Ataxia

nineteen

Abhik

2037

The twins and I were running as fast as our legs would carry us. Farin was ahead of us with her inhuman speed and with how strong Darin was, he could run pretty fast himself. I was behind, although still running at a steady pace of five miles per hour. Which looked really slow compared to my two friends ahead of me. We were being hunted by the experimentation faciliy's security in vans and several subjects on their way to end us. For once, all I wanted was solitude!

Bang! Bang! Gunshots rang in the distance. Darin cursed, pushing himself to run faster. We were on the edge of Colorado Springs when we finally stopped and we were only ten miles from the facility. Eventually the vans and subjects caught up and we met our match. I saw flying things in the air. And I knew one of them was Silver. Silver swooped down in front of us and landed. He tucked his wings into his sleeveless shirt, which made him look less cool now but not at all less scary. Seriously, that guy was terrifying with how strong he looked. The winged-subject stood there, anger flooding his metallic-looking eyes in the moonlight. He ran towards us with all his might, yelling.

"Move outta the way!" Darin shoved Farin and I aside and we crashed into a pine tree nearby. "Now stay back, you two! I don't want to --"

Wham!

Darin was hit straight in the face by Silver and flew back, getting a mouthful of dirt. The guards rushed out of the vans and pointed their guns at Darin, ready to fire. Farin struggled to stand up, her legs shaking. I was on the ground, yards away from her, knocked out cold. I don't remember much because I constantly came in and out of waking. But when I finally woke up, everyone was gone except for Darin and Farin.

Farin was hovering over Darin who was laying on the ground. I think he was knocked out. With a groan, I sat up. Darin hit me hard when he pushed me out of the way. I came over by Farin's side, finding her crying.

"Hey, are you okay?" I said with caution in my voice, bending down on my knees beside her. "What happened?"

"It's Darin," she said with a thickness in her voice from crying so much. "They shot him and he lost too much blood and -- he stopped breathing a couple minutes ago. I think, I think ..."

She didn't finish her sentence because I already knew what happened and what she was talking about. Darin was dead. He sacrificed his life for us so that we could be safe. Why did he do it? What were his intentions? What was he thinking as he drew his last breath? Was he thinking about us?

"No!" I fell backwards on my back, covering my face with my hands. "This isn't happening, Farin. Darin isn't dead. Darin isn't dead. Darin isn't dead ..."