The Children Who Time Lost (25 page)

I picked Angela up from the floor. “Show me how to start the portal.”

She trembled but didn’t speak. I heard a thump against the wall and then an explosion. They were trying to get in. I didn’t have much time. “Now, goddamn it. Show me what to do.”

She still said nothing. I shook her arms, but she looked lifeless, like someone had sucked all the energy out of her. I dropped her to the ground and fiddled with a number of buttons and switches. After I pressed a large green switch, the control panel came to life. A large screen in front of me turned on. Across it was “15 August, 2108.”

I stared at the long control panel. It must have been about twenty feet in width. I ran up and down pressing buttons. Another explosion came. A large chunk of the wall was blown away. I looked through the gap and saw people huddled on the other side. Then I saw a face look through. A heap of the snake-like organisms hung on its head. I swallowed and returned to the control panel. On my third sprint across, I noticed the same silver knob I’d seen the engineers use when I went to the future. I turned it right and the day on the screen changed. When I pressed it, the cursor on the screen moved to the month. Michael Galloway’s article said everything had started after the big earthquake. I figured that two days before would be enough time to get my bearings.

I set the day to the fifteenth, the month to June and the year to 2013. Then I hit the big red button again and felt a sharp breeze strike my face. White light appeared to my right. The ground rumbled and a sphere of light formed in the air, about ten feet high. Then I heard another explosion. More chunks of the wall flew to the floor. I could almost see all of Lorenzo’s body. He scowled at me with his lizard-like snout. I turned and approached the portal, but I felt someone grab my hair.

I screamed and fought back. Angela thrust me around like an object. The gun fell from my hand and I crashed against the control panel. She jumped on me and pounded my chest. I didn’t know how much time I had before the portal would close. I heard shuffling. I glanced right to see Lorenzo crawling through the gap in the wall. I grabbed Angela’s hair. She screamed but still pinned me down with her knees.

I glanced at Lorenzo again. He would be through in a matter of seconds. I clenched my fist and punched Angela as hard as I could. She slumped off me and dropped to the floor, but my hand hurt like crazy. I rose and massaged the back of my neck. Lorenzo’s hands touched the floor inside the gap, and I sprang to my feet and ran. Then I closed my eyes and leaped into the portal.

Chapter Nineteen

D
arkness engulfed me. My body didn’t glide like last time. Instead, it shot forward through the darkness, as if I were trapped in an escalating storm. I clenched my hands. The pain in my stomach grew, like someone was draining all the life from me. I heard a deafening sound in the distance. It drew nearer, burning my ears. Blinding white light surrounded me. I forced my eyes shut and screamed. Then I started falling. I stretched my hands out and prayed before crashing to the ground. My hands protected my face from any serious injuries, but my breasts hurt.

I opened my eyes and saw clear skies. I pushed myself up from the ground. My knees and my feet ached. Desert sand surrounded me and covered most of my jeans and the white shirt under my torn and rumpled black jacket. A few yards ahead was concrete that stretched farther than I could see. It looked flat and smooth enough for cars to drive on, in contrast with the rigid surfaces of my time.
I must be in 2013.
I heard a loud humming sound coming from behind me. I half-stood and looked back. The portal was still there, spinning at an astonishing speed.

It looked larger than it had on the other side, reaching at least fifteen feet into the air. Sphere-shaped, it was still without color, like water in the air, with bright white light all around it. I straightened and stared at it. Then I backed away toward the road. Nothing seemed to be coming through. I heard a loud sound in the distance. I turned right and saw a large truck approaching on the ground.

I ran to the road and stood in the middle, swinging my arms like a madwoman. But the truck didn’t slow down. I jumped up and down, to no avail. I ran back to the side and kept waving. Then it shot past me, throwing me to the ground. The force blew sand into my eyes. I grimaced and coughed. When I opened my eyes, the humming sound behind me grew louder, like waves in a river.

The portal was expanding. I shuddered and my hands quaked. I stood and took a step forward. I heard another car approach, also on the ground. I knew cars that flew didn’t exist in this time, but I was still adjusting. This car came from the opposite direction and moved much more slowly than the truck had. I turned back around for a moment. The portal continued to grow. I ran to the middle of the road again and screamed for help. I could now see the car clearly. It was a silver sedan with lights on top. It looked like a law-enforcement vehicle. I ran toward it but stopped in my tracks when I glanced at the portal again. Two feet had stepped to the ground.

The car stopped a few yards from me and a chubby man with thinning brown hair got out. He looked at me as if I were a mental patient and had no urgency about him.

“Help,” I screamed again. “You’ve got to get me out of here.” I stopped right in front of him.

He continued eyeing me and started to speak, but then he saw the portal. “What the … What is that?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to stay and find out. Please, we’ve got to go right now.”

He shrugged off my comments and put his hand on the gun holster on his waist. “You just stay here, miss.”

He walked past me and approached the portal. I ran after him and grabbed his shoulders. “Please, mister. Let’s just go. Please.”

