by Holly Hook
Simon yells in pain. I can't stop. Arnelia runs ahead of us, waving us along. We can never come back here. Ever. Once we go through the rift, we have to go back to 1912 and take our chances there, no matter what they are.
“Come on!” She waves us along. Isabel joins her, asking what's going on.
We emerge back in the lobby and I look up again, wishing I hadn't. There's nothing but moving darkness outside in the Antarctic air. The dome is cracking and frigid air blasts down. Tiny shards of glass rain to the floor. I know that feeling all too well. It sends me right back to the night Simon and I fell to our deaths.
Maybe we should.
“Come on!” Arnelia repeats, even though none of us have stopped. The air in the lobby looks smoky and dangerous. A horrible buzzing noise fills the air, cutting over the cracking. It's the bots. Lines run down the walls them as if termites are eating holes in it.
Something stings on my back and I scream. A line of pain slices down my back. Blood drips. I can't die this way. It's too insane, too horrible. Too pointless.
Simon screams as well. Is it from his leg or something new?
We stagger forward into the tunnel that leads to the Time Lab. People are shouting from there. Someone must have turned on the rift by now. It's the only way out. I doubt there are any cars waiting to take us away and even if there are, there's no way they could escape this swarm.
There's another string of pain slicing down my back, and another. I can't stand much more of this. The pain is maddening. The walls form dark lines on them. Angry lines. It's almost as bad as those Chronophages. Those nanobots are going to tear down this complex and devour everyone here until that Chalmers dictator gets the technology he needs.
We clear the tunnel. The screen on the artificial rift is alive. Mulavi hits the buttons on the touch screen, which flash blue. There's a small crowd before the rift. The cracking sound is just as bad here and something tiny and black zips past my face. There are more of the bots in here and I delay going in. Simon groans. I hope he's unconscious for the most part. Monica screams and bats something away. So does Isabel. She's sobbing. A line of blood runs down her face.
Mulavi shouts something at us and jumps into the gray wall. He vanishes into it. He's safe on the other side. One of the medics jumps after him, followed by the soldiers.
“We have to move now!” Arnelia shouts. “The bots won't destroy the rift, but they'll destroy us!” She has spots of blood on her robe. They're little red splotches and it looks like she's broken out in disease.
Blood runs down along my scalp. Another slice of pain races down my arm. I hold Simon up higher. There's nothing but cracking and buzzing here. I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of time. This is the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
“Jump!” I shout, but Monica and Isabel have already beaten me to it. I hold my breath and lunge forward, taking Simon back into wherever the rift is going to take us.
Chapter Seventeen
We land in the middle of a small crowd. Red surrounds us. Fog. A soldier looks at me and back to his comrades, who huddle near one of the archways. Pain burns along my skin where the nanobots have taken bites out of me.
Now, at least, I'm in familiar territory again.
“So where is this now?” Monica asks. She holds her hand over her cheek, which is bleeding. There's blood on her hands.
I check to make sure none of those nanobots have come through after us. The air here is clear except for the fog. Two of the soldiers converse in low voices nearby as they study the corridor. I loosen my grip on Simon and allow him to sit. Why didn't we get the time to heal him? It would have helped us immensely. But at least we're here. My wound screams down my back and I can feel that my dress is sticking to me. It's my own blood, but it's not enough to make me bleed out—at least, not yet. Had we remained in 5052 for more than a couple more minutes, I don't want to think about what would have happened.
"Are you okay?" Arnelia asks me. She struggles not to let the pain show on her face.
"I think so."
"Are you okay?" she asks Isabel and Monica.
"I will be, once I know what's going on here," she says. She takes her hand off her cheek. A red line shines across it where the nanobot took a bite out of her skin. Next to her, Isabel's gone silent.
“I suppose I should let you use this,” I say. taking off the hair clip. "Put this on and just touch it. Then you'll remember everything." At least Arnelia still has her own device. That'll help.
And Simon...
"Simon," I say. "How are you feeling?" I eye his leg. At least the bleeding seems to have stopped again, but he's still low on blood.
'"Thirsty," he says. "Very thirsty." He looks up at me. "How did I get hurt? Do you have any water?"
"No. But we can find some." I look up and down the corridor. No one has any.
And Time is still sick.
Very sick. The walls are a dull red and the fog stinks as bad as ever. I feel like we've died and gone to Hell.
And everyone's catching their breath. One of the military men has blood running down his neck. We were all bitten by the nanobots, it seems. But at least none of them followed us through the rift. That would have been terrible if they started chewing at us in here. They'd multiply if Arnelia is right about them and we'd be dead in no time. Only one of the medics has made it, I notice.
Mulavi stands in the corridor, marveling as if he hasn't seen it before. I know why he hasn't. Up until now, there were Timeless here to wipe his memories of all these annoying trips he and the scientists ever took here. Now there aren't any. Mulavi says something to Arnelia and she shakes her head at him, saying something in their normal language. She's filling him in on what this must be. She gestures down the never-ending hallway and at the archways that contain rifts. Mulavi's face falls. I think he's just realized that he's never going to go home again, not unless he wants to be eaten alive. They'll have to settle in another time.
