Out of Time (The Adventures of Eric and Ursula Book 4)

by A. D. Winch

  "Your grandparents?" he paused before continuing.

  Ursula hoped that he would answer, 'of course,' even if it were a lie. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders and checked the fish.

  "I think it will take about another ten minutes," he said, not knowing what else to say.

  "You could just say, 'I don't know,'" Ursula said. "I wouldn't think anything less of you."

  "Alright, I don't know if we will ever see them again."

  While the fish cooked, they remained silent, lost in their thoughts.

  "I am sorry we're here," Eric said. "But I don't have as much to go back for as you. You have your grandparents and a home. I don’t have that."

  "Why don't you live with us?"

  "In your pokey…, I mean in your little flat? There's not enough room."

  "We could use the trust funds that Andrea set up for us and ask her to buy something bigger. My grandparents have always dreamed of a house with a garden. How about we buy one and we all live there together?"

  Eric smiled. "Let me think about it."

  "They'll be no OSS to worry us anymore. If all goes well. There will be no aliens either because they are back here." She paused and added, "And so are we for the time being." Ursula continued to speak enthusiastically. "If we get back to our time, we'll be able to start living normal lives again. We can go to a new school in Paris, and you can start competing in gymnastics again. Nobody will know us in a new school, and we can start afresh."

  "What about Andrea?"

  "She can come with us. I would hope she comes with us."

  "And Alexander?"

  "I don't think he would want to."

  "I think you're right - he wouldn't." Eric's brow suddenly creased as something occurred to him. "What did you just say?"

  "I said Alexander wouldn't want to live with us."

  "No, before that. About the OSS?"

  "I said that the OSS will have left us alone, and there will be no more aliens as they are back here but so are we."

  Eric had become agitated and was spinning the fish rapidly over the fire.

  "Johan said that Ted and Archie's bodies were never found, right?"

  "That's what you told me. And we buried them."

  "But… what if they were never found, not because they were lost somewhere or eaten by vultures but because we buried them?" He let Ursula think about this but continued before she had a chance to answer. "When I was first taken to that large room with all the screens, I somehow fought my way into the alien's mind and what did I see? I saw the crash when the disc hit the dart. When we went back to that room together, to face the alien, I saw the same thing. Why? Why that memory in particular? Was it planting some kind of seed in my head, so we came here?

  "You saw how fast the dart could move but never once did we lose it. This shouldn't have happened. It was the first time we had flown these pods. It's like a learner driver keeping up with a formula one driver. It's impossible. In fact, the opposite happened, it kept us close and made sure it didn't lose us. It wanted us to follow, and it made sure we were right beside it all the way until we came back in time and arrived here. It knew it had to bring us here, but why?"

  "I understand what you are saying," Ursula said, "but does this help us in any way?"

  "Yes, it does. We are not from this time. The pods are not from this time. They came to Earth first just after we were born or, to put it another way, decades into the future from now. However, the pods and the dart arrived in nineteen forty-seven at the same time, but only the dart was discovered. Johan told me about the OSS finding the dart, but he never mentioned the pods. It wasn't until the European Space Station was destroyed that the OSS even knew that the pods existed."

  "I don't under…"

  "Let me finish. Otherwise, I'll lose it," Eric interrupted, desperately trying to make sense of the thoughts in his head. "If we and the pods are not from this time, and no one has any historical memory of us then this must mean we do not stay here and that we get back."

  "Or, it means that the pods drop into the sea tomorrow as we fly to Florida, and we die on the ocean bed without anyone ever knowing we were here."

  "I prefer my version," Eric replied.

  "So do I, but I can't quite get my head around it."

  "Nor can I. I have never thought in four dimensions before. Also, I would guess that this whole series of events has all happened before."

  "Like a loop?"

  "Yes! I think we're part of a loop in time."

  "I still find it hard to understand. We need brain food, and the fish looks done, can we eat?"

  "Sure."

  The fish was surprisingly tasty, and they both ate quickly, satisfying their hunger with every bite. They did not speak as they ate and it did not take long to finish off both fish. Eric threw the remaining pieces into the fire.

  "I've been thinking, Eric," Ursula began. "If we follow your logic then that means we have to stay hidden to get back home."

  "Yes."

  "So if someone sees us, that could ruin everything, possibly change our history, and we could be stuck here?"

  "Yes."

  "So, we have to avoid people?"

  "Yes."

  "Then how are we going to meet Professor Larsen? You think she has the answers to help us get back to our own time, but if we are avoiding people we can't meet her."

  "Maybe she is the exception," Eric replied unconvincingly.

  Back to Contents

  ***

  Chapter 33 - The Orange State

  Eric and Ursula spent all day beside the lake. In the evening, they caught a further two fish and cooked those for their dinner. After all the excitement of the previous day, they appreciated the calm and a chance to relax in the sun. Their hair did not return to its normal colour nor did their wrinkles disappear, but their energy levels increased. Even so, when night came, they lay down on the sand and fell sound asleep.

