29:16:04:59 Read online

  A jolting notion came over me as I stopped and looked over the gap that divided the next set of windows. A good six feet separated the two sets. Worse, not even a scratch was etched into the glass of the closet one. A draft rose around me, and a cold gust swayed the building as if it would tear to pieces at any second. Just how the hell could I cross the divide? It was too long of a stretch, and I couldn’t exactly jump from here, but there was no other path.

  A slight moan escaped up from the cinder and concrete wall. Just the tiniest crack appeared near my feet. It splintered the window sill in half and traveled out. The wall thundered as plaster sprayed all around. The crack widened into a breach that threatened to send the entire structure tumbling to the ground. My head whipped from side to side to find an escape. The only way was forward. The set of windows down and to the right were glass free. I had to jump for it.

  No time to think.

  No time to wonder.

  I putting my feet on a splintering wall and gained some leverage. Thunder exploded above as if eager to see the show. I pushed off the wall with almost too much force and sailed awkwardly through the air. The flashlight tumbled from my grip and spun end over end. I still refused to look down even as I fell.

  The target window came closer. Everything became detached. Time slowed.

  My hands flew out in all directions, reaching for the opening. Plaster fell like snow. Somehow the raining bits of paint chips and plaster reformed into a time when I was a kid making a snowman when tiny flakes of snow began to fall gently from the sky on Christmas Eve.

  I touched the sill of the window with my left hand and held fast. My body hit hard against the wall. The shock loosened my grip, but a few fingers managed the keep. It wasn’t enough though, and before I knew it I lost the sill and was falling again.

  I didn’t comprehend what had happened, not right away. I had a hold on the opening, what happened? What was going to happen? Everything that had occurred ran through my head at lightning pace. From the events starting two years ago to this exact moment. It was everything in an instant.

  I looked over, still in slow motion, and watched as I flew past the end of the wall. I made a lame attempt to reach out and grab something, but I was just too far away. I think I already knew that. This was meant to be my end. I closed my eyes and let the fall take me.

  Chapter 10: Luck vs. Fate

  A sudden jerk brought me back as the falling stopped. I looked around. My stop didn’t make sense, not until I felt the fabric around my neck tighten, snugger than it should have been. I slowly raised my right arm above my head and touched the steel rod that had caught the hood of my borrowed sweatshirt. This damn sweatshirt had saved my life.

  I was hanging on by a thread, though, and grasped the rod, pulling with all the strength I could summon. It remained steady. The structure above didn’t seem to be crumbling anymore. The rod itself pointed out at a ninety degree angle before jutting up and back into the building. I managed to pull myself back up and stood upon the rod without it rocking. Several other rods weaved and crossed each other, making for a handy ladder back into the broken building.

  After a few tense minutes of climbing I was back on solid concrete. I touched the outside of the building, trying to find a way back in. The steel rods led me to the other side of the gap, but not back through the hole in the floor. I was stuck on the outside, looking through one of the lower windows that still had glass. The window itself was too small to fit through, like most of the others. I had to go up.

  I gently punched through the glass that was already cracked, making an opening big enough for my foot, and hoped the building wouldn’t react to the force. Stepping into the open window, I flinched, half expecting my foot hold to buckle and cause everything to come crashing down. This time it didn’t even yield a squeak. With renewed effort, I stuck both feet into the window and gripped the rough exterior with both hands.

  The next window was just above my reach, but there was no glass. Part of the window was missing, and a bigger hole formed on the left side that would allow me to squeeze through. I jumped the few extra inches and held fast, always waiting for that familiar cracking sound. I lifted myself up, reached through the hole, and looked about. Trying to ignore the view downward, I turned to look at the other side of the gap. The floor couldn’t be more than a few feet away.

  I pushed all the way through the hole and balanced myself in the opening, staring at the floor that appeared so far off. There were no lucky steel rods to grab me if I missed. Another whoosh of wind rose upwards, bringing the view back to attention. Forty some stories was a long drop.

  I jumped, but didn’t put enough force into it this time and fell short. I saw the floor coming and reached out my hands, looking for the edge. I caught the floor and pulled myself up quickly, climbing onto solid ground for what felt like the first time, and laid down. My breath came in hard gasps as I heaved a sigh of relief. I was finally across the opening.

  “You dumb son-of-a…” I said, shaking my head as I tried to clear my havoc-filled mind. I was wading through too much to just come up close to something I probably couldn’t even begin to understand. I stared at the other side of the opening and couldn’t believe I’d just made that crossing.

  The red light shone up ahead, pulsating. Dizziness washed over me as I pushed myself to my feet. I wiped the loose plaster from the sweatshirt as that red light throbbed inside my head. I turned to face what I’d come searching for, and suddenly yearned for the answers to my questions. What was this timer? Why was it aligned to my birthday? Was it tied in with my turning? It had to be.

  I crossed into the next area and noticed that the room was alive with activity. Ripples of electricity caused the hairs on my head to stand on end. Wires and cables encircled the room, covering every square foot. Some sparked while others shook, and there was a clear humming that reverberated through the air.

