Deadlock Trilogy

by P. T. Hylton

  “How do we know if you’re right?” Sophie asked.

  Zed smiled at her. “I guess we try it and see.”

  “Try it how?” Joe asked. “Send something else through?”

  “I was thinking of sending someone,” Zed said.

  A silence fell over the room.

  “And there’s no way to tell?” Ellen Kramer asked. “We just send someone through and hope they make it to the other side?”

  Zed spread his hands, as if to show he had nothing up his sleeves, then nodded. “Any volunteers?”

  After a moment, a half-dozen shaky hands were raised, Sophie and Frank’s among them.

  “Don’t be stupid,” a voice said from the back of the room. “I’m pretty sure this is my job.”

  Mason didn’t usually join the Rough-Shod Readers meetings. He didn’t have an official position in the group. Frank invited him to dinner once a week or so, but other than that he kept to himself. He seemed to like farming. It was a job he could do mostly in isolation. Even when he wasn’t working, he tended to stay in his cabin in the woods near the farm. That made sense to Frank. The woods was where Mason had spent most of his life, after all. It wasn’t surprising that he felt most comfortable there.

  “Is this why you asked Mason to join?” Frank asked Zed.

  Zed nodded slowly. “If he’s willing.”

  “Why him?” Sophie asked.

  It was Mason who answered. “I’m unattached. The town needs all of you. You have people who love you.” Frank started to speak, but Mason held up a hand to silence him. “I know, I know, I do, too. But it’s different. If I don’t make it, the town will be okay. No one’s waiting up at night for me, if you know what I mean.”

  “I’d like to throw my hat into the ring,” a voice from the other side of the table said. It was Matt. “The only person I love is on the other side. I want to find her. And, just like Mason, I don’t have anybody here who’d be devastated if I didn’t make it back.”

  “There’s also the matter of what needs to be done on the other side once you reach it,” Zed said. “After all, what’s the use of sending someone through if they can’t make it back.”

  “And you think I can make it back?” Mason asked.

  “Perhaps,” Zed said. “Or you can at least find help. What I propose…” He trailed off and took a deep breath. “What I propose is sending the compass through with you. You can use it to find help.”

  Frank was stunned. Zed willing to give up a Tool? He must be very desperate indeed.

  Mason nodded. “I’ve got a fair amount of experience using the compass.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Zed said.

  “And who’s he supposed to find on the other side?” Frank asked.

  “I believe that just as a Tool is the only way out, another Tool may be the only way for someone to help put things right with this town. And I think there may just be a Tool that can do it. A Tool that has been known to destroy things created with the same power that trapped us here.” He looked pointedly at Frank. “We send Mason to the person who has the knife.”

  “Christine,” Frank muttered.

  “Exactly,” Zed said. “Dr. Osmond has proven herself quite capable. Between her and Mason, we just might have a chance.” He looked down at the scissors for a long moment before continuing. “There’s something else we need to discuss. Whether we should do this at all.”

  His statement was met with a confused silence.

  “If Mason is successful in getting Dr. Osmond’s help,” Zed continued, “and if she is able to free us, our escape could lead to something worse. It won’t be long after we’re free that the Exiles will come to claim King’s Crossing.”

  The Exiles. Zed hadn’t so much as mentioned them since Isolation Day. Anytime anyone else brought them up, he grew sullen and refused to speak about it.

  Matt stood up. “Wait a minute. I thought they were locked outside of time. That’s the whole reason you couldn’t save Alice, right? So they would be trapped?”

  “Apparently, I was mistaken,” Zed said. “I believe our current situation proves they’ve escaped.”

  Frank and Sophie locked eyes. They’d suspected as much, but they hadn’t had the heart to tell Matt his daughter had been sacrificed for nothing.

  “I think it’s time you tell us what you know about the Exiles,” Frank said. “We have to understand what we’re facing.”

  Zed nodded slowly. “Understand that most of what I know comes from things I’ve managed to piece together. Bits of conversation I overheard. It’s far from complete.”

  “Disclaimer received,” Sophie said. “Start talking.”

  He set the scissors on the table and folded his hands. He looked suddenly pale, like speaking about such things frightened him. Then he started talking.

  “They are from…somewhere else. Another…I don’t know, dimension. Somewhere outside of time, at least as we know it. In many ways, they are superior to us. They can’t be hurt by anything I’ve ever discovered. They can do things that defy the laws of physics.”

  “Sounds like someone else I know,” Frank said.

  Zed nodded. “You’re not wrong. I got my powers from them. But that’s another story for another time.” He turned and looked out the large window for a moment before continuing. “Despite all their superiority, every human has one thing they do not: potential. Time gives us the ability to change. The ability to grow. For creatures without time, this is an alluring concept. If they want to change the way things are, they need that power.”

  Frank had questions already, but he didn’t want to interrupt again. Zed hadn’t spoken about this before, and Frank wasn’t about to get him off track now. Sophie had once told him his best trait was knowing when to shut up, and he agreed with her assessment.

