by Jason Ayres
Back at the entrance to the time bubble, it was time for Josh to take his leave of Peter for the last time.
“Well, this is where I have to get off,” he said. “I’m approaching the limits of where the tachyometer can take me. I guess this really is goodbye.”
“We’ve come a long way since that day in class when you asked me about time travel, haven’t we?” said Peter. “Back then I thought I had only a few months to live. Yet here we are, nearly two hundred years later.”
“It’s been awesome,” replied Josh. “A lifelong adventure. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
He took off his backpack and reached inside. “Oh, you’ll need this, by the way, so you can stop the bubble again as and when you need to. What we’ve seen today has been incredible, but I can’t even begin to imagine what else lies in store. This will help you make the most of it.”
He handed Peter the spare tachyometer.
“Thank you. I guess this is it, then,” said Peter. “I’m off to the end of the world. Give my love to the others, and look after Jess for me, won’t you?”
“We all will. You had better go now, before you make me cry,” said Josh. “That would be distinctly uncool.”
The two men shook hands, swallowed their reticence, and had a big manly hug.
“Here I go, then,” said Peter. “Farewell”. He stepped into the bubble to continue his adventure into the future.
Left alone, Josh realised he was extremely tired. It had been a very long day, and all he wanted to do now was get home to the cosy and familiar 21st century. He took hold of his one remaining tachyometer and set the time coordinates for five minutes after he’d left, making sure he stood in exactly the right spot to materialise safely in the tunnel.
He had no idea that Dan was lying in wait for him.
Chapter Twenty-One
June 2064
In the minutes that followed Josh’s disappearance from the tunnel, Dan stayed where he was, leaning against the tree, contemplating what to do.
It was clear that the device Josh had been holding in his hands was the key that enabled him to travel through time. How it worked and where or when he had gone, Dan had no idea. He couldn’t follow him, but maybe he wouldn’t need to. If Josh was travelling in time, he might return to the same place. Was it worth hanging around in the hope that he did?
Dan decided that he may as well. If Josh did return, there would never be a better time than the present to get his hands on the device.
If he didn’t come back, well, that wasn’t the end of it. He had learned a great deal this evening and he still knew where Josh worked and where he lived. Tracking him down again wouldn’t be too difficult and he knew what he was looking for now.
Fortunately, tracking him down again wasn’t going to be necessary. After barely five minutes mulling it over, he was delighted to see Josh reappear, still holding the device, more or less in the same place he’d vanished from.
After carefully tucking the tachyometer into his backpack, Josh began walking along the path directly towards the tree where Dan was still concealed.
Dan knew he would be unlikely to get a better opportunity than this. It really was now or never. He remembered how Josh and Charlie had bundled into him, knocking him over, all those months ago. It seemed somehow fitting that he should do the same to Josh.
The element of surprise could never be underestimated. Dan slunk further around the tree as Josh approached, keeping himself out of view the whole time. As his target passed, Dan moved completely around the tree until he’d come full circle, leaving him behind Josh. There was nobody anywhere in sight. Steeling himself for the fight that was to come, he launched himself at Josh and rugby-tackled him to the ground.
As he fell, his chin hit the ground with a crunch and he instantly felt blood in his mouth. He was stunned by the shock of the attack, but was determined not to be overwhelmed by his assailant. He tried to turn, but was quickly felled by a punch to the head.
He then felt his assailant pulling at his backpack. It had only been loosely slung over Josh’s shoulders, and it came away easily as Dan wrenched at it.
Josh felt sick, dizzy and unable to move. All sorts of thoughts went through his dazed mind. Why? Who? Despite his condition, his first thought was for the tachyometer. Was this the moment he’d always feared? A rival time traveller, come to strip him of his power?
The old Dan would have derived a real sense of satisfaction from overwhelming Josh in this way. Back at school, Josh had been the fitter and stronger of the two. He had made it quite clear on more than one occasion that he’d be quite happy to lay Dan out if he stepped out of line.
Dan, a bully but a coward at heart, had always backed down. But now he had Josh where he wanted him. Strangely, he took no pleasure from it.
Josh was struggling to turn around and fight back but Dan had such a commanding advantage that he had little chance of doing so. If Dan had wanted to, he could easily have knocked Josh into unconsciousness, or even worse, but he had no desire to hurt him any more than was absolutely necessary. He’d done enough damage in the past on that front and didn’t want any more blood on his hands. All he wanted was the tachyometer.
Should he allow Josh to see who had attacked him? Was that a good idea? He searched inside himself to try and understand his motivation. Did he want to show him that after all he’d been through, he’d emerged triumphant? He didn’t really feel like that. All he wanted was the opportunity to go home.
But if he did knock Josh unconscious he would never get the answers that he so desperately needed, and the one burning question that still consumed him over all of this was “Why?”
So he sat astride Josh to keep him from getting up, but allowed him to turn so he could see who’d attacked him.
