A firm hand gripped my shoulder as I hunched over. Blood seeped past my lips onto the dirt floor. Am I going to die from my own power? “Jack? Are you good man?” I could see my old shoes and clothes hanging loosely over my body. In the past, I had to get rid of them after I started working out. All those years of working out are down the drain.

“I can’t do high school again. I hated it the first time enough.” I gazed around the campus hoping no one was around. To my dismay, I saw an old friend watching me with worried eyes. She was a close friend for years before we went our separate ways. We left on a pretty awful note and I didn’t think we’d ever see each other again. Feeling puke come out quickly cut my thoughts short. Turning away from her, I did my best not to gag.

“What’s wrong with him Zack?” I could hear her drawing closer. “Tell her to go man,” I tried whispering to Zack. I couldn’t see him as I was hunched over, but I knew the message didn’t come across as she tried helping me up. I closed my eyes hoping they weren’t glowing anymore. “Jack?”

Before her father got let off, he worked closely with Officer Lorn. It would be tragic if her misplaced sympathy landed me in prison again. “I’m fine Hanna!” I tried shaking both of my friends off. As much as it hurt to admit. I only trusted Zack, and Hanna being there was a problem. “Hey don’t be that way. I can call my dad to get you checked out.”

I waved her offer away. “No really, I’m fine! Look!” I stood up determined not to sway under the blowing wind. I failed miserably. Not giving them a chance to grab me, I sprinted out of the school grounds. The school was still in session, which means I came during lunch hour. That was problematic considering there would be security on their shifts right now. Running into the main building, I searched for the main door that led out of the campus. It was the only door unlocked during school hours. I imagine most staff wouldn’t expect a runner when there was so many personnel.

I saw it! Freedom just beyond the door. Speed walking towards a help desk, I pretended to be another errand boy. Several workers eyed me suspiciously, but I kept a calm persona until the last second. I made a hard turn and reached for the door, but a heavy force pulled me to the ground. How many times am I going to fall? I grunted trying to stand. The one officer that I was afraid of seeing caught me. Officer Berg, former military and newest disciplinarian was only hired during my senior year of high school. Since then, I’ve heard several rumors about his harsh punishments from a younger nephew of mine.

“The day’s almost over too. This is probably the worst attempt I’ve ever seen.” His voice was gruff and his hair was cut short. Blue glimmers pulsed around his irises, and the air around his hands shimmered. As if heat waves were being emitted from his presence. He stepped clearly into my view and shook his head disapprovingly.

After a few moments of lying helplessly on the ground, I heard a commotion in the distance before a familiar voice came in. “Officer Berg, please! He isn’t feeling well. I saw him throwing up blood. Let me call my dad and bring him to the hospital.” Hanna’s voice was full of concern. It would have been touching if they weren’t the very people I was trying to run from. “Jack is that you? Zack, I see Jack over there!”

Jack's voice came in agreeing with her, “It was a ton of barf. He moved like a twig. It was freaky.” I snorted at his description. I was a twig, but that wasn’t a very apt description for a sickly person. I’ve always been skinny. This is why I exercised for three-plus years. Three years that apparently never happened. This sucks, I don’t have that nice job at Biotech anymore. All those promotions were erased! I groaned from emotional pain.

“Look! He’s hurting now!” Hanna’s voice kicked in. I could tell Officer Berg just wanted to dismiss them, but Hanna seemed to have some sway in the conversation. “Fine. I’ll let this slide. This is the last time though. Next time, I’ll lug all of you for disrupting the peace.” The heavy force lifted off of me. Breathing deeply, I walked over to Hanna and Zack. “Alright, all of you head back to class.”

Hanna was going to argue, but to my relief, the bell rang for classes to start. Giving me a distracted parting glance, she left to her building. Zack did much the same. Berg on the other hand followed me to the door. I can’t believe I’m going to high school again. I’m a grown-ass adult! I had a job already. “Get in,” his voice growled.

With much annoyance, I walked into the classroom late. “Ah, I see my student finally decided to make an appearance. Why don’t you tell me about the walled districts Mr. Rode?” The professor was a stickler for rules. I hardly remembered anything from his class, but I knew the answer from personal experience. I looked back behind me as Officer Berg glared at me to answer. The other students didn’t seem to care as the interruption gave them time to relax.

“They were built in place to protect us against foreign countries across the sea. They also make it easier to handle merchants.” The professor seemed to take the answer in for a second before shaking his head. “While Jack is correct, that is a very lazy answer. A unique perspective, but not one I was looking for at all. Sit down Mr. Rode and I’ll continue the lesson.” Some of the teens giggled, but most seemed bored.

