Take a Ride with Me

PART 2 OF 2

Jill woke up to find herself alone in the truck. And the truck was no longer in the shed. It was parked on a city street. Looking over her shoulder out of the truck cab's back window, she saw that the groceries and other supplies had been removed from the truck bed.
She opened the passenger door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.
"It smells funny," she thought. "No, that's not right. It doesn't smell at all."
It wasn't just the absence of odor. There was also an absence of color. Everything except herself and the truck were different shades of gray.
"The first trip takes a little out of ya," said someone from behind her. "You'll feel better in a few minutes."
"Was I asleep in the truck?" asked Jill, knowing she'd either been asleep or passed out. Hopefully, not drugged.
"Yeah, kinda. Nate says it has something to do with yer senses getting scrambled. It takes a while for them to catch up onto what's goin' on."
"Where is Nate?" asked Jill. "Were his senses scrambled too?"
"Nah. It's only that way for the first couple of times. After that ya get used to it and are awake when ya arrive. I'm Charlie, by the way. Pleased to meetcha."
Charlie held out his hand and Jill shook it. She thought he maybe held onto it for a little too long.
"So you belong to Nate, do ya?" asked Charlie.
"I don't belong to anybody but myself," answered Jill. "It's a long story. My car was stolen and Nate said he'd help me get it back, but then he kidnapped me and brought me to this god-forsaken place."
"This is a good place," Charlie answered defensively. "A damn good place."
"I don't think I could've ever imagined a more dreary frickin' place. It's looks like everything's dead."
"Everything is dead, but what we bring back from the future," said Charlie. "The past is over and done. Ya can come here to live, but ya bring yer own amenities."
"So you have no libraries, schools, grocery stores, …."
"No taxes, no need for licenses, no speed limits, …."
"No bars, restaurants, no outdoor rock concerts, …."
"Hey, Jill," interrupted Nate from behind her. "I see you've met Charlie."
"Yeah, we've met," groused Charlie. "She doesn't think much of me and I don't think much of her."
"And I'm ready to go back to reality," said Jill. "This is the sorriest place I've ever seen. Everything is dead."
"Things from the past are passed," said Nate. "Life can't continue after its time."
"And that doesn't worry you? How long do you think you can live here before "the past" catches up to you?"
Charlie looked at Nate expecting a rebuttal. When none came, he turned on his heel and left. As he was walking away, Jill heard him mutter, "I hope one of them snarlers eats her."
"What's a snarler, Jake? I thought the only life here was what you brought back from home."
After watching Charlie walk away, Nate turned back to Jill. "Walk with me for a bit, Jill."
"Are we going to the machine to take me home?"
"I want to show ya something."
"I don't know what you could show me that I could possibly appreciate here."
They walked around a couple of storefronts and down an alley that was between them. The alley opened on to what may have been a parking lot for one of the stores back in 1957, but now contained a roughly half-acre of woods. Trees with brown bark and green leaves.
"We brought this back with us, didn't we?" said Jill.
"Yep," answered Nate. "Right now it may be the only living green space in 1957. Neat, huh?"
"And how long will it live?"
"Not long," Nate answered. "But it's the tenth one I've brought back and each one lives a little longer."
"So the "flora" is trying to make a go of it, but what about the "fauna" you bring back? Birds, moles, earthworms? How are they doing on the whole adaption thing? And you never did tell what Charlie's parting shot about me getting eaten by a snarler was all about. Whatever a snarler is."
Nate sighed and looked at his boots. Jill thought he wasn't going to answer her and was about to let into him.
"They were here before we got here. Billy Sanders – he's a retired biology professor – thinks they're from another dimension. A dimension with beings that also use time travel, but use it to get rid of their "mistakes."
"They're animals as big as a lion and as mean and aggressive as a badger. All teeth and claws. I've killed three or four of 'em and they didn't kill easily.
"Unless there's more of 'em all over the world of 1957, or other nasties like 'em, I may have cut their population down to just six or seven. My people run into 'em now and then, but I think that after seeing their fellow snarlers get shot, they're a little gun shy and are starting to keep their distance."
