Vortex (44 page)

“You can do it … She’ll be fine,” Emily whispered.

Holly … and she wasn’t telling me to let go of her. She wanted me to bring her. If
I didn’t, they’d kill her the second we vanished.

Somehow, I had to keep it from affecting her mind. Dad survived going forty years
in the future. But three two zero zero was a hell of a lot more than forty years.

“Don’t kill Meyer … or the little kid,” a new voice said, calling out orders from
behind the others. Just then I saw the person attached to the voice push through the
door and my eyebrows raised seeing Agent Collins, who should have been locked up underground.
“Hold your fire, agents.”

“Collins!” Holly said, hope rising in her voice.

Agent Collins’s gaze locked with mine, like he was trying to converse silently. He
gave me a slight nod when I tightened my hold on Holly, as if saying I should take
her … maybe?

“Agent Meyer is holding some valuable hostages in here,” Collins said. “Let’s take
a minute and find out what he wants … follow the protocol like all of you have been
taught.”

His eyes locked with mine again, beaming out a sense of urgency that wasn’t reflected
in his voice.

“It’s the same place,” Emily whispered, probably sensing Collins’s message. “The place
I took you before … in the future.”

She must have read that in my journal, too. Damn fingerprint clone … and
damn, not that place
. I could feel Emily starting to pull us there and I knew she was right. I could do
this if I wanted to, and all along I thought my focus was always on the date or the
time, but really it was the senses … smell, feel, weight of the distance … I remembered
it because I’d already been there.

But it was also possible this might kill us. This might be the last time I’d ever
see Holly, and I was holding her at gunpoint.

Quickly, I spun her around and wrapped my arms tight around her, despite her resistance.
I buried my face in her hair, breathing her in, as if closeness might hand over some
of my abilities. Something that would keep her alive.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, with my mouth pressed against her ear.

Then everything turned black.

*   *   *

When I opened my eyes again, some part of me knew this wasn’t reality … it wasn’t
real, but more dreamlike. I was standing alone on a sidewalk, my arm in a sling, pain
shooting through it. A second later, the sidewalk vanished and my feet landed on a
doorstep. Holly’s house. Before I could allow myself to contemplate the significance
of this location, this day, the door flew open.

Am I dreaming or dead? Dead … ugh
. A definite possibility. I lifted my eyes and saw her …
Holly
. Smiling and tan. Her hair was down and she had on a yellow dress.

What’s happening? What is this?

“You’re early?” she said.

I opened my mouth to answer, but she threw her arms around my neck, standing on her
toes. “Holly…?”

She let go and stepped back quickly. “Oh, God … I’m sorry, did I hurt you?”

I couldn’t do anything except shake my head as she ushered me inside her living room
and closed the door.

“You should sit down,” she said, nudging me toward the couch. “All that pain medicine
is probably making you loopy.”

“Yeah … probably.”

She sat next to me, lifting my good arm around her shoulders. “I’m so glad you came
over. My mom was already freaking out about this weekend and she’d kill me if I left
the house again.”

I lifted my hand to feel my shoulder, the source of the pain running down my arm.
“I got shot?”

This definitely wasn’t real. The portal to this world had been erased forever.

Holly’s eyes widened and she rested a hand on my cheek. “Yes … Are you okay? You seem
totally out of it. Maybe you need to sleep.”

This was like the Ghost of Christmas Past or something … my life if I hadn’t said
good-bye to her.

She was still scrutinizing my face, but I smiled a little and she relaxed. My good
hand moved through her hair and then she leaned closer, light blue eyes locking with
mine. I could read her like an open book. Like she trusted me completely.

And then she kissed me.

The sling instantly disappeared from my arm and Holly’s mouth was on mine, hands in
my hair, on my face.

It was so good … so amazingly perfect, I could feel tears stinging my eyes. Death …
heaven … hell … a dream … I didn’t give a shit.
I’ll take it. Whatever it is
.

“I love you,” I mumbled into her hair. “I love you … I really, really love you.”

She laughed and moved her head back so she could see my face. “Does it get easier
if you say it more often?”

