A Different Time: Gateway To The West Read online

  A Different Time

  by Andrew Eyes

  Copyright © 2012 by Andrew Eyes

  http://andreweyes.wordpress.com/

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  License Notes

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  Table of Contents

  1. Gateway To The West

  2. About The Author

  3. Read More Titles

  1. Gateway To The West

  My name is Eve and I am 18 years old. To say the world ended wouldn’t be far from the truth. You see the Earth, as my forefathers knew it was destroyed with smog, ultraviolet rays and depletion of the ozone layer. In 2122 the ozone layer was no more and people struggled daily to cover themselves while outdoors. The government in their infinite wisdom sent a probe out to the galaxy to find another ‘Earth’ to call home. They weren’t really expecting results, but they got one anyway.

  They found a planet, but it couldn’t sustain life. That is until the scientists came up with a way to terraform the planet with a bomb like device. They sent the missile into orbit and waited several years to send up a probe. By then there was breathable air, trees had begun to flourish and an ocean covered half the surface. They sent out an expedition and after many tests, they found out that the ocean had drinkable water and that we could now start sending people to the newly formed planet.

  Over the years, they steadily moved the population to this new ‘Earth’, which was nicknamed ‘Second Chance’. Once the population landed in 2150, the government banned and destroyed conventional weaponry and also restricted scientists from making vehicles, and instead went back to steam powered conveyances and horse and buggy. There would be no pollution or weapons of mass destruction to destroy this world. You can imagine how the human race rallied around this proclamation, but not everyone was as open to this new way of living as the rest of the planet was.

  That’s when battles became the way of life here. On one side you have the “Die Hard’ who wanted technology and electricity and then there was the ‘Dominion’ who believe in the governments decisions and fight to keep this new way of life. With battles on each side, an army was formed called the Protectors and they kept the peace with batons and shows of force.

  Years after I was born and raised by my mother Gail. My father Henry was killed in one of these so called peacekeeping missions and that was when my mom took me to an unpopulated part of ‘Second Chance’. She brought her friend Jim along and they both worked hard at planting and raising the local wild life. Ponies, calves, and other wild life from ‘Earth’ were transported to this planet and scattered all over the surface. From there, the wild life flourished and procreated to make the necessary food source for all of us.

  I sit here looking out my bedroom window at the two full moons in the sky. My mom told me that ‘Earth’ only had one moon, how weird is that. I have taken a different route than taking either side in the fight. I love this way of life, where I work on the farm, go down to the lake for fresh water and grow our own vegetables right here in our own backyard. However, I also like technology and that is where my mom and I differ. She wants nothing to do with technology and if she ever finds out I was dabbling in this forbidden form, she will be furious.

  I had opened my own lab in a structure that I built on the very last corner of the farm. It was underground, hidden in a labyrinth of caves, so I knew that no one would find it. I had invented a few things that would be considered against the law. I found a way to use the power of the sun, water and lightning to make my inventions work. I had made a flying machine, but had only taken it up once. It was powered by steam but also by electricity. I also found a rock that conducts and keeps electrical currents. I had also made a crude watch, but it ran for about 10 minutes too fast.

  Recently, I had started to use the sun, the indigenous rocks and lightning to fashion a device that can reach other areas of this planet. I was trying to see far away on the other side of the planet, by using the sun, lightning, an old computer and the satellite in the sky. The government put it there to keep an eye on us ‘little people.’

  “Eve, are you coming down for dinner?”

  “I’m coming mom. I’ll be there in a second.”

  We were eating dinner when a knock on the door was heard. Standing outside was a platoon of Protectors demanding our tax money to fuel the battles. My mom argued with them over the price and they took what she gave them. I watched them climb onto their horses, but not before snatching up two of our chickens and a small calf. Jim ran out after them, but they were already riding at full gallop over the sand and into the woods.

  Jim came back in and said, “Every time they come we end up paying them even more than the last time. Before long, we won’t have anything to give them and then what will they want, our women, our children?”

  I knew what he spoke of, because I had heard rumours from the townspeople that the government had turned their attention to teens for soldiers. They used them as bait and they were slaughtered in the name of the cause.

  Now, night arrived and I was writing inside my ‘Lab’ Notes. “I found something interesting in Jim’s room today. He had an old contraction with words written in front that said, radio, stashed under his bed. In fact, he had several old radios, watches, and even something called a ‘Toaster’. I took one of those old radios and I’m using the parts to work on my device. If the storm that seemed to be coming has an electrical source to it, I might just be able to try my device and see and talk to someone out there.”

