Inhuman

Chapter 7

This is it, I think to myself as the elevator goes up we go into the light my heartbeat quickening as I step out of the pipes. Keanu was a gun at the ready and I have a gun so it would help if I knew how to shoot it, I’ve never been good with guns. Knives however are perfect for me. I should tell them that, but not know I need to focus. The camera people follow Keanu and I around. We reach the building and that’s when we hear the explosion. Catayla pressed the button and the building exploded and collapsed inside like it is supposed to do. Keanu covers me from the dust and covers his own mouth and nose, I look around and that is when I see all the camera’s pointed at me , just me. Not Keanu, but me now I wish Catayla was really here instead of underground. “and we're live tell us what you think” The one one camera guy says he has dark brown hair and brown eyes, he wasn’t wearing the same thing Keanu and I were wearing, he was wearing just normal clothes, and that’s when I realized how unprotected everyone besides Keanu and I are. “Yana” The camera person says again. 
I look around spinning in a circle looking at all the rubble. Everyone that was in the building is gone, they weren’t here, but Oxitec doesn’t know that. “This was not right” I said into the camera and everyone looked at me questioning me with their eyes. “It’s not, it’s that simple” the camera guy tries to cut the camera, but Keanu just shakes his head and the camera guy keeps rolling the tape. “But neither is killing countless others, that were so innocent” I say shaking my head, “You killed those people in the train station they were just trying to keep away from Crimson Heads” I say and now I feel the fury rising in my chest as I speak. “You make innocent people fugitives, because you're scared of them. Innocent men, women, and children forced to hide because of something you did” I was now shouting at the camera thinking about all the families that look like they haven’t eaten. “You take people into custody, because they look a little scared of something. Well I have new for you Oxitec, this world is scary” I say thinking of what to say and then it hits me. “With every person you kill, and every person’s lives you take away we will take away one of your buildings” I say shaking with anger. “This is no world for forgiveness, you took my memory, my life and you did the same to countless others just like me” I say I choose my next words carefully so I don’t give away anything. “And each of them are filled with the ferocity and anger that I am filled with” I say smiling now because that was the biggest threat I could give if the building didn’t work. “We are the burners, and you will never drown us” I say and the camera cuts and everyone looks at me shocked. Keanu looks at me smiling and we walk back a little faster than when we came, When we get back down and to captain corners we watch the tape again. 
Every person looks at me with the same shock that was on everyone’s faces at the building. “You really said all that” Sallow asks and I nod my head, “Good job” Sallow says and that’s all he says. 
Catayla turns off the T.V and looks at me. “If that doesn’t get us know I don’t know what will,” She says and gives me a wink before turning to everyone else. “I want to have more propos, but inside where it’s safe” Catayla says and she backs up her reasoning. “Oxitec will think we are just bluffing. They don’t know how many people we have.” Someone walks in the door. It was Nash. 
He claps his hands slowly and sarcastically, finally he shows up. “Here’s the thing Cat,” Nash says and this makes Catayla mad. “I can call you that right” He says and goes back to what he was thinking of before. “Do you think we will get the same reaction you just saw,” Nash walks up to the T.V and turns it back on. “This right here is what everyone wants to see” Nash says and he smiles at me. Catalya goes to speak, but Nash interrupts her. “I propose we take a picture of her here, make her the face of every rebellion not just our” He says and Catayla is pushed down yet again, I can see she’s getting irritated. “It will form an alliance making the rebellion bigger” Nash looks over at Catayla, but this time she was quietly biting on her nail,she was thinking. 
I think for a second too and it sounds like a good idea. “I think it’s a good idea Catayla, use me if the other Rebels saw the clips and they live it, use me to make an alliance” all I was thinking is I'm going to get Axel back. I have to. Catyala stands up looking at not the real me, but the me in the picture on the T.V, It’s of me angry it’s not the best picture, but something about it makes Catayla keep thinking. 
Catayla turns around and looks at the real me, “But if we do this we are going to make her an even bigger target then she already is” Catayla says and I shift in my chair I already gave my input. “And you’re okay with this”  Catayla asks and I nod my head at her as she looks me in the eyes. “Just give her less makeup, you made her look like someone else not her” Nash gives a thumbs up and walks out of the room, but Catayla stops him. “Hold on you are the brains behind this” she says and he walks back in. “So when are we going to do this?” Catayla asks. 
Nash sits down at the table now every chair was filled except Sallow who was uneasy about this whole idea, “As soon as possible” Sallow starts passing around the table. He is like an older brother to me and I'm like his little sister.  
