Temporal Exploring 101 - Deep Future

IV.47 Choices

"So what happened here?" Natty asked. "And where did everybody go?"

The moment the walls of the Forbidden Cave had materialized around us we had known that something was wrong. Or perhaps not wrong, only different.

Most notably, the Forbidden Cave was deserted. No heavily armed females were defending the mouth of the cave against would-be intruders. For that matter, the small besieging army appeared to have left as well.

Somewhat ominously, the grid-iron gate to the cave was gone, too. There remained no trace of the fact that the Forbidden Cave had ever been locked and secured. There was no trace of Jake, either, or of his blue limousine.

As we stepped outside, we found no skid marks on the ground, which was puzzling considering the number of jeeps and military vehicles that had been positioned here at the time we had left.

"Do you think the autarchy's cleanup crew did that?" I wondered. "Perhaps they won the fight and then made it look like nothing ever happened here."

"Could be. But I think that's pretty unlikely," Natty said. "Judging from what we have seen of their performance, I rather doubt they'd be able to do such a professional job. Is it possible that Brianna sent us back to the wrong time?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. But I doubt it. I mean, she did have the exact coordinates of our previous transit. I can't imagine that anything as basic as that could have gone wrong."

"Well, somebody must have gone to great lengths to make it look like nothing out of the ordinary happened here," Natty concluded. "Also, now that our ride is gone, we have to figure out how to proceed from here."

"I suggest we walk to the nearest village and take the bus to the next town," I told her. "Basically, we need to reach a train station and then take a train to London."

Natty shook her head. "That's fine with me, except for the London part. See, I don't think I want to go to London anymore."

I frowned. "Where else do you want to go, then?"

Natty sighed. "Back to school, Cathy. I have had some time to think about this, and I have decided that I am done with running away, at least for the time being. Besides, I have got a feeling that the cleanup crew may be out of the game now."

"Are you sure? I mean, what if you're wrong and they show up again to kidnap you or worse?"

"If so, we shall deal with that when it happens," she replied. "As I've said, I'm done with running away."

"Alright then." I felt a lot less optimistic than her, but I respected her choice. I figured we would just have to be extra careful from now on. "So, back to school it is."

It took us less than half an hour to walk to the nearest village, but we had to wait for the bus for more than an hour there. Eventually we reached Cardiff and from there took a train to London where we changed onto another train that took us to Arlesten. We arrived at St. Albert's late in the afternoon.

Contrary to what we had feared, the initial reaction of teachers and staff alike appeared to be a profound sense of relief at our safe return. The school secretary, Sandra Bale, sent us to our room to get some rest before she went to pass on the good news to Headmistress Stuart and to our class teacher Ms Jefferson.

In the corridor we met Dorothy Barnett who did not appear surprised to see us.

"Carmichael said not to worry, the two of you would be back in no time at all," she commented.