Future Shock

“Because I knew you’d freak out like this!”

“Yeah, no shit!” Chris yells. “All this time, all this time, we’ve been trying to find the killer, and all along it was you!”

Adam stands in front of me, shielding me with his body. He holds up his hands, looking back and forth between the others. “She’s not the killer, guys. Aether just wants us to think that. We already know we won’t suffer from future shock.”

Chris snorts. “What, you think they planted this report in case we happened to find it in thirty years? No fucking way.”

Trent shakes his head. “We know that Adam doesn’t suffer future shock, but that’s it. Sorry, Elena, but Chris is right. There’s nothing in these files that even hints that Aether is going to kill us.”

Zoe looks unsure, her face turned down to the floor. She sighs. “If this is true, then it’s not your fault, Elena. You can’t do anything about future shock. But…you really should have told us.”

“I know,” I say. “I know. I just thought I could fix it or find out more before—”

Our headsets suddenly buzz, and then Lynne’s voice says, “The police are in the lobby. Get out now!”

22:18

We burst out of the lab. Lynne is already in the hallway, waiting. She grabs Adam’s arm. “Did you get it?”

“Yeah, we got it.”

There’s no time to say anything else. We rush down the hall and into the stairwell. My ankle throbs as I limp down the stairs behind the others, and after six flights, my ribs hurt so bad I almost want to lie down and die right there. Chris throws open the door to the parking garage and we dart inside.

“Freeze!” the police yell. “Hands up!”

Two cops stand in front of a police car, their guns pointed at us. No batons this time. Panic spikes in my blood. There’s no way out of this without getting arrested or shot. But with our time in the future running out, we can’t afford to do either.

A lighter flicks, and then Trent lobs one of the smoke bombs at the cops. They duck just long enough for us to start running in different directions as thick, white smoke begins to fill the air. I head toward Future-Adam’s parking spot, while fumbling for the gun in my backpack. I don’t want to use it, but if it’s the only way out of this mess…

Then I hear the unmistakable roar of gunfire and the plink of bullets on metal. I drop down, using a car for cover, and my own gun clatters to the ground. Shit, these cops are not messing around.

Lynne crouches next to me, her face pale. I forgot she was still with us. I don’t see any of the others or Future-Adam’s car. I grope around for the gun but can’t find it.

Adam’s voice cries out and my head jerks up. One of the cops twists Adam’s arm back, and when he struggles, the cop bashes him in the face with the butt of his gun. Adam falls, and a guttural scream erupts from my mouth. I grab the edge of the car to haul myself up, but then I hear Lynne yell, “No!”

There’s a loud bang next to me, and everything seems to shift into slow motion. Lynne’s arm jerks back from the recoil of the gun—my gun, now in her hands somehow—at the same time as the cop standing over Adam is knocked back. The cop bounces off the side of a car and then hits the ground with a thud. Before I can even process what Lynne has done, another shot fires. She collapses beside me.

For a second I can’t move. She shot him, she killed that cop, and then—oh God, no. I hunch close to the ground, hands trembling as I check her body. Blood gushes out of a hole in her chest and she’s not breathing. She’s already gone. I feel faint. Lynne’s dead, and my hands are covered with her blood, and I don’t know where anyone else is or if Adam’s okay, and I have to get out of here, we have to get out of here, right now.

Zoe appears in the smoke, tears running down her face as she hovers over Lynne’s body. Seeing her clears my head a little. I need to get Adam. We can’t leave without him.

I grab the gun and push myself to my feet, fighting through the pain. Adam’s sprawled on the ground a few feet away, smoke curling around his body. I can’t tell if he’s breathing or not, but he must be alive. He has to be.