Bandanas off at the entrance, Elliott held the door for Hal as they entered.
“How are we going to determine this?” asked Elliott. “Do you think simply asking his name?”
“Absolutely. Why would he lie?”
“Well,” Elliott cleared his throat. “We had a gentleman in Containment who insisted he was Julius Caesar.”
“Oh, this is completely different. We have reason to believe . . .” Hal slowed down walking and talking when he saw Ellen speaking to Blue in the hallway. “Is this her day here?”
“No. No it’s not.”
“Then why is she here?”
“Working.” Elliott shrugged,
“Working. Thank you for that.” Hal just shook his head. Then placed on a smile when Ellen saw him. “Ellen, what a surprise.”
“Blue called me.”
“Really, for what?”
“For a pick up.”
“Pick up?” Hal asked. “Pick up what?”
“A patient for Containment,” Ellen explained. “Dan is here to escort us back.”
“I didn’t realize we had anyone that . . . that was new.”
“Not new,” Ellen said. “A little nuts. One of those Jordan people. Will fit in great. I just talked to him.”
“Who?”
“My new resident. Wanna meet him, he’s really nice.”
“Not right now,” Hal said. “I’m here for another patent. Will you excuse me?”
“Sure.”
Hal walked by Ellen and to Blue. “Hey, Blue, where is he?”
Blue pointed to the door. “Getting ready to leave. Got here just in the nick of time.”
Hal watched the shift of Blue’s eyes to Ellen. “What? You’re putting him in Containment.”
“Well, Captain he thinks he’s Elvis Presley.”
“He is.”
“And, since Elvis was born in 1935, and he died in 1977. How do you suppose that is?”
“Well, he . . . we . . . I . . . excuse me.” Hal grabbed hold of Elliott and pulled him aside. “She’s doing this on purpose.”
“What Captain.”
“Taking him.”
“Well, to Ellen, she thinks he’s nuts.”
“No, she does not.” Hal snipped. “She is claiming him for Containment so she can have him.”
“Why would she believe he’s Elvis?”
“Because my brother is telling her he is and asking for Elvis songs. Plus, she knows about the beam incident.”
“Maybe she’s just placating.”
Hal took a deep breath. He looked at Ellen she went into the room. “Let’s go find out.”
With a wave of his hand, Hal led Elliott into the room. He knocked once and entered.
Ellen was with Elvis, he stood in a pair of jeans in a tee shirt. She lifted his small duffle bag. “And we’ll get you more when we get to Beginnings. You won’t need many clothes.”
“I had a huge wardrobe,” he said.
“I bet you did. But, then again, this is the apocalypse now and you can’t splurge. No Cadillac’s here.” She said.
“How the heck did I get into the apocalypse?”
Hal cleared his throat. “Mr. Presley?”
Elvis turned around. “A soldier.”
“Yes. I’m Captain Hal Slagel and this Sgt. Ryder.”
Elliott shook his hand. “It is a pleasure to have you here in Bowman and in Beginnings.”
“Thank you. Thank you very much. I just wish I knew how I got here.”
“I’m sure we can sit with you and we’ll straighten this all out.”
“Good,” Elvis said. “Cause one minute I’m the bathroom reading, the next I’m on the street with some drunk guy asking if I’m trying to be crude.”
“That would have been Fr. O’Brien.”
“A priest.” Elvis whistled. “What the heck is going on?”
Ellen interjected. “We can all talk at Containment.”
“Ellen,” Hal said. “Can I see for a moment?”
“Sure. Excuse me, Elvis.” Ellen followed Hal to the hall.
Hal pulled the door closed. “What are you doing?”
“Moving him to Containment. Isn’t he convincing?” Ellen asked.
“Ellen, of course he’s convincing. He’s Elvis.”
“Hal, please, I know he’s good but he’s not Elvis. Elliott, you don’t believe it, do you?”
Elliott hesitated, then, “Well, yes, Ellen I do.”
She snickered. “Maybe you guys need to get into Containment.” She reached for the door.
“Ellen.” Hal grabbed her wrist. “You know about the time beam. You know we how he got here.”
“Yes, I do. Baby Boy Bryan Band member Kyle from Jordan drove him here and forgot him Kyle confirmed. He’s from Jordan, been thinking he’s Elvis since he hit his head on the jukebox. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” She opened the door and went in.
The door closed.
“Baby Boy Bryan Band.” Hal huffed. “She’s lying.”
“Yes, she is,” Elliott retorted. “But she has Elvis now.”
****
“Pack it up, Corporal Jay, last leg of the trip.” After a short whistle, Sgt. Reynolds tossed his sack over his horse.
“Sorry,” Jay did his buttons on his pants, and in a rush went back to where he had set his things.
His small tent was rolled up and so was the sleeping bag. They stopped late the night before, and after six hours of rest were well on their way. Sgt. Reynolds was part of the four man team that went north with Jay. Jay was captured, but quickly released.
He couldn’t wait to get back home to Bowman, to talk about his experiences. They were going to try to get that last 60 miles under their belt.
“One minute.” Jay gathered his things and started to jog to his horse. He heard the thump of something falling, and he looked back. His canteen lay on the ground. After securing his items on his horse, he went back for the canteen.
