Vacancy

by Fredric Shernoff

  Chapter Thirty

  Dylan woke up and tried to move. At first he thought there was something wrong with his body that was preventing him from raising his arms, but then his vision cleared and he saw the duct tape wrapped all around him and securing him to a chair.

  A few feet away, Emma was still unconscious and similarly bound on the couch. Dylan looked around. Dr. Mike was standing near the door to his office, watching them with a satisfied smile on his face.

  “Why are you doing this to us?” Dylan demanded. At the sound of his voice, Emma began to stir.

  “I’m not doing anything to you,” Dr. Mike said. “I’m keeping you from doing something that would be regrettable for all humanity.”

  “There’s something wrong with you,” Dylan said. “I should have seen it in the Forge.”

  “You want to believe there’s something wrong with me, that’s your choice,” Dr. Mike said sadly. “I’d rather you see the good that I’m doing. Or the fact that I could have easily disposed of you in any number of ways. Instead, I’m trying to give you a chance. You can watch me change all of history.”

  Dylan struggled against his restraints. Emma was awake, shaking her head in confusion.

  “You can’t do this to us!” Dylan said. “What you’re doing is going to kill us and it’s going to hurt so many others. People died because of these experiments!”

  “It doesn’t have to be that way,” Dr. Mike said. “You’ll see.”

  He left the room and closed the door behind him.

  “What are we going to do?” Emma asked.

  “I don’t know. He’s going to start that experiment soon and I don’t know what’ll happen to us if we’re here when it happens. Can you move?”

  She wiggled around. “A little. You?”

  “Not at all. So you’ve got one up on me. Can you get your hands free?”

  “I don’t know. I think I can stand up though.” She grunted and strained as she lifted herself off the couch. “Is he going to come back soon?”

  “I don’t think so,” Dylan said. “He’s readying his experiment. He thinks we’re secured in here. Can you get over to me?”

  “Maybe.” With her legs bound, Emma could only inch along the carpet. She took three small steps, then tripped and fell to the floor. “Ow! Fuck!”

  “Are you okay?” Dylan called.

  “I’ll be fine. Carpet is soft. I don’t know how easily I can stand back up.”

  She rolled on the floor closer to Dylan’s chair. The tape around her was much looser than what was around him, and she was able to contort her body and slide up against his chair. She leaned back against him and he felt the chair start to tip backwards.

  “Careful!” Dylan called. “We’re getting off balance. Just stay still.”

  He leaned forward as much as he could, and grabbed a hold of the tape across her back with his teeth. He bit hard and pulled back. The duct tape shredded in the middle, leaving a ragged hole.

  “What are you doing?” Emma asked.

  “Just stay there. I can get you out.”

  The more she remained awkwardly positioned, the more her weight leaned back against him and the more the chair tilted. If they were to fall, getting hurt would be the least of their worries. The noise might bring Dr. Mike.

  Dylan took hold of the tape in his teeth again, and tore at it. With a few more attempts, the tape split in two. He grabbed one of the ends in his mouth and pulled it away from Emma’s back. He unraveled as much as he could, then did the same to the other side.

  “Can you move?” he asked.

  “A little more.” She moved her arms and bent her right arm until she freed it from more of the tape. “I got it!”

  Dylan kept his eyes pinned to the door to the office as Emma unraveled the rest of her tape and began to work on his. Whatever Dr. Mike was doing, it was keeping him occupied, and that meant their time was running out.

  Just as Emma removed the last of the tape, a buzz sounded from outside the room.

  “What the hell is that?”

  “It’s the experiment. It has to be. He’s going to channel the energy of this place into himself somehow. Or try, anyway. We need to get out of here.”

  “We need to stop him, Dylan!” Emma cried. “We have to undo this.”

  “Emma,” he said, “we don’t even know if that will help. We need to get to safety. Let’s get back to the future store and we can ride this out. We can go home.”

