Redemption

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

I exhaled slowly seeing the white steam get caught up in the wind and blow away from me. Snow blanketed the ground, fresh from overnight, changing the bleak winter landscape into a faerie land. The sun had not risen yet, and a moon still hung high in the sky, rushing off on its way while a pink and orange glow to the east announced the sun’s imminent arrival.

The fresh deer tracks in the snow before me and a small pile of droppings marked the spot that the buck had rested for a moment. I knew I was close. I could sense him near me, ahead in the sparse gathering of tall trees that resembled giant skeletons that wore a coat of white. Their leaves had long blown away by the rough winter.

I stopped and crouched down behind a large fallen tree. The buck’s hooves clacked against the rocks of the river’s embankment, and now I knew where he headed for certain.

Movement to my right caught my attention, and I glanced over to see Jeremiah pointing in the same direction. He already had his rifle out, but I kept mine slung on my back. I preferred to wait until I was closer to an animal before I shot it. We needed to eat to survive, and hunting, for my part, simply meant food for the table. I took no joy in it.

With impressive precision, Jeremiah moved forward, timing his footfalls with the buck’s walking on the riverbed’s stones. I followed but chose to head off more to the east to be ready to overshoot him if Jeremiah spooked the deer and he ran off. I plunged my hands deep into the pockets of my heavy coat to stay warm. Even with gloves, the biting temperature nipped at me, and when I bent my fingers, pins and needles shot through them.

I loved the cold, but to a point. American winters were harsher than any I had ever seen.

Jeremiah reached the top of the embankment, slowed his pace, and lay flat on his belly. With his rifle out, he looked down at the riverbed. The wind picked up a bit and whipped my scarf across my face, blowing some light snow into my eyes. I could not see for a few moments and repositioned my scarf to protect my face.

Phoebe had made the scarf for me. Its dark purple and pink pattern pleased me. I did not often like such flashy colors, but the scarf complemented my eyes and hair well.

I trudged forward in the snow and went far enough along so that when I came back to the embankment the buck was drinking from the river. Jeremiah remained still and I slowed my walk, searching for a spot to climb down to the riverbed. To my right, a slope with a fallen tree made a perfect path for me to climb down and remain unseen. At the bottom, I held back in order to not walk on the stones and give away my position. If the buck heard me, then he would charge off in the opposite direction and give Jeremiah little time react. The more effective plan would be for Jeremiah to chase the buck in my direction. Unable to cross the wide river, the deer would run to me, and I would take care of the rest. Dragging him home would be hard, but we brought the sled, our knives, and lots of rope.

The buck glanced in my direction, but he could not see me crouched as I was behind the fallen tree. A tiny break in the tree allowed me to peek through and see him, but unless he knew exactly where to look, I could not be found.

From my vantage point, I could see Jeremiah move into position. He crouched low and climbed down the embankment, timing his steps with care. Hiding behind trees and rocks, he reached the riverbed and waved at me. I did not signal back, knowing the buck would see me, but unslung my rifle and prepared to shoot.

Knowing Jeremiah, he would give me a full minute to get into position, not because I needed the time, but out of respect. He liked to be methodical about his hunting, and precision to him was everything.

A sparrow flew across the river, and I watched it land on a branch close to me. The tiny bird settled and stared out at the buck, ready for what came next.

I had lost count how many times Jeremiah and I had hunted, but we made a good team though he tended to be a bit too precise for my taste. My impatience often bucked up against his measured approach. Yet maybe that was why we worked so well together.

I took a deep breath, held it, and waited. If Jeremiah missed, which he hardly ever did, then the buck would charge toward me, and I would have my shot at it.

Jeremiah creeped out from his spot, balancing his rifle, and aimed. His rifle stayed steady, and I counted down. It would only be moments now until he fired. The gunshot would echo across the riverbank, the sparrow next to me would fly away in fear, and the buck would fall onto its side.

Jeremiah’s rifle stayed still, and suddenly he fell backward, as though pulled by something, and his rifle went high with his shot launching into the sky. I heard him cry out in surprise, and without a second thought, I rushed toward him.

***

The ground opened up, and without a sound, Jeremiah fell through the ground. He called for help and reached for a branch above him, but his hands grasped empty air. Fear coursed through him, and he expected a long fall into a hidden crevice. He feared hitting the rocks below, breaking his legs, or even losing his life.

Instead, he touched the smooth surface of a man-made floor, but the material was not wood and too smooth to be naturally occurring outside in the middle of the woods. A blue light, only a pinpoint at first, emanated from a small tunnel to his right. He lay on his stomach but quickly pulled himself to his feet, the light growing stronger all the time, expelling the darkness around him.

“Jeremiah, can you hear me?” Phoebe’s words echoed in the chamber around him. The light grew, and as he watched, smoke whooshed past him, and he reached out, trying to touch the ceiling, but he could not.

“Where are we?” His voice fluctuated, reverberating off the walls around him, changing intensity and pitch. He swayed a bit as he reached for the walls as they quickly moved past him.

