Frustrated, I staggered over to the next set of drawn curtains. If I couldn’t persuade Dan to come with us, then maybe Sean could.
“Sean?” I asked, pulling them back.
He sat up in bed, hair completely blue. His nose was buried in the black book as well. My stomach turned at the sight of it.
“I can’t go anywhere either,” Sean said, answering my question. “Dan’s right. You should get out of here.”
“Look, I’m sorry I took so long to watch those videos, and I’m sorry I got you into this mess.” My voice shook. “I didn’t realize you were being followed and spied on. You’re going with us if I have to drag you!”
Gabe Cruz spoke just behind me. “There’s nothing you can do, Rita! Even if we do drag them the portal won’t take us back far enough to help them. They were put in the Conversion Chamber hours before you. We have to go.”
I turned to Gabe. “We can’t leave them. They were just trying to help us. We can’t do that!”
“Go,” Dan yelled. “You can’t help us.”
Ryan pushed his way around Gabe, nearly falling in the process. “You’re coming with us.”
But Dan wouldn’t have it. “Get out of here. You can’t do us any good!”
Gabe took my arm. “We have to leave. I’m very sorry. There’s nothing we can do.”
I let out a breath. Penny’s chin wobbled. Even Ryan stopped. There was no way we could get the two of them out of here if they refused. We didn’t have the strength.
“We just can’t do this,” I said, deflating. “Why can’t they just follow us out of here? They risked everything to help us.”
“Exactly,” Ryan said.
“And it’ll all be for nothing if we don’t go.” Gabe tugged my arm and headed for the door.
Gabe pushed open the steel door, which led right outside. I wanted to say something to Dan and Sean, but my throat locked up. What could I tell them? Sorry we have to leave you in the Shadow Home World for all eternity? I wanted to throw myself down on the concrete and pound it, but that wouldn’t do any good. If this was my only shot, I couldn’t blow it.
The purple sky stretched out overhead and a silver dome with five towers blocked some of the city from view. The back of the Conversion Chamber building. I shuddered. What a great memory.
“Are there any guards around here?” Penny asked.
“No. Except me,” Gabe said, waving us around the silver dome. “We’re the only ones allowed in this area. Now come on.” He faced me. “This is your only shot out of here, Rita. You have no idea how important you are.”
How important I am? Suddenly, it hit me. “You’re…you’re the one who left me that note that morning.”
“Yeah, it was me,” Gabe continued as we rounded the building and made our way across the open pavement. “Someone else wrote the note and sent me to leave it, but I’m not allowed to say who did. They swore me to silence. I wasn’t even allowed to read the note, so I couldn’t know if I was helping you or not. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But now that I think about it, someone knows about you and wants to keep you safe, Rita. You are—I mean were—the last of your kind.”
“Huh?” Ryan asked, looking up from the ground. He couldn’t be feeling too good, leaving his two friends behind.
“The last of my kind?” I echoed, trying to keep up with him. I wobbled on the pavement, reeling. “I’m confused.”
“Well,” Gabe turned back to me, “You will be the last of your kind again when you get out of here.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, catching up to him.
Gabe faced me as he walked. “Rita,” he said slowly, “I heard you have powers of some sort. You just had no idea you ever had them. Have you ever felt anything weird?”
“Powers?” I sputtered, tripping over my own feet. “Me? How could I—”
He picked up the pace. “When you’re mad, do you ever feel anything strange? And not to mention, are you always trying to protect people?”
Something tickled at the back of my mind—the weird electric pulses in my arms that I’d felt a few times that week. Now that I thought about it, they happened only when I got mad, like all the times in Mr. Gorfel’s class. What if Gabe was onto something?
I didn’t say anything, as I still didn’t know what to make of it. I’d worry about potential powers after I got out of here.
Gabe quickened his pace to a jog. I struggled to keep up. Penny tripped and held us for a few seconds. After she got up, Gabe led us in the direction of the arena.
“We’ll have to go behind the arena and over the fence,” he said. “The guards are still at the gate. If they see you guys leaving so soon, they’ll know something’s funny. And it wouldn’t be good if A. Gist came strolling in and saw you.”
Now we walked between the arena and the brown wasteland. Luckily, nobody was back here, either. Just a bunch of steamrollers and construction trucks sat back here in a row.
“H…how are we going to get over that?” Ryan asked.
