“Con?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t leave me.”
*
Connor couldn’t remember when he went to sleep and when the machines started beeping frantically, but when Connor woke up Natalie was already in the room and the exam table was quaking because Lane was convulsing.
“Help me!” Natalie said, holding a syringe in one hand.
Connor forced Lane in place, helping his arm to keep steady long enough for Natalie to give him the shot. It was difficult but when Natalie was done, Lane’s body normalized and he looked like he’d gone back to sleep again.
“We need the antidote fast,” Natalie said. “He’s not going to make it otherwise. I’m barely keeping him alive!” She started crying, and Connor put his arms around her.
“Natalie,” he said. “You’re doing a great job. This isn’t your fault.”
Kevin burst in through the doors, the device and antidote in hand. “I have it,” he said, handing the scanner to Natalie. Natalie checked the controls and went over to stand on one side of the table and Kevin stood on the other side. Connor stood with Natalie and tried to get a look at the scanner as Natalie configured it and moved it over Lane’s body.
“There it is,” Natalie said, stopping the scanner close to Lane’s shoulder blade.
Connor knew what that meant. It meant Professor Chandler’s theory was right. His brother was patient zero. He had the virus inside him at this very moment. All of that wasn’t speculation anymore, it was real.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Connor hadn’t even realized that he went silent.
“Con?” Natalie said. “What do you want me to do?”
“Take it out,” Connor said. “Like the professor said.”
Natalie went to the drawer, took out her surgical equipment and brought it over to the table where Lane was still motionless. Natalie used the scalpel to create a clean laceration over the general area of Lane’s shoulder blade and fished for the chip.
“It’s too small,” she said, a little frustrated. She used her forceps, pried the chip away but the minute she did it, Lane’s eyes snapped open and the machines surrounding them started beeping again.
“What’s happening?” Connor asked.
“I don’t know,” Natalie said. She gripped the forceps again, moved the chip and the beeping got worse. “I think you should call the professor.”
Kevin took out his phone and walked off to dial the professor’s number and Connor went to stand in his place. “Lane?” he said, touching his brother’s face. Lane’s eyes were half-closed. “Can you hear me?”
Kevin came back. Connor saw the look on his face and knew it couldn’t be good. “Kevin, what is it?” he asked. “What did he say?”
“It looks like the chip is linked to his life,” Kevin said. “There’s no way to tell exactly what’s going to happen.”
“Fine,” Connor said. He looked at Natalie. “Take it out.”
“Are you sure?” Natalie asked.
“Connor—” Kevin tried to say something, but Connor interrupted him. “The virus is killing him!”
“We’re killing him!” Kevin snapped.
“You think I don’t know that?” Connor yelled. “What do you want me to do here? Leave the chip inside, and let the virus kill him and the rest of us? Who knows what’s going to happen if he dies with the chip still inside him, he could be a human time bomb for all we know. There is no best case scenario here! If you have any other ideas feel free to share them.”
Kevin said nothing.
“That’s what I thought,” Connor said, and the tears just started pooling in his eyes and he wished he could have been stronger. “Natalie, do it quick. And keep the antidote handy.”
Natalie reached into the wound again and this time, Lane was wide awake, screaming for them to stop. Connor had to hold him down long enough for Natalie to work. When the chip finally came out, Natalie placed it carefully on a flat plate she had kept aside for this purpose and went back to closing the wound. She kept working, and it was becoming harder to keep Lane down, but finally Natalie reached for the antidote and gave Lane the dose. It took a while for Lane to calm down again and for the machines to go back to normal.
The three of them sat patiently by, hoping against all hope for the miracle cure to work.
*
“Connor?”
Connor heard Lane’s voice and rushed to go over to him. Natalie followed him to the table where Lane had his eyes open but he still looked weak and he was speaking in a low voice. “Con…”
“Lane?” Connor said. “I’m right here, Lane. Talk to me. Come on, tell me you’re okay.”
“Looks like the antidote worked,” Natalie said, checking Lane’s temperature. “The fever’s gone down.”
“Hear that?” Connor said to Lane. “You’re going to be fine.”
Lane’s breathing became labored then, he was taking every breath as if it was hurting him to do it.
“Lane,” Connor started talking to him in the hopes of getting him to listen.
Lane started to bleed through his nose, and Connor could no longer stop the panic rising in his chest. “Natalie, what’s happening?”
“I’m sorry, Connor!” she said, and Connor knew something was wrong.
She knew something he didn’t. “Natalie—”
Lane tried to take one more labored breathe, his body making so much effort just to get that oxygen in, but then there was nothing.
Lane had stopped breathing.
*
When the third resuscitation attempt failed, Natalie unhooked Lane from the machine.
The life that had been inside Lane’s body just a few minutes ago wasn’t there anymore. It was just an object with no identity, no further purpose. Connor felt Kevin’s hand on his shoulder as he sat by Lane’s body. He felt like he was going to go crazy if he let all the pain in.
“Con?”
