by R. A. Rock
“Okay,” Nessa said. “Just please stay on our lot. You can never tell when Brett’s people are around. Sometimes they attack us for no reason.”
“Ah,” I said, wishing someone would attack me so I could kick their ass. Maybe I would feel better about everything. “Right. I’ll be careful.”
I made my way to the door, letting myself out into the cool evening air of late fall in northern Canada.
Or at least, we hoped we were in northern Canada. But considering what wasn’t on Nessa’s arm… there was no way of finding out, either.
I wandered around the yard, staying close out of respect for Nessa and because I had no desire to get caught again by Brett’s soldiers. I had not enjoyed feeling so helpless and not being able to defend my team.
The only thing I’m good for is fighting. I would die to protect my friends and the team I work with. It’s all I’ve got left.
A sound behind me, made me whip around. I had the person up against a large spruce tree in two seconds, with my forearm pressing into their windpipe and cutting off all chance of breathing.
When I saw who it was, I let her go.
“Deja vu,” Audrey said in Primary.
“Yeah.” I turned to face the lake, watching the colours stain the sky and trying to forget how much my insides ached. “You ought to know not to sneak up on me.”
“Yes, I should,” she chuckled. “That’s what you did to me the first time we met.”
I turned to face her, feeling a smile come to my face in spite of how awful I felt.
“Good times, Audrey, good times.”
She punched me in the shoulder hard enough to hurt.
“Well, I don’t know about that being good times but when we went on that trip together?”
I gave her an incredulous look.
“It wasn’t a trip. It was a mission. That we’re not supposed to talk about. According to you.”
“Fine, a mission. You, me, Dorian, Chad. It was fun.”
I stared at her, remembering the terrain that almost killed us and how we had thought we had accomplished the mission but then it had turned out that we had only made things worse. It all worked out okay, though.
Well, for everyone except Dorian.
“If you say so.”
“I do,” she went on her face still smiling but now looking a little sad. “Dorian and I got together after that trip. And you and…”
“Don’t,” I interrupted her. “Don’t say his name. I…”
“You were so happy,” Audrey said, coming to me and putting her hands on my shoulders — a completely uncharacteristic gesture for her. She’s almost as tough as me. “I was jealous of the two of you. I wish you had made a different decision.”
“I couldn’t, Audrey. You know that.”
“I don’t know that. I can’t stand to see you like this.”
I sighed.
“I’m fine, Audrey.”
She stared at me.
“Okay, not fine. But I will be. Someday. Give me time, okay?”
“I know this must be so hard for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nessa with Penny? I’m not stupid. I know you must be thinking of…” I held up my hands, stopping her again.
“No, of course not,” I said, trying to save face. Trying not to bawl. I turned away, shrugging off her hands and moving down to the water. “All of that’s in the past. It was a long time ago.”
“It’s almost a year ago, Yumi,” Audrey said, her dark eyes full of sorrow for my pain. “Hey, I’m your friend, aren’t I?”
“Of course you are,” I said, gruffly as a tear slipped down my cheek without my permission. “You’re my best friend.”
And that was saying something because I don’t make friends easy. Audrey and I had started out the worst of enemies but eventually we had realized that we had more in common than we had thought.
She was my best friend because Grace was more like a sister to me, since I had spent half my youth in her house when her parents had taken me in. And Chad — Grace’s brother — well, we had been best friends once. But I was pretty sure he didn’t count as a friend anymore.
“Then listen to me when I say you need to forgive him. Forgive him before… you lose him.”
I stared out at the water, purple with the sunset and frowned.
“You’ve been through so much, Yumi, but that’s no reason to… give up on everything and everyone.”
She stopped speaking and gave me a hug. I clung to her for a long moment before I gathered myself and tried to regain some composure.
“Look, you just never know when you could lose him forever.”
“We don’t know that Dorian is dead, Audrey.”
“No, we don’t. But we don’t know that he’s alive either, do we?” she said. “I think you’re making a big mistake, Yumi. If I were you, I would forgive him. And love him for as long as you can.”
I bit my lip.
She was right. Of course she was.
But I couldn’t forgive him for what he had done.
I didn’t know how.
And I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAD
“So, what’s your deal?” Matt said as he lifted an axe over his head and brought it down with a loud thunk on the log he was splitting. From where I stood, I could see the lake. The sun was setting and the water looked as though a can of bright orange paint had been spilled on its surface. I turned my attention back to Matt, though, and watched as he picked up the pieces of kindling and put them in the wheelbarrow.
I was pretty sure Matt didn’t need any more wood split. I turned and looked at the rows and rows of neatly stacked wood that stretched through the forest on this side of the house. Nope. They had plenty of wood. But I often used to go out and split wood when I wanted to think and I figured that Matt maybe did that too.
“My deal?” I said, trying to play cool. Was he on to us already? “What do you mean?”
He lifted the axe again and hit the wood harder, sending pieces of wood flying everywhere. I jumped quickly to avoid being hit, then stooped to pick up the kindling, stacking it in the wheel barrow that he was filling.
