Genesis

Chapter 48

Hello and welcome to a new chapter! We are so close to the climax of the story, and I am bursting with excitement to write it. Stay tuned and enjoy this chapter! :)

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Of course! The stupid "Extraordinary Achievement Award" had been hanging in Harvel's living room, supervising every single planning or discussion session we had ever held. It had watched, listened, and recorded everything, and I am the idiot who had put it there. 

The One was right. I had done this. I had been the person to endanger all my friends. 

"Do you see?" the One says, his voice softening to a blunt knife instead of a razor blade. Somehow, it manages to cut just as deep as before. 

"From the point where you re-entered the dome, I orchestrated everything," says the One.  "I was watching you. I sent the man with the earpieces when you wanted to visit your mother. I kept those facility cameras online, even when Mr. Xanthos here thought he'd disabled them. I listened to you plan out everything in that stupid ginger's living room. The whole thing was just too easy."

Tears spring into my eyes. How could I have been so stupid? All this time, I thought things were running along smoothly. I fell for every trap the One set for me, and now my brother, my own flesh and blood, is paying the price. 

I slump in my chair and hang my head, defeated. The One's shoulders straighten, and he stands up taller as he drinks in my sorrow. 

"Please," I whisper. "Take me instead. Let Ximon and my brother go." My voice cracks at the end of my sentence. I've been reduced to begging this monster for mercy. I'm pathetic. 

"Oh, Kaze, I don't think you've fully grasped how this process works," says the One. "How could I let these pitiful souls go after they've been through all I've done to them? Rumors would spread. I would be stripped of my position. I simply cannot have that happen." 

I glance hopelessly at my brother's and Ximon's terrible states. They both need a doctor, fast. I don't think either of them can last much longer down here with the extent of their injuries. 

"Take me," I repeat, pleading this horrible man for any ounce of mercy he can spare me. "Take me and let them go! You can do whatever you want with me. You can even kill me! Please, let them go! Can't you see they're dying?"

"Of course they're dying," the One says coldly, ignoring my requests. "I'm not a doctor, but I'm not oblivious either."

I keep looking at Ximon and my brother, trying to catch one of their eyes. Both of them seem incoherent. How long do they have left? Two hours? One? Less than that? 

"Besides," says the One, making me snap my focus back onto him. "Why would I let them go and take you when I can just kill all three of you?" 

His statement makes my blood run cold. 

"No," I say out loud. He can't kill them. He can't. 

"No!" I scream. "No, you can't kill them!"

A psychopathic smile starts to grow on the One's face. He turns toward the cell and slowly begins to walk towards it. He reaches into the folds of his sickening white robe and pulls out a shiny black object. I realize it's a gun. 

"Please, sir!" I cry, tears finally spilling down my cheeks. "Please! I'll do anything! Isn't this what you wanted? For me to beg and plead you for mercy?!" 

"I will admit, this whole charade has been quite amusing," says the One, turning to face me. "But no, I didn't want to see you snivel and cry like a coward. I wanted to teach you and your little friends a lesson that you should have learned long ago: To never forget that you are ants, and I hold a magnifying glass." 

The One turns back towards Ximon and Drayk's prison cell. I pull on my bonds and reach for the knife in my sock. It's now or never. I have to do something. 

"You can't do this!" I say, trying to slow my friends' impending doom. 

"Oh, but I can. I'm in charge in this dome. I am power. You are nothing," the One says without turning around again. He raises his gun toward the bars. I frantically strain to reach my knife in order to sever my restraints, but I am too late. I hear the click of a bullet falling into the chamber of the One's gun. 

This is it. I can't watch. I bow my head and sob, squeezing my eyes shut tight. Goodbye Ximon. Goodbye Drayk. I love you. 

A gunshot echoes through the room, and a scream fills the air.