No ones time, p.1
No One's Time, page 1
NO ONE’S TIME
S.A. ISON
No One’s Time
Copyright © 2021 by S.A. Ison All rights reserved.
Book Design by Elizabeth Mackey
Book Edited by Felicia A. Sullivan
Book Edited by Boyd Editing Ent.
All rights Reserved. Except as under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without prior written permission of S.A. Ison
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the production of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons – living or dead- is entirely coincidental.
OTHER BOOKS BY S.A. ISON
BLACK SOUL RISING From the Taldano Files
INOCULATION ZERO Welcome to the Stone Age
Book 1
INOCULATION ZERO Welcome to the Age of War
Book 2
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN PURGE
Book 1
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN FEAR
Book 2
EMP ANTEDILUVIAN COURAGE Book 3
POSEIDON RUSSIAN DOOMSDAY
Book 1
POSEIDON RUBBLE AND ASH
Book 2
EMP PRIMEVAL
PUSHED BACK A TIME TRAVELER’S JOURNAL
Book 1
THE RECALCITRANT ASSASSIN
BREAKING NEWS
THE LONG WALK HOME
EMP DESOLATION
THE VERMILION STRAIN POST-APOCALYPTIC EXTINCTION
THE HIVE A POST-APOCALYPTIC LIFE
PYTHAGORAS FALLS
MY NAME IS MARY A REINCARNATION
THE MAD DOG EVENT
DISTURBANCE IN THE WAKE
OUT OF TIME AN OLD FASHION WESTERN
PUSHED BACK The Time Traveler’s Daughters Book 2
THE WILDER SIDE OF Z
A BONE TO PICK
In Loving Memory of my Uncle Ron
WARNING DINOSAURS MAY NOT APPEAR AS YOU REMEMBER!
Dear Reader,
The research I’ve done for this book indicates more evidence has come to light that many dinosaurs actually had feathers, quills, or proto-feathers. There are varying arguments as to the purpose of the feathers, such as display, the ability to retain body heat, and other concepts.
There are varying degrees of acceptance and disagreements as to which dinosaurs had feathers and how the animals were covered. I have chosen to write this book with the up-and-coming information that dinosaurs did have feathers, though I shall also walk the narrow line and describe the dinosaurs as having leathery and/or scaly skin as well. There is a prevalent notion that many dinosaurs were brightly colored like lizards and birds. I will use imagination and my own thoughts to help with this.
1
Sebastian Campos relaxed in the metal chair, surrounded by hundreds of travelers in the Fort Worth, Texas bus station. He’d just come back in from the cold and the scent of it still clung to his jacket. It was early October; there was a distinct chill in the air. Sebastian enjoyed the bite of autumn. It heralded cooler temperatures in the brutal Texas climate.
He scanned the crowd, as was his habit. He’d grown up on the dirty, ragged hem on the outskirts of Fort Worth, knowing and understanding poverty well. It was that life which led him to join the Army. Growing up dirt poor gave one a different perspective of the world. You learn early on that you want something better for yourself. Sebastian always knew he didn’t want to be hungry, didn’t want to live again on the tattered edge of dirt poor.
It hadn’t been a terrible childhood. He’d been loved by parents who did their best with what they had. He had a best friend who’d been like a little brother to him. He’d done moderately well in high school and spent his summers working on a horse ranch. Avoiding poverty and saving money for his future was critical for his peace of mind. Like all children, he’d had big dreams, and looking back, he’d lived his life his way. He couldn’t regret that.
Sebastian stood and shook the blood back down into his long legs. This was how it always was when traveling. Hurry up and wait. All service members understood that dictum well. He pushed his hand down in his pocket, hunting for change. Walking over to a vending machine, he fed the hulk quarters and pushed a few buttons. He glanced quickly at his gear, ten feet away. His best friend, Liam, was standing near, watching. The loud clank of a soft drink announced the arrival of his beverage and he bent to retrieve it. Popping the tab, he took a long pull, enjoying the burn at the back of his throat.
He’d come back to Fort Worth to purchase a ranch. In two years, he’d retire from the Army. His dream was to breed horses and sell them. Liam, whom he’d known all his life, had come to give moral support. The property boasted a fine barn with living quarters above, sixty acres of pasture, and prime grazing. It was their plan to house Liam over the barn. They would work the horses together and share in the profits. It had taken months of preparations, phone calls, and emails, but it was done and the property was his.
His gaze shifted from face to face around the large terminal. There were a lot of people here. Crowds used to make him nervous, though not so much as he’d gotten older.
Sebastian walked among the throng, half listening to conversations, keeping an eye on his gear. He didn’t venture far from it. It surprised him that so many rode the bus when he thought there were a dozen and one reasons to. Cheaper by far than driving across country; less hassle; letting someone else stress over the long trip; not falling from the sky. It was nice being able to watch the landscape pass by and abdicate responsibility of getting lost. Of course, now that there was a GPS app on smartphones, getting lost was a lot harder to do.
A smile edged his face. He had money to afford the plane ticket, he’d just chosen this mode of transportation. It was slower, but it would get him there nonetheless.
