“I believe you already know our mother,” Michael said.
I stared at Holly before shaking my head. She placed her palms together and lowered her head, as if begging for forgiveness. But she didn’t speak.
Doug stepped closer to me. “Please, Rachel, drop that trigger. All is already forgotten. Just come home to your family.” He nodded at Lorenzo, who clapped his hands twice.
A tall woman with long black hair walked in and waved at me. It was Angela. More came, but I didn’t recognize them. Then I saw two women walking toward me. One had full lips and dark shoulder-length hair. The other had short blond hair and bright blue eyes. I swallowed and felt like I would faint.
“Jenny. Suzanna. You’re alive.”
They stood beside Michael and smiled at me. “We’ve missed you so much, honey,” Suzanna said.
Tears dropped from my eyes. Two men stood beside them, their partners, Jake and Rob. They all looked like they’d been on holiday somewhere warm, with perfect tans. I wiped the tears from my eyes and staggered back. Just then, another man walked out, carrying a baby. They drifted closer and closer until I recognized them.
I felt as if my heart would stop beating. I dropped to my knees and wailed. My husband was alive, and so was Dylan. My angels. My life. My family. Kevin stood beside Rob and handed Dylan to the same woman who had treated Doug’s wounds. I stood up and took a step back. Then I wiped more tears from my face. Younger Kevin was also in the containment chamber, and Michael had said his asthma inhalers also stopped him from changing. Did that mean he was a Shrinik, too? Did that mean all my friends were Shriniks? And what about Dylan? Was he one of them … us? Could I walk away from him now even if he was? I’d sworn to look after him like he was my own flesh and blood when I won him. I came here for him. Everything was to save him. But who am I?
Kevin walked toward me, a smile on his face.
I raised the trigger. “That’s enough,” I shouted amid the crying. “Don’t take another step or I swear I’ll push the button.”
“Baby, it’s me,” Kevin said. “Just come home. I’ve missed you so much.” He glanced at Dylan. “Your son misses you.”
I looked at all the faces from my past. People I’d thought had left me. “I don’t belong here. I’m not one of you.”
“Now who’s lying to herself?” Doug said. “Look around you. These people are your family. We sent you all back here because we knew you were special. It’s a shame that Selena couldn’t be here, too. She shouldn’t have died like that. But the rest of you are all here, one big happy family again. Just do the right thing and drop the trigger.”
I saw Jenny and Suzanna staring at me with pleading eyes. I shook my head. “I’m not a Shrinik. I can’t be.”
Kevin glanced back at Michael and Doug before facing me. Then his body trembled and a white glow surrounded his head.
“No,” I screamed, more tears falling.
Moments later, Kevin’s human body was gone and a Shrinik stood in front of me. I backed away from the core and headed toward the portal. Kevin walked toward me but stopped when I raised the trigger again. He changed back to human form and moved back toward Doug.
“Enough of this, Rachel,” Michael said. “It might not be completely clear in your head, but you know who you really are. Even in the restaurant you recognized my words.”
My chest tightened. I didn’t know what he meant at first, but then it hit me. “That was you?”
Michael nodded.
“Gianfranco’s restaurant in 2043. The thing about robots taking over from humans. That was you? You’re… you’re Martin.”
Michael nodded again. “Don’t you see? I’ve always been there. We’ve been watching all of you the entire time.”
Doug stepped beside him and held his hand out. “Just give us the trigger. There’s no other way.”
“I want my son.”
No one spoke.
I raised the trigger in the air. “Now.”
Doug nodded at the blond woman, and she stepped forward with Dylan. I took him with my left hand and he smiled at me. Tears fell from my eyes. His skin was as soft as I remembered. I couldn’t believe I was holding him in my arms. I stared at Kevin for a moment, blocking out what he’d just transformed into. All I saw was my handsome husband. He had the same kind face and sincere eyes. I needed him as much as I needed Dylan.
“Come on, Rachel,” Michael said. “Come be with your family.”
I shook my head. “I’m not one of you and I never will be.” I moved farther from the core.
“Stop being a spoiled brat,” Doug growled. “If you push that button, you’ll destroy everything. How do you think you survived here in 2013? If you destroy the portal, we won’t be able to keep you or Dylan alive. Do you think you can get your medication at a pharmacist’s? If you blow the core, there will be no future for either of you. Your young self won’t make it to 2014, let alone 2043. You’ll cease to exist before you even get to the other side.”
I gazed at Kevin again. He smiled at me and held his hands out. I sniffled and shook my head. “Come with us.”
He retracted his hands and hardened his face.
“Please, baby,” I said. “Come with us.” I glanced at the portal. “Whatever is waiting for us on the other side, we can face it together as a family. Please just come with us.”
Kevin didn’t speak. Michael stood beside him and patted him on the shoulder. “You should hear yourself,” Michael said. “There’s nothing for you through there. Your life is here.”
