Chrono Voyage

Chapter 4: Monte Carlo

     Elizabeth woke up in Benjamin`s guest room all confused and shook as she stretched around the room and walked toward the window. She looked out the window and saw the bright sun and the clear blue sky amidst the distant skyscrapers that were really tall and nothing else different about them, you know like the red flags with the triangle symbol that covered almost every skyscraper in New York and the same symbol that the pedestrians wore on their left hand. You know typical everyday New York.                                                                                        

     “What a fine day,” she thought as she grabbed the handle of the wooden white door and came out of the room continuing down the wooden stairs.

     “Morning.”                                                                                                                

     “Good morning, did you sleep well?” Benjamin asked her as he took a sip from his coffee and resumed eating his bacon with an omelet.                                              

     “Well enough,” she walked toward the table sat on it across Benjamin.             

     “So, how about that walk today? It`s sunny.”                                                                                                       

     “Sure,” Benjamin sprang up as he nodded and stared at her.                                                    

     “Are you okay?” she asked him.                                                                                              

     “Yeah” he answered quietly. “You?”                                                                                       

     “I`ve had worst days than yesterday,” she nodded as she took a bite from the toast. “Man I am hungry.”                                                                                                     

     “Well you skipped dinner yesterday,” smiled Benjamin. “Didn`t wanna wake you up you seemed tired.”                                                                                                               

     “All fine and energetic now eh,” she had much enthusiasm in her voice. “Are you gonna…?” she pointed at his plate that wasn`t finished yet.                                        

     “Eat away,” he smiled as he handed her his plate. He starred at her as she devoured the food and thought to himself. “What more would happen?” they only knew each other a day or two and they have literally been to the end of the world and back, twice mind you!                                                                                             

     “Hello…” Elizabeth snapped her fingers in front of his face as he zoned back into reality and smiled but then changed his expression as he looked at Elizabeth`s red armband, but he didn`t put much thought into it, thinking it could be something that she does every day, Elizabeth was weird like that sometimes, but was she truly? Or perhaps there`s something else at play here?

     They finished breakfast as Benjamin dressed formally like a fine regent gentleman he was, but Elizabeth didn`t really have any clothes apart from those she`s been wearing since the ball and they were quite dirty and smelled, even she hated herself she couldn't wait to get new clothes. Benjamin left his apartment as Elizabeth followed right behind him.                                                                                                       

     They walked down the boulevard and had a little chat Elizabeth was telling her wild stories of her time traveling adventures and risky things she did while in contrast, Benjamin lived the opposite safe life surrounded by books. So for those who are reading this and thinking. “Woah… The two of them are gonna fall in love.” And I can assure you that won`t be the case, they never ever will fall in love. They entered the boutique that left a good impression on Elizabeth, she doesn`t really care about clothes or other girly stuff she always wore clothes worthy of a real inventor or explained in one word she really adored the steampunk fashion. But this it was different, she was different, perhaps a change of climate and scenery made her different. As Benjamin waited for Elizabeth to change he paced around the boutique as he looked at a piece of clothing or two maybe it wouldn`t be a bad idea if here were to buy something new, but on the opposite, he had enough clothes that he knew what to do with.                                                  

     “Someday huh?” a ginger boy stood next to Benjamin.                                                   

     “Umm… It`s just starting…” Benjamin was confused as to what he was asked.         

     “Well for me it seems like an eternity,” said the boy. “That`s a nice watch, sir.” 

     “Thanks.”                                                                                                                                      

     “First time coming here?”                                                                                                         

     “No I live nearby,” Benjamin made a gesture with his thumb. “What about you?”

     “Oh… I am far from here and everything…” the boy froze.                                                 

     “Is that so? What brings you here to New York?”                                                                 

     “Visiting a dear person of mine,” smiled the boy. “I`m sorry I won`t take much more of your… shall I say time,” smiled the boy.                                                                   

     “No it`s…” before Benjamin could finish the boy left as Benjamin was watching it walk away. He looked at his watch at 9:00 am as he lowered his arm and sighed, he was getting impatient with Elizabeth he looked outside the window out on the street. “What?” he asked himself, he walked closer to the window still couldn`t believe his eyes the people and the carts moved faster than normal, the clouds and the sun moved faster, he rubbed his eyes and opened them and… Everything seemed to be normal again as he looked around the boutique, he was really confused as to what just happened.        

