Several long minutes pass by, as the sound of gunfire and wailing is replaced by rushing water. Stephen uses his flashlight to help us see a few feet ahead and it isn’t long before we spot the first set of greyskins. Five of them. They charge at the light, but quick gunshots bring them down. When they fall, we’ve got to step over them as their bodies float toward us. I can’t help but think that one of them might not have been shot in the head and will grab my foot to take a bite as I walk by, but this doesn’t happen.
We walk in silence for several minutes. I know that we’re looking for a landing joining two tunnels. There will be a red light above the floor. Once there, we will cross it and head the opposite direction until we come to a hatch. We are either going at a very slow pace or something is wrong. I haven’t seen the landing yet and I feel like we should have been there by now. How could I have missed it?
Jeremiah questions me about it a couple of times, but I am only able to tell him that we are nearly there and that he needs to be patient.
“Patience isn’t a luxury I can afford,” he snaps.
If he is the kind of man that I have seen in the visions, then I know I have to be careful once we’re into the main part of the building. Once he figures out where Olivia is, he will no doubt try to kill me. It might be easier to just kill him now, but honestly, I don’t know what sort of influence he might have over Ethan or Stephen. Once upon a time I could trust both of them, but Ethan has been determined to help Jeremiah from the beginning and Stephen has been walking around as numb as a greyskin. I don’t think Ethan would try to hurt me, but I can’t risk it. Once we’re close, I can point my gun at them. Until then, I just have to watch my back and make sure Jeremiah lets me get that far before he tries to kill me.
I finally see the red light in the distance. “There,” I say. “We’ll go on the landing and into the next tunnel. Then we should see the hatch soon.”
“Good,” Jeremiah says.
“This stench is giving me a headache,” Stephen says.
“Come on,” Jeremiah says.
After we pass the landing, we seem to get to the hatch quickly. We reach the ladder and my stomach feels like it’s tumbling over itself. Coming down to try and escape was hard enough. Going back up almost feels impossible.
Jeremiah looks at me and then at the ladder. “This is where you were kept for a month?”
I nod at him. “In one of the rooms up above.”
“You’re not going back to your cell,” he says. “Look at today as revenge for your mistreatment here.”
I’ve seen the future. I’ve seen who gets revenge. I’ve seen that Olivia shoots Jeremiah through the chest. I know that I’m supposed to rush in after the noise and that she will then shoot me. What he doesn’t know is that I know how my ability works because of this place. Because of my time here, I can be confident in trying to change the intended future. For a month, that is all I have done every single day. I know we are going to make it to Shadowface.
He
knows he’s going to make it to Shadowface. But what he doesn’t know is that he is marching to his death.
But I have to be careful. I can’t wait to step in after she kills Jeremiah because that will mean I will die too. But if I can stop her from killing him, then it will be up to me to finish them both. By keeping Jeremiah alive, I am assured to have both of them in the same room. Then I will have a better chance of ending all of this.
“After you,” Jeremiah says.
I look at Ethan for some encouragement but am offered none. I shake my head and turn away from him, looking up the ladder. With each rung, I feel like I’m ascending to my end. When I get to the top, it is as I feared. The latch is sealed.
“No matter,” Jeremiah says when I get back down to the bottom. “That’s what I brought the charges for.”
“Well, you better hurry,” Stephen says, looking down toward the hall. He looks back at the rest of us, his face white. “Greyskins are coming this way.”
Jeremiah wastes no time as Ethan, Stephen, and I stand guard at the bottom, flashlights and guns held high.
“Wait until they get close,” Stephen says. “We can’t waste ammo.”
Their grunts and biting teeth are almost too much for me to bear right now. As they clamber forward, I take aim at one’s head, firing off a round and dropping it into the water. The sound of gunfire is deafening in the tunnels. We kill about seven of them before we hear Jeremiah coming down the ladder behind us.
“Everybody take cover!” he yells.
