Southern Cruisers Riding Club Niagara Chapter 238

I was down in the root cellar last night and I decided to expand a little and make more room for Chuckles and I so I found an old shovel and started digging. The work was hard and dirty but after an hour or so I figured I was down below the foundation of the house and the earth was soft and the digging was a bit easier. Chuckles was sitting up at the top of the excavation knawing on what looked like the leg bone from an antelope, but it was probably something else. At about 2:00 a.m. I hit what seemed to be a wooden floor. It was about four foot square and had what appeared to be a small door in the middle of it. I tried for a good hour to open it but I couldn't. Tonight I will give it another try with some tools that should do the job.

After struggling for an hour or so I managed to get the small trap door open. I had to go back upstairs to get a flashlight because it was blacker than Chuckles' heart. Anyway...when I got back, there appeared to be an old ladder just below floor level that went down into the dark. I tried to get Chuckles to go down with me but the big hairy coward wouldn't move.

The ladder went down about twelve feet and the hole opened up to what looked like a natural cave. I have never heard of any caves in my neck of the woods, so this was very interesting. There were signs that someone or something had used this cave a long time ago. Old tools, pieces of a wooden chair or stool, and some lengths of rotted rope. I investigated further and then I saw it.........It was unbelievable.

There it was, something amazing.....a small box that looked like a coffin. But it was too small to be a coffin for a full grown person....I lifted the lid which had long been broken and found a book. An old dusty book with worn pages, written in a shaky hand. As I thumbed through the pages I began to think this was some sort of map or directions to somewhere or something. Since it was early in the evening I decided to see where it would lead. The passage went on for quite some way nice and level but then is started to go down at a gradual pace. The walls were wet and the sound or dripping water made it feel like I was walking through an old movie. I half expected to have some mummy or something jump out at me. I must have walked for about an hour when I came to a split in the tunnel.

Which way to go...hmmm
Ah yes Chuckles...As I was growing up we always had a dog in the family. Most were medium size dogs, some were larger some were smaller. With all the controversy over these "Pit Bull's" I decided to get a pet to outdo them all. So I got Chuckles. He's a 180 pound brown spotted hyena. I got him as a cub when I rescued him from the little old lady that was trying to dress him in Barbie clothes. Chuckles ate the old woman and he and I have been great pals ever since. He is tough to feed though as his diet consists of red meat and lots of it. We have very few dogs in the neighborhood now and I haven't seen a cat for ages. Not many seniors walking in the evening either. Hmmm...I wonder what it all means?
Rather than take the right or left passage i went down the one in the middle that I hadn't seen before. This passage was a bit smaller than the first one and after just a short while I was hunched over so as not to scrape my head on the roof. Chuckles, the big sissy has finally decided to follow me down although he does keep just behind me and never gets too far away. Every day I wonder how his kind ever survived in Africa if they are all like him. The big soft sissy.

Suddenly there was a noise from up ahead, soft, faint and barely audible. It had a metallic sound, there it was again.....This time it was a bit louder and now sounded like the scraping of an old door across a stone floor, or the sound those guys dressed up as Arabs in the Grape parade make with those big phony swords on the road. (If you have never been to the Grape parade you won't know what I mean). By the time I heard the noise the third time it was much closer and Chuckles was growling and the hair on his back was standing up. I had never seen him like this since the time he got into the fight with Mrs. Dobriski's cat from down the street. That was a short scuffle, that cat was no more than an appetizer. Just then Chuckles let out a howl and went down the tunnel and disappeared in the darkness. I could faintly hear him growling and snapping in the dark tomb like interior of the passage. I had to go see what he was fighting with.....

I continued along the passage, which by now was running downhill rather steeply. The dirt floor had given way to solid rock. I was now walking on the bones of the earth. Water still dripped from somewhere above, percolating down through the many feet of dirt overhead, which made the ground slick and dangerous. I could still hear Chuckles and now it sounded as if he were in a fight with some other animal. What it might be down here I could not imagine. It sounded as if the noise was coming from above and to the left. I did not see any other passage, but Chuckles now seemed to be a bit above me. I took my eyes off the ground in front of me for a moment, and it was then that I lost my footing and fell flat on my back. The incline was steep enough that I started to slide down the passage. I noticed a light somewhat ahead of me and I realized I had dropped my flashlight and it was skittering away from me in the dark.

So there was my flashlight, sliding away and getting smaller and smaller by the second. Finally, it was a barely discernable speck of light in the distance. I could still hear Chuckles somewhere above and to the left of me but now he was a barely audible moan in the distance. I had to go on, or go back.......I decided to go back but realized I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, so I figured I had to go on. As I felt my way down the slick tunnel I could see the light ahead, but it seemed to be getting dimmer. As I got close enough I realized that the batteries were just about dead. Where is that damn energizer bunny when you need him? I reached for my special Southern Cruisers survival kit....Oh wait...we don't have one. I know...my southern Cruisers emergency flashlight...Nope, don't have one of those either. But wait, I do have my Harley Davidson Zippo lighter....Damn....doesn't work. The little wheel thingy fell off. Wait...I never leave home without my Kawasaki Vulcan super duper emergency for everything kit. Ahhh, no flashlight. I lent it to someone....But wait. here's a can of lighter fluid. (for the Harley Zippo). If I take my handkerchief and wrap it around this handy stick I found......A torch! I surprise myself at times. With a little fumbling and cursing the torch sprang to life and illuminated the tunnel. There before me, once hidden by the dark, stood a creature so hideous and vile that I could hardly catch my breath. The monster was matted with blood and stank like Mike Riddick's skull cap. It was breathing heavy and I could see some kind of running drool coming from it's gaping rotten mouth.....oh hell.....it was Chuckles.

What a mess. Chuckles looked like he had come through a sausage grinder. He was covered in blood and his fur was matted and muddy. He had a glazed look in his eye like he had opened the door to hell but at the last minute decided not to go in. I went a bit closer hoping beyond hope that he would recognize me and not think I was dessert. As I approached him I could see his stumpy tail start to wag. Whew, at least I knew he wasn't going to try and eat me. Upon further investigation I found that the dried blood was not his. He was unharmed. I hate to thing what the other....animal looked like. That's when I noticed the small bit of blue fabric stuck in his teeth. Blue fabric. It almost looked like a piece of ribbon. I had to investigate further. I knew watching all those episodes of CSI would come in handy.

Going into my CSI kit I got a small pair of tweezers and carefully removed the piece of blue material from the gaping maw of the killer Chuckles. Along with the ribbon, for that is what it was, there was a small tag with some writing on it. Possibly some message or some clue as to what kind of savage beast Chuckles had fought and got the better of. The tag was soaked in blood. Against the blue of the ribbon the blood took on another colour. Rather than the red we are all accustomed to, it now looked almost black. It was sticky to touch, even with my CSI latex gloves. I could make out only a few letters and it was going to prove to be quite a puzzle. Then, like looking at one of those computer generated pictures that were popular a few years ago, the puzzle become clear and the message almost jumped right off the tag. There as plain to see, even soaked in blood was the message. My name is Fluffy, if I look lost cal 555-2843. It was the tag from that damn cat down the street. Good boy Chuckles.

But wait....there was something else.
This Fluffy the cat was a replacement for the one that Chuckles ate last year. But what was this other thing.....It looked like a folded piece of old parchment, covered in mud and blood stained. I carefully opened it up and there in a shaky scrawl was a message. "Find the hole to the other side and reap the rewards". What hole was this? I wonder who wrote this, and what does it mean. By the light of my torch, Chuckles and I started down the long dark tunnel. He seemed to be in higher spirits now that he has had a little snack. The poor beast just lives to eat. Sometime further we came to an old wooden platform suspended above a hole. A Hole! This might be the hole mentioned in the message. The platform looked a lot like an old elevator that you might find in an old abandoned mine shaft, but I couldn't see this thing working. It looked like it was going to fall apart. All at once a number of things happened. Chuckles pushed past me and walked out on the platform. In so doing, he knocked the tourch from my and and I dropped it onto the platform floor. At the same time the platform started to decend into the hole. Now I had to make a split second choice. Leave Chuckles and the tourch to decend into the hole and remain here with no light or jump on the platform before it got too far away.........I jumped.

Down I went falling toward the elevator with the howling Chuckes cowering on the floor. The elevator was moving faster than I judged and I slamed into the floor and smacked my head. Everything went black and I passed out. How long I lay there I don't know. I do remember that somehow Cindy Crawford was there and she was trying to revive me. She leaned over and her long dark hair fell over my face and as she got closer I could not believe how bad her breath was. It was so bad that it snapped me back to reality like a bottle of smelling salts. I expected to find myself looking into her beautiful eyes when I opened mine, but of course she wasn't there. It was Chuckles, drooling on me and licking my face. I slowly got to my feet and realised that the elevator had stopped. Another passage, much larger than the one up above and there was an almost imperceptable light radiating from somewhere. I hadn't taken more than a few steps when I could hear machinery in the distance. A low hum as is large motors or generators were spinning. Chuckles and I walked in silence as we approach a large well lit room. It was as big as a hanger at the airport and was filled with strange machines. Some seemed to be generating power for the lighting, some seemed to be moving air, and others I could not figure out what they were. There seemed to be no one around, and when I called out my voice seemed muffled in the noise of the room. How had this stuff got here? Who was responsible for this, and more importantly, how the hell did they get in my root celler. My root celler...it seemed so far away now. At the far end of the room there was a glass enclosure. It was probably the size of a small car and it had one single seat against the back wall. It was like a phone booth for rich people only without the phone. I went in and looked around but couls see nothing. Why is it when faced with something like a chair, even one in a very stange place, people will have to sit in it. Well I'm no different than anyone else so I sat in the chair. The chair itself was nothing special. It was like one of those modern things you see at IKEA. Looks cool but not all that comfortable. Then I saw it. On the right armrest was a small red button. It didn't have a little tag that said PUSH but the temptation was there. I thought..."what the hell" and pushed it.

Nothing....I pushed the little red button again. I think I felt a slight vibration in the chair but other than that nothing seemed to be happening. Unlike the busy machines in the main part of the room, this small enclosure had a thick layer of dust on everything. I do not think anyone had sat in this chair for a long long time. Chuckles was nosing around at the bottom of the chair and leaving big hairy footprints in the dust. He didn't seem to feel the vibration, or if he did he wasn't letting on. I went back out into the big room where the machines were still humming away to some long forgotten monotone tune when I noticed something. The machines looked to be in better condition than I had first thought. In fact they looked almost new. Funny, I hadn't remembered that from just a few short minutes ago. I looked around for a bit but found nothing. I guess I had better head back to the root cellar. If I can find it...

Chuckles and I started back toward the tunnel to try to find some way back home. How we were going to get there was still not clear but we had to try. We walked across the machine room, that's what I call it now because of all the machines, and found the entrance to the tunnel. I could not believe what I was looking at. The once dark tunnel was now brightly lit. I could see cables running along the ceiling and every few feet there was a light recessed into the stone roof. This looked less like a natural cave and more like something man-made. The next surprise was the rotten old elevator now seemed almost new. No dust, no rotting ropes. Things were very strange. As soon as Chuckles and I stepped on the platform, it started to move up through the shaft quickly and quietly. Even here in the shaft there was light enough to see. We reached the top with no effort and the tunnel that I had slid down in the dark was now dry and clean. There were lights here as well, just like the passage below. As I was making my way to the ladder and the comfort of my root cellar, I could not figure out how any of this could happen. As I climbed the ladder and went through the trap door I found myself not in my root cellar, but standing in an open field. Now what?

