Linkage: The Narrows of Time (20 page)

Larson looked over his shoulder at Lucas.
“Stop crowding me. What are you, gay?”

When Larson faced forward again, Lucas
flipped him the bird and mouthed the words “Fuck you.”

* * *

Drew woke up in a hospital room to the
sounds of medical equipment beeping all around him. There was an IV
stuck in his left arm and a blood pressure cuff pumping around his
right bicep. His thigh was throbbing with every heartbeat, which
was odd since he only had minimal feeling in that part of his body.
When he reached down, he found a pressure bandage wrapped around
his leg. He sat up and found a friend sitting in a red easy chair
to his left. “Trevor, you’re alive!”

Trevor just smiled back at him.

“What happened?” Drew asked.

“You lose much blood. Ambulance bring you to
medical center.”

Drew read his patient ID wristband. He was in
the University Medical Center, less than a mile north of campus.
“No, I meant what happened to you, when you left the NASA
meeting?”

“Kleezebee send me on errand.”

“I thought you might have been in the lab
when it was destroyed.”

“I vas south of town.”

“Where’s Lucas?”

“They just rescue him. He be here soon.”

“Then he’s safe?”

“
Ja
.”

“Thank God. What about the others?”

“They get them out, too.”

A doctor and nurse walked into the room.

* * *

Fifty-five minutes later, Lucas strolled
into Drew’s hospital room, pushing a wheelchair with a can of grape
soda, a jumbo Snicker’s bar, and a bag of barbeque chips sitting on
the seat. He had just bought the food from the vending machines
near the entrance to the hospital. Drew’s backpack was hanging off
the back of the chair.

“Hungry, little brother?” Lucas asked with a
huge grin on his face.

“Lucas!” Drew cried out.

Lucas leaned down to give Drew a hug.

“You brought my chair?”

“Kleezebee made sure the firemen brought it
up when they were rescued.”

Lucas shook Trevor’s hand. “Glad to see
you’re still in one piece, big fella. We thought we might have lost
you.”

Trevor stood aside and offered his chair to
Lucas.

“No, thanks. I think I’ll stand for a
while.”

“How’s Dr. Kleezebee?” Drew asked Lucas.

“Last I heard they’re putting a cast on his
ankle.”

“And Dr. Suki?”

“That dude’s in rough shape. They took him
into surgery,” Lucas said, fluffing his brother’s pillow. “How are
you doing?”

“The doc said I can leave in the morning.
They want to monitor me overnight for sepsis.”

“Then I guess I’m bunking here tonight,”
Lucas said, opening the can of grape soda and giving it to
Drew.

Drew took a drink, and then let out a
low-pitched belch.

“Sounds like you’re feeling better already,”
Lucas said, smiling. He held up the candy bar and the bag of chips.
“Which one do you want?”

“I don’t think I’m allowed to eat those in
here. Don’t I need the doctor’s permission first?”

“Come on, pick one. I know you want some,”
Lucas replied, dangling them in front of Drew. He continued to
tease his brother until Drew snatched the Snickers bar from his
hand. “I’m surprised you didn’t pick the chips. They’re your
favorite.”

Drew tore open the wrapper, took a huge bite,
and began to chew it. He smiled and said, “The chocolate just
sounded good.”

Lucas pried open the bag, and ate of handful
of BBQ chips. He licked his fingers afterward. “They’re a little
stale, but edible.”

There was an orange suitcase sitting along
the wall next to the door. It was a wheel bag the size of a
footlocker, with a black pullout handle and a pair of casters on
the bottom. They didn’t own a piece of luggage that size, so he
presumed it belonged to Trevor. “You wouldn’t happen to have a
change of clothes in there for me, would you?” he asked, pointing
at the bag.

Trevor shook his head. “Sorry, no
clothes.”

Chapter
16

Tuesday, December 25

Lucas woke at 6:00 AM the following morning
in his brother’s hospital room. He was slumped down in a red
armchair next to Drew, who was snoring in his hospital bed. Lucas
didn’t remember sitting in the chair, let alone falling asleep in
it the night before. He sat up and looked around for Trevor, but
his friend was missing, as was the orange wheel bag. He assumed
Trevor had slipped out during the night.

