Quantum Report, New Scifi, work in progress, a time travel romp, Free entertainment

Of course it was the fallout, in lesser doses mind you, that had caused the increase in psychic abilities amongst the populace to begin with. These wild talents had also made it necessary to identify as well as mold these talents from a very early age. This also limited the need for containment of individuals who did not know how to harness their potentially destructive talents.
Looking over at Charlotte, who was staring down at me with obvious concern I whispered “Thanks.” She nodded, looking toward the door fearfully. “Charlotte, I’m going to pass out here for awhile. It might even appear that I am dead, don’t worry though, I won’t be. Just try and watch over me okay?” She nodded, as if there was anything else she could be doing.
I sat back, leaning against the wall as I tried to find the most comfortable position possible. With a broken arm and possibly shoulder as well, this proved difficult. Finally I decided I must be trying too hard, and then made myself slowly relax. om mani padme hum I said, my voice was soft at first, barely a whisper. Each time I repeated the mantra though, my verbalization became louder and clearer.
With each repetition I felt my body relax more, until I was completely disassociated from it, with all of its pains and desires. I turned mentally forward, toward the front of my mind and self, mustering all of my mental energy to that one point of being. I did not even have time to begin the next step, that of visualization of the door I would need to step out of my body, when I found myself flung outward and away from it. I had projected my soul out of my body much faster than I ever had in the past, and the ease of the process through me off guard.

There were a myriad of reasons as to how this was possible, being closer to dying than I ever had in my past being as good of one as any other. I looked back at my body. It was a wreck, even worse than I had realized when I was in it. I silently wondered if the difficulty would be in entering back into my body this time, instead of vacating it. For one wild moment, I wanted to leap back into that husk, to reanimate it and occupy it once again, despite all of its shortcomings. Instead I turned and faced the sealed door in front of me, and walked through it. There was a long hallway outside of the room I had been kept in. Many other doors with bars lined it. My first guess had been right; the creatures had taken over an abandoned jail of some sort. This was a little more comforting than the possibility of them utilizing tools and designing their own pen.
Over half of the cells were occupied, and most of the inhabitants inside of them were in as deplorable state as I myself was, or worse. I stopped, uncertain as to what to do next, which way to go to try and figure out an escape plan. It was this uncertainty that ended up saving my life. When I finally decided on a direction to head, my thoughts were interrupted by an overhead crackle, as the speakers kicked on. Fear overtook the inhabitants of the cells, as they wondered if it would be them that would be picked for the bad karma lottery this day.
A scampering sound alerted me to their presence first. I turned around and watched as three slow muties made their way down the hall, sniffing furiously at each cell door that they passed. I followed them ghost-like as they decided which one of their captives they would feast on. Then they stopped in unison in front of one door, their sharp talons twitching and scratching the floor in excitement, eager to rip into flesh. I looked on in horror, as I realized the door they had stopped in front of was the one I had walked through only moments before. A loud clanking noise echoed from the door and down the hall as it opened slightly. The creatures howled with delight, as the girl who shared the cell with me screamed in pure terror.

