Cordova and Marie watched the people as they filed up to take their seats. Cordova had worried about what state these people would be in, having been excised from their home (along with the home itself) and transplanted to some foreign, hostile territory, but they seemed calm and orderly. Marie thought that it must have been the fact that they were being organized now. They were being given a place to go, and instructions to receive. They were implicitly being promised a solution to their predicament, and she hoped that together she, Cordova, and Collins could come up with one. They had discussed a plan of action, and hoped that the crowd would agree it was the best course.
Once the crowd had arranged themselves, Cordova could see that they looked better off than one would expect. No one was filthy or in rags. If anything, they looked like no more than tourists who had underpacked for a long trip. Their clothes weren't necessarily the first ones they would have chosen to step out in, but they were still clean and presentable. Things would change in a few days, when the rooftop cisterns began to run dry and the laundry began to pile up. The noise of the crowd grew as their numbers did, people coming to assemble from all parts of the diminished city, but once they were in place, they quieted down, their eyes becoming expectant.
The three had decided that Collins should do most of the talking, since his was the voice of authority the people already knew. If they had questions he couldn't answer, however, he would defer to the scientists, and they would answer as best they could. They held no illusions; these people were going to want to know things that were simply unknown at this point, and would have issues that had no likelihood of receiving solutions soon. But it would be a start.
Once it seemed like everyone had been rounded up, Collins stepped out into the empty space the bleachers had been angled toward. "Good afternoon, everyone," he said with his patented smile, "as many of you already heard, we have actually made contact with the outside world, in the form of these two people you see behind me." There must have been at least a few who hadn't heard this news yet, because a murmur broke out through certain sections of the crowd. Cordova and Marie tried to look upon the crowd with hopefulness.
Collins raised his hands for a return to silence. "Now, I know you all have questions for them, but we've been talking since they arrived an hour ago, and I thought there were some things you all are entitled to know." He took a deep breath; this was going to the hardest sell of the day. "We all know that we've been relocated somehow. While we still don't know the cause of this predicament, we at least now know where we've ended up." The crowd had fallen into rapt attention. "We are currently about seventy miles inland from the coast of Colombia, South America." He followed up quickly, so that the gasp of the crowd wouldn't have time to settle into conversation. "In the year 1952."
The crowd's reaction was hard to gauge at first. Some just continued to look at the trio expectantly, as if to say "Is that all?" Others were stunned, still more turned their heads and murmured excitedly at their neighbors; a few broke down entirely. One man, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index knuckle, croaked that his kids had been away at school that day, and how was he going to get back to them? What didn't happen, however, was widespread panic, the thing that Marie had been fearing most.
Collins again put his hands up to bring attention back to himself. "Now, I know there are many things that we're all wondering, and we’re working on answers to them... but for the moment, our main focus is to stay the course we have set. We'll continue to gather food and water, and investigate how best we can sustain our current state."
A voice came suddenly from somewhere in the crowd. "What about Kettering?"
Collins winced at this, as if he had been hoping no one would mention it. Marie and Cordova traded concerned looks just before Collins turned back to them, as if to see how they were reacting to this new development. Cordova raised an eyebrow at him. Collins, noting this expression, turned back to the crowd.
"Now, as some of us have discussed, we have no evidence that Kettering is coming back. As he stated when he left, his intention was not to find where we are, but to find a way to live in the jungle." The de facto mayor looked back at Cordova again, clearly more concerned with what the scientists were going to think about this previously-omitted information. Marie made sure not to give him anything from her face that he could read.
"Now, here's what Mr. Cordova and Miss Munoz propose... They came in a small boat that is waiting for them at a river that runs by about a mile to the north." He gestured toward the drop-off at the end of the street that Marie and Cordova had scaled when they arrived. "By their estimate, they will be able to take approximately a dozen passengers at a time back to their station at the mouth of the river. We're currently in the process of deciding who should be on this limited passenger list... Clearly, although we are all anxious to get back to your families, chances are we will have to wait a little longer. As I said..." Collins paused here, knowing how ridiculous it sounded, "... it's currently the early 1950's, so things are different. Many of you, as hard as it is to believe, have not been born yet. Your parents might not have, either. What we need to determine is who will be most influential in terms of informing the world about what has happened here. When we arrive at our decision, we will let you know."
A woman called out from the edge of the bleachers. "This is crazy! How can we believe what they say? Do they even speak English?" A murmur went up from the crowd. Cordova stepped forward.
"Let me allay your fears, ma'am. My name is Michel Cordova, and I currently live in Boston, Massachusetts. I came to Colombia to study weather variance in the Atlantic and Pacific ocean climates. If you'll remember your geography, Colombia is one of the few countries that are both part of the mainland and have access to both major world oceans. My associate, Marie Munoz--"
Marie cut him off by stepping forward and speaking confidently, her accent perhaps carrying an extra air of authenticity to American ears. "Mrs. Marie Munoz,” she said first, without any intonation that she was intending to correct either of the men who spoke before her. “I am from Bogota, and study marine biology at the National University. Because Dr. Cordova required river transport as part of his assignment, my ship and crew volunteered to take him to the weather station on the Atlantic side of the coast. We agreed to take him up this particular tributary when he got the call five days ago from the United States government, asking him to investigate anomalous weather and atmospheric conditions in this area. We now understand that those were most likely caused by whatever effect has brought you here."
