Chapter 02

A New Life

I look up to see everybody as I expected them to be, almost. There’s two people not of our travel group with the leaders, but I recognise them from the photos in the computer files as they’re two of the advance scouts. They’re a danger I hadn’t planned on and I can’t let them get away. I pull out my Dragoon pistol and I’m very quiet while I cock it. Taking aim over the back of a mule I yell out, “Gahsnoozle, protocol fifty-one,” then I fire at the scout furthest from me.

Everyone starts to turn toward me when I yell. All of the members of my expedition stop and stand still when they hear my command. The man I aim at falls backwards with a large hole near the top of his chest and the base of his neck, so he’s dead or dying. The other scout starts toward cover when he sees the gun in my hand so I track him while I re-cock the Dragoon. He almost has his own gun out when I fire again and I hit him in the upper right arm. He screams and drops his gun. Re-cocking my gun I walk over to smile down at him while pointing my gun at his face.

He doesn’t know much, but he tells me it’s February second, how I can get the fifteen thousand dollars in gold waiting in an Albuquerque bank, and the wagons are carrying a million dollars in gold coins. This wasn’t to be made known to the expedition until after they reached Santa Fe to hand the gold over to the senior co-ordinators in Santa Fe as that way they won’t feel tempted to make off with it. He’s here to see it gets safely to Santa Fe. I thank him for the information and I keep my side of the bargain. When he started talking I stopped prodding his wound with my knife, and when he finished telling me all he can I give him a large shot of heroin to stop the pain and to kill him quickly instead of leaving him for scavengers to chew on while alive. He’s most helpful when given the alternatives. I don’t blame him for being helpful.

With that finished I walk over to each of the leaders to give them extra instructions while I activate protocols fifty-five and fifty-six to make them my absolute slaves. I go to Steve to give him instructions while activating protocols fifty-four and fifty-two to give him most of his free will back as they forbid him from harming me or allowing me to come to harm while he must obey me. He glares at me when I tell him to strip the dead and pile their gear in the first wagon. Now for the girls to activate protocols fifty-three and fifty-two as these leave them like Steve but include a little kicker about sex; if they ever voluntarily have sex with someone they can never refuse them after that.

Protocol fifty-one is a basic command to stand still and await further instructions. I gave them all that because I wanted to hold off giving individual instructions until after I knew what was happening here. The original brainwashing instructions had only thirty-two protocols so by jumping up into the fifties I doubted anyone would find them. Number fifty-two gives the programmed slaves back their free will while it allows them to remember all that’s happened to them up to now. Thus they remember how they were treated at the academy as well as their original programming. Saying they aren’t happy about the knowledge would be an understatement of the most extreme sort! The protocols I activate for the leaders removes their free will and makes them obey the rest of us as slaves, it also forces them to protect us with their lives. So they’re now little more than zombie guards and workers just like they intended for us to be for them. Gahsnoozle is the program release / activation word.

Getting Organised

Being the sort of person I am I set protocol fifty-two for them to remember all of the programming and once it’s activated none of the other programming or release code words will work. My use of fifty-two has removed all of my ability to give them extra programs, and they now know it. Because they now know all of the programs, even the previous protocols I gave them and didn’t use. It’ll be interesting to see how they react to me once they go through it all in their minds.

With that done we set about moving away from there. The mules are hitched to the wagons, the spare horses and mules are tied behind them, the gear from the scouts is put into the lead wagon, the women sit two per wagon while the rest of us mount horses and we head out.

I want us to get away from here before we start to readjust loads on the wagons because too many people know this location; both now and in the future. Because of the way the time transfer machine works we end up physically on Earth in the exact same place where we start from, just in another year. The Academy is in mountains east of Albuquerque and that’s where we are now; it’s just the metropolitan area of 2005 hasn’t reached us in this time of 1855, not by a long shot.

We’re on a small plateau at the southern end of a fair sized canyon with a place called Three Gun Spring just a touch further north of us. Going south down the canyon is downhill all the way, a bit of a slope, but not one we can’t handle. About five or six miles later we’re out of the canyon and we soon come across an often used trail going east to west. We follow the trail while I study the good terrain maps we have from 2005. Some miles down the trail I turn us further south for a few miles and we leave the trail. We soon enter another canyon and move south-west into the canyon. About an hour into the canyon we have some nice mountains putting us out of the line of sight of the trail we were on with close mountains on three sides as well. It’s late afternoon by now so we’re quick to set up camp and to start unloading the wagons.

