Time Riders

aiming — ’

‘This tactical situation is hazardous. Reinforcements will be deployed heresoon,’ Bob announced, stepping across the twisted and crumpled remains of the chain-linkfence. ‘You must leave the vicinity immediately.’

‘No kidding,’ replied the man. ‘Those guys are going to be mighty annoyedwhen they arrive. I sure ain’t stickin’ around for that!’

Bob was already over the fence and jogging across the snowy field beyond. The small mancaught up with him again, panting already as he struggled to keep pace with him.

‘Hey! My name’s Panelli. Raymond Panelli,’ he gasped. ‘But I let myfriends call me Ray, ’cause it’s… Ow!’ He stumbled on a rock buriedbeneath the snow, cursing as he hopped and cradled his foot for a momentbefore struggling to catch up again with Bob.

‘So… so, what about you?’ he wheezed. ‘What’s yourname?’

‘My name is Bob.’

‘Bob?… Bob? That it?’

They jogged in silence across the field for a while, heading towards the cover of a treeline.Panelli was rasping like an asthmatic old man beside him.

‘So, Bob?’

Bob continued in silence. Eyes scanning the faces of other prisoners streaming across thesnowy field. Inside his skull, the computer was busy assessing his mission’s performancescore, evaluating the tactical situation. Meanwhile his body was already hard at work dealingwith five gunshot wounds sustained during the raid, congealing the blood around the wounds,white blood cells already coalescing to combat any infection.

‘Hey, Bob!’

The small man running beside him was becoming a useless distraction. Bob turned to look downat him. ‘What do you want?’

‘Uh… mind if I sort of… team up with you for now? You kicked some butt backthere, I mean really stuck it to them guys. It was justamazing.’ Panelli shrugged. ‘So, I figure you’re a good guy to have as afriend.’

Bob evaluated the small man. He could provide assistance in some way.

‘As you wish,’ he replied flatly.

CHAPTER 53

2001, New York

Thursday/Friday? (I don’t know)

Three days now. I think it’s three — it’s hard to tell. Thetins of food in the cupboard are running out and we’ll be going hungry soon.

Foster and Maddy went out there a few times looking for supplies. They’ve not foundanything so far, just ruins and bones.

And those creatures outside. We now know they’re cannibals.

Foster found the leftovers of one of their own kind, half eaten… and nearby the bonesof loads of others. Those things seem to exist in small tribes, feeding off each other. WhenI think now how close I came to being taken… That creature running its hand through myhair must’ve been sizing me up! Working out if I could be eaten.

I don’t want to die like that. I’d rather anything else. I keep expecting tohear them at any moment outside the garage door, scratching at it, trying to find a wayin.

I’ve never been so jahully-chuddah scared in my life.

‘I… I don’t want to go out there again,’ whispered Sal.‘Never. Never again.’

Foster could see the terror in the poor girl’s eyes by the gutteringglow of the candle on the table between them. The rest of the arch was lost in thedarkness.

‘We have to,’ he said firmly.

‘But… but, those things…’

Those things had once been human beings. But something had happened. He suspected some sortof a nuclear war. There was plenty of blast damage, scorched walls and debris suggesting amoment of intense heat. Decades of radiation sickness would account for their pitifulcondition, anaemic complexion, the running sores, toothless mouths.

‘Foster’s right,’ said Maddy. ‘We can’t hide in hereforever.’

‘But… they… those things are… cannibals.’

‘Yes, we know exactly what they are,’ Maddy snapped.

‘Perhaps we might be able to communicate with them,’ said Foster. ‘If somesort of nuclear war happened in 1956 and we’re in 2001, then those creatures will be thegrandchildren of the few that survived. Post-apocalypse childrenwho’ve only ever known ruins and rubble. It’s possible the eldest of them mightjust remember some language.’

‘You’re kidding, right?’ said Maddy. ‘They dribble, they don’ttalk. They see us as a free-range meal.’

Perhaps she’s right. Those things would probably kill thembefore he could find a way to communicate with them.

He sighed. ‘All right, well… we’ve wasted enough time. I was hoping anothertime ripple would arrive, perhaps one that would improve our situation. But it looks like thisis what we’re stuck with. So we’ve no choice. We need to find some way to generatepower. Enough to reboot our computer system… and enough, if we can, to open a window andpull back Liam and Bob.’

Maddy frowned. ‘Sounds like we’re gonna need a lot of power.’

‘Even if we only have enough to pull oneof them back, we might learn exactly where and when the timeline was changed.’

She pulled her glasses off her face, and wiped the scuffed lenses. ‘But then we’dalso need enough power to send them back to that point in time to fix it, right?’

‘Yes.’ Foster managed a grim smile. ‘But, look, we’ll worry aboutthat when we get to it. One thing at a time.’

‘Oh jahulla, we’re so-o-o-o doomed,’ whispered Sal.

‘No, we’re not,’ he replied sternly. ‘If there’s one thingI’ve learned over the long years I’ve been here working for the agency, it’sthat everything is fluid… nothing is fixed. We can, we will… we must… change itall back. Do you understand? Failure is not an option.’

Both girls stared at him silently.

‘Nobody’s going to do that for us. It’s down to us. If we just sit safelyin here until we starve to death, well then… that’s it. That world outside ourshutter doors is what will remain forever more.’

He let those words hang above the table, their three faces caught in the flickering glow ofthe candle, still and impassive.

‘So… we have a generator in the back room where the clone tubes are. We need tofind some diesel fuel for it.’

‘Why don’t we have stores of diesel?’ asked Maddy. ‘What’s thepoint of having a back-up generator if there’s no fuel to run it?’

Foster shook his head. ‘We used to maintain a store of diesel fuel… butthere’s something about the energy of our field office’s time bubble that corruptsit at a chemical level.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning the diesel degrades. The fuel we have in the back room is useless. We need toget out there and find some more.’

He was silent for a moment, listening to the haunting wind outside their shutter door moaningsoftly.

It was Sal who broke the silence. ‘Then I… I guess we’dbetter get off our butts and start looking.’