CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - CONFLICT
A cool breeze was blowing across Brian’s bruised cheek as his mind began to vacantly realise that it was awake. His eyes flickered slightly as they tried to push away the layer of crusted sleep to glimpse the world beyond and he yawned. He blinked and bit by bit, the world began to drift into focus. He rolled onto his back where a dark, clouded sky stared back at him. He thought he could see the fading moon behind one thin layer of vapour.
He shivered and pulled the thick blanket closer to his body, feeling drowsy and comfortably warm even with the wind tussling his hair. He had fallen asleep with his clothes still damp and caked in thick mud, but now he seemed to be dry. Well, mostly anyway.
He hesitated for a moment and then slowly sat up, blinking his eyes to try and force them to stay open. He stared down at the blanket clutched within his hands in confusion. He hadn’t gone to sleep with a blanker over him. Bri and Nick were the ones who’d had blankets in their bags and Brian had just rolled on his side and done the best he could with the hard ground.
He glanced to his right where Nick lay huddled cosily under his own thick blanket, his eyes still sealing his mind away in the comforting, dark waves of sleep. He turned his head, straining for a sight of Bri in the gloom but he was unable to see his older twin anywhere in sight.
They had walked for several hours the previous afternoon and they seemed to have made good progress, but it had definitely taken its toll upon Brian, even though he had been determined not to show his weakness to Bri. Usually he was very fit when it came to exercise, but he had been cold and damp and every single muscle in his body had ached after the captain’s beating. Nick had already scanned him with a medical scanner and had assured him that there was no dangerous injuries, but it didn’t feel that way. He seemed to have been transformed into one big, throbbing bruise.
They had stopped for rest early that evening as Nick had suggested that it would be safer to journey as much as they could under cover of darkness. The Gerai team that had captured Brian could still be around. Early they had seen them atop a hillside, seemingly trying to find their escaped prisoner.
He stretched his arms out and squinted across at the small proximity alarm that Bri had set up, which would give them an early wake up call if there was any Gerai nearby. It was silent and happy though and Brian smiled as he yawned again. Despite being exhausted, it had been difficult to sleep last night with the constant threat of invasion hanging above his head.
He frowned as he scrutinised the small cluster of trees that surrounded them. “Bri?” he asked quietly, not wanting to disturb Nick. “Bri, you here?” He carefully began to clamber to his feet, glad to notice that his legs were not nearly as unsteady as they had been yesterday. “Bri?”
“I’m here,” a voice said quietly.
Brian turned around to see Bri striding through the trees, his eyes darting about the small group of trees suspiciously. “You should sleep some more. We have a while before we move on again. We should make the village by tomorrow’s nightfall,” he commented as he inspected the proximity alarm.
Brian chewed on his lip for a moment as Bri refused to look at him. His twin never seemed to want to make things easy between them. Even after speaking yesterday, they had spent most of their time in silence. “Thanks,” he said eventually.
“What for?” Bri looked a little puzzled, but didn’t look up at him directly. He just continued to change some settings on the alarm, even though Brian was sure it was working perfectly.
“For the blanket,” Brian replied. “It’s yours.”
Bri shrugged dismissively. “You needed it more than I did. You were wet and you were hurt.”
Brian’s eyes travelled over the gash in Bri’s arm. Nick had already helped him to bandage it and Bri had said that it gave him no trouble, but every now and then Brian had caught him wincing slightly whenever he moved it too suddenly. “You’re hurt as well.”
“Yeah, but I don’t look like a walking wreck,” Bri said simply as he stood up and pulled out a portable scanner.
“I’m feeling better now,” Brian said defiantly as he folded his arms across his chest. “And what I said yesterday still stands, you’re not leaving me behind.”
Bri rolled his eyes slightly and did not reply. He shook his head slightly as if his twin had amused him.
“I’m not!” Brian said more angrily. Bri’s attitude could always irritate him. He had one of those annoying personalities that Brian disliked, even though it was rare that Brian disliked anyone. “We said we were gonna do this together.”
Bri paused for a moment. “I know,” he replied quietly. “We’ll see how it goes. It’s still a two day hike even after we’ve reached the village. If you’re still not well then -”
“I’ll be fine!” Brian protested. “Nick said I wasn’t seriously hurt.” He sighed as he crossed to his twin. “Stop trying to do this on your own, you’re going to need help.”
Bri’s eyes flashed slightly. “When we reach the point where Howie’s team are stationed then I’ll have help!” he hissed.
