Future Shock (19 page)

23:41

Adam’s awake by the time the car parks in front of the abandoned research facility. It took us about an hour to get here, leaving only nineteen minutes before the aperture opens. While we drove, Trent used the laser pen on Adam’s forehead and the skin magically stitched itself together—too bad it won’t work on most of my injuries, though Trent did fix the cut on my face from before.

We haven’t told Adam about Lynne yet. Maybe because we’re all in shock and can’t talk about it, or maybe because, like me, the others have realized that we can stop her death from happening once we return to the present. We’ll tell him later, after we sort everything else out.

The sky is lightening to sapphire blue as we get out of the car, but the sun hasn’t popped up yet. The cool desert air slaps me in the face as we slip through the hole in the chain-link fence, me hobbling like an old lady, Adam stumbling like a zombie. We’re a mess, but at least we made it back.

Once inside the building, we snap on our flashlights. Everything looks the same as when we left, but it’s hard to believe we were here only twenty-four hours ago. We head to the basement level—down more stairs, my body protesting the entire time—and scan the room with our flashlights. Still empty. I check my watch—seven minutes to go.

I’m anxious to go back to the present, to get out of this nightmare that is the future, but another part of me is scared to face what might happen when we return. And what I might do.

“What’s the plan?” Trent asks, his eyes shifting to me. “Now that we know Elena’s going to kill us…”

I open my mouth to protest, but Adam cuts in. “Hey, we can’t rule out the possibility that Elena was set up.”

“It seems pretty clear,” Zoe says with a sigh. “Sorry, Elena.”

“It’s okay,” I say. “I wish I knew what to do or how to stop it…”

Chris crosses his arms, and his voice sounds reluctant. “There’s only one solution. We can’t let Elena go back to the present with us.”

“No!” Adam says, stepping forward.

My first instinct is to argue—I can’t give up my life, my dreams, my
future
—but then I nod slowly. This
is
the only solution. Deep down, I think I’ve known for some time that this would have to be my fate. It’s the only way to keep them safe. I just didn’t want to accept it.

“Chris is right,” I say. “I have to stay here.”

Adam takes my hand, pleading with his blue eyes. “Elena, no! This—you can’t do this! I need you, I…”

I gulp, swallowing the emotion building in my chest. If I stay here, I’ll never see Adam again—not the Adam of my time anyway. Future-Adam is the same person, but he’s thirty years older than me, and it just isn’t the same somehow. I’ll never have a future with
this
Adam. But it’s worth it to save the others. And if I go back and then kill myself, I won’t have a future with Adam anyway. At least this way we’ll all live.

I touch Adam’s face softly, memorizing the curve of his jaw, the feel of the stubble on his chin, the way his eyes shine in the darkness. “I’m sorry, Adam. I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but it’s the only way the others will be safe. I won’t risk killing them.”

Zoe gives me a quick hug, and Trent slaps me on the back. Chris shakes my hand. “You’re doing the right thing,” he says.

“I know,” I say, even if my gut is screaming
no, no, no
. Adam looks heartbroken, but there are no words that can fix this. It’s better if he just lets me go.

“Elena, you can’t do this,” he says. “You have a life in the present. You can’t give it up now. And I can’t lose you.”

“It’s okay,” I tell him quietly. “I’ll go to your future self and he’ll help me out. You’ll see me in thirty years.”

“We still need a plan,” Chris interrupts. “If we’re not suffering from future shock, we should pretend like we don’t remember anything from the future. And if we are suffering from it…then we won’t remember this conversation anyway. Either way, we don’t want Aether to know what we did in the future or what we found. We need to leave behind everything we bought in the future…and your sketchbook too, Zoe.”

She bites her lip but removes the sketchbook from her bag and hands it to me. I hold it close to my chest, grateful I’ll have this one piece of her to keep.

They remove everything from their backpacks that wasn’t originally in them—flashlights, walkie-talkies, the laser pen, the jammer—and even peel off their fake fingerprints. There’s no reason for me to do the same. I just watch, trying to detach myself from the situation and convince myself I don’t care. Even Adam finally sighs and starts dropping things on the floor, and the sound kills me.

