Chapter 5

Todd had been reaching into the cooler for Dirk's soda when he felt all the air being sucked out of the room. When he couldn't call for help, he dropped to the floor and began hitting it with his hand to signal that something was wrong.

When Dirk slammed on the breaks, Todd tumbled hard, but he barely noticed as his vision blurred from the total lack of air. He felt his panic fade and knew he didn't have long. There was a vague sensation of the injection in his leg, then nothing as his consciousness began giving way to darkness.

Then air. It filled him with life and his body greedily pulled it in. But in the back of his mind, he remembered what was next.

He felt his stomach push everything up. It was a horrible feeling, but at least they caught it in a bucket this time. Then came the twitching. That part had scared him so bad the first time Farah injected him. He had no idea what was happening as his muscles spasmed uncontrollably for what felt like ages. At least now he knew to expect it. It didn't make it any more pleasant, but he knew what was happening and that it would eventually stop.

The worst part was the paralysis. He went from uncontrollable muscle movement to going heavy and limp like a rag doll full of sand. He was still in a disoriented state from the attack, and it was hard to stay calm and focused as his body reacted to the drug. He could hear Farah. She was speaking in a soothing voice and helping him stay focused and calm despite what his body was doing.

After he was lifted and strapped to the cot, he wondered how long he'd be stuck there. He was a little relieved they had gone back to driving. He didn't exactly want an audience while he tried to regain control of his uncooperative body.

He wished he had some concept of time as he laid there. It felt far too long, but he reminded himself that Farah always kept track of the time and wouldn't leave him like that forever. Though he strongly suspected that this was a bit longer than usual.

"Any change?" Farah asked. He could tell from where her voice was coming from that she was driving.

"No." said Dirk in a disappointed tone. "His breathing still looks good though. So, there's that."

There was silence for a long time. Todd tried once again to move and felt his eyes begin to open.

He heard Dirk's voice.

"Finally! I was starting to…"

The next few seconds were a blur of glass breaking and metal bending and feeling weightless as the van rolled. Todd was disoriented by the suddenness of it all, but eventually realized they had crashed and rolled at least once before landing right side up again. He could smell gasoline.

"F… Farah! Dirk! Are you alright?"

No answer. He called a few more times with the same result. Todd pulled against the restraints. While he was thankful that they had held during the crash, he was incredibly frustrated that they were continuing to keep him pinned down. Todd groaned and twisted and eventually worked his right hand loose. He went through the long process of unstrapping himself, and then tumbled onto the floor.

He still had enough of the drug in his system that he struggled to keep his balance as he scrambled over the debris of their tossed belongings and made his way to the front of the van.

Farah's face was covered in blood.

"No no no no no…" Todd said as he stepped over the broken glass and felt for a pulse.

She was alive.

Todd felt a wave or relief, and then turned to look at Dirk.

Dirk had a cut on his cheek and his eyes kept drifting open and closed.

"Dirk, can you hear me?"

"Uh…" he moaned "a little."

"Can you move?" Todd asked.

Dirk slowly reached over and unbuckled himself. "I won't win any races, but I'm alright."

"Farah's hurt. The car is leaking fuel. We need to get out in case it catches fire."

"Right." Said Dirk as he tried to collect himself.

Todd looked over at Farah's door and saw that it was crushed. Whatever hit, hit them right where she was sitting.

"What happened?" Todd asked as wrestled with Farah's seatbelt buckle.

"I have no idea. I was looking back at you and then we were flying. And falling. And rolling. Lots of unpleasant movement in which cars were not designed to participate."

Todd got the seatbelt off her and lifted her unconscious body. His muscles still weren't functioning right, and it was a struggle to carry her out the side door of the van. He didn't get her as far from the van as he had hoped, but his strength gave out and he lowered her gently in the snow. At least she was off the road. It was then that he realized Dirk had never followed them.

Todd went back into the van and found Dirk face down between the two front seats. Todd grabbed the first aid kit and a bag of his meds and threw them out of the open door. He figured they would need them, and he wasn't sure how much time the van had left. He then began dragging Dirk out the door. Dirk wasn't a lot bigger than Todd, but between his body still not working correctly and the exertion of carrying another human already, Todd was rapidly running out of strength. He tried to be as gentle as possible as he hauled Dirk out of the van and into the road. Todd was sweating, and his muscles were screaming as he continued to drag Dirk towards where Farah was laying. Finally, he managed to lay Dirk next to Farah. He then realized they were all in the snow with no coats.

