2036 chapter 12: The End.

 

Chapter 12: The End.

“Understand what’s going on around you. You are in a state of war. And you have precious little time to save yourselves.”

“There is a slow process which we call ‘Active measures’. The first stage being Demoralisation. It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralise a nation. The next stage is Destabilization. What matters is the essentials. Economy, Foreign relations, defence systems. The next stage is crisis, where the violent change of power, structure and economy lead to Normalisation. This is what will happen in the United States if you allow all the shmucks to put a big brother government in Washington DC, who will promised loads of things, Nevermind if the promises are fulfilled or not.”

“The timebomb is ticking. With every second, the disaster is coming closer and closer.”

“But the danger is real.”

-          Yuri Bezmenov, KGB defector.

00:02, May 24^th, 2036.

“On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair…”

“Felix, are you there?” They said.

“Yes.” I responded.

“Are you at the location?”

“Yes.” I said again.

“Do you know your objective?”

“Locate the remaining members of the terrorist cell, responsible for the attack on the UISC western bank. Intel suggests this site is where the remaining two members of the group, Elod Unger and Lilian Wood. Current directive is to capture both men alive for questioning.”

“Negative, your orders where to eliminate both targets.”

I mustered up the courage to protest.

“But what if they’re linked to other terrorist cells. Shouldn’t we bring them in to see what they know.”

I suddenly felt the device in the back of my head whir. They were readying the needles. I cringed to myself, praying to God that they were just trying to scare me into submission.

“You have your orders, Felix. You should probably follow them.”

“Yes, I understand. I’m sorry.” I said, bluntly.

“Yes, you are sorry.”

…

As I walked up to the centre, I felt something strange in my gut. Something I hadn’t really felt before. It wasn’t fear, I’d taken entire rooms of people out, this was just a kid and an old man. It wasn’t sadness, IO had made sure I didn’t get attached to anyone in the group. The only one I really got to know was Carmine, and she was probably dead now. IO made sure of that. No, it was something else.

Now, I realise it was dread. It wasn’t really the dread of what would happen to them, but the dread of what IO would make me do to them.

Not having complete control over my body was… weird. It’s not like all of my actions are completely controlled by IO, just a few. I could still blink, breathe, walk and speak like I used to, but whenever IO gave me an order, I just followed it. Or else that migraine-machine planted into my skull would start whirring. I had to go through with it. It was also weird having cybernetics all throughout my system. The palm knives where pretty uncomfortable, and I felt like I had to be incredibly careful with things, or else I’d lose some fingers. The new spine was weird as well. I couldn’t lay on my back anymore, and sitting down was pretty painful.

But hey. Not like I wanted any of this.

…

I began moving forwards, towards the centre. I still had a slight limp from where Rhys shot me, but I couldn’t feel it. IO had cut some of my nerves so that I couldn’t feel pain. I felt the rain splatter against my hood, where I felt the sudden urge to put my hand out. See if it was really acidic. I decided against it, or rather, IO did. They needed my hands to be in fully working order. I felt my hands reach for my pistol strapped at my side. The area was pretty remote, so no suppressor was needed. I was also using a gun with a lower calibre than my Desert Eagle. Even though the area As I came to the door of the centre, I checked my palm knives. I held my hand out flat and jerked them backwards, and two 4-centimetre knives slid out of my palms with a click. I jerked them forwards and they slid back in with a click.

Well, time to engage.

“IO, am I clear to engage.” I asked.

No response.

“IO, requesting permission to engage.”

Still nothing.

That was odd. I hadn’t made a real decision as an IO operative since… I’d never made a real decision as an IO operative.

So I decided to engage.

I walked into the darkened building, seeing how different it looked during the night. We’d only met here during the day, so seeing the centre on a rainy night felt like a trip to the uncanny valley.

I flipped on the lights, and then instantly regretted it.

The layout of the place was the same. Six large pillars in two rows. A circular plastic table, like one you’d see at a party. 5 metal chairs. It was almost like we’d left it yesterday.

The only difference was who was sitting in one of those chairs. 

