Alone

by Abigail Wallace

  “You’ll just have to trust me.” I raise my voice. “Guys, I know I’ve messed up a lot lately. I know I don’t deserve your trust. But I’m serious about this. If we don’t leave right now, we will die.”

  “Well…you heard her.” Alec sighs. His tone softened. “Pack up, we’re leaving.”

  I sigh in relief. I nod to him, thanking him for trusting me. He looks away from me.

  “Well, that was dramatic.” Doctor Fowler’s voice startles me. I watch as he comes into view from around the corner. “You know, if you plan on having a secret meeting, a good rule of thumb would be to close your door. Wouldn’t want the wrong people to hear you.”

  I step in front of the doctor. Glaring at him as if it will do us any good.

  “Doctor.” I growl.

  “Hey.” He peeks his head back out the door and around the corner. “Would you please stop talking and arrest them already?”

  Immediately following, a dozen or so men flood the room handcuffing everyone. Alec and Kevin put up a bit of a fight, but they’re no match for the guards dragging them out of the room. I’m frozen, my mind races as I try to think of what to do next. Doctor Fowler closes the door once the other’s are gone, leaving us alone.

  I back away to the farthest wall. I don’t want to be afraid, but I can’t help it now. I’m cornered.

  “You’re not the brightest, are you?” He takes a step. “Hiding a bomb in your room? Did you think we wouldn’t find out?” Another step. “Here I thought you may be a threat to my operation.” Another step. What do I do? “Silly of me to be threatened by a child.” Another step towards me.

  “If you aren’t threatened, why don’t you just let us leave?” I ask him, barely able to get a breath out.

  “As nice as that would be, I can’t.” Another step towards me. “Scarlet, I’m under the impression that you may know more than you should and while it is highly unlikely that you could pass that information off to someone who matters. I can’t take that chance.”

  “We don’t know anything.”

  “I know what Evan told you, I don’t know what all Finn has told you, but I can’t let you go out there with any information about our plans.” Another step. “And either way, I’m not a big fan of you bringing a bomb into my home. You didn’t think I would actually let you leave. After Kat killed my wife? After you planned to slaughter my people?” I can feel his breath on my face. My body is pressed as far into the wall as it will go. My heart pounds, waiting for him to do something. Suddenly he grabs my throat. His grip is tight. “I really like you Scarlet, you’re spunky, bold. You’ve got potential. Too bad you’re on the wrong side of this. I could have used that ruthlessness on my team.”

  After a couple of minutes pass he lets go of me. I gasp for air as I crumble to the floor.

  “I’ll have to thank you for bringing Evan’s bomb back to us though. Now we can complete phase 2.”

  “Complete?” I repeat. What does that mean?

  He sighs. I look up at him, afraid he’s going to attack me again. He thinks for a moment.

  “Well, we’re going to kill you today anyway.” He smiles slightly. “Might as well show you the operation. Come on.” He grabs my upper arm and pulls me up off the floor. I feel weak, my head pounds as my lungs work hard to make up for lost breaths.

  Doctor Fowler drags me out of the room and down to the last door at the end of the hall. It leads to a stairwell that I didn’t know existed. We descend the stairs and enter some sort of high tech lab. Full of computers and test areas.

  “Welcome to the lab.” He grins. “This is where young Evan spent most of his time perfecting his bomb. Evan was a genius you know, our best tech. Of course we have hundreds of intelligent engineers working for us. None of them were able to mass produce a bomb that would cover more area than anything we’ve ever seen before, as well as ensuring that there are no survivors. You see, the bombs we used in these western states, they were average and they obviously missed a few people. The bomb Evan was working on contained a chemical that would infect survivors, slowly killing them. It was genius.”

  “That’s horrible.” I gasp.

  “I know, it sounds bad.” he replies. “But if we don’t finish phase two, things will get much worse. I didn’t think we’d be able to pull it off after Evan ran off with his research, after Finn neglected to finish his mission. I didn’t think we’d have the missing piece. So Scarlet I would like to thank you. Thank you for bringing it back to us. Now within the next week we will truly have saved the nation from the trials of overpopulation.”

