The Traveler's Secret: Book One (The Traveler Series 1)

by Jan Eira

  “We don’t have much more time,” said older Brent. He released a feeble cough.

  “You’re burning up, Brent,” said Ellie.

  Older Brent shivered intensely and placed his hand to his head. “Damn it, I think my seizures are coming back. Please, Brent.” He pointed to the neural synapse depolarizer. “William, help Brent do this. Please. Trust me. The world depends on you doing this.”

  “Doing what?” asked Mackenzie from the cavern’s mouth.

  Younger Brent got up, the neural synapse depolarizer unit concealed in his hand. Valerie took a step toward Mackenzie and Zach, but Ellie stepped in front of her. William embraced Valerie as younger Brent rushed toward Mackenzie and Zach and aimed the unit at them. A muted thump was followed by a louder metallic sound.

  “We thought you might try that,” said Zach, holding on to Mackenzie. She held a small device in the palm of her hand. “Meet the antidepolarizer.”

  “This emits a frequency that deactivates the depolarizer ray,” said Mackenzie.

  Younger Brent swatted at her hand. The small unit flew into the air. Zach kicked younger Brent’s hand hard. He yelled in pain as the neural synapse depolarizer skittered out of his reach. Mackenzie grabbed his shirt and pulled him to the ground. She pinned him with both her knees on his chest while Zach grabbed his shoulders.

  A muted thump reverberated throughout the cavern. Mackenzie fell forward and hit the ground, her feet still resting on younger Brent. Zach looked behind him. Valerie held the neural synapse depolarizer at arm’s length. Tears cascaded down her face. She aimed the device at Zach and pressed the trigger. He rolled over to his left. Valerie’s weapon discharged on the ground. She reaimed and struck him in the chest. He collapsed.

  “Thank you, Valerie,” said older Brent. “They’re OK. But they’ll wake up in a few hours. Meanwhile, we can get back on task. We don’t have much time.”

  Valerie put a blanket over the fallen bodies and stood up. Her eyes fixated on a silvery pattern left on the ground. She crouched and touched the slight grooves. Ellie, William, and younger Brent approached her.

  “This mark was left on the ground when I missed the second shot with the neural synapse depolarizer,” said Valerie.

  “What’s this silver material?” asked Ellie.

  “It’s a chemical called pegmatite,” said older Brent. “It’s the result of the depolarizer blast hitting the dirt. This cave contains a good amount of muscovite silicate. I probably already told you more than you were looking for, right?”

  The teenagers smiled, nodded, and stood up.

  “The fire’s dying,” said younger Brent. “William, help me gather more firewood.” Both boys walked out of the cave.

  “I’ll go help Brent and William,” said Ellie, leaving the cave.

  Older Brent grabbed Valerie’s cell phone, which was perched on her purse. “Your mobile doesn’t have to be turned off any longer, Valerie,” he said, looking at it. Valerie took her cell phone back from him and placed it inside her purse. While she did this, older Brent placed a thimble-sized device back into his pocket. Sorry to take your cell phone connectivity away, Valerie, he thought. ‘And for everything else I’m about to do to you.

  “It’s so easy to see how much you and Ellie love each other,” said Valerie. “The funny thing is that it’s not as apparent yet with her and the younger you.” She smiled.

  “Is it that obvious?” Older Brent coughed again, and a god-awful shiver ran through him. He held on tighter to the blanket over him.

  “It really is,” said Valerie. “Will William and I be as much in love as the two of you?”

  “You know better than to ask me about the future.” Older Brent smiled and then whispered in her direction. “Even more.” He put his index finger to his lips. “No more questions about the future, young lady.”

  “One more,” she said. “Please.”

  He nodded.

  “Will we have a beautiful wedding?”

  “It’s a bonfire,” yelled William from right outside the cave mouth. “Who’s hungry?”

  “I’m starved,” said Valerie.

