The Chrononauts

The college students were having a séance. Each student was told who they were and what they did in their last life. The psychic woman turned to the conceited fat guy who was beyond full of himself. She shuddered badly and changed posture. Her voice, which had been light and airy, now became heavy and definitely masculine. “You were a World War One pilot. Your father was a German baron. I can help you get your glory back, if you wish.”

The boy smiled. “I was the Red Baron. Yes, I would like my glory back.” The other people in his group looked at the ceiling and shook their heads.

One of the female students sighed. “He didn’t say you were the Red Baron, Steve.”

After the séance was over, everyone went back to their dorm rooms. Steve was alone. His roommate was on a date, but Steve never had dates. He took out his Ouija board. Steve was happy to find it worked with him alone. It talked to him, saying, “When our frequencies sync, I can whisper in your ear. You can call me Edward, if you wish.”

A few days later, he could hear Edward in his ear. “It is time to go win money from the casino. I will tell you what to do. You will be rich.” Steve won twenty thousand dollars. He was excited beyond words.

He heard Edward in his ear. “Now I get to be alive in your body for a night. That will be the price for each casino visit.”

Steve immediately agreed. The next morning, a sixteen-year-old girl’s body was found in the University garden, with her throat slashed and fifty stab wounds.

It had rained hard all night. Steve was shocked to discover that his shoes were covered in mud. He hadn’t gone out during the night. He heard the voice in his ear again. “Tonight, you will win a hundred thousand dollars.”

Steve hesitated. “You killed that girl.”

Edward laughed in his ear. “Yes, I did, but she had cancer. She would have died a horrible death in two years. Remember, I can make you the richest man in the world.”

The police found DNA on the girl’s body during their investigation. Steve was very nervous when he heard that DNA would be collected from all the male students in an effort to find the murderer. Edward spoke in his ear, “Don’t worry; yours won’t be tested.”

The medical examiner’s van arrived on campus and soon his assistants finished the collection of samples. Steve watched an assistant place his sample into a rack and into the back of the van. He noticed that the tech seemed to be half-awake. He picked up Steve’s sample and tossed it in the trash.

Edward’s voice laughed in Steve’s ear, “Told you.” Steve smiled and thought about being the richest man in the world. Over four weeks, Steve became a millionaire and four more young ladies died. The DNA results were back; there was no hit from the collected samples. The Chief of Police was not happy.

The detective spoke to the ME. “We checked all 108 of the samples, and not one matched.”

The medical examiner checked his iPad. “Wait a minute,” he interrupted, “you mean 109.”

The detective checked his tablet. “No, I’m sure: 108.”

The medical examiner looked alarmed. “Check your list with mine and find our missing sample. I want to talk to that assistant.”

Jeff, the assistant, sat outside the medical examiner’s door. He’d been summoned to talk about the missing sample. He knew nothing. He had a wonderful urge to jump out the fourth-floor window. He satisfied his urge.

The detectives found the missing name on their list. The four dead ladies each had something in common with Steve. They were all in his psych class and two of them had rejected date offers from a fat, little red-headed twerp.

Steve was brought in and a DNA sample was taken again. He was conceited and sure of himself. He sneered, “They were lucky I asked them out. None of them were exactly good-looking.” The detective hoped like hell the DNA would match. He put a rush on it. The result came back a few days later.

The ME called the detective. “Not a match, sir. She is not your killer.”

The detective laughed. “It was a male’s DNA, sir. I watched them take it myself.”

The ME thought a minute. “Huh, must have been a mix-up at the lab. Maybe I better bring the sample myself.”

Meanwhile, the bad guys, with Victoria in tow, headed out into the Superstition Mountains. The good guys were way behind.

Brady shivered. “Boy, there is something about these mountains that’s spooky.”

Matt laughed. “The Apache call the area the Devil’s Playground.”

Brady had Snowflake float down to his shoulder. He looked at her nervously. “Is it safe in here?”

He got two hoots.

“Ah, will we get out alive?”

He got two hoots.

“Are you screwing with me?”

He got one hoot. Everyone laughed at him.

Brady blushed, “Very funny, Snowflake.”

He got one hoot.

Jacob led Jack and his crew into the Superstitions. He let Victoria ride on his donkey. Victoria looked down at the old man. She spoke to him in German. “You can ride; I can walk perfectly fine.”

Jacob chuckled, “You are riding because of your flimsy shoes. I have these boots to protect me.” There was a loud scream from the back of the line of hikers.

A man was swearing and limping. “I got bit by a rattler.”

Jacob nodded at Victoria, “These men have flimsy shoes, too.”

One of the men had some medical skills. He looked at the wound. “We have no anti-venom. We will have to cut it open and suck out what we can,” he advised.

