Time Spent

by J. David Clarke

  Becca put the Blackberry down on the floor, and lifted the bottle to her lips.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  His head hurt. So badly. Hurt.

  He heard the pounding on the door through the pounding inside his skull. At first, he didn't realize it was a real sound inside the house, so lost was he in the throbbing of his head. One eye opened, then two.

  The door to house came open with a crash, sending fragments of wood from the doorjamb showering down.

  "This is the police. Mr. Zebinsky?"

  Footsteps. He tried to lift his head but couldn't. He was so weak, and thirsty, oh so thirsty. His mouth lolled open and his dry tongue rolled out onto the cage floor. He tasted his own urine there but was too weak to lift his head away from it. He couldn't see them through the lattice of the cage, but they were walking toward him, booted feet on the carpet.

  "Mr. Zebinsky, if you're here, let us know. We have a warrant to enter your home."

  "He's here," said another voice. A man leaned down over his Master, who was lying face down on the floor outside his cage. The man reached down a hand to touch his Master's neck. "He's dead. Poor old guy, died all alone."

  "I'll call it in."

  Max tried to bark but his throat was so dry. All he could manage was a squeak of a whine.

  The man in the dark uniform leaned down and peered into the cage. "Got a dog here. In a cage. It's okay, boy. We're gonna get you out of there."

  "They said he had a seeing eye dog."

  One of them lifted the latch and opened the cage door. Max's tail wagged weakly. He tried to stand but was too weak.

  "It's okay, boy. You're okay." The man reached in and slid Max out of the cage. "Let's get him some water. Where's your food, huh?"

  Max tried to lick the man's face but couldn't reach.

  "Poor guy looks like he hasn't eaten in days."

  One of them put a bowl of water in front of him and Max lapped it up. The water felt so good on his throat and tongue. So, so good.

  Max opened his eyes. He had dreamed of the cage again, the cage where he had been forgotten and alone. For a moment, he didn't know where he was. He lifted his head and looked around. He saw the lab tables, the computer consoles. The sound of alarms filled the air.

  Of course, it came back to him now. He was in the computer lab on the military base, where they had been trying to get answers to what happened on the bus. When Kevin had vanished with the bus driver, Mia had lashed out with her energy, striking him. He had passed out. The cage, his old Master lying dead, that had been in the before time...before the school bus changed him, before he was given to...

  Tyler. Where was Tyler?

  Max felt the familiar buzzing sensation of his power inside his head. He jumped up and turned in the direction it was leading him.

  He passed through walls, corridors and other rooms on his way outside the building. Military personnel were running everywhere. He emerged into an area between the main building and a hangar on the other side of the compound. There he found Tyler and Becca, facing...

  Max stopped cold.

  He recognized the black metal-enhanced human that had once been Brock Kenney, the huge football player from Tyler's school, but what he had become was beyond Max's understanding. And others, soldiers whose faces were covered by an intricate weave of circuits, accompanied him.

  "facialrecignitionengaged. Ooo BeccaLICIOUS! targetacquired."

  "You have got to be kidding me," said Tyler.

  "My God," Becca said, "that's Brock Kenney!"

  "What?" Tyler asked.

  "It's Brock. From school."

  "But Brock wasn't on the bus," Tyler said. "Was he?"

  Max moved between Tyler and Brock and went into a protective stance, growling at the strange half-metal man.

  The tiny antennae in Brock's eyes whirled. "threatdetected. Well, WELL, if it ain't OL' STINKY, stinkin' up the PLACE. countermeasureinitiated."

  Two metal prongs popped up on Brock's chest with a whisshh of released air. They then sprang free and hit the ground, sprouting tiny legs. They scrabbled towards Max. He backed off, but they continued to head in his direction. They were giving off some kind of electric tingle that made his fur stand on end.

  One of them aimed a protrusion at Max and a beam emerged. Max jumped backward, and the beam sliced through the air, scorching the wall of the building. It did not entirely miss, however, and where it passed over Max's fur it left singed hair in its wake.

