CHAPTER 7: "I'LL LET THE STORY KILL YOU"

NOVEMBER 26, 1347

EUROPE

 

When Johnny jolted up, he quickly looked around. “Where the hell did that b*****d send up to?!” he yelled.

            “I…I have no idea…All I remember is him saying we wake up wit…” They looked at each other.

            They both exclaimed, “Without the Time Watches!” They quickly look at both wrists. Nothing. They were stuck wherever they were.

            Johnny was flipping out. While he was, Seth started smelling around the room, which was surprisingly warm. “Hey, Johnny…do you smell that?”

            “Probably just your perspiration.”

            “No…it smells like…beef, or a cookout…” Seth pointed at a stone door behind Johnny. “What’s back there?”

            “I don’t know…” Seth got up and went over to Johnny. Together they cracked the door and peered in. With what they saw, they knew instantly where they were.

            Bodies were what they saw. Burning bodies, to be exact. Burning, naked bodies with huge swollen blotches around their necks, underarms, and groins. They were at The Black Death.

            They quickly slammed the door, almost about to scream. “You can’t rewrite characters out of the story, only let the story kill us! ‘I’ll let the story kill you,’ he said! That b*****d sent us to the freaking Black Death! We’re probably going to die before we get out of this damned room!” Johnny screamed. “Quick, Seth! We need to find a way out! Use some of the techniques you used with Dr. Clockrange!”

            Seth thought, S**t! Not only did lying send me back here to my demise, it ALSO is going to LEAD to my demise! This mission keeps getting better and better. But Seth stumbled around and came up with a plan. “Over there,” he pointed to a big stick, “grab that. The roof is made of wood. If we light a ‘torch’ of sorts with that stick over there and the bodily fire in there, we can burn down the roof and escape.”

            “Good, great idea!” Johnny said. “Get me the stick, I’ll get us the fire.”

            Seth darted over to the corner, grabbed the big stick, and tossed it across the room to Johnny. He caught it. When he did, he turned around and opened the door a tiny bit, stuck the stick in, and pulled it back out carefully, the top on fire like a torch. Johnny held up the stick and jumped so it hit the roof. When it did, the roof lit up, and it started to slowly spread. Johnny ran over to Seth and tackled him so their faces were protected from the ashes as they fell.

            Minutes later, the whole floor was covered in black. The walls were still up, they were made of stone, but the roof was completely gone. Seth and Johnny stood up in the sea of ash, themselves covered in black. They helped each other brush the ash off, and they climbed over the wall.

            They paused in awe on that wall. Their jaws were fully dropped. As far as the eye can see were these little hut-like buildings, connected by a twisting maze of torch-lit dirt paths, flooded with guards and medics. “Oh, Christ.” Seth said.

            “We need to use your spy character skills to get past them and find some way out of here.”

            “Johnny, I have to tell you something. I’m not a spy.”

            “…what do you mean? We saw you defeat Dr. Clockra---”

            “That was a play. I was the lead actor. I lied because time travel, that sounded so cool and---”

            “You IDIOT! YOU COULD’VE PUT ALL OF TIME IN DANGER! YOU COULD’VE EXTENDED THE HOLOCAUST, OR MADE IT WORSE, OR…” he paused in frustration. When he couldn’t think of anything, he jumped off the wall back onto the sea of ash and growled. He paced back and forth, angered.

            Seth jumped off the roof after Johnny, and put his hand up. “Johnny, please, I’m--”

            Johnny turned and grabbed Seth’s hand with a quick turn and snap of the wrist. “No.” Johnny started walking slowly towards the door with the bodies hiding behind it, Seth walking backwards in front of him. “You broke a major Time rule: Impersonating an Agent. That’s a crime, my friend, only punishable…” Johnny used his other hand to open the door. He paused, Seth breathing heavily and worrying. “…by death.”

            Johnny pushed Seth in the room with the burning bodies, and slammed the door shut.