Chapter Five: Arkie Problems

What’s going on?’’ Alex asked as she walked up behind the guys. “What’s all this stuff doing here? You really shouldn’t be having all of this. It can alter the course of history.”

“Shh! Alex, these rooms are under lock and key. Only a certain number of people are allowed back here, let alone know about them,” Rick said trying to stop here talking.

“But-” Mom said, but I cut her off instantaneously.

“Leave it, Mom,” I said while pointing my finger and running it across my neck. She sighed, then lightly breathed ‘fine’ almost too low for me to hear. We exited the two rooms, and Richard locked them up. Rick motioned us to follow him to his office. When we all entered, he pulled a pencil and the doors closed and locked themselves. He moved another pencil, and a flat screened tv rose in the corner. It turned itself on, and showed a map of the house, lined in red. I turned my attention back to my great grandfather.

“We need to talk,” he said to us all.

“What about?” We chorused.

“About why you’re on the run,” he said, looking at me.

“Really, I’ll find out eventually, you guys don’t need to tell me now,” I said.

“No,” Alex interrupted, “We shouldn’t have kept you in the dark. I’m sorry about that. We’re sorry about it.” She motioned between her and Nick. “We weren’t sure if we should tell you.”

“If we could tell you is a better translation,” Nick corrected. “You see, you met your future self in Arkansas, the last time you were in Arkansas. Time Agents aren’t supposed to meet future selves.” He looked uncomfortable, and put his hand through his thinning hair.  

“Wait a minute, you’re telling me that I’m on the run because I ran into myself?” I asked in disbelief. “How-”

“Unfortunately, it’s extremely easy to run into yourself when you’re a Time Agent,” he interrupted, clearly annoyed. “You see, the mission you were given was to terminate us. They didn’t know that we were family, let alone your mother and grandfather, and neither did you. But when you found out, you tried, unsuccessfully, to kill us anyway. You went back, told them that the job was done, and they didn’t question you. That is, until they realised that you didn’t kill us. They decided that you were against the state, and tried, unsuccessfully, again, to terminate you.” Nick explained.

“I don’t believe you.” I simply replied with a straight face. “Proof?” I asked.

“We don’t have the concrete proof you are asking for. What we do have, though, is a now-working Time Manipulator.” He replied, and tossed the T.M. to me. “See?”

“Where to?” I asked, turning around to look at each person in the room waiting for someone to take command.

“It’s your TM, you chose,” NIck replied.

“If I chose, are y’all coming with me?” I asked. They shook their heads. I looked at Ariana, and she looked down studying her shoes. “So this is it?” I asked. “You’re just going to go back into the darkness of 1947?” Nick slowly nodded his head, then looked down.

“I’m sorry, but you’ve got to finish what you started- by yourself. We’ve helped you far more than we should’ve.” Nick told me.

“Well, then.” I said. pausing for a few seconds to keep the tears I felt forming in my eyes from rolling down my face. “I guess this is goodbye.” They all nodded. I turned the Manipulator thrice in hand until it finally landed where I could control it, to push the button to the next place I’ll go, but before I was able to push it, Ana stopped me.

“WAIT!” My great grandmother yelled. “Before you go, take some artillery with you.”

“Ana, no. You can’t be serious!” RIchard said, stepping forward blocking her from wherever she was going.

“I’m not letting that girl go by herself defenceless!” She yelled at her husband. “I’m not.” she repeated. “Move out of the way, Richard.” He looked into her eyes and stared at them for a few seconds that felt like a lifetime.

He sighed, but finally stepped aside and said, “Fine, but make sure you file the numbers off. I can’t have more Time eruptions around here,” Rick said.

“Why?” I asked, intensely curious about this whole setup. They looked at each other. Ana shook her head at Richard. Richard looked apologetically at her.

“Sorry, Ana. We’re doing some research for the Agency, something about how Time Travelers rupture, what changes in our systems, and what happens to the environment around us. All of it, extremely dangerous, all of it highly classified.” He explained. “I’ve told you more than I should’ve. I can’t let you go now. I’m sorry, seriously, I’m sorry.” Rick pulled out a handheld gun.

“RICHARD! You can’t kill them!” Ariana yelled.

“I’m sorry Ana, but we need to keep it a secret! We can’t have anyone knowing what we’re up to!” Nick replied.

