Chapter 2:

Shortly after a three mile hike, no problem for them, Power and his team reached to what was their surprise, a fully operational gas station. It was like something they'd only seen in the holo-vids. Faint music streamed out of the ramshackle place; a wooden door creaked on its hinges in the barely blowing wind. They took a look around their surroundings: white sands constantly shifting framed by sun blasted mountains.

To others, the sight might've looked desolate but to them it was a welcome if not confusing sight. On a hunch, Captain Power took off his gunbelt and motioned for the others to do the same. Trusting their leader, they did as they were instructed and did not question. They stashed the weapons in a dark corner of a shed.

Following the captain inside, the quartet stepped through the creaking door; the music was louder inside and coming from a weird object that struck them as curious. "A jukebox!" Hawk exclaimed as strode over to it. Besides the music and the smell of cooking food, the place was seemingly abandoned. Old battle instincts died hard in the group as they were on edge and readied themselves for an ambush.

When a kindly old lady came from the back room, they all jumped. "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't realize I had customers! I was so busy in the back; I didn't hear you come in." She said. "Please, make yourselves comfortable. Can I get you anything to drink?"

They were all slightly taken aback by this and weren't sure as to how to answer. "Uh…we'll just take some water ma'am." Hawk replied.

"Oh, have you come from Beale?" She asked. They all looked at her and then at each other in puzzlement. "Your uniforms, you guys are in the military right? You come from Beale Air Force Base?" she inquired again as they looked down at themselves.

"Uh, yes ma'am that's right, we do come from Beale. We're uh…we're on leave." Scout said. This answer seemed to satisfy her and she went in the back. She came back a short time later with four glasses of water. They all tentatively took a sip and was surprised by how it tasted. It wasn't the recycled stuff that they were used to, it was…fresh. They downed their glasses greedily, eager to wash away the dust of the road.

The waitress smiled in amusement. "Well you boys take a look at the menu while I fetch you more water; you guys seem to like that." She said and returned to the back.

As she walked back, a errant piece of paper caught Tank's eye. On impulse, he retrieved it and stared at it intently, his eyes growing wider with each passing second. "Guys…" he said as he returned with the paper.

"What do you got there Tank?" Scout asked with a mixture of concern and curiosity. Tank didn't reply but merely laid the paper which it turned out to be a newspaper. They all took a look at it, specifically where Tank was pointing. Their eyebrows collectively rose up as they looked at the date. Scout let out a low whistle.

"Guys, are we hallucinating?" Tank asked. Meanwhile, Power got up from the table, rubbing his chin in deep thought.

Hawk looked at Power; the feeling in his gut knew that he didn't like what his commander was going to say. Still, he asked anyway, "John, what are you thinking?"

For a long moment, Captain Power paused, trying to figure out how to frame his answer. Then finally, "I don't want to believe it but all of the evidence seems to fit. It seems that we've traveled through time."

There was silence at the table as they tried to wrap their heads around Captain Power's words. "But that's impossible!" Scout exclaimed. Hawk motioned for him to be quiet which Scout became sheepish.

"Is it Scout? I'm not exactly sure how, but when Sauron disrupted our teleportation field with whatever he used, it must've caused a rip in the space/time continuum and blew us back here to 1996, a whole two-hundred years before we were even born." Before the rest could reply, Power held up his hand. "The evidence seems to fit the hypothesis doesn't it? The air's cleaner, no bio-dreads patrolling the skies, no lingering fires from Dread's scorched earth campaign. Scout, see if you can pick up any of the resistance's comm signals."

Scout did as he was commanded and produced his communicator. After a few moments he put it away and shook his head. "I can't seem to raise anyone on the comm. All I seem to get is static."

"That's because the resistance doesn't exist yet." Power replied. "We're in 1996 now; I don't have to tell you the implications of that." He turned his back to the group as he stared at the view outside the window deep in contemplative thought.

"So what's the play John? We can't stay here, we've got to go back; there's a war going on that we have to win." Hawk said.

Power didn't hear Hawk. His thoughts were on Jennifer Chase's last words and how his guts tore themselves to pieces every time he thought of her and what went unsaid between them. They drifted on the last time he saw his father and the gaping hole in his life that his father used to fill. He thought of all of the men, women and children he'd seen die at the hands of Lord Dread and his evil machines.

Suddenly, a plan crystallized in his head. "You're right Hawk, there is a war going on and it's a war we're not going to win." The group looked at the captain surprised and even hurt that he would say that. "No, we're not going to win because we won't have to win. I don't know if it was God, fate, or just dumb luck that brought us here but doesn't matter. We're going to prevent this war from ever happening."

The waitress returned to find four empty glasses of water and a thank you note. Other than that, it seemed like the men had never been there in the first place. "Huh, didn't even get a chance to bring out some rolls for them." She muttered as she collected the glasses off the table.