By Ashley
(Rated G)

    The tour started off pretty boring as Fred explained how the technicians were finding substitutes for the bad stuff in food so it would be good.
    The final stop on the tour was a room marked PRIVATE: KEEP OUT. Fred didn't seem to notice. "Let's go in here." The doors opened and people were seen busily running everywhere. "This is actually our big project here at Scific. A better way to cryogenicly freeze someone."
    There were four chambers seen at the bottom of a long set of stairs. They were on something like a balcony. Fred tapped a shirt guy with glasses on the back. "How are things going Dan?"
    "Well we're ready to test some subjects." Dan said. "They'll be frozen untill 2021."
    "Whoa!" Tom looked down at the cryogenic chambers. "That's twenty years."
    Brad looked down at them too. "Think of how much they'd miss out on."
    Dan sighed. "We know that. But it's a risk our volunteers are willing to take." He looked back a woman pushing buttons on the machine. "Be careful Melanie!"
    Melanie however wasn't careful.
    There was a huge blast that came from the machine. It sent Dan, Fred and Aerosmith flying over the rail of the balcony. Joe, Brad, Tom and Joey landed in the four chambers right on. Steven fell flat on his back. Another explosion.
    "We've got to get out of here!" Fred yelled. He picked Steven up.
    "Hold on!" Steven yelled. "The guys-"
    Fred ushered Steven out of the lab. "Hurry Mr. Tyler." Everyone scurried out of the lab and a set of double doors locked tightly. Inside the four capsules sunk into the floor.     Steven banged on the doors. "The rest of my band is in there!"     "I'm sorry Mr. Tyler." Fred said. "They fell into the cryogenic chambers."
    "I don't care!" Steven yelled. "Someone go in there and get them!" He banged on the doors again.Fred grabbed Steven. "They'll be alive and well. They're frozen Mr. Tyler! You'll see them again! But it will be twenty years from now."
    Steven looked out into space. "I'll be 73."

    It made into the papers. The headlines were absolutely screaming the fact that Aerosmith would be over becuase of the accident. Four years down the line the news and media seemed to forget it. Steven didn't and neither did the families of the other band members. While they tried to stay in the Boston area and wait, within ten years most of the families had moved away. The memories were too hard. Steven stayed in his house, Teresa died in 2019, the kids had moved out and he was alone.

    2021 came, the chambers rose from their hiding places underground and swooshed open.
    What happened?" Joey asked.
    Tom crawled out of his chamber. "I don't know but I feel weird." He noticed that the lights were out and that no one was around. "Where is everyone?"
    Brad remembered something. He turned around. "Guys. Look behind you."
    They all turned around and saw a cryogenic chamber.
    Joe was almost speechless. "Oh my god. You don't think-"
    "I think," Tom said, "That we're in trouble."
    "What happened?" Joe asked. "How's we end up in those things?"
    Remember the explosion?" Brad shut the lid on the chamber. "When we went over the side of the balcony we must have landed in these things."
    "What the hell are the chances of that?" Joey kicked a piece of scrap metal. "I can't believe this. What happened to our wives, our kids?"
    Joe realized that some one was missing. "What happened to Steven?"
    Tom noticed this too. "There were only four chambers. He must have gotten out with the others."
    Joe opened up the heavy doors. "Well let's see if we can find anyone." They walked the halls of Scific Enterprises. Everything was gone. "This place must have gotten shut down."
    "Does anyone even know what happened to us?" Brad asked.
    Tom wiped some dust off of a table as he walked past it. "I don't know."
    They made it to the front entrance of Scific. The doors were covered up with brown paper so they couldn't see what was outside. Joe went to tear some of the paper off and stopped.
    "What if there's cars flying around. And everyone's wearing weird clothes like out of the Jetsons?"
    Brad shook his head. "It's only been twenty years. I doubt that society has come that far."
    A thought popped in Joey's mind. "Hey you remember that story Rip VanWinkle?" Everyone turned around and looked at Joey. "Well this sorta reminds you of that doesn't it?"
    Joe ripped a tiny piece of the paper off of the door and peeked out. "Well I don't see any flying cars." He tore off a little more paper. "Okay. I see people walking around but they're not dressed like on the Jetsons. They're still pretty much dressed like us."
    "Well let's go outside." Tom went to open the door and it got caught on something. "There's a paddlock on the outside."
    Joey started to look at the windows. He found one that was unlocked. They crawled out of the window into a little alley between two buildings. "So what do we do now?"
    Joe thought about it for a sec. "Let's just go home and see where everyone is at. We'll meet back here tommorrow at sunset." They all went to leave and then Joe added, "Be careful though. It's been twenty years, don't forget that."

