Away From the Sun (19 page)

I’m about to pull the trigger when the window next to me shatters into a thousand pieces. I jump back and land on the floor. I hear a noise behind me and I snap my head and point the rifle in that direction.
 

“Whoa there!” Gabe yells, throwing his hands up in the air.
 

I curse when I notice that its him, and bring the rifle down. I wipe sweat off my brow and crawl up to my knees.
 

“They’ve got soldiers watching the windows,” Gabe says. “Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“What do we need to do?” I ask.
 

“Get to a safe hiding place,” he says.
 

I shake my head at him. “I need to find Waverly. I’m not just going to leave her to die.”

He looks at me and nods. “Her room is on the floor below us, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go.”

I follow him into the hallway as the building rattles again and we both stumble into the wall. He grabs onto me to help me stay on my feet and we keep moving. The stairs are even more difficult to hurry down. We’re lucky neither of us breaks an ankle as we take them three at a time.
 

The hallway below us has been hit harder than the floor above. Pieces of wood jut out from the walls and glass is sprinkled in every direction. When we get to Waverly’s room, I’m not surprised to see that she’s not here. Gabe looks at me, waiting for me to make a move.
 

I stand for a moment, holding onto my rifle with a white-knuckled grip. I wish I knew where she was. Gabe walks to the window and looks out.
 

“They’ve broken through the first barrier,” he says, shaking his head. “The settlement just doesn’t have the manpower to resist this many soldiers. At least they still have a few more barricades to get through.” His eyes linger on the advancing trucks and his face turns white.
 

“What is it?” I ask.
 

“Greyskins,” he says. “All the noise is drawing them here.”

I rush to the window and look out. He’s right. There are hundreds of them coming toward us from behind Samuel and his trucks. Some of them trudge along slowly while others seem to be sprinting.
 

Gabe turns to me and grabs both of my shoulders. “We’ve got to get out of here and go to Crestwood.”

“What?”

“You’ve got to tell Paxton about his granddaughter. If he knows about her, he’ll come to help us, surely.”

I shake my head. “We can’t do that.”

“It’s that or be killed.”

“There’s no time.”

“If we can leave safely, Paxton can have men in here by tomorrow morning.”

“If he decides to help at all,” I argue.
 

“It’s the only choice we have. Shadowface is going to have this place overtaken too quickly. Then there will be no chance of getting out. At least now, we have the opportunity to try.”

I look out the window, watching as the trucks crash through the first barrier. People die on both sides as gunfire and rockets echo through the city streets. When I look back at Gabe, I can’t help but nod. I’m sure the main reason he wants to get out of here is to protect me. He loves me. He’s told me as much. But I feel horrible leaving Waverly behind.
 

Wherever she is.
 

“I’ll follow you,” I say.

Gabe lets go of me and charges out the door. I start to run after him, but something catches my eye in the corner of the room.
 

A notebook.
 

I don’t know what makes me do it, but I bend down and pick it up off the floor. I open it for just a second and I see a list of names. I flip through the lined pages and under a few people there are paragraphs written. Waverly has been keeping record of something.
 

I jump when Gabe pops his head back into the room. “Remi,” he says. “We’ve got to go.”

I slap the notebook shut and tuck it in the back of my pants. I know it’s none of my business, but curiosity has gotten the best of me.
 

I suppose I’ll have something to read on the way to Crestwood.

“I’m going after Ashley alone,” I tell Ethan.
 

“No way I’m letting that happen,” he comes back.
 

I spin on him. “You don’t have the luxury of running out in the open with gunfire all around us. This is the perfect scenario for you to get yourself killed.”

“But if I’m by your side, that won’t happen,” he says.
 

“Do you remember Hank?” I ask. The well of frustration within me is overflowing. “We made the determination to stay by him so he wouldn’t get bitten. Well, he was anyway. Just listen to me, please.”

He looks at me almost like he’s hurt. He swallows and nods his head. “Okay. I’ll stay back.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I just don’t want you to get yourself killed.”

