By Lexi Anders

“Do it, bro.” 

            The subject of this command turned in dismay. Was this to be his end? How could his friend really expect him to do something so ridiculous and dangerous?

            His friend and roommate stared down at him expectantly, and began to bounce impatiently sending his short curly black hair into even more chaos than it had started as. 

            He sighed and pushed up his round red-framed glasses, “Ok,”

            Then he downloaded the illegal time-travel app.

            Within seconds the time-travel police arrived and surrounded the building. 

            “Come out with your hands up!” They transmitted directly to his brain.

            “I knew this wouldn’t work.” the young man shrugged, turning to his friend.

“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. It works this once.” then his friend reached over and hit the play button.

All at once, the world jumbled together and the two were flung through a thin, but pressurized vortex.

The fellow picked himself off the ground disoriented and brushed the dust out of his straight dirty blond hair. It felt dry and crisp as if he had put hairspray in it.

Great, somehow the time-traveling app worked and the time-police hadn’t caught them. But where in time were they-? Actually where was his hoodlum friend?

He was in what appeared to be his humble abode, run-down, leaky, and boarded up. However, it seemed to be in slightly better conditions, with stuffy furniture arranged about and a pot with a dead plant in the corner, and perhaps the worst improvement- the tacky bright yellow wallpaper with green flowers. Clearly this was the past, that was a relief at least. They wouldn’t get in nearly as much trouble as if it was the future. After all, the time police had to work in secret in the past or risk distorting the future.

            He walked to the front door and opened it, light pierced his eyes. Why was it so bright? He had imagined it might be a bit different without the constant covering in clouds, but this was insufferable- it held an overwhelmingly vibrant hue that broke his eyeballs. But, what he thought was due to the natural brightness of the sun was actually the result of a glowing dome with a faint hexagon pattern that appeared to stretch over the city.

            “This- this is not the past.”

            “No kidding,” his friend murmured, shouldering past with his broad shoulders. He gazed up at the sky defiantly. “What are we going to do?”

            “Hey, don’t ask me!! You were the one that pushed us into this . . .”  the blond held up his hands in defeat.

“Now, don’t blame this on me, you said you were desperate enough to try anything and I just gave you the opportunity to try-” 

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s just make this worth it..”

            “Exactly, seize the opportunity and get the gold.” 

“But maybe we should move on before the police catch up to us.”

            “You’re doing what now?” The two turned to find a slim little woman in pink pajamas and a blue bathrobe patterned with rubber ducks. She peered out of the house they came from and pushed back her wavy blue hair to squint at them.

            “Oh, uh, sorry miss, we didn’t mean to disturb you, if you’ll excuse us.” the young man apologized and began to drag his hoodlum friend away.

            “Wait- I know you.” she pointed up at them.

            “I know you too,” his roommate replied, “You must be the girl of my dreams.”

            “No, I . . . Maybe I’m mistaken. Here, come inside and have some breakfast, it’s too cold to be out in the Mechanized Space.”

            Indeed, it was rather chilly, but without a single gust of wind which felt very odd. The two boys promptly refused, but the PJ girl was insistent that without the proper clothing for the weather- or whatever it could be called- they shouldn’t be out there. They began to back away, and somehow got dragged in by the little sprite.

            “So what are your names?” she asked as she set out some food on the counter.

The boys silently groaned as each item was set on the table- they were rather unappetizing. A cold gruel-like substance, chewy ham, and rubbery eggs: all nearly tasteless. But, finally, one thing was delightful- fresh, soft bread- which was suspiciously amazing considering the other monstrosities sitting on the table. It was so good that it made the other parts of the meal seem tolerable- well, they didn’t really eat the other parts. 

            The boys got so distracted with the bread that they didn’t bother answering her question. Not that they had an answer to it anyway.

            She turned back to the fridge and stared into it a while before grabbing some mysterious bright blue juice. She seemed startled to see them and recovered herself, sitting down. “Sorry, did I already ask you what your names were-?

