Sand Glass

by A M Russell

  Marcia moved then; ‘Wait, no wait… there is something. All the facts. If only I can make sense of them. Give me ten minutes Jared okay? Then I might have something.’

  Jared nodded unable to speak. Marcia turned to me. ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘we both went out, and came back with our memories intact, right?’

  ‘Yes. But does this give us any advantage?’ I asked her.

  ‘I think it does.’ Marcia turned to a new sheet on her note pad, ‘we have to get ourselves clear before we move on…. Because Janey and Jared’s lives might depend on what we do in the next few hours.’

  ‘Alright,’ I swallowed, ‘but I want you to know, that you are not really helping my concentration by being so doom laden.’

  ‘Sorry. But there it is. We work out the pattern, and then we eliminate all the alternate things until we get out. I mean out of Base.’

  ‘Back to reality?’

  ‘Yes. That being true we can work out what we have to do to find a way out into the preferred reality.’

  ‘You aren’t joking?’

  ‘Davey… look at them,’ she whispered, ‘ask yourself if there is anything that you and I wouldn’t do to save them both. The truth?’

  ‘There’s nothing. Nothing I would stop at to save them.’ I admitted.

  ‘There is motivation. We have the means. We have the bargaining chips. And all we need is the right route out. It is a puzzle. This whole thing has felt like a puzzle. We have all the alternatives. We simply have to choose between them.’

  ‘Is it a test?’

  ‘It may be.’ Marcia stared deeply into my eyes, ‘we are friends Davey. That means more to me that I care to say. Like Jared you didn’t hold me as cheap, as others have done…. I’m glad of that. Do you think that there is a way out?’

  ‘Yes. There must be logically. If there is every possibility, then there must be every chance that everyone gets out in one piece.’

  Marcia was silent for a moment: ‘Extrapolate forward…. Plot the line to this action that we are currently following. What do we conclude?’

  ‘That it would be a bad idea to give the drugs to Elland and his team. I mean, if Alexander knows we have stolen them.’

  ‘We must assume he does by now. So what must we do?’

  ‘I see a choice of three things: Leave; stay and tell Elland where Alexander will have the drugs; or go after Alexander directly.’

  ‘Do you think Jared’s idea of letting them take us is any good?’

  ‘No. Because it narrows our options. We need to know what our options are, and make the right choices in order to circumnavigate that mad man.’

  ‘Do you think he is mad?’

  ‘Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t actually know….’

  ‘Ha!’ said Marcia, ‘And there is our problem stated in a nutshell! We don’t know if our nemesis is mad or not.’

  ‘Does it make any difference?’

  ‘Of course it does. All the difference in the world. This place is about all the choices that are thrown up… not just by circumstance, but by human interaction. We will, that is you and I, will choose to do certain things for Janey and Jared because…..’ Marcia let the rest drift.

  ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘You are right. Before, I was not involved; Now I am. Entangled as it were. We both are. And now it is time.’

  ‘Time for what?’

  ‘To decide to go; or to stay.’ I felt that horrible gravity against the idea. But it felt sound. And like a well-made door, it would hold back the tide and shut out all sorts of other worlds.

  Marcia seemed to be grappling with this new thought that had entered into her head almost against her will.

  ‘You mean leave?’ she dropped her voice even lower, ‘You mean leave them here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why.’

  ‘Because they can survive, and so can we. But we need to do something that is off the map.’

  ‘Outside the box?’ Marcia was obviously trying to entertain my suggestion with as little horror as possible.

  ‘No.’ I said thickly, ‘In this case: there is no box.’

  We both turned back to Janey and Jared. And like fading smoke; as we stood watching, the two of them fragmented and curved into a forgotten dimension. At our bidding they were folded up into some other place. And Marcia and I stood up and shouldered our packs and without a word began walking down the tunnel.

  We came at last to the place lit with lamps.

  ‘Hands up now!’

  We raised our arms and let Elland’s men take us. In a few minutes we faced him.

