IN YOUR DREAMS (Mark Appleton #3)

by Patterson, Aaron

HOW DOES ONE STOP dreaming? How can I force myself to sleep yet not dream? I drank the rest of the water in my glass and sighed. I knew that this information was crazy, but my life seemed to be a string of crazy and unexplained events.

  Kreios looked at me and I could see the wheels turning. He had a plan but for some reason wasn’t going to tell me. Maybe he would kill me, was that the only real answer?

  “So, what happens when I leave? Is there another me running around with Kirk and K over on the other side?” I didn’t think so; someone would have noticed… maybe I stopped time on the other worlds.

  “In a way.” Kreios paced the floor and the soft light of the moon streaming in through the kitchen window made his hair look white, almost unreal as if he were not real. Was Kreios someone I made up, a figment of my imagination?

  “A version of you is still there but you are asleep, in a dream, and to you, time is moving very slow. Just as hundreds of other versions of you are living out their lives in real time in other universes. The last one you were in is the only one that will be in slow motion, but that will only last so long. As time goes by, if you stay here, the other world will speed up, and real time will continue. You cannot occupy more than one place at a time.”

  “Let me get this straight. I am sitting in a café or lying on my bed in that other world, and at the same time, I am in a hundred or so other places going about my life, unaware of this and what is going on?” My head began to throb.

  Kreios nodded. “Yet they are not you. They were you but now are making their own decisions independent of you altogether. If you enter their world, you become them just as you became this copy. That is why you remember his memories, his life, or the life you could have had.”

  This caught me off guard. “You mean this isn’t my life? What is my real life then?”

  “That is for you to decide.”

  “Come on, that’s a lame, Yoda-like answer. Just tell me—where is my first life, the one I should be living?” I could feel deep resentment welling up in my gut. “How do you know you are talking to the real me? I could be just the copy, or one of a hundred other copies of the same person.”

  “This is you. I found you, and because you are the only one who can dream and create a new world, I know you are the one who can stop this madness.” Kreios grunted and his voice was harsh. I could see his frustration, and I wondered how he came to have this task of stopping me, a fool who didn’t even know what he was doing.

  “Okay, so how do we fix this? I’m all ears.”

  “We can’t, but you can. One way is you have to stop dreaming and with my help, enter into all the worlds you created and kill your copy. In this case, yourself.”

  He moved on as he read my mind. That way would take forever, and in the end, how could I kill someone I entered without dying myself?

  “The second option is to find your book.”

  I gave him a confused look. “What book?” How could a book help? We had bigger problems than something some book or religion could cure.

  “This is not an ordinary book, this is the book, your book.” Kreios lowered his voice as if he were scared someone might overhear us. “In the Bible, it talks of the Book of Life. In this book, the Creator writes the names of his children. If you die and your name is not found in this book, you will be cast into hell to burn forever.”

  I had listened to the story as a child in Sunday school. The saved people or the ones who trusted in Jesus Christ to save them would be written in this book. “I know the story.”

  “Well—” He hesitated, “you’re not like others, not like other humans.” The way he looked at me made me concerned. What did he mean, “not like other humans”?

  “Mark, you are half human. No human can see his own Book of Life or even get to it. The Creator has it locked away in a room guarded by a powerful beasts that, if seen, this world would melt to even look upon their flesh. But your book is not among the ones locked away. It is on the earth somewhere, loose and hidden away, or stolen. We can rest assured that it is still here because you are still alive.”

  ***

  Kirk walked across the street and made his way through the chaos surrounding the Merc building. Something was going on beyond the scope of the blackouts. He had a feeling they were in for a rough ride.

  The parking garage was deserted, for the most part. Kirk found the elevator and punched in the code. He knew that in the science room there had to be some sort of device that could open this box. He would strap C4 to the side if he had to, but one way or another, he would get it open.

