Part 2: Distance

Samantha led the group, her handgun aimed forward, laser sight shining a small emerald dot on the far wall. Landon and Abigail were close behind, his weight resting on her shoulder. They moved slowly through the bowels of the Industrial Science Operations Organization.

They passed by the security room. Abigail tried to pull away, but Landon stopped her. Their eyes met and she instantly knew Howard was dead. They continued on toward the stairwell that led to the laboratory.

Ahead of them, Samantha had stopped at the door to the stairwell. The door was locked with chains.

“Landon…?” Samantha started.

“This wasn’t like this,” he cut her off.

“That’s because I locked it,” the voice came again from nowhere. Abigail spun, nearly dropping Landon. The man in the black suit faced her. She analyzed the young man’s face and it took a moment before she recognized him. The last time she had seen the face he was much, much younger.

“Mr. Jones?” she asked.

Landon looked down to her, “Who are you talking to?”

She looked to him, confused.

“You don’t see him?” she asked. Landon shook his head “no.”

“You see, Abigail. We will always come for you. You died for a reason. And this, man, will not keep you alive forever,” he said, gesturing to Landon.

The emergency lights began to dim, and both Samantha and Landon’s VIGs flickered slightly.

“Oh no,” Landon whispered under his breath.

“You have to understand Abigail, he will always come for you. Until you have been perished from time, Xander will come for you.”

Landon turned to Sam, “Get the chains off the door, now.”

The mechanical echo of Xander’s legs began bouncing down the hallway toward the lobby that the group of three stood in. Samantha holstered her weapon, and pulled a lock-pick set from a pocket on her vest. Abigail looked away from Walter for only a moment, and he was gone. Landon left Abigail’s side, limping toward the doorway that Xander’s echoes came from. He fell with his back against the wall, five-seven gripped firmly between his fingers. His head poked from the doorway, and an even larger version of Xander approached the lobby.

Landon leaned back in, holstering his gun. He removed his replacement breaching tape from its pouch on his belt, along with a new detonator. He tossed the detonator to Abigail, and immediately began lining the door frame with the tape.

Samantha very calmly twisted the lock pick, feeling a small tumbler near the back being stubborn. She eased off, took a deep breath and went at it again. It gave way easier the second time.

“Sam, we’re running out of time.”

“Don’t rush me,” she snapped back, her hands remaining perfectly still.

Landon unholstered the five-seven and limped away from the door.

“The second you see him, blow the door,” he whispered to Abigail.

They both moved toward Samantha, Landon keeping his sights trained at the door. Xander’s front mechanical legs passed through the front door. Abigail slammed down on the detonator.

Nothing.

Xander smiled and began moving toward the group. Landon fired off a shot, the bullet hitting the breaching tape, exploding the door frame. Pieces of wood and drywall debris collapsed onto Xander’s shoulders.

The lock on the chains fell to the ground. Samantha began pulling the chains off the handles. They clunked to the floor as Xander shook the debris from his armor.

The double doors swung open and Samantha turned to face Xander, pulling her handgun.

“Landon, am I alive in your time?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Then I’ll stay, you two make it back,” she said, smiling slightly.

Abigail and Landon moved through the doorway. Landon glanced back at Samantha once before following Abigail down the stairs. The doors closed behind them. Samantha turned again as Xander approached on four robotic legs.

His eyes squinted at her and she lowered her gun, as she knew what was coming.

The door to the lower labs slid open. Abigail entered first, stopping at a computer to power on the device.

Landon limped passed her to the device as it raised from the center of the room. Abigail approached, “How did you make it work?”

“I just touched it.”

Suddenly, the sliding door shattered open. Xander entered the room. Landon pulled Abigail behind him. The device entered its final sounding on stage, a rising tone echoing off the lab walls. Xander lifted a front leg and destroyed the computer.

The five-seven came unholstered again. Landon began firing at Xander’s head. Xander began approaching. The bullets ricocheted off the metal. A single bullet hit the visor and cracked the glass. Still Xander came closer.

The device’s hum stopped rising and the outside edges turned blue. Xander lifted his leg again bringing it down toward Landon.

Abigail wrapped her left arm around Landon’s waist and slammed her right hand closed around the device. Time froze. The bullet casing hovering just out of the slide, the bullet still illuminated from the blast.

