Chapter Four
“In the left drawer, which is unlocked,
you will find a black wristband. Put it on.”
The water had helped a bit, but only
minimally. Veronica was still semi-queasy, but her throat was
finally starting to heal. She rifled through the left drawer. She
doubted the wristband would turn out to be just a wristband and
guessed that her brother was sparing her the science jibber jabber
behind whatever it did. She quickly discovered she was right.
Placing the wristband on her lower arm below
her watch, the thing tightened and injected some sort of needle
into her. She hissed as the needle retracted, the wristband still
clinging to her, though this time with less force.
“If you felt the jab of a needle then I
should be able to locate you within the next fifteen minutes or so.
Just sit tight. Over and out.”
“Hurry,” Veronica said, now a little less
queasy, but still totally tired and grumpy. She glanced over at the
security cameras screens to the left of her on the wall. Her eyes
widened and her heartbeat accelerated. “It doesn’t look like this
place will be safe for long.” The eaters must have picked up her
unwashed scent from the trapdoor. Damn it! Staying here wouldn’t
have been a possibility even if Victor had remained behind. “The
outside is crawling with eaters, bro. I give this place forty-eight
hours tops before it’s breached.” That reality didn’t set well with
her. “Actually, I’ll be right back. I need to keep weapons on me at
all times.”
She got up and strode into the kitchen to
retrieve her sword and machete. Thinking ahead, she grabbed more
food from the freezer and cupboards and threw their packaging into
two FoodMasters. If she had to flee tonight, she’d be doing
it on a full belly. That accomplished, she exited the kitchen and
entered the room where she knew Victor kept his guns. A small smile
curved her lips as she recognized the pieces left behind for
her.
Her brother had thought of everything.
Plenty of guns, tons of ammo, and just as importantly, the guns had
silencers. Without the silencers the weapons would have been
rendered useless. Pulling an unsilenced trigger on one eater was
akin to ringing the dinner bell for all of them.
Veronica picked out two guns, loaded them,
and attached them to her belt. She put other assorted weaponry
inside a faux leather satchel Victor had obviously left behind for
her use. She made her way back to the kitchen, grabbed the prepared
food and more water bottles, then strode back to Victor’s office.
Her queasiness had finally subsided.
*****
‘Twas driving him daft that he dinna ken a
word the wench spoke except Victor. “When will she
understand Gaelic?” Lachlan rumbled to Victor’s back.
“She’ll have to learn it. She’ll have time
to teach herself soon enough. In the meantime I can teach you our
language,” Victor offered. “If it pleases you.”
He grunted. “I want her to ken my words, but
aye, I will learn from you how to ken her words as well.”
Lachlan realized he was growing unreasonably
impatient. The lass still knew naught of his existence, much less
that she was to be his bride and birth his bairns. Veronica would
give him beautiful, cunning babes. ‘Twas what he wanted and as
laird here ‘twas his right to choose whichever wench under his
protection he so desired. Certainly that much hadn’t changed in the
future. She would ken her duty to the warlord who would be
protecting her the soonest.
“Can we watch?” Ramsay asked, punching him
in the arm. “’Tis nigh unto unbelievable, this.”
Lachlan frowned, but nodded. None but his
two most trusted warriors knew aught of Victor’s time traveling and
his future devices. Ramsay and Finn could stay. For now.
*****
Veronica yawned after eating again, her chin
coming down to rest on the palm of her left hand. Her amber curls
cascaded down around her. “Fifteen minutes, my ass,” she said to
the screen. “I thought you wanted to get this show on the road,
little brother.”
Her gaze flicked back to the security
cameras. Uneasiness stole over her as she watched the undead
continue to congregate and test the trapdoor. They were definitely
learning, getting smarter. Where are you, Victor?
As if on cue, the screen came roaring to
life. On the other side of it sat a beleaguered looking Victor and
three very large men standing behind him. The men were dressed
oddly to say the least. All three wore the same black and blue
kilts. All three sported rough wool shirts that clung to their
heavily muscled bodies. The largest of the three, and the one
staring through the screen as if his eyes were boring into hers,
was definitely their leader. Call it intuition or an educated
guess, but everything about him—from his cornrowed black hair
hanging down to his shoulders to his mountainous torso and
limbs—was commanding.
