Jace looked around the empty clearing. For Time Square, it was relatively quiet compared to the rumors of its liveliness. It was scarily quiet. The only sound was the slight hum of neon signs and screens, which all now promoted only the Chip. It didn't make sense that it only promoted it.
He took his mind off it and turned his attention to Lori, who is making little-by-little progress on moving her legs again. He guessed whatever she went through left her with temporary paralysis. He thought back to when he accidentally hit her in the back. Could that have caused it? He just stared at the ground with guilt.
"I-" He started. "I- I-" He just couldn't get the words to come out. "I'm sorry for what I did..." Lori looked at him confused for a moment.
"What do you mean?"
"In the ally..." He paused, trying to hold back tears. "When I hit you... You not being able to walk could be because of me..." Lori just let out a small smile.
"Don't worry about it, Jace. I know whatever it really is isn't from that. You needed to hit a lot harder than that to even come close to paralyzing me." She laid a hand on his face, turning his head to face him. "Trust me, you needed to break my spine to do anything really damaging." Her saying that didn't ease Jace's mind. She pulled him close and they kissed.
Jace's mind returned to a task from before. He needed to find Elijah. First, he needed to make Lori's transportation easier. He looked around and started down the street. He heard a strange buzzing noise coming from near him. Lori pointed out a phone on the pavement buzzing to life. He walked over to it and saw even the phone didn't know the caller.
"Answer it," Lori said. "Someone else is still alive."
Jace knelt down laying Lori on the ground to pick up the phone, slowly pressing the icon to answer it.
"Good, someone answered!" The voice was calm.
"Who is this?"
"Don't worry about that... Just listen to my instruction."
"Answer my last question first!"
"We don't have time... If you want to get out of there, alive, then listen very carefully."
"Fine! But you better explain yourself afterward!"
"Deal..."
"What do you want us to do?"
"First of all, you need to get out of Time Square, out of New York-"
"How do you know where I am?" Jace was confused.
"You wouldn't understand, just do as I said, okay? When you manage to do it, give this number a call, I'll make sure to keep the phone unlocked."
"Manage- How- Hello? Hello!" The phone went silent. "Now what?!" Jace looked back at the phone and thought for a moment. "Do you know Elijah's number?" Lori nodded her head and told him. "Let's hope he has his phone..." Jace typed on a keyboard for a while before waiting for a response.
"We need to find a way out of here." Lori started to look around.
Jace pocketed the phone and picked up Lori again. As they started, the phone buzzed to life again and on it was the response from Elijah. He handed the phone to Lori and they exchanged messages, revealing Lori's state and Elijah's location, all while looking for an easy way to get out and follow the orders of the one who told them what to do. Jace looked at the intact cars, see if the doors were unlocked as well as if the keys were still inside somewhere.
He had very little luck. Even if they could he didn't want to break into the cars, in case it was armed with an alarm. If one of them went off, who knew how many would show up. They were lucky in a sense, finding an old wheelchair in the backseat of a white sedan. This made moving Lori around much easier.
Lori and Elijah continued to exchange messages, back and forth, until they were finally able to reunite with each other.
"Good to see that you're safe, man." Jace put a hand on Elijah's shoulder. "There's so much you need to know."
"Okay, tell me everything."
He told Elijah everything that happened while he was away and Elijah told him everything he found out as well. Everything at once had Jace thinking. He thought of what Lori told him, all the events that happened, even the unusual encounter at Time Square.
"You don't think..." They both looked at him.
"What?"
"Is it possible that the Chip is what's causing this?" They both looked at him with disbelief.
"Jace, we know how much you hate it, but you don't need to blame it for everything." This coming from Elijah was a shock. Even though he didn't care too much for it either, he's defending it.
"Hear me out." Jace insisted.
"Fine..."
"Who was affected the most?" He made a motion towards Lori.
"She has nothing to do with it!"
"No, that's not what I meant. How come we weren't affected?" Elijah entire expression changed. "And that guy in Time Square? All those ads for the Chip... Something just isn't adding up..."
"You might be onto something, but that's all just a hunch," Lori said. "There's no proof."
"But if it is, that can explain your paralysis..." Elijah mentions. "It would take a significant amount of energy from the brain if it short-circuited. Who knows if it would damage a part of the brain, like the part controlling movement."
"Also, when she went back to being normal, she told me she saw orders from whatever did that to her." They all stopped to think. "Anyways, we need to find a way out of the state."
"Right..."
"Hey, I know how to hotwire a car. I had to do it to my dads truck when the key broke." Elijah offered.
"But if you do it wrong, won't that make the car alarm go off?" Elijah shook his head.
"I can disable that too."
"Okay, but make sure to be careful," Lori said. "We don't need you getting hurt."
Elijah nodded at set off to work and after a couple of minutes, he was able to get a car started, the one they got the wheelchair from.
