Underground (29 page)

A grainy, black and white image flashed up on the screen. There was no sound. It looked like security footage of an empty laboratory, from a camera up on the ceiling. Footage from back when this place was still up and running.

‘Hey,' said Jordan slowly, ‘is that –?'

‘The room Soren excavated last week,' Kara finished. ‘Yes. This footage was recorded just over twenty years ago. It may help to explain some of the antagonism we –'

Something was happening on the screen.

A sort of haze had appeared at the far end of the room, like leaking gas. At first it was pretty hard to see, but it quickly got brighter and more obvious, until it was more like steam or something. It was maybe two metres across, rippling and swirling and –

And then a person fell out of it. Dressed in a tracksuit, hood pulled up over his head. He just
appeared
through the haze, like it was a door.

The person backed into the room, stumbling a bit, then righted himself and turned around, taking everything in.

Jordan's fingers clenched around my arm. I stopped breathing. Felt my body go cold.

It was
me.

The guy who'd fallen into the room on the screen.

Me.

I watched myself look back into the haze, just in time for someone else to come charging out.

Peter. He ran at the me on the screen, angrier than I'd ever seen him. He was holding something.

‘No!' gasped Jordan, sitting up in her bed.

Peter was holding a knife. And he swung back his arm, and he pounded the knife down into my chest.

Jordan shuddered, fingers digging into me again.

Peter dragged the knife back out, teeth bared, screaming. The other me swayed on the spot.

‘
What is this?'
cried Jordan.

Peter slammed the knife down again. And again. My legs caved, and I hit the laboratory floor with the blade still hanging out of me.

Peter glanced back through the haze behind him. He crouched, dislodging the knife.

I watched the screen, sick and terrified and not understanding
at all.

Peter stood, looking straight up at the camera. And then he ran back through the haze, disappearing from the room again.

The me on the screen rolled over, screaming. He pushed to his hands and knees, leaving behind – Leaving behind the blood that still stained the floor, out in that room.

And he started crawling. Bleeding and bleeding. Determined. Dragging himself across the room and out of the shot.

‘That's when I found you,' said Kara, almost whispering. ‘I was twenty-seven. Pregnant with Soren. You – you came up the corridor, as far as you could before you collapsed. You were
desperate
to tell me something, to deliver a message.' She sighed deeply. ‘A message that, in hindsight, I may have misunderstood.'

I tore my eyes away from the screen. Jordan had her head in her hands.

‘What –' I stammered, the words only just coming to me. ‘What did I say?'

‘You were … not entirely coherent,' said Kara. ‘But you told me people were in danger, that everyone was going to die. And you gave me four names. The three of you, and – and
Tobias
. You told me I had to take Tobias to the release station. Do either of you know what that means?'

‘I don't know what
any
of this means!' I said.

‘Why didn't you just
ask
us?' croaked Jordan, looking up. ‘Why – why all of
this?'

‘Because we thought it was you!' said Kara, voice rising. ‘Luke, when I found you, the way you were speaking – It sounded as though you were saying that
you' d
done it, that you were the ones responsible for –'

‘How?'
I said. ‘How could we
ever
–?'

‘Why not?' asked Kara. ‘If you could generate these events, to transport yourself back to us … How was I to know what else you could do? Not to mention – Watch. Watch the screen.'

I looked back at the TV. The video was still playing. An empty room again. But that haze was even brighter now, swirling faster, more violently, light radiating out, filling the lab. For a second, the screen flashed white. And then the picture dissolved into static.

‘That was the end of the Vattel Complex,' said Kara. ‘The project was shut down, the facility was – ostensibly – concreted over, and the few survivors we could account for returned home, though not before being sworn to secrecy by the company that backed the research.'

‘But you stayed,' said Jordan. ‘This whole time, you've –'

‘Not the whole time,' said Kara. ‘At first, we spent much of our time on the outside, gathering information. But, yes, eventually we settled here to await your arrival.'

‘Wait,' I said, all of it running together in my head. ‘What – what happened to me? After I spoke to you …'

Kara shook her head. ‘You were dead less than a minute after I found you.'

Dead.

You were dead.

I felt like I wasn't here, like all
this
was happening on a TV screen too.

‘When?' I asked. ‘When is this meant to happen?'

‘Soon,' said Kara. ‘From what you told me, I assume that you appeared from sometime
before
the Shackleton Co-operative's countdown expired.'

‘Thirty-five days,' whispered Jordan.

It was insane. Impossible. But, for once, there was no doubt in my mind that Kara was telling the truth. Sometime in the next five weeks, I was going to
be
that other me I'd just seen getting murdered on that video.

Which meant that even if we found this Tobias thing, whatever it was …

Even if we stopped Tabitha …

Even if we
won …

I'd still be dead, twenty years before any of it even mattered.

It all started with...

arrival

Someone in Phoenix is plotting to
wipe out the human race.

And the clock is already ticking.

There are one hundred days until the
end of the world.

‘Arrival leaves you frantically turning the
pages until the final cliffhanger.

Bring on book two!'

– Junior Bookseller & Publisher

The countdown continues
in February 2012...

fallout

The time for pretending is over.

The Shackleton Building has been turned into
a concentration camp, and the last free people
in Phoenix are forced into hiding.

The fight is over unless Jordan and Luke can
find Tobias, whatever he is. And Jordan has
to figure out how to protect Luke before
Peter rages out of control … or else
history is doomed to repeat itself.

With only weeks left until Tabitha is
released, Phoenix's biggest secrets
are still yet to be revealed.

And the clock is still ticking.

There are 35 days until the end of the world.

Coming in September 2012