  The door opened and the silence of the place made Kirk nervous. Lights were on down here and the elevator even worked. That was one thing the WJA had going for them—they were prepared for just about anything.

  Something moved in the corner of Kirk’s eye. He flinched and whipped around with his gun drawn. The box hit the floor and made a loud thunk sound. Standing in the hallway was a large man, black and huge, looking like a gorilla in the doorway was dwarfed by Big B’s size.

  “B! You scared the—what are you doing?” Kirk holstered his gun and walked toward the big man.

  “Stay back! I’m infected…” He coughed and hunched over, holding onto the doorframe for support. “I got the virus. I was down here looking for any survivors.” Big B rubbed a large hand across his forehead and coughed again.

  “You’re okay, I’m somehow immune. Isis is in the hospital, but I think I might have found the antidote.” Kirk walked slowly toward B, and as he drew near, he saw large boils covering his arms and face. He had wet perspiration standing on his brow, and his t-shirt was soaked.

  “B, you should be in bed, what are you doing to yourself?” Kirk helped him into a room and found a chair, and Big B collapsed into it with a grunt.

  “I’m dead anyway, what does it matter? I thought I could help and at least save some…”

  “Ah, we looked all over for you, where were you? Where is the rest of the group?”

  “Don’t know, I went home and fell sick, and once I saw the news, I came back here. Everyone was gone. I tried to call, but all the phones are down. This blackout has everything down—no phones, no power.”

  Kirk sat down in a chair across from Big B and rubbed his head. “Did you find anything?”

  Big B shook his head. “Nothing I could use. You said you might have found an antidote?” His voice rose in anticipation.

  “I think so, but it is in some sort of air-tight cooler. The thing is like a safe.” Kirk got up and left the room. He retrieved the box and placed it on the desk in front of Big B. “See, here is the keypad, and feel how cold it is. It’s like it has its own internal power source.”

  Big B looked at the box and turned it over and around, lifting it like it weighed no more than a lunch box. “No clue on the code?”

  “No, but I found it in Taras Karjanski’s condo.” Big B smirked and coughed, and this time, blood came up. He spit out of the side of his mouth and wiped his lips.

  “Man, this is the pits.”

  “Come on, man, you need to rest. Can I get you anything?” Kirk couldn’t watch this guy die in front of him. He looked around the small office, saw a refrigerator and got up and opened it, finding soda and bottled water. He grabbed a can of Dr Pepper and a water. “Here, drink this.”

  “Thanks.”

  Big B opened the plastic top and downed the contents in three, big gulps. He sighed with relief and went back to examining the box. “I think I know how we can open it. In the lab, we have a scanner. It should be able to see fingerprints. If so, we can deduct from the prints what keys were used and start from there.”

  Kirk groaned and said. “I was hoping for a big Jaws of Life kind of thing and just tear the thing apart.”

  Big B smiled. “Nah, we can try that later. I don’t want to damage what is inside if we don’t have to.”

  “Too late for that, I dropped it, like, three times already. I figured if the thing wasn’t rattling around, it’s eithe
r empty, or the thing inside is protected somehow.”

  “Let’s hope for the latter…”

  Kirk nodded, reached over, and took the box. He muttered under his breath and promised himself that if he made it out alive, he was going to begin to work out more. The stupid thing weighed a ton.

  Big B pushed himself to his feet and shuffled after Kirk. Kirk let him pass and followed him to the lab. The floor was empty, and the white lights gave the room a clean feel. Kirk blinked under the brightness of the bulbs. Big B looked even worse in this light.

  “Set it down over there.” Big B pointed to a long counter top with a plastic case sitting on top. The case was five feet tall, and square. A door on the end could be opened up to allow the user to insert whatever they wanted tested. Kirk set the box down and sighed.

  “Now what?” Kirk asked.

  Big B sat down hard in a rolling chair and said, “We hope and pray.”

  CHAPTER 14

  “WE HAVE TO GO back,” Kreios moved toward me and I pulled back.

