Phantom Universe (40 page)

Doctor Zhar holds up a finger as if she’s stopping Summer from speaking—which is comical from Summer’s point of view.

“
I know what you’re thinking. If we’ve fixed you then why should you help us? Well, there are a few reasons. Besides the necessities, we can provide you with riches beyond your wildest dreams.”

Summer almost snorts but is too scared to make a sound in case this woman has a whip.

“
Other than that? We’ve made sure that there won’t be spontaneous shifts in time, but we have much work to do if you want to make it so only you go through time instead of all those with a specific blood type. That was the downside to it all—why we were going to terminate the project in the first place. After sixteen years, we’ve yet to create another subject with such excellent results as yours. Of course, you might accidently trigger another shift in time without proper training. Therefore, if you won’t help us, your control on time is tenuous at best, and no matter where you go, future or past, you’ll still have two hundred million angry people searching for the girl who keeps causing them to shift through time.” Doctor Zhar waits for a response, but of course doesn’t receive one. She shakes her head as if she just realized what she did.

“
I’ll give you time to think about this offer. I’d hate to have to force your hand on the matter.” The threat is clear. “We can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard. Either way, you’re stuck in this lab. I’m hoping that you’ll make my job easier,” says Doctor Zhar as she flicks a piece of lint off her white lab coat. She disappears from sight for a second, though Summer can hear her rummaging around for something. When she returns, she’s filling a needle with a substance Summer’s sure will make her go back to sleep. “I’m going to ask you now. Will you join us? Will you cooperate?”

Summer shakes her head defiantly and hopes any abuse to her body will be done while she’s drugged. “All right. When you wake again I’ll be back to ask you the same question. Next time the needle won’t be as peaceful as this one.” Doctor Zhar jabs the needle painfully into Summer’s hip. The medication burns as it’s forced into her body. “If you still say no? It’ll be your mother on this table—and a needle will be the least of your worries.”

Darkness eats at the edges of Summer’s vision as she sucks in an unreleased sob. Then the ever-expanding darkness bleeds like her whipped skin after a beating. Aching, tearing, and exhausting her last grips on reality until the drug devours her whole. Swallowing her like a great beast.

CHAPTER
50: RESCUE

16 years old

Air sucking in or blowing out with incredible force wakes Summer from her unpeaceful rest. A rush of whispered voices overwhelms her senses as her eyes fly open to find dim lighting, unlike the bright fluorescents of what she had woken to earlier. Another face looms over her as the vacuum-like noise dies away. It’s Landon, his dark eyes full of relief. Summer can’t help but feel her heart expand when she sees him. He’s come to rescue her, she hopes.

“
She’s awake,” says Landon.

Another face she knows very well comes into view, and Gage’s smile is contagious. His eyes seem to reach out and caress her skin; she automatically reaches for him, but she’s still constricted. Her smile fades as she jerks against her constraints, shaking the bed she’s laying on, panic taking her stomach and squeezing it with an iron fist.

“
Calm down,” pleads Gage softly. “We’re working on getting you out of here.”

He disappears, and now she can’t see anyone, only hears the whisper of voices again. Is this just another dream? Is she swimming in a pool of hope to finally wake to a world of loss and desperation? Confusion’s set in so deeply she’s quite certain she might be going crazy. Certifiably.

Summer takes a deep breath and exhales a shaky one. Her mind’s drowning in emotions, thoughts, and the plight of her current predicament, as if she’s found the undertow and is sucked into the depths, unable to swim ashore. Her legs kick and kick, her arms flailing uselessly, but she goes nowhere but down, down into the darkness. How did her life become so screwed up? Then she hears that voice, with the light British accent and soft cadence of authority: her mum. She closes her eyes. Her breaths become pants, her heart marches to the beat of a feral drummer, and her mind’s consumed with illogical thoughts in a deluge of memories. She fights her constraints again, more forcefully this time, unable to hold still any longer, only to find they’re gone. In a wild motion, she flies forward and almost falls to the ground. Gage is there to catch her, though, like a knight in shining armor. Her heart gives a tug for him as she grips him with a neediness she’s never quite felt before.

Neediness?

She quickly unclenches her fists from his T-shirt and stumbles back and into Landon who catches her. On top of the confusion of where she is, she’s also perplexed by this need. Summer doesn’t need anyone. It’s completely irrational. It’s not the time to think about this, though—the air’s charged with an urgency.

“
Flower, everything’s okay,” whispers Gage with his hands up in surrender. “Let’s get you out of here, and then I’ll explain everything, okay?” He raises his eyebrows in question, and she nods.

“
They’re coming,” rasps Mindy in horror. “We’ve got to go now.”

Bewilderment settles in as if an anchor’s landed on Summer’s head.

“
Cameron’s disabled the guards at the South Wing,” says Gage urgently to Mindy. “But she says more are on the way, and we must be quick.”

Landon and Gage both nod as Mindy glances over her shoulder. “Ready, Summer?” Summer nods as the pieces come together. Her mum’s helping them, not hindering them. That must be what she meant when she said sorry before Summer was stuck with the needle.

Gage flees the room first with Mindy at his heels. Landon urges Summer forward and takes up the rear. The hallway glows brightly with no source of light that she can see. Footsteps pound down an adjoining hallway as Gage slams his back against the wall where the hallways intersect. He gestures for the rest of them to follow his lead, and they press their backs against the wall. The footsteps grow louder with their commanding voices accompanying each thud against the hard floor. Gage pulls something from his pocket and throws it around the corner before Summer’s able to see what it is.

