Days of Future Past - Part 1: Past Tense

by John Van Stry

  I nodded as we went inside and climbed the stairs to our room and sighed, wondering how Coyote could pass up such an opportunity to keep us ahead of Riggs. Then again, Coyote had said he couldn't manifest things, and if there weren't any boats around here that were big enough, there was no way he could have helped us out.

  Still, he was a god, even if he was only a minor one.

  "It would have been nice to save that time," I grumbled.

  "Enough talk, it's late, and I have better ideas on how to spend the night," Heather said smirking at the two of us as we went into our room.

  She did, too.

  - 18 -

  I awoke to someone knocking on the door.

  "Yes?" I called out, getting out of bed. Glancing at the window I could see that the sun still hadn't risen. Sarah grumbled and rolled back over; Heather grumbled and sat up with a pistol pointed at the door.

  "Are you the ones who were looking for a boat to cross the lake?" Someone said from the other side of the door.

  I grabbed my pants and hopped into them as I walked over to the door. Quickly buckling my belt I opened it. It was one of the men we'd talked to down at the dockmaster's hut last night.

  "Yeah, that would be me. Why? Something magically appear?" I asked.

  "You could say that. There was a windstorm along the lake last night. One of the ferries from the crossing down by New Mexical broke loose, and Jose sent a crew out to bring it in. For a fee, we'd be willing to take you across the lake before we return it to them," he said with a grin.

  "You, my friend, have a deal!" I said and shook hands with him. "Let me get everyone together, and we'll be down at the docks in about an hour!"

  I closed the door and turned to look at Heather and Sarah, who both had very puzzled expressions on their faces.

  "How did you do that?" Sarah asked.

  "When I find out, you will be the first to know!" I said grinning.

  An hour later I was down by the docks with Sarah, as the others were still busy getting everyone mounted up and heading down here.

  "I would not have believed it, if I did not see it with my own two eyes," Sarah said looking at the ferry and shaking her head as I smiled.

  The ferry was a big open flat boat with built up railings on the sides and fold up ramps on either end. It had two masts, one on the centerline near the front of the boat, the other on the centerline near the back. The masts were probably forty feet high and did not sport any sails. Instead, starting about six feet up from the deck they had what looked like a wing, with the root at the bottom and the tip up at the top, with some sort gear mechanism under the deck to turn it. I'd never seen a sail like that before, but I figured it must work if they were using it. All that really mattered to me was that there was more than enough deck space for all of us.

  "Does this happen often?" I asked the man who had woken us up.

  He shook his head, "No, the ferries are very expensive; the last time one broke loose was many years ago. But that one made it all the way to Indio before it was finally caught. Between your fee and the reward, we will all be doing very well come tomorrow!" he said smiling happily.

  "About your fee," Sarah said and started to dicker with the man on how much we would pay for the use of the ferry. I left her to it, she knew these people better than I did, plus I didn't have any money on me at all. I didn't even know what Sarah or Jack had been paying our way with so far.

  Instead I watched as our temporary crew moved the ferry to a clear section of the shoreline, and then dropped the ramp onto the ground as a team of four men secured two heavy lines to some posts in the ground so the ferry wouldn't move. By the time they got it done, Jack had the rest of the expedition there, and they carefully moved the wagons onboard, then lashed them in place while the rest of the team brought our horses onboard and tied their leads to a bunch of rings set on the deck, same as ones they'd used to lash the wagons in place.

  They unsaddled the horses and unhooked the teams from the wagons as Sarah came over, the man she'd been dealing with waving and telling the other men doing the work that it was time to go.

  "So, how much did it cost us?" I asked as we got onto the ferry and they started to crank up the ramp.

  "Thirteen silver, one for each of the crew, two for their captain, two for Jose the dockmaster, and two for the boat that has to retrieve them after they return the ferry" she said.

  "Is that a lot?" I asked.

