The Time Traveller

Chapter Two

"Rome?" Julie called, shutting the front door behind her with her foot.
Rome walked around the corner with a smile on his face and J.J. on his side. At the sight of Julie, Rome let J.J. down to the ground and carried the pizza and breadsticks to the kitchen counter. He grabbed the crumpled up letter on the counter and shoved it into his back pocket.

Later that night, Julie was giving J.J. his bath when Rome finally straightened out the letter and opened it. He quickly scanned it.
Dear Rome(or next of kin, if former is unable to be contacted),
You have a very special bloodline. Your specific bloodline is called the Chronovators. Keep this in mind. Write it down. It's important, vital. The mission of have is specialized for the people of your bloodline. If you fail, your next of kin shall try to succeed where you fail. Follow the man that gave you the letter. He will guide you. You will start as soon as night falls. I wish you the best of luck.

The letter was signed by someone, but it looked as if the rain and weather had faded it to where it was unreadable. He took a pen from the kitchen table and wrote Chronovators on his left palm.
Rome suddenly heard the water drain from the bathtub. He stuffed the letter back into the envelope and slid it into the top nightstand drawer. Julie came in a few seconds later, with J.J. wrapped up inside a yellow bath towel.
"Hey," she smiled, "I'm about to get my shower. Could you watch J.J. for a few minutes?" She sat him down on the unmade bed, still wrapped in the towel. "Thanks," she said, not giving me time to answer, knowing he would do it anyway.
"Hey, J.J.," Rome picked him up and moved him over, getting into bed with him, "mommy will be back in a few minutes."
He got the letter back out and read over it again.
The Chronovators? What did that even mean? And since when was Rome part of a special bloodline? He sighed, folded the letter back up, and put it back in his nightstand. He grabbed J.J., pulled him up next to him, and fell asleep to the sound of the shower water running.

When Rome woke up again, it was dark. Julie was asleep next to him, and J.J. was probably sleeping in his crib down the hall. He threw the sheets off of him, grabbed the envelope, and headed up the stairs to the medicine cabinet.
"Follow the man who gave you the letter," he read out loud, "I swear if this leads me on some wild goosechase," He jiggled the handle of the door. "Stuck," he muttered.
He pulled harder, harder. Finally, he yanked on it, and the door flew open. Rome took a deep breath and crouched inside, letting the door swing closed behind him.

Black. Rome couldn't say much about what he saw. His eyes might have been closed, he couldn't tell. A dark room, maybe?
Suddenly, his eyes opened and he sat up, gasping for breath. Wherever he was, it looked like the afternoon. It couldn't have been more than 9:00 at night where Julie and J.J. were sleeping. A man sat not far away from where Rome was, on a wooden bench. It was the man that gave him the letter, the man Rome was told to follow.
Rome quickly caught sight of the man, who looked like he had aged in reverse. When before he could barely crawl on the ground without coughing up a lung, this man could easily run around the park they were in. But this was the man. This couldn't be any other man. He looked familiar, like Rome knew him for a lifetime, but he just couldn't place where he knew the man from. His eyes were so blue, eyes like oceans that someone could fall into, he knew those eyes from somewhere?
"I was told to look for you," Rome walked over to the man, "the note you gave me said to follow you." The man smiled and stood. "You've looked worse."
He laughed. Not even raspy. "I made a deal," he explained. "That if I helped you with your journey, they would take away my lung cancer. But they did better. I mean, look at me!" He smiled.
"I'm Rome," he laughed.
"James," the man said, extending his hand. Rome shook it. "Should we start walking? We've got to get about 4 miles by sundown."
"Why by sundown-"
"Because then...they'll come out." James quickly responded.
"Who's they?" Rome asked.
"Trust me," James smiled at the ground, "you don't wanna know. Think Walking Dead. Now let's get somewhere by sundown."