Chapter 1

Complex Existence


Chapter 1

January 2003

Tommy left the house early as usual to catch the bus to college ramming his cereals down his throat like there was no tomorrow. Humming a Travis tune in his head he locked the door and proceeded to walk to the bus stop gently walking in the brisk breeze wondering what pointless humdrum he was going to learn today. When they had said architecture he thought he was going to build something instead of making card houses as the lecturer spoke about foundations.
As he got on the bus he paid an extra 10p; what he really wanted was to find out what went on at a building to his right. It was like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, nobody ever went in and nobody left. He turned up his music and gave a quick smile to a rather attractive girl on his left.
This had become a routine obsession; every day he got on this bus he would wonder; wonder if he could just walk in, or what he’d find.
The bus stopped right by the strange building, being a regular Tommy knew most people who got on and off but for some reason he didn’t recognize the man who had just paid the driver. He was wearing dark glasses and carrying a briefcase; well actually hugging it to his chest; he looked flustered and was sweating buckets, nervous in fact.
“Is this seat taken?” The stranger asked
“No.” Tommy replied.
“I’m Tommy.”
The man sat down gave a fake grin and continued to twitch his legs. Tommy just carried on listening to his music. The bus stopped and the man walked through the people sitting on either side of him, didn’t even thank the bus driver and was gone.
It was then Tommy noticed that the man had left his wallet and a disk. He put it in his pocket, he decided to investigate it later and didn’t hand it to bus driver.
The bus stopped and Tommy briskly got off, he wanted to know what was on the disk, but first he opened the wallet and to his surprise was £1000 of crisp brand new money, a picture of a woman and a contact address and telephone.
He put the wallet in his zip up pocket running his conscience over wondering if he should spend the money. He decided that he would skip lectures and see what was on the disk.
The library was located on the fourth floor and he had to pass his lecture room. He waited and watched like a predator until all had entered the room. He suddenly had a strange chill run through his body because he thought he saw the man run past the library. It couldn’t be him so he carried on as planned.
“Do you want to use the internet?” The librarian asked.
“No just a computer.”
He was shown to computer 54, there he sat, waited till she had gone and logged on. The computer loaded quickly and soon he was staring at the screen, he rammed in the disk and found the file was a word processing file. He clicked it and after a short while it loaded. He was amazed what he saw, there were a lot of formulas, pictures, but he guessed that the information was to do with a time machine. The machine was simple in design, it was in the shape of a normal watch and as you change the time you travel. Was this man a lunatic? But then something caused him to doubt the earlier, for there was a stamp, the same stamp that was on the gate as the unusual building.
Tommy sat back and rummaged through the wallet for the contact number, he wondered if curiosity would kill the cat, and how he was going get the information out of the man. He printed off a copy before leaving the library taking the disk with him and proceeded to the phones. He rang the number, it rang,; somebody answered. A nervous voice spoke.
“Hello”
“Hello this is Tommy.”
“Tommy, Tommy who?”
“I was on the bus, I know.”
“Know what?”
“I’ve got the disk.”
“What disk?”
“Don’t be ignorant with me.” Tommy shouted.
“You don’t understand you’re just a boy Can I see the watch?” The man replied
“No”
The man trembled after this answer but added
“Meet me at 1340 at the west end bridge, come alone or no deal. I want the disk and wallet back.”
This was too easy, Tommy thought, why had he been so willing to meet him? He decided he would meet him but he had over 4 hours before the rendezvous. He could go and buy some things.
Meanwhile…
“Did you get the meeting point?”
“Yeah 13:40 at the west end bridge.”
“Do you know what the man looks like?”
“Yeah but not the person who’s got the disk.”
“Good, I want snipers ready, I want the boy killed because he knows too much, but the man must be kept alive.”
“Yes sir”

Tommy got a taxi into town; he gave the taxi driver a massive tip then headed straight to the clothes store. He got inside and the cashier gave him a annoyed look. Tommy felt uneasy he was sure he had been here before. He picked some nice trousers and took them to the till.
“So your actually gonna buy something and not spend half an hour browsing like you did an hour ago.”
“Excuse me, I don’t understand, I’ve only been here 5 minutes and I wasn’t here an hour ago.”
Tommy said.
“God, you’re a Looney, aren’t you, I watched you, you were looking for someone.”
“Wasn’t me mate.”
“WHATEVER!”
What was all that about? He wondered, the cashier was so sure he had been there before. Tommy was deep in thought puzzled by what had just happened. Maybe he had a long lost twin or something. The clock ticked away as he ate in a posh restaurant with his new clothes. He had spent £300 in the past half hour. He felt good about himself and almost forgot about the meeting. He woke with a jolt; he had fallen asleep on the park bench. Luckily he still had the disk and wallet; He had ten minutes for meeting time.
The man was early Tommy could see him, but he couldn’t see him. He waited for the right time then approached him.
“Okay, this is it. I’ve been working on a new high tech watch with gadgets for the military, the time travel jargon is a cover up, and on the disk are encrypted files and procedures needed to operate the watch.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Give me the disk.”
With that the man lunged for Tommy.
“Don’t shoot.”
It was too late a bullet from the sniper went off and lodged in the man’s ankle.
“Engage.”
Suddenly five men came out of nowhere and grabbed the man and Tommy. The man was screaming in agony shouting save yourself. He took off his watch and aimed a bright light from it at Tommy which blinded him for a second before knocking him unconscious
Tommy woke up and there was no sign of any of the men who attacked him or the man with the disk. He did notice he had the watch though. He looked at the watch and the date on it said march 2023. The cars were different to.

“Stand back.” A policeman said.
“What’s going on?” Tommy asked.
“There’s been a murder on this bridge about half an hour ago.”

Tommy suddenly realized that he had travelled in time and he must be in the future 2023.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2


Tommy stared at the watch a bit longer, he still couldn’t believe it. Running his thoughts through his head he decided to see how much money he had in his wallet, and then studied the watch, he had no idea how to use it, so to avoid suspicion he would book himself into a hotel. If it was still opened he remembered back in his time that there was a cheap hotel down Lucien Street, it was only a 5 minute walk. He put the watch on his wrist and proceeded towards the hotel.
Fashion had changed dramatically, women seemed to wear even shorter skirts and men wore more jewellery, there were still the beggars on the edge of the streets though. Prices seemed to have gone up as he glanced at the clothes in the windows. He was going to have to find a hotel, once in the hotel he would be able to think; perhaps he could fiddle with the watch and get back to his own time. It then occurred to him that he had a golden opportunity to explore, I mean why not?
It started to rain so he pulled up his hood stopping his neatly combed hair from coming out of place. He checked the watch it was 13:55, and suddenly felt hungry despite the meal he had had. Well he probably would be he hadn’t eaten in 20 years.
The door was an automatic one and opened as soon as he was close to it. A blonde haired woman spoke.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes I’d like to book a room.”
“Business or pleasure?”
“Pleasure.”
“Ok that’s £250 for a meal and one night, do you have any bags.”
“No.”
The woman looked suspicious.
He opened up his room, it was like the Ritz, and there was a glamorous armchair, a TV and a huge bed. The television was like a projector, he turned the knob and a flash of light came on, shining into the shape of a man.
“What program do you wish to watch?”
The holographic image said.
Tommy thought it was beneficial that he watched something on time travel.
“A Documentary on time travel.”
“I recommend this one” The image said.
The screen flashed and the title screen came on. The documentary quoted that apparently in 1976 a scientist had invented a time machine and proved that time travel was possible.


Meanwhile Pc Compton was sitting on the wall of the bridge in complete shock. His colleague spoke to him calmly.
“What is it? He asked.
“I’ve just seen the body.”
“What’s wrong with that, I know it’s horrible but we’ve seen many murder cases, why’s this one different?”
“I-I just saw a kid in the same clothes and he was exactly the same, it was him what’s going on?”
“Don’t be stupid Compton.”
The policemen were getting on with their work when two men approached.
“MI5 we’ll carry on the investigation.”
The two men were taken to the boss and he explained to them that it was a normal murder case and that the boy was yet to be identified.
“Boy you say?”
“Yes”
“Is he dead?”
“Yes”
I’m Pete Slant we have been tracking this boy for a while; we need to see the body.
Reluctantly the boss agreed and Pete was shown him.
He turned to his colleague and pulled him aside.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 20 years.”
“Is it him?”
“Yes he’s wearing the same clothes from 20 years ago.”
“But are you sure it was 20 years ago since you last saw the boy.”
The two chatted for a while and asked to see all the possessions that were taken off the body, he wanted the watch; it wasn’t there.
Pete spoke harshly again.
“Was there a watch on the boy?”
“No just a wallet with some old notes, some outdated coins and a disk, but it’s ruined.”
“I don’t understand, there should be a watch.”
He stood still for a while until he was knocked to the floor. PC Compton was going berserk.
“What’s going on, I saw him, and he’s alive, there’s two of him, it’s his ghost.”
“What’s he talking about?” Pete asked as the officers held him.
“Oh he thinks he saw the boy about 30 minutes ago, but the bodies been dead for well over 2 hours.”
“Really?” Pete quizzed.
“Right this is now a classified case you must leave the area at once; oh and Compton which way did the boy go?”
“So you believe me then?”
“No comment.”
“He headed towards Lucien Street.”
“Thanks.”
“Clarke I want you to do a sweep of the area, we need to find out where the boy went, he doesn’t understand the concepts of time travel, he could do great danger.”


