Choosing Eternity (The New Era Saga Book 3)

by KT Webb

  “All those people, all those children,” Romulus whispered. “Why wouldn’t the Creator at least let us try to stop this?”

  “I think these things had to happen in order to create a clear divide in those who care and those who are indifferent. The battle lines are being drawn,” Kerr replied. “Trust me, if anyone knows how helpless you feel, it’s me.”

  Romulus nodded. “You’re right. I just wish we knew what happened to Tahlia and Eric. It would truly be terrible for them to have come this far and reunite their family, only to have them ripped from the girls lives.”

  “I agree with you, brother. But we have to hold out hope that they’re out there somewhere,” Dorian said sadly.

  Thatcher nodded to others. It was time to go. They decided to visit the Sanford Children’s Hospital first. Kerr was interested in finding the girl who had leapt from the building. Kerr had described her in detail to Nora, so she was able to concentrate on the young woman and transport as close to her as possible.

  They appeared in a hallway on the ground floor. Thatcher noticed on the wall that they were near the recovery room of the surgical wing. There were police everywhere, and nurses and doctors were rushing all over. Thatcher couldn’t imagine the fear and sadness they all must have been feeling.

  “Kerr, you gonna be able to handle this?” Thatcher asked.

  He nodded but didn’t say anything. Thatcher knew his friend was experiencing a lot of different feelings and memories from all the people around them. After the tragedy that happened there just hours before, and the tragedies happening around the world, it was no surprise that everyone would be on high alert.

  “Miss Mitchell, you need to stay in bed. You’re still waking up from the anesthetic,” said a voice in a room nearby.

  “Look, you’re not going to get me to stay in this bed until you tell me where my nephew is.”

  “Your nephew is resting in a room on his own. You know he was uninjured. You will see him when you are more awake.”

  Kerr gestured for them to follow him. Nora cloaked them to keep the nurse from seeing them as she exited the room. They didn’t need to get thrown out before they even made it in the room. This had to be the girl Kerr saw. She had the short black hair and a leg that had clearly been broken and operated on.

  Once the nurse made her exit, Nora removed the cloaking from them and they appeared in front of the young woman.

  “Who the hell are you?” she demanded through narrowed eyes.

  “Look, I’m sure after the things you’ve seen, you’re not about to believe that we’re not going to hurt you. But for what it’s worth, we’re here to help,” Kerr said gently.

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Kerr. This is my wife, Nora, and my best friend, Thatcher.”

  “I saw you on the news. People are talking about you. You were with that fire demon.”

  “Not by choice. Trust us,” Nora muttered.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Shawna.”

  “We overheard the nurse talking about your nephew. Is that the boy you held when you jumped from the roof?” Kerr asked.

  “Not until you tell me what you’re doing here. If you’re not with the fire demon, why were you talking to him before D.C. got blown to smithereens? And how did you survive?”

  Thatcher glanced at Nora and grinned. It was time for show and tell. Nora disappeared and reappeared across the room. Thatcher decided not to show off his fire abilities after what she’d witnessed from Absalom. Instead, he allowed himself to levitate a few feet from the ground.

  “What the . . . ”

  Kerr approached cautiously with his hands raised. “We’re here to help you. You’ve seen some of what they can do. Now can I show you the best part of what I can do?”

  Shawna looked unsure, but nodded slowly with wide eyes focused on Kerr. Thatcher watched as he approached her and explained that he would have to touch her in order to help her. She still didn’t look entirely comfortable, but she agreed. The now-familiar green light flowed around Shawna’s body, growing brighter around her leg. The young woman gasped in surprise as her broken bones knit back together.

  “How did you do that?”

  Thatcher, Kerr, and Nora pulled up chairs and told her everything she needed to know. Shawna stared at them when they were done with their explanation.

  “So you’re like actual superheroes?”

  “That’s one way to look at it, I guess.” Thatcher laughed.

  “Why are you here?”

  “I saw what happened on the roof. Usually I see things before they happen, but this time I had to witness it as it happened. There was nothing I could do to stop it,” Kerr said sadly.

  Thatcher placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. He knew Kerr would carry the guilt of those lost children with him for years to come.

  “Well, what do you need me to do? You say it’s this Absalom’s fault that all this happened, so I want to help.”

  “If that little boy on the roof was your nephew, where are his parents?” Nora asked.

  Shawna looked away as tears pooled in her eyes. “I found them after everything froze. They were huddled on top of my nephew. They had covered him in blankets and layers of clothes then covered him with their own bodies. They were dead, and he was barely alive.”

  Thatcher handed the young woman some tissues. He didn’t have any words of comfort, but he couldn’t imagine the pain she was in.

  “My sister gave her life to protect her son. Her husband gave his life to protect them both. They were holding hands. It was like something out of a movie.” She paused to take a deep, calming breath. “But I scooped Mikey up and got him to the hospital. They’ve been able to heal him and get him the nutrition he needed. The power only goes out here when the generators are exhausted, so they seem to have a steady flow of electricity most of the time.”

  “We can help with that too, I’ll be back.” Nora disappeared.

