I can feel the eyes of everyone at the table staring into me, waiting for an answer.
“I saw enough,” I say. “You really do need my help getting to Olivia.”
Jeremiah takes a deep breath, almost a sigh of relief it seems. “So, you will help me then?”
“Yes.”
“What did you see?” he asks again.
“You’re going to be shot and killed by Olivia,” I say. It’s the truth. This is what I actually saw when I looked into
her
future. But I leave out the part that it looks like she will try to kill me too. “If I go, I can help you avoid that.”
He stares at me for a long moment. “What are the circumstances?”
“She isn’t in the bunker,” I say, trying to remember everything I noticed from my vision of Olivia. “She’s in the same building, I think. But on one of the top floors. You walk into the room, and you have a brief exchange. Then, she kills you.”
He stares down at the table now, probably trying to picture the scene for himself.
“But I can change it,” I say. “I know the circumstance well enough that I can keep Olivia from killing you.”
“How?” he says.
“I will have to think on it,” I say, “but I
will
think of something. I
will
change the future I saw.”
He nods and gets up from the table, though he doesn’t say anything. I know he doesn’t catch the double-meaning in my words. He has no idea that I plan to change the future in a much different way. Though I don’t understand everything I just saw, it’s enough for me to know that he is, or at least will be evil. Though I saw no proof that he created the greyskins, there is no doubt in my mind that that fact is true.
I think about Evie and wonder if she was the one in the vision. Even if she wasn’t, I can’t help but picture the man named Mark who had been burned, and how Jeremiah had started to eat him. Then the mass of greyskins in some warehouse… Jeremiah will use them so people will beg for his help. But that means he has a position of power—one that we are meant to help him obtain.
When Jeremiah is gone, Remi leans forward and whispers, “What did you see?”
I look at her, not really knowing what to say. Finally, the words come. “Enough to know that I’m going to help him find Olivia.” I take a deep breath. “And I’m going to kill them both.”
Orick will soon come into view as our caravan continues to drive northward. The sun is setting in the west, giving the sky a warm hue that is deceiving. A cold wind blows against the trees and I already don’t want to leave the car. I especially don’t want to step out into Orick and explain why twenty or more vehicles have arrived. The people there won’t like it. Nancy and Ray will probably think I’ve betrayed them.
Gabe drives us while Waverly sits up front. Evie lies down, curled up next to me in the back seat. I think about Mike and Jenna who are in one of the vehicles behind us. They don’t belong here. They aren’t happy that they’ve been trapped in a car all day when they need to be getting back to their village. They are being treated as prisoners, but neither of them did anything wrong. I don’t feel good about it either, but I already know the future. I know that for some reason, Jenna has to be here. For some reason, I’m going to let her take Evie away. I try to think about the reason behind it, but few circumstances come to mind. Perhaps I will learn that they have a very secure place to take her. Maybe Jenna always wanted a little girl. But when the thoughts go through my head, I shake them away. I don’t think any of them are valid enough for me to just give her away. I mean, it’s not like she’s my child or anything. I won’t deceive myself. But I can’t imagine putting Evie through another big change. She clings to me because she recognizes me. I’m someone that has been around her if even for a few brief moments here and there. I am a person she saw speaking with Lydia—her mother since the day her real mother died at Evie’s birth. To give her away to a complete stranger would be devastating.
I watch her chest move up and down as she grabs the end of her blanket. I wonder what dreams fill her mind when she sleeps. I hope they aren’t the nightmares that plague the rest of us. I wish she could dream of the things that all children should dream of. I wonder if Evie has ever had a sweet dream. When I was a kid, my dad would always tell me to
sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.
Now, I’m afraid to mention anything about biting to a little girl before she goes to sleep. A more appropriate rhyme for her would be
sleep tight, don’t let the
greyskins
bite—
a
reality for us all.
