She also knew Sky was lonely and had enjoyed the company of the stranger, for Rain too had once felt the same. They were the same side of the same coin, or perhaps they had once been long ago. Rain knew how to exploit Sky, because she saw herself in her. It was an inescapable truth that Sky would feel lonely, despite Rain Corporation’s best intentions. The clones always craved social stimuli just as much as a natural human and the interactions in the lab would never truly fulfil those needs. They were tainted with science and study. Rain predicted that Sky would regard the stranger as something akin to a friend, a mistake that she too had made when she had her first proper conversation with a normal human being. That need to be embraced as a human and not a genetic mirror was deep and Sky would feel it. It would be a feeling that would never entirely go away. So Sky would do exactly as Rain wanted, because she would feel loyal to this stranger she’d befriended.
Sky’s expression was dark as sin but she knew she had to comply. She’d been thrust into a corner. The trap had well and truly been sprung.
Defeated Sky popped the case open. Inside mounted on grey polystyrene was a single gun. Only it wasn’t a true gun, it was shaped like one but it had a long needle in the barrel. It was crafted from plastic and a small amount of red liquid was loaded into the chamber. Was it blood?
“Take up the needle gun and inject it into your cartoid artery,” was the next instruction, “in your neck,”
“So you can turn me into one of them?” Sky angrily hissed. Her glare was murderous.
Rain shook her head and sharpened a patronising look on the clone. “No, would I go to all this effort to lead you here just to turn you into a… zombie…? Give me some credit…”
Sky slowly turned her attention back to the case. She plucked the needle from the case and took it up in hand. She glanced backwards and saw Nat was watching her intently.
“Do it, or I’ll let them loose and you can watch them tear your friend to pieces…”
Sky had no choice. So many innocents had already been massacred, she couldn’t bear to see the same fate befall Nat. She didn’t know what was loaded on the needle, but she definitely knew the consequences if she didn’t use it. Rain wasn’t one to bluff. She pressed the gun to her artery and pulled the trigger. The sudden and swift stab of the needle was sharp and smarting. In a fraction of a second it was over and done, she removed the gun and saw the chamber was empty. Whatever mysterious liquid Rain had forced her to inject was now gone. It was now flowing in her bloodstream. She didn’t feel any different but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“Good girl…” Rain purred with satisfaction. She stepped out of view and returned with a PDA. She entered a command and a trapdoor opened near Nat. Nat recoiled in surprise and glanced from the two women to the trapdoor.
“Run, before I change my mind…” Rain urged the stranger sharply. Sky watched Nat hesitate and then hastily descend into the floor. The trapdoor closed sharply behind her. Sky was pleased that her suspicion Rain would honour the deal had worked out. Was there hope yet? Could Rain be reached, be turned back from the dark path she’d taken?
Did she deserve it? Now that was the more important question.
“Now, place your guns on the table and step away from them…” Rain commanded Sky.
Sky eyed her darkly as she slowly turned on the spot. She didn’t move towards the table, she wasn’t about to disarm herself.
Anger wound itself in her guts tightly and began to squeeze on her emotions.
Was there any need to follow commands anymore? Nat was gone and was safely out of the way. The status quo had been changed.
In a flash of rage she took out her guns and volleyed several shots into the glass door between her and Rain. The glass didn’t shatter but it cracked a little.
“You stupid girl,” Rain sneered. She hammered a button on the PDA.
“Quarantine procedure initiated. Self detonation sequence commencing.” A mechanical voice announced over the speakers.
“If you want to save your precious survivors and your friend, you’ll need to do exactly as I say… Put down the fucking guns!” Rain’s voice threatened angrily.
Sky volleyed several more rounds into the door in response.
Goddamit! Rain stepped back from the door, the clone was utterly furious! Sky was not responding like she’d planned. It had been a mistake to let the woman go free, she had lost leverage. That was what you got for being compassionate! That’s what you got for being sisterly… She’d been foolish! Rain wouldn’t do that next time!
