by Steve Lang
"Who are you, and how did you get here?" The girl asked.
"Jason Tweed. I came here with a time travel device I stole from a government lab. I'm a time traveler now. But, I guess I could ask you the same question."
"My name is Shannon Dolby, and I flew through a time rift, or portal, or whatever you want to call it. I've been here for three months hiding from these monsters." Shannon said.
"How?"
"I'm a pilot and I was flying my family to the Bahamas for Thanksgiving in my single engine Cessna, when I saw a band of light appear in the sky. This streak of light must have been five miles high and I saw no way to avoid it. I tried to mayday the nearest tower but my instruments failed, so I went into the light and ended up in this dimension. Once I came through, my engine quit and I had to land the plane."
"Is your family alright?" Jason asked.
"Mom and Dad died on impact." She averted her eyes to the floor. "I struck a tree and the branches came through their window. Anyway, my sister Lyric was all I had left, and the monsters took her a few days ago when we were out hunting for food. I was going to look for her again when I spotted you trying to chat it up with them."
"Do you know whether she's still alive?"
"We've always had a strong bond with each other, but it's even stronger here for some reason. I can sometimes hear her thoughts, and she can hear mine. I think they are keeping her in a castle across the city, but I'm not sure how much longer she'll be alive. She spoke to me in a dream last night and told me she's over at the Frankenstein place, and I'd know it when I saw a light burning in the fireplace. Can you help me, please?" Shannon asked.
Jason wanted to warp out and get as far from this madness as possible. Who knows, he thought, maybe the next dimension or planet will be a tropical paradise with half naked girls? His thumb played with the buttons. He put the selfish voice away sighed.
"Alright, I believe we can get to her without alerting the horde, but I think you'll have to hold on to me when we get above ground for this to work."
"How? I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but there are thousands of those things up there and it took me days to get as far as I did without getting killed."
Jason removed the time device from his pocket and showed it to Shannon.
"This is it." Jason said. Shannon crinkled up her nose and cocked her head from side to side.
"It looks like a soda can. You got here with that?"
"Yeah," he laughed. "Press the Time Slip button and you stay in your same relative time, but you essentially stay in between the fabric of space-time. It’s the craziest thing. No one can see you, but there's a catch. It seems like only a minute has gone by while you're in the time slip, but actually ten minutes or an hour have gone by in normal time. I tested it out in the lab while I was getting away, and seven hours had passed while my watch hands had only moved two minutes. Anyway, while I was in this time slip, the goons chasing me ran right past me."
"That's amazing! Show me."
"What?"
"I want you to show me how it works. Look, you seem genuine, but I'm not placing my life in your hands if that thing doesn't work. I'd rather continue sneaking around if it means I get to live, and maybe I’ll find my sister by myself." Shannon said. Her hands went to her hips and she was unconsciously tapping her toe.
"Okay, do you have a watch?" Jason asked.
"Yes."
"Take it off and put it on the table right there." Jason said. Jason adjusted the time on his watch so it would match her time zone.
"See mine? What's the time read on our watches?"
"Ten, on the hour." She said.
"Okay, now take my hand." Jason said.
She looked at him with suspicion. "Today, please?"
She grabbed his hand and Jason pressed the Time Slip button. The room became fuzzy, almost like they were looking through a filter, and after he waited about three minutes, he took his finger off the button and they returned to normal time.
"Look at my watch, and then yours." Jason said.
"Yours says three minutes past ten, and mine… oh my god. Three hours went by while we were in there."
"Uh huh, pretty cool, right?"
"Yes, and very useful. We can get in there and get my sister."
"We should be able to, yes. But, there is something that concerns me about the time slip. If you walk too far in one direction or the other while holding this button down, I think it causes you to either go back or forward in time. Which way is the castle?"
"East of town, I'm pretty sure." Shannon said.
"And, where does the sun rise on this planet?
"I think in the east, just like back home on Earth." Shannon answered.
"We should be OK then. As long as we are traveling along with the rotation of this planet, we should not end up going back in time. That would be bad, especially if we end up skipping too far into the past. Theoretically, you could up seeing yourself crashing into that tree again. I'm not sure what a paradox looks like, but I'd like to get out of here before we cause one." Jason said.
He raised his eyebrow at Shannon, noticing her. Although Shannon was covered in dirt and grime, her black hair reminded him of ravens, and she had azure blue eyes, with a natural, irresistible pout to her lips. He had known Shannon for less than a day, and she had already convinced him to go into a zombie-infested castle and rescue her sister. He suspected she was going to be trouble, but that was what he thrived on. Jason shook his head and followed her lead up a rickety staircase and out into the darkness of Haven. They emerged into a very narrow alley where only about two feet of separation existed between buildings. Once out of the alley, she led him to a wooded area with a path that vanished into more darkness. Jason viewed the path with suspicion, and then he caught something out of the corner of his eye. When he looked, up he saw a ringed purple planet outside the atmosphere, and it was so big and close it felt like if he stood on a ladder he could touch it. Purple and lavender clouds swirled like cream in coffee inside the enormous orb.
"I want to go there." Jason whispered to himself. His eyes were wide as saucers.
