Trapped in Time 1: The Time Takers Read online

  Trapped in Time

  The Time Takers

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter One • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Chapter Six • Chapter Seven • Chapter Eight • Chapter Nine • Chapter Ten • Chapter Eleven • Chapter Twelve • Chapter Thirteen • Chapter Fourteen • Chapter Fifteen • Chapter Sixteen • Chapter Seventeen • Chapter Eighteen • Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Mike’s War

  Books by Saxon Andrew

  Introduction

  Andy saw death approaching in slow motion and knew his life was ending in a few moments. He saw Loree’s face flash through his mind and knew there would never be reconciliation between them. Images of her in the morning, smiling as she rolled over and hugged him, flashed through his mind; followed by his last image of her. He had caught her with Brian and his trust in best friends and lovers vanished with their kiss. Her numerous calls afterwards went unanswered, even though she pleaded that he was the one she really loved. Now…all of the drama was moot and all his sorrow was wasted time. He saw in the crystal clear water that the Great White was slowly moving in and this one was a killer.

  He really didn’t know why he decided to go diving; getting away would be a good reason; but it wasn’t the only one. He was just tired of thinking about lost love and enduring the constant pain of heartbreak. He remembered seeing the news reports a week earlier of the swimmers that had been killed by a Great White off the coast of Hilton Head. The scientist investigating the attacks had estimated the shark to be at least twenty feet long. The scientist was wrong by at least eight feet. Andy never would have guessed the monster would appear off Myrtle Beach eight days later. But here it was.

  He watched the giant fish moving toward him and he had no doubt that he was locked in the monster’s senses. It didn’t hurry; it seemed to know its prey had no way to escape. It was too late to swim for the boat on the surface; the shark would have him before he made it a third of the way. There was nothing on the bottom to hide behind; he was out in the open and humans just didn’t have the speed to outrun one of the ocean’s most deadly apex predators. He cursed himself for being the last one underwater. He stared at the shark moving toward him from above and felt his heart racing. It was cruising about ten feet under the surface and Andy shook his head at its remarkable beauty. It was a prehistoric killing machine and its lines screamed a deadly purpose. Andy’s fear threatened to overwhelm him. He felt his heart hammering in his chest.

  Suddenly, the huge shark accelerated upward at an incredible speed and hit the thirty foot dive boat. One of the members of the dive party was sitting on the side of the boat and was knocked into the water; the giant shark had him in its jaws in an instant. It viciously shook its giant head from side-to-side and swallowed the chest and abdomen of the doomed man. Blood filled the water as the giant shark turned from the boat. Andy hoped the shark would forget him but it turned directly back in his direction.

  Andy had forced his body to the sandy bottom and tried to look small while the shark attacked the boat. He tried to cover his body with sand but the air tank prevented him from being completely covered. The shark was now in a killing frenzy and it was coming straight at him at incredible speed. It flashed by inches above him and he felt the wash of water from the huge fish roll him over as it flew past. He looked behind him and saw the monster had whipped around and was accelerating at him with its eyes starting to close and jaws wide open.

  Suddenly, a large grey object appeared in front of the charging Great White and it struck the object at full speed. The giant shark’s snout was bloodied and it backed off and swam away at high speed. Andy looked at the object two feet in front of his face and couldn’t grasp what it was. Just before he could focus on it, blackness took him.

  Chapter One

  Andy woke up and tried to remember what happened before he blacked out. He sat up straight and remembered the giant shark. He shook his head and looked up…he was shocked by what he saw. He was in the middle of a huge cave that was about two hundred yards long and three hundred yards wide. The ceiling started about eight feet above the floor at the walls and grew taller toward the cave’s center. The high ceiling gave off a soft ambient light which allowed him to see everything. Scattered around on the floor of the cave were hundreds of other people that were starting to sit up and look around. They were all dressed differently and there appeared to be different races scattered among them.

  He stood up and felt a wave of dizziness assault him; he knelt down quickly and lowered his head. The dizziness passed and he quickly removed his flippers and mask as he walked to the cave wall twenty feet behind him where he saw a stack of swords. He looked to the left and saw a stack of long bows and ancient wooden arrows. He looked to the right and saw neat stacks of modern compound bows and quivers of titanium hunting arrows.

  He removed his air tank and put it, the mask and flippers against the wall next to the compound bows as he leaned down to pick one up. It had a manufacturer’s name on it he didn’t recognize. He thought he knew every bow manufacturer on the planet but he’d never heard of this one. He pulled the bow’s metal cable and felt it break easily. It only required a five pound pull when it was pulled back. He picked up a quiver of arrows and slung them over his shoulder. He sat down next to the wall and looked across the cave as people began standing and talking to each other. He didn’t understand most of the languages being spoken but he heard English from a group that were on the other side of the cave. Six men and seven women were working their way across the cave to join the man that was screaming, “Does anyone know what’s going on?!?”