I saw a beaten and bloodied body of someone sitting in that chair, slumped forwards and breathing heavily. His breathing sounded laboured and painful, like he’d just ran 500 miles, but also muffled. He wasn’t tied to the chair, but he was sitting on it like he was. His hands where twitching like a dying cockroach. But that wasn’t the strangest part. He had an old TV screen strung around his belly, switched off. That could only mean one thing.

This was a message from someone.

It took the guy 10 seconds to look up at me, and that’s when I saw it was Lilian. He had a bruise the size of a baseball on his right eyebrow, which reduced his eye to a small slit. His other eye was bloodshot and wide, like he’d just seen a ghost. His nose looked like it had been bleeding for a long time, judging by the dried blood on his shirt. His mouth was sealed shut by a thin piece of grey duct tape.

This didn’t make sense. First IO’s comms go down, and now Unger’s tech guy had been beaten half to death, and had a TV strapped to him.

“Lilian… what happened.”

He didn’t respond. All he did was move his hand up to the TV and switched it on. An image of Unger standing in front of a whiteboard, like he’d done so many times before, flickered onto the screen.

“Hello. My name is Elod Unger. If you’re watching this, that means IO has sent out an order for mine and Mr Wood’s execution. And your name is Felix Anon DeBlanc.”

I felt my skin crawl.

“You may be wondering why I know this. Well, it’s because the heist failed, and my plan worked. I understand you may be confused. Upset. Angry, at me. But it was what I needed to do. There was no other way.”

“To put it in layman’s terms, this wasn’t a heist.” He said. “This was a coup.”

What? I thought to myself.

Suddenly the screen flashed to show an emergency broadcast from the news, dated to today. The host was looking down at his script in both shock and horror.

“Yes, we… we do have reports… that Chairwoman Brie Kieran has been assassinated, along with many other members of the UISC’s congress… this includes Samantha Burgundy, CEO of the IO police corporation. It seems to be that… somebody hacked into the secure computer network used by each cabinet member… and overclocked their computers to the point of them… exploding. Robert Peele, CEO of GodsEyes law enforcement... has released an official statement… stating that they are putting the UISC under martial law. Oh my god.”

I expected myself to be overjoyed that I wasn’t being controlled by IO. But I felt myself feeling scared that any second now, I would hear the whirring of GodsEyes drones that would swarm the building and shoot me, like they did all those months ago.

I saw Lilian was trying his best not to cry. Then it hit me.

Unger didn’t need Lilian for the heist. He needed him to do something a lot worse.

When the TV turned back to Unger, he was wearing a reflective interrogation mask. Only this one had a small machine around the mouth.

“Don’t you find it strange that the CEO of the GodsEyes corporation has the same name as the founder of the first official police force in the world, and that unlike Burgundy, he hides his identity behind a mask and scrambler.” Said Unger.

The voice scrambler made him sound like Robert Pelle.

Oh.

Oh no.

“You see.” Said Unger (if that even was his name), taking off his mask “I never cared about the money. I just needed to send the UISC into a panic. First, a bank in San Francisco blows up, then the entire cabinet of the UISC is killed, also including my competition. And the best thing is… I have culprits.” He picked up four pictures. One of Lilian, one of Carmine, one of Rhys… and one of me.

“It’s funny what people will do for the promise of freedom. I wish I didn't have to do this to you all, but hey. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. My omelette is almost complete, and I can guarantee you, it’ll be a tasty one. The only thing left to do now…”

I heard the door open behind me.

“… is to discard of the eggshells.”

Before I drew my gun and fired blindly in the general direction of the doorway. I heard the shots of a 1911 and a Taser pistol from the two figures who’d just walked in. I took cover behind one of the support pillars, and so did they.

I quickly drew the conclusion that these weren’t GodsEyes agents.

It was Rhys, and someone else.

“You’re gonna pay for what you did to Carmine you prick!” He shouted.

“Wait, Rhys! We’ve… we’ve been manipulated from the start! Unger was using us to…”

But you can never leave.

My heart sank. I felt my body moving automatically. I felt the machine in the back of my head whirring.

It wasn’t IO controlling me this time. It was Unger.

