by Holly Hook
My breath comes in gasps. How long have we been walking? The blood's growing dry and stiff on my dress.
"There!" Isabel shouts.
She stands at a random rift and the memory tickles the back of my mind. This is the one, all right. Simon, Isabel and I went through it as Timeless. Even better, on the other side there's an artificial rift that Arnelia can turn on for us. She did escape from Frank, right? Frank did try to murder her.
She did. Frank's not Timeless anymore, and he never will be as far as I know. He should be back at the Civil War, fighting the Confederates.
A part of me hopes that he survives, that he gets to go on and be happy like everyone else. That he's not going to lie there and rot in the sun, and that he's not going to be lying in the ground while Lincoln gives the Gettysburg Address. The same for Fred, too.
We stop at the rift.
"We're going to have to get Simon upright to pull him through," I say.
"I can walk now," he says, lifting his feet off my shoulders and landing on the floor. "I'm a lot less dizzy with you holding me like that."
"No, you can't." I'm relieved to see him up and about again. Maybe he just needed to get some blood back to his brain. Understandable.
He straightens up.
And sways.
"Simon!" I grab him to stop him from going down.
"I'm tired,'" he says. "Sleepy."
"That's a sign of blood loss," Monica says. "We need to go through. Now."
Monica's the first to jump through the rift this time. Whether it's to get out of here or to go get help, I'm not sure. I make sure the hair clip is still fastened to my scalp and hit the button to make it save my newest memories, as much as I hate them. Isabel takes Simon's other shoulder. And together, we jump through.
Chapter Sixteen
"Where is this?" I ask.
Everything's a blur at first and I stop, taking in the huge glass dome that's over my head. I'm standing next to a guy with dark brown hair. In the sunlight, it has red highlights. But the guy is pale, sick-looking, almost. Things that look like gray, five-foot-high walls with chairs facing them line the room. There's a walkway that leads to a tunnel all the way across the room. There's two girls standing with us too, a blond girl in an old gray dress and a dark girl with curls in her hair, who's looking around at the room in astonishment.
I have no idea why we're here.
Or what this place even is.
All I can scrape from my memory is my name.
Julia.
"What's going on?" I ask. "Why are we here?"
The guy I'm holding leans on me more like he's going to pass out. "I dunno." He looks up at the room. "But it's pretty cool."
Then I catch the smell of blood. I look down.
The boy I'm holding has a towel or cloth wrapped around his calf. It's bleeding. There's so much blood on it that at first, I think I'm looking at a red cloth, not a white one. More blood drips down to his stockings and starts to pool on the floor.
He leans on me and groans.
"Did we just finish with some weird party or something?" the dark girl asks. She's dressed in jeans, unlike me. I'm wearing a brown dress with ugly flowers on it. Nothing about this makes sense. Who are these people?
But one thing's clear.
I need to call for help.
We're standing next to a tall wall that's gray and featureless. I run my hand across it. It's made of some strange material like canvas or something. Nothing here. No one else is in the room with us. The air grows darker like the sun's going out, but I can't see any clouds in the sky above us. The sun's at a low angle, like we're at some crazy latitude or something.
"Hello?" I call. "Anyone? I don't know what's happening, but this man is bleeding. Someone needs to come right now!"
One of the gray walls has some kind of computer screen lit up on it. Strange symbols that might be Chinese or Arabic dance across the screen. I'm not sure how I know what a computer is. It's just there, screaming at the back of my memory.
The guy sags against me. His head lolls onto my shoulder. He's losing strength.
"Hello?" I shout.
My voice echoes around the room. There's tingling sensation coming form the wall behind us. I turn to face it. Nothing's happening.
"Hello? We need help!"
I contemplate dragging the boy towards the tunnel that leads out of the room--there's one just down a walkway between all the gray walls and chair and computer monitors--but decide against it. If this boy is bleeding, I don't want to make it any worse.
"I want to lie down," the guy says.
I let him. The blond girl and I set him down on the steps. He manages to prop his leg up, putting his foot up on the gray wall. His eyes flutter open all the way like he's regaining some consciousness. The towel around his leg loosens. It's soaked with blood, both new and old.
"Stay there," I tell him. My heart pounds. "We need to get you help. Do you know what happened to you?"
"No clue."
I search my pockets for something, anything, to help stop the bleeding. There's nothing. My hand closes around lint. I pull it out.
"You're beautiful," the guy says. He smiles. "I love that hair ornament."
"Thanks," I say, patting the top of my head. I am wearing one. It's something with wings.
"What are you doing?" the girl with dark curls asks. "We should be looking for help for this guy. We can figure out why we all have amnesia later."
My scalp tingles.
And all of it comes surging back.
This is Simon, my love, lying here and bleeding to death.
We're in the year 5052, where our descendant, Arnelia, lives.
And if Simon dies, she dies, too.
"ARNELIA!" I shout. "Where are you? Get in here!" I face Isabel and Monica. "Stay on this platform. If we move off the steps, they'll trap us here."
"Huh?" Isabel asks.
"Trust me."
