The Strike Trilogy (64 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I
n his office on the top floor of the Trident, the Daybreaker stood behind his desk at the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out at the battle being waged in Boston Common. Still too weakened from his most recent extraction, the Daybreaker was using a crutch to stand, and as he readjusted the crutch under his arm and pressed his hand against the glass, he heard the door behind him open.

“Alison, where is my armor?” the Daybreaker said. “I need to—”

But when the Daybreaker turned around, it wasn’t Nurse Somerset he saw in the doorway.

It was Jennifer.

Immediately, the girl brought her hand to her mouth, in shock at the sight of the second Tobin.

“Tobin, hi,” she said, her voice wavering. “It’s me. It’s me.”

The Daybreaker looked back at her, with his face blank. As he looked her up and down, he began to squint, confused.

“Who are you?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

Jennifer carefully walked into the office. “It’s me, Tobin. It’s—”

The girl stopped. It wasn’t until she had stepped closer to the Daybreaker that she realized how horrible he looked. His skin was white and lifeless, and the black circles under his eyes stretched almost all the way down his cheeks. His lips were pale and chapped, and it appeared he had lost close to fifteen pounds.

Jennifer gasped and covered her mouth, crying.

“My god, Tobin, what have they done to you? What have they done to you?”

The Daybreaker stared back at her, angry. As he held his fists against his legs, his hands erupted in white-and-blue energy.

“Who sent you here?” he said, raising his voice. “How did Orion do this?”

“It’s me, Tobin,” Jennifer said through her tears. She held her hand against her heart. “I promise, Tobin. It’s Jennifer.”

“No,” the Daybreaker replied. “You’re dead. Jennifer’s dead. Who are you?”

“Tobin, please. It’s me. I’m here. And so is Chad. It’s really me, I promise you.”

“Orion created a fake Chad, and now he has created a fake Jennifer. How did they do this? Why are you here?”

Jennifer grew upset. She tried to stop her crying, she tried to be strong. But it was so difficult, seeing her best friend like this, and hearing him speak this way.

“Tobin, Chad and I, we’re fine. We’re both fine. He’s here, too, right now, downstairs and outside. The real him. You’ve been lied to, Tobin, they’ve been—”

The Daybreaker suddenly screamed, lifting both of his glowing fists up and bringing them down on his desk, smashing the wooden piece of furniture into two pieces. Jennifer jumped back, startled.

“I saw your bodies!” the Daybreaker shouted. “I went to your funerals!” He stomped across the room, his fist raised over his head. “Now, you are going to tell me who you really are, or else I’m gonna—”

The Daybreaker stopped. He dropped his fist to his side. His face fell.

Jennifer was crying and looking away from him. She was afraid. Afraid of him.

The Daybreaker stepped backward, overwhelmed, his eyes darting around Jennifer. “I don’t know,” he stammered, “I don’t—I’m so confused, I don’t—”

Frustrated, the Daybreaker fell against what was left of his desk and ran his hand through his hair, gripping it tightly and growling through gritted teeth. His eyes were closed, but when he looked up, Jennifer saw that his face was streaked with tears.

Jennifer cried with him. She stepped toward the desk, holding out her shaking hand. She wanted to squeeze his arm—give him any kind of human contact—but she was still afraid of what he might do.

“It’s me, Tobin,” she said. “It’s me. I swear. I promise. Please, let me help you.”

The Daybreaker moved away. “I don’t—I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t believe you. This is a trick. It’s one of Orion’s tricks.”

“Tobin, you need help,” Jennifer said. “You need someone to help you. You need to know what is really going on.”

The Daybreaker looked up. His confusion was now making him angrier.   “You’re a liar. You’re all liars. I don’t—it can’t be you. You’re gone. It can’t be you.”

Jennifer pushed her fear aside and took another step toward him. He needed her. Now more than ever, he needed her.

