Chapter 26: Consolidating conversations
[23/01/2008 – 00:45]
Loud sirens echoed in the distance through the suburb streets. Every now and then, a police car blaring its siren would speed through the street outside the house, putting everyone on edge while they all watched it pass.
Since dinner, not much had been spoken about. Anthony spent most of the time sitting on the veranda in the back yard, chain-smoking away the last of his cigarettes as he scrolled through his phone mindlessly. June was with him for a while but retreated to one of the bedrooms after the silence in lack of conversation got to her.
Julia started messing around with an old computer that was sitting in the corner of the room while Alice, Sean, and Harry took stock of the weapons they had acquired and lost throughout the day and then spent time cleaning them.
Alice finished cleaning the last of the weapons in her pile and stood up to stretch, letting her young body embrace the lack of tense muscles.
"You finished?" Sean asked.
"What does it look like?" she responded harshly, "Yeah, I'm going to make the rounds."
"Make the rounds?" Sean asked.
"God you can be such an idiot sometimes," Alice said turning her back to him, "It's to quiet in here, I'm going to go make conversation."
"Ask everyone if they would like some tea?" Harry chimed in.
"Yeah," Alice said waving her hand behind her, "Whatever."
She walked over to Julia who was face deep in an old computer that was sitting on the table in the corner of the room.
"Hey," Alice said to strike up a dialogue, "What are you doing?"
"I'm stripping the motherboard and PSU, as well as the wireless card to make a radio so we can listen in on the police channels," Julia said, "I'm just having a bit of trouble getting the frequency tuner to work."
"Hey, look," Alice said, "That's great work and all, but do you have a moment to chat?" she asked. Julia pulled her head out from under the desk, pulling with her an assortment of wires and computer chips.
"What exactly are you wanting to chat about?" Julia asked, "If you're here to inquire about my feelings then don't bother. Your boyfriend said it clearly enough. I'm either with you guys, or some other faction is going to pick me up, willingly or not."
"He's not my boyfriend!" Alice said defensively.
"It doesn't matter," Julia said, "I get it, I don't really have a choice in the matter."
"I hate that we have to be like this though," Alice said, "Yeah, sure, you don't have a choice in any of this. Whether it is us, the preservationists or the NOW or even the freedoms front, people will be fighting over you no matter what, but that doesn't mean you have to resent Sean and I."
"Why not?" Julia said, "I don't think you understand what it feels like to be completely powerless, to have no choice, no agency in your own life. You and Sean chose the life you did when you could have easily just invested some money into some tech companies that you know will get big in the future. You chose to be apart of whatever it is you are fighting, I didn't choose that, I was a lucky dip prize and you and Sean were the first to reach their hand in and pull me out. I'm nothing more than an expensive toy for you."
"Where are you getting that impression from!?" Alice asked.
"Let me ask you," Julia said, "Why did you come to get me at the café today?" she asked, "Is it because you are my friends? Is it because you want to get to know me? Is it because you thought that our personalities would click? Or was it because you have had prior knowledge that I am a software engineer from the future and what you gain from me isn't comradery, but labor."
"Is that what you think we are doing?" Alice asked, "Because I don't feel that way."
"You don't feel anything Alice," Julia said, "I could tell very quickly that you are missing something. You lack a healthy sense of fear, turning the boat around to go back and save Sean from Prey. You lack empathy. I don't care about Sean or his aunt but you, as his comrade should be able to feel the pain he feels, but instead, you agree with me, that she shouldn't be here."
Julia stood up and placed the electrical components on the bench next to her and leaned against the wall. Her straight black hair a little frizzled from working near the electronics.
"You are smart," Julia said, "But you don't care, not about me, not about anyone else, not even your boyfriend."
"Not my boyfriend," Alice said.
"Let's not pretend we are friends here. The only person you care about is yourself."
The words cut deep as Julia turned back to the desk and continued to work on her creation.
"You're being a bit unfair," Alice said.
"Please," Julia said, "This might be a game to both you and Sean, but it's not a game to me, and it's not a game to the people that are dying because of this war that we are all fighting amongst ourselves as time travelers."
