TIME'S DARING DELIVERY - EPISODE 1
✍️ EPISODE 1 TIME’S DARING DELIVERY - The Storm That Wasn’t
By Paul G. Landry
Low clouds hung over New York City, heavy and dark with the promise of rain.
At the FedEx loading dock, a delivery truck backed slowly into position, its warning alarm echoing across the wet pavement.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Joe Walker stood beside the truck with a coffee in one hand and absolutely no enthusiasm in the other.
In his thirties, with a rumpled uniform and the easy movement of someone who had once been much more athletic, Joe looked like a man surviving on habit, caffeine, and sarcasm.
Dock workers swarmed around him, loading crates into the truck with practiced urgency.
Joe glanced toward the sky and grimaced.
“Looks like a swamp out here,” he muttered. “Sam’s after shift. First round’s medicinal.”
The Crew Chief, a broad-shouldered man in his forties, scanned a tablet and barely looked up.
“Full load, Joe. Medical supplies, electronics, and hazmat for the Coast Guard. Locker code’s in your app.”
Joe froze.
“Hazmat?” he asked. “What did I do to deserve that karma?”
The Crew Chief smirked.
“You showed up.”
Joe sighed dramatically and signed off on the manifest.
The rain began almost immediately.
Forklifts slid the final containers inside. The rear doors slammed shut with a heavy metallic thud.
Joe climbed into the cab, locked up, and gave the crew a lazy salute.
“Try not to miss me.”
Then he pulled out into traffic.
The city streets had become rivers.
Rain hammered the windshield so hard the wipers could barely keep pace.
Thunder rolled overhead.
Joe squinted through the blur of brake lights and streaming water.
Something felt strange.
The streets were unusually empty.
Then he saw it.
A stalled sedan on the shoulder.
Its hood was raised.
Beside it stood a woman, waving desperately through the storm.
She was soaked.
Shivering.
Joe drove past.
Then checked his mirror.
He paused.
He groaned.
“Ah, hell.”
He signaled and pulled over.
The woman ran toward the truck through sheets of rain.
Joe leaned across and popped the passenger door.
“Get in before you drown.”
She climbed in quickly, dripping onto the floor mats.
She was in her thirties, hospital scrubs barely visible beneath a soaked raincoat. Her eyes were sharp, though exhaustion and worry had clearly taken their toll.
Joe immediately turned the heater on full blast.
“Car dead?”
“Completely,” she said, hugging herself for warmth. “Of course today.”
She shivered.
“I’m a nurse. First shift. They’re going to kill me.”
Joe extended a hand.
“Delivery driver. Professional rule-breaker. Joe.”
She smiled despite herself and shook it.
“Jeni. Thank you. Seriously.”
Joe nodded.
“Seatbelt. If we hydroplane, the paperwork’s a nightmare.”
She laughed.
It was exactly the kind of reaction he’d hoped for.
Joe eased the truck back into traffic.
Rain pounded the roof.
The wipers thrashed.
Lightning flashed.
Once.
Twice.
Then again.
But something about the storm had changed.
The sky darkened unnaturally.
Not cloud-dark.
Something deeper.
The air inside the cab began to hum.
Joe looked up through the windshield.
The clouds were moving strangely.
Rippling.
Pulsing.
He narrowed his eyes.
“That’s not weather.”
Without warning, a violent gust slammed the truck sideways.
Joe fought the wheel.
Jeni gripped the dashboard.
“Joe.”
A low, rising howl filled the air.
Electrical.
The dashboard lights flickered.
The radio died.
The headlights dimmed.
Then a faint blue glow began creeping across the windshield.
Joe stared.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “I officially hate this.”
The glow intensified.
It swallowed the cab.
Static crawled across the metal frame.
The hair on their arms rose.
The truck shuddered violently.
Then…
It lurched upward.
Jeni gasped.
“We’re not touching the road.”
Blinding white light exploded around them.
A deafening crack split the air.
Then…
Blackness.
Silence.
Jeni woke first.
She gasped and sat upright.
“Joe. Joe!”
Beside her, Joe groaned and rubbed the side of his head.
“I feel like I got microwaved.”
They looked through the windshield.
Neither spoke.
This wasn’t New York.
There was no city.
No traffic.
No road.
Only endless dry hills stretching beneath a blazing sun.
Red dirt.
Waist-high yellow grass.
A shimmering heat rising from the earth.
Their FedEx truck sat crooked in the middle of it all, as though it had fallen from the sky.
Joe blinked.
