Hexad: The Factory (Time Travel Thriller) Book 1 (6 page)

"Yeah, you? What the hell is going on?"

"I'm fine, and dunno, it said run so we ran."

The door crashed open and what Dale could only describe as a genetic freak with an awful lot of hair emerged into the open, seemingly taking up all available space.

"Give," he said, with a voice that made Dale think this was what a rock would sound like if it could speak. A very, very big rock. He held out an impossibly large hand just as Dale said, "No," before he and Amanda disappeared into the future.

Really Confusing

75 Years Future

"Ugh."

Dale landed on the ground and crumpled in a heap, Amanda falling awkwardly on top of him. They'd both materialized only a few inches above the ground but the lack of terra firma instantly sent the mind into confusion, believing the body was falling, which it was. Just not very far.

Wonder how you stop that from happening?

Dale looked around, pulling Amanda to her feet. It wasn't night time, was it? Well, obviously not, it was light.

So where the hell are all the people?

"I thought we were falling to our deaths," said Amanda, clearly blaming Dale for the lack of ground on arrival.

"Me too. Don't know why we landed like that."

"Well, did you think about being on the ground when we arrived? And where the hell are we? Where is everyone?"

"Um, no, didn't know you were supposed to. And no idea for the other two questions."

"What!? You're the one that brought us here, where did you think of when we jumped? What year at least?"

Dale was getting a really odd feeling, like his brain was all criss-crossed, and his body sort of had bits in the wrong places. "I just fumbled with it in my satchel and pressed go when I pulled it out. It looked like it was going to be seventy five years, but I didn't think about where to go. Um, do you feel all right, I feel all mixed up?"

Could things be in the wrong place? Nah, I wouldn't be working if they were.

"All jumbled you mean? Yes, didn't you get it before?"

"Not like this, no. Anyway, come on, let's move, just in case that guy is right behind us."

"Good idea. Big, wasn't he? And hairy, did you see that beard?"

"Kind of hard to miss, bet his haircuts are pricey."

~~~

It soon became apparent where they were, and it really didn't help.

Venice, popular tourist destination, romantic getaway for countless thousands of people every year, sinking community where not a single car could drive, home to some of the most inspiring architecture the world had ever seen, canals bordering every house and the perfect place to spend a long weekend with a loved one.

There wasn't a person to be found.

Not a single soul in the most important tourist destination in the world due to art and beauty, home to sixty thousand inhabitants and fifty thousand tourists a day — nothing, nobody. Just cats, cats, and more cats. They were everywhere. They peered down at Dale and Amanda from incredible Venetian Gothic architecture in Piazza San Marco, the large square where they had arrived. Ancient flagstones, walked over by millions upon millions of feet over the years, were now devoid of anything but huge piles of trash. The smell of cat feces was almost as dominant as the smell of decay.

It was eerie. The day was beautiful, crisp and clear, the views of the buildings incredible. But it was also obvious that Venice was no longer what it had once been: buildings were collapsing, some gone, sunk into the canals that always threatened to take away the order they had been forced into. Other buildings were sunk down low, still standing but at odd angles, only held up by their neighbors.

Walkways and pillars were eaten away until they fell, stone crumbling, mortar weak and no longer able to support archways and upper story balconies. It was all due to neglect, pure and simple neglect — Venice had always needed incredible maintenance and now there was none.

Just cats.

Cats everywhere. Black ones, white ones, ginger ones and everything in-between.

Dale and Amanda stared at the decaying city in silence, the knowledge of where they were hitting them suddenly once they had their senses back. They'd been to Venice for a short stay, just a few nights, before catching the train that got them to Rome in under three hours. They'd loved it, and had often talked about coming back, just never expecting it to be under such strange circumstances.

"Dale?"

"Yeah?"

She's gonna say what I'm thinking. Don't let her know.

"You don't think cats have taken over the world do you? I mean, you know, eaten everyone, grown intelligent or something?" Amanda was watching the cats nervously, thousands of pairs of eyes staring back at them from rooftops, out of windows, heads peeking from behind refuse or just wandering past and giving them that stare that only cats can manage — the one that tells you that you are nothing, a mere human, and that they are oh-so-superior.

"Haha," gulped Dale, "don't be silly. Cats wouldn't do that, would you, nice moggy?"

Dale bent and spoke to a jet black cat that was wandering past, its tail high in the air, pointedly ignoring him as he bent to say hello. He put out a hand to give it a stroke.

"Ow! Bloody thing." Dale stood and lifted his hand; the damn cat had scagged him good with claws as sharp as razors.

"Serves you right. And don't try to fool me Dale, I know you were thinking the same thing."

"Um, maybe just for a minute. But no, there were always loads of cats. I suppose they've just bred without anyone to control them."

It seemed like a logical explanation, but would they really be able to breed to reach such numbers? What did that say about the lack of people? It must mean that nobody had been able to control them for a long time, that there was nobody in Venice to maintain the cat population for decades. Or maybe they really had taken over the world. Were they right now watching and planning something awful?

Dale shook his head to get rid of the thought — his imagination was getting wild, the lack of people doing funny things to him. Or maybe it was the jumping? It still didn't seem possible that everything stayed where it should be.

Amanda spun slowly in a circle, taking in the incredible buildings that were still standing, frowning at the cats that stared so intensely. "Where are the people?"

Good question.

"Dunno. Come on, let's move in case mister hairy comes after us."

~~~

They made their way through the eerie streets of Venice, over small bridges, skirting around sections that were impassable, watching empty gondolas bob about on fetid, litter-filled water as if waiting for their gondolier to return. The silence was about the spookiest thing Dale thought he had ever experienced — it was worse than a lump of mangled human landing on your kitchen table. Well, almost.

