My footsteps echoed in the corridor as I approached the Wayback version of the Infernal. Unlike back home at Time Central Station, the hallway was bereft of others hustling about. Other than the clomp-clap of my rubber-soled, era-appropriate shoes and the flapping of a leather backpack matching every step, my only company was James excitedly pontificating "our" plans.

His too-loud voice droned on, but I paid his words little heed. He didn't seem to note that "our" plans included me shooting through the Time-space-matrix into the malleable future-past and him sitting there, all snuggled up and cozy, taking notes. My forebrain was occupied with mustering the courage to once again step inside that doorway that leads only to pain, infinity, and oblivion.

I took a mental tally of the contents of my pack. My notebook, Dr. Shadah's future research, an all-purpose sheath knife suitable for any era, a steel machete serrated on one side, a small powder-propelled pistol, and plenty of nine-millimeter projectiles to go along with it, some rope, some high-strength adhesive tape, a battery operated light, some wound-sealing spray from the late twenty-first century, and some minty green liquid in a plastic bottle to rinse out my mouth after I shot into the early twenty-first. I also had an era-appropriate, false identification badge, some local currency, and some cheese wrapped up in thin, clear plastic, in case I felt hungry, as well as a map of the region to study.

My plan was simple. Get to the restaurant before Dr. Shadah leaves, convince him that I need his help to fight the vamps, and have him tell me their location. I had three hours to pull this off, which was more than enough time. As I hadn't been implanted with the artificial tachyons yet, there was no way for me to signal Wayback to pull me back through. So, instead of them doing a reverse shoot, they'd have to forcefully pull me back by keeping the machine zeroed in on my electromagnetic signature. It made no difference to me. It felt the same with either method, from what I had heard.

A far too jovial voice broke my internal reverie. "Well, well, well. By that shaggy mop of flaming hair, I would think that either they lifted the no-pets ban around here or that sexy lump of flesh would be Gail Cavalier!"

I looked up to see none other than Dar Langston, himself, strolling down the hallway. Not only is Mr. Langston Dr. Purley's boyfriend, but he is also one of the most active agents in the bureau. Short, handsome in a sort of rebel leader of the resistance sort of way, and always smiling and flippant, he was one of the few Time Shooters that operates in multiple eras. Dar handles a lot of the fundraising up and down the time stream, as well as being our main recruitment officer. He was the one that initially recruited me. While his profanity-laced speech and cavalier attitude rubbed many the wrong way, I always enjoyed his company. His constant cheeriness is contagious.

"What's it to be this shoot, my friend? Do they need more Peking Duck, or did Epstein wear out his Bee-Gees CD?"

We both stopped as we approached each other and clasped hands. "Not this time, Dar. I'm headed to 2007 to hunt down the damn Vampires."

Darwin shook out his long hair as he laughed with true mirth. "Make sure you take along plenty of garlic and stakes!"

"No, really, Dar! I'm serious. They cleared me to find the smallest T-mass, so I can stop the Biters from plaguing your future."

"You're serious?" He smiled. "Then why do you wear your hair that way?" He reached out and embraced me. "Good for you, being promoted from lackey gerbil to a real mission that makes real change. Besides, it's about bloody time we did something about those Biters."

"Thank you," I said, hoping to sound more confident than I felt.

"Get it?" Darwin exclaimed loudly to James. "Vampires? Bloody?" Dar's face lost its mirth. "Good luck," he said. "Don't get yourself fragged." He turned away and began caterwauling some song about Rock Sand turning on red lights. 

I looked at James. "What is a rock-sand?"

James sighed and lowered his head while shaking it back and forth. "ROX-Anne," he corrected. It is a woman's name. "You know, the song? The Police? Sting?"

"Oh," I said. "Nobody gets stung in my time. Humans destroyed pretty much all the bees in the twenty-first." 

James made an anguished noise. "Let's get you to the portal before you drive me crazy!" 

We walked the remainder of the distance in relative silence. I steeled my nerves and concentrated on arousing myself. Before we even got to the double doors leading to the Time Chamber, I could feel the static in the air. A small platoon of docs was in the room, pouring over Vid-screens. Not a single white-coated scientist seemed to be smiling. That was disheartening. I felt the terror of having to walk through that doorway, leading to infinite pain and loneliness, well up inside of me once more. It took every ounce of courage I had within me to not turn and run in the opposite direction.

