Dream Killing (8 page)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Once
again, Drew woke up in the game. He was in a small crowd and just in front of
him was the robot. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to him as they moved down
the street. He positioned himself at the back of the crowd hoping to go
undetected until he could figure out exactly what was going on. He knew this
meant that he was open from behind, but knowing that the robot is leading the
way, Drew figured that nobody would dare come up behind them.

They reached the street that led to the
library and the robot slowed down. The crowd gathered at his side. The robot
sent a few of his men into the library and a couple of minutes later they
returned.

“The playhouse is empty,” one of the men
said.

It was then that Drew realized they were
looking for him. He slowly stepped back and turned slightly, hoping to make a
clean break. Keeping the crowd in sight, Drew side-stepped over to a doorway,
swung the door open silently and began to fire on the crowd. One after another
the men dropped. The robot turned and moved toward the building Drew was now
in. As he stepped closer, Drew heard one of the men shouting.

“He’s in here!”

Drew knew that he had to get out of
there and fast. He worked his way to the back of the building but heard people
coming through the alley. In the far corner he saw the sign for the stairs and
ran for the door. As he made his way up the stairs, he could hear people
shooting. At the top of the staircase, Drew barged through the door, ready to
fire upon anyone in his way. He was alone. He had made it to the rooftop.

Just when he thought he had given them
the slip he heard voices coming from the stairwell. He ran as fast as he could
to the edge of the building and jumped. After floating through the air for what
seemed like forever, Drew landed hard on the roof below. Though his ankles
throbbed, he kept running. He was able to swing himself onto a fire escape and
lower himself back to the ground. As he rounded the corner, he decided to head
back toward the library; they had already looked there, so he figured he could
be safe there while he made a plan.

Making sure nobody was following him, he
worked his way to the back of the library. Once inside, he was able to stop at
the information desk for the cologne he was now growing to hate. As he moved
through the library, back to the children’s section, he heard what sounded like
kids laughing.
God, please tell me I am not going to have to kill a child
tonight.
Just thinking about it made Drew sick to his stomach.

Staying low, he slid behind a low
bookshelf just inside the children’s room. He could now fully hear the children
as they sat, huddled inside the playhouse. They were making a plan to attack
the rest of the group that was traveling with the robot. That is when Drew’s
mind went into overdrive.
They are going after the people I am hiding from!
If I can get them on my side, maybe I can protect them. How can I make them see
I am not their enemy?
He took a moment to think and then went to work.

Drew found a piece of paper and some
crayons. Trying as hard as he could to write like a child, he drew out his
message: Can I be in your group? I’m alone and I won’t hurt you. I need your
help. After completing the note, he folded it into a paper airplane and hoped
for the best. Without standing up, he threw the plane in the direction of the
cardboard house and heard someone gasp.

“Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“Something fell outside the house.”

One of the children poked his head out
the little side window and saw the airplane. “It’s a paper airplane! There’s
something written on it!”

“Well, grab it.”

Drew waited as they read the message. He
could hear them talking, keeping their voices low enough that Drew couldn’t
tell what they were saying. After a few minutes, one of the little voices
seemed to yell in a whisper, “Come closer. Hands up over your head. We won’t
shoot.”

Drew wearily did as he was told. He
wanted to protect the children, but at the same time he really didn’t trust
them. When he reached the end of the bookshelf he could clearly see the
playhouse. He saw no children, but did see guns poking out of the windows.

“You’re an adult?”

“Yes,” Drew whispered back, “But I don’t
want to hurt you. I need your help.”

“Come closer.”

Drew moved closer to the house and the
little door opened. They were allowing him inside. Once inside, the little hand
closed the door and Drew realized that all five of the small children were
staring at him.

“Why do you want our help?”

“I just want to make sure you stay safe.
I can protect you, and maybe we can get the robot together.” Drew hoped they
would accept him.

“You can’t kill the robot. He won’t die.
We have tried and tried. But we do like to take his men down. They aren’t too
smart you know.” The little boy couldn’t have been more than 10 years old and
yet he spoke as if he were 30.

“I have a friend. Her name is Max. She
is a kindergarten teacher. If we can find her, she can help us get the robot’s
men.” Drew was beginning to feel a little more comfortable being around these
kids.

“A teacher? Does she come in here?”

“All the time.”

“She must be the one that cleans up the
house. Every time we leave and come back, it’s clean in here.”

“That sounds like Max.” Drew could see
Max cleaning the kids area, right in the middle of a shootout.

“How do we find her?” This question was
asked by the cutest little girl Drew had ever seen.

“Well,” Drew started, “We could stay
here for a little longer and see if she shows up.”

“Okay. I don’t want to go back out
there. I don’t like this game,” the little girl said. It was then that he
realized that she looked like a mini version of Max, only this girl had tiny
freckles across her nose and cheeks.

As they waited, they heard shooting
coming from outside. Drew hoped that it wasn’t someone shooting at Max as she
worked her way to the library. He decided to go look around, hoping to thwart
off an attack inside the building. He really didn’t want the children getting shot.
He told the children to stay silent and not move and then he crawled out of the
house. He was starting to cramp and needed to stand and stretch anyway.

