Cursed Apprentice (Earth Survives Book 2) Read online

  CURSED APPRENTICE

  BOOK TWO OF THE EARTH SURVIVES SERIES

  R R ROBERTS

  Copyright © 2018 by Ronnie Roberts

  All Rights Reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to real people or places are used fictitiously; other names and places are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual people or places is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be copied or reproduced without the author’s express permission.

  Edited by Sharon Rose

  Cover Art by Kristin Designs

  Published by Pajama Therapy Books – 2018

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-9958025-5-1

  BOOKS BY R. R. ROBERTS:

  Earth Survives Series:

  Book One: Lost Sentinel

  Book Two: Cursed Apprentice

  Book Three: Deadly Messenger

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As with all worthy endeavors, my Earth Survives Series was not created or written in a vacuum. I have many people to thank for helping me come this far.

  First, thanks my husband Rob, who supplied me with chai tea lattes and chocolate, and reminded me to go to bed.

  Thanks also to my son Luc for colors, numbers and Deklin; my daughter Hope for endless story-boarding; my friend Glenn for the ‘pivotal ping’, the gift of SFU, and crossbows; my friend Sherry for saving Lost Sentinel; my bestie Sharon for her eagle-eye; my lovely Beta Readers and writers groups for keeping me grounded.

  Phew! Like I said—not by myself!

  Most of all, I want to thank Wyatt, Cairo, Emma, Jett and Bron for their unflagging faith I would write this exciting series so they could read it.

  CONTENTS

  1. Payton’s Escape

  2. Arrival

  3. Three Weeks In …

  4. Three Months In …

  5. Friends in Low Places

  6. The Sweep

  7. Right Place, Right Time

  8. Outlanders: Day One: WEN 2047

  9. Mike: Year Two: WEN 2037

  10. Outlanders: Day Two: WEN 2047

  11. Mike: Year Three: WEN 2038

  12. Indies: Day Three: WEN 2047

  13. Mike: Year Four: WEN 2039

  14. Indies: Day Four: WEN 2047

  15. Mike: Year Five: WEN 2040

  16. Indies: Day Five: WEN 2047

  17. Mike: Year Six: WEN 2041

  18. Indies: Day Six: WEN 2047

  19. Mike: Year Seven: WEN 2042

  20. Indies: Day Seven: WEN 2047

  21. Mike: Year Eight: WEN 2043

  22. Indies: Day Eight: WEN 2047

  23. Mike: Year Nine: WEN 2044

  24. Indies: Day Nine: WEN 2047

  25. Mike: Years Ten & Eleven: WEN: 2045/46

  26. Professor Red

  27. Payton

  End of Book Stuff

  Also by R R Roberts

  More Earth Survives Stories

  About the Author

  1

  PAYTON’S ESCAPE

  Year (WEN) 2341 on Cloud Rez, over North Dakota in United Amerada

  THE RUMBLING TIME Bore belched out blasts of heat even as chunks of the mighty structure fell away, smashing to the slick floor, shattering into jagged pieces, scattering in all directions like deviant billiard balls. Payton knelt before his backpack beside his brother, Coru, stuffing in the supplies their mother, Moira, handed them. It didn’t matter to him these items were stupid and would be completely useless where they were going; he stuffed them in nevertheless. The sooner he was out of here, the better. The sound, the motion, the heat and urgency of the collapsing lab, all combined into a heady, dangerous mixture, sending excitement through Payton’s body, leaving a delicious tremble of dread in its wake. Finally—finally—he was about to begin his life. The life he’d dreamed about while endlessly toiling alone in the university stacks, collecting acres of useless knowledge, and zero life experience.

  Coru, the older son, the stronger son, had broken away from their dysfunctional family years ago, leaving Payton to absorb the emotional fallout. Coru had been the lucky one, his life filled with adventure and independence, always down on Surface, always doing something important, something controversial and oh-so urgent. Now, it was Payton’s turn to shine.

