The car stopped a few yards from me and a chubby man with thinning brown hair got out. He looked at me as if I were a mental patient and had no urgency about him.
“Help,” I screamed again. “You’ve got to get me out of here.” I stopped right in front of him.
He continued eyeing me and started to speak, but then he saw the portal. “What the … What is that?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to stay and find out. Please, we’ve got to go right now.”
He shrugged off my comments and put his hand on the gun holster on his waist. “You just stay here, miss.”
He walked past me and approached the portal. I ran after him and grabbed his shoulders. “Please, mister. Let’s just go. Please.”
He turned and frowned at me, and then the humming sound disappeared. He looked toward the portal with his mouth wide open. It had closed. A tall figure stood where the light had been. I swallowed with a dry throat. It was Lorenzo. I’d known he wasn’t far behind me when I leaped through the portal, but seeing him right in front of me, still in his alien guise, made my whole body shudder. He stood at least nine feet tall and wore the same black Mackintosh jacket. His long drooping neck extended three feet from his shoulders. The green scales that protruded from his body and head seemed even longer this time. They slithered like snakes would and were covered in slime. Above his snout, his pearl-black eyes hung three feet from his face.
I backed away as he approached us.
The officer pulled his gun out with trembling hands and aimed it. Lorenzo kept walking toward us. I wanted to grab the officer and drag him to the car.
“Don’t take another step,” the officer shouted.
I gazed into Lorenzo’s eyes, looking for some kind of reaction, but he didn’t stop. More and more of the slithery organisms on his face came from out of nowhere. The officer looked at me with worried eyes and faced him again. “I said stop.”
Lorenzo growled and ran forward. I winced and took a few steps back. The officer fired his weapon. It hit Lorenzo in the chest and drew thick green liquid. He stopped. One of the organisms around his body fell and shuddered on the ground before disintegrating. But Lorenzo didn’t look harmed in the slightest. He roared laughter at us and looked toward the heavens. He walked forward again. The officer backed toward me and looked into my eyes, as if wanting to ask what he was dealing with but unable to.
“Get in the car,” he said.
I ran to his vehicle. He continued backing away, but Lorenzo charged again. The officer fired two more shots before turning and sprinting toward the car. He kicked the engine to life and spun the car around. The back windows shattered amid a loud explosion. I screamed and turned around. Lorenzo held his silver gun in the air. The officer turned the car again and peeled out. A bright white light flew from Lorenzo’s gun toward us again and exploded inches away.
“Jesus Christ,” the officer said. “What’s he packing out there?”
Lorenzo stopped running and screamed toward the heavens. Scores of the organisms on his face leaped to the ground and slithered forward at breakneck speed.
“Quick,” I shouted. “He’s sending those things on his body after us.”
The officer gave the car even more gas, sending it catapulting forward. We lost sight of Lorenzo. The officer’s radio crackled and the sound of a female voice came through, asking where he was. It felt strange hearing humans acting as dispatchers. Only Kysos performed that duty in 2043. He picked the radio up and gave his position and asked for backup. It crackled a few more times and the woman acknowledged him. He started to explain what had happened and suddenly swerved without warning. I flew toward him, but my seat belt kept me in my seat. The car drifted into the sand and came to a stop.
He panted in his seat with fear etched on his face. As I tried straightening myself, I caught sight of what had frightened him. Two of the organisms from Lorenzo’s body slithered against the driver-side window. I grimaced at the sight of their ruby-red eyes and sharp fangs. He banged against the window, shouting profanity, but they didn’t flee. I sat back in my seat when I heard a snarl. Two of the organisms were on my window.
The officer’s window shattered and both organisms leaped onto his face. He screamed and hit them. He opened the door, jumped out of the car and rolled on the ground. He held their heads away from him and struggled to get them off. They snapped at him, trying to draw blood with their fangs. I opened my door and ran outside. An organism on the ground leaped at me. I ducked and it went through the car’s window. Two more slithered toward me. I leaped up and stamped on them. I heard more snarls and spun around. They were on the roof and the hood of the car. I ran to the officer. His thrashing had slowed. The organisms seemed to be sapping the life out of him, but he still kept their fangs away from his face. I grabbed one by the tail and pulled it off him. The other trundled off by itself and I stamped on it. The officer rolled on the ground with two deep red marks across his face like the mark of a scalding iron on bare flesh.
I lifted him to his feet and held him up. The organisms had surrounded us. I noticed the officer looking into the distance with fear in his eyes. I followed his gaze and saw what worried him. A wide black sedan sped toward us.
“That’s him,” the officer said.
Hundreds of the organisms covered the car’s windshield and roof. I lurched back. “He won’t stop until he gets me. We need to leave right now.”
“In the glove compartment,” the officer said. “There’s a can of air freshener. Get it. I’ll hold them off.”
I looked at him, bewildered.
“Now,” he shouted.
