The Antarctican

by: Dennis R. Humphreys

He felt himself dreaming... or was it? There were distant sounds and little memories. Some sounds were familiar but seemed out of place. Then suddenly he was awake staring at the inside of some kind of device. There was a six by ten-inch window above his face and beyond that a white ceiling of tiles with the little holes crisscrossing each tile by the hundreds. A face appeared. Looking down at him... a woman's face that smiled but then yelled for something. In moments there were several people staring briefly at him through that window. He wasn't sure what they were doing or if his mind was playing tricks. The last thing he remembered was a fairly primitive place where he and many others lived an existence, agricultural in nature and by most standards, primitive.

There was someone holding his right arm and doing something from inside his cocoon, then suddenly as he had awakened, he was asleep.

This time upon awakening, he stared at the same ceiling, or at least the same ceiling tiles with their little holes but he was detached from his cocoon device. He lay in a bed, something he remembered not being used to for some years. Memories, disguised as random images illogically placed, floated somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness. He tried to move his legs but couldn't. His arms were as bad. He could move his muscles slightly but wasn't going to get up and do cartwheels... cartwheels? What were they?

"Good morning! How's our patient doing today?' the nurse asked entering the room. It was the same face that peered into the window at his when he was in the container. He found himself answering, but his voice didn't do anything.

"Fine," he mumbled, but he didn't think she heard, as he winced in pain.

"Don't try and do too much. We have some therapists coming in shortly to work with you to try and get your muscles back in shape. They'll be working with you every day with quite a rigid regimen. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have you up and about... your voice should be back within the week," the woman kindly announced.

All the man could do was nod which he did to acknowledge he knew what she said but she wasn't looking anyway. He watched her as she went about her business but when she left through the door, he noticed military guards standing outside in the hall. He couldn't imagine why. Therapists came in shortly and went to work bending his legs and knees multiple times to start strengthening muscle. The muscles hadn't atrophied because he had been in a state of suspended animation not a coma where the muscle tissue broke down from non-use. It hurt at first but then began to feel a little better. As they worked some memories began coming back, bits and pieces of a prior life.

“Buddy, you're lucky to be here. They defrosted you for two weeks. Then they put you in isolation... quarantine for four weeks while they stuck you full of needles to make sure you weren't contagious. When they finally got your heart beating, they put you in an iron lung to keep you breathing. That was some old technology while they had you in an induced coma. Once you were breathing on your own, they took you out of the iron lung and they brought you here. You just regained consciousness last night but you fell back to sleep on your own after an hour. I know you're some kind of cave man and you don't understand a word I'm saying, so fuck you!” the therapist said laughing as his associate jumped in thinking he was funny. ,

The man laid there and tried to lift his arm but all he could do was raise his middle finger which they couldn't see.

They worked with him for an hour, then a speech therapist, who introduced herself as Konnie, came in and had him making mono syllabic sounds after her. She seemed surprised he could follow her direction and appeared to understand what she said. This lady worked with him for an hour as well. When she finished, she gave him an itinerary of what was planned.

“I'll be in tomorrow to do the same thing and then the next day you should be able to whisper. I don't want you straining your vocal cords, though. Then I'll bring flash cards the next day. I'll show you for a response as to what the picture is. We need to find if you have a language and maybe figure out how to communicate from that. Now I know you probably don't understand a word I'm saying. I'm just trying to put you at ease,” she told him.

The man in the bed tried to say thank you and could understand her but he couldn't make himself known.

The next few days of rehab went well and the patient was beginning to twitch some of the muscles in his arms and legs. The therapists seemed to be happy. It was his voice that really improved. It wasn't loud but it was distinct. He thought the speech therapist would be very pleased,

“Good morning, John,” she called him not having found out his name yet. The therapist decided just to call him John, for John Doe, until they were properly introduced. “I have the flash cards today. I will show each one to you and I'll indicate the name. You imitate me. Then I'll show cards that you have identify. We'll keep the things simple in monosyllables. I think once we start, you'll get the hang. We'll record your answers digitally so we can start deciphering things you say when you talk to us.”

She sat down with a stack of cards about six inches wide and ten inches high. There were colored photographs on each card showing an object. The name was printed on the front with the pic. So, she began by holding the first card up with a bird on it.

“Bird,” Konnie clearly pronounced, indicating he was to repeat it.

“Bird,” the man answered. Konnie was immediately pleased.

