Gold

The Final Act

    I woke up that morning with a major headache but after I ate some breakfast, drank some water, and read some of my new books, it eased up. I was dressed in all black with protective gear. I was ready. The plan was simple, Leo and I were going to cross the Boundary and kill any Rebel we encounter. Then we will find the Rebel Base and take my parents hostage. We will give the Rebels a list of demands and then after they fulfill all of them we will kill my parents and get out of there as fast as we can because the Utopian Guard will be raiding the Rebel Base and killing all in sight. The more I think about it the more it seems like g******e but the Rebels must be stopped. Permanently. 

    I looked at the watch on my wrist and it read 0600. I had to be in the Central Room by 0600. Oops. I ran out of my room all the way to the Central and ran in just as I heard Ward say,  “Where is Kira?”

    “Right here! Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked.” I came flying into the room. Leo smirked at me and I gave a wry smile back. “I’m ready though.”

    “Great. You two will take the main trunk and head out now. Once you kill the Leaders get out of there.” Ward grabbed his son’s arm and stared at him intensely. “You will not die.”

    “No, I won’t. I have too much to live for,” Leo glanced over at me. I looked away quickly but not before Leo saw the smile that spread across my face. “Okay, well let us go!”

    Leo then proceeded to leave the Central Room and make his way to the Front Hall. There were Guards and Protectors lining the walls as we made our way to the door. They all watched us quietly and respectfully. It was a little eerie, so I decided to amuse myself. I began curtseying and bowing. “Ahh, yes, you can all get my autograph when we return.” 

    Confused, Leo turned around. He saw me waving and smiling and he laughed. “Kira, knock it off. They obviously came here to see me.” Then he took a bow. The Guards all looked a bit miffed.

    I could only imagine what they were thinking “We are trusting those buffoons to take down the Rebels?” They couldn’t be any more wrong. The fact that we weren’t cracking under the pressure that had been thrust upon us is admirable. 

    We finally made it to the door and ran into the truck. “Shotgun!” Leo called.

    “Fine, I’ll drive.” I hopped into the driver's seat and revved the engine. “Let’s go kick some Rebel butt.”

    As we approached the Boundary our hearts began to beat faster than ever. The Boundary was made out of scrap metal welded together. It was created by the Utopian government once the Great War had ended. The Great War had begun in the year 2068. There were so many stories surrounding the Great War and why it started but the most common theory is that America declared war on Russia because they wanted their land and oil. It slowly evolved from war just between America and Russia into a war of the world. All countries fought and eventually it went from guns and bombs to nuclear weapons. 

    It’s truly a miracle the world wasn’t completely destroyed. After the war ended in 2082 the world separated. All the continents only deal with their own continent. It just so happens our continent which had been North America was split between the Rebels and Utopia. We want to make a perfect world but the Rebels believe Utopia is not as perfect as we think it is and they're trying to ruin the peace that The Mayor’s family carved out of a chaotic world. Utopia was created in 2083 by the Mayor’s Great Grandfather, the leadership has been passed down to every Crowne son since then.

    The metal scrap fence was depressing and it was a bit fulfilling to drive the truck right through it and destroy the heartbreaking sight. When we broke through to the other side Leo grasped his g*n and looked out around him. All that surrounded us was sand and trash. The Rebel camps were usually further in. 

    We drove for hours until we finally came across a scattering of buildings. I stopped the truck and hopped out. It was hot and muggy and all the gear didn’t help with the oppressive feeling but I tried to walk as lightly as I could. I entered the first building and found a woman sitting by the door. “Ma’am. I need you to tell me where the Base is.” I spoke sharply.

    “I- uh- I don’t know where it is.” The woman lied. I could hear her heartbeat racing, she knew something. She was just hiding it. 

    I walked up to her, picked her up, and threw her against the wall. I pushed my arm against her throat and put my face directly in front of hers. “Tell me where it is and I will let you live.”

    “Drive four miles west and you will hit the main Rebel city. Please. That’s all I know.” The woman was crying and the fear in her eyes made me feel guilty that I was inflicting it. I knew that she lived with the Rebels and needed to be killed but I also knew that this woman wasn’t a Rebel herself. It just so happened that she was born outside of the Boundary. 

    I had to kill her. It was part of my orders, “kill all Rebels” but there was a part of me that couldn’t bring myself to do it. It may have been the same part of me that had fallen in love with Leo. The weak part. I didn’t care which part it was though because I decided then and there that I would not kill any innocents. I wanted to save people and that didn't just include the Utopian civilians. I wanted to save any innocent person I could. 

    I leaned in close to the woman, “Have you ever killed anyone?”

