chapter 56
TEAM 1 & 2, YEAR: 1200
Riley awoke with a start to find Owen leaning over her. As the memory of the previous fifteen minutes played over in her mind, she sat up quickly and frantically began feeling the grass around her.
“Looking for his?” Owen grinned, holding up the remote control.
Riley’s face fell, seeing the little box. “Did we miss the timeshift?”
Owen shook his head. “Nope, our timing was perfect.” He kissed her on the forehead. “This is the last time I find you unconscious today, okay?”
“Sounds good to me.” She leaned in to kiss him but shouts and scuffling sounds from above interrupted their moment. Riley remembered Ian and scrambled up the rocks to find Clint, cut free and sitting on Ian’s back. Clint had Ian’s arms pinned firmly behind his back and pressed his knee hard between Ian’s shoulder blades.
“Hey, that’s my favourite move,” said Riley, as she stood and patted Clint on the back.
He smiled up at her. “Where do you think I learned it?”
Nervous anxiety fell over the group as they descended the tunnel to confirm the Elevanium had been neutralized. Clint focused on his prisoner floating at his side on the bodyboard—tape over his mouth and his hands and legs bound.
Riley and Finn ran ahead and Owen zipped along behind on his crutches. Jake knew the Elevanium had been neutralized before he reached the cavern, not because of the excited shouts from Riley and Finn but because the eerie glow that greeted them in the past had been extinguished. The question was, did it happen fast enough?
Finn grabbed the MMS scanner out of the testing tank they had set up to monitor the blast. “0.17 seconds!” shouted Finn, jumping around in circles, waving the scanner above his head.
After several minutes of handshaking, hugs and laughter, Riley looked around the cavern one last time. “Well, I guess all that’s left is to get these guns out of here and blast the shit out of this place. Who’s going to do the honours?”
“I think Clint has earned it,” said Jake. Lexi pulled the explosive’s control console from her pocket and handed it to Clint. He pressed the power button on the red, handheld device. It beeped once and the screen lit up showing a password screen.
Clint switched the control console off and slid it into his jacket pocket. “What’s the password?”
Lexi smiled wistfully. “H-O-M-E.”
Within minutes, Riley, Finn and Owen had removed the tripods and packed the guns into their cases. Riley compressed the cases and tossed them into the time travel backpack Ian had been using, which Jake now wore for safe-keeping. As the group ascended the tunnel for what would be their last time, they helped Jake and Lexi collect the light strips and pressure shields while Clint explained how Ian had ambushed him.
“I thought we should have some tools on hand in case something went wrong. I was walking back toward the tunnel from the work shed and I saw someone in the bushes. I guess that was his plan. I chased him into the bushes and onto that rocky ledge. I couldn’t see him and I was just about to let you all know what I’d seen and I guess he stunned me with his plasmaq. The next thing I know I’m tied up and sitting on a rock.”
As they neared the entrance, Jake fell behind the group. Several of the pressure shields were embedded deeper into the rock than others and he fought to remove them. Lexi fell back to help.
“I got this Lex, don’t worry about it,” said Jake. Lexi, eager to hear the rest of Clint’s story, ran ahead and caught up with the group.
As they reached the surface, everyone had become so engrossed in Clint’s story and Clint was so busy telling it that no one paid any attention to Ian, who lay bound to the bodyboard, floating alongside Clint. Ian could see the detonation device in Clint’s pocket but with his hands tied, it was out of his reach. As Lexi caught up with the group, she bumped the bodyboard into Clint as he stopped to grab the last light strip. Clint pushed the bodyboard away impatiently with his hip, but not before Ian grabbed the remote detonator from Clint’s pocket and hid it in his hands. As the group exited the tunnel, the sound of a beep caught their attention. Clint instinctively felt his pocket for the detonator. Realizing his pocket was empty, he looked over at Ian and could tell that even with tape over his mouth, Ian was smiling. An explosion in the depths of the tunnel caught their attention, then another.
“Jake! Run!” yelled Owen.
Jake heard the distant rumble and echo. Confused for only a moment, he heard the rapid succession of the explosives detonating up the tunnel. He raced toward the circle of light in front of him but knew he would never make it in time.
The group stared in horror, seeing Ian with the detonator. His eyes were wide and full of awe like he had won the lottery. Hearing the distant blast confirmed their worst fear. Lexi turned to run back down to Jake, but Finn caught her by the arm and pulled her out of the tunnel. Riley grabbed the corner of the bodyboard and pulled Ian along behind her as she emerged behind Owen. Everyone scattered out of the tunnel and away from the entrance. Tyler, knowing Ben was still slow on his feet, grabbed him and hurled them into the bushes beside the tunnel entrance. Ben let out a scream of pain as he landed hard on his stomach. Explosions, fractions of seconds apart increased in volume and pitch as they rocked their way up the tunnel like an approaching freight train.
Lexi fought against Finn pulling her away and watched the tunnel entrance in horror for what she might see. On the final blast, Jake flew from the tunnel like he had been shot by a cannon. His shoulder clipped a large birch tree and he fell to the ground, landing flat on his back. Ian’s muffled laughter could be heard over the roar of the rocks falling.