“I don’t have much time and need to be brief.” She appeared within a sudden beam of light in front of him.

She looked much older than when he had seen her last night when she went to bed, and her appearance caught him off guard. He reached out to touch her hair, longer that he had ever seen it. “What happened to you?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine.” A shimmer of light swirled around them, and a cold breeze blew past his face. Phoebe grabbed his hands and held them, squeezing them lightly. “I call back to you because I need your help. You must go back and…”

The connection broke between them, and the room vanished. Jeremiah held his rifle in his hand and had slipped off the rock he had balanced on and fell to the snowy ground. Ahead of him, Cinderella rushed at him, calling out his name. He shook his head and started to speak, but the world dimmed and vanished.

He stood with Phoebe again, and she swayed in the wind, grasping his hands tight. “I cannot stay here for much longer. You’re too far away.” Her face grimaced, and she squeezed his hands as hard as she could. “Please, you must help Napoleon escape. He must be set free.”

“But why?” Jeremiah took the next curve of motion that rocked him to the right, and he hung on to her to help him from falling over. “He tried to kill you.”

“Something worse is coming. A creation from men that has no conscience and is out to destroy everyone.” Phoebe looked back over her shoulder, and her look of fear could not be hidden. “Napoleon must escape. Let him try to retake Europe. But then you must find Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and use his camera obscura. It’ll help you.”

“Where are you?” Jeremiah tried to pull her closer to him but could not. She stayed frozen in place. “Your mother and I will come rescue you. Together, we can help you.”

Shaking her head, Phoebe leaned as close to his face as she dared. “Promise me.” She squeezed his hands harder. “Promise me that you will not tell my mother that I came to talk to you. Everything depends on it. Everything!”

Jeremiah caught a glimpse of a shimmering metallic sphere behind Phoebe, and she let go of his left hand. She clenched her fist, and a pulse of light encircled her arm, and a beam of light fired out at the sphere. It burst into flame, and he heard a crash as it hit something solid. “What is that?”

Phoebe turned back. “I must leave. They found us.” She released his hands and put them together in prayer. “Jeremiah, please, all depends on it. If my mother knows that I’m in the future, she will try to follow me, but she needs to be where you are. The timeline will be broken if she knows. All depends on rescuing Napoleon. Everything!”

A blue pulse shot out from behind her, and the bolt hit the wall hard. Sparks flew and a high-pitched sound echoed throughout the room. “Phoebe, wait. I need to know more. I can’t just lie to your mother. She’ll know!”

“You know her. If she knows, she’ll be reckless. Please, trust me.” She turned away. “Trust me.”

Phoebe vanished from sight, and a wall of sound hit Jeremiah hard. The winter wind rushed through him, displacing air from his lungs, and the light of the rising sun all came toward him. He gasped and his heart beat fast as he searched for a familiar sight to ground himself in what had happened to him. The world swirled, like a wooden top, tumbling to the left and then the right. He closed his eyes, but that only made his disorientation worse.

Jeremiah clutched at the snow on the ground and tried to stop the spinning in his head, but the intensity only increased. A bird called out to the rising sun, the snow, cold to the touch, numbed his right cheek, and without warning, his world went black.

***

I ran past the buck with my rifle slung on my back. I knew enough to stay far away from the buck so that it would not turn on me and attack. I searched for Jeremiah and watched as he fell behind a large tree.

“Jeremiah!” I yelled as loud as I could. His name echoed in the cold morning air from the tree to the small embankment wall.

No one replied.

I came to the fallen tree where he had fallen and cleared it with ease, searching for a few seconds for him. To my right, I found him. He had slipped off a rock and hit the ground hard. The right side of his face was planted in a mound of snow. His eyes fluttered and he moaned, but I could not tell if it was from pain or something else.

“Speak to me.” I slid into the snow by him. Gently I turned him over onto his back and put my hands on his cold cheeks. “Are you hurt?”

His eyes opened and his pupils dilated from small to large black circles. “It’s you.” He smiled and reached up to touch my face.

Two of the knuckles on his right hand were raw and bloody. “Focus on me.” I sat him up and he worked with me.

He leaned against the rock next to him, and he noticed the blood on his right hand. “Ouch. That stings.”

“What is your name?” I asked, trying to gauge if he had hit his head.

“My name is Jeremiah.” He flexed his fingers and grimaced in pain.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” I held my hand in front of him and waited.

“Four.” He closed his eyes and took a slow breath in, held it, and then exhaled.

“How about now?” I put my right hand up beside my left.

“I see six.” Jeremiah blinked rapidly a few times and then let out a sigh. “Wow.”

“Are you dizzy or seeing double?” I checked his eyes still to see if he was tracking with me.

He kept eye contact with me and put both his hands on mine. “I’m okay. I just had the wind knocked out of me and hit the end of the rock hard.”

I pulled away from him and checked out the rest of him, paying most attention to his boots and the back of his legs. But nothing appeared unusual. “From my vantage point, it looked like you were pulled down to the ground. Almost as though you had fallen through a hole.”