Vortex of Evil

by S D Taylor

  Chapter 20

  Tom led the way as they left the remnants of the pirate camp and headed to the south part of the island were this older version of Erin and her girls had lived for many years with the older version of Doug. Doug, Tom and Erin all carried packs with supplies they liberated from the camp, as well as a supply of rifles, ammunition, RPGs and the remaining antiaircraft missiles. Doug wished they could travel lighter, but he wanted to keep track of the more important things and anything left behind was usually looted by somebody.

  “Can you carry all that stuff, Erin?” Tom looked back at the older Erin as she marched resolutely up the trail.

  “I can manage. Is it going to be weird for you to call me Erin since you are use to the younger version?”

  “It is confusing for me to think of you in those terms since in my mind “Erin” is the woman that was abducted from our camp. I guess we could find a new name for you, like we did for Megan.” Tom smiled at the absurdity of having to find different names for all the different versions of people.

  “I told your Erin that she could call me Rin. I thought it would be less complicated those around us. But since the two Erins aren’t together now, it is up to you. Just don’t suggest ‘Red’ or ‘Freckles’ unless you have a death wish.”

  Tom faked a frown. “Wow, at a single stroke you eliminate my two best suggestions. I guess we’ll have go with Rin. How did you guys come up with that name?”

  Rin laughed. “Well my Doug sometimes called me Rin. Alannah tried to say Erin when she was a toddler and all that came out was Rin. She eventually switched to ‘Mommy’ but Doug locked onto Rin for good.”

  “Rin it is. And you will remember to call me Tom, right? I am the better looking one.”

  “Does anyone care what I think?” Doug was bringing up the rear of the small party, turning his head often to look for any dangers that may be following them.

  “No.” Tom and Rin answered in unison, followed by laughter.

  She paused for Doug to catch up next to her and put her hand on his shoulder. “Of course we care what you think. But I don’t believe you really care if I go by something other than Erin. It will simplify things once she returns, right?”

  Doug couldn’t argue with that logic. “Once she returns” had a good sound to it.” His eyes met hers and he thought how much she was still the same person despite the twenty years that had passed. She seemed a little older but no less attractive or vital than her younger version. He hoped his Erin would return soon so that the two of them could be together to spend all those years that lay ahead. “Rin it is. Unless I think of something more clever.”

  “I know all about your clever names. Let’s keep it reasonable.” Rin smiled, noting that he was looking at her intently. She spoke softly so Tom couldn’t hear. “I am sorry they sent me back instead of your Erin. I can tell by the way you look at me how much you wish I was her.” She felt a tear run down her cheek.

  Doug reached out with his finger and wiped it away. “I am sorry that she was taken, but I would never want to trade you to get her back. I was just thinking how I want to have her back so I can have a chance at a life with her. Just like you and Doug were able to share. For now, let’s keep our eyes peeled and go find your girls. I don’t want to think too hard about all the reasons I have to be mad or sad.”

  Rin patted him on the shoulder. “You were always the sensible one who kept us safe. And it seems that now I have a pair of you to assist me. Can’t beat that.”

  Tom cleared his throat and nodded towards the tall trees that lay ahead on their path. “Just remember that I am also the smarter one.” Then he turned and walked into the dense, dark forest with his two companions hurrying along behind him.

  It took them several hours to get to the cave where Doug and Erin met the Vikings. The blast marks were evident where the pirates had fired the rockets into its mouth. Doug turned to Rin and asked her if she had ever stayed there during the years she had spent on the island.

  “We came here a few times just to visit or show the girls where we met the Vikings. But we never stayed overnight. I guess we wanted to treasure our memories of the night we spent there so long ago.”

  Doug turned to her and smiled. “That was last week for me. It was a pretty wonderful memory to treasure.”

  Rin blushed at the sudden realization that this younger Doug had a fond memory of making love to her within the past few days. A younger version of her, but her nonetheless.

  Doug noticed her reaction. Doug tried to look her right in the eye as he said that, but they both had the same thought. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

  Rin leaned closer to him. “We share those memories together and we have a bond that is different than any two people. I lived twenty years with you, but you just met me a week ago. There are going to be many weird moments between us.” She kissed him on the cheek and turned to go.

  Tom looked at the two of them with a quizzical look on his face. “Anything you want to tell me?”

  “It’s ok Tom. Doug and I were reminiscing about something that you missed out on. But as I remember, you and Megan had a few memories of your own to treasure.” Rin smiled and turned her head to one side as she watched Tom’s noticeably uncomfortable reaction to that question.

  “We probably should get going while there is still light.” He turned and walked towards the place that Peter and John had established their base.

  Doug smiled at Rin and said simply, “Nicely done. You haven’t lost your wit or your beauty.”

  Rin shook her head. “And as I said before, you haven’t lost your knack for the blarney.”

  The trail through the forest went downward towards the eastern shore and then turned south. Soon they could begin to hear the surf in the distance, far below them. When they were within a hundred yards of their destination, Tom called out. “Megan! Are you there?”

