1 Life 2 Die 4

by Dean Waite

  I was sure we were both done for – no matter how nightmarish he looked, the guy couldn’t possibly miss from that range…

  Then he let out the most awful sound I’ve ever heard … a sort of mournful, agonised groan that made every hair on my body stand on end. And while we stood there mesmerised, his entire body just crumbled into a mushy heap, as if it was made up of hundreds of small chunks that weren’t even connected!

  From what Veronica had told me about detailed objects requiring more energy to send through Time, I guessed Sahissi mustn’t have had enough juice left to do the job properly. But true to form, he’d done it anyway and this was the grisly result.

  For precious moments, we both stood there, transfixed by the revolting pile of flesh, blood and bone spreading across the aisle in front us. Then Veronica finally snapped out of it and went to step carefully past. At the same moment, I heard footsteps to our right and realised Baseball Cap Man had caught up.

  “Duck!” I yelled as I threw myself forward and dragged Veronica to the ground behind the low shelves separating us from the muscle-bound killer. At the same time, the air around us exploded with heavy gunfire and the terrifying sound of shelving and their contents disintegrating grew steadily nearer. I estimated we had maybe three seconds until it reached us and changed into the far more terrifying sound of our bodies disintegrating!

  Obviously realising the same thing, Veronica turned to me and hurriedly motioned back the way we’d come. With shattered pieces of electrical equipment and shelving spewing through the air above us, I didn’t need any more hints. Crouching low, I bolted back along the aisle while Baseball Cap Man obliterated the shelving we’d been hiding behind.

  After fifteen seconds of mayhem, the area fell into a sudden, deep silence, broken only by the dull metallic clicks of a weapon which had obviously run out of ammunition. A moment later, the heavy thump of the useless ‘cannon’ being dropped to the ground echoed throughout the department store.

  Shortly afterwards, Veronica and I were hiding in the kitchen appliances section, nervously listening to the clump, clump, clump of the killer’s approaching footsteps.

  *****

  22

  I knew there was simply no way a guy that size could walk silently. Yet the inordinate amount of noise he was making as he stalked after us soon had me wondering whether he was one of those creeps who aren’t content just to kill their prey - they have to ‘play’ with it … as if terrorising living things gives them some kind of primitive thrill.

  On the other hand, I guessed he might merely be trying to make us panic and break cover.

  Either way, it didn’t really matter. Whatever his motivation, Veronica had told me to stay put, so there was no way I was budging an inch.

  I was still terrified though. I’d known it would be scary sitting there helplessly waiting for him to find me. Yet I was shocked at just how nerve-wracking it was listening to the slow measured footsteps of the enormous killer gradually drawing closer and closer to my hiding place. As hard as I tried, I found it almost impossible not to imagine what those powerful arms of his could do to my body … and how much pain it would cause me.

  When I heard him enter the aisle, my legs started shaking and I knew I simply had to distract myself or I’d panic and try to run. So, mustering every ounce of creativity I had, I summoned a mental picture of Veronica standing in a figure-hugging black leather suit in front of a warm, crackling fire. Then I imagined her slowly unzipping the suit all the way down the front…

  It almost worked too well! I had her standing there right in front of me with the suit dangling from her smooth, shapely knees onto a soft, white sheepskin rug … when all of a sudden I realised the footsteps were coming from pretty much directly in front of the fridge door that I’d opened and pulled back to make a hidey-hole between two large refrigerators!

  The glorious vision vanished in an instant, and I felt a sudden, unexpected surge of anger. I really wanted to kill the guy for disturbing that particular daydream! Of course, if I’d been able to see him peering at the toes of my shoes poking out from beneath the fridge door … well, I just might have wet myself instead.

  A moment later, when I heard him wrench the door open, I gave him the game show ‘wrong answer’ tone.

  “Er, urrrrr!”

  The guy barely had time to discover my feet weren’t actually inside my shoes anymore before he instinctively spun towards the sound and peered up in surprise. Having just climbed up onto the second top shelf in the adjacent aisle, where I’d previously been hiding between two stoves, I was now leaning over into his aisle with my arm outstretched, finger poised on the trigger.

  Before he could react, I let him have it … right in the face!

  Of course, the jet of hot air from the hair dryer I was holding didn’t do a whole lot of damage. In fact, it didn’t even upset that stupid hairdo of his. But it did have the desired effect. Hardly believing his eyes, the big brute just stood there blinking for a couple of seconds, unable to comprehend what was happening.

  He’d just gotten himself together enough to angrily snatch the dryer from my hand when the refrigerator hit him square in the middle of the back. Our hastily formulated plan had worked! From her hiding spot behind the second refrigerator, Veronica had taken advantage of the covering noise from the dryer to tilt the massive appliance right on top of him!

  He grunted at the impact and a look of shocked surprise crossed his big, ugly face as he toppled forwards and was pinned against the floor and the shelving on my side of the aisle.

  For a second I thought he was dead. Then I saw the fridge move and realised I’d been overly optimistic.

  Without really thinking about what I was doing, I scrambled onto the top shelf and leapt into the air like a wrestling champ flying high for the kill! Then as the fridge began tilting back up, I landed on it with all the force I could muster, keeping my legs straight to maximize the impact.

