A Different Time: Gateway To The West Read online

  I found 3 guys that were willing to stand with us and they all knew how to handle a weapon. I found that they were better trained than my cadets back on ‘Second Chance’ and I began to think how lost they must be without me. I couldn’t do anything for them, but I could help out this town.

  There were no more storms for several days and none seemed to be on the horizon. In fact, with no rain, people started to have trouble with their crops. The sun was hot and seemed to raise the temperature a degree each day. Was this a normal occurrence or was it due to what happened with me.

  I was doing my routine patrol of the bank the other day when a woman came in and appeared to be drunk. I guess, the locals knew her and didn’t think much about it, but I on the other hand thought something was amiss. I watched her go to the cashier and started stammering about something or other. Everyone started to laugh at her but I didn’t. She was making a spectacle of herself and I had a feeling that she was some sort of decoy, I was right.

  The doors flew open and three men dressed all in black came in. One guy aimed his shotgun at the ceiling and fired off a round, bringing pieces of the ceiling down to the floor.

  The leader stepped forward, “This is a hold-up and if everyone does what we say, no one will get hurt.” People screamed and dropped to the floor. One woman kept screaming and running towards the door. She was shot in the chest and fell to the floor dead, with blood bubbling out of her mouth.

  I was behind one of the guys and silently walked up to him and wrapped my hands around his neck and gave it a sharp jerk. There was a loud snap and he slumped in my arms with no more life in him to do anything.

  The leader walked up to the cashier and threw bags for her to fill up. She frantically began pulling out bills and filled the bags. Not one of them heard what I did to their buddy and that’s exactly the way I wanted it. I undid my coat and ruffled my hair in such a way that now I looked like a derelict or drunk. I stumbled my way over to where the other two were standing and began waving my hands in the air and singing an old song from my present.

  “To old acquaintance be forgot....” and they both turned and saw me standing there.

  The leader said to his partner “Get rid of him.” and turned his attention to the cashier. His back got straight and he turned just as his partner was right on top of me. I brought my gun out from behind my back and jabbed it into his belly and fired at point blank range. His body flew into the air and landed with a thump.

  The leader spun around with his gun out and I saw him pointing it at me. As he began to draw down the trigger, I leaped to the side. Just as the bullet went by me and out of the window. I rolled on the floor and fired two shots that penetrated the leader’s ankles. He yowled in pain and his gun came out of his hand. He fell to his knees, I walked over and kicked his gun across the floor.

  All of a sudden, something landed on top of my back and began punching me along my shoulder blades. I could see blond hair washing over me and I realized that I forgot about the so-called drunk woman who came in here before the robbery began.

  She yelled, “You killed my brother, I’m going to kill you!” She had her hands around my throat from behind. I reached back and got a hold of the back of her and bent forward at the same time, until she flipped over me and landed on the floor. She struggled to her feet and saw the gun in the corner. She looked at me and then at the gun and made a dash for it. I kicked her legs out from under her and while she was on her knees, I wrapped my arm around her throat and squeezed until she lost consciousness. I let her go as the doors swung open and Sheriff Buck came crashing through the door with his weapon drawn.

  He looked at the woman unconscious, the man with the broken neck, the guy bleeding on the floor and the leader whimpering and in shock. He looked at me with an incredulous look on his face.

  “Um, Deputy, care to explain what happened here.” I told him how the woman was a decoy and that the gang came in and tried to rob the bank and I stopped them.

  “Yeah, but did you have to take such action?”

  “Yes, or risk the lives of the towns people.” I was using words like townspeople and pardon me, and feller and I kind of liked it!

  The Sheriff’s wife Jennifer cooked me a celebratory dinner with ox tails and potatoes that were to die for. In this last month I have had more meat for supper than all my life when I was back in the future. Our rations consisted of dried foods in packs and nothing compared to a home cooked meal.

  I saw that the sky was black and that a storm was a brewing. After dinner I went to my room and waited for the lightning strikes and when they came, I took out the laptop and turned it on.

  I heard the crackle and then Eve’s face appeared saying “Colonel, are you there? It’s been 3 years since I’ve heard from you and the battles have turned into a full-scale war. People are dying all over the place and I sit here in my cave taking refuge from the outside. My mom and her friend are dead and my farm has been burned to the ground. We need help, we need you.”