  Thatcher had conflicted feelings about having Hadley join them in her current state. He knew her emotions weren’t exactly stable and could only pray that she could maintain her abilities. While they waited for Nora’s return, they learned that Shawna was a seventeen-year-old senior in high school. She had risked everything to save her nephew because she couldn’t imagine letting him die after his parents sacrificed themselves for him. He was the only family she had left.

  The nurse came back in and crossed herself when she discovered Shawna’s newly healed leg. She asked how this could be, and Kerr offered to show her. He set to work healing the patients he could as Thatcher waited for Nora to return.

  Thatcher wasn’t the least bit surprised when a reporter walked into the room to interview Shawna. Her heroism was not going to go unnoticed. While the reporter asked her routine questions like what she was thinking when she jumped, and how her nephew was doing, Shawna kept side-eyeing Thatcher.

  “How is your leg feeling?” asked the blonde with the microphone.

  “Actually, it’s completely healed, thanks to them.” She gestured toward Thatcher.

  The cameraman panned over to him, and the reporter stepped forward. As if on cue, Nora and Hadley appeared behind him. The reporter swore loudly in surprise.

  “How did you . . . ”

  “We’re not like everyone else entirely,” Thatcher interrupted. “We are here to help put an end to the insanity that has overcome our world.”

  “More importantly, we know what has caused all the disasters that have recently occurred, and we need help fighting against the forces that are behind them,” Nora said as she stepped forward.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Callie

  After Absalom had his little welcome home party, Callie found herself struggling with an internal battle. She didn’t know if she should stay with the Evolved or rejoin the Maladies. If a battle was coming, she wanted to survive. She’d grown to enjoy living a mortal life and didn’t want it to end so quickly.

  She l
iked the Evolved alright, and didn’t necessarily want to see them die, but she felt like she needed to go back. While the others were preoccupied with looking for survivors or mourning the loss of their family members, Callie packed her things. After she saw Nora, Thatcher, and Kerr on the news, she left.

  She decided to borrow one of the cars sitting in the garage. She wouldn’t need to keep it and didn’t need Absalom to know where she’d been. She just had to get back into Benton so she could steal a different car.

  Once she’d successfully hot-wired an Oldsmobile Cutlass, she hit the road and didn’t look back. Oddly enough, it didn’t take long for her to find evidence of the people she was looking for. She started seeing a number of the empty shells that seemed to be controlled by Absalom all along the road. They stood guard as she came upon a ghost town. She almost felt bad for them; they had to be cold, but they weren’t wearing coats or jackets. It was almost as though they couldn’t feel anything unless Absalom wanted them to.

  At the center of the town she found a church. It had once been painted white, but years of neglect had left it to peel and decay. The Maladies were waiting outside the church. Callie swallowed the part of her that kept clawing its way up to tell her to turn around. She got out of the car and slowly approached Vanity as she was the least intimidating of them all.

  “Where have you been?” Malice demanded.

  “I was hiding. Lot of weird stuff happening lately.” Callie hoped they couldn’t hear her voice shake. It wasn’t exactly a lie.

  “We tried to find you in Wall,” Malice continued.

  “Yeah, I booked it after I saw one of the Evolved in town.”

  The Maladies exchanged a look that let her know her story was believable. They turned without a word and led her into the church.

  “How did you find us?” Vanity whispered at her side.

  “I was just out driving, then I saw all these mindless humans standing along the side of the road, so I thought I’d check it out.”

  Callie was glad no one asked her about Joe. She didn’t want to tell them about him. There was no way she could explain how she knew he’d joined them without admitting she herself had spent time with them. She decided to beat them to it to help herself look clueless about his location.

  “Where’s Disease?”

  “Haven’t found him yet. Not even a blip of him for quite some time. We think he must have died in the freeze,” Avarice snapped.

  Good. Just because Callie didn’t think she should be with the Evolved didn’t mean she needed to jeopardize Joe’s new life. When they walked inside the church, Callie looked around at the dilapidated structure. The floor was creaky and boards were missing altogether in some areas. The once-polished wood had faded and taken on a grayish hue. Aside from the yawning holes that once held windows, the only source of light in the large chapel seemed to emanate from Absalom.

  “Chaos. We’ve been looking for you,” Absalom growled.

  His voice had changed. It sent shivers down her spine. His skin seemed to have been replaced by lava. It moved and bubbled as he sat before her.

  “I was hiding. Then I just started driving and found you guys.”

  He arched an eyebrow at her. “Have you been gone for so long that you’ve forgotten who your master is?”

  Callie felt her stomach churn. “Sorry, Master.”

  “Have you seen Disease? We’re still missing him.”

  “I was just asking where he was. I’m told you’ve presumed him dead. Master,” she added quickly to avoid being chastised again.

  Once again she managed to plead ignorance without lying. She knew he’d be able to tell if she lied. Absalom seemed satisfied with her answer because he moved on to talk to Malice and Rage. She took a moment to study the rest of the Maladies. Pain wasn’t as broken as he had been, but he still looked like an urchin. Vanity wasn’t anywhere near as beautiful as she had been. Callie remembered that Joe had awoken with hideous scars all over his body, but they slowly faded as he atoned for his actions. Maybe the same applied to Vanity. The ugliness within her was manifesting on the outside.

