by E. R. Mason
“What? Who is this?”
“It’s me, you idiot, Skyla. We don’t have much time. I’m outside the front gate. Get your stuff and come on.”
Jax turned away from the counter to avoid being overheard. “What?”
“We’ve got to move fast. So get your stuff and come on.”
“Skyla?”
“Jax, have you had some kind of brain injury or something? Come on. We’ve got to get going.”
“But, I can’t leave here right now. I’ve got missions to fly.”
“No Jax. You are through flying missions. You’ve got to come with me, right now.”
“But my crew . . . I can’t just leave!”
“Jax, someone else will take your missions. Snap out of it. You can’t stay here. We shouldn’t be talking like this on this line. Pack up and get out here.”
“Where are you?”
“Just outside the front gate. Hurry up before they get suspicious.”
“I’ll come out and we’ll talk this over.”
“That’s a start, at least. You come out the main gate and look for a military panel truck. That’ll be me. Hurry up before security runs us down.”
In a daze, Jax hung up the phone and wandered out the door like a zombie. There was a bicycle outside he could have borrowed, but in the haze of disbelief he plodded mindlessly across the tarmac toward the front gate, not even bothering to stop in the ready room to change out of his flight suit. His oxygen mask bounced against his Mae West, and his high sheep skin boots came half unzipped. At the front gate, the guard knew him well and would have stopped him for a long chat had Jax allowed it.
“Hey, Jacks Are Wild. How’d that one go? Did you say hello to Adolph for us?”
Jax returned a blank stare and continued to walk past.
“Oh! I get it! The babe’s waiting for you, is she? I wouldn’t have changed either if I were you, you lucky bastard!” The guard pointed to a woman in a panel truck in the parking area. At first sight of her, Jax’s mind began doing back flips. The effect was so intense it was difficult to bear. Lieutenant Neil Kent was now suddenly doing battle with Jax Eaton.
Jax stopped at the open driver’s window and found himself unable to speak.
“Get in,” said Skyla.
Jax hesitated, then went around and climbed in the passenger seat. He looked briefly at Skyla, and then stared blankly out the windshield.
“My God, you look 10 years older, Jax. What the hell have you been doing? How long have you been here?”
Without looking back, Jax mumbled the same question back to her. “How long?” He had to think. “Two years? No more than that. I’m not sure.”
“I don’t believe this. You were thrown back more than two years ago? You’ve been living as an officer in the R.A.F.? Did you just come back from a bombing mission?”
“Vegesack.”
“So you found yourself in 1940 or 1941 England and you just decided to start a new life for yourself, is that it?”
Jax looked at Skyla. She had not changed one bit since he had last seen her. Suddenly a deep feeling of affection tried to resurrect itself. Jax held it back. The war had taken him so far from his real life it was now a fairy tale, a make-believe once upon a time. Reality was suddenly forcing aside the sirens and medics, the bomb blasts and the huge fires in the distance, the flak explosions and suicidal fighter planes diving out of the night sky.
“I remember,” he said, still in a daze. “I was naked in a building being bombed. I had to take the clothes from a dead man. Then the bombs came again and the next thing I remember was a hospital and people calling me by the dead man’s name. There was no place to go. My head hurt.”
Jax looked back at Skyla. Tears began streaming down her face. She covered her mouth with one hand and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Jax. I’m sorry to have hurt you this way . . . dragging you into this craziness. I care about you. I’d never do anything to hurt you, ever.”
Jax turned to her, and looked into her eyes. Skyla tried to wipe away the tears. Jax’s beleaguered mind slowly settled into a compromise between the Neil persona and the Jax persona. “Please don’t cry,” he said. “I just need time to think.”
Skyla sat back and continued wiping her eyes. “We really don’t have time, Jax. Our other selves have now buried the Z-generator near Demon House. We’ve got to get it and place it and put an end to the Demon House time portal. Can you focus on that?”
“I have to walk away from here?”
“If we don’t fix the time anomaly someone else eventually will. Wherever you are when that happens, you’ll be thrown back to the future. Do you understand?”
“What do I need to do?”
“Go back in and say whatever it takes to get a pass. Put on your uniform and pack your civilian clothes and whatever else you need and come back here.”
“Will I be coming back to base?”
“No.”
“I can’t even say goodbye to my crew?”
“No. You’re about to be killed . . . again.”
“I’m not sure I can just leave them.”
“You’re going to have to trust me on this. There’s no choice.”
Jax lingered a moment, then opened the truck door and got out. He came to the driver’s window.
“Don’t raise any suspicion. Are you going to be alright?” she asked worriedly.
“No, probably never.”
More dazed than ever, he turned and walked back through the main gate.
“Jacks, has she got a sister?” yelled the guard.
Jax waved without looking and headed for the ready room. Once there he lovingly stowed his flight gear, took a last look and changed into his uniform.
At the debriefing office, a girl behind the counter stopped him. “Betty Bop is in there right now, Lieutenant. They’ve already done Jacks Are Wild. They don’t need you.”
