Glassford Girl: Boxed Set (Complete Series) (Time Jumper Series)

by Jay J. Falconer

  She snapped back to reality when Julius said, “Mom, it’s time to surrender. We’re running out of time to save your friends.”

  Emily felt her hands start to lower but she wasn’t the one making them move. It was her son and he was controlling her body against her will. “Julius, stop that!”

  “Sorry, Mom but we can’t let this continue. I’m putting your hands down now.”

  His ability to control her body gave her a new idea. Something she hadn’t thought of before. But it all hinged on Julius and his advanced abilities. “Don’t do that. They are lying to you!”

  “No, Mom. I’m ending this.”

  “Put my hands back up, young man! I’m not going to tell you again!” she said in her thoughts, sounding like an angry mother scolding her kid. “You need to trust me right now. They’re going to hurt you.”

  Julius didn’t answer.

  “Let me show you,” Emily said, sending him several ghastly images of his impending torture and death. “This is what they are going to do to you. Everything they are telling you is a lie. They’re trying to manipulate you into giving yourself up so they can dissect you and steal your DNA. You can’t trust anything they say.”

  There was a short pause before he spoke in her thoughts again. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I had no idea.”

  “It’s okay, baby. That’s why little boys have mommies. It’s our job to keep you safe from people like this,” she said, feeling control return to her hands. She put them back where they were before, in a firm defensive position. “Now I need you to be really strong and push past their blocks. Try to reach into the minds of the ugly humans and find out which one is in charge. I need to know, right now.”

  “Okay, I’ll try.”

  “Is the man with Junie their leader?”

  Julius grunted in her thoughts, then the link with him went silent. He came back a few moments later and said, “I did it, Mom. I can see what he’s thinking. After they cure themselves, they plan to steal all my blood and bone marrow and use it with my DNA to create an army of even more powerful time jumpers. That way they don't have to use their expensive technology to control the timeline. You were right. They are going to hurt me.”

  “No they won’t. Not if we work together. Is he the man in charge?”

  “Yep, he’s telling everyone else what to do and controlling the countdown.”

  “Where’s it at now?”

  “Nineteen.”

  “Then we better hurry. I need you to start a jump.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it and don’t argue. We don’t have time for a debate. I need you to follow my instructions exactly. Start a jump, honey. This very second.”

  “I just did,” he answered with confidence fueling his words.

  Emily felt the jump tingle start in her spine. “Now make sure it’s a fast jump. We need it to come quickly.”

  Julius hesitated before he answered, “Okay, done. I just accelerated the process. Now what?”

  “Instead of me telling you, it’s faster if I send you a stream of images. Then you’ll know exactly what I want you to do, because the timing of this has to be perfect. If I don’t have my powers anymore, you’re going to have to use your advanced abilities and take control of my body. Are you ready?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Here it comes . . .”

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE

  Julius waited for the last of his mother’s action plan to arrive as a series of detailed images. She’d sent them step by step, the last of which was arriving now. He reviewed the final snapshot and was ready to carry out her wishes. He wanted to make her proud and keep everyone safe, but to do that, he needed to trust her and follow her instructions to the letter.

  When ugly head’s countdown reached five, the blue fire came as expected and began to engulf his mother’s body. He could feel what his mom was feeling and see what she was seeing. Time began to slow down just as his mother showed him it would.

  He focused all his thoughts on the inner lining of blue fire’s electrical field. His mental connection with her eyes blurred for a second. Then it cleared, allowing him to see the border of the subatomic vortex that was forming in the real world outside.

  Mom called it The Event Horizon, and the blue fire’s boundary covered her skin like a thin sheet of latex. He hadn’t had a chance to search through her memories to learn what the term Event Horizon meant, but he knew it was important. Mom had learned about the theoretical science involved while doing research in the public library after her strange techie friend, Sheldon, sat with her for hours and taught her to use a computer.

  Normal time around them continued to slow at an accelerated pace until it stopped all together—that was his cue to act.

  Julius uncoupled his thoughts from his mother’s and waited for the creepy feeling to wash over him from behind. As soon as he felt it, he spun around in his mind and found himself staring at the pitch black, marble-sized entrance to the energy tunnel.

  It was the darkest shadow he’d ever seen and hovering only a few inches in front of his nose. He pushed his thoughts outward, mentally crawling through the opening. A moment later, he felt the familiar surge of power energize his core, meaning he’d just stopped time within time.

  Mom called it ‘slipping into sub-time’ and she wanted him to go there for a couple of reasons. First, it would magnify the power of his abilities a hundred fold—both while he was inside sub-time and for a few minutes after he returned to normal time.

  Second, she wanted him there in case the future humans had some way to track what was happening within the first layer of time stoppage.

  Mom was suspicious of everything when it came to the Orange Men and the ugly heads. He couldn’t blame her. Not now. Not after experiencing their lies and treachery firsthand.

  It was time to get moving, so he redirected his mind’s eye to his mother and focused on the muscles within her legs. He connected with them, taking control and moving her in front of the ugly head who was about to shoot Junie.

