Chrono Voyage

Chapter 8: Bubonic Plague

     “Hold it there,” a royal guard pushed back Robert who wanted to enter the royal hall of the queen.

     “I am on state business, and unless you want to have problems with the queen herself I suggest you move out of the way,” Robert looked angrily at the guard but he just stood motionless and stared at one spot. “Are you soft in the ears mate? I demand you let me in at once!” he raised his tone deliberately so that the queen would be annoyed and it worked as she opened the door.

     “What the bloody hell is happening?” she looked outside at the guard who was in his position not letting Detective Woodward inside. “Robert…” Victoria inspected him from head to toes. “I trust you bring good news concerning our pesky inventor?”

     “Not quite, my queen,” he didn`t want to disappoint but this time they slipped, they were right in front of his nose and they escaped. The queen told the guard that it's okay and they let him inside so they can talk and no one would eavesdrop on their conversation.

     “What happened?” the queen asked.

     “She is resourceful…” spoke Robert.

     “So she escaped?” she was direct.

     Robert starred at her not quite wanting to admit that. “Yes…” he paced around the hall. “There was this contraption…” he looked at the floor.

     “Contraption?” the queen was intrigued now.

     “Yes, and she had a partner an American from what I could gather, she may be working with them.”

     “About the contraption Robert, what happened? What was it?”

     “It was sort like a golden coated sphere, and had two metallic legs screwed into it, around the door that was pretty much it,” he finished.

     “What made it so special?”

     “Well… as soon as she and her partner stepped into it…” he stopped.

     “What?”

     “It disappeared, as it was never there before, and Elizabeth disappeared along with it.”

     “Disappeared? Robert… do you know how bloody ridiculous you sound? My men have advised me that you are the best suited for the task, they didn`t tell me I selected a lunatic.”

     “My queen he is telling the truth,” said a female voice from behind, she came out of nowhere as if she came from behind the curtains, but impossible the guards would have seen her, how did she sneak inside?

     “Who are you!? Guards!?” the queen panicked.

     “That won`t be necessary,” she walked towards the queen and Robert. “Queen Victoria it is such an honor,” she bowed before her and sprang back up.

     “That`s rather enough!” Robert pulled out the flint pistol and pointed it at the girl.

     “I am not the enemy,” she looked at him. “I am just merely here to offer you tools so that you would be able to chase after Elizabeth. Whoever that girl was her British accent was good and her clothes were exceptionally worthy of meeting the queen herself. “No worries, I don’t carry any firearms nor I am a spy, I am from London except a much distant time.”

     “Distant time? What are you talking about?” Robert c****d the pistol.

     “You can`t shoot me, after all, I am the only one that can give you Elizabeth and her companion,” the girl looked at Victoria.

     “What`s in it for you?” asked the queen.

     “Elizabeth should have been contained, and we succeeded, but her companion showed up out of nowhere, we didn`t calculate for him, and ever since they have been a thorn in our eye.” 

     “Your companion? Who are you in the first place?” asked Victoria.

     “My name is… Ivy Nguyen,” she smiled and squinted her Asian eyes. “I can give you Elizabeth,” she looked at Robert.

●●●

    “Where are we going?” asked Benjamin as he looked into the dark abyss of what the tunnel of time was.

     “Here…” said Elizabeth as she steered the machine towards a picture of Sicily in the year 1147. The machine entered the picture and everything came to life, the busy people never bothered noticing the machine as it appeared out of nowhere, besides they had more important things to accomplish. “Messina port,” Elizabeth came out of the machine and looked around at the wooden ships that stood dormant and the people around the cobblestone pavement, fisherman and other merchants chanting aloud promoting their goods.

     “What are we doing here?” Benjamin also came out of the machine.

     “To bring back the bubonic plague, silly,” Elizabeth looked at him.

     “Bring back the plague?” Benjamin couldn`t believe what he was hearing. “What year is this?”

     “Eleven forty-seven,” replied Elizabeth.

     “The plague won't happen for another two hundred years,” he looked at her.

     “Yes, it will,” Elizabeth pulled out two objects that looked like vials from the time machine. “Here,” she showed him a vial that had flees infected with Yersinia pestis. “We can`t wait for two hundred years, because as you know the Prophet will cure it and by two hundred years, humans will be advanced enough to cure it themselves, as you know New York was advanced ahead of his time, and that applies to everything.”