  ‘Now then! What do we have here.’ He came round the camping table, and when neither of us responded, he picked up a knife that was laid on the table and pointed it at me. He came close and rather lazily trailed the knife around my shoulder, until it rested; rather cold and ticklish on the side of my neck. I relaxed into the moment. It was over, the sense of struggle, the sense of being commanded by fate. What would happen would not be up to them, we had other choices to make.

  ‘Speak now.’ said Elland calmly, ‘or perhaps you would like to feel what I can do, rather than say it?’

  ‘I’d prefer coffee, and a nice friendly chat.’ I said calmly.

  ‘Ah! The skinny kid does have a voice, after all.’

  ‘I think, that to refer to someone who is twenty-seven as a kid, is pushing it!’ said Marcia.

  ‘Twenty Seven?’ the tone of Elland’s voice changed, he seemed to mutter to himself, ‘It might be coincidence…. But can I take that chance?’

  We waited. Elland came round the front of me again, the knife point trailing in a slow arc towards my lower body. When he saw I didn’t flinch or show any fear, he seemed curious and slightly irritated.

  ‘You are a Man if I give it a day.’ He said, ‘I wonder how long it would take for you to lose this cool appearance. A day? A week? Perhaps several months? Or if you are like me….. You might last a few years?’

  ‘I don’t think this is about how long this lasts; but how soon it can be ended.’ I said.

  ‘Ended you say?’ Elland lowered the knife then, ‘Do you have in your grasp such alchemy?’

  ‘I do.’ I said. Marcia rolled her eyes at me, as if to say “what are you doing?”

  ‘Tell me stranger, why should you offer a way out?’

  ‘We need you to be let out.’ Said Marcia, ‘And then we can leave.’

  Elland handed the knife to one of his men who returned it to the table, ‘Get coffee!’ he ordered, ‘I think that Myself and our guests, need to have a cosy chat.’

  We lowered our hands and sat down gingerly on some camping chairs as he invited us.

  ‘Very well. Tell me of this plan of yours. And what do I need to do to gain our freedom. Because I must emphasize the point most strongly. That is freedom for all twelve of us.’

  ‘Of course.’ I said, ‘I would like to give you the probable location of a load of time stabilisation drugs at six o’clock today.’

  ‘Then tell me.’ He said.

  ‘You do something for us first,’ I said boldly. ‘You bring us Aiden and Hanson.’

  ‘Oh! Not much then… just a matter of doing the impossible, and reaching the unreachable.’

  ‘Not at all.’ said Marcia, ‘we will give you a small sample of the drug that we have with us. Just enough to do these things, and then by six you will have access to more, and transport to get home.’

  ‘And why would I help you get your comrades back?’ Elland was intrigued now.

  ‘Because they have the access codes for the train. And the passcodes to get back into Base.’

  ‘You want us to persuade them to reveal these codes?’

  ‘No. that will be our job.’ Marcia said, ‘We are skilled in the art of persuasion you see.’

  There was a little pause. Two of Elland’s men came with the mugs of black oil. I supped it gratefully. Marcia was on a roll now. She already had all the codes of course. What we really wanted was to get Hanson out, a
nd make sure that all Aiden’s people were already gone. Because no one else had a direct link to one of these people in the original expedition. In the time frame we had slipped into we perhaps had ten more minutes if that. I had faith that Jared being true to form would catch up with our position. We had to tell him the truth. But in the scheme of things it was worth a small risk. Marcia was sure that Elland was not the sort of person to take anything for granted. We weren’t in a sense trying to deceive him. Reality was bending around us. We had done this without the aid of drugs. We simply stepped out of the stream we were in and stood in a different one. I wasn’t worried except by what Jared might say if he found out. Actually it bothered me more than normal what Janey might do. How did she now remember? I was still grappling with certain inconsistencies between my own reality and hers. No one had the power to really break the stream they were in. But to jump from one line to another was actually possible. In the mountain they all existed together with a very thin veil between them. I thought of Aiden’s remark about reality being more flexible at certain points.

  Elland put his mug down after taking three rather large gulps of the stuff; another man came to him and whispered something to him.

  ‘Well!’ he said with an assertive vigour, ‘I can confirm that you have a deal.’ He held out on large strong paw.

