Because You Exist (22 page)

Chapter 33

“The sooner you shut up the more likely it is I won’t shoot you,” Jo snarled, holding her gun on the Dark Man who welcomed us on our first shift.

When we came to on the other side of the shift, back in future world, Jo grabbed her backpack and we met up with Bentham and Randall. We all agreed that it was a little odd we didn’t have any survivors waiting for us at the school considering the last time we shifted they discovered our point of entrance.

Something had to be up.

And when we saw Mr. Ambiguous waiting for us, we knew we’d been right.

“Your little alliance is really adorable,” faux Don Draper said, not even batting an eyelid at Jo’s gun or the second one pointing at him from Bentham’s direction.

“If you’re here to make some sort of deal, we’re not interested,” Randall spoke up.

The Dark Man merely smiled more. “But you haven’t even heard what I have to offer,” he sang.

Bentham clicked his gun. God, he was so predictable sometimes.

“We saw how your last deal paid off. We saw what it did to that poor girl and her partner,” continued Randall.

Mr. Ambiguous gave a curt nod. “Right. That. Not my fault. I didn’t do those things to those shifters. The survivors did. Totally out of my hands.”

“What’s the deal?” I asked. The others looked at me like I’d suddenly grown a second head. “What? What’s it going to hurt to hear him out? It might clue us in to what game he’s trying to play,” I said.

The ridiculously dressed man winked at me. “Your uncle always did say you were smart.”

“Your uncle?” Bentham asked.

“I’ll fill you in later,” Jo called over to him. She edged closer to Mr. Ambiguous, her gun still fixed on him. “Go ahead then. Talk.”

“In all the time we’ve been doing this, it’s strange that no one has decided to team up until now. It’s pretty ingenious really. You can work together. Share information. But it also makes you weak. It makes you care.”

“What’s your point?” I asked.

“The survivors. They found some of your shifter friends. Four to be precise. Two sets of people just like you. They have them held up at the old Beach General Hospital. I know you know the place. Didn’t you just visit it?” he asked, glancing between Jo and myself.

“The survivors have them. You mean you gave them to the survivors” Bentham charged.

The Dark Man shrugged. “I told you where they were. Go get them if you want them.”

“Like we don’t know this is a trap,” I said.

“Nothing worth obtaining, Logan, is worth a damn if you don’t have to fight for it,” he replied, looking from me to Jo.

“Enough!” yelled Jo.

“You can’t kill me quite yet, little shifter. You can’t be the one to break the rules. You can shoot me but I won’t die.” he sneered.

“Oh yeah? I bet it’ll still hurt.” Before he could say another word, Jo unloaded a bullet right into his shoulder. The man fell to the ground screaming in pain.

I looked over at Jo in shock. But what she did next was even more surprising.

She took off running.

Even though she knew it was a trap.

“Jo!” I screamed out at her. But she didn’t look back.

I didn’t have a choice.

I started to run after her.

We were idiots.

Chapter 34

We ran for about two miles before I caught up with her. I didn’t bother screaming after her. I knew it would be of no use. Instead, I tackled her.

“We've really got to stop doing this,” I grunted after landing on top of her.

“Get off me, Logan,” she hissed, struggling underneath me.

If this were a movie it’d be kinda hot. But this was real life. Right now I was pretty annoyed. Tackling a girl twice in one day was a bit tiring. Even for me. “You don’t have to do this on your own! So, just calm the hell down, Jo!”

Jo closed her eyes and nodded.

“Can I let you up without you freaking out and running off again?” I asked.

“Yes. Lucky for you I’m crap when it comes to running more than a hundred meters.”

“Next time I pray, I’ll thank God you didn’t join cross country,” I said, pulling myself to my feet and helping Jo up. “What the heck were you thinking?”

“They have my brother in there.”

“How do you know that?”

“Come on, Logan. Why else show me I had a twin and the next day bring me here?”

Um. To muddle up every thought I’ve ever had about you.

I shook my head. “Just promise me you won’t ever do that again. We've got to work together. We’re stronger together. That’s why they set this trap in the first place. They’re afraid of us.”