So there we were, standing in an open field. No root cellar, no house, no yard. What was once my back garden was now a vast meadow with tall grasses blowing in the gentle breeze. It seemed that even the time of day was wrong. I expected to surface in the middle of the night but this seemed more like early morning. I could see the sun just peeking over the eastern horizon and it washed the blowing grasses in a wonderful pale golden light. I could hear unseen birds chirping in the field and overhead, a large hawk circled looking for his breakfast. The air was clean and crisp and other than the sound of the field all was silent. This could not be good. Chuckles was rolling around in the grass and acting like a cub again. He at least, was having a good time. I had to find out what had happened. Something unprecedented had happened. I had wandered down through an unknown passage beneath my root cellar and when I retuned my house, and indeed everything I knew, was gone. My once familiar yard was now just a grassy meadow. My house and the whole neighbourhood had vanished. Chuckles was sniffing around in the tall grass and seemed to be enjoying this new turn of events.

There was little in the way of landmarks, a few short old twisted trees that had seen better days but not much else. I figured that if I was going to wander around I should leave some sort of marking here at the trap door. This was the only familiar thing I knew now. I found a broken branch from a nearby dead tree and jammed it into the ground near the trap door. There, now I would be able to find my way back. The weather seemed very warm for November as Chuckles and I walked North to see what we could find. This was going to be an interesting day.

Chuckles and I walked for about an hour and by now the sun was up and it was getting quite warm. We were heading north and somewhere near where Brock University was located, I came to the edge of the Escarpment. Just a few days ago, I would have been looking out over the city and I would have seen the skyway in the distance, and if it were clear, I might be able to see Lake Ontario. Now I was looking out over a vast in-land sea. The water washed up onto the edge of the escarpment and spread as far as I could see. At this point, there were still no signs of life. The sounds I heard before that I thought were birds chirping in the tall grass turned out to be some species of insect that I was unfamiliar with. The way I found out was when one of the buggers bit me. It looked like a cockroach but was twice as big. I hate bugs. Chuckles was getting braver now and was wandering further and further away from me. The good thing though that is when I called him he came right back. He is the only think that is keeping me from going crazy. (no comments from readers please). I was having a hard time with all this and felt like I had stepped through a doorway to some other dimension. It was the red button on the chair...I had to get back.

Chuckles and I headed back through the tall grass and big cockroaches to the trap door. The trip down through the passage was much easier than the first time. The lights and general condition of the tunnel were a big improvement. When I got to the fork in the tunnel I could see that both passages were now lighted. Looking down each one I noticed that one went for a very long distance until it rounded a corner, and the other only went a few metres and then climbed a flight of winding stairs. The desire to push on to the machine room was strong but the idea of finding something at the end of these tunnels was too much to bear. But which one do I take? I was told by a very wise man once to always take the right passage so I figured I would follow his advise. This was the passage with the stairway so this should prove interesting.

The stairs wound up only a few feet then the corridor stretched on again. Chuckles was not happy being inside again. I think his kind much prefer the wide open spaces of the savannah in Africa. Oh well we were far from the Dark Continent now.

After a short distance, the passage opened to what looked like a control room. Possibly this was the room that ran the equipment in the machine room. More puzzles and more questions. I heard Chuckles growl that low rumbling growl of his and I could see the hair on his back go up as he slowly approached a door in the far side of the room. Just as I looked at the door I heard a noise from the other side and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The sound was getting louder and I could almost make out someone talking. I put my hand out slowly for the handle and slowly started to open the door.

As I approached the door I could hear a voice from the other side. I slowly opened the door and there stood the strangest little man I have ever seen. He was about four and a half feet tall, dressed in a tattered cloak and his bald head was covered in what appeared to be scars or welts of some kind. He was busily running around and gathering up papers and documents and mumbling all the while to himself. He looked an awful lot like our first officer. He wore a large medallion around his neck that hung on a heavy chain. Both the medallion and chain looked to be made of the finest gold and it twinkled in the subdued light of the room. He took no notice of me, but after a minute or so he acknowledge Chuckles, who was now wagging his tail and getting into his "rub my belly" mode. I tried to catch what he was saying and although I could not place the language, it was definitely not English. He walked over to Chuckles and started to pet him when he finally noticed me. He dropped his papers and looked rather startled. "What are you doing here" he said. He seemed quite surprised to see me, and yet he accepted the fact that an African Hyena was laying at his feet looking very contented.

"What am I doing here?? " Who the hell are you and why are you in my root cellar?" "Root cellar boot filler, boot cellar root filler." What is Root Cellar", he asked. His English was not perfect but he was understandable. (Sort of like dealing with the majority of the Southern Cruisers). "You are not supposed to be here" "Not yet".

This was all getting very confusing and I was feeling light headed. Everything in this room had a worn look, as if it had been here for a while. Even the papers that covered the tables had a worn and well-used look. After a short time he seemed to forget that I wasn't supposed to be here and he went about his business of going through papers and charts. I was still very confused and somewhat apprehensive about all this. This was not supposed to happen. After all, we are familiar with what we see and feel around us, and yet if something strange happens it overloads our senses to the point of not being able to function. I happened to glance at one large chart on the table and I saw something that was more familiar. It was a detailed drawing of the Great Pyramid at Giza. I have never been to Egypt, but I have seen a lot of pictures. This was a sketch of the pyramid when it was new. More confusing bits of information to try and decipher. "What is this?" I asked, almost hoping not to get an answer. "That is marker" he said almost as if things like this happened every day. What kind of marker I wondered. He did not seem to be in the mood to answer any more questions and was busy doing whatever it was he was doing. How long had he been here? Why was he here? I had a thousand questions but he was not very talkative.

So there we were, three of the most unlikely creatures to meet. Chuckles, a spotted African hyena, this short little guy with no name, and me. After some time I finaly got his to start talking again and although it was difficult to understand at times, I managed to put together a story from what he was saying. I decided that I had to call him something so because of his poor English and the ability to make himself understood, I named him Stan. Now I know a lot of you are saying that it is because of Stan Wood that I called him that, but it is just coincidental that some of you cannot understand Stan. I have no problem what so ever. Back to my tale....After what seemed like an hour or more I managed to get some information from "Bald Stan" that he was a cartographer sent here to organize the arrival of his people from...I hadn't got that part straight but it seemed to be from a long way off. I asked about the Pyramid being some kind of "Marker" and he told me his people would use the pyramid as a map reference. From what I figured out, his people were beings from another world that were coming here. The part that I could not figure out was that he said the pyramid would have to be built soon.. I thought that it has been in Egypt for a few thousand years already. It was that damn red button. Somehow, I had been transported, beamed or something back to before the pyramids were built. What a pile of shit that is....I must find my way back. I am going to have to get the little bald guy to tell me how to do this....

After prodding and questioning "Stan", I decided to push on and try and get back to where I started from, my nice damp cold root cellar. Good old "Stan" gave me a bunch of papers that were mostly in English with a few signs and symbols thrown in to try and help me get back. Chuckles was in good spirits as we headed back to the machine room to try the red button again. Once in the machine room the instructions proved harder to decipher than I had originally thought. There appeared to be a sequence in which things would work. Do things out of sequence and who knows what would happen or where you would end up. The room looked different somehow. I remembered that it looked newer or cleaner than the first time I had seen it, but now there was something else.

There was someone sitting in the chair inside the glass enclosure. The chair with the red button on it, the chair I needed to get home. I crouched down beside some of the machinery and watched. This person seemed to be taller than my little bald friend in the control room, a lot taller. It was difficult to tell much about their clothing, It seemed to be a one piece snug fitting grey coloured garment, sort of what the sport bike riders wear, but it didn't look like leather. The facial features were hard to see from the way the...person. was sitting, so I couldn't tell what it looked like. Just then, the chair sitter disappeared. In a flash the chair went from being occupied to being empty. This was getting very freaky very fast.

I ran over to the chair and to my surprise the chair now had three buttons. Along with the red one, there was now a blue one and a black one. The red one got me here, but would it take me home. Chuckles was sniffing around in the corner and even he could tell someone else had been here. I now faced a dilemma. Should I press the red button again or try one of the others. I remembered the papers I was carrying, and thought that maybe I could find something in them to help me make a decision. Many of the pages held sketches and drawings of pieces of machinery and objects that meant nothing to me, but I was sure that somewhere in this mess there might be a clue. Then, just as I was thinking of giving up, I found what looked like a drawing of the glass-enclosed chair. Sure enough, there were drawings of the chair, and better still, a drawing of the buttons on the arm. The buttons had explanations written beside each one explaining what they did and how the thing worked. The only problem I had was that the writing was not in English but seemed to be in some form of pictograph. More confusion. I thought through this thing as logically I as could. If the red button brought me here, and it was a one way sort of thing like the down button on an elevator, I didn't want that one. However, one of the others might be the one I want. But which one? The black or the blue????

I sat back in the chair and looked at the three buttons again. Red, which brought me here, and a black and a blue one, both unknown and absolutely no indication as to their function. My palms were sweaty and I could feel my pulse pounding at my temples. Chuckles was sitting at my feet almost as if to say "common, push one and let's see where we end up". Both the black and the blue button rested in their stainless steel housing and gave me no indication of what my next choice should be. Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard a soft whisper of advice. I remembered that a friend told me once that black should be the colour of choice because it was the colour of leather that bikers wear. With that bit of wisdom, however thin, I decided to push the black button. As my finger hesitated for a split second over the black one, I changed my mind and went with the blue.

The blue button depressed with an audible click. For a few seconds nothing happened and I thought that perhaps it was not working, but then a slight tremor or vibration could be felt . It was like the feeling you get when a heavy truck goes by your house and you feel its passing right through your feet. The glass enclosure around the chair started to get dark and the machinery in the room started to whir and spin at an increased rate. I hope the guys that do the maintenance on these machines do a good job. By now the chair was shaking and the glass enclosure was rattling. The noise was deafening as the machines were now in some sort of runaway mode. Finally, everything went black. I woke up slowly with that feeling that I had too good a time the night before. My mouth felt like I had been eating a baby diaper. The pounding in my head was the only reality that I could focus on. The last thing I remember was pushing the damn blue button.

Chuckles was nowhere to be seen. He either had run off or did not make the trip this time. The air felt heavy and stifling and made breathing laboured. I was still sitting in the chair which by now was proving to be very uncomfortable and the room had returned to its' original state. The machines had settled back into their steady hum, the walls were still blank. As I looked toward where the opening was to the tunnel, I could see some movement and it looked like some creature was poking around in the passage. My heart started to race for a bit as the creature came towards me on a dead run until I could see it was Chuckles.. "Well you mangy old devil, where have you been, and what is more important, where are we now"? I looked down at that stupid blue button hoping that it was the right choice, when I noticed that there were now different buttons on the arm of the chair again. Instead of the red, black, and blue, I now was faced with red, blue and green. I figured that I would never now if this worked unless I get out of the chair and go see if the blue button had brought me home. "Common Chuckles, let's go explore". My legs felt a bit shaky and I was in dire need of a cup of coffee, but we pressed on through the tunnel. The elevator was still in show-room condition so I immediately figured that I was not home. When I got to the for in the tunnel I went up to the control room to see if my friend "Stan" was there, but he was not. The ladder up into my root cellar was gone, and it had been replaced with a flight of wide clean steps. There was no light coming from above so the root cellar door must be closed. When I got to the top of the stairs, I found that the root cellar door was gone. It was dark because it was nighttime.

