Alive
Stephen starts to come too. He instantly thinks, "what the hell is going on? I should be dead. The animals had me surrounded, I had no where to go. I was sacrificing myself so Nick didn't have to die." Thinking of Nick makes Stephen groan. "I was such a fool," Stephen thinks. "To let Helen come between us. Well at least now I know what a bitch she is. But why am I able to think these things? I should be dead." And he opens his eyes to look through the trees above him and sees green sky and purple clouds. Butterflies are all around him. He is lying on the ground. He turns his head a little to the left and sees a young lady sitting on the ground sharpening a very wicked knife. She glances up at him and says "Finally came back to the living, heh? Try not to move too fast, I imagine you are feeling out of sorts and have a bad headache. I wouldn't have brought you through so many anoomalies but I wanted to get you somewhere safe. Would you like a drink of water?" Stephen nods yes and tries to speak but nothing much seems to come out. The lady kneels down beside him with a crude cup and lifts his head ever so gently and gives him a few drinks of water. Then she sits back on her heels and looks at him.
Stephen notices three shapes come through the woods behind her, and he attempts to lift his arm to point to them when she stands and puts her hand out and touches the biggest wolf Stephen has ever seen. It was solid black and behind him are two smaller wolves, one white and one gray. They look at him with very intense eyes, and Stephen thinks he can almost hear their thoughts in his head. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs out of it when he felt the headache the lady had mentioned. He grimaced in pain.
The lady went to a bag while the wolves circled Stephen and laid down. She came back with something in her hand and she told Stephen, "This will help the headache. If you can get past the taste that is." She knelt down beside Stephen and said "If you can let it dissolve it will work better. I can't do that. I have to swallow it whole as the taste makes me want to gag." She laid the sliver on Stephen's tongue and then moved back, "Just in case you have to spit it out," she said.
Stephen didn't think he had ever tasted anything so horrible in his life. It made him shudder all the way down to his toes. But at the same time he couldn't help thinking, 'I'm alive to taste it. I'm alive to shudder and feel. I'm alive!" He wanted to shout it to the skies. Instead he just laid there, with his eyes closed thinking this is horrible and I am alive to taste it. Yes!
When the sliver had dissolved Stephen noticed his head no longer hurt and neither did anything else on his body. He opened his eyes to discover the lady had moved back beside him and he said, "Where am I?" He was talking again.
"I call this the beginning. The first time I came through a wrinkle to here, there was no living animals that I could find. I tried to keep it that way but somehow the butterflies came through. No human has been here that I can tell. It is my escape place, where I come to think and get away from the horrors of all I see." She is looking off into the distant when she says this then after a few heartbeats she looks back at Stephen and with her knife suddenly at his throat and the wolves standing and growling at him she says, "Now what you need to tell me, is are you a friend, or foe of Helen's."
Stephen took a couple of deep swallows, not sure how to answer her question. What does she want him to say? He has no doubt that if he answers wrong, he will be dead for a second time. Finally he says "She was my lover once, my best friends wife, and someone I thought wanted the same things I did. I however have just discovered that Helen only wants what Helen wants, and she will destroy anyone who gets in her way." Stephen is looking up at the lady and he feels the knife start to withdraw and the wolves to settle down. "Now" he says as he starts to sit up, "What the hell is going on? How did I get out of that room full of perpetrators alive and in one piece? Where am I and who the hell are you?"
Chapter 2
"My name is Twilight O'Conner. I was born in Idaho in the US of A. When I was six I chased my puppy in the woods behind my house. Before I knew it I was lost. I just kept walking when I saw before me the most beautiful site. It was like jewels turning in the space before me. I couldn't help it, I felt drawn to it and then through it. On the other side was a land I didn't recognize but very pretty nevertheless. I walked out a ways and then running before me were the ansesters of these three" pointing towards the wolves. I backed up and then turned to run through the jewels only they were gone. I fell to the ground excepting the animals to tear me apart. They didn't, instead they took me on and helped me adapt to this new world I found myself in. What's the year?" Stephen says, "2008." "Wow," she said, "I've been here 21 years now. Time flies when you are having fun."