  "Not really, we would have paid two silvers for each of us, and five per wagon down in New Mexical," she said smiling.

  "I'm surprised they're taking us so cheaply then."

  "Their big reward will be when they bring the ferry back, so they have no reason to be greedy."

  I nodded and went around to the front of the ferry. From what I could see, the ferry was controlled by a set of three large metal steering wheels set on the right side of the ferry, halfway between the front and the rear. They each looked like a ship's wheel on an old sailing ship, and I quickly figured out that one controlled the rudder, and the other two controlled each of the sails.

  A man tended to each of them, while the captain, who was the man who we'd been dealing with, walked around giving orders on what do. The remaining four men wielded long poles that they used to push us off from the shore, and help steer us clear of the docks, as we got underway. In almost no time at all we were sailing away from the town at what appeared to be a good walking pace.

  "So how long will it take us to get to the other side?" I asked our Captain as he walked up to the front to examine things.

  "We will be there by noon," he told me as he had the man at the rudder set the course while the other two set the strange wing sails to catch the wind.

  I nodded and went over to the wagons to talk to the others, who were mostly sitting on the deck and just relaxing.

  "So this was a nice stroke of luck," Jack said to me as I sat down. "Not only does it save us time, but it saved us money as well."

  "The captain told me we should get to the other side around noon."

  Jack nodded, "I talked to him when we got loaded. They're taking us to where one of the old highways ends on the far shore. From there, we should be able to make it to Opal before sunset."

  "Opal?" I asked.

  "It's a small mining town, they mine for opals. Though I've heard stories they've found gold and silver there as well, but most of the gold found out here comes from up in the mountains and the miners come into Opal to buy supplies and spend their money."

  "It's the last human settlement we'll see," Heather added. "Other than maybe a mining camp, but most of those will probably be well hidden."

  "I thought there were towns and settlements in the mountains?" I said, recalling something Sarah had said a while ago.

  "If we'd taken the Salt Sea road, there would have been," Jack replied. "But this far south there are too many bandit gangs and odd things that come out of the ruins on the coast to the west of there."

  I remembered then that the map I'd been shown had a lot of warnings around what had been San Diego, considerably more than it had for the ruins of Los Angeles.

  "Does that mean we'll have to watch out for bandits?" I asked.

  "Bandits are always a possibility when you get away from any of the settled areas, but we're larger than most bandit groups, plus we're heading away from civilization. It's when we start heading back that we have to worry."

  "That makes sense," I said with a nod.

  "The bigger problem is monsters, but if we come back the same way we went, hopefully we'll have cleared out any problems on the way in."

  "What, no wild animals?" I joked.

  "Except for boars, most wild animals know better than to mess with people. So I wouldn't worry about them much."

  I closed my eyes and leaned back against the large tire of one of the wagons. Bandits, and wild animals I could understand, but monsters? Just what did he mean by that? Honestly, after the freaky little guys riding the wolves t
he other night, I wasn't sure I wanted to ask.

  "What's up?" Heather asked as I felt her sit down besides me. Someone sat on my other side, Sarah obviously as she leaned against me.

  "Just thinking about what lies ahead," I said.

  "I don't know, looks like you were taking a nap to me," she replied and I felt her lean against me as well.

  I put my arms around both of them, "That sounds like a good idea," and just laid back, eyes closed, until I fell asleep.

  I woke up a couple of hours later when Sarah nudged me. Opening my eyes I saw someone had thrown a blanket over the three of us. Most of the other members of our expedition were likewise napping and while the sun was up and nearing its zenith, it was still fairly cold out here on the sea.

  "Hmm?" I asked looking over at her.

  "Let's get Lisa to make lunch. Then we don't have to stop for it after we unload."

  I nodded, it made sense. I gave Heather a shake and she woke up instantly, and after looking around, she stretched and stood as Sarah and I went and found Lisa who was talking with Jack. They both liked the suggestion and Lisa got started on lunch as Sarah and Heather woke everyone else up.