  Zed continued. “Long ago, one of their kind came to our universe and hid…let’s call them batteries. Items that would collect the power, the potential, from humanity. The idea was that when the batteries were full, their kind would come and collect the batteries.”

  “The batteries are the books,” Mason said.

  Frank looked at him, surprised.

  Zed smiled. “Very good. They hid them in places of great potential and waited. The trouble started when they collected the first book. See, their society had been peaceful. One of the benefits of the lack of time was a lack of war. But when they harvested the first book and suddenly had the potential for change, everything became different. There was a schism in their society. A war. The leaders of the losing side were exiled. They used their remaining power to come here. Their plan was to harvest all the books on Earth and use that power to return home and overthrow the ones who’d exiled them. It wasn’t until they arrived here they realized the books were hidden and they had no way to find them.”

  Zed picked up the scissors and turned them in his hand as he spoke. “They did have one thing though: the Tools. The Tools are a unique creation. They contain a bit of the Exiles’ power tuned to specific purposes. But the Exiles can’t use the Tools themselves. Only humans can. It takes our potential, you see, to make them work. It’s what I’ve always loved most about the Tools. They’re the best of both our species. Their power and our potential combining to do great things.

  “So, they had to recruit humans to use these Tools to help them find the books.”

  “And let me guess,” Frank said. “You were one of those humans.”

  Zed nodded. “I didn’t realize what I was doing. Not at first. But eventually I willingly led them to the books. They gained a lot of power and destroyed whole towns because of me. Eventually we…had a falling out.”

  “Care to elaborate?” Sophie asked.

  Zed looked at her sharply. “No. Suffice it to say, I vowed to stop them. I wouldn’t let them have the power. That’s why I took towns outside time. So they couldn’t access them. They are trapped within time, you see. Eventually, if the books aren’t harvested when they are full, the power begins to spil
l out and strange things start to happen. The trees in Sanctuary, for instance. And if you wait long enough, the power decays and fades away.”

  Frank thought about that for a moment. “So the tree growing in Volunteer Park. Does that mean the book here is full?”

  Zed nodded grimly. “They’ve never harvested a book as full as this one. It’s a happy accident I discovered this town before they did. Because if they harvest this town’s book, I believe they will have the power to go home.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?” It was Joe who asked the question. “Wouldn’t that mean they’d leave us alone?”

  Zed looked down. “When they harvest the book, King’s Crossing will cease to exist. As will all the people in it.” He let that hang in the air for a moment before continuing. “But that’s not the worst of it. When they leave this world, they’ll rip a hole in time. A hole that can’t be repaired. Then the Ones Who Sing will come through and devour all life on Earth.”

  A heavy silence fell over the room.

  Finally, Zed said, “If we do nothing, they will eventually find other towns and harvest enough power. The result will be the same. But…I believe King’s Crossing would survive. It would be a last bastion of humanity. An ark. If we return, we potentially speed up their success and we put the town in danger. But we will also have the chance to fight them. We have some Tools. And I have a plan.”

  “Okay,” Frank said. “Then we do what we’ve always done in this group. We put it to a vote.”

  So, later that day, the Rough-Shod Readers gathered in a field outside town to see Mason off on his journey. They’d given him some supplies and enough money to cover him for at least a month of travel.

  “There’s really no telling where I’ll end up,” Mason said. “I might go through and just fall into eternity.”

  “You are truly going into the unknown,” Zed said.

  “Like an astronaut,” Frank said.

  “What’s an astronaut?” Mason said.

  Sophie leaned over and whispered in Frank’s ear, “Are we sure he’s the guy we want to be sending?”

  Frank gave her a squeeze. “I’m sure.”

  Zed handed Mason the compass, and joy washed over Mason’s face. He finally had his Tool back.

  “I believe in you, Mason,” Zed said.

  “It’s about damn time,” Mason said.

  Frank pulled Mason in for a hug, then handed him a letter. “Maybe it’ll help smooth the way with Christine. She’s not exactly the trusting sort.”

  Finally, Sophie hugged Mason. “Stay safe, big guy.”

  Mason smiled. “Whatever happens, I want you to know you were a really good babysitter.”

  Sophie laughed. “Shut up. I was the worst.”

  A few moments later, Zed cut into the ground with the scissors at the spot the compass indicated, and white light poured out.

  Mason took a deep breath and jumped into the hole.

  THE BOY WHO FOUND THE WATCH (PART SIX)

  East Graver, Texas

  1970

  They stood in an empty field outside town. It was evening, and a blue dimness was falling over the land. They could see the lights of town beginning to blink on as the sunlight faded away.

  “It’s too soon,” Vee grumbled. He didn’t look at Zed as he spoke. He rarely looked at Zed. It was as if he felt Zed was too low to acknowledge.

  The five of them stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the town. Wilm, Vee, Rayd, San, and Zed.

  Zed shuffled his feet nervously. Never once, in his nearly twenty-two years in their service, had he seen more than two of them in the same place. They’d come today because Zed called. Because he said this place was ready. And because, in all the years he’d been scouting for them, this was the first time he’d put out the call.

  “You’re right, Vee,” Wilm said. “It’s ripening. But it’s not there yet.”

