Chapter 4

As they stepped outside the cell and closed the door, Tom felt the strange, irresistible urge to laugh. He doubted it would have been welcome; Laura was pale and trembling, and Sarah was biting her lip, her brow furrowed in intense concentration. But still, the absurdity of their situation got to him. He was standing in a hallway with the former President of the Colonies and a beautiful killing machine, desperately trying to escape from this prison and return to the miserable world outside of the concrete walls. Of course, even if they did manage to escape, they wouldn't have anywhere to go. He hardly thought that the Resistance would welcome Sarah with open arms. He chuckled, and wondered if he was going crazy.

Tom glanced at the two women standing beside him. Sarah stood like a statue, cold and un-moving. Laura was the exact opposite; she was obviously frightened, and so utterly human.

His eyes lingered on Laura. He pictured her sitting motionless on the cold floor, her very body radiating hatred as she stubbornly refused to look up. She had looked much different than he remembered her. Broken. Fragile. She had always been the capable President, his nemesis and rival. Even with her disease, it had felt like she would always be with them. Seeing her so defeated unnerved him more than he could admit.

They had been standing for what seemed like an eternity before Sarah finally spoke.

"Look." She raised a slender hand and pointed to a skylight.

Through the skylight, Tom could see the light of day beginning to dawn. In a few short hours, the city would begin to awaken. He looked at Sarah, and he knew she understood. They were running out of time.

Laura craned her neck to look. She turned to Tom, her voice sharp.

"Well, we had better get going then."

She turned to Sarah expectantly, but Sarah gave a yelp and thrust her head into her hands as if in extreme pain. Laura looked at him in bewilderment.

They both stood watching her anxiously, until she tentatively raised her head.

"I'm…not supposed to be doing this," she said weakly.

Tom blinked. He had never seen a Cylon in this condition before. It occurred to him that he really didn't know anything about Sarah. For all he knew, the Cylons had implanted a tracking device in her, or a bug that recorded every word they said.

Laura seemed to be thinking along the same lines, for she turned her head and gave Tom a pointed look.

Sarah glared at both of them.

"You know, there's no need to look at each other like I'm not here. I have eyes, you know."

Tom gave an apologetic mumble, but Laura crossed her arms and returned Sarah's glare. Tom groaned inwardly as Sarah stepped forward, invading Laura's personal space.

"Do you not trust me, Madame President?"

She spoke Laura's title with mock reverence, and Laura smirked in response.

"Oh, of course I do, Sarah," she responded sweetly. "It's just a bit of an adjustment for me. You see, on Galactica, I would have had your type thrown out the nearest airlock."

Sarah's lip curled up to reveal gleaming white teeth, predatory and sharp. Tom's blood ran cold.

"Excuse me," he said loudly, "But I thought we were trying to escape. We are wasting precious hours." Both of the women ignored him. Abandoning discretion, he grabbed Laura's arm. He grimaced when he felt how thin she was.

"We can work out our differences when we escape," he continued, while Laura slid her arm out of his grasp.

At the word escape, Sarah pulled her lips into a thin line. She gave one last withering glance at Laura, and then nodded at Tom.

"You're right," she said. "We shouldn't fight among ourselves. Let's go."

She took Tom's hand and began to march down the hall, leaving Tom to rather ungracefully reach for Laura. Laura jumped at his touch, but then followed along, seemingly docile.

They walked a long line of hallways, and Laura stared at all of the doors, her mouth open in child-like wonder. Once again, Tom found himself fighting off the urge to laugh.

They made it through the building without incident. In fact, it was eerily silent. Tom felt relaxed by the silence, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on Sarah. She seemed to have turned into an animal, her every muscle coiled beneath her skin. She crept along the walls, her eyes moving back and forth frantically. She was holding Tom's hand so tightly that he could feel it turning blue. He was about to snap at her to let him go when she stopped in her tracks.

He was caught by surprise, and stepped backwards onto Laura's foot, prompting Laura to curse in a most un-presidential way. Sarah shushed them both, and then smiled.

"We're here."

Tom squinted in the darkness. Laura mumbled about not being able to see anything, her breath hot on his neck.

Sarah ignored them both, and stepped forward. Her hand closed on a knob, and Tom saw the outline of a door. His heart began to pound uncontrollably. There were so many things that could be waiting on the other side of that door. Would they escape? Or would they step in front of a firing squad?

Sarah turned the knob, and he heard Laura gasp. Through the crack, he could see light. Faint and weak, but light nonetheless. The idea of actually seeing light that wasn't glimpsed from a skylight thrilled him. He stood on his tip-toes, craning his neck.

