David Rice

June 13, 2008

Davy's heart was pounding, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He'd made several successive jumps, but the Paladins were still closing in. He could hear their voices distorted, but audible, filtering through his jump scars. They were two, maybe three jumps behind him at best and gaining ground quickly. Too quickly for Davy's liking.

He had to get away, throw them off his trail, but how? Where on Earth could he go that they wouldn't find him? Davy closed his eyes and took a breath. Think, Davy. How do you lose them? It seemed an impossible task. The voices were clearer now. He was running out of time. He had to do something and he had to do it right now!

Davy's eyes flew open, a thought suddenly occurring to him. He couldn't keep jumping forward. The Paladins would just continue to use their machine to follow the path of his jump scars. But maybe if he jumped backwards, go back the way he'd come, he could manage to shake them off.

Steeling himself for what he was about to do, Davy slowed his breathing, waiting for the Paladins to come through the last of his jump scars. Once they appeared, their electro shock devices raising to strike, he jumped back through the open wormhole and grabbed the device that allowed them to move through time with him before they could follow. At least with the machine in his possession, it would buy him some time.

But Davy didn't stop there. He couldn't. He kept going back, jumping to Tokyo, Rome and London until he'd followed the trail all the way to its starting point-home. Only, it wasn't his home. The Ann Arbor library, a place that been Davy's refuge for years was gone.

In its place stood an empty plot of land. He turned slowly, looking around, wide-eyed. The sun glinted off of a shiny piece of stone and for a moment Davy winced, unprepared for the brightness. But as he stepped closer, he could make out the edges of the plaque.

He paused just in front of the plaque, squinting to make out the writing in the bright daylight. The stone edges of the plaque were filigreed with tiny cherubs engraved into the corners. Beneath them the plaque read: In Memory of those we lost during the tragic Ann Arbor library fire May 1, 2015 with a list of more than a dozen names carefully carved underneath.

Davy's mouth went dry as his eyes scanned the plaque over and over, his astonished gaze always seeming to come back to the date. 2015? What the fuck? he wondered. It had just been 2008 not five minutes ago! What had happened? How did he get here?

He heard the musical sound of laughter and looked up. He saw a woman walking down the street, laughing and talking...to herself? There was a small white stick hanging out of her ear, but no wires attaching it to anything. Davy frowned as the woman laughed again and said something he wasn't paying attention to. He didn't want to approach her, but he had to. There was no one else around who could answer the question burning itself into his brain.

"Hey, uh...excuse me, Miss?" Davy began, wetting his parched lips. The woman kept walking, seemingly unaware, or maybe she was willfully ignoring him. Davy fell into step next to her, but she still hadn't noticed him yet. "I'm sorry-Ma'am?" he tried again to no avail. He paused when she did, stopping at a street light.

Davy lightly touched her arm and the woman shrieked, stumbling back a few steps. She reached up, removing the earbud from her ear with a frown. "I...I'm sorry," Davy mumbled, a slight blush creeping into his cheeks. "I didn't mean to alarm you, but what year is it?"