My hands reloaded my gun at a terrifying speed. I knew what was about to happen. So, I said through gritted teeth, “Run.”

“What?” said a woman’s voice. I immediately recognised it as the woman who’d caught me. The one who’d chased me when I’d just shot Captain Shinkawa. Sarah.

Using all of my energy, I painfully shouted “RUN!” before my legs began moving forwards, then breaking into a sprint directly towards the pillar.

Rhys moved out of cover, pointed his gun at me. But he hesitated, and I drop kicked him in the chest, sending him about 10 feet backwards. My right hand then threw my gun to my left, and I fired two shots at Sarah’s head, barely missing her. I was using all of my power to try and miss my shots, and I was succeeding.

My body jerked upright, and my hand pointed my gun at Rhys, who had been winded by my attack. I tried to move my hand to the left, but then it happened. Everything suddenly went incredibly bright, and my head felt like it was going to explode. The migraine had begun.

Sarah punched me in the head, and my hand instinctively slashed her cheek with its palm knife. She screamed and fell backwards. My head jerked towards Rhys, who was grabbing his gun. Before he could fire, I tackled him to the ground, and I felt my hand try and stab down into his head, but he grabbed it. I tried to resist the mind control, but it was harder now. My other hand punched the back of my other, and the knife went directly into his eye. Rhys let out a blood curdling scream, and I tried desperately to pull my hand out as my head felt like it was full of lava.

I then felt a burning feeling in my back. Sarah had tased me. My body started vibrating violently, but not before I pulled my palm knife out of Rhys’s eye socket, as he let out an equally disturbing scream.

I fell onto my side and my body pulsed violently. In my peripheral vision, I saw Sarah grab Rhys’s gun. I tried to tell her to stop, but she was pointing the thing at me.

Rhys cried out “STOP!!” while clutching his now empty socket. Sarah shouted back at him “WHY! Think of how much death this guy has caused! Now I’m gonna do what I should’ve done 5 months ago!”

My hand grabbed her gun and pulled it downwards, causing Sarah to flinch and fire a shot. My other hand delivered a gut punch, then stood up, grabbed her entire body and threw her into a pillar. I heard something metallic (probably her spine implant) break as he grunted loudly.

My hand took the gun from hers, and aimed it at her head. I tried all I could to move it away, but my migraine just got worse. I then did something really stupid.

I pointed the gun at myself.

Using all of the energy I could muster, I used my other hand to grab the one still being controlled, and pointed the gun at my neck. 

“You’re not in control!” I bellowed. “I AM!!!”

Then I heard a gunshot and a metallic clank. From the back of my head. The migraine stopped. I felt my body stop running automatically.

I was free.

I held my hands up and shouted “Wait! He’s not controlling me.”

“Throw your gun away.” Said Rhys.

I did, and turned around.

“How do I know your not lying?” he said. He was holding my gun in one hand, and was covering his eye with the other. The bullet had only disabled the machine, and hadn't harmed be in any way.

“Because otherwise, Sarah would be dead.”

He seemed to take my word, and threw his gun down.

I heard Sarah behind. She cursed under her breath about her back.

I couldn’t think of anything to say other than “Sorry.”

“No… no it's alright.” She said. “You didn’t do it and… I’ll live.”

I heard Lilian let out a muffled laugh.

At that moment, I was glad that I wasn’t being controlled anymore, but also, I felt… clueless. I’d just stabbed someone in the eye and broken someone’s back, and now… I had no idea what to do.

It looks like Unger’s plan hadn’t worked entirely. The eggshells where still here.

“So what happens now?” I asked.

“Well.” Rhys said. “We should probably head back to the hospital.”

2036 Chapter 11: Till death do us part.

 

August 20^th, 2028. Punta Roca Partida, Mexico.

Rhys wasn’t sweating because of the heat. I could tell.

Everyone was gathered in the church. She’d specifically requested it. She and Rhys first met doing some charity work in the town this church overlooked, a month after the UISC and USA stopped trying to kill each other. The UISC had really screwed Mexico over during the war. They bonded over that week of renovating churches and feeding kids. When Rhys came back, he had a beaming smile on his face and was always texting and phoning her. The first time we all met her, we could tell the two really loved each other. 3 years later, here we were.