  ‘Very well.’ I said, ‘We will come back to your gate way at exactly five o’clock. If you have them both then you will be given any assistance that we are able, to get you home.’

  ‘And if we haven’t achieved this feat?’ Elland said in an amused tone.

  ‘Then we all need to renegotiate our position.’ I replied, and nodded to Marcia who got out the small shots of the time drug.

  ‘A couple of words of advice Sonny,’ said Elland, as he rolled up his left sleeve, ‘just remember who your friends really are. And learn to shoot straight. Or at least, make it count.’

  ‘I will.’ I said. About five minutes after that we were back in the tunnel.

  ‘What did he mean?’ Marcia stopped and blocked the narrow part of the corridor, ‘is there something you’re not telling me?’

  ‘You mean about making it count?’ I said, ‘I really have no idea. I think he thinks we’ve met at a different time…. Maybe we did; we will…. Oh God help me! I don’t know!’

  Marcia looked at me with a new expression on her face, as if trying to calculate the distance between the boy she had first met in me and the almost grownup before her now. I imagined she would look at a half made, awkward teenager just like that; pity, and irritation and unrelenting affection blended so perfectly they were like a bitter chocolate of the soul. ‘It’s fine Davey. I just had to ask. But tell me something. What is it that you know, that you aren’t telling me? I know there is something, you were confident in a way you haven’t been before. Tell me now Davey, right now.’ She folded her arms. Marcia was not the sort of woman to deflect when she had made up her mind. I paused opened my mouth; shut it again. Thought better of it then took her right hand in mine and pressed her palm against my thigh. She rolled her eyes at me as if I was being really weird. Then realisation. The fine knife was strapped there in its sheath, fitted so well against my skin that it was undetectable underneath the loose cargos.

  ‘He gave it to you!’ Marcia withdrew her hand, ‘And do you really know how to use it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Oh! So Leanna told me that thing. But I did not understand it. She said that only one who has been beyond this life can release the trapped soul.’

  ‘Yes…’

  ‘Does she mean people like us?’

  ‘I think,’ I said slowly, ‘she must have meant anyone who was in a place they are not supposed to be in.’

  ‘And does it work by killing them?’

  ‘No! of course not. Do you really think I could do that?’

  ‘No. Yes. I really don’t know if you could or not. You’re not like Oliver, are you?’ Marcia turned and started to walk down the tunnel again, ‘I guess then that a cut is sufficient?’

  ‘Yes; but here’s the rub. I cannot be done to a friend against their will.’

  ‘What if that friend was unconscious…. Or dying?’

  ‘I would suppose it would only work if they had already agreed. It is the consent that is important, not when it is given.’

  ‘And what of an enemy? Or one who is simply not known to you?’

  ‘I think that it depends on the connection to yourself. It is about breaking a bond; cutting off some binding of fate…. It is not about hurting people.’

  ‘Drawing blood isn’t about hurting people?’ Marcia sounded a little sarcastic.

  ‘I believe that a surgeon would draw more blood than this to save a person.’ I said. Marcia fell silent for several minutes. I saw she had divined my meaning. We walked back through the same part of the tunnel; all the while looking for signs that Jared and Janey had passed by this way.

  ‘We’re nearly back to the small cave,’ said Marcia, ‘Hush now.’

  We walked another thirty paces and came back to the little cavern.

  The oddest thing. It was as if we had at that moment just left and Jared and Janey were exactly as we had last seen them. Janey was wiping her eyes, and Jared was making more tea. He looked up. We quickly sat down. But Jared wasn’t fooled by our apparent brief conversation.

  ‘So what did you find?’ His eyes glinted in the lamplight with a fire I had only ever really seen in Janey before – the other Janey that is.

  ‘There is a way out; we have to find the combination of factors that leads back to you and Janey arriving.’ said Marcia, and touched his arm. Jared flinched as if she had scratched him.

  ‘What have you two been doing?’ He said coldly,

  ‘There are twenty-four combinations of your possible outcomes on that night….late on the first of august. Most of the scenarios mean everyone gets out alive.’

  ‘Really? And what about serious injury? That’s kind of the problem we have here.’

