Second half of New Alternate Universe Tale: Multi-Castles

This is part two-the final one-of Multi-Castles from last week. Quite a few have read this one-at least plussed it-but very few have stated what they thought of it. Some people, like me, like alt universe stories and some don’t. Not sure what I will do next week maybe another story from a pic I am writing or an excerpt from one of my new novels.

I have done a whole series of stories based on a picture titled Dark Castle. The setting for this story is the picture. A dark castle set on a short hill with a walled village around it and the full moon right behind it. It's not a blue moon though I added that detail here. Anyway if anyone is interested in reading more stories here is the link to my Collection on Goggle Plus. You will need to sign up for Google Plus to see it, I think. There is a Urban Fantasy story, a thriller, a fantasy, a romance tale and a couple of others. There will be a science fiction and a youth story. And a steampunk. There are other pictures-stories there also. 
Remember that this is also a story in my new Collection which can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/collection/Exg0WE


This section is 2,200 and some words long and has a bit from last week to help you catch up.



Enjoy:



Rick continued on though. Most of the stores, houses, and Inns were in dark shadows. Good thing he had overcome his fear of the dark. He debated calling her an American and see if that would get a reaction since she disliked it so much, but she would have to hear it first.
However he jumped when someone ran out of an alley and on down the street. He blinked, that hadn’t been Jonna. Come to think of it she had said that people were in the city. Now that he was here he hoped they were not thieves or drunks. He heard footsteps in front of him, so fearing the man who just ran in front of him was a drunk after Jonna, Rick ran harder.

