Away From the Sun (18 page)

Lydia looks from my hand to my eyes when I say this. “Why do you care?”

“Because somebody needs to. It’s the only way this world is going to heal.”

A slight smile forms at Lydia’s mouth and she reaches out to shake my hand. She needs the comfort of friendship.

I
need to see the future.
 

Ashley stands in the room, holding the canister in one hand and her rifle in the other. Waverly and Lydia stand near each other while Stephen lies unconscious on the ground. Or is he dead? I can’t tell.

Ashley tells them to be quiet as they walk through the building and outside. To their left, there are greyskins walking through the streets, but they have not taken notice of the small group. They walk as quietly as possible, Ashley’s gun still pointed at their backs, until they reach a building almost a city block away from where they left Stephen.
 

Ashley gets them inside and orders them to march up the stairs. They keep walking until they reach the top floor of the building. It is nearly empty but for one person standing on the other side of the room. There are windows all around them, and when Waverly looks out, she can see that it overlooks most of Elkhorn.

As they near the person on the other side of the room, he turns to look at them. He has a young face and he smiles widely at Ashley as they approach.

“I’ve got it, Samuel” Ashley says, holding the canister up.
 

“You’re late,” Samuel says. “You were supposed to meet me here twenty minutes ago. I was about to leave.”

“I’m sorry, I got held up,” she says, glaring at Waverly. She turns back to Stephen. “But I’ve got the blood.”
 

“Shadowface will reward you for your hard work.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Ashley says. “When I show you the canister, you’re supposed to call Shadowface here. That’s the agreement. I want to meet the person I’m working for.”

“Give me the canister,” Samuel says. He holds a hand out, waiting.
 

Ashley’s eyes narrow. “That’s not the deal.”

“It’s what Shadowface wants,” he says. He nods toward Waverly and Lydia. “Who are these two?”

“This one is Waverly,” Ashley says, pointing with the rifle. “She is the one that stole the blood in the first place.” She then points at Lydia. “I’m using Lydia to make sure Waverly does as we ask.”

“I was just looking for my child,” Lydia says. “I lost her in the chaos yesterday and I can’t find her anywhere. I don’t care what you do with the canister, blood…whatever. I don’t want any part of this. I just want to find Evie.”

Samuel watches Lydia for a moment and shakes his head. “You’ve seen too much.” He reaches behind him and produces a gun from his belt.

I see Waverly try to jump for her. A scream passes her lips. “Wait!”

He points the gun at Lydia before Waverly can stop him and fires a deafening shot into her stomach. Waverly screams out desperately, falling to her knees to cradle Lydia’s head.
 

“Why would you do that?” Waverly shouts. “Why?”

Samuel almost looks annoyed by the shouting and screaming. Ashley takes a step forward. “Where is Shadowface?” she asks desperately.
 

Samuel shakes his head, almost as if he can no longer take the pressure. “Did you take care of the rest?” Samuel asks. “Who is dead?”

“Jeremiah, Mitch, Stephen…they are all dead.” She turns to look at Waverly. “Remi and Gabe are dead, too. The only one that got away was Ethan, but I doubt he will give you much trouble.”

So she
did
kill Stephen? When? And the others? She murdered all of them?

Samuel smiles briefly. “You have done Shadowface a great service.” Before Ashley can even blink, Samuel lifts his gun into the air and fires a shot through her head.
 

Waverly watches the scene unfold, barely able to breathe. Samuel looks down at her and sighs coldly, bending down to pick up the canister from the floor. Waverly stares into Lydia’s eyes, ignoring the click of Samuel’s gun cocking. Tears stream down the sides of her cheeks.
 

“I’m sure Evie is all right,” Waverly says. “Somebody probably has her safe somewhere.”

A slight smile forms at her lips and then, the boom of a gunshot brings the white light.
 

I’m almost out of breath when I let go of Lydia’s hand. She looks at me curiously
and I have to turn away. I feel like I’m going to be sick. The man I saw must have been the Samuel that Jeremiah was talking about in the meeting.
 