It doesn’t take Steve and I long to find the gold coins we didn’t know were there; forty strong boxes of them, each with twenty-five thousand dollars in ten dollar gold coins. We reload the wagons with the gold in the lead wagon by starting with the strong boxes in a row just behind the driver’s seat. This gives us a row of five boxes wide and eight boxes deep to making a good area for a few people to sleep in. The area behind this is stacked level with barrels and boxes, mostly salt and ammunition for the guns. We tie it down tight then put padding and bedding on top before we tie the cover down again. Extra guns are loaded and put in easy to reach positions on the inside of the wagon. Water barrels and cooking utensils are put where they were tied to the outside of the wagons with the water barrels between the wheels on both sides.

We reload the other wagon by making a tight and even load with the barrels and boxes to about three feet behind the seat and about two thirds of the wagon’s height. Tied down with padding and bedding it leaves a good space on top of the load for the dogs to sleep in the wagon and room at the front for a couple of people to sleep as well.

While we do this the ladies feed and water the animals with the help of our slaves, and they start cooking a nice meal. When the food is ready we all sit down to eat and talk about the future.

When I’m asked what I intend to do, since I’m the only one with some command authority now, I tell them, “Before I was kidnapped I had a family I loved and they loved me. For all intents and purposes they may as well be dead because I’ll never see them again, and they’ll never see me. This is eighteen fifty-five while they’re in two thousand and five, that’s one hundred and fifty years away. I’ll be dead long before then, no matter what. So I’ve got a lot of hate stored up for these people just there. Their intention is to make the whole of the US a slave based economy like it’s a copy of the Plantation area of Georgia so I really want to see these people hurt, and hurt very badly. I intend to use these resources to find and execute every one of their sixty-seven other agents in this time while I also set up a way to counteract everything they intend to do here. Unknown to them I know their full plans. Although I didn’t know about the gold being shipped now because the plan called for that to be in the next transfer. But I can use it to fight them, so I will. Next stop is Albuquerque to collect the other gold then to Santa Fe to deposit the gold and to get started fighting them. After that is to buy all of the land I can in New Mexico to stop them from making the economic changes early. I’ve no intention of forcing anyone not part of The Cause to help me, but I’d appreciate the help. These four I’ll use, but without any concern for how they’re expended.”

The rest of the intended slaves nod agreement before they ask more questions, which I answer to the best of my ability. I finish eating and I leave them to discuss things amongst themselves. I send the four slaves off to sleep under the trail wagon, place four of the dogs on guard, and I send the rest of the dogs into the trail wagon to sleep. They seem very happy with the top bunk in there. Back at the campfire I say, “With the dogs on guard I don’t think we need a guard to sit up all night long. But if you disagree feel free to work out a watch list. I’m off to sleep in the lead wagon, you ladies may join me if you wish with no obligations. Steve, please sleep in the trail wagon as I want one of us in each wagon just in case of any trouble.” They all nod their acknowledgement of my words and they go back to their discussions while I climb into the wagon to go to sleep. A short time later the women join me in the wagon and we just cuddle up while we sleep.

We’ve an early start at dawn with the ladies cooking breakfast while we men folk get the animals ready for the day before we clean up the campsite. We’re off and moving within an hour of waking up. One thing I do is to make sure all of our guns are fully loaded and ready for use if needed. I’ve one of the slaves put on the clothes of one of the dead scouts and take their weapons while he scouts ahead of us. If he gets killed I don’t want to lose any of the ‘modern’ gear.

We eat a cold lunch while we drive, then we stop just before dark to set up camp and eat a hot meal. This time I’ve the wagons draw up beside each other and facing in opposite directions. We picket all of the animals between the wagons and set a guard tonight. We’re camped beside a regular trail so we’ve a much higher risk of being attacked during the night than we did last night.

Albuquerque

The next morning we’re up with the dawn again and we’re soon on our way. We reach Albuquerque about noon and we stop outside a place selling hot meals that’s run by some Mexicans. We get down and set the animals right with food and water before we go inside for a hot meal while leaving Apollo, the alpha male Great Dane, in charge of the wagons. The meals are a lot spicier than I’m used to but are very tasty. The woman serving us smiles when I order a large jug of fresh milk to have with the meal along with glasses for us to drink the milk from.

We’re ten of the fifteen non-Mexicans in the building and the other five laugh when we start drinking milk with our meal. They leave when we’re about halfway through our meal. Soon after they leave I hear Apollo growl a warning. I nod at my companions then I go outside.