The field that was here on my last visit was gone, and now the earth looked dry and rocky. Where there was vast expanses of grass on my last visit, there was now buildings in different stages of collapse. Some were no more than a pile of rubble, others had missing windows and doors and showed little damage. "Well Chuckles, what do you think we should do"? I made my way over to a building that showed the least damage and went in through the missing front door. It was dark inside, but at least I was not out in the open. Things would have to wait till morning for further investigation. The floor of this building was made out of concrete, and there was a lot of wood and debris around so I decided to chance a small fire. Chuckles ran off while I gathered the small bits of wood and got them sputtering to life. No matter how dark and lonely things get, the warmth of a fire seems to give us strength, or maybe just hope. Chuckles bounded back in, scaring the daylights out of me, and dropped something on the floor. It was a dead rabbit. Not one of those cute little cottontails, this was a big long eared jackrabbit. It would probably taste like an old shoe but I was so hungry that I would have eaten dog shit on toast. Things were looking up. I have no idea where that old rabbit had come from or if Chuckles killed it or found it beside the road. I didn't care at this moment. As the rabbit roasted over my small fire, I looked up through a gap in the roof and could see the hard stars in a black sky. I could not believe how tired I was. I watched Chuckles grooming himself by the light of the fire as I slowly drifted into a dreamless sleep. The next morning dawned cold and crisp. The sun had been up for about half an hour, but I had no idea what time it was. I hoped that later in the day the sun would give up a little heat, but I wasn't going to hold my breath.

The fire had gone out and was now no more than a small pile of ash and cinders on the floor. Chuckles was gone again, maybe getting breakfast. I was hoping for eggs and a cup of coffee but somehow I doubted I would be so lucky. I went out the open door of the ruined building and looked across a desolate landscape. Where the hell was I? Chuckles was loping along an old creek bed either looking for food or something to drink. I sure could use both. I walked down to the creek bed and could see that it had been a very long time since water ran through this dusty ditch. I would have to search further afield if I were going to get a drink. I whistled for Chuckles and I could see he his ears search like radar for where my voice had come from. When he finally saw me he came up out of the creek bed, but he seemed to be in no hurry to get to me. I was going to head south and see where that led. Chuckles followed along some way behind but never loosing site of me. The area looked to have been built up at some point, but was now fallen into disrepair. Old buildings, dead and withered trees, all the signs of a society that had given up and moved on. This was going to be depressing. It was going to be mighty thirsty too if I did not find something to drink soon.

The walk started cool and crisp but as the sun climbed a little higher the temperature did as well, and soon I was getting uncomfortable in the heat. Chuckles was still wandering off in search of who knows what, but more and more he just stayed close as the day got hotter. The scenery had not changed much with the derelict buildings and the dry almost burnt look to the area. I was getting very thirsty now, and even Chuckles was starting to show the effects of dehydration. As he plodded along beside me, his big hairy feet made little puffs of dust as they hit the parched soil.

"Ray's Variety" The sign was old and broken but I could still read the name above the door. The sign was a leftover from better times when this was probably a place filled with people. Whatever "Ray" had sold them, I'm sure it was nice things that we all take for granted. A loaf of bread, a bag of milk or a nice cold Pepsi. When did milk start coming in bags. I remember when it came in glass bottles with the cardboard stopper in the top. Nice cold milk. I sat on an old broken step and leaned back against the front wall of "Ray's" place and closed my eyes against the dust and heat. At least there was some shade here and a slight break from the scorching sun. Chuckles seemed to not bother too much about the heat, maybe it was his African heritage or the fact that he was dripping wet. Dripping Wet?? How did he get wet. I called him over and he came to me right away. Sure enough, his fur was wet, and matted with dirt. "Where have you been?" He seemed almost excited at being wet and dirty. He was probably feeling a lot better since he had a drink and a bath. He went around the back of "Ray's Variety" to an old cellar door, (not another root cellar please) and went inside. I could hear him splash into some hidden pool of water so I immediately followed him into the dark basement.

I stumbled into the basement as my eyes became accustomed to the dark. It was much cooler here and I could smell that damp musty smell you get when mildew and rot start to take a building apart. Chuckles went straight to the back of the building and there I found it. It was the most beautiful pool of dirty water that I ever saw. Chuckles was drinking again and seemed to enjoy it, so I figured it cannot kill me, and I am thirsty. It tasted a bit oily, but it was cooler than I had expected it to be and as much as I would not have drank it another time, it sure tasted good now.

After a good long drink, a search for food would be next, but first I would explore around a bit. There were a number of rooms down here in "Ray's" basement. Most of them had no doors and the odd door that still existed was hanging off its hinges. At the farthest end of the building there was a door that looked intact. I tried the handle but it would not budge. I gave it a bit more muscle and it slowly creaked open. This room was unlike the rest of the basement, which was dirt floored. This room had a concrete floor and was a lot drier than the rest of the lower level. There was still some furniture in here along with what looked like some bookcases and piles of papers. I rummaged through some of the stuff and it was all about the great exodus that happened years before. It seemed that some calamity had befallen the area and everyone had to leave. I was hoping it wasn't from drinking dirty water. With no definite dates written down, I could not tell how long ago the people left. Indeed, I was not sure of the date now so it did not matter much. Suddenly, there was noise from the upper floor. I was just about to yell for Chuckles to come down when I realized he was here with me. When I looked over at him, he was looking up towards where the noise had come from, and his ears were searching rapidly for the exact location of the sound. There was a broken wooden chair nearby, and I grabbed one of the stout legs and started towards the exit to find out what had made the noise.

Outside the room with the door there was a flight of stairs going up into "Ray's" place and I started up. The stairs squeaked and moaned but the noise from above did not stop. I tried to discern if this was an animal or a person but so far, there was no indication of either. The steps led up through an opening in the floor so I could get a view of the room without actually going all the way to the top. As soon as I got high enough I peered over the edge of the floor and surveyed the room. In the gloom I could make out someone standing sort of hunched over, looking through old boxes and debris. >From the back I could not tell if it was a man or a woman because of the tattered clothing that they wore. It looked like an old great coat like the one the Russian military wore. It was topped of by a hat with long tassels that hung down over the ears. I could tell from here that the build was slim, probably a young boy or a woman. I slowly made my way of the remaining steps as quietly as I could. Suddenly, I stepped on something and made a noise, or the person felt my presence because they whirled around to face me. There I stood about ten feet away, looking into the animal eyes of a young boy. As soon as he saw me he made a grab for a piece of pipe that he probably used as a weapon.

At that exact moment, a number of things crossed my mind. The most important fact was that I was not alone here, and if he felt he needed a weapon, chances are he was not the only person or thing here either. So there we were, staring each other down, him with his length of pipe, me with my inadequate chair leg. "Who are you?" I asked and with that first attempt at communication, he swung his pipe and caught me on the left shoulder. The pain was excruciating and my whole left side felt like it had been paralysed. Not wanting to give him another crack at me, I swung the chair leg and caught him just above the left ear. Down he went. At that exact time, good old Chuckles came bounding in the room and started to sniff around the stranger. The feeling soon came back in my arm and I went to see if I had killed him.

As I approached him I could see that he was thin and frail, and it was then that I wished I had not hit him so hard. This was the only living person I had found so far and now I might have killed him. He was dressed in a long coat that scraped the ground and it was dirty and caked with mud. Beneath the coat I could see a tunic made of leather and pants that were a heavy cloth construction. It all looked too warm for the weather that I had been experiencing. I looked at his features and he seemed to be about fourteen or fifteen years old but he had that weathered complexion of someone who has spent too much time out in the elements. I wondered where he had come from, and what was he looking for here. He was breathing and seemed to be alive, so I had a quick look around to see if I could find what it was that brought him here. There did not seem to be anything in this room except the piles of garbage and broken furniture. The dust covered everything in a fine layer like flour on a baker's worktable. Everything I touched left fingerprints and clouds of dust in the air. Where he had been looking was a shambles and there seemed nothing of importance. I gave a cursory look just to make sure, and found a metal box. The box was heavy and constructed of a metal I was unfamiliar with. I ran my hand over the smooth surface and could find no flaw or seam in its' construction. There was no latch, no visible hinge, or any other indication that it even opened. On examination, it looked more like a metal cube than a box. I looked over at my new acquaintance and could see that he was moving and slowly coming round. I grabbed my chair leg, and his pipe, just to be on the safe side. I crouched behind him and waited. Chuckles came back from wherever he had been roaming, and sniffed this new discovery. He looked at me as if to ask "are we going to eat this thing?" I shooed him away while the kid woke up. This was going to be very interesting.

My new young visitor opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Chuckles standing just feet away looking at him. He instinctively reached for his piece of pipe, either to defend himself or possibly to prepare Chuckles for the dinner table. It was then he remembered me and spun around to look at his assailant. His eyes were dark and wide, like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast approaching automobile. I half expected him to run but he did not. Although he seemed very agitated with my being here, he seemed in no hurry to leave. His eyes darted around the room as if looking for something, and finally came to rest on the metal box, which I happen to be sitting on now. "I must have that box." So it can speak. "What is your name and what are you doing here?" I had a thousand questions and was not sure where to start. He was very concerned with the box so I decided to lead the questions in that direction. I asked him about the contents of the box and after much discussion and promises he told me the box contained a very powerful weapon. Suddenly, sitting on the damn box did not seem like a great idea. "What kind of weapon?" "Is it a bomb or something?"

"No it is not a bomb, something much worse." Oh wonderful. What could this thing be? Worse than a bomb. Maybe it was the first complete season of Survivor on video tape. I mentioned the fact that the box had no way of opening, and he brought out what looked like small cube of metal. "I have a key," he said. This key was just a small metal cube. I could see no way of inserting it anywhere in the box. He moved toward the box with his key, as I stood and stepped back. I was not sure if I should give him another smack with the chair leg, or run like hell out of there. To my amazement, I did neither.

I stood as he put the small metal cube in the centre of the box lid. There was that unmistakable sound as the small cube, or key as he called it, stuck to the larger box. It was magnetic. For a few seconds nothing happened and I was not so sure this kid knew what he was doing. Then, almost imperceptibly, a fine line could be seen forming just inside the top edge of the box. This was not a box with a lid; it was a box with a hole in the centre of the top. The now visible line started to widen and the centre section of the box top started to rise. I could see some sort of hinge mechanism that came from inside the box and allowed the opening to lift up, and swing to the side. I could see plainly the inside of the box because it had a light illuminating the interior. Like my refrigerator back home. I wonder if the light goes out when the door is closed.

As the centre section of the top of the box lifted up, it started to swing sideways and reveal the interior. I could see papers and what looked like a hand held compass, but I could see no weapon. Either the kid was going to use the papers and roll them up and hit me with them, or that compass thing was more than it seemed. The kid reached in and took out the papers, and he handed the compass thing to me. It had nothing on the face of it, and it had a shiny stainless steel look to it. As I turned it over, I found three buttons. More fucking buttons. This time they were all blue.

More buttons. Turning this thing over in my hand I tried to find something that would tell me what this thing was for, but the device held no clues except for the three blue buttons. My young friend gathered up the papers and grabbed his pipe. "Follow me" he said, "and bring the key and the transporter." With that he was out the door and around the corner. I grabbed the key from the lid of the box and it immediately closed with a hiss and a dull clank. I dropped the key in one pocket and put the device in the other. "Come Chuckles" I shouted and started for the door. As a second thought I picked up my chair leg and headed outside. Chuckles and I rounded the corner and I could see my young friend just ahead. He was dodging and running between buildings as if hiding from some unseen enemy. Chuckles and I had just walked along quite unconcerned before, but his action now made me look over my shoulder and move out crouched over like I knew what was going on.

I could see the kid up ahead go through a hole in the wall of an old building and disappear into the darkness. I was just a few paces behind him and both Chuckles and me skittered through the opening as well. The darkness was enveloping and it took a minute to get accustomed the low light. After a moment or so I could start to see a bit, and I saw the kid trying to open a large steel door. "Help me open this, we must get away". I went over and between the two of us the heavy rusted old door creaked open on its' rusty hinges. The door led to a room that was not any better lighted than the outside room, and I found myself stumbling along behind the kid. Chuckles and the kid seemed to have no problem finding their way in the dark. It must have been youth and animal instinct. I, on the other hand stumbled and almost fell a number of times. I had to eventually walk with one hand out in front of me to avoid running into anything. The kid kept up a fast pace and I soon found myself panting along behind him. "Stop" I wheezed. "I need to rest for a minute". The kid turned abruptly and said in a hushed voice, "we must not stop here, we are being followed".