Drew moved towards the front doors of
the library. That’s where he saw the men coming up the stairs. Crouching low,
Drew pulled out both of his weapons knowing this could get ugly. As they
stepped inside, Drew picked them off one by one. He heard a noise behind him
and spun on his heels, ready to fire. Once his back was to the doors, one of
the men that went down shot Drew in the back.

Drew couldn’t move. It was getting
harder and harder for him to breathe and he knew this wouldn’t end well. As he
struggled for each breath, the room grew darker and darker.

***

This time when Drew woke up there was no
coffee, no breakfast, and no warm greeting from Max. The only sound he heard
was the buzzing of the alarm clock. He reached over and tapped the off button
and rolled over towards Max. The spot next to him was empty. He got up and
walked out into the kitchen but she wasn’t there either.

“Max?”

“I’m in here,” she called from the spare
bedroom.

When Drew walked in he found Max sitting
at the table with the newspaper spread open in front of her. The notepad lay
next to it and she was tapping the pen on the table.

“What’s up?”

“You were sleeping so soundly, so I
figured I would check the paper for any news on the deaths.”

“Find anything interesting?”

“Well, overnight there seemed to be a
few more deaths, so I made a list of where everybody died. I figure we could mark
all the locations on the map and see what we come up with.” She looked very
proud of herself.

“Wanna run to The Bean with me and get
some coffee? I can bring my laptop and we can map out your list.”

Max jumped on the offer for coffee and
they were ready to go in five minutes. She was really beginning to love the
location of his apartment. It was so close to everything. They walked over,
holding hands, and when they entered the coffee shop, Adam was there but not
his usual cheery self. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.

“Hey, Adam. You okay?”

“Yeah, just tired. I haven’t been
sleeping well.”

“That’s too bad, but with everything
going on around town lately, I can see why people would be losing sleep! We’ll
have the usual.” Then he turned to Max, “You want anything to eat?”

“Ooooh, a muffin would be great! Banana
nut please.”

“Make that the usual with two banana nut
muffins.”

Max took Drew’s laptop over to the table
in the back corner and waited. When Drew got to the table, Max slid over so
that they both could sit and see the computer. As they enjoyed their coffee and
muffins, they also mapped out all of the deaths in the news that had to do with
brain hemorrhages. The number was rising fast, but as far as they could see,
all the deaths were happening in about a three mile radius. Drew picked up his
phone and began pecking away at the buttons.

“Whatcha doin’?”

“I sent a text to my office. I’m having
them map out the deaths in the other cities as well. This seems too weird to
just be coincidence. Look how close together everyone is.”

“I know. It’s scary. We’re right in the
center of it.” Max’s face showed mixed emotions. On one hand, she looked like a
frightened child, but on the other hand she looked happy.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I am just glad I have you with
me. I don’t know how well I’d be doing on my own.”

“Well, no need to worry, Max. I’m not
going anywhere without you.”

By the time they left the coffee shop
the morning rush was over. Usually there are still plenty of people on the
street, but today seemed eerily quiet. They decided to get back to the
apartment. On the way there, Drew asked Max about the game.

“I didn’t play last night. Did you?”

“Yeah. It was a crazy night, too. Not
only did I enter the game right in the middle of the robots crowd, but then I
was chased, I jumped from the roof of one building to the roof of another, and
I came across a small group of kids in your cardboard playhouse!”

“I knew it! Every time I go in there
it’s a mess!”

“Yeah, well, they noticed that someone
was cleaning it up after them,” Drew chuckled as he spoke. “I did get them to
work with me. I figured that was the only way I could keep an eye out for them.
I told them about you. You know, what you look like. They won’t hurt you.”

“I hope not. I really don’t want to have
to shoot a child.”

“They will try to work their way to the
library when they play. If you get there before I do, flash your little
flashlight three times and they will know it’s one of us.”

“Okay.”

They walked up the steps to Drew’s place
and locked the door behind them. They decided that they would work straight
through and stop for dinner. Drew headed for the spare room and Max followed.
They spent hours comparing the map from Chicago with the maps his office sent
over. In each of the cities the deaths were happening in the same small circle.

“Drew?”

“Yeah?”

“How many times have you not played the
game since you started?” Max’s question seemed to come out of the blue.

“I don’t know. A couple I guess, why?”

“Well, I didn’t play the game here. Both
times. When didn’t you play?”

“Over the weekend, the night I decided
to let myself sleep in. Then again the first night at your house. What are you
thinking?” Drew was quite confused where Max was going with her questions.

“Hear me out,” Max started, “I didn’t
play the game here, and you didn’t play the game at my house or when your alarm
was off. Doesn’t it seem odd that we didn’t play when our alarm clocks were
either not with us or off?”

She had a point and it took Drew by
surprise. “You think the alarm clock has to do with the game?”

“I had never even heard of the game
until about a month after I won my alarm clock.”

“Yeah, but I started the game the night
I won my clock.”

“I didn’t plug mine in until about a
month after I won it, though.”

They went back and forth about the clock
and the game for quite a while. There were valid points for the idea that the
clock had something to do with the game. Drew had one last question for Max.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure, ask away.”

“What made your thoughts go back to the
game? I thought we were trying to figure out why people were dying.”

“Not sure really. Maybe because T played
the game and he died. Every time I think about the deaths my mind goes to him
and then to the game. Could it just be coincidence?”