In elegant script the title read: Census 2036—two years from now. I traced my hands over the ink, jealous of the penmanship. Besides the sloppy note I’d written to Kaden, I’d never had much opportunity to write anything. Curious, I flipped to the next page. People’s names were listed alphabetically, along with age, birth date, profession, marital status, children, health, and… words of advice. My throat tightened as I continued to read. Then my fingers began to shake as I flipped to the R’s. I traced my finger down and looked for Eleanor.
Name: Robinson, Eleanor Elle
Age: 20
Profession: Computer Programmer
Marital Status: Engaged to Jordan Taylor
Children: None yet
Health: Sassy as ever
Words of Advice: Dear Me, wear clean underwear. You never know where you’ll be when an emergency strikes. Don’t, I repeat, don’t shave off your eyebrows. Watch out for the extra calories, too. They’re sneaking up on you. Oh, and tell your work-a-holic best friend, Anna, she needs to let loose and take a vacation everyone once in a while. Too much time in the lab makes for a cranky girl. Oh, and have fun while you’re young!
Signing off, Elle
Anna? Were Anna and I the same person? I stared at the words and blinked. All though this wasn’t forty years from now, her happiness oozed off the page. Flipping through the pages, I noted everyone gave sensible and sometimes silly advice. What had happened that destroyed that world?
My eyes slid shut. I’d been tasked on a quest to save my friends, my future husband, and my family, and instead I’d brought on a zombie apocalypse in both worlds. All because of some time travel nonsense I couldn’t control. I hugged the book to my chest. More than anything, I wanted this timeline to be real—to be ours.
Movement flickering in the monitor caught my attention. I turned and witnessed nothing but a bare floor. Where did Kaden’s body go? I ran over to the screen and pressed the intercom. Then I noticed a volume button. Cranking it to the max, I shuddered as moans and screams filled the speakers. I clicked the button once more.
“Kaden?”
“Abby?” Kaden responded. “Is that you? Where are you?”
His beautiful face filled the screen and my shoulders sagged in relief.
“I’m in Declan’s office,” I said, touching the screen. “Can you see me?”
“No.” He glanced over his shoulder when another scream filled the speakers. “What’s happening?”
I pursed my lips and hesitated. “I think I’ve started a zombie apocalypse.”
Kaden’s eyes swung to the camera. “Oh, shit.”
I cocked my head backward in shock. I’d expected him to be in disbelief at least. “You know about them?”
Kaden’s face pinched in concern. “Yeah. Sort of.”
The air whooshed from my mouth as my words tumbled in a rush. “I’ve been time jumping, but I thought I was going to the future. Actually, it’s not. It’s the past, and somehow there are zombies there. I must have somehow contaminated myself. I don’t know what we’re going to do…” Tears sprung to my lids.
“Abby, listen to me. You need to find me. And bring keys or something to get me free from this cell. Even a hammer will work. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said, breathless.
“There’s no rush. Technically, I’m safe in here. Just be careful.”
Safe. We weren’t safe anymore. I blinked, my head swimming.
“Abby?” Kaden called, more urgent.
“Yes, Kaden. I’m coming for you.”
“Good,” he said with a soft sigh. “You can do it. Please, be careful.”
I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. Somehow, I knew he was right. And I would fix this. I owed it to him.
~|~
With a pointed shard of wood in my hand, I entered the hall. Sweat dripped down the back of my neck as I tiptoed around the blood and listened hard.
Rule 21.2: If you’re in need of help, press your emergency button and call for backup immediately, especially in a zombie attack.
I could imagine the chaos in the streets if in fact zombies were loose in the city. People should revert to their training and seal up their homes. DOD watches on victims would alert the location of the undead. Things would work out.
Turning the corner, I withheld my scream and looked away. On the floor lay the guard from earlier who’d booked me and put me in the cell. Her intestines were ripped from her torso and spilt alongside her body. Half of her face was missing; her eyes were open and vacant. I leaned away and dry heaved. I hadn’t eaten since… I couldn’t remember when.