He turned and frowned at me, and then the humming sound disappeared. He looked toward the portal with his mouth wide open. It had closed. A tall figure stood where the light had been. I swallowed with a dry throat. It was Lorenzo. I’d known he wasn’t far behind me when I leaped through the portal, but seeing him right in front of me, still in his alien guise, made my whole body shudder. He stood at least nine feet tall and wore the same black Mackintosh jacket. His long drooping neck extended three feet from his shoulders. The green scales that protruded from his body and head seemed even longer this time. They slithered like snakes would and were covered in slime. Above his snout, his pearl-black eyes hung three feet from his face.

I backed away as he approached us.

The officer pulled his gun out with trembling hands and aimed it. Lorenzo kept walking toward us. I wanted to grab the officer and drag him to the car.

“Don’t take another step,” the officer shouted.

I gazed into Lorenzo’s eyes, looking for some kind of reaction, but he didn’t stop. More and more of the slithery organisms on his face came from out of nowhere. The officer looked at me with worried eyes and faced him again. “I said stop.”

Lorenzo growled and ran forward. I winced and took a few steps back. The officer fired his weapon. It hit Lorenzo in the chest and drew thick green liquid. He stopped. One of the organisms around his body fell and shuddered on the ground before disintegrating. But Lorenzo didn’t look harmed in the slightest. He roared laughter at us and looked toward the heavens. He walked forward again. The officer backed toward me and looked into my eyes, as if wanting to ask what he was dealing with but unable to.

“Get in the car,” he said.

I ran to his vehicle. He continued backing away, but Lorenzo charged again. The officer fired two more shots before turning and sprinting toward the car. He kicked the engine to life and spun the car around. The back windows shattered amid a loud explosion. I screamed and turned around. Lorenzo held his silver gun in the air. The officer turned the car again and peeled out. A bright white light flew from Lorenzo’s gun toward us again and exploded inches away.

“Jesus Christ,” the officer said. “What’s he packing out there?”

Lorenzo stopped running and screamed toward the heavens. Scores of the organisms on his face leaped to the ground and slithered forward at breakneck speed.

“Quick,” I shouted. “He’s sending those things on his body after us.”

The officer gave the car even more gas, sending it catapulting forward. We lost sight of Lorenzo. The officer’s radio crackled and the sound of a female voice came through, asking where he was. It felt strange hearing humans acting as dispatchers. Only Kysos performed that duty in 2043. He picked the radio up and gave his position and asked for backup. It crackled a few more times and the woman acknowledged him. He started to explain what had happened and suddenly swerved without warning. I flew toward him, but my seat belt kept me in my seat. The car drifted into the sand and came to a stop.

He panted in his seat with fear etched on his face. As I tried straightening myself, I caught sight of what had frightened him. Two of the organisms from Lorenzo’s body slithered against the driver-side window. I grimaced at the sight of their ruby-red eyes and sharp fangs. He banged against the window, shouting profanity, but they didn’t flee. I sat back in my seat when I heard a snarl. Two of the organisms were on my window.

The officer’s window shattered and both organisms leaped onto his face. He screamed and hit them. He opened the door, jumped out of the car and rolled on the ground. He held their heads away from him and struggled to get them off. They snapped at him, trying to draw blood with their fangs. I opened my door and ran outside. An organism on the ground leaped at me. I ducked and it went through the car’s window. Two more slithered toward me. I leaped up and stamped on them. I heard more snarls and spun around. They were on the roof and the hood of the car. I ran to the officer. His thrashing had slowed. The organisms seemed to be sapping the life out of him, but he still kept their fangs away from his face. I grabbed one by the tail and pulled it off him. The other trundled off by itself and I stamped on it. The officer rolled on the ground with two deep red marks across his face like the mark of a scalding iron on bare flesh.

I lifted him to his feet and held him up. The organisms had surrounded us. I noticed the officer looking into the distance with fear in his eyes. I followed his gaze and saw what worried him. A wide black sedan sped toward us.

“That’s him,” the officer said.

Hundreds of the organisms covered the car’s windshield and roof. I lurched back. “He won’t stop until he gets me. We need to leave right now.”

“In the glove compartment,” the officer said. “There’s a can of air freshener. Get it. I’ll hold them off.”

I looked at him, bewildered.

“Now,” he shouted.

I let go of him. He kicked sand onto the organisms still approaching. I edged left, but a number of the organisms followed my every move. The car drew closer and closer. I charged for our car and leaped in through the passenger door. I opened the glove compartment and rummaged around. I saw a large aerosol can and grabbed it. An organism jumped onto my arm. I screamed and dropped to the ground. The others came for me, but the officer ran forward, kicking sand on them. When they backed away, I stood up and he took the can from me. Then he pulled a lighter from his pocket. “We need to get them away from the car.”

I nodded and screamed at the top of my lungs. The creatures all turned in my direction. I ran away from the car. The officer followed me. Every single organism gave chase. He turned around and held the flame of the lighter to the spray from the can. The organisms shuddered and died. He ran left and right, killing as many as he could. The car was seconds away.

He lowered the lighter and stared at me. “That will have to do. We need to go.”

I ran to the car with him. He peeled out again. I threw two more organisms out the window. We rejoined the main road, and the black car was almost on our bumper. The occupants of oncoming cars pointed at Lorenzo’s car in fright and shock. Our car lurched forward amid a loud explosion. I glanced back to see Lorenzo’s human face grinning at us.