Chapter 5: John Carter

Alice's POV

My heart was beating too hard.

Someone followed me here.

I stayed low inside the storage unit and forced myself to breathe slowly. Panic would get me killed. The old Alice panicked. I wasn’t her anymore.

I turned off my phone light. The unit went dark. I listened for a long time.

No footsteps. No voices. No one pulling at the metal door.

I crawled forward and looked into the hallway. Empty. Only the soft hum of the lights.

I looked back at the open duffel bag. The gun was still there. I picked it up. It was heavier than I expected. My hands shook as I checked the magazine. Full. I pushed it back in until it clicked. I put the gun in my bag with one extra magazine and as much cash as I could carry without making the bag look strange. The rest stayed in the unit. I would come back later if I lived.

I closed the metal door quietly and locked it. The black key went deep into my pocket.

Then I started walking.

I did not run. Running would draw attention. I kept my head down and my right hand inside the bag, fingers close to the gun. Every sound made my body tighten.

I reached the main exit and slowed down.

A man was standing near the doors.

Tall. Dark clothes. Still. He wasn’t looking at a phone or even wasn't pretending to wait for someone. He was just standing there, watching the hallway like he had been waiting for me.

When his eyes met mine, he didn’t smile neither did he didn’t look surprised.

I stopped walking. My hand tightened around the gun inside the bag.

“Alice Quinn,” he said. His voice was low and even.

He knew my name.

I didn’t answer. I watched his hands. They were empty. That didn’t make me feel any better.

“You’ve been busy,” he said, glancing at the bag on my shoulder.

My mouth went dry.

“Who are you?”

“My name is John Carter.”

The name meant nothing to me. I was sure I had never met him in the first timeline.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Answers.” He kept his hands where I could see them. “I’ve been following up with some dangerous people for a while now. The kind of people who don’t tail ordinary civilians around for no reason. I picked up that they’ve been watching you for days. Today they followed you here. And I followed them.”

I kept my face blank.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Those men don’t waste time on people who aren’t important somehow. I want to know why they’re interested in you… and what you know.”

My blood went cold.

“And I’m supposed to believe you’re any different from them?”

“No,” he said. “You’re not supposed to believe me. You can walk out the front and see what happens. Or we can use the back exit and you can decide later if I’m worth the trouble and your time. Your choice.”

I hated this. I hated that on my first full day back I was already dealing with strangers, guns, and people who knew too much.

The baby moved inside me. A small kick. A reminder of my mission.

I made a choice.

“Back exit,” I said. “You walk first. Try anything stupid and I’ll shoot you.”

John gave a short nod. “Alright.”

He turned and walked. I followed at a distance, hand still on the gun. We went down a side hallway and out a metal door into a narrow alley. The air smelled like piles of trash and hot pavement.

John stopped near a black car. He didn’t unlock it right away. He just waited.

“Talk,” I said.

“I’ve been tracking certain people for months,” he said. “Quiet government connections exercising unauthorized research on certain experiments. Missing data. I don’t know exactly what’s coming, but I know it’s big. When I saw those same people start following a former research scientist, I paid attention. Today they led me to you.”

“So you’ve been following me?”

“I’ve been following them. You became part of the pattern.”

“What do you actually want from me?”

“I want to know what you know. And why men like that are watching a regular scientist this closely.” He sighed. “But right now I just want you out of here in one piece so we can talk properly later.”

I looked at him for a long time. Every part of me that had trusted Luke and Caroline was screaming that this was another trap. But the system hadn’t pushed a danger warning the way it did when things were about to go bad.

“Drop me at the central library,” I said. “Nowhere else. And the gun stays where it is.”

“Fine.”

He unlocked the car. I opened the passenger door myself and sat with the bag on my lap. I didn’t put on the seatbelt. I wanted to be able to move fast.

John drove out of the alley the opposite way from the main street. I watched the mirrors. No gray car showed up behind us.

We drove in silence for a few minutes.

Then he spoke again.

“You’re pregnant.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

“Does the father know you’re mixed up in whatever this is?”

Hate flared hot and sharp in my chest.

“No,” I said. My voice came out colder than I expected. “And he’s never going to.”

John gave a small nod and kept his eyes on the road.

The system screen appeared in front of me.

[New individual detected: John Carter]

[Threat level: Unknown]

[Recommendation: Maintain distance until further data is gathered.]

[Hidden objective progress: 5%]

Hidden objective. That option seemed to be still locked. I have to do something about that soon. I need to know the objectives of people that comes close to me so I can know who to trust.

We reached the central library. John parked a short distance from the entrance and kept the engine running.

“This is me,” I said.

He looked over. His face was serious.

“Those men won’t stop following you just because you shook them once,” he said. “Whatever they want from you… it’s not small. Be careful.”

Like he cared. I'm sure all he wanted was his information.

I opened the door and got out. I didn’t say goodbye. I closed the door and walked toward the library without looking back.

Inside, I stood near the tall windows and watched the street. John’s black car pulled away and disappeared. No gray car followed it and no one came into the library after me.

I stayed there for a long time with one hand on my stomach and the other still inside the bag.

The system screen glowed again.

[Contact with John Carter has introduced new timeline variables.]

[Warning: Multiple unknown parties are now aware of host activity.]

[Special Lifeform status remains restricted.]

I stared at the words until my eyes burned.

John Carter had been tracking dangerous people, and those people had been watching me. Someone else had left me a key, a gun, and a pile of cash. And none of them were Luke or Caroline.

I took out my phone. The unknown number was still silent. I typed one message.

Me: Who are you?

The reply came after almost a full minute.

Unknown: Someone who wants the same thing you want. For the Special Lifeform to live.

Another message came in.

Unknown: John Carter is not your biggest problem now.

Unknown: Go home, Alice.

Unknown: Check the bathroom mirror.

My skin went cold. Someone's been at my house.

I sent a another message.

Me: Why? What is waiting for me there?

The message came in quicker this time.

Unknown: You wanted to know who I was didn't you? Then go home and check your mirror.

Me: Why not just tell me now?

I sent.

I waited one minute, five minutes, ten minutes passed.

I simply grew restless. I needed to see for myself.

I left the library and took a long way back to my building. Different bus. Different route. Extra stops. Eyes on every person who came near me. When I finally reached my floor, the hallway was empty. My door looked normal.

I unlocked it, stepped inside, locked it again, and put a chair under the handle.

Then I walked into the bathroom and turned on the light.

On the mirror, written in black marker that hadn’t been there this morning, was a message:

'You are not the only one who remembers. There are others.'

~