Project Vortex

Jeff Burns

Copyright © 2018

Foggy Point Light Publishing LLC

Charlotte, NC

All rights reserved.

For more information, go to:

www.foggypointlight.com

Chapter 1

October 28, 2018

Awakening

The room was dark, with only a faint glow from the streetlights along the edge of the parking lot filtering through the blinds. As her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit surroundings, Angela found herself wondering what had just happened. More importantly, where was she now? When she woke up, she seemed to be lying on the floor in a small room with only one window, but how did she get here? She felt a little dizzy as the ceiling seemed to be spinning slowly above her. The right side of her head hurt, and reaching up to touch it, she winced as her fingers felt a small amount of blood. She pulled her hand back and stared at the blood on the tips of her fingers. It wasn’t much, but that probably was the cause of the dizziness which she now felt. As she leaned on her right arm to try and get up, a sharp pain shot through her shoulder causing her to fall back to the floor. She now lay flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling in the room, as she massaged the dull pain in her shoulder with her left hand. She struggled to remember the events of the past several hours, but her mind still seemed to be in a fog, feeling almost as if she was lost in a dream. Leaning on her left arm this time, she pushed herself up to a sitting position, then shifting her weight to one side and grabbing hold of the corner of a desk finally managed to get to her feet. No matter how hard she thought about it, however, she still didn’t know where she was or how she got here. Walking over to the window, moving slowly since she still felt slightly unsteady, she parted the blinds with her left hand and peered out into the night. The moon was fairly high in the sky and seemed almost full tonight. It cast it’s glow, highlighting the scene in front of her. She found herself looking across a lawn to what appeared to be a low rock wall. Past the rock wall was a parking lot, dimly lit by several street lamps. The lot seemed totally empty, except for a lone car parked over by a grove of trees to the left. Looking across the parking lot there seemed to be woods, where every so often a light would sweep from left to right as it shone on the trees. The sound of crickets, tree frogs, and cicadas filtered into the room from the night, leaving her the impression that wherever she now was, she must be somewhere far out in the country. Turning around and looking around the room it appeared that she was in a small office. She was standing beside a desk which was next to the window. A bookshelf was over against the right wall, with a small coffee table and two chairs against the opposite wall. A doorway was directly opposite the desk, and through it a small amount of light shone in from a lone ceiling fixture in the hallway.

As she walked over toward the doorway and started out into the hallway, she was startled by a sound coming from the opposite end of the corridor.  Her heart beating rapidly, she stood perfectly still as she listened for the sound to come again. As she stood listening, she heard it again; a low rattling sound as if someone was trying the doorknob on a locked door somewhere down the hallway! She realized at this point that she wasn’t alone out here! Someone seemed to be outside trying to get in! She moved slowly back into the office, still focusing on the end of the hallway where she had just heard the sound, and made her way over to the desk. Definitely not wanting to turn on any lights to alert whoever was outside that she was in here, she opened the bottom drawer and fumbled around in it looking for a flashlight. It was just too dark in here, and she wished that she could find a small light of some sort so that she could at least see a little bit in the darkened rooms without attracting too much attention. She really wasn’t ready to encounter anyone just yet, particularly since she didn’t know where she was or even how she got here. But if whoever is outside managed to get in, she’d definitely feel better if she at least had some sort of light to illuminate her surroundings.

Not finding a light in the drawer, she moved back out of the office and down the hallway, which seemed to be the only place in the building that was illuminated.  All of the other rooms that she could see from the hallway were completely dark just like the office. She continued down the hallway in the direction where she had heard the sound until she came to what appeared to be a dining room with a table and china cabinet. As she rounded a corner, she heard it again, much louder this time as she stared across an entrance hall into a much larger room. The sound actually seemed to come from behind her this time, so she hurried across the hall and into the larger room. As she looked around, her eyes adjusting to the low light in the room much better now, it seemed that she was in a reception area with a sofa on one wall and a desk along another. At the closest end of the entrance hall which she had just crossed, she could see a door with thin windows on either side, the moonlight filtering in through them just enough for her to be able to make out the more prominent features of the room.

