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I’m starting to slow down as I become increasingly aware of the damage to my body. The implants can’t seem to compensate for the pain any longer. Seventeen bullets have hit, four going through me and the rest captured inside. I fight through the pain in my legs to force myself forward.
I can see the exit just ahead of us. Once through it, I can get her into the forest and find cover long enough to determine the best strategy to get out of Mills territory and back to the farm. The trees are only a few feet away from the house, and the bog directly behind that.
If I bar the door behind us, stay and keep it closed, Riley has a chance to get away.
I know she isn’t going to like it. I can already hear her protests in my imagination, but I won’t allow for any argument. She has to run, with or without me. It may be the only way to save her.
I have to save Riley.
I’m right behind her. I can feel the heat of her back on my chest, and I remember how she curled up against me last night after I made love to her. She’d sighed softly as she drifted into sleep, and I’d just lain there, watching her.
I can’t let that be our last night together.
I reach my arm over her shoulder, ready to hit the door with full force and get through it as quickly as possible, but just before we reach it, the door flies open. There are a dozen Mills soldiers and three specimens I don’t know but recognize immediately as my kind.
Grabbing Riley by the waist, I start to turn, but the specimens and soldiers from behind us close in. My mind flies through every available avenue—calculating nearly four hundred possible courses of action in a half-second—and finds no means of escape.
Two of the specimens grab hold of my arms, but I don’t release Riley. The other specimen grabs a hold of her shoulders, pulling as hard as I am to keep control of her. Riley’s mouth opens in a silent scream. I’m crushing her diaphragm with my grip. If I keep my hold on her, she’ll be torn apart.
I loosen my grip, allowing her to be ripped from my arms.
“No!” Riley screams. She thrashes in the specimen’s arms, kicking and yelling. “Let me go! Leave him alone!”
“Riley!” I scream and fight against the arms that hold me, but I can’t break the grip they have on me. I’m forced to my knees as one of the specimens grabs my head and holds it to my left shoulder. The implanted chip is pried roughly from my neck, and I feel blood dripping from the wound.
I can only struggle fruitlessly as I stare at Riley. She keeps fighting against her captor, but she has no chance. As she’s dragged backward, Dr. Helen McCall walks through the door with a self-satisfied grin.
“You bitch! Riley screams in the other doctor’s face and kicks out at her, but Dr. McCall only tilts her head and smiles.
“You knew it would end this way,” Dr. McCall says. “You never had a chance.”
“You can’t do this!” Riley screams at her. “You fucking bitch! Leave him alone! Leave him alone!”
“You’re a traitor,” Dr. McCall tells her. “Lucky for you, we have a solution that will benefit everyone, and you’ll be able to return to your work.”
“No!” I scream as I struggle. “I made her go with me! I abducted her and forced her to go! It was all me!”
“No one believes that.” Dr. McCall tilts her head and raises her eyebrow at me.
“I will never work for Mills again!” Riley screams at her. “You can’t force me to do that! I’d die first!”
Dr. McCall laughs.
“You will do exactly as you will be programmed to do.” She steps up to Riley as the specimen holds her arms to her sides. She leans close and sneers. “This time, we’re going to do things my way. Take her away!”
She gestures toward the door, and the specimen hauls Riley through it. I scream her name again and again as she is dragged from my sight. I can hear the whirring of helicopter blades outside. The sound increases as the machine takes off into the sky, Riley held captive aboard the craft.
She’s gone.
I can’t breathe right. I can barely bring myself to move at all. She’s gone, and the very idea of existing without her is moot. It’s pointless and without meaning. I look at my hands as they’re bound in front of me and try to figure out what I should have done with them to keep this from happening.
I failed. I failed. I failed.
I continue to stare at the door as a gurney is brought next to me and I’m lifted into the air and deposited in the center of it. Hands hold me down as straps circle my body, restraining me on the rolling table. I look around me at the faces of those who have defeated me, and I don’t even want to exact revenge. All the tactical information in my head tells me there is no chance. No matter what I do to them now, she’ll still be gone.
“Put him down.” Dr. McCall sneers every word as she glares down at me, gloating.
I feel a sharp stabbing sensation on the right side of my head as a hundred metal probes are shoved into the skin of my neck and behind my right ear. I try to pull away from the pain, but someone’s strapped my head in place.
