Where the Clocks Run Still

Where the Clocks Run Still

           “We’re close, I can feel it,” Leo said as their footsteps echoed across the factory floor. Leo checked his father’s watch. Sure enough, the hands that had never stopped stood still.

“Where are we?” Alice whispered, gazing at the frozen, robotic arms of the machines with a look of both awe and fright. Leo had almost forgotten that this world was entirely new to her. She did not know what a factory was or what it did, just as she did not know what robots were. To Alice, they were only dark statues of a time that was not her own.

“This is an abandoned factory, Alice,” Leo said, taking her hand and leading her past the rubble and scattered parts that littered the dusty floor. “It was a place where things were made.”

“What kind of things, if you don’t mind me asking?” Alice asked. Leo couldn’t help but smile at her proper English accent, so foreign to what he knew and unnatural to where they were now. She belonged in the streets of Birmingham, not on the edges of the End.

“Well, all sorts of things, really. Clothes, furniture, all sorts of machines. But this one in particular looks to have been an arms-factory.”

“They make muskets here?” Alice whispered. Leo nodded, finding it easier than describing all the new killing machines the world had created. He could feel her hand tighten around his.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asked, turning towards her.

“Oh, nothing,” Alice said as Leo’s eyes met hers. “It’s just that guns always frightened me growing up. I didn’t see anyone get shot, in case you’re wondering. They were just always terribly loud.”

Leo smiled and forced himself to pull away from her shimmering, electric green eyes. They had a fire about them that Leo could not resist. But there was a mission on hand. “Don’t be afraid, Alice,” Leo said with an air of casual bravado. “I’ll keep you safe.” Leo tried to ignore her blushing, but his eyes lingered on her face. The pale moonlight shining in from the factory’s broken windows illuminated the edges of her face, illustrating her ethereal beauty. He wanted to take her in his arms, sliding his hands across her smooth skin. Leo wanted to feel the coolness of her lips and hold her chin up to his. He wanted her to look at him, with her piercing green eyes, and smile. He was caught in a dream or a memory, but he could not tell which.

           A loud crash from somewhere deep in the factories broke Leo from his trance. Alice jumped at the sound, right into his arms. “What was that?” she whispered, her soft hands around his neck.

“I don’t know,” Leo whispered back. Alice smelled like honey and flowers. Leo wanted to be her honeybee. As he felt her body against his it became harder and harder for him to stay focused, as the only thing running through his head was her. He could see a little homestead in the country where he would take her, surrounded by fields of golden wheat and babbling streams where salmon swum. He would work a small garden and she’d spend the rest of her days gathering flowers happily in the fields. There would be no past or future, but only the present. It was a wonderful thought. But there was work to be done. “Let’s find out,” Leo said as he turned away from Alice and to the darkness of the factory from which the sound had come.

           It was a long, silent walk into the depths of the factory. The factory was a dark cave, and Leo and Alice descended down the cavern’s musty stairways like inexperienced spelunkers. Leo knew that if they kept going, sooner or later, they would reach the point of no return, with the only option being to go further and further down. They’d be stuck. But Leo did not stop. He knew what waited for him down in the depths of the cave, in the darkest basements of the factory. Leo could not stop because he waited for him. So, he kept going, the only thoughts in his mind being his face and the sound of Alice’s soft, quick footsteps following his. Each step they took echoed into oblivion as they carefully traipsed down the concrete steps.

           Finally, they reached the final floor, the lowest level of the factory, the belly of the cavern. It was cold, so cold that their breath was visible with every exhale they took. Dust and the smell of damp walls and loose copper wires filled Leo’s lungs, and Alice quietly coughed behind him. The two beams of light that shined from Leo and Alice’s flashlights were of little help, the darkness was too thick.

“Stay here by the stairwell,” Leo said to Alice with a glance. He began to continue into the darkness, but was suddenly pulled backwards by the arm.

“You can’t leave me here by myself!” Alice cried, pulling him close to her. Leo could just barely trace the silhouette of her face in the darkness, but he could tell she was scared.

“It’s dangerous in there, I can’t risk you getting hurt.”

“That’s even more reason for me to come!” Alice said, grabbing Leo’s hand in hers. “You’ll need my help in there.”

“You don’t even know what’s in there. There’s things you’ve never seen before and could never imagine,” Leo said.