I saw what he meant. Ahead was the fence that divided the Judicial District from the rest of the city. The office buildings clustered just on the other side of it, but between us and that sat the horrible tangle of barbed wire.
Gabe sighed. “We have to climb. There’s no way the guards will let me take you through the gate. I had to sneak over this way coming to get you guys.”
Suddenly the barbed wire looked a lot sharper. “Gabe, are you insane?”
Penny asked, “How much time do we have?”
Gabe swallowed. “Not that much. Once the portal’s fully charged A. Gist will come inspect it to see if he can yell at me for something. And if he finds out what I’m doing,” he glanced in the direction of the prison, “it’s going to be that. For a very long time.” He wiped his sweaty palms off on his blue pants and looked again at the barbed wire.
“But you said this is a loophole,” Penny told him, voice trembling. “If it’s legal, how can he—”
“Do you think he cares?” Gabe asked. “Trust me. He doesn’t. All you have to do is make him mad, and you’re in there. Now we have to get over this fence. It’s designed to keep humans in more than…us.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Ryan said. “You’re in armor and we’re in these suits.”
I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t about to let a fence keep me from getting back home. “I’m going over. I am not going to stay like this for the rest of time.”
Ryan eyed the wire. “Do you realize how bad we’re going to get cut up?”
“It won’t matter,” Gabe told him. “Did you forget that you’re supposed to be immortal now and that you’ll heal up right after you get hurt?”
My limbs felt a little stronger now, but not much. And only when I started climbing the fence did I realize I was barefoot. My toes curled around the cold metal of the fence. Swell. There were probably shoes back at the Recovery Center, but I wasn’t going back to get them.
My hands slipped and I struggled to hold on. The world tilted around me again. “Help, please!”
My hand scraped against the wire. Ouch. It felt like fire digging into my skin, but I couldn’t stop. My arms quivered with the effort as I began to hoist myself over. A set of hands—Gabe’s—caught me and pushed me up. Into the wire, by the way. I tottered in place and tilted over the other side.
I can’t describe the pain. The barbed wire cut right into my leg and a ripping sound followed. Hot pain surged up my leg as I fell to the pavement. The fall didn’t feel too good, either. Spots flared in my vision as I hit pavement.
“NRRGGGGHHHHH!” I clutched my leg as I rolled into a ball of pain on the ground. Everything turned a fuzzy gray for a moment. When it cleared, I sat up to examine the injury on my leg.
And instantly wished that I hadn’t.
A huge rip had appeared in the front of my pants from t
he knee down. But that wasn’t the worst part. A long gash ran from my knee down to my foot, and bright blue blood seeped out of the wound.
“Rita! Don’t look at it,” Gabe called from the other side of the fence. “It’ll heal in a few seconds.”
Already the wound had started to pull together. It was weird, to say the least. A tingle ran over my skin as it closed and disappeared. The pain faded to a dull ache and vanished altogether. And the blood was gone, thank all things good and decent. My stomach rolled. I really, really didn’t want to see that again. If I got out here, I’d have nightmares for days.
The fence creaked and wobbled, and Ryan landed with a thud next to me and let out a cry of pain. Already Gabe was shoving Penny over. Her leg got caught in the wire, too, and she messed up her face and bit in a scream. She fell from the wire headfirst and hit the pavement with a thud. It was an awful sound. Penny lay on the pavement, limp.
My heart leapt. “Crap,” I mouthed, getting up.
“She’ll heal in a few seconds,” Gabe said, climbing the fence with ease. It helped that he was tall and wearing armor. Instead of fighting his way through the wire like we had to, he stepped on it with one of his jackboots and landed next to us. “Sorry I had to do that to you guys. It was the only way.”
Penny stirred, and I breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wouldn’t have a head injury that lasted more than ten seconds.
“We’re not far now,” Gabe said. “Is everyone recovered?”
“I am,” I said, helping Penny up. Beside me, Ryan stood and groaned.
“Just walk normally,” Gabe said, waving us down the side of the office building. “You’ll blend right in.”
I glanced down at the jumpsuit I was stuck in. Even the rip had mended. Yes, unfortunately we would.
We ducked down an alley and emerged onto the winding road, nearly getting run down by one of those silver scooters. I ducked under the awning of a building labeled A. Employment Agency and almost tripped over a row of those parked scooters. People walked in and out of buildings and down the road, some carrying files and laptops, but nobody gave us a second glance now. It seemed like we were back in that business district A. Gist had dragged us through. The portal couldn’t be more than two minutes away.
