Pick the Plot

by James Riley

  “How did you know this would work?” Kara asked him quietly, and the peaceful feeling immediately disappeared.

  “I, um, didn’t,” Owen said, looking embarrassed. “I was hoping that Dolores was as gullible as you say I am, so I just froze myself. Figured that’d keep her from murdering me. After that, I thought you could bluff your way out with the whole world ending . . .” He trailed off, wincing as the TSA agent leaned in with interest.

  The agent rolled his eyes. “I just watched the same tape you did, son. I heard everything. I’m going to have to take you in, Ms. Dox. You’re supposed to be in the Jules Verne Memorial Time Prison right now. Escape from the prison adds a year to your sentence.” He frowned. “Weird rule, I know, since you’re already there forever. So now I suppose you’re there for infinity plus one year.”

  What? After everything they’d done, the TSA still wanted to throw Kara in jail? Owen tensed his body, ready to attack or grab a time bracelet or something, but the robot interrupted his plans.

  “THESE TWO PROTECTED ME,” TIME-R said, helping Owen to his feet. “GIVEN THAT IT CLEARLY APPEARS I AM SUCCESSFUL IN MY EFFORTS TO BUILD A TIME SECURITY AGENCY, I GRANT THEM BOTH CLEMENCY AT THIS TIME AS A REWARD.”

  “But, sir,” the agent started. “You don’t know who this is. This is Kara Dox. Immune to paradox after her mother gave birth to her in a time bubble. Her older self has caused no less than three hundred and twelve reported time violations, including fourteen major time felonies. We have reason to believe she’s at the heart of reality disappearing a century from now. The future itself is being destroyed, sir, and—”

  Kara reached over and took Owen’s hand in hers. “Hold on,” she whispered, then touched the buttons on the time bracelet still on his wrist. Before the agent or TIME-R could react, Owen and Kara disappeared from the room, reappearing back by the same café where they’d arrived before facing the Countess. Now, though, the café looked a bit newer, and people were driving the cars instead of using their phones (well, most of them).

  Just like that, they’d escaped. Another wave of relief washed over him, and he fell into one of the café’s chairs with a sigh. Crises were averted, and the good guys emerged victorious for once! Now all he needed to do . . .

  All he needed to do was rescue a missing half-fictional girl from an all-powerful Nobody who could literally do or be anything. The weight of this crashed down on him, and he slumped in the chair, feeling even more anxious than before, now that Kara’s immediate problems had passed.

  “We’re back in your present,” Kara told him, fiddling with the time bracelet. “I’m blocking their tracking, so we should be okay for a few minutes at least.” She looked away. “So I . . . I guess that’s it, then. Last time this was easier, because I could just leave a note, but—”

  “What are you talking about?” he asked her.

  “You need to go take care of your business with Nobody,” she said. “And I . . . I need to get back into the time prison.”

  What? She was going to turn herself back in again? “But why?” Owen asked. “Your prophecy just came true, and I’m still here!”

  “But the future isn’t,” Kara said. “And we both know that’s my fault somehow. I told you, no matter how I try to fix things, the universe finds a way.” She stepped forward and hugged him tightly. “There’s no other choice. Now you need to go and find your friend, okay?” She released him, gave him one last look, then began to play with the buttons on the time bracelet.

  No! She couldn’t just do this to herself, not again! He needed an argument, something she’d believe, but there was no time to think, and he couldn’t—

  OWEN SHOULD SAY THAT TRAVELING WITH HIM TO ANOTHER STORY WILL NEGATE HER DESTINY.

  Turn to page 8.

  OWEN SHOULD SAY THAT HE’LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN IF SHE GOES, AND HE CAN’T TAKE THAT.

  Turn to page 91.

  OWEN SHOULD SAY THAT THEY’LL FIND A WAY TO FIX THINGS IN THE FUTURE, THEY JUST NEED SOME TIME.

  Turn to page 180.

  Kyoto in the year 10,000,” Kara said, grabbing Owen’s hand and hitting the bracelet.

  They jumped forward in time, only to appear in the middle of nothing. Everything was blank, a white world absent of anything, just like the space between stories.

