Time Bomb

It had been four months since Jason’s deployment overseas was suddenly cut short by the bomb blast in the building his unit had just swept.  The building, which already had a poor infrastructure, collapsed in on itself, burying them under nearly 4 tons of debris.  Only Chris, Mike, and Clyde were outside when it detonated, and even then they were thrown to the dirt by the force. The three dug through the fallen bricks and beams with their bare hands for over 10 hours, discovering their injured comrades every so often, and pulling them to safety. Everyone was accounted for with only minor injuries except for Jason, who was still somewhere under the wreckage.
         In the thirteenth hour Chris flipped over a large piece of wall, and there was Jason, unconscious with a bad wound to the side of the head. They pulled him from the wreckage and put him on the medical evac chopper Mike radioed in after regaining consciousness. 
         Jason did not wake up on the evac chopper.  He did not wake up when they unloaded him into the medical tent and he still hadn’t woken up when Chris, Mike and Clyde returned to the camp later that week.  Even 2 weeks later when he was transported back to his home in Indiana he was unconscious. Jason had, at some point, amid the rubble of the building, slipped into a deep coma.
. . .
         Jason viewed the “time” before and after the blast differently.  He remembered the force of the explosion lifting him up and hurling him bodily into the wall.  He remembered the building collapsing around him.  He remembered the… time stop?  What exactly had happened?  The wall he’d hit was crumbling.  The support beam split under the sheer weight of the building, and everything, but him, froze.
         Jason wasn’t sure how long this incredible gift would last him so he dove from the room and out the front door.  Nothing happened.  He began calling the names of his men.          “Sam! Chris! Tex! Paul! Joe! Mike! Tom! Clyde!”  No answer. Not a sound.  Everything was in black and white.  Everything except for him, and their armored hummer equipped with a mounted gun.  Why was that?  There was Clyde on the turret, face frozen in a frenzied look.
         “I TOLD you it would stick like that one day!” Jason joked to himself as he studied Clyde’s expression.  Clyde’s eyes were gazing at something in the building opposite the one his team was frozen in.  He followed the line of sight and “Holy crap!”  There was an RPG in mid air, held there by the time freeze. The RPG was also fully colored.  Jason immediately knew that this was the reason time had stopped. He was supposed to be a hero!  No sooner had this thought crossed his mind then he thought he saw the rocket move an inch. It took him a couple “seconds”, or however long a second was equivalent to in this crazy time warp to realize, but he quickly climbed a tree and jumped, knocking the rocket astray.  Time had slowly restarted.
         He then raced over to the slowly crumbling structure to rescue the rest of his squad.  The hummer was colored because it was in danger, and the RPG was colored because it was a threat.  He’d think more about that later, but first thing’s first.
         Time was returning to normal and Jason had perhaps a few minutes to race through the building and save the lives of his friends.  Mike was nearest the door so Jason grabbed him and threw him outside.  Who next?  Tex he found standing, looking through a meager pantry. The retard had his brains in his stomach, always bitching about how meals came too far apart. Jason quickly shoved Tex into the pantry, which would preserve him from falling chunks of ceiling.  Events were happening even quicker now. Jason needed to pick up the pace. 
         On the second story were Sam, Joe, and Tom, who had taken the opportunity to rest on a comfortable-looking sofa. Jason dashed to them, flipped the couch and stuffed the three underneath.  He hoped that would provide them with enough protection to save them.  Where the hell was Paul?
         Jason tore through the house seeking Paul, whom he discovered attempting to open some strange looking box with an even stranger looking key.  No time.  The entire place was about to collapse. Jason grabbed a table, the only piece of furniture in the room, and placed it directly over Paul’s head.
         Time returned to normal and everything happened at once. Then… nothing. “Wait!” he thought.  How come he could still think? “This isn’t right… Isn’t this the part where everything goes black and I wake up in a hospital bed with balloons and medals?”
         “Not quite yet. We’ll get around to that, so don’t worry.”
         Something DEFINITELY wasn’t right. He had thought a question to HIMSELF and received an answer? “What is this?” he wondered.  And again his question was answered. Well not really answered, but SOMETHING responded.
         “I think a better question to ask is, what am I?”
         “What AM I? What are you talking about? Where IS this place?” Jason asked.
         “Slow down.  All your questions shall be answered in time. Ha-ha! Time! What a joke!  I guess the best place to start is that time has no hold on you”
                   “What do you mean?  What just happened?  Will my squad be all right?  Was that just a dream?”
“That was no dream, Jason. Your squad is perfectly fine and as for what just happened …Well, I just gave you a taste of your future Jason.”
         “My future?” Jason thought quizzically
         “Yes, Jason, your future. And while we’re still on this very interesting subject of YOU, Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?
         Jason figured that this was all just a hallucination, so he decided to entertain himself while unconscious.
         “I was born and raised in Indiana.  My parents own a farm, which does not bring much money for us. I joined the army to help serve my country and now I’m dying. What about you?”
         “We’ll get to me soon enough. Not that soon, or late, or any increment of time, means anything here, mind you. And you!  Indiana, huh?  Is that your final answer? Cause if it is you’ll be incorrect.  You were not “born” in Indiana.  You were “born” just outside of a small town called Q’resh, which, by the way, doesn’t really exist so don’t ask where it is.”
         “How on earth could I possibly be from somewhere that doesn’t exist” Jason questioned.
         “EXACTLY!” the voice replied. “How ON EARTH! Oh, explaining this will be such a challenge and a joy! Only one question per thought though. That’s your only restriction. Go.”
         “Ok then.  What am I?”
         “You’re a computer program created by The Original, who was created by accident.”
         “Why aren’t I held by time as you said?”
         “I actually don’t know that one yet.  Still working on it.”
         “Can I control time?”
         “Not yet.  What you can do is alter small portions of time. It’s pretty amazing for the first couple hundred years. After that you’ll become a Master of Time, as I am, and then it’s just downright cool.”
         Jason and the mysterious voice discussed the phenomenon for what may have been minutes, or hours, or days, or maybe even years. Once the voice finished answering Jason’s numerous questions, he was left alone trapped in his own mind.  Everything went black. There was no way time could be tracked where Jason was, so when he finally woke up four months after the explosion in a hospital bed, he was naturally worried.
. . .
         His eyes slowly opened.  The light was blinding, and it took a moment to adjust to the faux lighting of the place.  It was a small hospital room with two tables, five chairs, and his bed.  Some machine by his head was annoying the hell out of him.
         *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
         On the table near the window were some cards and three balloons tied to one of the legs.  All the helium had gone from them so he supposed no one had been to see him for at least a couple days.  As he began to rise he felt a tugging on his arm.  An I.V. drip was hanging beside his bed.  He followed the tube down to his arm where a needle was sticking out of him.  Jason despised needles.
         He was too weak to do anything about it at the moment so he just lay back and closed his eyes.  Why was he here?  What happened?
         “Didn’t I tell you only one question per thought? Here, shut up for a second…”
         A sudden pain flashed through Jason’s mind like a bolt of lightening.  Everything came flooding back.  He remembered the explosion, the events in the split second before it and the conversation after, and he knew it had all truly occurred. Jason allowed the grip of exhaustion to drag him back into unconsciousness, but before the room faded completely he thought to himself,
         “Life is about to become extremely interesting for me.”
         Once again, everything went black.