Timesurfers
Authors: Rhonda Sermon
Tags: #coming of age, #mystery, #fantasy, #magic, #time travel, #young adult fiction, #dystopian, #passenger, #dystopian action, #top fantasy books 2015
Copyright 2015 Rhonda Sermon
Published by K&R Books
Smashwords Edition
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book
are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the
intent of the author.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment
only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading
this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your
enjoyment only, then please return to your favourite retailer and
purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of
this author.
ISBN: 978-0-9943617-2-1 (Smashwords)
Cover design by Angela Fristoe at
Covered
Creatively
Dedication
This book is dedicated to David,
Keeley and Riley
Table of Contents
Chapter 1-There's a Bomb on the Bus
Chapter 7-A Dead Cheerleader Awakens
Chapter 17-Magic Trumps Technology
Chapter 1
There's a Bomb on the
Bus
“I
s this some kind of joke?” Cate pointed at the
text.
“Not a joke. Sorry honey.” Eve gave her a sad
smile.
“And
everyone
knew about this before
me?”
Eve grimaced. “Pretty much.”
Cate checked her phone again.
ZACH: “WITH BRITTANY NOW.
WE R DONE.”
The text message came five minutes
after
Eve arrived to console her about the breakup. Cate was
the last person to know she’d been dumped
and
replaced by a
perky cheerleader. She brushed a mix of sad, embarrassed, but
predominantly angry tears from her cheeks. Zach was part of her
witness protection deal.
“I guess they can be one giant bubble of
popular fizz together,” Eve said.
“Huh.” Cate absently twirled her blonde
hair.
Eve patted her arm. “Popularity is so
overrated. He traded down in the looks department. Cheerleader be
damned. I’d choose you over Brittany any day. I never got you and
Zach.”
Eve was perceptive. Cate’s witness protection
rules required a boyfriend. She followed all the rules regardless
of how unpleasant or annoying she found them. They kept her hidden
and safe. No one would be impressed she was the talk of the school
for all the wrong reasons yet again. There was definitely another
long lecture on “blending in” and “staying under the radar”
pending.
Her breath, mixed with the freezing air,
created smoke as she exhaled. She was in the slowest-moving bus
queue ever. Seriously, how hard was it to pay the driver and find a
seat? It was always such a nightmare to get home from Sunday
paintball.
Something didn’t add up. Cate’s handler had
chosen Zach to groom for her boyfriend because he had no other
friends. He was a sure thing because he
wasn’t
popular. After a few years of a carefully
manufactured and managed “good friends” relationship they moved to
“officially dating” last year. Apparently fifteen was the “right”
age for acquiring a boyfriend. “How did Zach transform overnight
into this übercool dude guys high-five and girls flip their hair
for?” Cate demanded.
“And...delete contact!” Eve landed a vicious
stab at her phone. “Zach is officially dead to me. You’re
delusional, sweetie. Zach’s been popular forever.”
“What? You’re joking, right?” Eve’s blank
look was yet another thing that made no sense. “I’ve stepped into
some alternate universe, and it totally blows.” Cate dragged her
hands down her face. This was weirding her out, and that was saying
something. Five years in witness protection had made her the Queen
of Weird.
Eve’s blue eyes narrowed. “You’re using a
kinda whiney voice, which is very unattractive.”
“I’ve been dumped by text.” Cate tugged at
her ringlets which were courtesy of the damp air.
“And I get that you’re dealing with
embarrassment on a totally epic scale.”
Cate gave Eve her best death look.
Eve grinned. “I see your emerald stare and
raise you my sapphire glare.”
Cate fought back a smile as Eve returned her
gaze. She was a little sad. Zach had been nice to her, until the
twerp dumped her by text. Mostly she was concerned. Sure, she had
to deal with all the stares and whispers at school tomorrow, but
her handler and mother were going to insist she made good on all
the rules. She needed another boyfriend, ASAP.
“What the...?” Eve’s eyes widened. Her mouth
moved, but no sound came out. The
colour
leeched from her rich honey-toned skin.
“What?” Cate automatically followed Eve’s
gaze. A good few inches taller than her friend, she had an
uninterrupted view of what had caught Eve’s attention.
“Um...Ah...” Eve mumbled as a supertall boy
who could have walked straight out of a Ralph Lauren advertisement
stepped between them.
He wore a loose, black silk shirt with
leather cuffs and black trousers. His height held Cate’s attention,
and he got better the more she looked. The tousled griminess of his
rich chocolate hair promised finesse in the most wicked of ways. He
had distinct cheekbones and an angular jaw.
Women were suddenly attentive. Their eyes
intense, heads high, and bodies alert, enthralled by the potent
swirl of pheromones and lust that trailed in his wake. Her eyes,
along with everyone else’s, followed him until he disappeared
around the corner. She was trained to remember faces. That face she
had never seen around Tempus Falls before.
