Time Enough

Chapter I

The clock on the apartment wall was ticking. It was 5 o'clock in the morning, pitch black outside. Zack was awake, which is usual for him, but he stayed inside. He had put up fluorescent stars on the ceiling in the shape of constellations. They shined as Zack looked at them.

242 days had passed since the arrival, it was the last day of the eight month. 2017. Zack kept count of every day. Bored, and a tad excited about what tomorrow holds, he put his fingers behind his ears and turned on his communicator.

"Are you there Theodore?" Zack called.

"What do you need, kid? I'm occupied with something important." Theodore answered, from 2029.

"I'm checking to see if you're set for tomorrow. What could be more important than that? I'm tired of this 'hiatus', we need to do something."

"Is the snake ready for round 3?" A woman asked with a faint voice from Theodore's side.

"What the fuck! Are you kidding me!? Is that another one of your hoes!? I swear, even though we're immunised you'll still manage to get something. And you wasted a third of your gold on women already! That gold is not yours, it's federation property and you can't be throwing it away for personal pleasure! You're not taking any of this seriously!" Zack yelled at Theodore.

"One second, honey." Theodore referred to the woman. "Look," he whispered to Zack "brighten up and live a little, go out and get some friends- after all you loved these 'savages', no? We're going back in business tomorrow. We are not to use our amulets in the first 8 months. Orders." The connection ended.

"Savages? They have more culture than you..." Zack thought.

Furious, Zack got out of bed and clenched his teeth tight. He stood in his small apartment, looking into nothingness. The floor below the oven was scorched. It was his third oven, it took him a while until he learned how to use it. His neighbours went crazy. "There's smoke coming out of there every other day" they used to say. He kept fire extinguishers in the corner, just in case.

"Just what happened to you, One..." he sighed.

Zack took his leather jacket and got out. It was 5:25, but he couldn't care less.

He was alone, walking down the boulevard, with the exception of the stray cats looking through the trash bins for some food.
"Go out and get some friends". He never was the talkative and friendly type back at home, much less here. Zack always considered himself a quiet, introverted type. No one ever talked to him here, he didn't let them. Occasionally some high school girls would flirt with him, not knowing how to react he'd thank them and move along.

Zack is 26 years old. Brown eyes, dark brown hair, styled in a quiff. He usually wears the same black leather jacket and swaps around 3 shirts from time to time. Even though he likes history, he has a hard time fitting in with the social norms of this period. He passed most of his time in a library, reading historical books and sometimes a novel from time to time. "Reading about the past, in the past" he thought to himself frequently, chuckling.

Walking, he stumbled on a 24/7 market. "Eh, what the hell," he thought "if that asshole Theodore does whatever he wants, so can I." Entering inside Zack asked for 'the most expensive bottle of alcohol'. The employee got him a green bottle reading redbreast, whiskey. "That's 160." The cashier said in a dull voice while chewing gum, putting her hand out. Zack took two $100 bills out of his  jacket and put them in her hand. He left before getting his change.

It was already 6 o'clock, people were getting up for work and the sun was rising. Zack opened up the bottle and smelled it. It had a strong stench. He had never drunk alcohol before. He took a sip and spat it out, overwhelmed by the taste. People were giving him awkward looks, like he was a hobo with a stolen bottle of very expensive whiskey. The bottle was still in his hand, opened. He had lost the bottle cap. He rushed to his apartment. While opening the door, his nextdoor neighbor noticed the whiskey in Zack's hand and couldn't resist commenting "Are you going to use that whiskey for your next fire show?". Zack ignored him and closed the door behind him as he entered the apartment.

"Welp," Zack sighed "at least this will shorten the waiting time for tomorrow" he said looking at the bottle. "Bottoms up!" he started drinking directly from the bottle with his fingers pinching his nose shut. His throat was burning. Not being able to take in more, he threw the bottle and slowly sat down on his bed, coughing. He stood up after a minute and started punching the fragile walls of his apartment, releasing a sudden burst of anger. He was angry at how their mission had gone wrong. He didn't know who to blame. "What are we waiting for! There's no word from One and me and Theodore are Messing around for eight whole months!" he thought to himself "Fuck the rules! Why wait for eight months when our teammate could be in danger!" thoughts flooded his mind until he dropped on the floor and fell asleep with bloody knuckles.

Zack's dreams were interrupted by a kick on his shoulders. He woke up, staring up at a blurry figure of a man. "Wake up you idiot. You waited so long for this day and now you've overslept!" the man yelled. Zack could make up the voice. It was Theodore. "And are you out of your mind? You dropped your amulet!" Theodore told Zack as he threw the necklace with the amulet to him. Zack was still fazed and his head hurt, but he realised what was happening and hugged Theodor by his left leg and gave out a small smile. He was glad to see him after eight months, and so was Theodore.