The Traveler's Quest (The Traveler Series 2)

by L. Eira

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I was told to report here. So, here I am!” She gave a broad smile.

  “You are required to report to me. I’m in charge of this assignment. Nobody works my scenes without my approval. I’m calling the director. This is all bull—”

  “Look, you two,” said Sparks. “I don’t have time for this. I’m taking the gun to headquarters. Hunter, I expect a preliminary report about your findings here within the hour. We have three criminal teens to catch. I’m out of here.” He quickly entered his vehicle and departed, a plume of dust amassing.

  “Great!” said Hunter. “This filth is going to contaminate my crime scene.” He coughed and flailed his arms in the air, clearing the floating dust. He produced a handkerchief from his pocket and placed it over his mouth. “I can’t breathe in this gook.”

  Misty looked side to side and didn’t see a soul. All the CSI personnel were deep in the woods. She fumbled in her pocket and produced a gadget. She set it to ten minutes, pointed it at Hunter, and pushed a button. A slight hum, and the man dropped to the ground limply.

  “You won’t remember this conversation when you wake up,” she whispered to his unmoving body. She removed the blue overalls and the blue cap and retuned them to the CSI van parked a few yards away, and then departed, at first on tiptoes. She remained undetected as she left the area. Once a few yards away, she walked briskly to the cave.

  The cops forced Brent, William, and Ellie to lie down on the ground, their hands handcuffed behind their backs. One of the officers pointed his gun at the teens while the other made a phone call.

  “Detective Sparks,” he said into the cell phone. “We have the three kids in custody. They were by that cave.”

  He listened to his earpiece. He nodded, and then terminated the call. “Sparks wants us to take them to headquarters pronto.”

  “Officer,” said Brent, “you’re making a huge mistake. We’re innocent. We’re just high-school kids.”

  The cops sneered. One of them said, “Yeah, and high-school kids don’t kill other high-school kids. Ever! Right?”

  “We imagine some do,” said Ellie. “But we don’t. We’re good students from good families.”

  “Save it for the judge, kid,” said the other policeman.

  A moment of silence ensued while birds chirped, and leaves rustled, peacefully enticed by the passing wind.

  “Officers,” said a woman whose voice the kids immediately recognized. “I’m glad you finally found the teens.”

  The cops returned a puzzled look mixed with suspicion and disbelief. “I’m CSI Misty Shores.” She walked toward the cops, her hand extended. “Chief CSI Tim Hunter asked me to come and begin the analysis of this area.”

  “How come we’ve never seen you before?” asked one of the cops.

  “Where’s your badge?” asked the other.

  “I left it in the car at the other crime scene.” She continued to walk toward the kids, her hand grasping and concealing the neural depolarizer. Soon she would have the proximity and angle necessary to incapacitate the cops without affecting the teens.

  “You know better than that,” said one of the officers. “We can’t let you near this scene without proper identification.”

  She kept walking closer. “Why don’t you call Detective Sparks? He authorized this.” She was almost close enough now. Older Ellie saw the perfect opportunity. One cop looked away while the other reached for his cell phone. She leaped forward, aimed the gizmo in the direction of the police officers, and pressed the button. Within a moment, the cops’ bodies hit the grass heavily, their weapons tumbling on the ground at their sides.

  “We have ten minutes to get out of here,” said Older Ellie. She searched for and found the key to the handcuffs in one of the officer’s pockets, and then freed Younger Ellie, Brent, and William. She placed the keys back where she found them, and then put the handcuffs in their proper containers on the police officer’s belts.

  “Where should we go?” asked William.

  “Back in the cave and into our secret hideout,” said Older Ellie. “They’ll never find us there.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The two police officers woke up almost simultaneously. They sat up and looked around the clearing. Their eyes settled on the cave’s mouth.

  “What are we doing here?” one of them asked.

  “We’re looking for the teenagers. Remember?”

  “Yeah, I know that. I just don’t remember getting here.”

  “Come to think of it, me neither. Why are we on the ground? Were we just unconscious?”

