Escape the Planet of the LEPS: Beginnings Series Book 28

by Jacqueline Druga

  “What do you mean by ‘too soon’?” Joe questioned.

  “I know Captain America was a great hero in this time, maybe it is too soon after his death to take his name?”

  “Danny,” Joe grumbled.

  “What?” Danny asked. ”I didn’t say anything.”

  “You will. Um, yeah, it is too soon, sorry,” Joe said.

  “Bummer.”

  Joe blinked long and hard. “Can you come up with another name?”

  Dean said, “What about David Banner, Tony Stark or Thor.”

  9-B snapped his finger. “Tony Stark. I can be Tony Stark.’

  “No.” Joe shook his head.

  “No?” He asked disappointed.

  “I’m going to assume the training films you watched have all those men in them.”

  “We learned ancient lingo from them. Many of us speak it when we’re together.’

  “So they train you to be heroes?” Joe asked.

  “No. They show us the films to know what we could be if we worked hard. They train us to be killers of LEP. I didn’t understand why I was chosen to go through and help 10-A-A-422 chase a clone. A clone is still human. I don’t kill humans, I don’t like killing LEP and Pubes. I don’t like killing at all.”

  “Really?” Joe asked. “See, now that is something I thought was genetic. Just so you know, killing LEP is saving lives and that is heroic.”

  He placed his hand to his heart. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

  “Now who chose you to go through?”

  “The Benevolent One picked me personally.”

  “You don’t say. What is the name of the Benevolent One?”

  “Father Hoi.”

  “Okay,” Danny said brightly. “I’m out of here. I have to …”

  “Danny. Stop.” Joe looked at 9-B. “Father Hoi? Father Hoi.” He grunted and swung a point at Dean and Danny. “Between you two …”

  9-B quickly turned in his chair. “Wait is one of them Father Hoi?”

  “Hold on,” Joe lifted his hand. “You watched this Benevolent One on a screen and you can’t tell which of those two, Dean or Danny is the man you saw on the screen. I am going to guess Father Hoi is Asian.”

  “Yes.”

  “And you can’t look at them and see which one is Asian?”

  “I didn’t want to presume.”

  “Presume!” Joe yelled.

  “Ow.” 9-B grabbed his ear.

  “Me.” Danny lifted his hand. “I’m Danny Hoi.”

  9-B jumped from his chair. “Father Hoi.” He dropped to his knees. “It is a great honor to be face to face with your young self. You look so young. Your hair is beautiful in this time.”

  “Wow, thanks.”

  “Aw,” Henry whined. “No one compliments my hair like that.”

  “Enough!” Joe blasted.

  “Why do you yell so much in a room so small?”

  “Because I can!” Joe blasted. “Now get up off that floor and sit in the chair.”

  Quickly, he did.

  “Name. Because you look like him, let’s call you Hank.”

  Dean coughed. “Cop out.”

  Joe gave scolding eyes.

  “Hank. Hank.” 9-B nodded. “I can be Hank. I like that Hank name. Like Hank Williams. He is a great star from the past. He and his son love to consume large amounts of alcohol and write great songs.”

  “So you like country music?” Joe asked.

  “No. I like Journey.”

  Everyone groaned.

  “You don’t know that band? Maybe it was before your time?”

  “We know Journey.”

  “I can sing it.”

  Joe lifted his hand again. “Don’t.”

  He began to sing. “Stop … believing, hold on …”

  “Stop.” Joe ordered.

  “Believing.”

  “Enough.”

  9-B paused. “I don’t believe that is in the song.”

  Joe’s hands slammed to the desk. “What the hell are we going to do with him?”

  “Take him to Jordan,” Henry said. “No one goes there and they’re weird Joe. Bet they don’t even know who Frank is so they won’t think twice about it.”

  “Nope.” Danny shook his head. “He has fifty followers on Hoi book from there. They go to Bowman to use the internet. What about Doyle camp. He’s like a soldier. They just pass it off as another Slagel lived through the plague.”

