by Jacob Holo
Nicole shook her head. “It sounds like a sick joke.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Daniel said. “I actually think we’re lucky Chronopolis was settled by isolationist xenophobes.”
“And what sort of deluded logic led you there?”
“Think of it like this. You know what I can do with my shifting ability. Would you want people like me roaming free without any oversight? And if you think the occasional political killing ten years ago is bad, read a book on what Joseph Stalin did to his own people. Things could have turned out waaaaaay worse.”
“Hmmm. I don’t know.”
“Rüdiger is an idealist. He thinks we should take an active role in the world and try to do some good.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Would you really want a bunch of crusty old communists shaping the world?”
“Hmm…”
“As imperfect as the system is and as brutal as it can be, the system does work,” Daniel said. “It’s kept the reavers in check, mostly, and it’s kept renegade tau guards from running rampant and making a mess of things. Realists make the world work. Idealists just keep breaking it.”
The bus’s squeaking airbrakes brought them to a halt.
“So please,” Daniel said, “before you judge me and what I do, give my words some thought. Come on. This is our stop.”
The five of them climbed out of the bus in front of an ornate iron gate, part of a tall iron fence lining the Ludwigsburg Castle gardens. The gate stood open with turnstiles and a tourist kiosk just inside. The castle and gardens looked odd without reavers climbing over everything. Nicole swallowed dryly, trying to keep her fear in check. She rubbed her moist hands together.
“Well, we haven’t been attacked yet,” Daniel said. “That’s good.” He took out his compass. For once the second needle stood perfectly still.
“Let’s see what happens when we get closer,” Rüdiger said. He paid for their tickets at the kiosk and handed them out. “Is everyone ready?”
“Ja.”
Amy hefted her backpack. “Ready.”
“Sure, why not?” Daniel said.
“Ready,” Nicole said, with only a slight squeak. She tried to mask it by clearing her throat.
Rüdiger patted her on the shoulder and led the way into the gardens. They passed through the turnstiles.
“By the way,” Daniel said. “I know I mentioned this earlier, but if we get pulled into a freeze, stay off the grass.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Nicole said. “Why is that?”
“Grass has temporal presence,” Rüdiger said. “All plants do. They become extremely rigid in a tau freeze. It brings new meaning to the phrase ‘blades of grass.’”
“You didn’t say anything at Watchtower.”
“That wasn’t a tau freeze,” Daniel said. “Time was still moving forward. We were just in a different space.”
“Are you purposely trying to confuse me?”
Daniel looked offended. “Of course not.”
They took a wide stone path down the middle of the gardens. Curling patches of red and orange flowers filled the afternoon air with fragrant aromas. Water streamers from small dish-shaped fountains tinkled to either side of the main path.
“Is this where you saw the large tunnel?” Rüdiger asked.
“Closer to the center,” Nicole said. They kept walking.
“Even without your borehole theory,” Daniel said, “I would have expected an attack by now. This place is riddled with tau tunnels.”
“Yes, I find it odd as well,” Rüdiger said. “The tunnels here connect most of Europe. It’s too tempting a target for them to ignore. What’s that compass of yours doing?”
“Nothing. It’s perfectly still.”
“Is it stuck?” Nicole asked.
Daniel banged the side of the compass a few times. “I don’t think so.”
Nicole stopped near the center of the garden. She was in front of the large pond with a fountain in the center.
“I don’t get it,” Nicole said, looking around. “I was sure there’d be something here. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad there isn’t, but still…”
“Nicole!” Amy called out, crouching to the side of the main path near a shrub. She motioned for them to join her.
“What is it?” Nicole asked.
“Look at the plant.”
They all crowded next to her. At first, Nicole wasn’t sure what to look for. Amy had pointed to a perfectly conical shrub. However, the longer she stared, the more her eyes felt like they couldn’t focus right. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and squinted. Nothing took away the subtle watery effect.
Rüdiger reached out and touched the shrub. He pulled out a branch. Most of it moved, but a thin shadow of the branch passed through his hand.
“I’ve never seen tau spillage this strong,” Rüdiger said.
“I don’t think anyone has,” Daniel said.
“What could dis mean?” Melanie asked.
“Something big is happening here,” Rüdiger said. “But I don’t know what or why we haven’t been affected.”
“Should we trigger a tau freeze and investigate?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Rüdiger said. “We won’t discover what the reavers are up to like this.”
“Well, if we’re going to do this, let’s be smart about it,” Daniel said. “I can generate the smallest freeze area unless Nicole wants to add something to her long list of talents.”
“Don’t look at me. I have no idea how you guys do it.”
“Right, so I’ll generate the freeze,” Daniel said. “That way if there are lots of reavers around, I only pull in the ones we’re standing next to. Everyone crowd around and stay close. Ready?”
“Just do it,” Rüdiger said.
“All right, here we—”
* * *
Time stopped.
“—go. Holy crap!”
Drones and creepers covered the gardens from end to end. Massive beetles towered over the fence surrounding the gardens, and sentinels patrolled the castle roof.
