Hexad: The Factory (Time Travel Thriller) Book 1 (7 page)

"Nice one," said Amanda accusingly.

"What? That's not my fault. Come on."

They scrambled to their feet and ran up the deserted beach, no time for Dale to open his satchel and retrieve the Hexad. Dale turned and the hairy giant was already out of the water and sprinting up the beach, water dripping from him like it too wanted to get away from his anger. He stumbled on a loose lace, and shouted as he fell onto his knees.

Dale took the opportunity and unbuckled his bag with nervous fingers, pulled out the Hexad and set it for another jump, trying to focus on the location and to land on solid ground. As he grabbed hold of Amanda, he panicked and wondered what would happen if they jumped and landed not above the ground but a little beneath it. There was a lot more to time travel than he'd ever considered, and he got the feeling that maybe it was best not to think about it too much. Heck, what happened if there was a passing cat right where you jumped to, would you end up with it inside you?

Dale's hand paused above the flashing dome of the Hexad, nerves getting the better of him.

"What are you waiting for? Press it," said Amanda, eyes wide with fright as the giant came thundering towards them again, brow creased in anger, jaw muscles clenching like he was grinding his teeth to dust just like he wanted to do to them.

Dale pressed down on the dome with his thumb; it blinked to 1 as they disappeared.

Really Bad News

75 Years Future

"Happy?"

"No," replied Amanda, running beside him.

At least we landed on our feet and started running right away; we're learning.

They sprinted down the steep hill, a stationary cable car halfway down, seemingly just abandoned. Dale knew they'd landed in the right location: San Francisco.

Stupid. Should have picked somewhere less hilly.

"No cats," offered Dale, hoping maybe that would cheer Amanda up.

She looked around, panting hard, almost tripping before Dale grabbed her at the elbow and then held her hand. They kept running.

"No cats, no people either. What year this time?"

"I set it for seventy five, just so we would know if it was like Venice. That all right?"

"Better, yes, but San Francisco?"

"I know. Next time no hills."

"Hmm."

Dale steered Amanda left at a junction and they ran down the middle of the road, no traffic at all, not a single vehicle moving. Cars were just parked, like nobody had bothered to go out to work or run errands, just staying at home and relaxing. Dale very much doubted that was the case though. The cars were strange too, designs he'd never seen before, with registrations that made no sense, so at least it meant that the world didn't end straight away back in their own time. Hopefully.

Where are all the people?

The street leveled out so they settled into a steady jog, both turning repeatedly to see if they were being chased yet — so far so good, they were alone. But too alone. Dale had a horrible feeling that the city's occupants were all watching from inside their homes, just observing the strange scene, no interest in participating. It was like a warped movie where people were viewing them as if on a TV screen, entertainment for the masses, nothing to do but stare.

It gave him the creeps, as if he wasn't in the real world, just a stage set on an epic scale, spanning the globe, empty. Just them, running, scared, lost in time, far from home. As they pounded the asphalt Dale looked off to the right, smiling despite himself as the stunning Golden Gate Bridge came into view. It was an incredible feat of engineering, and something they had marveled at when they visited a few years ago, jostling with the tourists and exploring the sights of the incredible city. Now the restaurants were empty, the streets deserted, nobody taking pictures, no traffic crawling over the bridge.

Dale sniffed, suddenly realizing what else was playing on his mind. The air was pure, cleaner than he'd ever known it in a city — no traffic fumes.

Keeping up their steady pace, Dale steered Amanda away from the open edge of the city, thinking it would be better to get somewhere they couldn't be seen so easily, but not knowing the city well enough to have much of an idea of where to actually go.

They picked streets at random, weaving into the city, losing themselves and hopefully stopping the giant from finding them. Would it work? Did it make a difference? He had no idea. If the man had somehow locked onto their locations so far then surely he would do the same again? Or was it that he only knew where they jumped to, and after that everything else would be guesswork? That sounded more likely, but he had no idea how any of it worked, all he knew was that it would be very bad if they did go head to head with the huge guy — the one thing Dale was not was a fighter, especially against huge bearded guys that appeared to be made out of solid muscle.

