Time Jump (Halcyon Gate Book 1)

by J. M. Preiss

  Jacob grabbed his bioscanner, selected the signal for Hector and Mason, and gave it a tag. The tag followed them.

  Ok, Jacob. What have you gotten yourself into now? Think.

  Jacob looked around and found a stone structure with a tall tower that seemed to have some sort of bell in it.

  Ah, a church. That should give me a good vantage point, he thought.

  He started to run off towards the church, one eye on the street, the other on the bioscanner. He made it past a crossroads and narrowly avoided coming into sight of one of the search parties. He ran up to the church and barreled through the door. Inside, it looked just like he remembered from his school classes, eerily so. Without wasting time, he ran around and found the access to the bell tower. He started climbing while constantly checking the bioscanner. One of the groups was angling towards the church.

  They must have heard me go through the door somehow. Not good, he worried.

  When Jacob reached the top of the tower he took out his visual enhancers, set them to low light, and started looking around for a distraction. Off in the distance, he saw what looked like a large industrial building. It was made of brick and had a tall stone fence around it. At the top of the fence was metal wiring. On the inside of the fence was a large yard with a large amount of what appeared to be lumber lying in neat stacks. He pulled out his rifle.

  He deployed it and took up a firing stance. Depressing another button, a targeting scope rose out of the top of the rifle. Sighting through the scope, he enhanced the image until he was able to spot the building again. Jacob hit the button for the range finder.

  Eight hundred meters. The auto-rifle was considered effective up to only a quarter of that. Beyond that, it was useless for what he needed it to do.

  Jacob cursed to himself and lowered the rifle. He pulled up his visual enhancers and started looking for another target. Closer by, there was another large brick building. This one had another stone fence with wire running at the top. Inside the yard were giant tanks. He couldn't make out the labels on them, but he figured that if they were labeled, they were important.

  Jacob pulled up his rifle and sighted in at the new target. The closest tank was two hundred meters away. Jacob let out a breath. He checked the bioscanner again. There were now five sets of search parties in range, each with six signals. Jacob cursed to himself. He pulled the trigger.

  A sharp crack reverberated in the bell tower. The bell rang in response making the noise all the louder. Nothing else happened.

  Jacob fired again.

  Again, there was a sharp crack that reverberated in the bell tower, and the bell rang in response. Nothing else happened.

  Jacob could hear voices shouting to head to the church. He cursed to himself, set his rifle to pulse mode, and held down the trigger.

  A deafening rip resounded through the night. Off in the distance, the tank exploded into a huge ball of fire that chased away the darkness for the entire town.

  "Fire! Fire at the gas plant!"

  Jacob could hear people screaming to get to the fire and contain it. Nearby buildings had flaming debris land on them, and they were set ablaze as well.

  Checking his bioscanner, he saw that four of the parties were running to where the fire was. The fifth was running right towards him.

  Jacob really didn't want to hurt them, and looking at his rifle, he saw that the energy had been depleted. He collapsed his rifle, put it in his pack, and descended the tower. Keeping a close eye on his bioscanner, he made it to the floor right as the group made it to the doors.

  The doors flung open, and they rushed in. Jacob pivoted to his right and close-lined the first man to charge him. The second man was more cautious and took up a fighting stance, the rest of the group surrounding Jacob.

  The second man started bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, a standard boxing stance having been assumed. Jacob simply centered his weight and waited. After a few moments, the man came at him. He quickly started throwing punches. Jacob bobbed and weaved around the attacks. When he saw an opening, he delivered a stiff right jab to the man's chin. The man countered and did exactly what Jacob was waiting for.

  The man came around with a strong left hook. Jacob dodged beneath the attack and, putting his right foot in front of the man, tripped him to the ground. Clambering back up, Jacob didn't let him get back into his stance and delivered a swift kick to the man's right knee. It popped out of place, and he collapsed.

