Evac
Riannon sprinted through the rain-slick garden, throwing off the heels that had broken on the cobblestones behind her. She ripped at her sweeping silk skirt, tore off the pieces left clinging to the bottom half after the rottweilers’ attack. The shreds left a trail, but the transponder they’d gotten into her system let the guards track her far more easily than any blood-soaked pieces of silk.
The remnants of the champagne lingered in her head. She ducked below drooping tree branches, stumbled then slipped down a steep dew-covered slope into the lower gardens of the estate. Black mud caked her arms and legs, new blood welling beneath the muck where rocks hidden in the slime had sliced deep into her skin. Damn it. She dragged herself back to her feet, checked to confirm that the evac chip on the inside of her neckline hadn’t quit blinking. They have to get to shore. They have to get the launch through. Riannon had no way to escape if the launch didn’t arrive. I can’t be responsible for any more murders. If the launch didn’t land by the time she reached shore, before the security force and their guns reached her, innocent people were going to die. By daybreak, the island would be lifeless—her genetics would take care of that…
"I can never die? Is that what you’re saying?"
"Oh no, child. That’s not what I’m saying at all." Dr. Levy looked away from his clipboard, shifting it to look down at Riannon as she lay on the exam table, her dark hair framing the confusion on her face. "There were…errors in your genetic programming." He rubbed his temple, trying to think of what to say. She was just a girl, not yet fifteen. There was so much she didn’t know yet. "While coding your abilities…" He trailed off for a moment—there were too many secrets they had to keep from her. "You’re not only capable of carrying a gene specific virus—your system is one itself. What I meant is we’ve discovered that, if you die violently…the virus—this other virus inside you—will kill anyone within a 10 mile radius."
He pushed his guilt aside, as he had for the last fifteen years. He stayed with the project to try to protect her, but was afraid it was a hopeless cause. They’d send her out eventually…and then he wouldn’t be able to do anything more. A few more years and unless he found a treatment to save her, she’d die the death they’d designed her for.
She snaked through the weeping willows along the edge of a small pond, bright moonlight turning the still water into a mirror. She stayed within the protective embrace of the hanging branches, kept her reflections out of sight of the men she knew were following behind. I wonder if the Minister is with them…no. He’s with his doctors trying not to die. Like I should be. She could see his face as she ran, harsh lines framed by black hair, eyes wide at his infection. I need to get out of here—then never again. They can’t make me kill again.
Salt stung her nose—the beach was close by, over a wall and through a tree line. The transponder lay in her shoulder, revealing each step she took, its transmission a buzz at the base of her brain. She pushed herself to run faster, suppressing her unsteadiness. The willows came to an abrupt halt when she reached the source stream of the pond. She vaulted across, landed on the opposite side, sprinting towards the ivy-covered wall visible ahead. Levy won’t let me die. She repeated it over and over. She trampled flowers under her feet, jumped over the sharp pebbles of a little used path. She could hear the men behind her now, struggling through the same willows she’d pushed through before. The wall was perfectly smooth under the tangle of foliage, no outcroppings of stone, nothing for her to grip. They’re getting closer. The Trainer isn’t here with an antiviral. Get up and over—back to the beach. Stop thinking.
She grabbed one of the large silver clips that held up her hair, aimed it at a tree branch overhanging the wall and pushed a hidden button. Hooks embedded into the wood, trailing a nylon rope that ended in her hands. A laser tracer appeared, tracked across masonry and foliage toward her. She hit the button again and the device jerked her up toward the trees as a weapons blast tore into the wall where she’d been. She grunted, slamming into the wall, then reached the top and leapt over the damp stones and down the other side.
The moon gleamed off the ocean through the trees. She strained to hear the hum of an evac launch over the crashing tide. If it isn’t waiting…no, it will be. It has to be. I’m not dying here. She ran swiftly, small creatures darting out of her way in the groundcover. She hurdled over fallen tree trunks, patches of slippery moss.
She heard the hum of the launch long before she could see it, pushed herself harder, the men behind closing in. Leaves were sparse, and moonbeams filtered down across her path. The launch was a dark smudge on the water’s edge. She stumbled on an exposed tree root as she burst out of the protective tree cover, but something else slammed her down before she’d regained her footing, leaving her frozen on the ground.
The launch’s door clanged open, noise and firecrackers spilling out and coming closer. Strong hands scooped her up and John’s face glanced down at her before diving back into the titanium launch. "Get us out of here," he shouted, the Trainer ducking in behind him. She threw her weapon down and sealed the door as the evac launched.
"They hit her, Mari Lynn." John slid down a wall to the steel floor, holding Riannon in his lap. "I can’t tell what kind of gun it was."
"We’ll get her to Levy….he’ll know." The Trainer opened a compartment, pulling bandaging out. "Prop her up."
John held Riannon as the Trainer wrapped bandaging around her chest, trying to stop the blood from soaking through. Riannon looked up at them in the blue light, her eyes thin lines of white and blue. Her face was faded, tinted ghostly by the light above. "I didn’t ask for this," Riannon whispered. "I didn’t. I won’t do it again."
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