  “Wait, what happened?” Kara said. “The time bracelet says we’re in the correct year, but this can’t be the same place.”

  What did this mean? The world was just . . . gone. Had Nobody split the fictional and nonfictional worlds, and this was the result?

  “Something’s very wrong,” Kara said.

  “It sure is,” said a voice, and they whirled around to find Dolores with several robed guards. She immediately touched Owen and Kara on the neck, and they both collapsed to the ground.

  The last thing Owen heard was Dolores’s voice getting farther and farther away. “Bring them, but keep them asleep. The Countess doesn’t want them to wake up before she disposes of them.”

  Readers, turn back now! This is the . . . the wrong . . .

  And then everything went dark.

  Owen screamed as the T. rex launched at him, then squeezed his eyes shut and put up his arms in defense, waiting for the worst.

  But nothing happened.

  Owen lowered his arms, his eyes still closed. How could nothing have happened? He had to be dead, eaten, gone. But in spite of a terrible smell coming from somewhere, he seemed to be no different than a second before.

  Owen slowly opened one eye, ready for anything. Except, that was, for what he saw: the inside of the T. rex’s mouth.

  “AHH! AHH! AHH!” he shouted over and over like the alarm in the air lock. He began hyperventilating and couldn’t move or think. He was inside the dinosaur’s mouth. He was inside the dinosaur’s mouth!

  “Sounds like you’re still alive,” the bald woman shouted from somewhere near his feet.

  Owen screamed once more, then sort of trailed off, feeling very dizzy after all the screaming. He reached out a hand to steady himself, then yanked it back when he felt the dinosaur’s wet cheek against his fingers. Another wave of panic hit him, but this time he took deep breaths and held it back.

  “We don’t have much time here,” the woman reminded him, poking her head up inside the T. rex’s mouth from below, “and I can’t fit in there. You’re going to need to get the code.”

  “What?” Owen shouted at her, wanting to kick her, if only he had enough room between the teeth to do so. “I can’t even move!”

  She shifted around, trying to get a better look. “Sure you can. It’s not even touching you. There are at least six inches between the teeth and your legs. Just crawl up.”

  “Crawl? On its tongue?!”

  “I told you to make sure you left me room,” the woman told him. “So this is your fault. Better hurry now, you’ve only got about thirty seconds to get the code and get out before time starts again. Not to mention you’ll probably want to get out of its range after that—”

  “Okay!” Owen shouted as he put a hand on the T. rex’s wavy tongue, cringing at the slimy texture. He pulled his hand away to wipe it on his shirt, then realized it wasn’t exactly going to get any better. So instead, he jumped up and grabbed the tongue with both arms, hugging it close to him to pull himself up. “GAH,” he shouted, inching his way farther toward the back of the creature’s throat, his face wiping along the tongue.

  “It shouldn’t be too far back there,” Owen heard the woman shout from below. “Twenty seconds left.”

  Owen inched forward, trying his best to see in the low light while ignoring the smell. Why couldn’t the smell be frozen in time too? If he ever met the prison builders, that was the first thing he’d complain about. Well, right after forcing prisoners to get eaten by dinosaurs.

  The tongue leveled out as the T. rex’s head narrowed, leaving Owen to squirm forward like he was in a tunnel just barely larger than his body. Not seeing the code, Owen picked his head up to look around
, only to bang it against a large fleshy thing hanging down in the creature’s throat.

  “Ow!” he shouted, then carefully moved his head so he could see. The uvula glistened in the remaining light, and right in the middle of it was a large numeral “0.”

  “I’ve got it!” Owen shouted, pushing himself back down as quickly as he could.

  “Yell it out to me!” the bald woman said. “You’re not going to make it, only ten seconds!”

  “NO!” Owen shouted as he landed back on his feet. Nine. Eight. He tried sliding through the dinosaur’s sharp teeth without cutting himself, but there was no time. Seven. Six. Instead, he just pushed himself out as fast as possible, leaving ugly cuts on his arms and legs.

  Five. Four. Three. He hit the ground and rolled out from under the T. rex. The bald woman had reached the air lock already and was watching from a safe distance.