  While their father, Cyprian Wisla, stood over the two of them, still farting around with the tablets that were supposed to bring them back home through the Time Bore to WEN 2341—yeah, like that was going to happen—his brother shoved some sort of hand-held mapping device into his bag, shooting Payton a doubtful look as he did. Man, he would not miss Coru’s holier than thou attitude.

  So what if he was the head of some reclamation crew down on the ruined Surface, planting trees and raising God-knows what for food for the poor shmucks still living down there? It didn’t make him King of the Hill and certainly not King of Time Travel. Nobody knew what was waiting for them at the other end of this monstrosity.

  That was where Payton came in. Payton could run rings around Coru when it came to the histories, and where they were headed, they absolutely needed knowledge of the histories. Hell, if it weren’t for him, there would be no jumping through the Time Bore, no rescue mission to pursue, would there? Without Payton, Coru wouldn’t make it past day one in WEN 2036 and that was a fact.

  The perimeter lights flickered and went out.

  The darkened lab heaved again, listing farther to one side, its once benign, grey surfaces now twisted, casting sinister shadows across the space that spoke of hidden flaws and dangerous secrets—all Moses Zhang’s doing, of course. Cyprian staggered, almost crushing Payton’s hand as he did, but stayed on his feet, focused on the task at hand, his tattooed head glistening in the faint emergency lighting.

  Fighting back a grin, Payton muttered, “Thank you, Moses Zhang, for being a murderous nut-job. You’re the only reason I’ll finally escape this rigid, entitled, suffocating place.”

  Coru looked sharply at him, but Payton knew he hadn’t heard. No one had; no one even suspected Payton’s real plan. They were all running around like headless idiots. Finding a murdered guardian in the controversial Time Bore lab, the Bore still humming after an illegal jump, tended to do that to witless Cloud Rez personnel.

  That’s where Payton’s cooler head had prevailed. Ha ha.

  Always the drama queen, Moira was clinging to the edge of the ruined, half-lit console Sean Keyes was laboring over. Give it a rest, why don’t ya, Ma?

  Moira hated when he called her Ma, which was why he did it, of course.

  The room tilted alarmingly, leaving what was left of Anala Patterawadee’s crew grabbing at railings, parts of which came away in their hands. Caught crouching in the open, both Payton and Coru slid across the floor, along with pieces of the Bore, toward its gaping mouth, their half-packed bags tumbling behind.

  “Not yet!” Payton protested, registering how young the high squeaking sound he’d inadvertently produced was, as he grabbed at the floor. He got no purchase and just kept sliding, his panic escalating as he fell toward the Bore.

  Coru shot out his hand and snagged the hot funnel edge of the Bore, fighting its pull and managing to corral Payton, taking the hit of both their bags to his chest, emptying his lungs with a thud and a loud grunt.

  A deafening crack sent an ominous shudder through the gleaming Time Bore that commanded half of the lab, this despite the supporting bands Patty’s team had hastily strapped around its twenty-foot wide mouth. A scattering of emergency lights flicked on, giving Payton just enough illumination to register the horror etched on the few remaining crew’s faces. The room abruptly righted itself. There was a moment of stillness, Payton all too aware of hi
s older brother’s strong arm around him, driving home his need for Coru’s protection. Okay, so he needed Coru as much as Coru needed him.

  “Go!” Coru gasped, shoving Payton forward. Dragging their packs, they scrambled away from the slippery entrance, back to the center of the vibrating laboratory, turning to witness the Time Bore split further from its mooring. Payton’s heart stuttered at what had just happened, and at the insane chance they were about to take. They were seriously going to jump into that machine and hope it held together long enough for them to reach their destination? Just how badly did he want to escape Cloud Rez?

  Patty shouted at the last of her crew. “Garry! Nicolai! You’ve done all you can, more than I asked. Get to the evacuation deck and down to Surface on the next shuttle. Don’t wait for me.”

