2 Minutes to Midnight

2 Minutes to
Midnight
Strange Tales of the Unusual

STEVE LANG

This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are
either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a
fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or
dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Please find this and other
work by Steve Lang at:

http://SteveDLang.com
and
www.amazon.com

Copyright © 2015 Steve
Lang

All rights
reserved.

ISBN:
151746157X
 

ISBN-13:
978-1517461577

This is for Nicholas, my son, friend, and why
I write.
___________________
My editor on this book was
Mr. Charlie Michener. His contribution to
this book has been great, and much appreciated.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to my wife Brandy
and son Nicholas for their endless patience as I sat behind my
computer day after day, night after night, to create the world of
short stories you are about to read. I love you both very much, and
Nicholas, you
are
my ideal reader and who I write for. Thank you to April M.
Reign, my friend and fellow author, for your support and
friendship. Please, go check out her work she's a phenomenal
writer. Thank you Charlie Michener for your editing expertise. I'll
keep you busy, because we have a lot more work to do.
I would also like to thank the rock band Iron Maiden for the lyrics
to their legendary songs. The emotion and strength in many of their
albums were an inspiration for much of my work in this novel, and
in the stories to come in 2 Minutes to Midnight Volume
II.

Thank you also Great Spirit for your guiding hand, and my gift for
writing.

TO THE READER

2 Minutes to Midnight was
inspired by my love of history, science, and science fiction. In
November, 2014 I decided to write a story a week for a year to hone
my craft as a writer. This proved to be a challenging adventure,
and one I am glad I dug into, because I was afforded the ability to
walk many unexpected paths. At first the writing was for me alone,
a chance to spread my literary wings in private, but as the people,
places and events began to unfold I realized I had at least one
book of good short stories waiting to be published, and it turned
into two.
When I was sixteen stories into my personal challenge I watched an
interview with Ray Bradbury that appeared out of the blue in my
YouTube list of suggested videos to watch, and in that interview he
said: If you want to be a writer, write a story a week for a year,
and then you'll be a writer, and write what
you
like to write about, so I did. I
began to write two stories a week, sometimes three at one
time.
I am delighted to present my first anthology in the hope that you
take something away from the words, emotions, and crazy situations
my characters get themselves into. Thank you for reading,
STEVE LANG

"Time travel was once
considered scientific heresy, and I used to avoid talking about it
for fear of being labeled a 'crank.'"
~ Stephen Hawking

"War is a racket. It is the only one
international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are
reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."
~ Smedley Butler, 1935, Major General,
U.S. Marine Corps and highest ranking officer of the
time.

Contents

The Watch

Strangers in a Bar

The Basement

The Mars Tetrahedron

The Day Satan Quit

Traveling Salesman

The Petrified Man

The Horror of Stanton Manor

2 Minutes to Midnight

Transistor Radio

The Ducks

The Good Fight

Dark Planet

Thanks Given

Mirror World

The Legend of Lightning Foot Jenkins

Up on the Mountain

The Draco Crystal

The Gate

Teenagers From Zeta Reticuli

Princess Amon and the Rift Pilots

The Long Dark Road

Weird

Human Trials

No Rest for the Wicked

Blue Skies

the watch

Life's greatest experiences are contained
within tiny moments. The gold pocket watch Phillip’s mother gave
him had always been a mystery, but Phillip was about to understand
its meaning.

Philip McSwain strolled along Peach
Orchard road, his hand in Lucy's Struther's, his girlfriend of
three years.

