People from various time periods in Arizona's history find themselves caught in a time bubble and have to find their way back home.
Set in the beautiful red rock country of Sedona, Arizona, the science fiction novel Time Hostages adds mystery and murder to extraordinary scientific events. Caught in a time experiment gone wrong, the diverse collection of characters in this novel arrived from different periods in Arizona's colorful history, all trying to survive and get back to their time. The cast of characters comes from ages that covers more than 600 years, from the late 21st Century to Anasazi natives who populated the area before Columbus discovered America. Follow the characters as they try and survive in a time period that none have every seen. A silent film actress from 1920 falls in love with an Army Captain from 1872. A conquistador from 1632 operates video equipment. A mountain man from 1824 fights a prehistoric cave bear. All they want to do is to just go home.
Excerpt
“This is Lisa Bordeaux, coming to you from the base of Bell Rock, on this cloudy July 26, 2012. Bell Rock is one of the locations in this area where some people believe that lines of magnetic flux on the Earth meet, forming energy vortexes. Other sites in Sedona include Cathedral Rock, ‘Airport Mesa’ and Boynton Canyon. Of the four, Bell Rock is by far the most popular.
“Tomorrow at this time, there will be hundreds of people sitting where I am now, meditating and praying for world peace. This will be happening at similar vortexes around the world in an event known as a ‘harmonic convergence’. The first such harmonic convergence happened back in 1987, then again in 1992 and 2002.”
Ken paused the digital recorder and turned to Lisa. “At this point, the station will edit in file footage of the ‘87, ’93 and ‘02 gathering, with your voice over, assuming they’ll still want the piece.” Her face flushed, as she glared at him. He flashed a big smile and started the camera again.
“Over one-hundred and forty-thousand people throughout the world participated in that first event, eleven-thousand of them here in the Sedona area. The 1992 and 2002 gatherings had similar numbers. With that many people visiting Sedona and the surrounding communities at once – almost doubling the population – they put a strain on the local resources. This year, officials only expect about a thousand people to participate because of apathy and the recent heavy rains.
“Among the people arriving here tomorrow will be many who believe that when visitors from other worlds came to Earth, they used these energy vortexes as a means of traveling along the surface of our planet. These alien visitors could move from one point to another, somewhat like the transporter in the television series, Star Trek. Whatever powers these ‘energy vortexes’ have – be it real or imaginary – many people will be here to take part in this year’s harmonic convergence.” At that moment, a strange looking mist began rolling up from the base of Bell Rock, quickly covering the view of the surrounding plains. In less than a minute, the thick, dense fog completely encircled Ken Cantrell and Lisa Bordeaux, forming a spherical bubble around them and their equipment.
“Ken, K . . . !” Bill hollered in Ken’s headset. “. . . signal . . . breaking . . . Adjust . . . angle . . . the . . . !”
“Repeat your message!” Ken pleaded, but only static filled his ears. “Say again, please!”
“Are we off the air?” asked Lisa.
“Looks like it.”
“And, where in the hell did all of this stupid fog come from?”
“Do I look like a meteorologist? Your guess is as good as mine. Besides, aren’t you supposed to have high humidity in order to get fog? Even with all the clouds, the humidity is low today.” Ken slid the headset down, resting it around his neck.
As quickly as the fog appeared, it vanished. The couple looked around, surprised at the strange turn of events.
“That was really odd,” remarked Lisa, after a minute of checking her surroundings. She noticed a lone lizard darting past a prickly pear cactus and under a small pine tree.
“That isn’t the only thing that’s odd around here,” Ken remarked while he checked the equipment. “The temperature feels much cooler, the few clouds that were in the sky are gone and it got awfully quiet all of a sudden.”
“Well, let’s not worry about it,” Lisa insisted. “I want to get back into town so we can eat.”
“Wait a minute. I want to check the link back to the station.”
“Hurry up, then. I haven’t eaten since . . .” Lisa stopped when she saw Ken furiously working the dials and switches.
“Billy? Are you there?” he hollered. “Come on, man, talk to me!”
“What’s wrong?”
Ken looked up. “Don’t know. I’m getting dead silence. There’s not even any static.”
“Could the moisture in the fog have shorted something out?”
“I doubt it. Not this equipment. It’ll work even in the rain forests of South America. I’m not even getting any feedback, now.” Puzzled, Ken removed the headset from his neck.
“Check the recording to see if you have my report,” insisted Lisa. “If they didn’t get it live, then maybe the station will run it later.”
Ken found the recording in camera’s files and hit the play button. They huddled around the monitor to see the results. Everything appeared fine. He stopped the playback. “Let’s get back to town. I can call Billy with my cell phone when I settle down.”
“Fine with me. I just want something to eat.” With Lisa’s help, Ken began packing the case and folding the tripod. When they finished, they started back down the side of Bell Rock, with Ken in the lead. He made sure they stayed on the designated trails.
“I’m not looking forward to staying in that lousy motel this evening,” remarked Lisa, stopping long enough to straighten out her hair. “Did you see how that fat slob at the front desk leered at me when we checked in and how he dripped lettuce all over the floor? Just thinking about his crooked yellow teeth makes me sick.”
“I saw him staring at you. He probably tried imagining how you would look without your clothes on, like the women in those porno magazines he had on the counter.”
“You noticed those magazines, too? How gross.”
“I can’t help it but notice things like that, Lisa. I’m a healthy, thirty-eight year-old man. Besides, they were sitting out in plain sight. If you weren’t so damn tall, you would have missed them.”