  “We have to try,” Emma said. “Please, Dylan. After everything we’ve been through, we need to see this through. For Jim and Clyde. For Matt. For everybody hurt by this!”

  “Emma, we don’t know what we’re getting into out there. He could have killed us, and he still might if he realizes his attempt to stop us didn’t work.”

  She walked over to Dr. Mike’s desk and picked up a lamp. “Get a weapon, Dylan,” she said. “I’ve had enough of this bullshit. It’s time to make this right.”

  Dr. Mike grew quiet as they sat in the truck and waited. In the darkness, the headlights of an approaching vehicle stood out with intense clarity. How much preparation had gone into Dr. Mike’s plans? And he, Jim, had let this man out to do all of this. He wondered if he had done a good thing or a terrible thing by freeing Dr. Mike and setting everything in motion. His mind might never settle on a verdict, but it didn’t matter. He had never asked for any of this. He had been captured by time and space, had lost and regained his identity, and been held captive in a realm he couldn’t possibly understand. He knew that he had done what he could in such bizarre circumstances, and that knowledge allowed him to let himself off the hook just a little.

  The approaching vehicle pulled into the space a hundred yards in front of them. Several people in protective gear exited and began removing something from the back of the truck.

  “That’s it,” Dr. Mike said with hushed excitement. “That’s our bomb, Jim. When those men leave it out there, we are going to grab it and get it back to the Forge.”

  “And if it detonates before we get there?” Jim asked.

  Dr. Mike turned to him. His eyes showed no emotion. “Things will go according to plan.”

  The military personnel went to the rear of their vehicle and removed a device that looked about the size of the carts Jim remembered teachers pushing down the hall with televisions and VCRs back when he was in school. The thought made him sentimental and led him to think of Liz again.

  The truck that had delivered the bomb departed. When it was gone, leaving them in a thick blackness, Dr. Mike switched on the headlights again. The light bounced of the metallic sides of the device and Jim raised his arm to shield his eyes.

  “It’s time, Jim,” Dr. Mike said. “Let’s get suited up.”

  He exited the truck. Jim prepared to come out of the passenger’s side door, but just as he turned he saw that the gun was still next to the driver’s seat. Jim grabbed for the weapon but Dr. Mike’s arm suddenly reappeared, pulling the gun out of the truck.

  Jim exited and walked around the back of the vehicle, where Dr. Mike was barking orders to the other survivors and gesturing with the gun. They all put on the protective suits they had stolen with the truck.

  “Now,” Dr. Mike said when they had all put on the baggy suits, “this thing will roll, so I need three people to push it and everybody to work together to lift it into the back of the truck. I don’t suppose I have to tell you to be careful with this.”

  Nobody responded.

  “Good. Let’s go. We are going to blow the Forge to hell and then we are all going home.”

  Jim didn’t think there was a chance any of them would survive Dr. Mike’s plan. Either the bomb would get them or the deranged pharmacist himself would do them in.

  The suit was hot and he felt sweat pouring down his body from everywhere. They walked to the bomb and maneuvered it over the bumpy ground. Jim felt every nerve ending blaring warning as the bomb jostled over the rough terrain.

  They returne
d to the truck and positioned the bomb in the back. This time, Dr. Mike didn’t stop Jim from joining the others. They took positions around the perimeter of the truck bed, staying as far from the bomb as possible.

  “Don’t worry,” a muffled voice said. “They couldn’t have gotten the bomb out here if it was gonna blow just from riding in a truck.”

  Jim thought the owner of the voice was right, but that realization did nothing to calm his nerves. He felt the truck start to move. It accelerated and began the trip back to the portal to the Forge.

  Emma moved quickly toward the door to Dr. Mike’s office. Dylan looked at the desk, and in a panic grabbed a bronze letter opener. He caught up to Emma just as she turned the doorknob and swung the door open.

  His first thought was the buzz of energy was much louder with the door open. Then he saw Dr. Mike standing in the center of the pharmacy portion of the store. The man was in his underwear, facing away from them. Cables ran from all over the place and led to electrodes stuck all over Dr. Mike’s body.