“Are you sure no one’s going to catch us?” Penny asked. “I don’t want to see you get put in that prison.”
“I can’t be sure,” Gabe said. “That’s just a risk I have to take. I don’t know how much charge is in the portal now. Hopefully, enough to take you back to before you were brought to this place.”
“Go back?” Ryan asked. “You mean that portal thing’s also a time machine?”
Gabe smiled. I think it was the first time I’d seen him do that. “Exactly. Mostly it’s used to go to different places, but it can go back and forth in time just a little. It can’t take you back in time very far, though. Maybe half a day when it’s fully charged. Time travel takes a huge amount of energy, and this portal doesn’t pack very much.”
Time travel. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that one. But hey, I was walking through another world right now, so I guess that made anything possible.
“If it takes us back that far we’ll have another chance at not being brought here at all,” Penny said. “Now, will we have to warn our past selves about what’ll happen, or—”
Gabe swore and froze in place.
Crap. My heart leapt into my chest. About twenty feet ahead, a door swung open to an office building called Investigations. A black jackboot and half a cape came out as the wearer leaned back into the building to talk to someone. “You can rip up that file, Lisa.” The man speaking sounded almost giddy. “Case closed. We won’t have to torture that Jerry man after all. I can’t believe we found her in that place of all places.”
“Back!” Gabe mouthed, pointing to a nearby, dark alley.
Good idea. I knew who was coming out.
I backed into it along with Penny and Ryan, nearly tripping on a metal trash can. Gabe followed, practically jogging backwards. My back hit a gray brick wall. I couldn’t go back any farther. I just prayed no one on the street pointed down this alley and yelled, “Here they are!”
“W…what if he finds us?” Ryan asked.
Gabe didn’t say. Instead, he whispered, “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Shadow form, everybody. He probably won’t see us in this darkness.”
“But—” I sputtered, “How are we supposed to? We’ve never done it before.” Not to mention it was creepy. I did not want to look like those shadows that chased us that night.
“Just think about doing it,” Gabe said. “Now. I think he’s coming.”
Footsteps grew louder and louder and echoed off the buildings. A laugh floated down the alley towards us.
I didn’t have a choice, unless I wanted to get caught. I thought of going dark and shadowy. The second I did, a chill washed over me. I started to clench my teeth, but the chill vanished a second later.
Gabe ducked down in front of us, turning dark and shadowy until he looked the way he did that day he left me the letter. “Get down.”
Heavy footsteps got louder and louder. I ducked down as low as I could, hugging the alley wall. Ryan and Penny did the same. Both of them now looked like silhouettes. I could tell one was Ryan due to the spiky hair, and I could barely see him in the darkness.
I glanced down at my own hands. Black silhouettes. Freaky. Now I looked no different than the shadows that had chased us two weeks ago. I bit in a moan of horror and tore my gaze away.
A. Gist came into view with a broad grin splitting his face. He walked with a swagger that made me feel even sicker. To make matters worse, George and Monica were right behind him. Both of them were now armed with clubs, which hung from their belts. Immortal or not, getting hit with those would still hurt.
I realized something just then: even though I’d gone through the transformation, I still hated his guts. Cold comfort? Yeah. But at least I didn’t have an urge to worship him or anything.
“You’re definitely getting a bonus for this one,” A. Gist told them. “I can’t believe we finally got her. I was beginning to think we’d never find her.” He stopped in front of the alley, right we stood thirty seconds ago.
“Are you sure she was the one?” George asked. “If it was her, wouldn’t you think she would have been harder to take care of?”
A. Gist whirled around to face him. “I know it. I suspected it when I first saw her at the Kool Spot, but I realized it for certain when she spat at me. Luckily for us, she never knew a thing about her abilities. She’ll never know now that she’s one of us!”
I fought down the urge to throw up. That might blow our cover.
“You don’t understand, do you?” A. Gist asked George and Monica. “I have been looking for her for fourteen years. You have no idea what her kind put me through in ages past. So yes, I’m very happy we finally got the last Guardian. Everything has worked out perfectly.”
My foggy mind spun again. So Gabe was right. A. Gist had just confirmed that. I did have a past I didn’t know about.
