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With Zane leading, they picked their way toward the mine tunnel to the surface.

  It had caved in a long, long time ago.

  “Now we are really, really screwed,” Belle said, staring at the solid wall of rock and dirt that blocked their path to the daylight beyond.

  “Let’s see exactly how long we were gone,” Zane said, turning around and heading back into the supply cavern.

  Belle remembered that Duster had shown them an atomic clock sealed in a vacuum and hidden in one rock wall. Zane went right for it and it took him only a moment to force open the hidden rock over the clock.

  “Oh, shit,” he said softly.

  She looked in past him at the clock, and for a moment flat didn’t even realize what she was seeing.

  They had left the cavern in 1890. She was from 2020 and Zane was from 2120.

  The clock said it was the year 3166. May 1st. Just before two in the afternoon to be exact.

  She just kept staring at the numbers, standing with the man she had grown to love over the last month. After a moment the number started to sink in.

  She laughed, because it was the only thing she could do. “Let me say this one more time. We are so screwed.”

  “Yeah, but we’re both over a thousand years old, so what the hell,” Zane said, shaking his head.

  All she could do was laugh at that as well, which was only slightly better than just sitting on the floor and shaking.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  May 1st, 3166

  Inside the Crystal Caverns

  AFTER SEEING THE atomic clock and what year and day it actually was for them, Zane took Belle’s hand and they headed back into the light of the crystal cavern. They needed to preserve their batteries and they both needed to just get over the shock of what had just happened.

  Belle had a smudge of dirt on the right side of her head and her hair was pulling loose from where she had it tied. After that cave, Zane knew they both smelled of rot and were both covered in dust and dirt.

  They had basically been just handed a death sentence, and Zane knew it.

  And he knew Belle knew it as well.

  “Think it’s a nice day outside right now?” Belle asked as they took another bottle of water and their last fresh beef sandwiches and sort of sat in the dirt and formed a picnic table with their packs about ten steps inside the crystal cavern.

  The big open door to the cave beyond was like a scar in the beautiful wall of crystals.

  “I’m going to pretend it’s a nice day out there,” Zane said, smiling at her.

  “Think we might be able to dig ourselves out?” Belle asked.

  “Maybe,” Zane said. He had been calculating the chances of doing that after seeing the caved-in tunnel. “A miner dug his way in here in the 1870s, I sure don’t see why we couldn’t dig our way out.”

  Belle nodded. “I can hear the reservation in your voice in that sentence.”

  He smiled at her. “Getting to know me that much already, huh?”

  She smiled back and he loved how she looked, even covered in dirt streaks. “I figure that since I’m going to be spending the rest of my life with you, I had better get to know you.”

  “I like the sounds of that,” he said.

  She laughed and then said, “Give, what is the reservation?”

  “Digging is hard work and we’re going to need water,” Zane said, pointing to the packs and their only supplies that lay in the dirt between them. “The dig would be a race against our water supply.”

  Belle nodded, brushing her hair aside and leaving even more dirt smudges on the side of her face. “I figured as much. Maybe some of the old piping that Duster set up back in those restrooms still works. Or at least drips out some water of some sort that we can work with.”

  “We’ll check it all out,” Zane said, finishing off the last of his second beef sandwich of this adventure. He didn’t give that much hope. But it was possible. Anything, he supposed, was possible. But they were going to need a few very lucky breaks to survive this.

  And if they did survive it, what was beyond that caved-in mine tunnel? Was anyone even still alive out there?

  They sat for a moment in silence.

  “Duster and Bonnie had a hunch this was going to happen, didn’t they?” Belle asked.

  “No,” Zane said, realizing what she was asking and what he had known all along. “They knew it was going to happen.”

  “How do you know?” Belle asked, clearly stunned.

  “Time travel,” Zane said, gesturing to the remains of the old wooden table near one wall. They had been all the way to 2320, remember. They knew the future. They knew we were not a part of it, that we never returned.”

  “How do you know this?” Belle asked, a frown on her beautiful face.

  “In my time, there were only 14 founders, not sixteen,” Zane said. “And the genetics library was in your name, as if it was honoring you.”

  “Oh,” Belle said. “So we were duped into sacrificing our lives for an experiment?”

  Zane could hear the mounting anger in her voice, and he didn’t blame her in the slightest. He wasn’t happy in the slightest either. But anger wasn’t going to help them now.

  Clear heads when underground was the only thing that saved people, and right now they both needed to be thinking clearly.

  “I don’t think so,” Zane said. “Remember, the point of all this was to find and stop a dictator who is using time travel to control the world in his time, and into his future.”

  “So,” Belle said. “We discovered that no entrance could be found from the inside, and yet we can’t relay that information back in time to help anyone. So they sacrificed us for no reason at all if they knew we were never coming back, except to learn that going into the distant caverns was a suicide mission.”

  Zane just could not believe that Bonnie and Duster would do that. It made no sense. He shook his head slowly, trying to make sense of what she had said.

