“I know you’re in here, Little Lily,” Dana called again, his voice echoing off the gravestones. “You know you can’t run forever.”
I had to close my eyes, even it was already impossible to see in the dark mausoleum. It was too much to hear his voice once again, to realize I was in such close proximity to the predator that I have been trying to escape.
Clark took my hand, squeezing it tightly as we both shared our panic.
“You know,” Dana started as if he was having a casual conversation, “there aren’t many safe house chains anymore. I was pretty sure that we had eliminated most of them. And yet I find that there are a few remnants of an old Coalition route. So, what are the odds that I would find you? I thought they were pretty slim. However, seems like you had a mishap somewhere along the way. Didn’t pack enough food? Did someone get injured?”
I felt sick, understanding exactly when Dana had been put onto our trail. It occurred to me far too late that there were likely security cameras in the convenience store.
“We all knew it was only a matter of time before I would find you,” Dana said. “So why don’t we make this easy and you just come with me? I’ll even be sure to spare whoever is with you.”
The thought that I had pushed away after trying to get myself over to Dana before suddenly came rushing back. Clark’s hand tightened on mine and Mark turned his head to me. Even though it was impossible to see him, I knew that he was fixing me with a hard stare that told me to remain still and quiet.
“Little Lily…” He sang, his voice causing the temperature in the halls to drop even further. “You know I’m going to win…”
I had to muffle my panicked breathing behind my hand, my other hand gripping Clark’s tightly to keep myself still and collected.
Dana’s call floated through the dark mausoleum like a malevolent spirit.
“Oh, I am so thrilled that you’re deciding to be difficult.”
I leaned against the cold marble wall, hoping it would provide some stability.
“Didn’t I tell you she would be difficult?”
“…yes, you did,” an unfamiliar female voice agreed quietly.
All of us turned to one another, not sure of the owner of the voice. Even more concerning was the stranger’s tone. She seemed disappointed. Considering the calm cadence of her voice, it appeared that she was not overwhelmed by Dana as so many others often were.
“Now you will get to see our Sweep team in action.” Dana said, a dark smile lining the sentence. “This is how we got the subjects for the Machine of Neutralization project.” Dana’s voice began to fade as he moved out of the building.
I was torn between being relieved that Dana was walking away and being even more horrified that he said a Sweep team was about to enter the mausoleum to flush us out.
“Mark?” Jack whispered, his voice barely audible. The experiment turned. “What the hell are we going to do? We’re fucking trapped in here.”
Mark should his head, but was unable to explain how we were going to escape.
The thundering sound of boots on the marble floor filled the air and I braced myself, ready to be discovered, tackled to the ground, and taking as prisoner of the Commission.
Mark also tensed, but he still held his gun ready, his other hand feeling along the wall behind him until they closed around some flowers that had been left in a vase outside of one of the grave markers. He pulled the flowers out, gripping them tightly and waiting for the perfect moment. The sound of the boots became sporadic as the Sweep team spread throughout the building, putting themselves in strategic positions to apprehend us if we tried to flee.
Mark took a deep breath, turning to face the wall, one hand holding the dead flowers and the other holding the gun, which he carefully put around the corner, taking aim with one eye around the wall.
For ten seconds, everything was very silent. Then, Mark fired four shots and quick succession.
He was answered with a hail of bullets as the Sweep team began angrily shooting, a few of the bullets chipping away at the corner, forcing Mark to quickly shield himself.
Jeff, Clark, and I huddled close together, pressed against the wall, waiting for Mark to tell us what to do.
When everything fell silent again, I waited for the boots to come closer, or to have Mark grab us and pull us in the direction he wanted. But nothing happened. Everything was very still.
“If I may,” the unknown woman’s voice started, startling everybody. “If you shoot them, how will you get them back to the Commission alive?”
“Perhaps we could discuss that outside, Miss Harris,” Dennis suggested, sounding as though he was irritated by her question.
“Why? Because they might hear?” Miss Harris said, her voice calm. “If you haven’t already killed them with your constant barrage of bullets, then they’ve already left the building. Or perhaps, they are listening, knowing that you’re not going to kill them because you want to take the girl alive.”
The four of us hiding behind the corner of the mausoleum looked at one another in surprise at the way the woman talked back to Dana.
Mark even loosened his grip on his gun, his brow furrowing as he dared to glance once more around the corner.
“Then what would you suggest that we do?” Dana asked coldly. “The Sweep teams have been very effective in securing many Commission-marked criminals. They know their jobs. I only brought you along on this particular mission because you were interested in how we got subjects for the Machine of Neutralization project.”
“But you don’t even know if any of these individuals match the genetic requirements for your alterations,” the woman said. “Isn’t that correct?”
“Perhaps we should step outside so we can discuss this matter more thoroughly and let the Sweep team do their job.”
The sound of Dana’s walking, accompanied by the soft click of high heels, faded away.
“Who the hell was that?” Clark asked in a worried whisper. We all shrugged, having no idea who would even dare to talk to Dana in such a manner.
