Chapter 4- Marshal

4.3

Despite having left the group, Lecia followed the group to the motel and had camped close by to keep an eye on her people while distancing herself from Rocco.

She was a fair enough distance that only James knew where she was, but he wouldn’t tell on her. The two of them had talked for a bit each night so she could learn his stance on the merge.

He wasn’t in favor of it at all. By the fourth month, he was already expressing his concerns about Alyssa, saying that Rocco had taken an interest in her because he knew that Milo was also interested in her. “He thinks she’s something that he can just take. He doesn’t understand that you can’t just claim people as your own without their say in it because he’s so used to getting whoever or whatever he wants without a word.”

Whenever Filip left the group, the two of them met up and were told by Cyrus to wait for Milo’s command. He didn’t give many details, but said that Kyle came up with something and they were just waiting for the right time, then Milo would give them more details.

They had both been keeping to themselves since word of a plan got out, which likely raised suspicion from James.

The day they thought to expect the command was the day Elizabeth returned.

They were already on high alert and ended up reaching the end of the line when they noticed Elizabeth didn’t have anyone with her besides a woman nobody knew.

Once James got distracted, the two snuck onto the grounds and went to confront Elizabeth.

They were greeted with pure joy from both Kyle and Elizabeth. Elizabeth mentioned that her friend needed help and the four of them went off.

Kyle stayed in the courtyard at Elizabeth’s order. James was the first one to turn on Rocco by letting three of them in.

Francine questioned them, to which Lecia earned her allegiance by letting her know what she knew about the Hunters.

Those two were the only loyal ones the group needed. The others would follow suit as soon as they made their loyalty clear.

Now they all stood outside Alyssa’s apartment. Everyone but Elizabeth.

James and Milo grabbed Rocco and dragged him out of the room. James didn’t seem happy with what everyone knew was coming, but all the Voyagers knew Milo has been waiting months for this.

Lecia gave a knock to Elizabeth’s door after Milo told her to get her. “You’ve got to be present for whatever happens.”

Elizabeth sighed, leaving the room and locking the door behind her. “I know…”

Lecia followed her once she started down the stairs. “After all Rocco’s done to you, I’d figure you’d be overjoyed at what’s happening.”

“It’s just been a long day.” She have a fake smile that quickly faded when she saw that Lecia saw right through it. “Sure, we know where the kids are now, but there are conditions for getting both of them out that only he knows. We’re risking everything by killing him and if we lose everything, it’s my fault.”

“You’re not the one pulling the trigger and you were the only one who tried to keep Milo from doing it and everyone there saw it.” Lecia struggled to keep up with Elizabeth. “I’ll be sure to tell Joseph exactly that if he asks.”

She chuckled and put her hands in her pockets. “Coming from you, that’s pretty surprising.” She turned to Lecia, but hesitated on saying anything for a moment. “You know I always worked to try to find Morgan, right?”

As the two drew closer to where Milo and James had gone, Elizabeth stopped in her tracks. “There isn’t a person in the group who would let me forget it. I didn’t believe them and I lost trust in you because you showed no progress. No matter how hard you claimed to work, anytime I asked you about it or anyone else, it was always ‘I’m getting closer, I know I am.’ or ‘She’s trying her best.’ After some time, I started to expect you to tell me that she was dead and you’d just been hiding it from me.”

Elizabeth cupped her hands in front of her, a sad look in her eyes. “It was a result I expected as well. I could never find her because I found out from the letter that the Hunters are marked by coordinates that bring up nothing on a map.” She looked back at the motel, then to Lecia. “Lecia, I’m sorry if I was the reason you lost hope in all this, but I’m more sorry in the fact that I couldn’t help in the search.”

Lecia froze, trying to think about what to say. “I understand now that it wasn’t your fault, but I would appreciate it if you do what you’ve told Francine and James you’re going to do and make something out of this group. You have the coordinates, but Rocco had them at a time. You both have the opportunity and motive, so make it a priority.”

She nodded slowly and started talking in a whisper. “I’m not the only one who has the coordinates either… In fact, he has a map..”

“You’ll have to speak up, Elizabeth, especially with your new position.” Lecia crosses her arms and started walking again. “Rocco’s people aren’t loyal to you yet and it’s going to be the biggest task you’ve faced just to get them to handle being in the same room with you.” A smirk came across Lecia’s face as Elizabeth caught up to her. “Milo didn’t really take in the comment about you being pregnant, so you’ve got a second chance at that.”

She turned to Elizabeth to see a slight blush go over her cheeks as she looked to the ground. “In retrospect, we really chose an awful time to start trying.”

“I thought the same thing with Morgan. In your case, you might be better off here than you were in the city. If I know Marshal, he’ll find a way to make it back.” Lecia stepped past some bushes, heading down towards the creek.

Elizabeth looked back up, looking around her to see if anyone else was around. “It’s not him I’m worried about, I’ve got a feeling that he’s already out of the city. It’s Joseph, Eris, and Ethan that I’m worried about. They both want what’s right for Eris, but they’ve got conflicting views. One of them may want to leave, the other won’t. They’re going to go back and forth with each other until something happens and they have to listen to each other.”

“Thanks for finally joining us.” Milo spoke up immediately after Elizabeth finished. As the two got closer, Lecia could see that Milo still looked angry.

She saw James look at Elizabeth while she was looking over Rocco. “Can we just get this over with?” They waited for her to respond. “Elizabeth?”

She looked up to the three people around her before looking at her watch. “No.”

She kept her eyes on her watch before going to the very edge of the creek. Lecia followed her down, a slight panic creeping up on her as Elizabeth looked up from her watch and took a step into the water. “What are you doing?”

James looked down at the two, whispering something to Milo before running back towards the motel.

Elizabeth used her other foot to push herself towards the other end of the creek, quickly grabbing a tree root and pulling herself out of the water before she went too far down the creek. “Something’s not right here.”

Lecia mimicked Elizabeth’s actions, hoping for the same result. She made it look easy, though. The part she decided to cross was the thinnest part of the creek, but the waters could easily push anyone to the deepest part and take the life of someone who couldn’t save themselves. Once they crossed the creek, they wouldn’t be able to be seen from Milo’s position.

She followed closely behind Elizabeth as she looked back to her watch and started walking with caution. “If the watch is right, there should be somebody a few feet ahead.” She lowered her watch and patted her hip before her eyes went wide. “Milo has my gun, we can’t do this.”

“Do what?” A woman’s voice rang out. The voice wasn’t familiar to Lecia and seemed to scare Elizabeth a bit. “I believe you were the one who pushed somebody into that same creek a few years back, am I wrong?”

Elizabeth turned to Lecia before trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. “No, you’re not wrong. After Morgan and Milo disappeared, I went far past the motel but I had to cross the creek. When I got here, there was this guy with silver hair. He kept getting closer after I told him to get away and I panicked.”

“You pushed a man into the creek because you panicked?” The woman snickered.

“Is that not what I just said?” Lecia could tell Elizabeth was getting upset. She was never big on repeating herself and it looked like that was all the woman wanted from her.

Lecia leaned in close to Elizabeth. “Calm down, you’re giving her what she wants.”

Elizabeth locked eyes with Lecia before sighing and nodding. “Right.” The two put some distance between themselves and started looking for the woman. “Who are you?”

The two of them heard the tree branches above them rustling before something hit the ground behind them with a heavy force. They both turned around to see a woman with shoulder length silver hair. “Leona, leader of the Hunters and the greatest woman you’re ever gonna meet.”

She wore a white tracksuit, but didn’t make an effort to hide a knife she had on her. “That’s great, what do you want?”

“I was going to ask our mutual pal Rocco why he hasn’t responded to our demands, but I see your people got to him before I did.” She put her hands on her hips and showed off a wide smile. “I couldn’t just leave once I noticed your brother was getting ready to execute him. I had a better view from up there, but I’m never one to keep from a show.” She turned to Elizabeth, slightly cocking her head. “What gave me away?”

“The watch you stole.” Elizabeth held out her hand. “It’s programmed to give away the location of whoever it belongs to. You took the least believable watch and I’d appreciate it back.”

Leona looked over Elizabeth’s hand before grabbing her wrist and lifting up her hand to look at her ring. “Wait a second… you’re supposed to be dead.” She let go of Elizabeth’s wrist, a look of shock in her eyes. “You got shot, I saw your dead body.”

“Lots of people will say they did if it puts money in their pockets.” Any sign of fear in Elizabeth faded away as she took a defensive stance. “Where did you get the watch?”

Leona responded by taking to her own defense. “Your necklace is gone because we let whoever took someone down keep one thing from the victims. He chose your necklace and look at what you don’t have on.” She started to get angry. “I stole the watch from a thief, a murderer. He killed one of ours but we couldn’t kill him because he already knew we were around and he was armed.” Elizabeth took a step back as Leona reached for her knife. “I’m going to ask you one more time, why are you not dead?”

Leona pulled her arm back as she was getting ready to slash at Elizabeth. Lecia caught her arm and pulled it farther back until she released the knife. “You’ve got some more explaining to do. The kids, why’d you take them?”

When Leona didn’t answer, Lecia put more pressure on her arm and continued to do so until she gave in. “It’s common sense that people are going to want their children back, we just didn’t think you’d be such a mother who’d be grateful to get rid of her daughter.”

Lecia kicked behind Leona’s knee, sending her to the ground. “I’m not that mother, it’s your people who sent the information to the wrong group.”

As Lecia waited for Leona’s response, Elizabeth got closer to her. Lecia looked over Elizabeth, seeing she looked extremely unsettled.

Elizabeth grabbed Lecia’s wrist and started running back towards the motel, only stopping at the edge of the creek, taking a moment to look for a branch to get back across.

With one hard shove, they both went into the creek.

They were helpless in the current.

Lecia couldn’t grab onto any of the passing branches and Elizabeth was one of the few Voyagers who couldn’t swim.

Elizabeth’s grip on Lecia’s wrist loosened before she let go completely.

Any sign of light faded before someone reached into the water and grabbed the same wrist that Elizabeth had let go of. They were able to pull her above the water and allow a second pair of hands to grab her other wrists and make an attempt at getting her out.

“I think her shoe is caught in something.”

“Then get it unstuck.”

“That’s not helpful. Here, give me your hand and I’ll go under to try to fix it.”

At the command, the sound of splashing water greeted Lecia’s ears before whoever went into the water pulled on her leg, trying to get her free.

At least that’s what she thought happened.

She opened her eyes to find herself in front of the tree that Leona had dropped from with Elizabeth again.

The two shared a mutual look of confusion before they both started a walk towards the creek. “What just happened?”

After getting far enough away from the tree, Elizabeth stopped walking. “You remember what Leona said, right? That I should be dead?” Lecia nodded. “That’s just it, I died again. There was no way we were both getting out of that alive and as far as I know, I couldn’t bring you back.”

“Elizabeth, what are you talking about?”

“Leona pushed us into the creek and if I didn’t let go of you then you would have drowned.” She looked really confused and a bit scared. “Chelsea said that whenever she got to Milo’s position, Rocco had gotten free and shot her whenever she came around.”

“How can you be talking about this like it’s normal?”

She shrugged, looking at the other side of the creek. “I don’t know what’s going on, I really don’t. All I know is that there’s somebody out there who does know what’s going on.”

The two crossed the creek, but they were both uneasy about it because of their latest memories.

They reached Milo’s area and saw a panicked look on his face. “Where did you two go?”

“We just went for a talk.” Elizabeth feigned a smile. “We need to handle Rocco now.” Milo turned to Rocco and aimed the gun at his head, pulling the trigger on Elizabeth’s command. She looked at her watch. “The time of death is 8:26.”

The three of them walked back to the motel, James, Chelsea, Alyssa, and Francine immediately greeting them.

Milo reached out, pulling Elizabeth back before she rejoined the group. “What did you two do at the creek?”

“We just went across the water for a talk, it’s not a big deal.”

“Then explain to me how Lecia got stuck underwater, you just disappear and com back to act like it’s nothing big.”

Francine froze in place, looking back at the siblings. “You saw it too?”

James looked to Chelsea, then at the siblings as well. “Rocco got free, how do you explain that?” He paused for a moment before turning to Chelsea again. “You know what I’m talking about.”

Elizabeth sighed and looked at her feet, slightly kicking the dirt before she looked up again, refusing to even fake a smile. “I disappeared because I died. If you go back to the creek, you’ll see proof that Lecia got stuck and if you check my watch, you’ll see that Marshal’s watch is in the area. He doesn’t have it, but the woman who does have it is the one who pushed us into the water.”

Francine looked like she was getting ready to dispute something Elizabeth had said, which prompted Lecia to take to her defense. “Her name is Leona and she’s apparently the leader of the Hunters. She was talking about how Elizabeth got shot, which none of us have any memory of.”

Chelsea nodded but seemed a bit reluctant to join the conversation. “We both got shot yesterday and we both died, but she went first. There’s a link that prevents one of us from dying without the other dying as well.” She turned to James. “Rocco did break free and he shot me, you saw it too. When Elizabeth and I are dead, we’re posed with multiple options. We can both return to a few moments before the first death, we can go further in time, one of us could stay dead and allow the other to go back and live a relatively normal life, or we could both stay dead.”

Lecia saw Milo’s face go pale as he took in the information. Elizabeth looked afraid, but she continued on with the topic. “I didn’t want to further time because I didn’t know if you guys could get Lecia free.”

Francine looked between Chelsea and Elizabeth. “And you can do this freely?”

They both shook their heads. “Going further in time puts us a fair distance from our target location, going back means our bodies will feel the effects of how we died.”

“Words really can’t describe it right now.” Elizabeth looked back at the ground.

Alyssa had kept quiet, only taking in information up until that point. “I know the gene you two are talking about.”

They both looked at her with surprise. “You do?”

She nodded. “It was given to a few select individuals. It was given to Elizabeth as insurance that the Neil’s would stay in the city, but it didn’t work out as planned. It’s a sensitive gene that can cause major issues for Elizabeth and Chelsea both. It was programmed to pass on to the first born of those affected, just so it wouldn’t die out, but instead of forming a new connection, the child would be linked to whatever connection their mother has and would have to learn from their connectors. I’ve got something I want to test.”

She looked to Elizabeth for permission. “What are you going to do?”

She didn’t answer before smacking Elizabeth’s arm and testing her reaction. “When those linked together are united, their mental strength is stronger than their physical strength. You didn’t feel when Filip stabbed you a few months ago because your physical strength was heightened, but you felt that slap because now that you and Chelsea have finally met, your connection has been finalized. Before you met, either of you could have died and the other would have been fine since the connection was basically nonexistent.”

Chelsea looked a bit confused. “The first night we met, I thought I’d died and Joseph and Marshal even commented that they were pretty certain I was dead, but nothing happened to Elizabeth. What’s the deal with that?”

“I’m not sure I’d trust their judgment on that, though. Joseph’s very quick to make a call and observant isn’t an adjective that I’d use to describe Marshal.” Elizabeth paused to think. “Either way, they were the ones keeping you around for a majority of the time.”

Alyssa crossed her arms. “From what I’ve heard, all of the scouts have been put through some pretty twisted training, but they know how to save lives. Joseph’s wife is terminally ill and he was the leader, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume he knows a thing or two about saving a life. You may have died, but there was nothing that could have killed her before you got brought back.”

