Chapter5
538 Words
No way out.
They continued moving in silence again.
This time, it was intense.
Zara walked beside Usman. He didn’t hold her hand nor spoke. But he hadn’t told her to leave either.
She was still one of them, for now.
In the upper sewerage, somewhere…
Over the comm. Kenny’s voice jingled: “We have a motion, five signatures ahead. Fast. Armed.”
Usman swore under his breath. “Ambush?”
“No,” Mara said, looking around a corner. “It’s rebels, not hunters.”
Zara stopped.
Tiger’s rebels.
They emerged from the darkness, clean, young and armored. Faces too smooth for the dirt of the slums.
They were led by a girl Zara’s age. Sharp eyes. Scar across her neck.
“You don’t belong down here,” Usman said, hand on his blade.
“This is not a fight,” the rebel girl said. “We’re here to take it.”
“Take what?” Mara snapped.
The girl looked at Zara.
“She is in possession of something that’s ours.”
Zara turned to face the rebels. Then her crew.
“They’re bluffing,” she said.
The rebel leader grinned. “Then give the drive as proof.”
Usman looked at Zara, suddenly still.
“You gave it to them?”
Zara shook her head. “I didn’t. I swear.”
Kenny reached for his belt with his hands.
Suddenly, firearms. The rebels opened fire without warning.
Kenny got hit in the side.
“NO!” Zara yelled.
Mara pulled him back as Usman charged forward, cutting down two rebels in a blur of steel.
Beside Kenny, Zara knelt. Blood everywhere. He had pale lips.
“Stay with me, please! Kenny, stay—”
He coughed. Smiled weakly.
“You were never the problem, Z…”
And then he was gone.
Just like that.
Aftermath
Silence. The rebels fled, and their leader was gone.
Mara crumpled to the floor, shaking.
Usman became motionless, gazing down at Kenny’s corpse.
Zara felt empty, as if she had been torn apart.
Silently, Usman whispered “I’ll kill them,” “Every last one.”
Zara stood with blood stains on her hands.
“I’ll help.” She said.
Usman gave her a look.
“Then it’s time you told me everything.”
Only the two of them sat in the darkness. Dripping pipes above.
Zara told him everything.
The files, Tiger, Saint’s project. Her name is in the system. The rebel threats. The messages. The lab.
She whispered, “I never asked for this”. "I didn’t want to be made."I just wanted to belong to something true.” Usman didn’t speak for a long time.
Then he reached out and touched her hand.
“You do. Right here. With us.”
She broke. Tears poured out. But they weren’t weak tears.
They were the kind that wash the fear out of you.
The crew buries Kenny in a collapsed tunnel filled with light.
His name was carved on the wall by Zara.
And as they leave, she doesn't turn back.
Because now there’s only one path forward.
Expose the project, burn the rebels and protect what’s left of her family.
Even if it takes her life.
- Writer
