Time Bomb (Part Two)

"I should have gone to the pub today."
I groaned the words with my eyes closed, and was surprised when a reply came.
"Yes. Yes, you probably should."
I opened my eyes, and sat upright; the dark cobblestoned street on which I'd found myself earlier was gone. Instead, I was in a large white chamber, a kind of pavilion, perched on a wooden bench. My arms and legs ached; I'd clearly been lying there for some time.

Footsteps rang out across the mosaic floor. I turned to look at the man who'd addressed me, as he approached. He was a tall, thin fellow, wearing a sharp black suit, a bowler hat, and what looked like a pair of old flying goggles.
"Good to see you're awake. Awfully sorry about almost running you over with my car. Would have made a ghastly mess; a terrible shame so soon after the cobblestones have been washed. Algernon Haversack's the name, by the way. Hope I've done the right thing in bringing you here."
"Here?"
"Yes, this is where we usually bring you chaps."
"Us chaps?"
"Gosh, that tumble really didn't do you any good, did it? This is where we bring time travellers, old bean."
I managed to avoid repeating the words 'time travellers' like a senile parrot, but only just. Algernon forged on.
"You are a time traveller, aren't you? You definitely have that look about you. You're not raving about 'global warming', or asking who the president is - most of 'em do that - but you are dressed rather shabbily, which suggests that you're either a visitor from the future, or a drunken vagrant."
"As it happens, I'm both. But wait: you say there's more time travellers besides myself?"
"Of course. You 21st century types are forever discovering how to travel into the past. Once you've worked out that wafer-thin ham is actually the catalyst, there's no stopping you." Algernon paused, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Sadly, none of you ever stop to consider that when you travel back, your time machines will cease to exist, as you haven't yet invented them. Ghastly oversight on your part, if I may say. It means that we're stuck with you."
I sighed.
"And how many of 'us' are there?"
"Why not come and see?"

I followed Algernon outside, where I saw that we were on a grand pavilion that acted as the centre of a large open compound. Fences ran around the perimeter, although they were thinly-guarded. There were trees, broad swathes of grass, even a small duckpond. In fact, it looked suspiciously like someone had taken a town park and turned it into an open-air prison.

There were makeshift barracks located near a wooden see-saw, and all around, my fellows from the future strolled, clad in hoodies and ironic t-shirts, listening to iPods. There were dozens of us, hundreds of us, trapped, imprisoned.
"It's become rather a problem, you see," Algernon confided. "You come here, but none of you seem able to leave. And it's awfully disruptive to us, you know, trying to live our lives without finding out who wins the Cup next year, or what devious foreign type's about to start a nasty little World War."
"I can imagine."
"So, we put all of you future sorts into this...reserve. It's really quite nice."
"Oh, it's the best prison I've ever been in."
"Excellent! Well, cheerio then."
"Wait! You can't expect me to spend the rest of my life here! I've got to be at the pub tomorrow night!"
Algernon raised his eyebrows, and adjusted his hat.
"'Fraid there's nothing I can do. We don't know how to send you to the future again. If we did, believe me, we'd happily send you all packing. No offence, but you are all rather ghastly."
He turned and walked down the steps of the pavilion, leaving me alone on the walkway. I hung my head and contemplated the gravity of my situation.

I might never see the pub again...