“How does the gene work?” Francine questioned, her voice giving away her nervous feelings.

“From what I’ve heard, they’re inexperienced and the gene can’t do much damage. If they become too reliant on it, it’ll take control. They were supposed to go through training that would make them reliant on it because when they did, they would become weapons. They wouldn’t feel anything and there would be nothing going through their heads. Their bodies would continue on and become fiercely loyal to their alignment but nothing could really stop them. You can’t reason with somebody that’s not there.” Alyssa twirled a stray lock of hair around her index finger. “The gene is capable of a lot more than just time games, but progressing any further will take more from them. If a child were to be born to a weaponized mother, he’d fall under her alignment unless somebody else separated them and raised him for their own.”

Lecia looked to Elizabeth and saw tears building up in her eyes. Chelsea looked to be in complete shock, her entire face having gone pale. James looked like he was going to be sick. “And if the person who separated them was the child’s father?”

“Unless the father was part of the gene’s connection, it wouldn’t matter much, the child would remain under what it’s taught from the father.” She shrugged slightly. “It’d be better than being a weapon since the day you were born, though.”

The group went silent before Francine spoke again, sounding more confident in herself. “It sounds to me like there’s more than one connection going on.”

“It’s possible.” Alyssa faced her now. “There were multiple attempts at constructing the perfect gene and a lot of them were failed attempts. I’ve done a lot of research on the gene and met people who’ve had similar designs, but I’ve never seen a confirmed connection for myself until now.”

“What about Milo?” Elizabeth’s voice cracked. It was the quietest Lecia had ever heard her. “We were both genetically engineered, so what about him?”

“As far as I know, he doesn’t have that specific gene. You were both engineered by the same geneticist, but the gene wasn’t even thought of until after Milo had been born.” Alyssa looked to Chelsea, Lecia could see she was suspicious of something. “It was a trick to keep your family around by forming a connection between Elizabeth and Isaac’s own daughter.” She frowned a little. “Chelsea, I hate to call you out like this, but I need you to be honest with these people about who you are. I know who you are and Elizabeth does, but it’s not fair to keep the others in the dark.”

All eyes turned to Chelsea as she looked to the ground. “I haven’t been honest with your group on my identity. My name is Chelsea Hampton, daughter of Isaac Hampton. I haven’t come to the Voyagers to cause trouble, I’ve come to get away from trouble.”

Francine turned to Elizabeth, her face red. “You lied to us?!”

Elizabeth stayed quiet before she sighed. “Yes, I lied and I did it to protect Chelsea. I knew you guys wouldn’t accept her as Chelsea Hampton, so I made her lie about who she was. With Rocco around and the Hunters being an unknown threat, I didn’t want to risk you guys throwing her out or letting him have her.”

Lecia could read the emotions of the other people in the group, most of them. Milo was the only one who seemed like he had cut a tie between himself and the current situation. “Did the others know?”

She looked to her brother and a pained expression crossed her face. “The others in the city? Yes, they knew.”

James seemed to be indifferent towards the whole subject, but still nervous. “I don’t know if I can trust a leader like that…”

Chelsea forced a smile. “Then don’t. If you’re so concerned about it, don’t trust her leadership. Marshal’s heading this direction and he’s a day out on foot at most, so trust him, trust Francine, but don’t start a panic over it all. Once the scouts return in a week, I’m leaving. I don’t intend to hurt anybody or anything while I’m here.”

Milo looked at his sister and frowned. “I don’t think we have much of a choice for the next day then. She may have lied, but she did it to protect Chelsea. There’s no denying anyone here would have just given her to Rocco if she was completely honest about who she was.”

James crossed his arms and looked at Chelsea, a look in his eyes that Lecia couldn’t decipher. “We don’t know how long she was with the others in the city or with Elizabeth alone, but it’s safe to say that she’s had time to betray them or get Elizabeth chipped. I don’t think she’s in the wrong for getting away from trouble or staying away from Rocco. Things would have turned out a lot differently today if she outright said she was Isaac’s daughter.”

Lecia crosses her arms and glared at Elizabeth. “Were you planning on mentioning this to any of us?”

“Um… maybe.” She knew the answer was an unpopular one. “There’s no way we would have been able to hide her identity forever, but you guys need to remember that she’s a target too.” She looked over all of them. “I hate to say it but I think you guys are the only ones who can really be trusted with such a secret.”

“Chelsea, is there anything else about Marshal’s whereabouts that you do know?” Alyssa redirected the conversation at the right time, nobody noticing the shift in topic.

Chelsea folded her hands in front of her. “I know he left because he killed the man who killed us the first time. My father informed him of our deaths and the head geneticist talked him into it and gave a distraction at headquarters.”

“How did you find this out?” Milo seemed unwilling to trust Chelsea’s word.

“I can answer that.” Alyssa chimed in with a smile on her face. “Chelsea’s able to access all of Elizabeth’s knowledge on any topic or any person she wants whenever they link minds, Elizabeth can do the same. Back to the question at hand, she knows what happened to Marshal and where he is because Elizabeth and the baby, their first born, already have a strong connection with him and by Elizabeth and Chelsea linking minds, she was likely able to access some of his memories through Elizabeth.”

James looked a bit confused, much like the rest of the group. “What?” He shook his head. “Never mind, I think I’ve got it. You said the first born is afflicted with the gene, but I’ve got a few questions regarding that.” He waited for Alyssa to turn her attention to him. “I’m guessing since not many people have the gene, it’s only programmed to what should be expected. How do we know it’s not going to get passed on to any other kids either of them has?”

“It’s pretty complicated, but in Elizabeth’s case, I can say that I’m pretty certain only the first born will get it. I wouldn’t be so sure if Marshal was a carrier, but Kyle and Dawn were both in the system and neither of them had a trace of the gene. There were some efforts to see what would pass on to the child Dawn was carrying but they stopped looking into it after Kyle questioned the morality of it all.” She paused, thinking for a moment. “It doesn’t really matter who has it, it’s set up to always pass on to the first born, even with conflicting genes. I’m not sure how it’s going to react with conflicting genes, but I know that Kyle had a gene that conflicts with it. Dawn didn’t and Marshal wasn’t in the system, so I’m not sure if he has it or not.”

“It’s going to pass onto their first, but what happens to it after that?”

Alyssa looked like she was trying to process the question. “Are you asking if it’ll pass on to further generations?” James nodded. “Yeah, the first of anyone afflicted. The two ways to get rid of it would be to have no children or have the gene forcefully removed, which is a pretty dangerous task. It was programmed to be almost like a virus and called a gene to keep from raising any suspicions.”

“Say two people with the gene have a child, what would happen?”

“It wouldn’t be great, not even ideal.” She frowned. “The child would be weaponized immediately. That was the intention with the gene, obviously not with Chelsea and Elizabeth, but further down the line whenever it had a chance to evolve. It would be easier to become reliant on it as it evolved and would make weaponization more likely.”

Lecia looked over to Elizabeth to see a guilty look on her face. “Getting it removed would require the mother to go in to a geneticist while she’s still expecting. If it does work, won’t it just pass on to the next child?”

“I’m not sure on that one.” Alyssa faced Lecia. “I didn’t look too much into the removal of it because there was no intention of removing it. There’s a three year difference between Elizabeth and Chelsea, but I’ve got no idea when they left for the Voyagers.”

“When Elizabeth was three.” Milo was hesitant to join the conversation and likely didn’t see any reason to join it, but Lecia knew he just wanted to see where it was going.

Francine scratched the back of her neck, a giveaway that she was thinking back. “If I’m remembering right, Onyx doesn’t recommend altering any genes after the second trimester. If there’s a three year difference, then Chelsea’s mother was well past the second trimester or had already had her whenever they left.”

“I don’t think that’s the case.” Chelsea looked to the ground. “Marshal told me Elizabeth is turning twenty-seven in the next month, so there’s nearly a four year difference between us.”

Alyssa seemed thrown off, a bit confused. “Milo, when exactly did your family leave the city?”

“A few months after Elizabeth turned three.”

“Then this isn’t adding up.” James thought on it for a minute before saying anything. “They would have had plenty of time to remove the gene from Chelsea. Do you think they gave it to somebody else to make up for Elizabeth leaving?”

“If Chelsea really is a Hampton then her mother would have gotten the best medical treatment possible, there wouldn’t have been an issue removing it while she was still expecting.” Francine looked to the motel and lowered her voice whenever she spoke about the Hamptons.

“That can’t be it because those two were genetically altered before they were implanted.” Alyssa noticed the look she got from James. “Milo, Elizabeth, and Chelsea weren’t naturally conceived.”

Elizabeth sat on the ground, the others doing so once they realized they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. “I know what she’s talking about.” Chelsea looked to Milo and Elizabeth. “Your parents couldn’t have kids of their own, but I was modified specifically for the gene in question.”

Gregory Remey

Time with the Hunters had been hard.

As their servant, Gregory had to handle anything they didn’t want to do, which was a lot of things with Morgan.

In his time spent, he realized how cruel they were towards Morgan and would have rather they continued pushing anything to do with her into him.

Whenever she was even a second slow on doing what they wanted, she’d get hit upside the head. If she wasn’t doing something right, they’d scream at her until she broke down or she finally got it. If she was in the wrong place, they’d force her wherever she needed to be an scream at her some more.

There had been days where the Hunters decided that Morgan didn’t deserve food because of how she messed something up. She said it happened to her a lot of times in the two years she’d been there. On those days, Gregory would sneak her some food just to make sure she wasn’t starving like they intended her to be.

After a few weeks with them, there came a day when Leona had told him he needed to be ready to leave as soon as she gave the command.

It caught him off guard because it was two in the morning when she ordered he be ready, but he knew he needed to wake Morgan up, otherwise she’d just get screamed at later.

Once the two had gotten ready, they were put in a car with Leona and two other Hunters.

“Where are we going?”

The seating arrangement was made so that one of the Hunters was between Gregory and Morgan so either of them could be grabbed if they started something.

“To visit one of Morgan’s old friends.” Leona was the one driving. “Your father is in no position to meet our demands anymore, so we’re not waiting for him. Instead, we’re taking the challenge straight to a Voyager.”

Gregory was seated behind her. He saw a watch on her wrist that he hadn’t noticed before. “Where did you get the watch?”

“Why does it matter to you?” That was Leona’s way of telling him to stop talking or she’d get mad.

“Why can’t my dad meet your demands?”

“Because he’s dead.” He saw her grin in the rear view mirror. “Overthrown and executed by his own people, isn’t it grand?”

He knew better to respond to her question. She’d get mad with an answer she didn’t like and only continue the remarks if he said something she did like.

The drive was only a few hours, but Morgan had fallen asleep around thirty minutes into the car ride.

When they stopped, Leona and the Hunter in the passenger seat got out and started walking around.

They wandered out of Gregory’s view, but he knew Leona’s whistle when he heard it. It was the call to get out of the car.

He got out of the car, letting the Hunter in the middle get out from his side. He tried to wake her up before the Hunter did.

The Hunter opened her door and pulled her out of the car, dragging her to Gregory’s side of the car.

He stopped paying attention when a gunshot rang through the fields. He looked to Leona and noticed an angry look on her face as she yelled into the fields. She turned to him and pointed, motioning him and Morgan to her.

She grabbed Morgan by the shirt whenever she got close enough and pulled her in front of her. “Just like I said, she’s here! Come out!”

“Which one are we looking for?” The Hunter from the backseat joined the three of them.

She looked to him. “The Sharpshooter. He’s around and already fired a shot once Joey got too close.”

Gregory heard a small gasp from Morgan before she covered her mouth. “What is it?”

Before she could answer, Leona shushed the both of them and called out to the fields again. “I’m willing to forgive what you did to my friend if you come out.”

The Hunter started walking closer to the direction where Leona was yelling, slowing down once he got closer to any potential hiding spots. He looked around for a bit before calling back to Leona. “The only person here is Joey. Well, he was here when he was alive. A clean shot through the head.”

Gregory looked over to Morgan and saw her smile turn into a look of pure sadness.

“He left?” Leona scoffed, sounding a bit upset. “He kills the first person he sees and then just leaves?!” She grabbed Morgan’s shoulders, spinning her around to face her. “Your buddy just set you up for a death sentence. Joey is dead because of you, do you understand that?”

He saw the tears in Morgan’s eyes and knew that her crying would only upset Leona more. “She didn’t have anything to do with it, we weren’t even away from the car when Joey got shot!”

Leona shoved Morgan away from her to stand face to face with Gregory when another shot rang out.

The two of them stumbled, Leona immediately looking to her other Hunter to make certain he was still alive. When she faced the other direction, she found the culprit. “You missed.”

“I’d rather miss and not potentially kill a kid than the other way around.” It was a man’s voice. Gregory wouldn’t look his way out of fear, so he kept an eye on Morgan. She sat up off the ground and faced the man, her face remaining neutral. “You got me out of cover, so what do you want?”

Gregory saw the other Hunter coming back to Leona. “I was wondering what brought you and your wife together, but now I see that you both waste no time.” He heard a chuckle from Leona. “Good for you two.”

“Can you hurry up and say what it is that you want? I’ve got places to be and people after me, I don’t plan to spend much time with you.” The Hunter stopped next to Leona. “By the way, if he gets any closer, I’m shooting him.”

Leona grabbed Gregory’s shoulder. “Craig, I want-“

“Greg.” He looked Leona straight in the eyes. Her eyes were a piercing blue.

“What?”

“My name is Greg, not Craig.”

He could tell Leona wasn’t going to do anything to do him. Whoever this man was, he had nothing to do with Gregory and probably didn’t care whether he lived or died. She faked a laugh and pushed him towards the man. “You’re going to go over there and talk with our friend for a bit, okay?”

Gregory looked to the man and saw he looked just as confused with the order as Gregory felt. “You’re sending a kid to negotiate for you?”

Leona put her hand in the air. “As of right now, I am unaware of your existence. Greg will tell me what the two of you discussed and I’ll come up with a negotiation then.”

After looking around for a bit, he lowered his gun and put some distance between himself and the Hunters, only allowing Gregory to follow. “What’s part of negotiating?”

“I never did the negotiating because someone always gets screwed over in the end.” The man commented, refusing to look back at Gregory. “I know what she wants from me, but I’m telling you right now that I’m not giving it up.”

“What does she want from you?”

“My people.” He sounded angry, but any interactions with Leona typically left anyone feeling the same way. “She’s got the wrong person, though, I’m not the leader of anything.”

“Even your marriage?” It was an attempt at calming the man down.

He knew it worked a little bit when he heard the man chuckle. “Sometimes.” He went silent before he stopped, judging the distance between the Hunters and himself. He slightly nodded before finally looking at Gregory. “So what’s your story?”

Gregory thought back to what the man said about having people after him and places to be with no time to waste and felt it important that he didn’t waste his time. “I was supposed to be used for ransom like Morgan but my dad didn’t want me in the first place, so the Hunters decided I would work for them.”

“Who’s your dad? And what about your mom? I’ve never seen you around.”