They nodded. She pondered to herself.

“I see, and what did you need? Were you lost or did I invite you in?”

            “Umm, you invited us like a minute ago.” the burly roommate answered around a mouthful of food.

            “Ah, and have I been a good host?”

            “Pretty good,” the young man replied slightly amused, “I can’t turn down free food- and from such a kind host . . . who even offered us coats.”

            “Ah, yes, of course, especially on such a cold day- the Mechanized Space will make an ice block out of a skinny stick like yourself- you really ought to put on some more layers. Here, let me get you something. I’m going to get them from my closet now, I’ll only be a second and then I’ll bring the coats back to you- don’t worry, I won’t forget to get the coats-“

            She continued to talk, continuing the same repetitive speech from the other room.             The two fellows exchanged another look. The hoodlum friend pointed towards the back-door and mouthed the word “run- with a question mark?” to which the ‘skinny stick blond friend shook his head and pointed at his bread. Really he began to form an idea of what other help they could get from their new gullible friend.

            “Alright, I got these coats for you,” she said returning, then stopped to look at them. “Uh, who were you though?”

“Ah, you see miss, we came to rob you-” his friend started and the blond slapped his hand over his mouth.

“You’re robbing me?” the woman asked in confusion, then looked at the coats she had grabbed and the food they were eating. “You must be joking- now don’t make fun of me. I haven’t been able to think straight since- well, actually I don’t remember what happened.”

“What my friend means to say is that we wouldn’t want to rob you of your precious time- but we could use your help, if you would be so kind as to guide us to your local- uh, facility that sells or makes the latest high-tech electrical thingymajigs?”

“Thingamajigs? That’s a funny one- never heard that one before, but as for the Lighthouse . . . no one is allowed to go there.”

“Oh, but you promised to take us.” his friend jumped in leaning forward seriously.

“I did??? No surely not, here take your coats and be on your way,” she gave them each a coat and was left with another in her hands- “but what is this one for . . .”

“So you could take us . . . but I suppose we can’t make you if it’s not allowed. I guess we will have to brave the dangers of this strange new world without a single friend or guide to save us from such foes that will be wanting to throw us to the crows to be eaten-” the blond guy took a breath and sighed miserably “only after being dragged before the masses and publicly humiliated with cabbages and horseradishes like the old days and sweltering in a muggy pit for a couple days-“

            “My goodness! Are you serious?? Do you mean to say the Chronos Snatchers???”

            “Yes, exactly, and the only place we will be safe from them is if we get to the lighthouse here.”

            “Ah, but what have you done to upset them??? They’ll- well I don’t even know what they’ll do, erase you from existence or something.”

 “I know, booohoohooohooo.” His friend cried miserably. “What have we done?”

“The Maitre will stop at nothing to have you hunted down . . . and who knows what he would have the Chronos Snatchers do to me for helping you!”

The friends exchange a look. “Perhaps you ought to go clear your head in the other room. Consider what your priorities are- because you really can’t tell us that you’ll help us and then turn around and threaten to give us over to the Crinkle Crackers.”

She looks downcast. “Yes, excuse me, I’m sorry I’m just a bit scared. Give me a moment.”

The two boys came and watched her sitting gravely with her fingers laced together. She sat there for several minutes just staring at the wall, and finally they decided to break in.

“So, are you ready?” blond glasses guy asked.

“Ahhh!” she jumped back to her feet and grabbed the house plant that was drooping in the corner. “Stay back, I know how to use this!”

“Uhhuh, calm down, it’s just us. You gave us these coats and fed us, remember? We’re part of the resistance that you wanted to join?”

“What?? There’s a resistance?”

“I don’t know man, I say we leave her behind, she won’t do us any good like this.” burly curly boy said.

“Ah, but the fact that she forgets is exactly what will make her a good operative, she can’t give away any secrets.”