Several more rounds pierced into the door, this time weakening it greatly. She had no time left and the status quo had dramatically shifted beyond any repair. She fled, barrelling out of the head researcher’s office and out into the emergency pathway.
Sky fired again, this time causing the door to implode in a burst of safety glass.
She ejected the clips and reloaded efficiently despite dual wielding.
She then gave chase.
She didn’t need to swipe open the door, she merely stepped through it. Now there was nothing between her and the villainous clone.
----------------------------------------
“All locks disengaged. Please head to the nearest safety point for evacuation. Detonation sequence commenced. Cleanse scheduled in 5 minutes,”
Five minutes didn’t seem very long to get off the island but Sky suspected Rain might have modified the protocol. The word cleanse didn’t bode well either, she suspected it would involve a bomb that would literally erase everything off the Island. The contamination failsafe.
As she thundered down the emergency pathway in pursuit of a figure well into the distance, she prayed the survivors had gotten the boat fixed and was setting off. She also prayed that Nat was on her way to the boat too. Sky only prayed that Nat would make it in time, and that Christian had waited for her. She didn’t want to think that five minutes was nowhere near long enough for Nat to reach safety.
Sky’s own destination was unknown. She’d never studied where this elongated emergency corridor led to. All she knew was it functioned as the evacuation route for the lab in the case of a contamination outbreak. It seemed a little overzealous when the lab wasn’t working on any particularly hazardous research, but it was perhaps safer to have it and not need it. It felt all very science-fiction with a self destruct sequence upon the island, a fail-safe to prevent any biohazard leaking. The irony of a clone having this thought wasn’t lost on her either. They’d long ago sailed past rhyme and reason, now through the power of science they were hurtling through the looking glass.
Rain burst through a door in the distance and disappeared into a gulp of light. As quickly as the light opened it blinked back shut.
Sky sprinted that little bit harder in an effort to close the gap.
“Cleanse scheduled in 4 minutes,”
She reached the door a few long moments after Rain and was greeted by a thick blast of coastal wind. The door opened onto a mental gangway that was built into the cliff wall and headed left down towards a pier and a boat waiting. Rain had already made good progress. She was almost at the boat.
Sky tore into pursuit, ignoring the slight wobble of the pathway underfoot.
She began descending the metal stairs two at a time, her footsteps clanging loudly and dissolving easily amongst the sound of the wind and the waves underneath.
As she cleared the first set of stairs and headed for the second the entire gangway groaned and creaked. For a split second it felt like it was sliding off the wall but it didn’t. Its support held firm.
A helicopter suddenly roared overhead passing Sky and heading into the heart of the island. She didn’t get a good enough glimpse but it looked military. Who the hell was that?
That was not her evacuation plan, so who’s was it? The roar of the helicopter overhead was quickly gone. It had disappeared inland. Who had come here? And why?
No time to consider, she refocused on the task at hand.
Rain had started the boat and it spluttered noisily into life. It was a large vessel, relatively modern and expensive looking. The kind millionaires would collect. It seemed a strange choice of boat for this kind of mission but a lot of elements of this Island made very little sense. She had given up questioning everything and was now simply intent on capturing Rain.
“Sky? Can you read me?” a voice suddenly appeared in her earpiece. It had been silent for so long that she’d forgotten she was wearing one.
“Yes, yes. I can read you.” She stammered breathlessly. Her neck was burning at the injection site and she was starting to feel a little drained by the day’s sustained events. She may have been superhuman, but she was human still. Her energy reserves were beginning to deplete.
“The Island is back online, communications have been restored. I’ve been trying to reach you! Give me your mission status,” it was Eve. Her handler. The red-haired bookish girl that never seemed too sure how to interact with her. Sky didn’t realise quite how much she’d missed the presence of home-base until now. Eve’s voice felt familiar and reassuring. It felt almost like a homecoming.
