Story # 3.6: Rob...in Hood.

Linda and Rob walked a desolate road on the outskirts of Oconee County in South Carolina. A zombie was present every ten to twenty feet as they walked the road. The zombies stood there, some swaying and others walking in a circle. The zombies were dormant and posed no threat to Linda or Rob. Besides, if they were a threat, Linda would have already attracted attention as she spoke about the story Rob had just told her.

"So, you're telling me that this world we are in is the actual past?"

Rob rolled his eyes. He turned back to look at Linda, "Why don't you yell louder? Maybe the zombies will want to hear all about it. Oh wait, they already know because they were all people once and died."

Linda looked at the zombies they were passing by. She could see their clothing, all tattered and ruined now. The dead bodies gasping for breath that would never come. Eyes glazed over like a milky substance hung heavy in them. Former humans, left to suffer a terrifying fate.

"What happened to them, Rob?"

Rob continued walking ahead down the road, "Some virus. Uh, I'm trying to remember. SARS something. It spread so fast no one had time to name it. But it killed everyone."

"Everyone?"

Rob stopped and turned to her, "Everyone."

Rob turned back around and continued walking ahead. 

"How did you make it, Rob?"

Rob didn't reply for a long stretch of the hike and then finally spoke, "Because of my dad."

"He's a great humanitarian, your dad. Leave one boy alive here while billions of lives end."

"He left me here assuming I would die too. He had no intention of saving me or my mom."

"He left you both here to die?"

"Isn't that what I just said, lady."

"So, you had to watch your mom become one of these things?"

"Yes."

Rob's lower lip quivered a bit with that question from Linda.

"That must have been hard?"

"Listen, lady, I don't want to stroll down memory lane with you about this. We still have a long way to go on this hike. The power plant is still many miles away near Lake Keowee. It's almost dark so we're going to have to stop somewhere for shelter for the night."

"Anywhere you want to stop in particular?"

Rob had an idea.

***********************************************************************************

The fences around the stadium had been torn down for some time. Zombies were strewn throughout the surrounding campus, leaving the stadium empty. Linda and Rob decided to rest in parts of the stadium they had fortified just in case any zombies came near.

"That door is pretty strong, that should hold with this in front of it," said Rob.

"Lovely accommodations. Sleeping in a restroom."

"What do you want from me, lady? A five-star hotel?"

"Anything will work where we can rest."

Linda and Rob settled in the flicker of a candle lighting the once bustling restroom of a stadium that had been filled with thousands of people.

"So, this place was the home of the Clemson Tigers, huh?"

Rob replied, "Yeah. Pretty good football team right before all of this happened."

"Did your mom and dad bring you here to watch them play?"

"We weren't your average family, lady. I have never been to this stadium. Just watched on TV when I could."

"Right," Linda replied, rolling her eyes and looking away momentarily. She was still processing some of what Rob had told her about being in the past rather than an alternate reality. At least he had finally volunteered some more information, but Linda knew he still wasn't telling her everything.

"So, what makes you think we'll find them at this Keowee-Toxaway, as you called it?"

Rob shrugged, "Seems like a good place to me."

"Meaning you don't know, or you don't want to tell me?"

"I've taken you this far, haven't I?"

"Why can't you just tell me what is going on? You told me we are in the past. Why dangle that little nugget out there and not explain it more? If someone were watching us right now, wouldn't they have already sent the zombies for us? Just talk to me, Rob. I want to understand."

Rob shook his head, "You won't understand."

Linda leaned in towards him, looking dead at his face, "Try me."

Rob stared back at her. He could see the determination in her eyes. All she wanted was to get back to her husband. Rob could see her faith shining bright. 

"You remind me a lot of my mom."

Linda continued to look at him. She rested her posture, waiting for Rob to continue.

"I think we'll find them there. At the power plant."

"Why is that, Rob?"

"Because you need a source of power. A lot of power. A nuclear power plant would seem like the most likely place."

"So, that's how your dad accesses this world?"

"He doesn't access this world. Remember, he left me here."

"Ok, but what makes you think we can access anything in my world from this power plant? For the time device, since you said we're in the past?"

