Chapter 21 - Iris Lawton - Refuge
November 17, 3040 1:28 AM
"Now's our chance," Isaac says to me. We're still on our knees, but the dog and human are too busy tending to their injured comrade to even think about us.
"But what about the others?" I ask him. Maddie had attacked the pig and now she's dead. Oscar was shot without warning. My brother and sister were killed in front of my eyes and I was helpless to prevent their deaths. I look at their bodies, splashed with blood, twisted and deformed as they lie lifeless. I've lost so much these past days.
Isaac's voice interrupts my thinking. "If we don't move now, we'll be like them."
"But the human promised that we wouldn't be killed," I say.
"That promise might be broken if their teammate doesn't make it."
I look at the pig, screeching and thrashing in misery. Red liquid stains the floor and gushes out of his wound. Things don't look too good for him.
"I don't think he is," I respond.
"Then we have to go while they're distracted," he says. I nod my head. We both slyly get up in unison and lightly sprint to the back door. With all the noise and chaos happening, the two don't even notice us slip away to the exit
Isaac carefully opens the door, it smoothly glides open without a sound. He holds it for me and then with steady hands, like he's conducting surgery, he closes it.
The moment it's shut, we start to run. We don't really know where, we just know to get as far away as possible. The night light creates shadows of our rapidly moving bodies. They flicker on the ground like sunlight leaking through a windy field. Our scampering echoes through the barren streets, creating a cadence of hectic footsteps. Gusts of winds blow on our faces, it intensifies the adrenaline fueled rush of our escape.
For a few minutes, I feel invincible. We have fled from certain death, from a group of highly trained individuals. Nothing can catch us, we'll run forever. But then reality starts to set in: we're getting tired. My legs move slower, my breaths get heavier and heavier, and then Isaac and I have to stop.
We are under Primm's lights, tired and bent over. I realize that standing in plain sight will get us killed, but I'm too exhausted to care.
"We can't run forever," I say exasperatedly.
"Don't worry," he says. "No one is on our?"
Right on cue, we hear metal clang from behind us and run to a corner. I slowly peer out from behind and far, far away, I see the back entrance of the casino that we had departed from. Something is nudging its head out, sliding the door open with its body. The dog is on our trail.
"Isaac," I say worriedly, "the canine is after us."
"Shoot," Isaac says in a panic, "He's probably on our scent, he'll find us in no time."
"What do we do?"
Isaac looks around and tries to think of something on the spur of the moment. He looks downward and something catches his eye.
"I have an idea, sis," he says. "Follow me."
He walks to a metal grating on the ground and grasps it. He struggles as he pulls hard. Eventually, he's able to lift and slide it to the side. A putrid smell radiates from the opening. I look in and see a ladder leading to the darkness below.
"Are you sure about this?" I ask him. I'm ready to jump in, but the odor is a bit deterring.
"Got any better ideas? The dog will have a hard time finding us down there. If anything, the smell will help mask our scent," he says.
"Okay," I say reluctantly. I climb down the ladder first and Isaac follows. He slides the metal grating back over the hole to cover our tracks. After descending a few feet, I feel the ground and stand. It's hard to see anything, but my eyes gradually adjust to the dim lighting.
Isaac plops his feet on the ground and we look around to figure out where to go next. The tunnels seem to stretch on forever, so we just start walking in the dried, caked-out grime of the underground.
I can't believe we've been reduced to walking in the sewers. Things have changed so much in the past days. We went from hiding in refuge to having our family break apart to watching the execution of our brother and sister. And now we're running scared in the dreariest of places, a literal dog and cat chase.
I wonder how long we'll be doing this, what our next move will be. Isaac wonders the same thing.
"We can't be on the lam forever," he says. "Even if we lose the dog, this is not where I want to live the rest of my life. And with the United Species Alliance on our tails, we could be running a long, long time."
"We need a place to hide," I tell Isaac.
"So far, hiding hasn't worked out," Isaac says. "And if we do find a place, they'll catch up to us."
"There's nowhere for us to go," I say. "But you're right, there's nowhere on Earth that will keep us safe from the Alliance."
"Maybe there isn't a place on Earth that we'll be safe, but there is somewhere else. Do you know what I mean?" He asks the question, and I know his answer.
"Tiago," I say. "You want us to go with Tiago's plan."
"He's the only family we have left."
"But what about my visions? The slaughter, the gunfire, the death?"
"I don't know if they're always right. Why didn't your visions show what happened to Oscar? Or Maddie? Or us?"
