The Business of Time Travel Tourism

Chapter 12: The New Troubles

 June 26, 2014. Thursday.

John with his back slightly humped, arms crossed on his chest, tapped his foot in the cellar. His long shadow produced by a single luminous light bulb stretched far behind him and fell on the wall. Every now and then he glanced at his phone to check the time.

C'mon John, you'll be good at this. No need to worry. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in breathe out. He encouraged himself.

As he felt a weak gust of wind blow the tips of his muddy hair, his hand gripping the phone began to shake. Trembling from the excitement he lifted his eyes and saw a swirling portal open up in the ceiling, its surface mirrory and bright. Here we go.

The portal appeared to be more spectacular than John had expected. He took a step forward to study it. Though the image from another side was distorted by transparent waves, he could easily understand what was happening out there. A mass of small shiny humanoids was running towards the portal. Those farther away pushed the ones in front and those in front squeezed through, two or three at a time.

A humanlike creature dressed in aluminum foil fell out of the portal, then another, and then another, and for the time the portal was opened up they did not stop falling. During the five seconds, the portal was open, at least a dozen of them piled up on the ground.

John's face went pale. This was not what he had expected. All shivering, he backed off until a table stopped the retreat.

The creatures no taller than the height of John's waist jumped to their feet and made a rectangular formation four by four with two humanoids standing in front. One of the leaders wore duck taped dark glasses, another had a nasty wide scar going from his ear to the tiny lips. The first creature took off its glasses and helm to reveal an ugly face, little resembling to human.

It asked, "Where iz Giarge?"

John stuttered, for he had yet to recover from the shock, "H-he is b-busy saving the world. My n-name is John and I'm taking care of things while he's away." He took a deep breath in and out. "George told me about you. You must be Zoop."

"Yez, I'm Zoop. Nice to meet ya, taker care of thingz."

"W-what are you doing here?" John was quick to forget his manners. "Why the hell are there so many of you?"

"We are on a hunt, mizter John. We are looking for a zcum, and I would like to give you a polite proposal, which you should not refuse." He rolled his eyes to the colleague by his side, whose eyes burned with a flame of rage and anger. "You really shouldn't refuse. May thiz become our baze of operationz for the time we're here?"

"Sir John, the traitor must be found and killed by many means necessary!" growled the creature standing by Zoop's side, squeezing a steel pipe in one hand and a toy weapon with a ball at its end in another. It seemed as if he had no control over the tone of his voice, the intonation of his words fluctuated in between very thin and thick. The creature had a taller stature than his grunts. His shoulder line was a little wider, scarred arms sticking out of the shiny armor much beefier.

Zoop approached John and hugged him. Leaning his head against John's belly, he said, "Excuse uz for this intruzion. We're very zorry, but the queen left uz no choice." Whispering he added, "Please do not upset Gango."

Once again, the humanoid behind Zoop spoke up and lifted his hand, "The sacrilege needs avenging!"

"Kaka!" shouted the Kakamaquans in the formation and each lifted a hand up. Half of them held pistols with round balls at their ends, others held steel pipes the length of their arms.

Gango shouted, "Soldiers, exit this place!"

Led by their leader, the uncanny task force from the future lined up and marched towards the stairs.