AUTOGENOUS

503

2 days earlier

In the back of an alley in downtown Los Angeles, two black cats run across a floor of trash behind a dumpster. At the very back end of the alley, in the darkest shadow, winds begin to pick up. Electricity begins to shoot strings of bolts out to the brick walls. A hole begins to open and distort the matter of the air a meter above the ground. Dennis and Jacob emerge from the hole landing on the wet cement of the alley. The hole in space and time begins to swallow the surrounding winds, they die down. The electricity sucks back into the rip, and in an instant, the hole sucks itself into a tuna can and lands on the ground, spinning on its edge until the world around it settles.

Dennis picks himself up noticing the stretcher, he takes the tuna can and pockets it. Tiny pieces of ice are hanging from his nostrils. "Why does the time machine have to be so damn cold..." he jokes. Jacob grunts and gets up.

"You got the gun?"

"Yeah..." Dennis replies, "Empty, but effective." Jacob nods and smiles.

"OUT OF THE CAR!" Jacob yells as he points the gun at a civilian driving downtown. The driver slams on the breaks and freezes in place. Jacob runs over to the drivers side and opens the door, pulling the man out.

"Hey will you relax a bit?" Dennis suggests as he enters the passenger side.

"I've always wanted to do that!" Jacob replies before driving off. They drive upstate toward Newmansville county to intercept the original convoy that took away the doctors equipment.

"Okay tell me the plan one last time, your perspective..." Dennis asks.

 "Right... We speed up to the back of the middle truck, or whichever is the biggest, better be holding that platform or we'll be in some big trouble."

"Continue."

"We get behind the big bitch, you hop on the hood and fitness your way into the back of the trailer... I pull off and follow you home."

"Okay..." Dennis takes a cop car's detachable siren head and puts it on the hood of the car, "let's get our time machine back."

The convoy of trucks after recently loading the doctor's warehouse into their beds, drive along the countryside heading toward the Newmansville county CIA base. They pass through a small city. Dennis and Jacob in their recently stolen car, turn off of Trogan road onto the same road of the convoy, a minute after it passes.

The car speeds past the back truck in the oncoming lane, as the siren blares. Jacob speeds past the second to last truck, then the third to last. Dennis notices the second upcoming truck looks like it has extra armor and is more reinforced.

"That's the one," Dennis says pointing at the middle truck. The car swerves behind the middle truck, speeding towards and gently slamming into the rear bumper. The front of the car is now mounted to the back of the trailer. Dennis opens the door and looks down to the road speeding past him at seventy miles an hour. The door shakes as Dennis crawls on top of the moving car. The entire convoy increases speed. The truck behind slams into the rear of the car, sending Dennis backward to the rear window, his shoes touching the howling engine of the truck behind.

The car now squished in between the truck is immovable. Dennis holds on to the sides of the car, and struggles his way to the hood. The wind hurls past him, making it difficult to hear. He unlocks the back of the trailer after moments of struggle. Jacob is stressing as he holds the wheel dead center, peddle to the metal. The right back door of the trailer swings open almost knocking Dennis in the face. The truck behind holds on his horn, startling Jacob and Dennis, almost jolting him off the right side of the car. Dennis struggles for a moment but manages to hop inside the rear of the trailer, he reaches for the door, struggles to stretch his arm, almost falling back out, and swings it shut from the inside, ending the chaos.

Dennis turns around, he closes his eyes and intensely breathes, eyes wide. It is quiet. He is alone. He opens his eyes to see a truck bed full of covered equipment. He looks ahead to see the door to the cab. He walks ahead only to uncover the equipment to discover the platform they are so familiar with. It is all there, the platform, the monitor, wires and all, just needs a little plug-in. Dennis smiles.

He connects a few wires and switches some buttons. He walks over to the monitor and plugs in "two, zero, one, five..." Location: "Cleveland". He intensely presses the button besides, beginning the process of opening the hole, inside the trailer.

From outside the trailer, electric sparks emerge from the seams of the metal exterior of the trailer ahead of Jacob. The trailer begins to shake and rock back and forth, the chaos continues. Jacob watches the trailer, "I know he's not turning on that damn machine."

Inside the trailer, files and papers fly, Inside the trailer is like a tornado. Dennis remembers he has the tuna can in his pocket, he looks at it and notices a scratch on the back. He sets the can down in the corner of the trailer, knowing when he comes back from the past in the seamless matter of a couple seconds from Jacob's perspective, he will retrieve it. Dennis takes a breath and closes his eyes. He jumps into the hole.