I racked my brain for what I should do. What could I do? Use my training in martial arts to get rid of the gun and take out the bullets, let him kill me, or try to persuade him to let us all go by telling him the truth about our relativity. But if I tell him, wouldn’t that just mess everything up? While I was in battle with myself, Nick’s voice drew me out.

Nick raised his voice and started walking towards me. He finally yelled “NO!” at Richard and ran in front of me. At the same time, Richard pulled the trigger of the gun, aimed at my heart. Nick ran between the gun and I, but narrowly missed the bullet. I instinctively ducked out of the way, but the bullet never got past Nick. I stood up, with anger filling me where the adrenaline was slowly descending from being, once again, barely scraping off from the grasps of death. I stood up, walked slowly and meaningfully to Nick who was lying feet in front of where I was previously standing, with a bullet now lodged in his left arm. I leaned over him to make sure there wasn’t anything life-threatening, then stepped over him, starring Richard straight in the eyes with hatred and anger that I’ve never experienced before.  Everything from there on went in slow motion as Richard raised the gun, once again at my heart, turned off the safety, and inched his trigger finger towards the trigger until it rested on the trigger for a moment before pulling it, but before he got the chance to, my leg moved quickly as if it had a mind of its own, and kicked the gun out of his grasp as it flew in the air. My leg hit the ground with a thug and the gun barreled through the air at normal speed, as if the slow-mo broke, and aimed straight towards my head. Before realising what was going on, my hand reached up, grabbed the gun, and aimed it at my biological great grandfather.

“Don’t you have a rule against killing your own family?” I asked him rhetorically as I kicked him to the ground. “Dear God, I’m related to hypocrites!” The guy on the floor looked at me like I was crazy, as if Ariana never told him about our relation. It was obviously news to him. I looked at Ariana in exasperation.”You didn’t tell him, did you?” I asked her. When she didn’t answer, I shifted the gun to her, and, though it was nearly inaudible through her frightened screams, she replied a slight no. I shifted the gun back to the man who nearly killed me. “I can tell why. How long has he been abusing you?” Everyone in the room looked at me like I was crazy. “Look, it’s obvious. She’s obviously submissive, which suggests that she’s always or nearly always around some wackjob who likes to abuse people- sexually, physically, or emotionally, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s our dear old Richard.” At her look of amazement that also said ‘shut up’, I explained. “I have a masters in Psychology. I was paid to do stuff like this. Have you ever thought of Divorcing this bag of a pathetic excuse of a human?” Ariana nodded. “Why didn’t you?” Ariana began to open her mouth to answer, but I interrupted her before she could formulate words. “Wait don’t tell me.” I waited for a few seconds for my mind to measure the scenario and imagine her position. “Let me guess, he threatened you, imprisoned you, am I right, Ariana?” Again, she nodded. “And you believed him, didn’t you, because you’ve seen him kill on the job, why wouldn’t he think for a second he’d kill you? When you got pregnant, you were scared for the life of your child. When you placed Nick for adoption or foster care or whatever, you didn’t give Nick away to protect him from your enemies, but to protect him from this monster we call Richard. And now Richard just shot him, and you’re still in the corner, away from this monster, yes, but also away from your bloody son!” I looked at her with plain disgust. “Where’s your motherly instinct to protect the young? Or is your instinct of survival stronger than the instinct to care for your blood?” I asked furiously.

“Sandra Lee, shut up now. Show some respect to your elders!” Richard said to me, trying to get up. I looked back down at him with more hatred than before.

“You know what I hate most?” I asked him, not exactly expecting him to know the answer, so I just gave it to him. “Brown-nosers, hypocrites, and liars who welcome guests and then try to kill them. It’s just plain rude, and frankly, I’m tired of being shot at.” I ended my rampage by pulling the trigger on Richard’s crotch.

While everyone else was recovering from shock I grabbed my mother and threw them towards Nick, tripping her following by her falling on him. I kneeled by him, grabbed both of their wrists, and pressed the button of my Time Manipulator.

We spiralled violently through time and space until we landed in a thick batch of forest trees covered in snow with a slope deadlier than Death Valley. As soon as we landed, we started spiralling down the slope until we each hit trees with trunks the size of a compact car.

“For lack of a better word, ouch!” Mom said loudly.

In agreement, we all groaned. When I finally had the strength to talk, I sheepishly said, “Sorry,” and got up.

Author's Note

How was it?

BTW: I'm typing this up on Google Docs, so if there are any mistakes, I'll get them later.