“Not as easy as you’d think.” Sam took a puff, passed it back. “I’ve got too much going on to worry about myself sometimes.”
“See, that’s the problem. You care more about other people than yourself.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”
“What? Of course I understand, man. You made me! Just like that Morgan Freeman-looking bastard who walks around playing wise old man, I know everything you know. And I know that you spend too much freakin’ time looking out for everyone except Samuel James Mothereffin’ Pierce.” He tried to pass back the cigarette, but was declined with a wave of a hand. “You got to admit it, man. You wouldn’t be where you are today if you didn’t give a damn about nobody but yourself. You’d probably be a hell of a lot more successful.”
“I wish it were that easy…”
“It is that easy, Sammy. Christ!”
Nedry snored back in the hallway, pressed up against a wall. The gash on his side had opened up again. It looked bad, swelling around the lips of the cut.
“You know that thing’s gonna die, right?”
“He’s not going to die.” Sam went and dabbed the wound with a wet rag from his backpack.
Evron flicked the cigarette into the wasteland and stood over the quivering animal. “Thing’s in pain, Sammy. It’s living off borrowed time. No point in wasting water on—”
“Would you shut up?” He stood and poked a stunned Evron in the chest. “Just. Shut. Up.”
“I appreciate the tenacity, Sam. But maybe you should point that finger somewhere else if you know what’s good for your physical well-being.”
A light popped on in one of the memory exhibits, brightening the gallery.
“Well, well, look what we have here.”
Sam didn’t need to look to know what it was. The laughter gave it away. Joyous chatter. Familiar music. The popping of champagne bottles.
“I saw Sam-oo-el getting angry.” Jinx came scurrying down the hall. “So I activated some of your favorites, sire.”
Sam turned and stared through the glass. There was a banquet hall. Bridesmaids in pink satin dresses. A gorgeous woman kissed her groom while families cheered. Every table was full with the exception of one lonely seat in the corner of the room.
“You remember this day, don’t you?” Evron grimaced coldly as the lights in the exhibit went out. “November fourth, two thousand and twelve. First day of the rest of your miserable life.”
The next exhibit over lit up. A young man had his back to them. He was sitting at the bleachers of an empty high school football stadium. It was raining. He nervously tossed a ring box between hands.
“You stood longer than usual that day. Remember?”
Sam nodded.
“It was the last day.”
The sun went down in the background before finally dipping below the tree line. The young man ripped off his watch and angrily chucked it to the ground. The stage went black. Sam looked down at his wrist, where the hands on that very same watch remained motionless to the day.
“Probably best you told Delaney you broke your watch over a fight with your dad, Sam. Probably wouldn’t have been good tactic to tell her you flipped your lid over another girl” He crossed his arms and sighed. “It’s these memories that don’t just keep me alive, you know. You lock up a memory, you lock up yourself. Can’t live your life if you’re living in the past.”
Another light came on. A third exhibit. This one, however, was different.
It was raining beyond the display glass. There was a street, a cornerside diner in New York City. Inside, a waitress was bussing tables. She wore a blue shirt with brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Tall, easily around five-foot-eight. She was singing as she worked. A country song. It sounded beautiful.
Sam couldn’t take his eyes off her. He smiled.
“What the hell is this?” Evron grunted.
“Sam-oo-el takes a great fancy to this one,” Jinx said. He tapped his chin, perplexed. “I do not know why...”
Sam felt something on his hand. Something gentle, and soothing. Something that told him everything was going to be okay. That feeling spread through his body like hot tea on a cold morning, reaching every crevice. Finally, the woman in the exhibit caught his eye, and they gazed at each other for the longest time, completely lost in some unseen entanglement visible only to each other’s soul.
She rubbed the back of his hand with her fingertips, humming along. His head lay slumped against the bed pillow, and even though his eyes were closed, she could still feel them watching her.
“Don’t give up in there, Sam,” Delaney said in a low whisper as Bev slept on the couch.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
“You want to know a secret?”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
She brushed away a tear. “I’ve been waitin’ for you to come talk to me for a good half year now. I remember when I first caught you lookin’ at me and I just…felt somethin’ weird.” She chuckled. “I was always just too afraid to say anything first, I reckon. But I’m glad you did. Because even though I don’t even know you…I feel like I do…and it’s the weirdest feelin’ in the world but…but I like it…I feel like—”
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppppppp.
The heart monitor flatlined. A deluge of doctors and nurses flooded the room, pushing the terrified Delaney out of the way. She tried to look over the crowd as they went to work on Sam’s lifeless body and shouted, “Don’t give up Sam! Don’t you dare give up!”
“Anyone else feel that?” The floor of the hall trembled as lights flickered off and on. Nedry woke with a sudden fright and squealed in alarm.
“Earthquake?” Sam looked down at Jinx, whose bony fingers twitched nervously. “This unusual?”
“This is…” The horrible creature backed off, shuddering in fear. “It comes!” It scampered down the hall and into the lift, where it made its escape.
“What exactly is ‘it’ supposed to be?”
