Surviving ELE (ELE Series #4)

by Gober, Rebecca

  “Leave Tony out of this!” I yell. My face is on fire, despite the icy air that stings my cheeks.

  Lee does a good job of masking the hurt expression on his face. “Look, I know you’re upset, but we did what we thought was right. We controlled them as best as we could, and basically kept them locked up the entire time. We did everything we could.”

  “You didn’t do enough!” I yell. Tony puts his hand on my shoulder, trying to calm me down, but I brush it off. I don’t want to be coddled right now. I want my family and friends.

  “Look, we aren’t getting anywhere arguing. You need to know that all that John and Peter did was find a way to get Zack’s men inside our safe house undetected. Even if they weren’t there, Zack would have found a way to get to them anyway,” Lee tells me, trying to keep his cool.

  He has a point. Zack found a way to take my friends right out from under my nose. I can’t blame John or this Peter guy for that. I clench my fists. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Erik moving in closer to me. My anger begins subsiding. “Okay, so did John and Peter tell you where they took my family?”

  “No, they don’t know where Zack was taking them.” He pulls something out of his pocket. An envelope. “We came to look for you as soon as we could. They left this envelope with John.” He hands it to me.

  My heart is sinking as I reach for it. I half expect it to bite me or burn my fingers, but it doesn’t. It’s a simple white envelope. My name is scrawled across it in dark letters. Beneath it a cautionary note states: If you want them back safe, then this is for Willow’s eyes only.

  I look up at Tony, who looks like he wants to punch something. I can feel that his anger isn’t from my brush off. It’s all directed at Zack.

  “Let’s go inside,” Erik says to us. He leads Tony and me inside. Lee follows us, but everyone else remains outside in the cold.

  Erik lets me go into the small conference room. “We’ll give you a minute,” he says.

  Tony doesn’t part from my side as I enter the room. “Do you want me to leave?” he asks me hesitantly.

  I gently shake my head. “No, you can stay.” We both take a seat at the table. Erik gives us some privacy and leaves the room.

  Tony pulls a knife out of his back pocket. He hands it to me, but my hands are shaking too badly.

  Making sure the wall in my mind is still up so Zack can’t see me, I hand the envelope to Tony. “You open it, please,” I say, disregarding the cautionary note on the front. I watch him insert the blade between the folded tab. He slices it quickly and puts his blade away. Pulling out a letter out from within the envelope, he hands it to me.

  I slowly unfold it. This feather-light paper feels like a million pounds in my hands. The note is short and written in bolded ink.

  Dear Willow,

  My, my, you really are quite a handful, sugar. I should have known better than to think I could contain such a powerful creature. Thank goodness, you still have a weakness, my dear...

  I hold some mighty powerful cards in my hand. Your family and friends are safe with me for now... As you know, the stakes are much higher in this game. I tire of our usual round of hide and seek. This time you will come to me. In addition, you WILL tell me how you came upon your powers. I’m sorry, did I say tell? I meant that you will show me how you came upon your powers.

  Don’t get any clever ideas about lying to me either, darling. I’ve heard through the grapevine that you wiped your boy toy’s slate clean. Bring him with you and we will test out our little experiment on him first.

  Tick, Tock. Time is of the essence since we still need the light of day to test our experiment. Meet me in my father’s old lab before 2 p.m.

  Oh, and if you don’t want your loved ones to become a Reaper snack, then I suggest you and Tony come alone. My men will be keeping a close eye on the area. If they see anything fishy, your little brother will be the first to go.

  PS: Sabby has your same curls.

  Love Always,

  Zack

  XXXXX

  My stomach is twisted in sick knots. I hold the paper out to Tony without looking at him. He takes it and reads it quickly, then he crumples it in his hand and slams his fist on the table. “Bastard!” he yells. I may have taken the power out of Tony but his willpower is still intact.

  “You don’t have to come.” This isn’t his family or his friends really. He has no reason to risk his life for them. “You shouldn’t come,” I clarify before I look up at him. I could never ask something like that out of anyone, not even Tony.

