Paradox (21 page)

Zac watched as his dad crumpled to the
ground and knew instantly what was choking him. One of the metallic,
serpent-like machines he had seen in the future now gripped his dad’s throat,
tightening just enough that his dad would have to struggle for air, but not
enough that he would pass out.

Zac raced over, trying to pry it loose,
realizing that it would be pointless, but attempting to nonetheless. Dr. Ryger
raised his hand and motioned for him to stay back; the boa was squeezing a bit
tighter every time he touched it. Had it somehow come with him when he brought
Emilee back?

A shadow appeared on the floor, spreading
over Dr. Ryger’s body. Bryce stepped around, smiling and holding something in
his hand.

“Amazing
things,
aren’t they?” he said. “I liked them so much I decided to take one with me
after I dropped Emilee off.” He walked closer. “But you interfered with that.
You had to be all brave and go save the day to prove your love for her.”

“How’d you get back?” Zac asked. “Your
Wand was destroyed.”

Bryce laughed. “Yeah, but Chen’s wasn’t.
Luckily, when he used his, he was nice enough to give me a lift back, too.” He
made a sweeping motion with his hand toward the other room where Chen lay
outside the platform. The door was wide open, and Chen lay crumpled in a heap,
beaten and bloody.

“Is he...?”

“Dead?”
Bryce
asked. “No, but he probably wishes he was after what I did to him. Let’s just
say he won’t be getting up for a while.”

“Bryce, please,” Zac pleaded. “You saw
what happened back there. You saw what you made me do. End this.”

“Don’t you see? That’s what I’m
trying
to do!” He lifted Dr. Ryger to his feet. “Now, what you’re going to do, Doc, is
you’re going to reprogram Chen’s Wand for
me
.” He tossed it to Zac. “And
then I’m going to take Zac back with me and make him watch your wife’s death
again and again. And then I’ll take
you
with me, and I’ll make
you
watch it over and over too.” He gave a smug smile. “I figured that if I
couldn’t kill you, then maybe I can make it so that you’ll actually
want
to find a way to change things. Let’s make TEMPUS a nightmare for you like it’s
been for me.”

“He’s not going to do it,” Zac said.

“Sure he will,” Bryce said, holding up the
gun. “When you got back, you left this out. Oops.” He turned to Dr. Ryger.
“Now, that thing around your neck is bad enough, and I’m going to make it
tighten a little bit every minute until you do what I say. And if you refuse,
I’m going to take away the only thing you have left.” He tucked the gun at his
side and patted Zac on the back.

Zac swatted his arm away.

Dr. Ryger nodded and held up his hand. He
stood up, coughing, and lifted himself into the chair in front of the computer.
Reaching out, he took the Wand from Zac and typed something into the computer.
He turned and gave Zac a knowing glance, motioning with his eyes slightly
toward the Wand.

Zac gave him a confused look.

His dad shoved the Wand into Zac’s hand
and clasped his own hands over Zac’s, manipulating his fingers in a strange
way. He squeezed Chen’s Wand tightly between Zac’s
fist
and nodded, then typed at the keys again.

“Now get it set to take me back so I can
watch your wife die,” Bryce said, making the mechanical snake tighten more. He
grabbed the Wand from Zac and held it, balancing it in the palm of his hand.

Dr. Ryger winced as he pressed the keys,
then
gave a nod.

“Come say goodbye.” He led them to the
chamber. “Don’t worry; I’ll have him home soon.” Bryce held up a remote,
pressing a button. The mechanical boa fell to the ground, and Zac’s dad gulped
in a huge breath of air. He nodded to Zac.

“So long,” Bryce said, and pressed the top
of the Wand. Nothing happened. He looked closely at it; the lights were all
lit. He pressed it again.

Zac took this opportunity to elbow Bryce
in the face, then spun around behind him and put him in a stranglehold. “Give
it up, Bryce.” He lowered Bryce to the ground so it would be difficult for him
to get up.

Bryce struggled, grabbing at Zac’s
forearm, trying to pry it away from his neck. He tried to speak but couldn’t.
“Double-crossed…” was all he could whisper, glaring at Dr. Ryger.

Dr. Ryger approached the platform. “I’m
sorry for all the pain I’ve caused you,” he said. “I never meant it to be that
way. Let me help you. We can figure something out.”

Bryce growled in rage. “No!” he yelled,
lurching forward. “It’s too late! My life is already ruined!” He began to weep.

“Bryce,” Dr. Ryger said, “I can’t change
the past for you. But everything’s going to be okay.” He looked to Zac and
nodded.

Zac seemed to understand what he needed to
do, and pried the Wand from Bryce’s grip.

“Now, Zac!” his dad yelled.

Bryce grabbed the gun at his side and
raised it, firing at Dr. Ryger. He dropped the gun, and Zac pressed the top of
the Wand. The room vanished.

