QED

Chapter 18 - Joanne | Keira | Phoebe

She had to act within seconds. Now, Alex was indeed their smallest problem. The subway came closer and closer with a speed of at least seventy miles per hour. Her one and only advantage was that Alex needed to dodge the train too.

If one could call it advantage...

"Cover your mouth, Phoebe. Don't breathe," Joanne instructed her.

"Help me!" Phoebe screamed meanwhile.

Joanne looked down and twisted in the air. Phoebe actually did what she just said to her. The train was dangerously close to her.

Adjusting gravity force down to minus fifty.

She shot upwards and collided with the ceiling of the tunnel. Her limbs got pressed against the cold stones. Her stomach turned around. She gulped.

The train passed them in five seconds. Five seconds that were horrible, for both Joanne and Phoebe. Her energy level reached its lowest point, her heartrate was surely over two-hundred beats per minute. Phoebe probably felt even worse. She wasn't used to the change of gravity, at least not with such an impact.

After the train had disappeared in the tunnel, Joanne let herself fall down to the rails, for Phoebe, she tried her best to grant her a soft collision.

"I think we've-" Phoebe breathed out next to her. Then, she vomited onto the rails. Joanne got up and stumbled. Her circulation was fucked up, her powers didn't work at all anymore, Phoebe was throwing up again.

The situation wasn't optimal.

Suddenly, she heard a silent groaning. Since it couldn't come from Phoebe who was still vomiting her stomach out of her body, she looked up.

A small, dark-haired woman was laying approximately 80 feet apart from her. Her knees were shaky, her breathe so loud that even Joanne could listen to it. Alex stumbled to the walls of the tunnel, then leaned against the grey tubes.

Inaudibly, Joanne reached for her thigh-pocket. Everything was focused on her target.

Alex took a few deep breaths. It seemed to be too smooth. Her movements, her steps. No normal person would behave like that.

She took the left gun and moved her hand upwards. Her arm felt as heavy as lead. She supported her wrist with her other hand to stabilize it. There was just one shot.

The bullet flew through the woman. It didn't slow down or even harmed Alex in any way. The hologram in front of them just smiled sweetly, then waved her hand. Joanne clenched her teeth.

"You're a fool, Newton," the fake-Alex said coldly and laughed psychotically. Although it was just a simple duplication, yeah, a mirror of the real Alex, she knew that the real woman was talking with her.

"Good that I've made the right decision five years ago," she answered as bitterly. Her whole body was trembling, close to just fainting.

"You've just dug your own grave." With that, the hologram evaporated, leaving them alone in the frightening tunnel.

///

Even minutes after the train passed her, Keira could only follow Isa's orders. Right. Left. Sharp right. Through the hidden door.

"You sure we're right here?" Freya asked, flying in front of her.

"Pretty sure. Is Keira okay?" Keira noticed Isa's worried tone only on the edge of her attention span.

"She's still running, so yes? I don't really know, though."

"I nearly destroyed both my life and the driver's one, I'm not fine," Keira said monotonous. "Do we need to leave through that door now?"