by Sean McMahon
‘I feel knackered,’ said Rachel sluggishly.
‘Yeah,’ said Hal. ‘The journey takes it out of you. Plus, the bus driver that brought us here loves to hog the blue,’ he added, casting a thumb over his shoulder to Malcolm.
‘I have to admit,’ said Alex, ‘I hadn’t expected to see you both again so soon.’
‘We’re…from the future,’ said Hal, just in case there was any doubt lingering over that fact.
‘Well, obviously,’ said Alex, feeling almost hurt that his brother had to clarify that.
‘Nooo, you didn’t make it out?!’ asked Rachel, wondering if they had even managed to leave following their last conversation, trying to wrap her head around how that was barely a minute ago from her perspective.
‘We did,’ said Kara, ‘then…we got brought back.’
‘How?’ said Alex, his brow suitably furrowed.
Hal moved closer, muttering to his brother so that Malcolm, who was keeping watch a fair distance away, couldn’t hear him.
‘That’s the thing,’ whispered Hal. ‘We have no idea. I told the big guy we needed you for something different, which we’ll get into. But honestly, we were hoping you could help us figure out exactly what he could have changed to bring us here. If nothing else so we can plan a Time Heist to fix it if things go south.’
‘Or, south-er,’ noted Fearne.
‘Oh,’ said Alex awkwardly, sensing the resentment radiating from Fearne. ‘And how did you get dragged into all this Fearne? And who’s the big guy?’ he said finally, gesturing towards the towering slab that was Malcolm.
Hal had forgotten that from Alex and Rachel’s perspective, they were carrying on a conversation right where they left off. One of the reasons Hal had chosen this moment in time in particular.
‘Okay,’ said Hal. ‘Take a seat. This is…going to take a while.’
Alex cracked his knuckles and clicked his neck, the sound of which causing a muted crack to reach their ears in reverse.
*
‘That didn’t take nearly as long as I expected,’ said Kara a mere nine minutes later. ‘You guys really have a strong grasp on Restarting.’
‘We had good teachers I guess,’ said Alex, rummaging in his pocket in an attempt to locate a cigarette. ‘You wouldn’t happen to have smokes in that fancy backpack of yours, would you?’ he said, his voice full of hope.
Hal retrieved one and offered it to his brother, but returned the box, resisting the urge to have one himself. Alex noticed, but merely nodded in approval.
‘I’m telling you, man,’ said Alex, after sparking up and finally being brought up to speed on everything that had happened since they last met, which felt like an awful lot of happenings in such a short space of time from Alex and Rachel’s perspective. ‘It has to be then. That moment. No other change would matter. I’m certain of it.’
‘He wouldn’t be that stupid,’ said Hal, refusing to accept it.
Whichever Malcolm, be it dark, future or otherwise, that had altered the past to bring Hal, Kara and Fearne back into the restart game, one thing was certain; neither would have been insane enough to change the moment when Kara and Hal had stopped Malcolm’s heart.
‘What makes you so sure?’ asked Rachel.
‘Hal’s right,’ said Kara. ‘For Malcolm to change that moment in his own history, it would undo everything that came after. For one thing, the Dark Restarter would cease to exist entirely, and Future Malcolm–’
‘–couldn’t be here now,’ finished Hal. ‘We wouldn’t even be talking without him being here to bring us to The White Lodge.’
Alex closed his eyes, clicking his fingers absently, as if trying to organise his thoughts, before finally speaking again.
‘Occam’s Razor then,’ he said. ‘Maybe they’re both telling the truth.’
‘But if it wasn’t Dark Malcolm or Future Malcolm…’ began Kara.
‘There could be another possibility,’ said Alex, frustration lining his features.
‘Oh!’ said Rachel, clearly collecting the morsels of broken sentences and reorganising them into a wonderful collage of a marginally more sensical brainstorm. ‘What if you did something yourselves! Like, a future version of yourselves. It just hasn’t happened yet!’
‘That would explain why we can’t remember our past being altered,’ said Kara pensively.
‘But not why I can’t remember Peter’s…funeral,’ said Fearne bleakly.
‘Peter’s what now?!’ blurted Rachel.