"Where are we going?" Lucy
asked.
"I thought I'd take you to my grandfather's place. It's just up the
road from here."
"I thought he was dead. Didn't your family sell the house?" Lucy
asked.
Warm summer sunlight danced on her long blond hair giving Lucy an
ethereal glowing appearance as they walked close together.
"Technically, we have no idea what happened to him, so my mom
didn't want to sell the house without knowing for sure if he was
ever coming back."
"How long's he been gone?"
"About three years, and I've wanted to come up here and check his
house out a few times to see if I could find any clues. The police
investigated but it's a cold case or whatever now." Phillip
answered.
"So, why are we going now? You too chicken to go alone?" Lucy
laughed.
"No, of course not. I just thought it would be a cool walk for
us."
She smiled, and shook her head.
"Trevor McSwain, my Grandpa, was kind of the black sheep of our
family. He traveled a lot and had collected a bunch of rare
artifacts from around the world. He's got a small museum of freaky
stuff up there. My mom stopped visiting him when she said a demon
chased her through the house."
"A what? I'm calling bullshit on that one." Lucy said.
"Hey, it's just what she told me. I've got no reason to lie.
Anyway, that's why I have not come up here before."
"I think big tough Phillip needs his girlfriend to go into the
scary house with him." Lucy said.
"I'm glad you're with me, yes."
They continued down the empty street, and aside from the McSwain
residence there were no more houses on the road. Tall green trees
lined each side of the street. The sound of summer insects calling
to each other made the teens feel less alone, but the farther they
walked the more legitimate Phillip's story sounded. They were half
a mile from the closest house.
"There's the front gate." Phillip said.
A black wrought iron gate about seven feet tall, appeared around a
bend, and beyond it sat the two-story house, across a field of
weeds, waiting for Trevor's return like a lone sentry.
"Yikes, I don't think I'd go here alone either. Spooky house,
Phillip." Lucy said.
"Yeah, it's creepy. Wait till we get inside."
Phillip produced a ring of keys from his pocket. One of them was
long and black, and had a head shaped like a human skull.
"Let me guess, that's the gate key?" Lucy asked.
"My grandpa had a flare for the dramatic."
Phillip pulled the gate open, cringing as it creaked on rusty
wheels.
"Let's go."
Trevor's house towered over the two teenagers, growing larger as
they approached.
"I always thought this place looked like it was alive, breathing,
you know? The windows seem like eyes looking down at me." Phillip
said.
"If you want me to go in there with you, you had better stop
describing how you feel about the house." Lucy smiled.
The two walked up the cracked and dilapidated asphalt driveway. The
lawn had not been mowed in years and was now a field of tall wild
grass. A black cat darted out of the weeds.
"Oh my god! That thing just scared the shit out of me." Lucy
said.
The cat stopped for a minute, hissed at them, and then bolted out
of sight. In the distance they could hear dog barks approaching.
Something small and black skittered through the weeds.
"What's that, another cat?" Phillip asked.
"You tell me, this is your neck of the woods."
The creature in the weeds bolted across the driveway, chasing after
the cat. It was neither a cat nor dog, but something not of this
world. It stood on two legs and was about a foot tall, with bat
like ears and long black claws at the end of tiny arms. It stopped
for a moment, grinned at the two teenagers with a mouth full of
needle teeth and cackled as it ran out of sight. The dog was
getting closer as the little monster disappeared in the direction
of the cat.
"I'm leaving, man. That thing is where I draw the line. I love you,
be safe!"
"Let's just get inside. I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the
house like that. Whatever it was." Phillip said.
Lucy turned to leave as a large snarling dog that resembled a
Rottweiler walked through the gate, blocking her exit. This dog had
a single glowing red eye in the center of its head, and waves of
heat rose from its back like a midsummer desert road.
"Jesus, what is this place? Did you bring me to the doorway to
Hell?
The dog stood watching them for a moment, and then began to saunter
forward. Phillip pulled out a pocket knife, and extended the two
inch blade.
"I think you're going to piss it off with that thing." Lucy
said.
They were five feet from the front door, and Phillip could feel his
mouth go dry as panic began to overwhelm his ability to
reason.
"I've always been afraid of large dogs. As a boy two wild
Doberman’s chased, and bit me in the butt as I tried to escape.
Sixteen stitches on the left butt cheek later and I have a
permanent reminder of that day."
"This isn't a dog, Phillip. Maybe your mom was telling the truth
after all. You got the key to his house? Get it out!"
The cycloptic Rottweiler stood his ground, snarling at them.
"It's herding us toward the house." Lucy said.