  A third man now charged at Jacob with the first man that had finally picked himself up off the floor. Jacob sidestepped and made the first man stumble past. The third man came squarely at Jacob's back, but he managed to sucker punch him and sent him sprawling, obviously unconscious by how he landed.

  There were four men left. They started circling Jacob and getting closer. Jacob lowered himself back into a balanced stance and waited. When the first strike came, he sidestepped. The second blow he blocked with his right arm. The dance began in earnest.

  Dodging and slipping around the opponents, Jacob set to work picking them apart. Whenever an opportunity to attack presented itself, he took it, but he otherwise remained defensive. With a strong right, he slammed his fist into another man's temple and knocked him unconscious as well. Three men remained.

  The melee was intense, but Jacob quickly made short work of two more men. Squaring off against the final man of the search party, he assumed a balanced stance again.

  "You damn, Cagan," the man snarled. His nose was broken, and blood was gushing down his face. "We were told to capture you, but you'll never leave here alive now."

  The man pulled out a wicked looking knife and lunged at Jacob. Jacob reacted by catching the man's wrist and using his momentum to make the knife pass by harmlessly. Jacob then twisted the man's outstretched arm and got behind him. Taking him to the ground, he strongly kneed the man's hand and caused the knife to go skidding across the floor. With a swift punch to the back of the head, Jacob rendered the man unconscious.

  He was breathing moderately heavily, but he took one deep breath and slowed himself back to normal breathing.

  Been a while since I've had to fight like that, Jacob thought.

  Jacob looked down at his bioscanner, found the tag that denoted the signals for Mason and Hector, and ran off in their direction.

  Chapter XXI

  It didn't take too long for Jacob to catch up with Mason and Hector. When he found them, they were down a side street behind a bunch of boxes.

  "Distraction?" asked Mason.

  "It worked," Jacob stated simply. "Let's go."

  He took the lead, and they started to head out of the city.

  "What was that horrid ripping sound?" asked Hector as they calmly walked so as not to draw attention to themselves.

  "Auto-rifle," Jacob said. "Pulse mode. Hold down the trigger, and it keeps firing until you have no more power."

  "Drain the power cell?" Mason asked as he looked at his bioscanner.

  "Yeah," Jacob replied. "Damn tank didn't want to do anything. Too far away."

  Mason grunted. "Could've used a rail-rifle then."

  "I doubt that a long range weapon such as that would have been very helpful. It would have just punched holes in my target and not done much else. The heat from the auto-rifle seems to have done the trick."

  "Can't argue with that. What did you target anyways?" Mason looked towards the glow in the night sky.

  "Beats me. I'm thinking it was a storage tank for the gas that they are using." Jacob shrugged.

  "That's why it went boom," said Mason.

  “Was that really necessary?" Hector asked as he scratched his head.

  Mason gave him a sidelong glance. "You want to be captured and beat up?"

  "Well, no," Hector replied. "When you put it that way," he trailed off.

  "Captured and beat up is right," said Jacob. "They tried pretty hard to get me."

  "Noticed that one of the groups ran for you," Mason said as he glanced at t
he bioscanner again.

  "Anything?" Jacob asked.

  "A handful of signals, but they are off in the distance ahead of us." Mason looked down the street. "My guess is those houses that are coming up."

  They continued in silence as they passed the houses. No lights shone through the windows and all was quiet this far from all the frantic firefighting that was taking place further in town.

  "This place is pretty big," said Hector. "Much bigger than Repose."

  "I wonder how many people live here," Mason mused.

  "Based on the size of the town from when we first came across it, I would have to guess thousands," Jacob said.

  "Thousands!" exclaimed Hector. "I cannot imagine that many people."

  "Cago is much larger, Hector," Mason stated. "Well, the structure should be at the least."

  Hector chewed on his lip, and the group fell back into silence as they walked.

  They walked for another fifteen minutes before Hector spoke up again.

  "What are we going to do now?" he asked.