Bri pushed past Brian and slumped down beside a ditch, stretching his limbs out and yawning. Brian sighed and pressed a hand briefly to his temples which were beginning to throb again. He could not believe how stubborn Bri was. Kevin had always called Brian stubborn, but he was nothing compared to this thing of a twin.
He hit the ground beside his twin and stared at him, noting the way how Bri’s eyes remained fixed upon the ground. He concentrated hard and a wave of concern bubbled within him. He could feel what Bri was thinking about. B and Sammy. He could feel pain inside of his body and recalled memories of tears streaking down B’s face and intense sadness…
“Stop it!” Bri snapped suddenly. “Get out of my head!” He’s covered his ears with his hands as if he could somehow block himself from Brian’s mind.
“I know you’re worried about them, so am I!” Brian cried. Every moment he was aware of the fact that B and Sammy were in danger and every time he remembered that or thought about it there would be a lump beginning to rise in his throat that threatened to choke him on his own tears. He could remember the fun things himself and B had done together in his own time and he could still remember the adult Sammy so clearly from his last visit.
He covered his face with his hands and he was aware of someone else within his mind. He shuddered slightly and panic began to creep about his veins as his body wriggled at the alien intrusion. He could feel someone watching his own thoughts.
He turned sharply and glanced at Bri. Immediately the older man dropped his gaze away from his and cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he mumbled. Bri couldn’t seem to have resisted having a look at his twin’s thoughts. Brian knew that they were probably identical to his own. Identical worried. Identical priorities.
Brian leaned back on the grass and stared at the cloudy sky above them where the waning moon had begun to fade slightly in the early morning.
“Did you get any sleep?” Brian murmured eventually to his twin.
“Sure,” Bri replied quickly, so quickly that Brian knew at once that he was lying. Even the sleep Brian had had, although regenerating, had been restless. Even in slumber, he was unable to keep B or Sammy out of his mind. He’d dreamt of them. He’d dreamt of the day he’d found B on his doorstep, almost dead from the cold and the then the day he’d found Sammy crying in the road. He’d had a dream where he could see them suffering, but somehow he was unable to reach them. Every time he tried to touch them they would vanish.
“You’re going to need rest,” Brian said gently, trying to urge his twin into sleeping. He could see the dark rings beneath Bri’s eyes which showed his lack of sleep.
“I told you I’ve already slept!” Bri snapped as he jerked his arm away from Brian as he saw his younger self about to touch it. “I don’t need anymore, what I need to do is to get on and find my family!”
Brian’s eyes narrowed at the emphasis on the pronoun and he found his hands clutching themselves into fists. Bri had no right to shut him out like this. “Stop treating me like I’m some idiot who doesn’t know what he’s dealing with!”
Bri raised an eyebrow at the comment and a burning fury began to envelop Brian’s chest, but he gritted his teeth for a moment to bite back an insult in reply. “I’ve fought the Gerai before and I’ve also saved both B and Sammy’s lives. You have no right to keep cutting me out. I thought we’d agreed that we were going to battle this out later.”
“The battle is already won!” Bri said sharply. “By me! This is my time and I live here and therefore B and Sammy are mine. You’re just tagging along!”
“They’re yours?” Brian said harshly. He laughed and flung his hands up. “I’m you!” He whirled around to confront Bri. “We’re the same person!” The words felt like venom on his tongue and mind recoiled at the thought of ever becoming as cynical as Bri, but it was true. They were the same. They were both related to B and Sammy. “I thought we were going to stop fighting about this.” It was getting repetitive and he was beginning to wonder if Bri would ever forgive him for the fact that B had run to him.
Bri placed a hand to his head and his eyes flickered closed. “I can’t help it,” he grunted.
There seemed to be something about time that made a person loathe and repel their past or future self. It was worse when it came to people like B or Sammy, especially when both of them were so sensitive about the subject.
There was a sudden yawn and a sleep moan from their left. Both of them turned and Bri’s hand reached for the laser that was swung across his back before he realised that it was only Nick as he awakened.
“Hey Nick,” Bri said as he hopped over towards his friend, seemingly eager to have an excuse to end the conversation with Brian. “You all right?”
Nick yawned again as he took a moment to remind himself of where they were and why he was sleeping on the hard ground. He glanced up at Bri and smiled before turning his head to look for Brian as well. “Hey… Brians,” he said.
Bri rolled his eyes. “You okay?”
Nick nodded. “Yeah, I feel much better.” He grimaced slightly. “Arm still hurts, but other than that I’m good. Are we going now?”
“We don’t have to go just yet,” Bri replied. “But I think we need to be going within the next hour.”
Nick sat up and rubbed his eyes as he slowly began to fold up his blanket. “Well, if we’re all awake then we might as well get moving if we want to make the village by nightfall,” he said matter of factly.
