The Ant Returns – Chapters XV, XVI, and Epilogue. (763 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: The_Ant
Rating: 1.73 on 21 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2005-02-16 13:27:27 EST
(Prologue - http://www.ubersite.com/m/57985)
(Chapter I - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58042)
(Chapter II - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58125)
(Chapter III - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58205)
(Chapter IV - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58437)
(Chapter V - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58529)
(Chapter VI - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58649)
(Chapter VII - http://www.ubersite.com/m/58931)
(Chapter VIII - http://www.ubersite.com/m/59032)
(Chapter IX - http://www.ubersite.com/m/59219)
(Chapter X - http://www.ubersite.com/m/59343)
(Chapter XI - http://www.ubersite.com/m/59414)
(Chapters XII & XIII - http://www.ubersite.com/m/59569)
(Chapter XIV - http://www.ubersite.com/m/59681)
==XV - L'oeil Mauvais dans la Pile de la Merde==
Rob followed Pfaltzer down a dark and nearly deserted street, their boots sounding loudly on the cobbles.
Two old ladies were talking in a doorway. They watched the older man stop, turn, and lift his eye patch.
It was no eye in the socket, but a glassy ball holding a fierce yellow light.
"I see youuuu!" Pfaltzer sang, in that unique way only the completely mad can sing.
Rob stopped and instinctively jumped to one side down an alleyway as a sun-bright yellow lance of light streaked toward him, turning night to day and unleashing a fire so intense that when it touched the road superheated cobblestones burst apart.
One of the women crossed herself and cried, "L'oeil mauvais!"
The evil eye is right, Rob thought, peeking around the corner when he heard Pfaltzer running again. What he saw then gave him mixed feelings, a crazy combination of relief and terror.
Stepping out of another alley between a small tailor's shop and a bakery, and glancing about curiously, was Schroedecker, wearing a long fancy coat and high boots.
Rob darted ahead, painfully aware that he could not even come close to running faster than light. He grabbed Schroedecker and pulled him into the doorway of the shop as another blinding burst of flame crackled and snapped around them.
Schroedecker was cursing, flinging his burning coat into the street, snuffing out little flames on the sleeves of his frilly shirt. "New, this coat is. I have only had it on for three minutes and already Ernst has ruined it. Hello Robert."
"Never mind your coat, Doc," Rob said. "How did you get here?"
Schroedecker pointed. "Down the alley. I have a timeball. A prototype like the one Pfaltzer must have used. The timebelt came later."
"Down that alley?" Rob and the doctor watched as Pfaltzer spun on one heel and headed for the time machine.
Together they turned the corner, and halfway down the alley they found a huge pile of shit.
Rob looked around. "Doc? I don't see shit. I mean, shit is all I see. Where is the time machine?"
"There," Schroedecker said as if talking to an imbecile. "No one is going to walk into a stack of animal waste and start rooting about, so, I thought, a good disguise would be a hologra-"
Rob flattened Schroedecker against one wall as fire washed the alley.
Pfaltzer's evil eye glimmered from inside the pile of shit.
"The tailor's shop," Shroedecker said. "We must go there."
"Forget about your fucking coat, doc, it's gone."
Schroedecker shook his head. "No, Robert, the light from Pfaltzer's eye is light, concentrated like a laser beam, that ignites the air and causes the fire, but it is still only light."
Rob frowned and then said, "Gotcha."
He hit the wall they were leaning against and the old masonry crumbled. They both stepped into a dark room. Shelves and racks held massive bolts of cloth. Schroedecker took a few steps and threw aside a heavy curtain.
"You see?" he said.
"Cool," Rob replied.
Pfaltzer saw movement in the alley. He tweaked his artificial eye and triggred the beam in his eyesocket again, this time sending out a pencil-thin ray of light.
He needed Wolgang disabled or dead, but not incinerated. Even inside the time machine, the hologram projector made everything look like shit. He could feel the controls, but he couldn't see them. If he couldn't see them, he couldn't adjust the settings for the return home. Wolf probably had a controller on him, and Pfaltzer needed it.
It was a good thing Pfaltzer had learned to shut his good eye against the brightness when firing the eye-laser, a simple manually-adjusted glass and ceramic device which captured and magnified light before redirecting it in force. Otherwise he would be blind.
