Lost in Time ~ Five Hargreeves

Chapter 8

A bit later, Riley sat in Five's room, looking through a book while Five wrote some equations on the wall.

And since he had been working on it for a while, all of his walls were written on with chalk– luckily his walls were green.

"Okay, I think I've got something, Love", said five. "It's tenuous, but promising."

"That's great, sweetie," Riley replied without looking up from the book.

"What is all this?" asked Luther, who now entered the room.

"It's a probability map," replied Five.

"Probability of what?"

"Of whose death could save the world. I've narrowed it down to four."

"Are you saying one of these four people causes the apocalypse?"

"No, he's saying that their death might prevent it," Riley explained and turning to the next page.

Five continued writing and Riley finished reading the new page.

"I'm not following," Luther admitted

"Time is fuckle, brother," Riley began, putting the book down. "The slightest alteration in events can lead to massively different outcomes in the time continuum. The butterfly effect."

"So all we have to do is find the people with the greatest probability of impacting the time line, wherever they may be, and kill them," Five added.

He jumped off the bed, grabbed Vanya's book and wrote down the four names on a random page.

Luther came around the bed and read the names too.

"Milton Greene," Luther read one of the names. "So who's he, a terrorist or something?"

"I think he's a gardener," Five muttered.

He threw the book back on the bedside table.

"You can't be serious. Wait, this is madness, Five. You–"

Luther stopped as Five pulled a bag from under the bed.

"Where'd you get that?"

"In Dad's room," Five explained and took the rifle out of the bag. "I think he used it to shoot a rhinoceros. It's similar to the model I used at work. Nice shoulder fit and highly reliable."

"But you can't– This guy Milton is just an innocent man."

"It's basic math," replied Five. "His death could potentially save the lives of billions. If I did nothing-"

"We," Riley Five corrected. "If we did nothing– You are not doing this alone."

"Right, my apologies. If we did nothing, he'd be dead in four days anyway. The apocalypse won't spare anyone."

"We don't do this kind of thing," Luther replied angrily.

"We are not doing anything. Riley and I are."

"I can't let you go and kill innocent people. No matter how many lives you'll save," said Luther.

"Well, good luck stopping me," replied Five.

He turned to the door and started walking toward it.

As Riley wanted to get up to accompany Five–

"You're not going anywhere."

– Luther grabbed the teenager by the collar, picked them up and held Riley out the window.

"Luther, what the–"