A. Gist strode off down the walkway. George and Monica followed him, whispering to each other. Good. I didn’t let out my breath until their footsteps had completely faded.
Ryan sighed in relief. “Where’s he going?”
“Probably to go gloat,” I said. His words stuck in my mind and stung like angry hornets.
Gabe sprung up, stiff as a board. “He’s heading back to the Judicial District. That’s the only place down that way. I bet he’s going for the Recovery Center to assign your jobs.”
Penny shot up too. “He’ll find us gone.”
I stood and watched Penny going from shadowy to normal again. So did Ryan and Gabe. I took that as a cue to do the same, and simply thought of returning to normal. Another chill swept through
me, and I lifted my hands to study them. They looked normal. I breathed out another big sigh of relief.
“He’ll find you gone and then command Dan and Sean to tell him what happened,” Gabe went on. “They won’t be able to resist. They will tell him everything they heard.”
He had a point. “Let’s go,” I said. “Or he’ll stop us and you’ll get in trouble.”
We burst out of the alley, nearly running down a couple holding hands. A. Gist had already vanished from the road. He must be walking through the Judicial District by now, in sight of the Recovery Center. Once he found us missing, well, I didn’t want to think about that.
“Now!” Ryan said, darting ahead of me. “We have like, two minutes!”
I tripped once on the way to the portal, and in the middle of a crowd, too. My legs still didn’t want to work right. Gabe helped me up in a hurry and we sped as fast as they could for that raised, concrete platform. It came into view as we rounded a curve around a big office building. It stood empty except for the computer and the metal ring.
Gabe ran up to the monitor as I bolted up the stairs. “Okay, let’s see how much this can take you back.”
“How much?” I asked, heart pounding.
“Three hours.” Gabe said. “That’s it. It’s only half-charged.”
“We can’t wait for it,” Penny said, wiping her palms off on her pants.
I agreed. Now or never.
“Exactly,” Gabe said. “Still, we have to try. When you go through, you’ll find yourselves as you were three hours ago. And you’ll have to hit the controls on this thing. I can’t do it. I’ve set your coordinates.”
I didn’t ask questions and ran up to the monitor. A keyboard waited with a green button on the side labeled Activate. At least this thing was idiot proof, because I couldn’t think right now. Small blue print on the screen read Three hour time travel capacity, 52% charged.
“Did you bring the book?” Gabe asked.
“I brought my copy,” Penny said.
“Remember, it’ll explain everything,” Gabe reminded her. “Only look at it when you’re human again.”
“Dan and Sean,” Ryan croaked, staring down at his feet. “They’ll be trapped here.”
Gabe sighed. “I’m very sorry about your friends. I really am. I wish I could have helped them, but A. Gist never gave me the chance. By time I could get to them, it was too late.”
“The book,” Penny snarled. “There’s something about this book.”
I pressed the green button on the control pad, rage exploding through me. Instantly the portal sprang to life. The inside of the metal ring filled with a black-and-purple swirl. I might get out of here, but Dan and Sean were hosed. How many others had faced the Conversion Chamber? Probably everyone in this world.
“Rita,” Gabe said slowly. “Don’t let this happen to anyone else.”
I stood there, speechless. How could I stop this horror from happening to other people?
Gabe saw the confusion on my face and spoke again. “I know you can do something, Rita,” he went on. “Hint: get angry.”
I waved him over to the portal. “Come with us! Maybe you can get out of here too.”
Gabe looked down at the concrete. “I can’t. I was transformed five months ago. The portal can’t go back that far. And even if it wasn’t that long ago, I still couldn’t.”
“Is it because you read the book?” Penny asked.
Gabe swallowed, silent. That was answer enough for me.
“You should go,” he said at last. “The portal’s almost out of juice. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” I managed.
“Oh my god!” Ryan jumped in place.
A bright blue cloud had exploded in the middle of the platform. A human figure stood inside it as it thinned. I knew what was happening.
A. Gist had teleported here.
“Now!” I yelled, running for the portal.
Penny and Ryan darted past me and leapt in. The blue cloud started to clear. A figure stood in the middle of the platform, a tall figure with a brimmed hat and a long cape. I backed away and my knees hit the metal ring. A. Gist lunged at me, his face contorted into rage. I fell backwards, and everything went black once again.
Chapter Nineteen