I’d never been anyone’s best man before. It was weird. You had to talk to loads of people, and they talked to you. But I was glad I was that day. It was my brother’s wedding, after all.

We heard the doors open. Everyone but Rhys turned to face it. She was clad in a white wedding dress (and sneakers), holding her dad's hand. “Ok… ok.” Rhys muttered to himself. He was nervous.

“Mason, I… uhm… I’m scared.”

“What you scared of?” I asked.

“What if I… what if I muck it up. What if I say the wrong thing, or…”

“Look man, you either do this now or you never do it again. And besides… you love her, don’t you?”

“Yeah… Yeah I do.” He replied. She was right next to him, but Rhys’ nerves seemed to have calmed.

He took her hand and walked up to the altar.

The balding priest guy opened his book.

Rhys took off her veil. They both smiled at each other.

“Ok, so if you could recite these words after me, please.” Said the priest. His English was pretty good.

“I, Rhys Smith…”

“I, Rhys Smith…”

“Take thee, Sarah Hargreaves…”

“Take thee… Sarah Hargreaves …”

“To be my lawfully wedded wife.”

“To be my lawfully wedded wife.”

“To have and to hold…”

“To have and to hold…”

“From this day forward, for better, for worse…”

“From this day forward, for better, for worse…”

“For richer, for poorer…”

“For richer, for poorer…”

“In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish…”

“In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish…”

“Till death do us part…”

Chapter 11: Till death do us part.

It’s not every day your brother-in-law asks you to help him steal and ambulance and try to save his friends from the police or a bald mind-controlled assassin that shot her co-worker. She took it pretty well, all things considered.

The last time we met was a week after the accident, at Rhys’ funeral. It was… strange. I’d never actually been to a funeral before. Rhys wanted to be cremated, but dad wanted to be able to visit him without having to go to the Himalayas, or wherever he said he wanted his ashes scattered. I was sad but… I didn’t think it was real. Me and him, we’d known each other our entire lives. We’d gone our separate ways in the past but… we were like the same person. It just felt wrong.

Like, in some weird way, a part of me was gone too.

Sarah wasn’t very cheerful either. The last thing she said to me was “I don’t ever wanna see your goddamn face ever again.” I used to think she slipped up with her words, because me and Rhys literally had the same face. Now, I realise meant what she meant. She didn’t want to see Rhys’ face ever again. They were as close as two people could be and, I think, losing him really got to her. After that I heard she joined Themis as a paper-pusher.

That was five years ago.

I’d got excited about hearing Sarah was here when I was talking with Akira, but I didn’t know what to say to her. “Hey Sarah, person I haven’t seen in five years! I need you to steal an ambulance with me!” It didn’t feel right. To show up after all those years out of the blue and ask for a favour like this.

But Lilian and Unger could be in danger.

I couldn’t call them, driving into the bay had broken my phone. I could use a stranger's phone or the hospital one, they wouldn’t respond to an unknown number. My only way of contacting them would be in person.

…

She was fast asleep when I found her in the hospital waiting room lobby.

Weirdly, she was still in full Themis uniform. Standard issue police cut, dark blue Jacket, grey gloves, black trousers, she even had her Themis Taser pistol on her. The way she was sitting was… awkward. She was leaning forward, but she was sitting mostly upright, like her back was keeping her there. The only thing she didn’t have were the standard Themis boots, because she was wearing those sneakers. I chuckled to myself. After 5 years of being in Themis, she was still sort of the same. I didn’t expect her to be an officer either, but I guess they needed the manpower. Or she was just really good.

I couldn’t waste time, so I tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

Nothing.

I tapped her a bit harder.

Nope.

I gave her a light shove.

“AAARGH!!” she jumped to consciousness with a shout, making me and a lot of other people in the lobby jump. Her hand went to her gun.

I raised my hands in defence “Whoa! Sarah, Sarah! It’s me.”

