AN.: This first chapter is only a short one, but I hope you get into this story anyway and enjoy it.

They always knew when the time vortex would spit them out, because of the dizzy feeling that captured them just before. But this time it was like nothing they had ever experienced. There was pain, the feeling of loss, of despair. In their heads were an echo like thousand voices at once, crying, shouting, whispering. Sad, angry, accusing. And then...silence, darkness, the smell of wood and fire and wet soil.

Doug was the first whose eyes had adjusted to the darkness. He looked around and whispered:

"Tony? Tony, are you here?"

At first he got no an answer, but after some minutes he heard his friend calling his name.

"I'm over here, Tony!"

He saw Newman less than that he felt his presence. A look at Tony's face made him imagine how he himself probably looked like.

"What was that Doug? I thought my head would explode. Do you believe that something went wrong this time?"

Phillips shrugged.

"I don't know. I never felt myself this forlorn before. It was like a cord was ripped off."

The scientist looked around.

"Seems, we aren't alone."

He pointed at the faint gleam of a fire in some distance.

Tony got up from the ground he was sitting on.

"What do you think, Doug? In which time are we landed? And are we on earth?"

Phillips tried to brush the dirt of his suit.

"For me it looks like earth. Let's go to the fire, but with caution."

It wasn't easy to make the way in the darkness. More than once one of them stumbled, get caught by some climber or hit against an obstacle. It felt like an eternity until they came closer.

They hid themselves behind the bushes that surrounded the campfire. Tony counted nearly thirty people, some of them talking, some of them asleep. He threw a worried glance to his friend and whispered.

"Hard to say in which time we are from the look of this group."

Doug nodded and whispered back:

"They look exhausted and tired to me. We should make ourselves known."

But it was obviously not up to them to make that decision. A voice behind them said warningly:

"Don't move, stay where you are!"

"We have no harm in mind, we came here by accident. You can trust us." said Doug.

This earned him the laughter of at least six men.

"Turn around Mr. No harm in mind.. As if anybody here don't come by accident to this place. Where are you from? From the western part or the eastern part of this territory?"

Tony and Doug exchanged a glance and Newman asked:

"What Territory? We are strangers to this country."

"We are all strangers of some kind nowadays. But you look like Americans."

"We are from the United States of America, yes. But where are we now?"

Phillips tried to read the expression on the other mans face.

A hard laughter was the answer and one of the other men spoke up.

"We are in the middle of nowhere, if you're really interested. How did you come here? Fallen from a cloud? Have you been sent by the great Franklin from the east? Or by the government in the West?

Newman shook his head.

"No one has sent us. We came by ourselves and we have no clue what you're speaking of."

"Of course not. You were living in a cave until now I presume?"

The sarcasm in the voice was more than obvious.

"And if it would be so?" Phillips tried to gain time.

Another man came from the campfire.

"What's going on, Dean? "

"Two men, without weapons but I'm sure they are kind of spies. They pretend to know nothing, Niles."

"Then let's talk at the fire. You look like you could use some food and drink. Don't try to get away, we would be much faster than you and we have weapons."

*********************************TT********************************

A look at her watch told her, that the ship would leave the harbor soon. Time to get on board. She should be happy that it was an engine-driven ship, but the way it looked wasn't meant to appease her. Nonetheless she had to go, again. The message from her friends was clear. The group wasn't safe anymore, she should go as far away as possible. She would, even if it became more difficult with every time to find shelter. She shook her head, grabbed for her bag pack and went to the gangway. Given what she had been through in the last two years, this trip would be the height of luxury, even if the ship wasn't exactly a cruise liner.

Her cabin was small, but at least she did not have to share it with someone else.