     “Elizabeth…” he pulled her aside. “Think about what you are doing… Do you know how many people have died because of the plague? We nearly went extinct, Look at them,” he turned his gaze at the crowd. “Six out of ten people will die, that`s a monstrosity, you are not a killer Elizabeth what are you doing?” 

     “I`m sorry Benjamin, it`s not ethical in every way that you look at it, but the things that the Prophet is going to do will be far worse, he has already condemned these people to doom, and dying from a plague would be mercy.”

     “These people? Elizabeth, they are going to die in fifty years or so…”

     “The future generations are going to serve the Prophet if we don`t stop him, you`ve seen it yourself, the cult, the flags… They sacrifice people just for sport Benjamin. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, thus this sacrifice must be done.”

     “There must be other ways we can affect the timeline.”

     “No, this is one of the most important events in history, this event has affected a lot and surely changed the course of our civilization in ways we can only speculate. I don`t want to do this…” she looked at Benjamin. “I wish I was able to prevent it, and if we don`t do anything the future is going to be a lot worse. Many will die of poverty if not for the plague,” Benjamin just looked at her and there was nothing he could do. He didn`t sign up for this, he never wanted this, nobody ever did want this. What Elizabeth was about to do was beyond his capabilities to comprehend, she was about to unleash the devil on the face of the Earth.

     “I`m sorry…” she looked at the people and threw the vial on the ground as it broke from the impact, the flees inside started jumping around on the pavement before attaching themselves to mice or people.

     “All we can ask is forgiveness now isn`t that right?” Benjamin looked at the broken vial on the ground. “And hope that they will understand why we had to do this.”

     “Let`s go,” Elizabeth`s face was sour and pale, she turned around and walked toward the machine not expressing any emotion. Winds began picking up and the sky turned dark, the ocean water splashed hard on the harbor and each wave was more and more intense, the boats rocked in the water and the people started panicking, the easy objects were taken by the wind and blown away, the vendors quickly closed their shops and covered their goods as quickly as possible, a storm was coming.

     “That`s unusual,” said Benjamin as he looked at the sky. “Look,” he pointed upwards. A giant whirlwind was forming in the sky with great speed and lightning bolts all around it.

     Elizabeth looked at Benjamin, she was spooked and couldn`t catch her breath. “That isn`t supposed to happen,” she spoke.

     “What?” the whirlwind wasn`t forming a tornado nor was it moving in their direction, except in the middle a bright light was intensifying until it became impossible to stare at, and then a giant lightning bolt struck from the middle into the sea. Nobody could have handled the luminosity and they looked away. The light was becoming less intense but in the middle, there was a dark silhouette floating. It had an angelic form, gold-plated armor all over its body and red mechanical wings, red glowing eyes, and a blue glowing sword. The people chanted in Latin, ‘Prophetam!!! Prophetia!!!’ they knew who that was and so did Benjamin and Elizabeth, you don`t have to be very good at Latin to translate that by yourself. “It`s him,” said Benjamin as the angelic figure flew towards the harbor and landed as superheroes land, with his right knee touching the pavement and the fist slamming it, he stood up from the ground in slow motion as you would expect from someone who is making a dramatic entrance. The Prophet looked around and saw Elizabeth, but the man standing next to her, who could that be? The Prophet remembered that he had seen that man somewhere before, just couldn`t put his finger on it. His eyes were scorching red and walked towards them with his metallic gold plated I guess you could call them shoes.

     “Those look uncomfortable,” said Benjamin under his nose.

     “Shut it!” Elizabeth pinched him. “Mister Prophet such an honor to meet you, I`ve heard so much about you,” the whole figure of the Prophet was covered in the golden armor even his hair from the back was covered by a golden helmet whose eyes were glowing red, the wings contracted in and out of the armor at his command a work of a genius indeed. On the left side of the chest plate, it had the symbol engraved the same symbol from the flags. The triangle inside of a circle inside of a rectangle. The Prophet just stood still and looked at them, you couldn`t tell because of the helmet but he was angry and was rather annoyed of them. “Excellent work with Rasputin, Elizabeth,” he finally spoke with his somewhat robotic voice. “You`ve meddled in my plans, and now it will take me years to revert the damage you`ve caused.”