He was reaching for it was when he saw it.
An object. It looked like some video game, but none like he had ever seen.
About six inches long with lights. A thick metal like plastic that had an odd smell. He turned it over to see writing. Writing that he didn’t understand. It was more like hieroglyphics.
“I found something.” He called out, then hurried to Sgt. Reynolds.
A voice?
Chaka’s head cocked. It came from behind him. Quietly he turned and followed the sound.
Creeping through the woods the voices grew louder.
He wasn’t completely familiar with what they were saying, some sounded like words, other like noises. When he spotted them, he was more in shock than anything.
They looked odd. Dressed odd.
A strong sniff told Chaka they were male, but they had fur on their head. Straight fur. One covered his fur with a fabric.
He stepped back. Watching, he recognized the animal they mounted, their transportation. But it was much smaller than he was used to. And the males were also smaller. Five, six feet tall maybe. A good foot or so smaller than Chaka, not to mention thinner. They carried some sort of weapon as well. They didn’t pose a threat to Chaka not yet, at least.
But there were four of them, communicating, and leaving together.
Four. There had to be more.
Where there was more there was civilization. It wasn’t just the sense of civilization that made Chaka want to follow them, it was the fact that they had his communication device.
He was as fast, or close to as fast as the animal they rode, and keeping up would not be a problem.
****
The sound of laser style gun fire rang out, along with grunts and groans, and Frank knew someone was dying.
He stepped inside Danny Hoi’s office, and sure enough, there was Danny. Feet on his desk, game controller in hand, playing a game.
“Hey.” Frank called out.
“Hey.” Danny replied. “One sec.”
His hands mov
ed about until a final explosion, and frustrated Danny set down the game. “What’s up?”
“Is this what you do all day?” Frank asked.
“Hardly. It’s ten am. Break time. Game time. I mean, Frank when don’t I work.”
“True.”
“What brings you here? Are we meeting?” Danny asked.
“You can call it that.”
Immediately Danny whipped out a pocket organizer and checked. “I didn’t mark it down. I can’t believe that. Sorry.”
“No problem,” Frank said. “Things happen. You get busy.”
“What are we meeting about? I don’t remember.”
“That’s Ok, I just thought about coming here, so you wouldn’t remember.”
“Ah.” Danny smiled. “An impromptu meeting.”
“Always, why would it be anything else?”
“Else than what?”
“Impromptu. I mean, I wouldn’t wear a tux.”
Danny chuckled. “No. So what’s going on?”
“If you can find one, I need an invisa suit.”
“For?”
“Me.”
“I figured that much. Are you playing a practical joke?”
“I wish.”
“What’s going on?”
“Ok, keep this under wraps.”
“Always.” Danny pulled out a chair and sat down.
Frank leaned against the desk. “We’ve been getting weird signals in the Killer Baby slash toddler region. Odd. Started last night. I thought there was a problem with the tracking.”
“Maybe there is.”
Frank shook his head. “No. Three beams accidentally shot out of the HG Wells when Dean and Roy were fighting over it. Well, one beam split in three I keep saying three and that’s confusing. Anyway … One went a thousand years into the future. One went back in time and grabbed Elvis.”
“Presley.”
“Yeah.”
“The King? The beam brought Elvis to where.”
“Bowman.”
“Elvis is in Bowman?”
“No. Elvis right now is in Beginnings.”
“Holy shit, I thought you were joking.”
“Nope.”
“So anyhow, if you don’t mind.”
“Go on. Sorry. Just excited. I can’t wait to meet him.”
“You have to make an appointment. He’s in Containment.”
“What?” Danny blasted. “Why is he in Containment?”
“Because he’s telling everyone he’s Elvis and Blue labeled him nuts.”
“But he’s Elvis.”
“Yep. And without knowledge of a time machine, what would he be doing here.”
“True. Back to the Killer Baby region.”
“So, yeah. The beams, brought something else back.”
“What?”
“Pubes.”
Danny choked. “Pubes?”
“Yep.”
“The beam brought Pubes from the future.”
“Nasty ones, too.”
“I would think any that came back would be unsightly.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Why is this a problem?”
“Uh, Danny, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Pubes all over Beginnings.”
“It’s a fact of life. But how did the retractor grab Pubes.”
“I don’t know, but I think they are in the Killer Baby region.”
“And you know this how.”
“Weird signal. Plus I saw one. Jason had one.”
“I’m sure Jason has many.”
“He didn’t say, he said he had only this one Pube.”
“It’s like he was radiated.”
“No. No sign of radiation. Just the Pube.”
“Frank?”
“What?”
“Everyone has them. They didn’t just show up in the future.”
“No, Danny, we don’t have them in Beginnings now.”
“Uh, yeah, Frank, we do. Everyone has them. I thought for sure, you know, you did, with all that hair on your chest.”
“What are you talking about?” Frank asked.
“Pubes.”
“What’s that got to do with hair on my chest?”
“You’re talking about pubic hair aren’t you?”
“Why would I be talking about pubic hair?”
“Uh, Frank, you said Pubes.”