All of us slam up against the side of the tunnel, hands over our ears until the blast rocks us. A few of the greyskins that were coming after us are knocked off their feet, but there is no time to see if they will get back up. Jeremiah yells for me to get up the ladder first and he follows closely behind with Ethan and Stephen still shooting beneath us. Once in the room and out of the tunnel, I instantly pull my gun in front of me as the door on the other side of the room swings open. The guard starts to take aim at me, but I shoot him through the chest before he can pull his gun up.
“We don’t have much time,” Jeremiah says through gritted teeth.
Ethan is the last one out of the hatch and he slams the door shut once we’re all in. Jeremiah turns to me. “Now what room is she in?”
“In my vision I remember what the room looked like,” I say. “She wasn’t in the bunker so we need to get to the elevator.”
“Get us there.”
I go to the other side of the room where the dead guard lay, and I peek through the small opening of the door. “I’m not sure we will have a lot of company,” I say. “Most are probably fighting off the greyskins.”
“Lucky for us,” Jeremiah says.
I take a step out into the hallway. Red lights illuminate it, and our footsteps are loud on the metal. I try my best to remember the way to the elevator. That day when Olivia called on me to meet with her feels like ages ago. I feel like I’m visiting a place that I haven’t seen in years, yet it was only a few days ago that I fled these walls.
There are several twists and turns along the metal, ship-like corridors, but finally we come to a set of doors that is nothing like the rest of its surroundings. If this is the same set of doors (and I’m sure it is) then the hallway on the other side will be bright and look like a hospital. I reach for the doorknob, but it’s locked.
I look back at the other three and tell them to stand back. I point the gun at the door handle and cover my eyes with my other arm. The bullet shatters the lock to pieces and the door swings open for us. This is where I hesitate.
“Waverly, what are you doing?” Jeremiah asks. “We’ve got to move.”
“I don’t remember,” I say. “There are about six or seven turns, I think. I’m not sure where the elevators are.”
“You’ve got to think,” he says.
“Let’s just go,” Stephen says. “We can find a guard or something that will tell us.”
Jeremiah likes Stephen’s idea. I lead the way, gun up in the air, but I feel vulnerable. The fact that I’m leading the way almost feels like I’m helping too much. What if I can’t kill Jeremiah? What if he escapes me? It will be
because
of me that he becomes the new leader.
I can’t let that happen. I
won’t
let that happen.
We are vigilant as we walk, and Jeremiah stays right behind me. We make a few turns, and I’m not sure they are the right ones. But Stephen was right about finding a guard. On the other side of the hallway, a guard stands with a rifle in his hands. He’s talking on the radio to someone. The four of us press our backs against the wall.
Jeremiah leans in and whispers in my ear. “Wait here. I’ll take care of this.”
He stands from his crouch and walks slowly toward the guard. There seems to be no sound from his footsteps, and the guard keeps his back to us. The man doesn’t even move before Jeremiah presses his gun against the back of his head.
“Drop the gun and radio,” he says.
The man does so without hesitation. “Please don’t kill me.”
“Shut up!” Jeremiah yells. “Where is Shadowface staying?”
“I don’t know.”
Jeremiah points the gun at the guard’s foot and pulls the trigger. Blood splatters across the floor as the man falls backward, screaming in horror.
“I expect an answer this time!”
“Fifth floor!” the guard cries. “It’s the room with all the guards surrounding it.”
“Where’s the elevator?”
“Down the hall. Two left turns.”
“Thank you,” Jeremiah says, pointing the gun at the man’s head and finishing the job.
I shut my eyes tightly as the second shot rings out. I hate the sight…the feeling. Death surrounds us. Seeing Jeremiah able to just kill the man so callously makes me sick to my stomach. But it also makes me wonder if I have the guts to do the same to him and Olivia in just a couple of minutes. I’m not sure I can do it. I can’t sit here and say that I’ve never killed anyone, but it’s not an easy thing to do. I killed Scarecrow because it was ‘kill or be killed.’ I can kill greyskins because they are already dead. But can I actually look Olivia in the eyes and shoot her? Can I do that to Jeremiah?