“My dad’s name is Rocco and my mom is Francine. Nobody was supposed to know he was my dad in the first place because it was bad for his reputation.” Gregory frowned slightly. “My mom did a lot to cover for him. She even dyed my hair and made up a story about how my dad was one of the people who split from the group.”

“Really?”

Gregory nodded. “I got my mom’s blond hair, but it was a strawberry blond and he told her that it was too risky and had her dye my hair. The last time my mom and my fake dad were in a room together, she had a knife pulled on him. She told the rest of the group it was because he didn’t want to be a dad and he left the group because of that. I was always told to remember that his name was Marshal but I didn’t take his last name because he didn’t want me in the first place.”

“I’m glad you know that it was just a story, because that’s not why I left.” He paused. “I did leave because she pulled a knife on me, but not because I didn’t want to be a dad.”

“What are you talking about?”

He stopped himself before he went on. “Nothing important.” He looked over Gregory for a moment before sighing. “Listen, I’m not leaving you with the Hunters and I’m not leaving Morgan either.” He started walking back to Leona. “Come on.”

She was watching them the entire time, but her face lit up once they started back. She waited for them with Morgan and the other Hunter. “Did you two reach an agreement?”

“I’m not negotiating with a child.” He crossed his arms. “I wanted to ask you a few questions.”

“Go ahead.” She sounded pleased for once, like she was finally getting her way.

“I can’t give you the group because I’m in no leadership position and I wouldn’t give them to you either way, do you understand that?” She nodded. “Great. You already know I have some of your records from a backpack that one of your goons carried around, you have my watch. Here’s the deal, I get the watch back and I take the kids, you get anything you want from me.”

She looked him up and down. “I’ll give you two options. I want the entire backpack back or your fingers.”

“My fingers?”

She nodded and held up two fingers on her right hand. “Your right index and middle fingers. I want you to cut them off.”

“So I don’t pose any threat with a gun to you guys, I get it.” Gregory saw the man’s face go pale as he said something inaudible under his breath. “Will you people give up if I comply with either of those demands?”

Leona scoffed. “I thought you were smart people. We’ll stop messing with you for the day but that’s it.” She crossed her arms as well. “If you do decide to cut off your fingers, you prove to us that you earned that information, the watch, and those kids, we make sure you don’t bleed out, then we leave.”

The man kneeled to look Gregory in the eyes and lowered his voice to a whisper. “This is what I meant when I said somebody always gets screwed over in negotiating. I lose in either of those options.” He sighed. “My group needs that information more than anything, but I obviously need my fingers.” He looked to Morgan and Leona before looking back to Gregory. “Take this as a lesson in gambling, what do you say I do?”

A choice here decided Marshal would give up the backpack.

4.5

By dinner, things had calmed down.

Kyle was normally one of the first people there because he had a pretty clear schedule and didn’t like to be late to one of the few planned events the group had.

Elizabeth, Chelsea, Francine, and Lecia joined him at the table whenever they finished with what they were doing.

The five present now, along with Alyssa and the scouts whenever they were around, was the group they’d gotten used to sitting with to avoid any run-ins with Rocco’s people despite Francine and James being two of them.

The two kids sat with their mothers, which constantly remind Kyle of what Marshal had told him earlier. He meant to take it up with Elizabeth but decided against it when he noticed a sour look on her face. While the two were acquainted with each other, he didn’t want to question her on her mood, so he left that alone too.

Most of them ate in silence, a clear burden weighing over each of them.

“Mom, what’s wrong with everyone?” Kyle barely heard the boy next to him when he whispered to his mother.

Francine looked around the table and other tables, noticing it was only their table that seemed to be in a down mood. “I’m not sure.” She gave a slight frown before looking over the people at the table. “I can understand Marshal missing dinner, the kids have been complaining about being tired all day, but where’s Alyssa?”

“She and Marshal went out to get something.” Elizabeth spoke up from the other end of the table, idly messing with her silverware rather than actually eating her food. “He didn’t give me any more information than that.”

‘Does that play a part in why she’s upset?’ Kyle looked over to her, studying her for a minute. His time at Onyx introduced him to all types of personalities and gave him plenty of situations to learn body language. She was visibly upset, trying to keep herself busy by messing with the silverware.

He didn’t get the time to finish his thoughts on her before Grady slid into the seat next to her. “Looks like we were both ditched by the same person.”

She refused to look at Grady but the resentment building up on her face gave anyone watching a tell of how she really felt about Grady. “No offense but I would rather he ditch me to do something beneficial to the group. What did you want from him?”

“Just to catch up for old time’s sake.” Grady picked up on her tone and while it might have gone unnoticed to the others, Kyle could tell he was getting upset with her. “There a problem with that?”

Chelsea leaned over to Elizabeth, whispering something into her ear. She still looked nervous whenever she pulled back and Elizabeth still looked angry. The table went silent as everyone watched Elizabeth try to contain herself.

Just as nearly everyone expected her to lash out, she took a deep breath, got up, and left the dining room.

Grady looked a bit disappointed. It was as if he knew he could get under her skin with just his presence and he enjoyed it. “Guess the years change everyone.”

Chelsea looked past the empty seat next to her and over to Grady. “Is there something you want?”

He seemed to ignore her as he leaned on the table to look at Lecia. “I was hoping one of them could answer that for me.”

Kyle briefly saw Chelsea give him a look before getting up and motioning for him to follow. They went to an empty corner and Chelsea crossed her arms. “I don’t trust him. What would he need from Marshal, Elizabeth, and Lecia? The only thing they have in common is that they left Rocco’s group, but so did Milo, Cyrus, and Filip but he didn’t try to pull anything while they were here.”

“He’s more intimidated by the scouts, you can tell by the way he acts around them.” Kyle knew it was true, but even hearing it from his own mouth made him feel like something was wrong. “He didn’t take Elizabeth seriously from the start because she’s not the type of person to hold a strong lead and he knows that much. He doesn’t take the rest of you seriously because Rocco was insistent on destroying the reputation of everyone here. He had an easier time with the people he already knew, which was everyone but you, Alyssa, and I.”

Chelsea went silent for a minute, uncrossing her arms and her eyes going wide. “You picked all that up from him sitting there for three minutes?”

“No.” Kyle crossed his arms. “Say what you will about Onyx, most of it is true either way, but they have some great classes for workers to take. If your father lets you work with them when you go back, I recommend you look into them.”

“It’s not like you had anything to do but work for sixteen years.” Chelsea’s look of surprise turned into a frown. “How did you stay sane for that long after losing your entire family in the same day?”

“The same way Marshal did.” Kyle started going back to the table. “He found a support system with the Voyagers, I found a support system of people in Onyx. We both kept ourselves distracted fairly well, but there’s just a few things we did differently from each other.”

When they returned to the table, Grady was still talking to Lecia, his tone still pretty negative.

The rest of dinner went on smoothly.

The kids eventually fell asleep at the table, knowing they would have to stay until their mothers had cleaned up the dining room before they could go to sleep.

Elizabeth returned when Marshal and Alyssa came back from their trip. Grady turned his attention to Marshal when he was around, giving Lecia a break from his pestering.

Kyle noticed that he was trying to be friendly with Marshal, more so than he was with Elizabeth or Lecia earlier.

Just a dinner was coming to a close, the scouts came into the dining room. They all seemed bothered by something and said they needed to talk with Marshal.

“They’re not supposed to be back this soon…” Elizabeth grew more concerned without answers.

For once, Grady seemed to agree with her. “They’ve only been gone for a day. Does that mean something went wrong?”

“I don’t want to think so, but it’s more likely than we think.” Alyssa frowned. “The Hunters are pissed because of Marshal. We had a run-in with one of them and they went on about how they should be following orders and shoot us before they stormed away.”

Elizabeth and Chelsea shared a look before they both got up and left the dining room.

Lecia looked at Morgan and stood, whispering in her ear. “Stay here.”

The other tables noticed people leaving with a sense of urgency, turning their attention to the other people remaining.

“What’s going on?” One of Rocco’s people questioned Grady.

He got up without a word and followed them out.

Francine was the final push everyone else needed. “Kyle, stay here with the kids.” After she left, the others followed. Some out of concern, fear, or just being nosy.

When they got outside, they found Grady and Marshal had gotten face to face with a woman with silver hair.

She was doing most of the talking. “Have you told these people what you did to get those children back?” She looked to the group that just went through the doors. “How you gave up all the information you had just so you could protect yourself and get those two back? Or how you murdered two people in cold blood?”

A young boy pushed his way to the front, anger on his face. “It wasn’t cold blood, it was justified.”

She smirked and kneeled to meet his eyes. “Gregory, you have no mind to be defending these people after they abandoned you.” She looked past Greg to look at Morgan, who was peeking behind the corner. “And you, you’ll find that even after so long apart from you that they still don’t want you here.”

One of Rocco’s people, a woman with black hair named Samantha, pulled Greg behind her, putting herself between Greg and Leona. “What are you going to get out of damaging the kids? If you need a memo, you’re the one who kidnapped them, they’re innocent.”

Leona got off her knee and dusted off her pants, looking Samantha in the eyes with a fake smile. “I don’t think I know you, who might you be?”

“Samantha Carlyle.” She straightened out her posture, trying as hard as she could to keep from showing the fear she was feeling.

In the short time Greg and Samantha interacted with Leona, Marshal and Grady were able to slip away.

Leona looked Samantha up and down before nodding. “Who do you belong to?”

“There’s no rift between former groups here.” Elizabeth spoke up, knowing Samantha’s answer would only fuel Leona. “So stop trying to create one.”

“I don’t think you need to get involved with this, I’m sure these people don’t know your little secret, do they?” Leona practically jumped to face Elizabeth.

“Most of them don’t.” A small smirk came across her face. “But if it’s a challenge you want, then I’ll take you on.”

“It’s your entire reputation, I don’t expect someone like you to risk it all like that.”

Elizabeth turned to the group, a sigh before she spoke. “Alyssa, you remember what happened at the creek the other night, right?” Alyssa nodded in response. “And some of you might even remember Rocco getting free that night. That night, Chelsea and I died for the second time since we’ve met each other. We carry a gene that practically makes us weapons.” Samantha saw a frown come over Elizabeth’s face and gave her a reassuring smile. “When we’re around each other, almost nothing can kill us and keep us dead. When Leona talks about my little secret, she means that. There’s no secret behind it, anyone who was with Onyx or had access to their records knows about it.” She turned to Leona. “What next?”

Greg laughed, looking at Leona from behind Samantha. “You didn’t think she was going to do it, now you’ve got nothing on the group.”

She crossed her arms and rocked herself on her feet. “That’s not true.” Her tone was less ‘playful’ now as she scanned the group in front of her. “Did any of you know that Samantha here once pulled a gun on the very child she’s protecting?” Her eyes narrowed at Milo and she let out a laugh. “You… you. The things you did while you were with Onyx, did you think nobody would find out?”

“That’s not fair.” Samantha was trying to keep Leona from turning around, knowing Grady and Marshal were setting something up. “It’s different when they with Onyx because they’re not in their right mind, they’re under control.”

“Uh-huh…” She took a step towards Samantha, watching to see if she would move or flinch. “They remember everything from Onyx, so what’s to say the chip has no effect and they haven’t turned on you people already?” She looked back at Milo. “It’s real strange how once he comes back and the doctor comes with him, Onyx found the Voyagers, don’t you all agree?”

Her eyes danced between people before landing back on Samantha. “No, I don’t agree. The Voyagers have been in the same place for seven years, the scouts have been all around, there’s no way they would have been able to go much longer without being found.”

“You’re really defending these people.” Leona balanced herself on her heels before spinning around, her eyes closed. “I guess you’re all just a waste of time then.” Once she opened her eyes, she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun. A slight panic arose out of her. “I have information you people want, just listen to me.”

Marshal looked over the group, seeing their reactions to her statement. Most of them seemed curious of what she said. He looked back to Grady with a nod. “Don’t shoot, don’t lower.” Grady kept his eyes on Leona, but took the command. Marshal looked at Leona, the area in complete silence for a moment while she looked back with pleading eyes. “Talk. I don’t trust you enough to have him lower the gun, consider yourself lucky nobody’s shot yet.”

She gave a hesitant nod, putting her hands up. “Onyx is working on more biological weapons. They consider Chelsea and Elizabeth’s gene to be a failure, so they’re working on producing new weapons in animals, rather than humans.”

“Animals?”

She nodded, trying to keep Grady from pulling the trigger. “They’ve kept it under wraps for years because they didn’t know what was going to happen with those two but after they got shot at the bad, they decided it would be easier to inject various animals at once. Nobody will know what is inflicted at that point and we’ll all face the same fate.”

Marshal sighed, looking to Grady. “Drop it.” He looked back to Leona. “Find certain proof. I don’t trust you and I have no reason to trust you but from what I hear, you’re hardly a threat.”

Grady lowered the gun and backed away from Leona. “She’s all talk, huh?”

“She won’t take a shot herself because she can’t face being wrong. Instead, she commands other people when to shoot and lashes out at them in the case they’re wrong.”

Leona narrowed her eyes, clenching her fists. “That sounds familiar, does it not?”

“It sounds like you, I don’t know who else you’d be referring to.” James spoke up.

“The first thing you tried to do was call a shot on us.” Milo joined in, his voice frustrated. “You gave us an ultimatum of bringing you here or getting killed.”

Marshal looked to Chelsea and Elizabeth, knowing they were Leona’s actual problem. Chelsea seemed a bit concerned, as the rest of the group did, but she looked to be holding it together. Elizabeth gave a reassuring smile that he could see right through. “Like I said, bring some evidence next time you come around and consider yourself lucky.” Grady moved out of Leona’s way. “Leave.”

A small smirk found its way onto her face. “Fine, I’ll go, but don’t expect me to give you any of my information.”

Nobody moved until Leona had disappeared, it was then they knew they could take a deep breath. They split into their own groups after that, talking among each other.

“I’m sure you don’t like me much, but you should know these people don’t have a leader worth a damn to follow.” Grady confronted Marshal once everyone has split off. “They’re all confused right now but once the confusion wears off, you better hope you have a grip on most of ‘em.”

“And where do you stand on that?”

“James already likes you guys, Francine and Greg are practically your people already, and I don’t really have anything against any of you.” He looked across the yard to Samantha. “Samantha’s nervous about bein’ with you guys. Vince don’t like any of you and he don’t like James for sticking up for Elizabeth, only difference between him and Horatio is that Horatio will barely tolerate James.”

Before Marshal could respond, the scouts approached the two. They looked about each other before Milo started talking. “We’re sorry for bringing her here, it’s just-“

“Don’t worry about it, she gave you guys a choice and you chose the option that benefits the group.” James looked to be taken by surprise by the interruption. “She would have had all of you killed and the only person that benefits is her. She’s not an ally, not even a potential ally, so steer clear of her.”

“What about her group?” The group had settled down a bit, their initial panic and confusion turning to a search for answers.

It was then he realized that no matter who said it or how many times they said it, there was a undeniable rift between Rocco’s people and the Voyagers. “The one thing we can all agree on is that there’s no reason one of her people should be around here. For now, we won’t be letting any of her people into the group, there’s no benefit to taking the risk.”

Horatio nodded slightly but kept his silence. Samantha shifted her weight between her feet before looking down. “I know I said that there was a rift, but what about the people who don’t want to stay here?”

