Jump Line (Book 1 - Jump Line Series)

Chapter Twenty-One

"Anything else we should know?" Theo asked. I, too, wondered what Samuel might be keeping from us.

"I can't tell you yet, but I will have an answer soon enough," Samuel responded. He turned back to me. "How do you feel?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?" He asked, his lips pinched.

"Uh, yes."

"Okay, Esa." He wrapped my wrist in a gel-like substance. "This will make your arm feel better. Just give it a few seconds."

"Esa, let's go." Theo pulled at my other arm. "We need to get back to the present day."

I nodded; although, I wasn't entirely sure where Theo planned to go. Before I could say anything else, Theo slid his hand into mine, and together we walked out of Samuel's lab.

As soon as we hit the hallway, Theo reached up for his medallion and the Jump Line came into view in front of us. When we got back to the house in our primary time. Audrina was standing at her command post in Samuel's lab, watching a large screen with various colored lights expanding and then decreasing. The dots had doubled in size from what they'd been just minutes ago.

"I've never seen anything like it before. There's so many of them; they're everywhere. If we can't get the situation under control, we may need to take precautionary actions," Audrina said, sounding exhausted. "They'll eventually be able to get inside."

"What does that mean?" I asked, already feeling mounting pressure in my head. Despite the removal of the tracker, I still experienced pain. Maybe it was a mental thing since we had just returned to this place.

"It means we need to do something with the house. We can't risk them getting inside and getting ahold of any of our research. It's too dangerous. It's time to extract. I'll set the timers. You guys get out of here."

"Wait! We can't just destroy this place!" I threw my hands in the hair. Her solution seemed ridiculous.

"Esa, you need to understand, we will never have a single place to call home. This is becoming our life. We will adjust and rebuild for as long as we can. Whether it's on this planet or elsewhere."

"No!" The word echoed through the room. There had been so many moves and changes in my life. For three years, I was forced to move in and out of foster homes every few months. Just as I would get settled, the family would decide it was time for me to leave. There was something about me, they would all say—something that made them uncomfortable. For once, I had a place. A sense of belonging. My own space. Now that, too, would be gone.

A wave of sadness washed over me. Everything was happening so fast. Audrina, Gave, Theo and Luther were running through the house, preparing for the so-called extraction.

"What about Samuel's stuff?" I asked to no one in particular.

"Don't worry. It will be taken care of," Audrina said as she ran past. Her long hair hung loose around her shoulders. One of the strands softly slapped me in the face as she hurried by. "Samuel is good to go."

Theo looked over at me. "We need to regroup. We'll head to Mary's house. Does that work for everyone?"

"Yes," I heard in unison from the chaotic scene. It sounded like the voices were, once again, underwater. The pressure inside my head was becoming insanely painful.

"Why Mary's house?" I asked out of curiosity, trying to hide the pain.

A frustrated sigh escaped Theo's lips. "Because I said so."

"When will Audrina, Gave and Luther follow?" I asked as Theo grabbed my hand and yanked me toward the Jump Line.

"Any second now. They're just taking care of last minute preparations," he said.

"What exactly does that mean?"

"It means they're taking care of things. What do you think it means?" Theo's voice rose. "Esa, you've got to stop asking so many questions."

"I would stop if you would start providing me with better answers. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on."

"I know, but it's frustrating."

"Sorry."

"You don't have to keep telling me that you are sorry. I get it."

"I just have one last question. What will happen to the house?" I asked. They'd told me that the clock was ticking; I guess I just hadn't thought about how fast.

"It depends," Theo responded, with a shrug. The twinkle in his eye from a couple of hours ago was now gone. An intense coldness settled between us. There was something he wasn't telling me. Something they were all not telling me.

"Has this happened before?"

"No, and, trust me, this will be the only time it does happen," Theo said as we arrived on Mary's front doorstep.

Audrina, Gave and Luther appeared next to us. Audrina was breathing heavily. She looked frazzled. "That was a little too close."

Gave nodded in agreement and, through deep gasps, said, "We needed more time, Luther. You set the timers too fast."

"No. I set them right. Something caused them to speed up. We should have had more time."

"What happened?" Theo looked at the other three.

"The first explosion in the outer boundary went off almost thirty seconds early. It triggered the others. If it hadn't been for Gave, we might not have made it out," Audrina said.

"Just remember that, you two eggheads. I saved your lives... again." A small smile crossed Gave's lips as he turned back and opened Mary's front door. "I do think we put a big dent in Paul's army. There's no way those robots were able to escape that blast zone."

"I agree," Audrina said. "It seems like such a waste of machinery. Why can't they just leave us alone?"

"Because they need us," Theo said. "Mary," he called as they entered the cottage. "Mary, we're here."

There was no response. Only the sound of a bird chirping somewhere outside could be heard echoing in the room. The back windows were open, sending a warm breeze through the small space.

"That's odd. She's always here," Theo said. "I've never jumped to this year and walked into an empty house."

"Mary?" Audrina called. Again, no response.

"Maybe she needed to go and do something," Luther responded nonchalantly. "Or maybe she doesn't want to see us. Let's just get out of here. This place always gives me the creeps. I've never really understood why we keep coming back here."

Audrina looked around. "I think we need to check her cottage out before we leave. Something seems off. It's just too quiet. Theo, take the rooms. Luther and Gave, go check the exterior and see if she's out wondering around."

"I think you might be overreacting," Luther said, walking out of the cottage. "We should just leave. There's no reason for us to be here."

Gave rolled his eyes and then set off behind him. "I'll take the right side. You go left." Theo headed down the hallway and peered into the different rooms, his back rigid. There were three small rooms inside Mary's small cottage. I watched in silence as he made his way toward the last of them. I wasn't sure what we expected to find, since it wasn't like we had that much to worry about in the year 1910.

Mary had probably gone out to get more herbs or something. I shivered as I remembered the awful smell that had greeted me the first morning I had woken in Mary's house. It had been horrible, but Samuel had said that she was always making different concoctions.

"No!"

Theo's cry shattered the silence, turning my blood to ice.