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    Just Another Quiet Little City
    Just Another Quiet Little City
    Just Another Quiet Little City
    Ebook261 pages4 hours

    Just Another Quiet Little City

    By J.S. Frankel

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    About this ebook

    Magic is in the air, and it makes the rules. Teenagers Gabe Common and his girlfriend, Millie Themmes, have settled in Angels Camp, California. As a high school dropout with little education and no future job prospects, Gabe is forced to work as a sideshow attraction with Millie at his side. They spend their days taking people on airborne excursions, and Gabe longs for some stability in his life.

    However, all things have to change, and change they do when the magic returns with a vengeance. As with Chumsville, their former residence, most of the citizenry of Angels Camp disappear with no rhyme or reason, leaving only fifteen survivors behind. And the changes from human to something else happen once more, this time with frightening speed.

    An old friend, Gil Perkins from the FBI arrives as a liaison, and then the army takes over. However, they have another plan in mind, and they imprison Gabe and the other survivors and use them as guinea pigs, trying to copy their powers.

    Gabe needs answers, and the answers lie in Chumsville, a small community in South Dakota. He and his friends stage a breakout and make a perilous journey back to where it all started. Once there, Gabe and Millie learn the secret of why the magic happened and have to fight for their very survival.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublishereXtasy Books Inc
    Release dateNov 25, 2016
    ISBN9781487408237
    Just Another Quiet Little City

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      Book preview

      Just Another Quiet Little City - J.S. Frankel

      The magic continues, and it shows no signs of stopping.

      Magic is in the air, and it makes the rules. Teenagers Gabe Common and his girlfriend, Millie Themmes, have settled in Angels Camp, California. As a high school dropout with little education and no future job prospects, Gabe is forced to work as a sideshow attraction with Millie at his side. They spend their days taking people on airborne excursions, and Gabe longs for some stability in his life.

      However, all things have to change, and change they do, when the magic returns with a vengeance. As with Chumsville, their former residence, most of the citizenry of Angels Camp disappear with no rhyme or reason, leaving only fifteen survivors behind. And the changes from human to something else happen once more, this time with frightening speed.

      An old friend, Gil Perkins from the FBI, arrives as a liaison, and then the army takes over. However they have another plan in mind, and they imprison Gabe and the other survivors and use them as guinea pigs, trying to copy their powers.

      Gabe needs answers, and the answers lie in Chumsville, a small community in South Dakota. He and his friends stage a breakout and make a perilous journey back to where it all started. Once there, Gabe and Millie learn the secret of why the magic happened and have to fight for their very survival.

      The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

      Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      Just Another Quiet Little City

      Copyright © 2016 J.S. Frankel

      ISBN: 978-1-4874-0823-7

      Cover art by Martine Jardin

      All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

      Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

      Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

      Look for us online at:

      www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

      Smashwords Edition

      Just Another Quiet Little City

      By

      J.S. Frankel

      Dedication

      As always, I dedicate this novel to my wife, Akiko, and to my children, Kai and Ray. They have made every day of my life my greatest adventure.

      Chapter One: Adjustments

      September 7th, present day, Angels Camp, California

      On this cool autumn morning, Gabe Common had already gotten up, made breakfast for himself and his boss, Mike Hartwell, and cleaned up the tiny space in the trailer where they lived. In addition, he’d brushed off the lint from his wings. Long, white and feathery, they needed to look good as well as be functional. An old line he’d heard once—it is better to look good than to feel good—echoed in his mind.

      For his job as a flight manager, he needed to look as well as be the part. Flight manager—the verbal linguistics made him laugh. A person could use all the fancy words they wanted. In plain, simple English, he flew people around for a living.

      As he fussed around the small trailer, he recalled his manager’s words. Hartwell had been wolfing down his bacon-and-eggs combo only twenty minutes ago. A short and stocky man in his forties, he usually said very little, but waxed enthusiastically about the food. You’re a damn fine chef, kid. You should turn pro.

      Never mind Gabe had been cooking the meals for the last two months. Never mind he felt hemmed in by this existence. Never mind...

      A little humility was in order, so he offered, Nah, I just like eating, that’s all.

      And now the time had come to get a move on. Gabe peered out the window. A stretch of green, grassy field surrounded by a forest lay before him. The sky, a clear azure blue, waited. Soon he’d be up there, twisting and turning under the warm sun. While he didn’t know exactly how fast he could go, he estimated his velocity to be in the eighty-mile-per-hour range and more, if he pushed himself.