"Followed? Followed by who?" I quickly looked over my shoulder expecting to see some hideous creature behind me, but there was nothing but the darkness. Chuckles had been at my heels the whole time and as I glanced at him he seemed quite content going on this little adventure. "Who is following us?" I asked again. This time the kid said nothing. He gave me a look as if to say keep up or you will suffer greatly. I figured I had had enough of a rest and so we pressed on.

The passage was strewn with debris. Pieces of broken plaster, wooden beams and smashed furniture. The lighting was low and I tripped, stumbled and swore many times. My young guide seemed to navigate the debris without making the noise that I was. I put it down to youth. Suddenly the kid made a sharp corner, reached out, and pulled me through a doorway that I had not seen. He put his finger up to his mouth to indicate that I should be quiet and he shut the door. Everything was quiet for a few seconds and then I could hear a noise in the distance. It got louder and louder and it was coming closer. I could not believe that I was making so much noise that I could not hear this thing behind us. As it got closer the noise seemed to pause, as if someone or something was looking for us. With the noise I had been making, and the garbage I had tripped over, it would be a simple thing to follow the trail. I had a sudden fear that Chuckles might make a noise and give away our position but when I looked at him he was standing as still as a statue in the town square. The only thing that would have made it more humorous is if he had a couple of pigeons sitting on his head. The kid suddenly grabbed me by the wrist and held his hand out. What the hell did he want now? "The transporter! Quickly".

I went into my pocket and brought out the device with the blue buttons on it. It was shiny in the dark, and the buttons seemed to be faintly illuminated. My new buddy grabbed it and with his hand still around my wrist he put my hand on Chuckles back and said one word. "Touch". I did as he asked and grabbed a handful of hair. He got hold of my other arm with his free hand and held the device in front of him. I watched as he pressed the blue buttons quickly and in some sort of pattern. He looked at me and said "this is going to hurt a little".

I tightened my grip on Chuckles and waited for the pain. At first there was nothing, then almost imperceptibly, I became a bit light headed. Some who know me might say that this is a normal state, but this got worse as the seconds ticked on. The dark room started to spin like I had too much to drink. >From the corner of my eyes I could see little trails of light, almost like the end of a fireworks display where the last few shooting embers die out in the black sky. Suddenly I was aware of that stringy rabbit that I had eaten yesterday, and I could feel it fighting its way back to freedom. Waves of nausea swept over me as I fought the urge to throw up. I looked down at Chuckles and he was shaking and shivering as if the temperature had dropped. I glanced over at the kid and he had his eyes shut tight and looked like he was in the early stage of having a convulsion. The pain started quickly and seemed to come up from my toes and rise up like a rocket. By the time it reached my head I thought that I might not survive this...what ever it was I was doing. Just when I thought I could take no more the one thought that kept running through my mind was when the kid said that this was going to hurt a bit. A bit? I would have to talk to him about that....Then all went black. I had that wonderful sensation you get just before waking. Warm breezes were blowing and somewhere in the distance, birds were singing. It was one of those summer snoozes you take in the back yard laying in a hammock or on green grass under a tree big enough to throw a lot of shade. Smells of exotic flowers wafted through the air and everything was perfect. Except for the headache. I opened my eyes and was brought back to reality by the pounding of my head. I had that telltale taste in my mouth that the last thing I had eaten, I had brought back up. I looked around quickly to see the trees and flowers but there were none. The terrain was not as bad as it had been in the old city, but there were no flowers. There was a stream though, and the water was running quickly over smooth stones, and sounded very inviting. I half crawled to the edge of the water and plunged my head completely below the surface. The water was cold and refreshing. It was a bit too cold actually, and it just ratcheted my headache up a notch or two. I fell back looking at the sky and fell asleep.

I have no idea how long I slept, and I did not worry about being followed or anything else. The smell of a wood fire was what brought me back to the land of the living. That and the smell of food. I opened my eyes and a short distance away was the kid crouched over a fire cooking something. Sitting with him was the ever-hungry Chuckles. I was glad to see that he had made this last leap on our journey safely. In actual fact, I don't think I have ever seen Chuckles quite so happy and well looking. His fur was glossy and clean, and he had a spring to his step like a young pup. I wish I felt half as good as him.

A quick glance around told me we were not in the old city but out in the open a bit. There were rolling hills clad in dark green forests, brooks and streams cutting their way through the soft turf heading for some unseen ocean far away. There were short rough grasses in open places, much like the one we were in now. I could see green misty mountains far off in the distance, but other than the three of us, I could see no signs of life. The sound of the crackling fire and the smell of food promised to brighten the day. I turned and went to join Chuckles and the kid at the small fire.

As I got a bit closer, I could smell the food he was cooking. Over the small open fire, the kid stirred a black pot with a wooden spoon. I do not know where the utensils came from and I was too hungry to ask. He motioned me to sit when he saw me approach, and I was too tired to argue so I sat across the fire from him and gladly accepted the plate he offered. The food was hot and very tasty, with some kind of vegetables and meat. I was afraid to ask what kind of animal the meat had come from and I figured it was best not to know. "Where are we"? I asked, not really wanting to hear more bad news, but I thought that it might come in handy to have the information. "We are safe, and we are close to my home" was all he said. Being safe was important, and being close to home sounded good, even if it was not my home. I looked down at Chuckles and he was knawing on a bone and seemed very content. At least he was enjoying the adventure. After a quick meal, my young friend suggested we move on, and since I had no immediate plans I thought it was a good idea.

The three of us started a leisurely walk across the open grass and crossed the stream. We headed for a grove of trees that were laden with fruit that I did not recognize. "Can we eat these"? I asked, and he laughed. "No do not eat these. There are better ones ahead to eat". I could not see the reason why we could not eat this fruit and he game none, but I thought it best to follow his advice and left the fruit trees behind. The walking was fairly easy, and the kid seemed to know when I needed a break, so we rested every once in a while. Chuckles was in his element. He was rooting around in the underbrush and running off over hill and dale. He looked the picture of health as his coat shone in the sunlight and his eyes sparkled with joy.

"Stop". The kid held up his hand indicating he wanted me to stop. Strange how holding up ones hand is a universal signal and I knew exactly what he meant. "What is the problem?" I whispered. "Danger ahead" he whispered back. Oh great. More good news.

I watched him creep up to a slight rise in the ground and peer over, so I followed. There at the bottom of the hill was a dirt road, and on the road were a number of men. They seemed dressed in some sort of uniform with full helmets and they were heavily armed.

I could see about ten or twelve men on the road. They were dressed in uniform like no other I have seen. The tunic and pants looked like tight fitting fish scales that caught the sun and sent sparkles of light everywhere. Their heads were covered with a helmet that resembled something a pilot would wear and they seemed to be breathing some kind of atmosphere from a small tank that hung on their belt. My young guide informed me that they were a filter to enable them to breath the atmosphere. I wondered what was wrong with the air. Seemed all right to me. They also were armed with some kind of long weapon like a rifle, but unlike any rifle I had ever seen. "Who are they?" I asked, but the kid was busy with the papers and things he was carrying in a small leather bag. "Wait here" he whispered and started off behind the safety of the hill and was heading to the right. That looked to be the same direction that the men on the road were heading. I grabbed Chuckles by the scruff of the neck and pulled him down beside me.of fet For a dumb animal he was surprisingly clever during all this. He crouched down and narrowed his eyes and looked ready for a fight.

The men below started off again after their rest, or whatever reason they had stopped, and headed down the road. The kid told me to stay here, but I felt very alone and vulnerable laying here in the bushes under the top of this hill. As much as the kid was an unwelcome guest when he first showed up, I missed him now. After what seemed like about twenty minutes, I was thinking of moving on when I heard a noise on the road below. I peered up over the lip to see a set of feet almost upon me. I quickly looked up and saw it was my friend the kid. "We can go now, the danger has gone". I had a million questions for him about what had happened but I was so happy to see him that I just sighed with relief and got up. Chuckles was also happy to see him as the two of them had developed a stong bond between them. I felt a bit jealous.

We continued down the road for about half a mile when we came upon a scene of destruction. There were two bodies lying on the road, and both had been butchered beyond recognition. I could make out the fish scale uniform and realized that these two were a part of the party I had seen before. "Where are the rest?" I asked. The kid swept his arm in a wide arc and said that the others were spread around in the brush, all of them suffering the same fate. I could not believe what I was hearing. This thin frail kid had somehow destroyed a large group of heavily armed men single-handed. I looked at him now with a new respect. The carnage was complete and devastating. What did I get myself into?

By now I was totally confused. The last few days had been very exciting, but now this was turning deadly and I did not like it. "How did you do this?" I asked, almost not wanting to know. He looked at me and smiled and drew the small device I had thought was a compass with the three buttons and held it in his outstretched palm. "With this" he said and quickly put it back in his coat pocket. "But that was the device you used to get us here, are you telling me it also can do this?" I was not sure if I was angry, frightened, or a bit of both. "Can you tell me how it works?" I asked, but I was sure that I would not understand anything he said. "It is a tool for many things. We can use it to travel great distances, and we can use it as a very strong weapon." I did not get much of an explanation from him, and somehow I had not thought that he would give me one. I felt I had no choice but to place my trust in him and see where it would lead. After all, what choice did I have. I looked at the two dead men in the road and wondered who they were and where were they from. Did they have families? Would they be missed? My young guide motioned to me that we were moving on and this was no time to stop here. I reluctantly followed. Chuckles, surprisingly had shown little interest in the bodies on the road. As everyone knows, hyenas are opportunistic feeders and never turn down a meal no matter what it is. I was glad of this because I did not want to think of him feeding on a corpse. Yet, this would not prove to be the lowest point of my adventure, but I was unaware of that fact at the moment.

We headed off at a quickened pace and soon we were going downhill. Walking downhill is always easier, but I always figure that we would have to go uphill sooner or later, and I was not looking forward to that. After an hour or two we came upon a clearing beside a river. The water was slow moving with little or no current. The river was a few hundred yards wide and the far bank was hidden by thick growths of alder and sumac. The land on this side of the river rose gradually on the right and disappeared in grey misty hills. The kid was looking through the brush down on the bank and Chuckles was taking a drink. "Help me with this" the kid grunted, and I went to find him trying to drag a large canoe like craft out of the brush. "We will not have to walk anymore" he smiled, as I helped him launch the boat.

The boat was about sixteen feet long and had a high prow on each end. It was deep bellied and looked like it was made to carry a lot of weight. There were two woven seats, one at each end and a couple of short handled paddles. Once the kid was happy that we did not seem to be followed, he got Chuckles into the boat and he and I jumped in and pushed off. The feel of the paddle and the gliding of the boat across the water brought back many memories of the days spent paddling a canoe and fishing in rivers just like this one. I finally started to feel better and more at ease with my surroundings. This day may prove to be better than I had expected.

The boat glided quietly across the still water as we dipped the paddles in unison almost as if we had been doing this together for years. The sun was warm but not too hot so the work was not unpleasant. Chuckles sat in the bottom of the boat and watched the scenery pass by, but that did not last long and he settled in the bottom of the craft and fell asleep. I felt this might be a good time to ask my young friend a few questions even if he had been a little reluctant in the past to give up much information. "Where are we going?" I asked sort of off handed, a question you might ask just to make small talk. I did not want to make him feel like I was pushing him to open up. "We are going to a village where I know some people" "They should be able to help us." A village, with food I hoped.