Katrina, his ex-wife, couldn’t grasp the value of money. She would spend his paychecks like they were water. Thankfully, she remarried some other sad sack. He’d loved her, yet love could only go so far, and when he’d seen his account decimated when he returned from deployment, it had nearly sent him over the edge. So, ten years ago, he’d divorced Katrina and hadn’t looked back. He’d seen her the other day; she hadn’t seen him. She looked rough.
Trina lived beyond her means and was never satisfied with her life. She thought happiness was at the bottom of a shopping bag. The woman believed wholeheartedly that others owed her. If they had money, they should share with her. It was an unreasonable sense of entitlement. When he’d seen her pinched face, he could only feel relieved that he hadn’t stuck around. Her drama had sucked the joy from his life. Now she was someone else’s problem.
Sebastian went back to his seat. Liam drifted away and was wandering around. He was heading back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and from there, he’d ship out to Daegu City, South Korea. He’d spent three tedious years at Fort Bliss, farther south in Texas. He’d done a brief stint or two or three in Kuwait. He was looking forward to a change of scenery that didn’t involve heat and desert.
Dressed in civilian attire, he could pick out other military personnel who were heading east. He glanced over them, taking in their stance and posture. Some were fidgety, others bored like himself, and all tended to hold themselves a little taller, their gaze a little sharper, scanning for trouble. At his feet were his duffle bag and guitar-shaped weapon’s case. Most civilians would be nervous to know that he carried his weapons wherever he went. The innocuous case could hold a musical instrument for all they knew, instead of his M4 carbine. Under his loose shirt he wore his Sig Sauer P320-M17, standard issue these days. His regard flitted among the people and he could tell which soldiers carried their weapons on them. Most did these days. Though it had been over twenty years since 9/11, military members knew the importance of being prepared. The Army took their job seriously, as did the soldiers. Sebastian was attuned to his surroundings. His training was ingrained in him, as was his innate vigilance.
Liam Glover walked back over with lanky ease to sit beside Sebastian. He had his usual smile stamped across his features. Liam was one of the most amiable people he’d ever known. Even when he was disgruntled, there was always a genial tone to it.
“Is this dang bus ever gonna leave?” Liam grouched, his gaze glittering with mischief.
Sebastian had seen him checking out the ladies, so Liam must not be too put out. His childhood friend was a natural born flirt.
“Speaker said they would. Just heard another announcement. It’s a long trip across country.”
Sebastian sighed deeply and checked his watch. A delay was called out twenty minutes before and a low groan had undulated a path across the waiting passengers. He wasn’t in a hurry, he was still on his time. When he was on the Army’s time, then he’d worry. Taking another sip of his drink, he glanced around. He enjoyed people watching and this place was ripe with people from all walks of life. Young, old, fat, thin, white, black, and everything in between. He made up stories in his mind about their lives.
He tracked a young woman, and the only reason he did was because she had a furtive attitude, and that brought her up on his radar. He watched her as she looked over her shoulder constantly, and it piqued his curiosity. She was clearly afraid of something, and that made him nervous.
Sebastian jutted his chin slightly in the direction of the woman. “Liam, what do you make of her?”
Liam leaned forward, sq uinting, and Sebastian thought the man might need to get glasses. Liam should know better since he was a medic.
“There’s lots of gals,” said Liam. “Which one, partner?”
“The one with purple ball cap, long brown hair and stacked.” He thumbed the tab on his drink, flicking it nervously. Something about her set his nerves to tingling. It wasn’t travel jitters; it was something else that made her behave like that.
“Oh, okay. Yeah, she’s pretty. Gonna try to sit next to her on the trip?” Liam grinned. His eyes crinkled at the corners in amusement.
Sebastian nudged him with his elbow, annoyed, causing Liam to snigger.
“No, dumbass, doesn’t she look suspicious?”
“You military, mistrustful-of-everyone, police types. You think everyone looks suspicious,” Liam laughed, running his fingers through his short cropped sandy blond hair.
“Forget it,” Sebastian huffed and sat back, watching her. He could clearly detect fear on her face and he scanned the other passengers milling around. She looked like someone was hunting her.
He didn’t like that.
↔
Liam thought the young woman was very pretty. Perhaps he’d sit beside her. All his life, Sebastian had been the cautious and careful man while Liam was the comedy relief. Even when they were children, Sebastian was always serious, took everything seriously. When Sebastian first started dating Katrina, Liam had seen trouble coming. He’d tried to warn his friend and it had fallen on deaf ears. Years later, Sebastian finally saw the light and left the woman behind.
For Liam, the world was filled with wonderful women and he couldn’t pick just one. He’d been scoping out some of the gals in the terminal. Nothing would come of it of course, but there was no harm in looking. He stretched and got up again. He hated waiting and wished they would have flown. Sebastian hated flying though, so they were taking the bus back to North Carolina. Liam bounced on the balls of his feet, trying to expel the pent-up energy.
He walked to the machine, slotted a few coins, and punched the button for a drink. He heard someone whistling a tune and tilted his head to hear better. The guy was talented. Liam snorted. He was bored. He weaved between the people that milled about aimlessly. He checked his watch for the hundredth time and grunted in annoyance.
