Dream Killing (13 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Drew
didn’t know where he was when he opened his eyes. Looking around, he knew he
hadn’t been here before. Light was coming into the room through a partially
covered window, and he could see that he was alone in the room. There was some
trash scattered around, but other than that, the room was completely barren.

Before getting up, he checked his
weapon. He then stood and made his way over to the door at the opposite end of
the room. Before opening it, he noticed the paper that seemed to be out of
place taped to the door at eye level. The paper was crisp and new and the black
letters read: Keep your head in the game. You’ll never defeat me.

Drew knew not to let his thoughts enter
the game again. He had made the mistake once before, and he couldn’t do it
again. Leaving the note alone, he exited the room and made his way down a long hallway,
cautious as he walked past a dozen other doors. When he reached the end of the
hall, he entered the stairwell and began moving down the steps, weary of being
in such close quarters.

Once at the bottom, he saw two doors.
One he figured went back into the building. He hoped the other door led to the
outside and opened it. Drew stepped out into the alley and looked around. Still
unsure of where he was, he worked his way through the alley, ducking behind
dumpsters for cover as he went. At the end of the alley, he could see that he
was just across the street from the park.

Through the abandoned cars, he could see
people moving toward the path. Looking around to make sure that the robot was
nowhere in sight, he took aim and fired. He hit one man, but knew that the rest
would be eager to fire back. As if playing the rifle game at the carnival, Drew
proceeded to fire four more rounds, in even succession, hitting each of the
four men. He moved closer to the park, staying low behind the cars.

Once on the other side of the street, he
collected the weapons of the men who he had just taken out. Drew was careful to
stay off of the path that would lead him straight to the playground. Instead,
he found a route through the trees and shrubs that would offer him better
cover. It only took him a few minutes to get to a point where he could see the
swing set. It was empty, so he decided to move on. Before leaving the
playground area, he decided to check the shed. It was empty.

Drew considered going back to the boat,
but felt that Max wouldn’t have gone there after what happened last time. He
wondered if she would have gone back to the library, but he really didn’t think
she would. He was stuck. He didn’t want to stay in one place too long, but he
felt like he couldn’t go back to the places they usually went. Rather than
totally discount the boat, he decided to head to the other end of the park and
see if he could see movement at the pier.

Drew noticed that it was eerily quiet
everywhere he went, with the exception of the five men he just encountered. He
didn’t hear the breeze blow through the trees, he didn’t hear the sound of guns
firing in the distance, and he didn’t even hear the sound of the lakes water
sloshing on the boats. He was at the end of the path, staring across the street
at the row of boats. The water was still, it was almost as if everything was on
pause but himself.

He grabbed his flashlight, surprised
that it was in his pocket, and flashed it at the boats three times. Then, he
waited. More than a minute passed before he saw three flashes of light come
from the window of the smallest boat. He rushed to the harbor and ran down the
pier to the boat, hoping that he hadn’t been seen.

As he climbed aboard, Drew hoped that it
was really Max inside. He slowly went down the steps, gun drawn. Max was
sitting on top of the small stove, feet dangling above the floor.
Thank God!
Drew was relieved to see her there.

“Where are the children?” Drew asked in
a whisper.

“I don’t know. They weren’t at the
playground and they weren’t at the library. I don’t know where they are.”

“Have you noticed how quiet and still it
is out there?”

“Drew, it’s weird. I saw one small group
of men, but I was able to avoid them. Other than that, there’s nobody.”

“Yeah, and the breeze isn’t even blowing.
Not even the water is moving. The boat didn’t even move when climbed on.”

“I know. It’s like everything is on
pause.” Max said, almost in a question.

“That’s what I thought, too.”

They sat there for a while, not really
sure what was going on. Drew told her about the note he found on the door of
the room he entered the game in. She found the exact same note in the library
where she entered. They figured that the game appearing to be on pause must be
a test of some sort. Knowing that anything was possible they decided to stay
put for a little bit and see what happened.

Taking turns pacing the floor and
looking out the windows, Drew and Max grew restless. They wanted to leave, but
didn’t want to abandon the children. They decided to give it a few more minutes
and then they would venture outside.

When they went topside, Max accidentally
kicked her shoe loose as she climbed onto the pier. They both looked down at
the water and then back up at each other.

“Drew, do you see that?”

“Yeah.” Drew was stunned.

