“Hey, we don’t take no crap… just try and break into my house.” I saw that our neighbor Mrs. Baker was staring at us from next door. I lifted my hand and gave her a wave. She blushed, turned away, and slinked back into her house. I was sure she would go to the window and survey the scene from the behind the curtains.
Maria turned to look at me, and her eyes told me she was not buying the story I fed to the police. “Who was that man? And why was he in our house, and why was there other stuff, not just blood? Where did it come from?”
“Whoa… one at a time.” I tried to lighten the mood, but she clenched her jaw. “Maria, it’s hard to explain, but it seems he was a hit man who was here to kill me. He wasn’t alone… I don’t know what to tell you, but the other thing was not a human, it was some sort of animal.”
“Well, where is the body? Did it get away?”
I fingered the red stone in my pocket and felt its smooth and cold surface. “No, I killed it, but after it died, it kind of vanished… just turned into a vapor and disappeared.”
Maria looked at my chest and seemed to be thinking about how much truth was in my story. I didn’t lie to her, just left out some details—some details like, “Hey, you’re not even real, just made up from my imagination. Oh, and there might even be more of you somewhere out there in other worlds that I also somehow created, and I am not your Mark, not today. Your Mark died…”
Yeah, that would be easy to explain, no problem. The problem now was not that this was a fake, made up world, but that this was just as real as my world, or as Kreios said, “the key world.” And according to him, this would become the key world if I stayed in it too long. But if I left, what would Maria and Samson do? Would they just cease to exist?
“What, baby?” Maria touched my cheek and pulled my face down. “Why the worried look? Tell me what you are thinking.”
I sighed, “Just a bad night…”
My cell vibrated in my pocket and I reached for it and saw a text. I glanced up and saw Solomon coming toward me with Big B and Isis in tow. I was surprised to see Solomon, since in my time he was dead. The sight of him filled me with joy.
Samson jumped up at the sight of Big B and ran to him yelling. “B… B… B!” Big B laughed and scooped the little boy up in his massive arms, and gave him a hug before throwing him into the air. Samson giggled and begged for more.
Solomon shook my hand and gave Maria a hug. “Good to see you, Maria. Is everyone okay?” Solomon knew we all were, and I am sure had the situation under control. My house and property were under protection, and no one entered without the WJA knowing. They had to protect their investment, after all.
“Fine, Solomon… well, as fine as we can be under the circumstances.” Isis gave Maria a hug and me one, too. She smelled good as usual and didn’t say anything, just smiled and stood close as if guarding me.
Big B slapped me on the back and boomed in his huge voice. “So you went and killed an intruder, did ya. Good going, man, way to show them who is boss.” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Well, if you put it like that… I guess they will think twice before trying to swipe my TV in the future.”
Solomon took my arm and pulled me aside. I kissed Maria and said, “Be back in a minute.”
“Okay.”
Solomon rubbed his well-trimmed beard and took off his glasses. “What happened?”
I doubted he didn’t know already, but I humored him. “Well, it’s hard to explain…”
Solomon looked over my shoulder and lowered his voice. “Mark… we have a scan on your house and the intruder. It is human but something in there was not. We believe they were a part of each other.”
I nodded. “It was a man at first, but this demon-dragon-like thing split apart from him, and I killed them both. The thing vaporized and went back into this stone.” I pulled the ruby stone from my pocket and handed it to Solomon.
Solomon lowered his heavy eyebrows and examined the stone. It pulsed and hummed in an almost inaudible tone. “I will have to take this back to the lab.”
“There is something else…” I wasn’t sure how to tell him, but if anyone should know and if anyone could help me, it was Solomon.
“I know, Mark, we scanned you as well as the house.”
“What do you mean? You know what?”
“Mark, you are dead… not you, but the you of this world. You don’t even show up on our scans. It is as if you don’t exist.”
