What If

Opaque

Author's Note:
Hey all, just as a quick pre-warning: Most of this chapter will be confusing. Not the very best introduction XD
After this chapter it all sets out nicely, but while still adjusting to the world and plot, a quick briefing is available in the book description.

11:38, 2013

The third relapse.
The fingers of the girl clasped tightly around the boy's forearm, yanking him forcefully backwards from the site.
'Dan! DAN! Movemovemove, we need to move,' The girl rushed, yanking once again in an attempt to get a response.
There was so much smoke, it was next to impossible to make anything out. Cars.
Cars.
Plenty of cars.
He bent over, coughing and wheezing in a knelt form. The girl looked hurriedly over her shoulder at the surrounding chaos, a wave of thick blonde hair following. With reluctance, she slowed her escape to help the boy. Her hands found his shoulders as she stood behind the kneeling form. His red vest was torn, dark skin covered in layer upon layer of dirt.
An intersection that had once been hazy and monotone with average drivers had awoken, a roused animal in a jungle of lights. People scattered like board game pieces walked through the haze, trying to comprehend the events. Panicked, the girl managed to pull the boy towards the side of a bin, propping him upright as authorities swooped in.
'Dan, not now,' The girl hissed, trying to be kind yet cautious. His mess of black hair had been pushed back by the explosion, along with other pieces of car debri that has scattered across the street. She tilted her head to get a better look at the boy whose head held hung. Her hand grabbed his chin, before hitting his cheek.
'You're fine. We need to go.'
'No sympathy? Not even a hug?'
Police cars whirred past them chasing hungrily towards the scene, like seagulls to chips.

'Now is NOT the time for humour.'
'Calm down Evie.' Dan said, shrugging off her hand.
'EVE. We need to get out.' Her blue eyes flickered across towards the crowd of onlookers that had begun to form. 'They'll question us for sure.'
'I'm questioning why I even let you join us,' Dan joked as he shuffled upwards. With a roll of the eyes Eve offered out her pale hand, which he accepted willingly.
'AGH!'
'SHHH!'
'Fuck... leg... Fffff-'
'I said SHH.'
She firmly clapped her hand over his mouth which only slightly muffled his screams. Eve knew her frien- "acquaintance" well enough to know that for him to express that much pain that yeah, it was bad.
'Where does it hurt?'
'I can't stand... Fuuuucckkkkk!'
His body elapsed into several small spasms, the girl constantly swatting away his hands. A lump formed in her throat as she pressed at the clave, causing a whimper front the boy.
No blood.
Her mind flashed back to Heath. Endorphins, hormones, none of that was important right now. She pulled back a rip in the dust stained jeans ('GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME WOMAN!') as possible explanations raced around her kind as to why it wasn't bleeding. The cut was deep- it didn't make any sense. It had to have happened during the explosion.

11:13

'...and this is the site, where in exactly 11? No, 12 minutes, the bomber's gonna strike.'
'And how am I supposed to believe all this?' Eve raised an eye towards the boy stood before her. They leaned on the brick exposed back of a office building, Dan crouched to the ground and holding what seemed to be a bag of many contents. There had been a crowbar, and definitely a bag of Pringles somewhere. She's recognise that red packaging anywhere. She had wanted to ask what else he was carrying, but bit back her tongue. He raised his head up from the bag, a sly grin and eye raised.
'You're alive, aren't you?'
'Ye-I mean, that wasn't an explosion in the CBD of Phoenix.'
'I'm pretty sure a cyclone is about as deadly as this, even deadlier.'
'I wasn't even there.' She pointed out as he continued to scavenge through the bag.
'Glad you weren't,' he added, standing upwards and swinging the bag away. She pulled her hair back behind her ear- a habit he has picked up within the first 24 hours of knowing her- and looked at what he carried in his hands. 'What all this gonna do?'
'Well,' he said, face lighting up as he shuffled through his items. Holding up the watch, he said: 'Time and tracker device, TTD, Jakob's idea.' He chucked it towards her and she pulled back on shock before catching it. 'We'll know where we all are, and also know the time.'
'Where is this Jakob anyways?' Eve asked. He'd mentioned him once or twice before, saying that he "came with him." She saw him once, at the caravan where they stayed the night. Of course she felt weird- sleeping in the same room with two random strangers- but soon after she had grown comfortable with Dan. Still, she slept in the bathtub.

'He's on the balcony of that apartment building. He'll be on sniper duty for us, incase-'
'So when you, um, "warp",' she spluttered, quickly changing the topic of conversation. 'You stop something from happening, and then you're somewhere different.'
'Basically.' Warping. It was something Dan had only discovered he could do a few days ago. He didn't know how. 'It was... Weird.' He shuffled in his position. 'It's like waking up. Except not at home. Or anywhere you know. Or any when you know.'

Last night they had been nothing short of conversation. Eve listened intently and Dan explained what had happened. So called "saved" his neighbours from a burning. Took Jakob with him. Warp. Landed the day before Cyclone Tracy. Alerted authorities and evacuated everyone. Took Eve with him. Warp. From what was being said, Eve determined four things:
1. Dan wasn't from this time frame. He knew of huge disasters, terrorist attacks, natural incidents that no one could possible predict. And each time he warped, he landed a day before an extreme event as such.
2. Every time he "warped", he took someone with him. He said he didn't know how, but it just happened. She had been holding onto him when they warped, so human contact, maybe.
3. She had to get the heck away from him as soon as possible.
But not now. No. She'd agreed to help him with a third warp. Then, when he was distracted, run. Back home, back to the place where the cyclone had ravaged her town. But would it be of any use? According to him, that cyclone was 30 years ago.

If she went back, what would be left?

Watch it,' he said, Eve screeching a little as he threw her a tube of chips. She stared at it, followed by an '"Oooohhh".
'I see, it's a weapon hid as a Pringles pack, so no one will know that we're gonna attack until the final moments, not only minimising witnesses but also giving us the element of surprise. That's it, right?' She asked finally catching a breath, eyes alight.
'Um. They're just chips. For eating?'
'Oh.' Her eyes dulled, looking back at the chips before pulling them to her side. 'Right.'
Dan looked down at his watch, reading the time.
'3 minutes. Come on, we need to get ready.'
3 minutes. Eve broke gaze with the boy, hands trembling slightly. He leaned towards the edge of the wall, looking outwards at the busy intersection only a few meters away.

'How...many people, did you say? Died. Blew up. Gone?' She stuttered, not making any sense. He looked back at her, before back around the corner and answering.
'56, 57, around that. Not just from the bomb, but the car crashes. Heaps of windows smashed too, so-' he flashed her a look of warning, and she quickly pulled her hood up. He nodded, before continuing. 'It's usually what breaks after explosions that kills people, not the explosion itself. Look out a fair bit. For stuff.' He finished, before looking back out from their hiding spot.
'You too.' she exhaled a small breath, shrinking back into her jacket.
He stood for a moment longer, before turning back to her.
'Ok. C'mon.' And with a wave of a hand, he was gone.
Alone.
Was she really going to follow him?
Then again, he was one of the only people she knew.
Drawing in a sharp breath, she looked down at the rough gravel beneath her feet and began following the boy.