"Lynn! Watch out." She said, struggling to regain her footing. Suddenly the beast roared. It thundered away, its head smoking. Anna got up and walked over to Lynn, who was holding a three-foot long metal cylinder. It crackled as she de-activated it.
"Mark's experimental Taser-Sword," she explained. "He won't let me leave home without it."
"Really? That's so sweet."
"That's one word for it."
"Okay," Anna said, "good. Will it blow up?"
"With Mark, I never know," Lynn replied, slipping the Taser-Sword very carefully into her belt. "Now, how do we find Zephyr?"
"I figure that if we call enough attention to ourselves, we'll get captured too, and then we can free him."
"That will take too long. We need to rescue him quickly, just in case."
"What do you think we should do?"
"If you were evil aliens with the last member of an enemy species, what would you do?"
"Experiments on him."
"You hang out with Mark too much."
"No really, I mean it."
"So we find their science vehicle."
"How?"
"I don't know." The two sat in quiet desperation for several minutes.
"We should at least look," said Lynn. They got up and walked outside, Anna in the exoskeleton and Lynn holding the Taser-Sword. They encountered no Zarx? for half an hour, beasts or otherwise. They eventually saw a dome skimming effortlessly along the ground.
"Let's ask them for directions," Anna joked. The ship approached where they were hiding. As it drew near, Lynn jumped out and stuck the crackling Taser-Sword into the engine in the back of the dome, frying it. The dome ground to a halt. Lynn cut her way inside. Anna followed behind, forcing a pair of struts apart to accommodate the exoskeleton. Inside appeared to be a scientific laboratory. Anna hung out with Mark enough to guess the function of some of the scattered equipment. She looked up from the equipment and looked around the rest of the lab. It seemed to be abandoned. Anna and Lynn looked around. They saw a large metal cylinder. Anna opened it, expecting supplies. Instead, a boy looked out at her.
He blinked several times in disbelief.
"Hello," Anna said. He was silent for a moment.
"Are you ok?" he asked. Anna knew by the sound of his voice that he was Zephyr. "I know that there were Zarx? in your time per? look out." Behind them rose the Zarx? scientist from where it was hiding. Lynn swung the Taser-Sword at it. It seemed to move before Lynn had, jumping out of the way on its long multi-jointed legs. Anna swung at it with the exoskeleton, but it moved away too quickly, and then struck rapidly with its six arms.
Zephyr sat up, his head clearing. He watched as his two rescuers, Anna and Lynn, he assumed. He saw the one with the crackling energy sword fall as the Zarx? moved faster than she could see. He stood up to help, but sat back down when his head swam with nausea. Zephyr knew that even with the exoskeleton in play, the Zarx? would quickly overpower his remaining rescuer. He had to do something unexpected, something that the Zarx? wouldn't predict. But what?
Anna was having trouble with the Zarx?. It seemed to be a step ahead of her the whole time, anticipating her movements instead of reacting to them. She swung, and swung again, frustrated that she could not hit the elusive alien. Worse, whenever it made contact, the suit seemed to shut down for a second. Anna stood, swinging fruitlessly, trying to protect Lynn and Zephyr. She knew that the Zarx? was simply wearing her down, waiting to strike until she was tired.
Zephyr quickly found what he was looking for: a rack of needles and syringes of the blue liquid that the Zarx? scientist had used on him. He put needles on two of them. As Anna?or Lynn, he didn't know who was whom, attacked the Zarx?, he snuck around its back, moving slowly to prevent detection and nausea. He slammed both needles into its back and drained the syringes. The Zarx? collapsed.
"Zephyr?" said Anna, emerging from the exoskeleton.
"Anna?" he replied, "and Lynn?"
"In the flesh."
"Wow." Just then, beasts howled outside.
"We need to go," Anna said, helping Lynn to her feet, "Lynn, Zephyr, are you both able to travel?" The two nodded. Anna stepped out of the suit and offered it to Zephyr, the more experienced pilot. He climbed inside of it. The three exited the Zarx? science pod and ran back to the cave with the time capsule.
"Will you come with us?" Lynn asked as she and Anna climbed into the capsule.
"Of course I will," replied Zephyr. Leaving the exoskeleton behind, because he thought it would attract too much attention in Anna's time, he climbed in with them. Inside, he activated the capsule. The g-force pinned them to the sides as the capsule vibrated violently.
*****
Zephyr took his first step into Anna's world cautiously. His second was more confident. From there, he ran out into the forest.
"Wait!" yelled Anna after him, "Where are you going?" She and Lynn ran after him. They only barely managed to keep track of him as he ran effortlessly through the woods. He stopped at a random splotch of forest. He stared with disbelief.
"There should be a bunker here," he said, "with concrete and razor wire and turrets. There are only trees. This really is the past."
