Return_Mate of the Cave Bear

by Harmony Raines

  Yet the time she sat holding her breath, while they pulled the closet door open an inch and looked inside, was more like eternity. Surely, she would be seen. It was almost impossible not to move, not to try to tuck her feet further in. But she slowly counted to twenty, keeping her mind off the rising panic in her chest that threatened to erupt into a scream. Then the door shut.

  “All clear. Let’s move onto the next one. This is a wild goose chase. I don’t know why we have to check every room, there is no fire.”

  “If Mr. Trimble says check every room, we check every room. What else would we be doing? Nothing ever goes on around here. Least this way we get some exercise.”

  “You have some strange ideas. I would rather be in the mess room eating breakfast.”

  “Sooner we get it done, sooner you’ll get your breakfast.”

  The door shut behind them and then locked. Jenna let out her breath but still dared not move. No doubt they had gone to the room next door, and, if the walls were thin, they would hear her if she moved around. She didn’t even dare switch the light back on. Instead, she tried to reason through what was happening. More specifically why Martha was here. Her great-great-something granddaughter.

  So the child she was carrying, or at least one of her children, survived to have other children. Jenna and Haran’s line carried on for generations through famines and wars, always knowing that they had to survive so that one day Martha could help her. Martha had almost given her life to help Jenna; what if she had said no, she didn’t want to do this. At least, once Jenna was back in the past, she could say she had done her job and move on with her life.

  Time passed, all was quiet and so she switched the light back on. Once more, she started at the beginning, repeating the date and time once more. That was very important. So what else was important in the book?

  Flicking back to the page with the warning about the guards, she turned the dry paper carefully, so that it didn’t disintegrate. The next page told of her escape from here. The exact time and it also had a drawing, not by her hand. It was more of a diagram; it depicted her with some kind of parachute on. At least this time she wasn’t going to have to fall through the trees. Once Martha returned, she would ask her about it.

  The next page sent a chill through her spine. It showed the Masu, they were on the flat scrubland outside the cave she shared with Haran. Carefully she read the writing, although it was faint in places from the age of the colours and the paper. She could see now why the pictures were more valuable. A picture paints a thousand words.

  This one painted a thousand fears too. On the hill, where she had been wrenched away by the tether, sat a cave bear watching and waiting. So he did wait for her. On the other side of the drawing was a fork of lightning. So that was her arrival back in time. The Masu would see it too and if they came running, along with Haran, to save her, then they might be caught.

  There was no way she could warn Haran and no way of getting back without the wormhole.

  Turning the page, she found a handwritten note. “They all came. For the first time the Dualis became a pack of creatures with one aim. To stop the Masu killing one of their own.”

  She sobbed into her hand, a great gulping sound. That was how the Dualis were to be pulled together, and they would conquer the Masu. The next was a picture that looked as if it could be something out of Noah’s Ark. Only it wasn’t just animal going in two by two, it was a mixture of animals and people. The Dualis and their mates, all walking towards the Northern Star.

  A sound outside made her jump; she had been so engrossed in the book she had forgotten the danger she was in. Waiting, scared of who it was, she didn’t move, not even to turn off the light.

  “Jenna.” It was Martha. The closet door opened and a head poked around. Jenna moved forward, relieved to be finally getting out. She was more desperate than ever to go home.

  “Martha.” She hugged her and then asked, “Have you read this?”

  “Yes, all of it, several times. I know what happened when you went through the wormhole. I’m sorry; I couldn’t warn you or help you in some way.”

  “I think I know why you didn’t.”

  “I couldn’t change it. Any of it, without risking things not working out the same way. You know it would only take one slip up and none of us would exist. I don’t fully understand the paradox thing. I mean I do in theory, but when it’s you who might just cease to exist; it gets a little mind-boggling.”

  “I can imagine. But then, the whole going through a wormhole and ending up back in time takes some believing too.”

  “There is so much I want to ask you. So many questions. I can’t believe you are here and you are real. I mean, I know we sent you through the wormhole, but it still seems as if someone was having a joke. But now you are back. I don’t know, it’s just too...”

  “Surreal.” Jenna leaned back against the closet door, feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the whole thing. “I had come to believe that this world wasn’t real, that none of this ever happened. But now here, breathing the clogged-up air and listening to all the noises of the twenty-second century. It’s so weird to hear machines, people walking around, the sound of their shoes on the floor. Clothes. Everything.”

  “What’s Haran really like? Is he a proper Neanderthal?”

  “Yes, yes, he is. But he is also the most beautiful person I could ever have met. He would do anything for me. And I love him. I can’t tell you how happy I am with him.”

  “Then let’s get you back there. But first there are some things we have to decide.”

  “Decide? Like what?”

  “The book,” she said, pointing at the leather-bound tome Jenna held tightly in her arms. “I don’t think it can go back with you.”

  “Why not? It holds so much information.”

  “I know. But there has been much discussion over the years as to whether it should be destroyed now the circle is complete.”

  “But it tells us what to do.”

