Lauren's pov
"Camz!" I screamed in horror. Then I shoved the pistol in my belt, ran to her and cradled her in my arms.
She then opened her eyes then slowly began to speak. "He was going to shoot you in the back. Couldn't let that happen."
It was at this point I suddenly became aware of the shouts of several people and what sounded like several dogs coming in my direction.
"The shot's came from over there!" I heard someone shout.
"OVER HERE!" I shouted in response.
Looking down at Camz, and seeing she had been hit in the chest, I burst into tears. "NO Camz you can't die. You shouldn't have done that."
Camila reached up and touched my cheek with a loving gaze. "Had to save the woman I love."
"No...No...No...you can't die." I said, my voice cracking.
At this point 4 men with several dogs burst into the small clearing we were in.
"Where is he?" One of the men shouted.
I pointed off towards the direction I saw him run. "He went that way. I think he's running towards the river. I hit him in the arm."
"Alright men, after him." Said tall man holding a rifle. Then the group followed by a few others ran off leaving me alone.
However just a few seconds later, Camila's father burst into the clearing. Once he saw Camila had been shot, he turned ghostly white and ran to her.
"What happened?"
"Camila and I were talking and that bastard snuck up on us. Camz spotted him as he was about to shoot me in the back. She pushed me out of the way, but got hit herself. He dropped the gun and ran. I picked it up and fired. I'm sure I hit his left arm." I said in rage through my tears.
His brow quickly creased with worry as I handed his stricken daughter to him.
"Daddy! He was going to shoot Lauren."
"Don't talk Camila, please save your strength. You did a very brave thing. I am so sorry I ever arranged for you to marry that scoundrel. Had I even an inkling of his true character, I would have never, agreed to it. Please forgive me."
"It's ok, father. You didn't know."
I reached in one of my bags, ripped off a piece of one of my dresses and tried to apply direct pressure. "She needs a doctor!"
He then looked at the wound and seemed to cringe as his face turned more ashen. He knew something I could tell.
"What is it? Tell me!"
He looked at me gravely. "I've seen combat many times and I've seen wounds like this all too often, if she doesn't reach a surgeon in a short time than she will expire."
"How much time do we have?"
"The nearest surgeon is Dr. Mendes and I know for a fact that he's in London this afternoon. He said he'd be traveling there yesterday, when I briefly chatted with him at the inn. The next doctor I can think of is halfway to London." He said with resignation.
He then began to cry himself as he took her hand. "Oh my baby daughter, I cannot lose you."
Standing there, I began to panic. "Think, think dammit." I ranted.
Then it hit me, as far as I could see there was one and only one way to save Camz. I had to take her home. But I knew she would expire long before I got her to the wormhole. I then remembered the emergency recall. But that could fail and would certainly ruin the machine.
I had to save Camz, I couldn't let her die.
I rushed to Mr. Cabello and Camz' side. "Mr. Cabello. I know it looks hopeless and grave. But there is a way to save her. I have a way."
He looked up with a mixture of surprise and hope. "How?"
I had no other choice but to tell him and I had to tell him fast. "What I will say to you will sound like the ravings of a madman, but I swear to God that I am speaking the truth. I am not what I appear to be. I am a human being of flesh and bone. I no agent of hell or angel from heaven. I am a person. But I am a person from another time. I am from beyond tomorrow. In the years to come, a brilliant man will develop a machine that will allow the user to cross the centuries as one could cross a room. I came here from many years in the future, to right a great wrong. I assure you, my world or time is much like this one, England still exists, it has a queen a parliament, with a house of commons and a house of lords. England is still a respected world power. People still play cricket, here are still churches and people worship god. Do you understand?"
Him being religious, I had to stress that this future still had religion in it.
He looked at me blankly, but nodded after a moment.
"Ok, I was heading back to London, so I could return to my era. Go back through the doorway between our worlds. But I can as a last resort, cause a doorway to be here. I could take Camila with me. There, I can arrange for a very fast transport and get her to a fully equipped hospital in minutes. We have doctors, nurses and surgeons that use the most advanced techniques."
