Strange Tales Of The Unknown

Kevin Doy Burton                                                                  
110 Corrina Blvd. #177
Waukesha,Wisconsin
53186
Tel: 262 271 7194
Email:kevburst2@earthlink.net
Link :  amzn.com/e/B002FZ15CK





                                                           



                                                   Strange Tales Of The Unknown











                                                                 Dedication


   I want to dedicate this book to my wife and son who supported me throughout my writing career. I want to dedicate this book to my fans who came to my book signings to give me their support. I also want to dedicate this book to the angel who came down to help me create the stories and to God. I’ve written other science fiction novels you should check out.They’re called: Emanon,The Journey of Emanon,The Rip,Dominant Species,and Damned Forever. Because of all the support I’ve been getting from my fans to right short stories I decided to write Strange Tales Of The Unknown. If you like horror stories I would like to let you know about The Horror Of Appleberry Creek,written by Jacqueline Burton. A great book to read and cuddle up to at night. So from me ,this book is for you all.

                                                                                                     Kevin Doy Burton















                                                                  Synopsis

  Each story consist of  unique characters that have undergone strange experiences. Have gone to strange places, or their metabolism have been altered. Some have traveled through space. Have visited strange towns, or had developed strange abilities. In any case their story would be interesting to read. It will have you craving for more Strange Tales Of The Unknown
























                                                                   Index


Chapter   One             An Astronaut’s Nightmare
 Chapter   Two           A Town Called Welcome
 Chapter   Three         Vortex
 Chapter   Four           Schizophrenia
 Chapter   Five            Man In The Mirror
 Chapter   Six              Gang Eliminator
 Chapter   Seven         The Prisoner
 Chapter   Eight          The Wrestler
 Chapter   Nine           The Unstoppable Football Player
 Chapter  Ten             A Signal From Burger King
 Chapter  Eleven         Time Traveler
 Chapter  Twelve        Time Traveling Back Into Slavery
 Chapter  Thirteen       One Way Trip Into The Future




               








                                                                Chapter One


     Fred Dominsky is an astronaut placed inside of a hypo-sleep chamber. His mission is to go to Mars,land,take digital pictures, of a phenomenon that is occurring on the planet, and return to Earth. The on-board computer will wake him up when he is within a five thousand mile range.

                                                    An Astronaut’s Nightmare

 “ It’s hard to believe that I volunteered for this mission. A one man mission at that. A hypo-sleep chamber. Well, at least I can dream. I guess N.A.S.A. wanted to see if the computer can calculate a trajectory path with a live specimen on board. They wanted to test it out. Back on Earth, I slept for six months in one of those things just to get prepared for the trip to Mars. I dreamed of all sorts of things,”
   While Fred was asleep in the chamber, the spaceship was approaching an asteroid belt. A meteor had hit the ship, and knocked it off coarse. Fred continues dreaming.

    My wife was typing away at her novel. “ Honey, do you want any coffee while you work?”
    “ Not right now. I’m trying to get this chapter done, while the story is still in my head.”
    I went to look at the TV to see what was on the News. There was some talk about activities going on Mars that was spotted by one of our telescopes, but the weatherman said that it was cloud formation. A knock was heard at my front door.I opened the door to see who it was.
   “ Hey Jim, what brings you over here?”  “ Fred, I wanted to know if you would like to join some of your neighbors over at my house this Saturday for poker night?”  “ I would like to come, but I’ve already promised my wife that I would take her out to dinner that night. What time will the game start, Jim? “  “ We’re not going to start until 12 am.”  “ 12 am ? I should be back  from dinner before that time. Count me in.”
   “ You got it. I’ll tell the boys.”  “ Ok,Jim. I’ll see you then.”
   I closed the door, and went back to look at the news.

   There was a black hole that had appeared in front of the planet Mars, and the spaceship was heading straight for it. Everything on board the ship had slowed down to a stop, once it was pulled into the hole.

    “ Well honey, it’s Saturday, and I have something good planned for you today.” “ You do? Is it my birthday?” “ No, it’s not your birthday.”  “ Then what’s the special occasion?”  “ I love you.  
That’s the special occasion.”  “ Oh you’re such a dear. Where are we going? “  “ I’ll surprise you.”
   The phone had rung. I picked it up.
   “ Hello. Yes. I’m on my way,” I said. “ What’s that all about, Fred?”  “ That was N.A.S.A. calling. They want me to come in.”  “ Oh no. Not now ”  “ I know,honey,but they’re sending a car over as we speak, but I promised, when I get back, we’ll go on that date,ok?”
   There was a knock at the door. I opened it. There were two military police officers waiting to escort me to headquarters. My wife ran over to kiss me. “ Sir, we have to go,”  said an MP, so I left with them. “What’s the hurry?” I asked. “ It’s top secret, sir.”
    I knew then that it was no use in asking any more questions.

   The spaceship came out of the black hole and the computer had woke up Fred from his hypo-sleep. “ Wow, what a dream. That sleep chamber really puts you under. I thought I was really at home. What a contraption. It really do work.”
   I rose from the chamber, and took a deep stretch. “ Boy that feels good. I feel like I could have an elephant walk on my back.”
   I walked over to the console to look at the viewing screen. “ There she is. Mars. But something’s not right. There’s a satellite orbiting the planet, but how. Mars isn’t suppose to be inhabited. There’s no life on Mars.”
   I took over the controls. “ I better call N.A.S.A.to let them know what’s out here.

  “ Galaxy one calling N.A.S.A. Galaxy One Calling N.A.S.A. “
  My channel was open for a response. “ Who are you, and what do you want?” the voice had asked . “ This is Galaxy One,N.A.S.A. I’m reporting in.”  “ Look, I don’t know who you are, but this is a no fly zone. We all agreed on the treaty, and if you violate that treaty we will shoot you down. Now what is your com-pass?”  asked the voice.  “ I need help. I’m so confused. Please help me. I came from earth six months ago. I was sent on a mission to take pictures of Mars.”  “ I don’t know what you are talking about. Earth was destroyed two thousand years ago. What year did you say you left Earth?”  “ I left in 2017.”  “ This is the year 40,021. Show yourself on your viewing screen.” said the voice.
   I opened up the viewing screen, and saw for the first time what a Martian looked liked.“ I can see you now. Yes, we do have pictures of humans that looks like you in our museum. We mated with your kind thousands of years ago, until there were no more humans left. Only a cross between human, and Martian. We are the new pure race. I will bring you down, and put you in our zoo, and then add you as a special attraction. Don’t worry, I’ll place you right next to the Saturn species. We needed to fill in that space before our grand opening. So sit back and relax. You belong to us now.” said the voice.
“Nooooo! “ cried Fred

                                                                                                                The End
                                                                                                                     By
                                                                                                         Kevin Doy Burton




 



   
                                                               Chapter Two

    Have you ever rode through a desert, and thought you saw a town, but later realizes that it was your imagination? What if it wasn’t? Jerrod, the leader of a motorcycle club called The Rockets is about to enter a town called Welcome, where the residents of the town are all so friendly, during the day time…..

                                                    A Town Called Welcome

   The Rockets were cruising down route 66. There were about twenty five members in the gang. They pulled up into a gas station. The gas station attendant was nervous because of all the motorcycles roaring in. Sounded like thunder. One by one, they filled up their tanks, while their leader walked into the station. “ Hey,is anyone here?” yelled Jerrod.
“ Yes sir,” said the attendant, rising from behind a counter.  “ Look,little man. Do you sell any beer here?”  “ Yes sir. Over in the far refrigerator,” said the attendant, nervously.
  Jerrod walked over to the refrigerator, and opened the door. He took out two cases. One of the other members of the gang came inside of the store. “ Hey,Jerrod.Where are you?” he asked.
  “ I’m over here. Get some of the boys in here to help carry this beer,” said Jerrod. “ Ok,Jerrod. I’ll be right back.”  “ Hey. Put this on my tab. You have any maps?”
“ Yes. They’re on the stand. Over there.” said the attendant.  Jerrod opened up the map to see where they were at. He pointed to a spot where they could hold up. “ Ok,I’ll take this map. Tab me.”  Jerrod left the store. “ Lets go,” he said.
   They all started up their bikes,and like a roar of thunder,they rode off. Several miles down the road, Jerrod,who was in front,had turned off the road. He was followed by the rest of his gang. They road into a rocky canyon,where they could camp overnight. The girls that were riding on the back of their bikes had started dancing to the music that was playing. The beer was thrown towards each of the men by Jerrod. They all dranked and partied.
    Jerrod opened up the map. “ Mike, come over here,” he said. Mike was Jerrod’s right hand man. “ Look at this map. According to it, L.A. is about 100 miles away. This is going to be a straight shot from here, so party up. We leave at eight in the morning.”
“ I noticed on the map that there’s no more towns to visit. That sun is sure going to be hot on our backs,” said Mike.  “ We’ve done this many of times, Mike. Do you remember the last town we visited? I know they will remember us. Especially the women,” said Jerrod.
“ I believe that some of them will be carrying babies by us in nine months,” said Mike.
“ Hey Mike. Who’s your daddy ?” asked Jerrod, as they both laughed. They each had grabbed a girl, and started dancing.
   Several hours later…… “ Ok get up,” yelled Jerrod. They all rose from a drunken slumber. They staggered, but finally they had pulled themselves together. Once the girls were comfortably seated, they headed for the road. They roared down route 66.
   About thirty miles down the road, Jerrod had pulled off. The rest had followed. He finally had stopped. After he had gotten off of his bike, he stared off into the distance.
“ Hey Jerrod. What gives?” asked Mike. “ Look over there. What do you see? “
   Massie got off the back of her bike. “ Why did we stop, and what are you two looking at?” she asked.  The rest of the crew got off of their bikes, and walked over to where Jerrod was standing. “ What gives,boss?”asked Crank. “ Everyone, look over there. What do you see?” asked Jerrod. They all looked. “ Is that a mirage?” asked Tony “ Why? What do you see?” asked Jerrod. “ I don’t know about you, but to me, it looks like a town,” said Eric. “ Do the rest of you see that too?” asked Jerrod. “ I can see it,” said Massie.
   Jerrod took out the map to look at it again. “ What’s the matter,Jerrod?”asked Mike.
“ That town is not on this map,” said Jerrod. “ How old is the map?” asked Mike. “ Five years old,” said Jerrod. “ Then that explains it.” said Mike. “ Explains what?” asked Jerrod. “ With our technology, a town can be built in less time than that.” said Mike.
“ A whole town?” asked Jerrod. “ I believe so,” said Mike. “ Ok,then that’s where we’re going,” said Jerrod. They all got back on their motorcycles, and drove off.
  About thirty minutes later they slowed down to read the sign. (Welcome) “ Is that the name of this town? “ asked Jerrod. “ It sounds like an invitation,” said Mike. “ Well, lets not let them down,” said Jerrod. They all drove off in the direction of a town called, Welcome.
   The people in the town were going on with their daily lives. They all stopped to look in the direction of the thunderous sound. What they all saw were machines coming from out in the desert. Driven by people. Then they went on with their daily routine.
   The Rockets road through the town, doing wheelies, and racing with each other. They were surprised to see that none of the towns people were interested in what they were doing. They parked their bikes near a bar, got off and stormed in. “ Bartender?  Set-em up for my boys,” said Jerrod.
   The rest of the Rockets were pushing people out of their chairs. “ You don’t have to be so rough. I would’ve given up my chair to you if you had just asked.” said the stranger.
“ But I didn’t,” said Eric, as he grabbed the stranger by his collar, showing his tattoos on both sides of his arms. Eric’s tattoos had a hoola girl on both arms, with rings on their bellies. “ Look mister. I’m just a blacksmith. I don’t want no trouble.” he said.  “ Then get out of here.” said Eric.
   The blacksmith ran out of the bar, while the Rockets all laughed. The rest of the customers had left the bar also. Only the Rockets were left enjoying themselves. “ Are you going to pay the bill?” asked the bartender. “ Put it on my tab,” said Jerrod.
“ Mike reached over the bar, and grabbed the bartender. “ You don’t asked my friend here, if he’s going to pay. You just keep pouring.” he said, as he showed his silver grilled teeth.
   The bartender grinned also, showing his missing front teeth. “ Why are you grinning? What’s so funny ? Do you think I’m funny?” asked Mike. The bartender just kept on grinning. Mike poured some beer over the bartender’s head, and popped him on top of it. Go on. Get out of here,” he said. The bartender ran out of the bar. They all dranked until they had passed out. Soon it was dark, and all of the lights went out. “ Hey,what gives?” asked Jerrod.
    They all left the bar, and went out into the street. There’s no lights on, anywhere,” said Mike. “ Anyone have a flashlight?” asked Jerrod. “ I have one on my bike, if only I could see where my bike is,” said Massie. “ There’s no moon out tonight. Lets go back into the bar, and crash until daylight. I believe the bars over here,” said Jerrod. “ They started walking. They kept on bumping into each other. “ I can’t find the door. Can anyone find the door?” asked Jerrod. “ I can’t see my hands in front of my face,” said Drone.“ Neither can we,” the rest had said. “ Ok,listen up. Are we all up against the wall?” asked Jerrod.
“ Yea,” they all said. “ Then we crash here until daylight. Up against the wall,” said Jerrod. They all sat down on the ground, up against the wall, and fell asleep.
   Several hours later daylight had come. They all woke up kind of groggy. The bar was ten feet away from them. They got up, and went inside. There was the bartender serving drinks to the blacksmith, and some of the other customers. “ Hey Mike. Where are you?” asked Jerrod. “ I don’t see Eric either,” said Massie. They all looked around. Mike, and Eric were missing. “ Someone go outside, and find them, and tell them that we are back inside of the bar,” said Jerrod. “ I’ll go,” said Crank.
   Jerrod looked at the bartender. “ Pour everyone a drink, and put it on my tab,” he said.
The bartender grinned at Jerrod, while pouring the drinks into the glasses. Jerrod looked at the bartender’s teeth, and saw that they had been grilled. “ I could’ve sworn that you didn’t have any front teeth,” he said. “ I’ve always had my teeth,” said the bartender.
   Jerrod turned his head to see that the blacksmith was sitting next to him, having himself a drink. The blacksmith was wearing a short sleeve shirt, exposing his tattooed arms. On his arms were hoola girls with rings on their belly buttons. Jerrod grabbed the blacksmith’s arm. “ Where did you get those tattoos?”  “ I’ve always had these tattoos,” said the blacksmith.
   Crank ran back inside of the bar. “ Hey boss. I called out to them both, and they didn’t answer. What do you want me to do?” “ Ok everyone. We have two people missing. I want you to go outside, and asked everyone if they had seen them. Check the stores. The hotels. The restaurants. Look everywhere. We’re not leaving here until we find them,” said Jerrod.
   Everyone left the bar, and scattered around town. “ Massie had a black patch on her right eye, from a fight she was in before. She went inside of a donut shop. “ Hey you. Have you seen any guys with leather jackets on, come in here?” “ Know. Would you like some donuts?” she asked.
 “ Massie grabbed the cashier by her neck. If I wanted any donuts I would take them,” she said.
  Massie was three hundred pounds of all woman, and she could hold her own. The cashier was one hundred pounds. Massie went back to the bar. “ Hey boss. I went over to the donut shop, down the street, and the cashier said that they never came inside,” “ You wait here until the rest of the gang show up. When they get here, tell them I said to wait here until I get back,” “ Ok boss,” said Massie.
   Jerrod left the bar to search on his own. He went down the street. He went around the corners. He knocked on doors, and finally he decided to go to the donut shop, on his way back. He went inside. There was a cashier wiping the counters. “ Would you like some donuts?” she asked.
  He looked at her, and saw that she was wearing a black patch over her right eye. “ No. I don’t want any donuts,”he said. He left the shop. Ran down the street, and back into the bar shouting “ Massie,Massie,” The rest of the gang looked around. “ Massie’s not here,” said Crank. “ I told her not to go anywhere, until I get back. Now I’m missing more people. Go out there and search for them, and as soon as you find them, we’re leaving this God forsaken town. There’s something wrong here. Be back here before dark, or you’ll get lost out there,” said Jerrod. “ Ok boss,” they all  said. “ I’ll wait right here until you all come back, just in case it gets dark out there. You will be able to follow my voice. You hear?” asked Jerrod.  “ We hear you boss,” they all said, and they left the bar.The bartender, and Jerrod were the only ones in the bar. “ Pour me a drink, and put it on my tab.”
    The bartender poured Jerrod a drink, and another, and another. Soon Jerrod was passed out. Darkness came, and then daylight. Jerrod woke up to see that the bar was full of patrons. Everyone were nonchalant while drinking. “ Hey bartender. Did you see my boys?” asked Jerrod. Jerrod had a long scar on the side of his face from a knife fight he was in. He had killed the other person. “ I’m going out to find my boys. Pour me a drink, and put it on my tab,” he said. “ Your tab has ran out,” said the bartender. “ Are you crazy?”
   Everyone started standing up from their tables, and turning towards Jerrod. They started removing their garments, showing parts of the Rockets bodies. They blocked the door so Jerrod could not run out. He ran around the bar, but they had closed in on him. He screamed. They were on top of him. He made the most horrible sound. Darkness fell, and then daylight had come around. The bartender was serving drinks as usual. Everyone was having a drink, casually. The bartender started grinning with his grilled teeth, and a long scar on the side of his face.
   As we soar above the town, you can see that the town has a quarry in the back of it. Inside of the quarry were thousands of motorcycles piled on top of each other. On top of the motorcycles were thousands of bodies, with parts of them missing, and as we soar further away from the town, you can see a sign that reads …(Welcome). But there was red paint on the bottom half of the sign. Underneath the paint it read…. To Hell.


                                                                                                                     The End
                                                                                                                          By
                                                                                                              Kevin Doy Burton









                                                             Chapter Three


   Three quarter of this planet is water. There are a lot of strange phenomenons happening under our oceans on a daily bases. It is not our concern. We are only concerned with what is happening on our land, and in the skies. But what if visitors from the skies take refuge under our oceans. How will we know. In the case of Bill, and Janet who decided to sail the ocean, in their forty foot yacht, with Fred, and Alice. This is their story…..