Xander’s leg was mere inches from Landon’s forehead. Particles had exploded from inside Abigail’s hand. And not even a fraction of a second later, they were both gone.

Part 2: The Long Way Home

Samantha stared at Landon and Abigail, not quite taking in the entire room and its destruction.

“After you died, I went after the P-O. How did you… not… die? Your biometric suit’s sensors went nuts, and you flat-lined… and…”

Landon stood, helping up Abigail from the black water. He wasn’t listening to Samantha, and honestly, could barely hear her over the ringing in his ears. He limped over to the wall and leaned against it, letting out a sigh as his weight was taken off his leg.

He barely lifted his hand, keeping the other firmly pressed against his ribs, “Sam… what happened at the P-O?”

“I apprehended two of them, and had to put down one of the others. They were powering on some small device. And then I the building seemed to shake, so I made my way to… here.” She finally looked around the room and realized she was standing in ankle deep black water from the sprinkler system. One of the fluorescent tubes hung from the light fixture and sparked, the embers dissipating before they hit the water.

“I need to go back down to the P-O and turn the machine back on.” He said.

“Why?” Samantha asked, and then looked to Abigail, “What does it do?”

Abigail froze, realizing that not less than a year before she had sat in the conference room, with blackout blinds covering the windows, and a white noise disruptor on in the corner. She had discussed at length with several engineers what the device could do, and what would happen if anyone was to find out about it. The meeting ended with her signing a document stating that she wouldn’t tell anyone lest she be fired and sued for more money than she’d ever made in her life.

“It’s a chrono-dimensional…. trans..porter?” She said, almost confused by the words that had come from her mouth.

“Chrono…. time machine?” Samantha put together, “And it works?” She said looking at Landon. A small smirk crossed his face.

“I need to use the device to take Abigail and myself back to my time. To not even seconds after I left. Is that possible?” he asked Abigail.

She nodded. He looked back to Samantha.

“First I need some things from the truck,” he said, pushing himself from the wall, and started limping toward Samantha.

Outside, Samantha opened the back of the SUV and lifted up on the storage lid in the back. Landon rested on the bumper and forced off the shirt of his biometric suit. He dropped it to the ground, his chest covered in cuts and bruises. Samantha pulled a roll of medical wrap and started circling Landon’s torso, pulling tight enough to make him short of breath. She moved around to the back seat and pulled out a duffel bag, while Landon pulled out two syringes. He sifted through a couple of bottles of anti biotics until he found the one he was looking for. He filled both syringes with a couple milometers of the liquid. He held his bruised left arm out straight and very carefully pressed the needle into his brachial artery. He barely flinched at the needle, squeezed the liquid in and removed the needle.

He dropped it into a bio hazard container on the back of the SUV hatch, picked up the next needle and looked at Abigail.

“Arm,” he said, extending his hand to her, “so the mold doesn’t get you sick.”

She rolled up her damp sleeve, and before she knew it Landon was putting her needle into the bio hazard container.

Samantha rounded the corner with another bio-metric shirt and handed it to Landon. He forced it over his head. He slide his wrist brace back onto his left wrist and powered on his VIG. Abigial watched in amazement as the small computer powered on, pulling data and images from the laptop in the front seat.

He stood, and stretched his back and then turned his neck from side to side. He looked at Abigail, holding up the device.

“This will hurt. Are you ready for it?” His eyes were honest, and she stared at them, unable to answer.

“What’s the plan?” Samantha asked, bringing the laptop to the back of the SUV.

“The plan is,” he looked at Abigail, “If we can make this thing work. Abigail and I time travel.”

Part 2: Coming Around

Landon Daniels had been drunk many times in his life. His first time was when he was twelve years old, at his father’s 40th birthday party. As a joke his dad passed him a beer. And then another. And another.

His whole body ached as he curled up on the bathroom floor next to the toilet. He had never been so sick, or in pain in his entire life. Until now.

He wasn’t sure what it was that woke him up, but when he finally opened his eyes his vision was blurry. He waited a moment before moving, checking over his body with his mind, like a computer checks itself for viruses. Spine: in tact. Arms: in tact. Legs: in tact. Collar bone: broken. Brain: concussed. He slowly moved his head to the side and lifted his hand up in front of his face. Half his glove was torn off and missing. His vision still blurry. He could make out the orange swirls of fire that couldn’t be reached by the overhead sprinkler system. He lay in a puddle of black water on the floor. He lowered his hand against the ground and pushed himself up.

