Year E2996

Beck

"How could she?" Kat whispered, tears holding in her eyes.

My stomach dropped with a thick retch, forming, ready to upchuck on the metal tunnels. The air shook while the vents heated. Kat's hair blew around as she placed her face closer to the opening. My shaky hand patted her back while I thought of the next step, a blank mind with fear.

"I'm sorry, Kitty," I whispered. "I didn't know she—"

"Beck, how would you know?" she replied sadly. "She had been right under our nose this whole time. The leader of that evil group. Your sister, Ray."

"Ray," I chimed, shaking my head, not wanting to believe the words.

A deep voice had Kat glancing at the scientist and Ray below us. Rob coughed, glaring at the others before whispering into Ray's ear. She nodded her head, eyes glancing around.

"Okay," Ray said and walked over to the tablet at the end of an elderly woman's table. The human had gray hair braided over her shoulder as she slept. "Move this one to the green room and the green safforian man on table ten to the red room." Ray handed the tablet over to a younger girl in a lab coat.

"Of course," the girl replied, and the group wheeled the two victims out of the room.

Rob exhaled and waited for the doors to close. "They are missing again. What do you think they are up to?"

"I'm not sure, but you said they were on the first ship, so they are getting close to finding this place." Ray scanned the area. "For all we know, those two are here now."

I glanced at Kat. "Are they talking about us?"

Kat nodded her head. "I think so."

A man in a black suit stepped into the vast room with a stiff stature. He bowed slightly to Ray. His eyes glazed over, waiting. The man looked at Ray with unsure eyes and back at Rob, almost uneasily.

"What?" Rob asked with anger and leaned into Ray. "Some of these chipped sure lose their brains," he said, like the man wasn't there to listen.

"There is confirmation that your brother and his safforian friend are here, sir." The robotic man twitched.

"Fuck!" Rob yelled. "Where are they?"

"We do not know, sir."

"What are you even meant for?" Rob slammed his fight on a table. "How did they even get into the building if you guarded it?"

"I'm not sure, sir."

Ray gestured her palms to the man, reassuring him. "Thank you for letting us know. Please send a few to search the building for them."

"Okay," the man said before leaving.

"Since I'm here, we shall to be picky about who we chipped from now on. That one has a screw loose." Rob crossed his arms, leaning against the table while Ray patted his shoulder.

I glanced at Kat and saw her worried expression. Her jaw was tight as she ground her teeth together. The whites of her knuckles were slightly red from the grip on her shirt as she didn't look away from my sister and Rob, the streams of light painting stripes on her face from the vent.

"Let's go to my office," Ray said, walking to the door and flicking off the lights.

The door opened as the light from the hallway brightened the darkness before the exit closed. I pulled the vent open and dropped myself to the table below, rattling the person sleeping. Reaching, I grabbed Kat's hips and helped her. She jumped to the tile floor while I followed behind her.

I laced my fingers with Kat's, and the lights clicked on, shocking us. Rob stood leaning against the wall while my sister frowned with her hand still on the switch.

"Beck," Ray said with concern, her eyes bobbing between Kat and me.

I stepped back, motioning Kat behind me. "No!" I yelled. "How could you do this?" Looking around, I pointed at all the innocents on the tables. "They did nothing to deserve this."

"Beck, you don't see the big picture, though." Ray widened her eyes, showing me how much she looked like mom.

"The only thing I see is my sister becoming the villain in my story." A tear escaped my eyes, and Kat tightened her grip on my hand while hugging my arm. "There is no bigger picture when you take away free will."

"It's about saving Safforia!" Ray yelled, pulling at her hair. "I am a scientist and already see the depleting plants and the core of Safforia suffering."

"So, Safforia, before the ones that live on it?"

"No," Ray said, stepping closer with her hands out. "Of course, I care about all the safforians on this planet, but if humans want to live here too, we need to control all actions to confirm Safforia doesn't die as Earth did."

"Then set in rules," I replied with anger. "You don't need to chip people and turn them into robots." I pointed at the woman on the table next to Kat and me. "She could have a family, and you took that memory of them from her." Sadness washed over me. "Would you take my memories away?"

"No," Ray answered. "I would never chip you." She looked at Rob and back at me. "You will live here now and see my plan unfold. Once you see, you will understand."

I shook my head. "I will never understand."

"Beck, I will make sure evil can't live. If someone would have chipped Dad, he would have never beaten Mom."

"But you are destroying good while trying to eradicate evil."

Rob scuffed before kicking off the wall and walking to Ray. He whispered in her ear as she nodded her head. His eyes met mine with worry, and he left the room in a rush.

"Please, Ray, don't do this." I pleaded with her.

"It's too late, Beck," Ray said while two men rushed into the room. "Perfect timing." Ray pointed at Kat and me. "I'm sure Rob sent you. Arrest these two."