"I know, that thing had me and my sister, Lyric, staring at it for a week. It's amazing." Shannon said. "Come on, let's go. The castle is just ahead."
Jason followed her through the woods, and in moments he could see the ancient, medieval castle, rising like an omen of doom into the night. Jazz music played inside as multicolored lights illuminated every window, giving the palatial estate an electric atmosphere. The undead meandered around out front, drinking and carrying on like a college party. A bonfire blazed as a crowd gathered around, throwing the writhing bodies of their fellow undead into the pyre, and as those engulfed in flames screamed the crowd cheered.
"They're eating each other out there." Jason said.
"Yeah, this is a real swell place. Can you use your thingy to get us inside, please?" Shannon frowned. Jason grabbed her hand and pushed the button.
In the space between time, the two walked through a frozen world where the undead moved in such a slow manner that they looked like static Halloween decorations. Jason walked into the castle and saw the most macabre scene he had ever witnessed. The bottom floor was teeming with the undead, writhing around and chewing on each other like they were the meal of the day, reminding him of some kind of dark and twisted wax museum.
"No sign of her down here." Shannon said.
They ran up a stone stairwell to the second floor through the blurry space between time, and as they picked up speed the frozen mob of undead vanished. They searched one room, and then another, and then at the end of a long hallway they were greeted by a locked door. Jason threw caution to the wind and pressed the button again just long enough to come back to real time and kick the door in. The hallway was barren, and as they looked into the room Shannon saw her sister laying on the stone floor, chained to a wall. She was emaciated, and her wrists were caked with dried blood from the manacles her captors had placed around her arm
s and feet.
"Lyric, is that you?" Shannon asked.
The little girl, no more than ten years old, raised her head and Shannon could see that there was no life left in her eyes. They had turned her into one of them.
"Shannon, can you come closer? I'm so hungry. Maybe I can have just a bite of your leg. Not much, just enough so the pain goes away." Lyric moaned.
Shannon turned away from her sister, unable to process the horror, and began to weep. Jason quickly tried to reason with her, knowing that remaining silent might cause her to do something irrational.
"She's not alive anymore. That thing is not your sister." Jason said. He felt much empathy for Shannon, and sorrow for the loss of her sister, but self-preservation was screaming at him to flee for his life.
Jason heard booted footfalls in the hallway outside the cell Lyric had been kept in, and he turned with a start. The woman he had met in the street was with her little girl and two undead henchmen.
"We have been looking all over for you! Are you ready for dinner?" She asked. Felicia's mother grinned with a mouth full of broken and missing teeth.
"Come with me, Shannon. There's nothing but death for you here now." Jason said.
For a moment, Shannon looked at her sister, and Jason could feel her conflict. Shannon reached out for Jason and he took her hand while aiming the time device at Felicia and her mother. When he pressed the button, a time bubble manifested in the space where they stood, evaporating all of them as it formed a perfect sphere. None of the ghouls had time to react before the gravitational force of the bubble’s appearance turned them to dust.
"We can't just leave her this way." Shannon sobbed. Jason knew he had to do something, or he would regret his inaction forever.
"I think I can help her, but we'll have to do something I haven't tried with this device of mine." Jason said.
They heard more footfalls outside in the hallway, beyond the time bubble, and those who ran too close were sucked in and gone, lost, no longer a problem for anyone.
"I want to try reversing time back to before your sister was turned into whatever these things are." Jason said. He could see the sun rising in the east, and knew what he would have to do.
"Okay, please, anything." Shannon pleaded.
"Take my hand."
"Are you going to leave that bubble there?"
"Sure, why not, it seems to be preventing those things from getting in here." He shrugged.
Jason smiled at Shannon, and wanted to kiss away the tears from her dirt-streaked face. For the first time in a long time, he was doing something for someone else just for the sake of being helpful.
"We're going to walk west, but we'll have to stop every once in a while so we don't overshoot the time before she turned."
"Are we even able to do that?" Shannon asked. Jason looked over at Lyric sitting against the wall shackled in place.
"It's worth a shot."
Shannon took his hand, and Jason pressed the time slip button. They began to walk west, a pace at a time. And then they turned around, and they could see Lyric sitting, crying, alone and undead. But as they walked further west, her features began to change, and then they saw Lyric being carried into the room by two undead as they held her struggling body. In this slip between the moments of time, every image of Lyric was like rewinding a movie one frame at a time. Jason pressed the time slip button again. The undead dropped the little girl in their surprise, shocked at the sudden appearance of living people.
"Grab your sister!" Jason screamed.
His most recent time bubble was gone, but he opened another one, and as Shannon grabbed ahold of Lyric, he took her hand and they ran for the bubble before any of Lyric's captors had time to react. Jason held onto Shannon as they leapt inside the smoky orb, and as soon as he landed on the train station floor he closed the gateway behind him. They had done it.
"You ladies alright?" Jason asked. He was picking himself up.
"Yeah, I am." Shannon replied.
"Where are we Shannon? How did you get past the scary men to find me? I thought I'd never see you again. They said they were going to turn me into one of them, make me right." Lyric said.