Slowly.
“That’s new.”
They stepped outside.
Silence greeted them.
No wind.
No birds.
No distant engines.
Nothing.
Only heat.
Only stillness.
And somewhere deep inside both of them…
the unmistakable feeling that they were no longer where they were supposed to be.
Or when.
The heat hit them like a wall.
Bone-dry air pressed against their skin as Joe and Jeni stepped cautiously through the tall yellow grass. Every footstep crunched loudly beneath them.
No buildings.
No roads.
No power lines.
Nothing.
Only endless rolling hills beneath a merciless sky.
Jeni pulled out her phone and stared at the blank screen.
“No signal.”
Joe checked his own.
Dead.
He looked around helplessly.
“Please tell me this is Jersey.”
Jeni scanned the empty horizon.
“Even Jersey has a Starbucks.”
Joe let out a nervous laugh and circled the FedEx truck.
The vehicle looked perfectly intact.
Just impossibly out of place.
He opened the rear doors.
Boxes had shifted during whatever had happened. Medical supplies, electronics, sealed containers, everything rattled in chaotic disarray.
“Great,” he muttered. “Either we’re lost…”
He looked toward the horizon.
“…or abducted.”
Jeni wasn’t listening.
Her eyes had locked onto something in the rocky hillside.
A dark opening.
A cave.
“Joe…”
He followed her gaze.
The cave sat in silence.
Black.
Still.
Watching.
The only shelter in sight.
They exchanged a hesitant look, then climbed back into the truck.
Joe carefully guided it over rough stones and uneven dirt until the cave opened wide enough to hide the vehicle.
Metal scraped rock.
The truck groaned.
Finally, he eased it backward into the shallow cavern and shut off the engine.
Silence returned immediately.
They worked quickly, dragging dead branches, tumbleweed, and dry brush across the entrance until the truck was nearly invisible.
Joe pressed the lock button.
Beep.
He stepped back and admired their work.
“Home sweet apocalypse.”
They left the cave on foot.
A narrow dirt path wound down through the valley.
The ground was hard-packed and dry.
Then Jeni stopped.
“Joe.”
Thin grooves cut through the dirt.
Parallel lines.
Too deliberate.
Joe crouched.
“They look like wagon tracks.”
Jeni’s face tightened.
Before either could say more…
Voices.
Distant.
Shouting.
Then…
Hoofbeats.
Growing louder.
Joe turned sharply.
Over the ridge came riders.
Half a dozen men on horseback.
Their dark cloaks snapped in the wind.
Steel flashed in the sunlight.
Swords.
Spears.
Armor.
Joe stared.
Not costumes.
Real.
He swallowed hard and forced a smile.
“Okay…”
The riders charged.
“Either Comic Con got weird…”
Dust exploded around them.
The horses surrounded them in seconds.
Voices shouted in a language neither understood.
A spear pressed against Joe’s chest.
Hands grabbed Jeni.
“Hey! Hey! Easy!”
Rough rope yanked Joe’s wrists behind his back.
Jeni was bound just as quickly.
Joe glanced back toward the cave.
Invisible.
Perfect.
Good.
The riders hauled them onto horses.
Moments later they were racing across the valley.
Dust thundered beneath pounding hooves.
Ahead, rising from a distant hill…
Stone walls.
Massive towers.
A fortress.
Ancient.
Immense.
Impossible.
Joe watched it grow larger.
The jokes disappeared from his face.
The fortress gates groaned open.
Heavy timber reinforced with iron.
Joe and Jeni were dragged inside.
The world beyond was alive.
Blacksmith hammers rang against metal.
Smoke curled from chimneys.
Goats wandered between market stalls.
Vendors shouted.
Soldiers marched.
Children ran through muddy streets.
Everything felt loud.
Chaotic.
Primitive.
And terrifyingly real.
People stopped what they were doing to stare.
Whispers followed them.
Children pointed.
Some threw pebbles until a guard barked sharply and sent them scattering.
Joe turned slowly, absorbing the impossible scene around him.
“Okay,” he whispered.
“Definitely not Jersey.”
Jeni moved closer beside him.
Neither knew what would happen next.
The guards shoved them forward.
Toward the towering stone keep.
Toward judgment.
Toward whoever ruled this place.
And somewhere hidden in the cave beyond the valley…
Joe’s FedEx truck…
These episodes are taken from my original screenplay work, titled ‘Time’s Daring Delivery’ © Copyright 2025 - 2026 By Paul G. Landry.