“You’re recruiting me????” she looked back and forth between the two.

“Well, that depends on a couple things, whether you’ll accept, and whether we can trust you to be up to the task.”

“I- I can do it. I’m not useless or anything. But . . .”

“We know. It’s a big risk. And no one would blame you for saying no. It’s not for everyone. Especially against the Crinkle- uh I mean the Crone Snacks.” the curly dark-skinned deputy chortled.

“I- I’ll do it.” she let the pot fall and break as she offered her dirty hand. “Oh, I forgot I was holding that. Don’t worry, that plant was already dead. I think.”

“Okay, Rubber Duck girl, welcome to the team.”

They all headed outside.

“So our first mission is just to prove what you’re capable of. We need you to get us into the Lighthouse.” the blond leader announced.

“The Lighthouse! No one-“

“Yes, no one is supposed to go there, but that’s exactly where the Clone Shockers are plotting world domination.” 

“Really? And here I thought that was where they developed the newest technology, like the Mechanized Space in order to create the perfect world.”

“Ah, but we all know it’s not so perfect, now is it?” the leader leaned in to look at her with his green eyes. He raised an eyebrow seriously and kept staring until she stuttered to respond.

“N-no- definitely not.” She put her blue hair into a loose ponytail and pulled up her PJ pants. “Okay, I can do this. Follow me.”

The two boys fist bumped and patted each other on the back. “So how long are we gonna keep up this act?” the big, tan roommate asked.

“Well, as soon as she forgets we can just tell her she already joined and then we can act more like our clueless selves as other new recruits.” 

“Ah, sounds good. And what if she figures us out?”

“If she was going to do that I think she would have already.”

“So . . . how did you two get into this organization?” the short woman asked them as they walked along the street.

“Uh-” 

“We got robbed-” the roommate said at the same time as the blond said, “We were orphans.”

They exchanged a look and the tall one replied. “Well, to be exact we were orphans because our parents got taken from us by the Cricket Snores.” 

“Oh, that’s terrible. So you two are siblings?”

The dark curly one snorted- “Do we look alike?”

“We practically are anyway,” the blond leader smiled at his friend, “we grew up together.” 

“True,” his friend shrugged and threw an arm around him, “we know everything about each other.”

His smile faded guiltily. Now wasn’t the time to tell his friend though, and if they actually managed to pull this off, he wouldn’t have to either.

He caught the woman studying him, and froze suspiciously. She . . . was on to them?

“Sorry, what were your names again?”

“That’s classified information.” the friend held a finger to his lips. “The less you know, the safer you will be.”

They came to the edge of the town and found a large empty field of ruins and burnt buildings stretching out until it met the sea bluffs. The water was strangely calm and a grayish tinge. And on the edge of the rocky shore stood the old lighthouse, now painted black with golden spiral rods coming from the top where it appeared the sky dome generated from.

“So that’s it, huh?” 

“Well done, comrade. You’ve passed the first test.”

“That was a test? But everyone knows where the lighthouse is.” she raised an eyebrow.

“Of course we do, but we have to make sure you do. If you can’t remember basic stuff then we wouldn’t be able to accept you as a member.” the blond scoffed and scratched his stiff hair.

“Oh, my memory loss isn’t like that. I still remember long term facts . . . it’s just recent events that get confused.”

“Ah, we knew that too.” The roommate quickly hurried on and straightened his coat- which was probably cutting off blood circulation since it was at least four sizes too small. “Now the next task is how to get in the building.”

She pondered for a moment and they waited expectantly. Then she turned around and blinked at them. “Uh, hello gentlemen, how are you today?”

He sighed and pushed up his red glasses. “Agent Ducksworth, to catch you up to speed, you’ve joined the resistance and our current mission is to break into the Lighthouse to take the technology rod that they use to oppress people secretly.”

“Wow! That’s crazy. How long have I been doing this?”

