Return From the Future Page 3

  “The kids were about to explain to us, where they’ve been for the past sixty-three days.” Bill grabbed a tissue from the box on the table dabbing his reddened eyes. He needed to hear their story.

  “Yes, we all need to know what happened. God, we thought we’d never see you again.” Mike still couldn’t believe his boy was sitting right in front of him, alive and well.

  Do you want to start off or do you want me to do it? Joe transmitted, happy to relinquish the chore to Harriet if she wanted it.

  She smiled, nope, it’s all yours. I’ll jump in when I’m needed.

  The families saw the two kids smiling back and forth but were unaware of their telepathy. They waited in anticipation.

  Joe told the story from the beginning, starting with Luke, drunk and stalking them. He described their escape and getting trapped in the canyon. Joe pointed out that the climb up the steep rockfall posed no threat because of their well-equipped backpacks. The fathers’ gave him satisfied smiles.

  He described the cave, the tunnel and then, the weird experience they had when they passed through the old door into the future—although he never once mentioned the word future.

  At that point, he stopped to let them digest what he’d told them. It would also allow them to ask questions, which would give him time to gather his thoughts.

  “So you’re saying you saw nothing when you looked through the door?” Mike spoke up first.

  “No, Dad, it’s impossible to describe what we saw. Nothing is as close as I can come to what we saw. I stuck my arm in and it disappeared. I felt nothing and my arm came out okay. We decided it was some weird, dense fog or something. Neither of us wanted to go back at that point. Convinced that we were only steps away from the top of the mountain and the trail, I grabbed Harriet and we stepped through the door. The feeling we got is almost beyond description. It only lasted about a minute and the pair of us ended up sprawled on the floor of another tunnel. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

  “Okay, son, I’m not questioning what you’re saying. Continue with your story.” Mike was frowning as he looked into his son’s eyes. Joe didn’t blink.

  Joe continued with Harriet jumping in now and then to clarify something. He was at the point where they had tried to escape from Bentwood SPA the first time and went back for their friends Eric and Millie. That prompted a few more questions from the two fathers. Mike asked, “What does SPA stand for?”

  “Just what it sounds like, Dad, but it was all a cover for their government funded research. They ran a small spa-like clinic to practice some of their new techniques in skin rejuvenation and grafting, along with a dozen other things ranging from cosmetic dentistry, to replacing prosthetics. The patients and surgeons were hand selected and driven there in a limo with blacked-out windows, their destination meant to remain a mystery.” Mike nodded; the answer explained a lot.

  So far, Joe had not mentioned they were in the next century. Only that they were in a vast research facility they had never heard about.

  “Why would they try to hold you there, son?”

  “We didn’t know. It seemed like their goal was to do testing on us, and we didn’t understand why. It was weird and seemed so secretive.

  “We had no choice, they sent us to the lab, and the doctor ran some blood tests on Harriet. It was after those tests we made a break for it, we found our friends and then we all got out before they could find us.”

  At that point in his narrative, Joe improvised. “We ran once we got outside, but we could only go so far. We hit a barrier we couldn’t see or feel which stopped us from going further. We could only get part way down the hill. This facility was huge, a compound secured behind an invisible shield.”

  Seeing the skepticism in his dad’s eyes, Joe knew he wasn’t buying it. “This all sounds so fantastical, but I’m telling you these people are into stuff right out of science fiction. You wouldn’t believe what we saw. We think why they wanted us so bad was because of how we got in there. It appears the portal we found, was a flaw in their system they didn’t know about. I don’t think they believed our story. They wanted to know who we were. I’m not sure what they were thinking,”

  Harriet was smiling and trying not to laugh. Good spin on the truth there, sport. He impressed her—she hoped their folks believed at least some of it.

  Joe continued, “Once we were on the outside though, despite the barrier, we had a lot of woods to roam in around the perimeter of the compound. I suppose that’s why they didn’t chase us—they figured we’d give up and come back on our own. What they didn’t know was we had our gear and a month’s supply of food in pill form stowed in our backpacks. Plus there were berries and some wild apple trees and game. Roasted squirrel and rabbit are not that bad when you’re hungry. We used your snare wire, Dad, and what you taught me.” Joe kept a straight face, he’d never eaten squirrel in his life.

  “They chased us but gave up only a short distance from the SPA. We survived out there for more than a month. We hoped they’d think we had somehow found a breach in their barrier and escaped.”

  His glossed-over tale had all four parents captivated. He could see their lawyer brains piling up questions. But they were waiting for the end of his story before they cross-examined him, something he dreaded.

  You’re doing great, hon, keep it up. Harriet knew they would have to answer a load of questions as soon as Joe finished his story. She thought his tale made sense and sounded believable. But their dads would shoot the whole thing down as soon as they discovered the SPA was nonexistent, at least in 2020.

  So far Joe had made the story a modern-day fable with no hint of time travel.

  “We had no trouble finding our way back into the SPA’s underground maze. Then we tried to find the basement of the small building where we spent the night when we arrived. But we had to give up. We figured we had a better shot at finding the building on the surface, so we went back through the Center and out into the back alley.

