Unevolved

Something was off.

Mikhail groaned and rolled onto his back in his Alaskan King bed. The birds weren't singing, but he could hear the deep, bellowing voice of Andi, the Cyclops, rolling down the hall. If that walking pile of dung was out of his room unattended, this was Lee's weekend to run the hotel, which meant to Mikhail that the other three guests would huddle around him for the entire weekend to avoid Andi. There used to be 14 of them living with Mikhail at Pegasus, but 10 died because Chronos did not continue their line.

Wei was a hitman from China; Moe the Neanderthal, Greybeard, or Grey, the pirate, were the only ones, along with Andi and Mikhail, chosen by Chronos for some reason. Aaron knew the answer but could not say.

Mikhail rubbed his hands over his soft beard and face. Though he lived in a different time filled with more people and electronic devices, he had not changed. The rage and loneliness still lived in his body. Mikhail could not forget or forgive the reapers of wealth for the pain and misery they brought to the weak and poor of his people. He had destroyed many kings in many lands. The lone Viking traveled far and lived a life of revenge. He was one of the weak and poor who suffered because of greed.

The soft rumble of a growling stomach from the hallway brought a groan from Mikhail's throat. The group waited outside his door, hungry. The annoyed Viking threw back his blanket and placed one foot on the floor.

Why did Lee do this every weekend when Aaron took a rest? What was he doing? Aaron said Chronos had not sent out any orbs that needed their attention. Every person disrupting time had an orb attached to them that a child of Chronos could see. So, Lee had nothing to do over the weekend. Aaron was very thorough with his job. Lee was sloppy and nothing like his father, Garret.

Aaron and his younger brother Garret were the caretakers of Pegasus for a century before Garret decided to train his son Lee. He had the Chronos gene like his father and uncle. All the training went fine until Garret and Lee went after Andi. The Cyclops did not remember what happened after Garret struck him with the dart. The younger Walker did not return with his 20-year-old son Lee. Aaron questioned his nephew many times about what went wrong. He even allowed Mikhail to interrogate Andi. Having inmates converse without a Chronos carrier presence was forbidden, but Aaron was desperate to find his brother. He and Lee had often traveled back to Andi's timeline but had never recovered Garret's body.

Mikhail saw the sorrow in Aaron's body every day for 40 years. He did not see the same emotion from Lee. The nephew was rejoicing in his new role as keeper. He kept to himself and only talked with his Uncle Aaron when Chronos indicated a problem.

Mikhail placed his other foot on the floor as he sat up. He held his head in his hands as he stretched. He needed sex. His body was waking from its confinement. Mikhail could feel his flesh stirring, and thoughts of the woman of his past rolled through his dreams. Why didn't Aaron bring back any women? Every time the man came back, there was a fucking man tied up behind him. To curve Mikhail's libido, Aaron gave him a shot that dampened the need for sex but had to keep administering it every three months because the Viking's immune system fought it like it was the devil. The need to reproduce was strong in Mikhail, and today was the last effective day of the medicine.

The music blared through the dining hall as Andi danced around the table and chairs. He was a very skilled dancer, everyone would agree. No one liked his bullying behavior during meal time other than that he was okay to be around. Andi, an eight-foot, muscle-bound, fair-skinned man with one big blue eye, waltzed around the cafeteria, looking at the food, waiting for consumption. The hotel kitchen staff had made it while they slept. Andi and the others had never seen these people and vice versa. Chronos kept their presence hidden from the outside world. The kitchen staff worked eight hours and left.

"Where is everyone?" Andi sang.

He looked toward the doors. "I can eat all this food myself. But I would love to share it with you for your time outside this hotel." Andi stomped toward one of the tables. "Where did you all go? I saw you here, and then you vanished. Did you run to the Viking Mikhail? He won't save you. I will allow him to eat because I am gracious and fair."

The door creaked. Andi's eye could see through any substance or material. He looked through the massive wooden door and saw the Viking Mikhail dressed in an untucked light blue shirt and blue jeans and had tied the long blonde braids behind his back. The angry Viking pushed the doors open and eyed the smiling Cyclops.

"Mikhail, my friend, please come and eat. I will...."

Mikhail moved aside and allowed the others in. "I am not in the mood today, Andi. I will hurt you even if I do not have a reason today. I will even consider making up shit just to hurt you. I do not wish to have any of you assholes around me today. Stop fucking hoarding the food!" The howl of angry words filled the Pegasus Hotel. The windows rattled, and some tables and chairs slid across the floor from the Viking's mighty yell.

Wei grunted as he filled his plate. Moe got a bowl and began filling it.

"He needs his shot," Grey said under his breath as he grabbed some silverware.

Wei nodded, and his thick, black topknot bobbed. "Why did Aaron leave? He knows when Mikhail needs it."

Moe grabbed another bowl and filled it. "Time,"

Grey and Wei looked at the hairy creature. He did not shed hair. He was not like animals or humans sometimes. Moe had an intellect they did not always understand.

"What do you mean?" Wei asked.

Moe's brown eyes moved toward the Viking standing at the door. He waited for them to finish, and so did Andi. The Cyclops wanted none of Mikhail. "His time," Moe clarified.