James spoke up, alerting the docs that we were here. "James Carlson here with Gail Cavalier from the 24th, reporting for jump 71307-1A."

One of the white coats looked up and acknowledged us with a nod. He looked down at the screen and shook his head. He looked back at us. "We're having trouble zeroing in on that spot. I can get you within one hundred and one hundred of your target, maybe closer."

"One hundred of what?" I asked. 

"Miles or minutes or both," he replied matter of factually. He grunted at something on the screen and pointed, while another doc nodded. He then turned towards us. "We can only keep the circuit open for about three or so hours of linear time. Do you still want to shoot? If you don't do it now, we probably won't have another window for a few linear months."

"A few?" James cut him off.

The head scientist grunted again and nodded. "Approximately 6.37 months." He shrugged and then went back to checking the readouts.

James looked at me, quizzically. I knew what he was thinking because I was pondering the same thing myself. I made up my mind to go anyway. "We'll shoot now if that's alright with you. I'd rather take my chances now and loop back than miss this first shot."

He nodded and said, "just one more thing." He sat himself down at a primitive Vid-screen terminal and started typing away. Swearing loudly, he put me very ill at ease. "That's no damn good!" he said, turning off the Vid-screen. 

"What is the problem," I asked. "Can I still shoot?"

The doc gave me an odd look, noting the worried look on my face, then tilted his head back and laughed. "No, nothing like that," he said. “Since you were going into late 2007, I was hoping you'd pick me up a movie, but it will have just made it to theaters two days before you get there. You'd need to wait around about five months for it to be released on DVD."

I was wondering what a DVD was, but my question was cut off before it began by another scientist, who was checking the connections to the infernal. "I'm an orphaned wizard with a lightning bolt on my face!" The others laughed, but I didn't understand.

"We're about as spot on as we'll ever be, Dave," one of the scientists manning a Vid-screen near the back said. The lead Doc, named Dave I assumed, looked at me and nodded.

"Just give us a minute to charge the circuits, and you'll be ready to stroll on in."

"Not exactly what I'd call a stroll," was all I could muster.

James looked at me with his mouth agape and his eyes wide open with excitement. I quickly pulled out a map of the region I was heading to. I figured that if I could hold the image in my mind as I moved from my physical essence into the void of the Matrix, perhaps I could use infinity to memorize the area. The lights dimmed for a moment and then grew bright. My internal terror grew bright and stayed that way. Doc Dave looked at me, holding up three fingers, reminding me that I only had a short time before I got pulled back. I nodded, steeled myself, and then took a step through that coldly demonic metal doorway.

Another timeless infinity spent in the ethereal void. First, the anguish of having your body shredded from your soul, and then the terror of being alone and incorporeal for eternity. Even my orgasmic state did little to quell the feelings of isolation; insanity soon set in. I crossed the line between coherency and lunacy so many times that I all but rubbed it out. Throughout all, those waves of pleasure ran through my mind.

When I initially regained my sanity, I committed every recalled detail of Dr. Shadah's and James' supporting research to memory. The map I had just viewed was thoroughly memorized, as well. I then ran every imaginable possibility, regarding the up-and-coming encounter, through my mind until I had a plan for every contingency that I could fathom. 

That was merely the blinking of an eye in an endless infinity. I wished that I could at least sleep; anything to turn off my mind—anything to negate the eternal loneliness, even if for just an instant. I recalled one of my instructors, back upstream at Time Central, mentioning that the first Time Orphans were given a sedative to render them unconscious while they floated through the timeless void of the Matrix. This was done in the first shoots and proved to be fatal or worse. Regretfully, this either ensured insanity or the Time Orphans choked and died on their vomit when they were spit out, whole, at the end of their arc. If one is going to shoot through time, then fully conscious was the only option. 

Ultimately, the despair began to take root and its hold over my psyche grew stronger and more enduring. When I felt that I was on the cusp of going forever mad, I suddenly felt that welcomed, all-consuming pain once more. Then, I felt the shock of every atom of my body being slammed together all at once as my being was pulled from the edges of reality into its material form. I collapsed onto the soft, warm ground.

