Jump Line (Book 1 - Jump Line Series)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"Yes. I thought you understood that part." Samuel looked almost surprised by my question. "We were obvious choices for Marie. As her only children, she wanted to make sure we survived. So, we were among the first selected for the program."

"What about the other four soldiers?"

"You just met one of them... Theo. You will meet the rest of the team soon."

"Were we successful in saving people?"

"Yes. We are still working on saving the survivors, but things changed once we started conducting missions."

"Like what?"

"Shortly after she created us, our mother realized just how powerful time travel could be if it got into the wrong hands. She knew that even her husband couldn't be trusted. It would be too easy for him to go back in time and make changes that would impact our future. She had seen him grow reckless over the past few years and wanted to destroy Troy at any cost. Dr. Marie James knew it was only a matter of time that her husband caused some serious damage that would be hard to clean-up. So, we left OnyxFive."

"I don't get it. Why would we leave our home?" I had never wanted to leave a place. It had been the opposite for me over the past few years. Typically, I wanted to stay, but the families would eventually ask me to leave. Really, they never said anything. My case worker would just show up and tell me it was time to pack my things...again.

"We left. It was a unanimous decision. Unfortunately, our departure meant that instead of just soldiers from NorthStar to contend with, we now are also being hunted by OnyxFive. Our father was not happy about us leaving and has vowed to find us. Both he and Troy are intent on trying to replicate our capabilities, which could be disastrous.

Images from my dreams of the war danced vividly in front of me. I could easily see the small planes. They were sleek, dark machines that didn't look like those from 2010, but I had always known what they were. They flew non-stop over desolate land. Smaller, human-like, robots walked under the machines.

"And we fought in the war?" I hesitantly asked as more of the pieces came together.

"Yeah, we were rebel soldiers before we were changed."

"Is the war still going on?"

"Yes, but not at the level it was a few years back," Samuel said. "There are really no more human soldiers to fight, just robots. Troy has been trying to find OnyxFive, but he hasn't been successful. He also wants to find us, but we've managed to stay hidden. There have been a few times his robots have gotten close to trapping us, but we always manage to escape."

"So, if we are not fighting on the battlefield, then what do we do?"

"Dr. James encouraged us to move shortly before you disappeared, and we built a new compound that is safely hidden and which no one has been able to find. You are currently standing in that compound."

I looked around at my surroundings. White was definitely a prominent color.

Samuel cleared his throat. "While we still consider ourselves soldiers, we are not fighting against any group. At least, we don't instigate. We are now working on survival. While I continue to do research and test new ways to get plants growing again, we also know there are small camps of people hidden among the dirt hills. They would die without us bringing them food and plants from other decades."

Samuel walked over to a large screen and ran his hand over the smooth surface. A dark image appeared. It looked like a city during the middle of a dust storm.