The Skull Book Cover

The Skull


A Science Fiction Short Story


Subgenres & Tropes:

  • Time Travel,
  • Dystopian,
  • Religious Science Fiction
Buy from Amazon

This book is for you if you're into...

  • Time travel missions with high personal stakes
  • Hunters who become the hunted in suspicious small towns
  • Stories where the target and the pursuer blur together
Publisher Description

Conger is taken out of prison and asked by "The Speaker" to complete a mission that is tied to his skills as a hunter. It is quickly explained to him that the government forces have identified the skull of the Founder of the Church who had died a few hundred years ago. They want Conger to go into the past, find the person who matches the skull and kill him before he has a chance to speak his gospel.

With very little to go on but only having a jail cell as an alternative option, Conger accepts and is blasted to the past. He initially arrives after the reported time the founder died so that he could get more details about the death. While researching the Founder, he moves about the city and is witnessed by a few people that take note of him.

He jumps back to the right time and the right town to find the Founder. It's a small town and so he quickly makes acquaintances to help find out if anyone new (besides himself) has been around. However, many in the town are suspect of him, seeing him as an outsider who is a bit strange and believing he is a "Red." The concern grows enough that he is reported to the authorities who come to capture him.

However, before that can happen, Conger realizes that he is the Founder and delivers a message to the people before being taken in by the authorities.

More Philip K. Dick

Follow This Author

Sign up & we'll email you when a new title is available for pre-order or hits the bookshelf

Little Stacks of Science Fiction

Get Free & Discounted eBooks

Curated reads, irresistible prices—subscribe now

Add this book to your To Be Read list

Sign up to build your personal library

Archive This Book

Sign up to build your personal library