Rob stepped into the alley and started running toward the big pile of shit holding a full-length mirror from the tailor's shop. The beam struck the mirror and bounced back at Pfaltzer's artificial eye, blowing the device right out of his eye socket. Rob saw Pfaltzer fall out of the pile of shit with an eye socket full of flames. He whistled, and popped Pfaltzer on the jaw.
Schroedecker peeked into the alley and then ran to the pile of shit. He retrieved a battered old Zenith television remote control from one high boot and pushed a button. The pile of shit became a white sphere. The sphere seemed to be vibrating slightly.
"This thing is making my eyes water," Rob said, as he dragged Pfaltzer's limp form into the time machine.
"Jah," Schroedecker said, switching on a bank of overhead lights. "Me as well. It is a modification. We had theorized that certain components may not survive outside their own time. I came back with another timebelt to the farm you first visited, and saw the remains of your belt. I would have been here sooner but for modifications I had to make on this device, and then I had to wait for an adequate wave to ride along the flow of time. I have set up a protective cocoon of our own time to protect the timeball. But it will not last long. We must go."
Rob stepped inside. The old doctor hit a few buttons on an unsettlingly cheap-looking console and the door started to slide shut. He tried not too look at anything too closely, thinking he might see things jury-rigged to such a degree that he'd crap himself.
Schroedecker said, "Say goodbye to Paris, Robert," but Rob had already turned away from the view.
"More people are going to die tonight, Doc. People I could help."
"The stream of time," the old man said gently. "We cannot interfere, Robert."
"Yeah," Rob whispered. "I know."
Rob heard the doctor say," We are away."
Pfaltzer stirred and groaned. Rob kept an eye on him, hearing little clicks and hums from the display in front of Schroedecker.
There was a juddering shift, and the eye-watering vibrations suddenly stopped.
"Yikes," Schroedecker said quietly.
Rob glared at him. "Yikes? Why yikes?"
"The ravages of time are already having an effect on the timeball. The containment of the time bubble we are in is now unstable. We may not be able to get back to our time."
"Shit, Doc."
Without a sound, gaps started appearing in the walls and ceiling of the time machine. The fluorescent lights inside were so bright that Rob couldn't make out any details beyond the gaps.
Schroedecker started making adjustments on another console. "I am reducing the size of the time bubble we are in. This should help preserve our components longer. The bigger the time bubble, the faster it is affected by time."
"Why is that?"
Schroedecker shrugged. "As you Americans like to say, 'beats me.'"
The curved walls and door of the timeball suddenly vanished, and Rob was staring at an undulating red and pink nothingness that made his stomach turn. He felt like a turd about to be passed.
They were standing on a metal floor, under a single flickering light dangling from a length of pvc tubing, holding onto consoles and metal casings. There was nothing else. Schroedecker turned a valve on a yellow cylinder and Rob heard a hissing noise.
"Don't tell me. We're running out of air?"
Schroedecker looked sheepish. "It's a theory."
A section of flooring disappeared from under Rob's left foot and he shuffled closer to the two old men.
"This is getting intense, Doc!"
The light winked out. Rob and Schroedecker hunched over. Just in case.
"We're into the twentieth century now," Schroedecker said. "Our destination is close- Ernst! No!"
Something grazed the back of Rob's neck and he turned to see Pfaltzer lurching to his feet, half his face burned and disfigured.
With twisted flesh encircling the exposed bone of his eyesocket, Rob thought Pfaltzer looked like Colonel Glenn Manning in that fifties flick War of the Colossal Beast.
One of Pfaltzer's hands was slick with Rob's blood. Without a word Pfaltzer licked his hand and spat, and then he stepped away and vanished into time.
"Seventy-four," Schroedecker said. "Nineteen seventy-four. January. That is where Ernst is now."
Great, Rob thought. Just before I was born. But if Pfaltzer had fucked with him back then, or prevented his birth, would he still be here now? Or would he simply pop out of existence like a soap bubble the moment Schroedecker shut off the time machine?
The floor suddenly dropped out from under Rob. He cursed and grabbed at one of the consoles as his boots were sucked off of his feet, and then he was squinting in the sun, dry leaves crackling under his knees, the remains of the time machine resting in the woods fifty feet from his house. His boots were nearby, dried with age, and covered with moss and spider webs.