                                                                   Vortex

   Night falls, and a strange spaceship comes out of the sky, and dives into the ocean. It settles at the bottom. A light immerges from the top of it. There’s no full moon out, therefore it was not noticed. It was able to avoid our radar.
    Daylight arrives. Bill and his wife Janet are settling on the boat, while Fred ,and his wife are unpacking their clothes down below. “ Janet, did you bring the seasoning for the fish we’re going to catch, and cook?”  “ Yes Bill. I told you I wouldn’t forget it.”  “ I know. I just had to ask,”  “ Bill, where do you want us to put our equipment?” asked Fred.
“ There’s a compartment underneath the bed. You can store your equipment there,”
  Janet went down below.” Is everyone ok down here?” she asked. “ Oh Janet. This is going to be just the trip we’ve been waiting for. We should’ve done this a long time ago,” said Alice. “ I know. Just because we’re sisters doesn’t mean that we should stay apart from each other.“  “ Yea, I know. It’s good that our husbands were able to arrange vacation time on their jobs for us. Especially since one is a doctor, and the other one is a cop.”
   Fred went up on top of the deck to meet Bill. “ Hey buddy. Ready to cast off ?”  “ As soon as you can untie those ropes from the pier,” said Bill. “ You got it,”  Fred jumped off of the boat to untie the ropes. He tossed them to Bill, who caught them, then Fred climbed back on board. “ Ok,my friend,” he said.
  They both walked towards the bow of the ship. Bill took the wheel, and started up the motor. The boat coasted out into the sea. He then sped up faster, until he was at least a mile off shore. He stopped the motor. Lets raise the sails and let the wind do the rest,” said Bill. “ Ok,Mate,” said Fred.
  The sails were hoisted upwards, and the wind did the rest. The girls came up topside to join their husbands. After about two hours later you couldn’t see the shoreline. “ We might as well lower the sails, and anchor off here,” said Bill. Bill lowered the anchor into the water, while Fred lowered the sails. “ Ok,break out the fishing rods,” said Bill.
   The wives brought up the fishing gear for their husbands. “ I’ll make some sandwiches for everyone,” said Janet. “ I’ll help,” said Alice. The men cast their lines into the water.
“ You know Bill. This is the life,” said Fred. “ I know. We should do this once a year.”
“ It’s so peaceful out here. Just being away from all of that crime. I even forgot that i’m a cop.”
“ When ever I’m out here I let go of me being a doctor. It feels good just being an ordinary person.”
   The wives brought up the sandwiches, and the beer. “ At least DNR can’t spot us this far out,” said Fred. “ Yea,that’s the beauty of it,” said Bill. The wives sat down on the chairs, and started playing cards. It started getting dark.” I’ll turn on the lights,” said Janet.
   Janet hit the switch, and the lights had turned on. The boat was brightly lit. “ This looks beautiful, Janet,” said Alice. The sun had went down. You couldn’t even see the water.
” Hey I got a bite. It feels like a big one,” said Fred. “ Pull it in, Fred,” said Bill. “ I’m trying,” “ Put your pole into the holder that’s on the front of the boat, and we’ll try to hoist it in together,” said Bill.
   Fred had given the line some slack so he could walk over and place it into the holder. The rod was secured. The line had stiffened up, and the boat was being pulled. “ This must be a whale. It’s the only thing that can pull this size of a boat,” said Fred. The wives walked over to the side of the boat. “ What’s that?” asked Janet. They all looked into the water. There was a light under the water that was moving towards the front of the boat. It went further ahead. “ What’s causing that?” asked Alice. “ I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Bill. “ Neither had I ,” said Fred. “ What’s it doing?” asked Fred.
  The light started spinning around. Faster, and faster. The water started swirling around.
“ Lets get out of here,” said Alice. The water started rising, only it wasn’t rising normally. It started forming a vertical circle of water, like a vortex, and the boat was being pulled inside of it. “ I can’t break away from it,” said Bill. “ You got to ,Bill,” said Fred.“ We’re going towards the circle,” said Fred. “ I know that, and I can’t turn it around,” said Bill.
   The vortex was right upon them. “ Ok, we’re going in,” said Fred. “ Girls, go downstairs, and hold on to something,” said Bill. Janet, and Alice ran downstairs, and held on to the railing that surrounded the boat. Bill, and Fred was preparing themselves for the impact. “ Here we go, Fred. Hold on to something,” said Bill.
   The boat started spinning around the vortex. As it came closer, it started spinning faster.
“ I can’t hold on,” said Fred. Bill grabbed Fred, and tied his belt around his waist, and the railing. The vortex was upon them.” We’re going in. Fred, hold on tight,” said Bill. Fred held on tight, and then they were all inside of the vortex. As soon as they were inside of it, the vortex was gone, and the water was calm again. “ What just happened?” asked Bill.
“ I don’t know. I’ve never encounter anything like that before,” said Fred. “ I’ll go check on our wives. Hold on to this wheel, Fred,”
  Bill went downstairs to check on Janet, and Alice. “ Is everyone ok?”he asked. “ We’re fine here. What happened up there?” asked Alice. “ We’re trying to figure that out ourselves,” said Bill. “ Is Fred alright?”asked Alice. “ Fred’s fine. He’s holding on to the wheel. You can come up topside if you like,”  “ I do like,” said Janet. “ Me too,” said Alice.
  They all went up topside to join Fred. “ Is there rain in the forecast?” asked Fred. “ No, why,” asked Alice. “ Because, the sky looks kind of strange, that’s all,” said Alice.
“ Strange ,like how?” asked Bill. “ Look at it. The clouds are not right,” said Alice. Bill looked up at the sky, and so did the rest of them. The sky was clear except it looked kind of wavy. Behind them the liquid vortex was dwindling into a mist. Then it was just a light fog. “ There’s fog all around us, except in that direction,” said Fred. “ The ships compass is not pointing anywhere. It’s just going around in circles,” said Bill. “ So, I guess we’re lost,” said Janet. “ We can’t even navigate by the stars, since they’re not there anymore,” said Alice. “ Hey Bill. Do you have any binoculars?” asked Fred. “ Yes, why?” “ What do you see straight ahead?” “ I can’t make it out. It looks like some kind of shoreline. I’ll go get the binoculars,”
   Bill went down below to find the binoculars, while the rest of the crew stared out over the bow of the boat, trying to make out, if what they were seeing was indeed a shoreline.
“ Ok, I ‘ve got them,” said Bill. Bill put the binoculars in front of his eyes to take a look. “ Fred, you’ve got to see this,” he said. “ What did you see?” asked Fred  “ Look for yourself,” said Bill.
   Fred put the binoculars in front of his eyes. “ That is a shoreline, but there’s no island out here,” he said. “ An island?” asked Janet. “ That’s what it looks like,” said Bill. “ Let me have a look,” said Alice. “ My God,Janet.You’ve got to see this,” she said. Alice handed over the binoculars to Janet. “ There is an island out there. How could we have missed it?” she asked. “ We didn’t miss it. It’s not suppose to be out here,” said Bill.
“ I’ve read somewhere that a volcano can rise out of the ocean at anytime,” said Fred.
“ Well maybe so, but Janet and I were just here last year, and there was no sign of any volcanic activity going on,” said Bill. “ Well, I suggest we go and investigate it,” said Fred. “ Just like a cop for a husband. Always sticking his nose into something that might one day kill him,” said Alice. “ That’s what I’ve been trained for honey. That’s why I’m a detective. If something strange is going on, I should detect it,ok? “ “ Hey,hey.There’s no reason to argue with each other about it. We’re on a vacation. I agree with Fred. Lets investigate it. We’ll call it an adventure that we didn’t plan on , but we went on it anyway,ok?” asked Janet  “ You’re sure about this ,honey?” asked Bill. “ As sure as I want to be, dear,” she said. “ How about you,Alice?”asked Janet. “ Well, if you all are so set on seeing this thing, then I guess I’m in,” she said. “ I love you, babe,” said Fred.
“ Yea,alright,” said Alice. “ Ok,I’ll start up the motor,” said Bill. Bill started up the motor, and headed for the island.
   At about one hundred yards away….. “ Will you look at that thing. It reaches all the
way up through that fog. You can’t even see the top part of it. I suggest that we drop anchor here, take out the dinghy, and inflate it. Then peddle our way there from here,” said Bill. “ I agree. I’ll bring it over,” said Fred.
   Fred brought over the dinghy, and inflated it. He and Bill tossed it overboard, while holding on to the rope. Bill climbed down to steady it for the ladies to climb in. After Janet, and Alice had climbed in, Fred had tossed the life jackets down to them. “ You better put these on,” he said.
   Fred put on his life jacket, then climbed down into the dinghy.” Are we all ready?” asked Bill. They all said that they were ready. “ Here’s a pair of paddles for you Fred,” said Bill.
   A short while later, they were on the shore. They stepped out of the dinghy, and turned around to look at the ocean. “ This is all so strange to me,” said Alice. “ Yea,look at that ocean. It looks different. Like from a dream,” said Janet. “ I can’t get over at the way the sky looks,” said Fred. “ Hey look over here,” said Bill. They all turned around to look at what Bill was pointing at. It was a cave. “ I don’t see anything else out here. I suggest that we go inside,” said Fred. “ What if there’s a bear in there?” asked Alice. “ How could bears get out here, Alice?” said Janet. “ Well, suppose something alive is inside of there?” asked Alice.
   Fred reached into the back of his pants, and pulled out his cop gun. If something is inside of there, we won’t be defenseless against it,” he said. “ Gee, Fred. We’re supposed to be on a vacation,” said Bill. “ A lot of strange things can happen while people are on vacations,” said Fred. “ Lets go then,” said Bill.
   They all walked inside of the cave. Once inside….” Do anyone have a flashlight?” asked Fred. “ I have a lighter,” said Bill. “ Good, we can use that so we don’t trip over anything,” said Fred. “ The cave leads into a corridor, and it’s going down,” said Janet.
The lighter started getting hot. “ Ow! That’s it. There’s no more light. Wait a minute.
“ There’s light coming from somewhere over there,” said Bill.
   They walked over to where the light was coming from. They were at the edge of an opening.
“ My God! What is it?” asked Janet. “ It looks like a city. A whole city, and look at the people. It looks like it’s right out of a science fiction movie,” said Fred.
“ Those aren’t people. Lets get out of here,” said Alice. Alice ran back into the cave. She was followed by the rest of them. When they came out at the other end, they couldn’t find the dinghy. “ What happened to the dinghy?” asked Janet. “ What happened to my boat?” asked Bill. “ We’re stranded on this island, and with those monsters,” said Alice.“ Look around for the dinghy. It must‘ve drifted with the current,” said Fred.
   They all walked around the edge of the mountain. “This is a dead end,” said Bill. “ Here too,” said Fred. “It’s as though someone wanted us to stay here,” said Janet. “ Someone? You mean like those things in there?” asked Alice. “ I’m just being realistic. It’s the author in me,” said Janet. “ Well, someone took the boat for a reason. I’m beginning to believe that Janet is right,” said Fred. “ There’s no reason to be afraid,” said a voice from behind.
   They all turned around to see a skinny seven foot man standing in front of the cave. He was wearing a white robe, and sandals. “ Who are you ?” asked Fred.
“ I am Ishtar?”  “ What do you want with us?” asked Bill. “ Only to show you something, and to let you take with you a message,” he said. “ What is the message,” asked Janet.
“ First, I must show you what you’ve been denying for so long,” said Ishtar. “ Then will you let us go home?” asked Alice. “ I will send you on your way,” said Ishtar.
   Ishtar turned and walked inside of the cave. He was followed by the rest of them. Once they had arrived at the edge, Ishtar had disappeared. “ Where did he go?” asked Janet.
“ There he is,” said Bill.
   Ishtar had turned to walk down the edge of the mountain. Apparently there was a passage way that goes downward. They all walked the path that Ishtar had taken, and were soon at the bottom of the mountain. Ishtar was waiting. “ If you would follow me,” said Ishtar.
   They walked into the city.” Some of the people you see here have been here for thousands of years. Here, time does not exist. There is but one purpose, and that is to maintain each culture. We’ve tried to make ourselves known to you, but you act like we are not here. Take a look around. What do you see?” All kinds of people, living together. They are from different planets, and from different galaxies. They are your neighbors,” said Ishtar. “ Ishtar, my people are not ready to meet visitors from another world,” said Fred. “ Your world is going to face it’s own doom in two years, and we will live on top as the new species. Your people are so worried about us taking over the planet, they just choose to ignore our existence,” said Ishtar. “ Ishtar? What’s wrong with the sky?” asked Alice. “ This city was built under water and as you can see, an energy field is holding it all up in place,” “ Do you mean we are under water, and the ceiling over my head is the water?” asked Fred.
  Just then ,a little gray creature had walked up to Ishtar. “ Ishtar, some of the mothers are getting tired of nurturing the children, and the half-breeds are getting restless,” he said.
“ Come, follow me into the nurturing center,” said Ishtar. They all walked into a large stone building. Inside were thousands of babies being nurtured by half-breed women, human women, alien women. “ A lot of the helpers came from different time periods,” said Ishtar. “ You mean you can manipulate time?” asked Fred. “ Yes. I can go back into your planets time period, and take back people who are only seconds away from dying, and bring them back here. Therefore, a paradox would not start,” said Ishtar.
“ How long have you been here?” asked Alice. “ Since the dawn of mankind,” said Ishtar.
“ Wow, were you here when the dinosaurs roamed the land?” asked Bill. “ Yes, I’ve transported a lot of them to other worlds ,where they could survive. Man, and beast in that time period could not live side, by side. Mankind would loose.,” said Ishtar. “ What message do you want us to deliver to mankind?” asked Janet. “ Asked for our help. Admit to our existence. Ask for us to appear, and we will come with open arms. We can save your planet, and help you to grow. Be willing to except us as neighbors,” said Ishtar.“ But our people will not listen to us, if we start talking about you,” said Bill. “ You have to try. You see, we can’t interfere, but if you invite us into your home, we will see that you will prosper,” said Ishtar. “ Ishtar, what if our people won’t listen to us. Then what?” “ Your planet will be doomed in two years. “ Well, how can we get back. I don’t even know how we got here,” said Bill. “ The boat is gone too,” said  Fred. “ Your boat is waiting,” said Ishtar. “ How can we find you if we get the right answer?” asked Alice. “ Ask your leaders to announce it on your broadcast stations. Then we’ll come,” “ I guess we better go,” said Janet.  “ Yes, you should go. I’ll pave the way for you to return home,” said Ishtar.
   They all left through the cave, and was out through the other end.” Hey,there’s the boat, and there’s the dinghy,” said Bill. They all ran to the dinghy. Got inside, and peddled their way back to the boat. Once inside Bill started up the motor, and they left towards the open sea. “ There’s only one direction to go. The direction where there’s no fog. That’s the only direction where I can see open water,” said Bill. “ I’m for that,” said Fred.
  They headed for the open fog that led to the open sea. “ I’m steering straight ahead,” said Bill. “ Go ahead honey. Lets get out of here,” said Janet.  A few miles out, the water began to swirl again. “ Hold on tight. Here we go again,” said Bill. The water started to rise, and form a circular vortex that pulled them through. Once through the vortex the water was calm again. They looked back, and there was no more island, or fog. The sun came out. Bill checked his compass. “ My compass is working again. I can take us home,” said Bill. “ So Bill, what do you make of that?” asked Fred. “ That’s just it. Were we asleep, or did what we see really happened?” asked Bill. “ We couldn’t have dreamed the same dream, could we?” asked Janet. “ Maybe we were  suffering from mass hallucinations,” said Alice. “ Look, all I know is, if we go and try to tell important people about what we had seen, we are going to be placed inside of a mental hospital,” said Bill.
“ You heard what Ishtar had warned us about. Are you going to stand by and let it happen?” asked Janet. “ Look, he said the world will be doomed in two years. Maybe things can change on their own. Plus,I’m a cop. I have a career to think about,” said Fred.
“ Do we all agree that nothing will be said about all of this?” asked Bill. “ I agree,” said Fred. “ Yea,me too,” said Alice. “ I agree also,” said Janet. “ Good, right now I just want to go home and take a hot bath,” said Alice. “ Ok,home it is,” said Bill.
   Two years later Bill,Janet,Fred,and Alice met on the dock. “ Well, here we are again. I’m glad we decided to go on another fishing trip,” said Bill. “ Yea,lets cast off,” said Fred. They all sailed out into the open sea. “ The sun is just right for fishing,” said Fred.“ What’s that up above us?” asked Fred. “ They’re planes. Jet planes. Over fifty of them. Where are they going?” asked Janet. “  Bring up the radio so we can hear what’s going on.,” said Bill.
    Janet ran down to the bottom of the boat. She grabbed the portable radio, and brought it up top. “ I have it,” she  said. She turned it on. They all listened.  “  There are sixteen nuclear missiles heading towards the United States. I was told to tell you to go to your nearest bomb shelter. The United States had retaliated, by launching nuclear missiles of our own. This is it America. I’m signing off,” said the announcer,” “ I don’t believe this. Ishtar was right,” said Bill. “ I don’t want to die, Bill,” said Janet.
   Alice had placed her head on her Lapp, and cried, while Fred held on to her. The water started swirling around, and a liquid vortex started to form. “ Look, It’s happening again,” said Janet. They all looked up to see the giant vortex forming. They were being pulled in, then suddenly a loud explosion, and a bright light had appeared from behind them. They turned around to see the buildings crumbling around the mushroom cloud. The shockwave was coming towards them, along with a huge tsunami, but by then they were through the vortex. Everything had disappeared. The sea was calm again. “ Did you see that?” asked Alice. “ We all saw it, Alice. Ishtar was right. If only we had tried to do what he had asked. Look, the island. It’s straight ahead,” said Bill. “ We’re save,” said Janet.
“ Come on, Bill. Speed this boat up. We’re going to our new home,” said Fred. “ We’ll get to know our new neighbors,” said Janet.
   They anchored the boat, jumped into the dinghy, and peddled back to the island. “ I can see the cave,” said Fred. “ I have the flashlight, said Alice. “ Lets go, “said Bill.
“ I’m right behind you, baby,” said Janet. They all ran inside of the cave. “ It’s this way,” said Fred. They kept on running.” Wait a minute,” said Bill.  “ What’s the matter?” asked Janet. “ Something’s not right,” “ What’s not right,” asked Fred. “ There’s suppose to be a blue light ,right about now,” said Bill. “ You’re right. The edge of the cave should be right about here,” said Fred. “ Hand me the flashlight ,Janet,” said Bill. Janet handed Bill the flashlight, and Bill shined it straight down the opening of the cave. “ There’s nothing down there,” he said. “ What do you mean, there’s nothing down there. They got to be down there,” said Fred. “ Let me see. You all are not looking in the right place,” said Janet. “ They’re here. They got to be here. Otherwise, who sent the vortex,” asked Alice.
“ The battery power was dying out. Lets get out of this cave before the battery is
completely out ,” said Bill.
   They ran out of the cave. “ What will we do now? We’re stranded without food or water,” said Alice. “ There’s food on the boat. It can last us for at least a week. Maybe something will happen by then,” said Bill. “ What’s that out there?” asked Janet.They looked straight ahead, and then upward. That’s when they all started screaming. The liquid ceiling was coming down around them. It started out by where the vortex had appeared. The wall was getting closer, and soon it was upon them. Their screams were suddenly muffled, and they were crushed from the pressure of millions of tons of water.


                                                                                                                    The End
                                                                                                                          By
                                                                                                              Kevin Doy Burton














                                                             Chapter Four


  It is my belief that the word schizophrenia is used too loosely by doctors who only believe in facts. That term is placed on millions of people who don’t fit into the realm of reality,but what about the unseen who is trying to reach out. This is a story about Patricia who’s trying to understand the normality of others…..

                                                           Schizophrenia

   Patricia was just leaving the grocery store, and walking to her car. She tries to open the door to the car, but finds it difficult while holding a bag of groceries in her other arm. She tries to open her purse, all the while fussing about not getting a shopping cart. “ Hey, it looks like you need a helping hand. I’m Derrick. Let me hold that bag,”  “ Thanks Derrick, but I can manage alone,”   “ Oh come on. I promise you that I won’t bite,”
“ Well,ok. If you could just hold this bag while I get my keys out of my purse, I would appreciated it,”  “ No problem,”
   Patricia handed over her bag of groceries to Derrick, while she dug into her purse to find her keys. “ Got them,” she said. She opened up her car door, and walked around to the back of the car where the trunk was located. She opened up the trunk of the car. “ You can put them in here,” she said. Derrick did as he was told. “ Thanks for your help,”
“ No problem. So what’s your name?” asked Derrick. Patricia walked around to the side of her car, and got inside. “ Come on at least give me your name,” said Derrick.
   Patricia started up her car, and began to drive off, but just before she took off, she yelled out her name,” Patricia,”  Then she left. “ I hope I get to see you again,” yelled Derrick. Patricia drove home. When she parked her car inside of the garage, she got her groceries out of the trunk, and went inside of her house. “ Mother, I’m back. I got the cold cream you wanted, and a few other things,”  “ Good, Pat. I’ll start cooking in a few minutes. Did you see anything interesting at the store?”  “ Actually, I did. I met this cute boy. He helped me with my groceries,” “ So, what’s his name?” “ He said that his name was Derrick,”  “ Do you think that you will see him again?”  “ I don’t think so. He just happened to be in the parking lot,”  “ Well, you better go upstairs and find something to wear for school tomorrow. This is your first day in college you know,”  “ Oh mother. You still treat me as though I’m ten years old,”  “ I can’t help it. Ever since your father died over seas I grew so dependent on you,”  “ That’s alright mother. I missed dad too. I’ll go upstairs and get my clothes together,ok?”  “ Ok,dear,”
   The next morning Patricia had kissed her mother goodbye. “ Mother, I’ll see you when I get home from school,”  “ Have a good day, sweetheart,”  “ I will, mother,” Patricia got inside of her car, and drove off. When she parked her car in the school parking lot, she got out, and walked towards the school. “ Patricia? Is that you?” a voice had asked.
   She turned around. “ Do I know you?” she asked.  “ Yea. It’s me Derrick. We met at the grocery store parking lot. I helped you with your bags, remember?”  “ Now I remember. Do you go to this school?”  “ Yes. I’m a junior. I’m on the football team here,”  “ Oh,so you’re a jock.”  “ Yea.I guess I am at that. Hey how about I walk with you. I can show you any place you want to go,”  “ Ok. I guess I will need the help, since I’m new here,”
“ Good. Right now I bet you want to go to the admissions department,”  “ Yes, I do. How did you know?”  “ That’s the first place you would have to go if you want to know what your classes are,”  “ You’re right about that. So where is it?”  “ I’ll take you to it,”
“Thanks Derrick. Your so helpful,”  “ Don’t mention it. Come on,”
   Derrick took Patricia to the admissions office. I’ll wait out here while you go inside.”
“ Don’t you have a class to go to? ” “ Not till later. I’m sort of killing time. Anyway, I would like to show you how to get to your other classes. You know. Like a tour.” “ Well, if you’re sure it’s know bother,” “ No bother at all. I’ll be right here.” “ Ok.”
   Patricia went inside to get her assigned classes. When she left the admission office, Derrick was right where he said he would be. “ Hey Patricia. There’s a game tonight. Will you come and see it? I would love to pick you up, and take you there. It would be a great time to meet all the other kids. Plus, I’m the quarterback.” “ You’re the quarterback? “
“ Yes. So what will you say?” “ Well,ok,”  “ I’ll pick you up at, lets say 7:00PM?” “ That sounds fine to me,”  “ So what’s your address?”
   Patricia gave Derrick her address, and Derrick walked her to all of  her classes. That night. Derrick came by Patricia’s house to pick her up, and to take her to the game. They
had a good time. Patricia got a chance to meet all of the other girls. They all envied her for going out with the school quarterback, and captain of the football team. She didn’t know that Derrick was also a captain, but she did feel the envies from the other girls. She loved it. They all want Patricia to attend their parties, and she did.
   A few days later, Derrick asked her to wear his pin, and to be his girl. She excepted it, and Derrick had kissed her. They went on several dates together. Patricia was so happy.
   She decided to ask Derrick to come over to her house to meet her mother. “ I’ll be happy to meet your mother, Patricia. What time do you want me to come over?”
“ How about 4:00 PM. I would like for you to try out my cooking,”  “ I would love that,”
“ Derrick, you’ve never told me where you lived,”  “ Really, here. I’ll write it down for you, and you can keep it in your purse,”
   Derrick wrote down his address, and gave it to Patricia. Patricia kissed the paper, and placed it inside of her purse.” Well, I better go now, but I’ll be over your house this afternoon,”  “ I’ll be waiting,”  They both kissed, and Derrick left.
   Derrick arrived at his home. He let himself in. “ Is that you Derrick?”  “ Yes dad. It’s me,”  “ So how did it go at your doctors appointment,” “ It went fine, dad. He gave me another prescription to be filled out,” “ How many pills do you have left?” “ I have two, dad,” “ Oh,that won’t do at all. You go and eat, while I go to Walgreens to get that prescription filled. Your mother should be home any minute,” “ Ok,dad,”
   Derrick’s father left for Walgreens, while Derrick went into the kitchen to take his medication. His mother walked in. She saw Derrick with his medicine bottle in his hand.
“ Hi honey. What are you doing?” she asked.  “ I’m about to take my medicine, mother,”
“ Good ,Derrick. Where’s your father?”  “ He went out to get my prescription filled. I was going to take my medication with my meal. That’s what my doctor said for me to do,”
“ Well you go ahead and take your medication. You know how important it is for you,”
“ I know, mother.”
   Derrick took his medication out of the bottle, and placed it in his hand. He sat down at the table, took his medicine, and ate his food. “ Did you take your medicine sweetheart?”
“ Yes I did, mother,” “ What did the doctor do?” “ He did what he always do. Run test on me, and asked me questions,” “ So how do you feel now?” “ I feel like going to school,”
“ Now, you know what your psychiatrist said. School is not an option for you yet. You would have to slowly get back into the groove of things, right?” “ Right, mother. Mother, what time is it?” “ About 6 pm.Why?” “ Oh,nothing. I’m going to lie down now ,ok?”
“ That’s good,Derrick.Rest is what the doctor ordered,”
   Patricia was pacing her living room floor. She was angry. “ Patricia, you’re going to wear out that carpet,” “ Mom, he said that he was coming by. He should’ve called if he wasn’t coming. I hate him,” “ Oh no you don’t. Why don’t you call him. Maybe something’s wrong. Maybe he had an accident,” “ An accident. Mom, you don’t think that he’s hurt ,do you?” “ I should hope not. Why don’t you give him a call,”
“ I’ll do just that,”
   Patricia ran over to the phone to call Derrick. The phone kept on ringing. She hung up
the phone. “ Mom, I’m going over there. Derrick’s probably hurt, and can’t get to the phone,” “ Ok,dear,but be careful driving,” “ I will,”
   Patricia jumped into her car, and drove over to Derrick’s house. She parked, and got out. She then ran up to Derrick’s house, and ranged his doorbell. She kept on ringing, but no one answered. She walked around the side of the house to peek through the window. She saw Derrick’s mother ironing clothes. She then tapped on the window, but Derrick’s mother kept on ironing.” Why can’t she hear me. Do I have to break the window to get her attention?”
   Derrick came out of his room. Well, I’m back on my meds, mother,” “ Good Derrick. Now don’t try to take yourself off of those meds?” “ Ok,mother,” “ Derrick, will you open up those blinds for me?” “ Sure, mother,” “ Good he’s walking over towards this window. He’s opening up the blinds,”
   Patricia tapped on the window. Derrick, open the window. I want to talk to you,”
   Derrick turned around and walked away. “ I dare him look at me and just walk away. That’s alright. Just wait until I see him at school tomorrow,” Patricia left for home angry. She stormed inside, went upstairs, and went straight to bed. The next morning, she arrived at school. She went to Derrick’s class, and skipped her own. She peeked inside, but there was no Derrick. She tapped on the window. The teacher walked over to the door, and opened it. “ Can I help you miss,” “ I’m looking for Derrick,” “ Derrick didn’t show up for class today. I hope he isn’t sick,”
   Patricia left. “ Maybe he just skipped class, and is somewhere inside of this
building. Wait,I’ll asked the girls over there,” Patricia ran over to where the girls were talking at. “ Hey,have anyone seen Derrick?” “ No, we haven’t seen Derrick at all,” they said. Patricia decided to go back over to Derrick’s house. She parked her car. That’s when she saw Derrick, and his mother leaving the house. She parked in front of his house so he would notice her. She heard his mother talking to him. “ Now Derrick. I’m going to drive you to the doctor. You’re not driving while you are on medication, you hear?” “ I hear you mother,”
    “ So Derrick is sick. He didn’t even notice me at all. I know what I’ll do. I’ll follow them to the doctor. I want to know what’s wrong with my boyfriend. I must be with him in his time of need , or what kind of girlfriend am I ?”
   Patricia followed them to his doctor’s clinic. She jumped out of her car, but she stayed behind, so they wouldn’t think that she was spying on them. She watched them enter through the door. When they were out of sight, she ran up to the door, and waited until someone came out. When the next person came out, she walked into the clinic. She saw Derrick and his mother sitting down. When their names were called, they got up to follow the nurse inside. “ This is my chance. I’ll walk slowly behind them so they won’t get suspicious,”
    She saw them go inside of the doctor’s office. She ran towards the door to have a peek. When the nurse had walked them into the other room, she let herself inside. The nurse didn’t see her. She crept behind a wall devider,while the doctor,Derrick,and his mother’s back were turned. The nurse left the room. Now she could hear the whole conversation.
    The doctor started talking to Derrick. “ So Derrick, how are we feeling today? “ I feel fine doc,” “ I was told by your mother, that you tried to take yourself off of your medication,” “ It makes me feel funny, doctor,” “ Now we’ve talked about this before, Derrick. You know what happens if you stop taking your medicine, right?”  “ Yes, doctor,” “ What happened since the last time I saw you?” “ Nothing, doctor,”
“ Do you still feel like you’re the captain of the college football team?” “ No, doctor,”
“ Is there something else you’re not telling me? The only way this is going to help you is if you come out with it,” “ There’s this girl. Her name’s Patricia. I love her very much,”
“ Is there really a Patricia, or is she in your mind?” “ I know now that she was all in my mind,” “ So now what are you going to do about it?” “ I’ll just keep taking my medication,” “ Good Derrick. As long as you know that she is just a figment of your imagination, you will be fine. Even if you should see her again, what will you do?”
“ I will ignore her,” “ That did it. My boyfriend needs my help. He needs proof that I am not his imagination.”
   Patricia jumped out from behind the wall divider. “ Hey,here I am. I’m proof that my boyfriend did not imagine me.”  “ Ok,Derrick.You can go home now. That will be all for today,” “ Thank you ,Doctor,” said Derrick’s mother. “ Thank you, and I’ll see you again, next week, right Derrick?” “ Right Doctor,”  Derrick, and his mother left the doctor’s office. “ Ok,doc.What gives?”
   Patricia stood in the path of the doctor, and the doctor had walked right  through her.
“  Ohhh! “ she said surprised. “ Oh doctor. I have Derrick’s file for you,” “ Just lay it on my desk,” The nurse did, and she left. Patricia decided to read Derrick’s file. As she read it, she cried. This is what it said…..

{   Derrick Crankshaw is a patient who had an accident playing football with his dad when he was ten years old. He fell and hit his head on a rock while trying to catch a pass.
He’s been seeing imaginary people since his accident. They all existed inside of his head. He believes that there is a parallel world outside of his own, and he is the only one who knows it. Sometimes he gets both worlds confused with each other. He believes  that he can co-exist in both worlds. Right now he’s in love with a girl name Patricia who is in
this parallel world, and the only way he can make this other world disappear is to take the medicine that I have prescribed for him. His diagnosis is schizophrenia. He will be on long term care. After all, who ever heard of a parallel universe? }
  Patricia cried, as she walked through the door, and walked through the people, who didn’t notice her. She realized that she was walking through Derrick’s parallel universe. A universe that she did not belong, and as long as Derrick continues to take those pills, there universe will never cross over again. She cried as she entered into her own universe.

                                                                                                                The End
                                                                                                                    By
                                                                                                       Kevin Doy Burton













                                                             Chapter Five

 
   What if you had a chance to be what you always wanted to be ? Would you take it?
This is a story about Thurgood McIntire.A high school kid who under pressure took that chance.

