Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

“God Dammit” Cal screamed, firing off the last of his ammo into the bear shape. He had finally come around to the idea of the giant spiders being the issue, and then they found bears with tentacles this time.

“Dad, just run for the cave. Somehow, that’s the safer option!” Cal yelled at his father. This time, they had decided to set up camp outside the mine with a more secure structure. Cal figured the spiders weren’t overly fond of sunlight, and that would provide them an extra layer of defense. And that was true. This had been the longest loop spent at the mines so far. Sadly, almost none of it was spent in the mine as they had been playing cat and mouse with a bear that had been crossed with a Lovecraftian horror.

It started the first night while they were collecting firewood. Stan pointed out a bear to Cal that was meandering through the trees. It was a perfectly normal sight, then the bear stood on its hind legs, looked directly at them, and howled. The hair on its body started growing as it charged. They slammed the door shut on their enclosure just as the bear crashed into it. Two of the hair tentacles caught in the door as it was slammed shut, severing them onto the ground. They continued to squirm around for another few seconds.

“Don’t touch them,” Stan ordered as he grabbed a fire poker.

“Wasn’t planning to.” Cal moved behind his father so that he had easy access to prod the tentacles with the poker. Nothing happened.

“Well, at least they die when cut off.” Stan quickly turned his head towards a new metal grinding sound they heard on the other side of the cabin.”Shit, I think the bear is strong enough to break through the wall. Grab the guns. We are going to have to try to take this down.”

Cal grabbed the rifles, passed his father one, checked that his was loaded, and walked towards the door. “Ready?” His father nodded in affirmation. Cal threw the door open and dashed through it, trying to get a good shot while running.

He failed to do so. Luckily for both of them, his father was a much better shot and managed to take the bear thing down. “Let’s sleep in shifts and decide what to do in the morning.” Stan was examining the damage as he suggested it. “I don’t think this is actually too bad, but given enough time, it would have gotten in.”

The rest of the night was quiet, and they both managed to get some sleep. The next day, though, was entirely something else. They left the camp around noon to start a small survey of the mines when Cal spotted them. Dozens of the bear-things were on the cliffs below them, howling. A few had already gotten between them and their return path.

Stan fired shot after shot at the incoming mass, knocking a few down but doing nothing to stop the horde when he heard his son yell to run for the cave. His ammo was dwindling anyway, and he agreed it was probably their best bet.

Cal had assumed the bears wouldn’t follow them. He thought the giant bugs kept them out. It was why he figured they hadn’t encountered the bears before now. He had assumed wrong. The two ran ahead into one of the safer spots they had found in the mine, the bears giving chase.

“Weeee hadd a ddddeeal!” the rasping voice of the spider creature had entered the fray.

“Pretty sure we are screwed, sorry, Dad” Cal looked at his father, thankful for the continued company despite being told how badly this had ended the last two times.

“It’s not over until it’s over.” He pointed out the bears had stopped and turned towards the tunnel the voice had come from.

“WE GET THE UNDERGROUND FOOD!” shrieked another voice from deeper in. Followed by loud scratching sounds that best-resembled nails on the chalkboard moving through the tunnel.

“Good neeeewws bearrrss” the spider creature chittered. “She hasn’t come out to play in ages.”

Cal and his father slowly and as quietly as they could made their way into the room carved from the wall in this chamber. This was where they had tried to make their mapping room in the last loop, and it was as good as anywhere to hide and wait out whatever the carnage.

For the next hour, Cal and his father were treated to horrific sounds ranging from the weird child-like voice of the spider creature to bowel movement-inducing roars from the bears. Occasionally, these would be joined by something else: angrier voices screaming about the underground, often accompanied by a ripping sound. Finally, after several hours had passed, the noise outside the room stopped.

They loaded their remaining ammo. Cal pushed the door open slightly for Stan to toss a few road flares into the darkness. A single sickening scream was heard in the distance. “OURS!” It managed to cough the word out before its head crashed to the ground, covered in gore. Cal wasn’t sure if it was still alive or not. It looked like it used to be some sort of centipede, but it was severely mangled now.