“Again with my height! You’re taller than me.”
“Just barely.”
Lisa grinned. “It didn’t bother you when we were going together.”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” Ken stepped over a small cactus. “However, I will agree with you on that motel. What a dump! Paint peeling off the walls. The bushes needed trimming. Even the ‘Welcome’ sign had missing letters.”
“The office was filthy. I tried not to lean up against anything.”
“I hope they don’t mess with the battery chargers I left in my room. We would be up shit-creek without them.”
“Our room, not your room.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot. No money for the crew and the talent from our station.”
“What do you expect? Our newscast is sixth in the ratings, right behind Entertainment Tonight. We’ll have to come up a couple of notches before the station will spend money on us.”
“If we can just land the ‘big story’, we’d be out of the cellar.”
As Ken reached the highway he stopped suddenly. “Where’s the damn car?”
Lisa stepped from behind him. “What!”
“It wasn’t illegally parked! People park here all the time!”
“Then someone must have stolen it.”
Ken stared at Lisa like he would at an insane person. “Come on! Who in their right mind would steal a subcompact piece of shit like that?”
“Someone on drugs, or kids wanting a joyride.”
“Wake up, Lisa! This isn’t L.A.! This is Sedona, Arizona, for Christ sakes!” Ken set down the cases and pulled out is cell phone. “Damn! No service.”
Lisa looked at her phone. “Me, too. That’s odd. Sedona has all kinds of cell service.”
“I guess I’ll just have to hitchhike into the Village of Oak Creek and report it to the police.”
“I suppose you want me to wait here with the stuff.”
“If you don’t mind.”
“You’re damn right I mind!” exclaimed Lisa. “I don’t like you making decisions for both of us!”
“Okay! Okay! You hitchhike into town, if you like. You’ll probably have an easier time getting a ride than I will anyway.”
Ken watched Lisa while sitting on the camera case, as she strutted across the highway to hitchhike. The Village of Oak Creek lay just on the other side of Bell Rock, in the opposite direction of Sedona.
Lisa stood and waited. Ten minutes went by and not one car came down the road from either direction.
“I don’t believe this,” Ken commented. “Never have I seen this road without cars, even late at night. You noticed how many were packed along here when we drove up?”
“Maybe there was an accident blocking traffic, or something.”
“In both directions at the same time? I kind of doubt it.”
“Then what’s your explanation, smart-ass?”
“I don’t have one right now, but I’m not going to just sit on my ‘smart-ass’ and wait for someone to come looking for me.” Ken stood up and began walking down the road toward the Village. “You watch the equipment, please. I’ll be back for you in a half hour or less. Trust me.”
“You better!”
----------
Ken walked along the edge of Highway 179 heading south to the Village of Oak Creek. “I don’t believe Lisa,” he muttered. “She always overreacts at every little thing. There has to be a reasonable explanation about the traffic.” He kicked a piece of red rock into the bushes. I wish she would forget about those weeks we were together. We had a steamy romance and great sex, but I could never talk to her. “She’s such a strange bitch.”
Ken continued walking. “Where is everyone? It’s so damn quiet.” He looked around. “This is silly.” He threw his arms up in the air. “Lisa is as silly as this harmonic convergence thing!” How in the hell did they find these lines of flux anyway? Did someone go around throwing iron filings on the ground looking for these things? She didn’t find that question very funny when I asked her that in the car.
“What did I ever see in her?” Ken whispered, “besides her beautiful hair, gorgeous eyes, luscious lips, great body and long shapely legs, what does she have going for her? We just can’t communicate, that’s the problem. She always has to be right.”
Ten minutes after leaving Lisa, Ken arrived near the edge of the Village of Oak Creek. He could not believe the lack of traffic on the streets or on Highway 179. Not one person, animal, or bird passed him the entire time. An eerie feeling came over him.
That feeling grew worse as Ken walked further into a town where four thousand people normally lived. Deserted cars sat on the streets, parked in garages or lined up in a fast-food drive-through. Stores appeared open, with their inventory intact and on display. Complete meals lay spread out on the tables of the Bell Rock Inn restaurant, but no people sat around enjoying them.
Walking past the Oak Creek Country Club, Ken saw golf carts, clubs still in their bags and balls on the course, but no golfers. No people, no pets, no life at all, as if some mysterious force had “sucked” them right off the planet. He continued walking until he found the town’s only police station.
Inside the typical small town police station, Ken discovered it was also void of life, just like the rest of the community. The interior reminded him a little of the jail on the old Andy Griffith Show, with the “Andy Taylor” desk off to one side, complete with papers, books, pencils and a phone, but no “Andy.” The “Barnie Fife” desk looked equally in use and equally abandoned. Two jail cells in the back appeared to have been recently occupied, yet he could not find an “Otis” inside sleeping it off.
They must be at “Goober’s” gas station getting a soda, thought Ken. “Damn. I watch too much Nickelodeon. Hello!” he hollered. “Is anyone home . . . anyone at all?” His voice echoed off the walls of the empty jail. What the hell happened around here? Did someone drop a neutron bomb and not tell me?
Ken picked up the nearest cell phone only to find no service. All the land line phones were dead, as well as the ones he tried earlier. Frustrated, he walked outside to see the sun sinking below the picturesque red rock cliffs. He needed to find transportation in a hurry so he could get back to Lisa before she became too worried.
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