Free Willie's Redneck Time Machine by John Luke Robertson

to find John Luke.”

    Does Jase get you both back home in time for Korie’s birthday party? Go here .
    Does Jase decide to take you somewhere else? Go here .

2319

    YOU STEP OUTSIDE.
    Really, do you need to be told the rest?
    Seriously   —there’s an end-of-the-world sort of war going on outside your time machine, and you still step foot outside? Even after being warned?
    And sure enough, you last as long as it takes to read this page.
    These are your last words.
    “Oh, man, I   —”
    Then . . .
    BOOM!
    POW!
    Ow!
    Oh no.
    And you’re back in the Duck Commander warehouse, your phone ringing on and on: “Oops! . . . I did it again.”
    THE TRAGIC END
    Start over.
    Read “The Morning Fog: A Note from John Luke Robertson.”

UNKNOWN YEAR

    YOU JOIN JASE at the controls, determined to find a way home. Next to the screen displaying the Duck and Buck choices, you notice a reset button. You press it before Jase can object, and the screen changes. Now it displays the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. You try to get the screen to show time and place options, but you eventually give up and ask Jase how to get there.
    “I don’t know what this screen does,” Jase says.
    He presses 4 on the screen.
    “Why’d you do that?”
    “Why not?”
    The shaking and spinning motion begins. You hang on to a chair that’s fixed in place while the machine continues to tremble for a few moments. Then it stops.
    “Oh, boy,” you say.
    “This is fun,” John Luke says.
    “I hope this is better than the Civil War,” you tell Jase.
    “There’s no way to know now that you overrode the system.”
    “I was just trying to send us home!”
    “Well, you get to go first.”
    “You know we’re both still dressed as Confederate soldiers,” you say.
    Jase nods. “There’s an intervention chamber in the back.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “You can explain your issue to the main computer, and many times it fixes the problem. In this case, we’ll say we need our old clothes back.”
    Sure enough, minutes later you’re wearing your old clothes once more. They appeared in a box at the back of the intervention chamber, just as Jase suggested they would.
    “Now we don’t stand out as much,” you say.
    John Luke looks at both of you and laughs.
    “What?” you ask.
    “Come on,” Jase says. “You get out first.”
    You stare at them. “Who knows what story this might drop us into.”
    Then you step through the doorway.

    Go to “Double Vision” . . . in Jase & the Deadliest Hunt .

2319

    “THAT HIT ON THE HEAD made me forget my vital link and quadrant,” you say. “My brain feels foggy.”
    “How did you get to the fields?”
    “The fields. Oh yes, those. I just . . . I don’t know. It’s hazy.”
    “You should have been killed sneaking past the security barriers.”
    Your brain really is a bit foggy, and now you’re being forced to make up a story.
    “I’m not a threat,” you say. “I just   —I’m not sure how I got to the fields, but I was   —I wasn’t going after anyone.”
    “You had a system 5, class 20 high-velocity batter shatter in your possession. How did you get one of those?”
    “You call that rifle a batter shatter?” You can’t help but laugh, and the woman doesn’t seem to like your laughing.
    “I got it for a birthday present,” you say.
    “I know of people like you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’re one of them. The rebels. The ones battling against the system.”
    Finally you start to understand. “Yes, I get it.”
    “You do?”
    “Yes. I’ve seen the movies. This is a dystopian society. But that’s okay. I’m fine with dystopia. Totally fine.”
    “Do you even know what that means?”
    You nod. “Yeah. It’s like   —a genre, right? The bad government   —I mean, the one that some people think is bad. But I’m sure it’s good.”
    The woman slides out what looks to be some kind of CD and puts it in her palm. It begins to hover, and she speaks into