Marshal shrugged. “It’s your choice, I don’t want to keep you here if you don’t want to be here. All I ask is that whoever decides to leave gives a warning in advance.”

He looked back to the Voyagers, seeing that most of them seemed satisfied with what he was saying. Milo was an exception, but his reason was no secret. He just wanted the best for Elizabeth and Alyssa, a task that seemed difficult after Rocco.

“It’s best we clean up the dining room and head to our rooms for the night. I understand it seems a little ridiculous to have someone tell you when to go to your rooms, but I want all of you to know that it’s in your best interests. The kids can back me up when I say this, Leona isn’t someone we want to piss off. We don’t want to engage her in areas where she’s most at ease, an area like this, because we hardly know the area like she does.”

Lecia pulled Morgan closer to her, keeping her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “She’s not above using our weaknesses against us either.” She looked to Elizabeth for permission to continue. “The only people who knew that Elizabeth couldn’t swim before two days ago were the scouts. Only them. It was almost as if Leona knew it herself when she pushed us into the creek.”

Elizabeth looked a bit embarrassed. “Nobody knew for five years and I don’t think it would have casually come in any recent conversation.”

“We have no idea how long they’ve been watching us and what they know.”

“But we know they’re willing to resort to cheap tactics to get rid of us.” Horatio crossed his arms, seeming to agree with what everyone else was saying. “From now on, we work with the Voyagers. So long as there’s a greater threat out there, we can’t be too picky.”

After Horatio delivered his verdict, the group split up once more.

While the kids helped their mothers clean up the dining hall, the scouts and Marshal tried to think of a way to fix their housing situation.

“There’s some small beds in the condemned area, but that begs the question if we’re willing to go into there.” James saw the looks he was getting from the scouts. “It’s condemned for a reason, guys. The door is blocked off by rubble that fell as the building got over so unless you guys want to go through the windows, there’s no way in.”

“I’m not sure, Chelsea and Elizabeth nearly took a door of it’s hinges the other day with just one shove.” Milo glanced towards Marshal. “Chelsea will do it if Elizabeth does it.”

Cyrus frowned and sighed. “I still think it’s too risky. Nobody knows what limits their power holds and if they go overboard, we risk losing them and putting the group in a more unfortunate situation.”

“Cyrus is right.” Filip added, but he still seemed unsure. “I don’t doubt what Alyssa was saying about the gene, it’s dangerous and a huge gamble.” He looked to Milo and Marshal. “If Chelsea really is leaving soon then we need to use it while we still can.”

James and Cyrus shared a look before James spoke again. “What if one of them ends up weaponized because of it? There’s already been an effect on Chelsea and there’s no way we can know the effect of being pregnant with a child that carries the same gene, let alone how it’s going to affect her after she gives birth.”

“Chelsea had already been using the gene before we even left the city.” Marshal sighed, finding himself leaning more towards keeping Elizabeth and Chelsea out of it. “We can figure it out by the end of the night without involving them. It’ll have a big effect on them and the actual building. For all we know, the doorframe is the only thing keeping the entire wall up.”

Milo frowned. “If you say so, but this is your last chance to change your mind on it…”

A choice here decided they would leave it up to Chelsea and Elizabeth.

4.7

Most kids saw popularity as a contest, teenagers saw dating as gathering numbers, whoever with the highest number won whatever unspoken contest was going on.

Long before she had a child, Dawn had told herself that she was going to raise whatever child she had in a way most parents didn’t.

“Most people don’t value others in the way they should anymore and to start a trend, you’ve got to-“ She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Marshal, are you listening to me?”

The boy looked around the room before shaking his head.

Nobody told her it would be easy, though. Even if someone did, she would have called them a liar whenever Kyle went back to work, leaving her to handle the baby and work at the diner all on her own.

She had tried to teach her son as soon as he started toddling. As much as she loved him, she had to admit that constantly repeating the same sentence to get it into his head got exhausting after the first what felt like a hundred times.

She made it a point to have basic manners down by seven and proper behavior down by ten, which was cutting it close since she was the only actual active parent in her son’s life.

Living the life he did, Marshal didn’t have to worry about friendships. Plenty of the other children claimed he acted robotic and cold, making just associating with him an offense.

It didn’t bother him most of the time, though. He’d seen the way some kids treated others and he was usually glad to not be part of it.

It wasn’t an issue to anyone until he was eleven.

The year was the most important for children, as it determined their paths for the rest of their lives. It was also the year Marshal stopped wanting to go to school and drew further away from everyone he knew.

“Do you want to go see Gramma this weekend?”

“No.”

That was constantly the answer, no matter the question. It drove Dawn and Kyle both mad.

“What’s the issue?” One day, Dawn broke. She didn’t know if what made her break was the defiance or seeing her own son in the state he was. “If there’s something going on at school, you can tell us.”

He looked between her and the car before sighing and climbing out of the car, taking himself into the building.

Dawn sat there for a solid minute before resting her head on the steering wheel. “What am I doing wrong?” She took a deep breath. “He’ll be fine, Dawn, he always is and you know this.”

It was that same day that Kyle and Dawn had both been called from work about an issue at the school.

“Both of the boys are telling a different story and nobody else saw the incident, so we’ll need to look into camera records to figure out what really happened.” The principal had called both of them, along with another student’s parents to the school. “Until we figure out what actually happened, both of the boys are suspended. We’ll give you all a call whenever it’s settled.”

The other set of parents and Dawn went to leave, but Kyle stayed in place. “Considering only one of them is in the hospital, it should be clear who did it.” Dawn turned back, keeping her silence. “Don’t worry about suspending Marshal, he’s not coming back when you decide to lift the suspension.”

Kyle turned on his heel, leaving the office without another word. The principal looked at Dawn before shaking his head. “Mrs. Kennedy, I am sorry about what happened with your son, but I can’t make such a decision without proper evidence. It’s a serious accusation and it’ll be on the wrong record if I get it wrong.”

She understood what it was that upset Kyle and in truth, it upset her too. “He’s right, I’ll be homeschooling until the next school year, which is when I’ll be enrolling him in a different school.”

She left before the principal could respond, heading to the car. It was clear to her that Kyle was angry about the principal’s decision, behind his anger was a panic. They had no idea what condition their son was in, only that he had to be taken to the hospital because of what the other boy had done. The principal had told them what both of the boys had said, but they wanted to hear it from him himself.

It was a situation they both dreaded. She told herself day after day that he would be fine and nothing would happen, which was normally the case, but she knew deep down that it would change one day and there was no way she could stop it because she was the one who unintentionally set it up.

They were told to wait a few minutes before they could go back to the room. A few minutes turned into an hour, which didn’t do anything to ease their fears.

After about an hour and a half, a nurse came into the lobby to get them. “I’m sorry for the wait, one of our doctors is out today and it’s taking a lot to pick up his workload on our already short staff.” She led them to a room close to the operating room and explained that he was in that room because he wasn’t dealing well with one of the medicines and the doctor wanted to keep an eye on him.

She opened the door, letting them go in. The doctor stood next to the bed, working on the computer.

Once he saw his parents, the boy immediately perked up, waving to them as they entered the room. The doctor looked over, giving the parents a nod to let them know they could come into the room. “Kyle, you just can’t stay away from the hospital, can you?”

“I’d rather visit a hundred times with someone else than have my son be stuck up in one of these rooms.” Kyle stayed at the foot of the bed while Dawn moved in closer. “What can you tell us about it?”

“He’s pretty lucky, anymore force could have resulted in something disastrous.” The doctor crossed his arms, staring at the boy. “He’s obsessed with trying to touch the wound no matter how many times I’ve told him not to do it. As for the situation, we only know what the school told us. He’s been pretty adamant on not telling us anything and has said the principal told him not to, but I feel most of what he’s saying and doing is a reaction to the medicines.”

Dawn crouched next to the bed, immediately getting his attention. “How are you feeling?”

He frowned once their eyes met. “They cut my hair.”

She chuckled, trying to keep herself from getting upset about the situation, knowing it would only upset him. “They did me a favor, I was going to cut your hair this weekend either way.” She looked to Kyle and the doctor, waiting for a moment to talk. “When do you think he’ll be able to go home?”

The doctor moved back to the computer, looking over what he had typed out and the records he’d gotten from the nurses. “He’s fine right now, but we want to keep him overnight to watch him. Some symptoms don’t start showing until at least six hours after the injury.”

Following the doctor’s orders, Kyle stayed overnight.

They had both left work early once again whenever the doctor called Kyle and told him it was safe for Marshal to go home.

It was quiet for most of the day until dinner, which is when Kyle decided he wanted to know what happened. “Marshal, you’re going to have to tell us what happened so the school knows you didn’t do anything wrong.”

He frowned, moving the food on his plate around. “Do I really have to?”

“It would be helpful if you did.” Dawn knew how to get something out of Marshal and it wasn’t Kyle’s way of ordering him around. It was convincing him that he’d be helping by saying something.

“Okay…” He set his fork down, refusing to look at either of his parents. “Toby asked me if I wanted to play with him after class and told me to meet him behind the school when I said yes. He wasn’t there when I showed up, so I waited around and I got hit on the head when I went to get on the bus. When I woke up in the ambulance, one of the teachers was asking me questions and I tried to answer them, then the principal told me to stop answering the questions and he told the teacher to stop asking the questions. The doctor tried to ask me what happened but I didn’t know if I could answer, so I told him what the principal told me.”

Dawn looked over to Kyle, seeing a look on his face that she had never seen before. “Marshal, Toby used your trust and I hope you understand what he did was wrong.”

He nodded. “Can I be excused?”

He looked to Kyle for permission, only getting silence in return. “Kyle, he asked you a question.”

Whatever was going on in Kyle’s head had completely changed his demeanor. “Go ahead.”

Present day

After Vincent and Samantha had been lowered into the building, the group on top of the roof agreed that Milo needed to go talk to Elizabeth and let her know what had happened. He waited a bit to see if they would come back to confirm or deny what everyone knew had happened but ultimately left after the group continued to push him to go.

No matter how close he and Elizabeth were, he couldn’t think of a way to tell her that her husband was probably dead on his own order. It was something he couldn’t believe no matter how many times he repeated it in his head, not just because he was his sister’s husband but because he was once the closest friend Milo had.

He went to the room with a feeling of dread that Elizabeth immediately picked up on. “I thought you were helping out with that thing for Francine and Lecia.”

“I was, but I see you weren’t told much about it.”

“Nope, I was only told to not wait up because it could take all night.” She smirked and shrugged.

Milo took a deep breath, finding himself in a situation where he couldn’t look his own sister in the eyes. “Elizabeth, something happened. It all happened so fast and I don’t know where to start in explaining it, but we were trying to lower Vincent and Marshal into the abandoned building with a rope. Alyssa fell while they were still being lowered and Horatio was the only one holding onto her. Marshal told Cyrus to let him go and Cyrus said no, but he just kept pushing it.”

She went silent, as if she was trying to process what he had told her. “Okay… what are you saying?”

He could tell she knew, she just didn’t want to believe it. “Alyssa pointed out that he was above some railings and he still told Cyrus to let him go. The railing broke and we don’t see a way that he would have survived the fall after getting injured that way.”

Milo saw a wave of emotions flood her face before she scoffed. “That’s not funny, Milo.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“Then you’re lying! Stop lying!” Milo put himself between her and the door once he realized she was going to try to leave as soon as the opportunity presented itself. It didn’t stop her from trying to push past him, though. “Milo, stop it! This is one of the stupidest things you’ve ever done! Are you that upset about everything that you’re actively trying to hurt me?”

He saw tears building up in her eyes as her face grew red. It wasn’t in anger, though. It was sadness and denial, two feelings she’d have to live with from that moment on. “I’m not trying to hurt you, Elizabeth please just take my word for it. I’m not letting you go out there because I know you’re going to try to intervene in some way, but you need to understand that you can’t reverse a death that isn’t yours.”

It was after that that she stopped trying to push past Milo. She broke out into tears after she stopped trying. Milo tried to reach out to her, only for her to push him away, a sudden look of anger in her eyes. “Why didn’t you do anything?” She took a few steps away from him, her anger quickly returning to sadness. “Why didn’t I do anything?”

It took him a moment to realize it since she hadn’t stood still for one moment before then, but he saw her trembling, something he’d never seen his sister do before. “There was nothing you could have done, if you want someone to blame then blame me.”

She collapsed on the bed and pointed to the door. “Please just leave, I can’t deal with you right now…”

He stood in place for a minute before he took the order. He stayed outside the door for a few hours just to make sure she didn’t leave or try to do something she would later regret.

Vincent Chalmers

Vincent and Alyssa got lowered down to the second floor, both of them making a sprint for the stairs to the first floor as soon as their feet touched the ground.

The first floor was said to be the most dangerous. Instead of debris from the roof falling onto the walkway of the other floors, most of it gathered on the first floor. The stairs were hardly reliable, wallpaper had been torn from the wall, and there was hardly any light going into the floor.

Vincent reached the first floor before Alyssa did. He moved to walk along the wall and paused to listen. Alyssa mimicked his moves and they both froze next to the stairs.

Silence greeted them before they heard a hum that they would have missed had they kept moving.

Vincent started shuffling along the wall towards the hum, a rhythmic snapping soon coming to his ears.

He looked up to find they were directly under the railing that Marshal had landed on when he fell, but Marshal himself wasn’t in sight.

Alyssa snapped her fingers at Vincent, drawing him back from his thoughts.

The two continued on until the humming and snapping stopped. Vincent went to move forward some more after the noises stopped until his shuffling was brought to a stop by something in the way.

He crouched, Alyssa doing the same. He reached forward, only for his hand to be grabbed by someone else. Their hand was freezing. “Please don’t touch, it’s a lot worse than it looks, I can promise you that.”

Alyssa moved to Vincent’s side, prompting him to take out his flashlight.

He hesitated on pushing the button because he knew the voice was Marshal, he knew the circumstances weren’t good, and he knew the situation could only deteriorate from there.

He took a deep breath before turning on the flashlight. The light was aimed at the ground, giving him a brief moment to prepare himself.

He moved the light as far as he could, stopping once he saw blood. Marshal let go of Vincent, almost as if granting him permission to look further. He brought the light to his stomach, his own body going cold once he saw the problem.

“You may have been right about it doing some damage,” Marshal took a breath. “but I’m not dead yet.”

Alyssa looked on in shock for a moment. It was mortifying for Vincent to see a man impaled by wooden railing, but he couldn’t imagine how Alyssa was handling it. She and Marshal seemed to be friends, which would only put more pressure on the situation. “Alyssa, tell me what to do and go get help.”

Marshal shook his head, directing his attention to Alyssa. “Can Chelsea and Elizabeth handle going back one more time?” She nodded. “Then the plan wasn’t a total failure…”

Vincent noticed Marshal’s hands shaking while lying on the ground, his skin had gone pale. He didn’t have much time left. “What plan?”

“Plan B, of course.” He tried to chuckle, his shortness of breath preventing him from doing so. “Halfway down, I realized we wouldn’t be able to get out once we got in…but for some weird reason, nothing gets moved around when they go back. The intention was to get down and unblock one of the doors.”

Vincent looked at the railing piece. “Was that part of the plan?”

