Future Echoes Though The Past
Story Synopsis: A multi layered story inspired by The Patriot. Ali is a 21st century Scottish girl on her way to start a new life in America when she loses control of her car and crashes into a tree. Looking for help she finds that somehow, mysteriously, she has travelled back to the 18th century and right into the middle of the Revolutionary War. Searching for answers and a way back to her own time she becomes involved with the notorious Colonel Tavington and the Dragoons, the last thing that Ali needs. An immediate dislike forms between the two of them but an uneasy alliance also forms as she needs his help to get back to her own time. A close friendship with Captain Wilkins also forms much to the chagrin of the Colonel. However, unknown to the both of them a new enemy is watching, one that is eager to cause trouble for the Colonel but more so for his new charge. Ali believes in love but isn't looking for anything even resembling it as she has been burned before and Tavington believes that love is only for the weak. Can these polar opposites find a way to co-exist? Can Ali trust Tavington? Can he treat her as more than a burden that he has been forced to carry? Will Ali ever be able to make it back to her own time? And can the two of them work together and find a similar footing? Rated M for use of strong language, violence and adult encounters.
Please be warned that while I do not condone rape in any way, shape or form there will be a scene later on that has some fairly graphic rape. Not for the squicky. If you don't like then don't read. Supernatural/Romance/Fantasy genre. This also completely changes the original story, the Martins are not involved in this story and the war is basically in the background and won't be involved very much.
Authors Note: I know that a lot of people will be thinking "Oh god not another time travel story!" but please, stick with it, it does, in my opinion, get better. I'm flinging a lot of different scenarios and genres in it so please, give it a go. What harm will it do you?
Chapter One: Empty roads
From what she had read at least 50% or maybe even more car accidents happened on country roads. This wasn't something that overly worried her though, she was a very capable driver and had never even had a parking ticket let alone been involved in a crash. She was still slightly apprehensive to be driving on one of the most dangerous country roads in Britain. The last thing she needed was to get involved in an accident. Granted, she would probably walk away without a scratch on her. Her car was a 1960's Landrover and was basically a tank. It ran beautifully, and every year when she had it M.O.T'd the mechanics were always impressed that it still ran so well. It had a few minor faults but other than that it ran like a dream.
She had the front windows rolled all the way down, the cool breeze rushing through the car's interior and whipping her hair back from her face, cooling her warm skin. The radio was turned up and she sang along with her music, the sounds of Lady Gaga filling the interior of her car and leaking out as she drove along the deserted road. It was only 10 am and she had left her house in Glasgow at 6am and was pleased at the progress she had made already. Her final destination was Southampton where she was getting the ferry across to New York and then a 3000 mile drive across the great continent to her final destination, San Francisco. She had, rather purposefully, set her GPS to find her the quickest but quietest way to Southampton. Her journey time was scheduled at twelve hours all in including rest stops.
Her friends had all questioned her so many times as to why she was insisting on taking her ancient and, admittedly, rather scruffy and bashed looking car to America when she could have quite easily bought a newer one when she had arrived. They didn't understand just how much the car meant to her. It had been her fathers and he had loved it and maintained it meticulously when he had still been alive. She could still remember watching him clean it when she had been a little girl, giggling when he had splashed her with the soapy sponge and letting her help him clean the car. It had sentimental reasons as well as the fact that it ran great.
Smiling to herself she checked the speedometer and pressed the gas pedal down lightly, speeding up a bit. This trip was probably the most difficult thing that she had done, it had taken a great deal of courage to leave her home town, well, her home country really. She was going to miss it like crazy. She was a patriot of her country, she loved it so much, the scenery, the cities and even the weather. Ok so maybe the near constant rain in the summer was annoying but when things heated up she had been perfectly situated in the central belt to reap the benefits of the fine weather.
The trip had taken weeks, well, months really, of meticulous planning and had involved help from people on three continents. She couldn't believe that she was actually on her way now. In 24 hours she would be sailing across the Atlantic and on her way to her new life. She was nervous, a feeling in the pit of her stomach that had been there for months. The opportunity that she had now, to make something of her life and her skills was amazing and something that she was incredibly grateful for but…
There was still something missing, she felt, that empty hole in her chest that was waiting to be filled with…something. She couldn't really tell exactly what it was but she could pretty much hazard a guess. Her thoughts had been more and more troubled recently, pestered by the ghosts of her past relationship with…him. Danny Mason, the man she had been almost blindingly in love with for nearly four years, the man who had made her, at her best moments, feel as big as the world and whom she had trusted implicitly and he was also the man who had broken her heart. Well, she couldn't really call it broken. What he had done was annihilate it, destroy it so much that it was a mere shadow of it's former self so that even now, nearly two years on, she still felt the sharp splinters of hatred and regret spiking her every now and again.