‘Malcolm went all in. Plucked Peter and I out of time and…’
‘Peter’s here too? Where is he?’ asked Rachel excitedly, realising instantly that the question was a mistake.
‘Gone,’ said Fearne coldly.
‘What do you mean gone?’ asked Alex.
Fearne told them how Peter had gone to retrieve past-Malcolm’s knife, and was slaughtered before their very eyes in his Restarter form, and how he had disintegrated into nothing. Her words caused doubt to spread across Alex’s face.
‘But if that Malcolm is from the future, why didn’t he warn you?’
‘Exactly Alex. Exactly,’ said Fearne, glad that someone understood.
‘So, you’re trying to find Pete?’ asked Alex.
‘They say they are,’ said Fearne bluntly. ‘But I’ve yet to see any evidence of that.’
Hal and Rachel shared a knowing glance and the latter instantly knew a change of subject was in order. A form of body-language intuition that only years of friendship, or perhaps Restarting together, could provide.
‘So, ah, what’s the future like?’ said Rachel, unable to help herself.
‘No one’s having kids or anything!’ blurted Hal, causing Kara to do nothing but stare at the space ahead of her.
‘That was…oddly specific,’ said Rachel, frowning at the strangely-timed statement.
‘It was only six weeks from now,’ said Kara, in an attempt to rectify Hal’s rampage against the timeline she was trying so desperately to salvage and get back to. Luckily, Rachel didn’t seem to notice all that much.
‘Come on then, hand it over,’ said Alex, gesturing with his hand as if plucking at invisible harp strings, unknowingly saving his brother from ruining Rachel’s future altogether.
Hal smiled, having noticed his brother had been eyeing up a certain six-shooter as soon as he showed up. Popping the clip of his holster, he handed over his gun without hesitation. The act surprised Kara, seeing as how Hal had been so averse to letting anyone mess about with his pride and joy. Clearly, it was a sign of how much he loved his brother.
Alex whistled in appreciation.
‘Oh wow! A Python? Isn’t that the gun–’
‘Yup,’ confirmed Hal. ‘Rick Grimes!’
‘Niiiice.’
Hal looked over at Malcolm, noting that whilst he was keeping his distance, he had been edging ever closer in incremental amounts, presumably to listen in on the Restarter conference taking place without him.
‘There’s actually something else we wanted to talk to you about’ said Hal, before dropping the next agenda item into the laps of Alex and Rachel.
*
Having shared everything regarding their new lofty goal, Kara and Hal were waiting patiently for the combined lateral thinking of Rachel and Alex to offer up some ideas they hadn’t thought of.
‘Thoughts?’ said Kara, eager to hear what they had to say.
‘Well,’ said Alex, spinning the gun in his hand, as if it eliminated procrastination and helped him to form a livewire loophole. ‘You’re looking at breaking out from the time bubble, sending Vigo the Carpathian over there–’
‘I used that one once!’ said Hal, his brother merely nodding that this was inevitable.
‘–into Sunday, to see if you’re on the right track in terms of fixing this thing?’
Hal and Kara nodded enthusiastically.
‘But,’ said Alex, taking a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling his thoughts along with the smoke, ‘you guy
s can’t cross the boundary line without triggering a restart…’
‘That’s right,’ said Hal.
‘And when Malcolm steps into the Restart Point he gets sent here, to Fir Lodge Winter Wonderland…’ Alex took another deep intake of partially out-of-phase, nicotine-free tobacco. ‘What if…’ began Alex.
“Here it comes,” thought Hal excitedly.
‘What if you cross the boundary line whilst you’re in the White Lodge Nexus?’
And there it was. Something so simple, and yet so utterly outside of the box only his brother could have thought of it.
‘Wow,’ said Rachel, flexing her fingers as if she were preparing to literally grab onto the prospect of what Alex was suggesting. ‘Then you could explore the…nexus world beyond Pentney Lakes!’
‘The nexus that connects us,’ said Kara, smiling at the way it rolled off the tongue.
‘Entirely unbound by the restart loop,’ said Hal rubbing his eternally five-o’clock stubbled chin. ‘That…could actually work. Oh, and Kara?’
‘Yeah?’