The documentary carried on and named the scientist as Ben Holmes it carried on to say that on February 15th 1976 he mysteriously vanished. Conspiracy said he was bumped off, but his body was never recovered. It then got deeper explaining details of Einstein’s theories and that time travel could be possible.
A few extracts were shown from Back to the future and the time tunnel series.
Tommy smiled he loved the time tunnel. He was intrigued about the scientist and 1976.
“Can I have details on things to do?”
“Certainly there’s the Water wells museum., The 70’s experience, the sex shop, the swimming gala, the bus tour, the…”
“Ok lots then. Tell me more about the 70’s experience.”
“Well read for yourself.”
A piece of paper appeared from out the wall like magic, Tommy read it.

“Live the 70’s experience, change your money to 70’s notes and coins then play on arcade games, view some of the best cars, listen to the music, then read about events that happened. There’s a bar to wash all your sorrows away and a view of the town church.

Tommy had an idea he had exactly £400 left in his wallet. He was going to visit the museum change some money to 70’s money then somehow work out how to use the watch and find out more about Ben Holmes. Again curiosity would probably kill him, but he was in deep now.

**********************************************************************************
“Spare a little change?” A tramp said.
“I’ll give you £20 if you can tell me some information on a boy who might have come past here.”
“£30?”
Pete reluctantly agreed he was desperate.
“There was this boy in old retro trousers a hoodie with an ancient band from about the year 2000, who was it; System of a down or something? He went into the glazier hotel.
Pete gave him the money and smiled to Clark.
“We’ve got him, let’s get the watch.”
The two men reached into their pockets for their guns, to make sure they were concealed. This was the worst part having to kill the boy because he knew too much. If anybody saw them kill him they would be charged with murder so they had to do it discreetly. They opened the door, hearts pounding.
The woman smiled and asked them if she could help.
“Yes we’re looking for a boy with old retro clothes on, we’re his relatives, his Mum’s not well, and we need to see him.”
The woman paused and caught a glimpse of Clarke’s gun hiding in his coat, she nervously lied.
“Yes he went out about 10 minutes ago.”
The two men thanked her
“Did he say where he was going?”
“I’m not his keeper; guests are free to do whatever they want.”
The two men were about to leave when Tommy came down the stairs, the men didn’t see him.
The receptionist looked nervous and Clark picked up on this, but didn’t say.
“Let’s go Clark” Pete said.
The two men left a second before Tommy came down the stairs. The receptionist called him over.
“What’s up?” Tommy asked.
“There are two men outside with guns they are looking for you, you can’t come back here. I’m Jane Summers I’ve got a spare set of keys to my flat your quite happy to go back there.”
Tommy paused for a second, quite shocked, who was after him?
“Why are you doing this? I’m Tommy”
“We’ll let’s just say I like your style of clothes.”
“Cool.”
“I’ll be back at 6:00 tonight you can stay the night then go off where ever you want. You’re not a mad man are you?” she joked.
“No fare from it.”
Outside Clark spoke
“That girl looked nervous we should go back in.”
Pete agreed and they both stepped through the door, they caught a glimpse of somebody leaving through the side exit.
“Who just went past, was it the boy?”
“I don’t know” Jane said anxiously.
“Quick follow him”
The two men rushed after Tommy.
Tommy oblivious that he was being followed stopped to look at a street map; where was this 70’s experience? He noticed that it wasn’t far. He was puzzled, why somebody was after him, but didn’t care; pretty soon he would have the money and could travel back to 1976. ‘What an adventure.’

“Keep him in view, but don’t let him know we are following.” Pete said.
“OK!” Clark replied
The two men followed Tommy through the back streets.
“I can hit him from here.”
“No not yet, there’s too many people’s houses around, you’ll have your opportunity.”
Tommy reached the museum it; it was a big building bigger than he thought it would be.
“Hello sir, how much money do you want to change?”
“400 please?”
She gave Tommy the 70’s money and told him he could see the cars of the era. He agreed and was lead to a room. There were no other people viewing. The cars were in perfect condition, they must be worth a fortune.
Pete and Clark turned up at the desk.
“How much money do you want to change?”
“Oh £5”
“Cheap skate” She giggled.
“I’ll take you to view the cars first.”
The two men stepped through the door, Tommy noticed them in the corner of his eye. He ran for the exit.
“Halt or I’ll shoot.”
Tommy froze.
“What do you want?” He screamed.
“We just want the watch.”
Tommy put his hand in his pocket and flicked around with the buttons; if only he knew how to use it.
“Never.”
Clark lost his temper and fired his gun, the bullet moved in slow motion, straight at Tommy’s stomach. He closed his eyes waiting for it to hit, but it never did, because he had accidentally pressed the button on the watch, he disappeared.
“Damn, he’s got away; he could be in any time.”


Tommy woke, he was still in the building, but the cars were gone and so were the men. He checked the watch ‘January 1st 1976 13:10. How lucky was that? Now all he had to do was waiting until February 15th to find out about Ben Holmes

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He stood up, what was this building in this time? The room was completely empty, there was a door in the far corner so the best idea was to see if it was open It was open and he stepped out into the street. There were lots of people around and all were oblivious to him coming out the building, he looked up and saw a sign above the door saying “Keep out private property.”
He wondered how he was going to use the watch and what he was going to do for over a month. He fiddled with the watch but he couldn’t change the date. Theoretically he was stuck but he knew that he’d find out how to use it, he had all the time in the world.
**********************************************************************************

