4058 [the historian]

philip 1

i never had a choice of what i wanted to grow up and do. as a baby, the director picked me to become a historian. i am filled with information about everyone and everything. i knew when every was born, and when they died. i knew every major event, every winning lottery number, every race winner. i knew it all. 

some days this was a blessing, i could play every single lottery imaginable and become a billionaire. other days this was a curse, i knew when and how everyone around me died. i was scared to make friends, afraid that i'd become too attached. i wasn't allowed to prevent their deaths, regardless of how i felt towards them. it killed me, it genuinely killed me inside. 

 the closest thing that i had to a friend wasn't really a friend. upon my arrival in the 21st, my host body had been charged with manslaughter. my lawyer, an addict himself, had helped me when i have him the three horses that would win their races the following day. after he helped me get the charges dropped, he continuously used me. 

i knew he wasn't truly my friend, but he was the closest that i had-human wise at least. my turtle, poppy, was like my friend too. she never talked back but she always seemed to listen to my problems. she didn't do much, but having her provided me with some sort of joy...

my team was like a family, in some sort of fucked up way. we all cared about each other in different ways. sometimes i felt excluded out this family. i felt i was only good for information, while the others were practical. they had their protocol fives and i had mine. 

grant, carly, and marcy had their jobs and families to care for and trevor had school and his own family stuggles. i only had poppy and myself to take care of. my days consisted of reciting the days events to poppy, surfing the traveler network and sleeping. i had my moments where i relapsed and gave into my addiction. marcy desperately tried to wean me off the heroin but as soon as i felt i was okay the urges came back, always stronger than the last...

left with my only thoughts, i thought of going out. there was a potential traveler incoming, around the same area as i had lived in. it would be within the hour, maybe going out would be a good thing?

i pressed my com, "boss incoming traveler at 12:30:54 in the alley was across from me."

grant answered back, "got it. ill be there in a few."

the others muttered similar replies and with that we were set to greet the new traveler. searching back in my memories, i found the host body of the new traveler. the new traveler, celeste devrouw. she was only 18 and her cause of death was a mugging. she would cross through the alley way to reach the other street quicker and the men would have followed her to there. they had been following her halfway since she had left her original destination. i could see it clearly, it felt like i had been watching a movie in a way. 

i cleared the memory from my mind, deciding to pass the time i clicked the tv on to the news station. although i knew of everything they would report, the exact sayings and locations and even who would be announcing it all, it was something to pass the time. the team had said over their coms they were about 10 minutes out, all making the necessary arrangements based on protocol five. 

on the tv, a woman, gale hanson was reporting about a shift in the stock market. something common, it was always changing, never a real consistency to it. she discussed the aspects of what was happening and why. i glanced at the clock, it read 12:15 meaning only 5 minutes had passed since we all talked. 

i continued watching the tv, recalling the words and phrases i had know already. the first of the team that arrived were grant and trevor. they both greeted me and wondered around the garage waiting for marcy and carly to come. they arrived shortly after, marcy drug in her hospital bag which was filled with stuff in case the host body was injured. 

"how does she die?" carly asked, always hard and direct with what she says. 

"mugging" i replied quickly to her, we had a few minutes yet before the official transfer started.

grant checked his watch, motioning us along towards the alley way to await the arrival of our newest addition. down the street we all saw her coming. dressed in all black, her hair the color of her clothing and her skin the color of honey. she was beautiful honestly. she had a bag slung on her shoulder, a backpack of sorts. a few steps behind her we also saw the men who were going to mug her. 

they both were large and muscular in stature, they walked slow and calm as if they weren't about to hurt an innocent girl. when the trio reached the alley way we started to cross. carly and grant led the team, i was simply there to be there... 

i skimmed through my brain, 45 seconds till the transfer was to begin. 

the men grabbed her from behind and slammed her into the wall with such force i had winced. that's when carly and grant sprung into action, they couldn't help but interfere with their mission. carly grabbed the one man, and grant took the other. they both fought them while marcy tried to rush to celeste but trevor and i had grabbed her before. 

"15 seconds, go help them" i had motioned towards grant and carly, who were struggling a little bit themselves. i held marcy back, shaking my head no. she couldn't mess with the transfer, it would result in the death of her if she had. 

the 15 seconds seemed like forever, with trevor, grant, and carly nearly knocking the two men out thats when it had begun. celeste clutched her head and screamed. it was enough to bring strangers by if they were near, but it had only been all of us. the two men seemed to be freaked, and knew they were going to lose this battle. they hasitly made it out to the other side of the alley, i assumed carly had pulled something to scare them in such a way. as soon as it begun it ended, the transfer had been successful. 

celeste stood a little wobbly on her feet, most likely due to her injuries she had faced before the transfer.

 "im traveler 3468 and this is m- our team. welcome to the 21st" grant greeted her as warmly as he had the rest of us.

"i'm traveler 4099" celeste replied to maclaren, looking us all over. she stared at me directly, her brown eyes filled with something i could not describe. 

"thats traveler 3569", he motioned towards marcy and than to carly, " traveler 3465."

"i'm traveler 0115 and thats traveler 3326" trevor introduced himself and than me. she nodded processing this information. 

" we don't address each other by our numbers here, i'm sure you're aware of that right?" grant asked celeste who nodded. 

"i know your host names, i was taught that during the program's 21st training sessions. you're grant, marcy, carly, trevor and philip" she pointed to each one of us while she recited our names. 

"you'll be with philip for the time being, he'll catch you up to speed. we have to stick to protocol five but we'll come back to ops later" grant told celeste and turned to leave. while celeste looked confused once again, we led her back to ops or home. to me it was a home, it was the only place i felt like i had truly belonged honestly. to the others, it was a base at their disposal. trevor had spent a few nights on my couch every now and than, other than that it was just me and poppy. 

once the group had departed, i led celeste inside...

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hope you guys liked it, what can i do better next time? leave comments, critique, anything of the sort. this is another travelers idea i had