The sand near the gate had smell hot still, in here though it was old wood and what might be cloth decay. Strands of his matted hair flipped around his face and got sucked into his mouth when he breathed in. Sweaty hair was not a good after dinner snack.
It had cooled in here but enough warmth came from the warm stones and street so it didn’t feel too cold yet. He saw the steeple of the church and that other building. It had looked newer yet still ancient. Now everything was dark-except the church. It sat on a very low hill be itself so moonlight shined on it. The moon was up.
Someone ran on another street. It could be Jonna if she took an alley. If she wanted to get the people out of the field they had made she should be shouting, but wasn’t. Just in case these people had harmed her or caught her to hold until later-for a ritual maybe? He didn’t shout.
He shined the light here and there but saw no one. He heard slithers and tiny feet but no people. He should have at least seen their camp by now. Maybe they were tourists who wanted to camp here.
A squeak up ahead made him run faster. It had started to smell of hot rock and ozone-he could taste the last when he panted. He better find Jonna soon, they didn’t know what a prolong exposure to their field did to houses, rocks or people.
Someone stood in the street up ahead. Rick slowed and pulled the large flashlight out as quick as possible. Its light would help him see better, maybe blind the guy and would be strong enough to use as a club.
Rick slowed and approached the figure. It turned to glare at him, or so Rick thought, since he couldn’t see the face that well.
He ran on pass the figure. The person looked familiar, but Rick didn’t go back to find out how. He turned down a corner. Another person who looked the same as someone else Rick knew came out of a building. He came up to Rick, ran with him for two blocks then made a sound of disappointment and turned off. Almost like they had just realized they didn’t know him after all.
There, in that strange building a light and a figure that was female. It looked right for Jonna. He turned and headed that way. Someone else came out from the side, he slowed and blinked. That looked like Jonna, but if so she had changed her outfit. A young man followed her soon after.
Whoa, Rick thought, that guy was me, with short hair. The new man ran after the second Jonna who had increased her speed. She was headed for that building. It now had two lanterns and three flashlights inside. He could see the lights flicker through a window. Or empty space in the wall. Those lights made the shadows look deeper. And now that he knew that he and Jonna were not alone he stared at the darkness, his fears coming back.
But he put on speed and found the building.
When he neared the door he slowed and stop. Off to one side Rick saw Cory standing and talking to a completely different Jonna. For one thing this one was dressed as a Goth, which included pale make up, black ribbons in her longer hair and maybe she looked younger too.
But Cory couldn’t walk. He had been born with spinal bifida, so had never walked.
The two turned to look at him, than at a newcomer who, whoa, looked like Rick but stockier.
That Rick said, “We need to get going the fields weren’t last much longer.”
The two pointed at Rick, the wider Rick turned and said, “Whoa-and damn. We should have known.”
Rick wanted to ask what was going on, but the strange Rick was right about the fields. He mumbled something about “nice meeting you” and hurried to the door into the building. He saw Jonna standing in the shadow of one side Jonna stood near the door in deep shadows. He had only seen her because he accidentally shone his light into that space when he stumbled again.
He rushed to it. “What is going on?”
She looked at him in surprise. “You need to leave.”
Figuring out what she meant by just saying. “You” he said, “Why without you?”
She sighed, “I don’t belong here. I made this trip here already, but the field died too soon and I was stuck somewhere else. I have spent over two years trying to get home but the last one attempt only brought me to your universe. Again the field wasn’t strong enough now laster long. Your battery makes a huge difference-make sure you get credit for it-as does the digital instead of analog readouts. It took me eight months to find you four so we could put together the right equipment. I didn’t know it all, I needed you guys to get home. I knew you all would be on that social media site but it took me months to draw you all out so I knew you could do the same as my real partners.”
“Whoa, real partners? You don’t have to be insulting, after all we are friends.”
She shook her head. “You are good people, but you are not my friends and partners in this. You are so much like my Rick but not the same. The same goes for the Siblings and Gory.
And no, I didn’t mean you and I are an item. We are just friends and not with benefits. I am married to Gory and we have a child.”
“That explains your push to get back to your world.”
She nodded, looked teary eyed for a moment. “I could not get close to any of you. The Rick of my group is more assured. He started the group and encouraged us.
“Your battery and the new infuser made a difference here. I have a temporal unlocked chroniton particle reader. I think it shows the right numbers. But if you are here when the field breaks down you will be with me or it will mess things up. But don’t worry you and I have to be together some place, not in the two alts I have been too but still it had to happen. You’re a good man. Now go. I need to hide here so none of the others grabs me, or stays here too long trying to talk me into going with them.”
Rick nodded, she was right about that field, even his battery would not last much longer, it had taken a while to find her.
