A 23rd Century Girl in the 20th Century -- Chapter 9

 

             Linda’s New Life
                                  

                             Chapter 9

                    By Starla Anne Lowry
 
 
Lizzie Jane and Linda volunteered for guard duty together in the wee hours of the morning. The warm night was very pleasant and seemed to be a good time to discuss matters at hand. After sitting a few minutes and watching the stars in a clear sky, Lizzie Jane began the conversation.
 
“I have been trying to piece everything together. Let's see -- we landed near the area where Doctor Ledbetter’s group found the dinosaur bones a few years ago, but all the huge animals have disappeared except that big bird. What did you call it?”
 
“A pterosaur,” answered Linda, “and it was not a bird. It was a reptile. It was from the Mesozoic era, same as the T-Rex.”
 
“That is what is so puzzling. Where were the other giant reptiles – and where was the T-Rex dinosaurs? Even the giant savages had disappeared and some smaller people took their place.”
 
“Well, man did not live in the Mesozoic period, anyway, so they did not belong,” answered Linda.
 
“But the dinosaurs did not belong here 1,000 year ago either – but they did,” replied Lizzie Jane. “Not only all that, how about the gods that we were told about and Doctor Ledbetter thinking of flying saucers when the chief mentioned the flying shiny plates?
What did the native chief mean when he mentioned that the armed gorillas were guards?”
 
Overhearing the conversation as he walked up, Doctor Ledbetter replied,” Yes, I also made mention that it was similar to cattle in a pasture.”
 
“Thought you were asleep,” answered Lizzie Jane.
 
“My mind was working overtime like yours. You were asking the same questions that were going through my mind. After what we have experienced so far, I am curious as to what we will find on top of this mountain. On this side, there are these steep cliffs. We were lucky to find a good way down. However, going up is going to take a little more effort. I would not be surprised if this mountain is not a plateau and the cave you refer to as Momma Gorilla’s home isn’t on the other side of this mountain.”
 
“Well, it will be daylight soon. Linda and I will gather something to eat for breakfast and I guess you plan on going up soon afterwards?” questioned Lizzie Jane.
 
“Yes, that is the plan – and I am pleased that you thought of breakfast. You are the only one who knows what to gather from this jungle that would be good to eat. Without you, I don’t know what we would have done – probably have had to shoot some game,” said Doctor Ledbetter with a smile.
 
As daybreak arrived, one by one the other three members of the group began to awaken. As promised, Lizzie Jane and Linda had a satisfactory breakfast prepared, consisting of fruit from the jungle. Lizzie Jane had opened something similar to a coconut, scooped out the insides and presented the group with a means of holding water for bathing purposes. She also had found some substance strong enough to be used for washcloths. The cave furnished the necessary privacy.
 
Seeing everyone’s amazement and appreciation for the kind gestures, Lizzie Jane remarked, “You don’t live in a jungle for a year and not learn survival.” She smiled at her own statement and initiative.
 
“Wish you could do something about some clothes,” stated Ruth, remembering that they had left everything but their weapons behind when they escaped through the cave.
 
“Back then, we found enough from shipwrecks,” answered Lizzie Jane.
 
Doctor Ledbetter surveyed the face of the cliffs, searching for the best way up. He seemed to be undecided. He wasn’t sure about the cliff climbing abilities of everyone. Linda and Lizzie Jane seemed to be conferring with each other.
 
“If you wait a little bit, I think we can make it a little easier,” mentioned Linda. The two girls made their way back into the jungle, coming back with some vines flexible enough so that knots could be tied.
 
Smiling, Linda stated, “Rock climbing is one of my many talents, so Momma Elizabeth and I will go ahead and secure the vines. If one or two of the men can pull themselves up, they can be next using the vines and the ones left can tie the vines around themselves and we will pull the rest of you up.”
 
“You didn’t ask me if I was a rock climber,” whispered Lizzie Jane to Linda.
 
“Oh, the way you travel through trees, I just assumed…” began Linda to which Lizzie Jane answered, “Of course, I did pull myself out of a pit once with a boy on my back where some counterfeiters had left us.” (Author’s Reference: Revised Adventures of Lizzie Jane, Chapter 10).
 
“Well, lets go. Nothing ventured – nothing gained,” replied Linda.
 
“That is an old saying for us,” stated Lizzie Jane.
 
“We learned a lot of old sayings – even studied Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin.”
 
“You and your education! I wish you didn’t know so much sometimes,” complained Lizzie Jane. She smiled and added, “But sometimes it comes in handy.”
 
“Oh, Momma Elizabeth! You are just jealous.”
 
The girls began the slow ascent up the side of the steep cliff. Lizzie Jane carefully made sure of her foothold each time and made sure her hands grabbed something solid and long enough to hold. Linda, on the other hand, seemed to scamper up the cliff with a loop of vines over her shoulder. Reaching the top before Lizzie Jane, she pitched the vines down to her and through the efforts of both girls, the top was reached safely.
 
“How does it look up there?” yelled Doctor Ledbetter.
 
“Like a jungle,” yelled Lizzie Jane back. Then she screamed, “Wait a minute.”
 