  Andy looked to the left and saw what appeared to be twenty American Indians, still dressed in their native costumes, moving across the floor toward each other. Just beyond them he saw a group of twenty or thirty Vikings move into a group and attempt to communicate. It was clear they were having some difficulty understanding each other. Andy shook his head; this was an image straight out of a history nightmare. All of the people looked like they had come from some kind of Halloween costume party or something. He looked at the far wall and saw what appeared to be Japanese Samurai moving along the wall picking up various swords and swinging them.

  He heard the sound of running water, before seeing a stream of water flowing out of a hole in the back wall and following an indentation in the floor to anther hole where it exited the cave. Some people were standing at the stream and putting water on their faces. The costumes didn’t make sense. They appeared to be worn as if the person was accustomed to them. Some of them were also dusty and worn. How could that happen?

  He suddenly heard a loud shout to the left and he looked across the cave to the wall on the left at what looked like forty ancient Roman Legionnaires standing in formation holding short swords; there were about forty women dressed in flowing togas behind them. The women were crouching behind the warriors and one of the Romans stood in front of their formation with a sword drawn; he was yelling at the group of people standing in front of him. The room grew silent and the Roman pointed his sword at a tall man standing three feet in front of him. Those Romans were short; but all of them were about the same height. Their armor differed from one to the other and they all looked dangerous. Andy remembered some of the Latin he studied in college and knew the Roman was telling everyone to move away from his area. The tall man, who was dressed in clothes from the eighteenth century, including a top hat, was confused by what the Roman was yelling. He raised his shoulders and hands indicating he didn’t understand what was being said; the Roman Leader looked to his right and said something; the Legi
onnaire he spoke to left the Roman’s formation, rushed forward, and jammed a short sword into the tall man’s chest. The man grabbed his chest and collapsed. The cave was filled with screams as the forty Romans took a step forward with their swords raised. Andy knew they had to be stopped or there was going to be a bloodbath. He notched an arrow into the compound bow and fired at the Roman who killed the tall man. The arrow hit the Roman’s helmet, went through his skull, and imbedded in the wall behind him. The Romans immediately stopped their forward march and the cave was instantly silent as everyone tried to see who had fired the arrow.

  Andy yelled, “There will be no killing!” The Roman Leader looked across the cave and saw Andy had another arrow notched and pointed at him. He looked at the arrow embedded in the wall behind him and walked over and tried to pull it free. After a moment he gave up and looked back at him. Andy had to admit he was a pretty cool customer. Andy saw movement out of the corner of his eye as a Samurai lifted a bow and notched an arrow. When the Samurai turned toward him, Andy fired, hitting the Samurai in the head. The arrow went through the Samurai’s head and hit another Samurai behind him in the arm. Andy had another arrow notched in an instant and he yelled, “No killing.” Everyone in the cave stared at Andy and no one moved. Andy tried to take it all in and was at a loss as to what was happening.

  Suddenly, the cave was filled with a deafening roar. Everyone in the cave turned, grabbed their ears and looked to the left, where they saw an opening in the cave wall at the end of a short corridor. Something was filling the opening. Andy was stunned at what he saw. This was a nightmare that could only come from an overdose of bad drugs. Everyone fled across the cave to the wall furthest from the opening. The Romans broke formation and ran with the others. The Roman Leader held his ground and Andy saw he was shocked and frightened out of his wits. It was easy to see why. Andy sprinted across the cave and moved into the short corridor leading to the opening where a giant head with rows of sharp teeth was being pushed further into the cave. He stopped twenty feet from the head, raised the bow and fired an arrow directly into the open mouth of the huge Allosaurus. The giant reptile screamed and jerked its head back out of the opening but not before Andy had notched another arrow and hit it between the eyes with an arrow that buried itself to the fletching. The giant’s roar was silenced as it straightened up and then fell backwards.

  Andy put the bow over his shoulder and ran toward the entrance. He saw a large stone wheel on the right side of the opening designed to block the entrance; he ran behind it and tried to push it forward. The roars from outside the cave were getting louder…and numerous; everyone inside could hear that there were more of the nightmares that had stuck its head in the cave outside the opening. He pushed as hard as he could but the wheel was just too heavy to move. There was a channel cut into the floor for it to roll in; but it was just too massive to budge. The Roman Leader sprinted over and started pushing with Andy. They looked out of the opening as they pushed and saw ten of the giant carnivores were just outside the entrance surrounding the dead Allosaurus, trying to determine what killed it. One of them looked at the cave opening and started moving toward it. Ten Samurai and five Vikings arrived at that moment and began pushing with Andy and the Roman. The wheel started moving and then rolled over the entrance just before the dinosaur arrived. They all felt the stone wheel lean into the cave for a moment…and then fall back against the opening. The channel it rolled in prevented it from being tipped over.

  The group gathered at the stone wheel backed away from the wheel as it tilted again and waited; but nothing followed. Andy looked at the group surrounding him and knew he was in deep trouble. He just killed a Roman and a Samurai and there was no way to get the bow off his shoulder before he was attacked. A large Samurai looked at Andy and smiled. He slapped Andy on the back, pointed at the entrance and grunted something Andy didn’t understand. The Roman held out his hand. Andy put his hand out and the Roman grabbed his forearm and shook it. It appeared they all recognized he had acted with bravery in stopping the dinosaur from entering the cave. He was the only one that ran to confront the nightmare and warriors knew bravery when they saw it. Andy pointed at the dead man the Roman had killed and held up his index finger and shook it, “No killing.”

