by J. Kowallis
Waves of gunfire spill into the room. I swivel on my heels and hold my hands out in front of me. With the same concentration thrust into my hands, fire explodes from my palms and fingertips toward the oncoming guards. It leaps into the air, traveling over them and surrounding the rest of us.
Nate continues to fire through the wall of flames when he sees movement, and I will the wall to intensify when another group attempts to enter. Sweat pours down my face. I look over at the others. Reggie’s skin glistens with perspiration with the rising temperature. She looks at me and moves closer to Nate, watching the open doorway.
“Ransley!” Nate calls to me. “Lower the wall.”
I rein in my power and the fire dissipates slightly, allowing us to see out into the hallway. Blackened bodies, some still in flame, cover the floor like a lumpy carpet. The movement is gone. No one else is out there. I drop the wall completely and Nate leans over to exchange guns with one of the fallen guards not killed in the fire. He inches for the doorway, carefully looking out. His presence relaxes. His shaggy hair lays plastered to his head with sweat.
“That’s it. I don’t know how long we have before more show up.”
I look back at Roy in his pod. His body has stopped convulsing. I jump over the bodies to get to him. From the control room, Carmen drops the pod. The fluid drains and the door releases. I can’t wait for the door to lift on its own. Tucking my fingers under the edge, I lift the glass up against the mechanized pressure and remove Roy’s mouthpiece. Undrained fluid floods the floor and sops my feet.
“Roy?” His name catches in my throat. He doesn't move. I place my ear near his mouth to check for breathing. There’s nothing.
“Reggie?” I turn to her and my chest rises and falls in erratic shakes.
“Just a second.” Nate walks forward and lifts Roy’s chin up to check for breathing, keeping two fingertips on Roy’s wrist. “You know how to do mouth-to-mouth, Ransley?”
“Yes, but I’ve never done it before.”
“Okay, he’s still got a pulse, but if we need to, I’ll start to do compressions.”
I nod while he gives me directions on what to do. At Nate’s prompting, I lean forward and blow two large breaths into his mouth, pinching his nose shut. His stomach rises and falls.
“Ransley, back up!” Nate pushes my shoulder from the other side and he rolls Roy to his side within the pod. An involuntary thrust of Roy’s stomach causes him to vomit.
Nate rolls Roy back again and looks at me, his voice rumbling. “Fill the lungs, not the stomach, Ransley.”
I don’t know if I can do this. I already did it wrong. What if I make things worse? What if he doesn’t make it?
“Ransley, come on.”
“I don’t know the difference!” I yell at him.
Nate breathes deeply. I can tell he’s struggling to keep his temper in check. “Smaller breaths.”
“I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Of course you can.”
“No. I don’t . . .” I stop and look down at Roy’s body.
“Would it make you feel better if I did it, Ransley?” Reggie steps forward.
The thought of Reggie putting her mouth on Roy makes my stomach flip. Even if it is to save his life.
“Hell, no.” I take a deep breath and look at Roy’s glistening face. A smear of vomit down his cheek.
Again, I lean forward, my hands shaking. I plug his nose and cover his mouth with mine. The taste of curdled acid, and bitter cinnamon chokes my throat and clogs my nostrils. I don’t care. I want him back.
Two breaths. Both cause his chest to rise and fall. Nate checks Roy’s pulse again and nods at me. “We’re still good.”
I feel my heart beating faster and faster. I can’t lose him. Not after all of this. Not in this way. Each breath is making me light headed. He’s not responding.
Nate checks his pulse again the third time. I grab Roy’s face and whisper, “Please. You can do this. I don’t want to hate you anymore.”
I pinch his nose again and lean forward. One breath. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five. Second breath. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five. Third. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five.
Beneath my hand, I feel a movement of Roy’s chest before I even lean in for the fourth. “Roy?”
Slowly, his chest starts to rise and fall all on its own. All at once, he takes in a deep breath. It catches in his throat and he begins to cough. Over and over.