  Nicolai hesitated. “But Patty, what about you and…” His wide eyes shifted to Cyprian and back to Anala Patterawadee. “What about…”

  Patty waved him off. “Go. Save yourselves. We’ll be close behind.”

  Everyone knew it was a lie. It would be a miracle if they got out in time.

  But that was their problem, now, wasn’t it? He’d be long gone and if things worked out as he hoped, he’d be back in WEN 2036 having the adventure of his life. All they had to do was find Zhang, stop whatever it was he was doing that was tearing apart Cloud Rez’s very existence, and send his sorry ass back through the Bore to face the music. The fact that Payton had absolutely no intention of returning himself was beside the point. He’d keep his promise, complete their mission, then disappear into 2036, keep his head down, blend in, begin a real life.

  WEN 2036 was a very cool time in the histories, the beginning of an exciting time of advancements in medicine, science and technology, and the arts. God, the music alone that was written during the twenties and thirties of the early twenty-first century was worth the risk of staying. Much of it was still played today, and he’d be there, on the ground floor when it came into being. He bit back his excitement.

  The council would destroy the Bore as soon as Zhang was returned in any case. They’d never come find Payton—he’d give them no reason. He just wanted his freedom. It wasn’t too much to ask.

  Sneaking a glance at his older brother, Payton was surprised Coru’s hands were trembling as he was stowing an arsenal of gruesome weapons into his pack. Did Coru think dinosaurs were still roaming the planet in WEN 2036? Payton suppressed a snicker as he watched the first of two double-bladed knives disappear into the outer pockets (where Coru could easily reach them, no doubt). Next, he shoved in an Exo-Taser. Light, no bloodletting, and extremely effective. Strictly forbidden, naturally. Good one, bro… A second taser went into Coru’s jacket breast pocket.

  Moira fell to her knees and lunged for Payton, wrapping him in her arms, spilling the silver food packets he’d just shoved in, out from his bag. “Why you?” she bleated, pressing her wet face to his. “Why not let Coru go by himself? He’s used to Surface. There’s only one girl to find. It will be easy. He knows exactly where and when she is. Stay here, safe with me.”

  “You think this is ‘safe’?” Payton peeled her hands from him, scrambled after the scattered food packets and stuffed them back into his bulging pack. “There is no ‘safe’. The Bore is about to implode. It’ll be miraculous if we even make it to WEN 2036—if 2036 is in fact the year Zhang appeared in—let alone find Wren Wood and get back here. Two travelers are better than one.”

  Moira turned to Cyprian. “Cy! For God’s sake, stop him. Payton is a scholar, not a tracker.”

  A scholar? What did she think was happening up in those dusty old stacks all day? It was dead boring was what it was. Who gave a crap about who did what to whom in the year… insert a date, any date here, and it was a snooze-fest.

  Cyprian raised his arm and stabbed an accusing finger toward the Bore. “Do you see anyone else with a clue about the past or experience on Surface willing to jump through that crumbling monstrosity Zhang created?” he demanded, his eyes glittering with rage.

  Payton’s heart swelled with pride at his father’s words. It was true he had come up with a good plan. They’d find Zhang and sling his ass back to Cloud Rez, dead easy. Then they’d find Charles Wood and secure his research, and their own time here in WEN 2341 would be safe. Failing that, they’d find Wren Wood and she’d lead them to Charles like a homing pigeon. The records were filled with Wren’s influence on her father’s work. She was famous for it.

  “Please, Cy, I beg you. My boy, my beautiful boy!” When he didn’t answer, she pounded her fists into the splintered floorboards. “You don’t even know if this will work!”

  With a bark of disgust, Cyprian ended the exchange, focusing on checking his numbers with Keyes, who was still hunched over the damaged motherboard.

  Payton saw Coru turn away from yet another emotional tug of war between their parents with an expression of distaste on his tanned face and jam his warming cloak into the last open pocket of his pack.

