Atlas (The Atlas Series) (10 page)

Turning off the car engine, Jack turned to Kala. He grabbed her and pulled her close, kissing her passionately. Kala lost herself in that kiss. She let all the craziness of the past twenty-four hours wash away in the solace of Jack pressing up against her. It almost felt like they were teenagers sneaking away to a make-out-point the way they were going at it in the front seat of Jack’s car. But Kala didn’t care, she didn’t want it to stop. Because she knew, when it did, more insanity would try and to suffocate her life.

Agonizingly, Jack finally pulled away, but he kept his hand on Kala’s cheek. “I love you.”

Jack kissed Kala gently, then drew back so their faces were only inches from each other. His eyes were intense — sad, happy, scared — anything and everything was going on behind them. So much so that Kala didn’t know how to respond to his declaration. She wanted to tell him she loved him too, but her fear was a much stronger combatant, so she waited for him to say more.

His lips were still inches from hers, which made Kala want to pull him in for another kiss, but Jack spoke instead. “You don’t have to say anything back. I don’t expect you to, but Kala, you have to know that I love you and that I’ll never let anything happen to you. I don’t care what they want. Do you trust me?”

Kala found that she couldn’t say much of anything, let alone confess her true feelings for Jack, so she simply nodded.

“Let’s get something to eat.” Jack tilted his head toward the diner. As if he couldn’t resist himself, he kissed Kala one more time.

Kala was the first to break the kiss, and she smiled at Jack. “I’m starving.”

The two of them entered Nora’s Diner and found it almost empty. The décor was exactly what Kala expected: 70’s vinyl booths with Formica table tops, black and white checkered linoleum floor, and the smell of grease. A large platter of steak fries and a cholesterol-filled patty melt was exactly what the doctor ordered. Kala looked up at the clock and had to do a double take. The countdown was more annoying now than freaky. Doing the math in her head was not something Kala was particularly good at. It said: 3d 18h 45m 21s. After what felt like an eternity, she finally asked Jack. “What the hell time is it?”

Jack gave her a momentary look of confusion, then understanding dawned on him. “Do all clocks countdown for you?”

Kala wasn’t sure how she felt about Jack knowing so much more about her situation than she did, but she nodded anyway without her usual snarky comeback.

“It’s 11:15,” Jack said. He motioned to the booth in the back of the diner and the two of them sat down.

After the waitress took their order, Jack took a deep breath as he looked at Kala. She felt the weight of his stare like an anvil of guilt. He finally spoke, “You must think you’re going crazy.”

Kala laughed at that. “I haven’t ruled that out completely yet.”

Jack reached across the table and held Kala’s hands in his. She didn’t pull away. “This is something I’ve been training for my whole life. My parents have been dreading and waiting for this day since I was born. And when it came down to it I choked.”

“You didn’t choke, I just had a better shot.” Kala found that her first instinct was to make Jack feel better, not strangle him and ask him what the hell he was talking about. Sometimes she felt like such a girl! Kala decided to remedy that. “What have you been training for your whole life? This Atlas thing, or whatever?” Oh the elegance.

“Sounds mental, doesn’t it?” Jack took his hands away when the waitress came to drop off their food.

Kala bit into the greasy deliciousness that was her patty melt and everything felt a little better. “It sounds more than mental, it sounds like a cheesy fairytale.”

“Stories and myths always come from somewhere.” Jack bit into his healthier turkey club.

“I was pretty solid on the fact that they came from writers,” Kala couldn’t resist the attitude. Like the scorpion and the frog, it was just in her nature.

“Not this time.” Jack sighed. “Now they want me to kill you so I can be what everyone thinks I was destined to be.”

“So, the only way to make a new Atlas is to kill the old one?” Kala decided to get a few things clarified.

Jack nodded, “But the Demons would rather the Atlases not accomplish their mission and let the world slip into chaos after the four-day time clock.”

