Timestorm by Julie Cross

damn good plan.”
    “But the force field—” I started to say.
    “We’re gonna shut it down,” Stewart said. “And then get the hell out of 3200.”

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT

    DAY 12. NOON
    “This sucks.” I pointed my gun at the tree-stump T-shirt target. The slight tremble in my left hand still prevented me from actually firing.
    “What sucks?” Holly asked. “The fact that you still can’t shoot or the fact that we’ve just been shoved away like little children being excluded from the adult conversation?”
    “You don’t think they’ll do anything to Stewart, do you?” Mason paused midreload and waited for Holly, Blake, or me to reply.
    “Dad won’t let them,” I answered right away, hoping it was true. Like Dad, I didn’t want Stewart trapped here either, but I couldn’t say I wasn’t the slightest bit happy to see her. Besides, she said she had a plan.
    And I’d learned to trust Jenni Stewart in moments of stress. She had yet to let me down. I also knew she was strong enough to withstand any interrogation Grayson, Lonnie, and Dad might be throwing at her in the reproduction room right now.
    “I don’t think there would be any concerns about her safety if she’d just tell us who brought her here,” Blake said.
    “If she said she can’t tell, then she can’t,” I snapped. But really, I wanted this information, too.
    “And why does everyone insist on showing up unannounced with weapons?” Sasha said. “It’s like they’re asking to get killed.”
    Holly laughed under her breath and was then awarded with a killer glare from Sasha, who still seemed pretty bitter about the fact that Holly had tackled her to the ground. “Did you really think you would have hit her on the first try? Considering the fact that you’ve never used a gun before?” Holly asked Sasha.
    “I can time-travel, unlike you,” Sasha said. “I don’t need firearms as a crutch to keep me alive.”
    Holly snapped the trigger into place on her gun, eyebrows lifting way up. “Really? How’s that working out for you right now?”
    Sasha grumbled something incoherent to herself and then Holly sighed and turned to face her. “I’m not trying to insult you, I’m just saying that learning to protect yourself might not be a bad idea, given the circumstances.”
    “She’s right,” Blake said, kicking Sasha’s shoe playfully. “It couldn’t hurt to have a better defense ready.”
    The wait was killing me. I had to do something constructive while Stewart got picked apart in private. “I’m gonna go chop some wood,” I said before walking off.
    “I’ll go with you.” Blake jogged after me. “Think Holly and Sasha will be okay without us?”
    I picked up my pace, hoping to keep anyone one else from joining in on my distracting activity. “I think Holly will be okay.”
    We walked farther than I’d ever been on Misfit Island, all the way to the edge of the thick woods, the complete opposite end of the lake. Blake handed me an ax and picked one up for himself. Large pieces of tree trunks lay scattered around our feet. I picked a thick one to start on and hit it several times before making a dent.
    “Was Holly correct the other day?” Blake asked after a good ten minutes of perfect silence, only the sound of metal hitting wood having passed between us. “When she said you’re keeping stuff from her? About her?”
    I threw something extra into my swing, splitting a piece of tree trunk into two perfect halves. “I’m keeping a lot of stuff from Holly. We were enemy agents, you know? It’s not like she’s told me much about her life in Eyewall.”
    “That’s not what I mean.” Blake stopped chopping and stacked up his firewood pieces. He already had a good-sized pile compared to my two pieces to contribute thus far. “I understand why she might feel entitled to have this information, but she can’t possibly know what it’s like to time-travel, like you and I do. She can’t comprehend the anxiety it causes