***
Kirk had fallen asleep holding Isis’s hand. When a sharp needle was pushed into his neck, Kirk’s eyes shot open, and what he saw was an empty bed. Isis was gone! He tried to jump up, tried to move, but found that he was paralyzed.
“Remember me?” The voice came from the darkness, and Kirk could see that the monitors and equipment were now off, probably because the batteries died. The voice sounded familiar but different somehow.
“This is going to be more fun than I thought.”
***
Big B felt better. It was amazing how fast the antidote worked. He had been whisked away and taken to the CDC headquarters. Even after he had convinced the CDC officer that the antidote was the real deal, it still took an hour, and it was an hour they couldn’t afford. Now, he was sitting in the back of a SWAT team van.
“Sir, we are almost there, but there is a roadblock up ahead.” The National Guardsman held a hand to his ear. As their escort, he and one other guard held fully automatic machine guns and wore full body armor. In the van, there were also three CDC personal. One was a woman with a hard scowl on her face.
“It is going to get a little bumpy. Everyone, hold on!” Big B gripped the bar near his head. “We are going to try to drive through the road block.”
Seconds later, the van crashed into something, and they tipped to the right. Big B thought they were going to go over, but the van righted itself, and gunfire pelted the outside but did not penetrate the armor.
Someone screamed, and then they leveled out and continued on. “We made it… Should be one more mile, and we will be safe inside the CDC lab.” The man sitting across from him wore a green camo helmet and a thick mustache that looked like a caterpillar under his sharp hook-like nose.
Big B was breathing heavily, and he still felt weak from all the excitement of the evening. “What about the freezers with the rest of the virus?” He had relayed the information to the commander of the National Guard, and they were supposed to send some men over to transport the virus to other freezers.
“They should be on scene by now, but I have not heard anything yet,” the guardsman said. He put his hand up to his earpiece again and listened. “We’re here.”
The back doors burst open, and a guardsman waved them down. “Move to the door and hurry, we are expecting an attack. There was a mob coming this way, and they did not look like they wanted to talk things over.”
Big B stepped from the back of the armored vehicle and followed the rest of the group into a three-story brick building. Barriers were set up much like the ones at the hospital, but these also had barbed wire and many more National Guard and Army troops standing with automatic weapons. Even a .50 cal. was set up on a rotating stand.
Once inside, they were met by an older man in a white lab coat. “Is it true? Do you have an antidote?” The man was skinny, almost too skinny, and had a mess of black hair sticking up in clumps. He wore thick glasses, and his arms seemed too long for his body.
“Yes, I was infected and took it as a test. I am already feeling better, but you might want to run some more tests on me to make sure it really killed the virus.” Big B handed the silver canister to the skinny man.
“Very good, my boy, very good. Come with me, please.” Big B nodded to the men who made sure he got here safe and followed the funny looking man down a hall and through three security points. Each checkpoint had washing stations and x-ray scans along with armed guards.
“I didn’t realize the CDC did this sort of thing.” Big B pulled on cloth bo
oties over his boots and wriggled into the full-body, bunny suit. The suit was extra-extra large but fit almost skin tight on Big B.
“We do many things here the public is not aware of: testing, and even some manufacturing. In a crisis such as this, we can produce antivirus or other drugs en masse throughout all our labs across the world. We have quite a large operation here, Mr. B.”
They moved into a section of the building that resembled a hospital, with beds and rooms and people all in the same clean suits going about their business. Big B was led to a room at the end of the long row of doors. He lay down on the bed, and a nurse came in to take a blood sample.
“Why are you guys not in hazmat suits? Can’t you catch what I have, since I might still have it?”
The skinny old man, someone had called him Les, smiled and shook his head. “No, the virus is only contagious when it is airborne. Once it is in a host, it is confined to that host. The only way to get it is to breathe it in once it is activated. You can’t spread it to anyone else even if you were covered in boils and coughing up blood.”
“Thanks, Doc. Good to know.” Big B closed his eyes and couldn’t help but wonder where Mark was hiding out. Something must have happened.
