I decide to test the waters. “What if Jeremiah isn’t any better than Shadowface?”
“I never claimed that he was,” Ethan says. “But Jeremiah isn’t looking for power. He just wants to take her out.”
“What if he
is
looking for power?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“What if he wants to attack Olivia before she makes her big reveal so he can be the one to reveal who Shadowface is?”
“What are you saying?”
“He has openly admitted that he wants to take Olivia’s place,” I tell him. “No one else will know any different if he goes to the meeting of settlement leaders and declares that
he
is Shadowface. He claims that he wants to use the position for good, but you and I both know that won’t be the case.”
Ethan looks down at the table as if to think about what I’ve said. “If that’s the case, then wouldn’t Jeremiah be a better alternative?”
This is where I could tell him my thoughts on who Jeremiah
really
is, but I decide to hold my tongue. I have missed Ethan. When I thought he was dead, I felt heartbroken. But a month is a long time in this world. I can’t truly know where his allegiance lies until he can prove it to me. It will take some time for me to be able to trust him again. Maybe if he hadn’t been so cold to me when I first saw him a couple of days ago… It was enough to make me think that something was wrong, and that he had changed somehow. I’ve got to figure out how he truly feels before I let him in with us—before I tell him our plans.
Our plans…
We have no plans. Gabe, Remi, and I have no more idea what we are going to do than we did before we came to Elkhorn.
“I don’t think he would be a better alternative,” I say. “Mostly because we don’t know him. He seems nice, but that’s not enough for me.”
I think about how ready Jeremiah was to simply dispose of Jenna and Mike when they drove up to Elkhorn just because he didn’t know them. What kind of man was so ready to kill?
Jenna and Mike. How do they figure into all of this?
They are still being questioned by someone in Jeremiah’s camp. I hope they are being treated well.
I’ll have to look into that,
I think.
“Where did all of Jeremiah’s men come from?” I ask Ethan. “Where were these soldiers before the attack on Elkhorn?”
“Listen,” Ethan says, “I’m not going to say he’s perfect, but I think he’s a better alternative. At least for the time being. Let’s help him take down Shadowface, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
“This is what you came in here to talk to me about?” I ask. I feel like I’m getting hot. “You act like you want nothing to do with me, and the one time you actually want to talk, you want to talk about helping Jeremiah?” The chair makes a loud scraping noise against the floor as I scoot it away from the table, ready to stand.
Ethan reaches out for me, his fingers resting just in front of mine. “Please,” he says. “Don’t go. That’s not all I wanted to talk about.”
I don’t take his hand. I don’t move at all.
Ethan swallows. “I just…I just don’t know what to think about all this. It has been a really hard month for me.”
“Join the club,” I say.
“Seeing you again is weird.”
“Why, because I shot you?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah, a little.”
“Haven’t you ever thought that it was really Mitch that shot you? He just used me to do it?”
Ethan sits silently and sets his hands in front of him.
“I have thought about that moment every single day since it happened,” I say. “I’ve wanted to kill Mitch for what he made me do.” The tears start to come back, and this time they don’t stay in my eyes. “You don’t know how much I wanted to turn the gun on him instead. When he told me to shoot you, I tried as hard as I could to stop myself, but couldn’t. It was as if he was inside my body, doing whatever he wanted. I felt like a puppet. Ethan, you remember how it feels, don’t you?”
“More than you know,” he whispers.
This time, I’m about to reach my hand out to touch his, but he stands suddenly. “Think about what I said. We should help Jeremiah.”
He turns away from me and walks out of the room, leaving me sitting at the table with my mouth hanging open in disbelief.
What is wrong with him? Why would he just leave like that? It doesn’t make any sense. Ethan is not himself, and I don’t know why. But I’m not just going to ignore it. I’m going to figure out what it is if it’s the last thing I do.
When I walk out into the main room, Jeremiah flags me down. My heart jumps when he does this. I hope that he doesn’t have the lunchroom bugged with microphones or something.
When he gets near me, he sighs and scratches the back of his neck. “Strange situation with your friends, Jenna and Mike,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“Neither of them claim to have ever met you,” he says. “Now, you wouldn’t have just said that you knew them in order to save their lives would you?”
“How do you think I knew that her name was Jenna?” I ask.
He opens his mouth as if he’s about to say something, but then realizes that I made a good point. “Then I guess you know them better than they know you.” He sighs. “You can go in and see them if you want.”
“Are you providing them with fuel?” I ask.
“I’m not letting them leave,” Jeremiah says. “Not until I know they aren’t spies.”
“They aren’t spies, Jeremiah,” I say.
“Forgive me,” he replies, “but the three of you don’t seem to know each other
that
well, so I’m going to play it safe and keep them nearby until this operation is over. I can’t risk everything because you think you recognize her.”
I don’t appreciate Jeremiah’s reasoning, but I don’t say anything about it. In fact, I won’t be worried if they are forced to leave now. I have seen a glimpse of the future and I will see them again if I don’t try to change anything. So, in this case I’m just going with it.
One of the guards lets me into the room where they are being held. I’m immediately bombarded with questions by Mike as if I am someone important here. When I close the door behind me, I put a hand out in front of me as if to calm him down.
His face is long and peppered with stubble. His black hair has a few grey streaks through it, though he looks very young. Jenna has her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, though strands have strayed and are floating in every direction. Both of them are sweating like they are in a sauna.
“I’m just here to help you,” I say.
“Are you the one that said you know us?” Jenna asks.
“I am.”
“But we don’t know you,” Mike says.
“I said that just to keep you safe,” I tell them. “You two have stumbled upon a dangerous place.”
“Raiders?” she asks.
“No,” I say. “This used to be a settlement, but there was a battle here about a month ago. Most of the people were killed. The ones here now are getting ready to make a massive assault on the attacker. You were identified as enemies, but I could tell that you had nothing to do with them.”