“That’s never stopped me before,” Alice whispered. Even in the dark Leo found the faintest flash of a mischievous smile across Alice’s face. He wanted to say no, but she was too convincing. “So where to now?” Alice said.

Leo turned towards the singular hallway that laid in front of them. Very dimly, but still there, he could see the faintest glimpse of a purple glow. “In there,” Leo said, pointing to the hallway.

“Then let’s go,” Alice said boldly, and took Leo’s hand. Leo wiped his palms. If only she knew what waited for them. But Leo could not explain.

           They continued down the hallway, the purple light growing brighter until it became like a haze, a fog. Leo’s nose tickled with the smell of electricity. A strange heat seemed to radiate from the walls as they crept closer. Finally, their flashlights flickered across a large door. It was there that the hallway ended. As Leo grasped the round doorknob, the splintering of glass erupted from his wrist.

“What was that?” Alice whispered. Leo flashed his flashlight at his wrist. His father’s watch was shattered to its core. If the purple haze wasn’t proof enough, the watch was. All the clocks run still. Leo turned back to Alice won last time, and then opened the door.

It was an old storage closet. In another life and another time it would’ve been unordinary, unspectacular. But now it was transformed. The room radiated purple light like a nightlight in a dark room. The floor was filled with scattered papers with purple ink scrawled on them, each one reading a different date and time. The air was thick and electrifying, the hair on Leo’s arm stood on end. And at the far end of the closet, sitting at an old desk, with his hands folded neatly, was him.

He looked just like the pictures on his bounty posters. He was a gaunt man, with long, slender arms. His hands and fingers were bony, and the tendons and veins underneath his thin skin bulged. His hair was white and buzzed short. He wore a thick moustache that gave him a stern expression at all times. His eyes were blue like artic waters trapped under glacier ice. His face was worn and wrinkled, but held a boyish youthfulness, as if he was always planning his next trick.

“You finally found me, Private Leonardo. You certainly have kept me waiting, but better late than never,” the old man said with a wry smile. He clapped his hands mockingly.

“You’re a hard man to find, Dr. Booth,” Leo said, positioning himself in front of Alice. “Especially when you can travel through both time and space.”

“Anyone can travel through time and space,” Booth said. “My inventions have made sure of that.” Booth twirled a purple pen in his hands. The ink inside it glowed.

“I’m here to put you under arrest, Booth,” Leo said, pulling out a badge. The badge was a shield, and across it was a pen and a feather.

“On what charges?” Booth said, crossing his arms and leaning back, a smug smile across his face. “Saving countless people’s lives, stopping the greatest tragedies known to man? If that’s why you’re here, I deeply, and humbly, apologize.”

“You’re under arrest for three counts of Timeline Manipulation.”

“Is that what you call it?” Booth laughed.

“Don’t you understand what you’ve done? The world is dying because of you. People are starving because there’s not enough food for the world’s population, people are living in poverty, every child is diseased. The world cannot sustain itself.”

“I’ll go back and change things until everything is perfect. And I won’t stop until it’s perfect. Even if I have to go back to the dawn of man,” Booth said, rubbing his moustache with two fingers. His glacier eyes began to burn like blue flames.

“You can’t do that. It’s not right,” Alice said, finally stepping from behind Leo.

“And why not?!” Booth roared.

“Because you can’t play God!” Alice cried.

“Why shouldn’t I? Who’s going to stop me?” Booth said, erupting from the chair behind his desk.

“I will,” Leo said. “We will.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Booth said menacingly. “I created these pens. Nobody knows more about them than me. Do you really think you can use them against me?” Booth laughed and pulled out a pen from his shirt pocket. He clicked it open. “Well, do you, boy?”

“I don’t need to know how to use them better than you, Dr. Booth,” Leo said. “I just have to know how to break them.” Leo pulled a pen from the inside pocket of his coat. Unlike the others, however, this pen glowed white.

Dr. Booth’s eyes grew wide and his scowl softened in disbelief. “How did you find that?” Booth whispered.

“I’ve been looking for this my whole life, Dr. Booth; it was very hard to find. However, unlike you, I didn’t have to track it across space and time. Who could’ve guessed that a locked vault might not have been the safest place for your most prized possession?” Leo looked at the pen with disinterested contempt. “You might want to close your eyes before I break it in front of you, Doc.”

“Don’t!” Booth snapped. Leo could see the beads of sweat on Booth’s forehead. “Let’s take it easy here, let’s not do anything rash,” Booth said, slowly placing his pen on the desk, before raising his hands in the air. “Maybe we can negotiate.”

