Future me and I arrived in Vilas park near the entrance to the zoo. Even though I’d been here several times before, the place just felt subtly wrong. The air was as cold as if it were the middle of winter, and I could feel a biting cold slowly penetrating the soles of my shoes. Future me immediately began running towards the east, shouting,”Come on, we need to get out of here before we get frostbite!”
As we dashed forwards, I asked “Why aren’t we teleporting!?”
My legs continued to pound the ground beneath me as future me answered “Two reasons. First, the things that did this can detect it when we use our powers; that nearly got a previous loop-self killed. Second, we really need to see what the creatures that did this can do up close.”
I shuddered, partially from the cold and partially from fear as we continued on. We soon left the park, the ground still driving spikes of cold through my shoes as we ran past a large parking garage. As we continued down the road, I asked, “What about using a car?”
Future me shook her head as she remarked, “Shame we don’t have any idea how to hotwire a car. Besides, they wouldn’t run properly anyway after what the abominations did to them.”
There were a few seconds of delay before future me added “Yeah, they’re just… ugh.”
The instant she finished saying that is when we started to see the corpses. The sidewalks as we ran to the south were littered with the inanimate forms of those who had fallen, but they certainly hadn’t died of any normal cause. They were locked in whatever position they’d been in when they died, most of them running for their lives. Even worse, they didn’t bear any kind of visible wound. It was like they’d just… stopped, but that couldn’t be the case, seeing as I couldn’t feel any distortions of time and some of the dead had fallen over.
Even with this disturbing sight we had to keep running, the cold was penetrating deeper and deeper into my feet and I didn’t want to stop for fear that I wouldn’t be able to get going again. If it really came to it we could teleport, but that would instantly alert the enemy to our location.
We were running through a residential district now, and I could see something moving up ahead at a T intersection. It was a bright red color with splashes of blue and green, and as I got closer I could see that it was some variety of six-legged creature covered in feathers. Its eyes were large and expressive, and its face was flat and chubby like it had just crawled out of an animated kid’s TV show.
I absolutely despised it, and future me seemed to agree as she whipped out our borrowed revolver. The trigger was pulled and the bullet flew downrange, before time skipped back and the bullet perforated the abomination again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
The monster ahead of us effectively disintegrated in a puff of feathers as it released a pitiful chirping sound. There were another few seconds before future me suddenly swore “Dammit, you’re right! That thing managed to get off a telepathic distress call!”
I was disconcerted by the fact that I would apparently start hearing voices that weren’t there in the near future, but I couldn’t help asking “Distress call?”
My future self grumbled as they remarked “Short answer, these things can talk to each other directly mind to mind, and they’re smart enough to use it. We’re probably going to get ambushed; time stops only slow these things down, so don’t think you can just blast them all with impunity.”
I grimaced as I looked over my shoulder, a sense of foreboding seeping through me as I did so. There weren’t any of the abominations there to pursue us, but my paranoia only ratcheted up even further.
This proved justified as we dashed past the end of Short Street, with dozens more of the monsters seeming to crawl straight out of the ground ahead of us at the next intersection. A bit of paranoia had me check to the left, seeing that even more of the creatures had appeared at the end of Short Street.
Reflexively I brought time to halt, only to see that my future self was right and the creatures were still moving, albeit much slower. They slowly opened their mouths as I drew the gun I was carrying and opened fire, reverting it to conserve ammo as I downed three of them. There was a flicker of movement and I instinctively threw myself to the side as transparent pulses of wrongness erupted from the throats of the remaining abominations and I lost feeling in my right arm.
Before I could even look at what had happened to my arm, I reverted time around the affected limb and feeling returned. Now that my shooting arm was usable again I brought the gun up again, and sent the bullet downrange. As the round slammed home, I instantly reversed time to when I’d fired, resulting in me having a fresh bullet, and the abomination still having a hole in it. I fired again and again, sending a spray of a singular bullet towards the horde of monstrosities.
The abominations on our flank went down as future me shouted “Screw it, we’re porting! Hold on tight!” and grabbed my hand. I looked ahead only to see dozens of the creatures had arrived, most of which were the size of pickup trucks, bony plates covering their bodies instead of feathers. Yeah, no way was the revolver going to kill those things.
We arrived roughly half a mile south at Bowman Field, and the first thing I noticed was that I could actually feel some warmth in the air. We were right next to the road, and as I looked to the north I could see more of the abominations. Thankfully these ones were being held back by a veritable wall of other creatures and what looked to be several tanks.
Future me pointed to a group of soldiers up ahead and remarked “Those are the guys we want to talk to. Follow me.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
I obligingly followed as we approached the defensive line. As we approached, the air gradually grew colder and the sounds of persistent gunfire grew louder. We soon approached within earshot and future me called out to the soldiers “Hello there!”
One of the troops briefly looked at us over his shoulder before he grumbled “I’ll deal with the dumbass civilians.” and walked in our direction. Soon enough the man addressed us “What are you two doing here? Can’t you see that it’s dangerous in there!? Go home before you two get killed.”
Future me just remarked “Nice to see you too, Tom”, before she teleported to right beside him, adding “Good thing we weren’t planning on going in there anyway.”
The now named Tom looked shocked for a few seconds before recognition dawned on his face and he asked “You’re Claire Stevens, aren’t you?”
I butted in before future me could answer with “Yep, both of us. She’s been through this before, I haven’t.” suddenly, something occurred to me as I thought to ask “Future me, why in the world did we jump straight into the middle of the danger zone!?” belatedly realizing that I’d started shouting sometime during that.
Future me took a few seconds to respond “We needed to learn firsthand just what those things could do. Just hearing about something isn’t the same as seeing it for yourself.”
