Standoff, page 74
“Kill everyone here if you wish. But capturing the hesacha is a fantasy.”
“You think I won’t?” Benjamin said. “You think I can’t pull the trigger on some fucking street kid?”
In response, Benjamin lunged forward, slamming the butt of the gun against my face. I felt the sickening crunch of my cheekbone shattering, but my knees refused to buckle.
“Oh, I can pull that trigger easily.” With a wicked grin, Benjamin forced the gun into my hands, then swung it to point at my mother. “On the other hand, why don’t you pull the trigger?”
My heart raced. I stared at my mother’s face, her eyes flooded with tears and cheeks smeared with Anada’s blood.
“You don’t get it, do you?” I challenged Benjamin, my voice trembling but defiant. “Even if you captured the hesacha, it’s meaningless. Because the faith of the people is lost. They’ve seen through M-Corp’s lies.”
Before I could react, a soldier lunged at my mother, delivering a cruel blow to her skull. Her eyes, once filled with defiance, rolled back, and her body slumped lifelessly to the ground. A visceral rage consumed me. Without thinking, I swung the gun towards the soldier, my entire being screaming for vengeance and I pulled the trigger.
Internally, Apex’s voice echoed with desperate urgency. Stop, Rus! Don’t let them win!
I can’t, I cried. I won’t!
But my inner turmoil was cut short as another forceful blow connected with my face. A disorienting haze of bright specks danced in my vision before plunging me into darkness.
***
A throbbing pain greeted me back to consciousness. Touching my injured eye, the wet stickiness confirmed my fear: blood.
“Rus?” Malaki asked.
“Mal?” My voice was raspy, barely audible. “What happened?”
She turned, her face a pale mask of despair. “I couldn’t do it,” she whispered, tears brimming, “I couldn’t kill the kid.”
My stomach twisted, realizing the implications. Her words, kill the kid…hit me hard, like a punch to the gut.
“They wanted you to kill Shay? Why?”
She nodded, her tears streaming freely. “Why else? To break you. To break us.”
The memory of that horrific scene rushed back—the cold-blooded killing of Anada, Shay’s despair, the sheer brutality of the mission. From the onset, the stakes had been different. There was a chilling intent behind this operation—a single-minded obsession to harness the power of the hesacha and the new drug, regardless of the casualties. And the cost had been unimaginably high, claiming the lives of countless innocent souls.
Abruptly, the door behind Malaki was flung open, flooding our cell with blinding light. She let out a terrified scream as a strong arm yanked her away. I tried to move, to shout, to do anything. But my body failed me.
The door slammed shut, casting me back into darkness, with the haunting echo of her scream still lingering.
I could do nothing.
She was gone.
***
Time blended together in that dark void until, abruptly, the door creaked open, revealing a silhouette drenched in the cold, artificial lighting. An expression which was of pure disdain, a face that morphed between, Elias, and my mothers. Their lips curled in a cruel smirk of triumph.
“Get him ready for the lab,” they ordered, their voice dripping with condescension.
Struggling to recognize who it really was amidst my dizziness, I rasped, “Elias? Is that you?” I couldn’t understand the look on their face.
Two hulking figures, their faces obscured by clinical masks, forcefully lifted me, and I winced in pain, realizing my leg couldn’t bear any weight.
The woman leaned in close, her icy whisper brushing against my ear, “You better hope they haven’t ruined you completely. We’ve invested enough in you, and after we’ve had our way, there won’t be much left.”
It wasn’t Elias I didn’t know who it was. My voice strained with desperation. “Where’s Malaki?”
She responded with a chilling silence.
As they dragged me through a series of sterile hallways, the overwhelming stench of decay, iron, and vomit became almost unbearable.
Gods what is that?
It’s all of the above, Apex said.
I thought I’d lost you, I responded, relief evident in my softer tone.
You almost did. Their version of a Himatage shield is a hundred times worse than they have over the Dam. The last time Benjamin hit you, he hit you with that too.
Benjamin, fucking Benjamin. I’ll kill him.
