CLIPPED_Another Time Travel Tale

by Angela R. Hart

  We all started going to the gym too, two at a time, and never the same two of us together. Aunt Allie said that we all needed to be in tip-top shape to mess with the 'Bastard of the Past'. All 6 of us worked out every day and we were pretty freaking built after a couple of months. Aunt Allie and Aunt Callie always stayed pretty fit, so I wanted to be as fit as they were. Dad and Carson started pounding protein and lifting and they were in the best shape I had ever seen them in. Me and Chloe had never worked out a day in our lives, so it was difficult for both of us at first, but we got the hang of it and pushed through. The past could kiss Harmon ass.

  The calls started in May. The first one went to Aunt Allie, and as soon as the voice started, she traced the call. She was always very calm under pressure, despite her nervousness and anxiety with the rest of life. The first call was just somebody taunting her, telling her that they knew what she had, and they were going to get them, and all that jazz. She waited the appropriate amount of time, to track the call, then hung up right away and immediately ran next door to tell us that it had begun.

  "Shit, I wasn't ready for it to actually all start happening." I said, suddenly very scared. "I got the trace, Lovebug, I have an address from where the call originated. We can drive by right now if you want and scope them out. "You're not going anywhere, Allie." said Callie. "This is why we are here in the first place. While you act like everything is normal, we will be going and doing all of the tracking and investigating. They don't know about us at all, so they won't be expecting random people to be driving by.

  "Me and Carson will go, Zoey's face is too recognizable, and we don't want them to think that she's Chloe and start messing with her too." said Aunt Callie. "Yeah, we will go right now and check out the area." said Carson. "What's the address?" he said, putting it into his new Handheld. We bought untraceable Handhelds for the whole family when Aunt Allie gave us the money. We were also going to be swapping to new rental cars every week or two, just to make sure that we weren't ever noticed. Patterns could be dangerous, so we were going to try to not get on one ourselves. "Don't forget to take snaps of the area." I said, reminding them. "We won't, we need to be able to see everything around there later on, so the Screens might be able to find a pattern. Lots of snaps, I swear." said Carson.

  Callie and Carson ran into their bedrooms to grab their hats. They didn't need the men to see their faces or hair when they did the drive-by. "We will be back in a little while and we will let you know what we find." said Carson. "Okay, you two be extra careful, they are murderers, and I don't need you getting hurt too." I said, very scared. "We will be careful, keep an eye on your Auntie, she's more upset than she is letting on." said Aunt Callie, and I nodded and went to wait at Aunt Allie's. We gotta go, right now, before we lose them." she said, as they headed out the door to the black rental car and sped off into the darkness. "Lord, help them." I thought, as me and Auntie went into her house.

  Me and Aunt Allie sat on her couch, side by side, scared to death. "What if they get hurt! What if the men spot them, Aunt Allie?" I said, getting very upset. "They will be okay, Lovebug. Don't forget, your Auntie has faced some unimaginable things in the past, and she is still here today, right?" she said. "You're right. They'll be okay, they are very, very smart and very brave." I said, nodding my head, trying to make myself believe that everything was going to be alright.

  All of the kitties came to pile up on us, they could sense that something was amiss, like kitties tended to do. I pet them all and prayed. It had been 2 hours and they still hadn't returned. "It's been forever, Auntie, should we call them? They haven't called!" I yelled. "They're fine, let's give them 30 more minutes and then if we don't hear anything we will call. We know exactly where they went, so we can track them if they don't return." she said, looking worried. 28 minutes later, they both burst through the front door, and they were filthy as hell.

  "Oh thank God!" said Aunt Allie. "What happened! Why in the world are you so freaking dirty?" I screamed. "Geez, both of you reek, don't you dare sit on the furniture, come into the kitchen and tell us what happened." said Aunt Allie. "Well, we got to the location, and we spotted a vehicle outside. It was a house, that address. At first we thought it was empty, it was dilapidated, but when we drove past it, we saw a car parked way on the side." said Carter. "So, I got out the Handheld and took a bunch of snaps, of the house, car, everything, but it was very dark." said Aunt Callie.

