*
Me and Jack were standing together in the time vault surrounded by guards. Two technicians were fiddling with switches. We were wearing paper overalls and papier-mâché boots. They strapped a Time Wand to us, fixed to return itself.
‘So. We get to die together in the Ice Age,’ Jack said, and kissed me on my cheek. ‘I’m sorry it didn’t work out better.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ I told him.
It’s weird, but I felt shy and stupid. I think he felt the same. We just stood there, seconds from being time blasted to our deaths, but not talking.
‘You were pretty good back there,’ he said. ‘Toppling those screens – wow, brilliant. I think we gave them a good bashing for a while.’
‘Hum, just too many of them.’ I was trying not to cry. ‘I went to see Ryan,’ I told him. ‘I took him on the swings.’
His eyes sparkled and I saw a tear. He nodded. I guess he couldn’t talk.
A klaxon sounded. One of the guards tied us together ankle to ankle. Jack held me tight, and I clung on to him, shivering in the thin paper overalls. The harsh klaxon blasts echoing around the cavern chopped the buzz and clatter inside the vault into regular chunks.
Sindra walked towards us smirking. She held up a Time Wand to Jack. ‘No need to tell you what this is, eh Jack? How much simpler things would have been if only you had told the professor when you found it. You only have yourself to blame. You brought all this on yourself and poor little Tori.’ Backing away she signalled to the technician at the operating console. He flipped a control causing the massive vault door to roll silently into place, muffling the irritating pulse of the klaxon.
The five armed guards who had accompanied us into the time vault moved into positions along the wall and in front of the vault door at Sindra’s shoulder. The technician gave her a nod to show that he was ready to send us back in time, twelve thousand years. She signalled to her guards who all snapped to attention.
‘Well my children. It’s time. And don’t worry, we won’t be seeing each other again.’
I saw the technician punch the switch on his console.
I don’t suppose anybody can hear you when you time leap, but I think Jack knew what I said to him as we clung to each other and waited.
‘Tori, I’m sorry. I wish we had more time,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry I got you into all this.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ I told him, and then my hair stood on end, and so did Jack’s.’ The vault filled with pulsing blue light. My skin felt as if it were being sprayed all over with needle jets of water. I could see Sindra shouting at the technician. Something was wrong.
A bright, crackling column of light, running from floor to ceiling, appeared between me and where Sindra stood with her guards. I could tell from Jack’s shocked expression that this should not be happening. He had time leapt twice. He knew what to expect, and clearly this was not it.
‘Tori, hang on tight,’ he yelled, and picked me off my feet and hobbled towards the technician’s bench. I saw a guard raise his rifle and fire at us. Impossibly, I watched the bullet coming towards me. Jack saw it too and swerved round the technician grabbing him as a shield. I ducked out of the way, but could see the bullet cruise passed my head in slow motion. It buried itself in the technician’s chest.
The column of brilliant light swelled into a fat oval shape. A rider on a leaping white horse leaped out of the middle of the light. He was armed with a weird looking machine pistol in each hand. I couldn’t believe it. I wondered if I had already died and this was my last fantastic dying wish being played out in my imagination.
Wearing a black cowboy hat and fancy Mexican vaqueros style clothes, boots and spurs the rider brought his horse to a skidding halt on the white ceramic floor. Light-streams blasted from both his guns. The astonished guards gaped at him, helplessly frozen. One by one they crumpled over the pounding light from his guns. He reined in his mount and brought its head round. For a split second he aimed both guns at us but didn’t fire. Spinning the horse his eyes scanned the vault for others. The guards sprawled where they had fallen, stunned by photon bolts. Sindra was nowhere to be seen.
The strange light column fizzed and popped and began to lose intensity. ‘Well come on don’t just stand there Dobbin - get in there,’ the rider yelled at Jack, pointing to the fizzing light column. Dobbin? How did he know Jack’s nick-name?
‘Vart! Crickey man, what’s all this?’
‘Get in. Quick it’s closing.’
We were still tied at the ankle. Jack forgot and fell flat on his face. I helped him up and we three-legged it into the light. I just went with him. Somehow I knew it would be all right. The young man on the horse galloped passed us.
‘Is this what I think it is?’ I yelled at Jack.
‘You mean the future? I guess it must be.’
As the light closed in around us Jack leaned in to me and kissed my cheek. ‘Does that make this a date then?’ he asked.
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘I never kiss on the first date.’
……….
Time Rocks Page 52