As she began to make her way back over toward the door to try and get a look outside, a shadowy figure walked past one of the windows causing her to stop in her tracks. She could feel her heart beating louder in her chest now and her breath came faster as well. Who could be outside, and why were they trying to get in?! She wished that she didn’t feel so alone out here. The place seemed so desolate and devoid of any life. She suddenly wished that Mark was here. Then a memory came back to her; she had been looking for Mark, but she never found him! She vaguely remembered running toward him into a thick fog, but after going into the fog she became disoriented and by the time that she finally came out of the fog, he was nowhere to be found.  Coming out of the fog, she had seen the ruins of what appeared to be an old lighthouse. It had been missing most of the ceiling, except for some rotting timbers, and large sections of the walls were falling down as well. The lantern house was perched precariously at the top of the tower, leaning at such an angle that she wondered why it hadn’t completely fallen to the ground. She remembered walking up the steps and into a dark room, calling for Mark as she went. Beyond this, she really couldn’t remember a lot more. At least this was more than she had remembered when she had first awakened earlier. Possibly as her mind regained more of its composure and became less foggy she’d be able to remember more. She remembered the light that she had seen looking out the window when she had been in the back office.  The way that it had swept from left to right as it shown on the trees, it definitely could have been the light from a lighthouse. In fact, as she realized now, that’s exactly what it had reminded her of. Could she be inside the lighthouse now? If she was, she didn’t see how the light would be sweeping across the trees. The lantern house that she had seen earlier didn’t even appear to have a working light. And this couldn’t be the same building that she had entered earlier. That one was totally in ruins. This one had walls and a ceiling, and as she felt air blowing from a nearby vent, was obviously heated as well.

Suddenly, the rattling sound came again, only this time it wasn’t nearly as loud and seemed to be coming from another place in the building instead of the room where she now was. Whoever it was must have walked around the building and was trying the knob on a different door now. She walked over to the desk in this room and pulled open one of the side drawers. While it was still too dark around the desk to really see what was in the drawer, feeling around in it with her left hand she finally withdrew a small flashlight. She pressed the switch on the side and to her relief the bulb lit, casting its glow on the wall across the room. Seeing that it did in fact work, she quickly extinguished the light so as not to attract the attention of whoever might be outside.  Without turning the light back on, she made her way over to the door and slowly looked out the window. This side of the house apparently wasn’t facing the parking lot. It appeared to have woods on both the right and the left with an opening at the far end where there didn’t appear to be any trees. Moonlight glistened on shimmering ripples, possibly the waters of either a lake or river. There were lamps on either side of the rock wall which seemed to circle the building, and it was those lamps that now gave the low light that was shining in through these windows. The night appeared to be completely still, except for the night sounds of the insects and other creatures. No motion could be seen outside at all. She strained her mind to remember more, but as hard as she tried, she still couldn’t remember anything past walking into the dark room of the ruins of the old lighthouse. After that, her next memory was waking up on the floor of the office, with a dull pain in her right shoulder and a headache.

Suddenly she heard a new sound that made her heart begin beating even faster! It was the distant sound of a door closing. Whoever had been trying the doorknobs was now inside the house!  Quickly moving back into the reception area, looking around for a place to hide, she ran over to the desk in the back corner. Walking around behind it, she crouched down and squeezed under it. Her breathing was coming much heavier now, and she was afraid that it sounded much too loud in the relative quietness of the room.  As hidden as she was under the desk, if she couldn’t get it under control, her breathing would give her away! She had to find a way to breathe much softer, but the harder that she tried to control it, the louder it seemed. She knew what she had to do, but in her current state of fear she just couldn’t seem to do it. Now she heard footsteps, further away at first but getting louder as they came closer. He was moving down the entrance hall, coming closer! In a short time, whoever it was would be in the room and she was sure that they’d be able to hear her breathing!

Maybe she could run! That was the answer! If she couldn’t hide, she could escape! She could stand and run over to the door and out into the night. Where she would go after that, she wasn’t quite sure, but at least she’d be free of the confines of the house and away from the intruder! And once outside, she could look around and decide where to go from there. But if he was coming down the entrance hall as it sounded like he was, she’d probably run into him there! Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of a shadow cast by the hall light shining through the doorway into the room.

“Be calm!” she silently told herself. “Stop breathing so hard and he won’t find you!”

But that was easier said than done as the footsteps slowly entered the room. She knew that he could hear her breathing! He had to be able to hear her!

“Mark?” a voice said. “Are you in here? Angela?”

The sound of his voice startled her and her head hit the bottom of the desk drawer. It was over now; she knew it. He had to have heard that!

“Mark, is that you?”

The voice was that of a man. It wasn’t at all threatening, and seemed to her to even be a little familiar, like she knew him. Maybe she did know him, since obviously he knew her name. It wasn’t Mark’s voice, however, even though he had mentioned Mark’s name earlier. When she had first heard the footsteps, she found herself wishing that maybe it actually was Mark, and that he had come looking for her. Now she knew that it was somebody else, but not recognizing who it was caused her to stay frozen in the crouched position under the desk, trying her best not to make a sound.

