by Geoff Jones
“The sea,” exclaimed Callie. “We saw the sea from the cliff. If that thing fell into the river, it must have floated down to the sea. It’s probably washed up on the beach or something.”
“Fifteen hours,” repeated William, looking at his watch. He guessed that three hours had passed already.
“That isn’t much time to find it,” Lisa said. “For all we know, it’s stuck against a rock somewhere along the river. Or if it reached the sea, it could be halfway to Africa by now.”
“We’ve got to try,” William said. “We’ve got time, and we’ve got a chance to get home now.” He wanted to hug his sons. They never hugged him anymore, not since they became teenagers, but they sure as hell were going to give him a hug when he got back. If he could survive fifteen hours in the Cretaceous, he could make his sons hug him. He leaned over the wounded woman. “Assuming we can find your machine, how close do we have to be to it?”
She closed her eyes again, but kept talking. “Not sure.” She gave a ghastly grin full of blood-outlined teeth. “Our test was only supposed to have… a four-foot radius. It wasn’t supposed to take the whole room.”
“What the shit,” Morgan spat. “You took the whole room, the room downstairs, and some of the sidewalk out front too!”
If the woman heard him, she gave no sign of it. “Tell me about the T-rex.”
“It killed a Triceratops in the jungle,” William answered. “A short hike from here. We’re hoping it fills up and leaves us alone.”
Morgan was unable to remain seated. “I’ll tell you about the T-rex, Doctor Dumbass. The t-rex ate a girl. A cool girl who was nice as fuck.”
William turned and looked at him but didn’t say anything.
“He’s got a point,” Al said.
Tim waved his hand. “Everybody shut up for a minute. We’re talking about a time machine here.” He crouched close. “Listen, ma’am, we lost two people. One got trampled and the T-rex killed the other. Can we reuse this thing, this football? The time machine?”
William’s mind raced as he considered the possibilities. “That’s right. We can set it to take us back earlier, before everything happened. We could save the people who died, and even stop you from... from even being here.”
The woman lay quiet for a moment. “Maybe.”
“Tell us what to do.”
“You can’t reset it. It has to be recharged in the lab.” She gestured weakly at the ruined machinery in the corner. “But it has a power reserve. A fail-safe. It will take you back twenty minutes.” She began another fit of hitching coughs. Fresh blood leaked from the gash on her side.
“Twenty minutes,” Morgan said. “What the hell good will that do?”
The coughing ended on a wet note and the woman explained slowly. “We added the fail-safe in case we… screwed up the past. If we got home and things were not right.”
“This is insane,” Al said.
The woman went on. “Use it after you get home. Go back twenty minutes and get everyone out of the building. Get me out of the building.” She turned her head to one side and let thick blood pour from her mouth.
“Jesus, give her more aspirin,” Al said. He lowered his voice. “Give her all the aspirin and put her out of her misery.”
William put one hand on the woman’s shoulder and gave it the slightest squeeze. He wanted to be sure he understood everything. “So we go find the machine, wait fifteen hours, and it will take us back to Denver? Then we use the fail-safe, go back twenty minutes earlier and clear out the building. That’s it? Nothing else?”
“You need to be here,” she said. A bubble of blood formed at her lips. It popped as she talked. “Bring it here. It’s a swap. If you’re here, it will take you back to our building. If you’re ten miles away, you’ll show up ten miles away.”
“A swap,” said Callie. “Does that mean there’s a chunk of dinosaur land back in Denver right now?”
“Sounds like it,” Hank answered.
Morgan’s mouth dropped. “What the shit! There could be dinosaurs loose, running around.”
Hank dismissed him with the wave of a hand. “Only if they were right here, in this exact spot. The chances of that are pretty slim. William, ask her how to trigger the fail-safe.”
William nodded and looked back down at the woman. Her lips pulled away from her bloody teeth in a wide grimace. “Do you want more aspirin? It might help with the pain.”
“No.” She rolled her head back and forth in a slow, wide arc. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” Her head stopped rolling and she fell silent. Everyone stared at her.
“Is she dead?” asked Morgan.
William put his hand on the woman’s chest, just below her neck. He held it there for a long time. Her skin was warm and he felt movement under his fingers, but after a moment he realized that it was his own pulse. “Yeah. I think she is.”
He stood, stretched his tall frame, and looked around the rubble, double-checking that they had not missed the device. Fifteen hours. He corrected himself, Twelve. Still, there was hope. “We’ve got about twelve hours to find that device and get back here. We should leave immediately.”
“Are we sure?” asked Al. “That machine killed three people.” He looked at the woman. “Make that four. It clearly did not work how they wanted it to. What if it takes us back another hundred million years instead of forward? What if it blows us up? Are we positive we even want to mess with it?”
William said, “We don’t have a choice. My kids need me and I’m going to do everything I can to get back to them. Even if I die trying.”
Al looked around the group. Everyone else nodded. “Well then, we better get going.”
