The Left Turn at Albuquerque
An Accidental Visit to Future America
All my full-length novels are going on sale Wednesday, September 4, including the newest one: Paradox Book Six: Confronting Fate. I’ll be sharing some excerpts this week. This one from Book Two: Rebooting Fate, happens when a warp generator (time machine) glitches, giving Ike and Uncle Si (“Dad”) an unintended glimpse into a postapocalyptic future. Enjoy!
Dad and I were discussing the Tunney fight, driving out of Chicago in the Speedster, when Fate sprung a trap on us. Dad opened the panel on the dash to punch in the coordinates for the next warp jump. I heard him say, "What the…?" just before my senses were overwhelmed by the jump.
The Auburn rolled and bounced over a grassy hilltop toward a small wood that looked like it had been wiped out by a forest fire. The strange thing was, though, all the burnt remains of the trunks leaned over in a uniform direction (toward us), as if the fire had had assistance from a hurricane.
Dad braked to a stop and, eyes wide behind his shades, groped under his seat. He pulled out a small device with a meter of some kind. He turned it on and it began clicking. He watched the meter needle, then set it down in his lap, turned the Speedster around and raced the opposite direction.
"What's wrong?" I asked, but he didn't notice my question. Maybe the engine noise was responsible.
Down below the hill we found a cracked-asphalt road, with grass and weeds growing up through the fractured pavement. Off to either side were rusted skeletons of abandoned cars and trucks, some upside-down or on their sides. They were so thoroughly ravaged by the elements, they must have been sitting there for decades. Yet the shape of them seemed only a step in evolution past the vehicles I'd seen in 2014 Kansas City.
Off to one side was an angry gray ocean, full of towering, raging waves. On land the grass was either brown or yellow, even though there was no lack of moisture and it felt like a very hot summer.
Dad continued along the awful road surface as fast as he dared, checking his device frequently. Finally, at the top of another hill, he steered us into what once must have been a parking lot a long time ago. The building surrounded by the parking lot might once have been fancy, but now it looked more like a haunted shell. The doors and windows weren't boarded up, and there were no obvious signs of catastrophic events, but it was unmistakably abandoned, and badly deteriorated.
In the surprise of seeing this strange destination, I hadn't noticed right away the pain caused by the sun on my skin. It felt hotter and looked brighter than normal. The sky was so bright, my eyes hurt. I found Dad's extra pair of polarized, UV-blocking shades in the glove compartment and put them on.
Dad parked the Speedster in the shade of the rotted building and the relief from the scorching sun was immediate. He reached past me to open the glove compartment again.
"Where are we?" I asked, staring at the bizarre landscape.
"Not sure," he said, pulling out a pair of binoculars. "Either I hit the wrong button, or the warp generator just malfunctioned."
He set the device on the dash. It wasn't clicking as much, now. Imitating Bugs Bunny, he quipped, "Maybe we should'na' made that left toin at Albakoikee."
He got out and put the binoculars to his eyes, focusing on something in the direction we'd come from.
"Holy shit," he said, after a minute.
"What?" I asked, walking up beside him.
He handed me the binoculars, and pointed at what he wanted me to study. It took me a moment to find it through the lenses. Covering part of the mainland and a couple islands in the harbor was the dark ruins of a big city. Jagged splinters that were once skyscrapers stabbed up toward the merciless sun. Most of the rest of it was just rubble.
"Look over to the right," Dad said. "In the harbor. See it?"
I did see the huge waves smashing around a strange shape, but couldn't identify it.
"Not quite Planet of the Apes, but close enough," he said, taking the binoculars back.
"Huh?" I said.
He panned over the scenery. "I think that's what's left of Lady Liberty, face-down in the surf. Which means what we're looking at is New York City. Or was."
I staggered back to the Auburn and sagged against its sleek hood, trying to process what he just said.
"Was it nuked?" I asked.
"Yup." He thumbed back over his shoulder, toward the device he'd left on the dash. "But it happened some time ago, judging by the Geiger Counter."
I had a lot of questions, but the one I voiced was, "Why do you have a Geiger Counter under the driver's seat?"
"This isn't the first malfunction I've had."
Having apparently seen enough, he marched back to the car, put the binoculars away, and opened the trunk. I followed and looked inside over his stooping back. He handed me an M1921 Thompson submachinegun and said, "Lock and load."