  "We saw a figure in the shadows, it was too far back for us to be able to tell if it was male of female, but it was a person, for sure, walking toward that car. We were trying to be as stealthy as we could, Callie was trying to snap the figure while we were driving, and we believe that they might have spotted us. They suddenly leapt into the vehicle and started to drive away. We slowly began picking up our speed, so that we didn't look noticeable to them, and we turned. That was when our two right tires both blew." said Carter. "Both of them, at the same time. I don't have any idea how. The car sped off in the opposite direction from us, so we got out to see what we hit, but there was nothing there." explained Callie. "We only had the one spare, so we had to hoof it halfway back here, until we spotted one of those driverless cabs, and that's why it took us so long. We both got splashed by passing vehicles." said Carter.

  "Both tires? That's crazy. So, we need to go get that car, right now. Let's take the spare out of one of the other rentals and we will drive it back. We don't need those people finding that car and figuring out our little plan." I said. "You're right." said Callie. "Let's go change out the tires and get the car back home and we will think about what to do next." said Carter, as we got up and went to my rental. "You're still not going, Zoey, wait here, we don't need all three of us out and about, getting hurt. I'll drive and then Carter will drive the other one back." said Callie. "Okay, no problem. I understand." I said, nodding.

  "Do you think it was the past that flattened the tires?" I asked. "Oh hell yes, I'm telling you, there wasn't shit in that road and we couldn't feel anything in the tires." said Callie. "It didn't want us to be where we were, which means that we are on the right track, as fucked up as that is." said Carter. "Fucked up, indeed." said Aunt Allie, nodding. "We will trace the next call and find out where it comes from, it's hard to plan for every eventuality, but at least we can have shit in the cars like spare, spare tires." said Callie.

  "I'm going to try to get a few snaps of the house before we head back, hopefully nothing happens to them or us. Then, we will come back here and upload them to the Screen so that we can begin the process of finding a pattern. Supposedly that app has some kind of serious algorithm for pattern recognition. I guess we will be testing that out." said Carter. "We will find these douche-bags, it's only a matter of time." said Callie. They had their game faces on, so I wasn't as worried for them. They would be back soon with both cars and we would begin again. "Good luck." I said. "Good luck." said Aunt Allie. "Thanks." they both said, as they got in the car and sped off into the unknown again. They would be fine, they had to be.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  They returned with both cars about 45 minutes later. Me and Aunt Allie had been sitting and waiting for them, watching out of the window, in complete silence. Both of us were more frightened for them, now that we knew that the past was messing with us. "Do you think the past really flattened those tires? Well, technically it would be the future, but my past, but still, do you think that's what it was Auntie?" I asked her. She pondered for a moment and said, "Yes, I think that Carson is correct. If the past, or the future, or whatever, popped both of those tires, then that means that we are on the right track. It wasn't a big deal, because it was only two tires, but it'll steadily start to get worse if we are doing something to really change things." she explained. "It's going to be a son of a bitch to fight the future." she said, and then giggled to herself. "Fight the Future, X-FILES!" and then started singing some weird tune. "She's losing it." I thought to myself, worried for Auntie.

  The front door swung open and A
unt Callie and Carson walked in. "We are going to get cleaned up next door, everything was fine when we picked up the car, nobody was at that house, I got snaps of it." said Aunt Callie. "We are gross, so we are going to shower, come to the house in 20 minutes and we will load all of the snaps into the app database." said Carson. We nodded and said that we would be there. "I'm glad you're both okay." I said. "Go on then, get cleaned up, you two smell like a dumpster." said Aunt Allie, smiling and wafting at the air. Carson pretended to be offended and smiled and Aunt Callie sniffed at her armpit and laughed, and they both went back next door.

  "Thank God." I said to Aunt Allie. "Yes, I was worried, I'm glad that they got the snaps. Maybe we can track down who that house belongs to." she said, getting up to throw on some slippers. We got some clothes on and then made our way through the yard and into the other house. We set the Chip lock to all of our Chips, so any one of us in the family could open the door now. It was like Harmon Home Base. We sat down on the couch and waited for the other two to reappear.

