I struggle as two guards that I haven't seen yet as they drag me, kicking and screaming, to where Liz, Uncle Andy, and Jackson stand. Julia doesn't struggle as much as I do, but I can tell that she wants to escape just as much as I do.
I hear a rip and I stop struggling. Suddenly I realize that I am still wearing the dress from the dance. It was dirty and destroyed. I was also still wearing the heels from the dance. I only kept them on because of the fact that they could be very good weapons if the time came.
"So, what do we have here? Sammy and her new friend, Julia. It's too sad that you never got the opportunity to escape. That was your goal, wasn't it?" Jackson taunts me like I'm a disobedient dog. He had no idea how much I wanted to rip his throat out right now, did he?
"You traitor! The agency trusted you!" I scream at him. He just smiles and nods, expecting this answer from me.
"Then it's too bad that you're wrong. The agency still trusts me, and they always will. Our other leader is very high up in the chain of command of the UIA. She would never allow suspicion to land on either of us." He chuckles at the end.
I'm guessing that I did a very poor job of hiding the shock on my face. They still had another agent in the heart of the agency. I turned away and made sure that they couldn't see the despair in my eyes. Even if I was able to stop them today, they would live on. Their mission would continue as soon as the other leader of Cobra got word that they failed. Even if I succeed now, I'll have to find the other agent before it's too late.
"Ahh, keep your gaze over here Sam. You'll need to see this." Uncle Andy says. The guard forces me to look back at my former friends. I saw that Liz was talking to a guard. The guard she talked to left in a hurry along with another guard. Andy was standing by the wall of screens that displayed long lists of numbers and codes. Jackson was looking me in the eye, giving me the challenging look that I often saw him give the enemy. It was unnerving to be on the wrong side of that look.
Liz walked back over to Jackson and put her arm around his shoulder. Of course they were dating. She gave me a smug look and I realized that she thought I had liked Jackson. She was only doing this to get a reaction out of me, wasn't she? Well she was getting one. They could hang on each other all they wanted to.
They were partners in crime now, right?
"Do you know what these numbers mean?" Uncle Andy asks me.
"Yes. They're part of the codes to the missiles. All you need is my activation code and you've got all of the activation codes. I guess that you broke the others, but you'll never break me. You'll never make me talk to the likes of you." I spit that last part at him.
"We'll see about that." Liz smiled wickedly at me.
"Now now, you don't want to reveal the surprise too early, do you?" Andy stops her.
"No. But it will be fun to see her squirm." Liz gives me the wicked smile again. I realized that she had changed from the young and innocent childhood friend that I once had. Her heart was full of bitterness hate that wasn't there before. What have they told her that made her turn on the world like this? What have they done to her to make her turn into this wicked creature.
"Don't worry, your part in this will be over within a short while. We won't even have to make you suffer much, physically anyway." Jackson tells me.
"What do you mean?" I was confused at this point. Usually torture was the best option to get information from people. It was either that or getting the person to tell you by getting extremely close to them or getting them extremely drunk. I doubted that they were going to get me drunk, and I knew that I would never willingly tell them my activation code. So, what were they planning to do. I really have no one that they could threaten to hurt that is close to me.
"Oh, here they come."
Over in the corner of the room a door opens. Two guards and two slumped figures enter through the door. I can't see the faces of the two figures, but my heart sinks as I see them. For some reason I can recognize the way they walk, even after being broken.
"Mom? Dad?" My voice breaks. It can't be real.
They looked different than I remembered them in the back of my memory. Their faces were ashen and dirty. They had a hunch to their backs, like they had been carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders for too long. Their eyes were broken and dead. The light that I remembered had been squashed out of them. They were pale and frail because of their lack of sunlight and fresh air. But they ere still my parents.
"Mom! Dad!" I screamed.
I tried to run out of the grips of my guards, but they held me back. I struggled until I knew that they wouldn't let me go. Weak and defeated, I crumpled. The guards caught me before I fell to the floor, but I wished they had let me fall. I wished they had let me fall into oblivion because I finally knew what they would do. My parents were my weakness. They gave me back something that I thought I had lost forever, but they would take it back right in front of my eyes.
I didn't think I could bear losing them for a second time.
"Interesting." Andy noted. I don't know what about my reaction could classify as interesting. He must've known what I would do as soon as they revealed that my parents weren't dead after all. They were right in front of me. So close, yet so far away.
"Sam?" I hear my mother's strangled voice. She was hoarse from not talking in a long while. I'm guessing that since they were still alive that they still had information that they never told Andy. They never talked.
"Oh, how wonderful. It's a family reunion." Jackson says in a bored tone.
"I won't say anything." I say after a while of silence between us all. "They wouldn't want me to say anything. they've never told you anything, no matter how bad you made it for them, so I won't either."
"How did you know that they never said anything?" Liz asks, genuinely surprised.
"I can see it in their eyes." And it was true. I could also see how proud that they were that I refused to tell them anything.
