by Dale Mayer
She crouched low, gasping for air.
Had there been a gas leak? A bombing?
Then she heard voices. Oh thank God. She struggled toward them.
A strange voice cried out, “Damn it, Milo, what did you do?”
“Wowza.” A cackle filled the air. “Look, it worked!”
Through the mist, she spied two men…or at least, she thought they were men. The one in a purple and turquoise skin suit with a green Mohawk bounced in front of her, a maniacal laugh coming from his mouth. Then her shocked gaze landed on the second man. Lawrence.
And that couldn’t be.
Her heart slammed against her ribs, and then she really couldn’t breathe. She gulped for air as she stared at the one man she’d loved and hated – and had spent the last year trying to forget – who now stood in front of her.
Unbelievably, after all this time, anger rose in a red haze. She stepped into his personal space and smacked him – hard.
His head flipped to the side, then came back around slowly, a red mark quickly rising on his cheek. Shock lit the deep dark depths of his eyes.
Uh oh.
She took a step back, her ribs frozen and locked.
He took a step forward.
Finally, her lungs expanded. She took a deep breath, spun around, and ran.
She raced out the door and headed toward the elevator. And somehow got turned around. There were no walls of elevators. Nothing looked right…nothing looked normal. Blindly, she ran from door to door until she found one leading outside and bolted through.
And came to a skittering stop. Her mind couldn’t process what her eyes were seeing. She was on a balcony – a very high up balcony. And that couldn’t be, either. Her apartment was on the 3rd floor, whereas from the scenic panorama laid out before her, she had to be at least sixty floors up – if that was even possible.
The view in front of her was like nothing she’d ever seen before. It appeared to be a city. Or rather a metropolis on steroids. Buildings rose in weird space-agey looking domes, and there were rail cars on big circular runs. And God help her – there looked to be vehicles flying high above her head.
It looked nothing like Vancouver, BC, where she lived. In fact, as she shuddered and leaned back against the closed door behind her, this didn’t even look like her planet.
*
“Where did she go?” Milo cried out. He spun around and said, “She’s gone.”
And damned if he didn’t look like he was going to cry. Levi threw up his hands and snapped, “What did you expect? You snatched her out of her world and dumped her here. We have to find her.”
“Find her? Where else can she go?” Milo dashed up beside Levi. “She can’t go anywhere. That’s the beauty of this.”
“Really? I think you forgot to tell her that.” Exasperated, Levi raced out of his brother’s design room and into the short hallway. There were several more doors ahead and he could only hope she’d gone in a straight line. Actually, he could hope that this disaster was just a bad dream, but knowing his brother…
“We have to stop her before she goes outside.” To lose her in that jungle would be a tragedy. And he had had enough of those on his hands with this damn technology as it was. If the government got wind of Milo’s latest experiment, they could both be thrown into jail and the technology confiscated, never to see the light of day – unless those in power wanted to use it for themselves.
And that would be disastrous.
The Council had too much power now. Who knew what they’d with something like this technology? Knowing how corrupt the Council was – it would be nothing good.
Levi couldn’t believe Milo had finally succeeded with his time travel project. His kid brother was a genius like none other, sure…but to be able to do something like this…Levi kept moving forward and opened every door he came to, and still there was nothing to find. He raced for the front door, his heart sinking. Please don’t be outside. Please…
“Wait—”
Too late. Levi had already barreled ahead and made it outside before his brother’s words infiltrated his frustration. “Okay, this is bad.” Levi said. As he watched, the line of buildings in front of him slowly went dark one after the other. Just like last time. “So very bad.”
“I didn’t do that.” Milo said when he caught up to his brother. He held up his new SXC4500 fingerboard computer, and shouted. “I have her on the camera.”
Levi spun around. “Where is she?”
“She came back inside.” Milo flipped the comp around so Levi could see.
“Really?” That stopped Levi in his tracks. He peered at the screen. “That was actually a really smart move.”
Milo grinned. “Yeah. See? I didn’t choose a bimbo. We need someone with enough brains to handle this type of switch in her life.”
“That’s not measured by brains. There is so much more involved here.”
“Oops,” Milo said, looking back down at the screen. “She’s on the move.”
Milo’s new rocker boots clicked as he raced behind Levi back into the facility. Levi shook his head. Milo needed a keeper himself. How could he possibly determine the type of woman that would not go crazy from his damn experiment? Retracing their steps, they tracked her through the building. Minutes later, they ended up back in Milo’s office with still no sign of her.
“She’s in here somewhere.”
Levi searched behind the chairs and under the desks. “Please tell me you can send her back.” Levi turned to his brother. “That you can reverse this process.”
“I don’t think so.” Milo threw him a sideways grin. “Besides, we don’t want to send her back.”
“I do,” Levi snapped. “And I’m sure she wants to go back, too. She has a life, remember?”
“Hmmm. According to my research, Dani Summerland doesn’t have much of one.” He clicked through his fingerboard computer and started reading off the list. “No partner. No career to speak of. Failed business after one year. Managed to stay gainfully employed. No marriage. No children. No long-term friends on record.”
