We crept out of the cell cautiously, both glancing in every direction for any guards who could have caught wind that I was freeing my family. Yet, since I saw no one approaching, we slithered out of the cell and began to make our way hurriedly down the hallway. Just as we had moved a few feet in one direction, there was a scratching of feet from behind, and suddenly, Krit was pitched forward, over my head, and I was forced to my knees with a gun at the back of my head.
"Give it up," a voice hissed, and I felt my stomach heave, knowing who it was.
"Brin, no."
"Alanza, if you think you can sway me with trivial names just like you were, you're wrong."
"What do you want from me?" I asked.
"Don't turn against Manticore, Alanza," she responded in almost a whimsical plea. "We'll still let you come back. Things like this can be overlooked."
Krit was sprawled on the tiled floor a couple feet in front of me, and had at first appeared to be unconscious from Brin's volatile blow, but I then noticed that his eyes were barely opened, so that it was indeed only an appearance of being inanimate. All I had to do was give a signal and he would run. Brin though, was too intent on making me come back to Manticore or killing me to notice that her brother wasn't quite as lifeless as she would have hoped.
"And when I come back? What will happen then?" I challenged.
"You can have your life back. Your real life."
"This is my real life," I hissed, making deliberate eye contact with Krit so that he knew that his time to run would be approaching.
"No," Brin snarled and shoved the tip of the gun deeper into my skin causing me to wince in pain. My own firearm was still cradled in between my fingers, fully armed and ready to kill if necessary. Yet, I was sincerely hoping that the situation wouldn't come down to that.
"My family is my real life, not them back there."
"What about 416 and the child, Alanza? Perhaps you can deny 416 and forget him, but can you really forget about that child that's inside of you right now? Can you?"
I bowed my head, hating how horribly truthful she was. "No," I whispered, "I can't."
"So, come back with us."
"Brin, I-"
"Alanza, we are your family here. Who else knows you better than us? We love you; we want you here with us. Your baby needs a home, and we'll provide one for it."
"And then what will I become? Nothing but a breeding tool for 416 to screw over and over as I pop out kid after kid. No. I will not come back to Manticore."
"Be reasonable."
"I am being reasonable!" I shot back, twisting my head around just so I could catch a quick glimpse at how diabolically wonderful she looked, having been perfectly cured of the Progeria. She was ghastly beautiful. "You and your Manticorian friends tortured Dad, sent Mom off the deep end, tore Krit and Syl apart, destroyed Case, killed James, and ruined the rest of my family! And for all of that, I could forgive you. I could overlook it as just 'a glitch in the military madness'. But, what I cannot and will not overlook is what you did to me.
"You stripped away everything I ever was. I couldn't laugh, smile, cry or even talk because of what you did to me. I was shaven, tortured, attempted to be brainwashed, impregnated, and deceived. In short, you murdered me, and for that, I can never, ever, forgive. Which is why it is time for me to leave."
In a flash, I shot my legs out behind me so that I ended up kicking Brin a good distance down the hallway. Krit, seeing that I was going to take care of Brin, sprang to his feet, giving a curt nod in my direction before hurrying away. I, though, barely had time to reciprocate his gesture before Brin was back up on her feet, dancing dangerously around.
My fingers flickered over the trigger of my sleek gun. Personally, I didn't want to kill anybody, but I had a suspicious feeling that if I valued my own life, the gun would be extremely handy. Come on, I reminded myself, you murdered a top agent, all you have to do now is defend yourself. Yet, that thought was immediately smacked back into the depths of my brain with the harsh reminder that 415 had murdered Sandoval-not me.
Without warning, Brin hurled me against the opposite wall, pressing the tip of her own gun against the top of my chin so that I could feel the protrusion through the bottom of my mouth. I cringed in pain, feeling hot tears pool in the corners of my eyes as my breath came out ragged and harsh.
"Join me?" Brin taunted.
Pain or no pain, I somehow managed to find enough energy to suck my air back and spit directly in her eye. She reeled backwards, disgusted with my display, which gave me just enough leverage to bring my fist smashing upward into her nose, causing blood to erupt. Brin bellowed an animalistic growl furiously, aimed her gun at me and shot.
In a flash, I dove out of the way, but unfortunately not soon enough, for the bullet grazed my upper forearm, causing me to scream as well. I collapsed to the ground, wincing and screaming from the agony, as she scuttled down to point the gun at my face.
"If you won't join us alive, you might as well join us dead," she hissed. Her eyes were wild with excitement, widened and incandescent, while beads of perspiration had formed on her pale forehead, which was smothered in strands of thick black hair. I didn't see the lovable Brin, but the devil instead.
I saw what I had been.
There was a low popping noise that echoed off of the empty walls, and suddenly Brin pitched forward, collapsing on top of me, as she clutched at her chest where her blood poured onto me. Her eyes rolled backward into her skull, revealing their grotesque whites, and a low moan escaped her lips as if she was trying to say something in her last minutes of life. For a moment, I was absolutely paralyzed by fear and disgust, then I slowly rose to my feet, pushing the warm body off of me, and to the floor.
Timidly, I crouched down and kissed her on the forehead, whispering through pursed lips so as not to cry, "Brin, I'm sorry." With that awful admonition, I dropped my gun that had been used to murder her-by my own hand-and hurried away down the hallway.
Kill or be killed.