In this small town, an unfamiliar face was
cause for concern. She needed to get home. Something was amiss.
“Let’s just get on the bus and focus on how I’m going to live
through the next few days of humiliation at school.” She dug her
elbow into Eve’s rib cage when her friend didn’t answer. “Eve!” She
flapped her hand across Eve’s vacant face. “Eve—helloo!”
A prickle of apprehension scuttled up her
neck. She stepped closer to Eve. When their noses were nearly
touching she stuck her tongue out. Nothing, nada, zip! Her friend
seemed...frozen, like a statue.
Turning in a circle, Cate’s uneasiness
ratcheted up to fear. A woman was perched awkwardly with one leg on
the ground, the other halfway out of the car she was exiting. A
group of people were poised midstep on the crosswalk, and a street
performer, his mouth open, stood silently, frozen midsong. The
entire street resembled a photograph. All the people were still,
petrified statues. An icy chill rippled across her skin. What was
going on?
“H...H...Hello...” The word was barely
audible. “Hello,” she shouted toward the inky black clouds smeared
across the sky.
She placed a trembling hand on Eve’s red wool
coat near her heart.
Please don’t let anyone see
me feeling up my friend
. The rise and fall of Eve’s chest
confirmed she was alive. She poked her friend, gently, then harder.
As Eve toppled backward, Cate grabbed her. Eve was a dead weight
and Cate struggled to stand her back up. Out of the corner of her
eye, she sensed movement.
Two hazy figures flickered like static, their
grainy outlines solidifying with each purposeful stride through the
unmoving crowd. Tendrils of fear coiled around her heart and
squeezed. A girl and boy prowled into focus. She’d never seen them
around before either.
Run! Run! Run!
Her
brain shrieked. Her feet remained nailed to the ground with
fear.
The two figures were close now. The girl’s
black mermaid hair shimmered as she executed the perfect
do-not-mess-with-me head toss. Cate knew instantly they would never
be friends. Their genes were designed to repel one another.
Aggressively.
The girl reached the bus shelter and surveyed
the unmoving crowd, hands on hips. Her tartan coat parted to reveal
black velvet knee-high boots with a surprisingly sensible low wedge
heel and crimson jeans. She tapped her foot impatiently. “Where is
he?”
The voice of self-preservation spluttered
through Cate’s panic, urging her to stay utterly still.
“Chill, Rose, you know Rafe likes to make an
entrance.” The guy brushed a hand over his combat-short brown hair
and slouched nonchalantly against the Bus Stop sign. He looked
underdressed with his fleecy red and white checked shirt and worn
blue denim jeans ripped through one knee. His fingers drummed the
Bus Stop signpost as his eyes roamed the frozen crowd.
A determined ray of sunlight pierced the
black clouds, spotlighting him at the exact moment he smiled. Even
totally freaked out, his killer smile registered with her. That
smile would get him anything that he wanted.
“We need to disarm this bomb, pronto.” Rose’s
tone matched her head toss.
Bomb?
Cate’s stomach
contracted.
No. There would be a logical explanation.
Maybe she was being
Punk’d
. Hmm, while
that would explain Zach’s sudden popularity it would never happen.
Tempus Falls went crazy when there was a population explosion of
one. Hiding an entire TV crew would be impossible.
Okay...no need to overreact. She tasted bile.
Who was she kidding—considering the bizarreness of the situation,
overreaction was impossible. She wanted to run, but if she left Eve
frozen in the street, that would make her the worst friend ever. As
the self-proclaimed Queen of Weird, there was only one thing to do.
She wove through the frozen people. “Um...excuse me.”
A heartbeat later, two pairs of grey eyes
turned her way. She gasped. The boy had three vivid crimson marks
that traced down his cheek. A matching mark curled around his ear.
All four marks continued down his neck and disappeared under his
shirt. It looked like something had swiped an enormous claw down
his face. Her spark of bravado flickered and vanished.
“What the...?” Rose tapped her watch and gave
Cate a look that could cut diamond.
Cate flinched and took a few involuntary
steps backward. “We still have twenty-seven minutes, Austin.” Rose
stabbed an accusing finger at Cate. “
She
should be holding like everyone else.”
The calm, curious gleam in Austin’s eyes as
he appraised Cate made her pulse spike. Were they here for her?
“I’m...” A dryness edged down her throat,
making speech impossible.
“I don’t remember a girl on the marked list
at these coordinates back in 2014.” Rose pulled out a piece of
paper. “No, definitely no girl. You don’t have a bizarre guy name,
do you?”
Cate shook her head, because her mouth
refused to move. Rose’s upper-class British accent matched her
English-rose complexion. She was Pilates lean and around six foot
tall.
“You’re an unexpected complication, aren’t
you?” The red slashes on Austin’s cheek glistened as he stepped
toward her.
She took two rushed steps backward. Austin
wasn’t typically good looking or beautiful. He certainly wasn’t
unattractive through, and he had buckets of swagger.