  “What about… letting him walk around Beginnings,” Dean suggested. “From what I gathered every two hours in the future is an hour here, if it keeps going like that, people are going to start to wonder where Frank, Hal and Robbie are. Frank never misses walking a beat. I can work with him to pass it off. It won’t be long. How hard could it be?’

  Joe laughed. “How hard? Look at him? Yes, he looks like Frank, but an untarnished Frank. What moron in their right mind is going to look at him and believe it’s Frank.”

  At that second the door to Joe’s office opened and Dan from Security walked in. “Oh, Joe, hey I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in here.”

  “You didn’t see my jeep?”

  “I must have missed it.”

  “Parked right out front.”

  “Yeah, they’re easy to miss. I was dropping off these reports and ….” Dan tilted his head and stared at 9-B.

  Joe gave a look to Dean as if to say, ‘Huh? See? I told you.’

  Dan pointed. “You …. You …..”

  “Listen, Dan …” Joe held up his hands. “We can explain.”

  “No, need Joe,” Dan said. “I know exactly what is going on. Ha!” He shook his hand excitedly trying again to point. “I’ll be damned. Man, when the rumors started about the Magic Cream, I said it. I said, ‘Frank is missing because he is getting that magic cream treatment.’ And sure enough … wow. Looks great. Good thing you stopped, dropped and rolled or that cream may not have work.” Dan dropped the reports on the desk. “You look fantastic.” He gave a thumbs up and walked to the door. “Hey, Danny, sign me up.”

  The door closed.

  Silence.

  “That man was very nice,” 9-B said.

  “Don’t say it,” Joe aimed his comment to Dean. “Take him. Dress him, grab Sgt. Ryder …”

  “He just got out of a coma,” Dean said.

  “He’s fine,” Joe replied. “Henry start working on those supplies you need to bury, Danny find Roy and come up with some magic cream concoction.” He exhaled heavily. “And wipe that smug look off your face, Dean. It was one person. There is no way, no how, we’re going to fool everyone.”

  <><><><>

  “Frank!” Andrea gleefully called out and raced down the steps of the clinic when Dean, Joe and Hank walked her way.

  “Sweet Jesus, look at you!” she ran to him. “I heard you had that new treatment. Thank you for trying it for all of us. You are so handsome!” tightly she embraced him and began a series of fast pecking kisses on his face, speaking between each kiss. “My … handsome … son. ... you …are… so …brave.”

  At first Hank froze and then Hank … screamed loudly and ran away.

  Joe cringed. “Dean, go get him.”

  Dean nodded and chased Hank.

  “What?” Andrea asked shocked. “What did I do?’

  “I keep telling you, Andrea, you over do things. Prime example right there. You know when you scared Frank, you went too far. Excuse me.” Without saying anymore, Joe walked up the steps to the clinic with an arrogant smile on his face.

  FIFTEEN – POLW

  Even though Chaka told them they were safe on that side of the river, they still built camp near the beach for safety sake and so they could light a fire large enough to cook their meal.

  “Man,” Frank tossed the bone to the side after cleaning the meat completely from it. “Fuckin awesome. How did you get it so good?”

  Chaka lifted his wrist and showed him the thick and wide band, he opened it exposing tiny vials. “Always season meat.”<
br />
  “Whoa and I thought that was just a fashion accessory,” Frank said. ”Fucking brilliant tech advance in the future to think of a seasoning bracelet.”

  Hal huffed out and lifted his head. “That’s not a tech advance, Frank. Finish eating and go to sleep. Or at least be quiet so some of us can get some shut eye.”

  Frank looked at Chaka who sat next to him, then at Robbie on his other side. “Uh, Hal you’re the only one trying to sleep.”

  “Sleep is not a bad thing, Frank. We don’t get enough of it at home. We need our energy for tomorrow.”

  “I’m too excited for sightseeing tomorrow. I’m gonna get some great pictures.”

  “We need to find your son.”

  “That, too.” Frank reached to the roasted meat and took some more. “I look at this and am impressed. I thought I was the mighty hunter.”

  “When?” Hal snapped. “When were you a hunter?”

  “When we hunted that bear.”

  “That’s true, Hal,” Robbie said. “He did track that bear.”

