Time Spent (8 page)

The sound stopped.

Amber's mouth closed. Silently,
she turned and continued her march into the city.

Mia stood, shaking her head. All
she heard was a buzzing in her ears, and of course the sound of the
energy mounting inside her:
 
eeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
 
She walked over to what was
left of Brock, and found nothing but icy fragments on the ground.
Nothing moved. Still, a pain remained in her left temple, and
something was growing there, something throbbing and
angry.

When she finally caught up with
Amber, she was shambling toward a tall building in the middle of
the city.

"Amber, wait!" she called. "Where
are you going?"

"She said it would all end. She
promised," Amber said.

When Amber reached the building,
she stepped up on the wall, and her foot froze to the surface. She
took one step after another, straight up the wall.

"Wait!" Mia called. "Damn
it!"

She yanked on the big double doors
at the front of the building, but they were locked. She pulled back
one fist and the yellow energy balled around it. Then she threw it
forward, shattering the glass doors. Her left temple throbbed. She
stalked through the lobby and toward the stairs.

Mia began the long climb up the
stairs to the roof.

______________________

The red woman stepped down as if
walking down a flight of stairs, only there were no stairs. Her
legs moved gracefully downward until she stood on the
roof.

Mia stood transfixed by her. She
was naked like the others, with pale glistening skin. Her skin was
crisscrossed by tattoos which traced a strange symbology across her
naked body. Her hair fell like a red waterfall down her shoulders
and back, and floated off the ground where it trailed behind her
feet.

The woman approached. She looked
at Mia for a moment through blood red eyes, as if considering what
to do about her. Then she reached out a hand, and touched Mia's
forehead.

Red light exploded in Mia's mind,
and she lost consciousness.

______________________

She couldn't hear or understand
much of what Kevin told them. Her hearing was still muddy from the
sound wave Amber had used to destroy Brock, and what hearing she
had was blocked out by the sound of the energy in her head. All she
really understood was that they had to split up, and that Amber and
Brock and the others did not belong in this reality. They had come
from somewhere else, and Kevin had to take them back.

"No, wait," Mia had said angrily,
"you can't take Amber away!"

"She's not your Amber," Kevin
said. "She doesn't belong here."

Mia tried to argue, but her head
hurt too much. The sound and the throb in her temple were too much
for her. Before she could muster any resistance, Kevin had
disappeared, taking Amber with him.

"Nooo!"

"Mia, come on, we have to go,"
someone said to her.

"Get away from me!" she said,
slapping at them with the yellow energy.

They said something else, called
her crazy, said they were leaving her. Mia didn't care. She sat
down on the rooftop and buried her head in her hands. She stayed
that way for a long time.

The next sound she heard were the
steps of the S.W.A.T. officers as they came onto the rooftop and
surrounded her.

Mia was sitting on the floor of
her cell when the guard came for her.

"Lozano, visitation," he
said.

She stood. "Okay."

The guard escorted her to the
visitation area. She was not allowed in the same room with her
visitors, instead she had to sit down in a booth, in front of a
plate glass window with a phone to the side. She sat down in the
hard plastic chair, and looked through the window.

Her father sat on the other
side.

Mia picked up the phone, and he
did the same.

"Dad?"

"Hi, honey. How-" His throat
closed and he choked up for a moment. "How you doing?"

She pulled one lock of her hair
over the left side of her face. She didn't want him to see the
strange metal lines growing there. "Um, I'm okay."

"Good."

"Dad," she said, tears starting to
form, "I don't - I don't think you should come here
anymore."

"Honey...."

"No, Dad, no." She stood. "You
should just go, just leave me here..."

"I can't do that, Mia." Tears ran
down his face. "I can't do that. You're my little girl!"

"Just GO!" she screamed, slamming
down the handset on the cradle. The yellow energy flared from her
hand, and the plastic casing of the phone handset
shattered.

Guards rushed in, dragging her
away from the window and placing chained handcuffs on her. Her
father stood on the other side, hands on the plate glass, tears
running down his face, mouth working soundlessly.

Removing the handcuffs, the guard
shoved her into one of the solitary cells. She sank to the floor as
the heavy door clanged shut, and she wept. She could destroy the
door, the walls, the guards, their guns, everything. She could walk
right out of this prison and go wherever she wanted, but she no
longer wanted to leave.

She lay there, in her cell, and
she knew: this was where she belonged.

______________________

"You should have left me there,"
Mia said.

"Don't say that," Brandon said.
"That's not where you belong. You didn't do anything
wrong."

"I'm tired," she said. "I'm tired
of fighting, I'm tired of being angry all the time."

Tyler snorted. "You know, none of
that would have happened if you had just listened to us and stuck
with us instead of just attacking!"

"Tyler..." Becca touched his arm,
but he pulled it away.

"No! I'm sick of her bullshit. She
was the one who went crazy and attacked us instead of sticking with
us!" He pointed at her. "What happened is your fault!"

"What are you talking about?" Mia
said.

"Tyler!" Becca said,
angrily.

"You think you're the only one who
got hurt?" Tyler asked.

Mia was silent.

"Well you're wrong," he said.
"Dead wrong."

CHAPTER THREE

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Mia slapped a hand at them and
yellow energy lashed out, knocking Tyler and Becca to the ground.
Amber stumbled forward, looked confused, then turned to the right
and began shambling in the direction of the base's main
gate.

"Amber!" Mia called, chasing after
her.

Tyler crawled painfully to his
feet, and extended a hand to help Becca stand up. "What the hell?"
he said. "Why did she attack us?"

