“Makes my damn head hurt,” Drake said.
“That’s why they call it a time paradox.” Helen smiled. “But one thing’s for sure, is that something we did, or maybe Andy did, has altered our version of time. And now it’s catching up to us.”
“Like toppling dominoes,” Emma said.
“Yes. And the further you go back in time, that first tiny domino to get a push, can topple a slightly bigger domino. And then that one can topple an even bigger domino, and the bigger the dominoes that can fall, and the more time they have, the bigger changes that can occur.”
Drake’s brow was furrowed deeply. “But so what if you take out a few animals to eat a hundred million years ago? Or chop down some trees, or eat some berries and nuts? It’s not like they’re the last ones.”
“But don’t you see?” Ben sighed. “They might just be the ones that made all the difference.”
Helen clasped her hands together. “That’s how the domino effect works. Just imagine you went back in time 100,000 years. You find a berry and eat it. But that berry was going to feed a bug. That was going to feed, say, a bird that was going to feed an eagle that now doesn’t lay eggs that season. And those eggs were going to feed a hunter-gatherer family.”
Helen rubbed her temples and went on. “The family goes hungry, and now don’t have children that year. One of those children was going to be a great leader and found a great nation that will now never exist. The human world will be changed forever.”
Ben ran a hand up through his hair. “And now multiply that by a thousand times, by going back 100 million years.”
“Yes, yes,” Helen said softly. “Through one tiny change, one species may die out, and instead another may take its place. An alternate future is created.”
“Jesus Christ,” Drake whispered and stood up. He paused. “But… why is it happening now? None of this occurred when Ben was stuck there.”
They sat in silence for a moment, all lost in their own thoughts.
“Maybe, uh… ” Ben hiked his shoulders. “Maybe it was like keystones. Everything I interacted with wasn’t important… wasn’t key to our timeline.”
“That’s all I can think of,” Helen agreed. “Some species, or even some particular animals, are pivotal to our timeline. You might be lucky a thousand, thousand times, and then the one berry you eat, or bird you kill, or fish you net, turns out to be the one that was important.” She looked up at Ben. “That turns out to be the keystone to change.”
“Lucky us.” Drake exhaled through pressed lips. “Okay, I got another question. Why is it affecting us, here, when we were down in South America?”
“It’ll be a global effect,” Helen said. “As well as continental drift, the sea level was much lower many times over the past 100 million years. There were land bridges between Africa, Asian, European continents, and us, right here. Things, creatures, plants, moved back and forth.”
“We just have to adapt,” Emma said. “Maybe things will change for the better. Maybe we humans will be less warlike, maybe there’ll be less disease, better food… we might have to just wait and see.”
Helen’s eyes were glassy. “Or maybe we won’t exist at all.” She gave Emma a watery smile. “Or a new disease might evolve, a new predatorial creature.” She chuckled. “Or we might have decided to never come down from the trees.”
“We could vanish altogether,” Drake said. “Our… human line, our thread, might begin to be unpicked right before our eyes. One person at a time.”
“And we might be the only people in the world to notice,” Ben said morosely.
Ben felt the tingle run through him again and he grimaced. He saw Drake and Helen look to each other, and Emma reached out to place a hand on his shoulder just before everything went black for a second.
“Oh God, another one.” Emma gripped Ben’s shoulder even harder.
“Yeah, I felt it too.” Drake straightened in his chair. “What else just happened this time? What else has turned up, or disappeared?”
Emma looked to Ben and he back at her — the same question hung between them. She jumped to her feet and ran to the steps.
“Zach?” She sprinted halfway up the stairs. “Zach?”
Ben rose, staring toward their staircase and feeling sick in his gut. He said a silent prayer.
“What?” It was the muffled sound of Zach’s voice.
Ben exhaled, only then realizing he had been holding his breath. He slowly sat back down and sighed heavily.
“The human race is a frog in a pot with the water beginning to boil,” Helen said softly. “And just like the frog, it doesn’t even notice the changes.”
“So what’s worse?” Drake asked. “Not noticing and carrying on as the world gets more dangerous or people just start winking out? Or being like us, somehow immune to this collective obliviousness and actually witnessing the changes?”
“Worse for us,” Helen said. “Because we won’t know what to look out for. Remember your kronosaur?”
Drake nodded. “Oh yeah. And I didn’t even get to tell you about the bird-eating jellyfish.”
Emma came back down the steps, and her expression was relieved but strained. She came and sat up close to Ben and grabbed his hand in both of hers.
“What do we do?”
“Nothing we can do,” Ben said.
“Isn’t there?’ Drake asked. “Sure, we can’t do anything today, but it’s now been nine years and eight months since we were on that damn plateau.”
“So,” Ben picked up. “In four months, Primordia returns. And with it, comes a doorway.”
“A doorway back to stop anything else happening.” Drake sat back.
“No,” Emma said. “No way. We only escaped with our lives by the skin of our teeth last time. No way we’re going back. Why the hell would we?”
“Andy,” said Helen. “Whatever he’s doing, we can’t let it continue.”
“No.” Emma was even more emphatic this time. “I’m not doing it.”
“I agree,” Ben said. “You stay.” He drew in a deep breath. “But the thought of not going, and leaving our son in a world that is hostile to him, scares the hell out of me. You need to look after him. But I need to make sure this ends. Whatever this is.” He smiled, but couldn’t make it extend to his eyes. “Besides, it’s basically a second home to me, right?”
Drake groaned. “It was my idea, so if you need a wingman… ” He screwed his eyes shut. Say no, say no, say no.
“Thanks, bro,” Ben said and leaned across to slap his shoulder.
Drake opened his eyes, held out a fist, and Ben bumped it with his own. “Done.”
Ben looked at Drake with a level gaze. “We make Andy come back with us. Or we stop him doing what he’s doing.”
“Hey.” Helen’s eyes flashed. “What does that mean? Stop him doing what he’s doing? How do you plan on doing that?”
Ben looked at Drake, and the two men knew exactly what that might mean. He cleared his throat. “We convince him to come back with us. Even if we have to tie him up and drag him home.”
“Really?” Helen’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t trust you.”
“Well, come with me, us, I mean.” Drake lifted his chin.
“Seriously?” Helen frowned. “You’re going to use this as a way to try and rekindle our relationship? Try and get me to come back to a prehistoric world where everything there is designed to tear you limb from limb? Oh, and you also insinuate you might harm my brother as well.”
Drake grinned. “So I’m a bit rusty, huh?”
Helen looked furious for a moment and then burst out laughing. Ben and Emma did the same.