The Fall

Epilogue: Time and Tide…

Sam Baker opened his eyes to find himself in the amphitheatre.

Seated beside him on the wooden bench was Zita, dressed once more in tiger-skin leggings.

At the other side of him, Sue and Lee were back in their old Stan Laurel and Dracula costumes. Lee ran his fingers through his hair as if unable to bring himself to believe that not only was it still there, it wasn’t blazing like a Roman candle.

Nicole had vanished. Sam knew she was with the Liminals now and off the time-travel trail. Ryan Keith was gone, too. The last Sam had seen of him he’d been slugging it out with a big guy in an iron helmet. Clearly he hadn’t made it.

For a moment or two, the accidental time travellers sat dazed after the sudden time-jump.

Below them, at the bottom of the amphitheatre, Jud Campbell slipped the pin into his shirt collar, while his gold waistcoat looked as pristine as the first time Sam had set eyes on it.

Meanwhile, Sam was still a good few seconds away from actually being able to frame the question: which year is this now?

For the time being he was content to run his tongue over his restored complete set of teeth, and to feel that his bones were magically intact once more.

Despite the dizziness, he realised it had gone and done it all over again. Whatever process had hauled them back through the years had also restored perfectly the bodies and possessions of those who’d been alive before the time-jump.

Although their numbers were dwindling. He saw that there were perhaps only a dozen or so left out of the original 52 who had made the first time-leap that sunny afternoon in 1999.

After a while, he felt Zita’s hand on his forearm. She gave a small smile. Without a word she stood up, walked to the steps, then climbed to the top of the amphitheatre.

Sam followed. That woolly dreamlike sensation was leaving him now.

As his mind gradually focused itself he began to notice the changes. Big changes.

At the top of the steps he stood and looked around him.

Of course the car park appeared as it always had done: bathed in clear sunlight, the bus and the cars and the ice-cream van looked pristine. There was the visitors’ centre, and the church just inside the boundary.

Zita stood there, gazing at the new landscape. ‘Well, Sam,’ she said. ‘I guess this is the big one.’

Sam looked back at the river. It flowed along a different channel now. Jud’s narrow boat and Carswell’s launch floated on the still waters of a crescent-shaped pond, which was all that remained of the 20^th Century river.

A moment later Jud came up the steps to join them. ‘I’ve just seen Carswell and he’s mad as hell. I think Rolle’s advice to him about travelling in time hasn’t worked as well as he hoped. Clearly Rolle pulled a fast one, to stop Carswell playing havoc with…’ Jud’s voice faded mid-sentence. He stood with his hands on his hips and surveyed the landscape in astonishment. ‘Good God… Whatever year this is, I think we’ve gone way, way back.’

‘Or forward,’ Sam said.

‘But look at the hills. They’re a different shape now. Instead of oak and chestnut they’re covered in pine. And can’t you just feel the difference in the air? The climate’s changed.’ Jud smiled. ‘You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say we’re going to end up being our own ancestors.’

Despite everything, Sam felt inwardly calm.

‘So you say we’ve gone back into the past, Jud?’

‘I do.’

‘What about you, Zita? What do you say?’

‘I’d have said the same. Until I noticed that building across there.’

Sam followed her gaze. On a hill in the distance stood a large white building. From here it was impossible to say whether it was a Roman villa built of limestone or something that belonged to a future where buildings were extruded from some fabulous synthetic material. All he could tell for sure was that it gleamed a pure white in the sun. And that there was something tantalising about it that seemed to invite closer inspection.

Jud spoke softly. ‘What do you say, Sam? Past or future?’

‘There’s only one way to find out.’ He nodded at the car. ‘I think it’s time we took a little drive. But first I could do with a drink.’

He crossed the car park in the direction of the vending machine that stood by the visitors’ centre, its contents miraculously replenished once more.

Only when that devil of a thirst was well and truly quenched would he go out and find what this new destination had to offer.

Besides, there’s no rush, he told himself with a wry smile. After all, don’t we have all the time in the world?