“Beats me,” Evron shrugged. He turned to the opening in the tower and looked out over the desert. His eyes widened when he saw it. “Though I think I may have just figured it out…”
A plume of dust erupting from the ground moved across the dark sands. Something enormous beneath the surface must’ve been thrusting with such ferocity as to kick up clouds of dirt. And it was heading right for the tower.
“What in God’s name…”
Nedry leapt into Sam’s arms and buried his head.
The moving vortex came closer, picking up speed as the quaking grew more violent. Bulbs fell from the ceiling, shattering on the concrete floor. Pipes burst, spewing white vapor. Standing became difficult as the ground buckled under their shoes.
“Hey, Sammy…you might want to hold on to something…”
They grabbed pipes as they watched the subterranean monster’s wake power forward. Only a hundred yards. Now only a few dozen…now—
It stopped.
The vibrations abruptly ceased. The cyclone of sand slowly dissipated and the lights popped back on, an electric hum moving through the walls.
“Where did it go?” Sam asked as a shivering Nedry opened his eyes to peek around, but found even less comfort in the hasty, ominous silence.
“Don’t know…maybe it went a—”
The corridor jolted under the impact of some immeasurably formidable unseen force. They fell to the ground. Nedry spilled out onto the floor, wailing in pain as the tower rocked once more, sections of piping falling from above, banging as they hit the concrete.
“Ooohhhh boy, you might want to come take a look at this!”
Sam pushed himself off the floor and went to the opening, where he and Evron looked down to one of the most incredible sights their eyes had ever beheld…
20
The Memory Eater
Like a legendary serpent of myth, the goliath of a snake rose from the depths of the sandy sea, wrapping around the base of the Lock Box Tower so tightly that it
started to crunch and burst like an empty soda can. The creature was thicker than a subway train and covered in brown, diamond-shaped scales bigger than manhole covers. Its length was impossible to determine as it continued its emergence from the floor of the desert and worked its way up the stronghold.
“What are we going to do?” Sam shouted over the deep groans of whining metal and pops of snapping pipes.
“Me?! I’m the imaginary one! You’re on your own, pal!” Evron said.
The head of the animal burst up through the elevator shaft and darted down the gallery. Sam grabbed Nedry and leapt out of the way as the titan blurred by. A sail of spikes lining its back ripped through the ceiling like a buzz saw, showering them with bits of sparkling metal.
“Look alive!” Evron tossed Sam’s backpack under the behemoth’s undulating belly, sliding it across the floor. He couldn’t open it, but he did find a suspicious cable hanging out the side.
“What’s this?” Sam yelled above the chaos.
“Jump and pull the cord! Remember that!” And with a final salute, Evron leapt out the opening.
“See if I can get it right this time…” Sam slipped the pack over his arms and clipped it tight around his waist. He grabbed a shivering Nedry and crawled beneath the snake’s underside as it continued to endlessly wrap its way through the tower, winding around hallways and crushing windows. In a brief flash of panic, he turned back toward the gallery…where he saw the face of the little girl in the hospital room as she stood with her palm pressed to the glass.
“Don’t go…” she said with the soft voice of a condemned angel. “Don’t leave me!”
Another flash of sparks. A flicker of lights.
“I have to…” Sam choked as her eyes fixed to his.
“Please…I’m scared…please don’t leave…”
A hint of doubt. A moment. Could he save her? Could he break the glass? Could—
Nedry let out a yelp of pain as a fragment of flying iron struck the gash in his side. Sam held him tight, calming him down. He looked back at the little girl as tears trickled down her cheeks, flooding the exhibit up to her ankles.
“I’m sorry…”
Keeping as calm as possible, he moved on all fours toward the opening on the other side of the hall, the excruciating noise of the young girl’s sobs ringing in his ears like a knife jabbing him in the heart. Carefully, carefully…
Boom!
There was an explosion, a snap of metal as the giant snake coiled so tightly around the tower that it started to break in two. The floor sloped and Sam felt himself sliding down toward a shattered window wall, the desert sands glowing orange in the sunrise outside. Just as gravity was ready to heave him into oblivion, he managed to flip onto his stomach and grab the lip of the opening.
But Nedry was not so lucky.
As Sam dangled just outside, far above the desert floor, his companion fell through space before managing to cling to a jutting pipe, his little forelimbs gripping the metal cylinder with all his might, howling in fear a few dozen feet below.
“Hang on! I’m coming to get you!”
The baby dinosaur cried as its clawed fingers continually slipped, forcing him to alternate hands like a puppy struggling to swim. His eyes were wide with terror and his screams were already laced with traces of exhaustion.
“I’m coming down for you! Don’t let go!”
In one, slow moment that seemed to linger in time, the entire top section of the Lock Box Tower broke free from the base and tipped to the ground. Sam closed his eyes and held the ledge tight as the structure’s top half fell past him, plummeting by before blasting the ground below, a cloudburst of iron, glass, steel, dust and padlocks narrowly missing him and Nedry, who still hung helplessly.
