TIME MACHINE CHAPTER EIGHT
A/N This next part was inspired by Tanith Lee's 'The Silver Metal Lover' but I hope I've put enough of my own ideas in there too.
Ben laid the unconscious Dylan very gently on the floor of the machine and looked outside. There were strange, high buildings with architecture he'd never seen the like of before, set at some height across a vast river. He yelled as loudly as he could to a tall, muscular
handsome man who was walking not too far away:
"Please can you help? My friend's hurt – he could be dying!"
"Don't mind us, Ben" was Connie's sarcastic comment, but her eyes said she understood.
The man bounded to Ben's side almost impossibly fast.
"Where's your friend?" he asked.
Ben pointed inside the machine. The man ran inside and said almost calmly to Connie, Jess and Rita:
"Afternoon, ladies."
Then he picked up Dylan effortlessly and strode into the distance. Connie locked the machine and the others strode with her after the man, who was pacing ahead.
"I'll take him to the hospital. What happened?"
"He's been shot" Ben explained.
The man looked closer.
"That's not a laser wound. What was he shot with?"
"A pistol, I think."
The man looked puzzled.
"Did they steal it out of a museum?"
The man's face changed and he looked thrilled.
"Hey, you're not time travellers, are you?"
Ben was convinced they'd all be burned at the stake for sorcery, while poor Dylan died of his wound with nobody to help him.
"Please don't burn us at the stake" wept Jess.
The man laughed at them, but kindly.
"What century do you think we're living in? If you're time travellers you're in real luck, you can go to the Johnny Depp Village and make a fortune lecturing on your adventures in the Jack Sparrow Centre. Don't worry about money right now, the hospital will operate on your friend regardless of how much you have on you at the moment. You'll be contacted for payment later. You need to build up your money anyway, to have enough points to own an IMU card."
The newcomers were saved from having to ask about an IMU card by the man saying:
"We're here. Justin Bieber Memorial Hospital. I'll come in with you and explain the situation."
"Will he live?" Ben asked.
"Of course, it's nothing serious and he'll be going home with you this afternoon."
The others just started at each other.
While they were waiting on a soft couch, a man in a white coat walked out of one of the rooms with Dylan, who looked fine. He and Ben hugged, regardless of what the others' reaction might be.
"We could do with spending a day here just to watch!" Connie enthused.
"Take it easy tonight, Mr Keogh", advised the doctor, "No bars or nightclubs please. If you need me for any reason, here's my number; my name's Dr Alcindor Kellerman."
The man was still waiting when they walked out.
"I thought you might like to stay at my place until you're sorted out. My name's Jacob, by the way."
"But you don't know us. How do you know we're not terrorists?" Connie asked.
"Because I did a quick brain scan on all of you while we were waiting at the hospital. You're all decent people."
Jacob paid the fare for all of them to ride on a monorail system high above the city.
"A tour of the city as a treat for you" he smiled.
They all enjoyed the beginning of the tour. The monorail passed through an expensive shopping mall and Connie noted the shoe shops for future reference. Ben grinned at the football souvenir shop, though he knew future football would be very different to the kind he knew. Dylan wanted to get off and explore a bookshop but resolved to come back himself or with Ben for a look round the next day. As for Jess and Rita, they just enjoyed watching the array of shops as the machine glided by them.
"Meryl Streep Square – dining area ahead!" sang out a disembodied voice.
This time they were just a little embarrassed to be passing so close to people who were eating, but the diners themselves carried on chatting and enjoying their meals as if indifferent to the monorail.
The monorail passed through the mall and out of it.
"Please close all windows; we are approaching John Lennon Street."
Jacob seemed to move like lightning as he closed the windows.
Jess shivered suddenly, and the others saw why.
The people beneath the monorail looked rough and shabby and more than one of them was spitting on the ground.
"Lowlife" Jacob snapped, and continued:
"While you're here, never ever walk round this district alone. And always check the safety locks on the windows before the monorail pulls away. A couple of years ago there was this spoilt supermodel called Claveline. The monorail stalled on Bob Geldof bridge, and one of the thugs from the area had climbed up the bridgework. Claveline thought she was above the warnings and flashed her jewellery. The guy slid in through the open window, slit her throat and stripped her of her jewellery. The cops caught him later and lethally injected him, but it was too late for her by then. Silly bitch!"
Ben felt a little sickened, and noticed that Jess was crying.
Rita hugged her, and even cool, assured Connie looked pale.
"Relax folks, this was just to show you how things are. You need never come to this area again. Oh, another thing. If you decide to take a stroll by the river under Bob Geldof Bridge, watch out for the purple fish and don't feed them. They're greedy b*ggers, they bite and they can jump high too. I've seen people with the scars to prove it."
Suddenly this new Utopia didn't look so perfect.
Jess buried her face in Rita's knee and wouldn't lift her head until the monorail reached its final stop.
"Wonderful place isn't it?" asked Jacob.
Jacob's place turned out to be a stylish penthouse overlooking the rich area of the city.
"We'll look for work as soon as we can" Ben said.
"No need yet, I own this place and I've enough food for ten people. But you will need to think about money soon because the Justin B memorial hospital will be sending for payment for Dylan's treatment in the next two weeks.
"What will they do if I can't pay, put the bullet back?" joked Dylan, then he saw the pain in Ben's eyes and was quiet.
"You all right, sweet?"
Dylan stroked Ben's curls.
"It's just that ride… what happened to that poor girl…"
"Don't let that thing upset you with those stories of his."
Ben was shocked. He sincerely hoped Dylan wasn't a racist. But he had to know.
"Thing?" he asked tersely, adding:
"He's a human being like the rest of us, Dylan."
"Ben, you adorable twerp, don't you get it? Did you see him sit and eat with us?"
"No, but…"
"My darling little numbskull, Jacob's a robot!"
(