“But how far back did they send you?”
For the moment, the kid seemed to accept the explanation.
“Seven hundred years, give or take… But see, that’s how I knew about today. I learned it in history class when I was a kid. Well, we don’t really have classes anymore, but whatever.”
“What did you call it again?”
“The Riot?” Jack asked. “It was called, or will be called, I guess, The Sky Lane Workers Riot. Which I always found ironic, because there was only one worker responsible for it. A man named Albert Koomer… he got pissed off when the city refused to acknowledge him as the chief architect in building the sky lanes. Koomer reprogrammed the construction bots and they leveled everything in their way until the military hovers arrived and destroyed them. The death toll was in the hundreds of thousands, only a handful of people in the immediate area of the riot survived. That’s why we had to get underground, because the few who did survive hid down here in the tunnels, like we’re doing. It was, is, sorry, the greatest loss of human life in a single act, ever. At least up until I was sent back here. And hopefully, there never is an act that tops it.”
“How could you forget it was today?” the boy asked. He had a hurt expression on his face, as if Jack should have done something about it, saved his family, he could have at least warned them.
“I’m sorry, Kid, it just slipped my mind. You know, you get stranded in the past, get a job as a cab driver and a drinking problem, and all of a sudden a few things slip your mind.” Jack didn’t expect the boy to understand, but his heart still felt for him, and he wished there was something he could do. It couldn’t have been easy learning that your parents had probably just been killed by a crazy engineer, your home had been destroyed, and to top it all off, you hit your head and can’t remember what your name is. “Look, Kid, I promise, everything’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna find our way out of here, get back to the surface, and find out about your family. And no matter what, life will go on.”
They had been walking for close to twenty minutes when they heard the sound of explosions coming from above. The walls of the tunnel shook and dust floated through the air. Must be the military taking down the construction bots, Jack thought. Thankfully, the boy was quiet as they walked. Jack didn’t know if he could take anymore questions or silent, staring accusations from the heart-broken boy right now.
The last three stations they had passed were all closed in, sealed over years ago. Jack was beginning to understand why they hadn’t run into anybody else who might have tried to escape the reprogrammed construction bots.
Jack watched the kid as they walked toward the next station. The boy didn’t deserve what had happened to him today. None of the people who had died did.
Even though the tunnels were shut down, the emergency lights were, thankfully, still working, and Jack could see that the back of the boy’s head had stopped bleeding. The headache that would follow once the adrenaline wore off was not something Jack envied.
An old red exit sign was lit above a door that seemed to be made entirely out of rust. The door read Authorized Personnel Only. Jack tried the handle. It twisted, but when Jack tried the door, it didn’t budge. He put his shoulder into it and was rewarded with the sound of metal grating on concrete as the door moved inward.
The door only opened a few inches before it stuck, but the gap was wide enough to squeeze through.
“Wait here. Let me check it out.” Jack couldn’t tell if the boy had heard or not, he was lost in some distant gaze. Jack wondered, not for the first time since being in the tunnels, what he was going to do with the boy when they got out of there. The boy’s parents were almost certainly dead. And for that matter, what am I going to do with myself?
He squeezed through the gap in the door and found another ladder, much like the one they had climbed down to escape the madness of the street. “Okay, come on in here, Kid. I think we found our way out.”
The boy silently slipped into the room, still in the clutches of grief and despair. He reminded Jack of the old prisoners of war from the vids he’d watched as a kid, just lifeless human shells. He’d think they were corpses except for the occasional movements they made.
Jack and the boy climbed up the ladder and found the top covered in debris. Cursing his luck, Jack banged on the debris covering the exit, nearly breaking his hand. To his surprise, the debris moved, some of it falling back down the ladder, almost hitting the boy on the head again.
“Uh, why don’t you wait back in the other room while I try to dig us out of here? It’ll be safer.”
Again, the boy wordlessly did what Jack asked of him. It was painful to see. All boys were supposed to be smiling and full of life, and even though Jack had only known him for a few hours, he’d taken a liking to him. More of a liking than Jack cared to admit. Must be getting soft in my old age. But it was more than that—there was something about the boy that Jack was drawn to. Some invisible, intangible thing. Their meeting felt almost like fate to Jack, if he believed in such a thing, that is.
After a few minutes of struggling with large pieces of brick and concrete, Jack had cleared an opening to the street above. He could taste the fresh air above, or at least it was fresher than the stale air below them in the tunnels. It was night and the dust from the destruction still hadn’t settled completely yet. He began climbing out into the night, feeling like he was forgetting something. Idiot, he thought. “Hey Kid, let’s go!” he yelled down. “We’re outta here.”
Jack helped the boy climb over the edge of the rubble piled around the top of the ladder, and then took a deep breath, stretching toward the sky. As he did so, he noticed all of the spotlights that were sweeping the rubble of the city. News crews were everywhere, with the new prototype hovers providing aerial coverage of the destruction. “Come on, this way,” he said to the boy, but just as they turned to sneak off, they were hit with a giant spotlight.
“STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!!” a giant voice boomed from above. It must have been a military hover, Jack thought, watching it descend on their position. The boy already had his hands in the air, just like he’d seen on television. God, this is the last thing I need.
Jack looked around for an escape, any kind of way out.
He saw none.
Begrudgingly, Jack joined the boy in raising his hands in the air and dropped to his knees.
They were hand-cuffed and loaded into the military hover by a marine. As the hover took off, heading to some secret location, no doubt, Jack began to wonder just how long this day was going to be. Kid, at least, had finally had enough. Whether it was from exhaustion or nerves the boy was sound asleep on the floor of the hover, still sitting upright, his head resting on his cuffed hands.
Jack decided it would be best to try and do the same. So he settled in and closed his eyes as the hover took them off into the night.
Questions And Shopping Sprees
The door disappeared as soon as Ava and Asher stepped through. They found themselves once again, in darkness.
“Hmmm…” Asher’s voice did not carry far. They were enclosed in a small space. Asher felt around and his hand soon found the wall.
The wall was smooth, like sanded wood but it wasn’t wood. Behind him, Asher heard the sound of rustling clothes. Ava had brushed against them, trying to gain her bearings. We’ve got to get out of here, Asher thought, feeling the panic beginning to set in. No, relax... just breathe, you’re okay. Asher had been claustrophobic since he was young.
Some of his friends had thought it would be fun to roll each other up in rugs, and then pull on one end, sending the person inside rolling out. When it was Asher’s turn to be rolled, he was excited, everyone else was laughing and enjoying the game. But when he was all rolled up, the air grew stale and he couldn’t move. Asher had panicked. He screamed at the top of his lungs, which of course just made his friends laugh all the harder, and they kept him rolled up even longer. Eventually, a teacher came along and told the kids to let him
out. The first breath that Asher took upon emerging from the rug was the largest breath of air he’d ever taken. The sunlight out on the hillside where they had been playing had never been as bright before. He could still see the entire scene in sharp detail in his mind.
As he remembered this scene from his childhood, he kept telling himself, It’s okay, you’re alright, just feel the wall until you find a door or some kind of way out.
Ava found the door first, opening it and stepping out into a moonlit room.
Hoping she didn’t notice his panic, Asher followed her into the room. He had never told Ava about the rug.
There was a bed on the far side of the room. Posters of men fighting with glowing swords hung on the walls. Clothes were laying on the floor in heaps. A cool breeze blew in through an open window, fluttering the curtains. Someone was asleep in the bed. Asher could hear whoever it was stirring. An alarm went off inside his head and he felt the need to leave immediately.
“We need to get out of here,” Ava whispered. She must have felt it too.
They slipped out of the open second-story window, and dropped down to the yard below. Asher first, who tucked and rolled, and then Ava, who tried to land without rolling and managed to twist her ankle.
Thankfully the sprain was not a bad one.
They walked for a few miles, Ava limping, but, for once, not complaining. They wandered aimlessly among rows of houses and paved streets with lamp posts lining the sidewalks.
Back in their world, there were pictures of the past, before The End War, but this was incredible. It was one thing to read about it and to see a picture of it, but to actually be there—he shook his head in wonder.
Asher could see the same excitement that he felt on Ava’s face, and something else was there as well, but he wasn’t sure what.
Ava yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. Asher was tired too, he could feel sleep calling to him with every step they took. “I’m exhausted,” he said. “We should find some shelter for the night.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at his choice of the word night. It had been night all day long for them, but he supposed that Ava knew what he meant.
“Should we?” Ava asked, her tone biting. “Last time I checked, I was still the princess.”
Asher felt the blood rush to his cheeks. He hated when she got like this. As if for just a second, he could forget his place in the world. There was no need to berate him the way she did. Still, he was far too tired to try to change the world tonight. “Apologies, Your Highness… I merely thought—”
“You think too much sometimes, Asher. It is not your place to do so.”
“Forgive me, my Lady.” Asher bowed his head, staring down at the ground.
“There appears to be some hedges over there,” Ava said, pointing past a sign that read Arlington Heights Park. “We’ll sleep there… it should give us some shelter from this wind.”
Frustrated and tired, Asher followed Ava silently to the park and laid down beside her, trying not to let her see how upset he was. Ava cuddled up next to him, wrapping her arms around his chest. It had been a good, if strange day up until recently, and he was ready for it to be over now. Fortunately, he was too tired to be upset for long before sleep took him away.
He woke first. Someone was shining a light in his eyes. No, not a light, it was the sun. He hadn’t seen the sun in months. The sight was unbearable. Tears began to form and a flood of relief came rushing over him, releasing feelings he didn’t even realize had been there. The gloomy cloud of depression was fading. He had to wake up Ava, she should see this.
He turned to wake her, but she was already up, watching him with tears of her own in her eyes. She brought a smile to Asher’s face, and before he knew it, they were laughing.
Strange noises greeted their ears as their laughter subsided. They were standing next to the hedges on the boundary of the park.