     “Damage? You are the one that broke time,” she spoke. “Is that right?” she looked at Benjamin. “Broke time? Or should I say Changed the timeline?” but Benjamin just had no idea.

     “Audite me! Audite me!” the Prophet began to speak Latin to the crowd around them, and I could write what he is saying but you wouldn`t understand Latin so I am just going to translate to you what he said. He said to the people to grab Elizabeth and Benjamin and burn them. He accused them of being witches or servants to the devil. Now at this point, you would expect for the people to grab their pitchforks and torches, and yeah they did but before they could find them the others threw whatever vegetable and fruit they could find close to them. Both of them had nowhere to run and the angry mod had them surrounded and tied up their hands. They escorted them towards the square of the city where there was a big pyre of wood stacked just for the occasion. Those pyres were often used when some whack a doodle comes out and says that not everything revolves around the Earth but this is also at the same level of importance as well. They poped the two of them on the pyre and tied their hands to the wooden beam.

     “I don`t suppose you have a solution for this?” asked Benjamin.

     “I actually do,” answered Elizabeth.

     “What?” he looked at her.

     “This is not the first time, I`ve been tied to a pyre.”

     “What!?”

     “I mean you travel around time enough, you pick up a thing or two, now then, reach into my pocket,” Benjamin put his palm inside Elizabeth`s pocket until he felt a cylindric sturdy object.

     “Elizabeth! What am I touching?”

     “Don`t worry it`s a device, pull it out!” Benjamin pulled out the device and it was the same one that Elizabeth brought out from the time machine together with the vial. “Give it here,” he handed it to her. “Close your eyes and whatever you hear don`t open them, Benjamin wasn`t even going to ask any further questions he just closed his eyes and heard a click as Elizabeth activated the device, Benjamin didn`t have the slightest idea what the device was, because as soon as she activated it the crowd started screaming aloud as if their organs were ripped from the inside.

     “What are you doing!” yelled Benjamin but Elizabeth never heard him from the screams, he couldn`t take it anymore, he had to see what was going on and he opened his eyes. A bright light shone on his eyes and then disappeared and then again with the same intensity. “What the hell is that?”

     “It`s a strobing light device, these idiots never seen it before,” answered Elizabeth keeping her eyes closed. “Now pull on the rope.”

     “You are hurting them,” he was worried about them.

     “They are going to be fine… If I was you I would carry about us,” both of them pulled in the opposite direction and tore the rope releasing themselves from the beam. “Let`s go!” Elizabeth jumped from the pyre. “So long,” she tapped one man on the shoulder who was covering his eyes and screaming in pain. “Here,” she pulled up two pairs of sunglasses and handed one to Benjamin.

     “You!” the Prophet pushed through the crowd, his eyes were covered and he wasn`t affected by them strobe, he was slowly making his way towards them.

     “Move! GO!” Benjamin pushed Elizabeth as they blended in the crowd, The Prophet couldn`t find them, but it didn`t take him long to activate his onboard computer or rather on helmet computer and to scan them out amidst the crowd. The computer found them and without hesitation, he moved towards them, Elizabeth noticed that he has a special gadget helping him to pick them out from the crowd, but as she said you travel just enough through time you are bound to learn a thing or two. She turned off the strobe light and flipped the black cylinder upside down as she pressed the button that was on the other side. The device now emitted electromagnetic pulses every second messing up with every electronic device within the radius, not that 12th century Sicily would have any kind of technology, but it seemed to work for the Prophet, his computer shut down and his eyes started glowing red, revealing his real eyes his bright brown eyes who were sinister at the same time.

     “I don`t suppose you know Sicily well enough,” commented Benjamin before Elizabeth led them inside a cobblestone alley.

     “No! But I hope it`s enough to lose him,” they moved left and right through the maze of houses hoping that he couldn`t follow them. “Here,” they entered inside a house whose door was narrowly opened. The darkened sky made it look like that night has fallen over the city. The red glow from the Prophet`s eyes pierced through the mist and his shadow reflected on the walls of the houses, his metallic footsteps you knew doom was coming, he was on a mission, he was patrolling on the streets.