Jack gave the man a look of disgust. “Then you will have to go back to Goldfield by yourself. You might make it.” The man looked at Jack’s gun. His hand was on it. The man nodded and looked down at his bleeding foot.

Victoria looked down at the dead snake. “That is a black-tailed rattlesnake. It is a juvenile, so you have an excellent chance to make it back.”

Victoria realized that the old man was not her grandfather or one of his weird friends. She thought there was something odd about the vibes she was getting. She spoke to him again. “These men do not speak German. Something is bothering you; what is it?”

He looked straight ahead. “There is no gold mine out here.” Victoria looked down at him. “Then where did you get the gold?”

He chuckled and said, “You wouldn’t believe me.”

Victoria laughed. “Well, tell me anyway. I like good stories.”

He sighed, “I heard about the Peralta gold mine two years ago. I had no real job and decided to go out and look for it. The people in Goldfield were afraid of the mountains and the Apache Indians. But I knew the Indians thought I was crazy and wouldn’t hurt me.

I was desperate for money and decided to look for the mine. I spent the last of my money on a couple months of supplies and my donkey, Wilhelm. I found nothing. I didn’t even find quartz. I wandered around for a week and found myself sleepy all the time. I would fall asleep and wake up because of the loud winds and feel dizzy.

Each time, I would awaken holding a large piece of almost solid gold mixed with rose quartz. This happened over and over. I had two bags of gold after two weeks. I went back into Goldfield and everyone thought I had found the gold mine. They followed me around but always got lost when I passed Weaver’s Needle. We will pass Weaver’s this afternoon.”

Meanwhile, the detective drove the four hours to the DNA

laboratory. He found the lab tech had died of an aneurism the night

before. The detective left another DNA sample at the lab and started to drive back that evening. He fell asleep at the wheel and drove through a guard rail and down a hundred-foot cliff. His car burst into flames upon impact.

The next morning, the police were notified about their dead detective. The detectives waited for the DNA results. Several days later, they called the lab again and were surprised to find there had been a gas leak and the lab had blown up, killing seven people.

The captain sent a sample to the FBI in Virginia for the rapid CODIS testing.

Steve was at the casino, winning money. The casino was not

happy and was about to ask him to leave. They were distracted by a man that went crazy at the baccarat table. He tried to leave without paying off the commission fee. It totaled twenty-two thousand dollars. The man was imposing, about six foot eight and carrying a nine-millimeter. He shot three people and all hell broke loose.

Steve continued playing for another half an hour while the pit boss was distracted. He won half a million at blackjack and cashed out. His helper, Edward didn’t know about the quick action by the captain.

Weaver’s Needle was four hours behind the bad guys. The old German was tiring. The sun was starting to go down in

the red sky.

Jack was frustrated. “How far is this mine, old man?”

Jacob thought. “About ten or twelve days, if we are lucky.

Jack looked angry. “What do you mean, if we are lucky?”

The Dutchman scanned the black imposing mountains. “I mean, there has been an earthquake recently and there are also the Apache Indians running around. They will take the earthquake as an omen to kill us all. They think I am crazy, so they leave me alone. They will leave the little girl alone too, but not you or your men. When they find you in here, they will stake you down on an ant hill.”

They made camp. Jack placed the donkey, Victoria, and Dutchman in a small canyon with one exit. The old man told Victoria to stay at least ten feet away from him. He smiled. “I sometimes snore.”

It was surprisingly quiet at night. There was a slight occasional breeze and a lonely coyote’s howl from time to time. The heat of the day dissipated rapidly, and it got very cold.

Victoria slept against the little donkey. She woke to a loud roar and a gale force wind that lasted only ten seconds. The Dutchman was sitting up, panting, with a large rock in each hand. He hit one against a rock on the ground. He tossed a small piece to Victoria and looked at her pocket. She put it away as Jack ran into the canyon with his gun drawn.

He looked down at the two rocks. They were loaded with gold. Jack smiled. “The gold is here. Go find it. I guess we don’t need these two any longer.”

Victoria snorted. “Don’t you think you better find the gold mine first?” That didn’t work out well for the bad guys.

Jack challenged the guard. “They must have got by you.” He shot the man.

His second-in-command stared at him. “That was bloody stupid if there are any Apache around.”

The Dutchman laughed. “They don’t need a gunshot to know we are here.”

The leader asked him. “Where did the gold come from?”

The Dutchman shrugged. “The Apache must have been here when I was asleep. They want you to go in farther so they have more time to kill you. The ants are a lot bigger in the high cactus country.”

Jack’s greed overcame his common sense. “Okay, then let’s go a little farther.” After traveling all the next day, they found a spot to camp and ate a beans and bacon supper. Jack handcuffed a man to the Dutchman for the night. The Dutchman looked at Victoria. She moved her bedroll farther away.

