Young Writers Society

Bo took his cue from Kirux and ordered enough food for maybe five very hungry people. A stack of pancakes, bacon, an omelette with all the things in it, hash-browns, fresh fruits, toast, and orange juice. All large portions, he was hoped. He knew it was a lot, but he was hungry, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten, and this was all free. Also, he didn’t have to cook it for once, which was nice. He didn’t know when he’d last been to a restaurant.

With his order out of the way, he cocked his head at Jack’s comment.

“We all look different than we’re supposed to. Of course it feels wrong.”

Jack shook his head.

"It's not like that," he said. "Something else is bugging me. I can't explain why, but my body's telling me that something's off."

He was starting to think he didn't just look like Tim Drake. He was Tim Drake. Because wouldn't a vigilante be getting weird vibes in a situation like this? It didn't matter that Tim Drake would have only been Robin for a few months at this point - maybe a year at most. The instincts would still be there.

But it wasn't like he could say that without sounding really crazy.

"This place is perfect," Jack pointed out. "We can get whatever food we want, have an entire private train car to ourselves with all kinds of outfits, and everything seems so calm. Plus, we're all the wrong ages! Everyone is older than they are - except Kirux - and I'm younger than I am. How does that even make any sense?"

Megara was not thrilled to find her name marking a seat at the table. She was even less thrilled to be told to order 'whatever she wanted'.

Nither of those things were supposed to be possible. Megara Ringly was the perpetually ill daughter of a wealthy Count, that wasn't a name one would find on any but courtesy invitations. No one, ever, expected someone with that name to show up to their gala, party, ball, anything. It just didn't happen.

So Megara waved off the waiter's attempts to get her order, "No thanks," she said with a smile, "I'm not hungry."

Across from her, the girl dressed in furs was staring down at the table, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Where is Summer?" she said to the waiter, "I cannot hear her." The girl's stare was intense, boring into the waiter's soul. Apparently she had a second mode beyond a blank, day-dreamy stare. Did she even blink?

Megara rolled her eyes at herself and tuned into the conversation the others were having. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied as easy as second nature, "I mean, my hair is a little longer, but otherwise," she shrugged. Her hair was, in fact, a lot longer, and in the simplest braids she'd ever seen. That was going to have to change. Her hair might as well be down, and at this length, that could be disastrous in combat.

"Hair doesn't grow several inches in one sleep," Bo stated matter-of-factly before shoving a large cut of waffle into his mouth. He pointed at Jack with his fork, talking while chewing. "And of course it doesn't make sense. Maybe this is some shared dream or something. Like the movie inception. And somebody drugged us."

"I haven't heard of that movie," Sarah said, not thinking much of it. It's not like she went the movies much anyway, having to take care of Adam while Jay worked. They had managed to get a babysitter for Adam so they could have a date night to see Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock's newest movie, but that was almost a year ago now.

"I wonder where we are," she said as she ate her food. "And where we're going. I've never even been out of Montana or Wyoming."

**

Alex hadn't heard of Inception either, but she shrugged it off. Something about this did feel uneasy. But she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do about it. The truth was, even if her father and Marcia were probably looking for her, she didn't care. Even if she didn't know how she'd gotten on this train, maybe this was her chance. She could start over completely. She wasn't sure about it being a shared dream. It seemed to make sense, like they were in an episode of The Twilight Zone, but she was sure it would all work out in time.

"I don't know Inception," she told Bo. "But maybe it's like the Twilight Zone. Though, usually. that's one person, not a whole group..."

All Alex really knew for certain was that she wanted to see the man again.

"You've never heard of Inception?" Jack asked. He had never seen it, but he knew of it - it just wasn't his cup of tea. He thought over the question for another moment, coming this close to an explanation.

But then he decided there were other things to focus on.

(Beside him, Kirux looked nervous. Jack didn't notice. He had no way of knowing that Kirux also hadn't heard of the movie, and felt worried that his secret would come out if he spoke up.)

"Twilight Zone usually has some kind of lesson, right?" Jack asked. "It's been awhile since I've seen it, but if there is some lesson we're supposed to learn right now, what could it be? We don't have anything obvious in common."

Bo nodded in agreement with Jack’s last statement as he chewed on a big piece of pancake. He wasn’t exactly pacing himself. He was eating like a started man.

“Yeah,” Bo agreed through chewing. “Like, none of ya’ll are freakin’ jacked like me.”

He lifted up a pancaked fork and flexed proudly. He didn’t know how he’d gotten so ripped but he was proud to show it off, even if he looked old.

Then his eyes widened and he smiled.

“Unless you’re Jack,” he added with a cheesy smile. “Then of course you are, hahah.”