"Dale, we have to stop. I'm shattered. What are we doing anyway?" Amanda stopped, refusing to run any further. She was panting heavily, just like Dale, and with no real idea of what to do Dale stopped too.

"Okay, let's just walk. I don't know where we're going anyway. What's the plan?" Dale looked at Amanda hopefully, eager to hear of anything she had in mind.

"I don't know. What makes you think I have one?"

"Well, you're the practical one, I just thought you might be making more sense of this than I am."

"Fat chance. None of it makes any bloody sense, does it? What the hell is going on? Why are we being chased? What's this all about?"

Amanda was close to tears again, and he didn't blame her one bit: he felt like crying too. Dale gave her a hug and didn't want to let go — he could lose himself in her warmth forever, just them, close and together, comforting each other in the emptiness. They parted eventually, both calmer after the closeness.

"Let's just walk a little bit, try to make sense of this a little. We'll have a look around, see if we can get an idea of what's happened. If everyone really is gone then we should at least be able to go where we want, check on things."

"Okay, sounds good. You're right, there must be signs of what happened. When it happened. What about a convenience store? We can check the papers, see what food there is. Right?"

"Yeah, good idea. At least we'll maybe find some clues that could help explain where everyone went to."

They walked, taking everything in for the first time. This was the first chance they'd had to actually look at the future rather than just run through it, or appear momentarily in strange places. If this was the end of the world then they sure as hell needed to at least see for themselves. Obviously whatever happened wasn't over for them — Tellan had said they had a part to play, a huge part if they were to save the world, whatever that meant. Dale tried to focus, to really look at things, but with a million thoughts crowding his head at the same time it was difficult — he also realized just how thirsty and hungry he was.

How long had they been jumping about? When did they last eat? Was it just a few hours ago or did none of that mean anything anymore?

See, there I go again. Stop thinking about it all, you'll make your brain explode. Just stay focused on the here and now.

Dale looked, truly looked at the situation he found himself in.

Empty. Everything gone.

Cars were just parked up, meaning vehicles weren't abandoned, so it wasn't as if some major catastrophe had hit and humanity was wiped out in an instant. Everything was orderly, but now that he really looked it was evident that everything was tarnished, covered in a layer of dirt and dust, like whatever had led to the emptiness hadn't only just happened — it could have been many, many years ago.

Dale wondered if power worked. Were sewers still working? What about running water? What about anything? What about people?

The streets weren't exactly piled high with trash either. The place was messy, sure, but it wasn't like the streets were overflowing. It was all just abandoned, that was it, like everyone had simply decided to wink out of existence, tidying up before they left. Gone off to better things, better times maybe?

"Ugh," said Dale, shuddering.

"What? What is it?" asked Amanda nervously, looking for danger.

"Nothing, just feeling weird."

