by Greg Krojac
“Against the wall.”
Ari and Dr Chandler did as they were told, Ari trying to decide if now was the right time to take out his Glock.
Cadence kept her gun pointing at the doctor but looked at Ari.
“I trusted you. I thought you understood that what I’m going to do has to be done.”
She turned her gaze to the doctor. That was Ari’s opportunity. He plucked the pistol from his breeches and pointed it at Cadence.
His voice tremored.
“I won’t let you kill him.”
Cadence grinned.
“You won’t kill me, Ari. You don’t have the balls.”
Ari applied a little pressure to the gun’s trigger.
“I nearly killed you before.”
“Nearly. Pulling a trigger whilst you’re looking into someone’s eyes is different from pushing them from behind into the path of an oncoming train, Ari.”
Doctor Chandler was lost.
“Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?”
Cadence nodded.
“In the future, you and your wife will have a child, a son. He will grow up and discover time travel.”
The doctor looked at Cadence in disbelief.
“That’s ridiculous. How do you know?”
“Because I’m from the future. 2121 to be exact. So is Ari, here. Except he’s from 2073.”
“Even if you’re telling the truth, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? All the stuff we can fix before it goes wrong?”
Cadence shook her head.
“Unfortunately, no. It’s a very bad thing. It’s going to destroy the human race.”
That took the wind out of Dr Chandler’s sails.
“Are you serious?”
“Deadly serious. Each time someone travels through time a rift opens in the fabric of space-time and interdimensional matter seeps through. This matter shouldn’t be in our dimension and is causing a temporal plague that has already killed billions of people.”
The doctor looked visibly upset.
“And there’s no cure?”
“None – except to make sure that time travel never gets discovered. And the only way to do that is to ensure that the boy is never born.”
“So you want to kill me. Is that it?”
“It’s either you or your wife.”
“What’s my wife got to do with all this?”
“One of you has to die. Whoever lives can have another child but it won’t be Ryan.”
“Is that the name of my son?”
Cadence was annoyed at herself.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to let that slip. So, it’s either you or your wife. You can choose. It makes no difference to me. I just assumed you’d want to save your wife. Maybe I was wrong.”
“No, you were right.”
“I’m sorry, but one of you has to die. I have no choice if humanity is to be saved. So, we’re agreed it’ll be you. Yes?”
The doctor turned to Ari.
“Hand me that gun, Deaton, Ari, whatever your name is.”
Ari passed the Glock to the doctor. He didn’t think he would have had the nerve to shoot Cadence, anyway. He would much rather Dr Chandler did it.
The doctor turned the weapon away from Cadence and, instead, pointed the muzzle at his own temple.
Ari looked at the doctor, aghast.
“What are you doing, Doctor Chandler. Point it at her.”
The doctor’s voice was calm.
“Is what she says true, young man?”
Ari's heart was racing. He could see his own future drifting away from his control.
“Yes. I mean, I think so. I am from the future but not from so far in the future as she is.”
“But you are from the future?”
“Yes. 2073.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
He looked at Cadence and saw the truth in her eyes.
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
He pulled the trigger and dropped like a stone as a bullet rifled through his brain.
He died instantly.
It took a while for Ari to recover from the shock of seeing someone blow their brains out in front of him.
“Why did he kill himself?”
“Probably because he loved his wife.”
“Would you have killed her?”
“I’d have done what I had to do.”
Ari looked confused.
“And what did he mean the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?”
Cadence grinned.
“You really need a TV, Ari.”
Ari took out his pocket watch and wound the winder, expecting to be whisked back to 2073.
Nothing happened.
Cadence pointed to her wristwatch.
“They’re just watches now. I did warn you.”
Ari’s face dropped.
“You mean we are stuck here in 1991?”
“Until we die. We’re just regular people now and have to move forward with our lives from here on. There’s no such thing as time travel and hopefully never will be. We are when we are.”
11:00, Wednesday 16 August 2169
Piccadilly Circus, London
Only the cooing of pigeons punctuated the silence. There was no human chatter, no shrieks, no giggling, no gasps of wonderment at the neon signs.
A battering of wings caused the pigeons to stop their monotonous songs for a moment, as a flock of starlings took flight in nearby Leicester Square.
Gone were the cars, the buses, the motorcycles, the bicycles. No beeping of horns, no screeches of brakes.
Those people who had not been buried in the mass graves had been left to rot on the streets, for there was no one left to bury them.
Piccadilly Circus was dead.
London was dead.
Everybody was dead.
#####
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in 1957, Greg Krojac grew up in Maidenhead, UK, before moving to Brazil in 2007 via Portsmouth on England’s south coast. He published his first book in 2016 and has now published ten published novels, two novellas, and two short stories.
He currently lives just outside the city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, with Eliene, and their dogs, Sophie and Simba, and two cats, Tabitha and Jess. By day, he teaches English as a foreign language (TEFL) at a local language school.
As well as being a teacher and a writer, he has created and cohosts a podcast for short read readers and short read writers called Short Is The New Long.
You can find out more about Greg and his books at
www.gregkrojac.com
SHORT NOVELS BY GREG KROJAC
THE JANUS PROJECT
A clone, Janus, is used to help track down a serial killer
THE WEATHERMAN
On a far distant planet, a teacher, Ooze, follows a strange young woman on a quest
THE GIRL WITH ACRYLIC EYES
(Book 1: The Sophont Trilogy)
A sapient android, Coppélia, discovers the reason why she was created
METALHEADS & MEATHEADS
(Book 2: The Sophont Trilogy)
A sapient android, Paul, is recruited for a job that goes against his programming
REULEAUX’S PORTAL
(Book 3: The Sophont Trilogy)
A case of mistaken identity has astonishing interstellar repercussions
THE BOY WHO WASN’T AND THE GIRL WHO COULDN’T BE
Jerome, one of only six survivors of an apocalyptic event, meets a girl who shouldn’t exist.
IMMUNE
An interstellar virus is the harbinger of an alien invasion
REVELATION
(Book 1: The Recarn Chronicles Trilogy)
10-year-old Simon’s suicide leads to the establishment of the Illuminati’s New World Order
REVOLUTION
(Book 2: The Recarn Chronicles Trilogy)
Marcus’s reign of terror as Illuminati leader intensifies and uneasy
alliances are formed
RESOLUTION
(Book 3: The Recarn Chronicles Trilogy)
A final solution to the Illuminati problem is found but is the human cost too high?
NOVELLAS BY GREG KROJAC
ARNOLD THE UNDEAD
Arnold’s death pitches him into a world of zombies, vampires, and werewolves
JUDD’S ERRAND
A courier, Judd, risks his life to deliver an unassuming graphene package
TIME THIEF
Aristotle, a Temporal Private Investigator, tries to save time travel from never having been discovered
SHORT STORIES BY GREG KROJAC
OPPY
Archaeological cosmologists on Mars are looking for artefacts that will shed light on their own prehistoric history. They find something.
THE FIRST KISS
A romantic night out at a swanky restaurant should be the perfect date but culminates in a disturbing discovery
THE MAN WHO LIVED IN A SHED
A man lives alone in a sparsely furnished and remote shed but he isn’t a hermit. Why doesn’t he just go back to the city and live a normal life?
WRITER’S BLOCK
A short story writer is given a writing prompt and sits down at his computer to start writing, but his mind has gone blank. However, he receives help from an unexpected quarter.
THANK YOU!
The world as we know it is gone, fallen to a zombie apocalypse. A man is trying to make his way to an abandoned military compound which – if rumours are true – has been turned into a haven by human survivors.