Land of Nod, The Child (Land of Nod Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Land of Nod

  The Child

  Gary Hoover

  COPYRIGHT© 2014 Gary Hoover

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This is a work of fiction. Names (other than those used with permission), characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this manuscript may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or review.

  Special Thanks to:

  Jacqueline Hopkins

  Annarita Guarnieri

  Christy Rabe

  Cover Art by:

  David Ellis

  http://dbellis.daportfolio.com/

  Find out more about future books at:

  http://www.landofnodtrilogy.com/

  And

  http://www.facebook.com/landofnodtrilogy

  It seems that one of the most common misconceptions that lay-people have regarding science is that it deals in facts and certainties. In reality, by definition, no scientist can ever be certain of anything. Certainty is an element of faith, not science.

  -Dr. Jeffrey Browning Sr.

  Chapter 1:

  Jeff could smell the minerals in the soil as he leaned against the wall of the trench. His eyes were just above the edge, scanning the horizon.

  “See anything?” Major Abel asked.

  Jeff shook his head.

  He was frustrated with himself. He wasn’t sure if she was just asking or testing his skills, but he wished he had something more impressive to show her. Jeff was a shy nearly fifteen year-old, and Major Abel was an attractive female authority figure. His subconscious wanted to impress her.

  Jeff pulled a magnifying viewer from a pouch on his belt.

  Major Abel smirked slightly. “I was hoping you would amaze me with your super-vision.”

  After entering a strange portal in a search for his missing father, Jeff had found himself in a foreign world. Each day he spent there revealed new powers. Those powers should have been thrilling, but Jeff found that he wasn’t able to enjoy them the way he would have liked. He typically only experienced those powers when he was in desperate need of them in the dangerous world.

  At that moment, he was quite disappointed ‘super-vision’ didn’t yet seem to be one of his powers.

  Jeff scanned the edge of the woods a half-mile from where they stood.

  Damned if I can see anything.

  “Wait… ”

  Jeff focused on a figure, and Major Abel noticed it at the same time.

  “What the… ” Major Abel mumbled as she hastily removed her communicator from her belt. “Johnson!” she shouted. “What the hell are you doing!?”

  “Having some lunch,” the slightly garbled voice said through her communicator.

  “Are you aware we’ve had reports of pheerion scouts in the area?”

  “Oh, come on… that’s just talk isn’t it?”

  Abel’s face flushed, and Jeff became genuinely fearful of what she might do. He could see the muscles in her face tense as she ended the connection with a violent slam of the device.

  She was from Doclotnury, a city on the other side of the continent, and she was with Jeff in Caesurmia trying to help the city prepare for an anticipated invasion. As she had tried to carry out that task, it had been an exercise in frustration. She constantly butted heads with the Caesurmians who didn’t have military training or attitude.

  Through his viewer, Jeff could see Johnson waver and apparently consider if he should continue to the shady spot he had staked out for his lunch or head back to the breastworks to face his irate commander.

  Jeff went back to scanning the trees. A huge black bird, nearly as tall as Jeff, hopped at the edge of the forest. It tilted its head to one side then the other, paused for a few moments before spreading its wings and taking off with a grace that was surprising for such a large bird.

  Jeff saw some movement deeper in the trees. The vegetation obstructed the light and made it difficult for him to determine what he saw. He focused on the area and waited to see if he could make anything out. Come on. Focus… he told himself in an effort to extract some powers of improved vision.

  He saw additional movement and was better able to see the source. Pheerions! His heart felt like it was rolling over in his chest as he watched the lizard-like warriors creep through the trees.

  “Pheerions!” he said aloud, and Abel’s head snapped toward him.

  She fumbled for her own magnifying viewer as Jeff swept his back toward Johnson who was blissfully unaware that enemy troops were less than 500 feet from him.

  Jeff’s mind raced. They had suspected that there might be a small pheerion scouting team nearby. They weren’t concerned that the force would be an immediate threat, but they wanted to identify the scouts and keep their eyes on them if they could. Johnson’s excursion complicated things greatly. Johnson was close enough to the pheerions while far enough away from his own people that he became an easy target. They could grab him and get away before Abel’s troops would be able do anything about it.

  “Code fourteen! Code fourteen!” Abel shouted into her communication device, and her words echoed from speakers dispersed throughout the fortification.

  Troops scrambled for guns and helmets, but Jeff realized they were terribly unprepared to respond swiftly and decisively.

  Without taking any more time to think about it, he scrambled forward, up and over the edge of the trench. His feet slid in the loose dirt, and he needed to keep his legs moving to prevent sliding back as he headed toward his ‘jump-scoot’, a flying motorcycle, which he had parked at the edge of the trench.

  He threw his leg over the vehicle and fumbled with the controls. He was getting more familiar with it but still had to pause to remember the starting sequence. As the jump-scoot lifted off, Jeff actually started to think through the situation for the first time since he had jumped into action.

