Impossible Mission

  Impossible Mission

  Part 4 of the

  Sleep Writer Journal

  © 2019 Keith Robinson

  Published by Unearthly Tales

  on March 15, 2019

  Cover by Keith Robinson

  No part of this book may be reproduced without permission from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  COMING NEXT

  Author's Website

  Chapter 1

  Liam Mackenzie crawled out along the branch until it started to bend under him. The ground seemed miles below yet couldn’t be more than thirty feet. Still, high enough to break his neck if he fell.

  And that was the point.

  He glanced sideways over the lake. The small jetty looked even more rickety and ancient from up here, his tiny boat absolutely still in the shallow water among the reeds. The Weary Traveler belonged to him, as did the jetty and a stretch of marshy bank. Even this tree was his. He’d been climbing it for as long as he could remember and had stretched out on this very bough more times than he could count.

  Today, however, was the first time he’d considered jumping.

  He wasn’t depressed or suicidal. Far from it. He just happened to know he wouldn’t die. He’d already seen his future, and he knew for a fact he would live to be an old man. So unless he could actually change his destiny, it meant he could never be killed by a crazy, experimental dive from a thirty-foot-high branch. He was sure of it.

  Pretty sure, anyway.

  He reasoned it out for the millionth time. He’d seen his future. He and his future wife, the lovely Madison who lived next door, would send back messages about all these wormholes that kept opening, thus enabling him to find a time wand and make all this possible. If he didn’t survive this fall from the tree right now at the age of twelve, then the future he’d glimpsed would not be possible, which meant—

  “Man, time travel makes my head hurt,” he muttered, staring down through the branches. “But not as much as smacking into the ground.”

  He’d thought about doing this for the past few days. It had been a week since an eerie yellow fog had come down on his house and dumped monsters everywhere. There had been no wormholes since, or at least none Madison had been aware of. The idea of testing the limits of his paradoxical life had occurred to him late on Thursday night, and he’d spent Friday mulling it over. Now it was Saturday morning, and he was ready.

  Or so he’d thought. Planning to leap to his death and actually doing it were two entirely different things.

  “Come on, don’t be chicken,” he told himself. “Just close your eyes and roll sideways. You can’t die.”

  But you might break an arm, a sensible inner voice said. Or a leg, or worse. Heck, you might end up paralyzed, spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair. Did you think about that, doofus?

  “Yeah, except I don’t spend my life in a wheelchair.”

  Then he frowned. Actually, he knew no such thing. Using the time wand, he’d glimpsed his future self lying in bed an hour or two after dying of old age. There had been no sign of a wheelchair, but its absence from the bedroom wasn’t exactly proof he would be fighting fit and healthy throughout his old age.

  And what about Ant? While Liam and Madison were guaranteed long lives, their friend’s fate was a complete mystery, highlighting just how uncertain the future was.

  Liam’s phone blared in his pocket, startling him. He looped one arm around the branch and tried to reach for the phone, but it was a little awkward to get at, and he decided it could wait. He let it ring until it went to voicemail, then sighed and stared down at the ground again.

  Okay, so this was a dumb idea. He really wasn’t concerned about dying early—he remained convinced that he’d get to live a long life no matter what—but he still might break a few limbs without disrupting the balance of time. How would he explain that to his parents?

  “What were you doing up a tree?” his dad would demand.

  “I saw myself in the future, so I was testing to see if I was invincible.”

  No, that wouldn’t go down well.

  Liam gave it up. He’d already lost whatever nerve he’d mustered. He wriggled backward along the branch—and it snapped under him.

  He yelled in terror as he tipped forward and dropped. He let go of the useless branch and grappled for another, the next one down and a little to one side. He managed to hook his arm over it, letting out a cry as he swung underneath. The snapped branch tumbled away as his flailing feet found something sturdy to put weight on. Gasping, he pulled himself into a better position, then perched there panting and trembling.

  Yeah, this was definitely a dumb idea, he thought.

  His phone bleeped at that moment, but he ignored it and instead started cautiously down the thick, gnarled trunk. He waited until he was safely down on the ground before digging the phone out of his pocket and checking his text messages. Maddy had sent one:

  Another wormhole. Call me!

  The jolt of excitement almost made him drop his phone. He gripped it hard, his heart thumping, then stabbed at the call button.

  Madison answered after one ring. “Hey.”

  “Hey, what’s it say?”

  “I’m fine, thanks. How are you?”

  Liam rolled his eyes. “I thought we were past small talk.”

  “A simple hello would be nice.”

  “Okay, sorry.” He put on his most polite voice. “Hello, Maddy, how are you today?”

  “Never mind that. I have a new message! Don’t you want to hear what it says?” She barreled on before Liam had a chance to respond with a cutting remark. “I slept in this morning, and when I woke, there it was on my pillow, scrawled in my usual messy handwriting. First one in a week! And . . . you’re gonna be amazed.”

  Intrigued, Liam stood absolutely still in the crisp morning air with the phone pressed tightly to his ear. “What do you mean?”

  Annoyingly, she evaded the question. “Where are you right now? Are you home?”