  The device was quickly ready, and I slid the antennae through the slot in the ceiling of the cave and out into the night sky. Lightning was lighting up the sky, but something was different about this lightning. It was not the normal streaks of white and orange, these were more blue and red and they seemed stronger. I saw the lightning rod get hit several times and the charge travel down the rod and into the rocks, which transferred to the old laptop.

  The dials began to crackle with electricity and an image started to form of a guy sitting in a tent, the figure seemed dreary and tired as he was holding on to one of the tent’s poles . I spoke into the speaker and said “Can you hear me...” and it continued to crackle with the electrical current going through it. I could see out the hole in the cave that the two moons had converged into one and that had never happened before. Suddenly, the electricity moved in a spiral pattern all over the cave walls and then shot straight up into the air, like if something was drawing it to them.

  The screen crackled and suddenly the man looked at the screen and said “Hello, who’s this? I was about to say
something else, when lightning began to travel across his body and he began to twitch and turn different colors. He began to fade from the screen and then he was gone. Something took him, but I had no idea what nor where.

  On the other side of the planet.

  I sit here with my platoon, after just returning from a battle against the Die Hard. I am a soldier or Protector as they like to call us. I am older than most of these men here and that makes me one of their leaders. My whole platoon is comprised of teenagers that the government has rounded up as ‘Volunteers’ to the service of their world. Most have no idea how to hold a knife and that was evident in our latest skirmish. I tried to teach them how to fight in close quarters combat, but a few were in shock by the blade in the other man’s hand and ended up on the wrong side of things. Their bodies were brought back for burial, but most would be getting a stone that read Protector and the initials of their names.

  My father was a good man and when it came time to leave ‘Earth’ he decided to stay. To this day, I still don’t know if he is dead or alive. If he were still alive, it would have made him 65 years old today. He gave me a few things to take with me to the new world. I just turned 26 the other day and had started to wonder about my father and what became of him. I could take a trip back to ‘Earth’ but the waiting list to do that is years away and besides the government decides if you were worthy of the right or not.

  I was going through some of my Dad’s stuff that was given to me and I came across this laptop. I didn’t really think it would work and for years it didn’t, that was until a few moments ago.

  “Colonel Hamilton, you’ve got to see this.”

  I put down my pen and went outside to see my men looking up at the night sky. It’s not raining, but blue and red streaks of lightning appear in the night sky. The two moons had also crossed paths and might have had something to do with this phenomenon of red and blue lightning.

  I heard a crackle in my tent and went in to see that the dials on my dad’s old laptop were lit up. I saw an image of a young woman about 18 years of age and she was saying ‘Can you hear me?”

  “Hello, who’s this?” When suddenly a burst of energy came out of the screen and coursed through my body. I saw lights and then things went black.

  I felt like my body and mind were being torn apart and then there was nothing. I woke up on the sand and it wasn’t the same coarse reddish clay of ‘Second Chance’, it was more tactile and it ran through my fingers like nothing. The laptop was lying beside me but my tent and my men were gone. I looked up into the sky and saw that there was only one moon. One moon?

  I walked with the laptop in my attached pack over my shoulders for at least a full night. Thankfully, it was night and cool enough to walk. I knew that something was definitely wrong and something happened back there in my tent. Now, I was alone and there didn’t seem to be anyone around for miles. Which was strange because there was a settlement every 30 or so miles om Second Chance, but that didn’t seem to be the case here. In fact, I also noticed the blinking lights of the satellite above me were no longer there.

  I stopped walking after a long time and went about finding wood for a fire. I sat the wood in a pile, took out my lighter and shot the flame at the pile setting it ablaze. The fire burned and I fell asleep beside it.

  I woke up to a boot kicking me in the ribs. I turned and saw a guy with one tooth and a mule.

  “Listen up feller, I don’t think you’re going the right way. If you continue going this way, all you’ll find is the mountains. I live there and prospect for gold.”

  Prospect for Gold, no ones done that since 2030. They stopped because pirates would ambush them and take their bounty. My father told me that ever since then, Gold and Silver kept going down until they were worth nothing. Mostly collectors would have gathered up all that they could, in hope that one day their worth would go back up, but that didn’t happen.

  “Um, so which way to the nearest settlement?”

