Chapter 28: Death Visits
I remember being attacked for a second time that day—by a few familiar faces as well—before they overpowered me and I was knocked out and thrown into one of the military cars. I remember waking up in the backseat and seeing the familiar building that made my stomach turn. I remember being roughly handled, pulled out of the car, and dragged up the front stairs while I weakly fought back. But most of all I remember seeing Sai's face sneering down at me when I was brought all the way to the top until a needle was stuck into my arm and I lost all consciousness again.
When I awoke I was strapped down into a chair with Sai standing in front of me. My body was telling me I had been out for days. How many though, I wasn't sure.
"Seem familiar to you?" Sai asked stretching his arms out.
I looked around the room and back down at my chair and realized that I was sitting in the exact same chair Zach had been sitting in what seemed like ions ago.
Looking back at Sai I could see the remote in his hands and watched as he flipped a switch.
Electric jolts went through me as I shook. I tried to tell myself it was all in my head when it was, but my body refused to believe me. My body only believed that I was being electrocuted.
"You were very disobedient Cameron," Sai said as if he were speaking to a dog. "Very disobedient, indeed."
I clenched my teeth. He flipped the switch back and the bolts disappeared in an instant.
"I know there was someone else with you in those woods. My guards told me that they pressed buttons and flipped switches on the controller and nothing happened, which leads me to suspect that it was you're long lost hubby out there with you." He walked up closer to me staring me straight in the eyes, his breath hitting my face like a gust of wind—rough, wild, and cold. "He had escaped from here as weel and I don't see how he could survive out there by himself. He was so…what's the word, not in terribly great shape." He smiled as if he had won and I knew that he thought Zach was alone out there and dying. I tried to look sadden by his false revelation.
A button was pressed and I couldn't breathe. I wasn't sure if he had closed my throat or simply told my brain that it was closed when it wasn't and I could no longer take in oxygen. Either way I couldn't breathe and was suffocating.
"We only were able to receive a few of my experiments back," Sai continued. Experiments, that was Sai's word for us and it had to be the worst of them all. At least if you were called a slave or prisoner you were considered human on some level, even if it was low, but an experiment you weren't human at all just a living, breathing test subject on legs. "And with my temper, ah, none of them were able to last. It's a pity."
He killed them, I thought.
I could feel my head starting to become light.
He's going to kill me now.
Sai looked at me with glee and an upturned smile. "I suppose you think now I'm going to let you suffer the same fate, Cameron, my dear." He held up the controller in his hand. "But no." Another press of the button and I greedily gulped the air around me and closed my eyes relishing it. "I need someone to show at my presentation. Trust me Cameron when I tell you this, I have big plans for you and later on, don't worry, you'll receive your much needed punish—"
Sai wasn't able to finish his statement when one of the guards burst into the room. "Sir?" I opened my eyes.
"What!" Sai screeched, blazing with anger.
"We—um, have a problem?" The guard said it as a question.
Sai shook his head and followed the guard outside the room. Minutes later Sai returned with ruffled hair and somewhat of a smile as he looked at me. "Well Cameron, it appears like I now know what I'm going to do with you." His hand reached behind his back as my restraints lifted away.
I waited, sitting still, and watched as he pulled out a gun.
"It seems we have some unwanted guests up in front." He held the gun out in front of him. "Would you mind taking care of the problem?" My hand reached for the gun. My fingers slid across the polished machinery before gripping the cold, hard steel and bringing it to my chest. "Very good, follow me."
And I did with gun in hand. Not from my own free will of course if I had any free will in this matter the instant the gun was in my hand I would have shot Sai blankly in the face.
When we came towards to a narrow hallway that led to the front Sai turned to me with a devilish smile. "I suppose you want to know who the gusts are you're about to shoot for me." I could feel the walls starting to close tighter. "It appears that your husband and a friend of his have come over for a visit." Sai stopped walking while I continued walking, stepping right through a open doorway, pushing curtains away.
The gun became heavier as I stepped further across the room. Zach stood near the center. When he turned around I could see a flash of white bandage wrapped around his right ankle. He had his own gun strapped to his side but he didn't reach for it.
He looked at me, not pleased and confused before he took in the gun I held next to my side. For a second he seemed happy but it didn't last long.
My arm lifted up, gun in hand, pointing straight at my husband. "I'm sorry Zach. I—" My voice was cut off as my lips snapped shut.
He stood there looking at me with sadden, understanding eyes and still didn't reach for his own gun. He should have. It could all end here.
In my peripheral vision I could see Sai behind the curtains, grinning manically. He still had complete control over me and he knew it. He knew Zach couldn't do anything to stop this but just stand there. Because if Zach tried anything Sai would make me press the trigger and shoot him or he would simply make me shoot him anyway whether Zach moved or not.
Tears that could never come stung at my eyes and then the entire game changed.
Mick came out from above the staircase with a gun in her hand and was pointing straight at me because she didn't know what was happening. She didn't understand. To her all she could see was me preparing to shoot at Zach who was defenseless, held no weapons in his hands.
Shock wasn't evident on my face. It couldn't be because it was paralyzed in a way. But somehow Zach knew something changed. Whether it was a flicker in my eyes, the change in the atmosphere, or the fact that maybe he heard Mickey or could sense her, he knew. He turned around, staring over at Mickey who was standing on the last two steps of the staircase still aiming straight at me.
"Mick put the gun down," Zach told her calmly not moving and staring at her, only her. She didn't make a move. She didn't even take her eyes off me. Her face was completely emotionless.
"She's going to shoot you Zach," Mick replied her eyes narrowing on me as if she was trying to figure me out. I could feel my finger slightly pushing against the trigger of the gun, not pressing it yet, more like teasing it. My thoughts became rambled.
I knew by the look on Mick's face that she saw my change in hand pressure. Seeing that I was preparing to fire, almost teasing her or, well, Sai was anyway. There was a completely new tension in her posture.
"Mickey," Zach said in a tight but calm voice. "Stay out of this. You don't understand what's happening." But Mick never listened.
She fired the gun her aim straight at me and Mick Morrison never missed. I stood still, unable to move, gun in hand pointed at Zach. Everything played out in my mind as the shot went through the air and hit me straight in the chest as I collapsed, falling backwards from impact. I almost wanted to smile thinking I could finally move somewhat on my own accord. Because at least when I fall it won't be because someone pressed a button, it will all because of the law of physics.
Only it didn't work out that way. Instead, Zach got in the way.
He was standing at my left away from the bullet and the next minute he was in front of it, the bullet hit him in the chest and he collapsed onto the floor. It was the vision I had seen minutes before in my mind, only this time Zach and I switched places.
Right then I wanted nothing more than to drop the gun I held and run to Zach falling onto the floor next to him. But I didn't, I continued to stand there with a blank face as if I didn't care what had just happened when everything inside me was breaking apart.
Zach laid there motionless as Mick's jaw dropped completely shaken by the events. Not understanding why her partner just gave up his life for someone about to take it. However the expression didn't last long as she pulled herself together and aimed at me ready to fire again.
A shot rang out.
A/N: So, dramatic? Unexpected? Too much? Review, please, and tell me what you think.
