Steve stared down into Shane's glassy, unseeing eyes. "Come on, dude," Steve said. His fingers searched along Shane's neck for any sign of a pulse. Was there something there? Steve couldn't tell. If there was, it was so faint, he did not want to trust it.
How long does this damn antidote take? he wondered as he looked for any sign of life. He was feeling better, but then he had been exposed for a lot shorter time than Shane. Not to mention-
"Please."
Steve jerked his head around to see Lawrence. He had managed to crawl out of the gas chamber when Steve had rushed out to get the antidote, but the effects of the toxin were still visible. Lawrence's body shuddered from the spasms and his word was barely audible.
"Please," Lawrence gasped. His eyelids were drooping, but Steve could see that he was looking at the vials of antidote on the ground in the chamber behind Steve.
Steve stared at the man in disbelief. He reached back, picked up one of the vials, held it up in the air, and stood up. He stepped toward Alamain. "You want this?" Steve asked, as he loomed over Lawrence. "You're going to sit there and beg for mercy, Alamain? After everything you did. After the hell you put my family through. You think I'm going to have mercy on you?"
The fury was rising in him. He thought of the months of torment in Lawrence's labs, how Kayla thought he was dead and how she wanted to die too. He thought of those missed nine months of Stephanie's life.
"If you think I'm going to waste one of these vials on you, Alamain, you're kidding yourself." Steve's jaw was clenched so tight he could feel his teeth grinding together. "This is justice, dude. You're going to die with your own poison running through your veins."
"No."
The sound was so faint that Steve wasn't sure if he could believe it. But then he heard it again.
"No."
Steve spun around.
Shane was still lying on his back, but his head was turned. His chest heaved, laboring as he tried to breathe.
"Shane!" He rushed back and dropped to his knees. Even in that moment, Steve could see the antidote working its magic. Shane's eyes seemed to open a little more and they focused on Steve.
"Lawrence," Shane said, his voice still faint. "Give . . . give it to him." His eyes turned to the antidote that Steve was still holding in his hand.
No way. He's not getting away with this. Steve shook his head.
Shane took a deep breath and grimaced. "Don't be like him." He spoke a little more strongly. "You're better than him. You beat him, Steve."
"After everything he's done, Shane. . . ." Steve could not even finish the sentence. After everything.
But Shane pushed. "It's not mercy. Think about it. Look at him. . . . You won. You, the insignificant lab rat. . . . You want him to suffer? Make him spend the rest of his days knowing you beat him."
Steve started to shake his head, but he looked at Lawrence, who was shuddering on the ground. A whimpered "please" escaped Lawrence's lips. "Please," he begged again.
The vial felt heavy in Steve's hand as he stood up. In his head, he recited a list of Lawrence's crimes. He thought of Kayla that night she thought he had died, how she had told him about going to the roof and staring up at he stars and feeling totally alone. He thought of Stephanie losing those nine months with him. And there was the hell that Lawrence put Kim, Jennifer, Mrs. Horton, Jack, and all those people through.
And you.
"You put me through hell, Alamain," Steve growled. He stepped toward Lawrence, but it was only a single step. "All those times you fed me your poison, thinking maybe this time it would kill me. . . ."
Behind him, in a voice a little stronger than before, Shane spoke. "Steve, don't-"
"I'm doing what I have to, Donovan," Steve said, his eye fixed squarely on Lawrence's gasping, pain-filled face. "That's right, Larry." Steve took a few steps closer and now loomed over the prone man. "You thought you were going to kill us all, but look at you, dying from your own poison. For a guy who thinks so damn much of himself, that's about as stupid as it gets."
"Steve!"
Steve waved a dismissive hand in Shane's direction and crouched down next to Lawrence. He grinned, wondering how well Lawrence could even see him.
"You are one arrogant SOB, Alamain, but how does that saying go? Pride goeth before the fall and all that." Steve had to chuckle as he saw, even amidst the twitching muscles in Lawrence's face, a flinch. "Yeah, you heard me. . . . Donovan is right, though. Nothing would make you suffer more than living - and knowing that you owe your life to someone as insignificant as little ol' me, Steven Earl Johnson."
Lawrence let out a strangled sound. The words were unintelligible, but Steve knew it was some kind of protest.
"That's right," Steve continued. "I'm going to give you this antidote. I'm going to let you live. And then I'm going to go to the school and stop your man there. And every day, when you sit in that jail cell and think of how it all went wrong, you're gonna know. It's because you screwed up. It's because you decided you could destroy the life of someone you thought was insignificant. Only he wasn't - and he beat you. . . ." As Steve finished, he uncorked the vial. Holding it in his left hand, he reached out with his right and, not at all gently, clamped his thumb and index finger around Lawrence's lips forcing them into an "o" shape. Without hesitating, he poured the full contents of the vial down Lawrence's throat and shoved the man onto his back. "Who's insignificant now?" Steve asked.
From where he fell, Lawrence stared up at Steve while the antidote took effect. As the muscle tremors lessened and Lawrence strength returned. Steve saw the look of disbelief form in Lawrence's face before he finally managed to ask, "How?"
Steve laughed. "Oh, that's the best part, Alamain. You don't even realize it. You see, while you were testing your poison on this insignificant lab rat, I was building up an immunity to it. So you see, not only did you get beat by a guy who doesn't even make a blip on your radar, you're the one who made it all possible." Steve glanced over at the camera. "Since you're so into movies, let me put it like this. I'd call it one hell of a plot twist."