  Emma and Dylan looked at each other. She put her finger over her mouth and he nodded. This had to happen without their captor catching on. She moved forward and swung the lamp as hard as she could. Dr. Mike stepped away at the last second, and the potentially devastating blow simply grazed the back of his head.

  He spun around, eyes blazing. He grabbed Emma and tossed her into the table. Glass beakers and test tubes fell and shattered. Several of the electrodes pulled free from Dr. Mike’s body. Dylan rushed at him with the letter opener. Dr. Mike sidestepped his attack, and hit Dylan in the face with surprising force. Dylan stumbled and fell to one knee, and Dr. Mike was instantly on him, knocking him over and taking hold of the letter opener.

  Dylan fell to his back with the pharmacist on top of him. He grabbed Dr. Mike’s hands and pushed the letter opener away from his chest with all the force he could muster. Dr. Mike snarled and pushed in the opposite direction, using his leverage and larger size to his advantage. The blade moved down slowly, and Dylan knew it was going to eventually plunge into his chest.

  Suddenly, the lamp emerged from the side of his vision and collided with Dr. Mike’s head with a loud THUNK. Dr. Mike fell off to the side, loose electrode wires slapping the tile floor. Dylan got up as fast as possible and grabbed the letter opener.

  He looked at Emma. “Thank you.”

  She kissed him briefly, then said, “What do we do with him?”

  “It’s not for us to do anything with him. Let’s call the police.”

  “What if he wakes up?”

  “Well, that we can deal with.”

  Dylan and Emma carried Dr. Mike back into his office. The side of his head was bleeding significantly but his skull wasn’t caved in and he seemed to be breathing just fine. They sat him in a chair and secured him with the same duct tape that had bound them. Dylan made sure to make it extra tight with ample coverage.

  By the time he finished, Emma had completed her report to the police. “The cops are on their way,” she said.

  “Good. Let’s get out of here.”

  Jim felt a wave of disorientation wash through him as the truck bounced nerve-rackingly along the path back to the Forge opening. The feeling was like deja vu amped up to some unimaginable degree, but it wasn’t painful. At the same time, Dr. Mike reacted to something that did seem to be hurting him. The mad pharmacist winced and cursed under his breath, and the truck veered slightly off course. They stopped, and Dr. Mike appeared at the back door. He was no longer wearing his protective suit. “Jim, I need you back here with me. This experience is making me unwell.”

  Jim opened the top of his suit, allowing air to flow in and out freely, and sat back up front. They continued riding in silence until the building came back into view. Then another wave hit. This time Jim felt his mind pull in multiple directions. It wasn’t very different than his struggles to regain his identity in the face of another, alternate version. He heard Dr. Mike roar in pain and slump to the side, holding his head in his hands.

  Jim grabbed for the gun. He got his hands on it and pulled it back toward him. Dr. Mike looked at him. “Stop it, Jim!” he called out. “You’ll ruin everything!”

  Jim hesitated for just a moment, then drove the butt of the weapon into Dr. Mike’s head. Dr. Mike’s body hit the steering wheel, and the truck swerved wildly to the left. Jim grabbed the wheel and tried to straighten out the vehicle. He succeeded in avoiding a head-on collision, but the truck slammed sideways into the building. He braced himself for an explosion, but nothing happened.

  Dr. Mike was semi-conscious, but something was happening to him. He was fading in and out of existence. Jim squeezed past Dr. Mike and turned off the truck, then exited through the passenger door. He went around to the back, securing his suit, and peered inside. The bomb had moved out of its central position but had stayed upright.

  “Let’s go!” he called to the survivors. “Leave the bomb. Something’s happening. We need to get out of here.”

  They exited the truck and ran back to the portal. Jim held the gun tightly, afraid of what might await them inside the Forge. They sprinted in, seeing no obstacles ahead.