[ 25 ]
Lisa stood behind her counter, packing pastries into a canvas shopping bag. It would take hours to find the device and they would need something to eat along the way. “The Daily Edition” was printed on one side of the bag in old-fashioned newsy typeface. For reasons she never understood, people happily paid her twelve dollars for the bags. They liked her café. It had been a newsstand once and people still felt nostalgic about newsstands. But twelve dollars for a bag?
She wondered if she should stay at the store while the others went to look for the device. Her foot still throbbed where the rock had pierced it and she did not want to be in a situation where she had to run from something. Her café was the only place on the planet that felt safe. Also, it felt wrong to leave Helen alone again.
Helen had listened patiently as everyone explained what they learned upstairs. “So this machine creates a bubble around it when it goes off?”
“Yeah,” Morgan said. “A big invisible bubble that makes a ticking noise.”
“And everything inside the bubble goes back to Denver?”
William nodded. “That’s right. It goes off automatically in about twelve hours.”
“And you think the machine got washed down the river?” Another nod. Helen had clammed up after that. Lisa thought she knew why. Helen could not go searching through the jungle with the rest of them, even if she wanted to. She would hold the group back. She was terrified of being left behind.
Lisa understood. If the others failed to return before the device went off, anyone who was not with them would be stuck forever. Of course, there was still the small matter of actually finding the thing.
Al came around the counter and collected an armful of water bottles, also printed with The Daily Edition logo on the side. It felt strange having customers behind the counter, especially Al. For three years, he had come into her café almost every day. Of course, so had a lot of customers. She realized early on that repeat business went up if she opened an extra button on her blouse and took the time to get her makeup right. It meant getting hassled and flirted with, but most of her customers were well-meaning. Most were professionals.
Al gave her an awkward smile as he filled the water bottles from the cooler next to the sugar counter.
Al normally had trouble making eye contact and fidg
eted during small talk. She usually smiled politely, served him his drink, always a large black coffee, and moved on to the next customer. Recently, Lisa had read a book called Tech Lords, about seven of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Most of them didn’t have very good social skills either. Al wasn’t a multi-millionaire, but he did run his own business, just like her. Besides, her ex-husband had been slick, cool, and popular. And a total jerk. Their marriage had lasted a whopping thirteen months.
The water cooler ran dry and Al swapped out the bottle for a full one. Lisa hated changing the heavy blue bottles and usually had to get Beth to help her. Al lifted the five-gallon container effortlessly from the ground by its neck.
Maybe he wasn’t slick, cool, and popular, but Al had been there when she needed him. If not for Al, she would have washed right down the river, just like the time device. Lisa stopped what she was doing and called out to the room. “Hey. We should make a raft.”
William looked up from his seat at one of the tables, where he had been poring over papers from upstairs, hoping to find some clue about the device. “You are brilliant.”
Lisa blushed. She knew she was determined and she knew that she was a hard worker. But she couldn’t remember the last time anyone had called her brilliant.
Al screwed the cap on the last water bottle. “Do we have time to build a raft? And what if there are waterfalls or rapids along the way?”
Lisa drooped, deflated. “Thanks for the support.”
Al froze, holding his face perfectly still and emotionless. He looked guilty. Lisa almost felt sorry for him. He didn’t seem to know how to navigate around women.
Hank walked over. “We can’t afford not to take the time. Rafting down the river will be much faster than walking through the jungle.”
“Hold on,” Tim said. “I thought I saw something this morning when I pulled Lisa and Al out of the water. It looked like an alligator. A big one.”
Hank whipped around. “You thought you saw something? Because I know I saw a Tyrannosaurus-fucking-rex out there in the jungle. I’ll take my chances on the water.”
“At least on land, we can run,” Tim said. “I can’t swim. And even if I could, I couldn’t out-swim an alligator.”
Hank shook his head. “I’d still take my chances with a raft. If we hike all the way to the ocean and that time machine is snagged on a branch halfway down the river, we’re screwed.”
“And how do you propose we build a raft?” Al asked. “Should we push the whole café into the water and see if it floats?”
Hank walked to one of the small wooden tables in the middle of the room. He lifted it up and set it on its side. “We use the wood from these tables. We empty out those plastic water jugs and use them for pontoons.”
“Those jugs are our only source of fresh water.” Al’s voice rose an octave. He sounded desperate. “Are you out of your mind?”
Buddy let out a low growl under one of the remaining tables. Lisa empathized. She didn’t like the arguing either.
Hank slowed his own voice and spoke deliberately, enunciating and projecting. “I believe that if we work together, we can build a solid raft out of the materials at hand in thirty minutes.” He looked from face to face. “We will not need the water in those jugs if we return home in twelve hours. And if somehow we fail, I’d like to point out that we are standing next to a river.”
“That river is brown,” Al said. “I am not going to let you dump out those jugs.”
“That isn’t your call to make. We have to do whatever benefits the group. Whatever gives us the greatest chance of getting home.”
“What about the greatest chance staying alive? It isn’t your decision either. It isn’t even your water. It’s Lisa’s.”
Lisa’s eyes went wide. “You know, rafting was my idea, but maybe we should – ”
Morgan entered the room, throwing open the front door even though he could have walked through the empty window next to it. “Hey, hey, hey-hey-hey! Morgan is here to save the day!”
