by Paul Rice
Within thirty minutes he had reached the cottage, the wooden gate creaked as he lifted the latch and stepped onto the old stone pathway. Peters closed the gate behind him and made his way around the side of the whitewashed walls of the house. The dawn light was only now breaking, its faint rosy hue rising over the dark woods to the east, daybreak yes, but it would still be some time before it was fully light. This was his time, it was when he felt most alive and the dawn of a new day exhilarated him. Feeling totally refreshed, he traipsed towards the outhouse, stopping at the outer door to bend and remove the rubber over-boots, hopping from one foot to the next whilst he slid them from over his old green training shoes, whistling to himself as he plopped the galoshes into the bucket of water, which sat cold and dirty by the coal bunker. He stared into the water and watched the bubbles of air rising to the top and bursting with a soft plopping sound. He chuckled and rose to his feet, before turning to his right and lifting the latch on the door to the old brick building. Entering the room, Peters reached up to his left and flicked on the light switch, the ancient Bakelite casing crackling in protest as the trickle of electricity powered through its aged wires and crept into the bulb overhead, its feeble glow barely justifying the effort. He stepped into the room and closed the wooden door behind him, the movement making the rusty latch rattle as it fell back into place. The room was almost dark but he could still make out the strings of onions hanging on the walls, their smell filled the room. There was another smell… an alien odour… a smell of burning electricity. He turned and looked at the light switch and then back to the bulb that hung from the low ceiling above him. Both appeared to be fine. Sniffing deeply, he paused, then shook his head and undid the buttons on the front of his dark green overalls. With belly rumbling, his thoughts turned once more to the nice breakfast he would soon prepare himself. As he slid the collar over his shoulders and wriggled one arm out of the overalls’ sleeve, the strange smell suddenly became much stronger. “Something’s on fire!” Panic hit his gut and he turned towards the door with thoughts of the cottage’s thatched roof foremost in his mind. As he spun around, Peters just caught the sight of a shadow, his eyes widened in surprise, the shadow belonged to a man, a man who had suddenly appeared like magic in the doorway. Fear raced through his mind and he literally jumped with shock at the sight of the tall man, who, somehow, had entered the building without a sound.
For one second they stood staring at each other, and then suddenly the intruder raised his hand and shone a small torch at Mr Peters’ face. As the beam of light fell upon him, it did a lot more than just illuminate his face. No, this was a bolt of pure power… a green electrical current… one so strong that it really did make all the hairs on his body stand to attention. He could almost feel his eyeballs cooking – it stunned him with its power. “I…” was the only sound that escaped his pallid lips before he collapsed where he had been standing. Peters went down like a deflated balloon. He sank to his knees and then toppled forward with his head clonking like a coconut on the stone floor. The green fire pulsed viciously, racing down his neck as he laid there, half kneeling, face on the ground, arms behind his shoulders and palms upward, looking like some mime artist in Trafalgar Square.
The pain was excruciating but there was to be no respite, although Peters was immobilised he remained conscious, and through fluttering eyelids he saw the boots of two men as they approached him. He tried to speak but not a sound passed his lips, he felt as though he had been frozen – frozen in fire. The scream, which built up in his throat, found it’s only escape and exploded like a firework in his head, the overpressure causing all the blood vessels in his eyes to burst at once, they filled his eyes like tiny, red lava flows. Half blinded by fear and pain he prayed for some release, but there was to be none.
He felt everything and yet could do nothing.
He belonged to them.
Chapter 5 - Reunited
Ken and Jane shared two more weeks of blissful undisturbed relaxation with each other. Two weeks during which they toured the countryside, visited the local pub, walked the dogs, and in general had a great time together. During this period, Ken managed to get almost all of the things he had experienced into some form of logical order. It still baffled him and he continued to feel like it wasn’t finished, not quite yet. Then there was the latest dream…
Jane seemed to manage with the stream of crazy information and remained fairly stoical about the whole thing. She became his rock and many times, when the tale became stormy, Ken clung to her.
One sunny yet icy-cold winter’s day, whilst they were walking down the slope behind the house, Ken saw the glow of brake lights coming from a car that had obviously turned off the track and onto their driveway. “Looks like we’ve got visitors…” he said, as he turned to look at Jane. Both the dogs barked once and then suddenly tore off down the hill. “Bugger, here we go!” Ken murmured and then started to jog down the hill after them; he had a sudden vision of the local Policeman being savaged by the Ridgebacks, not a good welcome for someone on a courtesy visit. As the thoughts rushed through his head, he heard running feet and turned around to see Jane bounding past him, shouting:
“Come on slow coach, last one there’s a loser!” Her long black hair flew behind as she half ran and half slipped down the hill, laughing crazily as she went. Ken shook his head and ran after her.