      Hey, we’re go in five minutes!

      Hartwell’s commanding voice cut through the metal walls. As the owner of the Angels, a popular ride service for those who wanted to soar among the heavens and who willingly paid one hundred dollars for a ten-minute ride, he demanded punctuality and always got it.

      Gabe peered out the window again. A large cardboard sign sat a few yards away from the trailer. Seven feet in height and five in width, it read: Soar with the Angels. He stared at it while mentally counting down the seconds before his boss yelled again. Sure enough, he heard the cry. Are you listening?

      I hear you!

      Yeah, we fly. Mike takes his cut while we perform like trained animals.

      The only difference was animals got paid in food. Gabe and his girlfriend, Millie Themmes, who also had wings, got paid considerably more in cold hard cash, but it still didn’t seem like a very cool business to be in.

      No, strike that. What was the proper expression to use? Oh yeah, it came to him—the terms mind-deadening along with stultifying stood out.

      However, opportunities for gainful employment for seventeen-year-old high school dropouts were few and far between. A person had to take what they could get. He took another peek outside. About twenty customers had already made their appearance. They walked over to the sign, chatting quietly among themselves.

      A few of them smoked, carelessly tossing away their cigarette butts. Would they have done that in their homes? Doubtful, but it wasn’t his position to complain.

      Another cry came from outside. Four minutes!

      Gabe resisted tossing off a snarky reply. Instead, he called out, Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there. He stepped outside and spotted a few familiar faces. Having lived in Angels Camp only a couple of months, he hadn’t met many people, sparse though the population was. Estimates had it at around four thousand people.

      Making the acquaintance of the locals entailed the usual questions about his wings, altitude and speed capabilities, going to the bathroom, and some other questions that verged on the obscene. Patience was needed, but it took everything he had at times not to clobber the idiots when the questions went into the realm of ultra-personal.

      The internet wasn’t much better, as it had certain sites that preached about the dangers of the Changed. Gabe was one of the Changed. He capitalized the C in his own mind, as it seemed to fit him and others like him.

      Site names like Mutants Begone and Humans for Humanity were among the most venal, offering everything up from conspiracy theories by the government to certain non-Christian religious groups taking over. The one thing they had in common—hatred.

      We do not fear these beings read one site’s credo. We despise them, as they think themselves above us. If we had the ability to rid the world of them, we would.

      Pretty rotten of them, Millie had commented somewhat nervously when he’d shown her the information. They’re not going to come here, are they?

      In order to allay her fears, Gabe had offered a noncommittal shrug as he shut off the laptop. If they try anything, the law’s on our side.

      Or was it? He’d tried to sound confident, but deep down he didn’t feel the same way. When he mentioned it to his boss, Hartwell answered tersely, You can’t clobber them.

      Usually, Gabe adopted a laid-back attitude, but this he would not stand, and he got in his boss’s face. So I’m not supposed to do anything, even when they call us freaks or talk about my girlfriend, saying they’d like to date her?

      Actually, some of the younger guys were into the wed-and-bed thing, although they often left out the wed part. Hearing others speak about sex in such a coarse manner pissed him off to no end.

      Voice steady, Hartwell had replied, Yeah, even them.

      And what about the hate groups, what about them?

      I know who they are, too. He reached behind him to pull a pistol out of his waistband. Mr. Bang-Bang has an answer for them.

      The sight of the weapon caused Gabe’s eyes to widen, and he instinctively took a step back. Uh, wow, hold on. Have you ever used that thing?

      Yep, and if I have to, I’ll use it again. Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.

      It was easy for him to be nonchalant about it. Still, as Gabe scanned the crowd, a smile started to form on his face. First in line, as usual, were the Winchesters, their three daughters in tow, aged twelve, nine, and six. They were homeschooled, so coming here on a weekday was part of their recreational entertainment.

      It’s better than television, Mr. Winchester had once said. We’re always together. Family is everything.

      Perhaps it was. At first, Mr. Winchester had been uncertain about the whole thing, but his youngest daughter, Linda, had run over to Millie. She drew the customers’ attention, and with good reason.

      Five-five, slender and beautiful with a head of long black hair and a pretty face, Millie had waited with an expectant smile. She was always patient, even with the most impatient of customers. Her attitude could have calmed down an erupting volcano.

