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“My dear girl,” he said. “This hasn’t ended. You will live to see us victorious yet. I come from a generation where fighting is alien. It has to be you that leads our people to freedom. The new generation.”
“I don’t understand,” Stari said. “What are you saying?”
Grandpa straightened up in his wheelchair and turned to an assistant.
“Prepare the self-destruct sequence,” he said. “We’ll take at least some of these sons of bitches with us.”
“No!” Stari said. “We still have a chance! There’s still hope we can beat them!”
“Not when they know our location,” Grandpa said. “You will lead the others to the emergency base. I will stay here to ensure the self-destruct sequence gets carried out properly.”
“Please, Grandpa,” Stari said. “Don’t stay here. Stay with us. Stay with me. I don’t have anyone else.”
“You’re wrong,” he said. “You have everyone else. Take care of them for me.”
Grandpa nodded to a pair of soldiers. They grabbed Stari by the arms and carried her from the room. She dropped the metal box as she struggled.
I picked up the metal box containing the trackers.
Grandpa smiled at me.
“I always said you were a good egg,” he said. “Take care of her.”
“I will,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel.
“Self-destruct sequence initiated,” Computer said. “Self-destruct in T-minus ten minutes.”
The lights turned red and began to flash.
“Everybody out,” Grandpa said.
No one moved quickly. They cast awkward glances in Grandpa’s direction as they shuffled toward the door.
I cast a look back at him as the door hissed shut behind me. An old man dying with what they believed to be their last hope. Poetic and yet possibly the most depressing thing I could imagine.
The door hissed shut behind me.
A thick mist consumed the base, giving it a sinister and eerie feel. The red warning lights flashed and illuminated haunting shadows.
“Self-destruct sequence initiated,” Computer said. “T-Minus eight minutes.”
The soldiers lost their grip on Stari. She bolted to the door and banged on it with her fist.
“Let me in!” she cried. “Grandpa! Let me in!”
“He’s not going to let you in,” I said.
Stari wiped a hand over her snotty nose.
“Yeah?” she said. “What do you know about it?”
“Nothing. I’m just a stranger here. But I know true love when I see it. Your Grandpa wanted you to live so you could lead the survivors in the future. It won’t happen now but it will happen someday. A new opportunity. And when it happens, you need to be ready.”
Stari peered up at me with her bloodshot eyes and snotty nose.
“You really think we can beat them?” she said.
“I know you can,” I said. “They don’t know we know the location of their Control Room. It’s still there. And we can destroy it whenever we want to. But we have to get out of here and survive first.”
