The Future Past's Present
part eightWhen no one answered the door the next morning, Zim knew something was wrong. He was standing in the lobby of the hospital before his mind even registered he'd walked to it. It seemed a lot calmer than TV made it out to be. A few people sat in the chairs reading phony magazines or hugging their loved ones. Only a few white-coated personnel walked around, most of them sitting behind a counter looking at their fingernails while the ceiling talked in hushed but highly annoying voices.
"Can I help you?"
Zim looked at the fair skinned woman with ruby red fingernails. Her face held a mildly surprised look.
"My god, kid. What's wrong wid your FACE?"
Zim shook his head. "I need to know if Dib Membrane is here."
"De crazy kid?" the lady leaned forward. "Yeah, he's here but only family's allowed in dere."
"I have to see him! He's my friend!" Zim ordered. He was beginning to dislike her very much.
She looked down at a chart on her table. "I always hoird de kid didn't have any friends. Kinda made me feel bad for him, ya know? Sure de kid's nuts but he's awful sick. And wid his family..." She looked around, as if she were worried someone might overhear her, before leaning over closer. "Listen, his family ain't here. Deys neve' visit him when he's here. Take dis family pass and just say you're his cousin if anyone asks, alright?" She handed him a visitor patch with an adhesive backing. "Third floor. Room 316. Got dat, honey?"
Zim nodded, writing his name on the sticker tag and placing it on his chest. The lady smiled and went back to looking at her fingernails.
The hallways weren't crowded, in fact less so as he journeyed up the floors. Still, the occasional stretcher with prone body was raced down the halls accompanied by seven people and assorted tubes. Zim's heart leapt every time one passed, but the faces never rang familiar in his mind. And then there was room 316. Zim put his hand on the doorknob and waited. Whether it was for his nerves to calm or for Dib to jump out and say 'joke's on you Zim!' he wasn't sure. When it seemed neither was likely to happen any time soon, he twisted the metal handle and walked in.
The room was dimly lit for a hospital room, where the florescent white lights overhead shone the brightest of bright light onto everyone. Which was annoying. Zim walked to the foot of the bed, trying not to puke as his gaze fell to his friend.
There were more tubes that flesh, more machines than life surrounding the little bed and the body that lay on it. There were tubes coming out his nose and his arms, horrible incessant beeping noises and whooshing air sounds that droned on and on. It was like something out of a movie, not real life.
"Dib?"
Only the machines answered. Zim crept closer to the bed, reaching out a hand to touch the sleeping young man on the bed.
"What are you doing in here?!"
Zim turned around, startled beyond his wildest beliefs. He'd imagined it being the professor or some doctor who realized he wasn't human. A doctor stood there, yes, but he looked angry, not joyous as most people had been when they'd discovered he was an alien.
"Family in here only," the doctor instructed.
Zim muttered and stumbled for the right words, but found all he could do was point to his nametag.
The doctor seemed to understand. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize anyone had checked in to see him." He strolled over to the bed and picked up the clipboard from the end, flipping through the pages. "Did they tell you what happened?"
Zim shook his head. "I came when I found out he wasn't home."
"Hm." The man put the clipboard down. "There really is no easy way to say this. Dib is in a coma."
The Irkin bit the inside of his cheeks to keep from screaming.
"Last night he suffered a series of seizures and wasn't discovered till this morning by his father. We hooked him up to life support when he got here, but there's no telling if there is any brain damage. Testing proves he has lost most involuntary motion. Professor Membrane is looking over the paper work now." The doctor frowned with sympathy. "There's nothing more anyone can do. His mind has stopped telling his heart to pump and his lungs to breath. The machines are all that's keeping him here. We're going to have to pull the plug." He put a hand on Zim's shoulder, noticing his tense body language, feeling his rapid pulse under the shirts. "I'll leave you alone with him."
He walked away and the door shut, leaving Zim alone in the dimly lit room. It was as if all he needed to hear was the click of the door closing for the gates to fall and the tears to well up.
"Dib..." He crawled closer, keepings his hands on the bed at all times in case his legs were to give out on him like his mouth had. Everything he'd ever wanted to tell Dib, everything he'd ever regretted, had vanished from thought, leaving him speechless with nothing but his sorrow and the echoes of Dib's last words to him:
'Just tell me when I'm important!'
"You are important, Dib!" he shouted, grabbing one of the hands that lay over the tightly drawn blankets. He brought it up to his face, caressing it with his cheek and tears. "You're the most important thing in my life! I tried to help you, Dib...I tried...."
He choked back a sob, speaking louder to get around the lump that tried to silence him into mindless moans. "I didn't want you to think I couldn't do it! I wanted you to see me as strong and all-powerful! I wanted you to look up to me! I didn't want you to know it was too hard...that I couldn't do anything...and that...it's all my fault! All of it! ...I did another test last night, Dib. You know what I found out? I did it. I abducted you and did all this. It was me. The future me. I used my stupid time machine and finally got rid of you... I don't know what possessed me in the future to do this...but that doesn't change anything I feel now...I love you, Dib...I would never want to hurt you!" He put Dib's hand to his lips and kissed it gently, feeling the cold skin under his own. "I don't know what to do, Dib...I don't know how to make everything better! How can I stop what hasn't happened yet?! Who's gonna be around to stop me when I do it...if you're not there..."
Zim let his head fall to the bed, one arm wrapping around Dib's waist while the other clung to his hand. It felt like he'd cried for centuries, his entire body shaking with pain and sorrow.
"Who are you?"
Zim was too upset to care who saw him. No one was going to take him away.
"Are you...Zim?"
The Irkin turned his head, seeing nothing but a huge white coat and goggle-covered eyes. Professor Membrane. He'd seen him on TV before. He was much taller in person. Dib's father looked at Zim's nametag and smiled. "I thought it was you. Dib used to talk about you all the time..."
Zim wiped his damp face with his sleeve. "You can't make me leave," he stated, holding onto Dib's hand tighter.
Professor Membrane shook his head. "Dib would have wanted you to be here. I have no intension of making you go." He walked to the other side of the bed and ran his fingers through his son's hair. "Gaz is filled with too much hatred to come; she blames him for everything."
"I know."
The professor nodded. "It isn't as if he wanted it to be like this. But I'm sure if he had to choose...he'd have wanted to go with his friend at his side."
Zim didn't like the way the professor spoke. His words were foreboding. "Of what do you speak, earth man?"
Professor Membrane turned to the life support machine and, with delicate movements, clicked the switch off.