ARC: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare

by M. G. Buehrlen

  I stared at him, unable to speak. No air passed through my lungs.

  “Everything is the way it is in your Base Life because of this moment,” Porter said. “After this, you escape with Levi and Tre. Gesh shuts down the program. He sets fire to these labs. I track you down a few days before you die. Then I reincarnate you and spend the next seventeen years watching you grow into a young woman all over again.” Porter placed both of Argus’ meaty hands on my shoulders, making me look at his ugly face. “Our lives are the way they are now because of this one choice you made. And it cannot be erased. You have to go back to your Base Life without doing a touchdown. Otherwise life as you know it will end.”

  My body shuddered beneath his thick, sweaty palms. My knees threatened to give out as the weight of his words weighed on my shoulders. My heels sunk into the concrete.

  “Don’t you see, Alex?” Porter’s eyes swam with pity. “Tre wasn’t the snitch. He didn’t tell Gesh you were traveling again. You did.”

  CHAPTER 32

  THE ULTIMATE PLAGUE

  My knees buckled. Porter caught me under the arms and lowered me to the cold concrete floor. If I had been in my Base Life, I would’ve had the mother of all asthma attacks.

  I sat like a stiffened corpse against the wall of the closet, paralyzed. Porter squatted before me in Argus’ behemoth body, his hands poised to catch me in case I fainted. But I was too angry to faint. In that moment, I hated myself so much, I wanted to feel every ounce of pain this realization caused. Every prick. Every cut.

  Blue wasn’t the traitor.

  I was.

  “So all of this is my fault after all,” I said. The words grated on my throat. “You leaving your job. Having to give up everything and go into hiding so you could be my protector. Living all alone in that tiny apartment. I did that to you.”

  Porter shook Argus’ huge round head. “Don’t think about it that way–”

  “But I’m the reason Levi has to watch Ivy die in the next few weeks. I’m the reason Gesh is looking for me in Base Life. I’m the reason my family is in danger. All because of what? Because I was pissed off at you? How psychotically psychotic is that?”

  “Don’t do this to yourself, Alex. There are many people to blame…”

  “Tell me how to fix it,” I said, grabbing his fat, sausage-like wrists. “What can I do? What if I erased it anyway? What would be the worst that would happen?”

  He furrowed his brow. “You can’t do that. Life would cease to exist as we know it. You would cease to exist.”

  “Good,” I interrupted. “Maybe that’s the answer. I’m the worst thing that’s ever happened to the entire world. Gesh isn’t the villain, I am. I’m the ultimate plague.”

  Something softened in Argus’ face when I said the plague thing. He gave me the most sympathetic look and ran a warm, thick hand over my shaved head. “You are not a plague.”

  His soft, comforting touch pulled tears right out of me. I wrapped my arms around his wrist and hugged his hand to my cheek. “Why don’t you hate me?”

  “Hate you?” he said with a shake of his head. “How could I ever hate you?” He lifted my face to his. “You listen to me. I have my regrets. There are things I wish I’d never done. Things I wish I’d never said. But you, Alex, are the best decision I ever made. The best thing I’ve ever done. Do you hear me?” He wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb. “And if anyone can fix all the damage we’ve done, you can. I bet my life on it.”

  I sucked in a shuddering breath, searching his eyes. There was nothing but sincerity there. That proud, fatherly look he’d given me many times before. I hooked my arms around his thick neck, and he folded me into a bear hug. I held onto him until my breathing steadied.

  “What do I do now?” I finally said, letting him go. I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my smock.

  He brushed a tear from his cheek with the back of his hand. “You have to play out the rest of this timeline. You have to follow the Variant.”

  “How do I know I’m doing it right?”

  “You can’t mess it up. Everything you do will be right, because it’s already happened. We already know you did it right.”

  My brain felt like it pulled a muscle trying to understand that logic.

  “Try not to think about it,” he said. “It’ll just make you nervous. All we have to do is find Levi, and the two of you have to get Tre out of here before Gesh catches up to you.”

  I froze. “Wait. Gesh is going to wake up?”

  Porter nodded Argus’ head. “Remember I told you I remember hearing gunshots? Someone has to fire the gun. And it’s not going to be Flemming.”