  Max turned and ran, passing through the wall.

  He could hear the things scrabbling behind him.

  ______________________

  "This is getting us nowhere!" Simon said in his gravelly voice. He slammed one fist into the wall. "We're no closer to knowing what's going on than we were when we got here!"

  "Now hold on," Brandon said.

  "No, YOU hold on!" Simon reached out with the invisible hand and shoved Brandon back into the hospital bed.

  Mia raised her right hand in front of Simon's face. It crackled with yellow energy. "Don't make me hurt you," she said.

  Simon growled.

  Becca glanced at Heather, who was staring away into space, still holding General Stearnes pinned to the wall with one metal hand. WWHY DON'T YOU SAY SOMETHING? HE'LL LISTEN TO YOUU

  Heather seemed to hear her; she glanced around as if noticing the rest of them for the first time. "What? What did you..." she drifted away again.

  TTHE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUU?

  "None of this is helping. We all saw the exact same thing," Simon said. "We all saw this woman, but no one knows who she is or what we're supposed to do about it." He wrapped the invisible hand around Mia, and the yellow energy poured out from her eyes to envelop them.

  Max had had just about enough of this. He leapt up on top of the hospital bed and unleashed his loudest bark, concentrating.

  Everyone clapped their hands to their ears in surprise. The sound reverberated from the walls.

  "Max?" Tyler said. "When did you learn to do that?"

  "He can do a lot of things, if you'd pay attention to anyone but yourself you might know that," Becca said.

  Max yipped at her; this wasn't the time.

  "Fine," Becca said. "Max didn't see the same thing as everyone else."

  "He told you that?" Brandon asked.

  Becca gave him a weary look. "Yes."

  "Well what did you see, boy?" Tyler asked.

  "He's going to show us," Becca said.

  Max concentrated, hard. Slowly he faded into visibility, standing on the hospital bed. Still, he focused. Gradually, a red outline began to appear around his neck.

  "What is that?" Brandon said.

  The outline shifted and clarified until it became a stiff red collar around Max's neck. The collar glowed and pulsed with energy. At the back of the collar, a chain of red energy formed, trailing into the air above him. It disappeared near the ceiling.

  "Stop!" Simon shouted.

  The others turned toward him. A similar collar had formed around his neck, the red chain rising into the air to join Max's. One by one, each of them looked down to find one forming around their own neck, the red chains all trailing into the same point in space above them all. Only Stearnes and Higgins were free.

  "Max, are you doing this?" Tyler asked, grasping at his collar, his fingers passing through it. "What is this?"

  MAX

  "Forgotten."

  Max couldn't hold his concentration any further. He relaxed, and first the collars, then he himself, faded from view.

  "What was that?" Brandon asked.

  Becca observed the images Max sent to her, and then spoke. "It has to do with what he saw on the rooftop. Those collars are on all of us, right now. They're energy or something. He saw it happen."

  Brandon nodded. "Tell us, Max. Tell us what you saw."

  ______________________

  As Max emerged on the rooftop followed by the others, he flattened his ears back to try to keep out the sound of
the howling wind. Something very bad was happening here. He tried to bark to the others but no one could hear.

  Sparks began to leap between them, touching off Max's nose and making his fur stand on end. Lines of energy arced between them, and then arced into the air above the rooftop. And where they came together, the sky darkened. A shimmering hole began to form in the air. A sound rose, like the sound of cracks opening in ice, only a million times louder.

  Max lowered his belly to the surface of the rooftop and whimpered.

  ______________________

  Max ran through walls and corridors, but the black metal things scrabbled after him, somehow able to pass through walls as well. Soldiers with guns spotted them, but the metal things fired their beams at them, killing them on the spot.

  Max needed help. Who could help him?