He continued staring around the room, trying to force his eyes to focus. He noticed a ringing in his ears, but only as it faded and the sound of the sprinklers took its place. He closed his eyes. He opened them again when the sprinkler system shut off. They snapped open like waking from a nightmare. He looked around the room again, drywall debris littered the floor, the chalk insides making a paste with the water.

“Abigail,” he coughed out, barely audible. At this point he realized one of his ribs was broken. He took a deep breath, and placed his hand on against the wall, using it to climb into a standing position.

The carpet between him and the open vent where Abigail had vanished was destroyed and burned around the edges of the blast. The concrete underneath was cracked. He saw a hand half buried in drywall. As he made his way to it, the water splashed and the smell of it made him nauseous. He let out another dry cough and continued toward the buried hand, still bracing himself on the wall.

After what felt like the longest walk of his life, he dropped down onto his knees and knocked away the drywall. It was Xander’s hand, and not much more. He pushed the hand away, and looked across the room again. He saw the faintest sliver of movement near the open vent. He tried to stand, but the pain in his ribs kept him down. He started crawling across the floor, his knees and elbows in pain; his wrist shot a stabbing-splinter like pain up his forearm, but still he crawled. He knocked away some drywall and found Abigail lying face up, the water up to her ears.

He slid his hand under her neck and lifted her up, leaning her against his legs. After a moment she began coughing until she was awake. She smiled at Landon, and lifted her arm. She still clutched the detonator in her hand. He laughed a bit, but it was immediately overtaken by a cough.

“Landon?” a familiar voice echoed off the mostly destroyed walls of the lobby. He turned his head, and Samantha stood in the doorway, her sidearm pointed at both of them. “I heard you die. How’re you alive?”

Part 2: Leg of the Beast

Abigail kept slamming her hands into the button on the elevator, but it would never come. The echoes of Xander’s mechanical legs echoed down the hallway. Landon burst through the door and into the lobby with Abigail.

“Why won’t the elevator work?” she screamed at him, her body shaking with panic.

“The power was cut shortly after you…” He looked away.

“After I what?” she said, her fingers resting against the down button.

He paused a moment, deciding whether or not to tell her.

“Died… I can’t explain. The only way out of here is this,” he said pulling the device from his pocket and showing it to Abigail.

“The TD-X1A,” she looked up at him, their eyes locking, “This thing works?”

“Apparently, and we need it to work again.”

“How did you know where to have it send you?” she said, looking it over for damage. Xander’s echoes began growing louder.

“All I know is…” he check the corner, no visual sign of Xander, “I have to get back from where I came from. And you can come with me if you want.”

She looked at him, and with confidence said, “We can do this.”

She bolted across the lobby toward a flat wall. She started feeling her hand around the seams where the walls met. Landon reloaded, and looked around the corner again. Xander’s shadow strung the entire length of the hallway as he moved toward the lobby.

“What are you looking for?” he shouted across the room to Abigail.

“This!” she yelled back and she grabbed ahold of a small piece of the wall’s paint colored wallpaper. She pulled it down revealing a crawlspace covered by a large grate. “This will take us where we need to go.”

She wrapped her fingers around the edge of the grate, pulling as hard as she could. Landon holstered the five-seven on his walk to the grate, lightly pushed her out of the way, and dug his fingers in around the grate. His muscles flexed as the grate came free from the drywall beneath. He stood to throw the grate away. Xander watched them both.

“Go!” he shouted, as Abigail let out a scream. Landon threw the grate across the room, Xander knocking it away like a fly. Abigail dropped to her hands and knees and climbed into the duct.

Landon reached behind, and opened two containers from his belt. From them he pulled out all of his adhesive door breaching strips, and the other the remote detonator. He dropped his shoulders and took off in a dead sprint across the lobby toward Xander, who smirked at him.

