"I know how to get the mystery journal without following the men." I said later on, after we had all taken a break from our sleuthing. "What?" said Carson. "I know what to do, and it shouldn't be very hard." I said again. "Well spit it out Zoey, we need that journal!" said Callie, getting annoyed with the suspense. "We just need to go back to that day, right before y'all left the room, nobody was in the house whenever you kicked in the door, right Carson?" I said. "You're right." he said, nodding. "We can just pop in, grab it and then walk outside and pop right back out." said Callie. "That's brilliant Zoey, you have a great mind." said Carson proudly. "Thanks UNCLE CARSON." I said, slightly embarrassed. Callie laughed at that. "You did that to yourself, brother. That's your kid." she said, giggling. "I know, I know." he said, smiling.
We gathered the Others and told them our plan. "That's really good, great job Zoey. Who is going to do the popping in and out?" said Auntie. "Me and Carson, we don't need three, but we do need backup and Carson has that stupid gun. We will wear the Contacts that Allie bought us, so everybody can have access to our feed." said Aunt Callie. "We will go and come right back, hopefully it won't be a big deal and we won't spot ourselves when the Others are untying you. We have the time stamps on your snaps from Allie's Contacts, so we have the exact time, to the second, of where we are at all times in that house. Shouldn't be a problem at all." said Carson.
"Good deal, everybody go to your homes tonight and get some rest. We will start fresh on this tomorrow morning. This was a good day and we all did a great job. Let's get this party started." said Dad, gesturing to the Screen to turn on some beats. "YAY!" screamed everybody and then we danced. We always danced, we were all weird that way. "I love my family." I thought to myself, smiling and spinning.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The next morning we all set our Screens to wake us up early. We had a mission, find and snatch the mysterious journal. Everybody met up at our house to get Callie and Carson ready to go. We scrolled through all of the snaps that we had taken of that day and got the time stamp from the snap that Aunt Allie took with her Contacts. October 30, 2044 10:21 PM. I went to grab my journal to write down that date and time. I needed to stay up to date with it or we would never remember every single place and time that the six of us had visited through this whole adventure.
"What's today's date?" I asked Aunt Callie. "I'm trying to keep up with all of these dates and times and there are so many. I have no idea what today is." I said, shaking my head. She looked at her Handheld and said, "I used to never know what day it was and I was super obsessed with my calendar when I was younger. Today is January 3, 2045. Aw, it would've been your Granny Lissa's birthday today." she replied, sadly. "Happy Birthday Granny!" I said. "Happy Birthday!" said everybody else. I wrote down today's date and we picked a time for Callie and Carson to leave.
"Why don't you leave here at 11:00 AM. It's an easy time to remember so you'll be able to come right back to 11:01 AM, without having to think too much." I suggested. "Good plan, we will both remember today's date easily since it was Granny's birthday." said Callie. "Okay, according to our snap log, Callie and Carson were in the room untying Allie at 10:15 PM on October 30, 2044. That will be your time to pop in, you need to have the journal and be out of the room by 10:19 PM. That doesn't give you a lot of time, only 4 minutes. Do you think you two will be able to do it?" explained Dad.
"I think we will manage, brother." said Carson. "If you set the clip and the links as soon as you land, you will be able to just disappear as soon as you have the journal. Once you land, preset the date and time on the clip from outside of the house, change the date on the 'FORWARD' link right away, to 2045, grab the journal from the desk and then go back to where you landed and just click the the link. You won't have to take the extra time resetting it afterwards if you do it that way, as long as you don't accidentally tap it on anything." I explained. "That's very smart, good thinking Zoey." said Auntie. "Thanks Auntie, I'm starting to really get the hang of this time travel business." I said.
"Okay, have you both dropped your meds? We can't have you wasting two minutes vomiting all over the place once you land." said Dad. "Yes, we took them a few minutes ago, before we sat down." said Callie. "Awesome." said Chloe. "Do you both have your Contacts in?" asked Aunt Allie. "Yes, we do. We put them in when we dropped the meds." said Carson. "Okay, you'll both need to set them to Live Stream with Voice Recog, that way we can watch where you go and speak to you at the same time." said Aunt Allie.