This lab has security measures. The moment I step away from the artificial rift, some walls are going to come up off the floor and surround us. And if I hug the gray walls that double as computer screens, they'll pull me to them and keep me there until someone comes to arrest us.
Maybe that's what will have to happen.
"What's going on?" Monica repeats.
I don't have time to restore their memories. I have to act now. No one's coming. I have to make sure that someone comes and sees Simon here, bleeding. If they see that, they'll call someone to help. Arnelia will have to find us soon enough. But what if somehow, she doesn't exist anymore? We won't have anyone to go to in this time.
But it's a risk I'm going to take. I'm going to trip the security measures after all. This room will sense that my DNA doesn't belong in here.
"Don't panic," I say, and step off the steps.
I run along the walkway. Any moment now--
The floor turns to liquid around my feet and surges up, surrounding me. I scream with the shock of it. The wall grows higher, blocking the walkway and the entire lab from view.
"Hey!" Simon calls.
At least he's still awake. But I know that won't last too much longer.
I watch the liquid metal close above my head. I'm trapped in here. It's pitch dark. But at least some alarms must be going off and someone will come, even if it's that guy that yelled at us the first time we came here as Timeless. But he won't remember that, at least.
"Where are you?" Isabel shouts.
I can't answer them and be understood. I remember the time she was caught in this thing.
Hurry, I think
Hurry.
Footfalls approach and I hear the yelling of an angry man in some language I don't recognize. I hear a chair scraping across the floor and someone touching a computer screen. At least, I think that's what's happening. It beeps as the guy works. Monica and Isabel say nothing. At least help is here.
And then, the metal wall comes down in a flash, melting back into the floor. I stand there. It'
s him, all right--the short, dark man in the white lab coat. He glares at me and advances, ready to give me the chewing of my life for being in here.
I point at Simon. "Help him!"
He turns his head.
Studies Simon, who still lies on the floor, bleeding. Monica and Isabel kneel next to him like they're not sure what to do. None of them remembers anything past the last few minutes. How can they know what to do?
"Yes. Help him!" Isabel cries. "I know you can't understand us, but--"
The man's jaw falls open as he takes in the blood and carnage. He races over to another one of the long, five foot tall walls and touches it. Another screen pops up and he puts in what might be a code. He's calling for help.
I breathe a sigh of relief and rush back to Simon. The security must be deactivated for now. I wrap my arms around him.
"Who are you?" he asks.
"Simon. I love you," I say, mashing my lips to his. "I love you. You're going to be okay. Someone here is going to get you fixed up."
"Well, that's helping already," he says.
I kiss him again.
More footfalls rush into the room. I look up. It's four men in white uniforms and they're pulling a gurney out of the tunnel along with them. It looks like it's made of some kind of canvas. And is it levitating?
It is. The men merely guide it forward with their hands. They're wearing things that look like metal gloves.
I don't care. Simon needs help.
The medics mutter amongst themselves as they guide the gurney towards Simon. It settles on the floor like a tired magic carpet and slides right under him with a silky sound. Simon groans again and one of the men says something to him in that language. More people are running into the room, men and women in long robes. The short man who called for help--I think his name is Mulavi--holds up his hands and yells something. Back up, it must mean. Someone is hurt. I'm glad to see that he has some level of compassion.
Simon rises from the floor, the gurney under him. "What?" he manages. The men wheel--no, float--Simon towards the tunnel. They wave with their hands and the levitating gurney follows their commands. One of them motions for us to follow. I nod at Monica and Isabel. "Come on," I say. "I know what's going on. I'll explain it all to you in just a few minutes, as soon as I know Simon here is safe."
Monica looks at the hair clip in my hands. "What is that?" she asks. "If I wear that, will I suddenly understand everything that's going on?"
"To an extent."
"Good. Because I'm very confused."
The medics run and the flying gurney keeps pace. They vanish into the tunnel and we follow. No metal box rises from the floor this time. Mulavi has disabled the security.
But the tunnel is different than it was before. Instead of the warm, blue water flowing around the walls, creating such a magical atmosphere, it's plain metal with pipes and dim lights. I almost feel like we're in a bunker, like we're hiding from something. This isn't right, but it's only a small change. It seems like many of the same people are still here, at least.
Mulavi comes up in the back, almost like he's trying to shoo us out of the room. Of course he is. Arnelia says that he hates anyone to be in there when they're not supposed to.
"Where are you taking him?" I ask the medics. I peek over the last man's white shirt and peer at Simon's leg. There's blood on the canvas, but at least the bleeding seems to be slowing down. I wonder if they have some magical machine that's going to fix Simon up with laser beams or something.
There's another person running down the tunnel towards us.
It's Arnelia.
She wears another tan robe with light blue trim today and she has another butterfly hair clip in her hair. This one's blue and green. Her eyes are wide and she's got her mouth open like she wants to ask what's going on.
"Mu--" she begins. "Julia!"
I run up to her and we hug. The men push past us with Simon in tow. He groans again. She'll be able to answer my questions.
