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  From here he was getting a magnificent view of the southern valley. The valley looked peaceful and pleasant as ever. After about another mile, Marcus finally came to the spot he had been thinking of. The mountain had a small offset to the edge of the mountain that required the engineers to build a bridge across it. He hoped that nothing had happened to the bridge and that it was in good shape. Marcus stopped before crossing and got out and inspected the bridge. Everything was fine. Getting back in the SUV, he turned it around and backed the trailer on to the bridge at a perpendicular angle to the concrete barrier. He grabbed the remote to the trailer before he got out of the SUV. He looked the saber tooth over again. It truly was a magnificent animal. Magnificent but deadly. Remembering what Jocelyn had told him about the cat being larger than normal; Marcus began to speculate on what other things the scientists had genetically altered. With that, Marcus hit the buttons and the entire trailer raised vertically about two feet making it even with the top of the concrete barrier. He clicked another button and the front of the trailer closest to the SUV began to raise and tilt the trailer at about a forty-five degree angle. He raised it a few more degrees and just for a brief moment the cat and the goat held, then they began to slide slowly at first. Then, like a shot, they slipped over the edge of the bridge and plummeted below. Marcus watched them as they fell about fifteen hundred feet to the bottom of the gorge and disappeared into the dense forest below. He turned and looked at the trailer and the bloody mess that had been left. Too bad the old car washes weren’t still in operation but at least he had a good pressure washer back at the compound. He was going to need it. He lowered the trailer and headed back. The ride back was uneventful and he was back at the compound by early evening. He unloaded the items he had retrieved from the log cabin, then parked the trailer, raised it up, and spent about two hours cleaning the SUV and the trailer.

  By this time he realized that he had skipped dinner and was starving. He thought about grabbing a quick bite and making another run to the house but decided he would just finish it tomorrow. After all, it wasn’t like he had plans for the week. Last time he checked his calendar was clear for the next thirty years. Laughing, he went in the house and picked out one of the complete meal containers that he had scavenged from the house. It was another one of his favorites… Bacon cheeseburger and French fries. He kept looking and almost changed his mind and decided to make a quick run to the log cabin because he knew he had saw some ketchup there but wasn’t finding it now. Then he found it. Fries were okay, but fries with ketchup were grand. He chuckled to himself. He was like a kid in a candy store. It didn’t take him long to finish off the meal and by then it was about seven. He thought about it for a couple of minutes and decided that he had time to get a little fishing in before dark. He grabbed his gear and headed out to the little pier that went about twenty feet into the lake. He had a solar powered boat tied to the pier but today he decided to take it easy and relax in his fold-up chair and fish until dark. Basically, the lake had bass, bluegill, crappie, catfish, and he had actually caught a couple of trout in there before. He fished until about 9:00 and caught a small stringer full of catfish. Nothing worthy of mounting on a wall, but they would make several meals for him. It took him until about ten o’clock to clean and store them. Then he remembered he hadn’t checked on his animals and made a quick run over to the barn to make sure they had enough feed and gathered the eggs from his chickens. He knew he was going to be busy for the next few days so he set the feed on automatic for the animals. He got back to the house at about eleven. He was beat and decided it was bedtime.

  Chapter 7

  After following his morning ritual, Marcus took the SUV and headed back out to the log cabin with the trailer. He thought it would take him one trip and he would be finished. After a little while he realized that it was going to take a lot longer. It took him a total of three trips to get everything he wanted. The first trip was nothing but food and food related items. It filled up the SUV and the trailer. Half of the next load was food and the other half was some household items that could come in handy later. The third load was strictly for his own comfort.

  Marcus hadn’t noticed it when he had searched the house before but there was a large finished basement in the house. Whoever had lived in the house before had set up their own “man cave” and right in the middle of that cave was a big beautiful camouflage recliner. It had called his name ever since he found it. He knew it would be hard to get it up the steps and out on the trailer but he was determined to get it done. He worked on it an hour just to get it up the steps. It took another hour to get it out of the house and onto the trailer. By the time he got it into the compound and in the house it was evening time again. For now, he put it directly in the middle of the living room in front of the big television screen.

  He was starving by now and opened up one of the containers that had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy. All were steaming hot as soon as he opened it. Taking his meal he set down to watch some television and check his sensors. The food was delicious. It was the best he had eaten in over a year.

  While he was eating, he decided it was time to check some of the cameras and sensors that he had placed throughout the valley. He had set these out on mostly roads, paths, and other areas that might be frequented by some kind of traffic. He had about twenty-five of them scattered in a fifty mile radius. He slowly scanned through the cameras and sensors one by one. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary until he noticed that sensor/camera twenty-one wasn’t functioning correctly. He tried several troubleshooting procedures that didn’t work then he decided to run a reboot sequence on it hoping that he wasn’t going to have to replace it. This sensor/camera was to the northeast and located on one of the major freeways coming through that valley. It looked like he was going to have to make a trip to the valley soon if this didn’t work.

  As the system rebooted, the sensor came on and immediately went red. Marcus dropped his fork. Surely it was malfunctioning… He ran several tests on it again. Still red. He decided to reboot it again. Same result. All the indications that he was receiving was that it wasn’t malfunctioning and even more serious was that something was coming toward the sensor/camera at a very fast rate. He knew the sensor was active within a two mile radius. Time slowed down to a crawl. It hadn’t come into view yet. He had to look twice at the reading to confirm what it was saying but what really was shocking, was that whatever it was, it wasn’t completely biological. It had to be a vehicle of some sort and it was coming into Marcus’ valley...

  …if you enjoyed this, be sure to be on the lookout for the second episode of Tomorrow’s Past: The Rescue by Everette Morgan. Marcus’ solitude may soon be at an end. Thanks to everyone that purchased this little novelette and gave me chance to do what I've always wanted to do.

  About the Author:

  Everette Morgan lives with his wife and kids in the most northwestern part of Georgia at the southern tip of the Appalachian mountain chain. His hobbies include fishing, hunting, sleeping, and reading… sometimes all at the same time. This is his first venture into writing. Constructive criticism is always welcomed and you can leave any comments at [email protected] .

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  About the Author