Maelstrom

by Scott McElhaney

  Mercy pointed to the screen of her device, “That’s not even English, Nautica! Yeah, I see some numbers, but what’s that, that, and that?”

  “It’s computer code and for lack of a better term, it’s shorthand. These symbols represent complete words and sometimes even sentences. It’s something that’s taught in elementary school and very important in the world I come from. We really don’t have time to go into detail,” she replied.

  “So, did we kill the wrong person? Who did I shoot?” I pleaded, clasping my hands together as I looked to my partners in crime.

  “And what’s a Timeline River Delta? Can you trust your readings?” Mercy added.

  Nautica looked over at her and then nodded as she stuffed the iPhone or ‘Mapper’ into her pocket. She turned to us, pulling her leg up under her as she got comfortable.

  “The TD is a hundred percent accurate. It’s an ongoing monitor that basically peeks about a year down the road from your current moment. If we change something significant, the ripples would be huge and we’d get the alerts. The TD reports minor ripples and shows almost no change,” she said, “I have decades of data and experience that gives me utmost confidence in the readings of the Timeline River Delta, so yeah, I trust it. And yes, I wonder if we killed the wrong person. Where did you get your information?”

  “Captain Toth and his shipboard historian gave us this information. I don’t remember the historian’s name,” I said, “But he wouldn’t have had a reason to lie to us. As a matter of fact, he was very reluctant to bring us back. So if anything, he’d have lied to prevent us from coming back to Earth.”

  “I truly believe they were telling us the truth. He had the data already there on his computer,” Mercy added, “So I wonder if he had the address incorrect.”

  “Well, Ezekiel answered to his name and I do recall seeing wooden block letters on his desk that spelled out Zeke,” Nautica said, “What was it you said about the guy we’re going to see in DC?”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out the paper. I took a moment to examine it, then found the scribbled information I needed.

  “The headquarters of Intergalactic, the government funded organization in charge of building those ships to Cancri, is located in Washington DC. The president of Intergalactic, Darren Gates, was so quick to pull the plug after the false information on the Maelstrom was released that it made many curious. He goes to jail in about a year for embezzling millions of… well, millions of ‘bills’ which I guess means ga-zillions of dollars. Apparently Intergalactic didn’t have the money to fund these ships anyway,” I said.

  Several people shuffled into the bus while we sat there conspiring. None of the newcomers chose seats near the three of us.

  “So we’re going to Washington to tell him to put the money back into the company and keep building ships?” Nautica asked.

  “To start building!” Mercy said, “He’d been delaying the program for decades, giving one excuse after another. Those who are frightened by the black hole have been on his back for years.”

  “So he’s the second link in the problem-chain. We stopped the fake stories from going out, but we still don’t have a proper program in place for people to leave the planet,” Nautica said.

  “Sadly, we really don’t have much in the way of any plans. One-by-one, we just need to find these key people and set them on a better course,” I said.

  Moments later, the bus started moving. It wasn’t even five after seven before we were on the freeway and headed in the right direction. We spent the next several minutes going over names and locations. All the while, Mercy moved things around in the duffle bag, searching for our makeshift dinner. That dinner for each of us would consist of a small bag of chips, a tiny bag of mixed nuts, and root beer. None of the brand names for these were any that we were familiar with in the twenty-first century. This little meal would be the last time the three of us would get to dine together in peace and comfort. Because just after dark, our world would come crashing down.

  Twenty-One

  It was probably a little after nine when the bus came to a sudden stop. Looking out the windows, I noticed the familiar red and blue flashing beacons found on police cars in my world. Apparently that had never changed throughout history. The three of us were immediately on the defensive as we waited to see what was happening.

  “Here, everyone take a few bills,” Nautica said, splitting the cash quickly between us, “If anything happens, do not talk about our destination or plans. Lie if you have to.”

  I watched as two sturdy men dressed all in black entered the front of the bus. One of the men was clearly searching the bus while the other showed something to the bus driver. Soon, they were headed our way, one of them having already drawn a weapon from his holster.

  “Good evening,” the one who hadn’t drawn his gun said toward our little group, “The three of you were spotted earlier departing the home of an Ezekiel Dawn in Akron, Ohio. We’ve got three cameras confirming this, then we’ve got facial recognition cameras throughout the city and even on this bus that has led us here to you. We’d like to take the three of you in for questioning.”

  “Questioning? Why is that?” I asked, feigning innocence.

  “Because someone burned off the guy’s arm as well as burning a giant hole in his chest. How’d they perform such a hideous task? We don’t know,” the man with the weapon stated, “But we do know that it was a highly irregular way to murder someone and the funny thing is, the apartment burned down within ten minutes of your departure from his home. Perhaps ‘questioning’ isn’t the right word. Please leave this bus peacefully and we’ll discuss the rest at the station.”

  “Do we look armed to you, officer?” Mercy held out her hands, “And you can surely check our bags. You’ve got the wrong people, obviously.”

  “Then you’ll have no problem coming with us to allow us to rule you out as suspects,” he said.

  I looked to Mercy who merely shrugged. I stood and nodded to the officers.

