Introduction
"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.
Previously in our story
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 recent chapters, the Claytons burned down Cork's office building, in retribution for Cork shooting Mr. Clayton's son. Matilda was in the burning building, but the doctor saw her dimension jump out of it. Now, Cork and the doctor have decided to follow and make sure she is okay. But, since Cork's transporter chair burned in the fire, they have to petition the inquisitors for permission to use the doctor's transporter, which is in the inquisitors' cave.
The doctor and Cork McGraw wheeled the bikes out of Cork's backyard, heading north toward the train station along a row of fenced backyards. Cork walked ahead, straight-backed and eyes forward, while the doctor glanced back to make sure that the constables did not see them through the narrow spaces between buildings.
The doctor was anxious, because he had revealed the location of his transporter device – a vacant rock seat inside the inquisitors' cave. He had broken two oaths when he shared that information with Cork: one he had taken upon graduating from the Academy; the other upon his arrival in that world, in order to gain clearance to work from the inquisitors.
He looked down at his hands on the handlebars. He knew there would be consequences. The Academy would probably revoke his field privileges and demote him to a simple professorship; at the very least the inquisitors would expel him. He only hoped they would allow him to help Zack and Matilda – and Charles – before they did.
Suddenly the doctor almost ran his bike into Cork, who had stopped. He looked up and saw Mr. Clayton astride his horse and coming down the row toward them. Clayton held the reins in his left hand and a rifle in his right; as he neared them he lifted the reins and laid the rifle barrel across his forearm, trained on Cork's chest.
The doctor knew that Cork had buttoned his overcoat over his holster to prepare for the bike ride. There would be no quick-draw gun battle.
Clayton walked his horse right up to Cork, who did not move. The barrel was a foot from Cork's face. “Did you do it, McGraw?” he said. “Did you kill my boy?”
Cork looked up the rifle into Clayton's face. There was no denying it, so he said nothing. Clayton raised his voice: “You better speak up! I want to hear you own up to it before I shoot you dead!” He jabbed the rifle at Cork's face. Cork snapped his head aside and grabbed the barrel. The gun went off, burning his hand, but he hung on, then grabbed it with both hands and jerked Clayton to the ground. Clayton lost his grip when he hit, and Cork quickly reversed the gun and trained it on him.
“Check his pockets, doc. Make sure he doesn't have any more weapons.”
There was no answer. Cork shifted around so he could keep the gun on Clayton and look back. The doctor lay flat on his back, with blood darkening his brown suit coat.
Next week in our story
Zack stood across the barn from the little room, in shocked contemplation of what he had seen in his mind: a strange blackness pouring out of the room, followed by a man in a brown suit.
Chapter XXXI (link to come)
Start at the beginning
Cover for “Alabama Zack” designed in Canva using a Pixabay photo as background (image source).
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