by Y A Marks
After a second, he refocused. I sprang from against the wall and turned the corner to leave. Gunshots echoed down the hallway as plaster burst from the walls.
As I turned the corner to head out the front door, he jogged toward me. I passed into the final corridor, and he disappeared from view. I dashed down the corridor with only the holo-decoy in my hand. My hologram sped beside me. I wanted it to go the opposite way, so that maybe if I threw the projector then I could be in two places at once.
I tapped the button again, and the hologram flipped backward. It looked stupid running the opposite way. In the window on the exit door, Governor Read stumbled around the corner. There was no way I could make it to the door. My legs stumbled, and my mind buzzed.
I glanced down at the body of the dead officer. He lay in the middle of the corridor where Governor Read had shot him. I noticed his gun and leaped over his body to go for it. At the same time, my hologram passed through me to land to my right. I kneeled down and unstrapped the gun.
“Enough games,” Governor Read said.
I stared at a window at the end of the hallway. In the reflection, I saw Governor Read. He wiped away blood from his face. There was a gash along his temple.
“I like you, Paeton. Hell, I even like the fact that you jus’ beat the snot outta me. It works. Makes for good publicity. Shit yeah, I got a real certified war wound to tell the press about.”
“I’ve got a gun now,” I said.
My body shook like mad. I touched the tip of the grip, but I hadn’t quite secured the gun. I didn’t know how well he could see. Governor Read had made the officer walk a few steps before he shot him. I hoped the details were fuzzy and that he wouldn’t call my bluff.
“Why don’t you leave me alone? Wouldn’t it be better if the face of Escerica was still loose on the streets?” I asked.
He strode toward me, gun held high. “I did consider that option, but then I thought about the press and what they would say about the fiasco with the final drone and with the mobile station. I don’t even think you realize how many tax credits you just flushed down the drain. And most importantly, as I’m sure you’re aware, I’ve got an election coming up.”
I watched his eyes, searching for a clue which would let me know he felt the weight of my stare. My fingertips slid over the edge of the gun as I slowly pulled it out. My heart rattled against my chest. My shooting percentage was barely over twenty percent. Eighty when I wasn’t moving. I couldn’t win a shootout with him. Options were few. I had to take control of the situation and make a stand. If I didn’t, he would have the upper hand.
“Don’t take another step,” I said. “I only have one target, you have two. If you miss, it’ll be over. All you have to do is drop the gun and leave. I just want the kids, and I’ll disappear. I promise.”
“Now, Paeton, I’ve already told you that I can’t do that. I can’t let you go. I’m not going to let the kids go. And at the end of this, your death will be my key strategy for reelection, and in a few years, a run for the presidency.”
Crix! My gaze fell away from him. I studied the walls, the windows, the lights, looking for a way out of this. There was none. I stared back into his eyes and wrapped as many fingers around the gun as I could.
“It’s over, Paeton. I see your eyes. A hologram can’t focus on me.” He smiled.
My blood stilled in my veins.
I didn’t hear the first gunshot, or the subsequent ones. The flashes brightened the hallway. I dropped next to the officer’s dead body. I wrapped my fingers tightly around the barrel of the gun and hoped for the best. My side slammed into the ground. My head knocked against the cold linoleum.
Clacks from Governor Read’s shoes echoed in the hallway, but the sounds were light. My ears rang with the lasting impression from the gunshots. Blood seeped into my shirt and jeans.
His body rose over me, and I saw his shadow on the wall.
“I’m sorry, Paeton,” he said. “For what it’s worth, I really liked you.”
“I’m sorry, too,” I said.
His smiling aura spread over me. He raised the gun to finish me off.
Before his first gunshot, I flipped over. His eyes grew inside his head.
“What the…?” he started.
I stared at the back of his head. He hadn’t realized he had shot the hologram and not me. I had been facing the exit the whole time, but could see him through the reflection in the window. Locking eyes with him was hard, since I had to find the right angle, but I had figured it out as he rambled along. He spun his head around, but it was too late.