“Tree,” Konnie indicated.

“Tree,” the patient intoned. Konnie was beside herself. He seemed to understand what she wanted.

“Car,” she identified the pic.

“Car,” said the man. She was amazed too because though his voice was weak, she could hear him and understand him. Clearly, he comprehended the process she was following

“Elephant,” she told him.

“Elephant,” he told her. “I thought you were only going to use things with monosyllabic responses.”

“Shit! You speak English. Why didn't you tell me?” not realizing what she said.

“Up until recently I couldn't speak and until now, I had no one to speak to... or wanted to speak to,” the man answered.

“How can you be speaking English? The scientists down in the Antarctica just defrosted you last month. You're supposed to be over thirty-five million years old,” you shouldn't even be doing anything except grunts and hisses.”

“Well at least we can talk and get to know each other better. This voice right now is better as a phone voice,” he told her.

“Phone? Listen, if you don't want to be whisked away and locked up in some room by the military maybe you shouldn't say anything. They are going to want to know how you can speak English or speak at all if you're some kind of cave man. Right now, they think you're part of some alien race that inhabited the Antarctica thirty-five million years ago but they'll wonder how you know English. You're going to open some other big bag of worms if you say anything,” Konnie warned him. He didn't know quite why he spoke the language he did. That part of his memory hadn't come back yet, but he knew with some more rest and time, it would.

“I understand,” he told her.

“Good. Let's just stick to sounds to strengthen your vocal cords. I'll tell them you can only mimic me... you don't seem to have any real language but you'll be teachable and communicative enough in English within several weeks to understand.”

“I appreciate your concern,” the man told her.

“What's your name anyway? Do you know?” Konnie inquired.

“I'm not sure. I've been trying to remember so we can be properly introduced,” he chuckled.

“At least you have a sense of humor. Between the doctors and the military people around here watching you, they're as humorless as they come,” she answered.

* * *

“So, this is an interesting twist. He knows English, General Maxmillian Gentz from the Pentagon said to the head of the floor as they peered at the monitor to the closed-circuit camera in the patient's room. It was something they failed to tell any of the hospital personnel attending the man in that room about purposely. The cameras there were small enough and hidden so as not to be detectable.

“Considering the time period he came from that's a complete impossibility. Even if he were alien how would that be possible? The doctor contemplated.

“I'll tell you how... it's the only answer... time travel. Do not say anything about this to anyone for now,” the General demanded and left the room.

A few days later the man left his bed. He was a little unsteady but he was able to walk over to the window and look out. A flood of memories began pouring into his head as he watched the movement beyond the building. He turned when he heard the door open. It was Konnie.

“Hey John, you're up. You're doing great,” Konnie announced.

“It's Dillon, Konnie. I just remembered this morning when I woke up. I'm having a lot more now looking out this window,” Dillon shared.

“Well Dillon, it's a pleasure to meet you,” Konnie told him as she walked over to his side to look out of the window. “You don't sound pleased with what you see.”

“I'm not. I left all this behind years ago and now I'm back looking at it,” he told her. “Konnie, what year is this?”

“It's 2030. Why? ” Konnie asked him a little puzzled.

“Of all the fucking luck... of all the fucking luck! I'm a time traveler. I left in the year 2031 to go back in time with a million and a half other people to 35 million years ago,” he told her shocking Konnie into speechlessness. Never in a hundred years would she have considered this the explanation for the man, Dillon, standing in front of her.

“Oh my God! Why thirty-five million years ago? Especially to a place like Antarctica...” she asked him.

“Antarctica was warm then and isolated. It wasn't plagued with all the large dinosaurs and predators the rest of the world had. There were large animal species to provide plenty of food. We thought starting early we could reshape the world so the time we left would be better the second time around and more advanced... before man and before the fall in the Garden of Eden. We took an entire community of people so we could prosper and avoid the politics and garbage in this world today. With that big a head start, knowing what we know, the world would be reinvented. We took our time machines with us so they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands and thought if we ever needed them, we could shift times again,” Dillon explained. "We would use batteries and solar power to power things."

“What happened. I mean how did you get frozen in the ice like you were... instantaneously. That was the only reason you could be resuscitated. They had hundreds of other people they unearthed but you were the only one that survived the thawing process,” Konnie asked him.