He looked down at the piece himself, a frown coming over his face. “No, not really…”

Alyssa got off the ground and dusted off her pants before hurrying away, catching Vincent’s attention. “What was that about?”

“I feel like you’d have a similar reaction if one of your friends ended up in this same position.” He sighed. “Impaled, waiting to bleed out.”

Vincent finally pried his eyes off the railing piece. “If I take it out, will you bleed out quicker?”

“That would have been a question for the doctor, not me.” Marshal smirked. Even when he was trying to seem cheerful, it was clear that there was something going on in his head.

“You’ll probably be gone in five or ten minutes at this rate, how are you feeling?”

He went silent for a moment, his smirk fading. “Like I’m dying, I guess that’s the best way to put it… I’ve been put through plenty of physical pain for training but I’m not going to lie to you, it’s real painful.” He frowned, pushing himself against the wall. “I’m afraid something’s going to prevent Chelsea and Elizabeth from going back… that I’m not going to be there for my wife,” he scoffed. “my child, my father. My group…” In what little light Vincent could see Marshal’s face in, he saw tears building up in his eyes as he gave a weak laugh. “Probably should have thought of that before I told him to let go, huh?”

As much as he wanted to ease Marshal’s fears, he had a point, something could easily go wrong in such a sensitive plan. Elizabeth wouldn’t need any convincing to go back, but Chelsea seemed to be skeptical once she was told more about the gene. “What do you want me to do if things don’t work out?”

“Stop thinking there’s two different groups… that’s the idea that keeps us all from trusting each other.” He sounded a bit angry now, but Vincent couldn’t see his face anymore. “Help Cyrus and Horatio. Don’t let Elizabeth get forced into some position she doesn’t want or can’t handle.” He looked in Vincent’s direction. “There’s a lot of things you can do, it’s just a matter of if you’ll do them or not. You know what’s right, Vincent, so don’t let them down.”

Vincent moved, taking a seat next to him. “You know, I always hated you guys for leaving the way you did. No goodbye, no letter, you guys just up and disappeared I swore I’d never forgive you guys for abandoning us after hearing what Rocco had to say about it.”

“Have you ever heard of letting bygones be bygones? It should help you out now that you’re practically stuck with us.”

He sighed, looking to the wall ahead of him. “I don’t know, after hearing about what Rocco tried to do to that lady, I don’t think you guys did anything wrong. I think it was all in his head.”

“Glad to see you finally understand that Rocco was full of shit. First, you should probably learn their names and tell someone who’s going to survive the night.”

Alyssa looked into the room before Vincent could respond. “Vincent, we need to get out of here. Horatio and Filip are being lowered in and I have a feeling Marshal doesn’t feel like keeping company in this state.” Vincent pushed himself off the wall and started into Alyssa’s direction before she walked past him. “Give me a minute, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Lyla Richardson

She had been told to do some testing on Eris to see if her sickness was still there and prevalent as the last time she’d seen her.

“Is it still active in her?” Luke was the one to get the results from her because he was in charge of dealing with groups like the Voyagers.

She nodded. “Apparently what they tried to treat her with only made it more aggressive. If it still runs like it used to and they all stayed in the bunker for a few minutes, then all of the Voyagers should have gotten in by now.”

Luke crossed his arms, looking over the sheet Lyla had offered. “You’ve got a record of the others from when they were here, right? What can you get from that?”

“Confirmation that most of them are already afflicted. It’s not showing much Ethan or Marshal, likely because they didn’t much time in close contact with Eris, but it’s there.” She leaned back, looking away from the papers. “Hell, it’s in all of us already. The difference between the rest of us and Eris is that it’s out of control for her. I’m sure the Voyagers don’t know they have it, though.”

“How could they know? Records were removed from the system to prevent anyone without authorization from finding out.”

“Exactly. Eris is the only one who knows she’s infected but we can’t let Ethan and Joseph know, the Voyagers have been playing a risky game lately and if they find out about it, there’s no doubt they’d use it against us." She turned to him. “The results stay between us and Isaac, am I understood?”

Elizabeth Kennedy

She knew Milo was still outside the room, she was just waiting for him to give up before she tried anything. Right now, her mind was more cluttered now than it had ever been. Who was going to tell Kyle? How would he take it? Where would they go from there?

She stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling while she waited for Milo to leave, trying to gather herself.

Before she could check if Milo had gone, she was hit with a sudden wave of sleepiness, despite fighting it all night. “You’re useless if you sleep now.” It was what she had tried to tell herself time and time again so she would stay awake.

‘You’re more useful if you’re asleep. Don’t you trust me?’ Anytime she called herself useless, she heard the same response. A voice she knew, but just couldn’t place.

It took her no time to fall asleep but when she did, she found herself in Karen’s garden once again. She looked down at the path and considered severing the connection just so she could be left alone for once.

“Are you going to join us, Elizabeth?” Karen’s voice pulled her attention away from severing the connection, causing her to look up and see that the only people around were Karen and Chelsea.

She gave a soft nod and started walking along the path until she reached Chelsea. “What are we doing here?”

Karen put herself in front of the two women, folding her hands in front of her. “I want to help train you two while there’s still time. Elizabeth, I’ve noticed your sense of smell is your worst sense, Chelsea, yours is quite the opposite. You’ll be going into some deep memories of two Voyagers as one person where you’ll attempt to identify the Voyager based on your sense of smell. Keep in mind, the scent will come naturally and you might miss it if you constantly try to find it.”

Chelsea looked to the ground, hiding her eyes from her mother’s gaze. “Won’t that drain us, though?”

“It drains the one that leads the experience, which would be me in this case.” Karen smiled. “I’m glad you’re thinking about that.” The scene around them went dark but they still heard Karen’s voice. “You two are going to have to get used to sharing a body in case a situation like this ever arises. Determine who’ll be in control for this experience right now.”

‘I’m the one who’s supposed to be looking for the scent, maybe it’s best that you take control for now.’ Elizabeth could tell it was Chelsea’s voice but now it sounded like her own thought.

Once they agreed on it, they found themselves in a dark bedroom, the only light being the light the shined into the room from under the door. They took a minute to get used to having one body before they slipped out the bedroom, going into a hallway.

“Hey lady, how’d you get in here?” The hallway led to a living room where five people had gathered. The one speaking was a man who quickly stood up once they met eyes. “Do you know what’s going on out there?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t.” Elizabeth raised their hands to prove they weren’t a threat. “Could you tell me where I am?”

There were a few things that immediately stuck out to Chelsea. First, was the conflicting senses. She could hear a fire crackling nearby, but all she could smell was something rotting. She noticed that all five of the people were wearing masks over their noses and mouths. ‘Ask them about the masks.’

“You’re in our home and you’d better think of a way to explain why you’re here.” The man moved away from his people and closer to Elizabeth and Chelsea.

Elizabeth nodded, putting their hands back down. “I’m just having trouble remembering. What are you wearing those masks for?”

The room went silent with the exception of the fire until a little boy jumped out of his seat. “Papa says the air outside is bad and we’ll die if we smell it so we have to wear our masks to be safe!”

The older woman next to him pulled him back into his seat. “Jojo, you’re not to talk with strangers, you know this!”

He frowned, meeting eyes with Elizabeth and Chelsea. “But she’s already in the house, we can’t just send her out like she’s a stranger.”

‘Jojo.. Does that sound familiar to you?’

‘No, not really. It could be short for Joseph, but he looks nothing like Joseph. Plus, Joseph was with Onyx until his late twenties.’

As Chelsea tried to think of another option, a scent hit her. It wasn’t difficult for her to pick it out from the scent of rot or fire.’Vanilla. It would make sense for it to be Lecia because she works in the kitchen, right?'

‘That must be Jonas then, her husband.'

The scene returned to Karen’s garden, the both of them immediately looking over their own bodies. “Very well done, you two.” They both looked up to Karen, seeing her bright smile that told them they had gotten the right answer. She looked at Elizabeth, her smile turning into a puzzled look. “Elizabeth, I want to challenge you.”

“Huh? To what?”

Karen moved to stop directly in front of Elizabeth. “I’m aware you’ve recently been hit with tragedy. You’re out of your game, so I want to challenge you to a third identification experience that you do on your own. If you get it right, I’ll give you the one thing you want the most. You won’t be drained from either of them. Think on it over this next experience.”

Chelsea and Elizabeth were immediately thrown into the next experience.

Chelsea could tell something was different with Elizabeth. ‘What was that about?’

She felt take a deep breath before Elizabeth responded. ‘I guess you didn’t know yet… Milo said there was an accident that Marshal was involved with and he’s dead. I don’t believe it, though.’ Elizabeth led them out of the room they had started off in, which told Chelsea that she was already done talking about it.

The place looked like it belonged to an organization building. Chelsea quickly recognized it from pictures she had seen at her father’s desk. ‘This is the quarantine area. It’s where sick people get put.’

‘Common knowledge tells us who that is already.’

Elizabeth walked down the hall, looking in the glass of every door they passed. They stopped in front of one door that was partially cracked open with two people talking inside. “You know you’re not supposed to be in here. You’ll get infected and they’ll trace it back to me.” It was a woman’s voice.

They heard a man scoff inside the room. “They can’t trace sickness to just one person, Diana, especially when multiple people have it.”

“Maybe not the sickness, but you know they’ll check the cameras and see you coming into my cell.”

“Then leave with me.” The man immediately responded to her, his voice filled with excitement. “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life alone in a cell because you got a sickness that you have no control over?”

She went silent, a slight sigh escaping her. “No. How certain are you that we’ll survive out there?”

“Beyond certain.” The man quickly crossed the room, swinging the door open. “All there needs to be is a yes from you.”

‘They’re going to catch us.’ Even in thought, Chelsea sounded nervous.

‘No they’re not.’ Elizabeth quickly spun back around, hurrying back the way they came. She ducked behind a corner when she realized they weren’t allowed to leave the building they started in.

A few minutes after they hid, they heard two sets of feet running down the hall as fast as they could.

They didn’t spot them, likely only looking out for guards in their endurance. As soon as they passed, the scent of honey greeted Chelsea, only confirming which she already suspected.

‘I’m pretty sure we’ve both come to the conclusion that Diana is Eris, right?’

‘She’s never mentioned some alternate identity but she and Joseph did leave from here.’

‘Pretty ironic her scent is honey, if you ask me.’

‘Are you about to go on some tirade about how all Voyagers are murderers and it’s ironic because honey is super sweet?’

They heard a laugh and suddenly they found themselves separated again, back in Karen’s garden, seeing Karen herself in front of them with a bright smile on her face. “I don’t think that’s what she meant, Elizabeth.”

Chelsea crossed her arms, a smirk coming over her face. “Would I be wrong, though?”

“Maybe if you were talking about anyone but Eris.” Elizabeth responded with a half-hearted laugh.

Karen’s smile faded, her face taking a darker look to it. “Elizabeth, are you ready for your solo task? You’re going to want as much time as you can get, which means starting as soon as you can.” She looked at Chelsea, her face lightening up. “Chelsea, you can head back now.”

Chelsea looked to Elizabeth with an unsure look on her face before slightly waving to her and turning back to go to the garden’s entrance. “Good luck.”

Elizabeth sighed, looking back at Karen. “I guess I’m ready.”

This time was different from the other times. What happened with Chelsea was strange enough because they were both to enter a body at the same time, but Elizabeth had never felt what she did right then.

After telling Karen she was ready, at the snap of Karen’s fingers, she felt herself leave her body, like she was being pulled away from the real world. Then, just as she thought it couldn’t get any worse, she collapsed.

One by one, her senses slowly returned to her. Cold was the only thing she felt, bleach was what she smelled, darkness was all there was to see.

She pushed herself off the ground and looked around. While she waited for her vision to return to normal, she noted that she was alone and sitting on a bathroom floor. She grabbed the sink’s counter and pulled herself up. Looking in the mirror showed her that she was in her own body, she just didn’t feel like it.

She looked to the door directly next to her and reminded herself of what Karen had told her about wanting as much time as possible, leaving the bathroom once she gathered her thoughts.

It was another house, but this one seemed familiar to her. She went down the hall to the living room, which was empty. Looking around, there were tons of pictures from different generations, different objects from different generations. It was definitely a family home.

She went through the living room and stopped in a doorway that looked into the kitchen where one woman and one baby were in. The woman was a bit shorter than Elizabeth herself, her hair a solid black. She seemed to be baking something, a wide smile on her face while she did it.

The baby in the bassinet by the woman didn’t look very old, less than three months if she had to guess. The bassinet was decorated in pink ribbons with little stuffed animals hanging from a mobile above it, which led Elizabeth to believe it was a baby girl.

Elizabeth frowned looking on before she sighed, shaking her thoughts away. She put on a neutral face and slowly went into the kitchen. “Excuse me, could you maybe let me know where I am?”

The woman looked up, her smile instantly fading as she met eyes with Elizabeth. “Who are you?” She moved to put herself in front of the bassinet as if to shield the baby. “I don’t mind explainin’ a few things to you, but you gotta explain some to me.”

“I understand completely.” Elizabeth patted her pockets to show they were empty and then raised her hand. “My name is Elizabeth and please don’t ask me how I got here because I have no answer for that.”

The woman’s face immediately lightened up and turned into a smile as if she knew Elizabeth. “I’m sorry for the hostility, it’s not often we get strangers around here. I’m Dawn.” She took a step away from the bassinet and waited for Elizabeth to get closer before saying anything else. “This is Persephone.”

Elizabeth herself waited until she was a few feet away from Dawn to study her, using baby Persephone as the excuse to get closer. Even in a brighter light, Dawn’s hair still looked black, her eyes kind and gentle. Elizabeth knew Dawn’s features, but she didn’t know Dawn. She then looked to baby Persephone, seeing her hair was lighter than Dawn’s but her eyes were brown. “I’m guessing she took more after dad?”

Dawn chuckled, putting a hand on her hip. “The eyes and the hair are just the beginning. Both of ours took his eye color but my son ended up getting my hair.” Dawn leaned in a bit closer. “Don’t tell him I said this, but I don’t think he could have pulled off blond hair either way.” She went back to the counter that was coated in flour. “Most everyone else is in the dining room, go ahead and get yourself acquainted.”

It was only after Elizabeth looked into the dining room that she realized Dawn didn’t answer her question. In the dining room, there were two tables. The first table was mostly women, knitting or reading books and laughing along with each other. ‘Things really are traditional around here…’. At the other side of the room, there was a poker game going on at a table filled with older men and their alcoholic beverages.

She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder before hearing Dawn again. She pointed at one of the women. “That’s my husband’s mother. Her name is Tabby and she is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.” After that, she let go of Elizabeth and went back to the counter.

Elizabeth moved quickly to the table, immediately catching the women’s attention. They stopped laughing and looked among each other before eyes stopped on Tabby.

Tabby had curly hair that stopped before her shoulders and seemed to be really thin. Her eyes were brown, just as Persephone’s were. She squinted, looking Elizabeth up and down before doing some hand motion Elizabeth didn’t understand. “Are you gonna introduce yourself or are you gonna make the elder do it first?”

“That’s Elizabeth!” Elizabeth placed the voice as Dawn once again, turning back to the doorway to see her wave with a spatula before walking off.

