Stowaway in Time

by Cathy Peper

  A shell landed several yards to their left, exploding in a rain of debris. Both men flinched as mud and shrapnel splattered their already grimy uniforms, but they were too far away for any real damage. Another explosion, followed by a scream, told them someone else had not been so lucky.

  “It’s worse today,” Cole said.

  “Heard it from the captain the Union brought in some bigger guns and extra troops.”

  “When are we going to get the reinforcements the general requested?”

  Not soon enough. General McCown had sent out the call for help, but much of the Confederate Army in the west was bogged down in Tennessee. “We can’t hold the town much longer.”

  “So what then? We give up? Surrender?” Cole swore and spit to the side. “Not if I have any say in it.”

  “Maybe it’s a good thing you don’t have any say, then.”

  “You might want to sit the war out in a foul Union prison, but I don’t.”

  “We shouldn’t have to wait too long for an exchange.” Though being a soldier wasn’t as glamorous as he had expected when he enlisted, he’d rather fight than rot in a cell somewhere. Fortunately, since neither side was equipped to deal with thousands of enemy prisoners, captives were regularly exchanged.

  A private ran up to them. “We’ve got orders. One of you is to continue patrol while the other reports to the general.”

  “I’ll go,” Cole said.

  Jesse nodded his agreement. He knew Cole chafed at the boredom of sentry duty. He didn’t mind it. When the shells weren’t flying it gave him time to clear his head and when they were—well he didn’t see how Cole could find that boring. He continued his slow march around the perimeter. Both sides continued to launch shells at one another, but none struck too close and as dusk crept into the town, the barrage dwindled and died off. Soon both camps would batten down for the night, though sentries would continue to stand guard, peering through the inky blackness, looking for unexpected movements by the enemy.

  A shape moved in the growing dark, but Jesse’s eyes were well adjusted and he recognized Cole and another soldier. “What did the general say?”

  “Tommy, here, is to relieve us. We’re to get what rest we can before pulling out tonight.” Cole’s shoulders drooped.

  “Where we headed?” Jesse asked, unsurprised by the decision to retreat.

  “Across the river. Some of us will reinforce Island #10 and the rest will join the regiments stationed on the Tennessee shore.”

  Jesse’s stomach lurched. He’d hoped they would march south or west. He disliked crowding onto the transport boats, the river curling dark and deadly beneath his feet. They won’t sink. Sweat broke out on his brow despite the chill of the evening. The boats wouldn’t sink, unless the Union detected their movements and launched shells against them. No, the land artillery wasn’t in position to cover the river and with Island #10 solidly in Confederate hands, the Union navy was stuck upriver and out of play.

  They returned to their quarters and bedded down. Jesse couldn’t sleep. He dozed lightly, trying not to think about the muddy waters of the Mississippi closing in over his head. He wasn’t the only soldier that couldn’t swim, but as far as he knew, he was the only one with a cowardly fear of drowning—a fear he intended to keep strictly to himself.

  The army roused a few hours later, taking only what they could carry and abandoning the rest. As the men gathered by the river, waiting for the boats to take them across, the wind picked up and thunder rumbled in the distance.

  “Where are the damn boats?” Cole muttered.

  Lightning lit the sky, highlighting the transport moving their way. “There,” Jesse said.

  “One boat? We won’t all fit.”

  Jesse swallowed. It began to rain, cold drops splattering. He hunched his shoulders beneath his coat. “There must be more coming.” Lightning flashed again and thunder followed, closer now. In the brief window of light, he saw no other boats.

  The deluge increased. Wind whipped the men’s faces, making it difficult to see except when lightning illuminated the night. Thunder crashed amid the orders yelled by their commanders.

  “Load the guns!”

  Men struggled to push the heavy artillery onto the boat. Others, panicking about being left behind, swarmed the transport, shoving people out of their way.

  “Come on, Jesse. We’d best get aboard while there’s still room,” Cole said.

