“I saw you running through the streets with a girl in your arms,” he says as we sit in the medical room. He looks at Evie. She sits in a chair quietly, acting shy of her grandfather. “So this her?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say. “Don’t touch her. She doesn’t know you.”
“I know,” he says, dipping his head. “It’s just…surreal. She looks so much like my Jessi.” Tears drip down his face as he stares at her. “I miss her, you know?”
“You have to forgive me for feeling a little bit distant,” I say, “but last time I saw you you were trying to kill me.”
“Time changes things,” he says. “Experiences change things. When I came after you, I was a man that served a Shadowface. Now, I’m just a man that’s dying.”
“Dying?” I say.
He nods and sits up a bit straighter, pulling at his collar to reveal a long row of three scratch marks on his upper chest.
“Are those greyskins scratches?” I ask.
“Yes.”
My eyes go wide with horror. “You dressed my wound! You might have infected me!”
“Relax,” he say, holding up his hands. “Look at me. I’m not bleeding. There is no danger to you. Besides, I was sure to keep my hands away from your wound. Only the knife or a cloth touched you. My skin never touched yours, though that wouldn’t infect you. I was cautious. I knew if I told you, you would be scared.”
I want to say something else, but I don’t know what. He’s probably right, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. I’d much rather die from bleeding to death than from the greyskin virus. But perhaps I’m overreacting. I take a few deep breaths and look at Evie. I can’t read her right now. She seems to be in a daze—not happy or unhappy. She sits here having no idea that she is with her grandfather. I’m not so sure it shouldn’t stay that way.
“So, why are you here?” I ask.
“The meeting,” Paxton says. “I’m one of thirty settlement leaders here to meet with whoever this Shadowface person is.”
“So, you never figured out who Shadowface was?” I ask.
Paxton shakes his head. “The meeting was cancelled, or I guess postponed on account of this greyskin crisis. I was one of many who thought it was a ploy to show us his power, but it has apparently turned into much more than that. And you…” he says. “I suppose you have something to do with the attack.”
“I’m just trying to protect Evie,” I say.
“We both know that isn’t true,” he says. “You came knocking on my door about a month ago asking me to join you in a fight against Shadowface. I know you’re part of the attack.”
“And you said you were going to help us, but instead you betrayed us,” I answer.
“Why are you fighting Shadowface?” he asks.
“It’s a shame you’ve been infected, Paxton. There would be so much to tell you. For instance, Shadowface is a woman named Olivia. She ordered someone to use the greyskin virus so she could create this empire. You, Paxton, are just one of thirty pawns. And thirty would turn into much more.”
“But she didn’t create the virus?” he asks.
“No.”
“Do you know who did that?”
I was actually hoping he wouldn’t ask me this question. What’s worse—working with the person who uses the greyskin virus, or working with the one that created it? Though the justification lies in the fact that we’re trying to kill both of them.
“A man named Jeremiah,” I say. “That’s all I really know. But he’s not currently the one with all the power.”
“What was this Olivia planning to use us for?” he asks.
“Her own power. She is a corrupt leader. She lies, murders, and employs murderers for her gain. Why would we have a leader like that?”
“You’re ignorant if you think a leader should be pure and righteous,” Paxton says. “Sometimes leaders have to get their hands dirty because there is no other way.”
“You know all about that, don’t you?”
“I know I mistreated you in the past,” he says. “I’m sorry for that.”
Banishment. Fear. Death. These are the things Paxton has attempted to bring me in the past. How can a simple sorry make up for it?
“You know something, Paxton?” I say. “I’ve dreamed about killing you.” I hold my pistol tight in my grip, though I don’t point it at him.
Paxton’s expression doesn’t change. Instead, he looks solemn. “I suppose then that you are happy that I’ve been scratched.”
“I don’t wish that on anyone,” I say. “Personally, I’m glad I don’t have to kill you.”
“Remi, I never meant for things to be this way,” he says.
“And yet, you were the one who made the choices,” I tell him.
I get up from the table, wincing as pain shoots up and down my leg. I grab Evie’s hand and she starts to walk with me out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Paxton asks.
“We’re going to try and find a way out of here,” I tell him. I look at Evie and tell her to wait in the hallway. I stand in the doorway just a few feet away from her. She can’t see Paxton, and he can’t see her. “Evie’s destiny is important. It’s my job to make sure that she’s safe, no matter the cost.”
“Let me talk to her,” he pleads. “I want her to know that she has family—that her grandfather loves her.”
I shake my head. “I can’t let you do that.”
Paxton’s face turns very grim. “Why not?”
“Why confuse her? She doesn’t know you. She won’t understand.”
“But she’s my granddaughter.”
His brow is sweating, his hands shaking. He seems nervous except for his face. His face seems calm. Even after all the things he has put me through, it’s hard for me to see him like this. Only a man faced with his own mortality knows exactly what he wants.
This is what Paxton wants.
I let out a deep breath and turn to Evie in the hallway. I would crouch down to meet her eyes, but the pain in my leg already makes me want to scream. “Evie. The man in here wants to say something to you.”
She looks up at me, almost as if to ask what he wants, but she then looks forward and takes a few bold steps until she’s in the room. Tears return to Paxton’s eyes.
