In Times Like These Boxed Set

by Nathan Van Coops

  The Emily in the bed nodded. “I felt the same way. I don’t know exactly how to do it either, but I believe Carson has a plan. He’ll help you. At least he’d better. That’s what I’m paying him for.” She glanced at Carson and he smiled.

  “I’m on it.”

  Emily patted her other self’s hand. “You look like you could use some rest. Thank you for rescuing me. And thank you for telling me this.”

  “This was my future,” her other self said. “But I’m hoping it doesn’t have to be yours.” She gathered the edge of the comforter and pulled it a little higher on her chest. “But I’ll be expecting a return visit when you’re successful.”

  Emily nodded and followed Carson out of the room.

  He led her back to the bedroom she had been asleep in previously. In the time she was gone, he had laid a pair of hard-sided suitcases on the bed.

  “I brought along a few basic supplies. Typical tactical rescue stuff. But you’re going to be the most essential part of this process.” He opened a case to reveal an arsenal of tools, body armor, and night vision goggles.

  “I am?” Emily asked. “Why?”

  Carson took out a notepad and a pen from the case. “Because you’re the only one who knows what to do. You’ve been there.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not the one who came to your rescue when you escaped from Dom,” he replied. He reached into the case and held up a black fabric ski mask. “You were.”

  Emily recalled the masked woman who attempted to unstrap her from the chair. The frantic eyes behind the mask. Her eyes?

  “Why do I feel like my life has never been this complicated,” Emily said. “Is this what yours is like all the time?”

  Carson smiled and tossed her the mask. “Welcome to time travel.”

  6

  “You said there was a flash and then the lights went out. Maybe some kind of flash bang grenade?” Carson asked. “What other details can you remember?”

  Emily brushed her hair back from her face with both hands. “Just what I’ve told you already. It was pretty hard to see once they had that shower curtain thing around me. They had me on some kind of IV too. It was all a little fuzzy.”

  “Sounds like a portable gravitizer. A rush job.”

  “There you go making up words again,” Emily said.

  Carson set his pen down on the table. They were back outside sharing one side of the patio table and letting the afternoon sun warm their backs.

  “I think I’ve got the basic picture. They had to treat you with gravitites—they are these particles that enable your body and clothing to make the transition through the time gate. The external treatment would have worked fine for your clothes and your major bits and pieces, but they would’ve wanted to make sure you had a good amount of gravitites all through your body to make sure nothing got left behind in the jump.”

  “Left behind?”

  “Yeah. You remember the handcuffs?” He pulled the metal flashlight-looking device from his pocket. “I used this to remove the gravitite particles in a section of the cuffs so that when I jumped us forward a couple of seconds those bits got left behind. You wouldn’t want that to happen with your body though. And they wouldn’t either, considering they wanted to make use of your organs over here.”

  Emily was still struggling to process all that he had told her today. “So I’m really in a totally alternate reality right now . . .” She looked up to the city around her. The skyline looked mostly the same if you didn’t count the sign on the former Gammatech building. Citizens were just going about their normal days down on the street.

  “I know it’s strange to think about, but everyone you see down there thinks this is all there is,” Carson said. “All of reality. Truth is that there are lots of realities. We call them timestreams. But there is only one that you come from. Goal is to get you back there, minus the organ snatching scumbags.”

  “And we have to get it just right? What happens if we mess it up?” Emily asked.

  “I’m not worried about every single detail, those tend to take care of themselves more often than not, but if we alter what happened too drastically, there’s a chance the universe pitches a fit and the timestream itself starts to fracture. We might create a new timestream and create a whole new set of problems with it. But try not to worry about that. Most times, when you go back in time to a place you’ve already been, you’re going to act naturally. So past, er, future you in this case, will behave just like you already did in your memory. Try not to overthink it.”

  “That’s like saying ‘don’t think about pink elephants.’ The more I try not to worry, the more I find to worry about.”

  Carson smiled. “Yeah, well, just do the best you can. And we’ll try to avoid all proverbial elephants, no matter the color.”

  “When are we doing this?” Emily asked.

  “The sooner the better, I guess,” Carson said. “With my research on these guys I knew where the facility was on our end, but from what you said, we’ll be hitting them on your side of the time gate.”

  “But I already know we fail,” Emily said. “I don’t get myself untied and Axle shoves me through the gate thingy. If I can’t rescue me, then how do we stop them?”

  “The mission here isn’t to rescue you. But you do need to get in and untie the straps on the chair. From what you said, that was a key to your escape once you were over here. The rest should take care of itself. Once your earlier self is through the gate, we need to stop Dom and shut down their operation. If I can destroy their time gate on that end, they won’t have any way back to your timestream. Axle will be stuck there and we can bring him to the authorities.”

  “He won’t time travel away?”

  “These harvesters operate outside the law and under the time travel radar so to speak. They won’t have wrist mounted chronometers like mine and any other portable tech they could steal wouldn’t work without the time travel authorities being able to track them. That time gate is their meal ticket. I don’t know who they jacked it from, but I doubt they have more than one. Not this bunch anyway. I know their methods. We get in and bust it up, I can handle them. You just need to deal with Dom. Sounds like he’s a pretty desperate character right now.”