I let go of him. He kicked sand onto the organisms still approaching. I edged left, but a number of the organisms followed my every move. The car drew closer and closer. I charged for our car and leaped in through the passenger door. I opened the glove compartment and rummaged around. I saw a large aerosol can and grabbed it. An organism jumped onto my arm. I screamed and dropped to the ground. The others came for me, but the officer ran forward, kicking sand on them. When they backed away, I stood up and he took the can from me. Then he pulled a lighter from his pocket. “We need to get them away from the car.”
I nodded and screamed at the top of my lungs. The creatures all turned in my direction. I ran away from the car. The officer followed me. Every single organism gave chase. He turned around and held the flame of the lighter to the spray from the can. The organisms shuddered and died. He ran left and right, killing as many as he could. The car was seconds away.
He lowered the lighter and stared at me. “That will have to do. We need to go.”
I ran to the car with him. He peeled out again. I threw two more organisms out the window. We rejoined the main road, and the black car was almost on our bumper. The occupants of oncoming cars pointed at Lorenzo’s car in fright and shock. Our car lurched forward amid a loud explosion. I glanced back to see Lorenzo’s human face grinning at us.
“We don’t have much time,” I said. “The gun he’s using isn’t for maximum damage. He’s allowing us to live for now.”
The officer nodded. “Hang on.”
He swerved right onto the sand and spun the car around. The chasing car skidded, and the officer pulled his gun out and shot at its tires. Then we sped off in the opposite direction. Lorenzo dived out from the back of the car and somersaulted as he landed. Then he chased us on foot, now back in his alien form.
“Hurry,” I screamed. “He’s still coming.”
The officer didn’t respond but continued driving. More cars headed in the opposite direction, along with a black motorbike. I heard a catastrophic collision and a loud explosion. I looked back to see two cars that had collided. Smoke rose into the air, hampering our vision. The officer slowed down for a moment and watched.
Then the same motorcycle I’d seen shot through the flames toward us.
“It’s him,” I screamed.
The officer put his foot on the gas again and quickly picked up speed.
The motorcycle caught up with us as easily as if we were driving a toy car. I clenched my seat in fear, my heart beating faster. I had no doubt Lorenzo planned to eventually kill me. The only reason he hadn’t done it yet was probably because he wanted to question me first.
His motorbike caught up with us, and I heard two loud thumps against our car. I looked back and screamed in fear, for the sharp fangs of one of the slithering organisms were inches from my face outside the window. I grabbed a newspaper in the backseat and rolled it up. I slowly wound the window down and waited for the right moment. I struck the creature twice. It fell from the car, but more slithered into view. The officer dropped down a gear and accelerated some. But the distance gained was short-lived. I picked up the aerosol can from the floor.
“The lighter,” I shouted.
He tossed it to me. I turned and faced the window. Lorenzo was beside me. He swung his fist toward my face, but I saw it in time and pulled my head back in. He swayed from side to side on his bike. After steadying, he eyed me up and down. I saw the same devilish grin I had become familiar with after he killed Kevin. He raised his gun in the air, never taking his eyes off me. He didn’t know what I had in my hand, but he was about to find out.
He pulled his bike wide in preparation for a collision. I performed a countdown from three. Then he charged toward the car. At one, I raised the can. Lorenzo’s eyes widened. I sparked the lighter and squeezed the nozzle. The flames engulfed the bike. Lorenzo’s clothes caught fire. The organisms around his body screamed as they fell to the ground. Lorenzo leaped from the bike and rolled to the ground just before the bike exploded.
I threw the can out the window. The officer’s radio crackled again, and the same woman’s voice came through. He didn’t answer this time. Instead, he just looked at me. I met his gaze for a moment and then stared at the desert.
“What in God’s name was that thing?”
I just stared at him. “When is this?”
He looked bewildered.
“What year?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
I shook my head.
He glanced at the road and turned back to me. “It’s 2013.”
I sighed and nodded.
He gave me another confused look and continued driving in silence. After a few minutes, he turned to me again. “Who are you, anyway?”
I ruffled my hair and wiped sweat from my forehead. Then I looked at him. “Rachel Harris.”
Chapter Twenty
We drove in silence. The car clunked along like it would break down at any minute. I glanced back for maybe the tenth time in two minutes. No cars or motorbikes sped toward us. The officer’s radio crackled again. The female dispatcher on the other end asked him where he was, but he didn’t answer.
The desert sand on the side of the road had disappeared. We were entering a city. There were many large structures that looked like Roman buildings. Families walked around nonchalantly, but the most welcome sight was the children. They were everywhere, boys and girls playing with each other. But I didn’t feel like I was in Los Angeles.
“Where is this?”
The officer glanced at me with tired eyes. “Barstow.” The two marks on his face had darkened and resembled deep burn marks.
Then I realized what he had said. “Barstow?” I stared out the window and squinted when the sun hit my eyes. “That’s … What am I doing here?”
“Good question,” he said. “I’d like to know that, too. I’d also like to know what the hell that thing was back there.”
I shrugged.
“Don’t give me that. It looked like you knew exactly what it was. And it seemed to know you, too.”