“Hold up. Demons?” Kala needed a bit of a rewind. Demons? Being a foster kid, religion was always forced down her throat before she lived with Owen and Linda. And Demons had always scared her the most. The thought of something so evil actually existing made her skin crawl.

Jack sat back, shaking his head. “There’s so much you don’t know. I had a whole lifetime to learn it. Yes, Demons. There are two sides: the Malaks and the Demons. The Malaks are the good guys like Penny. They’re fighting for balance. But the Demons live for chaos and destruction. Asmodeus is their leader.”

“First, off, Penny is not a good guy, she’s a bitch. And second, Demons?” Kala still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that Demons were real. Not only that, but their leader was just at her apartment trying to… Kala didn’t even know what exactly he was trying to do.

“Have you had your vision yet? The task you’re supposed to complete to keep the balance?” Jack looked at Kala with genuine concern.

Kala sat there quietly. She couldn’t tell him. How could she? What was she supposed to say,
Yes, my mission to save the world is to murder you
. Then again, Jack was completely honest about
his
mission to kill her and his refusal to carry it through.

“Not yet,” Kala lied. There had to be some way out of this mess. This retired Atlas guy had underestimated Kala’s tenacity to weasel out of situations. If there was a loop hole, Kala would find it.

As if on cue to Kala’s misery, the waitress turned on the television. Sure enough, the scene of Kala shooting Jack in the head played again and again until Kala had to shield her eyes with her hand to stop from seeing it.

“You don’t like car commercials?” Jack glanced at the TV and smiled.

“Not that one.” Kala moved her hand away and kept her focus on Jack to distract her from the television.

“Normally the Demons have no knowledge of who the Atlas is. This is the first time both sides know who you are.” Jack’s voice was laced with worry.

“That’s what Penny said. Is it because I told Turner?” Kala knew what the answer was, but she had to ask anyway.

Jack nodded. “Your confession went on record, including the part where you told the General about being the new Atlas. Information like that didn’t take long to get into Asmodeus’s hands. Now that the Demons know about you, they won’t stop until they have you.” Jack pushed away his sandwich as if the thought made him lose his appetite.

“Why wouldn’t they just kill me, be the new Atlas and then wait out the apocalypse.” Kala sounded a little too rational for her taste.

“Honestly? We don’t know. We think it’s because Demons don’t know what would happen if they killed an Atlas. And what they don’t know is dangerous, so locking you up in a hole for four days is a much safer bet,” Jack explained. “It’s the Malaks you have to watch out for. Right now they’re focused on me being the next Atlas, but once they realize I’m not going to kill you, they’ll bring in the next in line. Some other poor kid who’s been raised to think they’re the Chosen One. Penny is still fighting for me, but after the stunt I just pulled, she won’t be able to defend my position much longer.”

“So what you’re telling me is that ‘the good guys’ are the ones trying to kill me and ‘the bad guys’ are too scared to kill me so they’re just going to lock me up?” Kala asked incredulously. In her book, ‘the bad guys’ sounded like a much better alternative. Especially since Kala wouldn’t have to kill Jack if they got their way. “Isn’t there some way to break this curse?” Kala asked.

Jack didn’t outright say Yes or No, he actually seemed to be thinking on it, finally admitting, “I don’t know, Kala. I wish I could say ‘yes,’ but I don’t see a way out. President Wilton seemed to think he’d figured out a way, but all I saw was a guy that was going to try and kill himself along with a butt load of people.”

“I really wish we would have let him tell us his plan, maybe it could have worked.” Kala would never have agreed to kill innocents.

“Maybe, but I’ve been told that there have been Atlases in the past who have tried to stop the cycle by killing themselves. But that’s a part of the curse. You can’t kill yourself. Anyone on the planet can kill you, but if
you
try to put a bullet to your head. Nothing. It would pop right out and heal.”