"She doesn't need a reason,
haven't you noticed?" Becca said, watching Mia run after the pale
girl. "She's a crazy fucking bitch."

"Never mind her, this could be bad," Tyler
said.

The wall of the hangar shook with a massive
impact, and a large section of it broke free and crashed to the
ground. Two men, one hugely muscled, the other pimply-faced with
greasy brown hair, ran through the opening. Both were completely
naked. They ran past Tyler and Becca and toward the base proper.
Once Tyler saw what was behind them, he understood why they were
running.

"Holy fuck," said Becca.

The thing that had been Brock Kenney emerged
from the hangar, his massive form towering above the others who
came forward around him, soldiers who had been transformed into
circuitry-covered cybernetic zombies.

"facialrecignitionengaged. Ooo BeccaLICIOUS!
targetacquired."

"You have got to be kidding me," said
Tyler.

______________________

When Tyler opened the door, the sight of
Becca standing there the hallway surprised him. He hadn't seen her
since the rooftop.

"Hey," he said.

"Can I come in?" She looked like she was
dressed for a night at the clubs: black top, tight gold pants, and
thigh high black boots.

"Sure," he said. "How did you find my
apartment?"

She stepped inside, looking around. "Are you
kidding? I went to your house, your mom said you moved, I asked
where, and bam, it all popped into her head. Like always."

"So you read my mom's mind. Nice."

"I do that," she said with a grin. She
looked like she wanted to sit down, so Tyler moved a pile of
scripts off a chair. She sat. Tyler sat on the corner of the bed,
facing her.

"I thought Kevin said it was dangerous for
us to be together. Something about the end of the world?"

"I remember." She bit her bottom lip. "Look,
I just...this isn't easy, but after everything that
happened..."

"Ah it's...don't worry about it."

"I think about it a lot. I thought I'd come
here, we'd go out, have a few drinks?"

"Oh. Uh, sure." Tyler stood. "I know a good
club, couple of blocks over. Let me get dressed."

She nodded.

"Oh," Tyler said, "one thing though: this
isn't gonna end with you making me wash your hair, is it?"

Becca laughed. "Play your cards right,
gorgeous."

All eyes were on them as they made their way
on to the dance floor. Tyler was wearing a long sleeved blue shirt,
black slacks, and black leather shoes. Atop his head of jet black
hair was a black fedora.

"Are you serious with that hat?" she
said.

"Dead serious."

"You look like Matt Bomer," she said.

"I get that a lot," he said with a smile,
revealing perfect white teeth.

Becca rolled her eyes. "Oh lord."

Tyler laughed. "Come on. Let's dance."

He spun her up against him, one hand
slipping behind her back. His feet moved smoothly across the floor
as he whisked her to the center of the crowd.

"You're a good dancer," she said.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet," he said.

After the song ended, space began to clear
on the floor. Another song began, and Tyler stepped away from her.
"Watch this," he said.

He began with a simple tap step, one of the
earliest things he'd learned in dance. Others backed up and formed
a circle around him, Becca joining it. Tyler began to slide back
and forth, mixing his tap with a hip hop swing of the arms and
hips, finally bringing his arms backward and dropping to the floor,
flipping his body over and rising, facing the other direction,
still tapping. His audience applauded.

Tyler tipped his hat to them and stepped
over to Becca. "How about that drink?"

Suddenly, her green eyes were all he could
see.

II HAVE A BETTER IDEAA

Their lips met the instant the elevator
closed. Becca pushed him up against the wall, her body pressed
against his. When the doors opened, they stumbled out, their arms
wrapped around each other. Tyler fumbled blindly for his keys,
finally fishing them out and fitting them in the lock. After
several seconds of blind jiggling of keys, he successfully opened
the door and the two of them stumbled inside and to the bed, Tyler
flinging the door closed behind them. Becca sat on the bed's edge,
Tyler standing before her.

"Wait, wait," Becca said, breathlessly,
"hold on..."

"What?"

"Max! Out!" She pointed to the door.

Tyler heard a distant whimper.

"No argument," she said. "Out!"

Tyler laughed.

"Okay," she said. "Now..." She reached up,
pulling Tyler's shirt up over his head and flinging it away. His
fedora landed somewhere behind him. On her way back down she yanked
down on his trousers, pulling them down to his ankles, allowing him
to step out, kicking off his shoes. She slid her hands up his
smooth, toned thighs, making her way up his boxers, tented outward
by the pressure of his cock, which hardened at her touch. She
pulled them down, and brought her hand back up to stroke him. Tyler
leaned down to kiss her as she did so. His eyes dialed open, and he
saw the worlds spinning inside her clothes.

One thought, and they spun away from each
other. Becca's clothes blew away like dust, leaving her naked body
exposed underneath him.

"That's so fucking hot," she said, sliding
back onto the bed, pulling him with her.

Tyler spread her legs wide and entered her,
rocking back and forth on top of her. He propped himself up by his
hands, looking down on her body. She moaned, and as her mouth
opened, he saw down into her throat and deep inside her. Her skin
glistened, and he saw inside the tiny pearls of sweat that beaded
there. Her nipples thrust out from the tiny brown circles of her
areolas, and his eyes dialed open, showing him the intricate
weaving of the cells within.

The world blurred, and soon he saw nothing
but the worlds spinning within her. Moreover, he felt her inside
him, her green eyes drifted into his mind and nestled inside his
consciousness there, and soon she was seeing the worlds within him
as well. They were universes of seething passion, galaxies burning
and rushing into one another. Finally, there was an explosion,
worlds mixing and crossing into each other's orbits, a cosmic
collision in the endless void.