  Julius used his mother’s hand to grab the man’s gun arm and turn it to the right. He had Mom lean in so he could see through her eyes, then adjust the weapon’s sights so they’d fire on the next closest Orange Man.

  He moved her feet to the targeted Orange Man. Again, he adjusted the man’s gun hand to point elsewhere. This time, its sights were trained on the man who was about to shoot Nora.

  The scene modifications continued as he took Mom to Nora’s position and repositioned the Orange Man’s weapon to target the man standing over his father’s body.

  So far so good, he thought, checking his work thus far. Ugly head was going to shoot Orange Man 1, who in turn was going to shoot Orange Man 2. If everything was set right, then Orange Man 2 would shoot Orange Man 3.

  Julius continued moving through the scene and making adjustments, using his mother’s legs and hands. Each time they stopped, he’d have her redirect the Orange Man’s weapon to shoot the man next to him.

  After Julius took his mother to the final Orange Man, he had her aim the man’s pistol at the spot along the wall where his mother had been standing when the blue fire first appeared. He used the trash bin as the focal point.

  There were a couple more things he needed to do before his mother’s plan was set up and ready to be executed. First, he had his mom pick up Junie and move her out of harm’s way. Next, Derek’s body and then Nora’s were dragged by their feet until they were lying next to Junie.

  Mom’s instructions told him to ignore their friends in the blue cocoons because she didn’t think there was anything they could do for them. Not yet anyway.

  The last step was to have Emily run back to the spot along the wall where they needed to be standing—by the trash bin. Which she did.

  Once they were in the final position, he mentally crawled out of the second layer of time stoppage and back into normal time, where the pre-jump process was still unfolding.

  As expected, his body fe
lt energized and unstoppable thanks to the extra power he’d carried back from his visit to sub-time.

  Julius summoned all his energy and used it to reach out and stop the time jump before the blue fire whisked them away to the future. It worked, snuffing out the blue flames in less than a second.

  The instant time resumed at normal speed, his mother’s consciousness connected with his.

  “Now raise my hands and get ready,” Mom said in his thoughts.

  The ugly man’s thoughts changed, pushing the countdown from one to zero. All of the men from the future fired their energy weapons on cue. However, instead of hitting their respective hostages, the red energy beams hit a fellow traveler thanks to the aim adjustments made by Julius.

  He watched through his mother’s eyes as the energy worked its way around the chain of Orange Men, zipping from man to man. Each time the beam jumped, it grew wider and turned an even darker shade of red. The beam made its way to the last Orange Man and went through him before shooting across at his mother’s body.

  “Now catch it with my left hand like I showed you,” she said.

  He put her hand up and felt the energy beam hit her skin with the force of a locomotive. Pain came with it, but Julius held his mother’s palm vertical and firm. The energy tore inside his body and landed in his spine. He could feel his bones and muscles soaking up every ounce of energy.

  “Don’t worry about me, just let it in,” she told him after grunting. “Okay, now turn it around and let it go.”

  Julius kept his mom’s left palm raised as he brought her right hand down to unhook the blanket.

  The garment dropped, allowing him to bring her hand down and put her thumb against her navel. He spread her fingers apart and angled them in different directions as planned. A millisecond later, the energy he’d been absorbing flew out of her fingers in four independent energy beams.

  The energy shooting out from her index finger hit ugly head in the face. The other three fingers were aimed at the ships, sending the amplified electrical streams slamming into their respective hulls and sticking like darts.

  “Are you sure this is going to work, Mom?” he said as the energy continued to pass through him and then travel to the ships.

  “Yes, just don’t stop.”

  Julius tightened his mental focus, drawing more and more power from the energy reserves he’d brought back from his stint in sub-time. He could feel the intensity of the electricity bubbling as the power of the feedback circuit grew stronger with each passing second.

  The ugly man and his Orange Men were now glowing white-hot like the focal point of a welding torch.

  “Now be ready for the last step,” Mom said. “Don’t miss!”

  Each of the ships’ hulls changed from a dark black to a bright red color, then to pink. The ships looked like they were trying to get away when they started climbing higher in the sky, but Julius was able to keep hitting them with energy by adjusting the aim of his mom’s fingers.

  A few seconds ticked by before all the ships exploded in massive fireballs, releasing a billowing cloud of fire and debris.

  “Yes!” he screamed in his thoughts.

  “Now . . . finish them off!” Mom said.

  Julius brought the aim of her fingers down from the ships and sent the three beams at the Orange Man he’d adjusted last. His aim was perfect, reversing the feedback loop through the chain of Orange Men. One by one, they blew apart and sent orange tissue and blood everywhere.

  Once they were all destroyed, Julius turned the collective energy from his mother’s fingers at the ugly headed man. His body was quickly overcome by the massive wave of energy, instantly doubling in size like a balloon being filled. A moment later, his body exploded in a spray of red.

  Julius turned off the energy feed and brought his mother’s hands down. He’d planned to have her pick up the blanket to cover herself but nixed that idea when he felt his mother’s knees collapse. The two of them hit the ground with a thud.

  “Mom? Are you okay?” he asked, hoping she would answer.

  There was only silence, but he could feel the thump of her heartbeat slowing a bit. “Mom?”

