Zombies On Fire & Other Short Stories

The Portal To Nemderia

The thought crossed her mind that he might come back with her idea and try to remove her from the timeline. She would have to act quickly. As soon as this thing worked today, she would send her past self a message three years earlier. The day she met Kemp.

"C'mon, D!" Kemp said right behind her ear.

Deloris jumped. She hadn't been paying attention and seen him come up beside her.

"Oh, that's cute. You're just doodling my name on that paper. You surprise me sometimes, Deloris. I thought you were angry at me."

Kemp didn't wait for a reply. He rushed over to stand in the portal.

"Okay, I'm ready when you are. Fire away," the man ordered.

Deloris fingered the keyboard. Prepared to start the process. But then paused.

"We never talked about when I should send you?" she said.

"Just send me back five minutes into the past," he said impatiently.

"But wouldn't we have seen you already? You should have appeared five minutes ago."

"Of course not, babe. Because you haven't pushed the button yet."

"But in the future, I have."

"Well, you obviously haven't. Otherwise, I would already be here." Kemp retorted.

"Maybe the machine doesn't really work the way we think," she said thoughtfully. "I really don't think we should open this time portal without some security measures in place."

"C'mon, woman. Not again. We've gone over this a million times. Let's just get on with this already," he sighed in exasperation. "Nothing can go wrong. We can always go back and undo this if something goes wrong."

"We really need to inform the board."

"They won't let us proceed and tie us up for another ten years. Don't you want to find out what happened before you were born, and what will happen in the future?"

"We need to get some security guards in here."

"Why? Do you think I'm gonna come back any crazier than I already am?"

"We need to have an emergency crew in place."

"Nothing is going to happen. It'll be fine. The messages have been telling us exactly what to do till now. That's how we made it this far. If we don't hurry up, they might get tired of waiting and send their messages farther back in time to someone else."

"Yes, but what if those messages weren't really from our future selves?"

"Oh, c'mon, lady. Don't start now. You've never brought these questions up before even though you've considered them. You want this just as badly as I do. Why are you bringing them up now? Sheesh. C'mon. I'm the one that's putting my neck on the line here. And I'm prepared to accept the risk. All you have to do is push the button. Just go ahead and push it already!"

Kemp's voice increased in volume and frustration.

"No!" Deloris replied firmly. "This was my idea, and it's my project. I'm not going to let you ruin it."

"What? Your project? Since when? We both worked on it together. And your idea? What are you talking about? I'm the one who told you about my discovery of these Flashing Roumbernites deep in those French caves that I discovered. Before I ever met you. I showed you my team's research about its effects on time and space. Before I even knew you existed. So, if you think that your bright idea of harnessing all my previous research means you own this project, you are completely mistaken, buddy. Now, push that button already and send me back in time."