    “We have to get to the time machine before he realizes that he can just wait for us there,” Elizabeth looked at Benjamin.

    “Yeah… he is not very bright is he?” They left their hiding spot and made a run for it through the alleys, orienting themselves by the footsteps that he made making sure that they don`t go that way, they kept their heads down, hearts racing they moved blindly into the mist. The atmosphere was quiet very quiet just the wind blowing, the people were afraid to go out because of those clouds they`ve never seen anything like it, it`s not everyday whirlwind forms over Sicily, Elizabeth sat down on the cobblestone and removed her shoes, Benjamin looked at her strangely just what is she doing now? She pointed at his shoes as well and realized that the heels would make a sound on the cobblestone, he took them off and tied the laces of the shoes to each other before attaching them to his neck, they kept moving, but where did they move? They had no idea, wherever you turned there was mist and walls of the houses and the dark alleys, Elizabeth peeked through a corner as she spread out her hand to stop Benjamin behind her. “Alright come on…” she whispered.

     “Woah…” panicked Benjamin as a black cat ran across the houses, he leaned himself on a wall and sat down, he placed his hand on his chest his heart was racing and couldn`t take it anymore, he was going to get a heart attack.

     “What are you doing mate…” Elizabeth crawled to him. “Pick yourself up,” she helped him get up. They managed to get out on the open square and out of the maze, Benjamin stopped to take a breath. “Come on we`ve got to move!”

     “Just a second,” he placed his hand onto something that stood near the wall of a house, little did he know it was just an empty ceramic vase. He knocked it over breaking it on the cobblestone. Both of them looked at each other with panic in their eyes. It wasn`t long before the sound waves reached the Prophet, he turned angrily in the direction and picked up his pace. Elizabeth looked upwards at the roofs and the faint red glow moved across the buildings, it wasn`t long now they could hear the metallic footsteps intensifying.

     “GO!” yelled Benjamin as they started running toward the harbor. They panted and breathed fast as they ran, resting up a catching a break wasn`t an option now, they arrived at the long harbor, the machine was dead ahead all they have to do is run towards it, there was just the little matter of the Prophet actually catching up to them. His eyes were scarlet red, the metallic thumping on the ground as hard as ever and the whistles from his armor that blew out steam made it seem as if an angry train was chasing after them, he readied his wings and jumped high into the air floating just above them before hitting the ground and leaving a small crater, he looked at them as they took a few steps back, he pulled out his glowing blue sword and was ready to finish the job, it was the spur of the moment when Elizabeth activated her electromagnetic device and messed up with his system again, he dropped the sword and held his head in pain, Benjamin took the advantage and pushed him on the ground.

     “Come on!” Elizabeth pulled him by his hand and they ran toward the machine, it didn`t take him long to recover, and chased after them again.

     “Hurry up! He is coming!” Elizabeth looked at Benjamin as he was opening the door, they entered inside as Elizabeth activated the console and just used a random destination. The machine went into the tunnel of time but not before a loud thump sounded from the outside and rocked the machine. The Prophet attached himself to the machine and they weren`t even aware of it, he used the strength of the armor and pulled off a panel from the machine revealing the circuitry of it, he didn`t think twice before riping the cables out causing real damage. Elizabeth all of a suddenly lost control of the machine and the lights went out, the machine whirled around the tunnel of time up and down, up and down, the Prophet became nauseated he couldn`t hold onto it any longer, he fell off from the machine and onto the dark walls of the tunnel, what happened to him afterward remained a mystery. But the machine was spinning like crazy now, Elizabeth had no idea what is going on, the systems were dead and she lost full control, she looked out of the window as saw they were approaching into one of the pictures.

    “Hold onto something!” she warned as Benjamin took a firm grip on the leather of the chairs. The machine flew into the picture with full speed, it entered inside its environment and the laws of physics kicked in, it was instantly drawn to the ground due to gravity but it still had speed as it rolled around like a football, leaving a crater behind before it bounced off of a small pebble and hit the ground creating a hole as it finally stopped. Smoke was coming from it, but apart from that not much else. Benjamin pushed the door with his leg and came outside, his clothes were destroyed and his was bleeding all over, Elizabeth wasn`t any lucky either she was in the same state as he was, they looked around them and saw nothing but grass and woods around.