I pause, not really knowing how to answer him. "You know that's not how it works, Isaac."
"Then how does it?"
"I don't know, it just does."
When we were young, things kind of came to me. I was able to see, on more than one occasion, what the weather would be on certain days, when arguments with family members would arise, where my brothers and sisters were when the others couldn't find them. I saw visions of future events.
I couldn't and still can't see everything, though. I didn't know mother was going to die or that we'd be on the run from the government. I didn't see that Lombardi or Leonard would be killed either, and I certainly didn't see that Oscar's plan would turn out the way it did. Things come at me randomly, but when they do, I'm never wrong.
I never could fully explain my powers to my brothers and sisters. Even I'm unsure what I'm capable of since it happens so infrequently. For the most part the others recognize that there's something special about me, especially Tiago and my twin.
I didn't see a lot when we were hiding, but once Tiago mentioned his plan to go to the Moon it came to me. His plan would end in disaster and those who went along would die. I personally had no qualms with his idea. On paper, I think it's a good plan and if anyone has the gall to try to attempt it, it's Tiago. But what I saw in my vision gave me chills.
Smoke rising, things exploding, a hail of gunfire, a bright light, and lots of dead relatives. No one made it to the moon, just to their graves.
After that, I was desperate to find a way out and when Oscar volunteered to leave, it was my opening. If I were to live, I needed to be as far away from Tiago as possible. I convinced Isaac it was the only way to survive, so he went with me. But now that Oscar is dead, he's questioning my abilities. He never really wanted to leave in the first place, it took a lot to persuade him.
"I still have that bad feeling about Tiago and his grand scheme," I say to Isaac worriedly.
"I know," he says, "but this isn't the weather or finding out where one of our brothers snuck off to, this isn't some trivial thing. This is life or death, this is for our survival, and I'm sorry to say, sister, but things are getting hot and heavy. I don't know if I want to risk our fate on your unpredictable guesses."
He breaks my heart. Isaac never questioned his faith in me before. He believes in the abilities I've been gifted. But then again, he's right. Maddie and Oscar died, we're getting chased, and I didn't infer anything suspicious. Maybe I could detect the little things, but it seems that my knack for clairvoyance may be a liability in heavier situations.
"What about what that guy said, their leader?" I ask Isaac. "He mentioned something about a note, meeting an
d talking, and Oscar looked confused by his words. What do you suppose he meant?"
"I'm not sure. They were speaking quietly," he says. "I couldn't make out what they were talking about."
"Do you think Tiago had something to do with them showing up?"
Isaac scoffs at my suggestion. "Don't be ridiculous, sis. Why in the world would you say that?"
"I don't know, I mean, it's a possibility."
"Is this one of your senses?"
"No."
"Then don't even think about it. Sure Tiago and Oscar never got along, but he wouldn't tip off the law. I know Tiago's rough sometimes, but that's extreme."
"But he didn't like Maddie, either."
"But it's not just Oscar and Maddie, we were there too," Isaac says defensively. "You know Tiago has always had a soft spot for us, especially for you."
"That's true," I say. Tiago sees something in me. Whenever we talk, he says I understand things better than most. I'm unsure what he means because his words are always so cryptic, but, according to him, I'm special.
"At this point, Tiago and the others are the only ones we have left, everyone else is dead," Isaac says. "We have to go to him."
I'm still skeptical. "Are you sure he'll take us back? We did leave him, after all, and he didn't seem too happy about it."
"Once he knows that Oscar is dead, that we have nowhere else to go, I'm sure he will. He can't dump us out on the street."
"I?I suppose you're right," I say reluctantly. "You supported me when I wanted to leave, I'll support you now."
"Thanks, sister," he says smiling. "Okay, now that we have a plan let's get out of these tunnels and?"
The sound of dragging metal echoes throughout the sewers. Someone has opened the grating from which we entered.
"The dog is still on our case," I say with a hint of fear.
"Damn, he's good. Can't believe he followed us here," Isaac says. "With his skill, even the stench won't deter him from our trail. I have to think of something?"
He sees some metal pipes on the floor and races toward them. He picks two up, hands me one, and keeps the other for himself.
"Even if we try to out run him, his nose will know where we are," Isaac explains. "The only way we can stop him is if we take him out."
I look at Isaac hesitantly. "I've never fought anyone before."
"Don't worry, we'll sneak up on him. I'll create a fake trail that circles around and we'll obscure ourselves. Then, while he's figuring out our location, we'll jump him from behind."