Ben Holmes checked out of his hotel heading towards Lucien Street. He was bored working on designing safety equipment for cars. This was not what he wanted. What he really wanted was to work on time travel he believed it possible. He stopped to light up his cigar and hurried up his pace, it was cold and he had quite far to go. He was heading to the Georgetown pub where he had been drinking locally for several years, there he would meet his fellow scientist friends besotted on time travel like him they needed a break; a lucky one at that, but it just wasn’t going to happen.
As he passed the building Tommy had come out of earlier he noticed a few coins on the floor there weren’t many but there was enough to buy a pint. He noticed a few pieces of paper as well. He bent down to pick them up.
It was a sudden shock gasping in amazement the coins were dated with the year 1978 and the other bit of paper was a receipt for some trousers dated 13th January 2003 12:03. He pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Then he opened up the last piece of paper and started reading it, it had a diagram and information on how to build a time machine in the shape of a watch. He smiled the equipment listed and the methods seemed easy, it all made sense. He read it in more detail, the last few pages were wet though so some details weren’t there but it didn’t seem to matter. He couldn’t do this himself but the friends he was going to meet now would help him.
Ben hurried up his pace again; He began to run but bumped into Tommy who was coming the other way. Both of them fell over. Ben stood up rubbing his head.
“Sorry mate”
He stared at Tommy’s hoodie it was unusual.
“Cool mate where you get that top from?”
“Oh it was a present.”
“Oh right.”
The two parted in opposite directions both oblivious of the relevance they had to meet.
Tommy carried on walking until some bloke with a flyer stopped him.
“2 for 1 in George Town pub just round the corner”
“Thanks”
Tommy quite fancied a drink technically he was under age because he wasn’t even born he thought to himself. It wasn’t hard to find, it was then he suddenly remembered that the George Town pub was in fact a small club in 2003 he’d been there several times with his friends when he was 17. The difference was there weren’t any bouncers on the door, so he opened the door and stepped in. It looked very posh and new. He picked up the menu on one of the tables and scouted through. He wasn’t hungry but he wanted to know the food they ate in the era.
A barmaid walked past.
“System of a down, who are they? Nice clothes.”
The minute she said this the whole pub turned round to look. Lots of people smiled he had attracted lots of attention.
Ben Holmes looked around at the boy and wondered who he was, the tripe that came out these days on the wireless, it probably was no different. Anyhow he turned to his friends ignoring Tommy.
“Take a look at this”
He slid a coin across the table and Ronnie picked it up.
“It’s a normal coin.”
“Yes but look at the date 1978, its 1976”
“Oh yes” Ronnie exclaimed.
“Where you get it from” Stuart the other man said.
“Found it on the street along with this receipt dated 2003.”
“Somebody’s having a joke Ben, you can’t take this seriously you can buy things like this in novelty shops.
“Who’d buy a piece of paper in the form of a receipt?”
“It’s genuine look at this.”
He pulled out the paper with the time travel information. Ronnie and Stuart stared at the paper and then turned to themselves read it again then shocked spoke.
“This is so easy to build, the concepts are so simple, the theory seems easy enough but will it work in practice, I say we could all 3 of us work on it and complete by February 15th.”
“Really”
“Yeah it’s that simple, the only problem is that water on that last page, but that shouldn’t matter too much.”
“My round” Ben said.
Ben stood up and walked to the bar, pleased with how the day was going. He stood next to Tommy as he ordered the drinks.
“You’re the boy I bumped into earlier, my names Ben.”
“You’re not Ben Holmes by any chance?”
“Yes how do you know that” He edged closer to Tommy and noticed on his wrist was a watch similar to the one in the diagram.
“I’ve been looking for you; I’ve got some important information about something.”
“I already know you’re from the future aren’t you?”
“Yes”
“I came back to warn you not to use the time machine or to develop one it ends in disaster.”
“Why what happ…?”
He was stopped suddenly.
“EVERYBODY ON THE FLOOR NOW, THIS AN ARMED ROBBERY.”
People screamed.
Meanwhile…
“Ahh that’s better”
Stuart pulled his zip up and tapped on the door of the cubicle.
“Hurry up Ronnie.”
“Shh I can hear screaming.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
The two men were in the toilets. Stuart opened the door and immediately a hail of bullets hit him in the chest, Ronnie made a run for it, but slipped on some water and fell cracking his head on the table. The three robbers panicked grabbed the paper with the time machine details took a look then ripped them up leaving the receipt and the coin.
“Everybody ok” some manager shouted.
“Christ its Ronnie he’s dead” Ben shouted as he turned to Stuart.
“Stuart”
Stuart looked at Ben.
“Guess you’ll never fulfil your dream after all.”
Then Stuart died in Ben’s hands.
“Police will be here in 5 minutes they want to speak to you all.”
Ben looked around where was the boy, he was gone? Damn he thought, frustrated he wanted to get the watch to go back and save his friends.
Tommy had climbed through the window of the toilets he couldn’t talk to the police he didn’t have a name to give them as he couldn’t use his real name. He thought to himself that if he travelled back to 2003 nobody would be after him as there was no detail of the time machine and Ben Holmes hadn’t disappeared. Then he remembered that it was Ben Holmes who formed the organization that built the machine, perhaps he would develop it later in time. It was getting complex but all he had to do was to stop Ben using the time machine or building one luckily all the plans were ripped up.
Ben asked around about the boy and found out that he had gone through the window, so he followed. He could just about see him up the road. He ran after him and grabbed him.
“I need that watch. I need to go back and save my friends.”
“Negative you can’t mess with time travel, besides which I don’t know how to use it.”
“Your messing with time travel yourself, what are you doing here?”
“I’m stopping the time machine ever being made, I’ll find out how to use it go back to my time then destroy the watch.”
“You would destroy the chance of a life time think of the things you could do.”
“Yeah and think of the things you would mess up, I’m not even a scientist but I know the supposed theories of time travel.”
“Come on kid give me the watch.”
“No I won’t”
“Then I’ll have to get nasty”
“Hand me the watch.”
“No”
Tommy made a quick run for it, running down a back alley, the same alley towards the hotel. Ben was in quick pursuit he needed the watch that stupid kid had no idea.
As Tommy was running he noticed a flash on the watch. He quickly read the text which came across the screen.
“Must return to original time, time protection lock activated transport in 2 minutes.”
He wondered what that was but knew that Ban was getting nearer and nearer, he would never out run him. The two came to a back alley with a dead end. This was it. Tommy looked at the watch and it was counting down from 30 seconds.
“Come here you brat give me the watch.”
Ben grabbed Tommy’s arm, he felt a strange sensation through his body then both passed out.


Ben awoke Tommy was nowhere to be seen, he had the watch which he looked at it and noticed that the date was 13th January 2003 1043. He reached into his pocket pulling out the receipt. The officers club purchased trousers for £35.00. He tried to use the watch and pressed a button but it came up with critical error, it then feel apart in his hands. He was trapped in this time. Or was he? He had a chance all he had to do was to intercept the boy at the shop because he wouldn’t know who he was he could steal the watch and then travel through time to go to save his friends. He headed towards the shop noticing other boys and girls wearing hoodies like Tommy’s.


Tommy arrived a few minutes later he woke and the first thing he noticed that he didn’t have the watch. Ben must have it but where was he. He then noticed the watch on the floor it was broken and a receipt; it was his receipt for his trousers.
He then put two and two together that Ben was probably going to meet the other version of Tommy he had to stop him doing so.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Ben didn’t know where the shop was but he knew the street it was down, it wouldn’t be long before he found it. He wandered down the road staring in amazement at the people and cars; which were so much better. He looked at the clothes in the shop windows almost distracted at the task involved.


Pete and Clark were already on the case they had intercepted the phone call between Tommy and the man who wanted the disk and knew for a matter of national security they had to steal the watch and destroy all evidence.
Pete walked down Falkner Street, it was then he spotted a man who looked lost and was walking around aimlessly.
“Alright mate, I don’t suppose you know where the officer’s club is?”
“Yeah it’s just up there.” Pete said pointing to the road ahead.”
“Cheers.”


Tommy could see Ben ahead, he also noticed that two men were talking to him, it must have been the same men who attacked him on the bridge, and they were almost definitely on their way there now. He stood back wondering what they were talking about. He edged closer keeping Ben in view. Pete and Clark left and Tommy quickened up his pace.


The time was 11:00 Ben wanted to make sure he had the right shop; he would then wait for Tommy to arrive and jump him.
“Can I help you sir?”
“No I’m just browsing thanks.”
Ben looked around getting a general view of the shop, he noticed in the corner a man with the same coat on as him. The man looked nervous but Ben didn’t see the face.
Another sales assistant came over.
“God, man is that your twin brother, or am I still pissed from last night.”
“Sorry?” Ben quizzed.
“Never mind.”
Ben left, as he walked through the door he saw Tommy approach.
“Damn” He thought Tommy must be following him.
Tommy didn’t see Ben and entered the shop.
“Can I help you?”
“Yes I’m looking for a man in old clothes quite tall wearing a black coat, have you seen him?” Tommy asked
“Umm, which one?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well I know this sounds stupid but two men identical were in this store a few minutes ago, one went out the back door, the other the main entrance.”
What was going on, where or what was Ben going to do? Why was he existing twice in this time.
Tommy decided he would wait just by the bridge and intercept Ben before he managed to grab the watch.

**********************************************************************************

Tommy got a taxi into town giving the taxi driver a huge tip heading towards the shop to buy some trousers. He opened the door and the sales assistant gave him a funny look.
“Are you actually going to buy something or just browse like you did an hour ago? By the way the person you’re looking for is outside, well one of them. I saw him when I was taking out the trash.”
“I don’t understand who am I looking for, I’ve only just got here.”
“Whatever weirdo.”
Anyway Tommy was puzzled he bought the trousers and was about to leave when he noticed a letter addressed to him attached to the top of the rail of the shirts.
‘Tommy leave through the back exit and not the front.’
That was odd, Tommy thought it was similar to his handwriting.
He screwed up the paper and chose to follow the strange letter; this was a weird day he thought.


Ben could see Tommy hiding behind the waste bin, but where was the Tommy he was after. He decided to check the back exit and saw the man identical to him wrestling with the other Tommy.
“Ohy” He shouted.
The identical man ran off. Tommy stood up with a bloody nose; he noticed that the man who shouted was gone.
Standing up properly he got some tissues out and wiped his nose. What was going on? Why did that man attack him, he was going berserk and made no sense.
Anyway he proceeded as planned to meet the man at the bridge.
(So it’s all a bit confusing but Ben was following Tommy and the other Tommy was following Ben.)


“See anything yet?” Pete asked.
“Nah but I did see that man earlier, he’s heading towards the bridge.”
“Hang on.”


Tommy waited for the right moment and then walked onto the bridge.
“Okay this is it. I’ve been working on a new high tech watch with gadgets for the military, the time travel jargon is a cover up and on the disk is encrypted files needed to operate the watch”
“I don’t believe you” Tommy shouted.
“Give me the disk.”

**********************************************************************************
The other Tommy grabbed Ben.
“You’re staying here mate you can’t mess with time.”
“Let go jerk, I need the watch.”
Ben struggled free and ran to the bridge.


