Abducted to War

By Timothy L. Hartzell

He woke up twenty hours ago, but hes still groggy from some weird drug-induced slumber. Surprisingly, hes also no longer on Earth. The three moons sort of gave that away. Since he was a world-renowned survivalist and mountain hiker on his home planet, he doesnt panicnot right away. First, he needs to figure out how to stay alive in a place that looks like Arizona.

The man roams in search of food. He sleeps only to find footprints nearby as if someone stood there all night, watching him. It soon becomes apparent this man was brought to here for a reason. He has been abducted, not for some clandestine scientific experiment, but for his unique talentstalents that will help him thrive.

He is the only being in the galaxy that can save his planet. He wont use his strength alone, but also his mind and spiritand the assistance of some strange new friends. This survivalist will command an army into battle against a horde of evil aliens. No other can bring about the survival of mankind. This isnt some nature trip; its the intergalactic battle to end all others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: May 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480846692

Timothy L. Hartzell

Timothy L. Hartzell is a hardworking man with a healthy imagination. He has always been poor economically but wealthy spiritually. He finds himself very fortunate to be able to tell stories that evoke a sense of wonder in the eyes of others.

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Copyright © 2017 Timothy L. Hartzell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4668-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4669-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017906352

Archway Publishing rev. date: 4/24/2017

Dedicated to:

Marilyn Hartzell my wife

Tim A. Paul my friend

Victor C. Seiter my friend

Dawn Carter my friend

These are people with imagination and courage to follow

their dreams.

To my readers:

Read on you restless wanderers, read on.

Fly the sky’s in that wonderful imagination.

Pierce the galaxy in glorious curiosity.

Find new worlds even in your back yards.

Explore this world as though it was a new planet.

Be beautiful to the creatures you meet.

Contents

1 Not Where I Was

2 Friend And Foe

3 Hike With A Friend

4 Promotion

5 Home Worlds And Politics

6 Pulling Together

7 Pancakes And Love

8 Into The Breach

9 A Mad Rhino In Our Midst.

10 Political Neighbors

11 Surprise

1

NOT WHERE I WAS

T wo in the morning and still no end in sight or at least that is the time that was on my watch. Where I came from, where I was going, and who I am is all a mystery to me. What I did know is that I was still groggy from some chemical induced sleep that I woke up from twenty hours ago. When I awoke, I felt like a train ran over me. After gaining my sight I realized I should be scared, very scared. I was in the middle of nowhere and possibly not even on my own planet, which almost petrified me. This area looked like the Arizona desert, but the strange plants and flying things just didn’t make sense. My muscles ached so badly that I wanted to stay and lay down, but I had to get away from the flying things that kept buzzing my head. I forced myself to walk and walk I did, fast at first then at an easy pace once I got my head on straight. It was now semi dark. If not for the three moons shedding a modicum of light, I wouldn’t be walking at all.

Yes, the three moons did strike fear back into my heart four hours ago, but I learned long ago in what seemed like my normal life to let fear come and go like water off a ducks back. The reality was that I was not on Earth. This fact left me quite uneasy and very alert. I had the cloths on my back and a back pack. I had walked for twenty hours in presumably one direction although this not being Earth, I was not sure. No roads, no trails, and no trace of civilization kept pushing my mind back to panic. I was not sure I wanted to find civilization being on another planet. My rational mind was processing my situation and it helped to walk for I always did my best thinking while walking. My current profession of hiking gave me plenty of time to think and wrap my thoughts around what I couldn’t understand about our society. I thought of many rational and irrational possibilities such as time warps, worm holes, alien abduction and even heavenly judgment. None of these made any since to me, at least not yet. What I did know is that I needed to keep a clear head and work this situation out.

On Earth I was a world renowned survivalist and high mountain hiker. I needed every last bit of my skill and guts, because I was sure I was a dead man without them. I knew pretty much every plant and animal on Earth and how to use them for survival. Here there was what looked like similar plants mixed with strange new ones. So, as I walked I would study and test some for edibility and other usefulness. I had checked my backpack hours ago and found some useful items along with a couple odd devices. The blanket and knife I could use, but the two small devices with hieroglyphics on them I had no clue about, but I kept them anyway. A small water bottle filled with liquid was useful, especially feeling the energy boost it provided. I figured I would have to start drinking it if I didn’t find water after eight hours. The pockets on the pack worked well as storage for the plants I was testing. I would cut off a piece and rub it on my hand and then wait to see if it caused a reaction. I would then get it back out and touch it to my lips and wait for any reaction. I put several plants through some ridged tests before I would slowly eat small parts of the plant. Eventually, I found three plants that were edible and two that caused serious welts on my hand, and several others that tasted horrible.

I was tired of walking, and thinking. A nice tree with soft leaves provided me some shade and bedding. So, I gathered up a bundle of leaves on the ground and got out my blanket. The temperature was around fifty to sixty degrees so I was grateful to whoever afforded me this blanket; although, whoever they were, they are the ones who put me in this situation in the first place. A fire would have been nice but I had nothing to start one with. After a few minutes I realized that the blanket was heating up like it was battery operated, but without any power source. Even though I was dead tired, it took me quite a while to fall asleep out of fear of the unknown. I had enough smarts to know that I didn’t know enough about this place to become complacent. I slept with my knife held tightly in my strong hand and a strong thick stick I found in the other. Whoever put me here didn’t bother to supply me with a gun. So, the stick would have to do.

