"Well, you didn't get shot this time, but you both still died." I said. They both nodded sadly. "We have the car that they were driving on the feed and Zoey got the plates, although, I'm sure it's stolen, but we can run it through the database anyway, maybe something will turn up." said Auntie. "Load it all in, Lovebug, and we will start the search right away. We only have a couple of days before we have to try it again." she said to me. I flicked and gestured until the feed was in the app, and we set it to locate the car.
It didn't take long for the app to find it, but we were right, it did come up as stolen, and there was nothing else on it. "What if, next time, before you do the reset, you follow them, Zoey. Don't let them see you, but follow them to whatever lair they are hiding out in and get some snaps, then, when you return, we can go to them. If we die again though, you can't panic and leave, you have to follow them." said Callie. "That's a good idea." I said, nodding. "Did the mystery man turn up at all?" asked Dad. "No, I didn't see him around anywhere, and neither did Chloe, she was watching Callie and Carson the whole time." I explained. "Okay, well, we will have to figure him out too, eventually.
"I don't know that we should drive around this time. Maybe we should try something else. What about Auntie's shed? That worked in the past. Maybe everybody could just wait in there, and it could save everybody." I said. "That's a good idea too, it was a change." said Callie, nodding. "Might as well try it, right? Allie and Andrew will hide in there, and we will stay put in the different houses, maybe with us all split up, the time can pass by and nothing will happen to them in there." said Carson. "No harm in trying." said Dad. "I'm not sitting in that rickety, dusty ass thing all night. My allergies would kill me before the men did. Let's clean it up." said Auntie.
We grabbed all of the cleaning supplies and headed outside to the shed. We beat out the furniture and changed out the bedding and swept and mopped and sprayed every surface. Auntie went to pick up a Neutralizer to get the last of the dust out. "That should be sufficient, at least we won't choke to death on the dust." he said. "Looks almost like it used to." I said. "Nice." said Chloe. "Do you think you'll be alright staying out here tomorrow night?" I asked Dad. "I did it all of those years ago, during that freak storm when I was a kid, I can do it again." he said. "Okay, then hopefully this little shed can work it's magic again." I said. "If not, you try, try again." said Aunt Callie. "I used to say that Perseverance was my middle name." she said. "I guess so." I said, feeling doubtful.
The next day passed uneventfully, just like the other time. I wasn't expecting anything to happen. We all went out and about a few times, stopping at the bank or the shops, but nobody ever turned up. We still wanted to lure the mystery man to us, as well as have Ugly Don and The Scot turn up ahead of time, but nobody showed up at any of our various stops throughout the day.
We were going to spend tomorrow in our homes. Callie and Carson would be at Aunt Allie's house, in case anybody turned up over there, me and Chloe were going to stay here at our house, just in case. Auntie and Dad were going to spend the day and night in the little old shed. We changed out the doors on it, they had gotten a little raggedy with disuse, so now, they could close properly, in case there was some strong wind or something.
I had a feeling that it was going to be a long day and night again. We spent the day together, but nobody talked, again. We were all scared for what was coming. Finally, night started to fall and we all went our separate ways. "It'll be okay." I said to everybody as they walked out the doors. "Let's pray, and hope." said Aunt Allie. Me and Chloe watched out the window as the door to the shed closed. "They're in." I said, sitting back into the couch. "I'm scared." said Chloe. "Me too, Twin." I said, hugging her.
We spent the evening both glancing out the window, staring at the shed door. I had my Contacts turned on again, so that way I could have a feed available for if I had to do another reset. "Waiting is the worst." I told Chloe, and she nodded. We sat for hours, and nothing happened. I continuously checked the clock above the mantel and it seemed like time had just slowed down. "Nothing is happening." said Chloe. "I know." I said, very nervous. "I don't like it at all." I whispered.
Both of us started to doze in the silence and the stillness of the house. Nerves will do that to you, just knock you out like that sometimes. I started to dream, horrible nightmares of Auntie and Dad being shot, and the car flying through the railing, sometimes in the dream, they got shot and flew over the railing at the same time. They were terrible dreams, and I did not sleep well at all.