Something heavy and metallic clatters to the ground by Adam. We all swing our lights over, right as he reaches for it. It’s a silver case with the word
BIOHAZARD
written all over it, popped open to reveal six vials full of yellow liquid. I can’t make out the label from here, but I see a
G
.

Chris shines his light on Adam’s face. “What. The fuck. Is that?”

Adam quickly snaps the case shut. “It’s nothing. Just something I grabbed from the lab.”

“What—” I ask, my brain working fast. I remember when Adam disappeared in the lab. He must have taken this case then. But why would he want it? And why keep it a secret from us? There’s only one thing it could be. “Is that genicote?”

“The cure for cancer?” Trent asks.

“Yeah, it’s the cure,” Adam says as he shoves the case in his backpack.

I scramble for words, but all I can get out is, “Why?”

“I…” He hesitates and then takes a long breath. “This is why I was recruited. To bring the cure back to the present.”

His words are like a blow to my gut. He knew about the cure all along. Why didn’t he tell us? And that means Aether knew about the cure too. Is this the real reason we were sent to the future?

Chris lets out a string of obscurities. “I was right! You’ve been working for Aether this entire time!”

“Wait, let me explain—”

“Your future self set us up!” Chris starts toward Adam. “He convinced us to break into the lab just so you could grab that, didn’t he?”

“Stop!” I yell. “Let’s listen to what he has to say!” I turn to Zoe, who’s been quiet this entire time, her face twisted in shock. “Zoe, tell them!” But she just shakes her head slowly and backs away.

Chris grabs Adam’s jacket and shakes him. “Is that why you live and we die? Because you’re working for Aether?”

While Chris is holding him, Trent grabs Adam’s backpack, ripping it off him. “No!” Adam yells, but Chris shoves him away. I know I should help Adam, but a trace of doubt has crept inside me, and I stand there, frozen.

“Let me see that,” Chris says.

Trent hands it over, and Chris yanks the case out before dropping the backpack on the floor. Adam dives for the bag and pulls a gun out of it. He aims it at Chris and Trent, and he’s holding it more confidently than I ever did.

“Drop it!” he yells.

“You—you have a gun,” I blurt out. And not just any gun, but a gun identical to mine. The same type of gun that is going to kill us tomorrow. Does that mean…Is Adam…
No
. It can’t be.

His eyes flick to me for a second and then back to Chris and Trent. “I don’t want to hurt you guys, but I need that case. Put it down now.”

Chris slides the case across the floor to Adam. “It was you all along,” he growls. “I knew it.”

I don’t want to believe it, but the evidence doesn’t lie. Adam is the only one who is alive in the future. Adam has the gun that is going to kill us. And Adam had an ulterior motive all along.

Was everything he said to me—everything his future self said—a lie? Did he trick me into caring for him just so he could set me up later? My heart twists, but my inner voice says,
I told you so
. I can’t believe I let my feelings for Adam blind me. I trusted him, against my instincts, against my nature, but I should have known better. The only person I can ever trust is myself.

Adam picks up the case right as a bright light appears. The faint golden dust floats in the air, forming a dome in the center of the room. The aperture!

Sixty seconds starts counting down in my head. Adam keeps the gun pointed at Chris and Trent, but he keeps glancing at the light. Chris looks like he wants to fight, but then he makes a break for the light, and a second later Zoe and Trent follow. All three of them enter the light and vanish.

Adam stuffs the case in his backpack. He steps toward the aperture, but then turns to me. “Elena…” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”

He disappears into the light, leaving me alone in the future.

Fifteen seconds left. I should stay here in this time. That was the plan—to protect the others—but everything’s changed now and I don’t know what to believe. Was everything I learned in the last twenty-four hours a lie? Did Adam and Future-Adam plan all of it? Or will I really lose my mind and turn on the others? I still have the gun, so there’s still a small possibility I’m the killer. If I go back, I might murder them all.

But if I’m not really the killer, if Adam and Aether set all of this up, then the others are still in danger.

Ten seconds. I dash toward the aperture, my ankle throbbing and slowing me down, pain shooting through me with each step.