She said, “I knew almost at once that I had been left in an Alt, even though this building was here. Because it is so unusual it is a catch point, it helps to focus the temporal twisting tachyon waves-I think.”
Jonna blinked back tears. “The universe I came from was so different. For one thing America was nothing as you know it and as it was on the other two universes I visited. George Washington and the others lost. He was, according to my school’s history, a bad man. Irritable, he killed people in duels for small slights, drank too much etc,. Now though I wonder if he was that bad. It could be why he lost but it could also be just what the winners said about him. But after the failed attempt to win his own country England dumped people on it the King didn’t want, including criminals and such. Three decades later England granted America independence but more because they just didn’t want it any more. Later they did awful things in the world and to each other. Worse than anyone thinks you guys really did. You did help win WWII. Half of what you built was junk, but it could be fixed up and it helped. Than on D-Day which to us meant Distraction Day, for the attack on Omaha Beach was just a distraction you guys ended up taking the Beach which cause Hitler to send in more troops for he didn’t want to lose to America. The American troops ran out of ammo so they used captured German arms. That included turning the cannons around and using them on the Germans. That became a good cliche. Turning a person’s weapons around to use against them. Later in the nick of time Churchill sent ammo and a few more troops. They made movies about that. But despite that win and the Battle of the Bulge being called an America is still an insult. A bad one.
“However in the first Alt I was sent to, was the opposite. People from other counties wanted to be called an American. That county’s history was close to yours but they helped a couple of more countries to become self sufficient and had better PR. It still amazes me that your America is so much better than mine. I wouldn’t mind living here even with your problems. All of my universe’s countries have problems of one type or another.”
A moment later someone headed away from them.
She said, “Damn, I took too long to explain what I wanted to say all along. I left notebooks and comments and my machine. Go now.”
Rick nodded and turned away. He wondered at first if she had flipped but he had seen others like their group and her description of her world made sense. He walked away but looked in the doorway. He saw another Jonna who held a lantern while another Rick held a flashlight like the one he carried. He rushed over to them. They held hands, he looked at them saw rings. Either they were cheating or were marred to each other.
They startled and he said, “The fields are collapsing. You better run for it or you might get caught in another universe as a friend of mine did. She thinks this one will take her home.”
Their expressions showed that they got his point, turned and ran toward another wall. He turned back and ran too. He managed to shout to someone who might have been the Siblings. But he knew his battery was almost used up and that the fields were starting to die.
He ran through the gate, wondered what would happen if he had chosen the wrong one. He found it easier to run on the sand than the cobblestones, even though he still couldn’t make top speed. The ozone smell grew, enough so he could taste it in the air. The night air had cooled a lot. He tripped once over some shrub but got up and ran harder. The air crackled behind him. Either it was about to break or it was going back together. Maybe if it broke they would have a permanent gate or field or something.
Someone stood on a dune and shouted for him to run faster. He wanted to ask why? The field was behind him. Was someone after him? A dinosaur from a universe where they hadn’t died out? Or more likely a cloud or concussion from the field collapsing was headed his way.
His back grew hot fast. Darkness shadowed him. The air and earth rumbled. A giant after him? He ran past Jonna’s device even as it died: lights blinked out, the humm it made ran down. Rick couldn’t stop though and almost ran into Jimmy, who had to duck to one side. He went up the dune and didn’t stop until he was against his SUV. At least he had lost enough momentum so he hit it easy. He leaned on it and panted. After a long moment he gasped out, “Did-you get-it?”
Cory answered through Rick’s ear piece. “Most of it. There was some fluctuating interference but I recorded most of it. I am making a back up now.”
Rick thought that not everyone would believe them, even with the video but maybe enough so they could get money and assistance to do it again.
What Jonna had said about him and her came to mind so did that last couple. He hadn’t really thought of marring Jonna. She was hot, and he liked looking at her-she must have noticed that. Because she mentioned her husband and but she had been too distance for that type of relationship. But maybe in another universe she might not have been. He might have been stronger and able to see things in people he couldn’t here too. Or braver and not so unsure of himself. But he had gone into the field and the dark village maybe he was braver than he thought. He could do more than be a one trick pony and chauffeur-he had in other universes evidently after all. He nodded as Jimmy and Coral caught up with him and asked what happened and where was Jonna. He caught his breath and turned to explain. They would want to see the video of her explanation. Cory could send a copy back to one or both of their laptops. Probably Jonna didn’t exist here or had died but they had this Jonna’s device and notes so they could do it without her now. He hoped she got home.