As he approchaed, Landon faked left and went right, his chest instantly connecting with Xander’s forearm. Everything felt frozen as Landon’s feet kicked out from under him and he felt his center of gravity shift to his neck. He slammed down onto the thin carpet and let out a painful cough. His vision dazed a moment he realized the detonator was missing from his hand. Xander lifted his foot and moved it over Landon. As Xander’s boot came down, Landon rolled away, sticking a piece of the strip to Xander’s pants. Xander lifted his foot again, kicking Landon, rolling him across the floor of the lobby.

Dizzy, Landon lifted his head to see the dark beast coming at him. Xander reached down and picked up Landon by his shirt, bringing him to eye left. Xander pulled his head back and smacked the helmet into Landon’s exposed shoulder, sending a loud crack into the air, followed by a scream of pain.

“He’s not the target,” a man’s voice said, coming from nowhere. Xander stopped and looked to his side. A man dressed in a black suit stood facing the two. Landon could barely lift his head, staring at Xander’s chest.

“Drop him!” Abigail shouted, standing near the duct clutching the detonator.

“She is,” the man said. Xander dropped Landon. He landed on his knees and slumped backwards and to the side, his body exhausted. Xander began walking toward the girl.

“Stop!” she yelled at him; he continued walking toward her. She pulled the trigger on the detonator and in a fraction of a second a large explosion came from Xander’s leg, blowing both of them off and sending his torso across the room. The ground caught fire, and the blast wave threw Abigail to the ground. After a moment the sprinkler system came on, flooding the lobby in black molded water that had sat stagnant for more than a year.

Part 2: Duplicates

Landon pulled himself up each step in the stairwell. The pain had passed, but his overall body was still stiff. He pushed open the door, exiting the stairwell. He checked the corners and then holstered his gun. Abigail’s office door was unlocked, just as it had been before. He paused, Had it been before? Was it later, now? His head began to hurt. He pushed the door open and his eyes immediately went to the ground. Her body was missing.

Landon checked his VIG, the time displayed in bright blue letters 9:57p.

“Abigail?” Landon whispered. He rounded the corner and looked under the desk. Nothing.

His earpiece chirped loudly and faint scratchings of his own voice came through, “This must be their extraction point…”

The door to the office slammed shut. He jumped back, pulling his five-seven and aiming it at the cause of the slam. Abigail stood in front of him in a purple blouse and dark grey skirt, both stained from coffee. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a bun. She held a coat rack in her hands like a staff.

“Who are you?!” she shouted at him, thrusting the coat rack toward him. “Drop the gun, or…” her words faded as she wasn’t sure what she was capable of.

Landon lowered the pistol, flipped the safety on with his thumb and slid it back into his holster.

“My name is Landon Daniels… and,” his eyes drifted for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain something he did not understand yet.

“Why did you try to kill me, Landon Daniels?” she said thrusting the coat rack again, “I heard the gunshots and then a bullet magically destroys my computer monitor. And then you show up with a gun pointed at me.”

The lights began to dim. Abigail stepped back, forcing herself into the corner. Landon crossed the room quickly, pushing the coat rack aside and grabbed Abigail’s shoulders.

“If you want to live through tonight, you will do what I say. We have to move. Got it?” he said, staring straight into her faint blue eyes.

She barely nodded. He grabbed her hand, pulled her from the corner and opened the office door. He pulled the five-seven and checked the corners, moving toward the stairwell.

Gunshots echoed through the hallway. Abigail started to pull away from the sound, coming free from Landon. He holstered the pistol and spun to grab her. He heard his earpiece squeal again as Sam’s voice shouted in his ear, “Landon… what’s wrong… your heart rate… Landon?”

A mechanical sound began echoing through the halls. As it grew louder, Landon sprinted behind her, grabbing her shoulders and pulling her to the ground. He slid behind a corner and brought her behind with him.

Xander walked by the hallway. His legs completely metal, and his torso covered in a metal body armor; the pink of his fingers the only visible flesh on his body.

Landon whispered to Abigail, “That is not who I fought before.” Xander paused a moment, and turned his head toward where Abigail and Landon hid. Xander moved toward them, placing his fingers against the top of the filing cabinet that the couple was hidden behind.

“I see you, Daniels.” Xander said, his fingers digging into the plate metal and throwing the filing cabinet down the hallway. Landon opened fire into Xander’s face, each bullet bouncing off his helmet.