The shoe was sitting on top of the
water. When it hit, the water didn’t move. There was no splash and there were
no rings on the water. The water was solid. Carefully, Drew climbed down to the
water. He was standing on it as if it were concrete. He bent down and picked up
her shoe. Quickly, he climbed back up to the pier.

“That is so weird,” Max’s voice sounded
as confused as Drew felt.

Neither one could figure out what was
going on. If the game was paused, why are they able to walk around? Why aren’t
there any other players? Who were the five men Drew killed? Drew was growing
tired of all the questions. They decided to test their guess that the game had
paused by walking around freely, no hiding, no ducking for cover, just openly
walk.

They decided to stick close to the park
since night was falling. They found it odd that nothing was in motion and yet
the sun was setting. They made their way through the park by walking right down
the middle of the path. They were cautious, walking with firearms in hand, but
bold at the same time. It was the first time in the game that they actually
felt somewhat safe. That made both of them a bit nervous.

When they reached the playground, the
children were nowhere in sight. They perched themselves on their wall and
waited. As they looked out over the water, they were amazed at how still it
was. Neither of them had ever seen the lake without even the smallest of waves.

As the sun set low in the sky, they
watched the one spot on the lake where they had seen the light before. Like
clockwork, once the sun had completely set, the light came on. Now, however, it
didn’t move with the water. It sat completely still. Drew and Max knew what
they had to do.

As if reading each other’s minds, they
both jumped off the wall and ran back through the park. Once on the street,
they turned right and headed away from the city toward the beach. They ran as
hard as they could through the sand and when they hit the water part of them
expected to feel the cold water splash up at their faces.

The water didn’t budge and soon they
found themselves on top of the water, about fifteen yards out. They stopped and
looked back. Not wanting to waste any time, they hurried along toward the
light. Neither one of them wanted to think about the possibility of the game
going back to play and them being out in the open water.

The light was growing brighter but it
was still quite a way in the distance. Knowing how far they had run and how far
they still had to go, they decided to stop for a few minutes to catch their breath.
With the knowledge that the game could start back up at any moment, they
decided to lie on their backs. That way, if the water went back to being real
water, they would be ready to float.

After they rested for a short while,
they decided to get back on their feet and keep going. Knowing that at any
moment the game could change, they didn’t want to waste any more time. For a
short time, they felt as if they weren’t gaining any ground on the light, but
then it started getting bigger and brighter. They slowed to a walk but kept
moving. As they drew closer, they were more cautious not to make noise. They
had nowhere to hide and that made them nervous.

It was a yacht, larger than any they had
ever seen in person. It was definitely bigger than any boat at the harbor. From
their spot on the water, they could see that there were port holes lining the
entire side of the boat that was facing them. They moved to the side and tried
to avoid being directly in front of any of the round windows.

As they approached the yacht, they grew
even more nervous. As carefully as they could, they began looking through the
windows. The first two revealed an almost entirely dark state room that was
empty. They moved on to the next set of windows and saw a bank of large
monitors all showing different parts of the city. An empty chair sat in front
of the keyboard on the table.

They moved on to the last set of windows
and round another state room. This room, however, was not empty. The room was
almost totally dark, but they could make out a figure lying in the bed. Just
then, they saw a shadow of someone coming down the hall toward the room. They
moved out of sight of the window.

Hearts pounding, they knew they had come
upon the control center for the game. If only they could see who was in the
bed. That would give them the most important piece of the puzzle. Up until now
they had assumed that Adam was in charge, but now they had the person lying
right in front of them. They had to confirm who it was.

Slowly, they made their way around to
the back of the yacht and up the ladder that led to the ski deck. As Drew stood
on the deck, he dreaded having to turn his back to the large sliding doors that
led inside, but he wanted to make sure that Max made it up the ladder safely.
He bent down to take her hand and that’s when the shots rang out. Drew ducked
and Max lowered herself back down to the water.

Drew had to think quickly and decide if
he should stay aboard or go back with Max. Max said she was fine, so Drew
stayed low and slid the door open. Once inside he hid behind the couch and
tried to get his bearings. He spent a brief moment trying to get his heart rate
under control and then he started making his way through the room. Drew heard
more gun shots outside and knew Max was in trouble.