“About three years now, and this is our biggest mission yet, so focus. How do we get in there?”

“Hmm, I believe there’s an old sewer tunnel that exits into the sea, maybe that will connect somewhere?”

“Brilliant thinking.”

They walked along the shoreline that luckily hid their approach with a little cliff face. 

“Bro, don’t you think it’s a bit odd that we haven’t seen anyone else out here? And what happened to that part of the city? It used to be full of skyscrapers.” The dark roommate wondered nervously to his friend.

“Who knows, some stuff happens in the future, doesn’t look like they like the Chronos Snatchers much.΅

“Here it is, boys. Now you just have to remove this giant rusted grate. Think you got the muscles for it?”

“You’re about to see, sweetheart.” the roommate threw off his suffocating coat and walked over to it. He planted his feet in the rocks and wrapped his hands around two of the bars and- lamely scrambled backwards trying to pull it off.

“Okay, come on, let’s do this together. You get that side and I’ll be over here.” the fearless leader commanded. The girl stood back and watched them as they heaved against it. It shifted slightly with a groan and they rested a moment before going again.

One thick nail clunked onto the ground. Then they gave a final push and the whole thing came flying off and they dropped it barely avoiding their toes.

“Great, now follow me,” the girl put on her hood covering her ponytail.

They trudged alone in the cold into the dark tunnel, and the curly brute regretted taking off the jacket before long. At least it was dry and they weren’t soaking their feet as well.

“So how did you get into this business?” the girl asked them without looking back.

“It was you actually,” the tall one hunched over as they walked, “we were in love and I found out you were secretly a part of this organization. And I thought ‘Man, my girlfriend is so cool!’ I should do that too. And then you broke up with me, but I think you’re playing hard to get.” 

“Uhuh, and how much of that is true?” she grinned back at the liar.

“None of it. He’s a miserable liar.” 

“Also, why am I in PJs?”

“You were working undercover. And you weren’t expecting our call today- not that you would have remembered to expect it.” the skinny one replied.

They came to a ladder- somehow the girl managed to find it without running into it. But the ceiling didn’t have an opening. Luckily the girl had a knife in her jacket and stabbed at it until a light broke through. It was just a weak layer of checkered linoleum and a bit of dirt that rained down on them.

She hoisted herself up and the other two followed silently. They were in a dark room with broken boxes and a sticky floor. 

“Okay, so the rod you’re looking for is probably at the top floor. I’ll help you as far as the middle level, where the time machines are kept, and I’ll get that set up so you can make your escape with me.”

“Sounds good.” they agreed.

They searched for a door and found it buried behind some of the junk piled up. The curly guy looked inside and found hundreds upon hundreds of watches.

“What are these?” he held one up.

“Oh, those were the original proto-type for the portable time-travel device. Obviously they’re useless now, since no one in the public can time-travel, and the Chronos Snatchers just have a brain implant.”

“Obviously.” he agreed. “Why do you think the public aren’t allowed to time-travel? Like the real reason- not the lies they tell everyone.”

“Well,” she set aside the last box and opened the door, “they say the Maître once tried to time-travel and ended up losing his best friend. So, he used his genius to create a revolutionary technology- the Mechanized Space, he became a millionaire, and then instituted the Chronos Snatchers to prevent anyone else from using time travel.”

“Hmmm, I guess that’s fair.” the blond agreed and peered down the hallway, it was clear. “I mean, time travel could probably mess a lot up. But that’s not the point- the point is that he’s oppressing everyone, and we’re tired of living in fear.”

“Funny you should say that.” she replied. “I mean, yeah, that’s what I think too.”

They came to an elevator shaft and stepped inside.

“Is this thing going to work?” the giant asked doubtfully.

“It should.” the girl replied and smashed in some buttons. The panel lit up and began to quickly rise without shutting the door.