Doctor Ledbetter stood there on the ledge wondering what was happening. He kept looking upward until his neck began to hurt, but in about 15 minutes, Lizzie Jane’s face appeared again.
 
“We had to hide behind a rock for a minute,” she yelled. “We saw a mean looking dinosaur up here and hid behind a rock until it passed. It never saw us.”
 
“Well, that matches all the other things we have experienced,” said Ruth, wondering if she could kill a dinosaur with her six-shooter.
 
One by one, everyone ascended to the top without any more problems or seeing any more huge prehistoric creatures.
 
Doctor Ledbetter was anxious to find out more about the dinosaur, so his first question was, “What kind of dinosaur did you see?”
 
“A spinosaurus,” answered Linda.
 
“Spino --- what’s that?” asked Ruth.
 
“It was the largest meat eating dinosaur that ever lived – bigger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The name means spine lizard and it lived in the Cretaceous Period and lived about 100 to 93 million years ago,” explained Linda.
 
“It had a spine on its back,” added Lizzie Jane.
 
“Well, that deepens the mystery. We now have a pterosaur from the Mesozoic Period and a dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period – millions of years apart,” said Doctor Ledbetter. “Also, the Tyrannosaurus Rex that Elizabeth encountered was from the Mesozoic Period, also.”
 
“It is beginning to appear like the old movie, Jurassic Park,” said Linda.
 
“Jurassic Park? Movie?” questioned Lizzie Jane.
 
“Oh, my mistake. That movie has not been made yet. To us, it is ancient entertainment,” answered Linda. “The movie was about scientists re-creating dinosaurs by cloning genetic material found in mosquitoes that fed on dinosaur blood, preserved in Dominican amber. The DNA from the samples was spliced with DNA from frogs to fill in the gaps.”
 
“DNA?” asked Doctor Ledbetter.
 
“It stands for deoxyribonucleric acid – a molecule that encodes genetic information,” replied Linda. “It will be established in 1985, I think. I am going from memory and I am not too good on dates.”
 
Ruth just shook her head – too technical for her. She was thinking that kids must be very smart in the 23rd century. About all she had learned was reading, writing, and arithmetic and she had learned that from her parents.
 
Doctor Ledbetter on the other hand was curious. Did Linda know what she was talking about? He was ashamed to ask too many questions because he had a PhD. She had already explained the theory of time travel.
 
Lizzie Jane just smiled. She wasn’t about to get into the conversation.
 
“Well, let’s don’t stand around here jabbering. Let’s go or do something,” suggested Josh. The group agreed that was the thing to do, so they eased down into the jungle to see what lay ahead. Lizzie Jane and Linda decided to travel among the tree limbs. Although a little late in joining the party, George came scampering up the cliff and was soon in the trees, too. “Thought you had forgotten us, little guy,” said Lizzie Jane to which George chattered “no way” in gorilla language.
 
The brush was thick in some place, but Lizzie Jane and Linda kept a sharp eye on things. Suddenly Linda spotted an oval shaped object near a huge cave opening that seems to be made of some kind of shiny metal. She whispered to Lizzie Jane, “UFO”, and pointed toward the object.
 
Lizzie Jane backtracked a short distance to locate Doctor Ledbetter and his small group. Swinging down from a tree, she put a finger to her lips to indicate silence. 
 
“What’s up?” asked Doctor Ledbetter in a soft low voice.
 
“We think it is an UFO a few yards ahead in a clearing next to a cave,” whispered Lizzie Jane. "I suggest that everyone hide in the bushes while you and I go ahead and check it out."
 
“Okay,” said Doctor Ledbetter as he eased on forward behind Lizzie Jane. When they got under the tree where Linda was stationed, Doctor Ledbetter found a small rise from which he could stay hidden in the bushes and see what was going on.
 
They watched for a few minutes until something came out of the cave that looked human walking upright, but skin that was a dark green with scales. His head was similar to a human, but also looked a lot like a serpent’ head.
 
“That must be their gods – Lizard people,” remarked Doctor Ledbetter softly.
 
Doctor Ledbetter and Lizzie Jane kept watching for awhile, waiting to see what would happen next. The lizard people seemed to be busy around their vehicle as if they were preparing for something. Eventually another saucer descended and later, a third one.
 
“They are unloaded people from one UFO and placing them in the other,” mentioned Doctor Ledbetter. “Looks like some of the natives who captured us. I wonder if that is what the chief meant when he said the gorillas were stationed at his palace as guards – to watch the natives.”
 
“Look!” exclaimed Lizzie Jane. “There appears to be a white man – like us. Do you suppose he is an American?”
 
At that point, Linda swung down from her tree and excitedly exclaimed, “Do you see that?”
 
“Yes,” said Linda. “We were just mentioning someone who appears to be an American being among the captives.
 
Linda blurted out, “That’s my Dad!!”
 
 
 
 
To be Continued
 
Copyright 2008 by Starla Anne Lowry
 
 

 

Now, Things Are Geting Very Interesting Indeed:-)

t looks as if things are coming around full circle and possibly an explanation on the origin of the Bermuda Triangle. Good story and cliff hanger.
May Your Light Forever Shine

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