  FLIGHT

  Porter’s hand swallowed mine as he led me down the hall, past Gesh’s office toward Blue’s recovery room. “Levi should have come back to look for you by now.”

  We stopped outside the recovery room door and Porter knocked. After a few moments, the lock released and the door opened. Levi peered out, his eyes peeking out over the tops of his wire-rimmed glasses, his eyebrows pulled down in his signature frown. “Argus?” Porter pushed past Levi into the room, pulling me along with him. Levi closed the door. “What’s going on?”

  “Levi,” Porter said in Argus’ gruff timbre. “Det er mig, Flemming. Jeg har nedstammer fra fremtiden.” It’s me, Flemming. I’ve descended from the future.

  Levi glanced at me for confirmation, and I nodded. He looked back up at Argus. “Hvad har du brug for at jeg skal gøre?” What do you need me to do?

  “I need you to take Tre and Ivy to safety. You know the quick way out.”

  Levi gave a stiff nod. Porter turned to me and squeezed my hand. “Good luck. I’ll see you soon.”

  He made for the door, but I tugged on his hand. “Where are you going?”

  “I can’t stay. When Gesh wakes up, that’s the end of Argus.”

  I covered my mouth with my hand. “He kills him?”

  “Of course. You can’t expect much else after he knocked Gesh out and helped you escape. Besides, how else would I have known I could descend into his body? He’d have to be dead to have a soulmark, and he’d have to have a soulmark in order for me to use it.”

  I let Porter’s hand slip from mine and watched him disappear through the doorway, leading Argus’ body casually, knowingly, to his death.

  Levi walked over to me and rested a hand at the small of my back. “Vi er nødt til at handle hurtigt.” We have to move fast.

  It was like a dream playing out in slow motion. I watched Levi’s deft hands skim over Blue’s frail body, unhooking him from the monitors, pulling the IV from his vein, applying a bandage on the back of his hand. I stood over Blue, holding his hand, my throat constricting with guilt.

  It had been so easy to believe Blue betrayed me. So very easy. It was still hard to believe it wasn’t true. No matter how good he was, no matter how big his heart, it didn’t make sense for him to care about me as much as he did. To agonize over remembering me and dream of kissing me. Boys didn’t dream about me. They dreamed about other girls. Beautiful girls.

  Not me.

  When Levi was done, he slipped out of the room to retrieve a wheelchair, leaving me alone with Blue. I lifted his hand to my lips again. I pressed my mouth to his palm.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  Levi came back in, pulling the wheelchair in behind him. He stopped short, startled to see my lips pressed to Blue’s hand. Levi’s eyes were wide, like a boyfriend who’d just caught me cheating. I slowly lowered Blue’s hand back to the bed. I’d forgotten that it must still be hard for Levi to separate me, Alex Wayfare, from Ivy, especially while I was wearing her body. I didn’t have to show my affection toward Blue in front of Levi. It was too cruel.

  Levi cleared his throat. “Help me get him in the chair?”

  We sat Blue up, one of us on either side, and draped his arms over our shoulders. Then we lifted his legs and hoisted him into the chair. Blue still didn’t wake up. His head lolled forward.
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  “Let’s go,” Levi said.

  The moment we were through the door, Levi broke into a sprint, pushing Blue in front of him. We wove through the halls, gained quick access through several sets of double doors, and rounded corners, getting lost in the maze of cold, sterile corridors. It felt like we ran a mile before we finally came to a pair of heavy glass doors, framed in thick steel. Red letters on the glass spelled out Emergency Exit in Danish. Beyond it, the hallway sloped steeply upward out of sight.

  Levi came to a stop and hunched over, panting. “This is it. This is Gesh’s private exit. He always has a car waiting outside, in case the labs are breeched and the government finds out what he’s doing down here.”

  “Can you use your key card to open the door?” I asked.

  “Yes, but the moment I swipe it, an alarm’s going to go off. Gesh, the security guards, everyone will know we’re trying to escape. You’ve got to catch your breath, stretch, do whatever you need to do to help me push this wheelchair up that slope as fast as you can. Got it?”