  "That's a very good question, Hector," replied Jacob. "I honestly don't know. Mason?"

  Mason grunted. "Let's get away from this town and try and find another one. It's getting late though, and my ribs are hurting something fierce from all this activity."

  Jacob nodded. "Agreed. Let's try and find an old building to set up for the night. There's bound to be an abandoned building out here on the outskirts somewhere."

  Jacob pulled up his bioscanner and narrowed the range. They kept walking down the street, one eye on the bioscanner. After what seemed like hours of searching, they managed to find a ramshackle structure.

  There were no gas lamps this far out from the town, and they didn't want to risk using their flashlights. There wasn't much to be seen as a result. All that they could tell was that the building was abandoned.

  "Looks like this is going to be the place," said Mason. "Let's get in there and get some sleep."

  "You won't get any argument from me," Jacob said. "And in the morning, we'll be able to get a bearing on which direction we're going so as not to double back on accident."

  Inside the building, it was dark. Jacob brought out his flashlight, turned it to area mode, and turned it on.

  Light filled the interior and lit up an old, neglected home. There was still furniture, but it was covered in dust, torn in places, and falling apart. There were multiple holes in the walls, and the floor was coming apart. What looked like wallpaper was peeling off the walls in places.

  "Cozy," said Mason.

  Jacob grunted and searched the house. More of the same was all he found.

  "Well, it isn't a hab complex, but it'll do," Jacob said when he got back. "Certainly better than sleeping outside again."

  "I like sleeping outside," Hector said.

  "Yeah? How about you go do that then?" Mason shook his head and lay against one of the inner walls. He placed the bioscanner in his lap, deployed his rifle, cradled it in his arms, and then closed his eyes. "Hopefully tomorrow is more amiable to us."

  "Agreed," said Jacob as he followed suit.

  Hector was left standing in the middle of the room as the Jacob and Mason quickly drifted into a light sleep. He finally sighed, lay down on the floor against the broken couch, and drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter XXII

  The bioscanners buzzed and roused Jacob and Mason out of their slumber.

  "Company," Jacob said quietly.

  Mason nodded. There was a group of six signals that had just come into range. Moving over to the window for a view, Jacob quickly peeked out. They were coming from the direction of town.

  "These guys just don't give up, do they," Mason stated more than asked.

  "Doesn't look like it." Jacob checked his rifle and realized that he had forgotten to charge it the night before. He cursed and pulled out a fresh power cell for the rifle. After a few short moments, he had exchanged the cells and dropped the spent one into his pack.

  Have to recharge that later, Jacob thought.

  Peering out the window again, he was able to get a good glimpse of the men walking down the street.

  Just as the bioscanner said, the group comprised of six people. They were all dressed in some kind of military fatigue that was a simple gray color. Their hair was close cropped, and they were clean-shaven. They were carrying what appeared to be some kind of primitive rifle by Jacob's standards. He guessed it was some kind of kinetic weapon. As Jacob stepped back from the window, he saw the man in front lift up a small little object, look at it, and then point directly where Jacob, Mason, and Hector were.

  "Uh-oh," Jacob said.

  "Why do I get the feeling I don't want you to say anything?" asked Mason.

  "Because you don't. They're armed, have a bioscanner, and are coming right towards," Jacob said in a deadpan voice.

  Mason cursed. "I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to kill anybody here."

  "You and me both," Jacob said.

  The bioscanners buzzed again. There were now four groups moving towards their location quickly. As the groups neared it, they spread out and surrounded the building that they were in.

  "We know you are in there," an amplified voice boomed. "Come out with your hands up, and there won't be any trouble. Resist and we will have no choice but to use lethal force."

  Jacob looked at Mason then Hector. "We can probably take them, but the amount of bloodshed would be extreme. I can't guarantee our safety either."

  "Only one option then, kid," Mason said as he deactivated his rifle and slipped it into the pack that Hector was carrying.

