Chapter 8.6

The interior was different than the other labs and there were thankfully few people about. The equipment was larger with functions I couldn't begin to fathom. At the centre of the room there was a series of large disks set up on a run with wire wrapped around each disk, at the end it was attached to an amp and a screen giving off a continual stream of numbers. The machine gave off an unhealthy hum and I gave it a wide berth as I headed to the other end of the room. In any other situation, I would have found it easy to get lost in the strange mechanisms that surrounded the room, but given the urgency, as soon as I spotted the alternate door, I headed for it. I gave a quick glance over my shoulder, but no one was paying me any mind, so I slipped out.

On the other side, I realised immediately why we had to swap jobs- Bella would have never gotten passed all those men. I left behind the calm of the lab, everything was buzzing, armed men were everywhere, and it took me twice as long to navigate compared to how it normally would. As I side-stepped to avoid one person, someone else would immediately be in my path and I'd have to avoid them as well, all the while keeping an eye on what was behind to stop someone from running into me from behind. I struggled to dodge the oncoming stream of people while still moving forwards, but I remembered Theo's instructions; I ignored the corridor that joined and waited until I got to the T junction. Left and then the first door on my right. I gladly left the buz behind, and slipped into the cool control room, gently shutting the door behind.

"I knew it had to be you, no one else would get passed all those men." I hear Raven's voice ring out, and as I glanced over my shoulder, I saw she lazily leant on the monitor behind her. Even though I knew I was invisible, she looked in our direction and if I didn't know better, I would say she could see us. But as I crept to the left, her eyes didn't follow. We gave her a wide berth and headed for the opposite end. To be honest, I wasn't sure how to destroy the communications, so I was planning on doing as much damage as I could, but having Raven there made that a little more difficult. Suddenly, she turns, and I see the gun nestled in her hand is pointing in our direction. "Don't you dare move."

I didn't. Maybe if I kept still enough, she would think she was crazy for threatening empty space. At least, that's what I hoped. With her other hand, she threw something at us. A small ball missed us and hit the wall to our left and bust on impact, spreading a cloud of black dust over my face. I sneezed.

She grinned, "just remember there's always someone smarter than you. Get them to turn around." Raven held a gun, nose pointed steadily at my head. At this point, I was accustomed to having guns pointed at me, and it wasn't the first time it was by someone who was supposedly my ally.

Having been exposed, Shadow slipped off and stood by my side. "I'm not going to do that."

"I did think you would." She sighed, her finger pulled back the hammer and she let a bullet loose. It flew closely past my shoulder and billowed into the plaster behind me, showering dust all over me.

"I would have thought you would know that threatening me with guns wouldn't work." I answered with a bored expression.

She shrugged slightly "It was worth a shot- pardon the pun."

Theos voice buzzed over the radio, "Ezra, hurry up, they're in the village."

"It's too late for you to escape now. Just give up."

"But that's what I don't get. Why do you want us to give up? People are going to die and your fault. You're going to die."

"They won't get down here." She says defiantly.

"I don't think you believe that."

"You can believe what you want."

"You have your own way out, don't you? One that isn't on the maps." I nodded to myself, slowly piecing it together. "But then there's still the why you wouldn't evacuate everyone…"

"Keep talking boy and see where it gets you…" her voice turns bitter.

"You never wanted everyone to survive… You didn't want me to go after the kids either, especially when you found out they were like me. When you decided you couldn't control us, you thought you'd just get rid of us?" I don't know why I was surprised; I'd lived in Garlantia and I knew what humanity was capable of, yet I continued to be surprised. Maybe I thought that Reaga would be different…

"Your creatures shouldn't be part of our history." She scrunched up her face as she spat out the words.

"That's not for you to decide. You're talking about genocide." I reasoned.

"Not if no one knows you exist."

My stomach twisted, "and what about the whitelisted?"

"I admit, it would look bad, but it's not like they're the only whitelisted group out there."

Raven had written off the entire base, all those Whitelisted that they rescued during the invasion, because of me and a group of kids Garlantia experimented on. Part of me felt guilty that I was the cause of it all, but the other part was enraged that she would go so far because she didn't think me and my kind, should be allowed to survive. My kind, who had no choice in the matter, whose mere existence was an insult to her.

Without another thought, my intentions extended to Shadow, and he thrust forwards with all his might into the panel behind her. Metal crushed, folding in on itself, shards of plastic and glass erupted out showering us with debris. The sound was deafening; the metal whined and screeched as it was compressed against itself and the wall behind it.

The blow was sudden and devastating, lasting only a couple of seconds but it threw Raven to the floor and winded her. Her grin was gone, replaced by rage and insult, she glared at me and slowly picked herself up from the floor.

She swayed on her feet, her hair was dishevelled, her clothes dusty and ripped and there was a thin cut across her cheek. Gone was the dignified cold-hearted leader that we'd grown to hate. "Luke should have left you for dead when he found you all those years ago." She spat, and levelled the gun at my face once more.

Shadow hit her from the side, and she pummels to the floor again. The gun skids to a halt at my feet. It was a revolver, not one that was usually used in the military because it could only hold six rounds. My heart started hammering in my chest as I knelt to pick it up. My fingers were numb, and they stumbled over the barrel, almost dropping it again. I rub my thumb over the engraving in the grip.

Raven starts laughing hysterically. But I don't look up. My eyes traced the faded etching in the low light, searching for some sort of trick. A small clumsy moon and three short daggers.

The revolver was mine.