This chapter is dedicated to geebug123 for some amazingly brilliant magnificent help for my character building!!! Thanks so much!!!
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They shoved us into the prep room and locked the door behind us. Nothing new there. The prep room was just like any other room in this god forsaken base: grey. The only difference was the right wall was made up of big, deep drawers that contained everything and anything we need for a mission.

As soon as they were gone, Erin collapsed onto me without a warning. "Erin!" I cried, lowering her to the floor. "Erin, are you OK?"

"Yeah...I'm... I'm fine," she mumbled. I sighed and shook my head.

"You obviously aren't," I said. "You've got to learn how to control your healing."

"I know..." She said. "I just want to heal you so much that I forget to save energy for myself."

"One day you're going to go too far," I said. "Then we'd both be dead." I helped her up and made sure she was steady on her feet. As I did, I noticed her glance towards the table in the middle of the room. On it was a pile of paper, probably our mission information...not that they gave us a lot of it.

"Josh..." Erin trailed off. I knew what she was thinking...god, I could read her mind of course I knew what she was thinking.

"I know, Erin," I said, taking her hand. "But we have to. I don't want to kill people either but if I'm going to keep you alive, I will."

"If my life wasn't tied to yours, would you still kill people for me?"

"Of course I would," I said, looking straight into her eyes. "Without a moment's hesitation." She looked down.

"I hate to say it, but I would too," she mumbled. I gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it and sat down at the table, shifting through the papers. Erin joined me but mostly sat in silence, listening to me read the information out.

"His name is Charles Hunt," I said. Hunt. That was a bit ironic considering that's what we were about to do to him. "All they're giving us about him is that he is a hacker and is somewhere here in New York. Age: unknown. Origin: unknown. Organisation: unknown."

"So he's hacking into Triple's files," Erin murmured. "That's why they want him dead."

"I guess so but I have no idea how," I replied. Erin stood up and walked to the wall of drawers, pulling one open. She yanked out two sets of black clothing, chucking one set at me. Then she went to another drawer and took out four guns, all of which unloaded. They wouldn't trust us with a loaded gun in here. Given the first chance, Erin and I would try to bust ourselves out of here with them, not that we'd get far before they'd use that thing they had to kill us...

We packed the rest of the stuff that we needed like food, matches, GPS and even an iPad into black rucksacks that matched our clothes. It was for stealth purposes and just easier to carry around if things got a bit mad.

Erin tied her shoulder length hazel brown hair into a pony tail then retreated to the corner of the room. I turned my back, not having to read her mind to know that she wanted to get changed. I pulled off my shirt gently. I had just been healed but that didn't mean that I no longer had scars or they didn't ache. Raising my arms really killed. It should fade after a day or two but the scars didn't go away...and I had a fair few of them across my body. But all of them were worth it as long as Erin didn't get hurt as much as I did.

"Here, let me," Erin said softly from behind. I felt her delicate, cold hands glide smoothly across the white scars on my back as she pulled the new shirt down for me to save my aching muscles.

"Thanks," I said, my voice cracking slightly. I turned to look at her. She was wearing a black vest top with tight trousers and a black jacket for all weathers. "You look pretty tough," I said, wanting to break the silence. She shrugged.

"Hopefully I'll scare them enough for them to have the sense to run away," she mumbled. She's talking about killing again. I know she hates it. I do too. Every time Triple put a gun on the table in front of us and told us to kill the poor soul tied to the chair, I wanted to scream, run away and hide forever. But I didn't for Erin's sake. Erin and I always floated the gun up level to their heart using telekinesis (which we could only do together). She would hold the gun there, then look away. Then I would pull the trigger. It happened the same way every week. Every time.

I know I might seem heartless to her. Every time I say to her that she just needs to grin and bear it, I think that I'll push her over the edge. I hate killing just as much as she does but the difference is, I can block out the guilt.

"Oi!" a man yelled from outside the door. "Time's up!" Erin glanced up at me with the same nervous panic that was probably on my face. I know I could definitely feel it. Erin bit her lip like she did when she was trying to push down fear. A little sharp pain prickled on my bottom lip. "Come on," she said. "Let's get this over with."

***

We stood by the big, metal doors together with a dozen men in blue jump suits. Steve and Greg were there too, standing to attention with the rest of the men, awaiting the Master's arrival. No one was talking, apart from me and Erin, in our heads that is, comforting each other as best as we could.

The Master suddenly stormed in with a murderous look on his face. Before I could react, he wrapped his hands around Erin's neck, smashing her against the wall and pinning her there. As I tried to rip him off her, Steve and Greg grabbed me and forced me to my knees, Steve hooking his big muscly arm around my throat so I couldn't move. The other men stood to attention and didn't move an inch.

"Let her go!" I cried as the Master squeezed tighter around Erin's throat. I could feel how tight his grip was on her as my own neck's pain increased.

"Shut up!" He roared at me then turned to Erin. "Now Erin." He spoke more gently to her, in a cruel kind of way, like he was mocking her. "You are going to complete this mission and I don't care how but if you aren't the one to pull the trigger then I'll hurt him more than you are capable to heal." He pointed to me. "You will film you doing it for proof. Do you understand me?" She managed to nod so he released her. She crumbled to the floor on her knees, bending over and gasping. Steve and Greg let go of me at the same time. I scrambled across the floor to her, sliding next to her. I held her as she gasped for breath.

"Now, go!" The Master yelled, pressing a button on the remote control that he always carried around with him. The big metal door slid open, letting in warm, golden sunlight and a fresh wind. Steve threw down a metal box in front of us on the floor. It contained our bullets and would automatically open as soon as we were at least five miles from the base. They were always making sure that we had no way out.

The Master gave us on last message: "Kill Charles Hunt."

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Hi guys!

So how was my second chapter??? As I said, I wanted to write it Josh's perspective so you can see what his relationship with Erin was for character building that geebug123 helped me with. I'm going to write a bit more about their relationship throughout the story and how it changes as they meet different characters or go through different situations. Especially when I get to the chapters with Charlie in them, you'll start to see a change in them. Not that I'm spoiling anything...

This won't be a love story if your worried about that, it's still futuristic, dystopia science fiction.

So let me know what you think in the comments. Your comments mean the world to me so please do comment!!!

Love ya all!!!

CricketCat