by Black, Chuck
Second, the invader didn’t realize that Drew had seen him.
Third, Drew had dreamed the whole thing up. After all, it was only a ten-second glimpse, and the image of the man was fading with each passing day.
One Saturday morning, Drew awoke to the delightful sounds and smells of pancakes, sausage, and potatoes cooking in the kitchen. It was something his mother had done every Saturday since Drew could remember. He realized it was her attempt at compensating for the cold cereal breakfasts that often made up the week because of her work schedule.
He rubbed his eyes, hoping he would be spared the headache that had become common for him since the accident. He opened his eyes and held his breath. Warm yellow light bathed his vision, and it did not cause him pain—at least, not at first. He turned his head toward the window, and his room filled his vision—all of his room.
Drew didn’t know what to do. Was he still dreaming? He reached down to pinch his leg. Nope … no dream, yet impossible. He just lay still, looking at everything he’d thought he would never see again. The image wasn’t perfectly clear, and strange floaters drifted across his vision, but none of that bothered him.
He could see!
He slowly sat up and let his feet come to rest on the cool floor, afraid that some sudden movement or blink of an eye would make him lose his sight again. He looked around the room and smiled. It was cleaner than he ever remembered it. His mother had made sure to keep everything in its place so he could find it. He stood up and reached for the wall near the headboard. The world swayed around him and then stabilized.
“Impossible!”
Just then his bedroom door opened.
“Hey, sleepyhead, breakfast is—Oh, you’re already up.”
Drew turned and looked at his mother.
“Mom.”
“Yes.” She stilled, as though she sensed something was different.
Drew’s mouth curled into wide smile. “You look beautiful today.”
His mother’s mouth dropped open, and hope filled her eyes. She pushed the door open wider with one hand while the other held a spatula at her side.
“Drew?” She moved her head from left to right to see if he was tracking her.
“Yes … I see you.”
She dropped the spatula and covered her mouth with both hands. Tears filled her eyes. Drew walked toward her, being careful not to lose his balance. She grabbed his arms and looked deep into his eyes.
“How—how can it be?”
Drew shook his head. “I don’t know, Mom. It’s not perfect, but I can see.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes and hugged Drew with all her strength, then looked back at his face and touched his cheek, just like she had done ever since he could remember.
Drew explained what had been happening over the past few weeks, and she scolded him for not saying something sooner. When she insisted on taking him back to the doctor, he refused.
“I’m done with Dr. Fletcher. He obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about … at least in my case.”
“Then let’s find a different doctor.”
“No, Mom. I just want to let it be … please.” He added the “please,” but he was not going, and she got the message.
“Okay, but if the headaches get bad, you have to promise to let me take you in.”
Drew nodded, but they would have to get really bad before that happened. Then Drew realized he didn’t dare let anybody else know he had regained his sight. There was no way of telling just how vast the invaders’ network of observation was. Once they learned that Drew could see again, he and his mother would be high-priority targets.
“Mom, I need to ask you not to tell anybody about this. Okay?”
“Why on earth not?”
“Because I don’t want the attention, and it may not last. Let’s just keep it between us … just for now.”
She scrutinized him. “All right. I suppose that would be better until we find out how you do with it.”
“Promise?” Ever since he was a little boy, he knew that if he could get her to promise something, earth would have to move out of its orbit before she would break it.
“I promise.”
“I want to tell Jake the next time he comes. It would be a cool surprise.” Maybe he’d call Jake … No, that wouldn’t be safe. Did the invaders monitor phones? At this point he had to assume they monitored and knew everything.
She smiled. “I want to be there when you tell him.”
“Deal.” Drew breathed a sigh of relief.
As the day wore on, Drew’s vision deteriorated, which discouraged him no small measure, and to make things worse, a massive headache that emanated from his eyes put him down about three in the afternoon. Ibuprofen helped only slightly, and so the rest of his day was spent in his bedroom with the shades drawn. The next morning brought new hope, however, for his headache was gone and his vision was better than the day before.
And so it went for the next few weeks, until his vision no longer was strained by the end of the day. He did have to learn how to manage his headaches, however. The brighter the day, the more affected he was by them, but even an overcast day strained his eyes and might spark a headache. He discovered that sunglasses helped immensely, so anytime he was outside, the shades were on. Although still daily burdened by the knowledge of Ben’s disappearance and the threat of the unknown attacker, his mood improved. As his eyesight returned, Drew wondered if he would lose the heightened sensitivity of his other senses, but that was not the case. Now that his vision was back, everything around him seemed more intense. His visual acuity continued to improve until he was certain his eyesight was even better than it was before the accident, which made no sense to him because he had always had 20-20 vision.
Then he realized that not only could he see better, he could see quicker. If he concentrated, he could focus on a fly in flight and see it as clearly as if it were sitting still on the table. Such concentration always triggered a headache though. The longer the concentration, the more severe the headache, so he did not use this ability often. When the headaches hit him, he would retreat to the darkness of his room, although even that was different now. Nothing seemed truly dark anymore. The pitch-black, moonless nights Drew remembered had somehow been transformed into a soft, glowing gray-lit landscape.