  They both walked out a few minutes later and were both squeaky clean. Carson started to load all of the snaps into the Screen and we waited until he was done so that we could see what it all looked like. He pulled the Screen out to holographic 3D and showed us the house. "This is the house, do either of you recognize it?" Callie said, twisting and twirling the image around so that we could get a better view. "No, it doesn't look familiar to me, what about you, Auntie?" I asked. "No, I don't think I've ever seen it before. Did you get any snaps of the car before it left?" she asked them. They gestured through the images and fiddled with the contrast and pulled the car out for us to check out.

  "This is it, does it look familiar? It was really dark where it was parked so its really hard to make out what it is." said Carson. We both squinted at the image as they spun it around for us, but neither of us could make it out. "I don't know, I can't tell, it's too dark. We will need better snaps of it so maybe we can finally pull it up completely. It doesn't look familiar though." I said. "Pull up the person." said Aunt Allie. They did and it was just a shadow, nothing could be made out in the darkness. "We need a better Snap." I said, thinking about what to buy. "Yes, I'll look and buy some, something that we can adjust the lighting on, it won't be big deal, they have some amazing ones nowadays." said Aunt Allie, pulling out her Handheld and ordering new Snaps for everyone. "Okay, I ordered the best ones on the market, they should be delivered to this house tomorrow, so you can all keep them on you, just in case." she said, closing the Shop App in her Handheld.

  "Sweet. Next time, maybe we can get something usable, but for now, at least we have these snaps loaded into the database." said Carson. "I guess now we just have to wait for another call." said Aunt Callie. "It won't be long Auntie, once they started, they called all the time, we will be hearing something soon." I informed her.

  The next morning we went and bought new tires for the black car and we also bought extra spares for every other rental car. "Better to be safe than sorry." said Carson as he swiped his Chip to pay. "This shit is awesome, handy!" he said, holding up his hand and laughing at his dumb pun. "Nice one, dude. You're getting very good at those Dad jokes, keep 'em coming." I said, shaking my head. One thing about the Harmon family, is that we always had a joke for something, I guess that was a good thing though, you had to keep things light when there were life-threatening situations around every corner. "Can't let life get you down." I thought to myself.

  We made our way back to good ol' Grove Street and noticed my Dad's car parked in Auntie's driveway. We told everybody not to park at our house, so that way, the men wouldn't know that Auntie and Dad knew who lived there. We hoped that the evasive tactic would help a little bit, but we didn't know, we weren't professionals. "Dad's here." I told Carson, as we got out of the car and made our way into the house.

  Both of us walked in and saw everybody sitting on the couch, Aunt Allie, Callie, Chloe and Dad were all there talking amongst themselves. "Hey, welcome back." said Callie. "Thanks, what's going on?" I asked. "There was another call, this time to your Dad, he was able to track it and we loaded the info up." said Aunt Allie. "Are you alright, Dad?" I asked. "Well hell yes, fuck these people, we are going to find them. Some little punk ass pussies making threatening calls won't scare me." he said, shaking his head. "Dad's pissed." said Chloe, looking over at him. "I see that." I said. "What did they say?" I asked.

  "They just said the same dumb shit that they said to your Auntie, that they know who we are and what we have. You know, just taunting. It sounded almost immature, like younger people, not like they were our age, but you never know, right?" he said, obviously still fuming. "Did the call come from the same house?" I asked. "No, not this time, it came from a Handheld, but from the same vicinity as the house." Callie said. "Well, whoever it is must be around that area somewhere, so that's where we are going to need to start, right?" I asked. "Sounds like a plan, Stan." said Carson, nodding.

  "I think we need to stake-out that house, that would be my first idea." said Dad. "Yeah, I was thinking that too. Do you think that they spotted you guys whenever you were there last night?" I asked Callie and Carson. "We couldn't be sure, its possible, so maybe if we stake them out, we take a different car this time." said Callie. "I'm going on the stake-out." I told them, matter of factly. "I'm the only one who was there when the shooting happened, so I will be able to recognize the men or the vehicles if they are something or someone that I have already seen, so I'm going, I don't care if y'all don't want me to." I said.

