by Melissa Faye
Keep it together, June.
The other part would be more challenging for Harrison, but he assured me he could do it. I pulled out one of the beetles and broke down his Cage with my Some Gun. Harrison grabbed it by its back without hesitation, narrowly missing the flailing legs. The beetle waved his legs uselessly and pinched his pinchers. The beetle was silent in Harrison’s hand because of the Shusher. His face lit up like a kid at the circus. Then he regained his composure and nodded solemnly to me before creeping around the enclosure behind the traveler. With the Shusher on, his movements were silent.
I unconsciously felt along my neck and hip where I still had bruises from my fight with Joel a few days earlier. I usually won those fights, but tonight I needed to avoid one altogether. Ridge didn’t have time.
I gripped the Some Gun tightly as I approached the traveler. He stood before the red panda enclosure, hands on his hips. I wasn’t a red panda expert, but it did already look smaller than I expected. I noticed a half-sized snow leopard in the enclosure next door. The box sat at the traveler’s feet. It probably held a half dozen other creatures at the moment. Hopefully they weren’t eating one another.
“Hey!” I called out. The traveler spun around to face me.
“How’s your friend?” he asked. I fumed at the sight of his smile.
No need to gloat.
“He’s fine. No problem.” I didn’t move and focused on keeping my eyes on the traveler. From the corner of my eyes I watched Harrison approach the traveler from behind, but I didn’t dare look at him for fear of alerting our prey.
“Oh yeah? You found a way to stop the shrinking?”
I nodded.
“You’re bluffing,” the traveler sneered. “There’s no way! Your technology isn’t advanced enough to make the – well. You know I won’t tell you that.”
“I know what I’m doing,” I replied. Harrison was only a few inches behind the man now. Seeing someone wearing the Shusher from this angle was offputting. Harrison was so close. Without the Shusher, the man couldn’t have missed him. I had to keep talking to keep the travelers eyes on me.
“Where do you think I came by this gun? Or the beetles’ cages? What about how I tracked you here? That’s a little advanced, don’t you think?”
The man snorted. “Please. That gun looks like a toy. My nanobots are light years beyond what you think you’re capable of. Don’t even –“
Harrison leapt on top of the man and they fell to the ground. Harrison held the beetle at arm’s length before he managed to pin the traveler down. He set the beetle right on the traveler’s uncovered arm. Swish. The beetle swiped the man’s arm right across his tiger tattoo. The man gasped and Harrison pushed his whole body weight onto the man’s chest. The traveler screamed in rage, and Harrison yelled something to me.
“Turn off the –“ I motioned to him to remind him where the Shusher’s power switch was and he nodded. I suddenly heard him panting and calling out to me.
“That’s incredible! I couldn’t even hear myself –“
“Ok, guy, how do we stop the nanobots?” I asked the traveler. I trained my gun on him still, moving closer until I was only a few feet away. I peeked into the box. I saw a few animals, though they were too small to identify from my angle. Harrison watched me closely, but followed my directions. He didn’t ask questions. He held the beetle out away from himself with his arm fully extended. Somehow, Harrison didn’t seem put off by any of this, including the strange man yelling and thrashing around beneath him.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” the traveler screamed, staring at his forearm. “That’s – that’s –“ He grunted and tried to push Harrison off to no avail.
“I know, that’s gonna shrink you down, isn’t it?” I smiled. “Once you’re small enough, I can just place you in there with the snow leopards.”
The man let out another yell as blood dripped down his arm.
“You know, when my friend got scratched, he didn’t make nearly this much fuss,” I said. “Does it hurt more knowing about the nanobots?”
“Nanobots?” Harrison exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me about the nanobots!”
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” I told the traveler. “You show me how to save my friend. I save my friend and replace all these animals. Then I’ll probably fix you and send you home.”
The man looked disgusted. “Probably? That’s all I get? You little b-“
Harrison turned around and punched the man across his face. I stomped my foot on the ground.
“I can take care of myself, Harrison.”
“I got your back, Wires,” Harrison replied.
The traveler thrashed around uselessly for a few more moments. Harrison seemed to be enjoying his job very much. It was definitely impressive, given the traveler’s biological advantage. I gently took the beetle out of Harrison’s hand so he could focus on holding the traveler still. We waited, and after another moment, the man gave in.
“Look in my right pocket.”