  Try living with it every day, bro.

  Cyprian thrust the glowing tablets toward his sons. “Place these inside your jackets. These, if nothing else, will get you back to our time. Do not let them out of your sight.” Only then did he address Moira again. “First, your ‘boy’ is no longer a boy, but a grown man of eighteen years, who has made his own choice. Second, you have not one son, but two. Two sons willing to risk their lives for all the Citizens of Cloud Rez.”

  Moira had the decency to at least look away. Yeah, that was how it was; she had no interest in Coru, confining herself entirely to smothering Payton on a daily basis. Coru shouldn’t be looking disgusted, he should be freaking clicking his heels with joy her attention was focused elsewhere. All. The. Time. Did anyone get that’s why Payton hid in the damned library?

  Cyprian continued, softer now. “You’re right. We don’t know if this will work, but we do know we’ll all be dead if this doesn’t work. We have one shot, and we’re taking it. I’ve set up the coordinates to return Payton and Coru to us within the hour. How long they will remain in the past is one thing; the time they return is entirely another. One hour of our time, Moira—that’s all you need suffer. One hour without both of your sons.”

  Her eyes narrowed at the reproof. She leapt to her feet, her face contorted. “If they come back at all!”

  “Like I said, if they don’t go, we’re all dead.”

  There was a moment when the stuttering hum of the Time Bore was the only sound to fill the space before Moira collapsed onto the splintered floor again with a wail of despair. “I blame you,” she sobbed. “You should have stopped Zhang!”

  God, could this get more embarrassing? Payton glanced at the people around, their faces averted, occupied by a fascinating wall… or hangnail. Geez, Ma.

  “Put the blame where it belongs, Mother,” Coru ground out through clenched teeth. “Blame Zhang for going through the Bore in the first place. The handsome, charming Zhang you championed at every opportunity.”

  He was right. It was through their high-born mother, Moira Wisla’s patronage, that Zhang had been able to push the unpopular project through council in the first place. Of course, Moira forgot that pesky factoid and was now behaving like a two-year-old without her favorite squeeze toy.

  “Why are we even standing here debating who is to blame for this disaster?” Coru demanded, not ready to give up the fight.

  Payton wanted to say, “Just let it go, man. It’ll mean nothing in the end.” But he was silent.

  And Coru did not let it go. “It changes nothing. Father’s been against building this monstrosity from the beginning. It was you who thought it would be fun to dabble in time travel, like a holiday vacation, mingling with our ignorant ancestors and feeling superior.”

  Cyprian drilled Coru with his blazing blue eyes and Coru shut up. It appeared they had some kind of thing going on between them, with Payton shut out as usual. Would it kill them to include him just once? Was he not risking his life along with Coru on t
his crazy mission through a crumbling Time Bore?

  Payton pressed his lips into a straight line. His time would come, sooner than they thought.

  Patty appeared before them. “Come into the light and pull back your sleeves.” Her normally grinning brown face was matter-of-fact and ashen.

  The brothers complied, baring the insides of their forearms. The difference in the muscle tone and skin color—Coru’s thick, corded and tanned, Payton’s chubby and pale—told it all. Coru had the strength, Payton the knowledge. That was okay. Once he was safely back in the past, he’d start working out, get into shape.

  Patty swabbed their arms with a cool cloth. Its smell was sharp, but it felt good, what with the heat the Bore was producing in waves. “Antiseptic,” she explained, her voice vibrating with the motion of the room. Her dark eyes met Coru’s for a brief, telling moment. They’d dated there for a while, Payton seemed to recall. What had happened between them, he wondered.

  She tossed the cloth to the floor and produced two thick, bullet shaped devices. She pressed the narrow ends against the freshly swabbed area of each brother’s arm in turn. With a flick of her thumb, she plunged a cocktail of inoculations into their bodies.