Gordon Eklund Serving in Time

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"If that's what they were, yes." She stood up beside him, peering
into the dark. "If they catch us, what will they do?"
"What do you think?" He climbed cautiously out of the ditch, then helped
Gail up, too. He brushed fitfully at his clothes, scraping away the
accumulated dust and dirt. He was glad there wasn't a moon tonight. The only
light was the distant glimmer of the town far at the end of the straight dirt
road.
"But this doesn't prove anything," Gail was insisting. "I mean, we don't know
for certain Kirk planned it this way. How could he
look into the future and know what would happen?"
"That's something I'd like to ask him myself."
"All he did all that we know he saved George Washington's army."
"It seems to have been enough."
"And this isn't the whole world. It's only one country, one part of one
country. We don't know this wasn't here when we were."
"I knew. I lived here."
"Oh."
"But look over there." He pointed away into the cornfield.
There, dimly through the darkness, a single vague light could be seen peeping
between the black shadows of the cornstalks. "It must be a house. Come
on " he headed toward the fence " let's take a look."
"Jan, no." She gripped his arm. "Haven't we seen enough?"
"I haven't. I came here to find some answers but so far all I've got is more
questions. I need to talk to someone."
"But I hate it here. I'm afraid. I don't want to die not here."
"It's where you were born." He tried, however, to soften the impact
of his word. "Come on. I'll take care of you."
"All right. I'm sorry if if I'm not acting like a corpsman."
"Forget it. Come on." They moved together toward that faint light. Jan didn't
want to seem too harsh on her. After all, what had happened in town the
suddenness and bleakness of the whole experience it had shocked him, too.
They had arrived, as usual, in a vacant lot at the edge of town.
From a first casual glance, the area seemed no different from any typical
American agricultural settlement of the late twentieth or early twenty-first
century. But this was supposed to be 2169, Jan
forcefully reminded himself, and whatever this place was it wasn't a
homestead village. They moved quickly into the town itself. At first
glance, it, too, seemed quite ordinary, hardly the sinister place of
Jan's worst imaginings. There had been a moment right there in the
beginning when Jan might have admitted the possibility that he was wrong.
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But the place was too quiet. That was the first thing that bothered
him. He had timed the voyage to deposit them here shortly after five
o'clock, when the town should have been at its most active. Yet the streets
were empty of traffic no vehicles, no pedestrians. Not a single store seemed
to be open the windows were dark, the interiors hidden in gloom.
He had set the machine for only a six-hour voyage. Because of that,
fortunately, there was no need to seek shelter for the night.
In any event, the one hotel they passed was also dark and closed.
A hand-lettered sign claimed no vacancies were available, but the sign
itself seemed very old and battered.
When a black, gasoline-driven car suddenly popped around a corner in the road,
both Jan and Gail dropped immediately to the ground.
Why was that? Jan wondered, as he drew himself to his feet.
The car was safely gone now. It was because of the silence. The darkness. He
had never felt so alone in his life.
"I don't like it here," Gail finally said. "There's something wrong.
It's spooky."
"Did you notice anyone in that car?"
"No. Did you?"
He shook his head.
At last, near the end of the long central street of the town, they
came upon a bar and restaurant and, through an open door, could see dim
interior lights burning within. They paused and listened and heard the
distant sound of laughing voices.
"Hungry?"
"No," Gail said. "But if you want to go in, I will, too."
"I think we should." But he didn't want to. He was nervous about
what might lie through that open door; he was afraid.
Gail prodded him. "Come on I don't want to wait." Her voice betrayed her own
emotion.
Jan took a deep breath. "All right, I'm going."
Once past the open door, they followed a narrow corridor that eventually led
them to the edge of a bright room. The place was filled with men. A wide bar
ran the length of one wall and there were several wooden tables spaced
here and there across the floor. All of the men were identically
dressed. They wore black uniforms with black caps and each carried a
pistol on his hip.
The moment Jan and Gail emerged from the corridor, total silence
seemed to descend upon the room. Even the noisy music box beside the bar [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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