Chapter 23
I did not hesitate to think about what to do next. Such hesitation would surely have led down a different quantum path, one presumably cut much shorter than the one I was on. I lunged forward, leaping at the last creature, which happened to be the one closest to me. My insubstantial form did nothing to harm the creature, at least physically. Still, the results were immediate. My energy melded into the body of the creature, which stiffened immediately at the intrusion. Fierce chaotic thoughts railed against me, as it struggled to rebuff my attempt at possessing it. The creatures mind was strong even in its depraved condition. Bloodlust and anger filled me, almost to the boiling point. Such rage and hunger I had never experienced in my life. The need to sate its inhuman appetite came over me, to rip, maim and slaughter the pitiful lambs that were in the next room waiting. The struggle was titanic as it used every primordial ounce of energy at its disposal to rebuff me. For a moment I was almost lost in that sea of crimson thought that swirled inside its ghoulish head. Then that moment was gone, and with every ounce of energy I could muster I surged inward more, concentrating myself into whatever twisted nether region of its brain that controlled its motor movements. I could not completely erase the creatures mind and send it away, but I found that I could subjugate it temporarily.
After what felt like an eternity, the struggle was over. I knew it still lurked somewhere in the background of my mind, the beast that was waiting to lunge again when it saw the chance for the quick kill. Hunger so intense that it damn near crippled me washed over my consciousness as I completely took over. That too I had to push away, to ignore completely as I focused on the task at hand. One of the creatures had almost reached the girl, who at the moment was still screaming in hysteria.
I leapt forward, almost missing my target as I soared through the air much faster than I had anticipated. The strength hidden in the creatures’ gaunt looking body was amazing. I slammed into the first one with such force that I could hear its vertebrae snap as we hit the wall behind the girl with such force that the mortar crumbled. Its upper limbs flailed savagely, as its lower ones went limp. The girl was smart, and scrambled out of the way of those limbs that still reached for her. I twisted the head of the mutie back and forth, ripping flesh with both claws and sheer strength until I had separated its head from its torso.
Sharp pain lanced through me from a myriad of wounds as the other creature laid into my exposed back with abandon. I howled in a mixture of triumph and pain as I whipped around to confront my attacker. Using the other creatures head as a tool, I bashed forward at my attacker. My aim was true, but so was its. Both craniums exploded in a sickening display as blood, bone and brain tissue splattered the room around us. I had no time or cause for celebration however. The creatures last attack had opened up my hosts abdominal cavity. I dropped to my knees as its innards promptly vacated through the open fissure its attack had left behind.

As its life essence faded away, I vacated the body along with it. My entry back into my own body at that point was not by choice or happenstance, rather my energy was snapped back into my body with as much force and momentum as a rubber band would after having been drawn tight, then released. Aches and pains that I had forgotten about while I had been freed from my mortal coil enveloped me, though truth be told it was much more pleasant than the hunger and insanity I had felt while melded with the monster who now lay dead upon the floor. I felt sapped, drained both mentally and physically in ways I had never thought possible. Charlotte approached me warily, her eyes still wide in terror at the grotesque carnage she had just witnessed.
“That was you wasn’t it?” She asked, the tremble in her voice mirroring her body as it shook violently. “How did you do that?”
“No time for that now, we have to get out of here. You’re going to have to help me.” I said. Even with her help, I had little hope of us surviving another confrontation like the one we had just experienced.

It took her two attempts to try and help me to a standing position. The room swam visibly as I struggled to retain my balance and conscious thought. We tread carefully through the gore stained cell, lest one slip send us both tumbling. Once we entered the hallway the quiet that had dominated the air following the battle was broken.
“Help me” a voice cried out, sounding hoarse and weak. It was followed by a myriad of other pleas for help that issued from the other cells adjoining the hall. We staggered toward the right hand passage of the hall, relying on pure luck, as even my honed intuition was not to be trusted in my weakened condition. I had not had any time to explore beyond the hall when I had left my body behind, so at that point it was left to fate as to what would be around the next corner.
Thankfully, luck was with us. If there were any other abominations amongst the pack they were out hunting more food to stock their larder. We discovered a control room, with various switches and controls that operated the doors and inter-com of the facility. After flipping all of the levers to open the doors Charlotte helped into the next room. This one was large, with an opening where the remains of a set of double doors that had long ago been broken lay scattered around it. The creatures had used it as a haphazard storage area. My hover-bike was lying on its side near one corner of the room. Beside it, lay my blaster, as well as two pulse rifles which looked to be standard issue for hunters. The creatures had not gone through the contents of the storage areas on the bike, and with Charlottes help I managed to retrieve the sealed bags of food that I had brought with me for the trip I had planned.
We ate ravenously. The first few swallows of nutria-paste was delicious as it slid down my parched throat. Moments later, I nearly doubled over as my stomach cramped, curling up like an angry fist. It had been well over ten days since my body had taken in any source of nutrition, and my stomach had shrunk as my body had started to consume itself. Several seconds later I forced myself to swallow more. Looking over, I saw the girl had experienced the same sensations while eating.
As the pangs and cramps receded I eyed the opening to the outside warily. Any moment I expected the rest of the pack to come tearing into the room, smelling our fear and filth long before they would lay eyes on us.
“We have to go help the others.” I said, my voice sounding as dry as the desert wind. Charlotte merely nodded agreement, as she held one hand to her stomach. Several more minutes passed, as we waited for the last of the cramping to fade. I took my blaster and slowly got back to my feet. I swooned, nearly falling again from the sudden vertigo. Charlotte helped steady me, until I felt that I had the energy to move on. I took a moment longer to stuff more of the nutria-paste down my throat, then put the rest of the packets into my suits various cargo pockets.
It’s amazing what a little bit of nutrition can do for you, even after several days of not receiving any. Even the strongest of men can be kept immobile and docile, if you starve them long enough. Charlotte took one of the pulse rifles and strapped it across her back, then took the other and held it at the ready as we made our way back down the hall of horrors we had just escaped from.

