Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 39 - The Plan

            We settle down to sleep shortly after that conversation. We don't know how late it is, but we know that hours have passed since we arrived; we can assume it's been a day.

I lie on one side of the room, in between to Tammie and Tressa – we'd let Kinnie have the bench – while the boys lie on the opposite. Tammie falls asleep quickly, even on the frigid metal floor. After a long while, it sounds like everyone is sleeping. I, too scared to sleep, sit up.

Cale and Spenzo are up, too.

Spenzo is leaning against the wall with his face in his hands, while Cale tells him something in a low whisper, low enough that I can't here.

I crawl over to them. "What's going on?" I whisper.

Cale turns to me. "Spenzo had a nightmare."

I know what that means.

"What was it about?" I ask him.

He lowers his hands and looks at me. He's sweaty, out-of-breath, and there are bags under his eyes. I've never seen him like this before; I haven't seen him try to sleep, either. Maybe he chooses to stay awake for the same reason I do.

"I know what Jaz's endgame is," He whispers. "I don't know why we haven't put it together, but he's planning to use the time machine to conquer with his BZ army."

"How is a time machine going to help with that?" I ask, but the second the words leave my mouth, I understand. He's going to send his army throughout time, so he can stay in power forever. No wonder he needs so many BZs.

"You cannot help him finish this, Jade," Cale tells me. "I don't understand anything about time travel, or timelines, but I know that attacking the past and the future is not going to end well."

"Who's attacking the past and the future?" Kinnie asks groggily, rolling over and seeing us.

"Who else?" Spenzo replies. He shuts his eyes and leans his head against the wall.

Kinnie sits up and purses her cracked lips. "If by that, you mean Jaz, then he's not just a terrible human being; he's also an idiot. If he does that, he will create a time paradox and rupture the fabric of the universe."

I don't know what that means exactly, but I'm not going to ask because I understand the implications; Jaz will destroy us all if he goes through with this plan. It's just like what happened with my dad.

He threw caution to the wind and wiped out his top scientists, including his wife and his daughter. Everyone warned him, but he didn't listen.

Everyone who works for Jaz willingly does not even know enough to warn him, because he has him or her under his control. Everyone he's forcing to work for him has no idea what he's planning. He might not even be aware of the danger, and I'm pretty sure that if he were, he would proceed regardless.

"We have to find a way to stop him," I say.

"We're orphans who grew up in a basement," Spenzo says in resignation. "There's nothing we can do."

"How did you even figure this out?" Kinnie wants to know.

"A nightmare," Spenzo answers. "A pack of black wolves attacking Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, and a bunch more time periods that I recognized. Then, they attacked a few more places that I didn't recognize, but they seemed futuristic. When I woke up, I figured out what my brain was trying to tell me."

"What I'm hearing is that Jaz is trying to end the world?" Deen says as he opens his eyes.

"I doubt he knows that what he's planning will end the world. He probably thinks it's diabolically genius," Cale says with a scowl.

"But, instead, it's insane, horrible, and foolish, just like him," we all look to see a tear-stained Tressa looking back at us.

I agree with her, but don't voice my opinion because he's her father.

"He's just misguided, Tressa," Tammie sits up slowly and puts her arms around her.

I wonder if anyone actually had been asleep, everyone woke up so quickly after I got up.

"No, he isn't!" Tressa cries, pulling away from Tammie's arm. "He's a monster. I know that's what all of you think, and you're right. I never thought he'd plan something so reckless, but I guess I was right earlier, what he's doing is extremely bad, and he'll kill all of us if we let him continue."

We exchange a few looks, not knowing exactly what to say.

When I had been feeling the same way about my dad, Tressa made me feel a bit better by comparing my dad to hers and telling me that her dad is much worse.

I can't comfort her in the same way because she's right.

"I've never hated anyone as much as I hate Jaz right now. The ironic part is that he's supposed to be my dad," Tressa continues.

"He's not, though," Cale tells her, and she looks up to meet his eyes. "Jaz and your adopted mom didn't raise you."

"The basement did," Tressa replies in a whisper.

It's the same thing Cale had said when he told us about his parents, the LEs.

"Yeah, you're one of us," Tammie says and puts her arm around Tressa's shoulders again. Tressa doesn't shrug it off.

"And don't forget, I mean you are locked in here with us, aren't you?" Deen says.

"'We're just as much a prisoner as you are,'" I think out loud..

"Right," Spenzo agrees.

"Thanks guys," Tressa says quietly, wiping her face with her hands.

"Don't mention it," Cale replies.

"You're welcome, but I was just quoting what Dr. Freedlander – one of the scientists that was working on the time machine – told me," I explain.

"He has a good point, unless someone's a BZ, they're most likely being forced to work here. No one else would choose to rebuild a machine that took out a bunch of really important people," Deen says.

"And, it definitely feels like a prison," Tammie adds. "I can't even imagine getting out of here."

"That's because right now, we're actually prisoners," Kinnie points. "In the basement, as abused as we were, we were still patients."

"Exactly, the only way we're getting out of here is if someone lets us out," Cale says wryly.

That's it. Cale's a genius. We've been spending our time thinking about how we can break out of this room when we really need to be coming up with a plan for me to get them out.

"Then, I guess that's what's going to have to happen," Spenzo says, before I can. He looks at me and half smiles; he must be able to tell from my face that it's what I'd just been thinking.

"How, though?" I ask. Everyone looks at each other; we have no idea.