“I wonder if there’s anything good on TV.” Charlie quickly moves out of the corridor and I slowly follow.
Even though the blood is gone, my mind is remembering it easily. I’m light-headed thinking back to the pool of blood that had been surrounding Dana as she bled out in my backyard. The deep red fluid that seeped through her dress. The same blood that covered my hands as I gripped onto her.
“Zoe?” Charlie calls out to me. He’s halfway sitting on the couch, but has stopped midway down.
“Yeah?” I carefully place one foot in front of the other and walk over to him, feeling grateful to make it over to the couch without collapsing.
Charlie seems to analyze me for a moment and I instantly feel a hundred times more nervous than I have been before. What is he looking at? Can he tell what I’ve been thinking of? Does he know how haunted I feel? Or is it more superficial than that? Is my hair sticking up? I haven’t even looked at myself in the mirror in who knows how long. I didn’t want to in fear that I wouldn’t recognize the person looking back. Now I’m wishing I had at least given myself a cursory look. I always look like the dead when I’m upset.
I sit down next to him, staring at the TV while continuing to feel his eyes on me.
“Do you mind if we watch this?” Charlie appears to decide to drop whatever he had wanted to say and points at the television.
I nod, not even caring what is on. Anything that will distract me from this situation works for me.
“I’m thirsty,” Rose complains before crouching down and looking in the bar fridge. From what I can see, it’s full of energy drinks, bottles of water and juice.
“No alcohol.” Rose frowns as she takes out an energy drink. She then glances at us. “Do you guys want anything?”
“A juice would be great,” Charlie speaks while keeping his eyes glued to the TV and I nod that I’ll have the same. Rose hands Will an energy drink first before handing us both a bottle of orange juice.
Charlie and I sit in silence, watching a show about a spy and I briefly wonder if we should be taking notes. This guy seems to know a lot about how to get out of a sticky situation. We could use his help. Especially given the information bomb that’s about to be dropped on us.
Chapter Twenty-Two – The Future
After a couple of hours of watching television, we all start to feel on edge again. It’s hard to forget that we’re in a place we don’t know, with people we don’t know, being held against our will. Inaction really doesn’t seem right.
None of us have spoken about what we found out from Stan. We’re to serve our country? We’re being forced to become part of a war? I’m not sure how to feel about that. For one, I can never be expected to hold a gun and the thought of me having to kill someone makes me feel sick all over. There is no way I can be forced to do that, to be a person where doing that is acceptable.
I’m pulled away from my thoughts when I hear scratching noises from behind where Charlie and I are sitting. I turn my head and look closely at the door that the two guards had dragged the bleeding boy through earlier.
I think that might be where the noise is coming from, though I’m not certain until I’m proved correct when I see the door handle moving and listen to a click before the door pops open. It doesn’t sound like any key I’ve ever heard before and a man wearing all black rushes in and closes the door behind him. He doesn’t face us, but stays concentrating on the door while crouching down. The same noises from just before happen again, except this time louder and clearer.
“What—” Rose tries to ask, but the man holds up his hand to silence her.
We all give each other questioning looks, however no one knows what’s going on. Charlie rises from the couch and I do the same. Something about this situation doesn’t feel right and having a better vantage point to run feels safest.
When the man finally relocks the door, he stands up straight and slowly turns to face us. His eyes fall directly to mine as he holds his fingers up to his lips to keep us quiet. My mouth drops open when I see him, but I keep my gasp in. I think at first it’s Sam, Drew’s older brother, but that can’t be right. It looks more like Drew’s Dad, except he passed away two years ago and even then, this man is younger than what Drew’s Dad had been.
The man points towards the hallway where our rooms are and then walks carefully and slowly down it. We all glance questionably at each other before we silently decide to follow. He enters the room I had woken up in earlier and we all pause outside it, peeking in.
I watch him over by the desk where he appears to be searching for something. He makes a mess of the papers I hadn’t noticed were sitting there and then pulls out a pen from the drawer. He scribbles something down and walks back over to us. We all hold our breath as he reaches out and hands Charlie the paper. I can’t take my eyes off his face when he’s close enough for me to see. His face is so familiar and yet unrecognizable. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Who are—”
The man hits the paper that Charlie is still holding and Charlie stops speaking to look back down at it. The next moment, everything falls extra silent and I know he’s knocked out the power again.
“There, done. Who are you?” Charlie demands and he’s the first of us to walk into the room.
“You need to keep the power off, it’ll reset every five minutes so you have to shut it back off when it does. They can’t hear what we’re going to talk about as long as the power is down.” The man waits for Charlie to agree. “Now, Zoe, I need you to hear me out, okay? Don’t say anything, just listen.”
“Okay?” I’m not sure why I’m being singled out, however I agree and walk in after Charlie while Rose and Will follow behind. The man walks over to the door and shuts it after us.
“My name is Drew Sutter.”
“But—” I stop when the man stares at me. This can’t be Drew, he’s too old.
“Listen. My name is Drew Sutter and I’m here with a very important message. By now, you’ve realized people have been trying to kill you, rather unsuccessfully, I might add. We failed.”