Riley ran to Jake, expecting the worst. His pant leg was on fire; she ripped off her jacket and snuffed it out. She knelt down beside him and took in his blackened face full of cuts as she felt his neck for a pulse. She leaned over him to see if he was breathing.
Lexi broke free of Finn’s grip and her shrieks pierced the air as she scrambled to Jake’s side. “Jake! Wake up!” Tears streamed down her face. She grabbed the front of his shirt and shook him. “Wake up!” Jake was unresponsive. She shook him more violently and yelled louder. Lexi felt a hand on her shoulder pulling her back, and she shoved it away. Riley looked up and saw the worried faces around her. Maya hurried forward from the back and pushed her way to Jake.
“Let me in, I’ve got the scanner!” Riley stood up and backed away. Maya began the scan at his head and moved the device slowly over his full length.
Maya stood and read the results. “I think he’s okay. He’s got a good bump on the head and a twisted ankle but beyond that, just cuts and bruises.”
Lexi laid her head on Jake’s chest and begged him to wake up between sobs. Riley knelt down beside her and put her hand on Lexi’s back.
Jake slowly lifted his arm and put it on Lexi’s leg. He looked at her groggily. “You guys were supposed to wait until I was out,” he said, smiling weakly. Lexi laughed through her tears, leaned forward and wiped the ash and rock dust off his face. Slowly, he sat up and after a few moments, his wits returned. He stood and limped slowly toward the camp. “Come on, guys. Let’s go home,” said Jake.
It took less than twenty minutes to compress all of the trailers and buildings and pack. In the centre of the camp, the group gathered around the crates containing their belongings and programmed their backpacks. Riley set the time on her pack and placed it on the ground at her feet. She picked up Owen’s pack to program his back to 2016. She pressed the power button and as it powered up, she looked to him. With everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, she realized that they had not had a chance to properly say goodbye to each other. She looked up at him, her eyes full of everything she wanted to say. He smiled, understanding. Their silent communication broke as Ben collapsed to the ground beside her. He curled up in pain, clutching his stomach. Riley dropped Owen’s pack and knelt beside Ben, pale as a ghost and sweating profusely. Her questions to him
went unanswered as he writhed in pain.
“I think he’s re-injured himself,” said Tyler, kneeling beside Ben. “When the blast went off, I hauled him out as I ran out of the tunnel and we dove into the bushes. We both landed pretty hard and I know he was hurting pretty bad.”
Maya’s first two scans failed as Ben continually writhed in pain. Her face fell when she read the results from the third scan, and she looked gravely at Riley. “We need to get him back now. He needs a hospital, fast.”
“Okay, gang, let’s get going,” said Riley, programming Ben’s pack and carefully threading his arms through the straps, taking care to inflict as little pain as possible.
“Oh, shit,” groaned Jake.
“What is it?” asked Riley.
Jake held his open pack upside down and shook it. Pieces of the control panel fell to the grass.
Riley’s jaw dropped open.
“Can’t we go back, grab another pack and come back for him?” asked Lexi.
Riley shrugged, uncertain. “If we can. When we get back, these packs are going to try to sync themselves with the time travel control centre. If they can’t, they’ll go offline and be useless.
“But if time travel does exist, we can come back for him with whatever method they’re using, right?”
“I expect so. We won’t know until we get there.”
“Well, what are we going to do?” she asked frantically.
“Can you tag him?” asked Owen.
“That’s never been tested on anything living,” said Finn.
“I don’t know if that’s been tried before. Tagging is relatively new technology,” said Riley.
“Well, we have to do something,” said Maya, feeling Ben’s forehead, “and fast.”
Clint looked at Ian. “Let’s take his pack, give it to Jake, and tag this dingbat instead. If it doesn’t work, it’s no great loss.” Ian’s eyes widened and he shook his head violently in disagreement.
“We can’t do that,” said Jake. “You have to take him back. Tag me. If it works, great. I’ll see you all on the other side. If not,” he said shrugging, “I can see myself living here. It’s nice and quiet. It’ll be the rustic retirement I always wanted.”
Riley saw the resolution in Jake’s eyes and knew he was right. They had no other option. “Finn, tag Jake.” Riley pulled the lid off the box of supplies and tossed the broken pack inside. While everyone watched Finn tag Jake’s jacket, Owen watched Riley remove several items and set them on the ground behind the box, hidden from view of the others. He pointed to his metal box and opened his mouth to speak, but Riley shook her head discreetly, not wanting the attention of the others drawn to what she was doing.
Lexi tried desperately to convince Jake to leave Ian. Jake smiled and pulled Lexi into a hug. “It’ll be fine. Don’t worry. We’ll all go for drinks later and laugh about this.”
Riley grabbed the first backpack she had programmed and tossed it to Owen. She grabbed the other pack by her feet, saw it had yet to be programmed and jammed at the controls to set the dates before sliding the straps over her shoulders. She knelt down beside to Ben and held his wrist next to hers, ready to hit both buttons at the same time. She looked one last time at Owen and smiled weakly. “Finn, count us out.”
“Three, two… ” As Finn began counting down, Riley remembered something and looked up at Owen mortified.
“One!”