“I don’t like that you haven’t seen
your
future yet,” he says. “What if you’re the one that’s about to be killed?”

He could be right. Out of all the visions I’ve seen of others, I’m not able to see my own future specifically. But at least I know that I won’t be dead before the visions end, right? I know that if I don’t kill Ashley now, Samuel might gun me down later after he’s finished with Ashley and Lydia.
 

“I know I’m safe for now,” I tell him. “I can’t tell much about tomorrow, but today, I’m fine.”

“But how do you know?”

I shake my head at him. “I’ve got to go.” I turn away and run out into the hallway. I barely notice the blasts of explosions and the echo of ricocheting bullets outside as I charge down the stairs and through the hallways. The maze of office building corridors doesn’t confuse me because I know exactly where I’m going—the building that houses the conference room we met in a week ago. We leave this building and cross an empty street to the next.
 

As I stumble forward into the building, I can’t help but think about the two lines of futures that I’ve seen. Part of me doesn’t like that there are options, but that seems to be exactly what is happening. When I touch someone the first time, I see what happens if I do nothing. Now, the second time I touch someone, I see what happens if I decide to take action. At least, I think that’s what’s going on.

The second time I touched Ashley, I knew what I had to do. But what does this do for everything else? Does this change the vision I saw of my sister? Does this change the vision I saw of Ethan? Does the choice I make determine if I find myself kissing Ethan on the rooftop, or if he’s shot in the middle of the street? How much does each choice affect another?

The questions leave my head the second I see a shadow in front of me. A glimpse of black clothing catches my eye as it whips around the corner. I try to ignore the explosions in the streets outside. I try to focus each step carefully. I don’t want to make too much noise, but I need to keep up. When I reach the corner, I can see her at the end of another hallway.
 

“Ashley!” Mitch’s voice calls out. “Ashley!”

“Mitch, where are you?” she answers. The way she holds the rifle closer to her chest makes me angry. I want to know what she feels. How can she go after the man she claims to love only to kill him?

I hold a firm grip on my pistol and I charge forward. Ashley is already in the large conference room, probably pointing the rifle at Mitch’s back. I’m running as fast as I can now until I finally make it to the conference room. She’s holding the gun confidently, but from this perspective it doesn’t look like she’s aiming the gun at him. Is she aiming toward the window? There
are
greyskins out there. But no…she’s working with Shadowface. She’s going to kill everyone I care about. It’s time to end this now.
 

I point my pistol at her and close my eyes as I squeeze the trigger. When I open them, Ashley is on the floor grabbing her torso. My pistol smokes from the single shot, but my eyes aren’t on the gun.
 

I’m frozen in place as I stare at Mitch. His eyes are wide with surprise and fear. They travel from Ashley to me. Ashley’s eyes start to roll back and close. Mitch moves forward and I take off as fast as I can the way I came. I don’t turn back. I don’t stop to see if he is coming after me. When I reach the end of the hallway, my legs lock and I fall to the floor, gasping for breath as I choke back tears.

I can’t believe I just did that. I just killed someone in cold blood.
 

But it wasn’t cold blood. She was about to kill Mitch. She was going to kill the rest of us. No. I just made sure none of that could happen.
 

“Hey!” The voice comes from behind me. I can feel my spine seize at his yell. The vicious anger in his tone makes me want to crawl in a hole forever. I start to get up to run away from him, but he’s already on top of me. He grabs me by the hair and yanks my head to the floor. I bring my gun up to point it at him, to threaten him, but he kicks it from my grip with ease. He grabs me by the shirt and slams me up against the wall. I can feel my scalp split and for a moment I see double. At first I can’t hear him because my head feels like he just broke it in two. He’s yelling in my face—something about having no idea what I just did. I would be able to concentrate on his words a lot better if he didn’t grab my throat and start choking me, bringing on a flash of white light.
 

