I've worked on this chapter till almost 5 am- I have no idea what sleep is apparently.
The sun was coming up ever so slowly as she drove down the road, painting the early sky orange and red behind the black mountains. Playing over the radio on mid volume was "Old Enough to Know Better" by Wade Hayes. The song was upbeat enough to keep her awake, and it rather fit her current mood. She did know better, she just didn't care at this point.
With her arm propped up on the door with her fist supporting her head, her eyes were half open as she drove with one hand on the steering wheel. Her backpack was strapped into the front seat with her hoodie draped over it to hide its bulk from view, not that she was concerned with anyone around here caring to go snooping through it.
She wore a white t-shirt, and wire frame glasses under her red ball cap. Its tilted angle kept the sunlight from hitting her eyes as she drove through town. Now that she checked out of the hotel and was on her way to return the rental car here in Big Bear, over an hour from Los Angeles, the only thing on her mind before returning home was food. She hadn't eaten since the previous morning so she needed at least something in her system. With the decent head start, she figured she could afford a short stop at a gas station or something. It didn't matter where as long as people minded their own business.
Her cover was only as good as it needed to be. A modified driver's license and cash marked for the correct time period. Luckily the people she rented the car from didn't complain about her only having cash and paid in advance. However, she had to be careful about what she said. She couldn't mention anything that didn't exist or happen yet, not including herself of course. Or show anything that didn't exist yet for that matter. If it weren't for that she'd be listening to her own music list on her mp3 player. That was just one of the rules, other than blending in and leaving no viable trace of yourself before going back to your own time.
Casting a glance at the backpack and the two AI units inside along with all the parts she took from the Foundation, her brows furrowed in thought. One of the rules also stated to not change the past in any way that would affect the present day. She could only imagine the kind of panic going on back in the headquarters' garage if they cared to notice what was missing among the boxes of scrap and cybernetic tech. The latter was purposely left behind, and was something she couldn't touch, since she remembered seeing in her time that it had been sold to the medical industries. That wasn't something she could risk the future on, unlike the AI's. Sure though, finding them missing would raise quite the fuss and everyone would be looking for the culprit. Even so…
She shook her head. Taking them won't change much of anything, she thought as she turned the car into the parking lot of a local 7-11 and pulled into a corner space. The Foundation can move on just as well. Regular law enforcement always does. They just need to put more backbone into it.
Once inside the gas station she made it a point to avoid bumping into anyone, keeping the backpack strapped tightly around her shoulders to minimize clattering as she looked for a good candy bar or packaged muffin of any kind. She grabbed a water bottle out of the refrigerated shelf while she was at it.
It wasn't necessary to avoid the cameras in the building this time. If the cameras back at F.L.A.G headquarters did managed to catch her on video they would have only seen her black hoodie, and her backpack was rather common among civilians these days. All she had to do was hide her hoodie under the back seat of the car and pretend everything was normal. Thankfully she didn't have to pretend she was fully rested and wide awake to boot. This time of morning, people would be suspicious if she was.
Still, this little five minute break did wonders for her exhaustion and alertness, and she was back on the road in no time to the rental dealership. After that was a short hike into the woods south side of Mill Creek Road and she could go home.
A thought crossed her mind. Reaching in her jeans pocket, she pulled out her phone. It was a standard black LG Lite with faded buttons and a scratched up screen. She's had it for over 8 years now without replacements and, though it periodically glitched in one way or another and didn't have the best performance, it still functioned fairly well for the most part. Right now the screen read one bar of battery life and, obviously, no service. The background was a plush doll of an anime character; one she didn't own, but thought was cute.
Navigating to the messaging center, she went to the voice mail box and dialed in her password, being sure to keep her eyes on the road in the process. Only one voice mail was saved, and as it played she turned on speaker mode and tucked the phone under her knee on the edge of the seat. A boy's voice came over the speaker.
'Hey, aunt Crystal. Hope you're doing alright. I just thought I'd call and ask how things were going out there. I know you were in a pretty big hurry to leave an' all. How's college and work? Haha, I mean, it couldn't be too hard. If it is though, you can make it. Just stay calm and focus, and do what you gotta do.
