Spirit Warrior

2. Present day-3

Jacob’s eyes widened and he started cursing under his breath when a huge beast, monster, something, came around the curve of the road. Smoke flared on each side like the dragons in the pictures he had seen back East at one of the museums. His hand went instinctively to the gun at his waist as it continued toward them.

He vaguely heard Jonathan’s choked curse as well and knew his brother was thinking the same thing he was… shoot at it and run like hell! A shudder ran through him when he saw the face and shoulders of a man through the beast’s clear belly. The man’s face was shadowed behind his hat and his hands were gripping something round in its stomach.

“What the f**k?!” he growled when Billy started waving his hands at the creature and yelling.

A moment later, the thing stopped in the middle of the road and a door opened. A large man, about Billy’s age, climbed out of the machine. Now that it was close enough for Jacob to see, he decided it looked more like the steam engine trains that came through North Platte, Nebraska, that he saw last year. Only this one didn’t use tracks and was smaller and sleeker than anything he had seen there.

“Hey Ansel,” Billy called in a relieved voice. “You got your cell phone on you? Mine's dead.”

Jacob listened as Billy and Ansel chatted back and forth. He nudged his horse a little closer to the metal machine while Billy talked to the man. If he had any doubts about whether or not they had traveled to the future, they were gone now.

“What is it?” he asked Jonathan as his brother came to a halt beside him.

“It looks like what Indy called a truck, only bigger,” Jonathan replied with a grimace. “Hell, her telling me about it, even showing me pictures of it on her small box, didn’t prepare me for anything like this.”

Jacob glanced at his brother’s pale, tight face. A wave of sympathy swept through him as he realized that knowing, and really knowing, were two different things. He tried to picture how he would handle it if he’d been the one to find Indy and claim her. A grimace of distaste flashed through him at thinking of Indy as anything but his new little sister. Still, he knew this had to be a huge shock to his brother.

They both turned their attention back to the man called Ansel as he opened the door and climbed back inside the truck again. This time, he left the door open. Jacob watched in fascination as Ansel picked up something and began talking into it. He was too far away to hear the response, but it sounded like a woman’s voice answered him back.

“What’s he doing now?” he asked in frustration, hating that he had to keep asking. “It sounds like there is a woman inside the beas… machine with him.”

“I’m not sure,” Jonathan admitted. “Whatever he is holding looks different from the box that Indy showed me.”

“I don’t like this,” Jacob said under his breath as Billy turned and gave him and Jonathan an uneasy grin, as if knowing they were talking about something important. “How are we going to find Indy in this world? We don’t know anything about it!”

“I’ll find her.” Jonathan turned. Determination was clearly written across his face. “I’m not leaving without her, Jacob.”

Jacob shook his head at his brother. “I’m not asking you to,” he insisted, straightening when Ansel made the machine roar out again. “I just hate going into any situation not knowing what we are going to find.”

Jonathan relaxed slightly before he gave a sharp nod. “I don’t either,” he muttered before he repeated himself. “I don’t either.”

They broke off their conversation as Billy walked up to them, leading his horse. His face was creased into a grin and he was shaking his head. He waited until he was a few feet from them before he started talking.

“The good news is we have a ride into town which will save my ass in more ways than one,” Billy said as he slipped his foot into the stirrup and pulled himself into the saddle with a groan. “Right now, my ass is sore from riding. I’m looking forward to sitting it on a nice plush seat.”

“You said that was the good news. What is the bad news?” Jonathan asked with a dark scowl.

“The bad news is that Allie Whitewater is the one giving us the ride. I can just hear her now if she finds out what I’ve done. Hell, I’ll be lucky if SHE doesn’t shoot me. Indy is her best friend. Those two are always together when they come into town,” Billy explained with a wince as he sat back in the saddle. "God, I just hope Allie doesn’t make me ride in the back like she did the last time she picked me up,” he groaned, shifting as he tried to find a place that wasn’t hurting.

Billy tugged on the reins and tapped his heels into the side of his horse. Jacob followed behind his brother as they moved to the side of the road so they could skirt the huge black and silver machine as it rumbled. He touched the brim of his hat when Ansel waved his hand to him and Jonathan.