by Marc James
“What is wrong with these?”
“Men don’t traditionally wear capes or tights anymore.”
“I see. I don’t like these clothes that you all wear.” Guy scrunched up his face.
“They are called suits, you would look good in one. Come through and we can find you something.”
Chapter 10
Bobby was dragged out of the cell and fell to the floor, his hip could barely support his weight. He was dragged along the grey corridor by the two men, even though it was dimly lit, it blinded Bobby. The two guards were dragging him by the arms as his legs trailed along the ground.
He was taken to the end of the corridor and into a room on the left. He was sat in an armchair and both his arms and legs were secured. He had never been so scared in his entire life. As his eyesight came back, he saw that the two guards were giving him nothing but evil looks, they couldn’t be human. The room was lit by a single light bulb that hung above them, there was a chair opposite Bobby which was empty.
He sat in the room while the guards stood at his side for a few minutes before the door opened and another man dismissed the guards. The man was carrying a large bucket, which he put down beside Bobby before taking a seat opposite.
Bobby’s fear reached a new height when he saw that the man was Josef Mengele.
“Prisoner 221163, I have been told that you are an American?”
“Yes.” Bobby replied, the chair he sat on was shaking with Bobby’s fear.
“How did you get here?”
“I don’t remember.”
Mengele slapped Bobby in the face.
“How did you get here?”
“I was captured.” Bobby replied the fear was greater now.
Mengele hit Bobby with a closed fist this time, the blow cut Bobby’s cheek.
“You have been chosen number 221163 to be a part of human history, how does that sound?”
Bobby did not reply.
“I am working on developing the human race and I have chosen you for an experiment that I am conducting. You have not consumed any food or water since you have arrived, is this correct?”
Bobby nodded.
“Excellent. What I am trying to discover is whether or not humans can consume sea water. So you shall drink the water in this bucket and then return to your cell. Then tomorrow you shall be brought to me again, and you will drink another bucket, and so on.”
Bobby said nothing.
Mengele rose to his feet and reached into the bucket for a small cup. He filled it with water and held Bobby’s nose closed with his gloved hand. As Bobby opened his mouth, the salt water was poured in, he spat it out. Mengele let go of his nose and slapped him in the face again. He filled the cup once again and held Bobby’s nose, he swallowed it this time.
“That’s better.”
Mengele continued force-feeding Bobby the salt water. After a few glasses, Bobby threw up. As he coughed up the vomit, Mengele punched him again in the face.
“No more.” Bobby gasped.
This was met by another punch.
Mengele continued pouring the water into Bobby’s mouth, and after another two glasses he was sick again. He received another punch in the face.
“If you do that again, I shall have the bucket refilled and we shall begin again.”
Mengele continued pouring the salt water down Bobby’s throat for what felt like days.
Each time Bobby coughed or spat some out he received another slap in the face. When the bucket was finally empty, Mengele chuckled at Bobby’s suffering.
“Prisoner 221163, how do you feel?”
Bobby coughed before responding. “Terrible.”
“Not to worry. I am sure after a few more sessions you will get better at it. And if not, there are plenty more where you came from.”
Bobby looked up at Mengele in horror, this man was evil incarnate.
Mengele giggled as he watched Bobby. “You should be proud to be part of such ground-breaking research. You could well be a part of human history. Like the apple that fell on Isaac Newton’s head, you may very well be the tool that helps me discover if humans can drink see water.”
“Humans can’t drink sea water.” Bobby argued.
Mengele slapped Bobby hard in the face once more. “Not with that attitude. You must be more positive or you will continue to underperform.”
“You will kill me if you keep doing this.”
Mengele smiled. “That is a risk I am willing to take. Now perhaps you should get back to your cell.”
Mengele left the room and the two guards that had dragged Bobby along the corridor appeared once more to take him back to his cell.
Chapter 11
Faraday felt much better having changed into clean clothes. When he re-entered the living room, he was astonished by Guy’s appearance. He was wearing a black suit and a black shirt. He seemed quite self-conscious.
“Guy you look great.” Faraday exclaimed.
“I feel very silly.”
“You shouldn’t, it looks good.”
“Well, your friend said that people would be nicely dressed on this boat.”
Chase had also changed clothes and was wearing one of David’s suits. It was black pinstriped, he also wore a black shirt. Teller was still dressed in a black suit a white shirt and a navy tie, Faraday had chosen a grey suit and a white shirt.
“I’ve been thinking about this. Why don’t we get on board the night before the sinking?” Faraday asked.
“What is the point in waiting around for a day?” Chase argued.
“Well, I thought if we try to talk to the Captain, we could persuade him to change the route of the ship.”
“I don’t think that is a good idea.” Edward interrupted. “We should not go meddling with the course of history.”
“I’ve been doing it for years.” Faraday shot back.
“And look at the position you are in James. You cannot keep meddling with history, it could have catastrophic circumstances.”
“How would saving lives be a bad thing?”