    The streets of Boston didn't look much different than when they left. A few new buildings lined the streets. One being a bank with a huge digital clock on it that said it was 1:32 PM. The cars looked a bit weird to them but they didn't fly. They weren't stared at as they walked the streets. Long hair looked like it was in style. Joe had thought about taking a taxi to his house but he didn't know how much it would cost. It was a long walk back to his house it was almost sunset when he got there. Joe made the walk up the steps to his porch. An uneasy feeling came over him as he got on the porch. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
    A few anxious seconds ticked by and a young lady with dark brown hair opened the door. "May I help you?" she asked.
    Joe cleared his throat. "Is the Perry residence?"
    The girl shook her head. "This use to be, they moved out of here about ten years ago. I'm not sure where they went." She looked at Joe like she had known him from somewhere. "I'm sorry that you came all this way to find that they're not here. Do you need a place to stay for the night?"
    Joe nodded. "Yeah."
    The girl took Joe's arm and escorted him into the house. "I apologise I haven't introduced myself. I'm Chelsea Yelton."
    Chelsea stared at Joe for a few seconds. "I know you from somewhere don't I?"
    "Yeah I think you might." Joe said.
    Chelsea walked into the kitchen. "Paul we have company!"
Paul was heard saying. "Who?"
    Chelsea replied with, "Some man looking for the people who use to live here."
    A really thin man walked out of the kitchen wearing overalls and a t-shirt. "The Perry's? They don't live here anymore. It's been me and the wife for the past eight years." He took a look at Joe. "You look familiar."
    Joe looked down at the floor. "Yeah I'm going to get a lot of that."
    Chelsea came back in and said, "Actually I remember seeing some stuff in the attic with the name Perry on it. A bunch of old boxes."
    ”Can I take a look?" Joe asked.
    Paul thought about it. "Yeah sure. It's-"
    Joe had already made it up the steps to the second floor. He opened up a small door to go to the attic. When he made it to the top he flipped a small switch on the wall. A single lightbulb lit the entire attic of the house. Joe searched for a while until he found a box marked ‘Joe's Clothes’. He opened the box to find all of his clothes in a box: t-shirts, jeans neatly folded. Joe swiped a couple of t-shirts under his jacket, closed up the box and headed down stairs.
    Chelsea was there. "The guest room is right down the hall and to your left."
    Joe went to the guestroom and laid out the shirts on the dresser. He tried to sleep but couldn't the whole night. When morning came Joe went downstairs.
    Chelsea was cooking breakfast. "Have some eggs!"
    Joe sat down at the table and ate a huge breakfast of eggs, bacon, bicuits, and sausage. When he was done he said, "Thanks for the meal." Joe got out his wallet. "I should pay you..."
    Chelsea shook her head. "No no no. It's fine don't give me a penny."
    She followed Joe to the door and waved goodbye to him as walked back down the street.