"I'll leave you alone," Alice said, "But to leave this so that it's not a once sided conversation, think about this. You have only known me for half a day. You can't say that you can read me like a book only after half a day. I'm not that predictable, and you're wrong about me not caring. I do care. I care about Sean and I care about the future. I care about the fact that the planet is warming at an alarming rate and that island nations will fall below sea level. I care about the hundreds of thousands of people that are going to die because of conflicts that I know we can avoid with diplomacy. I care about the fact that we have knowledge of the future and that it's our prerogative, no, our duty to fucking do something about it. And I care about Sean more than you can ever glean from half a days' worth of knowing us. I've spent the last five years training my self in combat just so I can protect him because he's going to be the one to figure all of this out. He's the one with the power to manipulate time."
"Are you done?" Julia asked.
"How rude!" Alice said.
"I don't know how long you plan on continuing with your life story, but I'll tell you this much. I don't care. I will help you and Sean so long as it keeps me alive. My allegiance isn't to you or whatever because you are fighting for. My allegiance is to myself and keeping me alive."
"And you said I'm the one that lacks empathy," Alice said.
"Alice are we done here?" Julia said, "Because I'd like to get back to working on this radio to keep us alive."
"Whatever," Alice said, turning her back to walk away, "I hope you come around to the idea of liking us and maybe even being our friend, but you just do whatever you do."
Alice walked into the hallway of the house and slapped the walls with her hand. What was she expecting? No one had really asked how she felt about the whole situation, and from that conversation, Alice had derived that Julia really wasn't happy with the situation she was in. Although she was incredibly scathing with her words. It's not like Alice had a choice, they were just following Grey's orders.
Alice stormed outside to where Anthony was still sitting, scrolling through his phone and smoking a cigarette. Alice pulled up a chair and sat across the way from him. Waiting for him to finish whatever it was he was reading and to look up at her.
"Laura," he said.
"Alice," Alice replied.
"Yep, no, Alice. My apologies," he said, "Did you come out here to talk to me?" he asked.
June also stepped outside, moments after Alice did. She took the cigarette from Anthony and started smoking it herself. Anthony pulled another cigarette out from his pocket and lit it up.
"I wouldn't mind talking to both of you actually," Alice said, "So it's a good thing you came outside too, June."
"You wanted to talk to me?" June asked.
"Yeah, both of you," Alice said, "What are you going to do?"
Anthony took a long drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke out slowly up into the air above him before returning his gaze to Alice who was glaring back at him.
"We're pretty screwed," he said, "There isn't really a way out of this for us. Police are probably going to link us as accomplices to your crimes and arrest us if we go in," he said. He looked up at June who was standing at the chair beside him, "We can't exactly go in and say that we willingly went along with time travelers who were fighting over another time traveler and we went after them because one of the time travelers was my partners nephew but isn't actually her nephew because he's a time traveler."
"If you keep saying time traveler," Alice said, "The word starts to lose it's meaning."
"It's already lost its meaning," Anthony said returning his gaze to the young, bubbly girl he once knew, now embodied by a time traveler.
"What are we going to do?" June asked.
"I don't know," Anthony said, "My original plan was to work, save up money and buy a bunch of houses so I could live off the rent. But now, my entire future has kind of gone up in smoke," he said, "All of my plans, my dreams, my wishes. Gone. We're pretty much fugitives now."
"So," Alice said, "What are you two going to do?"
"It feels absolutely stupid to ask this, but would we be able to come with you?" Anthony asked, "We wouldn't stay forever. But long enough to figure out our lives again."
"Are you sure that's okay?" June asked.
"We don't really have any other option," he said, "They seem to have some sort of plan to get out of all this mess, and we are just sitting in the dark."
"You can," Alice said.
June and Anthony both turned their heads to look at her.
"Can we?" Anthony asked!
"Yeah," Alice said, "You can come with us, but as you said, only until you figure things out. Then, it would be best if you left and forgot about us."
"Maybe we could help you?" June asked.
"Highly unlikely," Alice said bluntly, "We hardly even know what it is that we're dealing with and we're from the future."
"If we do come with you," Anthony said, "We won't be a burden."