  What am I doing? I don’t even know how many of them there are. But I’m the only one who can get there quickly enough. And this is what I’m supposed to be doing… right?

  As he picked up speed, he thought about their weapons. I’ve been able absorb the energy bolts from the high-tech weapons with my baseball bat, but they use guns that are more like muskets. I’m afraid I won’t be able to absorb those with anything other than my flesh and vital organs.

  He quickly closed the distance and could see at least six pheerions. They were within 200 feet of Johnson, but they turned their attention to Jeff who was a quarter-mile away and closing fast.

  Jeff saw a flash then heard the sound of the shot a second later. He cringed, but the pheerion had shot far too early. There was no danger of impact.

  The other pheerions took defensive stances as the one that had fired worked to reload. Jeff had no real plan, but he hoped one of his newfound powers would be helpful. Several days prior, he had discovered that if he moved very fast, other people actually seemed to slow down. His friends, who had observed him, saw him moving four times quicker than a normal person could, but he just saw the world slowing to one-quarter speed.

  ‘When you’re fighting pheerions, you need to keep some distance.’ Jeff could hear Abel’s voice in his head. ‘Our weapons are more accurate than theirs, and if you get caught in hand-to-hand combat, they’ll tear you apart.’

  But Jeff wasn’t sure if her advice applied to his situation. What if I’m in
the open and they’re partly shielded by trees? And what if I’m outnumbered six to one?

  Jeff decided to charge right at them. He hoped they might scatter as he approached, but they stood their ground and took aim – waiting for him to slow down enough for them to have a clear shot.

  Guess I better not slow down.

  Jeff tensed and squinted involuntarily as he brought the jump-scoot to within a foot of the ground and twisted it sideways. It impacted with the ground, bounced and skidded until it was at a near stop. Jeff’s bones felt like they were rattling around beneath his flesh as he held on through the crash landing.

  As soon as his jump-scoot stopped, Jeff jumped off and took two steps before he stumbled and fell flat on his face.

  Crap!

  He didn’t have the luxury of time to pause, so he pushed himself up clumsily and shakily. He tried to move as quickly as possible, not just for the obvious reason, but he believed if he could move quickly enough, the rest of the world would slow to one-quarter speed. As he jumped to his feet, a pheerion fired, and Jeff could actually see the musket ball move toward him. While it seemed to be move at one-quarter normal speed, it was still moving extremely fast. Jeff had no chance of dodging it, but the pheerion had aimed at where Jeff had been lying on the ground a moment before. The dirt exploded inches from his left foot.

  The nearest pheerion was fifty feet away and aiming his musket at Jeff’s chest. Jeff jumped quickly to his right as the powder flashed. He saw the blur of the ball as it exited the barrel and headed toward him. He felt it tug and tear through a fold of his shirt as it passed harmlessly – travelling slower than it should but still going several hundred miles per hour.

  Jeff charged directly at the closest pheerion, and as he ran, he saw his opponent, in slow motion, drop his musket and draw his sword. Jeff pulled his baseball bat from his belt with his right hand and lifted it over his shoulder. The pheerion took a ready stance as he waited for Jeff to arrive. To Jeff, it just felt like a normal sprint, but he knew the pheerion would see him approaching very quickly. When he was five feet away, he slowed his run and put his left hand on the bat so he had a firm, two-handed grip. As long as any part of him was moving quickly, the time warp seemed to hold. He came to a stop directly in front of the pheerion who swung his sword in a slashing motion toward Jeff’s head. Jeff brought his bat forward and easily intercepted the blade, which snapped in half.

  Jeff pulled the bat back and hit the pheerion in the chest with the back-swing. It felt like an awkward, off-balance movement to Jeff, but the impact was solid. The pheerion winced in pain before falling back and hitting the ground a comfortable distance from Jeff.

  Jeff turned his attention to the other five who were at various stages of aiming their muskets. He pivoted on his foot and momentarily exposed his back to them, but it was an instinctive move to swing his body from the spot it had been. He pushed off to put even greater distance between himself and his previous position as he heard two weapons fire in quick succession.

  Jeff had pushed too hard, and he tripped and stumbled on the uneven ground. He cringed as he lost balance and began to fall face-first. He managed to get his arms out to break his fall, but his grip on the bat prevented him from doing it smoothly. Pain shot through his body as his chest and face slammed into the ground.

  He did his best to shake it off and push himself up. He was back on his feet quickly. He could see three more muskets aimed at him. The two who had just fired worked to reload. He sidestepped quickly to his left as another musket fired. Jeff wanted to close the distance but didn’t want to run directly at them. He was afraid a straight path would make him too easy a target. He closed the distance while running to the side and looping around them. The result was a narrowing spiral.

