Momentum chapter 1

A Daniel Blithe Novel

Be careful what you wish for, because sometimes it might just come true.

I stood on an M1 Abrams tank with two other soldiers on either side of me. We were waving down at the cheering crowd below us, as we maneuvered our way though the city streets. The Africans were treating us as liberators, for driving out the warlord that had once tormented them.

We didn't even encounter resistance; the warlord just packed up and left with his men.

A woman was reaching up to us, presenting me with a rolled up cloth of some kind.

I smiled at her and bent down to accept the gift, a sudden swishing noise came. Then an explosion, my whole world spun around and my ears were ringing. At first I thought I might have been knocked down, until I felt the ground slamming into my side driving the breath out of me.

My vision began to fade, and darkness settled in as the sounds of gunshots and explosions faded. I fell into a dreamless sleep.

I awoke with a pounding pain in my left shoulder and my head felt like it had been hit by a mallet.

"Uhh…My head." I groaned.

That's when I realized I wasn't in a city street. But instead I was lying with my back to a tree, which stood alone on top of a grassy hill.

I looked down to find that my rifle still strapped to me by my lanyard, and my armor still in one piece and no ammo clips or grenades were missing.

At first, I thought I was in the outskirts of town and that I had somehow limbed my why though the town and I passed out by the tree. But I was sorely wrong, the new land was grassland, the town was a desert.

From my vantage point, on the grassy hill I could see as far as the eye could see. I was in a lot of pain, between my pounding headache and a most likely broken arm. My left arm hung uselessly, which prevented me from using my rifle, restricting me to my sidearm and K-bar

I looked over the landscape again, I spotted something.

Out in the distance there was a caravan cutting its way through the grassy plains. Its white canvas covering was easily discernible to the light tan of the grass. In my mind I was rejoicing, I wasn't going to die of lack of water and food.

I pulled out my compass to see if I could plot a path that would intercept the caravan's. I was in the middle of doing math equations in my head, when the caravan stopped. I remembered my binoculars in my right hip pouch. I quickly retrieved my binoculars; bring them up to my eyes and focusing it in until I had a clear view.

The image was clear, but, my brain nearly knocked its self out from what it saw. I took the binoculars from my face, and rubbed my eyes before looking though the binoculars again.

Standing around the caravan wagon were what appeared to be, humanoid cheetahs, they wore red tunics with a symbol on the back. The symbol was a dragon with wings spread; standing on its hind legs and the image was encircled with a simple black circle.

My curiosity was peeking at its high at this point, and the fact I probably didn't have the food or knowledge to survive in this grassland. But something in the back of my head was saying "You not on Earth. This can't be real. You're in for a ride"

I mentally shrugged "What's the worst that can happen?" I thought, "It's not like I've done anything to them."

I took a sip from my canteen before walking down the grassy hill, towards the Cheetah's caravan. With that thought in my mind "What could possibly happen?"

If there was any time in my life that I would have and should have thought about the whole situation a little harder. Also if I would of looked up and saw the planets in the sky I would have been able to really tell I was no longer on Earth. But I did none of those , and I would have a hell of an explanation to give.

To be honest the hiking wasn't all that bad. Back in my hometown I would walk though the forests for hours pondering life's problems. While I was walking I had this strange feeling that something was watching me. I stopped looking around me, all I could see was tall grass so I dismissed the feeling and continued walking though the waist high grass.

The sun began to set and the shadows grew longer as the first minutes of twilight came. It's an odd thing to be hiking though grassy plains in twilight, the only sound I heard was the sound of grass brushing against my pants.

The light started to fade; I strained my eyes to see the world around me. I pulled out my flashlight with my good arm and flicked it on.

I clipped it to my vest so its 'L' shaped body would let it shine in front of me hands free, and pulled my compass from a chest pouch. Adjusting my course using my current knowledge of where the cheetah people had made camp.

I could only pray they would be friendly and not kill me on sight.

After walking for thirty or so minutes in the darkness, I saw the light of a camp fire. I turned off my light and crept forward to get a closer look. The camp was in clear view but no cheetahs.

"Odd?" I mumbled to myself. "Where did they go?"

I was about to move forward, but I was though onto my back as projectile hit me in the chest, throwing me onto my back knocking the breath from my lungs. I lay gasping for air on my back, my vision darkened around the edges. I could see a thin wooden shaft sticking out of my chest

I heard voices around me, but none of them were clear enough for me to make out what they were saying. I leaned up to pull the shaft from my chest, but stopped. Standing before me was a figure clad in black shadows, a set of yellow eyes boring into me.

The last thing I remember was the figure twirling and then a sharp pain in my head followed by blackness.

What do you think, eh? Please R&R. I am always looking for new ideas and plots.