You're the eldest. It's your responsibility to protect your brothers. Use your strengths. Asia let the words tick through her mind. Her pupils dilated at the emergence of the bullet. Zack was right. It wasn't a regular bullet, intended to maim. It didn't have the silver or gold casing she was used to seeing. This bullet, the one Zack fired had a claw-like grapple in the front, a clear casing displaying a luminescent orange serum in the middle, and a silver ending.

Use your strengths. You're lean and fast. Asia swiveled her shoulder to the side letting the strange bullet soar passed her. She plucked the pointed spike from her hair and flicked it in the air before her curls finished tumbling down her back. The black spike sliced through the musty air as Zack got in one good blink. The spike dug itself a new home as it penetrated the inner corner of Zack's eye. The hazel eyes Asia used to love staring into.

Zack's hands flew to his face, "Shit!" A drizzle of blood rolled down his face as if he was crying red tears. "You crazy bitch!" He whimpered like a wounded deer as he collapsed to his knees.

His mouth opened a little wider as his head began to tilt back and Asia knew from experience what was going to happen next. He was about to scream and not just any scream, one of those guttural—capture the attention of any ear in a block radius screams. A scream she didn't need. So, against the pleading of her afflicted wounds, she moved. She slapped her hand over his mouth, his hot breath misting her palm. For an instant, she felt sorry for him. 

Those big hazel eyes that pierced her heart. She felt the agony that fluxed through them bringing dew to her eyes. This was Zack—Zackary Jefferson that lived two streets away from her, the persistent boy that spent weeks during the summer teaching her the art of longboarding. He was the definition of a gentleman as her date to their eighth-grade dance. He was her first date, first kiss. She wasn't going to kill him.

"Shut up!" Asia's nails dug into his cheek as she held his face firmer. "I told you I'm not going back." She placed her other hand on the back of his neck. "Don't make me regret this, Zack." Her hand slid from his mouth and she pressed the knife to his throat.

He moaned as he nodded, "You won't."

Asia kept her eyes on him as she knelt over to grab his gun, "DBPs, right." She sat the gun against her shoulder and aimed it at his chest. She grimaced before resting her finger on the trigger, "They make you forget."

"It'll make you forget," Zack spoke through faint whizzes. "It'll kill me."

"What is it?" She tilted her head looking at the shimmering orange slugs. "Tranqs?"

"Yes." He let out a labored exhale gently holding his face. Asia bit the inside of her cheek. The spike poked through the slits of his fingers and his blood-covered eyeball was stuck to it. "Datura Panabari.... or DPB is a serum formed from two flowers," He took a moment to heave. "The first one incapacitates the OXRO and the second flower feeds on the hallucinogenic properties of the first placing you in a dream-like state."

She looked back at him, "You were going to put me in a dream so I could wake up in a nightmare." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm just—" He weakly shrugged. "Following orders." His shoulders drooped and his head fell. His low sobs made Asia blink back tears. "I'm not special like you. I got a girl pregnant and they found that out."

"What does that have to do with you being an OXRO?"

He pulled his head up, "OXROs are infertile. The perfect soldier has no entanglements." He scooted toward her and she tensed up. "Shoot me." He pressed his forehead against the barrel of the gun.

Asia frantically shook her head, "I can't kill you." Her heart was beating in her throat. "I'm your friend."

"Shoot me...because you're my friend." Zack pressed his head back against the gun. "I thought working for Ares was better than being slaughtered like the other defects but I was wrong." He spoke like he couldn't catch his breath. "Please...put...me out...of my misery." He tried to close his eyes but the corner, where the spike was lodged, didn't shut completely. "Please." He begged one more time.

"Come with me," Asia's eyes began to mist. "We can leave together."

Zack huffed. "Ares is everywhere. There is no leaving. You do as you're told or you die." He closed his eyes refusing her the sight of her favorite attribute. "Kill me."

"Zack." Asia whimpered. Her hands began to perspire but she tightened them around the gun anyway. All the events of her life that he was a part of flickered through her mind. Friend. First love. Zack. Her throat was dry as she placed a finger on the trigger. She shook her head. "I can't." She flipped the gun over and pounded him in the head with the butt. He slumped over on the ground and she breathed her first deep breath since she saw him.

"The transport van will be here in thirty minutes." A familiar voice spoke from the radio on Zack's shoulder. "Someone find that damn girl!"

Did Asia do the right thing? Should she have killed Zack? 

More importantly, Asia is back to being hunted.