“Not sure,” I whispered, closing my eyes and kissing her neck all over. “I love you …
I love—”

“Okay,” she said laughing harder. “I believe you.”

I stared at her face for a long moment and then dove into kissing her again … it was
all lips and tongue and teeth and Holly … my Holly exactly as I remembered.

My eyes flew open and I froze, feeling the presence of someone else in the room. The
pain returned to my arm and everywhere else and I nearly yelled out loud when I saw
the person standing behind the couch.

Me.

The unshaven, insane-looking version of myself. Suddenly my limbs felt disconnected,
as if I’d lost control of them, and I could feel
his
movement,
his
intentions.

“No!” I yelled, but I wasn’t sure if it was for me or the other
me
.

The gun appeared out of nowhere, bullet exploding from the barrel so fast and hard
into Holly. The booming sound echoed in tune with my loud holler.

I felt Holly’s body go limp against mine, the red blood blending with her yellow dress
and turning bright orange. The other me dropped the gun, staring down at his hand
as if it had acted on its own. I realized I was doing the same thing, not knowing
which one of us had made this happen.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“Jackson! Dude, snap out of it!” A hand slapped me across the face.

I shot up fast. “Holly!”

“Over there, man,” Mason said, pointing to Holly, who was standing five feet away,
looking completely freaked.

I jumped up and raced over to Holly, grabbing her arms and pushing up her sleeves.
Her skin was pale and unflawed. She snatched her arms away, but turned her head enough
so I could see her ears were perfectly free of oozing blood. I did the same thing
with Courtney, and she just watched me curiously, but didn’t ask any questions.

“I thought you guys were nuts, when you talked about time travel. I thought Adam was
literally insane … and now…” Holly stuttered.

I looked around for the first time. “Now … we’re in the weird subway station and those
genetically mutated, faceless dudes are up there ready to jump our asses.”

“What?” Mason, Courtney, and Holly said together.

“How long was I out?” I asked Mason.

“Five minutes. So, what about the faceless dudes?”

“Emily?” I said, hoping she knew something more than the date. “I thought my dad would
be here and we’d just grab him and go back.”

She shook her head, looking slightly panicked. “I think I know where he is…”

“Let’s go,” Courtney said, pointing toward the steps.

“What? Not gonna hold me at gunpoint anymore?” Holly said, following behind me.

The contrast between this girl and the one I had just been dreaming about was so huge.
The reminder of what she had been to me, before, made this kidnapping so much harder.

“It’s not like you can go anywhere.”

I shook my head and headed up the steps. A throbbing pain had started just behind
my temples and I had no energy to argue with Holly or keep up some act of playing
the enemy.

Mason and Courtney reached the outside first, and I heard their reaction before I
saw the horrible, crumbled city for a second time.

“Holy shit,” Mason said, turning around slowly.

“Oh, my God,” Courtney muttered. “This is … it’s New York?”

The dust swirled through the air, just as I remembered. The demolished and half-intact
buildings surrounded us.

“A Vortex,” Mason muttered, catching my attention.

“You know about that?” I asked him. He didn’t bother to answer. Obviously he knew
about it. He probably read the same data Kendrick was able to get her hands on.

“We should leave,” Holly said. “How are we supposed to find anything here? It’s like
a needle in a haystack.”

Courtney looked at me, her eyes filling with tears. “Maybe she’s right, Jackson? What
if there’s no way to get Dad back … what if it’s too late?”

I coughed and then gripped my ribs as pain shot through them. “Emily says she might …
know where … to go.”

“Who is this kid, Jackson? Some kind of genius psychic child? And why does she look
like your sister?” Mason asked, as he pointed his gun in every direction, waiting
for the unknown attack that might come at any time.

“She’s not psychic … she’s from this year.” I swallowed hard and glanced at Courtney
again, and then Holly. “And she looks like my sister because … we’re sort of … DNA
twins … kind of.”

Courtney and Holly both looked confused, but Mason spun around, pointing his gun at
me and Emily. “That kid is a clone? Of you?” He glanced over his shoulder at Courtney,
then back at me. “How do we know
you’re
not a clone … and the real Jackson was the one locked in that cell?”