Stan took no chances and put a few bullets into its head. “Search the bodies for any movement. Put anything still alive out of their misery. He said as he was shining his flashlight onto the various bear parts.

“Make sure you find the spider creature’s corpse, too. That’s been the real issue on the last two loops. If she’s dead, then I guess that we just lure the bear horde in here in the future and let them take care of each other.” Cal spotted the spider creature’s unmoving body. “Good, it went down too.”

“Alright, go, let’s go collect everything from the campsite and move it into here then. I’m worried there may be more bears out there.” Stan finished checking the corpses near him and made for the entrance. Cal followed behind him.

It took them a few hours, but they managed to get all of the gear moved into the mine chamber. Cal looked at his dad. “I’m going to get some sleep, give things a chance to fully settle down, and see if we hear anything new out there. If it stays clear, I vote we begin our search for the ore.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’m going to get some food together for dinner.”

The rest of the day proved as uneventful as Cal had hoped. They set off early the next day after breakfast, starting down the tunnel from which the monstrous centipede’s voice had first come. Cal figured since they hadn’t been able to get anywhere near that tunnel yet, now was the time. The tunnel was an easy path, gently sloping downward until he ended up in a large pool of water. The water was only one of the differences in the chamber Cal noticed. It was also dimly lit with something glowing beneath the water’s surface.

“Think that’s what we came for?” Stan pointed towards the brightest spot in the water.

“God, I hope so, but the idea of diving into that isn’t a pleasant thought. So how do we want to do this?”

Stan dropped his pack, emptied his pockets, took off his shoes and dived. I guess that’s one way, Cal thought as his father disappeared below the water.

Seconds later, Stan’s head broke the surface. “Cal catch!” he yelled, tossing a glowing rock towards his son. Cal grabbed the rock and looked it over quickly, realizing his mistake a second too late. His father was being pulled under by something. “Just leave me and go,” Stan gurgled half the words as head was yanked back under.

Cal ran to the water's edge, ready and willing to dive in after his father when something on the far wall caught his attention. A sizeable shadowy form dropped into the water and started swimming toward him. “Fuck” Cal yelled into the air, deciding he had no choice but to leave his father for dead this loop. He ran as quickly and safely as possible, escaping the mine into the relative safety of daylight.

He held it together until he was safe, back home with Bug. “Hey girl, I’m sorry dad is not coming home, I really am. I promise next time it will go differently.” he let the dog see his tears and stress deeply overwhelm him. While he did finally fall asleep that night, it was neither relaxing nor restful. He was woken up the following day by Bug demanding to go outside. She had gotten used to the regular pattern of her dog sitter and was refusing to go back to the chaos that was Cal’s schedule.

“Okay, girl, I’m up. Let’s get you outside and then get some breakfast in both of us.” He opened the backdoor and released her into the yard, sitting down in one of the patio chairs to think about what he wanted to do next. He guessed he needed to convince Andy about the loop next. He needed his help to figure out what they could do with the ore anyway. In theory, he should be moving to Dallas shortly. It was time to buy the house next door.

Cal spent the next six months working out the logistics of declaring his father missing, banking accounts, and the move itself. Still, he had been able to navigate it all without too many tangles, at least nothing that would likely matter in the long run, and his long runs were a lot longer than everyone else, at least so far. He ensured the new house had a nice yard for Bug and an excellent central air unit, as they both preferred the cold. Two months following his move-in, the Thomas family moved in next door.

Cal stole some of their mail soon after. The following day, he knocked on their front door and was greeted by a groggy older man. “Hello,” the words came out from a man very clearly still half asleep.

“Hey Neighbor, got some of your mail by mistake yesterday. I noticed some of this was addressed to an Andrew Thomas. This is going to sound weird, but years ago, I met an Andy Thomas in Michigan when he was helping move his grandparents in. No chance that’s the same guy, is it?” Cal asked in his best, trying to sound innocent and totally ignorant of the answer voice. The man’s eyes opened wider at the mention of his son’s name. It looked like he had finally come awake.

“Andrew, come here in a minute. Somehow, an old friend of yours is here,” the man called back into the house behind. “Yeah, that had to have been him. About seven years ago, right? We moved my parents to Charlevoix.” Andy appeared behind him.

