He saw the man standing in front of Schiller's Delicatessen. He saw him stare at the approaching car. He also saw him draw a gun. Daedalus ran forward, trying to force the gun away from the man. But he was too late. The man stepped forward, aimed his gun, and pressed the trigger as the car drove past. Not one shot, but two. One for the husband, one for the wife. The two bullets crashed into their targets. The two bullets that cost 17 million people their lives, and started a war. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The start, of the First World War.
Daedalus crashed into the man, sending them both sprawling to the ground. After about five minutes of punching and kicking, a group of men in uniforms pulled Daedalus off the assassin.
"Thank you young man. You have apprehended a murderer. You reacted very quickly, and have done a great service to your country."
But Daedalus was too distracted to reply to the police officer.
"Do you know what you have done?" he shouted at the man. "You just started a war!" spittle flew out of his mouth. The man, Gavrilo Princip, said nothing, but a steely glint appeared in his eyes.
"Easy there son. What do you mean you just started a war?"
Seeing no other way out, Daedalus ran away. The police didn't even bother to chase after him.
He was running so fast that he couldn't see where he was going, and almost bumped into somebody. That someone was a girl who looked around the same age as he was. She looked disoriented, like she didn't know where she was. The girl had medium length brown hair with matching eyes, and a pale, freckled face. She wasn't short, but she wasn't very tall either. The strangest thing about her, though, were her clothes. She wore black robes that reached down to her feet. It earned strange glances from the people passing by.
"Oh sorry," said Daedalus.
"That's alright. Say, you wouldn't know where this place is, would you?" The girl looked genuinely lost.
Then she noticed his uniform. Her eyes widened as she saw his grey pants and black jumper emblazoned with the school crest and motto. They widened even more when she took in his watch and sneakers. The girl seemed to have seen a ghost.
"Where are you from, may I ask?"
"America."
The girl seemed to be wrestling with something inside of her. She tried to hide it from her face, but she failed dismally. She stepped closer to him and whispered in his ear.
"You wouldn't happen to be from the future, would you?"
Amazed, Daedalus could only nod dumbly. It was as if a great weight had been lifted of the girl's shoulders.
"Thank god for that!"
"Are you from the future too?"
"Yes." answered the girl. "My name is Perdix Sefton and I'm from the year 2099."
"Me too." suddenly, Daedalus remembered something. "You wouldn't have anything to do with that explosion earlier today, would you?"
"Yeah, sorry about that. That was what created this whole mess in the first place." Perdix sounded sheepish. "Do you know where we are? Err.... what's your name?"
"Daedalus. We are in 1914, at the assassination of Franz Ferdinand."
"Ah, I thought I heard a loud bang. But what do we do now? I don't know how to reverse the effect of my potion."
"Your potion! That's absurd! What are you, a witch?"
Perdix didn't reply. Both of them fell silent, as if they had only now grasped truth of their situation. They were lost in time, with no way back.
YOU ARE READING
Stuck In Time
Science Fiction" Both of them fell silent, as if they had only now grasped truth of their situation. They were lost in time, with no way back." When a potion goes wrong, two children named Daedalus and Perdix are whisked back in time to 1914, where they witness...