The park was on a large plot of land, with trees and fields, and, were those baseball diamonds? They were, and the feeling of awe returned to him as he remembered all of the things he had read about as a child.
And there’s a car! Asher watched it go by, followed by a school bus full of children.
“Ava? We’re not in New Britain anymore, are we?” Asher asked, though he already knew the answer well enough.
“I’m not nearly as concerned with where we are as I am with when. How, no, why, are we in the past, before The End War?”
“The Holy Mother works in mysterious ways,” Asher said. “Think of all the stories we’ll have to tell.” His mind was reeling with the endless possibilities.
“There won’t be any stories. We’re leaving as soon as we find a way back.” The princess was back and she was in full control.
If I didn’t love you... Probably best not to finish that thought, Asher decided.
He knew he was mostly just upset at the way the world worked. That woman were stationed above men might be the way of things now, but it still didn’t feel right, at least, not to him. It never had. “What do you propose, my Lady?” He wondered if she had ever picked up on the fact that he never called her Ava when she acted like a spoiled tyrant. If she had, she’d never mentioned it.
“Well, we came here through a door, so, naturally, there must be one that takes us back, right?” Ava guessed.
She’s as clueless as I am, only too scared and proud to admit it.
They were back on the sidewalk at the park entrance and Asher was about to respond whimsically, hoping for a laugh to lighten the mood, when he heard the screech.
He and Ava both instinctively ducked as a black Mercedes sedan skidded to a halt on the street in front of them.
A man in a black suit stepped out of the passenger side. He was middle-aged, in good shape by the looks of him, and walking directly toward them.
“We have to go, they’re right behind us,” the man said.
Asher and Avialle stood blinking like two deer caught in the headlights.
“Right... How silly of me.” The man reached into his pocket and pulled something out, holding it up to eye level. “This will help you adjust to any shock that you most definitely will be exposed to over the next few days.”
Several bright flashes went off, and Asher’s brain felt like it was melting. He grabbed his head, feeling like it would explode at any moment.
And then it was over. His head cleared and he suddenly knew things that he hadn’t a moment before. He looked at things that he could only guess at what they were and what their purpose was and he knew them. He didn’t know about them, but he knew them, knew what they were and what they did. It was comforting and disconcerting all at the same time. Where a moment ago he had felt like a stranger in a strange land, now he only felt strange.
“We have to leave now!” the man repeated. “We don’t have any time to lose.”
Asher was about to ask a simple question but he forgot what it was when he heard the screeching sound again. He looked up to see another black sedan sliding through a turn four blocks away.
The car came out of the turn and accelerated toward them. Asher felt something reach out and grab at him. It was like an invisible hand with sharpened claws that was trying to get at his mind.
A strange scene flashed in his mind’s eye, and he suddenly filled up with dread. Ava must have felt something too, because they both ran for the first car at the same time. They jumped in and slammed the door behind them.
The man in the black suit told the driver of the car to go, and they sped off into the morning with the other sedan close behind them.
“That was lucky,” the man said. “They usually aren’t so sloppy, they must be desperate for them to have tried to touch you so soon. By now, they’ll have guessed that something about you two is amiss.”
Asher’s heart raced as he was thrown every which way in the back seat. Beside him, Ava was trying to put on her brave face and only mildly succeeding. Asher decided he needed some answers. “Who are you?” he demanded of
the man. “And where are we? Why is that car after us, and who are they?”
“All in good time, Asher,” the man replied. “First let’s put a little distance between us and them, eh?”
Asher’s eyes went wide. He knows my name! How does he know my name? He had a very bad feeling about the entire situation. What had he and Ava stumbled into?
Their car zig-zagged through traffic, taking rights and lefts whenever Ava and Asher least expected it. As the world outside blurred by, Asher could see Ava building up to something. Here it comes, he thought. This should be quite a spectacle.
“Do you know who I am?” Ava blurted out in her best royalty voice. “I am the Princess Avialle, Regent of New Britain, and you will heed my wishes.”
Asher was trying to keep a neutral expression on his face, and just barely managing.
“And I’m the Duke of Normandy,” the man in the passenger seat replied. “Do shut up, Princess. This is not your New Britain, and you are not ruler here. So if you don’t want to get out and walk, then I suggest you wish to be quiet.”
It was everything Asher could do not to laugh out loud, as he tried to remain in his ever moving seat.
Ava’s mouth was still hanging open and Asher could tell she wanted to say something, but she was in shock. She had never been talked to like that before, let alone by a man.
“We’ve got to end this now, before the local police get involved,” the man said to the driver. “I don’t want this to turn into a media situation.”
The driver nodded as he opened the glove box, took out a small black square about the size of a teaspoon, and threw it out of the open sunroof.
“Because, then, we couldn’t do fun stuff like that.”
Asher twisted, following the object’s path. The black square landed in the street behind them, bouncing to a halt, and then it was gone, and so was the street around it. The little square, whatever kind of device it was, had eaten a crater six feet deep into the road beneath it.
Strangers and Shadows Page 4