  “I’ll give him that.”

  “But I never could catch a four foot, forty pound rabbit before,” Frank said. “It’s a goal now.”

  “Frank, have you ever thought you didn’t catch one because there are no four foot forty pound rabbits in our time.”

  “I’m sure there are,” Frank said. “We just haven’t found them. I will find one.”

  “I assure you there aren’t.”

  “There are,” Robbie stated. “World’s largest rabbit was in the UK, he was over four feet and weighed fifty pounds.”

  “For real?” Hal asked.

  “Yep. I remember Dad telling me about it.”

  “Then we will go to England to nab him,” Frank said.

  “How?” Hal asked. “How do you plan on going overseas? We don’t have the planes or fuel to do that.”

  “Boat.”

  “Boat,” Hal stated. “And who is going to drive the boat.”

  “Jimmy,” Frank said. “He was in the Navy.”

  Chaka tapped Frank on the arm. “Who is Jimmy?”

  “Oh, hey, yeah, he’s my brother. Sorry, we sometimes forget about him.”

  Chaka nodded with a laugh. “I have a brother we forget about too.”

  “Okay,” Hal held up his hand. “Let’s say Jimmy will navigate the boat to England. Where are you getting the boat?”

  “When we win the Great War. Fucking ton of ships, we’ll make sure we don’t destroy them all. Remind me to tell you my plan.” Frank winked. “I’m on it, it involves kidnapping Dad when decision making comes.”

  A ton of ships?” Hal asked.

  Robbie replied. “They come from the east and down at the gulf. The east is a feint. Frank figures that out. You listen, Dad doesn’t.”

  “A huh,” Hal nodded. “And we know this how.”

  No one said anything.

  “Did you two read Danny’s book?”

  Again silence.

  “You weren’t supposed to read the book. It was a brother thing. Us brothers were to read it together.”

  Frank pointed to Robbie. ’We’re brothers and we read it. Sorry.”

  “All of us Frank. No one excluded. Me, you and Robbie.”

  Chaka interjected. “What about Jimmy?”

  “Ha!” Frank laughed. “Good point.”

  “Where is it?” Hal asked. “I want it now. Where?”

  Frank reached for his pack and opened it. He pulled out the copy of the book in a plastic bag. “Here.” He handed it to Hal.

  “Thank you.”

  “The beginning is kind of boring so …

  “No spoilers please.” Hal took it from the bag.

  “You may want to skip chapter twelve,” Frank said.

  “Frank!” Hal snapped.

  “You turn gay.”

  Hal spun his body away from Frank, mumbling “Asshole’ as he did.

  Robbie snickered.

  Chaka clapped his hands together once. “Okay, break out the magic water and finish telling us about the reference visual moving pictures.”

  “Oh, yeah, absolutely.” Frank reached into his back pack and pulled out a bottle.

  Slowly Hal turned back around. “Reference … movies?”

  “Yes.” Frank took a drink and passed the bottle to Robbie.

  “Why are you drinking?” Hal asked. “You’re a recovering alcoholic.”

  “Recovered,” Frank said. “I’m better now.”

  “You’re impossible,” Hal told him and intercepted the bottle. “What reference movies.”

  “Reference movies about this whole trip. It’s been done before,” Frank said.

  Hal choked on his sip and handed it back. “When?”

  “1969,” Frank said. “Robbie where did I leave off?”

  “The death of dogs and cats,” Robbie answered.

  “Yes, thank you.” Frank cleared his throat. “I can’t believe you didn’t see four or five.”

  “I don’t know why.” Robbie said. “I think I lost interest.”

  “Fucking shame. Anyhow …” Frank continued. “After the death of his mother and father, and the great exchange was pulled, Caesar grew up under the care of a circus guy”

  “Oh my God,” Hal griped. “Planet of the Apes. A reference film? Please.”

  “Hal, scoff if you must. But I am telling you, they predicted all this.”

  “They did not.”

  “Did too, did we not fall in a lake.”

  Hal opened his mouth.