“What is it? I’m trying to get some homework done.”

“Hey Andy, you probably don’t remember me, but we talked comics a few years back in Charlevoix. You played with Bug in the backyard as well. What a weird coincidence living next to each other in Dallas years later.” Cal looked Andy over. He looked much less happy than in the loop they were friends in.

“Oh yeah, you had the nice dog. Yeah, weird coincidence,” Andy responded. He didn’t look overly interested.

“I’m sure she’d love to meet you again. Why don’t you stop by tonight, and we can play some video games? I’ve only been here a few months myself and haven’t had time to make any gaming buddies yet.” his voice was as sincere as he could muster. He needed to lure Andy into his world in order not to waste the rest of this loop.

“Good idea, Andy. You could use some more time socializing.” His father interjected.

“Fine, I’ll be over at six.” Andy sighed, agreeing, and turned to walk away.

“See you later,” Cal called after him. “Nice meeting you as well, sir.” Andy’s father nodded and closed the door.

A few hours later, Cal learned that Andy did not play video games in this loop. Cal thought that this explained some of future Andy’s annoyance at being made to experience role-playing games. “Alright, enough games for now. It's time for a new conversation. I’m going to get this statement out of the way as fast as I can so we can move into question-and-answer time. When you were six, you burnt a hole in the carpet. You managed to hide it, and no one ever found out. I know this because I’m stuck in a time loop, and you told me this in the future as a way to convince you of the loop now.”

Andy stared at Cal with a blank face, slowly opening his mouth. “What… Are you serious?”

“Yes, you were doing an experiment, and it was in your bedroom in the apartment you lived in. I need your help to figure out what this ore is and how we can use it to solve the way you are experiencing the loop.” Cal pulled the rock from a safe in the room.

“Alright, just explain everything.” Andy settled into the chair, looking resigned to his new, very unusual fate.

One series of explanations later, Andy looked invested. “I’m going to write up a list of things we will need to really start working on this mysterious rock. First up, we need to move it to a lead-lined container. Buying that is the priority. In any future loop, it always needs to be kept there unless we have made one hundred percent sure it’s safe. Some of these things will be very expensive, but with your future lottery knowledge, I’m sure we will be fine there.” He started scribbling down on some items on a notepad. He handed it to Cal when he was done. “I’m heading home, but I trust you can get these things.”

“Yeah, sure, why not. I know exactly what a Thermal ionization mass spectrometer is, after all.” Cal shook his head while he spoke. The list was basically nonsense to him. Acquiring it should be interesting.

A few months later, Cal’s garage had become a geology lab. The two of them spent most of their free time there over the course of the following year, testing the various properties of the rock. So far, they had determined that it was emitting some sort of radiation, and exposure to it caused changes in both plants and animals. The fruit flies started being able to spit some kind of venom, and the grass turned purple in the experiments.

They had also learned that his blood reacted entirely differently to a small sample than Cal’s did. There was zero noticeable reaction when a few drops of Cal’s blood was mixed with some shavings, whereas when Andy’s was mixed, they both vanished. This was repeated several times without any idea of where they were going. Andy had talked about a theory one night that it’s possible his other self is occupying some sort of quantum world and that when his blood meets the ore, it also moves to this world. He had no idea how to test the theory as of yet but said it was the best he could come up with right now.

One night, a little over a year into their experiments, they heard screams coming from the street. “What was that?” Andy looked up from his microscope.

“No idea, I’ll check.” Cal opened the side door of the garage and looked outside. There were several of the aliens walking down the street, with smaller groups breaking off at each house to run inside. Holy shit, why are they here now. Cal started to panic. “Andy, quick out the back door. We have to run now. Somehow, the aliens are already here.”

“What, how? Wait, it has to be the ore. That’s probably why they attacked future me’s research building. I wonder what triggers their hunt for it, though. The timing seems random.”

“Jesus, Andy, now isn’t the time for theories. We need to.” Cal’s statement was cut off as the garage door flashed away in a bright light, revealing several of the aliens holding their crowbar weapons glowing menacingly. He was going to need a safe room next time. Cal’s last thoughts as he saw the beam of light fired at him were about how safe a room had to be to stop one of these beams.