  “Then let’s get this over with and I’ll expect a ride provided for us since you’ve interrupted this particular one,” I said.

  Both officers stepped aside, gesturing for the three of us to lead the way off the bus. I noticed as we headed to the front of the bus that there were at least three police vehicles surrounding the bus. This concerned me greatly.

  My concern shot through the roof when I noticed two weapons trained on me by other officers as I exited the bus. They stood several feet away, clearly pointing their weapons at my head as I stepped onto the grass at the edge of the freeway.

  “Drop the duffel bag and then take four steps forward,” an officer shouted.

  “Why are you shouting? Do we look armed and dangerous to you?” I hollered, dropping the bag of snacks onto the grass.

  I felt an oddly strong wind pelting my face, causing me to look up in the direction from where it emanated. There I discovered a hovering vehicle about fifty feet above us. I’d call it a helicopter, except it didn’t have the props or the thumping sound of such a vehicle.

  “What is all this?” Mercy asked.

  “All this is what happens when you murder a guy who is under police surveillance. You picked the wrong guy,” someone behind us laughed.

  Before I could even react, my hands were quickly brought behind my back and cuffed together. Thankfully I didn’t hear any gunfire, proving that Mercy hadn’t decided to attack. Soon, the three of us were all standing side-by-side several yards from the bus while facing the nearby forest. We could hear the bus pulling away while more police vehicles drew closer.

  “What’s the plan?” I whispered.

  “Certainly not getting locked up here in 2555,” Mercy said, “Who knows what these prisons are like.”

  “If we start shooting, we have to get everyone including that hovering thing,” I said.

  “From the moment we start to move, count to ten slowly. Then you take left and I take right,” Mercy said.

&n
bsp; I glanced at her, sharing that same look of fear and uncertainty radiating from her face.

  “Good thing we’re suicidal, right?” she chuckled.

  I nodded, unsure if I could even speak.

  “Ok, turn around and come toward the vehicles,” an officer hollered.

  As we spun around, Mercy said “one” aloud to remind me to count. I viewed police vehicles for as far as I could see both right and left along the berm of the freeway. I was at ‘three’ by the time I took my first step, all the while taking note of my targets. There were a minimum of ten armed police to the left of us. I then realized I’d have to take out the chopper above us because it was now to the left of us. I’d hit that right away with a grenade from my right arm.

  ‘eight… nine… ten’

  I transformed both arms just as we neared the van-like police vehicle. The cuffs naturally fell to the ground as I dropped to my knees and brought both weapons forward. My digital sighting systems were on, so I fired the moment the crosshairs passed over the chopper. At the exact same time, I had crosshairs passing over the chests of various officers as I released a barrage of titanium slugs down the line. Even if they wore Kevlar, they’d be dead. The chopper exploded in a massive fireball, lighting the nighttime roadway while something else exploded on Mercy’s side of the battlefield.

  We must have truly appeared to be harmless because these people weren’t the slightest bit ready for us. Pistols had been returned to their holsters by the start of our attack. And it seemed that even those who were still armed weren’t prepared for such a sudden and decisive attack. I slowly rose to my feet and backed away as I scanned my enemies for movement. I spotted movement beyond the windshield of a vehicle, so I targeted it and released a barrage of rounds at that unidentified person.

  I turned to Mercy to discover that she was running down the length of the freeway, shooting at someone who was perhaps fleeing. She suddenly spun around, perhaps hit by a bullet. I screamed her name as she began unleashing her weapons toward her enemy. She began blowing up multiple vehicles with her cannon as well.

  That was when I saw several more choppers heading our way from the distance. We didn’t have enough explosives to blow all these from the sky. Suddenly Nautica grabbed me by the shoulder and nodded toward the forest behind us. I looked back toward Mercy in the distance, then I saw the choppers closing in. I screamed her name again.

  “There’s no time!” Nautica hollered, tugging at my robotic right arm.

  She was right. I hated to leave her, but I had no choice. Someone had to be free to save the world. And judging by the amount of explosions she’d caused, she had to be running out of explosive rounds pretty soon. It was while I weighed my options, heading toward the woods that I looked back and confirmed I’d had no choice.

  Mercy was being pummeled by the rapid-fire rounds from an unknown assailant. She tumbled backward to the ground, having been torn apart by our enemy. I cried out while Nautica tugged me into the woods.

  Twenty-Two

  I continued to cry as we rushed through the darkened forest. Nautica reminded me that I’d been equipped with night vision as well, so I turned that on and then took the lead, keeping a hold of her hand. I’d kept my left arm transformed into a weapon while my right arm returned to normal.

  “I’m sorry about your loss, Hunter,” Nautica said.

  “She was the tough one. She was the one who should have continued the mission, not me,” I sobbed, “I needed her!”

  “As near as I could tell, you were quite the warrior back there. You methodically shut down your whole side of the battlefield, Hunter,” she said, perhaps trying to encourage me.

  I knelt down just then, feeling the heaping pile of dead leaves at my feet. I then looked over at the two ancient fallen trees nearby while scanning the forest floor.

  “What is it?” Nautica asked.