She took a second to recognise me. She squinted at me, thinking I might have been a stress-induced hallucination. But then her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and she rested her gun hand on her leg.

“R-Rhys?” She asked, quietly.

“Nah… sorry.” I said.

“Mason?”

“Yeah.”

…

“What are you doing here?” She finally broke the silence.

“I… I need your help.” I told her.

“What with?”

My mind was racing to find a way of explaining my situation. I couldn’t tell her that I was trying to help the people indirectly responsible for the bank explosion. But I couldn’t lie to her either, not after all these years.

Then I remembered.

“Y’know the guy who shot Captain Shinkawa?” I asked.

“Yeah… wait, how do you know about that?”

“I had a chat with him just a minute ago. Anyway, Felix’s coming after my friends next. And we… we need to get there before he does.”

“Okay, okay, slow down!” She said. “Why is Felix after them?”

Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. “Uh, we… we…”

Screw it, I thought to myself. I’ll tell her what actually happened.

“I got involved in a group of idiots who wanted to rob the UISC western bank…” I whispered.

“Wh-WHAT!” she shouted, before remembering she was in a public place.

“Look, I know it sounds bad, but the explosion wasn’t our fault. There was a gas leak in the main vault and one of our guys was…” I cringed to myself. “… trying to burn the money.”

…

“R-Mason… you’re telling me you and your friends…” she briefly looked over her shoulder “…blew up a public place ‘accidently’ and put several people in hospital?!”

“… It… was… an accident.”

She didn’t look happy.

“I should get going. Akira wouldn’t want me moping around here all night.” She started towards the door.

“Sarah, wait!” I shouted. I couldn’t let her go. She was the only way I could save them.

“I really need to get going.”

“You haven’t even let me explain my pl-”

“BECAUSE MY ANSWER IS NO!!”

I paused in shock. She looked at me for the first time since I woke her up, before turning to the door.

That… that hurt. She was my only real connection back to Rhys. I hadn’t been able to call Dad since after the UISC was formed. Something about preventing foreign powers from interfering in national relations, or so they said. Rhys’s friends had stopped talking to me after his death and mum… mum…

Let’s just say I won’t be seeing her for a very long time.

…

Eventually I mustered up the courage to walk out the hospital door. My fear was a mix of “What if I get seen and sent back to re-education” and “What if Sarah isn’t there.”

As I walked through the double doors, I heard a muffled sobbing noise. I looked down to see Sarah wiping her eyes on her Themis jacket. She’d been out there for quite some time.

“I… I miss him.” She said, quietly.

“I miss him too.”

“I just thought… I thought just for a second… maybe he was back. Maybe the whole accident, the UISC and this whole nightmare was just… well, a nightmare. Maybe this whole thing was just me coming up with the worst possible outcome.”

I sat down next to her.

“Rhys isn’t dead.”

“… Mason I really don't need this right now.”

“But we still remember him, right? You and me both knew him better than anyone. And if someone is still remembered, even by just one person… they never truly die. Not really. So, what I’m trying to say is that Rhys isn’t dead… because he lives in us. And right now, I feel like he’s telling me that two good men are in trouble.”

“Two criminals I could arrest for conspiracy, theft and arson, more like.”

I decided to pull my last trap card. It was oddly convenient that Sarah was here, but there was someone else.

“One of those criminals is Lilian.”

Her eyes widened. “Lilian, as in, Lilian Wood?”

“Yep.”

“Your friend who hacked and blew up some college professors computer because some guys asked him to?”

“The very same.”

She knew Lilian well. They where both hated how the many lives the UISC had destroyed during the war, and they had mutual friends in Me and Rhys. She was one of the only people Lilian seemed truly comfortable talking too, because she treated him like an equal, something Lilian didn’t usually get treated as. Yet another friend she hadn’t heard from in years.

I then heard the words I’d never think I’d hear.

“Ok then. What’s your plan.”

…

At this point, most of the ambulances had finished delivering the injured to the hospital. Most doctors, nurses and MEMEC personnel where indoors treating them, so security wasn’t too tight. But there were still the security cameras that watched the hospitals perimeter. Because of course a hospital needs constant surveillance. Sarah also pointed out that MEMEC ambulances need biometric authorisation to start, which complicated things.

