Too Many Diversions

Yes!  Check it out guys and gals.  It’s another Chuck Wendig Challenge!

This time the challenge is to use ten ‘given’ words and write a flash fiction under 1000 words with those words..

The ten words I have are; Cape, Research, Finger, Dinosaur, Paradise, Gate, Seed, Scream, Justice, and Insult.

And, here we go…

Against the calm waters of the Cape of Good Hope, the name Tony and Gina had given to this area to identify it among the thousands of miles of western interior seaway beaches, Tony hurried along the sands and ferns.  Though this area was a paradise compared to the lands that would be known as Appalachia, they were still dangerous.   He shuffled his feet over the sand and dodged the giant ferns.  His hand was cupped to catch blood dripping from a cut in his finger.

“Take nothing with you and leave nothing behind,” he said aloud.  The mantra had worked for him for years and it had kept him alive.  But now, Tony was frightened.  If his DNA splashed on ancient soil…

His foot slipped down toward the edge.  Tony stopped and and placed his feet back on the dune.   “Relax,” he thought.  There was more than 99% probability that even if his whole body was left behind, it would not change evolution or history.  One drop of blood may not matter.  What was important was getting back to the gate, to Gina.

“Focus,” he thought.  The mantra was more than just a saying.  It was The Code.  Everyone who travelled in time had to follow the code or face the consequences.  He was in danger of breaking both facets of the code, when he only intended to break one.

The seed, perched between his thumb and finger was darker red than the blood that collected in the palm of his hand.  Five years of research had led he and Gina to know this seed was what was needed.

A shadow went overhead.  A pterosaur soaring over the ocean looking for something swimming too close to the surface.

Tony ducked.

He was too big to be considered prey by one of these flying creatures, but better safe than sorry when it flew so close.

Tony counted to ten, stood up, and started walking again.  The only thing that could stop him was the Justice of Time.  ”Or one if his Justiciars,” he thought.

If this seed got to his lab, he and Gina could grow this plant, and develop the antidote without the Justice noticing.  If he were caught, tiny Gina would suffer as much as he — as well as the people with the affliction.  All of Tony and Gina’s research would be confiscated and time portals destroyed.

He looked down to his hip.  His dazer hung loosely.  It was set to blind.  He could not kill here. It did not matter if it were a fish, a plant, nor a dinosaur.  But, he could blind one to give him time to get away.

“Two more dunes and then the gate,” thought Tony.

A flash of light came over the dune where his gate was.  Did some dinosaur try to walk into it?

Tony crouched under the ferns and skittered through the ferns out of site until he could see the gate.

A Justiciar guarded the gate.

Tony stayed down.  The ferns swayed around him in the wind.  He knew he had ample cover.  The Justiciars were just men.

Tony dropped his hand and wiped it on his shirt.  The risk of spilling a drop of blood was minimal now, they had found him without it.  He placed the seed in his left had and grabbed his dazer from his holster.  When the Justiciar turned his head to look towards the sea, Tony charged.  The sand did not let him move fast, but he moved silently.

When the Justiciar turned back in his direction, Tony fired.

The Justiciar dropped his dazer and clasped at his eyes.

Tony dashed passed him and through the gate.  The anguished scream of the Justiciar cut off with the gate’s closing.

Tony panted on the ground.  He chuckled to himself.  The worst possible insult to a Justiciar was to die breaking The Code.  Unless the Justiciar risked altering history or evolution, he would never be noticed by the Justice of Time.

Tony looked at the seed in his hand and started to stand.

“We travel in pairs,” said a second Justiciar.

Tony started to turn when a dazer blast went off.  He hit the ground at the same time he heard a thud.

“So do we,” said Gina.  She untucked herself from a supply cabinet and jumped down.  ”And I don’t set to blind.”

Tony stood up and showed her the seed.  ”We got it baby.”

She smiled and ran into his arms.

The two of them could now grow the plant that they could develop the antidote for.  But that could wait for a little while.