Um…listen, I know you're pretty busy and wanted to get away from the chaos here but…I was just wondering… I was thinking of taking a trip out there to visit? Just for a couple days. O-or weeks. Or something…. I miss you a lot since you haven't been around. Not a lot of family I can hang out with and talk to like we did, you know?
Also, since I'm moving out soon anyway I was wanting to see if there was anyplace near you that'd be decent to live. So I was wondering if it'd be alright if I stayed with you for a bit while I did that. I mean, if not, that's fine- it was just a thought. Mom just said I should ask you first, which obviously I would. I'm not a party-crasher like uncle Dylan. But yeah.
Anyway, please give me a call back when you have the chance to sit down and chat for a while. Love you, aunt Chrissy. Talk to you later. Bye.'
Before the subtle 'click' that marked the end of the message, the voice mail lasted for a good four minutes.
Gabe had called her and left the message two weeks ago. She hated to make him wait for a response so long, but she had to use the time off from her usual routine to do this because it was an opportunity she'd likely never have again. And it wasn't something she could just let slide off the table.
Of course, that didn't mean her nephew was any less important. He was seven years younger than her -turned 18 in February-, and the closest she's ever had to a little brother and best friend back in her home town. Her other friends always lived farther away than she could travel. But when she moved to another state to get away from her parents, so was he.
Crystal was actually thrilled by the request. She missed him just as much, and would be more than happy to help him out. The second she got back, and slept for a few hours, she'd call back and tell him.
After returning the car and retrieving the backpack and hoodie –tying the sleeves around her waist-, Crystal started south, spending the next couple hours walking past houses, street after street. Periodically she passed a jogger, a driver, or someone taking their dog out for a walk, but nothing out of the ordinary and no one so much as cast a second glance at her. She kept her ball cap on and made sure to look inconspicuous as she walked down the side of the road. To any local, she looked just like someone going for a walk around the mountain.
This stretch of Mill Creek Road ran north to south before turning west in the next few blocks or so. She knew because, in her time during her grade school years, she spent several summer vacations in Big Bear. No, she didn't know the place like the back of her hand, but she remembered enough to know her way around. Her only surprise came from how much quieter it is in 1995. Fewer houses, fewer people, and nowhere near as many cars. Overall it was much more peaceful. It was a wonder how things changed over the decades to how it was in the present.
Crystal mentally paused all the sudden, her thoughts being interrupted by a sound catching her ears. Not so much the sound of an engine that arose her suspicion, but the slow turning of tires on the pale gray asphalt. Before she turned her head slightly to glance over her shoulder, she knew she was being followed.
Her heart skipped uneasily at the sight of the car pulling over the top of the road and slowly coming her direction downhill. The branch of a low-hanging tree covered her head from view just enough she dared to get a better look as she picked up her pace without the driver noticing. It was a brown Honda Civic Sedan, and from this angle the windows obscured the figure inside. Whoever they were, were most likely from the Foundation and looking around for any shady characters. Chances were pretty good this person only thought she looked suspicious and was killing time. Besides, what evil mastermind in this era could possibly work with stolen classified technology; out here with too many witnesses and so little space?
Probably a very, very good one, but nonetheless. The driver thought they could sneak up on her. At the thought Crystal scoffed, a devious smirk pulling at her lips. Wishful thinking, buddy. She wasn't about to let the AI's be taken back, or even get caught in someone else's filthy hands.
Taking her next opportunity, she dove between the trees alongside the road, kitty-corner to someone's log house. There was a ditch on the other side, but she jumped across and took off running. As the distance grew between her and the road, she heard the Sedan's engine rev violently as it sped up to where she had been on the side of the road.
The property she ran through was scarce of trees, so she stayed to the shadows as much as possible. The morning air stung her throat and lungs as she ran but she refused to slow down until she reached the woods. As she wove through the clearings, Crystal had to watch her footing carefully. She couldn't risk tripping, stepping, or running into anything that would cause more noise and give herself away or slow herself down. She also decided to just take off her glasses and stuff them in a zipper pocket on the side of the backpack. That way there was less chance of them falling off and being broken. After all, she wasn't entirely blind without them.