I pulled the trigger as many times as I possibly could. His head exploded. Fragments of skull and flesh splattered against the wall. His body crumpled forward and slid to the ground.
My whole body twitched. I didn’t kill Ms. Roller-Eyes. Sadness wrapped around me when the government announced her death. Even though I was innocent, a jolt cut into my heart. But, Governor Read’s death penetrated my very being. A deep, sickly cold attached itself to my spine. My stomach rolled inside of me as I pulled myself up.
I glanced down at the blood staining my clothes. I had fallen into the pool of blood from the dead officer. I forced my body against the wall. My adrenaline faded, but I needed my body to create more. I had to get to Mari and Miko.
With raspy breaths, I tore through the hallways and leapt over Capt. Davis’s dead body. I shot up the stairs and threw open every door in my search. I didn’t even bother talking to the kids inside. Most were panicked to see me, a bloody mess, opening the door. There were more dead bodies of Escerica rebels, all hidden away by either Capt. Davis or more likely, Governor Read.
In the back of my mind, I pieced together the whole scheme. I wondered how long it had taken him to figure out that plan. Was it when he first saw me or was it when the mobile unit fell? I didn’t doubt he was pretty smart, but I had this nagging feeling he was more politician than mastermind.
Capt. Davis was dead, so she wasn’t a part of it either. I thought back to the other man I saw in the mobile unit. Who was he?
My brain ached with all the information. It was too much. I had seen too much death. I just needed to get to Mari and Miko and get out of there.
I threw open the door to Room 211. No one stepped out but whimpers drifted from the inside. I checked the gun. It still had plenty of ammo. Whoever was hiding in the room really didn’t need to mess with me. I lifted the gun and turned the corner. Dhyla sat against the wall, propped up on her arms and barely breathing. Her shirt was drenched in red.
I spun my head around and saw Mari and Miko. They sat separately, one on each side of an android police officer.
“Paeton,” Mari called out. Her voice was weak.
“Hey.” I tried to sound calm, but inside I was a nervous wreck.
“Paeton Washington. We meet finally,” the android said. Only thing was, he didn’t have the computerized voice or the overly professional tone of a normal android, he sounded… human.
The dark visor area blinked a few times, and the face of a white man appeared. He was young. My best guess was he was in his early forties, because he only had a twinge of gray at the edges of his hair. He was clean shaven, and in the circles he frequented, I’m sure he was considered attractive.
“I’m guessing that the governor is dead or incapacitated in some way,” he said.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Just the… uh, power behind the throne, so to speak.”
“What do you want?” The presence of his face, moving in glowing pixels, dried my throat. I swallowed, but the muscles at the back of my neck strained. If he was the power as he said, then what was the point of Governor Read?
“I already have what I want. I just wanted to see it with my own eyes.”
I aimed the gun at the visor. “Let the kids go.”
“Gladly.”
The android lifted its hands. The kids jumped up and ran over to me.
“Now what?” My stomach turned. There had to b
e more. I had done too much damage and had hurt the pride of the Georgian Government. There would be repercussions.
“Now, well. You already know this part,” the man said.
The android’s three cameras blinked to life. For the first time, the android focused on me.
I grabbed the top of Miko’s head with my hand. “Get out of here. Grab your sister and get out of here. Just run and keep running.”
As the android lifted from the seat, Miko pulled away from me and grabbed Mari, yanking her out of the room. She screamed in protest, but I hoped she would go. I couldn’t fight this thing with them around. I didn’t know if I could fight it at all.
My blood chilled inside my throat. My ever-present phobia spread inside my chest on long spider’s legs.
I pulled the trigger. Fire ignited from the barrel as dozens of shots unloaded into the helmet. Pieces of metal and plastic blasted away. Suddenly, my fingers stopped on their own. I couldn’t do anything, I froze in place. The right side of the helmet was gone, and my gaze locked onto one bright, blue eye staring at me. Small curled lips were underneath the eye with skin the color of snow. It was a child. I didn’t know if it was a boy or girl, but it was a child.