Five seconds. I enter the aperture, and the golden flecks surround me, filling my vision. I’m in the sun, blinded, the white light searing my eyes.

And then, nothing.

Part III

The Present

Thursday

I blink to clear my vision, but for a moment I can only hear distant voices and machinery around me. My body thrums, a slight vibration running through it from the floor. Something loud
thuds
nearby. Am I back in the present? Did it work?

Slowly, the world comes into focus. Adam, Trent, Zoe, and Chris all stand nearby, looking as dazed as I am. The walls of the metal dome stretch around me, and the door’s already open. That must have been the sound I heard. The others stumble through, and the people outside cheer. Bright-white spots still cover my vision, but I take a step toward the door, legs wobbling.

Outside, scientists in lab coats gather around the accelerator, clapping. In front, Dr. Kapur stares at us with eager eyes, like he’s excited to pick apart our brains. Above him, I spot the giant clock on the wall. Only thirteen minutes have passed since we went to the future. And yet, in those few minutes we were gone, I lived an entire day.

Dr. Walters gives us all a proud smile. “You’re back,” he says, and he sounds relieved. I picture his older self, frail and trapped in his bed, racked by coughing fits and regret. I can’t look at him the same now that I’ve seen the man he becomes.

Lynne beams at us like a proud mother, and my mind flashes back to her body lying on the ground, gushing blood from the hole in her chest. I just watched her die and yet here she is, alive and unaware of her fate in thirty years.

Chris glares at everyone, while Trent and Zoe just look around like they’re lost. Adam takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes, standing a little apart from the others. He slips his glasses back on and meets my gaze. He mouths my name, but I look away quickly, his betrayal still as sharp as the pain in my ribs.

Some of the scientists rush forward to take our backpacks. They yank mine off before I can stop them, and only then do I realize I never emptied mine out. There shouldn’t be anything too bad in there, but I hide my hands behind my back and peel off my fake fingerprints. I don’t know if they’d still work now (are they electronic?) but they’d lead to too many questions. I slip them into my pocket, and my fingers brush over paper—the reports we stole from Aether’s headquarters. I dropped Zoe’s sketchbook during the fight over the case, but I still have these.

The case! I glance over, but Adam’s backpack is gone, taken away like the others. Aether has the cure now, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

And that’s when it hits me: I remember everything. I’m not suffering from future shock—which means I’m
not
the killer and we’re all still in danger. I can’t tell if I’m relieved or even more scared now, knowing it isn’t me. Mostly, I feel like I’m going to throw up.

“You all did such a great job,” Lynne says. “We know you must be tired, but we have to send you to medical quickly to make sure you’re okay, and then we’ll debrief you. We want to know about everything you saw in the future.”

“Please follow me,” Dr. Kapur says, suddenly at my side. He herds me like a sheep into the elevator. The others are split up too, following scientists in different directions. Chris shoots daggers at me with his eyes, but I don’t see Adam anywhere.

In the elevator I lean against the walls, clutching my side and trying to breathe. Time must have finally caught up to me, because I feel like I could sleep for days. Hell, maybe I should after this is all over. Assuming I’m still alive, that is.

A part of me can’t believe I’m in the present again. Everything I experienced in the last twenty-four hours, everything I saw and heard and lived through, hasn’t actually happened yet. And yet it feels just as real as this moment now.

I limp into the medical area and the nurses descend on me, taking my blood pressure, draining my blood, and checking my heartbeat. I barely notice any of it. I rub my eyes, trying to snap out of the daze I’m in, but it’s like I’ve been drugged or something. Is this future shock? I still remember everything, but the world around me is just a little bit fizzy, like I can’t quite grasp on to it. Like my brain is out of sync. But maybe I’m just exhausted.

The nurses cluck at my ankle and aching ribs, taking x-rays of both. There’s nothing broken, so they wrap me in bandages and give me some pain meds. None of them ask me what happened.

When they finish, I’m carted off for an MRI scan so they can study my brain. I understand now why they’re doing all this. They want to see if I’m messed up like the other people who went to the future. But I already know the brain scans will come back normal.