  “They wouldn’t do that. And yet if they knew we would never return, they would have no reason to let us do this. Something is not making sense here.”

  “Yeah, like why did they want us out of the way?” Belle asked, her voice angry and biting.

  “But they didn’t,” Zane said. “In fact, not once were we not treated as critical parts of the entire puzzle to save the mistakes they had started with time travel.”

  “Con artists are good at that,” she said.

  “But they gained nothing from conning us and sending us here,” Zane said. “We’re missing something. Something major.”

  “I sure hope you are right,” Belle said.

  But her voice did not sound like the anger was clearing in the slightest.

  Then part of the answer dawned on him. “Remember, we took you forward and set your life with mine in 2120. Only two minutes and fifteen seconds are passing in 2120 for anything we do here.”

  She looked at him puzzled, slowly nodding. “So in essence, we can die and just end up fine and do this again.”

  Zane nodded. “And we can relay the information then.”

  She seemed to calm some with that. “Aren’t we also anchored in 1900 and in 2020?”

  “We are,” he said. “So dying is not the end of the line. At some point we will just end up back in one of those places, unless leaving all time by going into that big cavern complex sort of messed us up.”

  “We won’t know that for sure will we?” she asked.

  “We could test it by dying,” he said, looking in her dark eyes.

  “I would rather not if we can help it,” she said, smiling at him.

  He agreed as well. The idea that there was a chance they might be anchored helped him some. Not a lot, but some. He just had a hard time believing that if they died here, they would end up gone only two minutes and fifteen seconds at some point along their last path.

  So the plan was to not die.

  He stood and offered her his hand, helping her to her feet.

  “D
o we put our packs inside or leave them here?” Belle asked.

  “Just inside the door of the supply cavern,” Zane said, picking his up. “Let’s not take any chances with what little supplies we have being in some sort of accelerated time field.”

  She nodded and they moved their packs into the cavern, then turning on only their headlamps, they looked around the huge space of rotted wood and supplies.

  Zane wanted to cover his nose from the intense smell of rot. He couldn’t see anything of value.

  Nothing.

  Just too many years had passed.

  “Didn’t Duster have some other hidden rooms?” Belle asked. “He showed us one where he kept the money and gold. Maybe some supplies lasted better in those rooms.”

  “I doubt we’ll be able to get into the money room, but worth a try,” Zane said, and headed that way across the supply cavern, picking his way carefully through the rubble. No point in stepping on something rusty now and making his death even quicker.

  The old money vault door was between the kitchen area and the entrance to the cavern, so they didn’t have to go very far through the rubble.

  At the cavern wall, where Duster had shown them where he stored money for trips into the past, Zane touched the two places that would unlock the large door and slide it aside.

  He was expecting nothing to happen, but the rock slid aside without a sound.

  Fresh-smelling and slightly cool air expelled from the vault room as the door opened. And a light came up, bright against the darkness.

  “Wow, the room has been under pressure of some sort,” Zane said.

  Air continued to blow from the room outward so somewhere in here power was still working.

  “Welcome back Dr. Russell and Dr. Logan,” a voice said.

  Zane knew that voice. It was Goldie’s voice from their apartments in Boise.

  “What the hell?” Belle asked. They both eased forward into the vault room.

  The room was about the size of a decent bedroom, carved out of the rock, and lined on three sides with metal shelves that seemed to be in as good of shape as they had been on the day they were put in.

  There was a lot of old bills stacked around the room on the shelves, and piles of gold in different forms. All the bills looked completely usable to Zane.

  And there was no smell of rot in here at all.

  How in the world was that even possible?

  “Some of this money is from the last few hundred years,” Belle said, picking up a strange-looking crisp bill and holding it in her hand. “Look at the date. And it’s not rotted in any fashion.”

  Belle handed the bill to Zane. He just stared at it, not believing what he was holding.

  Another light came on overhead and Goldie’s voice said simply, “Please do not worry. I need to close the vault door and clean the air of the smell of rot and other contaminates before I can open the inner door. You can return to the cavern at any time.”

  Zane glanced back as the vault door slid shut behind them and sealed. He then could feel the air around them cycle quickly and even his clothes no longer smelled of the rot from that big cavern.

  “Dry cleaning of the future,” Belle said.

  Then a slight feeling of movement happened and the entire room dropped deeper into the ground. After a moment, it stopped and the shelf directly in front of them slid aside and a large door opened into another hidden supply cavern beyond.

  “How far did we drop, Goldie?” Zane asked.

  “Five hundred and ten feet exactly,” Goldie said.

  “Oh, even in more trouble now,” Belle said.

  “You can return to the upper cavern any time you would like, Dr. Russell,” Goldie said.

  “Thank you, Goldie,” Belle said, smiling at Zane.

  Zane and Belle eased forward into the new cavern. It had lights hanging at regular intervals from the ceiling and tables with clothes on them. Zane could see a kitchen tucked off to one side. The entire cavern was even bigger than the rotted supply cavern they had just left.

