Until Time Stands Still (13 page)

            “Now, wait a minute. I was nev…”

            “No! No more lies.” She cried. “I can’t believe I actually fell for this. Fell for you, and all this time, your pretty words were just a trick!” She slapped him, hard.

            “Isabelle. Stop. I love you.” He said standing, trying to grab her by the arms.

            She yanked her hand away, pulled back and slugged him as hard as she could. She connected with his jaw and his head snapped back. She hit him again before he had time to regain his balance from the first blow, and he fell flat on his back. His head bounced off the concrete of the floor, leaving him totally stunned. Cheers erupted through the room.

“Whoa.” Someone in the back hooted in laughter.

“She cleaned your clock man!” Another man yelled out.

“Give em’ hell lady!” Someone else cheered.

 She stood over him, glaring. “Stay away from me.” She hissed, a deathly quiet tone to her voice. “I hate you.” She spat, venomously.

            “I love how your eye twitches when you lie to me.” He said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. She had a hell of a right hook. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears, blazing angry, like fire, her face scowling down at him. She kicked him hard, right in the balls. Several men made sympathetic pain noises when he yelped and curled up in pain.

            Without a word, she turned and ran from the room.

            “You better go after her, man. Chicks like that.” One of the men called out.

            “Clearly, you didn’t take my advice. I told you that you should have told her about that before she found out on her own.” Graham said, shaking his head. “Man you are so lucky she doesn’t know how to shoot yet.”

            When he could breathe normally again, he picked himself up off the floor and sat back in his chair, ignoring the stares of the other guys. He rubbed the back of his head. His hand came away bloody.

            “Well, shit.” He stared at his hand.

            “Dammit, can’t somebody go one day without springing a leak around here?” Johnny said. “Really guys…I just want one day, one, without having to patch someone up at chow. I haven’t finished a meal in weeks.”

            He got up and grabbed the med kit he kept slung over the back of his chair. He walked over and set it down next to Mykel’s plate. “Let me take a look at that, bend your head forward.” He ordered. Mykel obeyed and gritted his teeth against the burning sting of Johnny poking at his head wound.

            “You got quite a knot back here, and a small cut. Bleeds like a mofo though.” Johnny said. “You’re gonna need a few stitches.” He said, applying a gauze pad. He sighed. “Let’s get you to the infirmary and get this taken care of.”

            “I’m fine, stop fussing!” Mykel said, scowling, shoving his hands away.

            “Are you dizzy?” Johnny asked. “Don’t lie about it either.”

            “No. I’m fine. Just a headache. Let me go. I have to go after her.” He said.

            “Infirmary first. We at least have to make sure she didn’t permanently damage your baby making bits.” Johnny said.

***************

            Isabelle ran back to their home, crying the whole way, shaking with sobs, and fury. She couldn’t believe him. This whole time, after everything they had been through, all she was to him was a means to an end. The betrayal cut deep into her heart. She stumbled into the small house and immediately went to the back, where their bedroom was and threw herself onto the bed and cried until there were no tears left. It felt like that’s all she did today was cry. Eventually, she got up, and washed her face in cold water. She needed a plan.

            Somehow she had to get back to her own time. Obviously it had been a mistake coming here, trusting him. But how? She still had the wrist device. She knew she needed that, and some of those glasses. But how did it work exactly? She sighed, frustrated at herself for being so stupid as to follow him. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she knew, she could never really love someone that had been so deceptive. If their entire relationship was built on a lie, then the person she thought she was in love with, wasn’t real. He was just a mirage of the man she thought he had been. Now she was stuck here. With him. All the girls were stuck here, trapped animals in a cage. She wondered how long this had been going on? Months? Years? How many women were forced to bear children for these men? Where were the babies at?  Her hand slowly moved down to her tummy. What if she was pregnant right now? It could be possible. That first night, they hadn’t had any form of protection with them. The thought made her blood run cold. She would not raise a child under this kind of bondage, with a man that she now despised. She had to find a way out, for herself and, if she was pregnant, her baby. An idea formed in her mind, and, it was almost crazy enough to work. She left the house and didn’t look back. She was on a mission of her own, and she wasn’t sure if she had enough time.

            Isabelle stepped past the guard who had been on duty, and almost felt sorry for what she had done to him. He would wake up with a wicked headache, and probably thoroughly embarrassed for being bested by an unarmed woman. She used his pass card to unlock the gate and pushed the button to open it. Her heart thudded in her chest and she held her breath, fully expecting someone to see her, and stop her. No one did. She walked out of the military base and out into new world she knew nothing about.