“Who’s in here?!” the man demanded, this time his voice taking on a hint of apprehension as if he were a little fearful and unsure of the situation as well. His voice actually appeared to crack a little as he spoke this last time. Could he be in a circumstance similar to hers? It occurred to her that he might not know what was going on here either. He could probably hear someone in the room, but at this point he wouldn’t know who it was. As he moved slowly around the front of the desk, she slowly slid ever further under it, trying to be as quiet as possible. While the voice did sound somewhat familiar, she still couldn’t quite place who it was, so she wasn’t ready to come face to face with him quite yet. And the area behind the desk and under it was dark. The small amount of light from the hallway and the light coming in from outside couldn’t shine back here, since the desk was turned around toward the wall, so she felt like she was pretty well hidden.

“Angela?” the voice said again, “Angela, are you in here?”

Still, she tried to be as quiet as possible. While she expected that his next move would be to walk around to the back of the desk and discover her hiding place, to her surprise, he walked back over toward the hallway. While she couldn’t see where he was from her position under the desk, she sensed that he had stopped in the doorway. Could he really be leaving? Had he not heard her in the room after all? She dismissed that idea almost immediately. He had called out to her. He had to know that she was here! After what seemed like an eternity, but which was probably only a minute or two, she heard his footsteps start again, and this time she could tell that he was walking away, though what direction she couldn’t tell. Did he go back down the hall in the direction from which he had first entered, or had he went the other direction toward the other side of the house? She wished that she had been able to tell his direction so that she would know which way to run. But all that she really knew for sure was that he was no longer in the room with her, and that fact by itself gave her at least a slight sense of relief.

Still, she knew that she had to do something. If she stayed where she was, he’d surely be back and this time would almost certainly find her. Not quite knowing where the man had gone, however, kept her frozen in place, not wanting to be found. Finally, summoning what courage she had, she slowly slid out from under the desk, and using her left hand to pull herself up, stood and looked over toward the hallway. She couldn’t hear anything now, not even footsteps. She knew, however, that she had heard him walk down the hallway earlier, and since she hadn’t heard him walk back this direction, she had to assume that he was still somewhere else in the house. She made her way around the desk and walked over to the front door, intending to quietly open it and slip out into the night completely undetected. Trying the door, however, she discovered that it was locked with a deadbolt lock having a key lock on both sides. Without the key, there was no way to open it! At the same moment, she heard the footsteps of the man start up again. Luckily, the footsteps still seemed to be at the far end of the house, so possibly she would have time to formulate a plan. Approaching the doorway leading back into the hallway where she had originally come from earlier, she stood and listened for his footsteps again to try and discover which direction he had gone. When they came again, they came from down the hallway to the right, toward the direction where she had come the first time. Peering around the corner, there was no movement to be seen. Quickly, she crossed into the dining room, trying to be as quiet as possible so that he wouldn’t be able to track her direction. As she entered what appeared to be a kitchen area at the end of the hallway, his footsteps came again, only this time they sounded a lot closer! Startled, she stopped and listened. While they were closer now, they also seemed to be coming from above her. He had gone upstairs! That fact itself gave her some relief, but since she didn’t know exactly where the stairs were, she’d still have to be careful. She found a back door at the corner of the kitchen, but this one also was locked with a double keyed deadbolt! He must have gotten in through the only door in the house that was unlocked and that one must be at the other end of the large entrance hall!

She opened the pantry and found a broom which she picked up to possibly use as a weapon just in case she did encounter the man again on her way outside. Luckily, she could still hear his footsteps, not directly above her anymore, but still upstairs. She moved back out into the entrance hall and started walking toward the opposite end, moving as quickly as she could while still trying to be as quiet as possible. As she approached the opposite doorway and caught a glimpse of the staircase to her right, she froze in her tracks as she heard footsteps descending the stairs! There was no way at this point that she could pass by the staircase without being seen! She quickly ran back into the reception area where she had been hiding earlier under the desk, but she wasn’t quite fast enough. As the man descended the last step and stepped out into the hallway, he caught a glimpse of her as she moved out of the hallway and into the large room.

“Angela, is that you?!” he called out to her.

She whirled around, and as she saw his shadow move into the doorway, she raised the broom handle over her head and shouted back to him, “Stay away! Don’t come any closer! I’ll use this!”

“Angela, it’s me, Scotty! Mark’s father!

As he continued walking slowly toward her into the room, she shouted the warning again, “I mean it! Don’t come any closer!”

As she cocked the broom with her arms, preparing to strike him if he actually did continue advancing toward her, he stopped and held up both of his hands in front of his body.

“Angela, it’s me! Don’t you remember me?! I’m Mark’s father!”

