Time Box

In the mountains. Vanilla pine trees are all around. The altitude is high and we are in a sharp curve on a mountain dirt road full of pine needles. We see the enemy coming up the road beneath us.

I am under an army jeep.

It has a glass floor but I feel invisible. The explosions and crackle of guns frighten me, I am hiding under the jeep.

I look up and see the enemy winding up to throw a gas bomb onto the floor of the jeep. He doesn't see me but I watch in slow motion as the bomb connects with the glass inches from my face. It explodes and I turn to the ground in horror. Then I am hiding under the jeep  laying on my right side facing out from underneath. The enemy is making a sweep of survivors and I am the only one. He approaches with a machine gun and holds it to my head.

I am in some sort of medical room

lying on my stomach. Someone is whipping my back with a stick making me bleed and scream. I am asked to stand and hand over what is in my pockets. I have a quarter and two dimes I won't hand it over. They are made of jade. I am punished for keeping what is mine.

Forty years later

I am in some sort of futuristic world and it is being invaded by the enemy. I am running from soldiers in a huge concrete mall. People are frantic and dying. Running Into a clothing store I hide in a rack of pants. My heart and my breathing are so loud the world can hear. I am sweating and standing in it. I hear the enemy enter and ask some questions and give some orders in a speak unspoken. I look down into the pool of sweat and see the reflection of a skeleton looking at me. The enemy walks closer and the steps get louder. A hand reaches in and divides the fear into shadows by sliding some to the left. I expect to see a gun shot but instead I see a small Chinese woman with a confused look on her face. "What are you doing?" She says. She has a German accent.

I am running across lower State Street

from the used-to-be paint store to the Japanese restaurant. I jump over the counter and hide behind a bottle of acid. The skull and cross bones on the label is laughing at me. It gets louder and louder.

A hand from above 

reaches over the counter and starts feeling around for something. It's the gill man's right arm! The label is still laughing at me. Louder and louder.

The arm finds my hair.

I can't backup any farther. He pulls me out from behind the counter and holds me up by my hair.

I am in the mountains.

The place where it all started. The air is cool and smells wet like the past. In the rusted remains of a long ago battle I find a frozen box. It's locked and I have nothing to open it with. I take the jade coins from my pocket and set them on the box. They are rusted around the edges. The box  opens. 

It's full of time.