The Time Bubble Box Set 2

by Jason Ayres

  Global warming had hit Australia hard in recent years and she had been shocked at the amount of devastation as she had travelled around New South Wales. Everywhere she went she saw blackened tree stumps, a reminder of the devastating fires that had ravaged the region the previous summer.

  Sydney itself had been under serious threat from the fires for a while as the mercury hit over forty degrees every day in January and the wildfires raging all around grew closer and closer. Thankfully disaster had been averted this time, but all over the world cities were facing similar threats.

  Travelling in the Australian winter had seemed like an eminently sensible idea, but as she moved up the east coast, the climate was rapidly changing. What would it be like when she reached the tropical regions in the north?

  Once she had restocked on water and snacks in the shop, she walked over to the specially designated waiting area just along from the petrol pumps where she held up her crudely written cardboard sign simply reading “Brisbane”. It seemed like today was her lucky day as she was almost immediately picked up by a middle-aged woman who she had just seen refuelling her open-topped 4x4.

  “You headed for Brizzie?” asked the woman.

  “Too right,” said Alice, hurriedly picking up her backpack.

  “You’re in luck,” said the woman. “Hop in.”

  “Thank you,” said Alice, dumping her sign in a handy recycling bin and slinging her backpack into the back seat, before sliding in gratefully beside the woman. She wouldn’t have been so grateful if she knew what the future Alice knew about this woman, but at twenty she was completely oblivious to the danger.

  Like a lamb to the slaughter, thought Vanessa, revelling in the power that time travel was gifting her. Her enemy from the future was in the car, full of youthful innocence and trust that was going to prove to be seriously misplaced. She glanced across at Alice, so impossibly young and with her whole life in front of her.

  That life was about to become significantly shorter than it should have been. Vanessa felt no remorse for this whatsoever; in fact, she was positively relishing the misery and fear she was going to put the young girl through before she killed her. The world belonged to her now; she set the rules and she could wipe anyone she liked out of existence as casually as if she was playing a video game.

  They exchanged a little small talk as they travelled up the coast. Alice told Vanessa all about her trip while Vanessa fabricated a completely fictitious account of her career in the local film industry.

  “Say, we’re filming today in the bush a few miles outside of Brizzie,” said Vanessa. “Why don’t you come down and take a look – we’re always looking for extras.”

  “Sounds awesome,” replied Alice, excitedly. That’s what this backpacking was all about as far as she was concerned – having adventures, going with the flow and embracing new experiences.

  “Cool,” said Vanessa, Alice’s enthusiasm increasing her satisfaction. The happier her victim was, the more she would enjoy the moment when it was time to reveal her fate.

  “We turn off here,” she added, indicating left as she took the slip road off the Pacific Highway onto a smaller road.

  Alice sat back and relaxed, enjoying the cooling air flowing all over her, blowing her blonde hair all around. There was something so invigorating about riding in an open-top car on a hot day. She was so glad she had decided to take this gap year. If she had stayed at the university she might never have found the time later to enjoy this experience.

  Vanessa turned off onto an even more minor road, heading further inland, and they drove on for miles, signs of civilisation becoming increasingly sparse. The landscape was changing, with the trees and plants becoming more and more spread out. The road was also no longer tarmacked, but little more than a dirt track.

  They had been driving for a good couple of hours now and it seemed to Alice as if they were heading into the middle of nowhere.

  “Just how far is this film set?” she asked Vanessa.

  “Not much further. Listen, you better hold on tight. This could get a little bumpy.”

  With that, she suddenly pulled the steering wheel to the right and the jeep lurched off the track into the wilderness.

  “Where are we going?” said Alice, her excitement starting to be replaced by apprehension for the first time. Still, she couldn’t be in any danger, could she? If she was with a man she might fear being raped, but she had stuck rigidly to Ellie’s advice and only accepted lifts from females all the way from Sydney.

  “Not much further, you’ll see,” said Vanessa, as the jeep bounced and jolted across the uneven terrain.

  After about fifteen minutes, she finally stopped the jeep at the edge of a small canyon. The landscape here was predominantly rocky and almost devoid of plant life. With the car stopped, Alice became aware just how baking hot it was in the early afternoon sun. She was about to reach behind her for the water in her backpack when events took an unexpected and frightening turn.

  “Can I borrow your phone?” asked Vanessa. “I just need to call the director and let him know we’re going to be late.”

  “Of course,” said Alice, handing over her iPhone.

  “Good,” said Vanessa, as she casually tossed the phone out of the right-hand side of the jeep directly into the canyon below. “You won’t be needing that anymore.”

  “What did you do that for!?” exclaimed Alice, as she heard the distant sound of her device shattering on the rocks some fifty feet below.

  “Now get out of the car,” ordered Vanessa, ignoring Alice’s question. When Alice stayed put, she pulled a futuristic-looking weapon from the side door pocket. To Alice it looked like something out of Star Trek.

  “What the hell’s that?” she asked. Her first thought was that it must be a prop from the movie Vanessa was supposedly making, but Vanessa’s next move swiftly dispelled that.

