Cruel
Twists of Fate
2017
Loren stood just a little
straighter and kept her gaze trained upon her husband. She still believed
in her heart that he would never hurt her. No matter
what.
X4-316 leveled the gun at
Lori's chest as he aimed. Slowly, his gaze drifted up to meet hers.
What he saw there startled him. Blue eyes filled with forgiveness...and
unconditional love. He was going to kill her, and she didn't seem to
care.
"Do I get any last words,
Deck?" She asked without the slightest hint of
fear.
Lydecker sighed. "I
suppose so. But, you're just delaying the
inevitable."
"I love you, Nick." Lori
whispered. "I love you more than anything in this world. I wanted to
tell you before you left, but I knew you'd want to stay. So...I kept it a
secret. I didn't tell you. I...I...I was pregnant when you left to
look for the X5s." There were tears in her eyes as she continued. "I
lost the baby, Nick."
X4-316
remained steady, his gun pointed at Lori's chest. There was not even a
tremor to his features. Nick was
gone.
"You can kill me now."
She declared in a sorrow filled voice. If nothing else, Nick would be the
last thing she saw before she died. "I'll be waiting for you in Heaven
with our son, Nick. I love
you."
"Kill her,
X4-316."
316 checked his aim and
pulled the trigger.
X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4
RX barely had time to hide
his tools as the prison door swung open and two guards entered. Without a
word, they pulled Logan roughly out of his chair and dragged him to the
door.
The teenager balled his fists
at his sides angrily. "Let him go." He
hissed.
The guard glanced back at
the scrawny teenager and raised an amused eyebrow. "What did you say to
me?"
"I said, let him go." RX
reiterated in a steady voice. "Don't you speak English,
Freak?"
The guard snorted.
"And, what are you going to do if we don't 'let him go?'
"
"RX." Logan warned,
effectively interrupting the teenager before he went off on a verbal tirade that
would have undoutedly gotten him killed. "Don't. I'll be all
right."
RX slouched and didn't
bother to look up as the door swung shut on his cell. He was alone.
X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4
316 pulled the trigger, and
Lori began to see everything happening in slow motion. The bullet missed
her by a few inches and struck the side of the door she had just entered.
With lightning speed, he grabbed Lydecker around the neck roughly. "My
name is Nick, and don't you ever forget it!" He
hissed.
Lori's eyes widened even as
she gasped her surprise. "Nick!" She
squeeled.
"See, Deck, *she* knows my
name." He pushed the muzzle of the gun to Lydecker's temple and smiled
over at his wife. "Yes, sweetheart, it's really me this
time."
Her brow furrowed as she took
a step back. "Is it?" She asked warily.
"Don't get me wrong, but this isn't
the time for your faith in me to lapse. If we're going to make it out of
Hell alive, Eurydice, we're going to have to move fast and think even
faster." Nick explained tightening his hold around Lydecker's
neck.
Lori bit into her lower
lip. "That was an Orpheus reference, wasn't
it?"
"Yes, it was." He
grinned. "And, will you stop doing that lip thing already! God,
Lori, you have to know how cute you look when you do that. You're drivin'
me crazy over here!"
"Boy oh boy,
have I missed you." She responded with a
laugh.
"I've missed you, too,
baby. But, I have to insist that we put our feelings aside until we're
safe and away from here."
Lori
nodded. "What's the plan?"
Nick looked away for a minute and shrugged sheepishly. "I...uh...don't really
have one at the moment."
Lori
giggled. "Than be glad I do, my love."
X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4*X4
Nick took a few calming
breaths before he left the safety of the room. This wasn't going to be
easy. He had to concentrate to make himself look more like X4-316 than
Nick Davis. It had to be apparent to everyone that he was only
pretending. Strangely enough, no one seemed to notice the
difference.
Nick stopped cold and
kept his eyes trained on something just ahead of him. Movement. He
frowned and continued to walk toward the person near the end of the
hallway. Apparently, the young man didn't know that he had been
seen. He was crouched in the shadows of a doorway, no doubt praying that
Nick would turn and walk the other way.