  Jesse couldn’t move. His feet froze to the ground. Another flash and he saw the men piling onto the transport like ants on a tossed bone. There was no sign of additional boats.

  “Jesse, did you hear me? We have to go now!” The sky lit again, followed almost immediately by a booming crescendo. Cole grabbed his arm and yanked him towards the boat.

  Jesse stumbled, but allowed Cole to lead him. He moved through the press of men, sticking close to Cole, his gaze trained to his friend’s back, trying not to think about the froth churned waters of the river even as the rain fell without mercy, soaking through his coat and plastering his hair to his skull.

  His breath hitched when the boat dipped as they stepped aboard. His stomach churned, but they had made it. Soldiers crowded the deck, pressed against the field guns they had managed to save, but more men continued to board.

  The order came down to dump the heavier artillery in the river. There was no room for it on the transport and still no sign of additional boats coming to their rescue.

  Cole and Jesse were jostled to the center of the boat, pressed tightly among the others. Jesse could no longer see what was happening on shore even when the lightning flared, but he heard splashes as heavy equipment hit the river and sunk. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, trying to dispel nausea, but the odor of wet wool and unwashed bodies did little to settle his stomach. They pressed tighter as more men struggled to reach the boat.

  “They’re going to sink us,” Cole muttered.

  Jesse pretended not to hear, repeating to himself that it was just a short trip across the river. Finally, the boat shoved off, promising to return if possible. It meandered slowly, weighted down with its burden.

  “Think the Yanks know something is up?” Cole asked.

  “Probably,” Jesse answered. The thunder masked the noise of their retreat, but the lightning illuminated the night for their enemies as much as for them. He hoped they wouldn’t engage. Island #10 blocked Union access to the river, but they might try moving the artillery and firing on them from land.

  But there was no discernible activity in the Union camp. No shells flew. The transport boat continued sluggishly downstream and towards the Tennessee shore. It couldn’t have taken very long, but it seemed like forever before the boat docked on the eastern bank. Although eager to get off the crowded boat, the men exited in a more dignified fashion than the mad scramble to board. Jesse couldn’t fully breathe until he felt solid, if waterlogged, ground beneath his feet.

  The men milled about in the rain, miserable and unsure what to do. Jesse caught snatches of conversation, everyone wondering why only one boat had come to evacuate the fort. The transport withdrew to make another trip. The officers tried to gather their regiments in the dark. No one knew who had made it on the boat and who had been left behind.

  “Good a time as any to desert,” Cole whispered to Jesse.

  “I thought you wanted to fight.”

  “I do. I didn’t say I was going to desert, just that this would be a good time to do so.”

  “You would get caught.”

  “Not me.”

  Jesse didn’t reply. He was just glad to be off the river. Eventually they found some other men from their regiment, pitched their tents and settled in for the night. Jesse shivered under his blanket. He was wet through and even though he was exhausted, sleep did not come easily. Thunder receded into the distance and the rain pattered gently overhead. Their retreat had been successful, if inelegant. Now they would fight to keep Island #10 and Southern control over the lower Mississippi. Th
e general had been clear in his intentions, New Madrid was a bitter loss, but the island was key. But as Jesse huddled beneath his blanket seeking warmth and the oblivion of sleep, he couldn’t help but feel like a trap was closing around him and that next time, there would be no escape.

  Three

  Chapter 3

  Present Day

  Northwestern Tennessee

  Diamond stayed as far behind Bob and Anne as she could and still keep them in sight. Her pulse raced. They were up to something. The vehicles made a lot of noise, so she couldn’t sneak up on them, but she tried to blend in with the other riders she saw, taking short side trips and trying to pretend like she was just messing around.

  Riding an all-terrain vehicle was more fun than she would have expected. She didn’t consider herself an outdoorsy type and had always thought tearing around through the dirt to be a pastime for testosterone-infused guys with little brainpower. But zipping through the landscape, no longer confined to roads, was freeing in a way she had not expected. She might come back here sometime when she wasn’t on a story. Just to burn off steam.