‘The nexus that connects us? Very nice,’ said Hal approvingly.
‘Thanks. One question though; nothing exists in this realm?’ said Kara. ‘I mean, sure, the surroundings do, but no one is here to watch or gain hints from, in terms of the future that is.’
Hal was about to say “almost no one,” remembering the horrifying creatures that were drawn to their Restarter energy like moths to a bonfire, but thought better of it, as if mentioning them would jinx them all and lure the beasts to their current place in the nexus they were residing in. He knew on some level that the entire concept of tempting fate and jinxes was inherently ridiculous. If something was going to happen, it would happen regardless of someone speaking of the outcome out loud. But still…she had a point.
What good would surveying the Sunday of their future be if it was a lifeless facsimile of the real world, with nothing happening within it to draw updates from.
‘Maybe,’ said Rachel, her nose scrunched in thought as she ran her fingers through her thick red hair, ‘you could do that thing? Grab onto an “anchor” or whatever, and pull yourselves into the present?’
The five Restarters turned to face the boundary line, each of them wondering what would happen if they crossed it now, in their current state, whilst occupying a realm that served as a nucleus for the entirety of time in all its forms.
‘We could try it now,’ said Alex excitedly, envisioning the countless adventures they would all have together by taking the plunge.
‘No,’ said Kara. ‘We need to get you back to where we brought you from.’ Kara’s eyes unconsciously dipped to Rachel’s stomach, the gesture washing over everyone but Hal.
‘Kara’s right,’ said Hal. ‘Besides, who knows how many flutterbys we’ll release into the world if we don’t take you back. We may have already totally borked up time in ways we can’t even imagine.’
Malcolm strolled over, all but refraining from tapping the wrist-watch he wasn’t wearing, signalling that they needed to wrap this up.
‘Two secret Restarters,’ said Malcolm, his words a mix of wonder and suspicion, slicing through the two of them like an ice-pick. ‘I must confess, I’m amazed you slipped past me. I’ve heard you two are quite the problem-solvers.’
‘We heard you’re a serial killer,’ said Rachel, biting back.
‘Former,’ chuckled Malcolm thickly. ‘My, you look positively glowing Miss Bowie,’ he added, addressing Rachel. ‘What’s your secret?’
It was in that moment that Kara knew that he knew. Had he been listening to them? Was it a lucky guess?
‘Time to go, Creepy McCreepyson,’ said Hal.
Alex and Rachel looked troubled,
‘Bro,’ said Alex, lowering his voice. ‘We've seen enough movies to know how this guy’s character arc ends. No matter what he says, you know you can't trust him right?’
The five Restarters formed a tighter circle.
Hal could feel Malcolm’s eyes burrowing into the back of his head, knowing he was close enough to hear what Hal was about to say, and chose his next words wisely.
‘He isn't the man he was,’ said Hal. ‘I really believe he's changed. Or is at least trying to.’
‘I don’t get the vibe from him that he’s changed,’ noted Rachel, Fearne’s expression showing clear signs of agreement.
‘Hal, you need to listen to me,’ began Alex, but Hal interjected before his brother could cause any more damage.
‘You remember that time we played beer pong,’ said Hal. ‘Gavin and Jon utterly destroyed us?’
Alex nodded, not sure where Hal was going with this.
‘And how I drank your drinks to spare you from drinking too much? Remember what I said just before it went south and I threw up all over the damn place.
‘You threw up in my sink, Hal, it was disgusting!’ said Rachel,
‘You said you've got this,’ said Alex.
‘Exactly,’ said Hal with a wink, and his brother knew in that moment what he was trying to say, despite not being able to say it, as he looked over his shoulder and saw the enormous killer bearing down on them.
‘This is the same thing,’ said Hal. ‘Only this time, Kara, Fearne and I–’
‘Tick-tock, time-travellers,’ said Malcolm. ‘We must depart.’
Without warning, Alex moved in and went to hug his brother, the sparks between them fizzling immediately as Hal pulled away as quickly as he could.
‘Alex, no!’ said Kara.
‘What? Just wanted to say goodbye?’ he said, not seeing the problem. He had done just that the last time he had seen them. Even hugged Kara.
It was then that they heard the squeals, echoing in reverse from beyond the tree line.