They make me change into a hospital robe for the tests, and I hide the reports from the future and the fake fingerprints in the changing room, stashed between the pages of a magazine. The entire time they run the scans I worry someone will find the evidence. But when I get back, the reports and fingerprints are still hidden there, even though they’ve taken the clothes I wore in the future. I stash the evidence inside my own clothes, which they’ve left for me.

I’m given food and water, then left in a small room and told to wait. It’s like an interrogation room, with a mirror on one wall and a table with two chairs in the middle. I sit in one of those chairs and get that creepy tingling on the back of my neck like I’m being watched. I feel like I should be in an orange prison suit with my hands cuffed to the table.

Dr. Kapur walks in, frowning, with his clipboard under his arm. “Elena Martinez,” he says. I’m not sure if he’s just saying my name or expects an answer. He studies me for a moment and then sits across from me. “How do you feel?”

“Tired and sore.”

He nods and jots something down on the clipboard. “Any…confusion? Memory loss?”

“I…” I have to pretend like I don’t know anything, to stick to the plan Chris laid out, even if I wasn’t intended to be a part of it. I drop my gaze to the table. “I remember entering the accelerator and the light…but that’s it.” I squish my face up like I’m confused. “Did it work? Did we actually go to the future?”

His frown deepens and he taps his pen against his clipboard. “So you remember the moments before you entered the accelerator?”

“Yes.”

“And you remember the time before that—the medical exam, the lunch with the others, and so forth?”

“Yes…”

“Hmm.” He marks things down on the clipboard. “But you don’t remember anything between the moment you entered the accelerator and when you walked out?”

“No, I don’t.” I rub my eyes and try to look pained. It isn’t a struggle since my side still burns with each breath. “So we
did
go to the future?”

He ignores my question again and leans forward. “How did you get your injuries?”

“I-I don’t know.”

His eyes narrow. “You have a cracked rib, a sprained ankle, and a bruise on your face, and you
don’t know
?”

I didn’t realize my face was bruised too, but I guess it’s been a while since I checked a mirror. Probably from when Chris punched me. I make my voice go higher like I’m starting to panic. “No—what’s going on? Why don’t I remember?”

He puts his hands on the table, his eyes boring into me. “Elena, are you telling me that you, with your eidetic memory, can’t remember
anything
from your time in the future?”

“No.” I stare down at my hands in my lap. “I’ve never experienced this before. It’s like I was asleep or something. Big black patches of nothing. I wish I could remember.”

He leans back. “We might have some things that will jog your memory.”

The door opens and a man in a lab coat comes in and drops a black plastic bag on the table. Now I definitely know there are people on the other side of the mirror.

Dr. Kapur removes the walkie-talkie headset and the flashlight from my backpack. “Do you remember buying these? Or why you bought them?”

“No. Sorry.” Seeing the items sitting there makes me squirm. Like at any moment he’ll find a hole in my story or somehow get me to slip up and reveal that I do remember something.

He asks a few more questions about the items and why there was no money in my bag, but I play dumb. But then he removes a crumpled piece of silver paper, and I have to stop myself from showing the emotions flickering through me. Because as he starts to unfold it, I know exactly what it is: Future-Adam’s origami unicorn.

“We also found this in your bag.” He slaps it on the table so that the matte-white side is face up. “What do these numbers mean?”

“I don’t know.” Seeing it again brings back everything—the lies Future-Adam told me, the evidence I found in his house, the memory of Adam and the origami boats in the rain. I swallow hard, fighting the sting in my throat. Was everything we shared in the future a lie? The things he said, the moments we spent together…I thought he was sincere at the time, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe it was all an act and he never cared for me at all.

I can’t help but wonder—if Adam is working for Aether, will he tell them what the numbers mean? Will he tell him that we’re all faking our memory loss?

The interrogation continues for hours. Sometimes Dr. Kapur leaves and Lynne comes in to ask me the same questions in different ways. But eventually they let me go, after explaining that I should contact them if I remember anything and saying that they want to follow up with me in a week.

I’m sent to the lobby, where I’m given an envelope. I rip it open, and my hand trembles as I stare at the check inside. So many zeroes. This money is my future.

