Chrono Voyage

Chapter 19: Asylum

Elizabeth’s eyes were filled with tears, she could barely make out the buttons she was pressing on the machine from all those tears. She reached her destination and stood up from the chair walked towards the door and stopped herself for a moment. She remembered the day Benjamin came to her the night when London blacked out, she remembered the time when he saved her from Robert, actually, it has been more than once, then she remembered the way he treated the Roman soldier and the way he calmed down the baby. She couldn’t let him get killed, she had to stop him by all means.

     “Damn it, what a f*****g i***t!” she slapped the machine and sat back down on the console pressing the buttons as fast as possible. The machine appeared again in the outskirts of Rome where Benjamin was heading as he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the machine, the door opened and Elizabeth came out of it.  

     “What do you want?” he asked. “I thought you told me to go f**k myself.”

     “Get in the machine!” said Elizabeth.

     “No,” he kept walking forward.

     “Get in the machine,” she repeated, but it fell on deaf ears as he kept his pace forward until Elizabeth pulled out the gun from her back, pointed it at Benjamin, and c****d it. “Stop!” she yelled. Benjamin heard the c*****g of the gun and had no other option but to stop, he knew that she was being serious, she wanted to punch him so shooting him would be by far an easier task to do. “Get in,” she pointed toward the machine with the gun.

     “If you are not gonna help me, then you are going to have to shoot me,” he raised his hands, but it was futile Elizabeth didn’t even blink an eye when she pulled the trigger.

     “Argh!!!” Benjamin fell to the ground in pain, he sprang his head in shock searching to where the wound was, luckily it was on his leg and it didn’t bleed much so he knew it didn’t hit any artery, either Elizabeth is a good shot or a bad one, either way, it hurt like hell, he stood up and limped in circles.

     “I can’t believe you f*****g shot me!” he screamed in pain.

     “You asked for it, now get in,” she pointed the gun at him.

     “Elizabeth…” he looked at her. “I’ve told you already, I’d rather die, so I guess you better aim for a fatal shot,” he barely spoke out the sentence when Elizabeth pulled the trigger again as the shot echoed across the valley and Benjamin fell to the ground again. “f**k!!!” he screamed in pain, this time it was the shoulder that was bleeding, but again not a serious wound, this time he tried getting up but strength deserted him and just fell flat on his face. Elizabeth walked up to him and kneeled.

     “You know, after traveling a while you pick up a few things, such as shooting, you meet different doctors, they might just teach you how to bring down a man without killing him. Now listen to me carefully. I could wait till you pass out from blood loss and I would carry you myself to the machine, or you could save us both the trouble and get inside where I can treat you, it’s your choice.”   

     “Help me!” Benjamin tried getting up but couldn’t, Elizabeth gave her arm as he grabbed her and pulled him up, he wrapped his hand around Elizabeth for support as she held him firmly leading him towards the machine. He launched himself on the chair wincing from the pain, Elizabeth opened the first aid cabinet and pulled out some gauze and alcohol. She sprayed a bit of alcohol on the gauze and applied it to the wound.

     “Damn! What the hell is this!?” screamed Benjamin.

     “Calm down! It’s just alcohol.”

     “I told you… Germ theory is… is a…” he barely spoke out the words as he passed out. If he could only know how many lives germ theory will save, but maybe one day he will realize. Elizabeth patched him up and walked towards the console before she turned to Benjamin.

      “What am I going to do with you?” she asked herself as she sat down on the other chair and pressed the buttons again setting the new destination.