Vortex

by Julie Cross

  “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.r />
  “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.

  I couldn’t get a clear shot, not with Mason in the way. The man aimed at Courtney, who instantly disappeared again. I didn’t even have a millisecond to contemplate how she kept doing that and why I hadn’t thought about jumping, too, because the man was now about to fire at Emily. I dove forward, grabbing her around the waist and pulling both of us to the ground. I heard the shot as we fell, then a second one just after. My eyes barely opened to see Holly shoot the man square in the chest with perfect aim. I squinted through the black spots of my horrible headache and saw a window of space between Mason and the remaining man, who looked like he was about to flee.

  I shot him right in the back and he fell, mid-run. Holly, Mason, and Courtney all sank to the now-wet grass, breathing hard, as Emily and I sat up again.

  Holly kept staring at the gun in her hand, then back at the man she had shot. I had a feeling she was thinking the same thing as me … four people … all dead. In a matter of minutes.

  “Hey,” I said, glancing at her, “thanks … it was a great shot and he would have hit me the second time.”

  “Yeah, he would have,” Mason answered.

  “Courtney?” I said finally, looking at my sister. “What the hell were you doing? How did you jump? I couldn’t focus on anything here.”

  She shook her head, eyes wide. “You’ll never believe me … Maybe I’m just going crazy.”

  “I think we’re all losing our minds. That’s what it feels like, anyway,” Holly said, squeezing the rain from her ponytail.

  “Maybe,” Courtney concluded. “But it was like … I knew what they were gonna do a second before they did it.”

  The pain hit me again and I squeezed my eyes shut, wincing. “Should we go … up the hill or whatever…?”

  “Jackson? Are you okay?” Courtney asked.

  “If that’s even the real Jackson,” Mason reminded her as he stood up.

  We all managed to stand. As soon as we reached the hilltop, I could see figures way in the distance, running toward us. Not the faceless men, but people with hair … different-colored hair. There wasn’t much else I could make out.

  “Jackson!” Courtney said, grabbing my arm. “I think it’s Dad!”

  All of us took off running and we could see the three people moving closer, shouting something at us. “What?” I yelled back.

  Several small houses rested at the bottom of the hill between a sea of trees that didn’t fit into the dirty, demolished world we had just run through. I could even make out a stream or a creek in the distance, behind the houses.

  Suddenly the three people stopped running. Just froze right in the grass as we ran closer. One of them looked young … a guy maybe my age, with dark hair, long and tied in a ponytail, and a woman with red hair and almost the exact same face as Cassidy … and Dad … really the real Dad … in a real jump … not a half-jump.

  Dad’s eyes locked with mine as we stood in front of them, panting and leaning over. It was then that I realized how horrified all of them looked. Complete defeat written on their faces.

  “Dad? What is it?” I asked between breaths.

  He opened his mouth to speak, and then his eyes drifted to my far right. “Oh, my God … Jackson, what did you do?” His legs shook and I thought he might fall over, then the look he gave me, as he tore his eyes from Courtney, was something I’d never forget, pure gratefulness and grief all at the same time. “Courtney … oh, my God … I can’t … It’s impossible…”

  He hadn’t come here to save her … to reverse anything, because that wasn’t possible. I knew he wouldn’t have done that. He’d never have let himself get trapped like that.

  I stood up straight again, watching Dad stumble over to Courtney, looking her over and then opening his arms. She fell right into them, hugging him tight around the waist. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Daddy.”

  “Sweetheart … I missed you … so much…” Everyone heard the crack in his voice and saw the tears streaming down his face. But I don’t think he cared.

  Emily was the first to speak and break through the reunion. “I’m sorry for bringing her … I just … Jackson said he wanted to fix it, and … I’m sorry.”

  Emily’s words hung in the air as everyone watched Dad, gripping Courtney like she was a lifeline. Mason looked like he was fighting his own emotional battle. But a minute later he snapped into action, the agent coming to life again. “Agent Meyer … Courtney and I are a little worried about the cloned kid and, well … we think Jackson’s a clone, too?”