The side of his neck felt like someone had
slashed it repeatedly with a hockey stick. He rolled his head
around in a circle, trying to stretch out his neck muscles. When
that failed, he started rubbing the sore spot with his right hand,
trying to loosen it up—it finally did. In the process, he found
some type of tacky residue on his hand. It felt like leftover wood
glue that had partially dried between his fingers; he thought it’d
come from grape soda or the BBQ chips.

He walked into Drew’s private bathroom,
closed the door to muffle any noise, and then washed his hands
under the faucet. He had to lather up and rinse multiple times, but
he finally got rid of the sticky stuff. When he moved to the towel
rack to dry his hands, his right shoe stuck to the floor for a
moment.

He returned to Drew’s bed and found his
brother wide-awake and talking to a short, chubby nurse with plump
cheeks, who was wearing a Santa Claus hat. She could have doubled
for Santa’s wife at the North Pole. Her nametag said “Rose.”

“Looks like you get to go home today,” the
nurse said, after taking his temperature. “No sign of
infection.”

“When can I leave?”

“As soon as Dr. Marino discharges you.”

Lucas asked her, “How long will that take?
We’d like to be home in time for Christmas dinner.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. There’re only a
handful of patients left with the evacuation underway.”

“I’m surprised this place is still open.”

“It takes time to stabilize and transfer a
thousand patients,” she said, scribbling something into Drew’s
chart. Before she left the room, she told Drew, “You can go ahead
and get dressed, if you like.”

Lucas held up Kleezebee’s car keys in front
of Drew’s eyes. “As soon as we get out of here, we’re going back to
the apartment and pack for home. I’ve had enough of Tucson for a
while.”

“It’ll be nice to spend some time with
Mom.”

While Lucas was helping Drew out of his
hospital gown, he saw that Drew was missing something. “Where’s
your leather pouch?”

Drew felt around his neck and chest. “I
didn’t even realize it was gone. Is it in the clothes bag on the
counter?”

Lucas searched the clear plastic bag, but
only found his brother’s pants, shirt, wallet, comb, watch, socks,
and shoes. “It’s not here. When was the last time you remember
seeing it?”

Drew didn’t respond right away. “It was when
I first got rescued. I was sitting on a gurney by the
stairwell.”

“What happened next?”

“I remember feeling a little dizzy when some
lady put gauze on my leg. Next thing I know, I woke up here in this
bed.”

“Maybe the EMTs took it off you for some
reason? Do you remember the name of the ambulance company? I’ll
call their lost and found.”

“I don’t remember,” Drew said, shaking his
head. “Geeze, I can’t believe I lost it.”

Lucas knew it was unlikely they would ever
see the pouch again. It’d probably been tossed into the trash
during the chaos. He patted Drew on the back. “I’m sure it’ll turn
up.”

While they waited, Lucas turned on the TV. He
scanned the channels to see if there was any new information about
the energy fields. The local news channel reported that dozens of
domes were destroying cities all over the globe and each time they
appeared, they were getting larger and lasting longer. “It’s
definably spreading,” he said, “but at least they’re not showing
any more of them around here.”

“Maybe those things are done with
Arizona.”

“That might be wishful thinking. The sooner
we can get away from here, the better. In fact, we should probably
take Mom away from Phoenix and go hide in the mountains somewhere.
The domes seem mainly interested in large cities.”

“One of us should call her and let her know
I’m getting released.”

“I’ll take care of it. Hand me the
phone.”

* * *

Two hours later, Lucas and Drew were still
sitting in the hospital room, waiting for Dr. Marino to sign off on
Drew’s discharge. Lucas got tired of waiting, so he tracked the
doctor down, finding him near the nurse’s station, looking over a
chart. He gently reminded the doc that they wanted to get home in
time for Christmas dinner. Marino apologized and thirty minutes
later, Drew was released.

“How’s your leg doing?” Lucas asked, pushing
the wheelchair across the parking lot in front of the emergency
room entrance.

“It’s still sore.”

Lucas was shocked by his brother’s response
since Drew only had marginal feeling in his lower extremities. “If
you can feel it, then it must be excruciating.”

