Gnik Nus

Chapter 2

The eight of us were all obviously still stunned. For no apparent reason or cause, we had each time-travelled from different points in the twentieth and twenty-first century to this exact time, 1964, right in the middle of a Beatle's house. No one said a word. We heard voices coming from outside the door.
"I find that hard to believe," a deep voice said.
"No, really, there are eight of them in there!" another voice, which sounded like John's, protested, "All from different times, it seems."
"You're telling us that eight people just appeared out of nowhere and now they're all in there?" another, sassier, voice asked in disbelief.
"Yes! I'm telling you, there are older ones and younger ones and they don't seem to have any relation to each other at all."
"Let's see them then."
"Be careful, they're fragile," the fourth voice warned.
The sliding doors slid open to reveal all four Beatles, standing there in the flesh. I swear I nearly fainted.

Ringo and Paul looked flabbergasted. George and John were obviously the only ones who knew about this.
"I can see you were telling the truth, Johnny," Paul mumbled, still looking at us in awe. It felt uncomfortable to have them staring at us intently as if they were examining animals in a zoo. None of us moved.
"Where's Brian?" Ringo asked.
"He's gone out to get some supplies," George replied, "We don't know how long they're gonna be here for."
"Well," Paul sighed loudly, "Hello everyone. My name's Paul McCartney. These are my buddies Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison."
"We know who you are," Adam, in the military uniform, said what we were all thinking.
"You do?"
"Yeah. You're The Beatles. Everyone knows who you are."
"Oh, well, I'm not sure everyone knows who we-."
"Paul, maybe the years they are from we're really big," George suggested.
"Ah, yes, so, uh, we're guessing you have already figured out that you are all from different years, so we don't really need to explain anything."
"You have a hell of a lot to explain," middle-aged New Zealander Peter retorted.
"Yes, well, we're not a hundred percent sure at the moment either, about everything, but now we'll need to make an inventory - a profile of each of you."

He went into another room and came back with a notebook and pencil.
"Right, who was first to arrive?" he started.
"Uh... it was that one," John scanned the room and pointed to Ben, the 80s guy. The four walked over to Ben.
"Right, so, what's your name?" Paul asked.
"Ben. I'm 19 and I'm from Seattle in 1984," he replied nonchalantly.
"Right," Paul wrote down the information, "I guess you knew what information I was going to ask you for. Right, who was next?"
"This lass over here," George indicated to Jenny.
"Jenny. I'm 30 and I'm from 1963 Sussex," she told them from across the room before they could move towards her or ask anything.
"Oh, only last year? That's good," Paul commented.
"Next was that guy over there," John said, pointing to Adam.
"No, it was him," George protested, pointing to Peter, the New Zealander.
"Are you sure?"
"It was me," Adam said, "I'm Adam, I'm 22 and I'm from 1971 Australia."
"What's with the suit?" Ringo asked.
"I was about to head off to the Vietnam War before I was sucked into this time vortex thing."
"The war's still going in 1971?" John asked incredulously.
"Maybe you should stop there," Paul advised Adam.
"Okay, then that guy was definitely next," George said, referring to Peter.
"I'm from 2022 New Zealand. I'm Peter and I'm 44."
"2022? Wow," Paul commented, "That's a long way in the future."
"Yeah, and I'm the one here whose travelled the farthest. And if you don't mind, I'd like to go back. I'm a long way from home."
"Next was the little boy," John said.
"What's your name?" Paul crouched down next to him.
"Jack. I'm eight."
"Can you tell me what year you're from?"
"1993. I'm from Arkansas."
"It's okay Jack, everything's gonna be alright."
"She was next," George pointed to the young blonde girl who hadn't said anything yet.

"What's your name?" Paul asked.
She continued to cower in fear, not answering.
"She hasn't spoken to us," Jenny said.
"It's okay, sweetie, you'll be okay," Ringo comforted her, "Can you tell us about yourself?"
"I-I'm Kylie," she eventually spoke.
"Hey Kylie. Can you tell us which year you're from?"
"I'm from 2009. Australia, 2009. I'm sixteen."
An Australian around my age and time! Yay!
"Thank you, Kylie."
"She was next," George pointed to Ethel, the elderly lady.
"I'm Ethel," she said in her Welsh accent, "I'm 68 and I'm from Cardiff in the year 2000."
Paul wrote her details down and then they all turned to me.
"This young lass here is our most recent acquisition," John told them. I felt uncomfortable having the four Beatles stare down at me.
"I'm Sophie," I said, trying to inject as much confidence into my voice as possible, "I'm 17 and I'm from Australia in 2012."
"So not too dissimilar to her then?" Paul pointed his pencil to Kylie.
"Quite a few of those Australians here," Ringo commented, "Three of eight."
"And don't forget that New Zealand guy," George commented, "Aren't they near each other?"
"I think so," Paul mumbled, "Well, Brian's gone out to get you some supplies, whatever that means, so just sit tight for now."