"There's no time device. This isn't Back to the Future, lady."

Linda looked at him, puzzled, "What is Back to the Future?"

"You don't know what that movie is?"

"It's a movie?"

"Yes, a popular one in my world. That never came out in your world?"

"I don't know. When did it come out?"

"In this world, from when my dad left, it would have been almost thirty years earlier."

"Wait, a movie about time travel from thirty years ago? Did it have a kid in it? An old scientist?"

"Yes! Doc and..."

"Matty!" Linda said, finishing Rob's statement.

"No, Marty." 

"I'm pretty sure it was Matty."

"No, it's Marty."

"Anyway, Matty and Doc were in Spaceman from Pluto. It came out in 1985, so about 27 years ago in my time.".

"Wow! What a name. It doesn't say anything about the movie."

"I think that's why it was such a big hit. It surprised people. But the premise sounds the same as the one you're talking about. A kid goes back in time in a time machine his scientist friend invents. He has to set things right though as he messed things up in the past with his mom and dad or his own existence will end."

"Yeah, that's Back to the Future."

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Odd that the same exact movie would be made in two different times. Just under different names."

"Yeah, or just a coincidence."

"Maybe. Maybe a remake. Maybe remaking films transcends space and time."

They both laughed.

Linda asked the next question, bugging her, "So, how far in the past are we? I mean, the remains of this world remind me a lot of my world, just less destroyed."

Rob looked down, "A long time ago."

"How long, Rob?"

"Long enough to be forgotten."

"I don't understand."

"My dad wasn't that forthcoming with things sometimes. He kept a lot of things secret."

"But you had to see something, Rob. All kids snoop on their parents."

"Believe me, you didn't want to snoop on him. Ever."

"You have to know how long, Rob. Come on, let me in a little."

Rob sighed, "From what I remember my dad talking about, it's been thousands of years."

Linda looked stunned, "Thousands?"

"Yeah. Tens of thousands."

"How? Why?"

"I don't know why, but I do know he said once that it had to."

"Had to?"

"Yes."

"Had to for what?"

"So we could start again."

"So who could start again?"

"Us. Humans. He said if it didn't happen, all of us would die for good."

"You mean become extinct?"

"Something like that."

"So, someone did survive here besides you?"

"No, they were people he knew about in the new world. Your world. They were protected from the disaster, this virus. The virus never happened to them. Or they were immune one. But they would start the new world after this one faded away."

"Did you ever see these people?"

"No. I just knew he left to be with them, and that was it."

"He left you here on your own."

"Yes."

"How long have you been on your own now?"

"I lost count. It didn't matter anymore after a while."

Linda looked down at the floor, tapping it with her finger. She looked back up to Rob, a sadness having fallen over her. She felt sorry for Rob now. Before, she had hated him for what he was doing to her husband. But now, she could see him for who he truly was. Rob was a victim of an abuser. A story as old as time itself. She looked back up at Rob as they made eye contact.

"I'm so sorry, Rob."

She felt the genuineness in his eyes and truly felt compassion for him now. Rob could see that compassion and tears began to well up in his eyes. Linda could see this, and Rob lunged forward to hug her before she could react. He began weeping as she wrapped her arms around him. They sat in the quiet darkness of the dimly lit room, waiting for the next day to approach on their journey home.

Story # 3.5 Pat Riot...

"So, where are we going now, Pat?"

Jay asked Pat as they walked down a corridor of the Fleece leading to the main control room.

Pat had his ever-present smile on, walking slightly ahead of Jay. As they passed through the corridor, the sterile white of the facility showed through, with a person passing by occasionally.

Jay would look at the people passing and the things they were carrying, unsure of what some items were from his vantage point.

"How are things going with you and Linda, Jay?"

Jay looked back at Pat, knowing fully that the Linda he'd been with the last few days was not his wife. But he was still playing along, trying to decipher how to find his Linda.

"We're fine. Everything's fine."

Pat chuckled, "That's not the word on the street."

Pat and Jay turned another corner as they came to the main control room entrance. They entered the control room, which seemed to be bustling that day.

"Man, this place is busy today," Jay said, looking around the room.