“Tobin, it’s me,” she said, barely able to speak through her tears. “It’s me. Remember when we snuck out of Health class in seventh grade, and we had to hide in the lunch ladies’ room from the hall monitor? Remember when you made me go to that awful horror movie freshman year, and we were the only ones in the theatre and it was the scariest thing ever? Remember the night my grandfather died and we went to the beach at midnight to talk, and we ended up going swimming and we didn’t come home until five in the morning?”

The Daybreaker looked at Jennifer, with his head tilted slightly, his brow furrowing. His hands slowly unclenched. His confusion was lifting. It was as if another life was coming back to him.

“Remember,” Jennifer said, “last year, when Mike broke up with me at the homecoming dance and you hung out with me in the coat room all night, making me laugh and staying with me so I didn’t have to go back inside and face everyone again? Remember? Do you remember? That was the night…that was the night I realized I loved you.”

The Daybreaker stepped back. His eyes were wide.

Jennifer looked away from him, in shock at what she just said. “I know...I know things have never really lined up for us. I’m with Tommy now, and before that you were with other people. The timing has never been right, and I never wanted to ruin our friendship, and I don’t think you did, either. But...I love you, Tobin. I love you. I always have. I’m in love with you. And I can’t bear to see you like this.”

The Daybreaker stood near the ceiling-high window, stunned. As Jennifer looked at him from across the room, she realized, now more than ever, that he looked like Tobin.

Jennifer walked toward him. Before he could speak, she grabbed the boy by his arms and pulled him close. She closed her eyes, tilted her head, and kissed him, pressing her mouth against him, holding him close to her body. She felt his lips against hers.

It was a feeling she had wanted to experience many times over the past six years, when they were alone in her basement late at night and watching a movie. Now, finally, at this most important of moments, she had.

She couldn’t have been happier that she had waited until now.

CHAPTER THIRTY

I
n the dark florist shop across the street from the eastern side of the skyscraper, Chad waited with Scatterbolt, sitting with the robot at a table full of potted plants and bags of seeds. Behind them, Keplar Junior was playing with a plastic shovel, chewing it into thousands of pieces.

“What do you think is going on up there?” Chad asked. “You think she made it?”

“I don’t know,” Scatterbolt replied. “But if we don’t hear from her in two minutes, I’m heading up there.”

“But they’ll recognize you,” Chad said. “You said your face has been on wanted posters all over this place.”

“I know, but it’s a risk I’ll have to take. I’m already sick to my stomach about bringing you guys here. If she hasn’t gotten her chance to talk to him yet, it’s too late now. We have to get out of here soon and—” The robot’s eyes grew large and flashed with a yellow light. “Oh, no,” he said.

“What?” Chad asked. “What’s ‘oh no?’”

Scatterbolt stood up. He walked across the room and slowly opened the door. Stepping out into the dark, silent city, he looked down the street, toward the eastern part of Harrison.

About a block away, in the middle of an intersection, there stood a single Hooded Gore, staring back at Scatterbolt, with its claws dangling at its sides. Its head was crooked.

However, Scatterbolt soon learned the Gore was not alone. From around the corner, the demon was soon joined by nineteen more Gores, all of which barreled down the street and stood behind the first Gore in a pack. As the cloaked creatures looked down the road toward the florist shop, their red eyes were glowing in the night.

Scatterbolt turned to Chad. “Stay in the building. Don’t move.”

“Oh my god,” Chad said, looking out the open door. “Oh my god. They found us. They found us somehow.”

“You stay there,” Scatterbolt said again, holding up his hand. “Both of you. You and Keplar Junior. While I distract them, you run and get as far away from here as you can.”

“You can’t take them all on at once,” Chad said. “They’ll—they’ll—”

The squadron of Gores suddenly hissed en masse and charged down the street towards Scatterbolt, who stood in the middle of the road and waited for them.

“I’m going to draw all their attention,” Scatterbolt said, yelling over the noise of the Gores’ clawed feet hammering the asphalt. “You get away with Keplar Junior. As fast as you can. Don’t look back.”

“I can’t,” Chad stammered, watching the enraged demons near Scatterbolt. “I can’t go out there without…”

Scatterbolt stood with his palm raised, ready to fire his globs of oil at the Gores. There were too many of them. He knew that. But he had to give Chad time to get away.