End

First Half of a New Alternate Universe tale: Multi-castles

This story is freshly written the previous week even though it went through a quick revision. I may end up redoing the very end of this story. What happens after the adventure is over. I seem to be having problems with that part of some of my stories lately. But we shall see if I come up with a better one for this one. I split it up here because it is over 4,700 words, on another format it won’t be. Adventure, suspense and Science Fiction 

So without further ado, enjoy:




Multi-Castles

“You think this is the place?”
Rick looked at the desert around his location, a few tiny shrubs and maybe cacti in the distance. He stopped his visual tour at the castle. A whole village actually inside a large stone wall. Over ten feet if its one, he thought, probably three or more thick too. With medieval structures inside: Inns with more than one story, plenty of houses, a couple of clear areas, a church, and something else. But the dominate building was that castle. It sat on a low hill, it looked taller and narrower than other castles he has studied. The full super moon rested a moment behind it. A very rare blue and super moon event. They needed one for what they wanted to do. Even though a shot of that would make a great screensaver or wallpaper. Cory sat back at their base since his wheelchair-the latest in power chairs-didn’t do well on loose sand. Not only did the tires have a tendency to loose traction, the tiny particles got into the chair’s motors and comp.
He paused a moment to wipe sweat off of his face and to take a long drink of warm water. In this heat he still enjoyed it though. And it washed out the sand that still seemed to be in his mouth after that spill ten minutes ago. He thought he had gotten sand in his mouth, even spitting didn’t help.
Jonna walked up next to him, Rick took a moment to study at her outfit. Very nice for desert work-nice for any time.
He looked back at the surroundings. Even at this time of day he could still smell the hot sand and now his own sweat, even though the sand dust had settled. It didn’t make him sneeze anymore. He should be used to it. They had been here twice before, but in the daylight both times. The first time they had just looked around. Jonna had been very particular about if this was the location they wanted when she decided she had smiled and really seemed happy. Then a native in one of the small villages not far from here called her an American. Her eyes had narrowed and her cheeks puffed out for a second. She had already explained that she was an Englishman who had been raised in Brazil. Which is why she had very little accent.
During the second trip there they had set up everything but their readings showed nothing would happen so they gave up. The devices worked, in stand-by at least, but readings from space-part of Cory’s job to get data from one of two satellites we could tap into-said nothing would happen. So we gave up and went home.
After itching a spot on his hairline he adjusted his head band with the web cam on it. He used one to keep his hands free. The cam was to recored their actions and to show their other member who was back at their HQ what was going on. Cory always complained about the strange motions when Rick took it off, adjusted it or bumped his head, but it worked best this way.
Jonna had been the one to insist that he drive the one car, even though she tended to ignore him, along with the others. He would be chauffeuring everyone but the other two were late to many times they drove themselves.
He noticed that she carried her adjuster, about twice the size as his mother’s breadbox and almost the same shape. This had a slight upward curve on one corner, plus lights and digital switches. She liked these switched she had said, and he wondered if this prototype really was one. Or the Mark two version.
She said, “It is according to my instruments.”
They moved down the sand dune a little fast. Rick almost slid down, but managed to stop his feet from leaving his control. They stopped at the bottom, looked around. Without a word or even a motion of her head, she started forward. What he thought of as two minutes she stopped, looked around then sat her device down. A moment later she had a three legged collapsable stand out. She set it down, then placed her adjuster on it. He stepped in to help secure it to the stand. She said a, “Thanks,” then started to flip switches. Green lights lit up all over the top.
A spray of sand from the top of the dune they had just left, indicated their last two members were here. A brother and sister team who were habitually late. Jonna had decided to start without them.
Rick called for them to come down. Three car doors slammed, one sounded like a hatchback lid. The two siblings showed at the top of the sand dune. He wore his favorite all yellow pants and shirt today while she had on a new brown tunic and hunter green leggings. Both wore pith helmets. Rick just wore a blank baseball cap-gray.
The two new comers half-ran and slid down the dune. They each carried two larger plastic boxes with a bulging sack on top. He was surprised they made it without stumbling or dropping the boxes or sacks.
Once down they opened the boxes and set up two arrays. One would produce energy using of all things a projector based on Tesla’s death ray device. Turned out it had components that worked for other things. They also brought out a diamond infuser-must gems could be used but diamonds seemed to do a better job. Jimmy had brought some cookies in his sack. Without looking backwards Jonna reached back and grabbed one. She hadn’t even looked but probably had smelled them.
Rick looked at Jimmy who nodded so I grabbed one. I bite into it and took another. Their mother had made these. She had owned a cookie store for years. She had been the head cookie maker and still loved to bake the small round goodies.
They finish setting up the infuser and a power expander. It created a field that multiplied the strength of whatever energy was in that field. In this case that meant that the energy, the diamond infuser produced, was magnified. That went for the Blackwell-Jonna’s last name, she did invent it after all-dimensional hopper. Named after a device in her favorite series. It found different dimensions and was able to pinpoint them. His contribution, besides being a driver and sometimes helper, was a very special battery I pulled from my pocket. Rick had designed and made it using tech from Tesla, Edison and Bill Franklin-a descendent of Bill Franklin-who recently invented a new matter transference machine. He claims Ben Franklin’s notes gave him the clues he needed to know which direction to go.