  I was only a feather-weight compared to Baseball Cap Man. But the fact that he already had a Whirlpool 640 litre ‘frost free’ on top of him seemed to swing the balance in my favour. The fridge abruptly dropped back down and a pained groan emerged from beneath as it came to rest.

  After topping the fridge, Veronica had moved out into the aisle. Now she stood a couple of metres away to my left and when I glanced at her, she flashed an admiring grin and a wink up to where I was perched atop the fridge. I was struck yet again by just how spectacular she looked, even with her clothes on! More gorgeous than any woman I’d ever seen, and a thousand times more full of life! Earlier today, I’d decided I’d be prepared to do anything for Veronica … even die for her. Now, I was gripped by a sudden and unwavering conviction that I would be insanely happy spending the rest of my days with her … even if we were doomed to share them with that lunatic Sahissi and his cronies.

  I grinned back …just as Veronica’s smile abruptly vanished to be inexplicably replaced by a defeated, haunted kind of look that made absolutely no sense to me. I shuddered as goose-bumps rippled over my skin. Considering we’d just whipped our enemy’s butt, her devastated look seemed completely out of place. Had I missed something vital?

  I whipped my head round, convinced I’d find a gun pointing at my head.

  But the aisle was empty.

  Then I felt the fridge wobble beneath me and I suddenly remembered that if things were still going according to plan, Veronica knew exactly what was about to happen. When I spun back to stare into her deeply troubled eyes, I was seized by an ominous sense of dread - what could she possibly know that had left her looking so utterly shattered?

  *****

  23

  “This way!” she screamed at me, and her voice held a genuine, gut-wrenching fear I hadn’t heard before now.

  She was obviously desperate to get away from there. Yet for some reason she just stood at the end of the aisle while I leapt down from the fridge and ran to meet her. After guiding me past her she ran at my heels while we bolt
ed off along the aisle.

  When I glanced back I was startled to see Baseball Cap Man had already managed to scramble from beneath the fridge and was now taking his first wobbly steps after us. He was recovering fast though, regaining his balance and rapidly building up speed as he lumbered towards us. We only had a lead of about ten metres, and I couldn’t help feeling bitter that it would have been at least a couple more if only Veronica hadn’t been so condescending as to wait until I was past her before fleeing. That couple of metres might end up making all the difference, yet she had decided to treat me like some inept child who had to be herded in the right direction! After everything we’d been through together, I felt angry that she could still think so little of me.

  “Keep going straight,” she called from behind me, and despite my irritation - and the powerful urge to get out of Baseball Cap Man’s line of sight - I did as I was told.

  Ten metres on, when I glanced over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of Veronica’s face, an eerie tingle ran up the back of my neck. Her expression had that same look of inconsolable sadness I’d noticed in her eyes when we’d first encountered each other on the zebra crossing earlier today - only this time it was a thousand times stronger.

  Baffled, and feeling increasingly nervous, I turned back to see a small opening appearing in the wall up ahead. As I sprinted towards it, I realised it was a small door sliding upwards. Soon the opening would be big enough for us to fit through, and although I had no idea where it led, I was sure Veronica had opened it using one of her ‘tooth switches’ … and that it was our only hope of salvation.

  We bolted madly on through the kitchen section, shelves full of pots and pans and all sort of kitchen paraphernalia disappearing past in a blur as we closed on the small opening. Then I was close enough and I dived head-first … sailing through the air … hitting the polished floor … and sliding through into darkness.

  It came as a shock when my outstretched hands hit a wall barely two metres inside the doorway. Thankfully, I managed to absorb most of the impact with my arms before my head slammed solidly into the wall.

  Dazed, I looked back just as Veronica slid in after me. I drew a sharp breath when I glanced past her. About fifteen metres back, Baseball Cap Man was standing beside a shelf full of kitchen utensils, clutching a fistful of knives and grinning wickedly.

  “Shut the door!” I yelled.

  When the silence dragged on for an interminable half-second, I peered down at Veronica. My eyes suddenly widened and my heart felt as if it had stopped - protruding from Veronica’s back was the solid, stainless-steel handle of a large carving knife!

  I was paralysed with horror, unable to even blink as I stared down in disbelief.

  This couldn’t be happening!

  Then I caught movement from the corner of my eye and glanced up to see Baseball Cap Man launch himself towards us, racing for the small opening.

  My survival instincts kicked in.

  “Veronica - you have to tell me how to shut the door!” I urged while I quickly rolled her onto her side, desperately hoping there’d be time afterwards to stem the bleeding before it was too late.

  The moment I stared into her wide, lifeless eyes, it felt like someone had reached inside my chest and ripped out my heart.

  Gutted, I reached round and yanked the knife from Veronica’s back. I almost felt like plunging it into my own chest. It was simply unbearable knowing she was gone … unthinkable that she had come back through Time to save my life and that it had cost her her own!