Wei frowned and poured coffee into his cup. "Thanks for clearing up everything, Moe."

The Neanderthal nodded, unbothered by Wei's sarcasm.

Grey selected his food and walked toward a table. Moe followed him. Wei picked up his cup and joined his two friends. Andi stared at Mikhail as he cautiously walked to the table of food. The Viking stayed at the door. Andi grabbed a plate and began filling it quickly. Mikhail's deep sigh forced Andi to grab some fruit and hold it to his chest as he scampered away from the table.

As Mikhail approached the table, the west door entrance to the dining hall flew open. A curly-haired, half-naked, brown-skinned, crying woman ran into the room, clutching a ripped blue dress to her chest. Mikhail saw blood on her face and scratches on her arms. Her large breasts flopped against her chest while weaving through the tables as if someone was chasing her. The woman's curly dark and light brown hair flew into her face and around her body as she ran past Mikhail. He turned to see her naked and firm butt as she ran out the east doors.

The five guests of Pegasus Hotel remained silent and still. The shock of seeing a half-naked woman running through the room paralyzed them. Why was she here? Mikhail returned to the table, grabbed some napkins and fruit, and casually left the dining hall. He did not have to run. Mikhail would follow her feminine scent through the halls until he found her.

Lee crawled to his bathroom, groaning in pain the entire way. The woman had kicked him between his legs. And not any ordinary kick; she got a running start, and her aim was deadly.

Lee had journeyed south to retrieve Civil War items to add to his growing art collection of the past. He kept hidden as he broke into various houses, looking for artifacts. The local people would go insane seeing a free black man with long dreads and 20th-century clothes walking around town. While committing one of these break-ins, he saw her. The young slave woman had a scarf tied around her head to keep her hair hidden. She had brown caramel skin and was a daughter of Aphrodite. Lee could see the mother-of-beauty's aura around the woman. He had never seen a woman so mesmerizing as she was. And he had seen and slept with hundreds of women during his travels to the past. Lee followed the woman through town from the treeline. The woman kept her head down as she walked into the woods. Lee followed her.

He watched the woman walk toward a group of five people. The other two brown-skinned people hugged her. The older white woman and her two children hugged her, also. Lee could tell they were running away from their captivity. The wife of the slave owner, her two children, and the woman's father and mother were heading for a ship leaving port. Lee heard the children call the young woman Jamie. She had no orb on her person, so Chronos did not choose her removal from the timeline. Lee had never taken a person from the timeline who did not have an orb. Jamie would be his first. Lee would take the woman back with him and give her a bountiful life.

He thought he could ambush the group waiting by the water, but she saw him in the bushes and told her group. Lee stepped from his cover, ready to fight. Being a keeper at Pegasus Hotel, he was an accomplished fighter. While he easily defeated her family, she must have picked up a rock because when he got her through the portal, she unleashed hell upon his body and face. She scratched and bit him. He tore her dress, trying to get her off him, and pushed her away, and that was when she got a running start and kicked him between his legs. She kept screaming about her family and the three white people with them. Lee heard her group screaming her name as the gateway closed behind them. The woman punched him in the face and neck several times, and they fell to the floor of the orb room when she jumped on him. Lee couldn't hold her. The pain in his flesh was unbearable and took his strength away. Jamie stood and kicked him in the face and ribs before running out of the room crying.

Lee used his remaining strength and slowly crawled to the floor-length mirror in the corner of the bathroom. A surprised murmur escaped him as he saw the horrific injuries on his face. His eyes were bloody and would blacken soon. His lips bled. He was missing two teeth. His face looked like he had walked through barbed wire twice. Everything hurt in his body, but he would heal entirely in five hours. The Chronos gene in his DNA accelerated his healing.

He had to think of something to tell the others, especially Mikhail. Lee groaned and slid back to the floor to rest. No one would come to check on him because he was not close to the criminals like his Uncle Aaron. Lee had been there for sixty years but looked and had the body of a 25-year-old man. He only knew Mikhail, and he never bothered to learn the names of the others in the hotel.

Lee closed his eyes. After the pain in his body wore off, he would think of a cover story about the escaped woman. He just hoped. None of the others saw the woman. He hoped Mikhail hadn't because he doubted he could take her from him without his uncle's help. He did not want his uncle to see the woman because what he did was against all the laws of Chronos. And his Uncle Aaron would punish him with banishment. Lee would never survive that and would do anything to keep his place at Pegasus Hotel and hide his transgressions against it.

Mikhail saw the woman curl behind the weight rack in the workout room. He sat on the bench, watching her cry and hold her dress to her naked skin. She was beautiful, and she was going to be his. He would listen to Lee explain why she was here, but he knew the man was a liar. However, Mikhail would help him keep this secret because he wanted the woman to stay. He would take her to his bedroom after the effects of the portal took over and caused her to sleep, keeping her safe until she woke.

The woman's dark brown eyes peeked through the spaces between the weights and stared at Mikhail. The strange-looking man only looked at her and did not move. Jamie decided she would stay here until the man left and then find a way back to her family. She wiped her tears and closed her eyes, suddenly feeling very sleepy.