CHAPTER 23
SOUNDS. DRIPPING WATER AND a hum, a motor maybe? It was a constant thrumming from some kind of engine, a generator, but a big one, or more than one all going at the same time. Kirk couldn’t see anything. He couldn’t tell if it was because it was dark or if his eyes were closed.
Smells. Musty dust, oil, and warm sweat. He could feel the heat in the room, like a sauna, only a few degrees cooler. He could feel his shirt sticking to him and smell his own body odor.
Taste. His mouth felt like it was small and dry. He could taste the copper aftertaste of blood. He licked his lips, and it sounded and felt like sandpaper on cardboard. Hearing and taste and scent were all heightened. It was not a downer. Something else, something meant to wake him up.
Kirk didn’t move. He could hear something beyond the simple sounds of water and the engine. It was a ticking sound… a nervous twitch? On top of that was heavy breathing, but this was down by his feet, not coming from the direction of the sporadic ticking.
Tick… tick… tick…
This was not the first time Kirk had been kidnapped. In fact, he was beginning to wonder if this was his calling in life. With utmost care, Kirk began to flex each group of muscles in order to find out if he was on his back or on his side. He couldn’t tell which end was up.
Slow… Slow… Don’t give away that you’re awake. Left leg, tighten and hold for a count of 40. Right calf and quad—flex and hold. Kirk did this flex and hold process with each leg and then his arms and chest and neck. He was on his left side, head on the hot concrete.
Kirk blinked a few times once he discovered he was blindfolded. That was good, he needed his eyes, needed everything he could get if he was going to—
Oh, no… Isis! He remembered through his mental fog that he was asleep and someone said something… it was a voice of someone he knew or once knew. What did they say? Remember… remember what?
Small pinholes filtered through the blindfold, and something moved, making the little points of light move and bend. Someone was there, standing not three feet from the ticking something… making that insistent, annoying sound. What was that sound? Now it was driving him crazy. It was gone and then back… it sounded loud in Kirk’s sensitive ears.
His left arm was tingling, and his leg was on fire. They had been numb, but with the flexing, they were waking up and it hurt… it hurt like—
“It’s not supposed to take this long.” The voice, the familiar voice from the ticking man blasted through Kirk’s eardrums. It took every ounce of self-control not to scream out. The ticking man was talking to himself, more like mumbling, but to Kirk he was shouting right into his ear.
“Maybe I should give him another dose…”
This was going to be his chance. The crazy ticking man was going to come over, and Kirk would have one shot to kick him, to defend himself and find Isis…
Footsteps and breathing close to his head. He could feel the little hairs on the side of his neck tickle his skin. Flexing his entire body Kirk twisted and swung his legs around. He connected with something but not the ticking man. He felt a jolt of electricity surge through his body like liquid ice.
Seconds later, he heard screaming… it was him. His throat was raw as he released a throaty scream. The pain crippling his body was worse than anything he had ever felt. It was as if every nerve was on fire and frozen at the same time.
Kirk twitched and had a mini seizure as his body fought the drugs and the overload of electricity. He passed out and was once again consumed by nightmares.
***
Mooch looked down at Kirk Weston and cursed under his breath. The dumb cop had tried to kick him… really? Like he would let him take him down that easy. How dumb did he think he was? Now he was going to have to wait again.
He injected more of the drug that, according to the website he bought it from, could wake anyone no matter what they were hopped up on. Of course, they had to be alive; it couldn’t wake the dead. He was the dead…
He rechecked the girl and made sure his little device was working. Isis was strapped to a table and hooked up to an IV. He wanted her alive. Her rash and boils were already fading. The antidote was working, and it was going to be a shame to kill her.
No, that was not true. He was not going to kill anyone… no, he was just the watcher, the voice in the wilderness. Kirk was a killer, a heartless killer who cared more for himself then he did his so-called friends. He would do whatever it took to save his own life, and too bad for anyone who might get in his way. It would be no different now, and he was going to prove it.
