"He had a bit more of the resonance affecting him," Brooke said.
"This is the warehouse where you worked, isn't it?" Avery asked.
Wyatt glared at her and shrugged. "The warehouse I worked in was inside the Salt Lake valley." He pointed toward the mountains to their east that blocked the lights from the Salt Lake metro area. "Those are the Oquirrh Mountains. We're not in the Salt Lake valley."
"So, what was your issue back there?" Aldan asked.
Wyatt shrugged and looked away. The warehouse stood in what used to be a large grazing field. A narrow, paved driveway entered a small parking lot with two light poles. It somehow looked familiar to Wyatt, and the more he thought about it, the more it seemed to fill his memory.
"We've got a problem," Wyatt said, stepping back to lean against the wall behind him. His head had begun to ache, and his memories stretched. He remembered his evening before the earthquake in two distinctly different memories.
In one version of his memories, he had been selected for time traveling by an older version of Avery, but in the other, the warehouse where he worked had caught fire and he had been late getting home. The Older Avery had not found him. But someone else had.
The memory of a thin woman in white scared him. She had collected him in the memory of the warehouse fire. She had collected him from the warehouse. It was vague, as if something they had done, or would do, would change that memory.
It brought back to his mind the sensation from his nightmare of being in the same place with two different outcomes. He hadn't been run over in the business park, but his mind seemed to latch onto that memory also, leaving him with two. Both memories were as clear and distinct, but his memories of the night before the earthquake were jumbled.
"Are you okay?" Brooke asked as she shook her head. "Something is changing. Can you feel that?" She gripped Wyatt's left arm again as she turned to look at Avery.
"The resonance is coming back," Avery said.
"But stronger," Jeremy said. "The last time we felt that was when your"—he pointed toward Aldan—"old group tried to ruin things."
"It's getting worse," Brooke said as Wyatt saw Aldan rubbing his temples.
In the back of his mind, Wyatt knew Aldan was from his group, but his memories seemed to dissolve, leaving him with a massive headache. "It's happening again," he said as he struggled to remember their names.
"We need to get out of here," Aldan said. "We need to go back and get Lenny's help."
"If he is still there," Jeremy said. He touched his left wrist and activated his portal. Avery stepped beside him and did the same.
"Come on, Aldan," Avery said, casting a last glance toward Brooke and Wyatt. "Some of us have to get out of here while we still can remember who we are."
Time had been changed. Wyatt felt it, and knew Brooke felt it. Her grip tightened on his left wrist, hiding the fact Wyatt no longer had a wrist terminal. Aldan seemed to watch it for a second before he activated his portal. Jeremy and Avery stepped through theirs. Aldan stopped just a few inches from his portal and turned toward Wyatt and Brooke.
"You need to get back," Aldan said. "I've seen this before, and it will destroy you to remain here."
"I know," Brooke said. She let go of Wyatt's wrist and activated her portal as Aldan stepped through his portal.
Wyatt stood with his back to the wall, trying to remember the name of the woman who had been holding him. His mind flashed on her name, but it never remained. He watched her struggling with a device at her wrist. He had forgotten the name of that device, but he knew it was important. He glanced toward his wrist and didn't see one.
"Don't leave me," Wyatt said. The woman looked at him as a hole opened in the reality beside her.
She reached for him. "Come with me, now," she said, latching onto his arm and pulling him through the black portal.
CHAPTER seven
DORMITORY ENTRANCE, R333PS
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2090, 8:15 AM
The headache tore through his mind as the woman pulled him close and twisted into the portal. The familiar sickening feeling returned as he fell to the cold concrete floor. The contents of his stomach seemed to roll around, trying to get out, and it was all he could do to hold it back as he rolled to his left side.
Coughing all around him. Everyone coughed, and his headache subsided. With its departure, came the damp, mildew smell. That smell seemed to solidify his memories. The woman who had brought him through was Brooke, the others were Jeremy, Avery, and Aldan.
"Where is Lenny?" Avery asked. She seemed the first to finish recovering from the effects of the resonance.
