The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 67

'Are you sure this is the right choice?' I asked as we tied up Hendrick. 'That it's morally right?'

'We're way past morals now,' Anatoly replied.

'Slade! Slade!' Sara spoke through her radio to alert him.

'Hello, Sara,' Slade answered in his ever-menacing voice he seemed to have gained after being affected by Mirakuru. 'I hope you've made the right choice.'

But was it the right choice? We were sacrificing someone for another without their consent. I felt like we were committing murder.

'Yes,' Sara said toughly, trying to mask her sheer fear and guilt in the matter.

The only difference between me and her was that I let these feelings show. The situation we were in wasn't great, and I valued both Oliver and Hendrick as friends, Oliver being a friend from my old life and Hendrick helping me through my new one. But Hendrick had tried to kill someone in our group, whereas Oliver hadn't once been selfish in our quest off the island. And Oliver was like family to me.

'I understand if you're doubting yourself right now,' I said, walking over to Sara, trying to talk both Sara and myself into sense. 'I'm doubting all this myself. And we're bound to feel this way. But unfortunately, we had a tough decision to make, and Hendrick turned on us and nearly killed one of us.'

Hearing a stir from Hendrick's chair, some of the escapees, Peter and Anatoly held him down, making sure he couldn't leave.

'I'm gonna kill all of you!' Hendrick shouted, struggling against the ropes he was trying to free himself from.

'This is not personal,' Anatoly breathed as he tied a rag round Hendrick's mouth. 'Well, maybe a little.'

I didn't blame Anatoly; Hendrick had tried to kill him.

'It's not,' Sara stood up and started to walk towards the group. 'This is about survival.'

'Survival,' Peter repeated from the corner of the hideout. 'What a noble word for murder.'

As Hendrick struggled further, the group tightened their grip on the prisoner. He really wasn't scary without his gun.

'Slade gave us no option,' Anatoly said matter-of-factly, making his way towards Peter. 'Hendrick for Oliver.'

'And what gives us the right to decide one's life is more valuable than the other?' Peter challenged frustratedly.

He was obviously going to be upset; Hendrick had been with him before we were captured into the ship, and he had helped Hendrick survive when the Gambit was first shipwrecked near the island. Peter's conscience was taking over him, giving him empathy towards Hendrick.

'He is tied up,' Anatoly pointed out. 'We are not.'

'Once he gets the boat working, Slade will have no need for him,' Peter stressed. 'So let's not kid ourselves. Doing this is effectively sentencing Hendrick to death!'

Peter was right. He had his heart in the right place, unlike so many of the escapees who had become tougher and more futile in order to stay sane. But somehow, although Ivo had given him a death sentence through the radiation tests he had endured, Peter was still different. And I agreed with him.

'Peter's right,' I said, standing next to him. 'We're no better doing this. Killing an innocent man.'

'He would do the same thing to any of us in heartbeat!' Anatoly argued loudly. 'This is only option.'

'What if it's also an opportunity,' Sara suggested, walking towards the three of us.

We looked towards her in unison. Had she come up with a plan?