Out of Time by Jason Ronin (top 5 ebook reader txt) 📖

alien had gone.

“He’s gone through ain’t he boss” Billy Joe laughed.

“Looks that way, if so the brown stuff has hit the spinning blades”

They were definitely in the shit, history books never mentioned any graylings in Tombstone and all the nasty stuff that time travel can cause flooded through his mind. He furtively glanced about to see if anything looked different, would he know?

“Okay I think we need to go through and get him back”

Billy Joe gave out a cowboy whoop and did a little dance, Steve went white.

“We got a problem then boss” Billy Joe said, “We cannot go wandering around dressed like we are”

Ben looked at their clothes, combat pants, t-shirts white science coats.

“Your right, we would turn some heads, any suggestions”

“I got a denim shirt and jeans in my locker” Steve said, “I could go through and try to borrow some clothes for you two”

“Great the first person to travel through time is a thief,” Ben laughed, “Ok we got no choice I suppose”

Steve scurried off to change into his pseudo western gear.

“Are you sure about this boss, we don’t know what effects it will have on the human body” Billy Joe said.

“I’m trusting in our friend Xatacho knowing what he’s doing” Ben said, “Hes a carbon based being like us so we should be fine…hopefully”

“Wish I had your faith”

Steve arrived at that moment dressed in denim.

“Any advice before I go?”

“Just be careful, don’t attract attention, and most of all come back in one piece”

Steve hitched up his jeans cowboy style and stepped towards the portal.

“Okay, here goes nothing,” with that, he stepped through and was gone.

“Billy Joe, contact the colonel and tell him we got a massive Freon leak down here”

“We don’t have any Freon down here”

“He don’t know that”

As soon as he stepped into the portal Steve felt/heard a zap sound inside his head, he closed his eyes expecting to be whooshed away. There was nothing, no sense of movement at all. He still felt solidness beneath his feet and the only other feeling was air flowing around him. He took a step forward and stumbled to his knees as the floor went out from under him. His breath is knocked out of him as he landed on what felt like sandy ground. His eyes are still closed but all his other senses seemed heightened. A strong breeze caressed his right cheek and somewhere overhead a strong sun beat down. Smells assaulted his nostrils, horseshit mixed with the smell of cabbage, human excrement and urine. He could hear sounds of people laughing somewhere behind him, a gunshot in the distance followed by several more. Wooden creaking noises came from all around him.

He opened one eye and gazed upon a pile of horse dung next to a fresh cowboy dump, horse and master must have gone at the same time. He quickly pushed himself away from the offending pile and slammed into a wall. Steve opened both eyes. He was looking across a medium-sized sand and rock covered area at a single story wooden building set at an angle to what he supposed was a street, with hitching posts out front and a flat roof. To his right grew a cluster of trees and to his left across another street sat more buildings that are wooden. The streets were just rough mud baked with sand.

The reality of where he was hit him like an earthquake and he started shaking. Pull yourself together, he told himself as he rose to his feet. He looked around; there was no sign of anyone noticing his sudden appearance out of thin air. Steve felt like Valentine Michael Smith, from that Heinlein novel for he was indeed a stranger in this land and time.


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Publication Date: 12-14-2011

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