Infinity

by Jus Accardo

  Another pain bloomed in my wrist, this one very different from the first. I opened my eyes, my vision adjusting to see Noah’s hands around my wrist, slamming it against the corner of the table, then again against the floor. I didn’t know how many times he did it, but when the pain finally ebbed, he looked almost as relieved as I felt.

  My breath caught, my gaze falling to the cuff. To the empty divot where Rabbit’s fake key had been moments ago. “What just happened?” I asked once I was sure I wouldn’t puke. My entire hand was numb, and I was afraid to move my fingers in fear that he’d broken them. “Because that felt like the reaper was trying to separate me from my skin.”

  “Close,” came Cade’s voice. A moment later he appeared in front of me, watching Noah from the corner of his eye. “I can only guess it was the cuff’s defense mechanism. The key wasn’t right, so the cuff fought back.”

  “By trying to kill me?” I sucked in a blissfully pain-free breath and scowled at the cuff. “That’s it. You’re off my Christmas card list.” Noah rocked back on his heels and let his gaze move beyond me to something on the other side of the room. Before I could think twice, I leaned forward and grabbed his hand, giving it a single, brutal squeeze. “Thank you.”

  Our eyes met, and for a second I could see it. All the love and pain and loss that encompassed his sister’s memory. For just a single instant he saw her, not me, and it brought the most amazing smile to his lips. Beaming like the sun, his fingers tightened around mine. His lips parted…but instead of speaking, his mouth snapped closed like a steel door, jaw tight and eyes narrow. He pulled his hand from mine and stood, stalking from the room without another word.

  Cade watched him go then stood and turned to Rabbit with a murderous expression. “You could have killed her.”

  Rabbit, in turn, gave it right back. “Which is exactly what I told your boy in there.” He jabbed a finger at my arm. “I don’t know what the hell that thing is, much less what makes it tick. It was a gamble—and you’re lucky the outcome wasn’t worse.”

  I jumped up and rested a hand on each boy’s chest, pushing back with as much force as I could. “Cool it, kids. I’m fine. No harm done.” When nothing further was said and no fists flew, I took a deep breath. “So what’s our next move? We can’t get it off, so we should…?”

  Cade was quiet for a moment. “Ava Harris.” He didn’t sound happy. Directing his attention to Rabbit, he asked, “You can’t get that thing off her, but could you locate someone for us?”

  Rabbit, having obviously learned his lesson the hard way, was more cautious this time around. “Why? Who is she?”

  “We think she might be able to help get this thing off,” I answered just as Cade opened his mouth. I didn’t like the expression on his face, and friends at home or not, he looked ready to start something, and that wasn’t the best way to get Rabbit to help us.

  “If that’s true, then why come to me first?”

  Shit. Smart one, this guy. “Honestly we didn’t want to involve her unless we had no other options.”

  Rabbit regarded me skeptically for a moment before sinking onto the couch. “This chick has a key?”

  “Not exactly,” I said, cautious. “But she might be the key to getting one.” He still didn’t look convinced, so I kept going, remembering what Cade told me about her. “She’s my cousin.”

  Technically it was a lie. Sort of. Somewhere out there, there was a version—several from the way Cade made it sound—of Ava that was my cousin. So really, it was only half a lie. Unfortunately, Rabbit didn’t buy it. “Your cousin? And you don’t know where she is?”

  “That cuff is the product of a secret government project that allows the wearer to travel to alternate Earths,” Noah said, coming back into the room. He crossed to where Rabbit was and folded his arms, casual as could be. “Someone put that cuff on her as leverage, and if we don’t get it off, it will drag her from this Earth to another—which will kill her. Ava Harris is the reason. We’re hoping by finding her, we can force the guy with the key out of hiding and wrap this thing up once and for all.”

  Crickets.

  That’s all you could hear. Literally. There must have been a zillion of them hanging out right outside the windows.

  I imagined my expression was pretty close to Cade’s. He watched Noah with unsurpassed shock, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. “Jesus, Noah. Again?”