She got up and looked off into the distance and said, "You have Helen to thank for you getting out of that herd of pedators you were in. I first met Helen 3 years ago. She was hurt when I came across her and so I healed her. She was the first person in years I had been around. She seemed so bright, so pretty, so gifted, I found myself looking up to her. Her ideas about the wrinkles seemed to match mine to a tee. I thought I had someone to help me find a way to stop the wrinkles, or at least stop all the moving of creatures between one time and another." She turned back and looked down at Stephen and continued, "You see things change when animals and people move around. It's harmful and destructive. I have been trying to discover a way to stop the wrinkles, to return things to the way they should be. I thought Helen was the one to help me."
She sat down on the grass and started to pick at the grass around her. She looked up at Stephen and he say hurt and pain in her eyes. She dropped her eyes and went on. "Then a little while back I discovered that Helen was making trips into your present and into the future. She told me she went back to your present to try and get her husband Nick to come join. When that didn't work she told me, she seduced an old student of hers and was convincing him to help her. With what she wouldn't totally say but I was getting the sense more and more she was not being honest with me, with her husband, her lover, or herself. Then one day I discovered she had cloned an army of men, to destroy humankind!! She wants animals to rule the world. And for the first time I saw Helen as she really was. The blinders were off."
But I had to be careful; I didn't want her to know. Thank goodness she was off on her trips so much I was able to continue my work and the wrinkles. And I discovered," she looked up at Stephen with a twinkle in her eye, "how to make the wrinkles, how to shut them down. I found I could go through one and then hide it. And with this new ability I was able to follow Helen and work on undoing some of the harm she had done. With the wolves beside me, we rounded up all the stray animals we could find and shooed them back where they belonged. That was good."
"But I couldn't undo a wrinkle I didn't make. So I can't stop them, not yet anyhow. So I followed Helen to your world and with a device she brought back from the future I was able to I watched what happened. And when I saw you so bravely go into that room knowing you were headed for certain death, I just had to save you. I wasn't sure who I was saving and I wasn't sure how Helen would react to what I had done so I brought you here. I knew I can kill you if I need to."
Then she got up and walked away from Stephen. Then she turned to him and said, "I'm going for a swim. You think Stephen, about what you want to happen when I come back. You can decide on staying Helen's lover in which case, you will die. Or you can help me destroy her and save mankind. Your choice, your decision." She turned to the big black wolf and said, "Watch Midnight." And she ran off down the hill taking of her shirt as she ran. Stephen didn't watch anymore than that, she was very beautiful but she was also deadly and Stephen had no doubt she would kill him like she said. He laid back down to think about everything and decide on how his life was to proceed from here.
He had met Helen first. Stephen had never been really interested in girls, learning about the past and the animals were where his heart and head lead him. Learning to track when he was a child and to shoot us only in his way of thinking a benefit dealing with what he wanted to become. Things changed thought after being in Helen's class a couple of weeks. He started to admire her, her mind, her wit, her way of thinking. He had heard the rumors about her and how she tended to stray from her husband. He never in his wildest dreams think he would be one of them fools. But then one night it happened. He found himself in her arms and afterwards he felt dirty and cheap and swore he would never do it again. And he didn't, for several more years that is. A couple of days after the incident with Helen, she disappeared. Without a trace, without a clue. He found himself missing her, and he wanted to know what happened to her. So he switched classes and became of student of her husband Nick. And again Stephen was surprised by what happened. He and Nick became best friends. The thought alike, the had the same desires, and they both thirsted for things of the past. It was the best of relationships.
The next 7 years flew by. And then that kid caught them outside and then followed them inside. He wanted to know if Nick knew about this new animal sighting. When he heard the kid mention Nick's wife, he thought for sure Nick would take the bait. But Nick let it go, until the kid said where the sighting was, 'Dead Forest," where Helen disappeared. The second those words left Conner's mouth, Stephen knew they were going. And the adventure of the lifetime began for them in that forest. For a while anyway.