"Well, we have the whole gang here, don't we?” I ask. Monica's face lights up with recognition as she takes off the butterfly. But Isabel still stands there, doing the same as Mulavi and the military personnel that stand and crowd the corridor.
"What's happening?" Simon asks. "Who are all of you?"
“Oh. I remember now,” Monica says. “That last memory, though—I wish I didn't have to keep that one.”
“Me next,” Isabel says. “I'm taking it that's some high tech memory device. Are my memories on there, too?”
“They are.” Monica sounds sorry that she has to give them back.
Isabel wears the butterfly and flinches as it starts its work. I don't watch. I sit down beside Simon. “Well, that idea's for getting you better is out.” He conscious, at least, and not passing out. Maybe the fact that he's sitting helps.
He groans. There's new blood on the sleeve of his shirt and on the sides of his overalls, which have a narrow rip down the side. The nanobots have bitten him, too. It's the last thing he needs.
I ignore my own pain. “Isabel. Monica. Arnelia. We need to get Simon help. Even if I take us back to 1912 and ask for the third class doctor there, it's better than nothing. I'm not taking any more risks going time to time.”
Arnelia faces me. “You shouldn't have to die, Julia. Neither you nor Simon should. There must be a way for us to survive without the world falling apart and becoming so horrible. There must be. There was before. We must think of how that is. But now, I have no access to my library. I haven't since the world has gone so dark.”
I try to imagine what kind of dictator would kill people by such a horrible means. A monster. Someone even worse than Hitler.
Someone even worse than Isabel's father.
“We need to get moving,” I say. I won't bother to restore Simon's memory now. There's no time. I take the clip back from Isabel, who looks around at the corridor with recognition. “Everyone—stay together. I don't know what we're all going to do, but it's safer that way.”
Arnelia
repeats what I've said to Mulavi, the medic, and the military people. They nod and the military guy pulls out a gun. I feel a lot better knowing that. If Isabel's father comes this way, we have some protection. I count. There are ten of us here.
We're the only survivors of the nanobot attack.
Everyone else in that complex either hasn't made it in time or they're in some kind of shelter. I don't see how a shelter would work, though. Not with the way those things liked to eat through walls and glass and flesh. Anyone left in the Science District is bound to die sooner or later to those things.
Simon stands and I let him lean on me again. He's walking a little better now--isn't he? We start walking quickly, back towards the Main Chamber. Mulavi keeps asking Arnelia questions. The soldier keeps out his weapon and I notice that she doesn't tell him to put it away. We're all sticking together. What will Arnelia do? She will have to find another time to live in or something if we don't fix the course of history. There's no way she can go back to 5052, not with that dictator making such attempts on her life. The thought of her returning there sends a chill down my spine.
“Girl,” Simon mutters. “I think I'm going to die.” He staggers.
His words make my heart explode. “No. You're not. We did not do all of this just to have you die on us.”
“Simon?” Isabel asks.
“No, really.” He leans on me. “I think I am.”
And then he tumbles out of my grasp and onto the floor.
Everyone turns to face us. Simon lands face-first on the red, inflamed crystal.
“Simon!” I lean down and shake him. He groans and I wrap my hands around his wrist, taking his pulse. His heart beats fast and weak, like it's struggling to get enough blood to all of him. I look up at everyone else. “Does anyone know what to do?” I ask. “Does anyone know how to transfuse blood right here and now?”
Arnelia shakes her head. “The technology for that is back in the Science Wing,” she asks. “Which is gone. We need to get him somewhere where he can heal.”
Arnelia seizes his arm. I get the other. We're going to have to drag him. Simon's losing consciousness. His feet scrape against the dull, red crystal.
“Keep going,” I breathe. Isabel's crying. Monica follows, mouth falling open. Even Mulavi looks excited, talking quickly. Simon's going to die if we don't hurry. He might not even make it if we get him to 1912. I don't know what to do. I just don't know what to do. We can get him back to Monica's time and summon the ambulance, but it might be too late to do even that. His blood pressure's dropping.
“We're close to the Main Chamber,” Arnelia says, looking behind us. I know that if Simon dies, she's going to disappear. I can't bear that. “Do you know where the rift is to a hospital we can take him? My memory does not serve me much here. I can only remember visiting the time with Trenton High School.”
“There's a hospital there," I say. My mind spins. Taking him back to the Titanic, even if it's not sinking, will be death for him now. “We have to go back there."
I remember where the Trenton rift is. At least we won't have to go across the entire Main Chamber this time where those crazy Chronophages still are.
The Hub opens up into redness and pain and sickness. My back still screams out and I don't want to know how injured I am.
“Julia?” Monica's voice is high.
Her voice makes me stop. "What?" I ask to no one in particular.
Then there's a horrible cracking sound. The crystal trembles under my feet and my heart stops.
We're not far from a wall. Next to us, a large sphere continues to bang into the wall over and over. It opens and closes its mouth. The air whistles around the Chronophage as it sucks in some of the fog. The crystal wall flares red again all around us as if screaming in pain. Simon groans again. He's still awake just a little. The sphere makes another attack.
