Counterfeit

-seventythree-

—seventythree-

Well, I know that we've been hardly holding on. To tell the truth, I can't believe we got this far. But don't fade away.
+ Lewis Capaldi +

-

IT WOULD BE someone's last day today.

Morning had come slowly, lying awake all through the lonely hours of the night, picturing a thousand different tomorrows with a thousand different endings. Each variation meant that someone would die: a custodian, the IRS, MiKinley.

Because of me? Because of my Plan? I wanted to believe that it would all be over once we had escaped, but it wouldn't be, would it... There would be something else. Some other series of consequences that would follow us onto whatever came next. Tragedies magnetised to people.

"Pip? Pip!"

I broke from my trance, Charleston beside me trying to get my attention.

"They did it." He beamed, even his eyes flickering with hope. "Hudson, Fortello, Alistair, Gus - they got the Medic Centre under their control. They seized all the medication and tests, they've got samples of the toxins Thelonius has arranged for transport."

"What does that mean?" I asked him.

"It means we can find out what they've been circulating in you. Find out how to reverse it. Find a cure."

"If there is one."

"No, there will be. This was created, Pip, so they could dictate who lived and who didn't. There's a way for a cure. I believe that."

I tried to be happy for him, knowing how revolutionary this was. The people we had lost before, the grief I no long remembered, there was a hope for it to come to an end. But not every heart could hope.

"Anyway," he could see the pain wouldn't shift, "Blaze And Zeke have begun their part of eliminating the other custodians. And I'm pretty sure that Savion and Lexus are already at the gates. Niobe's on the outside. She'll be able to get a warning to us quicker than if we only have people on the inside of the perimetre."

"So now we wait?"

Charleston nodded. "When all threats are eliminated, Alden and Kristel will head to the guard's station to start their work on the computers and radios."

"Then it's our part."

"Pip... If there's anything you need to do..."

"You mean like say goodbye?"

He sighed, hesitant to meet my eyes.

"If you tell me now that I need to say it, then I will. I'll go find him. But if there is any chance that I'll have any time once we're out of here, then tell me that instead."

As he went to answer, there was a loud, time-seizing noise that stopped everyone in their tracks, all heads facing the guard's station where the sound had echoed from.

"Was that.."

"Someone fired." Charleston confirmed that thought I didn't dare to say aloud. "I need to find out what's going on."

"Wait!" I stopped him, the pulsing in my chest magnifying every emotion. "You don't know what's going on in there. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I need to make sure everyone's safe. We have to get out of here today. Don't follow me, okay?"

"Charleston-"

"Pip. I need you to listen. I can't have anything happen to you." There was a severity in his voice that I had never quite known before. A fear to lose me, but it felt more than just a fear, like it was a possibility.

I nodded, unsure if I would stick to my promise, and let Charleston head over to the guard's station. Everyone watched his urgency, and talk began to break out, everyone waiting for confirmation to panic.

A moment passed by, all the Residents in the same state of anxiety as me. But it all changed to terror when another fire was heard, people certain of what it was this time.

Everyone began screaming, yelling at each other; The Dormir fell back into chaos, intensified by the blaring of the sirens returning. I couldn't keep myself from running to Charleston, hurrying inside the guard's station, even in spite of everyone watching.

There was a shadow of anger on his face as he turned to see me breathless in the doorway. He had never looked at me like that before. More emotions came, seemingly all at once; fear, regret, caution. As I took in the scene in front of me, I understood why.

Two custodians were down: Delano, and someone I hadn't known - presumably they weren't a part of the Plan.

"W-what happened?" My feet were frozen, I couldn't move any closer.

"Pip, get out of here. You need to leave." Charleston ordered.

I barely even registered his words, knowing it could have just as easily been him. "Is he... Is he dead? Did that guard kill Delano?"

"Pip," Charleston came closer to me, his voice low and unwavering. It was the first time I had noticed the gun in his grip. "You need to leave." He repeated.

"Delano wasn't careful enough. We've managed to eliminate the threat of other custodians, but one of 'em managed to get out. He just happened to be in the wrong place, wasn't quick enough to disarm the other guy." Blaze answered me.

"This never should have happened." My voice choked.

"We all knew the risks, Pip. But if we can still manage to save the people inside here, then his death won't be for nothing-"

From the doorway behind Blaze, an amber colour illuminated into the room. Then there was a crashing sound of an explosion, the ground shaking beneath us, walls collapsing, people being thrown across the room from the force of the impact.

But before any of that, a name spoken by Charleston, a realisation of what was happening. "MiKinley."

-seventythree—
Writing this in the car on the way home. There is lighting and it always freaks me out a little because I always remember driving home in Australia when it was lightning in the summer and it  started a bushfire which we got caught up in.
:(