May You Live in Interesting Times

Chapter 8

CHAPTER 31
My safety training was kicking in, and I knew in the back of my mind that I was already firing off target acquisition glances, seeking the right place to hit first, who to attack as a priority, but the rational part of me was folding quickly in fear and certainty. I was dead.

I rose from the block I was sitting on. The pub was too far away, and there were no lights in the Norwegian church. The four huge men were too well-spaced to allow me to have any chance of making a run for it, and I had no kit with me. Dead.

Can reality be projected from one mind to another through a common household appliance?

CHAPTER 30
No, life didn’t slip into slow motion, I didn’t clock the number of the bike, and Paul didn’t dive across the pavement shouting “NOOOOOOOOOO!”

They rode past, something went flash-bang, Rhod woke up with a shout, and Paula spun off her feet with a grunt. Nothing dramatic, no cinematic clichés; just a woman on some concrete flags in a spreading pool of blood, I had an immediate thought, and it was stupid, and it was “How useless am I?”

The plague drew Raben out of his avoidance of public life. As an Ianuarian he could not sit by allowing people to die. For the next several years he traveled from outbreak to outbreak treating the ill. Unfortunately the plague was smallpox, a respiratory virus with an incubation period of twelve days and lasting two weeks. Thirty percent of those contracting the disease died, another fifteen to twenty percent, dehydrated or starved to death. Even with Raben’s skills he couldn’t stop or prevent the disease. The best that could be achieved was seeing the ill were nursed which helped save those who would have died by dehydration or starvation. He did recommend the wearing of a cloth mask to cut down on caregivers catching the disease.

I helped out with some of the dismantling of the rides and other items for about two hours before Dad told me to go to bed. Allison and I both grumbled about wanting to continue in helping them take everything down, but Dad said we needed to be on the road fairly early.

We argued about it for a few minutes, but the end result was more grumbling as Allison and I wandered off to our separate beds.

Author's Note: This is a sequel to my Non-TG Novel, Missing Without A Trace: A Kelly Mitchell Mystery by Charles Schiman.
This is also a non-tg novel. However, I am a male writing the novel first-person as a female. And I created Kelly as the female person I thought I could have become--my alter ego, if you will--had I been born a girl.

The first novel, Missing Without A Trace: A Kelly Mitchell Mystery, is available for purchase online as a Nook Book at the Barnes and Noble Nook Store.

Flight Lieutenant Second Class Jason Cole is the fifth generation in a long line of military family members and the third of the current generation. Unlike his older brother and sister Jason cannot be fitted with a bio-A.I. This one fact will led him on the greatest adventure of his young life.

Time on My Hands
Chapter 25: 240-250 CE: Relocating Zamrab

Three days later Fenea had cleared up her affairs. They stocked the wagon, bought the animals, and set out following the coast with a days rest at each city/town. The family took turns walking behind the wagon to stay in shape. It took five days on the road to Gibraltar, four days to Malaga, three days to Motril, three days to Almeria, three days to Garrucha, four days to Cartagena, three days to Alicanta, three days to Xabia, three days to Valencia, five days to Sant Carles de la Rapita, six days to Barcelona, and five days to Rosa, the last stop in Iberia, arriving on February 5, 240. Each night they set up camp utilizing an enlarged canvas lean-to. They all learned just how light a sleeper Raben was whenever one of them stirred during the night.

CHAPTER 29
Routine settled back onto my life like a slightly damp raincoat. Warm, comfortable, but still a little irritating round the edges. I moved Rhod from a cot-style seat to an upright one, but, memories and nightmares tugging at me, I made bloody sure the thing was securely attached. Not in the front, either; I had read enough reports of what happened to a child seat when the passenger airbag was triggered. Wherever my little boy went, his seat went with him, and I am sure I annoyed my parents by insisting on my own inspection of how they fitted it to their own car. I didn’t care, or only a little, because my boy was going to be as safe as I could make him.

The party have arrived in Joth and are taken to the Duke's mansion, where Duchess Fanis has prepared rooms for them. There are lots of questions over recent events and those in the know struggle to keep secrets.

The Voyage of the Visund

A tale of Anmar by Penny Lane

9 - The Duke's Mansion

When we arrived at the office the next morning, we didn’t get much time to talk things over. Crime Stoppers had received a tip off that the killer was living in a terraced house in Crouch End. Naturally, we went mob handed which included full riot gear and body armour. In the end, it turned out to be nothing more than a man who had systematically killed almost all the local tomcats because they kept him awake at nights. Many of us felt like real idiots but the press seemed to be satisfied that we were taking the murders seriously.

We did finish the day with one less serial killer on the streets of London. Unfortunately for us, it was the wrong one but at least the press had something to crow about.