Tempus Genesis

by Michael McCourt

  Oliver and Jenny sat together on the last deserted tube headed into town. It was past midnight and the Northern Line had almost closed down. Jenny was hungry and wanted to go out, she had been quiet since late afternoon and seemed restless, agitated even. Oliver was pleased to be alone with her. He would mention Dyer over their nighttime meal together.

  Jenny looked at him, more a stare than a look as she studied him. He felt uncomfortable under her gaze.

  “What did Dyer say about me?” she asked pointedly.

  Oliver was confused, he rambled, “That you would sleep all day, you’d be hungry, there would possibly be answers in his work, he wanted to reflect before he met you. It was a big issue if he was to recommence his work.”

  Jenny took three photographs from her bag, they were of her as a child as a teenager and at her eighteenth birthday party. They were held within copies of notes of letters Dyer had written to her, notes which were held with the adoption agency. Letters she had chosen not to access.

  “I was thinking more what it was like to be my father?”

  Oliver looked at Jenny trying to read her face, shocked and embarrassed she had found out about Dyer. He felt sick in his stomach that he had put off telling her. His cowardice had created space for her to stumble across the truth. He didn’t allow himself to acknowledge he had become more selfish than selfless in pursuing Dyer’s research, nor admit he had become distracted from telling Jenny the professor was her natural father.

  “I’m sorry, I have tried to say, I just didn’t know what to say, I wish he had never told me,” Oliver bowed his head shamefully.

  “I know you think you are helping me Oliver but, christ you have lost your judgment, did you not think I might wish to attend his funeral if I had known this,” Jenny angrily held up the pictures and notes.

  “When did you find them?” Oliver asked.

  “Lunchtime, I was putting Dyers bag away, you’d left them in the bottom.”

  “I am so sorry, I didn’t want you to find out like this, I was going to mention it over dinner.”

  “Don’t give me that,” Jenny spat back at him, tears now started to stream down her face, “I think this whole push to experiment is about you, you and you’re research. I thought we meant something, but I’m beginning to think I’m just a fucking lab rat for you to study.”

  Oliver stood up, “No, no, please Jenny, please, I have never felt like this about anyone, I can’t describe how much I care for you.”

  Oliver walked away gripping his head in frustration with himself, he returned back to Jenny and sat with her. Her head was down and he lifted her chin to make eye contact.

  “I think I’ve fallen in love with you Jenny and all this, all of this, is because I never ever want to lose you.”

  Jenny fell forward onto his shoulder and sobbed hard and uncontrollably. Oliver whispered a chanted apology into her ear as she wept. Every few seconds or so she struck him with her fist on his shoulder, angry at his deceit but needy of his comfort right then.

  The train slammed to a dead halt in the tunnel they were passing through, between Waterloo and Embankment stations. The force of stopping so sharply threw Oliver and Jenny forward with a jerk. They sat up.

  “Shit,” Oliver said.

  “Emergency brake?” Jenny asked.

  The light flickered and then the entire train fell into darkness. Oliver took out his mobile and used the screen to provide some light.

  “Creepy,” Jenny said and gripped Oliver’s arm.

  Oliver looked up and down the carriage, “Should start again soon.”

  They sat in the dark in silence. It did not feel comfortable to continue a difficult conversation. Oliver looked out at the tube wall, just about making out the dirt covered wires and pipes that ran along the tunnels sides carrying power along the underground system.

  “Should we try speaking to the Driver? Why hasn’t he made an announcement?” Jenny asked nervously.

  Oliver was drawn and curious to the only light he could see that wasn’t from his phone. Outside the carriage about four or five feet away, a blue glow came from one of the thicker wires that ran along the central section of the tube wall. It both glowed and seemed to grow, it wasn’t a spark, it was the size of a child’s fist and appeared to have the consistency of jelly.

  “What do you think that is?” he asked Jenny.

  “What?”

  “Outside the window, look that blue lump on the pipe, it looks like it’s moving.”

  “Oh yes, maybe it’s a power thing, a gel in the wire, maybe that’s why we’ve broken down,” Jenny suggested, though knowing her theory was in fact rubbish.

  It slowly doubled in size. It thickened and glowed more strongly. Without warning it leapt from the wire of the wall and slammed against the glass window of the carriage just in front of them.

  “Fuck, what is it?” Oliver and Jenny had gripped each other at the sudden and unexpected movement. What was most frightening was the force with which it struck the glass. Whatever this was, it was powerful.

  The blue energy had an anchor on the tube wall and had begun pulsing against the glass. With ease it melted itself into and through the glass and entered the carriage. Its glow provided light for the carriage, a soft blue haze and Oliver and Jenny felt the heat from this unknown force.

  “I think we should move,” Jenny said.

  “I agree,” Oliver said. Neither wanted to acknowledge it but the energy seemed to be looking for them. It had purpose as it oozed and stretched along the glass inside the carriage.

  As they stood it stopped, they felt watched by it. Slowly they crept forward stepping towards the carriage end and the door that would exit from the train, with the next carriages door beyond that.

  Once they had passed the energy they turned to retreat from it, keeping it in view whilst walking backwards.

  “I’m scared,” Jenny said.

  “Not more than I am, let’s get to the other carriage.”

  When they reached the door Oliver stretched back for the handle, without taking his gaze off of the snake like energy pulsing in the carriage a short distance from them. He felt around the door, found the handle and opened the door inwards. As he did this the energy seemed to turn to study their movements, it lifted off of the window then snapped back. It withdrew through the glass and reattached itself to the thick black cable. Within a split second it had traversed the cable and was now directly opposite the couple on the tube wall outside the window. They had had no time to react such was its speed of movement.

  Crack. It struck the window again with great force and oozed its way back through the glass to within a few feet of where they were.

  Oliver whispered, “Run.”

  He pushed Jenny forward and reminded her to jump the gap, which she did and she opened and entered the next carriage. Oliver followed. The energy snapped back and zipped along the black cable once more to align with them. There could be no doubt they were being pursued by this sinister force.

  Oliver barked, “Run.”

  And they did. At full stretch they ran in the dark straight down the middle of the train, to the end of the carriage, without looking back. Jenny frantically pulled at the next door, Oliver carefully steadying her as she moved to the next carriage. He turned before he followed to see the blue globule melding into the pane of glass by him. He feared they would not out run this threat.

  They ran through five more carriages with the blue force zipping down the thick black cable, maintaining its pace with theirs. It seemed to be growing in size and momentum, as if building towards a final strike.

  Jenny had lost track of how many carriages she had run through when she slammed into the blank door that was the access door for the drivers’ cabin.

  “Shit,” she said.

  “Dead end,” Oliver said. He leaned over Jenny and slammed hard on the door.

  “Why have we stopped?” he shouted, “Get this train moving please.”

  There was n
o reply. The blue force arrived gently in line with them. Now the size of a football it struck the glass yet again, so hard Oliver and Jenny staggered back.

  Oliver struck the drivers door, “Come on, help us. What is up with you?”

  Jenny grabbed hold of Oliver as the blue energy oozed in to the carriage and stretched out towards them.

  The lights flickered and the carriage was suddenly illuminated once more.

  “Powers back on,” Oliver said, he struck the door hard three times, “are you going to get this working again?”

  This time a muffled voice replied indignantly, “Ease up, we’re about to go.”

  The tube train inched forward and then accelerated. The energy force could not adapt to the moving conditions and it snapped back and out of the carriage, sending sparks fizzing into the air as it fell to the floor of the tracks. The train sped away and within seconds the threat to Oliver and Jenny was gone.

  29.