     “Hello can I help you?” asked the cashier who was wearing a red armband on her left-hand muscle, a red armband with a white circle in the middle, and a black triangle inside the circle.                                                                                            

     “What?” he starred at the armband as he looked at his watch again at 9:30 am.

     “How is this possible?” he started hyperventilating.                                                            

     “Are you okay sir?” asked the girl.                                                                                            

     “What do you think?” Elizabeth came out of the dressing closet wearing brown jeans with a white shirt and a brown coat with black leather boots that stretched just below her knees and a red bowtie, clothes worthy of a real inventor, but apart from that she also had the red armband on her hand.

     Benjamin came out of the store and took a deep breath                              

     “What`s going on? Why did you storm out like that?” Elizabeth followed him.                                                                                                                         

     “Where did you get this?” he grabbed her arm.                                                      

     “Well I just did,” Elizabeth thought he was talking about the new clothes.

     “No…the armband.”                                                                                                       

     “I`ve been wearing it my whole life like everybody else, I am a proud servant of The Prophet.”                                                                                                                         

     “The Prophet? What is that? Who is he?”                                                            

     “What do you mean who is he?” Elizabeth was confused. “Benjamin have you been living under a rock, mate?” she asked.                                                              

     “This is not normal it never was, Hey! What year is it?” he ran up at a random bypasser.                                                                                                                                    

     “Um… eighteen-eighty,” answered the man.                                                         

     “What?” Benjamin could not believe it as he turned toward the statue of liberty. “What the f**k?”                                                                                                              

     “What?” asked Elizabeth as she looked at the statue as well.                               

     “That thing wasn`t there, not yet at least.”                                                            

     “What do you mean, the French gave it to you, it`s been there for a century,”                                                                                                                        

     “Is this one of your time travel tricks?” Benjamin turned toward her.                                     

     “Time travel, I`ve never time traveled and such a thing does not exist…” Elizabeth went deep into her thoughts and memories as she paused for a while. “What`s going on Benjamin?” she asked.                         

     “I don`t know,” he stroked his forehead. “Elizabeth half an hour passed just like that,” he snapped his fingers. “And nobody seems to be noticing or perhaps ask as to why that happened!” he was the only one freaking out. He looked across the lamp posts the buildings the people that were just passing all of them they all had the same flag.                                                                                                     

     “Either America elected a new government or something bigger is going on,” said Elizabeth.                                                                                                                          

     “Come with me!” Benjamin grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down the sidewalk.                                                                                                                     

     “What are you doing let go of me!” he was hurting her.

     Nevertheless, they made it inside Benjamin`s apartment as he led her directly into his study where everything was the same as it was last night, the books all over the floor with dust all over them, and the golden spherical machine. Benjamin opened the door and fired it up.                                                              

     “Blimey! what is that?” Elizabeth was shocked as she forgot her own invention.                         

     “It`s the time machine, Elizabeth what`s going on? Why are you losing your memory?” asked Benjamin as she stood frozen.                                                              

     “Benjamin!” she yelled with panic in her voice. “How did we get here?” she looked around and finally some of her memories were coming back to her. “What`s going on?” she asked calmly.                   

     “I don`t know, but we need to find out,” he looked at her and held out his hand from inside the machine waiting for Elizabeth to accept it. “Look… there`s something really wrong with time and we need to fix it,” Benjamin was really desperate as Elizabeth just accepted his hand as she entered and closed the door shut. Benjamin did what he remembered from Elizabeth how to operate the machine from the two trips that she took him on.                                                                                                              

     “Strap on!” he warned. “I am not very experienced on this, in fact, I don`t have any experience.”                                                                                                                    

     “You what mate!!!?” Elizabeth panicked but it was late as Benjamin entered the coordinates as the machine disappeared from his study and appeared to be going through a tunnel of photographs showing important events of history, the pictures just appearing and disappearing past them until finally, a picture showed up in front of the machine headed on a collision course, but it grew larger and larger until the machine just popped inside the picture and everything came to life.