“I’m in pursuit of Rain, she’s the one responsible for the bio attack on the Island. She’s leaving the Island via a boat on the lab’s evacuation pier. She’s triggered the detonation sequence and Island is going to be razed in less than three minutes…” Sky breathlessly informed. She was almost at the boat. She had only one short flight of stairs to descend and then she’d be on the pier.
“Any survivors? Have you secured the research data?”
“Negative on the data.” She had been so caught up in the day’s events, she’d never thought to take a mirror of the data. “I have left the survivors, they were leaving via the main port using a boat the terrorists arrived by,”
“Terrorists? I thought you said Rain released-”
“-I did! It’s a long story!”
“We have intel of a helicopter arriving on scene, can you-”
“I don’t know, I gotta go!” Sky shut off the conversation. She didn’t have a clue about that helicopter but right now the boat was beginning to pull out of the pier and she was still yards away. She grit her teeth and dug deep, thrusting her legs to work twice as hard. She sprinted in a straight line along the dock in pursuit of the boat that was steadily picking up speed.
She pounded the metal walkway and threw herself at the boat. She landed and rolled violently, but she’d made it! She was aboard the boat, it didn’t matter if she was slumped into a mess in the corner! Her body hurt from the violent landing but otherwise she was ok, she rolled breathlessly onto her hands and knees. Yes, she’d made it! A superhuman leap from the pier to the boat.
“You don’t disappoint in the slightest…” it was Rain. She stepped into view and swiftly kicked Sky straight in the mouth. It sent her crashing onto her back. The pain was agonising and Sky wasn’t sure if a few teeth had been knocked loose. With a groan she rolled onto her side. She spat a gloopy blob of blood onto the deck of the boat.
“Sky? Sky?” Eve was suddenly going beserk in Sky‘s ear and it caught Rain’s attention. She plucked the pair of pistols that had dropped from Sky’s holsters and then tossed them carelessly into the sea. She kicked Sky in the face once again and splattered blood up the nearest wall. The younger clone fell on her front in defeat.
Sky was too breathless to retaliate, she felt very light-headed suddenly and she was beginning to wonder if that was simply the exertion, or whether it was the beating or even the chemical she’d been injected with? Everything was feeling a little woozy. She blinked, was her vision sliding because of the boat or…?
“Hello Eve,” Rain greeted as she took the younger clone’s headset and placed it to her own ear.
“Sky? Report!”
“She’s injured, she can’t come to the phone right now…” was the sneering joke.
“R-r-Rain?”
“Yes, it’s me…” Rain confirmed. She could picture the sudden silence falling over the observation centre. That look of surprise that would be delicious to see on Alex’s face… it made her smile.
“Is it true what Sky reported? Are you responsible for the bio attack on the island?”
“Who knows…”
Silence. Just as she expected. She glanced and saw Sky was crawling onto her hands and knees again. She had guts, why didn’t she just admit defeat? Of course she knew why really, Rain herself would never give up.
“…Why did you do it?” Sky whispered spitting blood out of the side of her mouth. She wavered but started to hoist herself back onto her feet. She wavered like a drunk woman.
“I got sick of playing by the rules Sky. Of living this half-life…” She answered, she stepped away from Sky and rested near the edge of the boat, “one day you’ll understand what I mean. When you suddenly realise you’re nothing but a weapon,”
Sky’s expression furrowed as she saw a deep sadness wash through Rain’s face for a brief second. It was the rage at Rain’s betrayal that rejected her words and potential impact on Sky’s own life. She simply was too angry to listen, but it didn’t matter. It was never the point of Rain’s plan.
KABOOM! The Island exploded in a devastating eruption that fired rubble and debris sky high and sent flames so high they seemingly licked up at the clouds.
“No!” Sky cried out in horror. She had fell to her knees and now was leaned over the side of the boat. Her face had taken on a waxy and pallid sheen. “No!“ She cried weakly. She was horrified the island was lost, and she suspected that too had become Nat’s fate. Slowly her head bowed.