  I looked at the screen and my thoughts began to resurface. I could not distinguish my life there from my life here. I remembered the battles in hand to hand combat, always seeing the eyes of your enemy and having to snuff that life out. Seeing my men get overwhelmed and wiped out with their blood soaking the earth under them. ‘Earth’.

  “Colonel, I’ve come up with a way to bring you home and all you have to do is touch the screen hold your hand out of the window towards the electrical storm. Once you feel the electricity hit you, I’ll see it and I’ll know to execute from my end.”

  I remembered my time here, with the townspeople, the food, the quiet solitude and I knew what I was going to do. I knew I was taking the coward’s way out, but I didn’t think even Eve would’ve done anything differently. This was my life now and I wanted to keep it. I knew that Eve deserved an explanation, but I couldn’t risk her trying to change my mind.

  “I’m sorry Eve.” and with those words I placed the laptop on the floor and smashed it over and over again with the butt of my gun. I wasn’t going back, and with the computer dead there was no way to send me back. I walked out of the room and looked back at the pieces lying across the floor, then turned back around and never looked back.

  It has been 20 years since I broke that laptop, I am married and I am a father to a couple of kids. I am now the Sheriff and anyone outside of town knows that this is my town and you don’t mess with it. I sit here writing this Journal with my wife, Madeline, sitting beside me outside crocheting me a sweater for the coming winter and I couldn’t be happier. Maybe my being here will change things in the future, but I won’t be there to find out.

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  2. About The Author

  Andrew Eyes

  Young fantasy and science fiction writer, Andrew Eyes was born in the tropical island of Puerto Rico at the end of the 1980’s. Since his teenage years he has been writing poetry and stories for his close friends and family. Most of his stories are twists and turns based on games that this young lad plays. He began sharing his talents with the world around the age of twenty, where he began writing stories for the starting game, Defenders of the Cross. As he progresses he keeps on writing all sorts of tales from different types of fantasy and science fiction games.

  Andrew also dabbles in poetry, where he writes epic poems, haiku and spoken words of romance and adventure and musical lyrics for local bands of his home town.

  This strapping young man, continues writing while he studies in the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, computer engineering. A college student, a writer and perhaps a new visionary for modern day literature.

  Blog: http://andreweyes.wordpress.com/

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrew-Eyes/

  3. Read More Titles

  More Titles You Might Be Interested In

  The Steam Pirate’s Tale

  The Curse

  A modern day pirate in a steam punk era knows that a man has invented something to harness the pow
er of the sun. He knows that this knowledge is worth a fortune in this world and has the resources to take it away from him. Unfortunately for the pirate, the inventor has a niece that is just as smart as he is and thwarts his every attempt to steal the device, but maybe the third times a charm.

  Reading Time: 23 mins.

  http://go.raxan.com/steam-pirate-tale

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  Nanoman’s Birth

  One Is More Than Enough

  A kid is found broken and bloody after a plane crash and is taken in by a scientist. He can see the pain the boy is in and he has nothing to help the boy out. The nearest hospital is days away from here and the trip would probably kill him. He is a reclusive scientist in the middle of nowhere and has been out here for the past 10 years. He has been working on something and it might help the kid, but this has never been tested on humans before.

  Reading Time: 24 mins.

  http://go.raxan.com/nanomans-birth

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  My Rebellious Mistake

  Popular girls always seem to get the attention of everyone in school, Jamie always knew that was true. That was until Cameron appeared, popular and nice she changed the standards of popularity. Cam, enjoyed being the one everyone noticed, but for her everything changed when she fell for Sebastian, the rebel.

  Reading Time: 17 mins.

  http://go.raxan.com/my-rebellious-mistake

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  The Effects of Girl Syndrome

  They say girls get ‘Girl Syndrome’ when they enter high school. High heels, short skirts, latest trends and a big ass car to park at the school parking lot next to the BMW and what not. But what causes the most change in Girl Syndrome, is the gossip and the guys. Amy and her brother Jeff didn’t care much about such “drama queens”, until Amy met Dylan. A young freshman, Amy, started to find herself attracted to the hot senior, Dylan, and so the effects of girl syndrome got to her as well.

  Reading Time: 21 mins.

  http://go.raxan.com/effects-of-girl-syndrome

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