I didn’t answer but continued looking around. Then I saw it. At least four glass doors in, at the last enclosure, was a large cylinder-shaped blue ball that spun at a furious pace. Beside it was a long control panel that looked like the one I’d operated in 2043 to get here. “That must be the core.”
Doug stared at it. “It’s gotta be.”
I helped him to a corner wall and eased him to the floor. I looked at him for a few seconds. I had to find out what waited for us beyond the enclosures before putting his life in danger. No one else was going to die for me. I let go of him and walked toward the first glass door. The weapons bag was still strapped across my shoulder.
“What’re you doing?” he said.
“Just stay there. I’ll be right back.”
“Rachel, no!” He raised his hands. “Help me up.”
I gestured for him to wait, but he rose to his feet and hobbled toward me. I reached out to touch the glass, but it rose in the air. I started to step forward.
“Rachel,” Doug screamed. “Don’t move.” He gritted his teeth and rushed toward me, but his wounds hampered his movements.
I stepped through and the glass flew down with a thud. I gasped and spun around. Doug stood a foot from me, but the glass stopped him from getting past. He scowled at me and banged against it, but it didn’t rise again. He hit it over and over, but nothing happened.
“It won’t open,” he said with a grimace.
We were now separated by six-inch glass, but I could hear him like he was beside me. I studied the enclosure I was in. It was large open space, about the size of an office reception room. I stood still, watching Doug as his breathing grew more and more labored. I touched the glass separating us and waited until he did the same on his side. We remained in the same position for about ten minutes. Then the glass door leading to the next enclosure started rising. I turned and stared at the next open space. It was empty, just like the one I was in. I faced Doug open-mouthed. He gave me a blank stare.
I turned again and edged toward the new open space. But I stopped when Doug shouted out to me. “Don’t go. You might be walking into a trap.”
I ignored him and stepped through. The glass came down after I cleared it, but the first one then rose and Doug stepped through. It seemed to work in some sort of sequential order. I heard banging on the metallic door leading back to the corridor. I clutched my chest, leaned against the glass closest to the next enclosure and stared at the outside door with fear.
Doug squatted and did the same. The banging grew louder, but the door didn’t budge.
“I think you might have locked us in when you cut the wires,” he said.
I nodded. How I wished the next door would just open. I looked into the bag, at the C4 for a moment. Then I pulled it out and started attaching the blasting caps.
“What’re you doing?” Doug said.
“I’m not waiting anymore. If they get through that door, it won’t be long before they override these ones as well. We have to be ready.”
Doug placed his palms against the glass. “But I should be the one doing that, not you.”
I ignored him and continued. “But you’ve shown me everything I need to know, remember?”
He sighed and nodded. “Okay, but I’ll be the one to blow it, not you. I want you out of here first and back to 2043. Then I’ll do it.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll have a ten-second window after the core blows, remember? I just want to make sure you’re safely out of here first.”
“And Curtis?”
Doug just shook his head and looked at the floor. I placed my hand over my earpiece, but once again nothing came through. Then I heard a buzzing sound, like a saw. I looked toward the metallic door and saw sparks flying everywhere. Whoever was outside was cutting through. I pictured the door opening and a grinning Michael walking through. He won’t stop me. I’ve got to do this. I grimaced and paced. Doug also rose to his feet, anxiety all over his face.
“How long do you think before they get in?” I said.
“I don’t know.”
I heard the gas-like hissing noise, and then the next glass door opened. I ran through and it dropped back down. The one in front of Doug rose into the air. He hobbled through and banged against the glass separating us, anguish on his face. I met his frustrated gaze for a moment and turned around. The core was now a single enclosure away. I was so close to destroying the Shriniks’ plans for time travel and replacing us with their own species. Come on, Rachel. Just hang in there. I glanced to my sides and realized that this was the enclosure with a number of containment chambers. They were about half the size of the ones in Sacramento, oval-shaped and curved inward at the top and the bottom. I edged right, toward them, but Doug banged on the door some more.
