," Wyatt said.
"You feel like you have lost control," Hannah said. "You feel like you are losing everything you have ever wanted." She leaned against the car and her body weight made its springs adjust to keep the car level. "I've felt that way many times. That's why this needs to be done. Now, either you drive that car, or I will."
Wyatt shook his head. It seemed simple, he remembered how the car had nearly hit the earlier version of his group, and he could simply take that same path. But he didn't understand where the car that ran him down came from. Which past would he cause?
His heart hammered away in his chest as he stepped into the car and Hannah stepped back. Maybe he wouldn't drive the car, he thought. But with that thought came the realization that he had no memory of visiting that street without a car running them down.
He looked at the dashboard of the car as he sat in the passenger side seat. His vision opened with a map in the upper corner, and he saw the street he needed to move along. He selected a point two blocks farther down than where he and his earlier group had arrived.
The sedan's door closed as he looked back toward Hannah. But she had vanished out of sight. She hadn't used his wrist terminal, he figured, since he hadn't felt the resonance. She had simply left. A quick scan behind him revealed an empty street.
He turned back toward the dash and his vision clouded with red warnings about operating a vehicle in manual mode. To his right was a place to signal he understood the warnings and would have to remain with his hands on the wheel for the entire trip.
He selected that by focusing his eyes on that image that filled his vision. Below the dashboard two pedals emerged from the cloth covered floor on the driver's side.
The vehicle's brakes released, and it rolled slightly forward as he slid into the driver's seat. The large warnings vanished from his field of view as he grabbed the yoke-like steering wheel. A green line stretched along the road, indicating the direction he needed to follow to reach his destination.
He touched the pedal in the location of the gas pedal and the car sped into motion smoothly, but quickly.
It only took a moment for him to line up with his earlier group, but then he remembered the car had seemed empty, when it had nearly hit them. He wasn't sure if anyone was driving when it ran him down.
He almost stepped on the brake, but he had to keep going.
One block left.
He accelerated, hoping he wouldn't kill anyone. The car's systems didn't seem to notice anyone not wearing a connection band. He saw the fear building in the way his earlier version, dressed in fluorescent orange gestured to the others.
It was all wrong. This car had a driver, and he would run them down if they didn't move. He held his breath and glanced down toward his feet. Even pulling his feet off the gas pedal didn't slow his approach. The sedan maintained the speed he had acquired.
Half a block left.
He let go of the yoke and reached for the passenger side door, but it would not open. A warning indicated automatic drive would take over in a moment if he did not grab the yoke shaped steering wheel. He gripped it loosely, watching the earlier version of his group start to get out of the way, all except for Avery and his earlier version.
He was the one that would run himself over. Doing that couldn't kill him, could it? He reasoned it wouldn't because he was driving this car as his later version. He wondered how much pain he would cause himself, as he ducked down low in the seat, lying almost sideways, with his hands still on the wheel.
He heard screaming outside the car as it bounced violently. His hands slipped from the wheel and the warning about the auto drive flashed in his view.
The sensation of speed diminished a moment later and the sedan slowed. Wyatt felt guilt filling him as he sat up and looked back over his shoulder. The sedan stopped at the curb, with a message that it had reached his destination. His brain hurt, and his memories became incoherent. Had he run himself over?
CHAPTER fourteen
BUSINESS PARK STRUCTURE, R259PS
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2089, 6:00 PM
The passenger side door of the car opened, and Wyatt climbed out. He felt numb as he scanned the street where he had passed.
He saw Aldan and Jeremy first, closer to the sidewalk, then Brooke and Avery. All were dressed in orange, but he struggled to find his earlier version. Avery stood on the opposite side of the street from the other three.
Wyatt's head hurt as he stared, trying to remember which experience was correct. Either he had been run over, or he hadn't. Had he made the correct decision?
For several frantic seconds, he watched as Avery crossed the street and the four of them stood together. His mind wouldn't focus on the memories. He knew he had been in that area, but his mind wouldn't bring up any of those memories.
Something blocked it. His head ached. and he stood near the car as he watched the earlier versions of his group open their portals and step through.
The resonance washed over him as he sat there. It didn't make sense. Hannah had convinced him to get into that car. He had driven it. Now he couldn't picture being there with the earlier version of his group. He knew that he had been worried that he had been run over by the car, but that memory was gone, as was the memory of the car missing him.
It felt like he had never been there. But he remembered seeing his earlier version with the others as he sped toward them in the sedan.
Why would Hannah do that to him?
Taking several deep breaths he rose to his feet, removing the connection band from his forehead. Stuffing the band into his pocket he stepped closer to the four-story building behind him. The heat still radiated from the dark gray concrete of the building even though it now sat in shadow.
He watched the now empty street, looking for any sign of Brooke, Avery, Jeremy, or Aldan. He thought he remembered their departure, but in the back of his mind, he wondered if he really had seen them. Had things changed
so much that they had never come?
Despair filled him as he started walking along the street in the direction of the burger restaurant. All seemed lost. He wished he hadn't been so stupid. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Hannah could ever be trusted. She had to have a reason for pushing him to drive that car.
And now he had ruined everything.
Walking the two blocks from the parked sedan to where he had nearly run over his older group calmed his mind. The street was empty, and he struggled to determine what he might have run over. The aching of his mind had eased, and he could remember what had happened. He once again remembered the two versions of the experience his earlier version had in that street. His mind swam as it tried to connect what he had seen with the memories.
If he had never come to this street, where had he been? That was harder to answer because he could have been anywhere. He remembered being with that earlier version of his group, so he held onto that as he walked past where they had been.
Brooke, Jeremy, Avery, and Aldan were gone. It seemed like he had not come to this version of the street with them. That thought made him stop and rub his face for a moment. It changed everything.
He stared at his left hand, and realized he was trapped. He had no wrist terminal and therefore, no way of returning to the warehouse of 2090. At least he had a connection band, so he wasn't completely disconnected from the environment of 2089.
Walking again, he passed the narrow alley with the remnants of burger wrappers. He paused to scan the area but saw no sign of his group. He really was alone.
Thinking back over the last several minutes, he tried to determine if the older version of Hannah had traveled. When the younger Hannah had left, he hadn't felt the resonance and it was the same with the older version of Hannah.
They had to still be in this time and space. That thought calmed him a little more as he reached the corner and stepped around toward the few black metal tables and chairs. Only one person sat at one of those tables, and she watched him with a smile.
"How was that?" the younger version of Hannah asked, pushing her auburn hair out of her face with her right hand. "Was that what you remembered?"
Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2) Page 12
