Time Warp (4 page)

“Sssh “
, replied Carl.

They both heard the sound of a drawer opening, the rustling of papers
. Carl looked at Jan, and silently crept towards the bedroom door, only he stumbled over his shoes. The intruder stopped, a lump appeared in Carl’s throat, and Jan pulled the sheets up to her chin afraid of what was going to happen.

A flash of light shone underneath the bedroom door
, Carl ran towards the light, flung the door open only it was gone, he fumbled for the light switch, stared around the room only there was no one there. He turned to the front door it was closed and locked just as he had left it, some papers were scattered on the floor underneath Jan’s desk, the intruder was gone. Jan crept up behind Carl giving him the fright of his life, ‘Is there anyone there? “She asked.

“No, there is no one. “

“ What
the hell’s going on?“ said Jan, being frighten that someone might have broken into her flat, which seemed almost impossible since she lived on the eighth floor and most of all the front door was still locked?

Jan walked over towards the kitchen and put the kettle on, while Carl wondered round the apartment seeing if anything was missing, being just as puzzled as Jan was.

He found his jacket on the floor, which was not where he had left it. Carl picked it up and noticed the wrapped up object was missing from his jacket pocket. Carl called to Jan only see did not answer, “Jan are you there “, Carl called again.

The room was silent; Carl’s heart began to beat fast, the only room he
had not checked out was the kitchen.

A cold shiver ran down his spine as he headed towards the kitchen door, hoping Jan was ju
st up to one of her usual games, Only he felt something hard hit the back of his head, everything went dark as he fell to the floor unconscious
.

               
CHAPTER FIVE

                    
sonard

C
arl woke up with a sore head, just to find himself in some kind of a peculiar looking room. The surrounding walls looked as if they were made of an illuminated plastic; there were no light fixtures or windows. The wall panels looked alike making it hard to distinguish where the door was, since there were no handles.

Carl
layback down on what seemed to be a bed, rubbing the back of his head trying to recall what had happened and where he was. There was a swooshing sound of a door opening, Carl turned around and there stood a huge body of a man wearing a black suit, his shoulders were wider than the doors themselves.

The man stood there with his arms folded in front of him, it almost reminded Carl of a Mafia movie he had seen; only this was no movie.

“Would you follow me please sir!
“, Said the man standing near the doorway.

Carl could hardly stand up and struggled to get ont
o his feet, “where we are going “, he asked. The man did not answer his question, only he instructed Carl to move on.

They descended along a series of corridors, several people could be seen scurrying around, going about their business
. As Carl walked further along he came across what looked like a laboratory, which had large glass windows enabling the people on the outside to see what was going on, just as if the people inside were being monitored. A woman wearing a white overall accidentally bumped into Carl, dropping whatever she was carrying on the floor. Carl stared at the woman for a while, his head still spinning around from the blow he had received last night.

“It’s all righ
t, you will be ok”, she whispered. Carl looked confused; he still did not know where he was or how he had got here. He lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck trying to ease the pain, and noticed he had a small scab just below his hairline. He figured he must have scratched himself on something when he fell to the floor in Jan’s apartment. Carl continued walking until finally they stopped in front of an open door way. Carl looked inside and there stood Jan; she turned towards Carl and ran towards him being glad to see she was not on her own.

“Where are we
? And what the hell is going on?” asked Jan.

“I don’t know, just stay calm.”

“Stay calm! Are you mad! We have just been abducted from our flat and you say be calm!” replied Jan. They were interrupted as the door swooshed open again, and a white haired, smart, elderly Gentleman entered the room, where he sat down at the opposite side of a large table.“ I do apologize for the in-convenience; please take a seat “, he said

“Inconvenience
is not the word, it’s more like kidnapping? “ Replied Jan

“Yes you have a point
! Nevertheless, if I were to have asked you, would you have accepted my invitation? “Replied the elderly man

“Now
please take a seat and let me explain“. Carl and Jan sat close to one another around the large oval table, in the center of the table was a triangular shaped glass, plate embedded within the structure. Carl, glances over towards the elderly man, somehow he looked very familiar. The gentlemen leaned over towards Carl and introduce himself, offering Carl his hand, “My name is Sonard I am please to meet you “

Carl held out his hand
when Sonard noticed the puncher wound on his palm, turning towards Jan he noticed she also bared the same mark. “It seems you have discovered the secrets of our data, storage device?” asked Sonard.

“You mean that object belongs to you?” asked Carl.

“Yes! It was as you might say stolen, from our facility some years ago “, replied Sonard.

”
So this is what this is all about, if you had asked we would have gladly returned that stupid thing “, said Jan feeling rather pissed off. Sonard turned towards Jan, the clothes she was wearing were not she own, and he could tell that she felt very uncomfortable in them. Sonard realized from her fidgeting that she was scared, frightened after being sedated, dragged from her home. In some way it reminded her of the images she had seen when alien beings, were experimenting on sedating apes, Jan felt as if Sonard was doing exactly the same thing with them.

“So you have also seen the tapes?” said Sonard.

“Yes! It is a bit farfetched “, answered Jan. “Farfetched as it may seem it is the truth“. 

“So tell me if it is true
, why all this nonsense about creating a new species, surely you can’t expect anyone to believe that you created man? “ Asked Carl

Sonard was silent for a while; not wanting to reveal more than he had to, but on the other
hand, he also realized he needed Carl’s help to track another device he and his people had been searching.