  He nearly jumped out of his skin when a voice not more than twenty yards away in the dense undergrowth replied softly, “Who’s asking?”

  Megan came slowly from within the thick bushes and walked over to Tom and hugged him, never taking her eyes off Rin. “You must be the Erin the girls are looking for. How did you get away from the future people? Did everyone escape?”

  “Hello, Megan. It is so good to see you again after all the years.” Rin had a big smile on her face but there were a couple of tears finding their way down her cheeks as she walked over and hugged Megan. “I am afraid that the future people let me go, but kept everyone else.”

  The two nearly identical women held each other for a minute, then stepped back and looked each other over like it was a formal inspection.

  “You have really held up well. We could pass for sisters.” Megan smiled broadly as Rin gave her a skeptical look.

  “I thought we left that sort of talk to these two fine gentlemen who have often charmed us with their silver tongued praise. But my life hasn’t been too bad and we managed to stay alive. Now where are the girls?”

  “I left them working on some dinner tasks with Ying helping out. We should let them know there will be more guests.”

  The four of them turned to go when they heard a gunshot. Then another. It sounded like it came from behind them, near the cave they had just visited.

  Megan and Rin rushed to check on the girls while Tom and Doug quickly moved off the trail in opposite directions and headed back toward where they had just come from. “It sounded like a pistol.” Doug was looking around furiously as he advanced through the rough terrain.

  “I thought so, too. Keep your wits about you. There could be a bunch of them.” Tom visualized a group of the pirates in their camouflaged blue uniforms waiting to attack them but when they arrived at the cave, there was nobody in sight. Doug went forward towards the entrance while Tom covered him from behind a large tree. They were both on an emotional razor’s edge and knew that it would be all too easy to shoot first without thinking. Doug cautioned himself to investigate first, shoot
second. Make sure there was a real threat.

  As he cautiously approached the mouth of the cave, Doug could see a pair of boots on the ground with the toes pointed skyward. He peered around the edge of the rock at the entrance and confirmed there were legs attached to the boots. But the pants were not the camouflage blue he was expecting. Doug picked up a baseball size rock and threw it into the cave. An immediate gunshot resulted, with the bullet hitting the wall of the cave and spraying rock chips in all directions.

  “Put your gun down and come out with your hands up. Now!” Doug yelled it in his action voice that left no doubt about his intentions.

  Another gunshot followed, but again it was random and struck the rock wall harmlessly. Doug fired a burst from his AK-47 into the rock on the opposite side of the cave, for noise and effect more than anything else. “Toss out your gun or we are coming in.”

  There was a silence for about a minute, after which an automatic 9mm pistol came flying out of the mouth of the cave and landed on the trail. What followed was beyond anything that Doug or Tom was expecting. A young Viking boy, no more than fifteen years old came out slowly with his hands in the air. He had similar clothes to what Doug remembered Arny and Hakkon wore, with a rough wool shirt and pants, and an animal skin cloak. He looked frightened but willing to face his tormentor and die bravely. Then he saw Doug and he broke into a smile.

  “Doug? Is that you? You’re alive.”

  Doug held his ground, pointed his rifle off to the side and tried to come to grips with what could possible explain this. The Viking boy, who had apparently just shot a stray pirate, knew him and spoke English.

  Tom walked up and stood next to Doug. This caused the Viking boy to lose his smile as he was now confronted by two identical, alive-again Dougs. “Who is he?”

  “My name is Tom. Would you know Erin, Katelyn and Alannah?” Tom guessed that they might have Viking friends if twenty years had gone by and the Vikings had stayed around. He remembered that there were some babies in the group.

  “Yes. My name is Olaf.” He smiled slightly. “You both look like Doug, but he died two years ago. Are you his sons?”

  Doug looked at Tom and they both laughed. “My name is Doug. I am just a younger version of old Dad. Tell me what happened here.”

  “That dead man was one of the people who have been after us. They attacked our village last night. Right after the God’s brought us to this place.”

  “What do you mean, brought you to this place?” Doug assumed he meant one of the vortex events.

  “One morning we woke up and there were many new people in the village. Some of them were younger versions of our parents. Are you the same? A younger version of Alannah’s father? We decided that the Gods were playing some kind of joke on us all.” Olaf looked at Doug as he slowly picked up his pistol and put it in his belt. Doug nodded it was ok.

  Doug checked the pirate and confirmed he was dead. Out of habit he took the man’s rifle, spare ammunition and the backpack he was wearing. “We are going to see Erin and the girls. Do you want to come with us? It will be dark soon. It would be safer to stay with us.” Tom scanned the forest in all directions as he said that.

  “I will come with you, but I must return to the village in the morning or they will worry about my safety.”

  “What were you doing when you ran into this guy?” Doug looked at him intently, trying to see if he could recognize any of Arny’s features in the young man. Could it be?

  “A few of us have been helping the girls look for their mother, Erin. She disappeared a few days ago. Did the girls find you?”

  “Yes. We were just heading to their place when we heard your shots. You aren’t injured are you?” Tom couldn’t see any blood on the boy.

