Cridex

Chapter Four

"You- You're..."

"Just like you," The man behind me answered, "Except we have known about it for a whole lot longer."

"Yeah, it's people like you who remind us of that everyday." The other man spoke, his blue eye flickering in a strange fashion when he blinked.

"Jonas, relax." The man spoke. "Ellery did not know any better, she is not like the rest of them."

"No," I struggled, but the man had learned his lesson and tightened his grip, "no, I am nothing like you! You killed her! You killed my mother!"

"She was not your mother." Jonas spat out bitterly, his eye growing, "You do not have one. None of us do."

"Stop that, Jonas." The woman from earlier spoke out, "You are scaring her."

"Imogen-."

"No. There is no excuse for that." She steeped forward and glanced over at me, her eyes full of sympathy, before they landed on my captor and hardened. "Are you trying to break her in half, Camden?"

"What?" Camden, the man holding me, asked.

"Your grip," Imogen stepped forward and unwound his arms from across my chest and i was released, swaying on my feet before I began to stabilize. "You were choking her, it was so tight."

"Thank you." I whispered hoarsely.

"Imogen, she needs to be bound-." Jonas protested, running his dark hand through his kinky black hair.

"No, she does not." She crouched down to where I was huddling on the floor. "She has no where else to go."

My gaze was drawn over to the still figure of my mother and I began to shake, a deep chill seeping into my body and settling heavily on the back of my neck. I gripped my arms tightly against my torso.

"Ellery?" Imogen leaned down, her choppy blonde hair greasy with dirt and sweat, but her skin was surprisingly clear and clean, unlike Camden's. "You will not resist will you?"

I was in shock. My ears began to roar in protest to what I was experiencing, my heartbeat picking up it's pace. There was no way that I was talking to an insurgent, no way that I could be talking to a-.

"Cyborg?" Camden asked, and I realized that I had spoken out loud, and that all three of these strangers had heard me. "You are one. Believe me or not, you should at least trust your own reflection."

I looked away, to afraid to see what I had earlier, to confirm my worst fear. "A malfunction," I muttered, biting my lip and rocking back and forth, "It has to be a malfunction."

Imogen placed her hand heavily on my shoulder and brushed my hair back. "She does not have to believe us right now." She placed the pad of her finger along the back of my neck and traced circles in a soothing motion. "She just has to come with us."

"Fine," Camden bit out, "Let's keep moving, then. It will not take long for the government to realize that their top administrator is unresponsive."

Camden roughly pulled me up, shouting to Jonas. "Start the vehicle. I will put Ellery in the back. You," Camden glanced pointedly at Imogen, "Will keep an eye on her."

She nodded, without verbally responding, and walked out the door.

"It won't take long for them to know. To come get me." I growled out, avoiding his gaze. The glare of my own blue eye reflected off of the floor, however, and I tensed further. Camden began directing me out the door, his steps falling heavy across the doorframe as he stood still. "Shut up." He bit out.

"They will know what you did." I bit back, kicking out at him, not giving up.

"Ellery, stop. You do not understand-."

"And they will kill you for it." I finished, finally looking him in the eye. I heard the cocking of a gun, echoed ten times over, and slowly I turned to face he front.

"Sooner than you might have originally thought, in all actuality." Camden grit out in a volatile smile.

"Cam!" Jonas shouted, his deep voice echoing from where he stood in an open roof vehicle, arms raised as a gun was pointed at him. "What is the plan?"

"Shut up, Jonas." Imogen rolled her eyes, arms hanging on top of her head as she crossed them. "You can not actually expect him to shout out the plan across a clearing, now can you?"

"I can, and I will." Camden called back. "We run!"

"They have guns!" I shouted. "Officers, please, rush in. My mother, she is collapsed in the corner of the room, she might even be dead. Her device- the detector- it's on the table in the corner! Hurry!"

"Ellery!" Camden grit out, "Not now."

"What is she doing?" Imogen called over, and Jonas latched on to my out burst as ammunition.

"I told you!" He shouted, "I told you so. I knew that she would do something stupid like that, I knew it, and no one listened."

"Jonas!" Camden shouted, "Not now!"

"Silence!" A man clad in black shouted, "Silence, cyborg. Why should we trust anything you say?"

"I am not a cyborg!" I shouted. "I am her daughter! Elizabeth Kent's daughter, Ellery Kent!"

The men lowered their guns, and on the leads signal, they brought Imogen and Jonas forward to the steps, before disappearing inside to search the room.

"Ellery Kent?" The man clad in black leaned forward, examining my face. "You have a blue eye."

"A malfunction!" I reiterated, "It has to be a malfunction-."

"Ugh!" Camden, leaned forward, taking advantage of the man clad in black lowering his guard and slammed his head against his, disarming him and rendering him unconscious all in one movement.

"Great job, Ellery!" Camden gave me a genuine smile, "You caught on to our plan quick! That whole spiel on that woman, and her device. You lured them into one place."

"I did?" I questioned incredulously, surprised by his change in attitude. He looked down at the unconscious man, stealing his gun for his own, before closing the door to the workshop and propping the man's body against it.

Imogen walked back up from the truck, brandishing a steel chain and wound it across the door. "Jonas," Camden shouted, securing the door with a final tug and moving forward to the vehicle, "Light her up."

"Light her up?" I whispered to myself in a mutter. "What does that mean?"

"It means that you do not want to be standing right there, Ellery." Imogen pulled at my arm and lead me down the stairs to the vehicle in a daze, where I watched Jonas light a rag hanging form a bottle.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"that you ant to step back." Camden said from behind me. I watched as Jonas pulled his arm back, flames flying from the bottle and I watched as the liquid inside sloshed about as it flew through the are, before crashing and breaking upon the threshold of the building, catching it on fire and spreading the flames across the front in waves.

"They are people in there!" I shouted, lunging forward, but Imogen pulled my softly back. "Human lives!"

"No." Jonas spat out, eyes dark, and it seemed as though he felt as if he had just divulged his best advice to me. "They may be humans. But they show no humanity."