The crowd listened more attentively to Marie than they had to either of the men. "And it's really 1952?" the same woman in the crowd asked, voice quavering the slightest bit.
"I'm afraid so," Marie said, nodding. "We want to help you all get to wherever you need to get to, but the issue right now is that my boat just isn’t big enough to carry you all. Like Mr. Collins said, a dozen is all we'll be able to handle at a time. And it looks like it would take about twenty trips, with an eight-day round trip time, to get you all out. So without outside help, it would take about five months to get you all back to the U.S. weather station. But as he also said, we're trying to figure out which of you would be best in helping us get our message of your --" she picked her words carefully here '' --unusual circumstances to a world that will have no reason to believe that what we say is actually true.
“Right now, we're thinking that maybe some of the older people here, maybe ones that were already alive in 1952, might be useful. Perhaps there is one of you with some kind of government connection that we can use as proof of what has happened." People in the crowd were looking among themselves, the older members looking nervously around. "But as we said, that's to be decided. What we ask of you all now is to maintain the plan Mr. Collins has helped you all put in place in terms of safety, food, water and shelter, because we believe it is a sound plan."
She had said all she had meant to, and a long silence followed. But the crowd was still looking to her, so she added, "Are there any questions we can answer for you? And keep in mind, this situation is new to myself and Dr. Cordova, even more so than for you."
“I have a question!” a voice rang out from somewhere slightly farther away than the bleachers. The heads of nearly the entire crowd whipped over to the left. A figure emerged from the scant shadow they cast on the asphalt. The muscles of his arms bulged as he stepped into the light, the barrel of a shotgun resting casually across the back of his neck, the stock held firmly in his hand. He was followed by a group of four others, each one looking like extras out of a Vietnam-era action movie, sleeves ripped off and converted into bandanas that were tied around their foreheads,.
Collins let the name out on a breath that sounded chilled, even in the steamy air. "Hello, Mr. Kettering..."
The man with the gun nodded the brim of his cowboy hat to the de facto mayor. "Mr. Collins," he said cordially. "Now, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," he said flatly. "Are we really to believe that this is 1950-something or other?"
"That's right," Marie said, not about to let herself be stared down.
Kettering walked out in front of the throng, putting himself between them and the leadership. "That's a fine story, a fine story," he said, sounding amused. "But like the wise lady in the crowd said, how do we even know that it's the truth?"
Collins stepped toward the man, putting up a hand. "Now, look, James, we've all decided what our best course of action is--"
Kettering cut him off. "All I heard was you telling all of us to just stay put. But I think I've got something to say now, something that most people would be very interested to hear about what me and my men found out *there*." He dramatically thrust a beefy finger authoritatively in the opposite direction that Marie and Cordova had come from.
"Now hold on just a minute..." Collins said, but then the shotgun was suddenly unslung, its stock resting on Kettering's hip. It wasn't pointed at Collins, but it was tipping in that direction, and it was clear that it wouldn't take much more than a wrist flick to take it the rest of the way.
"Now, here's a thought," Kettering said into the silence that ensued, "Your people have had their say. How about I have mine now, and then we -- as a democratic people -- decide what the best thing to do is?"
Collins shot a look back over his shoulders first at Marie, and then at Cordova. The latter was the one who broke the silence. "Of course, Mr. Kettering. If you have any new information that could be of use to us all, then by all means..." He gestured expansively to the crowd, ceding the floor to the newcomer.
Kettering gave Cordova a long, hard stare, as if waiting for the scientist to flinch. When he didn't, Kettering stepped forward, the muzzle of the shotgun weaving back in forth in the air like a cobra’s head as the stock rolled against his hip with each step. He didn't lower the weapon to point at the ground until he was standing right in front of Collins, who looked like he wished he were anywhere other than there at that moment.
Kettering spun and turned around, facing the crowd. "The brave souls who ventured out in the jungle with me five days ago--" he gestured to the rough-looking individuals who were still standing where the adventurer had first made his appearance, "-- have made an interesting discovery. We thought when we arrived here that it was some kind of freak accident, something that must have been caused by something inside our boundaries. That was part of the reason why some of us decided to leave... The threat seemed to be coming from somewhere among us. But I can tell you definitively, here and now, that we were wrong. That's why we've returned."
"What are you saying?" Marie asked, impatient to get through all this bluster.
Kettering looked over at her for the first time, as if surprised that she could speak. He cocked an eyebrow, and when he spoke again, it was to her. "Because there's another city like ours two days from here, just as dislocated and out of place."
The crowd really gasped at this one, and this time the noise swelled, rising and rising and not falling until everyone was shouting to be heard over the others, shifting in their seats until the crowd was down off the bleachers, gathering around Kettering and his men with myriads of questions. He did not answer any, just smiled across their clustered forms at Marie, Collins, and Cordova, now standing alone in front of the circus tent.