  “Wait,” I said grabbing his wrist. “I’ve got an idea.”

  “No ideas. Just catch your breath. We have to move.”

  “But I can seal the door shut behind us. I can make it so Gesh can’t get through without busting it down.”

  “You can?” Levi said. “How?”

  “For all Gesh’s high tech medical gear, he’s not too smart when it comes to security. Nobody is. I’ve been paying attention to these doors and how they lock. It’s just a simple electronic strike system. You can bypass the key card stuff. All you have to do is cut power to the strike to shut it all down. Knowing Gesh, these doors are fail secure. That means if I cut the power, the door seals shut. Nothing can release the strike. No one will be able to get through these doors without coming down here and reconnecting the power. It’ll buy us loads of time.”

  Levi stared at me like I just recited a sonnet in Mandarin.

  I waved a hand in front of my face. “Never mind. Just give me your key card and tell me where I can find some wire cutters.”

  “Wire cutters? Are you insane? We don’t have time for wire cutters.”

  I glared at him. “If you have the keys to this getaway car Gesh keeps hidden outside, then by all means, let’s make a run for it. If not, then I’m going to have to hot-wire it. And honestly, I’ve only done that once so I consider myself a little rusty.”

  Levi’s eyes went wide. “You know how to hot-wire a car?”

  “Levi. Focus.”

  “OK, OK,” he shoved the key card in my hands. “There’s a medical closet by the surgical lab. I’m pretty sure there are some tools in there.”

  An invisible boot sank into my stomach. “The closet right across from Gesh’s office?”

  Levi nodded. “Still think it’s a good idea?”

  I fisted my hands and set my jaw. “I’ve got this. I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”

  I flew down the hall, rewinding my way through the empty maze of tunnels, swiping Levi’s key card and slipping through the sets of double doors. Levi didn’t trust my idea, but it was a heck of a lot better than his “just run as fast as you can from a swarm of security guards” plan. I had to seal the deal. Cut Gesh off at the knees. Not at the freaking elbow.

  When the surgical lab came back in view, I slowed down, skimming my back along the wall and peering around corners. When I came to the hall with Gesh’s office and the medical closet, I ran on the balls of my feet, not making a sound, and slipped inside.

  My heart was in my throat. Where was Gesh? Still in his office? Murdering Argus? Had Porter already ascended back to Base Life?

  My eyes darted around for any sign of a toolbox. I shoved boxes of needles and rubber gloves out of the way on the shelves, peering behind them. I tipped the lids off plastic storage tubs and rummaged through packs of plastic-wrapped bandages. Nothing.

  I finally came to a bulky plastic grocery bag sitting on the floor near the door. When I ripped it open, I swore under my breath.

  They kept their tools in a grocery bag? For real?

  I knelt on the floor and rifled through them. They were the bare bones basics: a hammer, a screwdriver, a little box of nails, a plastic container of thumbtacks. Geez, who did these tools belong to? Porter’s grandmother? Levi obviously had no idea where the maintenance workers kept the real tools.

  At the very bottom of the bag, my fingers closed around a pair of scissors. “Bingo.” They would have to do. I just had to hope and pray they’d be sharp enough to cut through the power cord for the electric strike.

  Before I left, I grabbed the screwdriver and hammer to use when I hot-wired Gesh’s car. Then I spun the scissors around my finger like it was Shooter’s pistol. I wasn’t going back out into the hall without some sort of weapon in my hands. Not that a pair of scissors would do much good if Gesh really did have a gun, but it made me feel safer. Perception is everything.

  I stepped out into the hall, looked both ways, and took a single step. The moment my foot met the floor, I heard the unmistakable clack! of a gunshot suppressed by a silencer. It came from behind Gesh’s office door. Then I heard what sounded like a massive body slump to the floor.

  Holy crap. Gesh did kill Argus.

  I bolted down and around the corner, and skidded to a stop in front of the first set of double doors.

  “Nummer Firrrrrrre,” I heard Gesh call out. His voice tumbled and rolled through the halls. His office door closed behind him. “Hvor errrrr duuuuu?” Where arrrrre youuuuu?