But that was before it started raining.

Because of how much had happened that day, I almost forgot about the acid rainstorm that had been forecasted like crazy. Come to think of it, that was why Unger chose today to pull off the heist. No one would be outside when it started raining, so we would’ve just hid with the money. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how it went.

One by one, each camera looking out from the hospital slowly turned off. So after getting under the hospital garage overhang, we started working on getting the door open. That also needed a biometric signature. I cursed to myself, but then a man wearing a poncho came up to us, and told us to get out of the rain. I could spot his medical scrubs under his coat. Me and Sarah looked at each other, nodded, and both drew our guns. We told him to get over here and open the door, which he did without hesitation.

He used his handprint to unlock the garage door, and we all went inside. I didn’t feel bad for the guy. It wasn’t like I was gonna to shoot him. I was just desperate. Sarah shouted at him to open the ambulance as we both raised our guns again. He complied, jumped into the driver's seat, placed his palm on the ignition and the ambulance revved triumphantly. It was in that moment I thought we could actually make it back to the centre.

Sarah jumped into the driver’s seat, as I climbed into the back cabin. I was going to threaten the guy into not telling anyone, but I went against it. So I told him “thanks” before I closed the ambulance doors and we headed off into the rain.

As we drove out of the hospital parking lot, I remembered what Unger said before the heist began. “This is it, don’t get scared now.”

I repeated that sentence a few times in my head.

This is it, don’t get scared now.

This is it, don’t get scared now.

This is it, don’t get scared now.

2036 Chapter 10: Setups and Payoffs.

 

Chapter 10: Setups and payoffs.

5/23/2036

This morning, a group of armed terrorists attacked the UISC western bank with the intention to kill innocent civilians. The group, seen to include 1 UISC citizens and 3 foreigners, one of which was known murderer Felix DeBlanc, who had escaped IO custody a month ago. The terrorists caused a gas leak in the bank’s main vault, resulting in an explosion that killed 10 and injured 30 bystanders. IO law enforcement gave chase until they successfully disabled the vehicle and arrested the attackers, who had been working with multiple anti-government groups, and using stolen weapons from GodsEyes. When asked about how terrorists obtained some of his company’s equipment, GodsEyes CEO Robert Peele had this to say:

“It’s simple reasoning. GodsEyes weapons are the most advanced in Law enforcement. Better than Themis, even better that IO. I’m mortified by these people using my technology to commit acts of terror, but it does make logical sense. It also shows how well armed insurgents can be, and the level of skill it took to steal weapons from us would have been immense, so they must be very skilled individuals. We will be conducting a series of corruption checks in our own ranks, but no-one, and I MEAN no one working at GodsEyes would do this kind of thing.”

This report was sponsored by GodsEyes. Keeping the bay area safe for 5 years.

Three days.

Three days of surgeries, agony, and paranoia.

I once heard the belly was the most painful place to get shot. Especially when it’s from a .50 calibre bullet that literally shredded my small intestine and shattered my lower spine. What I didn’t hear was that you don’t pass out. I was laying on my back, screaming in pain for about an hour. It was… probably the worst feeling I’ve ever had. I didn’t see what happened with Sarah and Felix, all I knew was that Felix sprinted off after shooting me, Sarah tried to run after him, but she came back a minute later, called an Ambulance and tried to stop the bleeding. I wanted to shout at her. She could’ve caught Felix and interrogated him for what he knew on the RAT program. Sure, I would’ve been dead, but I wouldn’t have died for nothing. But she cared about me too much.

Typical.

I didn’t remember much of the first day, because the only thing that happened was MEMEC doctors trying to make sure shrapnel didn’t pierce my stomach and flood my body with digestive acid, along with the intestine and spine business. So, I spent most of the day being operated on or in a hospital bed, waiting for the drugs to wear off.

