Remember Yesterday

47

“What in Fate just happened?” Tanner asks a couple of minutes later. Logan, Callie, and Olivia have disappeared to fulfill their fate—at least, the one of their own making. We’re ensconced in a supply closet. My fingers won’t stop shaking.

“It’s like when I talked to my mom.” My voice trembles. My teeth clack. I might as well be standing at the epicenter of an earthquake. “I’m the one who convinced her not to go to Harmony. This entire time, she had a visit from my future self. We’re part of the past, Tanner.”

He inhales sharply. I’m falling apart, but this…this development is pulling him back together. Turning him into the person with whom he’s most comfortable. A scientist.

“This supports Preston’s theory,” he says thoughtfully. “There’s a debate among the scientists. Many of them believe that Callie proved the many-worlds theory of time travel, that her decision not to kill you shifted us onto a different, parallel path. But Mikey refused to accept this. He insisted that time isn’t linear—that instead, it is an infinite loop. Thus, it would be possible to travel to the past and talk to your younger self, without any paradox about how your two selves could exist at the same time.

“Preston suggested both theories could be true. Time is an infinite loop and there are many worlds.” He drums his fingers against his cheek. “Do you understand what I’m saying? Callie picked up our world and plopped us onto a different path. But now that we’re on that path, we’re in an endless, continuous loop.”

I press my fingers against my temples, struggling to wrap my head around it. “So we were always here. We were always part of history.”

He steps backward, and his elbow knocks into a tray of black data chips. I’d thought we were in a supply closet, but upon closer examination, I realize every last tray contains black chips. There must be thousands of black chips in here. Maybe even millions. We must’ve stumbled into some kind of memory bank. How many future memories were received and recorded before my sister messed up the system?

I shiver, and Tanner runs his hands along my arms. Even with the synthetic hair over his mouth, he is ridiculously attractive. Almost without thinking, I reach out and straighten his mustache. My fingers linger on his mouth, and I can feel his hot breath against my hand.

For a moment, we stand perfectly still. My heart pounds a bass line in my ears.

“Were you able to say the jingle to her?” he asks. Each word moves his mouth against my fingers. I like it. I want to keep my hand there, and if we were anywhere other than the past, maybe I would.

Reluctantly, I pull down my hand. “No. I was frozen to the spot. I probably could’ve moved. I could’ve broken through the resistance of Fate, but I didn’t. It just wasn’t the right moment.”

“When else?” he asks. “It’s not like we have a lot of opportunities left. Olivia shows them the vision. Callie walks down the hallway. She stabs herself.”

My eyes widen. “That’s it. That’s when I’m supposed to say the jingle. After Logan and I jump down the laundry chute. Before the people who inject the antidote arrive. There will be a few precious seconds when she’s drifting in and out of consciousness. I can go to her then.”

“Any idea who injects her? Her file claims she was given the antidote at the two-minute mark. Enough to save her mind but not her body. But it never says who administered the antidote.”

“It’s got to be that guard, William. Right?” I wrinkle my brow. “Or maybe my mom?”

“Negative. Your mom had no idea Callie was even in a coma until a couple of weeks ago, and Mikey and I have quizzed William hard. He insists he had nothing to do with the antidote.”

It hits us both at the same time. I feel like all the oxygen has been sucked out of the air. “Oh Fates, Tanner. What if it’s us? What if we’re the ones who are supposed to give her the antidote?”

He nods rapidly. “It makes sense. That’s the part we never understood. Nobody else even knew they were there. How could they have gotten her the antidote so quickly? It’s got to be us. Especially since we’ve been a part of everything else.”

“But we don’t have an antidote,” I screech, whipping my head wildly around the closet, as though expecting one to materialize. But we’re still in a memory bank full of black data chips. No syringes filled with red liquid anywhere. “We can’t use the one Callie had because she smashed it on the floor. If we attempt to intervene, we’ll change the course of history.”

“I have an idea.” Tanner checks the wrist com my mom lent him. “We have fifteen minutes before Callie walks down that hallway. There’s time, but we have to hurry.”

Abruptly, he turns and walks out of the closet. I scamper after him. “Where are we going?”

“To get the antidote.” He strides down the hall. I take two steps for every one of his. “The system hasn’t changed much in the last decade. If the formulas are still kept in the dispensary, then I know exactly where we can find another antidote.”

We pass the shattered ceramic pot, the trail of soil, the broken plant stalks. My steps falter, and I stop. The mess is still here. Nobody’s cleaned it up. Nobody will until after Callie walks down this corridor again.

Tanner looks over his shoulder. “Coming?”

I nod and hurry after him. And pray to the Fates he knows what he’s doing.