I'm not sure if he really understood me, but at the mention of hospital and doctors he seemed to become a bit more animated. I could tell that he would do nearly anything to save his daughter.
"You can save my daughter and this is no fantasy. I need to know this tale of the future is not the ravings a madwoman." He was biting, but I needed to sell him and quickly.
Having an idea, I reached in and grabbed my phone. Looking through my photo album on my phone, I found the picture I was looking for.
I held up my phone. "This is device from my time. One day, nearly everyone in England will have such a thing. It can do many things, it can send messages like a telegraph, it can take pictures like a camera and many other things. This was invented by man and made in a factory. It is no object of evil, it is device, like a steam engine or a coffee grinder. I can use it to keep a copy of a picture and see it when I want."
I held it up and showed him. "You recognize this do you?
He gave it a dubious look at first but soon became very interested. "That is a picture of St. Michael's church, the one we attend in town. I have never seen such a picture before, it is in color. Amazing!"
"When I first came to Herford, I took a picture of the church. In my time it still stands and every Sunday they still have services. Do you believe me?"
He looked at me and then to Camila, but I got the impression that he just wasn't totally buying it. Camila then weakly took her father's hand. "Daddy, please trust Lauren. She is a good person. Trust her. Please." Then Camila passed out.
He seemed to think for a moment, then looked at Camila's blood soaked dress. "If you can save my daughter, by taking her to your world. Then do so."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Ok. I do need to tell you one thing. In order to open the door here, I will ruin the device that creates the door. It is a last resort emergency I will be using. Once I am through, I will not be able to bring her back. At least for some time. But I assure you, Camila will be safe. I will see too she is taken care of. I swear to you and I also swear I will bring her back someday. I promise you."
He suddenly became very serious, "Swear to me in the name of god, that you will take care of my daughter and see that someday she is returned."
I held up my hand. "I Lauren Jauregui, Swear to you in the name of God who is in heaven, that I will take care of Camila and will bring her back to you someday. Amen."
He still had every reason to think I was either a con artist or simply mad, but he loved his daughter and wanted to save her. I can't blame him for grasping at straws.
Suddenly he seemed to think of something. "But how do I explain her disappearance?"
I thought quickly and after a moment came up with something. "OK, I got it. Say that she was so embarrassed by this affair, that she has decided to join a convent or go into some secluded religious retreat. She'll devote her life to God. I know it's a lie, but it is something that people will believe. I do also ask that you say nothing about me. Simply say that I was a person from America who quit one day and went home. Tell no one that I was from another time. Please."
He nodded. "Ok. I promise. How do you open this doorway?"
I stood up and moved back, exposing the watch that I had under the sleeve of my shirt. "I'll hit a button you will see some lights and sounds. Don't be alarmed. "
Then I hit the red, emergency recall button, 3 times.
No One's POV
In the year 2016, Sikowitz was lounging in an easy chair reading a comic book, when suddenly an alarm went off. He burst out of the chair and looked at the monitor.
On it were the following words.
"EMERGENCY RECALL ACTIVATED 3:49:15 PM 7/10/1869 LOCAL TIME: START EMERGENCY PROTOCOL: RECALCULATE WORMHOLE COORDINATES. BEGIN PROGRAM: "
Soon as of its own accord, all the machines in the room came to life. But the sounds the machines was making were not the normal one's they made. It sounded like they were operating under a tremendous strain. It was then he noticed a wormhole opening, but ever so slowly.
Lauren's pov
Back in 1869 nothing happened at first and soon I became worried that it would fail. However after a few tense seconds she noticed a strange wind begin to pick up. A few seconds after that, there was a burst of red and purple light from a 7 feet of the ground.
Soon a wormhole opened up, but this one looked different. It was a different color and I could tell it was having problems staying open as it seemed to convulse and pulse.
"MY GOD!" Mr. Cabello said.
"Don't worry, that's the doorway, A basket will be lowered in a minute." I said quickly to reassure him.
A few seconds after that, I could see the basket being lowered down. Not wanting to leave anything behind, I quickly grabbed all my bags and tossed them in the basket.