  The dawn sun woke them early, but they felt rested and rose quickly. After collecting their clothes and drinking plenty of water, they took to the air.

  The pods' journey over the ocean was smooth, and they did not drop out of the sky as Ursula had feared. Within a few minutes, they had reached the opposite coastline and, once over land, the children slowed down until they were almost hovering in the sky.

  Florida appeared more built-up than New Mexico, but the area below them was sparsely populated. The land was pot marked with blue patches, and surrounding these were green and brown rectangles. Villages and small towns were considerable distances apart, and the children picked a spot to land that was kilometres from the nearest house. The chances of being discovered had increased, but they hoped that they stood a good chance of not being found.

  "Let's go," Eric said, and the pods descended fast, towards a darker patch of greenery between a farm and a lake.

  After landing amongst trees, they discussed what they should do, and Eric proposed hiding their craft in the lake. Ursula was sceptical. Eric reasoned that if the pods could be opened from the outside then they could be moved from the outside too. To prove his point, he stood beside his pod and focused on it hovering a few centimetres above the ground. It did just that.

  "Do you think they're waterproof?" Ursula asked, concerned that they would be stranded if anything went wrong.

  "I bet they are. If they can go kilometres above the Earth, then I am sure they can go a few metres under the water."

  "But water is a very different environment to the sky."

  "I'll prove it. Let's try mine first," Eric suggested, but he did not feel as confident as he sounded.

  His pod hovered through the trees and over the lake. Eric imagined it being twenty metres from the shore and made it stop. The pod looked as if it was floating on the water.

  Ursula stood beside him and hoped that nothing regrettable was about to happen.

  "And now under the water," Eric announced, and he imagined the pod resting on the bottom of the lake.

&n
bsp; The pod slowly sank under the surface until it could no longer be seen.

  "That was the easy bit," Ursula told him. "Now bring it back."

  Eric held his breath and focused on doing just that. The pod broke the surface of the water like a submarine, and he returned it to dry land with a huge sigh of relief.

  After checking the exterior for leaks and ensuring that the interior had remained dry, the children concluded that the pods would be safe underwater, and they moved their craft into the lake.

  "I think we should explore first and then make camp after," Eric proposed, as they moved back towards the trees.

  "You're right. We need to make sure we are near food, but you need to rest your leg," Ursula added. "You have to stay here."

  Eric reluctantly agreed. "But if I get bored I'm building a camp," he shouted after her.

  Ursula set off west through the trees and soon reached an exposed plain. There was no one around, and she continued walking for another forty minutes before she reached fields and orchards. She was wary to approach in the daylight and investigated from afar. There were oranges, grapefruits, and she thought she could see bananas too.

  Happy with her discovery, she walked back the way she had come and vowed to return that evening.

  By the time she got back to the forest, Eric had built a bivouac around a tree and was clearing the floor.

  "I thought I said that you should rest your leg, Eric."

  "I was bored. Did you find anything?"

  "Yes. Oranges, grapefruit and bananas. I'll go back when it's dark."

  "Did you see anyone?"

  "No one. I didn't see anybody. Why do you think there are so few people?" Ursula asked.

  "Probably because there are less people than in our time. I once learnt that the world population in nineteen sixty was three billion. That is less than half what it is in our time. If you go further back in time if would be even less, especially after the millions who were killed in World War II. The population now may well be sixty percent less than we're used to. Also, the States is a big country, and people are either really spread out or living in large cities like New York. I think the only large city in Florida is Miami, but we're nowhere near it."

  "It makes me uncomfortable to have so few people around. I've lived in the centre of Paris for most of my life and have always been surrounded by people. Every day I saw more people than I could keep track of. I heard music from around the world played in my block. There was the constant noise of vehicles, and always aeroplanes in the sky, but here there is nothing. Just listen now."

  Eric listened. The only sound he could only hear was crickets in the countryside around them.

  "But if we are in nineteen forty-seven, this is normal. There were less people on the planet, less music, less electricity, less cars, less planes, less everything."

  "I understand that, but it still puts me on edge."

  That night, Ursula went back to the orchards and brought back as many oranges, grapefruit and bananas as she could carry. Taking this fruit reminded her of when she had to steal medicine for her granddad and the thought made her shudder. She hoped that the farmer would not miss what she had taken.

  Eric was delighted with Ursula's collection, and he laid it out upon leaves in the bivouac.

  As they tucked into their feast, Ursula asked, "Do you really think we are back in nineteen forty-seven?"

  "Don't you?"

  "I do and I don't. I do understand everything you've said, but until I see proof with my own eyes I'm not sure I'll be able to believe it fully."

  "Well, we're here for another forty-four days at least, so you had better get used to it," Eric replied, between bites of banana.

  "It's a good job Alexander and Andrea insisted on the blood transfusions."

  "I hadn't thought about that, but if they are right about our life spans then yes it is a good job."

  "You still don't fully believe what they told us, do you Eric?"