“Take Keplar Junior and get out of here,” Scatterbolt said, as the red-eyed Gores marauded toward him. “Wait until all this is over, then head back to the Common and try to find Orion.”

“But you can’t face them alone!” Chad yelled. “Call for help! Do something!”

But Scatterbolt didn’t answer. He began picking off the Gores with his oil globs, but their numbers were too many, and he couldn’t even make a dent in their oncoming pack. Soon, the stampede was upon him, and he had to pop his helicopter from the top of his head and hover up into the air. But, he knew he couldn’t fly too high above them, or else the Gores would give up on him and head after Chad and Keplar Junior. From six feet off the ground, the little robot continued to send sticky oil globs down at the demons, but the Gores were jumping up and grabbing at his legs, clawing at this feet. The robot knew it was only a matter of time before the Gores were able to leap high enough and pull him down to the street.

In the florist shop, Chad looked out the open door, unsure of what to do and so frightened he felt like crying. He looked into the dark shop behind him, trying to decide if he should wait there and hide in the shadows, but then he looked back out into the city. All of the remaining Gores underneath Scatterbolt were jumping up like jackals, climbing onto each other’s backs and grabbing at the robot, who was only inches from their reach.

At the moment, all of the demons were completely distracted, and Chad knew he could run out of the shop and down the street in the opposite direction, away from them, any time he wanted. The whole city was deserted in that area, and he knew he could go there and hide somewhere until everything was quiet, just like Scatterbolt had told him to.

But he couldn’t. He was too afraid to go out into the city by himself. And he couldn’t live with himself if he just left Scatterbolt there with all of the Gores.

But what could he do? What could he do to help?

Behind Chad, Keplar Junior began barking.

“I know, KJ, we have to leave, but we can’t, we have to—”

From the table where Chad had been sitting, Keplar Junior began barking even louder, and more wildly, his yips echoing in the florist shop. Chad could also hear the dinosaur jumping up and down, his claws scratching against the shop’s linoleum floor.

Chad turned around. After quickly leaping up onto a stool near the table, Keplar Junior began growling like a mad dog, as loud as he could, with his head darting up and down. Chad realized the three-horned dinosaur wasn’t barking because he was afraid. He was barking at something on the table.

Chad walked to the table and looked down.

Keplar Junior was barking at the laser blaster that Scatterbolt had brought with them from Capricious.

“What am I supposed to do with that?” Chad asked. “I don’t know how to use that thing! I don’t even know what it is!”

But Keplar Junior wouldn’t stop barking, and nodding his head toward the blaster. Outside, Chad could still hear Scatterbolt’s globs of oil exploding uselessly against the city street.

Reaching down, Chad picked up the chrome, shining blaster. The weapon’s barrel was wide, flat, and horizontal—it looked more like some kind of vacuum attachment than a blaster, and it was cold and surprisingly light in his hand. Rolling it over, he looked at the small, rectangular, blank screen on its side.

So nervous and terrified that his knees were barely keeping him standing, Chad stepped out of the open florist shop and into the street.

With his arms trembling, Chad raised the blaster, holding it with both hands about four feet off the ground. After taking a deep breath, he grimaced, doing all he could to stop himself from vomiting.

“Scatterbolt!” Chad yelled, his voice cracking. “Go higher!”

Scatterbolt turned around. Chad was standing in the street, pointing the laser blaster at the army of Gores.

“What are you doing?” Scatterbolt yelled. “Get inside!”

“Just stay up there!”

Closing his eyes and turning away, Chad pulled the trigger of the blaster. But, he was so scared and nervous he forgot to let go. He just held the trigger down and looked away.

From the air, Scatterbolt eyeballed the barrel of the blaster. He could see that the flat-mouthed weapon was charged and ready to blow. All of its chrome was shining bright green, and the screen on its side now read: CHARGE FULL.

“Chad!” the robot yelled. “Let go!”

Finally, Chad let go of the trigger.

