Juncture 2.5

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“Back?” I asked. Major General Siegfried had finished fiddling around with the computer, and walked around the desk, taking a seat on the plaid couch facing me. His mass took up most of the couch, leaving maybe enough room for a very small person next to him.

“Yes, back,” he said.

…

“In time,” he clarified. I sat there. We were going back in time.

That was cool. The impossibility of the situation brought my mind to thoughts of home, to my foster parents. What were they going to think when I got back? I’d been gone a week, and I’d have to think of an explanation.

Oh well. I had time to figure out how to handle that situation.

“So,” I asked, breaking the short silence, “you told me that Derry had a TA. Do you have one?”

“Indeed I do,” he said, “although mine is far less impressive than Derry’s. My TA allows me to see a cluster of possibilities surrounding the current moment. In these possibilities, I can’t sense things normally, I don’t have taste or touch or smell. I sense the emotional status of beings nearby, and I can adjust what I’m doing in the now to steer toward one possibility.”

“In layman’s terms?” I asked.

“Well, I can see very short into the future how people’s emotions will react, and force one possibility to manifest,” he answered.

“That’s pretty cool,” I lied. Siegfried was right, it was pretty underwhelming.

“So do I have one of these?” I asked.

“Well, we know you have some capability to create short-sequenced time loops, but we have as of yet to discover what provoked you to create it. Unless you happen to know,” he added.

“Nope,” I said. I didn’t know. When I was stuck, it just kept happening. I would go through the same shitty day, I would get out of school, get hit by a car, and I would start over. Moreover, I didn’t really feel anything when it happened – it just… did.

We lapsed into silence again. If Siegfried could tell emotions, then he could probably see that I was pretty nervous right now. The idea of time travel – it still seemed unreal. It was still impossible.

Until we got there.

After several more moments of conversation with the Major General, the room shook violently for one or two seconds, as though it were sliding down an incline. I grasped the arms of the chair for purchase until the sensation stopped. The general was unperturbed, sitting on the couch, one leg up over the other one. After the shaking ended he stood up patted down his military-style jacket to remove any wrinkles or creases, buttoned it closed, and gestured for me to join him at the door. I followed him, intensely nervous for what was about to happen.

“Ready, Marc?” he asked me. He was holding his identification above the scanner pad, waiting for me to either give him the okay to open the door, or to back down, to be unable to cope. I knew that that was one of the options, or he wouldn’t have actually asked, because of his TA. He knew that there was the possibility I would back down.

That knowledge gave me the push to go through with it.

“Yeah,” I said.

He opened the door. Bright, greenish light poured into the room, so much so that I had to blink several times in order to recover my vision. Spots swam in front of my eyes for a couple of moments. When I could look out, I was nearly entranced by what I saw.

There was a jungle – not a forest, not a small meadow – a full, lush, mossy jungle. Right outside of the doorway of the room we were in.

The noise was deafening. In an instant, the silence of Major General Siegfried’s office was replaced by the raucous noises of nature. Somewhere far off in the distance, I heard the sound of roaring, shaking me somewhat from my amazement.

“What… where – no, when are we?” I asked the Major General.

“Well, we’re in the late Cretaceous period, somewhere near Mongolia. I try to always bring new members of the OST here on one of their first trips. I can honestly say that it’s one of the most naturally beautiful places I’ve ever seen.”

It was beautiful. Light scattered through the leaves and vines above, creating long shadowed flecks on the trees and the plants covering the ground. Ivy grew everywhere.

I tentatively placed one foot outside of the office, and after nothing bad happened, I took a full step forward. Just like that, I was in the jungle. I turned back around.

The room wasn’t there. A wave of terror flew through my body and a gasp escaped my lips.

Shit!

Before I had time to do anything, Major General Siegfried appeared in front of me, materializing out of the jungle nearby.

“Sorry about that. I forgot to warn you. All of the offices have a camouflage feature that activates automatically, so in situations like these we don’t stand out too much. I should have warned you before.”

“It’s okay,” I replied. I focused on steadying my breathing, and moved on to what I thought were more pressing matters, “How do you usually find your way back?”

“With this.” Siegfried fished around inside his military-style jacket, and pulled out a small device. The closest thing I could compare it to was a touchscreen phone – it was small, rectangular, and of course, had a screen. He placed his thumb on the screen, and the office building appeared into view, the door still hanging open, revealing the interior of the room. It was an odd juxtaposition to see; the warm comfort of the office against the wild jungle exterior.

We stood there in the humidity for several more moments. I looked around, half in wonder, half in terror. I was new to this, I didn’t know how it worked.



Suddenly, there was a loud screech.