  “Yes, a very beautiful wedding,” said older Brent. “Now, you go ahead and join the others. I’ll be out in a few.” Valerie picked up her purse and walked out. Older Brent removed a syringe from his pocket and reread its label: EpiPen. He began to sob. “I’m sorry, Valerie,” he whispered to himself. He threw the syringe deep into the darkness of the cavern. His tears flowed freely. “I’m so sorry, old friend.” In between sniffles, he shivered. His high fever commanded chills throughout his entire body. He coughed more blood into a tissue, and the shivers caused dreadful muscle aches and spasms. He clutched his chest. His face went rigid. Unable to support his weight in a sitting position, he fell to the cave’s ground. He tasted dirt.

  “Brent,” said William into the cave’s mouth. “Valerie and I are going back to the car. We’ll drive to get some food. We’ll get you the usual.”

  “OK,” he struggled to say, more and more realizing the hand of Death was nearly upon him.

  Two flashlights pierced the night.

  “What else do you think we can do to resolve this situation?” asked Valerie.

  “If we knew who invents the way to administer Enoxadin orally and took that person out—”

  “Yeah, that would probably work,” said Valerie. “As a pill form, Enoxadin can be given to billions of people. It’s easy and effective. To give it in the coronary arteries limits its worldwide application. It can be given practically only to patients who are already having a heart attack. But who invents that process? And when? Maybe Brent can tell us that.”

  For several more minutes, the two teenagers continued to follow their flashlight beams through the gloomy forest.

  “I’m hungry,” said Valerie.

  “Me, too. We’re almost at the parking lot.” He placed his right hand in his pant pocket. “Hey, I got some goodies. Want some?”

  “I’ll eat anything, I’m so hungry.”

  In the dark, William removed a wrapper and placed a bit of the candy in Valerie’s mouth.

  “Mm-m-m, chocolate. My favorite.” She smiled, chewing. She stopped walking. He did as well. “William,” said Valerie, her face now serious. “May I kiss you?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” He slowly moved his lips to hers. He hesitated at first, and then he lightly touched them, barely feeling her warmth. Then he pressed more firmly. A million pleasure-filled sensations erupted up his spine.

  Suddenly, Valerie shoved him away. He stumbled backward a few feet. She fell to the ground. She began to gurgle and gasp, struggling more and more.

  “Peanut…allergy,” she said almost inaudibly. Desperately, she pointed to her fallen purse a few feet away. “Epi po.” Her panic bubbled through her dwindling eyes. “Ep pu.”

  “Valerie!” yelled William. “I can’t understand you. What’s wrong? Talk to me.” Her growing panic accelerated his terror. His eyes followed her wavering finger to her purse. “Your cell phone?” He ran to her mobile. “What? No signal? You had five bars earlier.” He turned to her. “You have no signal!”

  Valerie shook her head vigorously, struggling to breathe. She sputtered incomprehensible gurgling instead of direction.

  “No? You want something different?” He returned to her. “How can I help?” He rapidly got on his feet and yelled out as loud as he possible could bellow. “Help! Brent, Ellie, help us!”

  She dragged herself to her purse.

  “You want your purse? What’s in it?” He brought it to her. Her hands shook vigorously as she fumbled in the dark.

  “Epi p—” She collapsed into William’s hands. He saw her blue lips, and her struggles diminished.

  William roared again. “Help!” He ravaged through her purse—tissues, lipstick, coins, dollar bills, junk, and mo
re junk. “Help.” He cried. “Help us, please!”

  CHAPTER 44

  Back at the campfire, younger Brent and Ellie sat side by side, a blanket around both of them. The fire crackled sporadically, and the flames bounced off their faces brilliantly.

  “Knowing the little bit we found out about the future gives me a sense of relief,” said Ellie.

  “I know. But our future is ours to write. Rewrite.”

  “Why? You don’t like how we end up together?”

  “No, I love that part. Just the rest—the Enoxadin deaths.”

  “Maybe the problem isn’t Enoxadin,” she said. “It does save a lot of lives. What we need to do is work on an antiviral therapy so when the virus appears, it can be neutralized.”

  “But how do you prevent a virus from causing so much death before the virus is even around?”