  His eyes are on fire. “That’s crap and you know it! Do you really think that I’d leave you at a time like this? That I’d just let Zack hurt the people you care about?”

  “No, I know that you wouldn’t, Tony. You’ve been through enough for me already. You aren’t becoming the next lab rat,” I say boldly, even if I feel less than strong right now.

  “Willow, you are a part of me now. How long will it take you to understand this? I will go to the ends of the world for you and if that includes turning into a science experiment, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay. I am going with you. I will kill Zack and we will get your family back.” There is rage in his tone as he insinuates the verbs. I know it’s not directed at me but I can feel the strength of it circling through the room. Like smoke before it erupts into fire.

  There’s a knock on the door and before I can say anything, it opens. Morgan and Audrey walk into the room, holding hands. Both of them look beyond tired. They take a seat across from Tony and me.

  Audrey looks at me with sadness in her copper eyes. She grabs a thin, black box out from her jacket pocket and slides it across the table to me. “It was my sister’s. She didn’t survive long enough to use it.”

  Both Tony and I recognize what it is immediately. Tony grabs ahold of the box first and flips it open. Inside are two needles. One contains a neon-yellow liquid and the other, a bright red liquid.

  Tony grabs for the yellow shot and I immediately grab his hand to stop him. “No.”

  Tony looks at me. “If we are going in there, I’m going to need my strength back,” he says fiercely.

  “She’s right,” Audrey says. We both look up at her as she continues. “You need to remain a clean slate. You can work with this if you do it right. The only needle you need to take with you is the red one.” She reaches for the box and Tony lets her take it. “I didn’t see far enough along to know if it will work or not, but it’s your only hope right now,” she says as she pulls the red shot out of the box and hands it to Morgan.

  “You will have to find a way to switch it out with the one Zack will have. In Audrey’s vision, the only person with the opportunity to switch it will be Tony. Willow, you will have to distract Zack.” He flicks the liquid vial with his finger. I notice that no bubbles float to the top like usual. It looks different than what I’d seen before, yet, familiar.

  “I had a vision about this,” I say, remembering the moment that I noticed the liquid was different before I injected it into Tony.

  Morgan nods his head and pushes his shades up further on his nose before continuing. “This is only a fraction of the immunization. The remainder is corn syrup and red food coloring. I saw your memories about how you suspect this is the way you got your gifts. I guess we will find out soon enough.”

  I scrunch my eyebrows. “I don’t understand the corn syrup though. Why wouldn’t I just inject Tony with a small amount?” My eyes widen as it dawns on me. I know Zack is going to want to use a syringe identical to Tony’s to make sure I’m not trying to trick him. Having the corn syrup guarantees it will look as if his shot contains the full amount of red serum. Which means, when Zack gets his dose… “We are going to kill Zack,” I say my conclusion aloud. The thought makes me ill, to the point of wanting to vomit. But why? I hate Zack; I can say that with absolute certainty. But kill him? I’m not so sure.

  Morgan nods his head. “This may be your only chance and he has to be stopped.”
>
  Tony grabs my hand as I nod solemnly. I don’t like the idea of taking another life but he is threatening my family. Any monster who would throw a four-year-old out to a den of Reapers, doesn’t deserve to continue on this earth. But is it my place to take his life?

  I hadn’t realized that Erik and Lee walked in until Erik answers for me. “It is necessary,” he tells me after having sensed my torn emotions.

  I ask in desperation, “Are we sure that the entire shot will kill him? What if he becomes a Reaper?”

  “Then I’ll take him out myself,” Tony tells me. Then he looks at Audrey and Morgan. “I don’t understand though, why we would need to go through such an elaborate scheme to get rid of Hastings? Why can’t I just shoot him?”

  Audrey answers. “He is controlling many people.”

  “Like he controlled me?” Tony asks.

