Void

by D Haltinner

  Darren’s eyes bored into the glass bottle she held. It was that liquid splashing around inside of the bottle that ruined his relationship with Rachel. Alcohol was one of the last things he ever intended on drinking after seeing what it did to her, but after the last few days, Audrey was right-it did look tempting.

  “Maybe later,” Darren said.

  “Maybe.”

  A light fell across Audrey’s face. She squinted and turned her face away from it as she stood back up, leaving the bottle at her feet.

  Darren saw the light on her face, but it wasn’t coming from his own flashlight, his was pointed at the ground in front of him. The light was coming from behind Darren, from the entry into the room.

  Darren spun around to see professor Lasser smiling at him.

  Chapter 53

  “Looks like you decided not to follow my advice,” Lasser said.

  Another body came into view at the professor’s side. The balding man, holding the flashlight that shone directly into Audrey’s face.

  “It’s a good thing I didn’t,” Darren said.

  “You’re getting in the way.”

  Darren wanted to take a step back from the man, but there was nowhere to go. They were cornered in the store room, with no way to get away from the two men blocking the only exit.

  Audrey’s flashlight beam disappeared as she slid behind Darren.

  “Who’s she?” Lasser asked.

  “I’m not going to tell you,” Darren said.

  “We have you two already, I suppose it really doesn’t matter.” His flashlight blinded Darren as he tried to see Audrey’s head around his shoulder.

  Audrey’s hand reached out to Darren’s back, traveled up his spine, and then disappeared.

  “Now, are you two going to at least tell me why you are trying to interfere down here?” Lasser said.

  “Because you don’t seem to know what’s happening down here.”

  Lasser laughed, the balding man joining him a second later. “I think it’s you who has no idea what’s going on,”

  “We understand more than you think, and we can’t let you stop us.”

  “It’s a little late for that.”

  “No it’s not!” Audrey said from behind Darren.

  “What?” Lasser said. He glanced over at the other man. “It looks like it’s the two of you who are lacking the advantage here.”

  Audrey stepped out from behind Darren, revolver in both of her hands, hammer cocked. “No, I think it’s we who have the advantage right now.”

  The balding man’s jaw fell open. “Let’s go,” he said at a near whisper to Lasser. His eyes stayed focused on Audrey’s hands.

  Lasser’s face tensed as he studied Audrey’s face, not the gun. “I don’t think she knows how to use it.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Audrey said.

  She sounded so confident that even Darren cringed. He hadn’t even touched a gun in his life until a minute ago, and now he stood in a standoff with two of the school’s professors. Darren didn't want to see Audrey’s finger pull the trigger, but his gut told him that she would if she had to. They couldn’t let anything get in the way of them stopping what was happening inside the void-there was too much at stake.

  Lasser took a step back. “You two don’t know what you’re doing, do you?”

  “Leave,” Audrey said. “Before my finger cramps and squeezes the trigger on its own.”

  “You’re just getting in the way of what we will need to do.”

  “I think it’s the other way around.”

  “There isn’t much time.”

  “We know. Tuesday.”

  “Monday now,” Lasser said.

  Audrey shook her head. “We can’t believe anything you say.”

  “No really,” Lasser said, his hands began to climb into the air in front of him, palms out. “There was a surge last night that threw all the calculations off.”

  “Why would we believe that?”

  “Because I’m starting to think we’re both on the same side.”

  Audrey let out a fake laugh. “It doesn't look that way to me.”

  “No, really. The strength of it increased an unexpected amount, just as it did when that Rankin kid found his way where he shouldn’t have been. Tomorrow at about three o’clock, it will be too strong to stop any more.”

  “What will be too strong?” Darren asked.

  Lasser’s eyes moved to Darren, his forehead dipping into a frown. “You really don’t know what’s going on here, do you?”

  “No more games,” Audrey said. “If you know so much, tell us how to stop it.”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to do!” As the last word came out of Lasser’s mouth, he reached forward and grabbed Audrey’s wrist.

  Audrey let out a scream as her arms were bent upwards.

  The balding man fumbled with his flashlight.

  Darren didn’t know what to do. His natural reaction was to freeze, and that’s what he did. He wanted to help Audrey fight the man holding her arms, aiming the gun at the ceiling, but he couldn’t convince his muscles to act. It was a gun after all, and with the way it was being handled, it was a surprise Audrey hadn't pulled the trigger yet.

  Audrey still had both hands on the gun, but Lasser had complete control over her arms. She fought his hold in vain, struggling against his grip was useless.

  The balding man backed away, flashlight shaking in his hand.

  Darren did the only thing he could think to do.

  He raised his plastic Barney flashlight in the air, casting Audrey and Laser in the pale light that reflected off the ceiling. Then, with all his strength, Darren swung the flashlight down against Lasser’s face.

  The light went out.

  Lasser screamed.

  Plastic shattered.

  A thud bounced off Darren’s ear drum as the batteries hit the floor.

