The Time Traveler

by Tej Pratap Singh

  KC was secured in the police van, his hands cuffed, with an occasional slap from one of the cops every now and then. Not one of his favorite days, but definitely not his worst either considering all that was going on with him.

  One of the angry cops got hold of his shirt and asked him, “You bloody murderer, you really thought that you’ll get away with it.” This followed by two sweet punches to his mouth. He began bleeding from his mouth profusely; the cop was not ready to stop yet though, he had a good mind of punching him to death.

  “Hey, stop it, you’ll kill him,” said the captain.

  “Why keep this murderer alive anyway?” The lieutenant added another blow.

  “Stop it. That’s an order,” said the Captain starting to get angry.

  “Just get me out of here,” cried KC.

  “Scanning.” The time-com had got activated.

  “Five hostiles discovered. Activating a five minute time loop in 5, 4, 3…”

  “Who the hell is saying that?” exclaimed the captain.

  2, 1…

  There was a bright streak of light, almost blinding everything around and suddenly everything stood still. Everything. The cops froze as they were, two of them looking at each other, the captain’s mouth still open, and another cop’s fist just inches away from KC’s jaw. But KC continued to bleed, as usual the time loop had no effect on him.

  “Goddammit! You freaking time-com,” yelled KC. “Couldn’t you bloody have activated a few minutes ago, when they were kicking the shit out of me? Were you enjoying it?”

  “I get activated only when you ask for me. Please call out for me when you require me,” said Dr. Kenneth Cent as his image was displayed. As usual he was sitting on his chair. KC tried to make sense of the image’s surroundings but couldn’t.

  “Oh great! Call out for you when I require you, really? Bloody crap,” said KC sarcastically.

  KC got up, although it was painful to do he slowly wiped the blood off his mouth. He had less than five minutes to get as far as he could. He took the keys off the captain and unlocked his handcuffs. He opened the doors of the police van and stepped out. He had hardly crossed any distance when he fell down. He was in immense pain. He was tired, hungry and hadn’t slept properly in days. He couldn’t walk anymore.

  “You must move, you are not alone,” said Dr. Kenneth scratching his forehead with his hand.

  “I still have four minutes left, you time crap,” said KC.

  You do but I am reading interference, scrambled signals, similar to those used by the A.P.U.

  “You mean the Armed Power Union?” said KC, tensed.

  “Yes, it seems that they have located you. This can’t be good, we must move now.”

  “But how can they find me, only I have travelled through the time modulator? How can they find me?”

  “Dr., are you forgetting it’s been a year since you left the I.F.? One year is a long time.”

  “Okay, I know, they must be getting closer to me every time I make use of you,” said KC. “Just like you are able to read scrambled A.P.U. signals, they too must be doing the same. That’s how they found me. Time-com deactivate now.”

  The time-com went silent. KC looked around, the weather still looked bad, it was already drizzling and it could pour any moment now. He tried to get up once again but he couldn’t. He had under a minute left, he looked around; there was a very uncomfortable kind of silence. He wondered if the A.P.U. were near, if they were then a minute was not sufficient time to manage and escape. He felt that under the circumstances it might be wiser to stay with the police. He crawled back into the police van, put the handcuffs on himself and put the keys back in captain’s pocket. He made a slight change to the previous arrangement, he moved the arm of the police officer who was about to punch him towards the captain, just inches from his jaw and counted 3, 2, 1…

  The time-loop was over and before anyone could realize the captain got a knockout punch from his lieutenant.

  “What the fuck!” cried the lieutenant. “How did I? I mean sir… I… didn’t… mean to.”

  “You fucking dick!” said the captain as he caught hold of the lieutenant’s neck and gave it a nice squeeze.

  “Sir, I am sorry. I honestly don’t know how this happened,” said the lieutenant. “I… swear, sir, I… can’t… breathe.”

  “You fucking son of a gun, keep your hands to yourself, or I’ll rip them off,” said the angry captain.

  KC had closed his eyes and was playing unconscious, his eyes were closed but he was paying close attention to what was being said, and he was making a mental note of all turns and distances as the police van moved. He quickly made a mental map of where he was being taken, all he had to do later was to break out of prison and he would know exactly how to get to the city.

  It was a huge prison, security walls were over 50 ft. high, with an electric fence all around, surveillance cameras 24/7 and trained ferocious police dogs. Even if someone could be crazy enough to get through all of this, there was a 150 ft. wide water channel all around the prison, which was not deep but was filthy as hell, anyone trying to wade through it would be dead before he was half way through.

  The warden literally threw him in his cell, “Rot there, till you’re dead”.

  KC just gave him a quiet look, he had no intention of staying here that long.

  “Hey, boy. Welcome to hell.”

  He looked around as a figure emerged from the back of the dark cell.

  “I’m Jackson, everybody calls me Jack. Been around here for 15 years now, know this place like the back of my hand. If you need anything let me know.”

  “I want to get out of here,” said KC looking at him.

  “Haha. And, I want to be the president of the USA,” said Jack mocking him.

  “Hey, I’m serious,” said KC.