After several more long seconds of silence, a man’s voice that we did not recognize called to us.
“If there is anyone in this building,” he started, “we will shoot you if you do not come in quietly. Make another attempt to shoot us and we will kill you.”
The sound of sharp, high heel clicks became louder once more, the woman’s step more determined. I was half tempted to look around the corner with Mark to see if I could spot the unknown woman known as Miss Harris.
“He will do no such thing,” the woman’s voice said, even stronger than before. “If I am funding this project for global distribution, then I want the subjects brought in alive, not injured to the point where they need medical attention before we can even being testing.”
Any thought that I had that the woman was an ally vanished as I realize that she was going to help back the Machine of Neutralization. The cold dread washed over everybody, causing us all to shiver in fear.
Mark took the dead flowers and threw them down the hall at an angle, causing them to clash with the opposing wall, bringing everyone’s attention to that spot, gunfire sounding at once.
“Stop firing your morons!” the woman barked. It took a long time for her echoing voice to die away in the halls as the gunfire slowly ceased. No one was sure if they were to obey orders from the woman, so some continued to shoot until they realized their comrades had stopped.
Mark took another deep breath and held the gun around the corner again, shooting six times, each shot punctuated by a groan of pain or shock. I flinched at every sound, knowing that killing members of the Sweep team members would only anger Dana further.
The woman’s voice, however, did not sound again, causing me to wonder if Mark had shot her as well.
“Don’t you think that this is getting rather out of hand, Little Lily?” Dana’s voice called, suddenly back in the mausoleum. “Believe me, I understand. I used to be just like you. I used to thin
k that I could take on the government, change things for the betterment of the people, until I realized that I didn’t know what was better for the people at all. I will only offer this one more time. If you surrender quietly, I will spare anyone traveling with you.”
Not seeing another option, I began to contemplate doing exactly that.
In the time I took to think of a way to get myself to Dana without giving away our position, Mark did something no one expected.
He stepped out from behind the safety of the hallway and fired his remaining five bullets down the hall.
“Sir! Get down!
“Shoot him! Shoot him, now!”
“Do not shoot him!” the woman barked.
Mark flinched on one particular shot, and ducked behind the corner of the opposing wall, across the main hall from us. The remaining bullet fire became concentrated across the hall, and Jeff saw an opening.
“Let’s go!”
Yanking both our arms, Jeff pulled Clark and me into the main hallway, running to the far side of the building and turning into the viewing room by angrily pushing the door open with his shoulder.
Amazingly, none of us received any injuries from bullets flying down the hallway. However, instead of trying to find a way out of the viewing room, I ran to the open door and tried to see through the shadows to locate Mark.
It was impossible to see much other than the barrel flashes of the guns from the Sweep team. They were spacing out there firing patterns, trying to hit whoever had shot at them but unable to see him. Over the rapid fire, I could not hear Dana in the woman arguing, though there was the distinct sound of voices arguing echoing among the marble halls.
Suddenly, a dark figure appeared in front of me, pushing me into the viewing room and closing the door. I covered my mouth to suppress my scream of shock, and then had to fight my urge to hug Mark tightly, relieved he was safe.
“The only other exit in here is an emergency exit. An alarm is going to sound if we open that door,” Jeff said. “What now?”
Mark ran to one of the stainedglass windows in the viewing room as the gunfire began to cease. Stomping boots grew louder as they drew closer to our location. Picking up one of the folding chairs nearest the window, Mark hurled it with all of his strength into the window, shattering it loudly.
“Go! Go! Get out, now!” Jeff snarled, pushing both Clark and me towards the broken window. Mark jumped over the window sill, slicing his hands open on the glass. His warm blood coated my hands as he grabbed me, hauling me out of the window so fast, I hardly noticed the way the glass sliced over my legs, ripping my jeans easily. I pressed my back to the outer wall, waiting until we were all safely outside before thinking of how we were going to get out of the cemetery.
Clark was the next one pulled out of the broken window. However, gunfire started almost immediately once he was free of the window frame. Mark grabbed Clark’s head and pushed him to the ground. I froze, unsure if either of them had been hit. When the gunfire ceased, I heard one of the men call to the others.
“We’ve got one down!”
“I told you morons to stop shooting so blindly! Is he dead?”
The boots move closer to the window as Mark grabbed both me and Clark, yanking us through the tombstones once more.
Both Jessica and Jeff were dead.
Mark strength nearly pulled my arm out of the socket, but I forced my legs to move quickly over the grass, trying to keep pace with him.
With another sharp tug, Mark pulled us behind a very large headstone, all of us trying to catch our breath as quietly as possible while we listen for sounds of our pursuers.
“Spread out!” another voice barked. “And get to the perimeter fence.”
I felt the trap closing around us.
Mark’s eyes moved quickly, trying with all of his might to find a safe way to get us out of the graveyard.
“We split up,” Clark whispered.
“No!” I hissed.
“We have to draw their attention somewhere,” Clark insisted. “You go that way,” he pointed, “Mark goes that way,” he pointed again, “and I’ll go this way,” he pointed in three different directions, showing us fanning out to different corners of the graveyard.
