City Out of Time. William Robison III
nodded. “It’s a bit much…”
“…to believe? Yes. I know. But don’t worry, those feelings you have will eventually fade away. You are a time traveler, Lanz. You may not believe it now, but you will believe it sooner or later.”
“Want to bet?”
The woman smiled.
“For now, after welcoming you, I’m going to see that you get settled in to the City. And then, by tomorrow, you’ll find that you’re already getting used to your new home.”
“New home?”
Lanz could hear the stress and fatigue in his voice. And she must have heard it and understood it as well.
“Take that panicked look off your face. You’re not a prisoner here. You can come and go as you please – though you’ll likely find it easier once you’ve learned to use your skills. However, we’ll save that discussion for tomorrow after you’ve rested. For now, there’s someone who’s been dying to say hello.”
She stood up so quickly that it caught Lanz completely off guard. By the time he finally reached his feet, she was already standing by the door.
“Wait… I never asked… who are you?”
She looked surprised as if it never occurred to her that someone wouldn’t know who she was.
“I’m Amelia… Amelia Earhart. Ask for me by name.”
And she went out.
Lanz fell back into the chair and then looked around as if expecting to see Rod Serling or the Devil.
Instead, a familiar young man came through the door. He was a little shorter than Lanz and was a bit more muscular than Lanz remembered. There was a twinkle in his blue eyes and a smile on his face underneath an unruly mop of sandy brown hair. Lanz stared at the young man and tried to comprehend. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a single thing wrong with the man – not a scratch.
“Hello, brother.”
Chapter Five
The City Processing Center
Moments Later - Relative
Seth Franco stood in the doorway, not twenty feet away, but Lanz felt the physical gulf between them as he’d never felt it before. Seth was dead. Lanz had buried him. Lanz was conscious that he’d stopped breathing, felt the rapid twitching in his left eye, was aware of the heat in the room, and the way the refrigerator hummed. He could smell the drying sweat from his all night hike. Here he was, surrounded by all the senses of reality, and yet what he was experiencing was entirely impossible.
Seth must have sensed the gulf between them. He stepped through the doorway and the door shut behind him. Where he’d been cocksure a moment before, now he was hesitant. Seth raised his arms, almost beseeching Lanz.
“Look,” he said, “I had to do it. I wanted to tell you, of course, but that’s not how it’s done.”
Seth took another step forward, wary, as if Lanz might leap off the couch and strike at any moment.
“They said that they had to be sure that you were… one of us. Normal people can’t ever know about our existence.”
Seth edged around the far end of the couch, using it as a shield between them.
“I had to fake my death, because… well, I just had to. You understand? I just had…”
Lanz suddenly jumped up and rushed Seth, who moved quickly to some sort of defensive stance, but it was no use. Lanz was on him, wrapping his younger brother in a big bear hug and picking him up off the ground.
“You’re alive,” Lanz whispered, as he felt the reality of his once dead brother. “You’re alive.”
After a long moment, the brothers separated, and Seth looked relieved. Lanz, however, now felt the questions surging to the forefront.
“They told me you were dead.”
“They had to. It’s not easy getting out of the Army. You can’t just leave your post; especially not in Iraq. I had to fake my death if I was going to come here.”
“That was a really stupid idea, Seth. What if they catch you?”
“They won’t.”
“But what if they do…”
“Trust me, bro… they won’t.”
They looked at each other – normality slowly returning. Seth sought his older brother’s approval, while staying defiant and independent to the end. Lanz remained in charge; protective and responsible.
“Well… your funeral sucked anyway. It didn’t even get me out of work. And what the hell is this all about?”
Lanz spun around, taking in the entire room and everything else that had happened to him in the past 24 hours.
“Sorry about the secrecy. There are rules. But I had to know whether you were a time traveler like me. It’s genetic, so I knew it was likely.”
“We had two different fathers.”
“You’re still bringing that up?”
“I’m just saying…”
“Well, you’re here. So, I guess I was right. End of argument.”
“I wasn’t arguing with you little brother, I was just…”
“ANYWAY… I’m glad you’re here.”
Lanz put his arm around his brother’s shoulders, mussing up his brother’s hair with his hand.
“Yeah, I’m glad to see you too… where the hell are we?”
“The City? Didn’t Amelia explain it to you?”
“Yeah… but I mean, is this some old 1950’s underground bomb shelter for the President or something? Why do we have to enter by cave? I mean what’s with this place…”
“This place… it’s great. But… it kind of defies description. It’s better if you just see it for yourself. Come on, I can’t wait to show you around.”
Seth led the way back to the door Lanz had entered before and went out. They started walking up the corridor, back towards the rotunda where Lanz had entered this new bizarre world.
Seth asked. “You’ve been through processing?”
“Processing?”
“You know… state your name and date?”
“Yeah… what’s that all about?”
Seth opened the door at the far end and they both re-entered the chaos of the processing chamber. Seth stood close to Lanz and pointed to the two cave mouths that Lanz had come through.
“Those are the entrance tunnels. There’s actually a different tunnel that leads out, but it’s in our departure chamber,” Seth explained, “This whole room is called processing. We take in the new travelers and the returning travelers and we process them. We like to keep everyone temporally segregated for their own comfort by decade.”
“Temporally segregated? What the hell does that mean?”
“It just means that guys from the 1960’s tend to like to stay with guys from the 1960’s.”
“Aren’t all these people coming from 1996?” Lanz asked.
“They come from all over,” Seth replied. “I mean look at all these people. Do they look like they just came over from the mall or something?”
Lanz looked at the people checking in at the processing gates and really saw for the first time what was obviously right in front of him the entire time. These people streaming in through the gates