  “Surely they’re following us and most certainly they have night vision as well. I need to do something to ensure they can’t follow,” I said, transforming my right arm again as I stood up, “Come with me.”

  We ran several more yards before I turned and fired a grenade at the dead tree. It exploded fantastically, sending flaming shards of wood in all directions. Just in case that wasn’t enough to ignite the forest floor, I shot several plasma rounds into the areas where the leaf piles were the thickest. A minute later, there were at least six different fires burning nicely in the woods behind us. We turned and continued our escape deeper into the woods.

  We exited the woods temporarily and had to cross a knee-high river at one point, then we reentered the woods on the other side. We could see smoke rising on the horizon behind us. As much as I hated the idea of causing a forest fire, the future of mankind depended on this one.

  We somehow managed to continue on throughout the whole night, only pausing once to take a break near a backwoods country road. By the time the sun was peeking out across the landscape the next morning, Nautica and I were passing through a cornfield. I’d transformed both my guns into arms again just in case we came across anyone along the way. I didn’t want to needlessly frighten anyone.

  When we finally came to the edge of the cornfield, we located a small farmhouse with a nice vehicle parked in the driveway. Nautica immediately suggested that we take the vehicle. That was the same moment we noticed a man watching us from an old-fashioned well pump. He had been in the process of pumping water into a metal pail he’d placed on the ground nearby.

  I merely raised my hand to him to say hello. Nautica followed my lead. He smiled brightly and it was in that moment that I realized he may not have been so much a man as he might have actually been a teenager. He left the bucket where it was as he headed in our direction.

  “What sorta situation could cause two lovely ladies to have to sleep out in the cornfields?” he asked.

  I realized just then that we must have looked like quite a mess. I brushed some leaves and dirt off my pants as I smiled back at him and stuck out my hand to shake his.

  “My name is Hunter and this is Nautica,” I said as he took my hand and shook it gently, “We… well, I lived with an abusive man and escaped into the night. Nautica is a friend of mine who kept encouraging me to leave that horrible man, so she helped me to flee. Then we kind of got lost.”

  “Wow, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m Carter and this here is my granddad’s farm. I live here and work here for him. You should come inside for some breakfast,” he offered.

  “No thanks, we really can’t stay. Do you think you could give us a ride out of town though?” I asked, “We’ll pay you!”

  “I can go ahead and ask Paw if that’s alright,” he turned quickly and ran toward the house before we could stop him.

  I hadn’t wanted to meet any grandparents. I was hoping to involve as few people as necessary. I wouldn’t have even involved Carter had he not caught us leaving his field. It was while we approached the house that he and his grandpa stepped out onto the small back porch. The older man was portly and wore a dingy blue ball cap slightly askew. I was surprised to see good old fashioned jeans on the man and a basic gray button-up shirt that wasn’t tucked in.

  He looked at the two of us as we cautiously approached the back porch. Carter had already made his way down off the porch steps and now he was standing near us while the old man seemed to examine us.

  “Boy says you’re in a bad place with your ol’ man. I ain’t no friend of a wife-beater. Man lays a hand on his wife ain’t no better than a sewer possum,” he said, looking from me to Nautica, “I won’t send you out without food in your stomach though. That’s my price for allowin’ Carter here to take you outta town.”

  “Sir, we really need-”

  “That’s my price. Figure I can get to know someone a little over a hot meal. If you’re a good person, you needn’t worry.”

  And just like that, Nautica and I found ourselves in a rustic little kitchen helping the old man to fry up a giant skillet of scrambled eggs and bacon
. If there was a grandma, we didn’t see any sign of her. This was the dirty and unorganized home of a bachelor, but we had no right to judge or complain. The man was more than willing to share his eggs, bacon, and toast with two strangers.

  We all sat down at the table with heaping plates of eggs and bacon and a stack of toast in the middle of the table. The old man offered up a quick prayer to the Lord above, then we dug in. I was surprised to discover just how hungry I was. I was also surprised to discover just how flavorful real farm eggs tasted.

  “Thank you so much for inviting us to breakfast,” I said, shoveling in another bite of eggs, “I can’t recall the last time I’d had scrambled eggs.”

  “Yes, sir. Thanks so much for breakfast!” Nautica added.

  “Where you from?” he asked, taking a slice of toast off the stack between us.

  “Akron,” I said, “Originally, anyway.”

  He nodded as he buttered the toast, “I knew a boy from up that way when I’s a kid. So, where you headed now?”

  “Ultimately, Washington DC. I have family out that way who can look after me.”

  “Good, long as you’ve got a place to go,” he said.

  Even the thought of DC made me want to cry. I kept picturing Mercy as her torso rocked from the impact of the bullets. I really hoped she didn’t feel all those rounds that tore into her. It’s why I chose that bridge for my suicide. I wanted to feel nothing, not even for a millisecond.

  We continued to talk through breakfast, thankfully never getting too personal. Afterward, we helped to clean up and wash the dishes. Then, to my surprise, he handed Carter a rolled up blanket, and a backpack. I tried to hand him a bill as we got ready to leave, but he waved it off.