by R. A. Rock
I wanted that. Someday.
To be a father.
I was glad we had saved Penny from any harm — the way I hoped someone might do for me someday if my daughter ever needed help. But, I reminded myself, my daughter would have the most boring of existences and would never have any adventures or traumas like this little girl.
She would wish for adventures. But she wouldn’t have them. Because I wouldn’t allow them. When I had a daughter, she would never know that her father had ever been on such adventures as travelling through space and time. She would have a calm, stable life.
I would make sure of it.
***
An hour later, we were all gathered around the table and Ernest had said the blessing. Then Matt and Nessa stood up to speak.
“We would just like to thank Chad, Yumi, Grace, Shiv, and Audrey for all their help with the rescue,” Nessa said, glancing at Matt, who nodded solemnly. “I’m not sure that we would have got them back with so few casualties without your help.”
“You would have,” I said. “You would have found a way.”
“Yes, we would have,” Matt said, taking over the speech. “But we would really like to thank you and to show our appreciation, we have a small gift for each of you, that we hope may go with you when you…”
He stopped, clearly searching for the best word.
“…go home,” he said, with a crooked smile.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAD
The goodbyes had all been said and we were standing in a clearing in the woods, ready to attempt to time travel home. It was night and a cool breeze chilled my cheeks as we waited for Shiv to organize things.
“Okay, are we ready?” Shiv said and everyone answered him with a “Yes.” or a “Ready.”
“Good,” he said. “So, here’s the deal. It’s possible the side effects of time travelling may be worse than last time. Most definitely our powers will be suppressed for some time. Cross your fingers that the damage to the ante-prefrontal cortex will be minimal. Or at least leave enough of the organ that it can regenerate itself.”
I cut my eyes across to Yumi, who stood beside me and she took my hand. It was a small gesture but it comforted me.
“I have set the devices to bring us back to the same location. But a few hours after we left… just in case.”
“Because we don’t want to run into ourselves, right?” Gracie said, her eyes big in her face. “Because that will cause the end of the universe or whatever. Right, Shiv?”
“Or whatever,” he said. “And yes, that’s right. We definitely don’t want to run into ourselves.”
“Does everyone understand the risks,” he said. “You may die. And you may lose your powers and never regain them.”
We all murmured our assent and he seemed content with that because he looked at his bracelet and prepared to count down.
“We will press the button on the word go.”
Everyone had their hand poised over their wrist.
“And, three, two, one… go.”
We all pressed our bracelets and everything went dark.
***
I woke up, wondering where the hell I was.
It was terribly black and I couldn’t see a thing.
“Are we all here?” Shiv said. “Chad?”
“I’m here.”
“Grace?”
“Here.”
“Yumi?”
“Jesus Christ, my head hurts but I’m fucking here,” she said and I smiled.
“Audrey.”
“Yes, but I don’t want to be. See Yumi’s comment.”
“Good,” Shiv said, excitedly.
This must be the clearing outside of town that we had left from. It was pitch dark here, but I thought I could make out a glow that must be the town.
There was a lot of hugging.
When I finally got Yumi in my arms, I gave her a good squeeze, I was so glad that we had made it back to our own time, safe and sound.
“We made it,” I said, into her ear.
“Yes, but we have a lot to talk about,” she said. “And decisions to make.”
“I know,” I said. “But we’ve got all the time in the world to figure it out.”
I felt her smile.
“True,” she said. “I guess we do.”
The End
An Excerpt from Fierce Flight (Book 2 in the Drastic Times series)…
Chad
“Let’s spread out and find Yumi. Then we’ll head for the lights,” Shiv said, indicating the direction where I had thought the light was coming from. His voice was worried and I knew he wasn’t sure why Yumi wasn’t with us. “She can’t be far.”
We fanned out and formed into a search pattern.
“I can’t wait for a shower,” Audrey said. And I knew that talking was her way of keeping our worry at bay while we searched for our friend.
“I can’t wait for faster than walking and canoeing travel,” Shiv said, joining in the game. It was better than wondering what the hell had happened to Yumi.
“Mmmm, I can’t wait for some of Mom’s home cooked lasagna. There’s no pasta in post apocalyptic Canada,” she said, mournfully. But when her eyes met mine, they were concerned.
Where the hell was Yumi?
“Did you try using your powers?” she said to me and I nodded. Once again our mental abilities were gone because of whatever damage the time travelling did to them.
I looked around as we walked, feeling like something was off. And it wasn’t only that Yumi was missing.
“Shiv?” I said, coming up beside him. “Something doesn’t seem right. Shouldn’t town be that way?”
I pointed in the opposite direction than he had indicated.
My befuddled and aching brain had finally figured out that there was something wrong.
“What?” he said, glancing around and probably doing some calculations of his own. A minute later, he replied. “You’re right, Chad. But the devices could have been off on the location. They were basically held together with duct tape and string.”
I laughed.
“True. I guess I’m just being paranoid,” I said, clapping him on the back. “It’s good to be back.”
We walked along quietly for a few minutes until I spotted a shadow ahead of us in the forest.
Not Yumi.
“Hey,” a strangely familiar voice said, sounding hostile. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
“We don’t mean any harm,” I said, raising my hands to show that we weren’t dangerous. “We’ve been hiking on the trails and we’re just getting back a little late.”
It was our cover story. In this time, the area around the city was covered in well-manicured hiking trails that went for miles.
“Trails?” the voice said, sounding confused. “Hiking?”
“Yes,” Gracie added. “We’re just returning and…”
“Gracie?” the voice said, puzzled. “Is that you? You’re back?”
“Yes,” Grace said, sounding overjoyed. “We made it. But… who are you? Do I know you?”
I tried to figure out who the voice could belong to as he moved towards us. We didn’t know that many people on Earth because we mostly lived on the Space Station where our organization was headquartered. And most of the people we knew in this area of the world lived in the town further north.
“Grace, Chad, Shiv, Audrey, You’re back. We thought we’d never see you again,” the voice said coming ever closer. We stood in the clearing where there was a little starlight filtering down. He was still in the shadow, so we couldn’t see his face.
Who was this and how did he know about the time travel project? We had kept it completely secret. No one had known about it, except a few friends. And this guy was not any of those friends. But then why did his voice sound so damn familiar?
“Oh man, I can’t wait to tell everyone. They’re going to be so happy to see you. But wait…” he said, sounding confused all of a sudden.
And as he came into view, we all gasped in dismay.
It was Ernest.
Holy shit.
We hadn’t time travelled at all.
Will Chad, Yumi, Shiv, Grace, and Audrey ever get back to their own time?
Read Fierce Flight to find out.
drastictimesbooks.com
