Whack! David slapped his neck. Something had stung him. He crushed the bug with his hand and brought the remains down in front of his eyes, but he couldn’t see through his blurred eyes. A tingle at the back of David’s neck took his attention away from Jesus hanging above him. What kind of insect had stung him?
David wiped his eyes and blinked several times, making a concerted effort to calm himself and clear his vision. He stared at the insect in his hand. It was still too blurry to make out in detail but he could see that it was a copperish color from front to back. He could also feel that it was hard and heavier than an insect should be. David blinked three times and on the third time, his vision cleared.
David looked at the bug and stood immediately to his feet. The insect in his hand was crushed, but he could make out its components…components on an insect? This was a machine! David saw infinitesimal wings made from a clear, ultra light polymer. He saw miniature gears that gave the robotic wonder life. He saw a hypodermic needle that served as a stinger and he saw the small, empty vial attached to it.
David felt his neck. It was swelling quickly and the tingling sensation was spreading down his spine. David’s eyes widened. LightTech was still trying to kill them, and this time they might succeed!
David ran from Golgotha without looking back. He sprinted down the hill and turned left toward Bethany, toward the home of Lazarus. Toward Tom.
David’s chest felt like it was going to explode, but not from running. He had covered the distance between Golgotha and Lazarus’s home in twenty minutes and now was only one hundred yards from his destination, but he wasn’t sure he would make it that far. His eyes were swollen so badly he couldn’t see more than a sliver of light. His thighs stabbed with pain. His calf muscles felt as though they were being twisted into knots. His arms were limp and his organs burned within him. LightTech had picked a powerful poison and it was working fast. David only hoped he could warn Tom in time.
“David!” Lazarus yelled from the home. “David, come quickly! You-”
As blood began to form a rim around his lower lip, David thought Lazarus must have noticed he was moving like the walking dead. But what worried David was that Lazarus sounded panicked before he saw that David wasn’t right. “Tom…” It was all David could say.
After covering the three-mile trek from Golgotha to Bethany, David couldn’t go another step. He fell to his knees with all his weight, tearing them open, blood mixing with dirt. Lazarus had starting running toward David an instant after he saw him, which was good, because he arrived just in time to catch David. Lazarus hoisted David over his shoulder and ran for the house like a linebacker.
The conversation between Mary and Martha was muffled and fading as David struggled to listen in. To makes things worse, Mary’s voice was quivering too much to tell what she was saying, and the ringing in David’s ears was growing louder. David suddenly felt himself lying on his back.
“Lazarus, what’s-” Martha said, though David couldn’t see her.
“He’s sick too.”
“What sickness is this? What could do this to a man?”
“I don’t know…”
“Mary should say goodbye.”
David struggled to make out the voices of Martha and Lazarus, but he understood the meaning of the conversation. He tilted his head to the left and saw Tom lying next to him. Tom looked dead already. What was left functioning in David’s brain became a turbine of confusion. This couldn’t be happening. David could die, but not Tom. Tom had to David heard the front door crash open.
“Who’s there?” he heard Lazarus yell.
David’s thoughts drifted. He no longer felt his body. He was floating in a black abyss and he saw the face of an angel floating above him, surrounded by a glowing white light… No, not an angel… It was Sally. He smiled and said, “I’ve missed you. Sorry I stayed away so long.” David laughed. He knew he was dying and that he was talking to a vision produced by his misfiring synapses. But he accepted it. He couldn’t imagine a nicer way to pass on than seeing her face again.
“I’m sorry I never told you,” David said.
“Told me what, David?”
David grinned ever wider. Now his hallucination was responding.
“That I love you,” he said.
“If you hang on and your friend doesn’t kill me you might get the chance.”
Now that was odd. What a strange thing for a hallucination to say. David suddenly realized that the voice he heard wasn’t inside his head; it was through the ringing in his ears, above it. An incredible sadness swept through what remaining senses David still processed. He realized that Sally wasn’t a vision. She was with him now, in the past, and he would never see her again. The ringing in David’s ears grew intolerable and waves of color danced in his vision. The last thing David felt before he slipped from the conscious world was a small prick on his limp arm.
With a flash, David felt his arms, legs and head. He could smell, taste and hear. His senses rushed back to him and reality slapped him in the face.
“Whoa, David,” said Lazarus.
David opened his eyes to find himself sitting up in bed with Lazarus holding his shoulders. “I’m alive.”
“Tom lives as well, though he still sleeps,” Lazarus explained.
“How?”
“A friend of yours, I think. From where it is you come from. We cannot understand her language.”
David felt a constriction in his throat, but not from the poison he had survived. “Where is she?” David asked.
“Outside.”
David made it from the bedroom to the front door in less than five seconds, but his feet became stuck to the ground at the sight of Sally, standing with her back to him, black hair blowing in the wind. She was wearing a tight, black outfit, from head to toe. Her gaze was toward Bethany at the bottom of the hill. It was an amazing view that David had often enjoyed, but it paled in comparison to the woman standing in front of him, who risked her own life to save his. He wanted to watch her, remember her every curve, drink in every hair on her head, but he couldn’t wait another second. He ran toward her as quick as he could. “Sally!”
With a burst of excitement and a bright smile, Sally turned around and saw David running toward her. She covered her smiling mouth and reached out for David. It was a response that was both unexpected and very welcome. David wrapped his arms around Sally and spun her in the air. For her it had been a day since they last saw each other. For David it had been three years, and he wouldn’t waste another second.
David returned Sally to her feet, gripped her by the waist, pulled her close and kissed her firmly on the lips.
Sally was shocked but surrendered her mouth to David and held him tight. She knew how long David had been gone. She knew how hard the past years must have been for him. His passion for her was tangible and with his kiss, she felt all the danger, mistrust and deception from the past day disappear.
David released Sally from his embrace and looked her in the eyes. They smiled at each other. “I’m sorry,” David said.
“Don’t be.”
“But… I don’t understand… How long have I been gone in your time?”
“Only a day.”
David squinted one eye and scratched his head. “A day? But yesterday you would have killed me for doing that.”
“A lot can change in a day.”
“And you came back to save us?”
Sally nodded. “I couldn’t let my two best scientists die, could I? It doesn’t make good business sense.”