  Audrey shakes her head. “No, he used his compulsion to brainwash them. If you kill him, he has instructed his puppets to kill everyone and then to take their own lives in return. The connection will be severed the instant he is dead but his final instruction will not disappear as easily. He instructed his people to do this only if you kill him. He didn’t say anything to them about what to do if he dies of his own accord. You stand a better chance of surviving this way and also to save the lives of the innocent people he’s taken,” she says. Morgan places the red needle in the case and pushes it back across the table.

  “We should leave now,” Tony says as he grabs the box.

  I nod my head and stand. “Lee...” I know he’s going to want to be our backup. He doesn’t have to say anything for me to see it.

  He holds his hands out. “They already told me. I don’t have to like it, but I know that you have to do this alone. We’ll wait here. But if you aren’t back before nightfall, we’re coming after you.”

  “Thank you,” I tell him. I look over at Erik, Morgan, and Audrey. “Thank you all again. I hope this will work.”

  “We do too,” Morgan says honestly. “Oh and Willow?”

  I look at him. “Your secret is safe with us.” He reaches out and takes my hand, giving it a squeeze of reassurance.

  I know he means my secret, as to how I got my powers, is safe. I believe him. With our goodbye’s said, Tony and I leave the camp with only a pistol each and a needle filled mostly with red corn syrup in our possession.

  CHAPTER 10

  The sun is at its highest point in the sky, which tells me that it’s either noon or somewhere shortly after. I hold Tony’s hand as we run towards the mountain. There’s no time to dilly-dally. My family, friends, and everyone I intimately care about are being held hostage in that mountain. Thoughts of Sabby crying for me cause knots to form in my stomach. I bend forward slightly as we run, to make them go away. If I have any chance of doing this and doing this right, I can’t be thinking of my little brother.

  “There are going to be a lot of Reapers inside,” I tell him. A chill runs up my spine as I think about the sick, twisted, vision I had not too long ago, about them making their home in the charred remains of our old shelter.

  “How do you think Zack got inside with everyone?” he asks.

  “I don’t know. When we get to the tree line I plan on making us invisible, but we have to be ready for the attack,” I tell him.

  He nods his head. He’s breathing heavily, but he’s still keeping up with me. I can’t use my full strength to propel us as fast as we could go. I need to save it for when we get there. I notice the trees thinning out. The snow has begun falling again, blurring our vision up ahead. I squeeze his hand and we stop before making it to the clearing.

  He places his hand on my cheek. “No matter what happens, I want you to know that I love you.” Snowflakes coat his hair.

  “I love you too,” I whisper. So badly it hurts.

  He pulls me into his arms and kisses me passionately. I lean into him and let this horrible world fade away for a second. I need this moment to get me through what’s coming next.

  He’s stronger than he knows, I think to myself as I open my eyes. He curls a strand of my hair around his finger before kissing me again, softer this time. I can’t let anything bad happen to him; he means too much to me.

  The pressure is on as we turn towards the mountain. I grab his hand again and turn us invisible. We jog at Tony’s pace towards the shelter, which feels like a snail’s pace compared to earlier.

  Every nerve ending in my body is on heightened alert as we approach the shelter’s doors. I anticipate seeing a thousand red eyes staring at us, but I see nothing. The stench of charred remains hits both of us as we reach the entrance. Tony nearly gags. I, having experienced it before in a vision, knew what to expect. I rub his back with my free hand. He rights himself quickly, trying desperately to hold onto his strong-persona image. His strength may be gone but he’s still one of the brightest crayons in the box.

  We take a moment to listen before we enter. I can hear some type of strange noise in the distance, but I’m not sure what it is. A high-pitch beeping accompanies the noises. It hurts my head at first, but then after a few seconds the pain disappears.

  Before we walk in, Tony looks at me strangely. “Your eyes are silver and purple,” he whispers.

  I raise an eyebrow at him but respond since I don’t know exactly what to say. I focus on keeping us invisible as we walk into the darkened hallway. The strange noises increase the further we walk, but the beeping sound never returns.