  I swiped my card, saw the green light flash, heard the beep, and darted through. By the time I got to the next set of doors, I heard Gesh open the set behind me. I had to move faster.

  I raced through the hallways, but Gesh didn’t run after me. I could hear his Oxford dress shoes clomping casually down the hall. He was taking his time. He wasn’t worried about losing us.

  By the time I skidded around the last corner and saw Levi and Blue, I heard Gesh’s voice echo after me. “Kommer ud, kommer ud, uanset hvor du er.” Come out, come out, wherever you are.

  Levi’s eyes were about to bug out of his head. “Travlt!” he shouted. Hurry!

  “Help me up!”

  I tossed him the key card, the screwdriver, and the hammer. He hoisted me up to the drop ceiling by the door, my foot in his hands, the scissors pressed between my lips. I pushed the ceiling tile aside. I seized hold of a plumbing pipe and pulled myself up higher, Levi still steadying me by my foot. All I needed was that one dark gray wire. That one beautiful, lovely wire that would save our skins.

  There were three wires coming up from the emergency exit door. The thick white one had to be the swipe card wire. The red was for the alarm. And the gray.

  The gray was my power.

  I pulled the scissors from my mouth with one hand. I reached my arm out and snipped the closest wire, the red one, shutting off power to the alarm. Now when Levi opened the door, it wouldn’t go off and alert the security guards.

  “Swipe your card,” I said.

  He let go of my foot. My arm slipped from the pipe and I fell a few inches before I grabbed hold with my other hand, clinging for dear life, my feet dangling in midair.

  Levi swiped his card through the reader. The light. The beep. He shoved Blue and his wheelchair through the doors, then he held it open with one hand. “Travlt!”

  I struggled to pull myself back up onto the pipe. I reached out for the gray wire. My entire body shook as I tried to hold steady. Sweat slid into my eyes.

  “Ah.” Gesh’s Oxfords slid to a halt at the end of the hall. “Der er du.” There you are.

  “Ivy!” Levi shouted.

  I reached as far as I could. I strained. Stretched my arm muscles to the brink. The tips of the scissor blades brushed the wire. Hot sweat blurred my vision.

  “Farvel, Nummer Fire.” Goodbye, Number Four.

  In the time it took him to raise his gun, I wriggled the tips of the scissor blades around that wire and
clamped down hard. It sliced through with a satisfying chunk.

  I let go of the pipe.

  Gesh pulled the trigger.

  CHAPTER 33

  WILL YOU REMEMBER?

  I dropped to the balls of my feet, crouching down to the floor to absorb the shock. The bullet missed as I fell – I don’t know by how much – and bit right through the glass of one of the doors, leaving a perfect hole. Spiderweb cracks spread out from its center.

  I dove for Levi.

  Clack!

  Another shot. This time through the open doors, but I didn’t see where it hit. I was too busy trying to squeeze through and shove them shut behind me.

  Gesh sprang for the doors and slammed his body into them. He snatched the back of my shirt and yanked me back. Levi let out a feral yell as he rammed the doors closed with his shoulder. They locked. I hurtled myself forward but my smock was still caught between the doors.

  Gesh took a step back and aimed at me through the glass. I ducked, sawing through the fabric of my shirt with the scissors. Another bullet lodged itself in the steel frame right above my head.

  Levi grabbed the fabric in his hands and, with another yell, he ripped it in two, freeing me.

  We ran.

  We pushed Blue’s wheelchair up the steep slope, panting, sweating, sprinting for our lives. I glanced over my shoulder to see Gesh slam his shoulder into the door again, and again, unable to open it.

  It worked. I’d cut him off at the knees.

  But Gesh wasn’t done yet. He took his stance and fired his last two bullets through the glass. One hit the floor at my feet and ricocheted, the other must have gone astray.

  At the top of the slope, we burst through another door and into a dark room. When Levi hit the light switch, a single bulb flickered on above us, illuminating what looked like a parking garage built for a single car in dingy, orange light. A sleek, black Cadillac with chrome rims and heavily tinted windows rested in the sole parking spot. Luckily, it was unlocked. I dove into the driver’s seat with the screwdriver and hammer while Levi helped Blue into the back seat.