He set down the briefcase, kicked the door closed, and headed into the kitchen with the groceries. Mary was chopping vegetables and he could smell something delicious in the oven and he was suddenly starving. He set the beer on the counter, walked up behind Mary and wrapped his arms around her. She gave a little moan and a smile came onto her face.
“Honey, I’m home,” he said and he turned her around to give her a kiss.
“Almost ready,” she said and kissed him back.
The roar of a Harley could be heard pulling into the driveway. A few seconds later Marcus came through the door. He tripped over Campbell’s briefcase as he stepped inside and mumbled a curse in ancient Latin. He picked up the briefcase, carried it into the kitchen, and set it on the dining table.
“Somehow I’m the tidy one in this household,” he said as he took off his thick leather jacket to reveal a black shirt that was a little too tight on him so that it showed off his muscles. The word ‘Security’ was printed in bold yellow letters on the back. “I’ll never understand that.”
“How was work?” Mary asked him, looking up from her vegetable chopping.
Marcus had gotten a job working as a bouncer at a local bar shortly after they got back to Campbell’s time. Mary was trying the stay at home mom thing. She was currently two months pregnant with her and Campbell’s first child.
Mary had adjusted to the future pretty easily. It was another great adventure after all. Marcus on the other hand was freaked out by pretty much everything. It took him a week before he decided it was OK to actually use a light switch. But he got used to it eventually. He even liked his work as a bouncer.
Sometimes Mary would think back on what happened and she would miss her father and her friends and her own time. Any time Campbell started talking about history she shut him up, which was often since he had gone back to work at the college. He didn’t need the money, as he still had a couple hundred thousand left from selling the desk, but he liked it. For some reason he liked it more now. When he started a new class and told his students how archaeology was nothing like the adventures of Indiana Jones, that there was never any great adventure, he had to stop himself from smiling, looking at the cylindrical metal paper weight on his desk.
It was pure luck that the device worked that last time. They probably would have ended up in some Nazi prison camp or something. But it did work, that last time. When they showed up in 2011 the device started smoking. Flames shot out around the creases and between the dials. Parts of the device were scorched black and some bits of it melted. None of the dials would move. They were all fused in place. They were stuck for good this time.
The three time traveling friends sat down at the table and shared a meal. It was their evening ritual. Every night they’d sit around the dinner table and talk about work, about the news, about anything other than ancient Rome or the American Revolution. Every now and then they’d reminisce about their time traveling adventures, but mostly they kept the stories to themselves. No one would believe them anyway.
Campbell took a swig of his beer and looked around the table at his friends. “I think I’ll write a book,” he said.
Epilogue
The lightning ball died down and Richter looked around. He was surrounded by trees and he heard shouts in the distance. He looked down at the device. He had changed the date back to AD80 when he left the forest in 0000, but he was rushing and he hadn’t bothered with the date and time. It was two days after he left.
He started to walk cautiously towards the shouts and soon came to a path. It was well worn and there were recent footmarks. The shouts were getting louder. It seemed there were a lot of people, twenty or more, running down the path. Before they rounded the corner to see him standing there he decided to hide in the woods.
Richter crouched behind a tree and watched as the first man came around the corner. He was in a hurry, it seemed like he was being chased. Richter looked closely and saw a familiar face. As soon as he realized it was Lunicus he decided to act.
As Lunicus got close the tree he was using for camouflage Richter jumped out and tackled him, bringing him to the ground. The shouts were still a little ways away. Lunicus reacted, pushing Richter aside and rolling over on top of him. They lay there face to face for a moment, each trying to figure out what to do next. They both looked to the ground next to them where something had fallen out of Richter’s hand. It was the device.
Lunicus dove for the disk. Richter got to his feet and tried to grab it out of Lunicus’ hand. They wrestled over it for a moment.
“Stand down!” a voice yelled. They looked over to see a few of the praetorian guards standing in the path, weapons out. Lunicus and Richter dropped their arms to their sides and stood facing the guards as the leader approached.
Lunicus looked back and forth between the guards and the man he knew as Titus. He still had control of the device. He’d only seen it once and he wasn’t sure what it was or how to use it but he remembered seeing the dials turn and Titus twisting and then they had disappeared. It had to be safe, since Titus was here now. As the guard got close enough to touch Lunicus turned and ran. The guards yelled for him to stop and a spear struck the ground next to his feet but he continued to run.
Richter turned as Lunicus tried to make his escape and he chased after him, but Lunicus was far younger and he quickly gained distance. Then there was a flash. Richter turned back to the guard that had chased Lunicus along with him.
“Where have you been Titus?” the guard asked. He had his sword out, draped at his side.
“You call me lord, Praetorian,” Richter said. “And I need not explain my actions to you.”
“No, Titus, there has been a change,” the guard said. Richter noticed him tighten his grip on the gladius.
“You can’t,” Richter said, taking a step back.
“You’ve caused a little too much trouble,” the guard said. He took a step forward and thrust the sword into Richter’s gut. Then he leaned in close as Richter took his last breaths and whispered, “You’re not really supposed to be here anyway.”
Richter dropped to the ground with a thud. He stretched his arm out toward the road for a few seconds, as if to be reaching for the disk that was long gone. His eyes closed.
Out of Time: A story of archaeology... sort of Page 23