  “No. He was not a good shot so I was able to get him first.” He seemed like a proud Viking except for the part about using a gun instead of an ax. Doug found that slightly troubling.

  “Where did you learn to speak English?” Tom was just as curious as Doug about that.

  “Erin taught me, my brother and my sister. Our father wanted us to learn so we could help translate for him and the other older men. And now the new younger versions who also don’t speak English. Pretty weird situation, huh?”

  Doug wanted to laugh out loud at the modern English speech coming from a Viking teenager who had a Glock semi-automatic pistol and lived in the nineteenth century. But he worried his laughter would be misinterpreted as ridicule. He just smiled and gave Tom a look as he stood behind the boy and nearly choked trying to stifle his own urge to laugh.

  “Let’s go see the ladies, Olaf. I believe they will be interested to see you and I know that Erin will be glad to know that you are alright after the gunshots.” Doug turned to go.

  “Will Alannah be there?” Olaf smiled as he contemplated seeing her again.

  Doug felt his fatherly sense kick in at that question. “Yes she will. Why do you ask?” Doug gripped the rifle a little tighter and thought that Olaf better not say he thought she was hot.

  “I think she is nice. I like to visit with her.” Olaf fell in next to Tom as they walked back down the trail towards the camp where Megan, Rin and the rest were waiting.

  “I’ll bet you do. I’ll just bet you do.” Tom winked at Doug who turned around and sent a glare his way.

  Olaf saw their look and laughed. “You don’t need to worry about me. Erin told me that she would cut off my cajones if I ever acted like a Viking raider around her daughters. I wasn’t sure what cajones were, but I don’t plan to take any chances.”

  Tom and Doug laughed so hard they had to wait by the side of the trail until they could settle down a bit. “Good advice to remember, boy. Good advice to remember.” Tom slapped him on the back as they headed off to rejoin Rin and the others.

  Chapter 21

  They all slept fitfully in their cell since Peter still couldn’t move his legs and Gaby stayed awake most of the night to look after him. Erin couldn’t sleep from the adrenalin and anger that were circulating around inside her. But it gave her time to think through their plight. She concluded they had to try to appear more cooperative. If for no other reason than to deny Dara and her superiors the satisfaction of watching them jumping around and growling like a pack of hounds. They had to play it cooler and try to get some useful information that could help turn their cause around.

  Just when Erin noticed she was hungry, Dara appeared in the hallway of the cellblock. As usual, her sudden appearance startled them. “Please come with me. All of you. Time for a little sightseeing.”

  The half mechanical man stood behind her. Peter asked the obvious. “Is Insect Man going to carry me?”

  Dara gave him a dirtier than usual look. “Yes, and he is not ‘Insect Man’ as you so rudely call him. He is a Hybroman and his name is Jelk. You might try to show a little more respect in the future. He could crack your skull like a walnut if he wanted to.”

  “Why should I care? You are going to kill us all anyway.” Peter didn’t feel like being considerate or congenial.

  “Because we could always arrange for a slower, more painful death if you convince us it would be your preference. So far, you are pretty well heading down that path.” Dara gave Peter her “try me” stare and she wasn’t blinking.

  Gaby leaned over and kissed Peter before he could respond. Erin said quickly, “He is fine with whatever relatively quick death you had planned. No need for any special arrangements.”

  Dara smiled. “Ok then. At least two of you are starting to understand. Now let’s go see the sights. I think you will be impressed.”

  The gray sea and gray sky stretched out ahead of the boat until they merged on the distant horizon. A steady breeze was tossing the water into whitecaps but it wasn’t a bad day. Erin’s only thought as she came out on deck was that it seemed unusually warm for this far north. Until she saw the towers. Ahead to the north were a cluster of four towers that looked as though they were high enough to reach into the lower regions
of outer space. Each tower was cylinder shaped and had a huge square block on the top. She could not see the bottom of the cylinder because it reached down to the earth far beyond the horizon. But the tops of the towers were touching the gray layer of clouds that appeared to surround the earth.

  “What are those towers for? They must be the largest things ever built on earth!” Peter exclaimed as the Hybroman Jelk carried him out of the door and set him on a deck chair facing north towards this engineering feat that he couldn’t begin to comprehend.

  “They are the Towers of Transarctica. The most powerful source of energy the world has ever known. They are over ten miles high.” Dara smiled as she spoke with pride of something she was sure had the biggest amount of “wow” factor that any of these three people from the past could imagine. “This sight never fails to impress. Even condemned people find it wonderful to behold.”

  “I can appreciate that. They are an amazing sight. Why did they build them?” Erin bit her tongue to avoid the obvious “I’m dying to know” comment.

  “They generate power for all of Transarctica. They replaced all the small scale and inefficient methods of generating power that were around in your time. We have been able to solve problems on a grand scale.”

  Erin was impressed by the size of these seemingly global-scale phallic power towers, but the world as a whole, from the little she had seen of it, did not give the impression that all that many problems had been solved. Maybe it would be a lot worse if the future people weren’t so clever. She knew that would be Dara’s explanation. “How do they work?”