Country Life

Chapter 1: Another Fine Mess: Part 1

First, I want to say that this is a time travel story, and my time travelers all have super powers. This story takes place in Kentucky in the year 1850. If I have taken some liberties with the time it's because this is a fantasy adventure story.

"Where the hell are we this time?" these were the first words out of Denny McNally's mouth as he looked at their surroundings. It was dark out, and they were in a small alleyway behind some small wooden building. Wherever they were it wasn't home. That he knew for sure.

"I haven't a clue, but look," Reese said and noticed an open door. "If it's the middle of the night, why would anyone have their door unlocked much less open?"

"They wouldn't," Cree said and reached for the door latch. "I think we should check it out."

"Not we," Reese whispered to her as he put his hand over hers and forced her hand off the door latch. "I'll check things out myself."

She looked annoyed at him and stared him down. "Reese, I can handle myself," she argued.

"I know, but Jenny may need some help with Jordon. He's still looking kind of green, and you were head of the class in first aide." He gave her a backwards smile, and for some strange reason his somewhat male chauvinistic statement did make some sense.

"Fine," she said and folded her arms annoyed with his reasoning, "but if you do need my help which I know you will I'll be right here." She threw him a look that made him a little nervous. He knew someway and somehow she would get him back for this. Still, he had this way of talking her out of things when he wanted to, and when he did things like that it meant that he sensed trouble.

"Well, leader man, you may have talked your girl out of it but not me," Denny said. He got no argument from Reese, but Millie looked annoyed. That was a plus for Denny, and he loved making her mad. They always fought like brother and sister even though they were in no way related.

Jordon was still reeling from their last trip and Millie and Jenny were keeping an eye on him, while Denny and Reese entered the small building. They found themselves in a storage area with a lot of wooden crates stacked up and articles of clothing hung from wooden hooks whose style was at least 150 years away from their own time. They could hear voices coming from behind another door. Reese realized that they were in some sort of shop. He crept towards the door quietly and cracked it open enough to see two men not much older than him.

He listened closely to hear them talking. "Ain't old man Baker gonna be surprised when he comes in tomorrow t'find the place lit up like a bonfire," one of them said as he laughed.

"Yeah, that'll teach uppity northern Yankees like him t'meddle in our business," the other one said. "Ross Claymore did give us a pretty penny to do this here job."

"What's going on?" Denny whispered to Reese. He couldn't hear what was going on, but by seeing the look on Reese's face he knew it was bad.

"Arson," Reese said, practically mouthing the words.

"What are we going to do?" Denny asked.

"Stop it," Reese whispered back as he had hold of the door. He was careful not to make any noise. "Let's go." He motioned for Denny to follow him.

Reese opened the door, which got the attention of the two young men as their eyes shot towards Reese and Denny's direction. "Who are you?" one of them said.

"Must be one of the freaks from that traveling circus, hey, Jared," the other said and they both laughed.

"Sure, Jed," the one called Jared said, and pointed at Denny. "He's the pretty boy type. Not much good at anything, I suppose."

"That's it," Denny said, making a fist. He didn't like anyone making fun of him. "You're dead."

"Oh, ya think some city kid can whip us," the one called Jed said.

"No way in hell," Jared added. "These two must work for old Carl Baker... well, not for long, 'cause this place is gonna be gone by mornin'. Mister Claymore will see to that."

Just then, an idea popped into Reese's head. This place belonged to someone called Carl Baker. Why not make them believe they were employed by the man.

"You're right," Reese said. Even though it was a lie, and he didn't even know anything about Carl Baker, these two rejects didn't need to know that. "Now, you two are going to get out of here, and no one will ever know about this whole thing."

"Not gonna happen, city boy, and not with two softies like you who wear stupid clothes." Reese looked down to realize that they were wearing their modern clothes that they had since their first time trip. "I think you two look like a couple a crazies."

"Maybe, but we'll show you how crazy we really are," Denny said and made a fist with his left hand and pounded it into his right hand.

They both laughed in Denny's face. He was about to strike, but Reese stopped him. "Why expend any unnecessary energy on these losers," Reese said as he gazed into both of their eyes. "Now, you two zeros are going to get out of here right now, and when you go back to your boss you tell him that the job is a no go. Got it."

Instantly, the two young men saw a strange spark in Reese's eyes. "Come on," Jed said as he looked upon Reese with terrified eyes. "Let's get out of here."

"Sure," Jared said and grabbed his partner's arm and dragged him out of the front door.

To Be Continued...