Quantum Entanglement

by Liesel K. Hill

  Marcus got slowly to his feet and walked up behind her as she finally grasped the knife and yanked it out. Blood poured from the wound, pooling around her legs and soaking into the soil.

  Still on her knees, she leaned forward onto her hands, as though she would push herself to her feet. Instead her arms collapsed. She fell onto her side and slowly lowered her cheek to the dirt, spitting out her final death rasp. Then she lay still.

  Marcus’s knees gave out. He thudded to the ground and sat there panting for long seconds. He’d never killed anyone before. He didn’t know how to feel about it. He felt only numbness. And the pounding of his head.

  His gaze fell on his father, lying face down three feet in front of the collectivist woman. He hadn’t moved since he’d fallen.

  Marcus didn’t bother trying to get to his feet. He scrambled painfully forward on all fours, tears welling in his eyes. He grabbed his father by the shoulders and turned him over, pulling into his embrace.

  Relief washed over him. As soon as Danic lay face-up, his chest expanded on its own. The relief was short-lived, though. A painful-sounding rattle accompanied Danic’s breathing and subsequent breaths were shaky and uneven. His father was hurt. Badly.

  A shadow fell over them and Marcus gazed up at David, who frowned down at the corpse beside them. “You killed her,” he murmured.

  “She nearly killed Dad.” Not until he spoke did David actually look at him. Marcus couldn’t believe his brother could be so calm after what just happened.

  “Still,” David said, eyes hard, “you didn’t have to kill her.”

  Marcus got slowly to his feet. “And you didn’t have to break your promise. You swore, David! You and me. Brothers. You promised you wouldn’t bring anyone else in. And then you betrayed us. To them!”

  David did look down then, a flash of guilt playing across his face. “I thought,” he mumbled, “I thought if you could see how much better it would be...if I could make you understand...you’d want to stay.”

  “They wouldn’t have given us the choice to stay, David! They would have enslaved us whether we wanted it or not!” Marcus put his eyes on the ground and concentrated on calming himself, slowing his breathing. When he spoke again, he tried to be more composed. “Let this be a lesson to you, David. I suppose you were going to have to learn the hard way. Now help me with Dad. We’re going to have to build a litter and drag him to this mountain he keeps talking about.”

  Marcus squatted down by their father again and looked expectantly at David. David’s frown deepened. He turned to peer over his shoulder. A chill whispered down Marcus’s spine as the truth of the situation dawned on him. David hadn’t learned a thing.

  “What are you looking at?” Marcus demanded. “Are there more of them? Over in that direction?”

  David turned his head back slowly to face Marcus. His expression was frightened, but also sinister somehow. It wasn’t something Marcus had seen before in his brother.

  Marcus straightened his legs and in two strides that renewed the pounding in his head, he stood in front of his brother. Grabbing a handful of David’s shirt, he yanked him forward so they were nose to nose. “David—”

  David’s jaw tightened and his chin rose a hair’s breadth. Looking at the determined gleam in his brother’s eye, Marcus realized he couldn’t win. If he’d been well, their father could have thrown David over his shoulder and easily evaded the collectivists. But Danic wasn’t okay. Marcus wouldn’t be able to pull his father’s litter and drag David along by the wrist.

  He let go of David’s shirt and his brother staggered back several feet. Terror built up in Marcus’s stomach, along with the greasy feeling in his chest. He fought down the panic. And the urge to bolt.

  “S-so,” he sputtered. “You’re going to give us to them? To let them enslave us? Your own family?”

  A myriad of emotions played across David’s face. Mingled with others, Marcus saw true sorrow there. David slowly shook his head. “No,” he said quietly. “I won’t do that. Not again. But I’m still going with them.”

  Marcus’s shoulders slumped and tears poured over the lower lids of his eyes. “David—”

  “You can’t change my mind, Marcus. It’s my choice.”

  Marcus dropped his gaze to their still-unconscious father and scrubbed the tears away. He took a step toward David and put his shoulders back. “The least you can do is distract them long enough for us to get away.”