  Stepping carefully through, I followed what appeared to be the thickest cable expecting it to lead me somewhere. It corkscrewed throughout the room, an area that seemed completely unbroken. No cracks or breaches were in the walls. The windows still showed the dangerous decent through intact glass.

  The red glow lit my path so I kept eyes glued to the ground as I moved about. This way I could step between the open windows in the floor. I jolted my head against a metal container as I crashed headlong into the object that the main cable was attached to. I hung onto whatever it was, and tried not to fall over.

  The object I clung to hummed with a high-pitched whine. It was about the size of a car, and had gadgets and dials blinking with tones of green and blue. I ran my hand along the metal. It was cool to the touch, which didn’t make any sense. There were many other smaller cables that expanded outwards from the mechanism. Several of those cables ran from the device, straight through the walls, and connected to the glass panels outside, the ones that displayed the ticking numbers. That was it. It was basically a giant black box with wires, yet it was still a complete mystery.

  I took a couple of steps deeper into the unexplored section of this tower, hoping I could find something else that might make a bit more sense.

  A blistering pain erupted in my chest and forced me to one knee. It was like someone had reached through my rib cage and strangled the valves of my heart. I stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding a plummet through one of the open windows, and gasped for breath. Incredibly the pain was suddenly gone as quick as it had come. I stood there horrified and confused, leaning back against the black box as a chill ran down my skin. The surface of the device felt unnaturally cold.

  Sparks of light exploded behind my eyes, but waned after a few deep, long breaths. Slowly sliding down the black boxes’ surface, I rested against it and tried to slow down my scattered vision. I put my hands on my knees and tucked my head in.

  Something triggered my attention from the corner on the other side of the room. It glowed with a soft, blue hue, but it didn’t exactly seem real enough at that moment. S
quinting, I only managed to watch the blue color fade. Only when it shone again did I realize it was real.

  I kept the blue tint in my peripheral vision as I took a few, cautious steps forward, watching the ground. The exposed windows reminded me that one simple misstep and it was a fairly quick end to all of this. One more step and my right leg suddenly shook with mind numbing agony.

  “Damn barrier,” I said.

  I had apparently tried crossing over into the part of this forsaken city where I wasn’t meant to be. Even this far up the hurt still came. My leg continued to quiver, tightening and contorting, quickly followed by a thought-altering migraine. The pain immediately halted as I retreated backwards over the barrier.

  I stepped a few feet beyond the barrier again and an acute pain once more struck my legs before circling through my body. Taking another few steps was pure hell as the world spun with an unnerving, blood-boiling, muscle-contorting hate. The pain traveled further and laced into my arms, constricting and pulling them to my sides.

  I stayed focused on the blinking blue light that was only a few strides away. Every step was more difficult than the last. The sparks began again and I had to backtrack, unable to see.

  “Damn, damn, damn.” I repeated. The sparks slowly faded from my vision. I slumped to the floor and found myself looking down through a window, watching the street below somewhat alive with activity. Tiny dots of light traveled along the street. I wondered if some people were still looking for the man they thought was long dead, or praying to find the man still alive so they could kill him. Of course from this far up it may just have been a trick on the eyes. This weird, red glare made everything look so different.

  I twisted around again and witnessed the blue light pulsate for the next few minutes, wondering what exactly it could be. I knew this must be what I came for; this was my prize. For whatever reason I knew in my bones that the timer was what led me here, but not what I was looking for. This tiny object, forty some stories up in the air, having to cross a broken bridge to reach, through derelict buildings after traveling through crowds filled with murderers to reach. But for of that, this was the end.

  Gathering my strength, I found a firm foothold on the black box. I exploded forward, rushing beyond the barrier. The pain was instant and intense. I squinted against the headache that arose. Tears streamed down and flew away from my cheeks. I couldn’t run anymore, but instead launched into the air with arms outstretched, keeping the piercing blue shade firmly in sight.

  Liquid dripped down my face. Blood was leaking not only from my nose but my eyes as well. A surreal pain radiated off my skin, heat so hot that waves of fire were burning off layers of flesh. The sparks propelled behind my eyes, and my vision was failing. I was almost there though, just a few feet away.

  I fell short by only a few inches, my fingertips so close but so far. A tremor pulsed in my hand, forcing it closer to my body. I pushed my left hand forward, blindly reaching for the object through haze-filled eyes. A shudder started in my legs, shutting down my ability to move, and filtered upwards. My abdomen pin-pricked before going completely numb. Death crept up my torso, but I remained resolute, reaching for that blinking blue. I didn’t feel my chest stop lifting, or my heart stop pumping. Just before darkness overcame me, I managed a weak grasp around the glowing blue light. Then I fell.

  Chapter 11: The Screams

  “Wake up…”

  “Wake up!”

  “Jackson, wake up!”

  The voices echoed from all around. A thousand different screaming voices erupted through the darkness. They spoke in unison, aligned and loud.

  My eyes opened, slowly, letting my vision clear as my temples throbbed. The pain slowly subsided, and the voices vanished. The pain was all but gone and I was fully capable of lifting my outer extremities again. But I remained on the ground.

  The soft glow escaped my hand and demanded attention.