Tabby looked a little surprise, slowly getting out of her seat. The entire room went silent as she cautiously approached Elizabeth. “Is that true?” Elizabeth nodded, sparking a giant smile to cross Tabby’s face as she hurried closer and hugged her. “Welcome, welcome!”

‘There’s no doubt that woman in the kitchen was Dawn Kennedy, but how did she and Kyle’s mother know me? I’ve never met them in my life or any of my deaths.’

She hugged Tabby back, seeing the many faces in the dining room cheering up and returning to their activities. Once Tabby pulled away, she hobbled back to her seat and motioned to an empty chair. “Here, sit, join us for a little bit.”

As soon as Elizabeth sat in the chair Tabby motioned to, all eyes turned to her. For once, she was at a loss for words and completely embarrassed. One of the women giggled, causing Elizabeth to look up and meet eyes with her. “After all we’ve been told about you, this sounds really unlike you.”

Elizabeth nodded, a slight smile coming across her face. “It is, I’m not going to disagree. This feels a little strange to me, to be honest. You guys all know me, you know each other, you know where you are, and I know absolutely nothing about what’s going on.”

The woman had light hair with brown eyes, exactly like Kyle. She looked to be in her mid-forties. “We’ll be spending lots of time together, so we might as well introduce ourselves. Penelope Kennedy, your husband’s aunt.” Penelope must have seen the sudden shock in Elizabeth’s eyes. “You do know you’re married, right?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Of course, I just don’t know where my husband is.” Tabby and Penelope shared a look before they both got up, motioning for Elizabeth to follow them.

Penelope had a hold of Tabby’s arm to hold her up while they walked. They passed the other table and ended up back in the living room. “He hasn’t been taking the being dead thing well and the only person he’s willing to talk to is Persephone, we just listen in because a baby can’t take notes on a conversation.”

There was a slight whistle before Penelope and Tabby stopped, Elizabeth stopping a few feet behind them. Dawn left the kitchen with baby Persephone cradled in her arms. She stopped in front of Elizabeth and passed baby Persephone to her. “He’s unpredictable, but he’ll never be able to say no to his wife and baby sister.”

Penelope nodded with another giggle. “She’s right.” She looked to Dawn as she walked back to the kitchen once again. “Thanks, Dawn!” Penelope looked down to baby Persephone, her eyes immediately going soft. “The best part of having in-laws is the cute babies they give you.”

Tabby nudged her arm, her once joyful face going serious again. “Focus.”

Penelope grabbed hold of Tabby’s arm again and led them down the hall once more, stopping at the end where three doors met, one of which being the bathroom Elizabeth started out in. She pointed at the door on the right. “He’s been staying in there for the past few hours. We don’t know if he’s angry, sad, sleeping, or dead again.” Tabby started walking the other way, pulling Penelope along with her. “You should probably handle this, we’ll be in the dining room.”

Elizabeth waited until they were out of sight before lifting baby Persephone up to eye level with her. “You better be a team player, I’m too nervous to carry both of us.” The baby giggled, a toothless grin coming across her face. “I’ll take that as a ‘Yes! I’ll help!’ and thank you while I’m ahead.”

She went back to cradling Persephone and took a deep breath, staring at the door. She knocked the best her shaky hands would allow. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the door opened. Pure silence stood between the two. She could tell he was looking her over. His eyes stopped on Persephone. “I see you’ve already met at least two people here.”

She chuckled. “You’ve talked tons of times about how cool your mom was, but I really just thought it was because of the way your dad was.”

He moved out of the doorway, allowing her her into the room then shutting the door behind her. “Sounds like you’re agreeing with me about how cool she is.” In a split second, he quickly moved to hold her, only giving her a little room because of Persephone. “Why are you here?”

As much as she wanted to return the embrace, she knew she had to keep hold of Persephone. “Karen was training us again and she mentioned something I would do on my own, then sent me here. Why are you here?”

She heard him sigh before he pulled away, a sad look on his face. “I’m here for the same reason everyone out there is. I died, that’s just about all I can say to answer that question.” He noticed her look down at Persephone. “She was the baby my mom was pregnant with. How the pregnancy progressed after my mom died and she stopped aging at three months, it’s a mystery to everyone here.”

She looked back up, their eyes instantly meeting. “What Milo said about the abandoned building, it’s true then?” He nodded, waiting for her to go on. “Out there, they’ve been saying that you’re not talking to anyone but Persephone. Why are you doing that?”

He reach to take Persephone from Elizabeth, holding the baby close once he got her. “Because babies don’t tell secrets. This one is especially secretive because she only babbles nonsense that nobody can decipher.”

“You sound just like Penelope, you know that?” Elizabeth awkwardly put her hands to her sides, not knowing what to do with them now that she didn’t have the baby.

“Give it another month and we’ll basically be carbon copies of each other.” He chuckled, the sadness that as once in his eyes slowly fading away. “Liz, I love that you’re here and I’m glad you get along well with my family, but you and I both know that you don’t belong here yet. They don’t know that.” He looked down at Persephone for a second before turning away from Elizabeth and going across the room.

He continuing talking but she heard someone else’s voice. ‘Now’s the time to test the future. You couldn’t do it with Persephone in either of your arms because it’s two conflicting futures. Reach out to him again.’

“It’s strange, she apparently just doesn’t realize that she’s dead. She doesn’t need anything, but her brain thinks that she needs what every living person does.” She quickly realized he was talking about Persephone and she hadn’t missed much while she zoned out.

“Is she the only kid here?” She could tell by his reaction that it was something he wasn’t supposed to talk about.

He crossed his arms, avoiding her eyes as he looked around the room. “I’ve only been here a few more hours than you have, how do you expect me to know?”

“Look me in the eyes and say that again.”

He looked her in the eyes and frowned, uncrossing his arms. “I can’t say it again because it’s not true, I do know.” His frown faded as he went back to her side, reaching for her hand. “Just telling you about them wouldn’t do justice, though.”

Elizabeth dodged his view for a moment. “It’ll have to wait until after this.” She grabbed his hand before he could question what she meant, both of their minds going blank while the scene around morphed to a completely different one.

They looked around the moment, the room drastically different from the one they were just in. The only thing in the same place as before was the crib, which Elizabeth briefly looked into when she crossed the room to look out the window. “That’s not Persephone and I have no idea where we are.”

“You planned this, how can you not know where we are? Whose baby is that?” While Elizabeth immediately looked around, Marshal stayed in place, clearly uncomfortable with the idea that they might be in someone else’s house. “I have to admit, this place is really nice. A bit too clean to belong to any of the Voyagers.”

Elizabeth stood at the window for a few more seconds before spinning around, looking at the nightstand. “It’s in such a condition because it’s in the city, specifically in Dumont Estates.”

“Alright no, come on, we’re leaving.” Marshal went to the door, knowing she would reluctantly follow him.

On the other side of the door was a walkway that overlooked most of the house. They were both caught off guard for a moment until Marshal pointed out the stairs, leading her on. “There’s something really weird about this place… Don’t people usually put up pictures of their family?”

“I’d settle for a child’s wall scribbles before I would agree on blank walls.” In truth, the blank walls made the home feel weird to her. Like it was hiding something.

“Duly noted.” They stopped at the foot of the stairs, to the left was a kitchen where a young boy was seated, his attention on a paper in front of him.

To the right was the front door. Marshal took Elizabeth’s hand and went to the right, but she stayed in place, her vision fixed on the boy in the kitchen. “Marshal, I know that kid, I just don’t know how.”

He stopped, looking between her and the boy before he sighed, letting go of her hand. “And you think we should find out?”

She nodded, sneaking into the kitchen and sliding into the chair across from the boy. He looked up at her, a bright smile crossing his face when their eyes met. “What’s your name?”

“Whitlock Tobias Kennedy.” The boy’s smile remained as he looked back at his paper. “I think I’m a little too old to forget my name now.”

“Who’s the baby upstairs?” Elizabeth continued questioning the boy while Marshal looked over the house.

“Delilah.” He looked back up from his paper, his smile gone. “Are you okay?”

She thought back to the first time she saw Whitlock through Karen’s training. He seemed a bit older now than he did the first time. “Yeah, I’m fine. What are you working on?” He slid the paper over to her. It was an article over Onyx and the Voyagers. “Hold on, I’m going to steal this from you for a minute.”

She got out of her seat and left the kitchen, going back upstairs to the room they started out in. Marshal was there with the baby, but he looked a bit upset. He tried to hide it once he noticed Elizabeth was there. “What did you find out?”

“Karen said this was time to test futures and apparently in this future, the Voyagers bested Onyx.” She moved to sit next to him on the bed, handing him the paper and taking the baby from him.

He read over the article in silence until he put it to the side and laid down, covering his eyes. “None of this makes any sense.”

Just as she went to respond, they heard the sound of Whitlock charging up the stairs before he looked into the room with a sense of urgency. “You guys are from the past, aren’t you?” He held up a journal. “Who died?”

“What kind of question is that?” Marshal uncovered his eyes and sat back up.

Whitlock opened the journal and flipped through the pages before heading to them and handing the journal to Marshal. “In every timeline, at least two people die. Who died?”

“As far as we know, he’s the only person who died.” Elizabeth looked over to Marshal, then back to Whitlock. “Can you explain what you’re talking about?”

Marshal gave the journal back to Whitlock, allowing the boy to flip to a different page. “There’s multiple timelines that people with our gene can switch through, it just takes a lot of energy. What month and year is it in your timeline?”

“September 2189.”

A pleased look comes across Whitlock’s face. “This is the right future then. Every timeline has a different future and so far you guys are part of the original timeline, which leads to this future. In this timeline, you choose to bring dad back and he leads the way Joseph intended him to, eventually convincing Pierre and Leona to help him to take over Onyx. Since you and Chelsea were friends, you were able to have her help you from inside Onyx.”

Elizabeth found herself completely dumbfounded by what the boy was saying. He was treating it as if it was normal, completely different from the first time she’d seen him. “What do you mean if I choose to bring him back?”

“I guess she didn’t tell you yet and I spoiled the surprise.” He frowned. “You get three options on who to bring back tonight. Dad, grandma, and aunt Persephone. This is one of the timelines where you bring him back, but because there’s thousands, maybe millions of timelines, this is the one you get to see. You’ll see other timelines with grandma and aunt Persephone later tonight.”

Elizabeth looked over to Marshal, seeing he was just as shocked as she was, if not more. “What are the consequences to this timeline?”

Whitlock flipped to a different page in his journal before looking back at them. “I can’t tell you guys. I can tell you that the personal results for this timeline include you guys having Delilah and working for a reformed Onyx. I don’t know about your friends, though.”

Marshal looked like he was hesitating on asking something before he crossed his arms. “I can understand why I would talk to Pierre, but why would Leona get involved?”

He switched to a different page and looked it up and down. “She’s responsible for at least two deaths now, she’s sneakier than any of the Voyagers, and she doesn’t understand it yet but she’s working to the same goal as you guys, she’s just really unlucky and has her moments. Your latest experiences with her ended up scaring her pretty bad and she’s not going to mess with you guys for a while.”

“Afraid?” For some reason, Marshal didn’t seem too convinced in what Whitlock was saying, even though Elizabeth knew it to be true. “She doesn’t really seem like the type of person to become of things just because she had a confrontation.”

Whitlock shrugged, shutting his journal. “I only know what you guys have told me in the past, so you really shouldn’t try believing me, but believing yourselves.”

He moved to put the journal on the nightstand before going directly in front of them, holding out his hands palm first. Elizabeth knew the trick, she just didn’t know how well it would work in a fourth mind layer.

Marshal waited to see if she would do anything and only reached out his hand when she seemed to be fine after putting her hand on one of Whitlock’s, leaving the other for Marshal.

As expected, the scene changed right in front of their eyes, the only thing remaining being the baby in Elizabeth’s lap and Whitlock.

Now they were outside on a bright day, the only thing around them being a few trees. Whitlock took his hands back, putting them to his side. “Mrs. Hampton told me I could show you guys one of my favorite places if I explained everything to you beforehand.” The boy went to the closest tree, pulling himself up on the lowest branch. “You guys didn’t really have a lot of time for me when you got closer to going for Onyx and for like a year afterwards. Once you finally became a little free, this is where you guys took me because you thought I had too much energy from being in the house all the time. It was my first time out of the house since we moved into it.’

The two felt content just watching the boy play in the tree, the both of them easily being able to tell that this was the boy’s favorite place, just as he had said.

Elizabeth could tell Marshal was finally having second thoughts about staying dead. He was trying to hide it, though. “I guess we actually did something right for some unruly street rats, huh?”

He could tell she was trying to make conversation to distract him long enough to keep him from changing his mind again, but he was grateful for the attempt. “I’m still trying to figure out how desperate we have to be to go to Leona when all I’ve wanted to do so far was kill her.”

“I guess some people really are willing to do anything to survive and both you and her are one of them.”

Whitlock dropped from the tree, landing flat on his feet. “She’s right. Apparently it was a really bad time for both of your groups and working together was the only option.” He approached them, wrapping an arm around each of them. “Maybe I’ll be able to see you both again…”

It was as if he knew they were running out of time

As soon as they were placed into the memory, they were back to the original room. Whitlock and the baby had both disappeared, making Elizabeth move to the crib to see that it was Persephone in the crib.

She turned to Marshal a slight sigh of relief. “Any thoughts?’

He scoffed, sitting on the bed. “Too many. Apparently you’re supposed to have more of those with two other people, so you should probably go find them.”

“I already found one of them.” She looked back at Persephone while holding onto the railing of the crib. “He said my options were you, Persephone, and your mom.’

“Didn’t you already have Persephone alone and in your arms? Shouldn’t that have sparked something?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea at this point. I was only told I could do that after you put Persephone up. Maybe she needs to have a clear mind like Chelsea and I do.” She paused. “How do you get a baby to clear her mind?”

“You just hope she agrees with you at that moment.”

Elizabeth looked down at Persephone, who had just woken up and likely slept the entire time she and Marshal were out of it. “Here goes nothing, I guess.”

She took the baby in her arms and the scene changed once again.

She looked around, noticing they were back at the motel. She looked down at Persephone to find she had disappeared, a sudden feeling of shock hitting her. “Don’t worry about it! You can’t really convince a baby to see the future, so you’ll be the only one seeing this.” It was Whitlock again, he was right by her side with the same bright smile as before. “Follow me.”

He went forward to the room ahead of them, going straight through the wall. “You know, this is just really different from the last one, I don’t know about this anymore..”

He reached back through the wall, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the wall as well. It was Kyle’s room, but it looked extremely different from when she had last seen it. Whitlock moved past the bed, looking into the bathroom. Elizabeth followed after him, seeing Kyle braiding a young girl’s blonde hair in front of the mirror. “That’s aunt Persephone right there!” Whitlock pointed to the mirror. “She’s like nine here.”

“So that would mean this is eight years in the future at least.” Whitlock nodded. “The same as the last future we saw?”

“Yep, exactly the same. All of the futures you’ve seen, are seeing, and are going to see happen at the exact same moment.” He crossed his arms. “In this future, you brought back Persephone at the end of the night. You guys didn’t get the upper hand on Onyx, but you still have the opportunity. Leona doesn’t exactly hate you guys but she’s only working with you guys because Greg has blackmail on her.” A slight frown came across his face. “I’m really happy here, but I know sometimes you’re not. You moved on and at this point, you’re considering a second baby with one of the most unlikely people.”

