The Clocker Family || Limited Life

Out Of Time

ZombieCleo, EthosLab, Bdouble0100, GoodTimesWithScar were a family, even in the twisted world they were in. Time ticking down for each person, all the time. Bdubs and Scar we're brothers, Scar was the older one (By 2-3 years). They're parent's were Etho and Cleo, who had divorced when Scar was about 8, but Etho visited a lot, and they would go to his house on any breaks.

Time could be bought from stores, or you could kill for it. The 2nd option was common, since it would give the killer all of the other person's time. It would instantly go to you once their heart stopped. That's why executionists were the most sought for job. Store bought time was usually a week, a year if you were rich. When you bought it they would give you a little patch to put on your arm. The clock on your wrist would ding and go up, then the patch would lose its color. There were ways to pause your time, but it was heavily illegal.

Having kids was a luxury for the rich. Having kids took half of each parent's time, giving it to the child. So even for the rich, only children were common. And despite that, Scar's family weren't rich, and yet they had 2 kids. Cleo came from a small family, not wealthy, and Etho came from a rich family, so the kids got most of their time from him.

Cleo was a scientist for the state, she often came home with new 'solutions' for her kids to combat the time. One was this chemical that left them with a rash for 3 days. A rub that would pause their time until it dried. And a bunch of other things. None of it ever worked.

Etho never liked Cleo trying to boost their time illegally, but he never said anything either. He lived in a 2 story house with his best friends, they called themselves the ties. Whenever the kids were with him, they would be taken care of by their uncles (The TIES, not blood related), and Etho would often buy them time, at the supermarket when they were with him.

Once, when Scar was just a few weeks away from turning 14. And Bdubs had just turned 11. And Etho got a call mid-day from his ex-wife, while at his animator job (because he has an anime skin). "The lowdown is, I'm gonna die." she had said simply. Etho thought of a bunch of things he wanted to say to her before saying, "How? What do you want me to do about our kids?" He tried staying calm although he was freaking out. She sighed over the phone and said, "I have 8 minutes, and the store is 15 away." she paused and repositioned the phone to her shoulder so she could use both hands on whatever she was working on in front of her. "I'm going to give you how to take care of them, write it down." She told him sternly. And they spent the next 2 minutes exchanging what schools to pick them up from, when, and how to take care of them.

"Cleo, call me if you find something. Anything." He told her, and she agreed. He was frustrated, he had been offering to buy her time alot recently since she hadn't asked recently, but she always said it was fine.

She tried a ton off stuff. She was scared for herself, but when her clock got under a minute, her heart was going super fast. Then it ticked down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. She closed her eyes, but still could hear the world around her. The clock ticking, the fax machine still ringing, the lights still buzzing. She opened her eyes and looked down at her wrist where the timer was, -0:20, -0:21, -0:22. Then she felt her heart stop, this was the moment. She felt her lungs stop taking in air, her blood stopped moving around in her body, but she was still conscious. Watching her timer, -1:30, -1:31, -1:32. She sat there for another 10 minutes, waiting, but nothing happened. She eventually got a call and answered, "Cleo, from the lab, who am I speaking to?"

She heard a sigh of relief from the other side, "Cleo! What did you do to save yourself!?" Etho asked from the other side of the dial-up phone. She looked down at her forearm, "It's going into the negatives." Etho seemed baffled on the other side of the phone, "Your going bananas! That's not possible!" She just made a 'mhm' noise in the other side of the phone before basically begging him, "Don't tell anybody, and keep the kids safe for a few days, please." He thought for a moment and said, "Okay." Then she said, "Catch you on the flip side!" and hung up the phone.