  “We have it around now in the old Brent’s arterial walls. Knowing what we know now, it would be a great mission to carry on.” She looked into the fire and then back at him. “Maybe an even better mission than the one we’re trying to carry out now.”

  “We have four great minds that can be changed, molded this way or that to—”

  “Help!” They barely heard the cry from the darkness of the woods.

  “Did you hear that?” asked Ellie.

  “Help!” The wind carried the word faintly through the trees.

  “It’s William,” said Ellie.

  “I’ll run into the woods to meet up with William and help him,” said younger Brent. He got to his feet and offered his hand to Ellie. “You stay with old me. He—that is, I—shouldn’t die alone. I want to die with you holding me.” He bowed his head then disappeared into the dark forest.

  Younger Brent’s flashlight beam danced in front of him as he ran as fast as he could toward William’s cries for help.

  “Brent,” said William when he could see him. “Something awful has happened to Valerie. She’s allergic to peanuts, and I gave her a Baby Ruth full of them. She had a bad reaction.” He began to cry.

  Valerie was on the ground, her head being supported by William’s leg.

  “She’ll be OK, William. We’ll take her to the ER.”

  With shaking hands, William grabbed her shoulders while Brent grasped her legs and the hurried slow march to the car in the parking lot began.

  “Brent, she stopped breathing. She’s all blue.” William sobbed. “Hurry. I think she’s dead already.”

  In the cave, Ellie was at older Brent’s side. She had placed a blanked under his head to use as a pillow and two others over him to help with the terrible chills.

  “Your fever’s very high again,” she said, feeling his forehead.

  “Ellie.” His words were garbled. “I have to go to the past and stop Enoxadin.” He rocked side to side. His body was too weak to do anything else.

  “Sh-h-h,” said Ellie, hoping to calm him down from his anxious and confused state. “It’ll be all right.”

  “No, Ellie. You’ve been working on your time-travel capsule. I must go back to the past. I must stop Enoxadin.”

  “OK, Brent. OK.”

  “Please help me travel back to 2013.” His hot tears dropped on her hands. “I have to do this before you die from this virus, Ellie. I must save your life.”

  “OK, Brent. It’ll be all right.” Her words were soothing. She placed a wet rag over his forehead. “I’ll be all right. You’ll be OK, too.”

  “I have to save you, Ellie. I can’t live without you.” He attempted a smile. His face was wet with hot perspiration, and chills shook his body. He coughed into a tissue Ellie held over his mouth. He was too weak to hold it himself. She saw more blood.

  “You’ll be fine,” said Ellie. “This will pass. You’ll be all right.”

  “Please, Ellie, help me go back to the past. I have to save you. I have to save the world. I know you’re not all done with the time-traveling vehicle. But whatever you’ve done must do. It must get me back in time.”

  “Sure, I’ll help you, Brent. I’ll help you. I’m right here.”

  The two remained silent for a long moment, Ellie’s body over the blanket that covered older Brent. Intermittently, she rubbed his back through the blanket.

  “Ellie,” he said, his words now clearer. “Where am I?”

  “You’re in the cave. It’s the year 2013.”

  “I have something for William.” His hand quivered. “Give him this.” He handed her a device the size of a small thumb drive.

  “OK, I will.” New tears formed in her eyes.

  “Was…our…mission…successful?” His strength had all but vanished.

  “Yes, Brent. You were successful in your mission. Everybody will be fine.”

  Older Brent smiled and took his very last breath. His shaking ceased. Weeping and heartbroken, Ellie closed his eyelids.

  CHAPTER 45

  Hours passed. Ellie sat on the ground next to older Brent’s body. Her tears were unstoppable.

  “Ellie,” William said from outside the cave.

  “In here,” she said.

  The boys walked in, shoulders slumped.

  Younger Brent’s eyes were red and wet. He tried to compose himself before he spoke. “We have bad news. Valerie died of a severe allergic reaction to…” His words tapered off when he realized what had happened inside the cave.

