Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 5.9: History's Future

Marci, Liz, and Wendall snuck out of the dorms, running from shadow to shadow, doing their best to stay out of the lights and avoiding the campus security guards, who patrolled the campus in their souped-up golf carts.

Following the plan they hashed out with Future Girl and Rachel in Liz's room, the three of them snuck their way over to the administration building. Just as Future Girl had predicted, a small crowd of security guards stood outside, still faceless behind their hazmat suits. A row of carts had been parked behind them.

Right on cue, Future Girl zipped down out of the sky and flew past the guards. Distracted by the perky, leggy blond in the cheerleader skirt hovering in the sky, the guards turned their backs on the unoccupied carts.

"This is it," Liz whispered.

"I can't do this," Marci said.

"Just like playing a video game."

"If you say so."

"Let's do this," Wendall said, in his best action hero imitation.

They ran forward, trying to keep their footsteps as light as possible. Liz climbed into the nearest cart, Marci into the next, and Wendall in the one behind her. They simultaneously pressed the push-button starters and revved the engines. The guards spun to see them just as soon as they slammed on the accelerators.

Marci's car bolted forward with her barely in control of it. She almost ran over the guards in front of her, but they were swift enough to jump out of the way. She sped straight forward, heading down the campus's main thoroughfare. A quick glance in her rear view mirror showed Liz and Wendall taking off in two other directions. Marci dared a second glance in the mirror, which this time showed two more carts chasing after her.

As the cart neared forty miles an hour, Marci cranked the steering wheel to the right, hoping to make a sharp turn between two buildings. She overcompensated, and her cart spun around in a 180-degree turn, its left side lifting off the ground for a second. The two guard's carts screeched to a halt on either side of her.

"That's school property," one of them said.

That was all Marci needed to hear. She kicked down on the accelerator again, racing the other way. It took only a few seconds before the guards pulled their own 180s and pursued her.

With a better sense of how sensitive the steering and breaks were, Marci aimed her cart to the side of the administration building. She slowed down enough to make the 90-degree turn, into the space behind the building.

On her right was the large granite wall that surrounded the campus. On her right was the rear of the building, lined with trash dumpsters and student graffiti in the form of mathematic equations.

One guard cart was right behind her. Marci was temporarily blinded by the headlights of the second cart, which had gone around the opposite end of the building and now drove right toward her.

Marci panicked and turned her cart to the left. The front of the cart smacked into a dumpster, pushing it into the alley at a perpendicular angle from the wall. The two guard carts, which must have been driven at a higher speed than Marci's cart, because both struck the dumpster, burying themselves in its metal on either side. As various items of filth shot into the air above them, a miniature fireworks display of garbage.

As the guards spun their wheels, trying to break free of the twisted wreckage of the dumpster, a cracking sound burst in the air around them, and they sky lost its blueish tint.

"The shield's down!" one guard said. Seizing the opportunity, Marci put the cart in reverse – just like a video game – and went back the way she came.

Once out from behind the admin building, Marci sped toward the school's main entrance. No other security guards followed her. She figured they were scrambling to deal with the shield, or still chasing Liz and Wendall. Marci figured the former was the case when she saw the abandoned carts at the school entrance. The locked gate had been forced open, an easy task for someone with Future Girl's strength.

Although the woods surrounding Mirai Academy were not lit at night, Marci knew where she was going. A thin walking path led north of the school, into the national park, eventually opening up on the curve of the nearby stream. This was a well-known spot among Mirai students who used it for smoking, making out, and many other illicit activities.

Future Girl, Rachel, Liz, and Wendall were all there.

"You made it!" Liz said, running forward and hugging Marci.

"I made it, too," Wendall said. No one hugged him.

Rachel sat on the S.T.E.E.D., staring up at the night sky. "Same ol' stars."

"What happens now?" Liz said. "Mirai will never stop looking for her."

"Yes they will," Future Girl said. "Ms. Kahror is more interested in keeping accidents secret rather than actually dealing with them. Now that Rachel's out of the school, Kahror will cover up the fact that she was ever here."

"That's what I am to you folk?" Rachel said. "An accident?"

"Not at all," Future Girl said. "Liz's experiment brought you here, in a time where this 'Temple' not only still exists, but is making its plan known. I think you're in this time because you're meant to be."

"Maybe so," Rachel said. "But what do I do now? I don't understand anything about this place."

"The future is just another Wild West," Future Girl said. "Keep doing what you were doing. Take the S.T.E.E.D., take the prototype guns. Travel from town and town like you were. If the Temple is still around, you're the one to find them."

"Yeah? And what if your sidekick heard wrong and there ain't no more Temple?"

"Who're you calling a sidekick?" Marci said.

"There are a lot of people living in this time that could use some old-fashioned frontier justice," Future Girl said. "Folks who've fallen through the cracks, who could use your particular brand of crimefighting."

Rachel adjusted her hat. "I didn't enjoy killin' men, but knowing I was helpin' folk made it worth it."

"There are a few of us in this world who feel the same way. Those who right wrongs outside the rules. But not so much with the killing part."

"You mean superheroes!" Wendall said, as everyone else rolled their eyes at his stating the obvious.

"There will be danger," Future Girl said. "But there are great wonders. I envy you, all the discoveries you're going to make."

"I reckon," Rachel said, "if you're Future Girl, does that make me... History Girl?"

Future Girl smiled. "History Girl. I like it." Marci, Liz, and Wendall all nodded in agreement.

Rachel grasped both remotes, firing up the S.T.E.E.D. It rose into the night sky, taking her with it. Its engines then roared, propelling her forward with a final "Yee-haw!" echoing through the air.

Marci stepped forward. "Are you sure about this, letting her go like that? She could get killed out there."

"It's possible," Future Girl said. "But I must make the future better place, that means giving that girl her freedom. Letting her go so can just be the person she was meant to be."

There was a pause, then Future Girl asked Marci, "It was the right thing to do, wasn't it?"

Marci looked to Liz and Wendall, only to see their concerned faces.

"None of us knows what'll happen in the future," Marci said. "But, yes, I think it was the right thing."

Future Girl smiled. "You three better get back to rooms before you get caught. If you need help again, I'll be around." She floated up into the air and off into the night sky.

"I'm going to need a new project for my presentation now," Wendall said.

"Same here," Liz said. It was the first time Marci heard Lizrespond to something Wendall had said.

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Next: Another level.