Three of the prisoners had already left their cells. One of them looked up as we approached and let out an involuntary gasp. “Shit, it’s him.” He said to the other two. All three of them stopped in their tracks, eyeing me with open suspicion.
I brought the blaster up with my one good arm, leveling it on the first one. It felt heavy, like some weight that wanted to drag my arm back down. “What do you mean its him? Who in the fuck are you?” I said, trying to sound tough, though my voice was so hoarse by that point it was little more than a croak. The man stopped in his tracks, looking over at the other two. Uncertainty was mirrored in all of their stares, coupled with open defiance. Usually I would have preferred not to resort to violence, but after what I had been through I felt it was the way to get the answers I wanted. My unseen adversary had this time sent others to do his dirty work, and I was quickly tiring of his interference in my life. I dropped the blaster slightly, squeezing the trigger as I did so. The plasma bolt had almost no recoil to speak of, but maintaining my grip on it after firing seemed damn near impossible at the moment.
The man closest to me screamed as he fell, a near perfect hole having opened in the meaty part of his leg as blood blossomed forth, staining his dirty anti-rad suit a crimson hue. He continued to scream as he clutched both sides of his leg, trembling uncontrollably.
“You just shot an agent Ryder, mandatory life sentence for that one.” One of the other two said. He had blazing red hair and a freckled complexion. “Just drop the blaster and we can work this out.” He continued, approaching me as he spoke.
“One more step and you’re joining your friend Red.” I said, trying to sound casual, as if I was used to this kind of thing. I think a part of me meant it too.
A loud crashing sound from the entryway to the facility changed everything. The two remaining agents looked at me in desperation. “Just give me the fucking gun Ryder, like I said we can work this out. They’re fucking coming man.” Red said, with real fear in his voice.
Caught between the enemy I knew, and the enemy I did not, my mind raced for answers on a way to escape the dilemma. My body was near the point of collapse, and I knew I could endure a sustained confrontation, whether with the flesh eating creatures approaching from behind, nor from the agents who sought my capture. At that point I did the only thing I could. I leapt. My body faded as my cells dematerialized, guided by the instinct of self preservation into some distant quantum possibility. This time however, Charlotte went with me.

Chapter 24
I knew that this time I must have died, my cells divided and spread so thin across the multi-verse that they would never have a chance to recoup into another form, even in some distant timeline. If that was true then I mused, then how would I be having conscious and rational thought. With that in mind I awoke, to pain and weakness. Murmurs and gasps, followed by a hooting noise and several grunts seemed to echo all around me. I felt warmth, heat even, and smelled a smell that I had not smelled since I was a child. Somewhere, a campfire was nearby. In my weakened condition, it was comforting. I tried to open my eyes, which were crusted shut. When I was able to open them, my eyesight was bleary and strained. It took me some time before I could actual see anything of my surroundings.
The first thing I saw was Charlotte, she was looking down at me, with a slightly sardonic smile on her face.
“This is getting to be too familiar. Let’s not do this again okay?” She said. Her voice sounded good, and she appeared healthier than what I remembered her appearance as being when we had escaped the prison and certain death. There was a maturity to her also that she did not seem to have either. Maybe it was the experiences she had been forced to endure, or not being in a state of constant fear. Regardless, I was just happy to be alive, and to have someone I knew, if only briefly, with me.
“How long was I out?” I asked, hoping it was only a few hours, but inwardly knowing it was worse than that.
“Three weeks.” She said, looking at me intently. “You almost died twice. Luckily we were able to bring your fever down with some of the local plants.”
“We?” I asked, “Who else is here?”
It was at that moment that a head popped into view above hers. The face was dirty, with a swarthy complexion hiding behind the dirt suggested almost a brown color. Her hair was dark brown and matted, wild looking and unkempt. She looked down at me and grinned, revealing large stained teeth protruding from her gums. She then started making bizarre chirping and whooping sounds, looking back behind her.
I was about to ask Charlotte where she had encountered this obviously deranged lady when she returned, and with others. All of them were of similar features and levels of hygiene I noticed. The men grunted, looking at me with a mix of fear and loathing, while the women seemed all too happy as they hooted and chirped to each other. It was then I noticed their clothing. Almost all of it was made from skins of various creatures.
“When we appeared, they thought we were gods.” Charlotte said, smiling openly. “We appeared here in their cave. It was quite the uproar at first. I had to shoot the plasma rifle in the ceiling in order to calm them down. I think I invented the first smoke hole in the process as well.”

