Slipping Into The Future

Chapter 13

If Lin could take a moment to breathe and process these past few days, he would find that he would need far more than a moment to do so. Everything hurts; his head, his arms, his back — and he is cold. He shivers at the thought and realizes he is not, in fact, dead — but only slowly regaining consciousness again. After taking a leap of faith with his friends, he finds the twisting knot in his stomach is screaming at him, insisting that he had made an irreversibly terrible mistake. His family is in danger — or at least, their safety has been compromised because of his idiotic choice to help a time-travelling founding father. He had foolishly never considered they could be in danger from his actions — he had hoped if he did it on his own, surely he could keep everyone safe. First, Lin had endangered his friends and now he had endangered his wife and child. ~Excellent~

Lin peels his eyes open and groans at the feeling of the cold-hard ground under his back. He shivers as he rolls over to sit up and rubs his throbbing head. He examines their surroundings in a haze; all he can see are trees for miles. He looks over and sees his friends all sitting up one by one and coming to the same pained conclusion that he is coming to — they went through a portal and now they're lost in the woods.

Lin looks over at Hamilton and crawls over to him hastily when he notices the blood oozing from both of his nostrils. He's no longer glowing and completely unconscious. Lin clumsily wipes the blood from Hamilton's nose with the bottom of his shirt until he looks presentable.

"When the fuck are we?" Daveed groans as he rubs his head.

"More like when the fuck are we," Anthony adds cheekily

Daveed glares at him. "That's what I said."

Anthony's grin wipes away as realization dawns on him. "Oh, shit, yeah — you did say that."

"Yeah, enough of that—" Jon interrupts, standing up unsteadily. "When and where are we!?"

Pippa nudges Hamilton's shoulder but he doesn't budge. "Hamilton? Wake up...." She says soothingly. He doesn't so much as flinch. Daveed shoves Hamilton roughly and the man starts to choke on air, finally waking up.

"Woah, not cool!" Lin snaps at Daveed as he stands up and brushes the dirt from his jeans.

The rest of the group stands up as well and Lin offers a hand to Hamilton as he finally seems to be aware of his surroundings. "Where the hell are we?" Hamilton asks as he pulls himself up with the help of Lin.

"We were hoping you would know since you brought us here!" Daveed grumbles frustratingly.

"I opened the tear, yes — however you are the one who leapt into it," Hamilton replies snarkily. "So, in technicality, t'was you who had brought us here."

"Do you recognize anything?" Pippa asks, ignoring their strange squabbling.

Hamilton examines the environment, his frown deepening as he squints at everything. He subconsciously reaches into his coat pocket and puts on his glasses as he continues to look around. He hums before snapping his head from left to right and then nodding. "As a matter of fact, I do know where we are. Follow me — If I am correct, we shouldn't be too far..." He trails off and starts marching; the others stumble into an awkward pace behind him, following him like hungry animals.

Lin rubs his arms absently as his gaze wanders around the dull forest they're trudging in. "So, uh, what year is it?" He asks, mostly to distract himself from the eerie silence of nature. He hates nature.

"I am not certain," Hamilton replies, his breath noticeably fogging as he exhales. "I know it be winter, but the year I am uncertain of."

"Yeah, kinda figured it was fucking winter," Daveed grumbles as he shivers violently, his hands jammed underneath his armpits. "Thank god there isn't any snow, at least."