            The rage she felt at Mykel carried her the first several miles. At least this time she chose sensible shoes. She thought bitterly, recalling how he had yelled at her for trying to wear heels at that old farmhouse. Those first few days together seemed like so long ago.  She started crying again, and angrily brushed the tears away with the back of her hand. Isabelle just wanted to get as far away from him as she could, and if she couldn’t go back to her time, well then, she would find a place for herself in this new future world. She was determined to show him that she didn’t need him, that she could make it on her own. She walked until just before dark, and remembering what he had taught her, built herself a shelter, stopping occasionally for a drink of water from the filtration unit. She was just on the outskirts of the city, whatever its name was, and nearly to the edge of the wooded area. It took until past dark to build her little shelter, the work slower, and by the time she was ready to crawl into it, she was utterly exhausted. In the morning, she planned to hike into the city and find herself a job to do and a place to live. Without Mykel.

**************

The lights in his house were dark when he finally made it home. He assumed she was asleep, but when he made his way to the back bedroom he found that her things were gone. All the clothes he had purchased for her, gone. So was his jump bag, although she left all the contents strewn all over their bed. He wasn’t exactly surprised she had tried to leave him, but he knew she would be back eventually. She had nowhere to go, after all. She had to come back. Still, the emptiness he felt ate at him. He had spent most of his life living alone. Being alone. It never really bothered him until he had met her. She filled his world with light and laughter. On some level, he had always wanted that, and when he had it, he didn’t realize how precious something like that could be to a man’s soul, until he didn’t have it anymore. She really had chased away all his demons, and without her, without her light, he knew it wouldn’t be long before they came back with a vengeance. He couldn’t face being home, or sleeping in his bed. Not without her warm body next to his. He turned and shut the door. He wanted a drink or twenty.

Alarms sounded throughout the base. Mykel got up from the bar and staggered toward the door to see what the commotion was. “Did someone attack?” He hollered to a soldier running by.

            “Someone knocked out the guard!”

            “Huh.” Bryant came to stand next to him. “Do you think it was her?”

            Mykel snorted. “Hardly.”

            “Well, we did look everywhere.” Bryant pointed out. “Maybe she decided to go into the city. She was pretty pissed at you bro.”

            “She knows better than that. I told her how dangerous it was.” Mykel said.

            “Does she?” Bryant asked. “In her time, women have freedom to do whatever pops into their pretty little heads. It’s safer in her time. I doubt she really understands what the city is like.”

            “Shit.” Mykel’s heart sank. Almost instantly, he was sober, utter terror for her burning up the alcoholic haze he had been in. “She wouldn’t!”

            “I think we both know she would.” Bryant said, clapping him on the back.

            “Bry…I…what do I do?” He asked. “She hates me.”

            “Yeah, she hates you right now, but you know how it is man, you can’t hate someone with that kind of passion, unless you love them with just as much.”

            “She doesn’t love me.” Mykel said, sadly. “I don’t think she ever will.”

            “Look man, I don’t know exactly what you believe, but this is what I believe: I don’t believe in a soul mate, or kismet or anything. But I do believe in love. I believe that there are many forms of love and that you can find it anywhere. But above almost all of those love is the kind of love I think she feels for you, the kind that grows slowly over time and just gets bigger and bigger. She loves you. Eventually, she will forgive you, only she doesn’t know it yet, or won’t admit it. That love is what will help her do that.  That’s the kind worth giving everything you have. That’s the kind of love worth fighting for. Go fight for your woman, Mykel. Give her a reason to forgive you.”

            “Hey guys!” Johnny called out to them, jogging up to the building. “Graham says the General wants us all in the war room.”

            Mykel glanced over at Bryant. “This isn’t good.”

            “Never is.” Together the three of them walked into the war room. It was essentially a room with no windows, a large projector and a large conference table. Sitting around the table was the General, Graham and a team of doctors. Graham was grinning. Mykel raised an eyebrow at him and took a seat.

            “Mykel, we have some news.” Graham said. “Good, and bad.”

            “Bad news first.” He said.

            “Your woman is the one who knocked out the guard. She’s left the base, and is apparently heading for the city. We tracked her through the nanites in her blood.” The General said. “She has some remarkable things going on, genetically, and I’m sending you all out to get her back.”

            “Meaning what exactly?” Mykel frowned.

            “She has a very rare blood type, for starters. Very few people left alive have her blood type. She also carries natural antibodies for several viruses we don’t have vaccinations for. Now we don’t know if it’s because of her unique makeup specifically, or if it’s the way the nanites have enhanced her body. She seems to have more of a healing ability than normal. She could be the solution to our population decline as well, if we can create a fertility drug by synthesizing a substance chemically close to what goes on in her reproductive system. It could take years, but…she’s the best chance we have.” Dr. Simone Taggart said.