They held on suspiciously as it clanked and then halted suddenly. It had reached an opening, but only the top half of the elevator connected to the bottom half of the doorway.

The boys boosted their guide up and then clambered up themselves: with the blond jumping to grab the ledge and his friend easily pulling himself through the gap- well other than having to squeeze in the tight opening.

The girl came to a room and opened it. Inside were a bunch of strange boxes all lined up. “Okay, this is where I leave you. All you have to do is avoid anyone who comes your way, and get to the top. Whatever device you want will be up there. Then come back to this room to get away. Hypothetically it should be pretty easy. You don’t even need me to operate these things- they work almost like that elevator back there.”

“Thank you so much for your help, little duckling. You will be remembered when this goes down in history.” They both saluted her.

“You as well, comrades. Live long and prosper.”

The two friends were left without her now as they walked on through the corridors. “So how are we supposed to get up there exactly?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not like she would have helped us anyway.”

“No, no, she knew way more than I would have thought. Like it was almost too easy.”

“You don’t think-?”

“It was a trap?”

At that moment they heard yelling behind them and ran back. Looking around the corner they saw the girl being dragged out of the room by two people in black space suits. Their visors were a sleek shiny green and they held large guns.

“Tell us where they went and we’ll kill you.”

“You mean tell us where they went or we’ll kill you.” his suited companion corrected.

“Whatever, tell us where they went!” the other demanded.

“Dude, I’ll handle this. You need to go hide and then get back to those machines and free us later.” the blond commanded. “I can stall, as long as they don’t have both of us we’ll be okay.”

His friend nodded and ran away without hesitating.

“I-I don’t know really. I sent them on a wild-goose chase. They’re probably just wandering around here now.”

The blond froze at those words- was she serious? Had she been betraying them? Or was her act that good? Come to think of it- why had they split up when she wouldn’t be able to remember what she was even doing here without them?

“If you can’t give us a real answer then I guess we have no use of you.” the weapon began to glow and emit a trill-like hum.

“Wait-!” he jumped out. They spun their phasors to him. “Don’t shoot her, I’m here. And I can lead you to my friend if you just don’t hurt anybody.”

“That’s him.” they lowered their weapons and marched towards him to marshall him between them. “Okay, show us where your friend is.”

            “No problem. First you have to take this turn left.”

            They walked on silently. He looked at the girl, she stared at him guiltily. Oh, she had definitely betrayed them. There was no doubt that she was in it for herself. The whole act- it was too good. But, to be fair, they were leading her on too. They were both just cons here. Him manipulating someone who supposedly couldn’t remember the last five seconds- her letting his own greed get to him.

            Not much to help it now . . . the question was how to escape. He pointed at a random door and they opened it up. It was a room that looked like a large abandoned office. With at least twenty cubicles lined up.

            “It’s empty.” they pointed the guns at him again.

            “No, he’s in here. Trust me. He’s just hiding.”

            They cuffed the two together and stuck to the wall with a glowing yellow bracelet. It floated off his skin, but emitted an uncomfortable heat. Then one began to poke around the boxes and scattered cubicles while the other stood a pace away in front of the door.

            “Listen, ducky dear,” he whispered to the girl, “I need you to start crying.”

            “And what, you’ll help me escape?”

            “I already am, aren’t I?”

            She scowled and then began to cry.

            “Shut up.” the man at the door glanced at her.

“Ignore it,” the other said. Their guard obeyed and purposefully looked away from her sobs.

Meanwhile, the now-captured-leader stole the girl’s knife and chipped quietly at the wall where their wrists were somehow magnetized. It didn’t take long for the wall paper to come off and stay stuck to their wrists. They were free. 

They inched closer to the guard, and then he must have noticed the crying grow closer because he looked at them again. His reflexes worked fast to raise his weapon but they were already on him. The boy swiped at his weapon and she tripped him. They took the weapon off him and stumbled out the door before the other could try shooting at them.

“Great, now what???” The girl asked.