She had to stop thinking about it, it was something that was in her past and couldn't be changed. Her mother had always told her that everyone had something in their past that they wished they could change and no amount of wishing and hoping would make a damn bit of difference to it. She had also told her that things that happen in the past have a way of casting a shadow in the future, they caused echoes and she had to be careful of them. She couldn't let something that had happened in the past taint the future, how would she be able to look forward if she was constantly looking back?
Sighing she pushed her hair back from her face and focused on the road ahead of her. Outside the sky was a gorgeous, flawless blue and not a cloud in sight. The sun was rising steadily and already the temperature was rising, the breeze that was rushing through her car was gradually warming up. Even though it had only just gone into June, the past month all of the U.K had been hit by an almost oppressive heat wave. Every day had been hotter than the last, the days were sticky with the moisture in the air and the mugginess continued into the nights making them unbearably warm.
"You gotta love British weather," She thought to herself, smiling as she did. "Whenever you expect rain you get sunshine and when you expect sunshine it usually snows!"
Beside her Kalika, her husky, had her head resting on the passenger door elbow rest, the rest of her sprawled across the long bench style seat, her fur ruffling in the breeze as she panted, enjoying the cool air. Glancing over at her beloved pet she smiled and reached across to her, stroking her hand over the soft, thick fur and smiled again as she panted in happiness, her tail wagging lightly under her. "Good girl, you don't mind us driving 4000 miles do you baby?" She crooned to her beloved dog who responded by wagging her tail so hard it seemed that her backside would fall off.
Settling back more comfortably in her seat she focused on the road stretching out in front of her. She was now in the outskirts of Stafford and she had to admit that the scenery was lovely. Not a patch on home, she thought to herself but definitely beautiful. The road that she was driving down was narrow but still had plenty of room for anyone overtaking her although that seemed a moot point as the road was completely empty. The road had darkened as she had entered a long, seemingly endless avenue of enormous trees. The trees, which she thought were large oak's, lined the road, their trunks so close to each other that there seemed no room for anything to possibly squeeze between them. There were the occasional flowers as well, the odd smattering of wild roses, foxgloves and honeysuckle fighting for the few remaining rays of sunlight that tried in vain to access through the canopy of dark green leaves.
Removing her sunglasses she shoved them on the dashboard underneath her GPS. She felt her mouth twist in a sudden yawn as her exhaustion from the stress of planning her journey started to catch up with her. Stifling the yawn she closed her eyes for the briefest of moments. She wasn't actually tired, she was too hyped to actually feel the need to sleep but she knew that she should take a break. She opened her eyes quickly, just catching herself as the steering wheel slid through her slackened grip. Catching the wheel she cursed under her breath and jerked the car back to the left. Her momentary loss of concentration had been stupid, she thought to herself, she really needed to find a place to pullover for a break.
Leaning forward to look at her GPS, her eyes momentarily distracted from the road, she saw that there was a rest stop coming up within the next mile. Sighing with relief she shifted her eyes back to the road just in time to see an enormous dark shape hurtling in front of her car. It was about 50 metres in front of her but she was gaining on it quickly and would be on it within a few seconds. Strangely, even at that moment of panic, she felt her stomach twist in pain, a strange, wrenching feeling shot through her and she gasped at the intensity.
Instincts took over, her need to swerve and avoid hitting whatever the shape was flooded her brain while her common sense screamed at her to brake. Swerving became the winner in the battle of what to do and she veered sharply to the right, the car nearly tipping to the left as the sudden movement shook the vehicle. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white under the strain. Kalika howled in pain as the sudden swerve caused her to smash bodily into the door frame.
"Shit, shit, shit, shift you fucking thing…!" Ali snarled at the car as she struggled to change gears, the crunching sound that the gear lever made as she forced it startled her and she glanced down to see that she was locked in 5th gear as the car hurtled towards the oaks. Yanking her head up just in time Ali saw that there was no time to even scream as the car went hurtling through what she mused was the only gap in the thick confines of the woods and down a steep slope. Panicking now she slammed her foot on the brake, pressing it all the way to the floor whilst simultaneously pulling on the handbrake. It was a dangerous manoeuvre that her ex-boyfriend had taught her to use only in the most grave of emergencies.