The keys, though, were most likely on her person. Everything inside me demanded I run. Elle’s whimper stopped me.
I peered around the corner first. “I’m here.”
She looked up and blinked at me, eyes red. Then she cried some more. “Now I’m seeing things.”
“No, Elle. I’m really here.” I came to the bars.
“H-how?” she choked out.
I pushed out a breath. “It’s a long story. I need to get you out of here first.”
“You disappeared, though.”
“I know. It’s because…” I pinched my eyes shut for a moment. “I’m the Oracle, Elle.”
Her features froze, then she started to laugh which grew into a grating cackle.
“No, Elle. I’m serious. I am.”
“Sure you are.” She snorted and I knew this wasn’t rational behavior. “You’re an EA trick and you’re trying to get me to cave. I won’t do it!” She shook her fist at the camera.
“Forget it.” I turned around. “I’ll be right back.”
“Sure you will,” she called out.
I kneeled beside the mangled lady’s body and turned my head while I fished in her wet pocket for keys, finding nothing. In her hostler, though, was a gun. I’d never held a gun, let alone shot one.
“Abby!” Elle called, panicked.
“Shhh!” I barked over my shoulder. “I’m coming. Hold on.”
Then the body underneath me shifted. My head whipped around. The woman’s milky eyes moved to look at me. I shrieked and tried to stand. Quick as a flash, her bloodied hand gripped onto my arm. Off balance, I toppled onto my butt and slipped from her grasp. She rolled toward me. My feet kicked her in attempts to push her away. An excited gurgle came from the gash in her cheek and she grabbed ahold of my ankles, teeth bared.
With a quick jerk of my fist, I punched her on the good side of her face, knocking her over. I lunged for the gun on her belt. My fingers slid over the cold metal, unable to grip it. I reached for it again, yanking it from her belt. I aimed and pulled the trigger.
Elle shrieked and yelled something, but the blast made everything fuzzy. The woman kept advancing. I crawled backwards and jumped to my feet, running around the corner. The woman did the same and followed, arms held outward.
Elle screamed and my finger pulled the trigger. Stucco sprayed from the wall behind the guard.
“Her head!” Elle yelled. “Shoot her in the head!”
My hands swung upward and I aimed, blasting a bullet into her skull. Blood and flesh exploded behind her, coating the wall, and her body tumbled to my feet.
My hands trembled as I continued to train the gun on her.
“Holy shit! What is that?” Elle screamed. “What the hell is that?”
I swung to Elle, gun still extended in my hands.
“Whoa!” Elle held up her hands in surrender. “Lower that thing.”
My head cleared briefly, and instead of putting the gun down, I pointed it at the lock on the gate between us and shot again. An ear shattering clang reverberated in the room. Elle’s lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what she’d said.
Then the gate between us swung open wide and Elle had never looked more furious in her life.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“What are you doing?” Elle shrieked as she ran to the jail door and tried to lock the mangled piece of metal that
wouldn’t hold.
“Saving you,” I said aghast.
“Saving me?” her voice pitched up an octave. “I was safe in here. I could have waited until they came.”
“Who came?”
“The EA!”
I tried not to roll my eyes. Half the staff here most likely had been Vice President Declan’s lunch or his new companions. “Elle, we have to get out of here while we can. I need to find Kaden, too. I don’t know where he is.”
She spun in a circle, then pointed to the dead woman. “Give me her belt.”
“Elle, stop this.”
“Give me her belt!”
I took one look at her mangled corpse and shook my head. “If you want it, you get it.”
“She’s contaminated. I can’t… touch her.”
I sighed, staring at my bloodied hands, wishing I could wash them off. “We’re all contaminated at this point.”
Footsteps sounded from down the hall. Elle grabbed the sheet from her bed and tried to rip off a section. Anxious shrieks kept escaping from her lips as she pulled and then tried to fasten the torn fabric around the door to hold it shut.