“We were there about two years when other people began arriving, from another planet that was destroyed in a collision with a rogue planet. A number of people knew the collision was coming and left. They joined us in Antarctica and they too built cities. Many of our people began populating with them. After years of living together we had incredible communities throughout the continent. The air was different then on earth. We had no diseases or conditions. Those who were older seemed to act younger and stopped aging. Those younger didn't age. We attributed it to different conditions like the gases in the air, and assumed it was the same reason for extreme ages reported in the bible,” Dillon went on remembering more as he talked.

“But how did everyone freeze?” the therapist asked him.

“They had space ships they brought with them and in them were technologies their people experimented used. The weather began to change... getting colder. The ocean flows changed as they do and the climate began changing. They decided to try and do something about it and in their arrogance, just like I got fed up with in these times, they thought they could control the weather. It's not just a matter of changing one variable to make it warmer... changing one variable can create a domino effect that in turn can change a hundred other variables. They inadvertently created something their computer model didn't warn them about... ha, computer models are never right yet scientists act like they are infallible. They created a vortex that extended from the ground into space bringing negative two-hundred-degree temperatures from space. We could see it coming and knew we were doomed though people ran into their houses to try and get away. Lungs froze immediately and moments later the brains were last to go. There wasn't even enough time to say goodbye to the person standing next to you,” Dillon told Konnie who was listening intensely finding the story incredible but with a lesson there to be learned.

“I have to go now. Our time is up,” I want to talk with you more about this but the powers that be would get suspicious if I sat here for an entire day talking,” Konnie told the time traveler. “I'll see you tomorrow.

* * *

“You see, I told you so. He's a time traveler,” General Gentz told the room full of high-ranking military people from the Pentagon and a few select politicians. “And he's from our time. So the technology exists at this moment. We have nothing close to time travel but someone has and that man holds the secret. He knows who built the machine and where the device or devices are right now. If we can get that information from him, we will be able to do anything we want.”

“It would be a great military advantage,” Senator Proxmire added.

“We could go back and change the outcome of elections, or even past assassinations... maybe add to them,” Senator Daly suggested.

Doctor Mansfield who was head of the floor and had been working closely with General Getz during the whole revival process, didn't like the tone of the meeting though he kept his thoughts to himself. The very thing Dillon mentioned in leaving this time was what the doctor heard unfolding in the room where he was. Arrogance, greed and control... some things never change.

* * *

“Good morning, Dillon. How are you today?” Konnie asked her patient standing at the window again. Dillon continued looking out without turning.

“Fine... well not so fine. I really hated this world and the second time around isn't any better. I've been standing here for three hours. During that time there's been three car accidents where one turned into a fist fight, and what appeared to be a purse snatching. I've returned to a nightmare!” he told her.

“Now, now... it can't be all that bad. I'm sure you had your moments thirty-five million years ago,” she reasoned. After all nothing's perfect.

“We were all there for the same reason, except the newcomers but their world was more of the world we were trying to create, minus the advanced science. We didn't have to fight viral outbreaks like here. Of course, we didn't have cars. We didn't have theft, but then everything was provided and nothing went through any middle man. I swear, technology and so- called civilization is the bane for man,” Dillon told her as he went back to his bed and climbed into it.

“Look at all the good things that technology has done,” she told him.

“You name one good thing and I'll name three to the contrary. It isn't technology's fault... it's the people controlling technology and the true purpose they want to employ it. In fact, it usually begins with someone trying to do good for others, and then the wrong people get hold of it and use it against its people,” Dillon commented and Konnie couldn't argue. He was right. She herself had seen it plenty of times during her twenty-six-year life.

“Tell me more about the times in the Antarctica,” she asked sitting down in the chair she usually did next to the bed.

“There isn't much to tell aside from what I told you already. It was a simple life and we had everything we wanted or needed so no one was trying to get one up on you. We didn't have government we had dispute arbitrators which we changed every year. That's all you really need. I'd much rather get to know you better... married... kids? Dillon asked.

“Did that... or at least the marriage part of it when I graduated college and thought I had to get married cause that's what you did to get away from home. The guy turned out to be an asshole. In fact, he's a lot nicer now than when we were married. We were married for eleven months but we're actually good friends now. I never had kids,” she told him.

“Maybe now that you're good friends you'll revisit marriage. They say friends first, makes a good marriage especially in later years when everything else goes,” Dillon commented.

“No, I'm not going there. I think the combination of him and me made him into something unbearable. Besides he has someone now and they both seem to be happy,” she replied.