                                                         Man In The Mirror

    Thurgood McIntire was just an average high school teenager about to attend his first year in high school. “ Thurgood,you’re going to be just fine in school,” said Mrs.McIntire. “ Mom,it’s just that there’s so many students there,” said Thurgood.
“ I know baby, but just stay focus.” “ I will, mom,”  So Thurgood left for school. While walking down the street, he heard a voice from behind. “ Hey kid. Wait up,”
   Thurgood turned around to see four guys approaching him. He turned back around, and started running towards school. “ We’ll get you next time kid,” said one of the boys. He made it to school. He ran inside , out of breath. He bumped into one of the high school football players. “ Hey,what the…”  The football player was tall, and big. He was walking with his crew. He looked down at Thurgood. “ What’s your hurry, shrimp? “ I’m sorry,” said Thurgood.
   A crowd was forming. “ The shrimp’s sorry,” he said. “ I don’t want no trouble,” said Thurgood.  “ But you found trouble,” said the football player. He picked up Thurgood,and shook him, until his glasses fell off. He then through Thurgood up against the locker. Thurgood fell on top of his glasses, and bent the frame.  He put them back on. They were crooked. The other kids started laughing at him. Thurgood picked up his book bag and walked to his locker to finish putting up his items. Then he walked to his class.
   When he entered his classroom, right away his teacher had started on him. “ Thurgood McIntire.That is you,right?”asked the teacher. “ Yes,sir.” “ You’re already starting on my bad side. You’re going to make it up after school, by staying here and study for forty five minutes.” “ But sir. It was the school football player that held me up. He was picking on me.” “ Stop your complaining, and sit over there.”
   Thurgood sat down, while the rest of the students snickered at him. Lunchtime had arrived. Thurgood went into the washroom to wash his hands. While washing his hands, he heard a voice.  “ Thurgood.” He looked around. “ Over here,stupid.”  Thurgood turned towards the mirror, and saw his reflection, but his reflection wasn’t moving with him.
“ That’s right. I’m you,” said the reflection. “ How can you do that?” asked Thurgood.
“ I’m in a different universe than yours. We sort of crossed over. My universe is parallel to yours, except we’re stronger, and slightly opposite. I was watching you, and since we are the same, I decided to give you an opportunity to become all that you always wanted to be.” “ I don’t believe this.”
  Thurgood left the washroom, and realized that he was late for lunch. It was time to go to his next class. “ Now I’ve missed lunch. I must be going crazy.”  When he was about to leave the washroom, the football players had entered. “ Hey,it’s the shrimp,” said Robert, who is the captain of the football team. “ Oh no, not again,” said Thurgood. “ Get him, boys,” said Robert.
   They picked him up, and carried him over to the toilet. Then ducked his head inside. One of the other football players had flushed the toilet. They lifted him up, and water was dripping all down on his clothes. “ So long, shrimp,” said Robert. The football players all left the washroom. Thurgood knew that he was going to be late for his next class, but he just had to clean himself up. He washed his hands. “ You’re going to take that? All you have to do is place your hand up against the mirror,and I’ll switch with you for a while, and you’ll be able to watch everything that I do. This will be your chance to get even with them. I can gain back your respect. Trust me,” the image said. “ Ok.I will do it,” said Thurgood.
   Thurgood placed his hand up against the mirror.  “ Ohhhh!” he said, as he was  pulled inside of the mirror, and the image was coming out of it. “ Where am I ?” asked Thurgood. “ You’re in my world. Go have some fun. You’ll find it a lot different that yours. I’ll keep in touch.
   Thurgood turned around and left to explore his new universe. Meanwhile the image that had taken over Thurgood’s life has also taken his name. “ Now I’m Thurgood. I think I’ll try out for football,” he said to himself. Thurgood decided to skip class, and go outside where the football team were practicing. He walked over to the coach. “ Hey mister,”
The coach turned around.” What do you want?” “ I want to join the team.” “ So you want to join the team. Have you ever played football before?” “ I’ve kicked the ball around a few times.” “ How tall are you?”  “ Tall enough to beat anyone of your boys.” “ You’re mighty sure of yourself aren’t you?”  “ Enough to know that every time I get the ball, I will score a touchdown.” “ Ok my cocky friend. Go get yourself a uniform. “ That’s ok. I won’t get dirty. I’ll play like this.” “ Follow me,” said the coach.
   The coach blew his whistle, and the team had stopped practicing. “ Hey it’s the shrimp, and he’s with the coach,” said the football captain. The football team walked over to the coach. “ What gives, coach ?” asked Robert. “ I have someone here that wants to join the team. Robert, I want you to give him the ball, and the rest of you are to keep him from getting a touchdown.” “ But coach, we’ll kill him. I know this kid, and he’s not football material. I know that, but he insist that he can make a touchdown every time he gets the ball.”
   Thurgood smiled at the team. “ We’ll wipe that smile of your face,” said Robert. “ Hey coach. Isn’t he going to wear any padding?” asked another player.“ Don’t worry about me. I don’t need any,” said Thurgood. “ You really are cocky,” said the coach.
   The bell had rung, and the students started running towards the practice field to get a glimpse of the football team. Robert’s girlfriend, Carla was with her friends. They all sat on the bleachers. “ Why is that boy without a uniform?” asked Carla. “ Isn’t that the boy the team was picking on?” asked Jenny. “ That is him. Why is he joining the team?” asked Carla. “ He’s going to get hurt. I know it,” said Jenny.
   Some of the other students were watching Carla, and Jenny standing up nervous.
” What’s the matter?” asked Joey. “ That kid’s going to get killed on the field,” said Jenny. “ Killed,” someone had heard. More kids started joining in on the scene. “ What’s happening?” more had asked. “ There’s a kid about to commit suicide on the football field,” said Joey.
   Now all of the bleaches were filling up. The football players took their positions.Thurgood stood at his spot. The ball was snapped to Robert. Robert threw the ball to Thurgood,who caught it, and started running. He went in and out, between each player. Soon there was no on near him, and he ran for the touchdown. He through the ball
at the ground, and placed both of his hands on his hips. Then stood there.“ I don’t believe this. You mean none of you could stop him?” asked the coach.
  The players all looked at the ground, while Thurgood walked towards them. “ This time I want you to snap the ball to Thurgood, and Thurgood I want you to run straight up the middle, and lets see if you clowns can stop him this time,” said the coach.
   Robert looked at Thurgood,and said,” You’re dead meat now, shrimp.” “ When this is over, it’s you, and me, chump,” said Thurgood. Robert was shocked to hear such confidence coming out of that kid. “ Ok,positions,” said the coach. Robert gave the signals, and at the right time the ball was snapped back to Robert who handed the ball right back to Thurgood,who went right up the middle. There were ten players trying to bring him down. A big three hundred pound player ran into Thurgood, who then stuck out his arm, and the player went down after running into it. More players had jumped on Thurgood’s back, and Thurgood was actually carrying them along towards the field goal. The players started falling off of his back. There were two players hanging on to Thurgood ,as he went pass the goal line for a touchdown.
   Everyone on the bleachers had stood up shouting. More students had ran over to see what the shouting was all about. Everyone said that they have a kid that was unstoppable on the field, and that they were going to win the pennant this year.” If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have  believed it. Hey kid, come over here. You guys take a shower. Practice is over,” said the coach.
   The players all ran into the shower room. “ Robert, can you explain what just happened out there?” asked Jeffery. “ I don’t know myself.” “ You know something. If this kid plays on our team, we’ll be in first place for sure, and we’ll probably win the pennant this year,” said Thomas. “ How come that kid let us roust him like that. He could’ve taken us all out,” said Jeffery. “ Who’s to say that he’s not finished yet. I weigh over three hundred pounds, and when I ran into his arm, it felt like I had ran into a steel beam that wouldn’t budge. I’ll tell you this. That kid’s not human,” said Bruto.
    Just then Thurgood walked into the locker room. “ Robert, I want to talk to you. Lets walk over to the washroom.” “ What do you want to talk about?” asked Robert
“ Jeffery,Bruto,Carl.You can come also,” said Thurgood “ They followed Thurgood into the washroom. The rest of the players decided to come along. One of the players decided to go and get the coach. “ Robert, I want you to put your head in the toilet,” said Thurgood. “ You’re crazy. I’m not going to…..” but before he could finish,Thurgood had grabbed Robert like he was a baby, and turned him upside down. Then place his whole body angled inside of the toilet. His head was under water. He lifted him up, and told the rest of the players to piss in the toilet. They did. When they were finished he grabbed Robert again. ” Nooooo!” he shouted, as Thurgood placed his head back under water again. Robert had swallowed some water, and Thurgood lifted him out of the water, and dropped him onto the floor. “ Now,Jeffery,Bruto,and Carl. Do you want to do it the easy way, or the hard way?” he asked.
   Jeffery,Bruto,and Carl had placed their heads inside of the toilet, just as the coach had walked in. The coach saw Robert on the floor gagging. “ What’s going on in here?” “ A little payback,coach.By the way, I changed my mind about joining your team. They couldn’t compete with me anyway,” said Thurgood,as he left the locker room. He walked outside, greeted by all of the kids. “ Thurgood,how did you do that?” asked Jenny.
“ Just skills, baby,” he said. “ Thurgood,do you have a girlfriend?” asked Jenny.
“ No, I don’t,” he said. “ Do you want one?”  “ Asked me again next time you see me,” he said.
   Thurgood walked back inside of the school, and into his class room. “ Thurgood,you’re suppose to” ….  but before he could finish his sentence,Thurgood had picked up the teacher right off of the floor. His feet was not even touching the ground. “ Listen here teach. From now on, you’ll treat me with respect. You hear? Or I’ll make mince meat out of you. I can also make you disappear.”  “ Sure Mr. Thurgood,” “ Just call me Thurgood. I don’t want favoritism notice by the other kids. Now you can leave.”
   The teacher ran out of the door. Thurgood left the room, and then the school. He walked
home. He saw the same four guys waiting on the corner. “ Here he comes back again,” said one gang member. They walked towards him. They thought that he was going to run, but he didn’t. Thurgood walked towards the guys. “ This morning you wanted to speak to me, but I was in a hurry for school. Now I’m listening,” he said.
    The guys were a little confused. “ What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” he asked.
“ You think you’re kind of tough?” said the first guy. “ Try me,” said Thurgood. The leader through a punch at Thurgood,but Thurgood grabbed his arm, and broke it. He yelled out in pain. The other guys  tried to rush him, but Thurgood knocked the wind out of both of them, and did a round house kick to the face of the last one. They were all on the ground moaning in pain. “ Listen up. This morning I was in a good mood. I like to stay in a good mood, until someone puts me in a bad mood. Now I don’t want to see you in my neighborhood again. If you see me, you better turn around, and walk in another direction or this time I will kill you all, and I don’t care about going to prison, because you’ll be dead. Do you understand me?”  “ Yea,man.We understand,” they said.
“  Now get,” said Thurgood.
    They all got up, and ran away, and Thurgood went inside of his house. “ Mom, I’m
home from school.” “ So how was your first day?” “ It was very interesting,” “ I’m cooking dinner for you, so go upstairs, and wash your hands,ok?” “ Ok,mom,”
   Thurgood went upstairs to the washroom. He looked in the mirror. He saw his reflection. “ Thurgood,Thurgood,” he called out. So far the reflection was doing what he was doing, but then it moved on it’s own. “ So how was it?” asked the reflection.
“ You’ll be surprised. Now look here. Your mother is cooking dinner for you, and you’re supposed to be washing your hands. Tomorrow, when you go to school, no matter what happens, you go with it. You understand?” “ What’s supposed to happen?” “ Things had changed in your favor, so you have to act like you’ve always acted,meek,ok?” “ If you say so,” “ Now put your hand on the mirror,”  Thurgood did. Then suddenly they both were pulled inside the mirror, from opposite directions. “ Enjoy your new life. My universe is moving away from yours.” “ Whatever you did, thanks,” said Thurgood,and the reflection started doing what Thurgood was doing.
   Thurgood washed his hands, and went downstairs to eat dinner. “ Your plate is ready, son,” “  Thanks, mom,” “  Now tell me everything that happened in school.” “  Well, I found all of my classes, and met a lot of new friends, and nice teachers.” “  I told you that there was nothing you had to worry about.” “ You sure did mom.”
    Thurgood finished eating. Mom, it’s getting late, and I better get my things together for school tomorrow.” “  Ok,son. You go ahead, while I clean up.” Thurgood went upstairs.
 The next morning,Thurgood was ready to walk out the door. Bye mom. I’ll see you later when I get home.” “ Ok,son.You have a good day.
    Thurgood went outside, and started to walk to school. When he had crossed the street, and passed a playground, he saw the same guys who was calling him before, playing basketball. He started to run, but it was too late. The guys saw him. They had stopped playing ball, and dropped it. Then they ran away, as fast as they could, without taking the ball with them. “ I wonder what that was all about?” he asked himself.
   He kept on walking to school. Once he was on the school grounds he heard something.
“ Here he comes,” yell one of the girls, and they all started running towards him.
“ Thurgood, we love you,” they were saying. “ I don’t know what to say,” he said.
  Jenny ran up to him, and asked,” did you make up your mind yet?” “About what?”
“About me being your girl.” “ I had too much on my mind lately, but I’ll let you know.”
  The girls walked Thurgood into the school. “ I better get to class before I’m late,”
“ Ok,Thurgood,said Jenny, but I’ll be waiting for my answer.”
   Thurgood was already late for class. “ Sorry, sir.” “ Thurgood,don’t worry about it. In fact, you can be late as often as you like, and you will always be in good standing with me. Is there any place you would like to sit?” “ Can I sit here, sir? ” “ Thurgood,you can call me Tom.”
   The principal walked into the class room to talk to Thurgood. “ Thurgood, I’m the principal of this school, and I personally want to welcome you here. Have you considered playing any sports?” “ No, sir.” “ Thurgood,called me Mathew.” “ No, Mathew.” “ Tom, you treat this young man with extra curtesy,you here?” “ Yes, sir.” The principal turned around and left the class room. “ This is getting stranger by the minute,” said Thurgood.
   The bell had rung for lunch, and the class got up to leave. They all wanted to hang around with Thurgood. When Thurgood had entered the lunchroom, he turned around, and bumped into the captain of the football team. The captain’s tray had fell to the ground. “ You stupid…..” he didn’t finish his sentence. “ Thurgood. I’m sorry,man.I should have looked where I was going. Can I buy you lunch?”
    Another football player came forward,” Hey,man. Let me buy his lunch.” The rest of the football team came forward. “ From now on, lunch is on us,” they all had said.
“  Thurgood,why don’t you join our team?” asked the captain. “  I’m sorry. I don’t play football.” “  Well, you sure can fool us,” said the captain. “  I just want to eat my lunch,” said Thurgood. “  Yes,Thurgood.We’ll let you eat your lunch. I’m sorry I bumped into you. It won’t happen again,” said the captain.
    While Thurgood was eating his lunch, he looked up, and saw Jenny staring at him. She was so beautiful. He asked himself,  “ Why not ?” He beckoned for Jenny to come over, and she jumped at the chance. “ Do that offer still stands ?” he asked. “  It sure do,” she said. “  Then I except.”   Jenny screamed, and her girls ran over to her. They all hugged each other, and Jenny grabbed Thurgood,and kept kissing him. When lunch was over and school had ended,Thurgood left for home. While he was walking home, holding hands with Jenny, he thought to himself. “ My time in high school is sure going to be great. Thanks to the man in the mirror.
     
                                                                                                              The End
                                                                                                                  By
                                                                                                      Kevin Doy Burton







                                                               Chapter Six

    What if you woke up one morning and found out that you had the power to do anything? That is the premise of this story.

                                                            Gang Eliminator

    Barry Conley is twenty nine years old. He had a day off from work, and decided that since the weather was nice outside, he could spend a little time with his six year old son.
“ Francis, I’m going to get Junior dressed, and take him out for a walk to the park. You want to come?” “ No, you two go ahead. I’m going to get dinner started. Have fun
now. Oh,Barry.Here’s  Junior’s favorite cup, with the built in straw on it. I put some juice in it for him.” “ Thanks honey. We’ll be back in an hour.”  Barry ,and his son had left the house. The park was just a block away. As they were walking, a black car was cruising down the block. Suddenly there were gunshots.
    Six months later Barry was waking up from a deep sleep. The nurse heard the monitor beeping, and called the doctor. On the monitor Barry was moving. Both the doctor, and the nurse ran into Barry’s room. “ Mr. Conley, calm down,” said the doctor. “ Where am
I ?” asked Barry. “ You’re in a hospital,” said the doctor. “ Why am I in a hospital,”
“ You was shot in the head,”  “ Shot in the head? Where’s my son?” “ I’m sorry Mr.Conley.Your son didn’t make it,” “ What ? What do you mean, he didn’t make  it ?”
“ Mr. Conley, your son was shot in the stomach. There was nothing we could do,” “ Get me out of here,”
   Barry started to get out of the bed. The doctor tried to hold him back. “ Nurse, get some
Help.” The nurse ran out of the room yelling for security. The security guards came running inside to give the doctor a hand. They held Barry down. “ Let me go,” he yelled.
The doctor gave Barry a shot to calm him down. Soon Barry was relaxed enough to stop fighting. “ I want to see my son,” he said. Those was his last words. He fell asleep.
    The next day Barry woke up to see that he was in restraints. “ Nurse, nurse,” he yelled out loud. The nurse came inside of his room. “ Yes,Mr.Conley,” “ Why am I strapped down to the bed ?” “ So you won’t hurt yourself, or others.” “ Where’s the doctor. I want to talk to the doctor.” “ I’ll go get him.”
   The nurse went to get the doctor. Ten minutes later the doctor came into Barry’s room.
“ Mr. Conley. How do you feel this morning?” “ I felt fine until I saw that I was strapped down to this bed.” “ Do you remember yesterday?” “ I felt that I was dreaming.” “ Mr. Conley. Before I can turn you loose, I have to be sure that you are not going to be a threat to yourself ,and others.” “ Why would I be a threat ?” “ Ok,Mr. Conley. I have to tell you everything, and you have to listen closely, and if I find that you are calm when I finish, then I’ll let you loose from the straps.” “ I’ll be calm.”
   “ Ok. Mr. Conley. Two months ago you and your son were shot by a drive by gang shooting. According to the police, they were never apprehended. Your son did not survive the gunshot wound, and you was in a coma all that time. You was shot in the head, and your son was shot in the stomach..”  “ No,no,no. Ok,I’m calm.” “ Good,Mr.Conley. You were brain dead, and we were going to write you off, until we found out about an experiment that was discovered.” “ What kind of an experiment?”
  “ Well, a group of scientist had found a meteorite that had some amazing properties. They found out that it was able to heal dead tissues in the brain. They had experimented on mice with great  success.” “ But did they ever experiment on humans ?” “ They didn’t  want to try it on any live human subjects. They had to wait until the perfect subject became available.” “ And that subject was me, right? “ “ Well,Mr. Conley. You was already brain dead. The only thing that was keeping you alive was the lung machine, and your wife was running out of money.
   The insurance companies didn’t want to continue paying the bill. I told your wife about the experiment, and her choices. She agreed, and it was a success.” “ Thank God for that. I want to see my wife.” “ I’ll call her for you.” “ Thanks Doc. Now was I calm enough for you? “ “ Yes,Mr. Conley. You was. Nurse ? Will you take the straps off of Mr. Conley for me?” “ Yes Doctor,”
   The nurse took off the straps. Barry rubbed his wrist for comfort. “ How do you feel Mr. Conley?” “ I feel great.” “ Good,Mr Conley. I’ll go call your wife.” “ Thanks Doc.”
Barry laid back down on the bed. He thought about what the doctor had said, about his son. He was getting angry. There was a pitcher of water beside him. It started to boil. Then the pitcher exploded. The water had splashed all on top of him. “ What the….,”
He didn’t finish his sentence. He felt the water, and it was hot, but he didn’t feel the heat, but the water was smoking. “ How did that happen ?” he asked himself.
   Barry ranged for the nurse. The nurse entered. “ Can I help you with anything,Mr. Conley?” she asked. “ Yes. It seems as if my pitcher of water has exploded.” “ Oh, Mr. Conley. I’m so sorry. I’ll get housekeeping to come and clean that up for you. Let me get you some dry things to wear.” “ Thank you, nurse.”
    Just then Barry’s wife had entered. “ Barry?”  “ Francis?” Francis ran over to hug her husband. “ When the doctor called me to tell me that you had came out of the coma, I dropped everything I was doing to come over here. I’m so glad to hear that you are alright.” “ Me too, babe. It seemed as if I’ve missed out on a lot. Sit here and tell me everything.” “ Barry, when I heard that you and our son had been shot, I had a nervous breakdown. I was in the hospital for a few days. I had to get out to arrange  a funeral for our son. Both our families were there. Junior looked so peaceful in the coffin. We buried him right next to my father.” “ Did the police ever catch the gang that did it?” “ I believe they gave up on the case, because every time I call them up, they give me the run around.”
   Barry started to get angry, and the room started getting hotter. “ It’s getting so hot in here, Barry. I can’t take it.”  Barry got out of the bed to go out into the hall. “ Barry where are you going?” “ I’ll be back.” Barry walked down the hallway, and the papers on the nurses station started to catch on fire. “ What the…. Am I causing all of this?” he asked himself.
   He calmed down. The staff was trying to put out the fire. They stopped to look at him with curious looks on their faces. “ I got to try something,” he said to himself. Barry focused on an IV bag filled with fluid. The fluid started bubbling. Then suddenly it exploded. The staff started to back away from him. The security guards came on the scene. “ Look buddy. I’m going to have to take you back to your room,” said the guard.
   They started towards Barry. Then they started holding their heads screaming. “ It
hurts.Oh my God, my head,” they were both saying together. “ Now I know what I can do,” said Barry. He went back to his room to get his wife. “ Francis, we’re leaving.”
“ But Barry. You don’t have any clothes.” “ You do have a car ,right?” “ Yes, Barry. Our same car. It’s in the parking garage.” “ Good, Francis. We’ll get in the car and go home. I’ll get some clothes then.”
   They both left the hospital, and walked to their car inside of the parking garage. Then they left for home. When they had arrived at their house, Barry noticed that there was some gang writing on their wall. “ How long has this been here, Francis ?” “ Ever since you, and our son were shot. I was afraid to do anything about it.”
   There were gang members hanging out across the street staring at them. “ Who are they, Francis? “ “They came around  a week after you were taken to the hospital. Please Barry. Lets get inside the house.” “ Why are you so afraid?”  “ It’s those guys,Barry.Please! “
“ Hey over there. You’re going to like her ass.I sure did,” he said. “ Francis, what did he mean by that?” “ He raped me, Barry. He told me if I tell the police, he was going to kill me.” “ Francis,there’s something I have to do. You stay here. You’ll be safe from now on.”
   Barry got ready to leave the house. “ Barry, where are you going? “ “ There’s going to be some changes from now on.” Barry left the house. Across the street were ten guys sitting on the front porch. They all stood up as Barry crossed the street. “ You’ve got some nerve coming over here,” said one of the guys. “ You are all going to pay for what you did to my wife.”
   One of the guys had pulled out a gun. Barry focused on it. The gun turned red hot, and exploded in the guys hands. The bullets exploded also, and some of the bullets had shot off into the faces of the other guys. “ God damn it. What just happened?” asked the leader. “ Now it’s your turn,” said Barry. “ You mean you did that?” asked the leader.
“ Yes.” “ Wait a minute,man.I didn’t know that was your wife,” he said. “ I know. Your head is going to get hotter,” said Barry. “ No, man. Don’t do this. The leader took out his gun, and fired at Barry. To Barry’s surprise, the bullets didn’t hurt him. He felt around his chest, and there were no bullet wounds. The leader started screaming. “ My head. My head.” Then the pain subsided. “ I can get some use out of you. The rest of you I don’t need.” Barry focused on the rest to the gang members, and they all burst into flames, from inside out. The leader had screamed. “ So what’s your name?” asked Barry. “ Tony, Mister.” “ Look Tony. You know where there are more gangs around here, right?” “ Man, I don’t know anything.”
“ Then you are no used to me after all. You can join your friends,” “ Wait,man.I know where they are located.” “ Good, we’ll take my car, and you’ll drive.”  “ Ok,man. Just don’t hurt me.”
  They got inside of Barry’s car and drove away. As soon as they had left ,the fire trucks had arrived. Then the police. The neighbors came running outside to tell what they had seen, and they had described the car that Barry was in. The police had put out an All Points Bulletin on Barry.
   Barry had arrived on the block where the other gangs were holding up. They were all inside of a pool house. “ Get out,” said Barry. “ What are you going to do, man?” asked Tony. “ You better start running.” “ Don’t do this, man. Tony ran down the street. Then he burst into flames, and fell to the ground. Barry got out of the car, and walked inside of the pool house. There were at least fifty gang members inside. There were also girls inside.
   The music was playing loud, and they all were drinking beer. The songs on the music machine started to slow down, and the gang members started to complain. “ Hey what happen?” asked one of the guys. “ Listen up. My name’s Barry, and the party stops now.”
Barry melted the music machine. He also exploded all of the beer. “ I don’t like gangs. You girls can leave.” The girls ran out of the pool house. Barry had burnt every one of the gang members. They all ran out of the pool house on fire. Then they all fell to the ground in flames.
   The police had arrived on the scene when they had spotted Barry’s car. They all got out of their cars, and hid behind them, with their guns pointing at the pool house.They saw a burning body on the street, and some girls screaming while running out of the poolhouse. The poolhouse was smoking. Then suddenly there were gang members running out while on fire. They all fell to the ground. Flames all over them. Then the pool house burst into flames. Fire was coming out of the windows. “ No one can survive that,” said  the police captain.
   The roof had caved in. The fire trucks came onto the scene and started to put out the fire. It was dark, and the fire had lit up the block. Soon, the whole pool house was a pile of smoking ashes. Barry was assumed dead, but actually Barry had escaped, and was walking nude in and out of people’s back yards. His clothes had burnt off of his body. He needed to find more clothes. He saw a store across the street that advertised clothing in it’s front window. Barry had melted the window, and grabbed the clothes.
   After he had gotten himself dressed, he left for home. Francis was nervous, because the news had reported the fiery death of gang members, and the owner of the car was assumed dead inside of the pool house. Just then the door had opened. “ Barry, you’re ok.” “ Yes baby. I’m fine.” “ They said that you were killed in the flames.” “ Let them think that, babe. Our son was killed, because of the gang violence, and I plan on doing away with all gangs,period,and since the cops don’t want to handle it, they better get out of my way.” “ Barry, what happened to you. How did you become like this?” “ Some experiment that was done on me. It changed me. I have an opportunity to change things now. You have to trust me on this, honey.” “ I do,Barry.I’m just worried.”
   “ Look honey. You was raped. No telling how many women are being raped by gang members out there. Now its their turn to fill the fear from me. I’m going to change clothes now, and leave. You have some money on you?” “ Yes, I do.” “ Let me have it. I’ll be right back.”
   Barry went upstairs to put on a suit, and then he left his house to go out into the night. He stood on the bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive. There were a couple of guys watching him. He took out his money, and started counting it in front of them. They saw it, and started walking over to where he was standing. The bus had arrived, and Barry had stepped inside of it. He was followed by the guys who didn’t pay their fare. The bus driver didn’t challenge the guys. There were no one else on the bus except Barry, and the two guys, who were staring at him. The bus driver knew that there was going to be some trouble. “ Hey Mac, you got a light?” asked one of the guys. “ No.” “ Look  Mac. You was counting your money out there. It’s dangerous out here at night. You could get robbed. Let me protect it for you, and we won’t charge you either.“
   The other guy laughed. “ If you don’t leave and go back home to your momma, this bus ride is going to be your last.” The two guys pulled out their knives. “ Ok punks. You asked for this,” said Barry.
   The knives that the guys were carrying were getting hot. “ Damn,” one of the guys had said. They both dropped their knives. The knives started glowing red hot. The guys ran off of  the bus, but they didn’t get far, because they had burst into flames. They fell to the ground dead. The bus driver saw what had happened.” Shit,man. Did you see that?” “ I saw the whole thing. They must’ve been carrying gasoline on them,” said Barry.
   “ I hope they weren’t smoking a cigarette. You can’t smoke, and carry gasoline too,” said the bus driver. “ Well, they learned their lesson the hard way. You can let me out here.” “ Are you sure Mister. This is the rough side of town, and the way you are dressed, you’ll be easy pickens for all types of gangs.” “ Let me worry about that,”
   The bus stopped, and Barry got off. There were project buildings all around. Barry started walking towards them. Dope dealers were on every corner. There was a lot of activity going on. There were even cops sitting in their cars watching everything, but wasn’t doing anything about it. There was a girl that got inside of a cops car, and her head went down in the cop’s Lap. The cop’s eyes rolled in his head from ecstasy.
   Barry walked passed the cop’s car. He took out his money, and started counting it. There were people looking at him. Barry walked between some buildings, while counting his money. He was being followed by a group thugs. Once he was between the building, he noticed in front of him were more thugs blocking the pathway. He turned around and saw that behind him was blocked also. “ Hey dude. Hand over the cash,” said one of the thugs. “ Come and take it,” said Barry.
   The thug took out a machete, and the rest of the thugs took out their guns, and knives. Barry focused on them all, and one by one they had exploded into flames. They all ran out from between the buildings on fire. Then they fell to the ground ,dead. The cops had jumped out of their cars, to see the strange scene. Barry had walked away from the
scene himself. The people from the projects had all gathered around the burnt bodies. Fire trucks came onto the scene. Barry kept on walking through the projects,counting his money. There were witnesses who saw the thugs going after a stranger, and they came running out on fire. At least, that’s how they had described it to the police.
   Barry kept on counting his money, and he was followed again by more thugs. Witnesses saw Barry counting his money. They also saw that he was about to be robbed. When the thugs had approached him, they had burst into flames, and Barry had walked away. The people were looking out of their windows, watching the whole thing take place. They’ve never seen anything like it before. There were crack heads, and thugs burning up all over the projects.
   The news media were there. A reporter had asked a witness a question. “ Excuse me miss. Can you describe what just happened here?” “ I sure can. Some thugs were about to rob a man dressed up in a suit, counting his money, and then they burst into flames. The man in the suit just walked away like it was nothing new to him.” “ Did the man in the suit have a torch?” “ No. All he had was his money in his hands, and he continued walking away still counting his money. If you ask me. Those thugs got what they deserved, and that man is a hero in my book.” “ Why’s that, miss?” “ Because, we have been robbed every day we go out, and the police don’t do anything about it. We see policemen picking up hookers from our windows, and we also know that they are on the take,” “ On the take, miss?” “ Yes, on the take. Drug dealers can sale drugs right in front of the police, and they will not get arrested. So there. It’s about time someone have a little guts to stand up and fight. “
   The reporter turned to the camera. ” There you have it. A citizen’s take on this whole matter. Is there a vigilante around? What weapon is he using? This is Mike Lanser of NYSC News.
   Francis heard it all on TV. A knock was heard at the door. She looked through the peephole. There were two detectives outside. “ Can I help you?” “ It’s the police, miss. We would like to ask you some questions, please.”  Francis opened the door. “ Come in officers.” “ Mrs. Conley. We told you that your husband was dead, but we never did find his body.”  “ You said that it was burnt up in the ashes,” said Francis. “ I know that, but the same incidents are occurring in different parts of town. We could have a copycat killer out there. I just wanted to let you know that if your husband is alive then he should turn himself in.” “ If my husband is alive, and is doing all of this, then I’m glad, because I was raped, and our son was killed by those gangs out there, and you won’t do anything about it. I hope he kills them all, and fuck you too. Now get out of my house,” yelled Francis.
   The detectives left. They looked at each other. “ I think he’s alive, and she knows it, but we won’t get any help from her. Why don’t we stake out this house for a while. I have a gut feeling that he’ll turn up,” said the detective.  “ I have that same feeling.”
   Barry walked over to the bus stop to wait on another bus to come. He took out his money to count it. More thugs were attracted to it. When they tried to rob him, they were set on fire, and took off running down the street. More people saw the scene. The bus had arrived, and Barry got on it. The police had shown up. Burnt bodies were on the ground smoking. “ Did anyone see what had happened?”  “ Yea,I saw the whole thing,” said a lady. “ Ok lady. What did you see?” “ They were all smoking  cigarettes, and when they lit their matches, they burnt up.” “ That’s what happened officer?” said another man.
“ The problem with that is, they didn’t have any cigarettes on them,” said the officer.
“ Then we don’t know what else to tell you,” they all said.
   The cops looked at each other.” I do believe that they are protecting him,”  said the cop  to his partner. “ I believe that you are right. They both got back into their squad cars and left the scene.
   Barry was telling the bus driver to let him off. “ Mister, are you sure you want to get off here? “  “ Yes, I’m sure.” “ Hey,you’re that guy everyone is talking about, aren’t you?”
“ Yes, I am.” “ You’re my hero, man. Your identity is safe with me. Kick their asses for me ?” “ I’ll do my best.”
   Barry got off of the bus, and walked down towards the subway. There were men laying on benches. There were also men standing around, near the tracks. Barry took out his cash and started counting it. Soon he was approached by three guys. “ Your money, or your life.” “ I’ll choose your life,” said Barry. The three strangers were then burnt to a crisp.                              
   The train had arrived, and Barry got on. Soon the train had taken Barry close to his house. He got off of the train, and started walking. When he had reached his block he saw his house. Barry decided to go around the back. He entered. “ Francis? It’s me.”  “ Barry? I was so worried about you. You’re all on the news. The cops know that you are alive. The news media is saying that you are a hero.”
   “ Barry Conley. The house is surrounded. I want you to come out ,with your hands up,” said a voice from outside. “ Oh Barry, Barry,” said Francis while crying. “ Don’t cry honey. I knew that it would come to this. Look, I have a plan.” “ You’re not going to run, are you?” “ No babe, relax.“
      Barry shouted through an opened window. “ I’m coming out.” He opened the front door, and walked outside. He saw all of the guns pointing at him, and he focused on all of them. The guns started heating up, and the cops had to drop them. The police cars blew up, also. “ Are you doing this, Barry?” asked the cop. “ Yes, I am, and I can do more.”
“ Barry, what do you want?” asked the cop. “ To eliminate all gangs, and gang activities.”
“ That is a big job for just one man.” “ There were many men, but you all failed, so I have to do this my way.” “ That’s taking the law into your own hands.” “ The law didn’t do nothing when it was in your hands when my son was killed, and I was in a coma for two months. Where was the law then?” “ The law is not perfect, Barry.” “ That part I know. That’s why my son is dead at six years old.”
    Francis came running out of the house to stand next to her husband. She held him in her arms. He looked at her. “ Honey, I can’t go on without my son. Nothing I do will ever take away the hurt ,and pain that I feel.” “ I feel the same way, Barry. Where ever you go, I will go.” “ I’m glad to hear that sweetheart.”
    Barry looked up at the sky. “ Oh God. Take us away from all of this pain.”  Smoke started coming from the top of Barry, and his wife’s head. “ Oh Barry.” “ Don’t worry honey. It’s better this way.” “ I’m not worried, Barry.”
   A few seconds later, they exploded together, in a ball of flame. There was nothing left of them. The people that had witnessed the scene were all crying, and then they left for home.  The detective turned around towards his partner, and said. “ I guess that’s the last we’ll ever see of the Gang Eliminator.”