  “You’re too late, Jim,” Dr. Mike called from behind them.

  Jim turned and saw the pharmacist pushing the bomb toward the portal. Dr. Mike continued to fade in and out of existence, but somehow he was making progress.

  “Run!” Jim said to the others. “Back the way everybody else went.”

  The three captives joined him as they raced back down the echoing halls. There were no sounds of a firefight now. Whatever war had broken out between the guards and the forgemites appeared to be over. For that matter, there didn’t seem to be guards anywhere.

  All Jim could hear were his footsteps and those of the others, as well as the creak of the bomb’s casters as Dr. Mike somehow powered the thing toward his goal.

  They reached the elevator, and beyond that Jim saw the rotating hallway. He saw some of the others taking off their protective suits, and wished he could do the same to get away from the horrible heat and smothering claustrophobia, but they couldn’t risk slowing down. “Keep moving!” he urged.

  He looked back and saw Dr. Mike, still fading in and out, working the controls of the bomb. This was all going to be over very soon, one way or another. He turned forward again and continued running.

  They entered the rotating hall. Jim bolted to the controls and found a way to spin the room around. The hallway re-centered, but the door at the end, which should have led to the cursed store, was shut. “Goddamn it!” Jim yelled. He flipped through the menus on the computer screen, looking for an option to control the door.

  An amplified voice, muffled from its position deeper in the Forge, began blaring a countdown. “PLEASE MOVE TO A DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE! TEN! PLEASE MOVE TO A DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE! NINE!”

  Jim found the controls for the doors at either end of the hall and tapped the screen. The door to the store opened up.

  “PLEASE MOVE TO A DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE! EIGHT! PLEASE MOVE TO A DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE! SEVEN!”

  “Let’s go!” he said. His three companions followed down the hall.

  PLEASE MOVE TO A DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE! SIX! PLEASE MOVE TO A DESIGNATED SAFE ZONE! FIVE!”

  They reached the end of the hallway. Purple mist filled the open doorway. The store, that awful, cruel place that had destroyed everything he knew, was on the other side of that cloud.

  “This way!” Jim called.

  He moved into the swirling purple mass. He pushed through what felt like ten feet of space, and then the purple faded and he was back in the store. He couldn’t hear the robotic countdown anymore, but didn’t doubt that it was still going.

  The other survivors stumbled out of the purple. Jim helped them find their bearings as they emerged.

  “We’re going to be okay,” he said. “We’re going to—”

  He heard a roar of energy, and the brightest light he’d ever seen blinded him. Befor
e he could even think about what was happening, he was gone.

  Dylan and Emma exited Maverick’s as the police cruisers pulled up. Officers exited the cars and rushed into the store. One of them, a young man, stayed outside and approached the teenagers.

  “Hi kids,” the man said, “I’m Officer Magen. One of you the one who called us?”

  Emma raised her hand. “I did. The man inside, Dr. Mike, he held us hostage and tried to blow up his own store.”

  Magen looked surprised. “Dr. Mike did that? Jesus. Who’d have thought?”

  One of the other officers came up to Dylan and Emma. “We need to get some information from you guys. How did this all happen?”

  “Listen,” Dylan said, “we’ve really been through a lot and we’ve gotta go.” He took Emma by the hand and they turned to the opening to the future version of the store.

  “Kids,” the officer said, “we need to get some information from you. This won’t take long.”

  Dylan and Emma walked together up to the doorway.

  “Hey, come back here!” Magen said.

  They entered the other store just as a pulse of brilliant, blinding energy slammed into and through them.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Jim woke up. His first thought, trained as he had become, was to identify who he was. There was no doubt in that regard.

  He felt a pillow under his head. He rolled over and saw Liz, still sleeping. He froze for several seconds, then slid next to her and kissed her on her bare shoulder. He quietly got out of bed. His clothes were spread across their shared dresser. He grabbed his jeans, and pulled a button-down shirt out of the closet. He removed his iPhone from the charger by the bed.