The next few minutes were spent gathering up their bags while Nick found out some rice bars which would serve as breakfast for all three of them. Brian offered to carry Nick’s things and he gritted his teeth as the heavy bag was loaded upon his shoulders, but refused any help from Bri to carry everything. He’d already seen the twin roll his eyes when he saw Brian struggling. He couldn’t help but feel weak in front of him. Bri was much stronger and even his muscles were bigger in appearance. Whatever had happened over the last seventeen years, it had turned him into a much more physically strong person. Brian was still intrigued though. He could sense something dark shadowing his twin’s mind occasionally but Bri was keeping it well hidden from him. He wondered if he would ever find out what happened to him before Brian experienced it himself.
“Let’s go,” Bri said with a nod to them both. His eyes lingered on Brian for a second. “Try to keep up.”
Brian smiled sarcastically and then glared hard at his twin as Bri turned his back upon him. ‘Bastard,’ he thought. No matter what he did or tried, Bri was determined to knock him down. He doubted if there would ever be a real truce between them. Bri was only coping with him now because he was stuck with him.
“Ignore him,” Nick whispered. “He’s always grouchy, even to us. You should see him when he really doesn’t like someone.”
“Like me?” Brian whispered back.
“He doesn’t hate you,” Nick replied simply as the two of them walked a few paces behind Bri who led the way.
Brian almost laughed. “Could have fooled me.” Bri seemed to treat dirt better then he did Brian.
Nick smiled slightly. “You two are as bad as each other!” he laughed. “Bri does care about you, and not just because he’s knows he’d be in trouble if you died. He’s getting kind of fond of you. He does look out for you.”
Brian stared at Nick incredulously. “I really cannot believe that,” he said, but suddenly he remembered when Bri and Nick had first found him and Bri had been cleaning him up. He had been concerned about him but Brian had assumed it was because Bri was worried about Brian killing himself. He certainly did not think Bri was ‘fond’ of him.
“He’s grumpy with just about everyone. Believe me, if he really hated you you’d know it for certain.”
Brian stared across at Bri for a moment, noting the lines on his face that premature aging and stress had etched on his face. How could he change so much? Brian always thought of himself as a friendly person, he never even let people he didn’t like know how he felt about them. He couldn’t ever imagine being as… rude as Bri was.
The twilight stars and the waning moon soon began to fade as the dark blue sky began to glow with a hint of dawn as the sun began to peep over the horizon. For a brief moment the sun’s rays were beautiful as they tentatively stretched across the broken and barren land, but all too soon a thick layer of clouds began to build up and block the sun’s heat as everything became coated in a dull grey.
Brian shivered slightly, his muscles beginning to turn stiff with cold as the wind picked up and began to slowly fill with frost. Bri had wordlessly tossed him his blanket earlier so that he could wrap it about his shoulders. Unlike Bri and Nick, Brian had been completely unprepared and had nothing more than thin jeans and a loose shirt on to try and fend off the cold.
Brian’s legs ached slightly as they began to tread up a rather rocky and lump hill that was dotted with clusters of boulders that snagged at their jeans and tried to catch unwary ankles. Every now and then they would splash through cold, muddy puddles and Brian’s legs were fast becoming damper and colder.
“Why couldn’t we use trucks or something?” Brian asked, grimacing as he stood up to his shins in a murky puddle. “I know you have cars and things in this time.”
“Yeah, but we also have a shortage of fuel, so we only use them in extreme emergencies,” Bri replied shortly.
Brian stepped out of the puddle, his jeans sodden and soaked with mud and dead leaves. He stared at Bri strangely. This was an emergency wasn’t it? They needed to get to B and Sammy as fast as possible! “If this isn’t an emergency then what the hell is?”
“Of course it is!” Bria snapped, looking at Brian as if he were incompetent. “The problem is that trucks are easy to spot and hear and, therefore, are highly easy gor the Gerai to find and blow up. So unless you have a death wish, I suggest you stick to walking.”
Brian stopped in mid step. “All right, I was just asking!” he replied.
“Would you two quit bickering?” Nick cried in exasperation. “I’m getting a headache.”
And only an hour or so ago Nick had been saying that Bri actually cared about him. So much for that suspicion…
Bri stopped and began to survey the land about them through a pair of binoculars. He frowned slightly and stared hard at one spot to the left of the hill.
“What’s up?” Brian asked curiously.
“Thought I saw something,” Bri muttered. He scratched his head for a moment. “I think the Gerai that snatched you in the first place have found us and are following us, but keeping their distance.” He slipped the binoculars back into his pocket. “Let’s keep going. They won’t fire at you.”