“Well, you people dress strangely. You speak English with this weird accent…” He got a thoughtful expression on his face. “… though I could swear it was your first language….”
“It is, I…” I tried to interrupt but he kept right on talking.
“Your little blonde friend speaks no language that I have ever heard before. Plus, you get captured by Brett’s people but don’t escape. Even though Yumi is clearly a trained fighter or something.”
“She is but…”
“I’m pretty sure that she could have escaped if she’d really wanted to. Not to mention you.”
He glanced over at me with respect in his eyes.
“I saw you fight.”
I smiled, trying to feel humble and only managing satisfaction. It felt good that someone had noticed my fighting skills. Usually they only paid attention to Yumi, since she’s kind of hard to miss.
“I’ve trained pretty hard to be that good.”
He frowned, setting another smaller log up on end to split. But he didn’t lift the axe.
“That’s the other thing, though. All of you are excellent fighters. Even Shiv, who, the way he talks, seems kind of like a nerd — a scientist maybe. It doesn’t add up. Especially the way things are now. How did you even get here? Nobody just comes to northern Manitoba right now.”
He stopped speaking, though I desperately wanted him to go on and tell me why nobody comes to northern Manitoba right now. Lifting the axe again, he brought it down, splitting the log clean through the middle.
“Matt,” I said, deciding to be as honest as I could, under the circumstances. “It’s complicated.”
“No doubt,” he said, picking up the pieces of wood and stacking them in the wheelbarrow. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”
> I shook my head.
“I’m sorry, man. I can’t.”
He studied me, suddenly wary.
“Then I can’t let you stay here, Chad. I can’t risk my family. You must understand that.”
I understood that when he said family, the pain in my chest took my breath away. I had almost had a family. Until all of that was ripped away from me. Now I had only this. Only the team. Only this stupid mission I should never have agreed to. But that kind of thinking was a waste of time. I needed to stay positive. To focus. To get us out of here.
Then I could wallow.
Later.
“I understand, Matt,” I said, my heart sinking. “And if I could tell you, I would. But I get it. You have to protect the ones you love.”
Yeah, didn’t I know it?
And what had I got for it?
Nothing but pain.
Still. I couldn’t have done anything else.
“I’m sorry, Chad.”
“It’s no problem. We’ll leave right away.”
I walked away from him to find the others. We would have to make camp some distance away and we would need… My mind started spinning, trying to think of everything.
“Hey Chad,” he called after me. “You don’t have to go right away. Stay for supper.”
I stopped and turned back towards him.
“Okay, thanks.”
Better to start with a full belly but that would mean figuring out a place to camp in the dark. I sighed.
Sometimes I hated being the leader of this team.
I found Audrey coming up from the lake with Yumi behind her.
“Do you know where Shiv is?” I asked them as they got closer.
Yumi lifted one shoulder, avoiding my eyes. Audrey shook her head.
“Right. Well, anyways. Matt says we can’t stay here. We’ll have supper and then leave.”
Yumi just nodded, as if it was to be expected. As if nothing ever turned out the way she wanted it to. As if you couldn’t expect to be able to count on other people. And it killed me that she felt that way. But it wasn’t my business, was it?
“Why?” Audrey said, looking upset. “I was really hoping to sleep in a bed tonight.”
“Matt doesn’t trust us and I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t trust us either.”
Yumi nodded, still silent. Were those tear tracks down her cheeks? No way. Yumi didn’t cry. Not much anyway. Not anymore. Not since…
“Damn it,” Audrey stamped her graceful foot. “Couldn’t you work your Chad magic on him and make him trust us?”
“What’s going on?” Shiv said, approaching us from the house.
“We can’t stay here tonight,” Audrey said in a petulant tone.
“Why not?” Shiv said, a frown marring his handsome face. “I was really hoping to sleep in a bed tonight.”
“See?” Audrey said, looking at me and gesturing at Shiv. “I wasn’t the only one.”
“Matt doesn’t trust us and I don’t blame him one bit. Could you imagine if the situation was reversed? He has to protect his family.”
Shiv sighed.
“Yeah, I can’t fault him for that. He’s right. Especially in times like these.”
We all pounced on him.
“What do you mean?”
“What times?”
“What did you find out, Shiv?”
“Their forearms are bare.”
“They said there’s no laws.”
“Calm down, calm down,” Shiv said, pressing down on the air with his palms. “I was chatting with Matt’s mother, Cynthia, and she was more than willing to tell me their whole story.”
“Which was?” I said, impatiently.
“When did you chat with Matt’s mother?” Yumi said, her pretty brow furrowed.
“After you left the kitchen.”
She nodded.
“Okay, go on.”
“So, this is the short short version,” Shiv said. “When she told it, it was the long long long version.”
“Just get on with it,” Audrey said, sounding irritable.
“Well, to begin with. It’s 2020.”