“It definitely hurts,” Drew said, right
before his stomach growled loud enough for Lucas to hear. “Can we
stop at Dairy Queen on the way? I could go for a large Oreo
Blizzard and maybe even a chocolate sundae.”

“That actually sounds pretty damn good right
now, but I doubt they’re open, and that’s assuming the building’s
still standing.”

When they entered the ice cream parlor’s
parking lot, Drew said, “Their lights are on.”

“But I don’t see anyone inside,” Lucas said,
walking up to the door. He reached for the door handle and pulled
at it. It opened. “Somebody forgot to lock up. I’m surprised this
place is still in one piece.” He looked around for signs of
looting, but there was none.

“Let’s make our own blizzards,” Drew said,
wheeling his chair forward. “I’ll go first.”

Lucas closed the door before Drew could get
inside. “No, we’re not going to steal ice cream.”

“Come on, I’m starving. Where else are we
going to get food? Everything’s probably closed.”

“Okay, but I’m leaving ten bucks on the
counter,” he said, pulling out his wallet.

After making and eating their ice cream
treats, they walked the rest of the way to their apartment complex
and pressed the call button for the elevator, but it didn’t light
up. “The electricity must be out. Looks like I’m carrying you up
more stairs,” Lucas told Drew.

He carried Drew up the third floor, then
returned to the ground level to fetch the wheelchair. Once Drew was
in his chair, he followed Drew to their apartment door, unlocked
it, and they both went inside. Lucas opened all the blinds to let
sunlight in so they could see what they were doing.

“You get started packing. I’ll grab the
laptop and few of our books,” Lucas said, taking Drew’s knapsack
off the back of the wheelchair. He unzipped the center pouch and
put it on the study desk next to the computer. He slid the molded
plastic chair out and sat down. He drew in a long, slow breath and
then exhaled—it soothed him. He let his mind drift to thoughts of
recent events, as his fingertips brushed across the smooth,
wood-grained surface. So much had happened—it was hard to process,
even for him.

He tried to remember life before the campus
tragedies, but couldn’t seem to recall it clearly in his mind. He
felt like he was on the outside looking in, viewing the memories as
if they belonged to someone else. Nothing felt as it should, not
even his own skin. Deep down he knew the visions were his, but now
they seemed foreign, tainted in some way. Certainly, this was not
what he expected when he enrolled at the university as a wide-eyed
teenager.

He often wondered what constituted a normal
college life. Was it the endless beer bongs and hookups, or was it
something more? If he had to do it over, would he join his
classmates in the occasional alcohol-induced, three-day bender, or
would he stick to the original plan? One path was about hangovers
and unchecked venereal disease, and the other was about duty and
responsibility.

It was easy to fantasize about a different
life. One filled with playful days of innocence and guilt-free
Sunday mornings. Yet, he knew it was a hopeless illusion. You are
who you are and there’s no going back. Life is a series of
mistakes—some critical and some not so much, and he’d certainly
made his share along the way. He hoped that if someone dissected
his life, they’d find that he always tried to do right by Drew and
his adoptive parents, even if things spun sideways.

Sure, he had a bit of a temper and sometimes
overreacted, but who doesn’t on occasion, especially when family is
involved? Was he really so different? Everyone struggles with their
own personal demons, just some are better at hiding them than
others. But today was one of those days when control seemed just
out of reach, as if his footing in reality was slipping. He
wondered if he listened hard enough, would he hear the malignant
shadows closing in?

* * *

Ten minutes later, Lucas stood up from his
wood-grained study desk and leaned forward with his thighs pressing
hard against the center drawer. He thumbed through the physics
material on the top shelf in his Tucson apartment, looking for his
quantum field theory book. He found it next to the reference notes
on spatial anomalies, and slid it out. Slips of yellow notepaper
fell from within the pages, scattering like forgotten dreams across
the river of unpaid bills on his desk. He gathered the notes,
trying to put them back where they belonged, when he realized they
no longer mattered. Neither did his anti-gravity research. Years of
accelerated graduate study, plus eighteen months of tireless
research gone in a flash.

Lucas dropped the red, 600-page physics book
on the floor when someone started pounding on the front door. The
book landed perfectly flat, making a bang that ricocheted through
the room like a gunshot. His heart pounded at the walls of his
chest, trying to break free from its cage.