     London 1881 Westminster Bridge across the Big Ben, that`s where they landed.                                                                                                                           

     “London?” asked Elizabeth as she stepped out of the machine and looked around approaching a lamppost that had her portrait attached. “Wanted?” she tore it off. “Benjamin what is going on?” asked Elizabeth.                                                                

     “Are you coming to your senses?”                                                                            

     “What senses? What are you talking about? How did we find ourselves in London when minutes ago we were in New York?” she was really confused.                                                                                                                         

     “How could this be happening?” he was losing his nerves, he really thought just by bringing Elizabeth back to London she would regain her memory but it wasn`t the case, he was just about to give up.      

     “What the f**k is that?” asked Elizabeth as she looked at the Big Ben being covered with the same flag that she wore as an armband. “That wasn`t there before,” she turned toward Benjamin.                     

     “Finally!” Benjamin was not alone, he wasn`t the crazy one any more. “Do you remember?”                                                                                                                         

     “Oh…” Elizabeth stroked her forehead. “It`s coming back to me,” she looked at him.

     They parked the machine nearby and walked up into a tight cobblestone alley as Elizabeth opened a wooden door and entered inside a pub they went and sat down at a table ordering two drinks. Elizabeth sat down and removed the armband and inspected it up close.                                                                                                       

     “What do you remember about it?” asked Benjamin.                                                      

     “It has as meaning, the sides of the triangle represent three things: Harmony, Prosperity and Safety. The white circle is sort of like a light where its diameter goes around the triangle protecting it like The Prophet, and the black background would probably be all of the evil things that try to harm us,” explained Elizabeth.                                                                                                              

     “The triangle is humanity itself,” Benjamin concluded. “But the circle, who is The Prophet?” he asked.                                                                                                              

     “It`s been this figure that keeps showing up through history, helping people, it`s why this alternate timeline is so advanced and it`s why the Statue of Liberty was built ahead of its time.”                                                                                                       

     “So this prophet, whoever he or she is, it`s helping us be more advanced and smart?” Benjamin was trying to understand was his point.                       

     “And in return, we praise him, whoever he or she is, it`s the point is not helping humanity but praise, it`s someone who is looking for glory no matter the cost,” said Elizabeth. “Except it did a mistake.”                                                                  

     “What?”                                                                                                                             

     “The bubonic plague, it never happened, it cured it all of Europe survived.”                                                                                                                          

     “And that`s a bad thing?”                                                                                                              

     “It is, many have died because of overpopulation, and now he has these rituals across time killing off people ‘for sacrifice’ or so it says.”                                           

     “Alright then, but why did it advance us so much?”                                                            

     “I don`t know…” she said slowly as she looked away.                                                           

     “You are a time traveler, you could go wherever you want, have whatever you need… In that case, what would you need?” Benjamin set up a scenario for Elizabeth to think about.                                                                                                          

     “Okay, so your natural life is not affected by the time you cant go back in time and become a baby again.”                                                                                                                

     “Right so that`s a start…” encouraged Benjamin.                                                                  

     “My only concern was that I won`t live long enough to see everything worthy of seeing across time,” Elizabeth looked up dramatically. “It wants the technology! Since there is overpopulation we haven`t yet achieved the technology to be multi-planetary species, which means no robots yet.”                                                                                                                    

     “Robots?”                                                                                                                           

     “Robots are these, people made out of metal, indestructible, smarter, and more advanced. Holy s**t” realized Elizabeth.                                                                    

     “What?”                                                                                                                             

     “The Prophet advanced technology just so we can research robots faster and he will transfer consciousness.”                                                                                                                

     “If these robots are what you say they are, then he is looking for the philosopher`s stone.”                                                                                                   

     “Quite so…robotic body, immortality elixir they are all the same, eternal life, it is the bloody prophet inside an indestructible body, who will stand up to it, who would dare cross its path.”                                                                                               

     “Reign over everything,” realized Benjamin as he took a sip from his drink.

