The Calling of Time

Dodging the Bullet

I was on edge for the rest of the night. Light slowly crept into the sky before us, painting the world in twilight grey. We passed through several small cities, and I kept an eye open for the flat, dark building that I remembered from my vision. We never passed anything like it, and as the sun rose up from behind the trees in a show-off display of orange and gold, I began to relax. 

I dozed fitfully, flitting in and out of strange dreams. Faces floated in front of me and then vanished. Soft voices murmured my name. I thought I heard mom’s voice, and in my dazed, half-awake state I gripped the leather seat beneath me and wondered where they were wandering right now.

I heard the sharp voice of Manda say, “Keep going!” and it yanked me straight out of my dreams. Her tone was urgent. I blinked, rubbing my eyes. The jeep was passing through another town now, and up ahead to our right was a small gravel parking lot directly in front of a flat, grey building.

It felt as though something cold was dripping down my spine, and I shivered. That was the building. It looked just like it, only…the dream building had been a bit darker. This one was covered in grey stucco, and there were curtains in the windows. I tried to remember if I’d noticed the curtains. The details seemed more important suddenly.

“Don’t slow down, just keep driving.” Manda turned around to look at me, frowning when she saw I was awake. “Don’t worry, there’s no way I want to go in there. I have enough ammo.”

Jai gave me an easy grin as we started to pass the building. “See, no worries. Not all of your visions have to…”

The engine coughed.

The palms of my hands were instantly clammy. The jeep slowed, sputtering. Horace thumped his fist on the wheel and shouted at it. “No!”

The engine sputtered again and then abruptly it died. The jeep rolled forward a few feet and then came to a stop. We were on the road directly across from the building I’d seen in my vision.

I wiped the palms of my hands on my sweatshirt, feeling my fingers shake. “No, no we can’t go in there.” My voice was strained, higher than usual.

Jai grabbed my hand. “Hey, hey it’s okay. We’re not going in there. None of us are.”

“The guy with the gun, he’s in there…”

“We know,” he said soothingly. “We know he is. We won’t disturb him and he won’t have any cause to…do anything.”

My hands were drawn to my stomach as if by a magnet. The dream was still vivid in my memory. I could feel the hole in my gut, aching and empty.

“I don’t want a new body,” I gasped. “I like this one.”

Manda cursed and thumped the dashboard with her fist. “Damnit! Okay, it’s just the engine. Horace, you can fix it, right?”

“I’ll look at it.” Horace jumped out of the front seat, giving me a nervous look. The hood of the jeep lifted with a creak and he disappeared under it for a few minutes.

“It’ll be fine.” Manda was facing sideways in her seat, eyes glued to the gun store. She had the pistol in her lap. The same pistol she’d pointed at the man before he’d shot me.

“If you go in, don’t take your gun.”

“I’m not going in there.”

“If you do, don’t take it, okay?” My voice was rising even higher, on the verge of hysterical. It was important that she agree with me for some reason. “Say you won’t take it.”

“Alright,” Manda said. “Okay, look. See?” She put the gun in the side pocket on the door, staring at me with wide eyes while she did so. It was like she was staring at some kind of wild animal she was trying to appease. Like I might lose it and attack at any minute. “Better?”