“Like dear old Penny. Why can’t she be killed?” Kala wanted to know. Honestly, knowing that she couldn’t kill herself didn’t make much difference to Kala since she would never in a million years try to commit suicide. She didn’t care how bad things got, suicide was never the answer. Not for her anyway. But Penny? That girl couldn’t be killed, by anyone. That was way more interesting!

“There’s a lot more to Penny than even I know. She was my trainer when I was a kid and she looks exactly the same.” Jack’s face had a kind of far-off expression as if he were remembering better times.

“You know I unloaded my Beretta into the back of her head, right?” Kala made the
guilty face
. Though Penny wanted her dead, Kala still felt weirdly horrible about shooting a “good guy.”

Jack smiled. “I’m sure that pissed her off.” Then he looked serious. “Did you know she couldn’t die before or after you shot?”

“Before! Geez.” Kala defended herself, but she could see that Jack was teasing her. Kala inwardly rolled her eyes at the fact that they could tease each other about shooting people.

They could hear the screeching again. It was far off, but Kala knew with certainty that it had picked up their scent and was coming for her.

Jack knew it too. “Asmodeus. The Demons won’t stop until they have you. Being the first time they’ve ever known who an Atlas is, they must be salivating. We have to get you out of here. As soon as you know what your mission is, you
have
to complete it. No matter how difficult. Agreed?”

Kala found it hard to hide her expression of horror at that statement, but she nodded. “Agreed.” Lie. Glancing at the television playing Jack’s death on repeat-o didn’t exactly put her mind at ease either.

Then a terrifying thought hit her. “Is this going to be my life forever? Running from Demons and doing horrible things?”

Jack didn’t answer, which to Kala was a resounding yes. She definitely needed to get herself out of this situation and pronto before it changed her life for good. The thought of being on the run for the rest of her life scared her. It was too much like her childhood, being placed in home after home, never feeling like she belonged anywhere. Owen and Linda changed all that for her and gave her a place in this world. And after leaving home, the military had become a sanctuary for her. To lose it all… for what? For
this
? A nightmare that Kala could barely believe was actually true. It was like someone telling her Santa Clause was actually real. Her rational mind wanted to laugh at the absurdity, but her instincts told her to run before the forces of nature swallowed her whole.

Kala followed Jack out of the diner and they headed to his car. “Seriously, where is safe?” Kala couldn’t see a way out of confronting this Asmodeus Demon.

They jumped into Jack’s car and Jack drove out of the parking lot and onto the road. Jack hadn’t answered Kala’s question, which made Kala think that he didn’t have an answer.

“Jack, where are we going?” Kala wished she was driving, not that she knew where she would go, but it would give her more control.

“I don’t know. The Compound? That’s as secure as you can get,” Jack suggested.

“We’re not allowed in when we’re not on missions,” Kala reminded him. She found it funny that she was the calm and rational one in this situation. Jack seemed frazzled and scared, two things Kala never saw in him before last night. But he knew a lot more about what was happening than she did. Ignorance was bliss, or at least more easily coped with.

“I know a place,” Jack said as if a light bulb just went off in his head. They were well outside the city now, on the highway headed to the middle of Virginia. Jack exited on a side road that led to a forested area.

“We’re going to hide out in trees?” Kala asked skeptically. She was a city girl: the thought of hiding in nature was actually less appealing than facing this head Demon guy. There was something about being in the dark in a forest that was so much eerier than being in an alley at night. The alley, it was a familiarity, a feeling of being able to escape. In a city Kala always had an escape plan no matter where she was, but nature? What could she do? Climb a tree? It was starting to upset her more than she cared to admit. “Do you have any guns? I need guns.”

“Guns don’t work on Demons or Malaks, you’re kind of screwed in that department,” Jack informed her.

“Then how am I supposed to defend myself? How were you going to defend yourself?” Guns were her safety net. Being told that her one form of defense wouldn’t work on what was chasing her made Kala feel vulnerable.

“There are other ways. I’ll show you. There’s a cabin up here in the woods that I was planning on making my base. It’s yours now,” Jack said.