By Teddi Deppner
“Wait! Stop!” Brynn shouted between panting breaths. His lungs burned. His legs burned. And though the sun was dipping below the rim of the canyon, putting the structures around him into shadow, Brynn could feel the rock’s residual heat, even through his boots.
The girl kept climbing.
“You know they can’t understand you, right?” The voice in his earcomm sounded amused, her teasing tone clear despite the pulse pounding in his ears.
Brynn was not amused. First catching the turkeys, now this girl. Why, oh, why was there always a runner? Those tranquilizer cocktails were supposed to work on 99.99% of the population. The odds didn’t stack up.
“How is it your job is the chase and yet a child can outrun you, Brynn?”
Brynn growled a rude retort, and began hauling himself up the stout rungs of the ladder, trying not to think about the drop to the stone path below him.
“Sorry, I didn’t get that. Must be some magnetic disruption.”
Millikem’s taunts were like fire in his bones, fueling muscles that were at their limits. Brynn leapt off the ladder at the next level and dashed down the stone alley. Shattered pottery and scattered bundles cluttered the walkways, dropped by the residents when they were tranked and extracted by Gunderson’s teams hours ago. Narrow rectangular openings in the brick walls on either side were low enough that the girl could be hiding inside any of the buildings.
“Give me something, Mil. Which way did she go?”
“Ahead to your right, the two-story against the cliff wall. She’s climbing inside it. Don’t freak her out, Brynn. Wouldn’t want to mar your perfect record by losing one now.”
Brynn stepped into the structure, his eyes adjusting to the dim light from several square openings high in the wall. There. Another ladder, with the girl’s bare feet disappearing through the hole in the ceiling.
He groaned. “Here we go again.” He needed a better conditioning regimen. Nobody warned him that time travel would include netting turkeys and climbing thirty-foot ladders.
As he climbed, grit rained from above and stung his eyes. He could hear the girl’s panting sobs now, and he shook the dust out of his hair, coughing as it irritated his already dry throat.
“Easy does it, Brynn. She’s reached the top. Nowhere to go from there but down. I’m sending a drone to distract her.”
Brynn stepped onto the roof. The girl was at the edge, leaning against the low wall looking over the rest of the village. She wore animal skins and looked no more than fourteen, though Brynn wasn’t good at ages. It was especially tricky with these early Americans—before youth regeneration tech came on the scene.
The girl called out to the empty streets below, her voice echoing in the twilight canyon. Then her cries turned to a frightened wail at the sound of the drone’s motor.
Brynn opened his hands toward the girl. “Ak’is,” he offered. “Ak’is?” The only word for “friend” he knew out of many Native American languages. Not likely to be the girl’s dialect this far in Earth’s past, but he got her attention.
She turned to him, glancing over her shoulder at the drone’s hovering presence, and then again at Brynn, eyes wide.
He waved his open hands in a calming gesture. “Don’t jump,” he coaxed softly. “I’m here to help.” He took a few steps forward.
Her eyes narrowed, then shifted past him to the ladder. She ran for it, but he threw himself sideways and latched onto her ankle. Both of them rolled across the hard stone bricks. Brynn jumped to his feet first and pulled the girl up by her shoulders.
“Got ya!”
The drone darted in, dropping a small net at his feet. He had no way to knock her out without hurting her, so she’d have to endure the ride across the canyon to the extraction shuttle wide awake. It would be quite a story to tell her folks once they were reunited.
“Why does time travel hurt so much?” Brynn groaned, trying to reach the spot on his back where the rough stone had split his shirt and left long scrapes across his shoulder blade.
“You big baby,” Millikem laughed, plucking the tube of disinfectant gel from his hand. She smeared it across the wounds and handed it back to him, cocking her head to one side. “Maybe another intriguing scar to tell stories about.”
“Ha!” He handed her a roll of wound sealant.
She applied the protective strips, and then wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her cheek against his back and breathing in the mix of man musk and medical balms.
Brynn leaned into her embrace with a contented sigh. “We saved another batch. Rebuilding humanity one doom rescue at a time.”
“Now we just have to write the reports.” She tightened her hug, and he groaned again. “Oops, does that hurt?”
“Only when you said ‘reports.’”
Laughing, she released him.
Humanity Rescue & Repopulation: Mission 73
Summary: Successfully extracted 27,581 humans from the North American continent in the year 1234 before they were wiped out by sickness. The village’s isolated canyon location mitigates potential timeline contamination.
Relocation: Nova Hampshire, Colony Nine.
Brynn tapped his screen, sending the report to the captain. At the console next to him, Millikem pulled up recon vids of the verdant mesa and the busy village tucked under its pale stone cliffs. Smoke trailed up from home fires, and people filled the paths, going about daily life.
“It’s a shame. After all the work they did on that place, they’ll have to start over from scratch.”
“Nah,” Brynn disagreed. “The rock on Nova Hampshire is a lot easier to carve than what they dealt with in Colorado. They’ll love it. Has the captain mentioned our next mission?”
Millikem switched screens. “Ever heard of Pompeii?”
“No.”
“Something about a volcano.”
Brynn shrugged. “As long as there aren’t any ladders. Or turkeys…”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
interesting rescue team. of course, can’t rescue everyone from Pompeii…
True! But what if the bodies found in Pompeii aren’t who we think they are…? ;-)
Thanks for reading!
That would be a fascinating job! Any more stories in the works for these two? Great story!
You never know. There’s definitely potential for more! Thanks, Arlan!
Lol this was fun! Though now I’m curious how they handle Pompeii…
I know, right? I am, too… Especially after SC Steamer’s great point about the archaeological evidence and the bodies found there…
THAT was so cool! The ending report was pure gold. Except that now I have GOT to find out how the Pompeii mission goes!
Aww, thanks, John! Appreciate the read!
Fun story, and good concept.
Hey, thanks, Alex! So great to see you’re still around. Your Deja Vu story was a memorable one!
This was so intriguing start to finish Teddi! Amazing concept and told so well. :)
What an intriguing concept and story!
Well, sir, I hate to break it to you… but I think you might prefer the turkeys after this next mission. XD
I loved this! I’d love to read more stories in this world.