“We don’t know who we are saving, you could be saving serial killers or potential dictators. It is not our place, it has happened, so we leave it there. We have already meddled enough by bringing Guy with us, and who knows what happened to the parliament building.”
“It exploded, although I highly doubt the King was present.” Guy replied.
“How do you know it exploded?” Edward asked.
“We dropped a candle near thirty-six barrels of gunpowder. I assure you, it exploded.”
“Regardless, we have meddled enough, I will not take you back if you do not give me your word that you will not change things.”
“Then why did you even build the machine?”
“It was my job.” Edward replied.
“So how are we supposed to get off the ship?” Chase asked.
“We will need to steal a lifeboat.” Edward stated.
“How the hell can we do that whilst the ship is sinking?” Faraday asked.
“I have been thinking about that myself. My best guess would be that we pretend to be crew members on the Titanic.” Edward suggested.
“Did crew members board lifeboats?” Chase asked.
“I would think that they would be in charge on each lifeboat. Perhaps two per boat, which means we could get on two boats.”
“How can we pretend to be crew members?” Faraday asked.
“I do not know.” Edward conceded.
“Why not return to before the voyage, then we could get jobs as crew members.” Guy suggested.
“That sounds like a good idea.” Chase agreed.
Faraday was silent, he knew he could not spend the entire journey on the ship knowing what would happen, he would not be able to keep quiet.
“That might be a little morbid.” He eventually replied.
“I think seeing the ship sinking in general will be pretty morbid.” Chase stated.
“But if we do go back and ac
tually get jobs we could be assigned to third class, we would drown.” Faraday argued.
“That is a good point.” Edward agreed.
“So what do we do?” Chase asked.
“Why can’t we go back to just before you sent Chase, Bobby and Sarah through time?” Faraday asked.
“Insanity.” Teller replied.
“Why?”
“Because you would be killed, there were heavily armed guards and mobsters present. It is not an option.”
“There must be an easier way than getting on the Titanic.” Faraday sighed.
“I don’t think this is actually possible.” Chase stated.
“Four men cannot board the Titanic and expect to survive.” Faraday agreed.
“Why not?” Guy asked.
“Women and children got off first, there is no way we could all get on a lifeboat.” Chase stated.
“Well then what do we do?” Edward asked.
“Isn’t Jane alive here?” Chase asked.
“No, that won’t work, if we got Jane then I would never have helped Abaddon, and we wouldn’t be here.” Faraday replied.
“So what are we going to do?” Chase asked.
“Only one of us can go.” Faraday announced.
“I am not letting anyone take the wormhole generator.” Edward barked.
“Well then you go.” Faraday snapped.
Edward blushed. “I will not go alone.”
“This is my mess, let me clean it up. I will come back, what reason would I have not to?” Faraday pleaded.
Edward was silent.
“He has no reason to go anywhere else. Just send him to the same time you sent Sarah, that way he can grab her and get to a lifeboat.” Chase suggested.
“Give me more time than that.”
“I cannot trust you not to change things.” Edward replied.
Faraday glanced at Chase in annoyance. “Fine.”
Edward began typing into the generator. “When you want to get back, you type in the time, then the date, and year. Below you have the location, type in this address. The screen below will be red as it is just now, when the wormhole is connected it will flash green.”
“What time do I come back to?”
Edward glanced at his watch. “Make it 13:15. That is in five minutes time. You will arrive at 23:50, on the night of 14th, April, 1912. Ten minutes after the collision with the iceberg.”
Faraday nodded.
Edward rose to his feet and handed the device to Faraday. “Will it work if it gets wet?” Faraday asked hesitantly.
“Yes.”
Faraday watched as the light flashed green and the wormhole appeared. He stepped through it and felt himself being sucked in.
Chapter 12
As Faraday appeared on the Titanic, the first thing that struck him was how calm the ship was. He had expected crowds of people and thought it would be impossible to find Sarah, as it happened she was standing right in front of him. They had never met, but he recognised her from her appearance on television. Bobby had been right, she was far more beautiful in person. She was wearing a blood red dress.
“Sarah.”
She turned to face Faraday and was startled. “Do I know you?”
“I’m a friend of Bobby Stinson’s.”
“Is he here?” She asked hopefully.
“No, I’m afraid not.”
“Where are we?”
“We are on the Titanic.” He replied.
“What do you mean? I was just in Nevada.” Sarah asked with her jaw agape.
“They sent you to die here, I came for you. I’m James Faraday.”
“So what do we do?”
“We need to get a lifeboat, I thought it would have been hectic, there’s no one around.” Faraday stated, looking baffled.
“Have we hit the iceberg?” She asked.
“Apparently, it doesn’t seem like it though.”
They were stood on the port side at the stern of the ship. They began to walk towards the front of the vessel, both of them were amazed by the enormity of it. The water was beautifully calm, it was like looking at a sheet of glass. The stars lit up the night sky, but there was no moon. Had it not been for the cold and the impending doom, it would have been almost romantic.