  “I know. But you had to write it as you were doing all these things. Some of the pictures may manipulate the way you behave.”

  “But it has the times and everything in it. How will you know what to do when I come back again?” Jenna felt her head spin. “That's it, isn't it? We are caught in one massive loop. I keep coming back; you keep sending me back to Haran.”

  “Pretty much, but we think you should start a new book each time you return.” She went to the closet and dragged out another version of the book. It was new, its pages clean. To Jenna it seemed such a daunting task. To take this new book back with her and to begin it again. Writing down everything that was important like some kind of road map they could follow. It would be so much easier for her to simply keep the original one and pass it down to her children.

  “I’m scared I’ll mess up. That for some reason you will never be born and will never help me.”

  “We can’t be sure. But this is the way it happened the first time, so it stands to reason that if you follow your instincts that it will all be the same again. I wish I had more answers for you. But I don’t.”

  She looked at her watch. “There are still four hours until it is time for you to leave. Read the book, it will give you hope.” She pulled some food out of a bag. “Here, you should eat something. It’s going to be a long night.”

  Jenna took the candy bar Martha offered her, but found she could no longer stomach something so sweet. In the end, she settled for some dried fruit and some potato chips. As she ate, she flicked through the book, hating the idea of it being destroyed.

  Chapter Four - Haran

  Putol left. Haran knew it was the right thing for him to do; there was no point them both dying. The panther had tried in vain to persuade Haran to go too, but finally he left, with the other Dualis, Kalli. Watching them go, Haran hoped they would get away safely and one day they would all meet again in some place where the Masu could not hunt them.

  As the darkness grew deeper and the star
s appeared brighter in the sky, Haran thought about what had happened. Staring at the mass of bright dots shining through the darkness, he wondered which star Jenna had come from. He had always thought of the stars as the spirits of those who had gone before. That when you died that was the final resting place of your life force. Could it be that there were living souls out there in space too? If there were, he only hoped that someone was looking out for her, that someone was there to save her if she fell and broke something like she did when she had come to him.

  Then he closed his eyes and prayed to the spirits, asking his parents to watch over her and bring her back to him. He imagined her here in his arms, her head resting against his chest as she sat within the embrace of his arms. He longed to feel the heat of her skin against his, to stroke her flesh until she burned for him. If she never returned, he would never take another woman to his bed. He would spend his life defending his kind against the Masu, and help the other Dualis find a home.

  That was if he could ever be convinced to leave this place. Which right now he had no intention of doing, not even to eat.

  Chapter Five - Jenna

  “Are you sure about the book?” Jenna asked, preparing to go back to the launch room.

  “Yes. We have spent several years debating it. Although I would never make you leave it.”

  “There is so much information in it that we could use.”

  “But what if it influences you?”

  “As it has you? If it weren’t for the information in the book then you would not have been waiting. Nor would I have the warning about the guards entering this room.”

  “But what about the rest? I don’t know.”

  “But there is so much for me to remember. And I don’t know when I will ever be able to make a book like this,” she said, running her hand over the soft leather cover.

  “That is where I come in. I had one made. It’s been treated in the same way as the one you hold, so it will not degrade quickly over time. Which is another of our concerns over the old book. It has to be replaced.” Martha passed her a book; it was an exact replica of the one that was so aged and worn. Only it was brand-new, the leather hard and the pages crisp and new. Apart from one page.

  “You drew this?” Jenna asked. It was the page from the book with the picture of the parachute.

  “Yes. It was drawn in my hand in the first book, so I assume I drew it before you went. So that I would know what to do. There’s no other way it could be in the book. I’m just not sure why I would choose to draw it so many pages in. But anyway, I copied it exactly.”

  “Thank you, Martha. Thank you for everything. You are free now. You can go on with any life you choose.”

  Martha smile weakly. “I feel as though my life is over. I have spent the whole of it working towards this moment. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now.”

  “I can’t help you there. But whatever happens I wish you all the luck in the world. May the spirits watch over you.” She hesitated and then said, “Wow, I guess that would be me, right. Once I go back, I will be one of the spirits. Long dead and gone from this world.”

  “Yes. But your story lives on.” She hugged Jenna. “Now, let’s get you out of here before Mr. Trimble finds out.”

  “Wait,” Jenna said, placing her hand on Martha’s. “That reminds me. Why do they want the child? Do they know about the Dualis?”

  Martha frowned and looked troubled. “Yes.”

  “I’m sorry, Martha, if there was some way the baby inside me could help the people on Earth without being some guinea pig I would do it.”

  “No,” she said harshly. “Tworn doesn’t want to save the human race with your child. It wants to create an army of Dualis. Mr. Trimble has not spent all this money to save the human race; he wants to destroy it.”

  “What?” Jenna asked in disbelief.

  “He wants to control an army of men that can shift into other creatures at will. They would tear through cities, killing and maiming, and then change into a man again so that no one would be able to tell them apart.”

  “But the Neanderthals look different.”