Nate swears, runs a hand over his face, and backs up. My whole body fills with relief, coursing in waves of coolness and heat traveling through my skin from the adrenaline.
Roy pushes himself up from the pod bed, fluid dripping from his hair, down into his eyes and down his chest. Immediately, he turns to me, a few coughs lingering in between words. “Did . . . you—”
“What?”
He squints at me, studying my face. “Never mind.” He glances down at his naked body, slowly pulls his knees up, and swears with a hoarse voice. “Can someone get me some clothes? Or a loin cloth?”
Carmen walks over with Roy’s clothes draped over her arms and hands them to him. His legs drop over the side of the pod and he slides his pants on first. He then turns to Nate beside him and offers his hand. “I’m not entirely sure who you are, but I’m assuming I owe you.”
Nate nods. “Not me. Thank her.” He motions toward me.
Roy, holding his top in his hands walks around and extends his arms to hug me. I know it’s him, but my body jumps at the closeness of him. I can still feel the force of his foot in my gut, no matter how I want to forget it. His wet body plasters my own. “Thank you,” he whispers in my ear. It shocks me in a way.
Don’t let me go.
“Roy, I know you’re tired, but we don’t have time. We need some answers.” Reggie steps closer to us and he lets me go.
“Where’d you guys come from?” he asks, his voice husky.
“It’s a long story,” I tell him. “Reggie . . . she’s like us.”
Roy turns on Reggie. For the first time, I notice it. They have the same eyes. Silvery blue. Part of it makes my stomach sink. They’re too similar. Genetically similar. Even I can see that. If they’re related . . . chances are, I am too.
I can’t think about it.
“Reggie.” He holds out his hand and she shakes it.
“What do you remember, Roy?” she quizzes him, holding her bleeding ribs. “The last thing?”
His face goes straight. “Everything.” He turns to look at me. I know what he’s thinking. The fight. The memories for me keep coming back. Why wouldn’t they for him?
Roy’s eyes clench and he shakes his head. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for what I did.”
He remembers it all. Being captured, fighting us when we first found him . . . fighting me, and what he did that night.
“Tell us,” Reggie continues, waiting for his response. I stare at the wall, not sure I want to hear.
“After they brought me in, they put me in a solitary room and asked me questions. They wanted to know my name, tried to get me to split, and when I wouldn’t give them what they wanted, they left for a while. That was when I met you in the woods, Ransley.”
I turn my head back and he’s looking at me.
“Anyway, they ran me through the system, which hurt like hell, and when I came out I felt . . . different. I mean, I remember it all. I felt like I was somehow thin. Not physically, but my mind was stretched thin. I didn’t care about anything except being the best. I didn’t feel. I couldn’t even remember much about myself. Although, I still remembered faces.”
“That’s not true. Carmen says it’s not possible for you to remember. You can’t blame yourself,” I whisper. I have to rationalize it to myself. There’s no way he would have done what he did if he remembered.
His eyes dart to me with confusion.
“Come on, Roy. You were pissed, yes. For some reason. But even so,” I fold my arms and shake
my head, “you still let me go.”
Roy takes a deep breath. “I told you. I remembered you.”
“Then why were you angry?”
He stares back at me, and runs the fabric of his top through his clenched hand. “That must have been something with the Nexis.”
“No,” Carmen shakes her head, “the Nexis process is perfect. It never—”
“Then something else was wrong,” Roy cuts her off.
“I don’t think it matters,” Nate looked at all of us, his shoulder wound seeping. “What we need to know is who’s in charge? And how long do we have before more guards come?”
Roy scoffs. “I think I know who the hand in this puppet show is. After I projected to Ransley, this lame-o douche bag smashed my head against the wall, and I was brought back. He must be the bigwig in charge of everything. His name’s Marty Lobb. And he’s a total—”
“Lobb’s here?” Nate asks. His voice rises in pitch and I feel my pulse race. The man who wrote the book—the man Nate told me about, who killed their friends and developed this mess . . . he’s here.