  A buzzing in his head pulled him to the right. Max charged in the new direction. He passed through several different corridors before emerging in a larger room with a swimming pool. There was some kind of mass at the bottom of the pool, but Max's power was leading him to the other side, where watery footprints led to a smashed door.

  Max ran across the water, skipping across like it was nothing. He noted this with some delight, as he hadn't known he could do that! On the other side, he passed through the door, which looked to have been battered down from this side. Soon, he came upon the person he assumed responsible, a small, slender girl with shoulder-length mouse brown hair. He knew this girl: Heather McDonnell, one of the students from the school bus!

  Max ran in front of her and barked, but she couldn't hear him. He concentrated, trying to make her like him so she could see him, but it didn't work. He tried harder, but it seemed Heather was immune to that aspect of his power.

  Suddenly the two spidery black things came into the hall. One of them fired its beam at Heather, and it lanced into her shoulder. Heather's entire body reacted, energy spreading out from the point of impact to replace her skin, muscle and bone. Soon, she stood transformed into a white-hot glowing force.

  The black metal spiders stopped. Heather reached down with both hands and grasped them. She squeezed, and her energy hands melted right through them, reducing them to slag. She opened her hands, and melted fragments dropped to the floor. Her body reverted to its normal form.

  "Where did those things come from?" she asked no one in particular.

  Max barked again, louder and louder, finally summoning all his will into the loudest bark he had in him.

  Heather jumped. "What was that?"

  Max concentrated. If he could make her hear him, perhaps he could make her see him. His body shook with the effort.

  Heather looked down, startled. "Whoa! Where did you come from?"

  But the effort was too great. Max was forced to stop, and he again faded from view.

  However, this time Heather knew he was there. She knelt next to him and reached out her hand, her fingers touching the air where his nose was.

  Her transformation was immediate. Heather's body melted away, leaving a ghostlike shape in front of him. "Well, hello there," she said.

  Max lolled his tongue out and licked her face.

  "I'm trying to find the lab this scientist sent me to, but I think it was a trick," she said.

  Max growled at the mention of Carl Macklin, the bus-driver-turned-scientist who had tried to kill them all.

  "You know him, huh?" she asked.

  Max yipped.

  "I left Simon with him," Heather said. "I'm worried he might have done something to Simon. I need to find him." She stood with a jolt. "Oh! Wow. What's that?"

  Max knew exactly how she felt. He had been just as surprised the first time he had felt it.

  "I think..." She turned toward the south wall. "I think he's this way." She ran through the wall.

  Max started to follow her, but realized she didn't need his help. He needed to get back to Tyler. At the thought of his friend, he felt the familiar buzz in his head pulling him in one direction, and followed it.

  ______________________

  When the apartment door opened, Max jumped to his feet, his tail wagging. Since they had moved out of Tyler's parents' home and into the small apartment, Max had been seeing less and less of him. At first he had tried following him to work during the day, but it had proved pointless. Tyler couldn't pay him any attention at work, and no one else could see him. Max had ended up sitting in a corner and waiting.

  He had decided to roam around outside and explore during the day, and wait for Tyler at night, but soon this too began to lose its appeal. Tyler went out more and more at night, and got home later and later.

  Max had begun to feel forgotten, a ghost of the past that refused to fade away.

  The door opened, and Tyler stepped in. Max yipped at him, but his ears soon fell when he saw Tyler was not alone. A girl was with him. Tyler had said no one could know about Max, so Max was supposed to be quiet whenever anyone else was around.

  "Nice place," the girl said.

  "You're very kind," Tyler said with a laugh, "thanks. Have a seat."

  She passed through Max on her way to bed but, as with other people, she never even noticed him. She sat on the edge of the bed. Tyler went into the kitchen and returned with a bottle and two glasses. He opened the bottle and filled one glass, handing it to her, and filled a glass for himself, setting the bottle on the floor. He sat next to her on the bed and raised his glass. She smiled, and clinked it with hers.

  "What are we toasting?" she asked.

  "To new friends," he said with a smile.