The distance between Nick and the
youth closed quickly. Effortlessly, he lifted the young man up by the
collar and held him, dangling, before his eyes.
RX kicked out his legs and
struggled desperately to free himself. "Let me go! Let me go!"
He screeched. He was surprised when his captor covered his mouth to dull
his shouts fo help. It was only then that the teen took a closer look at
the man standing in front of him. His eyes grew large with
recognition.
"Are you going to be
quiet now?" Nick asked in a soft
voice.
RX bobbed his head. The
moment Nick removed his hand, the young man was whispering hurriedly.
"You're him. You're Nick. You're Lori's husband, right? Where
is she? Is she all right? Are you all right? Do you remember
anything?"
Nick sighed and covered
RX's mouth again. "Yes. My name is Nick. I'm Lori's
husband. She's fine. I'm fine, and I remember everything. Now,
in ten words or less...who are you?"
"RX, I'm Lori's foster son and partner in crime." RX explained
simply.
"Lori and her big
heart. You must be one of the two civilians we have to save. Mind
telling me how you got of your cell to cower the halls like that?"
"I wasn't cowering! I rewired
the electronic lock on my prison cell. The door opened
automatically. It's a piece of cake." The teenager couldn't help but
grin with pride at his accomplishment.
Nick seemed impressed. "Then,
maybe you would be interested in helping me get something from the lab for
Lori?"
"I'd do anything for
Lori."
"That makes two of us.
Come on." Nick kept an iron grip on RX's arm as he led the teen through
the corridors of the Manticore complex. A few individuals cast them an
interested glance as they passed by, but none seemed willing to question their
presence. Perhaps the scientific staff had simply learned not to pose
unneccessary questions to the soldiers and the security of Manticore. "All
right, RX, do you see that camera?" RX followed Nick's finger and nodded
as the camera swept by the lab door. "It pans the length of the hallway
every two and a half minutes. That's how long you're going to have to
hotwire that door. If you can't do it, you better tell me
now."
RX frowned at the camera.
"Don't diss me, Man. I can do it in one and a half
easy."
"I'll make sure no one walks
by until you're done. On my mark." Nick whispered, watching the
camera swing past them. "Go." He delivered a swift push to the
teen's back.
RX bolted across the
hallway and stopped in front of the lab door. With only a swiss army knife
to facilitate him, he pried the plastic cover off and began to scan the wires
and circuits underneath. Humming to himself, RX began cutting, twisting,
and reattaching several wires. The door buzzed. He smiled with
satisfaction as he propped it open with his foot and returned the wires he'd
relocated to their proper place. One wave at Nick signaled his completion
of the task...in one and half minutes
exactly.
Nick followed RX into the
lab and scanned the vast room nervously. There were several scientists
working on various projects. None of them seemed to care about the door or
who had just entered through it. Nick gently pushed RX onto the ground
behind a counter and strode off to the center of the room. "Dr.
Petruso?"
Startled, the mouse-like man looked up
from his microscope. "Yes?"
"I
have an order signed by Col. Lydecker that needs to be filled ASAP." He
handed the doctor a piece of paper. The doctor looked at it, frowned,
glanced up at Nick, shrugged, and marched off to a supply cabinet. He
returned with a small bag.
"Are you
sure the Colonel wanted this?"
"Are
you questioning my ability to follow orders, Doctor?" Nick asked with a
hard tone.
Dr. Petruso paled.
"Um...No, no, not at all 316."
Nick
took the bag from the doctor's hand and walked slowly back across the lab.
He stopped at the door and turned around to make sure that no one was
watching. RX jumped up from his hiding place and hurried out the door in
front of Nick.
When the men
were safely on their way back to Lori, RX ventured a look at the bag Nick was
carrying. "What's in that, anyway? What did she need so badly out of
the lab?"
Nick appeared to consider
his response before speaking. "It's Lethe, and it's for Lydecker."