Untitled Story

One: Hysteria

It was a bright sunny day on Brisbane’s South Bank and two teenagers sat together out side an ice-cream shop. One, a girl, Caitlin stared lovingly at the other, a boy named Matthew. Matt took a plastic spoonful of melted ice-cream and snapped it up before any of it dripped off. He then looked up to meet Caitlin’s gaze. His eyes were transfixed, his body did not move, the expression on his face was one of shock. Caitlin immediately shifted her eyes to the brilliant green, grassy slope that sat to the left of the table. Only to realise Matt had not moved. She realised, he was not shocked by her at all, rather something behind her. Before she could turn around to investigate what he was so hypnotised by he spoke one word. “Run”.

His tone was as hard as stone and Caitlin stood up obediently. Matt stood up a mere second later, kicking the chair out from behind him. “Run from what?” she quizzed. Matt grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. He then turned her in the direction of his stare. “Look for something unusual.” He whispered in her ear. A shiver ran up her spine as she searched the area for something out of the ordinary. “The tree is growing out of the cement.” He whispered again. At first she was confused by what he meant. She noticed the tree that was in the middle of her sight range and looked at its base, which was, as Matt said, growing out of cement, in the middle of a walkway. There was no break allowing the tree to grow it was just there. However this wasn’t the strangest thing. That was the walk way Matt and Caitlin used to get to the ice-cream shop, and that tree, was not there before.

She swallowed, “I see it,” and then, she blinked. When her eyes opened, all of a sudden, there were a half-a-dozen men, all dressed in black uniforms carrying what seemed to be oversized tasers. “Where are Matthew Bellamy and Caitlin Wilson?” One of the men called. Caitlin froze when their names met her ears. Then, Matt grabbed her wrist again and ran down the grassy slope. The men made chase.

“Who are they?” Caitlin asked as she followed Matt.
“They’re Time Police.” He answered firmly while grabbing her again and pulling her in to an alleyway. “Time Police,” he continued, “if you do something bad in the future, the Time Police will come back and arrest you. And if you’re arrested, you can’t commit the crime can you? They usually are only sent back for serious crimes, like murder and serious theft and…”
“Shut up.” She murmured, “You’re babbling. Now why would they be after us?”
“Oh, uhhh. I guess we must have killed someone.” He smiled. Caitlin stared at Matt’s face surely he was in some sort of shock or hysteria.
“C’mon, we’ve got to keep moving.”

Matt and Caitlin ran through the South Bank precinct ducking in and out of buildings, bushes and anything else they could hide in. Until, in one particular bush, Matt stopped, he put his right index finger over Caitlin’s lips and held his left index finger up to his. Caitlin obeyed and did not make a noise. They could hear two of the men coming closer, Caitlin froze once more, her eyes, wide open displaying the fear that she couldn’t show by sound.

Matt watched the two, as they searched the near by bushes, waiting, for the opportune moment. That moment came when one of the men began to check the bush Matt and Caitlin were hiding in. Caitlin let out a tiny whimper and the policeman grabbed the back of her shirt. Matt wrapped his hands around the policeman’s arm and broke it. The man let out a loud yell which prompted the other to come over to help. But before he did the first policeman was already knocked out by Caitlin’s kick to his face. The second reached for his radio and called for back up, stating where he was and what had happened. He put his radio down and Matt jumped out of the bush and on to the back of the policeman’s back, put both hands in the correct position and broke the man’s neck.

“Quickly, we don’t have much time.” He said as he reached for the second man’s left arm and removed a watch looking device with a wide leather strap and a big, square, digital display. He held it up to show Caitlin, “Get this off him.” He tipped his head in the direction of the first policeman. “What are they?” she asked as she fiddled with the strap. “They’re time machines.” He replied.
“You’re kidding,” she looked at the watch-like device puzzled.
“Here,” he took the machine off her and pushed some buttons, gave it back to her and then did the same to his. “Ok, on three, press the display in the middle. Ready? One, two, three.” The pair pressed the faces of the machines simultaneously and lifted off the ground as if a vacuum was sucking them up but before they got any higher than a foot off the ground they vanished.