"July 22, 2014. I think," said Lynn.
"What do I do here?" asked Zephyr.
"You're safe here," Anna told him. "Come with us. We'll figure it out."
*****
Thirty minutes later, after hiding the capsule and fetching Mark, everyone was assembled around Frank's table. He was initially very surprised to see Zephyr.
"I guess I'm not crazy after all," he said almost ruefully. He poured tea for the five. They sat sipping the steaming mugs and all pondered the same question: what now? Anna eventually broke the silence.
"Was there any trouble after I took out some Zarx? in your front yard?" She directed this to Mark.
"Not really. They degraded really quickly. By the time the police got there, all that was left was the smashed van."
"Will they be back?" asked Lynn nervously.
"Not with the wuppin' Anna gave them!" exclaimed Frank, still excited by the day's events. He beamed at Anna as she hid her face in embarrassment.
"I already told you, I wasn't trying to be a hero," she said.
"Trying or not, you were today," said Zephyr.
"What's it like to be here?" Mark asked Zephyr.
"Its so different, and yet strangely the same. I could never have imagined a world like this," he replied, "and I can't even take it all in. I am too busy wondering: what now?"
"What now?" asked Anna.
"I have to be careful," said Zephyr. "We had ethics and laws about time travel for a reason. I can't do anything to change the future."
"But you already have changed the future," said Lynn.
"I can't change it drastically. I can't sway an election. I can't kill an evil dictator. I can't warn about the Zarx? invasion."
"So what are you going to do?" asked Lynn.
"I have to go someplace where I cannot inadvertently affect the future."
"I know where you can go!" Said Mark.
"Where?"
"Even farther into the future," he suggested, "four hundred years or so from now. The Zarx? would have left by then, right?"
"I can't," Zephyr responded, "the capsule doesn't go that far."
"Why not?"
"It doesn't hold enough power for that."
"Oh. Okay, then what?"
"I will have to live carefully," Zephyr said, "and we all must never reveal what we know will happen in the future for fear of radically altering it. I still can give the people of this time pushes in the right direction, towards space exploration and the development of technologies used to fight the Zarx?. I can still have a life here."
"I can help too," said Mark.
"Me too," said Anna.
"Count me in," said Lynn.
"Someone has to be the responsible adult," Frank began. "So, you'll live here with me, as my great nephe
w, and as my first decree as Uncle Frank, I determine that you, Future Boy, need a haircut."
"Blue jeans, too," said Lynn.
"I'll teach you to drive!" said Mark excitedly. Anna and Lynn protested loudly. They had both spent more that enough hours with Mark behind the wheel to know that he was a horrible driver.
"We still have the capsule," Anna said. "We can go back and forth, checking to see when the future is safe for people again. We can make sure everything happens the way it is supposed to."
"We can be the guardians of the future," said Mark. "How cool is that?"
The five talked long into the night, excited for the possibilities the future would bring.
Epilogue
The starships tore through the Zarx? with ease. Laser cannons blazing, they destroyed the fleet in mere hours and landed. With great fanfare, Jamie Athens Luca, president of the United States, stepped onto earth's soil for the first time in sixteen years. He planted an American flag and declared the lands property of humanity once again.
"Tomorrow," he said, "we shall begin to rebuild this great world. Tonight, we celebrate our triumphant return!"
The celebration lasted long into the night. When President Luca finally retired to bed inside a strangely intact presidential bunker, shadowy figures waited. Zephyr stepped into the light, now an adult and accompanied by a woman he called Anna.
"Hello, father," he said, "I hope you didn't miss me."
For My Sister
Author's Note Number One
This story was written for my younger sister, after she received a perfect score in her elementary school's spelling challenge for the seventh year in a row. This story contains all fifty of her spelling words.
Author's Note Number Two
While Milaca, Minnesota, is a real town, about one hour by car from Minneapolis, any descriptions of the town, places, names, residents, businesses, events and incidents therein are a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual persons living or dead are entirely coincidental.
Author's Note Number Three
This story is science fiction and should not be used as a reference for potential time travellers. For an accurate depiction of time travel and other such science fiction phenomena, I highly recommend Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku.
Author's Note Number Four
In addition to my sister, this story is dedicated to my mother, for teaching me writing and life by example.
About the Author
Philip J. Kiely is a junior at Valley High School in West Des Moines, IA. When not writing, he enjoys playing Magic The Gathering, building with Lego, and spending time with his family and cats. If he could orchestrate a dinner party with writers he admires, he would invite Hank and John Green, aka the Vlogbrothers, J. K. Rowling, Christopher Paolini, Carl Hiaasen, and Dave Barry for a picnic in the shadow of London's Tower Bridge.
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