  “Haven’t you done enough?”

  “Not nearly.” I watch as a tall and muscular man comes into the lab carrying my backpack, filled with Evan’s plans and most importantly his bomb.

  Is this bomb infused with whatever Evan was experimenting with? Is this one of those bombs? Fowler takes the bag from the man.

  “Thank you. Would you kindly escort Scarlet to the others?” he asks the man. The man nods, Grabbing onto my arm. I want to fight him, to yell, scream. But what good will that do? We lost. I lost.

  19

  Shark

  “Richard! He’s got Scarlet and the bomb.” I inform Richard as I run into their room, neglecting to knock before barging in. “The others are in the cell upstairs. You have to help me, it can’t end like this.”

  “What did you have in mind Finn? Cyrus will be here in two days. You think Nathan is going to let us get to the bomb now?”

  “We have to try. I told her to run, like you said. I ran to her and warned her, but he must have followed me there.”

  “Finn.” Laura says coming out from their bedroom. “What more can we do? We’ve run out of time.”

  Richard types out something on his watch before looking back up at us. “If we move now, we may both get what we want.” he finally says. “We can save your friends and destroy the bunker before Cyrus arrives.”

  “No, Richard, we didn’t have the time to rig a timer or convince her to let one of us do it.”

  “You ran out of time Finn. You had all the time in the world to get that bomb from her and you failed.” Richard snaps. “Our only hope of putting an end to this is go through with the plan the way we talked about before.”

  “No.” I find myself stepping into Richards space until his back is to the wall. I tower over him. “We can’t risk her life like this.”

  “Boys!” Laura shouts. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “I’ve already dispatched a team of rogue soldiers to evacuate the bunker. You and I need to find Scarlet and that bomb while Nathan is distracted.”

  “Richard…” I want to argue but I fear that if I don’t follow his lead I’ll lose them all, not just Scarlet but everyone else that I love. I back away from him and nod, leading the way to the door.

  * * *

  “The guards are sneaking people out the side entrance, hopefully we have enough time to evacuate everyone before those loyal to Nathan come after us.” Richard tells me. The two of us sprint down the hall, making it to the stairwell that goes up to the jail cell. “The bomb is going to be in the lab downstairs. Lead her to it Finn, finish this.”

  “She’s not going to make it out of this if I take her down there.”

  “We don’t have another option Finn, this is it. Either we do this now, or we become responsible for a million more deaths.”

  “This isn’t our only option and you know it!”

  “If Cyrus gets his hands on this research, it’s over for us. The research will be in every bunker in the country. Do you have the fire power to destroy a hundred and twenty bunkers?”

  I glare at him. I know that there’s another way to end this, there has to be.

  “You get her out of here, and I’ll set off the bomb. I’ll sacrifice myself.”

  “You know she won’t go for that.” he argues.

  “Then drag her out of here Richard! I don’t care how she gets out of here but it will not be a puff of smoke.
”

  He thinks for a long moment, “No.” he finally says.

  “No.” I repeat, laughing a weak, unamused laugh.

  “Laura and I can’t lose you.” he protests.

  “And I can’t lose her.”

  I freeze when I hear the sound of people fighting coming from above us. Richard leans into the stairwell to listen. The sound stops as abruptly as it started and we hear thundering footsteps descending the stairs.

  Alec, Ally, Kevin, Reese and Ty appear around the corner and run down the stairs.

  I look at the others and then refocus on Richard.

  “We don’t have a choice anymore Finn, get her to the basement.” His voice becomes a hiss. Finally I drop my eyes to the ground. A voice in my head whispers, telling me to listen to him. I already know what Scarlet would tell me to do, and that would be to listen to Richard. She stopped fighting for her own life a long time ago, and in her mind, this is her only out.

