“I’m not kidding around,” I say. “I’ve been with these people for a month now. They are good people. I would like to make sure they stay alive.”
“We’re just travelers,” Derek says. Scott nods at me in a agreement.
“Most people don’t really know about Shadowface,” I say. “How do you know about her?”
“Word is getting out,” Derek says.
I grip the knife in my fist, the blade pointing downward. “I want the truth out of you, Derek.”
He stares up at me, a trickle of sweat drops down the side of his face despite the cold air. I look from the knife to his face, wondering to myself if I can actually do more than just scare him. I’m not really the type to torture someone for information. But if he really is working for Shadowface, then it’s important that I find out what he’s doing. He could be my link to finding Waverly.
“Why are you here, and who are you working for?” I repeat.
Derek shakes his head at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Do you think I’m bluffing?” I ask, taking a step closer to him. “I’m not afraid to hurt you.” It’s a lie. Of course I am.
He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he just stares at the ground, defiant. I take another step forward and now I’m only a few inches away from him. I hope he is tied securely enough.
“So, what if I was working with Shadowface?” Derek asks. “What’s it to you?”
“If you were, then I would try to get more information out of you,” I say. “Shadowface is directly responsible for a lot of people’s death. She needs to answer for her crimes.”
Derek shakes his head.
Something within me snaps. I bring my hand back, knife firm in my grip. A brief look of shock spreads across Derek’s face just before I swing down and embed the knife deeply into his thigh. A shot of blood squirts onto my sleeve and his scream hurts my ears.
“Shut up!” I yell at him, pulling out my gun and pointing it at his face. The knife stands firmly out of the top of his leg. “Who sent you here?”
Derek is shaking, his jaw shivering. He closes his eyes for a moment as tears and sweat trickle down his face. With my pistol in my left hand, I reach for the knife with my right and pull it out sharply. He lets out another brief scream and I hold the knife up, threatening to do it again. Blood sticks to the skin between my fingers and an extremely firm grip is all that keeps me from shaking too.
“I can do this all night,” I say. “I know you’re lying to me. Tell me who sent you here.”
“Just leave him alone,” Scott calls out.
My head jerks to him. “You’re next! Shut up!” I turn back to Derek. “Who sent you here?”
Derek looks up at me slowly and shakes his head. I think he’s about to tell me that I’m wrong and don’t know what I’m talking about, but it seems that he has finally had enough.
“We work for a someone who’s starting a war,” Derek whimpers.
Scott shakes his head and clenches his jaw. “What are you doing?”
Derek turns to him briefly. “You get stabbed in the leg and see how you hold up.”
“Yeah, but now you’re going to kill us, aren’t you?” Scott asks me.
“No,” I say. “I just want information.”
“Who?” I ask.
Derek grimaces. “His name is Jeremiah.”
I can feel blood drain from my face. Jeremiah? Starting a war?
“What does he have you doing here?” I ask.
“We’re going from town-to-town,” Derek says through deep breaths. “We’re spreading the word around about who Shadowface is and what he can do for all of us. Essentially preparing the way.”
“Wait, wait,” I say. “But Jeremiah hates Shadowface. He wants her dead.”
“Orick was our last stop because it will be the launching point of the invasion,” Derek says.
“Shut up, Derek!” Scott yells.
“Jeremiah plans to kill the real Shadowface and take her spot,” he continues. “Since no one knows who Shadowface is, he can just take over.”
“Take over?” I ask. I’m unable to stop myself from breathing more rapidly.
Derek keeps his chin to his chest, but his eyes somehow find mine. “A complete takeover,” he says. “Places like Orick here are essential to the success of Jeremiah’s plan. These small villages can grow and become a great resource for the future. But Shadowface needs all of them to cooperate. The best way to do that is implant ideas into people’s mind that Shadowface is a good person and wants to help them—which is true because Jeremiah will be Shadowface.”
“Where is Jeremiah now?” I ask.
“Elkhorn,” Derek says.
“You mean Elkhorn wasn’t destroyed a month ago?” I ask. What if Waverly is still there? She could still be alive!
“Not entirely,” Derek says. “Jeremiah has remained there. He’s gathered quite an army. Soon, this will all be over.”
“How soon?” I ask.
Derek takes a deep breath, gritting his teeth at the same time. He glances at Scott who refuses to look at him. “Less than a week.”
Jeremiah has been busy. While I’ve been sitting here for the past month, he’s been amassing an army to go against Shadowface and finally bring her down. I look at Derek’s leg, feeling only a little guilty about what I just did, considering we’re technically on the same side.
“Are you going to kill us now?” Derek asks, shaking.
“No,” I say. “I’m going with you back to Elkhorn.”
Chapter 7 - Waverly
The clock in my room says that I only have five minutes until I need to start moving. Second hallway…third door on the left. I’m guessing that is where I’m supposed to meet Amber.