"Then we make a run for it?" I ask him.
"Then we make a run for it. Follow me. We have to stay quiet."
We walk forward ten or twenty steps, then backwards. Isaac points to a small opening in the wall and motions me to go and hide there. He then finds another groove and places himself in it. And we wait.
I hear the dog's footsteps getting closer. He walks lightly, but even his delicate stride echoes throughout the tunnel. The sounds of his sniffs get more and more rapid as he traverses the ground.
He's only a few feet away. He's so close that I hear his uniform crunching and rubbing on itself as he moves toward us. And then, only a few paces to the right of me, he appears.
The dog is practically standing next to me, but away from Isaac. I look over to my brother and he motions me to strike my blow. I stare at the pipe in my hands, cold and heavy, and wonder if I have what it takes.
Isaac starts to motion more furiously than before. He wants me to make my move. The dog is already out of my striking distance and will soon reach the end of our trail and circle back. I have to hit him before he turns around and sees us.
I stalk him in the dark, staying graceful on my feet. I see him halt and I raise my weapon in the air.
But then he says something, and it catches me off guard. I stop in my movements, and the dog blurts out. "That's odd. Why is it going the other?"
I don't think, I just react, and bat a mighty swing at the back of his head. His neck flails up and he lets out a sharp yelp before falling to the ground like a ton of bricks.
Isaac emerges from the shadows as I look at the dog. He's not dead. In fact, he's not even knocked out. His eyes are still open, though it seems they are fighting hard to stay that way. They rapidly blink and look left and right, towards me and Isaac.
"What should we do now, Isaac?" I ask him.
His face narrows and starts to intensify. It glowers a frown.
"We should kill him for they've done," Isaac says, his voice shaking. He raises his pipe as if he's about to thrust it into the dog's battered head.
I'm surprised by my brother. I had not known him to be an angry person. Then again, we had just seen our brother and sister murdered before our very eyes. The thought of it fills me with rage.
But then I look at the dog. He's lying down, eyes hollowed out, and holding on to whatever consciousness he has left. He's so helpless.
"But he's defenseless right now," I say.
"So was Oscar," Isaac shoots back.
I remember when Maddie and Oscar were killed, the dog was the voice of reason. He was like the human, he didn't want us to die. It was the pig who fired the first shot, the pig that started this mess. After that, things got crazy, that's all. I'm sure he didn't want things to turn out this way, either.
"No Isaac," I say. "It's not right. It wasn't his fault, it was the pig's."
"Sister, if we don't kill him now, he and his team will kill us later."
Isaac might be right, but the human commander was adamant that we stay alive and so was this dog. Even if they find us eventually, I don't think he would do us in. If anything, sparing one of them might actually help us in the long run. They would see that we're not the monsters they think we are.
I just don't want anyone else to die. What's the point of all this killing? Four of us are dead, one of them is dead. Haven't enough lives been taken? Will killing this one help our cause? We can escape, we can run, but I don't want blood on my hands. It's not right.
"Isaac," I say as my eyes get watery, "please don't do it, please."
He looks at me on the verge of tears and starts to relent. He never could bear to see me cry.
Isaac drops the metal pipe and slumps his body down in disappointment. "Fine, sister, we'll do it your way."
We turn the other direction and start to walk, leaving the dog behind.
"We need to make it to Tiago as soon as we can," Isaac says, "but I'm not sure where to go. He's probably at the teleporter now, but it could be either of them."
Suddenly, an odd feeling hits my brain. It's sharp, but not painful, just unexpected. I stop in my footsteps and pause. My eyes widen open. One of my visions comes to me.
"They're at the Li station," I say.
Isaac had noticed my odd behavior. "Another one of your visions or whatever?"
I nod.
"Okay," he says. "I guess that's where we're going."
"So, now you trust my ability?"
"Little things, remember?"
As we walk away, I turn around to see the dog still on the ground. His eyes are closed, but he is still breathing. He must have passed out from my blow, but I am glad that Isaac didn't kill him.
"Thank you for listening to me, brother," I said.
"It wasn't an easy thing to do," he says. "I still think he shouldn't have lived."
"You sound like Tiago."
"And you sound like Oscar."
Things stay silent between us for a few moments.
"One day, sister," he says in a serious tone, "you'll realize that the world isn't always such a nice place, that you have to do what you have to do to survive."
"If I ever come to that realization, I don't think I'd like the person that I've become," I say.
Isaac looks at me unusually then looks back ahead. We don't say another word for the rest of our trek.