I’m not sure when it happens, or for how long, but some time passes—or none at all—when everything turns a dark blue. Strange specks of light, mostly white, zip past me in a strange blurring motion.

Or am I zipping past them? I can’t be sure, as I’m lurched to the left not a second—or century—later.

Two figures shrouded in darkness glide beside me. One is small and rabbit-like, allowing me to infer the larger is Holly. Where we are or where we’re headed is beyond me.

At last, after what feels both an eternity and a billionth of a second, I land on the ground. Dirt kicks up and cakes into my cheek and clothes.

I hear two more thuds, one metallic in nature. A glance to either side reveals the person and automaton I expect. It also reveals a lot more I didn’t expect.

Strange pure-white technology surrounds us, some of it hooked to the spherical force field mechanism Aurora just decommissioned. As far as I can tell, that’s all that’s left of the original Hindenburg.

Footsteps approach us from the front. I scramble to my feet, ready for whatever’s next. Now that we’ve discovered Aurora can hurt these things, I’m not playing games.

A normal-looking man appears in a doorway. He’s wearing a black suit and tie. His hair is styled strangely, but otherwise, he’s an unassuming business executive.

He salutes us. I stand cautiously, not motioning back. Holly seems like she still hasn’t fully recovered.

Are you Tes? the man asks me in sign language.

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You know sign language? I ask.

He smiles. I know enough for this conversation. My name is Agent Ike.

Are we still on the Hindenburg?

Yes. It’s been converted into a laboratory for strange technology.

“Woah,” Holly says. “Who is he? What’s he saying? What are you saying, sir?”

“I was telling Tes that you’re in the Hindenburg. The three of you have traveled three years into the future.”

What?!

“What?!” Holly unknowingly mimics.

How? Why?

“Well, we were hoping you could tell us the how and the why. And the what. Here, let’s go get—”

Aurora glows again, and the world warps once more.

“Wait, what are you—where are you going? Tes? Holly?!”

My vision goes black again. And then blue, with the specks of light, and I’m moving, and time is not, but it is, and I’m not, and then we’re thrown out into a second batch of dirt.

This time, however, the dirt has dead grass on it.

I didn’t feel it last time, but this time, I throw up. It’s mostly water, but still unpleasant. Holly and Aurora appear moments later, the rabbit rolling a good ten feet.

“What happened?” Holly asks. Naturally, I don’t have an answer. I search the landscape for clues. The sky is a light purple, and the only visible ground features are sparse dead trees stretching on as far as the horizon.

This is the dead plains Julia was talking about. We’re in it.

“Hey, let’s go home,” Holly says, trying to prompt Aurora and her untamed ability, but her glow is gone. She droops her ears and lowers her head.

She can’t take us back.

We’re stuck here.

“Well, shit,” I say.

A/N:: Thank you all so much for reading The Ghost of the Hindenburg! This is only the first entry in the Tes Simms Anthology, with more to come in February! Stay tuned!

Also coming out in February is my book The Brass Dove, sequel to my Amazon-exclusive The Steam War, a story about Cog and her group of friends on an airship/school that gets thrown into complicated relationships, messy social encounters, and the Steam War, an extension of WWII, all with an exchange student plotting to bring Cog down and expose her. In The Steam War, secrets don't keep once they're airborne.