  Again? That must have been what Cade meant when he told Noah to keep quiet earlier…

  Noah didn’t seem to care. He shrugged and said, “What? You and I both know our Rabbit would totally appreciate the honesty. They all do. Every time.”

  “Your Rabbit?” Rabbit frowned. “As in, another me on another Earth. Do I have that right?”

  “Yep,” Noah said with a sharp nod.

  “Meaning—” He waggled a finger between Cade and Noah. “—you two are from another Earth?”

  “Yep,” Noah said again.

  Rabbit’s eyes widened, and he shook his head slowly. “That is—”

  Cade glared at Noah. “If you’ll just give me a sec—”

  “The coolest thing I’ve ever heard,” Rabbit finished with a stomp of his foot.

  “What?” Cade and I exclaimed in unison. “You believe him?” He was messing with us. Because, he had to be, right? Who the hell believed a story like that?

  Rabbit stuffed both hands into his pants pockets and flashed a sly grin. “The government thinks it can keep an airtight lid on this stuff, but chatter always leaks out. Granted, most people don’t lend any credence to it. I mean, only a hemp-obsessed punk genius would ever buy into a rumor like that, right?”

  Noah slapped him hard on the back. “That’s my man.” He shot Cade an I told you so glare.

  “So then you’ll help us?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Rabbit might have a record IQ, but he was just about as strange as they could get. Just because he bought what Noah was selling didn’t mean he’d want to jump into the crazy end of the pool with us.

  “Hell yeah.” He dove for the computer chair a few feet away and pushed off hard. The chair glided across the linoleum, coming to a jarring halt as his feet braced against the far wall. Fingers poised over the keyboard, he said, “Hit me.”

  “Ava Harris,” Noah replied, moving to stand behind him. “Born July fifteenth 1999. Possibly in California. Sacramento. Another possible location is Long Island, New York.”

  As Rabbit’s fingers breezed across the keyboard, Cade and I made our way over to the other side of the room. It was impossible to follow his movements as he skated across the keys. Page after page popped on the screen as Rabbit’s eyes seemingly devoured the information.

  “Nothing. What else can you tell me?”

  “It wouldn’t be Harris,” Cade said. He stomped his foot and growled. “She’s not Kori’s cousin on this Earth. Her mom never met and married Cora’s brother. The last name wouldn’t be Harris! How the hell could I be so stupid?”

  “Do you know what her father’s name was? Maybe her parents never divorced here.”

  Cade thought about it for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Fairfield. Ava’s father is John Fairfield. Where we’re from, he was a drunk, abusive bastard, but he was also a marine. Can you check service—”

  “Two steps ahead of you, bro.” Rabbit snickered. A second later, he tapped the screen and announced, “Bingo!”

  We all leaned forward to get a better look. It was an address in Pennsville, just outside of Wells.

  For a marine named John Fairfield.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We thanked Rabbit for his help and were back on the road by four in the afternoon. It’d been hard to get away. After realizing we were moving on, he tried everything he could to get us to stay and answer questions. Everything from scientific queries that made my brain itch, to questions about the roles of house pets in their society.

  The GPS in our newly borrowed Toyota said John Fairfield’s address was about three hours from
Rabbit’s place. The last thing I wanted was to sit in a car with nothing else to do other than obsess about my impending demise for hours at a time, but tagging out wasn’t an option.

  I shifted to my left and stretched my leg. My right hip and arm had fallen asleep and were starting to needle. I would have given just about anything at that point to get out and stretch, but the sand in the hourglass was almost gone. The little luxuries would have to wait. Hell, bathroom breaks required fierce argument. Cade didn’t want to stop for anything. “So say we do find Ava. Then what?”

  “We call Dylan,” Noah said. He was stretched out across the back seat, feet kicked up and resting on the window frame. He and Cade decided to take turns driving. I hadn’t been given a turn because, apparently, the other me was a horrible driver and they weren’t taking any chances.

  I twisted in my seat. “Call Dylan? Are you crazy?” Like I’d let them just fork this poor girl over?