Two men are trying to climb on the wagons while another is drawing his pistol. I think he intends to shoot Apollo. I swivel my shotgun up to point it at him, I carry it on a loop of canvas over my shoulder so it hangs down at my right-hand ready to use. I say, “The moment your gun clears leather this shotgun goes off. Now move along away from my wagons while you can still walk.”

These three are to my left and the shotgun is aimed that way. A fourth man to my right grabs at his revolver on his hip. I lift my right hand slightly while my left grabs the butt of the Dragoon I’ve in a holster positioned across my belly. I have them this way so I’ve a weapon at hand height and ready to use with either hand as being ambidextrous is very useful! The fellows on my left go for their guns when I turn a bit to my right. All four have their hands on their guns and have them part way out of their holsters when I fire both of my guns. The one on my right goes backwards with a shocked look on his face while he looks at the cloud of gunpowder smoke in front of my belly. I’d fired while still holstered and he didn’t expect that. The two nearest me on my left get a decent load of shot each and are blown into the third. He’s knocked against the wagon. Apollo leans down to crunch his neck and the man drops, dying with a broken neck. Two shots and four down, not bad. All four will soon be dead because the others will bleed out in a few minutes.

After confirming they aren’t a danger I look at the fifth man to leave the eatery. He’s standing beside his horse with his hands in clear view. Gulping, he takes slow moves to unhitch his horse, mounts his horse, and rides off down the street. I smile at him and he nods back while he leaves.

Returning to my meal I ask the owner if he can send someone for the undertaker. He nods yes and he motions to a young boy nearby. The lad darts out the door and vanishes. I reload both guns while I walk back to my chair to sit down.

A few bites later a large man with a badge on walks into the place. He says, “Miguel, you run the quietest cantina in town. How come I got four bodies at your front door?”

Between bites I look up, “I don’t like people who draw on me. They went to get in my wagons without asking. When my dog warned them they went to shoot him. I got there in time to suggest they leave. They all went for guns. You’ll notice they all have weapons in hand. I got two with the shotgun, one with my pistol, and my dog got one from the wagon’s seat. The owner sent a boy for the undertaker. Please see to the collection of the valuables from the bodies and return them to me. I’ll pay for the undertaker to bury them because I don’t believe in leaving garbage in the street.” The man stares at me for a moment, slowly nods, and walks back out. Stripping the dead is standard practice in this time and place.

Miguel says, “The Town Marshal, he waits for orders before taking action. Those men belonged to the men who own most of the town and the Marshal. They don’t like people hurting them or their men.” He speaks Spanish, and Mary translates for me. (I won’t mention such trivia in future unless I think it important to the situation.)

When we’re finishing I hear movement outside and a short warning bark from the wagon. Standing up I motion Steve and the ladies to a safer place in the cantina. I draw my Dragoon, ready the shotgun, then I order Peter and Fred to do the same. These killers are only alive now because I thought I could use them to save my life in situations like this.

I give them their instructions then I get directions to the back door. Exiting the building I take great care to move along behind it and the next one before turning toward the street. On entering the street I can see more than twenty men spread out with rifles and pistols pointed at the cantina entrance. I get ready to shoot them from behind as I wait for my distraction to finish their slow count to two hundred.

A moment later everyone opens fire at Peter and Fred when they burst out of the cantina. Their protective mail stops the rounds aimed at their chests while it offers no protection for arms or legs so they’re as good as dead from many hits, but not yet. They take careful aim when they open up with their shotguns and Dragoons at the same time as the bad guys. I also open up on the bad guys from behind. I first shoot the Town Marshal with a .44 ball in the middle of his back while the two beside him share a shotgun load between them. In less than a minute Peter and Fred have accounted for six with their shotguns plus another six with their Dragoons. Both are bleeding in a number of places and are laying back against the front wall of the cantina. Fred gets one last shot off to wound a man to his left. I’ve shot another two with my shotgun, and two more with my Dragoon. So that’s twenty of them down and they don’t yet realise I’m outside behind them.

The most amazing thing is with all the lead flying around not a single mule or horse has been hit. I think on this miracle when I reload my shotgun while I take care moving to the wagons. All the enemy between me and the wagons are dead or dying. There’s only four across the street with rifles and two with pistols just down the street beyond the cantina entrance as the rest are dead. From here I’ve a good angle on Steve as I look through the cantina door. I wave him back and he nods yes. They’ll stay put until I say otherwise.