They both gestured a few times and each flung their feeds to the Screen. "Sweet, look at us on the Screen, we're hot!" Chloe said, amazed at seeing all of us sitting here live. "Everything looks in order, the feeds are both clear, go in the other room and let's check the vocals just in case." said Dad. We saw them walking into the other room on each feed and then they both spoke. "BEEP mother fuckers." said Carson. We all shook our heads and laughed. "Moron." mumbled Aunt Allie. "Test, test." said Callie. "LOUD AND CLEAR, COME ON BACK." said Dad.
They came back into the room and started gathering their belongings. They both decided to wear black, so that they would blend in with the darkness of the night, just in case. "At least we will be wearing completely different clothes than our Others, so nobody will get mixed up if something happens." said Carson. "Yes, that's part of the reason I suggested it." said Callie.
Callie grabbed her bag from the table, she was going to slip the journal inside, so her hands would be free. Carson, of course, packed his gun into the back of his pants. "Really dude, do you think you're going to be needing that? It's 4 minutes." said Callie, shaking her head. "Yes, damnit, anything could happen in 4 minutes, those assholes could show up, you don't know, the past is a fickle bitch." said Carson stubbornly. "Fine." said Callie, rolling her eyes. She really didn't approve, but he didn't give a shit. "It'll be fine guys, just get in and get out. You're prepared." I said.
"BE CAREFUL!" we all screamed to them as they headed outside toward the latest black rental car. "ALWAYS!" they both replied as they started to drive. They wanted to get to the street and hide the car as quickly as they could. They decided to park on another part of the road, but close enough to get there easily, then they could just walk to the house and pop inside from the front yard. "We have a plan, it'll be fine right?" said Chloe, nervously. "Right, Twin, it'll be fine." I said to her, and she smiled.
We watched the boring drive across town on their feeds, neither of them spoke, I assumed that they were trying to keep their heads in the game. "Whatever works for them." I thought. They had gotten the links and the clip out of the safe earlier in the day and they already had them attached to their clothing and preset them all to the specified date and time. Once they got into the yard, all they had to do was click the 'BACK' link and they would pop away into the recent past. I was starting to get really nervous, and my stomach was tied up in knots anticipating the outcome of our little mission. "It'll be fine, it'll be fine." I told myself, over and over.
Finally, they arrived at the street and got out of the car. They walked swiftly to the house down the road and covertly hid behind a large oak tree. One of them peeped around the tree, making sure that no cars were parked at the house, but all was clear. I saw that it was Callie's feed and she nodded, then they both quickly made their way through the shadows of the yard. "Here we go." I mumbled under my breath.
They got to the front yard and I could see the door, still hanging open from when Carson kicked it in, in the past. Carson's feed nodded and they stood in the shadow of the house, next to the window. They looked at the links and looked at the clip, making sure that they were still set for October 30, 2044, 10:15 PM and they were. Both feeds nodded and they attached them to their clothes. I saw Callie grab Carson, then Carson lifted his left arm, the one with the 'BACK' link attached, and clicked. Suddenly, the feeds went dark. We all stood up, nothing was on the Screen. "What? I wasn't expecting that to happen." said Allie. "Me either!" said Dad. "Just wait, it'll come back!" I said, very n
ervously. I hoped that it would come back.
For two minutes we all stared in silence at the blank Screen. Nothing moved, no one spoke, then finally, the feeds reappeared, standing outside of the house. We all breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief. "Thank God." said Aunt Allie. "Welcome back, Harmons, can you still hear us?" said Dad to the Screen. "Loud and clear brother." whispered Carson, as he was changing the date on the 'FORWARD' link to 2045, in preparation for their return trip. He looked over at Callie and she was doing the same thing to the clip, then she reattached it, preset to January 3rd, 11:01 AM. "All set." she whispered. "We're going in." whispered Carson, and they both started walking toward the freshly kicked open door.
Carson reached behind his back, drawing his weapon, holding it in front of him while Callie followed closely behind, on his right. They had two rooms to get through to get to the journal and they had to do it quickly and without a sound. They quietly stepped into the house and immediately, the old wooden floor creaked and groaned. They both stopped at the same time, waiting to make sure that the Others didn't hear them. Callie motioned to move forward and they started to walk a little faster. "One more room to go." I thought.