I looked over the gathered group again, looking for similarities in facial structure to my own. They were very few, other than the basics. If I had to guess right, it wasn’t a matter of where we were, but rather when. If I was a betting man I was guessing at least twenty thousand years before my own time. I tried to laugh at the absurdity of it, but it came out as a groan. Throwing my arm over my eyes, I went back into the world of dreams.
For the next five days I continued to mend. The food was good, even though I never had the energy to get up and find out exactly what we were eating. The exotic flavors and smells of the meat and plants provided to us was overwhelming, compared to the bland nutria-paste of my time. During this time I continued to learn more about Charlotte, and the situation we now found ourselves in.
She had been a school teacher, in her first year out of the Academy when she had been abducted by the slow muties. Her class had been on a field trip to a small copse of woods that was a rarity for the day and age we lived in. It had been well away from any hot zone, and the armed agent that had escorted the class should have been a deterrent to danger. Instead, they had found themselves ambushed by a half dozen creatures. The guard had been the first to go, taken out so quickly and quietly that she had not even realized anything was wrong until the children had started screaming.
I did not make her finish the rest of that tale. As shook up as her features became when recounting that day was enough to make even the reporter in me not dare to ask her for the details. When not helping me gain back my health and strength, she spent time with the tribe that we had become the guests of. She learned their words quickly, creating a game out of identifying various objects, to help create a common ground of language. Her approach to it indicated the level of intellect of the woman whom fate had deemed to throw me onto the same path as. Most people would have struggled to force those that they perceived as being intellectually inferior to them toward their way of thinking and processing. She had taken a different approach, trying to grasp and assimilate what they used for language, to better her own attempts at communication with them. Her way worked much better. Even I could not begin to understand the utterances they made while talking to each other. Of course, in my defense I had been unconscious for much of the time we had spent with them.

After a week had passed, I was able to get up from the haphazard bed of skins and grasses they had made for me. The tribe had become friendlier as Charlottes mastery of the language had grown. She had even taught me what a few of the sounds that they made indicated. From what I could gather, everything in their language was mono-syllabic. Objects were referred to with simple grunts and hoots, as well as whistles and growls. This made me reconsider my previous estimation of how far back we had been flung in time. Earlier I had presumed at least twenty thousand years. Now, after having been immersed within their daily lives for a week I had to guess it was closer to fifty thousand.
Even with their crude behavior, and lack of hygiene, I had to admit that in some ways they were even more human than some people I had witnessed in what was known as the modern era. What they lacked in superior intellect, they made up for with a sense of compassion and morality that was almost child-like. Food was shared evenly, with everyone getting enough. This was a far cry from what I had been taught from documentaries. Quantum reports had been attempted to delve this deep into the past, yet had ultimately ended in failure. The super computers of our day could only calculate enough quantum possibilities to send us a few hundred years into the past. This was thanks to our crystal chip technology, which could store and process over a thousand times what the chips of the prewar world could produce. Still, I noted, even travel back into another person in the past was possible only if there was only a one percent variation in their code. If this rule held true for my new found power, then the possibility existed that one of these beings here was in my family tree.
My train of thought was interrupted by Charlotte. She sidled up beside me and smiled. “Looks like your thinking about something.”
I nodded, explaining to her the process of quantum reporting as best I could. I was struggling myself to understand, so I naturally fell back to the old foundation of rules and dogma I had been taught while at the Academy.
“So what you’re saying is that none of what has happened is even feasible with our present technology?” Charlotte asked, scowling. “Then how in the hell do you plan on getting us back?”
“I’m not sure.” I admitted, somewhat sheepishly. “I’ve only done this twice, and both times were different. The first time I was thinking of my dad, then next thing you know I’m riding along with him on the mission that almost got him killed. This time I just wanted to get us as far away from danger as I could.”
Charlottes scowl shifted into a smirk. “Well, you sure managed that.” She said, eyeing the rock walls of the cave we had shared with the tribe for over a month.