And what I’m about to do might jeopardize it all.

I check my pocket again to touch the edge of the papers inside and reassure myself they’re still there. The receptionist tells me a car is waiting to take me home. I smile and ask where the nearest bathroom is.

Once inside, I hide in the handicapped stall, unfold the reports Trent gave me, and lay them out on the black-and-white tile. I dig my phone out of my bag and take photos of each one. The lighting in here isn’t great, and my phone’s camera sucks, but I make sure the important parts of the report are clear. Then I email all the photos to my roommate, Katie, with instructions on what to do if something happens to me. I don’t know if this will do any good, but it’s the only thing I can think to do. And I don’t know anyone else I can send them to.

When I step into the hallway, I hear nearby voices and I freeze.

“Did you tell them anything?” Chris whispers.

“Nope, nothing,” Trent says.

I sneak a quick peek around the corner. The two of them, plus Zoe, are huddling together like they’re exchanging secrets. Their eyes look tired, their movements jerky. I’m only a few feet away, close enough I’m sure they’ll be able to hear my quick breaths or the loud pounding of my heart. I flatten my back against the wall.

“What do we do now?” Zoe asks.

“We get the hell out of here,” Chris says. “And be careful tomorrow. If Adam or Elena show up, I’ll be prepared.”

“What about Aether? Do you think they’ll come after us?”

“Nah,” Trent says. “I swiped something from Lynne’s office we can use as leverage.”

“What—” Chris starts, but he’s interrupted by footsteps down the hall. Damn, I wanted to know what Trent stole.

“How are you all feeling?” Lynne asks, her voice cheerful. “Do you need help with anything?”

“No, we were just leaving,” Chris says.

I hear more footsteps, and when I check again, they’ve scattered like cockroaches, leaving only Lynne standing in front of the elevator.

Lynne might know about Adam’s secret mission to get the cure, but she also gave her life to save us. She might be the only one I can trust with the truth. And a part of me still can’t believe Adam would actually kill us, despite what I’ve seen. I limp over to her.

She turns and flashes me her bright white smile. “Elena, is everything all right? I thought you’d left already.”

“Can I talk to you for a minute? Somewhere private?”

Her eyebrows lift in surprise. “Of course. I’m here to address all of your concerns. We can chat in my office.”

We take the elevator up a floor and walk down soft carpet to an office with a view of the desert outside. I rub my sweaty hands on my jeans. I thought I had this all figured out, but now I’m doubting my plan. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea. What if she won’t help me? What if she’s in on it all?

She broke into her employer’s office for us. She shot a cop for us. She took a bullet for us. I have to believe she wants to keep us safe and that she wants to do the right thing.

Lynne sits behind her desk and folds her hands on top. “What is it you want to talk about?”

I remain standing, my legs itching to bolt out of the room. But I spit out, “I think Aether is going to kill us.”

She blinks quickly, her smile dropping. “Why would you think that?”

I hesitate, debating how much to tell her. I still don’t know if I can trust her, even though her older self helped us get the evidence, even died for us. “I…remember some things from the future.”

“You—what?” Her mouth drops open, but she quickly recovers. “So back there, you lied? Why?”

“Because in the future we learned about future shock.” I pause, watching my words register on her face. “We have evidence of what Aether has done. And proof that we’re all going to die tomorrow.”

I remove the papers and unfold them, laying them on the table. She leans forward and scans them. Her head jerks up. “How did you get this? Where?”

“We got it in the future. You helped us get it.”

Her eyes widen. “You—you saw me in the future? You talked to me?”

“Yeah. You said you overheard Dr. Kapur telling Dr. Walters they should ‘purge us’ before we died. You said you’d help us stop them.”

“Of course I’ll help you. But what…what was I like? Did you see my daughter by any chance?”

“You felt guilty about what happened to us. About not being able to stop our deaths. And your daughter is married with two kids. She’s a pediatrician.” I pause. I should tell her about her own death, but this might be my one bargaining chip. “I promise to tell you more once I know we’re safe…including how you died.”

She gasps. “I died? While you were in the future?”