Rus, you can’t, you don’t know.
What, I said. Know what?
His last name.
It flashed up before me then.
Benjamin Silao
No…I said. It can’t be?
I’m sorry Rus.
Sorry. Sorry wasn’t going to fix any of this. Fuck!
The lab that stretched before me was a stark contrast to any I’d seen before – grimy and filled with the haunting scent of suffering. My damaged leg left a ghastly trail on the soiled floor.
Directly ahead, a pitiful creature lay on a table, a grotesque fusion of organic and metallic parts. It writhed weakly as a technician brutally dismantled its eye, indifferent to its agony. This place was a nightmarish fusion of technology and cruelty.
“Throw him over there next to his friends,” one of the guys holding me up said.
As they flung me aside, the last remnants of my strength waning, I landed next to a familiar, battered form: Malaki.
79
A dim light cast shadows over the crumpled body laid out on the grimy and stained floor. Malaki wasn’t moving. Tattered clothes clung to her frail form. It looked like Shay was beside her, but he was almost as broken, his breathing ragged and shallow.
I tried to edge closer to her, but my leg…it wasn’t just that it hurt, it felt like shards of glass grinding together with every move.
I used your drug pack, Apex said. But it is wearing off.
No kidding. Is it broken?
No, but it almost did. I’m sorry, it’s going to hurt a long time.
A bitter laugh threatened to escape me. Won’t be running away then. The harsh fluorescent lighting from above made everything more pronounced. I sighed and curled around Malaki, trying to shield her.
In the lab, things carried on as if we weren’t even there. Machines whirred, and the pungent aroma of disinfectants filled the air. At least for a while. Till the eyes of the tech with the critter turned to me, piercing through the fog of my pain.
“There’s nothing in here of any use,” he said, his face flushed red, veins throbbing in his forehead. With a frustrated grunt, he threw a tool at the wall. I flinched at the ear-splitting clang. “Get her on the table.”
Wait, what…
The burly guys plucked Malaki from my grip, their fingers like steel vices, and slammed her on a table next to the critter. My eyes widened in recognition. That was Pim.
Inside me, Apex screamed.
Monitors flickered to life, and the white-coated tech had a 3D scan of her displayed in seconds. Her new tech was still healing, a mix of crimson and blue indicators, and it showed about as much damage as the rest of her. Bruises painted her pale skin. My eye was drawn to her stomach, though, a beacon amidst the chaos.
“Oh, you didn’t know, did you?” the tech said, a malicious gleam in his eye. “Yes, she’s pregnant. Though I’m not sure how much longer for.” He held up a hand, fingers stained with some unknown substance, revealing an injector. “Drugs, you know, they do bad things.”
Apex, she’s really pregnant?
I don’t know. I can’t honestly tell if he’s lying or she actually is.
A sinking feeling settled in my gut. Fucking fuck fuck fuck.
The tech wasn’t Elias, I had no idea who they were, but they pulled something out of the chair and started it up. A laser? A chilling hum resonated in the room.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, my voice hoarse from the mix of fear and anger.
Guards in armored suits entered the room and grabbed my arms, their grip cold and unyielding. The tech approached Malaki with the laser, the intense blue light reflecting in her lifeless eyes. I watched, paralyzed, as he traced the laser down her spine. “It gets a bit technical when you want to remove something. You can never be sure you get it out the same way it went in.”
Desperation welled up. “Stop it,” I begged, trying to wriggle free. “Stop it.” This couldn’t be real, it couldn’t…
But the guards yanked me back, their strength overwhelming. Then, in the reflection of a mirror, I caught a familiar silhouette. A visceral anger ignited in me, and I lunged at him, but the guards’ grip was ironclad. “If she can’t kill him, and you won’t kill him to save your mother, then your friend will die as we extract her tech. Then we’ll turn to Justin and Kadar. Everything they are will be stripped and sold to compensate for the loss of the hesacha. Repurposed for those who obey without question.”