“I don’t think you should go there,” he said. “God knows what’s in them.”
I raised my Glock and flashed it in the air. He arched his head back and looked at me with what looked like disappointment. I walked to the right, afraid of what I’d see. I remembered the sickness that had lingered in my stomach after I saw the containment chambers at the Sacramento facility. I couldn’t forget the pain on Doug’s face. For a moment, I hoped the information on Carrie’s computer was wrong and I’d see Dylan’s face. But what would I do if he was in there? Would he die like Sophie had if I released him?
Doug watched my movements, worry on his face. I stopped when I reached the first chamber and chewed on my fingernails. Then I walked in front of it and gasped at what I saw. It wasn’t Dylan, but it was a young boy, no more than five years old. My mouth hung open.
“What?” Doug said. “What is it?”
I looked at him but didn’t answer. I glanced at the other chambers. They all had children in them, all from the ages of three to five. The number 2022 was etched at the top of each chamber.
I put my right hand over my mouth and gasped.
“What do you see?” Doug said.
“It’s …” I coughed and cleared my throat. “It’s the children. The children who time lost. They’re here.”
“You sure?”
“Who else would they be? It’s got to be.” I wiped tears from my eyes. The children had tubes all over their bodies. How can they do this to children?
“Listen to me, Rachel. We need to focus. There’s nothing we can do for them now. Remember that.”
I pulled the C4 from the bag and turned to face the bright blue light of the core, the thing that made all time travel possible. I heard a thud behind me and turned around. Chunks of the door had dropped to the floor. The people outside were close to reaching us.
I started to turn back around but saw something else on top of the first containment chamber. I walked toward it and stared, wide-eyed. It didn’t seem right. I glanced at the others and my heart beat faster and faster. I looked at Doug.
“What?” he said. “What is it now?”
I pointed to the top of the first containment chamber and struggled to speak.
“Rachel!” Doug snapped. “What’s going on?”
“There are name tags on top of each chamber.”
“And?”
I swallowed and nodded at the first chamber. “The name here is Rob.” I pointed at the second, which held a girl of about five. “Her name is Jenny.” I stood in front of the third. It was a boy. “This one’s name is Jake.” This can’t be happening. Why would Rob, Jenny and Jake be here? What is this?
Doug shrugged. “So what? The Shriniks must have given code names to the children. What’s the big deal?”
I shook my head. “One would have been a coincidence, but three names, all of close friends I grew up with for most of my life? No, that makes no sense.”
“What do the other names say?”
I grimaced and turned left. I gasped and placed my hand over my mouth again. “This can’t be happening.” It was a girl, and her name tag said “Suzanna,” my other best friend from 2043. The next name was Selena, the
name of the receptionist at the hospital I’d worked at back home. Nothing made sense anymore. It was like my whole life was being flipped upside down. There were only two chambers left, but I was too scared to look. Deep down, the truth was screaming out to me, but I refused to believe it. It can’t be. This must be a dream.
I took a step to my left. A boy was in the next containment chamber. His name was Kevin. I knew who the last person would be, and I looked anyway. Then I dropped to the ground and sobbed. It was me. Rachel. The same girl I’d seen at my parents’ house. I felt sick. All along, I’d prayed that neither they nor my son were dead. I’d thought I might have been able to save them. But I was one of them, one of the children who never made it back to 2022. I was one of the children time had lost. But does that mean I’m a… No. I can’t be.
I glanced up to see Doug smiling at me, a haunting smile. I half-stood and looked at him, bewildered. Then he started clapping, confusing me even further.
“I’m so proud of you Rachel,” he said.
I shrugged. “What’re you talking about?”
“No one thought you’d make it this far. They said we should just tell you the truth. But I knew you would find it out by yourself. From the day you were born, I knew you were special. Hell, I tried discouraging you at every opportunity. I even tried to get you to run to Europe, but you stayed the course.”