Connor knew he couldn’t let himself drown in the sorrow. There were people waiting, counting on him. “Natalie,” he said. “Get the chip to Professor Chandler. Safely, please. Let me know once its safely deactivated.” He turned to Kevin. “I need you to make the funeral arrangements.” He went up to Natalie. “Thank you for everything,” he said. Natalie was trying to control herself. Connor hugged her and without even looking at Kevin, walked out of the room.
CHAPTER 23
REPURCUSSIONS
Connor picked up the shovel and spilled dirt over Lane’s body. He let go of the shovel then and turned to the crowd. “I want everyone to take a look at this,” he said. “I want people to see what our enemies are capable of. It wasn’t enough that they put him away in prison, but they made his life a living hell, made him part of an experiment. They made him the carrier of a deadly virus that could kill all of us. What happened to Lane Volze is just the beginning. This is going to be all of us! Are we going to just sit there and let that happen? No of course not! We’re going to take the fight to them. We’re going to show them we’re not a bunch of lab rats that they can just use when the feel the need. So who’s with me?”
The crowd broke out in catcalls and claps, each one of them willing to become a soldier in this fight that had gone for a bit too long.
“I want a unit to help take down Building One,” Connor said. “Kevin is going to sign up everyone who wants to go in and fight.
“We take down the first admin building at dawn.”
CHAPTER 24
THE END
The Resistance Hideout,
Zyron Region-One
Everywhere in The Resistance hideout you could see people preparing for the oncoming battle. They were aware that it wasn’t going to be easy and they knew that despite the new weapons technology they might still lose, but their spirits were unbreakable. Some of them had been toughened by Jace’s death, and others by the deaths of their own friends and family, not just people related to The Resistance, but even th
e ones who were sitting at home and weren’t supposed to be part of this war. People detested the Zyre and they hated the Khaltars but they hated not having a say in who gets to live or to die even more. Now though, they had a chance to contribute and from the looks of it, every one of them was willing to put their lives on the line just so the group could achieve victory. Connor had seen this from every angle inside his head and that wasn’t all. He was constantly trying to come up with ideas, reasons why they might fail and what they would do then. Jace wasn’t the kind of leader who just sat around watching his people die, and Connor wouldn’t do that either. He would make sure his people won the war, and he wouldn’t sit on some throne and do it, he would fight with them no matter what the repercussions. He saw Kevin in his office, the office that used to belong to Jace and he was with some teenage girl trying to explain the cocking mechanism of a gun. When the girl saw Connor she smiled, got up and left. “You remember what you have to do?” Connor asked.
“Of course,” Kevin said. “Are you sure this is how you want to go about this?”
“I’m sure.”
“You know its going to be dangerous?” Kevin said. “You don’t have to fight with us.”
“Jace wasn’t that kind of a leader,” Connor said. “And neither am I.”
Kevin stood up. “Well in that case, we’re ready when you are.”
Connor checked his watch. “Let’s do this.”
*
OUTSKIRTS OF BUILDING-ONE,
Zyron Region-FOUR
The heavy-duty truck made its way through the desert terrain. Connor used his special vision glasses and saw Building-One in the distance. “I think we need to make a stop here,” he said. He took off the glasses, stepped out of the vehicle to scan the area. Shay and Kevin got down with him. “Shay,” Connor said. “You’re going to stay in the truck. Anything happens, you drive back to camp.”
“They have plenty of people over there,” Shay said. “I want to stay and fight with you.”
They were still talking when there was a whooshing sound, and Connor realized the sound was from a bullet that blew right past him and disappeared into the sand. “They’ve seen us,” he said, and led them to take cover behind the truck, and the sky started raining bullets. The three of them fired right back, but they couldn’t even see the shooters. “There’s a shelter,” Connor said. “A few yards away, can you see it?”
“Yes,” Kevin said. “I can see it.”
“We need to get there,” Connor said. “Shay, you will start driving the minute we head for the shelter, I don’t want any arguments, are we clear?”
“Yes sir,” Shay said, but it was obvious she wasn’t too happy about it. When the next time there was a pause in the bullets exchange, Connor ran towards the shelter, and Kevin ran after him. The bullets followed them around, but Connor heard Shay pulling the truck away and kept his eyes in front of him, focused on getting to the shelter. The shelter was a broken down hut, with large holes instead of windows and Connor took cover against one of the walls. But when the bullets started raining right through the windows, Connor was overtaken by a fear that he hadn’t allowed himself to feel before. Of course there was no time to allow the fears to get to him.
After a few minutes of crossfire, there was silence in the air. Connor waited for the bullets to start raining down again, but when it didn’t happen, he got bolder. He stepped outside the shelter, just to see what would happen and nothing. He eyes glanced at Building-One again and he tried to run in its direction, but the bullets started flying again and soon a massive truck was blocking his way. If he ran, he risked being run down by them, so Connor stopped. About half a dozen armed men leaped out of the vehicle and made their way towards Connor, and some of them got a hold of Kevin and brought him to the truck as well. The men took their weapons away and led the two of them into the truck.
*
BUILDING-ONE,
Zyron Region-FOUR
The Zyre guards threw them in a cell in Building-One.