“Don’t fire, there’s that man again.”
Tommy saw the man who attacked him coming towards him. A shot went off hitting the man with the watch in the leg.
“Save yourself” he said.
As he said this Ben lunged at Tommy, both disappeared.
“Damn” the other Tommy said.
They arrived with a thud still on the bridge. Tommy had the watch. Ben arrived a few minutes later.
“Give me the watch.”
He punched Tommy and grabbed the watch. Tommy pleaded but he had really pissed him off. He put the boot in his head cracking his skull. Tommy was dead.
Ben nervous ran off trying to use the watch, but it wasn’t working.


“You shouldn’t have shot, Clark.”
“Yeah but he was gonna get away.”
“He panicked now he’s gone.”
Pete’s mobile rang.
“Hi Pete, we’ve got the man who murdered the boy, you may want to come and see him he’s not making much sense but he’s got the watch.”
“Be there in 5.”
“We’ve got the watch Clark.”
Both men arrived at the top security building where they were keeping Ben.
“Pete, you know the design sometimes malfunctions, well one of the errors causes subjects to go literally mad, and he’s acting completely weird and can’t talk in proper sentences.”
“Who is he, where did he come from?”
Pete walked into the room he stared in disbelief it was the man who had asked him for directions to the shop twenty odd years ago.
“What do you want to do?” Clark asked.
“Well nobody would believe him if we sent him to a mental hospital.”
“What about the rules of time, we can’t have somebody from the past living in the future.”
“We’ll have to kill him.”
“No I have a better idea, let’s send him back into the past and he can kill the boy.”


Ben awoke he felt awful like he had been drugged. Drinking a half empty beer Ben muttered to himself. He entered a shop called the officers club, proceeded to stand in the corner face to wall.
“Can I help you?”
“No go away”
“Ok you’ll have to leave” The security said.
He screamed abuse and ran out the back exit bumping into Tommy.
“Give me the watch” He screamed strangling Tommy in the process.
Tommy was struggling for his breath, when a man shouted “ohy!”
“You’re gonna kill…”
Tommy lied motionless, but Ben turned round and in his face was the other Ben.
Suddenly they both screamed at high pitch voices.
Tommy (The one still alive) who was hiding by the trash cans covered his ears. He suddenly saw something horrific; both Bens were morphing together, their heads joint. Then they exploded causing a massive rip in the time continuum. Tommy was sucked into a huge black hole.
When he awoke it was dark and was in an empty room which didn’t seem to have any exits.

chapter 5

Chapter 5


Tommy started panicking, what was going on, was he dead? He banged against the wall. It was then he noticed that he was in some sort of vehicle because it was moving. Banging harder he soon gave up; he couldn’t see anything but realized that he was not alone. He could feel the feet of somebody lying down. One of them suddenly regained consciousness.
“Whose there, what’s going on?”
“I’m Tommy.”
“Tommy, thank god am I glad to see you, it’s Shaun, the man who you arranged to meet on the bridge, and I was just getting ready to meet you when a massive energy sucked me along with two other people. I lost consciousness then ended up here.
Clark woke up.
“What was that?”
He suddenly noticed he wasn’t alone in the strange dark room.
“Whose there?” He squinted his eyes trying to see.
“Me, Pete.”
“Shaun.”
“Tommy”
“Okay you jerk this is your fault, Shaun if you hadn’t invented that machine... and who the hell are you Tommy?”
Tommy wasn’t amused.
“You should know, you’re the one who tried to shoot me in the future.”
“What you travelled through time? What have you done, you can’t just travel there’s rules to comply with.”
“Okay calm down anybody know what is going on?” Pete asked.
“Well there’s this bloke, well was this bloke called Ben who was chasing me through time, he bumped into himself and caused a huge ray of light to suck me in.”
“That’s a break up in the time continuum; we’ve been sucked into a parallel universe, we should in theory be dead.” Shaun said
“When two entities meet they try to share the exact same time and place at exactly the same precise moment causing a black hole. Nobody can survive a black hole, but we did.”
“Well, nobodies been in a black hole before.”
“Maybe you don’t die.”
“Anyway anybody got the watch; we don’t know what time it is.”
Nobody had the time traveling device.
**********************************************************************************

“Pass please.”
Compton handed his pass and drove the vehicle through the gate, humming a tune to himself. He hated this job, it was dangerous especially these 4 crack heads found by the bridge.
The vehicle stopped and immediately 4 armed guards surrounded it.
They opened the door.
“Step down out the vehicle very slowly.”
The four men could see the guards were armed, armed with sub machine guns. Not high tech lasers, they couldn’t be too far in the future or past.
All four of them were handcuffed and led off separately.
“Where are you taking us?”
“You’re going to get get help, you’re ill, but you need to be calm, this is a top security mental health centre, don’t try and resist or you will be in more trouble. Soon a room each had been assigned to Tommy, Shaun, Clark and Pete.

Pete

The room was quite cosy, he jumped onto the bed and laid there for a little while. He wondered what the year was or where he was. Pete was the more rational of the two men (Meaning Clark). His main Aim was to protect society from going through things like this. He had been monitoring Shaun’s work for a while and totally disagreed with it. Suddenly the door knocked. Pete opened it.
“Hi I’m Anna Holda, I’m your psychiatrist, first of all what’s your name?”
“I don’t need a bloody psychiatrist I need answers.”
“That’s what we are here for to answer any questions and to see what is wrong. Were you ever influenced by any of your friends to take drugs? It’s just that we found a small bit of cannabis in the one with the weird hoodie on.”
“Damn kid” He thought.
“No I’ve never taken drugs, the one with hoodie, Tommy; he’s at a young age at college.”
“Young age?” The woman quizzed.
She looked puzzled.
“Yeah he’s probably about 18 or 20.”
“18?”
“I don’t understand what age means or the significance of 18.”
“Oh you must use some other words, to get older, grow up, and age.”
“Okay you are getting delusional, get some rest.”
Pete was amazed.
“What year is this, and what’s the time?”
“I don’t understand.”

Shaun

The room was rather nice, there was a small table on the side which looked like it had a radio on. No alarm clock he thought. Ahh well can’t expect everything. He reached into his pocket; he still had the chocolate bar in there. He was hungry. Munching away he wondered if he had done the right thing by inventing the time machine, He hadn’t even got to use it.
A knock was heard at the door.
“Hi I’m Marlo Chopsig your psychiatrist.”
“I invent the most amazing thing known to mankind and I’m mad, well maybe I am for making it?”
“What did you make Mr…?”
“Just call me Shaun.”
“What did you make Shaun?”
“You probably won’t believe me but I made a time machine.”
“A what; what is time?”
“Oh right you must use another term, date, the process by which things happen.”
“Things happen now, there is no process.”
“Yeah, but things that happen tomorrow are the future.”
“Tomorrow and future, I have never heard of those terms.

Clark

The room was pretty neat, Clark was very angry at the whole situation; he thumped the wall putting a dent in it. There was a knock on the door.
“Hi, I’m Claire Coyden your psychiatrist.”
She was the most beautiful women Clark had ever seen, he almost fell over.
“Well hello” He smiled perking up a bit.
“So Clark, what’s your problem?”
“Lack of sex.” Clark laughed
“Umm yes lack of sex does cause sexually frustrated people to turn to other forms of activities like cannabis.”
“Cannabis?”
“Yes have you tried it?”
“Only at high school some years ago.”
“Some years ago, explain?”
“Well me and my mates went behind the bike sheds, we had a joint each then went back to lessons.”
“No what does years ago mean?”
“You know when I was younger, how old are you?”
The woman started laughing.
“We were all born from a bright light. I suppose if it was put at that way, we are all the same age.”
“The bright light when did that happen?2
“I can’t remember.”
“Oh you’re just a dumb blonde anyway.”
Clark grabbed her backside.
“Now, now Clark.”
She stared at him then decided that she would go for it, she grabbed Clark and pinned him down on the bed taking her clothes off in the process. Clark in the meantime reached into his pocket and pulled out a condom. She stopped suddenly as he was desperately trying to put it on his erect penis.
“What’s that?” She asked.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s a condom love, you dumb blonde don’t want you having any kids now do we?”
“Kids, what are kids?”
“Babies?”
She looked puzzled.
“You know when people are born.”
“Nobody else is ever born; the light is when we were born.”
“So what happens when you die; who will be left to look after you when you get old?”
“Get old?”
“Yeah you know I mean you weren’t always looking like that.”
“We have the same appearance for ever, we came out the light, and we never die, unless we are killed.”
“Anyway intercourse wasn’t a wise idea, I’ll leave you.”