  He looked at me and spat something brown and disgusting on the ground and said, “If you mean a town, well the closest is to the North for another 20 or so miles. I’m going to the one 50 miles away to collect my money for the gold.” He turned and trudged off with the sound of pots and pans banging together on the mule. I had seen pictures of mules, but never saw one in person. They became extinct in a last ditch effort to feed Earth. Earth?

  I kicked sand on the fire and watched as the embers died out. I walked for about 3 miles and came across a stream. I walked down and drank from it with both hands, then stripped and jumped into it in my birthday suit. I heard giggling, quickly turned and saw a mirage. 3 native american women were looking at me with glee and amusement in their eyes. I was so mesmerized by the colorful feathers in their hair, that I didn’t see the two males that came from behind, until their shadows announced their presence. I turned as one of them slashed across at me with what looked like an axe. I grabbed him and flipped him onto the ground. I flipped back to my feet and jumped the other one and smashed his head unto the rocks until he was unconscious. I grabbed my clothes and pack and hightailed it out of there. I kept looking back over my shoulder but there was no one in pursuit.

  An hour later, I came over a dune and there in the distance was a town, but it was unlike any town I had ever seen before. I walked down to the edge of town and could see women in strange attire washing clothes on some kind of metal contraption. I know that metal is not an easy to come by commodity, so this was really weird to me.

  I walked into town and saw buildings named; Saloon, Sheriff, and Mary’s Bordello. “What the hell is a ‘Bordello’?” Everyone was wearing these wide brimmed hats, shirts, vests and pants with metal things attached to their boots.

  I walked through town and noticed something that shouldn’t be. Most of the men wore guns on their waist, but they were crude looking weapons, not like the one’s my dad showed me. They resembled something that my grandfather showed me once. Was this some kind of colony that the Die Hard came up with? That wouldn’t explain the strange attire, the wooden structures or that one moon in the sky?

  “Pardon me fella, but you look a little lost. You must be from out of town mister, because no one is dressed like you around here.” and he laughed and punched me in the arm. Out of instinct, I grabbed his hand and twisted it in such a way that landed him face down on the ground with his arm stretched back behind him.

  “That’ll be quite enough of that” and I turned to see a man with a metal star on his chest that said ‘Sheriff’.

  “Now, let that poor man up and let’s talk about this like gentlemen.” I released the man’s hand and he got up rubbed his shoulder and walked away. Other people came out to see what had happen and they all stared at me like if I was some kind of alien or something.

  “Why don’t I buy you a drink and you can tell me your story pal.” I followed him into a place called a saloon and we went up to this person and he poured us a couple of drinks. I took one swallow and immediately spat it out across the counter, the drink burned my throat and I lost my breath.

  The Sheriff laughed and said “I liked the way you handled yourself out there. I need a deputy, might you be interested. I know it’s not a long-term gig, but people here in the 1860’s need protection more now than in the 50’s.”

  Did I hear him right? He just said that this was the 1860’s and not 2170? How was that possible? Could it have something to do with that strange storm and what happened with the laptop? I had to play this cool and work it from all angles.

  I accepted the job as deputy and the Sheriff took me over to the tailor and bought me new clothes. He told me that he would take the clothes out of my first pay. He even offered to put me up with him, his wife and his kid, Billy.

  Every night, I would try the laptop but with no luck. It wasn’t until a storm came that things took a turn and changed everything. I was sitting in my room after my first month on the job as Deputy when thunder and lightning were happening outside my door. I tu
rned the laptop on, not really expecting anything to happen, but the dials began to crackle and a woman’s face appeared followed by her voice.

  She said “Hello, are you there?”

  I spoke into the mic and said, “Who’s this?”

  “My name is Eve, who’s this?”

  “Names Colonel Hamilton, what year is it there?”

  “Um, 2170, what year is it there?”

  “It’s 1862 here. How did this happen?” And she told me about the contraption she built and how she thought she made contact with someone a few moments ago. I told her how I came to be here by now knowing that it was ‘Earth’ and she was astonished. We talked until the storm passed and then the laptop went dead. I hid it in my pack under the bed and lied there thinking that this just couldn’t be. I needed to find a way back and I thought that this girl could accomplish that. I had begun to enjoy this new world or was that “the old world”. I loved the weekly poker games, the acts of physical love at the Bordello and had even started to get used to the clothing here.

  I had a meeting with the Sheriff today and he told me that there was a gang going around robbing banks in the area. If they were to continue in their path, they would arrive here in a couple of days. He gave me the mission of rounding up a posse to take these guys on.