Linkage: The Narrows of Time

Chapter 10

Sunday, December 23





Lucas woke up at 10:24Sunday morning after a lousy night’s sleep, mentally replaying lastnight’s horror show repeatedly until he finally feel asleep around4:30 AM. He slid deep under the covers and curled up in a ball,squeezing a second pillow between his arms, then he realized hewasn’t hearing his brother snoring or moving around in the room.

He sat up and looked atDrew’s bed. There was no sign of him or his wheelchair. He hoppedout of bed, got dressed, and checked Drew’s nightstand, but hisbrother’s wallet, keys, and shuttle pass were all missing. It wasunusual for Drew to venture off without informing him first. Heneeded to find him.

The TV was on in themain room but there was no sound. Its remote control was on top ofthe kitchen table next to two slices of toast, one of which had abite missing. A nearly full glass of milk was sitting next to a freshtub of margarine and a butter knife.

The front blinds wereclosed, and so was the front door, though its two-sided deadbolt waslocked. He unlocked the door, went outside, and wandered barefootalong the catwalk to the elevator. He could see dozens of people downbelow, loading their vehicles with their belongings. From his view,it looked like everyone was leaving town. He couldn’t blame them.He would have joined them if he could.

He checked the laundryroom on the first floor—no sign of Drew. He knocked on themanager’s door, but no one answered. He asked several of hisfleeing neighbors if they had seen Drew, but none had.

He waved at littleCindy Mack who was standing beside her father while he packed thetrunk of their car. She came running up to him, wrapping her armsaround his waist. He bent down to give her a real hug.

She started crying.“Lucas, I don’t want to leave. But my dad says we have to go.”

“It’ll be okay,Cindy. Your dad’s right, it’s not safe for you to stay here.”

“But I’ll never seeyou again.”

“Sure you will,” hesaid, looking her in the eyes. “When this is all over, I’ll beright here waiting for you by the swing set. Okay?”

She smiled at him,sniffed, wiped off her tears, and then ran back to her dad.

Cindy was one of thefew kids in the apartment complex, and the only one he liked. Maybeit was because she was the only one who liked him. Her parents bothworked during the day, leaving her to play by herself on the swingset in the back of the apartment after school. He had gotten to knowher a few months earlier when she’d fallen off the swing andscraped one of her knees. He was on his way out to the dumpster witha bag of trash when he found her sitting on the ground, crying. Heused the garden hose to clean out the dirt and gravel from her wound,and then found a bandage to cover the scrape.

She took a shining tohim and they talked a couple times a week, usually by the swing set.She was a quiet, but cheerful girl in the fourth grade, who carriedan empty white purse with her everywhere she went. He worried for hersafety since she was left alone for two hours each day after schooluntil her parents came home from work. He often looked out thebedroom window to check on her while she played on the swings.

He went back upstairsto the apartment and changed clothes, still thinking of Cindy’sarms wrapped tightly around him. If something happened to her becauseof his negligence in the lab, he would never forgive himself.

Once he had his shoesand socks on, he stood in front of the TV, turned on the sound, andhit the remote to scan through several channels. Every station wasbroadcasting live from the Student union  . Cameramen in helicopterswere circling above the Student union  , capturing the best angles ofthe damage they could.

“Shit, it looks muchworse from the air,” he said.

He realized there wereno body fragments littering the theatre’s steps. He assumed CSI hadcollected the evidence and taken it back to their lab.

Lucas settled in towatch his favorite network news station, taking a seat on the edge oftheir couch. News correspondents were interviewing campus officialsand law enforcement. He sat back and put his arm up on the sofa’sback cushion, catching a whiff of his left forearm. Even after lastnight’s hot shower, he could still smell the stench of burnt hairand severed flesh on his skin. He wondered how many scrubbings itwould take to get rid of the stink.

Most of the network’sreporters, and a few of their interviewees, offered opinions on whathad happened. Some believed it was merely an accident, like a gasexplosion. Others thought it might have been a terrorist attack, withsome form of incendiary device as the weapon.

He was flabbergastedwhen no one mentioned the lack of building rubble or the bloodlessbody parts. He wondered if anyone was paying attention. The missingevidence was just as important as the tangible evidence.

When law enforcementofficials were asked for a cause, they declined to comment, givingthe police department’s typical response, “The investigation isstill ongoing.”

Lucas could see theTucson Bomb Squad in the background, milling about, working theirdetection equipment, scanning inch-by-inch for chemical andradiological evidence.

The local police werestraining to hold back the crowd of thousands that surrounded thescene. Many observers were snapping photos and recording their ownvideo footage. Firefighters were keeping watch on the theatre’sexterior, equipment at the ready; smoke still billowed out from thesides of the damaged structure.

