The Deadly Past (7 page)

Ann Templeton stood. “That's the riddle. But don't worry, you will figure it out, with the help of your friends. You always do.”

Adam also stood. “But how can I get to them in time to help save them?”

She threw her head back and laughed. “So many questions? Very well, Adam, at least you ask me politely. I will give you a little more information. A few more secrets.” Bidding him to come close, she leaned over and touched his wounded shoulder. “But first you must be made whole if you are going to be a hero.”

Her fingers covered his wound for a few seconds.

Adam felt a delicious warmth spread through his whole body.

Then she removed her hand and his injury was healed!

He gasped “How did you do that?”

“That is one secret I can't tell you today.” Then she lowered her head more and whispered in his ear. “But there are others secrets you may know, Adam. I will tell you how to open the Secret Path without having to walk all over town. How to use it so that you can travel in time. Even back as far as seventy million years.”

A
dam materialized into a hot dark cave. Off to his right he saw a faint red glow and walked carefully toward it. He didn't have far to go before he came to a wide underground chamber lit with bubbling pools of lava. In the center of the chamber was a group of four fat-headed aliens standing around a desk-size metal box. They seemed to have finished working and appeared to be in the midst of congratulating one another on a job well done.

Behind them, chained to the far wall, Adam saw his friends and Bryce Poole.

Adam wasn't ready yet to accept Bryce as a true friend.

Even though Ann Templeton had told him that Cindy was alive, Adam was nevertheless relieved to see her with his own eyes. But he was not happy that the fat-headed aliens had captured his friends. He figured these must be the bad aliens, and knew he had to move with caution. If he had any doubts about the latter, he had only to look at the floor in front of him where the bodies of the other aliens lay sprawled in a pile.

Curiously enough the dead aliens still had their laser pistols in their holsters. Of course the bad aliens probably figured they didn't need to disarm corpses. Also, the bad aliens probably believed they had rounded up all the intruding humans. Adam smiled to himself at their oversight. None of the fat heads were looking his way, so he had only to reach out. In moments he had a laser pistol in his hand.

“How do I put this thing on Stun?” Adam whispered to himself. There were clearly three settings, but he couldn't tell the Kill setting from
the Blow Up Everything setting. It was not as though he wanted to kill the ugly aliens. He simply wanted to free his friends and save Spooksville. But not only did he not know how to use the laser pistol, he didn't know how to save his friends without the aliens seeing him.

Then Adam realized that the three caves that entered the chamber must be interconnected. He decided to walk back the way he had come to see if he could swing around the aliens and come at them from the far side. Even though his friends were chained to the far wall, they were close to the largest of the cave openings.

Adam's, insight proved accurate. Ten minutes later he was creeping up on the chamber from the other side. The aliens were still gathered around the big metal box, chatting in scratchy voices that sounded like CD's being played with sandpaper. His friends were only a few feet away. But there was no way Adam was emerging from the safe shadows of the cave to talk to them. He listened for a moment before speaking, and was pleased to hear Sally complaining to Bryce.

“How could you think these fat heads were here to save us from the dinosaurs?” she said.

“It seemed a logical assumption at the time,” Bryce said.

“Yeah. It was logical right up until they chained us to these rocks,” Sally said.

“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty,” Bryce said.

“And common sense is usually right most of the time,” Sally snapped. “I tell you, if an alien is ugly he is probably evil.”

“If only Adam was here,” Cindy said with a sigh, “he would save us.”

“Adam was afraid to come here,” Bryce said.

“I don't believe that,” Watch said. “Adam's not afraid of anything.”

“I wouldn't go that far,” Adam whispered.

They jumped at his words, but were wise enough to keep their voices down. Watch leaned over from where he was chained to the wall and peered into the dark cave.

“Is that you, Adam?” he whispered.

“Yes. I'm here. But try not to look my way.”

Watch straightened up quickly. “You're right.”

“We're saved,” Sally gushed quietly.