  In a sudden flash of realisation, I understood all of those sad, haunted looks I’d spotted during the afternoon. The whole time, while we’d been trying to escape Sahissi’s ruthless assassins, Veronica had known she was going to die! Yet she’d doggedly stuck to the plan which I had personally outlined to her in the future, refusing to take the risk that if she tried to change things then I might end up being killed instead of her!

  On top of my devastation, I felt an unbearable stab of guilt at my sadly misguided anger a few seconds earlier when she’d waited for me to pass her before racing for the safety of this tiny ‘panic room’. Now it was suddenly all too clear - she’d knowingly placed her own back between mine and the deadly knife which she knew Baseball Cap Man would hurl at us. She hadn’t been condescending at all – she’d been sacrificing her life for mine!

  Rage surged through my body as I looked up to find the muscle-bound murderer of my gorgeous future wife accelerating towards me with a fistful of evil-looking kitchen knives in each hand. And more than anything I wanted to go to him – to take the bloodied knife I held in my own hand and to do whatever I could to avenge Veronica’s death!

  I had already begun to rise before my brain kicked into gear. Was I a complete idiot? It would be suicide against a monster like that. And dying now, no matter how much I felt I wanted to, would be unforgivable after the dreadful sacrifice Veronica had made to keep me alive.

  Instead, as Baseball-Cap Man sent a bunch of lethal knives rocketing towards the opening, I leaned forward and kissed my stunning guardian angel on the mouth, shocked at the sound of my own agonised groans as knife after knife slammed brutally into her back. Trying vainly to ignore the dreadful impacts, I slipped my tongue past the smooth softness of her warm, lipstick covered lips so that it came to rest on her two front teeth – the ‘override’ switch she’d told me about. Her body shook one last dreadful time as yet another knife slammed into her exposed back while I broke then remade the connection twice before pulling my lips back from hers and separating my tongue from her teeth for a third and final time, activating the switch.

  Through watery eyes, I peered over her shoulder to see Baseball Cap Man diving towards the shrinking opening…

  Moments later, the door sealed and I heard his huge body thump solidly against the far side.

  *****

  24

  I don’t really know how long I sat there cradling Veronica’s soft, limp body in the darkness and listening to Baseball Cap Man smashing things against the door in a frantic effort to get at us. My watch had a light, but I didn’t bother using it. Time seemed irrelevant now.

  Everything did.

  After an eternity, the banging stopped abruptly and I knew Sahissi had finally used up every last drop of energy he had. Baseball Cap Man had been dragged back to the Future and I could only hope his boss would be insanely unimpressed with his failure to complete his mission, and that he would want to drive this point home to Baseball Cap man in a thousand different and very painful ways.

  I sat there in silence for what felt like ages more before Veronica’s lifeless body suddenly vanished too. One second she was lying peacefully in my arms and the next I was holding nothing but air while the door slid silently open in front of me.

  In a state of shock, I stumbled from the tiny room, squinting under the dazzling fluorescent lighting while I slowly pushed my way past the huge pile of assorted objects which Baseball Cap Man had used to try to get through what was obviously a very heavily reinforced door. The place now seemed utterly deserted as I shuffled back towards the now-stationary escalators before realising how completely drained I felt and deciding I needed to take the lift instead.

  While it slid slowly down the side of the open food court, I peered out through the broken glass walls at the devastated scene below. The furniture still lay in splinters all across the shattered floor tiles, but the boulders and wall sections had vanished, obviously dragged back to the future, just like Baseball Cap Man, now that Sahissi’s machines had shut down for good.

  The lift reached the ground floor and I stepped out, wondering what everyone else would make of the ruin in here and elsewhere along our twisting, turning escape route through the City.

  One thing was pretty certain - they’d never guess the truth.

  And I certainly wasn’t about to tell them. Despite all the witnesses to some of the stuff that had happened here today, I knew that could easily be a one-way ticket to the crazy fa
rm.

  Still in a daze, I walked weakly down the Myer Centre stairs then out into the Queen Street Mall before turning north. The sound of blaring sirens carried from a couple of blocks away, but the entire Mall area now seemed deserted too.

  A few minutes later, I was approaching a barricade near the end of the Mall, wondering what kind of reception I’d get from all the people clustered behind it – especially the five or six stern-looking police officers milling about on this side of the barricade. When one of them spotted me and hurried over to see if I was okay, I put on a brave face and said I was fine. I told him I’d been shopping when I’d heard all the commotion and had hidden in some toilets inside the Myer Centre until things quietened down. I said that now I just wanted to go home.

  After writing down the false name I gave him, he was happy to let me go, probably imagining all the extra paperwork he’d just saved himself by not interviewing me in-depth. And as I made my way through the inquisitive crowd, I couldn’t really blame him. After today, I figured a hell of a lot of people were going to be buried under mountains of paperwork.

  Once I’d navigated through the crowd, I plodded slowly to the end of the Mall, hardly noticing the scattered pedestrians who were doing their best to get on with their lives despite all of the day’s dramas. I didn’t really know where I was going. I just wanted to find somewhere quiet. Somewhere away from the place where Veronica had died. That’s when I realised I’d reached Edward Street and I looked up to see the zebra crossing just eighty metres ahead - the one where I’d first seen Veronica earlier that afternoon.