“You!” shouted Josh, in a surprisingly strong voice considering his current situation. “How did you find me?” He was looking incredulously at Dan, as if he couldn’t believe that his old schoolmate could have had the intelligence to track him down.
“I’m not as stupid as you think I am,” replied Dan. “Thanks to you and your friends leaving me banged up in a mental institution, I’ve had plenty of time to work things out. You deliberately pushed me forward in time. Now I want to know why.”
“You asked for it,” replied Josh defiantly. “We all knew you killed Lauren, yet you got off scot-free. We needed to plug a gap in the tunnel and you were a convenient solution.”
“Do you have any idea what I’ve been through since I’ve been here?” asked Dan. “It’s been a living hell. I got arrested for breaking into my own house, for fuck’s sake.”
“So, what are you going to do now, big man?” taunted Josh. “Crush me to death? Though I see you’re not as fat as you used to be. Struggling to pay for your kebabs now, are you? My heart bleeds!”
“You know, if I was still the person you think I am, I’d probably kill you for saying that,” replied Dan. “But the fact is I’m not, at least I’m not anymore. All I want is this.”
He reached over and opened the backpack, taking out the tachyometer.
“Please don’t take that,” pleaded Josh, the arrogance vanishing from his voice as he feared what might happen if Dan got his hands on it.
“Look, it’s quite simple,” replied Dan. “I want to go home. I’m pretty sure this device can show me how. Now you can either tell me how it works, or I will figure it out for myself. But either way, I’m going back to 2041. Now are you going to show me how it works or not?”
“Over my dead body,” replied Josh.
“Well thankfully, whatever you might think of me, it’s not going to come to that.”
He looked more closely at the grey-haired man beneath him. “How old are you now, by the way? No, hang on: I can answer that one for you. It’s 2064, so you must be 63 years old. You see, I can even add up.”
“Well, clever you,” replied Josh. “And I remember you being crap at maths at school.”
“Well,
since you can do the math,” replied Dan, using the American expression oft heard in the movies, “consider this. Not only am I not as fat as I used to be, but I’m still only 40 years old. So I’m going to take this and run off now. Do you think you’re going to be able to catch up with me, old man?”
“I can still catch you, you sad bastard,” replied Josh.
Dan sighed and looked up. 200 yards away, a young couple were walking down the path towards them. It was time for him to make himself scarce.
“You don’t make this easy on yourself, do you? I said I wasn’t planning to hurt you, but I’m sorry, I need to get home.”
He took the tachyometer from the backpack, then as hard as he dared, punched Josh in the face one last time. He winced as he did so. Why did his life always have to revolve around violence?
He vowed to himself, there and then, that this would be the last time he would hurt so much as a fly. Then he ran.
The punch didn’t knock Josh out, but it was enough to stun him sufficiently to allow Dan to get away. By the time he managed to pull himself together and sit up, Dan was already halfway down the tunnel.
Still disorientated, he reached into the backpack to confirm what he already knew. Dan had taken the tachyometer.
“Are you alright, mate?” a voice said from behind him.
The young couple had walked up the path, and were understandably concerned at witnessing what looked like a mugging.
There was no point involving them, thought Josh. “Yes, I’m fine. Just a little disagreement, you understand. Family feud and all that, I’ll be OK in a minute.”
The young couple accepted this and walked on.
But Josh realised that he wouldn’t be alright. He’d lost the tachyometer and, if Dan figured out how to use it, all hell could break loose. To make matters worse, he’d given his only working spare to Peter who was now hundreds, if not thousands, of years in the future. There was no way to get that back now.
He had well and truly screwed things up.
Chapter Twenty-Two
June 2064
Dan sprinted up the tunnel as fast as he possibly could. It was vital he put distance between himself and Josh.
It was late in the evening by now and the sun was low in the sky. Rays of sunlight were interspersed with the long shadows from the trunks of the horse chestnut trees as he ran past them and into the estate. Once he was there, he took several random turns, turning left and right through alleys into different streets until he was certain he’d shaken off any pursuit.
Only then, having run about a quarter of a mile and gasping for breath, did he allow himself the luxury of a look behind him. There was no sign of Josh.
Confident that he was safe for the moment, he slowed to a walking pace and continued on. He needed to find a safe place to examine Josh’s device and figure out how to use it, preferably before darkness fell.
He thought about going back home to Oxford, but it was too risky. For all he knew, Josh could have reported him to the police and they wouldn’t need much excuse to come knocking at his door, especially if D.I. Jones got wind of it.
At the edge of the estate was a small wooded area where kids often played and people walked their dogs. It didn’t seem too busy now, however. He could only see one dog walker and a couple of teenagers messing about on their bikes.
He checked his watch to see it was 9.15pm. He had about half an hour of useable daylight left. He walked into the wood and through to the centre where there were a few picnic tables. There was nobody there, despite the warm evening. Clearly there had been, as he could see that the various recycling bins were full, but they had all gone home now. It was perfect for his needs.
