In their rush to escape, they stumbled across the aftermath of Miles Chamberlain's encounter with a mysterious homeless man, and the contents of his flask. Forty feet of broken asphalt, buildings, and people lay strewn across their escape route. The blame for this distraction falling both literally and figuratively at Miles' feet.
Now, the trio flee together across the empty highways, headed west.
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"Tell me again Miles, from the beginning, what happened?" Rander's hand gripped the wheel tightly, the tension in his arms mirroring that felt in his heart.
"Aw c'mon man...we've been over this like, a million times..." Miles sunk down in the backseat of Rander's SUV, arms flailing over his head in frustration. "I was out with some friends and got really hammered....woke up face down in the alley, not my finest moment, obviously. Anyway, the bum offers me a sip from his flask and I figured a little hair-o-the dog might be just what I needed." Sitting up in the seat, a frown passes over the young man's face, shadowing his normally sunny features. "That's when everything went weird."
"Yes, that's what you said earlier, but what else can you tell me about the liquid? What did it taste like? What was it? Did the man say anything else to you? Any detail, no matter how seemingly trivial could prove to be vitally important." Rander studied the sullen and crestfallen young man sitting behind him. His health had improved dramatically once they'd managed to get him away from the city. He was young, and resilient, and would no doubt come to grips with the events of the past few days soon enough. Still, something about him nagged at the back of the professor's brain. Some detail was calling his attention, yet he couldn't understand what that detail might be.
"He just offered me a drink. Said it was good.....then he just laughed." Miles' eyes squeezed shut in an effort to recall the events of the past few days. "He said it was special...that it woke me up."
"Woke you up?" The two men's eyes met in the rearview mirror. The professor was convinced that there was a hidden level of meaning to the old man's words, a hidden weight.
"Yeah....woke me up. Why?" Miles leaned forward between the front seats, glancing from Rander to Melissa, and back again.
"Well, it's just an interesting word choice for a homeless man, carrying a flask of magic juice which granted you super powers and resulted in thousands of dollars in property damage. It just seems a little bit too coincidental, or did that thought never occur to you?" Rander winced as he watched the impact his words had on the young man. He hadn't asked for any of this.
Miles slumped sullenly back into his seat, gazing out at the barren landscape speeding past the car window.
"Miles, the professor didn't mean to shout." Melissa shot a pointed glance at Rander. " He's just an asshole and doesn't always remember that people have feelings."
"Melissa is, unfortunately correct. I've been a little out of sorts lately, due to something I've just discovered. No matter how coincidental it may seem, I can't help but think you're somehow connected to all of this, and that we were meant to find you. As a man of science, I hope you understand how painful it is for me to admit that."
"Yeah, Doc. I get it." Turning his dark eyes towards the front seat, Miles lightly punched Rander in the shoulder. "Just don't forget what happened the last time I lost control of my emotions. Don't push me."
"Good point. Why don't we take a break. We could all use a quick stretch of the legs." Pulling off the road onto the dusty shoulder, Rander killed the engine and all three stepped out into the early afternoon sun.
As Rander and Melissa both arched their backs and flexed stiff muscles, Miles studied the heat ripples that shimmered over the long ribbon of blacktop snaking through the desert in an unbroken line in both directions. Before his eyes, the shimmering air slowed and stopped, forming a static distortion hanging motionless in his field of view. Turning slowly to regard his companions, Miles saw that they too were affected in a similar fashion. No movement of any kind was visible. Not a breath of air, nor a trickle of sweat betrayed the slightest hint of motion. Reminding himself to retain control, he took a tentative step forward. The concentration it took to keep from sprinting across the desert was monumental. Reaching out a trembling hand, Miles took gentle hold of Rander's shoulder, and willed him to move. Like a rubber band, time snapped back into place, and Miles was left standing face to face with the professor, holding his shoulder.
"It happened again didn't it?" Excitement and curiosity settled firmly in place in the professors features.
"Yeah."
"Do you have any idea what triggered it?"
"Nope, we just got out and it happened."
"Stop talking. Listen. Remember every detail. You stepped out of the car. How did you feel? What did you see? Any detail could give us a clue, tell me exactly what you saw."
"I stepped out, saw the heat haze stop waving."
"There....stop right there. Were you staring at it, studying it?" The excitement in the professor's tone was noticeable as he strode quickly forward, he himself staring into the distance as though willing the process to happen for him.
"Well, yeah. I guess, but what..."
"Reaction time, of course." Turning in place, Rander walked back towards the car. "Just like a race car driver's reflexes are heightened during a race, allowing them to make the quick decisions necessary to win the race, when you concentrate on something moving through space, you can physically will it to remain stationary in both space and time. The simplicity of it is brilliant. Instead of speeding your own reactions up, you slow down everything else around you."
Melissa moved towards the manic former educator, trying to calm his frazzled nerves. "Professor, why don't you sit down. You need to rest. I'll drive for a while."
"Yes, you're right....but don't you see what this means? It's clearly connected. It's too coincidental to not be part of the design....for whatever reason, we are following part of a design, a program, and he's the key." The professor's finger jutted out towards Miles' chest.
"Who, me?"
"Yes, Miles. You." Regaining his feet in time with his composure, Rander moved to stand near the youth. "Concentrate on something in the distance. Anything you see that's moving, and when you're ready, move towards it....carefulllllllyyyyyy."
The professor's last word stretched out into a low humming tone, as Miles' eyes settled on a small furry creature several hundred yards off the road. Gingerly placing one foot in front of the other, he moved across the dusty plain, gaining speed as he became more comfortable, swiftly closing the distance to what he soon discovered was a rabbit.
He bent low and touched the side of the animal's face. This was not the wisest decision he could have made at this point, as the accumulated momentum hadn't had time to dissipate, and his touch triggered the renewal of time's passage, sending the rabbit (or at least the upper two-thirds of it) into a low arcing orbit that terminated on the other side of a distant plateau. This would all be pointed out in mind-numbing detail, numerous times to Miles' distinct displeasure later, once he recounted the events to the professor.
For now, the young man fell to his knees in horror at what he had just done, and began to weep, blissfully unaware of what lay behind him. For between his position and the road behind, stretched a heat scorched path of solid glass beginning at the feet of his two astonished comrades.
I'm enjoying this Blog. Keep writing.
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