  It looked as if Bonnie and Duster hadn’t forgotten them after all.

  “Oh, thank heavens,” Belle said, stepping forward into the large supply cavern. “Maybe we’re not screwed just yet.”

  “We’re in the year 3166,” Zane said. “Remember?”

  “And I don’t feel a day over a thousand,” Belle said.

  Zane laughed. “I would say you don’t look it either, but it’s been a hard day.”

  “You are so going to pay for that,” Belle said, laughing along with him.

  And to Zane, after facing almost certain death trapped underground a few minutes before, laughing felt perfect.

  PART FIVE

  The Continuing Mission

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  May 1st, 3166

  Inside the Crystal Caverns

  BELLE COULDN’T BELIEVE the massive supply cavern that stretched out in front of them. Everything looked fresh and new and the air smelled wonderful and clean.

  She and Zane stepped into the big room and the door to the vault and elevator behind them stayed open.

  “There are bathrooms and showers in the back behind the kitchen,” Goldie said, “and fresh clothes in the area with your names over them in the main supply area.”

  Belle walked with Zane into the supply area, their shoes making no sounds at all on the smooth stone floor. The cavern ceiling and walls were also stone and the ceiling was a good fifty feet over their heads. The overhead lights gave the place a warm feeling of very clear light, but nothing too bright.

  One area of tables was marked Bonnie and Duster, another Dawn and Madison, and so on.

  “That means they are coming here at times,” Zane said, staring at the signs.

  All Belle could do was nod at that.

  There were eight different areas for all the founding couples, if she and Zane were included as founders, which they clearly seemed to be in this cavern.

  There were tables and tables and racks of hanging clothes for them. From what Belle could tell, the clothes ranged from 1900 fashions to fashions and fabrics she had never seen before, and wondered if she could even wear.

  Belle turned to Zane and smiled. “I have never been so happy to be wrong in my entire life.”

  “I’m just glad we don’t have to dig that shaft out of here,” Zane said.

  Belle laughed, then said into the air, “Goldie, can you tell us where the rest of the founders are and when they will return.”

  “I am not aware of that information,” Goldie said.

  “Can you tell us what we are to do next?” Zane asked.

  “I cannot, Dr. Logan,” Goldie said. “My task is to see to your needs while you are in this location and maintain all the supplies in a fresh state. Nothing more.”

  “Thank you, Goldie,” Belle said.

  “You are more than welcome, Dr. Russell.”

  Belle stayed beside Zane as they walked around the cavern for a few more minutes, saying nothing, just trying to take in all the different areas. One entire area was filled with different devices, all clearly labeled for their time periods.

  The table was like walking down a display of history, a large part of it they were not familiar with in any fashion.

  Belle had no idea what some of the devices even pretended to be. And at one point around 2400, the technology seemed to regress a large amount before starting forward again.

  “We have a lot to learn about our own history,” Belle said.

  “A vast amount,” Zane said, staring at some of the devices from the 24th century.

  “Goldie,” Belle said into the air, “is there a form of library or learning area in this cavern?”

  “There is, Dr. Russell. The door to that area is to the left of the kitchen as you face the bathrooms.”

  “Thank you, Goldie,” Belle said.

  “Well,” Zane said, “it seems we have the ability to learn and we sure have the time.”

  Belle could only ag
ree with that. But first she and Zane had to take care of themselves. She was feeling in shock from all of what happened today so far, and Zane had to be in the same shape.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” Belle said. “After that hike back here and the smell in that outer cavern, I really need to clear my head.”

  “While you do that,” Zane said, “I’ll look around a little. Then you can do the same while I shower.”

  She kissed him and then said, “A perfect plan.”

  She went over to their area and picked out a comfortable-looking pair of sweat pants and a soft sweatshirt from the 20th century and some slippers and then headed toward the bathrooms.

  She normally would have offered to have Zane join her, but at the moment, she had a hunch they both needed some time.

  She knew she did.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  May 1st, 3166

  Inside the Crystal Caverns

  ZANE LET HIMSELF move slowly around the cavern, making note of the varied areas of supplies, just trying to grasp what he was seeing. Somehow, this cavern was being maintained in the year 3166 and he wasn’t sure how or why, but he was glad it was.

  There were even packaged supplies in the cabinets of the kitchen and Goldie said they were safe to eat.

  He was about to head into the library area when he noticed something along one cavern wall near the library door.

  There was an alcove there that had he and Belle’s name over it on a silver plaque attached to the rock. In the carved alcove was a shelf with a box on it and blinking light near a white button.

  There were seven other identical alcoves for the other founding couples along the wall, all identical except the blinking light and button.

  At that moment Belle came out of the bathroom.

  “Over here,” he said.

  She came over, looking refreshed and wonderful in the sweat pants and sweatshirt. She was using a dark towel to dry her hair and her skin looked slightly red as if she had scrubbed it harder than normal.

  “Showers are wonderful,” she said. “Once you figure out how to turn them on.”