I see Mitch rushing in through a door. The figures on the other side of the room look up at him. The only ones in the room are Samuel and my future self. Samuel stands over Waverly with a pistol pointed at her head. Lydia and Ashley lie dead beside her.
 

Mitch walks toward them confidently and weaponless. Samuel shakes his head and points the gun at Mitch.
 

“My, my,” Samuel smiles. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re here, but you’re a little late, I’m afraid.” He motions toward Ashley’s body. “Of course, you showing up only confirms that killing her was a good call on my part.”
 

“Drop the gun,” Mitch tells him.

Without hesitation, Samuel lets go of the pistol and it clanks to the floor.

“Don’t make any movements unless I tell you to,” Mitch says, staring into Samuel’s eyes.
 

Samuel stands over Waverly with a blank stare across his face. Waverly’s eyes are wet with tears as she looks down at the bodies of Lydia and Ashley. But Mitch’s eyes are full of tears as well. He commands Waverly and Samuel to stand silently against the wall. Both of them do as he orders without question as Mitch falls to his knees and scoops Ashley’s bloody head into his arms. He begins to weep uncontrollably, burying his head into her neck, her body limp and cold.
 

“This was never supposed to happen!” Mitch screams. His eyes find Waverly. “This would have never happened if you hadn’t been so stupid!” He sets Ashley’s body down on the floor gently. He then stands and starts walking quickly toward Waverly. He reaches back far and slaps a wide palm against the side of her face. On the backswing, his knuckles catch her upper jaw and she falls to the ground.

Waverly lets out silent tears mixed with blood as Mitch screams at her to get back up and stand against the wall. Again, she does so without question. He turns to Samuel, but is interrupted by a rush of someone clamoring through the door at the other end.
 

Waverly’s eyes widen at the sight of Ethan, but her surprise is short-lived as Mitch commands him to stop, set his back against the wall, and do nothing without permission. He complies without a single questioning glare. Even the fact that Mitch is weaponless and Ethan holds a large rifle does nothing to affect Ethan’s unhesitating obedience.

Mitch turns back to Waverly with large tears streaking down his face. His jaws clench tightly as he grits his teeth. He rears back and hits Waverly another time, and a flash of light brings me back to reality.
 

I barely remember that I’m being choked by Mitch. His strong grip around my neck is getting tighter and for a moment, I think he might try to kill me. But he doesn’t know what I know. He doesn’t know that the love of his life was about to kill him.
 

“St— Plea—…” I can’t get the words out. His grip is too firm. I think he’s about to end me, but I know that can’t happen. I’ve seen the future.

As water forms in his eyes, he holds me tighter. “What? You have something to say? Why did you shoot Ashley?” He is screaming at me. “Why?”

He quickly lets go of my throat and I fall to the ground, my windpipe was so closed off that it’s almost too difficult to cough. I’m gagging—dry-heaving. It’s everything I can do just to get a little bit of air back into my lungs.
 

When I look up, I watch Mitch pull a knife from his belt. Is he about to stab me? Before he can bring his arm up, a figure from behind Mitch tackles him to the ground.
 

Ethan.
 

I rush up to my knees and try to reach for Mitch’s knife, but the scuffle is happening so quickly. Ethan rolls himself on top of Mitch and slams the butt of a rifle against his face three times before Mitch lets go of the knife.
 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ethan yells out.
 

Blood trickles down the side of Mitch’s face, but only sobs escape his lips. Ethan pulls himself from the ground and comes to me to help me up as I reach out and grab my pistol. When he gets close, I lift my hands in the air, to tell Ethan that I don’t want him to touch me. He recoils quickly and stands between me and Mitch.

“Can you walk?” Ethan says to me, still watching Mitch for any sudden movements.
 

“Yes,” I say, but the words are barely above a whisper. I feel like someone has just dropped a cinderblock on my throat.

Ethan points the rifle at Mitch, but the bloodied man just stares up at him, wordless. “Don’t try to follow us,” Ethan says. “Or I
will
shoot you.”