  David frowned doubtfully. “If you’re pulling a litter, you won’t be able to run fast enough—”

  “I won’t run. I can Conceal both Dad and I, but I have to get him somewhere we’ll be physically hidden, too. I can stay there until he’s well or until your collectivists leave the area. Distract them long enough for me to get us there. You can live how you choose, but so can we. You owe us the right to our own choice.”

  David’s jaw hardened, along with his eyes. “No promises.” He turned to trudge up the rise. Marcus marveled that he could simply walk away without another word.

  At the top of the ridge, David turned. His brow creased in what Marcus could only have described as confusion. “Goodbye Marcus. Tell Dad...I’m sorry.”

  “Are you?”

  The confused crease deepened. “I...don’t think so.” Then David turned and disappeared.

  The image of his brother’s confused face, looking down on him, burnt into the walls of Marcus’s soul. He shut his eyes, releasing tears from their corners. He pushed the image away, pushed the memories down so deep he could barely feel them anymore. All he felt was numbness. He had to. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to so much as stand up after David walked away.

  Wanting to throw up again, but knowing he simply didn’t have the time, Marcus turned toward his father. Danic was much bigger than he was, so he lifted his father from behind, gripping him beneath the arms, and dragged him back toward their camp.

  The pain receded with surprising suddenness. Marcus blinked the memory away, focusing on the overcast sky above, and Karl’s concerned face, which hovered over him. He sat up slowly, turning to meet Karl’s terrified eyes. “It’s...better,” he croaked.

  Karl looked unconvinced.

  Marcus focused on breathing deeply. His head became clearer with each breath. He hadn’t remembered any of that before. His father...David...the fight...the collectivists. He ought to be angry. Later he would be. Now, between the physical pain and the knowledge that Maggie shouldered the same pain, he felt only sadness.

  Karl still scrutinized him. “What else, Marcus? What happened?”

  Marcus swallowed. “I’ll tell you later,” he said quietly.

  Eyes wide and disturbed, Karl sat back on his knees. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe we’re going to get Maggie first after all.”

  Karl raised a hand to massage his temple.

  “I’m sorry,” Marcus said. “I don’t mean to keep waffling. Someone’s hurting her. Terribly.”

  Karl nodded. He turned toward Tenessa, who still watched them warily, then set his jaw and stood up. He stalked toward the collectivist woman, not stopping until he stood toe to toe with her, looking down fiercely into her face. Tenessa’s eyes widened when he moved toward her, but she locked her knees and raised her jaw defiantly.

  “If you truly want to get back to the collective, you’ll help us get to Colin, whether it’s now or not for a few more days.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be now?” Her eyes blazed at Karl.

  “We have to go get someone, first.”

  Tenessa’s gaze went from Karl to Marcus, and Marcus again marveled at the intelligence it held. Tenessa had a perceptive intelligence to rival Maggie, making connections where no information was given. Not verbally, anyway.

  “A woman,” she said quietly, though her expression grew darker with each passing moment. “One Strange Eyes is linked to—as the Union links!”

  “No,” Karl snapped, and Tenessa’s indignant eyes shifted to him. “
Not at all like that.”

  She didn’t look like she believed him, and Marcus couldn’t blame her. They didn’t know what the nature of this bond truly was, and he had once been linked to Maggie that way. Karl’s claim wasn’t strictly true, depending on how you looked at it.

  “Strange Eyes is a hypocrite!” She spat the final word in Marcus’s direction.

  He slowly, painfully got to his feet. “I don’t expect you to understand,” he said quietly. “I, like Karl, would do anything, absolutely anything, to protect the people I love.” He turned to Karl, who gazed back at him. “Let’s sedate her, both physically and neurologically, and leave her somewhere. We’ll come back for her once we have Maggie.”

  Karl nodded. “Sounds like a plan, but maybe we should take her back to Interchron.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow and Karl hurried on.

  “As long as we have Tenessa to lead us to Colin, we should get the others involved. And Tenessa would be safer in Medical than out here under a bush.”