  "Looks that way," said Jacob as he followed suit and put his rifle in his pack.

  All three of them walked to the door. Jacob cracked it open and looked out. One of the groups quickly snapped their rifles to the door.

  "We're coming out," said Jacob. "Hold your fire."

  He showed his hands out the door and started walking. Mason and Hector followed suit, but Hector had a confused look on his face.

  "On the ground," said one of the men as Jacob, Mason, and Hector made it to the street. "Hands on your head."

  Jacob did as ordered, and the others followed suit.

  The man that spoke pulled out another device and spoke into it.

  "We've secured the Cagans," he said into it. "Awaiting transport."

  He looked to the two men beside him and motioned them forward. "Check them for weapons and equipment."

  They nodded, lowered their rifles, and started patting Mason down first. He grimaced as they were rough and jarred his broken ribs. Finished with him, they moved on to Hector and easily found the pack that was secured to his back. They removed it and tossed it to the ground in front of Jacob. After finishing with Hector, they found Jacob's pack as well.

  "The only people with this equipment are the Marland Militia and the tyrants of Cago," the man in charge said. "You obviously aren't in the militia, so you have to be Cagan. This only confirms it."

  As he was finishing speaking, a six wheeled vehicle pulled up and stopped behind the men that had them in their sights.

  "On your feet and into the sled," the man said.

  Jacob wasn't about to argue, so he got up and went to the back of the vehicle they had called a sled. It wasn't much of anything, just a flat bed and an enclosed cabin suspended on six wheels by simple struts. Rather than being loud though while it sat there, it made no noise. In fact, Jacob hadn't remembered hearing it drive up either other than for the sound of the wheels on the ground.

  "Hurry up!" the man shouted.

  Jacob hopped into the bed and turned around. He quickly helped Mason up gingerly and then Hector. They put their hands back on their heads and sat down. Two men jumped up onto the bed with them and kept their rifles trained.

  "Not a word during the trip," the man in charge said to the two watching Jacob and the others. The man then walked to the cabin and leaned in. Jacob was unable to hear what he was saying, but he prom
ptly finished and stepped back.

  The vehicle smoothly eased into motion and sped off towards the center of town with a faint electric whine. People stopped what they were doing to stare at the vehicle as it lumbered by carrying the group on the back. The only noise that was readily audible the sound of the wheels on the ground, a crunching of snow and grind of stone.

  They drove by the building that had the tanks that Jacob used as a distraction. The buildings all around had burned in the night, and there were still fire crews working to make sure nothing started up again. Debris was strewn everywhere.

  They continued on past the building and towards the center of town. When they reached the central structure, the ground opened up and a ramp lowered itself down into a waiting tunnel. The vehicle drove down the ramp. As the opening sealed itself again, Jacob looked around at the tunnel that they were in. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made out of metal. There were lights spaced on either wall every so often to provide a steady level of light.

  The truck shortly entered an underground parking facility and backed into a spot. More members of the militia were waiting.

  "Off the truck," said a man in a blue uniform. He had longer brown hair and a mustache. "We've got a lot of questions for you Cagans."

  Jacob looked at Mason and stood up. They piled off of the truck and were ushered into a long corridor. The corridor was also metallic in nature with lights spaced at even intervals along the ceiling. If Jacob lifted his hands and stood on the tips of his toes, he would've reached the ceiling without issue. The corridor ended in a T-section, and they turned right. There were a number of shorter corridors breaking off to either side of the corridor they were walking along. Hector was the first one peeled away to the left at one of the intersections. Mason was sent to the right at the next one and Jacob to the left at the last one.

  Another militia member was standing guard at a door. He opened it up, and Jacob was shoved inside.

  The room was stark white with a mirrored window being the only point of reference.

  "Sit down," a feminine voice said.

  Jacob peered into the mirrored window and shrugged. No need to be difficult yet, he thought.