  I stopped and looked back across the water behind us; I couldn't see the other shore anymore. Looking north, it was the same, as well as south. But to the west I could see the mountains easily enough. I walked forward to where the captain was, figuring I'd ask how long until we made landfall, and then I saw it, off to the north, way up in the sky. An airplane.

  "Hey, Sarah!" I called, "I thought you didn't have airplanes anymore?"

  "Huh? What are you talking about?"

  I pointed to the small black dot off in the distance, it had been heading east, but it appeared to stop as I watched it.

  It took her a minute to find it; she had to sight down my arm.

  "How did you even see that?" she asked.

  "I'm a pilot, we're always looking around to see what else is in the sky, in case they're headed our ...."

  "What?"

  "It's not moving," I told her.

  "So?"

  "So that means it's either moving directly away from us, or ..."

  Sarah said a most unlady like word then.

  "Everyone! Get up and get your armor on! Get your weapons! NOW!"

  "What is it?" Jack asked running over while the captain of our boat came over as well.

  "There's something flying off over there," she said, pointing.

  "It's just an airplane," I said.

  "We don't have airplanes anymore, Paul." Jack said.

  "It can't be a bird; I wouldn't be able to see something that small this far away, plus it's way too high!"

  "It's not a bird, and it's getting bigger."

  Heather threw my duster at me, and I quickly put it on, while still watching the dot, which was quickly growing larger, as both Sarah and Keri started chanting something, from behind one of the wagons where they had taken cover.

  "Get under cover, Paul," Heather said and grabbing my arm she started to drag me behind a wagon. I noticed that the entire crew was jumping into the water on the other side of the ferry, holding onto the sides of the boat as they did so.

  The dot was starting to resolve into an object, as it got closer. I noticed wings, and they appeared to be flapping very slowly.

  "It's a bird?" I said, trying to figure out just how big a bird it must be. It's hard to get size referenced off of things that far away.

  "It's a dragon, you ass! Now move!" Heather said and I stumbled around behind the wagon.

  "A dragon?" I said, befuddled. "There are dragons?"

  "Here," she handed me my rifle and I checked that I had spare magazines in my pockets as I moved the selector off of safe.

  "What, what are we supposed to do?" I asked.

  "Shoot at the head. The eyes aren't bulletproof. The rest of the body pretty much is."

  "Umm," I stood there trying to figure out just what the hell was happening, "do they breathe fire?"

  "Some do, some breathe other things. Just be careful and watch out for its claws."

  "Its claws?"

  "They're meat eaters, Paul. And people are made of meat."

  "Oh shit," I swore and peeked around the tent.

  It was huge, and it was a dragon all right. The wingspan was easily a hundred feet across, probably more like two hundred. It was coming in fast and it dove down into the surface effect, coming at us low over the water. It looked like every dragon I'd ever seen in the movies, except for it was real, and it was huge. Color wise, it was a light brown, and it had four legs, the hind legs were trailing behind it, but the forelegs were reaching forward, and it had rather nasty looking claws. I heard gunfire then as it flew towards at us at a high rate of speed. I added my own, aiming at its face.

  Then it opened its mouth and sure enough, fire came out.

  I turned and jumped on top of Heather, who was already on top of Sarah, who was flat on the deck. I could see the dragon on the other side of the ferry as I looked under the wagon and the adrenaline surge made everything seem to slow down.

  The fire coming from his muzzle didn't spread out, it was more like what you'd see from a flamethrower, it was in a narrow cone. I don't know if the dragon was trying to kill us, or just make us get our heads down and stop shooting, but it shot that cone of fire between the wagons, and Dean, who had been too slow to jump down got caught square in the chest by the jet of flame and in an instant from the legs up he was incinerated, a look of shock on his face.

  He never had the chance to make a sound and the force of it threw his body back violently as everything just seemed to glow brightly and just disintegrate in a puff of ash and fire.