  “Ah, so you’re Finn.” Kevin mutters eyeing me up and down. “Like a Shark fin?” he chuckles.

  “Not now Kevin.” I snap, I watch him jump a little and hide himself behind Alec.

  “What’s going on?” Alec asks.

  “We’re about to destroy the bunker.” Richard explains briefly.

  “With the bomb?” he asks Richard, searching his eyes. My throat begins to grow tight.

  Richard nods, “We’ve run out of other options.”

  “But…how would Scarlet get out? She’ll die.” Ally steps forward.

  “He doesn’t care.” I mumble.

  “What happened to the men that brought you here?” Richard asks, changing the subject.

  “Out cold.” Alec replies, shrugging like he knocks people out daily. Richard nods at him approvingly.

  “We need to go.” Kevin tugs Alec’s arm urgently. He glances to the stairs and back. “They could wake up any moment.”

  “We’ve got at least thirty minutes.” Alec responds. “And I’m not sure how I feel about this Scarlet issue.”

  “We don’t have a choice.” Richard tells him, trying to persuade him to take his side. Alec looks at me, awaiting my opinion. I just shake my head in defeat. I know that I can’t convince Richard otherwise, even with Scarlet’s life on the line. I also know that I can’t change Scarlet’s mind. Not once we tell her the plan.

  “Where do we go?” Alec finally asks after realizing that I’m not going to reply.

  “There’s an emergency exit on six doors down from Scarlet’s room, it’s disguised at a dorm, few people know it’s there. There are already rebels helping to evacuate the civilians, but if you’re willing, they could use an extra pair of hands.”

  “You heard him.” Alec barks out. “Let’s get these people out of here.”

  All of them but Alec head off to find any people that still need evacuated. He stands, looking at me like he wants to tell me something, but he’s interrupted by the sound of someone coming down the hallway. Richard raises a finger to his lips and guides us into a closet across the hall. We leave the door cracked open and watch as a solider drags Scarlet up the stairs. Alec’s hand wraps around my wrist as if he could sense how much I wanted to kill that guard.

  Once they’d disappeared from sight, Richard shimmies out of the closet and heads for the staircase. I attempt to follow, but Alec’s hand remains on my arm, holding me back.

  “Alec, I don’t have time for this.” I pull myself out of his grasp and turn to look at him. “Let me go save her.” I beg. My eyes follow Richard as he climbs the stairs.

  “I’m not going to stop you.” he replies. “She might though.”

  “I know she will, but I have to try. It’s a suicide mission. There’s no way out.”

  “She knows that. She’s known that this whole time Shark”

  “I don’t understand, how did we get here Alec? Why didn’t we see this coming?”

  “Anger drives people crazy and that girl is all anger.” He stops talking.

  “It didn’t have to come to this though.”

  “No, it didn’t. It should never have come to this.” Alec sighs, “Look man, I don’t know if this is the last time we’ll see each other or if we’ll by some miracle make it out of this.” He takes a deeps breath and for a split second I believe I may have seen a hint of sorrow flash behind his eyes. “But incase we don’t make it out in time, I just want to apologize for the things I said about Scarlet. You were right, she is family and I shouldn’t have turned my back on you or her.”

  I offer him a pathetic smile in place of mushy words.

  “But, don’t make this the last time I see you.” He forces a smile as he backs away from me. “Or Scarlet if you can help it.”

  “Thank you for everything Alec.” I reply, as if I believe this is the last time we’ll see each other. We salute each other and run off in opposite directions.

  20

  Scarlet

  The man opens the door to a large room with an empty cell. Two men lay unconscious in front of the door. My escort shoves me into the cell and locks the door. I watch him pull out a hand gun I was unaware he was carrying. He scans the room carefully.

  “Doctor, come in.” he speaks into a watch on his left wrist.

  I can’t hear the doctor reply.

  “They’re gone. All of them, we have two men knocked out in here, I don’t think.” He checks them both for a pulse. “No, sir, they’re still alive.”