“Abigail run,” Landon shouted over his gunfire. Xander planted his hands around Landon’s vest. Landon kicked his legs onto Xander’s chest, extending his legs until his vest tore, freeing himself from Xander’s grasp. He landed on his back, rolled away to his feet and began running.

Xander tossed the tactical vest away, and began following.

Landon rounded a corner into the lobby where Abigail was frantically slamming her fingers onto the down button.

Xander’s mechanical legs echoed down the hall.

Part 2: The Void

The void; the empty space where time no longer exists. Few have ever passed through it, and fewer will realize it when they do. It is darkness, absent of all light. Not just visual light, but the feeling of safety and warmth. The darkness is so thick that it eats at your skin, and pupils as they pierce as hard as they can trying to find any shape of anything. But they will never see anything but darkness.

For Landon, the darkness began to burn him almost instantly, but on the far end of his journey it was a burst of colors, blue and green, followed by a high pitch scream and an explosion of white. It tore at his body and soul for what felt like hours, yet he knew, when he opened his eyes, that it had only been a fraction of a second. All of his muscles tightened, his knuckles ached, fingers locked in a closed fist. His knees grew tight and stiff as if he’d been sitting on the couch for hours watching a losing football game. His whole spine became stiff, and his brain ached to feel the release of popping it.

At the end of the light, and pain Landon was vomited onto the ground of the parking lot outside ISO-squared. He let out a squeal in pain. Steam came from his body, the air warm almost hot to his senses. He tried to stand, but fell instantly. He began coughing and immediately puked. He fought to get away from the space he’d landed in, the air oddly cold in a single pocket. He ripped at his helmet, trying to get it off, but his fingers didn’t want to work. The latch came free with some force, and the helmet fell to the ground. He took a deep breath of oxygen. His hair drenched as if he’d just hopped out of the shower.

He rested on his knees for a moment and then looked at the device from the lower labs, sitting on the concrete still orange as if it had been recently forged by a blacksmith. He opened his palm and saw a burn on his gloves, and then looked back to the device. He shook his head a moment, trying to wrap his brain around what happened. He looked to his left wrist, his VIG still functional. The time read 9:42pm. What? He tightened his eyelids, trying to adjust his eyes to the faint glow from the streetlights, but the brightness from the VIG’s screen.

He began crawling across the concrete to get a view of the front of the building. The thieves’ van was parked out front, and the unexpected bogie stood there playing with his phone. But Sam killed him. A sharp pain went straight through his head.

He grabbed the device, shoved it into a pocket and stood, his legs shaking. He waited a moment, hands against his knees bent over as if he would vomit again. He looked up at the building and saw Abigail’s office; the only square of light on the otherwise dark side of the building. He started to move toward the fire exit on the ground floor under her office. His body betrayed him at every step. He clung onto the railing of the stairs and looked up the single flight to the door.

“Come on, I can do this,” he said, as he struggled to lift his right foot high enough to place on the first step. His knee popped, and with it a surge of relief sailed up his leg. He began twisting his other knee, and it finally popped after a moment of sharp pain. He began moving up the stairs again, slowly getting closer to the door. He checked his VIG, time reading 9:46. Longest four minutes of my life. He thought as he crested another step. He placed his hand on the door and pulled. The magnetic lock stopped the door. His eyes widened in surprise.

He yanked the door again, the lock still holding. Frustrated he took a step back, pulling his five-seven from his holster. He took a deep breath and fired once into the glass. Splinters shot out into the shape of a spiderweb, the glass unbroken. He fired again, creating another spiderweb.

On the floors above, Abigail was making her way to down the hallway with Howard.

He checked his VIG again, the time reading 9:50. He fired again, this time into the space between the door and the jam, straight into the magnet. A spark fired off the metal.

Abigail entered her office. She sat down in her chair and adjusted the lumbar support as she opened another document on her computer. She let out a large sigh as she lifted her mug for one drink before getting started. The lights in the office began to dim.

The streetlights outside dimmed. Landon aimed again and fired furiously into the magnet, shot after shot rang out. Abigail jumped from her chair, spilling coffee on herself and then tripping over her chair. A burst of particles exploded next to her window. From it, a single bullet traveled the three feet from inside the glass to her computer monitor, shattering glass and wires across the desk. She let out a scream, scrambling under her desk.