“Hey there, little one,” he says. He looks up at me briefly and swallows. I want to tell him to keep it brief, but how can I deprive a dying man of seeing his granddaughter for the first and last time? “I know you don’t know who I am,” he says, “but I want to let you know that you are someone very special to me. Ever since I learned about you, I’ve wanted to meet you.”
Evie stares at him. I know he wants her to say something back, but what could she say? She doesn’t know him or trust him. To her, he’s just another grownup out of all the other grownups that have been around her.
“I love you, Evie,” Paxton says.
He wants to hug her, but he knows I won’t allow it. I know the greyskin virus can only be passed through fluids, but I’m not taking a chance.
“Okay, Evie,” I say. “We have to go.”
She turns to me and takes me by the hand.
“Thank you for helping me with the wound,” I say. I feel so weird about this. I thought the next time I saw Paxton we’d be shooting at each other again.
I turn to leave when he stops me.
“Remi, wait,” he says. He bites at his lower lip and looks away from me. “I don’t want to be thought of as a coward, but I wish you’d do it for me.”
“Do what?” I ask.
He holds up his pistol and shakes his head. “I can’t do it to myself. But I don’t want to turn into one of those things.”
I’ve been there, though I’ve never been infected. Over a month ago I found myself in a place where the greyskins had me trapped. I was less than a second from pulling the trigger and blowing my brains out. But I was rescued.
There is no rescue for the infected.
I take a deep breat
h and look down at Evie. “Go out into the hallway,” I tell her. “I want you to close your eyes tight, and hold your ears, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Do you know how to hold your ears where you don’t hear anything?” I ask.
Evie nods.
“Do that, okay?”
“Okay.”
Evie walks out into the hallway as I asked. Her eyes close tightly and she puts two fingers in her ears. The life she has to live as a child sickens me. I want to throw up. When I turn to look at Paxton, he’s kneeling on the floor, his back straight. He stares straight ahead into the hallway at Evie.
“I never thought I’d see her,” he says. “Shadowface told me that when I killed you and Gabe, Evie would be brought to me. Next time I talked to Shadowface, I was told that Evie had been killed in Elkhorn before they could get to her.” He shakes his head. “I wish I would have listened to you, Remi. If I would have, I wouldn’t be kneeling on the ground like this.”
I pull back the chamber of the pistol, and Paxton jumps at the clicking noise, shutting his eyes quickly. He opens them to look up at me.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I was wrong and I’m sorry.”
Standing about a foot away from him, I hold the gun in front of his forehead.
“If you think I want to do this, you’re wrong,” I say.
“You wouldn’t be wrong to feel that way.”
“I don’t.”
“If I weren’t infected, I would help in the fight against Shadowface. I swear I would now.”
“I believe you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you ready?”
His body is shaking as sweat drips down his face and neck.
“Yes,” he says, taking one last look at Evie before closing his eyes.
Before I pull the trigger, I close my eyes too.
Chapter 23 - Waverly
The sewers are not meant for traveling. That’s why we’re taking them. We get to the pool easily enough—the one where I saw Amber shot to death. It makes me shiver to think that her body could still be underneath the black water, rotting away. The four of us—Jeremiah, Stephen, Ethan, and I—are waist-deep in the mucky water, safely away from the greyskins and soldiers that are making a wreck of Anchorage.
Jeremiah holds a bag over his head as he sloshes forward. He said it is full of charges in case we need to blow something up. I look at the pipe that I had crawled through in my escape, thinking he might have to use a charge to blow up the metal grate that Amber and I had to squeeze through. But when I see it, I can tell that someone must have already sawed through the grate, or blown it up already because it’s no longer there. Perhaps it happened when the guards were looking for me.
Filthy, stinking water gushes out as we climb up into the long, metal pipe. Once inside, I stand up straight but everyone else has to dip their heads a little.
“How many turns will we have to make?” Jeremiah asks, strapping the bag to his back.
“Just one,” I say. “And then we have to climb up. You might have to use your explosives to blow up the hatch that leads into the building.”
He nods at me, motioning me with his gun to lead the way. I grip my own handgun tightly, as nervous shaking starting to take over my limbs. I glance at Ethan, but he only stares straight ahead almost like he doesn’t want to look at me.
As the dirty water gushes at our feet, we move forward slowly. Images from last week flash through my brain. Greyskins. Amber. This is the last place in the world that I want to be. The month I spent here was horrible, though it wasn’t nearly as hard on me as it was on Amber. It would have been better, even just, had Amber survived rather than I. She suffered so much in this place—the constant beatings, the torture. I wish there was something I could have done to save her. Most of all I wish I had never gained this power within me. Strangely enough, I miss the old way of life—before I knew about Shadowface, before I ran into those raiders. I miss Lucas. I miss surviving together. Life was much more simple when we were searching for a place to settle, though it seemed just as uncertain as now. I suppose we would have run into Shadowface at some point anyway. But if my powers really reside in my blood as Jeremiah says, then I guess it would have manifested itself eventually.