“No,” Leo said. “No negotiation. Only the end of everything you created.” Leo prepared to break the Doctor’s first pen, knowing all of the others would soon follow with its destruction.

“Damn you!” Booth screamed. “Don’t you understand everything I’ve sacrificed? I made those pens for a purpose! I gave my life to this work so people could do good in the world! So that people could end the needless tragedies that plagued our lives! And for what? I didn’t give my life so that my bosses could go back in time to rig elections or go forward so they know which stocks to buy! I did it to save people! To save everyone!

“You did it for power and you know it. Saving people was just your excuse.”

“I did it so my life could have meaning!” Booth said, tears beginning to well in the corners of his eyes. He returned to his chair behind the desk. “I did it so that something good could come from what I created.”

“But nothing good came from it, Doc. It only brought the end of the world,” Leo said sadly.

Booth lucked up at Leo, like a dog who had just taken a beating. “There was still good in what I did, you can’t deny it.” Booth closed his eyes in memory, “Seeing the smiles of gratitude on the peoples faces that I saved—that was worth it.” Booth opened his eyes and looked at Leo, and then to Alice. “Please, let me go back just one more time. There’s something I need to do. Something I need to get right.”

“What?” Alice said.

“The death of my son.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you,” Leo said.

“Please? Why not?” Booth begged. Even Alice seemed to whimper behind him.

“My job it to keep the past unchanged and the future protected,” Leo repeated his mantra stoically. “I cannot make exceptions.”

“But it’s just one life! The life of a beautiful boy who got stung by a bee! If I just had known he was allergic I could’ve saved him!”

“I cannot let you. I’m sorry. I wish I could,” Leo whispered. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Booth’s pleading eyes or Alice’s questioning face. He looked at the floor instead.

“He’s just one boy. How much could change with just one life?” Booth asked one last time.

“Everything.”

As the words sunk in, and Booth realized Leo would not budge, he suddenly changed. His eyes narrowed, his whimpering face became a wrinkled snarl, his old hands became twisted into claws. Instead of a begging old man, he quickly became a cornered animal, only afraid for its life and what it had to stand to lose. “You hypocrite!” he growled. “You devil! You dare stand there and deny me my son when your little girlfriend is clearly an immigrant from the past!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leo said

“Liar! I can tell by just looking at her, you forget how far I’ve traveled?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Leo said, stepping in front of Alice once again.

“I thought you said that just one life can change everything!” Booth chided him.

“I-” Leo began, but he could not finish his sentence. “You’re right… But she’s different,” Leo pleaded.

“Who are you trying to convince? Me, or yourself?” Booth said with a growl.

Leo’s hands clenched with anger, “Enough of this.” Leo prepared to snap the white pen in half.

“Do you understand what happens if you break that pen, Private Leo?” Booth said.

“All of your pens are destroyed, everything you’ve done is erased, the world goes back to the way it was. Am I forgetting anything, Doc?” Leo barked.

“Yes, you’re forgetting one thing, Leo,” the Doc whispered. “Everyone from the past goes back, forever.” Booth nodded to Alice. “That includes her, too.”

“What’s he talking about, Leo?” Alice said, her voice high with worry.

“Nothing, he’s bluffing. He’s trying to save himself and his precious pens,” Leo whispered.

“You know I’m not lying, Leo. If there are no pens, and never were, how can she be here? If you destroy that pen, she goes back to the time she’s from, and you never see her again.”

“Don’t do it, Leo!” Alice cried. “There has to be another way!”

Leo lowered the pen, “He’s not lying, Alice,” he whispered. “There’s no other way.”

“There is always another way, Leo. Please don’t leave me!” Alice said, wrapping her arms around him, pressing her nose into his neck.

“I’m sorry, Alice,” Leo whispered. He smelled her hair one last time. It smelled of honey and flowers. He would’ve given anything to be her honeybee. “I would’ve given you my life, Alice, if I could’ve,” Leo said, kissing her forehead. “We’re just out of time.”

“I know,” Alice whispered back, her body warm against his. “Maybe in another life,” she cried. “Another time.”

           Leo snapped the white pen in half, its ink draining onto the floor. In a blink, everything was gone. Leo opened his eyes, and found himself in the bottom level of an abandoned factory, cold and alone in a storage closet.