Infection

Chapter Five - Mess

—14 Hours Later—

"You don't realise the danger this has put us in!" Karpov screamed at me and James. "People can find out we're we are located, everything about us!"

"We fucked up alright, but this can be fixed!" I shouted back.

"How, are you going to kill another one?" James answered quickly.

"Since when do you have an opinion." Karpov was starting to get a different type of angry.

"It seemed like you were really bottling that up."

"That's enough from you. Both of you in fact. I don't want to see your faces at all for the next few days, and I don't care if you starve." He huffed. "That'll be your punishment."

He went to open the door. "Now go."

We exited and went down the empty hall in silence.

"Why'd you have to do that?" He blurted out.

"Do what?"

"Lash out."

"When. Just now, cause that's not-"

"No, last night." He finished for me.

I stood there dumbfounded for a while trying to recollect my memories of last night. "You bummed me out."

A little ahead of me, James stopped mid track turning on the balls of his feet to face me. "What?"

"I was perfectly fine and dandy before you came along and got annoyed at me."

"You were being irresponsible!"

"How?"

"You were about to kiss that girl." His voice became more quite.

"No I wasn't." I said walking ahead of him.

"Then what was that?"

"I just wanted one last fun night before-" I caught myself mid sentence, trying not to spill anything else.

"Before what?"

"Boy you do ask a lot of question don't you." I started to speed up. Though he did the same.

"Before what?" He was more stern with this one.

I stopped once again and leaned my back against the wall beside me, lowering my head.

I slowly lifted it. "Before I left. Before I stayed in London."

He leaned against the wall opposite. "You were going to leave me?"

"Yes."

"Wow, I see how it is then."

"How what is!"

"So we're just going to forget about what happened a few hours before the party, huh?"

"Yes, we are. It meant nothing."

I finally pushed myself off the wall after a few seconds of staring and got to my room door. I opened it without hesitation and stepped inside.

———

I hadn't spoke to James in about two days and he'd been avoiding me. I didn't feel guilty though. He had no right to put me that position where he was above me.

I was walking past Karpov's office when I heard him talking intensely with another soldier. I stopped right before the door and listened in.

"So it's settled, we'll ice him."

"And what about the girl?"

"She has two doses, we can wipe her and start fresh."

I walked past the door and headed to James's cell. I was hesitant before knocking on the glass.

Knock, knock, knock.

He was sitting slumped on the edge of his bed playing with his fingers before he lifted his head and setting it back down at the sight of me. I turned the handle and entered, sitting on the floor opposite him.

"Hey."

He didn't lift his head.

"I have to tell you something, because I think you have the right to know." I waited for his response but there was none. "They're putting you on the ice."

I finally got his attention. Confusion was plastered over his face with hints of sadness. "What?"

"Yeah."

"No. Your lying. Why?"

"I'm not lying. I was walking past Karpov's office and I heard him say it."

His head lowered back down.

"Say something." I say quietly.

"It's not like I can do anything to stop it." He responds.

"I'm leaving... you could come with me."

"Seriously. You've just told me I'm going in the ice and you've somehow made this about yourself."

"I was just giving you an option. You could escape this."

"And go where?"

I didn't have any answers because the fact is that I didn't even know where I was going.

"Just leave."

"Wha-"

"Leave."

I got up and and lifted my hand, grazing it against his cheek. "I am giving you the option to leave! But okay, that's fine." My voice was starting to rise. "You. Can. Suffer."

I stormed out the glass door and slammed it, hearing a slight crack. When looking back, there were lines scattered over the glass wall.

I left and went back to my room and started to pack. I had planned out my escape during these days so it was time. But I wanted to be there when his mind was being wiped, so he can see that he had a different option and he chose to ignore it.

———

I was stood in the room I remember from five years ago, looking through the glass onto the man clamped into the heavy tech machine. I was only going to stay for the mind wipe. Karpov nodded his head to the doctors operating the machine to start it up.

Screams of different frequencies engulfed the air but soon they faded. On the other side of the glass was a soldier with a blank face waiting for instructions. I exited the room and went to my own to collect my items to make a run for it while the important people were occupied.