  Two. One. Owen pushed to his feet and sprinted as fast as he could as time kicked in.

  The Tyrannosaurus’s jaws closed shut with a crash. It turned, saw its prey fleeing, and roared loudly. Owen didn’t look back, but could feel the ground shaking as it pounded after him.

  “Tell me the code!” the bald woman shouted from the air lock’s safety. “It’s going to catch you. You have no chance!”

  Owen just shook his head, running with all of his might, his entire body shaking with fear. Whether or not the dinosaur ate him, he just hoped that it somehow managed to choke down the Countess’s daughter, too.

  The monster’s steps got closer and closer, and Owen knew the woman was right, there was no way he could make it, he was doomed, it had to be on top of him . . .

  And then he exploded into the air lock, almost plowing through two prisoners standing right in his way.

  Owen collapsed to the floor, just trying to catch his breath. Was that it? Was he safe? He was so tired, he couldn’t even look, and instead pushed himself to one of the walls and leaned back against it. He looked up, wondering why no one else had said anything, and finally realized that none of the prisoners had moved since he entered. In fact, they seemed to be frozen as well.

  Ah, he’d kicked in his time powers! He smacked his forehead, realizing he could have been using them all along . . . like when the T. rex was trying to bite him, in fact!

  “Agh,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. He’d almost died, and never even thought about the powers. But that at least explained how he made it into the air lock.

  “So?” the bald woman said, stepping in front of him. “What’s the code? Tell me or I make sure you don’t get out of here alive.”

  Owen opened his mouth to say it, then realized something. “How are you not . . . frozen?”

  The woman slowly smiled. “You think I don’t know who you are, Owen Conners? I know all about you, and your power to speed up your own time. Took me years to duplicate it . . . but while experimenting, I figured out how to slow people down, too.” She put a finger near his neck. “I’m going to guess you haven’t gotten that far yet. Now, the code?”

  For a moment, Owen considered lying to her. But somehow, she’d know. He knew she’d know. “It was a zero,” he said.

  She stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “Right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to try to find a way out of here and get to the other challenges. Don’t worry, you won’t remember anything about me tomorrow.” She touched her fingers to his neck, and Owen collapsed to the ground.

  As blackness overtook him, one thought went through his mind. Readers. The second digit. It’s a zero. Don’t forget. Second digit . . . is a zero.

  And then everything went dark.

  TURN BACK TO PAGE 1 . . . OR CHEAT A BIT, AND SKIP AHEAD TO THE DECISIONS ON PAGE 259.

  Owen glanced down at himself and made another odd discovery. Now that the lights were on, he noticed that instead of his normal clothes, he was now wearing an orange jumpsuit, just like a prisoner would wear. Next to his bed were a pair of shoes that looked about the right size, as well as gray socks and what Owen really hoped was a pair of clean underwear.

  “Due to your actions breaking the time code, you are now a permanent inhabitant of the Jules Verne Memorial Time Prison,” the soft, warm voice continued from the speakers overhead.

  The what, now? Owen looked back down at his orange jumpsuit and noticed something else: It had SMITH printed on the upper right. If that was someone’s name, it didn’t bode well for any of these clothes being his. But where were his clothes?

  And worse, who had dressed him? He shuddered.

  “The Jules Verne Memorial Time Prison is located within the Cretaceous period of Earth’s prehistory,” the voice said as Owen put on the socks and shoes. “You have probably noticed the local flora and fauna outside of your cell window. Please, for the sake of the animals as well as your own health, keep all hands, feet, and legs inside your cell at all times. The animals have a specific diet, and we have no wish to change history by giving them a taste of human beings.”

  Animals? In the prehistoric era? Owen’s eyes widened, and for the first time things seemed slightly less awful. Those were dinosaurs outside! And the roaring had been close. Could he actually see real-life dinosaurs if he looked? Or at least the fictional versions that whoever had written this story had come up with?

  Something nagged at his memory about all of this, but it couldn’t be that important. Mostly, in spite of the voice’s warning, how often did you get to see real live dinosaurs? What could it hurt just to look, after all?

