Infinite Testament by Greg Ness Page B

it must have been for
him to keep his feelings for Lisa bottled up all those years while her face was
plastered everywhere. Campbell tried to think of something to cheer him
up. All he could conjure up was a single question, “How do you know she
felt the same way for you?” After the question left his lips, Campbell
realized it might not have been the right thing to say.
    Stephen looked at Campbell in defeat. “I just
know.” It was weird for Campbell to see Stephen like this. It was a
side he’d never seen before.
    Stephen slowly stepped over to his friends-Campbell and
Miles-the two in the world who had never abandoned him and probably never
would. If this was the end of the world, how fitting it was that he would
get to spend it with them. Stephen petted Miles on the head. Miles
bobbed his head in satisfaction. “You’re a good boy, buddy.” Miles’
tail wagged. Stephen loved that goofy dog. He looked at
Campbell. It was amazing to see the man he’d become. For someone
who started off as a hopeless loner, he’d come along amazingly. Stephen
tugged Campbell close to him and gave him a hug. Without squishing Miles,
they embraced; it was a group hug. Stephen remembered the days they spent
together, particularly the thrill of discovering the ILD. Stephen’s eyes
glazed. “I’m proud of you, Campbell.”
    Campbell smiled at him. “I hope we’re wrong about the
ILD.” Stephen smirked, knowing that was unlikely.
    Stephen wished he could do something. It was a
hopeless feeling: the world was about to end and there was nothing he could do
about it. All of the innocent people who deserved to live their lives
would be robbed of the chance and would always be robbed of the chance.
There had to be something . It was too late for that, he
supposed. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket: 3:30 PM.
There were mere minutes left. Maybe the crazy man was just
bluffing. If that was true, Stephen would change a lot in his life
tomorrow. Every day would be a blessing. Everyone he’d been meaning
to talk to, he’d talk to. Everyone who needed help, he’d help.
There were probably a lot of people in the world who felt this way. Maybe
a blanket death threat was exactly what the world needed to discover what was
important in life.
    A gigantic explosion noise erupted in the distance.
The sound was louder than anything Stephen had ever heard. It was so
loud, he nearly fell over. The ground began to quake. The palm
trees violently swayed. Stephen ran toward the street. Looking in
the distance, he could see the city, where the noise appeared to come
from. The ground rumbled and everything was shaking.
    The man known as X wasn’t lying. He was going to
destroy the world.
    A woman across the street ran out of a house to get a
better view of the city. Her eyes were affixed in the distance. To
Stephen’s shock, the woman was Lisa. Her long brown hair blew with the wind.
This was his chance. It wasn’t too late! He pulled off the
seemingly impossible: he found her.
    Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Every
second was stretched into hours. Time was critical and Stephen didn’t
have much of it. Neighbors poured into the streets, anxious to see what
caused such a powerful noise. Streetlights whipped from their upright
positions and slammed to the ground, rippling the street like a tidal
wave. Lisa fell to her back.
    Stephen took off and ran toward her. A huge rip in
the pavement knocked him over. He flew forward, landing on his
stomach. Everyone standing on the street was tossed off their feet.
Lisa was right there! If he could just get her to see him!
That’s all he needed: one last look into her eyes, one last smile .
It was why he came all this distance.
    Stephen tried to get up but the quaking ground just pushed
him right back down. He yelled her name. “Lisa!” The loud
rumblings cancelled out his voice. He crawled as ferociously as he could,
moving his hands and feet like a dog.
    There was another deafening