My head throbbed even harder. I rubbed my forehead with my fingertips. “Cut it out,
Mason, we don’t have time for this.”

Courtney crossed her arms, eyes narrowing at me, as she stepped closer to Mason. “I
don’t even know what you’re supposed to look like at nineteen … I’ve got nothing to
compare it to.”

Holly moved closer to Courtney at the same time Emily pressed herself against my side.

“I really wish someone wouldn’t have swiped my gun,” Holly said, staring me down harder
than Courtney.

Mason reached down toward his shoe and lifted the leg of his jeans, pulling out a
gun and passing it over Courtney to Holly. “I try to keep a spare, just in case.”

“Thanks,” she said, staring at it like she couldn’t believe a Tempest agent had offered
her something useful. She turned it over in her hands before pointing it at me. “This
is just like mine.”

“Um … I think you guys are forgetting that we might be your only way back,” I said.

Emily tugged at my shirt, and when I looked down, she was pointing into the distance …
the faceless, creepy dudes. Four of them, running toward us.

Mason, Holly, and Courtney all turned around at the same time.

“Oh, damn,” Holly said.

“What the hell are those things?” Mason said.

“I don’t know, but maybe we should … run,” Courtney said.

All five of us took off running. Eventually I snatched Emily up and carried her as
we kicked up more dirt in our eyes.

“Turn right!” Emily shouted.

To the surprise of us both, Mason, who now led our group, followed directions. “I’m
calling a temporary truce,” he shouted at me from over his shoulder.

The stabbing pain in my head had moved to the rest of my body and every step was agonizing.
Courtney had at least two inches on Holly and passed her, leaving me to jog beside
her, Emily’s weight in my arms slowing me down.

The fallen city seemed to dissolve and a hill of brownish green grass stood right
in front of us. What part of New York was this? A small remnant of Central Park?

“What now?” Mason asked.

“Other side of the hill,” Emily instructed.

The sky opened just then and rain started pouring down.
We made it rain?
Courtney let out an ear-piercing scream, causing my head to snap quickly in her direction,
every muscle strained.

The faceless dudes … right in front of us … at the bottom of the hill. “Let’s go!”
I shouted to Mason.

One of the men lunged for Courtney, but just as I pulled out my gun, she vanished
into thin air. My heart beat fast as I set Emily down and spun around in a circle.
“What the—”

“How the hell?” Mason said.

The faceless men had paused for a few seconds, just as perplexed as the rest of us.
Then, poof … Courtney was at my side again, clutching her chest and breathing hard.
“Oh, my God … oh, my God…”

Mason took the distraction as an opportunity and fired at the attacker closest to
him. The man fell to the ground at Holly’s feet and she screeched and jumped back
as if he were diseased. I couldn’t blame her—they were pretty freaky-looking.

“They don’t have weapons,” Emily said as the three remaining men stared us down. “They’re
rejects who escaped … They don’t have anything.”

I shook my head, not letting myself process anything except the fact that we could
shoot them. Holly, Mason, and I all stood ready, guns pointed, waiting for one of
them to move.

One dude glanced at the man to his right and then, just like that, they vanished.
The first one popped up right behind Courtney. I dove toward her and fell on my face
as she vanished before the man could lay a finger on her. I sucked in half a breath
and she was right back again, next to Holly, eyes wide, looking like she had no idea
what she had just done. Holly took the opportunity to kick the stunned man in the
stomach, while Mason shot another one right in the head.

The two remaining men finally stopped, holding their hands up in the air. “Let’s get
out of here!” one of them shouted to the other.

They were like a pack of wild wolves. No goals or direction, just reckless, aimless
fighting until they knew they couldn’t win. Nothing like the EOTs. The man closest
to Mason nodded, but just as we held our breaths, waiting for a reaction, he vanished
and ended up right behind Mason.

“Mason!” I shouted, heading closer to him.

The man jumped on his back, getting his hands around Mason’s gun. It fired aimlessly
into the sky and Courtney and Holly dropped down onto the grass immediately. The dude’s
elbow contacted Mason’s temple hard. The gun was free and in the hands of these weird-ass
attackers.