Page 32 of Us Defiant Few

She wedged herself against the wall, unable to do anything except stare into his monstrous blue eyes.

“I just have one question for you, Khalani.” Alexander licked his lips and bent to whisper in her ear, “Haven’t you ever wondered why you can’t escape me?”

Her entire frame trembled like a leaf.

“Get out of my head.” She choked out the words.

“Are you sure that’s where I am?”

“Get out of my fucking head!”

“Khalani?” A new voice echoed across the space.

She swung her head around just as Winnie walked down the stairs, her gray hair slightly frazzled and her purple dress wrinkled. “Who are you talking to, dear?”

Khalani turned back to the Governor, but he was gone.

“Did you see him?” she asked desperately.

“See who?”

“The Governor!”

Khalani huddled against the wall, still shaking as Winnie ran to her. She expected Winnie to stare at her with judgment or tell her that she was finally going crazy.

But Winnie crouched right beside her, grabbing her hand.

Khalani hated herself when she flinched.

“Winnie’s right here.” Winnie squeezed her fingers, unbothered by it. “Tell her what happened.”

Khalani hesitated.

Seeing the dead wasn’t normal. But the only person who might believe her was Winnie. So, she took a deep breath and relayed all her visions of the Governor. She told her how the hallucinations were getting worse. They were so vivid and real, Khalani couldn’t distinguish reality from nightmares anymore.

“Saying it out loud, I guess I really am going crazy,” she finished, banging her head against the wall.

“You’re not going crazy.”

“If I’m not, then what does it mean?” she rasped. “What if I’m somehow…connected to him?”

Khalani had been afraid to say those words out loud.

Ever since she met the Governor in Apollo, her emotions felt tethered to him. She thought it was due to the unfathomable hatred for murdering her parents, but maybe it was something more.

“Khalani, dear, we’re all connected to him,” Winnie implored, locking eyes with her. “We suffered under his authoritarian rule in Apollo. We were lied to and kept from the beautiful surface. You and Winnie both watched him die.”

She nodded, knowing everything Winnie said was true, but she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something wasn’t right.

“Do you think the Governor knew about Project Helix?”

Winnie’s face paled at the mention of Project Helix.

It was the mysterious initiative top scientists and engineers worked on during the Great Collapse. The secret that was supposed to save the world.

The only clue they had to finding Project Helix was Timothy Talbot’s journal. He said the path starts at Prometheus. But all they’d learned was that Prometheus used to be a company in the old state of California.

That was it.