When the camera swungaround to the front of the theatre's steps, it showed two FBI agentschatting with the Chief of Police. One of the FBI agents looked a lotlike the redheaded security guard that broke up the skirmish with therugby players in the cafeteria. "Damn, that guy could be histwin," Lucas mumbled. Then the camera panned down to show Drewsitting in his wheelchair. He was talking with the FBI agents.

"Drew, what thehell are you doing?" he yelled at the screen.

Standing only a fewfeet behind his brother was Randol Larson, the pretentious attorneyfrom the Advisory Committee.

“Damn it to hell,”Lucas said, throwing down the remote control. He raced out the door,down the hall, down the stairs, and ran the 1.5 miles to the Studentunion  . He was out of breath when he arrived.

He checked thepandemonium to figure out the shortest route he had to Drew, but hecouldn’t see over the crowd. He climbed up on a short retainingwall to his right. He held on to the branch of a nearby tree tobalance himself while he stared over the crowd. He could see thefront of the Student union  , but not Drew. There were too many peopleblocking his view. He figured he could swing around to the right tobypass as much of the horde as possible, cutting through the crowd’soutside edge to get to Drew.

He jumped down from thecement wall, which caused a slight pain in his right shin. Afternarrowly avoiding a broken beer bottle and a well-concealed sprinklerhead, he navigated his way to the front right sector of the mob. Hesaid, “Excuse me,” “pardon me,” and “coming through,” ashe worked his way into the crowd with an outstretched arm.

A police barricadestopped his progress when he reached the front row. He could see theback of Drew’s head only fifty feet away. He called out Drew’sname several times, but his brother didn’t react. The crowd noiseand the helicopters whirling overhead were almost deafening.

One of several policeofficers standing guard was just to his left, and just inside theperimeter. He hoped to convince the cop to let him inside thebarricade. He just needed to think of the proper excuse.

“Hi, Officer, I’mDr. Ramsay of the Astrophysics Department. I may be able to help youfigure out what caused this.”

The man looked at Lucasand laughed. “Yeah, right. Astrophysics Department. What are you,eighteen?”

Lucas pushed closer tothe man. “I know I look young, but trust me, I’m a physicist withthe university. I can help you, but you need to let me inside.”

“That’s not goingto happen. Now step back.”

Lucas reached for hisback left pocket, realizing instantly that he’d left his wallet inthe apartment. While he was considering his options, the crowd noisefaded and became silent. The only sounds came form the helicopters.Then, like a tidal wave traveling atop the ocean, each bystanderturned in succession to face the east end of the grassy mall.

Lucas turned around,shocked by an earsplitting scream behind him and saw about a halfmile away, at the east end of campus, a towering dome of intense,white-hot light. Lucas froze in place, his hand hanging over his backpocket, unable to move. The mountain of energy looked like the tophalf of a giant, glowing white cue ball stuck into the ground. Hecouldn’t see through the dome, but he thought he could see anintense mass of energy swirling around inside it, shimmering like thesurface of the sun.

The crowd panicked andbegan screaming when they realized the dome was headed their way.Lucas pressed his back up against the Student union  ’s south wall asthe crowd ran wild.

Above the screams, hecould hear buildings and other structures being ripped from the earthas the energy field barreled west through campus. Along with thebuildings, the energy field tore up trees, cement, and pavement as itmoved. Everything it encountered was swallowed up inside. He wonderedif the thundering sound was similar to what a person would hear nearan F-5 twister as it tore through a Midwestern town in Tornado Alley.

His knees shook as hewatched the gigantic energy mass move his way. He thought aboutrunning away, but he couldn’t convince his body to move. Nor couldhe take his eyes off the monster destroying the campus. Though it wasstill several blocks away, he could guess its size by the buildingsnear it. The dome was at least fifteen stories tall and over twicethat in width. It dwarfed the size of the flash that had come out ofnowhere the night before. It towered above the skyline and yet seemedto move with grace and purpose, even as it swallowed up everythingaround it. If it kept on its current course, he estimated that itwould just miss the south side of Student union   where he wasstanding, but it was headed straight for the science lab at the otherend of the mall.

As the area began toclear, he saw a handful of injured students lying on the ground. Onewas a pregnant woman who was bleeding from her forehead.

Lucas decided it wastime to move. He ran to Drew, who was sitting alone by the theatresteps. There was no sign of Larson or the police chief.

“Are you okay, Drew?”he asked loudly.

His brother’s handswere shaking. “I’m fine. What is that thing?”

“I don’t know, butwe need to get the f*ck out of here, and fast.” Lucas grabbed thewheelchair handles, and pushed his brother west along the front ofthe Student union  .

Drew pointed to theinjured students. “What about them?”

“I’m sure thepolice will help them.”