  Dad lifted his head immediately and Courtney wiped the tears from his face with her sleeve. “You think Jackson’s a clone?” Dad asked Courtney specifically.

  “Don’t clones look like the person they’re made from?”

  “Not exactly … not always,” the redheaded woman spoke up. “Although I do look almost identical to Experiment 787.”

  “Otherwise known as Cassidy,” Dad said, nodding at me and Mason.

  The younger guy stepped toward Emily with a tiny flashlight in his hand. “We can settle this right now.”

  Emily backed right into me as if she knew what was coming.

  “Don’t touch her,” I warned the guy approaching with his crazy laser-beam thing.

  “It’s all right,” Dad said, looking me right in the eyes.

  Emily’s entire body stiffened, but she didn’t protest. The beam shone into her eyes and the guy pulled what looked like a tiny computer from his pocket and read aloud. “Experiment 1029 … Emily. D.O.B. July fourth, 3192. Death date unknown.”

  “Clone,” the woman said. “One of Ludwig’s.”

  He turned the laser beam on me and quickly read, eyebrows lifting. “Experiment Axelle, Product B … Jackson … D.O.B. June twentieth 1990. Death date … unknown.”

  “Axelle!” Mason said, his mouth hanging open.

  Dad shook his head. “Jackson’s not a clone. Axelle was an experiment with a surrogate mother—”

  “I know what Axelle is,” Mason snapped. “I just thought … well, I didn’t know it was him … that’s all.”

  “I’m only half of it,” I said. “Courtney’s the other half … I guess Product A?”

  The young guy with the laser beam headed straight toward Courtney, but Dad stopped him and pointed at Holly. Holly’s eyes grew large and she began to back away, but she stopped eventually, letting him flash the thing at her.

  The guy shook his head, forehead creasing as he read his computer. “All it says is she has the DNA of
a known Eyewall agent … enrolled in the year 2008.”

  Shock filled Dad’s face despite his gift for composed agent faces. Holly was taking it all in, moving closer to me, looking hard at Dad’s expression.

  “Dad, did you know that I did a complete jump? Right before I joined Tempest officially?”

  His eyes widened, but it wasn’t total shock. It was as if several pieces had snapped together. “Wow … the chances were so slight that I never wanted to worry you with it. Honestly, even Dr. Melvin was scrambling to figure it all out. Especially the timeline issue.”

  “Well, that is a whole different subject,” I said bitterly, then I took a deep breath before adding, “Dr. Melvin’s dead … and Freeman.”

  “And me,” Mason said, raising his hand in the air. “I’m dead, too.”

  Dad looked shaken, but I didn’t think he knew what to say. It was Holly who spoke up next.

  “That’s it, isn’t it?” she said, forming some conclusion that she had obviously been working through her mind in the last several minutes … something she hadn’t let us in on yet. She grabbed my wrist and turned me around. “You did some voodoo time-traveling trick. You knew me before. That day I saw you in the bookstore, with Brian … you acted so weird. I should have known something was up then, but of course I never would have guessed this.”

  “Holly?” I said, trying to shake her hand from my arm. She was practically off in her own world and I understood where the excitement, the energy, came from. This whole jump-to-the-future thing was major brain overload, and people like us, trained agents, we lived for answers to the endless questions. I tried to catch her eye, get her to really look at me. “Hol, listen—”

  “God … it’s practically genius, what you can do. Blow your cover with me, and then, poof! Time-travel back a few hours and erase the screwup. No wonder they freaked out about you. Collins would have had me move in with you and propose if he could have, just to get more information. That’s how much you baffled them.”

  I rested my hands on her shoulders and shook her a little. “Holly! Look at me.”

  She did meet my eyes for a split second, and then her gaze drifted to my wrist. I felt my body stiffen when I saw what she was staring at. I leaned closer, examining the blue and black streaks etched across my skin. My heart pounded so loud, I couldn’t hear if she said anything to me. I glanced over my shoulder and quickly tugged the sleeve of my sweatshirt over my wrist.