I shrug, feeling a loss for what to say. There is no way I can think about that. If I do, I don’t know if I’ll be able to be sane afterwards, and I need to stay okay. There is still one more thing we have to do, and I refuse to stop now until Charlie and Will are away from P.A.G.E. and safe.
“Look, can we just watch TV or something? I don’t want to think about this anymore,” he begs.
I nod and throw him the remote before leaning back on the bed, relaxing my body against the wall. I have felt tense all day. We didn’t get any sleep the night before our mission, and last night we were setting off bombs. The drive here was long and stressful, but we’ve been in this hotel room for hours and neither of us has even attempted to sleep.
The first thing we see on the television is a romance movie. You can tell straight away it’s sappy and boring. Blake flips to the next channel and they have the same type of movie on. In fact, most of the channels seem to be playing something that is love related.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask.
Blake shrugs and finds a news station, the only thing that seems to not be love obsessed. We see The Core splashed over the news, well, what is left of it. I listen in to the news reporter as I watch in fascination at the photos of destruction we have caused flash over the screen.
“…and it’s not known what caused the blast, but it’s believed to have been a gas leak. Eight people are confirmed dead, with many more still missing, possibly trapped under the rubble. The building is said to have housed old documents and this incident isn’t believed to have been suspicious. We’ll keep you up-to-date with new information as we receive it. This is Curtis Frame for DC news, Washington.”
I’m horrified. Eight dead, more missing and they’re covering it up.
“Thanks Curtis, dramatic scenes from Washington. A very sad Valentine’s Day indeed.Our thoughts are with their families at this difficult time—”
Blake turns the television off on the newscaster as I feel tears falling down my face. We really have killed people. Are Rose and Dean among those dead? Why aren’t they here yet? What if they’ve been caught? How will we be able to save them, too?
“You know, if I was home right now, if this crap had never happened, I would be getting ready to take Sophie out for dinner,” Blake says bitterly. “We’d be at college together, living our lives just like we’d planned. I’d never have killed anyone and I’d be the same person she loves. I wouldn’t be a murderer.”
“You’re not a murderer, Blake.” I try to sound reassuring, but it’s hard when I think that maybe we are. “This isn’t really any of our faults. We didn’t ask for these abilities, we didn’t ask to be taken away from our families and homes, we didn’t ask for any of this. They haven’t given us a choice.”
“How can she ever love me after what we’ve just done?”
I take in his words, wondering if Charlie will feel different about me now, too. We’d all planned to do this before, but never did we realize the extent of chaos and death we’d cause.
His words hang between us, causing us both to get lost in thought. It’s only when I see him tensing up that I realize something might be wrong.
“Blake?”
“Someone’s coming.”
I hold my breath, not knowing what we’re supposed to do. What if it’s Stan’s men, what if we’ve been found out? Do we bother trying to run or just give up?
Then I notice the sigh of relief and a small smile breaks out on his face. I know what it means instantly. I run out of the room, not caring that I have nothing on my feet as I rush out into the hallway. There is no one there, but it doesn’t mean anything, Blake wouldn’t have heard footsteps. He would have heard thoughts.
I run to the elevator and wait impatiently as I watch the numbers slowly lighting up, heading towards the sixth floor. The floor we had all agreed on.
Three.
Four.
Five.
I hold my breath.
Six.
Ding!
The doors slowly open and I rush forward, seeing Rose’s surprised face for only a second before I wrap her up in a hug. I hug her so tightly I wouldn’t have been surprised if she couldn’t breathe. I’ve been so worried for their safety. I’d begun to worry that it was an instinct I was getting, one telling me to prepare myself for the worst.
“Zoe—” Rose gasps out. I finally step back as the doors try to close on me.
“I’m so glad you’re okay!” I hug her again, but this time not so tightly.
“Sorry we’re late, there were road blocks set up everywhere when we were trying to get out, we had to go some obscure way to get here.”
I give Dean a quick hug, too, noticing they both seem relatively uninjured. How have we all managed that?
“Did you get their location?” Now that I know they’re both safe, I’m eager to get news of Charlie and Will.
“Let’s get inside first.” Dean nods down the hallway and I lead the way to Blake who is standing in the doorway to our room.
We sit down on the main bed. I have to sit on my hands to stop myself from fidgeting. I feel nervous.
“Everything went fine. I was able to find out their location as well as install a virus that should run through their entire network and destroy all their files. It was amazing.” Rose’s eyes light up, remembering her experience.
“You didn’t have any other problems? You got out okay?”
I see Rose look to Dean quickly, and worry they aren’t telling me something. Is it about Charlie? Is he okay?
“Wow, you guys know how to pick a moment. At least something good came out of destroying The Core.” Blake gives a small smile as he collapses on the bed. He looks tired. I realize we all do, myself included. Now that we’ve all made it back safely, my exhaustion is pressing down on me harder. I think I’m ready to enter a coma soon.
“What does that mean? What happened?” I ask around a yawn.
