Country Life

Chapter 1: Another Fine Mess: Part 2

"Damn it, Reese," Denny said as his friend turned towards him. "Why'd did you let those idiots go? Now, they're going to rat us out."

"No, they won't, and even if they do no one will believe them anyway," Reese said. "Now, we just need to figure out where we are."

"How are we going to do that?" Denny asked, but Reese already had the answer. He looked over towards the large wooden counter that was located in the far corner of the room. He found a newspaper sitting there.

"Damn," Reese said. "Just as I suspected."

"What?" Denny looked confused, but Reese stayed silent and just shook his head. "Where the hell are we?"

"Campbell County, Kentucky, July 12th, 1850," Reese said as he looked at the newspaper.

"Are you sure?" Denny asked.

"This is the Campbell Gazette and the date is right here," Reese said and pointed to the part of the page that was right below the name of the paper.

"Damn it," Denny shouted in frustration. "When in the hell is this all going to end?"

"When we get that crystal away from Charlie for good, and get rid of him permanently." The thought of that made Reese cringe, because he had almost killed Charlie in their last encounter, and he wasn't sure if he would be able to stop himself from breaking the guy in half when they met up again.

"Well, let's get egghead and the girls and break the bad news," Denny said as he headed for the back door.

"Sure," was all Reese could say as they went through the door and into the storage room. To their surprise, their friends were already there with an almost recovered Jordon.

"So, what's the situation?" Cree asked as she approached Reese.

He took her hand and looked her in the eyes. "It was nothing we couldn't handle."

"Yeah, only two idiots trying to torch the place," Denny said casually as the girls all looked shocked "Hey, don't worry; we took care of them."

"I'm sure," Millie said, not looking confident in his words. She was standing by Jordon who was still a little weak.

"Well, those guys were going to set this place on fire, but Reese gave them a whammy," Denny said, but he had a disappointed look on his face. "I would have much rather taken care of this the old fashion way but..."

"We didn't want to trash Carl Baker's store," Reese said. "The real mystery is why they were hired to do it in the first place."

"Wait," Jordon said. It looked as if he was scanning his brain. "Did you say Carl Baker? That name sounds so familiar. What year are we in?

"1850," Reese said. "Why? Do you know something about this Carl Baker?"

"Well, the only Carl Baker I know of in this time is the Abolitionist spy," Jordon said excitedly.

"Great," Denny said. "So are we getting ourselves into another sticky situation? I say whatever's going on we stay out of it."

Reese just rolled his eyes and looked over at Jordon. "So what do you know about this guy?"

"Well, he made several trips down south in the early 1850s, set up a front and smuggled slaves out of the south, but not just any slaves, slaves with special gifts."

"You mean Sadians?" Denny said.

"So was this Carl Baker one too?" Reese asked.

"Not as far as I know," Jordon said, looking as if he was thinking too hard. "He did have an uncanny way of getting people to trust him. Oh, and another thing. He died in 1859 at Harper's Ferry. He ran in front of a bullet to save an escaped slave."

"Damn, what a horrible end," Reese said looking horrified. "So was he ever in Kentucky in 1850?"

"That is one of the places he traveled to," Jordon said.

"Then it's a good bet this is the same guy, and if what you said is true then his cover is about to be blown." Reese had a serious look on his face.

"That means we're getting involved," Cree said, but she didn't look too disappointed. "So where do we start?"

"First we need proper attire," Millie said. Cree just rolled her eyes. Since the realization that they were in 1850, that meant girls had to wear dresses, and Cree hated wearing dresses.

"Come on, girls," Millie said, and we'll pick something out." Cree just groaned as Millie added. "You boys wait outside."

To Be Continued...