Chapter 79

  Jake dashed toward the elevator entraaking wide steps and hardly making any noise. Wheood up and quickly darted forward, Isra caught sight of him out of the er of her eye. She cried out a warning to her panions as she started turning toward the fast-approag threat. However, Jake moved so fast he reached her way before she could even plete her turn. He rammed into the woman, makiumble into the elevator shaft. If it weren’t for Frank catg her when she bumped into him, she would have lost her banpletely and colpsed. With his left hand, Jake shoved Archie with great force, causing the man to stumble into the elevator shaft too.

  Jake then stood at the entrao the elevator shaft, his figure effectively blog their only escape route. He finally had them right where he wahem. All four survivors were now ianding on the magically enhaform, but as he had predicted, it stayed still. The symbols carved into the ptform’s ers glowed softly, showing that the ptform was still imbued with magical power. Jake khat it would only respond to him since he was the one uaking the tower-climb challenge.

  Jake actually preferred the ptform to asd without him because he was unsure how the survivors would react to having him so close to them in the fined space of the elevator shaft. They might freak out when he joihem oform. Uhe four survivors, he could effortlessly asd to higher floors, relying on his incredible agility and acrobatic skills. However, the ptform stayed motionless, waiting for him to step onto it.

  He stood still at the entrao the elevator shaft, not in a hurry to step inside. Isra had already disentangled herself from Frank’s embrace, and now all four of them stood rooted to the spot, with their eyes fixed on him. The tension in the elevator shaft was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Nobody spoke. Even Frank was quiet, gazing at him with uainty. Jake was fident that entering the elevator shaft would trigger a chaotic rea from the survivors, possibly leading them to grab their ons and shoot at him. He o find a way to put them at ease.

  Slowly, he raised his right hand, still clutg Isra’s PDA. When her gaze shifted to the device, he exte toward her. But she remained motionless, like a statue. For a few seds, nothing ged.

  “I think it wants you to take it,” Rick pointed out the obvious.

  Isra remained frozen in pce. Jake kept his hand outstretched, holding the device toward her.

  “Take your PDA back, dammit,” Frank urged in a hoarse voice. “Maybe then the freak will leave us alone.”

  Relutly, Isra took a few hesitant steps toward Jake, stopping just within arm’s reach. She extended her left hand toward her PDA, making sure to avoid toug his bck, textured skin as she grasped the edge of the device. As soon as she had a hold of it, Jake let go, and Isra quickly pulled her hand back, clutg her PDA, and hurried back to the far side of the elevator shaft.

  She kept her gaze fixed on him, refusing to g the s of the device. Jake, moving slowly and deliberately, poi her, then at his eyes, and then at the device she held. After a brief pause, Isra lifted the PDA to her eyes ahe text dispyed on the s with a perplexed expression. Gradually, her face ged as realization struck her.

  “Did the freak write something else?” Frank asked.

  By way of replying, Isra showed the s of her PDA to her panions, starting with Frank to her left, and then Archie and Ri her right. The leader of the group furrowed his brow as he read the information on the s.

  “Jake Turner?” he grumbled. “What the hell is going on? What does this even mean?”

  “He used the AskMeAnything app to search for this name,” Isra expined, having prehehe situation.

  “He?” Frank interjected sharply. “It’s ‘it’, not ‘he’.”

  “No,” Isra shook her head. “I think this creature… this person was a survivor once, just like us.”

  “What?” Frank blurted out, staring at her in utter disbelief. “What the fuck are you even talking about?”

  “I think… I think something happeo him, a turned into a mutant,” Isra said before turning her head to look at Jake for firmation.

  Jake nodded once. Isra’s panions just stared at him for a sed or two in sileheir faces refleg their puzzlement.

  Then Archie spoke up in a hesitant voice, “So your name’s Jake? Jake Turner? And you were once a human being, huh?”

  Jake nodded again, a sense of relief washing over him. He had successfully unicated to Isra that he was not the mindless monster her panions had initially thought him to be. Although that wasn’t the primary purpose ing them to this pow that they uood he was se, iing with them should be smoother. They would reize him as a living being capable of rational thought, just like themselves.

  Now was the time to finally proceed with exeg the main part of his pn.

  Jake slowly raised his hands to show the four survivors that he meant no harm to them. They had seemed to rex slightly over the past few minutes, but as he lifted his hands in the air, they tensed up once more, unsure of what was happening and what was on his mind. Being cautious not to make any sudden movements, he stepped into the elevator shaft. Once he stood fully oform, the fils etched into the ers lit up as the magic the ptform was infused with kicked in.

  Without any sound, the ptform began to asd, causing the four survivors to tense up at this ued, at least for them, turn of events.

  “What the fuck is happening,” the leader of the group growled, gng at his panions briefly before fixing his gre on Jake. “Are you fug with us, you freak?”

  And he went for his gun.