“Nothing, we just had an easier run getting out. When the explosions started to happen, they sort of left us alone. Why were there early explosions? I thought I felt two. Did they go off by accident?” Rose asks us. I see her stare at Blake intently, but I think maybe she assumes he is to blame for the early explosions, which he is.
“We found a locked door in the lower levels, like really locked. Blake was suspicious, so he thought blowing through the door would be fun.” I roll my eyes at him, now realizing how truly insane that had been.
“It was kinda fun, and we did find something weird,” he admits.
“Really? What?” Rose leans towards us, her curiosity shooting away her exhaustion briefly.
“Rats. Creepy, gross rats.” I feel a cold shiver run over my body remembering the few that crawled over my feet.
“Like they were running experiments on them?”
“Yeah, we didn’t get much time to look. Our explosion attracted some attention.”
“Well, it was good timing. We were in a lot of trouble before that explosion. It gave us the distraction we needed.” Dean nods his thanks to Blake.
“Considering I didn’t think we would get out of that one as well as we did, I would say we did pretty well.” Rose smiles at us all.
“Let’s talk about this tomorrow. I’m beat.” Dean stands up and Rose is quick to follow.
She gives me one last hug before she leaves and soon it’s just me left alone with an already asleep Blake. I turn the light out and sit down on the single bed next to Blake’s.
He is dead silent as he sleeps and I find myself wishing I could hear Charlie’s quiet snoring. If he had been next to me, I would’ve fallen asleep instantly. Instead, I lie quietly, feeling all my aches and pains as my body slowly relaxes into the mattress, trying to think of something happy rather than all of the horrible images that keep flashing in my mind.
I let myself remember being back at the cabin for Christmas. I remember the dinner that had us all laughing and enjoying ourselves the night before. I skip over the mor
ning, remembering Charlie finding me, and Will opening his presents. I let myself fall deeper into memories of us all together until sleep finally takes me.
***
The next morning we talk about getting to Charlie and Will. They’re being held in a small town in Minnesota. We don’t know what security will be like, but we have to hope things will be weaker with The Core down.
“They must have sent people out there to help. Probably every facility will be running on bare minimum.”
“We can’t merely assume that and run in to who knows what,” Dean complains.
“Well what else can we do?” Rose shrugs.
“Go to the police!” Dean rolls his eyes at her.
“And tell them what?”
“We tell them that we have noticed suspicious behavior going on at that facility. I’ll mention that I’m a cop and get them to bring everyone they’ve got. We go in and they find two people reported missing.”
“I doubt Will would be reported as missing,” I state sadly.
“I’m still considered dead, right?” Rose asks Dean, looking sad to say so.
“You’re missing, but considered deceased. Your case will just be a cold case until new evidence turns up.”
“Me, too, probably. Last my sister and girlfriend saw of me I was being shot at.” Blake looks disgusted.
“Without a body, you’ll most likely be the same,” Dean informs him.
“I’m just considered to be a runaway,” I state.
“If we really want to nail these people, then we should all be there when they get raided. Have them charged on five counts of kidnapping,” Rose proposes.
“You mean get ourselves taken? What if we get moved to different places?” I worry.
“We could always sneak in, hide somewhere and when we hear the cops moving in, pretend that we were being held there and rescued. If there are any problems, then we get out and think of a new plan.” Blake suggests.
“I don’t know. That sounds a bit too simple. How do you get in there? Where would you hide where you’d know you would be safe?” Dean asks.
“We could go in late at night. Everyone would be asleep and loads of places would be free of people,” Blake suggests.
“I could get us blue prints of the building, find out how we can get in without being detected.” Rose nods.
I’m not sure about this at all, but do I really care? Charlie is there, I could see him in a matter of days.
“What if things go wrong? What if Dean can’t get the police to believe him? We just leave Charlie and Will?” I already know I won’t be able to do that. I either leave with them or I don’t leave.
“We’ll need to adjust our plan, go on the fly. We can go back for them if the timing isn’t right.”
“Let’s simply focus on getting out of New York safely for now, okay? Spencer must have been sent to look for us; we should keep moving,” Blake warns us.
I nod in agreement as I feel a headache coming on. I close my eyes and see Charlie smiling, laughing with men and women I don’t know, wearing that uniform I had seen him wearing in my dream.
Will we be too late for him? Will they already have turned him?
Chapter 36 – The Punch
February 20th, Minnesota
The drive to Minnesota has been uneventful, and to be honest, everything has gone smoothly. Maybe that should have been a warning sign, although honestly, I think we are all just happy to have an easy time of it. Especially after The Core.
Every day I think about what we’ve done, and I know it’s on everyone’s minds as well. The final count we’ve allowed ourselves to hear is twelve dead. Twelve people killed because of us. I’m not sure how to even understand that. It doesn’t feel real. How could we have done something like that? Was it the right thing to do? Is Blake right? Are we serial killers? Am I any better than a murderer? How can I still not have forgiven Joel when my death count is far higher than his?