With an empty stare, Jax turned and headed for the main office. There, in a nearly monotone voice, he made a half-hearted case for a two-day pass. To his surprise, it came back approved.
Jax sat on his bunk in the barracks, going through his things. He had a powerful urge to visit his ship out on the flight line, but that would attract attention. He gathered the items dearest to him, threw the pack over his shoulder and headed back to the main gate. It took a conscious effort to force each step, fighting all the while the compulsion to turn and run back to his life.
“You are a fortunate man,” called the guard as Jax left for the second time.
In the truck, he threw his pack in and sat back with one foot up on the dash. Skyla wasted no time in starting the engine and pulling away. In the side view mirror, Jax watched people he loved fade into the distance.
“How did you find me?” he asked softly when his regret had settled.
“The nice old lady saw me at the library and told me about you and gave me the number. It was easy to figure the general picture.”
“Wow. I can’t believe that really worked. How long have you been here?”
“Four weeks. I was only thrown back four weeks. I had no idea you’d been trapped here so long.”
“You only had a bathrobe on when it hit us. How did you get by?”
“I had my gold hair clip and some jewelry on. It was no problem. I lost my mobile phone in the jump. I was not able to contact my people from this period. We’re on our own.”
“What’s going to happen to us now?”
“Our other selves have now buried the Z-particle generator. We need to go get it and destroy that ship.”
“Demon House is an early warning station for the R.A.F. You know that don’t you? It’s pretty high security.”
“Yes. I saw a newspaper report that they caught the German soldier you saw in Demon House. Apparently they know nothing about what’s below the place, though. Did you notice what kind of truck this is?”
“No?”
“This is a Gas Warfare Recovery vehicle. I stol
e it from a military storage area. I parked another vehicle in its spot and switched the inventory number. You see all those gas masks hanging back there?”
Jax craned his neck to look in back. “Yeah?”
“You see all those half-barrels?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Those are training canisters. They’re filled with fake Blau gas.”
“How do you know this stuff?”
“It’s all in this handbook that came with the truck.” Skyla reached down while driving and handed him a booklet titled “Chemical Warfare.”
Jax took the booklet and stared down at the cover.
“We are going to paint Nazi symbols all over one or two of those canisters, then beat the hell out of them to make it look like they were dropped from an airplane. During the next bombing raid, we’re going to cut through the perimeter fence at Demon House, roll them in and set them off. The soldiers at the Demon House early warning station will think it’s a chemical attack. They’ll have no choice but to done their gas masks, call for help, and evacuate. That will give us just enough time to get inside, rappel down the well, and set the Z-particle generator. If they catch us coming out that will be okay. When the bomb goes off, we will simply vanish.”
“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
“I was only gone a few weeks.”
“I meant you are as conniving as ever.”
“Why thank you, but there are several things we must do first for all of this to work.”
“Such as?”
“We’ve got to go dig up the Z-particle generator and avoid bumping into our other selves at all costs. Then, we have to kill you.”
“We do . . .”
“We’ve got to be ready before the next bombing raid. They’ve been happening at least every other night. During the next raid we’ll leave your uniform and ID in plain sight in a building’s that just been hit. When they find it, the person whose identity you borrowed will have died in a bombing just as they actually did. From then on, you will be Jax Eaton again and no one else.”
The thought of Neil Kent dying brought Jax back down to regret. It was a fresh reminder that he would not see Jacks Are Wild, or his crew again. At least they’d think he died in a bombing. Jax looked out the side window at war-torn England passing by. If there was a way he could stay here and continue on, would he? For the first time in too long he thought of his mother having to carry on alone. That was an unacceptable thought. She had been his true life-line for 19 years, or was it 21 or 22 years now? She deserved a better life in her senior years than to have lost both her husband and son.
No, staying in this time would not be a choice, even if it was an option. It was fortunate Skyla had found him and brought him back to his senses. Still, Patty, Link, Scotty, Mad Dog, Jiggs, and Kid would be a part of him forever. He fumbled in his breast pocket and pulled out the photo they had taken after painting Jacks Are Wild. They were all there except Jiggs, staring back in timeless friendship.
Skyla continued, “After we plant the uniform and ID we’ll have to hurry to Demon House and set up the gas canisters. They’ll lock up when they evacuate, so we’ll probably need to cut some locks or chain to get in. We’ll try for the outside storm entrance. Jax, are you listening?”
Jax looked back at her and refocused. “Yeah, I’ve got all that.”
“Are you okay? Are you Jax Eaton again?”
“I have to go back with you. I know that.”
“Just hang in there, Jax. Trust me.”
“Where are we headed?”
“We are going to park someone outside London out of sight and paint those gas canisters. I already have the black shoe polish. Then we wait to see if the bombs start falling tonight. If they do, after the first wave, we’re going to hurry in, drop your uniform and ID, then go get the Z-particle generator and wait for our chance to flush out the Demon House soldiers. You look like you’re about to pass out. You were up all night, weren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“You’d better try to get some sleep. There’s one worrisome thing I haven’t told you yet.”