“It’s probably because I feel old, isn’t it?” Whitlock nodded, laughing a bit. “Take notes, that’s not the best reason to have a baby. It’s not even a good reason.”

“You asked me if I wanted a little brother or sister first if that changes anything.”

She shook her head. “No, it really doesn’t.” The last look into the future told her that there were certain things Whitlock couldn’t tell her, which probably meant they were things she would rather not know. ‘How are the other Voyagers doing in this future? What about Chelsea?”

He uncrossed his arms, looking away from Kyle and Persephone. “The Voyagers are doing well but supplies are always an issue. Chelsea went home and she’s doing really good for herself. She turned down special privileges for being Isaac’s daughter and worked her way up on her own and by now, she’s the lead programmer at Onyx.”

Elizabeth got one last look at Persephone and Kyle, both of them seeming really happy. She faced Whitlock again. “Are you allowed to show me your favorite place in this future?”

He seemed to perk up after the question. “In this future and the next one, I’m allowed to show you memories that I have that have lasted even farther than just the eight years. Before I do, though, I have to remind you that every future has a set of consequences, even if I can’t tell you what they are.”

He then held out his hands facing palm first. She reached out without hesitation, the room soon changing to a different one in the motel. It was dark, which probably meant it was night time. The clock on the nightstand read 3:41, confirming Elizabeth’s suspected time.

They could barely see somebody moving around in the dark before their eyes adjusted to the lighting. The person moving around was Whitlock himself. “Mom, are you awake?” He looked a bit younger in this scene than he did now, but older than the first time she’d seen him, which told her he was around six or seven. After shaking her awake, Elizabeth put a hand on his shoulder which told him that she was listening. “Can I sleep with you tonight?”

They heard a sigh. “Why did you have to wait until four in the morning to ask if you knew you were going to ask anyways?” She moved over, letting him climb into the bed. “Next time just ask me when I tell you to get ready for bed.”

She looked down to realize that Whitlock was still holding onto her hand as he watched the scene as well. She didn’t understand why it was important to him or even why it was his favorite, but she turned her attention back to the memory, hoping to see an answer soon.

The room went silent until Elizabeth pulled Whitlock into a hug, giving him a kiss on the head. “I’m really proud of you, you know that, right? I know things have been difficult, but you’re what’s been keeping me going all this time. I hope I haven’t been too mean to you and if I have been, I need you to know that I didn’t mean it. I love you more than anything in this world and I would be devastated if anything happened to you and you didn’t know it. I’m going to work as hard as I can to make sure that the world you grow up in is far better than my own.”

She felt him squeeze her hand before the memory ended. “No matter who you bring back, I promise you’re always going to have me. You already know who I want you to bring back, but I know you’re looking for more reasons than just what I want and I know you’re trying to look out for everyone.” He sighed. “Grandpa really likes having Persephone around and she’s a lot of fun, the group really likes her too.”

Once he let go of her hand, she was sent back to the original room with baby Persephone in her arms. The two locked eyes for a minute before the baby lit up with a smile, wriggling around in her arms. She looked at the end to see that Marshal had left the room, which meant she would have to take Persephone back to Dawn herself.

She left the room and shut the door behind her, going to the dining room to see that Marshal had joined Tabby and Penelope in what they had started after splitting up from the other tables.

She went to the kitchen and carefully put Persephone into the bassinet before moving a chair to sit closer to where Dawn was working. “How are you gettin’ used to it here?”

Elizabeth chuckled, she could tell that she was showing the exhaustion that she was feeling. “I’m not, actually. It’s been quite the ride and I’ve been here for like two hours.”

“Hmm, well you’ll lose track of time once you realize it doesn’t matter here. There’s no such thing as holding your breath and timing it because you’re already dead, there’s nothing inside you telling you to catch your breath or you’ll die.” She put what she was working to the side and pulled up a chair next to Elizabeth. “I don’t know how you got him out, but thank you for doing it.”

She could tell it was going to be a problem and extremely awkward to try and make contact with Dawn. She didn’t seem like Tabby, in the terms of hugging Elizabeth purely because she was married to Marshal.

Dawn must have noticed the look on Elizabeth’s face as she suddenly looked a bit concerned herself. “Is something the matter?”

Elizabeth put out her hands facing palm first, hoping it wouldn’t mess anything us but feeling it was the only way it could work. “I need to test something. This is going to sound weird, but put your hands on mine.”

Dawn looked at Elizabeth’s hands and hesitated on raising them. “You’re right, it does sound weird. What could you need my hands to test?”

“She hasn’t pulled any tricks yet, Dawn.” Penelope had come into the kitchen, going straight for the cupboard with cups. ‘Might as well trust her now if you’re going to trust her at all.”

She looked at Penelope, unamused, before looking back to Elizabeth and putting her hands over Elizabeth’s.

As soon as she did, they ended up back at the motel, Whitlock by Elizabeth’s side once again. “Welcome to the third timeline!” He bounced in front of them, turning in the middle of a jump to face them. “This is a future where the Voyagers remain where they are. Leona has no interest in helping you guys and no reason to, but she’s not a threat. In this future, like Persephone’s there’s always the chance you can bend it a little bit and change the favors to work for the Voyagers to try to make a change but it probably won’t happen in either of your lifetimes.”

Dawn seemed petrified of what as happening in front of her. “Who’s that child?”

Whitlock crossed his arms, his smile remaining. “Your grandson. Anyway, grandpa always ends up happy in this future, determined to make a change. The Voyagers are pretty happy and supplies aren’t really an issue.” He looked to Elizabeth with a frown. “This is the one future that you’re miserable in… You never move on, you don’t consider a second kid, and eventually you shut everyone but me and uncle Milo out.”

“Maybe not that I know about it now.”

His frown remained. “I wish that were the case. No matter who tells it to you, you never really believe it and you’re usually not willing to make a change.”

He held out his hands the same way Elizabeth did, sparking an odd look from Dawn. Elizabeth put one of her hands on his, then looked to Dawn. “He’s only going to show you something that’s his favorite. It was his part of the bargain with the person behind this and after all he’s had to see through these timelines, I think he earned it.”

Dawn gave a soft laugh before lightening up a little bit, putting her hand over Whitlock’s free one.

The motel around them turned into the creek’s area, trees suddenly looming over them. “It’s a little cruel that this is your favorite place in this timeline, don’t you think?”

He laughed a little bit before sitting next to the water, Dawn sitting down next to him. “What do you think of coming back, grandma?”

Elizabeth saw a frown cross over her face before she looked into the water. “I think it’s a little too late for me. Maybe with someone else, they’ll be able to live a fuller life but not with me. I already lived my life and I’m happy where I am right now.”

He gave her a puzzled look. “You’re happy being dead?”

She nodded. “As bad as it sounds, I am. I have a sense of freedom now that I never had in my own life. If you’re wondering if I would come back, the answer is no. Especially not if it lands everyone in this future where more people are unhappy than they are happy.”

As Dawn delivered her verdict, they were returned to the kitchen. Dawn left her chair and got back to work without a word.

Elizabeth got up and left the kitchen, going into the dining room with everyone else. After he noticed she was around, Marshal went to her side. “You’re not sure what to do, right?” She shook her head. “Do whatever feels right to you. You know what everybody else wants, but think about yourself for a minute. What do you want?”

“I don’t know what you want.”

He sighed, grabbing her hand. ”I want you to be happy, I don’t care who it’s with. I would rather you bring back Persephone or my mom to give my dad a greater chance at being a better father or husband from the very start.’

She nodded, giving him a quick hug. “I need to get going.”

“Don’t worry about making the wrong choice because there is no wrong choice. None of us are going to be mad regardless of what you do, okay?” He let go of her with smile on his face. “Go on, you probably don’t want to be late.”

She spun around, rushing out of the dining room and hurrying through the living room, shutting herself in the bathroom she started out in. “I’m ready, Karen.”

She forced her eyes shut and only opened them once she was sure she was back in Karen’s garden. “You seem quite determined. What is your choice?”

A choice here decided that Elizabeth would bring Marshal back.

4.9

“You’ve been here since we were with Rocco, I’m sure you can understand where we both failed.” Not long after Joseph and Cyrus agreed on Marshal becoming the new leader, Joseph had started to try to offer guidance to him whenever he could. “Rocco failed because he was driven by lust, it clouded his entire perspective. I failed because I put Eris first and because I constantly thought of her, I was too afraid to take risks of my own. You can’t properly lead people if you’re separated from them and have no idea what they’re doing.”

“Can’t you fix it now that you know it’s a problem?”

“I would if I could, trust me.” Joseph sighed, taking a seat next to Marshal. “Because of the reliance the people here built on me, I can’t do much. I wish I could change the way this group is going, but I’m afraid it’s too late for me to change direction without some consequences. There’s nothing holding you back, though.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Once you gain leadership, I want you to do better than I did. Don’t bother telling me you can’t, because I know you can.” Joseph showed him the contents of a notebook, showing him a plan he had made long before he lost his chance to do it. “If you decide to do this, you’ll be going to every state that Onyx controls, spending a week in each state and a day in seven cities and towns. You’re going to have a group with you and start rallies while you’re in each city or town. Eventually somebody’s going to tip off Onyx, it’s inevitable, you’re going to have to avoid whoever they send. You won’t be able to keep in contact with whoever you leave behind, which is why I haven’t been able to do it.”

“Fifty weeks, that’s eleven and a half months. How am I going to convince an entire group to up and leave for nearly an entire year?”

“You’re not going to convince them. You might not like it and they surely won’t either, but you’re going to have to make them go.” He frowned, shutting the notebook. “Milo won’t want to leave Elizabeth and vice versa, but let it be a lesson about taking chances to them.”

Present day

Marshal thought over Leona’s offer for a second before shaking his head. “No thanks. I think I’ve already told you that I don’t want you around my group, whatever your plan was is included in that.”

She crossed her arms. “Fair enough.” She uncrossed her arms, stretching out to grab a tree limb. “Good luck.”

Leona’s offer already cost him some time, but he knew Elizabeth wasn’t going to be much of a problem once he showed up. Whatever happened between the two was personal and he’d been told that there was an issue when he talked with Alyssa.

Grady’s back was to him and once Elizabeth locked eyes with Marshal, she didn’t seem happy to see him, she seemed angry. “You were his best friend, you deal with him.”

Grady turned and glanced at Marshal before turning back to Elizabeth. “Am I going to have to tell him what you know? You’re already in the conflict, you might as well stop hiding everything you know.”

“Don’t you think that I’m hiding it for a reason?”

As he got closer, Marshal could smell the alcohol on Grady. “Elizabeth, leave him alone, he’s drunk.”

“You want me to leave him alone when he’s the one who decided to be confrontational in the first place?”

“Yeah, I do and I’ll tell you why later.” Marshal stopped between them. “Grady, I have no idea who put you on watch duty when you’re completely plastered, but you need to go to bed.”

Grady looked between the two, fixing his eyes on Marshal. “Listen, I don’t particularly care much what your opinion on me is, but you need to get her to confess. She knows how Rocco got loose.”

Marshal looked over to Elizabeth, seeing a guilty look on her face before she turned back to the motel, going her own way. He turned to Grady to see Grady had already started heading back to his own room.

“Your tactic is to just let them act out?” The same woman he’d tried to send off at least two times in the same day came back once again. “I was a bit interested to see how you would handle it because I’ve never really seen you as a leader and I gotta say, you need help.”

“Did you show up again just to ridicule me? If it isn’t evident, I’ve got some stuff to work out.”

As Marshal went to walk away, Leona sprinted in front of him, stopping in his way. “What is your plan? Do you even have a plan?”

“I do but Leona, I need you to understand that right now my first priority isn’t solving whatever issues Grady and Elizabeth have, they’re going to act out either way. I know Elizabeth and Grady both, they’re always going to challenge each other and make things personal, it’s part of why they don’t like each other. I couldn’t fix that if I focused my entire life on it.”

She didn’t move. “I’ve got no idea what your people get into, but if I’ve heard right, your wife is pregnant. If she wasn’t reason enough to fix that problem, think about your kid.”

“What do you mean problem?”

“You didn’t hear what I heard.” She seemed to ease up once she realized he wasn’t going to walk away from her. “Before you and the kids showed up, they had Rocco handled here. At one point, he got loose from dinner and tried to get hold of the doctor. Grady admitted that he distracted the Voyagers while Horatio loosened the bindings and Elizabeth knew.”

“I don’t see how that’s connected to her issues with Grady.” Marshal stepped to the side, going past Leona. “I’ll handle it. Don’t you have your own group to worry about?”

She smirked, putting a hand on her hip. “They’re not at each other’s throats all the time, it’s not nearly as entertaining.”

“I figured most of them were dead after our last run in, let me know how many more I have to take out to get a point through to you.” Oddly enough, having Leona around now wasn’t as stress inducing as it had been earlier. “Wait a minute.” He stopped walking and faced her, waiting until she faced him. “What are you afraid of, Leona?”

Her smirk faded before she scoffed. “As if I’d tell you. You seem to forget that it’s my trust you should be earning right now.”

“You can’t forget what you didn’t know. I’m almost certain I was the one who told you to bring me proof of that outlandish claim of yours.”

“Why do you care about my fears?” She crossed her arms, staying in place when he expected her to leave.

“I consider fear to be the biggest motivation, everybody has some fears whether they admit it or not.” Marshal stopped and looked her in the eyes. “I guess what I’m actually trying to ask is what your motivation is.”

She uncrossed her arms and looked as if she were actually considering telling. “I’ll tell you when you tell me how you’re not dead after your wife said you died.”

“I’ll have to get back to you on that, I’m really not even sure of how it happened myself.”

She looked to be more easy going now than she was earlier until she waved a hand in the air and walked away.

He stood in place for a moment, whatever levity that was there quickly dying down as he came to the realization he’d have to tell Elizabeth about the trip. He knew she wasn’t going to like it because of the baby and she was going to like it even less when she found out the only reason she couldn’t go was the pregnancy.

He hated to leave, despised the idea of anything happening to Elizabeth while he was gone and knowing he was going to have to miss the birth of his first born was something that he knew he was going to have to accept if he wanted to get anything done.

Staying wasn’t an option. No matter how many alternate ideas crossed his mind, he knew that was exactly what happened to Joseph. Joseph put Eris first and lost his grip on leading the group. He had heard it time and time again and it was only after he and Elizabeth started seeing each other that he realized it was going to be difficult to keep from making the same mistake.

It’s why he tried putting as much distance between them as he could.

He tried staying away, he tried being rude at the hopes she would stay away, but it only taught him that she was more than persistent.

Back in the city and after everything they had been through together, he wanted to tell her about the deal and Joseph’s plan. There had even been times he wanted to tell Milo, but the fear of losing everything he had worked for before he even had it was what prevented him from telling.

“Marshal?” He shook his head, bringing himself back to where he stood. “Marshal.” He looked to the source of the voice, finding Elizabeth leaning over the railing to the second floor walkway. “Are you planning on sleeping anytime soon? You’ve done quite a bit since you’ve left the city and if I’m right, you have a lot to deal with tomorrow.”