Stephen found himself getting discouraged with the way the program was going. Too much government, too much interference. And then Helen started making waves. She even told Nick they had slept together. Stephen thought for sure that his relationship with Nick was now over. And then they got to arguing about Helen and the program and Nick hit him. He had felt so lost so alone, and Helen was there with open arms to fill the void. He was such a fool he thought. Just before he went into that room filled with the animals, he saw the truth. Helen was the enemy and Nick was and always would be his friend. Damn it, he thought, why did things have to turn out this way?
He watched Twilight came up the hill with a couple of the wolves and thought to himself, "Maybe with her help we can stop all this. And stop Helen too." So he stood up and when Twilight got close he just said, "Let's stop this shit together." She looked at him for a minute and said, "Even if it means taking Helen down." "Even that" he said. She looked at him a couple of more minutes and said, 'If I ever think you are going back to her, I will kill you." Stephen just nodded. And they shook hands.
The plan
"So what do we do now," Stephen says. And Twilight says, 'Well we are safe here. But I hate wasting time. If you feel up to it we can go find Helen I guess. But with that army she has I don't know if we two can stop her. Any ideas?"
Stephen thinks for a minute. "Lets go back and get Nick, Conner, Abby and a few army guys. That might even the odds. And maybe we can set a trap for her there. What do you think?" Twilight replies, "I just want this over. I'll take you back if you think they will help you and not hinder you. Just let me know when."
Stephen says "I guess there is no time like the moment. Can you really open a anomaly? At a set time and place?" Twilight nods. "Then lets go to Nick's house and wait for him. If I have to I can figure out a way to get him there." Twilight turns and looks out over the hill. She motions for the wolves to get closer then she tells Stephen, "Describe the house and the area around it as you last saw it." Stephen does and when he is done a anomaly opens in front of him. He starts to go forward and looks through. Yes it is the place, only it is nighttime there. He turns back to Twilight and says "lets go." He reaches for her hand and only then does she step forward and then through the anomaly. The wolves come too, which surprises Stephen but then he thinks, "I'm alive. That's what surprises me."
Twilight looks back at the anolomy and closes her eyes and in just a few seconds it is gone. Stephen wonders if it triggered the anomaly tracker. If so he wanted to be in the house before everyone gets here.
The house is dark, and Stephen rings the bell, then again. Finally he bends down and lifts up the rug to revile a key. He unlocks the door and flips on a light. He motions the wolves and Twilight in and after a quick glance behind him, he follows them in. He shuts the door and after everyone gets settled somewhere he turns the light back off. He doesn't want anyone to know he is there until he is ready.
They sit there in the quiet and dark. Even the wolves are quiet. Stephen who is still holding Twilights hand fills her head lay upon his shoulder and her breathing quiet. He just sits there like that knowing that sooner or later Nick would come home.
After a bit they hear some cars pull up and car doors slam. Twilight who came instantly awake looks at Stephen. He motions for quiet and gets up and goes to the window. Very carefully he looks out. He sees Nick and Conner looking at the tracking device in his hand. Abby is looking around checking that everyone looks good. Then suddenly Nick looks up and even though Stephen has moved, Nick looks right at the window where Nick is. Then he goes back to talking to Conner, and then suddenly, again he looks at the window. He says something to Conner and then starts to head to the house. He gets to the steps and then he stops. He studies it for a minute then he turns back and goes over to Jenny. Stephen couldn't hear what was said but in a few minutes, Jenny and the army leave. Nick turns and walks back up to the house with Conner and Abby right behind him. He unlocks the door and steps inside turning the light on. What he sees before him, he can't believe. Stephen said, "You probably didn't except to see me again this soon, did you." Abby gasps, and Conner says "No way man." Then Nick runs to Stephen and with tears in there eyes they give each other a hug. The two friends are together once again.