  "That's fine, that sounds like a good idea. We need to get some snacks and shit for the car and then we will start staking them out ASAP. We will switch shifts, two at a time, different vehicles each time, until we see something." said Carson. "Good idea." I said. "Are all 6 of us going to do the stake-outs?" I asked. "Yes, because there are so many of us it would most likely be our best shot to keep eyes on them at all times." said Aunt Allie. "Nobody goes with their Other, that's the only thing that I think that we need to be sure of. That way, if they are following any of y'all, they'll see one version of us around at all times and get confused." said Dad. "Good idea, Dad." me and Chloe said at the same time. We both laughed at that.

  I got up and grabbed a bag and filled it with snacks. Me and Carson were going to take the first shift, we would be able to get the snaps during the day as well. "Did the new Snaps come in Auntie?" I asked Aunt Allie. "I don't know, Chloe, go check and see if they are here, they probably are. I ordered 6 of them so all of us could have one. The more snaps that we get, the more the database can put together for us." she said. Chloe got up and went to check the mail. The neighbors wouldn't think anything if they saw either of us separately, since we looked identical. We just had to be sure that they didn't see us together, because then they would get really suspicious. She came back inside holding the box. "They're here, Auntie." she said, setting the box on the table and opening it.

  "Woah, these are fucking sweet." said Carson, pulling the first one out. Snaps are like the cameras of the past, but they have the 3D option, plus, you can adjust the lighting so that you don't have to flash anything and be noticed. They're also very small and flat and fit in your pocket, sort of like a Handheld. "Fancy Shmancy!" said Callie, looking over all of the options. "We need some shit like this in our time." said Carson, sticking one in his pocket.

  "Everybody get your Snap and adjust it to your specifications. Make sure to log into the app with it, under your name, or your alias, whichever you are using. Then we can have the images auto-updated to the app and we don't have to come back and load it all in." explained Auntie. We did what we were told, I logged in as Zoey Larson since Chloe would be logged in as Chloe Harmon. "All set, Auntie." I said, putting the finishing touches on it.

  Me and Carson went to grab what we would need for the stake-out and then made our way outside. We made sure that all of the cars had the Blinder option on the windows, so nobody would be able to see us through the windows if we were parke
d, we just had to be careful of the windshield. We decided to take mine today, since the black one could've possibly been spotted the night before and we made our way to the neighborhood where the calls were coming from. "Which house is it?" I asked, as we were turning onto the street. "That one." he said, pointing at the old, run-down house.

  We parked about a block away and sat there to watch. There were no cars in the driveway today. "Get to snapping, Zoey." said Carson, pulling his Snap out as well. "I'm going in, I'm going to snap the whole exterior of the house, so we can get a good look at it when we get back." he said, opening the car door and putting on his hat and shades. "BE CAREFUL!" I hollered at him, as he closed the door. "I'll be fine, calm down." he said, making his way stealthily toward the sideyard of the house. I was so nervous, but I started snapping everything around, including all of the other houses on the road. Just our luck, these people would be like us and actually be next door or something. I also snapped every vehicle I could see on the block, we needed a bunch of snaps, so we would have all of those vehicles too, in case they were using multiples.

  A few cars drove by and I scooted down in my seat so they couldn't spot me from the windshield, but other than that, there was no action on the road. I had never been to this neighborhood before. It was pretty far from our house, we lived in the West End and this was almost in the North End of town, although, not quite. About 20 minutes later, Carson came running back to the car and jumped in, he had blood dripping down his arm. "What the hell! Why are you bleeding!" I screamed, as he got in and grabbed some napkins to staunch the blood. "There was a broken window in the back, so I stuck my Snap in to try and get some different shots of the interior of the house. I wanted to go inside but the break was really small, so I was only able to get my arm through. Anyway, the window cut my arm, I'm fine." he explained.