  “But, we didn’t make it far before we ran into our old guard, Arthur. However, he turned out to be more friend than foe. That’s something we didn’t detect when we were there the first time.

  “He thought we’d be smart to face the commander and go along with him for now. At least try to find out what he was up to. If we got into any trouble, he said he’d help us get out of there. Although, not at the expense of his own safety or personal plans.

  “Arthur said he only stayed on there because he hoped to take part in one of their research projects on fixing the hard to correct erectile dysfunction he suffered from. He is only about thirty, so has a lot of life to live. Sorry, Mom, Mrs. Blaney, but that’s the truth. He was always candid with us, and we learned to like him and trust him. He turned out to be a good friend and ally.” Joe dared not look at Harriet at that moment—it was all he could do to keep it together after the spontaneous whopper he had just created about their good friend’s problem.

  So far he was doing great improvising. Even Harriet believed his version, except for the last bit.

  Harriet picked up the story, giving Joe a break. “Arthur explained to us that the commander’s interest was only in Joe and me, so he said he would plan to get Eric and Millie out either before or after us rather than at the same time. Meanwhile, he would hide them in his room as no one ever checked there.”

  Good story, Harri, I wasn’t sure how we’d get Eric and Millie out of there. You saved the day. Joe winked at her and grinned.

  Off the hook for that part of the narrative, Joe continued with the tale, “We went along with his advice and let him take us to see the commander. He seemed quite changed, a lot friendlier. He apologized for his earlier behavior and said that he believed our story and he would let us go if we would allow him to finish the basic tests they were running on our blood and tissue samples. I don’t understand what it was he wanted it for, but we agreed anyway—anything to make it easier to leave and there was no reason to doubt his story at that point. />
  “They took the samples and told us it would take two or three days to analyze them. If all looked good, we could leave. So, three days later we met with the doctor who told us that everything was perfect and the commander had a proposal he would explain to us in the morning.

  “At that point, both Harriet and I suspected something underhanded was going on. Arthur agreed with us after we explained it to him. He did some snooping around that night. When he came to get us in the morning, he said he had discovered something suspicious.”

  “You understand, this research facility is into some advanced stuff?” Harriet added, keeping a straight face.

  Joe continued with the story, “Scientists at the center have known that the moon is rich in minerals and have plans to set up a permanent research station there. They are working on getting those minerals back to Earth, or at least using them to help mankind soon. They are even talking about setting up a mining, refining and manufacturing facility, requiring a large permanent staff. It would be far too costly to ship people back and forth for any length of time. So the commander had written a proposal that Arthur got his hands on and explained to us that morning before we went back to see the commander.”

  The room was dead silent with no one asking questions at this point. They were waiting for Joe to finish his story.

  He carried on explaining how the commander wanted to set up a program with a selected number of couples that had undergone extensive testing.

  “These people would have to withstand the rigors of living for an extended period on the moon and who also would produce a bunch of healthy kids. They were hoping for two or three babies every ten months. The pregnancies would result from in vitro fertilization. They’d start that program now and by the time they went to the moon to colonize, half these kids would be adults and ready for the moon and its atmosphere.”

  Mary interjected, “You mean test-tube babies?” Harriet nodded and took over.

  “Arthur said that sometimes, the mothers would be expected to carry babies produced by donor eggs and sperm. It’s a nightmare scenario we wanted no part of. We knew we had to get out of there as soon as possible, so until we could put a plan into motion, we wanted no part of becoming a baby factory for this guy’s nightmare plan.”

  Harriet continued, “Arthur suggested that we should make the commander think we were interested in his nightmarish proposal, and to ask for two days to think it over. Meanwhile, while we were in our room thinking about it, we’d make our break during the night when everything is quiet. As Arthur pointed out, a daytime break would be too obvious. Everyone there wore uniforms and we would stand out like sore thumbs. So once again, we went along with that, because it made sense. And, since Arthur was our guard, a nighttime getaway was likely to work.”

  “The next day, as Arthur had predicted, the commander outlined his proposal, saying that our tests showed that we’d be excellent candidates for that kind of living and because we were both so young and healthy, we’d produce healthy children. He even promised to make sure that plastic surgeons would correct my body, if needed, to keep me young and desirable, as he put it. You know how well that went over with me, Mom? He said that they’d treat us like royalty for the ten years we would have to commit to this program. Can you imagine, ten freakin’ years on the moon?”

  “It was hard not to punch that maniac in the face at that point,” Joe said. “But we smiled and asked if we could have a day or two to think about it. He said we could have until morning. So, once again Arthur suggested that, in the morning, we explain our position to Weatherby, and insist that we be allowed to go home. So, the next day, we declined his offer, saying we had to get back home to our worried parents and to please let us go as he promised. We suspected all along this guy was full of bullshit, and now we knew it for sure.” Putting the ordeal into words made Joe realize how angry he was. He would carry this with him forever.