“Don’t be afraid! I’m coming for you!” Sam looked around cautiously and whispered to himself, “As soon as my balls drop…” He swung himself closer to the wall and pressed his shoes against some of the piping, slipping for a second as the structure vibrated and buckled before gathering some balance. “Slow and steady…” He started down the side of the wall using the pipes like the rungs of a ladder. He was actually making decent progress…right before it emerged.
There was a metallic eruption as the snake crashed its way through a wall and turned its mighty head toward the diminutive mammal making its way down the structure. It had two beady eyes the size of beach balls and a flat face. Its mouth was a cylindrical opening lined with spinning teeth draped with the flesh of the sand whales, beyond which was the blackness of its endless gullet.
“Uh…hi…”
The snake roared and moved in close…
“I swear to God I don’t taste very good!”
It ignored him.
Sam, one hand gripping the wall, ripped out a pipe and threw it at the encroaching beast. It bounced pitifully off the animal’s hide before clanging on the wreckage far below.
“Uh oh…”
He closed his eyes and braced for the inevitable. But the monster stopped with its sickening jaws only a few feet away. Sam opened one eye and watched as the serpent squinted, sniffed him, then slithered back into the tower, leaving him be.
“What? That all you—”
Boom!
The stronghold rocked and Sam lost his grip for a second before managing to grab the wall again. Below, Nedry’s claws slipped and he summersaulted in the air, grabbing the protruding pipe with the talons of one of his back feet.
Then, ominously, the pipe started to bend downward…
“Don’t let go! I’m coming for you!”
Sam carefully made his descent, fighting against the crumbling fortress. The hulking snake’s infinite body twisted and looped around the structure like some warping rollercoaster, squeezing it with all its grand strength. “Not long now!” he bellowed over the waning of the building’s collapsing frame. “I’m almost—”
He fell. In one flash of a terrifying moment, the tower shuddered, a massive convulsion that sent Sam whirling through the air. Without thinking, he grabbed Nedry right as his pipe broke from the wall and pulled the flailing creature close.
Jump and pull the cord. Jump and pull the cord.
Feeling around with his free hand, the air rushing up past his face, he found the cord. And pulled it.
There was a quick poof as a white parachute sprouted over his head and his body was yanked backward in a violent spasm. But within a few seconds, he and Nedry were soaring over the wreckage of the tower, gently fluttering to the ground below before landing with a soft thud in the sands a few yards away.
They pushed themselves through the flattened parachute, which had trapped them like bugs in a spider web. The ground gave way, an immense sinkhole in the earth opening up right below the Lock Box Tower.
“Come on!” They took off in a full sprint away from the expanding crater, narrowly escaping as the entirety of the structure was swallowed up by the desert, leaving nothing but a vast, deep pit.
The wind blew calmly. Nedry shook sand off his body. Sam caught his breath as he stared at the eerie hollow. The screech of the horrific serpent faded away.
He felt a spate of melancholy looking over the empty pit that once contained his most precious memories. What was to become of them now? How had—
A hand—a soft, little hand—reached out over the lip of the bowl. From the depths of the void, the little blonde girl pulled herself up and looked in awe at the rising sun, seeing the orange glow of the morning light for the first time in ages.
Sam tried to move toward her, but Nedry pulled him back, grabbing his pant leg with his teeth. The animal shook his head: No.
“But—”
No.
From the pit, another figure emerged. Average height, black hair, a grain of sand on a beach. He was carrying a ring box. He scoped out the desert landscape, which suddenly seemed strikingly magnificent compared to the cold, industrial chains of the Lock Box Tower. He glanced at Sam, smiled, pitched the box into the abyss, took the
little girl’s hand and then walked away, striding happily out over the horizon.
“Where are they going?” Sam asked in a trance, watching as the two silhouettes skipped over a distant dune.
“Doesn’t matter,” came the fatherly voice of the Mysterious Figure like an apparition from the ether. He stood next to Sam, wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. “You can never erase a bad memory, Samuel. But you should never keep them shackled, either. It is our memories, our experiences, that ultimately form who we are. Sometimes, if you want to change yourself, you have to learn to set things free. If you let your pain define you…you won’t like the person you become.”
“So what now?”
“Now? The same thing you were doing before. You’ve got a long way to go. I suggest you get back on the path.”
“Right.”
He lifted his shades. “And try not to get distracted this time, please.”
Beep. Beep. Beep.
A nurse took Sam’s temperature and nodded. “Looks like the fever’s going down. The infection’s definitely subsiding.”
“So when does he go in for surgery?” Bev asked, looking over her unconscious son as the respirators pumped air into his lungs.
“Tomorrow. You’ll have a chance to talk to Dr. Eade, she’ll be performing the procedure. Sam still has a long way to go, but so far things are looking good.”
“Thank you. That’s good to hear.”
A vibration. Delaney slipped her phone out of her pocket. Ten missed calls. All from him. She felt nervous. Trembled. Bev caught it. “Thing’s alright?”
“Yes, fine,” Del lied. “I just need to step out for a few minutes.”
21
The Oasis
Cold air. Twinkling lights. Police sirens in the distance. Just another wintry night in New York City.
Farewell from Paradise Page 13