‘You just rang the dinner bell,’ said Hal, causing a look of horror to appear on Rachel and Alex’s faces.
‘What?!’ said Rachel, eyes wide.
‘Time Vampires,’ said Hal as casually as he could.
‘That’s a thing?!’ said Alex, his eyes just as wide in horror as Rachel’s, but his smile betraying him and giving away how cool he thought that was.
‘Bring it in guys, we’ve officially outstayed our welcome,’ said Kara, pulling everyone together, as Malcolm strode towards them and grabbed Fearne and Hal’s arms.
Alex had just enough time to glance over his shoulder, as a flock of what appeared to be humanoid creatures flooded across the horizon like an oil spill.
‘They come at night,’ said Hal. ‘Mostly.’
‘You wanna pick up the pace a little here Malc’,’ said Kara, the desperation to get the hell out of Dodge more than evident.
‘I…can’t,’ said Malcolm.
‘What do you mean you can’t,’ said Hal. ‘Now is not the time to get performance anxiety! It’s not that common, it doesn’t happen to every guy–’
‘–and it is a big deal,’ said Kara, smiling at the reference to the only TV series she had seen a dozen times over.
They stood there like petrified statues, as if their visibility to the creatures that were becoming clearer by the second was based solely on movement, as the interlocked arms of the time travellers generated a notable burst of electricity, like a flare being fired into the skies of yesterday.
‘I am joking,’ said Malcolm, his attempt at humour falling flatter than a restarted carbonated drink.
And with a whip-like crack, they were gone, teleported back to Rachel and Alex’s first ever restart, and Hal and Kara’s 52nd respectively.
Back to the very second before Rachel and Alex were erased in their Restarter form.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Licence to Feel
52nd Restart – Saturday, August 25th, 2018, 3:37pm
The Restarters found themselves amidst a mind-bending scenario, as they arrived back in Hal and Kara’s 52nd restart. They had arrived early, waiting out of sight and from a distance as they watched a past version of themselves jump through the restar
t portal, and gawped as yet another version of themselves ran across the road to great Alex and Rachel.
The six of them watched in awe, as they witnessed a duplicated Future Malcolm (who was now technically a Malcolm of their past) whisking them all to The White Lodge to embark on the conversation they had just had.
‘Anyone else struggling with an identity crisis right now?’ said Alex, looking a little green.
Hal, Kara and Rachel all raised their hands slightly in agreement.
‘Well, weirdness aside, it’s been fun! Take care guys,’ said Rachel, as she and Alex took up the spot their past iterations had only moments before been occupying, waiting for the restart mechanism to claim them as it had done the first time.
With their friends in position, Hal and Kara gave Malcolm the go-ahead to take them back to the timeline where the Dark Restarter was waiting for them, as the world crumbled into nothingness around them.
‘What do you think Hal meant,’ said Alex, turning to Rachel and filling their last precious seconds as bona fide time-travellers with a delayed response to a seemingly innocuous outburst from his brother. ‘When he said no one’s having babies in the future?’
Rachel clenched her jaw, trying admirably to cloak the smile that was causing the corner of her mouth to quiver.
‘Oh, I think I have an idea,’ said Rachel, unable to contain her smirk.
‘No waaay?’ said Alex excitedly. ‘Really? How long?’
She was about to tell him Jon and her had only found out a couple of days ago, but was distracted by the temporal wave that was making its way towards them both, disintegrating everything in its path.
‘Boy or girl?’
‘It’s way too early Alex, but…I’m thinking a g–’
They felt the ground rumble beneath them, Alex’s eyes drawn to a small blue spark erupting from his hand.
‘Ouch,’ said Alex. ‘I feel weird. You feel weird?’ he added, as an odd sensation of retained current coursed through him.
‘Actually,’ said Rachel. ‘Ye–’
And they were gone.
*
“You know,” thought Kara, glad to be back in-phase with the slightly more predictable environment of Restart 187. “The weirdest thing is, everything we just did must have been happening during and after we jumped through the portal on that restart,” she noted, made giddy by the cyclical nature of travelling through time, and referring to their 52nd trip back through it, which Hal knew thanks to their current connection.