Whole New World

By Jeannine Trevizo

Chapter 3a: Hide and Seek

The tunnel that the six resurrected rangers found themselves in seemed to go on forever. The meager lighting made it hard to not walk into someone, so they tried to space themselves out as best they could. Jason continued to lead, his hand running lightly along the wall as he felt the tunnel as well as saw it.

Behind him, Kim and Aisha stumbled along together, hearing Adam and Zack’s breathing behind them. The rough concrete abraded their palms as they refused to leave the safety of the walls. In the rear, Tommy had waited a bit, staring up at the locked hatch that had once lead to their only real home since their return. Now they had to figure out how to get where they needed to go and stay safe while doing it.

The men in the black uniforms had not hesitated to begin shooting the moment they entered the warehouse. Tommy didn’t think that their circumstances would change now – they were being pursued, and they needed to evade capture long enough to get to their next safe house.

After what seemed forever, Jason saw pinpricks of light above him.

“I’ve got light,” he cried out, prompting sighs of relief from his colleagues.

Finding the first metal rung, he slowly ascended the ladder built into the tunnel wall until he felt metal above him. Sliding his fingers around, he located the edge of the metal, and pushed hard at the edge. With a grinding sound, the metal moved until light began to flood down into the tunnel below.

Carefully poking his head out of the tunnel, Jason surveyed the landscape. The metal had been a manhole that had led them into a city street that was crammed with junk; trash, discarded vehicles, furniture… it was obvious that no one came here but to leave things behind.

It seemed safe enough.

He crawled out of the tunnel and then with a wave, the rest of the team exited the tunnel, with Tommy closing the cover as he got out.

“We need a place to stay out of sight while we figure out where to go next,” Tommy said quickly, taking the lead once again as the group stood in the middle of the alley.

“It’s too dangerous to try and find someone who would let us stay with them, and we have no money for lodging,” Adam reminded him.

“Do you think there’s places that might be empty of people, like a warehouse or abandoned building?” questioned Zack. “If we’re in a ghetto, there usually is…”

“We don’t know where we are…” Kim pointed out.

“Let’s stick together and start looking. Considering the state of where we came out, I wouldn’t be surprised if we find something pretty easily,” Jason announced.

After murmured agreement, the six teens set off, staying to the alleys, checking for unlocked doors. In what seemed forever, they finally located a brick structure, perhaps a shop that had gone out of business that had the front windows smashed in. Using his long arms, Tommy reached around the window frame and unlocked the door.

Holding up a hand to make everyone wait, Tommy crept inside, surveying the place for any potential threat or other occupant. Finally finding no one, he returned to the door and waved everyone in. Locking the door behind them, the group began to wander through the building. As they walked though, the picked through broken furniture and stumbled upon a few useful items…

After a while, they all re-converged on a smaller room near the front door, but that was out of view of anyone just looking inside. Huddling around, they put together everything they’d found in the old shop. They’d scrounged up some meager supplies, including a dying gas lantern, some nearly empty water bottles and a couple of energy bar kind things. They quietly passed the water and food, taking a bit and handing it to the next person. Nervous half smiles and grasping hands allowed the six teens to feel a bit more at ease, considering their circumstances.

As they sat around together in the middle of room, they started to question what to do now that they were on their own in a completely foreign place. Nothing Sarah or Samuel had told them had prepared them for this.

“Where are we supposed to go?” Aisha asked, nibbling on her small piece of energy bar as slowly as she could.

“Samuel said we needed to go south. There’s a contact a few days from here,” Tommy replied seriously.

“Where exactly? It’s not like we have a map…” complained Zack grumpily.

Tommy opened his hand to reveal the small scrap of fabric given to him by Samuel. Written in block letters was their contact’s name and location; “James. 2 Valence St. Bakersfield.”

Turning the scrap over, Tommy was unsurprised to find on the back a small map, crude in design but legible. He turned it to show to Zack who whistled lowly.

“I guess we do have a map.”

“So what next then?” Kim asked, her eyes focused directly on Tommy. “Go out and ask someone for food, water and a vehicle to get us to where this James is?”

“In the morning, we can try and see if we can get some help. There has to be some kind of transportation around here…” suggested Jason, giving Kim a glare.

“Okay everyone, we’ll address this all in the morning. Let’s try to get some sleep; it’s probably going to be a long day tomorrow. We can take shifts staying up and keeping an eye out for those special ops guys. I’ll take first watch.”

“Second,” called Adam.

“Third,” announced Jason.

With that, those who were not staying up tried to find comfortable places to sleep, with Kim and Aisha sitting next to each other against a wall, Adam off to Aisha’s side and Jason and Zack to Kim’s unoccupied side. Tommy shook his head slowly, visions of nodding off on the petite brunette’s shoulder rising up in him from some distant past as he pulled away from the group to move to the door to keep an eye out for any threat to his team.