  “Allow me to demonstrate,” said Vanessa, as she turned the weapon on the rocky red walls on the other side of the canyon and fired.

  The gun discharged with a familiar high-pitched whine and a single bolt of blue light zapped into the wall opposite. There was a spectacular explosion and a large chunk of rock was shattered, small shards of red rock scattering everywhere, leaving a glowing, superheated patch of bare wall behind.

  Why did it sound familiar? Where had Alice heard that sound before? Then she remembered – it had been shortly after she had been dropped off at the garage earlier in the day.

  “Do as I say and get out, or that will happen to you,” commanded Vanessa.

  Terrified, Alice complied, reaching for her backpack as she did.

  “Leave that!” barked Vanessa.

  “Are you going to kill me?” asked Alice, looking fearfully at the gun.

  “That was my original plan,” replied Vanessa. “But then I thought it might be more amusing for me and more painful for you to let nature take its course.”

  “But why? What have I ever done to you?” said Alice desperately, as tears of desperation began to well up in her eyes. It was moisture she couldn’t scarcely afford to lose. She was already feeling dehydrated in the remorseless heat of the sun.

  “It’s not so much what you’ve done, more what you’re going to do,” replied Vanessa. “Except that you’re not going to get to do it now. We’re miles from anywhere out here and with no water and no shelter in this heat, you won’t last long.”

  “Why didn’t you just kill me back at the garage, rather then drive me all the way out here?” asked Alice, in desperation.

  “Oh no, that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. One shot and it’s all over. I want to get my entertainment value. Soon you’re going to find out what dying from dehydration’s like. It’s slow, and it’s terrifying and it’s painful. And once you’re dead, it won’t be long before you’re just a pile of bones. It might look deserted out here but there’s no shortage of wildlife looking for its next meal.”

  “At least tell me why you’re doing this. Yo
u owe me that much,” said Alice through tears of despair. “What did you mean by it being more about what I’m going to do?”

  “Oh, it’s quite straightforward really. I’m from the future and there’s a man there that I want. You’re in the inconvenient position of being married to him. So, I came back here to erase you from history before you even met him, thereby solving the problem. Have you heard the expression ‘prevention is better than cure’? Because this is a classic example.”

  “What man?” said Alice. “And why kill me? Surely you could have found another way.”

  “There’s no need to worry about his identity because you’re never going to meet him now. And as for killing you, you’re right, it isn’t necessary. I could have just kept you apart. But the thing is, I enjoy it. I’ve killed before and it’s getting kind of addictive.”

  “You won’t get away with it,” insisted Alice.

  “The thing is, I will,” said Vanessa. “I’ve got just enough petrol to get back to the garage, and when I do, I’ll be popping forward thirty-odd years into the future. Even if the police here ever do manage to figure out what happened to you, how are they going to follow me there?”

  She turned the ignition key and began to reverse the jeep backwards.

  “Please,” begged Alice. “At least let me have my backpack. All my water’s in there.”

  “I wouldn’t be a very efficient killer if I did that, would I?” said Vanessa. “Besides, it would only prolong the agony because you’ll never find your way back from here no matter how much water you’ve got. Enjoy your death!”

  With that, she slammed the jeep into first gear and roared off in a cloud of dust, leaving a sobbing Alice behind her.

  There was nothing she could do, and she knew it. Clutching at straws, she tried to climb down the ravine towards her shattered phone, but she knew it was no good. It was too steep and even if she could reach it, the chances of it still working after being thrown off a cliff were remote.

  There was a loud, piercing squawk from some bird she couldn’t hear, somewhere overhead. She thought grimly about vultures pecking at her remains, but they were just in America, right? What did they have out here that could hurt her? Dingoes? She didn’t know what part of Australia they lived in. What did it matter anyway? She knew she was doomed whatever happened.

  She was already feeling the extent of heat exhaustion, and knew she had to look for some sort of shelter but there was precious little in the rocky terrain. Desperate, she dragged herself up and attempted to follow the tracks Vanessa had made, but it was slow-going. Long before nightfall, she had slumped down unconscious and once the blazing morning sun returned, death swiftly followed.

  Her death sent ripples of change flowing forward through time, touching everyone who would have interacted with her in the years ahead. This continued right up to the point where she had vanished beneath the Bridge of Sighs over thirty years later.

  Back in the present, it didn’t take long for birds to spot her body and swoop down to begin pecking at her. Before long, ants and other insects were also swarming all over this welcome new food source. Within a few short days in the hot, arid climate, all that was left was a pile of bleached bones.

  Chapter Fifteen

  May 2058

  Over three decades after Alice’s shocking demise, Hannah and the others had been piecing together every scrap of information they could find about her fateful final journey in the newly altered timeline.

  Now she and the remaining members of the team were mulling over what to do about it on a pleasant sunny afternoon in the back garden of The Red Lion.

  “And that’s the last anyone saw of her,” concluded Hannah. “I managed to get hold of the archive footage from the garage shop which clearly shows her stocking up on bottled water. After she left there, the trail goes cold.”

  “Did they find her body?” asked Kaylee.