“Are you all right?” Lydia asks, smiling.
 

“I’m fine. I’m fine. Just feeling a bit woozy.”

“Perhaps you should lie down,” Lydia says.
 

I nod at her. “I think you might be right. I’m sorry.” I leave her side and walk back toward the building. I don’t stop until I reach my room and actually do lie down on the cot. What I just saw doesn’t make any sense to me. The vision is completely contradictory to everything I’ve seen so far. Unless Ashley was lying to Samuel, then almost everyone I know will be dead soon because of her. Everyone except…Ethan.
 

Of course, I know so little about Ethan’s future, the vision of his death could still play a part in all this. And did Samuel just shoot me in the back of the head? The white light came so quickly, I didn’t have a chance to see.
 

I get out the notepad and start scribbling everything I’ve seen so far, and by the time I’m finished, I still can’t make sense of it. It frustrates me the most to not be able to know the timeline of events. I even try to make a numbered list of things that I think could happen, but none of them seem to fit together. I throw the notepad on the ground in frustration and decide that there’s only one thing left to try. I’ve got to see Ashley’s future.
 

I find her alone in an office. She has pieces of a rifle sprawled out over a desk as she cleans the small parts with precision. She seems surprised when I come into the room. I try not to be too forceful, but the way I feel, I almost don’t care. It’s not like she’s going to be the one to kill me.
 

“Hey there,” she says to me, an eyebrow raised. “Can I help you?”

“I uh, I wanted to let you know that I’m happy you, Mitch, and Jeremiah are here to help us,” I say. I walk forward and extend a hand, hoping I won’t get the cold shoulder that I’ve gotten used to recently.
 

Ashley looks at me like my declaration is odd, but she gives her hand to me slowly and I shake it with a firm grip—the light flashes immediately.
 

The same scene unfolds—the one where she is taking Lydia and me to Samuel. Everything plays out the same way until Samuel brings the gun up to Ashley’s head and kills her.
 

With another bright flash I’m back in the room, standing in front of Ashley. I’ve got to think quick. So far, I’ve never seen the same vision twice with the same person.

I shake my head at her. “You can do better than that,” I say, trying to laugh, but feeling a stream of sweat fall down the side of my face. “A soldier should have a stronger handshake.”

Her eyes narrow at me, but I don’t give her a chance to ignore me. I grab her hand and the light flashes in front of my eyes.
 

The vision is different. I can see Ashley stumbling down a hallway as the floor shakes beneath her feet. She holds her rifle close to her chest as she tries to run. Someone is calling out her name. The voice is a man’s.

“Mitch where are you?” she yells.
 

Cracks form in the walls and loud gunfire echoes outside the building. Elkhorn is under attack. Ashley can barely keep her footing as she makes a turn into the large conference room where all of us held a meeting more than a week ago.
 

When she enters, she sees Mitch alone, firing his gun out the window. He ducks and shoots, ducks and shoots, never noticing that Ashley has entered. She holds her rifle up in her hands and points it in Mitch’s direction, but she hesitates. It’s almost as if she doesn’t want to shoot him. But it’s too late for her to shoot when the sound of a pistol fires just behind her.
 

She instantly drops the gun to the floor as she feels for the exit wound at her stomach. Mitch’s head pops up to see Ashley fall to the ground. Behind her is Waverly, my future self, holding the smoking pistol.
 

Waverly stands there in shock, her face pale and sweaty. Mitch’s eyes are wide as he stands frozen. Ashley falls to the floor and closes her eyes, while Waverly turns and runs away.
 

The white light ends the vision.
 

I let go of Ashley’s hand, knowing now what this is all about. She stares at me curiously, but I pay her no mind. I simply take a step backward and turn around. I run up to my room only find Ethan waiting for me.
 

“Where have you been?” he asks.
 

“I understand everything now,” I say.
 

“What do you mean?”

“All the visions,” I say. “Some of them will happen and some of them will not. It all depends on a single choice that I make.”

“And what’s that?” he asks.
 

“I’ve got to kill Ashley.”