The opaque walls to his left and right turned transparent, revealing other nightmare scenes. My other friends were strapped in chairs, technicians hovering over them with malevolent intent.
“You think you can let them die, that you can let Artem suffer because you think you have the moral high ground? Or will. You. Obey?”
The weight of his words was suffocating. I trembled with frustration and rage. Shay, with a hollowness in his gaze, kneeled beside his friend on the table. The once vibrant hope and fear in his eyes had been replaced with agony.
A gentle nudge brushed against my consciousness, but I pushed it away. Yet, Apex answered it for me, for us.I barely registered it.
“Do as they ask,” Shay urged, his voice eerily steady. “Please do as they ask.”
“I can’t,” I choked out, tears blurring my vision.
Shay rose, determination etched on his young face. He approached one of the guards, and Benjamin signaled for restraint. With deliberate motions, Shay retrieved a pistol from his holster and slowly advanced toward me, weapon extended.
My heart raced, but I couldn’t bring myself to take it. “Please,” Shay implored, his voice trembling.
He gently pried my fingers open and placed the cold metal of the gun in my hand.
“See,” Benjamin crowed, a sinister smile curling his lips, “even the kid understands the difference between right and wrong.”
I stared into Shay’s eyes, searching for some other solution. Tears blurred my vision as I whispered, “I can’t.”
The gun in my hand quivered, mirroring the tumult of my heart. The weight of it felt like the world, too heavy to bear. Even if I wanted to aim it, my unsteady hands probably couldn’t.
His face pale but resolute, Shay held my gaze. “You can,” he said, his voice choked with emotion. “Do it for all your friends. Artem needs them. They don’t need a scrub like me.”
“You’re not a scrub,” I said, my voice breaking, desperately trying to convey every ounce of belief I had. “You’re so much more. Every person in Artem—every life—it has value. It has purpose.”
“I know,” he replied, his voice laced with a heartbreaking acceptance. He took two steps back, his chest heaving, but he stood tall and brave. His eyes, pools of fierce determination, locked onto mine. “Do it for them, for all those who will get another chance because of this sacrifice.”
My heart felt like it was being crushed. “Please,” I sobbed, the world spinning, blurring around me.
We can do it, Apex said, a firm resolve in his voice. We can’t let this torment continue.
With Apex guiding my hand and focusing my aim, I steadied the gun. It didn’t matter how much I shook. At this range, the bullet wouldn’t miss.
The weight of the moment pressed on me, suffocating. Memories, emotions, the ghosts of the past all swirled in a tormenting dance. My aim shifted slightly higher, targeting right where his heart beat strongly.
Niko’s face flashed before my eyes, taking me back to what seemed like a lifetime ago.
With a breath caught in my throat and a prayer for forgiveness—I pulled the trigger.
I sank to my knees crying. The world became a blur as tears streamed down my face, each one echoing the torment of countless days gone by.
I faintly discerned the distinct sound of shoes echoing across the cold floor.
Suddenly, rough hands jerked me upright. I barely registered the voice, but its smug tone was unmistakable. “Wasn’t so hard, was it?” Benjamin’s voice dripped with disdain. “Get cleaned up, eat. You’ll be back at the new wall in a day.”
I was too shattered to resist as the soldiers herded me away. The world became a blur until I felt the unexpected onslaught of cold water raining down on me.
“Get clean,” a soldier barked, carelessly tossing a block of soap towards me.
The icy water felt both cruel and cleansing. As it streamed down, I felt as though it was trying to wash away not just the dirt and blood, but the despair and guilt as well. The shower ceased abruptly, leaving me drenched and heavy-hearted.
The only acknowledgment I received from the guards was a single, derisive sneer.
Summoning the strength I wasn’t sure I still had, I rose and peeled off the drenched garments. They landed with a wet slap on the floor. Picking up the soap, I found a semblance of normalcy in the simple act of cleaning.
Suddenly, a commotion caught my attention. The others were tossed into the showers just as mercilessly. Their battered forms were haunting reminders of our shared trauma.