The ship was huge, it was almost three hundred metres in length. When they reached the front of the vessel, they saw the first sign of life. There were two men kicking blocks of ice around on the deck.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Faraday asked.
The men turned and looked almost giddy with excitement. One of the men replied. “We hit an iceberg.” He spoke with glee.
“And you’re not worried? Are they evacuating the ship?” Faraday replied.
“What are you talking about? It will take a lot more than that to sink this.”
“No it bloody won't.” Faraday shouted.
The men ignored him and returned to kicking the block of ice around.
“We need to warn someone.” Sarah suggested.
They made their way around to the starboard side of the ship and saw more pieces of ice scattered around the deck. They saw more people, most of whom were unconcerned by the collision.
“Why is no one worried?” Faraday asked. “I thought it would be manic?”
They walked back towards the other end of the boat and they could feel a slight incline.
“It’s already started to sink and they aren’t evacuating.” Sarah stated.
They finally came across a man in uniform, he was smoking a cigarette looking out at the water.
“Good evening, sir, madam.” The man spoke in a very posh English accent.
“You need to evacuate the ship!” Sarah said frantically.
The man looked baffled by Sarah’s suggestion. “Madam, do not worry. The ship is designed to cope with such impacts.”
“It will sink, it’s already tilting!” She replied.
“I assure you, there is no need to worry.”
They were interrupted as another crew member ran towards them. “Mr Lightoller, the captain has ordered that we ready the lifeboats.”
“Really?” The man asked shocked.
“He wants you in charge of the port side evacuation, women and children first.”
Sarah and Faraday followed Lightoller back around to the port side of the ship, they stood and watched as he looked around almost clueless.
“What are you doing?” Faraday asked.
“I cannot prepare the boats myself, I need help.”
“We can help you.” Faraday replied.
“No, no, that will not be necessary. Someone will be along shortly.”
“This ship is sinking!” Faraday yelled.
“It will not sink, it is only a precaution.”
Faraday could not believe the stupidity of the man. “If you don’t hurry up, no one will get off this fucking ship!”
“Lower your voice sir.”
“Lower my voice, are you out of your mind!” Faraday barked.
The man did not reply, Faraday touched the gun in his holster, he needed to do something.
“Let me help you.” Faraday pleaded.
“Sir, you will not be boarding a lifeboat until all the women and children have been evacuated.”
“All the women and children, do you have any idea how many people will die here tonight?” Sarah interrupted.
Faraday had heard enough, he removed the gun from his holster and pointed it at the man. “Let us help you, or I swear to God, I will shoot you.”
Lightoller was stunned, Sarah too seemed shocked.
“Now!” Faraday instructed.
“We need more men.” Lightoller yelled back.
“Sarah go and get some men.” Faraday instructed.
“Sir I need crew members.”
“No! We can do this, you need to get this done quickly!”
The man did not reply, he just stared at Faraday in disgust.
Sarah appeared back with the two men t
hat they had met earlier, they had been kicking the block of ice around.
“What’s going on?” The man who had spoken earlier asked in shock.
“We need you to help us prepare the lifeboats.” Faraday ordered.
The three men all stared at Faraday in bemusement. Faraday handed the gun to Sarah.
“Just help me.” Faraday pleaded.
The two newcomers helped Faraday prepare the lifeboat, after a couple of minutes Lightoller reluctantly helped as well.
As the time wore on, larger numbers of people were arriving to board the lifeboats, they were all dressed immaculately and Sarah felt completely underdressed when she saw the women’s attire.
Preparing the lifeboat took much longer than Faraday had expected, when it was eventually finished they began to ask the women and children to board the lifeboat. They were met by the majority of the crowd refusing to board.
“That’s a fifty foot drop, we are much safer here.” One woman replied.
“All women and children on the lifeboat.” Lightoller yelled.
Faraday pushed Sarah on board and began guiding a few other women onto the boat. When there were no other women or children, he went to get on the boat himself, he was stopped as Lightoller grabbed him.
“Women and children only.” Lightoller instructed.
“There are none around!” Faraday yelled.
“Then we send the boat off as it is.”
Faraday looked at the man in bemusement. “Are you crazy, look at the space on the lifeboat, we have to let men on as well.”
“The orders were women and children only.” Lightoller argued.
“I heard the order, it was women and children first. The more people in the lifeboats, the more that will survive, why would you leave spaces?” Faraday was astonished.
“They are the orders. Lower the life boat.” Lightoller yelled.
The lifeboat was lowered to the water as Faraday watched on, the Titanic was now tilting rapidly. He watched from the ship as the lifeboat was lowered towards the water, still people were remaining so calm. He had to get off the ship, he didn’t like heights but he knew his best chance was to make a jump for the lifeboat.
“Please you need to let me on a lifeboat.” Faraday pleaded.
“Don’t be such a coward.” Lightoller barked.
“A coward? Am I a coward because I want to live?”
