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The Star Gazer Chronicles part 1: The Headache
The One is chosen
The One is here
He must fulfill the task
And rise to battle the Darkness
I was having a horrible night. I lay with my eyes wide open, sleepless and bleary, staring at the ceiling. I forced my eyes shut, but nothing at all happened. I rolled over onto my side and looked it my clock. It said it was 1:37. Well crap, I thought, I’m never going to get any sleep. Then came the headache. A horrible, shredding, throbbing pain ripped through my skull. I shot up and gripped the sides of my head. It felt as if my head was splitting right open, and that would be because it was. I didn’t know it yet, but that would be the most life changing headache of my life. This was an event that set my destiny forever. I was about to travel through time and space.
I woke up in a field. I sat up straight, half stunned, wide eyed, and confused. The headache was completely gone, like it had never have even been there in the first place. I looked around and got my bearings. Okay, I’m in a field, I assimilated. Where in the world am I? I clambered to my feet and scanned the horizon a second time. Seeing nothing I hadn’t already seen I decided to head in the direction facing away from the setting sun. I walked for what seemed like an eternity until I reached a dusty, sun baked dirt road. I studied it for a while. It ran parallel to the direction I was walking. I decided to follow it, so I turned left and followed down the path.
I kept walking as the sun set slowly. As night fell, I began to hear small voices. Silent whispers in a tongue I couldn’t recognize. It didn’t sound like anything that could be from earth. Like some foreign, made up language. I decided it was best to try and ignore them. I walked forward a few paces and then the earth under my feat erupted and my vision went black.
When I came around, I was sitting in a crater about five feet deep which was filled with loose dirt, singed grass, and dust. I stood up slowly and looked up to see three flashlights pointing at me. I squinted and covered my eyes. As my vision cleared I noticed the flashlights where connected to the barrels of three guns. “Whoa!” I yelp as I fell back on my butt. I had never, ever, been one for guns, especially from that angle. One man pushed past the three men pointing their guns at me. He was dressed in full combat gear and had an enormous shotgun strapped to his back. He had close cropped, jet black hair, a scar across his nose, and an angry look on his face. He looked like a drill sergeant read to tear the arms off a grizzly bear. I figured he must be the other men’s commander.
“Who are you, kid?” he demanded.
“Um, Joshua McCroom, I think.” I told him.
“How’d” you get here?” the man demanded once again.
“I don’t actually know,” I said.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I mean I don’t know! I was sitting in bed when I got the worst headache I have ever had and then poof, I end up here.” I explained.
“Hmm,” the commander grimaced, “Well, at least get up outta that dirt and make yourself look like a proper human being.” I did as the man ordered and hoisted myself out of the crater. I got out and brushed the dirt and grass off my clothes. “What are you wearing?” the commander asked staring at my clothes very puzzled.
“Errr, my pajamas?” I answered him, embarrassed. He raised his eyebrows and then ordered,
“Follow me.” With that, I and the three other soldiers trailed behind him.
We all walked to a three-story square metal complex. The commander led us to a door and put a key card into a slot next to the door. There was a loud click and a buzzing sound as the door swung open. The commander beckoned us inside. The soldiers and I walked through the door one at a time. We all walked down a narrow corridor that had no ceiling, so you could see all the pipes and electrical work in the hall. The commander stopped and inserted his key card into another slot which opened another door that lead to a dismal interrogation room.
The room was barren besides a single table and a single folding chair. The guards stayed stationed outside the door, guarding it. The leader gestured to the folding chair and I sank into, glad to be off my feet. The commander stood across the table from me, glaring at me. I stare at the single light bulb that lit the empty room to avoid the man’s dark gaze. “So, Josh, is it? How’d you get here? It’s a secure area that no civilians get into?” the commander interrogated.
“Um a headache?”I said sheepishly. The commander stared at me like I had 3 heads and one of said heads was purple.
“Do you seriously want me to believe that the only human capable of surviving a land mine explosion arrived here because of a headache? Do you take me for some sorta idiot?” The commander shouted.
“Um, no sir,” I managed. This conversation was not going in a good direction. Fortunately for me, that is exactly when the tank came in. It blew apart the steel wall, rendering it to smoldering metal. It didn’t look like any conventional tank that humans would have made. I jumped to my feet and inspected myself for injury. I couldn’t even find a bruise. I wish I could say the same for the commander. He had a bleeding gash on his forehead and it looked like his back was injured. The three guards walked through the door and rushed to the aid of the commander.
“I’m fine!” the commander shouted. “Buggers are back. Sound the alarm!” The guards sprang into action. One rushed over to the wall with the door and smacked a large red button that sounded a blaring alarm. The other two guards raised their weapons and begun to fire at the tank. The commander scrabbled to his feet and drew his enormous shot gun and fired rounds at the tank. There was a piercing wail and suddenly purple lasers screamed past me and the guards.
While this was happening, my heart was racing. I watched all of this in terror and confusion. The tank fired again, this time through the hole it had previously made. The shot landed square in front of me and erupted into blue flame and I was knocked out. When I came to, the room was destroyed and demolished. Also, the commander and his guards were reduced to blackened skeletons. I looked out at the tank, which was now firing at different parts of the facility I was in. I then became exceedingly angry. I didn’t know why I became so angry, I barely even liked the men who had captured me, but I was furious. I raised my left hand and pointed it at the tank. My head and my hand began to burn, like how my head did when I was lying in bed before any of this had happened. Then the tank exploded in a fury of golden flame.
I stood bewildered with my hand still raised. How did I do that? I thought. I slowly brought my left hand up to my face and on it I saw a blackened, circular symbol I had definitely never noticed before. Then, it glowed golden and my headache returned, and my body began to disintegrate into golden flakes. I screamed and squeezed my eyes as shut as I could possibly shut them.
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Join Joshua McCroom as he gets a headache, and then, by some weird miracle, time travels. Part 1 of, uh, several!