Mr. Cabello picked up Camila and kissed her on the forehead. "God speed, my daughter. May the angels protect you."
I then jumped in the basket and put my arms out, where he ever so gently placed her in my arms.
"Good Luck Lauren and May God Bless you!"
Once I had Camila, I hit the button in the basket to tell Sikowitz that I needed to be pulled back up.
I soon felt a jerk as the basket was being pulled up. "God Bless you and I will be back some day."
The wormhold was acting strangely, which made me very nervous. It kept expanding and contracting, plus it made strange noises and sounds.
As we were halfway up I shouted. "SIKOWITZ, CALL AN AMBULANCE!"
As we neared the top, I noticed that the wormhole had started to collapse and had started to close in on me as it slowly turned a purplish black color. Those last few seconds were tense as I wasn't sure if I'd make it up all the way. But I made it out of the wormhole about half a second before it closed completely.
The lab was partially filled with smoke and all around me I could see huge sparks and terrible sounds coming from all the various pieces of equipment. This was not good.
"Help me!" I shouted.
Sikowitz, who was using a fire extinguisher to put a piece of equipment that had caught fire, put it down and ran up. I handed Camz to him and jumped out of the basket.
"What happened?"
"That asshole Austin Mahone, tried to shoot me in the back and Camz pushed me out of the way. She got hit instead. He ran off but had a whole posse after him."
"An ambulance is on its way. I'll take Camila to the other room where she'll be safe, you put out the fires."
As Sikowitz took Camila to safety, I grabbed by bags and tossed them in a corner than picked up the fire extinguisher. First though ran and turned off the main power. He had shown me where the master power switch was when I first started to use the machine.
Though the power was and it was no longer sparking, several parts of the machine had fire shooting out of them. Fortunately I was able to quickly put out all the fires.
But taking a quick look at the burnt and smoking machines, the time machine had been utterly ruined. It was all too obvious. Running back into the front room where Camila and Sikowitz was, I could he was applying direct pressure to the wound.
"They should be here in a minute. I'll stay with her, why don't you change quickly. You're a bit overdressed."
I nodded and in record time, stripped out of my 1869 dress and into some blue jeans and a white t-shirt with red converse. However, much to my dismay, I realized I still had the pistol in my belt. I pulled that out and shoved the now antique firearm in my bag. By the time I came out I could hear the ambulance coming up the street. I can say, that I've never been grateful to hear that sound in my life.
The paramedics quickly pulled and I carried Camila out.
"What happened?" a female paramedic said as she came out of the ambulance.
"She was attacked and shot."
The other paramedic came out and both looked at Camila's odd clothes for a moment, but quickly got to work getting her into a gurney.
"We've got a gunshot wound, looks pretty serious. She needs to get into surgery right away." The man said to the woman.
Though an ambulance had arrived, I was still half out of my mind with worry. "Can I ride with her? I'm her....sister." I don't know why I said sister, but it seemed like the easiest explanation."
The man nodded. "Alright, we're taking her to the Royal London Hospital. Get on in."
I looked to Sikowitz who nodded. "I'll make sure everything is shut down here and safe and meet you there."
As soon as I was in the ambulance, we tore off. I watched helplessly as the paramedic began first aid and of course attempted to stop the bleeding.
"What's her name?" The female paramedic said.
"Her name is Camila."
After a few , minutes, we were at the hospital where, the ambulance having radioed ahead, an operating room was already waiting. She was holding on but only barely. I had made it just in time.
Once she was in the operating room, I walked to an empty waiting room and began to cry.
Sikowitz showed up about 35 minutes later. I had stopped crying by this point, and was just blankly staring into space, trying to digest all that had happened.
"Is she ok?" He said with concern as he sat down next to me.
"No word, she's still in surgery. Sorry about your machine. I had no other choice. It's ruined isn't it?"
He nodded and put his hand on my shoulder. "It's only a machine, that girl is far more important."
About 20 minutes later, a nurse came out. "Are you the girl's sister?"
Desperate for news I stood up. "Yes."