Suddenly, I jerked awake. I thought it was because of the dreams, but it wasn't, Chloe jerked awake too. We felt something, it was small, but it was there. "What was that?" Chloe said. "I don't know, I thought that I was dreaming." I said, and we sat very still. The ground rumbled, a huge and powerful, earth-shattering shake. Me and Chloe both tumbled from the couch and landed on the floor. Then, "BOOM!" a huge explosion rocked the whole house. "BOOM!" Fire flashed sky high, a huge cloud of it lighting up the darkness of the night. "BOOM!" Fire was everywhere, all at once. "BOOM!" I covered my head and Chloe did the same. It was so loud, I thought that my eardrums were going to burst with the impact.
I sat up and looked outside and screamed. The shed was obliterated and fire was eating and chewing up the remnants of the wood strewn across the yard. The flames just kept leaping higher and higher, spreading throughout the yard, the dry summertime grass feeding it's hunger. The noxious smoke blew in through the broken window, choking us as we tried desperately to search for our family. Chloe was screaming and crying uncontrollably. I looked in every direction, trying to see if I could spot Auntie or Dad, but I couldn't see anything but blazing fire and clouds of smoke rising into the heavens. I was crying and screaming for them but there was no movement in the backyard at all.
Callie and Carson rushed into the house. "GAS MAIN!" screamed Carson. "You need to go Zoey! GO NOW! RESET!" Callie screamed. I nodded and wiped my eyes, grabbing the links out of my pockets and attaching the clip. I rushed to set the year to 2045 and said, "I'LL BE BACK! I LOVE YOU!" and I struck the links together forcefully, sending me forward again, to my own timeline. "AGAIN!" I screamed as I vanished.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I landed in the middle of the floor where I had been standing whenever Callie and Carson came through the door. My leg jerked around and my knee twisted painfully. "ARGH!" I growled, as I tugged myself up and tried to stretch it out. Luckily, I had remembered to take the meds that morning, otherwise I would've had a twisted knee and been sick. "Ugh. It's really sore." I thought, twisting it around trying to pop it.
I stood up and flicked on the Screen once again, checking the news feed to see if there was anything about the explosion. "A gas main has exploded in a local neighborhood, authorities say that two were killed in the explosion, more on this story in the morning." said the anchorwoman. I looked outside of the window to see the damage. The fire had been put out and the shed was completely gone, although I could see the burn marks in the yard and bits and pieces of burnt wood were all over the place still. No bodies were in the yard, thank God, which meant that the police and fire department had already been through the area. "I can't believe that the shed is totally gone, it's been there forever." I said to myself, shaking my head. It was a terrible explosion. "It didn't work." I thought, sadly.
I stretched out my knee one more time, just to make sure that I was going to be mobile once I returned and it felt alright, just a little stiff. I rushed to set the clip back to July 7th at 8:45 AM and the links back to 2045. "Time to go back, don't want to hang around here any longer." I thought to myself. At least I knew that if I returned at 8:45, I wouldn't run into another Zoey. I attached the links to my shirt, held my breath, and went right back to try again. "This is getting old, quickly." I thought, as I dematerialized again into the past.
I landed on the couch again, and stretched out my leg. The stiffness was pretty much gone, so I didn't have to worry about my knee bothering me. I didn't know
how I would save the day if I was a gimp. I got up and walked across the yard to grab Auntie and Dad again. "Same day, same shit, very old, very quick." I sang to myself. I was starting to lose my mind. I walked in and hollered, "HELLO!" again and then sat down to explain why I was here alone. "I'll call Chloe to come back." said Dad, getting up to tell her again.
"There will be two of you." said Auntie. "No, we don't replicate, I don't know why." I explained. "Hmm." she said, as we all stood in front of the Screen waiting for the arrival of Callie and Carson. They landed with the usual bounce and then looked all around and stared at us strangely. "Why are you over there?" said Carson. We proceeded to explain that I had to do a reset, for the second time, and that I was back to try again. "Damnit. What first and what now?" said Callie. "First, they were chased by Ugly Don and The Scot and they drowned in a bayou, this time it was a gas main explosion." I said, matter of factly.
"We tried to save them by putting them in the shed, since it worked whenever you and Auntie tried it back in the day." I told Callie. "It didn't work?" said Auntie. "Nope, a gas main exploded and blew the shed to smithereens with the two of you inside. It set the whole backyard on fire, I didn't even see any bodies." I said. "Wow. For real?" said Carson. "I guess saving the family in the past stole all of its magic away from it, or whatever." I said. "Guess so, explosion, wow." said Callie. "That sucks." said Dad. "I have it on my feed, did you want to see?" I asked. "Well, we might as well." said Aunt Allie. She was always curious to see what happened.