  Harriet jumped in, “That’s when the guy told us what he had in mind. He admitted that this is what they’d hoped for right from the beginning. He called us ‘a valuable asset’. And said we were naïve and to get used to it. Also, he wanted us in the lab that afternoon for more tests. He had no intention of letting us go.” Joe noted her shiver. “God knows what they had in mind. We were escorted back to our rooms until we had to report to the lab.”

  Harriet felt like she was reliving their nightmare in the retelling of the tale. She knew that she would be plagued by this for years.

  Maybe you and I’ll need therapy after this. I didn’t realize how angry I am.

  Joe squeezed her hand, I feel the same way.

  “Back in our rooms, when we explained it to Arthur, he said we should go to the lab, and he’d come with us to make sure nothing happened. It turned out the doctor, who must have been in on it from the beginning, tried to drug both of us. Arthur recognized the drug, and had to move fast, so he hid behind some equipment in the lab and used one of his devices to call the doctor with a fake emergency. He fell for it and as he was leaving, he told Arthur to guard us. Once he’d gone, Arthur got busy and injected us both with an antidote and got us out of the building as fast as I could move. I was half drugged, so it wasn’t easy. He took us to the escape tunnel and then went back to the lab. Arthur pretended Joe knocked him out, so they wouldn’t think he had anything to do with our escape. And since none of them knew where we got into the SPA, we made a clean getaway. I don’t know if they ever found the door, we hope not. So here we are.” The room was dead quiet. Joe and Harriet held their breaths.

  Chapter 4

  A Better Plan

  Mike Flemming looked at his son, then over to Harriet and shook his head, “That’s quite the story. It’s a lot to take in. I want to believe you, son, but you have to admit, that it’s hard to digest. I’ll think about this before I make any comment. In the meantime, we will have to come up with something for the police that’s a little less fantastical. What do you think, Bill…? Mary?

  “It sounds like a movie script,” Bill Blaney agreed. “It will require some investigation. But yes, maybe we’d better think up something for the RCMP and the newspapers. As soon as they find out the kids are back and okay, they’ll want to know everything.”

  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police covered law enforcement for all areas outside of the larger cities, which had their own local forces.

  “Harriet and I agonized over this, Dad, but that’s what happened to us. Harriet and I tried to come up with something that sounded more believable. We even thought we’d lie and say we’d eloped.”

  His dad laughed. “At least that would make more sense, that’s what the media and the police have been saying. We denied it though, but maybe that is the better story. How about if we say you planned to run off and get married but then changed your mind and instead took a trip with some friends you met on the hiking trail?”

  Mary added, “They won’t believe that the kids lost track of time, but I think they will believe that they tried to elope. Those two have been together since they were little kids, and all their friends will agree they’ve always intended to get married… My only problem is trying to figure out why they would leave the car behind.”

  “That’s true,” Jen chimed in, “Joe just got his car, why would he leave it?”

  “I could always say I couldn’t get it started and Harriet and I got a lift to Truro, to find someone there who’d come out to fix it. But, because we couldn’t find a mechanic to come before Monday, we stayed there at a motel. And that made us feel guilty, so we figured maybe if we eloped, it would be okay.” Joe winked at Harriet, who put her head down to keep from laughing.

  “And then when we tried to get a license, we found out because we’re not yet nineteen, we needed our parents’ signature in Nova Scotia, so we hopped on a bus and went to Quebec, where you only have to be eighteen. By the time we got to Montreal and did some shopping and sightseeing, we’d thought twice about it. But we had gone that far, and we knew we would be in
hot water no matter what, so instead we made a vacation out of it. We contemplated staying in Montreal until we turned nineteen in October. But we’d have to get jobs, and we figured that would mean giving up university. And we’d likely end up like so many impulsive kids, broke and with a family to support. So we came home to face the music.” Joe almost believed the story himself and it made him grin. He surprised himself with how easy the lie came to him.

  Jen, who hadn’t said too much, laughed. “Anyone who knows you would find it hard to believe, but the authorities might believe it okay. They all figured that’s what you did, anyway. As long as they accept the story and don’t check too far into it, it will fly. It’s still better than the story you told us. That story would bring the gossip reporters to our doorsteps.”

  “Darling, this is difficult for all of us. You’re home and that’s what’s important. We want to believe you, but I’m sure no one else will. I love you both. If there is another truth, I hope you will tell us because I’m at a loss,” Mary said, looking at her daughter.

  “Mom, there is no other story. If we could have dreamed up something that was easy we sure would have used it. We know you trust us, and we would never do anything to hurt you, but I agree, no one will believe the truth.” Harriet was near tears. She hated lying, and knowing that their parents didn’t believe their story, only made her feel worse.

  Joe put his arm around her and squeezed.

  Mike’s father had another question, “What about Luke Holmes? I don’t think he should walk away without punishment?”

  “If I had my way he’d be charged with attempted murder,” Bill growled.

  Both the women stayed quiet and let their husbands talk. This was the lawyers’ area of expertise. If the two mothers had their way, they’d string the boy up for trying to harm their kids.