  “No.”

  “So where?”

  He faltered. “I’m—well, I thought I’d—”

  “You know what, I don’t care. Life’s too short. Can you be home in twenty minutes?”

  “No problem.”

  “Good. Call Ant and tell him to come over.”

  Sensing she was about to hang up, Liam blurted, “Wait, where’s the wormhole supposed to be showing up? And when?”

  But the phone bleeped to say the call had been disconnected, and he stared at the screen in disgust.

  ****

  He hurried along the lane toward home. It was only a short walk, and he called Ant immediately. “Hey,” he said when his friend answered. “You need to come over.”

  “Say please.”

  “What? No way. Get here now or miss it.”

  A short silence followed. Then Ant sighed. “You make a good argument, sir. See you in ten.”

  As Liam slipped the phone back into his pocket, he felt a thrill of excitement at the prospect of witnessing another wormhole. What would come through this time? Three-headed aliens from a distant galaxy? Elves from some parallel dimension where well-known fantasy creatures existed? All he knew for sure was that the visitors had the technology to rip a hole in the fabric of space and create a gateway between two distant points in the univ
erse.

  Liam still felt a little put out that his humble Planet Earth was deemed too backward to handle what was probably considered run-of-the-mill technology shared across countless galaxies. Sure, billions of other planets fell short of the cut too. Billions more were utterly uninhabited. But there was a sizeable community of intelligent beings out there in space where routine interstellar trade was commonplace. Liam imagined some kind of far-reaching internet where different planetary cultures kept in touch via super-advanced webcams, where the latest wormhole wands were snapped up by eager customers on some galactic ecommerce website, each new device costing a trillion creds or whatever the universal currency was . . .

  One day, Earth would be invited to join the community, though Liam had a feeling that wouldn’t happen for a hundred years or more. NASA hadn’t even put a man on Mars yet. Maybe the humble Earthman just wasn’t trustworthy yet, like a child with a loaded gun.

  Liam grinned. He was a child, and he owned a time wand. An echo projector to be exact, but either way, the power it wielded was astounding. He sobered at the very idea of it. After a trip back in time to his birth, then a few more into the future, he’d quickly recognized how dangerous the thing could be and buried it in Madison’s front yard. He was only twelve, but he wasn’t stupid. Too much knowledge could ruin his life.

  And he’d nearly tested his so-called invincibility by throwing himself out of a tree?

  He shuddered. What a dimwit.

  As Madison’s house loomed through the trees just ahead, he picked up his pace and turned left into the Parkers’ horseshoe gravel driveway, casting a look toward his own house next door. Both his parents were home today, his mom in the house and his dad in the garage out back.

  Madison had been watching from the window, and she came bounding out of the front door as he stamped up the porch steps. Liam glimpsed her five-year-old brother Cody in the living room behind her, staring with rapt fascination at Teen Titans Go! on the TV.

  “Okay, let’s head out,” she said, pulling the door shut behind her.

  “Where to?” he asked.

  “Your house.”

  “But it’s a mess! We have people fixing the roof and—”

  “Doesn’t matter. Come on.”

  She brushed past him, heading for the narrow gate in the hedgerow between their properties. She wore all black again today: black leggings, short black skirt, and black t-shirt. Even her hair was black, making her face look pasty-white in comparison—but in a good way, her skin perfectly clear.

  Liam’s heart fluttered every time he laid eyes on her. And he was destined to marry this girl? His mind boggled. Though she was only fifteen at the moment, he’d been to the future and seen her as an old lady—a jarring experience to say the least. She’d been wrinkly and ancient like all old people, yet he’d caught a glimpse of her youth within, something in her eyes or her voice, or perhaps in the way she’d spoken to his ghostly ‘echo’ form. She’d told him they’d led a wonderful married life together full of adventure.

  Of course, she’d made him vow not to tell her younger self, a request he intended to honor. Even though she was his future wife, it might be decades before they finally got hitched. They each might date others first. Right now, she was three years older and way out of his league.

  “You’re quiet,” she said, shooting him a glance over her shoulder.

  “Just wondering where this wormhole is,” he lied as they headed up his front lawn. “Are you going to tell me or what?”

  She grinned. “I will—as soon as Ant gets here.” She dug out her phone and checked the time. “Let’s hope he gets here soon. The fun starts in sixteen minutes.”

  Chapter 2

  “So why are we going to my house?” Liam demanded as they walked up the path. “You know my dad doesn’t like me getting in the way of the workers.”

  “Then stay out of their way,” Madison said.

  Roofers were hard at work. They’d ripped off a lot of the damaged wood sheeting and replaced it, and now they were retiling—and just in time, because the weather forecast promised rain all week.

  The kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it. In fact, a giant, batlike monster had straddled the roof during last weekend’s wonderstorm, as Ant had called it. Being a one-story home, the massive winged alien had not only shredded the roof, it had knocked the ceiling through as well, and the kitchen needed a lot of repair work. It was serviceable, but the place was a mess.