Kirk muttered and turned on his back. He did not know about the cables hooked to his arms and legs. The cables were attached to a complicated pulley system. Mooch could raise and lower the detective with a flip of a switch. He was helpless to do anything about it, as he would soon find out. His right arm was in a special strap and metal rod brace. It was padded with soft cloth so it would not leave a mark on the skin.
Not that any of this mattered. There was no more police department, no more FBI or CIA. It was a new world order, and every man was the law unto himself. Who was going to stop him? He alone was sane as the rest of the city rioted and looted like a bunch of crazies.
Mooch pulled a mask over his face and placed goggles over the eyeholes. He wanted to have some fun before little Kirky knew who he was. This was going to be better than he had thought.
“Wakey, wakey.” Mooch took off the black hood, and Kirk blinked in the light. His eyes searched the room like a dog looking for the food bowl.
“What—where… where am I? Where is…?” His voice was low and scratchy.
“Isis? Yes, well, she is just over there.” Mooch pointed beyond Kirk’s feet. Lying on the metal table was the woman. She was covered in a white sheet, and machines pumped a sedative into her bloodstream.
“She is sleeping. You will be glad to know your little antidote is working.” He watched Kirk’s face and was happy to see this information brought some relief. Yes… it is good news, my bald friend. “She would be good as new in a day or two… too bad you will have to kill her.”
Kirk’s head snapped toward him, and his jaw clenched. He tried to stand up, but Mooch pressed a button on a remote in his left hand, and the cables tightened and began to lift the detective off the floor.
Kirk wriggled and fought against the device, but it was no use. He hung in the air, five feet above the floor, with his arms out at his side and his feet hanging free to kick. All the weight was on his arms to hold him up. Soon, he would tire and might even pull his arms out of their sockets when his muscles gave out.
“You touch her, and I will kill you!” Kirk growled.
“Really, and how do you plan to do that? What… you’re going to break the cables and jump
me? I doubt that… no, you are not only going to kill her, you are going to live a long life afterward to remember what you did.”
Kirk smirked and shook his head. “I don’t know who you are or what you think I did to you, but this is not the way to handle this. Who are you?” Kirk changed his voice to something more calm, almost conversational.
“No, you do not get to play me. This is my show!” Mooch could feel his hands trembling. Kirk was trying to work him, as if he would talk him out of this. Kirk Weston deserved to die… he deserved to suffer, and living was worse than death. No, he would suffer for the rest of his miserable life.
CHAPTER 24
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I don’t exist?” I knew exactly what he meant but wondered if he knew what I knew.
Solomon guided me away from the growing crowd gathering around the crime scene. His voice was low, and I had to strain to hear him above the sirens and the sounds of my neighbors talking about the “murders.” “Mark, I don’t know what is going on, but I fear it has something to do with your dreams, your glimpses.”
I didn’t know how long it would take the police to figure out there was a second attacker. I could feel my gut tighten, and a warm, uncomfortable feeling crept up my throat. “Solomon, I know I can trust you, but this thing… What I mean to say is, I’m not supposed to be here, not like this, I mean.”
Solomon stared at me with hard eyes and didn’t blink for a breath. “Okay, what are you talking about?”
“Look, the police are only going to find one body in there… I am going to have to make up some story of getting attacked by one guy, but the blood they find will prove there were two attackers, and now there’s a missing body ...” I took a deep breath and figured that it didn’t matter what he thought, I had to tell someone.
“I am dead, Solomon. I killed myself.” I couldn’t help a tight laugh. “Okay, not me but…hmmm. You know my glimpses? Well they are not just dreams or something in my head. I am from some other dimension… another time that runs parallel to this one. I dreamed and woke up here, with you and this.” I waved my hand toward my home. Solomon didn’t say anything.
IN YOUR DREAMS (Mark Appleton #3) Page 14