Jo narrowed her eyes, looking towards the hospital that could be seen in the distance. “They should be afraid of us, Logan. I’m never going to let them take anything from me again.”

“Yeah. I think they got the message when you shot Mr. Ambiguous in the shoulder just for kicks.”

Jo sighed. “Now is really not the time for a lecture on passive resistance.”

We both jumped at the sound of tires squealing behind us. Jo had her gun pulled before I could even produce words. “There’s an easier way of getting there,” Randall yelled from the window of a beat-up suburban.

“How many cars do you guys have stashed around here?” I asked, opening the door for Jo.

“What can I say? I’m pretty good at hot wiring cars,” Bentham replied, looking over his shoulder at Jo and me.

“I’ll make sure to remind you to put that on your Match.com profile when we get back,” I said dryly.

“No need,” he said, winking at Jo.

Really?

This guy was such a tool.

“We ready for this?” Randall asked, his voice determined but edged with the smallest bit of uncertainty.

“Do we have a choice?” Bentham asked.

“We always have a choice, Ben,” said Randall.

“Then I choose to fight back,” Bentham replied.

“I choose to fight too,” Jo piped up.

Bentham turned back around and gave Jo’s knee a squeeze.

“Let’s just get this over with,” I grumbled.

“Your wish, my command,” said Randall, throwing the car into drive.

“We’re going to need a plan,” said Jo.

“Any ideas?” I asked. “You know, besides Jo’s let’s just shoot everything plan?” I asked, suddenly feeling a lot grumpier than I felt before Bentham and Randall showed up. And that was after running two miles. I had no right to feel jealous. I’d already set in motion a plan that would make the girl sitting next to me hate me once we got back.

If we got back.

She probably hadn’t even ever thought about kissing me.

I didn’t have any right to claim her attention.

Didn’t mean I had to like Bentham.

“Well, I’m the fastest. Logan’s probably the next fastest. I think we head for the hospital. Try and get in and out of there as quickly as we can. Ben, you and Randall, stay on the outside. Watch for survivors,” Jo suggested.

“What do you say old man?” Bentham asked Randall.

Randall chuckled. “Any plan that involves the least amount of running for me sounds great.”

When we pulled up to the hospital all seemed quiet on the ready to meet you death front. Jo turned to me. “You ready for this, Logan?” she asked.

I wasn’t. I’d never be ready for this. I reached down into my pocket and quickly clutched onto the bottle of pills my uncle had given me, the pills that supposedly would stop all this for me. Take me out of the game. If I could shift without Jo, I must be the conductor. Which means if I took the pills Jo wouldn’t be able to shift either. I stared at the girl who kissed me so deeply in this world, in a time I wondered would remain a memory that I alone would keep, and made the decision.

I would fight today. I would help her save her brother. I could give her that. But if we made it out alive, I’d end this too.

There were other shifters, and we were going to bring them together. Neither of us was ready or deserved this life of running and shooting, death and decay. Jo said this was the only world where she felt like she had power, but what would that power do to her? She would have to get through the rest of her time at Shepherd High, and then she could go out in the world and make her own future.

We could leave this battle to the rest of them.

I didn’t want to be hero.

I didn’t want her dead.

The decisions I would make would ensure we’d never be anything more than what we were in this moment. She’d hate me for them. But maybe that was the way it was supposed to be.

“Yes, Jo. I’m ready.”

Jo reached over and took my hand in hers. “On the count of three we run.” With one squeeze of my hand she started counting.

One.

Two.

Three.

And we were off. Out of pure fear, I covered my head as we raced towards the hospital, running past an enormous clusterfuck of cars and ambulances, bodies and gurneys, all reminders of what had occurred here—all the suckers who had thought they could make it through it all.

Jo was something to be seen. The way she ran without looking back. Her legs moving in determined yet graceful movements. I’d miss seeing her like this. So damn free it was heartbreaking.