He nodded, causing a small smile to cross her face before she turned and went into the room she stood in front of, leaving the door partially open for him. He went upstairs, moving as quietly as he could out of caution of waking people in nearby rooms.

She greeted him with a bright smile, which told him that she was already over what had happened with Grady. She waited until he shut the door before saying anything. “I know you told me not to bring you back and I know you didn’t want me to, but I really think it’s for the best.”

“I need to talk to you about that.” He moved to sit at the foot of the bed, waiting for her to sit next to him before he went on. “I need to leave as soon as next week.” Her smile immediately faded and turned into a look of sadness that she quickly tried to hide. “You remember how he mentioned Joseph’s leadership plan last night?” She nodded. “His plan was to gather a small group and go to a number of places in every state over the course of a week per state and start rallies to better our odds. It’s eleven and a half months, but I can’t put it off, that’s how Joseph lost everything and I’m not prepared to do the same.”

She frowned, a somber sigh escaping her. “Who are you going to take and how are you going to get them to go?”

“Cyrus, Vincent, Samantha, Milo, and there’s two others that I haven’t decided on.”

“Who are the other two options?”

“Alyssa or Horatio.” While he had told her it was something he hadn’t made up his mind about, it wasn’t going to be his decision. It was going to be Alyssa’s input that decided who he brought along. “Alyssa’s been through Onyx’s best training and as a former member, she knows how people from Onyx have been instructed to deal with things like rallies and can help us avoid them or, worse comes to worst, she could save a life. Horatio has a basic, if not better than basic understanding of medical things too. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who delivered Gregory.”

She nodded, slowly looking away from him. It told him that she understood that he had to do it, she just didn’t want him to. “And what about things here? How are we going to scavenge if you’re taking most of the experienced scouts?”

“I’m not. Filip and James are going to stay, scouting and scavenging is something that can be done with two people and probably work out better in smaller numbers. Francine and Lecia are going to be here to help you through the pregnancy.” He could tell she was looking for a way to convince him to stay without directly saying she wanted him to stay. “Leona isn’t going to be an issue and Onyx is going to be focusing more on the group that goes out once they find out about it.”

She went quiet for a moment and her face turned slightly red before she took a deep breath, feigning a smile. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I can’t talk you out of it because it’s the right thing to do.” She stood, hiding her face as if she had been embarrassed by something. “I need to get something to eat, don’t wait up for me.”

She left the room in a hurry, leaving him there on his own. ‘She just wants some space and I think she’s earned it after tonight.'

He took her leave as time to shower, which he would admit that he needed after being out of the city for four days now. Back in the city, there were plenty of comments about the Voyagers and how they must lack personal hygiene because they didn’t live in the city. It was one of the things Marshal took personally that he wouldn’t tell anybody about.

Milo was the first one to learn about Marshal’s intolerance to any sort of messes. It was how he was raised and he had constantly been told that it was one of the habits he shouldn’t replace as he got older.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, had never been a too worried about keeping things clean, especially since she worked in the lab and with all the sensitive documents she had, just one missing page could be enough to set back months of work. Instead, she learned to live with the mess she created and make it work out for her.

He ended up falling asleep once he changed after the shower, which wasn’t in his plans. Elizabeth had told him not to wait up, but he at least wanted to know she made it back into the room okay.

Alyssa Kowalska

Most people in the motel woke up around and hour before their day normally started. For Francine and Lecia, they were awake at six and in the kitchen at seven. Alyssa’s situation was a bit different because somebody could get hurt or sick at any moment, so she was encouraged to get sleep whenever she could.

It was one of those things that was easier said than done. Since she left the city, there had been few nights that she would sleep through completely. They were usually following nights where she didn’t get any sleep.

She had spent most of the day with Morgan after Lecia mentioned that Morgan had always had an interest in taking care of people’s health.

After lunch, Milo met up with her, something clearly on his mind. “The gene Chelsea and Elizabeth have, can it bring back people besides them without causing a disruption in time?”

“I don’t think it can bring people other than them back at all.” She noticed his nerves didn’t ease. “Why do you ask?”

“Are you certain Marshal died last night?”

She nodded. “Yes, Vincent found him and stayed with him until I was able to say with absolute certainty that he was dead. I know how to do my job, Milo.”

“I know you do and I trust your opinion, but Marshal’s not dead. I saw him this morning and put it off as a coincidence but since then, I’ve seen him at least four more times.”

“Do you think anybody else saw him?”

“Of course.” He sounded stressed out. “He talked to Samantha the first time I saw him and Horatio, Cyrus, Kyle, and Vincent were around the next few times I saw him.”

“Did Vincent react in any way?”

He paused, his panic slowing down for the moment. “I don’t recall. I’m not crazy, I know what I saw.”

“I’m not saying I don’t believe you, but I want to talk to the others before I say anything else.” Vincent was the one of the two people she decided to go to because he’d seen more than what Alyssa saw the night before. “I’m going to walk around for a bit and see who I can find. Do you want to come with and clear your mind?”

“Yeah, sure.” While she tried picking up on what his voice told her, rather than his words, she heard a bit of drowsiness. He didn’t sleep much in the city and Elizabeth mentioned before that he didn’t sleep for too long because he was so used to being on high alert.

Alyssa took a moment to convince herself that he was just tired and still in shock before they left the dining room, heading to the courtyard.

Vincent and Samantha usually stayed in the courtyard because of the garden, which Samantha had taken to tending to. Vincent stayed with her because he wasn’t particularly close to anyone else and only took guard duty every Sunday.

She stopped once they found the part of the garden Samantha was working in, finding she was working on her own today. She didn’t seem bothered, even almost at peace.

Alyssa took a deep breath, the sweetness of the flowers growing around her quickly taking her over and relieving some of her stress. She approached Samantha, Milo staying by her side. “Samantha, I had a few questions for you.”

Samantha looked up, squinting to see without the sun getting in her eyes. “Oh, sure.” She got off the ground, a smile on her face. “What do you need?”

“Have you seen Marshal today?”

“I talked to him during breakfast, he was talking about a plan to keep Leona away for a super specific amount of time. He wanted my opinion on it, but I’m not really completely against having her around.” She looked back to the flowers she had just been working on planting. “You know how if you leave a spider to weave a web, it catches flies and mosquitoes? I feel it’s similar to that. Leona seems to know plenty about Onyx and since her goal is to become the leader of the Voyagers and Onyx both, I don’t think she’d let us get raided.”

Milo crossed his arms, a sour look on his face. “You’re right about her being a spider, just not a harmless house spider.”

“Then let’s just agree to disagree and drop it.” Samantha shrugged, getting back on the ground to start working on the garden again. “By the way, Vinnie was looking for you two earlier. He gave up and went to talk to Horatio.”

Alyssa spun on her heel, a slight sense of dread coming over her. Milo quickly followed behind her. “Do you think James would know where Horatio is?”

“Probably. We should just ask him since Horatio makes it a mission to avoid most of us.”

They stopped to look around once they made it out of the courtyard.

Alyssa locked eyes with Leona, who wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the motel. She motioned Alyssa over before ducking behind a bush.

Milo led Alyssa to the bush, letting her know that he’d also seen her.

Once they reached the bush, she jumped back up to be eye level with them. “You two are looking for something, what is it?”

Milo and Alyssa shared a look of uneasiness before Alyssa crossed her arms and looked back at Leona. “We’re looking for Horatio. Have you seen him?”

“Which one is he?”

Alyssa looked over at Milo, holding a hand next to his shoulder. “About this high, brown hair with a silver streak.”

“Not Grady?”

“Yeah, not Grady, Horatio.” Alyssa heard Milo trying to stifle a laugh while she tried to explain it to Leona.”

She did look like she understood, though. “He’s looking for you guys too.”

“Do you know who’s with him?”

She nodded. “Yep, most of the scouts from the Voyagers, the pacifist, and the guy who could probably kill somebody with a look.”

Milo pulled Alyssa away, immediately cracking a laugh once they got away from Leona. “I’m guessing the pacifist is James and the other one is Vincent.”

A shrill whistle rang out through the area, making them stop in place. Filip waved them over from in front of one of the rooms. He stayed in front of the doorway until they got there, letting them in the room and shutting the door behind them.

Horatio, Vincent, James, Cyrus, and Filip were all in the room. The same people from the night before.

Alyssa looked over them, taking in their looks of confusion, concern, and even fear. She noticed Milo’s smile faded as well. “What’s going on?”

James crossed his arms, giving a nasty look to Horatio. “I’d like to know as well. I’m supposed to be on guard duty today and I don’t have much time to waste.”

Cyrus seemed to be studying Filip, Alyssa, and James. The room went silent until he spoke up. “You three didn’t see him, did you?”

“See who?” Filip must have been the third person Cyrus was talking about.

“Marshal.” Horatio turned to Vincent with an accusatory glare. “Vin, you said he was dead and he doctor backed it up. How is he not only alive, but in perfect condition?”

Vincent looked to be in a panic worse than what Milo was in earlier. He was trying to stop his hands from shaking by holding onto his knees and taking some deep breaths. “He got impaled and bled out. I stayed with him until Alyssa came around. She was there when he died.”

The group immediately looked over to Alyssa, expecting an explanation. “He stopped breathing, his heart stopped beating, and his pulse couldn’t be found. That’s dead and the fact that he’s around right now is unsettling.”

“I think what’s even more concerning is that he acts like he doesn’t remember it.” Cyrus added. “I tried to talk to him about it and when I mentioned that we lowered them into the building, he got pissed off and told me that it was the stupidest idea he’d heard of.”

“He also said that on the way into the building, though.” Vincent’s voice lacked the annoying confidence it typically had. He only looked and sounded unnerved now.

James didn’t seem too convinced in what the others were saying. “Are you guys sure you’re not just in shock or something? I’ve always heard the more traumatic and sudden the incident, the harder the shock hits.”

“While there’s some truth to that, I don’t think all of them would be claiming the exact same thing because of shock.” While she was completely baffled by the claims, it wasn’t her job to ignore the others. It was her job to help them. “Samantha said she talked to him too, so something’s definitely going on. I haven’t seen him yet, but if he is around then I need to figure this out.”

They looked over each other before James stood, moving past Alyssa and Milo to get to the door. “She’s better qualified than any of to do it, we might as well trust her.”

Once James left, everyone else went to go.

Alyssa stopped Horatio briefly, knowing Milo would stay around. “I don’t think I said thank you last night.”

“For what?”

“You saved my life.”

He looked a little shocked for a minute as if he didn’t remember it. “Well yeah, I don’t like you guys, but even I understand that you’re the one Voyager it was benefit my people to have around.”

“Whatever reason you did it, thank you.”

He gave a slight nod before leaving.

Alyssa left the room, shutting the door behind her. She caught up to Milo, noticing he looked more at ease. “Are you still answering questions or am I going to have to wait another six months until you offer?”

“Depend on the type of question, what is it?”

The two started walking towards the dining hall. “It’s about Samantha. When she was talking about Leona, you didn’t hesitate to disagree with her opinion on her but you acted normal when we ran into Leona herself, what was that about?”

“If you think it’s because Samantha said it, you’re wrong. We didn’t end on bad terms and she’s a nice person, it’s just that we’re not compatible in anything romantic.” He pausd, knowing he’d eventually have to answer about Leona. “I don’t personally like having Leona around, especially knowing she’s responsible for drowning my sister, but I’m not going to challenge her because she’s shown me that she’s unstable and extremely dangerous.”

“Samantha’s the only girl you grew up with that isn’t your sister, married, or nearly twice your age. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be compatible with her.”

“She didn’t really like me scouting because it was dangerous, but I loved scouting at the time. Vincent didn’t like me from the start and I didn’t like him, so that was only a little more pressure on her.” He sighed. “There was a conflict of interest in nearly anything we talked about and the farther we went to try to keep things together only made us realize there was no point in keeping it together because we had nothing in common.”

“I don’t get it, Samantha seems to be kind enough, she’s into gardening, I’ve heard her mention interior decorating once or twice, and she’s really pretty, what’s not to like about her?”

“Everyone’s different behind closed doors and everyone’s got their own type, you know?”

They both stopped in front of the door to the dining hall, Milo grabbing the handle. “If she’s not your type, I’m extremely curious as to what is. You’ll have to tell me someday.”

“No promises on that one.”

Once they finished talking, they went into the dining hall, immediately running into Elizabeth and Chelsea.

They both seemed a little upset. “Marshal needs to talk to you guys in the dining room.” Chelsea spoke up, avoiding eye contact as she walked past Milo and Alyssa.

Elizabeth looked over to Milo, a frown taking over her. “Ahead of time, I’m sorry I can’t change his mind.” Elizabeth went after Chelsea while Milo and Alyssa went into the dining hall, heading straight to the dining room.

Just as Chelsea said, Marshal was waiting there. Cyrus was with him, but he seemed to be in a better mood than Elizabeth and Chelsea.

They approached the table, taking a seat. “Hang around for a few more minutes, we’re waiting on some more people.”

As they waited, a bad feeling came over Alyssa. Not only was Marshal alive after he clearly died the night before, but his calling a meeting was something that made Alyssa a bit suspicious.

Vincent and Samantha came in next, the both of them taking a seat at the table. He ordered them to wait as well, saying they were only waiting for one more person.

Horatio was the last to arrive, but he looked as if he was just as nervous as Alyssa. None of them were going to question how he was alive because Samantha didn’t know he had died in the first place.

“I’m going to cut straight to it because there’s no time to waste in preparation. Cyrus, Vincent, Samantha, and Milo.” He looked over each of them as he said their names. “You four are coming with me at the end of the week to start a long term job. Eleven and a half months and it’s not an option.” Vincent looked angry at the order while Samantha’s face went pale. “We’ll be in a new state every week and a new town every day, we’ll be starting rallies in every new location. We’ll also be taking Chelsea back to the city on the way.” He looked between Horatio and Alyssa. “You two stay, the rest of you already know what you need to. Be ready by Sunday.”

The group looked around, seeing they all had a mutual feeling of shock and anger. They took the order, leaving only Horatio and Alyssa with Marshal. “Is this why you were asking Samantha’s opinion on how to keep Leona away?”

He nodded. “But that’s not why I have you two here. You both have medical experience and while Alyssa has a bit more experience, I’m not sure which group is going to need a doctor more. This trip has the potential to end catastrophically for us once Onyx finds out about it and we’re going to need a doctor. However, it’s already clear that they’re going to need a doctor here as well. I’m leaving the decision of who goes up to you two, but I need to know immediately.”

Alyssa looked at Horatio, weighing in the options. He looked as if he didn’t want to decide. “I’ll leave it up to you.”

Marshal was right about all of the possibilities this trip had, but there was also a number of ways things could go badly at the motel as well. “Horatio, how much have you done as a doctor?”

“Whatever I needed to. Stitches, staples, you name it.”

“Aren’t you the one who delivered Francine’s baby?”

“That was me. Rocco didn’t get a real doctor out in time and I had no option.” He looked towards the kitchen. “Since the kid’s still alive, I consider it a success.”

Alyssa took a deep breath, resting her chin on her hand.

A choice here decided that Alyssa would go with the group and Horatio would stay at the motel.