“Get away.” He shot the weapon randomly behind them. 

The other soldier shot at them and hit him in the shoulder.

“Oof,” he crashed and the girl struggled to stay up.

“Come on, don’t stop now.” She grabbed the gun and shot back at their pursuers who were hiding.

“I literally just got shot.” he ran along numbly.

“A please, it’s just a really bad burn. You’ll survive. So long as they don’t charge up the lasers to a higher voltage when they hit you.”

“Okay, well-“

“In here.” She pulled him into a random room. They quietly shut the door and hid behind a barrel that smelled suspiciously like rotten fish.

They heard footsteps and slamming doors around, with random shots fired inside.

They came to their room and the shots bounced around but only hit some furniture.

“Radio copy, Alpha Team 4?”

“Alpha Team 4 is a go, we are in pursuit of a modern day woman assisting one of the past fugitives.”

“We received word that you can halt that mission as long as the teleporter room security is reset. We’ve captured the other one.”

“Alright, coming.”

The two breathed in the silence that followed.

“My friend, he’s been caught. We have to go save him.”

“I got you this far and look where I am- Leave me out of this.”

“Don’t play it innocent. You were just using us.”

“As if you weren’t doing that to me- what kind of self-centered jerk does that?”

“Okay, maybe I am- but please, you can help me. My friend, he’s a big dork, he thinks this is some kind of an adventure. He’s no criminal mastermind.”

She thinks about it, “Maybe you’d be surprised. What if I were to tell you he becomes the Maître.”

“What? You mean the guy in charge of everything?”

“Yeah, he instituted this whole system.”

“But, why would he be trying to catch himself?” 

“I don’t know, to protect his future as always. He introduced the Chronos Snatchers to protect his future- but he couldn’t have accounted for how what would influence his past self to do.”

“Okay . . . so we just need to save him and then we can convince him not to do it. Because he would know first-hand how bad his own created future is.”

“I hope you’re right. Come, I’ll take you to the cells- they’re probably keeping him to lure you in.”

They traveled through a maze of hallways and then came to a lab room. This room actually looked up to date, and had glowing lights and chemical equations scrawled on every piece of paper about the room. They passed a bright blue bottle and the girl opened a random drawer to root around. Inside she found a household magnet and waved it over their glowing handcuffs until they disconnected. 

“How do you know so much about this place and everything?”

“I used to be a Chronos Snatcher.” 

“What???” he backed up and hit the blue bottle, sending it pouring over the papers.

“Yeah,” she rolled her eyes and she showed a scar on the side of her head that had been hiding behind a stray wave of blue hair, “that’s where my time implant used to be. It wasn’t much better than being a civilian these days. Anyway, hurry up.”

They found an air duct in another abandoned room and got inside to crawl through- which turned out to be rather excruciating for the blond with his shoulder being all torn up. But, hey apparently it was just a ‘bad burn’, so he kept his mouth closed.

The girl led them to a dead end, with a grate and he could hear sounds trickling out.

“Is the serum ready?”

“Almost, just another minute and we can wipe this guy’ s memories.”

She blasted the grate with the lowest setting on her phasor and caught it before it could fall and alert them. She awkwardly pushed it back to him and he shoved it behind him. Then she snaked out on top of a large bookcase and he could finally see the room.

It was a high ceiling room and pretty big too, in the center was a large column of glass that appeared to glow. Next to it was a machine that appeared to hook up to it, and displayed a lot of buttons and flashing lights. A person observed as a small metal box suspended by a cord was shaken furiously. Against one wall there were more mechanical contraptions that had looping tubes and a large generator, which was only a couple feet from where they were perched.

On the other side were a couple small cells with simple bars. And a guard stood next to the only door.

The blond’s best friend stood behind it staring out. He looked uninjured at least.

