Twist of Fate

Caleb jumped behind a truck and ducked his head. The Wonak swung his swords, just missing Caleb’s hair. Caleb moved around the truck and aimed at his foe. Just as he finished him off, another jumped him from behind, but his son Jack caught the blow.

“Jack!” he shouted, as the young man fell limp. Caleb charged the Wonak. “No!” He shouted as the world spun around him in great blue and purple lights. The battlefield disappeared, and so did the Wonak.

Before Caleb could get a grip, he found himself standing at headquarters, except, it looked more like it did eight years ago, not the way it did yesterday. Several people stared at him in confusion.

“General Brady?” Caleb asked. The general looked younger, but that didn’t stop Caleb from recognizing him.

“General?” he said. “There is no General Brady here. If there were, I would know it.”

Caleb saw the insignia on the man’s collar. “Major Brady?”

Brady looked at Caleb and studied him hard. “Do I know you?”

Caleb shook his head. This wasn’t right. His thoughts became clouded with the screams of his brothers in arms. The image of his son dying next to him pierced his eyes. “I have to get back,” he said. “Let me go back!”

“Where did you come from?”

Caleb looked at the Major with confused frustration. “I came from the battle happening right now, in Bristol. I have to go back.”

“There isn’t a battle in Bristol,” said the Major.

Caleb stammered breathlessly. “B-b-b-but the Wonak, a-a-a-and the lab. It’s under attack. Our last hope to stop those monsters is there in Bristol, and the Wonak found it. We’re defending it, sir. I need to go back.”

“There is no such thing as a Wonak. There is no secret lab in Bristol. Sir, are you okay?”

Caleb’s head spun. He felt like falling, but he fought it off. A soldier had to keep control, always. “Where are we?” he said. “Where am I? I can get back on my own if I know where I am.”

“You’re in Trenton, New Jersey, sir. There’s no getting to Bristol in your condition.”

“No… I can’t be… How? How do you not know about the Wonak? Everyone knows. Especially Trenton, New Jersey. It’s where the Wonak first landed.”

“There is no such thing as a Wonak, sir.” The major waved his hand and within seconds, two MPs were taking Caleb’s arms.

“You don’t understand. The fate of the world lies in Bristol,” Caleb called as he was taken to another room.

∞θ∞ Three Weeks Later ∞θ∞

Caleb lay on his bed in the New Jersey Veteran’s Home, a place he and Jack had volunteered at many times, but never dreamed he would live in. He had been transported back 15 years. It was 5 years before the landing of the Wonak. No one really believed him, though they tried to keep from upsetting him with their disbelief. If he didn’t have the uniform, the knowledge of combat, or the scars of battle, he might have been in an insane asylum, not the veteran’s home.

He was diagnosed with PTSD and placed in a room by himself. They told him to write down everything he knew, everything he saw, just before he was transported. Something about writing making things easier to process, to help him cope. He gave it a shot. After all, he and Jack used to donate journals to the home for exactly that purpose.

He described the scenes in excruciating detail, then put the journal down, planning on never reading it again. As soon as he could find an incinerator, he would burn it.

A little boy walked into his room when his hand left the cover. He had short blond hair and blue eyes, with dimples on his cheeks. His cheery disposition warmed Caleb’s heart, then shattered it. This was ten-year-old Jack.

“Hello, sir,” Jack saluted. He placed a fresh journal next to the used identical journal. Caleb should have recognized the cover of the first one when it was given to him.

He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t. Wouldn’t. He knew he would break down in tears if he said anything to Jack.

“I hope you feel better soon,” Jack said. He turned to leave, but Caleb stopped him.

“Can I give you a hug?” he asked.

Little Jack nodded and hugged Caleb, who struggled to let him go. But the boy was kind and understanding beyond his years.

Caleb let go and wiped his eye as he said, “Please, take the journal to another man who needs it. I already have one.”

“Yes, sir.” Jack picked up the journal and left.

Caleb let the tears fall a few minutes before deciding to pick up the journal again. He didn’t know what to write, but the nurses told him to write whatever he thought, whenever he felt he needed to let something go. He turned the pages to see that they were all blank. Everything he had written was gone.

Caleb’s head ached and his chest burned. Jack had picked up the wrong journal. He jumped to his feet and ran down the hall, searching recklessly for the boy. He came to a stop when he saw him staring at the pages of the journal.

Caleb rushed to his side and demanded the journal be returned. Jack looked up at him with shock. His hands shook, and his eyes stared blankly with tears beginning to well up. Caleb got on one knee and looked the boy in the eye.

“Is this me?” Jack asked, voice trembling.

Caleb’s eyes dropped.

“I know who you are,” Jack continued. “You’re the one who claimed to be from the future. You look so much like my daddy.”

“You’d believe a crazy old man like me?”

“Only if you can answer this one question. When is my birthday?”

Caleb looked at Jack again. He struggled to decide if he should answer truthfully, but he never lied to Jack before. He wasn’t going to start now. He looked away again and said, “June 5th, 2089.”

“It is me.”

Caleb put his hands on his son’s shoulders. “Look at me,” he said, “You are the bravest boy I have ever known. You do great things for our world, son. And… I…” He wrapped his arms around Jack, wishing he could tell him to not join the army. He wanted to tell him to stay out of the fight and do other things, but he couldn’t.

The boy embraced him back and said, “I love you.”

Before Caleb could react, the screech of a Wonak pierced his ears. Nurses screamed in the halls, and guns fired. Caleb turned to see the Wonak, the one that brought him here, running toward him.

Caleb grabbed a chair and charged the Wonak. Each of its four arms carried a sword, and its four legs kept it steady and fast. Its mouth hung open in raging screeches and gleaming teeth, dripping with acid. Caleb knew the dripping meant it was getting ready to spray. He held the chair up, the metal feet pointed at the creature.

Acid flew across the air and landed on the underside of the seat. Caleb yelled as he pierced the Wonak with the chair’s legs. The creature cried in pain as it reached for the time jump charge. Caleb threw the chair aside and grabbed onto the creature’s body. The white walls of the veteran’s home turned to blue and purple lights. Then the lights disappeared, and the brown battlefield that they had left reappeared.

Caleb looked around. They had landed just a few yards from the Bristol lab. The Wonak held its wounds with two arms. It roared soul-piercing screams just before charging him again. Caleb saw a fresh grenade near the body of another soldier. He picked it up and threw it at the Wonak.

A flash of light blinded Caleb for only a second. He felt his body; no burns. He looked around. He was standing a few feet from the smoking carcass of the Wonak. He looked behind him, and there stood Jack, with a time charge in his hand.

Caleb embraced him and said, “What? How?”

“You saved my life with your journal, dad. Now I’m here to save yours.”

(featured photo from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Time-Travel.jpg)