“Too bad we didn’t meet Cleopatra” said Tina jokingly.
“A few years too early for that” said Drax.
James held up the Time Stone “to the adventure” he yelled as he turned it and the portal opened up once again. They all smiled and yelled simultaneously “to the adventure” and figuratively saddled up for the ride to the next time period, each dematerializing to an energy ball and being sucked in, ideally on their way home.
CHAPTER 70
Time Period: 2092 A.D., Lightning Way (Formerly Chronix Bay)
The dark skies over the fallen landscapes and burned towers were a cross between blood red and black sacloth. The roar of the temporal wormhole appeared and disappeared just as quickly leaving the four travelers in the midst of a doomed society where loud booms of thunder permeated the air above smelling like smoke and brimstone further filling the air below. A large looming tower complex stretches over the skyline in the distance, damaged and decayed, the charred remains of a long lost civilization of high tech marvels and stellar sky roadways. No signs of foliage or wildlife exist, only sullen darkness.
“Something bad happened here” said Mercedes.
“I got a bad feeling over all” said James, “where are we?”
“Home. This is Chronix Bay” said Drax holding his handheld scanner. “I tuned my scanner to pick up tachyon emission frequencies. Sort of like a time travel pocket guide now.”
“This doesn’t look like Chronix Bay” said Tina as she almost sighed that they were home but they weren’t.
“It is Chronix Bay, circa 2092 AD.” Drax said.
“The future?” Asked Mercedes.
“The Time Stone stopped glowing guys” said James holding it out and turning it but nothing happened and the five orbs within it remained dull and turned off.
“Great Caesars Ghost!” The four exclaimed virtually simultaneously alone in the vast ruins of their very future.
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The immense desolation of this future time period was measured in the small yet bustling community of Kawanbi in Chronix Bay, The Broken Earth and Sky, as it reads on a faded sign that occupied a large field outside of the small town, the electric diodes that once illuminated the sign having long since died out. The town is surrounded by an encampment of tents and small shacks built as temporary shelter by the former inhabitants of the town that rested in the center with charred remains of homes and office buildings, structures damaged by natural winds, water, and fires. The earth lay barren and fruitless devoid of natural vegetation or plant life and black as pitch. A small group gathers around one of the larger tents on the outskirts of the shanty town and holds a small town hall meeting.
“We need to enforce stronger limits on our aqueduct use. The reserves of water and fuel are running dangerously low. In a small while we will be completely helpless.” Said a young man with rimmed glasses and curly hair, his clothes loose and baggy, a tattered overcoat, and small red bowtie.
“Thank you, Mr. Daniels.” Said a middle-aged woman holding a hammer and wearing a long gown with her hair knotted up in a bun, she banged the hammer on a table when others started to converse amongst themselves expressing their respective agreeing and disagreeing opinions on the matter.
“Enough” she yelled. “This meeting is adjourned for now. We will reconvene at the same time tomorrow.” She said sternly at the behest of many who sucked their teeth and muttered words like “favoritism” and “corrupt” under their breaths. They began to scatter back to their respective tents and shacks while some wandered off towards the outer areas with desolate burned remains of old structures and buildings. No one wandered off to an area marked off with tape, which resembled an old growth forest yards away but with no leaves and the barks were burnt and ashen. This area was carefully labeled forbidden territory.
A few meters away, there was a loud bustle in a small hut different from the others, made of straw and clay, like a midlevel residence. A young lady with bright yellow hair stood outside sweeping the floor, her eyes tired and defeated were blue and melancholy hovering over black and blue bruises on her face as they wandered back and forth across the long expanse of dirt and mud before her, she was desperately trying to keep the loathsome flowing mud waters from entering the house, her long gown drenched from the bottom up after she had been at the task for several moments.
“Honey, come wandering in. It’s after time zone and we better get ready for tomorrow’s meetings.” Yelled a strong voice from within echoing with a rugged masculinity and out came Daryl Wutherford Haverstraw, whose physique embodied a strong upper body, cunning prowess in his sharp eyes, jet black hair and beard like a woodsman and donning a large heavy well-tailored overcoat with long tails and macramé buttons adorned in gold lining. He stood with his fists at his side ready to stand guard as master of the house. “What brings the late wind?” He asks.
“Trying to get stop our home from being flooded but you wouldn’t care, always off on your witch hunt excursions.” She replied trying to sweep away the water.
“Do not talk back to me with that tone Vanessa as you may have forgotten who the master of the house is.” He yelled. “Come inside now” he commanded.
Vanessa sighed and dropped the broomstick to the side as she wandered in followed by her husband. As the door closed behind them, the mud waters started to slowly seep in again.
