Chapter 3

Chapter 3
At first it was impossible to tell exactly what time of day it was by the sun since it seemed to be unmoving, and I didn’t feel like asking Erin. After an hour or so, it started to creep downwards for a sneak attack on the horizon opposite the mountain. We had been walking for what seemed like an eternity, but it couldn’t have been an eternity; things were just so quiet between us that it made everything seem very strained. Even if we weren’t in dead silence, I doubt I’d be able to tell how far we’ve walked or how far we had to go.
I’ve driven fifty miles before in just about no-time. That is, breaking a few laws. Walking, now that’s a different story. I had no idea how far it really was until I finally decided to ask Erin.
“How far are we now?”
“We’ve gone about two miles.” Came her reply.
Silently my head exploded in frustration.
“What?! We’ve been walking for almost an hour! At least I think it’s been an hour!”
“You have to understand, we’re walking down a mountain. If we were on flat ground in optimal condition we probably would have gotten much further already without any effort at all. It’ll only get harder when we get to the woods. We really have no choice as to which way to go, this way is simply very direct, and we can count that as a blessing. The best thing to do is try to pass the time on the way.”
“Oh. Okay. Well this sucks.”
Pass the time. Pass the time? How? I mean, we could try talking. But then again, I didn’t really have any idea what to talk about. I never talked to anyone in school really, it wasn’t worth my time. Everyone was so boring and talking about dumb things like relationships or high school drama, and there was no point to even try to talk to them and stay out of that kind of crap. So here I was, completely at a loss with a gorgeous girl who actually interested me and I have no idea what to talk about. What a moron.
A thought came to mind just then.
Oh right, she’s a time traveler. I could ask about tha-
“I can’t tell you anything more about the future or how to time travel, I just got the orders. Sorry Grim.” She frowned.
The question for me was, how did they know I was gonna ask? Maybe, I already did, and they sent the orders back to change the past. She might have told me in another version of reality and caused something that her higher-ups didn’t want to happen, and therefore they solved it by preventing her from telling me anything. Well if I don’t ask this time around, would they have sent the orders? If I was prevented from asking, then they have no further need to send orders back. Bah. Damn paradoxes. This is confusing and more confusing the more my train of thought moves on. Why is everything confusing now? I’m supposed to be smart. Alright, whatever. I’ll get over it.
What now? We can’t talk about time travel or anything, and I’m out of ideas already. I want to punch myself in the face, I’m being so stupid. Hmm. I could ask her.
“So if you can’t tell me about that, what can you tell me?”
“Well it would be a mistake to ask for information and an explanation. I can give the information to an extent, just not the explanation. Are you sure you want to hear any of this? “
“Of course I am”
“There’s not much. I could tell you that you’re important and that’s why I’m protecting you. Or I could tell you that this isn’t the first time we’ve met. Well for me at least. I think I might have met you earlier in your life, but in the future for me. I don’t know,” She stated.
“What? You haven’t met me before. This is the first time.”
“Yes, the first time for you. I’ve met you before at different times in your future already.”
“Oh. That’s annoying.”
“Well at least it’s not your job.”
She had a good point. I was silent again after that. There really was no path into the woods, so we had to hack and slash our way through the thicket. Walking got harder as we got to the foot hills, adding elevation to a mixing pot of traveling worries. It was similar to climbing sand dunes made of wood and prickly bushes. Everything was certainly very green, and the surrounding emptiness made the atmosphere eerie. The wind wasn’t prevalent because of the trees, and there was a blanket of quiet lain over the forest. Only a few birds chirped once in a blue moon. We walked for a while, I couldn’t tell how long this period was until Erin said,
“Let's camp here for tonight.”
What? I hadn’t even noticed the sun setting. I turned back to see the mountain still relatively close. Damn it. We had come to a clearing in the trees with enough fallen branches to use as fire wood.
I guess we can stop here.
“I don’t have any tents or anything, so we’ll have to make do.” Erin busily went about gathering firewood.
I moaned. Okay. I helped her get a decent campsite together, if by decent you mean horrible. As we had just finished clearing a good spot in the woods, night was heavily upon us and the moon began its trek across the sky. I had just gathered another bundle of firewood when I heard a snap, and turned around to a fully lit fire.
“Did you even have any matches?”
“That’s classified.”
“Okay, fine. What about food?”
“That’s classified.”
“Are you freakin’ serious?!”
She gave a mischievously gleeful smile. “Nope.”
I sighed.
“That’s not funny.”
We laughed over these stupid antics and then I managed to find a nice, solid looking piece of root infested ground to lie on. After collapsing into an uncomfortable position just near-enough to the fire so that I didn’t burst into flame, I threw my head back and let out a sigh.
“It’s gonna take so long to get there.” I said to myself.
“That’s okay though, I think,” Erin replied anyways.
“Hmm?”
“Well,” she continued, “Look.” She pointed upwards. “The stars are out winking at us.”
When I glanced up, I saw a real sight; it was beautiful. I was ashamed I hadn’t noticed until she mentioned them. Just at the horizon there was a dim scarlet hue from the sun laying its big fat head to sleep, and the rest of the sky was dark velvet, embroidered with billions of twinkling lights. They were uncountable, I had never seen so many. Living in society, I was sort of conditioned to pay attention to all the insignificant crap that went on, and even if I noticed the sky, there were never this many stars; my home was too near the city’s light pollution. It was amazing.
I never imagined the sky could have so many freckles.
“Hey. Since we’ve got a while to go, let’s enjoy it while we can. It’s the first break from paperwork I’ve gotten in a long time.”
Now that is an award winning thought process, I’m sick of all the boring crap anyways.
“I concur.”