"Home," Schroedecker said. "And the timeline is as it should be."
"How can you be sure?" Rob asked.
"You would not be here if things had not been put right."
Rob stood and looked around. Everything seemed to be as it was.
The time machine, what was left of it, was coming apart.
Schroedecker pulled back one frilly shirtsleeve, exposing a half-dozen watches, a mix of analogue and digital, self-winding and battery-powered. "It is 50 seconds after you left here. If you wash and change clothes quickly, Robert, your pretty wife will notice nothing."
Nothing except the cut on the back of my neck, Rob thought. And the wonderful collection of bruises and scrapes I have. Not to mention a big letter P branded into my flesh, and a stab wound inside it. This is gonna take some explaining.
Schroedecker plucked the ceramic ring from Rob's ear, and pulled a length of chain out of his shirt. At the end of the chain around the old man's neck was Rob's wedding ring. He freed it from the chain and held it out.
Rob was glad to slip it back on his finger. "Well, Doc," he said. "It's been an adventure."
Schroedecker nodded. "I will not need to remove that," he said, indicating the remains of his time machine. "Since this time is earlier, if only by a few hours, than the time of my departure to which it should have returned, it will soon fall away to nothingness."
"Well." Rob said.
The old man nodded. "I must be going. I have parked down the road a car and a change of clothes, so I will be fine."
Rob said nothing. Schroedecker had just put him through hell, again, but he couldn't bring himself to tell the old timer off. He walked with Schroedecker to the driveway, and then gave a wave as the doc started down the gravel path to the main road.
Schroedecker paused about ten feet away, then turned and spoke. "I have no family Robert. The few friends I had are all now gone. I know I have changed, in many bad ways, your life... but if I could, I would like to be able to visit you. From time to time."
Rob scratched his chin. "Why?"
"To sit, listen to the birds in the trees, relax in good company. I enjoy your presence, young man." Schroedecker looked at his feet, then at Rob again. "Would it be okay?"
Rob thought about it. It might be a kick to sit and shoot the breeze with the old man. He was a pretty funny guy when he wasn't getting both of them into messes that made Rob want to wring his neck. Besides, who else could he discuss this shit with? He shrugged.
"Sure. But phone next time, Doc. Okay?"
Schroedecker grinned and clapped his hands. "Oh-kay!" Then he turned and marched down the driveway and out of sight.
==La Cinquième Partie==
J'ai survécu la révolution française...
et tout que j'ai obtenu était ce t-shirt stupide!
Father Time is not always a hard parent.
-Charles Dickens
==Chapter XVI - Home Again==
Things were back to normal after a few weeks. Megan had gone off the deep end when she saw the shape Rob was in, and it took a few days for him to convince her that he was fine.
Schroedecker mailed a package to Rob, a book of mysterious and unexplained phenomena published a few years back by Barnes & Noble. One chapter was highlighted, and it could very well have been an account of Pfaltzer's arrival in France, describing a mysterious man who appeared in a large sphere outside the village of Alençon* during the revolution.
Rob and Megan went over to her brother Jonathan's house just down the road and spent a few days on the computer, searching for information on the town of Pont Chandon.
There was no Pont Chandon, but there was a Chandon Source... Chandon Springs.
Some enterprising schoolchildren had set up an informative website about their little town, and Rob was able to take a virtual tour of a place now famous for the purity of the waters in its underground spring. He saw pictures of a rebuilt old bridge, and the shattered steps of the oldest church in the area, Sacré-Coeur de Sainte-Madeleine, both of which were said to have been damaged during the revolution.
Searching for information on the Bas family, Rob discovered that Justine had entered a convent and become a nun, professing that God had sent an angel to protect her from evil. She did many charitable works during her life, and every year Chandon Springs held a fundraiser for the homeless in her name, Sister Agatha.
Etienne married, and had children, and maintained the farm outside town while profiting from the spring on his land. As Etienne learned soon after the mysterious disappearance of Robert, the land he was living on and tending had been deeded to his family by Monsieur Collison. By the time of his death he had paid off of the Bas family's debts, and L'Eau Chandon was being distributed throughout France.
The Chandon Springs website had a selection of links to places of local interest and Rob clicked on one after another, seeing many familiar sights.