Chapter 3
They knew her name. Dani sank lower in the open closet she’d hidden in as the painful litany of her failed life washed over her. What a horrible dissection of her life. Surely it hadn’t been that bad? Besides, it’s not as if her life was over. She could achieve greatness yet. Couldn’t she?
“It’s not that simple, Milo.”
Dani heard the discussion despite the doors being opened and closed.
The deeper of the two voices spoke again, “She has reasons for what happened in her life. Sure, she might be up for a move a couple centuries into the future. She might consider it an adventure. She might consider it an improvement on her old world. But you didn’t ask her. You didn’t give her a choice, and that makes all the difference. You just yanked her out of her old life. For all you know, she might have a major plan about to come to fruition and you stole that from her.”
“I did not,” Milo protested. “I did my research, Levi. I’m not an idiot. She had nothing. She was nothing. She would have become nothing. Now she is something – special.”
Her heart squeezing tight, she listened to Levi and Milo discuss her life. As if they knew her. As if they knew everything about her. And she meant everything.
“And where in her psych profile, Milo, did it say she’d be up for a complete shock like this?”
“Ahh…” Milo stuttered.
Levi’s voice dropped to an ominous level. “You didn’t get a psych profile, did you?”
“Well, it’s not so easy. They didn’t do them regularly back then. They were quite primitive, remember?”
Levi snorted.
Dani’s chest locked tight. A couple centuries into the future? They were kidding – right? But from what she’d seen outside before instinct had her spinning around and returning to the one space she knew – this room – it was not Vancouver. At least not Vancouver as she’d known it. And she’d lived th
ere all her life. Her city was gone. Her apartment building was gone. Her living room was gone.
She squeezed Charmin tighter against her chest and buried her face against his thick orange fur. Thank heavens he was safe with her. The two of them could have gotten blown up in the blast. “You’re all I have left,” she whispered. And got the next biggest shock of her life.
“Hey. What do you mean all?” Charmin said, twisting in her arms, his paw reaching out to bat her chest. “You make it sound like I’m nothing. And I’m a whole lot more than nothing.”
Dani reared back and stared into her beloved cat’s glowering eyes. She shuddered and closed her eyes briefly. “Charmin?” she asked cautiously. “Is that you?”
No, it can’t be. She felt stupid for even asking the question. There was no way her cat could talk. Then again, there was no way she’d been yanked two centuries into the future either. She dropped her head back. She was losing it. Tears gathered in her eyes. Why her? All she’d ever wanted was to be happy.
Questions rippled through her mind. Terrifying her. Making her heart stall then race like she was being chased. She squeezed her eyes shut again. One tear rolled down her cheek. She turned her head to wipe her face on her sleeve. She needed some normality here. Something real she could grab and hang on to. She took a deep breath and whispered, “Please, Charmin, don’t tell me you can talk.”
And oh God…he actually answered her.
In a deep voice unlike anything she’d ever heard before, Charmin said, “I could always talk. Since when did you learn?”
She swallowed, opened her eyes, and stared down at her best friend. And found find him staring at her, his face only inches from hers, with a puzzled look in his eyes. Such a human look in that gaze. Such a human-sounding voice.
Except the claws in her flesh were all feline.
Her mouth dropped open, and she shook her head in denial. “Not possible. It’s not possible.”
“Well, it’s not probable. I figured you were too primitive, too underdeveloped to learn such a skill.” He brightened, that wide mouth twisting up into a grin. “But you surprised me. You actually learned to talk.”
At last she understood.
She was crazy.
She’d finally turned some invisible corner into a complete fantasy world in her mind. She’d always wanted to be able to talk to animals. It had been a secret dream ever since she was a little girl. Obviously, reality had become too much and she’d retreated to her childhood state. It was almost a relief in a way. To have an explanation for this insanity.
It was either that or she was having a crazy dream. And that was all too possible. Not to mention being a better option.
She beamed at her cat. “I’m going to wake up soon and this will be just a happy memory.”
“I wish I was dreaming.” Charmin snorted. “This little room is nice and cozy and all, but where is the couch? I need my nap.”
“Sleep? You need to sleep?” She shook her head, staring around the tiny closet. “I was trying to get ready to go out on a date.”
“Yeah, great.” Charmin gave a jaw-splitting yawn before tucking into her shoulder. “Who needs a date? Well, okay, you do, but really, I need my beauty sleep.” And he closed his eyes.
She stared down at her cat and whispered, “Please let this be a bad dream. And please let me wake up soon and find everything back to normal.”
“I hope so,” Charmin muttered, “because you forgot to feed me dinner before we time-travelled.”
At the words time-travelled, she forgot to breathe again. “Don’t say that,” she cried.
Suddenly, the door opened. The same two men peered in, but the green Mohawk, so large and long, was all she could focus on.
A scream caught in the back of her throat. But no sound came out.
“Aha. There you are,” said the owner of the Mohawk, Milo, if she’d gotten the names right. “And who were you talking to?”