-x-

A dark haired man, standing at least six feet tall and sporting an imposing build stood behind a military vehicle as a dozen military personnel inspected the remains of the warehouse. Captain Laurence Dell of Global Black Force studied the heat signature screen before him. They had two dead Center cell members and no rangers.

He scuffed his black boot in the dust by the vehicle, raising a small cloud of it that clung to his all black military uniform. The Global Black Force was the elite of elite; their main tasks – protecting the chairmen and women of the Global Government and hunting rangers.

It had been 2 years since the last hunt. They had been tipped off that there was a cell in old Los Angeles that might have found rangers, but no rangers had been located.

Today though seemed a different matter.

Two of his men swore they had seen 6 youths with the Center man that lay dead inside the warehouse. The limited history taught to Global Black Forces was that rangers usually ranged from 15-20 years of age. For some reason they were always young. A team consisted of 5-7 rangers – they had seen 6 youths.

And if those stories were true, then perhaps he’d finally found his first real rangers.

Which meant he had to find them fast, or his career, the world as he knew it might be gone if he didn’t.

-x-

The six rangers had slept as best they could in the abandoned store overnight. Now that day had arrived, they were hoping to go out and blend into the natives. If there were a lot of people, it would allow them some semblance of cover.

With morning they had come across a surprise; within the pockets of the clothes given to them were ration cards. Tommy could only assume that Samuel and Sarah had procured them for just such an event. However, there was still the part where they had to find a store or distribution center to get the food and water they needed to get to James, and they had to find out how they were going to get there.

Kim and Aisha had been picked to approach a few buildings to locate the place where they could use the ration cards at. Luckily, the two didn’t radiate anything but polite, cute females, and by pretending they were lost and from out of the area, they had gotten the directions to the main grocery/distribution center fairly quickly.

Once they gathered the information, the group headed across the small town to the building indicated by the locals as the distribution bunker. Once they arrived, they realized why it was called a bunker – it looked more like a fortress than a modern grocery store. Barbed wire surrounded the actual building, which was simply a concrete slab. Men with guns patrolled the facility. A single straight line snaked along the fence to an entry into the building courtyard. They quickly found the end of the line and got into it. As they made their way towards the front, they kept an eye out for anyone looking strangely at them. Eventually though, they got to the front where they presented the cards. The military looking man sitting behind the table barely noticed them. He simply scanned the card and pointed them each down the row of tables situated in the courtyard. As they passed each table, they were handed the item being provided there; plastic boxes, water bottles, food items, toiletries.

Once they had all completed the line, they broke up into pairs and made their way separately to the store they had used the night before. Once secure in the building again, the group took out their items and sorted them, looking to see how much they had. Freeze dried ration kits were piled in one area, energy bars in a second, canned items in another and finally the few fresh items they’d received in the last. There were also four pint water bottles per person. Not a lot, but…

“The water should last us long enough to get where we need to go. The food…” Jason began, turning over a discolored apple kind of thing in his hand.

“More than enough, considering,” insisted Tommy. “We should eat the fresh stuff now. The rest can come with us. We’ll have to see if we can find something to pack it in besides the plastic boxes.”

“Maybe there are some trash bags in the alley we could dump out,” suggested Aisha.

Nodding, Tommy didn’t particularly like the idea of reusing bags which had been filled with trash, but maybe they’d find something fairly clean. And the food was all sealed…

“Let’s eat and get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll see if we can find a bus or something.”

“I’ll take the first watch tonight,” Kim quickly volunteered.

Before Tommy or Jason could say anything, Aisha threw in her announcement to be second shift. Zack rounded off the three watches and Tommy sighed. It actually meant he’d have to try and sleep.

Chapter 3b: Lost and Found

Trying to sleep the whole night through was proving impossible for Tommy. His head filled with visions of the last month in the warehouse. From the moment they’d been released from the cryo-chambers to now, being on the run. But mixed with that, the memories of his DNA donor kept pushing to the fore.

In his conversations with Jason and Adam, he knew that they all were having problems with memories from their previous selves. From what they could gather, the memories only went as far as a certain point; probably when the DNA they were created from had been taken. So they didn’t remember certain things. Jason and Zack were missing tons of memories that Tommy and Adam had, so their DNA had to have been taken earlier. But the one thing all of them did recall was Tommy’s connection with Kimberly.

Tonight was another one of those nights when past memories of him and Kim came to him; images of fights, of dates, kissing and crying. It was beyond confusing. He’d never kissed Kim yet he remembered how she felt, how she tasted. Images of her in bathing suits and tight spandex or flowing sun dresses filled his mind as his eyes were closed. Those thoughts, those memories overrode his own experiences, and his heartbeat sped up with the thoughts and feelings inspired by his past even as his former flame’s copy sat feet from him.

