Traveler by L.E. DeLano (book suggestions .txt) 📕

outcry save countless lives. We let people die every single day, and all for the greater good.”

“Rudy is lying to you,” Finn says evenly. “He lied to me, he lied to Jessa, he lied to Mario. What makes you think you’re getting accurate information?”

“There are rules!” Eversor exclaims. “Your Dreamer has a plan, and you follow the plan! Rudy wouldn’t lie.”

“Please…,” I plead. “We’re talking about people. We’re talking about families.” We’re talking about my family, I think but don’t say. “You’re going to help Rudy kill billions of people!”

“Not kill. Simply remove. Billions upon billions, if you also count their descendants.” She shrugs. “It’s the way we operate, Jessa. Surely you’ve learned this. We can’t get involved. Just consider this another job.” She smiles a little too wide to be anything but creepy. “But it is all for the greater good, you see? Rudy is doing this to simplify. We crave simplicity. It is in our very nature. He wants what is best for us all.”

Ben holds up his hands defensively and walks forward, keeping his eyes on the crazy teacher with the gun. “Listen,” he says cautiously, “I’m not part of this. And I left my truck out front. Any cop patrolling will see it. They’ll have to come check things out.”

She gestures with the gun, motioning for him to get back, and he does.

“And what a shame when they find what’s left of your bodies in the mine, buried under a collapse.” She steps forward to tap on the wooden column gently with the edge of the gun, drawing our eyes to the deep score marks she must have put there earlier. “Once I’ve taken care of you, this will only need one good push. Teenagers are always ignoring warning signs.” She makes a tsk-tsk sound with her tongue. “And your poor mother, Jessa! Meeting two boys here at the same time? What will she think of you?”

I have a sudden picture in my mind of my mom and Danny, standing alone outside the mine, with their arms around each other. I can feel their grief like a living thing, eating my insides, and I am burning with anger. As furious as I am about what Rudy is trying to do to me, the effect on my family just seems so much worse, for some reason. And what about Ben’s family?

Finn has no family, not anymore—but he has me. He has me, and I will stand for him. I will stand for him, and for all my families, across all the realities. None of them deserve this.

I back up a little, snaking my hand behind me and feeling around until it lands on a crumbling crevice in the rock wall. I push back and feel the edge of a good-sized stone. I start working it with my fingers behind me, back and forth, rocking it to free it. It’s not much, but it’s the only weapon I’ve got.

“You’re a Traveler,” Finn says. He’s got one eye on me and he’s clearly trying to stall her. “You of all people should know that actions have consequences—and not always good ones.”

“We lose a little more every day as each world splinters and fragments and re-forms into other realities. The possibilities are becoming too infinite. We must return to a state of control. Rudy is the only one brave enough to make the tough choices. The ones that will restore order.”

I dig my fingers farther under the rock, feel warm blood on my fingers as I tear up my knuckles, but it’s starting to shift now. Back and forth, back and forth …

“Oh, but it is such a shame about you, Finn,” she says apologetically. “You had such promise. Rudy always thought so.”

“I don’t give a damn what Rudy thinks,” Finn snaps. “And you’re a fool to believe anything he says.”

“Year after year, century after century,” she says with a flamboyant gesture of her hand. “We hesitate and we doubt ourselves, making only the smallest changes, the ones with the least risk. We need a leader who isn’t afraid to take those risks, to move mankind forward with purpose and vision. To make the sacrifices that must be made. You, Jessa, are one of those sacrifices.”

She sighs, and her face settles into determined lines. As she centers the gun and squeezes the trigger, I pull my arm back and throw the rock as hard as I can.

I hit her wrist, sending the shot wide and making her drop the gun. Ben is closest. He and Eversor both make a dive for it, but my eyes are on Finn as he staggers back, slamming into the wooden post and raining dirt and small rocks on us. He’s clutching his shoulder, and blood is running down his arm.

“Finn!”

“It’s only a graze,” he says. Then his eyes widen as he looks past me. “Ben! Don’t let her—”

I whirl just in time to see Ben holding the gun on Eversor, who has crawled over to the lantern. She puts her hand to the reflective glass, and in the blink of an eye, she vanishes.

The gun drops to the ground with a clatter as Ben stares, openmouthed. “What the hell!” he says in disbelief. He turns to look at us. “What just happened?”

But there’s no time to answer him. A second later, a cracking sound turns into thunder as the post crumples and rock rains down all around us.

“Run!” Finn shouts, as everything shakes. A giant cloud engulfs us, throwing dirt and debris into our mouths and eyes. I feel a hand latch on to my arm, yanking hard, and we run, coughing and feeling our way along the wall. Ben’s foresight with the glow sticks helps to dimly illuminate the way out, and we stumble forward until the air begins to settle. It’s still so thick, I can’t see much, and the dust chokes my throat as I hold on to that hand like a lifeline.

I swipe at my eyes as the flashlight switches on,