  “Boy, only one man can get you out, big crazy Dozer. But he will only help you if you give him a good reason, and trust me he doesn’t like new kids around.”

  KC looked at Jack trying to evaluate him. He was shabbily dressed but his hands were clean, his hair was a mess but his bed was nicely done. KC felt like he could trust him. He now had to arrange to meet the big crazy Dozer.

  “So, boy, what did you do? How did a fine boy like you end up in a place like this? You look pretty young. How old are you? 20? 24? 25?” asked Jack.

  “I’m a physicist, a scientist,” replied KC.

  Jack looked at him and then burst into laughter.

  “I’m a physicist,’ imitated Jack still laughing out barely able to stand. “Boy you sure got a good sense of humor.”

  KC went and sat on his bed, it was hard. He could see bugs moving around. But he had bigger problems to worry about. He looked out of the small window at the top of the wall, it was very small, probably only a squirrel could get through, a good amount of light was coming in through it though. He noticed Jack’s shadow on the floor, he quickly made a mental note of the length of the shadow and Jack’s approximate height, and he calculated the time, it was 6.30 pm, which meant dinner would be served in an hour. He had to make his move soon, he had to meet the Dozer.

  * * *

  At 7.30 pm the central bell rang announcing it was time for dinner. As the inmates made their way to the dining hall, KC looked around for Dozer. He followed everyone to the massive dining hall. Over a thousand inmates sat together for all their meals, dressed in their white outfits, there was so much noise, minor fights breaking out every second at some odd corner of the hall, it was a site to see.

  Where can I find Dozer in this mess, wondered KC.

  Just then, all of a sudden, there was a pin drop silence. At one end of the hall the inmates started to make way for someone, clearly the warden or the prison superintendent was coming. KC saw five tall men walking in a close group, they were huge and muscular, they were all dresse
d in the white inmates’ uniform.

  “What’s going on?” KC asked Jack who was standing right next to him.

  Jack didn’t say a word.

  The five men came and stood at a table where few other inmates were sitting and gave them a cold look. The inmates immediately stepped away from the table quietly. Two of the five huge men picked the table and gave it a jerk till all the plates on it fell off. Then they placed a cloth over it and kept a bottle of whiskey on it with six glasses.

  That table was heavy; KC reckoned that it would’ve taken six to eight average-sized men to move that table. But just two of those guys seemed to have picked it up with ease. Those guys sure were strong, he decided to do his best to not get into their bad books.

  “Whom is the sixth glass for?” he tried Jack again.

  “Shut up, kid,” whispered Jack. “Do you want us to get killed?”

  “Well, I just wanted to know which one of them is Dozer?” said KC, forgetting to keep his voice down.

  All necks turned towards KC as Jack quietly slipped away.

  “Huh? What is that you said?” said one of the five huge men.

  “Crap!” said KC taking a few steps back.

  “What?” said the other huge inmate.

  “I… was jus… err… I… wanted to know which one of you was the Dozer,” stumbled KC.

  One of the huge men came and caught hold of KC’s collar and literally lifted him up. KC’s feet were off the ground and he could barely breathe.

  “Let him down,” someone said in a heavy voice.

  KC with great difficulty turned his eyes to see a huge man, he was at least two feet taller than the five huge inmates.

  Yup, that’s the Dozer, he thought, these five men were just his aides. I am in huge trouble.

  The inmate threw KC on the floor. His neck hurt as hell, his body was still aching from the thrashing he had received from the cops in the morning, he was in no shape to take more thrashing.

  “Who sent you?” asked the Dozer.

  “No one, I mean no trouble, I just wanted to talk to you,” replied KC.

  “Oh yeah? Well talk to my fist first,” said the Dozer as he spit all over KC’s face and gave him a knockout punch.

  “Ooh,” went the entire hall. No one could have survived that.

  “Get this piece of shit out of here,” ordered the Dozer.

  His five bullies started to make their way towards KC but then they stopped; KC seemed to be in a conscious state. The inmates couldn’t believe their eyes. Someone had survived a punch from the Dozer. Never in the past 20 years had anyone survived after getting hit by the Dozer.

  The Dozer was the most feared inmate in the prison. Even the superintendent and all the cops stayed out of his way. The only reason he was still in prison was because he wanted to be there. If he wanted to, he could just walk out of the prison and no one would dare to stop him. He had links very high up the chain. In fact, that was also one of the reasons he was in jail, some very powerful people wanted him there. He worked as a hitman for them getting rid of unwanted or troublesome people. Their plan was simple, anyone creating trouble for them would falsely be convicted and sent to the prison. Once they were in, they either had a freak accident or would get killed in some fight amongst the inmates, this obviously was staged-managed by the Dozer. He was the God in the prison, he enjoyed absolute command over everything and this required him to project an image of brute strength, which, at this point, was being challenged by KC surviving the hit.

  KC got up, barely able to stand on his feet, he took support of the table, that very heavy table, and stood up straight to everyone’s disbelief.

  The Dozer moved ahead to finish things once and for all. He took out a small knife from his sleeve and held KC by his collar. KC could barely stand and before the Dozer could stab him, he fell on the ground out cold.