“I knew Adam would come,” Cindy said.

“He hasn't saved us yet,” Bryce muttered.

“I have a hand laser,” Adam whispered. “I took it from those dead aliens over there. But I'm not sure how to use the thing.”

“I think you just have to aim and fire,” Watch said.

“I don't want to have to kill the fat heads,” Adam explained. “I don't know how to set the laser for Stun.”

“Just kill them,” Sally hissed. “They're trying to kill us.”

“Whatever setting the gun was on when you took it,” Watch said, “that setting probably kills. When the others were attacked, they were not just trying to stun the fat heads.”

“But there are two more settings,” Adam whispered.

“You'll just have to guess which one is Stun,” Watch said.

“But whatever you do,” Bryce added, “when you fire at them be careful not to hit the metal box. We're all convinced it's a bomb of some type.”

“Adam knows that,” Sally said. “He's not stupid.”

Bryce was annoyed at her. “You know, Sally, you're a fair-weather friend. I make one little mistake and you jump all over me.”

“Join the club,” Watch muttered.

“I'm going to open fire now,” Adam said, changing the setting on the laser and taking aim. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, Adam,” Bryce said.

“So Bryce likes Adam now that Adam is saving his life,” Sally muttered.

“Quiet,” Watch snapped. “Let him concentrate.”

Adam found it difficult to focus. The aliens were all so close to the metal box. He didn't see how he could shoot them without hitting it. Also, he continued to worry that he was about to kill the aliens, whether they were evil or not, and without fair warning. Yet in the end, he had to push all that aside. He had come here to do a job and he had to succeed. Too many people were depending on him. Bracing his shooting arm on a rock protruding from the cave wall, he managed to steady his aim.

Adam squeezed the trigger.

A bolt of red light hit the tallest alien and it crumbled to the floor.

Adam didn't know if the creature was dead or merely unconscious.

But he kept on shooting.

Two more blasts and two more aliens went down.

But the last of the fat heads had managed to draw its weapon and get off a shot. Adam saw a burst of red light and then the wall beside him exploded in a shower of burning sparks. He was knocked to the side, onto the floor, and the laser pistol flew from his grasp.

“Adam!” his friends screamed.

Adam was stunned but still awake. He scrambled for his laser in the dark of the cave as six laser blasts soared over his head. It was good that he had been knocked down or else he would be dead already. But he still had the advantage because he didn't think the alien could see him. Adam would need only one good shot to finish off the bad guys.

Adam's hand bumped against the laser.

He raised it while still lying on the floor of the cave, propping his right arm up with his left palm, sighting along the barrel. For a moment the alien paused, perhaps thinking Adam was finished. It was in that moment that Adam shot it, a clean hit to the chest.

The alien went down.

“Adam!” his friends cheered.

Adam jumped up and ran into the chamber.
The chains the aliens had used to secure his friends were long. Adam told them all to stand back while he fired at the point where the metal met the stone. In less than a minute they were all free; the handcuffs broke open as the chains shattered. Naturally, Adam freed Bryce last, but the guy didn't seem to mind.

When they were finished hugging and congratulating one another on being alive, they still had the problem of the metal box. What were they supposed to do with it?

“I still think it is a bomb set to trigger the volcano and cause the time warp,” Bryce said.

Watch studied the control panel. It appeared dead.

“But you are then implying that these evil aliens came here to stop it from exploding,” Watch said. “Because it sure looks like they turned it off.”

Bryce hesitated. “That must be the case.”

Sally shook her head. “I don't think these fat heads came here for anybody's benefit but their own.”

“What should we do?” Cindy asked anxiously. “Sally says people are dying right now in Spooksville.”

“No,” Watch corrected. “They are dying seventy million years in the future in Spooksville.”

“It's the same difference to them,” Sally quipped.

“I say we just leave,” Bryce said. “I think everything will be all right.”

“No,” Adam said softly, but with confidence.

