Future Lost

24

Paige peers around the edge of a building before turning to the rest of us. “We have a problem. Our escape route has been overrun with Infected. Seems the noise of the explosion attracted them. A lot of them.”

“Shoot our way through?” Zahra asks.

Jesse shakes his head. “Too many. We’d never make it out.”

“We don’t need to make it out,” Paige says. “Only Adam and Elena do.”

“No.” I don’t want my friends dying for me if I can help it. “He’s right. It’s too risky.”

“How much time before the aperture opens?” Zahra asks.

I check my watch. “Forty minutes.”

“Dammit,” Paige says. “That’s barely enough time to get you back to downtown.”

“I might know another way out of here,” Adam says.

He heads west, and we follow close behind him, guns ready to shoot anything that moves in the smoke. We pass a dead soldier with an Infected chewing on his arm, which Paige shoots in the head with one blast of her shotgun. She pumps it and reloads, and we continue on, past dead bodies, both of soldiers and Infected. So much death, and all of it because of us. None of their deaths are real, I remind myself over and over as more cries fill the courtyard. None of this will ever happen.

Adam leads us to a large building that looks like an airplane hangar. He grabs the door handle, but it’s locked. I reach around inside my backpack for the guard’s keys, while the others form a protective circle around us.

A raspy breath is the only warning we have before we’re attacked. Hands reach for us, teeth gnash together, but by then it’s already too late. They’re upon us.

Paige’s shotgun rings out, followed by other gunshots echoing in the smoke. I raise my own gun to shoot the Infected closest to me, but another one slams into my side, making me stumble. I’m dragged down onto the grass, and I lose the gun. Fingers reach around my ankle, and I kick, kick, kick, scrambling to get away, terrified I’ll feel their teeth on me at any second.

There’s a gunshot nearby, and then the fingers around me loosen. Adam reaches for my hand. “You okay?”

I nod as he helps me to my feet. “There are too many of them.”

“We have to get in that door.”

I scramble to find the guard’s keys, while the others keep firing around us. Adam stands at my back and shoots another Infected that gets too close. I try one key in the door, and then another, and another. Someone screams, and I nearly drop the keys, but I keep going, my hands shaking.

Finally I find the right one and throw open the door, rushing inside. “Hurry!”

Adam crowds in after me, and we slam the door shut as soon as the others get through. Two Infected come with us, but we deal with them quickly and then step back. We’re in a large garage full of armored cars and trucks, but there don’t seem to be any soldiers inside.

“I saw this place when I first arrived here.” Adam heads for a nearby cabinet and grabs a set of keys. He leads us to a large armored SUV. Paige grabs the keys from him and hops in the driver’s side, while the rest of us pile in.

All of us except Jesse.

“Get in,” Zahra says. “There’s enough room for all of us. Barely.”

“I can’t.” He’s covering his arm, but now he removes his hand, showing the bloody gash underneath. “I’ve been bitten.”

“No,” Paige cries. She starts to jump out, but Jesse holds up a hand to stop her.

“Someone has to open the gate,” he says. “Go. Get them out of here.”

Paige’s lip trembles, but she nods. Her fingers tighten around the steering wheel as she swallows, and then she starts up the car. Jesse hops onto the bumper, grabbing the back of the car for a short ride to the gate. A garage door clicker along the driver’s visor opens a huge door at the end of the hangar, and we drive through it, leaving safety behind.

The smoke has dissipated a little, but that only makes it worse because now we can see the destruction around the base. Bodies are scattered in every direction. The Infected shuffle through the courtyard, while soldiers hunker down along the edges to fight them off. For a brief moment, I wonder what happened to Vincent. Did he escape all of this, leaving his people behind? Or did he watch as his base fell because he wouldn’t let us go?

When we near the gate, Jesse jumps off and sprints to the control room. There’s one person guarding it, but Jesse knocks him out quickly and slips inside. Now we wait.

“I’m sorry,” Zahra says to Paige. “I know he was your favorite trainee.”

Paige nods, wiping at her eyes. I glance at Adam, who stares out the window with a grim expression. Wombat—Jesse—has been in every future we’ve been to, always helping us in some way. Once, as a friend of Future-Adam’s who got us fake IDs and hit on Zoe. In another timeline, he worked for us at Future Visions and dated our daughter. Now he’s giving up his life to make sure we get out of here, even though he barely knows us. I was upset about him dating Ava at first, but not anymore. If we fix all this and return the future to the way it should be, I’ll gladly give him my blessing—because in every timeline, he’s proven himself to be a good guy.

The gate begins to open, and Paige grips the steering wheel tighter. Jesse steps into the doorway of the control room and gives us a farewell salute, before a bullet strikes him in the shoulder. He staggers but manages to yell, “Go!”

Paige slams her foot on the accelerator the second the gate is open wide enough, and we haul ass through it, tires screeching against the pavement. Gunshots fire after us, shattering the back window, but Paige doesn’t slow. When the bullets stop, Adam and I turn to glance behind us, but Jesse isn’t in sight.