“Well... at least you don't blame him for everything. It's usually a shared thing when something goes wrong,” Dillon commented.

“How about you?” she asked.

“My wife died quite a few million years ago. We never had kids. I'm as sterile as they come. She was a good woman and very supportive of everything I did, even the adventure we went on,” Dillon told her.

“You know you have a second chance if you look for her now,” Konnie suggested.

“Oh no... I'm not going there either. I'd have me to compete with now and I'm not so sure how the whole space time continuum thing would go if I ran into myself,” he conjectured.

“But she would be one happy woman I bet,” Koonie surmised.

“No doubt. But too much of a good thing...” he left his comment open.

Konnie was an attractive woman, not beautiful but there was something about her that was appealing... maybe because she was good to talk to.

“You know I have been thinking though, now that you brought up the whole thing about getting together with my wife again this time around. If I could get to my people with the time machine, since they haven't left yet, I could forewarn them about what will happen. We were there for twenty years. We knew the cold was eventually going to come and we based it on what the scientists said which was wrong. We'd have to move everyone back about another million years to give generations the advantage of eventual migration to warmer places rather than someone trying to screw with the weather and wiping out a civilization,” Dillon expressed.

“How would you get out of here? There are guards outside in the hall and you certainly can't go through the window without raising a red flag,” she commented.

“Yeah, but sooner or later I'll get shipped off to some high security place and I'll never get back,” he told her.

“So, you're sure you'd want to go back to your group in Antarctica?” Konnie asked thinking... well, she wasn't sure what she was thinking yet, only that she really liked this guy even though he was a lot older than her, but he looked more her age.

“Sure, but I'd be faced with the same problem... I might run into myself there. However, I could save my wife and the others,” he thought openly with her.

“That's pretty magnanimous of you,” the therapist commented.

“Maybe not. There are conjectures our molecules might wipe each other out if we get too close to each other and where would that get my wife?” Dillon asked the veritable rhetorical question.

“Listen,” Konnie said in a low voice as she flipped the television on and increased the volume, “I've been seeing more military people around here lately, and a couple of suits. I don't know who they are but there seems to be a growing interest in you. We've been talking freely with each other but they may know your secret. I'm getting a little suspicious that this place may be bugged.”

“Yeah, I should have been more careful. It probably is. If I plan to get out of here, I shouldn't say anything else. They'd like for me to get out of here so they can follow me and get to the time machine,” he told her.

“Well maybe that is your advantage. Maybe they'll let you escape if they think you don't suspect anything, to do just that. Then if you can shake them once you're out, they won't know how to get hold of you,” Konnie surmised.

“I like the way you think. Maybe I can use their arrogance against them,” he said, taking the remote and turning off the volume. “If I can get rid of the guards outside, I might be able to get out of here and go to my friends with the time machine and head back to warn the others of the impending disaster,” he smiled at her slightly.

“I'll help in any way I can,” Konnie offered, knowing they were probably just heard by whoever was monitoring them.

* * *

“OK... those two are going to make their move soon. Just keep those two guards outside the room. Get rid of the others in the lobby. I want him followed though when he makes a break. Put one of our men in hospital scrubs to keep an eye on things. This therapist is going to have to get him a change of clothes to get out of here so make sure the guards get sloppy and ignore any packages she takes into that room,” General Gantz told the others in the room.

“We can take one of the guards off the door and make it easier,” Colonel Dunst suggested.

“No! Nothing changes as far as they can see. We do that it might alert them that we know something,” the General assumed. “Make those guards more comfortable. Give them chairs. Her most likely move is to drug them and it would be hard to do that with them standing all the time and then passed out on the floor in a pile to attract attention.”

“Sure, I understand. No one would think twice if they were passed out asleep in chairs,” the colonel replied.

“Exactly... and she'll probably think that way,” he told his compatriot.

* * *

“Hey I noticed they gave the two guards outside chairs,” Konnie told Dillon when she came into his room for therapy the next day, and gave him a wink. “You know if I can bring them coffee at night sometime, I can slip them a couple of mickeys. At night time after visiting hours, as slow as it gets around here, no one would think twice about two guards asleep in their chairs. The only people on here would be a doctor or two and a couple of nurses,” she suggested more for the listeners than anyone.

“They're not used to seeing you that time of night and they might get suspicious. Can you get someone else to bring them some coffee?” Dillon asked, giving her a wink as well.

“I'll see. I'll figure something out for you,” the therapist told him.

