At last I come to a junction; I need a plan. I need to stop mucking about, and start looking for Demi.
Maybe I should search the woods. It could be that she’s taken cover there. I hope she hasn’t run into those men. If they’re not afraid to blow people up there’s no saying what else they’re capable of. I wonder if they have a camp somewhere nearby. There may be more than two of them out there, but I can’t afford to worry about that.
It’s a dark, dense wood, with the trees spaced far enough apart to get the bike through, although I have to move slowly because the undergrowth is so thick. The engine is making a low rumbling sound, cutting out from time to time. I smile to myself, thinking about my failed escape from the institution, being chased by a guard trampling on the trees like they’re no more than twigs. I don’t expect to come across a guard now. There isn’t much danger of facing artificial intelligence in nineteen forty-something.
At last I spot a clearing in the distance with a couple of small, knocked-up huts made out of wood and bits of metal, and a pile of branches stacked up for a fire. Quickly I shut down the engine, dismount the bike, and move closer on foot, finally stopping behind a thick tree trunk, hoping that the man standing next to the pile hasn’t heard the bike. He’s trying to light the branches with something that looks like the lighter thing Demi uses for her cigarettes. He’s too far in the distance for me to tell whether he’s one of the men seen on the road after the explosion, but then my eyes focus on two large guns I recognise.
The man stops what he’s doing, and stares around the forest. Something has disturbed him, probably the twig I’ve just snapped with my foot. Another man approaches. They speak, but I can’t hear them. I doubt if I’d understand them, anyway, if they’re talking in that funny language.
The man trying to light the fire goes into one of the huts, and comes back out again – with Demi close behind!
She’s still alive! Her hair is tousled, there’s a scratch on her face and her arm, and her top and trousers have holes in them, but apart from that she seems all right. She doesn’t look scared, and they’re not touching her, or shouting at her. She’s nodding, as if she understands them. She takes the object from the man, flicks it so that a flame appears, and holds it against the wood. It starts to smoke. The men pat her on the back, pleased the fire is lit.
I’m not sure if I should call out to her. I don’t know how hostile the men will be towards me, but she seems to trust them. They’re not aggressive with her; in fact one of them is friendly, a bit too friendly for my liking. He puts his arm around her, presses her to him, and kisses the top of her head.
I dart like a bullet from behind the tree. It seems like a split second between me being there, and punching his face into the middle of next week. Now he doesn’t seem so scary; in fact he’s easy. Demi yells at me, but I’m too preoccupied, until she dives on me, her arms around my neck.
‘Travis! Oh, Travis! You’re alive!’
Wet kisses rain on my face. I’m relieved she’s pleased to see me, relieved she’s alive. I stop belting the man, and hug her back, but he’s seriously hacked off, yelling at me in that crazy language, throwing punches back at me. One hits me square on the nose.
‘Oh, please, don’t,’ says Demi desperately, holding her hands up to him. His mate tries to hold him back. ‘He’s my friend!’
‘Hits me!’ he barks. That bit I do understand.
‘He didn’t mean to!’ protests Demi. ‘Say sorry, Travis!’
‘What for?’
‘For hitting him!’
‘He had his hands all over you!’
‘It was only a hug!’ Demi laughs. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that! They’ve been very good to me. They got me away from danger after the explosion. They’re the good guys; and I think,’ she winks, ‘they’re more than just friends. I don’t reckon I’m their type! Anyway, Sol and Jacob are resistance. They set the booby trap for the lorry. It was them who blew it up.’
‘They speak the same language as the soldiers,’ I point out, ‘so surely they’re on the same side? Why would they want to blow them up?’
She explains about invaded countries like France and Poland having large organised underground resistance groups against the Nazi soldiers, risking their lives by defying them.
‘Although this is Germany there are groups here, too, although on a smaller scale,’ she finishes. ‘Not all Germans are Nazis.’
‘I know a bit about resistance. We had our own groups in twenty ninety-nine.’
‘This is a bit more serious,’ says Demi solemnly. ‘Sol and Jacob are Jewish.’
I stare blankly at her.
