Chapter 1: Welcome to LA

A girl at the age of 20 sat up in her chair looking around confused. The surroundings were silent, but after a few minutes, it started to become louder than normal. Screams could be heard of children.

“Mommy, what are we going to do in the US?” A little girl asked walking past the girl’s slumped over figure. The gray walls in front of her looked so far away, but a symbol of Delta was staring back at her.

She looked around her environment and saw the world around her turn a grayish color.

“Flight for ICN to LAX is boarding now.” She quickly brushed out her black bangs out of her eyes and found a ticket in her hand.

“Liu Lin Jie flight #227 to LAX.” Her voice sounded hoarse, but everything hit her like a brick. Lin Jie quickly stood up and got in line to get on the plane with her backpack and suitcase. “Remember the mission.” She whispered under her breath and quickly left for California. Leaving South Korea to find him. Mr. John Titor, or the man who created him.

Lin Jie pulled out her files and quickly read over them again.

It is said that a man by the name John Titor came from 2034 predicting the end of our world. No one knows, but we ignored his pleas and his truth as crazy talk. Find the man or the truth of John Titor and make sure he keeps posting. #3, make sure no one knows who he really is.

“Would you like something to drink?” A woman startled her. Lin Jie looked up and nodded asking for water and chips. Quickly eating them, they handed out a newspaper.

2010, March 1st.

Another post has surfaced. Is this man who he says he is? Or is he crazy and need help? The post is as follows:

Be careful in June 2010. It will start something that no one can finish.

We do not know if he is telling the truth, but we have reason to believe that his predictions are somewhat right, but he wasn’t of sane mind, so we will never know.

Lin Jie scoffed at the paper and threw it into her bag scanning over everything that Udea could potentially link to John Titor.

The flight landed 16 hours later. Lin Jie got up and left to find an apartment that Udea claimed was the safe house for anyone who came through. They had created fake apartment complexes in each country as a medium. She opened number 3’s door.

Pulling out a small navy blue box a couple of capsules with a push trigger were inside. She pulled a small one out and pushed down allowing a camera to come out. “Report Number 1: Just landed in LA, will return soon with dinner and find the location of the man John Titor.” She switched off the camera and sighed.

Pushing the button to put the camera back into the capsule, she quickly unpacked. After an hour, her stomach growled and she quickly left to get a sandwich or something. It had been over five years since she’d had something like this.

As she walked through the streets of LA, memories flashed by her in a blur of everything that happened on that fateful day.

“Just take the sleeping agent and you will be taken back to 2010. We will send you back. This beta project better work.” Lin Jie shook her head not remembering seeing that but it sounded like a whisper. Lin Jie threw everything into the trash can and made her way out into the nightlife of LA to find The Garden in LA, a run down complex’s Ap. #5100 in hopes of the rumors being true.

When she got there, the building was worse than she was told. It was almost demolished. The walls were broken and the building was on its last leg. But, if you looked closely, you could see many people still living in it. Squatters.

“What are you doing here, young miss?”

“I’m here to find someone. Please excuse me.” She tried to get around the two men, but they blocked her way. “I don’t have time for this, can you please just let me thorough?”

“We could, but what do we get in return?”

“Not kicking you?” The men just laughed and tried to reach out for Lin Jie. She quickly dodged and looked at the scum. “Oh wait, translation to 2010 doesn’t work that well. My knee not in your dick?” The men looked at her like she was crazy and way over her head. Mind you, these guys were like 6’5 and 6’2 and mostly muscle. She quickly slipped to the right and kicked one in the side hard enough to hear the cracking of ribs. The taller white one’s eyes were about to pop out of his head. Lin Jie turned and kicked the other in the dick and made him fall in pain. “I meant it.” The men looked at her in fear seeing a flicker of red cross her left eye. It almost looked like they were standing at death’s door with her glare.

“Fine. You aren’t a prize anyway.” Dick said in a strained voice picking up his friend and hobbling away. Lin Jie just scoffed seeing them both leave, well, one being carried away since he could barely breathe.

“That was some move. Would you mind teaching me one day?”

Lin Jie turned around and saw a man smirking with his hands in his pockets. He had unruly medium brown hair and glasses hanging low on his nose. The glare in them allowed her to see brown almost red eyes. They had a glint that would make them look strange, but she stood her ground.

“Who would be asking for my help?” The Man took a step forward gauging the situation, keeping a smirk on his face. “That’s a little weird way to talk to someone, right Ms.?”

Lin Jie stood right where she was, glaring at the man. “Liu.”

“Is that your first or last name?”

“Last. Who might I be talking to?” The Man left the doorway of the building coming into the light and held a pale hand out.

“Jin Thornton.” Lin Jie shook his hand cautiously.

“Sounds familiar. May I take a stab at a different name?” She asked after letting go of his hand.

“Stab away.” He chuckled. He pushed his medium brown hair out of his face and took a can of Dr Pepper out of his pocket sipping at it slowly while keeping his eyes trained on the woman in front of him.

“Jin Thornton. Take a few letters away and rearrange and it sounds like John Titor. Want to explain?” Lin Jie asked while crossing her arms over her chest.

Jin’s eyes faltered, but his smirk was strong. “Wow, you really believe that weird nonsense that came out of the media then? Let me guess, you think the world will end beginning in June?” Jin asked him, leaning down to stay at eye level with Lin Jie since he was almost 6’2 and she was 5’6.

“No, but don’t test me.” Lin Jie got a better look of Jin’s face and remembered an old blurry photo that they “acquired” from a “reliable source”. This man was the closest but the glasses glare didn’t help. With Jin this close to her face, Lin Jie could see the red hues of his eyes easily. It looked like fire was dancing in them. “I’m just here looking for answers.”

“Well, I can’t say you came to the right place.” Jin crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

“Why?”

“Because I’m not John Titor. He is a fake man who was just there to be a publicity stunt. The closest to this man would have been Notradomis, since he at least got something right.” Jin muttered the last part under his breath as he moved closer so he was leaning against the fence. “I wish he was real. Then that would mean someone here would make the situation more serious.”

“Maybe they could. Well, thank you for your time.” Lin Jie turned away and walked out of the area. She barely made it out of the building’s perimeter when a hand was placed on her shoulder.

“Wait.” A deep voice said. Lin Jie turned around and could only see the red in his eyes staring back at her. They weren’t red red, but dark red brown. “Who are you? You’re not from here.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not from this time either are you?” Lin Jie shook his hand off and glared at him. Jin just smiled painfully back at her before turning back towards the darkness. “Don’t trust them. Please, just trust me on this.” Jin started to walk back into the darkness when Lin Jie found herself screaming for him.

“Wait! Don’t trust who?” She had an inkling of who he meant, but it couldn’t be true. Jin just turned around and held a finger to his lips before taking the last step into the building.

Lin Jie stood there left confused before gathering her bearings. She had to get to #5100. She quickly turned and went to the door and pulled it open. Red consumed the area and she quickly closed the door before making a run for it. A loud boom resounded around the block and pushed Lin Jie into the street with the force of the blast. Lin Jie felt everything in her body sting and a constant ringing in her ear didn’t help. Lin Jie placed a hand on her forehead feeling the warmth of blood trickling down her forehead.

Looking behind her, all she could see was the fire consuming the building that Jin Thornton just went into.