My thoughts drift to what Waverly told us about her visions of the future. The greyskins…Mark…the woman named Evelyn. I shake my head at the thought. There is no way it could be the same Evie that lies next to me in the car. In Either case, Jeremiah has to be stopped—he and Shadowface both. It’s hard to believe that he was the one with Olivia when I was hiding in Elkhorn. I mean, I can’t say for sure, but who else would it have been? I can’t believe I’ve been too stupid to figure it out by now. I feel like we’ve all been suckered—like we are just pawns in Jeremiah’s little game. But he doesn’t know that we know. He thinks we are all so set on killing Shadowface, which, I suppose we are, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going after him. It’s time the two of them face justice—though no punishment, be it death or torture, would be adequate retribution. To plan the annihilation of so many people just so they could rise to power—it’s insane. I guess there is no way to know if they ever intended for their plan to get so big, so out of control. But in either case, they created it, and now they are trying to capitalize on it. They need to face the consequences so this world can start to heal. It will never heal with people like them in it. In a sense,
they
are the virus that needs to be stopped.
“Remi,” Gabe says, breaking into my thoughts. “We’re almost there.”
Waverly looks back at me and gives me a sympathetic smile. She knows I don’t want to bring Jeremiah here. To get the people of Orick involved with all this seems like a crime. The redness of the sky turns to purple as the darkness takes over the light. Coming in at nighttime will make our approach to Orick even scarier for them.
I jump slightly when I hear Jeremiah’s voice squawk over the radio.
“Let’s let Remi’s vehicle get to the front of the caravan,”
he says.
“Remi, are you ready to converse with the locals?
Gabe passes the radio back to me. “Converse with the locals?” I say under my breath. I shake my head and press the button. “Yes.”
“Good,”
he answers.
“We might even try to recruit a few of them to come with us tomorrow.”
I close my eyes tightly when he says this, wishing there was a way I could just kill him now. It’s an odd feeling. Before today I had never had much of a thought about Jeremiah. I never
really
trusted him, but I didn’t hate him like I do now. If his plans are so sinister, it’s hard to believe that he would have so nonchalantly let Waverly see into his future. I expressed this thought to Waverly earlier, but she just shrugged and said that Jeremiah had nothing to fear from us. If she did see something bad, he is so protected and well-supported that whatever we say won’t matter.
“That’s why it’s important that he trusts us,” she said. “We can stay close to him.”
“Yeah, but the moment he doesn’t need you anymore, look out,” Gabe added.
We’re playing a dangerous game here. Part of me wants to drive away and never look back, but I know that won’t be possible. If we don’t find trouble now, we will find it in the future. Right now is the best, if not the only time we can take out both Olivia and Jeremiah. With the two of them dead, we can figure out a new system—one that involves getting rid of the greyskins, not using them as tools to get our own way.
The sun is nearly gone by the time Orick comes into view, but there is enough light to see. The cars in front of us slow down, allowing Gabe to pass them and move us to the front of the caravan. I don’t like that Jeremiah is putting so much faith in me. The only real pull I have with anyone here is Nancy and Ray. Sure, I met and talked with a few others here, but most of them just wanted to be left alone. They didn’t care to meet new people and I was fine keeping to myself.
Gabe starts flashing his lights as we approach the flimsy chain-link fence. The fence itself looks torn down as if something has run over it. What little protection it provided is now gone. There are people in the town walking out of their homes to see what noise is coming their way. Most of them are carrying guns, but others just stare stupidly. Gabe slows the caravan to a stop just a few feet away from the fence.
“Where are we?” Evie asks, rubbing her eyes.
“Just a place we hope to stop for the night,” I tell her. “I want you to wait in the car with Waverly, okay?”
She nods and lies back down in the seat, her eyes heavy. I look at Waverly and take a deep breath.
“Good luck,” she says.
“I still don’t know why Jeremiah insists on stopping here,” I say.
“You ready?” Gabe asks.
I nod at him and we open our doors to get out. The cold air hits me, and I already wish I was in Nancy’s house in front of the fire, though I would much prefer it without our present company.
Gabe and I step up to the fence, our hands stretched out as a couple of men approach us, the barrels of their rifles pointed at our heads.
