One (One Universe)

sprint?”
    They both nod, still trying to catch their breath.
    “Let’s put a good mile behind us.”
    We run for a very long time, until the sun is well into the sky. Our lungs huff hot air into the cold, pushing clouds out against the perfectly clear white-blue expanse ahead. It’s a new day.
     
    The tracks of Leni’s tears have left bright, freckled lines through the soot on her face. Daniel stares down at the dirt like there’s a weight on the back of his neck.
    No matter how cool Daniel acts, I know how much he loves his parents, how much he doesn’t want to disappoint them. He gestures toward my messenger bag. “Did you get any of ours out?”
    “Let me…” I look down into my bag. I know for a fact I got one of his and one of Leni’s, at least. I debate for a split second. Do I send them with this stuff, with no knowledge of how to inject it or exactly what will happen if they do?
    All I know is that if I were them, I would kill me for keeping it from them.
    I fish out a couple of their vials, hold them out between my fingers. He glances at me quickly, takes them, murmurs a “thanks.”
    Leni looks at him with tears in her eyes, then squeezes his hand and shifts her stance.
    “We’re going West,” Leni says. Maybe finding work, maybe hiding out. Definitely not going back to school. Just until we know things are settled. Until we know we’re not in danger. We don’t want to lose you.”
    “Okay,” Elias says. “Here’s what you do. When you settle anywhere, put an ad in the local paper’s classifieds. Look for a biochem tutor with eleven years’ experience. And, uh…a personal interest in the topic.”
    Daniel finally smiles. “You going all badass spy on me, man?”
    Elias punches him on the shoulder. There are some things I’ll never understand about boys.
    Then Daniel pulls Elias into a fierce hug. Leni and I grin at each other, and for the first time since we broke into the Hub, I cry. Giant tears roll down my cheeks, and I can’t even move.
    She crosses over to me. “Hey, it’s gonna be okay.”
    “I’m just…” I snot and sniffle into her shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry.”
    Her whole body shakes, and I can’t tell if she’s laughing or crying or shivering.
    “For what?” she asks, and I hear the smile in her voice.
    “I don’t know. For dragging you here. For my mom. I don’t know. For everything.”
    “Listen.” She lowers her voice, glances at the guys, who talk in quiet voices. Daniel grips the back of his neck and scuffs the ground with his foot. “I would have ended up at the Hub again anyway, okay? Except maybe…it would have been in some green goop. With no Daniel, and no one to save me. And Fisk wouldn’t have… Well, everyone wouldn’t have heard that. Heard what happened to us. To me.”
    I nod a little. Her eyes flash over to Elias. “Take care of him, okay? We… He’s like my brother, and he can’t see his real sisters for a long time, so…”
    “I know.” I nod again, and a lump rises in my throat.
    “I remember now.” Leni says, looking at nothing in the distance. “I remember… It was right at the beginning. I remember your mom. But she was kind. And then…I remember him. Fisk. He was like this even then. Now maybe he’s a little worse than he was.”
    “Yeah. Guess we don’t know, do we?”
    “No. And we won’t.”
    I don’t tell Leni about the duplicates I glimpsed lining up along the wall on our way out. No point in mentioning the possibility that Fisk, in some form, will be back. Not now.
    I hug her one more time.
    “You guys be careful. We’ll see you again. Maybe take this whole shabby operation over,” she says.
    “How are you traveling?” I ask.
    She shrugs. “There’s a car rental place half a mile south if my GPS is right. Daniel has a debit account and plenty in it to get us overseas if we need to go.”
    “Oh. I didn’t realize…”
    “I don’t think anyone really did. But, yeah. Trust fund kid, and he just turned eighteen, so…” She huffs out one laugh. “Okay. Now let’s laugh a little. So they’ll think we’re alright.”
    I do my best to do that. It feels like an eternity since I last laughed, a memory stuck in my old, beautiful life that I used to think was so ugly. Leni goes off with Daniel, and without another word, they duck into the woods and they’re gone.
    I look over at Elias again, and I see him tremble just before he stumbles and falls to the ground.
    “Hey! Hey.” I run over