Toxic

Chapter 11: Restore

Torture
Blake

    "Now you know what it feels like to have someone you care about taken from you. Doesn't that just feel so great?", Marcus says to me with a sinister smile.
    "You'll die for this.", I say as I'm holding back my tears.
    "Not only were you taking someone from Meredith, you were going to take her twins. That's two people, Blake, not just one. I think you can see where this is going. It's Rachel's turn now. I would give you a chance to say your goodbyes, but I'm not that nice.", Marcus says.
    He walks over to Rachel and begins to point the gun at her head. All of a sudden, I hear a shatter of glass. It's an empty wine bottle that Meredith smashed over Marcus's head. He falls to the ground unconscious. Meredith unlocks our handcuffs using the key from his keychain.
    "Guys, you need to go quickly. Garrett was probably notified to come here. The twins are in their own houses, Units 99 and 100. I figured they were safe there. You guys can pick them up and go while I get my stuff from my house. Where do I go? Are we getting out of here now?", Meredith asks.
    "Meredith, you just saved my life. Thank you. Meet us by the dock on the east side of the island. We'll go grab the kids and go there. We'll meet you there. Try to get there as fast as you can. Once we head over, we don't have much time until we're picked up.", Rachel says to her after hugging her. 
    "Okay, got it. I'll meet you guys there. You guys go ahead now. I'm gonna make sure Garrett doesn't follow us.", Meredith says, grabbing the gun next to Marcus's body.
    We go ahead and run out of the facility. Rachel texts Owen and tells him the plan is on, and to tell Emmett and Daniel to make their way down to Earth. That means we have about half an hour or so. We quickly pick up the twins and start driving. It takes us about twenty-five minutes before we finally get to the dock. We see Owen on the boat waiting for us. We park and run all the way down the dock onto the boat. Ah, another dock, it's been a while since I've been on one of these. We climb onto the boat and the kids see Anthony's body.
    "It's Daddy!", Junior yells excitedly.
    "Yes, Junior. He's sleeping right now. He's going to wake up soon.", I say.
    It's about five minutes until Emmet and Daniel will be here. Meredith still isn't here yet. Now, we wait.

Triumph
Rachel

    "They'll be here any second. Meredith still isn't here. We need to get going. We might need to leave her behind. I don't want to, but we might have to.", Owen says.
    "No. We can't leave her. She'll be here, I know it.", I say.
    I'm really worried that Meredith won't make it. She just saved my life. We need to save hers. She deserves it now. She's redeemed herself. I can't lose her and leave her behind. I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Seeing how badly Garrett is to her has broken my heart. She's gonna make it. I know it.
    "I see the spacecraft, it's almost here.", Owen says.
    "There's Meredith, she just parked at the end of the dock.", Blake says.
    "Meredith, RUN!", I yell.
She starts running. She's almost to the edge of the dock when the spacecraft gets closer and there's a blinding flash, and I experience the same tingling feeling as if my foot "falls asleep", except it's widespread throughout my body. The next thing I know, I'm in an enclosed metal room with Blake, Owen, the twins, Anthony's body, Emmett, and Daniel. I can tell we're already moving up back into the air really fast. Meredith didn't make it.

Trigger
Meredith

    I go back home from the facility to get the rest of my things. I head out to my car and see Garrett standing by the car door.
    "You're not leaving me, Meredith. You should know better.", he says to me.
    "You don't control me. Get the fuck out of my way.", I say, raising my gun and shooting him. I wound him just enough to knock him to the ground, causing him to bleed from his leg. 
    I run up and quickly get in my car before he gets up. I drive away towards the dock. It takes me longer than expected but I finally arrive. I park at the end of the dock and get out of my car. I hear Rachel yell at me to start running, so I do. I sprint all the way down the dock. I almost reach the boat at the end of the dock. I can't believe my eyes. I see Owen. Owen Wilson. My boyfriend, Owen. He's alive. He's been here. Nobody told me. I'm beyond confused. I make eye contact with him and then I glance down to see him and Rachel holding hands.
    Before I can reach the boat, there's a blinding flash in the sky. It's like lightning, but more widespread and without any rain or thunder. After the flash goes away, the boat is empty. They're all gone. I didn't make it in time. I still haven't even begun to comprehend the fact that Owen is alive. I don't know what to think. Will they come back for me? I don't see them anywhere. There's nothing around here. As soon as I think that to myself, I hear a car pull up. It's Garrett. He gets out of his car and starts walking up the dock.
    I'm standing at the edge of the dock, like I have once before years ago. Then, I was a different person. Now, I'm changed. I'm even more hurt than I was before. I'm broken. I'm empty. As Garrett walks closer to me, more thoughts of how much he's gonna hurt me flood my mind. I can't go back to that. I have no way out anymore. I turn around and face Garrett's direction. I stare Garrett in the eye. I pull my Dad's gun from my pocket, hold it up to my head, and pull the trigger. Now, my life is over.

Terminate
Owen

I immediately hug my Dad and Daniel as they bring us onto the spacecraft.
    "You did it son. I'm so proud of you. Because of you, we have enough information to take them down when we attack. You did it.", my Dad says to me.
    "Hey, brother. It's been a while.", Daniel says.
    "It's so great to be back. Thanks for picking us up. We need to go back for Meredith, though. She didn't make it.", I say.
    "We don't have enough power for that, Owen. We need to make it back to Mars first. When we plan our attack on the Descension, that's when we can go back for her. It'll have to wait. I'm sorry.", Emmett says.
    "Ahhh. Okay. She's just in so much danger. We need to attack as soon as possible, Dad.", I say.
    "We can start planning as soon as we get back, trust me. We'll help Meredith.", Emmett says.
    I go over to Blake, Rachel, and the twins.
    "I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry we couldn't get Meredith in time.", I say.
    "It's okay. We'll go back as soon as possible. We'll make sure of it.", Rachel says.
    "Yeah. Also, how are we gonna get Anthony back?", Blake asks.
    "Dad?", I say.
    "We're about to leave Earth's atmosphere, which means we'll be exiting the range of the reset transmission. Once we exit that range, anyone who was killed by the transmission will return to live. Daniel and I were able to enter the range because we were able to replicate the reset vaccine ourselves thanks to Owen's information. But, at the same time, anyone who was brought back to life won't be kept alive any longer. However, Blake and Rachel, you have the vitality vaccine, so don't worry, we should be able to...", Emmet begins, but is interrupted by what is similar to us hitting turbulence along with a screeching noise.
    At that moment, I can tell we just crossed the threshold of the reset transmission boundary. I see Blake and Rachel fall to the floor.
At the same exact time, I see Anthony gasp for air and quickly sit up, coming back to life.