  “Your child won’t. If a pure Neanderthal breeds with a homo sapien, then the first generation will hold the gene. So your child will be able to change, but their children will not. So if he got the DNA and stem cells from your child, he would be able to use his methods of cloning to create his army.”

  “But the Dualis are peaceful.”

  “They are being wiped out in the past by man, what they call Masu. He will use that to persuade them to fight for him.”

  “Martha, how does he know?”

  Martha was silent again. “We don’t know. We have kept this so quiet, no one outside of our family knows.”

  “Does that mean there is a traitor?”

  “Maybe, that’s why we have to get you back to the launch room and back to the past.” She looked at her watch. “We have to go now.”

  Jenna placed the book down on the bed, stroking the cover one last time. Then she remembered one last question she needed to ask. “Martha, am I the only one to have gone back?”

  “You are the only one to survive and return. There have been two others and in a year’s time, there will be another. I believe Mr. Trimble will never stop trying until he gets what he wants.”

  Jenna nodded. “Take care of yourself, Martha.”

  “I will. Now you have to slip this over your clothes. Then we’ll go to the decontamination room. I’ll check it’s all clear, but we should pass unnoticed. It’s too late for there to be many people around.”

  “And the parachute?”

  “I stowed it in the launch room earlier. It should still be there. I can’t risk carrying anything in there with me now.” She looked extremely nervous as she said, “Let’s go.”

  “Wait, Martha. What will happen to you if you are caught?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know anything from this moment onwards about my life.” Quickly she wiped away her tears and then opened the door. They both slipped out and walked down the corridor towards the launch room.

  “It just feels so strange to be wearing shoes,” Jenna said as her rubber soles squeaked on the floor.

  “What’s it like, to live without technology?”

  “You just get used to it; although when I have the baby I might wish I could have some pain relief. But women have been doing it for generations with pain meds, so I can do it. I hope.”

  “Well, obviously you do, Jenna. Because I’m here. You’ll do great. After all, if you can survive falling from the sky, childbirth will be no problem.”

  “Will the machine be reset by now?”

  “It should be. I only hope no one inspected it after the alarm.”

  “It must be fine. Like you said, I have to go back or else neither you nor the book would be here, right?”

  “Yes. I guess. I don’t know. Time travel is so complicated. Only a man such as Mr. Trimble would dream up something like this and risk the whole of history.”

  “Just think of all the people I could set out to make sure were never even born. Like Hitler. I could warn my kids to make sure he died before the war started.”

  “No, Jenna. No tinkering. It’s enough that you are there, and the other two, if they survived.”

  “Did they go through the same wormhole?”

  “Yes. But they were over a year ago. So they may have moved on or been killed.”

  “I’ll ask Haran if he knows anything about the wormhole. I think he said he had seen it before. He certainly knew what it was when it opened up to bring me back.”

  “Here we are. There’s just one lab technician. I’ll try to get rid of him, or else we’ll have to knock him unconscious.”

  “But that would raise questions about you?”

  “Yes. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve already made up my mind about what I’m going to do next. This time travel has to stop. I should have thought about it before. Messing around with the future, tr
ying to make babies that look how you want them to, instead of letting Mother Nature do its job, has left us in a mess. It might not be what Tworn is working on, but the problem is there all the same. So trying to control the past is even more dangerous.”

  “That sounds like a great idea. There must be others that are against a big corporation like Tworn.”

  “There are. I just have to find them.”

  They were inside now. The tech said “hello” and went back to his work. Jenna entered the decontamination room and Martha moved over to another workstation and began to make her calculations and run through the launch procedure. The tech took no notice; Martha was too trusted around here to have her actions questioned until it was time to move Jenna into the launch area.

  “What do we do?” Jenna asked. Martha had come to tell her everything was ready. Jenna really hated the idea of leaving Martha here with trouble on her hands.

  “I’ll send him out for something. Be ready. Go straight to the launch bay and shut the door. Here is the parachute. You pull this as soon as you exit the wormhole. The calculations should be accurate, but it won’t stop your fall, only slow it. And of course you have to try to miss the trees.”

  “Hopefully it will open up over open land. I’m so nervous. Not of the wormhole. Let’s just say if you didn’t have that book, I don’t know if I’d have the courage to do it. I just keep telling myself this does work. I do live.”

  “Good luck, Jenna. Now, give me two minutes, open the door and if you can get to the launch area, go. Don’t look back and don’t stop, no matter what happens.”

  If she wasn’t worried before, Martha’s words had certainly made her worry now. Jenna hoped that Martha hadn’t held anything back. From the book they knew that Jenna lived, but what about Martha?

  Chapter Six - Haran

  Dawn broke over the horizon and slowly he got to his feet. He needed to go down to the cave and eat, then pack up what he could before moving back up here out of sight. If Putol was right then the Masu would arrive sometime this afternoon, maybe late morning if they moved fast. He anticipated they would camp some way away and then the males would come for him. He doubted the females would join the hunt. But they would watch his slaughter if they caught him. Their leader would make them.