I lifted my gun and held it outward towards the zombie approaching.
“Whoa!” Landon held up his hands as soon as he rounded the corner. “Abby? Is that you?”
I blew out a breath and lowered the gun. Then anger coursed through me. “You son of a bitch.” I retrained the gun on Landon.
“Whoa, Abby. It’s okay; it’s me. Landon.”
“I know who you are, you coward. Get the hell out of here!” I demanded.
He blinked at me in shock. “Okay, if that’s what you want. I’ll leave, but not without Elle.”
Elle burst into tears again and I lowered the gun.
“Landon,” she whimpered. “What is going on?”
“I’m here, Elle. It’ll be okay.” He stepped slowly into the cell and Elle ran to embrace him. She cried on his shoulder and pity for him took ahold.
He smoothed her hair. “I never meant for this to happen. They were onto you, and the last thing I wanted was for them to find out what you and Abby were up to, so I hoped if they found you with a muff, they’d just give you a slap on the wrist—but I was wrong.”
He glanced at me and instead of a genuine look of relief; he gave me a sexy up and down that said, “Look at you, all bad ass.” In the past, I would have been weak in the knees over his approval. The new me was pissed. “Some savior you turned out to be.”
“What does that mean?” Landon’s forehead creased.
“Oh let me see…” I placed my hand on my heart. “I think I remember you saying, ‘I’ll monitor you 24-7 and if you so much as remove your DOD, I’ll be all over you…’ or something pathetic like that.”
“I was.”
“No,” I corrected, “You were probably busy doing what’s-her-name while I was being carried off against my will and my DOD lay smashed to smithereens in front of my house.”
Elle gasped.
“I came immediately, Abby. First on the scene. First to the wall. First to round up a search party. Believe me; whoever took you knew exactly what they were doing. You vanished into thin air.”
I lowered my hand to my side and bit my lip, amazed I’d basically called him a man-whore to his face. He’d come to rescue me? The night flashed through my thoughts. Kaden was pretty amazing when it came to stealthy stuff.
“He’s right,” Elle chimed in.
I swallowed down my joy and centered myself. Landon would need to prove he was on our side. “Okay, then. That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
“That’s fine.” He lead his sister from her cell. “But this place is in lockdown and they’ll have no qualms exterminating us if we don’t get out of here right now.”
“What? No, Landon.” Elle clutched his arm.
“It’s okay, sis. I’ve got it under control.” He held his hand toward me. “Give me the gun.”
I snapped my head up. “No.”
“Abby, this is serious. I need it.”
I let out a gust of air. After what I went through to get it, there wasn’t any way I’d hand it over freely. “Find your own gun.”
“Stop being stubborn. You don’t even know how to use it.” He stepped forward.
I gestured to the bleeding corpse on the ground. “Yeah, I think I do. But I don’t have time to argue.”
“You’ve got somewhere to be?” His eyes crinkled.
“I need to save the guy who eluded you. Got a problem with it?”
I smirked, then moved past him.
“Wait.” He grabbed my wrist. “We should stick together.”
Yanking hard, I pulled my arm away. “Unless you know where Kaden is, you’re on your own.”
My stomach clenched at my bluff. Whatever Landon’s loyalties, I didn’t want him to abandon me, but I didn’t want him to take my gun either.
Landon’s face hardened. “Abby, he’s on the other side of the compound. And they’re going to gas this place any minute. We have to get out.”
“Abby, come with us.” Elle begged.
Her shrill voice annoyed me. She’d wished her entire life to see a zombie and now that they were here, she shriveled up into a pathetic mess.
“I can’t. I’m sorry. I’ll be fine. See you outside.” I turned to run, shaking off my fear. “I’m not leaving without Kaden!”
“You’re so stubborn.” Landon caught up to me with Elle close behind.
I wanted to smack him, and I would have, if we had time to waste.