                                                                                                                The End
                                                                                                                    By
                                                                                                        Kevin Doy Burton







                                                             Chapter Seven

 A Russian ends up in an American prison, but he’s not an average prisoner.

                                                              The Prisoner

  A bus pulls up to the new Alcatraz prison gate. The guard opens the gate up. There are several guards waiting with shot guns on the prison grounds. Vincent stares out of the window, wondering how he got himself into this mess. He starts to daydream about the time he was in Russia. He was a soldier that got shot while over in Iraq. He was shot in the head, and left for dead. He remembers waking up on a bed. “ There, there now. You’re safe. My name’s Boris.” “ Where am I ?” “ You’re in my laboratory. You were dead. One of my workers found you half buried in a sand dune. A sand storm had partly buried you. You were lucky. Normally the group who shot you would’ve cut off your head for a trophy.” “ But why did you save me, and why am I tied down ?” “ There was an experiment that I wanted to try on a human, but I didn’t have any subjects, then someone on my staff was just passing by, when he saw a pair of boots sticking out of the sand dune. He said that you were dead, but he wasn’t sure, so I told him to bring you to me. You was really dead. You was not dead that long, so I’ve injected you with my serum. An hour later you woke up.”
    “ Why is my head pounding so hard ?” “ It’s the result of the serum, but it will pass. You know something? If this works, you will be one special human being.” “ Oh yea? How special?” “ You will be indestructible.” “ Look Doc. You’re crazy. Just untie me, and I’ll get out of your hair.” “ Soon,” said the doctor, as he gave Vincent a shot.
“ What are you doing?” asked Vincent. “ I’m just giving you a sedative to help you relax.”
    After the doctor gave Vincent the shot, he soon fell asleep. Then he left the room.
Boris went down the hall to meet with his staff. The staff were all gathering around the bar talking about the soldier that was brought in. Boris had joined them. After they were all getting drunk from success, they heard a crash. They all ran upstairs to see where the noise had came from. Boris had unlocked the door to his laboratory, and they all stumbled inside of the room. There was a hole in the wall. The bed that Vincent was strapped in was empty. “ What happened,” asked one of the staff. “ Look at the straps. They were all snapped apart. I guess the serum worked,” said Boris. “ Yea,but where did he go?” asked a staff member. “ I don’t know, but he’s a soldier. He will go where ever he see fits. I don’t know what I had unleashed into the world, but I’m sure it will not be the last time we hear from him.”
   Vincent had walked into a town. His memory was not clear. “ I’m glad that I had gotten loose from that quack doctor. I just wish that I knew why I am here. These clothes that I’m wearing must have some clue.” He noticed that the people were all staring at him.
“ I’m the only one that’s dressed like this.” He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his wallet. “ What’s this?” He opened it. “ A card. The name on it says Vincent. I guess that’s my name. So Vincent it is.”
   Vincent walked through town, when suddenly a group of armed men with black mask on their faces had approach him. They were carrying guns. Vincent had a gun on him also, but he didn’t know how to use it. His memory wasn’t there yet. The mask men also had machetes. They charged at him, and Vincent had killed them all. “ How did I do
that ? “  he asked himself.
   He decided to change clothes with one of the mask men, so he would look like the towns people. The people of the town started throwing rocks at him. “ I don’t need to be any place that I’m not wanted,” said Vincent to himself, as he ran out of town. He kept on running without getting tired, until he saw a group of people that had the same clothes on as he had ,before he changed.
   He decided to run towards them. “ Hey there. Can you help me?” The soldiers had stopped to see who was yelling. They pointed their guns at Vincent, and fired. Vincent fell, and didn’t move. The soldiers who shot him were Americans. There were seven of them on jeeps. When they walked up to see who they had shot, Vincent jumped up, and killed them all. He changed clothes again, and took the jeep. “ I do remember driving one of these things. They came from back there. Then that’s where I’ll go,” he said to himself.
    Vincent drove the jeep back the other way, until he came upon a camp of soldiers. He drove the jeep into the camp. “ Hey soldier. Where are you going?” asked an MP. “ I want to go home,” said Vincent. The MP noticed his accent. “ Let me see your dog tags,
Soldier.” “ My dog tags?” “ Yes, these,” said the MP,as he grabbed his own dog tags to show him.
    Vincent took off his dog tags to show him. The MP looked at them, and then he looked at Vincent. “ What’s your name, soldier?” “ My name’s Vincent.” The MP pointed his gun at Vincent. The rest of the military police saw what was happening, and they also pointed their guns at Vincent. “ I’m arresting you for impersonating an American soldier,” said the MP.
    Vincent decided not to fight them, so he let himself be arrested. He went to court, and was sentenced to prison. He was taken to America, because of his nationality, and placed in an American prison. They assumed that he was a civilian. Vincent didn’t have any ID on him.
    Vincent had stopped daydreaming when he heard the door of the bus opening. “ Alright prisoners. Get out,” said the guard. The prisoners all got out of the bus. “ I want you to all stand in a straight line,” said the guard. They did. There were prisoners over in the courtyard, playing basketball, and lifting weights. There were prisoners passing themselves off as women. Some of them had walked over towards the fence throwing kisses at them. “ I want you bitch,” said a prisoner. He looked as though he was talking to Vincent.
    A shot was heard, and the prisoners had stepped away from the fence. As one of them left, he looked back at Vincent. “ You’re going to be my fresh meat. I’ll see you on the inside.”After the guard had made his usual speech, they were told to walk on to the inside. On the inside, they were approached by the warden. The warden made his speech, and then they were assigned to their cells. As they were walking towards their cells, the prisoners were all yelling at them. Some wanted the guards to bring the new prisoners over to their cells.
    Vincent was placed inside of a cell that had another prisoner in it, but the other prisoner was outside on the courtyard. “ Oh,oh.There’s going to be a show now. Wait till Tower comes back,” said a prisoner. Vincent sat on the bed on the bottom. He looked around the prison. “ Why is my head hurting so much ?” he asked himself. He started feeling as though the whole world was hating him. He also started getting angry. “ Ok, if that’s the way it’s going to be, then that’s the way it’s going to be. No more Mr. Nice Guy,” he said to himself.
   As Vincent sat with his face in his hands, a huge shadow had covered the floor. He looked up. It was Tower. The jail doors had closed. “ Ok,lights out,” said the guard.
The lights had shut off. The only light that was on was the one on the outside grounds. It was dim, but you could see something. “ Get up,” said Tower. Vincent stood up.” That’s my bunk.” “ Sorry,” said Vincent. Vincent climbed up on the top bunk, when suddenly, a large pair of hands had grabbed him, and threw him on the floor.” That’s my bunk also.” “ Ok,that’s how you want to play it. Lets dance.”
   Tower lounged at Vincent. Vincent grabbed Towers arms, and twisted it until it was turned completely around. Tower yelled out. “ Tower’s getting him now,” yelled a prisoner. “ Argg,” groaned Tower. “ Tower’s tossing that salad now. Get him Tower,” yelled another prisoner.
    Then the sound had stopped. The guards were both reading the newspapers. They heard the sounds, but they were used to them. “ I guess Tower’s having a good time with the new fish,” said the guard. “ Well, they both stopped. I guess I’ll go check on them,” said the other guard.
    He walked over to the cell, and slipped on something wet. He looked down, and saw that there was a puddle of blood on the floor. The guard looked in the cell, and saw Vincent on the bed, but Tower was on the floor, without his arms. His arms were grabbing at the cell. The guard blew his whistle, and more guards with guns came running to his aid. The guard pointed his gun at Vincent. “ Prisoner, stand back up against the wall.” Vincent did. The rest of the guards had their guns trained on him. “ I don’t believe this. Tower is three times his size, and yet he’s dead. The warden is not going to like this,” said the guard.  “ No! Tower’s dead,” Yelled a prisoner. “ He can’t be,” yelled another prisoner. “ We’re going to kick your ass,bitch,” said another prisoner. “ Ok,lets go, convict,” said the officer.
   Vincent got up to walk towards the officers. They backed off, but trained their guns on him. “ You know something? I think I’ll pass on that,” said Vincent. “ You move it, or you’re a dead convict,” said the officer, as he took out his billy club.“ Kill him, kill that Russian,” said the other prisoners.“ It’s your move,” said Vincent.
   The officer took his billy club, and hit Vincent with it, across the face, and Vincent didn’t budge.” Now it’s my turn. Vincent took the officer’s hand, and snatched him into the cell door. The other officers started shooting at Vincent, but the bullets had no effect on him. Vincent took the gun away from an officer, and shot him with it. He then shot the other officers, and walked over to the cells of the other prisoners. He went over to one cell in particular. “ Who’s your bitch now?” he asked.  “ Hey man. I was just kidding around,” he said.
   Vincent made an announcement. “ I’m going to let you fight for your lives. Since you all want a piece of me, here’s your chance, cause I’m going to kill you all,” he said.
He walked over to the officer’s control panel, and opened up the cell doors. The prisoners all ran out of their cells. Vincent came out. “ I’ve put up all of the weapons, but if you like, you can have them. I am un-armed.,” he said.
   They all charged at him, and one by one, they fell to their deaths. It was a gory scene. Vincent ,who himself, was covered with blood, and guts, had decided to go change clothes. He switched clothes with one of the guards. He took a look at the final scene, and walked out into the night.
    The next morning the warden had shown up. He was wondering why there were no guards at the tower. He let himself inside, and saw that there were no guards anywhere around. He walked over to his office, and sat behind his desk. He picked up his phone to call the captain of the guards, but there was no answer. He turned on his monitor to look at the prisoner’s cells. The doors were open. He scanned the cameras around, and to his horror he saw the end result of his search. There were body parts everywhere, including his guards. “ My God! What happened?” he asked himself.
There was a shadow that had appeared behind him. He turned around to look. It was Vincent. “ I can’t leave any loose strings. You understand. Do you ?” asked Vincent.
“ No! Stay away!”  Vincent didn’t stay away. In fact, he walked towards the warden, and placed his hands around his neck. “ Argg,” said the warden, as Vincent stretched his head, until it came off,then Vincent turned around. “ Now I can be free,” he said to himself, as he walked again out into the night.

                                                                                                                   The End
                                                                                                                       By
                                                                                                           Kevin Doy Burton


                                           




                                                              Chapter Eight


  What if you found out that you have a special gift ? How will you use it? Barry Toller was born with that gift.

                                                              The Wrestler

   Jessie and Cradon Toller were sleeping in bed. Jessie was due to have her baby at any moment. She wakes up rubbing her stomach. “ Cradon ? ” Cradon was in a deep sleep. Jessie called his name again. “ Cradon?” “ Yes babe?” “ It’s time.” “ It’s time for what?”
“ The baby’s coming.” “ What?” Cradon jumped out of the bed. “ Ok,honey. Stay calm. I’ll get your coat. The suitcase is already packed.” “ I am calm. The contractions is five minutes apart.” “ Ok,lets go.”
   Cradon took his wife’s arm to help her to the car. When they had reached the car, he threw the suitcase in the back seat. He opened the car door to let his wife in. He then ran over to the other side of the car, and stepped inside. He drove off. While driving, Jessie decided to call ahead to the hospital. The hospital staff were waiting.
    When they arrived at the hospital,there was a wheelchair waiting for Jessie. The nurses helped Jessie in the wheelchair, and took her inside of the hospital. They wheeled her straight up to the labor room, and prepped her for delivery. “ Mr. Toller? You can wait right here, unless you want to be a part of the delivery,” said the nurse. “ I want to be near my wife, holding her hand when the baby come.” “ Ok,Mr.Toller.Then you will have to put on this gown, and wear this mask,ok?” “ Ok.”
   Cradon put on the gown, but was having trouble tying it in the back. “ Let me help you,Mr.Toller,” said the nurse. “ Thanks. It seems as if I’m all thumbs today.”
“ I understand. You’re about to have your first baby. It’s ok to be a little nervous.”
“ A little nervous? Nurse, that’s the understatement of the year.” “ There , Mr. Toller. You’re all tied up. Now lets go.”
   Cradon walked into the delivery room. “ I was wondering where you was at,” said Jessie. “ I had to put this gown on, honey.” “ With the mask, and gown on, I thought you was the doctor.” “ I  wasn’t going to let you go through this alone, babe.” Jessie took Cradon’s hand.
   The doctor came into the delivery room. Everyone was standing beside the bed. “ How are you feeling Mrs. Toller. “ Ooh, I think my water bag has broken,” she said. The doctor looked down. “ It’s broken all right. Ok, Mrs. Toller. I’ll tell you when to push.ok?”
“ Yes, Doctor.” The doctor had placed his hands down between Jessie’s legs.
“ Ok,Mrs.Toller.You can start pushing,” he said. Jessie did as she was told. “ Ooooh,it hurts,” “ You’re doing fine,” Mrs. Toller.
   Cradon had squeezed his wife’s hand, and she squeezed back. “ You’re doing fine, honey,” he said. Jessie let out her last yell. “ Ok.Mrs.Toller. You have a brand new baby boy,” said the doctor.“ You did it, honey,” said Cradon. “ Cradon? We don’t have a name for our baby.” “ Lets name him Barry. After your father. I liked your father, before he passed away. After all, he gave you away to me on our wedding day.”
    The baby was taken to be cleaned up, and brought back to be placed in Jessie’s arms.
“ Isn’t he beautiful?” she asked. “ He sure is,” said Cradon. The baby was wrapped inside of a blanket.“ Honey, hold your son.” Cradon reached down to pick up his son. He held him in his arms. “ Look honey. He smiled. He must know that I’m his father.” “ He sure does,” said Jessie.
    After a few days later,Jessie,and the baby were released from the hospital. Cradon pulled the car around, got out, and helped his wife inside of the car, along with the baby. They drove home. After they had arrived at their home,Cradon helped his wife to bed, and placed the baby in her arms. He sat next to her, on the bed. “ Honey, will you hand me those Pampers inside of my bag. I think the baby’s wet.”
   Cradon went to fetch the bag. He looked inside to get the Pampers. Jessie took off the baby’s clothe’s.She took of the Pampers, and started wiping the baby down. She started feeling faint.,” Cradon? Take the baby.” “ What’s the matter?” he asked, as he lifted the baby up from her Lap. “ I don’t know. I was holding the baby while wiping him, and I felt faint, as though my strength was leaving me.”
   Cradon flopped on the bed, with the baby in his arms. He had to lay the baby on the bed before he dropped him. “ My strength is coming back now. What’s wrong Cradon?”
“ I don’t know. I was holding the baby, and suddenly I felt drained of energy. I had to hurry up, and place the baby on the bed. I felt as if I was going to drop the him.”
They both looked at the baby.

                                                 Fifteen years later…..