"She looks like she's going to make it. You got her here right in the nick of time. She'll be in surgery for a while longer, but the doctor said that unless there is any unexpected complications she'll pull through."
I breathed a deep sigh of relief and hugged Sikowitz. "Thank you nurse."
The nurse then handed me a clipboard with some papers. "You'll need to fill these out. So we can admit her. We'll keep you posted."
Once she left, I looked at the clipboard which had about 7 forms, that needed to be filled out.
"OH FUCK!" I said suddenly as the weight that had been lifted off my shoulders was placed right back on it.
"What?"
I held up the clipboard. "Let's see, uh...we have a woman in surgery with a gunshot wound. They'll call the police for sure. Then I can't even possibly begin to fill this out. Camz has no Identification, no records of her existence and no insurance. If I say she was born in 1850 they'll think I'm nuts. Hell, with the fact that she has no ID and a gunshot wound, the cops will probably think she's ISIS or the Irish Republican Army or some stupid shit like that. I'm totally fucked."
"Is the IRA even around anymore?"
I growled quickly at him. "How in the hell am I supposed to know? That's not the point. All I know is, that we live in a somewhat paranoid age. Crazy mother fuckers, blow shit up all the time these days. Believe me, the cops will get suspicious and start asking all kinds of questions. It's not like I can take her back. It won't take them long to jump to some paranoid and completely fucked up conclusion. Then they'll lock us all up and we'll spend weeks answering questions."
That seemed to sober him up. "I see your point."
I dropped the clipboard on the chair and walked out in frustration.
"Where are you going?"
"To the cafeteria to get some coffee and try and think of a way out of this mess. Out of the frying pan, into fucking fire. I'll be back in a bit. Providing I don't jump off the friggen roof."
It was beyond frustrating. I get her to a hospital so she can be saved and I walk straight into another problem. I had no clue how to get out of this jam.
As I walked towards the cafeteria I spotted a small crowd of people outside. They were watching an old woman cut a big red ribbon in the doorway of a new building next door.
"What's that?" I said to a passing orderly.
"Oh...that's the dedication of the new Wright family, cancer center. They donated the funds to build it. Looks like a nice building doesn't it? I'm told it will have the latest in cancer treatments and....."
"Whatever." I said dismissively, as I turned on my heel and walked off.
A few minutes later I was sitting in the cafeteria drinking a cup of coffee. I had been sitting there for a bit and best plan I had so, far was to sneak Camz out of the hospital as soon as she was stable. That was hardly a good plan at all.
I was holding it together but only barely, all I wanted to do was cry. Once again I had totally fucked things up and Camz was still going to suffer.
I happened to look up and saw the old woman who had been cutting the ribbon at the building dedication earlier, talking to some important looking doctor in the doorway. She was well dressed and looked to be about 80, with short white hair and was well dressed. With her and the doctor, was a young woman of about 19 with a blue tip hair. She was also well dressed.
For a moment she looked at me and for an instant, I got the oddest feeling of déjà vu. As I looked at her she stopped talking at the doctor and gave me a strange look back. I quickly averted my eyes and just put my mind back to trying to get out of my mess. I was totally fucked and kind of wishing Austin had shot me in the back.
About 3 minutes later I heard someone approaching. Looking up I could see it was the old woman, with the young woman behind her.
"I'm sorry, you look so much like someone I once knew." She said, her voice trailing off.
"That's nice." I said sarcastically, before turning my attention to my coffee.
"I see you look preoccupied. My apologies for disturbing you." She said in a kind and oddly familiar voice.
Then the girl spoke. "Come on Grandmother, the limo is waiting."
The old woman began to walk away and as she did, I thought about her face. I couldn't help but think about it. After a few seconds I realized I had seen it before.
Like a bolt of lightning it suddenly hit me who she was.
I stood up and shouted across the cafeteria.
"MARY, THE RING, DID THEY KEEP YOU SAFE FROM THE BOMBS?"
The woman stopped dead in her tracks and turned to me as if she'd seen a ghost. A moment later she reached into her expensive handbag and pulled out a small but gleaming ring; A ring that once belonged to me.
welp, I updated.
you're welcome.