CHAPTER SEVEN - LOOKING BACK
“Why are you doing this to me? I thought you were my friend!”
“You’re too trusting… it was almost too easy…”
“Get away from me!”
“You’re coming with me! Your father and brother aren’t here to protect you anymore!”
“Dad!”
“He doesn’t care about you! He’ll be glad to be rid of you!”
“Dad, help!”
He was cornered, trapped. There was nowhere left to run, there was no one left to help him.
Trapped.
In slumber, B jerked and whimpered at the memory that had wormed its malevolent way into his dreams. He forced his eyes to open, not wanting to be trapped in the fierce nightmare anymore.
At first, the blue and white wallpaper disorientated him and his eyes swivelled about the room frantically as he tried to take in his new surroundings. He didn’t normally wake up in a place as nice as this. Usually he would be in his dull, dreary room at the base in his own time or for the past two days he had awoken to dark and filthy streets.
It took a moment for the dream to dissolve from his mind and then he remembered reality. Of course; Brian. Nick had saved him and brought him to his family. He didn’t need to wake up cramped and shivering in the streets anymore.
He turned his head but Brian was no longer there as he had been last night. It had been comforting to fall asleep knowing that Brian was going to keep an eye on him.
For a moment his heart began to race in fear and he started as he sat up, glancing about the room as if hoping to see Brian somewhere in sight.
“Dad?” he murmured, praying that he hadn’t been left completely alone. The time on the streets had convinced him that he did not enjoy being separated from his family.
He frowned as he lie back down on the soft bed. He was paranoid. Brian would never leave him anywhere, especially after his concerned nature last night. He was probably downstairs as B would surely have heard any loud commotion during the night despite his exhaustion.
He pulled the duvet about him as he sniffed slightly and coughed, trying to ignore the pain of his dry throat and the awful way in which his tongue pasted itself to the roof of his mouth. His head hurt too much to go and investigate Brian’s whereabouts and he wasn’t sure if he could bear the coldness that would assault him once he crawled out of the sanctity of his bed.
He closed his eyes and his hands felt about until they located the fluffy hot water bottle, but it no longer radiated the wonderful warmth as it had done last night. It was depressingly cold now. He hugged it closer to him, but the there was no heat left and it only served as a squidgy teddy bear now.
He rolled over and his eyes opened again. He had been too fatigued last night to take a good look at Brian’s home, but from this one room he could see the immensity of the place. His own room in his own time would have only been about a quarter of the size of this, if that.
He slowly clambered out of bed, his body immediately beginning to shiver as he left the warmth of the blankets behind. He tried to ignore the way in which the room about him began to sway and spin. He sneezed and wrapped his arms about his chest as he staggered to his feet and took a small step forward on his wobbly legs. Immediately the world began to tilt and the dizziness passed over his mind and made him feel sick. His head began to feel heavy and he moaned faintly as the room began to twirl even more. He found himself falling onto the bed as he collapsed and the light from the window blurred everything into one splodgey mess.
He really wasn’t feeling well… Yes, he felt happy at being able to see Brian again but it was ruined by his weakened physical state. He really had almost killed himself this time it seemed, he was terrified to think about what would have happened to him if Nick hadn’t arrived to save him. He would have to remember to stop picking on him when he returned home… if he ever went home. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to… He would never have been able to find his way to Brian’s without his help. He had thought it would be easy when he coxed the address out of an unsuspecting Sammy, but he hadn’t expected the city to be so big or frightening. It was nothing like the world he was used to in his own time.
He thought dismally of Sammy and wondered if he would ever forgive him for running away. How many times had he promised that he wouldn’t do this anymore?
He’d had no choice though after the last Gerai attack. The first one had been bad enough; the complete annihilation of the village he had moved to with Sammy. Now, that sweet place was destroyed and it was all because of him. There weren’t many Gerai and they would never have attacked that place if B hadn’t have been there.
The second attack had brought the worst consequences though. He could still feel the ground shaking beneath his feet, the tremendous explosion as the bomb went off and the terrified, agonising screams of the victims the blast had claimed. So many people had been hurt… The bomb the Gerai hunter had planted in B’s room had injured almost everyone in the surrounding area; everyone except the one person it was meant for: B.
It had been too much. He had drifted into the medical centre, frightened as he clung to Sammy’s side and they had beheld the damage together. All around, B had seen his friends, their skin still reeking of the stench of burnt flesh and their eyes had been wide, but seeing nothing except blood and pain.
At the far end of the centre had been the patient both B and Sammy dreaded seeing, but the one they had known would be there. Nothing had been able to keep B’s tears at B as he held those charred hands in his own and sobbed. Nothing would ever be the same again.
That night, B had decided that he couldn’t stay. While he was there, the Gerai would keep attacking and more and more people would be hurt and killed. He couldn’t bear that. In the next attack he could lose Sammy as well.
Then of course he’d had to find a place to run to. Nowhere in 2024 seemed to be safe and there was traitors everywhere… he’d learnt that the hard way when on of his closest friends had turned out to be a spy for the one remaining Gerai base.
The best thing had seemed to use the time machine. They’d found the prototype in one of the Gerai bases they had overtaken and it had intrigued everyone too much to destroy it.
And now he was here… He’d picked a likely time and then set off to find Brian and a place where he would be safe and loved. A place that was better than the nightmare world where he lived in his own time.
Better still, he would be able to spend time with Brian again…
He glanced down at his broken time bracelet. A clumsy blunder by a roadside had led to its demise and he just hoped that Sammy would find him. He didn’t want his brother to worry and he missed him already. He’d been with him for his entire life and now not to have him around was… strange, strange in an emptying kind of way. He wanted Sammy to be the one to find him.
Maybe he could convince Sammy that it was better if he stayed here in this time. At least his father loved him here…