I did not know how he felt, but I was getting hungry after our meager meal earlier, and I knew Chuckles would be up for something to eat. "What is your name? I have been following you around for some time and we have been through some serious shit together and I do not know what to call you." He smiled as he looked at me and said "I will tell you my name when we get to the village." Great, more lack of information. I decided to just paddle and not bother to ask any more for now. I looked down into the clear water and could see nothing but darkness. It was no telling how deep this river was, and I guess it did not matter much. I could see small fish just below the surface darting this way and that as the boat passed. The countryside was green and the rolling hills stretch on as far as I could see. From my position in the bow I had a perfect view around each bend in the river and I felt at ease and comfortable in this pleasant surrounding. "Make for the shore" my young friend said quietly, and we turned the boat toward the bank.

"We will rest here and eat a little". Well, finally some good news. There was a small clearing beside the river and we pulled the boat up on the bank and walked about a bit to stretch our legs. "Can you make a fire?"the kid asked, and I was not going to say that I could not so I told him "yes indeed I can". "Good, you make the fire and I will get us something to eat". With that he was off into the brush with Chuckles at his heels while I set about gathering wood and started a small fire. Every so often I could hear noises in the brush a little way off and figured it must be the two hunters getting our lunch. Suddenly, I could see movement on the other side of the river. If it was people they seemed oblivious to my fire. Perhaps it was some kind of animal.

I only caught a glimpse of it so I could not be sure what it was. Just then Chuckles and the kid came back on the run. "Get in the boat we must leave now!" I ran for the boat and started to push it back into the water. Arrows zipped over our heads and landed in the water but luckily not one of them found their mark. We pushed the boat back into the river and started paddling madly down the river. A few more arrows landed near by, one of them sticking in the side of the boat. "Hurry, paddle faster!" I did not need any prompting and dug my paddle deep into the water and pulled until my shoulder felt like it was going to pop out of its' socket. I heard the kid let out a cry behind me and I turned to see that he had taken an arrow in the shoulder.

I was frantic with panic and did not know what to do. Steering a large boat from the bow seat is not the easiest task, but I kept paddling and trying to outrun the arrows that were still whizzing around the boat. Suddenly the river started to flow a bit faster with a slight current and this was a welcome change and it helped us get out of range of the archers on the far bank. We continued drifting with the current and I scrambled to the back of the boat to see if I could help my young friend. He was sitting slouched over, and the arrow had penetrated his shoulder just below the collarbone, and had punctured through to his back. He had two wounds both bleeding badly, but I did not think that any major organs were affected so he would probably live if I could get the bleeding stopped. "Pull it out" he moaned. This was something I had only seen in the movies or on television and I was not sure I could do it. I grasped the arrow behind the sharp pointed tip and pulled with all my might. The arrow was stuck in his shoulder and would take a lot more muscle than I had anticipated.

I gave another steady pull and slowly at first and then very quickly the black fletching started to move and then disappeared into his shoulder and came cleanly out of his back. The feather fletching which had just seconds ago been black, now glistened red with his blood. I tore a piece of his coat liner and quickly made a bandage. I did not know if it would stop the blood but I had to try. With the bleeding slowed I lay him in the bottom of the boat and sat in the stern seat, picked up his paddle and started back toward the centre of the river. In all the excitement I never noticed that Chuckles was not in the boat.

I paddled the boat s quickly as I could even if I did not know where I was going. The kid said there was a village on this river and I hoped it would not be too far. I scanned the bank on both sides to see if we were being followed, but I saw no one. The current made the trip quicker, but I was not sure how far I would have to go. This village could be a mile, or twenty miles away and time was of the essence. I tried not to think about Chuckles, left behind in the clearing with arrows flying around. I knew that he was pretty quick, and I hoped beyond hope that an arrow did not find its mark with him.

The river wound its way this way and that, switching back on itself many times. The current had let up, and the speed of our travel had slowed again. After yet another turn in the river, I could see a dock jutting out from the shore, but little else. As I drew nearer, I saw a number of men, dressed in a similar fashion as my young friend, standing in the brush watching me approach. This had to be the village. I turned the boat to approach the dock, and one of the men turned and quickly disappeared in the brush. One tall man stood in the open near the foot of the dock and waited for me to pull up. As soon as he saw the body of my young guide in the bottom of the boat he called for the other men to come and help. Two burly looking fellows jumped down into the boat and lifted the kid out and passed him to two more men standing on the dock. By this time more people started to arrive down an overgrown path that I assumed led to the village itself, and one of the few women that was present beckoned to me to follow. I climbed out of the boat and as an afterthought I plucked the arrow that had been protruding from the gunnels and took it with me. The tall man gave me a cursory look and turned and went up the path.

The village was a cluster of small huts, made with tree saplings and thatching for roofs. There were a few dozen people that I saw going about their business and many of them were looking to lend aid to the young boy. One man was quickly going through the kids pockets until he found the device with the three buttons, the cube-like key, and the papers the boy was carrying. He seemed much relieved when he found what he was looking for. The tall man, who had been observing this, suddenly turned toward me and drew a long knife from his belt. This did not look good. I took a step backward as he approached and quickly looked around for a way out of this mess. He came toward me with the knife drawn and as I was franticly looking for a weapon he stopped. "How do you know Jacob?" he shouted menacingly, brandishing the knife in front of me. "He brought me here from the deserted city." With that he stopped and I could see his mind trying to sort out the information I had given him. "Where did you meet him?" Another question. I was apprehensive about my answers and I think he could see the troubled look on my face. I figured that I had little to loose, so I might as well tell him the truth. "I met him as he was getting the device that brought us here from the box." "What was in the box?" "There was the device, and some papers.

He told me it was a weapon but he never said what kind." I could see that he was having second thoughts about cutting my throat which was good news for me. "For Jacob to show you these things he must have thought of you as someone he could trust." I did not want to tell him about the chair leg to the side of his head so I just decided to let it go for the time being. "Come, you must be hungry and tired. There will be time for more questions later." I followed him to one of the huts where he looked in on the kid, who finally had a name. Jacob, now at least I knew who he was. In an adjoining tent there were three women who were preparing food and invited me to sit and eat. There was fresh bread, meat, and vegetables. Good hot food and lots of it.

I asked the women if they were related to Jacob, but they said they were just members of the village and that Jacob had no family. The tall man was the close as he had for a father or older brother. Just then I heard a commotion from outside the hut and people yelling and screaming. I jumped up and ran outside to see a number of the villagers gathered near some bushes on the edge of the village. They seem to have someone or something captured. I went over to see what it was. There in the center of this group was the snarling snapping creature that was giving everyone a hard time. I laughed out loud and called out "Chuckles!" With that his ears pricked up and he made a mad dash towards me. The tall man with the knife jumped back with surprise and shock. "Do you know this creature?" he asked. "Oh yes indeed I do. He is my friend and traveling companion." "I can see that there is a bond between you. As long as he does not hurt anyone he can stay." I gave him a quick once over to check for any injury, and thankfully there was none. "Let's get you something to eat." Chuckles was more than happy to get some food into him, and the women of the village thought he was a very interesting creature and were delighted to feed him all sorts of leftovers. Chuckles, true to form refused nothing. Scraps of meat, hunks of bread, old vegetables, he even ate the bones.

I looked in on my young friend Jacob, and he was awake and seemed to be doing ok. One of the women of the village was seeing to his care and making sure his wounds were kept clean and free from infection. She was mixing a number of different herbs in a big pot over a small fire and making some kind of medicine that she was giving him to drink. It smelled awful, but he did seem to be making a speedy recovery. There was a small fire burning brightly in the center of the village, and a number of the men I had seen earlier were now sitting in its' glow and speaking quietly amongst themselves. As I approached I was summoned by the tall man to come and join them. This was the first time since my adventure started that I felt a bit more comfortable with my surroundings. The men in the camp did not look like a society at war despite the things I had seen recently. This looked more like a hunting camp with the men laughing and swapping stories around the campfire. I sat in the circle and immediately was offered a drink that was poured from a goatskin flask into a rough-hewn cup. I use the term goatskin, but it may have been made from some animal that I had never seen. The drink was warm and sweet, like a mulled wine and it immediately went straight to my head. Chuckles waddled over and sat beside me. He had a satiated look about him that usually meant he had too much to eat. As the sun sank behind one of the green hills the women disappeared and only the men were left around the fire. A perfect end to a less than perfect day.

Another log was thrown on the fire and the men continued to drink and speak quietly. I thought it might be time to ask a few questions, and with the tall man sitting next to me I decided that he was the best one to ask. " Who are you people and what is going on here? Who was shooting arrows at us? Who were the men in the fish scale uniforms? What is the device that Jacob retrieved from the old city?" As I was rambling on I noticed that the men had all stopped talking and now were listening intently to what I was saying. The tall man laughed and said "So many questions, but I believe you deserve to know some of the answers."

The rest of the men nodded in agreement and were willing to let the tall man tell me what I wanted to know. These people were the remnants of a civilization that had thrived here for centuries. They were constantly bickering with other tribes in the area, and I found out it was one of these other tribes that had surprised us at the clearing and had shot Jacob. The technology that I could see was pre-gunpowder and consisted of bows, arrows and long knives. I saw no long two-handed swords or any of the type of weapons we see in the movies. The men in the fish scale uniforms were an invading force from somewhere far away with much better technology. They had come here and enslaved and killed many of the tribes in the area. "What is the device, and where did it come from?" I could not see these people developing such a thing, but then again, I could not have imagined that this world existed in my root cellar. "Ah the device? You mean the small box. That is something we took from the invaders. It does many things and is very powerful." Yes indeed it was powerful, it made mincemeat out of a dozen heavily armed men, and it transported Jacob and I from the ruined city to where ever this was. I would say it was powerful. "How did you learn to use this thing? Jacob knew how it worked. How did he come by the knowledge?" More questions, but I was at least getting some answers.

Dawn came quickly and I had a terrible headache, probably from the drink last night. I could hear activity outside the hut I was in and struggled to get to the door and see what was going on. The village was a hub of activity. Some of the women were tending the fire and cooking something, I hoped beyond hope that it was breakfast. There were a few children playing with Chuckles, and he was having a grand time chasing and being chased by the kids. I had not seen any children yesterday, and wondered if they had been kept hidden from me or possibly they were elsewhere and only recently arrived. The tall man, who I found out last night around the fire, was called Samuel, approached me and took me by the arm to another hut. This hut was larger than the rest and was situated towards the rear of the village. Seated inside were many men. Some I had seen yesterday and last night around the fire, but many were new to me and looked suspiciously at me as I entered. I was motioned to sit and take part in what was a town meeting or so it seemed. Many of the men were speaking loudly and there seemed to be some disagreement on the topic that was being discussed. Samuel informed me that many of these men had returned to the village in the early hours of the morning with news. It appeared that these new men were a scouting party and had been away for a few days. "There is a problem to the east" Samuel informed me. A neigbouring tribe had moved to within striking distance of a nearby village, and some sort of incursion was imminent. "A number of men are needed to go and help defend the village against the intruders." This was news that I did not need especially before breakfast. Some of these men I feared would not make it back and I felt a sorrow for them and their families. "I would like you to go and help us." I could not believe what I was hearing. "What exactly do you want me to do? I am not a fighter and I do not know what I can do to help." The thought of actually going to do battle was not something I ever imagined. He could not be serious. "Have you ever used a bow?" Samuel asked. "Yes, many years ago I used a bow for hunting, but never in combat. I do not think I will be of any help."

"To keep face you must go. These men are wary of strangers, and you seem stranger than most." My protests did not mean much and they all fell on deaf ears. "Why not use the device? It is a great weapon and would assure you of victory." My heart sank as Samuel told me that only Jacob knew the workings of the device and he was still not able to travel. Besides, he told me that the device was not effective against the people in this land, only the invaders from afar. Oh good a weapon that only works with certain targets. A man entered and handed me a longbow, a quiver of wooden shafted arrows and a long bladed knife in a leather scabbard. "We will have to get you a change of clothes before we go." Samuel was such a nice man and now he was trying to get me killed. One of the village women poked her head in the doorway and said the best word I had heard all morning "Breakfast!"