Sallow pinches the bridge of his nose. “So you’re saying that if we do this she will have more targets on her back” He says everyone looks at him. “I don’t think we should do it.” He says, still passing the table and everyone’s chairs. “After the explosion people are already targeting her.” he says. 
Nash just looks at him, “Well if she dies then she dies well just get another person” This sets Sallow off he stops passing and looks at Nash. “That’s what I think.”
Sallow’s eyes widen with anger. “That’s what you think, really” Sallow shouts, “So this human being is nothing important to you” Sallow says still shouting, “She is important to me” He says Catayla watches his eyes making sure they don’t change, but something tells me the wont. “ I may have a real sister that I didn’t choose but still love” Sallow says he was practically standing over a scared Nash. Catayla stands up and grabs Sallow’s arms. “But she is the sister that I choose” Sallow says it’s a good thing Catayla grabbed his arms because Sallow was going to punch him. 
Nash looks at Sallow. “Catayla” Nash says and Catayla and Sallow both look at him and Nash mouths something and I don't understand him because I was too far away to hear, but Catayla and Sallow both heard him. Catayla lets go of Sallows arms and Sallow punches Nash in the nose causing it to bleed, Muhammed looks at the three of them. 
Juniper, Mateo, and Nova all look at Nash and shake their heads. “You need to leave” Catyala says to Nash and he gets up and leaves, something tells me that whatever he said was about Catayla. 
Nash looks at Catayla and Sallow and says something again about the two of them. Muhammed holds Sallow back because now not even Catayla could hold him back, the guards hurry and take Nash away and to the infirmary to fix his broken nose. Muhammed takes Sallow away and Catayla sits down in the chair, she was just as angry as Sallow was. I can hear Sallow shouting and Catayla steps out of the room and Muhammed walks back in. “Lucas it’s fine it doesn’t matter” Catayla’s muffled voice says through the door, 
Then I hear Sallow, “Nobody should talk to you like that, I don’t care if he didn’t say anything out loud he still said it” Sallow says trying to keep his voice down, but he can’t. The angers consumed him. “You are not weak, you are the strongest woman I’ve ever met” everyone tries not to listen, but it’s hard not to. 
I hear Catayla again. “I’m scared” She says her voice was shaky,that is very hard for her to say, “I can’t be a leader, the last time I lead anything I killed every person” she says her voice is still shaky.”This time the tunnel is filled with people I care about” She says I can tell she is crying it’s in her voice, I’ve never heard her cry before. 
I then hear Sallow again “Catayla listen to me I was there, you did not kill those people Oxitec did.” That’s when the talking stops and Sallow walks back in and Catayla is right behind him, her eyes look like she never even cried, everyone in the group acts like they didn’t hear anything. “So we’ve decided that Yana you will not be the face of other rebellions” Sallow says, I want to say, but it’s not your choice it’s mine or I’m not a child I can make my own decisions, but instead I just nod my head in agreement. “We will still have the camera rolling when you are speaking, but we are not going to put your picture everywhere” Sallow continues, I just keep nodding my head. 
When I go back to my room I wash the makeup off of my face and I take off my suit and hang it up. I put on a tee shirt that I found in my bag that was Axel’s and a pair of shorts that are mine I barry my nose in the tee shirt and imagine Axel here with me, I hear a knock on my door and Keanu comes in “Can I sit” Keanu says and I nod my head at him. “I’m sorry for ignoring you” Keanu says and I just nod my head which I’ve been doing for the past hour. “Will you just talk to me?” Keanu says, getting annoyed with me. 
I shrug my shoulders. “What do you want me to say Keanu?” I say to him and he stops talking. “Axel is gone.” I say to him.
Keanu stands up. “You know something, Yana , there was a time when Axel wasn’t around and you were just fine,” Keanu says. I can hear him getting angry, but he doesn’t raise his voice. “You need to stop using Axel as your excuse for everything” He says I almost say something, but Keanu stops me. “You do use Axel as an excuse, I know the whole time  you were in that meeting you were saying you're doing this for Axel,” Keanu says, shaking his head at me. “You are not doing any of this for Axel, you only wish you were.” At this moment all I want is for Keanu to leave, but he is right. “You are doing this for everyone but him” He is right I just don’t want to admit it. 
I shake my head at Keanu. “No Keanu you have no idea who I am you don’t understand anything that goes on in my head” I say walking him to the door I was talking through my teeth. “Keanu I get your jealous the girl you liked is with someone else” I say pushing him farther to the door until he was almost out the door. 