“ Mom, dad. I’m off to high school,” said Barry. “ Ok,honey.Knock em dead,” said Jessie. “ Love you son,” said Cradon. “ Love you too, dad,” said Barry. Barry took the school bus. He arrived at school, and went inside. After the first half of school was out, he saw some wrestlers surrounded by girls.” I wish I was popular like them,” he said to himself.
    Barry had an idea. He went over to the gym teacher’s office. The name C.Kendricks was on the door. He tapped on the door. “ Excuse me.” The teacher looked up from his papers. “ Come on in.“ Barry walked inside. “ What can I do for you?” “ I want to join the wrestling team.” “ The wrestling team? What’s your name, kid?” “ My name’s Barry Toller.” “ Have you ever wrestled before, Barry?” “ I have a few moves.” “ A few moves? Why don’t you come by the gym after school. There’s a wrestling exercise going on. You can show me your few moves,” said the teacher. “ Yes sir,” said Barry. Then Barry left.
    After Barry had finished his classes, he went straight to the gym. The other boys were stretching. When Barry had walked into the gym, the other boys had stopped. “ Who’re you looking for, kid?” asked Kenneth, who is the captain of the wrestling team. “ I’m supposed to meet the gym teacher here.”  “ Oh,you mean Coach Kindricks.” “ Yes.”
“ You can tell me, kid.”  “ I want to join the wrestling team.” “ I think you’re in the wrong room.” “ This is the gym where the team wrestles, right?” “ Look kid. You’re not the right size. We want to win the championship. Not give it away. Why don’t you try the cheer leaders. They except boys.”
    Just then the coach walked in. “ So I see that you have met the team?“ asked the coach.
“ Hey Coach. This kid said that he was suppose to meet with you about joining the team. I no you’re kidding ,right?”  asked Kenneth. “ He’s here to show me some of his moves. This here is Barry Toller. Barry, why don’t you work with Kenneth here?”
“ Yes sir.” “ Come on kid. We’ll work out on that mat over there,” said Kenneth.
“ Let him know what wrestling is about,” said the coach.
  The rest of the team gathered around the mat to watch their captain teach Barry a lesson about wrestling. The coach had a whistle in his mouth. “ Now Barry, you have to pin Kenneth’s shoulders onto the mat. You got that? “ asked the coach.
“ I got it, sir.” “ Ok,take your positions,” said the coach.
   Barry, and Kenneth held each other’s shoulders. Kenneth started to feel drained. The coach blew his whistle. Barry took Kenneth down to the mat with ease, and pinned his shoulders down. It was all done in five seconds. “ Damn,that was fast,” said the coach.
“ Kenneth,I don’t want you to let up on this kid. What’s wrong with you?” asked the coach. “ I don’t know coach.”
  Kenneth started to regain his strength. “Lets do that again. You was lucky that time , kid,” said Kenneth. “ Ok,Positions,” said the coach. They placed their arms on each other’s shoulders. Kenneth felt faint.The coach blew his whistle. Barry took Kenneth down to the mat with ease,and pinned his shoulders to the mat. The coach blew his whistle. “ Paul,you and Barry. On the mat.” “ Yes sir,coach,” said Paul.
   Paul, and Barry walked onto the mat. They placed their arms on each other’s shoulders. Paul started feeling dizzy, and the next thing he knew, he was on the mat, with his
shoulder’s pinned down. “ Barry, where did you learn how to do that?” asked the coach.
“ I watch a lot of wrestling on TV.” “ Before I make any irrational decision, I want you to wrestle with five more of my boys.” “ Yes sir, coach.”
   Barry went through the entire wrestling team, and won every match. “ Ok,Kid,you’re on the team. Kenneth, take this kid down to the locker room, and get him a jersey,” said the coach. “  With Barry on the team ,we might have a shot at beating Wintock High School Wrestling team next week,” said Kenneth. “ I was thinking the same thing. Barry,when you get your jersey, come back to my office. I want to talk to you for a while,” said the coach. “ Yes sir.”
    Fifteen minutes later, after a bunch of congratulations, Barry had arrived at the coach’s office. He knocked on the door. “ Barry, come in. Have a seat,” he said. Barry sat down.
“ Look son. You proved your point. I don’t know what kind of magic you have, but what I do want to know is, can you do that every time?” “ Yes I can.” “ Barry, next week we are facing a team that is very hard to beat. Can you stand up to the pressure?” “ I can stand up to it.” “ I want you to give this note to your parents, to let them know that you have been approved to join our wrestling team. I would like their signature, because we will be traveling to different schools to compete. You will have to keep your grades above a  C average, but I can fix that.” “ You can?” “ Look Barry. We haven’t won a pennant yet in wrestling. With you on the team, and you doing that thing you do, we just might have a chance.” “ Thanks coach. I’ll tell my parents now.”
    Barry left for home. He explained everything to his parents. His parents were happy that their son was showing some interest in sports. Especially his father. “ Son, you know
what kind of gift you have. God gave it to you. Use it wisely.” “ I will, dad.”
   Barry’s family had signed the permission slip for him to be on the wrestling team. He turned it in to the coach. “ Welcome to the team,” said the coach. “ Thanks Coach.”
Barry left for his classes. “ I’m going to be the most important kid in this school,” he said to himself.
   A week later the high school auditorium was packed with the anticipation of the two wrestling teams meeting. There were six wrestlers from each team. Light, middle, and heavyweight. The lightweight class had performed. The middleweight, and the heavyweight. Barry had won in the lightweight class, but Wintock High School was still in the lead in the other weight classes.
   Coach Kendricks had made an announcement. “ It was unusual for a coach to take the microphone to make such an announcement. “ For your entertainment, I have a challenge to make to the Wintock High school Wrestling Team. I want to take my lightweight wrestler, and have him wrestle each member of your team, in each weight class, and bet that he will win. If he losses even one match, I will declare Wintock High school Wrestling Team the best team in this division for all time.”
    Coach Brown from the Wintock Wrestling Team also made an announcement. ” If this prize kid of his looses the match, I want the entire North High school Wrestling Team to clean my team’s uniforms for the whole season, and for his school to take us all out for a victory dinner.”
    Coach Kendricks took the mike.” Since Coach Brown went to the extreme, I will except his challenge, and also want the same thing from him, and his team.”
“ I except the challenge,” said Coach Brown.
   Everyone yelled with excitement. Barry was called to the mat. He wrestled with six of the light weights from the other team. He won every match. The crowd cheered. Next, he wrestled with six of the middle weights. He won. Everyone stood up, and clapped. He now have to face the wrestling team who were twice his size. It was dead quiet as he
approached the first wrestler from the other team. “ I’m going to break your neck, kid for embarrassing us this way,” said the other wrestler.
    They faced each other. The wrestler from the other team had grabbed Barry by the neck. Everyone new that this time Barry was going to get hurt bad. That neck lock was a dangerous position to be in. His neck can be snapped. The wrestler started getting tired after three seconds of holding Barry’s neck. He let go, and Barry had grabbed the wrestler. Then he threw him down on the mat. He jumped on top of him, and pinned him down by the head. The wrestlers eyes started to close. Then it had shut. Barry got up, but the wrestler from the other team laid there so still.
     The coach from the other team came running over to him, and felt for his pulse. “ Call an ambulance,” he yelled.
    Some teachers had their cell phones handy, and started dialing 911.  The coach from the other team started CPR. Both coaches kept the CPR going until the ambulance had arrived. The paramedics had arrived ,and  continued with the CPR,all while placing the wrestler onto the stretcher. They placed him inside of the ambulance, and drove off to the hospital. “ I didn’t mean it,” said Barry.
   The crowd were all standing in shock. They didn’t know what to believe. The two coaches were talking to the referee. An announcement was then made. “ This tournament will continue on a later date, pending the results of the other student that was injured,” said the referee.
   Barry ran out of the gym, straight to his house. When he arrived at home, he burst into tears. “ Mom, dad,” he cried. His mother, and father came running into the room. “ Baby, what’s the matter?” asked Jessie. “ Yea son. What happened?” asked Cradon. “ I sent someone to the hospital, but I didn’t mean it. I think I killed him.”  “ Oh my goodness. Cradon,what are we going to do?” asked Jessie. “ Look, he didn’t mean it. It was sport. Things like this happens. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
   Just then the phone had rung. Cradon picked it up. “ Hello ? Yes. This is Barry’s house, and I’m his father. He did? Well, my son will be glad to hear that. Thank you. I will,” said Cradon. Cradon hung up the phone. “ Well son. He made it. The wrestler didn’t die. You don’t have anything to worry about, and plus, your school is going to continue the match, with you being the star player.” “ That’s great dad, cause I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“ Like I said before. I don’t understand the gift you have, and I don’t want to take you to the doctor. They’ll just lock you up, and experiment on you.” “ Listen to your father, Barry. We have to wear gloves around you when ever we touch you. Ever since you was born. We couldn’t let anyone else hold you, or they might find out, and report the incident of their strength being drained,” said Jessie.
   “ That’s why, son, you have to control your anger, or you might kill someone. Your mother, and I figured that being on a wrestling team would be good for you. Getting a chance to be a hero for once. You’ve been leading a sheltered life since you was born, but now that you can see what the result of your anger can do, I hope that you can now control it.” “ I can mom. Dad. I just want the school to win the state championship. That’s all, and get this. I’ll be able to get a scholarship for college. Then you won’t have to fork up the money for my education.” “ I’ll admit,Jessie.He do have a point,” said Cradon.
“ Ok,young man, but you be careful,” said Jessie. “ I will.  Mom? Dad?. Thanks.”
“ You’re welcome,Barry.Now you go wash up and get ready for dinner,ok?”asked Jessie.
“ Ok,Mom,” said Barry, as he ran upstairs to wash up.
   The next day Barry went to school. Everyone was congratulating him for winning the match. The guys started picking him up. “ No! Don’t pick me up, but it was already too late. He was up on their shoulders, and being carried around the school. This was the first
time anyone had ever won all four weight classes in the wrestling match for the school. The event was all in the newspapers. People were coming around from all over, to meet the kid that had the magic. TV camera crews were all inside of the school. The school was finally getting noticed.
   The kids that were carrying Barry started getting tired, and Barry started getting sick. Finally Barry had leaned back on the shoulders of the kids, and the kids, plus Barry, had all fell to the floor. After they had all been separated by the other kids, Barry had remained unconscious. An ambulance had to be called, and Barry had to be rushed to the hospital. His parents were notified.
    Jessie, and Cradon had arrived at the hospital. They rushed over to the receptionist.
“ May I help you? “ she asked. “ Yes you can. Our son was brought here from  his school by ambulance,” said Jessie. “ What is your son’s name?” asked the receptionist.
“ His name is Barry Toller,” said Cradon.
   The receptionist looked at her computer. “ Oh yes. He’s inside with the doctor right now. He’s in the Emergency room. Follow that red line on the floor. It will direct you there,” said the reception. “ Thank you,” said Jessie and Cradon.
   They left for the Emergency Room. As they entered, they saw Barry being examined by a couple of doctors, and he was surrounded by other people with stethoscopes. “ What happened to our son?” yelled Jessie, as she, and Cradon ran over to where the doctors were standing.
    Security had also ran over to Jessie, and Cradon. “ It’s ok,” said a doctor to the security guards. The guards had stepped back, with a look of concern on their faces. “ Are you his relatives ?” asked the doctor. “ Yes we are. We’re his mother ,and father. My name’s Jessie Toller, and this is my husband, Cradon Toller,” she said. “ My name’s Doctor Hirschcoff,and this here is Doctor Holms, and Doctor Flemming,” he said. “ So what’s wrong with our son ?” asked Cradon. “ Did you know that your son have an unusual ability?” asked Dr.Hirschcoff. “ Yes. We sort of knew,” said Jessie. “ You sort of knew? “asked Dr. Hirschcoff. “ Well, we knew that when he was born, we couldn’t hold him for long periods of time without wearing gloves, or we would start feeling tired,” said Cradon. “ You should’ve brought him in a long time ago to be diagnosed,” said Dr. Hirschcoff. “ Yea,right. So you can experiment on him,” said Jessie. “ No. So we could try and find a cure for him. You see. The other doctors, and I, had come to the conclusion that your son is suffering from giving up years of his life. He was born with the ability to drain the strength of other species, and gain their strength, but the result of that was sapping the life out of himself in the long run. For example: Lets say that your son was to live to be eighty years old. Well, his clock was clicking down ever since you started holding him. When he grew up, and joined the wrestling team, he did more draining of other people’s strength, and therefore his years started counting down faster. In other words, your son will only be able to live for a few more months,” said Dr.Hirschcoff.
“ Maybe even weeks,” said Dr. Holms.
   Dr. Flemming had stepped in on the conversation. “ Mr. and Mrs. Toller. Barry is going to feel very weak from now on. We can keep him in the hospital and make his remaining time be comfortable, but it can become very expensive for you, or you can take him home, and I can write up a prescription for vitamins, and pain so his remaining time will be tolerable,” he said. “ We’ll take our son home,” said Jessie. “ Ok. He’s asleep now, but if you want to stay by his side, until he wakes up, you can call the nurse, and he can get dress, then leave. I’ll write up the prescription for you,” said Dr. Hirschcoff. “ Thank you Doctors,” they both said.
   The doctors had left. Jessie got ready to stroke Barry’s hair. “ Don’t Jessie. You don’t
want to kill him,” said Cradon. “ What do you mean, kill him?” asked Jessie. “ He’s already weak. If he drains your strength from stroking his hair, his life force will get weaker, and he will be that much closer to death.” “ Oh Cradon.What are we going to do?” “ When he wakes up, we’ll put on a pair of gloves, and take our son home. He won’t be going to school anymore. We’ll try and stretch his life as long as we can.” “ Should we tell him what’s happening to him when he wakes up?” “ No Jessie. Lets not let him worry about the end. We’ll let him think that a virus is going around, and that is what’s making him weak. There’s some coffee on the table, down the hall. Lets go get some. Barry’s asleep anyway.” “ Ok,Cradon.I can use some.”
   Jessie, and Cradon had left Barry’s bedside to go and get themselves some coffee. After they had left, Barry had opened his eyes. He had heard everything. “ Don’t worry mom, and dad. I’ll make sure that my last days on Earth will be the happy days,” he said to himself, as a teardrop rolled down the side of his cheek.
   Hours had gone by, and Barry,Jessie,and Cradon had arrived at home. “ I feel great, mom,” said Barry. “ You do? Now Barry why don’t you just take it easy, and relax,” said Jessie. “ Yea son. You just got back from the hospital. You won’t be going back to school until that virus had left your body,” said Cradon. “ That’s ok,dad.I’d rather be with you, and mom anyway.” “ We rather be with you too, son,” said Cradon. “ Now that we all are going to be together, how about I order some Chinese food ?” asked Jessie. “ Mom, that sounds great.” “ You heard him, Jessie. Order anything he wants.”
   Jessie ordered the food. “ I like us being together like this, mom.” “ Me too, dear.”
“ Hey,I can take off from work tomorrow, and we can go to the movies,” said Cradon.
“ Are you sure ,dear?”asked.Jessie. “ Sure I’m sure.” “ But dad. You always talk about money.” “ Look Barry. I want to spend some time with you. I’m always working.” “ I love you dad.”  “  I love you too, son.”
   Weeks had gone by.They all had been going to the movies. They ate out a lot. Barry was so happy. It was a satuarday morning. Jessie got up to fix a special breakfast for all of them. Cradon came downstairs to keep Jessie company. “ Did you make coffee, honey? “ “ Can’t you smell it?” “ I must be coming down with a cold. I didn’t smell anything, but now I can smell it. What are you cooking? “ “ I figured I make what Barry likes. Pancakes, sausages, and eggs.” “ Barry will like this. I figured that I’ll take everyone to the Museum today.”  “ I’m for that. Cradon,go get sleepyhead ,and tell him breakfast is ready.” “ Ok,babe.”
   Cradon placed his coffee down on the table, and left to wake up Barry. Jessie started singing while setting the table. “ Ok,you two. What’s holding you up.”
   Jessie had a pot of coffee in her hand when she looked up, and saw Cradon walking slowly down the stairs. “ Where’s Barry?” she asked. “ Cradon had tears running down his face. Jessie dropped the coffee pot, and ran upstairs. ” Where’s my baby?” she yelled, as she ran passed Cradon,who slumped down the stairs.
   She ran into Barry’s room. He looked just as if he was sleeping. Barry had a little smile on his face that read happiness. Jessie climbed in the bed with him, and placed his head on her shoulders. She hugged him close. Cradon walked in to see them both together. Jessie was not feeling drained of her strength. Cradon decided to join her. He climbed in the bed also, to hold Barry. They both cried together. Their strength started draining. A few minutes later, they both began to fall asleep. They died holding their son. Barry opened up his eyes for a few minutes, to see his parents next to him. He cried, and closed his eyes again. Then he died. His parents had just given him enough strength to see them one more time.

                                                                                                                     The End
                                                                                                                         By
                                                                                                             Kevin Doy Burton









                                                              Chapter Nine

Johnny Callo is a unique young man. Why? Because of a freak accident, he will soon have a life changing experience.

                                                The Unstoppable Football Player

  Johnny Callo lived in an apartment alone. He was bored. He had bad luck with women, and didn’t have any friends. He sort of disassociated himself from society. Johnny did like sports. His favorite sport to watch was football. He lived in Wisconsin, and he liked the Green Bay Packers. He was watching the Packers play the Chicago Bears.
“ Go Pack go” he shouted. The Packers lost. “ Damn.”
    The weather was getting stormy. “ I lost  five hundred bucks on that game, and I don’t have it. They ‘re going to come and claim their money tomorrow,” he said to himself.
Johnny started putting on his coat. “ I got to go outside and think. I think better when I go for a run.”  Johnny left his house to go out in the rain. The rain was pouring down. It was also lightning. As Johnny continued running, he didn’t notice a power line being struck by the lightning. The line popped loose, and hit the ground that was wet. The current traveled towards Johnny, who was just about to run across the street. Johnny also didn’t see the car approaching. The current hit him at the same time the car had struck him. He was flying into a building, and went right through the wall. He went unconscious.
    Johnny woke up inside of a hospital. A doctor was leaning over him. The doctor was shining a light into his eyes. “ You’re lucky to be alive, young man,” said the doctor.
“ What happened to me ?” “ Well, you were struck by lightning, and hit by a car, at the same time. What I don’t understand is that you were thrown right through a brick wall without a scratch on you. How do you feel?” “ I feel better than ever. When can I leave,Doc?” “ Well, everything looks good from here. How about this afternoon?”
“ Great. That’ll be fine.” “ Ok then. I’ll have the nurse draw up the discharge papers for your release.”
  The doctor left. “ I guess I’ll watch a little TV until the nurse releases me,” Johnny said to himself.
  The news was on. The story was about the Green bay Packers loosing. “ I wish I could carry that ball, and no one could stop me.“ Four hours later, the nurse came in with a wheelchair. “ Mr. Callo? Your chariot arrives,” she said. “ Thanks nurse,” said Johnny.
 Johnny was already dressed, and ready to go. He sat in the wheelchair, and the nurse pushed him out through the main entrance. A cab was waiting for Johnny. “ Thanks for everything,” he said.
   As Johnny stepped into the cab, he gave instructions to the driver. The cab left the hospital to take him home. After Johnny had arrived home, he paid the driver, and the driver left. As he started walking towards his apartment building, there was a barking sound. Johnny turned around to see two dogs running towards him. “ Jesus Christ!” he said.
    Johnny ran. He didn’t want to try and open up his door, because the dogs would be upon him, so he became confused, and tried to run across the street. He wasn’t looking when he ran into a parked car. He had knocked the car across the street like it didn’t weigh a thing. The dogs saw this, and became confused also. They decided to leave.
 When Johnny was across the street, he turned around to see that the dogs were gone. There were some people standing around. “ Hey Mister. Are you alright?”said a stranger.
“ Yea ,I’m ok. Did you see those dogs?” asked Johnny. “ Mister, all I saw was you pushing that car across the street like it wasn’t nothing.” said the stranger.
“ I pushed a car? What car?” “ That car,” said the stranger.
  The car was turned sideways, up against a building.” Did I do that?” Someone else had answered. “ You sure did, and I’ve never seen anything like it.” A squad car had pulled up. The officer got out of his car. He walked over to the small crowd. “ Is anyone hurt ? “  he asked. “ No one’s hurt here officer,” said a stranger. “ Then what happened to this car?” asked the officer. “ He pushed it up against the wall,” said a stranger. “ Who pushed it?” asked the officer. “ I guess I did,sir.At least that’s what they say. I don’t remember. Some wild dogs were chasing after me. I ran into the car trying to get away from them,” said Johnny. “ You ran into this car, and pushed it across the street, trying to get away from some dogs? Do you know how much strength that would take to do this?” asked the officer. “ No sir.” “ Ok everyone. Give me a hand in putting this car on all four tires,” said the officer.
   They all gave the officer a hand, and soon the car was back on all fours. “ Well, since you weren’t driving the car, and you were running from some wild dogs, I’m not giving you a ticket. Plus there were witnesses,” said the officer. “ You mean I can go?” asked Johnny. “ Yes, you can go,” said the officer.
   Johnny left, all the while thinking. “Did I really push that car across the street like they said I
did ? “ he asked himself. When no one was looking, he leaned up against a car and tried to push it. He grunted, and grunted, trying to budge the car, and nothing happened.
 “ I knew it was too good to be true,” he said to himself. He decided to give it one last try, so he ran up against it, and he moved the car on the other side of the street. He almost fell,becaused he had lost his balance. He barely felt the car, when the car gave way.” This is fucking impossible,” he said to himself.
   He ran up against another car, and this time he kept his balance. The car seemed to run away from him as he ran up against it. ” That was too easy.” Johnny saw  an old abandoned house, in the back. “ I wonder.” He walked over to the side of the house, and ran as fast as he could towards the wall . He ran through the wall, stumbled and rolled through the house, and out through the other side. “ Boy, what a rush.”
  He decided to go for a jog through the park. While jogging he started to think. “ I could quit my job, and go sign up for the Greenbay Packers. I could make millions. I just have to prove to them what I can do.” He jogged home, and called his job. He didn’t give them the required two weeks notice. He just wanted to get to Greenbay,Wisconsin. He called the Ramada Hotel to set up reservations. He then got into his car, and drove to Greenbay,Wisconsin. “ This is going to be so much fun. I’ll be famous. I’ll be a star, and most of all, I can take the Packers to the Super Bowl.”
   He arrived in Greenbay,and checked into the Ramada Hotel. He opened up the yellow pages to find out where Lambeau Field was located. “ I found it,” he shouted.

He tried to call, and set up an appointment, but couldn’t get through. All he got was some ticket salesman.” I’ll just have to go down there,“ he said.
  He hung up the phone. He looked up a cab service in the phone book, and called them to pick him up at the hotel. He placed the phone back on the receiver, and went down to the entrance of the hotel to wait for the cab. “ I’ll let them know who I am if it’s the last thing I do,” he said.
   The cab showed up at the front of the hotel, and Johnny got inside. Take me to Lambeau Field,” he said.
The cab driver did just that. “ You can pull up over there,” said Johnny. The cab driver did as he was told. Johnny paid the driver, and got out of the cab. He walked over to the front entrance, and was greeted by a security guard. “ How may I help you,” said the guard. “ I’m looking for employment.” “ You can go online, and fill out an application,” said the guard. “ You don’t understand. I want to join the Packers.”
   Johnny noticed the Packers were practicing in the field. “ Maybe I can talk to their coach,” said Johnny. “ You will have to get an appointment first,” said the officer.
“ I’ll just go over there myself, and get the attention of their coach.,” said Johnny.
“ Now you wait just a minute. The field is locked up to pedestrians, now I suggest you go home and let your fingers do the walking,ok?” asked the officer, with a firm voice.
    Johnny walked away from the guard. When the guard was out of sight, he made a sudden turn, and ran towards the fence, and then crashed right through it. The fence went down with ease. He ran through the bleachers, tearing then up along the way.
   The Packers had stopped practicing to see what the noise was all about. Their coach had turned around to see a man standing among the wrecked bleachers. “What is the meaning of this?” asked the coach. “ I can take you to the Super Bowl,” said Johnny. “ You? You just storm into this stadium and think that you can automatically get a job on the team? You’ve got to be kidding, or you’re just plum crazy.” “ Look coach. If you just give me the ball, I will make a touchdown every time.” “ So you think that you can catch the ball every time?” asked the coach. “ No. I’m saying that if you hand me the ball, no one can stop me.”
“ How much do you weigh? 150,180 lbs? Well these guys weigh as much as 400 lbs easily, and you’ll be crushed.” “ Well, at least try me out.” “ No.”
    Johnny looked over at the Packers, and ran over to them. He took the ball away from the quarterback. “ I bet that I can make it to the goal line without you stopping me,” he said. Johnny ran with the ball, but the Packers didn‘t chase him. They thought that he was
some kind of a fan that let his passion get out of hand. The security guards came onto the field. “ Come on you guys. I can take you to the Super Bowl.”
   The guards surrounded Johnny, and they started to close in on him. The guards were big guys. As they closed in, Johnny took off running. He ran right through the guards, and then stopped. The guards went down like bowling pins. “ I can do this all day.”
The Packers looked on. “ Oh! “ said one of the Packers, as he saw the guards go down.
The guards became angry. More guards had shown up on the field. There were all together, ten guards on the field. They all surrounded Johnny. “ Get him,” shouted one of the guards.
   They all charge at Johnny. Johnny took off running. He ran right through the guards. The guards went down ,and started moaning. This time some of them were hurt. The rest of the guards charged at Johnny, and Johnny charged right back at them. They all went down. Most were unconscious. There were only two guards left, and they had given up.
“ Give him a uniform, coach,” said one of the players. “ Ok,I’ll try you out. Go to the locker room and ask for a uniform,” said the coach. The packers continued practicing. Fifteen minutes later Johnny came running out onto the field. “ Ok Rogers. I just want you to hand him the ball? “ asked the coach.“ Ok,Coach,” said Rogers.
   The Packers went into position. The hike was made. Rogers handed the ball to Johnny, and Johnny took off running. He ran right through the Packers line. Knocking them down. Every time a Packer had grabbed onto Johnny’s shoulder, they were carried along with him until they had to let go. Johnny had made a touchdown. “ I don’t believe this,” said the coach.
   The packers had lined up again. They were not going to hold back.Instead,they were getting angry. They got into position. The ball was hiked. Rodgers handed the ball to Johnny. The biggest guys tried to bring him down. They held on to him, but this time, they didn’t let go. Johnny had carried them pass the goal line. Never had anything been done like this before. “ Ok,you proved your point. You’re on the team. I’ll let the bosses know who you are. We have a game coming up this Sunday. This ought to be very interesting,” said the coach.
    Johnny left for the hotel. “ Oh boy, I’m a Packer, and Sunday I get to play against the Vikings.” He went to sleep, and dreamed of his fame and fortune. The next day he went house hunting. If he made good on the game Sunday against the Vikings, he was going to get a million dollar contract. He went searching for new cars, and went to night clubs. A few days later it was game time. The Vikings were in position. The hike was made, and Rodgers handed the ball to Johnny. Johnny ran with it. The Viking team could not bring Johnny down. The Packers won.
   The Chicago bears were next in line. When the ball was given to Johnny, the bears jumped all over him, but the strangest thing happened. The Bears were being carried towards the goal line. More Bears were trying to climb on top of other Bears to slow Johnny down, but Johnny wouldn’t slow down, and the Bears were carried across the goal line for a touch down.
    The crowd roared, and the Packers won again. Johnny was in all the newspapers. He appeared on TV, and radio shows. The mayor gave him the key to the city. Johnny was everyone’s hero. His face was on posters everywhere. Johnny Callo was someone every child wanted to become like.  “ I’ve never had it so good,” he said. “ Hi Johnny,” said a voice from the past. Johnny had turned around to see someone he had known before.
 “ Juanita ? Juanita Bixby,” he said. “ I saw all of your games Johnny. I think you are fantastic.” “ Thanks Juanita. What have you been doing lately?” asked Johnny.
“ Oh, I’ve been going to school to become a lawyer.” “ Mr.Callo.Your limo is here,” said Johnny’s assistant. “ Thanks. Juanita ? Can I offer you a lift somewhere?” asked Johnny.
“ No thanks Johnny. You go on. Maybe we’ll talk later.” “ We will, Juanita. I promise.”
   Johnny had left for his mansion. He arrived there, and went inside. There were girls there waiting for him. They were dressed in Playboy Bunny clothes. They had drinks for him. A hot tub was waiting for his enjoyment.  It was getting cloudy outside, and Johnny had the urge to go for a run, just to get away from it all. For a short while. He ran through his private wooded area, and nature trail. The rain came down hard, and Johnny was a mile away from his mansion. “ Gee, I should’ve checked the weather first. I have to take shelter under that tree over there.”
    He sat down under a huge tree. It kept him from becoming too wet, but the ground below him was turning into a huge puddle of water. “ Damn. This rain is really coming down. The last thing I need is a common cold before the Super Bowl.” Suddenly lightning had struck the tree, and the current went down into the puddle of water, and Johnny was electrocuted. He laid there unconscious, shaking. Seven days had gone by, and it was Super Bowl time. The Greenbay Packers against the New England Patriots.   The Patriots came running out onto the field. Their fans cheered. The Greenbay Packers ran out onto the field, and the fans had cheered louder, because the Super Bowl was being held at Lambeau Field. When Johnny came running out, there was pandemonium. He was everyone’s favorite.
   The Patriots were nervous, because they new of Johnny’s freakish strength, and no one could stop him. The coach wanted Johnny to sit it out for a while ,so the Packers won’t loose confidence in themselves. Johnny was carrying them all by himself, to the Super Bowl, and the Packers were feeling disappointed. No one was paying the Packers any more attention, because everyone knew who the real one man team was.
   The coach decided to use Johnny only if the Packer’s were falling too far behind. The line up had began between the Packers and the Patriots. The Patriots had scored first, and their fans had cheered. The Patriots had scored again. It was the Packers turn. The Packers had scored twice. It was a tie.
   Later into the game….. It was fourth quarter. Third down. The score was 28-22. The Packers had the lead, and they had the ball. The coach decided to give the Packer fans
what they were hoping to see. Johnny came running onto the field. What a finish that would be for the crowd. Even the Patriot’s fans wanted to see Johnny play. There was pandemonium in the whole stadium.
   The line had begun, and the Patriots had repositioned themselves to only jump on top of
Johnny. The rest of the Packers didn’t matter. The Packers had decided not to block any of the Patriots. They also wanted to give their fans what they have been hoping to see.
The ball was hiked, and it was given to Johnny. The Packers had stepped aside, while the Patriots had piled on top of Johnny. The crowd roared, as the Patriots had climbed on top of each other. The whole Patriot team was now on top of Johnny. The mound of Patriots did not move. A minute had went by before the whistle was blown.
    The crowd went silent as the coaches pulled the Patriots off of Johnny, one by one. Even the Packers were dumb-founded. When the last of the Patriots had got off of Johnny, Johnny remained motionless. A doctor had been called in. He examined Johnny. A stretcher was brought in, and Johnny was placed on it. He was rushed to the hospital, and pronounced dead on arrival from being crushed to death.
    Everyone around the world was shocked to hear the bad news. There was no medical explanation for Johnny’s strength, and no explanation for why he lost it, but Johnny did have a private psychiatrist who explained it this way, on CNN.
   “ Johnny Callo had came to me with a unique situation that he felt he needed to deal with. He told me how he was electrocuted, and woke up inside of a hospital. That’s when he realized he had the ability to move anything ,as long as he had a running start.    
Johnny, and I went out into a field so he could prove it to me. I was shocked myself at the scene. He came to see me twice a week. I came to the conclusion that it was the electricity that in some way had given Johnny Callo his strength. He came to me a couple of days ago to tell me that he was hit by a bolt of lightning days earlier, during that storm. I now believe that the same electricity that had given Johnny his strength, had also taken it away. He was something of a miracle, and the whole world will always remember Johnny Callo.The unstoppable football player.”