An hour or so after we had eaten there were a group of about thirty men, and me, standing in the village center dressed in the regalia of war. These men all had a look about them. Men of the wilderness, hardened by a harsh life and too much time exposed to the elements. They were dressed in short leather waistcoats, trousers of heavy wool and long cloaks that hung almost to the ground. On their feet they had handmade deer skin boots that reached almost to the knee. I too, had been outfitted similarly. The bow I had been given was made of yew and the arrows had wooden shafts with sharp steel points and feather fletching. I felt like "Robin fucking Hood". I had to laugh when I saw Chuckles. He had been given a collar with long spikes sticking out. He did look fierce and he seemed to enjoy the attention. I now was the owner of a war Hyena.

Without fanfare or any notice, we slipped out of the village and walked quietly along a wide path. The men were all quiet and the only sound that could be heard was of the footfalls along the ground. We traveled for about six hours with only a few breaks for rest and a bite to eat at mid-day. I have to admit that the food was simple but tasted great. Bread, cheese and dried meat that was tasty, but had the texture of the boot that I was wearing. After our long march we came upon another village. This village was quiet with little activity. There was no fire, and the villagers moved about with purpose. Many men were present, all dressed in a similar fashion as we were. When we arrived our strength now numbered about eighty. This indeed looked like a force that could handle a few invading tribesmen from another village.

Samuel, who I found out, was the leader in the village, talked to another man who I assumed held the same position here. From what I could hear they were discussing strategy and the stranger, me, that had come with them. I did not feel very good right now and wished I was somewhere else. Samuel approached me with another man. "This is Daniel, and I want you to go with him." This seemed more like an order than a request so I obliged without making a fuss. Daniel was about thirty years old, dressed in a similar fashion except that he had a chain around his neck with an amulet that looked like the sun. I followed him to the edge of the village that was larger than the one that I had come from. There was an inner circle with wooden defenses about ten or twelve feet in height, rising from the brow of a hill. The villagers were all moving into this inner circle for protection and as I went through the large wooden gate I could see men mounting platforms along the palisade that would give them a better view of the surrounding countryside and a place to fire their arrows from. The sun was setting and the torches were lit, this was going to be a long night.

I talked with Daniel and he told me that he was from another village across the river many miles away. The head of his community had sent him to help defend the small villages and towns on this side of the river. He talked of his wife and two children that he had left behind and how much he missed them. He had been away from home now for almost a month and he was hoping that things would be over soon so he could return to his family. "How long have you been fighting this war?" he asked. I laughed and told him my story about how I got here, and how I had been roped into this whole thing. "When the enemy comes, take your time and clear everything out of your mind. Focus on your target." He was giving me advice that he thought might save my life, but I had great doubts that I would see tomorrow evening. All through the night we took turns watching and trying to sleep. Daniel, for his part was quiet and reflected on what was about to take place. >From our vantage point we could see about six hundred yards across open rolling meadows covered with a short thick grass. "The enemy will come from that line of trees in the distance and they will come quickly." Before the dawn broke we could see torches gather in the forest. There were about eighty of us but there looked to be many more torches than that. Perhaps each man carried three, but I doubted it. At first light I could see a dark line of men emerge from the trees and group in rag tag lines to prepare for the attack. "Do you think they know how many of us there are?" I asked Daniel, but he was too busy preparing for the battle to come to answer me. The sun rose blood red in the eastern sky almost as a foreboding of what was to come.

I nocked an arrow on my bowstring and waited. All of the events of the past few days ran through my mind like a bad Hollywood movie, but this was real. I could almost taste the tension on this side of the barricade as each man in their own way prepared to face their fate. I glanced back behind the enclosure to see women running with armloads of arrows to keep the archers supplied. Chuckles stood in the clearing inside the gate and paced back and forth. He knew something was going to happen, or perhaps he was waiting for his chance to run off into the woods and hide. That is what I wanted to do. The first wave of the enemy came at a run and the archers on the wall waited until they were in range. Daniel looked at me and said, "relax and take aim, make every arrow count." My hands were shaking and I could feel my heart racing in my chest. I was sure that I would have a heart attack and die. Actually, that almost seemed preferable to what was going to transpire in the next few moments. As the enemy approached to within bow range I could see Daniel out of the corner of my eye draw his bow. I, in turn did the same. The muscles in my arms felt like rubber and the sweat from my brow made focusing difficult. In the midst of everything I heard some yell "Loose arrows!" and the flight of arrows from the rampart was like a flock of birds flying quickly to their destination. I looked ahead and saw a heavyset man with a shield and a short sword and I aimed at him and let my arrow fly. A clean miss. My arrow flew wide of the target, and still the enemy came. I nocked another arrow, drew the bow, and let fly again. Another clean miss. This was not working as I had hoped. Above the sounds of battle I heard Daniel yell "Relax, take aim and clear your head!" I fitted another arrow to the bowstring and drew back for the third time, I tried to relax and concentrate. My muscles felt more relaxed, my head was clearer, and I let fly for a third time. The arrow came away from the bow and flew straight at the target. It caught the heavyset man just below the chin, pierced his neck, and severed his spinal cord. He fell to the ground and did not move. Now my heart was beating wildly but it was with exhilaration at not being dead. "Do not stop now." I heard Daniel yell above the noise, and as I looked out over the field, I could see at least three hundred of the enemy coming. There was little chance that eighty of us could hold this village against an attacking force of some three hundred. This was going to be short and futile. An ending I had not anticipated.

As arrows flew and the sounds of battle raged, I noticed a small band of the enemy had made their way to the gate and were in the process of gaining entry. Some of the archers had drawn their long knives and rushed to the gate to try to stop them. Daniel turned to me and said "Stay here" and leapt down into the courtyard with his blade drawn and fire in his eyes. I looked back across the field to see another dark line of warriors sweeping in from the left, these men were armed with war hammers and longer swords. I felt our defense of the village had failed and we were all about to be over-run. As some of the archers on the wall went to defend the gate, the enemy unleashed a barrage of arrows into the enclosure. These arrows were long and fletched with black feathers and were each tipped with fire. Those that did not find a human target set fire to the thatched roofs of the huts inside the wall. Smoke now filled the air and made visibility difficult. As the new invading force rushed up the field, the battle at the gate became fierce. Close quarter hand-to-hand combat is a terrible thing to see. There was the clanging of sword upon shield and the cries of those slain or wounded. In the midst of all the chaos, I saw one of the enemy fall with one of the defenders pushing him to the ground and savagely attacking him. It was Chuckles. He had joined the battle and was holding his own. It appeared that the enemy had never seen anything like him and they were momentarily confused by his appearance. Good boy Chuckles. He was probably the only one that would make it out of this mess alive. The invaders at the gate pushed their way into the circle and were winning the battle. Many of our men lay dead or wounded and as our force was being depleted, theirs was increasing. The new wave of men that had been running through the meadow to join the fight were now upon us. This surely would be the end.

A rousing cheer went up among the defenders on the palisade. It seems that the new wave of the enemy rushing into the fray was not the enemy at all but allies from across the river. These new warriors broke through the line of attackers and forced them to fall back. The battle at the gate was still going strong with the enemy having the upper hand. I watched as men were hacked down and killed. I watched as blood flowed on the ground like water. It was a mesmerizing sight. The battle in the open field was now going our way, and with this new force helping us, shooting arrows into the air became impossible in case a friendly combatant was hit, so it was down to blades. I jumped down from the wall to see if I could find Chuckles in this mess. I did not bother with the long knife I was given, because I never anticipated having to use it, so it hung in the leather scabbard on my belt. There were men fighting everywhere, and the women that had been carrying arrows had fled to the opposite end of the compound when the gate was breached. I searched for Chuckles and looked everywhere but I could not find him. I feared the worst. Inside the compound there were a number of huts, and I searched every one. As I stuck my head in the entrance of one hut I found Jacob still being tended to by a couple of the women. His wound was healing and he wanted to join the fight, but the women were doing their best to keep him quiet. The smoke was getting thicker and the smell of burning was everywhere. Jacob had a long knife that he held in his hand and clenched tightly. He was ready to go and defend the village, but his wounds were not healed enough. Just then, the door was filled with the shape of one of the attackers. He was large and brandished a sword. He swung his sword but because of the low roof his blow was deflected and the blade went wide. The women screamed and Jacob tried to get up but fell back in pain. Without thinking I pulled my long knife from the scabbard and stood between him and the women. He now turned his attention to me and started to swing his blade again. The sharp blade passed just inches from my shoulder as I stepped quickly to one side. He drew the sword high in the air for another blow and this time when he swung I deflected his sword with the blade of my long knife. The ring of steel upon steel was like the sound of a hammer on an anvil in the shop of a blacksmith. I realized that I would not be able to fend him off forever so when he lifted his sword for another blow, I pushed the point of my blade into his armpit with all my strength. I could feel my blade glance off the bone in his shoulder and drive somewhere into his upper chest. His blood squirted onto my face as I felt his weight take us toward the floor. I pulled on my blade and I was surprised at how difficult it was to pull free. There I stood with this mans blood on me and his dead lifeless eyes looking back.It was only then that I realized that my heart was pounding and my head was spinning. Suddenly there was another at the doorway, and in my blood lust, I picked up the longer sword and drove it into the man just below his belt. This did not kill him right away and he fell, screaming with pain. I walked over to him and looked him in the eye and all I could see was hate and death. I grasped the hilts of the sword and thrust it with all my might into his chest. He stiffened and his eyes got wide and lost their look of hate. Only fear remained now as I pushed the sword deeper and I felt his life force travel up the blade and dissipate in the hut. "You are a warrior now." I turned to see Jacob leaning on his elbow and smiling at me. "Stay here." I yelled and left the hut to find Chuckles.

There were still small skirmishes going on just inside the gate but the new arrivals had squashed the enemy in the field and had come up behind the intruders at the gate and between the defenders inside and the new attackers from the rear, the enemy were caught in a vise with nowhere to go. Smoke drifted through the village and the cries of the wounded could be heard now over the last few sounds of battle. Soon the enemy were either killed or captured and a strange eerie silence fell on the battleground. I looked around and called to Chuckles and I expected to see him bounding toward me but there was nothing. I made my way down to the gate where there was a group of men gathered tending to the wounded and I found Daniel. The enemy had cut him down, but from what I could see he had stood his ground and killed many of them before he fell. I sat on the ground beside him and remembered his telling me about his family and how he wanted to go home to see them. I was overcome with sadness as I realized he would never see them again. One of the men called out for me and the sound of his voice roused me from my sorrow. As I looked toward the gate, I saw four men carrying something, that I thought must be one of the many wounded, but as I got up I realized it was Chuckles. He was lay in the arms of the men carrying him and he was limp and had a large dark stain of blood, and the broken shaft of an arrow protruding from his side.I ran over to him and the men put him on the ground at my feet. I sat on the bloodstained field of battle and cradled his lifeless head in my lap.

Chuckles!" I yelled, and shook him gently but there was no sign of life. He lay limp and motionless on the ground. Many of the men had gathered and stood around me, some were stained with a mixture of sweat and blood and each had the look of loss on their face. Many of these men had lost friends and relatives in the battle and not one of them looked upon Chuckles as anything less. As I sat there, the events of the last few days ran through my mind and I realized that I had seen a new side of this shaggy friend of mine that I was unaware of. At times he almost seemed timid and frightened, but for the last few days, and especially today, he proved to have a reserve of courage that surprised me. I was always concerned about our being here, but Chuckles was always with me and that in itself provided some comfort. How would I ever manage without him?

