May 4 – Aftermath

That’s strange, Kevin thought as he walked down the street.  I wonder what that means.  As he walked, he noticed that the people ahead of him had a bit of a glow over their head.  As he walked, more people appeared to have the glow.

He stopped in his tracks in front of the furniture store.  He looked at his reflection and saw no glow, but there was in front of the man walking out of the store.

“Excuse me,” he said to the person who ran into him and walked off mumbling.  As Kevin watched him, he realized the glow was like a clock’s glow in the middle of the night.  Except the time was going backwards like a timer winding down.  The man who had run into him had the number 1:30 above his head.  As Kevin watched the number quickly ran down, 1:29, 1:28, 1:27. Kevin realized that it was one minute and seconds.  Weird he thought as he began to walk away.  He had taken just a few steps when he heard a scream and the squeal of brakes. Turning, his questioning glance turned to horror.

As he watched, a furniture delivery truck was flying down the street out of control.  It bounced off a parked car and then suddenly swerved toward the sidewalk.  Kevin wanted to run but he was rooted to the sidewalk.

The delivery truck flew across the sidewalk, hit a person and continued into the plate glass window of the furniture store.  The exact spot that Kevin had just stood in. The truck disappeared inside of the store.  Kevin forced himself into action and ran to the window.

Carefully, he jumped the broken glass and leapt into the store.  He stopped immediately once in the store.  The living room sectionals lay tossed about as if they were children’s blocks.  Furniture was scattered as if an explosion had taken place.

Carefully Kevin stepped across the furniture shards.  Not an inch of flooring was uncovered.  He noticed the silence save for the ticking of the cooling motor of the delivery truck that tipped nose down into the stairway to the basement closeout center.

He did not see another person about.  “Hello,” he called.  “Is there anyone here?” Without hearing a sound, he kept stepping slowly toward the front of the vehicle.  He tripped and had to push against a head board to keep himself up right as he tripped.  As he steadied himself he noticed that there was a suit pan leg that he was standing on.

He gasped and stumbled back.  “Help me,” he yelled.  “Someone call an ambulance!”  Kevin reached down and grabbed the leg, “Are you okay?”  There was silence.  Kevin quickly evaluated that the owner of the leg was under the truck.  He did not want to do anything to injure the man any further so he moved on to see if there was anyone else.

Watching more carefully now, he made his way toward the front of the truck. Kevin stepped over the debris to the driver’s window and saw that the driver had not survived, his chest pierced by the steering wheel.  Noticing that there was no blood around the man’s face, he suspected that he was already dead when he hit the store.  Most likely a heart attack, he thought.

No one was in the passenger seat.  Stepping toward to front of the vehicle, he was surprised to find another pair of legs.  This person was covered with several works of art that had hung on the wall above.  He stooped and quickly pulled the frames off of the man.  Kevin stepped back in shock as he recognized the face he had uncovered.  It belonged to the man who had bumped into him.  Kevin quickly checked his pulse and found none.  He did not think he would find one considering the objects sticking out of his body.

Rising, Kevin looked around and listened.  Surely there should be other employees here.  He could faintly hear a sound.  “Where are you?” he called.  When he did not hear a response, he called out again.  “Keep talking to me,” he called.  “I will find you.”

Kevin made his way through the wreckage toward the faint sound of the voice.  “Hold on,” he called.  As he drew closer, he began to pick up his pace.  He could see the woman’s form on the ground.  Kneeling by her side, he was shocked to see the glow above her head.

“No, oh no,” he said horrified as he watched the glow’s numbers.  05:20.  “No, you can’t.  You will be all right,” he insisted.

“Tell them,” she whispered.

“Tell them what?”

“Please let them know that I love them,” she said.  “I was always so proud of them.  I promise to always watch them.”

“You can tell them your self at the hospital,” he said as he brushed her bloodied hair from her eyes.

“That is kind of you, but I know I will not make it,” she tried to smile but was interrupted by a cough.  As she coughed gently, blood flowed between her lips.

“No, you will be okay.  Some one has called for help,” he insisted. He checked the glow above her head.  It now read 2:00.

“Please, hang in there,” he said stubbornly.  “What is your name?”

“Rose, my name is Rose.  Tell my children that I loved them,” she whispered.

“Don’t say that.  You will have more time with them,” he said but his confidence faltered.  The sound of sirens pierced the air.  “See, help is on the way,” he said.

“It is too late,” she said as her eyes closed.

“Come on, Rose.  Stay here with me,” he insisted.

As Kevin watched, her glow counted down.  When the glow read “0:30”, it began to dim.  After he saw “0:01”, all was dark.

He knew she was gone and stood slowly, unfolding his body as if he was a much older man.  Kevin turned toward the window as he saw the paramedics come through the window.  A police officer appeared by his side and suggested that he should go out side.  The building was likely not safe.

Blindly, Kevin allowed himself to be taken outside.  The officer escorted him to the back of the nearest fire truck and encouraged him to sit.  “Are you all right sir?”

“Yes, I am fine.  I am not hurt, if that is what you think.”

“Can you answer a few questions for me?”

Kevin nodded and answered the questions as honestly as he could.  He did not really see what had happened, only the after math.  When he began answering the questions, his gaze had been focused on his feet.  When he looked at the officer, he noticed he had a glow as well.  This one had a much bigger number 304432:35.  Kevin tried to do the math.  If 304432 was the number of hours, this man had a long life ahead of him.  Kevin looked around at the others nearby. He noticed some very large numbers and some not so large.

“Why am I seeing this?” he muttered.

“Seeing what, sir?” the officer asked.

“I am about to ask a really stupid question of you, but do you see anything above my head?”

“No. I do not.”

Kevin nodded sadly.

“Should I have seen something,” the officer asked puzzled.

“No, I am sorry.  I told you it was stupid,” Kevin said.

“Are you sure you are okay?  Did you hit your head?”

“No, really.  I am fine.  Is there anything else you need from me?”

“I have your contact information record here.  Someone will call if we need anything further.  You can go.  Do you need me to call someone for you?”

Kevin shook his head and stood and began walking to the crime scene tape.  There an officer lifted it up and let him through.  As he walked away, a camera person stepped in front of him thrusting a camera in his face.  “Can you tell me what happened,” she asked.

He looked up at the glow above her head.  The number there was less than one hundred.

“Do you have children,” he asked.  “Or a husband?”

“Um, yes,” she said.  “Can you tell us what you saw?”

“Go home and love them.  Tell them how much you love them.  This job isn’t worth it.  Your time is short.  Too short to waste.”

Kevin walked away not seeing the look of shock on the woman’s face.  Unbeknownst to him, the number above her head started to reverse.  The reporter handed her microphone to the camera man and began to follow Kevin.

“Why did you say that,” she asked him as she caught up with him.  “Is there something you can tell me about why you said that?”

“Your time is short,” he began.  He looked to her glow and saw the number was over one thousand now and rising.  “Are you quitting your job?”

“I have been thinking about it for awhile,” she admitted.

“Do it.  Whatever you do, just do it.”

The former reported grabbed Kevin by the arm and pulled him down to her.  She kissed his cheek, muttered a thank you and quickly strode away.  The opposite direction from the television station’s van.  As Kevin watched, her numbers were now over 50,000.

As Kevin walked away, he decided that there must be a reason he was able to see these clocks.  He decided he had just learned why.