I awoke feeling much better this time and my head was much clearer then the day before. My full memory did return to me except any part just after I rounded a rocky outcropping on my Grand Teton hike the day before to the time I woke on this planet. Before I got up, I slowly peered around my environment with a half open eye in case there was something or someone out there watching me. I had a keen sense of suspicion or sixth sense that had been heightened over the years due to the solitude and the dangers of the environment I worked in. This sense was screaming at me now that I was being watched. After scanning the near area I sniffed the air for scents. This may have been feudal, because I was use to the smells of Earth and was just barely getting acquainted with these new smells. I was feeling much better. So, I focused on my situation much better. My intellect started thinking of tactics and plans. My emotions threw in a bit of anger, deviousness, and spite. I decided to bolt up out of this make shift bed and scream at the top of my lungs in hopes of causing whatever was watching me to move or make a noise that I could detect. Grabbing a hold of the knife firmly and using the stick to brace my ascent I flopped to my stomach and sprung to my feet while yelling. I ran in a tight ten foot circle eyeing the area within a one hundred yard radius. I then stood still to listen and observe for any movement or sound. Nothing moved except for those flying things. This was a bold move on my part, because I had no idea what danger might be in this new environment. I would not have made this move on Earth, because I know those dangers and none of them liked to be startled. In this situation I had no idea what to expect, but I just wanted something to happen in order to get some kind of information I could process. With what I got I knew I was in for another long hot day of more hiking.

I packed up my blanket and retrieved some plant matter from the pockets of the pack to eat. I had been walking parallel to the sun and moons for one day and the scenery had not changed. So, I decided to turn at a right angle. This I hoped would possibly change climate and geography. I also hoped to find some form of animal life that would provide a better food source. I knew if I caught one of these flying critters they would not provide much meat, because they were the size of humming birds and had scrawny bodies. Other than these birds I found no other animal life other than the odd insects that scurried around from time to time. The air was dry and smelled mostly of the plant matter. The dirt was hard and packed like there was an eventual rain. I hadn’t come across any washouts or drainage ditches. So, I assumed the moisture or rain came in the form of a mist or dew.

2

FRIEND AND FOE

N othing changed for the first five hours. There were still the same birds, insects, and plants. I then noticed a slight temperature change and a new plant or two. The feeling of being watched though never did leave. Every now and again I would stop abruptly and peer around for anything to show itself, but nothing would. With my back ground, I was attuned to the slightest of movements. So, this was frustrating to me that I could not catch a glimpse of this mysterious onlooker. I forged forward and put my attention toward scanning the environment for more changes. Periodically, I would snatch out a piece of plant matter to eat while testing the new ones I came across. The liquid in my canteen started running low and I still had not found any water. My mind went back to the desert training I received by an old Indian guide. He taught me to find plants that had a good water supply and dig a seep well next to it. I hiked for another hour and then found a suitable plant to attempt the seep well with. It worked well just as it had on Earth numerous times. I tested the water thoroughly just as I had tested the plants. The water wasn’t as tasty as the Earthly water, but it did quench my thirst. I had no clue what might be in the water, but just like every other aspect of this place I had to take a leap of faith. I knew if I didn’t start finding suitable nourishment soon that I would slowly start to die of starvation. This environment was not as brutal as the American Southwest in which I explored for many years. The heat was palatable and the landscape generally flat. The difficulty here is the lack of animal life for food purposes. I hoped though that the change in climate would produce a more diverse animal life.

I pressed on in the same direction keeping my attention open for new changes in my environment and an eye out for the entity that had been dogging me all day long. As the end of the day grew near I had found a new edible plant, more brackish water in a seep, and a small mountain range in the distance. Taking off my back pack I made another bed out of soft tree leaves and prepared a small area for a fire.

Earlier in the day I put to thought a plan to sneak out of camp and scout the area for this elusive watcher. The idea was simple and it was one I learned from my grandfather, an old Indian tracker for the military in World War II. I grabbed an extra bunch of leaves and sticks and piled them up under the blanket and put a rock where my head would be. When it grew sufficiently dark, I rolled off the top of the bedding and under a nearby bush. I belly crawled for forty yards keeping in the shadows of trees and shrubs. When I felt I was clear of the direct sight of any watcher, I then weaved my way through more brush at a low crouch. I worked my way out from the camp until I could no longer see my fire. I then turned to encircle the camp to find any sign or impression in the dirt. After circling for thirty-five minutes I came across some peculiar tracks. They appeared to have the markings and outline of shoes with four distinct claw marks at the tip of each print. The size was small, approximately a young teen age boy’s length and width. The depth of the print is what caused me concern. It was shallow as if the maker was no more than fifty to sixty pounds. My mind snapped back to reality and I had to remind myself that I was not on Earth. My fear crept back up my spine as I attempted to put size and shape to the maker of this print. The more I studied the pattern of prints it was apparent that this creature was stalking me. I pulled my knife out slowly and quietly while still crouching in the shadows. The hair stood up on the back of my neck as I focused to see into the dark. I felt invigorated as every sense in my body cried out for more input. I took a big sniff at the air and then crept forward toward where the tacks lead. The tracks came straight in toward the camp, stopped behind a