FUTURITY

A RIVER OF LIGHT

Leon's grief must be clouding his mind. He frowned and tried to understand what he was seeing. This wasn't right. 

He'd expected to appear outside of the ANO facility, but instead, Jude and Leon both hovered over a strange, luminescent river that flowed from light into light. Pitch blackness loomed over and under the stream. In a way, it reminded Leon of the fabled rainbow bridge of Nordic legend.

"What is this?" he said, his voice strange and echoey. 

Jude met his gaze with wide eyes. "I . . . don't know how we got here. I'm not even sure where 'here' is."

"How could you not know?"

"Leon Weston, I'm a professional teleporter. I know how to teleport correctly. Something or someone pushed me off course. I have no idea where we are."

Leon swore, if he wasn't so confused and grief-stricken, he might have laughed at Jude calling himself a professional teleporter. Below their feet, in the water, Leon saw a distorted, rippling image of himself beside a dying Jason. He watched himself leave Jason's side and walk backward through many doorways, all the way to the room where he had first awakened under the desk. It was like all the events in the past hour were reversing themselves.

He watched Jason fight the automatons. Leon felt more tears sting, and he forced them back. Jason had led the robots away. Leon pulled his eyes away from the mesmerizing sight and glanced at Jude. It was so bright in this strange place that Leon could see Jude's features clearly. Jude's skin was healing at a remarkable speed, and in another second, his burns vanished.

What the— Leon squinted. He looked down at the river again. Is this time? 

BOOM!

A blinding light shaped like a hand slammed into Leon and Jude. Leon lost his grip on Jude and tumbled toward the river. No! No! If he didn't grab Jude, he could be lost forever in time and space! 

Leon looked down at the glowing current, which grew nearer and nearer. Leon turned and saw Jude falling a yard away. He reached for him, his fingers straining. Please, please.

"Leon, grab my hand!" Jude shouted. He stretched toward Leon, terror twisting his face.

But his hand missed Leon's reaching hand. With a flash, Leon plunged into the water.

The light blinded Leon for a moment. He landed on something hard, and he gasped. Bright light obscured everything around him. Was he in a bright white room? Or was he in a cloud?

But the misty whiteness fell away, and his eyes adjusted. His heart leaped in his chest. 

Leon knelt beside a familiar wall, the fourth and final bomb in his hand. He glanced over his shoulder. Jason—full of life and wide-eyed—looked back at him.

"Leon, hurry up, we don't have much time," Jason said.

Leon looked around, frantic, afraid it was all a dream. Jason was alive. The ground wasn't shaking. And Jude must be down in the lower level with the automatons. All three of them were still planting bombs.

Leon remembered what the computer had said about Jude's power: "Subject has teleportation—ability to jump out of the fabric of time and appear in another location instantly." Somehow Jude had not only teleported but traveled through time.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked, stepping forward.

Leon looked at him; jaw clenched. "Nothing's wrong, kid. Nothing at all."