Alex Scarrow: Time Riders

The old man reached up with one hand and found a switch on the brick wall. He snapped it offand instantly the bulb winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.

Sal’s small voice cut the silence softly. ‘Er… it’s dark.’

‘Shhh, it’s all right,’ Foster whispered. ‘We’re going to sittight for a little while. As long as we’re still, we’ll be just fine.’

A long silence stretched out, disturbed only by the sound of their ragged breathing. ThenLiam saw something faint moving in the darkness, the slightest glow, barely an outline…of… something .

‘A seeker,’ Foster uttered quietly. ‘It’s very weak now — onits last legs.’

Maddy stirred. ‘It looks like a ghost.’

‘We don’t know what they are exactly,’ replied Foster, ‘but every nowand then when you open a time portal… it’s possible to attract one, accidentallytrap one of them and bring it back with you.’

The undulating outline pulsed and flickered like a loose cluster of fireflies, embers dancingabove a campfire.

‘That’s what happened here. The last team…’ Foster’s whisperquietened to nothing.

‘The last team what ?’ asked Maddy.

‘I must have brought one back with me… the last mission I took into thepast,’ he replied. ‘I went out for some food, came back a few hourslater…’ He paused for a moment, considering how to continue. ‘What was leftof them wasn’t very nice to look at.’

Liam heard Maddy’s breath hitch.

‘They’re pure energy. But they can take physical formif they’re charged up enough. It’s not good when that happens.’

The pale blue cloud drifted across the darkness in front of them, a spectral form like a lostspirit in a graveyard, a wisp of morning mist in a deep, dark wood.

‘But this one’s grown weak. I thought it had gone, faded away to nothing.’He shook his head with disbelief. ‘I was cleaning up the mess, looking up your files onthe computer, preparing to send myself into the past to find you and bring you back. And allthat time the thing was lurking here in this place… quietly watching me.’

The shape stopped moving. It hovered just a few yards away, a dull pulsating glow that infleeting moments seemed to find a shape that reminded Liam of mythical creatures — acentaur, a unicorn, a dragon — before becoming a pale cloud once more.

‘I’d say it’s too weak to take a physical form. It’s dying. Butwe’re best just keeping back for now.’

‘Does that thing know we’re here?’ asked Maddy.

‘Perhaps.’

Liam licked his dry lips anxiously. ‘Where did it come from?’

‘Another dimension,’ Foster replied, ‘another dimension overlaying ours,perhaps, attracted to the energy of a time portal like a moth is to light. These things areanother reason we should never have messed with time to begin with.’

The entity moved again, this time drifting ponderously towards them.

‘Er… it’s getting closer,’ whispered Sal.

‘Yes, I do believe it is.’

‘But we’re safe , right, Mr Foster?’ asked Liam.‘You said it’s too weak to hurt us?’

Foster’s silence in the pitch black was less than comforting.

‘We should leave,’ he finally replied. ‘We’ve got over thirty hoursbefore we need to return, before the arch’s time bubble resets. I can’t see thisthing surviving that much longer.’

‘Time bubble?’

‘I’ll explain outside. Everyone grab a hand. There’s a mess of things inhere to get tangled in. I need to lead us out.’

Liam, Maddy and Sal reached out and fumbled in the dark, each finding desperate probing handsand grasping them tightly.

‘Whose hand have I got?’ asked Foster, squeezing as he asked.

‘Uh… mine,’ replied Liam.

‘You holding someone else’s?’

‘Mine, I think,’ whispered Maddy. ‘And I’ve gotSal’s.’

‘Good… let’s move, slowly and quietly.’

Foster clambered to his feet and Liam felt a gentle pull. He followed, his eyes remaining onthe pale cloud a few yards away. It was hesitant now, still finding curious fleeting outlinesand just as quickly abandoning them.

Liam felt his feet catch on something snaking across the floor and steppedgingerly over it, fearful of tripping and making a noise. Behind him he heard Maddy and Saltreading lightly.

Through the pitch black, Foster led the way stealthily until finally Liam sensed they hadarrived at a wall.

‘The door’s here somewhere,’ hissed Foster.

He heard the old man patting the crumbling brick wall with his palms and then the rattle ofknuckles on something metal.

‘Found it.’

Liam turned to look over his shoulder. The seeker was little more than a faint blotch in thedarkness.

Foster cursed under his breath. ‘With the power off I’ll need to crank theshutter-door open by hand.’

‘Will it take long?’ asked Sal quietly.

‘Not too long.’

‘Good, because I think it’s moving our way.’ She looked at the others.‘Oh my God, can you hear it? It’swhispering!’

Liam cocked his head as he studied the faint bluish blur. He couldn’t hear anything butFoster working the crank handle. ‘No… but you’re right about it coming thisway.’

The manual winch was squealing like it needed oil badly while the metal shutter rattlednoisily in its frame as it inched slowly upwards.

He felt a draught of cool outside air on his legs and saw a crack of pale light at the bottomof the shutter.

‘She’s right, it’s definitely coming closer, Foster,’ said Maddyurgently. ‘Can you do that any faster?’

The shutter clunked and rattled up noisily, the sliver of light coming from outside wideningmuch too slowly.

‘There… that’s enough to duck through,’ he uttered, winded from theexertion.

‘Ladies first,’ offered Liam. He turned to look back over his shoulder, almostinstantly regretting his chivalry. The seeker was making fast progressgliding towards them… almost upon them now, no more than a dozen feet away. Theamorphous cloud of scintillating particles seemed to rear up as it drew across the floor,forming the momentary outline of some kind of face. An angelic, childlike face, a littlegirl… Then the face decayed into some kind of nightmarish creature with empty eyesockets and an elongated jaw.

Liam wondered whether this thing was as spent as Foster hadclaimed, or whether it was still capable of doing harm.

‘Under you go, Liam,’ said Foster, tapping his shoulder, ‘quicklynow.’

Liam dropped down and squeezed under the shutter door, joining the girls outside. Fosteremerged a moment later, and with far less difficulty using the handle outside, worked theshutter down again. It rattled against the ground just as a faint tendril of blue light hadbegun to feel its way out through the gap.

‘It’s weakened enough that it won’t get through,’ he said with asmile.

He took a deep breath, and grinned apologetically. ‘Sorry about that. Now then,’he continued, turning to gesture at the world around them with both hands. ‘Welcome toyour new home.’

Liam turned from the corrugated metal shutter, daubed with messy paint — that he wouldlater find out was called graffiti — to witness a giantsuspended iron bridge right above him, crossing the glistening waters of a wide river towardsa glowing metropolis set against the blood red of an evening sky. He was stunned by a millionlights glowing and buzzing, flickering and changing colour, beautifully reflected in the calmwater in front of them.

‘Oh Jay-zus-’n’-Mary… that’s… that’s… ’His voice faltered at the sight of the futuristic scene.

‘Oh jahulla ! I know that,’ utteredSal. ‘It’s New York… At least, how it used to be.’