Mapping the Silence of Dreams Page 5

removed the rod. Once he did, the first creature sailed through the air at him in a long leap from the other side of the room. As he reached Palmer, he received a blow to the head with the hot side of the rod. Falling back, he hit the floor hard and did not get back up.

  The other creature came at Palmer at a careful pace, but once he reached him the security man's foot came up and kicked the creature in the head. As the creature fell down, Palmer jabbed the hot poker into the man's head, burning a hole right through the creature's skull. He died in pain.

  Palmer rushed over to the woman and examined her for a moment. He had to make sure that she was human, not another one of the creatures just waiting for him to free it for round two. Convinced she was human, he freed her from her chains. "My name is Harris Palmer," he said. "Who are you?"

  "My name is Alice," she said. "I have been trapped since some man brought me into the Dark Lands. His wife left me here to be tortured by these evil creatures."

  "You're safe now," said Palmer. "We'll head back to the Outside."

  "But my body," she said. "What about it?"

  "We'll worry about that later," said Palmer. "Let's just get out of here before more of these creatures come back."

  Alice followed him out of the building and back onto the main road. The two of them only made it a couple of meters before a strong wind attacked them and threw them back to the Dark Lands.

  "Wrong," said a voice from behind them, from the Dark Lands. Palmer turned around to see the gunfighter. "You are not about to escape that easily."

  Palmer looked around, hoping for a way out of this situation. He knew the gunfighter was powerful, and he had no idea how to escape from him. "What do you want from me?"

  "You are taking my wife's property," he said, pointing to Alice. "She belongs to my wife for all eternity."

  "No," said Palmer. "She is of another world. She does not belong here."

  "Then you will fight for her," said the gunfighter. "That's the only way you're going to get her out of here alive."

  Palmer turned to Alice quickly. "Do you know where your body is?"

  "What do you mean?" she said.

  Palmer through to himself for a moment. There appeared to be a string that was pulling him back to his own body constantly while he was in the dreamland. "Do you have a pulling to your old body?"

  She thought about it for a second before she nodded. "I believe I can identify where my body is."

  "Good," he said. "Go to it. I will try to hold him here."

  No, Harris. That is not a good idea. The gunfighter can still return to our world with John's body.

  "That other woman has my body," said Alice. "I cannot return to it while she is in it."

  "You can't stay here," said Palmer. "Get out of here."

  "No one goes anywhere," said a voice from behind the two of them, from the direction of the Outside. The voice came from the gunfighter's wife. She smiled as she moved forward. "That is my pet you are trying to steal, young man."

  Both the gunfighter and his wife moved in on the two people from the Outside. As the surrounded couple looked around, it was obvious that there was no escape. If there was going to be a showdown, it was going to be here.

  "I know where my body is," said Alice after a couple of seconds. "I feel the pull again. It came back right before she appeared."

  "Where is it?" said Palmer quickly.

  "The shopping center," she said. "It's in the arcade that's closed for remodeling."

  "Did you get that?" said Palmer.

  Got it.

  "Prepare to die, outsiders," said the gunfighter. "You've trespassed for your last time."

  Dr. Fenster rushed to the shopping center, realizing the place was preparing to close for the evening. Rushing through the door as a guard warned him of the closing time, he glanced at a display map and then ran for the arcade. Finding the main door locked, he smashed the glass in and then entered the place. Walking by the flashing lights of various arcade games, he came across the bodies of Alice and John.

  "You can't win," said Palmer to the gunfighter. "We will defeat you."

  "You cannot defeat me," said the gunfighter. "I have found my way back to the real world. As a matter of fact, once you are dead, I will have one of my friends take your place. You actually made my job even easier."

  "That will not be possible," said Palmer. "Your game is about to end."

  As the gunfighter moved forward, Palmer rushed at him and knocked him down to the ground. Taken by surprise, the gunfighter was unable to fight off the attack as Palmer began to hit him with his fists over and over again. After only a couple of seconds, the gunfighter, unable to conjure up enough energy for an attack, screamed for his wife to assist him. Without a second thought, she came at Palmer with a fury, her eyes glowing red with tremendous power.