They did their best parkour without making much racket and when they were closer to the ground the ex- Chronos Snatcher aimed the weapon at the guard and shot him straight in the chest. The guard was stunned and fell to the ground. The other person swiveled and caught her in his sights quickly.

“Stop you renegade! This is for the good of our society!”

She showed no mercy and within a moment he was also paralyzed on the ground.

“Bro! You’re here! And Knight Ducksalot too. She can use a gun? That’s pretty sweet. How did you get away-“

“Nevermind that,” the blond dropped to the ground and ran to his cell, “we need to get you out of here.”

“Allow me.” The girl blasted the door and it swung open.

The two friends hugged. “Dude, I can’t tell you how worried I was.” his freed friend said.

“Yeah, but I’m fine and you’re fine. So let’s get out of here.”

“Don’t forget, you have to have a talk with him.” the girl reminded.

The roommate looked confused.

“Oh right, umm, so this might sound a bit crazy, but apparently in the future you will become the Maître.”

“What? That’s ridiculous. I would never . . .” he trailed off. “Then it’s true.”

“You knew?”

“No, but that means you’re really going to die.” he grabbed the blond’s shoulders.

“Oww.” he clutched his shoulder.

His friend trembled.

“Calm down, okay. I just got a burn on my shoulder, I’ll survive.”

“But- she told us that the Maître did what he did because he lost his best friend-“

“Well, we’re writing history aren’t we- that can change.”

“And these people were going to make me forget what happened and send me to the past so I could continue to live without altering the future- but they didn’t care about you because they said you were supposed to die tomorrow anyway.”

“That- there’s no way.”

“Yeah . . . you’re right, I’m sorry. They aren’t necessarily right, I mean, you’re healthy right? And they wouldn’t have known about all this so . . . maybe the future is changing already.”

“Exactly, although . . . I do have something to confess. I have diabetes.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me!??”

“I didn’t want you to worry about it! I know what you’re like. The moment I say- hey can you help me make some money, you go and take us into the future illegally. Who knows what you would do if you knew about my diabetes!”

“Okay, but diabetes is treatable and everything  . . . so it can’t be that bad.”

“Yeah, I mean, once I pay for the medicine I should be fine.” 

“How long has it been?”

            “Probably a bit over a week. I mean, I didn’t find out myself until like two weeks ago. Apparently it’s genetic . . . kinda hard to trace that to my parents though.”

            “Two whole weeks? Are you serious?? Do you know how important it is to get medication???”

            “Can we not right now? Let’s just get out of here.”

            “Here,” the girl handed them the metal box that had been shaking earlier. “I don’t care what you do with it, you can take it back in time and sell it for your medicine.”

            He nodded and they ran out.

            They arrived at the time-travel room again and this time the girl blew up the electrical door in order to turn off the trigger. Somehow this managed to take out all the power in the room though.

            “Crikey!” she moaned.

            “Well, will the machines still work?”

            “Yes, but . . . well, they will have to be set up from the outside rather than inside now.”

            “Does that mean . . . ?”

            “I won’t be able to get out of this place- but hey, hypothetically you will be altering the past right? Then my whole life could be different. So, we’ll see. And if not, someone has to lead this rebellion.”

            “Thank you Corporal Duckton. Your sacrifice will be remembered.” the blond smiled, trying to distract his friend from his dark mood.

            “Yeah, yeah, just don’t die on us, okay?”

            So they stepped into the tight little box and waited while she poked around on the outside.

            As before, the world suddenly mixed together and they were thrown through the thin pressure vortex.

            Then they were in a silent dark room, where an old sailor slept on a chair snoring. They snuck out and walked down to escape the modern day lighthouse that was protecting the shores from shipwrecks.

            “Okay, time to get you some medicine with this stuff.”

            The blond opened up the package and found a small syringe. It would make his friend forget everything. But he knew what that would make his friend end up doing.

            He handed the needle over. At least if he didn’t make it past tomorrow then his friend would know why and could choose not to do what he would have done.

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