Trees shielded me from the brilliance of the sun, and birdsong sang in chorus to my body retching, emptying the final vestiges of my previous evening's bourbon consumption. As I stood and unslung my pack, fishing out the minty green breath freshener, a gentle wind added its highlights to my already tussled hair.

It took some time to find anything resembling civilization, but I eventually found some evidence of habitation in the form of an ancient shopping center. I was more than forty miles away from my destination and only had about one hour before my meeting was supposed to occur. Luckily, Time Orphans aren’t recruited for their superior, moral character. In fact, we’re recruited for almost the polar opposite reasons. A shiny, new sports car was sitting in the parking lot with the doors unlocked, and I’d always wanted to drive the ancient vehicles.

Two minutes later, thankful that I paid attention in “hot wiring ancient transportation” class, I was speeding in the proper direction, having only run into three or four other vehicles as I got the feel for the ancient motorized carriage. For some reason, several people, ghosts of the past, gathered around to watch me as I fired up the internal combustion engine and gave myself a crash course in how to drive twenty-first-century vehicles.

Only wrecking once on the way there, because the other drivers were on the wrong side of the causeway, I made it almost all the way there before the ancient hunk of metal spewed out white, sulfur-scented smoke and gave out. I abandoned the car and jogged the rest of the way there. I found the diner and entered, my clothes clinging to my body from the exertion, at thirteen minutes past one, almost precisely.

I’d seen ancient photographs of such places, before, and this place looked exactly like them. Several young women in checked dresses milled about, serving the few patrons. A gleaming metal counter lined one side, and various seating elsewhere. Dr. Shadah was easy to spot. His swarthy complexion, stark, black hair, and pensive expression were obvious. He was seated off near one corner, his table a chaotic mass of half-eaten food and several books and papers spread about. He was currently leafing through a copy of Dracula and writing in a spiral-bound notebook. 

“They’re not like that,” I said to him as I approached. He seemed to be harmless enough, so I wasn’t worried about needing to resort to violence. If I recalled correctly, men were quite sheepish in that era, very much unlike my time.

“Pardon me,” he paused and looked up. His dark, intense eyes looked me up and down, then back up. His eyes stopped at my breasts, the thin material of my era-appropriate top showing the dark circles of my areolas. “Miss…”

“Gail,” I answered.

I smiled at him, leveraging his obvious attraction to me. It seems that Omar Shadah had a thing for sexy redheads. Taking the empty seat and scanning his work, I pushed out my chest, although my breasts aren’t exactly astounding, but, at least my nipples were hard from the temperature difference between outside and within the diner.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Vampires,” I stated, pointing at the book. “They’re not like that at all.”

“Vampires are a myth, a legend,” he said. “They're just old-wives tales.”

“No,” I countered. “They exist, all right, just not how the myths state.”

“Really?” He sounded intrigued. “Join me for lunch? I’m Doctor Omar Shadah, Historian and anthropologist.”

“Gail.” I offered my hand, as was the custom several hundred years ago.

“So, Gail,” he began. “You claim to know about vampires…” his voice trailed off, expectantly.

“See this scar,” I began. I then fished out my prized token, a single vampire fang that I’d taken off the one I killed, and showed it to him. He took it, looking at the incisor with disbelief.

From there, he sat, enthralled, as I relayed my scant knowledge of the Biters, only omitting the fact that my experiences happened roughly four-hundred years in his future. He continually nodded, asked clarifying questions, and took notes. Nearly an hour passed, the sexual urges of feeling real, physical pleasure welling up inside me the entire time. While spending eternity in the throes of orgasm helps to preserve my sanity, physical release is required for my mind and body to return to normal.

Finally, I asked, “I know this is quite forward in this day and age, but would you like to have sex with me?”

Omar’s jaw dropped. “Is this all some sort of joke?”

“I assure you that I’m quite serious. I have reasons, but just take it at face value, please.”