"That's not my issue," Alice said.
"Then what's the problem?" June asked.
Alice stood up and stretched before walking to the door back inside.
"The problem is, if we abandon you here," Alice started, "Sean is going to get all weird and depressed and blame himself for everything. If you coming with us means he won't have a mild break down then it's a small price to pay."
"Where are we going then?" June asked.
"I'd like to know that too," said Anthony.
"Ehh, I'll tell you when we leave Melbourne. I don't exactly trust the both of you fully yet," Alice said before walking back inside.
The smoke lingered in the air as June and Anthony sat outside, smoking together. They sat there in silence before June broke that silence.
"What are we getting ourselves into?" she asked.
"What have you gotten us into," Anthony said.
"Are you blaming me?" she asked.
"No, no I'm not," he said. Anthony stood up and started to walk back inside, "I'm tired, let's get some sleep."
"Yeah," June said, "Sleep."
* * * * *
I sat at the table as Harry bought me a cup of tea. He passed one cup to me and placed another cup down in front of him and sat at the table with me.
"Hey Harry, you've done shady stuff in the past right?" I asked, "Did you ever find your self in a situation where all of your training was good and all, and it just went right out the window the second you were in a fight?"
"Sean," Harry said, "I'm not exactly sure what you went through today and even if you explained it to me, I'm still not sure that I'd understand it. But what I can tell you is this. If you train hard enough, you won't forget it in combat. The only reason you would forget your training in combat is if something happens that you haven't trained for."
"That kind of happened," I said, "I'd always trained for fighting other people with guns and I'm fine with that, I don't feel too much danger if I'm fighting people with guns, but when I fought this other guy today who had the same powers like me, the ability to manipulate time. I just forgot everything, my mind went blank and it was like I was fighting almost mindlessly. The only reason we got away was because he underestimated me and I got the upper hand for a brief moment, but he won't be making that mistake again."
"So, you say this other man was like you, and he had the power to manipulate time," Harry said, "Have you ever trained to fight against someone who can manipulate time?" He asked.
"No," I said, "No I haven't."
"Then that's your answer," Harry said, "It's your training didn't just go out the window because you were in a combat situation. You just weren't trained to deal with someone like that. The solution is to start training, that's all I can really say."
"What are your thoughts?" I asked, "You've been with us for about a week now. What do you think of us?"
"My opinions are irrelevant Sean," he said, "I've been briefed enough about what it is you're doing and what it is you're trying to achieve. My job is to help you guys do that. To help take care of you so can focus on more important things. Like training."
"And you're okay with that?" I asked, "Someone who has done shady work before, now working as some caretaker for a couple of kids who came from the future?"
"First of all, Sean, don't refer to your selves as a couple of kids, we all know that's not true. Saying that only serves to dishearten yourself. It shows a real lack of confidence," Harry said, "Secondly, am I okay with it? I might have told you this before, but I am being paid very well to do this job. Very, very well. It's good pay, and my life isn't in danger as much as it was in my previous lines of work. I am more than happy to play caretaker."
"You know, back when we were going to go check out the Preservationists hideout, and I said that we shouldn't and that we should keep driving," I said, "Truth is, that was the second time that happened. The first time, we actually went there, we located their hideout and grabbed their data, but it was a trap and they caved the whole place in on us. Alice and I were about to die. I watched Alice die once. Then, time rewound back to the point where we were on the highway, and it's just getting to me really badly, that I saw Alice die. Every time I look at her it's weird, but I haven't told her that yet and I don't know what to do."
"Neither do I?" Harry said.
"Huh?"
"Look, Sean, thank you for giving me this information as it's something that's important to know, but as for whether you should tell Alice, I'll give you this bit of advice. You two are a team, you three now. And for a team to function properly, there shouldn't be any secrets. We should all be completely open with each other."
"Are you saying I should tell her?" I asked.
"I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just telling you how a successful team works together. It's up to you, what you do."
"Caretake, security guard, chauffeur, psychologist," I said, "Are there any skills you don't have?" I asked jokingly.
"I'm not your psychologist," Harry laughed, "I'm just a man who has lived some years. A few more years than you, but some."
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