There seemed to be a lot of coyote out in the hills this night, as made clear by the increased howling. A quick thunderstorm went through about two a.m. and woke up the young girl. Victoria studied the old man carefully. He was jittery, like he expected something to happen. She heard a wolf on the hill right behind her. She turned quickly to look at it, but there was nothing to be seen. She turned back and was surprised to see neither man.

Victoria had figured the ore-laden stones were results of an apportation event. She thought, “The Dutchman must be a psychic and not know it. Maybe beings from other worlds were using him as a conduit of some kind. The gold ore was to get him to keep coming back to the mountains.” He wasn’t gone very long.

There was a roar and he was back, sitting up on the ground. His eyes kept hitting their horizontal limits and he was gasping for air. He threw up violently on the ground. Victoria grimaced. “Eww!” she said, turning her head.

The Dutchman looked at his wrist and saw the cuff chain had melted. He looked around for the man he was handcuffed to and could not find him. He looked over at Victoria, who shrugged and shook her head.

There was a loud thud about fifty yards behind them. The

leader woke up and ran towards the noise and saw pieces of the frozen-solid man with a melted handcuff and chain.

There were several large chunks of gold ore around the Dutchman and he had one in each hand. The body had a disconnected arm and leg. Jack was more impressed by the gold and less by the frozen body.

Molly examined John and was surprised to see his wounds

were almost healed. As she finished her exam, she heard muffled explosions from somewhere outside the room. Gort came in. “It is time for you to leave, since our invaders are far too insistent to get some alone time with you and John.

He led them to a large steel door and handed them each a

phasor-type blaster. Molly examined it. “You have to be kidding,” she said. “It looks like the weapon used on Star Trek. It even has a stun feature.”

Gort laughed. “Let it never be said that we aliens do not have an exquisite sense of humor.” The alien pried the stuck door open. He grunted and saw a smile on Molly. He chuckled and said, “Give me a break. We haven’t used this tunnel for two million years.” He handed John a backpack containing food. There was a small stream of water that ran through the tunnel.

Gort smiled at the two as he directed them. “Here is a canteen you can fill in case the water runs out. The route is hundreds of miles long, but it has been modified into a baby wormhole and will take you into what you call Nevada.”

John gulped. “You people have large worms.”

The alien chuckled. “My friends and I are going to welcome

your friends with some fun games.”

The general was attacking the alien’s base with a hundred

troops. The base was built into a cliff wall about a hundred feet off the ground. The troops were firing rockets at it. The general was shocked to have a Shelby race by his men and head towards the wall at high speed. He ordered his men to fire automatic weapons at it.

One man looked up. “But sir, it is a Shelby.” The general stared coldly at the man. The soldier sighed and started firing. To his shock, the car drove up the side of the wall and all their shooting paused. The car stopped eighty feet up.

The driver’s side window opened and a green arm tossed out a Sam Adams beer bottle. He then held out a remote and opened a camouflaged garage door. He tossed out a lit cigarette and drove into the garage and the rock wall closed behind him. The men were quiet for a minute then a lone shot from the general started the shooting all over again. The grim faced general chuckled. “Oh that was awfully funny.”

Molly and John walked quickly through the ancient tunnel. Portions were very warm and other sections were frigid. Molly marveled at the changes. “I don’t know why the temperature varies so much.”

They walked for two days and ran out of water. They came to a solid wall of ice. John shrugged. “Well, at least we won’t die thirsty.” He noticed his weapon had a laser setting. “What is a laser?” Molly clicked his weapon to laser.

Molly laughed. “Fire the laser at the ice wall.” He hit it and a solid three-foot section of ice melted instantly, knocking him off his feet.

He stood up shivering. “Whoa! This thing is powerful.”

Molly could hear noises about a mile behind them. The men started shooting their guns hoping to get lucky. John looked surprised. “Those bloody people are trying to kill us!”

Molly pointed towards a small hole in the wall about ten feet in the air. “Let’s get in that hole. I have an idea.” She set her weapon on laser. “Now we’ll both blast the ice. They are almost to the frigid spot.”

They hit the ice. It instantly melted and a ten-foot high wave surged down the tunnel. There was a second of screams and then dead silence.

John couldn’t stand it. “I have to see what happened.”

Molly set her weapon on stun. John set his on kill. She gave him a disapproving look. He shrugged. “Well, they don’t have their bloody weapons on stun.”

They walked several hundred yards and found a wall of solid

ice. They could see the men chasing them were frozen instantly inside it. John reluctantly reset his setting to stun. “Well, for now...” Molly chuckled at his blushing face.

There was a backup group of bad guys a mile behind the frozen ones. Ten minutes later, they got to the ice wall. They could see their friends frozen in the ice. The leaders looked at each other and called in.