Knowing Max had plenty of lives left in
the game, he realized that he had no choice; he had to find the state room. He
had to know once and for all if Adam was the monster responsible for everything
going on. Inside, all was quiet. Just as he made his way to the steps he hoped
would bring him to the state rooms, he heard another shot. He felt himself
lunge forward. He could feel every step as he hit them.
No!
He screamed
to himself.
I’m almost there!

***

Drew opened his eyes and shot upright in
his bed. He reached over and felt for Max’s arm. They were both sitting
straight up in the bed. They quickly reached over and turned off the alarm
clocks. Then they spun their heads around and looked at each other.

“Can you believe it?” Max was the first
to speak. She was almost screaming. “We found the controls!”

“Yeah, but we still don’t know for sure
if it was Adam. I didn’t make it to the state room.”

“But at least now we know we have to
find a boat.”

“Sr. We need to talk to Sr.”

*****

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“I
know you said you and Adam fished together. Do you have a yacht?” Drew’s
question came as he walked through the front door. He didn’t take time to say
hello, he went right for it.

“We have a sport fishing boat. I would
hardly call it a yacht. Why?”

“In the game, we came across a yacht in
the lake. It looked to be the control center for the game.”

“My boat is just a typical sport fishing
boat. Yeah, it’s large, but by no means is it a yacht.”

Drew explained how they were able to
stand on the water and look into the state rooms. He described the room with
the monitors and the room with the sleeping person. He also described the ski
deck and the living room area that led to the stairs to go down to the state
rooms. Sr. confirmed that it was not his boat.

“I really wish it were my boat. I just
never could justify paying millions of dollars on a boat that I would only use
a few times a year.”

Max made sure that Sr. was comfortable
and that his needs were being met, and then they headed back to Drew’s place.
On the way back, they stopped in at The Bean. As much as they dreaded going
inside, they did have the best coffee and muffins in town. At home, they
grabbed their laptops and phones and headed up to the roof. It was such a
beautiful day; they decided not to let it go to waste.

They put in a call to the office and let
them know about the yacht. A search was ordered for any boats in any of the
names Adam used. They also verified that Sr. did in fact own a fishing boat and
that it was docked in San Francisco. They sipped their coffee while they
searched for docks on Lake Michigan, close to Chicago, that could house a yacht
the size they saw in the game. When they found what they were looking for, they
decided it was time for them to take a little field trip.

Once at the Belmont Harbor, they made
their way to the famous J-Dock. This is where the large boats are kept. Knowing
that there are yachts owned by judges, CEOs and even someone from the Chicago
Blackhawks at the J-Dock, they knew they would get to see some pretty fantastic
boats.

They went to the slip leasing office and
spoke with a very friendly woman. She informed them that at this time, all
slips were full and that they wouldn’t have any available all season. Not
wanting to give her any information about what they were looking for, they
asked if they could at least have a tour of the slips for future reference.

As they made their way from one slip to
the next, they realized that nobody was out on the water from J-Dock. All slips
were in fact full. The yacht farthest from the shore was almost as large as the
one they were looking for, so they knew it was possible for a harbor on Lake
Michigan to house it. They thanked the woman for her time.

On their way back through the harbor,
Drew saw a sign for boat rentals; he had an idea.

“Why don’t we rent one of these smaller
boats for a day or two.”

“Drew, we don’t have time for fun right
now.”

“No, hear me out. We can bring our
computers and work on the boat. I want to try heading out and see if we can
find the yacht.”

“Do you think we can? Lake Michigan is
huge with a good number of boats.”

“It can’t hurt trying.”

They decided to bring Sr. along with
them, as well as another agent just in case. They rented a rather large boat.
Not as large as the yacht they were looking for, but large enough for four
people to be comfortable. They packed up a few things and headed out to pick up
Sr. and the agent. The van dropped them off at the harbor and they made their
way to the boat they would be renting. They had no choice but to rent it for
the week, although they really hoped they wouldn’t need it that long.

Once aboard, they all got settled. They
had called ahead and had the boat stocked with the basics and ordered a special
lunch they could share before heading out. Sr. was truly excited to be
captaining this boat. It wasn’t much bigger than the one he was used to, but to
him it was much nicer. It had all of the latest technology and would be a
pleasure for him to captain.

After lunch they headed out into the
open water. Drew and Max knew that Lake Michigan was large, but they never
realized just how big it was until they were making their way further from the
shore. To them, it looked like they were in the ocean. Behind the boat they
could see the city skyline, and in front of the boat they saw nothing but open
water.