  Palmer continued to hit the gunfighter with his fists, but smiled when he realized Alice had used the diversion to escape. She was already down the road and gone before the two Dark Lands people realized it. Even though Alice escaped, this didn't make Palmer's problem any easier.

  Now there were two of them and only one of him.

  When Alice came to, Fenster nearly jumped out of his skin. Staring at her for a second, he realized she was the real Alice. "Are you all right?" he said.

  She nodded her head yes. "That other man is about to be killed. Those two will be able to come back using his body any second now."

  Fenster shook his head no. "They will not be coming back through this body." He took a knife and slashed it through John's dormant neck. The body went limp and died. "There's only one person coming back this time."

  She nodded. "But who will come back?"

  "I'm hoping for Harris," he said. "However, let's go back to the lab. If the wrong one comes back, we'll have to kill him before he comes to."

  Palmer's only advantage was the fact that he was on top of the gunfighter. Because of this, the woman would not release her energy at him. She realized that she might kill both of them, and that was definitely not part of the plan.

  As Palmer pulled the gunfighter closer to him, the two of them rolled around on the ground. He continued rolling them over each other, knowing that any hesitation would give the woman the aim she needed. In order to live, he had to insure the fight continued, even if it meant continuing until he was too exhausted to move.

  Unfortunately, the gunfighter jerked his head to the side to miss Palmer's latest hit. Before Palmer could hit again, the gunfighter jabbed Palmer in the stomach, knocking him back from him. This gave the woman an open opportunity to fire a blast at him.

  The blast whipped through the air and hit Palmer on the arm, knocking him to the ground and into a bed of rocks. As he fought himself to get back up, he felt a rock come loose in his hands, coming up with him.

  "Prepare to die, mortal," said the witch. Her eyes glowed yellow as she conjured up the energy to dispatch Palmer to another plane of existence.

  Not about to be killed, Palmer threw the rock at the woman. It hit her in the head and knocked her back to the ground. She wasn't killed, but she also wasn't about to get back up again.

  The gunfighter watched his woman drop and then turned back to face Palmer who was only several feet away from him. "Your death will be so unpleasant, you'll wish it happened before you were born." His hands started to glow red with anger.

  "Wrong," said Palmer as he jumped into the air and jerked his foot into the gunfighter's head, knocking him back. Before the gunfighter could recover, Palmer's other foot came sailing around and hit him again, throwing the gunfighter to the ground, woozy and unable to respond.

  Using this moment to his advantage, Palmer ran down the trail until he found the sky around him blue again. Knowing that the gunfighter only had a second before he would follow, he leaped through the air and rushed for the tunnel that led to his body.

  The gunfighter took a couple of seconds to reco
ver from the blow, but then he realized what happened. The man was heading back for his body. If that happened, he was sure to lose him.

  Then the gunfighter smiled. If he lost the man, he would only have to wait for him to appear in the Outside again. After all, he still had John's body out there. That was when he realized he no longer felt the pull of the body. Something had happened to it.

  Rushing for the Outside, he realized that Palmer's body was his only hope of keeping out of the Dark Lands for an eternity again. However, as he reached the border of the Dark Lands, he found himself unable to continue. The border threw him back into the darkness, cutting him off from the light.

  He was trapped once again. All had been lost.

  Palmer woke up and looked at Fenster who was standing over him with his own revolver aimed to fire. "Uh, is that necessary, Doc?"

  "Is that you?" said Fenster, still not convinced it was safe to let the man get up. The gunfighter was known to be quite resourceful.

  "It's me, Dr. Fenster."

  Fenster put the weapon aside and let Palmer up. "Is it over?" said Fenster.

  "Did you get the other body?"

  "Dead," said Fenster. "Of course, there will be a lot of explaining to do in the morning. I'm sure every security guy in the mall saw me break into that arcade. Once the dead body is found, my career is over."

  "We'll find some way to explain it," said Palmer. "The guys over there can cover it up if I convince them it's for a good cause."

  "Seriously?"

  "I've done them quite a few favors