“We?” Rose demands.
“Yes. We came back here, trying to prevent a horrible future. We failed completely and instead of preventing you from being in this place, we’ve just sped the process up.”
“You’re not making sense,” Charlie states.
“I know. Look, I don’t have much time; my body is breaking down as we speak. If I had enough strength left, I would try to kill you all. Instead, I’m going to fail like the rest.”
We all take a collective step backwards. This man is here to kill us?
“Relax, one strong push will knock me down, maybe even paralyze me. I brought a gun, but dropped the damn thing in the river by accident. I’m completely useless,” he complains to himself.
“How can you be Drew?” I ask.
“I’m what Drew will look like in fifteen years’ time. Not bad, huh?” Drew raises his eyebrow at me, but shakes his head immediately after. “Sorry, this is serious. We may have failed stopping you from being here, but maybe you can succeed where we couldn’t.”
“You’re from the future?” I gasp, not wanting to believe him, yet knowing, deep down, there is some truth to what he is saying. This doesn’t feel like a lie, no matter how ridiculous his response is.
“Yes, I know it sounds impossible, but I’m speaking the truth.”
“Prove it, who wins the playoffs this year?” Charlie demands. I can tell by his voice that he doesn’t believe this man one bit.
“I have no idea. I didn’t watch much sports at this age.”
“Winning lottery numbers?”
“Look. I understand why you don’t believe me. I know what I’m saying sounds improbable, but look at where you are. You’ve been taken and brought here; nothing about this situation is real. You just have to believe me.”
“We don’t know who you are and I don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t simply give out my trust to strangers, especial
ly when they talk like they’ve just broken out of a mental facility,” Rose points out.
“Zoe, you know me. You must know I’m speaking the truth.” Future Drew holds his hands out to me. I take another small step back to keep out of reach. Charlie side steps in front of me.
“Don’t even think about it,” he threatens future Drew.
“I’m sorry. I don’t have time for this. Just hear me out and then you can decide for yourselves whether or not you believe me.”
We all stand in silence for a long moment when, by the sounds surrounding us, the power comes back on. Charlie turns and looks back at us all before he turns the power off again and then he steps back so I can see future Drew once more.
“Fine, hurry up.” He crosses his arms over his chest and Rose steps up to take a closer look at future Drew. Will and I stay where we are.
“Thank you. Like I said, you might be able to succeed where we failed.”
“You want us to kill ourselves then?” Rose sarcastically remarks.
“Well, that would be a big help, but no. I see our original plan has failed. Plan B is much more dangerous and scary.”
“Plan B?”
“You need to get out of here; this place isn’t safe.”
“Apparently, we’re here to serve our country,” I comment.
“He’s still preaching that lie then? Look, I get that you have no reason to listen to me or trust me, but please hear me out. Think of it as granting me a dying wish.”
“How do you know you’re dying? What happened?” I ask, noticing his paleness and the sheen of sweat reflecting from the sunlight outside. This Drew is also a lot skinnier than my Drew. Like twenty unhealthy pounds lighter.
“Time travel happened. Our bodies aren’t supposed to cope with that kind of pressure. As soon as we all arrived, our bodies started to break down. We only had days to complete our mission.”
“Is that why the woman who tried to kill me turned to dust?” Charlie asks him.
“Yes, it’s what will happen to my body and clothing, too. Technically, we don’t exist in this timeline and yet we do. So our bodies decay at a faster rate than is possible and we turn to ashes.”
“Who are you?” Rose questions him, her arms crossing over her chest.
“I’m a friend of Zoe’s. You all had someone come back for you, a person who volunteered to right this wrong.”
“A friend who volunteered to kill us? Some friend.” Rose rolls her eyes.
“It was the hardest decision to come to when we realized what needed to be done, none of us wanted this, believe me. Every one of those people loved you dearly. They gave up their pasts for you.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Take Will for example. Just over a year from now, you would have met a young kid named Ash on Jefferson Street and he would be nearly dead. You’ll give him some food and save his life. Gavin and you help him to survive and you become best friends. By coming back here, he ensures you won’t be there to save him. He knows he just sealed his fate.”
“Who tried to kill me?” Rose takes a step forward, her stance not so hostile anymore, curiosity winning out.
“Doug. He didn’t have the guts to kill you face to face. He set that bomb because he knew it was easier. He pulled the fire alarm to make sure everyone was out and he sat by the bomb with you and waited. He didn’t know you had managed to escape.”
“Doug tried to kill me?” Rose squeals in anger.
“He tried to save you, all of you. You all came to this place and you changed. They forced you to do horrible things, to murder in the name of America when you weren’t even working for America in the first place. Agent Asshole sold you all out for the highest bidder.”
“This place isn’t part of our government?” Charlie questions.
“Unfortunately, it is. Agent Asshole and his bitch wife work for P.A.G.E., Protection of Advanced Genetic Entities. They have a spotted history, though, and it depends on the day as to whether the government recognizes it or denies it.”
“If they’re selling us out to the highest bidder, wouldn’t the government want to stop that?” Rose points out.