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The next morning the sun veered over the darkness of the shanty town as the skies were a mix of black and blue, darker in some areas than others but brighter over most areas above. The ground was barren and sullen without a single crop and Mud Rivers flowed throughout the land and various homes. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Haverstraw lay crumbled in ruins and the couple barely escaping was seeking refuge in the larger central encampment nearby with a red banner waiving overhead, the center of the banner had an emblem of a dark apparently feathered face with pale eyes. The bustle inside the encampment consisting of several rooms and hallways under the large series of tents under a domed greenhouse-like superstructure colored in crystalline splendor shining down rays from the fading sunlight above them and sprinkling it down in various directions lighting the entire complex. As the movement of people dressed in rags and dirt-covered gowns wandering about on dirt paths in the small inner city hauling carts of bags with whatever food and water supplies were available. There was a large square table resting in the distance towards the back areas where there rested a map of the area and two people stood in the midst of a detailed conversation. Sergeant General Maxwell Sharpe, an elderly gentleman with pure white hair and a stern grit hid by a curious smile that made him seem almost childlike as he donned his highly decorated uniform from his time with the old army and puffed his hand rolled cigar before Alana Wilcox, a petite young woman in her mid-thirties with short chestnut blonde hair and a tough grit, she donned her leather jacket and flight pants with wings and the initials “AE” admiring her hero Amelia Earhart, a famous female pilot from the past.
“You sure got some cojones young lady. I don’t think we have the fight or the will for that type of a maneuver” said the General.
“But it is our only way after all and we can do it if we ration our men and firepower. We can’t live like this, like slaves and peasants in a forgotten world forever. Look at the stats,” she pointed to a stack of loose papers printouts on the table and the map underneath it. “There are U.R.O forces all over the western perimeter and near the dry rivers all the way down to the dark forests. If we don’t take action soon we’re dead. We lost eleven more battalions this week. We are being slaughtered, no exterminated, because were different. We don’t believe what they do. We need to start taking control of our own destinies and fighting for what we are entitled to otherwise what’s the point? We might as well lie down and dig our own plots. I refuse to give
up not while I still have breath in my body.”
“Well” said the General in his deep southern accent with a heavy sigh after puffing his cigar “I can’t believe this is even got a snowball’s chance in hell, kiddo… We can’t Union troops to this cause if there is no chance of winning.”
“Even if the Union could be next? Our little rebellion may not be much to you but it is a lot to us. We always were at odds politically, General but we need your help or we’re goners.” He looked into her somber eyes with a heavy lament.
“I think you kids got gumption and I still think it’s too much to convince my superiors completely to invest but if you put your heart and faith into it then I can too.”
“Thanks” she smiled in return to his warming grin.
“I was just telling Marsha the other day how much of a beautiful, courageous, daring, and independent young woman you turned out to be.”
“Aw you’re making me blush. You always were like an uncle to me when I was coming up.”
“Only reason was because of your dad, I miss him sometimes, he saved my life in the great conflict and he was a great friend and great person.”
“I know” she smirked.
“He would have been proud of you just as I am.” They embraced briefly. “Ready the men” he smirked “I will let my superiors at Union HQ know we got a rebellion to reconsider.”
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Meanwhile, far above their small shanty town, in the high peaks of the city center where the old Chronix Bay once stood, the tall ominous citadel historically occupied by dark forces now is occupied by even darker and more sinister beings whom dwell within it. The towers are purely dark, unlit, with faded greenery and moss having once grown on it but decayed to a black texture permanently caked onto the decaying stonework. The entire structure remained looming and overshadowing the miles of vacant wetland desert below. Within the central citadel, the red room that was once lit up with swirling rainbow lights was now a hollow shell of darkness and embodied the epitome of corruption and evil. A teenage boy sits on the steps leading up to an empty platform level with the charred remains of a single chair, his hands cupping his face in sorrow. He brushes his fair hair to the side and looks over at the window ledges and the darkness where it was dark outside even in the middle of the day, black and blue colors battling in the atmosphere under the piercing light energy of the sun. “How did it get so bad?” He wondered as he often loved reading history and thinking about things and the way that they might have been before the great conflict but there is little that remains discussing about those days.
“Reginald”, yelled an elderly man’s voice in the distance approaching the young man. The voice repeated the name over and over again as it became louder and louder. The young man ignored it and kept looking outside of the window daydreaming of better worlds. He envisioned a perfect paradise, a utopian city with glistening towers and skyways that reached into the far reaches of the universe and back again where peace, love, hope, tolerance, equality, and brotherhood dominated over everything. He sat fixated on that moment when he was interrupted and quickly opened his eyes to the stern look of his great uncle and teacher Dr. Walliford Ordox, whose wrinkled face and long white hair along with his strong demeanor showed that he was serious and angry. He grunted as he crossed his arms that were hidden by his long sleeves of his long gown flowing down to the ground making him appear royal. Reginald gulped in fear as his visions of utopian cities quickly faded and the routine grueling existence of his daily studies and chores was back on the forefront of his mind.
“Yes Uncle” he muttered under his breath as he got up and ran off towards his quarters without the elder having to say a word as they have been in this situation multiple times already.
“It seems that boy won’t ever really learn.” Dr. Ordox shakes his head.
“He is not the only one who needs a lesson” said a dark crinkly voice behind him.