Tommy

Desperately running what had happened in his head, he sat staring out the window of this comfortable room, wondering how the others were getting on, he reached into his pocket for his mini disk player, and then realized it was confiscated. A knock at the door followed. Tommy cautiously opened it.
“Hi, I’m Mandy Lloyd, your psychiatrist; I want to ask you a few questions?”
“Okay.”
“First why did you have cannabis in your bag and did you know it causes delusions, all of you seem to suffer from the same illness.”
“I use it rarely that’s not even enough there to make any more than one joint.”
“I see.” The women said.
The women sat down beside him emptying the bag.
“System Of A Down very good band, I listened to it on your mini disc player, but what are all those numbers on the track; I’m not technical excuse me?”
“Oh right that’s how long the track is.”
“Long what do you mean?”
“The duration of the song. Each song is on for a different amount of time.”
Tommy tried to explain but she didn’t seem to grasp it. What was going on?


Anna, Marlo, Claire and Mandy sat down, reporting to the mental health chief.
“So what have we learnt?”
“Well they are Looney alright, my patient seems to think it possible for new people to be born, and he mentioned strange words like pregnancy.”
“My patient puts numbers on people and calls it age.”
After discussing it further the chief pulled out a book.
“There is a reason for their thinking.”
“There’s a book which claims all these things true. I’ve read it basically it says people are born from women after man has intercourse with her. This is called a baby it grows up turns into one of us.”
“That’s crazy.” Anna said.
“So who was this man?”
“Well it was written by a bloke called Ben Holmes”

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

All men were allowed to mingle with the others. Tommy noticed a pool table and went over to it until he felt a sharp prick in his neck.
“Ow.!”
“What the hell you doing with cannabis in your bag?”
Shaun asked.
“It wasn’t much, any way what’s going on?”
“Well it seems to me that anything involving time doesn’t exist. I don’t know where we are but it’s weird.” Pete said.
“Well what now?”
“I think we should scan this building then escape” Clark said.
“Escape! Escape to where, we don’t even know anyone”
“Do you think there’s another one of us existing in this world?”
The four nattered for ages until women with a cigarette came over, she was pregnant or so it seemed.
“Hi I’m Beryl, I’m a manic depressant.” She lifted up her sleeves and showed them her cuts. “What you in here for?”
“Well we don’t know; Your American aren’t you? When did you get here?”
Clark said
“I got here about 3 weeks ago.”
“Ahh bingo, you understand time?” Clark shouted.
“Yeah I study Zinok, oh sorry not every ones knows what I’m talking about. See that women over there she thinks she’s from another place, her name is Jane Summers. She says she met some weird bloke and after that strange things happened.”
“I know her.” Tommy said.
“Tommy?”
“Yes it’s me.”
“What you doing here?”
“Well after those blokes left who were chasing you, I took a trip to the bridge and saw a huge light which dragged me in. When I awoke I was here. Where are we; what is going on?”
“Well I’ve been using a time machine and somehow a paradox happened and we ended up here.”
“Want a cigarette?” Clark asked Pete.”
“You know I don’t smoke.”
“Oh yeah, Tommy you must.”
“No ta.”
The six of them spoke of their experiences. Beryl explained that she thought she had something inside her and Tommy explained it was a baby.
“Have you had any scans?”
“Yeah they think I’m mad, there’s nothing there apparently.”
Suddenly there was a scream from the top room, the six patients ran to investigate.
“Stand back.” The nurse said.
Beryl turned away in disgust.
“It’s Arthur; Arthur Leroy. He thinks he’s in hell. He’s just cut himself up with a knife, stabbed himself in the stomach.
“I wanna die, don’t save me, I can’t grow up here, I can’t have a family. Leave me”
He screamed as half his stomach was covered in blood. And he was throwing it up too.
He was ushered past Tommy and co. It was then that Shaun noticed that the man had the time traveling device on him. He turned to Pete and nudged him
“There’s the time device.”
“Yeah so it is.”
“Excuse me, what’s happening to Arthur?” Pete asked.
“He’s going to infirmary.”
“Where’s that?”
“Down the block 2 doors down, go back to your room or carry on with what you were doing, we are used to this.”
Pete turned away and explained to the others about the device. Beryl thought they were loony and left.
Jane turned to Tommy and spoke.
“It was mine; I found it when I got here. I sold it to Arthur for £150. Arthur was convinced it was a radio or something says he hears interference.”
“Yeah the interference is the transmission signal when you travel.”
“They ran to the infirmary and Clark forced the door open.
“We’ve come to see Arthur.”
“Arthur’s ill.
“It’s urgent.”
They spotted Arthur on the bed in agony he was playing with the watch, shouting out incoherent sentences. Suddenly there was a flash of light and he was gone. A few seconds passed before a smouldering Arthur reappeared. He stood up and melted into a pile of skin. Tommy turned away. Jane screamed and passed out. In fact there was a gas coming out the skin and it caused everybody to feel faint they all collapsed.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

They all woke up in the infirmary. Some nurse was looking down on them. She explained that they were okay and that the strange device must have contained some form of chemical.
Pete wanted to know what happened obviously. There was some reason why the watch did that. He turned to Shaun.
“The watch was meant to travel forwards and backwards not sideways. I have an idea. This world is one of many dimensions which are infinite. This world time doesn’t exist so maybe sideways travel would be possible. If I knew how to do this then all we need to do is find a dimension where time does exist then travel back to our original time. Almost like a kind of diversion, but would the watch work and would they end up like Arthur.
He explained it to the others.
“Dimension travel can be possible but the dimensions would be completely random and future would have many variables. He explained that when he built it it had had a kind of address to the exact time and location he was in. All they needed to do was to match it up, but it wouldn’t be easy.
Tommy overheard. It was very interesting; he slipped his hand under the pillow before throwing the watch to Shaun.
“They think it was destroyed but I saw it before I passed out.”
“Cheers mate, it seems fine, and the clock says 0000 and date 00/00/00. If we change the date then we frazzle like Arthur, we need to change the dimension number.”
“How do you do that?” Clark asked.
“It’s a small computer program, programmed into a chip in the back, it’s easy enough but as I said I can’t choose the number. It goes from 0 to infinite; we could end up somewhere really bad.”
“Any where’s better than this” Pete said.
“What about Jane?” Tommy added.
“What about me? I can talk for myself you know, I’m coming with you, let’s do it.”
“Well go on” Pete said firmly.
After fiddling for about 5 minutes Shaun turned to the others and explained that they all would have to huddle together and hold their breath.
“What for?”
“Any heavy breathing can cause the time to change causing the frazzling.”
“OK here goes.”
Shaun pressed the button and they disappeared. They woke up once again in a dark room.


Pete raised his head, not again he thought, he could hear the sound of the running engines, he called for the others they were all there, just as confused as he was. They seemed to be in some form of lorry, there was lots of noise going on outside.
Tommy looked around and saw that they were sitting on an arsenal of ammunition, guns, grenades and knives. The guns seemed to vary in size and style. What was going on, where were they going?
Meanwhile outside the vehicle the driver was explaining to the British army that he had brought ammunition and weapons for them, but he had lost his papers. They weren’t letting him in and insisted that they search the vehicle. He argued saying that he had specific orders to drop them off to specific soldiers. He had a list which he showed to the sergeant.
The list read as follows: Sergeant Pete stone, Corporal Clark Wayne. L/C Tommy Weller, Private Shaun Loving and private Jane Summers.
“Never heard of them mate, whose your orders from.”
“Brigadier Ben Holmes. He told me they will all be here. The door opened and out popped the 5 travellers. They told the Sergeant their names.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
The driver looked gobsmacked, how could they have been in the back.
“I’m going to have to call my superior.” The sergeant said.
Suddenly a soldier spotted some movement towards the East.
“Sergeant, Sarge.”
“Not now I’m bu… Damn, down, everybody down, grenade.
The grenade landed near the soldier blowing his left arm off and sending him crawling on the floor.
“We are under attack.”
Clark grabbed one of the machine guns.
“What you doing?” Pete screamed.
“Goddamit I am going to defend myself.”
Gunshots came over their heads. Jane was in hysterics so Tommy was reassuring her.
Shaun dived out the way as a jeep came crashing through the barrier. Four men in combats ran out (ignoring the travellers and the remaining soldiers) towards one of the buildings.
“Where are they going?” Tommy shouted.
“Research centre probably, don’t worry they won’t get far it’s guarded.
“What’s the research?”
“Classified I don’t even know, but we’ve been guarding it for ages without any problems.”
“The sergeant and the lorry driver are dead.” Clark informed them.
The five of them ran towards the trees away from the complex.
“Are we not going to get help?” Clark asked.
“What are you mad we don’t even know what they want and we shouldn’t interfere with a world in which we don’t belong?” Pete said sternly.
“I agree” Shaun replied.
“This is too much, what’s the watch say?” Jane enquired.
“That’s weird it’s the same as before the time says 00-00 and the date 00/00/00. It must be broken.”
“It can’t be, bloody thing, I just want to get back. Man this is doing my head in.”
They heard gunfire and then an engine roaring off crashing through the check point it sped off into the distance followed by four or five soldiers screaming out orders.
The five hid behind the tree, what could they do now?
Then there was a huge buzzing noise and it seemed to be coming from watch.
“What the hell is that?” Tommy shouted.
“God knows” Shaun said looking at the watch.
“It’s got some text across the screen.”
“What’s it say?” Clark asked concerned.
“It says variable in dimension travel error, must fix auto loading dimension variable fixer.”
“What’s that mean?” Jane asked.
“I don’t know.”
“What you mean you don’t know, you invented the bloody thing.”
“Yeah it was my design but I only did the paperwork.”
As he spoke Jane turned white.
“What’s up?” Tommy screamed.
She suddenly began to fade and she was screaming. In a quick flash she just disappeared.
“Jane where are you?” Pete shouted.
Shaun looked at the watch it read
“Error fixed variable eliminated.”
“Is she dead” Tommy wanted answers.
“How the hell should I know?” Clark said in hysterics.
“OK calm down.” Pete ordered.
“Let’s stay calm.”
“Calm bloody calm? Jane’s gone possibly dead. We don’t know where/when (or what dimension) we are/ We have no further purpose or way forward, basically we are fuc….”
“No need to swear.” Clark interrupted.
“Okay we’re in deep trouble.”
“Well at least I know we are by the bridge.”!
“Yes so what?” Tommy retaliated.
Suddenly a van pulled up and stopped by the bridge.
“Okay men, on your hands and knees.”
The four did as they were told. The driver shouted.
“Compton get these weirdoes into the van.”
“Yes sir.”
The four were handcuffed and shoved into the back of the van. I t was dark yet again. The engine could be heard and they sped off.
“Everybody okay?” Pete asked.
“Yes” Everybody replied.
“Anybody got the watch, we don’t even know what time it is.”