  Marcus shook his head. “I don’t want the rest of the team involved, Karl. That was the point of striking out on our own. And going back to Interchron would take too long. They’d want explanations and to prepare. I want to go get Maggie now.”

  “I do too, Marcus, but we may need the help of a Seeker.”

  “Why?”

  “Because if she’s no longer where we left her, we’ll want someone who can find her quickly.”

  “Why can’t we go back to two days after we left her?”

  Karl shook his head. “I’ve told you before: that gets confusing since it will have been five months since we saw her, but only days since she saw us.”

  “Well, these pains only began a few days ago. Let’s go back to before they started. She’ll probably still be at home, then. And I don’t want her going through this pain.”

  “That’s just it, Marcus. You’ve already felt the pain. If you’re feeling it at the same moment she does, even though she’s in a completely different time than you...there’s something nonlinear about it. I don’t think it’s something we should mess with. We should go back to five months after we left her and find her then.”

  “But—”

  He felt her.

  She was there, not twenty feet from them, though out of sight.

  “What’s the matter?” Karl studied Marcus’s face, looking mildly alarmed at what he saw there.

  “Maggie,” Marcus murmured, walking several paces from Karl and Tenessa. He peered up the slope of the mountain. He still couldn’t see her, but Maggie moved down toward them, picking her way carefully along the tree line.

  “Now I’m scanning, I can feel someone, too,” Karl said behind him, “but you’re not a Seeker, Marcus. There’s no way to be sure it’s Maggie.”

  “It’s her. I can tell.”

  “How?”

  Marcus gave him a pointed look, and understanding came into Karl’s eyes. “Oh. Right.”

  She stepped out from behind the trunk of a gargantuan oak.

  Marcus’s heart lurched. It was Maggie, and yet it wasn’t. Not his Maggie; not the one he’d left a block from her home five months before.

  This Maggie looked tired. White streaked her hair and the tightness of her face bespoke stress. Despite the hair, her face was smooth. It didn’t hold the decades’ worth of wrinkles he would have expected to accompany the white, as though her hair had aged, but her skin hadn’t. Even so, everything about her looked worn out; traumatized, even. And her eyes were wet.

  “Maggie,” he whispered.

  “Maggie?” Karl’s voice held utter disbelief.

  Maggie skidded awkwardly the rest of the way down the slope. Marcus held his hand out to her. She by-passed it and threw herself into his arms, wrapping her own around his shoulders and clinging to him. Weak as he was, she nearly knocked him over.

  A quiet, creeping fear gripped Marcus’s insides. This was not his Maggie. She’d come from some future he couldn’t comprehend yet. And she was sad. More than sad. Despair rolled off her in waves as she trembled against him.

  He pulled back and put his hands on the sides of her face, leaning his forehead against hers, as was their custom. “Maggie. Maggie, tell me what’s happening.”

  She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. He felt her drink in the calm the breath brought. As she let it out, a tear leaked down her cheek, and she opened her eyes.

  “Marcus,” she said, her voice thick with tears, “I’m so sorry.”

  Marcus couldn’t keep his eyes from widening, and knew he wasn’t hiding his fear well. Where Maggie was concerned, he had no poker face. “Why?” he whispered.

  She stepped back, picking his hands up off her neck and pushing them away from her gently. When she spoke again, her voice sounded stronger. “You have to go to the canyon. Don’t go looking for Colin. Or for me. We’re coming to you.”

  Marcus frowned, the change of subject confusing him. “We?”

  “The place where canyon is—in the future? It’s going to be formed today. Go there. Colin will be there soon.”

  “Why will Colin go there, Maggie?” Karl asked from behind him.

  “Because I’m there. Not me, but her. Your Maggie, the one from your time. David and Lila have a Traveler. They went back to get me and they’ve just arrived where the canyon will be formed. We were all hurt, and weak. Justine will bring Colin and an army of Arachnimen. I need you, Marcus. You have to go to me.”

  Marcus’s mouth hung open. “But,” he sputtered. “How do you—”

  “Because I was there,” she interrupted.