  For now, however, fun had to take a backseat. Bob appeared to have a destination in mind. He didn’t seek hills or challenging paths but plowed straight towards the river. What could he be up to? The vehicles could ford creeks, but he could never cross the Mississippi. Soon he would run out of land unless he changed direction.

  Fairly certain the river was their destination, Diamond veered off to the left, darting into a more heavily wooded area. She kept to the cover, heading west, but in a circuitous route. Losing sight of her quarry, she panicked and sped up. She topped a ridge with a bone-jarring thump and tore through a thicket, grateful for her helmet and heavy winter clothing which prevented her from getting scratched by the bushes and trees.

  As she raced onward it took a few minutes for the lack of sound to penetrate her consciousness. Her vehicle roared in her ears, but the noise of the others had faded to a gentle hum. Bob and Anne had stopped—or she had lost them completely.

  Diamond drew to a stop and pulled out her binoculars. She swept the woods, then forced herself to slow down and carefully survey the area. There! She glimpsed color in the dreary bleakness of the leafless trees. Cursing the inevitable noise, she moved closer.

  Yes. They had stopped in the middle of a large clearing on the bank of the river. Bob climbed out of the vehicle and pulled a bag from the luggage area. Had they broken down or were they about to have a picnic? She would feel silly if she had gone to all this trouble just to spy on some quality family time.

  Diamond whipped out her binoculars again. Bob placed the bag on the driver’s seat and pulled a white plastic machine from it. It didn’t look like any cooler Diamond had ever seen. What on earth were they doing?

  Leaving her ATV, Diamond approached them, removing her helmet and shaking her hair free. They were so involved with the apparatus they didn’t notice. Could it be a seismograph? They weren’t far from the New Madrid fault and the region was still prone to small tremors. Most experts predicted another big quake would rock the area within the next couple hundred years. A few thought it might be sooner rather than later, but no one took much notice of them except insurance adjusters. And perhaps Bob and Anne. Were they worried about another quake? Or maybe they had just brought the kid out here for a geology or history lesson. If so, they should have waited until spring.

  Anne looked up as Diamond stepped closer. She grabbed Bob’s arm and cried, “Leave us alone!”

  Bob fixed Diamond with a glare so fierce, her stride faltered. “Not another step, Miss Merrell, or I won’t be responsible for the consequences.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Absolutely. Go home and pretend you never saw us.” He pulled something from the machine, still attached by a dangling cord.

  Diamond frowned. Was it a defibrillator? She’d seen the devices at accident scenes, but never paid them much attention.

  “Step back, Miss Merrill. Consider this your final warning.”

  She stepped forward.

  Anne said something to Bob; it sounded like “hurry.”

  “Clear,” Bob replied, as if he were a doctor on a TV show.

  Diamond broke into a run as he applied the paddle to the ATV. Had they broken down? Did he think he could restart an ATV like a doctor restarted a heart?

  A bolt of blue energy surged through the clearing, knocking Diamond off her feet. She hit the ground butt first, but the force of the blast knocked her flat, rattling her brain and knocking the wind out of her. She struggled to breathe, to bring oxygen into her lungs, but seemed to lose the battle. She gazed up at the gray of the sky, scudded with clouds and framed by bare arching branches. A whiff of electrical current trailed through the air. She blinked and when she opened her eyes again, everything seemed grayer, darker and more distant. Slowly, her eyes closed again and this time, she couldn’t tug them open.

  * * *

  Diamond groaned and struggled to open her eyes. The air was cold and she was lying on a hard surface. It was dark, not full night, but evening, the stars just starting to glow in the slate gray of the sky. She stared at them a moment, admiring their brave twinkle until it occurred to her she shouldn’t be outside, at night, in the middle of winter. What the hell?

