previous chapter: Abetment [18]: 3.4: 2089, June 21st, Tuesday. 9:05
890 words
Ellie is smashing the lock with her metal arm. The wiring inside her arm already failed hours ago, as she is unable to feel anything with her metal arm. Nor move it at all. The protective coat of chromium is already worn away, exposing the copper core of her metal fingers. But Ellie has to continue. Only the flimsy look of the metal door is separating her from saving Sarah. If she didn’t push through, Sarah will be killed tomorrow. She had no choice.
Suddenly, the lock of the door gives, and Ellie stumbles onto the hallway. Unlike her cell, which was painted in pastel colours, the hallways have white walls, floors and ceilings.
She looks at her battered arm. Around the attachment to her flesh shoulder, the skin looks red and inflamed. Sparks are flying from the arm, and Ellie can see the electronics shut down. She falls to the ground, on her knees, and curses.
Damnit. This stupid arm.
She looks up when she hears a sound. In front of her, a soldier stands. Dressed in red, with a red helmet, like all the other soldiers. They are holding a giant rail gun, of which Ellie is looking into the barrel right now.
“Please raise your hands, Ma’am.”
Ellie eyes the soldier before her. The gun is clearly aimed at Ellie’s head, but the soldier’s stance is wrong. The gun isn’t secured to their hands, so maybe Ellie can disarm her. Ellie tries to grab the gun. Forgetting that her arm doesn’t work, she ends up smacking the gun to the side instead. She quickly grabs the gun with her other hand, but the soldier readjusts her grip. They struggle for the gun for a bit and a gunshot sounds. Pain surges through her head, and everything goes black.
After a few seconds, Ellie realises she isn’t shot. The soldier fell on top of her and hit Ellie on the head with the barrel of the gun. She pushes the soldier off her and sees Finn standing over her, extending his hand. His gun is still aimed at the soldier, and the barrel is still smoking.
“Hurry, we don’t have much time.”
Ellie grabs his hand and he pulls her on her feet. Instead of answering her question, Finn avoids it.
“Let’s go get the two other prisoners, and get out of here.”
Ellie thinks for a moment but decides to trust Finn. After all, if he wanted to double-cross her, he could just shoot her, right here right now.
“Ok.”
Finn walks to the next cell and removes his keys from his belt. After opening the lock, they both enter the cell. The cell looks exactly the same as Ellie’s. After looking around for a bit, Ellie spots Sarah sleeping on the bed. Ellie walks over and wakes her up.
“Time to go, sweetheart.”
Sarah opens her eyes and looks at Ellie with sleepy drunk eyes.
“Mom!” she yells. She sits up from her bed and hugs her mother.
Ellie grabs her daughter’s hand. “Time to go darling.” She pulls her daughter along.
Finn already opens the third cell. He stares into the cell as if he looks surprised, or confused.
Ellie stands next to him and looks into the cell. It is empty.
“Where the hell is she?” Finn asks.
“I don’t know.”
“We really don’t have time to search for her.”
Sarah grabs Ellie’s hand. “Let’s just leave her.”
“Leave her?” Ellie asks. “But she is your Mom!”
Sarah shakes her head. “You are my Mom. She is the person that abandoned me six years ago and then pulled a gun on me. I am not gonna risk our safety and freedom to find her.”
Ellie looks at Finn, who shrugs. “We really don’t have time to go look for her. Just follow me, my armoured car is parked up front.”
Finn leads them through several hallways and staircases. Ellie wonders why they don’t seem to pass any guards. Or doors. Is the security of this facility really this minimal?
They exit an outside door, and the three people find themselves in a forest. The only thing they can see apart from the military compound, and trees, is a stone road leading into the forest. On that road, a single red vehicle is parked.
When they walk to the car, Ellie hears some voices.
“Stop right there.”
Ellie looks back and sees three soldiers standing right outside the building, their railguns aimed right at them. Finn reaches for his belt and then pushes his keys into Ellie’s hands.
“Run for the vehicle.”
“What?”
Finn doesn’t repeat but opens fire at the soldiers. They start firing back. Ellie grabs Sarah’s hand and pulls her into the car. She leaves the vehicle’s doors open and yells at Finn to get inside. He looks over at Ellie and shakes his head. Ellie watches as a bullet hits him in his head, making it explode into gore.
“Finn!” Ellie yells out.
Sarah shakes Ellie. “Mom. Close the door. They are shooting at us.”
Ellie regains her senses and closes the door. Bullets rain on the steel hull and windows of the car, but both seem bulletproof. Ellie enters a random address into the console, and the engines spin to life and start to drive away from the compound.
next chapter: Abetment [20]: 3.5: 2089, June 21st, Tuesday. 23:25
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