TWENTY-FOUR

 

 

October 18th, 2018

Boise, Idaho

 

AFTER ANOTHER HOUR of talking and getting used to the idea that he could jump into different timelines, Wade was floored when Director Parks came back into the big cavern and said, “We need to get these two established in 2118.”

Wade had no idea what that meant at all.

“You going to do it?” Duster said.

“I just told Kerri that I would be much younger when I got home,” Parks laughed.

“Six months?” Bonnie asked.

“And you think Kerri wouldn’t notice?” Director Parks asked, then laughed.

“2118?” Wade asked, not having a clue as to what the director was talking about.

“We built this institute like a way station into the future,” Duster said. “This timeline just keeps moving forward and crystals are stationed every hundred years for the next four hundred years.”

“Someone from 2118 can only come back as far as 2018,” Bonnie said.

“We have all the different areas scattered in different chambers,” Duster said, waving at the cavern around them.

“We are all established in the future,” Bonnie said. “Long story on how we managed that, but we are.”

Wade suddenly realized what that meant. “So if something happens to you in this life, you have only actually lived for just over two minutes in the future.”

“Exactly,” Bonnie said.

“You are immortal,” Sophie said, her voice hushed.

Wade knew she was right, but couldn’t really grasp it.

“In all reality,” Duster said, “we have lifespans in a future time, but in this time, we can live and then live again for as long as we like. Just as we do when we go back into the past from here. So yes, in essence we are immortal. And in a few minutes you will be as well.”

Wade just opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

The idea of living forever had never crossed his mind. He had a lot he wanted to get done and had always seemed to be in a hurry because of limited time. But now he was being offered unlimited time.

That was a dream he flat couldn’t grasp.

“Painless,” Director Parks said, smiling at Sophie and Wade. “I promise. Come with me.”

“Might as well jump them to 2218,” Duster said. “Just to be safe and give them a real tour.”

Parks laughed. “I’m going to be nine months younger now. Kerri’s going to have to catch up now. You know how she feels about younger men.”

Duster and Bonnie both laughed at that.

Wade had a hunch there was a story behind that.

Wade and Sophie both stood and Sophie took his hand, holding on tight.

“We’ll be back in about twenty minutes,” Parks said. “Then we can talk about heading to Grapevine Springs.”

Wade saw that Bonnie and Duster and Dawn were all nodding.

“We’ll be getting ready,” Bonnie said.

Wade decided to just ignore that until they finished what they were doing at the moment.

One major life event at a time was more than enough.

Director Parks led them in the opposite direction across the large living room area and through a door there, down a long carved-out-of-stone tunnel, and then down two flights of stairs.

When he reached the bottom and opened a door there into a massive cavern, the lights came up.

Wade was shocked. The cavern looked like someone had bought out an entire Walmart store. Maybe two or three. Everything anyone could need in this time, all sorted for easy access.

“How do you maintain all this if only the twenty-two of you know about this cavern?” Sophie asked as they headed through the large cavern to a row of doors on the other side.

“We do a lot of shopping,” Director Parks said, nodding. “Take turns, actually. Some of us like it more than others. But from where we are going, there are just about sixty who know about this part of the institute and travel back to this time and places along the way. They help keep this stocked as well by buying and leaving things here when they leave.”

Wade was stunned.

“Who runs the institute in 2118?” Sophie asked.

“I do,” Director Parks said. “Remember, to be back here for a lifetime, I am only gone for a few minutes at a time in the future, although I do go back and forth far more often.”

“Oh, yeah,” Sophie said.

“And you run it in 2218 as well?” Wade asked.

“I do,” Parks said. “Same reason. I am actually established and aging in 2318, but with all the work here and in the next few hundred years, I spend very little time in 2318.”

“How many years have you actually lived?” Sophie asked.

Parks laughed. “Kerri and I gave up counting past five thousand years. Bonnie and Duster are far, far older than that.”

Wade just flat wanted to sit down, but by that point they were at the row of doors in the wall. Parks opened the first one and went in.

The long room looked exactly as the other long room had looked that took them back to 1885. Wooden tables with wooden boxes on them, wire fences down both sides, and glowing crystals tucked into the stone walls.

“No one can go farther back with these crystals than this moment,” Director Parks said. “Bonnie and Duster figured out a way to limit the range to exactly one hundred years on these and no farther back than 1882 from the first chamber we were in.”

“Where is the other chamber to jump the next hundred years?” Sophie asked.

“It’s in another area,” Director Parks said as he led them down the line to a crystal that was already hooked up to a machine. “But at this point in time, it has no crystals in it.”

Wade nodded. If the traveling was limited to only one hundred year jumps, there would be no reason to stock that chamber. So this place was like a train station. You had to change trains to go farther back or forward.

“How many researchers are authorized to go back into the 1880s?” Wade asked as Director Parks put on a leather glove.

“Counting you two,” Director Parks said, “twenty-four. The twenty-four researchers who started in this time period so far.”

“So no one from 2118 can access that other chamber?”

“They cannot,” Parks said, standing next to the wooden machine. “Come over and hold onto me tightly as well as each other.”

“That’s this timeline?” Sophie asked, pointing to the crystal in the wall.”

“It is,” Director Parks said.

“That’s the timeline we were born in?” Wade asked.

Director Parks chuckled. “Actually, you were born in every crystal in this room and every crystal in the entire complex and an infinite number of more crystals in the nexus caverns.”

Wade suddenly realized what Parks was saying. If the universes were basically the same, then they were in all of them. Doing the same thing in each one.

“Come in close now,” the director said.

Wade, holding Sophie’s hand, put his other arm around Director Parks. Sophie reached around and took Wade’s other hand so they had the director wrapped up in a giant hug, Wade on his right, Sophie on his left.

This was not a position Wade would have ever imagined himself being in with Director Parks.

Director Parks put his uncovered hand on their hands and then moved all three of their hands down to touch the wooden box. Then, holding on tight, he pulled the wire off the machine with his gloved hand.

Nothing happened.

“You can let go now,” Director Parks said, laughing. “Welcome to January 6th, 2118.”