"He was supposed to be here," Jeremy said. "We left him five minutes ago."
Brooke crossed to their dormitory door, opened it, and stared inside. "He's not in there either."
"We left him fifteen minutes or so ago," Aldan said. "Maybe he had to use the restroom, or something."
"I doubt that," Brooke said, turning to face them. "Something strange has happened. Look at that bed in the corner." She pointed toward the bed just to the right of the door.
Wyatt tried to get a look, but Aldan brushed past him.
"Someone has used it," Aldan said.
"Do you think it was one of us?" Jeremy asked as Avery stepped through the dormitory door.
"Why would one of us use that bed?" Avery asked. She stepped closer to the bed and ran her hands along the blanket. "It looks like they were in a hurry."
Wyatt finally saw the bed and wondered at her comment. The blanket and sheet had been pulled up over the pillow in much the same way he would make his bed. "What makes you say that was done in a hurry?"
Avery turned toward him and smiled. "Most people take a little more time to make their beds," she laughed.
"Who do you think it would have been?" Aldan asked. "We're all here and we left here only a few minutes ago."
"Did you feel the resonance back in that special warehouse?" Wyatt asked, as his mind struggled to remember what had happened there.
"It was there," Avery said.
"I still feel it in the background here," Brooke said.
Wyatt nodded as he felt it a little bit more. The dizziness didn't seem like it would ever go away. It hung in the back of his mind.
"Did any of you feel your memories torn apart?" Wyatt asked.
Aldan's eyes shot to him, and he grimaced. "Did you feel that?"
Wyatt nodded.
"Can you describe the double-memories?" Avery asked.
Wyatt stepped toward the sofa and took a seat. From there he tried to make sense of his clashing memories. "I remembered my last night before the earthquake in two different ways," he began. "I remembered being selected in each way, but differently. I remember the warehouse I worked in burning and being selected differently. That memory is not as clear, so I don't think it is accurate any longer."
"So, you did work in that warehouse?" Brooke asked.
"No," Wyatt said. "Maybe. I don't know. But I remember being in a warehouse that had a fire. I remembered the fire trucks coming to put it out." Both memories filled his mind. He couldn't tell for sure which was correct but settled on the clearest memories.
Aldan stepped back from the sofas and Jeremy joined him. Avery watched them from the other sofa where she faced Wyatt. Brooke sat beside him and watched the sixth bed in the corner as if something would jump out of it.
That bed worried Wyatt. Had someone tried to use it for a quick nap? Or had someone messed with it just enough to make him worry? With the resonance hanging lightly in the background, he couldn't be sure the bed's state was not a serious change in their past.
He also worried that he was not able to hear the conversation Aldan and Jeremy had behind him. As he looked back over his shoulder, they shifted closer to the bed Avery used in that left side front corner of the dormitory. He couldn't hear anything they said, but as he watched, Aldan gestured more than usual with both hands. Jeremy nodded and looked back toward Wyatt.
&nbs
p; "Give them a moment of privacy," Brooke said, pulling Wyatt back around to face her. "It's probably best that way. They'll get it out of their system."
"This is a dangerous time," Wyatt said. "Are you certain we came back to the right day?"
Brooke looked at her wrist terminal as well as Avery's. Both exchanged a glance and nodded back to Wyatt.
"It is the right time and place," Avery said. "But some things have changed."
"Was I the only one that felt it so strongly?" Wyatt asked.
"The resonance was there," Brooke said. "I felt it strongly, but my memories weren't affected."
"How can you be so sure?" Wyatt asked, raising his voice. He stopped himself with a glance toward Aldan and Jeremy. They still spoke to each other quietly in the corner.
"Do you want to see what they are discussing?" Brooke asked Avery.
"I don't think they would tell me," Avery said. "Remember how they treated you when they thought you were tipping off Jarod somehow and ruining our trips to get him."
Brooke nodded and partially faced Wyatt while still facing Avery on the other sofa. She leaned forward, clasped her hands with her elbows on her knees, and hung her head with a sigh.
