The Time Rippers Book 2: Gettysburg by Pete Bertino - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6 GO HOME

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As the Colonel became introduced to

Philadelphia’s peace officers, Quake, AM and Dig

sat many feet below in the safe room unaware of the events above ground. AM was sitting directly across from Quake and his metropolis of

computers, Dig was leaning against the door that led to the shower.

“That was too close.” AM said “We could have

been stuck indefinitely.”

“Did you hear me? Your mom called.”

“Yes. That was too close, still. Is there any

progress on the mobile front?”

“Gwakwa. Some.”

Quake stared but said nothing more. AM wanted to prod the subject, but instead Dig did.

“Mobile front?”

“Gwakwa,” Quake said looking at Dig with more

animation. “a smaller device for the cubes to

operate with.”

“Iphones?” Dig asked.

“I’ve tried but they interfere with cubes, to many signals and frequencies to control a wormhole.

Ipad are the only option for now.”

He was almost smiling while speaking to Dig

about it, when he returned his attention to AM he looked blankly at him.

“Are you going to call your Mom?” Quake asked again.

“Later. How long before the next location?”

“Fuck, have I even plugged the fuckin ass thing in?!” he said turning to the computer with a red face and furrowed brow and plugged in the most

recently acquired cube. “An hour or two maybe.”

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Quake finished plugging in the cube hit a few keys and got up to head out to the labyrinth.

“Where are you going? I need you...” AM asked

“...to put a dick in your mouth. When it’s done hit

enter. Later, Dig.”

He left without looking back.

“I love his vocabulary.”

“Yeah.”AM said watching the door close. “For

years he would hardly talk, just a few made up

words. At first he did then from the time he was three until he was seven he stopped using real

words and made up his own. If he did talk, my

mother told me Quake went close to a full year

with speaking at all. So Aunt Patty was worried that summer, I was the only person he liked being around so I was a fixture at his house that year.”

“A year?” Dig said trying to imagine himself not talking for a year, but it was beyond his

imagination.

“He had been diagnosed that year with Autism, in the 1980‘s it was a very mysterious condition,

even in 2011 we still do not know the cause of it.

At the time it was believed he would go deeper

and deeper into his own world, with made up

words and live in his head. I was young we were both seven or eight at the time but I knew his

parents were upset, my parents were upset. My

mom tried to explain to me but I didn’t quite get it, but I understood that they worried about him not talking for that long. We visited Uncle Howdy as much as we could, though he was busy most of the time. One day though he had been home, Quake and I found ourselves in his basement and found a

turntable under a painters tarp. Next to it was an old metal milk crate filled with vinyls.”

AM smiled as he reminisced.

“I looked at them one by one, all kinds of stuff.

Glenn Miller, The Beatles, The Yard Birds. And

Quake is just looking over my shoulder watching, then I found a George Carlin album, he was in a funny pose with a goofy face, and Quake laughed. I jumped, I think that was the first time I ever heard

him laugh. I didn’t know how to play it or I would have put it on for him. I didn’t have too though, he knew how or could see how it worked and within

a few seconds George Carlin was going on about

dirty words while Quake laughed away.”

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AM sighed heavily.

“He started to open up after that though he would swear half the time at first, he was still having troubles but he came out of his shell. Years later he

said I helped him to learn how to communicate, while he bitches to me about lacking in that area myself, as well as my mother and the few women I had been close too.”

“Have you told him about Angie?”

“No, though I did write it up in my journal

recently. He could have read it, since we have

access to each others files.”

“Why didn’t you tell him?You told me.”

“I had to tell you, because of Marisa. If it hadn’t been for that I may not have even written it in my journal let alone speak of it.”

Dig nodded realizing AM’s experiences with

Angie, although thirteen years in the past, was only a short time ago for AM. His heartache would be as fresh as Digs.

“Plus, I don’t know how to explain this kind of thing to him. He’s never been very close with a woman let alone been in love. I can’t explain it to myself how it all happened. I just feel a deep hurt in my stomach every time I think about it.”

AM’s head had slowly dipped to his knees as he spoke, looking down on the grey concrete floor.