Sarah stepped over the threshold first, and then Laura. Tom followed after her, closing the door lightly beside him.

Oh, there was light! And trees and grass and shrubs…he was overwhelmed by the variety of it all. He gulped the air in breaths so large that he felt dizzy. New Caprica was still an ugly and gray place, he knew, but right now it looked to him like a paradise of the gods. Tom glanced over at Laura, who seemed to be having the same experience. Sarah however, seemed disinterested.

"Come on. We don't have much time left."

She turned and began to walk. Tom reluctantly stopped admiring the glory of the outdoors, and started to follow her. Laura followed suit.

"Sarah, where are we exactly?" he asked. "Where is everyone?"

Sarah pursued her lips. "We're behind the detention building," she said, "And as for your second question, I think we got lucky."

Laura looked like she was going to say something, but Tom shot her a look. They didn't need any more clashing of wills.

He tried to match Sarah's lengthy stride as they turned from behind the building and started towards the city. He wondered what would happen when they got there. Would they welcome him back, he wondered. He had brought back the President, but he had also brought a Cylon with him.

Tom sighed. He couldn't bear to ponder this any longer. It was in the hands of the gods now. He looked at Sarah, but found that she had stopped and was staring straight ahead, her face white as a sheet.

Their luck had run out.

********

Sarah had known this would happen. There was no possible way that they could have escaped the detention facility without running into some Cylons. But Sarah had hoped that there would only be one or two, so that she could disable them quickly and move on. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

They came over the hill to the east. There had to be at least twenty Centurions, their red eyes scanning over them, ready to fire. They clomped on the grass, and Sarah felt her stomach tighten, and her head began to pound even more than before.

In front of them walked Cavil, a light smirk playing on his face.

"Sarah, dear, the charade is over." He spoke pleasantly, as if inviting her over for tea.

Sarah looked at her companions. Laura was shaking at the sight of the Centurions, and Tom had turned an unenviable shade of green.

She needed to buy time. "Cavil, you won't kill me. We can't harm our own kind."

Cavil laughed harshly. "The rules are changing. In fact, I seem to recall it being your model that committed the first act of Cylon on Cylon violence, am I correct?"

Sarah could have sworn that the eyes of the Centurions flashed a bit, as if to demonstrate their agreement.

She leaned over to Tom and whispered in his ear. "When I give the signal, I want you to take Laura and run, do you understand?"

Tom looked even sicker than before, but he nodded mutely.

"All right, Cavil," she said, "So you will kill me. But you won't shoot them. They're too important."

"Honestly, they've been a bit of a nuisance for a while," Cavil said. "It might be nice to be rid of them."

He spoke confidently, but Sarah could see the doubt underneath. He couldn't murder two such important prisoners without the consent of the group.

Cavil seemed to realize that Sarah knew his dilemma, because his eyes hardened.

"If you don't come with us, I will order the Centurions to fire, and you will all be dead. You have ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight…"

Laura clamped a hand over her mouth. Tom was visibly shaking.

"Seven, six, five…"

Sarah looked at Tom and nodded. She watched as Tom took Laura's hand.

"Four, three, two, one…"

"Go!" Sarah screamed.

The Centurions began to fire as Tom and Laura ran back down the hill. Sarah groaned. They were too slow.

Cavil yelled an order, and the Centurions re-directed their fire towards Tom and Laura. Laura screamed as the bullets whizzed past them.

With a burst of energy, Sarah ran in front of them and pushed them both to the ground.

"Run, run!" she yelled.

Laura was screaming hysterically. Sarah watched as Tom pulled her to her feet and the two stumbled back down the hill.

The Centurions were approaching. With a grim smile, Sarah took out her weapon. She wondered for a moment if there had ever been any Cylon on Centurion violence. Probably not. Well, she thought, there's a first time for everything.

She fired, and the closest Centurion shuddered and burst into flame. Cavil swore loudly.

"Sarah, stop this! Would you betray your own?"

Sarah shot another Centurion in answer. She looked behind her, and saw that Tom and Laura were about twenty yards away. They needed more time. If they could get behind that building…

The Centurions were surging, the clanking metal and gleaming red eyes surrounding her. She couldn't hold them all. Sarah fired her weapon randomly into the air, but there were too many.

The world was starting to spin, and she wanted to lie down. Everything was becoming dark and fuzzy. Sarah gave one last glance behind her; Tom and Laura were nowhere to be seen.

She brought a hand to her stomach, feeling the urge to vomit. She withdrew her hand, and saw that it was covered with blood. She understood vaguely that she had been shot, but she was very tired.

Sarah fell to the concrete and lay still. She saw her own blood run onto the pavement, and then the world went black.