Voynich Shift - Pars Duorum (COMPLETED)

Part XXIV - Leonis, 1:1, 2:3 - Missing Dinner

"Just need to find some clothes." Rounding the corner of an aging, white plaster building, the out-of-breath Cindy Lou stumbled to a stop. She hoped she had lost the others by running into this seaside town to hide amongst its buildings...

"Aw sheeyut."

Unfortunately, she found herself exposed –again, and in more than one way: First, as the nurse-turned-patient-turned-fugitive who still wore a revealing hospital gown, and second, all alone in an alley that led straight to a pedestrian-filled, busy sidewalk. Tightening her grip on the alien blue-black rifle clutched in her two hands, the nervous woman glanced around, and to avoid being seen, decided to quickly duck behind the only shelter available, a rusty blue dumpster lined with boxes and garbage. Cindy Lou, observing her surroundings, looked up and noticed a door exactly parallel from where she hunkered down behind the trash collector. Above it hung a sign, "Restaurant Chez Humanitae – Deliveries Only".

Her stomach growled and Cindy Lou realized she was hungry.

But not for long.

As a sudden gust of warm air whipped down the alleyway, Cindy Lou involuntarily wrinkled her nose at a pungent aroma spawned from the dumpster, and nearly wretched. She removed her left hand from the weapon and placed a pair of her fingers to her nose. "Lord, that is the most Gawd-awful smell! In all my years of nursin', I don't recall anything smelling like this short of that dead hunter they brought in last year. An' he'd been up in the woods for a minute."

Curious, Cindy Lou slowly stood from her crouch and peered in through an opening in the side of the blue garbage receptacle. Her eyes grew wide as she stumbled backward into the open arms of one Arthur Raymond.

"Cindy Lou, we need to talk..."

"What is this place!?!! There's human skeletons in there! Let...me...go!" Elbowing the former Army sergeant in the stomach, Cindy Lou made a break for the crowd.

"Stop!" Arthur darted forward and dove, grabbing the nurse around her arms and chest. Spinning to his back to save her from injury, Arthur slammed to the concrete on his back and he winced, refusing to let the nurse escape once more.

"Let me go, asshole!!!" the woman screeched.

"Buck, get the rifle!" Arthur barked as he covered Cindy Lou's face with his hand to silence her.

Buck raced forward and grabbed for the weapon, but the nurse involuntarily pulled the trigger before he could ratchet it from her hand. The expelled bullet narrowly missed the sheriff's head and buried itself in the plaster wall behind him. Its report echoed down the alleyway and left a ringing in everyone's ears. "Jesus!" Buck cursed aloud and forcefully yanked the rifle from Cindy Lou in frustration.

Noting a sudden near-absence of noise, the three time-travelers immediately froze and turned their attention to the end of the alley. As feared, the well-dressed, bustling crowd of businessmen and women had stopped and were silently gawking at them, observing the odd sight of one strangely-dressed man lying on the concrete holding a struggling half-naked woman and another standing over them both with a machine gun. In unison, the crowd lifted some sort of small devices to their ears and began speaking, eyes never leaving Buck, Arthur, and Cindy Lou.

Cindy Lou thought she heard one of the people in the crowd say, "Yes, Chez Humanitae...it appears as if someone's dinner has escaped and there are vagabonds attempting to steal her."

"Not good," Buck said, stating the obvious aloud. "We should get on out of here."

"Roger that," Arthur agreed, struggling to maintain his grip on the frantic Cindy Lou as he stood. Annoyed, he decided to throw the nurse over his shoulder. "Stop fightin', damn it woman! We're tryin' to save you!"