  “Eventually,” replied Hannah. “But only after many years when a pile of bones was found in a remote part of the bush, miles from any civilisation. They identified her from dental records. Her parents were distraught at her disappearance, and there were all sorts of theories going around in the media about what might have happened to her.”

  “I can imagine,” replied Kaylee.

  “When they did eventually find her remains, they concluded that she had most likely been abducted, driven miles into the bush, and then raped and murdered. She wouldn’t have been the first or the last backpacker to suffer that fate, and some were never found. Australia’s a big place.”

  “It’s fair to assume that Vanessa was behind it, I suppose” said Charlie.

  “Almost certainly,” said Hannah. “We knew she wanted to remove Alice from Josh’s life. What better way than to kill her before they even met?”

  “Not if I have anything to do with it,” said Josh. “It can be undone. I’ve been up all night and managed to adjust the tachyometer to travel purely within our universe as per the modifications Henry was working on. All I have to do now is go back and warn Alice before she leaves the garage – transport her away to safety if necessary.”

  “That might not necessarily be the best approach,” said Peter. “You might be able to prevent it on this occasion, but what’s to stop Vanessa going even further back in time and trying to kill her again?”

  “He’s right,” said Hannah. “You’ve got to catch her in the act and get the tachyometer back from her. It’s the only way to put a stop to all of this.”

  “That sounds risky,” said Kaylee. “How are you going to protect yourself? There’s no knowing what she might do. We already know she’s no qualms about killing people.”

  “I’m probably safer than anyone,” said Josh. “She’s in love with me, remember? I’m the last person she would kill. Maybe I could lull her into a false sense of security – even let her think I might be interested in her.”

  “I find it hard to believe she’s going to fall for that,” said Hannah. “I think you should let me handle this instead.”

  “Really?” asked Josh. “You don’t have any experience of this sort of thing.”

  “True, but I’m still the logical choice,” said Hannah. “For a start, I’m a fully trained police officer.”

  “A retired police officer,” Peter reminded her.

  “You never really retire from this job,” said Hannah. “I also have something that none of you have and that’s experience of handling firearms.”

  “You’re going tooled up?” asked Lauren. “Cool.”

  “There’s nothing cool about it,” said Hannah. “I’m no fan of guns but Vanessa needs to be stopped.”

  “And you would go that far?” asked Kaylee. “You would actually kill her? You’ve always been fiercely opposed to violence.”

  “To protect, all of us, yes,” replied Hannah. “We know what she’s capable of and I’ll do what needs to be done to put an end to this. Can any of you honestly say you’d be able to do the same?”

  She looked round at a bunch of bowed heads, all trying to avoid eye contact. Their body language was all the confirmation she needed.

  “That settles it,” she said. “It’s down to me. And there’s no time to waste. I suggest we start right away. Josh, where are the tachyometers? Have you finished the upgrades you were working on?”

  “Hold on a minute. It’s not that simple,” said Josh. “These things need to be planned. Yes, I have upgraded the tachyometer but remember it only travels in time – it’s not going to transport you to Australia. You’ve got to make your own way over there.”

  “That’s going to waste time, though,” said Hannah.

  “Maybe, but it’ll be a lot quicker if you travel there in the present day. In the time you are going back to it took a good 24 hours to travel there by plane, and on top of that you’ve got to drive hundreds of miles to the last place she was seen. All of that is a major headache when currencies have changed, and your passport isn’t valid in the earlier time. Trust me, y
ou need to get where you need to be first – then make the jump.”

  “And you’re not going on your own,” added Peter. “I’m coming with you.”

  “No offence, dear husband, if you come back with me into the past, you’re only going to get in the way. This is something I need to do on my own.”

  “I can’t let you both go, anyway,” said Josh. “I’ve only got two functioning tachyometers, and if you go with her that means taking both of them. If anything goes wrong and you get stranded, then there’s not going to be any way I can come and rescue you without building a new tachyometer from scratch – and by the time I’ve managed that there’s no knowing what havoc Vanessa may have wrought.”

  “I wasn’t talking about travelling to the past,” said Peter. “I meant I would come to Australia with you in the present.”

  “That might not be a bad idea,” said Josh. “You can report back to us what happens.”

  “You’re not coming, too?” asked Hannah.

  “No, I think that would be a bad idea,” said Josh. “For all we know, Vanessa could be watching my every move. If I go with you to Australia, she’s going to cotton on to what we’re up to. If I stay here, hopefully you’ll be able to travel over there undetected.”

  “OK, that sounds sensible,” said Hannah.

  “And the rest of you, stay put and keep your wits about you,” added Josh. “We have no way of knowing what Vanessa’s got planned.”

  Later that afternoon, Josh, Hannah and Peter met up at Josh’s new flat in Oxford.

  The day that Alice disappeared he had gone home to discover he didn’t live there anymore. Once he thought about it, it was perfectly understandable. He and Alice had chosen that house together.

  Fortunately, when he dug out his wallet, he found that his driving licence had the address of a flat in Jericho on it. He went to the address and when the door scanned his retina it recognised him and let him in.