"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, the doctor revealed that he was a dimension traveler, and that he knew the dead man at the train station. Zack reacted angrily and left Cork's office at a run.
Our hero ran down the center of the dusty street, headed north, toward the train station.
He told himself that he was furious because the doctor had withheld information about the dead man, but really he was furious because the doctor had forced him to look at a truth that he refused to acknowledge: that he traveled between dimensions.
The thought that the train station had been his point of entry to that dimension came to him, but he clenched his fists. No. The murder had happened there. That's why he was going there: to pick up the trail and resolve the goddamn thing, so he could move on.
Zack passed the last buildings in town; from there flat prairie opened to the train station. He did not notice the buckboard waiting in the shadow of Claytons' dry goods store, nor did he hear the clink of the bit and whispered giddyup as the buckboard moved to follow him – until rapidly approaching hooves rumbled into his thoughts.
He cut to the right as he looked over his left shoulder. The horses trampled past right where he'd been – the buckboard had tried to run him down! He saw a man standing behind the driver, swinging a shotgun at his head. He turned and his feet tangled and he fell back. He felt the wind as the gun passed over, then he hit the ground so hard his teeth clicked.
The man with the shotgun was knocked off balance when the blow missed, and he had a hard time regaining his footing because the driver was hauling back the reins to stop. But as the man steadied himself Zack could see that he was bringing the butt of the gun to his shoulder. He kicked the dirt with both feet, scooching backwards. He had to get up. The buckboard stopped. The man pointed the gun. A shot rang out – but it was the man's head that snapped back, his arms that sprang open. He dropped the shotgun and sprawled on the seat beside the driver, who stared a moment at his partner before whipping the team into motion.
Cork McGraw walked up, gently thumbing home the hammer of his pistol.
“I could've told you the Claytons were still layin' for you,” he said, and he reached down to help Zack stand. As he brushed himself off, Cork asked: “You got any more running to do?”
Zack shook his head. He felt subdued. Cork holstered his pistol and the two began to walk back toward the office, with Cork in the lead, scanning the street for more gunmen.
That's when the realm's green tracking light again glowed bright and slipped down to encompass our hero. He yelled to Cork, but his words were trapped by the light. He was sucked up into the air, to watch helplessly as Cork receded beneath him.
Next week in our story
The drunk tried to wet his lips. He had just told Mr. Clayton that Alabama Zack was dead. It had seemed like a good idea when he was talking to the lone cowboy behind the train station, but then – instead of buying him the promised bottle – the cowboy had collared him and dragged him before Mr. Clayton.
Chapter XXI (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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