“What’s going on?” she asked, returning her
gaze to her brother. “Who are these men? Where are you?”
“Oh good, you can see me! Can you hear me?”
Victor responded.
“Loud and clear.” She sat up straight and
held up a palm. “Please don’t explain to me how or why this is
possible,” she forestalled him. The last thing she was in the mood
for was a technical explanation that wouldn’t make sense to her
anyway. Plus time was turning out to be a crucial factor. “Just
tell me what’s going on.”
“Fine,” he sniffed, “but if the world hadn’t
gone to hell let’s just say I’d be accepting the Nobel from
Sweden’s last queen right about now. I’ve accomplished the
scientific unthinkable.”
“Victor—”
“Yes, yes, to the point.” He slid his
glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “I’m in the Scottish
Highlands.”
Veronica’s brow furrowed. She supposed that
explained the kilts. Not that she’d known the men there still wore
them. “How on earth did you get there?”
“The same way you will.”
“And how is that?”
“By car, boat, and serum.”
“Yeah, you’re gonna have to elaborate on
that one.” With the electrical grids down, there weren’t exactly
cars and boats cruising around. And another serum? What did that
even mean? “Explain yourself, but keep it at a normal person’s
educational level please.” She again noted the huge man staring at
her. His penetrative gaze was a bit unsettling.
“There is a bottle in the right drawer
labeled TT. I want you to grab that bottle and another
syringe.”
She nodded.
“But don’t take it!” Victor quickly added.
“You’ll inject the serum only after you make it to the
Highlands.”
“What does it do?” Veronica asked as she
located the bottle labeled TT and pocketed a few syringes. “There’s
no telling with you.”
“Well…”
She frowned at her brother’s hesitation. Her
gaze flicked back to the screen with the security cameras. The trap
door had been penetrated by eaters. Damn. This was not how
she’d envisioned things going during her hard-fought journey here.
She had expected to arrive at the compound and spend her last days
in relative peace with her only sibling. Speaking of which, at
least Victor was seemingly safe. “Aren’t there eaters in the
Highlands too?” Maybe there wasn’t. Perhaps the relatively sparse
population had been spared the DR-71 virus.
“Yes and no.”
The hesitancy in his voice snagged her
attention away from the security cameras. “Victor, just say
whatever it is you keep hinting at.”
“Okay, but keep an open mind.”
“Victor!”
“Okay, okay! Look, sis, I’m in the
Highlands. I’m just not in the Highlands you’ll see when you get
here.”
She blinked. That made no sense.
“I’m in the Highlands, but in the year 1155
A.D.”
She stilled. Her jaw semi-dropped. Victor
was implying that—
“I did it, sis. I figured out time
travel.”
Goosebumps formed on her arms. She knew her
brother like the back of her hand. Not one to jest, especially
where science was concerned, he was serious. Or at least he
believed what he was telling her. Regardless, he had been
working on that technology for years now. She just assumed like
everyone else that he’d never figure it out.
“I realize this is difficult to process,”
Victor continued, “but it’s true.” When she said nothing, just
stared at him unblinking, he plowed on. “I figured out how to
travel through time. The problem being I didn’t figure out how to
travel through space. In other words, my TT serum—or Time Travel
serum—can’t just magically poof you from Apple Creek to the
Highlands. You must journey here for yourself using the exact
coordinates I’ll put on your screen in a minute as your end point.
Once you reach it, you must then and only then inject the serum.
The technology I invented will take care of the rest.”
Veronica was, for once, speechless. She had
a thousand questions, the first and foremost being why he’d picked
the year 1155 A. D. of all times!—but she knew it would come with
an explanation that was heavily technical and way over her head.
Her brother was the genius; she was the badass. Each of them knew
and understood their places in life.
“Nica!” Victor called out, breaking through
the daze. He was the only one who called her by that nickname. “You
have to keep it together and trust me, sis. You know I only have
your wellbeing in mind.”
She blinked a few times in rapid succession.
That much was true. Through thick and thin, the siblings had always
had each other’s backs. “How?” she heard herself ask him. “How do I
get to the Highlands from here?”