  “Live, boy. You got another day,” said the Dozer as he quietly slipped the knife back in his sleeve.

  * * *

  Sixteen hours had passed since KC had been knocked out. Jack and his mates had carried him back to his cell. He was just starting to regain his senses.

  “Where am I?” he said barely able to open one eye. “What happened?”

  “You nearly got yourself killed, that’s what happened,” exclaimed Jack.

  “Tell me something new,” he said trying to get up with some difficulty.

  “But I got to say, kid, you surely surprised everybody when you actually got up after a blow from the Dozer. No one has ever done that,” said Jack with a hint of pride. “All the inmates are talking about you. You’re famous, but you got to watch out. Dozer is not going to forget what happened so quickly. I suggest you to stay in. A few days of missed meals will not kill you.”

  “Thanks, but I got to get out of here, I don’t have a second to waste, let alone days,” he replied.

  “It’s your funeral,” said Jack. “But I have warned you. You have no idea what Dozer is capable of, he is a ruthless killer.”

  “Jack, I don’t want to fight him. I know I wouldn’t last a minute in front of him. I just want to talk to him,” explained KC while he was crushing a small rock lying on the floor of his cell into fine a powder.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” said Jack. “A minute is too long, you wouldn’t last even a second in front of him this time around. He will see to that. Before you open your mouth to talk, you will be dead.”

  KC got up without saying anything, tore a part of his shirt, put the fine rock dust powder, tied a knot around it, and kept it in his pocket. It was lunchtime; he stepped out of his cell and started to walk towards the dining hall once again. He could hear inmates whisper to each other as he walked past them. He knew exactly what they were talking about. To them it seemed like a big deal that he was daring to step out of his cell, but the fact was that he was nervous as hell.

  KC saw the Dozer across the hall, standing just outside the gym. As soon as the Dozer saw him he started to walk towards KC. KC nearly skipped a heartbeat, but nevertheless he too started to walk towards the Dozer.

  Are you crazy? He said to himself. You’re going to die today. You might as well forget about making it back to your time. Forget about ever seeing Jenny again and everything else that you have planned. You are going to meet your end here.

  “KC. KC,” came a voice that broke the monotony and the intensity of the situation, to his relief. It was the warden.

  “There is someone to see you, it’s a lady and a pretty one. Now move it. You’ve only got fifteen minutes. Move it,” said the warden almost drooling.

  KC turned and left for the visitor’s area, he looked over his shoulder at the Dozer who was holding a knife in his hand and had it pointed towards KC. He moved his lips to say something, which KC could quite clearly read, “I’m waiting for you!”

  KC turned around and walked toward the visitor’s area. He wondered who could it be? Who would even know that he was here?

  As he got in the visitor’s cabin he saw a beautiful lady dressed in black, probably a lawyer he thought. She wore glasses; wisps of hair escaped the pin holding her hair together and fell across her face. She had ink all over her hands and was carrying a bundle of files with her. She definitely was gorgeous. He figured she was really good at what she did and probably a little clumsy. But what could she want from him?

  “Are you Mr. Jo?” asked the lady in her soft and soothing voice.

  “Uh…” he replied distracted by her beauty, unable to get an intelligible word out.

  “Are you Mr. Jo?” she repeated.

  “Yes, of course, I am,” he replied almost embarrassed.

  “Well, sir, I am Glenn. I’m here to get you out of here,” she said placing a thick bundle of paper in front of him. “I want you to sign here… here… here and here.”

  “What is this pape
r?” he inquired.

  “Sir these are some legal documents which you have to sign so that we can get you out of here. I would read it to you but it will take hours and I believe we have just about 15 minutes left.”

  “Who exactly is this ‘we’ that you mention?” he asked.

  “Mr. Kamal of course,” said Glenn almost surprised.

  “Kamal?” repeated KC.

  “Yes, your team leader at the British embassy in India. He said you would know,” added Glenn.

  “Kamal at the British embassy, of course yes, in India, right,” said KC as he coughed a couple of times. “Just wanted to be sure.”

  “Well, sir, if you are quite finished with your enquiries would you mind signing the papers, please?,” said Glenn pushing the papers forward. She was having a tough time managing her long hair which was now spilling all over the table. She took out another pen from her bag and used it to fasten her hair at the back of her head. “That oughta hold them together,” she said as KC was still staring at her.

  “Sir, Mr. Jo, do you please mind signing the papers!” she said.

  “Err… oh yes,” he said once again embarrassed as he quickly signed the papers. He couldn’t believe that it was the second time he was caught staring at her.

  “Well, sir, that will be all. You will be out of here maximum in a day. I’ll advise you to please stay alive until then. This prison has a nasty reputation about inmates dying all the time,” said Glenn as she passed her files back in her bag rather quickly and in a clumsy manner.

  “Yes, I will take care, thank you so much for your concern,” he said unable to wipe the silly smile off his face.

  “And, sir, one more thing,” said Glenn bending over the table to whisper in his ear, “next time you try to hit on a girl please be sure you are on the other side of the bars.” Added Glenn as she walked out.

  Oh Crap! Thought KC. I’ve made a complete fool of myself.