Chapter 09: Captured

Flashes of lightning preceded the formation of a fist sized sphere of energy. It hovered over the white sand beach before rapidly expanding to ten feet in diameter. Composed entirely of transparent energy, the sphere detonated, a horizontal shockwave ripping outward from its center.

At the same instant the sphere ceased to exist, the Jenkins family was deposited on the beach. The smoke and volcanic ash from the dying world they'd escaped had been contained in the time bubble with them. Now free, the smoke drifted away on the wind while the ash settled across the sands.

The Jenkins family coughed to get the last of the noxious fumes expelled from their lungs. They breathed deeply the clean, refreshing air of the tropical island. The ocean breeze washed over them in an invisible tide, bringing with it the smell of salt.

They collapsed into the soft beach sand, resting from their harrowing ordeal and grateful to be alive. The dinosaurs carried by Cassie and Alison were released, and they scampered across the beach, hopping up and down while chittering excitedly to each other.

"It looks like they're happy," Alison observed.

"I wonder where we are," Sean spoke up, looking curiously at their surroundings.

The beach where they lay resided like a welcome mat for visitors in front of a thick forest of palm trees. The vegetation was packed together so closely with ferns and vines, it proved impossible to see more than a few feet inside.

"I don't know where we are, but almost anywhere is better than where we'd been," Cassie stated.

The two dinosaurs ceased their frolicking on the beach and ran into the forest, disappearing from sight.

"Where are they going?" Cassie asked.

"Maybe they're hungry," Sean suggested. "The cataclysmic destruction of the world did interrupt their breakfast."

The family chuckled at the odd statement. All levity ended a moment later when Mike checked the time device in his hand. Exhaustion left as adrenaline coursed through his system. Mike's alertness drew the attention of his family.

"What's wrong?" Alison questioned.

"See for yourself," Mike replied, holding out the device for her inspection.

The green progress bar running horizontally across the display screen was empty, as it usually was moments after a jump, but it had also turned a sinister shade of red.

"The power cells are dying," Alison observed.

"It may give us one more jump, but I wouldn't expect any after it," Mike warned.

"We might not need it if we got close to our own time," Alison said.

"We didn't," Sean mentioned, pointing out to sea.

Cutting through the waters, a large vessel drew near the island. Equipped with two masts, the sails were open full, straining against the wind pushing them along. The hull was a dark brown wood, and the canvas of the sails could not have been brighter if they'd been fashioned from sunlit clouds.

"I don't think we made it back to our time," Alison agreed, stating the obvious.

"We're closer than we were," Mike reminded, trying to stay optimistic. Maintaining the right mental attitude was his best hope for keeping worry at bay. It tried to creep into his mind, telling him the family would be stranded somewhere in time, but he refused to let it gain a foothold.

"Should we try to signal them?" Cassie asked.

"We've no way of knowing if they're friendly," Sean countered. "They could be pirates who haven't raised their flag yet."

"Shipboard illnesses were common in the old days," Alison added to the conversation. "They might have a plague."

"Friendly or not, I'd recommend against contact as it would be difficult to answer any questions they might have about us," Mike concluded. "We don't need to be rescued here, and the device is recharging. I say we take cover and let them pass."

Getting back to their feet, they moved quickly to the jungle edge and took shelter in its concealing darkness.

The sailing vessel turned slightly and dropped its anchor. The sailors on deck busied themselves preparing and lowering a medium sized boat. Crewed by five men, four in the center manning the oars and one in the stern for rudder control, the boat began heading for the beach.

Dressed in similar attire, the sailors wore baggy shirts of white linen, laced together loosely at their necks. The dark pants were tucked into well worn boots of sturdy leather. Their hair and beards were long as they'd spent weeks, even months, at sea between ports.

"Do you think they saw us?" Alison questioned.

"I don't know," Mike admitted. "In either case, we need to keep moving; we don't want them to find us."

The thick tangle of greenery made it difficult to travel. Dead branches and twigs snagged their clothes while scratching their skin, and vines threatened to trip them with every step. The unevenness of the terrain was covered by grass and other plant life, hiding the hazards from view until someone stepped into one of them and fell.

The boat of sailors ran aground on the beach, and the men jumped out. Taking hold of their raft on all sides, they dragged it up on the sand where it wouldn't be swept away by the tides.

The Jenkins family was compelled to slow their forward progress to almost nothing. This was due to safety concerns in the punishing terrain as well as not wanting to give away their position by crashing through the brush in hearing range of the sailors. It was their hope to remain unseen and undiscovered until the men went back to their ship. A few peaceful days on a tropical island while waiting for the device to recharge would be a welcome change.

Mike grabbed his family and halted them. Putting one finger to his lips to command their silence, he pointed with his other hand ahead of them. A pathway must have existed through the jungle known to the sailors but not to the visiting Jenkins family because the boatmen were already located in the small clearing ahead. A waterfall spilled noisily from a high rock, cascading into a pool below.

"We need to wait until they leave," Mike whispered.

The sailors filled two large barrels with fresh water from the pool. Securing lids on them to keep the contents from spilling on the way back to the boat, the sailors returned the way they'd come.

"What's with them?" Sean asked in a hushed voice.

"They're probably running low on fresh water," Mike reasoned. "I wouldn't be surprised if they came back again for more."

"If water is low," Alison suggested, "they may be running out of other supplies as well."