Still leaving the broom over her head, she thought about what he had just said. Could he really be Mark’s father? He had said his name was Scotty, which actually did sound familiar to her.  Though her mind was still confused, suddenly a recollection came into her mind. It was the memory of their first meeting back in Wilmington. In her mind she could see his face then, and it was the same face that she saw standing in front of her now. Lowering the broom, she moved closer to him to get a better look in the low light.

“Mr. Duncan? Is that really you?” she asked tentatively.

“Yes, it’s really me! Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Where are we? I can’t remember where we are.” she asked him.

“We’re at the lighthouse, though I don’t quite know where everyone else is.”

“What lighthouse? I remember walking up to an old lighthouse, but it wasn’t this one. That one seemed to be almost falling apart.”

Putting his hand on her shoulder, he led her over to the sofa and they both sat down.

“What happened to you?” he asked as he brushed a trickle of blood from her right cheek.

“I don’t know. When I woke up, I was lying on the floor in a small office with this cut on my head. My shoulder hurts as well, but I can’t remember what happened!”

“Do you remember getting out of the van when you thought that you saw Mark?” Scotty asked.

“I don’t remember a van, but I do remember thinking that I saw Mark and running into the fog after him.”

“As we were driving up, you thought that you saw Mark.  You got out of the van and began running after him. Kate and I, along with you father, ran in after you, but we couldn’t find either you or Mark. We looked around for a few minutes, then went back out and continued to the Mobile Command Center in case you had found Mark and both of you had gone back there. It took us a few minutes to find the van because the fog was so thick.”

“I never saw or heard you either, but I was around the lighthouse the entire time! And by the time that I walked into the fog, Mark was also nowhere to be found!”

“When we got to the command center and discovered that you and Mark weren’t there, I came back out to look for you. When Kate and your father and I were out here the first time, and then again when I came back out alone, the lighthouse was exactly like you described it; looking like it was falling apart. I walked up the stairs and came inside and called for you and Mark. Getting no answer, I went back outside and looked for you over by the woods. The fog was getting thicker, and when I looked back at the lighthouse, it seemed to be fading in and out. Suddenly, the lighthouse seemed to explode into a blinding white light. I shielded my eyes from the light, but still couldn’t see anything for a couple of minutes. The light was really bright!”

“I remember now!” Angela remarked excitedly, “I was inside the ruins of the lighthouse when the whole structure seemed to explode with that same bright white light! At the same time, the whole building seemed to come crashing down on top of me! The wall next to me came crashing down and struck me on my right shoulder, knocking me to the ground. That must have been when I hit my head as well!  The last thing that I remembered was looking straight up with part of the wall on top of me and the rest of the ceiling seeming to be crashing down on top of me. The next thing that I remembered was waking up in the back office.”

Then she paused and asked, “Is Mark and my father here, too?”

She saw a serious expression come across his face.

“I don’t think they’re here.” he replied, “I haven’t been able to find anyone since the bright white light. When I could see again, the lighthouse had changed into this one. It wasn’t in ruins any longer, but I also couldn’t find the Mobile Command Center, either. You’re the first person that I’ve seen since the explosion of light!”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” she answered. “They have to still be here! Where could they have gone?”

“How much do you know about what Mark was working on?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“While we were looking for you out here the first time, your father told me that Chandler-Langtree was working on time travel. I didn’t believe it at first, since we all know that’s only in science fiction movies, but now I’m not so sure.”

They both stared at each other in knowing disbelief as he said this. She did remember now! She remembered discussing it with her father, and she remembered the Protectors and the information that she had gotten from the Chandler-Langtree computer as well!

She rose to her feet and hurriedly crossed the hallway into the kitchen with Scotty following closely behind. She had noticed a calendar on the wall when she was in there earlier, but hadn’t paid much attention then. Now, however, she stared at it in disbelief, not fully believing what she was seeing. The calendar was open to October, and the year at the top said “1979”.

Dawn was approaching as Al and Sally sat in Al’s car at the corner of the lighthouse parking lot, surveying the scene that was playing out in front of them. The search for Angela and Scotty had been going on all night, and just about ten minutes ago a news van from the television station in Wilmington had driven past them.

“What have we done?” asked Sally. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! Even though we took every precaution that we could think of, we’ve changed history! Angela and Scotty weren’t supposed to disappear!”

“We need to go back to my house and consider what to do now.” replied Al. “Somehow, we have to undo this, but right now I can’t think of any way to do that. The temporal dissipater is destroyed and that was our only hope of eliminating the ripples.”

“Maybe not our only hope,” Sally replied, “even though what we have to do now is risky. There is a failsafe, but I never thought about actually having to use it. Now, I don’t think we have any other option.”