The smell was our first attacker. Of course. I thought Jenna’s house smelled bad enough when I discovered the bodies of her and her family, but that was nothing compared to the pungent odor that burned my nose and throat and caused my eyes to water. I forcefully swallowed down the vomit that had made its way up my throat. Jo pulled the collar of her hoodie over her nose, and I followed suit with my shirt.

I tried not to look at the bodies that lay decomposing in the hallways. The scraps of skin that floated in the air, dancing with the sunlight that streamed in from the windows.

“Is anyone in here alive?” Jo yelled at the top of her lungs.

I lunged at her and covered her mouth with my hand. “What are you doing? You want to let every survivor know we’re here?”

Jo smacked my hand away. “I’m pretty sure they already know we’ve here, Logan, since the Dark Men planned it this way. No need to be all stealthy about it.”

“I understand that but—”

It was Jo’s turn to cover my mouth with her hand. “Sssssh! Do you hear that?”

I did. It was faint but it was coming down the hall from the reception desk. It sounded like yelling. Muffled but definitely there. We ran down the hallway as Jo pulled the gun from the waistband of her jeans.

The pounding and yelling increased as we continued down the hallway. When I saw the marking on the door at the end of the hall, I wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful or fear. Written in a substance that looked a little too much like blood to feel comfortable were the words “Hello Shifters”.

“I think...I think this may be the place,” I panted, a mixture of pure physical exhaustion and complete rational fear making me breathe like a crazy person, something I’d be embarrassed by if I was with anyone but Jo.

Jo reached out and turned the doorknob. Locked. The screaming behind the door became frantic. “You’d think they’d make it easy for us since they took the time to paint such a nice welcome sign.”

“What do we do?” I asked.

Jo turned to me and smiled, raising an eyebrow. “I think we have to kick it down.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Totally bad ass.”

“I thought you might like that,” Jo replied, taking a few steps back.

“You’re a girl after my own heart,” I joked.

Jo cleared her throat. “Um. Right. Boobs aren’t perky enough. No blonde hair...”

I turned and stared at her. Her cheeks flushed. Sweat causing strands of her hair to stick to her forehead and neck. The way her hand didn’t even shake as she held the gun. Maybe she wasn’t the girl I’d usually go for, but there was certainly something...I cleared my throat. “You ready? Count of three?”

“That seems to be the best way to do these sorts of things,” she nodded.

One.

Two.

Three.

Kicking a door down, even with my X-men er X-woman next to me, hurt a lot. Add it to the list of lies movies tell you. Right after the lie that tells you everything works out in a high school movie.

When the door swung open it took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. I heard the click of Jo’s gun. I tensed my body for whatever was going to come out of there. I hadn’t even thought it might be survivors. Maybe Jo had thought it, but it wasn’t quite my nature to think the boogeyman hid in every corner.

Survivors they were not.

Jo looked like an amateur as the woman walked out. She was buff. Like really buff. Almost like one of those commercials. She was wearing black leather pants and a torn shirt featuring The Runaways. Her jet back hair was cut into an actual mullet. Maybe she’d come from a Halloween party?

Hopefully.

I heard Jo gasp when the boy stumbled out.

There he was. Her twin. It was a little unsettling seeing so many of Jo’s features reflected back in this boy’s face. The same red hair, albeit shorter. The same eyes. The same nose. He was a little on the scrawny side. When the boy saw Jo his eyes went wide.

Did he even know he had a sister?

I reached back and took Jo’s hand into mine. I thought after a moment she’d let go but she didn’t.

“We gotta run. Now,” the boy spoke up, looking up and down the hall nervously.

“It’s—” Jo cleared her throat, perhaps a little emotional at the sight of her only family who wasn’t in the mental hospital or in jail. “It’s all right. We have friends outside. We’re going to get everyone out of this safely.”

“Not if we don’t get moving,” the woman snapped, rolling her eyes.

The boy nodded. “She’s right. You haven’t noticed all the wire?” he asked, pointing down towards the floor and then up towards the ceiling.

I looked to where he was pointing and he was right. We hadn’t noticed the wire that seemed to wrap itself around the building like ivy. “What is it?” I asked.

The boy stole a glance at his sister. “It’s explosives. The whole place is wired to go.”