  It was a sphere, mostly smooth but with slight etching around it. It was cold. The glow filtered along the etchings, through a metal casing. The blue wasn’t just one color, shifting from navy to indigo and sapphire. I knew it was crazy, but I felt I had seen this sphere before, sometime and somewhere else. Maybe not in this life, but maybe before The Forgetting.

  My eyesight returned to normal as my vision fully rested on the sphere. Bringing it closer, I traced a digit along one of the etchings. A blue light followed my fingertip before fading with the rest of the orb. It was like the thing was breathing, or had a heartbeat. Whatever it was, it completely canceled out the effects of the barrier just by touching it.

  I felt I had to test this. I dropped both hands and cradled the device to the floor. Taking a deep breath and holding it in, freeing my grip from the sphere, I withdrew both hands. My muscles almost refused at first but obeyed. A shock of nausea and dizziness spurred up quickly. Almost fainting again, I shot my hands back onto the orb. The pain dissipated just as quickly.

  “So you’ll let me cross?” I asked the orb out loud.

  The small sphere didn’t weight much, and was made of material I hadn’t known before, some kind of metal, thin but very strong. The sphere didn’t yield a millimeter when I pressed it with my thumb. An idea popped into my head. Moving towards the black box powering the timer, I crossed over the threshold and the sphere died permanently. When I took the orb back over the barrier, it hummed to life once more.

  “Well, okay then,” I sighed.

  Thunder cracked above me and shook the building. I couldn’t help but laugh. I hadn’t experienced so much unneeded adventure ever before in my life, and really didn’t need any more. But I knew more was coming.

  The only path was forward. I yearned for it to be easier, but doubted this journey would be. Traveling the opposite direction I came, I left the control unit and its timer behind, still no closer to that answer of why the timer existed. At least the sphere was a small marvel. Having to hold onto it could prove tedious since it left me with only one hand to climb with.

  The angle of the building finally leveled off. Everything on this side was whole, or at least as much as a destroyed skyscraper could be. The windows that were the flooring were not broken, but merely scratched in places. Most of the furniture had slid away, most likely out the open hole on floor forty-five. Crossing this part was unpredictably quick and painless, save that I had to use the strange blinking blue sphere as a makeshift flashlight.

  “Where should I go?” I asked the orb. It lit up blue in response, then died back to darkness before repeating the process.

  “Thanks,” I scoffed.

  This part of the office structure hadn’t really been affected by the weather. There was no mold or decay. The walls were mostly unscathed expect for a few cracks here and there, and most of the remaining furnishings were in decent shape. Even the pictures on the walls looked like they could have been hung there yesterday. I moved through a couple more floors and came to the point where the building had collided into another, forcing itself inside. Somehow the other structure was able to maintain the weight of itself and the other.

  It was twilight inside the other building, immensely different from this one, as if being inside the barrier had transformed it beyond its normal form. I jumped through the hole and landed with a thud. It was only a five foot drop into the new building. Once inside, I felt a thousand times better, standing on a real wood floor. The windows were in their rightful place, and were only for looking out instead of standing on.

  I felt a strange sense I’d been here before. I couldn’t tell if being in this specific room was it, or this entire tower, or maybe even being on the other side of the barrier. It wasn’t like anything was recognizable, but it felt strange enough that I had to leave the room immediately. Yet the feeling stayed as I exited into the hall.

  I ran down the hallway looking for a stairwell that would lead down. The red timer still shone behind me through the dirt-streaked windows and open cracks in the building’s exterior. But it was fading quickly
, so I had to use the sphere more, holding it out in front of me. Its blue light illuminated the hall. It made for an awful lantern, though, as it died every few seconds. Navigating this old place with this light source was mind-numbingly slow. After some time I finally discovered the stairwell and escaped into the darkest abyss I had found thus far.

  The stairwell circled downward with no red light from the timer to guide my descent. Every few seconds the notion of missing a step occurred to me as the glow died. It was a maddening affair, though I realized something as I stopped in the darkness.

  I was the only member of this city to cross the barrier and survive under my own free will, probably the only one that ever would be. The thought took hold for a little too long as my left foot took one too many steps, and sent me flying down the last couple of stairs. I slammed hard on the left side of my shoulder and the sphere rolled from my grasp, settling a few inches away.

  It started immediately, the pain circling my chest and a fire creeping into my lungs. I reached out for the sphere as a sudden muscle spasm locked my arm. My hand swung over and hit the sphere, sending it flying down the stairs. It bounced off each step, rolling slowly down. Getting upright was going to be impossible so I drug myself to the steps, and rolled down. Twisting and turning, my ribs burned and my shoulder nearly broke. A spasm took hold in my left calf while a buzzing sound filtered in loud enough to drown out everything else. I crashed onto the next level and reached out and grabbed the sphere before it could take the next step.

  My lungs burned around my bruised ribs as I rolled to my back. I touched each one. None were broken, but I was sure they were black and blue. Something felt snapped out in the wrong direction in my left shoulder, leaving me unable to move it. A few nerves twitched in my neck. It heated up and pinched off. I couldn’t grip the sphere in my left hand, and instead held it in my right.