I stood in front of the Screen and reversed the feed back to when I had dozed off on the couch and pressed play. They all sat and stared in horror as the shed exploded into a huge cloud of fire and smoke. Chloe screamed, as usual, and Auntie and Dad just shook their heads in disbelief. After it was over, I flicked the feed away and sat down. "See, smithereens." I said. "Indeed, that was... violent." said Auntie. "Now what do we do?" asked Callie. "I don't know, if its not one thing, it's another. I have no idea how to do this." I said, getting upset. "I know, it's hard and you'll want to quit, but you have to keep trying, Lovebug." said Auntie. I nodded and looked out at the shed. "At least it came back too. It looked weird back there with it being gone." I said.
We didn't bother doing anything in the two days leading up to the 9th. The day of the incident, we were going to drive around again and I was going to try to find Ugly Don and The Scot's new lair. Might as well, there was nothing else we could do. Auntie was right when she called it 'The Bastard of the Past.' The past was a real bitch. I was so frustrated by the time the 9th came around, and I knew that everyone could tell. Everybody loaded up in the cars again, except this time, we only took two. Me, Chloe, Callie and Carson all piled in to one car, and Dad and Auntie rode in hers. We were going to all follow them this time, in hopes of spotting Ugly Don and The Scot. If they died, we would have ignore it and carry on with our mission. We didn't even leave until after 6:00 PM. Nothing ever happened during the day, it was always at night.
Auntie and Dad merged onto the freeway again, just after dark. I knew what kind of car that Ugly Don and The Scot were driving, and I showed everybody the saved feed from that accident, so everyone knew what to look for. We had almost made it to the overpass where the bayou was when they finally appeared. I couldn't believe that they actually showed up again, and in the same car. Dad was watching in the rearview and he drove carefully over the overpass, they didn't go through the railing this time.
"It's okay if they die this time, we have to get to these assholes. Then you can reset." said Callie. "I know, I can handle it." I said. "I can't!" said Chloe, scared. "It'll be fine, I swear, Twin." I said. "She will fix it, Chloe." said Carson, petting her shoulder from the back seat. Suddenly, the douche-bags car swerved in front of us and got behind Dad and Auntie. Dad sped up, but carefully, and they sped up even faster, bumping their bumper. "They're trying to run them off of the road!" screamed Chloe. "It's okay. It has to be done. I'm sorry." I said.
I saw Dad exit the freeway, get to the feeder road and then speed up again. He was flying, so we sped up trying to catch up. Ugly Don stayed on their tail the whole time and started flying even faster, smashing into their bumper again. Dad lost control of the car and it started to spin. Then came the slow-motion again. "ARGH!" screamed Callie and Carson. "KEEP UP WITH THEM!" screamed Callie. "I'm trying!" I yelled back. Dad's car smashed head first into a tree on the side of the road, the windshield shattered and I saw Auntie fly through it, lifeless. I was crying, I couldn't handle it. Chloe was freaking out and screaming. "GET THEM!" screamed Carson.
I stepped on the gas and followed behind Ugly Don as discreetly as I could, until finally, they pulled their battered car into a long driveway back in the wooded area a little ways from the freeway. "Here it is." I said. "Let's get them. We brought supplies." said Callie. Carson whipped his gun from the back of his pants. "We need to have a little chat with our friends." said Carson. We slowly pulled into the driveway and parked behind a big bush, out of sight.
Callie and Carson jumped into action and had me pop the trunk. I leaned down to hit the button and I saw them digging around back there. Chloe was speechless. "Chloe, it's okay, we are going to do this, then we will go back to the house and I am leaving, I swear." I said. "Okay." she said, wiping her eyes. The trunk closed quietly and Callie and Carson came around to my side. "Here, take this, we're going to need it." said Carson, handing me a bunch of rope. "What?" I looked in their hands and they had the gun, rope and duct tape. "We are going to find out why they have it out for Allie and Andrew." said Callie. "Okay. Let's go get these assholes." I said, handing the rope back to Carson.