  Nausea rolls around in my stomach and I wonder if Tony is as nervous as I am. In this moment, I’m not sure if I’m more scared of the Reapers or Zack. I would probably have to go with the Reapers due to their sheer numbers.

  Only a few steps from the common area, the noise grows loud enough for me to recognize it. The sound of wailing cries echo out from the cavernous room. My heart sinks. I’m too late! Is it already past two? “He’s hurting them!” I cry out and start running towards the opening to the room.

  Tony grabs my hand and pulls me back. “No! It could be a trick,” he says. “There are too many voices for this to be your friends and family. Plus, he said to meet him in his father’s lab. Is the lab close by?”

  I shake my head, hoping he’s right. He pulls his pistol out of his back pocket. I pull mine out too. We remain invisible as we quietly approach the common area.

  “What the?” Tony says as we walk into the room.

  My breath whooshes out of me as I take in the sight. Reapers are lying everywhere, covering the floor. Some are curled into the fetal position and some are hunched over on top of the charred remains of the tables. Others are lying flat on their faces. The howling and moans are almost too much to endure. They writhe about in horrible pain...deep, unadulterated, excruciating pain.

  I have to drop my invisibility and focus everything within me to block out their feelings. The air of emotions in this room is so thick that it attempts to suffocate me.

  “He must have his father’s device,” Tony says.

  I can’t open my mouth or speak; I’m focusing too hard to keep them out. Tony senses my struggle and grabs my elbow, pulling me through the room. We have to step over the Reapers, who try, but fail miserably, at grabbing ahold of our feet. They are too weak to grasp anything within their hands. I nearly trip over a man who is crying so loudly that it reverberates in my ears. Tony steadies me and keeps moving me forward.

  We reach the hallway with the bank of elevators. The metal doors are black from fire. Continuing down the hallway, we have to walk over a few more Reapers. Thankfully, we run into less and less as we walk. I start being able to regain my bearings again. “Do you know where you’re going?” I ask him when I finally find my voice.

  He stops and looks at me. “No. I just knew I had to get you away from there. Your eyes were swirling with silver and black. I knew that whatever was happening to you was pretty bad.”

  “It was hard to block out all of their emotions. There were simply just too many of them,” I tell him e
ven though he is quite aware of their numbers. There had to be over a hundred of them in that room alone.

  “Do you know how to get to the lab?” he asks me.

  I nod my head. “Yes.” I grab his hand and we melt through the floor slowly. Tony looks at me with wonder before we fall to the ground on the level below. We land in the middle of a walk-in freezer. I start shivering as I help Tony to his feet. I find it strange that this freezer still has power going to it. I figured after the fire happened that the power would be gone for good. Especially since the residents are now Reapers to say the least. The fridge itself seems to be spared from fire damage. We walk through the refrigerator doors and out into a large food pantry that was spared as well. I haven’t gone this way before, but I still have a good sense of our general location. This must be on the same level as the indoor crop fields.

  “You ready to go again?” I ask him.

  He smiles. “Let’s do this.” I can tell he’s enjoying Connor’s gift.

  We start moving through the floor a little faster than I intended this time. We land on top of a storage crate. Tony moves towards the end of the crate to jump down, but he freezes when he reaches the edge. “We have company,” he tells me.

  I move to his side and peer down over his shoulder. Three of Zack’s goons are standing there with their guns pointed towards us. More of his men, dressed in black, are running our way. “Smart move,” I say aloud. Zack knew I’d eventually have to come this way so he littered it with men.

  “Surrender your weapons,” a large man with yellow eyes yells up to us.

  Tony looks at me and I give him the look that says we had better cooperate. I hand him my pistol and he pulls his out. Then he removes the magazines from both of them and drops the pistols and the magazines separately to the ground beneath us.

  One of the other men grabs the pistols quickly, leaving the magazines on the floor. “Get down here,” the man demands.