She skidded to a halt when she came upon a ridge of boulders, leading to the next ledge. There wasn't a way she could go around in time to evade the person tailing her. From the faint slam of a car door, she knew they weren't far behind. So she wasted no time in scaling the rocks. One foothold after the other she clamored up the ridge. Before reaching the top her hands scraped on the rough surfaces of the boulders several times, but she was sure to move quickly and keep from leaving any specks of blood on the ground. And once she scrambled to solid ground on the other side, she only took a short moment to catch her breath before regaining her footing and darting away again into the pine trees and brush.
A ways behind her she could still hear the faint noise of her little tag-along rushing about. However, in another minute or so, it wouldn't matter. As she continued at a quick-paced walk, she unclipped a small remote from the brim of her ball cap that was the shape of a raindrop and no bigger than a large Papermate eraser. On the front was a small white screen showing a map, a green locating beacon in the shape of a square, a digital compass, two dials on the side to set the year and location, a pair of color-coded buttons –blue for 'activate' and red for 'deactivate,' and a flashing set of numbers indicating how far she was from the beacon's signal.
Less than half a mile, and currently the main device was inactive and well-hidden in case of scavenging animals looking for shinies or curious humans sticking their noses where they didn't belong. The former would definitely be more preferable though, Crystal thought absentmindedly.
"HEY, YOU THERE! STOP!" The masculine voice cut straight through the air like an axe without an echo, the trees muffling the sound to all but the two within earshot.
Her nerves gave a jolt of panic, having been spotted without a doubt, and she immediately took off in the direction of the beacon signal with a vice-grip on the remote. Crap! How the hell did he catch up that fast?! She didn't dare turn around to see the person's face. She had to lose him, and now. There was no telling what kind of trouble it would cause if he saw the device- whether she could get it activated and leave before he caught up to her or not. If she was going to get away without causing any major damage to the timeline, she had to be a phantom and disappear when the tracker behind her wasn't watching. Thankfully, in her running she finally came just within the remote's activation range of 20 meters; 65 feet from the device.
She pressed the blue, triangular button before dropping over a ledge into a dense group of trees and getting a few scratches in the process. At the very least the geography should slow him down a bit. But her heart still pounded violently. Partly due to the additional physical effort, partly the idea of being caught, but mostly due to the fact that if she stumbled the AI's in her bag and the parts to go with them were in danger of being damaged in some way, and it's already been a bumpy ride as it is.
Putting all her effort into her goal, she made a slight detour to the right instead of going directly to the beacon just yet. That nuisance wasn't following too closely, but her best bet was still leading him away to a nearby trail before doubling back and leaving him in confusion long enough for her to escape. And he swiftly fell for the ploy.
Just before she reached the edge of the dirt road ahead, she ducked under the low canopy of thick pine branches and crawled around the face of the boulder it stood in front of. The bed of needles underneath saved her hands from any more scraping on the jagged gravel ground, and the opposite side of the canopy opened up to let her pass through without disturbing more foliage. Quietly sneaking along the smaller ridge of rock and dirt, she got about halfway before shrinking out of sight when the man came barreling through the trees, his own obnoxious noise hiding the faint rattling inside the backpack as she left him behind as quickly as stealth would allow. Have fun chasing thin air, moron, she thought in more of an aggravated sneer than victorious sarcasm.
Upon reaching a rocky outcrop, Crystal saw the pale blue glow of distorted space. If it had a definitive shape she would think it looked like a reverse pyramid with a ghostly appearance. The center of the cloud-like portal seemed more dense and darker than the transparent outer rim. And it just reached the ground toward a short, baseball-sized tripod connected to a black globe where the foggy substance materialized from pores in the side. The only way she could describe it was like a condensed storm cloud, stepping through water so thick it was nearly impossible to breathe. Fortunately, it only lasted little more than a second.
That was her ticket home.
Getting the feeling the person chasing her might retrace his steps soon and come looking, she rushed to double-check she had everything she brought and all she intended to take. Nothing missing, nothing broken, and the AI units still easily blinked and glowed. No thanks to whoever that was, she thought
Putting her glasses back on and setting the dial for the present day -having left the tripod's counterpart in the location she intended to return to- she stepped through the swirling blue cloud. From the other side she only reached back through to grab the exiting device in the brief moment available before the cloud dissipated from the device being deactivated. Then in the blink of an eye, she and the two AI's vanished from 1995.