    Joe made it into town around noon. He looked to see if anyone was around, no one had made it there yet. "Tom's probably just getting up." Joe laughed to himself. Around three Brad had made it and he met Joe in front of SciFic. Joey made it around five. And Tom finally made it at almost seven o'clock.
    "Well did anyone find their families?" Tom asked. "No one's at my house. It's all boarded up."
    Joey shook his head. "There's an old couple living at my place now. They said April moved out six years ago."
    "Yeah?" Joe said. "I've got a couple living at my house. They said that Billie moved out ten years ago."
    "The people living at my place don't have a clue where my family went." Brad said. "Have you been getting people that ask "Hey don't I know you from somewhere?"
    Joe nodded. "Yep." Everyone stood in silence for a few minutes.
    "Well what do we do now?" Tom asked. "No families."
    Brad said, "We could always check Steven's house."
    Joe looked down at the ground. "How do we know he hasn't left?"
    Tom tried to look optimistic. "We'll never know until we try."
    They walked to the edge of town by which time night was falling. There was a different feel to the city. Gunshots were heard. "Did you hear that?"
    "Hey you know what?" Brad said. "This reminds of this movie I saw where it's the future and every major city in the world is controlled by gangs. And everyone has to be off the streets by a certain time or the gangs'll come and get 'em. They killed people by-"
    "Shut up Brad!" Joey punched him in the shoulder. "We don't need to hear that." They made their way towards Steven's house. The darker it got, the less safer they felt. There was a sound of a twig snapping in the woods by the road.
    "Did anyone else hear that besides me?" Tom whispered.
    Joe nodded. "Yeah. Go check it out Tom."
    "Me?" Tom argued. "I'm not going to check it out. You check it out."
    Brad stood silent for a second. "There's this book called Fahrenheit 451. It's about the future and they have this robot dog with a needle in it's mouth. Whoever gets injected with what's in the needle-"
    Joey smacked Brad again. "You can give us your book report later."
    Something moved in the bushes and growled. "Oh shit..."
    "We could run." Tom whispered. "Or we could stay and fight it if it's not friendly."
    Brad was hiding behind Tom. "I'll take the first option." The growling got louder and louder. "I'm leaving."
    Joe grabbed Brad by the shirt. "No your not."
    Finally something came out of the bushes. Joe laughed. It was a dog, a Golden Retriever. At first it stood there staring at the band teeth drawn back. "Nice doggy. Good boy." The dog stopped growling and went up to Joe and laid down at his feet.
    Tom laughed. "Man’s best friend." He reached down to look at the collar. The dogs name was Buddy and the address was Steven's house. Tom got up and started to jog. "Come on Buddy!" He whistled. "Come on boy! Time to go home!" Tom ran up the road with the band and Buddy close behind. They soon came to Steven's house. It looked a bit run down but it at least looked like someone was living in the place.
    Joe walked up the steps of the front porch. He raised his hand to knock on the door and stopped. "This is gonna be really weird if Steven's here. He's going to be 73."
    "So what?" Tom petted Buddy on the head. "He's still Steven."
    Joe sighed and started to knock on the door. On the first knock the door opened. "Hello?" Joe called into the house. "Steven? Are you here?" He walked into the front hallway. Pictures of Steven and his family were all over the walls. "He still lives here."
    Tom put a hand on Joe's shoulder to stop him. "Do you smell smoke?"
J    Joe sniffed the air. "Yeah. It's coming from his living room." They ran into the living room to see a fire eating up the carpet. There was a figure on the other side of the wall of flames. "Grab a bucket or whatever. Just anything to get the fire out!" Tom found a mop bucket and emptied it out and started to throw water on the fire.Brad ran into the kitchen and found a fire extinguisher. "Hold on. Stay back." He sprayed it at the fire putting it out in no time.
    Everyone stood gasping for breath.
    The figure stepped out of the shadows. It was Steven, obviously older. His hair was still abnoramlly long, but not as long as it was in the band hey day and it was white. He wasn't dressed the same either. he had on brown courdoroys and a red sweater. Steven stared down at the mess on the floor. "Thanks. I was looking at some old things and I fell asleep. I guess-" He looked up and went pale as a ghost. "Oh my god." he whispered.
    Joe looked at his band mate. He couldn't think of anything meaningful to say. He simply said, "How's it going old man?"
    Steven still staring at them said, "Good. Good." A thought popped into his head. "The date." He walked into his kitchen to look at a calendar. "That's right. Yesterday was the day..." He looked at his band mates. "I'm guessing you figured out what happened."
    Tom nodded. "Oh yeah."