There was no question in his mind that his previous self and the previous Kim had a relationship, but with everything they were dealing with now, being on the run, needing to figure how to be rangers and heroes, he wasn’t sure it was something they should even consider looking into.

But he wasn’t sure if he could fight it.

Even now, having given up sleep and sitting up and looking at her as she sat guard for the team, he found his current self subconsciously embracing those feelings. Sighing, he ran his hand across his face and levered himself up. With everyone else asleep, what better time would there be to discuss this with her…

Kimberly looked up from her position near the door to find Tommy pace to her side, his legs folding up so he could sit beside her. He gave her a slight smile and she couldn’t help but respond. Her head swam and her heart thudded in her chest against her will with his nearness.

“Couldn’t sleep again?”

“It’s tough. A lot of memories, you know?”

She nodded.

“Are you okay otherwise? I know it’s got to be stressful, everyone looking to you to know what to do, when you are in the same boat as the rest of us… lost in a time and place we don’t know,” Kim asked softly, her hand snaking out to touch his without conscious thought.

With the slight contact, Tommy’s eyes flittered closed and a million images flashed behind his lids. He’d been tormented by these memories, knowing that the person beside him had them too, but unsure if they should be left in the past or brought up now…

“I get by. Knowing you… and Jase and the others understand helps.”

Kim tried to smile, but it was lost in a sea of doubt.

“The others keep asking me what I’m going to do about you… I mean, well, us,” Tommy added slowly, knowing that this was their chance to discuss the issue alone.

“And?”

“I don’t know. There’s so many feelings attached to my memories. I know our former selves loved one another. I just don’t know if we…”

“Should follow them? If we’re our own selves or just copies of them that are destined to repeat their mistakes, their lives…” Kim stated in a somewhat bitter fashion.

“What’s the last thing you remember of her?” questioned Tommy seriously.

“She was leaving the team. You, I mean the other Tommy and the others had convinced her, me, to become a professional gymnast.”

Tommy nodded. He had the same memories. Of course, when his mind focused on Kim’s departure, he remembered her injury from the gymnastics accident that almost caused her to change her mind. How Zedd had gone after her and he’d rescued her because he couldn’t live without her. Yet after all that, she’d still left and he’d let her go…

“Mine end a little after that. I was still with the team and you were in Florida… I remember missing you.”

His admission made Kim’s heart beat faster. Since they’d all been ‘alive’, their memories had been pushing to the fore. And the longer she was near Tommy, the more her current self was attracted to him. She realized that the memories she had weren’t really hers, but the way he made her feel, physically, was only partially due to those feelings. The rest, well, biology was a force to reckon with on its own, since they were all aged in their teens…

“I wish I remembered that. I just remember…” Kim started, and then trailed off.

“What?” asked Tommy, automatically reaching a hand out to catch hers solidly in his grasp.

“I was afraid that if I left, I was going to lose everything that I loved.”

Her stark admission caught him off guard, and Tommy gasped slightly as her doe brown eyes bore into his darker orbs. As their eyes locked, he felt as if the pieces they had – their old memories, their new bodies and that intangible thing called souls all merged at once. Past, current, future all melded, and with a sureness that he hadn’t felt since being pulled from the cryo-chambers he knew who he was and what he wanted.

Tugging Kim’s hand, he pulled her from her space at the door and without preamble kissed her softly but firmly on the lips.

After what seemed like an eternity, he pulled back, fearful of what he might find. What greeted him was a stunning smile on the face of the young woman whom he realized he loved, and that he’d always loved.

“That was nice,” she said with a smirk before leaning into him to return the favor with another tender kiss.

Breaking apart a second time, Tommy smiled now, and then broke into a wide yawn. Kim smiled at that and stood up, pulling the former White Ranger up and walking to the far wall where Aisha slept. Leaning over, she nudged her friend’s shoulder with a hand until the former Yellow Ranger woke up.

“Your shift.”

Aisha nodded, her eyes glued to Tommy holding Kim’s hand, or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, Aisha got up and moved to the door to take her turn guarding the team as Kim and Tommy sat down beside one another and shifted until Kim was nearly in his lap. Then for the first time since arriving in this strange time and place, Tommy was able to peacefully sleep.

-x-

When morning arrived, Tommy announced in a clear, assured voice that they needed to find a way to get to Bakersfield today. Splitting into two groups, they made their way back to the area they’d gotten food at and started to ask around for someone who might know of a way to get there. After a while, an older woman suggested they go to the fuel depot and look for a man called Dre, who had a flatbed truck he rented rides on.