Todd turned back to the van to grab some blankets and supplies when it exploded. Todd dropped to the ground and tried to use his body to shield the others from the debris. When the explosion died down to a lethargic fire, Todd looked back to see if maybe something could be saved. Nothing. Not their coats, not blankets, not water, not weapons, not food… nothing. With the exception of the medical stuff he had tossed, everything was gone.

Todd tried to open the first aid kit, but his hands were too cold and numb. He cursed and smacked the case as if he could intimidate it into opening.

"I'm sorry." He said as his hands continued to uselessly fumble over the latch for the kit. "I'm trying. I swear I'm trying."

The adrenaline was wearing off and he was so tired. He felt like he was going to drop right there. He was feeling the cold and just wanted to curl up and sleep. But he had to figure something out. They couldn't just die here. He forced his wobbly legs to go up the hill next to the road where they were laying at the bottom. Maybe, somehow, there would be something up there that would help them. He reached the top and saw two figures. They were arguing.

"Are you crazy? We can't go towards the explosion! We have no idea what it was or who was there or who might show up!"

"Hey!" Todd called as he waved his hands. "We need help! Please help!" He dropped to his knees, unable to keep standing.

He heard a dog bark and it came bounding towards him and licked his face. The other two figures followed the dog and he heard a man's voice say "Easy, Rapunzel."

Todd knew that voice. No way. He looked up and saw Ken, Bart, and their corgi looking at him.

"Hey there, Wild Card." Said Bart. "Need a hand?"

A heated can of chicken noodle soup had never tasted so good. Judging by the looks on their faces, Dirk and Farah agreed.

Ken and Bart had gotten them back to a cottage they had taken over. Thankfully, they had just broken in and no one had to die over it. Apparently, it was a vacation home for someone who was elsewhere. When Todd had asked them why they were there, Bart just shrugged and said "Universe." Ken didn't have a more detailed explanation, so Todd just dropped it.

Farah woke up as they were getting them to the cottage. Todd was once again amazed at how tough she was. They got in and cleaned up/examined all the cuts and bruises. Thankfully, no one was as hurt as they had feared. Despite still being a bit woozy, Farah insisted on going back and seeing the van. The fire was out and there were only charred remains. They were also able to see what they hit, or rather, what hit them.

A large, pointed, pyramid like, black rock that was roughly the size of a garage had jutted out of the road and into their van.

"Weird." Said Bart.

"Understatement." Said Ken.

"What is it?" asked Todd.

"It doesn't look like any rock I've ever seen." Said Farah.

She was right. There was something undeniably "otherworldly" about it. None of them could put their finger on it, but something about it seemed strange. Something besides the fact that it had erupted out of the road.

They all went back to the cottage to warm up and eat their can of soup.

"I had eyes on the road." Said Farah. "And it literally burst out with no warning and hit us."

"How long before someone stumbles on the remains of the van?" asked Todd.

"No one comes through here." Said Ken. "Most maps don't even have this road. It could be a while."

"But what about the rock thing?" asked Todd "Won't that attract someone?"

"If anyone had detected it, they'd be here already." Said Farah "Someone will have to find it by accident."

"It's connected." Said Dirk.

Farah rubbed her temples. "Yes, Dirk. We know. Everything is connected."

Dirk shook his head. "No, more than that. It's close. We're close. I can almost see it. Why can't I see it?!" He threw his empty bowl and it clattered on the ground.

Everyone stared at him and his uncharacteristic display.

"Drama Queen." Bart muttered as she slurped her soup straight from the bowl.

"Sorry." Said Dirk as some red rushed to his cheeks. "It's just… frustrating."

Todd sat down next to his friend. "What is it? What do you see?"

"I'm not sure." Dirk said with a pained look on his face. "It's just so close. We're so close. Maybe that's why I can't see it. Maybe I'm too close."

"We're staying here one night and then leaving." Said Farah. "We can't risk someone stumbling on that thing and us being found. We should be ok tonight with the distance between us and that, but we have to be ready to run just in case."

"How do we leave?" asked Todd. "We're in the middle of nowhere without a car in a place that has been snowing for the last hour and keeps getting colder and we don't even have real coats."

"We have a car." Said Ken.

They all looked at him.

"You do?" said Farah.

"Yeah. It will be tight, but we can drive you into the next town. We have some coats too." He looked at Bart.

She shrugged. "Why not? We'll get you as far as the town and then you're on your own."

Todd looked to his two friends. "Sound good?"

"I… think so?" Said Dirk.