  “Is he?” asked William, his eyes also teary. Ellie nodded slowly and bowed her head.

  The three friends came together at the mouth of the cave and hugged for a long time, weeping.

  “Today was the worst day ever,” said Brent.

  Ellie nodded. “It was a day we all will want to forget.”

  “We didn’t even accomplish our mission,” said Brent. “It seems older me and Valerie died in vain.”

  “Life isn’t fair,” said William. “I still can’t believe Valerie’s gone.”

  “You’re in shock,” said Ellie. “Just like me. And Brent.”

  “What are we going to do to stop Enoxadin from doing what it does?” asked William.

  “Before he died, Brent wanted you to have this.” Ellie picked up the small device and handed it to William.

  “What is it?” He looked at the unit in his hand. He squeezed it gently, and out of nowhere appeared a virtual screen. On it was a sixtysomething blond woman wearing a white lab coat. She was sitting down in front of a white, sterile-appearing laboratory.

  “Hi, William,” she said. “If you’re looking at this, it must mean that I didn’t make it from my severe allergic reaction.” She forced a smile. “Well, I should begin by saying that my name is Valerie Baten, though you’ve known me only as Valerie Rovine. Yes, I’m the love of your life, and you are mine. If the world hadn’t changed, you and I would fall deeper and deeper in love and have a beautiful wedding. By the way, just between you and me, I could tell you were the one the second I met you at the hospital.” She winked. “Anyway, we have a wonderful and magnificent life together, personally and professionally. I take on my father’s dream with Enoxadin and go on to develop a way to administer Enoxadin in a pill form, which everybody wants to take.” She forced a smile. “I think you already know all this. Well, VHV, the vasculopathic human virus, changes all that. But again, you know all this, too. When we decided that our only recourse was for Brent to go back in time, we used multiple computer models and figured out that the best thing to do with the most chance of a successful outcome was for Brent to travel to the day we met. But again, you know that already.” She looked away from the camera and then stared right back at it. “Here’s why I insisted Brent give you this recording. I feared that the best way to get rid of this pandemic and prevent billions of people from dying and destroying the planet in the process was for me to die. Enoxadin will go on for a while. But without the pill form, its applicability is limi
ted, and our computer models tell us that the drug research will go on for about five years. By then, its impetus fizzles out and gives way to other therapies, and life goes on.” She forced another smile. “Well, for everyone but me, of course. So, Brent’s mission was to get you kids to help him out and end up getting rid of Enoxadin’s future role over the next four decades. If nothing else worked, then he was to prevent you from saving my life by giving me my EpiPen from my purse, which you gave me the first time around. Now, here’s the important part.” Valerie got up and took a step toward the camera. “Do not blame yourself. This was my fault. I told Brent this is what he had to do to save the world. Don’t blame Brent, either. He did what he had to do if all other plans failed.” She sat down again and smiled. “So, have a great life, even if the wife you find won’t be as sexy and as cute as I am.” She winked and smiled. The image dissipated into thin air.

  “Mom,” said Zach from deeper inside the cave.

  “Where’s our mother?” asked Mackenzie. “I mean, Valerie Rovine. Where is she?”

  Brent, Ellie, and William slowly walked out of the cave.

  “She’s gone,” said William as he passed by Zach and Mackenzie.

  The three teenagers walked into the clearing. The only sounds came from the woodland creatures of the night.

  In an instant, Ellie felt the air around her move. A wave of distortion emanated from her body and moved rapidly outward. Abruptly, she was back in the darkness of the cave, alone, next to older Brent’s body. She looked from one side of the darkened cave to the other.

  “Ellie.” The voice she’d heard earlier from outside the cave repeated once again.

  “In here,” she heard herself yell back. She squinted. “What the—”

  William and younger Brent walked in.

  “We have bad news,” said Brent. “Valerie died of a severe allergic reaction to—”

  “Wow,” said Ellie. “I’m having a terrible and very strong feeling of déjà vu.” She bit her lower lip and wiped an errant tear. “It’s like you’d felt, Brent, when you first traveled back in time.”