“It’ll be easier for them to capture us if we’re alone.”
“It will be easier to catch us, if we’re all together in the same spot,” Clark corrected. “Besides,” he continued, “all of us are probably smaller and quicker than them in all of their gear. If we’re quick, and we weave through the headstones, we’ll probably be able to slow them down just long enough to get over the fence.”
Mark shook his head, showing us crawling on our hands and knees as opposed to running openly among the gravestones.
“Okay,” Clark agreed. “We move quietly, crawling, and we go to different areas. We will reconvene somewhere when we are safe. We all know the way to the next safe house, so we’ll wait for one another there.”
I hated the plan. But it seemed that Clark and Mark both agreed that it was our best option for escape.
“Okay…” I said.
With shaking limbs, and trying to breathe as quietly as possible, I began crawling toward the back fence of the graveyard, keeping a careful ear out for any nearby footsteps as I wove around the graves, occasionally hiding behind a headstone to listen to the darkness around me. It was agonizing and terrifying, the shadows of the cemetery appearing darker and thicker, allowing no perception of where I was in relation to the edge of the graveyard.
Coming across a mound of dirt, I briefly considered ducking into the open grave and waiting, but I did not know that I would be able to get out on my own, so I hid around the side of the dirt pile and listened carefully, looking for any flashlights from the Sweep team.
I saw none.
Rather than be eased by the silence, I was put more on edge. I remained stationary for what felt like minutes, though I was sure it was only a few seconds before I moved again.
Two gunshots caused me to scramble to the nearest headstone, pressing my back to it and holding my breath. I did a quick him a quick mental assessment, making sure I did not have any injuries. Shouting drew my attention to where the gunshot had sounded.
“Get the fuck off me!” a familiar voice cried. My heart sank.
It was Clark.
“Sir! We’ve got one alive!”
“Fuck you! Just kill me!”
“Well, well, well…Clark Markus,” Dana’s voice said somewhere in the dark. “Who would’ve thought that you’d be back in my clutches once again?”
“Screw you, motherfucker! Just kill me!”
“No,” the leader of the Commission said easily. “I was going to do that if Little Lily decided to turn herself over, but it seems that we’re having some trouble finding her. Do you feel like talking?”
“Fuck. You.”
“Who is this one?” the woman’s voice asked.
“This is Clark Markus, Danielle Markus’ son,” Dana explained. “Clark, meet Veronica Harris. She’s going to be the one overseeing the Machine of Neutralization project for worldwide distribution. She’s going to be the one who decides your fate.”
Clark snarled, grunting as he struggled against whoever was holding him. I wished I could see him, but from where I was hiding, there was no way for me to look out and find him among the mass off gravestones.
“Of course,” Dana started, his voice turning cold and dangerous, “if you tell us where Little Lily is, perhaps I can convince her not to put you in the Machine of Neutralization program. Either you can go into the holding cells or get a quick bullet to the brain if you tell us where she is. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
The silence thickened with each second as I prayed Clark would find a way to escape and hoping that he would not give me up.
When Clark spoke once again, his voice was tight with tears.
“It doesn’t matter,” he choked. “You killed her.”
Silence hung over the cemete
ry.
“What do you mean?” Dana asked.
Mark sounded as though he was on the verge of crying, though I knew it was not about my fake demise. He was crying out of fear.
“Your men shot her,” he choked. “Back there. She’s dead,”
With tears in my eyes, I realized that Clark, even with the threat of becoming a Machine of Neutralization looming over his head, was still protecting me. As tears roll down my face, I continued crying, getting further and further away from the area where Clark had been captured. When I next stopped at a headstone to listen to my surroundings, I heard some shuffling nearby and put a hand over my mouth to muffle any sounds. However, it was Mark who approached me, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder and hugging me briefly before motioning for me to follow him.
I knew then that Mark felt that there was no way to safely get Clark away from Dana.
Trying not to let guilt and pain tear me apart, I followed Mark, crawling among the graves, getting closer and closer to the fence.
It was too far away to hear what they were saying about Clark, which was a small relief as I could not bear to hear what they were planning to do with him.
We reached the fence and relief spread through me. Mark stopped, looking around for any headlights of nearby vehicles. Then, he motioned for me to climb over, helping me ascend as my shaking legs and wounds slowed me down.
Once again clumsily going over the top of the fence, I made a small noise that caused me to freeze, worried that we had been heard. However, there was no immediate response. I carefully scaled my way down, and watched as Mark began to climb the fence.
Mark grabbed my hand and took two steps away from the graveyard when lights suddenly shone on both of us.
“They’re here!” one man bellowed.
For the umpteenth time that night, Mark yanked my arm nearly out of it socket as he began running away from the cemetery. We had no idea where we were going, or even what direction we were heading. For all we knew, we were heading closer to the freeway, making it easier for them to capture us. Bullets whizzed by us. I felt one pass frighteningly close to my arm. But when Mark suddenly collapsed in pain, dragging me down to the ground with him, that I realize he had been hit.
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