"I was going to ask you what they ate for food," said Jill. "But actually, I don't give a shit. I just want to go home, dammit!"
From the small woods, there came a low rumbling noise that sounded a little like Nate's Harley when it was idling.
And then there was a roar that sounded more like a scream. Nate pushed Jill behind him and pulled a large caliber Glock from a hip holster.
If the snarler recognized the firearm, it ignored it and came on at a speed that didn't seem possible for an animal with such stubby legs.
Nate went into a shooter's stance and fired. He'd emptied the Glock just as the snarler reached him. It mumbled something that may have been a curse and died at his feet. Greenish ichor oozed from the bullet wounds. The smell was like the snarler had been dead for weeks.
"Close, but no cigar, pal," Nate said, toeing the creature on its nose to make sure it was dead. He turned to do a victory dance with Jill, but found her thirty feet away from where the action had taken place.
"Hey, ya can come on back," Nate called, as he reloaded his Glock. "I had everything under control from the get-go."
Jill tentatively walked back to Nate. Fifty yards from them, she saw Charlie standing next to an old shed holding a bag. It looked like a bag of pet food.
"You have dogs and cats here with you?" asked Jill when she finally had her voice.
"Not yet," Nate answered, putting a new clip into his Glock. "But that's the plan."
"Then why's Charlie carrying that bag of dog food?"
"What? Where?" asked Nate looking around.
"He's over by that shed…" Jill started. "Well, he was there."
"Charlie!" Nate yelled. "Get yer ass over here!"
 Charlie came out from behind the shed. He'd left the bag behind and was doing his best to look cool and calm.
"Hey, Nate. See ya got another one."
Nate stared at Charlie, trying to read his face. Earlier, after he and Jill had arrived, reading the faces of some of his other friends had left him puzzled. Something was going on here in 1957 that he wasn't a part of.
"Things okay with you, Charlie?" he asked. "Anything goin' on I should know about?"
"Whatta ya mean, Nate? Things are just like they've always been."
"So, ya don't have any questions in yer head as to the decisions I make? Like maybe ya think you could run things better if you were in charge?"
"I always do anything ya ask me to," Charlie replied, looking hurt.
"Yeah, ya do," Nate answered. "Come over here and help me get this bastard's mouth open."
"What! Why would ya wanna do that?"
"Just help me pry it open. I wanna see what it had for its last meal. The meal it had before it was gonna make another meal out of Jill and me."
Charlie looked like he was going to refuse, but Nate gave him a look that said he was calling him out. Nate was saying Charlie didn't have a choice in this.
"Come on," said Nate. "You pull up on that side of its jaw and I'll take the other."
Both of them struggled, but finally got the snarler's mouth open. The stench around the critter was now even worse than it had been.
"Now while I hold it open, you reach in under its tongue and feel around for anything that's under it."
Charlie once again looked skeptical. And scared. "What are you lookin' to find?" he asked.
"Dog food," Nate answered. "Just do it."
Charlie's eyes opened wide. But he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
Jill stood over the two looking at them like someone watching a bomb being deactivated.
Charlie put his hand into the snarler's mouth and worked it under its tongue. He turned his head and threw up on the ground next to the snarler's head.
"There's probably dog food in there," Jill said. "Why don't you just admit what you did, Charlie."
"Shut yer trap, bitch," said Charlie, wiping his mouth. "This ain't none of yer business."
Nate let the snarler's mouth snap shut onto Charlie's arm.
"Oops, my bad," he said.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Charlie screamed. "Get it offa me!"
"I will when you tell me what's goin' on."
"Some of us — a bunch of us — oh, damn, it hurts — "
"Some of us, what?" asked Nate. "Who's 'us'?"
"Enough, Nate," said a quiet voice from behind the three. "Put your Glock on the ground by me. Then you and your lady friend back off a bit."
Nate looked up to see Billy Sanders, the retired biology professor, aiming a shotgun in his direction. He tossed his Glock over by Billy's feet.
Charlie was moaning.
