“You sure you’re okay with this?” Adam asks.
Paige nods, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears. “Yes. Even if I can’t make it back, the sacrifice will be worth it to save all of my friends.”
She hugs me tight, and I hold her for way too long, unwilling to let her go. This might be the last time we ever see her. Or maybe she’ll make it back, but none of us will remember her bravery today. Even if she succeeds at saving the world, we might erase our friendship in the process.
When I finally step back, Adam grabs her in a hug next. As Paige steps away, tears slide down her cheeks, but her eyes are determined. “I’m ready,” she says.
We move to the side as she heads for the machine, with our letter tucked into her pocket. She’s almost to the accelerator when the elevator jerks to life. The five of us turn toward it as the doors slowly open.
Vincent stands inside. With a gun in his hand.
Paige pauses for a split second and then bolts toward the accelerator door, but she’s not fast enough. A shot rings out. A second later she stumbles, then crashes against the wall of the accelerator before sliding to the floor.
She’s dead by the time she hits the floor.
“No!” I yell, but there’s nothing I can do. I start to rush forward anyway, but Adam grabs my arm and yanks me back so I don’t get shot too.
We duck behind office equipment as Vincent stalks forward, gun in hand. I’m shocked he killed Paige, but he’s clearly familiar with guns, and not hesitant to use them. Then again, if he’s willing to wipe out the world with a biological weapon, shooting someone is probably easy for him.
“Going somewhere?” Vincent asks with dark amusement in his voice.
From behind a cubicle, I yell, “Put your gun down. You’re outnumbered.”
“Elena, good to hear you’re still alive. I thought you’d be worse off by now, but you always were a survivor.” He grabs Dr. Campbell from behind a desk and presses the gun to her temple. She lets out a quick cry, then goes silent. “Surrender, or I’ll kill her next.”
I hesitate. I have no weapons on me. I left Nina’s gun behind earlier after I killed my future self. While Vincent may be outnumbered, I’m the only one who can take him on, but not when he has a gun trained at my friend’s head.
My future self was willing to end one life to save the world. But am I?
Vincent drags Dr. Campbell toward the accelerator. “Come on. We know how this is going to end. You’re all going to die, whether it’s here now or from the virus in a few days. As for me? I’ll be at my vineyard in Napa, which I’ve spent the last few days preparing, thanks to your warnings. I’m ready to start the next phase of the world. It’s a pity none of you will be there to see it.”
I creep around along the desks, until I’m moving up behind him. He always loved giving speeches and hearing himself talk. I was counting on that to hide my approach.
“What happened to you?” Dr. Walters asks from behind a cubicle. “You used to be a good man.”
“Was I? Or did I just do a good job of pretending?” Vincent presses the gun harder against Dr. Campbell’s forehead, and she whimpers. “Time’s up. Give up now, or she’s dead.”
I rush him from behind, but he hears me coming. He shoves Dr. Campbell aside and fires his gun at me, but the shot goes wide. I aim a jab at his face, but my movements are slow, still impaired from the virus, and I miss. He slams the gun against my head, making me stagger back. As pain crashes through my skull, I level a kick at his hand, knocking the gun wide. Then I hit the floor, hard.
He’s on me in an instant, his large hands going around my throat. His eyes are wild as he tightens his fingers, squeezing the life out of me. I struggle, but it’s like my brain and my body aren’t connected anymore, and I can’t get my limbs to do what I want. A slow smile spreads across his face when I try to fight him off and fail.
“Good-bye, Elena,” he says, as the world begins to go black.
Adam yanks Vincent off me, and I suck in a huge gasp of air, my fingers going to my throat. Vincent starts to get up, but Adam rams the gun into the older man’s chest. Without hesitation, he fires. One, two, three times.
Vincent’s face is a perfect mask of surprise that mirrors my own, before all the life leaves his eyes. Adam’s never killed anyone before. The closest he came was shooting the Infected in the future. I guess he weighed the same choice I did, and ultimately decided it was worth killing one person to save everyone else.
Adam stands over Vincent until he’s sure the man is dead, then drops the gun like he’s disgusted and rushes over to me. “Elena! Are you okay?”
I cough, trying to get air into my lungs. It’s like no matter how much I wheeze, I can’t get enough oxygen. “I’m alive,” I finally manage to say. “Thanks to you.”
He examines my neck, making sure I’m okay, then brushes the sweaty hair away from my face. “I had to stop him. He was going to kill you.”
Adam helps me to my feet, and I stare down at Vincent’s lifeless body. It’s over. This man brought us together, but he also used us for his own purposes. Our lives never meant anything to him, but he can never hurt us again.
While Dr. Walters checks on Dr. Campbell, Adam and I kneel beside Paige, but she’s already gone. A single tear slides down my cheek as I realize I’ll never get another of her hugs or see her bright smile again. Another one of our friends is dead because of Vincent.
And now we have no one who can go to the future without causing a paradox.
Adam removes the letter from Paige’s hand, which is clenched tightly around it. He stares at it with an empty look in his eyes. “What do we do now?”
I glance at the envelope in his hand. “One of us will have to go to the future.”
