3WW (Fragile, Rampant, Tremor): Outta Time

Darren walked into his apartment building and checked the mail, which consisted of supermarket flyers, a credit card bill he didn’t want to think about, and a Netflix movie. After such a long day, the fact that he wasn’t a Netflix subscriber didn’t immediately strike a chord. In fact, it wasn’t until he reached the second floor the six story walk-up that the fact dawned on him. That’s when he paused and glanced at the front of the envelope. It was the right address, his address, but there was no name; in place of the name were the words ‘Free Time’ in big black block letters, which he didn't understand.

He trudged up the remaining five flights and extracted the keys from his pocket. They jangled for a moment before he found the right one. It slipped into the lock and turned the deadbolt. The apartment smelled of something rotten. He dropped his bag and threw the mail on the table in the front hall. It took some time, but he found the decomposing rat beneath his bed.

With his broom Darren inched the rat to where he could reach it with the dust pan. With slow, deliberate movements he inched the rat onto the metal. He made the mistake of bringing the rat closer to his face to look at it; what he saw were the headless scalped and flayed remains of what might have been a rat, mouse, gerbil, or guinea pig. An involuntary tremor struck his body, and he almost dropped the dust pan. After that moment of pure emotional panic, he regained composure and tried to think about the situation logically. First, he knew that the ‘thing’ hadn’t been under his bed when he had left that morning; there was no chance he wouldn’t have smelled it then, especially in its present state. Second, he knew for a fact that only he and the super had access to the keys since he had personally seen the super install a new lock.

The second step was all he needed to take his first in the investigation. He dumped the ‘thing’ into a plastic Safeway bag, which he put into a second plastic Safeway bag. He tied the handles and plummeted down the stairs and out the back door to the dumpster where he rid himself of the putrid carcass. He then bounded up the stairs to the third floor and knocked on apartment C2, the super’s home. A young woman of no more than 20 opened the door. Her eyes and cheeks were similarly red. In broken English, she explained that her father had fallen from a ladder and was in a coma in the hospital. Darren apologized and slowly climbed the stairs back to his apartment.

The rampant carcass stench hit him as he entered; he felt the vomit reach the back of his throat before he swallowed hard. He proceeded to open every window in the apartment; he preferred the damp, cold air to the smell of death.

Darren sat on the microfiber couch and contemplated his next steps. Off the bat, he had two options, i.e. he could stay or leave. Staying was the optimal choice as leaving meant that he had to explain the situation to either a friend or a family member, which he wasn’t quite ready to do. There were too many skeletons in his past that could haunt him.

Once he made the decision to stay, he blocked the front door with two boxes of books and pulled the silver fungo from his bat bag. After a short time, he closed and locked the windows. The apartment had been secured. He sat again. It was then that Darren noticed the red envelope peeking out from the beneath the flyers. He ripped the perforated edge and slid the disc out of the envelope. On the disk was the word ‘fragile’ obviously written by hand. There was no indication of what the disc contained.

He put the disc in his DVD player and pressed play. He saw the ‘Universal’ introduction followed by the opening credits for Back to the Future. And the ticking. Except the ticking was accompanied by a dubbed voice. ‘If you don’t listen to me,’ the voice explained, ‘then we’ll both be outta time. I need you to take the disc out of the DVD player and put it back into the Netflix sleeve. You will then put it into your jacket pocket. You will take the silver fungo, open the window to the fire escape, climb down the fire escape, and head to your friend Ella’s house. After she has gone to sleep, you will put this disc into her DVD player, and I will explain what you must do next.’ Darren stood paralyzed, uncertain what to do, believe, or think.

In the next moment, there came a chaotic cacophony from what seemed to be every direction. The television erupted with the sound of chimes, bells, and cuckoos. The voice screamed, ‘Go, now!’ And there came from the front door a bellowing thud.
Darren quickly took the disc from the player, slipped it into the sleeve, and put the sleeve in his jacket. He then grabbed the fungo, unlocked the window leading to the fire escape, and fled down the ladder. When he reached the bottom, he heard an explosion come from above and saw a small burst of flame come from the open window in his apartment.

He didn’t stop running until he reached Ella’s apartment.