“4…9…8…2…6…”
The Asian boy, Archer, repeated incessantly. He sat cross-legged in the corner of the iron cell; arms perched as if he were meditating. I knew he was counting Felix’s steadily slowing breaths because I was counting them too. His concern seemed almost ironic to me, considering an hour before he would have killed us both without a second’s hesitation.
When the Robots had ambushed us, we were overwhelmed. In the heat of the moment, Felix was blasted in the center of his chest, centimeters from his heart. The Fryers hadn’t paid him much attention during interrogations. Why would they waste time and energy on saving him when we were all going to die anyway? My head spun and knees quaked as I remembered the city square. That was going to be us soon. We would be nothing but three new stains on that stage.
I always knew that I wasn’t going to live forever, but now that death was knocking on my door it finally seemed all too real.
“Dammit,” Archer growled. I had noticed it too; Felix breaths had slowed another fraction. The red-haired boy sucked in a labored gasp, his lungs puttering every time his chest moved.
I knew he wouldn’t survive much longer. Not without a doctor.
Just as it had before several times, the far back wall of our cell changed from a mirror to a window. Behind the glass at a small brown desk sat a thin woman in a white coat who sat with her legs propped up and her feet crossed. She was reading a virtual hologram emitting from her wrist.
Archer was the first to his feet, pounding his fists against the glass. He roared, clipping his “T’s” and “R’s” as he spoke. “Get us a fucking doctor!”
The woman didn’t even so much as flinch. She sat there for a full minute, casually reading her screen as if she had heard nothing. As she came to a break in the page, she finally glanced over at us from above her glasses.
She looked onto us with a calm, almost vicious smile. “Tell me where the rebels are hiding.”
It was cruel, expecting Archer to weigh one life over the lives of countless others. I for one could not answer them. Even if I could, I don’t think I would have been able to make such a decision. Archer stepped back in a huff. He clearly wouldn’t tell them either. He ran a hand through his dark locks, brushing the purple bruise around his eye.
The woman examined our silence, puffing her cheeks with exhaustion. “This would all be over so much faster if you boys would just cooperate,” She turned back to the screen. “The suns nearly up, perhaps another half-hour will convince you to save your friend before it’s too late.”
She snapped her fingers and the window shimmered into a mirror once again. It was no use. I didn’t know anything, and Archer had no obligation to give up his people for a stranger. Felix was going to die one way or another and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I backed myself into the corner. “If Doc were here, he’d know what to do.”
“You’re not going to like this,” Archer said. His brown eyes met mine, flicking between me and the mirror. Without a doubt, the woman was still behind it, watching us from the other side. “But I think we need to tell them the truth.”
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