“What? Why?”

“She’s working for Shadowface,” I whisper. “There’s a dividing line. If I don’t kill her, everyone I know will die. If I do, everyone will live. At least, in the immediate future they will.”

“Even me?” he asks.
 

“That’s the thing,” I say, biting my lip. “I’m not sure. In one line of futures, she takes a few of us hostage, steals the Starborn blood, and takes us to Samuel. She tells Samuel that she killed everyone, including Mitch and Jeremiah, but says that you got away somehow. Of course, Samuel then kills her, Lydia, and maybe me.” I take a deep breath before I continue. “On the other hand, another line of futures show that I kill Ashley just before she tries to kill Mitch. So I assume that those she claims she killed won’t happened, because I will stop it.”

Ethan shakes his head. “This is so confusing.”

“The point is, I don’t know if the decisions I make now affect your future. I don’t know if you being shot in the street will happen at all.”

“It could happen much later,” Ethan says. “There’s no way to know, and there’s no reason to fret about it. The choice is obvious.”

“I don’t want to kill her,” I say. “Not if that means you’re going to die.”
 

Ethan shakes his head at me. “If you are confident in what you saw, then you
must
kill her. Besides, if I escaped, then there is still a chance that I won’t be shot.”

I let out a sigh, thinking to myself, but I’m interrupted by the thunder in the distance. Only, I’m not so sure it’s thunder. The table next to my cot starts to shake uncontrollably and the windows rattle. I look up at Ethan and his eyes are wide.
 

Echoing gunshots outside the walls confirm our thoughts.

We are under attack.
 

Obscenities pass by my lips when I fall to the floor; glass and chunks of ceiling shatter around me. Clouds of dust engulf my room and I start to cough uncontrollably. I crawl to the bed and reach for my rifle and knife. I can hear people barking orders outside the window.
 

This is it,
I think.
Shadowface is going to blow us to bits.
 

I sling the rifle over my shoulder and grab a few clips of ammunition, stuffing them into pockets and behind my belt. A loud explosion near the parking lot below me rocks me off my feet again and I land on my side. I crawl back up to look out the window and what I see makes my stomach drop.
 

On the other side of Elkhorn’s first makeshift barrier there are lines and lines of trucks. Men hang out the sides carrying rifles and grenade launchers. I know I shouldn’t just stand here and watch, but I can’t tear my eyes away. There are many more soldiers than I thought there would be. I’m glad that Jeremiah and the others had the foresight to create four different perimeters around our central location, but with this kind of manpower, it won’t take Shadowface long.
   

In the middle of the enemy fighters stands a man that I recognize instantly. He’s wearing a thick scarf around his neck, and his jacket is puffed out, no doubt filled with weapons and ammunition.
 

Samuel.

He brings a radio up to his mouth and says something. He then clips it to his belt and stretches an arm out. With his single motion, five or more soldiers aim their rocket launchers at the barrier and unload.
 

I hold onto the window sill to keep my balance. I watch as the barrier across the parking lot crumbles in on itself. Samuel brings his arms down and reaches for his radio again. This time, I turn my head, focusing my hearing toward him.
 

At first, the gunshots and explosions are so loud, but the more I focus, the more I’m able to hone in on Samuel’s voice. “The barricades are stronger than we anticipated,” he says.
 

“Proceed with caution,”
the voice says from the other end.
“Do not take down any buildings that are suspect. I don’t want the canister damaged. This must be done slowly and carefully.”

It’s a woman’s voice
, I think.
The woman I saw in Sealy. The woman I saw at the university that time I was hidden away in the closet.
 

“Shadowface,” I whisper to myself.
 

It has to be her. I can’t think of who else it might be. I only wish that I would have seen the man’s face that she was with three years ago. The man who had actually developed the greyskin virus.
 

“Well, you’re not going to get the canister if I have anything to do with it,” I say as I reach out for the window and let it swing open. I pull the rifle into my grip and take aim at Samuel. His caravan is moving pretty quickly, but if I can cut off the snake’s head, the body will eventually die.