𝕔:\𝔽𝕀𝕃𝔼_ℕ𝕆𝕋_𝔽𝕆𝕌ℕ𝔻.𝔼𝕏𝔼 ～ 𝘔𝘳. 𝘙𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘵

16 - R3$t0r4t10n.pdf

Stun by the sudden spray of blood across my face and clothes, I start to breathe heavily.

Richard Philmore is a dead man now. He falls to his knees and collapses onto the ground, still for the rest of eternity.

I yell out, as loud as I can at the top of my lungs, with frustration, shock and just... trauma. Wouldn't you do the same if you just witnessed someone's brains blow out?

As my breathing steadies, I drift off looking to the underground hall for anything that could-

What the actual-

It's Jayden. She's standing there, dishevelled and unclear as to what had just happened.

Did she see the shooter? Did the shooter do something to-

Oh f!@#.

She's got a gun in her hands. She lowers it as the realisation props onto my face. "What... Wh-What did you do?" I question blankly.

Jayden jogs to me, searching around for keys on the nearby table to unlock the handcuffs. She rustles around, not answering my question even though that's the only thing I really care about.

"Elliot, oh my lord your face!" She throws the handcuffs to the table and starts searching for something to probably patch my face.

"That asshole crossed the line-"

"Jayden what did you do," I state more than ask and it makes her pause her other errands, "Why'd you shoot him?"

"Elliot I saved you-"

"WHY DID YOU SHOOT HIM?!" I roar as I shove her back after storming up from my seat. I clench my fists with rage steaming up in me like a train engine.

"Shut up SHUT UP! You CANNOT yell at me for doing that!" Jayden points furiously at me, "It took EVERY F!@#ING BONE IN MY BODY TO SHOOT THAT GUY ELLIOT!"

"But-"

"So DON'T and I mean it! You mean a lot to me Elliot! You're no use if you're f!@#ing dead so-"

"LOOK AT ME! I'M COVERED IN HIS F!@#ING BLOOD!" I holler, feeling as though I may blow my own brains out with the force.

"But you're alive and-"

I rush to her side and hold her face in my hands, staring her right in the eyes. "We don't have a solution Jayden, WE'RE F!@#ED UP!" I point out stifly, "He was our only hope and he's a dead mess now."

She looks to the ground, not saying a word and I know that she isn't thinking of anything too. I'm beyond thankful that she saved me from that sadist but what are we going to do?

I walk back to his body and hold my head, crying out in frustration and digruntlement.

What do we do?

Friend, you have to help us... please, I'm begging you.

*****

"Catharsis."

"What?"

I gesture her to walk over to the table close to the shadowed area of the room, where Richard was at for most of the time during our encounter.

"After 'The Purge' Richard Philmore planned to take his work further and ensure that the people of the world get the mesaage he's trying to put forward," I tell her, "That the world depends too much on evolving technology."

"So like a phase two?"

"Yeah exactly," I continue, "He called it 'Catharsis', appropriate in his mind. He didn't tell me anything about but he seemed to be reading it from this file."

I start to walk closer to the entrance into the many aisles of documents stored, glancing to the top. "There has to be more information about it here. How it works, coding, protocols, contingencies... We need to find everything," I inform and she nods her head in agreement.

She takes the folder from me and starts reading, immediately stumbling upon something that could help.

" 'SOURCECODE: Entry 1'," Jayden read aloud, " 'Trial one completed in simulation system with success, keeping external security anti-malware programs aside. Alterations to be made to the end lines, implementation needs to be more swiftly done'."

After flipping through a few more pages, she looks up to me with a look of relief. "Elliot this... this file has all the reports on the program used for 'The Purge'," She shares, "We can use it to reverse engineer the virus and get a solution."

I now my head slowly then my eyes fall onto a fully-filled box called 'CATHARSIS: PHASE 2'.

She helps me bring the box down from the third shelf then place it on a table. We take out all the documents and glance through them quickly.

"I don't think we need to do all that work Jay," I say and bring her a small file containing information about the outline workings of this Phase 2.

She reads through it then smiles a bit. "Phase 2 eliminates electricity out of the picture. It's going to turn all those devices back on. This should cause a ripple effect and bring the communication services back on everywhere," Jayden expresses with excitement to finally solve this problem, "Doesn't seem to further the plan. It looks like a solution.".

I look at the code closely and agree with her. This could actually... work.

"But Elliot... this is too big of a task for two people. There's coding mechanisms here that could take days to implement," She argues and I take out the walkie-talkie from my bag.

"Then we bring our back ups. Call Darlene, Mobley and Trenton and tell them to bring a few others to help out. Tell them to pack up and leave now," I instruct and she immediately follows.

I, on the other hand, delve into 'Catharsis' further to know exactly what we're dealing with.

"Alright they'll be here in three hours," She alerts me and I walk towards her. I smile softly and she gives me a genuine look of confusion.

I hug her.

"I never said thank you, all I did was to at you for something that would be difficult for any human being," I mutter and she wraps her arms around me more tightly.

Jayden smiles softly, "I know you're going to hate me for this but..."

She kisses me on the cheek and I continue to watch her. I don't know what comes over me but I kiss her quickly on the lips.

All she does is stare... with the look of pure and innocent surprise.

"Come on, we have a world to save."