Sakir

I catch Mya's body when she's thrown into mine and cradle her against my chest as Isaac tackles President Ashford around the middle. The two of them roll away in a tangle of fists and spit, but all I can think about is the little girl in my arms.

The girl who just took a bullet for me.

Athena's voice drifts over to me, but I block her out.

Turning so that my back is to Ashford and Isaac, I lay Mya down on the floor. Panic blooms in my stomach and chest as the glass crunches under her small frame. Her hands clutch her stomach, trembling like trash bags caught in the wind. She takes short, quick breaths faster than she should, and her eyes are wide and alert.

"Hold on, Mya," I whisper, pressing my hands on the growing red circle on her stomach. "You'll be fine. I'll take care of you."

She shakes her head, and her face contorts in pain.

"Stop lying to me," she mumbles, barely able to open her mouth as she grits her teeth. "I knew what I was doing."

Her words slam into my chest like a hurricane, and tears build up in my eyes.

I can't lose another friend tonight. My body can't handle it.

"Then why did you do it?" I snap as I continue to press my hands to her. She fights them and winces, but I don't relent.

"Because I had nothing to lose."

"Screw that, Mya."

Mya manages to slip her hands under mine and loosen my grip on her stomach. The red expands with every passing second. A gunshot sounds behind me, followed by more screaming. Athena beats on the glass of her cell and shouts at me. The words fall like confetti around me, useless and vain.

"Let me go," Mya whispers, pushing my hands away from her stomach. She's turning pale, more than she was before. She struggles to keep her eyes open as she looks up at me, and her lips tremble with the effort it requires to talk.

"I can't," I reply, wrapping my arms around her body and pulling her close to me. She hisses in pain, but I press my ear to her chest to make sure the vital organ still works.

"You have to."

I shake my head, and the tiny drumbeat flutters like a moth's wings scattering dust. The blood loss will send her into shock. Her heart's weak already.

"Let me go, Six," she hisses, but she wraps her arms around me nonetheless. Her fingers are cold to my bare back.

"Please, hold on. Athena can help you. She'll save you," I plead, lifting my head up to look at her again. Her eyes rest closed, and her breathing evens out.

"I don't want to be saved. I want my brother."

She cracks the dam in my chest, and I let myself cry. The heavy drops fall on her auburn hair and dirty face. I feel for a pulse, but the search proves harder than before. It linger miles below ice, tapping almost unrecognizable to me. The beats are few and far between.

"Goodbye, Mya," I force myself to say. With that, I lie her back on the floor, cradling her head until it rests on solid ground.

"Goodbye, Sakir."

She takes one strangled breath, and blood trickles out of the corner of her mouth as she coughs. She wipes it away with the back of her hand, but she lacks the strength to move her hand away.

This wasn't supposed to go this way. She wasn't supposed to die for me, wasn't supposed to die at all actually. Yet, I watch the life leave her, watch it fade away like a perfect sunrise of brilliant pink clouds and purple rays of sunlight. I watch her hand fall limp across her face and death settle over her like a blanket of snow across a field of wildflowers. It covers everything beautiful.

Except, I know this snow won't melt. The flowers won't bloom in the spring. The sun won't come up and unthaw the layers of a frozen tundra.

Mya's gone.

There's nothing I can do about it.

"Sakir! You absolute idiot! Get me out of here!"

Like I've plucked cotton out of my ears, Athena's voice rips through my head. I look over at her, and she has both fists on the glass and beats on it. Behind me, there's a second gunshot, and that alone jerks me back into reality.

"Sakir! I need you!" Isaac screams from across the room.

With a shaky breath, I push away from Mya and launch myself across the room towards Isaac and President Ashford.

Blood coats the floor under them as it pours from an unknown source. If it's coming from Isaac, the man doesn't let it show. He has Ashford held against the floor, but the older man thrashes around with strength unusual for his age. In one swift motion, Isaac knocks the gun out of Ashford's hand, and it slides across the floor towards me.

"Pick it up," Isaac shouts, punching Ashford once more across the face. He's black and blue already, but it's not enough.

He needs to suffer.

I lean down and pick the black pistol up. It's still warm from the five shots before, but luckily, I still have ammo. Isaac leans to one side, and I aim it directly at the president. Mya's blood drips from my hands.

Athena falls quiet. Ashford freezes. Isaac's gasping for breath fills the dark corners of the room. The gun trembles in my hand as I hold the trigger firm.

I've never shot a human being before, and I never thought I would.

But I see all the people he killed- personally and indirectly.

Thousands of innocent citizens fell to the virus after its release fifteen years ago. Five compounds full of people who thought they were safe were burned to the ground all because they wanted a vaccine. All because they thought differently. I hold him personally responsible for every last death caused by infection.

Then, there's Jaelyn and Mya, two of the bravest people I had ever met. There was Finn and Dr. Julien. My mother. Jay's mother. How many more people has he lined up like pigs waiting to be shot? How heavy is the weight on his shoulders?

"Pull the trigger, Sakir," President Ashford says, in a calm voice.

"Do you want to die?" I snap, shaking the gun.

Ashford smiles.

"Of course not," he says, "but I do want to see the pleasure in your eyes as you get revenge. I want to see the resemblance between you and me. It would be an honor."

I gasp for breath and struggle to keep my hold firm on the gun.

If I shoot him now, how am I any different?

I absolutely refuse to be lumped together with him, to be a killer.

A plan begins to form behind my eyes, and I lower the gun.

"What are you doing?" Isaac asks, and I notice the blood runs from a wound on his shoulder.

"I can't," I mumble and take a step back.

Isaac watches me for a long minute before he nods.

"I get why, but you have to do something with him. I will not let Jay's death be for nothing. Do you understand me?"

I nod, and Isaac jerks the beaten Ashford up by his collar. A smile glues itself to the old man's face as Isaac pulls him across the floor and towards my pedestal. I stumble towards the keyboard and blink at the buttons. Although I know it's english, the words blend together in the tears welling up in my eyes and resemble a foreign language.

On the screen above the keyboard, there are four red circles. Each one has a number on the inside. Circles number 2 and 3 blink, and the word 'released' flashes across the screen under them. I glance over my shoulder at the remaining two cages- 1 and 4. Isaac destroyed the first one, but Athena steams behind the final one.

"I swear, Sakir, if you don't get me out of here, I'm going to kill you," she hisses, balling her hands into fists. Her gray eyes hold an anger I haven't seen in her since the day I cut some of her hair off during art class.

Still, I need to contain Ashford first.

I read over the switches and buttons in an attempt to calm the tropical storm tearing my thoughts into shreds of paper. My hands tremble as I locate the eight matching black switches. Four are labeled 'raise', and the other four are 'lower'.

"Get out of the way, Isaac," I call over, and Isaac shoves Ashford onto the white pedestal and takes an angry step backwards. The old man doesn't move as I toggle the 'lower' switch and the glass falls around him. Isaac waits until it lowers completely before walking back over to me.

"Your shoulder..." I say, but Isaac waves a hand at me.

"I've had worse. It missed anything important."

Athena beats on the glass again. Neither one of us look at her.

"Let her out, Sakir," Isaac whispers and then turns away from me, walks over to Jay's body, and kneels on the ground beside her. His shoulders shake like buildings in an earthquake as he begins to sob, lost on a island all his own. He pulls Jay's body against him and rocks her back and forth.

I toggle the 'raise' switch beneath Athena's cage number and brace myself for her rage.