“How?” Mike asks.
I shake my head. “I could just tell. They were going to kill you, but I stopped them. You are safe now.”
“Thank you for your help,” Jenna says.
“May I ask what you’re doing here?” I say.
Mike and Jenna look at each other for a brief second. “We’re scouts,” he says. “For our own settlement. We didn’t tell your guards where we’re from because we don’t trust them. No offense, but we’re not going to tell you either.”
“That’s okay,” I say. “I understand. Really, I do. What kind of supplies are you looking for?”
“The usual,” Jenna says. “Weapons. Food. Anything useful.”
“And you ran out of fuel?”
“We are very far from home,” Mike says. “We used our reserves and held out hope that we would find some on the way back.”
“Have you ever heard of someone called Shadowface?” I ask.
Mike and Jenna look at each other. At first I think they do so out of recognition of the name, but they both turn to me and shake their heads. “Never,” Mike says. “Who is it? The person you’re group is going after?”
“Yes,” I say.
“Listen,” Jenna says, “all we want is to get back to our settlement. Can we do that? We don’t mean to be a bother to anyone.”
“The leader here doesn’t trust you,” I say.
Mike rolls his eyes, and Jenna turns her head away, clenching her jaw. “We aren’t spies,” she says.
“I know you aren’t. But it’s just for a few days. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You can control that?” he asks.
“I don’t have to. You will be safe.”
The two of them look at me like I’m the enemy. And I suppose that I am for the time being. But that will change. I don’t know how and I don’t know why. But it will change.
I talk to Remi and Gabe about Jenna and Mike, and neither of them know what to think. I don’t know if Remi has told Gabe anything about it, but I will leave that up to her.
Remi doesn’t seem all that troubled by it, though she clutches to Evie tightly as we walk through one of the long hallways. I know she feels some responsibility for the girl, though I know she shouldn’t. It wasn’t her fault that Lydia died, though Remi says otherwise. Really, I feel like it’s more my fault than anything. If it hadn’t been for me, the battle at Elkhorn would have never taken place. But I suppose fault and blame shouldn’t be handed out so freely. What’s the use? I bet each one of us could pinpoint an exact time where something happened to help set all this in motion—each of us could claim fault in some way or another. But what we have to remember is that none of this would have happened if it weren’t for Shadowface’s power-hungry ambition. And the same may be true for Jeremiah as well.
“What is this meeting supposed to be about?” I ask.
“I think Jeremiah is laying out the plan,” Remi says. “I think they’re leaving soon.”
“The question is,” Gabe says, “are we leaving with them?”
My eyes turn to him, and he shrugs. When I look at Remi, she only holds Evie at her hip and stares straight ahead. The four of us finally make it to the door at the end of the hallway where the main room is located. When we get there, Jeremiah is standing in front of one of the screens hanging on the wall, and everyone in the room is silent, listening to their leader speak.
“Tonight, we leave,” Jeremiah says, probably repeating himself when he noticed we had just walked in.
I look across the room at all the faces that stare intently at Jeremiah, watching him with undivided attention. But there is one whose eyes are on me instead. Ethan and I lock eyes as Jeremiah continues to talk.
“Shadowface is in a town called Anchorage,” Jeremiah says. “It’s her base. We are fully equipped to take on most of their soldiers, but it is important that we have a surprise attack. That’s why I’ve asked Waverly to join us.” He points at me from the front of the room.
My eyes widen when he says this, and everyone in the room turns to look at me.
“She has been in the compound and managed to escape,” Jeremiah says. “I imagine that you know a safe way in?”
Images of Amber being shot in the pool of sewage swim through my mind. I don’t want to go back there. I never told Jeremiah I would go back there. Does he assume that since I came here that I was going to help him? Does he think that putting me on the spot in front of all these people will persuade me to go?
“I didn’t agree to go with you,” I say. “I’m still thinking about it.”
Jeremiah’s face turns red. People in the room start looking at each other, shifting where they stand.
“You are vital to this operation, Waverly,” he says. “If you don’t go, we have a much smaller chance of getting to Shadowface.”
Jeremiah’s face isn’t the only one that’s turning red. I can feel my cheeks burn. “Then maybe you should have waited for my answer before announcing that I’ve agreed to go.” My hands are starting to shake.
My eyes travel back to Ethan. He stares at me, but offers no look of encouragement or sympathy. He has a blank stare across his face. Thankfully, Remi comes to my aid.
“We aren’t ready for something like this, Jeremiah,” she says. “Waverly has been a prisoner there for the past month. Shadowface has put her through so much. How can you ask her to go back so soon?”
“Now is the time to act,” Jeremiah says. “If we don’t strike now, we may not get another chance. Shadowface will reveal her identity in three days. If we don’t stop her before that happens then we may never get a chance to take her out again.”
“I don’t understand your reasoning,” Remi argues. “Just because everyone will know who she is doesn’t mean we can’t fight her, or kill her.”
“It makes it much harder,” Jeremiah comes back. “The moment she reveals herself is the moment she gains allies. If you kill her before she reveals herself, then there is a chance that her allies will never even know she’s dead. Someone could take her place and the settlements would never know any differently.”
“And just who will be the one to take her place?” I ask boldly.
Jeremiah’s eyes narrow at me, and his teeth grind together. We’ve backed him into a corner that he didn’t want to be in, and I’m afraid we are too close to making an enemy of him.
“I will,” he says.
I expect there to be a low murmur throughout the crowd, with heads turning in every direction—an outcry for Jeremiah to explain himself for this obvious seize of power. But the room remains silent as it was before. One or two heads look at me, but for the most part, the fact that Jeremiah plans to take Olivia’s place is no secret.