The island was burning hotly, a huge plume of flames danced against the sky. There was a metallic whirring and then something dark came billowing out of the flames and crashing into the ocean far behind them. It was a helicopter both women noted. Even Rain was surprised to see it. She had been curious who had sent a helicopter inbound, but now it didn’t matter. It was sinking to the ocean floor.
“Anyway got shit to do Eve. I’d love to stay and chat, but I gotta go… Someone has to educate little Sky here on some manners, make her a better person. Be sure to send Daddy my love…” and with that Rain tossed the headset over one shoulder and into the ocean.
Sky had found that knot of anger once more, it sparked enough vigour for her to stagger up off the edge of the boat and onto her feet, she shook her head in disbelief.
Rain smirked at the never-ending resilience in the younger clone.
“You don’t disappoint…” she sighed in relief. She stood up and closed in on an injured Sky.
It was a feign, Sky lashed out with a fist and struck Rain square in the face. She clobbered a stunned Rain a second time and sent her flying backwards. Sky’s body felt drugged and unresponsive under her command, it was like she was grossly drunk and thus greatly uncoordinated. It was getting increasingly hard to concentrate too. It felt like an icy numbness had begun to seep through her mind. She staggered on the spot. Something was very wrong and it had to be the liquid. This was more than just simple exhaustion.
Rain was impressed as she righted herself holding her broken nose. Why hadn’t she seen that one coming?
“What did you make me…take…” Sky was now slurring. She wavered on the spot and could barely keep her balance as the boat rocked gently on the waves. Rain drew close, she threw a punch into Sky’s stomach and dropped her easily.
“Oh that’s the surprise dear Sky,” Rain grinned. A sudden violent hacking cough took hold of the older clone and she doubled over. It was a rasping and wet hack that sprayed a fine mist of blood over the floor at her feet. The cough hit her again and she stumbled away. Her lungs were breaking down, exactly as she’d anticipated. She slumped up against the edge of the boat. Fuck! This was highly inconvenient timing, but who was she to dictate to the laws of biology?
Sky struggled to pull herself back onto her feet. She saw her opportunity and she was determined to take it. With the concealed knife in hand she clos
ed in. She came up behind but before she got chance to sink it between Rain’s ribs on her side, a weak point in the armour, Rain turned and attacked. What followed was a messy and uncoordinated struggle for the blade, both women vying and trying to wrench possession of it. The two women wrestled back and forth on their feet. While Sky was undoubtedly weakened and sluggish, she wasn’t quite weak enough for Rain to easily overthrow. Rain was struggling with a burning sensation in her lungs and a general lethargy that was beginning to seep into her muscles. Her body was finally beginning to fail.
Sky realised she was beginning to lose the battle so decided in an act of desperation to play dirty. She tugged backwards and let herself fall to the deck, with the blade pointed between them. Rain lost balance and fell with her, landing on top. The older clone landed with the blade lodged in the slither of space between her chest and her stomach. The metal slicing through a minute gap in the armour and penetrating deep into the older clone‘s major organs. Sky had successfully impaled the bitch.
The look of defeat that suddenly rose up the older clone’s face should’ve been satisfying but Sky wasn’t strong enough for that. She now couldn’t move for the weight of Rain’s body upon her. Her body was heavy, too heavy to control. After a few moments where both women stared into one another’s eyes, as if they were trying to understand each other, Rain finally flopped off to the side and landed on the deck. A thick red pool of blood continued to pump steadily from the stab wound. Sky was too tired to move, too uncoordinated to even try.
She turned her head to the right and watched Rain’s shallow breaths. She had to be sure the bitch would die. Sensing Sky’s gaze Rain slowly pivoted her head towards her. A small smile played up to her lips. Why was she smiling?
“I made the right choice…” she whispered with genuine tears seeping up to her eyes.
And then she died.
The Rain In The Sky Page 11