Daniel whipped out his sword. The blade whisked dangerously close to Nicole’s arm. Melanie pulled her crossbow out of her backpack and unfolded it in a quick, practiced motion. She fitted a long bolt and finished before Amy had hers out of the backpack.
Nicole reached for the nearest fountain and lifted it in the air.
“Hold on,” Rüdiger said, perfectly calm. “They’re not moving.”
“They… they’re not?” Daniel asked, doubtfully glancing from one reaver to the next.
“Watch,” Rüdiger said. He tossed a half-hearted fireball at the closest creeper. The centipede-like creature stood motionless in an upright S twice as tall as Nicole. Rüdiger’s fireball struck its head and blew it to pieces. Metal fragments and gooey pus blasted out from the explosion, stopped, and reformed.
Nicole threw the fountain at a different creeper. Heavy stone crashed through its midsection, sending twisted metal flying, but the reaver and fountain fell back together.
Daniel lowered his sword. “Well, this is something of a letdown. What’s going on here?”
“Best guess?” Rüdiger said. “We’re looking at reavers that can’t enter tau freezes.”
“You mean they’re frozen the same way normal people are in a freeze?” Nicole asked.
“Right,” Rüdiger said. “They can’t hurt us, but we can’t hurt them.”
“But how did I pull them into the freeze?” Daniel asked. “This doesn’t normally happen.”
“Yes, but I think the boundaries are very thin here,” Rüdiger said. “Look up.”
“Why?” Daniel said. He looked up. “Oh, crap. That’s not good.”
A massive translucent shape hovered in the sky above them. Nicole could make out the vaguest impression of a wide tunnel entrance.
“The effect seems more pronounced closer to the castle,” Rüdiger said. “Come on.”
“Mein Gott,” Melanie said.
“Okay, I admit it,” Daniel said. “I was wrong.”
“Is that what you saw in your dream?” Amy asked.
“Yup.”
“Take a good look,” Rüdiger said gravely. “Because I think we’re looking at the end of our world.”
“How much time do you think we have?” Nicole asked.
“This tunnel is already affecting time and space in our world,” Rüdiger said. “We could have days. We could have hours. At least we know why the reavers launched their offensive. They need the tau guards distracted while they finish this.”
“We can’t handle this alone,” Daniel said.
“Agreed,” Rüdiger said. “It will take hundreds of tau guards weeks to repair this level of damage. We need to reach Chronopolis and warn them.”
Nicole heard a metal click behind them. She spun around, facing the mass of motionless reavers. Nothing moved, but something didn’t feel right. She sidestepped over to Daniel and tugged on his sleeve.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
“Hmm?”
“That hive lord,” Nicole whispered. “Over there by the big patch of purple flowers. Was it there a moment ago?”
“Ah… oh, crap. You don’t think it…”
“Yes, I do think so. Rüdiger?”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“Von vay to be sure,” Melanie said. She shouldered her crossbow and fired. The bolt struck the hive lord in an eye. It threw back its head and screamed.
KREEEIIIGH!!!
The hive lord scurried away. Hornets launched from its swollen abdomen. Rüdiger held up a hand and released a continuous stream of blue fire fifteen feet long. Dozens of hornets dropped screeching to the ground. The swarm arced into the air. With his free hand, Rüdiger threw a fireball into the center of the swarm. It exploded, blasting the metal insects apart.
BRAAAAUUUGH!!!
“Sentinel!” Daniel shouted.
“But where? I don’t see it!” Nicole shouted.
“Who cares? Head for the gate! Get away from the reavers!”
Nicole sprinted for the gate, dodging through and vaulting over motionless reavers. Creepers and drones to both sides started moving. Rüdiger tossed one fireball after another into their pursuers, blasting drones high into the sky and slowing down the creepers. Daniel dashed around Nicole and the others, slicing apart any reavers that came too close.
Rüdiger and Daniel’s combined efforts kept the group clear of reavers long enough to reach the garden’s outer fence near the tourist gate.
“Hold here!” Daniel shouted. “Stand and fight!”
Melanie slotted another bolt. Nicole reached across the stone path and lifted a dozen flagstones in one go. She could barely see Rüdiger beneath his shroud of twisting fire.
Six creepers and a living carpet of drones charged towards them. Amy fired her crossbow and stuck the lead creeper below the head. The reaver staggered and slowed, frost spreading from the wound. It iced up completely, toppled, and shattered.
“Ha!” Amy shouted, pulling another bolt from her quiver. “Take that!”
Nicole sent the flagstones flying. With a fantastic bang, they breached the sound barrier and scythed through two creepers. Heads, body segments, legs, pus, and glowing blood sprayed over the garden.
Rüdiger collected a brilliant fireball between his palms and loosed it into the closest reavers. Drones blasted through the sky in every direction. One of the creepers dropped to the ground, half its head missing.
Daniel raced towards the two remaining creepers. The closest creeper coiled back like a serpent and lunged, but Daniel dodged to the side, letting its head and many-segmented body shoot past. With a brutal downward slash, he cleaved it in two.
Rüdiger threw another fireball, blasting apart most of the remaining drones, but the final creeper dodged and kept coming, now dangerously close.