I held up my hand to tell Harrison to stay in place while I slowly approached the man’s right side. The man jerked his legs out when I approached but Harrison kicked them out of my way. I tentatively pulled a wad of wires out of the man’s pocket. On one end, I saw a port that matched the one Leslie Leslie found on the bottom of one of the beetles. The other end connected to a thin white box with a smooth circular button on top.
“Really? You’re so advanced, yet your nanobots stop working with one button?” I turned it over in my hand, shaking my head. Travelers were so full of it.
“Shut up –“ he stopped himself. His face was bright red from where Harrison hit him the first time. “It’s not a simple button, little girl. It turns off all the nanobots within a hundred yard radius. So you’d better be careful with that before clicking it around all the animals stuffed in that box. I doubt you or your boyfriend want to get eaten by a tiger before celebrating your little victory here.”
“Why are you telling us that?” Harrison asked.
“Because I don’t want to get eaten either.”
“How fast does it work?” It was late, and all that stood between me and a hot shower was a little white button. I really wanted to push it.
“Fast,” the traveler answered. “30 seconds or so.”
I nodded to Harrison. He eased himself off the traveler, and as soon as he was clear, I Stunned the guy. We ignored his whining while returning the animals.
So I spent a half hour completing the most surprisingly cute task I would get to complete all week: identifying miniaturized animals and putting them back into their enclosures. I felt a twinge of guilt having to stun the other leopards when I dropped their roommates on the floor with them. I ran a tiny grizzly bear back to its space. Harrison took care of some sort of exotic cat on the other end of the zoo.
We met back at the box and pushed the button. Animals zapped into existence all around us, moaning and screeching. The man was taken by surprise and yelled along with them. Harrison played bodyguard while I grabbed the box, beetles, and the off switch.
“Don’t come back,” I told the traveler.
“You’re dead, do you know that?” he said. Harrison moved as if to attack again, but I shook my head.
“No, that’s not what he means,” I explained.
“You’re dead,” the traveler continued. “I’ll go back home and you won’t exist anymore. I’ll just come back here in eighty years and take these animals again.”
Probably he would. At least he could if he bribed someone in the time travel department to get access to another jump. But I could only protect my own Present for now.
Without another word, I switched over the Some Gun to Back-U-Go and pulled the trigger. The man disappeared into a small vanishing dot. It only looked slightly different from teleportation, though you’d have to see a lot of both to tell them apart.
“Back you go,” I whispered under my breath with a pretend nod to my younger self.
“You. Are. Amazing.” Harrison was pumped up now, mouth agape with his hands on his head. “Wires, how did you know – what did you – did you know this – where did you get that gun?”
“Want to come meet my friend?” I asked, leading the way back towards the entrance and ignoring his questions again.
“Sure.”
Chapter 10
Ridge moaned and whined helplessly after being returned to normal size. I rolled my eyes, though Harrison gave him the attention he demanded. He brought Ridge a glass of water, then some slippers, then brought him the bag of grapes he was eating before. He was about to provide Ridge with a shoulder massage (“That whole thing made me ache all over, June!”) before I told Ridge to quit it.
“You don’t know, June,” Ridge told me. “I was on the phone with you, everything was getting bigger, and suddenly I was trapped between some of those damn carpet fibers. I swear, I’m getting a new rug. Higher weave. Or lower weave. Whichever one will keep me from getting stuck next time a psycho bug attacks.”
“You know you’re going to get no sleep before your classes tomorrow, right?” Harrison teased.
“June here thinks she can save the world and make it to all her classes.” Ridge shook his head gravely. “Not happening, June. At least not until you take on an intern.”
An intern. Not a bad idea.
“Let’s go,” I motioned to Harrison. He headed to the door and Ridge beckoned me to come closer.
“You gonna use that Swiper Spray?” he whispered. “Been a long time. I know you don’t like it. But you don’t even know that boy.”
“He was helpful. Without him, I don’t know what I would have done.”
Ridge put a hand on my shoulder.
“We don’t know him. He seems like a good kid, but we don’t know him.”
“I know, I know,” I whispered. I stared at Harrison standing in the hallway. “I’ll do it when we get back to the dorms, ok?”
“You do good work, June,” Ridge said. “I’m proud of you.”
I gave him a half-smile. Why did doing good work have to mean keeping the boy you’re crushing on from remembering you exist?
I FELT READY TO COLLAPSE into bed once we entered the dorms, but I had a few things left to do.
“Want to come in for a moment? I want to show you one of my favorite gadgets.” I ushered Harrison back into my suite.