  Of course, only Liam, Madison, and Ant had seen the bat and the rest of the creatures that had wandered across the lawn. The thick, yellow cloud had masked the entire incident, and anyway Liam’s parents had been out. Everyone, the fire department included, had assumed some kind of freak tornado had struck.

  Liam’s mom was standing perfectly still in the kitchen, staring at the wall next to the refrigerator, lost in thought. “You okay, Mom?” he said, pausing.

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Mom?”

  Frowning, she turned to him and held up two narrow cards, each with a colored square and tiny writing underneath. “I can’t decide. Thoughts?”

  Liam let out a sigh. “Paint colors? Both look the same to me. Does it matter?”

  “Sure it does.”

  Madison nudged him aside and went to peer at the swatch cards. “Definitely the darker shade. It would contrast the white better. Otherwise it’ll all be a bit one-tone.”

  Liam’s mom looked pleased. “Well, that’s exactly what I thought! Thank you, Madison.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said, shooting a glance over her shoulder at Liam. “There’s no point asking mere boys about this sort of thing.”

  “Nor grown men,” Liam’s mom agreed.

  He and Madison escaped to his room, and while she went to the window and stared out, he quickly checked to make sure he had no underwear lying around. The roofers hammered away overhead.

  “So?” Liam demanded. “The message?”

  Madison raised an eyebrow at him. “Patience. Wait until Ant gets here.”

  “But don’t we have to leave? How far away is this wormhole going to be, anyway?”

  “Not far. We’ll get there in time—as long as Ant hurries.”

  Luckily, Ant Carmichael arrived roughly seven minutes later according to Liam’s phone. Madison had at least advised when the wormhole would appear—at 10:33 AM.

  Timing was a subject the three of them had discussed many times. What if their clock was wrong? What if the wormhole appeared a minute earlier or later? An argument could be made that most mobile phones were attuned to GPS signals, which in turn used incredibly accurate atomic clocks, but the truth was that it didn’t really matter. The wormhole appeared, Madison logged the time of its appearance in her journal, and her future self passed the same information back through time to her sleepy self.

  Not that Madison knew that last part. She couldn’t know. It might change everything if she knew her mysterious sleep-written messages came from herself. Liam wasn’t sure how the knowledge might affect her; he knew only that future-Madison was adamant about keeping her younger self in the dark.

  “It’s 10:28,” Liam said, watching out of the window and growing agitated as Ant climbed out of the chauffeur-driven limousine parked in the lane. The sleek, black car eased away, heading toward the lake where the driver, Barton, would turn the thing around and await further instructions. “Let’s head out, Maddy. We’re gonna be late!”

  She shook her head. “Not yet. Ask him in.”

  “But we only have five minutes!”

  “Ask him in.”

  Liam dashed through the house and yanked the front door open. His friend stood on the doorstep, his fist raised to knock. Though he had mega-rich parents who lived in a mansion and seemed quite aloof most of the time, Ant himself was fairly down to earth, red-haired and just a tiny bit pudgy, his clothes neatly pressed but typical of any twelve-year-old.

  “Come on,” Liam urged. “We’re down to four mi
nutes now. I get the feeling Maddy’s gonna tell us the wormhole’s opening up in the sky above the house again.”

  Ant’s eyebrows shot up. “The roofers will see it, then.” He stepped backward and peered up into the sky. “It’s clear today. If a wormhole pops up—”

  “Let’s find out. Come on, Ant—get in here!”

  Liam’s mom appeared from the kitchen and opened her mouth to engage Ant in conversation, but the boys dashed past before she could get a word out.

  In Liam’s room, Madison was peering at her phone. “It’s 10:30. Three minutes to go. Close your door, Liam.”

  About to burst with frustration, he drew himself up to argue—and then paused. Suddenly he knew. “It’s here, isn’t it?” he whispered. “The wormhole’s going to open inside the house.”

  Madison pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper and turned it around for the boys to read. They hurried closer to peer at the pencil-scrawled words:

  10:33 AM. Liam’s bedroom.

  He gaped. “Right here? Are you kidding?”

  “Close the door, Liam,” Madison said again.

  He did so. And locked it.

  Madison turned her phone around so they could see it. “Two minutes, guys.”

  Ant was still staring at the sheet. “And it’s definitely today? Like, this morning?”

  This was another subject they’d talked about. Madison never sleep-wrote a date on her notes, just an exact time, and she assured them it meant the very next instance of that time. “I woke just after nine,” she said, “and there it was on my pillow. It’s happening now. Or in a couple of minutes, anyway.”

  Liam glanced around his room. This could be bad. These wormholes had a fairly powerful suction, like a giant vacuum cleaner, and he worried that his stuff would get pulled in. He dashed around the room cramming small things into drawers. “Come on, help me out here,” he urged.

  Ant raced about with him, but Madison looked put out at the idea of such a mundane chore when a grand wormhole event was imminent. It was a hopeless task, only a minute to deal with an awful lot of stuff including numerous books on shelves around the walls. Liam crammed his laptop under the bed along with a few other small things, then wedged his Lord of the Rings Frodo sword under the mattress. As he did so, it occurred to him that his bed sheets might get whipped away too, which would not go down well with his mom.