“They believe they have some control here. Truth is, P.A.G.E. has gone rogue. Everything they tell you here are lies.”
“Why should we trust you?” Rose asks while crossing her arms back over her chest again.
“Don’t trust me, go with your gut. You all had reservations about being here, even back in my timeline. They recruited you rather than kidnapped you, a year from now. They each promise you different things, but you only get one thing, blood on your hands.”
Silence descends over us as we take in his awful words.
“What’s plan B?” Rose asks, the first of us to break the silence.
“We never really had a Plan B, so I’m just working this off the top of my head. You need to get out of here. You need to get away from this place. P.A.G.E. won’t ever stop looking for you, but perhaps you can evade them. If they don’t have you to do their dirty work, then they don’t have anything.”
“How do we get out of here?” I ask, already knowing I’m not going to like how dangerous the answer will be.
“I was able to sneak in because this place isn’t well secured. You can use that to your advantage. They’ve had to rush this place, and security on it isn’t all that tight because they think they have a leak. It means they don’t trust a lot of their own agents. It also means the next few weeks will be the only time you’ll be able to get out before it becomes a Fort Knox.”
“So say we get out, then what do we do?” Rose questions.
“You can’t ever go home, they’ll expect that.”
“So we get stuck never seeing our families and friends again? Sounds like we’ll be better off here. At least we’ll get to go home once they know we’re safe.” Rose glares at Drew.
“After the things they’ll make you do here, you won’t want to go home, Rose.”
We again stay silent, thinking about what those words mean.
“Listen, I don’t want you to completely give up hope. You have two options that I can see. You can make a run for it and try to make new lives where you can’t ever go home or you can make a run for it and fight.”
“Fight how?” Charlie asks.
“Bring them down. I know that won’t be easy, by any means, but it can be done. They’re a company, every company has its weak spots. You just have to find them and exploit them.”
“What is P.A.G.E.’s weakness?” I ask, imagining whatever it is won’t be easy to get to.
“I don’t really know. Bad press would be one. A lot of high standing people are behind this facility. Any bad exposure can lead them to shutting this down. Money is another. A company like this needs money to run it. Find it and squeeze it until there isn’t any.”
“How do we do any of that?” I sound as hopeless as I feel. We’re not trained for any of this.
“That’s the hard part. There is a building I remember Zoe mentioning to me once, it’s called The Core. It sounded pretty vital. Look, bringing them down is possible, I guess, but honestly, I think your best bet is to run and go into hiding. P.A.G.E. is big and powerful; going after them is a sure way to get caught and killed.”
“If we get killed then they can’t force us to do anything, right?” I repeat Drew’s earlier thoughts, but inside, I’m favoring running and hiding. I’m not a fighter. I’ll get caught for sure. “Why come here, trying to kill us, but now give us other options? Why not try that in the first place?”
“Because I’m too weak to kill you now and I can’t expect you to kill yourselves, which means that you have to leave here. You have two options that you can do when you’re free.”
“That’s seems incredibly extreme. Why is killing us your first option? What do we do that’s so awful?” Charlie asks.
“You don’t need that to haunt your thoughts. P.A.G.E. is part of the government and their reach is far. Hiding is going t
o be difficult and none of you have any experience at it. The chance that you’ll succeed is not high, which means you’ll just end up back here. Death is the only way to ensure you don’t stay here.”
“And where exactly is here?” Rose asks him. I don’t agree with killing us, obviously, but for some reason, I can understand why he thought he needed to do it.
Drew takes a deep breath and I think maybe that short speech he gave took a lot out of him. He looks exhausted. “You’re at The Windmill. It’s where you were trained for two years before they moved you to a new complex. It’s in southern North Dakota.”
“No wonder it is so cold,” Rose complains.
Drew coughs violently and I think he might have gotten even paler than when he had first arrived.
“So what do we do? Do we stay here with Agent whatever or get out of here? Do we trust this guy?” Will asks us, looking lost and perhaps stressed.
“I don’t exactly think this guy is all there and what he is saying definitely doesn’t sound possible, but I do think we should get the hell out of here.” Rose’s voice doesn’t waver, she’s made up her mind.
“I think we have to leave, too,” Charlie agrees with Rose.
“I couldn’t help thinking Stan was holding back when he was talking to us, he’s hiding something. I think we need to get out of here.” I nod to Drew, worried when he doesn’t seem to notice.
“Then we leave,” Will agrees, shrugging like it’s something simple we’ve decided to do.
“When?” I ask the group. Do we get away tonight? Right now?
“Someone is coming,” Will breaks the silence, panic making him lurch forward. I don’t hear anything to alert me of that, but I don’t doubt Will, which is strange since I only just met him. I can already feel myself trusting these strangers.
“If they think something is wrong, they’ll tighten up security and keep an extra eye on you. Right now, they probably think you’re with them. Fight them and they’ll fight back,” Drew warns.
“What are you saying?” I ask, not sure why he’s telling us this now.
“The blackouts are unusual. You need to have an excuse to explain it.” Drew sounds out of breath and I almost offer him the bed when Charlie interrupts.
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