"Yes, we're quite busy right now. There was a power surge in the central hub of the Fleece, requiring system resets and maintenance."

"Central hub, huh? I thought this was the central hub," Jay said as he looked around the room at the other workers checking readouts and consoles.

Pat turned and looked at Jay. He smiled at him, "Not hardly."

Jay turned back, looking around the room with Jay, watching the consoles gleam with information as the personnel attempted to analyze what had occurred.

"So, what is the word on the street, Pat? About me and Linda?"

Pat turned to Jay again, smiling still, "The word is there's no joy in Mudville."

Jay nodded, "You could say that."

"I wouldn't worry about it, Jay. It happens over time in someone's marriage. You lose the spark, that magic that initially brought you together. I'm sure it will be fine soon."

Jay couldn't think what he wanted because he knew Pat had read his thoughts. He couldn't let Pat on that he knew the Linda he was with was not his wife. He could tell Pat was digging for information to see if Jay had figured it out.

"Yeah, hopefully, " was all Jay replied.

"But one thing we have been working on Jay, is determining exactly what is causing you to shift into that alternate reality when you dream. We think the surge might have had something to do with it."

"Really? Where did the surge come from?" Jay asked very curiously.

Pat turned back to Jay again, no smile this time, but instead a look of curiosity himself. "Perhaps it's time to show you where."

Jay looked at Pat.

"I think you're ready for it now, Jay."

Pat turned and walked past Jay, motioning for him to follow. They exited the control room and headed back down the corridor. This time, they went into a side door that took them down into the bowels of the Fleece. They descended the stairs, and it seemed like multiple stories. The stairway went on forever.

Jay thought, How deep does this place go?

Pat replied, "As far as needed, Jay."

After exiting the stairs, they passed through a labyrinth of passages made of steel, pipes, girders, and rails; they came upon a sealed door. No window, no handle. No signs. Just a metal door with solid walls to either side stretching as far as Jay could see.

Pat stopped in front of the door momentarily and turned to face Jay. He smiled again.

"Prepare to be amazed, Jay."

Jay stood there stone-faced but was curious about what was behind the door.

Suddenly, Pat turned back around, facing the door, and then he walked through the door and vanished.

Jay was stunned. He couldn't believe what he just saw. Jay approached the door and touched it. It was solid as a rock or as the steel it was made of. But when Pat walked through, it looked like water, a liquid. He had never seen anything like it, except maybe in the movies.

Where did he just go? Jay thought.

I'm on the other side, Jay. Just pass through.

Jay heard Pat's words in his own mind. That always bothered Jay when Pat did that, but he was still reeling from what he had just seen.

Jay didn't know what to do and asked, How?

Imagine walking through the door, and it will happen. Pat said this in Jay's mind, waiting for him to pass through the door.

Jay didn't know what to think. But he had seen many unbelievable things in the days and weeks prior. This was no different. Jay decided he was going through that door.

Jay looked ahead of him at the door and thought, I'm going through the door. With that, he pressed his left hand against the door and saw something he had never seen before. His hand started sinking into the door itself. His fingers vanished, and his hand followed up to his forearm. Wide-eyed, he made the ultimate leap and sent his whole body through at once.

On the other side, Pat caught him as Jay lunged through the door. Pat smiled at him and then said, "Welcome to the central hub of the Fleece. It's what powers everything here."

Jay looked out across the room in awe. The room was massive. The room itself had to be the size of a dome stadium underneath the confines of the massive structure of the Fleece. In the center of the room was a bright light surrounded by objects. Some Jay could discern, some he could only see silhouettes. All the objects were on various levels inside the room. Some were closer to the ceiling, harder to make out, but many were at ground level with Jay and Pat. That was the astonishing thing, the objects Jay could make out surrounding the light.

In front of Jay was a row of aircraft, which was very old compared to today's aircraft, but Jay could not determine where they were from. He had never seen anything like them before. He just knew they were aircraft. The aircraft in question was the squadron of Flight 19, lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

Roughly two hundred feet away rested an object Jay had seen before. The military had nicknamed the craft "Tic Tac." The craft was oblong-shaped, smooth, with no discernable edges. It had a sleek, chrome appearance and hung just above the ground beside the prop planes. No gear was holding it up. It was just suspended in midair, inches from the ground.