  “No! I just got here, we can’t leave.” The thought of leaving Maria upstairs and having her wake up with… with someone else. I knew it would be me, but not the me that I was.

  “If you stay much longer, real time will start and you have some business to take care of, or you could leave the key world in ruin.” Kreios lowered his eyebrows and held out his hand.

  “I thought you said that if I stayed here, this would become the key world.”

  “Yes, in time but not before the real key world topples and filters down to the rest of your little creations.” A hint of anger laced his voice. It wasn’t like I could control this thing. What did he want from me?

  “I want you to go home, to stop this virus, and—” Kreios mashed his lips together and stopped speaking.

  “What? And what, Kreios?”

  He looked down at the floor and said nothing. “We must go.”

  I sighed and nodded. “Fine.” I took his hand, and a flash of bright light filled my skull. I felt like I was thrown from a speeding train.

  Minutes, days, or even years could have passed in the in-between portal we traveled through. I couldn’t tell, yet somehow I felt like some of my soul and life was being sucked away. This was not right, not supposed to even be possible.

  I opened my eyes, and we were standing out in front of the Merc building. The CDC and the NYPD had the place locked down, and the sounds of reporters all talking at once made a hum cover the place.

  My head spun, and I held onto Kreios’s arm to steady myself. “Whoa… feels weird.”

  “Yes.”

  So full of wisdom, thanks for the insightful answer, Kreios. Then I remembered his mind reading abilities and cleared my throat. “Okay, what do I need to do? Didn’t you have something else you were looking for?”

  “I have recovered my property. There is no need to concern yourself with me. What do you know of this virus?” He walked away from the building and started down the sidewalk.

  Virus? My head was still working on the half-human thing and all I wanted to do was find out what was going on with me and— “Virus? I’m sorry but that is not on my mind right now. I can always leave this reality and stop time for a while. I have to find a way to fix this mess I created… how can we do that without having me go back and kill all the versions of myself?”

  Kreios seemed annoyed. “Outside of never dreaming again there is not much you can do. Killing the others would take time, but in the real world this wouldn’t take that long in real time.”

  “You mean I have to really go around and try to nab a look at myself and kill them all off?” There had to be another way, some other plan that did not involve killing. I killed for a living, but this was different.

  “There is one way…” Kreios stopped walking and leaned against a newsstand.

  “That would be?”

  “Find your book and write the ability away.”

  My jaw loosened and I could feel my brain working overtime to figure out what he was saying. “You mean I can write in my own book?”

  Kreios nodded. That is why it is so important to find it. You can write in it, but others can, as well. If they write, erase, or tear a page from the book, it could tear this universe apart. That is why all the human books are under lock and key.”

  “Wait… you’re telling me that my book is out there somewhere and some kid could tear a page from it and the part they took out would disappear—poof—gone as if it never existed?”

  “Not as if it never existed, but it would never exist as in it will change the past and the future. With your powers and your book on the loose, there is the slim possibility that someone is out there writing in your book, unaware that it is changing your life.”

  I thought on this for a full minute. The time that passed seemed so pretend, as if a small hole opened up in the divide between me and some other reality. “So, my abilities may be because someone out there is messing with my book?”

  “It is slim—almost impossible.”

  “Almost?”

  “There are no guarantees. However, you are real and your abilities are real, and writing in the book is forbidden, so if someone were doing it, the host of heaven would know and put a stop to it at once. Nevertheless, we need to find that book before some kid, as you say, does tear out a page.”

  “This is crazy!” My head hurt, my teeth hurt, and my gut felt as if I just eaten five hot dogs all covered with onions. “Books and powers and other worlds, I don’t know… I mean—”

  Kreios slapped me with the back of his hand and a fire shot through my sore teeth and ran back to the base of my neck. “You are a man, now act like it, and do what you must to fix this problem. I do not care if you believe. The truth is the truth whether you believe in it or not. I do not have time to convince you anymore. We will find this book, you will fix this, and I will be on my way. Or I shall kill you and kill every one of your other selves and be done with the whole mess.”

