Erin's Unconventional Codebreaker

Erin's eyes opened, and she took a deep breath. She listened to the sound of her own heartbeat and felt its rhythm in her neck and fingers.

She was laying on a wooden bench, well-worn by time, in an outdoor market. The sun was warm on her face. She closed her eyes again, allowing the light to fill her retinas and pool behind her eyelids. Then she opened them again. The sunlight was enough for now. Her eyes fluttered closed once more as she tried to remember why she had woken up here.

She had been following…something or someone? There had been a man with a gun – there were always men with guns – and he was shooting at…someone? No, that wasn’t right…he was putting away the gun and then he left. And then…she wasn’t sure what happened after that. Maybe someone else had seen him put away his gun? But no, that didn’t make sense either; she had seen him do it herself!

Her mind was fuzzy, but she remembered feeling terribly thirsty when she woke up here. She stood up and walked over to the nearest stall, looking for something cool to drink. The man running the stall turned towards her and smiled as she approached, happy to have a customer who didn’t want fried fish or candy apples. Something about him made Erin uneasy, though; did he know something? He couldn’t know anything about her though; how could he? His face looked familiar, though she couldn’t place where they might have met before. But he didn’t recognize her either; she could tell from the way he smiled at her like any other shopper.

He asked what kind of drink she would like, so Erin said, "I need water! A lot of it! In a cup! I don’t care what kind of cup you have as long as it can hold water! Oh look! A bottle! That will work too! Thank you!"

The man laughed out loud at this outburst and handed over the bottle of water without asking for money first. Erin drank greedily until her thirst was quenched and some color returned to her cheeks. The man asked if she wanted anything else to eat or drink, but Erin shook her head no and hurried off towards an area covered by trees where she could sit down in peace and think things through clearly once more before trying to figure out how to get back home again.

Erin knew that everything around her looked very familiar – far too familiar actually – but despite having lived in the United Kingdom all her life, there were these things called “time zones” which meant that sometimes England was not exactly in sync with itself due to daylight savings time or whatever it was called these days (they changed all the time). So when Erin walked through some trees into what looked like a familiar town square that shouldn’t be there because it should be miles away, she became extremely puzzled. How could this be happening? Was there some kind of wormhole nearby or something? No way; scientists just made TV shows about those kinds of things because they were easier than explaining things properly (or so Erin thought). Maybe this was all part of some elaborate dream which would end any second now when Erin woke up?

She sat down on a bench under a tree and watched people walking by for some time until the idea that it must have been some sort of dream started sounding plausible. But how could that be? She had been shot at…by terrorists? By British Intelligence agents? Why were they after her anyway? What did they know about her which made them want to shoot at her instead of just taking pictures with their phones like everyone else did whenever they saw someone famous walking around talking on their cell phones (or whatever magic boxes they used these days)? Actually, no one ever took pictures with their phones unless they were with family or friends (or both), since everyone was too busy staring at their own phone screens while walking around to notice anyone else anyway! So it really couldn’t have been an attempted assassination by British Intelligence; why would they try to kill someone who wasn’t even doing anything important anyway? They usually went after people who talked about secrets on their cell phones (or whatever devices) instead of doing nothing at all if they wanted to avoid making a scene in public instead of killing people outright (or so Erin thought).

Erin got up slowly off the bench, wincing slightly as pain shot through her left side. She touched the spot gingerly where she remembered being shot earlier today while lurking outside somewhere pretending not to be noticed while following someone else who had done much the same thing outside another building further down the street earlier today (it felt like months ago already!). But when she touched it gently with both hands, there was no pain anymore: just smooth skin underneath which felt soft and warm due to blood flow beneath the surface (so far so good!). Even if this wasn’t real, then how could this be