"To whom it may concern,

Congratulations on being the first to find this location. If you were not already aware, you are now being hunted…"

Tom burnt the letter as he finished reading, and began scribbling a reply on a notepad.

"Steph, it’s me. I found the city, and entered the Terraian. But I didn’t know I was followed, and the guard mechanism tripped up. Your stalker…it still survived, and now it’s mad. It’s got my scent now, so I’m using your emergency temporal relocator.

We won’t be able to meet until I shake it off my tail, but so far the only way has been to transfer its focus to another traveller.

I pray you’ll never need it, but before I entered the Terraian I stashed mine just beyond the horizon of our house.

If you ever do decide to venture into the city, remember that no perfect timeline exists. None that are reachable, anyway.

Keep leaving notes, and we’ll meet again sometime."

He signed and folded it back into the envelope, replacing it under the rock. The dust cloud of another car peeked beside the sunrise, still too far to hear.

Tom grabbed a shovel from the trunk, measured 47 paces West of the rock, then shoved it into the earth. The first clump was always the hardest, but the soil was still loose from the night.

A minute later, he could hear the car, but did not dare slow down the digging. Finding it in time would be a miracle, yet as the thought crossed his mind, the shovel struck metal.

A presence made itself known, as Tom dove into the makeshift pit. Banging on the metal panel to reveal the controls, he found the eject button as something slid across the back of his neck…

A