One of the links took him to the Musée des Objects Curiouse du Chandon Sources. The museum was quite small, and many of the pictures of oddities contained within were of poor quality, but one of the photographs shot and scanned by curator Robert Bas, showed a display case containing the threadbare remains of Rob's oxidized Ant costume, minus the melted-away helmet and boots and electronics. The woven metallic shreds and the remains of the battered gauntlets were described simply as 'Armor of the Gods.' The display had been labeled a poor historical prank by many authorities, but the museum curator insisted they were genuine pieces of history.
*http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/articlealencon.shtml
==Epilogue: The Seeds of a Great Tale==
A boy's story is the best that is ever told.
-Charles Dickens
Bayham Street, Camden Town 1822
"...and that is what I saw, laddie!"
The boy clapped his hands with delight.
The Captain sat back in his chair, his tale at an end. The fire was dying down and he began to nod off.
The boy stared at the fire with hazy eyes, lost in thought.
What a wonderful story! I would love to retell it, and perhaps I will. But if I do, I will leave out all of the Captain's fantasies and exaggerations, and make the mysterious stranger an Englishman, a normal man who perishes in the guillotine to save the life of the Frenchman, his cousin, perhaps. That would make the story all the more real, and gripping.
"I'm off, Captain Stout," the boy said, hopping to his feet.
"Good lad," the old man murmured. "Off with you now. It's late, and I do not want to incur the wrath of your mother for keeping you here."
The boy paused in the doorway. "May I come again, Captain, and hear other tales of your travels?"
The Captain nodded and exclaimed, "Of course! You have a good ear and a quiet mouth, what every storyteller wants before him. Come hell or high water, my door will always be open to young Charles Dickens!"
The End.
User Reviews
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-08-03 12:12:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Supreme Overlord damage control...
Submitted by Supreme_Overlord (user info) at 2005-07-21 22:26:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
shite
Submitted by horse87 (user info) at 2005-02-17 18:28:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm in a good mood today...
Here, have another +2 .....
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-02-17 12:58:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by FuckTheArmy (user info) at 2005-02-16 21:51:27 (#)
Ranking: 2
This magnificent piece presents a problem.
Where does one go after conquering a mountain?
----------------------
well said.
Submitted by Mitchapalooza (user info) at 2005-02-17 08:32:28 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
yawn (i like consistency).
Oh and i read the few chapters i'd missed... i left a present for you on each.
Submitted by FuckTheArmy (user info) at 2005-02-16 21:51:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This magnificent piece presents a problem.
Where does one go after conquering a mountain?
Submitted by horse87 (user info) at 2005-02-16 19:36:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Bravo!
Okay......what's next?
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2005-02-16 16:51:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
*tear*
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-02-16 16:22:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
...it's a sequel.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-02-16 16:21:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Adjomak, if there's one thing I dislike...
Submitted by Adjomak (user info) at 2005-02-16 16:06:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Monsieur, you have an excellent ending, but does this give Pfzalter another chance to return? I think Rob's had all he can take
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2005-02-16 16:00:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You are my hero!
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2005-02-16 15:30:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
une autre séries spectaculaire! Bravo Jack!
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2005-02-16 15:04:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't know if I should give this a +2.
I mean, I respect Mitch's opinion so much, he is so smart and all.....jeez. Whatever shall I do?
An excellent ending.
Submitted by HZRD (user info) at 2005-02-16 14:16:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
*bows* thanks, master!
Submitted by stardamage (user info) at 2005-02-16 14:09:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This whole series was fantastic.
+857943759289084543 if I could. +2 will have to do.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-02-16 13:59:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Looks like Mitchapalooza methodically went back 9 hours ago and -2d ALL the earlier chapters that he missed dropping his '-2 Yawn' comment on.
For someone who doesn't care for the stories, he sure went out of his way.
Of course, it isn't spite. It's just his opinion.
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-02-16 13:57:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Thank you
Thank you for not posting about penises
Thank you for writing something worth reading
Just Thank you
Submitted by EatMeCompletely (user info) at 2005-02-16 13:49:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No comment necessary. Besides, I wouldn't want to inflate your ego. Great fucking story!
EMC
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-02-16 13:47:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by garcon_fou (user info) at 2005-02-16 13:38:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Ahhhhh, that was good.