"Are you okay?" Wyatt asked, touching her right shoulder with his left hand. She tensed under his touch. "What is it?"
"I just need a moment," Brooke said. "Can you feel the resonance forming?"
Wyatt shifted his seated position a little farther away from Brooke and focused on what he felt. The resonance indicated changes in the timestream. If Brooke felt it now, without any of the rest of them feeling it, did that mean she was affected?
"I feel it slightly," Avery said. "I kind of feel like I know the person that should be using that bed, but I have no idea who it is."
"Can you picture what that person might look like?" Wyatt asked, glancing toward the empty unmade bed. Hannah had taken his wrist terminal, and he wondered if she would have found a way into their group. He didn't think he had told her enough about where they were, but she had his wrist terminal. That would give her access to all the location codes and times he had used.
Avery shook her head as Wyatt spoke.
"How are your memories now?" Brooke asked. She raised her head and rubbed her temples with a sick expression on her face. Her brown skin lightened as her eyes narrowed.
Wyatt glanced away. "I don't know if I remember everything that actually happened in the way it happened," he said.
Brooke leaned closer with a glance over her shoulder toward Aldan and Jeremy. She spoke quietly. "Do you think Hannah did this to you?"
"She does become the woman in white," Avery said, leaning forward. She looked ready to say more, but Aldan and Jeremy returned to the sofa area prompting her to remain quiet.
"What did you guys discuss?" Wyatt asked. He placed his left arm beside his left leg to hide the fact he was still without his wrist terminal.
"What did you do?" Aldan asked, stepping around in front of Wyatt.
"I didn't do anything," Wyatt said. "I didn't cause this mess." He shook his head and glanced toward Avery and Brooke.
"Why would you think he caused it?" Avery asked.
"Think about it," Jeremy said. "You are the one who has spent a lot of time back with that woman in the past."
"You've spent time with my cousin Hannah," Aldan said. "When was the last time you visited her?"
Wyatt shook his head again. He forced himself not to glance toward Brooke, but her sudden intake of breath might have given away his lie. He watched Aldan for a moment. "I haven't seen her since we finished with Jarod," he lied.
Aldan glanced toward Jeremy on his right, and in that motion, Wyatt thought he saw his eyes linger on Brooke's for too long. Aldan knew Wyatt was lying. That thought scared Wyatt, but he tried to keep his head up.
"I'm serious," Wyatt said.
"I don't believe you," Aldan said. "Everything has changed, and it seems to be tied to you."
Wyatt nodded and looked down. He almost pulled his hands out in front of himself but stopped at the last moment. "You don't have to believe me," he said. "I'm not trying to ruin this."
"That's not what I asked you," Aldan said, stepping closer. "What happened to your wrist terminal? Where did you leave it?"
Wyatt's heart skipped a beat and his breath caught. He could barely think, let alone breathe. The anger that flared across Aldan's face almost terrified him. Wyatt leaned back on the sofa and held his hands up in a calming gesture. "I didn't mean to cause this," he said.
"Where did you leave your wrist terminal?" Jeremy asked, stepping beside Aldan. Aldan shifted his stance slightly to glare down at Wyatt.
Situations like these never ended well for Wyatt. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aldan's fists clench and knew he was out of time. "Okay," he said. "I went back to visit Hannah yesterday."
"Who else was there?" Aldan asked, looking at Jeremy. "Did you see the woman in white?"
"We already know that woman in white is an older Hannah," Avery said, rising from the sofa across from Wyatt. She stepped around Jeremy, placing herself between his bulky, muscled frame and Wyatt.
"But why did she become the woman in white?" Jeremy said. "I'm sure it had something to do with you." He pushed past Avery and tried to step closer to Wyatt, but Avery was there to stop him. She stepped in his way.
Wyatt shook his head. "I don't think Hannah is the only woman in white," he said. "I've seen another, thinner blonde."
"Another one?" Aldan said, smiling and looking away. "Are you sure?"