  “Buncher, Gladden,” bellowed Shift Commander Bewley as he approached the two cops. “What the hell are you doing sitting down? Where are the kids?”

  “Haven’t seen them,” said Gladden.

  “What do you mean you haven’t seen them?” said Bewley. “Sparks said you had them!”

  “We have them? We haven’t seen them,” said Gladden.

  “Didn’t you just get off the phone with Sparks?”

  “A little while ago, yeah.”

  “Look, he must have misunderstood you, Gladden,” said Buncher. “Hell, half the time, I don’t understand you myself.”

  Commander Bewley shrugged. “Man, Sparks is going to be big-time pissed.” He looked at the cavern, and then back at the men. “They seem to keep gravitating here for some reason. Get up off your asses, and check the cave thoroughly once more. Then, I want this forest searched inch by inch. The kids are here, and we must find them. Get the canine units, the helicopters, and everybody else out here. Now!”

  Deep inside the chamber, concealed by the massive boulder, the teenagers and Older Ellie whispered, well aware of the three men near the opening into the cavern.

  “Two things still bother me to no end,” said Younger Ellie. “If we changed the future by allowing this Valerie chick to die now, how come you”—she gazed at her future self—“came back from the dead in the future? And who erased our memories?”

  “We were told by the twins that you had died in their future,” said Brent.

  “Who knows what we can trust from what the twins told us?” said William. “I don’t trust anything they told us.”

  “Why would they lie to us?” whispered Younger Ellie.

  “I don’t know,” said Older Ellie. “In my world, in the year 2059, there were no twins and no Valerie. As far as why you can’t remember, I think that was Alexandra. She is capable of many things.”

  “Tell us more about Alexandra,” said Brent. “Who is she?”

  “Not who,” interjected William. “What. That little albino girl is not from this world.”

  “I don’t know for sure,” said Older Ellie. “She appears in my dreams. And through dreams, she communicates with me.”

  “That’s how it was with me,” said William. “When I was knocked out, she appeared to me and showed me a world close to annihilation. And she told me that it was all my fault, because I didn’t save Valerie.”

  “That can’t be true,” said Brent. “You didn’t—”

  “She showed you images, but it’s up to you to decipher them appropriately,” said Older Ellie. “It took me a while to get the hang of it. It was very confusing at first.”

  “So tell us more about her,” said Younger Ellie. “Who is she? What is she?”

  “I know she’s not human,” said Older Ellie. “I think she’s some sort of an alien.”

  “Is she here to hurt humankind?” asked Brent. “Is she causing the end of the world?”

  Older Ellie shrugged. “I just don’t know.” She bit her lower lip. “She seems to be helping though. She showed me how to manufacture the time-travel machine. She seems genuinely concerned about Earth’s Armageddon.”

  “Help avoid it or cause it?” said William. “If she’s not human, why does she care?”

  “We can’t be sure of anything,” said Older Ellie.

  Younger Ellie got up and bit her lower lip, just as O
lder Ellie had done repeatedly. She presented her palms to the others in a hold-on-a-minute gesture. “Let’s try to focus. Why did my future self die, and then seemingly and instantly returned to life.”

  After a moment of silence, Brent said, “It appears that when the past changes significantly, the future is altered instantaneously into what would have happened after the modification.”

  “We know nothing about time travel to understand what happens if and when—” Older Ellie began.

  Younger Ellie interrupted. “Are the cops gone?”

  Older Ellie looked at one of her gadgets. “Yes.”

  “Let’s go into the cave, toward the opening. I have something to show you,” said Younger Ellie, her voice excited. “Something I’ve been thinking a lot about.”

  Brent grabbed the gravify, and the huge rock moved effortlessly with a slight push. Ellie hurried out, a bright light source in her hand. “William, find the rocks with my writing. The one you found before when you tripped and fell.”

  The group’s steps were rushed, and soon they reached the right area.

  “Here’s the rock,” said William. “Did you figure out what it means?”