    A half hour later they were all sitting around a table in Steven's dinning room. Steven spoke quietly, "I tried to make them go back in after you but they told me that you were already frozen and there wasn't anything I could do about it. You have no idea how nuts the press went. The tabloids especially. My personal favorite headline read: Tyler left behind by bandmates!"
    "Where'd everyone go?" Brad asked. "Our families?"
    "Terry was the first to leave." Steven said. "She said she couldn’t bear to stay there. It was about three years later. She sold the house and a couple bought it. Then someone got killed in the house and they haven't been able to sell it. It's been boared up going on eleven years." He took a sip of his coffee. "April was next. She went home to her mother about nine years ago. She just up and left didn't tell anyone until after the fact." A few minutes ticked by.
    "What about Karen?" Brad asked.
    Steven sighed. "Karen left to go home too. So did Billie. Billie left only about five years ago. Roman and Tony still live around here though. They come by here once in a while. Karen left..." He thought for a second. "She left about six years ago." Steven leaned back in his chair. "I tried to stay up on things for you guys. I explained what happened in the lab. They didn't think you were still alive, so they didn't believe me."
    "How up on things did you stay?" Tom asked.
    Steven laughed. "There's twenty years worth of Rolling Stone in my attic piled neatly into little boxes. Is that staying on top or what?"
    Brad leaned forward in his chair. "You're serious? Twenty years of Rolling Stone Magazine?"
    Steven nodded. "Yep. Just don't read the review section of June 2003, please."
    “Why?" Joe asked.
    Steven made a face. "There's a review of my solo album in there. It wasn't pretty." He put his hand to his face. "I tried to go on recording but right after I did the solo album, my voice gave out. Not sure what happened. It was there one day and then bam gone the next."
    Joey noticed Teresa wasnt there. "Where's Teresa at?"
    Steven's mood immediatly changed. "Teresa died two years ago..." He wiped his eyes. "Cancer. I was alone for a couple of months before I got Buddy."
    "Don't your kids come to visit you?" Brad asked.
    "Yeah. Then Tony and Roman. The maid that comes by every morning."
    Steven looked around the room. "That's pretty much it." He got up from his chair to put his cup in the sink.
    "You get around good for being 73." Tom joked, "I guess there is no "Walkers This Way" huh?"
    Steven laughed. "I remember that one. And you thought I'd be bald when I turned 70."
    "Oh yeah that reminds me, Joey held out his hand. "Fifty bucks, Tom."
    Tom patted his pockets. "Uh gee Joey... I'm a little strapped for cash right now..."
    "I want my money." Joey said bluntly. "You lost."
    Steven was in shock. "We're you making bets on how my body was going to deteriorate?"
    Joey shook his head. "No we just took bets on your hair."
    "Well it's thinner." Tom snapped.
    "He's not bald." Joey said. "Show me the money."
    "It's gotta count some what." Tom arugued. "How about half?"
    "Guys!" Steven yelled. "Knock it off!"
    Tom and Joey looked at each and said in unison. "It was him."
    Steven burst out laughing. "God..." His statement changed and he put his hand to his chest.
    Joe got up an went over to Steven. "What's wrong?"
    "My chest hurts." Steven groaned. "It's been hurting all day." Brad ran over to the phone and dialed 911. An ambulance was there within ten minutes. As they took Steven out to the ambulance he said, "The keys to my car are on the coffee table." Joe went to leave but Steven grabbed. "I want you to go with me."
    Joe climbed into the ambulance as it screeched to the hospital. "You're gonna be fine Steven." Steven looked at Joe. "This is my second one in two years."
    "Really?" Joe took Steven's hand. "You could just be having a panic attack. People think that they're having heart attacks-"
    "It's a heart attack." Steven said. "I remember how the last one felt."