Unfortunately, even though her car ran beautifully her brakes had started acting up over the past few months. She had planned to have them checked, and, if need be, replaced but with the planning of the trip taking precedence she hadn't had the chance to do anything about it. The hand brake was jammed and she couldn't pull it even an inch, she knew that she would need both hands but she couldn't sacrifice her grip on the steering wheel. She was going to have to either swerve again or risk yanking the handbrake up with both hands.
Gravity was now also a factor as she was heading downhill although thankfully not as steeply as before she noticed but she was still heading there quickly. A quick check of her speedo showed her speed at 55mph, more than enough to make a big smash into something. That wasn't the only thing that she noticed though. Looming ahead of her in the darkness was a lone oak tree and one that was at least three times the width of any that she had seen beside the road. Her car was heading straight for it.
Kalika was howling loudly beside her, the seat was wet with urine, Kalika had obviously not been able to hold in her own growing panic. The acrid smell of the animals urine stung her nostrils but she had no time to pay any heed to it.
Panic was rising in her chest, her mind felt numb with shock and she still had that terrible wrenching pain in her stomach. Realizing that she had maybe ten seconds before she ploughed into the forbidding looking tree she knew what she had to do. Setting her teeth she slammed on the footbrake once more whilst simultaneously removing her hands from the steering wheel and wrenching the handbrake up with all her strength. Grimacing she felt the car slow maybe a fraction before, with all the force of a bullet from a gun, the car slammed into the tree. The last thing she felt was a sudden smack in her face as something solid slammed into it. Blissfully blackness enveloped her, cutting off any sounds and wrapping around her completely.
Outside the car the forest seemed to reverberate from the cars collisions with the mighty oak. Everything was deadly quiet apart from the growl of the cars engine before, after a few moments, that too died and left utter silence. After a few moments of stillness the forest sounds returned, the birds tweeting and the sounds of crickets returning as if nothing had interrupted them.
Inside the car everything was very, very still and very, very quiet.
Blackness. Pain. Chirping and rustling. Ali was unsure of where she was. Her head ached, her shoulders were twisted awkwardly and her face was smashed up against something hard and unmoving. She felt something warm and sticky trickling down the right side of her face. Utter blackness still swamped her, wrapped around her so fully that she wasn't even sure if she had her eyes open or not. Slowly, carefully, she tried to open her eyes. She blinked once, seeing fuzzy objects in front of her. Noise. She could hear a soft whimpering. It took her a few moments to realise that it was her making the noise. Squeezing her eyes shut she took a deep breath before opening them again. This time everything was clear. She could see the interior of her car, Kalika sitting beside her, her head cocked too the side as she eyed her owner with an almost human expression of worry. She leaned forward and gently nudged her owner. Ali smiled lightly, her pet was almost too human for her own good.
Groaning she raised her shoulders slowly and braced herself for the onslaught of pain. There was none which surprised her, apart from the throb of her head. Moving at a snails pace she raised her hands to the steering wheel and slowly, so slowly, pushed herself back. Panting at the effort she collapsed back in her seat, her chest heaving from the effort. Raising one hand to the rear-view mirror she adjusted it so she could examine the injury. Lifting her right hand to her head she felt tenderly at the wound above her right eyebrow as she looked in the mirror. A 3 inch laceration seemed to have opened above her eyebrow, close to the hairline. Blood was trickling slowly from the wound but it wasn't gushing, something that she was thankful for. She couldn't tell how long she had been unconscious for but she thought that it couldn't have been too long. Glancing at her dashboard she saw that her GPS had turned off. Luckily her watch was still working, she thought as she glanced at it. It read just after 11am. She had been unconscious for an hour. Groaning she looked at her wound in the mirror again and grimaced. It was nipping something rotten but it wasn't very painful, the original aching had disappeared quite quickly. Sighing she glanced out her windscreen and saw that the oak tree had caved in the entire front of her car as easily as if it had been made of paper. Groaning again she pinched the bridge of her nose.
She couldn't have picked a more beautiful place to crash though, she mused thoughtfully as she gazed around her. The oak tree was batched in a beautiful light, the sun streaming down on it fully, illuminating the front of the dented car.
