Brave Fear (boyxboy)

Chapter 28

"What could prompt anyone to launch such an attack and risk millions of innocent lives?"

Joseph's question drifted around the room, but Zane sensed they all knew the answer. Only one thing could motivate Wawrzynski to such motions. "Power," Zane whispered. Silence followed. "Wawrzynski knows he won't live through an injection with his serum."

Marcus nodded. "He can't stand the thought of anyone being more powerful than he is," he said.

"Then why make us like this?" Once again, Joseph posed an existential question that could prove harmful if pondered too deeply.

"He needed a tool to win a war," Marcus told him, his voice low and dangerous. "A tool to help him take the power he desires. A tool to cast aside when he's finished with it."

His words quieted them, but naturally, Daisy broke the silence with her unnaturally bad timing. "I can't wait to see London!" she exclaimed.

"Who said we're going to London?" Anastasia asked her sister, cocking her head curiously.

"I did," Mallory said, and it was joined by a chorus of multiple voices affirming their choices as well. Zane nodded, his mood solemn.

"We have to go," he said. "If we don't, Wawrzynski gets exactly what he wants." He paused for a moment. "If we let him know he can win, he'll never stop. As soon as he's assured of his power, he'll be unstoppable."

Mallory grunted her assent. "We're the only ones with any hope of defeating him. We're the only things that stand between him and absolute power over the entire world. His nuclear developments paired with those of Japan will prove disastrous."

"Won't London have nuclear warheads?" Anastasia asked.

"Not to the magnitude of New Vancouver and Japan," Mallory told her. "They've never planned for a war, so their military development never progressed. The same goes for the rest of the world. Wawrzynski, knowing the bastard, has been planning this since he could think for himself."

"Do you think he might have a weapon worse than nuclear missiles?"

"He did," Zane said. "Us." He swept his hair out of the way. A rush of feelings battled for prominence in his mind, but he refused to give in to emotion. He needed his rational thinking. "But we're going to turn it against him."

Anastasia seemed confused. "Why don't we just let history do its thing?"

"And become history?" he seethed. "No thank you."

Anastasia dropped the issue.

They had to stop Wawrzynski. They had no choice. Zane had convinced himself of this fact. Anastasia just had to accept that. Wawrzynski had created them, created this destructive power inside each of them. But it would be his downfall. His experiments had turned against him, and Zane was determined to make him regret every horrible thing he'd done; to Marcus, the human guinea pig, to Mallory, the homeless girl who just wanted a family, to Daisy and Anastasia, who had been each other's whole world until he tore them apart, to Jonas, his own foster son, to Joseph, the naturally rebellious boy who was nervous around people. And to himself, to Zane Morrison.

But in a way, Zane was grateful for what Wawrzynski had done. If it weren't for him, he'd still be a mind-numbingly stupid citizen of New Vancouver, convinced he was living in the perfect world. If not for Wawrzynski, he would never have met the people he now surrounded himself with. Not out of selfishness or protection, but out of necessity. They were his world now, and he wasn't about to let them go.

"Do you think we'll see Big Ben?"

"Daisy, sometimes I doubt your mental capabilities," Mallory sighed.