TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.1 - Of The Device

PART 5b: BREAKDOWN 2

‘What the hell,' Carrie thought from where she sat. She knew she wasn't feeling too well or thinking too clearly, but Frank knew so much by this point that it really didn't seem to matter any more. Besides, keeping secrets was kind of pointless if it ultimately killed you, right?

"There isn't much more to tell about my first trip,” she conceded. "I traveled from one side of the ravine to the other - from the park, to behind my house. It knocked me out. When I tried to get back in my room, I very nearly met my younger self, and shattered a crystal swan which mama had bought for my fourth birthday.”

Her fingers flexed as she added, “It was her last gift to me, she’d given it to Dad months in advance, to keep until March. I will grant that when it broke, it shocked me, because I never knew who had done that to me the first time it happened. Anyway, then I ran to Julie’s--"

"Wait," Frank cut in. "This swan, you knew it had been broken before you even took a time trip?"

"Sure," Carrie commented. Frank was frowning. "What?"

"That's... weird. Leads back into what I was saying about the past being unchangeable... how is it that you might experience that sort of change to your past, and yet my future at our high school has remained the same for you?”

Carrie stared. “I don’t follow.”

Frank sighed. “Relative to you, you’re potentially changing my past right now. Despite that, you’re remembering future events about me, like the clubs I’ll be in. If breaking your swan was a change to your past - why not with me? Why don’t you remember me vanishing in Grade 9? It only makes sense if the past is unchangeable, your trips were always fated, we can’t stop any world wars, and I have no choice but to survive and spend another two years at high school.”

Carrie let that sink in. "So, what... you're saying that if anyone is going to die out here in the woods, it will be me? Thanks!”

"No!" Frank objected. “That is, I didn't mean it that way, only..." He shook his head and waved a hand. “Look, never mind, I don't think it's relevant to the spatial problem. Continue with the story.”

Carrie glared for a long moment before shrugging. “Right, so, I panicked and went over to Julie’s, where there was supposed to be a party, though obviously there wasn’t. Since we only hooked up after my swan broke, her butler didn't even know me. That's when I went back to the ravine and, well, you know the re-- ah-ah-ahCHOO!"

Frank pursed his lips. "So, across a ravine, to the nearest airport, and then to a mystery lake near some woods. What's the pattern?"

"The fact that they lack any common element," Carrie stated bitterly.

"Hunh," Frank verbalized in response. "Well, maybe nature area-metropolitan area-nature area. Meaning we'll end up somewhere populated next time."

"You're grasping at straws," Carrie accused. "Look, this talk isn't helping. We might as well work together at activating the machine, and hope for the best. I’m taking geography, maybe that’ll be useful?”

Frank sighed, pulling out his swiss army knife again. "Well, here's the main tool we have to work with. I was thinking of whittling down a twig too. For that matter, we might want firewood for tonight.” He stood. “I'll be right back." He turned and headed away from the bank of the lake.

"The underbrush is fairly thick that direction, might have better luck spotting stuff closer to the water," Carrie volunteered as he moved off. Frank nodded and changed his direction slightly as he left their small clearing.

'We're a lot worse off than I thought we were,' Carrie thought as he left. This situation was not only beyond her control, it was starting to look like it was beyond the both of them - beyond anyone’s!

Was it time to go into survival mode? Where would they get food and shelter? What about predators, were there any out here? Carrie was unable to hold back another sneeze. They didn't even have tissues. This was bad. "Oh well, can't get worse at this point, can it?" she muttered to herself.

Which was when she heard Frank cry out. “Guess I asked for that,” Carrie groused, standing up and finding the energy to sprint back through the light underbrush in the fading light of late afternoon. "Frank? You okay?" she called out uncertainly.

"Carrie! Watch out, there's a hole,” came a pained reply.

The blonde zeroed in on his voice, paying more attention to the ground. She brought herself up short on the other side of a bunch of bushes. There was indeed a hole of sorts, a drop-off of several feet. With Frank at the bottom. "Are you all right?" she called down.

"I think I'm bleeding," Frank mumbled groggily.

Perfect. Carrie looked around, spotting a more gentle slope on the right. Calling again upon her gymnastic abilities, she slid down and was soon hurrying up to Frank's position. "Why weren't you watching where you were going?" she accused. "The terrain out here isn't totally level."

"How was I to know? Anyway, I got a bit lost in thought," Frank admitted ruefully. "Though speaking of watching, my glasses got knocked off, can you see--"

Crack.

Carrie froze two steps away from Frank and looked back down. She lifted her foot. "Well, this could be funny under other circumstances," Frank finally said dryly.

"Why don't you wear contact lenses like normal people?" Carrie accused as she reached down to pick up the broken spectacles.

"I don't think they're particularly convenient," Frank replied, attempting to stand. He couldn't, and fell back down, wincing. "Besides, I could hardly dip them in saline solution or whatever out here, could I."

Carrie was about to snark back again, but she stopped as she got a good look at her companion for the first time. He was holding his head and his arm had blood visible on the material of his shirt. “Frank, what did you do to yourself?!”

"I bounced twice on the way down?” Frank replied, now looking at his arm too. "Possibly hit a particularly sharp root or part of a rock or something. Feels like I twisted my ankle as well.”

"You really have no sense of timing for these things, do you?" Carrie complained. Shoving Frank's glasses at him and pursing her lips, she bent down a bit to have a look at his wound, opening the tear on his shirt.

“Okay. Looks painful but you haven’t cut any major blood vessels... I can clean it up a little, and use some torn material as a bandage to apply pressure."

As Carrie reached out to tear off the end of Frank's shirt, he flinched back, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, surprisingly enough they teach us health and stuff in Phys Ed!” she explained. "And I listen in class, and you learn bits and pieces while cheering on the sidelines at football games too. So, may I?"

Frank nodded. Carrie started to rudimentarily dress the wound, turning away twice to sneeze. "I don't know what to do about the possibility of infection though," she admitted. "Let's hope you can fix that time machine fairly qui... oh, hell."

Carrie tied off the fabric and sat back to look at Frank. He glanced down at his broken glasses, which were bent with only one lens intact. He then reached up to rub a bump on his head with his good arm. "Yeah, I think we have some additional issues now," Frank sighed, verbalizing her thoughts.