Despite her battered appearance, Malaki moved with determination. As she crawled to Justin, I moved alongside, assisting Kadar to his feet. His eyes, filled with despair, locked onto mine in a silent plea for understanding. The raw pain in his gaze was heart-wrenching.
“Rus,” he choked out, tears streaming patches of clean down his filthy cheeks.
Wrapping my arms around him, I murmured. “It’s okay.”
Although the guards seemed indifferent, their presence weighed heavily. With gentle motions, I helped Kadar rid himself of the grim reminders of our ordeal. “I got you, brother,” I whispered reassuringly, bathing him with care. “I got you.”
His sobs resonated deeply within me. “Brother,” he said. “But—”
“Chosen brother, yes.”
“But—”
“You’re nothing like him,” I reiterated. “Nothing. Understand?” I was firm with it this time.
Kadar nodded and took a sliver of soap off me.
I helped him wash off. Once he was cleaned, I turned to tend to the rest of my own wounds, stealing a glance at Malaki. Her once-vibrant face was marred with bruises, but her spirit was unbroken.
Grasping onto Kadar for support, I murmured words of hope and unity. “I really need you, Kadar. I can’t do this on my own. I need you.” Looking around at the wounded souls around me, I pressed on, “I need all of you.” Gently, I lifted his face to meet my gaze. “Are you with me?”
He looked at me, his eyes dull, then he glanced away, his shoulder slumping.
“We need to get Pim’s body out of there.” His words carried the weight of our shared despair. “We’re not leaving without your mother either.”
The gravity of his words pulled at my core, and I responded with firm determination, “Get dressed. I’ll go and fetch them. Meet at the helos in five.”
The once-energetic group now looked so vulnerable. Malaki, with her gentle strength, reached out to comfort Kadar, his body wracked with silent sobs against her embrace. Taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, I moved swiftly, pulling on dry clothes, and grabbing a fresh pair of boots.
The stark, sterile labs lay before me, and at its far end was Benjamin, a dark specter overseeing the grim cleanup. My heart thudded loudly as I skidded to a stop where Pim’s body had been. The void left by his absence echoed with dread.
“He went out with the trash,” a technician remarked callously. “Wasn’t worth anything.”
A visceral fury ignited within me. How could they discard him like waste?
Can you track the trash tube?
On it, follow the line.
I did, and I ran for it. I ran for him.
Guided by determination and sorrow, I raced after him, finding him among the debris. Diving in, the filth and decay around me mattered little. Only Pim mattered.
Is there any sign of life? I asked Apex.
I don’t know, he choked. I can’t tell.
Gently, almost reverently, I closed the wounds on Pim’s chest. With the X16, I saw the tiny nites laboring inside, working diligently to heal him. Holding him close, his frail form cradled against me, I ran back the way I’d come.
The reunion with my mother was wordless. A glance exchanged, hands clasped, we united in shared purpose.
“You won’t get to keep me,” she responded, her voice both weary and fierce.
“I’m not letting you go. We’ll land at the closest hospital on the way to the wall. Keep him alive. Do everything you can.”
“I’ve been trying. Shay was his only hope.”
I couldn’t look at her. “No, Mom, you’re his only hope. You’ve done miracles before. You can do another one now. Save him.”
Outside, the helos waited, their blades slicing the air with urgency. Swiftly, I guided my mother into its belly, securing her safely.
I placed Pim into her care, brushing his matted hair and whispered with choked emotion, “Save him.”
80-Pim
Pim tried his best to suppress the overwhelming emotion that bubbled and churned inside him. His pain wasn’t just physical, though the sting of his wounds was like a thousand fiery pinpricks. That was agony. He had lost his best friend, his only friend, in the most cruel and heartbreaking way possible.
Memories flashed before his eyes: Watching Shay get beaten within an inch of his life while he lay splayed open on the table, the cold metal tools probing his insides, his lifeless body now being experimented on. Unable to do anything to save him.
Protesting didn’t work for either of them. Shay had tried, voice shaking but eyes determined, promising them anything, but it wasn’t enough.