They stood in a small room with pale white
walls on all sides. Bryce fell to the ground, gasping. He spun around.

“Where did you take me?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Zac said. “I didn’t
program it; my dad did.”

Bryce lunged at him, and he sidestepped,
letting Bryce fall to the ground. He shook with sobs and lay there.

“I just wanted to make the pain go away,”
he said. “I just wanted it to go away.” He continued crying as Zac backed away
from him.

Zac had no idea where they were, or when,
but he knew his dad had programmed it for a reason. He held up the Wand and
stepped out of Bryce’s reach.

Bryce turned and reached up. “Don’t leave
me here,” Bryce pleaded. “I don’t know where this is. Please!”

“I’m sorry,” Zac said. “I can’t fix what
happened to you in the past, but I can keep you from messing with the future.”
He took a step back. “Goodbye.”

“No,” Bryce said, getting to his feet.
“You can’t do this!”

Zac pressed the top of the Wand, and with
a ripple of light, vanished from Bryce’s sight.

Zac arrived back in the chamber and stared
out from the glass. His father was crumpled against the wall, a blood stain
soaking his shirt on his abdomen. Zac stared in horror momentarily, then forced
open the shattered door and ran over to him.

“Dad?”

His dad grunted, clutching his stomach.

“Hang in there. I can get you help.” He
looked over at Chen, who was now stirring. “Chen, can you help? Do something,
please!”

Chen was still dazed. He looked over and
raised his head, but was too weak to move. He collapsed again.

Zac was frantic. “Dad, I need to run and
get you some help. I’ll be right back!” He stood to leave but felt a tug on his
arm. His dad was looking up at him, his eyes indicating that he wanted to say
something. “What?” Zac said, bending down closer.

“…
to
tell you
something…”

Zac tried standing up again. “Tell me when
we get help,” he said. “Just hang on!”

His dad made a gurgling noise, like he was
trying to talk louder but couldn’t.

“Stay…” he said. “…time to go…”

Zac shook his head, eyes filling with
tears as he understood what his dad was asking him to do. “No,” he said. “It’s
not time yet.” His mind’s eye flashed to the gravestone he had seen in the
future.
Today’s date.

“…help for Bryce…” he said. “…don’t
abandon… still hope…”

“Bryce is gone,” Zac said. “He can’t do
anything. Please, Dad, stay with me.”

His dad’s eyes started to close, but Zac
gently shook him. “Dad…
Dad?”

Dr. Ryger opened his eyes again. His voice
was barely a whisper as the life drained out of him. “…
some
things… meant to be…”

A silent tear rolled down Zac’s cheek, and
he sniffed, wiping the tear away. He pulled his dad in close and hugged him.

“…love you, Zac,” he said.
“Proud of you.”
He exhaled slowly and within moments, he was
gone.

Zac stood over the grave site as the
mourners left, each one offering their condolences to Zac and letting him know
how sorry they were. Everyone said they knew how he felt, or said they knew it
must be hard to lose both parents, but they really had no idea when it boiled
down to it.

No one could say they knew how he felt,
not really. No one there could say they witnessed both of their parents gunned
down in front of their eyes, let alone that they were responsible for one of
them. He felt better once everyone started leaving. Only Chen and Emilee stayed
behind.

Chen hobbled over on his crutches, his leg
in a cast.

“How are you doing?” Zac asked him. Chen’s
leg was broken, and he had a cracked rib. Bryce had given him a concussion, and
he had to be in the hospital for the past two days. Luckily, the doctors said
he would be fine.

“I’m more worried about you,” Chen said.
“How are
you
doing?”

Zac shrugged. “I’ll be fine. I guess it
doesn’t hurt to think like my dad in situations like this.” He offered a fake
smile. “That we’re all just pawns of fate who have no control over our lives.”

Emilee walked up and held Zac’s hand. “You
have control,” she said. “We all do.”

Zac shook his head. “I don’t know.
Maybe.
So do you think it was fate that Rock was attacked
like that? That everything that happened to us these past two weeks was all
supposed to lead up to this?”

“We’ll never know,” Emilee said. “All
that’s clear is the future. Even Rock accepts that he can only keep looking
ahead. He’s going to make a full recovery, at least. And because of his
injuries, doctors were able to analyze the proteins found in the venom. They
think they may be able to use it to make some advances in medicine. He says he
wishes he could be here.”

“Thanks,” Zac said.

“So where is Bryce right now?” Chen asked.

Zac started walking toward his car, and
they followed. “He’s in a hospital.
A place where he can get
counseling.
When I took him there and left him, it was only one hour in
the past, so it’s not like he’s in a different time period or anything.”

