by C C Roth
“Shut up.”
“What’s that?” Navin asked.
“Oh nothing. Just, not long now.”
He squeezed my hand in his and held me with his intense eyes, wondering what I was thinking but unable to ask in a truck full of onlookers.
Vie looked over her shoulder from the driver seat. “Only 15 minutes.”
I took a deep breath and watched the sun make its final decent behind the horizon. Oranges, purples, and grays slowly darkening and fading to nothingness. What goes up must come down. Life, fear, and hopefully the love-like feeling I was having for Navin. That really needed to come down. What the hell was that about anyway?
Ignore it. Love isn’t real and it won’t last.
I shook off the mushy emotions trying to creep up and focused on my job for the night. Sneak in, kill Ross, save the kids, Sam Sharp out. I internally ran the play by play a few times as we slowly reached our destination and parked under the cover of the trees. We would sit in the woods until total blackout then wait for the light signal. If all went well, from our vantage point we would be able to see the small pen light welcoming us to the gate. It was a big if that no one else would see it but it sounded simple enough it just might work. Our truck and van were parked in the escape position so we could make an easy exit. Settling ourselves on the ground near the tree line, we waited for the night to come.
“Let’s keep it down. We don’t want to attract any attention,” Karina whispered.
“No kidding, so no fireworks?” I grumbled. I couldn’t wait to be rid of this girl.
We sat in silence as the woods around us carried on with its evening routine. It was still a wonder to hear birds chirping their evening song again, but soon that faded with the sun and the bugs came out to take over the evening choir. Right about the time my feet started to fall asleep, the darkness settled in and we could barely see one another.
“It’s time. Let’s go.” Karina motioned towards the opening in the tree line and we all moved up as one, silent except for the blood pumping in our ears. Why did that always happen? In extreme silence certain things grew louder. Maybe it was your body’s way of reminding you to breath. Hear that? You have a heart, dummy, take a breath and give it some oxygen.
We moved to the edge of the trees and held the line. We were in position, so Karina gave the signal for radio silence. As soon as we stepped out into the open, we would be on our own. Mike on my left, Navin on my right. I turned and nodded to Luis then Wyatt who had to be turning blue from the effort of not talking. My eyes searched the fence in front of us, the distance suddenly seeming greater than before. It would be easy to be spotted if Mitchell’s inside man hadn’t done his job. Or if someone just happened to pop outside right at the moment we were crossing. God, I hated waiting. It gave you too much time to think things through. My finger twitched impatiently and my cold friend stood on alert, hungry for Ross’s blood. Suddenly, all our heads turned in unison as a small light broke through the darkness. It was too tiny to illuminate our position but just bright enough to give us the signal.
Showtime.
I stepped forward, my boots tentatively leaving the brush of the woods to land on the soft, manicured grass. One, two, three steps and hold. No alarm, no shouting from the building above. No giant net dropping on us like in a cartoon. Nothing. I waved the guys on and we moved together, marching toward the tiny light ahead. I was suddenly struck with an odd feeling of Deja vu then found myself giggling quietly as I realized we were basically reenacting Navin’s video game he’d taught me to play. This was almost exactly like level three.
Wait. Don’t you always die on level three?
Navin grabbed the light from the chain-link and switched it off. The gate was unlocked just as Mitchell said it would be. We moved on, closing the gate behind us gently. The stairs were a straight shot ahead. Just two flights up and we would be there. Our boots clumsily tapped on the metal as we climbed, and I gave the guys multiple “shut up” glares before we reached the top. I could see the lights on every floor through the windows, but all were covered with floor to ceiling blinds. So luckily, we were covered too for the moment. The gray door in front of us would make or break our mission. It wouldn’t be so stupid to trick a bunch of Resistance members into delivering themselves to your front door for easy execution. Our guy had to have silenced the alarm…or else. I looked to Mike who was thinking the same thing.
He shrugged and whispered, “Well think of it this way. If the alarm goes off, you’ll have one hell of a shit-show on your hands.”