  The Samurai and Roman looked at the dead man and then looked at each other. They both shrugged and turned back to Andy and nodded. Suddenly the stone wheel leaned in again and then fell back against the opening. Everyone jumped back and then looked at Andy. He pointed at the wheel and said, “Allosaurus.”

  A voice from across the room yelled, “And a very good living example of one, too!”

  Andy looked across the room and saw a man standing with the group that spoke English. He was wearing a suit that appeared to be a style worn in the nineteenth century. Andy slowly nodded and went back to the wall next to the compound bows and sat down trying to come to terms with what was going on around him. The Roman Leader and the Samurai looked at each other and then followed Andy to where he was sitting. The Roman started speaking and Andy held up his hand, “I don’t speak Latin.” The Roman stopped in midsentence and the Samurai started speaking. Andy shook his head and said, “And I don’t speak Japanese either.” The two looked at Andy and he saw they were getting frustrated. Andy leaned to the right and yelled, “Does anyone in this cave speak Latin or Japanese!?!”

  The man who had commented about the Allosaurus said, “I speak Latin.”

  A young woman of Asian descent standing beside the man said, “I speak Japanese.”

  “Please come here for a moment.”

  The Roman and the Samurai watched the two walk toward them and when they arrived Andy said to the man and woman, “Will you please tell these two what I’m saying?” The two nodded and Andy said, “I stopped you from killing anyone else in this cave,” He paused for the two to repeat what he said, “because the people in this cave may be the only humans in existence. We’re going to need all of them to survive.” The two interpreters stared at Andy with wide eyes and he said, “Tell them.” They started speaking again and all four of the people in front of Andy turned and stared at him. Andy looked at the people in the cave while the interpreters spoke and nothing made sense. Unless….

  The man said, “We really don’t understand what you just said.” Andy shook his head and the four saw he was extremely agitated. The man said, “Do you know how we were brought to this cave?” The Roman said something and the man repeated his question in Latin. The Samurai nudged the girl and she repeated his question.

  Andy blew out a breath and looked at the Roman, “What year is it?”

  The man repeated the question and the Roman quickly spoke. “He says it’s the thirtieth year of Emperor Augustus’ reign.” The man interpreting was instantly put on edge by the Roman’s answer.

  Andy looked at the two interpreters and said, “Tell them to go and ask the others in their group what year it is and then come back.” The Roman and Samurai listened to the interpreters, looked at each other, and walked away. Andy looked at the two interpreters and said, “You should go and do the same thing.” They turned and left.

  Andy sat against the wall and watched bedlam break out. He closed his eyes and felt his tension almost overwhelm him. His hands were shaking from the Allosaurus attack, having to kill two people, and realizations that threatened to overwhelm his sanity. He initially thought the shark had killed him and that this was the afterlife. He saw that many different times in human history was represented by the people in the cave; he guessed this might be a waiting room to either be sent to heaven or hell.

  He thought if that were the case, many of the ones in the cave had been waiting a very long time. Being dead would account for all the different times represented here. When the Allosaurus stuck its head into the cave, he had gone on auto pilot and killed it without conscious thought. When he tried to move the large stone wheel over the entrance he saw he was still wearing a wetsuit with his dive watch on his wrist. He was sho
cked when he saw that it was still keeping time and, according to it, he had confronted the Great White just fifteen minutes ago.

  He then remembered taking off his air tank and mask. The watch told him he wasn’t dead and this was not the afterlife. How could a watch go with a spirit into an afterlife and still be keeping time? It was ludicrous to even consider the notion that he was really dead. He had to still be alive. When he looked out of the cave’s entrance before the wheel was moved and blocked the view, he knew something terrible had happened. He stared at the groups in the cave and saw them coming to grips with a reality that was impossible. The possibilities of how he was in a cave with humans from vastly different times began running through his mind and his thoughts froze. He shook his head and refused to think anymore. He sat alone and listened to the shouts and screaming until fatigue took him and he passed out in exhaustion from the vast amount of adrenaline that had rushed through his body.

  • • •

  Andy struggled to open his eyes and after a few moments he managed to force them open. He straightened up and quickly pushed his back against the wall; everyone in the cave were sitting in six groups in front of him. He saw the man who spoke Latin was sitting in front of the Romans and the Indians. The man saw Andy looking at him and shrugged, “I speak Latin and several Native American languages.”

  Andy tilted his head, “That’s a weird combination.”

  “I am a doctor to the Sioux Tribes on the reservation. I had to learn Latin to be a doctor.”

  “What year is it?”

  The man shook his head, “January 21st, 1889.”

  Andy looked at the six groups and saw a group of thirty people standing beyond the six groups. The man saw him looking at the ones standing and said, “We’ve moved into groups where there is someone that can interpret for them. The ones standing don’t have anyone who understands their language.”