Phillip turned and put his key in the front door, and as he heard
the lock click open the snarling dog turned, ran down the driveway,
around the black gate, and vanished like a ghost.
The interior reeked of old cigars and dust. No humans had entered
this place in years. Clinging cobwebs hung from the ceiling,
waving, blowing in the breeze brought in by Phillip’s entrance. He
stepped inside first and the floor let out a loud creak.
"I think the house knows we're here." Lucy whispered.
"I don't really want to think about that, but thanks."
"Come on! We just saw a dog with an eye in the middle of its head.
I don't know if it can get much freakier." Lucy said.
They walked into the living area where stacks of books lay strewn
about as if a bookstore had been dumped inside his house. Thick
dust covered most exposed surfaces, causing Lucy to sneeze when she
picked up a book.
"
The Futility of War
," said Lucy. "Here's another one.
Demonic Possession and You: What To Do If You Are
Possessed
. Interesting collection of
books." Lucy shrugged.
"He was an oddball. Kept talking about alternative dimensions, time
travel, and reincarnation. He harped on it so much that Mom got
scared for us. She was afraid his insanity would rub off."
"This is a strange place. I'd be nervous too. You see the shelf of
shrunken heads over there?" Lucy said.
"Grandpa gave me this watch." Phillip said.
He took the small gold watch out of his pocket and opened the face
to show Lucy the inscription.
“
‘For those who dare to dream, the
stars are only a moment away.’ That's a cool inscription.” Lucy
smiled, rolled it over in her hands. "What's with the gear hole on
the back?"
"I've never been able to figure it out, but do you see those
planets inside the face? Earth, the moon, and Saturn? If you turn
the little dial on top the hands move, and so do the planets, but
the thing that drives me crazy is that I can never get them to
align. All three chase each other around the face as you wind the
watch and look at the nine--it's jade and glows bright under a
lamp. The whole thing is kind of a puzzle."
They explored Trevor McSwain's house, looking from one room to
another at the strange assortment of oddities. One room contained a
series of caskets stacked with newspaper articles from around the
world. Crystal balls lay here and there mounted on shelves and
another room Trevor had dedicated to anatomically reconstructed
animal skeletons in glass cases.
"What was he doing in here?" Lucy asked.
She felt as if curious eyes were watching them as they
continued.
"He was trying to figure out where we came from. You know, humans.
That's what he told me when I was little."
"We evolved from sea creatures, and monkeys, right? I mean that's
what they tell us in school." Lucy said.
"I don't know. That's a whole Darwin thing, and I think Darwin was
guessing. He said that given enough time a bear could transform
into a whale if conditions were necessary for it to do so. How in
the hell does that make any sense to anyone, and yet they teach us
that natural selection crap in school." Phillip said.
"Well, what do you think happened?" Lucy asked.
"You're going to think I'm crazy."
"No I won't. Try me."
"I think we were put here by someone, or a race of people. Humans
are not indigenous to this planet, and we're refugees from
somewhere else.
"Where do you think we come from?"
"Right here, somehow, and don't ask me why, because I can't tell
you."
Phillips tapped on the Saturn symbol on his watch.
"You think that's nuts?" Phillip asked.
"No, I don't, but I wouldn't go around telling a bunch of people
that. We don't exactly live in the most open minded times." Lucy
answered.
"Hey, no problem. I didn't want to tell you."
Phillip was holding his hands defensively in the air.
"If I remember correctly, there was some cool stuff in the
basement. Want to go see?" Phillip said.
"Not a chance, I'm done here, and I think I'll go home." Lucy
said.
"Awwww. come on! Let's go look."
"I've already seen two weird creatures, some shrunken heads, and
caskets filled with moth eaten news articles, and I think the fun
is over. Besides, the sun's going down soon and that road back has
no lights."
"OK, I'll walk you to the door." Philip said.
When they reached the door both teens could see that the big black
dog had returned. It was sitting on the porch blocking their way
and facing the gate. As if it sensed her plane, the dog turned its
head baring rows of sharp white teeth, and glared at them with the
unblinking red eye.
"What is with that dog?" Lucy said.
"It looks like we may be trapped here, unless we can find another
way out."
"Let me guess, there's a storm door or something in the basement?"
Lucy asked.
"I have no idea, and the dog from hell was not in my plan when we
were coming here."
A pawing came at the door.
"Think we should let it in?" Phillip asked.
Lucy raised her hand as if to smack him, and he saw the warning in
her eyes. Phillip laughed, but the shadows were growing longer
across the room, and he did not want to spend the night in his
grandfather’s creepy old home.
"To the basement, then?"
Something big and loud bumped on the floor upstairs, and then began