She wanted to fight. Wanted to kick them both in the teeth so hard they’d never eat again. The older brother, Levi, according to what she’d heard – and not Lawrence as she’d initially thought – peered around the green hair. This close, she could see he looked very similar to Lawrence but there was something younger, cleaner about his features. And maybe nicer. Lawrence had gained a seedy look to his cheeks and a perpetual smirk to his eyes.
As if he was always one up on you.
Which, in her case, he had been. And if Levi wasn’t Lawrence, she had just smacked a complete stranger.
Damn.
She risked a look at Charmin, saw the feline smirk as if to say ‘Uh oh, now you’re in trouble’, and shuddered. In a low voice, she said, “You can bite them in the balls while I run.”
“Not happening.” And damn if Charmin’s voice didn’t drop low to match hers.
Levi reached down and yanked her to her feet. She tugged her arm back, climbing out of her hiding spot on her own. She shot him a dark look. “You don’t have to hurt me.”
He retreated instantly, his hands out in front of him apologetically. “Look, I’m sorry. We’re not going to hurt you. Please. Let’s go sit down and we’ll explain everything.”
She raised one eyebrow and proceeded to repeat everything she’d heard them say. Their eyebrows shot up. She added, “As you can tell, I can hear just fine. Now I want you to tell me how the hell you’re going to fix this.” She glared at Milo. “I want to go home.”
Milo jumped forward, his face earnest and proud at the same time. “See, that’s the thing. We can’t. That’s the beauty of this technology. It can’t be reversed.”
“And that’s beautiful?” she asked ominously, her heart and mind screaming their protests in sync. “How do you figure?”
While she waited, she realized the men were guiding her into a glass cube she hadn’t noticed in the dark room. She could barely see her surroundings, but it looked like a futuristic type of office with huge wall screens she’d never seen before. And some kind of center console. The screen looked kind of see through and had all those weird colors. She couldn’t tell from her position.
Once inside, she sank into the deepest corner of the cube to avoid their touch, holding Charmin tight. He was her one link to normalcy. He stared up at her and opened his mouth.
She slapped a hand over it and glared at him. And realized that if Charmin could talk – there was nothing normal left.
Trying to process the situation faster, she studied the men, waiting for something to happen. Levi pushed something on his wrist and the cube took off. She shrieked, reaching out a hand instinctively to steady herself, only to find the ride smooth and quiet.
She couldn’t help but be reminded of the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story. Except this wasn’t likely to have a happy ending. As the glass cube swept around corners, she realized it wasn’t on rails. In fact, it didn’t appear to be attached to anything. She gasped and squeezed her eyes closed. “Where did the ground go?” she whispered.
“It’s there. Below us.”
She peeked through her closed eyelashes to see the bottom of the glass cube and nothing else. Just a swirling whiteness – as if they were in the middle of a cloud. Her mind spun, grasping for any reasonable explanation – and came up empty. She fell back against the glass, hyperventilating. “Oh, this is not good. This is so not good.”
Milo explained, “It’s just a modern elevator.”
That didn’t deserve a response. His idea of a modern elevator and hers were miles apart. She shifted Charmin in her grasp but dared not loosen her hold. Not that there was any chance of dropping him with the way his claws dug into her arms. She wouldn’t be surprised if he’d drawn blood. If she were unlucky, she’d be dripping blood down onto their glass floor.
The elevator changed directions again, sending her lurching sideways. Oh shit oh shit. She felt the beads of sweat rise on her forehead.
“It’s going to be fine,” Milo said with a wide grin. “We’re perfectly safe.”
At the end of his words, the glass box came to a complete stop. And it dissolved around them. As in here one minute and gone the next. The men exited – if there was a cube to exit. They’d barely travelled. It almost looked like the same building – or maybe the same set of buildings? There’d been no sign of the outside world at all.
She straightened, took one step in their direction and without warning, her stomach heaved.
*
“Oh yucky. That’s so…yucky.” Milo danced away from her, his face a picture of morbid fascination. “I’m calling someone to come clean that up.”
“Fine, but let’s not be here when they arrive.” Levi knelt by the woman’s side, trying to ignore the reek from the mess at his feet. Sweat had beaded on Dani’s forehead, at least that’s the name he thought Milo had called her, and her color had gone pasty gray. Probably a delayed reaction. Rushing forward a few hundred years had to be tough on the stomach, if not the rest of her. That she could even walk and talk and…look half as sexy as she did was amazing. And he shouldn’t be noticing. Now she’d curled into a small ball, her slim frame rocking back and forth. The massive furry critter in her arms was making a horrific howling sound that set his nerves on edge. He might have sympathy for her, but that animal…
Through the noise, he heard her whispering into the animal’s fur, “It’s okay, Charmin. It’s going to be okay, baby.”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but you are right. It will be okay,” Levi said, hoping he wasn’t lying to the poor woman, “but there is no way I can agree with you calling that…that thing baby.”
And damn if that furry thing didn’t rear back and glare at him. As if it heard and understood.
Dani froze, lifted her head to stare at him, and then she did something that completely disarmed him.
She started to giggle.