Out of Time - Ryan Matthew Harker (short books to read TXT) 📗

saw it. The dumpster I ricocheted into sits at the opposite end of the alley. Carefully scrutinizing every square inch of ground I slowly walk toward the dingy, blue trash receptacle. I make it to the spot I was hit and scour the dirty asphalt, going so far as to get on my hands and knees to do so. I crawl to the dumpster and right off notice the side has a small dent in it. Is it from me? The way my body feels it could be.

I don’t give up until I’ve gone over the area another five times, TRU’s nowhere to be found. Breathing a heavy sigh of defeat I painfully get back on my feet. I don’t have any water but it was this morning I had pain meds last so I fish a couple out of their container and dry swallow them. An idea drenches my synapses, water! Sometime during my stay in the hospital it had rained and not just a sprinkle, the news had said a flashflood! Ignoring my pain I lower my body back to the ground and study the cracked landscape for a detail of a different sort.

“Ah ha!” I exclaim. The alley slopes away from the dumpster in the direction of the street.

Excitement overrides pain and I practically leap to my feet. Following the slope of the alley leads me out to the sidewalk and from there I observe the street. The four lanes before me decline to the right. Keeping a close eye on the gutter I almost skip down the sidewalk as my excitement grows. I may be working myself up over nothing but the possibility of getting TRU back is semi intoxicating all by itself.

Near the end of the block I spot a storm drain. If the rain had been torrential enough to carry TRU this far the likelihood that it was within reach is slim but none the less I squat down and snake my arm in. Ignoring the puzzled looks of passersby I feel around every corner of the drain, I feel nothing. It’s got to be here, I know it’s here. I have no reasoning to support this supposition, only a feeling but it’s a strong one and I don’t give up. I get up and rock back on my feet so I can get a better look into the drain’s depths. Searching, searching… searching and, searching a-and… wait, what’s that?! I drop down and reach back in. Stretching for all I’m worth I think I feel something. Is that plastic at my fingertips? Something shifts under my questing touch and drops into my grasp. A rush of adrenaline, serotonin, and epinephrine and my elation is completely off the charts!

With supreme effort I control myself and stand up, looking around as I do so. I’ve only drawn a little attention; mostly just the detached curiosity of the ordinary city dweller but a little way off a patrolman is looking at me a little too closely for comfort. Fortunately a bus pulls up to the corner. Taking no time for consideration I jump on the bus and sit down just in time to catch a perplexed look from the officer of the law.

Now I can take a moment to examine what I found. It has to be TRU! With a quick look around to make sure no one’s watching me too close I turn my gaze to my fist. Unclenching my fingers reveals TRU lying in the palm of my hand. I could cry at the sight of it. In a single moment all of my boyhood fantasies are suddenly restored.

There isn’t a screen but I have faith that it survived being immersed. TRU doesn’t have any seams for water to get in, when lit the screen makes a smooth transition from black to opaque and when dead the entire thing is pure black. No it just needs shook up or whatever for the kinetic charge to take effect. I did a lot of thinking in the hospital and I’m almost positive kinetic energy has to be how it charges.

The next few stops come and go but I stay on the bus. Battered and bruised below the layer of fog created by my meds it’s nice to watch the city go by after spending a week in bed. The sun shines in a sky of royal blue and there are birds in the trees interspersing the concrete of the sidewalk. The bus windows are down and admit a warm breeze which carries the summer scent of the city into the bus as it travels. Man, I love this time of year. I suppose if I wanted to I could always live in the summertime. I chuckle under my breath.

Pulling away from another stop and the smile on my lips is suddenly snatched right off my face by a face from my immediate past. It’s the Hench who threw me out the window and he’s staring right at me. Is that a look of recognition on his face? Oh no, I think he recognizes me, oh jeez! I restrain my head from looking to see if the Hench is still staring at me. The bus lumbers back into traffic but I’m certain I can feel his gaze boring through its steel walls. This is not good.

So I ride the bus a little bit longer, just to be sure, and finally get off somewhere way west of where I want to be but no biggie most of the traveling I plan to do doesn’t require a road. Top of the list is to get TRU operational and if I want to do it discreetly it means I’m going to have to move, complaining carcass be damned.