“Yes, he is,” Reggie says. Her voice deadened.
“You knew?” Nate grumbles.
“It doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”
His hand grabs at her wrist and holds her back. “Is this the vision you saw? The one you lied to me about?”
The look in Reggie’s face . . . cuffs me. It’s probably killing Nate even more. I just don’t know how to read it. She looks him dead in the eye. “We don’t have time for explanations, Nate.”
“You know something. You’ve seen something, and you’re hiding it. What?”
“I said,” she pulls away, “we don’t have time. More guards are coming.”
He shakes his head. “Fine. You guys, find the main office. Find out as much as you can about this thing.” He pointed to the pods. “This ends now.”
―NATE―
His feet pounded against the hard, dark, marble floor, Reggie racing beside him. Lobb had better still be here, he thought to himself. The real Lobb. He’d make him pay, finally, for what he’d done to Olivia, to Reggie, and everyone else he cared about. This was it. It would be the end.
The elevator door slid up for them after Reggie placed her hand to the pad and they got inside.
“If you were Lobb, where would you be?” Nate asked, looking at Reggie.
“I already know where he is.” Reggie moved numbers around the screen and immediately, they started moving up the shaft. “His office is on the penthouse floor. Up top is a helipad. There’s already a chopper there, but he’s waiting for us. He knows we’re coming.”
Nate cursed under his breath. “Guards?”
She turned to him. “Not one.”
The elevator twisted slowly, climbing up the side of the building. The closer they got, the angrier he felt. He kept remembering what happened the day back in Public One. His finger pressing on the trigger. The bullet splitting through the air and piercing the head of a hologram moments before it disappeared. Lobb waited for them, and this time, Nate hoped against the sinking pain in his gut, that the ending would be different.
“You saw this, didn’t you?”
She didn’t respond and looked out the clear elevator walls.
“Reggie.” Nate’s voice hardened.
“Don’t, Nate.”
The doors to the elevator opened and Reggie rushed out first. “This way!” she yelled at Nate. He sighed in frustration and chased after her.
The floor is dark and closed in like the floor below—black marble, black walls, and piercing light green lights.
“He’s in the hallway.” Reggie’s voice bounced with each step she ran, but even he could hear the pain in her voice. He could see the blood seeping from her side.
After they turned the corner, Reggie stopped. She balanced herself with her arms and stepped back. Nate ran into her, but when he saw what caught her attention, his body went cold.
Martin Lobb stood in the hallway. His light gray suit shone bright against the dark surroundings. The peach-colored shirt and dark orange tie he wore made his white skin a brilliant white. He looked like Nate remembered him—smug, hateful, and cold.
“You’re not helping me, you know,” Lobb said, taking in a breath and tucking his hands inside his pants pockets.
“Yeah, no shit,” Reggie said, taking another step closer.
“This feels vaguely familiar,” Lobb droned. “Nate armed, and Reggie standing in front like a shield. How does it feel to be second rate to her?” He turned his attention to Nate.
Nate’s skin prickled with irritation and he raised his gun.
Lobb grinned. “That’s not really an answer to my question. Could you be avoiding it because in reality . . . it bothers you? You’re not man enough to answer?”
“What are you doing, Lobb?”
“No, what are you doing, Nathan? You’ve raised a gun to me and you still haven’t fired.”
He didn’t need a second invitation. His finger closed down on the trigger and the charged bullet exploded from the weapon, splicing right through Lobb’s chest. The hologram shimmered where the bullet entered and Lobb’s form looked down at his chest.
“Nice aim. You didn’t think I’d be stupid enough to actually be here. Did you?” His eyes flickered to Reggie.
“No,” she answered.
“I allowed you to take Public One because that technology was already developed years ago. It was primitive compared to what we’re doing now. Genetic manipulation at the fertilization stage is less complicated, but it takes longer. Plus, the cost effectiveness was extremely poor. Did you know it took four years and forty billion dollars for the Public One city center to be built? Not to mention the superfluous lives lost from children to the elderly. Now, it’s taken us two years to develop Public Four with all our own resources at minimal spending. Cost effective. In addition, adults are now the prime source of advancement. Utilizing existing inventory.”