“One can only hope.”
I grinned and gripped the cold handle in a sweaty fist as I slowly pulled it downward. An audible exhale hit me in the back as the guys breathed in relief. No alarm, just silence. The T-shaped hall in front of us was empty. I walked the map inside my head. If I turned left, we would find our target down at the end of the hall. If I turned right, I would find the stairwell that led up to my secret target…Ross. He was waiting two floors up, resting his sleezy ass behind his desk. Mitchell had put him there and I would take him down. But as usual, I didn’t really have much of a plan. This would have to be death by improv. Mike nudged me and jerked his head to the left, his eyes searching my face to uncover whatever it was I was hiding. I could have told him right then and hoped for the best, but he would’ve found a way to stop me. He didn’t want his little sister to be a monster and he was never going to stop trying to save me from myself.
I nodded casually and signaled for us to move ahead as planned. Three by two we glided along the blue carpet, the tiled pattern looking eerily similar to my high school. We approached the corner and I signaled to stop. We all strained to listen but heard nothing. The lights above whirred and somewhere below us I could hear indiscernible movement, a gentle reminder the building was very much occupied. Navin gave me an awkward thumbs up as he leaned against the wall. He looked out of place holding a gun, as usual, but I was happy to have him watching my back.
I stuck my head around the corner quickly and pulled back. “There’s only one down there, like Mitchell said. It should be our guy. In case it’s not, be ready but don’t shoot him or else we’re going to have a hell of a time getting out of here.”
“Yes boss,” Navin winked.
“We’re not the ones with the itchy trigger finger, remember?” Mike said.
“Right. Good point.” The jab wasn’t lost on me, but I was too pumped up to get into an argument with my brother for the hundredth time about how I’m such a problem. I raised my rifle and aimed at the guy’s leg as I rounded the corner. When we were in sight we stood there, all six of us frozen for three seconds as we waited for him to either shoot or signal us over. He startled ever so slightly but he didn’t raise a weapon. Instead he gave us a quick wave.
We passed several doors, our footfalls silent as we made our way down the final length of the hall to meet our contact. My cold friend was voracious and wanted to drag me upstairs, but I managed to keep my calm and collected façade together. Until he was right in front of me. Noah. I was suddenly rocked to my core. He wasn’t dead in a mass grave somewhere, not locked up in a crazy lab being experimented on. He was just standing there in a damn hallway looking perfect, in a uniform no less. All the times I’d looked at his photo and I no longer had to wonder if his eyes were really that blue. They were better. I gaped at him, looking fantastically demented before finally speaking. “Jesus, you’re real. You’re really here.”
His brow furrowed under his careless strands of blonde and his eyes shifted over all our faces. “I’m real. Always have been. Who are you?”
“Samantha Sharp. I know your parents.”
His face softened and looked pained all at once. “Are they…I mean…”
“They were alive when I left them. That was almost two weeks ago now. They miss you. I’m here to take you home.”
He smiled with relief but then shook his head, confused. “No. No you’re here to take the POW’s, that was the deal.�
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“Yeah that was the deal. But you don’t understand. I’ve been looking for you since Hillsboro. You’re why we’re here. You have to come with us. You can’t want to stay here?”
“No, I don’t want to stay here but I can’t go. You don’t get it. I made a deal. For my parents to be safe I enlisted. I had to. I give three years of service and they’ll be relocated into the Safe Zone. The government, they’ve set up military housing in Nevada.”
I was no longer stunned. There wasn’t a word for what I was feeling. I looked to Navin who was practically jumping up and down to get the hell out of there.
“Sam, we should really—"
I raised my finger in the air to stop him, suddenly unconcerned with our mission.
“Hold on. Let me see if I’m hearing you. I came all the way here to rescue you, to take you home and you don’t want to go? What the actual fuck is happening right now? You’re supposed to be a prisoner, tied up in some creepy basement not strolling around in uniform with a gun.”