“Oh my” turned Dr. Ordox and looked into the darkness, a pair of red eyes glimpsed back at him squinting, the form of a man hidden to him in pure shadow, the head of the form appearing feathered with small horns.
“This entire world needs a lesson and soon will have it. The day of reckoning is upon us.”
“Yes my lordship. It shall be” said Dr. Ordox bowing his hand with sincerity and fear.
“But there is something else that must be done.” The shadow spoke.
“What is that my lord?” Dr. Ordox asked.
“A great disturbance is amongst us, one I have not felt in a very, very long time.” The shadow recalled. “A temporal energy is nearby.”
“Whatever it is lord, we will destroy it.” Dr. Ordox insisted.
“Make sure it is done. The future of the power of the triad depends on it.” His form fizzled into nothingness and his red eyes dimmed away.
“Oh boy” said Dr. Ordox to himself as he walked out quickly knowing who he had to find.
The foursome, James, Tina, Mercedes, and Drax wandered through the dirt roads surrounding the muddy waters towards the central encampment of the shanty town.
“So why did we wind up here? I thought we were going to go back to our own time.” Said Tina.
“I know. Looks like we overshot the mark by about a century or so but can’t figure out why.” Said Drax.
“Maybe we didn’t think hard enough in the vacuum” joked Tina.
“Hardly amusing” said Drax.
“What do you suppose happened to this town?” Asked Mercedes.
“It seems that the increase in domestic generated pollutants have caused a cloud of darkness to permeate the atmosphere.” Said Drax walking with his hand held scanner. “I am picking up an increase of carbon monoxide emissions in the air. This is poison but it’s high enough that it isn’t enough to kill us here and now but it is spreading so in another hundred years, I think it will be a different story.”
“It’s dark during the day” said Tina.
“It’s the carbon in the air blocking part of the sunlight. I doubt this place can support even the basic crops of agriculture. The amount of time the carbon emissions has been growing in the air has created the soil barren and the Earth dull” explained Mercedes.
“What could have done this?” Asked James.
“Centuries of increase carbon-based byproducts being pushed into the air.” Replied Mercedes. “I worked with groups trying to combat the problem back home but it keeps getting worse every year. I guess this is the end result taken to the extreme.”
“Global Warming at its finest” said Tina.
“What is that over there?” Pointed James.
“A town” replied Tina, “not much of one.”
“Let’s go check it out.” Said Drax. “We need to find out as much information as we can here so we can be sure to get back home when the Time Stone recharges.”
“How does it do that?” Asked James.
“Solar energy. The Time Stone gets its energy from the stars themselves and it can also destroy one.”
“Wow” said James. The foursome walks into the central square of the town being eyed by the locals curiously.
“I think we need to get some new clothes” Mercedes said.
“Yeah, I just realized we were wearing the same clothes since the last time period we were in.” Said Drax. “Let’s see what we can dredge up.”
“Don’t think there is an open Bloomingdales around here” laughed Tina.
“Hmmm” Said Drax as he noticed a beautiful petite young woman with short hair and who wore a leather jacket approach them.
“Welcome to Lightning Way!” She smiled.
“Thanks.” Said Drax extending his hand and gripping hers firmly.
“What a hold stranger. You must have served.” The woman said.
“Well as a matter of fact…” Drax started.
“What’s your pleasure here? You guys from Old Millburn?�
�� The woman asked frantically looking behind her with a nervous look.
“Well, we are from out of town. Just looking for supplies.” Drax nods. “Do you know if we can get to a place to change?”
“Absolutely” the woman responds and pointed them to a tall brawling man with a square bearded jaw who approached wearing a long coat over a broad set of shoulders. “I’m Alana. This is Mr. Haverstraw. He can help you from here. I have to run. Nice seeing you.” She ran off towards the far end of the camp where a group of men were gathering with various forms of weaponry.
“Hi” said Drax on behalf of his entourage as they stared into the strong but silent eyes of Mr. Haverstraw.
After a brief shower and then changing into more common clothes, décor fit for a play on nineteenth century life, they wandered about the encampment looking about and wondering what to do.
“This place sure is odd for the future” said Tina.
“Must have been some type of ecological disaster or something” said Drax.
“Is there anything else that could trigger high carbon emissions and dark skies?” Asked James.
“Nothing short of a thermonuclear explosion” laughed Drax.
James looked at him with a puzzled grin. “I have something to say” said James when Mr. Haverstraw interrupted them.
“Come. We are about to enjoy our midday meal and would care for you to join us.” Mr. Haverstraw said.
“Sounds like a plan” said Tina.
They followed him into the dining hall similar in drab and dirt to the other rooms with a long table where they took their seats in turn. The small portioned meal was served of roast veal and cornmeal.
“This is quaint” said Mercedes sarcastically as she picked at the plate before her.
“It’s not bad actually” said Tina scarfing down her portion as was James but slowly as he was thinking how to tell them of his vision.
The Time Stone Page 27