“What’s your business here?” one of them shouts. His name is Edgar. He’s an old man that lives by himself in a shack on the north end of town. The other one is Ross. He lives with his family two houses down from Ray and Nancy. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that neither of them have a clue who Gabe and I are.
“My name is Remi, and this is Gabe. We were here just a few days ago. We had been staying here for a month.”
“Yeah, I recognize you,” Ross says, though he doesn’t lower his gun. “Thought you were gone for good.”
“That was the plan,” Gabe says. “Plans have changed.”
“Who are all these people?” Edgar gripes.
“Friends,” I say. “We need a place to stay for the night.”
“Stay somewhere else.”
I shake my head. “Can I talk to Ray or Nancy?”
Edgar and Ross look at each other for a second, then turn back to me. “They don’t make the decisions around here,” Edgar says.
“Please,” I say. “We are all on a very important mission, and it would be very beneficial to us and to you if we could stay the night.”
“We’ve had enough visitors,” Ross says. His fingers turn white as he grips tightly to the rifle. Despite the cold, trickles of sweat drip down his face.
“What happened?” I ask, looking at the torn remains of the fence. “Who was here?”
“Not who, but what,” Edgar says. “It was a herd of greyskins.”
“Is everyone all right?”
“That’s just it,” Ross says shakily. “No one was hurt. At all.”
Gabe looks at me with downturned eyebrows.
“They just came through here, tore down the fence as they passed,” Ross continues. “Some shots were fired, and we dropped a few of them, but we quickly learned that they weren’t drawn to us. It was as if they didn’t even see us.”
“They just kept walking until they were out of sight,” Edgar adds.
“Hello, friends,” a voice calls out behind us.
Ross points his gun at the approaching figure, and when I turn, I see Jeremiah walking slowly. His palms are in the air and he wears a smile on his face.
“We don’t mean you any harm,” he says, walking until he is standing next to me. The smell of stale cigar smoke violates my nostrils. “We are here on a mission. I don’t know if Remi and Gabe have told you this, but there is a very dangerous person that we are trying to stop.”
Two dangerous people,
I think.
“We are here to talk to you and your people about her,” Jeremiah says. “But most of all, this is the perfect spot for us to ready ourselves.”
“I don’t care what sort of bandit war you’re a part of,” Edgar spits, “we don’t want any part of it.”
“It’s far from a bandit war,” Jeremiah says. “Have you ever heard of Shadowface?”
Ross shakes his head. “No.”
“Ross! Edgar!” a voice shouts form behind them. “Let them be. It’s Remi. She’s a friend.” The voice is from Ray who is hobbling along the street toward us. He carries a shotgun in his hands and wears a thick coat over his large frame. When he comes near, he has a few choice words with Edgar and Ross about keeping everyone out in the cold. “Besides,” Ray says, “we know Remi and Gabe. They can be trusted.”
I almost wish they didn’t trust me. I don’t want Jeremiah to get them involved.
“Most of your men will need to sleep in their cars,” Ray says. “But you can park them in the street here. Nancy and I can take a few of you in our home, but I can’t say for anybody else.”
“I would very much like to address your people,” Jeremiah says. “There is a fight coming your way. We plan to stop it before that happens.”
“It’ll have to be in the morning,” Ray says. “You can tell me all about it tonight. Come with me. Nancy is cooking up some baked chicken.”
After making a pallet for Evie in the living room, I asked Nancy for some bread and cheese for her. I figured it would be better for her stomach than undercooked meat. Once Evie finished eating, she was more than happy to go back to sleep so long as the rest of us weren’t too far away. I assured her we would be in the dining room, and if she needed anything I would be within earshot.
Jeremiah declined food, while the rest of us picked at it, eating the good parts. Nancy and Ray berated Jeremiah with questions about Shadowface. Gabe, Waverly, and I simply listened as he told them all about her—even up to where he said she created the greyskin virus. This seemed to be enough to make them gung-ho about taking on Shadowface, though neither of them volunteered to help in the effort.