The Deadly Past by Christopher Pike Read Free Book Online

Adam asked.
    â€œI am not going to tell you exactly how I do it,” Bryce said. “Just follow me, if you dare, and we will travel seventy million years back in time.”
    â€œWhy won’t you tell me how you do it?” Adam demanded.
    â€œBecause you don’t trust me, and I don’t trust you,” Bryce said simply. “Now come, let’s get to the cemetery before the tyrannosaurus returns.”
    Adam hesitated. “I still want to talk to Ann Templeton.”
    They heard more screams in the distance.
    It sounded as if people were being torn to death.
    And who really knew how many tyrannosauruses there were?
    Bryce stood impatiently. “How many people have to die while you talk to everyone in town?”
    â€œHe’s right, Adam,” Sally said. “We have to act now. Soon there won’t be any Spooksville left to save.”
    Adam considered. “If we go back in time and fix what is causing the problem in our time, then all the deaths and injuries in our time would never have occurred. What I mean is, we should be ableto fix everything in the present by correcting the past.”
    â€œThen it won’t matter how many die right now?” Sally asked. “They will be alive if we succeed in the past?”
    Adam paused. “It shouldn’t matter. I have to talk to Ann Templeton.”
    Bryce gave him a penetrating look and nodded. “Your theory sounds logical, Adam, and it might be true. But are you willing to risk Cindy’s life—and the lives of everyone else in town—for a theory?”
    It was the million-dollar question.
    And Adam wasn’t sure how to answer it.

7
    A s Watch and Cindy hiked toward the volcano, Cindy didn’t try to stop Watch from exploring more as he had worried she might. She was just so grateful to him for coming to rescue her that she said he could do whatever he wanted and she would stay by his side. Watch thought Cindy was a great girl, as far as girls went. In reality Watch was still getting used to girls. They were not like boys, no.
    As they drew closer to the volcano, Watchrealized he had been seeing something without consciously noticing it. The volcano had drawn him to it, but now he understood that a part of his brain must have realized what that shiny spot near the base of the volcano really was. He either had to get better glasses or else he had to listen to his own intuition more.
    There was a flying saucer parked near the base of the volcano.
    It was silver and shiny, but it wasn’t exactly shaped like the saucers they had seen when their friend Ekweel2 had visited them from the future. For one thing this saucer was much larger and higher relative to its width. Watch suspected it was from an entirely different race of beings, and of course Cindy wondered if they were friendly.
    â€œI wonder what they’re doing here,” she said.
    â€œI wonder what they’re doing here at this time,” Watch said.
    Cindy caught a peculiar note in his voice. “By ‘this time’ are you implying that we are back in time?”
    Watch shrugged. “It sure looks like it.”
    Cindy stopped him. “Wait. Then I’m confused. I thought this whole place came from the past andwas overlaid on to our present. But that we were still in the present.”
    Watch removed his thick glasses and cleaned them on his pants leg. He still had no shirt. The high humidity of the area was fogging up his lenses. Putting his glasses back on again he scanned the immediate area. He was constantly on the lookout for dinosaurs.
    â€œWe may have passed through the time doorway when we came here,” he said. “Or else we may still be in the present. I’m not sure. But I don’t think this ship is here by coincidence. It’s got to be related to what’s happening with this invasion of dinosaurs.”
    â€œYou mean you think these aliens caused the rip in time?”
    â€œIt’s