‘Oh, never mind.’ Demi is impatient. ‘We’ll keep the history lesson for another day. Come on, I’ll introduce you. Then I want to finish my wash.’
Their English is broken, but somehow we work out who’s who.
‘Sorry I hit you, mate.’ I hold out my hand to the one Demi calls Sol. ‘Demi says you’re all right, and not trying to get into her knickers, so that’s fine with me.’
‘Hey!’ Demi digs me in the ribs. I grin back at her, as I’m pretty sure Sol hasn’t understood. He says ‘thank you’ and shakes hands.
‘Are there only two of you?’ I ask, and when they don’t answer, I ask again, slowly this time.
‘They’re not simple, Travis,’ says Demi, giggling.
‘They don’t understand what I’m saying, and I can’t speak their language.’
Demi sighs. ‘Their English isn’t great,’ she admits as they finish banking up the fire. ‘My German isn’t, either. We only got by ‘cos of Chas. His German is really good, but actually he’s Czech. I wish he would hurry up; he’s been gone for ages!’
It’s like I’ve suddenly been struck by lightning. ‘Chase is here?’
So you’re still alive, you evil toerag.
No reply; the pod doesn’t work here, or he’s ignoring me.
‘Well, it isn’t really him,’ says Demi. ‘I thought it was at first, because he looks really like him, so that’s what I call him. I can’t pronounce his real name.’
‘Eh? You’re saying it’s not him?’
She nods.
‘You’re not making sense, Demi! He looks like Chase, but he isn’t? It’s too much of a coincidence for him to have a lookalike. Did you ask him any questions, like what happened in the cave, and the portal?
‘Wait! Wait! I did ask him!’ says Demi impatiently. ‘He didn’t know what I was talking about. He told me he’s been studying in Germany since nineteen thirty-seven, and when the war started he joined the resistance. He could be Chas’s ancestor, Travis. There’s something – unfamiliar about him, if you see what I mean; but there wasn’t that much time for talking, I was here only five minutes when he left to get food.’
I laugh, but I don’t find it funny. ‘This is a joke, right? I mean you’re not serious about him being Chase’s ancestor!’
‘Well, why not? We’re in the past: his past; your past; mine for that matter.’
I snort. I just know the rat has cheated death, and he’s here!
‘He didn’t know who I was,’ continues Demi, ‘and when I told him he didn’t believe me. He thinks I got a bang on the head after the explosion.’
‘He’s right.’ I’m angry that, after everything he’s put her through, she’s still so blind to his crap. ‘God, Demi, you’re so bloody naïve! Chase killed your dad!’
Demi goes red. ‘It’s not him, Travis. Sol and Jacob have known him for years, they backed up his story.’
‘I bet they did! Wake up, Demi! He used hypnosis on them!’
‘I’m telling you it isn’t the same person! If it is, something’s obviously changed him. You thought you’d killed him with the golf club. Maybe he survived, but something’s happened to his brain.’
‘Did he mention me?’
‘No. I did, though, but he says he doesn’t know you, either.’
‘He’s a bloody liar, then, isn’t he?’
<
br /> Demi sighs. ‘OK, look, have it out with him when he gets back. You look knackered. Why don’t you have a kip? I want to finish cleaning off this soot. Once we’ve got some food on the go I’ll bring you a bite to eat. It isn’t much, only vegetable stew, but you must be starving; then maybe we can talk about how we’re going to get home.’
A bit of shut-eye and some food will be just the job.
‘Chase first,’ I mutter, ‘home later.’
‘Yeah, OK, but I’m telling you, you’ve got the wrong man. God, I’m sorry I gave him Chas’s nickname now!’
I follow her to the larger of the two huts. It’s cramped inside, full of sacks, with a small table, and one chair. There’s a bowl of water on the table, and Demi starts to scrub her face with a cloth.
‘What’s this stuff?’ I ask, poking one of the sacks with my finger. There’s something hard inside.
‘Don’t ask me,’ says Demi. ‘I haven’t looked. They keep food supplies in the other hut.’
I undo the string on one of the sacks, and peer into it.
‘This resistance group is doing all right for itself!’ I pull out a large, heavy machine-gun. ‘Where did all this ammo come from?’
