SMOKE (The Aurum Trilogy Book 2)

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Lauren

I skidded to a halt. Armed men with masks were approaching me, guns at the ready.

"Hands up and stop moving!" The soldier holding a megaphone yelled. "Hands up and nobody gets hurt!"

I held my hands up and put them at the back of my head. Their guns were still pointing at me, and the man with the megaphone gave out signals to arrest me.

Taking that as my cue, I charged, knocking down two men holding steel cuffs. I slid across the floor, my legs sweeping at the soldiers about to arrest me. I stood up, grabbed a weapon and started firing. They began to fire back, and I felt bullets hit me. But instead of piercing through my skin and digging through tissue, they bounced off and clattered against the ground. Where wounds appeared, my skin regenerated and cuts and bruises vanished before I even had the chance to examine them. Pain was absent with every blow that hit me and a new kind of adrenaline carried me away. I have never felt stronger my whole life. And it felt good. It felt intoxicatingly good. The sensation was overwhelming, and I was taken aback. I let it go. I let go of all the fear I have been keeping and dare to be brave. I let go of the hindrance blocking me to accept my fate, to accept what I must become. I allow the serum to control me, to take over me except in my thoughts. I allow it to possess my body and transform it into a killing machine, to transform it into what I used to fear, to break its cocoon and morph it into the weapon that will destroy them all.

I will fight back.

Invincibility was capturing me like a drug not wanting to let go, like a drug luring me to take more, like a sea beckoning me to explore its fathomless depths and to drown into them. I felt every sliver of me awaken with life and burn with a kindled flame that I have never encountered before. My blood was singing bolder chords, and my body danced to an unknown rhythm in my ears that was chanting victory all throughout. My heart was banging like a drum in the orchestra of blows and bullets, and though it sounded out of place, it is right where it is. It is right where it should be. I will not let them use me. I will not let them have me.

"Hold it right there." I heard a voice from behind me and felt a barrel press against my nape. Fiouris's ragged breaths came next. He doesn't need words to express his outrage.

"I beat you again, doctor." I scoffed. "I guess it's between both of us again this time." I heard metal click, and I straightened myself, holding my head up high. "Thank you for the drug, doctor. It surely helped."

Fiouris pulled the trigger, and a heat brushed against the skin of my nape. There was no wound, no blood, no bullet hole to proclaim that I was dead. I spun around and saw the shock in Fiouris's eyes. He had expected a close range to kill me, but my will to live was stronger than anything death itself.

I knocked the gun off Fiouris's grasp, and it clattered on the floor. I delivered another kick on his stomach, and he staggered back, losing his balance on one of the glass frames.

I picked up the gun and pointed it at him. It was the only thing standing between life and death for Fiouris. Finally, I was going to kill him. Finally, I was going to end this.

"Shoot it." said Fiouris, wincing. "Shoot and we'll see who suffers." He held out his hand to reveal a square-shaped device with a red button on its center. "Everybody you care for is in this building, and I'm sure you don't want them punished by your recklessness."

"You're lying." I yelled.

"No, I'm not." And out of the black square came a holographic image of Dr. Carter, Lia, Lia's team and Jonathan on individual metal cots. Lia was squirming and struggling to break free from her chains. Her mouth was hastily taped and on her forehead was a bloody gash. Dr. Carter's spectacles had been knocked off, and he was squinting, trying to decipher what was going around him. Then my eyes fell on the lone golden-haired figure in the image, and my eyes swelled with tears. Jonathan's eyes were closed, and he was breathing as if every breath he took meant another year of his life. His chiseled figure was badly bruised, and his lip was split. There was gashes on his arms, and he was shaking fervently.

"What have you done to them?" I cried out. "What have you done?"

"Why, I have done what I need to do to those who would not learn." He replied. "Aren't you forgetting that I am also a mentor? That I was the one who taught you the value of loss and the price you have to pay for every thing you desire?"

"No..." A moan escaped from my lips, and the feeling of invincibility was replaced at one with vulnerability. The mark on my arm became nothing but a mark. The drug in my veins became nothing but a trial; a trial in an experiment. I am nothing. I feel nothing.

"For every action," He said. "There is an equal and opposite reaction. And now, they must pay the price for the actions that you've done." And with one swift motion, he pressed the button with his index finger. I heard my mouth let out a scream as an explosion rocked the ground and rang in my ears. I felt my legs wobble and sink to the ground and heard the same commanding voice in my head.

Drop your weapon. It's over now.

"Nobody gets out of here alive, Lauren Steel." He said. "It's either we use you or we kill you."

Drop your weapon. It's alright. You belong with us now. Surrender to us. Become P-0002.

My head was bowed low, but my fingers were clutching the gun as if it clung onto dear life. My knuckles turned white, and I could feel the weapon slowly going down...

Down...

Down...

"So what will it be?"

My arm rose up, and my vision cleared. I shot his hand, and the device soared off into the air. Before Fiouris could stand up, I shot him in the head, knocking him back down. I dived for the device, and plummeted against broken glass and dust, but there was no pain at all.

I clutched the device with one hand and my gun on the other. I pressed the button again, but nothing happened. My eyes stung, and I knew they were tears. All the pain that has evaded me came back with a vengeance, striking me like the snake in the grass, like a spider on the web. I stood up, screaming. A crack appeared on the ceiling, and chunks of it were already falling on the ground. More explosions blasted the building and all I could do was run, run, run. All I could do was hold my gun and run faster till my legs ache and my bones snap. Run faster till they could reach me no more. All I could do was run faster, faster towards freedom, thinking of those who had to pay the price for it, thinking of those who had to die for my cowardice.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

And I had given them that reaction. I had sentenced them to die.

Surrender now. It's not too late.

I halted, took one last look at the halls collapsing. Shards were strewn on the floor, and Fiouris's body was no more. I shut down the voice in my head, and it slowly faded into a muffled sound till it became no more. I glanced at the mark on my arm which stood in black, bold letters. I closed my eyes and chucked the device among the glass.

I have made my choice.

I ran towards the exit and saw the light. It burned bright like a glow at the end of a tunnel. I ran towards it, not looking back, just moving forward. Forward, forward, as fast as my legs would carry me. Forward, forward, not looking back, never looking back. The light consumed me, encasing me in a white hot glow of hope. And I knew. I knew this wasn't the end of it all.