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Officer Berg left and I had the pleasure of suffering a very boring lecture. Mostly about internal politics pivoting around district leaders and things that fell under their jurisdiction. The Professor kept an emphasis on the semantics of particular words in the written law and the things to expect when filing for permissions. As the professor mentioned earlier, I was correct. The walls were originally created to protect us from outsiders, but we haven’t needed them in a century. It did seem like a moot point, but what did he expect on such a dry topic?

My thoughts drifted toward the last couple of hours. My power sent me five years into the past. Which is insane by itself, but it kind of sucks. I didn’t want to go back so far. I could still taste the blood from when I used my power. If I knew this was gonna happen, I would have memorized a lottery ticket. I could always try that still. Wait, I need to set my priorities straight.

Glancing around, I hovered over a small notebook on my desk and started writing a checklist. First I need to talk with Zack about the past. About the future? I need to talk to him. Second, I need to test how much time I go back exactly. I need to find myself a watch. Third, I should do more research on the government. They allow some awakened to roam the districts, but none of the awakened mention being kidnapped. What was in that syringe they shoved at me the other day? Memorizing my to-do list, I tore it out and ate the slip of paper. The other students looked at me like a freak, but considering I had info written down that would incriminate me. I wasn’t comfortable leaving it in school or the trash. I soothed myself with the idea that after high school, I would see almost none of these people again.

School ended uneventfully, Officer Berg gave me a hard stare on my way out. Pulling Zack alongside me, I avoided our normal route hoping to avoid any other old acquaintances. When we were finally some distance away from the school, I finally let out a breath of relief. Zack, on the other hand, did not seem the least bit relaxed. “Are you going to tell me what all of that was about today?”

“Yeah, I am. Did I come to the past or am I from the future? No, I mean I came from the future. Five years in the future to be accurate. I did awaken, but things didn’t go as we hoped. You did get to awaken too, but you reverted after I used my power.” Zack held up his hand to stop my rant. He appeared genuinely frustrated.

“Hold on. I don’t understand. Did you come from the future? So your power is... time travel?” His eyes started to open in excitement. “How did I awaken then!?”

“Hold on! I’m not telling you right now.” I thought about the last time I told him and his very comical body slam into an electric fence. As tempting as that sounded, I needed him fully conscious and awake to help me out.

Despite my reservation, Zack seemed to become genuinely upset, “What the fuck man? You know how much it means to me! I would do anything to become awakened!” It was surreal facing Zack while he was shouting at me. While he was much younger, it felt odd seeing how little he changed in five years. His mentality and attitude felt almost identical.

“I know Zack! I will tell you. Not right now though. We have to prepare for that another time. We can do it tomorrow. Look, some things are off about it all. When I awakened last time, they locked me up for what felt like two weeks.”

Zack calmed down. He was listening, but I could see the only thing on his mind was awakening. “We’re gonna go to the public library. We need to research some stuff. Look I’ll tell you on the way there. The last time I told you about your power, you ran head first into danger. Instead of awakening, you were hospitalized for a while. I don’t know why or how, but I’m not going to tell you exactly what to do.” I glanced at Zack to see how he was holding up. He was thinking about it. I imagined he never gave this much thought to anything before considering how sporadic he comes across.

“Maybe it was because I wasn’t afraid of it?” He looked at me unsure of himself. “What do you mean?” I asked. He continued, “the first time I probably thought I was going to die. That’s one of the things awakened had in common. The fear of death and something dire. The second time you told me, I knew I would have been okay. So I never awakened. At least, that’s probably how I would have felt. Do you think I’m right?”

“Well...” I gave him a hard look. It had plausibility, but should I affirm it? Would that affect his awakening? Maybe I should go back in time and not tell him this time? Does it even matter? I kept walking without saying anything and thankfully Zack chose not to discuss it further. Most roads were designed for walking as every building was within walking distance. Each major section had a space for government vehicles that sliced through the center of each district. While following the main road was quicker, we needed to dodge wandering eyes. Maybe I should shock Zack when he’s not expecting it. That’s probably my soundest bet for awakening him. The only question left is where am I going to find a raging electrical current on such short notice? Does the library have a generator?

I bet it does. We’ll hit two birds with one stone.

We came near the entrance of the library with plenty of daylight remaining. It would have been perfect if there weren’t three officers huddling over the doorway. I could see two of their eyes glowing. A bloodied corpse lay on the pavement. Zack was going to speak up, but I choked him before he said anything. “Zack, don’t draw attention to us.” Nodding that he understood, we quietly watched as one of the officers picked up the body effortlessly. The second one hovered his hand over the blood pool. The blood slowly rose into a faint fog that entered his hand. Both of them walked away leaving a squeaky clean sidewalk. As if a guy hadn’t died in the middle of the day.