"You're safe from them now, although I'm not sure where we are or what else is going on." Shannon replied. They both turned to look at Jason.
"Welcome to the train station of time. I'm pretty sure it was created by my own mind, but this seems to be a way station, a jumping off point for adventures. Do you two want to travel the cosmos with me and see what else is out there?" Jason smiled. He was warm and inviting. Shannon looked down at Lyric, who was smiling back up at her.
"Seeing as how we are kind of stuck together anyway, I don't see why not." Shannon hugged Jason. "Thank you for saving my sister." Lyric hugged both of them with her tiny arms.
"We'll get some sleep here, and then we’ll need to get you two a shower and change of clothes." Beds appeared in the station. "I heard there's this great restaurant at the end of the Universe. I've always wanted to check it out." Jason said. Shannon got the Douglas Adams reference and laughed loud and hard.
The three shared many more exciting adventures in their quest through time, and if you happen see Jason, Shannon and Lyric pop into your neighborhood on some fine day, they may invite you to join them. Grab a hand and take a leap. Who knows where time will take you?
watertown vortex
For years, the people of Watertown have been disappearing in Thompson Park, and when Doug Peters takes his grandson to the site he had visited when returning home from WWII, they go on an adventure little Jimmy will ever forget.
"Grandpa, tell me again about the little men you met when you were younger, please?" Jimmy asked.
Jimmy was perched on his grandfather's lap as he read aloud an old favorite, In the Company of Wolves, by Steve Lang, to his grandson. Doug Peters was lost in the story and heard only part of what Jimmy asked.
"This author's one of my favorites. I'm sorry, what did you say little guy?" Doug said.
"I want you to tell me about the little men again." Jimmy was smiling up at him.
Jimmy was six years old and naturally inquisitive about the world around him. On weekends, when his mother had to work, she would drop him off with his grandparents. Grandpa Peters loved his grandson and they were best friends from the time Jimmy was born. On weekends they spent together, he would read him stories of faraway lands and the people who lived there. Today, however, he felt like a little adventure, and decided to leave his favorite armchair and take Jimmy on a field trip to Thompson Park.
"I can do better than that. You want to go see where I met the little people?" Doug asked.
"Sure, grandpa! That's awesome!" Jimmy said. He smiled from ear to ear.
"Let's go, then. It's only about a half an hour drive to the park." Doug got up, grabbed his keys, and the two got into his Toyota Tacoma. In a half hour, the two were turning off Gotham road and onto Thompson Park road. Doug had not been there for many years, and he could feel his anxiety building as they drew closer. He had also begun to wonder if bringing his beloved grandson on this trip had been a good idea. Did he really want to show Jimmy where he had first seen the little people, or was it just that he did not want to go alone?
"Maybe we should turn around and go back to the house." Doug said.
"Why grandpa, we're almost there. We'll be OK." Jimmy reassured. Doug was often impressed with his grandson's maturity, and thought he understood the saying that someone was an old soul. His grandson's mannerisms and the things he would say reminded Doug of something an adult would say to reassure a child. Jimmy could actually consider other people’s concerns. And maybe Jimmy was repeating what adults had always told him when he felt unsure, but perhaps this was not his grandson's first dance.
"You know, you're right. Let's go." Doug smiled. Doug had not been to the park since the residents had constructed a sign identifying it as Watertown's Area 51, but when they passed the almost comical—smiling—alien head on
that sign, Doug felt a chill, and goose bumps broke out all over his skin.
"It's right over there, if memory serves." Doug said. He parked the truck and they got out.
The September afternoon air was fresh and cool, and smelled like new beginnings. The two ventured further into the woods. Doug searched his memories, feeling around inside for the way to the place he had been so long ago. Doug listened for the voices and music of that distant time when he had seen so many fantastic visions that his pulse quickened just thinking about them, even sixty-five years later.
"Grandpa, we've been walking for a while. Are you sure it's this way?" Jimmy asked.
"I'm sure. Just listen…" He held up a hand, and then he heard the rhythmic drums and whimsical music of flutes. "Listen." Doug breathed. "They're close!" He whispered to himself and instinctively grabbed Jimmy's hand. Eyes scanning the forest. Louder now.
"It's right around here." Doug said.
They stepped into the remains of what used to be a clearing, but new saplings had taken root and whatever had been here was being quickly reabsorbed by Mother Nature's low lying plants and shrubs. When Jimmy was inside the circle with his grandfather, the music became louder still, and within a second of his stepping in, the scenery suddenly changed. They were now surrounded by gleeful little men wearing leaf-crafted skirts, with bare muscular chests and wooden spears. These men were chanting and dancing around in a circle, waving their hands and having, what Jimmy surmised, was the time of their lives.
"Faeries!" Doug shouted.
Jimmy joined in, and a moment later Doug did too. After a few rounds neither of them remembered how they had come to the festive ceremony, or what had brought them there in the first place. Their problems in the world of man were lost and a peaceful veil of forgetfulness fell over them. Magical energy surged through the two as they celebrated whatever this was with the two-foot tall faeries.
"Grandpa, this is amazing! These people are so happy." Jimmy yelled.