He looked down at the body of Jack and saw the bullet entry hole in the side of Jack’s head. Jack was lying supine on the ground and his dead face looked up into the smoke-laced sky. The other side of Jack’s head was visible and displayed the exit wound. Most of that side of his head was misplaced.
Jasper saw the dead body of Jack. He screamed but it was too late.
In his rage, Jasper ran at Vincent. But at that moment, Vincent’s Other Self had begun firing in short, scattered shots once again. One of those bullets caught Jasper in the chest and he was cast back onto the ground with blood flowing freely from his chest and mouth.
Vincent watched Jasper take a bullet in the chest and watching him go down. But his attention from Jack was only thwarted momentarily. He turned back towards Jack and looked down on his carcass. Vincent didn’t feel retribution at that moment. He didn’t feel anything. He was just glad that it was over – or at least he hoped.
He turned his head back to Jasper who was lying on the ground with blood oozing from his chest. Jasper coughed and blood sprayed into the air and splattered as it landed back on his face. Vincent saw similar wounds the first time he was in this battle. Men with wounds like that didn’t make it.
Vincent didn’t see Jasper’s Other Self in the shadows. That’s because he was no longer there. Jasper’s Other Self didn’t disappear the way one did when they were traveling through time. Jasper’s Other Self dissolved from existence because the timeline had once again been altered. Jasper was never there in the capacity of an observer in the new line of history. But the Jasper who had been shot in the chest was still there.
Vincent walked over to Jasper and knelt down beside him. Jasper’s eyes were filled with hatred.
“Who are you?” Vincent screamed into Jasper’s face.
Jasper couldn’t answer. He tried to smile but as he did he coughed and more blood sprayed out.
Vincent knew it was hopeless. The man would die and he would never know who he was. But no matter. He had saved Hitler. Plus Jack was dead. The timeline was now changed and he could have his life back.
He stood up (mindful of those across No Man’s Land shooting in his direction), gave one final look to a dying Jasper and then disappeared.
After Vincent left, Jasper looked up at the sky that was tinted red with mortar explosion. He was close to death but he would not die here in this mud-entrenched hole. He focused on a time far in the future and he disappeared as well.
The next thing Jasper recalled was waking up in a white room. He looked around and saw strange machines. He waited for his eyes to adjust and when they did, he attempted to sit up. The pain was too much. Instead, he resigned to lift his head.
He was in a hospital. He couldn’t tell the date at first but a screen on the wall revealed the date to him: June 8, 2124.
“You shouldn’t be moving around,” he heard a voice say. Jasper looked and saw a nurse running towards him.
“Where am I?” he asked.
“You’re in a hospital.”
“How long have I been here?”
“You’ve been here for about an hour. You lost a lot of blood. The surgery was successful. We should have you out of here in about thirty minutes,” the nurse replied.
Jasper smiled. An hour and a half for a gunshot wound – the future was a great place for life-threatening injuries.
He looked over at the nurse who studied him with a soothing face. He could tell she cared about her work and her patients.
She started going over what had happened to him and how they had never seen a wound like that and weren’t entirely sure how the injury occurred. Jasper could have told her it was gunshot wound but it wouldn’t have done any good. He knew there weren’t any guns in 2124. Instead, he kept his mouth shut and listened to her talk. Her voice was very comforting.
As she continued to speak however, Jasper tuned her out. Inside, an icy feeling came over him. A smile spread across Jasper’s face. He watched the nurse as she spoke but he didn’t hear a word she said.
All he could think about was how much he wanted to kill her.
CHAPTER FIFTY ONE
Ypres, Belgium – Present Day
In the end, much did change back but history was still changed.
Woodrow Wilson was never the President of the United States. Instead, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts was the President of the United States during the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles was not signed with Lodge citing that the treaty favored the British. Theodore Roosevelt was his Vice-President.
As a post-war President, Lodge was able to shape the United States into a much different nation. In 1890, as a Senator, he had co-authored the Federal Elections Bill that guaranteed federal protection for voting rights by African Americans. The bill was originally blocked by a Democrat filibuster in the Senate. As President, he reopened the argument and in 1924, he was able to work with Congress to not only pass these rights but expand these rights. In short, he was able to accomplish in the 1920’s all of the items of the previous timeline’s Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In another timeline, the United States would eventually fall behind Germany, Yugoslavia, and the Ottoman Empire in world politics. Lodge made sure that didn’t happen. He strengthened the U.S. economy and as a result of his historic measures, the United States was able to by-and-large avoid the Great Depression. There was a recession but nothing of the sort