  "I think it is hard to believe that you are going to die at any time in your life," he paused, "but I really don't want to talk about it."

  "How are you feeling though?"

  Eric finished the banana as he thought about his answer to Ursula's question.

  "After a day of doing loads of gymnastics, I used to feel tired, achy and stiff in places. But it went away. Now my aches and pains don't, and they seem to be a little worse each day. And you?"

  "The same. Plus I hate my hair, and my nails are more brittle."

  Eric looked at his fingers. He hadn't noticed this before, but now he could also see it.

  After their meal, they put the rubbish far away from camp in case the smell attracted any animals and fell happily asleep with full stomachs.

  When they awoke the next morning, Eric made a notch on a tree.

  "Day one," he announced. "Wednesday ninth of July, nineteen forty-seven."

  "How do you know that?"

  "Because the Roswell Daily Record printed their first UFO article on Tuesday the eighth of July or yesterday. When we get to day forty-five, this will be the Friday of the sixth week. We will leave that night and try to find Doctor Larsen. Agreed?"

  "Agreed."

  In spite of Ursula's insistence, Eric refused to spend the day resting. His leg was not hurting as much, and he went exploring with her. About an hour's walk from camp, they discovered a crystal clear canal with fish swimming up and down it. Eric got into the water, and Ursula entered twenty metres up the canal from him. They walked towards each other and as fish tried to dart past, they made a grab for them. Before they had reached each other, two fish had been thrown up onto the canal bank.

  On the way back to camp with their catch, they saw their first person. He was a long way from them and fortunately walking in the opposite direction. Despite this, they waited until he was out of sight before continuing.

  The days soon slipped into a routine of collecting fruit, catching fish and exploring the area without being seen. Occasionally, they found something they could use in their camp, but overall there was far less litter than they were both used to.

  No one came near their camp and when exploring Eric and Ursula rarely saw other people. If they did see someone, they hid and patiently waited. Initially, this provided a bit of excitement to their days, but after a while it simply became part of the routine.

  After his experience of being locked up by the OSS, Eric took to his new life without difficulty. He had learnt to survive being alone while at Roswell, and his current situation was significantly better. There was the sun, a lake to swim in, fresh food, no beatings, and he had a friend to turn to.

  Ursula was not coping so well. The whole situation reminded her of being stranded in Paris and having to sleep rough. Even though Eric was with her, the absence of more people and the accompanying isolation made her depressed. The depression was made worse by worries that they would be stuck here forever. She missed her grandparents, and she felt terribly alone.

  By the end of the second week, Eric took on the role that Granddad Benjamin had played when they had been under house arrest at the Benjamin's apartment. He taught Ursula all the survival techniques that he could remember. He designed mental challenges for her and the occasional physical one, but neither of them had much enthusiasm or strength for these. To keep her positive, he talked about their dreams and what they were going to do when they got back home. Not once did Eric doubt that they would return, and he made a point of being positive whenever they spoke.

  Many of their conversations were concerned with meeting Professor Larsen. Together they tried to think of every possible scenario to ensure that they were prepared. They were both unsure as to how they should act when they met her, and they were worried about how she would react. In all the scenarios that they discussed, there was only one aspect they could be certain of - it was going to be an unexpected shock for her.

  As the weeks dragged on, meeting Professor Larsen became more and more important to Eric and Ursula.
It gave them something to aim for and to look forward to. They were scared and excited by the idea, and with each day their expectations for the meeting grew.

  Back to Contents

  ***

  Chapter 34 - Forty-Five Notches

  In the end, the six weeks passed without incident. Forty-four notches had been etched into the tree and when the day came to add the last they were both excited to be leaving. They had lost a little weight during their stay, but otherwise their bodies had not changed since their arrival. The only real difference was that the wounds in Eric's legs had scabbed over. They had not healed completely, but they no longer bled and there was no sign of infection. It hurt him a little to walk, but he had almost lost his limp.

  Unlike their bodies, their heads were different. They had both lost their natural hair colour and were now almost completely grey and white, and wrinkles were evident on their young faces. Both children felt more tired, but their diet had not contained any carbohydrates, and they assumed this was the reason.

  After the sun had set on their last day by the lake, they brought their pods back under the trees.

  "We'll head west over the sea until we reach land. Once we see a line of lights on the coastline, we'll change course and head north-west," Eric said.

  "But when we head north-west we have to slow down. In the dark, finding Roswell will be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

  "What did your granddad tell us?"

  "Trust our instincts."

  "Exactly. We have been there, and as we get close, I am sure we'll feel it somehow."

  "We may well do, but just slow down. We can't shoot off kilometres away and not find it."

  "Okay, okay," Eric agreed.

  Neither of them was sad to be leaving, and they entered their pods without looking back.

  Both craft shot high into the sky and turned to face west. They flew across the sky and within a few minutes had crossed the Gulf of Mexico. The pods' course was changed, and they headed north-west as they had agreed. Eric was as good as his word and slowed down considerably, even though he did not want to.