He remembered what Ann Templeton had told him.

The riddle. The bad aliens would not deliberately do something to open the time warp. Yet they would open it nevertheless. The solution was obvious.

“This is a bomb,” Adam continued. “But it is a bomb that halts the full eruption of the volcano. It was never designed to trigger it. The first group of aliens came here to
prevent
the time warp. And yet, it was
destined
to happen. The bad aliens did not really cause the dinosaurs to invade Spooksville.”

“What does
destined
mean?” Cindy asked.

“It was meant to happen,” Sally explained. “Can that be true?”

“Yes,” Adam said. “But in another sense the bad aliens did cause the time warp because they
stopped the good aliens from completing then-task. Now what I think we have to do is restart this bomb.”

“But how would a bomb halt the eruption?” Bryce asked.

“It could cause this volcanic cone to cave in on itself,” Watch said. “Or else it could blow a hole in the side of the cone and allow it to vent its pressure over time, instead of in one huge explosion.”

Bryce nodded. “That's logical. But it doesn't mean it's necessarily true.”

“I feel it's true,” Adam said. “And I am willing to trust that feeling.”

“And I'm willing to trust Adam,” Sally said defiantly.

Bryce was not positive. “All right, let's assume Adam is correct. How do we turn this bomb back on?”

Watch shook his head as he studied the control panel. “It could take us a year to figure out these buttons. I'm afraid to push any of them. The wrong one might set the bomb off in our faces.”

“Then it's hopeless,” Cindy said. “We should get out of here while we can.”

“It's never hopeless,” Adam said, and his eyes strayed to the corner where the good aliens had been piled up. Maybe they were all only stunned, he wasn't sure. Adam only knew that one of them had begun to stir.

T
hey ran to the handsome alien as he blinked and tried to get up. Adam and Watch helped him into a sitting position and for a few moments it seemed he didn't know where he was. He put a hand to his head and grimaced in pain. But the spasm seemed to pass and then he smiled and nodded.

“Do you speak English?” Adam asked.

The man shook his head.

“But you understand a little?” Watch said.

The man held up a finger and thumb, holding them slightly apart.

He understood very little.

Adam pointed to the metal box. “Can you make that work?”

The man nodded and tried to get up. But he needed their help to stay on his feet. The bad aliens' guns—even set to stun—must have been pretty powerful. Adam hoped the bad aliens that lay sprawled across the floor were not dead. He also hoped they didn't wake up any time soon.

They helped the alien over to the metal box. There Cindy pointed to her chest and said, “Cindy.” Then she gestured to the alien, and he in turn pointed to himself.

“Traelle,” he said.

“Traelle,” Cindy repeated. She then completed the introductions. “This is Adam, Watch, Sally, and Bryce. We are pleased to meet you, Traelle.”

“And we hope you are not preparing to destroy our world,” Sally added.

“Sally!” Cindy snapped. “That's rude.”

“How can you talk about being rude to an alien?” Sally asked. “On his planet spitting in someone's face might be the height of etiquette.”

“Please don't spit in his face,” Bryce muttered.

“I was just going to say that,” Watch said.

“Traelle,” Adam said, tapping the metal box on the top. “Will this get rid of the dinosaurs from our time?”

Traelle just stared at him.

“Dinosaurs,” Sally said, and made a loud growling sound.

Traelle first nodded, made the same growling sound—although not as well as Sally, who seemed a natural when it came to growls—and then shook his head. Adam spoke to the others.

“I think he is saying that he understands what dinosaurs are,” Adam said. “And that with the metal box there will be no more dinosaurs in our time.”

“Or maybe no more on the earth,” Bryce said darkly. “It is remotely possible this bomb is designed to blow up the whole planet.”

“That's one way of solving our problem,” Watch observed.

“Why do you always have to look on the gloomy side of things?” Sally asked Bryce.

“That's the kettle calling the pot black,” Cindy remarked.