We sat there next to the cackling fire as it giggled and spurted with insanity to itself, and we watched the freeze-frame universal fireworks from too far away together. There was just enough breeze so that we wouldn’t be too hot during the night, and the fire had enough embers to keep us warm. I tried to think of something to talk about for a long time, but I couldn’t manage it. I still had so much sand to sift through; too much idle bother that I was so used to letting occupy my mind during school.
“I always notice the stars when I come back here. In our time you can’t see them at all unless you’re in one spacecraft or another. There’s less pollution on the earth, but more lights, more buildings, more people. It’s actually silly. People who recognize me as a time traveler ask me if I’ve seen the stars before because they don’t have any space crew to ask.”
“Oh. Why not?” I questioned.
“Well they’re up in space, or on other planets. I had wanted to go as a kid. When my father dragged me along, I became attached to this world. I think that’s what I’m not allowed to advance in rank at all. Time travelers aren’t supposed to become attached to anything in the past because we’re not supposed to interact at all. I’m not ashamed of it though, there are so many great things here.”
I laughed out loud at that.
“The only great things here that I’ve discovered have been certain sodas, heavy metal bands and now you.”
She was quiet for a while. I was afraid that I had offended her or something. When she spoke again, her voice was very soft as if she were afraid I’d hear.
“What about that mountain? These hills? What about these stars and everything around us? To me, these are so precious. The earth in the future has no space for trees anymore, no scenic views. The only places to see those anymore are in museums floating in orbit, and you have to be rich to get there and see those kinds of photographs. Could you imagine if where we were right now was covered in buildings and skyscrapers, roads and forums? We’re currently lying on the inside of just one more city of the future earth.”
“If there’s so many buildings and no trees, how does the Earth process carbon dioxide?” I felt like an environmentalist at that moment, and frowned at myself.
“They have wind-catcher buildings that do basically what trees do. It’s like a windmill with no fan, it just converts CO2 to Oxygen and a measure of energy.”
That’s really depressing; having no trees on earth. She stopped again for a bit, and I spoke out.
“The people of this Earth never learned to value what they have, because they can’t believe in their reality being so abstract from what it currently is; they can’t imagine what future generations will have to deal with. I tried to force myself away from any involvement in things like that, because there’s no room for fruition. The God damn politicians and Mr. and Mrs. Big Suits all turned the problem into political controversy; so nothing gets done, and it’s all about arguing and having a reason to hate your friends.”
She glanced over at me as if the thought was abstract, and then she gave a look that seemed like “oh yeah, we are in the past now that I think about it.” She spoke out again to me.
“I think I do have something to regret after all.”
“Hmm? What’s that?”
“I regret not being able to live here, not being able to care too much about the people I spend the most time with, and not being able to hang onto what I find important unless it’s safely put away in the future.”
Her face seemed covered in shadows from the light of the fire. I wish I could comfort her.
Time passed like a slug in the dark and silence, and I still had wanted to talk, but I didn’t know what about; I just knew that I wanted to talk more before I fell asleep.
After a while I thought of something.
“Hey, Erin. I have a question.”
“What is it, Grim?”
“Remember how you said you’ve met me before? What did you mean?”
“Well let’s see…” she was counting something on her fingers.
“The first time I met you will be in a few months from now for you. You seemed a lot different at that time. I don’t know how to explain it really.”
“Different?”
“You were, well… sad. I don’t know why, but I was worried at the time. You said you had met me already, twice. You also said you were sorry, but you wouldn’t explain why. I didn’t know what to make of it.” She paused for a bit. “Oh yeah, you also told me to tell you something when you reach the void-zone.”
I lay silent for a bit. It was a good bit of thinking to absorb and process.
“I guess I can’t convince you to tell me about it now, huh.”
“That’s classified.”
After that it was silent yet again. Erin seemed as deep in thought as I was, and distressed at some idea. When she’s upset, I tend to be upset too, I noticed.
I had my own thoughts to fight with though. For one thing, I couldn’t imagine what I was supposed to hear from myself. For another thing, I was lost and it’s only been a day, but it feels like it’s been an entire week. In my mind, I knew things can’t stay peaceful too long; After all, there was still Odin to be accounted for.
Another brilliant idea came to mind.
“Hey Erin.”
…
“Yeah?”
“In the future, what am I to you?”
…
…….
……….

After a while I could hear her breathing get more even.
I whispered at her as she slumbered.
“Good night kid.”
I drifted off into sleep. I woke again at what must have been midnight, or maybe 2:00 AM. The fire had dimmed enough to let the stars illuminate everything instead. I looked over to see Erin lying where she had been, and shivering. A strange thought took over my mind for the first time I could ever remember; an alien emotion. I took off my shirt, but not my undershirt, and put it on Erin’s small sturdy frame as a blanket to ward off the cold.
I didn’t know what to think of my feelings anymore, I had never cared about anyone; and what I did had just been instinctual. I felt ache at the thought of having less emotional guard against the cold and bitter heart of human kind that I’ve always known, but for once I was more worried about someone other than my stupid self. I hope she doesn’t get a cold or anything.
I left the campsite, and found another clearing in the trees, and spent the rest of the lonesome night craning my neck up at the stars in deep thought. I sat with my head on my knees when I saw the horizon darken before starting to get its morning dosage of illumination. I was worn out from the long night, so I walked back to the campsite, and found Erin still sound asleep. I guess I ought to try and sleep before she wakes up and we start moving. I felt very lucid and out of ideas to think. Having a blank plate isn’t so bad all the time. When I had lain my head back to the warm earth near the dying embers, I didn’t realize just how full my head had been of tiredness and a cry for sleep.
I was gone after a few minutes, for a good sleep after a strange day.