Zombie Road | Book 8 | Crossroads of Chaos Simpson, A. (new books to read .txt) 📖

He had the bracelet on, his beat-up leather jacket zipped up and the blasters hung low on his hips. He didn’t have any Glocks and he wasn’t about to go back, possibly to the middle of a zombie horde, without any protection.

“I’ll be waiting.” Maddy said and smiled.

Jessie nodded, made sure his finger was on the right button, and then pushed it.

34

Time Travel One

Jessie spread out across space traveling faster than the speed of light, shot across the cosmos and blipped back into existence when the numbers and times of the bracelet deemed it was the right.

He knew the first jump would be a long shot that he might be miles or years off his mark, but he wasn’t prepared for what he saw. The earth was a blue and green orb floating in the blackness and he only saw it for a second before his eyes felt like they froze. He slapped at the return button and missed; his fingers were swelling to the size of sausages. He held his breath for as long as he could but felt his lungs ripping apart as they exploded inside his body. He pawed at the bracelet, his throat choked with freezing blood, his eyes blinded by the unfiltered radiation pouring out of the sun.

He blinked out of existence, his atoms shot back towards home and for forty years he felt the slow agony of his ruptured lungs.

35

Time Travel Two

The air shimmered, Jessie popped back into existence and Maddy caught him as he fell, his mouth crusted with blood and his eyes glassy with ice. She had been awake and waiting with arms poised ready to catch him for a week, the earliest possible time he could return according to her calculations. The house was in full operation and had been for a month. The healing vat was fully functional and ready if it were needed. She lifted him easily and ran to the medical lab. She wasn’t gentle when she dumped him into the opaque liquid and let it start the process of oxygenating his blood, pumping his heart and keeping the brain functions alive. She closed the lid, adjusted a few settings and read the information as it flashed across the screen. He should be dead, the only thing keeping him alive was the serum in his blood. He’d been ice cold when she grabbed him and she knew what happened. He’d missed earth entirely; he’d reappeared in outer space. She wondered if he got a chance to spot his home planet or if he’d been facing the wrong way or too far off to see it. She hoped he did, they needed some point of reference to make adjustments if he was foolish enough to try again.

She wished there was some way she could go instead of him but there wasn’t. Time didn’t stop for the one waiting. He would age eighty years as she made a round trip. He could keep resetting of course, jump back every week to stay young but eighty years would still pass. He’d never be able to stand it. She couldn’t use the bracelet to heal him either. It didn’t have omnipotent powers, it would reset him to the last time he’d activated it. Freezing and exploding in outer space. She checked the numbers on the machine again. Twelve days to complete the healing. She placed a hand on the glass cover and waited.

On the third day she opened the lid, removed his battered leather jacket, his blasters and the rest of his clothes. She dried the guns, disassembled, cleaned and put them back together.

His body floated serenely as it healed and she traced a finger over some of his scars. For eighty years she had shut down, let the time flow around her as she operated on minimal functions. At first, she hadn’t planned on going into hibernation mode, she’d done it for thousands of years when she was on the ship. She grew bored, though.

And restless.

And lonely.

They were new feelings she’d never had.

It was easier to override them and shut down.

She pushed the hair away from his forehead and remembered the taste of his lips before he woke up and pushed her away.

You’re not Scarlet.

It was true, she wasn’t, but she felt like her. She had emotions he’d unintentionally given her. She stripped off her clothes, climbed into the tank, closed the lid and wrapped him in her arms. He couldn’t push her away or look at her with disgust if he wasn’t awake.

“I won’t need a space suit.” Jessie said as he ate his first real meal in nearly a century. “I was close, the earth was big. I didn’t see the moon, it may have been behind me. If we can get closer, if I can get inside the atmosphere, the bracelet should do the rest. It’s not supposed to let you reappear inside a mountain or way up in the sky. I guess it got confused when there wasn’t anything solid for tens of thousands of miles.”

“True.” Maddy said as she ate with him. It felt good to do something so normal. “But you have time, do you want to go see the data hacker again, maybe make some adjustments to it?”

“That will take too long.” Jessie said. “We’re a month from the nearest jump gate.”

Maddy hid her disappointment behind a mouthful of the rehydrated stew. She wanted to spend more time with him. Maybe if she could become more human, more like Scarlet, he would call off his insane quest. Maybe he could learn to like her.

For him, he had left a few hours ago. The time in limbo was like dream time that went on forever and ever but when he woke, most of the slow memories faded like dreams. For her, it had been over eighty years of subconscious worry. Even with only minimal functions operating the quiet fear was with her. She didn’t