Honey was asleep so I tiptoed into our room, grabbed the Swiper Spray, and snuck back out to where Harrison was waiting. He sat on the couch and tapped the cushion next to him.
“What’s it do?” Harrison asked. He had dark circles under his eyes, but it was obvious how excited it he still was. Too bad he wasn’t going to remember anything about this in a few minutes.
The Swiper Spray was in a canister that made it look like pepper spray. I kept it locked up so no one would use it on an innocent late night mugger. I held it out for Harrison, pulling it away before he could touch it. His eyes opened wide.
“Let me show you in the hall.”
From what I could tell – and I still didn’t totally understand it – the Swiper Spray used a carefully dosed chemical to identify the memories the brain had stored from a given time period. Then the chemical blurred the memories slightly, and adjusted and replaced them with more realistic memories. Harrison would feel groggy and confused, but would know enough to go to bed. He’d wake up slightly uncertain about what he’d done the day before. His friends would remind him, and he’d rationalize to himself that he simply hadn’t gotten enough sleep. No memories of me whatsoever, since everything we did was so unlikely.
We stood in the hallway. I took one last look at Harrison. If I wasn’t out saving the world every other day, maybe I’d have time to date a guy like that. Someone who made dumb jokes and called me annoying names. Someone who would punch a guy in the face for saying nasty things to me.
Even if I could have taken care of myself. It was kind of nice having an extra set of hands.
It was late, though, and we were both tired. Time to wrap things up.
“Close your eyes and count to ten. You’re gonna love this one.”
Harrison closed his eyes and I sprayed him with the 24 hour dosage. I backed away towards to my suite, letting my eyes linger on him for another moment. He shook his head back and forth like there was water in his ears. It wasn’t water; it was the brain fuzziness that came right after a spray. I snuck back into my suite and closed the door before he could catch me watching him. It would be like we never met.
Something crinkled below me as I lay back on my bed: the envelope Harrison brought me. I opened it up, and a single sheet of paper fell out with three handwritten words.
“CHECK THE CODE”
A joke? A message for another June Moore? What code?
The beetles.
I could barely keep my eyes open as I opened up the beetles’ source code on my tablet. Programming languages always had operators that allowed the programmer to type information into the code that wouldn’t affect how the code functioned. Usually it was used to mark off certain parts of the code for easy identification later.
I scrolled down. Page down. Page down. Page down. The message was almost all the way at the end of the program. I never would have gotten that far into the code if I wasn’t looking.
Dear June,
Yesterday, you turned eight. Yesterday evening, a man named Jasper abducted your mother and I from our car while we drove across a bridge. We think the car swerved off the bridge after we were taken. Jasper has informed us that everyone thinks we’re dead.
We’re alive, Junebug.
We aren’t sure when you’ll get this, but our messenger assures us it’ll come at the right time. We hope that you’ll be ready.
Jasper has big plans for himself and for the world. He knows who you are, and he knows you’ll stand in his way. Stay hidden. Keep your identity a secret. The travelers are coming, and you have to stop them. Keep fighting, keep learning, and get stronger so when Jasper comes for you, you’ll be ready.
Please forgive us for not being there with you right now. We love you so much and can’t wait until we can see you again.
Love,
Dad
I read the note again, then a third time and a fourth. My mouth went dry.
My parents died in a car accident on my eighth birthday. Only now I knew the truth.
My parents are alive, and they’re trapped in the future.
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Melissa Faye is a former teacher who loves sci-fi, reading, and writing. She lives in Colorado with her small dog and likes yoga, rock climbing, and thinking about weird dys
topian futures with snarky heroines who save the world.
Appendix A: June’s Rules for Time Travel
The following rules were written by June Moore starting when she was eight years and one month old. Rules have been added and revised over time.
Don’t try to take over the world.
Don’t try to change anything Don’t take anything from the Present or bring anything from your Present.
Don’t remove or add people or change genealogy in any way.
Don’t do anything noticeable that could change something else. (The Butterfly Effect)
Don’t introduced new technology before it’s invented.
Don’t do anything that could change the ecosystem.
Don’t mess with your ancestors or ancestors of people you know.
Don’t mess with politics or anything else major on a local, national, or international level.
Don’t use your knowledge for personal gain. Don’t do anything for financial gain.
Don’t change anything for financial gain.
Don’t use this Present to hide things from your Present.
The guardian doesn’t time travel. For her personal or financial gain.
Unless it’s very, very important.
The guardian can use technology from the future only for her work in guarding the Present.