“I'd like to show my appreciation in some way for your help,” Dillon said pulling her towards him and Konnie willingly was pulled.

She knew what he was doing but was willing to let him do it. This was all for the benefit of their watchers. It made everything more believable. He kissed her deeply but she didn't quite expect the reaction she had for the show they put on for the watchers, as she responded breathlessly. He began pulling at her clothes and she felt him and his excitement with her hand.

“Let's go into the bathroom. If someone comes in and sees us doing this it'll probably cost me my job,” she suggested, “the bathroom most likely wasn't under surveillance but it was still chancy and the only way they could speak without someone hearing.

She led him there as the man in the next room, sitting in front of the monitor, spoke out to himself.

“Oh man, I'd like to watch this, damn it,” the man said downheartedly.

“What's on either side of this room?” Dillon asked.

“Next to us is the bathroom for the next room which is the doctor's lounge. At night there's usually not anyone in there. You might have someone occasionally sleeping on the sofa in there. The other side is a patient's room but it's locked now. I think that's where they monitor this room.

“What's above these ceilings? Do you know?” Dillon asked as he began kissing her neck.

“It's a drop ceiling. I've seen maintenance do work on the pipes and duct work above it. You have about two feet above the tiles,” she told him pressing his head harder against her.

“OK, here's what we do and we don't have to worry about the guards... I think,” Dillon began saying but he didn't stop what he was doing,”the coffee will be a smokescreen. Just get them a pot, these idiots will probably tell them to drink it so they'll go to sleep and then they can follow us. What I'll do is get out of here a couple of hours earlier through the ceiling over our heads.

“Sounds like a plan,” Konnie answered pulling her shirt off.

“You get some scrubs and put them in the bathroom next door for me somewhere hidden... complete with hair cover and mask etcetera. Hopefully I can get through the ceiling quietly enough and come down the other side. I'll dress in scrubs and walk out to the elevators,” Dillon told her as he began kissing her breasts.

“I'll get the guards their coffee as if you're still in your room and then leave. I'll meet up with you somewhere. Oh... some guy's been hanging around the nurses' station in scrubs. I think it's one of their people watching in case you get out of here so he can follow you. I just noticed him yesterday. He's in here today as well,” she said as she began lifting his hospital garb.

“Great. I think it'll work as long as I don't fall through the ceiling,” he said jokingly. It's simple but the coffee's a good diversion,” Dillon told her as he pushed her onto the sink and pulled her slacks down.

“Is what we're doing... right here and now, personal?” she asked, or is this all an act just to make plans?”

“We're finished making plans, if you want me to stop,” Dillon conceded.

“God no, keep doing what you're doing,” she breathed heavily.

“When are we doing this?” Connie asked pulling up her pants.

“Tonight. Get them the coffee at midnight. I plan to walk out of her around ten,” Dillon told her as he watched her leaning over to wiggle into her clothes.

The guard next door kept his eyes on the bathroom door and kept looking at his watch. They had been in there fifteen minutes and he was hoping to catch a glimpse of something when they opened the door finally. To his disappointment, Konnie was just buttoning up her shirt when the door opened.

Dillon did what he normally did so as not to raise suspicion... he watched television. He remembered how bad it was when he left this time before. It gave him something to do and filled the void with sound.

After the nurses changed shifts, made rounds and dinner was delivered, Dillon knew he could start working on the bathroom ceiling slowly but noiselessly. If a nurse walked into the bathroom and saw the opening, she'd think maintenance was doing something. He had no idea if there was someone live watching him all the time or not but he didn't want to stay in the bathroom too long or it might raise suspicion. He'd go in there for ten minutes at a time several times to accomplish things.

He took a dinner knife into the bathroom and locked the door in case he needed it. He carefully pushed the section in the channels that were suspended. The panel lifted but wires and such were in the way so he had to cut the larger piece into smaller ones. They were old and brittle so it was easier than he thought. He used the serrated edge of the knife to saw along the interlocking tiles so he could open a large enough section. Dillon placed the pieces on top of the panel next to the opening. It went quickly but there were tracks every two feet and three feet the other way. He'd have to squeeze between the two-foot channels.

He was able to open his side in ten minutes so he jumped down from the sink and cleaned things. He went back to his bed. It was close to six o'clock.