With his senses heightened, the rest of his body responded in an accelerated way. Once while his mother was placing a pot of chili on the supper table, she bumped Drew’s full glass of water, and it tipped. He reacted so quickly that only a few drops spilled out as he righted the glass. That in itself was not so remarkable. What was remarkable was that he wasn’t even looking at the glass when it happened. The sound of the colliding dishes generated a shock wave of synaptic impulses, and he simply reacted. The moment almost froze in time for him, and he could have drawn a perfect picture of the shape of the water as it neared the rim of the glass.
After supper he went online and took a reaction-time test. His first attempt was off the chart, with a reaction time of 26 milliseconds—fifteen times faster than the average human! He tested himself a dozen times to confirm it. His last reaction time came in at 19.9 milliseconds. He stared at the blinking number, one question running over and over in his mind …
What was happening to him?
12
EYES OF ANOTHER WORLD
Living with heightened senses was fascinating at first, but it soon became an extreme nuisance. Drew found it difficult to do the simplest of tasks without being distracted by every sight, sound, smell, and tremor around him. Sleep escaped him until he learned how to cope with the hypersensitivity. It took a few weeks, but Drew discovered that through concentration, he could numb his senses to a degree. But any loud sound or sudden movement often triggered an avalanche of stimuli, and it took hours to recover some normalcy.
It was late spring, and Drew’s restored eyesight brought not only new hope but also new danger. Drew considered looking for Ben. If his brilliant friend
had devised a plan, Drew could now be an integral part of it. But the fact that he could see again also meant that Drew would be a threat that the invader might eliminate. A twinge of paranoia lingered in the corner of his mind as he considered his new options. Did the invader already know that he had regained his sight? How long until he became a target too? He would have to be careful.
Drew hadn’t gone to town since his accident and especially since regaining his sight. There were two reasons, not the least of which was that if he had any chance of staying off the radar of the invaders, it would be in the solitude of his home. The other reason was not as strategic. Rumors about the incident at college would be rampant, and he was in no mood to deal with them. Sydney was the only person who had come to see him since he was hurt. Additionally, the stigma under which he had left high school would never die. He had no desire to face any of his old nemeses again. College had been such a welcome reprieve from his past at Rivercrest High that when he came back during breaks, he rarely left his house. The one exception he made was the twenty-four-hour fitness center on Second, and he was very selective about the timing of his workouts there.
One night, sleep evaded him, and he decided to make use of the time rather than toss and turn all night. At 3:00 a.m. he drove to the gym and dived into an intense workout. Even though he worked harder than he could ever remember, he felt like he could still do more. His energy seemed limitless, but after three hours, he finished up and decided to stop by the FoodMart to pick up a few groceries before heading home.
Drew stepped out of his car into the parking lot, where just eight other vehicles were parked. Dawn was beginning to break as the morning rays painted a few scattered clouds on the horizon in a brilliant pink-and-orange hue. He soaked up the visual feast. He would never take his sight—or the wondrous things to be seen—for granted again. He could not remember the sky ever looking so alive before. He almost expected to hear the sunlight and wondered what such a thing might sound like.
Drew walked toward the grocery store and considered putting on his sunglasses. Though the morning light wasn’t yet bright enough to spark a headache, the fluorescent lights inside the store most certainly would. The sliding doors swished open, and he felt the familiar twinge of pain behind his eyes just before he set his sunglasses in place. He picked up a basket and headed for the orange juice, smiling at an elderly woman as he passed. He grabbed a quart of juice and a gallon of milk, then made his way toward the registers at the front of the store. The pizzas in the frozen foods aisle caught his attention, so he opened the glass door and looked over the selection. Something gnawed at his mind …
That’s weird—
Sudden chills flowed up and down his body as his eyes caught the reflection of the aisle to his right in the glass door. Terror froze him as he focused on the ghost of an image.
The invader.
His large, dark frame was unmistakable. Drew didn’t dare turn to see if the reflection was real or purely his imagination. His heart beat harder and faster than it had during his three-hour workout. His senses escalated, and he struggled to control them. Foggy condensation on the glass door blurred the image until it disappeared. The freezer cold spilled onto his body, adding to the intensity of the chills that raised goose bumps on his arms and legs. The door was opened to his left, which meant that whatever he saw was at the end of the aisle to his right, near the back of the store.
He willed himself to close the door, then stared at it, seeing his own reflection in the dissolving fog inside the compartment, fully expecting to see another ghost looking over his shoulder, but all he saw was his own terrified image. He forced himself to turn and look to the right, but no one was there. He started to breathe again but could not yet move.
Was he going mad?
Though the image had been brief, it was without a doubt similar to the figure he saw through the LASOK. How is that possible?
“Can I help you?”