Once they made their way to the depot, they found Dre, a dark skinned man, hanging out next to his truck. His clothes were torn in spots, but they were made of more durable materials; jeans, flannel, leather. Approaching carefully, Tommy and Jason started with introductions.

“I’m Tommy, this is Jason. We’re looking for Dre…”

“You found him,” he replied in a Southern drawl.

“We and our friends are looking for a way to Bakersfield. Perhaps you…”

“You get rations lately?”

Jason nodded worriedly. They hadn’t got a lot and they still didn’t know how far they had to go past Bakersfield to get more food and water.

“Half of what you’ve got,” Dre stated firmly.

Tommy made a move as if he was going to balk, but Jason laid a hand on his arm to still him. Losing half their rations left would put them in a bind, but they needed the food less than the ride if they were ever going to find out what they needed to do to save themselves and Earth too.

“Okay.”

Turning, Jason motioned to the others, who had overheard the exchange, and they quickly opened up the bags they’d scavenged and parsed out half of everything. Adam walked over with the second bag and handed it to Jason, who in turn handed it to Dre. Once he opened it and reviewed the contents, he nodded and waved towards the truck.

“Get in and we’ll be off.”

The group moved to the back of the vehicle, each member of the team getting on and finding a small space of the truck bed to sit on. Tommy watched the way Dre stared at Kim and Aisha as they climbed in the back of the truck with a dark look. Even without the rations, he guessed the guy would have given Kim and Aisha a lift. As it was, Tommy’s protective instincts were in full force, especially since he and Kim had… well, started up. Again. But they needed to get to Bakersfield and getting into a fight with the guy over ogling the girls wouldn’t help matters.

Once they were all in, Dre climbed behind the wheel and started for the road. It seemed to take forever to get where they were going. Besides driving along the mostly deserted highway, Dre stopped the truck several times along the way to put gas and water in it, as well as to pick up several more people, who crunched in with them in the back. At one point, Dre offered Kim, Aisha and another woman the chance to sit in the cab with him. None of them took his offer though.

After what seemed like a whole day, the truck passed a long battered sign for their destination. When the truck arrived in the city of Bakersfield, Dre drove to the center of town and let them pile out before quickly driving off.

“Where now?” asked Zack as he looked around what seemed a less than robust city, some of the buildings crumbling and boarded up.

“It looks residential. Based on the map,” Tommy started, as he pulled out the cloth map and spread it over his hand as he and some of the others looked at it, “I would guess we go North for a mile until we see houses.”

After a break to drink some of their water and eat a few ration bars, they headed out towards the North end of the downtown, walking past mostly deserted buildings and junked cars. Right as the sun was starting to set, they found themselves in the residential area they were looking for. Splitting up briefly, Zack and Adam hollered that they’d found the street name – Valencia.

Quickly, they’d set off down the street, scanning the dilapidated homes for the house number they were looking for. Finally, just as the streets were getting to dark to see, they found the house. It was a non descript ranch style home, but fairly well kept up compared to the others in the otherwise run down area.

Tentatively, the group moved towards the door. Knocking loudly, they all waited, but no one answered. Tommy exchanged nervous glances with Kim and Jason. If their contact was gone, like Sarah and Samuel, they had no way to know where to go and what to do.

Then the door suddenly opened, and Tommy jumped back, his arm whipping in front of Kim as the sudden movement startled him. An older man, well into his sixties swung the door open. His chiseled features were marred with wrinkles and steel grey hair. He looked at Tommy intently, and then at the others.

“Come in, quick. Close and lock the door behind you.”

“Are you James?”

“I am.”

Tommy motioned to the others, who slowly came into the home, Adam closing and locking the door behind them. The followed him through the entryway to a larger room filled with mismatched chairs and a threadbare sofa.

“Sorry about accommodations. It’s not easy to find decent furniture these days,” James explained as he levered himself in to an overstuffed armchair. Once he was seated, he waved at the others to do the same.

“You’re a member of the Center, like Sarah and Samuel?” Jason asked pointedly as he sat in a hard wood chair and looked around the cluttered room, filled with knick knacks, old photos and dust.

“Indeed. I have been a member all my life.”

“Why?” questioned Aisha, curious why anyone would put themselves into harms way at this James’ age.

“Because my great-great-great grandparents were rangers.”

There were stunned looks on everyone’s faces. They’d never considered the idea that the original rangers they were cloned from would have had real lives after they had been rangers. The memories they had only had gone so far, and thinking past the end of those memories had never occurred to any of them.

“And you two look just like your picture,” James said, turning away to an old wood box, where he proceeded to pull out an old, discolored photo, which he handed to Tommy.

Tommy tilted the picture so he and Kim could look at it where she sat beside him on the couch. It was clearly a picture of themselves; Kim and Tommy – except that it wasn’t them, it was their previous selves.

And they were holding a baby.

-End ch 3-