Author's notes: Okay, here I am. I just realized that my friend's story is up, so I decided to put mine up too. Oh, and just as a disclaimer, I got the name 'time's scar' from the CCOST.
Loud shots fired as I quickly ran down the pure white hall. My mission was simple. Protect the thing in my hand with my life. Easy to say when you weren't running for your life from trained soldiers. This item had high significance for HER life. I dashed into a nearby room, hoping that there was another passage through there that would enable me to shake them off. No such luck. The guards charged in, all their guns pointing towards me. I was trapped like a rat. I guess all I could do right now was wait for death to come.
A few seconds passed, and the guns didn't fire. I opened my clenched eyes and looked around. The guards were gone, seeming frightened by this thing that was materializing beside me, a contraption of sorts. I took this chance to escape from the room while the guards' were elsewhere. As I ran up the stairs, I met with my brother, who was helping me infiltrate the base.
"Did you get the antidote, Rebecka?" he asked. I shoved the item into his hand.
"Yes," I answered, looking around to make sure no guards were around. "You should go. It is not currently safe here."
"What about you?" he asked. "If you stay any longer, they'll capture you."
"All worries are appreciated, but unnecessary. I think I may have forgotten something in the chamber." I couldn't tell him that I wanted to investigate a strange contraption that had probably saved my life. Call it my curiosity. When I arrived back at the room, the guards were gone. Strange. Singes of fire and dents from bullets were scattered all over this unusual device, that looked vaguely like some of our transporters based of an ancient time-traveling device.
This machine was probably made for a human, like me. So where was this person? The guards probably took him. I followed the likely hallways to where they had gone, and I found a man in one of the many jail cells. No guards here, either. My friend was probably distracting them. Good. It would make it all the more easier. I summoned a flame into my hand, courtesy of my bracelet's power, and threw the fireball into the control panel, shutting the systems for this quadrant off. The man slowly walked out of the cell.
"Are you okay?" I asked him. He looked at me like I was a lunatic. Maybe he spoke the old tongue. I repeated the question again, struggling to get this English right, and this time he responded.
"Why, yes, thank you," he said kindly. "Would you mind telling me why I was immediately taken to this cell when I arrived here?"
"Because they thought you were with me," I answered. He looked ready to ask a million more questions, but I said, "Escape now, talk later."
As we left, shouts of, "Stop the thief!" and "Prisoner escaped" echoed throughout the building. I lead him out a side exit and to the street, where my brother was waiting with his car. The man reluctantly got in.
When we were a safe distance from the military base, the strange man asked, "If you are a thief, why aren't they chasing you?"
"If I am a thief, why are you trusting me?" I responded. The man was silent. "This thing rightfully belongs to us, the people who actually need it." My brother parked the car near our house, and we charged in. The man quietly followed us inside.
"Why are there no people on the streets?" He asked innocently. I looked down.
"A disease has been scouring our land for many decades, ever since 4571," I answered.. The English was getting easier to speak with. "We call it 'Time's Scar.' I have no idea why it is called that. People slowly died from this disease, and we became more fearful. The military opened huge homes – that place where you arrived, that was one – for civilians. They were guaranteed to hold off the disease, being some of the most sterile environments on Earth. Few stayed out in the cities. The bases were the only places where the antidote was kept." I clenched my fists.
"By the time one opened here, my sister already had the disease, and no one who already had it was accepted into the bases. My brother and I, we refused to leave her behind. So we broke into the base and stole one of their antidotes. She should be fine in a few days." I walked up to him and took him to the door.
"I had no idea it was that bad here," he whispered.
"You should go to your home before you catch the disease. I'll give you a ride." We got into my brother's car and drove towards the base. When he exited the car about a block away, I said, "I won't be able to get you in. Just take the side entrance we exited from, and you can probably find the machine from there."
That's the last I saw of that man. I hope that he got to his home safely. Really, if it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't have been able to get the antidote for my now-healthy sister. I thank him.