“Uh, yeah, Danny. Pubes.” Frank shook his head. “Killer Pre-pubescent.”
“Kill . . . oh, shit. Grown up babies not yet teens.”
“But Killer.”
“Pubes.”
“Exactly.” Frank held out his hand.
“You named them.”
“Yeah.”
“Got it.” Danny gave a thumbs up. “So why do you need the invisa suit.”
“To go to the Killer Baby region to search.”
“Frank,” Danny chuckled. “Those things don’t attack you. They love you.”
“No, Danny ours do. The ones from the future. They don’t give a fuck about me. And if they are anything like the one I saw at Jason’s. If there’s a lot. We’re in trouble.”
Danny stared for a second. “I’ll get you a suit.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hal knew it. He absolutely knew it, the second he stepped into Containment and saw the front security desk was empty.
He didn’t need to wonder where Dan was. Of course he knew where Dan was. Probably with everyone else.
The thought that something was wrong never even crossed his mind.
He buzzed himself in, and sure enough, like he expected he heard the sounds of music flowing to him.
Acoustic guitar strumming with passion, that unmistakable voice singing out Blue Suede Shoes.
Arrogantly and smug, Hal walked down the hall.
Dan was seated at the skills room door, almost as if guarding it.
“Dan,” Hal said and reached for the knob.
“You can’t go in there.”
“Sure I can.”
“No, you can’t. That’s why I’m here to make sure no one goes in there.”
Hal chuckled. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why can’t I go in there?”
“Ellen said they are having intense, emotional reconstruction therapy.”
With a ‘Ha, ha, ha, please’ Hal laughed. “Intense therapy. Elvis is singing.”
At first Dan snorted, then he apologized and tried to hide his laugh. “Sorry.”
“What?”
“Elvis?”
“Yes.”
“You think that’s Elvis?”
“Um, yes, I do.”
“Hal.” Dan winked. “It’s not Elvis. It’s Mort from Jordan.”
“Oh, so now he has a name.” Hal nodded. “Mort from Jordan. And it’s not Elvis?”
“Can’t be.”
“Why not?”
“How would Elvis get to Beginnings?”
Hal opened his mouth to answer and stopped.
“See? Got ya’ there.”
“Yes, you did.” Hal flashed a grin opened up the door to the skills room and walked in.
“Hey!” Dan shouted following him,
The music stopped. All the residents turns and looked. Ellen stood up. “Hal, what are you doing in here?”
Dan, huffing, held up his hand. “I’m sorry Ellen. Want me to escort him out. Or I can call Frank.”
“Frank?” Hal scoffed. “You want to call my brother on me? What on God’s name for?”
“Causing a disturbance.” Dan said.
“Go away.” Hal told him.
Dan gasped. “You are the rudest Slagel brother there is.”
“I’m sure,” Hal shifted his eyes to Ellen. “El, may I speak to you for a moment in your office.”
“That’s so Joe like.” Ellen walked to him, then directed Elvis. “Mort, continue. Only this time can you play Suspicious Eyes?”
“Sure, thing, Sue Ann.” Elvis r
eplied.
After mouthing the words ‘Sue Ann’, Hal followed Ellen out.
“What’s up?” Ellen asked as she closed the door.
“Why is he calling you Sue Ann?”
“I told him that was my alternate reality name. That when we are faced with an alternate reality we lose our identities and get new names.”
“Are you convincing Elvis he is crazy?”
“Mort.”
“He’s not Mort and you know it.”
“Shh.” Ellen said. “Keep your voice down.”
“Why? Do these people not know he’s Elvis?”
“No, they think he’s Mort from Jordan.”
“And what about everyone else in Beginnings, Won’t they know?”
“Know what?”
“He’s Elvis.”
“He’s not Elvis, He’s Mort from Jordon.”
“Ellen.”
“What?”
“Cut the shit,” Hal said. “You know who he is. Frank told you we brought him through, Frank is like Jesus Christ himself to you. So I know you believe it.”
“Ok.”
“So why are you convincing people that he’s Mort from Jordan.”
“Because Hal, how did he get here?”
“The time machine.”
“Exactly.” Ellen folded her arms. “Until I convince everyone he is Mort, he stays here. I have to save face and stop trouble. Time travel is outlawed. There is no known time machine.”
“Why is that? I’m curious.”
“Frank doesn’t want anyone to know there’s a machine that works.”
“No, no.” Hal shook his head. “Why is time travel outlawed?”
“Because Frank doesn’t want people messing with time. They try to change it and only screw it up.”
“He’s the biggest culprit.”
“Oh!” Ellen gasped. “That’s so wrong blaming things on your brother. We would have Robbie if Frank didn’t mess with time.”
“Fine, but the machine could be used for other things.”
“Like what?”
“Like going back to check a crime. Finding out who killed my father.”
“Hal,” Ellen chuckled. “We know who killed Joe.”
“Who?”
“Ralph from the future.”
“Ah, that’s right, a future suicide bomber killed my dad. And you believe that?”
“Of course.” Ellen shrugged. “Joe said it, why would Joe lie?”
“Because my father didn’t say it.”
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