Something wasn't right, she thought and frowned. "What is wrong with this picture?" she wondered as she opened her eyes fully and surveyed the scene in front of her.
That was when it hit her.
Sunlight? What the hell? When she had been hurtling down the hill the first, the most obvious thing that she had noticed, apart from the tree of course, had been the utter lack of daylight. The forest had been almost pitch black, no trace of any light, however minimal, had been available. Jumping up quickly she practically wrenched her seatbelt off and, fumbling with the door handle, she stumbled out of the vehicle. Her mouth was agape as she looked around her surroundings.
Sunlight. Pure, unclouded and radiant sunlight streamed down on her from above. The tree was bathed in it beautifully as she had noticed before. All around her, before she had crashed, had been dense wooded forest. There was no trace of that now. The tree she stood beside seemed to be the only one in an almost completely empty part of land. The grass beneath her feet was a vibrant green in the sunshine, the air was stiflingly hot and she felt herself begin to perspire lightly. There was no trace of the wooded area that she had crashed into barely an hour ago. All around her the grass sped off in every direction, over hills and gulley's, swirling prettily in the light breeze.
"No…that-that's…impossible…" Ali felt a choking cough rising in her throat and she sank down onto the surprisingly cool grass and tried to catch her breath. She knew that she was having a panic attack and she had to calm herself down.
"K-kali…help…me. Please!" She choked the words out, her breath coming too quickly in shallow pants. Kalika was beside her in an instant, sitting protectively beside her and allowing her owner to bury her face in the soft, thick fur of her neck. The oxygen in her throat felt like it was going to rip her apart, her chest was heaving painfully. She knew that she had to calm down. "Deep breaths Ali," she thought to herself, "Deep, deep, calm breaths."
After a few minutes she felt her breathing become more regular. Taking deep breaths she finally felt her heart rate return to normal. Hugging her pet gratefully she staggered to her feet. She had been having panic attacks since she was 18 and Kalika had proven herself to be more than just a pet. Her safe and protective aura gave Ali a sense of comfort and this helped her to calm down when she had an attack. Patting her dog gratefully on the head she pulled herself to her feet and headed to the car. Reaching inside she grabbed her GPS and examined it.
Fiddling with the switches she sighed in relief when, after a few moments holding her breath, the screen flashed back on and the familiar logo and welcoming tune greeted her. Tapping at the screen she selected "Current Location". The screen flashed the egg timer at her before the familiar voice informed her of her location.
"Error. Cannot access current location. Please input coordinates or switch off and try again." Ali frowned at the GPS.
"What the hell do you mean "Cannot access current location?" It's here!" She stamped on the ground impatiently, as if asserting her point. "I can access the location so why can't you?" Sighing she re-booted the device, praying silently that this time it worked and she could find out where the hell she was. Choosing "Current Location" again she hoped silently that this time the machine would work.
"Error. The location you are in does not exist. Please consult your dealer." Ali felt her mouth go dry at the statement. The location she was in didn't exist? What the hell did that mean? Clearly it existed as she was standing in it, well, on it. Was it an error in the GPS? Impossible, she had had it updated with the latest maps before she had set off on her journey. Switching off the device she hurled it angrily into the car and felt no comfort when she heard it smash against the floor. "Shit," she thought angrily, "There goes 250 quid down the drain." Sighing deeply she climbed into the car and sank down onto her seat. "What the hell did it mean," she thought to herself? She had crashed into the tree in one area and lost consciousness and then when she had woken up it seemed that she had somehow, mysteriously moved along with the car and tree to a completely different part of land. It didn't make any sense at all. Her head was now beginning to throb and she was certain that she was concussed. There was a slight feeling of nausea creeping up on her and she was beginning to feel slightly light headed.
One thing was certain, she couldn't just hang around and expect someone to turn up. The place looked deserted and she had no idea what way to go to look for help. Wrinkling her nose she realised that the car seat was still drenched in her dogs piss. Groaning she hoisted herself up out of the seat and out of the car, taking her time so that she wouldn't jar herself and cause any more pain to her already tender head. Stretching lightly she waited for any other pain to flare up over her body. Bracing herself she waited for a moment before sighing in relief. No other pains had flared up. She knew that she was lucky, she mused as she walked around to the front of the car to survey the damage, the fact that she was a bit more toned than other people meant that she could take more hits and feel less pain.