At seven he went back to the bathroom and climbed onto the sink cabinet. He began cutting between the tiles on the other side from above trying to make as little mess as possible. The removed pieces, he moved to the side onto the ceiling. Peering over the top and down into the bathroom next door he saw a piece of paper on the sink. There was a message on it. t merely said, 'Hello, from Konnie' so he realized she had already been there.

I was six now and since he was in the clear, Dillon, decided to make his move. It was no use waiting. He turned on the sink and climbed up through the ceiling. He lowered himself to the other sink and stepped to the floor. He went to lock the door but it was already locked so he opened it and stuck his head out the door. Konnie was ahead of him, placing an 'out of order' sign on the bathroom door.

Stepping back into the bathroom he looked around and then opened the cabinet doors under the sink. There were the scrubs he wanted so he quickly changed. Looking in the mirror, he was satisfied. He tucked his long hair up under the head covering so it didn't attract attention, he lifted the clipboard she left to his face. She even left a pair of horn-rimmed glasses for him. He thought it was a good disguise as he looked into the mirror and walked out of the door, which he relocked and closed.

Nonchalantly he went out the swinging door of the lounge and turned right towards the nurses' station and the elevators. Perhaps he should have waited until later when there were fewer people and less of a chance of someone walking into his room to discover him missing but he felt the timing was right. He just needed enough time to get to the lobby and out the door.

He pushed the button at the elevator and waited. The door opened and people got off. The one was

General Gentz. Dillon kept his head down reading the clipboard to avoid eye contact but the general saw him and he saw the look on his face as if trying to place him. He wished he could rush the elevator. That's all he needed now realizing they had been tricked, knowing they were listening. He wouldn't have another chance.

He had to get out of the front doors and he had to call Konnie to tell her not to go back there. He was free. The lobby doors seemed far so he walked quickly to them. There was nothing like the feeling of stepping onto the sidewalk. 'God...the air here was horrible' he thought to himself. He walked quickly down the street two blocks and then went over three before stopping so he wouldn't be around the hospital once hell broke loose.

There was a young girl standing where he stopped just ending a phone call on her cell phone.

“Excuse me, I have an emergency call to make... it's local. May I use your phone,” he asked and she graciously handed it to him. He dialed Konnie.

“Konnie? It's the escapee. Don't go the hospital. I'm already gone,” he told her.

“Where are you? I'll be there in ten minutes,” she alerted him.

Dillon turned to give the girl her phone back. She was looking at him strangely so he realized she heard him say he was an escapee. She probably thought, from a mental institution.

He walked across the street to a store there where he could watch for Konnie to get to the spot he told her, and waited. He didn't wait long and she pulled up to the curb. He left his spot and ran across the street to her car. He surprised her because she was looking for him at the address, he gave her as he ran from the opposite direction in front of her car, then she saw him. He climbed into the car and shut the door. She immediately stepped on the gas.

“What made you decide to escape early?” she asked him patting his leg as a gesture of successful completion.

“It just felt right. I got through the ceiling easier than I thought I would and then I saw your note in the other bathroom. I figured there was no reason not to do it. I ran into that general as I was leaving but he didn't recognize me.” Dillon told her as he changed into clothes Konnie had brought him.

“How about that other guy in scrubs by the nursing station?” Konnie asked him.

“I didn't see him and frankly I forgot all about him,” Dillon told her. “Play it safe. Go back to your place. I can't risk it if that guy noticed me and is following. We'll go to where we need to later, or even tomorrow.”

“If he is following us now, the longer we wait, the more people he'll have with him,” she warned.

“Shit... you're right. OK let's keep driving. If he's following us maybe we'll notice him and we can do something. He'll stick with us and keep the general apprised. When we stop, we'll have a dozen people then to contend with.

“They want what you know and they'll try to get it from you one way or the other,” she advised.

Dillon pulled out the clipboard Konnie left him with a bunch of blank pages and began writing.

“This is the address for the time machine... and this is one of the code names there to contact. Here's a six-digit code all of the main players had to send to one of the others if there was a problem and we needed to meet. We all know things associated with this number and committed to memory when we see that number. Show it to him and the letter 'c”. He'll know what to do if anything happens to me,” he told her as he wrote,” tell him to reset everyone back to thirty-six million years and relay what happened as I told you. They have a lot of people out there they have to pick up and send back another million years.”

“We don't even know if we're being followed,” Konnie mentioned.

Dillon looked out the window and ahead and saw a high-rise parking garage.