  “I’m here, darling. I’m just exhausted,” she said in a downtrodden voice.

  “We did it, Mom! We really did.”

  “No honey, you did it.”

  “What about your friends? Are they okay?”

  “They’re your friends, too,” Mom answered, grabbing the blanket and wrapping herself in it. She craned her neck to give Julius a wider view of the area in front of the clinic.

  Julius could see his dad pushing to his feet. Nora was already sitting up. Both of them looked to be alive and unharmed. Whatever stasis field had been holding them on the ground must have been deactivated when the ships exploded.

  Junie was standing next to them, wiping tears from her rosy cheeks.

  When her eyes met Emily’s, Junie let out a high-pitched screech, then said, “Emily!” Her feet tore across the cement, pounding at the ground in a full-on sprint.

  When Junie arrived, she dropped to her knees and wrapped a powerful hug around Emily’s neck. Julius was still connected telepathically to his mother and could feel the strength of the tiny girl’s grip against his mother’s spine.

  “Em, I missed you soooo much,” the girl said, her tears flowing again.

  “I missed you, too, June-bug. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, now that those awful men are gone,” the girl said in a soft, emotional voice. She pulled out of the embrace and sniffed a couple of times before running her forearm across her cheek to catch some of her tears. “They were so gross.”

  Emily wiped the remaining tears from Junie’s face. “Yes, they were. But they’re gone now. You’re safe.”

  “Who were they? What did they want?”

  Julius could sense that his mother wanted to tell Junie about him, but had decided against it. She didn’t want to burden Junie with any more drama today.

  Emily moved her hand and adjusted the blanket around her midsection, wanting to conceal her pregnancy. Julius could hear the rustle of the material rubbing against her tummy as she bunched it up.

  “They wanted me, I’m afraid. At least they used to before I was able to send them away.”

  “I’m just glad they’re gone. They really smelled bad.”

  Julius felt something hit the walls of his mother’s stomach, then the sound of a low-pitched motor rattling outside.

  “Shroedy?” Junie asked, sounding surprised.

  Julius watched his mother’s eyes look down, showing an overview of her legs. A small, furry animal was in the cradle of her lap, standing on all fours and looking up. Its long tail was pointed at the heavens and curved near the end.

  Emily moaned, putting her hand on the creature’s arched body. “I missed you, too, my little quantum kitty.”

  She began stroking the animal’s fluffy, red and white fur from head to tail in long, slow movements. Junie’s hand came into view, petting the cat along with Emily.

  “How did he get here, Em?” Junie asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m happy he’s here and safe. Like the rest of—” she said, stopping in midsentence. Her eyes raised and swung to the right under the power of a sudden head spin. Julius felt her heart pick up steam.

  Duane, Jim Miller, and a tall, skinny guy were walking as a group toward Emily, albeit slowly.

  Julius felt a rush of excitement from his mother. It was mixed with a deep sense of relief.

  “What happened to the energy cocoons?” Julius asked in her thoughts.

  “When you destroyed their ships, you destroyed their technology, too,” she sent back.

  “You knew that would happen, didn’t you? That’s why you told me to ignore Duane and the others in the blue fields.”

  “Yep, I was counting on it since I’d seen it happen before. It was back in Nora’s kitchen when she blasted the control device on the table. If you take out their technology, their energ
y devices let go.”

  “I figured there was a reason.”

  Derek, Nora and the rest of the gang closed in around Emily. Nora took the cat away and stood aside as Duane wrapped Nora in his powerful arms. They gave each other a small peck on the lips, then her head dipped into the crux of his shoulder.

  Derek helped Emily to her feet, then planted a firm kiss on her lips. The tenderness of his touch melted her heart. When the kiss ended, Emily tucked her head against his broad chest like Nora had done with her husband.

  “What the hell happened here?” Jim Miller asked, his eyes studying the various piles of debris littering the street. Some were on fire, while others just showed twisted chunks of metal from the ships that disintegrated. “One second we’re in the middle of a firefight in the clinic, and the next thing I know, we’re out here. Looks like a war zone.”

  “It’s a long story,” Emily said, taking in a long, deep breath before exhaling.

  “Hey, Em. Long time no see,” Sheldon said.

  Emily smiled at him, her heart filling with pressure. “I’m so sorry for all of this. I’m sure you have a million questions.”

  “Yeah, but no worries. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  Emily moved away from Derek to give Sheldon a hug. Her friend’s shoulders were thinner than she remembered, but his extra height hadn’t changed. “I’m afraid I forgot to bring you a pack of Twinkies.”

  He let go, then shuffled back a step before lowering his head and stuffing his hands in his front pockets. His voice turned shy. “It’s all good. I should probably give those things up, anyway. You know, all that sugar.”

  Derek cleared his throat, grabbing Emily’s attention. She spun around, then he took her hands in his.

  “Did you do all this?” he asked, furrowing his brow in the process.

  She took his palm and put it on the crown of her belly, sending a chill into her spine. His touch felt like Christmas morning. “No sweetie, your son did. Your beautiful, amazing baby boy saved us all.”