“2020? As in the beginning of the two thousands?” Yumi said, startled out of her silence.
Shiv nodded a serious expression on his face.
“And there’s been a solar flare.”
“No,” I said, a deep feeling of dread in my guts. They all glanced at me. “Not the Solar Flare. Not the one that was worse than the Carrington Event in the 1800s?”
“Yes,” Shiv said, watching me intently as I figured it out.
“What are you talking about?” Yumi said. It was her turn to sound irritated.
I turned my head to look her in the eye.
“It seems, Yumi, that we’re in the middle of a goddamned apocalypse.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
YUMI
“What are you fucking talking about?” I said to Chad, worried and angry and confused — not a good combination for me.
Apocalypse? That didn’t sound good.
We stood in the yard outside of Matt and Nessa’s house. The shadows were lengthening and the smell of the supper they had prepared for us was drifting out of the house, making my stomach clench. It had been a while since we had eaten.
“I’ll explain,” Shiv said.
“And he’ll use small words, so you’ll be sure to understand,” Chad added, unable to resist quoting his and Grace’s favourite movie.
I rolled my eyes.
“In 2017, a solar flare hit the earth knocking out every power grid on the planet,” Shiv began.
I immediately interrupted.
“Are you kidding?”
“No, I’m not kidding. I’m trying to explain something here,” Shiv said, annoyed.
“Didn’t you study history?” Chad said, giving me an incredulous look. “Mom must have made you study history.”
I shrugged. She probably had. Melody — Chad and Gracie’s mom — had homeschooled the three of us. And I had studied hard. But I just couldn’t remember what they were talking about.
I gestured for Shiv to go on.
“This EMP event sent the planet into chaos. People died by the millions at first. Starvation, fighting, unsanitary water, communicable disease. You name it, it killed people. The ones who were left were those who were lucky, those who were strong, and those who were prepared.”
“The world was sent back to the dark ages and it took over a hundred years to climb back out,” Chad took up the thread of the narrative. “For a long time, people struggled just to survive. Gradually though they rebuilt things, better — well, a little better than before — and civilization returned.”
“When was that?” I said, not really wanting to hear the answer.
“About a hundred years from now?” He looked at Shiv for confirmation and Shiv nodded. “Around 2130, I think. That’s when the federal government was reestablished in Canada but giving each Canadian an equal vote in all important matters. No more majority rules and all that crap.”
“A world government was also created and while the old country lines still existed, a new united Earth was born,” Shiv continued, interrupting Chad’s Canadian history lesson. “Though even in our time, Earth is not united enough to join the Union.”
I waved my hand dismissing his take on current events. Everybody knew Earth was a have-not planet that couldn’t get its act together enough to join the Union of Planets.
“Shiv,” I said. “I was born in 2454. Are you saying we’ve time travelled well over four hundred years into the past?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” he said, his face sober.
“And Brett has the bracelets?” I continued.
“They’re not bracelets,” Shiv said. “They’re sophisticated time travel devices that…”
I waved him off, not wanting him to get into a scientific explanation I wouldn’t understand.
“But he has them,” I said. “The ones that are supposed to get us
back home. Back to 2481.”
“He does,” Chad said, his face grim. “At least I hope he hasn’t already traded them for alcohol.”
“And we’re stuck in the middle of an apocalypse. Great. That’s just great,” Audrey said, throwing her hands in the air. “Why did I ever come to your stupid little planet?”
“It was your idea to do the trial of the time travel devices here,” Shiv said, narrowing his eyes at her.
“It was your idea, Audrey,” Chad confirmed.
“Because these devices could be huge,” she said. “We needed to test them. And find out what they could do. And then set up an organization to use them and control them, so that they aren’t misused.”
We all nodded. That was why we had agreed.
“And I called it off,” she said, looking around at us.
“Yeah, but too late,” I said.
“How was I to know there was a lag?”
“I explained it all to you people,” Shiv said, exasperated. “Three times.”
He held up three fingers to emphasize his point.
“And we were only supposed to go back four minutes. Not four centuries,” Audrey said. “They didn’t work.”
“Uh, Grace said we should destroy them when we found them,” Chad said. “And she was right. I knew no good could come of something from that department.”
“Yeah, yeah, as always if we’d listened to the redheads, all would be right with the world,” Audrey said.
“We can’t help it if we’re brilliant, Audrey,” Chad said, obviously trying to get a rise out of her. “Clearly it’s the hair.”
She and Chad both had bright copper curls. Their hair was gorgeous. I had never thought it might be the source of their power. Interesting thought. I smiled a little to myself.
“And they certainly did work. It can’t be helped that they were prototypes,” Shiv added. “There were bound to be some glitches.”
“Prototypes?” I said, rounding on Shiv. “I do not remember being told that they were prototypes.”
Shiv’s eyes skidded over to Audrey’s and then back to me.
“Did we forget to mention that?” He grimaced. “Oops?
“Fuck,” Audrey said. “It’s a mess. I admit it. But what are we going to do?”