Megara rolled her eyes. She was, in fact, 'jacked'. Very much so, in fact. More than she remembered being, but her memory was a bit fuzzy. Likely because of whatever drug 'ought to be clearing itself from her system about now. At least it wasn't a hallucinogen. Those were truly the root of all the evils that Briar cooked up in the freaky little lab she had tucked away in that dark corner of the manor's 'non-existent' lower levels.

As if Briar's experiments wouldn't benefit from a little natural light or proper ventilation.

"Well, it seems most of us have undergone some changes," Megara shrugged, "My guess is it's just the work of some bored lab-dwelling ingrate. I'm sure it'll be sorted soon enough," only partially a lie. She wasn't quite sure this was Briar's work.



Winter's mind was reeling. Spinning, churning like the wine-dark waters of the high seas in the storm season. Summer is not here.

Winter' could not even feel her presence. It was always there, even when they were far apart, at the edge of her senses. A fluctuating spark of hot and cold, warm, hazy, sharp, there. Summer was always there.

The air around Winter grew colder, the same way as always but quicker. The heat drew into her and frost spread where there was little or none left. She feared the chair, and possibly the ground beneath it, was coated in a fine layer of patterned ice.

Summer's ice only had patterns when she was agitated. When she was inconsolable.

Winter imagined her flame would have the same uncontrolled nature were she to use it now. Flickering, erratic, consuming.

Where is Summer?

Jack couldn't help but give a little smile and laugh at Bo's joke - he was scared and confused, but he could always use a little laughter to make himself feel slightly better. And he did, even when the conversation switched back to why they were in this train.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw Kirux lifting up the bottom of his shirt and staring at what was underneath. He was "jacked" too - not nearly as much as Bo, but even Jack could make out the muscles from beside him.

"Were you like that before?" he asked.

Kirux froze. Jack didn't even notice the temperature drop. He looked at Jack with something that could almost be called fear - not quite terror, but almost there. Kirux carefully rolled his shirt back down, gave a stiff nod, and stared down at the table.

"Wow," Jack said. "How did you get that many muscles, anyways? I tried getting some awhile back, but I still look like a twig."

He faltered.

"...Besides now, anyways."

Kirux pulled out his pad. When he put his pencil to the paper, Jack couldn't help but notice how much Kirux's hand was trembling. Jack felt horrible for making him so scared, but he also had no idea what was causing Kirux to be so afraid.

He held up the pad.

"Exercise," the paper said.

When Kirux seemed sure that the paper had been seen, he hurriedly stuffed it away in his pocket and sunk down in his seat.

Bo didn't know what on earth Megara meant by all of this being the work of some lab-dwelling ingrate. He found himself shrugging at her commentary as he stuffed another pancake in his mouth. This time, trying to fit a whole one in, just because. None of these people here knew him, and if this was a dream, it wasn't like he'd see them again, so it was whatever, right? He was hungry, anyway.

He looked over at Kirux's paper. He wondered if that could be considered eavesdropping.

Apparently Kirux was super fit too, and just finding out. Poor Jack got left out of the cool-new-muscles development.

When he saw "exercise" written out as a one-word answer to Jack's question, he almost lost it. He had to put a hand over his mouth to keep from spitting out his pancake, but that wasn't a great idea, because then he instinctively tried to swallow, and started to choke.

Well, not choke entirely. He wasn't dying, right? He was wheezing, though, for sure.

Bo got up, grabbed a glass of water off the table and ran to the side of the car by the windows. He took a huge chug of water, finally clearing his throat in time for laughter to come bubbling up again. His knees got weak as he started to double over, still wheezing.

"Jacked?" Sarah asked. Everyone seemed to know what had Bo had meant by that remark meant except for her. Alex seemed confused to, but she didn't look like she was in a position where she was going to say anything.

Margaret came back and asked if they needed anything else. Still, there wasn't enough coffee in the world that could shake the feeling that something was off. How she looked ten years older than she was, for one, and how everyone else seemed to, but like Jack had said, he was the one that seemed younger.

Before Bo could respond, he excused himself from the table and began wheezing. Alex watched and wanted to ask if he was okay, but decided not to, figuring it was a step too far. He seemed like he would be okay anyway. So she stayed and silently ate the rest of her oatmeal.

"I heard Nixon's getting the nomination," Sarah said. "If that's true, he probably has my vote." Jay wouldn't vote no matter who got the nomination. He thought all politicians were corrupt, and even if Sarah tended to agree, she still thought it was important to vote. She didn't even like thinking about politics anyway, but it was the first conversation topic she could pull out of thin air, all because she saw that man reading the paper.

"Nixon? Really?" Alex responded. "Over Kennedy?"

"I mean, yes. He was born in with a silver spoon in his mouth. He doesn't know what the rest of us live our lives. Nixon actually had to work for everything he had in life."