They got into the next room and the floor creaked again, very noisily. "Oh shit." I thought. You could hear voices next to them, in the other room, their own voices and Aunt Allie's. "Oh thank God! Get me loose! Hurry!" she said, from the other direction. "Hurry! Are they here!" she said. We were on pins and needles. They were very close to the room that Other Aunt Allie, Other Callie and Other Carson were in. We all leaned forward, watching the scene unfold. "No, nobody was here when we came in, Carso.... CREAK!" The floorboard creaked louder than imaginable and the voices stopped. Our Callie and Carson bolted for the room where the desk was, the journal was at the very back, on the desk in the corner, they had to get to it right away or they were going to be seen. "Someone is here!" said Other Carson.
"They've heard you! Move, move!" screamed Dad to them. "We know!" said Carson, running as fast as he could for the dark corner of the room. Callie stood behind him as Carson made his way to the desk, gun in hand. Suddenly, a door flew open with a "BAM!" Carson reacted, flipping around with his gun in his hand, "BANG!" a shot rang out through the house. "BANG!" a second shot blazed through the darkness. "OH MY GOD!" Our Carson fell to the floor. Callie ran for him. "Carson! Are you okay!" she screamed. "I'm fine, got me in the shoulder, help me up." he said, groaning.
Immediately we heard a second scream, it was Other Callie. "CARSON! Oh my God! ARE YOU OKAY!" she yelled. "I'm okay, the assholes got me in the arm, go find them, take this!" he said, handing Other Callie the gun. We could see Aunt Allie bending down to look at Other Carson's arm in the shadows and Other Callie came running through the house. "She's coming! Get it and go!" warned Dad. "We're trying!" said Carson, still trying to right himself from his fall, Callie tugging on him trying to help.
Suddenly, the back door flew open. "UGLY DON AND THE SCOT!" I screamed, terrified for my family. "We didn't check the backyard of the house!" screamed Allie. "YOU HAVE TO GO NOW! RUN! THEY'RE COMING!" screamed Chloe. We saw a glimpse of Other Allie, Other Carson and Other Callie running down the hallway toward the front room, away from Ugly Don and The Scot.
Our Callie and Carson were finally moving toward the front door, they had to get there before the Others, so they could hide and escape back to 2045. "Please let them make it, please let them make it!" I prayed. They blasted out of the front door, Carson holding his limp arm, blood dripping down, hitting the grass, and ran to hide behind the same oak tree. Callie grabbed Carson's good arm and screamed. "GO! GO!" and he stretched his good arm to click the 'FORWARD' link. The feed went black once again.
"OH MY GOD!" I screamed. "OH MY GOD!" screamed Chloe. "Do you think they're okay? Aunt Allie, do you have new memories yet? Dad said that his and Carson's new memories just appeared when they were talking to Mom that time. THINK AUNT ALLIE!" I screamed. They had to be okay, they just had to be. At least maybe Auntie would know if the Others made it.
"We got out okay, Carson was shot in the arm, but we tied it off once we got to the car and we sped off and came home. Do you remember yet? It's seeping into my brain slowly, but I'm used to getting new memories." said Aunt Allie. "I think I do remember, Auntie." said Chloe. "Yes, I remember, we helped him get the bullet out when the three of you returned and we patched him up with the suture patches." said Dad. He lifted the sleeve of his shirt to look where Other Carson had been hit. "There's a scar, look! HOLY CRAP!" he said, twisting his arm around to get a good look at it. "WOAH!" said me and Chloe. "That was NOT there before, Dad." I said. "That's wild." said Dad, shaking his head and staring at his new scar.
The Screen blinked back on, both feeds still working properly. Both Callie and Carson were in the car, headed back home. Carson was in the passenger seat, blood covering his arm, soaking into the upholstery of the car seat. Callie had ripped his sleeve and wrapped it around the wound, just in case. "OH MY GOD!" we all screamed when the feed came back up.
"Harmons, can you hear us?" said Dad. "Loud and clear, brother." said Carson, winded. "Are you guys alright!" I screamed. "We're fine, Lovebug, Carson just got a nice hole in the shoulder to go along with that big hole in his head." said Aunt Callie, shaking her head. "Dumbass just had to have a gun, and look what he does, he fucking shoots himself, just not the way we were expecting." she said. That made us giggle. "She's right." said Chloe, smiling and shaking her head. We were all just thankful that they had made it out alive and relatively intact. "It could've been worse." said Aunt Allie. We all nodded in agreement.