The crystal makes one final, angry red flare, and fades.
I watch as all the red around us dulls and vanishes, leaving no color in its place. The crystal remains, but the imaginary lights behind it that reminded me of Christmas are gone. Dead. There's still a gray ambience around us and I can see, but all that's around us is dull crystal that's no longer beautiful.
The Chronophage turns and faces the middle of the room with a squishing sound. Its mouth slowly comes open as it pushes past us. The rotten egg smell grows even stronger, threatening to suffocate us. Isabel holds her hand over her nose. I gag.
“What is this?” Monica asks again.
I feel like I'm going to throw up.
“What?” Simon manages. I've never heart him so weak.
“Time,” Isabel says. “I think Time is dead or dying. Dying, I think.”
“Time can't die!” I yell. This was what Simon said he wanted. If Time were a man, I'd kill him. “It can't. It's like a law in our universe.”
“Then maybe Time is ending.”
“But what does that mean for us? For everyone?” I ask.
“I don't know,” she says. “But it can't be good.”
The Chronophage moves past us like we're bugs on the wall and approaches the center of the Main Chamber, where the Timeless used to get their assignments to find Rogues and lead us back home. It wasn't evil like I used to imagine. Time was just trying to preserve itself, just like Simon and I want to do. Time was only trying to save everyone from this, and now we've screwed it up forever.
"What do we do?” I ask. “If Time's ending, why are we still here? Shouldn't everything end or freeze or something?”
“I don't know," Isabel says.
Behind us, the medic and the soldiers gather, watching the scene. Arnelia remains silent with her hands by her side.
“What are you talking about?” Simon asks, lifting his head and letting it flop back down again. I keep my grip on his arms. He can't even walk anymore. His condition is getting worse by the minute.
Not, of course, that it's going to matter if Isabel is right.
The fog is thinning, revealing the entire Main Chamber and the huge space it takes up.
And the Chronophages.
They gather at the center like it's some kind of macabre meeting. There are hundreds of them. They leave the middle space open, forming a ring around it like they're waiting for some kind of king to arrive.
And then there's a loud, thunderous splitting sound.
This isn't like the other cracking I heard earlier. This is like the earth opening up. The Main Chamber shakes and I struggle to stand. Mulavi and the medic stagger and fall into the wall, grabbing onto the entrance to the corridor for support. The soldiers shout and Monica screams.
We've done something very, very bad.
One of the Chronophages falls forward as if the middle of the Main Chamber is sinking. It dips down and slides. The others join it as if they're all people topping down the bleachers of an overzealous soccer game. The cracking grows louder. I can see between the Chronophages a little.
There's a hole opening up.
I've never seen anything like it before.
"What's that?” Monica shouts.
Mulavi and the soldiers back away. One raises his gun. It won't do any good. The Chronophages are heading away from us, anyway, drawn towards the opening in the floor.
Then I see. The first of the spheres fall away.
Beyond the floor, there's nothing at all.
It's the same darkness I saw inside the Chronophage's mouth. The same nothingness. The same absolute ending without any hope. The ugly spheres topple into it, vanishing into puffs of smoke and disintegrating. I'm frozen in terror.
I'm almost glad to see them gone—but the hole continues to expand. The crystal itself topples down into the void as it grows larger and larger. The black pulses race through me again, threatening to devour me and threatening to erase me forever. Simon groans as if he senses it. The hole's edge is still far away—maybe a mile, even—but we can't stay here. I grab onto Simon's hand and pull at him. Even death is better than what waits at
the bottom of that void.
There is no hope there.
No redemption.
“Go!” I shout at everyone. “Run!”
Mulavi and the soldiers run back into the corridor they came from, leaving us alone. Behind me, there's more cracking as the hole grows ever larger.
Time is ending.
And with it, the entire universe.
Chapter Eighteen
Isabel grabs Simon's other arm and we pull him up. He groans yet again, this time with terror. “Don't let that get me,” he manages. “Don't. I'd rather die.”
Monica slaps me on the back. "What is this?"
I stagger towards the corridor that I know has the Trenton rift, keeping my grip on Simon's arm. It's the closest to us, and the only one we can reach without going into the growing pit. I can't think of anything else. The hole's even larger now and the last of the spheres have fallen away into it. We're the only living things left in the Hub. The place is falling apart. Time has died. We killed it. We killed everyone.
The hole's halfway to us and the crystal floor continues to crack and fall into it like ice being pulled into the black mouth of a giant monster. Will it expand to eat all the rifts? What about the times inside the rifts? Are they even still there, functioning like they should? Or will all times and places plunge into this hole as well?
Arnelia seizes my free arm. “We must leave,” she says. She's lost all composure. “I don not like the way this feels. We must leave now!”
The edge topples closer. There aren't any stars in this void. There's no life. There's nothing at all. Was this what things were like before the universe began?
We drag Simon towards the Trenton corridor and enter. In only a few minutes, the hole will reach this spot. It'll start eating through the rifts. Through every time and thing that has ever existed.