“Pass please.”
Compton handed his pass and entered. Soon the door opened and armed guards grabbed them.
Pete shouted “It’s the same as before, it’s happening all over again.”
“We’ll maybe this time I can get some sex.” Clark joked inappropriately.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The four were led off separately like before, but all knew where they were going and what was going on. They were all put in a room each, waiting for their infamous interview with their respective psychiatrists.
Tommy sat on the bed running his thoughts through his head wondering what was going on and why it was taking so long for the meeting. He could hear talking in the corridor outside. He put his ear to the door and tried to listen but couldn’t make anything out.
Then the door opened and instead of the psychiatrist there were 2 armed guards.
“What’s going on?” Tommy asked.
“The boss wants to see you.” The first guard said.
“Oh this should be good.” Tommy said.
He was taken out the room and could see the other three being taken away as well. They were told to wait outside a big door.
“Okay they can enter now.”
“In you go then.” A guard said.
The four of them entered and were immediately invited to sit down.
“Hello gentlemen take a seat. Firstly I want to apologize for the way you were treated. I’ve looked at your records and I’ve found out you are all in the army. My mistake, we had orders to restrain four mental patients at the bridge, but it doesn’t seem that you belong in that category. I’ve done some research and got in contact with your superior; he’s got a secret mission for you and will be here in a few minutes to pick you up.
“We are not in the army.” Shaun said.
“Yes, he said you’d say that, don’t worry you are not compromised your mission is between you and your superior. Have a cup of tea before you’re picked up.”
Four teas were brought in and the confused four began drinking. There was a knock on the door a few minutes later.
“Sir, they’re here.”
“Good, show these men the way out, oh and good luck men.”
“Yeah okay” Clark said sarcastically.
They were led out of the complex to an armoured jeep. The door opened and a grinning driver got out.
“Alright lads how’s it going?”
“A bit confused.” Shaun said
“You will be alright in a few minutes just sit back and enjoy the ride.”
“What is going on?” Pete asked the driver.
“Everything shall be explained at the briefing, I’m just the driver.”
“Where we going?”
“Headquarters of course, now no more questions, everything shall be explained later.”
The driver turned up the music and put his foot down.
“We’ll be there soon.” He shouted.
In a few minutes they arrived. Tommy looked out the window and saw the strange symbol on the buildings were the same as the one’s he’d seen on the bus. He quickly pointed this out to Shaun.
“This way men.”
They were led underground down a long spiral of steps, after what seemed an age they came to a door. They were called in.
“Nice to see you again lads, take a seat, Captain Simons will be here soon.”
The door opened and the captain walked in.
“Hello there. There’s only four of you, where’s Private Summers?” He demanded.
The four looked blank until Clark decided to make something up.
“Oh we haven’t seen her in ages I don’t know where she is.”
“Oh okay well she’s in big trouble when we catch up with her, you four will have to do.”
“I don’t know if you are aware but a top security base was raided and our research project prototype was stolen. Now at the moment we believe the group to be of highly intelligent but ruthless trained professionals.”
“What was the prototype” Tommy asked.
“It was a device used to travel to different dimensions.”
“The watch.” Clark screamed.
“Pardon, what was that?” The captain asked.
“We break up now for something to eat, I hope you like curry?”
The four of them nodded and left through a side door to a restaurant area.
“You’re very lucky this is only meant for our VIPS.”
“We are VIPS” Shaun joked.
Tommy was starving so he tucked into the food available, he was still wondering about Jane what happened to her and more to the point why had she been involved because she wasn’t even in the same time zone when the break in the time continuum happened.
The curry was mildly hot, but was delicious. Pete wondered if time existed in this place, nobody had mentioned anything about time, but the device was probably the watch. He knew they were stuck between dimensions but was confused of why forward and backwards travel was not happening.
The four were once again called into a room and told to sit.
“We have a coded message from the group involved they say they have the device and they want to transfer money from one dimension to another. In laymen’s terms they want to transfer money which is worth more in another dimension to others. It’s a bit like changing currency. Unfortunately they don’t know how to choose which dimension to go to.”
“You can’t make up dimensions you can only type in locations there’s too many variables, the device is designed to hold infinite dimensions, but anything can happen and can change.” Shaun butted in.
“I am aware of the facts Shaun, but apparently they claim they can merge two dimensions to create a third dimension, what do you know about that?”
“That would cause a black hole and a break up in the time continuum; it can only be done when two entities touch each other.”
“What would happen then?” Tommy asked.
“To be fair I honestly don’t know.”
“Yes we do…” Clark shouted.
“Shhh.” Shaun whispered.
“No let him speak.” The captain said.
“Time becomes distorted and we enter a timeless dimension where time doesn’t exist. What I want to know is what happens if we go from a timeless dimension to an artificial one, any suggestions anybody.”
The Captain paused for a bit and then ordered the guards to leave.
“Don’t ever mention time, that’s classified information.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well we all know time doesn’t exist in this dimension, but there are splinters of information remaining and I’ve studied zinok. It must have come from somewhere. How do you know about time, zinok is forbidden.”
“WE come from a dimension where time exists, we came here by accident and believe that dimension is so called artificial one like we just mentioned.” Shaun said.
“Don’t be absurd, that’s impossible.”
“In our world people age and we are born, we die of old age.”
“Don’t be silly, your physical appearance is constant for eternity.” Captain replied.
“Well how did you get into this world then?”
“I have always been in this dimension.”
The captain looked puzzled and taken back by what had happened.
“So you’re imposters then, your other entities must be in this dimension.”
“No not necessarily, see it’s all making sense now. We are the variables; we should not be in this dimension.” Shaun replied.
“What you blabbing on about?” Pete said
“Well if my theory is correct then if we are killed then the time continuum would cause a black hole.”
“Don’t be stupid, that’s not the rules.” Tommy replied.
“There are no rules to dimension and time travel, the goal posts are moved all the time, what I do know is that time tries to correct itself, we know that because the watch has built in devices to erase all variables.”
“Well it obviously doesn’t work.” Clark said.
“Yeah it has, the rules can’t be broken but they can be bent, like the theory of two points joining together, you must know some basic science.”
“Look, look this is beside the point, what we gonna do about it and how do we know what the rules are?”
As the Captain spoke, he had a telephone call.
“Hello Captain Simons we have thought about our terms and this is what we want. We want your four men and that woman.”
“Well we don’t even know where the woman is.”
“You lie, you have 48 hours to deliver them to the bridge, there will be a convoy making sure there is no funny business.”
“I refuse you don’t know what you’re dealing with.” The captain said.
“Oh yes we do, imagine being able to create your own dimension, where you can change any variable, you could cure all diseases, have infinite money. Be anybody you wanted.”
“In other words play God.”
“I’m not a criminal I just want a better life for myself and family, you must understand that, all that for the poxey lives of 5 people.”
“Who are you and how do you know about time it’s a rare subject to study.”
“I haven’t studied it, I’ve lived it, my name is Ben Holmes I’ve set all this up and I know the five people involved they’ve come from my dimension.”
The line went dead.
“Who is Ben Holmes?” The captain asked.
“Ben Holmes is the man who caused the break up in the break up in the time continuum.”
“This is an artificial dimension created by him, so theoretically he is linked between this dimension and ours.” Shaun explained.
“Now he wants to create a third dimension by using a black hole where he can pass things from both dimensions, he’ll have complete control over every variable.” Pete shouted pleased to get something right.
“I’m confused, explain clearer.”
“Well basically he is linked between this dimension and our dimension because he is in two dimensions at once. Therefore somehow using the watch he can swap variables from our dimension and this one. What he wants to do is link all dimensions and change infinite parameters.
“So how’s he gonna create a black hole?” Tommy questioned.
“Well that’s easy all he needs to do is capture us and then bring us from our own dimension making us touch each other.”
“What I don’t understand is what happened to Jane?” Tommy enquired.
“That’s the clever part, I think somehow the watch has a built in safety mechanism, she’s been eliminated from this dimension so she only exists in her own and can’t be forced to meet.”
“ Yes well I know the simple solution” The captain butted in.
“Guards seize the four men.”
The guards froze for a second before the captain gave the order again.
“seize them”
“What are you doing?” Clark screamed.
“I’m using my initiative; put me through to Ben Holmes’ coded number.”
“Yes sir.”
“Hello Ben, I have an ultimatum for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Either you give me the watch in 48 hours or I kill the four men.”
“You can’t do…” Pete got hit.
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“What you gonna do Ben?”