                                                                                                                  The End
                                                                                                                      By
                                                                                                          Kevin Doy Burton



                                                               Chapter Ten

   Signals from Earth can travel millions of miles in space, but do it break up during the distance? Who knows? This is a story about a message received in space, and the visitors who have received it.

                                                    A Signal From Burger King

   “ Well, I was told that the people of the planet we are going to visit are very friendly. They sent out a welcome signal. We decoded it,“ said Roc. “ I’m glad of that, because our people are depending on us to bring back the good news, about them welcoming us to their planet,” said Talo. “Although it’s just the two of us traveling to this planet,Talo, I believe that we are going to find out that this planet is going to be just the one to colonize our people on.”
   “ Our scientist had sent out pictures of us to the species on that planet. We are a lot different from them, physically.”  “ I know,Talo, and we don’t know what they look like either, but any species who are willing to send out a signal saying that they will serve us must be very intelligent. They must have overcame all wars, unlike our planet. We fight each other everyday.”
   “ Yea,Roc.The Leader said that our population is growing too fast. That’s why we are having so many wars. We are too close to each other, and can’t get along. We fight just because our tails is different.”  “ I know,Talo. I saw on the news that the Nanocs were fighting the Nonans just because they had two tails on their left side. Just because the Nanocs have two tails on their right side is no reason to go to war with the Nonans.”
“ I agree, Roc. Beside the differences in the position of the tails,we both look exactly alike.”
   “ I was told by the General,Talo, that pictures of our species were sent out to the planet in the form of a signal very much like their own, so it would be easy for them to interpret. By studying their signal, our scientist had determined that they are a very intelligent species.”  “ What did they say after receiving our signal?”  “ They responded by saying
 [ Welcome. We will serve you day or night] ”  “ So Roc. Who is their leader?”  “ Our scientist had determined that they serve a King.”   “ A whole planet who serves a leader called a King must be very proud.”
   “ Look Talo. That blue, and white planet over there. That’s where the signal is coming from. We will follow the signal to the source, and cloak our ship so we won’t frighten anyone.”  “ That’s a good idea. We will be able to hover above the source, and get a good view, so we can determine when we can make ourselves known.”
   The visitors flew into Earths atmosphere, cloaked so they would not be spotted. They flew below the clouds, and down to a structure where activities were going on. They hovered above the structure, and saw vehicles approaching it‘s side, and something was given out to each vehicle through an opening. They were able to understand some of the language. This is what they were listening to, and trying to interpret.
    [“ Welcome .You would enjoy eating our King. We serve him to you day, and night. We cook him broiled, so the flavor is maintained.]”  “ Their King must be a giant. Lets get out of here. They are cannibals. To eat their own leader? You know what they would do to our species,” said Roc.
   “ Roc,our people will be so disappointed, but it would be better than being food for this species.”   “ I believe that’s why they sent out that signal,Talo.To lure in more food for them to eat. We have to tell our people to stay away from the third planet from that sun. Lets get out of here, before they can track us.”
    So the visitors had left the planet Earth. Never to return again, but the signal they had incorrectly interpreted was this. “ [WELCOME TO BURGER KING. HOME OF THE WHOPPER. WE WILL SERVE YOU EVERYDAY]”

                                                                                                                The End
                                                                                                                     By
                                                                                                           Kevin Doy Burton


                                                             Chapter Eleven

  The strangest thing about time traveling is, you never know what the outcome will be like when you return home. So is this story, set in the year 2215,when time traveling was common.

                                                              Time Traveler

  Torak is a teacher of high school kids, in the city of Milwaukee,Wisconsin. He teaches time traveling as a subject. The class had just finished sitting down. “ Ok,lets began. As you all know, Time traveling can be very tricky. Can anyone tell me anything about time traveling?” asked Torak.  A hand was raised. “ Tom ?”  Torak called out. “ Sir, time traveling has been outlawed, due to the fact that someone could change history.”
“ Correct, and why’s that?”  “ Well, sir. It’s been theoretically proven that if someone changes the events in the past, then the future, as the traveler remembers, would be changed.”  “ Yes, but only in theory.”
    Another hand was raised. “ Yes Nancy?” asked Torak.  “ Sir, will we be able to feel the change?”  “ It’s never been proven that we would.”  Another hand was raised. “ Yes Matthew?”asked Torak.  “ Why did they outlaw time travel? They had people that went back into time. It was all in the newspapers years ago, and we didn’t feel anything.”
“ That’s because it was a theory that they all returned in a different time line. Therefore they were listed as missing in action.”
    Another hand was raised. “ Yes, Barbara?”  “ Sir? What if they had all died, once they had disappeared?  Know one had ever returned. It was said that some more people had gone back into time to look for them, and they had never returned either.”  “ I’ve read that article too. It do make sense. If you go back into time and change anything, you change your original time line also.”  “ Professor?” asked Borak.  “ Yes?”  “ How can we ever get the truth? All we have are theories, and yet we have time machines. For all we know, those machines are only good for making people disappear.”
   “ Borak. You do have a valid point. How can you guaranty that you won’t change anything? If you even go back into time to stop someone just to asked him what time it is, you might have changed his mind from what ever he was about to do, and that could affect the future as you know it. Well class, this session is over, and I want you to read pages 102 to 125,and friday you will have a test.”
   The class got up to walk out of the room when the police had came in. The students all stopped in the hallway to look at what was going on. The principal was with the police.
“ Torak? I think you better sit down,” said the principal. “ Principal Daniel. What’s wrong?”
   The police walked up to Torak. “ Torak Borinsky?” asked the officer.  “ Yes. I’m Torak Borinsky. Why ? What did I do? “  “ You didn’t do anything, sir. I have some bad news for you. There’s been a home invasion, and the house was yours that was invaded.”   “ Is my wife ok?”  “ I’m afraid not. You see. She was  killed. I would like for you to identify the body.” “ What happened to the killer?”  “ We got him. He was caught on cameras that were placed all around the city. We knew every placed that he went. We just waited until he reached his destination, and we picked him up without a fight. He’ll be in jail for life.”
“ But my wife is dead.”  “ I’m sorry about that, but as you know, we had banned the death sentence. Will you come and identify the body for us?”  “ Yes, I’ll come.”
   Torak followed the officers out of the school, and went home. There were people all outside on the street, in his neighborhood when he arrived. “ I’m sorry about your wife,” said a neighbor. He just looked at the neighbor, and went inside of his house. There were broken lamps, and the chairs were turned over. The glass on the china cabinet was broken also. It looked like there was a fight going on inside of his house. He walked into the dining room area, and to his horror, he saw his wife, half naked on the floor, with her dress over her face. She didn’t have her under garment on. She was exposed to them all.
“ Do you have to leave her like that? “
   He bent down to lower her dress back over her waist. “ Mr. Borinsky. This is a crime scene. I have to asked you to only look at her face to identify her,” said the officer.
“ But everyone is looking at her, and do he have to take pictures of everything?” “ Yes he
do. Now, can you tell me who she is?” “ This is my wife, Carol.” “ Thank you, Mr. Borinsky.”
   Torak went upstairs to his room, while the police continued to examine the body. “ Bill, do you have enough pictures?” asked the detective.  “ Yes ,I do. This should do it.”
“ Ok.You guys can take the body to the morgue,” said the detective. They placed the body of Carol Borinsky inside of a body bag, and left the house. Just before the detective had left, he took a final look at the stairs that led upstairs to Torak’s room. “ Poor bastard. To lose your wife like that. What goes through a person’s mind when faced with such trauma,” he said to himself as he left.
   After Torak had heard his door closed, he raised himself off of his bed, to look out of his window. He saw the paramedics take his wife, who was inside of a body bag, to a waiting van. He cried. He then went downstairs to look around the house. He saw a chalk design of his wife’s body on the floor. There was blood on the wall, where she was cut on her back, and then  pushed up against it. Her blood was all over the desk. “ He  probably lifted her up on the desk, and then raped her up against the wall.“
   It looked as though she had struggled a long time, but the struggle didn’t end there. There was blood on the carpet, in the form of her back.“ She must have been raped there also, and still she put up a fight.“
   The blood was smeared on the carpet, and it had spread further down the floor.“ She probably was trying to keep the rapist from entering her again. She must have been scooting away from him, on her back, but her struggle had ended from lost of blood. She must have surrendered because she was weak. That’s when the rapist had entered her for his final thrill. Carol must’ve died on the spot from the stab wounds.”
   Torak walked over to his couch, and placed his hands over his face. He cried. “ That sick bastard gets to eat three meals a day, while my wife lays six feet underground. It’s not fair. There must be a way for me to get even. There’s cameras all around the city, so I can’t purchase a gun. They will know that I might try and do something like that. I will find a way.
   A week later, after the funeral for his wife had ended, he drove home. He went inside of
his house, and got undress. He sat down to look at TV. The news was on, and the anchorman was talking about the murder on his block. He was talking about the man who murdered his wife. This is what the anchorman had to say.
   “ We have breaking news for you today. It seems that the man who murdered Carol Borinsky was none other than the brother of Senator Bill Wallace who will probably be the next President of the United States. His brother, who’s name we will not disclose, is a mental patient who escaped months ago. It was kept quiet in hope that his brother would be found. The patient is not able to stand trial, because he doesn’t know from right from wrong. He will be sent back to the mental hospital. We’re not able to disclose which hospital, because of the sensitivity of the matter,and his right to privacy,but rest assure,he will be in a more secured environment. I for one hope he gets the help he needs. Now I will return you to your regular program.”
   “ Isn’t that a lot of crock. My wife’s dead, and he don’t even get to go to prison. They’re protecting him, because he’s the senator’s brother, but I have an idea that no one would expect. They’re doing the senator a favor, just because he talked a terrorist group out of setting off two nuclear bombs in Washington DC. He agreed to let a group of men out of prison as an equal exchange. He even jumped in front of a bullet,which was shot by one of his own men, from hitting the brother of a member of the terrorist group. The terrorist felt that anyone who was willing to die for his brother was a man he could trust, and his brother was so happy to be alive that he told the terrorist group to disarm the bombs, and they did. It turned out that the brother was the leader of the group. Just before the senator went to the hospital, he gave orders for the group to have safe passage back to their country.
   The whole country had made the senator a hero, and wanted him to run for president. He excepted the offer, and no one else wanted to run against him. He was a sure bet to win the election. Torak ran downstairs into his basement. He started fumbling through some papers that were in a box. ” It must be here.”  He kept on looking. “ Found it.”  He took out an album, and opened it up. “ The Tantek Corp. My last job, and here is my clearance card. At night, there is only one security guard there. That’s because, there is nothing for anyone to steal. The only people that works there are scientist. Who would expect anyone to want to break in there. But to me, there is something that is valuable. Tantek has it’s own time machine. It’s not guarded because everyone has their own clearance card that works on the machine. No one would ever want to try using it. Therefore it just stays there for decoration. I can go to the Tantek Corp. and slip through the back door, because the guard is stationed all the way around the other side of the building. Then I can slip up stairs, and enter into the room where the time machine stands.”
   Torak ran upstairs to his room to change clothes. “ I better wear all black, so it will be hard for the cameras to detect me at night.”  Torak changed into some different clothes, and ran downstairs to look out of the window. “ It’s almost dark. In about an hour I’ll leave.”  Torak sat down to drink himself a cup of hot coffee. “ I can excess one of the computers, and find out about the senators brother, and even the senator himself. All I have to do is look up their family tree. Then I can search out their mother. I wouldn’t kill her, but I can fix it so she can never have any kids. I have a special concoction I can cook up that will do the job. I better start making it right away.”
   Torak went into his laboratoy where he keeps all of his chemical supplies hidden. He took out some packages with powder in them. He found some bottles with liquid inside of them. He poured them into another bottle, and placed it on a burner. It boiled, and had risen into a long straw like tube, and traveled down through a thinner tube. Then it started dripping into a small bottle. When the bottle was filled, he took it out of the holder, and placed a cap on it.
   “ I’ve done it. This should make her incapable of having any kids. All I have to do is pour it into her drink, and she would not feel a thing. Then I can come back into my own time and be with my wife, because if there was never a brother of a senator, then he would never have been able to killed my wife. It’s time to go.”
   Torak left his house, and got into his car. He drove to the Tantek Corp. “ I know those cameras are watching me, but I will be passing a tunnel soon. I’ll park my car inside of the tunnel, and sneak out. The cameras would never be able to detect me with all this black clothing on, in the dark. I’ll be only a few blocks away from Tantek.”
   Torak drove into a tunnel, and parked his car. He got out ,and ran to the end of the tunnel, and snuck out around the side. He ran up the hill, and into the woods that guarded Tantek. Soon he was out of the woods. It was quiet. He went around the back. There was a door with a box on the side of it. It had a place where he could slide his card through. He did. There was a series of blinking lights ,and the door had opened. “ Thank God. It worked. For a minute I thought the code was changed.”
    He went inside. He walked around to where the guard was sitting. The guard was sleeping on his watch. “ I don’t blame him. There’s nothing to do here anyway.”
Torak left to walk upstairs. He went down the hall, and opened the door that leads into the room where the time machine was held. He went inside. “ There she is. Big as life. It’s silent when turned on. I could leave, and come back without anyone knowing  it.”
   He walked over towards the computer, and sat down in front of it. He turned it on.
“ Now lets just see what I can find out. First the senator’s father. Now his mother. So far I did manage to get his brother, and sisters. Now his mother’s age when she got married. I got it. All I have to do is synchronize the time machine so I can appear back when the senator’s mother was in college. I’ll do it now.”
   Torak did just that. “ Now to program the time machine for twenty four hours later. That should give me plenty of time to find her. I now know what college she goes to. I’ll make sure I have my credit card for expenses.”
   Torak stepped into the time machine, and started it up. The machine glowed, and then it disappeared. Inside of the machine the dials started going backwards. It picked up speed. Then it started slowing down. Finally it stopped. The machine was inside of a park. Torek stepped out of the time machine.” I better cover this up with those branches, and leaves.”
    Torak covered up the time machine, and stepped backwards to get a good look at it. This should be unnoticeable. According to my calculations, the college should be right over there.” Torak walked over to the corner of the park.” There it is. Now to go to the nearest Telwall.“
    The Telwall has all the information about every citizen in the state. “ There’s one over there. The senator’s mother’s name is Jane Wallace.”  The Telwall is a flat screen computer built inside of a wall that’s like a computerize telephone directory. Torek had typed in Jane Wallace,and three names came up. He did a background check on each, and found out that Jane Wallace did go to the college he was looking for. The Telwall even provided him with a picture for him to print out. He took the picture out of the machine.
   “ I’ve got it. Now to just hang out by the college and ask around. I’ve got a better idea. I’ll just say that I am a professor, which I am, and say that I am interested in her becoming my assistant, and that she was referred to me by a friend. I can explain to her what I do, and even offer her a decent salary to help pay for her tuition. I’ll go to her Dean’s office to find her.”
   Torak walked inside of the college, and found out where the Dean’s office was located. He walked inside. “ How may I help you?” asked the receptionist. “ My name is Professor Torak Borinsky.I was told that I could find Miss Jane Wallace here. I want to offer her a job as my assistant in my research.”  “ Why she should love that. We always encourage our students to take on jobs to get the feel of making their own money, and this can be used as an extra credit for her. I’ll call her down here for you.” “ Thank you very much.”
   Torak sat down in an available chair while the receptionist paged for Jane Wallace. Five minutes later, a young college student came inside of the office. “ Miss Robinson? Did you page for me?” asked Jane. “ Yes my dear. I have a gentleman here who wants to offer you a job as his assistant in his research. He’s a professor. If you take this job, it will count as a credit for you.”  Torak stood up. “ Miss Jane Wallace, I presume?” “ Yes, I’m Jane Wallace.” “ Miss Wallace. My name is Professor Torak Borinsky.You was recommended by a friend of yours, who wants to remain anonymous. I am looking for an assistant in my research, and I am ready to pay you a decent salary to help you with your tuition. How about $10,000 for this year only?”  “ 10,000 dollars?” Jane repeated excitedly. “ Will it be ok if I pick you up after school ? I can tell you all about it over dinner. One hour of your time is all I asked.”  “ That will be fine. School will be out in an hour.”  “ That’s ok dear. I’ll credit you for the time.” said Miss Robinson. “ Well ok then. Lets go,” said Jane.
   They both left the school, and went to a restaurant down the street. “ This should be ok,” said Torak. “ This is fine,” said Jane. They both went inside, and sat at a table. The waitress came over to take their order. “ What would you like Miss Wallace?”asked Torak  “ Just a hamberger,fries,and Coke please.”  “ I’ll have the same.”
   The waitress wrote their order down, and left. “ So Mr.Borinsky.What’s the job?” asked Jane. “ I’m glad you asked. My research involves sleep disorder. All you have to do is monitor their sleep patterns, and write down what you see.”
   The waitress came back with their order.” That was fast,” said Torak. “ We aim to please ,sir.”  “ Well, I’m very pleased.”  “ Thank you, sir.” said the waitress, and the waitress left. Jane started sipping on her Coke. ” Miss Wallace,what is that hanging from your eye?” “ I don’t know. What is it?” “ I don’t know either, but you better go to the washroom before it gets inside.”
   Jane got up from the table while wiping her eyes. She left for the washroom. “ Now’s my chance,” Torak said to himself. Torak took a small vile and poured the contents of it into the glass of Coke. It dissolved quickly. It was tasteless. Jane came back from the washroom.” I didn’t see anything.” “ It’s gone now. Maybe it’s my eye sight. Drink your soda while I tell you more,” said Torak.
    Jane started drinking her soda, and eating her burger. “ Like I said. I’m going to pay you $10,000 for one years work, and I will pick you up from your dorm ,and bring you back, so you won’t have to worry about transportation.” “ You’re so kind.”
   Jane started getting weaker. “ I don’t feel so good,” “ What’s wrong?” “ I just feel dizzy.”  Jane fainted. “ Waitress call a doctor. She’s sick.” The waitress ran to the phone.Torak left some money on the table, and got up to leave. He went back to the park, and climbed back inside of the time machine. The coordinates were already set. In a matter of seconds, he was back in his own time. The machine was back inside of  Tantek Corp. Torak stepped out, and left the building.
   There was something different about the building. It looked runned down. Like it wasn’t taken care of by the cleaning crew. There was glass broken everywhere on the floor. The tables were turned over.Torak was now outside of the building. There was a strange fog all around him. He heard moaning sounds. There were people laying on the ground with shabby clothes on. “ What happened here.” A man spoke up from the ground below.“ Haven’t you heard. A terrorist group set off  two nuclear bombs in this country.” “ What terrorist group? Carol! “ he shouted out loud.
   Torak ran home as fast as he could. He couldn’t recognize his block. People were wandering around everywhere. ” Carol?” he shouted out. He saw his neighbor stumbling around. “ Dale? Have you seen my wife?.” Dale started coughing.” Yes. She’s around here somewhere, but I don’t know where. Look over there. That’s the last place I saw her.”  Torak ran in the direction Dale had pointed out.  “ Carol?  Carol?” he shouted.
“ Torak? ” said a soft voice. Torak turned around. “ Carol?” he shouted. “ Torak.Where have you been? I thought that you was dead,” “ No Carol. I’m as alive as you are. I heard that some terrorist had done all of this.” “ They did. Two nuclear bombs had exploded. They had wiped out the city. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed. All because one of their comrades was in prison, and our government wouldn’t negotiate their demand to let him loose. Why didn’t they negotiate,Torak?”
    “ You know our president never negotiate, and look at what it cost us. Carol, I love you so much.” “ I love you too,Torak,but right now we have to find out how to survive in all of this.” “ Carol,I know a way.” “ What way?” “ I have the time machine. I can take us out of this.” “ But Torak. It’s never been proven that it works.” “ I proved that it do work. Come on.” “ But Torak.I’m afraid of those things. The people never comes back,”  “ I came back for you.” “ How Torak? You just left an hour ago.”
    “ Carol,when I left for work the police came by my class to tell me that you was killed in a home invasion. I had to identify your body. You was also raped. I saw who the murderer was, and I went back in time to prevent his mother from having her baby. Your murderer was never born, therefore there was no home invasion, and you was never killed.”
   “ I don’t understand none of this Torak. I started cleaning the house right after you had left for work. That’s when the sirens started going off, and then the wind started picking up. I hid down in the basement. It felt like a tornado had gone by. When I didn’t hear the wind any more, I came outside, and saw that the whole neighborhood was destroyed. I started walking through all of the debris.” “ Carol,my hunch was right. In another time line you was killed, but in this new time line you was never in any danger. We can leave this horror, and go to another time together. Lets go to the Tantek Corp.That’s where I left the time machine.” “ Well, if you’re sure about all of this.” “ I’m as sure as I’m alive to tell about it.”
   They both went back to the Tantek Corp,but to their surprise the building had collapsed on top of the time machine. The time machine was destroyed. “ No!” yelled Torak.
“ Torak,what’s wrong?” “The time machine is destroyed. Now we can never leave here.”
“ I don’t feel very well,Torak.” “ Carol,what’s wrong?” “ I feel nauseas, and my body is aching all over.” “ It’s radiation poisoning from the fallout. I ‘m beginning to feel the same way,Carol. Lets sit over here, in the shade.”
   Torak held Carol in his arms. Carol,I went back into time to save you from the horror you had faced, and in doing so I had destroyed an entire city. I guess you had to die anyway, but at least I get to die with you. Lets just sit here and wait a while.” “ Torak,I believe that you believe in what you are saying is true, but I know that you didn’t cause any of this. I’m so tired. I’m going to just close my eyes for a minute. I feel so weak.”
“ Rest my darling.” Torak,and Carol died in each others arms.


                                                                                                                   The End
                                                                                                                        By
                                                                                                            Kevin Doy Burton


                         


 

                                                            Chapter Twelve

To experience shear power over history can be a rush. Mark Anthony was caught up in the rush of revenge.