The captain was unknown to her, but her intermediary had assured her that he was also one of their own. Nonetheless she decided to be cautious. With a swift movement she took her head cloth off and hid her long dark hair under a blonde short hair wig. Now she looked like the picture in the faked identity papers. Even this was luxury. She remembered the first couple of months in this strange new world, or better, in this strange new time, when she had to hide herself in weird places, without any identity papers at all, whether faked nor real ones. Hunted from the new government, prey for bounty hunters, her picture and that of her former colleagues and friends at nearly every wall. Alone and frightened, weak from hunger and thirst, followed by memories of more beautiful times, she fled from state to state. Without protection at her side, she soon became a strong, incisive and combative person. And soon she found out that not only was she on the run. First, she had no power to think. What had happened, why did it happen? It was all going so fast, that she did not know for a long time, why they had sent her in first place in a supposed security. She wandered for a whole year aimlessly, suspicious against other people, always looking for a bit of security, a place where she could rest. The destruction she saw on her way was almost incomprehensible. But the war had hardly left any stone unturned. She was just glad that she had not experienced this, even if that what happened next was no less disturbing. Finally she found shelter in the former city of Boston even if it hadn't looked like Boston anymore. Life was primitive in the present time, but slowly the damages, which were caused during the fighting, were about to be repaired. Who would have ever imagined that there would be a war that spread again all over the world? When looking for a shelter she also found in Boston a group of people who did not make the science, and especially not project Tic Toc, responsible for the prevailing conditions.

It had begun so slowly, so unnoticeable. Only the warning of an old friend of their project made them aware, that something deadly was going on.

When General Kirk in 1973 had decided to send her into the future, a save future, she protested, but to no avail.

The future wasn't more safe than the past. She learned that very fast. And even if she found other people, other scientist, who were on the run as she herself, she didn't know what happened to her friends. The only thing that gave her hope were the posters with the pictures of her and her colleagues and friends. If they were sought, they had to be still alive.

A knock at her cabin door interrupted her musings. She adjusted the wig, looked around the small room and then said:

"Come in!"

********************************TT***********************************

Phillips and Newman sat at the campfire after they had shared a decent meal with their capturers. The man, who was called 'Niles', handed them a mug with an unidentifiable beverage. Tony took a cautious sip and his eyebrows shot up.

"What's that?"

"It's Whiskey, must be very old, take care, it loosens the tongue."

"Did you give it to us because of that?" asked Doug.

Niles shook his head.

"We know who you are and all I can say, is: Welcome to our group!"

Phillips shot a quick glance at his colleague.

"Slow, please. What group? Where are we? And how do you know Dr. Newman and me?"

"Where we are? In the middle of nowhere as I said before. In former times it would have been Texas. What group? We are just a group of many. Refugees, chased by many different government groups. We are mostly scientists, recently we are regarded as enemies, because we want to normalize life again. And how do we know you and your friend? You are famous, even not in a good way. Don't get me wrong. It isn't our way of thinking, but that of the new photo hanging on every wall, if present, and if not, then at every tree, at every ruin and in each window. Photos of you and your colleagues from Tic Toc, I mean. You have to know, that your are dangerous people, who are firstly responsible of the war, and secondly want to build machines which would destroy the whole known world. Not so much of the known world is really left, that could be destroyed. I hope you realize that the so-called leaders are a little paranoid. Before you ask more, in our midst is a man, who you should know."

When Doug and Tony saw a man coming from the other end of the fire on, they stood up. They actually knew him, even if he had changed. The former golden boy had become an obviously bitter and cynical man because of the physical and psychological injuries. With one voice said Phillips and Newman:

"Jerry? Jerry Briggs!"

*******************************TT**************************

As the door of her cabin was opened, she was faced with a man who was probably the captain of the ship. His uniform consisted of a mix between the clothing of Jack Sparrow and that of a captain of a luxury liner. He had a three-cornered hat pulled low over his face, and said huskily:
"Show me your papers. And whats with my payment?"

With an imperceptible hesitation, the woman picked up a wallet and took out her ID and a kind of ticket. Then she took a step forward at the strange visitor.

"First: Who are you? And second: Of what payment do you speak?"

A chuckle escaped the throat of the man.

"You do not recognize me? That disappoints me hard. Yet I have always tried to meet all your wishes."

He pushed the three-cornered hat into his neck.

"It's payment enough for me, to transport you where ever you want to go, !"

For the first time in the past two years overlaid a radiant smile Ann MacGregor's face.

"That's ... I can hardly believe it! ... Bill, Bill Banders, manager of the recreation area! What are you doing here? And...and do you know something about the others?"

The facial expression of the scientist was again very seriously.

Banders put a reassuring hand on the shoulder of the woman.

"Come on deck and watch as our ship leaves the port. Afterwards, I'll give you something that will answer many of your questions. If you still want to know something, I am at your disposal. And do not worry that you give yourself away, there are only a few passengers on board and I know them well. "

"Just one question Bill. Are ... are Doug and Tony also in this time?"