  The flame stopped then and the dragon, wings tucked in tight, shot over the tops of the wagons between the two masts, which were probably twenty feet apart. In the blink of an eye he snatched one of the horses from the deck with one of those massive forepaws, easily snapping the leads from its halter. And then it was past us, wings opening as it pulled up into the sky, as a charred and smoking skeleton with only the legs left unburnt splashed into the water with a loud hiss and sank out of sight.

  I pushed Heather and Sarah under the wagon and watched as the dragon flew off; the horse in its forepaw screamed briefly and then was silent. The horses on the deck were going crazy in fear, jumping up and down and stamping their feet. Trying to pull free.

  "Paul, let me up, Paul!" Sarah yelled.

  "Not until that thing is gone!" I said, and gave Heather a push as she tried to get out as well.

  "I need to calm the horses!"

  "Quiet!" I said and continued to watch as it banked around, wings beating and gaining altitude, but obviously heading on a vector away from us.

  I swore as Heather kicked me, but I let them out, and standing up I found myself busy dodging hooves as the horse near me started bucking. A moment later it fell over and then the one next to it.

  "What's happening now?" I asked, looking around.

  "Sarah and Keri are sleeping the horses," Heather said, and slapped me on the back of the head.

  "What was that for?" I asked looking at her.

  "For not letting us up after the dragon flew by."

  I almost hit her. Honest to god, I wanted to punch her, "It wasn't safe!" I yelled at her.

  "It was leaving."

  "It was a dragon! I saw what it did to Dean!"

  She stopped and paled noticeably.

  "What happened to Dean?" She said looking around suddenly. I think the others heard me, because they were looking around suddenly too.

  "It fried him. He didn't duck for cover when the rest of us did."

  "Maybe, maybe he's still alive?" Terry said, looking over at me in shock.

  I shook my head, thinking about what I'd seen. It had all but disintegrated him.

  "But, but he could be, right?"

  "I saw it. He's dead. It was instant. There's nothing left," I said, still shaking my head. I could have told them
about his legs, but what good would that do? If we could even find them. The ship was still moving forward, the crew had pulled themselves back onboard, and were steering us again, while casting fearful looks to the sky.

  "Gone? Just gone? All gone?" Terry said looking around.

  I looked at Heather and winced.

  "What did you see?" she asked quietly.

  I leaned forward. "His legs were all that was left, and his charred skeleton, but they got knocked overboard from the force of the, the blast," I whispered in her ear.

  "You saw it?" She said looking at me surprised.

  "Yes, I saw it," I said with an unconscious shiver, "Are you sure it's not coming back?"

  "It will not be back," Sarah said sitting down with a sigh, "Check the horses please."

  "Why are you sure it won't be back?"

  "I believe it saw us as a meal of opportunity. If it was planning on coming back, it would not have left in the first place. Either our weapons presented enough of a challenge to drive it off, or it had other things it wished to do."

  "So, it just wanted a snack?" I asked looking around. Terry was crying rather quietly and Tim was comforting her.

  "Yes, we were lucky," Sarah said with a sigh.

  I looked back up at the sky, in the direction the dragon had left.

  "Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore," I said, still shaking my head in disbelief.

  We made the far shore less than an hour after that. Getting the horses back up, saddled, and hitched to the wagons was almost anti-climatic. We were off the boat in just a couple of minutes and they sailed off immediately, heading south. The horse we'd lost had been Lisa's, and she didn't look happy about it, but she didn't say anything about it either. After losing Dean, losing a horse just didn't seem to be that big of a deal.

  We didn't even stop as we rode off the ferry, but just keep going west, moving away from the beach and heading for the protection of the trees. Though after seeing the way that dragon had gone between the two masts, I wasn't sure that we'd have all that much protection. It's a very sobering thought to realize that there are things out there against which you really don't have any defense.