The Timeservers

Chapter 38

New York City, New York

The Ivory Tower

December 19, 227 P.F.E

1000 hours

Via sits on her bed. It's not hers anymore, not technically, but it was. She lies in her old dorm and sobs. She cried a lot when she was in this room. She cried almost every night.
She couldn't hide in the bench like she was supposed to. She couldn't stay down there. She couldn't hide somewhere knowing that the world just outside could be teeming with extremists. The roof wasn't an option because of extremist snipers she could see shooting from there. So, she went up to her old dorm. She got around the lock, Kelly taught her how. She walked through another person's things and lay down on what is now a different person's bed. It hurt even more, but it would hurt much worse if she was outside of what used to be her hiding spot.
She cries now, muffling her sobs with a pillow. It smells sickly and stiflingly floral. It also smells dreadfully familiar. It smells like Tatiana Finch.
Via sits bolt upright, and her tears suddenly stopped. She looks around the room with fresh eyes and takes in the new decorations brought in by the current resident. The pictures are of Tatiana and her family, the clothes are ones that Via can remember Tatiana wearing, and the whole room stinks of her favorite perfumes.
It only makes sense that Tatiana would use Via's room. The room is meant for the top student. It's just strange to see that someone else moved into it after it was Via's for so long.
"Tatiana," Via whispers. "Tatiana!"
There's no reply. Tatiana must have escaped or been hiding somewhere else in the building.
Via knows that she shouldn't, but she can't help but look around. She opens Tatiana's drawers. She finds a tauntingly familiar card in one of the drawers, one that Tatiana has no business having. It's almost exactly the same as the one Barkley gave to Via. Via throws the card back in the drawer and snaps it shut, taking a few steps back from it.
After that, she sticks with what she can see. She looks over the now rumpled bedspread. She looks at the books on the shelf. She peers at the pictures on Tatiana's desk, wiping off the dust to see them clearly.
Via stares at the dust on her fingers and her eyebrows move together. Dust isn't supposed to be there. The rooms are cleaned by the residents every day or should be. The dust is thick enough thatVia can see it coating her finger with grey.
Via had heard some news about the Ivory Tower a few days ago but she hadn't paid much attention to it. She pulls out her screen now and looks it up. There's a lot of coverage of a student going missing. There's news of Tatiana going missing.
It's been almost a week. Tatiana went missing almost a week ago and Via hadn't even cared enough to pay attention. A strange feeling like searing hot syrup starts to spread through her.
Tatiana and Via had been enemies. Tatiana was merciless to Via because Via had the top spot. She tried to undermine her at every turn. Tatiana had been such a big part of Via's life- a bad part- but such a big part. Knowing that Tatiana had somehow gone missing and Via had no idea- as a Guardian- makes the guilt unbearable.
Via didn't think that she had any more tears left, but she suddenly does. She shakes and curls up on the ground. The sobs wrack her whole body. She can't contain the noise so she rushes to the bed, grabs a pillow, shoves it over her face, and crawls under the bed to join the dust bunnies.
Her heart almost jumps out of her chest when the door opens. Via tenses and wraps herself around the pillow, biting a corner to keep herself quiet. She doesn't dare to get closer to the edge of the bed to see if it's a candidate hoping to find sanctuary or an extremist hoping to find a victim. She doubts that what happened with Ferriswill repeat with the next extremist she comes across.
The person leaves the door open and walks across the room with heavy footsteps. They walk to the foot of the bed where a chest blocks Via's view of their feet. They stop there. She can't hear any more steps. Via tightens her grip on the pillow. If it were feather instead of foam then she would have blown up the whole thing by now.
The silence stretches on, and on, and on. Via can't stand it anymore. She'd rather that they just get it over with and shoot her with an illegally obtained x-calibre gun than keep waiting in this stifling silence. Though the stifling is at least fifty percent her fault with the pillow and all.
When someone's face appears in front of her Via instantly wishes that she hadn't wished they find her. She screams like she's never screamed before, eyes shut tight against the threat and vocal cords blowing up like a soprano's at the opera.
"Holy cow! That's about the best weapon I've come across. Yikes. That burst my eardrum. How can I tell if I'm being stealthy if I can't hear the lack of sound I'm making? Yeow!"
Via cracks open her eyes to see a grinning, upside-down Kelly. He's lying on the bed above her and it's the most welcome sight she's ever seen. She launches herself out from under the bed, tossing the pillow back in the process. "Kelly, Kelly! Oh, I was so scared! I know that you told me to stay in the lobby in that bench, but I couldn't, I really couldn't! Where have you been? Shouldn't we be getting out of here? Could still be shot! I need to quiet down, I need to quiet down. What good does quieting down do though when I've just alerted this side of New York where we are? Kelly, I'm sorry that I just led a ton of extremists to where we are to make us examples."
"Don't worry about it. There aren't any extremists to lead here," Kelly assures, propping his chin up on his hand.He's the picture of calm. He looks like he just woke up from a refreshing nap after having an even more refreshing shower and rolled onto his stomach to think for a minute before getting out of bed.
"What do you mean?" Via takes a tentative step closer.
"You don't have to worry about the extremists anymore. They're all neutralized. I wouldn't go looking to verify it though. It's kind of a mess out there. Don't go into the gymnasium, lecture halls two and three, the kitchen, the second-floor cleaning closet, and there was one other that I forget where he is. Where was that? Just be careful going around corners," Kelly explains, ticking off on his fingers.
"You did that all on your own?"
"Well, sort of. The elites helped me out with the kitchen, the closet, and lecture hall two. I took lecture hall three, the one I can't remember the place of, and the gym. There was a window. There was a window where that guy was. Where was that?"
"Kelly! Focus! You did all that? You did all that! Are you okay?" Via demands as she begins to freak out.
Kelly pushes back his hair, and Viasees that it's damp with sweat. There are scratches on his forehead that were hidden by the hair, and deep gashes that are still bleeding. "Well, you can be the judge of that. I feel fine right now, but that will probably only last as long as the shock does." Kelly staggers up, revealing a deep wound in his abdomen.