The second day, I didn’t move a muscle. My belly was in so much pain, even though the stem cell injections had done all they could. It was a miracle I was alive, but I still wanted to just lay down, close my eyes and perish. But that wasn’t the only thing.  It was safe to assume IO knew that I knew too much about RAT. That’s why they sent Felix after me. But then again, why didn’t he just shoot me in the head? He couldn’t have tried to resist the Implant because it would’ve given him a shot of aspirin to the brain, which didn’t explain how-

…

This was my fault.

I put myself and Sarah in danger. Felix wouldn’t have tried to kill me if IO knew I’d given the evidence to Themis, and not took it home and memorised it. They knew I’d kept it all to myself. I wanted to keep Themis out of all this, but I’d just made myself an easy target.

Now I’m paralysed from the hip down. And Felix could walk in and finish the job at any second. It was only me and Sarah who knew about IO’s RAT program, which meant… when they finished me off… they’d…

No. I won’t let that happen.

Then I remembered I was paralysed.

The best I could do was tell a nurse to put the hospital in lockdown if a bald man in a white shirt came in. She asked why, so I told her he was the one who shot me. She told me that the hospital had very few lockdown procedures, because of how many patients in critical condition they had. But she assured me that she’d do all she could.

I felt… powerless.

…

It was an hour until midnight when he came into my room.

My bedside lamp had been turned on, which woke me up. My heartrate shot through the roof, and the Electrocardiogram sounded like it was a bomb about to go off. I thought to myself “This is it. This is what I’ve caused.” But then I looked at the guy.

He wore a red bomber jacket like he’d just come back from the battle of Britain. He had a head of thick brown hair, a poorly shaven beard, and a tired look on his face, like he’d spent all day running. He was also soaking wet and stank of seawater. In his jean pockets were what looked like a crumpled-up bag of peanuts, as well as a badly concealed 1911 pistol. “Yeah, this guy has just come back from the battle of Britain.” I thought. 

This was the guy who was working with Felix while he was undercover. Better yet, this was the guy Sarah recognised.

“You’re… Rhys, aren’t you?” I asked.

“Yeah. Wait…” His hand hovered over his pocket. “… How do you know me?”

“BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!!!” Yelled the Electrocardiogram.

“I… uh… was looking into Felix’s involvement with you and your team! But he got to me.”

“Who’s Felix?” He asked.

“Bald 20-something year old? White T-shirt? Likes shooting people in the stomach? You don’t know him?!”

“… Scalp…” He said to himself.

“Yeah… that’s another way of saying Bald.” I replied.

He rested his hands in his coat pockets and sat down in my wheelchair. “Well, it seems like you know a lot Captain Shinkawa.”

“Just Akira is fine… wait, how do YOU know my name! And why are you here!” I shouted way louder than I should’ve.

“The rest of the hospital is crowded with people coming from the explosion. And it says it on the end of your bed.”

“… Oh.”

…

“…And they said you stole GodsEyes weapons.” I told him.

Rhys chuckled. “Nah man, we might as well have been fighting with sticks and stones.”

He’d told me the whole thing. What a dumb plan. I won’t tell you how I’d have done the heist better, that would sound hypocritical of me. Let’s just say I would’ve done it with better ballistics, less police chases and even more digitally. But its was pretty crazy how Rhys got involved in this whole scheme.

“So… are you the only one left?” I asked.

“Nah, my friend’s getting her injuries treated downstairs. Sca- Felix was bashing her head against a wall when I got to her. The doctors, they… they think she might be permanently blind.”

“Damn man. I’m sorry.” I said. Felix had done some messed up stuff after IO got into his head.

“Thanks. Also… One of our guys was in the bank vault when it blew.”

“But you blew it up, didn’t you?” I asked.

“What? No!” He exclaimed. “We were trying to destroy the money in the main vault, but there was a gas leak. Marcus, he… he tried to burn the money.”

“Oof.” I replied. “You’ve been through a lot in one day.”

“Yeah… but I’m not done yet.” Said Rhys.

“But you and your friend are safe!”

“Yeah, but Unger and Lilian are still back at mother base. IO are probably sending Felix to them as we speak. If I don’t get there in time, well… you know what’ll happen.”