Jay had seen the videos taken by military aircraft of this object and knew it had been classified as an Unknown Aerial Occurrence (UAO). He couldn't believe he was looking directly at the object from the obscure videos. But what Jay was seeing was only the tip of the iceberg.

"Jay, follow me."

Pat motioned for Jay to follow along a path to their left. Jay's mouth hung open as he looked around the room at what he saw. In front of him were artifacts of all kinds. Some he knew, some he had never seen before in his life. Jay looked down at the pathway Pat was following and saw these large cables glowing like the light in the center of the room, only much dimly. The lights were pulsating periodically. He saw that the cables were originating from all of the structures in the room. 

The cables ran alongside the path and lit the way for them, but what they were connected to was beyond imagining.

"What are all these things? What is this place?" Jay asked.

"These are artifacts, Jay. Some have been here for a very long time."

Jay continued looking around the room at all of the artifacts. He saw futuristic cars. He saw statues of a man he didn't recognize but, in fact, was a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Another was one of the Easter Island statues. He saw a trident sticking up from a stone structure. Behind that structure was a temple resembling something from the city of Atlantis, which Plato once wrote about. There were ancient relics, like Egyptian sarcophaguses. There were pieces of what once had been the Georgia Guidestones. A tall rock structure, formerly a piece of Stone Henge, had a large section of the center chiseled out. From each structure, the cables originated and lined the path leading to the glowing bright light in the center.

"Artifacts? Artifacts from what?" Jay was mesmerized.

Pat stopped and turned to look at him. "Artifacts from our past, Jay."

Jay looked back at Pat, and then a car along the path caught his eye. The car looked familiar to Jay, like something he had seen at work.

"That car is from the past?" Jay said, pointing at the vehicle.

Pat looked at the vehicle and back to Jay, "Oh yes." He smiled at Jay. 

"What, from last week, Pat?"

Jay knew that it was a modern-day car called an Ergo. But the vehicle instead had a letter "T" on the front, the symbol of a Tesla, an original prototype. "It's not what you're thinking, Jay."

"That car..."

"That car is over twelve thousand years old, Jay."

"What?" Jay couldn't believe what he was hearing. Twelve thousand years old? How?

Jay started laughing, "Is this some sort of joke, Pat? Wait, am I dreaming again?"

Pat smirked and walked over to Jay. He pinched Jay on the wrist very hard, making Jay grimace in pain and grab his arm.

"Does it feel like you're dreaming?" Pat asked.

Jay was taken aback by this and looked around the room again.

"I don't understand, Pat. What does this have to do with my shifting to an alternate reality in my dreams?"

"Jay, you are not shifting to an alternate reality in your dreams. You shift to the past. Our past, thousands of years back into the history of our world."

"What are you talking about, Pat? That's crazy!"

"Every time you sleep at night, Jay, you visit the past. A place that existed twelve thousand years ago."

"Twelve thousand years ago? That place, Anderson, South Carolina, existed twelve thousand years ago? The city I saw destroyed by a bomb?"

"Yes, it did. This civilization now calls that town Smithville."

"What do you mean this civilization?"

"The civilization you live in today, Jay. Humans have been doing this civilization dance for a long time. They exist, and then they end. Exist and then end. It's part of the process of life on this planet, Jay. It's been going on for a long time."

"How long, Pat?"

"As long as humans have existed on the earth."

Jay was speechless, standing in a room set up as an homage to an ancient dead civilization, some as advanced as humans are today. Some are even more advanced. It was like a dream come true and a nightmare all at once.

"There's a lot of human history you and many other humans don't know about. And it starts right there." Pat pointed to the brightly shining orb in the center of the room.

"That sphere not only powers the Fleece, it shows us everything and is partly responsible for your shifting in dreams.'

Jay stared at the orb. It pulsated just like the cables. 

"You said it surged the other day?"

Pat looked back at Jay, "Yes, it did."

"Why?"

"That's what I need you to help me figure out."