Chapter Fifty-Seven
Cade
T he trips to town have become more and more frequent. I have to order supplies in very small quantities and space them out so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to build explosives. Granted, someone would have to be intelligent enough to know what kind of reagents could create volatile concoctions, and I’m also using unassuming ones, but I can’t be too safe.
The easiest route would be to just order what I need, but instead, I’m ordering three separate solvents just to create one thing, doing it for multiple additives, so as to not get myself flagged. It’s tedious, but it’s safe. Even though there is no such thing when dealing with combustive materials. I nearly singed off my eyebrows testing to make sure I had the right ratios, and if I hadn’t stolen a fire extinguisher from the supply room, there would have been a forest fire.
It’s also a pain in the ass to lug this shit through the foliage, and I drop the tiniest box for the third time.
“Damn it,” I growl and set the stack down, snatching up the fallen one to replace it back on the top of the tier.
The security guard my mother hired, Rick, offered to help carry some, seemingly always in the fucking parking lot, but I bared my teeth at him and upped my pace to get out of his line of sight. He’s dumber than a sack of bricks, but I know he must be wondering what the hell I’m doing with all these packages. It doesn’t help that I caught him patrolling around the edge of campus, right on the cusp of the woods. The last thing I need is him stumbling upon my shack. I made a point to start better concealing things, and there’s always the ax… But I can’t be too safe.
Safe. Safe. I’m safe. The paranoia eats at me as I hoist the stack of boxes back up. If I wasn’t already crazy, I am now. I have fifty-five loaded bombs under a workbench with nothing but a tarp covering them, in a flimsy shack with an idiot roaming the grounds. The walls are closing in around me. I have an eye twitch that is driving me insane, and I’m pretty sure I’ve developed an ulcer in my stomach.
But I’ve come too far to give up now.
Haven’t I?
“Yes,” I say out loud, and then groan.
Great, now I’m talking to myself.
But I need the verbal encouragement.
“You’re so close,” My breath is ragged as I teeter over a fallen trunk. “It’s normal to have doubts. Sky and your mother will…”
Will what? Wait for me in heaven? I fucking doubt it. Once hell gets a hold of me, I’m never getting out. Killing four-hundred people is mass murder. That’s an eternity of roasting on a spit. And do I really want that? Is it worth it? Three years ago, I would have said yes, but now… Now the idea of losing a lifetime with Sky seems to outweigh the vengeance. Because fuck this school and the people in it. Pretty soon, I won’t be tethered here. I’ll be free. I could go halfway across the world to Japan with Sky and never pay this place another thought. I always thought I would be doing the world a favor, taking out the sickness before it could spread, but it’s already out there and nothing I do—
“No,” I pant. “You’ve come this far.”
I torture myself by going back and forth for the next ten minutes, unable to commit to either side, until I clear the underbrush and the shack appears in front of me.
I freeze. The world suddenly becoming very small.
My eyes hone in on her delicate hand as it grasps the handle. There’s no time to yell, to scream and plead for her to stop. If that door even cracks open, the ax will come down and impale her. My pretty little Sky will bleed out before I can get her help, that’s if the ax doesn’t lodge itself in her skull.
I drop the boxes and run. My boots thump into the soil, adrenaline giving me new life. The sound alerts her and she looks up. But time slows to a crawl. She still has the doorknob in her palm, she’s still twisting. There aren’t enough seconds for her brain to catch up and pause. She’s already on the collision course. and it’s too late. It’s too late as her gaze sweeps over me, her eyes brightening. She smiles so, so sweetly, realizing it’s me. Because she loves me. She loves me and my stupid trap is going to kill her.
Desperation propels me, and I dive, throwing myself at her as the hook triggers. I slam into her, wrapping my arms around her tiny frame, just as the wire whistles through the anchors. The ax swings down with the sound of metal slicing through air, and I feel it. I feel its rusty edge slice my back. Not the pain, my adrenaline is too high, but I feel the sensation, the pressure, as we hit the ground.
Sky yelps as the impact knocks the breath out of her, and all I can think is thank fuck. Thank fuck . Sky is okay. She’s okay. I squeeze my eyes shut and don’t move, holding her under me for dear life. It doesn’t matter if I’m bleeding out, my body is locked up, and I can’t let her go as the reality of what could have happened courses through me. Fear, relief, anger. My veins are pumping, running, crying, boiling.
She shifts beneath me, her chin fighting to gain leverage over my shoulder, and I don’t need to look to know what she sees dangling above us.
“Did I almost just get axed?!” she screeches.
She batters me with her palms and squeezes out of my hold, scrambling on her knees to stand. But I can’t get up yet. I’m still reeling, and the most I can do is plant my ass in the soil.
“Why the hell is that there, Cade?” She swipes at her skirt, brushing away dirt and leaves. “Did you set that up?” She stomps behind me to crane her neck up and get a better look at the wires it’s attached to. “That could have killed me! It could kill—Oh, my god it hit you!”
She falls to her knees, and I remember that yes, it did hit me.