Chapter 1

Brock McLoud slipped closer to the food warehouse at Fort Lawrence, aka Camp Rucker. If he couldn't break in and steal some food, he and his parents would probably starve. The hunting and general scavenging around Dothan had just run out.

Since Generalissimo Lawrence had moved in with his troops, most of the available food had disappeared. His men had scraped the region clean of anything edible and nobody had gotten organized quickly enough to stop his armed convoys. As a result, the only way to eat was to raise food as a serf on "his" land or to work as a slave in one of "his" factories.

Lawrence had become the tyrant of myth and fairy tales, literally nothing was permitted that he didn't sanction; you couldn't even fuck your wife without his permission! His soldiers did anything they wanted to; there was no such thing as a virgin, male or female, over 10 years old in his territory.

Brock and his father, Donald, had tried to fight, but had been overwhelmed and had been lucky to escape with their lives. Brock had ridden his bicycle the grueling miles to Fort Lawrence in hopes of stealing enough food to hold his family until they could figure out some way to survive without surrendering to Lawrence. Even if he could steal food and escape, Brock might not make it back home without having his stuff stolen and him being killed. But he had to try!

He had nearly reached the warehouse when he heard an order to halt. From inexperience, he turned to look in the direction of his discoverer, instead of diving for cover. As he turned, a shot rang out and Brock expected to die. He was astounded to see a flattened bullet drop at his feet; the next thing he knew, he was sitting in a comfortable chair in a living room and being offered a snack and coffee.

A man and a woman were also sitting in the room and seemed totally relaxed. There was no effort to hide the food, which seemed to be available in plenty, and no effort to hid the lighted room from the dark outside. Brock was very nervous at this, but he was also very hungry. He gratefully accepted the food and drink and ate until he was too embarrassed to ask for more.

The man looked very familiar and there was considerable resemblance between the man and woman, but Brock couldn't put his finger on the reason for this apparent familiarity. Once Brock's immediate hunger had been sated, the man said, "Let me introduce us. My name is Bruce McLoud and this is my wife, Brenda. Yes, Brock, you heard the name correctly. We are not directly related, but there is a connection which we will explain. You are perfectly safe here; Generalissimo Lawrence's men cannot reach us, here, and you can stay as long as you like. Wait just a moment and Brenda will fetch your parents."

Brock's parents walked in from an adjacent room and greeted Brock with hugs and kisses.

Bruce continued, "Your parents have already heard the background on us and this place, but, perhaps, you would like to bathe and rest before we give you all the details."

"No, I am dying of curiosity. Please tell me now."

"OK, Brenda and I are from what we call a parallel universe. I'll explain all of that later. We are now in a place we call EU, or empty universe, where all of the physical attributes of the Earth you are familiar with exist, except that there is no animal life. The people you see before you are the only animals anywhere in this universe. Only Brenda and I can travel between universes, so you are safe from Lawrence. We'll teach you three how to travel like we do in a few minutes.

"Some time ago in my own universe, I had a strange accident which gave me enormous mental powers which I am able to share with others. Some of the things I can do are telekinesis (TK), teleportation (TP), and a souped up version of clairvoyance which we call POV. I know you don't believe me, so I will demonstrate with this medium sized rock."

Bruce then went through his standard demonstration of TK and TP, much to the astonishment of the others. The glowing rock was a particular hit. "I cannot demonstrate POV so easily; that will have to wait. Now, you must understand this: I can give you all these powers, and more, but I do have to make slight adjustments to your brain in the process. The change is not painful and takes only a few seconds. I can put you back to your current condition if you decide that you don't want the power. Do all three of you want this ability?"

All three nodded, so Bruce and Brenda made the changes, including the health maintenance program. Brenda said, "Welcome to the future. You are now functionally immortal. Nothing can kill you if your health maintenance program has time to react. In a moment, we will show you how to fashion impenetrable armor which can make you invisible. We have many other wonders to show you, so just be patient.

"The first thing you need to learn is a teaching procedure which will let you learn a life's worth of knowledge in a few minutes. We'll also teach you POV and how to travel in time and across universes. Furthermore, you will learn to speak directly to another person's mind and to read minds if you are not blocked. There are many things to learn, so let's get started."