  “We did so there. Back to what I was saying. The great exchange was made sparing baby Caesar. No one was the wiser. Then a great plague hit the animals and people needed pets to they took on apes as pets.”

  Chaka gasped.

  Frank looked at him. “Yeah, that’s a scary thought.”

  “No.” Chaka shook his head. “Before my team there were things called Manmal. Small loveable creatures. Everyone had them. Some to play some to guard. Four legs, fur, tail, I have seen pictures. Then a great plague wiped them all out and it is said that is when Hubra started taking humans as pets. This Charlton Heston is a magical predictor of the future.”

  “He is.”

  “Oh my God,” Hal commented.

  “And so are you, Frank,” Chaka said.

  “I am.”

  With a groan and irritation, Hal took his pages, blanket, and flash light. He stood, grabbed the bottle from the ground and moved away from the fire.

  SIXTEEN – BEGINNINGS

  The box was heavy but perfect. It wasn’t big enough to hold many weapons, two hand guns, and Dean was leery and cheap about giving too much LEP ammo since their stash wasn’t much, nor the chemical weapon. So he was sparse about what he gathered. Danny said he’d meet them at the church with the box, when Dean saw it, he couldn’t believe.

  Outside the church, Danny placed the two by one foot box on the ground and opened it. Inside were plastic bags.

  “Push the air out of what you put in there. Then …” Danny closed the lid. On top was a small circle the size of a quarter, he flipped the cap on that and pulled a hand basketball pump from his back pocket. “Takes about twenty or so withdraw pumps, it’s a crude system, time consuming, but it gets the air out.” He demonstrated with a few pumps. “The valve is air tight it won’t let air back in. I designed it that way. The pump was my next phase of this thing.”

  Dean reached down for the lid. “It’s stuck.”

  “No, you have to give it a little muscle.”

  Henry stepped into the box and after a struggle, the lid lifted with a hiss. “Wow, Danny, this is great.”

  “You made this?” Dean asked. “Just now.”

  “No.” Danny waved out his hand. “A year ago. I was an engineer, Dean. It’s my own personal time capsule. Just some things I want to bury and preserve in the event the Great War does happen. I still live through it, obviously.”

  “So this will work?” Dean asked. “You think it w
ill last a thousand years?”

  Danny shrugged. “I don’t know. If we bury it just right and this church still stands then yes. I don’t worry so much about the box surviving as I do about it being dug up. I mean, it’s a dirt floor in the church basement. What if there’s a small flood, pipe break, anything can cause this to rise to the surface.”

  “We can put something on top,” Henry suggested. “Like a slab of concrete, something heavy and put the dirt on top of that as well.”

  “You two take that to the basement through the side door,’ Dean said, staring at the church. “I got an idea. I’ll meet you down there.”

  “Dean, that’s a church,” Danny said. “You aren’t going to take something from there are you?”

  “Yeah, everything in a church is heavy and concrete.”

  “Dean,” Henry scolded. “It’s not a very nice thing to do, to steal from a church.”

  “Do not lecture me about morals,” Dean pointed to Henry. “Not you. Go. Now. I got this and don’t worry, I won’t steal anything important.”

  It took a little over an hour in the dark to dig the hole deep enough near the corner back wall of the church. They dog down about three feet, after placing the items in the box, they put it in the hole and add a layer of dirt.

  Dean set the object nearly the size of the box upside down on top of that layer of soil. It was heavy and Dean almost dropped it several times.

  “There.” Dean dusted off his hands. “It works perfectly. Let’s cover it.” He noticed that Danny and Henry just stared. “What?” asked Dean.

  “I don’t know, Dean,” Henry said. “I’m not Catholic but I think that might be important.”

  “I am Catholic,” Danny said. “And that is important.”

  “Nah,” Dean scoffed. “It was a wall decoration and it won’t even be missed.”

  “Gentlemen,” Elliott Ryder’s voice called in the darkness and a bright flashlight shined upon them. “Do you care to tell me why you are not only digging a hole in the basement but you stole and are burying the fifth station of the cross?”

  Danny peeped a shriek. ‘You took Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus.”

  “Who?” Dean asked. “And how do you know this stuff.”