"Alabama Zack" is a 40-chapter science fiction serial, published in the Scholar and Scribe community once a week on Wednesdays.
You can start the serial from the beginning by visiting the Curated Collection.
Alabama Zack, our hero and a war veteran, found himself standing on a train station platform in another time and dimension. At his feet lay a man in a brown suit. The man was dead, and Zack was arrested and jailed for murder.
Zack has amnesia: he can not remember how he arrived on that platform, let alone whether or not he had anything to do with the man's death.
Zack has met three people who are helping him to recover his memory and prove his innocence: the doctor, whom Zack met on the train station platform, the P.I. Cork McGraw, and Cork's maid Matilda.
In last week's chapter, Cork and Matilda performed what the doctor had taught them was a Bouncing G.F.: a quick, incomplete dimension jump, one in which the jumper does not completely materialize in the dimension they are jumping to. Their goal was to track and bring back Zack, who had accidentally slipped from their dimension into his home dimension. They successfully brought Zack back to Cork's office in town, and Zack, exhausted from the ordeal, promptly fell asleep in Matilda's arms.
He dreamed of a time when he was 9 years old and he had also slept uncomfortably on the floor. It had been on the planks in his family's first cabin in Alabama, on a sticky summer night. He had tossed and turned and barely reached sleep. Through it he had remained aware of the bullfrogs croaking by the pond hundreds of yards away from the cabin's front porch.
He had smiled listening to the frogs. He had dreamed of sneaking down to the pond in the dark – with the full moon casting a stark contrast between dark and light, so that he could stand in pitch black shadow and clearly see the silver bulrushes wave. And then it had no longer been a dream; he had actually been standing there on such a night, but instead of sticky summer air, it had been crisp and biting, and his bare feet had stood on white frost.
Wearing just his underclothes, he'd hugged his chest and stamped his feet. He had turned around to call his folks – but the cabin had not been there. Instead he had seen a vast field of empty hills without a soul in sight. He'd stood there alone and freezing and realized he was not in Alabama.
Now he woke up and gasped. It was pitch black, and he had no idea where he was. His fist clenched and tightened the muscles clear into his shoulders and back. A bit of light moved in; without moving his head he looked around and saw dark shapes that could be anything. They resolved to furniture; the light was the moon shining in a full length window. He listened, and hearing nothing, got up and went to the window. Below, he recognized the boardwalk and bench and he remembered: he'd been shot at there, in front of Cork McGraw's place, with Cork and the doctor.
They'd been talking about the murder.
As soon as he remembered where he was, he saw a dark figure walk in a quiet zigzag up the steps and to the door. He strained his eyes, but he could barely make out the figure, let alone see who – or what – it was. It appeared to grow smaller in front of the door. Zack realized it had stooped down; he turned and hurried to find the stairs in the dark. He stubbed his toe and tripped on the transporter chair, and just caught himself on the railing. By the time he had fumbled downstairs and whipped open the door, the street was bare. But something fluttered at the threshold – a sheaf of paper.
He scooped it up, not noticing the green tinge around its edges. The moon waxed brighter and he read: “You have been reclaimed as prisoner by the realm. Within the next 24 hours, finish the mission of discovery that you requested; satisfy your curiosity about the doctor, and discover what he knows.”
A brilliant flash of green light blinded him the moment he finished reading. He spun back inside in panic as his vision cleared, and at the top of his field of vision, the prison's green tracking light once again lagged behind his turn.
Next week in our story
... Zack cried, springing out of his chair at him. The doctor leapt up to protect himself from the onrush. He tried to back behind the lounge chair, but his legs caught and he stumbled. Cork saved him, wrapping a big arm around Zack just before he reached him. “Liar!” Zack yelled, and the floor shook as he and Cork struggled.
Chapter XIX (link to come)
Start at the beginning
Cover for “Alabama Zack” designed in Canva using a Pixabay photo as background (image source).
Text written by 
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