He walked up to a poster that had a herd of horses running and grinned. He was six years from retirement. He would join Sebastian on his ranch once he was finished with the Army. He’d been touched and thrilled that Sebastian had offered him a home and something to do after the Army. They’d worked on the ranches as teens and had great fun along with the hard work. He loved being with the animals and they gave him a kind of tranquility inside.
While Sebastian was headed to South Korea, Liam was heading back into the desert. That was the way it was. He dreaded the heat but there was little he could do about it. It was the nature of his job. He wandered back over to Sebastian, who was still watching the pretty woman, and grinned to himself.
Maybe he would sit beside her.
↔
Penelope Hale’s hands and her armpits were damp with dread. She couldn’t get the feeling out of her mind that she was being watched. She’d been so careful. Her heart had been beating hard within her ribcage relentlessly for weeks now. She wiped at her face and checked her burner phone. It was one of those that you had to buy minutes, but of course, they never sold enough minutes to make the phone very useful.
Still, she couldn’t be tracked or found. Pen hadn’t used this phone yet, nor would she. Her smartphone was on the counter in the kitchen at her home. She’d never use it again if she could help it. She passed a trembling hand over her face and grimaced. She’d never had damp hands before, but lately that was all she seemed to have. The scent of fear wafted from her body; it was acrid. She hoped her deodorant would hold.
She bitterly resented sneaking away into the night, scuttling off and leaving her life behind, but there was no help for it. She would either be imprisoned for murder or she’d be murdered herself. Her whole life had changed three weeks ago. In less than a month everything had changed so much that she was now fleeing for her very life. Pen shifted through the throngs. She found a likely safe place and stood in the middle of a group of stationary passengers much taller than herself. If she was in the middle, she wouldn’t be seen. She must stay hidden.
Three weeks ago, she’d been pulled over by a patrol car, Fort Worth PD. The lights and siren had jolted her because she hadn’t been going over the speed limit. She pulled out her license and registration, waiting for the police officer to get out of the patrol car. She noticed that there were two men inside the vehicle and waited. A large young man exited the vehicle, well-built, like a bodybuilder. Pen thought that perhaps his uniform was tailored. The officer strode toward her car, his body relaxed. Pen rolled down her window, looking up expectantly.
“Ma’am, do you know why I pulled you over?” he asked. Pen looked up at his name tag, Baltimore, then at his dark blue eyes. Something swam in the depths of those orbs that sent a cold chill through her though she didn’t understand why. He had a pleasant expression on his face.
“No, Officer Baltimore, I don’t.”
“You were speeding and you ran through that stop sign back there.” Baltimore nodded his head back to the end of the block.
“What? No, no I didn’t. I stopped, and I’m sure I wasn’t going over the limit. I’m pretty careful about that.”
“Well, I’m gonna have to ask you to get out of your vehicle.”
“Why? I haven’t done anything wrong. If you’d like to write the ticket, please do.” Pen was now angry. She knew he was lying about the speed and the stop sign. She’d always been a cautious driver. Her best friend Dee was paralyzed years ago in a car accident. Dee was driving way too fast and lost control of her car. She’d wrapped the car around a telephone pole and her life had changed in an instant. She had become a quadriplegic at only seventeen.
Pen spent months sitting by her friend’s side. Dee’s head was anchored via a clamp screwed into the top of her skull; the top of her head was shaved. It made an impression on Pen, and ever since then she drove with a near obsessive fear of accidents. Dee had committed suicide two years after the accident, saving her meds and overdosing.
Officer Baltimore opened her car door and Pen had no choice but to exit her vehicle. Heat surged through her body with outrage. She didn’t want to be dragged out of it and she was sure that Baltimore was hoping to do just that. She saw something swim behind those azure eyes.
“Please face away and place your hands on the roof of your car.” His voice was deep and calm.
“Aren’t you supposed to call a female cop to do a pat down?” she asked, looking over her shoulder.
“Ma’am, are you refusing? Resisting?”
“No, I’m just asking about a woman police officer.” She was nervous now. This guy was scary and she knew it was bullshit. It would be his word against hers.
“Do you have anything on you that can hurt or stick me?” he asked.
“No.”
She felt his hands on her shoulders. One hand slid to the middle of her back, pinning her to the car while his other hand maneuvered down her body. At first, he was brisk, patting her hips and pockets and up and down her legs. He slowed when his hand came back up to her waist. His questing hand shifted around to the front of her body. He cupped her breast and squeezed and she experienced an odd mix of helpless rage, indignation, and fear. Her gaze swung over to the other officer in the patrol car and he was looking away, out the passenger’s side window. Her mouth thinned in disappointment and betrayal.
Baltimore smiled at her. “You can get back in your car now.”
Pen would normally smack the hell out of anyone who’d touched her so, but this guy had the law behind him. That and the evil thing that slithered behind his eyes. Pen knew something was wrong with him. Her body was shaking violently as she tried to get back in her car, and it wasn’t cooperating.