“Think they’re going to torture us?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t know,” Connor said.
“Fuck.”
“Kevin, relax.”
“A year ago I wouldn’t have thought I’d be doing anything remotely close to this,” Kevin said. “I always thought the situation would resolve somehow, that people would keep living the way they’re living. That I wouldn’t have to go to these lengths to get peace.”
“I guess I didn’t want to believe it either,” Connor said. “Even when Lane was joining the army, I thought he was being stupid. Turns out he wasn’t the stupid one. This is happening. Nothing we can do to change that fact, so I choose to fight instead of giving up.”
“We had a good life, didn’t we?”
“Stop asking me that.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Connor said. “Cause it sounds like death-row talk.”
“We just tried to break into Building-One,” Kevin said. “You think they’re going to just let us traipse out of here unharmed?”
Connor stayed silent.
“Fuck,” Kevin said after a while and Connor noticed the tears in his eyes. “I should have gone to see Lauren and the baby.”
“You’re going to see them,” Connor said, and that’s when they heard someone trying to open the door. He felt Kevin tensing up when Chief of Force Ortiz came in, followed by two guards. Connor stood up to face Ortiz and Kevin did too. “Which one of you is Connor Volze?” Ortiz asked.
Connor stepped forward. “I am,” he said. “I’m Connor Volze.”
Ortiz raised his hand and before Connor even noticed the gun, Ortiz shot Kevin. Connor started reaching for Kevin out of instinct but Ortiz stopped him, waved the gun at his face. “Don’t,” Ortiz said. “He’s dead anyway, why put your followers through the death of another leader?”
“What do you want?”
“You thought you could waltz in here and you’d end up destroying the whole Zyre government?”
“Fuck you.”
Ortiz struck Connor with his gun hand. “The Resistance Leader is in my captivity,” Ortiz said. “And I just shot one of your best men. I’m going to capture each and every one of your followers and I’m going to break their fucking necks. The fight’s over, Volze.”
Suddenly, the earth shook and the alarms in the building went off. Ortiz stood there perplexed and his men were waiting for his orders. He was probably waiting to see if the earthquake would subside. “Ortiz,” Connor said, making sure his face was as smug as he could make it. “The fight’s not over until I say it’s over.”
*
BUILDING-ONE,
Zyron Region-FOUR
Chief Ortiz had two choices: show this arrogant bastard what it was like to mess with a man of The Force or go see what all the fuss was all about, so he chose the latter. He left the leader of the resistance group in the cell with his friend’s dead body and went to see what was going on in the building. The hallways of Building-One were glowing red, a complete Code Red situation. He ran towards the operator’s room and went inside where there was already chaos, people running around everywhere. “What the hell is going on?” Ortiz asked, looking at the screens in front of him. The building still hadn’t stopped shaking, and the operator was busy working on her system, her glasses reflecting the light off the screens.
“Sir there’s been a security breach in Space Warrior One,” the girl said.
Space Warrior One was the Khaltar’s main ship on Zyron and Ortiz couldn’t believe his ears. “You’re saying Space Warrior One is under attack?”
“Yes sir.”
“By whom?”
The operator pressed a few buttons and the screens in front of her gave a view of Space Warrior One. “It looks like The Resistance group gained access somehow, sir.”
“What?” Ortiz said. “You’ve gotta be kidding me! How’s that even possible?”
“Sir, I think they were using the attack on Building-One a
s a decoy,” she said. “Their actual plan might have been to launch the attack on Space Warrior One all along.”
“But what’s that got to do with this earthquake?”
“They’re using some kind of advanced weapons technology,” the operator said. “Our computers detect Aerium Sulphide.”
Before the Chief could process this, the shaking subsided. “Why are the tremors stopping now?”
The operator was silent for a moment. “I can’t get anyone on Space Warrior One to respond,” she said. “The ship looks dead, sir.”
“Get your people out there,” Chief Ortiz said. “I want to know what’s going on, right fucking now!”
And then he made his way back to the prisoner’s cell.
*
Ortiz found Connor Volze bent over his friend’s body when he went into that cell. He tried to hide the tears but it was too late for that. “So it was a decoy,” Ortiz said. “Your getting caught? Is that it?”
Connor glared up at him. “You finally figured it out?”
Ortiz plastered a grin on his face. “Using Aerium against the Khaltars,” he said. “Not a bad plan. What you didn’t plan on, was how the hell are you going to take care of so many Zyres? Aerium doesn’t work on them, you know?”
He waited for the leader to say something but the man stayed quiet. “I’m not going to let your plan work,” Ortiz said. “You might have destroyed the population of one Khaltar ship, but that’s about it.” Ortiz pointed his gun at Volze. “Stand up.” Volze stood up, slowly and they were facing each other again. Ortiz pointed his weapon at Volze’s face. “Let’s see how your plan is going to do when your group doesn’t have a leader,” Ortiz said and pressed the trigger.
Volze dropped to the ground and his blood and grey matter sprayed all over the room.
EPILOGUE
WIN WIN
SPACE WARRIOR ONE,
EXPERIMENT Page 22