Carl kept on staring at Sonard, his face looked very familiar, Jan r
ealized the man in front of her was the same man they had seen on the projected images, she leaned over to Carl and whispered into his ear, “ Carl it’s him “, she said.

“Who “asked Carl? “

Sonard is the man on that tape we
saw last night “, replied Jan.

Carl stared at Sonard, Jan
was right, but how could it be unless the tape was a fake after all. “The tape, It’s a fake isn’t it”, Said Carl.

“What makes you say that?”

“Because if these events really took place thousands of years ago, how come your face is in the recordings.”

Sonard hesitated, “Have you ever heard of time travel? “

“Yes! Nevertheless, that is just fiction! And to me, all of this nonsense is ridicules “, answered Carl.

“Why not believe
when you have no proof to confirm what you do not believe in”, said Sonard

“Well that’s exactly what I mean
! Where is your proof confirming what you’re claiming”, replied Carl

“Then sit down and will give you the proof you need, but let me warn you whatever you see or hear
! No one outside this facility will ever believe you. “

“So why tell us then you have what you want
“, said Carl.

“But that’s just the
point; it is not this we are after “, replied Sonard holding the pendent in his hands.

“Then what do you want and what have you brought us here for? “

“All in good time “

The room went quite for while as Jan and Carl had no idea where all of this talk was leading to. They still had no idea where they were or who Sonard really was. Carl had a suspicion that may be they might be some sort of government, secret society or something; still it did not explain anything, As far as they knew they had done nothing wrong, Except somehow managed to operate the small pendent device, that Carl had found over sixteen years ago. Carl was still baffled and was trying to see reason to all of this when the door slid open again. A young woman walks in; carrying what looked like a notebook and a small, plastic case. Her clothes were very smart and
elegant, something that a secretary would wear. Her pencil like skirt had a slit going down one side revealing the contour of her slim, tanned legs. The woman sat down at the head of the table next to Carl; he stared at her admiring her beauty. As she sat down her golden hair fell in front of her face; she quickly pulled it back and tied it into a ponytail. Carl could not take his eyes off her; Jan noticed Carl gorging at the woman and kicked him from underneath the table, Carl in return faced Jan and quickly came to his senses. The old man Sonard introduced the woman; “This is my assistant Maya. “

Carl and Jan nodded their heads towards her, the woman said nothing and continued about her business .She opened the small box she kept at her side and removed a small disk and inserted it into a slot by the side of the table
. A small panel emerged from a concealed compartment. Maya entered a series of digits and at the same time began to speak, “good morning I will be guiding you through a series of events that accrued over a certain period of time, if you have any questions please be free to ask. “

Carl was just about to speak when Jan nudged him; he turned to face her and at the same
time he noticed the glass plate in the center of the table began to glow. A pyramid shaped projector screen began to form in front of them; similar to the one that emerged from inside the locket they had seen the previous evening however, this was more sophisticated. Its pyramid shape meant everyone who sat at the table, had a good view at the images that were about to be screened. Carl and Jan stared at the pyramid as it became blackened, a small ball shape appeared similar to the one they had seen before, the image slowly started to enlarge, then Maya began her speech, “What you see before you is planet Earth how it looked when we arrived.”

“Hold on, “said Carl.

“Yes “, answered Maya

“What do you mean
when you arrived?” 

“That’s exactly what I mean,
when we discovered your planet “, answered Maya

Carl laughs, the thought of alien invaders was ridicules, and Carl was not ready to buy any of this bullshit. Jan nudged Carl again, “will
you shut up and just play along”, said Jan.

“You can’t expe
ct me to believe this nonsense”, whispered Carl.

“You don’t have to believe it, just remember who
the captive here is”, Jan, said.

Sonard smiled at Jan
since he noticed she was the diplomatic type, far more then Carl was. “Shall I continue? “, Asked Maya

Carl nodded to confirm his response.

The images reappeared on the screen and Maya began to speak again, “As I was saying when we arrived on your planet things were not like they are today as you can see for your selves. “

Carl looked at the screen, there before him stood a barren land, deserted, everything stood in rui
ns complete cities lay in ruble“, what has happened here?“ asked Carl.

“This Carl is the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, your planet had gone to war for the very last time destroying everything in the process, we only found small groups of survivors, with no food or uncontaminated water to drink, and they didn’t stand a chance of surviving. As you can see on the screen, the snowstorms that appear around the globe are the result of nuclear fallout, meaning the survivor’s days were numbered “, answered Maya

“
So what year was all of this supposed to have happened?” asked Carl

“According to your calendar dates that would put it around 15 years from now, that’s the same
year we arrived on your planet”, replied Maya.

Carl stared over to Jan;
somehow, the dates must be wrong because they were still in the beginning of the year 2004 AD Carl just played along as Jan had instructed him to, in fear of what might become of them. Sonard and his people might belong to some cult that took alien species, that are supposed to live outside are world seriously, and they might not take any aggravation or intimidation lightly.

“Then how come it’s not like that now?
“ Asked Carl, knowing all of this nonsense was ridiculous. “That’s because to stop the destruction of your planet we embarked on a mission, to save mankind and his planet “, said Sonard