A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner Read Free Book Online

the side of the Ring. Then Dak’s mom and dad each took a turn doing some programming, conferring with each other to make sure everything was absolutely correct. And then it was time.
    “The Ring is programmed with the appropriate coordinates,” Dak’s dad said. “We’re planning on spending a few minutes at our destination. But the beauty of time travel is that theoretically we can be back here just a split second after we leave.”
    “Theoretically?” repeated Dak.
    “So for us, this trip will last a few minutes,” said Dak’s mom. “But from your perspective, we’ll be back in the blink of an eye.”
    “Now step back, kids,” said her husband. “And cross your fingers.”
    Dak looked on anxiously as his mom pushed a small button on the Infinity Ring. A hum filled the room, like a hive of bees had just awakened. There was a tingly vibration in the air, as if someone had just dinged a thousand tuning forks.
    The dark amber liquid within the Ring glowed bright orange, filling the lab with light.
    Dak suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. “We’re going, too!” He grabbed Sera by the hand and reached out to grip his father’s elbow.
    He barely had time to see his parents’ shocked faces before everything around them exploded into a tube of light and sound that sucked the lab away and threw their bodies into a chaotic spin. Flashes of alternating color and darkness flew past him but he couldn’t keep his eyes open long enough to see any detail. His ears popped and his tongue swelled and his stomach rolled and the world seemed to press in on him. He tried to scream but the awful noise was so loud he couldn’t even tell if he’d done it. Pinpricks of pain broke out all over him,
inside
him, as if he were beginning to crack like an eggshell, about to burst into a million pieces at any second.
    And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended.
    Dak found himself standing on a flattened patch of grass under a sunny blue sky. His parents and Sera were right next to him, all three of them looking at him with fire in their eyes.
    He quickly dropped Sera’s hand.
    “I’m sorry!” Dak blurted. “I couldn’t stand the thought of waiting around, wondering what happened to you guys.”
    Dak’s dad pointed a finger at him. “You have no idea what you’ve —”
    A roar behind them cut off his words. Dak spun around to see the source — about a hundred yards away, scores of soldiers dressed in red coats and white pants came running over the crest of a hill. Each one of them held a long rifle with a blade attached to the end. Dak was suddenly in his element, and the coolness of what he saw before him overwhelmed any sense of fear or guilt.
    These were British soldiers, and those blades on the end of their guns were called bayonets. The muskets they carried weren’t like modern-day weapons that could shoot bullet after bullet in rapid succession. It took a lot longer to shoot just one bullet — or ball — with the guns that were pointed at them now. That was why they had the bayonets, so the soldiers could fight like sword-wielding knights when it came to that.
    “No way!” Dak said. “You guys were going to visit the Revolutionary War without me?”
    “This isn’t a game!” Dak’s dad shouted.
    “We have a hundred men charging in to kill us,” his mom said rather calmly.
    Dak had to admit that the bayonets seemed slightly less cool the closer they got.
    Sera pointed at a copse of trees about thirty yards away, out of the direct path of the small army. “Let’s run over there. They’re obviously not after us, because they didn’t know we existed thirty seconds ago. We just happened to land in their path.”
    Dak knew she was right. She was logical like that. “Good thinking.”
    The four of them ran to the spot she’d indicated and slipped through the outer layer of trees to crouch behind some bushes. The soldiers had surely seen them, but Dak hoped they wouldn’t worry about a stray