to roll.
"Let's go." Lucy said.
Phillip brought out the small penlight he had carried on his
keychain, and opened the basement door. Darkness was all he could
see until the tiny LED bulbs illuminated the stairwell. Trevor
McSwain's basement was a maze of winding corners and little rooms
crammed with artifacts.
"There's a difference between being a collector and a hoarder."
Lucy said.
"It looks like he never threw anything out. My god, what a mess."
Phillip replied.
At the back of the labyrinthine passageways the concrete basement
wall had been cut in an archway about seven feet tall and three
feet wide. A brick wall lay beyond the concrete, recessed about
three inches.
"There's nothing else here. I wonder what possessed him to cut the
wall out like that."
"Look at that." Phillip shone his light on a pedestal.
Beside the recessed brick doorway was a white ceramic pedestal with
a tiny gear protruding from the top. Phillip removed the watch from
his pocket and turned it over to reveal the gear shaped
inlay.
"I wonder..." Phillip said.
He placed his watch on the pedestal. Suddenly the planetary hands
began to move independent of the minute and hour hands. They
aligned at the jade nine, first Earth, then the moon, and finally
Saturn, and all three began to glow with a supernatural
light.
"Phillip, look at the brick wall!" Lucy screamed.
The mortar had been replaced by intense white light and the bricks
were shaking with a violent rhythm. With a sudden whoosh the bricks
were sucked into a dark vacuum where a vast field of stars, and
gasses swirled in a celestial show of brilliance.
"Phillip! Turn it off, turn it off." Lucy screamed.
"No, my god! It's, it's... wonderful!" Phillip was
breathless.
The teenagers were staring into space from Trevor McSwain's
basement. The view began to shift and change before their eyes like
a movie out of focus. A city in ruins began to form before their
eyes, until it was right outside their window.
"Is this real?" Lucy whispered.
From behind them the dog was walking down the basement stairs with
his teeth bared, and snarling. His saliva burned little black holes
in the wooden stairs. The hound's toenails clicked like the sound
of a death clock ticking in their heads.
"We could probably step through. Maybe the dog won't follow us?"
Phillip whispered.
"Are you crazy? We just saw space and stars in a void! What happens
if we step out that door and fall into nothing, and die?" Lucy
said.
The dog began to bark, and leapt forward until it was no more than
two feet from them.
"Time to go!" Phillip screamed.
He pushed Lucy through the door and followed after her. The two
tumbled onto a grassless field surrounded by trash, burned out
hulks of cars, and animal skeletons.
"The watch!" Phillip yelled.
He dived back around the corner and grabbed the watch as the black
dog dived for his arm. Phillip retrieved the mystic timepiece and
rolled back through the door before it could close behind him. He
landed next to Lucy, his hand held high with the watch clutched
tight in his palm.
"That was insane. Where the hell are we?" Lucy asked.
Phillip opened his eyes and propped himself on one arm and when he
raised up he could see an old man shambling toward them from the
city. He was clothed in tattered rags, limping, and had the gaunt
malnourished appearance of a man who had not eaten well in
years.
"Thank the Lord, you made it, Phillip!" The man said.
"Grandpa? How did you get here?" Phillip asked.
Phillip's mouth hung open like a flytrap, as Trevor embraced his
grandson for the first time in over five years.
"You keep that open, a bug's going to go right in, and trust me
bugs are about all that's left."
Behind Trevor McSwain rested the hulking, ruined skeleton of what
was once a great city.
"Where are we?" Phillip asked.
"Welcome to future New York!" He waved his hand around. "A far as I
can tell they blew each other up sometime in the year 2230. The
newspapers I found in a library basement describe the political
turmoil going on at the time, and what led to the shelled out
wasteland you see in front of you."
"What happened to your leg?" Phillip asked.
"Oh yeah, that's a good one," he laughed. "I almost died! I was out
hunting for food one day and saw a small pig running through the
street. I chased it through a department store a weak section of
floor crumbled under my feet. I fell to the floor below and landed
on a weight set. I'm no doctor so, I have no idea in how many
places I broke my leg but I was in agony for months."
"Are there any other people anywhere?" Lucy asked.
"Not here, as far as I can tell, unless they live in the sewers,
and there may be other cities with people, but I have had no way to
reach them since all the cars have been destroyed. We'd better get
inside; wolves come out to hunt around this time of day."
Phillip and Lucy surveyed the dismal scene. The catastrophe had
blown out windows, broken buildings in half, torn the roads like
tissue paper, and collapsed at least one bridge that they could
see. Vegetation had taken over. Long hanging vines were draped over