“That was smart,” Emilee said. “When I
told your dad what was happening, he wanted to find a place for Bryce to get
help. He said that he was going to talk to Bryce and take him there himself if
he could, but it was too late by then.”

Zac gave a small smile. “Even in his last
moments, my dad didn’t want me to give up on Bryce.”

“They were pretty close,” Emilee said.
“Bryce saw your dad as a father figure because he never had one growing up. And
he kind of became a rebellious son. He couldn’t lash out at his real dad, so he
targeted the person he was closest to. Someone he knew would still care about
him no matter what he did.”

Bryce sat in his room, reading. It had
been a month since he had been left at the counseling center. The staff was
confused as to how he had gotten there, and they just assumed that he had
checked himself in. At first, he denied it and fought against their efforts,
but he knew that if he started talking about time travel and wormholes, he
would be committed. He chose to cooperate.

He was starting to doze off when a voice
woke him.

“Hi, Bryce.”

He thought it was a counselor, but when he
looked up, he was surprised to see Zac standing in his room.

“Zac?” he asked. He felt relief at the sight
of him. But something was different. Zac was different.

“How are you?” Zac asked. His voice was
deeper, older. He had a small beard now, stubble of facial hair covering his
chin and face.

“What… what happened?” Bryce asked. “How’d
you get in here? I didn’t hear anyone let you in.”

Zac moved closer. Bryce stepped back,
afraid Zac would do something to harm him.

“Five years happened,” Zac said. “For you,
it’s been… what?
A month or two?”

Bryce nodded.
“A little
over a month.
Yeah.”

Zac looked away. “Bryce, for the past five
years, I’ve lived with the burden of watching my mom die at my own hand.
Of having my father die in my own arms.”

Bryce hung his head in sadness. “I’m
sorry,” he said. “I know that doesn’t mean anything, but if I could go back and
stop myself from what I did, I would.”

“That’s not the point,” Zac said. “I’ve
had a lot of time to think. Five years gives a person a lot of time to reflect
on what’s important in life.”

Bryce was on guard, not sure where Zac was
going with this.

“So why are you here?”

Zac turned, looking him square in the
eyes. “You ruined just about every aspect of my life,” he said. “I trusted you.
You were supposed to help me, but instead, you made my life miserable.”

Bryce was silent.

“I spent years fighting the thought of getting
even with you, ways I could make you feel the way you made me feel.” He sat
down and softened his tone. “But after all that time, I realized that no matter
what I did, it wouldn’t bring my parents back. You already suffered through the
loss of your mom. If I did something worse, it wouldn’t make my life any
better.”

“Again, Zac, I’m sorry. The people here
have helped me so much in this short time.”

Zac held up his hand to stop Bryce.
“Here’s what I decided to do,” Zac said. “When I went back to stop you, and I
saw my mom again, I felt so good. It was like a second chance to see her again,
even though it was short-lived. But those precious minutes were like another
lifetime to me. I’ve thought about it, and I’ve realized that the only way I
could truly heal would be to help you heal.”

Bryce stared at him, curious. “What do you
mean?”

“I’m going to give you a second chance,
Bryce. I’m going to let you see her again.”

“But I can’t change anything.”

“No,” Zac said, “but we can at least look
at that moment in the past and treasure it, holding it forever.” He held out
the Wand he had used. “I’m going to take you to let you see her. But it’s just
that; you are not supposed to interact with her or tell her who you are. Got
it?”

Bryce smiled and nodded.
“Seriously?
After all I’ve done, you’d do this for me?”

“Yes,” Zac said. “My dad’s last request
was that I don’t give up on you. And if he cared that much about you, so should
I.”

Zac put his arm around Bryce’s shoulder as
if they were old friends and pressed the button on the Wand.

The street they arrived on was part of an
older town. Bryce estimated it had to be about twenty years ago or so. The
signs were different, and in the old downtown square, music played over the
speakers.

“Where are we?” he asked. Zac led him
across the town square and in front of a store with a “Now Hiring” sign. The
store had a banner across the front window declaring that it was open
for business; they hadn’t even put up the name of the store yet.

“Come on,” Zac said. “And remember what I
told you.” He pushed open the door, and the bell rang to indicate a customer
was present.

Sweet smells of a bakery filled the air,
and Bryce breathed them in deeply. “Can we stop to eat?” he asked. “This smells
great, and I could go for something different.”

“Sure,” Zac said. He sat down at a table.

Bryce pulled up a chair and admired the
old building. “So what are we doing here?” he asked. He looked at the glass
case that displayed the freshly-cooked pastries. There were cupcakes with
mounds of icing, donuts with pink frosting, cake donuts, donut holes… he wanted
to sample every kind.

“You told me your mom used to go to a
donut shop every day, right?”

“Yeah,” Bryce said. “But I never knew
where it was.”

Zac smiled. “I did a little searching, and
I believe that you’re sitting in it.”