“You were chased through the whole city and now you want to go back in?!” I exclaimed. “That’s suicide. You’ll have to deal with every police corp in San Fran looking for you, as well as Felix. The Uncle Toriyama boys probably won’t be two happy you “blew up” their bank, either!”

“You have a point.” Said Rhys. He then started looking off into the distance.

“What are you lookin’ at?” I spoke.

He said nothing.

“Rhys.” I asked.

Nothing.

…

“I’ve just had… a brilliant idea.” He said, finally.

“Wow, really!” I shouted (too loudly, again.)

“What if I pull a Henry Brown?” He asked.

“… I have no idea who that is, man.” I replied.

“Well, he was a slave who escaped to freedom by mailing himself in a wooden box from Virginia to abolitionists in Philadelphia. I’m thinking we do that, but instead of mailing myself, I hide in a vehicle while you drive.” Said Rhys. He smiled like he thought his plan might work.

“That’s not gonna work.” I replied.

“Yeah, but consider! What if we steal an ambulance?”

“Why? That wouldn’t-.”

He seemed to take that personally because he went on a tangent.

“There’s a ton of ambulances going back and forth from the explosion site. Another one coming from the hospital isn’t gonna look to suspicious. There’s also the added bonus of people moving for ambulances when their sirens are on. If we get stopped on the way to Mother base, just say I’m in critical condition. If they don’t believe you, we can just take them out. When we get to the centre, we may have to get through Felix, IO, GodsEyes or Uncle Toriyama boys. What we’ll do it cause some noise outside by turning on the ambulances sirens, then we ditch it. We sneak in, grab Lilian and Unger, escape from the centre through the bay all the way to Oakland, then lay low for a while. After a week or so, we head for the UISC border. I don’t know how we’ll get there, but we’ll find a way.”

“Look Rhys, this whole plan is very elaborate, but it’s got one massive flaw.”

“Yeah! What’s that!” He said in a half-shout.

“Felix paralysed me from the waist down. I can’t drive the ambulance because my feet don’t work.”

“… Oh.” He replied. That information must’ve been sobering. He just sat there, wide eyed, thinking there was no way for him to get to ‘Mother base’ If he drove on his own, he’d get recognised and sent to re-education. If he somehow managed to drive all the way, he’d be lucky if no one showed up to capture or kill Lilian and Unger. He just sat there, looking into the floor. Hopeless.

Then I remembered.

“That’s weird.” She said “He… he was a friend of mine.”

“Hey Rhys.” I asked. “Do you know anybody named Sarah Hargreaves?”

His ears pricked up. His eyes widened. His jaw dropped. A smile of pure elation stretched across his face. He was DEFINETLY Sarah’s friend.

“A-Are you winding me up!” he half shouted, “Sarah’s here?”

“Umm, yeah. Do you two know each other?”

“Yeah!” he threw his arms up in the air “We go way back! We… we, uhm… it’s a long story.”

“Well, will she help?” I asked.

“Cap, that’s not even a question.” He replied. “What floor is she on?”

“Ground floor lobby. I don’t get how you missed her coming in.”

“Neither do I.” He pulled his gun out from his pocket and removed the magazine. “6 left.” he whispered to himself. After reloading his gun, he began rummaging through the bedside drawers.

“Hey man, d’ya see a scalpel anywhere.” He asked.

“Why do you need a scalpel? You’ve already got a gun.” I protested.

“Its not for me…” Rhys responded. “It’s for you.”

He finally found a scalpel on the emergency medical tray under my bed. He opened the hospital room door and jammed the scalpel into the lock as hard as he could. At first, I didn’t know what he was doing, but then I realised that he was locking the door from the inside. If Felix wanted in, he’d have to break the door, which would alert the medical staff. But if I needed to let nurses or doctors in, I could just wheel over and open it.

Smart.

Before leaving he looked at me.

“If I, uh… If I don’t come back… I want you tell Carmine. She’d deserve to know.”

“You scared?” I asked.

“No, no I’m just… preparing for the worst.” His hands clenched in an attempt to stop them from shaking, his breathing seemed a bit more audible and he looked… jumpier. He was scared.

“Tell her yourself, Rhys.” I said.

He exhaled… and left.