skyscrapers like the clinging arms of some horrific green monster,
devouring the structures. Giant oak trees had grown strong, and
tall through cracked concrete department store floors, and rain,
like a waterfall, poured in from destroyed roof tops watering the
decaying urban jungle.
"Were you trapped here, or did you just decide you liked the place
and wanted to stay?'Cause this is jacked up, here, grandpa!"
Phillip said.
"Did you happen to see a little black animal with long claws around
the house? I'm not talking about a cat either."
Phillip and Lucy exchanged a glance.
"Yeah, it was chasing a cat through the weeds in your yard. What
the heck is that thing anyway?" Phillip asked.
"Cyril and I picked him up on one of my time travel adventures.
He's a pain in the ass, that one, and got me stuck here."
"How?" Lucy asked.
"When I came through the door, Cyril was right behind me, and
normally he's a good boy, but that day he decided to climb up the
pedestal where you put my watch, and when he did he lost his
balance, he knocked the pedestal over, and the door closed behind
me after my watch fell off the gear. Your mom must have been down
there at some point to have found that watch."
Trevor led them to a fire escape in an alley beside one of the
least damaged buildings.
"This place is pretty safe from predators. The whole bottom floor
is a disaster and the stairwell fell in during the explosions, so
once you're off the ground not much can get to you. After I broke
my leg it took me almost six months to get back up here."
Trevor grunted as he climbed hand over hand up the short ladder to
a landing above their heads.
"Come on, let's go."
A long, mournful howl echoed through the city.
"Wolves! Climb, Lucy." Phillip said.
After she was up he followed just as a pack of emaciated, mongrel
wolves ran by the alley. One of them spotted Phillip and trotted
into the alley.
"What is it with canines lately?" Phillip said.
"You must be talking about Spot." Trevor laughed.
"Yeah, oh by the way, you have a large hell hound or something
living in your house. It's got one eye, a red one." Phillip
shivered.
"He's harmless; in fact, Spot's the reason you're here." Trevor
said.
He climbed through a window into a luxury apartment that had sold
for over a million dollars in the real estate market long
ago.
"Nice place." Phillip said.
"Thanks. Spot is a hologram, and I sent him to herd anyone who came
looking for me down to the basement and that door."
"How'd you do it? I mean, this place is a disaster, and it doesn't
look like you have any electricity, much less...how?" Phillip
asked.
"At some point people found a way to safely time travel without
creating paradoxes, but it takes a ton of power to pull it off.
You're right, there is no electricity, but I was able to wire a
series of solar batteries together to one of their time travel
machines, and hook it up to a computer. The 3D dog program came
with the operating system, so, after monkeying around with their
technology for more time than I'd like to admit, I finally figured
out how to do it." Trevor explained.
"So, you sent a holographic dog back in time? I'm confused."
Phillip said.
"How'd it know we could help?" Lucy asked.
"The watch you carry has a special chip in it that emits a beacon
in, so that in case someone gets trapped in time it makes it easier
to find that person. Kind of like the GPS tracker in your phone. I
set the dog to look for that beacon."
"How did you figure all of this out? And, where'd you get the
watch, anyway?" Lucy asked.
"I stole it from a government research lab I was working in. I was
contracted to work on a quantum field generator, and I saw the
watch. I couldn't take my eyes off it, so one day I just slipped it
in my pocket and walked out the door. There were all kinds of
random gadgets those boys had been working on. Anyway, It took me
awhile to figure out the gear on the back, but once I realized it
was a keyhole, the rest was easy. You wouldn't believe the projects
that happen underground, hidden in black budgets. It would flip
your lid, kid."
"Grandpa, I'm a senior in high school, and I've never been away
from home. What we're experiencing now is flipping my lid."
"So, how do we get back? I want to go home." Lucy said.
"My house is about two hundred miles south of here, and if the
basement is still in one piece then maybe the pedestal is there as
well. We can put the watch on, and with some luck, it'll open a
door back to our time." Trevor said.
"We have to walk two hundred miles?" Phillip asked.
"Nope, let's get something to eat, and then I've got something to
show you."
Trevor served them a soup made from some kind of meat, and while it
was palatable, neither teen wanted the recipe.
They stared out the window, marveling at how bad it had all become.
The people were gone.
"What happened to them?" Phillip asked.
"I don't know for sure, and this tragedy takes place a very long
time after we're all dead anyway. Besides, this is only one
possible future for humanity. Let's go."
Trevor led them to the roof where a hovercraft sat unscathed by the
destruction so prevalent everywhere else.