‘I don’t know. Collected them, maybe? They did take guns off the Nazis.’
‘Wait a minute,’ I interrupt, ‘this looks familiar...’
It’s a long, thin, but very heavy black object. I examine it carefully, and there’s no doubt in my mind what it is: an acid beam gun. There are no triggers on it, only a switch, as well as a small hole in the top where pure acid shoots out in one yellow beam, and an indicator that flashes when the acid is running low. This is lethal in the wrong hands.
‘I’m no expert in ammunition history,’ I say quietly, ‘but I bet they don’t have guns like this in your Nazi world.’
‘It’s not my Nazi world, and I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Demi tries to take it from me, but I shake my head, and point it at the chair. The chair leg fizzles into nothing, and the chair collapses on its side.
‘Good, it still works, then.’
‘What is it?’ cries Demi, staring in amazement at the chair.
‘An acid gun; one of the most powerful weapons you can get where I come from. It has a pure chemical in it. I don’t know what type of acid it is, but it destroys everything it touches.’
‘How did it get here?’
‘Well,’ I close the switch, and put the gun in my pocket, ‘I’ll give you three guesses how it could’ve got here!’ My mind is racing. ‘If Chase had this with him in twenty fourteen he would’ve used it. He must’ve gone back to twenty ninety-nine, and brought it back with him.’
Demi sighs. ‘You can’t prove it.’
‘I bet I can.’
She says no more, but carries on with her wash. I settle down between two of the sacks, thinking about the acid gun, and wondering if there are any more of this happy band of resistance. Three men against a whole army can’t work...
Demi is shaking me out of a deep sleep.
‘Travis,’ she hisses. ‘Travis!’
‘Uh-uh?’
‘Travis, we’ve got to get out of here! The Nazis are coming!’
For a moment I don’t know what she’s on about; then I jump up like a coiled spring, pull out the acid gun, and grab a rifle from a sack. ‘Here, take this. Where are they?’
‘Sol spotted them coming through the forest. He was collecting more wood, and ran back to warn us. There are about a hundred of them, maybe more. They’re heading straight for us, some on foot, some on bikes...’
‘Hurry up, then, we’ve got to get out of here.’ I’m stuffing bullets and grenades into my pockets. ‘Where are Sol and Jacob? Is Chase back?’
‘He’s not...’
‘Is he back or not?’
‘Sol and Jacob are laying wires all around the bottom of the trees. There’s no sign of Chas yet.’ Demi pulls a face at the rifle.
‘Have you fired a gun before?’ I ask bluntly.
‘Of course I have!’ she snaps. ‘I lived on a farm, didn’t I? Only we won’t be able to hold them off for long.’
‘We have no choice, so grab as much ammo as you can carry, and pray for a miracle. The acid gun will help.’
Suddenly the hut starts to swirl around, and I have to steady myself against the table.
‘Travis? Are you OK?’
The hut rights itself. The golden light appears, inviting us in. I grab Demi’s hand. ‘I’ve got a better idea! Quick, before it goes!’
Only what about Chase...if we go now...
‘Wait, Travis, we can’t leave Sol and Jacob!’
‘We can’t take them with us! It’s their life, their war; not ours.’
‘No. I meant for us to stay here, fight off the Nazis with them. You said the acid gun thing would help.’
‘If we have a chance to get out of this mess, Demi, we’d be fools not to take it.’ I sigh heavily. I’m not going to have a full seizure after all; but the portal is beginning to fade already. ‘I’m not a coward, but I’m not prepared to die for a cause which isn’t mine, either. Before, we didn’t have a choice, but now there’s the portal...’
Just then a loud explosion sends us both to the floor, and the hut shakes and shudders with the force of the blast.
‘They’re here!’ I look at Demi; her face is white with fear. ‘What’s it to be, then, Dem: the portal, or stay and fight? Quick! It’s going! Make up your mind!’
Too late; the portal makes it up for her. It disappears, and for a moment we’re left staring at the sacks. I’m the first to pull myself together.
‘Come on,’ I say resignedly, ‘time to face our foe.’