"Enough of this," Avery said. "Things have changed. We know they have but fighting among ourselves won't help."
"She's right," Brooke said. "So, Wyatt went back to visit Hannah and lost his wrist terminal there."
Wyatt lowered his hand and watched Brooke for a moment. She smiled at him briefly, before turning her attention back toward Aldan and Jeremy. As she did, he couldn't help remembering the odd location code on her wrist terminal and the way she had hidden it.
"Did you give her your wrist terminal?" Aldan asked. "And if you did, why?"
"I didn't give it to her," Wyatt said, and that was as far as he felt comfortable with his explanation.
"She took it from him as he returned," Brooke said. "I saw her hands on his wrist as he stepped through his portal." She reached her right hand out to touch Wyatt's left arm, and he almost cringed away from it.
Aldan let out a breath noisily and looked from Wyatt to Avery and Jeremy. "I don't believe this," he said. "How could you let her take it?"
"I had no idea she would take it from me," Wyatt said after a moment's thought. "She seemed different the last time I visited her. She was worried someone was watching her."
"It was probably her older version watching her," Avery said.
"Or that other thinner blonde," Wyatt suggested.
Avery looked back toward Aldan. "I think we need to see if our contracts are still here. We might want to read them to see what kind of trouble this might have caused."
"We should check," Aldan said. "But I don't think you should read it yet. That might be too rough with all the changes."
Wyatt rose from the sofa and scooted to his right, away from Aldan and nearer the door.
"Where are you going?" Brooke asked.
"I'm going to check on my contract," Wyatt said. He hadn't really decided that was what he wanted to do, but it sounded good. He watched as Brooke nodded and turned her attention back toward Avery.
Wyatt stepped around the sofa and walked behind it on his way to his bed in the back left corner of the room. His metal footlocker sat at the foot of the bed. The last time they had experienced substantial changes in the timestream, their contracts had also been taken. He had placed his deep under his clothing to try and prevent that any other times.
The metal lid opened, and he stuffed his left hand between the folded shirts, shorts, and underwear, all in the orange color they wore in the warehouse. His fingers traced the ed
ge of the plastic envelope he had pulled out earlier.
He retrieved it and checked inside the envelope.
"Don't read it," Brooke said. "I think that would be the end of things for us." She had evidently followed him when he went looking for his contract.
"I've still got mine," Jeremy called from the other side of their dormitory.
"Did everyone go looking for their contracts?" Wyatt asked Brooke.
She smiled at him and put her envelope back into her footlocker. A moment later, she turned and looked at him. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," Wyatt answered as Avery laughed about her contract still being in her footlocker. "At least we haven't lost our contracts. But I don't know how I will get my wrist terminal back."
"I think we should read them," Avery said. "I think they would help us understand what we are facing now."
"No," Jeremy said, rounding the kitchen area to step in front of her. He placed his hand over her envelope and pushed it down. "Don't read it again. Remember what it did to Aldan."
"It didn't do anything to me," Aldan said. "But it is a little hard to take at times."
"How much of what you read has actually happened?" Brooke asked. Wyatt thought he saw something in her expression. The way she smiled but her eyes didn't. It looked like she was worried about something.
"That's the thing," Aldan said. "It changes. I've read my contract a few times, and each time it is different."
"But it tells you what you need to fix at the end of your career, correct?" Wyatt asked. He closed his footlocker and turned to face Aldan as Aldan approached.
"That's what Lenny says," Aldan said. "But I don't know anymore. I think the contracts are an odd thing that the Machina uses to remind us of where we are."
"So, we should read them," Avery said.
"I don't know how much they would help us here," Aldan said.
Jeremy shrugged and shook his head. "We need to try and fix this," he said. "Wyatt either needs to stay here or find a way to get his wrist terminal back."
"What are you expecting me to do?" Wyatt asked. "Someone was really bothering Hannah the last time and I don't know if I can go back and find her before she takes it from me." He folded his arms and glared at Jeremy for a moment.
Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2) Page 6