CHAPTER 09_THE RESCUE
"Get the door Ethan. We both die in this hallway."
Elena's voice cuts through the darkness like a knife. She shoves her laptop into her bag. I feel like I'm suffocating down here in the subbasement. The air is thick and heavy. My head is throbbing with pain. My eyes feel like they're going to pop out of my skull. I grab the heavy steel handle of the containment room. I don't just pull it. I focus on the lock. I twist the space around it until the metal screams and snaps like a dry twig.
"Go." I rasp while I stumble inside.
The blue screen in my vision is a mess of red warnings. I glance at it. Its all gibberish to me.
CRITICAL MISSION: Free Subject Zero. Reward: Essential Information. WARNING: High probability of timeline deviation.
"I don't care about the timeline." I mutter while I look through the reinforced glass at the center of the room.
That's where they are. Subject Zero. They look like a ghost trapped in a cage of glowing wires. Their skin is pale and grey. The shimmer I saw before is almost gone. They look like a candle thats about to go out. Tubes are stuck in their neck and chest. A dark fluid is pulsing through the lines into a collection vat.
"Oh God Ethan." Elena whispers while she runs to the console. Her fingers fly across the keys. Shes biting her lip hard blood is starting to smear across her chin. "The levels are bottoming out. Marcus is draining them dry. If we don't stop the extraction now their heart is going to stop in three minutes."
"Just do it Elena." I say while I bang my fist against the glass.
The being inside the tank stirs. Their head. For a second I see my own reflection in their eyes. Same glow. Same recognition. They look at me and their mouth moves. No sound comes out. I feel the words deep in my bones.
Finally. Someone came. Hes killing both worlds.
"Containment field dropping in five four three..." Elena counts down. Then theres a loud hiss that echoes like a dying breath.
The glass slides up. The being falls forward. I catch them before they hit the floor. They feel like they're made of nothing but bones and cold silk. Their skin is freezing to the touch. Every time they breathe I feel a tremor run through my chest.
"Easy." I say while I help them sit up. "We're getting you out of here."
Suddenly a siren starts wailing from the ceiling. It's a pitched shriek that makes my teeth vibrate. Red lights start spinning in the hallway. I can hear the heavy thud of security boots hitting the concrete upstairs.
"Thirty seconds." Elena yells while she grabs her bag. "Ethan we have to move."
The being grabs my arm with a strong grip. Their eyes are locked on mine. The glow is intensifying.
"Listen to me." they. Their voice sounds like grinding stones. "No time for questions. I'm Kael. Guardian of the Veil. What you call the barriers. You're one of us Ethan even if your memories are locked behind that human shell. Our kind stabilize the boundaries by existing. We are the anchors."
"What is Marcus doing to you Kael." Elena asks while she checks the door.
"Hes been harvesting me for six years." Kael says while they struggle to stand. "Hes trying to synthesize our stabilizing agents. He wants to build a Veil. His machine will work for a moment. Then it will fail and tear a hole that no one can close.. He doesn't care about the science. He wants to control the Veil itself. He wants to be the one who decides which realities live and which ones are erased."
The door at the end of the hall bursts open. Three men in gear start running toward us with rifles raised.
"Freeze." one of them screams.
"Ethan do something." Elena shrieks.
I look at Kael and then at Elena. I've never jumped with more than myself before. I've never even tried to take another person through the fold.. If I don't we're all dead.
I reach out. Grab Elenas hand with one hand and Kaels shoulder with the other. I close my eyes. I don't just think about the woods outside. I think about the space between the atoms. I think about the way the world feels when its not tied down by gravity or time.
"Hold your breath." I roar.
I pull. I pull with everything I have left in my soul.
Pain explodes behind my eyes like a grenade. I hear a sound like a thousand windows shattering at once and then the air is gone. It's cold and dark. It feels like my skin is being peeled off with a dull knife. I can feel blood erupting from my nose and my ears and my vision fractures into a million pieces.
Then we hit the dirt. Hard.
I roll onto my back. I'm blind. Everything is a blur of black and green. I can hear Elena coughing and gasping for air. I can hear the sirens in the distance. They sound miles away. I try to move my legs. I can't feel them.
"Ethan." Elena crawls over to me. Her face is covered in my blood. "Ethan look at me stay awake."
"Did we... Did we make it." I rasp while I spit out a mouthful of blood.
"We're in the woods." she says while she looks back at the university lights. "You did it. You jumped us half a mile."
Kael is lying a feet away and they look like they're fading into the shadows. I crawl over to them. Grab their hand. Their pulse is a thread under my thumb.
"Kael stay with us." I say.
Kael opens their eyes. Looks at the sky. They let out a breath that sounds like its full of glass.
"Marcus isn't done with you Ethan." Kael whispers while they grab my collar. "Hes already scheduled your extraction. Seven days. Hes moved the timeline up because he knows I'm failing."
"I won't let him find me." I say while I look at the sirens getting closer.
"He doesn't need to find you." Kael. A tear of silver light rolls down their cheek. "Your Morgana. She's not a victim anymore Ethan. Shes agreed to be the one who delivers you to the lab. Marcus promised her that if she helps him capture the monster he'll let her be the one to mercy kill you afterward. She thinks shes saving the world from you. She thinks shes ending your suffering."
I feel like my heart has been ripped out and stomped into the dirt. I stare at Kael. I can't even speak. The betrayal isn't a possibility anymore. It's a mission. It's an event.
"She wouldn't." I. The words feel hollow in the freezing air.
"She already has." Kael says while their eyes start to close. "Shes waiting for you at the house Marcus gave her. Shes holding the needle now."
Elena reaches for my hand. Her grip is the only thing keeping me from floating away into the dark. We sit there in the woods while the searchlights sweep the trees and I realize that the woman I died for once is the woman who is going to make sure I don't live to see the end of the week.
"What do we do Ethan." Elena. Her voice is trembling.
I look at the blood on my hands and the blue screen flickering its warning.
New Quest: The Stand. Objective: Confront Morgana Chen. Reward: Survival.
"We're going to give her what she wants." I say while I stand up on legs. "We're going to the house."
"Ethan thats suicide." Elena says while she stands up to face me.
"No it's not." I say while my voice turns as cold as the ice in my memories. "It's a performance.. This time I'm the one writing the ending."
I look at Kael. Then at the university in the distance and I feel the power in my gut starting to grow again. It's not a feeling. It's a jagged energy that wants to tear the world apart.
"Lets go Elena." I say while I walk toward the car. "We have seven days to save the world. I'm done being the victim."
As we pull onto the road I look at the phone in the center console. There's a message from Morgana.
Ethan I'm so sorry about everything. I'm, at the university guest house. Please come find me. I just want to talk. I love you.
I look at the words. I don't feel anything at all. No anger. No sadness. Just a long cold silence.
"She loves me." I whisper, watching the city lights fade in the rearview mirror. "That's what she'll say when she puts the needle in."
Elena doesn't say anything. She just keeps driving. Kael, in the backseat starts humming a song that sounds like the end of the world.