Floyd rolled himself upright. He’d lost her. He could’ve lost her in transit. Their first time out, and he lost her. This wasn’t even official, it was just a test flight.
The rustle in the trees mocked him. The squirrels chattered the way that they do, and the wind pushed the long grass nearby. The branches shook again. Much louder. He looked up.
Valerie’s torso had caught in the Y of a branch. One of her boots was on the other side of the tree, and she was grasping at anything she could reach. She still ad her helmet on, but she was beginning to slip down, and about to hit her head on the ground.
Floyd got up and hurried over to the tree. He reached his head out to examine the predicament more closely. He heard a whisper.
“Get me out of here!” Her tone was probably the scariest thing for Floyd at the moment. He reached out to push her loose, and cradled her before she could fall. With all the roots, there wasn’t really a flat surface to put her on. He did his best.
“Why did you jump off?” Floyd asked her. Valerie glared at him. She ignored him and made an effort to control her breathing.
Floyd busied himself with trying to knock her other boot free from the branch. It required more effort than he thought. By the time he shook the boot loose to the ground, Valerie was smiling again.
“Why did you kick free and end up in the trees?” Floyd had to know.
“If I hadn’t, I’d have been squashed under you.” Valerie took in a deep breath. “I ended up only getting the wind knocked out of me. You still think you don’t need any practice?”
“Probably as much practice as you need in reading weather reports.” He retorted.
“I hear thunder.” Valerie said. “So I wasn’t too far off.”
“There’s no rain about to fall here, so we must be in a different…” Floyd checked the settings on his watch. “Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Okay, don’t panic.”
“About?” Valerie got up on all fours, then stood upright.
“Not 30 minutes into the future.”
“And the location is different. That’s for sure.” Valerie waited for him to explain. He had to tell the truth some time.
“30 years into the future. Your future.” Floyd dropped the news and shied away from her reach. Valerie didn’t shout at him. She was just… standing there. “You seem to be taking this remarkably well.”
“Well, we did want to time travel, didn’t we?” Valerie turned into the direction of the thunder. It was getting closer. But it sounded different. “That’s not a storm.”
Floyd turned his ears toward the sound. One ear picked up the strange thunder, and one could hear a high-pitched humming. He wasn’t sure what he was hearing, but he didn’t like it.
“Footsteps.” Floyd said.
“Hoof beats.” Valerie corrected him.
“Same thing.” Floyd told her. “Best news I’ve heard all day.”
“Is it some endurance event? We’ll fit right in. Can I get this watch to print me a racing number?”
“Valerie.” Floyd waited for her to look at him. “We’re in the middle of one of the most significant conflicts between our people.”
“What do you mean?” Valerie turned back to the thunder.
“I mean those are wild horses.”
“Where? Are we talking mustangs, brumbies, tackies, what?”
“Mustangs. We’re not that far from your place, really. Good thing we didn’t end up with the brumbies. Australia was a bloodbath. No, they’re mostly being slaughtered by drones driven by artificial intelligence.” Floyd could pick out a tiny dark figure in the sky. “Get back from the edge of the woods! Run! GO!”
Valerie pushed her way through the low hanging branches and very young saplings as fast as she could. Floyd had to find his own way. If those other horses were as close as they sounded, they would have to push their way through the woods, too. If they had any sense of the danger. Maybe they didn’t. He headed in the direction of the noise.
Floyd was just out of reach of the bullets when they started flying. He was right. It was a drone. With a gun. A big gun.
He understood now. Reading all those historical accounts of the horrors of the Wild West War and how his ancestors had been terrorized. The only escape was to get under a tree and hope.
Floyd ran from the loud noises. His heart never beat this fast before. The noise was enough to scare any horse out from under cover. Maybe the herd he was chasing was wily enough to avoid the drone.
Then he saw them. The different colored hides threaded their way through the forest, heading straight for the edge. Floyd didn’t expect to recognize the horse in the front.
“NO!” Floyd shouted. He kicked into a higher gear he didn’t know he had. He didn’t know how, or why. He just needed to stop it.
The leader caught his eye as she passed, and kept on going.
“Get right back here now, young lady!” Floyd’s shouts boomed loud enough to make the others scatter and double back. But not her. She charged forward.
Floyd was more scared than he’d ever been. He couldn’t let this happen. The drone stopped shooting. It had seen her and was going to chase her now. Until it caught up.
Floyd was going to take it down if it was the last thing he did. Bursting out of the forest, he took flight and raced after the drone. Maybe it would think he was a bird. He didn’t really care.
There was another drone coming toward them, but Floyd couldn’t see a gun. It didn’t matter. He’d kill that one, too.
Floyd flew above them, and swooped down on the gun drone like an eagle picking up a fish. He kicked it with his foreleg, and the propellers stuttered, losing altitude. He stomped it out of the sky with his hind legs, sending it down to earth. He kept stomping it even after it bounced off the ground.
A flash of dove gray hit him. She had driven herself into his side, pushing him away from the drone.
“Get back from it! Now!” She led the way back up to the sky. Floyd followed her. There was a modest explosion beneath them. Floyd looked down.
Of course. He forgot that 5 seconds after a hostile touchdown, they were programmed to slag the hard drives.
“Nice going! You’ve ruined the take. We’ve been setting this up for days!”
“No hugs, Miranda?” Floyd snorted in his most intimidating fashion. It didn’t work like it used to. She was not impressed. He held up a foot. “High hoof?”
She did not return the greeting. She looked pointedly at his saddle.
“What. Are you. Wearing?”
Floyd remembered the tack. Yes, that would seem odd to her.
“I made a friend.” He explained. Then it hit him. “Valerie! Where is she?”
“We’ll find your pet, don’t worry.” Miranda led the way back to the forest. They had to find Valerie first. Floyd would have to speak to his daughter later.