He laughed. “First one there does the medical treatment, you mean, those bloody dogs will have whoever that is, for breakfast!” He let the momentum of the slope carry him downhill and raced past his wife, shouting out as he went. “Hello the Lodge, watch out for the dogs – they’re on the way down, be careful, they’re not friendly with strangers!” As the sound of his voice rolled across the valley, Ken saw that Leon, the bigger of the two dogs, had leapt the tall back gate as though it wasn’t there, and that Jessica, the somewhat smaller bitch, was hot on his heels. The intruder, whom ever they may be, was about to get a nasty surprise. Ken heard some laughing and then the visitor’s sarcastic reply rolled up the slope,
“Yeah I know, but I have chocolate… Ohhh shit!” This was followed by a chorus of deep barks from their so-called guard dogs. The voice rang out again: “Oi… ya canine bastards, watch the bloody paintwork!” The Australian’s twang was unmistakeable to Ken, whose freefalling plummet from the slope had just sent him crashing into the dry stone wall at the bottom of the garden, one-handed he leapt the gate and raced around the side of the Lodge.
Two steps behind him, Jane let out a shriek: “Mikey!”
Sure enough, there upon their cobbled driveway stood the tall Australian. He had his hands full and was busily fighting off both the dogs, who, now that they were up on their back legs, stood nearly as tall as he did. The ridgebacks were both desperately trying to lick Mike’s face. He looked at Ken and said, “Get off ya damn mutts! You can bloody help me any time you feel ready, Ken! I’m losing this one, help me out here man!” Two untouched chocolate bars lay discarded at his feet. Through his laughter, Ken only just managed to get a feeble whistle out of his lips. Hearing the sound, both dogs immediately came to heel. Mike leant forward and rested his hands upon the tops of his Levi clad knees, he was panting like mad and sported a nice set of large, muddy paw prints on the thighs of his jeans. He looked up and said, “Bleeding animals! It’s so good to see that bugger all has changed around here, mad bastards – the bloody four of ya!” Straightening himself, he was just in time to catch Jane as she leapt into his arms and planted a kiss on his cheek. He swung her around and then plonked her back down onto her feet. Ken grabbed him. The two men embraced long and hard and then separated before holding each other at arm’s length. Leaning back, Mike said, “Let me look at you, ya bloody Pommy!” His voice was hoarse as he stared first at Ken’s face, and then more deeply into his eyes. “How’s the head, all well I hope, or are there bits still rattling around in the big hole they left behind – mind you, there was plenty of room in there before?” He slapped Ken on the back and lean
ed against the side window of the red Porsche.
Laughing, and using his best toff’s accent, Ken replied: “Top-hole old chap, top-hole!” Then he said, “Nah, seriously: I’m good, never felt better to be honest, and this…” He tapped the metal plate in the back of his head with his fingers, “This has just made life more interesting, to be honest?” All three embraced once more and then Ken and Jane helped Mike get his bags from the car. Loaded with his belongings they walked across the driveway and stepped into the interior of the Lodge. Once inside, Jane put the kettle on whilst Mike and Ken dumped the bags in the spare bedroom, before returning to the lounge. Sitting in the comfortable room they sipped on some hot tea and enjoyed the feeling of being together again. As they sat with the fire roaring in the hearth, Ken looked at Mike and grinned – the sense of adventure had begun to rise within him once more. He smiled at his wife and then looked at his best friend. The Australian was fiddling with a case that lay on the table in front of him. Mike opened his case and extracted the weirdest looking device they had ever seen, it looked like a laptop computer that somehow seemed to be made of a three dimensional liquid. It looked like a giant slab of solid, silvery green jelly. The fact that when he placed the machine down it made a solid metallic clunk, only served to deepen the mystery.
Jane leant forward, knuckles white as she tightly cupped the china beaker in her hands. Mike stood and walked into the dining room, once there he placed the device onto the dining room table and then touched some hidden switch, his actions activated a bank of thin green laser lights that reached out from the machine and touched every corner of the room, the flickering display made their dining room look like a mini nightclub. Turning back to them, Mike said, “Don’t worry too much about it, the lights will stop in a bit – it’s just searching.” He walked over to sit in the couch opposite them, leaned against the cream coloured back rest and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Right, who would like to hear how this little story has progressed so far?” They both nodded vigorously. Turning first to Jane, Mike asked: “Has the old fool kept you in the picture?” He nodded towards Ken in an indication of which old fool he was referring to, but his eyes were focused on Jane, searching, looking for confirmation that she would be able to deal with his soon to be revealed tale.
Jane paused, looked first at her man and then back to Mike, before saying: “Yeah, yeah I guess he has, I think that I pretty much get the picture, Mikey. Well, as much as it’s possible to, you know? It’s still a bit baffling though, space ships, weird dreams and all that other stuff.” Mike nodded in understanding. She carried on. “But Ken is so clear in his recollections and so vivid in his descriptions, that he would either have to be stark raving mad or he’s actually been there…” She paused, looked at Ken, and then said, “And I know which one I choose to believe” She reached out and grasped her husband’s hand for some reassurance.
