Timeless Atlantis Ch. 01

I thought that it might be because he was the son of an original mariner but apparently women were in very short supply and unable to carry children. Those that were available were no better than slaves. He added that given my age and beauty (his words not mine, as I am far too modest) the men would make use of me for their pleasure rather than put me to work. "If they cannot die then why do they seem so nervous?" What he told me next confirmed what Father and I had come to Bermuda for. "Well, although I haven't seen any evidence of it myself it seems there's a race of women here that round up stray women and slaughter the men they find. I find the notion bizarre but who can discount anything? We are in the middle of a time vortex after all."

I ran through what he had said through my mind. If what the Germans said in his presence was true, and I had no reason to doubt it, then things started to slot into place. Somehow the vortex manifested itself when Atlantis disappeared. Much of the civilization must have been destroyed and could not have been helped by intruders turning up every so often. I wondered if they really were entirely man free. I doubted it. They had to have had men at one time in order to breed and records show they did have. Enemies often alter truth and make lies about each other so a rumour that they have no men around might just be propaganda. I asked why no one had constructed a boat from the trees and sailed back to normal time.

He said that he didn't know but it was not unreasonable to assume that the storm that wrecked ships and aeroplanes would do the same to anything trying to leave. He had noted that the horizon was kind of hazy in all directions and he had his suspicions that all that area would hold for a person would be death and destruction. He told me that he couldn't work out why the sun appeared normal and moved across the sky even though we were supposed to be frozen in time. For him the two facts didn't compliment each other. I thought about it for a while and resolved in my own mind the conundrum.

'I believe it is like the cheap flicker cards that amuse children by showing a man walking across a room for instance using lithograph pictures. Every card is the man but frozen at that exact moment when the film was exposed. When we look at them being flicked we do so from the perspective that each one follows the next and so it appears as if it is a moving picture when in fact all we have seen is a series of pictures showing a man frozen in time. We can see him and he appears real yet he doesn't exist in our reality, does not know we exist but whilst he reacts with us by our seeing him we cannot interact with him at all.

All we are seeing is the sun from our perspective that the day is progressing. But in fact we are only seeing the sun as it looked at a particular time of day once upon a time. It appears real to us because we see it and believe it to be moving. But it does not interact with us because to the sun we do not exist." He pondered my analogy and chuckled, "Well I wouldn't have credited it but I guess a Victorian perspective on the problem might explain a few things but not everything. In our time we know about radiation and light waves. If that sun weren't real how come it feels so warm and why have I got sunburn?"

It was my turn to laugh at his ignorance, "I will have you know Captain that Marie Curie taught us all about radiation and I am aware of what the sun does but you are overlooking a number of facts. Firstly you are the only one to be suffering sunburn. I have something of a tan because I have recently returned from North Africa but none of the mariners are showing any signs that the sun has affected them. You tried to explain how a Jet engine worked to me earlier and so all I can deduce is that when you left your aeroplane you passed within a distance of the flames of that engine close enough to burn you. I'm sure it will disappear as time goes by. As for the temperature I believe it has remained the same since the vortex appeared. If we are no longer part of time then I doubt that heat could escape."

Just then I heard a little whistle and a thump. Moments later one of the Germans fell backwards. As he did his gun began to fire and at a tremendous rate too. His comrades saw the arrow in his chest and began to fire wildly into the trees. The Captain saw it as a chance to capture the weapon in all the confusion. But before he had the chance to even pick the weapon up another arrow struck him in the chest. He fell flat on the ground and died. I did not wish to suffer the same fate and an arrow seemed the logical consequence of remaining upright as the rapid fire of their guns did nothing to stop arrows from being fired. It would also have been foolhardy to remain in a position whereby a stray bullet would have hit me.

It was not overly hot that afternoon but the five remaining Germans seemed to sweat profusely. They tried to take cover behind trees and so on, their eyes darting back and forth, seeking a target. Another arrow brought the young sailor down, but from a different angle to the first two. Another burst of gunfire ineffectually fired into the trees. Minutes passed and the four of them waited to find out if they had hit their mark or simply wasted ammunition whilst their attacker moved to a different firing position. The latter was sadly true. It went on for over an hour until the last man had no more ammunition. He looked at me, and for a moment considered what his options were before deciding there was one thing left he could do so jumped onto me.

He pulled out a dagger and held it to my throat, looking around and then shouting in German that unless he could go free I would be killed. I found that odd and wondered if he hadn't gone mad. I certainly feared for my own safety from the anonymous archer and felt scared for the first time in my adult life. Even if the archer did not kill the sailor's human shield then there was a good chance his knife would do the job either by accident or design.

To be continued...