Many of the narrow alleys were impassable or too dangerous to risk. Most of the buildings that were still standing were leaning at dangerous angles, the sky obliterated where they rested on their neighbors opposite. Others were piled high with rubble, the red brick of the buildings crumbling in the warm, humid air. Some of the most amazing buildings ever constructed by man were little more than towering piles of once perfectly cut stone, incredible carvings poking out from amid the ruins as if looking for salvation from the desecration.

There wasn't a single person, alive or dead, just cats.

Why no dogs?
thought Dale.
What about other animals?

The more they walked the more cats they encountered. They peered out from hides in the ruins, sat atop gargoyles on buildings still standing, watching, almost as if they were waiting for something.

Most of the canals were completely gone, filled in by the buildings that had fallen, bridges shattered as they fell into the water. The only sounds were the cries of fighting felines, birds twittering in the sky, or the occasional distant crash of yet another incredible piece of architecture finally losing its glory as it collapsed.

The Rialto bridge was still intact, so they walked to the middle, peering over into the green water, watching pieces of timber and junk slowly move past and under the ancient stone structure.

Dale pulled the note, the second of the day, out of his satchel, along with the newest Hexad, the 0 still blinking its warning.

"Do you think you can recharge them?"

"No idea, but maybe. Let's see the note."

Dale handed it to Amanda and she read it, then studied it as if it would offer up more information.

"It's my handwriting again."

"I can see. Let's just not get into a discussion about why you don't give more information, or whether we should go and send ourselves any messages, okay?"

Dale just nodded, forcing himself not to think about any of it. He pulled their original Hexad out and checked it. It now had a 3 on the top, as expected.

"What are we going to do? Who are all these people coming after us? And more importantly, where the hell is everyone?"

Dale stared along the empty bridge, shaking his head. He had no answer. Pigeons were flying around noisily, not many though, and it was obvious why. Cats.

"Ah, maybe they've just evacuated Venice, you know, as it got unstable. It was like that for years wasn't it? They kept threatening that it would just sink one day. Well, maybe that's what happened."

It was a real possibility, Venice was constantly at risk of sinking, or the canals flooding and washing away the whole man-made city, reclaiming it back to the lagoon it once was.

Amanda visibly brightened. "Do you think so? Really? Yes, of course. Haha. Gosh, I was getting worried it was the end of the world or something. Oh." Suddenly she looked crestfallen, like the hope had been dashed on the rocks of despair.

"What? What's wrong?"

"What Tellan said. That we had to save the world. Well, maybe this is what happens. This is the future, there's no people. And there aren't any bodies either. If people died there would be bodies."

"Calm down, there won't be bodies if they've evacuated. Don't jump to conclusions."

"It is Dale, it's the end of the world." Amanda started crying.

"Hang on, let's find out." Dale fiddled with the Hexad and then took Amanda's hand after wiping away the tears. He pressed down on the number 3 and saw it flash to 2 in an instant.

Amanda and Dale disappeared. A cat watched them from the stone handrail on the bridge, green eyes blinking with boredom before it lifted a leg and began to lick its foot.

A huge man appeared a few steps away from where they had just been a moment ago, took a quick look around and stared menacingly at the cat until it jumped down and sauntered off. He disappeared as quickly as he had arrived, muttering something unintelligible through a thick curly beard.

Bad News

47 Years Future

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Ugh."

"Dale you moron, stop doing that!" Amanda clambered off him, managing to stick a Converse in his eye as she did so.

"Sorry." Dale sat on the floor for a moment, legs out in front of him, trying to calm his nerves, then slowly got to his feet, checking the Hexad was all right, then putting it away and buckling up his satchel. Sweat was staining his short-sleeved shirt through the blue and his jeans were making him feel really uncomfortable.

He felt like somebody had poured a bucket of warm water over his head, so he knew he'd definitely got the location right: Thailand. More specifically, Koh Tao, a place they had visited seven years ago — at least it would be if you counted from what he thought of as their present. They'd stayed a month, lazing about on the beach, eating way too much Pad Thai and drinking incredible amounts of rice whiskey that was as strong as the sun was hot.

He sat down again on the boiling hot sand and rolled up his faded jeans, wishing he'd not worn his leather boots but had on a pair of flip-flops instead. Gosh, when had he last worn fli—

"Ow!"

"Will you stop daydreaming. What is wrong with you?"

"Sorry. But do you remember the time that guy came over and asked if you were for sale and you smacked him across the head with your beach mat. Haha, good times."

"So we're in Thailand then?" asked Amanda crossly, arms folded across her chest, staring at him like he'd ended the world personally.

"Yes," said Dale warily. "Forty seven years in the future. That's okay, isn't it?"

"Dale you muppet, I'm seriously wondering if this isn't frying your brain? How do we know that whatever happened has even happened yet? And why the hell would you bring us somewhere where there were hardly any people anyway? It should have been a busy city, not the middle of bloody nowhere. And god, it's bloody boiling." Amanda took off a thin pink cardigan and dropped it onto the sand. She sat down next to him with a bump.

"Um, sorry. I didn't really think it through."

"No, you didn't."

Splash.

They looked into the shallows down the white sand, out into perfect turquoise water — there was nothing but the ripples where something had hit the water, or maybe it had simply been a fish. A second later a very wet, and very angry, large man appeared above the surface and shook his head like a dog that had been thrown in unexpectedly. He waded easily through the water, no match for his bulk and power.

He was huge, bigger than Dale had thought. He must have been seven feet at least, and it was all muscle. His black shoulder length hair was plastered to the sides of his face and the bushy beard dripped beads of water onto his chest, the man's shirt unbuttoned enough to reveal a mat of short, curly hair. His arms were even hairier, with muscles like bunches of ripe grapes bulging on forearms thick with writhing veins.

Now that is one hairy guy. Hairy and scary.