We all crept through the darkness of the shadows, Carson in front, holding out his gun, until we got to the front door. I could hear yelling from inside the little cabin. "Dumbass, now how are we going to get them. Just had to run them off the road! They probably had that shit on them, and now the cops will be there." said The Scot to Ugly Don. "I didn't know what else to do, McTavish. They were getting away, and they recognized us." said Ugly Don. "Dumbass. We needed those cufflinks. You know what the boss said." said The Scot, angrily.
Callie lifted her finger to her lips for all of us to be silent. "We're going in first, you two wait for our signal and then come in." whispered Carson. Me and Chloe both nodded in understanding. We had to know everything, and this was our only way. We were lucky that Chloe had finally calmed down, and now she had her game face on. She was extremely pissed off. Carson stood in front of the door, gun in front of him, and kicked it in. "Badass." I whispered to Chloe and she nodded. Callie ran behind him, she had a gun in the back of her pants too, we just hadn't noticed it, she pulled it out and put it in front of her too. I had forgotten that Dad was bringing her and Aunt Allie some guns. "I guess they learned how to use them after all." I whispered to Chloe. "Weird." she whispered back.
I heard scrambling and incoherent hollering and then a gunshot blasted through the quiet woods. Birds that had been settled in the trees all flew off at the same time, in a fury, wings flapping noisily all around us. I was scared that Callie and Carson were hurt. I heard a little more scrambling, and a "WHAT THE FUCK!" from Ugly Don, and then finally, after what seemed like years, Callie peeked her head outside and told us to come in.
Me and Chloe were scared to death, so we linked arms and walked in slowly, taking in our surroundings. It was another shanty, a little raggedy ass cabin that nobody was using at the moment. It smelled like feet and ass, and then I saw Ugly Don and The Scot both tied up in some metal chairs, duct tape over their mouths, and they were really pissed. They kept staring at Callie and Carson with huge wide eyes, and they were straining on their ties so hard that all of their veins looked like they were about to burst out from underneath their skin. "You better chill out before y'all have a heart attack." I said, in a smartass tone. "Fuckers." Chloe said, jerking her head at them like she was ready for a fight. I couldn't believe that we finally got the assholes. It was unreal, even though Dad
and Auntie had to die for it, we would have the information and I was recording it all for us to watch when I returned.
They were screaming at us through their duct tape, but we couldn't understand them, they were taped up really good. Carson punched them both in the face and told them to shut the fuck up, and that it was time to talk. "Alpha male badass." I thought to myself, smiling. "Now, I'm sure that you recognize us, boys, am I correct? Nod for yes, you assholes." said Callie, getting started with the interrogation. The douche bags made some noise and then nodded.
"My name is Allie, this good lookin' dude right here would be my brother Andrew. These two lovely ladies are my nieces, Chloe and Zoey. Say hello to these fuckers, girls. "Hello ugly ass." said Chloe. "What's up assholes." I said, and flipped them off with both hands. "Piece of shit." Chloe said, spitting at their feet. She was really, really mad. "My sister, myself and my two lovely daughters here have some questions for you two idiots." said Carson. "We're going to take the tape off of your mouths, if you try anything, I swear I will kneecap both of you, got it?" said Callie. They both nodded and sat still. Carson took off The Scots tape and Callie removed Ugly Don's. They stayed silent and continued staring angrily at us.
"We know your names, Donald Eugene Sturvis and Ian McTavish, and we've been trying to find you assholes for a while." said Callie. "Where's the journal." said Carson, and they sat there silently. Carson smashed the butt of his gun down on the back of The Scot's head. "WHERE IS IT!" he screamed. He raised his arm again, to hit him again, and The Scot said, "Over there, in the desk drawer." "Go get it girls." said Callie, nodding toward the drawer in question.
Both of us walked together to go get it out of the drawer. "I got it." said Chloe and we both brought it back to them. "What is this? Where did you get it?" said Carson, holding it up to them. "Our boss gave it to us, said that we needed to find some items and bring them back immediately, said that they were very important, and that they had been stolen." said Ugly Don. "Who is your boss?" asked Carson, flipping through the journal carefully. It was very old and very worn.
CLIPPED: Another Time Travel Tale (The Harmon Family Adventure Series Book 2) Page 19