The lamplight next to my bed glints off the white, metal walls. My spine shivers when I look away from the clock, and my stomach is churning. I hate blood and violence. I hate the fact that I know I will see a greyskin in the sewers. My vision of Amber’s future has told me that much. But at least I know that I will eventually make it out of the sewers—even if that means I’ll be alone. Amber doesn’t know that she will die tonight. The thought makes me sick, but I can change it. I must try. That’s what I hate about my ability. I feel a responsibility for people—even people I don’t know that well. But in a way, I know Amber better than I know anyone. To see how she deals with pain and suffering is to know her intimately, even if I don’t know anything else about her.
It’s an odd thought—Amber being the only real person I know here, yet I know nothing. At some point, she probably had parents that loved her. She had a life before the outbreak like the rest of us. For all I know, it could have been a great life. She could have been a wonderful person to a lot of people. She might even still be. Or maybe she is like me. Maybe she has lost everyone. I know Remi got out of Elkhorn before things got too bad. I’m glad for her. But I’ve lost anyone that I’ve cared about. The last friend I had was Ethan. And I was forced to kill him.
Thoughts rush through my head about that night nearly a month ago when he and I were on a rooftop in Elkhorn. We were overlooking the carnage below us, but the sun was setting and Ethan had just bared his soul to me. He told me about how he got revenge for his family’s death. He talked of how even a person like him could succumb to the evil ways of the raiders so easily. His opening up made me more attracted to him than ever. I don’t know what came over me, but before I knew it, the two of us were kissing each other like there was no one else in the world.
The feeling was…wonderful.
At the time, I had thought that I was going along a line of possible futures that didn’t include the one where Ethan was shot. But it was too good to be true because all the futures I saw came true. That included Ethan’s death.
The clock strikes ten, and that means the guard is in Amber’s room, his intentions vile. In the next few seconds, he’ll be dead with a metal shiv jabbed into his throat. The thought makes me admire Amber for
her bravery. She’s ready to get out of here and she will do anything to accomplish that goal.
I wait another minute and then get up from the bed and walk to the door. I’m wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a jacket, and the only pair of shoes I own. It’s all I’ve got with me. Somehow we’re going to do all this without weapons. Well, Amber will have a taser and club when I meet her, but that will be nothing compared to the guns we will face from the guards trying to stop us.
A deep breath passes my lips as I squat in front of the door handle. I reach for it, and wiggle it a few times. The door doesn’t move, but when I reach my fingernail to the inside of the latch, I’m barely able to move it. I give the door a sharp tug and it cracks open. I peek through to see if anyone is patrolling the hallway. Usually a guard passes by every ten minutes or so, and I haven’t heard one recently, so I’ve got to be quick.
I step out into the hallway and shut the door softly. My feet carry me toward the second hallway which is about a hundred feet away. Though I walk as slowly as possible, my shoes make too much noise on the metal floor. I stop for a moment and pull them off, carrying them at my side. My socks muffle any noise of movement, and before I know it, I’m in the second hallway.
Third door on the left…third door on the left. Is that left from this way or the opposite direction?
I don’t exactly have a key, so I’m hoping Amber is already in the room when I try to open it. When I get to the third door on the left, I close my eyes, hoping that it’s unlocked. My hand grabs the cold metal doorknob and twists until the door cracks open. I take a deep breath and tiptoe inside the room.
“Stop!” a voice commands.
My hands fly into the air involuntarily, and my shoes fall to the floor with a loud thump. Amber is on the other side of the room, blood all over the front of her face, neck and clothes. In one hand she grips tightly to the club and in the other hand she points the taser at me. When she recognizes me, she lowers the taser and lets out a relieved sigh.
“I was afraid you might not make it,” she says.
I shake my head. “Your message was loud and clear to me.”
“Let’s just hope it wasn’t loud and clear to Peter and the guards,” she says turning away from me.
The room we’re in is dark and very large. Metal pipes run along the walls and there is a rusty hatch in the middle of the floor. Amber walks toward the hatch as I start to put my shoes back on.
“So, we’re going into the sewers?” I whisper to her.
She nods at me. “We won’t have much time until they realize that we’re not in our rooms.”
When my shoes are finally on, I crouch next to her and help her open the hatch. The metal door creaks loudly and is sure to alert someone nearby. I can’t keep my eyes off of Amber as I study the streaks of wet blood all over her skin. I know none of it is hers, but it is unnerving to say the least.
“I saw what the guard was going to do to you,” I say.
“I know you did,” Amber says.
“I saw what you did to him,” I say.
“I know.” She shrugs. “He deserved it.”
“I agree,” I say.
The hole in the floor is dark, and I can only see a ladder in front of us.
“This leads to the sewers,” she says. “I know the way out, but getting there won’t be easy. There are greyskins down there, and guards will be watching for us. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Sounds like a typical day in the outside world,” I say with a grin.
This seems to please Amber. She smiles for a second but her expression changes quickly when she begins again.
“We’ve got to be stealthy,” she says. “I’ve got a club that won’t do a lot, and a taser that will be no use against a greyskin. Just keep quiet and walk slowly.”
I nod at her, and she motions for me to go down first. I swallow hard, not wanting to lead, but I do so without argument. The air hits me as I descend into the shadows below, and the smell engulfs me. The scent of sewage mixed with the decay of rotting flesh is enough to make me throw up about halfway down the ladder.
