The Institute

Chapter Thirteen- LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAYYYY! LAst part!!!!!!! I'm not liking the ending though and this story is WAY short. O well! Hope you like it.

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When they say that before you die, your life flashes before your eyes, they were dead wrong. As David pulled the trigger on the gun, I saw nothing. Felt nothing. I didn’t feel afraid at all, which, given a little more time to really think about it, would have surprised me.

Time did seem to slow down, however. I saw the bullet moving at snail speed towards my head. I saw Brady jump from out of his chair and throw himself in front of me, directly in line with the bullet. That’s when time returned to normal.

The bullet hit him about an inch above his left eye.

A cry escaped my lips, involuntarily. “Brady! No!” I didn’t have time to think after that. Fueled by anger and, finally, fear, I hurtled towards David, who had a mask of shock on his face. I knocked the gun out of his hand before he had time to shoot anybody else and hit him so hard, he fell to the ground, unconscious.

I faintly heard sounds coming from where Dr. Shrueger had been leaving the room. On impulse, I reached for the gun, now laying a few feet from David and me.

“Jeremy, listen to me. You don’t want to do this. You’ll go to jail for the rest of your life. Just—just put the gun down and we’ll talk. I’ll get you and Brady out of here safely and you’ll never be bothered again.” The doctor looked scared out of his mind.

“Don’t tell me what to do, and don’t lie to me. You told David to shoot Brady, now I’m going to shoot you. I hope it hurts and you lay there, wishing you never took this job.” I cocked the gun and slowly I pulled the trigger. I held my breath, waiting for the blood to bloom out of the hole where I had shot him.

There was nothing. Nothing came out of the gun. Dr. Shrueger let out a short laugh.

“You had me real scared, kid. Thank god that gun jammed.”

I threw the gun to the side and started striding with purpose towards him. I didn’t need a weapon, my hands were enough with how angry I was right now. The smile on Shrueger’s face slowly disappeared. I had barely reached him when I was interrupted by a shout.

“Jeremy, wait! Don’t do it!” I turned to see who it was. It was Josh.

“Josh, what are you doing here. You need to leave. Now. You don’t want to get involved in this.” I glared at Shrueger.

“That’s the thing, Jer, I’m already involved. You need to leave. As soon as I light this fuse, this whole place blows to high heaven.” That’s when I noticed the object in his hand. It was a gray lump, about the size of a brick and it had a thin wire sticking out of one of the sides. It took me a second to realize that it was a bomb.

“Hey, hey, hey, now, son. Don’t be doing anything stupid.” Dr. Shrueger was sweating now.

“I’m not your son and don’t tell me what to do,” Josh said. His finger flicked on the lighter that was in his other hand.

“Get out of here, Jer. Tell Mom and Dad I love them.” His voice cracked near the end and I realized he was serious. “And tell Reece I love her, too.”

“No, Josh, no, you can’t do this. Look, we can still get out of here. You, me, Reece. We can leave.”

“No, we can’t. It’s too late. Nothing will be the same for you now, and I’m so, so sorry but I have to do this for you. Come here,” he said, holding out his arms for a hug. I was a little nervous to be so close to the bomb but I wanted to try and do anything to get him to not light the bomb. I wrapped my arms tightly around him.