"Alright." Said Farah. "Let's do it."

Farah winced silently as she changed the bandage on her forehead. It wasn't as bad as it had looked. Scalp wounds have a tendency to gush disproportional amounts of blood. Her skin was pulled as she removed the gauze that had stuck to her skin from the crusted blood. Changing the bandage aggravated the cut and it started to bleed again. She cleaned it out and put a fresh bandage on it. She came out of the bathroom and saw Todd setting an alarm on the clock next to the bed.

"I'll be waking you every hour." Said Todd "To make sure that bump on the head wasn't worse than we thought. Making sure you can be roused is standard procedure for someone with a concussion."

"And who will wake you?" asked Farah. "You could sleep through the Apocalypse."

"Not without my pill I can't. I'm not taking it tonight."

"What?" Said Farah "Why would you do that?"

"It's not helping anyway." Said Todd "It's supposed to reduce my number of attacks, but it's not."

"Or maybe it is and you would be even worse off without it." Replied Farah.

"The drugs are getting less effective. We knew this would happen. The doctor even warned us."

"But they haven't stopped working completely. It still might…"

Todd shook his head. "One night. If tomorrow is bad, I'll try it again. This is my decision and this is what I decide."

Her eyes narrowed. "This is a bad decision."

"Maybe. But it's the one I made." He patted the spot next to him on the bed.

Farah shook her head. "I'm mad at you." She said.

"Why? Because I won't take my pill?"

"This is an unnecessary risk!" she said angerly.

"How is that? An unnecessary risk is no one waking you up each hour after you had a head injury. An unnecessary risk is me taking a pill that probably doesn't even help anything that knocks me on my ass when you said yourself that we may have to make a run for it if rock thing gets discovered. We're not that far from a pyramid from an alternate dimension or whatever and it is practically screaming for Blackwing to show up and track us down and our burned up van is right next to it and you are expecting me to be immobile and useless in the event that we have to evacuate!"

"That's different!" she exclaimed.

"You're willing to risk hauling me as dead weight through the snow while being chased down for a slight chance that this might reduce my chance of a pararibulitis attack? How does that make sense?"

"Dirk and I can carry you! We can't force you to breathe or keep you from bursting into flames or your heart stopping from the strain! I can't protect you from that! And yes, if there is a slight chance that this will keep an attack from happening, it is worth whatever risk we have to take!"

Todd stared at her. Then he stood and took her hands in his.

"I'm dying." He said softly.

"Don't say that." She said as she snatched her hands away.

"But it's true. The drugs are rapidly losing their effectiveness. My disease is progressing unusually fast. Sure, I could have years, but people that live a long time with this are the ones who progress slowly. The ones in the drug resistant stage usually don't last very long. Now, maybe I'll be the exception. Maybe I still have years. But it could also be hours or even minutes. Eventually, this will kill me. My heart will stop or my lungs will hemorrhage or I'll have a stroke or whatever. But one day those drugs won't be able to save me."

"You don't know that! There could be new treatments or a discovery that leads to a cure or…"

"You can't save me from this, Farah!" he cried. "You have literally, singlehandedly been keeping me alive for these last few months. You've kept me from being kidnapped and getting my medicine when I can't and helping me keep going, but this is different. My body is shutting down. I keep having more attacks and that injection almost didn't work in time."

Todd stepped towards her and took her hand. She didn't pull away this time.

"Thank you for everything. But this is it. I'm hoping to find Amanda before I… you know. But even if I don't, I know you and Dirk will find her and keep her safe."

Farah's hand tightened around Todd's. She didn't want to lose him. He was the first real friend she ever had. The first person that she let see who she truly was that didn't run away or try to change her. Even before things turned romantic, he had been there for her in a way no one ever had before. She took a breath. "You are important. To me. To Dirk. To Amanda. And I will do whatever it takes and take whatever risks I need to if it means it buys you even minutes. And even a chance is worth it!"

Todd was staring at her. He reached up and put his hand on her shoulder. "Then tomorrow, I will take my pill. If that's what you want, if that will give you peace, I'll do it. But tonight I need you to let me watch out for you for a change."

"I don't like it." She said.

"I know. But someone's gotta wake Dirk up too. No sense in you both being unable to wake the other. But I'll even take my pill in the morning if you want. I'll sleep the whole drive to town."

Farah swallowed a lump in her throat. "Ok. Compromise." She held out her hand to shake on it.

"Compromise." He said as he shook her hand.

"And Todd."

"Yeah."

"You're not dying. I won't let that happen."