  ‘In seven scenarios only…..’

  ‘You are whispering in corners. I don’t like it.’

  Marcia sat back slightly with pain in her eyes. Janey looked up at all of us.

  ‘What are they doing?’ she asked Jared.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jared’s voice was heavy and threatening, ‘but I will find out.’

  ‘We have been down the tunnel a little way….’ Marcia began.

  ‘I know you have!’ Jared snapped at her, ‘I know by the way your pack straps have been adjusted, and the dust on your clothes that you’ve been out of sight for quite a while.’

  ‘We were gone for a few minutes, weren’t we?’ I asked calmly.

  Jared looked at me then in a way I had not seen before. He scrambled to his feet. Marcia and I were quickly alert in a defensive stance, rather alarmed by his manner.

  ‘You say a few minutes? Yes, for us. No more than the time it would take for me to wonder why you were silent. Then, there you were!’

  ‘Well then?’ I shrugged. I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I said it. Jared leaped towards me and grabbed the front of the jacket, pushing me against the wall. I was so shocked I didn’t resist. Marcia and Janey jumped back out of the way.

  Jared was close to me, but he seemed as far away as he could possibly be.

  ‘Where were you?’ he said slowly, pressing his weight against me. I heard Janey stifle a cry from the other side of the cave.

  ‘Get off me Jared!’ I said loudly, ‘You are not going to force anything from me.’ I shoved him backwards. It was with such force that we both tumbled over each other across one of the packs. I dropped my pack down as I moved, and tried to slide sideways. Jared pinned me to the floor by the shoulders, but I twisted sideways and tipped him over my head.

  ‘Stop it! Both of you!’ Marcia shouted. She pulled Janey back, out of the way.

  I sprang up facing Jared, who was scrambling to his feet.

  ‘What is wrong?’ I ye
lled ‘Tell me please!’

  ‘You betray us and you ask me what is wrong?’ he circled round me, ‘when all I have ever done is help you!’

  ‘I haven’t… I didn’t. Please…. Jared, you warned us this would happen… the last time we were here. You said it might affect it us…. Paranoia, hallucinations, other things. You warned us…. Please stop…. Please!’

  Janey stood frozen and terrified. Marcia shifted her weight slightly ready to move; yet looked from His face to mine with a confused pain in those hazel eyes. Jared stepped towards me, his expression completely unreadable.

  ‘Take Janey out.’ I said.

  Marcia took hold of her, but Janey wouldn’t budge; her face was pale and she gasped with emotion; ‘Please, don’t hurt him…. Don’t….’ I wasn’t sure who she was speaking to.

  Jared came closer. He blinked and stared at me, as if he didn’t know me.

  ‘Jared…’ I said, ‘remember who you are. Before all this. Before we were all trapped here. Tell me who you know yourself to be. Tell me!’

  ‘I am…..’ Jared pushed me back his right forearm against my chest. He leaned his whole weight into me. I was crushed against the rocky wall, ‘….still waiting. Who have you been talking to?’

  It snapped into my mind then that this was one situation that I hadn’t allowed for. There was no clever way out of this one. I would not be compelled to hurt him. Because whatever else was true, he had already saved me.

  ‘Jared…,’ I tried to keep my voice calm, ‘do you remember the times we’ve had? I do. If you want them to end now…. I accept that…’

  His eyes looked into mine for a second and then away; I could barely breathe, I reached my hands to his shoulders, but I had no leverage, jammed as I was against the rocky wall.

  ‘Jared! You’re going to kill him!’ I thought it was Marcia’s voice but I wasn’t sure. Where this would end? I was unable to draw anything but a small gasping gulp into the top of my lungs. I started to feel swimmy and odd, so I let my body relax.

  We both began to jarringly crumple down towards the floor. Suddenly I was in a position to bend from the waist. I sucked in a lungful of air and I pressed down on his shoulders with all my might. I was fighting to breathe in again; and like a terrible film that is running too slowly, with all that resistance he was forced to his knees. I thought he would struggle or lash out, but quite suddenly he stopped trying to hurt me. His arms dropped and his head bowed against me.