I shut down. I backed into the wall, and the hand holding the gun bounced against the hard surface. I couldn’t shoot anymore. I couldn’t do anything.
The android grabbed my throat. The child’s eye examined me as though I was some kind of interesting toy.
I tried to lift the gun. I needed to do something to keep myself from death. The child’s mouth moved, but its voice was the robotic tone of the android.
“Citizen Paeton Washington. You have been sentenced to death. The sentence will be carried out at this time. You are allowed to state last words and intentions.”
All I could hope for was that Mari and Miko got away. That somehow, someway, they found Rylan and the others. Maybe they could be a family and be happy.
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to think about the android as I died. I wanted to see Mari and Miko. I wanted to taste chocolate mochas in my mouth. I wanted to joke around with Sun Hi, AJ, and Josalyn. But most of all, I wanted to kiss Rylan. My tongue longed for the taste of his lips.
I imagined his face. I placed his gray eyes into my mind. I wanted to be young and foolish, even if it was just for a moment. I wanted to make the fantasy real. I wanted to be a teenager.
My mouth forced his name out. “Rylan.”
“Awwwwww,” someone said. The voice sounded like Sun Hi.
I opened my eyes and turned toward the door. Rylan stood a few inches away from me. He rammed one of the EMP modules into the back of the android’s head. It fizzled. After a second and a few convulsions, the android’s body went limp. Rylan yanked at the android’s fingertips and released my neck from its grasp.
My body collapsed. Every part of me twitched like the android had just done. Rylan grabbed me, wrapping his arms around me to control my shakes. I was so close to death that every part of me had been soaked in it.
Sun Hi bent over near the doorway. Her face and shoulders sagged. Mari and Miko pressed against her frame, keeping her upright.
Rylan’s eyes found mine. “You okay?”
“No,” I said, still trembling, “but, I’ll be all right.”
CHAPTER 27
My knees floundered. Rylan supported me, but my whole being relaxed as though each muscle and nerve had been tense since I left the Perimeter Market. I shifted my gaze to Sun Hi and the kids who stood at the doorway.
“Get them out of here,” I told Sun Hi. I glanced at Mari and Miko, alternating frightened stares. “Go with Sun Hi. I’ll be right there.”
With downturned faces, the three of them stumbled away.
I pushed away from Rylan and spun around to Dhyla. She gasped for air. Contentment spread over her face. Her arms strained against the floor as she held herself up. Blood was everywhere. I fumbled forward, trying to keep my own legs beneath me.
The room smelled of death. My sanity faded in and out. My mind drifted and there was a persistent itch of insanity ebbing at the bottom of my skull. A deep, cavernous pit called to me. Only my will kept me grounded.
I knelt next to Dhyla. She had gone before me to lead the team to rescue Mari and Miko. I had wanted to be there, but I needed to be a distraction. She was the only one I trusted to get the kids out, but Capt. Davis had been waiting for her. This was my fault. She was dying because my plan backfired.
A smile curled on her lips. Her face was tired, her throat taut.
“I’m so sorry, Dhyla. I’m so sorry. I’m going to get you out of here. You just need to gather your strength. Me and Rylan will get you home,” I said.
Rylan moved closer. Dhyla’s gaze focused on the movement behind me before settling back on my face.
Her head shook in the tiniest of motions. It was just enough to stop Rylan walking and enough for the back of my eyes to burn. I couldn’t let her stay there. That’s what she wanted for us, to leave her so that she wouldn’t slow our escape. I saw it in her eyes, but she didn’t have to do that. We would be okay.
“I always knew you were a strong one, a smart one, a pretty one.” She reached out but quickly placed her hand back onto the floor as though it hurt to lift it.
“Dhyla, you’re still alive. We can save you. We’re here now.” I said my words slowly and deliberately. I wanted her mind to clear and for her to let us help. She had to let me take her out of there and for some super-Escerica doctor to do some magic or something on her body. I couldn’t be without Dhyla. I already lost my real mother. I needed someone to help me, guide me, lecture me—love me.