I faced ahead. “I just need to get to L.A., mister. If you can get me there or somewhere near there, I’ll be really grateful.”
He laughed. “Oh, no, you don’t. You think I’m just letting you go?”
I gave him a hard look. “But what have I done?”
“I don’t know what you’ve done, but I’m sure as hell gonna find out. And why did you ask me what year it was back there?”
I didn’t answer.
“Nothing to say?” he said. “Maybe an hour or two in an interrogation room will get you talking.”
I gritted my teeth. He couldn’t take me in. Lorenzo would find out where I was. He was good at that. I stared at him and mussed my hair. There didn’t seem to be any reasoning with him. And he was the law—I couldn’t exactly offer him money. But I needed to get the jump on him somehow. I looked around the car. It was banged up pretty bad. Shattered glass filled the backseat, and none of the windows remained. Springs protruded from the seats where the organisms had ripped them to shreds. I stared at the officer. He looked like a man who would rather be doing something else. Someone who might have chosen a different career path if he could have. He caught me looking at him.
“What?” he said.
I turned away. Then I turned back and eyed the gun by his waist. I could have reached it and pointed it at him before he had time to react. I gritted my teeth some more. That would just make me a wanted woman here. Unless, of course, I killed him. No, Rachel. That’s not you. I swallowed and just stared ahead. His radio crackled a few more times before he pulled into a parking lot and shut the engine off. The building ahead of us was brown and had two floors.
The other law-enforcement vehicles parked outside told me it was the headquarters. I saw eight other marked sedans like his, an SUV and a black van that had the large letters “SWAT” written on the side. The top of the building read “Barstow Police Department.”
He got out, walked around the front of the car and opened my door. I got out and he closed the door. “Seriously, mister, why am I here?”
He gestured toward a set of glass doors. “Just a few questions and you can be on your way.”
“So I’m not under arrest?”
“Of course not. You said it yourself—you’ve done nothing wrong.”
I smiled. He was trying to be clever. I had no problem with playing along for the time being. I walked toward the door with a straight face. A number of officers and civilians leaving the station eyed me. It wasn’t the looks I got in 2043, where I was this weird celebrity and fruitcake rolled into one. This look asked, “Who the hell is this mess?” But then, why wouldn’t they look at me like that? I had dirt all over my hair. My white shirt looked brown and my jacket was badly torn. And the looks the officer got were just as bad. I felt sorry for him. The marks on his face didn’t look like they would heal. The organisms had really gone to work.
I stood by the building’s entrance and waited for the officer to catch up. A tall leggy officer in a smart gray suit walked out and eyed me for a second. Her flowing blond hair reminded me of what mine used to look like, but she was way prettier than I ever was. She looked at the officer who brought me in, her smile turning into a hard frown.
“Willie,” she shouted, “what the hell happened to your face?”
The officer shook his head. “It’s a long story.”
She stared at him. She seemed to have authority over him. Probably a sergeant or lieutenant to his detective.
He didn’t meet her gaze. She turned to me again. “So what do we have here?”
Willie stood beside me and finally looked into her eyes. “You hear about the explosion a while back?”
She nodded.
“Well, I was there with this young lady. I just need to find out what’s going on.”
She walked up to him and caressed his face. He pulled back in pain.
“Is that how you got that?” she said.
He nodded.
She grimaced and took another step toward him. “You okay?” She looked worried, as if Willie were a current or previous boyfriend. Or maybe she was just shocked by his appalling injuries.
“I’ll be fine,” he said. “We can catch up later.”
She gave me another look, except more sinister this time. Then she walked toward one of the parked cars. Wil
lie pointed at a row of chairs in the reception area. It was strange to see chairs with legs, but other than that, the structure and the layout of the building were like most in my time. I sat down and crossed my legs. A number of officers walked out of back rooms and eyed me. Every second wasted made it easier for Lorenzo to find me.
Willie spoke to an elderly woman near reception for almost five minutes. Like the other woman, she caressed his face from time to time. He did seem like a genuinely nice guy, and again, I had brought misfortune to someone trying to save my life. But I was still running out of time and had to find Dylan before he disappeared for good.
Willie walked back toward me. “You ready?”
I stood up and nodded.
The interrogation room wasn’t as claustrophobic as I’d imagined. The wooden table in front of me was narrow and looked as if its legs would snap. The walls were light brown and quite clean. Windows would have helped, but I didn’t feel too uncomfortable. Willie sat opposite and just studied me. I stared at the clock on the wall. It was nearly 10:30 a.m. I’d been in the station for an hour, waiting while he made calls to verify my identity.
“Rachel Harris,” he said, “from Los Angeles.”
I nodded. “That’s right.”
He tossed a black folder at me with a list of names that all said “Rachel Harris.” “Well we have over 150 Rachel Harrises in L.A. When we narrow it down to your description and age, we have ten matches. But not a single one of them is you.”
I shrugged. Of course none was me. I’d been only four years old at this time in 2013. I wouldn’t be five until September 17. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
The Children Who Time Lost Page 18