The Gerai were just as scared as Darren of Brian’s death. It would mean that history would be altered and no one knew what the consequences would be at all…
Brian grunted slightly as the hillside grew steeper and more hostile. The muddy puddles soon stopped but in their place were fierce crops of jagged rocks that tore at his old and worn trainers. He could already feel where several blisters would be appearing later.
Nick jogged a few steps ahead and scanned the horizon. “It’s going to rain,” he mumbled. “Great, that’ll make the going even worse. It gets stony up ahead and it can be real slippery when it rains.”
“Can’t be that bad,” Brian replied while actually he was already cringing inside. He wasn’t in the proper clothing for hiking. “Can’t we-” Suddenly he heard the when and saw the light dancing dangerously towards them. “Nick, GET DOWN!” he screamed as he flung himself at the blonde, just as a blast of searing laser light was spontaneously hurled at them.
“Geria!” Bri cried as he whirled around with his own weapon suddenly in his hands. He fired at the direction where the original attack had emanated from and then stopped as he frantically turned about him, searching for a sign of the enemy.
“They’ve stopped firing,” Brian said as he slowly raised his head. Below him Nick was groaning.
“They’re not stupid,” Bri said as he ran to them. “They know you’re here and they don’t want you dead. They only aimed at Nick because it was obvious he wasn’t you.”
Brian glanced down at Nick who was moaning as he slowly tried to raise himself. Of course, Nick’s tall size along would indicate to any Gerai nearby that he wasn’t Brian.
“Nick, you okay?” Bri asked hurriedly after giving his twin a quick glance to see if he was all right. “Nick?”
“Uh, yeah I think so,” Nick said. “My arm…” he closed his eyes and cradled his sprained arm close to his chest as he gasped in pain.
“It’s okay,” Bri said softly as he helped the blonde to sit up. “Brian, bag, painkillers.”
Brian immediately slipped his hand into his bag and began to search out the small med kit that was in here. He paused for a brief second, remembering that Bri had actually used his name instead of ‘hey you’. He glanced at his twin but Bri was busy trying to make another sling for Nick. Brian said nothing as he handed the med kit to Bri.
“Nick, here’s some painkillers,” Bri said as he pulled out a small cardboard box and emptied some blue pills into his hand. “We gotta get off of these hills because the Gerai will be coming for us,” he said urgently.
Nick nodded as Brian handed him the water flask. “Okay, give me a second.” His eyes closed again. “My ankle’s not too happy either. What if they attack again? There’s no cover out here.”
Nick was right, there was not even a single bush or group of boulders within running distance. It was a stretch of open plains apart from what looked like a forest to the west, but even that was on the horizon.
“They won’t,” Bri said certainly as he shouldered his bag again and began to help Nick to his feet. “We’ll stay close.”
“They can’t tell us apart,” Brian murmured in realisation. “Not from a distance anyway.” He glanced up at Bri. As long as they stayed together, the Gerai couldn’t possibly fire upon them.
Bri shook his head. “They won’t fire again, as long as we keep Nick close, but they will try and ambush us. Here.” He helped nick to stand unsteadily and then pulled the binoculars from his pocket and tossed them to Brian. “Can you see them?”
Brian tentatively placed the ragged binoculars to his eyes, gasping slightly as he saw how accurate they were. He could see the hill which Bri had stared at earlier when he’d thought he’d spotted Gerai perfectly clear. He could even see the cracks on some of the stones…
He carefully turned his head and then he saw something dart in front of him. He frowned and turned again. He could one man who was half concealed behind a boulder. His own pair of binoculars stared straight back at Brian.
“I see them,” Brian muttered. He watched the Gerai pull away from the binoculars in shock before he ducked behind his hiding place. “Just one I think, but I bet the others are nearby.”
“Or on their way here,” Nick said. “We have to get moving.” He limped a few paces and Brian could see his pale face turning grey with pain. “I’ll make it.”
Brian watched him in concern. Nick was hurt and his ankle wouldn’t be able to take much more. The land ahead was even more craggy than the hill and that would be no good for his foot.
“Come on Nick,” Bri said as he slipped an arm around his friend so that Nick could lean upon him. “We have to get going. We have to reach that village.” For a moment Bri’s eyes met Brian’s and he knew what he was thinking. As soon as they reached the village, Bri would leave Nick there. There was no question of him continuing in his present state.
Brian watched Bri helped Nick limp forward as they began to scramble down the side of the slope. “You’re not leaving me,” he whispered to himself. “I swear, you’re not leaving me behind as well.”