Race Through Time

Chapter 3: Another Set Back

    Johnathan and Kara were walking back toward the nearest town when the black sedan pulled up behind them. They broke into a run, but another sedan had come from around the corner in front of them. Kara and Johnathan turned left and ran, but soon found themselves trapped in a dead end. Johnathan looked at the cars that were sealing them in. Then he looked up and saw that with his help Kara could get over the wall and escape. He looked at his daughter and saw that she was preparing for battle.

    “Kara, come here and let me boost you,” Johnathan motioned her over. She looked at his beckoning hand, then looked the situation over as he had and realized his plan. Kara then backed away shaking her head.

    “NO! I’m not leaving you! You can’t take on all these men by yourself!” Kara turned her back to Johnathan and once again prepared to face the immediate threat. Johnathan grabbed her and tried to toss her over the wall.

    “This…is...your…mission…Kara!” Johnathan fought against Kara’s struggles as he continued trying to toss her over the wall. “You have to finish this, and you don’t have time for this battle! The outcome of this fight won’t matter because you’ll succeed and none of this would have ever happened! Kara please go! You only have eighteen hours left!” Johnathan had tears in his eyes as Kara finally stopped struggling and grabbed the top of the wall and pulled herself on top of it. She looked down at her father one last time and knew she couldn’t fail. If she did, she’d have lost everything forever.

    Kara turned to face forward. And she slowly eased her way across the top of the wall, and onto the nearby roof. She turned back one last time and saw Jason’s men dragging Johnathan towards the cars. He looked up and met Kara’s eyes, the silent communication for Kara to go was the last thing to pass between father and daughter. Kara turned back around and began her journey through town via the rooftops. When she had reached the end of town, she dropped down and leaned against the wall. She inhaled deeply, trying to center herself and reign in her emotions. She had lost both parents twice, within days of each other and the fate of the world was literally resting on her shoulders.

    ‘Jeez! No pressure or anything!’ Kara thought as she pushed off the wall and turned to walk back into town. She needed supplies and a vehicle, she was going to save the world.

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    “Again, with this time travel nonsense!” Kara stomped her foot in frustration. “You all need your heads checked and thrown in a mental ward!” She turned on her heel to run away again, but Adam grabbed her arm spun her around and kissed her! Kara was too stunned to even react to his movement. Johnathan was shocked as well, so he didn’t notice the ambush coming until it was too late. 

    Men flooded from the trees grabbing Kara and Adam and wrapping ropes around their bodies. Another dozen men came after Johnathan and he fought with every fiber of his being, Kara couldn’t move, her entire body had been trussed up like the Thanksgiving turkey, but she didn’t need her hands. She reached out with her mind and felt for the minds of the men holding her and Adam, when she found them, she convinced them to loosen the ropes and go help Johnathan with his fight. Adam was the first one out of his ropes and he helped Kara wriggle free from her bonds. Then together they savagely attacked the men, Kara with the knives she had “borrowed” from General Wisp when she was in his office and Adam with a broadsword he had apparently brought with him from wherever he’d come from. Kara still refused to believe in time travel.

    “Agent Meyers, how lovely to see you again,” a voice rang out from the trees. The trio of warriors looked at each other and moved at the same time. They all struck down one of the three remaining men and ran for the base camp. Men followed right on their tails and Adam knew they weren’t going to be able to outrun them.

    “Go on without me!” He called as he stopped, turned, and prepared for a fight. 

    “We can’t leave you! You’ll die!” Kara stopped and moved to turn back, but Johnathan grabbed her arm to stop her.

    “Kara, my love,” Adam walked over a placed he hand on her cheek, “go through the vortex. If you complete your mission this timeline with cease to exist and we will be able to be happy together.”

    “But…” Kara hesitated, but the sounds of the men growing closer stopped her.

    “I love you Kara.” Adam whispered to her before he turned around and faced the onslaught of men.

    Johnathan tugged her arm, “C’mon we need to go, now!’ 

    Kara looked at Adam one last time as she finally recognized him. He was her ex-boyfriend from high school! She couldn’t let him down, so she turned and followed Johnathan back to the camp. She kept her head down and fought back tears, she had broken up with Adam because she was scared she’d become too attached and lose him someday. Well she lost him today, but if what they were saying about time travel was true then she might have a chance of getting him back. With that thought in her head Kara looked straight ahead and followed Johnathan towards camp. 

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    As she worked her way through the town, Kara kept a watchful eye out for Jason and his gaggle of goons. She needed to move swiftly, like Johnathan had said, she only had eighteen hours left and she had yet to leave South Dakota. General Wisp had told her he was at the Pentagon, but from Johnathan’s intelligence Wisp had disappeared from the face of the planet and Kara needed all the time she could get to find him.

    The street appeared to be clear, so Kara slipped from the alley and walked swiftly along the sidewalk, until she came to the general store. She ducked inside just as a white sedan rounded to corner into main street. Kara moved swiftly towards the back of the store, looking for another exit in the off chance that she’d been spotted. 