Nicole reached behind her back and found something cold, smooth, and heavy to her kinetic sense. Without turning, she lifted it. Two turnstiles ripped out of the ground, rose high into the air and, at her command, shot towards the creeper. They crushed it against the flagstone path, tumbling dozens of yards before temporal reset kicked in.
“Mein Gott, Nicole,” Melanie said.
Nicole panted, resting with hands just above her knees. “I think I’m getting better at this.”
“Hey, I didn’t do too bad either,” Amy said.
“Well, that wasn’t so tough,” Daniel said, prodding a creeper’s flattened head with his boot. “Kind of a letdown when you think about it. I thought there’d be more.”
Part of the garden exploded upward. A huge sentinel reaver rose through the hole and turned its head towards them, mandibles twitching in hungry anticipation. It opened its furnace mouth and roared.
BRAAAUUGH!!!
Nicole grabbed another dozen flagstones and launched them. They pounded the sentinel reaver, severing three legs and denting its thick skin. The creature charged like a freight train, oblivious to its wounds. Blue fire from one of Rüdiger’s fireballs erupted against its side. Legs flew off, but the sentinel didn’t stop.
Amy fired and hit the sentinel’s underside. A sheen of frost spread from the impact, thickening quickly. The sentinel flexed its body segments and broke the ice off.
Daniel leaped into the air and somehow landed on the reaver’s swiftly-moving back. Two of its legs popped their joints and pivoted to stab at him, but he dodged and cut them off. The reaver raised its body high off the ground and shook back and forth. Daniel stabbed his sword into its back and held on.
Rüdiger threw another fireball into the reaver’s underbelly. It exploded in a flash of arcane energy, crumpling the creature’s metallic skin. Glowing fluid leaked out of the wound. The reaver dropped forward, its head crashing into the pavement.
Daniel pulled his sword out and ran up its back towards the head. The reaver lifted its body off the ground, but not fast enough. Daniel drove his sword in to the hilt, right between the reaver’s eye clusters.
The reaver screamed in agony. Scalding air blasted Nicole. She covered her ears and closed her watering eyes.
Blackness snapped over the world.
* * *
Light and color filled reality. Nicole staggered forward, ready to fall over, but Rüdiger caught her with an arm around her stomach. She looked around and saw Daniel running towards them from the gate. He held his compass in one hand and his sword in the other. Several people were starting to notice.
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Daniel shouted. “Come on! This way!”
They ran towards the garden gate. Nicole easily caught up with Daniel now that he didn’t have his enhanced speed. She slid through the turnstiles and paused at the road.
“Where to?” Nicole asked. Rüdiger, Melanie, and Amy came to a halt behind them.
“Ah… umm…” Daniel looked down at his compass. If the second needle had been a propeller, it would have lifted the compass out of his hand. “We’ve stirred up something nasty. We’re not going to make it out on foot. Where’s the bus?”
Rüdiger checked his watch. “Exactly nine minutes away.”
“Damn German punctuality! Well, that’s not going to work!” Daniel said. He looked around. Cars sped past them on the road. “Got it! If I’m not back in one minute, go without me! Just keep running away from the castle and hope for the best! Here, take this!”
Daniel slapped the compass in Nicole’s hand and vanished.
Nicole and Amy looked at each other, then at the compass.
Its second needle spun faster and faster, turning into a white blur. The compass vibrated i
n her hand like a cell phone.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Nicole asked.
A charcoal gray BMW sped around the corner and jumped the curb, a passenger door hanging open. A man in a black suit tumbled out the door and landed in the street. Cars in both lanes skidded to a halt, almost running him over.
The BMW drove over the sidewalk, nearly hitting Nicole and the others. It screeched to a halt, passenger door flopping wide.
“Stop staring and get in!” Daniel shouted.
Chapter 13
The Greek Road
Nicole gazed over the railing, chin resting on her forearm. The open-top double-decker tour bus trundled along the bumpy road, providing a pleasant view of the old Athenian Acropolis, especially from the second level. Nicole didn’t recognize most of the buildings, but the Parthenon was easy enough for her to identify, sitting atop its hill overlooking the rest of the ancient buildings.
“So let me get this straight,” Nicole said. “Chronopolis is somewhere between the isle of Crete and the Nile delta.”
“That’s right,” Daniel said.
“Not that geography is my strongest class,” Nicole said. “But I don’t think there’s an island there.”
“Not on any map you’ve seen,” Daniel said.
“Is the city underwater?”
“No, it’s on solid ground.”
“Solid ground in the middle of the Mediterranean where there is no solid ground.”
“Precisely.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s hard to explain. You’ll understand when we get there.”
“If we get there,” Nicole said.
Daniel winked. “Have a little faith.”
“I do… it’s just…”
Nicole gazed over the tour bus railing. She unzipped her hoodie a little. The sun felt good.
After escaping Ludwigsburg Castle in a stolen car, they ditched the vehicle and boarded the first train out of the country. It took them a solid day and night’s travel through Europe by train and rental car to arrive in Athens, Greece. The next step was supposedly a tau tunnel that could take them all the way to Chronopolis, but given their experiences at Watchtower, Nicole wasn’t getting her hopes up.