  She sipped her glass while her other hand played with a curl of her brown hair.

  Max settled down on the floor. This was not the first time he had seen Tyler's mating rituals. Since coming here, he had seen Tyler initiate sex with several other people, male and female, both at work and at home. Tyler seemed quite successful at it. Max was a bit envious, although he had had an operation performed on him when he was a pup and had never felt the drive to seek out a bitch for himself. It was interesting to watch the humans do it, and Tyler usually forgot he was present, so had never told him to leave. He had to be quiet, though, so as not to be noticed.

  "So I heard something," the girl said. "Something about you used to be blind? Is that true?"

  "How did you hear that?"

  "Blaine said something about it."

  Tyler looked a bit alarmed. "Damn it, Todd must have talked about it."

  "Who's Todd?"

  "My agent." Tyler took a sip of wine. "He's a friend of the family. He knows my parents pretty well, my dad really. He's a lawyer."

  "So...is it true?"

  Tyler swallowed. "Yeah, yeah it's true. I was blinded in an accident, a stage light fell and exploded right in front of me."

  "Oh my God...." she put a hand on his arm. "But...your sight came back?"

  "Yeah. Yeah, just came back. They said it was a miracle."

  "Wow..."

  "Yeah." His eyes drifted away. "Yeah, I probably shouldn't have lived at all."

  "Huh?"

  His eyes snapped back to her. "Oh. Uh, the way my sight came back, it was in another accident. A school bus crash. I almost drowned."

  "Oh!" She put a hand around his arm and squeezed him.

  Tyler put an arm around her. "Yeah, it was terrible. I lost my dog."

  Max lifted his head. What was he hearing?

  She put her wine glass on the floor. "What?"

  "Yeah, my dog, Max...he died."

  "Aww..." she put her arms around him.

  Max stood on his feet and barked at Tyler. He didn't like Tyler telling this girl he was dead. He did not like it at all.

  Tyler reached down one arm and waved him away. He held the girl with the other arm.

  Max jumped up on the bed, standing inches from the girl's ear. He concentrated. Finally, he issued a sharp bark into her ear.

  "OH MY GOD!" She jumped up out of Tyler's arms. "Did you hear that?"

  "Hear what?"
Tyler said, standing and putting his hands on her arms.

  "A dog. I thought I heard a dog barking."

  "You probably imagined it. I shouldn't have told you that story."

  Max concentrated and barked again.

  "I just heard it again," she said, looking frightened.

  "There's nothing."

  She looked down at her phone. "It's, uh, it's getting late, maybe I should go..."

  "Already?"

  "Yeah, yeah...I'll see you at the studio..."

  Tyler tried to get in a kiss but she practically bolted for the door.

  "I'll walk you out," Tyler said, with an angry glance back into the apartment.

  After the door closed, Max sat on the bed and wagged his tail with satisfaction.

  ______________________

  A shiver passed under Max's fur, and the ripples spread out, ran together, coalesced, and built into wracking spasms. Max whined and whined. At this point, fear overtook him, and he tried to run away from the rooftop, the hole in the sky or whatever it was, but his paws could find no purchase on the roof. The wind passed through him, blowing leaves and dirt into and past his ghostlike form.

  And now, something even stranger was happening. Everything around him began to fade away. The world was fading from view, losing cohesion, the others on the roof were like ghosts now, a shimmer of light and nothing more.

  Soon, everything was gone except the shades of his friends, and the hole in the sky.

  ______________________

  When he found Tyler, he was facing a male Max recognized from Tyler's school. His name was Marcus, and Max had seen him on the night they came home from the hospital, before Tyler even knew Max was there. It was painful to remember that night, when Max was first adjusting to being unseen, barking and barking and never being heard. Only Tyler had heard him, and even then only as a ghostly echo from far away.

  This Marcus had come to visit Tyler that night, and Max was more than a bit confused to see him on the base. As he vividly recalled, Tyler had killed Marcus with his eyes.