    Once locating an alternate exit Kara looped around towards the front of the store. She still needed supplies after all. Thankfully this was a small town, so the grocery store doubled as a hardware store and it had enough tools to help Kara with her mission. She gathered a pound of nails, some pvc pipe, duct tape, a backpack, and of course a bottle of water and a sandwich and headed to check out. She neared the counter and nearly dropped all her supplies as the door opened and Jason strode in with two goons flanking him. He went to talk to the cashier as the two goons began searching the store for something, most likely her.

    “I know this girl came in here! So, tell me or I’ll kill you!” Jason shouted at the cashier who apparently didn’t seem too pleased with Jason’s impatience.

    ‘Ha! I guess you had to take over the world because on one wanted to be your friend.’ Kara thought as she shoved supplied into the backpack as she made her way towards the rear exit, she had scoped out earlier, but one of the goons stepped in front of her blocking her path. Kara turned to go the other way, but the other goon has blocked that end of the aisle as well.

    “Hey boss! We found her!” the goon that has first stopped Kara called to Jason at the front of the store. He was muscular and fit the perfect goon stereotype. His face had a dragon tattoo that started on his chin and moved to encompass the whole right side of his face and his dark hair was cropped short in a military crew cut. He sneered at Kara and she sneered right back, knowing she could take him as long as she played it smart. She decided to call him Dragon, just so she had something to call him when she pounded his face in.

    “Well, well, well. Look who we have here,” Jason called from behind Kara and she spun around in a low crouch. Jason had snuck up on her while she was studying Dragon. His eyes seemed familiar to Kara, but she couldn’t quite place it. 

    “Jason. I’d say it’s good to see you, but I’d be lying,” Kara sneered. “I hate to disrupt this party, but I have somewhere to be.” Kara lunged for the big goon behind her. He anticipated her attack and dodged. He grabbed her waist as her lunge took her right past him and threw her to the ground. Kara hit the ground and the wind was knocked out of her. As she was struggling to get up and catch her breath, Jason came over and drug her to her feet by her hair. The pain in her scalp was almost blinding as he brought her face close to his.

    “You really thought it would be that easy?” Jason sneered in her face. “Trust me I learned my lesson after our little confrontation we had back at the time vortex.” Jason was so sure of himself. However, he had obviously NOT learned his lesson considering he had a thug holding her and not holding her himself. Kara kept her eyes open, so she didn’t alert Jason to what she was doing, and she opened her mind, search for the minds of those around her. Jason’s mind was shielded, and he was shielding someone else

    Kara attempted to find the mind of the good holding her, but his mind was shielded, so she grasped ahold of the mind of Dragon, who was right behind Jason and made him start attacking Jason, this made Jason lose control of the man holding her, giving Kara the opportunity to take his mind as well. She made him let her go and go join the other goon in the fight against Jason.

    Kara started sneaking her way toward the back door, when suddenly the two goons jumped her. She had been so distracted that Jason was able to break her mental hold on the two goons and turned them back against her. Kara struggled to get out from underneath the two goons, but the combined weight of the two goons was too much for her.

    “Like I told you, I learned my lesson.” Jason kneeled in front of Kara and gloated. Kara tried her last trick. She closed her eyes and reached out her mind. The small finger reached for Jason’s guarded mind and as expected it reached a solid steel boundary, she slowly strengthened the small finger and moved it to encompass the entire outside of the barrier. 

    “Hey boss, are you alright?” one of the goons holding Kara asked. This clued Kara into the fact that her tactics were working, so she pressed on, increasing the pressure against the barrier.  

    Suddenly her own mental defenses were under attack, meaning Jason was splitting his attention. Kara knew from experience that Jason isn’t as skilled as she as when it comes to defending the mind and attacking with it at the same time. Kara too advantage if this slip and pressed even harder on Jason’s mental barrier causing cracks to form in it. The pressure around her own mental barriers began to increase and she new she was running out of time, so she pulled back and her mental finger became a mental wedge as she drove it into a c***k in Jason’s shields. The pressure around her barriers stopped as she broke through Jason’s barriers, she grabbed ahold of his mind and he became her puppet.

    ‘Tell them to get off me and let me go,’ Kara’s voice rang out in Jason’s head.

    “Get off her and release her,” Jason barked Kara’s orders at his goons. They looked questioningly at each other but did as they were ordered. Kara ensured her hold on Jason’s mind was strong and stood up, opening her eyes as she did so.

    ‘Now tell them to go wait for you in the car. You’ll be along shortly,’ Kara once again prodded Jason’s mind. This time he fought back but Kara’s mental prowess was too much for him to overthrow and he once again submitted to her will, letting the orders fall from his lips. 

    ‘I’ll kill you for this Kara Meyers!’ Jason snarled at her with his mind.

    ‘You’ve tried before and you’ve always failed. No matter how hard you try, you’ll always fail. Wanna know why?’ Kara mentally questioned Jason. ‘You’ll always fail because you’re evil and have zero training.’ Kara slammed Jason’s head into the floor, knocking him out. She withdrew from his mind and headed for the back exit and slipped into the back alley.

    “Hello sweetheart!” a female voice came from behind Kara right before something came down on the back of her skull, knocking her out cold.