He shakes his head. “That will cause a paradox. No. It’s too risky.”
“It might, but what other choice do we have?”
“We’ll have to find someone else. We need to…” He trails off when a tiny trickle of blood drips from his nose. He wipes it away, then stares at the blood on his sleeve.
A choked cry escapes me. “Oh God, you’ve been infected.”
“It seems that way,” he says quietly.
I grab his arm, staring at the blood on it, refusing to believe it. Adam can’t be infected. He just can’t be. “How?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I cup his face in my hands. “We can cure you though, right?”
He grabs my hands and presses a kiss to my knuckles. “No, we can’t.”
“But why?” I ask, my voice rising. “You know how to do it now. We’ll get the cancer cells from somewhere. Zahra will figure it out. We can save you!”
“There’s no time. Even if we could find the supplies we need, it’ll be too late for me.”
I feel so powerless, so completely helpless to save the man I love. Fat tears begin to slide down my face. I’ve lost everyone I care about in the entire world. All my family. All of my friends. I can’t stand to lose Adam too.
No. There’s one way I can save him.
“It has to be me,” I tell him. “I have to go to the future.”
“No,” Adam whispers. “What if you can’t come back? What if you cause a paradox?”
“It’s the only way to save everyone. To save you. I have to do it, no matter the risk.”
He shakes his head, but he doesn’t say anything because he knows it’s true. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Walters are both too old to time travel without suffering from future shock. Even if they did go, they could be infected right now too. We can’t risk bringing the virus to the past.
That only leaves me.
Dr. Walters clears his throat. “Causing a paradox might actually work in your favor this time. It could reset the timeline, wiping out the last year as though it never happened.”
“Or it could kill her,” Dr. Campbell adds. “Or destroy the timeline completely.”
Dr. Walters nods. “True. It’s impossible to know for sure.”
Resetting the timeline sounds like a good idea—until I realize what it would mean for me and Adam. If we reset the timeline, this past year will never have happened. We might never get together. We might never fall in love. We might never get married and have a daughter.
What if, by resetting the timeline, we prevent our life together from ever happening?
One look at his face tells me he’s come to the same conclusion.
“We can’t,” I whisper. “There has to be some other way.”
Adam wraps his arms around me. “No, you were right. This is the only way. You have to go to the future and reset the timeline. It’s the only way to save the world.”
“But what about us?” I ask.
“We’ll find our way back together somehow. No matter what happens, our fates are intertwined.” He touches the origami unicorn necklace around my neck. “In every future, every timeline, every lifetime, it will always be me and you.”
“The accelerator is ready,” Dr. Campbell says softly.
I nod, but I’m not ready to pull away from Adam just yet. I wipe at my eyes, drying my tears on his shirt. I don’t know how to say good-bye to him, or to everything we’ve built together.
I don’t know what will happen after I walk through the accelerator. I might never return. I might fail and return to a dying Adam and a world in ruin. Or I might reset the timeline and erase everything we’ve had together—possibly wiping it from my memory forever.
There’s no other way. To save the world, I have to sacrifice my own life.
I dig my fingers into his shirt. “I love you, Adam.”
“I love you too.” He slants his mouth across mine, giving me a long, deep kiss that’s almost enough to keep me here with him, no matter what happens to the rest of the world. But I taste the sadness on his lips and I know it’s not just from losing me, but because of everything we’ve already lost and still stand to lose. If I have even the smallest chance of undoing all of that, I have to take it.
Pulling away from him is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I touch his face one last time, memorizing every inch of him, and pray I never forget what it feels like to be loved by the kindest, smartest, and bravest person I’ve ever met.
He tucks the letter into my hand, and I force myself to turn away from him while I still can. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Walters both give me a quick hug each and wish me luck before I slowly step into the accelerator. My last glimpse of Adam is when he shuts the door, locking me in. My pulse races and my breathing comes fast and heavy, but I’m doing this. I’m really doing it.
The countdown begins as the accelerator powers up. The voice is so familiar it’s like an old friend now, welcoming me home.
“Five.”
I remember the first time I kissed Adam in the rain.
“Four.”
I remember the first time he told me he loved me, when I was too scared to say it back.
“Three.”
I remember the first time we met Ava and saw both of ourselves in her.
“Two.”
I remember a hundred other moments, both small and large, that made up our relationship.
“One.”
I close my eyes and let the memories go.
PART VI
THE FUTURE
00:00
It’s pitch-black, except for a tiny lighter flame that flickers in front of me. I can barely make out five figures behind it, but I hear voices. Familiar voices.
“What the hell was that?” Chris asks. His voice sends a rush of relief through me. I never thought I’d hear it again.
The lighter raises up, illuminating Trent. I haven’t seen him in over a year, since I found him dead in a dumpster. My throat tightens, and I want to laugh with joy. He’s alive. Zoe is too, huddling near Adam with her blue hair and black nails. Afraid of the dark, but still so very alive. My gaze rests on Adam, who looks so much younger than when I last saw him, even though it’s only been a year.