  I rubbed my face and nodded. “Sorry, I was—” My pride hurt at knowing that Kreios could have just killed me and never even talked to me in the first place. I was grateful to be alive.

  “I have a plan to keep anyone from writing in your book, but it requires you to trust me.”

  “Yes… yes, I’ll do whatever it requires.” Kreios let a half smile cross his face.

  “We have to go back to the beginning and lock your book. If you write a code or a password into the soul of the book so that only the person with the password can write in it, that may be just what we need to buy us some time.”

  I nodded. “Okay, what do we have to do?”

  Kreios held out his hand. “Take my hand.”

  ***

  The large plastic box filled with a light green fog and covered the metal cooler. Kirk stood with his arms crossed and glared at the green fog with a look of disdain. He was beginning to wonder if their hopes were in vain, or if this was the answer.

  “The gas has an element in it that will stick to any kind of oil, and we have tested and perfected this compound so it will stick to the oil on the skin. Anywhere someone has touched it will show up in green after it is done.” Big B was sitting in a chair and Kirk could tell that he was not feeling well. His skin was more pale then normal and he coughed every few minutes. The sound made Kirk shiver.

  The green fog began to thin out, and in a matter of minutes, it was gone altogether. Kirk looked toward Big B and got the nod. Opening up the case, he reached inside, and taking the box by the corners, he slid it out and turned it so the keypad faced them.

  The numbered keypad had bright green smudges on five numbers. two, four, five, six, and eight.

  Kirk looked at Big B and said, “Okay, we got the numbers, but what order are they in?”

  Big B pushed with his feet, and his chair rolled toward the counter top. He began typing on a keyboard, and the flat screen monitor in front of him came to life. “We should be able to run the numbers and get the p
ossible combinations. There will be a lot of them… This could take weeks to figure out.”

  “We don’t have weeks, we have hours. Look at you, B. You will be dead in a few days if you don’t get the antidote.” Kirk’s voice raised and he paced the floor rubbing his stubbly head.

  Big B coughed and doubled over. He spit out some blood and wiped his mouth. “I know… I don’t know what else we can do…”

  Kirk went over to the box and punched in the numbers two-four-five-six-eight. A red light flashed and read, “access denied.” He cursed and looked again at the keypad. The sound of Big B typing over his shoulder made him feel the sheer impossibility of the number possibilities.

  He noticed that the number five had more smudges then the rest of the numbers and wondered if it was because it was used twice. Kirk punched in two-four-six-eight-five, and five again. A green light flashed, the door gears hummed, and the door slid forward a few inches. Kirk’s heart leapt.

  “I think I got it!” Kirk said. Big B rolled over and watched as the door hinged down and lay flat. The opening beyond had ice on all six sides of the box. Steam came from the box, and inside was a metal container. Kirk reached in, took the round cylinder out, and noticed that there were three total.

  He handed the first one to Big B and took another one. The cylinders were stainless steel and the size of a hairspray canister. They had screw-top lids and were held in place with thin metal holders that suspended them in the middle of the cooler. That explained why they didn’t rattle around.

  Kirk held his breath, unscrewed the lid, and prayed that this was the antidote. The cold container held a full syringe with a red liquid. Kirk let out a breath and looked toward Big B. He had his open, as well, and held the syringe up for Kirk to see.

  “How do we know if it is the antidote and not another virus?” Kirk asked. He never thought they would really find it so fast, and now that they had it, he was wondering if it was the real deal or just another, more violent virus.

  Big B looked at Kirk, down at the syringe in his hand, and said. “Only one way to find out.” He pulled off the protective cover, took the exposed needle, stuck it into his arm, and pushed the plunger down. Before Kirk could protest, the red contents disappeared into his arm.