Alex Scarrow - Time Riders

Oh boy, they’re really not going to like this.

‘Come on,’ he whispered to Bob, ‘you better lead the way.’

Bob strode past him towards the clearing in the middle of the camp. When he stepped out fromunder some low branches, the camp’s hum of activity died down to an expectant silence asthey stared in awe at their magnificent heroic leader.

The newcomers, about thirty of them, surged forward excitedly, keen to get a closer look atCaptain Bob.

‘Hush!’ cried out Panelli. ‘It looks like he has something tosay!’

Bob stood beside the fire, legs planted apart, his hands on his hips — just as Liam haddemonstrated — his cold grey eyes panned slowly across the people before him with asolemn gravitas.

‘The time has come for me to move on… O people!’

Liam winced at the way Bob’s flat voice delivered the lines. It had sounded pretty goodon paper as he was scribbling it out and reading it to himself. However, right now, with Bobbelting it out in a one-tone voice, it sounded painfully embarrassing.

‘I have received a calling from above, to leave you now that my work here isdone… and I am to form other groups of fighters across the nation to fight this evilinvader. This dark force of evil. Satan’s army of minions and the devilry of theirinventions and weapons.’

Liam felt his cheeks colour.

Maybe I should’ve left that bit out.

‘But you will continue the fight here. You shall continue God’s work. I, CaptainBob, captain of the Lord’s army, will return again one day. I shall return… andtogether we shall destroy the enemy and return freedom to this great nation,’ announcedBob with all the passion of a bored teacher taking morning registration.

The forest was still and silent for a long time. Too long for Liam, whowondered if between his appalling creative-writing skills and Bob’s emotionless drawl,they appeared as ridiculous as he suspected they did.

Then one of the men, the pious young corporal, dropped down on to one knee and gruffly said,‘Amen.’ As did another, and another.

Panelli looked down at them and, keen not to be outdone, did likewise.‘Amen.’

In ones and twos, the rest of the men standing there in the forest followed suit, dropping totheir knees solemnly.

Good grief, we’re actually getting away with this?

‘Your leader has spoken and th-’

Liam nudged Bob’s elbow gently. ‘We should probably go,’ he hissed out ofthe corner of his mouth. ‘Whilst we’re ahead.’

Bob nodded and stepped forward and gestured his hand in the way Liam had demonstrated in thetent. ‘Blessings upon you,’ his deep voice boomed to the man nearest him as hetouched his shoulder. ‘Blessings upon you,’ he said to another as he strodepast.

Liam followed in his wake, smiling self-consciously at the men he passed by.‘We’re uh… we’re going to leave now, to uh… you know, to spreadthe good word.’

Bob led the way past this morning’s newcomers, all of them on their knees, all lookingup at him with wide eyes.

‘Blessings upon you all,’ he growled tunelessly as he strode past them towardsthe camouflaged trucks.

Liam nodded. ‘Yes. Keep up the good work, fellas,’ he said, cringing inside athow stupid that had just sounded.

Bob was in the truck, turning over the engine with a loud rattling cough and a belch ofexhaust fumes as Liam pulled himself up into the cab. Without a moment’s hesitation Bobslipped it into gear and the truck began to roll across the uneven forestfloor towards the twin muddy ruts of forest track.

‘Ooh… that was awkward,’ Liam uttered, looking in the rearview mirror asthe pale ovals of curious faces emerged from the undergrowth on to the track behind them,watching them leave.

He felt something inside him. Sadness? Perhaps it was guilt. Those poor men would probablycarry on the struggle without Bob, many of them dying as they did so, fighting for a futurethat wasn’t going to be.

When they got back home, back to 2001, and Liam told Foster exactly where and when theyneeded to return to, to put history back on its correct course — and this Kramer wasconfronted and killed before he could change Hitler’s destiny — when thathappened, this incorrect history would cease to be. Justdisappear. And all the sacrifices those men had already made and might yet make in the comingdays… it will all have been for nothing.

Although Liam would never see it for himself, this world would shimmer and shift amidincreasing waves of temporal instability, and then in the blink of an eye — pop! — it would become the 1957 it should be.

Bob turned to Liam. ‘There is sufficient time to reach the rendezvous location inWashington DC. We have fourteen hours and fifty-two minutes.’

‘Great, thanks, Bob.’

‘However, there is a high probability that enemy units will stand between us and therendezvous location. This reduces the estimated probability of our successfully getting to therendezvous point to — ’

‘I’ll stop you right there, Bob… if that’s OK.’

The support unit looked at him expressionlessly. ‘You do not wish to know thepercentage estimation of success?’

Liam shook his head. ‘Uhh… no, not really.’

1957, Washington DC

It was after dark when they finally entered Washington DC. A curfew was in effectand the streets quiet and still, street lamps buzzing softly amid the hiss and patter of sleetdrizzling down. They decided to ditch the army truck on the outskirts of the city when theyspotted a roadblock ahead. The rest of the route into the city they navigated throughDC’s subterranean network of sewers.

Bob efficiently led the way, Liam following, grimacing at the stench of sewage and the sightof rats running alongside him on a brick ledge, eyeing him cautiously as they scuttledpast.

Finally, Bob cocked his head, his eyes fluttered. He took a left turn off the main tunnel.‘We go up this access ladder. The co-ordinate stamp indicates a location fifty yardsfrom this position.’

Bob clambered up the ladder. At the top he gently, cautiously, pushed aside a round sewagecover. He poked his head up to check the lay of the land, then ducked back down.

Liam was right behind him on the ladder. ‘Is it clear?’

‘There are no enemy units in line of sight. Please stay close to me.’

‘How long have we got until the window opens?’

‘Seventeen minutes,’ replied Bob as he pulled himself up.

Liam nodded. A pretty close thing. But they were here in time and that’s all thatmattered.

He clambered up the ladder until his head was poking out of the manhole. Hecould see a four-laned boulevard. Nothing moved along it. The buildings on either side — rows of three- and four-storey town houses — looked occupied. Dull vanilla lightsflickered beyond drawn curtains. Liam thought he saw the diffused silhouette ofsomeone’s head and shoulders crossing in front of a bedroom lamp.

People still living in the city, then.

But subdued, cowed… frightened.

Above in the night sky, still hovering like a dark thundercloud, he could see Kramer’scommand ship in position above the White House. Several dozen searchlights lanced down fromit, sweeping the sullen and silent city, hunting for any citizens foolish enough to dare breakthe curfew and step out into the night.

‘Come!’ whispered Bob.

Liam pulled himself up, and scrambled across the empty road, joining Bob in the mouth of adark and litter-strewn backstreet.

‘This is the location,’ said Bob. ‘Twenty yards along,’ he added,pointing to the end where garbage pails and boxes were piled against a wood-slat fence.

They made their way down to the end, carefully doing their best to avoid kicking any looseclutter across the ground.