The village was now in a state of total disruption. Huts were burnt and the ground was covered with the dead and dying. With the help of one of the other men, I moved Chuckles into the tent with Jacob. He cried out in sorrow when he saw our lifeless friend lay on the ground with his matted fur covered in blood. I sat for a moment with them and had to leave the hut. My sorrow was overwhelming. The villagers were carrying the dead to a burial site and were tending to the wounded. Some of the latter would succumb to their wounds and soon join their friends. The dead were to be buried in a large burial mound just outside the village. There were other mounds there, some, many years old and some more recent. I thought that perhaps I should ask if Chuckles could be buried with the warriors, but I was unsure of their customs. Maybe I would just bury him alone somewhere and let it go at that. I looked down at my hands and they were covered in blood. A mixture of the blood from the two men I had killed in the hut, and that of my best friend Chuckles. This was going to be too difficult to bear. Suddenly I heard a cry from the hut. It was Jacob standing in the entrance leaning on the doorpost. At first I could not grasp what he was saying but them my head cleared and I heard him yell, "He lives!" I stood for a few seconds, not sure of what I was hearing, and then I started for the hut at a run.

I got to the hut door and stopped dead in my tracks. There was an old woman leaning over Chuckles and chanting in some tongue that I did not understand. Jacob was standing just inside the door and motioned for me to stand near him. "What is going on?" I asked, but he held a finger up to his lips in that universal sign for shut up. "This old woman can help him, but we must be quiet." I was confused. "How can she help? He is dead." "Not exactly," Jacob said, "This old woman has many secrets." I was now torn by guilt and elation. I could not believe that he was still alive, and I felt guilty that this woman would be spending her time on Chuckles, when so many men lay dying in the field. I did not want her to stop, but I did want her to help the others first. Suddenly Chuckles let out a yelp. A loud, wondrous, beautiful yelp. I tried to get in as close as I could but Jacob, and now a few of the other women held me back. I could see him squirming and moving and it was wonderful. The old woman stood slowly and when she turned I could see she held the broken shaft of the arrow that had been sticking out of his side. She approached me and with a small bow, she presented me with the arrow. The old crone had teeth missing and her skin was wrinkled and worn. She was what you might call an old hag, but to me, right then, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. "Go to him, go see. He will be well soon." I went and knelt by his side and looked at the wound where just moments ago the black shaft of and arrow had been lodged. The wound was packed with a poultice made of who knows what but the bleeding had stopped and Chuckles had his big brown eyes open. He looked terrible, but he was alive. I looked up to the old woman to ask what she had done, but she had gone. "What did she do Jacob? He was dead, I am sure of it." Jacob let out a little chuckle and shook his head. "I do not know what she did, but if she tries to help we have found the best thing to do is keep away and let her work her magic."

"Magic? She uses magic?" "We do not know, but she does not do this for just anyone. Our friend here must be very special to her." Things just keep getting better and better. After just a short time Chuckles started getting a lot of visitors and they were looking at him with a certain sense of awe. I have to admit that I thought the scruffy devil was special, but these people treated him like a hero. Chuckles himself relished in the attention and despite his wound, he was having a grand time. Many of the visitors brought small gifts of food which Chuckles devoured as quickly as he could. Through all of this it turned out that Chuckles took an arrow for the son of the chief from the other village. This put him in very high standing with everyone. It was going to be impossible to get him out of this hut and resume a normal life. I guess with all the good things he had done in the battle, he deserved a little attention. I was just glad he was alive.

Chuckles got better quickly over the next few days and he was now up and about. He learned very quickly which of the villagers was an easy handout for something nice to eat. His wound had healed nicely but I thought he might have been milking it a little. The old woman visited him once more and pronounced him healed, and I was very happy about that. The rest of the village was in a state of dishevelment and sorrow. Many men had died in the defense of the gate and they had been buried side by side and were covered over with a large mound of earth. Many of the townsfolk had been busy cutting turfs of grass and used them to cover the burial mound. Daniel, the man I had befriended at the palisade was laid to rest with the rest of the dead and would not return to his village and his family. This indeed was a harsh and difficult time and place. Jacob also healed quickly, and he and I spent time together talking and discussing what had happened. I was still confused about how I got here and more important, how was I going to get home. He showed me the device he had used to transport us here and explained that it had been taken from the body of one of the enemy like the ones we had seen on the road. I was very confused. There seemed to be two distinct cultures here, both with their own technology. The men dressed in the fish scale looking uniforms that we had seen on the road had futuristic looking technology, while these people that I was with were barely out of the dark ages. I must find out more about this if I ever think about getting home.

"We do not have the means of sending you home, only the Nitt had the technology." Jacob was always giving information that I did not want to hear. "Who are the Nitt, and why do you call them that?" Jacob told me that many of the men in his village had been taken prisoner by the men in the fish scale uniforms, and a few that escaped said that they saw the name of their captors and it was Nitt. I was more confused than ever. "Can the device take me back to the place we met?" "Yes to the place we met but not to your home. If you want to go home we have to go to where the Nitt live." More good news. I could not imagine what kind of a fight we would have against an organized army with high tech weapons and much better technology than these tribesmen. "Where do they live?" I asked, but before Jacob could answer, a man from the village came and said we were needed. We both got up and left the hut, Chuckles followed and was running around from villager to villager looking for food. With many he was rewarded with some juicy tidbit, but there were a few that had nothing to give him. Those that were empty handed were almost as disappointed as Chuckles. In a big hut at the end of the village we were escorted in and asked to sit in a circle of men. Food and drink were brought, but this was not just a gathering for a meal, but a meeting to take council with the village leaders. The mood was somber and serious. "We must now decide what to do about our friend. He has come to us and given us much aid in our trials." This was the opening statement from one of the village elders. All the men in the circle nodded and were in agreement that something should be done. Only one, was reluctant to say much, he was not so sure that I was not affiliated with the Nitt, as I seemed to come from their time. I tried to assure him, and the rest of the men that I knew nothing about these people and had never seen them before. Jacob spoke up and vouched for me. "He and his companion were being hunted by the Nitt when I found them. They did not know anything about the Nitt, and did not even know they were being hunted." This one man who was not sure about my loyalties was named Yago. He was one of the warriors from the village across the river, and was held in high esteem by the villagers here. There was much discussion as to what course should be taken. The only way for me to get home was to go to the Nitt encampment and use their technology. I doubted that they would just let me walk in there and use their stuff. They did not appear to be the welcoming kind. The council also decided that if there was to be an attempt to get me inside the Nitt village, that there should also be an attempt to free the prisoners being held there. So, a rescue mission, and a mission to get the stranger home all at the same time.

"I cannot go and rescue anyone, I do not know where to go or what to do." I know it sounded a bit cowardly, but I did not feel very heroic at this moment, and the thought of walking into an enemy camp, a hostile enemy camp, did not appeal to me. "You will not go alone, and you will not go too soon." One of the older men, who seemed to be the head of the council made this decree and everyone quietly gave in to his decision. Oh this was getting better and better all the time. We passed the next few days in the village until things were prepared for our departure. Jacob would be going with me as he was the one that knew most about Nitt technology, Yago, who did not trust me, would be the leader of the expedition, and five men from the village. We were supplied with weapons, bows, arrows and short swords, enough food for many days and a wooden box which contained a book with a map. Jacob was carrying the device with three buttons, and the cube like key he had used to get inside the box at "Ray's Place". Preparations went along for a while and one of the men asked if I was taking my shaggy friend on the expedition. I assured him that Chuckles would be going with me no matter where I went. All the men seemed pleased that he would go with us. All the men except Yago. He still did not trust me completely and showed his mistrust by being very quiet anytime I was around. I did not mind because I held no great admiration for him. If he wanted to make an enemy of me he was off to a good start.

Our trip would start by boat along the river for some miles and then we would strike out on foot. As I had no inclination of the type of terrain we would be crossing, I was happy to sit in a boat for a day or two. With everything arranged, we shoved off at first light. Jacob and I shared one small boat with Chuckles sitting in the middle, and the rest of the men split up two to a boat. The river was slow and deep. No rapids or rocks to worry about and the paddling was leisurely and relaxed. Yago was in the stern of the lead boat with one more after him and then Jacob and I with two more boats behind. Five boats in all, ten men and one scruffy hyena. The scenery was striking, with wide fields of grass and rolling hills. Far in the distance, green clad mountains rose up to the grey sky and hid their heads in the lowering clouds. In the water, skimming just below the surface, were hundreds of darting fish that went this way and that to escape our boat. If there were small fish in the river, then there must be larger ones that we could eat. With the food that was stored in the bottom of two of the boats, and the fish in the river, we should not go hungry.

The weather turned hot and soon the heavy coat I was wearing became uncomfortably warm. I put my paddle down for a moment and removed my coat. It was much more comfortable now. The river was perhaps a half-mile wide at this point, the expanse of grassy fields had been replaced by short scrubby trees, and felt very exposed out in the open like this. Up ahead I could see Yago turn his boat toward shore. The second boat in turn did the same, and then the rest of us followed. We pulled the boats up on the bank and stretched our cramped legs. Yago sent two of the men down river by foot to explore and scout the area. Two more men started a small fire and broke out the food boxes we had brought with us. "How far do we have to go?" I asked in a quiet voice. I did not know if we were alone but I remembered the last time Jacob and I stopped on the river for something to eat. "Yago says that we will travel today in the boats and then tomorrow we cut through the mountain pass and so in three days from now will be at the camp of the Nitt." It did not seem to matter that every time I asked Jacob a question he had bad news for me. Three more days before I could attempt to get home. Chuckles used this time to his advantage. While in the boat he had to be content with just sitting, but now that we were on shore he wandered around and explored the surrounding territory. At first he would continually look back to keep me within his line of site, but after a short time he would disappear for longer periods. Soon it was time to get back in the boats and a quick whistle brought Chuckles back on the run. The rest of the trip down river was uneventful, and my earlier observation about eating fish was redundant as we would not be on the water for long. Near nightfall, we pulled the boats ashore on the opposite bank and hid them in some brush. This side of the river was not nearly as open as the other side. Groves of trees grew thick and tall. I was unfamiliar with the species of tree that surrounded us, the leaves were small, shiny and wax-like. Between the leaves grew long sharp thorns that stuck us through our heavy clothing and made even the hardiest warrior among us complain. Chuckles got stuck more often than the rest of us, but he complained less. It must have been some animal thing. I was hoping that the next three days would not be like this. We traveled on as quietly as possible for a few miles and the thorn trees fell behind us and the landscape opened up a bit. Up ahead I could see the outline of two dark shapes pointing into the night sky. "We must go between those mountains through a pass" Jacob informed me. All this time Yago was leading us on through the dark with very few words to anyone. I was feeling very reluctant about going on this trip even if it was my only way home.

Around midnight we stopped and Yago told us we would rest for a few hours. There were to be no fires lit, and everyone was to be as quiet as possible. We were still a long way from the Nitt camp but we did not want to give away our presence to the enemy. Without a fire we would have to eat cold food which was better than no food at all. Yago sat with a few of the older men in the party and I could see him looking at me from time to time. They were probably discussing the best way to get rid of me. I would have to be extra careful with this one. Chuckles was quite content to curl up on the ground near our feet as Jacob and I talked softly in the dark. I could see some of the men were pulling their heavy coats around them and trying to get a little sleep, while a few others had positioned themselves to watch for anyone or anything coming. Jacob said "I am going to sleep; you should do the same my friend." I just nodded in agreement, but was not sure if sleep would come. The close proximity of Yago would probably keep me awake.

I awoke suddenly from an uneasy sleep to see Yago creeping toward me with a long knife drawn. Thoughts ran through my head and banged into one another as I tried to wake myself up and figure out what to do. As I tried to scramble out of his reach he put his finger to his mouth and told me to be quiet. He then slipped away into the darkness. What was going on? I looked around and most of the men were awake and some had weapons drawn. I looked to Jacob and he was sitting very quietly, but his eyes darted this way and that looking for something. Chuckles was standing very quiet, I could see the hair on his back bristle with excitement. I knew that when Chuckles had this look about him, something going to happen that would not be pleasant.