A few steps later,Lucas heard a loud squeal coming from behind him. It trumped thesounds of buildings crashing to the ground. It was the samedebilitating shrill that he heard the night before. He was startingto get dizzy, but couldn’t cover his ears while pushing thewheelchair. He hoped his equilibrium would hold out long enough toget Drew away from there.

With the sound of deathbreathing down his neck, he looked back to check the progress of theenergy field. All he could see was a rolling wall of shimmeringenergy closing the gap behind him. He could not see the intruder’stop or sides; it was too close.

A pair of bicyclistswhizzed past him on the left, and then cut across in front, as theypedaled furiously along the sidewalk. Fifty feet ahead of them was apair of young women who were stumbling forward arm-in-arm, helpingeach other remain upright. When the bicyclists nearly ran the womenover, Lucas wondered if the earsplitting squeal was affecting theirvision.

Seconds later, both thebicyclists and the girls made it safely around the corner, just infront of the science lab. Lucas intended to use the same escaperoute, if he had enough time. His thigh muscles were burning and hecould hardly maintain his balance.

They were still alivewhen they made it to end of the mall twenty seconds later. Drew’swheelchair almost tipped over as they made the ninety-degree cornerand headed north between the science lab and the Student union  .

“Hang on, littlebrother. We’re almost there!” he yelled, hoping Drew could hearhim above the noise.

Drew’s head washanging down and bobbing as they moved—the dome’s high-decibelshrieking must have knocked him unconscious again. He pushed Drew’schair as hard as he could, hoping not to run out of breath.

Just then, the squealstopped. Lucas slowed down and looked over his right shoulder. He sawthe enormous crown of the dome just beyond the top floor of theStudent union  . It had stopped moving and was now a blistering orangecolor.

There was a pair ofnews helicopters off in the distance, circling above the giantintruder. Lucas wondered why the helicopter pilots weren’t affectedby the squeal that seemed to disable nearly everyone else in thevicinity, at least on the ground. Perhaps it had limited range. Itwas also possible that the dome’s shrill was one-directional andonly people directly in front of it could hear it.

Three seconds later,Lucas heard a swooshing sound as the dome vanished; the sound wasfollowed by a rush of wind that tried to pull him back toward themall.

Drew woke up and rubbedhis forehead. “Whoa, my head’s killing me. Where are we?”

“We’re just northof the lab. We’re safe.”

Drew looked back in thedirection of the Student union  . “What happened to that thing?”

“I don’t know. Itjust stopped moving and then vanished.”

“We should go backand see if anyone needs help.”

Lucas agreed. Theyreversed course and went back to the south side of the Student union  .Lucas stared, horrified, when they turned the corner and looked east.There was a long, shallow, devastated channel about three hundredfeet wide in front of them. It was perfectly straight and appeared tostretch all the way to the east end of the mall near Campbell Avenue.

All the buildings alongthe north side of the grassy mall were intact, but most of the campusbuildings along the mall’s south side had been obliterated,including the four-story library and the old basketball gym. Hewondered how many students had been inside when the buildings weredestroyed.

As Lucas had predicted,the energy field had just missed consuming the Student union  . Therewas an eight-foot-wide strip of undisturbed grass between theprevious night’s theatre event and the latest incident. Everythingelse caught in the dome’s path had vanished. Again, there was novisible rubble.

“There’s more ofthat black stuff,” Drew said, pointing to a film of black powdercovering the bottom of the entire channel.

Lucas saw somethingelse: a tall, pyramid-shaped mass near the dome’s endpoint. “Let’sgo check that out,” he said, pointing at the discovery.

They moved closer toit, along with a handful of other witnesses.

“Oh, my God. Is thatwhat I think it is?” Drew asked.

“Yeah, it is. That’sa pile of bodies, at least bits and pieces of them.”

The dome had expelledan eight-foot-high mound of semi-liquid human remains. The heap oozeddown its sides as gravity pulled at its gooey consistency made up oforgans, muscle, tissue, fingers, skulls, bones, brain matter, andintestines, intermingled like a bloody tossed salad. The coroner’soffice was going to be busy for months sorting out the remains.

Drew vomited twice nextto his chair. After wiping off his chin, he asked, “What the heck’sgoing on here?”

“Beats me, brother,”Lucas said, scooping up a handful of the black residue power. “ButI think it’s all related to our E-121 experiment.”

Lucas could not see anyclothing in the bloody pile, and could not visually identify any ofthe remains as belonging to Abby or Jasmine. Given Drew’s fragileemotional state, it was probably a good thing Abby’s pinkwindbreaker wasn’t visible in the dome’s waste pile.

“Do you think it’llhappen again?” Drew asked.

“Beats the shit out of me. But we shouldn’t wait around here tofind out. Let’s go.”