  She sat up, wincing at the pain in her backside. Now she remembered. She’d fallen on her butt, knocked flat from the pulse of the defibrillator. But that made little sense. She’d seen enough TV and the real-life actions of paramedics to know that the energy emitted by a defibrillator caused the victim’s body to jerk, but didn’t blast everyone within sight. Unless it had malfunctioned?

  She dropped her pounding head into her hands. Her hair was full of leaves. Yuck. She picked them out. She’d been riding the ATV. What had happened to her helmet? There, she spotted a round shadow a few feet away. She’d pulled off the helmet as she approached Bob and Anne. But that must have been hours ago. She checked her watch. Not yet six o’clock, but dark came early in January. Apparently, Bob and Anne had left her here, not even bothering to call 9-1-1. Unless they, too, were incapacitated?

  She pushed herself off the ground with a grunt, swaying on her feet as a wave of dizziness hit her. Why hadn’t anyone from the rental center come looking for her?

  “Bob! Anne!” She took a shaky step towards where she had last seen them, wishing she had a flashlight. No answer. It was quiet. Too quiet. The ATV place would have closed hours ago, and she guessed she was too far out in the countryside for any traffic noise. Even the stars shone brighter here, free of the competition of city lights.

  She reached the middle of the clearing, about where she remembered seeing the other ATV, but there was nothing there now. No ATV. No man, woman, or child. The fading daylight and burgeoning stars provided enough luminescence for her to see that the clearing was empty, although it seemed smaller than she recalled. She walked further until the ground dropped away to the river. She gazed down into the surging darkness of the water. Was the river always this wide here? The darkness robbed the night of color and the river appeared granite-like, impenetrable and unforgiving. A gust of wind tore at her hair and she shivered. She needed shelter.

  Bob and Anne had gotten away, and true to their threats, had left her out here to die. If they thought their callousness would scare her off the story, they would learn better.

  Striding purposefully, since her eyes had fully adjusted, Diamond made her way back to where she had regained consciousness. Her ATV couldn’t be far away. She hadn’t gone more than a dozen yards before the blast occurred. But although she tried to retrace her steps into the woods, she couldn’t find the ATV. It wasn’t where she expected to find it. She walked about one hundred feet in either direction with no luck. She was sure she had driven nearly to the edge of the clearing, only abandoning the vehicle when she clearly saw Bob and Anne.

  Had they taken her ATV? She supposed it was possible. Bob could have driven one and Anne the other.
It would have given them a head start, since she would now be on foot. They might not have realized she would be out as long as she had.

  Who could she call for help? She’d dated a cop for a while, but their relationship had ended badly, with accusations on both sides. Her mom would have no way of finding her. Calling 9-1-1 might be her best option. She pulled out her phone and checked the bars. No cell service.

  Would she be able to find her way back to the lodge in the dark? Her stomach twisted as she remembered driving randomly around so Bob and Anne wouldn’t realize they were being followed. But they had gone relatively straight, always keeping to the trails that led towards the river. She just needed to pick a trail and try to head away from the river. Worst-case scenario, she could spend the night in the woods and wait until morning.

  “Pick a trail,” she muttered to herself as she skirted the edge of the woods. However, there didn’t seem to be any trails, and the woods seemed different, the trees taller, the brush less pervasive. “Everything looks different in the dark,” she told herself, although that didn’t explain why she couldn’t find any evidence of the many trails she had driven on just that morning. She took a deep breath. Set out blindly through the woods or hunker down for a long cold night? Shivering all night long didn’t appeal, but neither did getting lost.

  “Oh, the hell with it,” she said, plunging into the forest and heading in the direction she thought the lodge was. She turned on her cell phone’s flashlight feature. The thin beam of light barely penetrated the darkness. Keeping to a straight path was more difficult than she would have guessed. She inched her way past a massive tree, the trunk so thick she wouldn’t have been able to hug it if she wanted to. Some areas were so thick with vegetation, she had to find a way around them, hoping she wasn’t getting turned around. The light from the stars barely penetrated the woods, slowing her progress to a crawl. At least the exercise kept her warm.