"How are you back here?" she asks. She looks at Simon with his red blood on his leg and his grimace. "You're...you are mortal. You are supposed to be back in your own time!" Her strange accent is the same as ever. I'm so relieved that she's here.
"Simon's hurt," I say.
"What happened?" she runs beside me as we follow the medics.
I'm glad to speak to someone who uses my language. "He was hit by shrapnel. In the mid eighteen hundreds," I tell her. "He's lost blood."
"What were you doing there?" she asks, eyes wide.
"Getting Frank to never bother us again. So far, we've succeeded."
Arnelia gives me a strange look like she's not sure we'd even do that. I don't like it.
Monica asks again what's going on. I ignore her for now. We have more pressing things to deal with.
"Where are they taking Simon?" I ask. I have to make sure he's not going to be a prisoner for trespassing.
“To the medical bay," Arnelia says. Her face falls. "Something is wrong, Julia." She grabs my arm as we move. Our footfalls echo off the metal of the tunnel, which seems like it's never going to end. "Things are different here. My world is not the same as it used to be. Something in the past changed, and I think I know what that is."
"A lot of things in the past changed,” I say. I eye the ugly tunnel again. It's so strong, so...fortified. “We screwed up so bad, Arnelia. I just wanted to make sure that you got to live your life and Simon and I got to live our lives and Isabel gets to live her life. That's all I wanted. I didn't mean to alter the course of history like this. I don't know how to fix it or what to do. But you're still here."
"I am. I'm surprised, given all the things that have changed," Arnelia says. We exit the tunnel and emerge into the main lobby of the complex. It's different here, too. There's still a glass dome overhead, showing the sky, but that's all. The gurgling fountain is gone and there aren't many people standing around. There's a group of men standing over in the corner, talking in low voices like they're trying to keep a secret, but that's all. All the people in robes and togas have vanished and there are no plants up in the corners or anything. The medics turn towards another tunnel, one as long, dark and depressing as the first one. Their movements are coordinated, practiced. It seems like this is something they're used to doing.
"Surprised?" I ask. "Did we mess up that bad?"
One of the medics faces me, like he's unsure what language I'm speaking. Which, now that I think about it, he probably is. I'm glad this conversation is private and they likely don't understand us.
"There's a war here," Arnelia says. We enter the second tunnel. "It wasn't like this before. I know because I made another chip, and I was able to preserve my memories of the past before it changed. Before it changed, this world was fairly peaceful. But now that the Titanic hasn't sank and the Gustloff never went down and the American Civil War turned out differently, there are scores of people gone who should have remained in this world. The inventor of the cure for cancer was never born, thanks to the Civil War turning out differently. And that's only one example out of many. And people are here who shouldn't be. Like the dictator of the Northern Hemisphere."
"Dictator?" I echo. We enter the tunnel. The men are running now and I jog to keep up with everyone.
"Yes," Arnelia says. "He is the descendant of a Titanic survivor who shouldn't have made it. His name is Chalmers. He is bent on obtaining our time travel technology so that he can rule both hemispheres and our space colonies as well. We are in full war. There is no longer any beauty here."
My stomach heaves and for a moment I forget all about Simon on the gurney. "He's what?"
"The world knew we had time travel down here in the Science District before this all went bad," Arnelia explains. She hasn't smiled once, I realize. "They knew that we were exploring the technology for all. But now things are different. Chalmers wants everything. He wants to rule the entire human race, and he does not care who he kills to get what he wants."
"Rats," I say. Th
at doesn't quite cover it.
"There is word that he is coordinating some kind of attack. Let us pray you do not see his weapons." We're still running through the long tunnel. This place is a fortress. Arnelia is right. All the beauty is gone. I want to throw up.
Simon groans. "I'm not liking the sounds of all this."
I could kiss him. He's awake. "We're going to have lots of work to do."
"I don't know what's going on, but it sounds like it."
"Wait," Isabel says behind us. She still doesn't have her memories. "We're in some kind of time travel adventure? How come we don't remember any of it? I think you need to lend me that thing that you put on your head. It seems to have something to do with it."
I hate leaving her in the dark. "Why does this dictator want your time travel lab? It won't do him any good. When mortals go through, they don't remember unless they have your device. Hasn't that been established?"
Arnelia shoots me a grave look.
And I get it.
He's after her. He must know that she's invented a way around it. And without the Timeless here to guard Time, he can have whatever he wants. Chalmers will be free to alter history however he desires.
"I don't feel good," Simon manages.
And his head rolls to the side.
"Faster!" I yell.
One of the medics looks down at him, says something to the others, and waves the gurney on through the tunnel.
I've broken the world.
Broken time.
Everything.
Me--just a mortal girl who wanted to save her family--has ruined the world and the future for everyone, including my own descendant.
I'm greedy and I probably don't deserve to live. Perhaps Frank was right. He wasn't only afraid of what the Chronophages would do to him. He was afraid for the world and the threat I posed to it. He was right and I was wrong. Perhaps I should have let him stab me on the Titanic and none of this would have happened to all these people.
Arnelia slaps me on the back. "I know what you are thinking," she says. "Do not think it. Somehow, our plan did not go the way it should have."