The guys were all turning their heads back and forth, meerkat-style, listening for any sound of approach but not wanting to look away from my exchange with Noah.
Noah shook his head and tucked his blonde hair behind his ears. “Your friend is right. You don’t have time for this. The surveillance is out for only a few minutes. You need to move. Now.” He ended the conversation and swiped his security card over a gray box on the door behind him. Mike moved in first and waved the guys on.
“Sam, c’mon.”
“Unflipping believable,” I practically spat the words in Noah’s face. I peered into the room and sure enough there were Mitchell’s kids huddled together and ready to go. None of them were in beds or hooked up to anything.
“Are they infected?” I asked annoyed.
“No. They were processed and tagged but not entered into the trials yet. I may have sabotaged their intake information which stalled things while security measures are being updated. That’s why we’re doing this now. Before it was too late.”
“Uh-huh.” I gave Noah a look as if he were a bug in need of being flicked.
I could not have cared less what this ungrateful snot had to say. My temper was bubbling over, and I was about to throw an epic fit. The fact that he was being super polite and kind was only making it worse.
I turned to Navin. “You’ve got this. I have something I have to do. I’ll be right back.”
“What? Sam, no,” Navin’s eyes were pleading.
Mike jumped in between us, his face glaring. “Sam, don’t. We need to leave. Together.”
“Yeah. We will. But if you want normal after this there’s something I gotta do first.”
He grabbed my arm and jerked me back. “No. We’re leaving now. As a family. Don’t do this.”
“The man who had our parents slaughtered is two floors away. I can’t live with it, Mike. I can’t.”
His face contorted from anger to pain then back again but I couldn’t wait for a response. I jerked out of his grasp and took off down the hall.
“Stick to the plan and I’ll be right behind you. Don’t wait for me,” I said over my shoulder before disappearing behind the corner. I didn’t hide. I didn’t hesitate. I flat-out ran down the hall, swinging my rifle in front of me as I pumped my arms. I would be face to face with Ross in a moment and afterwards maybe, just maybe I could find peace. Maybe when he died the monster in me would die too. It was a long shot but one I didn’t want to miss. I blasted through the stairwell door and booked it up two flights. Cardio was never my jam, but adrenaline can do wonderous things to an unmotivated body. I felt like I was floating and everything around me melted away. The ugly fern by the office chairs, the crappy ceiling tiles, the fake wood grain on all the office doors. I passed one, two, three, then I was there. My chest rising and falling so loudly I thought he might answer the door thinking he’d heard a knock. There was light coming out from underneath and I could hear a man’s voice talking low, as if he were on a phone call. This was it. This would be my reset button. I would destroy the man who was destroying my world and in turn eliminate the coldness inside me. I could take control, I could be the one in charge in now. I could do normal things like go to school and makeout with my boyfriend without picturing death around every corner. Without seeking it out. This was how I would win. Even as those proclamations floated through my head, I knew they were lies. But the coldness opened the door and drew up my rifle anyway. It was him, the man Mitchell had shown me. He had the audacity to look surprised as if it had never occurred to him that all his sins would ever catch up to him. He slowly put his hands up, dropping his phone to the floor. I thought about letting him beg, letting him apologize or try to empathize with me but I was short on time.
“Wait,” was all he managed to say.
The flash of sound broke everything apart as I released my trigger. His head flew backward and exploded on the wall behind him. He was gone, there was nothing left of him but a pathetic puddle. The act of seeing him hit the floor should have filled me with relief, satisfaction, or a sense of wholeness. Something other than nothingness. I half expected to see my icy friend leap from my soul and hit the floor as well, like some ridiculous exorcism movie. “So long, you’re all better now. It’s been fun.” But It didn’t. It had brought me here in the first place. And like It said before, It would never leave me.
Good girl. Now run.