  Emily twisted the engagement ring on her finger, then looked toward the interior of the condo. “All right, then let’s get it over with. It doesn’t seem like Emily has a lot longer to wait.”

  Carson nodded. “Okay. Let’s suit up.”

  Emily dressed in more of her other self’s clothes that Carson had treated with the special gravitite particles for her. He’d chosen her a long-sleeved black shirt that would be comfortable under the body armor. Heavy lace-up boots and leather gloves complemented the black balaclava he had already given her. She had never worn a ski mask like it before and found it odd to have so much of her face covered, but it was also vaguely comforting knowing no one would know her identity. It was a vast improvement over her attire from the night before and she felt more confident about facing Axle and his cronies now that she wasn’t half-naked and intoxicated. She rolled the ski mask up on her head to resemble a beanie and joined Carson in the living room.

  “Did these guys have guns?” Carson asked as she approached the table.

  “Not that I remember,” Emily replied.

  “Good. Makes sense they wouldn’t have needed one. Wouldn’t be logical to shoot you if they wanted you alive for the crossing.”

  “Do we have weapons?” Emily asked.

  Carson held up his wrist and displayed the chronometer on it. “Got the only one we need right here.”

  Emily nodded. She still felt nervous about confronting Dom, knowing now what his real plan for her had been—but she would deal with that issue when she came to it. First she had to concentrate on the next hurdle in their plan. The ‘minor’ problem of exiting the world as she knew it and time traveling to an alternate reality.

  “Should we say goodbye to Emily?” She asked as Ca
rson finished gathering their things.

  “I just checked on her,” he replied. “She’s asleep. But I’ve got anchors from here when we want to jump back. Don’t worry. We won’t be gone long.”

  “If you say so,” Emily replied.

  Carson asked her to place her hand on his shoulder again while he pressed a finger to a little metal disc with a hole in the middle. He put his other hand on his wrist-mounted chronometer.

  “You ready?” Carson asked.

  She took a deep breath and nodded.

  “Okay, three, two, one—”

  The world blinked again.

  This time Emily found herself somewhere completely new. Carson still had his fingers on the little metal disc, but in this location it was actually a washer being used to fasten bolted-on iron bars on the windowsill of an alley window. A dumpster stood a few feet away and the wall was covered in graffiti.

  “Wow,” Emily said. “That was incredible!”

  Carson pulled a phone from his pocket, located a picture of the washer on the windowsill and deleted it.

  “What are you doing that for?” Emily asked.

  “You never want to use the same anchor spot twice. At least not at the same time. You can fuse yourself with another version of you and die. Come on, we need to leave. My younger self is waiting around that corner and is going to come unbolt this washer in a few minutes. We don’t want to run into him.”

  “There’s another you here?”

  “Yeah,” Carson said, grabbing her arm and leading her in the opposite direction of the corner he pointed to. “I jumped ahead from this morning to set up the anchor location. I figured we’d need it.”

  “You set it up before Emily even asked me to do this?” Emily said.

  “She seemed confident you’d agree,” Carson replied. “Looks like she was right.”

  Once they turned the corner Carson paused to unfasten his bag.

  “Can I look?” Emily asked. “Just to see him?”

  Carson considered her request. “Only if you’re super careful. He can’t see you.”

  Emily stepped back to the corner and very cautiously leaned toward the edge of the brick wall, peeking around the corner with one eye.

  Sure enough, there was another Carson walking up to the barred window they had just left carrying a socket wrench and a phone. He stopped to take a picture of the window. Emily put her hand over her mouth and ducked back behind the cover of the wall. “That’s crazy,” she whispered.

  “Come on. Action time,” Carson replied. He pulled his mask over his face and Emily followed suit.

  They walked around the block and Emily found herself facing the back parking lot of the Gammatech research facility. Carson walked confidently across the street while carrying a bolt-cutter from his bag. He clipped his way through the chain link fence with clean, efficient movements, then pulled a section of fence open for Emily to enter. “Hurry,” he said. “Security guard will walk by in about ninety seconds.”

  Emily hustled through the hole in the fence and Carson followed, leading her to yet another dumpster and ducking behind it. They waited silently as a man walked around the corner of the building. In all black sitting in the shadow of the building, Emily knew they would be difficult to see, but he might have a flashlight.

  It turned out the security guard was on his phone. He walked by their location but never once looked at the fence or the dumpster area. He just drifted by, engrossed by the screen in his hand. Emily recognized him in the glow of his device. She was pretty sure he used to work in her building. He wouldn’t for long if this was how he guarded all the time. She’d have to put in an email to the head of security on Monday . . .

  “Coast should be clear. But keep an eye out.” Carson moved to a metal door on the building and pulled a pair of small tools from his pocket. He inserted an L shaped bit of metal into the lock, then used a thin pick to engage the pins inside. Emily scanned the parking lot and fence as he worked, but there was no sign of security. Perhaps thirty seconds later, Carson had the door open.

