The Children Who Time Lost (34 page)

I heard a set of footsteps.
But whose?
We sat still and listened. After a while, the person spoke.

“I’m in the eastern locker room. I had them, but they’re gone.”

It was definitely Willie. My guess was that he was talking to Lorenzo.

“Okay, I’ll keep looking.”

We sat with our backs against the lockers. I faced lockers across from us, unable to even glance right, toward the entrance. The footsteps drew nearer but then stopped. I waited but heard nothing. Then I heard them again, but they seemed to be drifting farther away. I heard a ringing cell.

“Yes.” Willie paused. “No, they’re in here, all right. … Okay, I’ll wait for you.”

His footsteps drifted even farther away until we couldn’t hear anything.

I sighed and ruffled my hair.

“They’re coming here,” Michael whispered.

“I know.”

He grimaced and stared into space.

“They’re gonna get us, aren’t they?”

He drew his gun and pulled out the clip.

“How many bullets do we have?”

“Enough,” he said. “Them coming here for us either means that Doug has escaped, is caught or is dead.”

“Don’t say that.”

He held my wrist. “Listen, we need to face facts. This is happening. We’re cornered. Now, I don’t care what happens to me, but you have to live.”

“What’re you saying?”

“I can keep them here, and when the coast is clear, you can escape.”

I stared at him, unable to speak.

“Okay?”

“No,” I said. “That’s not okay. Why are you expendable and not me? Why can’t I be the one who saves you?”

He grabbed my other wrist. “Because your son needs you. You’re the one from the future. You’re the story the world needs to know about, not me.” He released my hands. “Besides, I don’t think they’ll kill me till they get you back. Keeping me alive might come in handy.”

“How so?”

“Bargaining chip; my life for your surrender.”

We heard footsteps again, except this time there were lots of them. It sounded like at least three people. Then we heard a woman’s voice, although I couldn’t make out what she said. They drew closer and closer to where we sat.

Michael looked into my eyes. “Are you ready?”

I raised my head but didn’t speak.

“Rachel!”

I nodded. “Okay, I’m ready.”

He smiled and stood partway. Then he kicked a locker, and I could hear scampering as our pursuers shifted direction. Michael gave me another smile and bolted west. I heard a gun explode but couldn’t see where. Seconds later, all I could hear were gunfire and shouting. I stood up to run for the entrance but stopped myself when more gunshots rang out. I had only a very limited window and I had to take it. I bolted toward the entrance, weaving back and forth as I cleared the lockers all around me. When I reached the entrance, no one was there. I headed for the sauna room but saw Sergeant Briggs leaping into the air for me. I crashed to the floor with a thump. She yelled like a woman possessed and wrapped her hands around my neck, choking the life out of me.

My eyes rolled upward. I thought I’d die. Somewhere, however, I found the energy to swing my clenched fist and strike her in the face. She reeled back. I kicked her in the chest and she fell to the ground. I stood and ran through the sauna room and down the corridor. A gunshot flew past me and took out part of the wall. I crouched and saw a shadow sprinting down the corridor. I continued running. Another bullet came but missed me again. When I reached the swimming pool, my mind went blank. Which direction had we entered from?

Just then, a sea of the organisms that surrounded the Shriniks’ bodies emerged from the corridor I had just cleared. They charged at me. I screamed and dived into the water, but they leaped in after me. I heard shrieks. I looked back to see them shriveling and dying in the water.

As I continued swimming, the snarls returned. Some of the organisms must not have jumped into the water. When I reached the other end of the pool, I started to climb out, but an organism slithered onto my hands. I screamed and leaped back into the water. It shuddered and flew from my hand before shriveling to its death.

There were at least thirty of them by the poolside. I heard faint laughter behind me. I turned and saw a Shrinik at the other end of the pool. It stood still, the organisms all over its body. In its right hand was a large gun. It had to be Lorenzo.

I heard an explosion behind me, and then another. I turned and saw Doug shooting at the organisms on the floor, killing them.

He stopped and extended his hands to me. “Hurry.”

I grabbed them and he pulled me out. I checked my pocket and sighed when I felt my medication. I heard Lorenzo growl. When I got out of the water, he was halfway across the pool, sprinting like an Olympic 100-meter runner. Doug raised his gun and fired. It hit Lorenzo in the middle of the chest and he went flying back, landing on his back. I stared at Doug’s future gun for a moment. It packed a potent punch. The gun I’d taken from Williams didn’t even do that.

But it didn’t hold Lorenzo back for long. He stood up and flicked the dead organisms off his body, thick green liquid dripping from his wounds. He grinned at us and picked up his gun.

I tugged at Doug’s shoulder. “Come on.” Doug just stood there with his gun still raised. I tugged harder. “
Now
.”

Lorenzo fired. I dropped to the floor with Doug. I looked at the wall Lorenzo’s bullet had struck. It looked as if a bomb had hit it. He was using different bullets now. He must have been angry.

Doug and I ran down the corridor to our left, but the bullets kept coming, causing catastrophic damage each time. We ran past weight-lifting equipment in a large room and reached another set of lockers, again in an enormous room.
What is it with this gym and its giant locker rooms?

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“I found an exit. It’s at the far end of this locker room.”

We passed so many lockers that I grew confused. I stopped and crouched, struggling to catch my breath. My wet clothes stuck to my body, causing extreme irritation.

Doug ran back to me. “Are you all right?”

“I need my medication. I need water.”

“I promise you’ll have it soon. I just need you to go a bit farther for me.”

We heard someone clatter against a locker a few feet from us. Doug tensed his face and urged me up. I stood up, and we heard more clattering and stopped to listen. It was growing closer. Doug pointed his gun in the direction we’d come from and fired. The explosion sent a row of lockers flying to the floor. We continued charging forward. I saw the entrance Doug had spoken about. It was a large red door with a padlock on it.
Nothing this crazy gun of his can’t handle.