Instantly, a green laser the entire width of the city street shot out of the weapon’s barrel, zooming out over the road. In a bright, lime-colored flash, the beam lit up the night, zipped through the air above the ground, and sliced right through every single Hooded Gore. Before the laser beam was even at the end of the street, the demons dropped to the asphalt in a heap, without the ability to let out even a single scream.

Removing his arm from his eyes, Scatterbolt blinked and looked down at the Gores. There was now only a harmless pile of smoking cloaks there, with their insides completely empty.

Scatterbolt looked back at Chad with a wide smile.

“Chad!” the robot yelled. “You did it!”

Chad opened his eyes. He looked down the road. With his arms still held out in front of him and holding the blaster, he let out a small squeak of a laugh.

Then, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fainted, falling to the street in a clump.

On the top floor of the skyscraper, Jennifer stood with the Daybreaker near the office’s giant window, behind the broken wooden desk. Reaching into her pocket, she retrieved the front page of a newspaper, folded up into a small square. As she placed the newspaper on the desk, Jennifer realized the Daybreaker’s nerves and confusion were slowly fading away—he no longer grew angry and moved away from her when she came near him.

“I know it’s confusing,” Jennifer said, placing her finger on the newspaper, “but you’re not from this timeline. This is a different timeline—a different world—than the one you’re from. Look, I brought this with me to show you. Do you remember what month it was when Rigel first came to you at the grocery store?”

“Yes,” the Daybreaker said. “It was the beginning of October. I was supposed to meet you later that night at Stacey Redmond’s party.”

“Right, and when was that? Like two months ago, right?”

“Something like that.”

“But look at this.” Jennifer pointed to the date on the Bridgton Herald’s front page. “It’s the middle of August. That’s not possible, right? And look at this.” She reached into her other pocket and retrieved her iPhone. Pulling up a series of photographs, she swiped through them. The pictures showed Tobin and his friends at their high school graduation, dressed in their black robes and pointed hats.   Jennifer stopped on a picture of Tobin and his mom outside of the high school. The boy was smiling and holding up his diploma for the camera, with his other arm draped across his mother’s shoulders.

“See?” Jennifer said. “This hasn’t happened yet where you’re from, right? Because you’re in the wrong timeline, Tobin. Rigel took you from your timeline and brought you here, but you should be back in the past, in your own timeline.”

Jennifer handed the phone to the Daybreaker. He stared at it, thinking, his eyes narrowed with confusion.

“I don’t even understand it fully,” Jennifer said, “but Rigel went back in time, captured you, and brought you here. To this timeline. That’s why there are two Tobin’s here—two versions of you. The one out there, the one dressed as Strike? That’s the Tobin from this timeline.

“You weren’t supposed to meet Rigel that night at the supermarket, Tobin. You were supposed to meet Orion. That’s what happened in this timeline, and you became Strike, you became a hero. But, somehow, Rigel went back in time and changed that. So, instead of Orion, you met Rigel. And then you became...you...”

Jennifer didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t want to bring up all the terrible things that the Daybreaker had done.

“You were lied to, Tobin,” Jennifer said. “Rigel and Nova lied to you. That helmet of yours? It showed you things that aren’t true. The Jennifer in your timeline—she’s still alive. And so is Chad, and your mom. It was all a lie.”

Jennifer walked to the window. The Daybreaker followed her, looking outside, at the destruction.

“Look what’s happened,” Jennifer said, holding out her hand. “Boston is gone. The Earth is in danger. Rigel wants to enslave everyone on Earth. You have to help us, Tobin. You have to end this.”

The Daybreaker watched the battle. The horizon was burning.

“Does Tobin—the Tobin from this timeline—know how you feel?” the Daybreaker asked. “Have you ever told him?”

Suddenly an explosion rocked the building. Jennifer had to reach out and grab the desk chair to keep from falling to the floor. The Daybreaker stood at the window and looked down. A massive fire was raging at the foot of the skyscraper.

“You need to get out of here,” the Daybreaker said. “Now.”