“Turn in here and head to the top floor. If he's following us, he'll pop up there,” Dillon assumed.

Sure enough, a nondescript silver sedan pulled up on the top floor just a minute behind them. Not only was he following Konnie's car, it was probably wired with a transmitter.

“Pull behind him now. Don't let him go down the ramp,” Dillon demanded and Connie complied quickly. The man was trapped so Dillon went to his car. The man was still in his scrubs.

“What the fuck is going on here?” the man screamed as Dillon pulled the phone from the man's hand and threw it as far as he could from the building.

“You tell me. You've been watching us at the hospital and you've been following us since. Who for?” Dillon screamed as the man got out of the car. Dillon punched him and sent him bouncing off the vehicle but the man came back hitting as well. The two of them ended up rolling on the concrete floor.

Konnie was concerned if the man gave his people their location or if they were able to get it from the phone before it was thrown from the roof. Either way it wouldn't be long before others would show up.

“Dillon hurry... we don't have time,” she screamed.

They continued to fight and were back up on their feet. The tail was a better fighter and had training, you could tell, but Dillon was stronger, much stronger now, having come from the environment he had. Konnie pulled the car out and aimed it straight down the ramp in an effort to save time when they left but they still were fighting at the wall surrounding the parking building. Then suddenly they both went over as she watched.

“Dillon!” Connie screamed as she ran to the wall and looked over. Both men lay motionless on the sidewalk below having fallen six stories from the parking garage. She looked down the street then, knowing she had to escape, when she saw several vehicles speeding her way, running through signal lights and around the other traffic. She ran to her car and sped down the ramp to the exit. On her way down she passed cars coming up the ramp on the other side of the garage. They were the pursuers, unaware that their man and Dillon had fallen, or that Konnie was on the run.

Konnie had to get rid of the car. With a transmitter somewhere in it they would turn to coming after her next. She didn't know if the man following them was the only one tuned into the transmitter or if the others were too. She'd stop by a friend's place and ask to borrow his pick-up to do some work. In turn she'd leave her car.

“Hi Jerry. I hate to ask and if it's not too much trouble, can I borrow your pick up to pick up some furniture I bought on Craig's List?” she asked the guy standing there in jeans she used to work with at a rehab center. “I'll leave my car and keys with you so you can use it if you need to go somewhere.”

“Sure. That'll be fine. I'm not using it to haul anything right now. Let me get my keys. I can go with you and help.” he said leaving the room to pull his spare keys off the hook on the door frame of the kitchen. He came back twirling them around his index finger and handed them to her as she gave him hers.

“That's OK. The people there said they'd load it for me and the neighbors already said they'd help at my place,” she told him

“So, what are you up to? What have you been doing since I saw you a few weeks ago?”

“Sorry Jerry, I have to get going. If I'm not there in an hour, he's got someone else on the string to buy it,” she lied to her friend. 'The car's over there across the street.”

She parked it there figuring the people following her would find her car but not know what she switched to without spending time interviewing the neighbors unless Jerry spotted them hanging around the car. If they stopped the car and Jerry was driving it, that was a whole other issue.

“Sure Konnie. Hey let's get together sometime,” he yelled after her.

Jerry always had a soft spot for her and she knew she'd get his truck easily. So she took advantage of it. She put the address Dillon gave her into the GPS and saw it was an hour away in the rural area outside of Reston, Virginia.

She headed there aware she'd have to hide the truck somewhere a distance away and walk. All the newer vehicles had GPS locators if someone wanted to track a stolen truck they could. It might take a little longer than having a transmitter on it while it was being monitored but it still could be done.''

There was flat land in the area she stopped. According to the GPS map she knew what place had the time machine, about a mile away. She could make it out visually since there were only a few places and they were far apart. Konnie would walk it after parking the car among some bushes and trees, making it invisible. She began walking quickly towards the farm house and went to the front door to ring the bell.

A man answered the door but you could tell right away he was no farmer.

“May I help you, miss?” he asked and Konnie handed him the the paper with the number and told him 'c'. I need to talk with Adrian Chambers she said.”

The man seemed perplexed... shocked and looked at her.

“I don't understand?” he replied. The first thing she thought was something different changed the continuum where he has no idea about the number code and there might not even be a time machine here.

“Listen the guy I just left a couple of hours ago and helped escape military arrest gave me that number to give to you if anything happened to him. He came from the past... from Antarctica,” she told him and there was suddenly some sense of recognition and intense interest.

