Further Into The Future!

Chapter 27

The room was so small I felt claustrophobic just looking at it. But it wasn't really a room. Obviously it had originally been meant as a closet. The back of the chair Hammer was sitting in was against the wall, and Hammer's toes almost touched the doorframe in front of him.

If he weren't wearing his red uniform I would never have recognized him. He looked older and skinner than any picture I had seen of him. His cheekbones were more pronounced, jutting out of his wrinkled, splotchy skin, which sagged beneath them like curtains. His eyes seemed to have receded beneath the shadow of his brow. His thin grey hair was matted down with sweat. In his disheveled state I could see that he normally employed a comb-over; long hairs stood up straight on the left side of his head, unable to fall backwards but without a comb to guide them forwards.

His hands were tied to the chair's arms and other ropes bound his legs to those of the chair.

"Oh Hammer, Mr. Hammer, I mean, thank God you're all right! Oh geez, let me untie these ropes," Susan said, her voice shaking. She got on her knees and started pulling at the bungee cord tying down his left leg. He was still yelling into the cloth rag around his mouth.

"What's wrong, Mr. Hammer?" Susan said nervously. She turned her head up to the former dictator while she fiddled with the cord.

Hammer yelled louder, moving his head around as much as he could in his position and shifting his weight enough to lift the chair off the ground slightly.

"Mr. Hammer, I'm so sorry, I can't understand you!" Susan wailed, tugging at the cord with her tiny fingers to no effect.

"I think I know what he wants," I said calmly, and I took the rag out of his mouth.

"Thank the lord. That rag tasted like grease," he said before spitting on the floor beside the chair. I slowly slid the tight rag up his face to take it off his head.

"Ow, watch it, buddy!" he said as I slipped it over his eyes. He glared at me. "Now untie my hands!"

I set my fingers to work on the tight purple bungee cord that tied down his left arm. I separated its loops and found the latch where it connected. I unhooked it and the cord immediately sprang off and flew to the side.

"Good, now the other one," Hammer ordered, fixing his comb-over with his free hand. "Hurry! Come on, hurry!"

I unlatched the orange bungee cord quickly. He massaged his wrists, which were bright red and imprinted with the weave of the bungee cord.

His upper body free, he bent down to where Susan was still working on his right leg.

"Here, let me help, missy," he said with a bit of snide. "These knots look difficult."

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Hammer," Susan said, withdrawing her hand.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"We're a rock band, sir."

He laughed - a squeaky, crackly laugh that sounded like it belonged in a haunted house. "Why not? A band kidnapped me here, why shouldn't one free me?"

He unsnapped the first bungee chord and threw it behind him, moving immediately to the second one as Susan and I stood in the doorway.

"We didn't know you were here – " Susan began.

"What's the name of your band?" Hammer interrupted. The fluorescent light reflected off his scalp like it was a pink bowling ball.

"The Time Travelers, sir – " Susan said.

"The Time Travelers. Whoopee," he said.

I looked to Susan's face for a sign that she shared my surprise at his strange behavior, but found none. As she looked down on him she seemed concerned with his progress on the knot.