I try not to allow myself to think about what we did. It’s easy to distract ourselves as we plan out what we need to do to get to Charlie and Will.
The place they’re being held at is an old jail. It’s supposed to be empty and unused, however we know better. There are a limited guards moving along the perimeter, but their patrols are few and far between. They’re either not expecting any trouble, their resources have been stretched thin because of what happened at The Core, or they want us to get in easy. I’m hoping for either of the first two options.
All three of us go in together. There won’t be any splitting up for this. We have separate cars and leave one several miles away from this complex. If we get into any trouble, then that is our getaway car.
Dean left us at the fence and is driving to the local police station. I hope they don’t give him a hard time, and believe what he is saying. He still has his badge on him. Rose says that even though he gave everything up to be with her and has lost everything again and again along our travels, he’s always been able to hold onto the badge. It’s his one connection to home, to a job that he loves.
Most of the windows have bars over them, preventing anyone from escaping in or out of the building, but on one side are what looks like some offices, and those windows have no such protection.
Blake is able to jimmy one open, another warning that this is too easy. We sneak into the office and through the rooms until we reach the jail. Inside has definitely been redone; there is no sign that this has once been a jail. The walls are brightly lit and freshly painted, the floors newly redone and there are even military photos hanging randomly along the walls.
We make our way forward, aware that we’re out in the open here. Rose signals to the small broom closest that we have seen on the map she’s gotten. It is where we’ve decided to hide and wait for Dean. I’m disappointed that we don’t get to see any sight of the boys, but grateful that we don’t have any guards to contend with.
We’re waiting no longer than half an hour when Rose breaks the silence.
“This place blows. Can’t we move about? Like Blake said, most people will be asleep and there doesn’t appear to be any guards around here.”
“No, we stick to the plan.” I don’t give into my own desire to search the jail. I want to see Charlie so badly. Knowing how close he is to us right now is painful.
“It’s weird to think that in a few hours, I could be on my way home. I’ll be with my mom and dad, Nicole and Sophie soon. I didn’t even think that was ever going to be possible. Now I know they’re alive, and that soon it’ll be safe to go home.” Blake smiles at us.
I nod that it could be true, but deep down I fear that it’s false hope. Yes, we took out The Core, but now what? Was that really enough to stop P.A.G.E.? Maybe it was naïve of us to assume that would be all that was needed. Maybe we crippled them, but what if we also just made enemies out of them? What if we caused more problems rather than solutions?
“Can you hear that?” Rose leans forward, her ear pressing against the door.
“Hear what?” I whisper back, tensing at the thought that we might be found out. We have been here for only half an hour, chances are Dean hasn’t even finished explaining his story to the local police yet. We can’t be found out right now.
“I think someone is calling for help.” Rose looks over at us worriedly. I make another effort to try to listen. Very faintly I hear something, perhaps crying.
“Can you read their thoughts?” I ask Blake.
“No, they’re too far away. If I’d met them before, then I might have a chance, but complete strangers? No way.”
“You were able to read Dean’s thoughts that time out in the forest,” I recall.
“What? Would you please stay out of our heads?” Rose quietly gasps.
“I can’t help it. Believe me, if I could, then I would be happy to never hear another person’s thoughts ever again. I think the only reason I heard Dean’s thoughts is that we were alone in a forest where other people were miles away from us. Right now,
that voice sounds too far and in a building with potentially hundreds of people.”
“Can you tell us if it’s Will or Charlie?” Rose demands.
“I don’t know. It could be?” Blake shrugs at us. “I don’t know what they sound like.”
The thought that it could be either Charlie or Will’s voice gives me cold shivers. Are they being hurt? Is Charlie being brainwashed right now?
“I’m going to go check it out.” Rose stands and I rush upwards, too.
“You can’t, we have to stay here. It’s too early,” Blake argues.
“We’re getting out of here today, an hour early won’t hurt anyone, but it might save that voice some pain.” Rose rushes out of the door then and I quickly move to follow her, but Blake grabs my arm and holds me in place.
“Blake, let me go!” I hiss at him, feeling anger at being held against my will.
“Agent Goodings is coming this way,” Blake hisses back before quietly closing the door, trapping us inside.
I hold my breath. One long minute later, I hear loud footsteps approaching. They stop moving just outside our closed closet door. I watch the shadow under our door, trying to melt back into the walls, but the room is so small that as soon as the light comes on, it’ll be obvious Blake and I are in here.
“Stanley, you have to let this go, it’s interfering with the tests.”
“I will not let this go, you killed him. Truth could have gotten answers out of him. She might have been able to get out of him where Third-Eye and Hacker are. Maybe he could have answered what the hell Reader is doing. He was our only solid lead and you killed him.”
“We didn’t need him any longer. He didn’t know anything. We didn’t need him to catch Holloway and Montgomery.”
“Then why didn’t you catch them?” he shouts at Martha.
“We got Parker and Nichols, they were our biggest threats.”
“Yes, and they got Reader, not exactly a fair trade.”
Taken By Force (Taken Trilogy Book 2) Page 35