Last Week’s FFF: Azure Mist

 

 

Kade pulled his goggles over his head, snapping them snuggly over his eyes.

“Saddle up, boys. This’ll be our last test run,” said Halden.

Kade smiled broadly and plunged ear plugs into his hears. Even with the neon orange sound stoppers, he could hear the hoots of Halden and the Twins. They readied themselves, and settled into quiet concentration.

Kade closed his eyes as he focused on the time. For Kade and his crew, time had a feel to it. It was something they could touch. Something they could manipulate. 

When Kade began to notice little things changing, like the score to a game, he thought he was just getting older. When he got motion sickness, he attributed it to the same. But the day he woke up to find a woman that wasn’t his wife in his bed, he knew that something was very wrong.

Looking for answers, he found himself reconnected with his father’s former commanding officer. Turned out that his father had taken part in a time travel experiment. One that left a genetic trace in the future generations.

Kade could control time. But not very well. There were three other men around his age, born from the men in the same squad. Their talents worked best when they were together. They could go further forward and back, and hold it stable. They were bound together, able to be caught up in each other’s wake if they were near. That’s why he’d had the motion sickness. He was also immune to the changes that were made to the timeline.

The old man said that he’d help Kade get his girl back, as long as he joined the team. For weeks they had trained.

The room warped around them. Kade felt the universe tug on him as he pushed back. Pressure built up in his ears, and he swallowed to counteract it. Finally, he felt something give way. The tension that had enveloped him relented, and at last, dissipated completely.

Kade opened his eyes. He, and the three others, found themselves in a vacant lot.

“Let’s get this done,” Halden said.

He withdrew a marble from his pocket and flicked it onto the sidewalk. Kade watched as it rolled along and came to a stop in a crack in the sidewalk. The kid on the bicycle didn’t see the clear glass. His front tire hit the marble and stopped. The rest kept moving, forcing the kid over the handle bars, and spilling him into the street.

A car turned the corner. With it’s large front, the driver was unable to see the child from it’s short distance. Kade watched in horror, tried to yell out, as the car came closer.

A deafening roar came from behind him. He turned as another shot rang out. As he swung around, he saw Halden, holding the gun. It smoked as brains erupted from the second twin’s head. The first lay dead on the grass.

Kade gasped for breath and held it. He felt the world warp as he heard one final blast. He opened his eyes to find that he had pushed himself into the present. He was unharmed, but not alone. Halden was caught up in the distortion and whisked right along behind. Kade’s only saving grace was that Halden hadn’t expected the reaction, and found himself disoriented.

Kade used the moment to run. He tucked his shoulders and burst through a nearby window. Glass shattered as he was shot out into the street. He looked around, but everything was different.

Whatever they had done in the past wasn’t a test. It was their true mission. One that he was never intended to know about. He heard Halden at the window behind him and took off in a sprint.

The gun fired at him as he ran, but the bullets flew wide. Kade turned the corner with Halden at his heels. He knew this street. Or, at least, he used to know it. He held his breath and jumped again, hoping that instincts were right.

They were both transported again. However, Kade found himself on the outside of a building that had recently been torn down. He assumed that Halden was within. The sudden wall bought him a few minutes.

Two doors down was a restaurant still taking valet service. He saw an open car and hopped in before the valet or owner could stop him. He drove the direction the car was headed, back towards Halden.

Halden was on the street now, and saw Kade. Kade flew by, but Halden wasn’t deterred. He pulled his gun on a passing motorist and quickly took possession of his car, giving chase.

Kade didn’t know where he was going, just that he wanted to put as much distance between them as possible.

But, as the distance grew, his ability to stay tethered to this time waned. The world wobbled around him. He struggled to hold on, but couldn’t. Understanding what was happening, he slowed his car and pulled to the side as best he could. He watched as Halden blew passed, missing that Kade had slowed. Kade released his hold on this time.

He was thrown into the street, but not nearly as hard as Halden. They were back in their own time, without the vehicles they had been traveling in, but with all the inertia. Halden rolled as he hit the pavement. Kade was scrapped up, but managed to get to the sidewalk.

Halden struggled to his feet. He was badly bruised and broken, but determined to finish his mission. He was focused so heavily on Kade that he didn’t see the SUV in time. It smashed into him, removing the threat.

With his team dead, and the world a strange place, Kade knew he had to find a way to go back and fix what they had changed. He’d have to find his wife on his own. And his leader, his dad’s old friend, well, Kade would find him, too.