I’ve got to think of Evie. If I don’t end this, she will one day die because of this man. I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I could have killed Jeremiah
and
Olivia and didn’t do it.
Just as the guard described, the elevator appears after two more left turns down the hallway. Luckily, we see no more guards. When we press for the elevator, we wait for it as it ascends from the bottom floor. When we get in, Jeremiah presses the fifth floor button. He takes a deep breath as the doors close. He looks at me.
“I’m putting a lot of trust in you,” he says.
“When this is over, I’m hoping you won’t forget those that helped you get here,” I say. I don’t know why I say it, knowing that I’m going to try and kill him myself. I wonder if he knows.
“I won’t forget any of you,” he says, though not with a smile. Instead he seems callous…almost angry. I’m guessing he suspects something.
“I’m just ready to get all this over with,” I say. “Shadowface deserves to die. I’m happy to be here when it happens.”
Jeremiah looks like he’s about to say something when the elevator dings and we all hold up our pistols. We almost immediately see the group of guards all standing at attention outside Shadowface’s door. The four of us don’t hesitate to open fire—the guards never see us coming. Before any of them even get a chance to shout an order, they are dead on the ground. As we surge ahead, my heart pounds out of my chest. For at least the tenth time tonight, I look at Ethan for encouragement, but I forget that he doesn’t know anything of my plan. Still, this time he looks at me and nods in affirmation. I know he’s not telling me that everything will be okay, but I don’t need that from him. I just want to know if he’s got my back. As we near the door, I feel apprehensive. Jeremiah holds up a hand and looks at me.
“You said she was alone?” Jeremiah asks. “It’s only Olivia, right?”
“Yes,” I say.
He looks at each of us. “Let me go in alone,” he says. “We have a history—a past. I want to take her myself.”
“We’ll be your backup,” Stephen says.
This is where I can change the future. This is where I can end it.
“No,” I say, turning the gun on Jeremiah. His eyes widen at me, first in confusion, then in obvious anger.
I swallow, wondering if I have the guts to do this. I point the gun downward and pull the trigger, the bullet hitting Jeremiah in the leg so he falls to the floor. Then I point the gun at his chest. “I’ve seen what you are to become,” I say through clenched teeth. “You are a monster. You murder. You eat people’s flesh.”
“I should have never let you touch me,” he says. He winces at the pain in his leg. “Go on,” he says, tossing the gun to the ground. “Shoot me through the heart. If that’s what you really want to do.”
My finger presses against the trigger with just enough pressure to keep the bullet in the chamber. Can I do this? Can I just kill the man in cold blood?
“Waverly, what are you doing?” Stephen asks.
“Don’t do it, Waverly,” Ethan says.
I can’t listen to them. They don’t know what I know. They can’t understand. For Evie’s future, I’ve got to do this.
I pull the trigger and a look of shock spreads across Jeremiah’s face as the bullet passes through his heart and out his back. He falls to the ground, the surprise never leaving his face.
“Why did you do that?” Stephen yells.
I turn the gun toward them both. “Drop your weapons and get over there,” I tell them shakily. My fingers are so unsteady as I hold the gun I’m afraid I might accidentally shoot one of them. They do as I order, tossing their pistols about ten feet away and sitting against the wall, staring at Jeremiah’s body.
“Jeremiah and Shadowface are both evil,” I say. “Once you have a Starborn power like mine, you can judge me. Otherwise, I just saved our futures.”
I walk away from them and stand next to the door, knowing that Olivia waits. I take a deep breath, looking down at Jeremiah’s body.
One down. One to go.
I open the door wide, carrying my gun in the air. A woman stands on the other side of the room, staring out of a floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the mass of death in the compound five stories down.
After a moment she turns to look at me, only a slight notion of surprise on her face. My heart beats so fast I think I might have a heart attack. I’ve already changed the future, so I don’t know what is supposed to happen now. It’s all up in the air.