“I think my cup is full.”
“Listen, I was only thrown back about three weeks this last time, but you went back two or three years. That means I haven’t gone all the way back to when the temporal anomaly began, but I’m pretty certain you have. So, it could still happen to me again. If it does, you need to carry out the plan and deliver the Z-particle generator and destroy that ship. Do you understand?”
“If you disappear again I’m going to really be pissed.”
Skyla cast a sober look at Jax. “Well, at least you’re starting to sound like your old self.”
“I don’t think my old self exists anymore.”
“Well the people who love you still do,”
A solemn moment followed. Skyla placed a hand on his cheek. “You need to get some sleep. There’s blankets in the back.”
Chapter 25
Jax awoke to the sound of banging on a tin can. He pushed himself up in the passenger seat and found Skyla had parked in woods so dense the branches of trees were against the windshield. He opened the door to find her behind the truck hitting a canister with a tire iron. She had shoe polish smudged on her hands and face, and dirt on her grey coveralls. He climbed out and went to help.
She looked up and smiled as he approached. Together, without speaking, they beat the canisters into submission then loaded them back into the truck. Skyla climbed in the back and began spreading blankets on the floor. She bunched a few up for pillows and stretched out on the makeshift bed, waiting for a reaction from her partner. Jax glanced around at the woodland surrounding them, then climbed in and sat beside her.
“I haven’t been getting my beauty sleep,” joked Skyla.
“It doesn’t show because of the shoe polish,” answered Jax. “So remind me. What’s next?”
“There was no bombing last night, so there’ll be one tonight I bet. When it starts, we go for it. We kill you off and take our best shot at Demon’s Well.”
“Can you go over again what happens when the particle bomb goes off, if we do get that far?”
“I was going to bring this up even if you hadn’t. It’s more complicated than I’ve let on.”
“No kidding?”
“See? You haven’t lost your sense of humor through all of this.”
“It’s coming back to me, I think. You know, laugh to keep from crying . . .”
“You already know most of what will happen.”
“Yes, but when we set that bomb off, what happens to all the people who went to Demon House and disappeared?”
“We don’t believe that many people have been affected. When we first saw indications of time corruption it took a while to pin it down. We had to search every records database we could find as far back as we could. There were reports here and there of people acting strangely, and being branded as psychotic. Those are always the first indicators that something is going on. Finally our research narrowed the problem down to Demon House. From there a plan was quickly constructed. You know the rest.”
“So when we set the bomb off?”
“The instant the Z-particle generator goes critical mass, all of the temporal radiation affecting the victims becomes inert, or neutralized. At that moment, everyone is reset to the farthest point in the future they had previously reached. If I have figured this correctly, you were trapped in your bathroom at home, and I was on the boat. So, you and I will end up back in those places, at those times, and from there hopefully we’ll finally be able to continue on into our futures.”
“But all the duplicate people, if there still are any?”
“All are instantly merged into the new timeline. Remember some victims may have been trapped in a time loop like the teacher and students we saw. Others may not have survived the throw backs at all, and some may have been thrown back so far they couldn’t have affected their own lives anyway. And, as I’ve been telling you,
some victims may not survive the return to normal time because of the memory conflicts. If there have been no changes to a victim’s history, the merging has no affect at all. Any that did have changes to their timelines and survive usually end up thinking it was all a dream, or they just have the déjà vu effect, that kind of thing. That’s why it has been so important not to affect any of our alternate selves. The possibilities are almost endless. And unfortunately, that’s the good news.”
“Oh boy.”
Skyla continued, “I have not altered my timeline very much. I’m not in danger from mental contradistinction, but you . . . how much damage have you done to your own timeline during these throw-backs when I wasn’t around?”
Jax frowned and looked away. “I may have done some things I should not have . . .”
“Well, let’s start with the more difficult. Did you have relationships with anyone over the past years here?”
Jax winced. He looked at Skyla with regret and fear.
“Jax, you were marooned here for more than two years not knowing if you’d ever escape. You are human. No one would expect you to be able to be a saint. Tell me.”
“There was someone. Someone really special who cared about me. We became very close.”
“Please tell me there was not a child born.”
“She was killed in the war.”
Skyla paused and looked Jax in the eye. The painful sense of loss was easy to see. “I’m sorry, Jax. All that you went through and that too. I’m so sorry.”
Jax looked away.
“Was there anyone else?”
“No.”
“Okay, what else then? Was there anything else major that you interfered with that would change your old timeline?”
A new look of guilt came over Jax. He nodded. “There was one bad thing I did. I couldn’t help it.”
“Tell me.”
“My father. I accidentally ran into him during a time just before I was born. I got to meet him and talk to him. I’ve dreamt of that so many times. It was like a dream come true. I hitched a ride with him and we talked. I couldn’t let it go. I figured I’d never have another chance like that and maybe I’d regret it forever so I slipped a note into his briefcase warning him his airplane would crash.”