I nearly wept with joy when we were a few feet away, but then Doug pushed me to the ground and turned around. I spun to see Willie leap onto him. They wrestled on the ground, exchanging punches. Willie rammed Doug against a set of lockers and gave him a few punches in the midsection. Doug howled in pain. Willie seemed to have superhuman strength. Blood trickled from Doug’s mouth. A few more minutes of this and Willie would have killed him. I saw Doug’s gun on the floor a few yards away and picked it up. Then I pointed it at Willie’s head.

“Let him go,” I said. “Now.”

Willie didn’t stop pounding against Doug’s chest. He looked like he would kill him.

“Shoot him,” Doug said. “Don’t worry about me. Just find your son.”

I knew shooting with this future gun would kill both Willie and Doug. I grimaced and inched my finger toward the trigger, but I stopped myself.
This can’t be happening again. No one else is dying for me.
I ran forward and smashed the gun against the back of Willie’s head. He grunted and fell to his knees. Doug staggered over to me and reached for the gun, but I jerked my hands away and kept it trained on Willie. Doug stood beside me as the officer turned to face us. All I saw was confusion on his face.

“Rachel … Rachel Harris? What’s going on? Where are we?”

I lowered the gun and stepped forward.

Doug held on to my waist. “What’re you doing?”

I held my hand up and faced Willie again. “You don’t know where you are?”

Willie looked at the lockers around him and shook his head. “No idea. All I remember was the fire alarm going off at the station when you left. Next, the mayor and your lawyer called all of us into a room. I don’t really remember much after that. And now I’m here.”

I looked at Doug. “They’ve done something to all of them. He wasn’t himself.”

A cell rang. I looked at Willie. He checked his pockets and shrugged. Then I turned to Doug. He didn’t react at first, but then he pulled a cell from his back pocket. The one Michael had given him.

“Hello,” he said. “Michael!”

I ran forward. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

Doug held his hand up. “Okay, sure. We can be there. Oh, and we have someone with—”

Willie screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. A mass of the organisms were pressed against his chest, sucking the life out of him. Some slithered toward us, but Doug kicked them away. Willie’s eyes turned red and he shuddered. Doug grabbed the gun from me and pointed it at Willie. But then he hesitated.

“What are you doing?” I shouted.

Doug didn’t respond. He just stared at Willie with the gun still raised. Willie continued screaming. The creatures now had their teeth buried in his chest.

“They’re killing him,” I said. “Shoot him.”

A loud explosion filled my ears. Doug and I looked up and saw a gaping hole in Willie’s chest. Sergeant Briggs held a gun in the air, smoke rising from the chamber. Lorenzo stood beside her, his lizard snout grinning. The other man was also there. They must have both been under Lorenzo’s control.

Doug fired at the door and it flew off its hinges. “Go,” he said.

I ran through with him, but explosions followed us, striking the ground and everything around us. We took a left and ran down the street.

“Where are we going now?” I shouted.

“Michael’s around the corner.”

Shards of glass exploded beside us. Doug screamed in pain when they pierced his left arm. He dropped to the ground. I pulled him up, but he kept screaming. I looked back to see all three of our assailants giving chase. Lorenzo had changed back to human form.

I picked up Doug’s gun and fired in their direction, but then I flew to the ground. The gun’s recoil was harsher than that of the other future guns I’d fired. I got back up and fired again and again, keeping my footing this time. They took cover and stayed hidden. I ran back to Doug, who had stopped screaming. His wounds looked bad but could be treated. A black Mercedes sedan came screeching down the road.

“Get in,” Michael shouted through the open back window.

I flung Doug’s arm over mine and helped him in. Something thumped against the car, causing it to judder.

“Manuel, go,” Michael shouted.

Manuel spun the car around. I heard more screeching, and we were off.

Chapter Twenty-Six

D
oug groaned for the sixth time in three minutes. I caressed his head, but nothing I did seemed to ease his pain. The car had returned to a normal cruising speed, and the sudden and violent turns had ceased. I gave Michael a firm stare. He was still typing on his phone like he’d been doing ever since we escaped our pursuers. He stopped whenever his phone rang, which happened almost every ten seconds.

“We need to get him to a hospital,” I said. “I can’t get all the glass out.”

Michael dropped his phone and leaned closer to Doug and me. “We can’t go to a hospital. That’s out of the question.” He returned to his cell. “Don’t worry, I’ll have a doctor waiting for him when we get where we’re going.”

“And where is that?”

“Somewhere safe.” He grunted in frustration when his phone rang again. After it stopped, he continued typing on it. Then he pressed a button beside him and the screen between Manuel and us came down.

“Everything all right, sir?” Manuel said.

“How’s it looking?” Michael said.

“So far so good. No chatter on the police bands just yet. And no one’s following us.”

Michael ran his fingers through his hair. “What about the tracker on the car?”

“Disabled, sir. The GPS, too. The only thing anyone can track you by is your phone.”

Michael nodded. He typed some more on his cell, wound the window down and threw it out. “Okay, we’re good. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“Yes, sir.” Manuel raised the screen again.

Michael interlocked his fingers and stared out the window, his expression blank. After ten minutes of silence, Doug groaned again, but not as loud this time. His pain seemed to be subsiding. I rocked his head.

“He’ll be just fine,” Michael said.

I nodded.

“You did great back there, by the way.”

“Not really. I just ran for my life.”

“No, you were brilliant,” Doug said.

I looked at him in surprise. Some of the pain seemed to have left his face. “You think?”

“Sure. The way you were firing that gun—even I couldn’t handle it like that the first time.”