“I remember the first day I saw you behind the market. You couldn’t even remember your name. Even then, I knew you were going to be something special.”
“Don’t do this,” I whispered.
I shook my head and wanted her to stop talking—stop giving up. There was a way. There had to be a way. The cut was bad and deep, but I had lived. She had to survive too.
“There’s always a point in your life when you just know. When you meet someone you’re gonna love, you just know it. And when I met you, I knew it. I knew I loved you.”
“Please,” I said over and over to myself. I didn’t want this. My mind melted into mush. I needed her in my life. I needed her companionship, her wisdom, her understanding, her trust.
“You stole a special place in my heart, Paeton. A place for a goofy, caring, fourteen-year-old thief.”
“Sixteen.” I smiled bitterly. My brow tightened, and my stomach quaked. Her face blurred. I fought back the crashing emotions.
“I know I’ve never actually said what I’ve known for a long time.”
Why wouldn’t she just let me try to get her out of here? Didn’t she know how much I loved her? She was like my—
“You’re my daughter, Paeton. Maybe not so much by birth, but by love, hope, and joy. You’re not thrown away. You’re not trash. You’re perfect.”
My chest heaved, and I had to hold myself up. Tears streamed from my eyes and dropped down into her blood. A wail I couldn’t prevent started in my back and forced its way up through my throat and echoed from my mouth. My muscles ripped from the inside out. I placed my hands over hers and struggled to fight back from the quakes of pain attacking my being.
I loved her so much.
“You are my superhero-going-to-save-the-world daughter,” she said.
“And you’re my perfect-beautiful-wonderful-I’ll-miss-you-so-much mom.”
She lifted her hand and put it on my face. Her hands were cold, but soft. I wrapped my fingers around her hand and stared into her eyes.
“I love—” Her body fell forward just a few inches. Her torso pulsed and blood slid from her mouth, drowning off her words. The light in her eyes dimmed, and her expression loosened.
“Mom! Dhyla! No! No, please, no!” I screamed.
Rylan grabbed me. I don’t know what happened after that. I fell into the
pit of insanity. My mind jumbled into waves of red and black. Every nightmare I ever had in my life was suddenly real. I couldn’t escape the madness because I couldn’t wake up. I couldn’t get away from the pain. It was on my skin, crawling up my body like ants. I wanted to get it off but I couldn’t. It was stuck to me, in me, moving.
I was lost.
***
I woke up sometime later.
Two babies screamed at the top of their lungs. In the distance, children chattered and ran across metal walkways that banged and shuffled.
I craned my neck toward the shower where my clothes hung, washed but still stained with blood. My breath was steady. The slow, hollow sound of my breath inhaling and exhaling snaked through the air. Over and over the sound came and went, came and went. It was peaceful, calming.
I worked my way to a seated position. Everything hurt, my back, knees, legs, and arms.
A clear, thin tube was fastened to my arm at the inside of my elbow. I followed the tube with my eyes to find it was connected to an upside down plastic two-liter bottle. A clear fluid was in the bottle, dripping down into the tube.
I stared at the bottle for a long time. My brain wouldn’t think. The world felt fuzzy and distant. This had to be a makeshift IV, but it felt as though my mind couldn’t say that for certain.
My fingers pinched a metal bead where the tube met my skin. Carefully, I pulled the bead back and watched a needle appear. I put the needle into the mattress and swung my legs over the edge of the bed.
My body was covered in a large, white T-shirt and not much else. I stared into the room allowing the cold drafts to prickle my skin. I felt like a zombie. I couldn’t think straight. All I could do was gaze into thoughts that wouldn’t take form in my mind.
Were the last few days a dream? I recalled the details and reorganized them, but it was hard to think.
A screeching sound turned my head to face an Asian woman with blonde hair. I wondered who it was. My mind searched for her name.
“Sun Hi?” I asked.
“Hi. How you feeling?”
“I don’t know. I don’t feel anything.”