      Aside from her temperament, her wings were the showpiece. Unlike Gabe’s, they resembled a butterfly’s. Iridescent red, gold and green, they glittered in the sunlight, throwing out kaleidoscopic rainbow shadows on the ground. During take-off, they moved in a blurry motion much like a hummingbird’s, but far more powerful.

      Look at her wings, Daddy! Linda had exclaimed. Can I go for a ride?

      Mr. Winchester had glanced at his wife. After a moment, they nodded in unison. Linda went up first and came back raving about the, Awesomest ride ever.

      Her enthusiasm swayed the rest of her family. Gabe and Millie had taken them up as a group. They wore a specially reinforced harness attached to an industrial strength fishnet with a built-in platform. It was capable of holding up to a ton.

      That was... something, Mr. Winchester had said upon his return with a look of rapturous delight. You’ve got yourself future customers, he added, casting a fond glance at his wife and children who were practically dancing with happiness.

      Then there were the Karsons, Roy and Edgar, two brothers who owned a car rental agency. Short and slight, they resembled each other quite closely, although Roy was the elder of the two at thirty-one. Edgar was twenty-seven, quiet and somewhat shy.

      Aside from the age difference, they had the same hair—sparse and blond—and the same plain features. A flying guy, Roy had commented in a phlegmatic manner upon their first meeting. I saw the news. You seem okay.

      A short and simple greeting, it sounded heartfelt. Thanks, Gabe had replied and meant it. He only wished all customers could be so accepting.

      His watch read seven fifty-seven now. Catching sight of the sign again, he saw it had his picture as well as his girlfriend’s on it. Appearance brings in the customers, and you’ve got the look, Hartwell had mentioned at the unveiling.

      Gabe knew his girlfriend brought in the customers and wondered what everyone saw in him. The sign’s picture showed a young man of five-ten carrying a lean but muscular one hundred seventy pounds on his frame. A narrow waist and an angular and plain-featured visage with sky-blue eyes completed the picture.

      Had he not possessed wings, anyone else would have thought him ordinary. However, he did have wings and the ability to soar to great heights. He also had approximately three times the strength of the average man, so ordinary didn’t fit.

      Hartwell called out, Millie’s not coming today?

      No, she’s got school.

      Lucky her, she only worked on the weekends. Her residence lay at the far edge of the city, a leisurely five-minute flight for him. They met up every day after her school let out. He worked from eight until one, five days a week. Today being Thursday, he’d have to shoulder the flights on his own.

      Handling things on his own happened to be part and parcel of his lifestyle. Just a short time ago, he’d been a typical teenager, seventeen, a high school dropout who’d followed his writer-mother out to a small town called Chumsville, in South Dakota.

      Uneventful had best described his initial few days there. A small farming community, Chumsville had originally boasted a population of around three hundred people. All that had changed one night when most of the townspeople had disappeared.

      Gabe’s mother had also vanished, as had Millie’s father, disappeared like shadows in the night. No rhyme, no reason, and no one knew where they’d gone...

      Two months ago, Chumsville, South Dakota

      Chumsville, a small dot in the middle of nowhere, lay between Faulk and Hand Counties in South Dakota. It had served as his residence, one of many. His mother, an author, self-absorbed and neglectful, had moved around a lot in life and for some unknown reason had picked this isolated spot as a place to find her muse.

      It was a land of wheat, pigs and cows. Only two days into his stay, Gabe knew the life of Farmer John was not for him. His mother was sitting on their couch in their small rented house, tapping at the keyboard. This is our new home? he’d asked.

      It is. She didn’t even bother to look up. A glass of Scotch sat within easy reach.

      He’d tried not to be skeptical. Attempting to fit in, he got nowhere due to the unchanging nature of the place. Ennui set in, along with a certain amount of depression. He’d made some acquaintances, but no friends. Only Millie Themmes, a farmer’s daughter who literally lived down the lane, had made life bearable.

      Perhaps if nothing had happened, they’d have eventually formed a conventional relationship, and life would have continued on. But things changed... and so did people.

      Magic, someone said. It was the magic of witches who’d settled there long ago. They’d left their essence upon the land, and somehow it had transferred itself to the inhabitants. With that transference, they became something strange, something different.

      With changes to physiology, psyche and soul, the survivors, twenty in all, resembled something out of a twisted fairy tale. One man became metal, another developed a goitre much like a bullfrog’s throat sac, and a third turned cheetah.

      Other more disturbing alterations in body shape occurred in the form of trees, slugs, fire starters and an ogre that had a monstrous appetite for cannibalism as well as destruction.