    At the hospital Steven was carted into the emergency room. A nurse stopped Joe from following Steven. "You can't come in."
    Joe stood in the middle of the room trying to keep himself together. "Why now?"
    Tom, Joey and Brad made it to the hospital a couple of minutes later.
    "Is he okay?" Tom asked. A few questions seemed like a million to Joe who kept shaking his head in silence at each one. A nurse came back out. She motioned for Joe to come.
    "He's doing well. It was a mild heart attack. You can see him now."
    Joe walked in a room where Steven was hooked up to all sorts of machines. Joe sat down in a chair. "So what's the verdict?"
    Steven looked at Joe drowsily. "I'll live."
    Joe tried to lighten the situation. "Well if you lived through the late 1970's early 1980's Steven, you can live through anything."
    Tom came in followed by Brad and Joey. "Here he lays..."
    “You say that like I'm gonna die," Steven said. "Start my eulogy."
    Joey cleared his throat. "Steven Tyler was a great man."
    "Bullshit," Joe whispered. "He was a total ass." A burst of laughter.
    "Gee thanks." Steven mumbled sarcasticly. "Remind to make sure you're not invitied to the funeral."

    Joe, however, was invited to the funeral a few short weeks later.

    Steven had a stoke not long after he got out of the hospital. The first thing Steven actually did when he got out was re-do his will.
    He left the house and everything in it to Joe, Brad, Joey and Tom.
    They had to alert the media of what had happened to them. After the funeral. The press did nothing but bother them for the next three years. When the tabloids stopped coming the guys started to travel around Boston to see what had really changed. Not much, the technological advances were great. They did their best to take care of the house and the surrounding area. The kids came back. While most of their children weren't much younger than they were, they still managed to have that father child conversation.
    For years to come, you could drive past the old house to see Brad playing with Buddy on the front lawn. Tom trimming the shrubs or planting things. Joey out in an old hammock taking in the sun. Or Joe out on the front porch playing his guitar. Ten years after Steven died all four men went to the cemetary to see him.
    "Ten years." Joe whispered.
    Tom sighed. "More like thirty."
    "Ten years older. Ten years wiser." Joey said as he leaned down next to the grave. "It really-" He started to choke up.
    Joe leaned down next to Joey. "Sucks we couldn't all end up old men on stage doing, "Walkers this Way"."
    Tom agreed. "That would have been a trip." He chuckled to himself and sang quietly, "Walkers This Way."
    "He was 73," Brad said. "Maybe it was a little early for him."
    "73," Joe repeated. "What were we doing in 1973?"
    "Living in a cramped apartment." Tom rememberd. "And for me it was sleeping on the couch listening to Steven play "Dream On" every morning. Day after day telling me how bug of a hit it was going to be."
    Joey decided to relive old memories. "Steven telling me how drum." He laughed. "Shit the man was a perfectionist. No! Not like that!"
    Tom chimed in, "Play the root! Play the fuckin' root!" He slapped Joe lightly on the shoulder. "Remember that?"
    Joe nodded. "Yeah. We had some fights..."
    "Should we really get started on that?" Brad asked looking at his watch. "It's noon and we only have so many hours in the day."
    "Yeah..." Joe laughed. "Oh well... It's better to remember the good times. Aerosmith being on the road..."
    "What shall become of Aerosmith?" Tom asked. "Will it wither and die or will it's legacy go on?"
    Joe looked down at the grave littered with flowers and cards from fans. "Who knows what's in the future Aerosmith?"
    "Only time will tell..."