Keanu kisses me, “I am jealous, but I have to let you go because we are just friends” He says resist putting my fingers on my lips, “I’m sorry, I guess you have to some time loss the ones you love” He walks out of the door and I watch him as he leaves. I put my fingers to my lips and I walked to my bed, I looked at the time it was midnight and I know I won’t sleep. I haven’t fully slept in the last month from nightmares, there all the same too they are all losing everyone I care about. So instead of sleeping I just lay awake and I cried, I just lost a friend, a close friend that is more like a brother to me, the person next door was watching the news, they had the volume turned up so loud. 
I could hear the news from the otherside of the wall. It was the leader of Oxitec making a speech. “These so called burners are nothing to be afraid of, the girl in the video is just bluffing my dear people” Dear people, sure the only reason that they are your dear people is because they do everything you say. I decide to turn on the news as well, I need to see who I'm up against after all. 
There on the screen is Axel an interviewer was asking questions, “Now we were all very shocked when the building exploded, but you, you were more shocked then anyone” The interviewer says. “Can you tell us why that is?”The interviewer asks, fascinated. 
Axel was wearing a red suit and he looks horrible, it’s only been a month and he already looks skinnier. This is the first time I’ve seen him. “Why yes I can tell you why” Axel says his eyes are still there, but they are hollow and filled with nothing. I stand up and go to the screen wishing he were here. He smiles into the camera, it wasn’t his real smile though. “It’s because that girl on the screen is going to kick your” The screen cuts out, but not before I see Axel being carried away. Just then Catayla comes through my door and so does Sallow, Keanu follows not long after looking at me, I have tears in my eyes, because I know what Axel is going through, right now he is probably being tortured for the things I said. 
Catayla looks at me and hugs, her silver hair falls out of the sloppy bun she had tied up in her hair. I look at Keanu and let go of Catayla. She lets me go and I hug Keanu. He stands still for a second, but then wraps his arms around me. “We need to get him out of there,” I say, pulling away from Keanu’s hug and nods his head in understanding. 
Catayla looks at me and her eyes send a sadness into me that I never thought I could feel. “There’s just no way to save him, it's too risky” She says I can tell she hates saying that she turns away from me and looks at the T.V as if Axel will show up on the screen again, her thin hand wanting to touch the screen on the T.V. She closes her eyes and turns from the T.V slowly. “If Axel wasn’t dead already,he won’t be dead now” I bow my head because I know she is true, I just can’t stand the fact that Axel is there and I’m here. I’m safe while Axel is probably being starved and tortured for answers. I feel the nerves creep up to my stomach and chest wanting to be realised like demons in a cage. 
The anger also rises in me wanting to escape and even though that can be a demon I unlock the cage and set it free. “No Catayla, the only thing stopping you is the fear inside of you” I scream at her without taking a breath. I feel my head spinning with anger, and I ball my hands up in fists. “The only reason you are not marching into Oxitec right now is because you're scared of losing us” I say, I know the words are hurtful because I see the tears rising in Catayla’s ocean blue eyes, oh the ocean the one thing she fears above everything else. “Oxitec isn’t an ocean Catayla, but you're too weak to see that” I say, spitting the words in her face.
 Sallow holds me back, he looks me in the eyes, “That’s enough Yana!” He says in a warning voice he looks angry, but he’s also torn between being mad at his best friend or standing up to the woman she loves. 
I can help him with that “Be mad at me Sallow, come on I want to see the boy who’s afraid of a little flame get mad at someone he can’t stand not getting mad at” I say smiling at him with a cruel smile. 
Anger was rising inside of him, I could see it and I gave a cruel laugh. “You want me to be mad at you Yana fine” He says and he steps forward Catayla grabs his arm wanting him to stop, but he just pushes her off and suddenly I am very scared of him, his arms are strong from years of working in the iron mills and with his mind not being sound he is lethal. “You listen to me Yana and you listen to me very carefully” he says I smiled at him with a twisted smile that didn’t feel like my own, but I didn’t care. I liked the smile. “When you were at Oxitec I never came to save you, I didn’t even care about you” He says and the words feel like a punch even if he didn’t throw one. “When you become a scientist you destroy my life and the lives of everyone else” He kept walking and I became cornered between two walls. Fear has overcome me, but I never show it, not now I just keep a twisted smile. “I didn’t have to tell you about my fears, I really didn’t, I also didn’t have to stand up for you in that meeting” He looks like he was done talkin, but then he says something that only the two of us know. “You are still the girl that was the Oxitec leader’s daughter that has a fear of blood” He says and he steps away from me. I look at him and smile. “Is that what you wanted?” He says with closed teeth. 