  “Relax,” Cade said from the driver’s seat. “Dylan would never hurt Ava. Any version of her.” He glared into the rearview mirror. “But so we’re clear, we’re not going to call and tell him where to find her. He might not hurt her, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try to take her with him.”

  “But how can he do that without killing her?”

  Cade didn’t answer, but Noah snorted. “He was afraid to get your hopes up.”

  I stared at Cade. “Hopes up? What does that mean? What aren’t you telling me?”

  He palmed the wheel, then tapped it several times. “We figured that was his plan all along. Find Ava and bring her home. Remember I told you that when we found him in the lab, right before he skipped, the place was trashed? A few of the cuffs were gone. We’re pretty sure he has a dose of the quick prep with him…”

  “Why wouldn’t you tell me that?” I screamed, slamming my hand against the dashboard. “You let me sit here thinking I was going to die if we didn’t recover the key.” It wasn’t the most ideal setup, but at least if there was a working dose of the quick prep floating around out there, I had a shot.

  I could see Mom again…

  “We still don’t know for sure that he has it, Kori. For all I know, his plan is to find her and stay here.”

  I folded my arms and straightened in the seat. Turning toward the window, I said, “You still should have told me.”

  ...

  By the time hour two rolled around, I could tell Cade was starting to fade. None of us had really had much sleep since this whole thing started. Well, none of us except Noah, who had been snoring in the back for the past forty minutes. I guessed because it wasn’t his neck on the chopping block, drifting off to dreamland was easy. As tired as I was, there was no way I could shut my eyes knowing what was at stake. Knowing what might now be only hours away…

  “Pull off. Let’s get some coffee and switch drivers.”

  “I’m fine,” Cade insisted—all while trying to cover up a yawn. He rolled his shoulders and flexed the fingers on his right hand while giving me a sideways glance. “We’re almost there.”

  “And I’d love to spend those few hours alive. Please,” I tried again. We’d hit some traffic due to a car accident and were still about an hour and half out. “I’m starving. I could use munchies, and I seriously need to stretch.”

  I didn’t think he’d give in. The one thing I’d learned in the short time I’d known him was that he was even more stubborn than Dad. The first person I’d ever met who could give the general a run for his money, Cade didn’t seem like the compromising type.

  “We’re almost out of time, and considering by now we probably have half the U.S. military scouring the streets for us, I’d really rather not stop.”

  “But if—”

  “Don’t argue,” Noah mumbled sleepily. “You know he’s even worse than Dad.” There was a rustling sound, and a half snort, and a moment later, soft snoring filled the car.

  I hadn’t missed his “Dad” slip up, and even though I tried not to read too much into it, the truth was, it gave me a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach. “It won’t do us any good if you fall asleep at the wheel.”

  He didn’t answer. Not that I’d really expected him to. It was obvious from the hard set of his jaw and the rigidness of his shoulders that he wasn’t going to give in. I folded my arms and settled into my seat, preparing for the longest two hours of my life.

  ...

  We arrived at John Fairfield’s address just before seven thirty. We had just four and a half hours left before Dylan skipped. My heart thundered as I slid from the car and followed Cade and Noah up the walkway of the large colonial on the corner of Fifth and Gerber. I had no idea what was waiting for us behind those doors, or if it would be the answer we were hoping for, but something about this moment felt huge. Like knocking on that door would be a turning point.

  “And what are we supposed to say to her?” Noah grabbed Cade’s arms just as he stepped onto the porch. “What’s the plan?”

  Cade frowned. He glanced at me, then back to Noah, swatting away a moth that had drifted down from the light above the door. “There isn’t one. I’m just kind of coasting here.”

  “Coasting?” Noah’s eyes widened. “Man, this isn’t a coasting situation. Say she’s in there. Then what? Do we drag her out kicking and screaming and fork her over? Trick her into coming with us?”

  “I told you I have no intention of handing her over to Dylan.”

  “That’s all well and fucking awesome. But it doesn’t answer my question—or solve the problem. Your plan was to use her to get the key. How exactly do you plan on doing that?”