He sat down at the table and examined the device. It was a metallic tube, about 9 inches in length. It had four coloured buttons, and a small LCD screen with a tiny number keypad set into the side. It reminded him a little bit of the wireless microphones that they used to use for karaoke at his old local, the Red Lion, years ago, just slightly bigger.
He tentatively pressed the green button at the top, the closest one to the LCD screen. The screen at once lit up and the message “ENTER DATE” appeared.
This was a promising start. Dan had feared that the device would be beyond him, but even he could work out how to enter a date. He had feared that it might be protected by some sort of password protection but clearly that wasn’t the case. Josh had been very careless on that front.
Despite the ease of gaining access, he couldn’t discount the fact that Josh may have some way of tracking the whereabouts of the device. He might even have the ability to track it remotely. They were both real possibilities that meant he couldn’t risk hanging about. He needed to get on and do what he needed to do.
The date he’d departed from the past was etched upon his brain. He began to punch the numbers into the screen. As soon as he entered the first digit the screen changed for him to fill in the remaining digits. Josh couldn’t have made it any more straightforward.
He typed in the numbers 30/03/2041.
As soon as he’d entered the date the message “ENTER TIME” appeared on the screen.
Dan thought back to the day when he had left. It had been early in the morning. His first thought was that he should go back to before that time and make sure he was there in the tunnel to prevent his earlier self from being pushed through.
When he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that the plan did not make sense. If he did manage to succeed, what would happen to the person he was now? All of the past nine months would never have happened. If he succeeded, he would never have been pushed through, which would mean his current persona would cease to exist, along with all the knowledge he had gained.
There was also nothing then to stop Josh and the others from planning some other fate for him. So in the end, he decided to just set the timer for lunchtime on that day. They would then think that they had succeeded in their plan and would therefore not be looking for him. All he had to do then was go home to his old house and lay low for a while.
He set the timer for 13.00. As soon as he’d entered the time, another message appeared: “OPEN BUBBLE”. The yellow button on the device was now flashing.
He held the device out in front of him as he had seen Josh do, and pressed the yellow button. “ENTER BUBBLE” appeared.
Josh couldn’t have made this any easier for him if he’d provided him with an instruction manual. He paused momentarily, wondering if this was too good to be true and it was all some convoluted trap, but there was only one way to find out. He held his breath and stepped forward.
Instantly, he knew that he’d been successful. The daylight had been fading from the sky when he stepped into the bubble, now suddenly the sun was overhead.
He also noticed the trees around him were not in the full leaf of summer that they had been a few moments ago, but covered in blossom instead.
In the past, Dan would never have noticed something like that. But things had changed over the past nine months. He’d learned to slow down, to look around and appreciate the world around him. And what he was seeing now was all very promising.
He walked out of the woods and back into the housing estate. The more he looked around him, the more his confidence grew that he was indeed home. The cars looked right for the time, as did the houses. Even the rusty old camper van was reassuringly back where it should be. He’d never been so glad to see it. As he reached the main road he was also pleased to see that the old estate pub had also been restored to its former glory. A large, scrolling banner outside read “Live Premiership Football here: Arsenal vs Chelsea, 12.45pm, Sat 30th March”. He could hear cheering coming from inside the pub as the drinkers enjoyed the holographic game.
Just to make doubly sure, he headed into the newsagent’s and picked up a copy of The Sun. It felt wonderful to pick up a copy of a real printed newspaper again. He looked at the date on the top: “Saturday 30th March 2041”. That was all the confirmation he needed. He was
definitely home.
He walked up to the counter and handed the paper to the middle-aged man behind the till who scanned it.
As he reached into his pocket, the man said, “One twenty please.” Without thinking, he handed over a 2-euro coin.
“What’s this?” the cashier asked. “Have you just got back from holiday or something?”
“Sorry,” said Dan, realising his mistake. “Can you take euros?”
“Do we look like the sort of shop that takes euros,” replied the clearly irritated man. “Come back later when you’ve got some proper money.”
“Sorry, mate,” replied Dan. It didn’t matter. If all was as it should be, his wallet would be waiting for him at home on the coffee table.
It was a short stroll from the shop back to St Margaret’s Close where he was delighted to see that his front door was back as it should have been.
He wasn’t so delighted to see a car parked over the end of his drive, one he recognised as belonging to one of his neighbours. Never mind, thought Dan, live and let live. He was so pleased to be home, a little thing like that wasn’t going to bother him.
There was a slight setback when he reached the front door and remembered he no longer had his keys. They were in his flat in Oxford, 23 years in the future. Then he remembered he’d set aside contingency plans for just such an emergency after an incident a few years ago when he’d drunkenly locked himself out.
He opened the gate at the side of the house and walked down past the kitchen door to where he kept the wheelie bins. Next to the bins was a large ceramic pot, which was full of weeds. He crouched down, lifted it slightly off the ground and pulled out the spare key from underneath.
He walked back to the kitchen door and let himself in. As soon as he was through the door he turned and locked it behind him, breathing a sigh of relief. He was safe at last.