The few of us that were left, mostly young men, me and Jacob sat as quiet as the dead and waited to hear the other men return. At sunrise, none of the men that set out had returned. A couple of the young men that had been left behind wanted to turn and go back but their desire to flee was not as strong as my desire to get home. "We must go and try to find them," Jacob whispered. "Yes we must." I said, not really wanting to, but these people were the only ones to help me get home. With little fanfare and no breakfast the few of us that were left headed out in search of our missing comrades. With weapons in hand we moved through the brush as quietly as possible. Chuckles was right up front and moving along the trail hardly making a sound. I started thinking that if we never made it home; he would be quite content to live out his life here in this place. I, on the other hand did not want to be here one minute longer than I had to. "Where are we?" I asked, wishing it was home. "We are almost at the pass through the mountains, but I do not thing our friends went that far." "How do you know how far they went?" "Look here on the ground." As I looked at where Jacob was pointing I started to see signs that I could not decipher. Men had been here recently, were they our friends? The signs meant nothing to me. "Here look at this, a glove." Jacob picked up a glove that shimmered in the morning light. It was not a heavy glove like the ones that the villagers wore; it was much lighter and smaller. He handed it to me and I was surprised at how light it was. There was almost no weight to it at all, and as I tuned it over I could not help notice that it reminded me of fish scales.

"Where do you suppose this came from?" I asked, not really wanting to know. "It must be from one of the Nitt, but it is not something that they would drop carelessly. They must have come across our friends here." "Spread out and see if you can find anything." I whispered to the rest of the men, and they scoured the brush and down the trail to see if they could find anything that would lead us to our friends, or at least tell us what happened to them. From up ahead on the trail one of the men called out, "I think I found something." The rest of us hurried down the trail to where the call had come from and I could see that there had been some sort of skirmish here. There was no blood that I could see, but there were some weapons on the ground. All of them were long knives and swords. There was no blood on any of the blades, and essentially, they looked like they had been dropped on the ground without a fight. "This is very strange," said Jacob, "where did they go without their weapons?" I did not have an answer for him, but I said "I have no idea where they went." I tried to think of the next step to take but nothing came to me. "We have to find them." Jacob said, "if you want to go home." Well I did want to go home, more now than ever. I still had the glove in my hand and I had a brainstorm. "Chuckles! Come here boy." I do not know why I had not thought of this before. I showed Chuckles the glove and let him have a good sniff. I had seen him find a dirty old bone buried in the ground with little effort, and I was sure he could find the owner of this glove.

Chuckles seemed to know instinctively what was needed of him. After a minute of sniffing and mouthing the glove, he put his nose to the ground and started to move back and forth around the small clearing. Suddenly he started down the trail and was trotting off ahead of us. "If want to keep up to him we had better get moving," I said. Suddenly it sounded an awful lot like I was in charge of this rag tag group. I did not want to be their leader, but no one else was going to do it, so off I went with the rest of the group following

Our small group of rescuers were quickly and quietly moving down the trail. Chuckles was out in front working back and forth on the trail. Sometimes slowing down and other times moving quickly. We were all intent on watching what he was doing rather than watching where we were going for suddenly we Sw movement in the brush to the right, and them to the left. We stopped quickly and formed a circle in our fighting stance, but we soon realized we were surrounded. It was difficult to tell how many of the enemy were around us, but there seemed to be many more in number than us. One of the enemy stepped out into the path directly in front of us. He was tall and thin, and was covered with the fish scale looking uniform that I had seen before. On its' head there was a helmet that completely covered the face and seemed to mold into a ring around the neck. The shield covering the eyes was mirrored and hid the eyes completely. As I watched this creature it seemed to tilt its' head a bit as if trying to figure out what we were. I was sure it had seen us before so I never thought more about it. Slowly this fish man raised his hand and I could see that it held a small device with buttons on it, much like the one that Jacob had used to kill the men on the road. He pointed the device at us and pushed a button. Chuckles had been growling during all of this and now just stood quietly as if waiting for something to happen. When the creature pushed the button there was a bright flash and everything went black.

I woke up with a terrible headache, sitting on the floor with my hands tied behind my back around a metal pole. As my head started to clear I could see the rest of our small party tied up in a similar manner. There was no sign of Yago and the original group. There was also no sign of Chuckles. Jacob was sitting tied to a pole about ten to twelve feet away from me. He was still knocked out, but the good news is we were still alive. The room we were in was round, with no corners. It was not made of sticks or mud, or anything else I had seen in the village. This room was made of metal. The metal poles went up to a conical ceiling and seemed to be supports of some kind. Around the outer circumference of the room there were a number of benches to sit on, but other than that there were no windows and no door. There was no indication of any physical damage to any of us, but I know that whatever it was had made me very thirsty. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton. Very dry cotton. Suddenly there was a noise against the far wall, a soft noise, almost like the hiss of air from a leaky tire. Then, slowly, a thin line appeared on the wall. By squinting a little I could see that the line now looked like the outline of a door. Soon there was no mistake, there was a definite doorway forming in the far wall. With little fanfare, the door opened and a flood of light filled the room with a brightness I had not experienced before. I shut my eyes tight against the light. Just as quickly as the light had blinded me, something, or someone stepped into the doorway and blocked the light. All that I could see was a dark silhouette against the brightness.

The creature came in and looked at each of us in turn. It looked like I was the only one awake, so when he got to me he stopped and crouched so that we would be at eye level with one another. Even at this distance there was no indication of eyes behind the shield. I looked to see if this creature was missing a glove, but both were present. It must have been one of their comrades that lost it. The creature stood, and started to remove the intricate helmet that it wore. There were a number of small wires and hoses that looked like it might provide some sort of life support. The air in the room was breathable for me, so I wondered if this thing was going to have trouble breathing. When the helmet was removed, all I could see was long flowing hair. This creature was a woman, and a very beautiful one at that.

The close knit uniform that reminded me of fish scales, hid the fact that this creature was a woman. I had half expected some hideous creature from another planet like the ones we used to watch on "The Twilight Zone" , and I half expected to hear Rod Serling telling me I had crossed over. But none of that was true. I looked closely at the woman's' features to see if there were any protruding antennae, but there were none. There was nothing to distinguish this woman from any other I had met in my life. Except, she was very beautiful. "Who are you?" she asked, the words cutting like a knife. "What are you doing here?" There was something hard about her, hard like cold steel or diamonds. Her hair was long and dark, like the women you see in shampoo commercials. Her eyes were dark brown, almost black. I could not make out any more of her features as they were covered in that silvery uniform, but on her shoulder, there was a patch that said "N.I.T.T." So this was one of the Nitt. I wondered what it meant. She asked again who I was as she removed one of her gloves to reveal nicely manicured nails and then proceeded to slap me across the face with the glove. Just then two more of them came into the room. These two looked bigger than the woman. Perhaps they were men under those helmets.

"Leave him," one of them said, "we must figure out how he came to be here." The two new arrivals removed their helmets and as I figured, they were both men. These men both had dark hair like the woman, but were taller and bigger built. One of the men approached, and pulled me to my feet. My hands were still tied to the metal pole and my shoulder felt like it was being pulled from its socket. Through the pain I could feel anger build to the point that if I had been loose I would have killed him. But, such was not the case. I was not loose and I was at the mercy of these Nitt. The man that had pulled me to my feet brought his face close to mine and looked me right in the eye. "You are not one of them are you?" he asked. "I'm not one of you that's for sure." I spit out. My face was still burning from the slap with the glove, and my shoulder screamed with pain. "How did you get here?" he asked, gritting his teeth. I knew that this guy was all business and would not take any lip from me. "I came by bus," I told him. He did not like my answer and said so with a swift punch to the ribs. I now had a sore face, a possible dislocated shoulder, and I could not breath. In the midst of this interrogation, another one of them entered. It was another woman. This one looked softer than the first, not as stern, but just as beautiful. She was probably somewhere in her late thirty's and a bit shorter than the first woman. When she removed her helmet, she had long red hair. Not as long as the first woman but still long enough to do shampoo commercials. She removed her fish scale jacket to reveal an athletic well muscled body. She would have been right at home in a "Victoria's Secret" catalogue. She approached me and looked me over carefully. "Is this the one?" she asked her companions.

"Yes, I am sure of it." The first woman said. "We must find out more about this. If it gets back to Central there will be hell to pay." One of the men told the two women to find out what they could and report back. He spoke into a device that he carried attached to his wrist and a number of others came in and carried out the rest of my companions. Now it was just the two women and I. "My name is Adriana." Said the hard one, "and my friend is called Bess. We don't want to hurt you, but you have information that we need and we will get it." I could slowly feel myself slump to the floor now that I did not have one of the men holding me up. I just wanted to go home, but that did not look like it would happen. "Go and get something to clean him up," Adrian told Bess, and she left. Now Adriana came close and looked me in the eye again. "I have never seen one of your time," she said. She gently touched my face where she had hit me with the glove only this time her hand was gloveless and it was warm. "We do not want to hurt you, but there has been a very big breach in security if what we believe is true." "You sure need lessons in the not hurting part," I managed to say through the pain. "Maybe you could study up on that a bit." Adriana stood and removed her jacket. She was just as well built as Bess, maybe a year or two older but none the less, beautiful beyond imagination. She wore a thin close fitting t-shirt under her jacket, and I could tell that she was not wearing a bra, or maybe it was just cold in here.

"This is really painful to be tied to this post, can you untie me please?" I asked, trying to sound both friendly and a bit pathetic at the same time. I might not be able to escape from this room, but I would stand a better chance if I was free.

"If you promise to behave I will loosen your bindings, but if you try something stupid you will feel more pain than you are in now." She said this almost as a promise rather than a threat.

"I promise," was all I could say. If my bonds were cut there might be a chance to fight my way to freedom. Adriana knelt on one knee and reached around me to untie my bindings. She had her face right against mine and I could smell her hair and her perfume. I had almost forgotten what a beautiful woman smelled like. Her hair had that just washed smell, like flowers or spring fields, and her skin held a slight scent of musk. I closed my eyes and breathed her scent in deeply. When she heard me breath, she backed away a little and looked at me with curiosity in her eyes. Maybe the men she knew did not appreciate a beautiful woman.

Bess returned with a bag that looked like a backpack made from the same material as their uniforms, a wash basin and some towels. Adriana was still kneeling just inches away from me when Bess noticed our close proximity. She paused for a moment as if surprised, but she said nothing. Adriana got to her feet and told Bess,"Clean him up and see to his wounds. I will be back shortly." With that she put her jacket back on, picked up her helmet and left. "So, what was she doing to you?" Bess asked. "Nothing, she just cut my bindings and told me to behave." I said. Bess looked at me with one of those looks that said she did not believe what I was saying. I don't know what she thought was going on, but I was in no condition to do anything else.

Bess opened the bag and took out what looked like a first aid kit. She helped me to my feet and sat me on the bench against the wall. I had to admit this felt better than sitting all tied up on the floor. She put the kit on the seat beside me and took out a cloth and a small bottle of alcohol. She proceeded to clean up my face and wipe away the dirt and grime that had built up on my journey here. The water in the basin was hot and felt very good on my skin. This was the first good wash I had in a long time. She then started to open my heavy shirt and applied more of the warm soapy water on the scrapes and scratches on my chest. As she worked her way down my body, I could only wonder where she would stop. I watched her eyes as she continued to administer to my needs, and never once did she look up at me. This was getting to feel very good, if not a bit embarrassing. When she started to undo the belt that held up my leather trousers she looked me right in the eye. This was an unexpected turn of events. "I have to make sure you are not injured anywhere," she said as she quickly removed the rest of my clothing. "Well, you