Mark Thomas

A Slave of Time Mark Thomas

The story begins with scene in which a young, Black man is running from cowboys in a town named Juniper, a fictional borough of the Republic of Texas, which was a real, sovereign country from 1836 to 1846. The exact year of this story is not specified. A Navajo is escaping with the Black man. They encounter someone they know at the edge of town. The Black man and the Navajo possess items that the reader can clearly deduce are from the future (e.g. duffle bag with "Southwest Airlines" logo, bizarre weaponry, etc.). The person they encounter turns out to be the man who convinced Juniper authorities to bring the Black man and Navajo to him. The cowboys call the Black man "Huckleberry Finn" (the name of Mark Twain's character as the best friend of Tom Sawyer in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, American classics) and the Navajo "Mosin Nagant" (the name of a sniper rifle not yet invented). The unnamed man they encounter calls them both soldiers and tells them they will remain trapped in the current time period until they "submit," but the reader does not yet know what this means. Huckleberry fires all the tranquilizer rounds from his pistol in a bright, explosive display that damages buildings and knocks all nearby citizens unconscious, but the unnamed man escapes them. Mosin reminds Huck that the blast used all of his ammunition, so Huck has no tranquilizers left and only a couple bullets. He also reminds Huck about the unnamed man's warning about the medicinal shots they take from syringes that boost their bodies' physical capabilities.