  Lasser moved backwards further, blocking the other man’s flashlight, leaving the three in darkness. Darren could see the silhouette of professor Lasser grasping at his face.

  A burst of light broke the darkness. A boom that crashed through the air, feeling like needles as it pierced into Darren’s head, leaving behind a ringing that was almost as loud.

  The silhouette of Lasser disappeared.

  The balding man screamed, turned around, and ran back down the tunnel, taking the last ounce of light with him.

  Darren stood still, not sure what just happened. His ears continued to ring, and he saw nothing but blackness around him.

  Audrey’s weight leaned against Darren’s shoulder. She shook-a slight tremor-as she sobbed on his arm in silence.

  Darren reached out, put his arm around her, and pulled her into his arms, close to his body. She clutched his jacket in tight fists-neither the gun nor flashlight were in her hands-and pushed against him as her knees attempted to buckle.

  Darren kissed her head, running his hand up and down her back, trying to comfort her. The ringing in his ears subsided only to be replaced by the sound of her cries.

  “It’s okay,” Darren said as soft as he could. “It’s okay.”

  She continued to sob against him. Her cries were perhaps the only sound that had been able to cut through the thick air of the tunnel to echo back to them.

  “I shot him!” she managed to say between sobs.

  “It’s okay,” Darren said. “You had to. He could have shot us both if he got the gun from you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.” He leaned his head down into the darkness, finding the cool skin of her forehead with his lips.

  “I couldn’t stop myself,” she said. “I didn’t even think about it. I just did it.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “I never intended to fire. I only wanted to scare them off.”

  “I know, it's okay.”

  Audrey sobbed for another half minute until her body began to calm down and her sobs turned into sniffles.

  She was in the right
, Darren knew that. It was self defense, even despite the fact that she initiated the threat. He was the one who attacked her. She had every right to defend her life, and Darren’s.

  These men were working against them, trying to keep them from succeeding in stopping whatever was happening. They knew what they were doing, and they knew what the outcome would be, so why were they trying to stop Darren and Audrey? Could Lasser have been telling the truth when he said that he thought they were all on the same side?

  Darren doubted it. They said in their meeting that Darren and Audrey were interfering in their plans, and the man was hiding something that he knew.

  Was he lying about the spurt of growth though? Had the schedule really been bumped up to Monday?

  It made sense. Jack was taken by the thing inside the void last night when they said the spurt occurred and they did say another spurt happened when Troy wandered into the void. They didn’t even know something happened to Jack, and yet it did fit what Lasser said.

  That didn’t mean that they were all working on the same side though. Whatever was happening had to be stopped, even if it meant taking a life. Or losing one.

  Audrey’s hands fell way from Darren’s chest, but Darren didn’t loosen his grip. She fumbled around in the front of her jacket, pulling something from her pocket. A moment later a light flashed on between them.

  Audrey’s face was red and swelling from her crying. Red lines splintered out into a web from her tear ducts, swarming across the surface of her eyes. Her face had lost all it’s strength and her mouth hung into a frown that replaced her perma-smile.

  Darren shook his head. He knew what she was going to do. “You don’t have to.”

  “Yes,” Audrey said, her voice regaining its usual strength. “I do.”

  Darren shook his head again. He knew it was a bad idea to let her, but he couldn’t stop her. Maybe she really did need to.

  Audrey sighed.

  Darren let go of her.

  Audrey turned around, and lowered the flashlight beam to the man on the ground. Her lungs hitched as she looked at professor Lasser sprawled out on the ground, surrounded by a pool of red, the side of his neck missing as if a wild dog had decided to make a snack of it.

  Lasser’s eyes were closed and his face relaxed as if he was only sleeping. Perhaps it was that look of peacefulness that kept Audrey from breaking down, but it didn’t stop the tears from falling down her cheeks and onto the dust covered floor.

  Darren reached out for Audrey, letting her know that he was here for her with a simple touch.

  With a loud sniffle, Audrey straightened her back, wiped below her nose, and turned back to Darren.

  “I guess we’re down to one flashlight now,” she said.

  “We’ll make do,” Darren said.

  Audrey nodded. “What now?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I suppose there is only one tunnel we haven’t been down yet.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you carry the rum? I think I may need a little later.”

  Darren nodded.

  “Then come on,” Audrey said. “Let’s end this thing.”

  “Before it ends us.”

  Chapter 54

  Darren and Audrey walked down the last stretch of unexplored tunnel, only to find that the tunnel had not been repaired or expanded when the dormitories were built. They headed back to the large stretch below the road and stopped at the steps leading back to the theatre and the library.

  The void was visible at the edge of Audrey’s beam of light when she pointed it south. Darren guessed that the Jefferson Arts Center must have been fully engulfed in the sphere of the void, but no one would ever notice in the daylight anyways.

  Audrey had not spoken a word since they turned around in the tunnel below the dormitories. Her face was contorted into a frown that looked almost unnatural on her, and her feet had been dragged most of the trip.