I reeled back and crashed against the glass. All my muscles tightened and I couldn’t move. I looked at Doug with unblinking eyes, but he just stared at me with the same grin.
“No, Doug. No. Not you. You can’t be … You’re … You’re …”
“The Orchestrator?” He shrugged. “Just so you know, we never asked for that name.”
I sniffled and wiped a tear. Then I realized what he’d said. “We?”
The glass door behind me rose. I turned around.
“Don’t do it, Rachel.”
I stared at the C4 in my hand and faced the core. Its bright glow nearly blinded me, causing me to flinch.
“You know who you are now. There’s no need to go ahead with this. Just wait where you are. The whole system will be overridden, and we can have this conversation without glass separating us. Think about it, Rachel—in a few minutes, you can be reunited with your family.”
I turned and stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Yes, Rachel. Your family. They’re here and eager to meet you, along with a few friends.”
Don’t listen to him, Rachel. You’re human. You’re not some alien. No, I’m not. I ran past the raised glass door and stopped a few yards from the spinning cylinder of light.
“No!” I heard Doug scream. The glass door that had separated him from me lifted, and he ran forward but couldn’t get through to the final enclosure.
He kept banging on the door, but I couldn’t hear what he said. I placed a single bar of the C4 on the glass panel just under the bright blue light. Curtis said that using any more explosives could do more damage than necessary. I tugged at the C4 now stuck to the ground. It was sturdy enough. I held the trigger and eyed the switch that would destroy time travel for good and end the Shriniks’ plans. But first I needed to get home.
I ran to the control panel, ten yards to my right and well away from the blast radius. It was identical to the one I’d used in 2043 to get here. I set the year forward to 2043. The day, August 19—the day before I’d gone to the future to claim Dylan. The floor rumbled and a giant round gap opened. I stepped back and watched. The hole was about five feet deep and ten feet wide. Then a spinning circle of light that looked like the portal I’d used to come here started to form at the bottom of the gap. I edged closer and peered down. But then I shot back and shielded my eyes from its brightness.
I heard a loud thud and turned around. Clouds of smoke filled the room, and the metallic door at the entrance opened. I heard lots of footsteps charging but couldn’t see anything past the smoke. Every glass door separating the enclosures then rose at the same time. Doug hobbled forward. I held the trigger up so he could see, and he stopped in his tracks. The rest of the people rushed toward him.
When the smoke cleared, I saw Jarrod, Carrie, Sergeant Briggs and Mayor Nicholson of Barstow. They stood beside Doug like they’d known him all their lives. A middle-aged blond woman joined them and knelt to treat Doug’s wounds. Then a Shrinik walked through the door, holding the severed head of another Shrinik in its hand. I placed my hand over my mouth. The Shrinik tossed the head forward, and it rolled past Doug and those around him and stopped about five yards from me. I couldn’t look at the head. I knew who it was but refused to accept his death.
“It looks like Curtis is dead, Rachel,” Doug said. “There’s no one else coming to help you.”
I glared at him, but he only smiled. Then Jarrod took a step forward. I lifted the trigger, my fingers flicking the button to detonate. Jarrod stopped in his tracks, and the rest of them twitched. Doug, though, remained unflustered. The Shrinik who had thrown Curtis’ head transformed back to a human body, Lorenzo’s. He folded his arms and stood beside Doug.
I heard shuffling as a number of people moved aside, letting someone through.
“Hello, Rachel.” Michael wore a black pinstripe suit, looking every bit the billionaire he was.
I frowned at him. “You know, I always knew there was something off about you. The whole ‘I’m too perfect thing’—it just wasn’t flying.”
Michael laughed and put his arm around Doug. “But I bet you never sussed him out, though.”
I looked at Doug with a hint disappointment. He met my gaze with steely eyes.
“But why the charade?” I asked Doug. “All the lies about your wife. What was all that about?”
“They weren’t lies. Sophie was my wife.”