I smile at him “Yes and you Catayla how about you tell that little secret you have been hiding from everyone” At this I feel a punch to my mouth then my eye, I look around and think it was Sallow, but it wasn’t it was Keanu. I spit warm blood out of my mouth and with it a tooth from the back of my mouth. “Is that the best you can do?” I ask him and he opens the door. I look up from the ground and say. “I could help all of you, you know” I say still hate falling from my mouth. “Sallow you are the one that needs help the most, with your twisted mind” I say and Keanu had enough. He picked me up by the back of my shirt and made me stand.
Keanu shakes his head at me, “What happened to you” he says before taking me down the stairs, what is happening to me is I’m not the same person you knew, I think in my head and Axel is a trader to Oxitec. 
Keanu walks out of the pipes and sets me in the street. It was cold and raining and he left me there, like the cruel people they are. I begin to walk in the cold. The blood from my mouth drips onto my shirt. I keep walking until I show up at a Oxitec hospital, they take one look at me and smile, I smile to “Welcome back Miss Foster” Jones says with a twisted smile. “Or should I say daughter” I smile at him and walk into the hospital. “What has happened to your lip?” he asks with real concern in his voice.
I look at him with a frown, “Is that concern I hear in your voice father?” I ask and he looks away from me, “Where is he” I say to him and my father leads me to him. “Thank you father” I say quietly so Axel doesn’t hear me, as he closes the door and I’m left alone with Axel. 
I go up to him and bring fake tears to my eyes. “Who did this to?” He asks and I turn away from him. I'm proud of my acting abilities, but with a guy that is gullible and in love, I hate that word and it disgusts me.
I look at him with tears in my eyes just enough for me to look sad. “Jones, he questioned me and tortured me into giving information, I had to, I couldn’t stand him hurting me” I say my voice was just shaky enough. “I’m so sorry Axel”. 
I hate playing helpless girls, Axel grabs my hand and pulls me close to him, I curl up in a ball next to him, “It’s okay, your okay we will get back we will and everything will be fine” He says and I know what I have to do. 
I shake my head, tears still in my eyes. “No you will leave and everything will be fine, I need to stay here” I say and Axel shakes his head before he speaks. I interrupt him. “I can get Oxitec to trust me, you can’t and when they trust me enough then you will attack them” I say and we start planning to attack. Perfect now I know when they will attack, how can Axel a person that used to work for Oxitec so Stupid. We fake sneak out of Oxitec, father already knows part of the plan, but he doesn’t know all of it. He is too kind -hearted to know the whole story. That is my mother's fault, fortunately she was killed by the Mosquito outbreak, I take Axel out of the door and I kiss him, “Now leave” I whisper to him in a fake scared voice. 
He takes my hands in his before leaving. “We will get you out of here I promise” He says before letting go of my hands and running off. I know you will, I think to myself before stepping back into the hospital with a smile on my face. 
As I walk to my father’s office I put on a pair of gloves and grab a scalpel, I walk into his Office the weapon behind my back. “Father, do you think we could bury the rebels alive.” I ask him and he looks up from his work, his brown eyes looking at me confused.
He stops what he is doing and I walk back behind him. I'm so glad there are no cameras in his office. It would make it a lot harder to do what I am going to do. “Yana, they are not doing anything to harm us they are just blowing up random buildings”. He says as he goes back to writing equations in his book he is still trying to find a cure.
I put my hand on his shoulder and looked around the office. It was a dark red color that looked like velvet and a light brown leather chair. These will be the first thing to go then the equations they’re pointless anyway. “That’s what I was afraid you would say” I say and with that I put the scalpel to his neck and slice his neck open the blood splatters on the equations and on the wall next to him. Now I needed to act again, I put the glove in my pocket and looked at my dead father in disgust. “Should have said yes father” I say before standing by the door and letting out a shrill scream that would make the hairs on anyone’s neck stand up. A guard comes running in and I point with a shaky hand and start to cry, the guard takes me out of the room and two guards come in to take my father away. “It was a rebel” I say my voice is shaky and to them I look terrified, but the way I feel is everything but terrified. Poor father he lost his beloved wife and now he lost his life from a rebel with brown eyes. “The rebel had red hair and” I said to the guards eating this up, ''I can’t believe, well actually I can, these guards will believe anything a crying rich girl will say. “I can’t say any more” I say standing up and trying to go to my room, but then I turn around and now I look angry, okay now you are just milking it Yana, I think to myself. “and brown eyes” I say and the guards know who I’m talking about. He was a nurse after all.