"Me too, very weird."

~~~

"Stand back," said Dale, lifting the trash can above his head, aiming at the plate glass of the 7-11.

"Wait! Dale you muppet, look." Amanda stood with the door open, having just pushed it to enter the store like a normal person and not one hell-bent on destruction.

"Oh, yeah, right. Good idea." Dale put the trash can back down and entered the store just behind Amanda.

"It's empty," stated Amanda. "Well, pretty much anyway."

"Odd."

They checked the shelves, the freezers and fridges. They were totally empty, cleaned out and lids up so they didn't go all funky. The shelves had the odd tin of non-perishable goods, dates expired anywhere from a few years after their present to forty plus years later, or past — Dale didn't want to think about it.

"Dale, over here."

Amanda was at the shelves for magazines and daily newspapers. He walked over and picked up the few newspapers that were remaining. He stared at Amanda, she stared at him, both too confused to say a word.

There were no magazines, no stacks of local papers or daily nationals, just a handful of well-worn newspapers from years ago, nothing in order, nothing making sense. Dale tried to read the headlines but his eyesight was getting blurry, confusion stopping him from focusing properly.

"What is this? Where is everything? And all these are out of order, nothing newer than forty odd years into the future. Our future. But they aren't for sale anyway, are they? More like just somebody's random reading matter."

"Like the owner was a time traveler you mean, and these are things he brought back with him from jumps?"

Dale nodded. "Yeah, exactly. Is that where everyone is, jumping about in time and nobody living in the present?"

"Or everyone went somewhere specific because something terrible happened, and they just left their present for good."

"Ugh. You know what?"

"What?"

"I just want to go home. If people are after us, or whatever the hell is going on, then I'd rather face it in our own timeline, our own house. Somebody has to give us an explanation, otherwise what the hell are we supposed to do anyway?"

"Can we, can we go home? It won't be safe though, will it?" Amanda wanted him to convince her, he knew that for a fact.

"Well, we can't just stay here, can we? We'd go mad, and what would we eat? What would we do? Look, I'm not saying it will be safe, I doubt that very much, but at least we'll be able to understand where we are, when we are."

"Okay, do it. Last jump though."

"I know. But I'm sure another Hexad will be popping into existence soon enough." Dale fumbled in his satchel and pulled out the Hexad with the 1 flashing. "Care to do the honors? Maybe we'll land on our feet if you do it."

"My pleasure." Amanda took the device, moved dials and bit her lip in concentration. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Three. Two. O—"

"Wait!"

"What?"

"There should be a noise, a cool whoosh or something. You can't zip through the cracks in space-time and not be dramatic."

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Whatever."

"Whooooooooooooooooooooooooosh."

"One."

"Home."

Dale and Amanda disappeared. A newspaper fluttered to the floor.

Home Again

Present Day +2 Minutes

"That was a stupid sound," said Amanda.

"Makes it more dramatic though," said Dale with a cheesy grin.

They were back in the kitchen. The birds could be heard singing through the large open windows, the feeders were half empty, the sun was shining and Dale noted that the grass really could do with mowing. What he wouldn't give to have a normal weekend in suburbia, mowing the lawn, sorting out the overgrown climbing roses that he hated with their stupid thorns but Amanda refused to allow him to chop down. It wasn't to be though, he knew that their chances of a normal weekend were absolutely zero.

The room felt alien because it felt so normal. After a crazy morning it was wrong that nothing dramatic was there to greet them, just the lingering aroma of fried breakfast, the dishes in the sink and, oh yeah, the huge mound of stinking flesh on the table.

"Let's go out into the garden. You go first, I'll bring us a cuppa."

Amanda stole a glance at the table, probably thinking that she'd have to go on eBay and hunt out a new one, and said a grateful, "Thanks," before walking out of the kitchen door to the patio area where they had a new set of table and chairs they'd got for a steal from a garden center that was closing down.

Dale put the kettle on and put the instant coffee in the mugs, adding a splash of milk for him, head not willing to accept the normality, tapping at his subconscious mind, warning him that the calm would be broken again any minute now.

The sick flesh was freaking him out, too obscene and surreal to remain, so Dale opened the cupboard beneath the sink and pulled out a roll of black trash sacks. He swore at the bags as he tried in vain to find the end that opened, finally getting a corner loose and flicking the bag open, then he wrapped another around his hand and went to deal with the strange, mangled monstrosity.

As he grabbed at it a piece came away in his hands. "Ugh, totally gross. What the hell happened?" He dumped the squelchy pieces into a bag then battled with another one. As he was finishing, a goo covered Hexad fell to the floor, red light pulsing angrily. Dale picked it up and looked at the readout — there was a -1 flashing its warning. "Guess this is what happens if you try to use it once your six jumps run out."