Testing the Limits of Time

Chapter 11: Ground Zero

"Wake up! Rise and shine!"
A voice, as loud as an alarm clock came in as an intruder to a peaceful slumber.
"Skylar! Get up! It's 3 in the afternoon. You've had ten missed calls from your clients."
The voice reached the ears, and it was supposed to deliver these messages. But it seemed like there was no one to receive it, as if it stood outside, knocking on the door in vain.
"Mmm...what? Where am I?" Skylar mumbled, entrapped in a super deep slumber. She tried to open her eyes, but they felt like her eyelids had been glued together. Her body was pressed under a wave of lethargy. She grabbed the edge of the bed to get up. But the exhaustion prevented her from wiggling even slightly.
Skylar had never felt so paralyzed before. Like a heavy blanket that had a hundred stones sewn to it, sleep wouldn't let Skylar go. She felt glued to her bed. Rubbing her eyes, she cleared her vision enough to catch her concerned mother leaning beside her.
"Skylar, my dear girl. Are you okay? You seem to have a temperature," her mother said, caressing her forehead. Skylar got up with a jerk. "I am okay, mom. Just feeling a bit under the weather, nothing serious." But her mother could sense that something had taken a toll on her daughter's health. She told her to rest as she left to prepare soup for her. Skylar got up to freshen herself up. But all she wanted to do was snuggle back in and sleep some more.
She had never felt this way before. Perhaps they had paid way more visits to places they weren't meant to be at. The impact that had taken over her was not unexpected, but she did not see it coming this way.
As she took little sips of her soup, she contemplated how time-traveling, especially to war-stricken eras that involved all the shelling and bombing, was not a very good idea. Yes, they considered it their mission to rectify the discrepancies, but the risks that came with them could not be overlooked. Her mental, emotional, and physical health was at stake, and her professional life was also being compromised. Things had gotten bad for her, so they must have been equally bad for her friends.
Skylar realized that they all needed a break from this. Or maybe all they needed was a break from the insufferable times.
***
Skylar and her friends gathered in their makeshift base on Time Street. Kody sprawled on a sooty armchair, flipping through an old, dog-eared magazine, while Tyler paced back and forth. Jamie leaned against the wall, lost in thought.
"I don't know about you guys," Skylar said, trying to lighten the mood, "but I'm tired of dodging bullets. How about something from this century? On my first visit to Time Street, I came across a house with the number 2020 written outside its fence."
Tyler stopped pacing and looked up. "You mean, like, 2020? A pandemic year sounds like a vacation compared to World War I, haha."
Kody chuckled. "Hey, I've always wanted to see how people survived the great toilet paper shortage of 2020."
Tyler nodded. "It's worth a shot. And if we're lucky, we might find something more about the Revisionists."
"And hey, if all else fails, we can always use my charm to win them over," Kody grinned. Despite the danger, they knew they could count on each other.
Skylar grinned. "Alright, it's settled. Let's see what 2020 has in store for us. And oh--don't forget your masks! We'll need plenty of them! We don't wanna bring the virus back with us haha!"
With equal proportions of apprehension and thrill, the group approached House 2020. Stepping through the door, they found themselves in a suburban neighborhood. The streets were eerily quiet, all the shops were closed, and there was an air of uncertainty and unease. The difference between the deafening silence here and the commotion in the war zones just a century ago was palpable.
"Is this what happens when everyone decides to stay in and binge-watch shows?" Tyler looked around, quipping on every observation.
"Feels like a ghost town," Jamie replied. "I mean, where is everyone? It feels like walking to a graveyard."
"Thank you, frontline workers."
Skylar noticed a nearby house with a sign on its lawn. "Looks like people are staying indoors," she said. "Let's find someone to talk to."
They walked down the street and saw a woman in her garden, tending to some flowers. She looked up and waved. Her face was partially covered by a colorful mask.
"Hi there," Skylar called out. "Mind if we ask you a few questions?"
The woman chuckled. "As long as you don't ask for my secret bread recipe. I've learned two things during this pandemic: how to bake bread and how much I hate baking bread."
The group laughed. This was a much-needed interaction. The tension from the silence was so suffocating that even a tad of socialization refreshed them all.
"We're just trying to get a sense of how things are around here," Jamie said. "How's everyone holding up?"
"It's been tough," the woman replied. "Lots of loss and adaptation. But we're managing. The community has really pulled together."
They thanked the woman and continued their stroll. Jamie noticed a poster on a telephone pole. It advertised the 2020 Olympics.
"Wait a minute," she said, stopping in her tracks. "Did the Olympics happen in 2020? Because this says, it did."
Kody frowned. "No way. The Olympics were postponed because of the pandemic. This has to be a mistake."
Skylar examined the poster closely. "Or it's another sign of the Revisionists' interference. We need to find out what else has changed."
