Dreamer

Saturday, March 17th, 2029

ANDY

I can’t even find it in me to fake a smile right now. This would be a time where I’d look to Lindsey for help, where she’d convince me everything is going to be okay, and I’d do the same to her. We bounced everything off of each other, and that’s why I can’t even believe my own eyes right now. I cannot believe that this is anything that could ever happen in any world, ever. There’s no way she wouldn’t have told me. That’s what they say, right? When someone close…goes.

I’m being shaken from behind, I turn to see Jay pulling on my shoulder, and then Sarah lending him a hand in yanking me out of the bathroom. Everything feels so surreal, as if it were in a dream. As if this were some figment of my imagination, a nightmare within a larger nightmare. The door shuts and we’re all just looking at each other silently.

“Andy, I don’t-”

I hold up my hand in response, the only response I can muster. She stops and nods her head.

“We need to get moving, now,” Jay says.

“Okay,” I say.

“Andy, are you going to be okay?”

I stand up and take a deep breath. I walk out of the room slowly.

“A-Andy, I think there’s something else,” Jay says. I stop and turn around to face him. “You were able to open that door, that door was locked tight. I think you might be developing a talent. Maybe it’s telekinesis?”

I stare at him for another moment. “Yeah? Well, it was quite the trade-off,” I say, leaving the room. I don’t look back as I walk down the stairs and out of the doors. I hear Jay and Sarah’s footsteps behind me, they’re whispering to each other, but I don’t care to listen in. I walk through the cold winter winds, past the thick tree that stands erect in front of the inn.

I walk across the way to the ZX Hybrid, my hand stops on the car door. I let it lie there for a second and my legs give out. My head falls against the car door and I hold myself up with my right hand. Tears escape my eyes, I let out a pained noise I don’t even recognize coming from myself. I feel a hand on my shoulder.

“Andy, it’s going to be oka-”

What happens next seems to happen in slow motion. I remember turning around and throwing my arm up, screaming some guttural cry and I see Jay fly back against a tree. I hear a loud crack as he makes contact. He falls to the ground with a grunt. Sarah runs over to him, I see blood beginning to swell on the ground.

“Jay! Jay!”

She turns her head to me, “What the hell was that?!”

I turn my back towards the car and lean my head against it, not doing anything else other than breathing. My head pounds to the beat of a million tiny drummers. Everything around me hums in a faint sound and it all overwhelms me. I push myself up and my legs are shaking.

“Well? She asks me.

“Is he…?” I begin.

I hear a small noise come from Jay. I’m running over to his side next to Sarah, nearly falling over.

“Jay! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it! Damn fuck it!” I’m not even making sense anymore.

He makes a motion with his hand, a silencing motion, shaking his head slowly. He takes his other hand and slowly moves it to his coat pocket, I can see blood forming from his lips.

“I think he wants to give us something,” Sarah says.

Jay’s hand shakes as he pulls a small device out, it can’t be any bigger than a cell phone.

“T-Transmitter…” he mutters, but not before coughing up a big red mess. She looks down and nods.

“His back is broken, he isn’t breathing, Andy, what do we do?” Sarah asks, she’s breathing quickly.

“I don’t know! God damn this can’t be happening right now...”

She looks for his pulse again, “He’s gone.”

I run my hands through my hair and let out a long exasperated breath, “Fuck!” I don’t know what to do with what I’m feeling. I punch the tree. Once, twice, my knuckles are bloodied by the bark.

“Andy, stop! Andy! Please!” She looks at me and then down to the ground.

“I didn’t mean it, I swear,” I say, stopping and crying into the tree. “I didn’t mean to kill him. And I didn’t know that Lindsey would...”

She comes up to me and hugs me, “Listen, it’s okay. I know things are so...messed up. I don’t even know where to begin processing any of this, myself,” she says.

“I’m sorry you had to be involved in all of this.”

“I...I know why Lindsey at least went and...killed herself,” I say.

“You do?”

“I saw it in a dream last night, before all that stuff with Friedrich, I saw what she went through.”

“I didn’t understand how much it still bothered her. I should have helped her more.”

“Let’s just get out of here, I’ll drive,” she says.

“Y-Yeah, that’s probably for the better.”

I stand up, placing my hands on the car for support.

“Do you want to say good-bye to her?” Sarah asks, nodding her head to the inn.

“I should…okay, I’ll do it, yeah,” I say.

“You sound like you’re trying to convince me rather than yourself.”

“It does, doesn’t it? Well, I’ll be right back,” I say, walking past her and back through the front doors.

It all feels like a dream, like none of this is real. I don’t feel as if I’m actually walking, and like I’m going to just wake up in a few seconds and everything is going to be okay. When I re-enter the bathroom and see her body curled up against the toilet the pain sets itself back in. The harsh truth that Lindsey is really dead sets in. The other, harsher truth that I just killed Jay also sets in. I kneel beside Lindsey and take her hand in mine, it is cold and feels foreign.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t give you the help that you needed.” There isn’t a response, I don’t expect any. “I’m going to finish this, finish this for you, and I’m going to the beach for you, where you wanted us all to meet up and enjoy ourselves.”

I begin choking up a little bit, but I keep going.

“And whenever my time here is up, I’m going to come back to you, my other half, my soul mate, my love, I love you, Lindsey.”

I stand up and take in a deep breath. I pick her up from the bathroom floor and carry her out into the bedroom. I walk over to the bed and lie her down onto the mattress. Her hair falls gently on her face as she lies. I cover her up and kiss her once on the forehead before I leave.

Another minute and I’m out of the door, wiping my eyes of any stray tears. I go down the stairs and I’m out of the door. I look towards Jay, he’s lying against the tree now, a rose sits in his lap.

“Come on, help me bring him up to the bed. We don’t have enough time to bury them, but I do want to lay them to rest,” I say.

“Okay, I agree.”

We bring Jay up to the bed right beside Lindsey.

“I’m sorry, I’ll keep John safe for you,” I whisper quietly, walking out of the room before I begin crying again. This means that we’re also out of options on how to stop Jack. Jay didn’t get around to building that gun. Outside I climb into the passenger side of the ZX Hybrid.

“We’re going to need to refill gas at some point on this run,” Sarah says.

“The next station we pass we’ll try to get some, people there or not.”

“That is, if there is any in the station to begin with.”

“Well then, we better damn well hope that there is, because we have a long journey in front of us,” I say.

“Okay, then let’s kick this into overdrive,” Sarah says, throwing the keys into ignition.

“So, how long were you wanting to say that?” I ask as she pulls away from the inn at nearly sixty miles an hour.

“Since I first caught sight of this baby,” she says and grins slightly.

“We’re going to do this,” I say.

“Hm?”

“We’re going to save the world. We’re going to make a world where they would have been happy to live in.”

“I get you, we’re not stopping now. Now we’re going to save John, and things will get better.”

“Hearing someone else say it also helps a lot, thank you Sarah.”

“No problem. But we are going to need you to practice that new ability of yours.”

“Of course.” The car speeds across the road as if it were built to make this very journey. We’re coming to save you John. I don’t know how yet, but we will.