  Most of the time when Noah opened his mouth, I wanted to smack him. This time, he had a point. We were here, but now what? What was the point of tracking Ava down if we weren’t going to call Dylan? Just walking up and introducing ourselves wasn’t going to fix anything. And what were we supposed to tell her?

  Hi! I’m Kori, your almost cousin, and these two guys are from an alternate reality where, apparently, we’re both dead. If you’d kindly come with us, you could help stop a multiverse-hopping lunatic, who has a serious hard-on for you, from killing a lot of people.

  Um, no.

  I stepped between them. “He’s right.”

  There was a loud creaking sound, followed by a booming voice. “Can I help you?”

  The three of us whirled toward the door. A tall, broad-shouldered man, somewhere in his forties if I had to guess, stood behind the screen. He regarded us with a friendly, but cautious smile.

  “You’re John Fairfield, right? Sandra’s husband?”

  His smile faded a little. “Yes. And it’s after eight at night.”

  A spike of hope surged. He was still married to Ava’s mother. That meant she had to be here. “We’re here to see Ava. Is she home?”

  The man’s brow furrowed. He leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. “Ava?”

  “Your daughter?” I tried, desperately clinging to that small spark of hope as it fizzled into nothingness.

  “I think you three have the wrong house. I’ve got a son, Avery, but no daughter.” He straightened and, taking one last look at us, nodded and closed the door.

  The sound it made as it closed was like an explosion in my head. That was it. Our last chance. Ava didn’t exist here. There was nothing stopping Dylan from offing me as promised and moving on to the next world. To the next possible Ava.

  I gripped the banister and sucked in a breath. Everything started to spin.

  Cade said something. All I heard was white noise. A constant crackle of nothingness—something it seemed was destined to fill my future. He grabbed my arm, but I shook him off with a violent jerk and bolted down the steps. Whatever it was he had to say didn’t interest me. I needed to let this sink in. To come to terms with the fact that I’d just essentially been handed a death sentence. Dylan wouldn’t take pity on me. He wouldn’t unlock the cuff and spare my life. I wasn’t Kori Anderson in this scenario. I was a convenient tool t
o carry out an unrelenting revenge.

  Past the car and down the suburban sidewalk. The stars were out, the sky was clear and the night air crisp. It was the kind of night I normally hated. The chill in the air usually found me retreating to warmer accommodations. But tonight I didn’t feel it. Not really. The only real thing was the faint thumping sound my sneakers made as they pounded against the sidewalk. Slow at first, then steadily increasing until the rhythm was consistent and fast.

  It wasn’t until I came to a small colonial bordered by a privacy fence that I stopped. Someone—more than likely the owners of the house—had painted various sayings from end to end. Different colors and styles. All sizes and shapes. Each one was unique except for the singular thing they all shared.

  Wars are not won by evacuations—Winston Churchill…

  There is no failure except in no longer trying—Elbert Hubbard…

  Survival can be summed up in three words. Never Give Up—Bear Grylls…

  They were all about hope.

  There was a strange beauty in that fence. Something I could relate to in the deepest level of my being. For once it wasn’t about the colors or various textures. It had nothing to do with the fancy fonts. It was about the art. Not the same as something I’d have done, but powerful nonetheless. Art brightened life. It brought meaning to things otherwise left forgotten. It gave hope…

  I had no idea how long I stood there, taking great care to read each and every last one, but when I turned around, Noah was standing behind me. “This whole thing sucks. I know. And since I don’t believe in lying to spare someone’s feelings, I’ll come right out and say this looks grim. Even if Dylan has a quick prep on him, getting it away from him will be impossible. The guy would die before letting it slip away.”

  I snorted and, without thinking, punched him lightly in the arm. “Great pep talk.”

  He rolled his eyes, then shrugged. “I’ve never been a pep-talk kinda guy. But, I’m also not a quitter—and neither are you.”

  “You don’t know anything about me,” I fired back. My words were defensive, and the fear tasted foul rolling off the tip of my tongue.