"She did warn you not to shoot yourself, Carson. I was there." I said, still laughing at her joke. "How ironic. What a twist." said Aunt Allie, trying to hold back her own smile. "You're alright though, right Carson?" said Chloe. "I'm fine, thank you Chloe for asking, at least someone in this family has a heart. Everybody else just wants to make freaking jokes." he said, obviously annoyed and in pain. "Where were you hit man?" asked Dad. "My right shoulder, just under the clavicle. I'm lucky that he didn't hit the subclavian or we would've been goners. I wonder what would've happened to you if I had died?Thank God it was dark in there, he couldn't see to aim." he said to Dad, shaking his head.
Dad lifted his shirt again, looking at the spot where this Carson had been hit. Sure enough, underneath his right clavicle was yet, another gunshot scar. "Holy hell! I look like swiss cheese! I look like those old school rappers from the 2000's. Just call me 50 Cent." Dad said. "Dad, really? You sound like Carson." said Chloe. "Really Dad, 50 Cent?" I said, shaking my head. "We didn't get the journal guys, didn't even get a good look at it. It was a failure, we're sorry that it didn't work. We will try something else." said Callie, upset with the failure. "It's okay, we would rather you both be alive." said Aunt Allie. She was right, it didn't matter, we would get the journal eventually.
Those men weren't there before, unless we just missed them the first time around. Did they get a good look at any of you?" Aunt Allie asked. "No, it was too dark and we were all moving too fast." said Carson. "Well, that's good at least. We will see you when you get home. Carson, you get to have some at-home bootleg surgery, get ready brother." said Dad. They both gestured their feeds off and we sat back and waited for them to arrive.
It didn't take long before we heard the front door opening. Everybody jumped into action. Aunt Allie went to the medicine cabinet and pulled out the tetanus patches, the antibiotic patches and the suture patches. We had to get that bullet out if it was still in there. Carson was white as a ghost, he had lost a lot of blood. "He's lost a lot of blood, do we have anything to replenish it?" said Dad. "My blood is a perfect match, but I don't know how we would get it in there." he said, shaking his head and looking at the wound. "Lay down on the kitchen table dude, we'll get you all patched up." Dad told Carson, and he stumbled to the table.
Once he was down, we tore off the rest of his shirt to get a better look at his wound. The bleeding had stopped
, thank God. Dad, Aunt Allie and Callie all sprung into action. Dad lifted him up to see if the bullet was still in, but it wasn't, it was a through and through, so we got lucky with that. He probably would've fainted if we would've had to dig that bullet out. "Are you alright man? Allie do we have anything for the blood?" he said, helping Carson to lay back down flat. "I'm fine brother, don't worry, we weren't a very good shot in the dark." he said, closing his eyes.
Aunt Allie ran to the medicine cabinet again, digging around and throwing shit on the floor until she found some Blood Dots. "Where in the hell did you get those and why in the world would you have these? Aren't they hospital issue?" said Dad, looking at them. Blood Dots helped to replenish blood loss, for occasions such as this one. Hospitals used them when people lost too much blood in wrecks and other accidents. They helped to replicate the red and white blood cells at faster rates than they would normally replicate.
"I've never seen these outside of a hospital Auntie." said Chloe, staring at them. "Open your mouth Carson, and lift your tongue." said Aunt Allie, and he did. She slipped the dot underneath his tongue and told him to close his mouth and hold it there. "That should do the trick, you'll start feeling better in about 30 minutes. You're lucky that the bullet went all the way through and didn't hit that artery." she said, putting the Blood Dots back into the back of the cabinet.
"Seriously Auntie, how in the hell did you get those, I thought that they were extremely strict about things like that." I asked. "They are, I know a guy, that's all you need to know." she said. "Okaaay?" said Chloe. Auntie always knew a guy somewhere, I don't know how though, because she never went anywhere. I gave up trying to figure it out and went back to watching all of the action.
Auntie cleaned the wound and Dad placed the suture patches over both wounds, making sure that they were tightly compressed so that they could work their magic and the skin would properly close. "I had to make sure that I was prepared for everything this time." said Aunt Allie, thinking to herself out loud. She did that a lot, talked to herself. I guess it was because she was always alone, and that made me sad for her.
CLIPPED: Another Time Travel Tale (The Harmon Family Adventure Series Book 2) Page 15