“In the underground garage I’ve left behind
a fully charged vehicle for your use. You’ll have to drive it to
the docks in Cleveland where I’ve left a boat for you.”
She sighed. “Victor, no boat is going to
make it from Lake Erie to the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic
and so on without several charging stations—all of which are no
doubt inoperable.”
“Not true!” Victor got into excited geek
mode. He did everything but rub his hands together. “It’s fully
charged, mostly solar powered, and requires minimal electricity. I
bought it before the plague—spent my entire savings. Well, I bought
a second one for backup, obviously and thankfully.”
Veronica snorted. A small smile found her
lips. Thank you Jesus for making my brother a paranoid, survival
alarmist! Victor had left nothing to chance. Her gaze shifted
toward the security cameras. What she saw caused her smile to fade.
More eaters were gathering outside. Time was not on her side. More
would come. Still, unless left with no other choice, it would be
safer to leave at first light.
“What’s wrong?” Victor asked, bringing her
gaze back to him.
“The perimeter is crawling with eaters. I’ve
got to get moving by dawn at the latest.”
He fiddled with something that apparently
allowed him to see the perimeter in question. “Damn.” He sighed.
“Well, the boat is fully stocked with food and water and ready to
go.”
“Assuming it hasn’t been ransacked.”
“Not possible. The chances of a second AI
nerd like me making it to the docks unbitten is already low,”
Victor reasoned. “And only another master hacker could penetrate
that boat without its key.”
Her gaze shifted back and forth between her
brother and the security cameras. She’d have to risk going to the
garage and sitting in the car until daylight. There wasn’t another
choice. She’d deal with taking in the enormity of time travel and
the Highlands and a massively muscled man who never took his gaze
off her later. When and if time ever allowed for it. Tonight she
had to concentrate on staying alive and tomorrow on making it to
the docks. She glanced at her watch. Six hours until dawn.
“The key to the car is in its ignition. The
key to the boat is in the car’s glove compartment,” Victor offered
before she could ask.
Veronica nodded. She understood her new
mission and didn’t waste time asking more questions. “I’m waiting
in the car until morning,” she informed him, “so long as the eaters
don’t find the garage door and try to bust through it.”
“I doubt they will. It’s too far below the
ground for them to pick up your scent.”
“Good. Because driving at night is a huge
risk.”
“I’ll stay quiet the next several hours to
keep the sound at a minimum, but take the laptop with you for the
car drive and boat voyage. It contains a new microchip in it that
hit the market about a month before the plague broke out. You know,
the one that never loses its charge?”
“Will do.”
“Oh and sis?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
She frowned. “I refuse to respond to
that.”
“Yeah, I guess that goes without
saying.”
Veronica wished her brother well and told
him she’d talk to him in the morning. She gathered up everything
she wanted to take with her in the car and made her way down to it.
The garage took up the entire lower level of the underground
compound, its driveway a long ramp that would spit her out of the
ground once its doors had been opened by remote.
The further in the ground she was, the safer
she felt. As Victor had already surmised, she too doubted any
eaters could pick up her scent this far into the earth’s belly.
Still, she was taking no chances. Her movements remained quiet and
deliberate.
While the vehicle was not state-of-the-art,
it was one of the fastest moving electric cars on the market. Or
what had been the market when the world had all but ended. She
opened the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel, careful to
close the door softly. As promised, the car was fully charged, a
steady, small, green light on the driver’s panel indicating as
much.
Sighing, she ran her hands through her hair
and stared at nothing. Time travel? Highlanders? Veronica couldn’t
fathom any of it. She supposed that was okay for now. Tonight she
had to concentrate on survival and tomorrow would be much of the
same. She would let herself think about the seemingly impossible
later, when it was safe to.
Her mind wandered back to the reanimated
dead outside. There was no security camera screens to monitor from
down here. She would have to remain alert and vigilant for the
entire six-hour wait. If even one of those things found the door to
the underground ramp, she’d take off in the car like a bat out of
hell and chance driving in the dark.
Veronica hoped it didn’t come to that. The
eaters, she knew, held the advantage in darkness.