Nate shook his head. Listening to this man talk about people as if they were objects to manipulate made him want to hurl.
Lobb narrowed his eyes. “So, with all of that, do you think I’m foolish enough to not plan backups? And backups for my backups?”
Footsteps pounded behind them and Nate turned around while Reggie kept her eyes locked on Lobb. Ransley, Roy, and Carmen appeared behind them and Nate watched Carmen motion with her hand and they hesitantly moved down the hall to the left. Not before Roy lifted his middle finger to Lobb and bolted. Nate turned his focus back toward Lobb and Reggie took a closer step.
“I see Roydon’s back to his chipper self. How’d you do it?” Lobb asked. “When we finished with him, I was sure his mind was locked.”
Reggie tilted her head. “You don’t know? After all, you created Ransley and me too. I thought you knew everything about us.”
Lobb pressed his lips into a smile and nodded. “Of course. I should have taken her connection with Roy into account.”
“What do you mean?” Reggie pressed.
His eyes danced with excitement. “What do I mean? Ah, of course. Look who else doesn’t know everything,” his voice lilted. Lobb’s eyes lingered on Nate for a moment before going back to her.
It bothered Nate. There was something in the look that unnerved him. There was something Lobb couldn’t wait for Nate to figure out. He wanted Nate to ask. He was begging him.
“You have no idea how much my answer will destroy you, Reggie. Both of you.”
―RANSLEY―
There’s something about those eyes causing my stomach to turn, but I can barely manage to look away. They’re so familiar, and that glance alone unnerves me. Carmen motions to us out of the corner of my eye and I look away from Lobb.
“Come on. The upper office is this way.” Carmen bolts.
I grab the fabric of Roy’s undone jacket and pull. He won’t move. His gaze is locked on Lobb. Just like mine is. Roy’s pissed off, and I don’t blame him.
&
nbsp; “Roy,” I say quietly.
He finally turns to look at me and shrugs his arm from my grasp. “Shit. Fine.” He turns once more and flips Lobb off before smiling and following me.
The halls wrap around and we head further down. There’s a solitary oval outline in the dead-end in front of us. Of course, there are four guards waiting. They raise their guns and I immediately stick both hands in front of me. The tingle of fire races from me, spills down the hallway, and beats against their bodies like a hammer. Their strangled yells meet my ears, and I don’t even feel guilty about smiling.
Fire pours from my palms until Roy sets a hand on my shoulder. “I think you got ‘em, Ransley.”
My arms lower and the fire dies off, leaving writhing men on the floor. Their uniforms are burned off, their skin blistering and falling from their muscle tissue like melted fat. All three of us walk up toward them. Roy raises the gun in his hands and fires three rounds, one in each head of the guards still moving; putting them out of their misery.
Roy sets his hand on the center of the oval outline and the door immediately pops open then rises up like the living quarter’s doors. He’s the first to step in. I let Carmen go ahead of me, and to double-check, I look behind us before going inside. The office is wide open with digital screens spanning the width of the far wall, emulating a sunny day on a beachside. I can even hear the crash of the waves against the shoreline.
Carmen moves ahead of both of us and grabs what looks like a strapped glove and laces it around her hand. Once it’s on, she moves her hand across a white panel on the desk and projected screens appear in the center of the room.
“All right, Carmen,” Roy says, stepping up behind her. “How do we shut this thing down?”
“We can’t shut it down.” Her eyes go wide.
“At least, not yet,” I respond. “Roy, Carmen needs to be run through it again. Like you. They all do.”
Carmen looks at both of us nervously. “But maybe . . . I think there might be an easier way. I’ll have to find it.”
“And if not,” I nod, “I’ll go under again to be a guide, if we need.”
“Me too,” Roy mutters. He watches the information on the screen closely.
