By Tomorrow

006

"What a nice speech," She said.
I turned in my chair and gasped, it was Julie Mane in all her glory. Her tight ponytail brunette hair, with the old scars covering her face.
She smiled menacingly, "I was going to send more guards, but you seemed to have brought yourself to me."
She took a few steps towards me, I held my breath.
"You know, if you surrender now I may just put you in jail for the rest of your life. Along with your friends of course, you can all go insane together."
"No, never. Why did you even hide this stuff?"
"What can I say, killing is so much more fun. Although you nor your parents could get that. Your father was a nice man you know."
"Don't speak of my parents," my eyes started to well up, "you don't have a right."
"Maybe I don't, but that doesn't matter. So are you going to surrender, or what do they say? Put up a fight? Anything you say can and will be held against you?"
"No, I'm not going to surrender."
"Ah, the fun way then. Well as you wish," She shrugged and went to grab me.
I got out of my chair and dodged her, running behind her. She quickly turned around with an angry look on her face, then went at me again. I knocked her arms away from me and tried to throw a punch at her face. She dodged that and punched me extremely hard in the stomach. I staggered back, heaving. She smiled and walked at me, she thought that I was weak, that I was giving up already. Julie reached out to grab me again, I moved backwards and punched her back, her spine. She bent backwards for a moment, but recovered. She yelled in anger and lunged at me. Again, I dodged and she fell to the floor. Julie then kicked my leg, knocking me on the floor. I yelled and fell to my back, where she then got on top of me.
"You're so stupid," she laughed, "you could've lived."
I said nothing.
She punched me in the face, "Speak! Speak goddammit!"
Again, nothing. She continued to punched the left side of my face this time. Julie continued, left, right, left, right, right, left. Until she stopped, I could feel blood run down my face from my nose and mouth.
"I'm tired of this," She said, wrapping her hands around my neck, "Enjoy the afterlife, I'll kill your friends too."
She started choking me. I sputtered as I started to lose my breath, hitting her arms and looking at her. My face started getting pressure, my eyes welling up again. Julie was smiling at me, insanity in her eyes. "This was end for me," I thought, "everyone was going to die." But then I saw something, a memory.
My parents, they were kneeling in front of me. My mom, my dad, they were alive! They had pain in their eyes, smiling but hurt.
"We have to go, forever," my dad said, choking over his words.
"We love you, keep going and do great things," my mom said, crying.
This was the memory before they were killed, their last words to me. I went to hug them, but they disappeared, evaporating in the air.
"Mom? Dad?" I choked.
I heard something behind me and turned around. It was Robin, he was standing and smiling.
"Robin?" I asked running up to him.
"You have to keep going, don't give up. Kai, be a hero and save the ship," He repeated his words from when he was dying.
"I can't," I choked again, "I'm dying."
"You can, and you will."
"I miss you."
"Save the ship," He smiled, and then he too evaporated into the air.
I came to. Julie was yelling at me as she continued to choke me.
"Why are you smiling? Why are you smiling?!" She yelled.
I reached behind me, looking for something, anything to hit her with. I tilted my head back, there was a loose bar on the wall. I tried to reach it, my finger barely grazing it before I got my grip on it. I tried to tug it off, and it took a few tries before I could.
"What do you think you're do- "
I stabbed her in the stomach with the bar. She looked at me with a confused look on her face before her grip loosened around my neck. Blood dripped out of her mouth and onto my face. I panicked and threw her off of me.
I staggered up, rubbing my neck. I walked to the computer, feeling dizzy and clicked "upload".
I could hear the message play all over the place. I got up and staggered out the door, holding my stomach.
Ash came bolting down the hallway towards me.
She pulled me into a tight hug, crying, "You did it!"
"I did, I replied, hugging her back.
She let go and placed a hand on my face, "What happened?"
"Just a small fight," I laughed.
"Small? You have bruises and blood all over your face and neck!"
I shrugged and smiled, "I made it out alive didn't I?"
"Yeah, yeah you did," She smiled happily.
Ash scanned my face and bit her lip. My face dropped. What was she doing? She placed her other hand on my face gently and leaned in. As soon as I knew it, our lips touched. I was kissing Ash, and Ash was kissing me!
She stepped back and blushed, "Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just..."
I laughed, "Woah, I don't mind."
She smiled and hugged me again. I looked up and saw Taylor and Winsley watching us with a smile. I smiled back at them and continued to hug Ash.
The people started to get to work on replacing filters immediately. Everyone stopped arguing with each other and started to become friends again. Our government is now run on a group of electees instead of a dictatorship or theocracy. No more tests to see who's the smartest to survive either. It's been a month since then, and life has been a little bit better. Robin had a respectful funeral, Taylor now rooms with me, and we've all been seen as heroes. Ash and I have also been talking a lot and are now happy to say we are in a relationship. I guess she's liked me from the start. I'm now a lot more happy, and I have a lot of friends. Maybe life isn't so bad after all, and all I can say is, you'll hear this story again by tomorrow.