Jack aimed his gun at Victoria. “I want to know where the

mine is now, Dutchman, or I will shoot your little friend.” He

heard a loud growl from behind and saw a white coyote with

iridescent yellow eyes. Jack shot at the coyote and it melted into a puddle of water. Jack gave an alarmed look at the little girl and Dutchman.

Larry tipped his head to the side and barked. Brady looked at his wife. “Did you hear anything?”

She shook her head ‘no’. “I haven’t seen Snowflake for awhile, have you?”

Brady shook his head.

Dave scanned the mountains in front of the setting sun. He sighed. “These mountains give me the creeps. They bother me more than the Bridgewater Triangle area. It even bothers me more than the Hockomock Swamp creatures in Massachusetts.”

Matt laughed. “I’ll be sure to put that info in your travel brochure. Didn’t you date a couple of the cryptozoological specimens a couple summers ago?”

Dave chuckled in response. “They were Harvard girls and if I remember correctly, blind dates, Mr. MIT.”

Matt was shocked to have Snowflake land on his shoulder. She nipped his ear gently. He was pleased. “Nice to see you, too, Snowflake.” He got one hoot.

He chuckled. “Did you find Victoria?” He was surprised to get two hoots.

He asked, “Aren’t you worried about her?”

He got two hoots again.

He looked confused. “Well, that is good, I guess.”

Meanwhile, Molly and John came to a dead end in the tunnel.

They found an artificial rock at the base of the wall. They pushed it out of the way and crawled outside into the moonless inky night.

Molly scanned the distant hills for lights. “Well, we’re in the boonies somewhere.” There was a lonely coyote and an owl but nothing else. She sighed. “I have no idea where we are.”

She heard the click of a gun and a voice that said, “You’re in Nevada, miss.” Two headlights came over the hill towards them. Their weapons were taken and looked at.

The leader chuckled. “They are freaking aliens, Dave. Why can’t you guys quit walking around in the desert at night? We will drive you back to your base.”

John looked at Molly and back at the men. “What bloody base is that, Yank?” Molly elbowed him in the ribs.

The driver spoke. “I ain’t ever heard of a Brit alien, Sarge.”

Sarge laughed. “On second thought, let’s take them to the Hilton.”

The driver laughed. “They are not going to like our, let us say, hospitality much.”

They were driven inside a fenced-in area filled with armed guards and German shepherds. They were locked in a room with a guard posted outside the door. After a short time, Molly was transferred to a different room.

A man came in to talk to her. “So who are you two and how did you get on our base?”

Molly said, “I am Dr. Molly Meagher. I was brought in by the government to evaluate a prisoner. You have the gentleman in the other room.”

The captain nodded. “So far, so good. How did you get to the middle of Papoose Lake?”

She looked surprised. “I didn’t see any lake. We were being pursued by people and escaped in a tunnel that came out in the rocks where you found us. It is an accident we are here.”

He chuckled. “Well, that didn’t take long.”

She looked at him. “Long for what?”

The captain smiled. “For you to start lying to me. You’re in Area 51. As a general rule, people don’t invade us in tunnels.”

She swallowed hard. “Then you are really not going to like the rest of the story.”

The Dutchman laughed. “This is a sacred place for the Apache. You could say a holy place. Anyone coming in here dies.”

Jack looked, lifted his rifle, and looked around. “You are telling me the Apache kill anyone who comes in here?”

Jacob wiped his sweaty face and grimaced. “No, they don’t have to. The spirits do it for them. Nobody walks out of here alive.”

Jack smiled. “You walk out of here, don’t you?”

Victoria couldn’t help herself. “Well, maybe they are good judges of character.”

Jack looked at her. “That will be your last smart remark.” He aimed his gun at Victoria. A white liquid appeared in front of her and became the yellow-eyed coyote. It growled at Jack. He fired three times. None of the shots reached Victoria. The beast crouched and slowly walked towards Jack.

He fired all his bullets, but the beast kept stalking him. Jack was backed up to the edge of a deep arroyo. The coyote pounced and they both went over the edge and fell sixty feet into the rocky bottom. His scream ended abruptly.

His men all panicked. They took all the water and supplies. They peered around for Apaches and quickly left. The coyote appeared at the top again and trotted over, carrying a canteen. He sat next to Victoria. He dropped the full canteen at her feet.

She could see through the yellow eyes and couldn’t resist patting its head. Its fur was full of static electricity and ice cold. It licked her hand and trotted off. It disappeared into a rock wall.

Jacob stared at her. “You should be dead. No one ever touches the Maguey and lives. We have to get out of these mountains if we can.”

Victoria watched as the last man’s shadow disappeared around the boulders. Jacob laughed. “Don’t worry about the men; they’re going nowhere.”