    “What? No! We- we don’t kill people. Just our leaders. They're trying to make a point.” The woman stuttered out. She confirmed what I had been thinking. The Rebels weren’t really all Rebels, there was just an extreme bunch that wanted Utopia to disappear but the rest were innocent.

    “Kira? What’s taking so long?” Leo called from the truck. I shot a bullet into the wall next to the woman's head.

    “Coming,” I answered as I walked out of the building leaving the woman whimpering against the wall looking after me confusedly. 

    I hopped back into the car. “Four miles west and we’ll hit the main camp.”

    “Kira, what took you so long in there?” Leo looked worriedly at me. I ignored the obvious concern in his voice and stared straight forward. I loved Leo and I would tell him anything but I wasn't sure if I could tell him this. He had grown up wanting to murder each and every Rebel so I didn’t know how he would react to my actions. 

    “I’m sorry I’m not fast enough for you, goodness,” I grumbled.

    “Sorry, I just worried,” Leo muttered sensing I was annoyed with him. I was annoyed because I wanted to tell him but I couldn’t be sure I could trust him when it came to this.

    “You don’t need to worry about me,” I sighed. The landscape that flew by our car was so lonely and desolate. It was a wonder that anyone could even live out here. Why did the Rebels have to fight us? If they joined us they would be living much more comfortably. 

    We drove in uncomfortable silence for five minutes until we finally saw the main camp. There were low shiny buildings that reflected the sun so the buildings wouldn’t take in all the heat. People were walking around and going in out of buildings. It almost looked like any other bustling city except there were uniformed soldiers walking everywhere. 

    “Okay, I want to park our car behind the furthest building and then start picking off all the soldiers and work our way into the central building.”

    “Only kill the soldiers?” Leo seemed confused by my orders.

    “Kill the soldiers and anyone that is acting aggressively towards you. If someone is running away leave them be.” Leo looked at me. Surprised.

    “They want us to kill everyone… Kira? Did you kill that woman back there?” Leo asked slowly.

    “No, I didn’t. I couldn’t. We always say we want to save lives, well that woman she had a life and I saved it.” I was nervous as to how Leo would respond so I couldn’t look him in the eye.

    Leo grabbed my face and kissed me. “Kira, I love you. You seem so tough but deep down you are probably one of the most altruistic person I've ever met.”

    “You’re not mad?” I was a little confused but also so happy because Leo had never actually said out loud that he loved me before.

    “Not at all. If anything I’m happy because you’re truly amazing and every day you remind me that I fell in love with the right person.” Leo kissed me softly.

    “I love you too, you know?” I spoke softly. Scared of saying it too loudly. Leo grinned. 

    “I know, now let’s go kick some rebel butt!” With that Leo jumped out of the car and I followed suit. 

    We went to the edge of the building and peered around the corner. There was a soldier heading our way. Normally, I would have disposed of him in a quiet way but our orders were to create as much mayhem as possible. So instead of waiting for him to turn the corner I jumped out and shot him in the head. The gunshot rang out.

    The soldier dropped dead with a look of surprise on his face. He was young. Younger than I expected. I looked away and started running into the hub of the camp. I heard Leo running behind me. Soldiers started pouring out from a building just ahead of us, it must have been some barracks. I dove behind a building and then sporadically jumped out to shoot at the multiplying soldiers. Finally, when I realized they were amassing too much, I jumped out and just started shooting. I shot down a lot of them and kept shooting. Leo was shooting from behind the building, picking off any that were about to fire at me. The soldiers started to retreat because out of the hundreds that had started there were only a handful left standing. 

    Once they retreated, I walked among the fallen soldiers and made sure all of them were dead. They were. I was always taught to shoot to kill.

    “Let’s keep going. The Leaders must know of our presence by now. It’s only a matter of time.” I started walking towards the center of the camp again and reloaded my g*n as we walked.

    “Kira, are you okay?” Leo asked. “You’re bleeding.”

    I looked down and sure enough, I had a b****y wound on my left arm. “I didn’t even know I was shot. I have too much adrenaline in me right now to care. I’m fine.”

    “Let me just wrap it okay?” Leo pulled on my right arm until I stopped walking and he took a bandage out of the first aid bag he had been carrying and wrapped it tightly around my arm. 

    “Okay, thank you,” I pulled my arm away and began running. We made it to the middle and the whole city was empty. All the bustling people were hiding in the buildings. “Hello. We know you can all hear us.” I glanced around. Waiting for a response.

    “Kira?” My mother stepped out of the main building with my father at her side. My heart skipped a beat as my gold eyes met her brown ones. There was no warmth in her eyes. I looked at my father, he actually had some emotion in his eyes. It was weird, seeing the parents that left me to die.

    “Audra, how very nice to see you,” I said sarcastically. Trying to push down all emotions. “We need to talk to you and Timothy.”