  Darren knew what was bothering her, but what could he do about it? She killed a man and she acted in self-defense, but how was she supposed to feel? Taking a life wasn’t a normal occurrence-even the police had to see counselors if they were forced to shoot someone-but what could Darren do to help her? He gave her a shoulder to cry on, he gave her reassurance that what she did had to be done, but what else could he do?

  “It is growing fast,” Audrey said as she stood there staring at the void a dozen feet away.

  “Too fast,” Darren said.

  Audrey stood unmoving, staring at the void for a moment. “We still don’t know what to do about it.”

  “No we don’t.”

  “We don’t have much time.”

  “Less than a day.”

  “Think we can do it?”

  “We have no choice.”

  “But do you think we can do it? Or do you think we’ll fail?”

  “I think we can do it.”

  “But you don’t know how.”

  She wasn’t asking a question, so Darren gave no reply.

  “We’ve done so much trying to figure out what’s going on and what we need to do,” Audrey said. “But we aren’t any closer.”

  “Sure we are,” Darren said.

  “Okay, then what do we need to do?”

  Darren wished he never made the last comment now. They learned the history of the void, they knew it was engulfing the campus inside of it, they knew that there was a group of the faculty working against them. There were only two things they didn’t know-what was inside the void, and how they could stop it-but those just happened to be the most important questions.

  “Right now I think we need to eat and take a rest,” Darren said.

  “What, here?” Audrey said.

  “Have somewhere better in mind?”

  “What if they come? The path to the science building is right in front of us.”

  “Exactly, this way we’ll see them if they come.”

  “And they’ll see us.”

  “Just turn off your flashlight, we can eat in the dark. We’re both getting quite used to it by now.”

  Audrey sighed. “Then what?”

  “We’ll think of something,” Darren said. “We’re both a bit hyped up right now, and I’m sure a minute of rest will help us think straighter.”

  “Fine, sure, okay.”

  Darren sat down on the steps and slid up against the wall before sliding the backpack off his shoulders. Audrey came over to him, and stood in front of him with her flashlight illuminating the bag for him. Darren pulled out a pair of Pepsi’s (one bottle scratched and scuffed from the sawzall blade, the other buried beneath the rum and half the tools) and the rest of a box of crackers, opening it and holding it up for Audrey.

  “Come, sit down,” Darren said as Audrey reached into the box.

  She pulled out half a handful of crackers, groaned, then sat down beside Darren. She popped a few pieces into her mouth, and then switched off their flashlight, leaving them in darkness.

  Light crunching came from Audrey as she ate her crackers beside Darren, but beyond that, there was no sound. There was no sight either. If it wasn't for the taste of the saltiness in his mouth and smell of the thick air in the tunnel, Darren could have almost imagined himself back in the void.

  Audrey’s arm bumped into Darren’s knee. “Where’s my soda?”

  Darren put his hand on Audrey’s so he wouldn’t lose track of it and put the bottle into her fingers.

  The bottle opened with a loud hiss, and then silence came again.

  Darren had thought that a minute of rest would help him think clearer, but it didn’t do an ounce of good. He couldn’t even concentrate on a single thought long enough to make a difference.

  What would they do now? What could they do now? They ran into a dead end now that the tunnel had been explored over every inch, and they still had no idea what they needed to do.

  The answer is in the void.

  Darren already knew that, but how would that help? Last time he stepped in the
re with Jack, whatever was inside the void dragged Jack away. They couldn’t see anything, and walking around blind while trying to find answers seemed like the stupidest idea they had ever had. Unless they had a way to see inside the void, there was nothing they could do.

  They really were stuck.

  A dead end.

  They had less than a day to stop what was inside of the void before it became too strong, and they ran into a dead end. What was going to happen now?

  A fate worse than death.

  But what did that mean?

  It meant that if the void can’t be stopped, get as far away as possible, as fast as possible.

  Audrey would never go for that.

  Don’t give her an option.

  What, like kidnap her?

  How else can she be kept safe?

  That would never work though.

  Why not?

  She wouldn’t go willingly.

  Of course not. She would have to he coaxed. Maybe chemically coaxed.

  Chemically? Is that wh…?

  Understand now?

  The rum? Get her drunk and drag her out of town?

  It would work.

  Would it?

  Audrey was in a rather unstable mood after she shot professor Lasser. She would be more than willing to drink some of the rum, but enough to make her pass out? And then what? Drag her onto a Greyhound bus? That would never work.

  Then it came to Darren. He didn’t like to think this, but it was an option, and not only that, it was a good option.

  But it meant backtracking.

  So? It would work.

  Isn’t that theft though?

  He’s dead! Lasser would never know if his keys were taken, and his car driven.

  Darren tried to think of a reason why it would fail, but he couldn’t come up with anything. The car would never be reported stolen. It was probably parked by the science building, so it was close. He might have to fill the gas tank up, but that wouldn’t be too risky as long as he used cash and none of the other four faculty members saw him.

  Darren felt around inside of the backpack and found the liquor bottle. He pulled it out and felt the weight of the glass in his hands. He couldn’t believe he was going to try this.