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The phone was put down and Captain Simons looked at the travellers and shrugged at them.
“Sorry men, but this is business.”
“You bastard.” Clark shouted.
“What you gonna do with us? This is the wrong tactic; we can help you get the watch back if you let us.” Tommy pleaded.
“Oh it doesn’t matter about your life any more like he said what’s four compared to thousands. I’ll make sure you’re fed and kept well until the 48 hours is up.”
“You really think he’ll just hand over the watch? You’re living in cloud cuckoo land” Shaun said.
“I have the advantage he won’t attack this building because he’ll be too scared of killing you, remember he needs you alive.”
“What you going to use the watch for anyway?”
“Oh you’ll see in time.” Simons laughed.
“Guards take them to the padded cells.”
The four of them were marched off and thrown into a small room.
“Great what do we do now?” Pete said.
“We’ve got no choice we wait; wait for the 48 hours then we improvise when Ben attacks which is more likely than Simons taking any dramatic action.” Clark said.
“Great idea dick.” Tommy replied.
“Don’t call me that, you got a better idea?”
“Hang on, hang on.” Shaun butted in.
“I have a plan, look over there?”
“At what” Pete enquired.
“The fan over there leads to the pipe lines.”
“Are you stupid or what, how you expect us to get through the fan, we’ll get cut up and besides which we don’t know where the pipes lead to.”
“No it is our only chance” Tommy replied.
“Yeah what are we going to do when we get out, the person who wants us, (Ben) is our only hope of getting out of this mess, we can’t exactly get the watch off him or force him to help us can we.” Pete questioned with a serious look on his face.
“Where’s the watch, we had before we were put in the van. Oh hang on; Arthur.”
“What about him?”
“Well if it’s happening all over again then Arthur should have the watch.” Tommy asked.
“Yeah he could do, but if you remember Jane gave it to him and she’s gone.”
“True so our only hope is the watch we had before we got captured, who had it?”
“I did it was in my bag, before the bag was searched, I think they overlooked it this time. It should be in the locker room.” Tommy shouted.
“What’s the point it won’t work, Ben’s put it in a loop hasn’t he?”
“Yeah it’s on a loop for this dimension, you can use it for normal travel. Ie somewhere else in this dimension.” Shaun pointed out.
“What do you mean?”
“Well I mean you could travel from this cell to say the bridge.”
“How will that help us?” Pete wanted to know.
“Well we find out where Ben is hiding then transport ourselves to him then grab him and travel somewhere else escaping of course all his henchmen.”
“Excellent it’s almost perfect, but how do we know where he is?”
“Simons must know?”
“If he knows he would do something about it, of course he doesn’t.”
“Then we force him to tell Ben to meet at the bridge then when he hands us over we’ll grab him and bring him back to this cell, where we’ll have the upper hand.”
They decided this was a good idea and prepared to risk their lives by going through the fan.
Tommy spoke.
“Shaun you know how to use the watch you could go and get the watch then come back for us.”
“You coward, Yeah alright it makes sense it’s a 50 – 50 chance to get through the fan and if we all try it then somebody might not make it.”
Shaun prepared to make a dive through the fan knowing that a lack of judgment would chop him clean in half.
He nervously stood on the table and got nearer sweating. He jumped into a superman dive, just missing the blades.
“I’m through.” He shouted.
“Good, good.” Tommy replied.
“Now head towards the locker room, it’s straight on and not far.”
“Okay.”
Shaun crawled on his hands and knees; it was dirty in the pipes as well as not a pleasant atmosphere. He carried on through the darkness wishing he had had carrots for tea. Laughing at his own thoughts. He could see a light ahead of him, it was a possible exit, but where was it going to take him. He got nearer to the light and looked through the grate. Sure enough there was the bag on the floor, by one of the lockers. He kicked the grate down and climbed down heading towards the bag as quick as possible. Sure enough Tommy was right, there was the watch sitting neatly between some socks. He punched the air in triumph and began to set the watch to travel to the cell to pick the others up. As he suspected the time was 00-00-00 but he was glad he was able to change location details. He set the numbers and pressed the button. After a few seconds he appeared in the cell, but there was nobody in there and the door was wide open with a trial of blood leading to the corridor. Shaun panicked but then had a protection plan to protect himself, he set the watch location to the bridge if anything happened he could just press the button and disappear.


“Tell me where Shaun is?” Simons shouted.
“NEVER!” Clark spat back.
Clark got a punch in the stomach by the two soldiers.
“You won’t kill me; I’m worth too much to you.”
“You’re worth nothing to me.”
“Yes I am, if you kill any of us, Ben is not going to co-operate with you is he.”
“Guards pick him up I want to speak to Tommy.”
Tommy was brought in; he was complete agony after receiving a blow to his nose from the butt of the rifle.
Simons started to interrogate him trying to make him break.
Suddenly Shaun came bursting through the door.
“Let him go, Simons the games up.” Pointing his gun he had just required.
“No you stop; drop the weapon or Tommy gets his brains splattered.”
“I’ve got the watch.” Shaun screamed.
“He’s lying” Tommy shouted not quite understanding why Shaun had told Simons.
“No shut up Tommy, I have.” He winked and Tommy got the message to trust him not quite sure what was going on.”
Simons dropped his gun and Shaun did the same.
“Let us all go and you can have the watch, you were going to trade us all for it anyway.”
“I’m suspicious, how did you get it in the first place and where will you go after, you’re strangers in this dimension.”
“Never mind ok, I have your word?”
“YES!” Simons replied
Shaun flicked the time switch and slid it across the floor, knowing that Simons didn’t know the watch well and that the minute he pressed a button he would shoot into the future and then come straight back as slime like Arthur.
“Thank you very much, but now you must die, you know too much.”
He laughed hideously then went to pull the trigger of the gun aimed at Tommy’s head. Tommy closed his eyes waiting for death.
“NO!!!” Pete screamed breaking through the guards and lunging himself at Simons knocking him to the ground before accidentally setting the watch off.
Both suddenly disappeared. Shaun looked shocked closed his eyes, they all knew what had happened to Pete. They arrived a few seconds later. The watch fell on the floor and both men started to fall apart until a complete liquid filled the floor. Pete and Simons were dead, liquefied just like Arthur.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The shocked soldiers dropped their guns and just ran out the building. Tommy, Shaun and Clark just stood in disbelief. Even the usual hard case Clark was crying. Pete was like his father always keeping him in touch and looking out for him. How could he be dead?
After a few minutes Shaun spoke quietly
“What are we going to do now?”
“How the hell should I know?” Clark screamed.
“Okay, think carefully, can Ben still use us or did he need all four.
“He only needs one of us to touch our self to create the black hole but the others must be killed as well because otherwise we become linked like him and have similar powers.” Shaun informed them.
“Okay so he has a watch?”
“Yeah he has, so we need to meet him then.”
“How do we get back to our dimension?”
“Our only way to get back is to seal the black hole.”
“How do we do that?” Tommy asked.
“Kill Ben, He’s the creator of this world, when he dies we get sucked through the hole and our bodies morph with the ones in our proper dimension. Then this whole dimension ceases to exist.”
“Let’s do it for Pete” Clark said.
The three searched around for the code set up to talk to Ben over the radio and tune it in. There was static so Tommy spoke.
“Ben, it’s me Tommy.”
“Ahh the little boy who thought he could change time, look at me now, I can have anything.”
“You’ve gone mad; the power has gone to your head.” Tommy sternly replied.
“No a genius, all my life I’ve wanted more than I’ve been given, my mother died giving birth and my Dad was an alcoholic and my two best friends got shot, for your poxy life I can bring them all back and change them.”
“Yeah, but it won’t be the same you must stop this nonsense at once, Pete is dead.”
“WHAT you lie, Where’s Simon’s we had a deal.” He shouted angrily.
“What do you want from me?” Ben asked.
“We want to go home back to our dimension and lead a happy life.” Tommy told him.
“You know that’s impossible if I send you all back then I can’t create the black hole.”
“Forget playing God.”
“Don’t be stupid, I’ll be God with no followers I’ll be a prisoner in my own made dimension.”
Suddenly Tommy heard screaming down the radio. Clark turned to Tommy.
“He’s gone completely mad, he’s psychotic.”
The three agreed.
“Shaun can you get a bearing on Ben’s location using the watch.” Clark demanded.
“Yes I’ve got it; we can transport ourselves to him now; ready?”
“Don’t be silly, not yet we don’t have a plan.”
Tommy signalled quiet, he was thinking, thinking hard. He wasn’t very happy with killing Ben, he wasn’t a murderer but it seemed like the only way to do it.
“What ammunition have we got?”
“Why?” Shaun wanted to know.
“All-out attack, take him by surprise.”
“Sounds good, so we’ll use the watch and end up in the same room as him, we’ll have to act fast.” Clark replied.
Shaun set the location, carefully making sure the time button was 00-00-00, but before he had chance to press the button, they all disappeared.