Bryce froze. He spun around and looked at
the door. “You mean… you mean my mom could walk through that door any minute?”

“Exactly,” Zac said. “But we’re only here
so you can see her, not talk to her.”

“I know, I know,” he said, both excited
and grateful. “I know the rules.” It was like a completely different Bryce was
sitting before him, one that was happier even than when Zac first met him. He
tapped his feet and looked back and forth expectantly.

No one came. After half an hour, he
started to give up hope.

“Maybe it’s the wrong one,” Zac said. “I’m
sorry.”

Bryce’s shoulders sunk. “It’s okay,” he
said. “I appreciate the fact that you at least came to me. I still can’t
believe that you’d do something nice for me.”

Zac shrugged. “I’ve had five years to
think about it. The ‘me’ running around in your present is still bitter, still
angry at having to live with relatives.” He pushed in his chair.

A sound from the back of the shop made
them turn. A short man wearing a blue button-up shirt and black pants walked
out.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t even
hear you two come in. How long have you been waiting?”

“Oh, not long,” Zac said. “We were just
about to head out, though.”

“Don’t go,” the manager said. “The person
I hired told me today that he took another job, so right now it’s just me. I’ve
been trying to find someone who can help out, but I haven’t found anyone. No
chance either of you guys could give me a hand for an hour or so, could you?”
He offered them a hopeful smile.

Bryce turned to Zac and shrugged. “I don’t
have any place to be,” he said. “I’ve got all the time in the world, really.”

Zac gave him a stern look, but then
relented. “One hour,” he said. “Then we really need to get going.”

The manager beamed and led Bryce behind
the counter, tossing him an apron. “All you need to do is chat up the customers
and feed them,” he said. “Make them feel at home so they come back. I’ll go get
you an apron. Be right back.” He disappeared through the door into the kitchen.

The bell to the front door rang, and a
young woman clothed in a red dress adorned with flowers walked in. Her stomach
protruded slightly, bulging just above her waist.

“Hi, can I help you?” Bryce asked,
then
stopped when he looked up. A smile spread across his
face, bigger than one Zac had ever seen, and his tone changed.
“Um… how about a donut on the house this morning?”

“Really?” the woman asked. “That’s sweet!”

“Well,” Bryce said, “it looks like you’re
eating for two
right
now anyway. And you’re our first
customer of the day.”

The woman continued smiling and stood next
to the counter, her pregnant belly pressing against the glass.

“I’m Bryce,” he said. He couldn’t believe
he was seeing her again. She looked so young and radiant. And she was here, standing
right in front of him, talking to him again.

“Kathryn,” she said.
“Nice
to meet you.”

Bryce looked at Zac, who motioned for him
to talk in private.

“Uh, would you excuse me?” he asked. “I
need to talk with that gentleman for a moment, and then I’ll be right with you.”

“Sure,” she said. Her smile was as
beautiful as he remembered it.

Bryce hurried over to Zac. “It’s her,” he
said. His eyes began filling with tears. “And I can’t even go over and hug her.”

“I know,” Zac said, placing his hand on
Bryce’s shoulder.

“No,” Bryce said, recoiling from Zac’s
touch. “Not now, please. Let me talk to her a little longer. I don’t want to
just see her and go back. I want to spend more time here.”

“Bryce,” Zac said, putting his hand back
on his shoulder, “I don’t think you see what’s happening here.”

“What do you mean?” Bryce asked.

Zac smiled. “I think you’re going to be
doing a lot of talking with her from now on.”

Bryce stood there, unsure of what Zac was
talking about. Finally, the realization hit him. “You mean...”

“Yeah,” Zac said. “I think this is how you
got your name.”

Bryce’s lip was quivering now. “You won’t
make me go back? I can stay here?”

“I think so,” Zac said. “But you have to
make a promise that you won’t try to change anything.
That
you’ll just live a normal life.”

Bryce turned to look at his mother, who
was examining all of the donuts under the glass. “Every day,” he whispered.

“Every day,” Zac said.
“Just
like you said.”

“But why?
Why are
you letting me do this?”

“Because,” Zac said, “I’ve come to see
that my dad might have been right. Some things are meant to be.” He slapped
Bryce on the back. “Good luck,” he said.

Zac watched as Bryce walked over to his
mother again. The two of them talked, and he could see the love radiating
between them. He was being given a second chance. Bryce said he was named after
a man who cared about his mother, the man who made an impact on her heart and
soul. The same man who would make her
feel
like the
most important person in the world. Zac now knew why that was.

As Zac stepped out of the donut shop and
onto the sidewalk, he turned and waved goodbye. Bryce and his mom waved back,
and Zac knew that Bryce was at home now, here in this time and place. This is
where Bryce would spend the rest of his days, where he was always meant to.
Some things can never be changed.