“The catwalk is this way.” He directed us to the right.
“That’s not part of your protocol,” a voice crackled on Landon’s DOD watch. He quickly clicked it off.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
The same voice crackled from the speakers overhead. “Lieutenant Robinson, you need to turn your group around and take the exit behind you.”
Landon continued on as if he didn’t hear anything.
“Landon—” the voice started.
“I can’t, Austin,” he said, angered.
“What is going on?” I hissed.
Landon gave me a look of warning before turning the corner. He skidded to a stop. An iron wall blocked the hallway.
“What’s this?” Landon yelled, looking around until he spotted a camera hanging from the ceiling.
“We had to seal it off,” Austin said through the speakers. “We’ll talk about this when you get to the decontamination room.”
“I’m not leaving without Abby and she’s not leaving without the prisoner.”
A heavy sigh filtered from the speakers. “Then leave her.”
Landon gritted his teeth. “That’s a death sentence and you know it.”
I studied walls, looking for a control panel. “You said you had the keys.”
Landon’s chest rose and fell dramatically. “Figuratively, yes.” He glared at the camera. “Come on, Austin. Let me in.”
“No doing, Landon. You’ll thank me later.”
I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat. We didn’t have time for this. Groans and scratching on the other side of the doors momentarily stole my concentration. Without thinking, I aimed at the barrier.
Landon lunged for my hands, but I’d already pulled the trigger. A blast rung out again, deafening me, but I’d missed the doors entirely and hit the wall instead. The floor rattled and like magic, the iron panel slid upward, disappearing into the ceiling.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Beyond the gate stood a mangled group of empty-eyed humans, swaying like leaves caught in a breeze, heads turned upward. Then they lowered in giddy guttural excitement. They weren’t tethered any longer. They were free.
Elle screamed and only then, did my head start to pound.
I aimed at the first torso, Vice President Declan’s, and fired. The gun clicked in my hand. I pulled the trigger again in disbelief and stumbled backward. No bullets.
/> “Run,” Landon yelled, grabbing ahold of my shoulder.
I tumbled into him and reached out for Elle to stop myself from falling. We piled onto the floor in a twist of limbs.
Elle screamed again as the zombies lunged for us, then everything went black.
“What the heck?” Landon said after the pop.
I opened my eyes and rolled off of Elle, who was still screaming.
Oh, thank the stars. I jumped.
“Elle, it’s okay.” I reached for her, trying to catch my breath. “Open your eyes.”
“Where’d they go?” Landon swiveled around in a karate stance, eyeing both ends of the catwalk defensively.
“I think the correct question is, ‘Where’d we go?’” I said with a smirk.
Landon’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.” I shrugged, hoping after recently seeing The Wizard of Oz at their house they’d get my joke. Resorting to sarcasm was way better than freaking out. I’d pulled them into my time warp and things didn’t end so great last time with Declan.
“That’s not funny, A,” Elle said, dusting herself off. “What the hell just happened?”
I blinked at her for a moment. Had my best friend finally pulled on her big girl panties and returned? Because in the presence of zombies, she’d morphed into… me, frankly.
“I’m the Oracle, that’s what happened.”
Landon laughed. “No, seriously.”
“Yes, seriously,” I said a little louder. “If the absence of those… things wasn’t enough, then where are the cameras? The hole I just blew into the wall? Or even—” I glanced over at Landon’s watch that registered a row of 0’s across the face and pointed. “You’re apparently dead.”
Their eyes zeroed in on Landon’s DOD. He clicked opened the face and spoke into the watch. “Austin. Austin, come in.”
Nothing happened.
Elle stood, dumbfounded. “I don’t understand.”
I blew out a gust of air. “I can jump through time… well, to this particular point, which is somewhere before my birth and before my parents were married.” And how DOD watches came into existence, I’m thinking, and how we can talk to our Complements. “Yeah, I’m it.”
Glitch Page 24