"Okay, now let him loose."
Nate, with some help from a very reluctant Jill, opened the snarler's mouth enough for Charlie to pull his arm free. The arm was bleeding freely and the wound was ragged from Charlie pulling on his arm to free it.
"Were you in on baitin' a snarler with dog food to kill Jill and me, or was that just Charlie bein' Charlie?" Nate asked Billy. "Kind of a chicken shit way of expressin' a grievance. Couldn't air yer concerns to my face?"
"I voted against that, but lost," Billy replied. "Just so ya know, the vote was close."
"Who voted?"
"Everybody but you," said Billy.
"What did ya want that ya couldn't have just asked me?"
"We're goin' home, Nate. We're done with this experiment. That vote was unanimous. We knew you'd never go along with it."
"But when Nate and I got here Charlie was all gushy about what a great place this was," said Jill. "Was that just bullshit?"
"I'm afraid it was," said Billy. "We had to keep our powder dry until—"
With a deafening roar, a snarler came around from behind the shed where Charlie had left the dog food. Snarlers ate almost anything, but were known to be partial to dead snarlers.
Nate went for his Glock, but knew he would probably be too late. Billy had gotten off three blasts from the shotgun before the snarler took him out. Charlie stood up to go running, but didn't have a chance against the speed of the snarler.
Nate once again began to empty his Glock into the snarler. The last shot did it, but not before the snarler landed on top of him.
Some of Nate's buddies, or former buddies as they now were, had come running at the sounds of the second snarler and the gunfire. They pulled the snarler off Nate and stood back to survey the situation.
Nate was conscious, but unable to speak. He had some cracked ribs that made breathing difficult.
"Well, assholes," said Jill. "This work out like you thought it would?"
 There were six of them. All were looking ashamed like school boys who'd been caught smoking at recess. Actually, four looked ashamed and two looked more angry than ashamed. One of the angry looking ones stepped over to one of the ashamed looking ones and knocked him to the ground. It was easy to do the math to see how the votes had been cast.
"Let's go," he said, helping the guy to his feet. All of them nodded at Nate and turned to go.
"Hey, he needs a doctor," yelled Jill to their retreating backs.
"Let 'em go," Jake rasped.
"But if they leave, we're stuck here," wailed Jill.
"Nah, Billy rigged up a spare transporter," said Jake. "We can go back as soon as I can walk."
"I may be running my mouth without knowing what I'm talking about, but could you set the timer thingy to take us back to about ten minutes before my car was stolen?"
Nate grinned good naturedly and then winced at the pain that grinned caused. Jill thought he was going to call her some kind of dimwit.
"I think I can do that. I played around doing stuff like that before and it always worked out."
"But we don't have the truck to ride in," said Jill.
"That's okay," said Nate. "We'll just hold hands and go right to the pumps at that gas station."
"Do you think we have time for you to take a shower and change your clothes?" Jill asked.
"Sure. Why?"
"Because you smell like snarler."
"The shower's big enough for two," Nate said, smiling. "I could wash yer back."
"I suppose you could. And I do have some nasty snarler spit on my hands," Jill said.

***

It worked.
Jill shut the engine off, took her keys, and locked her car. She swiped her debit card and began filling her tank.
"Hey, pretty lady," came a deep voice from the stall next to her. "Wanna go for a bike ride sometime."
"Very funny," Jill answered. "How's the ribs? Doing okay?"
"Never better. This time travel thing would be a boon to modern medicine. Kinda like healing people before they even get hurt."
"Yeah, but in the movies, inventions like that always fall into the wrong hands," said Jill. "Instead of using it for healthcare, or for something fun, like betting on the horses, the bad guys always want to take over the world."
"Next thing I'm gonna do is go about fifty years into the future," said Nate. "Never tried goin' forward. Wanna come along?"
"Round trip?"
"Now if I knew that it would take some of the mystery out of it."
"Follow me home," said Jill, hanging up the nozzle. "I'm gonna put my car in the garage. If there turns out to be a glitch somewhere down the line, KIAs might start piling up at this gas station."
THE END