They walked on and on, visiting community centers, hospitals, and welfare to catch more discrepancies.
"If I have to wear one more face mask, I'm going to scream," Jamie grumbled, adjusting her mask. "And then sanitize my hands over and over again. I think I have fewer skin cells left than brain cells."
At a local hospital, they saw patients battling the virus while the staff overworked to provide their services. But despite the grim scenes, there observed moments of solidarity and sheer resilience.
"Turns out, history is a lot more than just wars and revolutions. Who knew?" Kody remarked.
While at a community center, they stumbled across another clue: a pamphlet detailing an event that never happened. The Revisionists were definitely at work here. Sifting through their findings, Skylar found a cryptic note hidden among one of the many pamphlets they had collected. It hinted at the Revisionists' ongoing plans.
"Guys, I think we missed something. Look at this," she said, pointing out the new clue.
"Don't tell me the Revisionists left us a little love note again," Kody said. Tyler read it aloud,
"The past is but a canvas; we are the artists. More changes are coming."
"We might need a vacation after this. Preferably somewhere without time-traveling villains," he joked.
They all nodded in unison. They realized they needed to address these discrepancies without exposing themselves or causing more harm. They decided to document everything again they had observed so far.
But they knew that this was not the final straw. There was so much more to come, and they had to be careful enough to see it coming.
They knew they were not powerful enough to stop them completely, but the least they could do was keep track of the changes in history.
Later that evening, the group sat down for dinner at Kody's place. Jamie had cooked up a simple meal of pasta, and Tyler had found a bottle of wine tucked away in one of the kitchen cupboards.
The room was filled with the tingling clinking of silverware and the occasional buzz of conversation.
"I've been thinking," Skylar began. "Maybe we should take a step back and reassess our approach. The war eras were brutal, and it's clear we're not done with the Revisionists. But maybe we need a different strategy."
Setting her fork down, Jamie chewed on her bite and then nodded, "I agree. We can't keep putting ourselves in the middle of these conflicts without understanding the full scope of what we're dealing with. We need more information, you're right."
Tyler leaned back in his chair. "So, what's the plan? We can't just sit around and wait for the Revisionists to make their next move."
"We should focus on the discrepancies we've found so far," Skylar answered, "The Olympics poster, the pamphlet—we need to trace these changes back to their source. If we can figure out what the Revisionists are targeting, we might be able to stay one step ahead. Because so far, I am yet to reason with the Revisionists' actions."
"And we need to be prepared for anything," Kody added. "Let's start by gathering as much information as we can about 2020. We'll look into historical records, news articles, anything that can give us a clearer picture of what's happening and why."
Skylar looked at her friends as they sat around the table. "I know this is tough, and I know we're all feeling the pressure. But we've got each other, and we've got a plan. We can do this."
The next few days at House 2020 were spent in thorough research. Skylar and her friends scoured the internet, read through newspapers, and even watched old news broadcasts. The more they learned, the clearer it became that the Revisionists were targeting key moments in history to alter the course of events.
One evening at Jamie's place, Skylar was poring over an old newspaper. She came across an article that made her pause. It was about a protest that took place in 2020, which was a pivotal moment in the fight for social justice. But there was something off about the details.
"Hey, guys," she called out, waving the newspaper. "I think I found something. This article talks about a protest, but the details don't match up with what we know. See, the dates are all wrong! And there are tweets from the wrong people who weren't even there. Heck, I believe they don't even exist."
Jamie looked up from her laptop. "Another Revisionist alteration?"
"Looks like it," Skylar replied.
They had to be smart about it. The Revisionists were their enemies. But how? They were yet to find out. But they couldn't charge without a reason and defense.
It was fairly easy to blend in with the masked crowds that were victims of the pandemic. All they had to do was put on a mask, and voila! They were one with the crowd. This was also comparatively cheaper because they did not have to go through all that shopping for their period-appropriate attires.
However, the price of what they could easily afford in the present was ten times higher than that in 2020. Masks, toilet paper, and sanitizers, for instance, were necessities that the masses were deprived of, which led to protests.  The group would also attend protests when they deemed convenient so they could get more clues.
During their venture, they felt hungry, so they decided to grab some goodies from a store. It was hard to find an open store during lockdown, but their hunger got the best of them. They were determined to eat.
A light flickered on a boarded-up library caught Skylar's eye as they tirelessly scavenged along the roads. Curious as ever, they snuck closer. Peeking through a dirty window, they saw a newspaper with a picture.
There, plastered on the front page, was a photo. But it wasn't just any photo. It was them – a bewildered version of themselves staring back.
A blaring headline under the picture screamed:
"Time Travelers Cause Global Panic?"
The world paused. Did their time travel mess with history somehow? Trapped in a paradox they didn't create; a chilling question weighed their consciousness down: what had they done?