                                                 Time Traveling Back Into Slavery

  The year is 2052,and Mark Anthony was just getting up from bed. He went to wash his face and hands. Afterwards he went downstairs into the dining area where he started staring at some of his collection of books. He was particularly interested in one book. A book called The History Of American Slavery From 1790 to 1829.He took the book off of the shelf and began reading it. He started talking to himself. “ As a black man, I find it very difficult to believe that white people had gained all of this with my peoples help. I wonder what would happen if a black man from the future goes back into the past during the slavery times, bringing all of his future supplies with him. What would be the outcome? Since time travel is popular now, I can just go to work tomorrow on the third shift, at the laboratory, and use the machine we have.
   I’m going to have to purchase some supplies for myself, like weapons, and food,ect…
I’ll take along this book on slavery times. The weapons of today can turn slavery completely around, and with me knowing the martial arts, I will be able to kick all kinds of asses.”
    Mark gathered up some weapons he had purchased. He had a gun that shoots out rays. It ran on a nuclear battery that never runs down. “ I really don’t need that much, but to my understanding, the slaves of that time ate differently. I’ll take along some nutrition bars. They’re very good, and they are guarantied to keep me full for days on just one bar.We’re just too crowded in this time. Everywhere you go, you’re being followed. Cameras all around. There’s no more privacy. At least during the slavery days there were room to exist. I could change the outcome, and maybe be a ruler, but it will have to be a one way trip. I would need someone to bring me back to my own time, but why would I need to come back? The year 1795 should be perfect for me. At least some of the black people should speak English.”
   Mark read about Richmond Virginia, and decided that it was the perfect place to live. He went to sleep that night, dreaming about his new life. He woke up the next morning. It was Sunday. Very few people worked in the laboratory on Sunday, but a special project was being worked on. Only six of them were scheduled to work, and no one really cared about what the other one was doing. They all had their own office to work in.
   Mark left home for work. He entered the high tech building. He slid his pass card down into the slot for entrance. The door clicked, and then opened. He went inside. There was a tunnel inside of the building, down on the bottom level. That’s where the time machine is kept. It was vacant down below on Sunday. There were no security guards working down there, because that part of the building was shut down on weekends.
   Mark used his special key he had made for just this occasion. It was for the elevator to work on the weekends. He used it. He went down ten levels. “ This would be perfect. Know one will be able to here any sounds coming from the time machine,” he said to himself.
   Mark walked over to the control panel. “ I’ll punch in the coordinates, and program the computer to delete everything in ten minutes. Therefore no one will ever know that it has been used. Now to just put in the year and the place.”
   The monitor came on, and Mark was able to see Richmond Virginia on it. There’s a plantation over there. I can see black people working the fields, picking cotton. It looks like there could be a forest over there. That’s where I’ll go.”
   Mark punched in the coordinates, and ran towards the time car. He stepped inside.
“ Once the car starts, there can be no turning back. When the car reaches it’s destination, I will have one minute to get out, or the car will return back to its original timeline, and resume its original position.”
  Mark made sure his equipment was secure. He fastened his seatbelt. The clock inside of the car was counting down. Three, two, one, zero. The car had picked up speed. He passed through the two oracles, and soon he was in the woods. He stepped out of the car, and looked around. The air was clean, and the sky was pure blue. He hurried up, and reached inside of the car to get his equipment. As soon as he had retrieved them, the car had disappeared. “ Wow, just in time. I don’t know what I could’ve done if I had lost my gear. I do have my sidearm. I’m glad that I wore my long leather western duster, and my western hat, to keep the sun out of my eyes. I know that I will stand out in this time period, but who cares?”
   Mark started walking out  of the woods. He came upon a plantation. He started walking through it. There were men,women,boys,and girls, picking cotton. He walked towards them. They stopped working to look at him.” The women here look mighty good to me.”
   As he walked closer to the women, they started backing up. The men did also. They didn’t know what to make out of another black man who dressed so different. Mark looked at one man, and asked, “ Can you understand me?”
  The man looked at him strangely, and back away. “ Hey,I’m not going to hurt you. You don’t have to run away.”
   But it wasn’t him the man was running away from. It was what was going on behind him. Mark turned around to see two men on horses galloping towards him. When they had arrived, they both climbed off of their horses. “ Hey slave, what are you doing dressed like that? Get back to work.”
   The black man who was standing next to me ran away to finish picking cotton.” Don’t let me have to tell you again boy,” said the stranger. “ Why don’t you two just get back on your horses, and ride away before you get hurt,” said Mark. “ Did you hear that, Tom. That slave has just dug his own grave.”  “ I did hear that,Frank,and I still don’t believe that he said it.”
   Frank went to grab Mark’s arm, and Mark twisted it behind his back. He spun Frank around, and kick him. Frank fell to the ground. Tom charged at Mark, and Mark had side stepped. Tom trip on Mark’s foot that was stuck out and then fell to the ground. “ I’m going to kill you slave,” said Tom.
  Tom pulled out his pistol, but his arm was shot off. The arm hit the ground. Frank tried
to pull out his pistol as he started to stand up, but Mark ran, and jumped into the air with his leg extended, and made contact with Frank’s face. Frank fell to the ground unconscious. Tom ran over to Frank, and looked at Mark.” You’re a dead slave.You hear? A dead slave.” he said.
   Tom picked up Frank, and tied him to his horse. He also had climbed up on top of his horse, then he took the strap of Frank’s horse and guided him away from the scene. As he rode away, he turned back to yell out. “ I’ll be back for you,slave.Only this time I won’t be alone. “ You better bring plenty of help,” said Mark.
   The black people in the field had started walking towards Mark. “ Don’t be afraid.I won’t bite.”  One man came forward. “ Where did you come from? “ he asked.  “ You wouldn’t understand. You speak English,” said Mark. “ Yes, I do. Master taught us all how to speak their language. Only we’re not to speak to each other or we’ll get whipped. Those riders will be back. You better go,” said the man. “No, I better stay. So this is a plantation. This is a huge field. Where’s your master’s house?” asked Mark. “ It’s over there beyond those trees.”  “ What’s your name? “  “ Thomas.”  “ Well, Thomas. Why  don’t you all just leave? There’s no one here to stop you.”  “ Where can we go ? Those riders will shoot to kill, and we’re on foot. We also have babies to carry, and young kids.”  “ What if I say to you all that I can make your master give you his land, and house to live in?”   “ Who are you? “  “ My name’s Mark Anthony, and we helped build this country.”  “ What do you mean, we.”  “ We black people helped build this country, therefore we should have a piece of it.”  “ You are talking so strange, Mark Anthony.”
“ Just call me Mark. Everyone ,follow me,” said Mark.
   The people wouldn’t move. They just stood there.” What’s wrong with you all?”
“ They’re not going to risk getting whipped because of one man,” said Thomas. “ I understand. I’ll be back.”
   Mark walked across the field. As he was almost entering the wooded area, he heard a sound from behind. He turned around to look. There were eight horsemen leaning over their horses, and whipping the slaves. Mark put down his duffle bag, and placed them in the woods.  He ran through the field yelling, and the men on horseback had stopped whipping the slaves. Instead they looked up to see Mark standing there. They rode towards him. Mark pulled out his weapon, and fired at the ground in front of the horses. The horses reared up on their hind legs, throwing off the riders. Mark fired his weapon again, and the horses took off running. The men all were thrown to the ground. They got up cussing. “ You’re dead, slave,” one of them had yelled out.
   The man drew his gun, and was shot dead by Mark. Mark shot the others, and left one alive. “ You tell the rest to stay off of this land. Now get,” said Mark. The man took off running, and Mark turned towards the people in the field, who were wiping their wounds from the whip. “ I’ll be back,” said Mark.
   Mark took one of the horses, and rode towards the woods. He stepped down from the horse to get his duffle bag. He then tied it down on the saddled, and climbed back up on the horse. He rode through the woods, and was finally in front of the house. There were more slaves out front planting flowers. He could see the shacks the slaves were living in.
“ What a horrible way to live. All of the slaves could live inside of this big house.”
   Suddenly someone came out of the house with a shot gun. Mark drew his gun faster, and shot the person in the doorway. The person wasn’t killed. He was just wounded in the arm. Mark stepped down from his horse. “ Are you the owner of this plantation?” “ I don’t  answer to no slave,” said the man. “ Ok then.” said Mark. Mark shot him in the leg. “ Ok,don’t shoot me again.”  “ I’ll asked you one more time. Are you the owner of this plantation?”  “ Yes, I’m Mat Thompson. What do you want? “ “ Are there any other people in the house, Mat ?”  “ Yes, my wife, and two daughters.”  “ This is what I want you to do. You’re going to get your family out of the house and follow me out in the field.”  “ What are you going to do?”  “ It’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to give your house to the slaves.”  “ You can’t just run a man’s family off of his property like that.”  “ Your people have been doing it for years.”  “ What are you talking about?”
“ Never mind. Go get your family. You have three minutes.”
  Mat hopped into his house, and started calling everyone outside. They all came out crying. There was a wagon that was on the side of the house. They started walking towards it. They all climbed inside. “ Ok, lets rock,” said Mark. “ What did you say?”
“ Never mind. Ride over towards those fields.” Mark trotted around the back of the wagon, while Mat’s wife drove the wagon towards the field. A few minutes later they were there. The workers were hard at work, picking cotton. Mark stepped down from his horse, and walked around the side of the wagon.
“ Ok,Mat Thompson. You tell the slaves that they are free, and that you are going to let them live in the big house. “  “ But what am I suppose to do. You blacks can’t live inside of my house. It’s against the law. “   “ Well, I’m changing the law. Now call them.”
   Mat called the slaves in. The slaves had stopped working, and slowly started walking towards the wagon. They were wondering why there were no extra men beside Mat Thompson. They were also curious about the strange black man standing behind their master, and was wondering why their master had brought along his family. Plus he was covered with blood.
   Mat stepped down from his wagon with the help of his wife. He turned towards his slaves. “ I called you all here to tell you that you are free, and that I am turning over this entire plantation to you. You can also have the house. I’m taking my family away from here.”  “ That’s good enough. Now you can get going.” said Mark  “ I would like to let you know that once the word gets out about blacks living in my house, and on the plantation, and that I am no where to be found, their will be an uprising,” said Mat.
“ You let me worry about that. Now I’m not going to tell you again. Get.”
    Mat’s wife started the horses to gallop. Mark turned towards the slaves.” You see? You are free to go. This place is yours.”   A black woman stepped forward. “ We can’t live in Master’s place. We’ll be killed.” she said.  “ What’s your name?” asked Mark. “ My name’s Mattie.”  “ Hi Mattie. I’ll protect you all from danger.”  “ But you’re only one man. Do you have any soldiers?” “ No, I do better all by myself.” “ Come on. Lets get to the house,” said Mark.
    The slaves started walking. They were talking among themselves. Soon they were at the big house. They were reluctant to go inside. They felt that there might be men hiding just to wait for them to enter, so they can have fun whipping them, and laughing at them while they were being punished. “ I’ll go in first and show you that there is nothing for you to worry about.”  Mark went inside of the house. He had his weapon ready just in case. He went upstairs, and around the back. The house was clear. He went back outside. "You see. The house is empty. Come on.”  The slaves all went inside of the house. They slowly walked around. Some went into the kitchen where the food was. There was food all on the table. They began to start singing. Soon all of them were singing, and they started passing around the food. “They must be singing a slave song, because I’ve never heard this one before,” Mark said to himself.
   Some of the men were jumping around, or it could’ve been dancing. They started dancing as they were going out the door. The women had followed .  Mattie started walking towards Mark. She showed a liking to him. “ Hi Mattie. I thought you would be with your man,” said Mark.  Mattie had a nice figure, and beautiful bone structure. Mark found it hard to believe that she didn’t have a man. “ I don’t have a man. The Master forbid us getting together, or we would get whipped. If we even looked at one another in a likable way, we would get whipped. Therefore we keep to ourselves.” “ Wow, now that’s deep,”  “ You talk very strange, Mark. Where did you come from?” “ You mean when did I come from.” “ I don’t understand.”  “ You wouldn’t, but that’s alright.You don’t have to understand.”
   There was some shots heard from outside. “ Get down,” said Mark. They all dropped to the floor. Mark crawled towards the window. He looked outside. There were at least twelve men with rifles. They had shot the few black slaves who were dancing outside. The slaves were all moaning on the ground. “ Come on out slaves or we’ll come in and shoot all of you.”  “ What ‘ll we do Mark. They’re going to kill us all,” said Mattie.
“ Don’t worry, Mattie. You just stay down.”  “ Now I know you all didn’t do this yourselves. I want that fancy dressed slave to come outside, or we’ll kill the slaves that’s on the ground in front of us,” said the rider. “ I’m coming out,” said Mark. “ They’ll kill you,” said Mattie. “ Don’t worry about me.”
   Mark crawled over to his duffle bag, and took out a strange rifle. He pointed it towards the window, and shot a pulse blast at the rider. The rider fell off of his horse, dead. The other riders didn’t hear a sound, and they didn’t see a flash, because there weren’t ‘t any. The pulse rifle doesn’t make a sound, or a noise. It just sends out a beam of light that’s invisible. Once you have the victim in your scope, you just press the trigger, and watch your subject fall. Mark was able to pick the riders off, one by one. The riders didn’t know what was happening to them. They had actually thought that the others had fallen ill.                           When finally only two were left. Mark had spoke up. “ I’ve  killed all of your friends. Now stepped down from your horses.”  “ How can you kill anyone without a gun? I didn’t hear any shots,” said the rider.  “ Look at the tree next to you,” said Mark.
    The riders looked at the tree, and all of a sudden the tree exploded. “ I can do that to you,” said Mark. The riders hurried off of their horses, and stepped down on the ground.
“ Drop your guns.” The riders did just that. Mark stepped outside. “ Walk towards me.”
The men did. ” Now lay on the ground.”  The riders did as they were told. “ Someone get these people back inside,” said Mark.
   Some slaves came outside to help their comrades back inside. Mark started talking to the riders on the ground. “ I’m letting you live because I wanted you to see the power I have. I can kill all of you. You go back into town, and tell everyone that the Thompson’s plantation is off limits. The slaves own it now. The Thompson’s were forced to move away. If anyone comes back here to cause any trouble, I will come to your town, and cause trouble of my own, and you don’t want me to come to your town. Now get up, and ride back to tell them all. The slaves rule,” said Mark.
   The riders got back on their horses, and galloped off to town. Mark went back inside of the house to tend to the wounded. There were three wounded slaves. One women, and two men. The woman looked as though she was shot in the shoulder. Mark reached into his duffle bag, and pulled out a gadget. He placed it on the women’s shoulder, where the wound was located. A series of beeps were made from the little machine. About a couple of minutes later Mark removed the machine, and the woman’s eye’s had opened. He went to the other men, and did the same. Soon they were all getting up from the ground.” Are you a medicine man?” one of the slaves had asked.  “ No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. I guess with what I have to work with, I could be a doctor in this time. What I brought along with me could make me a king,” said Mark.
   The slaves gathered around Mark.” My name’s Joseph. That’s the name my master had given me. We all have names that we were born with.”  “ Do you know your original names?” asked Mark. “ All we know is that our ancestors had come from the mother country on ships, and were brought here. That’s the story we have been told from our elders before they had passed away,” said Joseph. “ Yea,I’ve read about it,” said Mark.
“ I don’t understand .You’ve read about it?”  “ I mean I was told about it.”
   Mattie walked up to Mark. “  Do you want to walk around in the sun, before it goes down?” she asked.  “ I would like that,” said Mark. They walked around out on the plantation.” This is one beautiful piece of land, and it’s all ours,” said Mark. “ I can’t get used to calling this land ours, but as long as you are with us we feel safe.” Mattie moved closer to Mark, and Mark moved closer to Mattie. Then they kissed. “ You know something Mattie? I’m going to enjoy this time.” “ Mattie laughed. You sure talk strange.”
   There was a rumbling heard from a distance. Mark turned around to see some riders in white hooded capes galloping towards them.” I didn’t know the K.K.K. was around this early. Go get inside of the house.Quick.”  Mattie ran inside of the house. Mark hid behind a tree, and waited .He had his side arm with him. The Clans had arrived, and stopped. They got off of their horses, and one of them started to light a torch. Mark pulled out his gun, and fired at the clansman. The clansman’s arm flew off. “ What the, argg!” the man yelled out.
   Another man’s leg had dropped from his horse, and he fell off screaming. A couple of trees were blown in half, and a fire had started. The horses rose up on their hind legs, and their riders had fallen off. The horses had ran away. The men on the ground were all squirming around trying to get up, and trying to make out what had just happened. Mark had made his presence known. “ Don’t move, or you’ll die where you lay.”  The men froze. “ Who are you?” one of the men had asked.  “ I’m the one who’s taking over this plantation, and you are trespassing. Take off those hoods.” They all did.
“ Now  take off your clothes”  “ Are you crazy?” asked one of the men. Suddenly the ground had exploded next to them.” I said take them off.”
   The men hurried up, and got nude. “Now I want you all to go back into town and tell everyone that this plantation is ours, and anyone who comes out here will be dealt with by me.”  The men got up, and ran towards town. Mark shot at the ground around them, and the men ran faster. “ Hope that they got the message.”
   Back in town ,Mat Thompson was talking to the constable. “ Look Constable. I was ran off of my property by some strange black man, and he was carrying a weapon that I have never seen before in my life. Get some help to get this black man off of my property. He’s stirring up my slaves, and made me give my house to them.”  “ Look Mat. I’ll get some people together, and we’ll hang that bastard on the nearest tree in front of the slaves to leave a message. Meanwhile you ,and your family should stay at the hotel until this matter is resolved.” “ Thanks Constable.”
   Mat left the constable’s office, and was met by a crowd of people who were staring at a group of naked men running towards the constable’s office. “ Hey Constable. You better come out here,” said Mat.
“ What now?” he said as he walked towards the door.
   Eight naked men had ran pass the constable, and into his office. The people ran in after him. ” What happen to you,” asked a man in the crowd. “ Some black man with a strange gun did this. How did he get a hold of a gun?” said the naked man. “ Yea. I’ve never seen him around in these parts before,” said another naked man. “ That’s the one that ran me and my family off of my property, and stirred up my slaves,” said Mat. “ Ok, I want you men to get some clothes on, and I need some men to come out with me to Mat Thompson’s plantation. We can’t let an armed slave run around loose.” said the constable. “ We’ll get our guns Constable,” someone said. “ I want you all to meet me back here in one hour,” said the constable. “ I don’t know, Constable. That black man have some kind of power that I’ve never seen before. I think it’s that black magic them slaves been practicing. They sing all the time while picking cotton,” said another naked man. “ I don’t believe in black magic, and go get dress,” said the constable. “ Wait a minute Constable. He said that if we come back and causes trouble, he’ll come into town, and bring hell with him,” said the naked man. “ No slave can talk that way to a white man. Hurry up and get dress. I want to bring this slave into town and make an example of him,” said the constable.
   One Hour Later…. The men had all shown up at the Constables station. There were twenty of them all together. “ Ok.Get your horses and lets ride,” said the constable.
They all left the station together, shouting. They jumped on top of their horses and rode off.
   Mark was tending to the injured. “ Ok, you’ll be fine now. I want all of you to be on guard, because those white people are not known for giving up. I know they will be back, so I want a volunteer to stand as a look out over there, on top of that hill. There you can see for miles away. You will be relieved every hour. I want another man to stand over there, in the back, on top of that hill. You will also be able to see for miles. This way they will not be able to sneak up on us.” “ I will go first over there,” said a slave.  “ What’s your name?” asked Mark. “ My name’s Jeremiah.”  “ Ok,Jeremiah. You go over to that hill.” “ I’ll stand guard on the hill in the back,” said a man walking towards Mark. “ And what’s your name?” asked Mark. “  My name’s Moses,” he said. “ Ok Moses. You stand guard over there. I think that should do it. The rest of you just keep your eyes, and ears open,” said Mark. Mattie walked up to Mark. “ Did you use to be a soldier?” “ I was once in the service a long time ago.” “ Mark, can I talk to you for a minute?” asked Mattie.
“ Sure Mattie.” “ How did you come by such strange weapons?”  “ It’s complicated. You wouldn’t understand.” “ Are you a witch?” “ No Mattie,” Mark said, laughing.“ Are you a God?” “ Mattie, I’m not a witch, and I’m not a God.” “ But you have such strange powers.” “ Mattie, what I have are just machines. Where I come from these are common.” “ You must come from a strange place.” “ To you, it would be strange. Mattie, you better go into the other room. I can feel that there’s going to be trouble tonight.”  “ How do you know?” “ I know my history. Now you go.”
   Mattie kissed Mark on the cheek, and ran into the other room. The sun was going down, and it was getting dark. Mark checked his weapons,but because there was no electricity, he had to use a lantern. He grabbed everything and placed them on his body. He went outside. He couldn’t see the two men on the hill, and they couldn’t see him. The only light outside was that of the moon. It was a full moon, and the sky was clear. No smog.
  The sun was completely down. The darkness have arrived. The only sound in the air was
that of crickets chirping, and on the top of a hill, a short distance away,Jeremiah was staring off into the horizon when suddenly he had spotted something in the distance. A thick line of light moving slowly up the road, about a couple of miles away. He couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was coming in his direction. He ran down the hill, and back to the house. He opened the door suddenly, and everyone had turned towards him.
“ Jeremiah! What’s wrong?” asked one of the slaves. “ I think they’re coming. I saw a long line of lights heading this way. Mark!”  yelled Jeremiah,excitedly. Mark ran towards the front of the house. ” What’s the matter?” he asked. “ They’re coming!” “ How many are there?”  “ I couldn’t tell. They were so far away that I couldn’t count them. All I saw was a line of lights.” “ Take me there.”
   Mark, and Jeremiah left the house. They both ran towards the hill, and then up to the top. “ Right over there,” said Jeremiah, as he was pointing. Mark looked on. “ They’re carrying torches, and they are about a mile, and a half away.” “ I could’ve sworn that the line of lights were longer,” said Jeremiah. “ Maybe it seemed that way when they were further out. Your eyes can play tricks on you.” “ I guess you’re right, Mark. So what are we going to do? They have guns, and we have nothing.”  “ You mean what am I going to do? Why don’t you go back with the others, and let them know what’s going on.” “ Mark, you’re not going to take them on all by yourself, are you?” “ This is like a piece of cake. You just tell them that everything’s going to be alright,and I’ll be there soon,ok?”
“ Ok Mark.”
   Jeremiah ran down the hill, and back towards the house, while Mark looked on. “ I can see that the road at the bottom of the hill leads right towards those riders. I’ll put on my night vision glasses to see the road better.” Mark said to himself. He ran down the hill, and jogged towards the riders. When the riders were nearer, he jumped into some bushes.       He counted about fifteen riders in all. He heard them talking about killing all of the slaves, and getting new ones for Mat Thompson. They were all carrying their rifles on the side of their horses, and were holding torches in their other hand.
   Mark took out his pulse rifle, and aimed at the last rider. He shot at the bush in front of him, and his horse rosed up on it’s hind legs. The rider fell off, and started yelling. The rest of the riders had turned around, and started riding towards the back. More bushes were exploding, and the riders had fallen off of their horses. They started shooting in all directions. Mark had shot one rider, and he fell dead. The horses had ran off. Now the riders were on foot. “ I told you not to come back,” yelled Mark.
“ Come on out slave. We got something for you,” said one of the men. As soon as he had said it, he fell dead. More shots were fired, and more men fell towards the ground. Soon there was only one man left alive. “ I’m letting you live to tell the rest of your people what has happened here,” said Mark.  “ The last laugh is on you slave,” said the man.
“ What do you mean?” “ We knew that you might show yourself, so we had split up. There are at least fifteen more riders that went around towards the back of the plantation. We knew that you couldn’t be in two places at once, so about right now the other slaves are dead.”  “ You’re lying you bastard.”  “ Go see for yourself.” “ If you’re telling the truth, then God help your town. You go tell them that. God better help your town, because I’m bringing Hell with me. Go.” said Mark.
   The man got up from the ground and ran towards the town. Mark ran back towards the house. When he had arrived, everything was quiet. He heard a low rumbling sound. He looked off to the side, and saw a line of torches along the road going away from the plantation. They must’ve been about a half a mile away.
   He turned and went inside of the house. It was dark. Their were no lanterns burning. No sound. He started walking through memory, of how the house was made. He tripped over something. “ What the….I better put back on my infrared glasses. Is everyone ok?”he yelled out while he was putting on his glasses. After he had placed his glasses on his face he looked down towards the floor. “ Damn,what happened?”  he said to himself as he bent down to check the pulse of the slave that was laying on the floor. He looked straight ahead. “ My God.”
   There were bodies all over the place. “  Mattie!” he yelled out, as he started searching the bodies on the floor, trying ,and hoping that he didn’t see her’s. The infrared glasses made everyone look about the same. He had to actually look closely at their faces. Even the kids were killed. He did see a dress that he had recognized. He walked over to the person who was wearing the dress. His worst fear had come true. It was Mattie. She was shot in the head. Right between her eyes. Mark bent down and placed his head on Mattie’s bloodied dress, and cried. He laid on top of her, and fell asleep until morning.      
   When he had awakened, everything seemed worse, because now he could see their faces. They never even had a chance. It was like they were rounded up, and executed.
“ So that’s how it is in this time.Ok, two can play that game, and now it’s my turn.”
   Mark had gathered up his equipment, and placed them on his person. He had all kinds of weapons from his future. Weapons he had not used yet. He left the house, but before he did, he had set fire to it, and the house went up in a glorious flame. It was seen from the town.
   The towns people were shouting that there was a fire on the Thompson’s plantation. They started gathering equipment to carry towards the place. There were wagons with water in them, and men on horses, all riding to the plantation. Mark was riding along the road when he saw a group of people riding towards him. He got off of his horse, and tied the horse to a tree, out of sight. He walked over to the middle of the road. When the riders saw that a black man was standing in the middle of the road, they drew their guns, but they didn’t get a chance to fire, because their horses had thrown them. The trees had burst into flames. The riders were on the ground.
   Mark didn’t want to harm the animals, but the men belong to him. He shot each and every one of them, except one. “ Get back on your horse, and ride into town. Tell them that I’m coming.”  The man climbed back on his horse, and rode back towards the town. Mark got back on his horse and started riding .
   Now it was late in the afternoon, and the sun was going down. Mark was on a hill, looking down towards the town. “ By now they should’ve gotten my message.” Mark started riding down the hill, but then it struck him. “ Those thick trees up ahead would be a good place for an ambush.” he said to himself.
    He climbed down from his horse, and tied the horse against a tree. He took out his rifle, and put it together, using nuclear pellets. “ One shot should do the trick,” He aimed the rifle down towards the middle of the road, between the thick trees, and fired. He pulled his horse down low enough so the heat blast will follow up the hill, and over their heads.
   The pellet hit the middle of the road, and exploded. There was a small mushroom cloud up ahead. The thick trees up ahead had burst into flames. There were cries of pain up ahead also. Suddenly the bodies were wandering out on the road. Then they fell dead. A few minutes later, after the wind had died down, Mark had released his horse’s head so it can rise up on it’s legs.
    As Mark walked down the road, holding on to his horse, he noticed the bodies. They were all in different positions with their skins burned off of their bones. Some were in the direct path of the blast, and their shadows were the only thing left on the ground. At least it looked like their shadows.
    The townspeople saw the mushroom cloud, but couldn’t understand what it was. They also heard the blast. They’ve never heard a sound so loud before. There was smoke coming from up the trail in the distance. The people all gathered in the streets to see what it was. The men of the town had their guns ready. They all stared, and then one man on a horse suddenly came out of the smoky road, and was slowly heading in their direction.
   As the man on the horse became recognizable, the people realized that it was a black man. “ Look at the way he’s dressed,” said one of the townsmen. “ That’s the one we’ve been after. He’s the one that’s been stirring up the slaves,” said another townsman. “ Lets string him up,” said another townsman.
   They all started running up the trail. Mark saw them and took out his rifle. He got down from his horse. He took aim, and fired a nuclear pellet behind them. It exploded, and the men along with some homes had disintegrated. The townspeople had started running in all directions. Mark waited until the wind had died down, and then he continued towards the town.
   The people started hiding but it didn’t do any good. Mark had fired more pellets at their homes,and businesses,and all that was extra had exploded. There were small mushroom clouds throughout the town. The town was engulfed in smoke and fire. Mark waited until everything had cleared up. It took about two hours, but he didn’t mind. He just sat down, out of the path of the hot wind, and thought about Mattie. “ She didn’t deserve to die like that. None of them did.”
   After the wind had died down, Mark decided that it was time to ride through the town. He did. There were skeletons laying in the streets and on the platforms. Shadows of people were up against the walls of buildings, and homes. All of the homes were flattened, and some had disintegrated. Richmond Virginia was no more.
   Mark road out of the town. “ There’s no place for me to go, so I’ll just have to keep riding until I come across a place. The plantation was burned down. I thought that I could spend the rest of my life with people that I know, and a woman for me to love, but I guess that was never the case, but I do know this. There are other plantations around, and other slaves that need my help. Only this time I won’t cause the deaths of many slaves. I now know what this time period is really about. Not like the books that I’ve read. No, this is the real story, and I do know this. When I’m done here, my timeline will have a new history about this time, and maybe in my timeline things will be different for my people. Just maybe, but until then I have enough weapons to last a lifetime, cause nuclear power will never run out. In this time, history is mine.”