I turned and sprinted down the hall. The whole event had taken less than five minutes, but it would provide me with a lifetime of satisfaction knowing Ross was dead. I could feel my coldness wrapping around me and giving me a friendly squeeze. A congratulatory hug of sorts. Panic started to flood my brain as I sailed down the stairs leaping and tumbling as quickly as possible. Voices were shouting from above me on the floor I’d just left. My shot had alerted the entire building we were there. I had no time. Mike and the guys were in danger because of me. Once again, I had sealed our fate with one selfish act.
I hurled my body around the corner looking like a crazy person to find that Noah was still standing his post with Mike right next to him. Of course, he hadn’t listened and left without me. I should’ve known better.
“Okay, time to go.” I stumbled to a stop and jumped up and down waving my hand. “They’re coming. Gottta go. Gotta go.”
Mike’s eyes widened and he scowled at me. “Why are they coming?”
An alarm went off and the halls lit up with a red pulsating flash.
“Because I don’t do subtle. Where are the others?”
“They made it out the way we came. Just before you got back.”
“Good,” I shoved Noah, “C’mon, we’re going.”
“Look, I can’t just leave. They’ll kill my parents if I desert.”
I was beyond pissed. “Okay, well maybe you don’t desert. Maybe you’ve been taken hostage.”
“What?” His confusion made a quick jump to acceptance as I ripped the handgun off his belt and pointed it right in his face.
“There, now you’re my hostage. We’re leaving. Move.”
Noah looked to Mike, questioning.
“It’s best to just do what she says. It saves time.”
Noah shook his head, “This is the weirdest damn day.”
“You have no idea what weird is,” I said, giving him another shove.
A blast radiated through the walls of the building right on time. Karina must’ve heard the alarms and stepped up to offer a distraction. We could hear shouts and footfalls from down the hall, the direction we needed to go to get back out.
“We’ll have to go this way,” Noah nodded behind me. “I have an access card, remember?”
Noah flashed his card over another small gray box by a door and we pushed through onto a stairwell. There were footfalls echoing everywhere and I couldn’t tell from which direction they were coming. I kept the gun trained on his back as we bolted down the stairs.
“We just have to go down one flight and you’re out.
”
“You mean we’re out,” I corrected.
“I can’t go with you. They will kill my parents. This is how I help them.”
“Don’t you think they’re going to figure out you helped us? What will they do then?”
“Probably kill me too. But I can’t go out those doors. It’d be the same as me pulling the trigger on my family.”
The exterior door was right in front of us. Noah peered through the small rectangular window, searching for an opening.
“It looks like your friend’s distraction worked. I think everyone headed to the north side of the building, towards the explosion.”
Mike’s eyes were darting, he wanted out. “Sam, times up.”
I shoved Noah’s gun into his back, “Okay, follow the leader.”
“What? I can’t…”
“We came in the west side, genius. We need you to open this gate or we’ll be trapped. Move.”
“Shit,” Noah grumbled and opened the door. The night air hit us like a truck, immediately chilling the sweat on our faces.
“We do this fast,” I whispered, “straight to the gate. Mike, watch our backs.”
“On it.”
The commotion at the front of the building sounded like a war. I was impressed with Karina for pulling off such an epic distraction. Unfortunately, it meant I’d have to thank her later which would be weird…for both of us. The shouting and return fire from Noah’s soldier-mates was just around the corner but they may as well have been a world away. We floated toward the gate unnoticed, my hand on Noah’s back reminding him he was on our time. Only ten more steps to go. I could feel it, a tiny wave of triumph rolling through me as we crept through the moonlight, our boots making silent footprints in the grass. We were done, we’d made it. I took a small detour, but we’d made it. The small box on the gate flashed green under Noah’s security card and he nodded for us to go ahead, his blue eyes haunting even in the dark.
Mike’s face relaxed and his smile came back for just a flash. It was only three seconds maybe but as I turned to look at him before walking through the gate, it was there. His easy smile that had always told me everything would be alright. In his mind we hadn’t just made it out of that building but we had made it out of this whirlwind death race I’d taken us on. We could go home now, wherever that was. It was all he’d wanted, and he could finally see it happening.