They all start to talk at once when Abby notices the wolves. "Wow" she says slowly walking up to the them. They know a friend when they see one and they all sniff her and Bandit even gives her a lick. Abby falls to her knees and gives the wolves an embrace. Stephen meanwhile steps back from Nick and before Nick says anything says, "We'll explain everything in just a second. He takes a couple of steps and grabs Twilight by the hand. He pulls her over to Nick and tells Nick "This is Twilight the lady that saved my life." Nick doesn't say a word, he just gathers Twilight in a hug. When he gets himself composed again he lets her go and tells her, "I am forever in your debt. Saving Stephen was like you saved me." Then he motions them all to sit so stories can be told.
Stephen starts out by telling them that Twilight can make abonolies and that Helen is trying to destroy human kind. He continues on until the story is out and then he looks at Nick to take over. Yes it was so good to be back he thought.
Nick sits for a few minutes then he stands. "Helen is to smart to fall for just any trap. But we have two things in our favor, She doesn't know Stephen is alive, and she doesn't know you can make anomilies right twilight." Twilight says "that's right. And the way we should do this is I should take Stephen to wrinkle city along with whoever you feel can take Helen down. Then I will go to Helen and tell her I saved Stephen, as a gift for her. She shouldn't suspect me of anything, but even if she does, she will have to see if Stephen is alive. She wanted you Nick, but when you wouldn't come she made a play for Stephen. The only two humans besides her clones the world will come to know." They just sit there for few minutes when the wolves all rise and head for the door. Twilight stands up and tells Stephen, "They, we need to go out for a bit. You stay here with your friends, I won't go far and I am perfectly safe with them." She smiles at Stephen and turns and heads out the door with the wolves. After the door shuts everyone seems to start talking at once.
Twilight knew what the wolves knew. Helen was close. Real close. How many of her army she had Twilight didn't know but she wanted to start taking out as many as she could before the end battle started. When she finally gets her hands around Helen's throat. She motions to the wolves and each heads out in a different direction. Everyone knows the job that has to be done and is determined to do it.
In the house the four friends are reveling in the fact that they are together again. When they thought Stephen was gone, well it had affected everyone deeply. But now he was back and they were a team once again.
Just then the door is kicked open. And in enters a man with a gun, then another, then another. Conner says, "That's the man I kept seeing, and look how many there are now." After four enter Helen walks in. Her eyes widen at the sight of Stephen. "Why darling Stephen I didn't hink I would see you again so soon." And she walks over to Stephen who is standing by Nick. Helen reaches up and puts her hand on the back of Stephens neck. She starts to move his head down to kiss him when Stephen reaches up and removes her hand. "No more Helen, no more. I know what you really are now." And he steps back. Helen looks at him and says, 'You might want to rethink that Stephen. My plan is almost ready to take affect. I just need something from you Nick. That snail I left here so many months ago. Oh there it is. She walks over to the stand and picks it up. She turns back to them and says, "This snail carries the virus that will kill mankind. I know where mankind starts and where it will end when I deliever this snail. I know the anoboly to take to get there and I am the only human besides my clones that has taken the antibody. And there is nothing you can do to stop me." She walks over to Nick and says, "Last chance Nick honey, I'll take you with me if you promise to love and obey me." Nick said, "Not a chance in hell." Helen says, "You're choice." She turns to head to the door when all of a sudden they hear screams from outdoors and then one, two three wolf howls. Helen's face turns to fury. Another clone rushes in and says, the anomaly, it's gone. It just disappeared." Helen turns to two of the clones and says watch them. She gives the snail to another one with the instructions to protect it with your life. Then she motions the others ones outside and they hear her say, "Find that tramp Twilight and kill her. Along with those wolves." And they head out. The team looks around at each other hoping someone will come through with a plan when suddenly Midnight comes flying though the door taking both guards down to the ground. Stephen and Nick run over and wrestle guns from the guards and Midnight turns and heads back outdoors. Stephen and Nick know out the guards and tell Conner and Abby to tie them up with everything they can find. And to call Home Office. Then they ran out the door.