I start walking. I’m not sure how long until TRU recharges so I carry it in my left hand and glance at it every now and again. Longer than my body is comfortable with but not as long as I expected and TRU flickers to life. It must have stored a partial charge during its adventures. I wonder how long it can store power for. Will it go dead again if not used for a while? Like a cell phone. Too many questions float through my head and not enough answers float out. I’m really out of my depth here but at least I won’t be out of my time for much longer.

I dial the time counter back to the day I left to stop my blunder at the dog track but not to that morning, I’ve accumulated enough extra days as it is. Besides, if I give myself back the eight days I lost I’ll be running around while I’m in the hospital and my mind shies away from the possibilities for mayhem that situation could cause like Frosty the Snowman from a four alarm fire. But my finger hesitates over the TRAVEL button and I decide to make a detour to a grocery store first.

The local King’s has all I need and I stockpile the essentials. Cheese, bread, mayo, and various meats are top of the list followed by a gallon of milk, a gallon of orange juice, two boxes of Cheese-Its, and two bags of Oreos. With these items in bags I leave King’s and, hobbling feebly under the weight of these paltry items, I make my way down the block to the nearest alley. I’m definitely hugging the wall this time as I set my bags down, retrieve TRU from my pocket and pick my bags up again. If anything this should be an experiment in science. Who’s right, Terminator or Back to the Future?

I press the TRAVEL button.

 

It’s been a long week of sandwiches and pizza delivery. School’s all but forgotten, my friends, family, job, all have become a distant memory in the face of my new crisis, this temporal obsession. I’m in my apartment, currently sitting in the dark, on the couch, in my underwear. I’m also in a hospital bed downtown as of about an hour ago. No matter how many times I go through it I just can’t justify leaving my apartment. I want to say it’s hard to believe I was sitting home alone the entire time I was in traction but after everything I’ve been experiencing lately, what I will and will not believe are quite different from what they once were. What am I saying, I’m still in traction and my prescription won’t even exist for another week. I didn’t bother to think of that one before I came back to my present. I’ve still got enough for a couple days but I’m not sure what I’ll do afterward except hit up over the counter and black market substitutes.

Sitting here in the dark I come to a decision about my future. Another week of nothing and I should be strong enough to do something about all this. Another week of contemplation and planning should be able to see me through it. I feel grim. My usual easygoing cockiness has been replaced with depression and resignation to do what I have to. I consider throwing TRU in the Platte but some part of me won’t let me part with her. Oh yeah, that’s another thing, I’m referring to TRU in the female form as if she were a motorcycle, or car or something. I’m attached in a way I’m sure isn’t healthy. I’m also sure this attachment is clouding my judgment but the same part that doesn’t let me throw her away also doesn’t care.

And I sit.

 

For a week I pretty much do nothing until I decide I can move around well enough to escape or evade. My body is bruised and battered as all get out but by my second round I’m lubed up enough I don’t hurt (terribly). I believe I’ve got a plan. A lot of careful thinking brings me to this point but I’m ninety-percent sure of where I sit and have only a small list of items to pick up before I feel comfortable navigating the timestream again.

It’s hard getting out of the apartment. Although still sore and (mostly in the mornings) stiff, I’m able to make my body do what I command it to. I manage to make it to the sidewalk and the sunlight blinds me. My apartment opens into a hallway which leads to some stairs that then go down and outside through a door. A convoluted process to say the least but once outside I’m immediately regretting the choice I made not to go back for my sunglasses. Oh, I won’t need ‘em, I told myself and, just like every other time I go against my intuition, I regret it.

I can live with my poor judgment though. I give my squinty eyes a rest and let my memory guide me to my destination. In this case it’s the nearest bus stop. I don’t dare take my car. I could be spotted, by anyone. I have so many people I need to avoid right now I don’t even know if I can list them all. Okay, well maybe I can, in order.

1. Above all others, I really don’t want to run into me right now. I’m going to be released from the hospital at any moment and I’m headed to that part of town. After all the physical and mental trauma I’m having a hard time explaining my actions to myself in manner rational enough to keep me calm, let alone trying to keep me calm when I’m freaked the heck out because I’m literally talking to myself.

2. Staci- she’s been tending me in a hospital bed for the last week and if she suddenly sees me driving around before or directly after being released it could prove to be an awkward situation.

3. The Hench- if any of those bloodthirsty a-holes catch sight of me (beside the one who’s gonna to see me on the bus) it could lead to another awkward situation, a situation