  “Come on, Chaos, you can help us feed our pets,” Malice interrupted her thoughts.

  She shrugged and followed Malice down the rickety stairs to the basement. The place gave her the creeps on a deep level. When they got to the bottom of the steps, Callie waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. They entered a makeshift kitchen first, and Malice pulled out two slices of moldy bread and a chunk of cheese.

  “What is this a medieval dungeon?” Callie asked.

  “I wish! We’d have so much more fun with the devices available in one of those. No, we just need to feed them enough to keep them alive. Absalom has a plan for them.”

  Callie grabbed the dirty glasses of water Malice poured from the even dirtier pitcher. She followed Malice down a hallway and into what must have been a storage room at one point. The instant she walked in, she wanted to puke. The smell of unwashed bodies mixed with human waste was too much for her to handle.

  The thin beam of light that streamed into the room allowed her to see the two people that had been tied to a support beam in the middle of the room. A man and a woman. The woman appeared to have passed out, her stringy haired head hanging uncomfortably. The man was wide awake but looked ill. Callie squinted in the dim light as she tried to discern any identifying features.

  “Oh, would you look at that. The Commander in Chief, sitting in a puddle of his own filth.”

  Callie snapped to attention. The Commander in Chief was the President, and the President was married to—

  “And Tahlia looks like she’s seen better days.” Malice pulled the back of her hair to lift her head.

  Under the dirt and grime, she saw the face that so closely resembled the twins Callie left only a few days ago. She instantly understood why she had felt compelled to leave the Evolved and come here. She wasn’t scared anymore. She was here to save the two very sick people in front of her.

  Chapter Twenty-Five:

  Dorian

  It was a strange feeling to know they were finally out in the open. The Evolved had done what they needed to do and stepped into the limelight. If they had any hope of proving to people that they were on the good side, they had to be honest. Some people were going to be scared, but they hoped many would rally to their cause.

  The interview on KSFY News in Sioux Falls had started a ripple effect across the world. The allies they had already made were coming forward and telling the world about how the Evolved had helped them, and how they helped people who didn’t even know they were there.

  The disappearance of Callie had been troubling. They all truly felt that she was becoming part of the family. The best guess Dorian could make was that she went back to the familiar to avoid the looming threat of death. They hadn’t heard from her, and Nora hadn’t been able to sense her. Joe felt her absence more keenly than the others; he feared his redemption would also be short-lived.

  People started to converge on Benton shortly after the news broadcast went viral. The Evolved quickly found they needed more space than Benton could offer. Thatcher made the suggestion to take over Las Vegas. At first everyone laughed at him, but his argument made sense.

  “Look, no one is just hanging out gambling in Vegas right now. There are a ton of empty hotels and casinos down there.”

  “He has a point,” Kerr offered.

  “What if we get down there and there are a ton of survivors?” Joe asked.

  “Then I guess we’ll add more to our number. I think at this point, if they haven’t joined the Dark Army, they’re on our side,” Nora offered.

  “The Dark Army?” Dorian asked.

  “Well yeah, what else are we going to call them? We can’t keep thinking of them as humans, but we have to make sure our people know that they should still be regarded with caution.”

  Nora’s reasoning was solid, and the general consensus was to begin calling the enemy by the Dark Army.


  “But we should give our side a name too. If we don’t, people may get the impression that we’re not as formidable as the enemy,” Romulus observed.

  “The Army of Hope,” Hadley said from behind them.

  Thatcher went to his wife and held her close. She and Whitley had been largely absent from the entire process since they lost their parents. Dorian knew the pain they felt, but he was pleased to see them joining in again. They were going to need all hands on deck for the coming battle.

  “Yes.” Nora smiled. “I love it.”

  And so they decided to transport everyone to the Luxor, and they would expand into the Excalibur because the two were connected through an underground tunnel. There would be plenty of room to house everyone and provide indoor spaces to train. If they ran out of room, they would expand to the MGM Grand.

  Within days, they were set up at the Luxor. There were a handful of survivors living in the area, but they joined them and helped get everyone settled. Nora travelled back and forth between their temporary home and various ally locations to bring everyone back. It was a long process, and there were still a handful of locations they had to go to. Including Mecca, where Imaan had remained to help. Dorian worried about Nora over-exhausting herself but didn’t complain once.

  They fell into a rhythm, and everyone took on a job. There were a number of people who volunteered to keep the kitchen running and the troops fed. One of the benefits of choosing to inhabit these massive hotels was finding the large amount of food stored within. With as many people as they had join them, they ended up filling all three hotels to capacity and moving into the Tropicana, New York-New York, and the Aria.

  Shawna and her nephew had returned with them and were quickly becoming part of the family. She wanted to help in any way she could and had found her place in helping care for the children of those who wanted to fight with the Evolved, as well as the children who lost their parents in the freeze.