Our plan worked. The accelerator sent me thirty years into the future, and our past selves are here for the very first time. This is the beginning of their original twenty-four-hour period in the future. I remember the moment perfectly. The shock of realizing we’d actually time traveled. The suspicion I felt about the people on my team. The uncertainty of standing in this cold, pitch-black room and wondering what was going on.
“Is someone else here?” the other Elena asks.
I move forward, into the flickering light, holding up my hands. “It’s okay. It’s me.”
Adam gasps, Chris swears loudly, and my younger self takes a step back. I try not to look at her, but I can already feel a sharp pain growing inside my skull. The paradox.
I lived through it once before, but it never gets any easier. The universe can’t seem to handle two instances of people out of sync with their own time period. It won’t be long now before it corrects itself somehow.
“Elena?” Adam turns to look at the other version of me. “How?”
I clutch the letter in my hand. “I don’t have time to explain. I’m here to warn you.”
I take another step toward the other Elena and pain lances through my brain, so piercing it makes my vision go dark. I bend over, pressing my hands to my temple, trying to fight it off. I hear the younger me let out a loud cry, while the others shout. I’m powerless to do anything as my body feels like it’s being ripped apart from the inside out.
Memories flash through me, flickering back and forth between mine and hers. Seeing Adam for the first time and the last. Stepping into the accelerator over and over and over. Watching our friends die again and again.
Yet somehow, through the agony, I know this is the right path. Warning them won’t be enough. They’ll still make similar mistakes, no matter what I tell them. I’m the only one who’s seen it all. Every future, every death, every choice we’ve made that led to this point.
Adam yells my name and breaks through the darkness, pulling me back to the world. Our eyes meet, and I see the same love in his eyes as I saw in his older self before we said good-bye. He’s my other half. My best friend. My soul mate. I was scared to lose him, scared that by coming here and changing things we’d never be together—but not anymore. No matter what happens, we’ll find our way back together.
I know what to do.
I turn away from Adam and step toward the other Elena. This time, I don’t fight the storm churning inside me, even though every movement is pure agony. No, this time I embrace it.
There’s a high-pitched whine in my ears, and my knees feel like they’ll give out at any second as I reach my hand out to my younger self. She hesitates, but then she raises her own hand toward me.
The second our fingers connect, we both gasp. Searing pain shoots through us, like a lightning bolt jolting through our bodies, connecting us with crackling energy. I see through her eyes, and she sees through mine. Memories flash so quickly I can’t focus on any of them. My body is torn apart and put back together again. And in the last second, before it all goes black, I wrap my fingers around the origami unicorn pendant Adam gave me.
The world splinters into a million tiny pieces of glass. Darkness envelops me, and I’m floating. Time and space mean nothing anymore. I simply am.
And then reality snaps taut again.
I’m standing in the basement underneath the building in the desert, wearing the heavy jacket and black clothes Aether gave to us for our first trip to the future. The letter in my hand is gone, but Adam’s necklace is still around my neck.
Zoe’s kneeling on the cement floor, with Adam crouching beside her. Chris glances around like he’s not sure what the hell is going on, but he’s ready to punch his way through it. Trent’s eyes are wide as he holds up his lighter, providing the only illumination.
The flame goes out. “Where are we?” Trent asks. “When are we?”
I’m reliving the moment when we got to the future for the very first time, when we discovered the building was empty and abandon
ed. The moment I interrupted when I arrived from the other timeline and caused the paradox. But now there’s only one version of me standing here.
The paradox wiped out everything from the last year of my life. All the other trips to the future. All the changes we made to the timeline, for better or worse. All the deaths we couldn’t stop.
I’m the older Elena and the younger one. And I remember everything.
This time, I know what I have to do.
PART VII
THE PRESENT
WEDNESDAY
At 7:02 p.m. I check the table for the tenth time, making sure everything is in its place. Chips and guacamole. Plates. Silverware. It’s the second time I’ve hosted this anniversary party—for me, anyway—but I’m still just as nervous somehow.
It’s been one year since I caused the paradox. Today is the anniversary of our first—and only—trip to the future. Except this time, we’re definitely celebrating and not mourning.
The doorbell rings while I’m adjusting the napkins. Max barks and wags his tail while I open the door for Chris.
He grabs me in a quick, loose hug. “Hey, Elena. Am I the first one here?”
“Yep. Where’s Shawnda?” I ask, even though I know the answer.
“She wanted to make it, but Michael is sick so she’s home with him. She sent these brownies along though.”
“Thanks.”
Adam steps out of the kitchen. “Hey, man.” He and Chris clasp each other on the back. “Glad you could make it.”
I smile at Adam. This night is already different from the one in my memory because he’s here this time, not working in his lab. He still has the lab, of course, but he’s not obsessed with making the cure like he was. I know he’ll make genicote eventually and be the hero he’s supposed to be, but this time he won’t rush it. And now I know the secret to making it safe.
The doorbell rings again, and I open it to see Trent and Zoe waiting outside. Trent’s hair is shorter and neatly trimmed, while Zoe’s is now pink. My heart warms at the sight of them. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the relief of seeing them alive.
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