Ken said, “Jane knows as much as I do, obviously there could be some bits and pieces that I may have forgotten, but all the big stuff is out in the open, look – to be honest I still don’t totally get it!” He looked at Mike. “Things like… well, what happened to Red and where are we with the Rip, did it even happen, you know what I mean – it’s just the little stuff like that…” He couldn’t stop the short laugh that followed. “Sorry, but have you heard us, sat here, as calm as you like, talking about this shit like we’re deciding what package holiday to go on, it’s crazy!” He rolled his eyes.
Mike replied. “Yeah, you’re right, but like we said before on the Ship: it’s absolutely weird for sure, but I still get it, I understand?” He thought for a second or two and then said, “A lot has happened since we last met, the main purpose of my visit, apart from seeing you two of course, is to tell you what’s happened and much more importantly, to find out if you want to come and play on the next bit?” He looked at the two of them quizzically, but then cut them off before they could answer. “Before you immediately say ‘yes’, then I guess you should know that once you’re in, then you’re in! No walking away and no certain outcome to be promised to you.” His eyes glowed. “You need to be sure, guys?” Mike raised his eyebrows and they could see that he was deadly serious.
Ken replied. “OK, let’s see what the score is before we decide on anything, there’s a lot we are going to need to know about, I would imagine?” Ken felt Jane nod in agreement next to him and turned back to Mike. “Just start at the beginning and we’ll try and keep up, OK?” He leant back and threw the floor open to his friend.
Mike nodded and said, “Right, fair enough then. First things first though. Business: Maxima Electronics have made us an offer for the company that we can’t really refuse, it’s a very large amount of money and as long as we sign the non-competition clause, the deal is as good as done, that’s unless we fancy going back over there?” He slid a paper file out from one of the pouches in the laptop case and placed it on the coffee table. “It’s all in there and just needs our signatures; check it out later, Ken. By my reckoning it will take us a least another five years to make that type of money, they’re a massive company and we can see the cash within a fortnight.”
Ken nodded. “Yeah, I will do – I don’t really want to go back to Afghanistan, if I’m to be honest… and as long as we are getting a fair deal on the projected turnover and customer base, then I can’t see why we wouldn’t sell? I wanted out in a few years anyway and this is like all our dreams’ coming true, isn’t it?” He shook his head in relief.
Mike agreed. “We’re up to speed with the deliveries, I spoke to Martin in Kabul yesterday and he confirms that the Yanks have paid the final amount for the cameras and the Ultra-Crystals too, that means we have fulfilled all of the contractual obligations required under the sale agreement, all you need to do is look at the figures, you know what I’m like, there could be a right cock up?” He finished by putting some other papers into the file and then looked up at his friends. Brushing his dark hair back off his forehead, he began. “Right then, now for the crazy shit!” Mike leant forward with his elbows wedged on his knees and asked: “What’s the last thing you can recall from our little escapade, Kenny?
Ken mulled that one over for a while, and let the memories come rushing back to him, the emptiness and feeling of despair made him feel light headed. Taking a breath, he said, “I remember you and the Light Maker, you stopped it I think, but then you caught fire, you just lit up like a candle and then suddenly fizzled out of existence…” He still felt uneasy about the whole thing, had it been just a dream and if so, why had Mike been there? He shook his head and falteringly continued. “Red caught me with my trousers down and I took one of his bullets to the back of my head.” He said, fingering the back of his skull, “Then he drove off and then you sort of… umm… just sort of blinked out of existence. I dunno really, I remember being on the deck, lying in the dust and trying to get to the light, I knew I was a gonner and to be honest… I tried to go, but then I saw Jane and, well… that’s about it?” He sounded confused and turned to Jane with a strange look in his eyes. She clasped his hand and smiled at him before they both turned to Mike again.
Mike looked very intense as his words confirmed what Ken had said: “Yeah, that’s about what I figured you would remember, and in the dream it is what actually happened. You had already been hit on the head by the satellite dish and you were dying. George took you, the inner you, and used you to complete the task. He knew what the outcome would be, and he knew that your actions would cause Red to try and return to the ship?”
Ken scowled and with his voice cracking in anger, said: “Red returned did he, that slimy bastard!” His eyes flashed with fury.
Mike looked at them. “What you need to know, guys, the mind blower, is that all of the stuff with Red and George, the Ship, the Spears, everything!” He took a breath and then whispered: “It all happened in a parallel world – a world that lies just slightly in the future, or maybe even in the past, and one that we may never have to go through
again, But, it’s still a possible future, nonetheless!” Hearing their total silence, he tried to elaborate: “Listen, what we went through was the possible outcome of prior happenings, things that could make those events an actuality. There’s a strong chance that if certain things are done now, then that future will never occur?” He looked at them and waited a while, before speaking again. “Everything has a parallel, everything is linked and the future always depends on what happens today, always!” He looked at them, his face deadly serious. The long silence between them seemed only to heighten the atmosphere.