“
RETREAT!” a voice shouts frantically as screams erupt from the people speeding toward them, their steps halting before picking up double-time as they run the other direction. “It’s a Radial!”

Summer has no idea what a Radial is, but the voices sound frightened.

The noise of something powering up grows louder and louder until it’s suddenly cutoff, the silence eerie. The men’s footfalls are still heavy as they back down the hall. Then the strangest sound—like a cat in heat magnified—explodes from down the hallway. All the air feels as if it’s been sucked away, deadening all noises, before it’s thrown back ten-fold in a dizzying blast of electrical blue. It flies down the hall and knocks everyone sideways, even them. Gage quickly rises to his feet and steps into the adjoining hallway and pulls out the gun-like device he’d used to incapacitate Paige on the hovercraft—Summer makes a note to ask what its name is. A few strange-sounding shots ring out as Landon and Mindy help bring Summer to her feet.

“
It’s clear, let’s go,” says Gage with a wave of his hand.

They follow him down the long hallway that reminds Summer of the hospital’s stark whiteness, again unaware of the light source. She can’t seem to stop herself from watching Gage from behind, seeing his muscular shoulders in his navy blue T-shirt flex as he races across the tiled floor with ease. His boots are large and heavy, but hardly make a sound in his stealth. She, on the other hand, isn’t as graceful in her boots. She wonders if her abductors left them on when they tied her up, or if her mum put them on her in preparation of their escape.

“
Which direction?” asks Gage over his shoulder to Mindy.

“
It doesn’t matter,” she replies. “Either way this hallway meets at the South Wing’s exit.”

“
I’ll go left and cut off anyone from that side. The rest of you take the right. Landon, you got this?” Gage peers over his shoulder as they slow at the T in the corridor. Landon gives him a tight nod and pulls from his pocket a device similar to Gage’s.

“
Good. Cameron’s waiting at the exit with the hovercraft. I’ll meet you there,” he says quickly as they split.

Summer wants to say something, feeling oddly like this might be the last time she sees Gage. There’s just a gut feeling in her that he shouldn’t go that way, but she doesn’t know how to voice it. She glances over her shoulder to see his back as he moves with all the gracefulness of a hunting lion. Then he turns a corner, and he’s out of sight. Her heart gives a horrible jolt as they also turn a corner and begin racing up the ridiculously long hallway. The doors on either side are sealed, and everything’s disturbingly quiet besides their pounding footsteps. Landon’s ahead while Summer trails behind, quickly growing out of breath. She may have recovered a lot of her strength in the hospital, but she still lacks the endurance of a runner.

She can’t keep up with them and swiftly falls behind as she slows to a walk. She braces herself against a wall with the palm of her hand, her other arm wrapping around her stomach as the muscles tighten and cramp painfully. Her chest heaves, and when she looks up, she notices that Landon and Mindy don’t notice she’s fallen behind. She needs to call out to them, but can’t find her voice. Panic’s overwhelming her, overshadowing and dominating all that’s left of her. She takes several steps forward, gripping the wall for support when she comes across an open door. She peers inside, and her breath catches in her throat at what she sees. Then it’s as if everything slows down and seconds have turned to minutes. Maybe even hours.

The room’s huge, but across from her is another open door leading to the corridor that Gage is running down. On Gage’s side, there’s a long window so people in the hall parallel the room can look inside, which means that Summer can see out as he incapacitates someone. But he’s oblivious to the man that crouches below the window, a weapon in hand—except this weapon is more primal. More deadly. It looks like . . .
No
. It couldn’t be! Summer grips the doorframe as her eyes focus on the axe this man’s readying to use on Gage as soon as he passes the doorway. The man doesn’t notice Summer, luckily, but if she doesn’t do something immediately, Gage might lose his life in the most brutal way. And if she doesn’t warn him, she won’t be the witness, she’ll be the accomplice. It’s unfortunate that Summer knows exactly what an axe can to do to someone. She saw it once. In real life. She never wants to see it again—she wouldn’t even wish that death on her worst enemy.

Landon and Mindy round the corner, still oblivious to the fact she’s stopped. Her heart thumps hard in her chest. Harder than she’s ever felt it before, like it’s banging against her rib cage, preparing to break free and impale itself on a rib bone when the axe lands on Gage. Because that’s exactly how it’ll feel.

No. This can’t happen. She can warn him—stop it from happening! She can call out. Use her voice—but would this man turn on her and use that axe to kill her for her insubordination? It only takes her less than a second to realize she’d sacrifice herself to save him. He’s saved her so many times—doesn’t he deserve better of her? Doesn’t he deserve to have the favor returned even if it means her life’s relinquished? Everyone’s put themselves on the line for her, and all she’s caused is more pain, grief, and trouble. She’s not even real, anyway. Just an experiment—a subject in the Society’s game.

Another second passes, and tears flood her face, down to her shirt, soaking through to her skin.
Save his life
, she demands of herself.
Quit being a coward
.

Gage takes another step forward in his haste, and the man raises the axe in preparation.

CHAPTER
51: UNIMAGINABLE

16 years old

Stop!
It’s there. On the tip of her tongue.

Just say it. Go on. SAY IT!

Her mouth forms the word silently before she tries to add sound to it. A croaky noise comes from her lips.

Coward!
she screeches at herself.
You stupid coward
.