  “Not sure,” said Younger Ellie. “But I found another rock with similar writing, again written by my hand, with the diagrams I typically use when I do math problems.”

  Older Ellie smiled. “We’re definitely one. You and me, Ellie.”

  “I found this other rock with similar numbers while you two bozos went to the bathroom,” said Younger Ellie. “This one says one hundred and eighty-four.”

  “Here’s another rock with your writing,” said Brent. “This one says forty-six years.”

  “So, what do forty-six, one hundred and thirty-eight, and one hundred and eighty-four have in common?” asked William.

  “And years?” said Brent. “I don’t know how long it takes to travel from Earth to the moon but—”

  “Is this how long it took Alexandra to get to our moon from her world, if, in fact, she’s an alien?” said William.

  “How would I know that to write it on the rock?” said Younger Ellie.

  “If we can figure out the answers to all these questions, I think we’ll have a great understanding of the whole picture,” said Older Ellie. “Maybe Alexandra will give us some answers when we next sleep.”

  “Or maybe she’ll help us destroy the planet and every living soul on it,” said William. “I think she and her alien friends are the ones causing all these problems on Earth. Her job is to make sure none of us come out of this alive and that the apocalypse will occur sooner, rather than later.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Mackenzie and Zack Baten were transported in time back to the future, and healed of their bullet wounds. An organically manufactured colon patch was transplanted into Zack and a mesenchymal mesh placed in Mackenzie’s spleen. Within days, their bodies were once again whole and fully functioning, and they were deemed ready to be discharged.

  The twins were sitting at a table in the hospital’s dismiss department, receiving last-minute discharge instructions from the computer terminal. Their doctor arrived but stood at the door, waiting for the e-session to complete.

  When the computerized session terminated, she spoke. “How do you explain that there are no records of the two of you?” Her badge proclaimed her as Macie Jarvis, MD, director of organ transplantation, Memorial Hospital. “Your DNA signatures were never e-filed.”

  “Yet, here we are,” said Zack. “We do exist.”

  “And the woman you say is your mother, Dr. Valerie Rovine,” continued Dr. Jarvis. She produced an electronic pad and read from it. “The iFacts app says Valerie Rovine died in 2013 from anaphylactic shock. A peanut allergy. At age eighteen. Senior in high school. Not a doctor. There is no genomic information on her, so I can’t verify she’s the Valerie—”

  “We’re not from outer space,” interrupted Mackenzie. “The system is apparently not infallible, I guess.”

  “The man you say is your father, Dr. William Baten, is an insane criminal with only a high-school education.” Dr. Jarvis put her iFacts app on a table and sat down facing the teens. She looked deeply into their eyes. “Why won’t you tell me the truth? I just want to help you!”

  “We are telling you the truth, Dr. Jarvis,” said Mackenzie.

  “OK. Well, you don’t need to be here any longer. Your genome is now on e-file. Your DNA was tagged by the police. You are to report to the main police headquarters downtown within twenty-four hours. Address and coordinates are in your e-wallet. Report to a”—she looked at her handheld computer—“a Sergeant Dexter Sparks. His info is in your e-wallet. You’re free to go.”

  Back in 2013, the police continued their massive manhunt. There were two choppers in the air and seven canine units, each with five dogs and their handlers. In addition, there were twenty-seven other officers from county police and neighboring municipalities.

  One of the dog handlers approached Sparks. “We’ve turned every rock upside down in these woods, Detective. The kids ain’t here.”

  “Look, Ricky,” said Sparks, “they must be in one of the caves.”

  “We found seven caves and looked inside every one of them. The kids are gone! It’s time to give up the search. It’s getting late and dark.”

  “OK,” acquiesced Sparks. “Call off the search for today. We’ll resume tomorrow morning. Get the kids’ pictures in every squad car’s computer and every cops’ cell phone. I want these teenagers in my prison ASAP!”

  Several hours passed.

  “There’s not a soul within five miles from this cave,” said Older Ellie. “They finally went home. We can leave the hideout.”