At least now I’m in a position to finish this. Somehow I’m going to change the future. Mike and Jenna are gone now. I suppose that means I changed something—that I altered that particular future. Maybe it was when I lied to Olivia about what I saw. If I would have just told her the truth about the vision, things would have played out differently. Then again, I can’t beat myself up over it because I don’t know if that’s the case. I might never know. But I still have a chance to change what I saw. Somehow I can kill Jeremiah and Olivia. Evie won’t have to give up her life one day to try and stop Jeremiah. She and many others will be spared his treacherous plans; his cannibalistic tendencies. There will be no need for an uprising.
Several long minutes pass by, as the sound of gunfire and wailing is replaced by rushing water. Stephen uses his flashlight to help us see a few feet ahead and it isn’t long before we spot the first set of greyskins. Five of them. They charge at the light, but quick gunshots bring them down. When they fall, we’ve got to step over them as their bodies float toward us. I can’t help but think that one of them might not have been shot in the head and will grab my foot to take a bite as I walk by, but this doesn’t happen.
We walk in silence for several minutes. I know that we’re looking for a landing joining two tunnels. There will be a red light above the floor. Once there, we will cross it and head the opposite direction until we come to a hatch. We are either going at a very slow pace or something is wrong. I haven’t seen the landing yet and I feel like we should have been there by now. How could I have missed it?
Jeremiah questions me about it a couple of times, but I am only able to tell him that we are nearly there and that he needs to be patient.
“Patience isn’t a luxury I can afford,” he snaps.
If he is the kind of man that I have seen in the visions, then I know I have to be careful once we’re into the main part of the building. Once he figures out where Olivia is, he will no doubt try to kill me. It might be easier to just kill him now, but honestly, I don’t know what sort of influence he might have over Ethan or Stephen. Once upon a time I could trust both of them, but Ethan has been determined to help Jeremiah from the beginning and Stephen has been walking around as numb as a greyskin. I don’t think Ethan would try to hurt me, but I can’t risk it. Once we’re close, I can point my gun at them. Until then, I just have to watch my back and make sure Jeremiah lets me get that far before he tries to kill me.
I finally see the red light in the distance. “There,” I say. “We’ll go on the landing and into the next tunnel. Then we should see the hatch soon.”
“Good,” Jeremiah says.
“This stench is giving me a headache,” Stephen says.
“Come on,” Jeremiah says.
After we pass the landing, we seem to get to the hatch quickly. We reach the ladder and my stomach feels like it’s tumbling over itself. Coming down to try and escape was hard enough. Going back up almost feels impossible.
Jeremiah looks at me and then at the ladder. “This is where you were kept for a month?”
I nod at him. “In one of the rooms up above.”
“You’re not going back to your cell,” he says. “Look at today as revenge for your mistreatment here.”
I’ve seen the future. I’ve seen who gets revenge. I’ve seen that Olivia shoots Jeremiah through the chest. I know that I’m supposed to rush in after the noise and that she will then shoot me. What he doesn’t know is that I know how my ability works because of this place. Because of my time here, I can be confident in trying to change the intended future. For a month, that is all I have done every single day. I know we are going to make it to Shadowface. He knows he’s going to make it to Shadowface. But what he doesn’t know is th
at he is marching to his death.
But I have to be careful. I can’t wait to step in after she kills Jeremiah because that will mean I will die too. But if I can stop her from killing him, then it will be up to me to finish them both. By keeping Jeremiah alive, I am assured to have both of them in the same room. Then I will have a better chance of ending all of this.
“After you,” Jeremiah says.
I look at Ethan for some encouragement but am offered none. I shake my head and turn away from him, looking up the ladder. With each rung, I feel like I’m ascending to my end. When I get to the top, it is as I feared. The latch is sealed.
“No matter,” Jeremiah says when I get back down to the bottom. “That’s what I brought the charges for.”
“Well, you better hurry,” Stephen says, looking down toward the hall. He looks back at the rest of us, his face white. “Greyskins are coming this way.”
Jeremiah wastes no time as Ethan, Stephen, and I stand guard at the bottom, flashlights and guns held high.
“Wait until they get close,” Stephen says. “We can’t waste ammo.”
Their grunts and biting teeth are almost too much for me to bear right now. As they clamber forward, I take aim at one’s head, firing off a round and dropping it into the water. The sound of gunfire is deafening in the tunnels. We kill about seven of them before we hear Jeremiah coming down the ladder behind us.
“Everybody take cover!” he yells.
All of us slam up against the side of the tunnel, hands over our ears until the blast rocks us. A few of the greyskins that were coming after us are knocked off their feet, but there is no time to see if they will get back up. Jeremiah yells for me to get up the ladder first and he follows closely behind with Ethan and Stephen still shooting beneath us. Once in the room and out of the tunnel, I instantly pull my gun in front of me as the door on the other side of the room swings open. The guard starts to take aim at me, but I shoot him through the chest before he can pull his gun up.
“We don’t have much time,” Jeremiah says through gritted teeth.
Ethan is the last one out of the hatch and he slams the door shut once we’re all in. Jeremiah turns to me. “Now what room is she in?”
The Starborn Ascension: Books 1, 2, and 3 (The Starborn Saga) Page 67