Trying to clear his head the same way Quake

would staring at the wall. Dig thought about the hurt he had been feeling for Marisa, and the hurt his friend was feeling.

Dig tried to think of something else, but his

thoughts brought him back to the fact he had killed someone and felt another kind of pain. He couldn’t think of a way to comfort AM.

“I told myself I did what I had to do. But that was bullshit,” AM said picking his head back and

looking at Dig.

“My pain though was self inflicted. No one had to get hurt, I could have done what you did or just stopped going to see her before it got serious. Your hurt, Dig is much worse...”

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Dig wanted to protest some of AM’s conclusions, but he continued.

“... Dig you didn’t want to fight with that thug, my actions are what caused Marisa to die, not you

being in love with her. It is my fault if there is

blame to be taken.”

“Look, AM I...I don’t blame you.”

“But if I had just given...”

“No! Listen yes you kicked the guy in the nuts but I kicked him in face. We both did our part, blaming you would be bullshit. AM if it hadn’t been for you I never would have met her to begin with, so I

can’t blame you even partly.”

“So what, it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all?” AM asked.

“Maybe, I don’t know. I’ve got blood on my hands anyway that kid...”

“Dig, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but that soldier more than likely would have died in battle. Many of them did.”

“But what if he wasn’t supposed to? What if I

changed something?”

“Like what? The South winning the war.” AM said almost laughing though the idea did send a shudder down his back.

Dig chuckled himself. Though he had read a series of books about an alternate America where the

south had won The Civil War, the idea that the

world could have easily gone that way frightened him a little.

“I don’t know, check the news or something.”

“It’s those women that worry me more.”

“Who were they?”

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“I don’t know. A cult of some kind. Which is not unusual for Pennsylvania, when it was founded by William Penn he gave the settlers the freedom to worship how ever they chose. Many religions

formed and dissolved here, I doubt we could ever find out. I’ll Google Gettysburg and make sure the surrender at Appomattox took place on the same date and all the same conditions.”

“What about Scarface? I didn’t catch his name did you?” Dig asked.

“No, just Colonel. I’m not too worried though, as long as the results are the same in the end I’ll be satisfied.”

AM turned to a monitor and looked down at three or four keyboards and 2 wireless mouse’s trying to remember which went to what. After he guessed

correctly he accessed the Internet browser and

searched for nearly half an hour satisfied all had remained the same. Dig watched closely over his shoulder.

When he finished the computer hooked to the cubes beeped AM pushed his chair to the last monitor

and hit enter on its keyboard. A map of the southwestern United States appeared which slowly zoomed closer until its was nothing but a section of desert and mountains that looked to be vast, in Dig’s eyes.

“Is that near Roswell?” Dig asked.

“I don’t believe so, its about hundred miles or so too far north to be Roswell.”

“Unless it’s an alternate universe.”

“Yes it could be, according to the equipment its the 4th universe. Earliest signal year 1906 but its weak. There appear to be more than one I think

but...”

“But what?”

“It can’t configure its location very well, as if there is interference.”

“Is that bad?”

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“No it could just mean there is more than one cube maybe more than a few even.”

“06, huh? Should we change outfits?”

Dig hoped he could at least take the Stetson with him, it was out west. AM turned to Dig with a

questioning look.

“The hat? Yeah it’s fine.”

Dig laughed at how AM had practically read his mind.

“Will you do me a favor?” Dig asked. “Go home.”

AM looked away from the monitor to Dig, with an eyebrow raised.

“You have a mom that worries about you. Some

aren’t as lucky.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“Besides, I need a few days. I’m gonna head to

Porter, I want to say hello to a few friends. Let them know I’m not dead.”

AM nodded his head. Dig and he were just

moments from death a few hours ago, perhaps a week or so to wait would be in order. They were both hurting in many ways and would only exhaust themselves at the rate they had been going.

“I’ll give you a lift.”

“You gonna...”

“No I’ll just go by the house. It’ll make the trip easier and my mother appreciates it, my dad will still be at the firm. Will you have a place to stay?”

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“Yeah, no worries. I’ll crash at Jeters, I’m always welcome there. Plus I need to find my bike, riding Sugarfoot reminded me how much I missed my

motorcycle.”

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