Kat ran toward the back room with me behind her. A man tackled my legs, slamming me to the ground. The other man jumped at us and gripped Kat. Her scream pierced my soul as she tried to fight the man.

I wiggled under the other, but he pushed my face to the tile floor. "Calm down, everything will be okay," he whispered while the other forced Kat to the floor.

"Set! East side!" the man yelled, while a group charged into the room with their guns aimed at Ray.

I pushed the man off me, crawling toward Kat as a gunshot echoed in the room. Kat's cry trembled in my heart as I cradled her. The two men stood, and I noticed no chipped marks on their arms. One nodded at us before jogging away.

"What happened?" Kat asked, her body shaking.

"I'm not sure," I replied, kissing her forehead and brushing her hair. "Stay here."

"What? No," Kat said while I slowly stood, seeing a group surrounding the area where Ray once stood.

I slowly walked past the tables of people and safforians until Rob glanced at me. His eyes widened as he rushed to me. He gripped my shoulders, forcing me away, but I shoved him.

"Beck, you don't want to see this," he said, but I ignored him.

A woman stepped aside as I fell to my knees. Warm tears soaked my cheeks. Dead on the tile, my sister with blood running from her face, her limp body white like a porcelain doll. Maroon covered her face with a hole, replacing the spot her ocean eye had been.

"Ray," I sobbed, cupping my palms over my eyes.

"Beck," a deep voice whispered, gripping my shoulder. "I'm sorry it had to come down to this."

I glanced up at a blurry Rob, his expression sunken. He didn't glance at my dead sister, but kept his eyes on me. His manly stance, now drooping.

"Why?" I cried to him.

He knelt on the tile, bringing me into his vast arms. "I tried to stop the attack on Ray when I left because I didn't want you to see this. The team had already been en route. I was too late to stop the mission."

"Beck?" Kat's voice vibrated behind me.

I pushed out of Rob's arms and stood slowly, walking toward her. "Take us home, Rob," I said firmly, unsure where home was, but anywhere with Kat would be home for me.

"I will drop you off at the open homes." Rob guided us out of the room, past my sister.

My role model, Ray, had been there for me even when our father had beaten our mother, the good times and bad when her teenage years bossed me around like she owned me, my older sister, who had loved me with no conditions. How thick was blood when the one in question had been doing the work of wickedness?

The sun beamed onto my face, blinding me as we crawled out of the hole, a different path without the rust field, as Kat climbed the ladder behind me. Rob pointed across the forest to a newly built fence. Outside the City of Cerise, the barrier connected an extension to the safforian life.

Rob pulled a tablet from his backpack and tapped it. "You are welcome in house twelve." His eyes looked into the sky. "About twenty families will arrive to Safforia, being the first to intermix with the planet."

"What?" Kat asked, confused.

"I am part of a unique program. The security of Safforia hired me to take out the leader of Men of Suits before they allowed any families from the Nus here."

"How long had you known?" I asked.

"That your sister had been the leader?" Rob crossed his arms, tucking the tablet under his biceps.

"Yes."

"For a while, we thought it had been another woman, but Ray opened up to me when the rust grass poisoned you," he replied, glancing away. "She knew about the field and the effects of humans. That's why she picked the location."

Kat shook her head. "Why did it take you so long?" She glared. "There were many safforians and humans hurt down in that pit."

"Kat," I said, shocked.

"No. Kat is right. I thought I could convince her to stop." Rob palmed his forehead. "I went into this mission thinking it was Ray, but she hid it so well away from me. And once she told me, I thought I could stop her without killing her."

A crack had Kat ducking and me shielding my eyes to look up. Hovering nearby, I watched a craft land inside the fence, followed by another. Ships suspended in the sky, waiting to land.

The clouds broke as the Nus lowered in the sky, hovering in the line of sight for everyone to see, a humming noise filling the air while birds flew from their hiding spots.

"Well, young man," Rob said with his hand out. "It was nice meeting you, Beck."

"Are you leaving?" I asked.

"Forever?" Kat added to the end of my sentence.

"Yes, they already moved me to the Nus and getting families ready." He grinned with an unsure expression. "Again, sorry it ended the way it did. Please understand that Ray had picked her fate, knowing the corruption back lining the Men of Suits."

I didn't reply to him, not wanting to agree with the death of my sister. He nodded his head to Kat and rotated slowly. Rob jogged away toward another ship hidden in the forest, leaving us.

Turning, I watched a craft land before a new home while families exited. They pointed at the sky and the surroundings, amazing with everything. We followed them with our eyes until the fence blocked the view.

Kat wrapped her arm with mine, leaning for head onto my shoulder. "He said twelve, right?" Her voice humming to my heart. 

Thank you for reading. Please share, comment, and push that beautiful star.