We peer through the makeshift metal door. It’s carnage outside; smoke everywhere, burnt bodies – soldiers from what I can tell – lying on the ground. There are about twenty other soldiers, all firing their guns, but I can’t see Sol or Jacob anywhere, unless they’re already dead, or hiding behind trees, firing back.
Then we hear it, and it’s not long before we see it.
‘Resistance is useless!’ it booms. ‘You have three seconds to drop your weapons!’
13. Trapped
Demi hides behind me, shuddering with dread. She knows there’s something horrible out there. Her hands are over her ears, and her eyes are clasped tight shut. Her screams are drowned by the guard’s voice as it proclaims its intention to shoot, so I put my hand over her mouth. If it hears her we’re toast.
I’m used to the harsh drone of a guard, how it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, how it makes you want to pee with fright, but right now it’s just scary that it’s here at all. It’s found its way through another portal somewhere, but someone has guided it through. Guards can’t think for themselves, they’re programmed to do one thing only – destroy. Someone with enough knowledge and power has brought it here; it’s too much of a coincidence that it’s just happened to stumble through to the same timeline as I’m in.
It has to be Chase’s doing; he’s sent it to get me!
I watch as a bolt of light strikes a soldier, turning him to ash; and another, and another. I’m right; however hard and tough this army is it’s no match for a guard. I’m almost tempted to kiss it for sorting out the enemy for us, except I know it’s not on our side, and it wouldn’t return the compliment.
The guard thunders its advance, shaking the ground, crushing trees underfoot, aiming its beams at more terrified Nazis trying to get away from it. Trunks and branches are falling everywhere. One trunk strikes a man on a bike, crushing him in an instant. Nazi bullets just bounce off the guard’s metal frame.
Demi tugs at my hand. ‘What – the – f...’
‘It’s a robot police guard,’ I murmur, ‘and you never ask one the time!’
‘Sol and Jacob! We have to find them!’
‘No!’ I give her a small shake. ‘They’re probably dead now. If the Nazis haven’t got them, that thing will have. It can spot a fly for m
iles, so as soon as it knows we’re here, we’re dead. Look, I know you’re scared, but keep your voice down. We’re safe in here as long as we keep quiet!’
Safe as long as the guard doesn’t decide to track for any more bodies once it’s disposed of the Nazis. It’ll know we’re here by using its sensors to trace body heat, or it’ll just trample on the hut, anyway; and safe as long as the forest isn’t alight. There’s a lot of smoke in the air, but guards usually put out any fires they might start.
I don’t tell Demi any of this.
A tree falls against the hut, crashing inches away from the door. Some of its branches smash into the window. Luckily we’re unharmed by the shower of glass, but unluckily the shock makes Demi squeal in fright. She’s shaking with silent sobs as I guide her away from the door.
We crouch down in the corner, listening in fear as the guard continues its path of destruction. I’m hoping the tree is going to give us some camouflage, but our body heat will still show through. I’m not sure we’re going to get out of this alive.
‘Sorry I was rough.’ I put my arm around her, and kiss the top of her head.
‘How did that thing get here, Travis?’ she whispers, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
‘A portal’s my best guess. No other explanation I can think of.’
‘Why has it come? Is it looking for you?’
‘Probably.’
‘I wish a portal would appear now! I wish we hadn’t let that one go! We need to get out of here!’
More bangs, more shouts of terror. I’m wondering how many Nazis are left now, and where the guard will go once it’s killed them all.
‘Travis,’ Demi hisses urgently, ‘I want to go – I need...’
‘Eh?’
‘I need a wee!’
‘What, now?’
I could do with one myself, but there’s nowhere to go in here.
‘Yeah! Oh!’ She bites her lip, and crosses her legs. ‘I’m going to wet myself in a minute!’
‘Where are you going to go, then?’
‘Can’t I go outside?’ pleads Demi. ‘If I run into the trees it might not see.’
‘Oh, yeah, fine,’ I say sarcastically. ‘Go on, then. The robot has an all-seeing eye, but it’s also a gentleman. I’m sure it’ll avert its eyes while you drop your knickers.’
Epiworld Page 13