  “Ellie and I need to go eat and get back to the school,” said William. “Brent will need to get home, or his parents will wonder where he is.”

  “Not my parents,” said Brent. “They don’t give a shit.”

  “The police are scoping out your home, Brent,” said Older Ellie. “And the boarding school. As for your parents, they already know you’re fugitives from the law.”

  “Of course,” said Younger Ellie. “What should we do now? We need to get something to eat. I’m starving.”

  “I’ll go get us some food,” said Older Ellie. “Nobody is looking for me. Not really. You all stay here.”

  “What year is this?” asked Zack.

  “Not sure,” said Mackenzie. “It’s definitely the future, but not the future we came from. It’s a different timeline.” The two walked into the cavern.

  “The trees are a bit different, aren’t they?” said Zack.

  Mackenzie shone her light app into the trees surrounding the darkened cavern. “A few of the bigger ones are missing. But the cave looks exactly the same. This is a good place to sleep.”

  “So, this is where it all happened forty-six years ago. This is where Uncle Brent dies, where we almost died.”

  “Where we were betrayed by our own mother,” said Mackenzie. “She discharged the neural depolarizer at us before she died.”

  “We can’t blame her. It was all Uncle Brent’s fault.”

  Mackenzie’s light app slashed through the blackness inside the cave. “It doesn’t matter now. They’re both dead. And we can’t have our revenge on either of them.”

  “How do you think we ended up coming forward in time?” said Zack.

  “Don’t know. Probably Aunt Ellie.” Mackenzie shrugged her shoulders. “But whoever did it saved our lives. They wouldn’t have the technology to save us back in 2013.”

  “It had to be Aunt Ellie,” said Zack.

  “Yes,” said Mackenzie. “I overheard the doctors talk about how we were wounded with metal bullets that had caused significant internal damage but that the actual fragments and shrapnel had been pulverized before our arrival in the hospital. Only Aunt Ellie would have had the ability to do that and ship us back to this era.”

  “It’s getting late,” said Zack. “Let’s build ourselves a make
shift bed.”

  Zack walked outside the cave and found a fallen tree branch full of leaves. He used it as a broom to clean out the floor of the cavern. Mackenzie held her light source high over her head.

  “What’s this smudge?” she said, crouching down to touch the markings on the ground.

  Zack took the light source while she produced a gadget from her pocket and scanned the grayish streaks. “It’s a neural depolarizer blast.” She analyzed her screen. “The neural depolarizer modified the silicate compounds mixed in with the dirt to make a pegmatite, which reflects light and gives it this silvery appearance.”

  “This is the neural blast Mom missed when she tried to depolarize us back in 2013. It’s been here over the last forty-six years.”

  “It’ll be here in another thousand years,” said Mackenzie, putting her app generator in her pocket. “This stuff lasts forever.”

  Zack gave the light source to his twin and continued to sweep the bottom of the cave.

  “Wait,” yelled Mackenzie. “How many neural depolarizer blasts hit the ground?”

  “Only one, that I remember,” said Zack. “Why?”

  “Sweep over here,” she said, aiming her light source. “Put some muscle into it, Zack. I think I see another streak. Faint one, but definitely something there.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Zack walked briskly toward the mouth of the cave and returned in a few seconds carrying a thicker and more condensed bush. He got on his knees and scrubbed the ground hard.

  “Definitely a second neural blast,” said Mackenzie.

  “Another one here,” said Zack, now brushing a few feet away.

  “This one is deeper yet. Years’ worth of dirt on it.”

  “So why are there at least three blast marks when, in fact, there was only one missed shot?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The forest air was fresh and the night-critter sounds relentless but serene, inviting passage into dreamland. Just inside the cave, the twins created a small fire to lessen the bite of cold that emerged in the air. Around the fire pit, Zack and Mackenzie lay on their beds, which they fashioned out of leaves and grass. The embers crackled in harmony with the katydids and the bullfrogs outside in the woods.