Rick thought about them as a group. Jonna was oldest, over 30, while the rest of them were under 27. He was second oldest at 26, just been out of collage for one year when the group decided to get together. They had meant on the internet, while on a smaller social media site that most people hadn’t heard very much about. The others were still in school, even though Cory took most of his courses online. He claimed it wasn’t because of his disability but because of expense and ease. Jonna had called Cory and talked into joining their experiment. He watched the computers, made sure everything got recorded as it should and had found the castle for them to use as a test site. Evidently the area around here was weak and therefore it would be easier to punch through, especially on a night of a super blue moon according to Jonna. She had tried to explain why with a description of the Earth’s magnetic field, how the moon’s poles reacted to it, and cosmic influence along with gravity and even that which made the moon look blue. Rick didn’t quite get it though. Jonna had gone over his head almost from the beginning and he had the nagging suspicion that she didn’t really know, but that this was her best guess.
All of their experiments had worked though, and in one case had gone too far. They had gotten mini fields and almost lost his car when one expanded suddenly. Jonna had pulled the power cable so quick she had to be almost ready for something like that. Maybe she had figured or guessed, the wild cascade could happen so had readied herself just in case. She suggested we try here again when she read of the coming special super moon, but at night-that night.
This was their third castle-the first one they had known was wrong when they saw it. Jonna had almost come to tears when the second one proved to be the wrong one, when nothing happened. Everything had functioned just as it should. The power had built, the fields had formed, energy had been multiplied and he had felt the universe bulge, or one corner of it anyway. That was the only way he could describe the feeling. He thought he had seen it happen, so did the twins, but everything ran for almost half and hour and Jonna had said to turn everything of. Something was not functioning. After a through examination of the devices, battery and themselves they decided every device had worked as advertised, but still we had nothing. After more research online, Jimmy had asked if we had the right night and the right place. Something did happen, three of us and one recorder said so. But it hadn’t produced what they wanted.
That meant they had tried at the wrong location. So they searched again and after a day of study Jonna thought this was it after all. Cory agreed next. He had the data from the previous two attempts and thought this one had been the closest. Rick had been last to agree but now he felt it too.
So they went back, at night. We all checked out on, our own, out what wild animals were out here. Some smaller ones like snakes and rats but no hyenas, nor leopards or lions. Rick had brought high pitched whistles for everyone. Jimmy had a loud fireworks with whistle and bangs that sounded like gunshots and that produced flaming swords plus the sounds for over thirty-seconds.
Once set up they waited. Cory said his readings showed the magnetic field sensors had the right numbers. Rick gave Jonna his battery, she plugged it in the right side of her adjuster. It already had some batteries but they only powered the lights and sensors while the main part of it needed something more powerful. After this was over Rick hoped to sell the battery to some company or even door to door if he had to.
At the right moment she plugged in Rick’s battery, waited a second, then when certain lights flashed on she touched spots on the display. Jimmy and Coral’s devices came on at almost the same moment. It took quite a few seconds for the combined fields to build up. He knew that tachyon and Quantum distortion waves were going out. The wall, castle and moon became fuzzy much the same as if we looked through heat waves. Rick sniffed, smelled sweat-no one seemed to mind that their deodorants were working too hard-ozone and the sand. And a new odor; almost as if either the sand or the air burned or had become charged. That last could be since a charge going through cables can produce an aroma. His nose told him this one was a combo of baked meat, hot metal and the ocean. Not pleasant but not really bad either.
He licked his lips, decided his nose was running. Rick sneezed again but so did everyone else. So humans are allergic to burnt sky, he thought.
The field grew more intense, it moved outward, for a second he was afraid it would harm the village somehow. But it didn’t.
Without warning something moved in the village. What people? But no one had been there before. That is one reason they choose it too. But maybe someone had been camped inside. It should not harm them. It didn’t the last attempt at the other castle, but this one would go on for an hour, if it worked.
Jonna popped up, said, “Oh no people. We need to get them away.”
She ran toward the village walls, leaving her apparatus functioning. Rick blinked, she hadn’t been that concerned last time. He looked at Jimmy and Coral. Jimmy nodded and waved toward the village, “You go, we will watch the devices. And you have the recorder anyway.”
He nodded, thinking they knew more about the devices than he did. And he could run faster. So he turned and ran toward the village walls. He had been in it once, last time they had been here, as well as other castles and villages. None as well preserved as this one though-except for a few he had seen videos of. Most had been just castle though without a village so that last thought still fit.
Once at the wall, he found the gate. It stood open, which from his last visit was not unusual. He stepped in carefully since it was night and dark in there. He had the tiny LED light he kept on his keychain as well as the long flashlight, that looked like a billy club and a flat rectangle light that fit easily in his pocket. That was a spare just in case something happened to the large one. The tiny one could be used but it produced little light, just enough to see keyholes and such.
Footsteps sounded to the right. That puzzled Rick. Anyone here would probably be at the castle. He turned though and called her name. No response so he ran in that direction. After he tripped a third time, he decided he hated cobblestone streets. His feet tended to slid between the stones. Those that lived here must have developed a certain way to walk over them.
Rick continued on though. Most of the stores, houses, and Inns were in dark shadows. Good thing he had overcome his fear of the dark. He debated calling her an American and see if that would get a reaction since she disliked it so much, but she would have to hear it first.
However he jumped when someone ran out of an alley and on down the street. He blinked, that hadn’t been Jonna. Come to think of it she had said that people were in the city. Now that he was here he hoped they were not thieves or drunks. He heard footsteps in front of him, so fearing the man who just ran in front of him was a drunk after Jonna, Rick ran harder.

end this section