Amber pulls the hatch door shut once she is on the ladder above me. Despite the bile and drool on my chin, I keep going, the underground fumes giving me a headache. It’s cold down here, much like the outside, I’m sure. My feet dip into a pool of stagnant, stinking water when I reach the bottom. The water soaks up to my shins, filling my shoes with freezing, putrid liquid. I bend down with my hands on my knees, trying to regain control of my assaulted senses, but it’s difficult. When I watched the vision of escape, I never expected to be so overwhelmed. Unable to produce any vomit, my body resorts to dry heaving instead.
I hear Amber slosh through the muck behind me. “Come on, Waverly. You can do it.”
I look up to see her passing by me, taking a long, dark path ahead. “How do you know where we’re going?” I ask, but she doesn’t answer me. I suppose there is no reason to question her. I have already seen that we will get to the end.
For the next few minutes, I follow her down the long tunnel, the sound of splashes echoing off the concrete walls. The sight before me is pitch black. Even though the vision showed us getting through this part, I can’t help feeling creeped out that there could be a greyskin right next to me and I would never know it. Finally, I start to see a light ahead. The closer we get, the more I’m able to see. I can now hear the sound of rushing water to our left.
A simple red lightbulb sits above a landing set between two canals of sewage water. Amber sits on the landing for a moment and motions for me to do the same.
She lifts a finger up to her mouth. “Get up against the wall and stay quiet.”
I do as she tells me, though I’m not sure why she gave the command until I see a greyskin walking down the same channel Amber and I were just walking through. It stumbles forward aimlessly, unable to see, hear, or smell us. The advantage of being in the sewers is that it’s just as hard for the greyskins to sense us as it is for us to sense them. Though if one ever does, it won’t be so easy to run away.
When the greyskin finally walks a safe distance away, I realize that I had been holding my breath. I let it out slowly, and I can feel my heart beating in my ears.
“Why are there greyskins down here?” I ask.
“They guard the tunnels,” Amber answers. “Deters people from escaping.”
“There are others?” I ask.
Amber nods. “Lots of people. You’ve just been isolated the whole time.”
I had no idea.
“Why are you imprisoned here?” I ask.
Amber wipes her forehead with her sleeve. “Murder,” she says. It’s the same thing Olivia told me earlier. “I used to be a guard here,” she continues. “How do you think I know the ins and outs of this place?”
“Then how can they treat you so badly if you were once one of them?”
“Because I killed one of them,” she says. “One of the guards was abusing the prisoners in a terrible way. He did it all the time. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t even deserve to be in prison. So, I poisoned the guard. But I was caught. The guard was a friend of most of the others, of course. My sentence has been a harsh one.”
“I talked to Shadowface today,” I tell her.
Amber looks at me with shock on her face. “You saw Shadowface?”
I nod. “It’s a woman named Olivia.”
Amber looks away form me and stares at the floor. “Wow. I thought she never wanted anyone to find out who she was.”
“Well, she’s planning to tell everyone apparently. Next week.”
“I see.”
“She kept trying to convince me that she was good, and that she wanted what is best for everyone. I find it hard to believe that if she allows you to be treated the way you are. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been imprisoned here because I’m a Starborn.”
“A what?”
“Starborn,” I say. “I’m a person with special abilities. I can see glimpse
s of the future.”
She shakes her head. “I never could understand what you were all about.” She almost says something else but she stops suddenly and holds out a finger. “Do you hear that?”
The sound is faint down here, but once I hear it, it’s clear. Alarms are going off on the floors above us, warning all the guards that we are missing. I look at Amber as she stands.
“We’re running out of time,” she says. “Let’s go.”
I follow Amber into the second tunnel where the rushing water nearly knocks us off our feet. The ground under the water is slick and it’s difficult to maintain my balance as I try to keep up with her.
It suddenly hits me that I need to know the way out whenever I find myself alone. If I can’t change Amber’s future to where we both make it out alive, then I will still need to know how to escape.
“Where are we headed?” I ask.
“Out of the compound,” she answers.
“I understand that, but what if we get separated, or if something happens to you,” I say. “Wouldn’t it be good for me to have an idea of how you plan to escape beyond the sewers?”
Amber spins on me, her eyes narrowed. “What are you saying? Have you seen something?”
“No, I just…”
“You’ve seen something. Tell me.”
I hesitate a second. I never meant to let her in on the future I saw. I don’t want to tell her the truth because I don’t know how to change it.
“You get shot,” I say. “When we reach the end of the sewers, I see you get shot, though I don’t know if you’re dead or not. But assuming you are, and assuming we can’t change the fact that you get shot, I need to know how to get out of here.”
Amber doesn’t say anything for a long moment. I’m sure she didn’t expect me to tell her the truth, but now that it is staring her in the face, she doesn’t know what to do with it.
“Do you know how to change what you saw?”
I shake my head. “There isn’t a way to know sometimes,” I say. “Not unless the alternative is clear. Is going through the metal bars the only way out?”
The Starborn Ascension: Books 1, 2, and 3 (The Starborn Saga) Page 53