     “How do we stop it?”                                                                                                                          

     “I think it`s simple, we need to create a problem in history and if we alter the timeline it`s bound to show up and fix it, right?” Elizabeth wasn`t so sure.     “Whoever it is I must have met it, stole my technology, and planted this new timeline into everybody even me. It even succeeded to wipe my memory.”                                                                                

     “Except it didn`t account for me,” added Benjamin. “But how can it be? I am just the same as everybody else.”                                                                                         

     “Except you, time traveled,” Elizabeth looked at confused Benjamin.              

     “What does that have to do with anything?”                                                     

     “Maybe it does, you`ve seen what time used to be and now you`ve noticed the change, you carried the information about the previous timeline with you, the original timeline, only by wiping your memory you will lose the information and get accustomed to this new timeline,” said Elizabeth as Benjamin could not wrap his head around any of it, nobody could even Elizabeth isn`t really convinced, but she needs an explanation any kind It does not matter whether it`s stupid or not. “And whoever wiped my memory, must have thought that I was the only one who traveled through time, that somebody didn`t know about you, it didn`t know you carried the information. And we should keep it that way for now.”

     “Could it be the rude man that was in your apartment?” asked Benjamin.

     “Robert? No… he knows of you now, he would have wiped your memory too, it`s someone else, but who?”

     “Be cool,” Benjamin took a sip from his drink as he saw the two policemen that entered the bar and started snooping around. Elizabeth and Benjamin covered their faces with their palms as the policemen approached them and moved Elizabeth`s palm away from her face with the batton.                                                        

     “Excuse me Ma`m it has come to my attention that you are not wearing the armband of our great savior The Prophet,” said the policeman as he looked at Benjamin. “And it would seem that both of you do not wear the armband.”             

     “I forgot mine at home,” smiled Benjamin.                                                                           

     “So sorry but it`s tight had to let some of the blood go to my brain,” said Elizabeth as she put on the armband in her hand.                                                                                                                    

     “Do I know you from somewhere?”                                                                                

     “No I don`t think so,” answered Elizabeth.                                                                 

     “No… I do know you,” he leaned in. “You are from one them posters,” he stared at her as he immediately got punched in the face by Benjamin knocking him on the ground.                                                                                                         

     “Come on!” Benjamin gave Elizabeth his arm as she took it and ran outside, the other policeman that was conscious started chasing after them and sounded the whistle alerting everybody in the area and the nearby fellow colleagues.                                                                                              

     “Have you gone bonkers?” Elizabeth asked him as they entered the machine. “Attacking a constable like that?”                                                                               

     “Would you rather get arrested?” he asked as he sat down and helped Elizabeth with the controls.

     The machine went through the same phase again the tunnel with the pictures as one picture grew larger and larger swallowing the machine as it entered inside the picture bringing everything to life.                                                            

     “Where are we?” asked Benjamin as he stepped out.                                               

     “It made a utopia,” Elizabeth looked around. “Come on we`ve got to investigate.”  Both of them hid the machine with branches and leaves and came out of the forest in the nearby city.                                                                             

     “Look,” Elizabeth pointed toward the futuristic city that was on the coast of the Ligurian Sea that had flying cars above it and around it, tall white skyscrapers, and a clean atmosphere.

     “It`s nice…” concluded Benjamin.                                                                              

     “Come on,” Elizabeth started walking toward the futuristic Monte Carlo.

     They moved down through the famous Grand Prix de Monaco ‘Boulevard Albert 1er,’ gazing left and right.                                                                            

     “What are you looking for?” Benjamin asked.                                                          

     “Everything…” Elizabeth kept looking left and right. “Look, the flags and the armbands, they are gone,” she told him as he looked around the buildings and the people that were walking, nothing… Elizabeth was right no flags, no armbands.                                                                                                                           

     “Does this mean everything is back to normal?” asked Benjamin. “Well…” he scoffed. “It turned out easier than I thought it would be.”                                                

     “I don`t think so,” Elizabeth walked to a lamp-post and approached a poster with the flag on it and some words written beside it. “Propaganda,” she concluded as they looked at each other.