  Marcus squeezed his eyes shut. If she was from the future, then... “Of course you were,” he whispered.

  “My past, your future,” she said quietly. “You have to go, Marcus. I’ll need you the instant I arrive.”

  “I think you already did,” Karl said quietly, twisting around to look in the direction of the canyon.

  Marcus felt it too, then. Maggie’s neural signature, only it was slightly more familiar than the woman standing in front of him. This Maggie had been through things that changed her neural signature, if subtly. The one hundreds of feet to the east was the one he’d left in her own time five months before.

  Marcus nodded, not sure what else to do. She sounded too urgent to ask for explanations. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  “Where’s your staff, Marcus?” Maggie asked.

  Marcus walked to his pack and picked up his staff. “You think I’ll need it?” he asked.

  “You will,” she said firmly. “Trust me.”

  She took his hand, her white-streaked hair blowing in the breeze, and pulled him toward Karl. She took Karl’s hand while his other gripped Tenessa’s arm.

  “Is she okay to come?” Marcus pointed with his chin.

  Maggie followed his gaze. “Tenessa? Of course. She has to come.”

  Marcus locked gazes with Karl, both of them frowning. What did that mean? And how did she know Tenessa’s name? Karl turned toward Maggie again. “Wait—”

  “We have to go, Karl,” Maggie said calmly. “Now. You make the jump. I’ll show you where to go.”

  Karl’s brow furrowed further, but when Maggie didn’t offer an explanation, he faced forward again. “Okay.”

  “Send your mind out to scan, Karl,” Maggie said. “Aside from my and David’s group, you’ll also find a group of four individuals near the canyon’s spot. It’s a father and his three teenaged children. Aim for their location.” Karl nodded.

  Marcus stepped closer to Maggie and wrapped an arm around her waist, afraid if he didn’t keep hold of her she’d evaporate. The world lurched.

  Chapter 23: Sitting Ducks

  MAGGIE’S EYELIDS FELT like boulders. She wanted to drop. Her stomach complained so loudly, it made her light-headed, and her nerves were wound so tightly, she wanted to punch something. In theory, anyway. If given the chance, she’d probably be too tired to actually do it.

  She, David, and Jonah had paced ner
vously around the hilltop for the past twenty minutes while Lila attempted to wake Kristee. Maggie cast nervous glances in every direction. No sign of Justine yet.

  Lila had revived Kristee a few minutes earlier, but the young Traveler was too weak to stand. She could barely hold herself in a sitting position, which meant she wouldn’t be doing any Traveling anytime soon. Maggie felt much like Kristee looked.

  “Come on, Kristee. Concentrate,” Lila said, a hand firmly gripping Kristee’s shoulder. “We need to know when we are.”

  Kristee nodded groggily, and Maggie felt sorry for her. The girl was under enormous pressure and they’d worked her into the ground. Yet, she still tried valiantly to help.

  “Three months,” she finally whispered. “We’re three months from our own time.”

  Lila gave Kristee a tight smile and released her shoulder. “Good. Thank you. You can lie down again.”

  Kristee fell over like a sack of potatoes, instantly asleep. Lila straightened her legs.

  Maggie tried to process the information, despite her headache. Three months from Lila and David’s present. It was five months since Marcus took Maggie back to her time. So this was two months after that for them.

  “I’m sure this is a bad idea,” she said, “but what if we go to Interchron? If we explain things to Doc, he’ll help us.”

  “We can’t,” David shook his head. “It’s too risky. We were at Interchron three months ago, Lila. What if we run into ourselves?”

  Jonah frowned. “What would happen if you did?”

  Lila sighed. “Actually, I don’t know, but it’s not something Travelers mess around with. They’re exhaustively cautious when visiting other time periods. There’s too much potential to, you know, blow up the universe, or whatever. If you change something in the past, even something small, you can seriously mess up the future.”

  They all considered silently for several more minutes. “What if,” Lila said, “we hid at Interchron? There’s the Canyon Room. No one ever goes down there except Maggie, and she wasn’t there three months ago. We could hide down there until we figure out what to do.”