Chapter 25
A lot can happen in five years. Nations can rise and fall, empires can crumble. In the case of this time period, love blossomed and a child was born. Some would say it was inevitable. Even though I was over ten years older than her, we had a solid foundation for our relationship to bloom. That and no other beings around as evolved as we were probably helped the situation out as well. We maintained our place within the small tribe of Paleolithic people we had encountered by providing education to better their hunting techniques, as well as living standards. This had been hard for me at first. Helping these people and advancing them went against every principle of non-interference in history that had been drilled into me at the Academy. Still, even with all that we taught them I could not see any direct effect on my meddling with history. I continued to exist, not fading away into nothing as a direct result of my actions. This led me to believe that whatever was transpiring here was meant to be.
Part of me was terrified by what havoc my actions might be creating across the timeline, yet another part of me was indeed reveling in the newfound freedom I was experiencing. At one point I even dared to pose to Charlotte that indeed this was meant to be. That we were the Adam and Eve of legend and lore, sent from the garden of good and evil back into time to teach the primitive folk the basics of civilization. She did not share the same thoughts as I did, even hinting that my thoughts bordered on megalomania. I took that in stride. It had not been the first time in my life a woman I was with had said such a thing, or at least something similar. Still, even with my newfound belief that we were to be the ones that were to set civilization into motion I took care in what we taught them. Teaching them to perfect their stone tools and communication was a far cry from jumping thousands of years of development and teaching them metal-working or quantum physics.
Those first few years, with Charlottes’ pregnancy, then the birth of our son Noel I attempted to harness my power. I wanted nothing more than to be able to whisk my family away from this moment in history and to be back in the present from whence we came. Nothing worked. Days of fasting and meditation availed me none. Every technique of visualization that I had been taught did nothing but give me the serenity I needed to deal with the failure of my attempts. The tribe that had adopted us regarded me as a holy man, or maybe a god from some belief system that they held. This had first earned me the enmity of their shaman, then with Charlottes help in communication blossomed into friendship that bordered on obsession. For several weeks he followed me everywhere, studying everything I did with such eagerness that it left me uneasy.
It took about three years for me to accept my situation. Fate had been both cruel and kind. It had taken me from everything I knew and loved, but then gave me something else to know and love instead. Charlotte was the perfect mate. Intelligent and inquisitive, we talked for many hours on things that I had not been able to communicate with anyone else. She was thoughtful and caring, but also realized that sometimes I was my own worst enemy. The subtle ways she brought this to my attention worked in a way that no one else had ever been able to. We also worked well together, neither of us infringing too far into the others fields of expertise when doing a project together. In this same way we approached raising our son, though truth be told she was to have more of a hand in that than I ever would, or could.
He was born healthy, that I can tell you. An accurate weight or height I could not give you. Scales and completely accurate measuring devices were unavailable in our current situation.

I could go on here about how he was the perfect child, with features that took the best from both of us and combined them in a way that was particularly new and exciting. Except that I won’t. Most of you here reading this right now probably have children of your own, so you understand in more ways than mere words can describe the joy that a parent has when they view that which they have created.
Also, talking about him is still hard for me, even this late in the game. I only got to spend three years with my son, three of the best years of my life. Like all things, good or bad, it had to come to an end.
The day of that ending started the same as any other. After a quick breakfast of roots and smoked meat I went outside and stretched, enjoying the pristine wilderness which had become my home over the last half decade. The air was perfect, with no trace of the chemicals or pollutants that had marred the air during mans age of technology and industry. I contemplated going for a jog that morning, a habit I had picked up again recently. I was almost forty, but felt much older due to the injuries I had sustained five years prior. Still, I had worked myself back up to a respectable five mile mark two days before. After going back into the cave and retrieving my blaster I scanned the valley below and decided to run my normal course. It was a bit challenging with one wide stream I had to traverse towards the end. The changes in elevation were another reason that I had picked that particular route for my run.