I shot back “You just did it because the previous loop-instance did it, didn’t you?”
Future me deflated a bit as she quietly admitted “Yeah, I did.”
Tom stepped in now as he cleared his throat and remarked “While all of this is very interesting, unless you have some sort of business being here, you need to leave.”
Future me nodded, before she replied “Yeah, there’s someone very specific we need to bring back to the past with us; we’re hoping to put a stop to this before it even begins, and we’ll need their help to do it. Fay, you can come out now.”
Tom looked shocked and I felt my mouth hanging slightly open as a glowing green orb floated out of future me’s chest and soon resolved into a dark-skinned woman roughly 6 inches tall. The figure proceeded to fly up to eye level and salute as she said “Private Fay reporting for duty!”
Tom took a step back as this process repeated itself with him, a green sphere of energy emerging and coalescing into the very same miniature dark-skinned woman. Fay’s apparent past self, was apparently skeptical of this whole situation as she questioned the other her “So, you’re supposed to be my future self? What’s the password?“
The miniscule figure who’d apparently been inside future me replied “The password’s Mitosis. Nice to meet me!” as she floated there I spotted a haze behind her shoulders that looked something like a pair of wings fluttering so fast I couldn’t really see them.
I couldn’t help but ask “So, you’re the first fairy I’ve ever met. How come I’ve never heard of you guys before?”
To this the elder version of Fay replied “Well, we were only made yesterday, so that makes sense.”
I pushed for a bit more information by asking “Makes sense, but in that case, who made you?”
The version of Fay that had been riding with Tom answered “Oh, we were made by Life, though she kept insisting on being called Marie for some reason.”Though she was still talking, the rest of what the little fairy was saying was drowned out by the background noise associated with heavy military hardware in use. To be more specific, one of the large bear-like creatures lobbed some variety of fleshy-looking projectile into a cluster of abominations, and the cannons on top of the tanks followed it up, very loudly reducing that particular group of monstrosities to paste.
As the noise subsided I noted “Sorry, but I don’t think I caught all of that. Could you please repeat it?”
Fay nodded and replied “OK! What I was trying to tell you was that I and the other fairies were made by Life, but for some reason Life wanted to be called Marie. I also wasn’t ever expecting a visit from Time.”
In the background, Tom’s commanding officer presumably said something over the radio, as Tom’s face went grim before he sprinted back to the fortification he’d previously been manning.
Meanwhile I was still conversing with Fay, replying “Please, call me Claire. Is there any chance we could meet Marie?”
Fay sadly shook her head as she answered “No, Life’s dead. The monsters took her out as a priority target, and there wasn’t enough left of her Marie-ness to revive her.”
Future me chuckled as she reminded past-Fay “That’s not going to be much of a problem, we can just go back before it happened and save her!”
With that, the younger of the two Fays nodded and replied “I’ll just come with you, then?”
I nodded, and Fay phased into me as that little glowing green orb. There was a small surge of warmth similar to when I’d gotten my powers, and I heard Fay speak in the back of my mind saying “Alright, I’m cozied right up next to your soul, so I should go with you when you jump.”
I nodded, and said “Time to jump back, right?”
Future me replied “Yeah, let’s go.”
I nodded, and jumped back to Andrew’s office on Sunday.
As I and future me arrived, I allowed the loop to play out as it had the previous time; I didn’t trust myself to not screw up horribly if I deviated. Still, I finally found out why I’d seen myself apparently talking to thin air; Fay was chatty, and I couldn’t really help but to reply.
For instance, after my comment about the cars not running, I heard Fay’s voice echoing in my mind as she remarked “Yeah, those abominations destroy Life wherever they go, even in inanimate objects”
Soon enough, the loop completed, and I returned Andrew’s gun to him just as my past selves departed.
The instant the loop closed with the departure of my past selves, I looked Charles and Andrew in the eyes in turn, and informed them, “If we don’t do something, Madison will become a warzone in two days at best. I need your help figuring out how to do something about it, fortunately, I brought back a new friend.”
Charles and Andrew were silent for a few seconds as Fay emerged and introduced herself, before Charles broke the silence as he remarked “You know, I would normally be really weirded out by you bringing back a fairy from the future, but at this point if it involves you I just don’t care anymore.”
Andrew looked significantly more surprised by this whole mess than his son, but he still asked “I’m really not the right person to talk to about military strategy, but I’ll help as much as I can. So, what can you tell us about Tuesday in Madison?”
I grimaced, answering “There’s some sort of monster infestation that’s about to hit. Those things do something that makes machines and living things just... stop working. It was freezing cold in their ‘territory’ too.”
Charles took the opportunity to inquire “What did those things look like? Also, would you please tell us where Fay came from?”
Fay butted in at this point as she flitted around the room “I was made by Life! She’s a bit like Time, except that she’s Life instead of Time. She also gave me some of her powers.”
And thus the conversation ground to a halt. Eventually I asked “Gave you some of her powers?”
Fay nodded enthusiastically as she replied “Yeah! I would’ve dissipated in a few minutes otherwise.”
I looked blankly at Fay, who eventually asked “You didn’t know you could do that, did you?”
I silently shook my head, which was answer enough.
Fay perked up as she said “Oh good, that means I get to teach you all about Aspecting. Your friend here should make a good test subject.”
Charles silently gestured to himself, a look of silent dread on his face.
The fairy grinned as she replied “Oh don’t worry, the worst that could happen is your soul imploding, and that’s nothing Time couldn’t reverse.”
I shared a glance with Charles silently asking my friend if he could think of any possible way out of this.
His silent reply was a firm ‘no’.