  The final two muskets fired, and a few moments later, he was within striking distance – coming from what had been the pheerion’s rear. The one closest to him raised his musket to use it as a club. As he brought it down, Jeff swung his bat at the pheerion’s ribs. The bat contacted flesh that twisted and folded around it. Jeff heard the snapping of ribs. Without pausing, he swung up toward the pheerion’s forearms. The bones fractured and bent around the bat as the pheerion howled in pain and dropped the musket. Jeff was able to swat the slowly falling musket away with his left hand before it hit his head, and then he drove his shoulder into the pheerion’s chest. The pheerion stumbled backward in slow motion with a look of shock and pain etched on his face.

  The other four dropped their muskets and drew their swords. Jeff cocked his bat and charged. As he swung toward his nearest opponent, the pheerion raised his sword in a futile attempt to block. The bat hit the sword but didn’t slow as it pushed the sword back and caved in the pheerion’s skull. The other pheerions turned to run away in hasty retreat as Jeff watched the body fall in slow motion. When it was nearly at the ground, it went faster and faster until impact.

  Jeff stood silently and looked at the blood on his bat.

  Chapter 2:

  The two injured pheerions writhed and moaned on the ground.

  The dead one didn’t.

  Jeff couldn’t see the ones who had retreated. The trees were dense, and by the time they were ten feet into the forest, they were no longer visible. He looked over his shoulder and saw Johnson, with weapon drawn, tentatively walking toward him with an expression that mixed apprehension with confusion.

  Several small, open military vehicles, each containing four or five soldiers, approached from the direction of the fortified line. Two set down near Jeff and the others roared past without slowing and entered the forest in pursuit of the retreating pheerions.

  “Are you okay?” Major Abel asked as she jumped off a vehicle that was slowing but hadn’t stopped.

  Jeff didn’t respond but just stood and stared.

  “Hey! What’s wrong?” she asked forcefully while grabbing his shoulders.

  “I… I… I think I killed him.”

  Abel looked over her shoulder then back at Jeff with a puzzled expression. “It’s just a pheerion.”

  Jeff had a friend, General Rasp, who was a pheerion. While Jeff had initially been frightened of him, he grew to have a great respect for the pheerion general.

  Jeff tried to shake off the feeling as several other soldiers joined them.

  “That was AMAZING!” a tall, thin red-haired soldier said as he pounded Jeff on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, nice job,” Abel said with a rare smile. “With your help, we may be able to win this this thing.”

  “Well… uhhh… ” Jeff didn’t know if he’d be around for the real battle that was coming, but he didn’t feel it was the time or place to have that conversation.

  In a previous battle, the pheerions had been nearly invincible because they had a locket that had belonged to Jeff’s father. With Rasp’s help, Jeff had retrieved the locket and was wearing it on a chain around his neck. He was concerned that a similar locket was in unfriendly hands and could be on its way to the pheerion homeland… if it isn’t already there. Jeff needed to do everything within his power to prevent that locket from reaching the pheerions. Additionally, he had reason to believe his father, for whom Jeff had been searching since he came to the strange world, might be with the pheerions.

  He was still trying to obtain key pieces of information and finish preparations for the journey, but he suspected he would be on the other side of the planet while Abel and the others battled the pheerions.

  “I’ll try to do everything I can to help,” he replied simply.

  Chapter 3:

  Jeff paused in front of the run-down warehouse. The building appeared out of place among much more modern and better-maintained buildings.

  He looked at the huge sliding door. The odd assortment of characters he had fallen in with often seemed to fight over trivial things, and the moods shifted from tense to jovial and back again – often without discernible reason. I wonder what it will be tonight.

  Jeff wrapped his hand around the s
turdy handle of the sliding metal door. He leaned, pulled, and the heavy door moved very slowly until it gained some momentum. It squeaked on its rusty rollers, and when the opening was wide enough, Jeff had to pull in the other direction to keep it from opening too far. He stepped through, pulled the door closed behind him and allowed his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit warehouse.

  No shouting. That may be a good sign, Jeff thought.

  “What happened to you?” Dave asked as he hopped off a stepladder. Dave stretched his arms up over his head and swayed, trying to loosen stiff muscles. His belly popped out of the space between his shirt and pants. Jeff found himself both repulsed and mesmerized by the large, pale, hairy, doughy mass. “You look like plooch.”

  Jeff shrugged. He didn’t really want to get into it. He scanned the warehouse and saw General Rasp quietly working in a far corner. “I was just helping Major Abel set up the fortifications,” Jeff said.

  “Here, let me show you what we’ve got so far.” Dave gestured enthusiastically. He wasn’t typically an excitable or giddy person, but he seemed to be enjoying the project.

  Jeff joined him at the side of the ship. It resembled a relatively small cabin cruiser, but the lines were more rounded than those of the boats Jeff had seen at the Jersey shore. The hull was shallow and had a flat bottom. There were skid-plates on the bottom, and the boat rested without the braces that would have been required to hold up a boat with a tapered boat-hull.

  Dave climbed back up the stepladder, hefted himself over the edge into the boat and gestured for Jeff to follow.

  Jeff climbed aboard and could see dramatic changes since his last tour. Most notable was a large bank of batteries that were exposed at that moment, though Jeff knew they would be tightly sealed before they departed.