      Then a barrier had formed, invisible, all-encompassing and unyielding. No one could leave, but people had been able to enter. Magic had a sense of humour, although Gabe found little humour in the concept of peoples’ bodies being twisted out of true.

      Finally, the FBI, ten agents led by Agent Gil Perkins, had entered the picture. They’d brought along a HazMat team and another scientist who’d duly performed tests. Your results are normal, he’d said.

      Then why have I changed? Gabe’s first question happened to be the question on everyone’s lips. Why is everyone else turning into... whatever they’re turning into?

      I don’t know.

      The Changed had endured numerous blood and tissue sample tests. Those with the more disturbing transformations hadn’t liked it. Between the hot summer weather, the tension of being hemmed in, and the unwillingness of some to see reason, conflict had arisen, fights had broken out, and there had been death, so much death...

      Gabe came back to reality with a start, glanced at his watch, and noted the time was eight on the dot. By now, more than fifty customers were waiting. After putting on his most professional smile, he walked out in front of them, extending his wings slowly. It never failed to bring a reaction, one of extended cheering. Okay, who’s first? And then the flights of fancy began.

      Quitting time came at one. As Gabe flew away, Hartwell had called out, Meet me in Riverside tonight!

      Riverside lay in the southern part of Angels Camp. I’ll be there, Gabe had replied. While flying around and killing time until Millie’s school ended, the thought of what he’d do when all of this was over returned. Good money or not, someday it would end and then? Pizza delivery, skywriting... nothing came to mind...

      A sound startled him. Laughter, like wind chimes, sounded in his ears, but it disappeared as suddenly as it had come. Forget about it. I’ve got things to do.

      Things entailed living as far under the radar as possible. While he’d initially wanted to live on his own, Perkins, their FBI handler, had nixed the idea. As he’d been the only agent to survive the conflict in Chumsville, his superiors had given him the go-ahead to arrange things, citing his experience in matters of the paranormal.

      You’re still minors, he’d said at their first meeting at LA FBI headquarters. You need places to live and educations. Once you’re eighteen, do whatever you want.

      The FBI agent had greased the wheels for all of the Changed, including getting Millie set up in her house and enrolling her at a local high school. Most important, he’d managed to keep the media off their backs. Perhaps this generosity was for some ulterior motive, and Millie had put forth the obvious question. So you’re looking out for us?

      She’d sounded skeptical, and Gabe couldn’t help but be amused by the concept of this hard-bitten, taciturn middle-aged man being concerned. Tall and slender with a hatchet face, he came across as a hardass, but really wasn’t that bad.

      Perkins had replied, I am. It’s the right thing to do.

      Not one of the Changed residents of Chumsville had disagreed. Norm Meadows, a hulking six-foot-seven-inch giant, had turned metallic. He’d joined the army. All he needed was food—a lot of it. Not eating enough caused him to revert to his human default status. Reports currently had him on manoeuvres somewhere in the Middle East. Location—classified.

      As for the other survivors, they’d already been moved, and so far, the authorities had reported them having no problems. That left Gabe.

      Enter Mike Hartwell. We can do business, he’d declared after they’d met in a department store on Gabe’s first day in Angels Camp. You need money, right?

      Nice pitch, Gabe thought. How much are we talking about?

      Enough to get you started and pay for your life’s needs. All you have to do is to give people the experience of a lifetime.

      Welcome to Exploitation 101. With no other options—no one wanted to hire a high school dropout—he’d agreed. Millie had as well, but on the condition that she only work weekends. School took priority.

      Gabe knew it was a vagabond existence, but at the same time he had a place to live and a computer, and he earned a salary. Drawback-wise, education had to be done online. He and scholastics were on different paths. With grades just above adequate, a high school equivalency would never land him a position with a Fortune 500 company.

      Additionally, he often wondered about the idea of finding a place he could settle down in, somewhere where he wouldn’t feel so out of place with the rest of humanity. He’d moved around the country with his mother since the age of nine, and had never felt at home anywhere.

      However, future plans would have to wait. Gabe touched down outside Millie’s high school and noticed the time on the large clock situated above the front gate. It read three twenty-eight, so he waited on the empty sidewalk, shifting his feet.

      It was a windless day. The noise of bees buzzing, black flies darting here and there, and the hop and skip of a family of squirrels came through clearly to his ears. Having enhanced aural abilities helped, as did

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