Without a word, I stood, took his hand, and led him outside. Dr. Shadah dropped money on his table, promising that he’d be right back to collect his things. Leading him to the rear of the diner, I pushed his back against the wall, fell to my knees, and began fumbling with his primitive attire, so I could unleash his cock.

His manhood was thick, just the way I like them. My lips eagerly sucked in the head as he moaned. Hastened by my urgent need, I thrust my mouth up and down his shaft, feeling it grow in my mouth, the girth stretching my jaws. When he was rock-hard and moaning, I stood and placed my hands on a nearby metal trash can, and bent over, lowering my loose, thin pants. I wiggled my ass at him, inviting him to invade my velvety folds.

“Take me hard, Omar. It’s been, literally, forever.”

With a loud grunt to accompany my moans, he slid deep inside me, my wet cunt providing more than ample lubrication.

“Harder! Fuck me hard and deep. I need it.”

The sensation of being filled overwhelmed me, and I quickly began humping my ass against his loins, meeting each thrust with vigor. The sounds of flesh slapping skin resonated, pontificated with our mutual moans.

“That’s her!” I heard a gruff voice shouting. “She’s the one. Get her!”

Blinking lights, beacons of red and blue on top of the three vehicles that pulled up, nearly blinded me. The cars were tan and black, with lights on top and shield symbols on the sides. The doors opened, and eight uniformed men, wielding weapons, jumped out, joining the two that had initially shouted.

“What’s going on,” a confused Omar Shadah queried. He pulled out of me and threw his hands up into the air.

“I, maybe, stole a car to get here to meet you,” I confessed. “I’ll see you again, I promise. We have unfinished business.”

I kissed him, quickly, on the mouth, telling him that we also needed to finish fucking, pulled up my pants, and demonstrated the fact the Time Orphans are in peak physical condition by running away from the officers attempting to arrest me. Two of them stopped to apprehend Omar, but the others pursued me.

I led them on a merry chase, sprinting through the commercial district and into a residential area. Although some of them went back to retrieve their vehicles, I managed to lose sight of them for long enough to hide out in an empty outbuilding. Then, I just waited, quietly masturbating. It was less than an hour before I felt the unnerving wrenching of my body into atomized pieces, and my mind was pulled into the void of the matrix once more.

When relativity manifested around me once more, I was back in the late twentieth century, vomiting apple pie all over the clean floor.

“How did it go, Gail,” James asked, concern showing on his face.

“I need two things, right now,” I shouted. “I need to shoot to Omar’s 2018 lecture as soon as possible, and I need at least two people to fuck me!”

“Where’s your backpack with Dr. Shadah’s notes?”

“Make that three things.”

It would take almost three hours before they had the Infernal set up to thrust me further forward. Luckily, the planetary alignment was “close enough” to accommodate. I was quickly injected with the tachyons, then I had just enough time left to let three horny volunteers pleasure my flesh.

“You,” I said to the first one, a handsome, young man with long, blond hair. “Fuck me hard.”

I peeled off my clothes and began fingering my hot, wet cunt that hadn’t been properly serviced in countless eternities.

“James, fuck my face.” He obeyed.

“You,” I said to one of the Docs, “lick me and jack your cock all over my fucking tits.”

With one cock hammering deep into my cunt, another pummeling my wanton mouth, and a third one being stroked over my bouncing breasts, I was in heaven. 

“Fuck me, fuck me hard!”

“Do you like that, you future-slut,” the blond asked.

“I’d love it more if you’d cum all over me. Ravage me, you caveman.”

“I’m cumming already,” James announced.

I pulled my mouth off his cock, reaching out to stroke it hard and fast. “Spray my face. Paint me with your hot cum.”

I felt the blond man pull out, then hot, wet splashes covered my cunt and thighs as he spewed his seed all over my nude flesh. Immediately afterward, James’ cock erupted, shooting all over my mouth, chin, and hair. The scientist that was stroking for me moved between my legs and rammed his smallish member into my oozing hole.

“More! Bring me more cocks,” I begged, screaming.

I had just enough time to shower before everything was set up for my next shoot. Newly cleansed but still wearing the same clothes, I marched back into the Infernal, slinging my new backpack over my shoulder. Another infinity of disembodiment followed before I was spat out whole in the early twenty-first century.