The gray-eyed man's words faded as reality shifted, and Elena settled back inside her condo. Her hand reached reflexively for her iPhone at 7:15 a.m. The same awful morning.
However, this time it was unique. The reflections she'd seen in that region betwixt worlds had altered everything. Every fragment of time confirmed her destiny via those eerie golden eyes. Has that become her future, or a warning?
She dismissed the notion interest. She had a plan now.
Elena reached for her pre-packed emergency kit, which she had meticulously built over a few loops. Water, first-rate materials, electrical bars, a flashlight, and a metal baseball bat she discovered had become quite powerful as she got closer to the smaller shadow creatures.
Her cell phone buzzed. Sofia.
"Do not say anything about the quarterly file," Elena responded. "Pay interest with caution proportion of a bag. Now. "I'm coming to get you."
"Elena? What is incorrect? "You sound."
"Consider me. Please. You relied on me since we were children, and I told you not to get in that car with Marcus.
Silence. Suddenly, "you've got never advised each person about that."
"Because you made me promise." Now I'm asking you to agree with me yet again."
"...ok. What is the need for me?"
Elena rattled off the list she'd memorized throughout the sour pleasure in. "I will be there in fifteen minutes." Do not open the door for the rest of us.
She hung up and dialed the number she'd discovered in a previous loop. It rang twice.
"Mayfield Institute, how might also additionally I"
"This is Dr. Elias Mayfield." Tell him Elena Crawford is looking into gateways."
Extra stillness, then a familiar weary voice: "I was wondering when you would call."
"Meet me at Cedar Grove Community Middle. Deliver your device the one that repels them. And Dr. Mayfield? Don't take Fifth Street. The major quake destroys a structure there."
She hung up before he could respond and ran downstairs to her car. The morning brightness felt like a lie, promising a normal day even as horror lurked behind the wings.
Elena made three stops on her way to Sofia's, warning people she had seen die in earlier cycles. Most of her ideas had become jumbled, but she had noticed that she needed to be more precise, naming records that they might understand, as well as secrets and strategies she had learnt in previous incarnations. Some people listened.
Sofia waited outside her condominium building, her bag packed. Her eyes widened at Elena's expression.
"You look... precise."
"Get inside. "We need to transport."
They drove through streets that may quickly become battlefields. Elena's knuckles turned deep white on the steering wheel as they passed familiar locations - the coffee shop that might become a crater, the park where she'd seen youngsters transform into crystal statues.
"There is a network center," Elena explained. "It has a stronger basement. We're going to be safe there."
"safe from what?"
The number one tremor responded to her query. Sofia grasped the dashboard despite the fact that it was a moderate caution shaking.
"It truly is just the beginning," Elena added. "The actual quake occurs in about forty minutes. However, that is not something we want to worry about."
Elena's heart stopped as they transformed into a nook. A man became assisting a younger mother with a stroller down the street - the same pair she'd seen dies three loops before.
She slammed on the brakes.
"Elena!"
But it turned out that she was already going for walks. The second tremor might occur in exactly twelve seconds, destroying Miller's hardware. She'd seen it weigh them down previously.
"Break out of the building!" she exclaimed.
The person appeared to be awake and motivated. The mother grabbed her stroller.
10 seconds.
Elena rushed, her body moving with a speed and magnificence she had never experienced before. The changes were already taking place, with skills growing as the truth fragmented.
Five seconds.
She only reached them because the floor trembled. The hardware shop sign groaned ominously.
She shoved them onward as bricks began to fall down. Something crashed into her shoulder, causing pain in her arm, but she kept pushing.
They tumbled forward as the wall collapsed behind them. Dirt clogged the air.
"How did you" the man or woman began.
"Community center on the street," Elena cut him off. "Get there" Now. The basement Inform them that Elena dispatched you."
She returned to the path of her motor, but it had iced up. Status along the street changed into a familiar figure - tall, athletic, with sharp features and troubled eyes. Zachary Montgomery. He'd been there in every loop when she'd made it past midday, fighting alongside her. In every loop in which she died prematurely, she learned that he died while hunting for others to store.
Their eyes met through the settling dust. Despite the fact that they had never met in this era, reputation flashed across his face.
"You experience it too, do no longer you?" She referred to it as out. "Like you have got visible this earlier than?"
He leapt ahead. "The desires... they have been no longer dreams."
Each other's tremors are stronger this time. A vehicle alarm blared.
"Network center," Elena said. "All right street. Forty minutes. What are your desired answers? "They will be there."
She rushed back to her car before he could respond. Sofia became white-knuckled in the passenger seat.
"Who turned into that?"
"Someone crucial, "Someone who recalls."
They arrived at the community center with a few minutes to spare. Dr. Mayfield is seen waiting outside, leaning on his cane. The tool in his suitcase hummed gently.
"You've changed matters," he said as they got closer. "The timeline's shifting."
"The old one was not walking."
Greater human beings arrived, faces she recognized from beyond the loops, lives she had controlled to save this time. The mother with the stroller, She alerted an elderly couple a long way from their crumbling condominium. She diverted a group of teens away from a dangerous shortcut.
Zach appeared to be well ahead of when the earthquake struck. Their gazes locked again, and Elena felt the same pull - the link that had drawn them together in timeline after timeline.
The floor erupted. Humans screamed. They dashed into the basement as the sector shook itself apart above them.
But Elena smiled. This period was unique. This time, she had saved them.
The earthquake passed, but Elena's smile faded. She knew what would happen next. The shadows should appear first, seeping through fissures in truth. Then came the crystal hunters. In the end...
Her palm felt the facet where the golden-eyed creature had wounded her during the closing loop. The scar wasn't visible, but she could feel it waiting.
Dr. Mayfield's gadget pulsated more strongly. Violet light began to fracture in the sky as seen through the basement dwelling windows.
"Elena?" Sofia grasped her arm. "what's going on?"
Zach advanced before she had a chance to respond. "The portals are starting." He gazed at Elena. "However, you knew that, didn't you?" Much like you knew about the earthquake."
"yes."
"How?"
"because i have lived at the existing time earlier than now." Elena looked at the faces she'd saved, faces that had tortured her through death and loss of life. "And i'm finished looking humans die."
The device's buzz escalated into a screech. Dr. Mayfield's expression became gentle.
"This is incorrect," he murmured. "The readings... they are more potent than any preceding loop."
Above them, something significant occurred between worlds. Elena felt it like a weight in her chest. The golden-eyed beast has approached.
However, as worry ran through her, she became aware of another issue. The same power she'd seen reflected in the fractured timelines. Her fingertips tingled from it.
"Elena?" Sofia's voice shook. "Your eyes..."
She noticed her mirrored image in a window. Her irises flashed gold for only a second.
The fact struck her like a physical punch. She wasn't simply experiencing visions of her future self.
She turns out to be becoming it.
"Dr. Mayfield," her voice remained firm despite the revelation. "We want to move Now. The network middle may not be able to keep up with what comes next."
"The tunnels," Zach remarked abruptly. "Below the antique physics building. They were designed to accommodate experimental"
A legitimate-sounding reality tearing swamped out his words. The violet sky crystallized outside the windows.
Elena scanned the faces around her: Sofia, Zach, Dr. Mayfield, and all the others she'd saved. In prior loops, the majority of them killed just here. However, as she felt the power developing within her, she made her decision.
No longer this moment.
The ceiling cracked. Elena raised her palms, and a golden light blazed from her hands.
The true question was not who she should emerge as.
It became a question of whether she wanted to terminate it quickly enough to keep all of them.