Future Lost

18

Besides, this future is only temporary. Once I change it, everyone will still be alive in this timeline. And I’ll kill however many people it takes to rescue Adam and get us back safely.

Sweat drips down my neck, but with the cloth wrapped around my head, I can’t wipe it away. I pull out the canteen in my backpack and take a long sip before washing the blood off my gloved hands. Then I continue down the road.

“Halt!” a male voice yells.

“Who’s there?” I call out, trying to make my voice sound helpless and scared.

“Put your weapon down. We’re not going to hurt you.”

I slowly drop my bloodstained bat to the ground and raise my hands in surrender. Two men in tan military-esque uniforms emerge from the shadows of a ruined building up ahead. Both of them are holding assault rifles, although they’re not pointing them at me.

“Oh, thank God,” I say, clutching my chest. “I thought I would never find any other survivors.”

“Are you all right?” one of them asks. He’s about my age and blond, the kind of guy who looks like he’d be the high school quarterback, if such a thing still existed.

I slowly nod. “I’m okay. Just thirsty. And hungry. I’ve been wandering around for a long time.”

“How did you get out here by yourself?” he asks.

I recite the story Paige gave me, keeping my eyes downcast. “I lived in a refuge in Phoenix, but it got overrun by Infected. We heard there was a group of survivors here so we headed west, but I’m the only one of my group who made it. My food ran out yesterday, and I’ve been so scared.”

“Come with us,” the other guy says. He has dark hair and greedy eyes that look me up and down. “We’ll take good care of you.”

He creeps me out, and my first instinct is to put my kickboxing training to good use on him, but I shove that feeling down. I have to get inside the base however I can, even if it means acting like the helpless victim. “Thank you.”

They gesture for me to go ahead of them, but as soon as I take a step forward, my arms are yanked behind me. I let out a yelp and try to struggle, but the gun pointed at my head makes me freeze. “What are you doing?” I ask.

My backpack is yanked off me, and metal handcuffs are snapped onto my wrists behind my back. The dark-haired guy says, “We’ve been looking for you.”

Oh s**t. I should have guessed Vincent would be expecting me, especially if the Militia has Adam. Maybe these guys will take me to him or give me a hint where he is, so I can rescue him. Hell, maybe Vincent will help us get back to the present.

“Come along quietly, and you won’t get hurt,” says the first guy. There’s no point in fighting them, not when they’re taking me where I need to go, although the handcuffs biting into my skin make me nervous. If Vincent was going to help me, this seems an odd way of going about it. I’ll have to keep my guard up.

The quarterback leads the way down the street, while the other one nudges me with his gun to keep me walking. Both men keep their weapons ready, their eyes peeled for any Infected hiding in the decaying buildings around us.

After a few blocks, we come upon a high brick wall with sentries posted along the top every few feet. We stop at a reinforced metal door along the side of it, which the first guy unlocks with three different keys. The door opens with a screech, and then we pass through a short area before we come to another wall with a second door. This one has two armed guards outside it. Damn, these people are serious about their security. Which makes my task even harder.

The quarterback hands one of the gate guards my backpack. He opens it and goes through it, checking out my supplies, such as my camping lantern and my granola bars. Paige went through it all, making sure there would be nothing they would want or find suspicious. Then Zahra added something extra.

“What’s this?” the guard asks. He pulls out an old, beat-up iPhone with a cracked screen.

“It’s an old cell phone,” the dark-haired soldier says. “Really old. From before the Black Friday Virus.”

“A cell phone?” He laughs. “Not much use for those now.”

He shrugs and shoves it back in the backpack, then hands it back to the soldier. The door is opened for us. My shoulders slump in relief.

Once we’re inside the second wall, the military base looks a lot like a college campus. White rectangular buildings form a square around a courtyard with grass, palm trees, an outdoor eating area filled with people having an early dinner, and even a jungle gym with kids climbing on it. Everything is clean and well-kept, and other than the armed men in tan uniforms patrolling the place, it’s hard to believe this is the same nightmare of a future.

I’m taken inside one of the buildings, but instead of going up, we go down. Deep under the ground, to a hidden network of tunnels that seem to stretch under the entire base, judging from the map posted next to the stairwell. I only get a brief glimpse as we pass by, but that’s all I need. It’s stored in my brain forever now.

I’m hauled into a room with three prison cells, and I’m starting to think I’m in serious trouble. The quarterback removes my handcuffs, and I’m tempted to fight my way out of here, but I can’t. Not yet. I have to be smart about this, to see what they want and find out where Adam is before I make my escape. He has to be here somewhere, and I’m not leaving without him. I’ll burn this whole base down to rescue him if I have to.

The dark-haired guy gives me a hard push forward, and I stumble into one of the cells. The bars slam shut behind me. “Wait here,” he says.