I started out slow, after having lashed the blaster to my side. I had only had to use it twice in the last few years, but without it either of those times my report would surely have ended early. Once it had been another one of the tribe members. This had been early on, while I was still recovering from my wounds. The second time had been a large wild boar. There had been many other opportunities that I could have used it, perhaps as a way to hunt and secure the good graces of all of the tribe members. I had considered that, but after weighing it against the fact of a limited number of charges in the fuel cell I decided to only use it when absolutely necessary.

After the first few minutes I picked up the pace a little, jumping over the fallen tree that crossed the path that I had worn into the ground over the last few months. A storm had knocked it down three months ago, and it was almost dry enough to use for fuel for the upcoming winter. If the last few were any indication, we were going to need all the wood that we could get. The timeframe that I was used to earlier on in life had barely had winter to speak of, thanks to the destruction of the ozone layer by the generations of people that had inhabited the land before the last war. Adjusting to the cold winters of the time and place Charlotte and I had been thrust into had been a challenge at first, but one that we had to conquer. My naturally dark complexion made it readily apparent that my genetics were more compatible with days like this, as opposed to the near hibernation we had been forced to endure. If I had to venture a guess, we probably were living at the end of one of the major ice ages that had gripped the North American continent well before my time.
By the third mile I had worked up a significant sweat, which lathered my body like slick oil as I increased the effort I was putting in even more. My arms rose and fell, with my hands splayed open as my chest expanded repeatedly with each breath. It felt good to experience the freedom that the untouched wilderness provided, away from the cave life I had grown somewhat accustomed to. The endorphin rush that I was feeling was so great that I almost didn’t see or hear the possum hanging from the tree as I rounded the corner.
“Derek, we need to talk.” The possum said, as it hung upside down from a shaded limb that was only a few feet away from me.
I shrieked, tripped over my own feet and fell flat on the ground. Rolling over onto my back I let out a gasp, as I fumbled for the blaster at my side.
“Great, now the Regs have heard you. They are only a few miles from here, so it should take them at least ten minutes or so to get here. You don’t mind if I play possum at that time do you?” The creature said, chuckling out loud at the play on words.
“What..how in the..” I managed to stammer as I caught my breath, my trembling fingers still struggling to loosen the blaster.
The marsupial swung back and forth, flipped forward and down and landed on all four of its squat legs. “A lot harder than you think Derek. I’ve been sitting here for at least twenty minutes trying to learn how to coax this creatures vocal cords into producing the right sounds to articulate.”
As it sauntered toward me I backpedaled in fear. “Not possible.” I said, shaking my head in negation to what I was witnessing.
“Not possible? Coming from a man who has traveled over seventy thousand years into the past?” The possum said, grinning at me as it stopped crawling forward. “I suggest you point the blaster in a different direction, only about nine more minutes to go until the Regs arrive.”
I hadn’t even realized until the creature said it that I had managed to free the blaster. My head was swimming, and from more than just the recent fall. Regs here in the past, talking marsupials. Even for a man who had traveled into the past and witnessed countless lives throughout history it was a little much. “What do you want?” I asked, trying to put an edge to my voice to hide my earlier fear. I leveled the blaster at the creature menacingly.
“Oh my, he’s going to shoot the messenger.” The possum said, its grin stretching even wider. “We can do this all day, or at least until the Regs get here and wipe you from the history books.”
I stopped, considering my dilemma. Scrambling to my feet I looked down at the small creature. “Then I suggest we get moving, and you start talking.” I said, trying my best to sound imposing. I realized right after saying it how preposterous it must sound to the being that was currently possessing the possum. If it was powerful enough to transcend time and space, as well as occupy the body of a lower mammal, my blaster was clearly only a temporary solution. I turned, starting off at a slow trot on legs that still felt like rubber.
“Ahem...” The creature said from behind me. Looking back I could see it waddling at a fraction of the pace that I had set. I stopped and waited for it to catch up. When it got only a few feet away it stopped and settled on its haunches, as its grin stretched ever wider. I sighed, leaned down, and scooped the creature up, then turned and started to jog once more.

Well, I am just below the halfway mark, so I will not be posting anymore...I do hope that some of you have enjoyed the tale so far. If so, leave a way to contact and I will send a copy of the book when finished from its first run...

The book is coming along nicely, three more chapters since my last post.