“Where are we?”
“Oh no, not again?”
“No, we’re not in a vehicle; it’s just a dark room.”
The three of them were in a dark room, it seemed there was a bolted door and there was a speaker above them.
“I’ve been expecting you, once you logged on my location, I was able to get an exact fix on you and divert you here.” Ben laughed.
“What are you going to do?” Clark screamed.
“I’m going to bring the three of you back from your original dimension so that you’ll meet causing the black hole I want. Oh and you can’t escape using the watch I’ve jammed it.”
“How long have we got?” Clark whispered.
“About five minutes before we suffer the worst horrific death ever. We’ll be ripped apart and crushed at the same time.” Shaun informed them.
As they spoke they could feel the strange presence, a magnetic flow across the room, flashing lights as they could just see a portal opening.
“Stay away from the portal and don’t look into it, we’ll last a few more minutes that way.”
“I’ve got to look, I’ve got to look.”
Suddenly the portal started to close and the magnetic flow died down.
“What happened?” Tommy inquired.
All was quite all three were confused about what had happened but none of them complained at least they were still alive. They could hear the keys being turned in the door. They jumped up to defend themselves, a face appeared around the door……..

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“Hi people remember me? It’s Compton.”
“Compton, how come you’re here?” Clark shouted in joy.
“Well I was working for Ben, but I got a bit suspicious, I don’t know what is going on but I found out that I’m a policeman in your dimension and was helping you to track down Ben.”
“How did you find this out?” Tommy asked.
“Well the thing is in your dimension I saw you dead and then I saw your other self alive when Pete and Clark were looking for you.”
“Yes it makes sense the trauma of seeing the same entity in the same time zone causes a dimension shift, a kind of opposite reaction, but somehow something inside you triggered you to link to the other dimension. You just saved our dimension from going into total chaos.”
“Where’s the idiot Ben?” Clark said pointing his finger in anger.
“He’s tied up, I didn’t know what to do with him, and he’s in the other cell.”
“Good we’re safe.” Clark was pleased.
“Not quite there’s one slight problem.”
“What’s that?” Shaun nodded as if to answer the question.
“Ben needs to be killed.”
“What we can’t kill him in cold blood.”
“Yes we can he’s heartless, he only thinks about himself and he wouldn’t think twice about killing us” Clark was very angry.
The three including Compton sat down. This was the hardest decision of their life’s who was going to do it and how it was going to be done.
“Is there another way?” Compton hoped.
They all sat around a small table trying to think if there was another way, there wasn’t. After about an hour or what seemed like an hour to them, Clark stood up loaded his gun and told the others he would shoot him in the head.
“For God sake I can’t take much more of this.”
He opened the cell door and took a look at Ben.
“Don’t kill me; I only did it to bring back my family. How about we set up dimension here, we’ll destroy throw the watches away and just live in peace.”
“Peace, you don’t know the meaning of it.”
“Yes I do, please, don’t do it, I promise you anything.
“Promising can’t bring Pete back though can it.”
“Yes but if you sacrifice the others to me, I’ll create a dimension where he doesn’t die.”
“Go to hell!!!”
Clark fired three shots into Ben’s cranium, his head slumped back and he fell off the chair dead.
“It’s done. It’s d ---- o -----n -----e.”
All four of them started screaming their skin contorting and they felt like they were being ripped apart. Ben’s body ripped opened and they all got sucked into his body. The process lasted seconds but to them it was hours, it was so painful. Suddenly all went dark and they all passed out.


Tommy awoke first; he was on the bus sitting next to a man. He thought he recognized him, but wasn’t sure. He had had some weird dream. The man got off and he suddenly remembered what had happened. Sure enough just as he predicted the briefcase and disk were on the bus.

Clark woke up rubbing his head,
“Jesus!” He thought
What was going on? Suddenly he realized that he was in a car that had crashed, there was a passenger, it was his colleague and friend Pete.
“Pete, Pete you still alive.”
Pete spoke
“I know the truth; I’m going to a better place.”
Pete died.

Shaun got off the bus then realized that he had left his briefcase on it. He was feeling a bit weird, like he had just had a déjà vu. It all came flooding back to him and he rushed to the college to meet Tommy.


Tommy slipped past the lesson; he wanted to go to the library like before contact Shaun to tell him what was going on. He remembered coming the first time and feeling like some bloke was following him, He was right Shaun was.
Shaun this time called out and they bumped into each other.
“Am I glad to see you, listen you have to destroy the plans and watch.”
“Yes I will.”
“What do you think happened to the others especially Jane?” Tommy wanted to know.
“Jane probably isn’t born yet, she was only 20, 20 years in the future.


Compton sighed a big relief. He was feeling better now and even the doctor said that his brief psychotic episode about coming from another dimension was all part of the illness. He had chosen to forget the things that happened even though he still thought they were true. He was just happy to go back to work.


Tommy’s phone rang
“Tommy, its Clare, Kerry’s mum, Kerry’s been taken into labour.”
Kerry was Tommy’s girlfriend, he had no idea she was even pregnant.
“Damn, I’ll never make it.” Tommy panicked.
“We can cheat this once, but we destroy it after.”
Shaun got a location on the hospital and sent Tommy straight there using the watch.
Tommy arrived just in time, opening up the doors and hugging Kerry.
“It’s a girl.” The nurse told him.
“Oh she’s lovely” Tommy said holding the small baby in his hands. It seemed to warm to him well but although he was happy he felt something strange.
“What’s up?” Kerry asked.
“Oh nothing it’s just a shock, I didn’t know you were pregnant.”
“Oh I didn’t either just a couple of days ago I felt as if somebody or something had entered my body. I had this weird dream about this women disappearing from a weird world.
“I’ve been thinking I want to call the baby Jane, Jane Summers, that sounds cool.” She said
Tommy looked shocked and spluttered
“J-a-n-e s-u-m-m-e-r-s, but isn’t your second name reed?”
“No that was my step Mum’s name, but I hated her but didn’t change it, but now I’m back with my real mum I want to be known as a summers.


**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

1936

“How is our baby?” Ben’s dad asked.
“Oh sorry Mr. Holmes, do you want to go to a side room.”
“Unfortunately there was a complication your baby was very weak and had deficient organs, all his major organs failed and his heart valves were blocked.
“Did he suffer?”
“No” the doctor lied. Knowing that this was very rare and that the pain caused would be incredible.
“Sorry it was a complicated birth, it was either your wife or the baby and it was in our best interests to save your wife.
Henry comforted his wife
“I was going to call him Ben; Ben Holmes.”
“I’m going for a drink.” Henry shouted upset and left running out the door.

THE END


BY JOHN PALLISTER

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Texte: John Pallister
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.02.2012

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