Groaning loudly in dismay as she eyed the damage to the car she felt relief that she hadn't been killed and also gratitude to the old car for basically saving her life. The front of the car was crumpled but not as badly as she had first thought. True, it was bad, but not nearly as much as a write off as she thought that it might have been. The fact that the seat belt was so snug had also probably stopped her from flying through the windscreen and into the huge and, she had to admit, rather intimidating looking tree.
Squinting at it she marvelled at just how huge the damn thing was. Admittedly it wasn't as intimidating now that she was standing beside it but when she was rushing head on at 55mph it had seemed terrifying. Reaching out to the broad trunk she placed her hand gently against it. The bark was dry and rough under her skin, the sun having warmed it as it stood there. The colours were incredible, browns, greens and ochre's all swirling together up and down the bark. Rubbing the trunk almost fondly she sighed, it hadn't been the trees fault, it couldn't help where it grew. Strangely enough she felt almost guilty for mowing into it. It was a beautiful tree. She also hoped that she hadn't damaged it too badly.
She was hopeful though that when the car was eventually pulled away from the tree the trunk would have little to no damage on it. The front of her car had an accordion shaped wedge in it but it wasn't brutal enough to write it off. Maybe it would still work? Heading for the drivers door she pulled herself into her seat and tried the ignition.
"Come on baby, you can do it! Start for me…please?" The car's engine turned over and over but made no attempt to sputter to life. Growling in frustration she yanked the keys out and angrily thrust them into her jeans pocket. Ok, so, the car was definitely not responding so there was no way of her driving around wherever she was. That left only one option: walking. She frowned, she wasn't averse to walking, hell, living in Scotland she had pretty much walked everywhere apart from when the distance needing to be covered was more than ten miles. The problem was that living in Scotland she had always known where she was going. Here, she didn't. She had no idea where she was other than it was stiflingly hot and she appeared to be stranded. In the distance, about a half a mile away she could just make out what appeared to be tracks. They led off into the distance, going nowhere but along seemingly empty roads.
Sighing she weighed her options up in her mind: Stay put and risk no-one finding you, ever, or try to find someone to help you? The latter was easily the more sensible option and, ok, there was a risk that she would end up getting lost but if she was able to find someone, anyone, then that was better than nothing. Glancing at Kalika she smiled when she saw the dog watching her with a, what could only be described as, bemused look on her face.
"Guess what Kali, we're going for a walk. Try to find out where the hell we are. You game?" She laughed when Kalika barked approvingly. Sighing again she reached for the glove compartment and pulled out a cloth before proceeding to wipe up her animals mess.
After she had finished she rolled up the windows of the vehicle and got out, shutting and locking the drivers door behind her before wandering around to lock the passenger door. She was wondering what she should take with her. Would she need any sort of protection? The land surrounding her didn't look dangerous but she knew from experience that looks could be very deceiving. Unlocking the boot door she rummaged around in her kit bag before finding what she was looking for.
Smiling grimly she clipped it to the waistband of her shorts, making sure that it was facing in so that only the grip was seen. Closing the boot door she locked it securely. Straightening out her oversize shirt she unbuttoned the bottom buttons and tied it around her midriff, the last few inches of her tattoo just peeking out on her right side. Patting her hands over her pockets she checked to make sure that she had what she needed. Her money and mobile phone was in her left front pocket, her keys in her right front and her protection securely fastened in the back. Setting herself determinedly she looked at Kalika who was seated directly in front of her.
"So what'dya say we blow this joint baby?" Kalika nodded in response and Ali smiled, buoyed by her pets confidence. "You know, I hate to sound all Dorothy but I've got this wicked feeling, Toto, that we're definitely not in Kansas any more!" Kalika whined in agreement before running off into the field, straight down the slight slope, her fur blowing like the grass in the breeze. Ali smiled and set off after her pet, confident enough to trust her animals judgement. She too often shied away from adventure but not today, today she decided to go for it. After all what kind of trouble could she end up getting into?
What could possibly go wrong?
She had no idea just what kind of trouble was waiting for her.
A/N: Ok so that's the first chapter, I hope you all liked it and will please leave me a review. So easy to do, just click that little link, type a few sentences, (Hopefully positive!) and then bingo! Happy me! Seriously, I hope you enjoy this story and give it a chance. If you don't like it then that's fine, it's ok to not like everything. Any glaring errors then please let me know. Thanks.