With Brenda and Bruce both working, all of the knowledge was transferred in less than 30 minutes.

Then Bruce said, "You now know everything that Brenda and I know to do with ESP. You realize how dangerous this knowledge would be in the wrong hands, Generalissimo Lawrence's, for example. So don't tell anyone else about your abilities without very good reason and without putting a compulsion of secrecy onto them. We know that you are trustworthy, since we checked you out before we ever contacted you. It is now up to you to help your world to return to happiness. You can contact either or both of us if you ever need our help. Good luck and get some rest before you return to your universe."

With that, Bruce and Brenda TPed back to their preferred universe.

The next morning, after the best night's rest any of them had ever had, the three met in the kitchen for breakfast. There was more food in greater variety than any of them had seen in years, so they tried to sample as many different thing as they could.

Brock's father, Donald, and mother, Mary, sat around the breakfast over coffee and discussed their next move. Donald felt that they needed to practice their skills before they tried to use them against Lawrence's troops and the others agreed.

The first thing they did was don the invisible armor, and they all laughed when they disappeared from sight. For convenience right now, they removed the invisibility aspect and tried testing the armor. They found that TK armor was as good as advertised. They tried putting the armor on and off as fast as they could and practiced until they were fully armored in less than a second.

Becoming comfortable with POV took a couple of hours, but they finally felt that they had mastered that ability. The mind-speak was so easy that they didn't have to practice that, so they TPed outside to try weapon practice with TK.

They found that they could knock down or pick up anything that they could see, and POV could provide them all the sight they needed. They decided that they didn't need guns or knives; they could do anything with TK that those weapons could do. They found that they could pass urine, etc. just by TPing it, so that was another problem solved.

They returned to the kitchen to discuss their strategy to rescue their world. The first thing they needed was a headquarters. Rebuilding and TK armoring their house in Dothan seemed like a good place to start, so they TPed there to begin.

They wanted to attract attention, so they repaired the house to its original condition and sheathed it in TK armor. While Donald and Mary were working on the house, Brock manicured the lawn. They turned the house and lot into a real showplace for any day and time.

Their POV and TP were used to loot Lawrence's food warehouse of month's of supplies. They had used their TP to create that rarity in south Alabama: a cellar where they stored the food they had "confiscated."

Mary suggested that they visit any of their neighbors who were still in the neighborhood to see what help they needed. Brock thought that was a good idea, but they should use the POV to locate the people they wanted to visit; that would save a lot of otherwise wasted time. Donald pointed out that they should carry guns simply because that would discourage the casual mugging. He jumped to Lawrence's armory and grabbed three pistols and holsters, etc.

The first place they chose to visit was a house occupied by a woman with two young children. Her husband had simply disappeared; she had no idea where he was, or if he was even alive. She had no way to gather food, so she expected that she and her children would starve unless she joined Lawrence as a slave.

They TPed to a safe location near her house and went up to her front door. They rang the doorbell and waited for a response. Nobody came to the door, so Mary POVed the house to find out what was wrong. She found the woman and her children cowering in the kitchen, so she jumped to the back of the house and called her by name, "Nancy Jones, this is Mary McLoud with my family. We've come to help you."

Nancy Jones went to the kitchen window and looked out to see Mary on the porch. She opened the door and Mary walked in. Mary asked if her husband and son could also come in and Nancy said OK. Mary went to open the front door and brought the two men to the kitchen. The two were introduced to Nancy and the kids.

Nancy and the kids relaxed after a few minutes and the conversation became specific to her needs. All she really needed was food, and Mary promised to help with that. Brock got a list from Nancy of what she would like to have and said he would start on it right now. He went to a secluded section of the back yard and TPed to the food warehouse. Brock collected what Nancy wanted and TPed to his cellar where he temporarily stored the food. He wanted to delay a couple of hours before returning to Nancy's house. He used mind-speak to tell Mary that he had everything and was home.

While Brock was waiting, he POVed around the neighborhood just out of idle curiosity. Suddenly, his attention was grabbed by a commotion at a house a few blocks away. Four men in military uniform had broken into a house. The man of the house, presumably the husband, was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The men had the woman, naked, pushed against the kitchen counter, face down. One of the men was standing behind her as if he was about to rape her while the other men held her in place.