a journey to find his imaginary goldmine - The Kid (Escape from the Past #2) by Annette Oppenlander

Time-traveling gamer, Max, embarks on a harrowing journey through the Wild West of 1881! After a huge fight with his parents, Max tries to return to his love and his best friend, Bero, in medieval Germany. Instead he lands in 1881 New Mexico.

Description:

Published: February 26th, 2016

Time-traveling gamer, Max, embarks on a harrowing journey through the Wild West of 1881! After a huge fight with his parents, Max tries to return to his love and his best friend, Bero, in medieval Germany. Instead he lands in 1881 New Mexico. Struggling to get his bearings and coming to terms with Dr. Stuler s evil computer game misleading him, he runs into Billy the Kid.

To his amazement Billy isn't at all the ruthless killer history made him out to be. Trouble brews when a dying Warm Springs Apache gives Max a huge gold nugget to help his sister, Ela, escape from Fort Sumner. Shopping for supplies Max attracts the attention of ruthless bandits. Before Max can ask the Kid s help, he and Ela are forced to embark on a journey to find his imaginary goldmine.

This is book 2 in the Escape from the Past trilogy."

“Escape from the Past: The Kid is a magical fictional mystery interwoven with historical facts and exciting adventures. The reader experiences the twists and turns of the story while gaining a greater appreciation of the challenges of life in the Wild West during the late 1800’s. Max, a typical teenager of today, is thrown into a series of arduous challenges he must overcome in order to return to his former humdrum life. Along the way, he and we gain valuable insights and appreciation of the hardships encountered by the new western settlers and the Native American people amongst outlaws and the formidable desert climate of the New Mexico area. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable experience you will not want to miss.“ —Richard Rafes, Ph.D., J.D., President of East Central University

“As an English teacher of 43 years and as a life-long student of the Wild West and Native Americans, I found Annette Oppenlander’s, The Kid, to be an accurate, well-researched and thoroughly entertaining novel for young readers. The portrait of Max, the adventurous and risk-taking protagonist, is spot on;he has the language of young men his age and all the angst, dreams and longings that are hallmarks of a typical 17 year-old adolescent male. Ms. Oppenlander has a keen eye for detail, and her ability to create cliffhanging situations of high suspense makes for a great read. I strongly recommend this novel for any imaginative young reader who likes to have one foot in fantasy and one in reality.” —Bill Hays, English AP/Honors Teacher, Retired, Bloomington North High School

EXCERPT

TOUR SCHEDULE

I leaned forward because all of a sudden my chest was killing me. I was stuck in a truck-sized vise, my ribs squeezing together, body compressing. My lungs throbbed and I couldn’t breathe, not even a little. My arms and legs felt numb. Do something, I thought. I pushed myself to stand. Something is wrong with the game, stop the game, my mind urged. But I couldn’t. Lights exploded behind my eyelids and I had to pay every shred of attention to the task of breathing.

It occurred to me that I was having a heart attack. My mother’s face flashed by. I wanted to shout for her, but my lungs had quit for good, my tongue a rigid piece of meat. She’d find me in the morning dead on the carpet. My sight turned foggy then black. I was passing out. I sucked frantically and drew in a bit of air. Slowly with each breath the crushing heaviness disappeared.

Blinking away the haze, I wiped my sweaty forehead. I should make an appointment with the family doctor.

Something moved ahead. There at the edge of a clearing cowered the man in rags holding his right elbow. He trembled and now that I was closer, I saw blood dripping from his wrist.

The three riders had surrounded him, their blades pointing toward the man’s neck. One rider dismounted, his face shadowed by a half helmet and curled brownish beard, his hands covered by steel gauntlets like lizard scales. The other two sat motionless, waiting. I tried to get a better view of what the horsemen were doing when I looked down.

And froze.

I stood on the root of an oak tree. Surely I imagined things. But those were definitely my Nikes I’d forgotten to take off when I returned home. I moved my foot. Leaves crackled. A twig snapped. Something terrible had happened, something I couldn’t wrap my mind around. I blinked and looked to my right. Trees and undergrowth were losing themselves in the gloom. I remembered the mouse in my right hand, but when I lifted my arm, my fingers came up empty—except for the smear of something sticky on my palm. I was bleeding.

Wait.

The bush next to me was covered in blood. Not mine, I realized with relief. Disgusted I wiped my shaking hands with a fistful of leaves and turned to look behind me. The woods stretched into darkness—shadows within shadows nearly black.

My room was gone.

Goodreads ** Amazon ** Barnes&Noble ** Indiebound ** Kobo ** The Book Depository

About the author:

Annette Oppenlander writes historical fiction for young adults. When she isn’t in front of her computer, she loves indulging her dog, Mocha, and traveling around the U.S. and Europe to discover amazing histories.

“Nearly every place holds some kind of secret, something that makes history come alive. When we scrutinize people and places closely, history is no longer a number, it turns into a story.”

Website ** Goodreads ** Facebook ** Twitter