Drew examined the shoreline and spotted
the area that was pointing towards his house. He knew that from there he could
see the light in the water. He pointed in the direction he wanted Sr. to go and
then sat back and enjoyed the ride.

The water was fairly calm and the big
boat almost seemed to glide across the lake. Before long, the city grew smaller
and smaller and Drew wondered if they were out as far as the light they saw. He
asked Sr. to stop the boat and throw anchor. They would have to sit here until
the sun set and they could watch for the light. Once the boat was stopped and
Sr. came down on deck, they went about doing their own things for a while.

Drew and Max made some phone calls and
looked up a few things online. They received an email with a listing of all the
yachts on Lake Michigan. They couldn’t believe how many large boats were on the
lake. They sat on the deck with the list they printed out on their portable
printer and went through the names of the owners for each of the yachts. The
list was long because it contained the boats for Michigan, Indiana, Illinois
and Wisconsin.

They had made their way through almost
the entire list when they came to a name that seemed familiar to them: Cami
Lane. They couldn’t figure out why that name looked so familiar, so they
contacted the office and had them do a search on it to see what they could dig
up. The boat was registered in Michigan, which was all the information they had
right now, and they didn’t have their piles of research with them, so they
would have to wait to hear back from the office.

The boat they rented had an electric
grill on deck, so they decided to cook up some burgers and hotdogs. While they
ate, they enjoyed watching the sun set behind the city skyline. It was a
beautiful sight that none of them had ever gotten to see firsthand.

As the sky grew slowly darker, Drew and
Max grew more and more impatient. They were dying to see if they could find the
light from where they were. They knew that if they found the light, they
couldn’t act on it right away. They just needed to confirm whether it was in
fact a boat and hopefully get the name of the boat and it’s numbers. With that
information they would be able to move forward.

It seemed to take forever for the sun to
fully set, but once it did they were in for a treat. Not only did the city look
beautiful from the water, but they were able to see the light on the water that
they had seen from the roof of Drew’s house. They were nowhere near where they
thought it would be, but they were definitely closer.

Sr. was able to plot where he needed to
go and they decided that it would be best to leave in the morning to head that
way. Showing up at night would be way too obvious. If they went during the
light of day, they could slowly move right by it and use their binoculars to
get the boats identification. They would just look like another boat out on a
day cruise.

Once the decision had been made, they
decided to enjoy the cool evening air. After changing into some warmer clothes,
they all sat on deck. Even the other agent sat with them. He was keeping a
mental note of everything that stuck out to him and would relay it to Drew and
Max later. As the breeze picked up, the boat began to rock a bit more, but that
didn’t stop them from enjoying the night.

Sr. talked about what Adam was like as a
child. He admitted that he wished he had been around for Adam more while he was
growing up but that work had taken up so much of his time. He talked about how
they would bond on their fishing trips but that Adam had his own life on land.
While Sr. would work, Adam would ride his skateboard all over town and if he
wasn’t outside, he was in his room playing his video games.

They talked about the chips and
technology. Sr. felt like if it was really Adam doing this he had to have help
because the programming was so advanced. He was convinced that he couldn’t do
it on his own. Drew told Sr. about the online computer games he was a part of
hoping to show Sr. that Adam did have some computer knowledge, but Sr. still
wasn’t convinced.

“Those games are already programmed.
They’re easy. All you have to do is play along. The most you do is create the
character, the rest is you just guiding it through the game.” Sr. had a point.

Drew asked Sr. about Adams friends
growing up.

“Adam didn’t have any really good
friends, at least none he brought home. He had the guys he skateboarded with,
but he never even talked about them by name. He never had friends over after
school or for sleepovers. Even in high school he was pretty much a loner. By
the time he was a sophomore he had all but given up on boarding and went
strictly to gaming.”

Max was getting tired so she decided to
go down and get some sleep, making sure to set her alarm. Drew sat with Sr. and
finished his soda. After about half an hour they, too, went down to get some
sleep. Once Sr. was in his cabin, the agent pulled Drew aside and reported that
he hadn’t really heard anything that stuck out.

Drew went in by Max and she was still
awake. They talked for a few minutes about the day’s events and then they
turned out the lights. Before long, all on board were sleeping deeply.

*****