  “Damn waste of time, if you ask me,” Rayd said, his face scrunched up in disgust.

  Wilm paused for a long moment before replying. Her eyes were fixed on the town. “No…not a waste of time. Not at all.” She turned to Zed. “Would you be so kind as to use the watch, please?”

  Now it was Zed’s turn to pause. They’d never before asked that of him. He nodded and reached into his pocket. He always felt nervous having the watch in plain sight around them, like they might suddenly decide he was unworthy and take it away. He had no doubt they could take it if they wanted to do so, but he would fight them. Oh, how he would fight.

  He pressed the broken clock symbol and time stopped. He expanded the circle to include the four beings with him in the bubble that allowed time to pass while the rest of the world around them stopped. Once it had been difficult for him to control the bubble, to expand it beyond himself, but now he did it with merely a thought. He could make the bubble bigger if he needed to. Much bigger.

  Rayd watched him warily as he so effortlessly wielded the power of the watch. They couldn’t use the watch themselves. He knew that now. That’s why they needed him.

  Wilm didn’t look at Zed. Her eyes were on the sky. After a moment, she smiled. “There,” she said, pointing up.

  Zed squinted upward and after a moment, he saw what she was indicating. Way up in the sky were three tiny streaks of white. And they were moving. Zed felt a moment of panic. He mentally checked the bubble he’d made. Had he accidentally expanded it so high? No, it ended just above Vee’s head. Vee was the tallest of them by a good three inches. But if time was stopped, how were those white streaks moving?

  Vee grunted, and Zed looked over to see the big man looking into the sky, shaking his head. “Three of them. And a thousand feet up. Damn waste of our—”

  Wilm shushed him. “Listen.”

  Zed did listen. And after a long moment he thought he heard something. The creatures high above were making a sound. It was almost musical.

  There was something terrible about that sound. Something unnatural.

  When Zed could barely stand it any longer, he said, “What are they?”

  Wilm clucked her tongue. “Nasty creatures, unworthy of a name. They live outside time.”

  “I’ve never seen them before. And I’ve spent plenty of time outside time.” He didn’t want to admit how long.

  San answered, her electric glare turning on him. “That’s because you weren’t in the right place. They’re attracted to the power that gets built up in these special towns. As the place ripens, more of them gather. The more of the creatures, the more ready it is.”

  “And there’s only three of them,” Rayd said, picking up the thread. “So, as you might be able to guess, this place isn’t ready.”

  “Only three, yes,” Wilm said, the excitement coming through in her voice, “but they are here. How long since we’ve seen any of them?”

  It was Zed’s job to hunt down these places. They told him the watch would let him know when they were ready. So he’d called them here. Even though he knew this town wasn’t yet ripe. He’d done it because there were things he had to know, and they’d long ago stopped giving him answers.

  He drew in a deep breath before speaking. He was afraid to ask, afraid how they might react, afraid they might even take away his watch—or at least try—but this was the whole reason he’d brought them here. “What if it were ripe?”

  Wilm looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

  “What if it was ready? You said yourself you haven’t found one that was ready in a long time. What would my reward be?”

  Vee turned and growled at him. “Reward? You have the watch. What more do you want?”

  Zed forced himself to shrug, as if he didn’t care about the watch. “Yes, I already have that. I’m asking for…an incentive.”

  Wilm licked her lips. “Zed, if you find us what we’re looking for, we’ll give you gifts beyond your dreams.”

  Zed swallowed hard. “Care to be more specific?”

  Wilm smiled. “You are feisty today, aren’t you? All right. We�
�ll stop you from aging. Make you unkillable. Allow you to transport yourself anywhere you wish to go in an instant. Give you the power to see into the minds of men. Is that specific enough?”

  Zed couldn’t help but hide the disappointment on his face.

  Wilm’s lip curled in a humorless smile. “You want more. Name it.”

  He knew what he wanted. The pocket watch was just a tiny piece of the power each and every one of them wielded. It was a part of them, not something external that could be lost or stolen. “I want to be one of you.”

  It was silent for a moment, then San let out a piercing laugh. “Is he serious?”

  Zed felt his face grow hot. “You said you need my help. This is my price.”

  Rayd mumbled, “What a waste of time.”

  Wilm smiled indulgently, as if speaking to a slow child. “Zed. What you’re asking is not only impossible, it’s unfathomable. Like a flea wishing to be a man. The fire of distant stars flows in our veins. That is not something which can be gifted. We offer you the ability to live longer than any man has before, as well as other things. You could be rich. Famous. Whatever you want. Let that be enough.”

  Zed’s heart went cold. They’d laughed at him. They hadn’t even considered his fondest wish for a moment. But he nodded anyway. “Fine. I agree to your terms. Are you ready for your town?”

  San’s laugh reached an even higher pitch. “He thinks it’s that easy!”

  While her laugh still hung in the air, Zed pulled back the bubble freezing the four of them.

  He looked at them for a long while, making sure one of them wouldn’t break through and come after him, the way Rayd had on Wilm’s porch so long ago. But he’d gotten better since then. So much better.