Alex blinked. Of course this woman was a Republican, it made perfect sense. She wouldn't even be old enough to vote in the 1968 election, but she'd actually thought about helping out as a volunteer or something when the time came.

"Kennedy's policies will actually help people. He's continuing his brother's legacy. Nixon's already lost once. He's irrelevant."

"What are you talking about? Which brother?" Sarah was getting confused now. "And Nixon? Has he ever lost an election? He's been Vice President for two terms and was in the House and the Senate before that..."

"He ran for president in 1960. He lost to John F. Kennedy. What rock have you been living under?" Alex responded.

"It's 1959," Sarah said. "The election hasn't even happened yet."

Now Alex was confused. Both noticed everyone else staring at them blankly.

"Isn't it?" Sarah added.

"It's 1967. Um."

Both women waited for someone to back them up.

Jack opened his mouth to ask if Bo was okay - he knew Bo had seen Kirux's note, and was probably getting a kick out of the answer like Jack wanted to - but then Sarah and Alex started talking about politics.

He normally tried to tune out conversations about politics. There was only so much that you could take these days, and he had spent the past few car rides with Lila listening to NPR. Both of them could vote in the primary and election, and neither wanted to be uninformed.

Then Sarah mentioned Nixon.

And Alex mentioned Kennedy.

And then they said what years it was.

Jack stiffened in his seat.

He hadn't taken AP History like Lila had - his knowledge of what years certain things happened wasn't that good. But he knew about Watergate, and knew about JFK's assassination, and knowing that both of those things happened a long time ago made a chill run down his spine.

"...It's 2020," Jack finally said. "I have President Trump."

A sinking feeling settling in his gut, Jack turned to the others at their table. His gaze landed on Kirux first - he was the one Jack had run into before everyone else, and the one closest to him.

But Kirux wasn't meeting his eyes.

He was staring down at the table, hands shaking as they grasped the very end of the tablecloth.

It wasn't until he saw a small spot on the tablecloth darken that he realized Kirux was crying.

Jack was pretty concerned about the whole dealing with the people from the past thing, but he pushed aside his concern in an attempt to help Kirux out.

He put his hand on Kirux's hand. Kirux immediately stiffened.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Are you...Are you from a different time, too?"

Kirux shook his head.

"Are you from one of our times?"

Kirux shook his head again, the tears falling even faster than before.

"...I-I don't get it. How could you-"

He fell silent when Kirux started scribbling something out with a shaky hand. A second later, he held up his notebook.

"I don't know what time I'm from," the paper said. "Winnie never told me."

"Winnie?" Jack asked.

Kirux nodded, giving a silent sob. He went back to writing, only to hold up a tear-stained page a second later. "I only remember the last six months. Winnie's told me everything I know."

It took a second, but Bo had gotten his laughter under control and had returned back to the table, sitting down with a sigh. A laugh was just what he'd needed to ease the tension, but apparently, when he sat down he only returned to more.

Kirux was crying. Was it because he'd been laughing?

But that wasn't even the most concerning thing. Everyone was from different years? 1959? 1967? 2020? It was starting to sound like a time traveler dream more than anything else, but the genuine concern and confusion on everyone's faces was making him worry. This didn't feel right.

He thought it was 2008. If they were all from different years, then what year was it?

He looked over at Kirux's paper. The poor guy was crying and writing at the same time, and when he read it he finally understood. Kirux was a Jason Bourne. He'd lost his memory. That always sounded cool in the movies, but he didn't realize how much that would actually suck to experience in real life, having your memory wiped like that.

His head was spinning. With vacant eyes, he stared out past everyone and started chugging his glass of orange juice.

Alex wasn't hungry anymore. She didn't even process what Jack had said, because
she couldn't even imagine living in the year 2020. It was an odd jump from eight years to over fifty but then again, she had no idea what time the others at the table were from.

"I don't know President Trump," Alex said. "It's Lyndon Johnson."

"Lyndon Johnson becomes president?" Sarah asked. She knew he was running for the Democratic nomination too, but she found that hard to believe.

"He was Kennedy's vice president..." Alex caught herself. She knew from the books she read and television shows she'd watched that it was generally a bad idea to tell people from the past about the future. But she'd already started, and she figured, if everyone was from a different time, all bets were off. "He's killed by an assassin in Dallas in 1963. Johnson became president after that."

"Is that true?" Sarah said. She couldn't believe it. Young, handsome Kennedy. Even if she didn't like his politics, it was hard to imagine something like that could happen.

"Of course it's true," Alex said.

"Eisenhower's still the president," Sarah said, growing more uncomfortable. She believed Alex, but the question was, how something like this could happen. She supposed she'd have the most in common with her, but it was insane how much things could change in eight years.

"Does the war end in Vietnam?" Alex asked Jack.

War in Vietnam? Sarah thought to herself. It was going to be a long day while they figured all of this out.