"That may be so, but I wouldn't be so sure that you won't tell us anything. I've heard of what others would do for love. I assume that you are no different. You'd rather die yourself than let your parents die trying to safe you." Andy says like he's stating a well known fact.
"And I'd die without you having the chance to start a world war, I'd die knowing that I stopped something horrible from happening. That I stopped millions from being murdered." And suddenly I thought about it for a second. Without me, they would never find out the codes. They needed me more than they realized, didn't they?
"But, you see, we'd never let that happen." Jackson counters.
"In fact, I think we should test out your theory right now." Liz says thoughtfully. "You have thirty seconds until we kill one of your parents, or you tell us the activation code." She pulled out one of the guards standard issue guns and held it without a care. We both knew how quickly she could turn it on one of my parents.
"So, what's it going to be?" Andy asks.
I stare at both of my parents with a face of dismay. I couldn't choose. Let my parents survive, or let the world fall. It should've been easy. What was two casualties compared to millions? What's two lives lost compared to millions saved?
But it wasn't that simple. It would never be that simple.
"Ten seconds to decide." Liz says in a sing-songy voice. Wasn't she aware that it was her own Aunt or Uncle that she would be executing? Didn't she realize that she was going to kill her father's sister-in-law or his brother?
"Nine."
"You can't make me decide."
"Eight."
"Please don't do this." I plead with her.
"Seven"
"Please!" I scream at them.
"Six."
"Five."
"You'd be killing your own brother!" I focused my pleas at Andy. He did after all grow up with my parents. He should've been able to feel what I did.
"Four. Three. Two."
"Wait! Please, I'll tell you. I'll tell you!"
You're probably thinking that I'm an idiot or something now. I just traded my parents lives for the lives of many more. I just signed the death warrants of too many innocent lives. If you don't understand why I'm doing this, I understand. I barely know why I'm doing this.
"Hmm." Liz takes the gun away from the threatening position it had been in, "Are you sure that you'll tell us? I mean - it won't be too hard to pull the trigger."
"Yes." I look down so I don't have to see the looks of disappointment in the eyes of my parents and Julia. "It's Echo9367."
"Great." Andy walks back to the screens on the wall and enters what I've told him. The screen flashes and then a 2 minute countdown begins. Two minutes to recall the order. Two minutes to stop what I've begun.
"Well, we don't have much use for you two now, do we?" Liz asks my parents.
I understood what was about to happen right before she pulls up the gun. I understood, but I stood there in shock. I stood there and did nothing to save my parents.
BANG!
BANG!
This time the guards let me fall. This time I'm let go, I'm allowed to break down. For the first time in seven years, I cry my heart out. I collapse and let my walls all fall down. I let my thoughts be clouded by despair and anger. I let my emotions control my actions. I let them cloud my thoughts.
"I told you! You promised!" I screamed. I was still crying and my words felt foreign to my mouth.
"Honey, don't you know? The bad guys always lie. And the bad guys always win in the end." Liz turns heads to the screens on the wall. I see her watch a map. The missiles must show up when the order goes into action.
I take that moment of her distraction to take out my pen from my purse. I turn and stab both of my guards in their sides. They fall to the ground, unconscious. I turn to Julia and throw her my purse. I turn before seeing if she caught it.
I first tackled Jackson, who was nearest to me. He was surprised by my actions, so I had the upper ground. I held him in a choke hold. He managed to scratch and pull at me, but I never let go. I waited till he went limp before I let go. I didn't check to see if my old friend was dead or not.
"What-"Andy turns and registers what has happened. He turns to where I stand. I barely have to move one step before he runs at me. I was about to meet him head on, but a racing figure beat me to it. Julia clawed and hit him with more power and force than I thought she had in her.
I turn face Liz. I am only a couple of feet from her. I take off my remaining earring and throw it into the air. I see that it got stuck in the rafters, good.
"What use was that? You missed be by a long shot." Liz taunted me.
Then it exploded.
The ceiling above us crumpled an fell down. Most of the large chunks missed the control screens, which I was planning on taking out. I got hit with a falling piece of rock and fell to the ground. I squinted through the dust and saw that the button to end the countdown was inches from where I lay. I reached for it, but the piece of ceiling that fell on my leg wouldn't budge. I was stuck. I looked up and Liz was there. She stood on my hand, so I couldn't press the button.
"You were so close, weren't you? You were so close to saving the world that is already damned to hell. This time it's our turn to win. How's it feel like to be the retched hero now?" Liz laughs. She laughs like she's a kid with no care in the world. You know, that evil maniacal laugh that the villains do in every movie?
"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that." I say. I can see a look of surprise on her face right before she crumples to the ground. Right behind where she was standing is Julia, holding a chunky piece if the ceiling.
"Press the button!" I shout at her. She turns and dives for the button. I look up at the timer and see it slow to a stop with 4 seconds left on the clock. I release the breath I hadn't realized that I'd been holding.
We did it.
Suddenly there was a flash of bright light from the entrance to the cave. All I could make out before I blacked out was figures holding government issued guns.