  “Another talent on your list?” Emily asked.

  Carson pulled his mask up. His eyes were bright and he smiled.

  He led her at a quick pace to an intersection of hallways. “You remember which room you were in?” he asked. He let Emily go ahead and she scanned the hallways.

  Emily rolled her mask up and pointed. “That way. The one on the end.”

  When they reached the door, Carson extended a hand toward the doorknob, ready to insert his lock picking tools again.

  “Wait,” Emily whispered. “That won’t work. Dom had a chain and padlock on this door. I remember he moved it inside when we went in. I know the combination, but it’s on the wrong side of the door.”

  “Damn,” Carson muttered. “That makes things more complicated. Any other doors?”

  “Not that I saw. Just a window, but we definitely didn’t get in that way.”

  Carson considered the closed door. “Well, there’s one more thing I could try. A trick a friend of mine recently taught me.” He fished in his bag and found a compact disk case and extracted a CD. The kind people used to play music on around the turn of the century.

  “Where on earth did you find that?” Emily asked.

  “It’s Abbey Road. You don’t have this album?”

  “Not on CD. You live in 1990 or something?”

  Carson got down on one knee. “I’m from 2009 actually. You’d like it. We still have Michael Jackson there.” He got all the way to the floor and looked under the door. He tested the space under the door with the CD. “I think this will work.” He laid the CD on the floor of the hallway, pulled out his degravitizer, and proceeded to run it across it the way he had done with the handcuffs. This time he did all of it. A light on the tool turned green and he stood back up. “Come on. We need to go back outside. Or at least around the corner.” He jerked his head toward the intersection of hallways. “Time to pull a Ben.”

  “He’s the one who taught you this?”

  “Yeah, total asshole. Likes to have all the fun without me.”

  Emily followed Carson around the corner and he pulled a phone from his pocket. He set the timer on it for thirty seconds. They waited quietly, and when the thirty seconds were expired, they went back around the corner. Emily was surprised to find that the disc on the floor was just as they’d left it. Nothing had changed or disintegrated. But Carson got back on the floor again, and this time he flicked the Beatles CD under the door. When he straightened up, he indicated for her to grab hold of him. He dialed something on his chronometer. “We’re going to make two jumps, one to thirty seconds ago in this hallway, and then another forward to the other side of this door where the CD is now. Don’t make any sounds till we’re on the other side, okay?”

  Emily nodded.

  Carson quickly handed her a flash bang grenade from his bag. “And you can hold this.” He also handed her a pair of earplugs to put in. “And be sure to close your eyes when we lob this thing.”

  Emily put her earplugs in and nodded, then rolled the mask back over her face. Carson did the same.

  He put his hand to the wall, then pressed a pin on his chronometer with his other hand. They blinked.

  The hallway looked exactly the same except the CD was back on the floor near their feet. Carson put a finger to his lips, then squatted down to touch the CD this time. “Get ready,” he mouthed. She took a firm grip on his shoulder. He dialed his chronometer settings again for a forward direction and pressed the pin.

  They were inside.

  Emily looked up from where they arrived, crouched over the CD on the floor, and found herself back in the room with racks of electronics. Dom and Axle were stooped over a control monitor near the strange opaque curtain. The hazy shape of a person in a chair was visible through the material. The multi-colored doorway stood at the far side of the room, still just as mesmerizing and beautiful as it was the first time.

  “Did it work? Did she r
eceive enough?” Dom asked.

  “Should be plenty,” Axle replied. Neither of them was looking toward the entrance.

  Carson took the flash bang grenade from her hand, pulled the pin and lobbed it.

  Then he turned toward her, closed his eyes, and covered his ears.

  Emily did the same.

  The boom was significant and she could see the brilliance of the light even with her eyes closed. When she opened them Carson was already reaching for the light switch by the door.

  The next moment the room went dark. The only remaining light was the swirling brilliance of the door through time.

  7

  Carson was on the move.

  Emily watched his dark shape sprint toward Dom and Axle, then tackle Axle to the ground.

  Axle shouted as Carson hit him, then collided with the side of the gravitizer curtain as he fell.

  Carson looked her direction as he grappled with the man, who was attempting to draw a knife. The knife.

  She’d forgotten to tell Carson about the knife!

  Carson shouted. “Get her loose!”

  Emily came unfrozen and ran for the framework of tubing.

  Dom was still rubbing his eyes and trying to regain his senses from the blast. She skirted him and ducked inside the portable gravitizer with her earlier self.

  The other her in the chair was blinking and disoriented. Emily reached for the straps on the chair arms and began tearing the Velcro loose.

  “Dom?” her other self asked.

  Emily positioned herself in front of her as she loosened the other strap. “Listen, you have to run!”

  Her other self looked baffled but seemed to understand.

  “No! Don’t touch her!” Dom shouted as he flung the tubular framework aside and grabbed for her. Emily backed away as he pursued her, his fist raised.

  She held up her hands, backpedaling. What was she supposed to do now?

  She searched for Carson. His shape was on the floor where he’d been wrestling with Axle. There was a smear on the floor. Blood?