“Shut up, Morgan,” William said without looking. He was studying one of the wooden tables. He turned it over and tugged on a leg. Lisa hoped he would make a decision before Hank and Al came to blows. “The idea of building a boat makes sense,” William said. “We would follow the same path taken by the football. I’m just not sure we could build anything that would actually hold us.” He looked around the room. “And any time we spend trying to build a raft is time we could spend walking toward the sea. We could cover a lot of ground in thirty minutes.”
Callie looked over at Morgan. “What the hell are you wearing?”
Morgan hooked his thumbs under the thick straps that ran down each side of his chest. He turned from side to side, showing off his discovery. It looked like a backpack without the pack. A small red handle hung from the strap near his waist.
“This here is a two hundred and thirty dollar, type-five, quick-inflate personal floatation device,” Morgan said proudly. “And there are three more just like it upstairs.”
“So what?” Al said. “You found a life jacket to wear on our imaginary boat.”
“Personal flotation device, bitch. And this is only the start. Come outside and I will show you our imaginary boat.”
[ 26 ]
A bright yellow box the size of a suitcase sat in the mud near the remains of Helen’s fire.
Hank looked at it and thought that Christmas had come early. “Is that what I think it is?”
Morgan nodded and spread his arms with a flourish. “It’s a five-person inflatable emergency life raft. United States Coast Guard certified.”
“Morgan, I love you,” Hank said.
Al leaned over and studied the box. “It’ll take more than half an hour to blow that up.”
Morgan pulled open the Velcro top. “Try half a minute. It uses a CO2 cartridge.” He looked around to make sure everyone was watching. Even Helen had come outside. Morgan reached down and grabbed a red strap. “Check this shit out!” He gave the strap a firm tug and the yellow bag emitted a high-pitched hiss. Buddy whimpered.
The hissing bag began to erupt out of itself. Buddy tucked his tail between his legs and bounded up the broken concrete. He almost knocked Helen over as he disappeared inside.
Morgan beamed. The yellow bag turned inside out and an outer ring took shape. Thirty seconds later the hiss died down, leaving a twelve-foot-wide octagonal raft. Black nylon straps ringed its perimeter.
Hank studied the raft. It was certified to hold five people, but he thought they might be able to squeeze in six. He didn’t think it would hold eight.
“I don’t understand,” Helen said. “Why would they have a raft if they were going back in time?”
Hank considered for a moment. “They knew there was an ocean here, but they must not have known exactly where it was. It’s the same reason they made the time device float.” He turned to Morgan. “What else did you find up there?”
“Come on,” he said, and led them around the building to the rebar ladder. “It was that cabinet, man. I really wanted to make sure the time machine wasn’t in there. I mean, how stupid would we feel if we all went down to the sea and it was in the cabinet the whole time?”
As they pulled themselves up onto the second floor, they saw the cabinet standing upright, both doors open.
“How did you lift it?” William asked.
“The lever. That piece of pipe you tried to use to lift the concrete off that lady.” Several layers of ceiling tiles had been laid across the body Morgan had named Mister Slushy. Morgan stepped up on this makeshift platform and stood in front of the cabinet. The bottom tile soaked up pink fluid like a sponge.
“It’s like, everything we could possibly need.” Morgan showed off his find. He picked up a box of fishing tackle in one hand and a small camping stove, complete with a propane tank, in the other. “Tarps, PFDs, matches, sunscreen, bug spray, hunting knives, first aid stuff, flashlights. There’s even a short shovel.”
Al took a knife and unscrewed the end of the hilt, revealing a compass. “This is awesome.”
Lisa huffed. “These people were planning an expedition from right here in my building.”
William reached over and took out the short-handled shovel. “This might make a decent paddle,” he said. “It’s decided. We’re taking the raft and we leave in five minutes.”
The others started to get ready. Tim took out the remaining life jackets. “I’m not at my best in the water. Hope ya’ll don’t mind if I take one of these.”
Hank, Al and Callie formed a bucket brigade to move the supplies downstairs. Al collected each item from the cabinet and carried it to the edge of the building, where Callie tossed it down to Hank. Lisa and Morgan stacked the gear inside.
When the last item had been thrown down, Hank approached William by the raft. “So you’re calling the shots here.” It was a question in the form of a statement. Hank wanted to see how William would respond.
“Folks seem to be listening to what I have to say.” William was tying the shovel to one of the black nylon straps that ran along the circumference of the raft.
“I’m glad we’re going down the river. It’s the right call.”
William smiled. “I don’t know if it really is the right call. If there is something in the water, we’ll be sittin’ ducks.”
Hank shook his head. “I don’t understand. If it’s not the right call, why did you make it? What kind of leadership is that?”
William cinched the knot and stood. “I never managed anyone. I never had anyone report to me. But I learned from raising my boys that making decisions and sticking to them helps get everyone on the same page. Even when the decisions are not perfect. Having folks on the same page can go a long way toward turning an okay decision into the right one.”