The voice shattered Drew’s delicate state of mind, and he nearly dropped the basket of milk and juice. He spun around to see the store’s assistant manager looking at him.
“No. No thank you,” Drew muttered.
“We have pizza pockets and Pizza Rolls further down if you’re looking for those.” The man nodded in the direction that Drew did not want to go.
“Uh, thanks.” Drew looked to his right once more.
Still nothing.
The basket in his hand felt like it weighed two hundred pounds, and the gravity pulled him into the earth. The assistant manager walked merrily toward the end of the aisle, and Drew envied his ignorance. Drew forced his heavy legs to move toward the registers, wanting desperately to be home and back in the security of his bedroom.
Two registers were open, one of them occupied by the elderly woman he had seen earlier. He stepped toward the open register, all the while wondering what had just happened. Just when he considered attributing his experience to “residual visual optic nerve activity,” the reality of his world changed in an instant and forever.
A massive figure walked from behind Drew, nearly bumping into his left shoulder as he passed. Drew stepped back, shock searing through him, as the invader walked past the register clerk, the corners of his black trench coat flapping with each stride. The invader was nearly seven feet tall.
“I can help you, sir,” the young red-headed clerk said with a smile on her face. She looked right through the passing invader.
Drew struggled to contain himself, grateful the invader’s back was to him. The same unearthly sensation he had felt back in the lab many months earlier filled his soul. He glanced at the clerk and then back at the invader. The huge man walked another twenty feet to the front of the store, which was lined with large glass windows, and stopped. His head turned right and left as though he were looking for someone. Though Drew had not seen the man’s face, he was nearly certain this was a different invader. Which confirmed that there was more than one on the planet.
Drew eyed the handle of the sinister sword strapped across the invader’s back.
“Sir?” the clerk questioned.
Drew couldn’t take his eyes off the invader’s back. He wanted to run … hide … be away from whatever it was he thought he was seeing.
This is impossible!
“Sir?” the clerk said louder.
At that, the invader turned around and stared at Drew. His heart nearly stopped beating as he tried to recover himself. He turned to the clerk. “Uh, yes, I thought I’d forgotten something.”
He set the basket on the black conveyor, not daring to look toward the invader. He would live or die by how he reacted in the next few moments. He fumbled for his wallet and realized that his hands were shaking as he tried to remove a ten-dollar bill.
“Are you okay?” The clerk spoke in a hushed voice.
“Yes … yes. I’m fine.” Drew managed a weak smile.
He finished paying and bagged the milk and the juice, then stood with his back to the front of the store, trying to gather the courage to turn and face his nightmare. The clerk watched him closely and then turned to help another customer. Drew took a deep breath, lifted his two bags, and turned to exit the store.
The invader was still there, near the door on the right side. He was well within the range of the motion detector that would open the sliding doors, but they stayed closed, as unaware of the invader’s presence as was the store clerk.
Though his car was closer to the doors on the right, Drew chose to exit the store via the doors on the left. He moved that direction, and then his fragile composure shattered again. Through the window, Drew saw two more invaders approaching! They walked right through the door of the grocery store to his right, as if there were no door at all. Drew blinked hard. Had he seen correctly? One of the newcomers looked toward Drew, and he quickened his pace so he could turn away and not be tempted to look their direction.
He exited the store and hurried to his car. He had to drive past the storefront to exit the par
king lot, and he couldn’t resist looking once more toward the invaders’ meeting place. They were still there, and it was quite obvious that the first invader he had seen was giving orders to the other two. Then the leader’s eyes fell on Drew as he drove by, and for one brief moment, there was an eerie exchange between them.
Drew was almost certain the invader knew he knew. It frightened him to the bone. He accelerated his Mustang, and all the way home, Drew’s mind was filled with bizarre thoughts and questions. Whatever had just happened, there were only two possible explanations. Either Drew was going mad …
Or he could see into the hidden world of the invaders …
Without the LASOK.
Drew pulled into his driveway and scanned around him. Had the invaders followed him home? How could he have been so stupid as to come straight home? He should have made sure he eluded them first. Fear welled up within him, and it reminded him of the time when he was ten years old and had spent the night at a friend’s house. They stayed up late and watched a creepy movie, which then kept him awake all night wondering if the monster from the movie was going to crash through the window and get him.
That same fear threatened his sanity now. He suppressed the desire to run to his bedroom, lock the door, and hide under the covers of his bed. But Jake had trained him to deal with fear—fear of heights, fear of water, fear of an unseen enemy, and fear of death. But this …
This fear felt different.
Nothing Jake taught him had prepared him for something like this.
Nevertheless, he had to do something to get on top of his emotions and deal with the situation. He tried to implement Jake’s teaching. “Deep breath, be a machine, respond, react, predict, do the job. Failure is not an option, but plan for it to eliminate fear. You are more capable than what you think you are.”
Slowly Drew reined in his emotions and climbed above his fear. Twice he felt it clawing its way back toward him, but he beat it down.