  A pause.

  “Yes, sir, the girl is in the cell.”

  Another pause as he listens to Doctor Fowler.

  “Will do, sir.” He turns to look at me and then scans the room one more time, his firearm still drawn. I begin to laugh slightly. I didn’t mean to. But knowing that somehow they got out, somehow they’re safe makes me so happy.

  I don’t care what happens to me now. I just want them to get out alive.

  “What’s so funny?” The man shouts at me, pointing the gun in my direction. Something in me dares him to. Something tells me he’s not supposed to be the one that kills me.

  “Nothing.” I reply calmly, stepping away from the bars.

  He grunts, returning his focus to watching the room. Not long after his conversation with Doctor Fowler, Richard comes into the room. My heart sinks a little. I really want to like him.

  “Jay, Nathan wants you to watch the entrance.” he tells the man standing guard. Jay nods and marches out of the room.

  “It seems as though you’ve gotten yourself on my brother-in-law’s bad side.” Richard says to me as he walks towards the cell door.

  “It appears that way.” I mumble, watching his every movement.

  “That’s something you and I have in common with one another.” He unlocks the door. I continue to watch him. Is this a trick? “Nathan is power hungry and paranoid. He and I have not seen eye to eye for a long while. I do not believe that the mass murder of American citizens is how we should fix our problem.”

  “Then why do you work so closely with him?” I wonder. If they don’t get along, why do I always see them together?

  “For my family. But Scarlet, I’m afraid he’s gone mad. After Carrie’s death, he’s been acting more irrational, more impulsive. However, I’ve heard you may have a way to stop him, or at least slow him down.”

  “I’m not sure what you want me to do.”

  “Scarlet, the research in this bunker is only in this bunker. The government doesn’t even know about it yet. If we destroy it, we will slow down their efforts.”

  “You want me to use the bomb.” I step out of the cell. He nods. “That will kill everyone inside.”

  “Yes, unless we get them out.” he replies, “The walls of this bunker will contain the blast, and whatever chemical Evan put inside of the device.”

  “Richard, Nathan will catch us. We couldn’t pull it off.”

  He begins walking towards the door. Hesitantly, I follow.

  “Your friends have already started leading some out the emergency ex
it, Nathan assumes you only know of the front exit. All of his guards will be patrolling over there, I’m assuming he’s been informed of your friends escape. You don’t need to worry about the people, I just need you to get the bomb and detonate it.” He opens the door, letting Finn in. “Finn is going to get you back to the lab. Once there, well, I hope Evan instructed you on what to do.”

  This is insane. How are we supposed to pull this off? I lock eyes with Finn.

  “How much time do we have?” I ask Richard, still looking at Finn. Richard looks between the two of us and takes a deep breath.

  “I suppose you two have five minutes to spare.” He opens the door again and begins to leave. “Don’t waste too much time. We have to be fast.”

  Five minutes. That’s all we have. All I have to apologize, all he has to explain.

  “Scarlet I…” he begins, stepping towards me.

  “No, I know.” I walk over to him and wrap my arms around him. “I forgive you. I know you weren’t trying to hurt me.” I cry a little as I feel him hug me.

  “You don’t have to do this you know.” he whispers, knowing that if I detonate the bomb, I won’t make it out. “Let me do it for you, please.” I feel him trembling, listen to his breaths come out shaky.

  “No.” I shake my head. “I have to finish this Shark. This is my mission. I have to.” He cries as he holds me. The two of us know this is the last time we will hold each other. I’m ready though, I’m ready to finish this.

  I pull away from him and stare into his black eyes, my hands resting in his.

  “This is for my parents and my friends and everyone they killed. This is for Kat.” I tell him, tears rolling down my cheeks. “This is for everything we’ve lost. I have to do it.” I breathe in. I look at the clock, we’re almost out of time.

  “Please Scarlet.” he begs. “We can run and we’ll be safe. You don’t have to do it.”