Running Out Of Time
By: Bay
10:59. 10:58. 10:57… I awoke with a start as my alarm rang. I groaned, and pressed the snooze button. I crawled back under my covers and fell back to sleep. Within two seconds, I heard my brother shout, “Jeremy!!! Wake up!” “Ungmph…” I mumbled, and crawled out from underneath my warm covers.
Trudging down the steps, I plopped into one of the four kitchen chairs. My brother set a bowl of cereal in front of me, and declared, “Your Le Flakes That Are Frosted, good sir.” I gave a grunt in response, and began to eat the cereal. He sat down in the chair in front of me, and glanced at me. His green eyes stared at my brown ones. “Jeremy?” My older brother asked. “What, Matt?” “Anything goin’ on at school?” “Nuh-unh.” “Hmm.” He said, and began to eat his cereal.
We ate in silence for about a minute until the phone rang. We both jumped, and I spilled milk all over my shirt. Matt jumped up and grabbed the phone just as it was on its fourth ring. “Hello?” He asked. His face contorted slightly, and then he bit his lip. He only did that when he was completely freaked. “Alright, thank you.”
He hung up, and then looked at me gravely. “What?” I asked, polishing off my cereal. His face was completely pale. He hadn’t looked like that since mom died. “…there’s a bomb planted in our house. “WHAT?!?” I screamed, leaping up. “What do we do?! Do we run, do we hide?!” My brother looked down. “Nothing… the bomb squad will be here in 45 minutes.” “45 MINUTES?! WE COULD BE DEAD BY THEN!” I screamed.
Matt gave a sigh and headed upstairs. “Calm down, Jeremy… it’ll be okay.” I heard the door to his room slam, and I slumped down in my chair. “No we won’t, Matt…” I said quietly. I was going to find that bomb, and destroy it myself.
5:45. 5:44. 5:43… I scrambled around the house, searching wherever a bomb could be hidden. I looked in the basement, the attic, and finally found myself at the clubhouse. Well, it’s not really a clubhouse. Matt and I made it 3 years ago, right after mom died, and when I was 9 years old. I abandoned it after I got more interested in sports, and not wasting away in a wooden box with some stools, posters, and a desk. We now used it as a shed, and the stools, posters, and desk were gone. I opened the door slowly. It creaked greatly, and I stepped inside. I listened very carefully, trying to hear any ticking noises. I walked slowly around the room, and finally heard something that sounded like someone tapping on a wooden table with long fingernails.
The noise was coming from behind the lawnmower. I gently eased it out of the way, and saw a small black box with a timer on it. I gave a small cry as I read it. 4:00. 3:59. I snatched it up, wrapping it around in my sweatshirt. I rushed inside, slamming the door behind me. What could I do?!
I scrambled upstairs to my room, and tossed myself to the floor. I grabbed a paperclip from my desk, and began to fiddle around with the battery case on the back of the box. Suddenly, the red numbers on the clock disappeared, but I could still hear the ticking. I broke out in a cold sweat. I didn’t know how much time we had left!
“MATT! MATT!!!” I screamed, and ran down to his room, carrying the bomb. I flung open the door to find him sitting on his bed, reading. “Matt, I found the bomb! It’s gonna go off in less than 3 minutes!!!” Matt made no response. “Calm down, Jeremy. It’s not a bomb.” “Yes, it is!!!” I protested, feeling tears sting my eyes. “We have to get rid of it! Listen! It’s ticking!” Matt still didn’t move. “It’s just your imagination, that’s not a bomb.”
“YES IT IS, MATT! JUST BELIEVE ME!! I found it in the shed behind the lawnmower; it said we had 4 minutes left to live! I brought it up here, and I tried to turn it off, but the numbers disappeared, AND IT’S STILL TICKING!!!” I explained hurriedly, and tried to catch my breath. Matt only gave a sigh. “Jeremy, calm down… it’s not really a bomb.”
“But, Matt, we’re running out of time! We can’t-“I began, but was cut off as everything disappeared in a blinding flash of light. I could feel everything disappearing, the last thing I saw was the bomb in my hands, and Matt saying, “It’s just your imagination.”
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. “AAHHHH!!” I screamed as my alarm jerked me out of my sleep. I fell out of my bed, the covers getting tangled up with my arms and legs. “Jeremy! Time for school!” My mom called from downstairs. I wiped the sweat from my forehead, and backed away from my alarm clock, still remembering the subtle ticking of the bomb in my dream. “Hurry up, Jeremy! You’re running out of time!” Matt yelled.
“Uh… sure, yeah! I’ll be down in a sec!”