“Wait here, I'll get Adrian for you. It'll be a few minutes he's three floors down below ground,” he told her.

She stood there in the vestibule looking around. It looked like an ordinary farmhouse but this guy indicated there were at least three floors underneath it. Konnie watched out the window hoping she had slowed the posse down enough to buy time. She heard the door open behind her so she spun around to face this Adrian Chambers... it was Dillon.

“Dillon? Konnie cried. I saw you die just a couple of hours ago,” she yelled running to him and wrapping her arms around him. She was glad he was alive,” she felt the slight resistance.

“Well, calling me by my real name and not the code name proves you've met me but how... I've never met you?” he inquired.

“Scientists recovered your body frozen in the Antarctica and resuscitated you... after thirty-five million years. You told me you were a time traveler and had left in 2031 to go back. You gave me a code and your code name if anything happened to you. You told me to come here. People were after us and now they're after me. It's a matter of time before they find this place. I tried to cover my trail...” she rambled.

“Whoa... so you met me after I migrated, time wise to Antarctica then. That's amazing. Don't worry about anyone coming here. They'll never find us. Sit down and tell me the whole story,” Dillon told her, so she did.

“And that's pretty much everything. Dillon didn't want the machine falling into the wrong hands and the wrong hands are after me. If they get in here and get the machine...” Konnie started going on again.

“Calm down. This whole place is part of the machine, even what's underground. We have our own surveillance techniques around here to spy on the outside but since you're so worried, I'll take care of things right now,” he told her.

Dillon pulled out what appeared to be a phone and spoke to another person.

“Barry, take us out of phase... yeah ten minutes into the future will be fine. Keep it there until you hear from me,” he instructed. Konnie had no idea what he was doing.

“What's that all about?” she asked him.

“It's a time machine, right? I just took this whole facility ten minutes into the future, including what's underground. If they come here there will just be an empty hole since this place won't exist to them for ten minutes yet, and it will always exist ten minutes ahead of them. Great safeguard isn't it? Using what they want against them...” he revealed.

“What happens now? You have to take every body that's going yet and everyone that you already sent back another million years to avoid this disaster. If you run into yourself back there who knows what may happen,” Konnie wondered, the whole thing was a little confusing.

“Number one, we have another facility just like this we established two years in the future out in Wyoming, buried in the mountains that we can use in a pinch. At the moment it doesn't exist and won't for two years unless we use this machine to get there. We can, while this place is out of phase, go there and use that one leaving this one as it is. To anyone in the present now or the future, this place won't ever exist for ten minutes in the future yet to them,” Dillon explained. “Yeah, it gets a little confusing at times... if it's Friday it must be Belgium.”

“How many more people do you have to send back yet?” she asked.

“About one hundred twenty thousand, including myself, my wife and all the people here... and you if you'd like, since I seem to have impressed you enough to help me. If you stay, you'll have nothing but grief,” he told her.

“I don't know, two of you and two of your wives, I'd be the fifth wheel,” she ascertained. The last Dillon I knew lost his wife thirty-five million years ago. I might have been interesting having triplets around,” Konnie imagined.

“Especially if some of theories are correct about parallel duplicates canceling each other out,” Dillon told her. “But I don't think that will happen. I guess we'll see.”

About that time several vehicles and military trucks came tearing down the drive.

“Oh God they're here!” Konnie yelled frantically.

“Take it easy, we're out of phase. As long as you don't go outside more than two feet, they can't see you but we can watch them since they existed ten minutes in the past. Let's open the door and listen...” Dillon laughed.

“Go check the other houses out here. She didn't just disappear,” General Gentz told the colonel. “There's just a really deep hole here that makes no sense but it looks like there's nothing here of interest.” the General told him while motioning the others to head out. Konnie hoped Jerry's truck got back to him in good order.

* * *

The evenings here were beautiful. Konnie had fallen in love with the place and the time. It cooled off a lot in the evening and you had to wear your jacket but the days often made it to around seventy. It was like that year-round. There weren't ice caps here yet. The oceans hadn't changed their currents to cause global cooling. The currents are what effect everything, especially the weather. Changes in the magnetosphere, as Dillon explained or Earth axis shifting could initiate changes, but right now, not for a million years. And then if you cold just keep some arrogant alien from playing around with Mother Nature, thinking he had all the answers because he was so advanced, maybe just maybe the future might not be that bad.

.