I felt faint and my body seemed to shut down. I’d changed so many things by coming back for Dylan, but I couldn’t stop now. I kept recalling what Curtis said to me about my future’s being unwritten. Maybe I hadn’t failed. Maybe in every version of this particular moment, I made the wrong choice. After all, the Shriniks had seen the future. They probably knew that I always ended up not pressing the trigger. But this was my chance to change things, my chance to make the right decision, even if it meant giving up my husband and maybe mine and Dylan’s lives. I felt my son thrashing and looked at him. He laughed at me again. More tears fell from my eyes.
I heard movement and took another step back. Michael held his hands out. “Don’t do it, Rachel. Even if your young self does survive, if you blow the core, there’s no telling where you might end up. You could end up in a whole new dimension where our type doesn’t even exist. Hell, humans might not even exist.”
A sharp thrust shot through my body. It felt like my insides were burning up, but it stopped almost immediately. I just need my meds. I’m human. I’m not a Shrinik. Michael, Doug and Lorenzo ran forward, but I raised the trigger once more with trembling hands. The pain came back and intensified. My stomach retracted inward as if being sucked in by a vacuum. I screamed and Dylan started crying. What was happening to me? Please don’t change. Please don’t change.
I regained my composure and placed my finger on the button. “I don’t care what happens to me, but you won’t take the Earth.” I pushed the button.
A huge explosion sent me to the floor and smoke was everywhere. Sparks flew from the core before the blue light faded. I hurried to my feet and moved toward the portal. The circular light was fading. I had maybe six seconds left before the gateway back home would close forever.
Ahead, Doug, Michael and Lorenzo had their guns drawn and shoved people out of their way amid the commotion as they headed toward me. I looked down at Dylan again. His smile had returned. I rubbed my forehead against his for a moment and pressed his body against my chest. Then I closed my eyes and let myself fall into the portal. Everything went dark. I didn’t hear any wailing sounds or see any bright lights.
My eyes felt heavy, but I forced them open. Thick trees surrounded me, and questions filled my mind. Did I save the world? Was I back in 2043? What happened to Kevin and all my friends? A faint light shone through gaps in the trees. I looked up and gasped. A crescent moon was in the sky, but it was green, just as it was in the dream
I had about Madeline at Jarrod’s clinic in 2043. I couldn’t be on Earth, could I? Was I even awake, or was this yet another dream, with me still falling through the portal, in limbo somewhere? I heard a cry beside me and saw small green organisms slithering like snakes, illuminated by the green glow from the moon above. A small lizard snout came into view, staring straight at me. Dylan. It had to be.
I lifted my hands and saw larger organisms all over them. I looked at my stomach and my legs, where more of the ruby-red eyes of the organisms greeted me. They covered my entire body. Dylan screamed and I reached out and grabbed him. He smiled and wrapped his arms around me. I hesitated for a moment but then reciprocated. Everything felt too real to be a dream. I could feel the chill in the air, and a sweet cinnamon smell filled my nose. I’d always wondered whether Shriniks had the same sense of smell we had, and now I had my answer. I paused and considered my words. I wasn’t using we in the right manner. Right at that moment, I accepted the facts. I wasn’t human. I never had been. The humans had always been the aliens, and my people were the Shriniks. But humans also gave me all my memories, and that counted for so much.
I held Dylan in front of me and stared at him. For the first time, I realized that my species was actually a beautiful race. Dylan’s protruding eyes no longer looked ghastly but warm and full of love. I stopped seeing his snout as one resembling a lizard’s. I studied him for a little while longer before looking all around me once again. Wherever this was, my baby and I were together, and that was all that mattered.
The End
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all of my amazing readers for sharing their thoughts with me. The more I write, the more I feel my identity is coming through, and this is because of all of you. I would like to thank Erin Wilcox for her professionalism and honesty. I am truly blessed to keep working with such talented editors.
I want to also thank my brothers, Obi and Ezem, for their continued support. My mother, Mabel, continues to be my biggest fan and also my biggest critic, which is proving to be a winning combination.
I would like to thank Daniel Yeager for a cover design that I felt captured the essence of the novel. I would also like to thank the fantastic staff at The Editorial Department, including Chris Fisher, Jane Ryder, Liz Felix, Doug Wagner and Beth Jusino. They continue to make my writing so much more fun.
MARVIN AMAZON is a widely-published, Nigerian-born author who currently lives and writes in Essex, England. He credits the library across the street from his childhood home in Battersea, southwest London, with opening his eyes to the engrossing worlds of speculative fiction. In addition to The Children Who Time Lost, Amazon is also the author of the fantasy series The Corin Chronicles and the crime series The Midnight Trilogy.
Visit him online at
www.marvinamazon.com
or
www.midnighttrilogy.com.
Table of Contents
Part One: The Lotto
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Part Two: Dylan
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Part Three: Rogue Travelers
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Part Four: The Orchestrator
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
The Children Who Time Lost Page 45