  MAKE OWEN LOOK OUT THE WINDOW FOR DINOSAURS.

  Turn to page 87.

  QUIT WASTING TIME. OWEN SHOULD TRY TO FIND OUT HOW HE GOT HERE.

  Turn to page 278.

  TELL KARA THAT YOU’LL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO FIX THINGS IN THE FUTURE. IT WON’T START DISAPPEARING FOR, LIKE, A CENTURY, THE AGENT SAID!

  The thought hit Owen so hard he opened his mouth to say it before he even realized it. “We’ll have plenty of time before . . . ,” he said, then trailed off. Hey! he thought at the readers. Can we maybe not focus on the world ending here when she blames herself for it?

  Still, the first part of the idea itself wasn’t that bad. Owen moved to face Kara and grabbed her by her shoulders. “There’s plenty of time to figure out another way out of all this,” he said. “You don’t need to go back to that prison!”

  She shook her head. “You always say that, but it doesn’t work, Owen. All of my future selves have tried, and they’ve all failed. Time won’t solve anything.” She sighed. “In fact, time’s the only problem here.”

  Well, that didn’t work. I need something else to try! Any other suggestions?

  OWEN SHOULD SAY THAT LEAVING WITH HIM TO ANOTHER STORY WOULD FIX THINGS.

  Turn to page 8.

  OWEN SHOULD SAY THAT HE’LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN IF SHE GOES, AND HE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT HER.

  Turn to page 91.

  DINOSAUR! YOU HAVE TO PET IT!

  Alarm bells rang through Owen’s head as he slipped his hand between the bars of the window, but they weren’t loud enough to stop him.

  A low growl rumbled out of the jungle, and it echoed in Owen’s chest, pulling him out of his trance. What was he doing, sticking his hand out the window? Why had he thought this was a good idea?!

  The creature in the jungle lunged forward and Owen screamed, shoving himself backward as overpoweringly horrific breath hit him full blast. He tumbled off the bed and hit the floor hard. The massive creature slammed its head into the wall hard enough to crumble the rock wall around the bars.

  Owen screamed again, scrambling backward from the window as the monster rammed its head into the bars over and over before finally giving up and moving one enormous eye to stare at Owen through the bars, a few of which were barely intact.

  And then the creature disappeared, its heavy steps shaking the floor even inside his room.

  Why had he done that? Was some part of him insane? He’d almost gotten his arm bitten off, if not more than that!
What had he been thinking?

  DON’T LET OWEN THINK ABOUT IT TOO HARD. LET’S GET BACK TO FIGURING OUT WHY HE’S HERE.

  Turn to page 278.

  Tallahassee in the year 2000,” Kara said, grabbing Owen’s hand and hitting the bracelet.

  They instantly jumped backward in time, and landed in what looked to be a very similar time to the present.

  That made sense. The year 2000 wasn’t too long ago, after all. Weirdly, though, there were a few surprising differences that Owen would never have thought about. Cell phones were enormous, for one. And everyone’s clothing was a lot brighter than he was used to. Other than that, though, nothing looked too out of place.

  “This doesn’t feel right,” Kara said.

  “I wouldn’t imagine so,” said a voice, and they whirled around to find Dolores with several robed guards. She immediately touched Owen and Kara on the neck, and they both collapsed to the ground.

  The last thing Owen heard was Dolores’s voice getting farther and farther away. “Bring them, but keep them asleep. The Countess doesn’t want them to wake up before she disposes of them.”

  Readers, turn back now! This is the . . . the wrong . . .

  And then everything went dark.

  THIS IS INSANE. WAIT UNTIL THE T. REX LEAVES!

  See? Even the readers agreed!

  Except apparently Kara hadn’t gotten the blaring, headache-inducing thought, as she started toward the robot. Owen grabbed her arm and held her back. “Are you kidding?” he said. “We can’t go over there!”

  “I think I get what he’s saying,” Kara told him. “If the T. rex is just now . . . RUN!”

  “Just now AAH!” Owen shouted as she yanked him to the ground. Two six-foot-tall dinosaurs passed backward right over the spot he’d just been in, looking like they were running from the T. rex.