    “Okay, we can talk if you stop killing all our soldiers,” Audra smiled coldly. I gave a wry smile back and curtsied.

    “How gracious you are, giving your daughter some of your precious time. You will meet us at the outermost building here with absolutely no soldiers or I promise they will meet a painful death.” I glared at my mother as I spoke. 

    “What will keep us from meeting a painful death?” Audra lost her fake smile.

    “Daughterly love?” I replied and Timothy grimaced. He seemed a bit distraught about seeing me but my mother seemed like she couldn’t care less. “Be there at exactly 1000 or we will come back and kill everyone here.”

    Leo and I turned around and left. Knowing that Audra and Timothy had no choice but to come. 

    Leo and I were sitting in the building that had our truck parked behind it. We were silent. Anticipating what was to come. Leo grabbed my hand. He didn’t say anything but his hand holding mine was enough. He wanted me to know that he was there for me no matter what and we will make it through this together. 

    All of a sudden the door slammed open and my parents walked in. My mom stepped in and began talking. “You were five when we took you to the marketplace. We had known there would be an explosion but since we helped plan it we thought we wouldn't be hurt by it and that the three of us would be able to escape. But you were severely injured. We took you home and laid you in your bed. The serum that your grandparents had made, well we had some stored hoping that eventually, we would create the perfect soldier for the Rebels. We used some of the serum even though we didn’t know how it would react with you. We figured you were going to die either way, mine as well die in the name of science. You died in my arms.” Audra looked down at her hands. “We left you in your bed and escaped.” 

    I didn’t know how to react to all this. But then all of a sudden five soldiers busted their way into the building. I looked at my parents and shook my head. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

    “I should let you know, after we injected you with the serum we took it back to the lab and perfected it,” Audra smirked. I looked at one of the soldier's eyes and was shocked to find they were as gold as mine and Leo’s.

    “Crap.” That word was the last word I said before all hell broke loose. Leo started fighting with the soldiers. I knew he wanted me to kill my parents, so quickly before any soldiers had a chance to attack me I shot my parents. I watched as my bullets hit their chests and as they slowly fell to the ground. I felt oddly okay with killing these people, they weren’t my real family. The Utopian Guard was.

    Leo and I completed our mission. The Leaders were dead, but now we will quite possibly end up dead as well. I turned to join Leo in fighting the soldiers. The soldiers clearly had the serum running through their veins but they also weren’t as trained as we are. 

    One soldier ran up to me and threw me up against the wall. I used his momentum against him and slipped over his shoulder and landed on the other side of him. I took my knife and slammed it into this jugular. He fell down, gasping like a fish. 

    Slowly and surely Leo and I took down the hulking men. When they finally were all lying on the ground I turned to Leo and smiled. “We did it! Now let’s get out of here so the Guard can finish up.” We started walking out when all of a sudden a gunshot rang out. There was a sharp tearing pain in my thigh and I looked down to see a bullet hole going right through my leg. Unfortunately, it also went through my femoral artery. I fell. It was too painful to support myself on it.

    “Kira!” Leo yelled. He went over to the soldier that shot me and shot him in the head and then ran over to me and picked me up. He ran to the truck and laid me down in the back. He took more bandages from the first aid and tried to make a tourniquet. 

    “Leo, there is no time to freak out. If there is any chance of me surviving I need you to drive as fast as you possibly can and get me to the infirmary.” I grabbed Leo’s blood slicked hand. It was hard for me to focus my eyes on anything because of the immense pain but I made sure to meet his panicked eyes.

    “Kira, please don’t die on me.”

    “I can’t. I’m a freak remember? It takes more than one tiny bullet to kill me. Now drive!” I slapped his hand out of mine and he ran into the driver's seat and slammed down on the gas. 

    Every small bump jarred my leg and made me feel like I was about to throw up. I held every whimper and cry of pain because I knew it would just upset Leo more and he needed to focus on driving to safety. We were probably halfway to Utopia when I felt it. I felt death clawing at me. I knew I didn’t have much longer. I lost too much blood. Even my super healing couldn’t compete with the femoral artery being shot open. 

    I wanted to say goodbye to Leo but if I distracted him then he wouldn’t make it back to the Boundary before the Utopian Guard raided the Rebel Camp and I didn’t want Leo near that. I didn't want him to possibly get hurt. 

    By the time we made it to the Boundary, I was fading in and out of consciousness. I was surprised I was still alive. I shouldn't have been surprised, I have always been stubborn and I really didn’t want to die. I wanted to live and have a life with Leo that didn’t include fighting. Right, when we got to the Boundary there was a Medical truck waiting. Leo picked me and ran to it and got me in as quickly as possible. That’s when I finally blacked out.