My eyes widened. “And you let them take her? Just like that?”
Doug nodded. “And I’d do it again. The whole crying thing when I saw her, I guess, was mainly for you.” He paused. “Maybe some of it was real. She was my wife, after all. But we just needed you to get the motivation to fulfill your destiny and discover who you really were.”
Michael stepped forward. “You’re special, Rachel. More than you can imagine. We needed you to make your own path. We couldn’t tell you anything. We had it all planned out. You were meant to win your baby, and everything was going to go as we intended. But then Tristan had to go and get that message to you.” He smiled at Doug and then faced me again. “But everything since just showed us how special you were.” He pointed at Lorenzo and the scores of other men who had walked into the room. “They didn’t know any of our plans. Their objective was to use whatever means necessary to capture you. Hell, they didn’t even know who we were. They could have killed us both. But those were the risks we were willing to take to make sure you found your way home. Why else would the containment chambers be here waiting for you?”
I eyed the core for a few seconds and then the trigger.
“Careful with that, Rachel,” Doug said. “Why don’t you just hand that over? Nice and easy.”
I looked back and forth between the portal and the core. Confusion filled my mind. “Am I one of … Am I a Shrinik?”
“Of course you are,” Jarrod said, stepping forward beside Michael. “You’re a miracle, Rachel. You’re almost like our version of Christ. The first of our kind on Earth to give birth naturally. It was divine intervention that brought you here safely.”
“Screw your divine intervention,” I shouted. “And I’m human.” I hit the left side of my chest twice. “I feel it in here.”
“That was part of the program,” Michael said. “To make you feel human. What do you think your medication was for? Or Kevin’s asthma inhalers? It wasn’t because of any kind of condition. It just kept the other side of both of you suppressed.”
I swallowed and lowered my hands. I almost dropped the trigger but grasped it just in time.
Doug took another step forward. “So you see, Rachel, you’re with family now. Just give us
the trigger and it will be over.”
I stared at Michael and Doug. “So which one of you is the Orchestrator then?”
They looked at each other and laughed. “I don’t know what to tell you,” Michael said. “We didn’t create that name. But it was a good enough cover, so we kept it. It sounded mysterious.”
Doug sniggered, the pain in his face from his wounds now gone.
“Why do you keep saying we?” I said.
“Because it wasn’t just one of us in the car when our parents died,” Michael said.
My eyes narrowed. “My God. So there were two of you? You’re—”
“Brothers,” Doug said. “But no one knew that, so we just used the name they gave us.”
I eyed the trigger again. I’m human. I’m not a Shrinik. You know what you have to do.
Michael whispered into Lorenzo’s ear and he walked out of the room. I looked back at the portal five feet beneath, struggling to grasp what was real. No one spoke until Lorenzo returned. This time the large man I’d seen outside Suzanna’s apartment in 2043 and at Angela’s place walked in. The man I’d thought was the Orchestrator at Carrie’s party.
Michael put his arm around him. “Rachel, meet our father.”
My eyes widened.
“Not our biological father,” Doug said, “but our true father. He saved Michael and I. He gave us another chance at life.”
“But I thought he—”
“Died?” Michael said. “He should have, but we brought him back. Thanks to people like you, we’re bringing back more and more of our people. That is why we need you to continue with the program. To help our kind. Nothing you do for us is going unnoticed.”
“But you’re human,” I screamed. “Both of you. Why would you help them destroy your planet?”
“Because Earth will destroy itself if changes aren’t made,” Doug yelled. “Look at us, aiming missiles at each other, talking about war every day. It will happen eventually. We’re just saving the planet before it destroys itself.”
I shook my head and eyed the portal again before I heard someone else enter the room. I almost screamed when I saw Holly standing beside Michael and Doug’s Shrinik father. When she’d greeted me outside my parents’ house, I saw only a kind and caring person. But now this? I didn’t know what was real anymore.
The Children Who Time Lost Page 44