                                                                                                                The End
                                                                                                                    By                                                                                                        
                                                                                                        Kevin Doy Burton










                                                           Chapter Thirteen

Tommie Lee is a rich real-estate tycoon who came down with cancer,and would do anything to live longer.

                                                   One Way Trip Into The Future

  “ Here I am.Tommie Lee.The riches real estate tycoon in the world. I’m even richer than Donald Trump. “ Mr.Lee?” “ Yes, Charles?”  “ Dinner is ready,sir”
 “ Thanks Charles.I’ll be right down.” “ Yes, sir.”  “ Yes,this is the life.My own butler,and maids,and I’m only fourty six years old. What could possibly go wrong now?”
    Tommie went downstairs to eat.While he was eating, he picked up his remote control to turn on the flat screen tv, on the wall. The news was on.The Anchorman started talking.
   “ This is Ron Lowe on TWLX News. Bringing to you an up to the minute news story about a scientist who says he had invented a time machine. His name is Jack Castle. Now folks. To me this is straight out of a science fiction story,but you be the judge. I’m going to turn this story over to Susan Camo,our news woman on the scene. Susan will you enlighten us?”
  “ Yes I will, Ron. We have here Jack Castle,a scientist. Mr.Castle,will you tell the viewers about your time machine?” “ Yes I will Susan. I believe that my machine works.” “ Have you tested it?” “ Yes,I did. I sent an apple through my machine.”
“ How far up ahead did you send it?” “ I sent it five minutes ahead.” “ How do you know it worked?”  “ Well,when I sent it,it disappeared.So I waited for five minutes later,and that’s when it had appeared back again.” “ Have you ever sent a live specimen?” “ Yes. I sent a cat ahead for one hour,and I waited.”  “ Did the cat come back?”  “ Yes. An hour later,the cat did come back.”  “ How far ahead in the future can you send anyone?”  “ I haven’t tried sending a man yet,but if you really want to know.I can set my machine for up to 100,000 years into the future.”
    “ That’s amazing,but why haven’t you tried to send, lets say,someone fifty years into the future?”  “ Because I would have to wait fifty years to see if he would appear.”  “ Can you bring a person back?” “ I’m working on it now.” “ So right now,if anyone was to use your time machine,it would be a one way trip into the future.” “ That’s correct.”  “ Thank you, Mr.Castle. There you have it. The first time machine. Back to you Ron.”  “ Thanks Susan. Well I for one think this Jack Castle is one for the Looney Tunes,but that’s me,folks. Now we’ll go to the weather.”
    “ Now I’ve heard it all. A time machine. That guy’s a kook.”  The cell phone had rung. “ Yes Betty?”  “ Mr. Lee, you told me to remind you about your physical today.” “Thanks Betty.”  Tommie  hung up the phone. “ Charles?”  he called out. Charles came immediately. “ Sir,you called?”  “ Yes Charles,I’m going to the hospital.” “ Are you ok,sir?” “ Yes.I’m just going for a physical. Send the Rose around the front for me.”  “ Yes sir.”
    Charles left to have the Rose Royce brought around the front. “ I just hate these physicals.The poking, and prodding,but at least they can find out everything about me with there new machines. If only they could cheat death. After all,what good is being rich if you can’t take it with you.”
   Tommie left the table to go outside.He got inside of his Rose Royce,and his driver drove him to the hospital. Upon entering the hospital he had a premonition. “ That’s strange.It seems as if I’ve been here before,but that’s impossible. This is the first time i’ve ever had a physical before. There was no need for it.I’m too busy making money.”
Tommie walked over to the receptionist. “ May I help you?” she asked. “ I have an appointment for a physical.My name’s Tommie Lee.” “ Let me check Mr.Lee. Oh yes.You will be seeing Dr. Knight. If you would just have a seat,I will call for you.”
“ Thank you miss.”  “ You’re welcome.”
   Tommie left the receptionist,and sat down on the nearest chair.He grabbed the
newspaper to read. A few minutes later the nurse came around. “Mr.Tommie Lee?”she asked.  “ Yes,that’s me.”  “ Will you follow me?” Tommie got up to follow the nurse,who led him to a private room. “ The doctor will be in shortly,but in the meantime,you can strip down to your underwear,and put on this gown. I’ll give you some privacy,” said the nurse. “ Thank you,nurse.”
   Tommie stripped down to his underwear,and placed the gown on. Then he waited. A few minutes later a knock was heard on the door,and the doctor came in.
“ Tommie Lee?” “ Yes,that’s me.”  “ Mr.Lee,I’m Doctor Knight,and I have a few things for you to do for me. I’m going to have your blood drawn,and some x-rays ordered. Your physical should take about an hour.”  “ I’m ready Doctor. Shoot.”
“ I’m glad to see that you are in good spirits. Shall we began?”  “ Lets.”
   An hour later Tommie walked out of the hospital. “ Boy I feel great.”  Tommie’s phone had rung. “ Hello? Oh Barbara. Sure come over. I just had my physical,and I’m fine. I’ll meet you at the mansion. ” He got inside of his car. “ Take me back to the mansion. “ “ Yes,sir,” said the driver,and they left the hospital. Later upon arriving back at the mansion,Tommie had that same strange feeling. “ Mr.Lee. Your doctor wants you to call him back right away.”  “ Did he say for what?”  “ No sir.Only that I was supposed to give you that message right away.”  Tommie called back at the hospital. “ Dr. Knight?” “ Yes Mr.Lee. Can you come back to the hospital? This is something that I have to tell you in person.”  “ I’ll be right there.”
   Tommie closed up his phone. I wonder what’s that all about? I bet they forgot to give me another test on something,just because I’m rich they want to drain me for what ever they can squeeze out of me,but hey. If it makes me live longer, then so be it. Charles,have the Rose brought back around the front.”  “ Is everything ok Mr. Lee?”  “ Everything’s fine. They probably forgot another test that they want me to complete. That’s all,and Charles, Barbara’s coming by.Let her in,and make her comfortable,ok?” “ Yes sir,Mr.Lee.”
   Charles left to have the Rose brought around the front of the mansion. He sat down inside. “ Take me back to the hospital.”  “ Is everything ok,Mr.Lee?”  “ Yes.
They probably forgot to give me another test.That’s all.”  “ That’s good to hear , sir.”  “ I know this.They better not waist my time. There’s money that has to be made.”
   Fifteen minutes later they had arrived at the hospital. Tommie Lee left the Rose,and went straight towards the receptionist. “ Dr. Knight called me at home as soon as I had arrived,and said that he wanted to see me right away.” “ I’ll page him for you Mr.Lee.” “ Thanks.”  The receptionist paged Dr.Knight,and five minutes later he had arrived.  “ Mr.Lee?”  “ Yes Dr. Knight. What’s the emergency?”
“ Will you follow me to my office?”  “ Sure.”
   They both walked down the corridor until they were at Dr. Knight’s office. They went in. Dr.Knight sat behind his desk. “ You may have a seat Mr. Lee.”  Tommie sat down. “ Ok what test did I miss?” “ You didn’t miss any test ,but what I have to say have to be said while you are here.” “ Ok.Now I’m here. So tell me.”
   Dr.Knight picked up a folder and opened it. “ Mr.Lee. Your lab results came in,and it shows that you have cancer in your blood.”  “ What?” Tommie said out loud. “ What do you mean cancer in the blood? I feel fine.” “ Right now you do,but you will start getting tired in a few weeks.” “ So give me some medication or something.”  “ I would if I could,but you have a rare form of cancer. I can say for sure that you have at least three months to live. The more activities you do the more tired you will become,and your life could be shorter.”  “ Three months to live? Doctor I will pay you anything,just to cure me.”  “ I’m sorry Mr. Lee,but know money in the world can cure this. Like I said.The disease is rare.I’m sorry.”
“ Thanks for nothing Doc.”
   Tommie got up and left the doctor’s office. He sat down inside of his Rose. “ Take me home.” “ Is everything ok,sir?” “ No,and I don’t want to talk about it.”  “ Yes sir.” The driver took Tommie home. As the driver got out of the Rose to walk around to open the door for Tommie,he realized that Tommie had got out on his own.Then he had hurried towards the door of the mansion. The driver looked confused,as he saw Tommie rushing towards the mansion door.
   Tommie went inside of the mansion.He was greeted by his Butler. “ Can I take your coat ,sir?”  “ No.”   Tommie walked towards his office. He went in and closed his door. A few minutes later a knock was heard. “ I don’t want to be disturbed.”  The door opened.  “ I said that….”  He didn’t finish,because it was Barbara that had came in. “ What’s wrong with you Tommie? “  “ I just got some bad news from my doctor.”  “ What did he say?”  “ Apparently I have a rare blood disease.”
“ What?”  “ That’s exactly how I answered when I heard the news. I have three months to live,and that’s only if I sit around and do nothing.If I run around trying to make more money, I will have less time than that.” “ What are you going to do?” “ I don’t know.I have to think.”  “ Is there something you want me to do for you?”
“ No. I just want to be left alone. Please go. “  “ But Tommie.”  “ I said go!” said Tommie loud,and angry. Barbara cried,and left his office. “ I don’t need anyone. What good is being rich if know one can help me?”
   He sat down and turned on the tv.There was a replay on the earlier news. The scientist who had discovered a time machine was on. “ That’s it.That scientist. If I could just get in touch with him,he could send me into the future,and I could take all of my money with me. I could get a cashiers check for a billion dollars,and leave the rest of my money in the bank to collect interest. I don’t trust banks. I just want to make sure that there was no virus in their system while I am traveling into the future. I would hate to enter the future broke. I bet about 10,000 years into the future,the doctors would be able to cure me,and I could probably do a little space traveling.Our technology should have advance considerably by then. What was the name of that news team?”
   Tommie looked at the replay in slow motion. “ TWLX News. That’s it. I’ll call that news station.”  Tommie picked up his cell,and called. “ Hello,TWLX. How may I help you,” she said. My name’s Tommie Lee.I want to talk to your station manager.” I’m sorry sir.The station manager is not excepting calls,but if you want to leave a message,I can give it to him.” “ What about that news lady who did the story about that scientist who invented the time machine?” “ You mean Susan Camo?” “ Yes,that’s her.” “ Well,sir.You won’t be able to talk to her.She is out in the field. I could give you her email address,and you could send her a message.”
“ No.That won’t do. When will she be back?” “ I don’t have that information,sir.”
“ How about I come down to the station to see her?” “ We don’t allow visitors to come inside of the station unless they are expected,sir.” “ What is your address?”
“ Sir,you sound like you are upset about something,and because of that I won’t be able to give you that information.”  The person hung up on Tommie. “ That bitch. I’ll get that address off of the internet.
   Tommie searched the internet for his city’s news stations. “ Got it. Charles!” he called out. Charles came right away. “ Sir.You called.” “ Yes Charles. Have the Rose brought around the front.” “ Yes sir,” said Charles.Then he left. “ I’ll go to the station,and wait for that news anchor woman. If they still don’t let me in,i’ll hire a private detective to follow her. I will get that information.”
   Tommie left the mansion,and jumped inside of his Rose Royce. “ Take me to this address.” The driver drove off. Soon they were at the address of the news station. Tommie got out of the car and went inside. There were people all walking around the station looking very busy. He walked up to a person who was walking pass him. “ Excuse me.Where can I find Susan Camo,the anchor woman?”  “ You have to go over to that desk and ask the receptionist,but I doubt you’ll get anywhere.”
“ Why?”  “ Because you have to be expected.You are expected are you?” “ No,but I need some information about what I saw on the news today.” “ Oh. Is that all? Just go and asked to speak to the station manager. Just tell him you saw something on the news that you want to question.”  “ Thanks a lot? ”
   Tommie walked over to the receptionist. “ Can I help you?” she asked. “ Yes you can.I would like to speak to your station manager please.” “ Hold on while I page him.What ‘s your name?” “ My name’s Tommie Lee.”  “ Can you tell me what’s it about?” “ Sure.It’s about what I saw on the news today. I just want to get some information.”  “ Ok,just one moment.”
   The receptionist paged the station manager. He called back,and she gave him the
information,then she hung up the phone. “ He’ll be right down. If you want to take a seat. I’ll let you know when he arrives.” “ Thank you. I’ll do that.” Tommie sat down and waited. Soon the station manager had shown up. He talked to the receptionist,and she pointed over to where Tommie was sitting. The manager walked over to Tommie. “ Mr. Tommie Lee? He extended his hand,and Tommie stood up to shake it.. “ Yes.That’s me.” “ I understand that you wanted to asked me a question?” “ Yes I do. I was watching the news this morning when I saw your anchor woman who’s name is Susan Camo. She did an interview on a scientist named Jack Castle. I just wanted to know where I could reach him.”  “ We don’t give out home addresses but I can give you where his place of business is located.”
“ I would appreciate it.”  “ Wait here while I pull up a file on our interviews. Kathy,let me just use this computer for a minute.” “ Sure.”
   A minute later… “ Here it is.I’ll just run off a print off copy for you.”  “ Thanks a million,” said Tommie. A print off copy of Jack Castle’s business was handed to him. “ I hope that this will help you.” “ This will do fine.”  Tommie took the sheet that was handed to him and he left the station. “ Now to find this location.” Tommie walked back to the Rose. He got into the car. “ Hey Joey. Do you know where this place is?”  “ I’ll turn on the direction finder,sir,” said Joey. He turned  it on,and punched in the address. “ Sir,it looks as if it’s off the grid.” “ What do you mean ,off the grid?”  “ I mean,sir,that it’s far off the road,and way deep into an isolated area.” “ Can you get me there?”  “ Yes, sir.” Then take me there.”  “ Yes,sir.”
   The driver drove off. While riding Tommie decided to call the number on the sheet. The phone had rung on the other end. It kept on ringing. “ Come on. Pick it up,” said Tommie angrily. Finally someone had answered. “ Hello? “ “ Hello? Is this Dr. Jack Castle?”  “ Yes it is.Who is this?” “ Dr.Castle,my name is Tommie Lee. I saw you on the news today.”  “ Are you calling to call me a crack pot,because if you are,I’m going to hang up the phone.” “ No sir.I’m not. Only you can help me.It’s a matter of life and death.I need to speak to you,and I can make it worth your while. I’m a rich man,and I want to finance your research, if you let me.Can we meet?”
“ Do you know about my time machine?”  “ Yes I do ,sir. That is what I want to talk to you about. I can be over to your place of business in a half an hour,if that’s ok with you,and I can start you off with $100,000 to go towards your research. “
“ Well,ok.Do you know how to come over here.It can be a little tricky. “Don’t worry,sir,as long as you know that I am coming.” “ I’ll be waiting.”
   Tommie turned off his cell phone. This should be good. Joey,just follow what the direction finder says.” Yes,sir. They rode out of town,and about twenty minutes later,they had to turn off of the road. “ Where are you going ,Joey?”  “Sir, according to this direction finder the address should be further up that trail,only we will have to walk from here.”  “ Joey,you wait inside of the car. If I’m not back in an hour then you can leave.”  “ Why wouldn’t you be back ,sir?”  “ I have some business to discuss with a certain person.”  “ Yes sir. I’ll wait here,sir. Thanks Joey.
   Tommie started jogging through the wooded area. He kept pushing away the large leaves,and finally he came across what looked like a warehouse.It looked abandoned. He walked towards it.There was something turning in the trees. He looked up,and saw a camera aimed at him. He also came across a fence.There was an electric door in the fence. “ I wonder if this red button is a doorbell.” He pushed it. There was a small speaker above the doorbell. “ What do you want,” said the voice on the speaker. “ I’m Tommie Lee. I spoke to you earlier.”
   The gate opened.Tommie walked through. As he walked closer to the warehouse looking building,a sliding door had opened up. It was made of steel. He walked through it. As he walked down the corridor, a man stepped out in the middle of the hallway. “ So you’re the one who have a life and death situation,and you’re willing to pay top dollar. I am interested in knowing what is so important that you have to come to see me. Come into my office.”  “ Thank you Dr. Castle.”
   Tommie walked into Dr.Castle’s office and sat down. Dr.Castle sat behind his desk. “ Ok Mr. Lee. How can I help you.”  “ I saw you on tv today…”   “ Before you go any further,you’re not here just to call me a crackpot in person are you?”  “ No. I’m not. I’m here because I believe in your success in time travel,and that is why I
am here.” “ So you want to make a donation.”  “ I want to see first hand what you have accomplished before I make a decision. First let me show you what I have to offer you.”
   Tommie took out a brief case and opened it.It was filled with one hundred dollars bills. “ Inside of this case is two hundred thousand dollars. It is yours if you can show me that your time machine works.” Dr. Castle took a look at the money inside of the suit case.
“ Well, that is an awful lot of money.”  “ Then you’ll show me?”  “ Yes.Follow me.”
Dr.Castle,and Tommie got up to leave the office. They both walked further down the corridor,and Dr. Castle turned to open up a door that was locked. “ It’s right in here,” he said.
   They both walked inside. It was dark. “ Watch your step,” said Dr.Castle. Tommie stopped in his tracks. The lights were suddenly turned on. There were thick cords all along the floor. There was a computer in the middle of the room. The thick cords all led to a glass booth. The booth was the size of a closet. There was a bench inside of it for sitting,although you can also stand in it. “ There she is. My time machine.”
“ Will you demonstrate it for me? “  “ I sure will,but let me explain something to you. You will see an object disappear,and come back minutes later.That will only show you that it went minutes into the future.” “ Show me that.”  “ Ok. Why don’t you have a seat here.”
   Tommie sat down to watch. “ I’m going to send this apple into the future by five minutes.” Dr.Castle picked up an apple and sat it on the bench inside of the booth. He closed the door,and walked over to the computer. “ Now watch.”  Dr.Castle punched in some data,and the booth started glowing on the inside, then the glowing cleared,and the apple was gone. “ Where did it go?”asked Tommie. “ Into the future.”  “ Well,how will I know that?” “ Lets just wait for five minutes. That’s how far into the future I sent the apple.”
   Tommie started looking at his watch. Dr.Castle watched the countdown on the computer. “ One minute to go,” he said. They waited “ Ten seconds,” he said. All of
a sudden the booth started glowing. When the glowing cleared,the apple was on the bench. “ If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Tommie. “ That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people. “ How did you come across all of this equipment.” “  I ordered different parts on the internet,and had it shipped here. No one new what the parts was for.”  “ You did the same thing with a cat I heard.” “ Yes I did.”  “ Have you ever sent a human through that time machine?”
“ No.”  “ How far can you send anyone or anything.” “ I can set my computer to send anyone thousands of years into the future.”  “ How will you know if it had worked.” “ Well,I would have to be there to see them come through,and that is impossible,so I have to believe that if I can send a live specimen five minutes into the future and have proof,then I believe that it will work no matter how far into the future I send it.”
    Tommie sat back down. “ Dr.Castle. I have a rare blood desease. I was told that I have at least three months to live. There is no cure. I want you to send me into the future. I believe that a cure will be found there.”  “ I’m beginning to understand.”
“ Yes Doctor.It’s true.I’m rich,and I want to take my money with me so I can survive in the future. This suit case is yours,and I have another one for myself back at my car. Will you do this for me?”  “ I can’t guarantee you anything,and you won’t be able to come back.” “ I have to take that chance Doctor. I have nothing to lose anyway.”  “ How far into the future do you want to go?” “ Well,sooner or later mankind will be able to solve the problem of space travel,and the cars will be better. Even medicine will be better.Who knows.Maybe I will be able to live an additional hunder years with all the new cures for deseases. I want to go ten thousand years into the future.”
   Dr.Castle started rubbing his head. “ This is so unusual. There will be no way for me to know if you are alright. Go to your car,and get you suit case.I’ll reset the computer for your departure.”  “ Oh boy.Thanks Doc.I’ll be right back.” Tommie ran out of the room. He ran out of the warehouse,and back through the woods. He saw Joey standing by the car. “ Joey, I’m going away for a long while,and I’m going
to give you something.” Tommie took out his checkbook,and wrote something on it.He handed it to Joey. Joey looked at it. “ A million dollars? Why so much Mr. Lee?”  “ I feel good,and you’ve been wonderful to me. I want you to give these checks to the rest of my staff at the mansion,and tell them that I won’t be coming back. Tell them that their services will no longer be needed.”
   Tommie picked up his suit case. “ Goodbye Joey,” said Tommie as he ran off into the woods. Joey got back into the car and drove off. Tommie ran back to the warehouse. The gate was already open. Tommie met Dr.Castle at the door. “ Are you ready,” he said. “ I am “ said Tommie. They  walked towards the room where the time machine was located. “ Just step into the booth,” said Dr.Castle. Tommie stepped inside of the booth.He placed his suit case in his Lap. Dr.Castle programmed the computer for ten thousand years into the future. He nodded at Tommie,and Tommie gave him the thumbs-up. Soon the booth glowed,and Tommie had disappeared. “ I sure hope he’s alright,” Dr.Castle said to himself.
   Ten Thousand years later the wind was blowing in the field. Flowers of different colors,but strange shapes were swaying in the wind. A glowing ball appeared,and when it had disappeared,Tommie Lee was in it’s place. He fell on the ground with his suit case in his Lap. “ What happen? Where’s the warehouse? It just disappeared. Dr. Castle?” he yelled out. The sky looked kind of different.It was a pink reddish color. The air is breathable. No smog. Tommie Lee started walking. “ I can see a hill up ahead. In fact,the hill is all around me. I can’t be at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Everything is an even round shape. Like a hole,or a crater,but I don’t remember a crater being here,and where’s the highway? I better try and climb that hill up ahead,and see what’s on the other side,” Tommie said to himself.
   He walked for over a mile. “ The edge of this crater is about five hundred yards ahead. That’s funny. All of this walking and I haven’t spotted not one plane flying in the sky. I wonder if I made it into the future. I thought that everything would be spinning around while I was traveling through time,but instead the whole warehouse had vanished in a flash,and then I was here. Did the machine work,or
was I just dreaming? I don’t have anything to go by. Ok ,here’s the edge of the hill. This should be an easy climb,because the hill isn’t that steep,and it’s only about two hundred yards up. I wonder what the buildings would look like. I would have to find a bank to deposit this cashiers check ,then I can go to the hospital to get a physical. Did I really make it ten thousand years into the future?”
   Tommie was halfway up the hill. “ I wonder how everyone will be dressed? I know they will all look at me strangely. I bet that I will look so different from the rest of them.I wonder what the hair style will look like? I’m going to need a complete makeover. I bet the medicine have improved. I bet that I will be able to live another fifty years,at least. Maybe more. Five more feet to the top. I wonder if they do brain transplants. If I can get them to put my brain in an android body I will be able to live forever,and still be rich. I left a lot of my money in the bank to collect interest. Once they get on their computers and track my bank account they will realize that I am their number one client. Finally,I’m at the top of the hill.”
   Tommie looked around,and to his surprise he saw what he wanted to see. Buildings everywhere,only the architect were different. There were no tall buidings at all. The windows were all different,and the doors were shaped different. Everything were only two levels high. There were no streets.No cars. “ I can see people around. I wish that I had some binoculars. From this distance I can’t make out what the people are doing.”  He kept on walking. “ The city looked large. I can’t remember what it reminds me of. If only I could remember. “ What’s that?”
   Tommie looked up at the sky to see that a flying machine was landing in the city.
“ Where did that come from? I didn’t see it pass over head. It just came from above. Did it come from outer space ?”  The flying machine had disappeared behind some buildings. The people that were walking had turned around.They sensed that something was behind them. Tommie stopped in his tracks when he made out what the people looked like.
   He looked in horror. “ This can’t be.What are they?” They’re not human. Tommie turned and ran,but something had flown over him,and landed in front of him. “ No! Go away! Don’t come near me! The creature had picked up Tommie,and carried him away. Tommie screamed all the way. His suitcase had dropped from his hands. The creature had flown Tommie into the city.
   Once in the city,Tommie was placed inside of a tweeded dome.He was cocooned.
“ Don’t eat me.I don’t want to die,” he cried. There were eight creatures communicating with each other. In their own language. “ What is it?”  “ I don’t know. I saw something outside of the city,so I flew overhead to see what it was. I decided to bring it to the city’s medical center for examination.”  “ It’s trying to communicate. Look at it.”  “ It do have two limbs hanging from it’s side.Do you suppose those are it’s arms? “ It could be. It also have two limbs hanging from it’s middle.Maybe they are it’s legs.”  “ I didn’t see any wings on it’s back.That’s why it didn’t try to fly away.” “ Do you suppose it’s a threat to the city. It might be diseased.”
    The creatures stood around staring at Tommie. “ I have an idea. I can preserve it so everyone can observe it for science. It will stay preserved for hundreds of years.”  “ Will you have to kill it.” “ No. I can keep the brain alive so it will know it’s being taken care of. It’s body will be solidified in our secretion. It will be able to live as long as us. At least two hundred years. If it is deseased,then the desease will be secreted also.”   “ I think that would be a good idea.At least for science.” “ I’ll start the process while it’s in the cocoon.” “ Why don’t we use the  language transformer on it. This way it will know that we are trying to help it.” “ That should be fine.”
The creatures had place a device on top of Tommies head,and turned it on. They explained everything to Tommie,but Tommie was to much in shock to return the communication.The creatures took the device off of Tommies head. “ Maybe it has no voice patterns.” “ Well at least it knows what we are trying to do to it.”  “ I feel better already,because we never take a life away from any living creature.”  “ It will be so happy that we will be taking good care of it in our cocoon for the next two hundred years.”
   Tommie realized what the creatures were trying to do for him. He wanted to tell them that he was human,and that he don’t need to be cocooned. He’s a man,but he was to  scared to communicate on time. Now the communicating device has been taken away. Tommie screamed. “ I don’t want to live like this for two hundred years. Kill me now,please.”  But his voice was unrecognizable. In a way,Tommie did get his wish.The wish to beat cancer.

 
                                                                                                                    The End
                                                                                                                         By                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                             Kevin Doy Burton