"They might start searching the island for food," Cassie added. "We can't stay here."

"Keep quiet and follow me," Mike instructed. He eased away from the waterfall and proceeded deeper inland.

They stopped at the edge of the jungle. A mountain ridge jutted upward through the center of the island, but an open space of sandy ground separated the jungle from the towering rock. Mike thought the tree covered mountain might keep them away from the sailors prowling around, but the idea of crossing the open terrain made him uncomfortable.

When it looked clear, Mike tapped Sean on the shoulder, and his son took off across the sand toward the tree line of the mountain ridge. Sean dived between a palm tree and a large boulder. He motioned, and Cassie went next.

Mike would've preferred having everyone make the trip at the same time, but if they were spotted, it'd be better if the sailors only discovered one of them rather than the entire family.

As Alison was making her run, she discovered the sailors had dispatched a second team to the island. She skidded in the sand as she abruptly stopped. Alison couldn't go back or forward without drawing unwanted attention to her family.

A single look at Alison and her strange clothes, torn by her journey through the jungle in the dinosaur age and on this island, and the sailors knew she was out of place.

"Halt!" one of the men shouted, drawing a cutlass and pointing the slightly curved blade of the short sword in her direction.

Alison remained motionless, holding her hands up in an attitude of surrender. She kept her expression neutral while waiting for the five men to approach.

"For what reason be you on this island?" the man with the sword demanded.

When he made the mistake of trying to prod Alison with the tip of his cutlass to get her to answer, she grabbed hold of his sword hand. Stepping around the man, she expertly pulled on his arm and flipped him onto his back in the sand.

Appropriating the blade for herself, Alison pointed it toward the remaining four men. They drew out swords of their own. Five against one was hardly fair, and despite Alison being a fencing instructor and former champion, Mike wasn't about to let her fight them all without help.

Dashing out from cover, he tackled one of the sailors from behind, knocking the cutlass from his hand in the process. Mike rolled to his feet, and Alison aimed a perfect kick into the sand, making the downed weapon airborne as it flew into Mike's waiting hand.

The odds were still against the visitors from the future, but it was decidedly closer to even than it had been a moment ago. The two men who'd been knocked down drew daggers from their belts and prepared to fight.

One of the sailors swung his blade toward Alison's left arm, but she countered by dropping the tip of her own weapon while bringing the hilt across. When the maneuver was complete, her hands held the grip at shoulder level, and the blade pointed downward toward the sand. Her opponent's sword glanced off hers harmlessly, and she instantly retaliated, delivering a slice against his forearm and causing him to drop his cutlass. Before she could coerce his submission, one of the other sailors got involved, driving her back with a multitude of sword swings never intended to cause harm, merely to force her away from her vanquished foe.

Mike fought against the remaining three. His sword was in constant motion, and although Alison had taught him how to handle himself in a sword fight, his athletic skills were in other areas. He stayed mobile, trying to keep the three opponents from surrounding him.

Steel rang out with every clash of the blades. The sailors were all experienced swordsmen, but Alison and Mike had defensive training in martial arts the boatmen couldn't possibly have even heard about yet.

Turning her opponent's blade aside, Alison stepped close and grabbed hold of the man with her free hand. An expert twist flipped him over her shoulder. Pivoting in place, she drove the heel of her foot into the stomach of her second foe, doubling him over. He staggered back against a tree, gasping for breath.

Alison was about to assist Mike when two dozen armed men appeared and surrounded them. By their attire and weapons, she assumed they were also from the ship anchored out to sea.

If any hope of victory had remained, they would've continued the fight, but the outcome was a certainty. Dying in a hopeless fight was pointless, but if the sailors only took them captive, a slim chance for escape later endured. Seeing it as their best option, they dropped their swords and surrendered.

Taking no chances with the two skilled fighters, the sailors pounced on Alison and Mike, tying their hands and guiding them forcefully toward the beach.

Staying in cover and watching silently, Cassie and Sean counted the numbers of sailors congregating around their parents. Far too many had come ashore for the two of them to mount any kind of a rescue operation at the present time. If they wanted to save them, it would have to be done later. Moving as quickly as they could without generating undue noise, they followed after them.

Mike and Alison were unceremoniously dumped on the beach, and the sailors parted for their superior. Dressed in a similar outfit of a baggy white shirt laced at the throat and dark pants tucked into his shin high boots, the man approaching had a few differences. Silver edges had been added to his belt and the wide lip on his leather boots. Additional silver threads at the cuffs of his sleeves added flashing elegance to it.

His dark brown eyes had a gentleness to them similar to a nobleman, but his muscle mass, and the scars he carried on the backs of his hands, showed he'd seen more than his share of combat. A cleft in his chin was partly hidden my his half grown beard. The man's long hair had been pulled back away from his face in an attempt to keep the brown strands from obscuring his vision. He seemed to have more polish than the rest of the men, but he also possessed the commanding presence of someone in very high authority.

"Greetings, strangers," the man said to Alison and Mike. "My name is Matthew Blake, but I'm more commonly known as the Silver Duke. I'd like to know what you're doing on my island."

"I remember something about that name from history class," Cassie whispered to Sean. They currently hid among a large pile of boulders inside the edge of the jungle.

"What is it?" Sean prompted.

"I can't remember at the moment," she apologized. "What I do know is that it had something to do with pirates."

Sean and Cassie stared at the man holding their parents captive, wondering how they were ever going to get home.