Static.
The hissing, cracking, blare.
The white noise was all she could hear after his message had gone out.
Her son, Oscar. Her baby boy who she would give anything for just announced to the world that he is going to end it all. That it's humanity that needs to be cleansed. That the world needs to start over.
She doesn't understand. How can he think this is okay? How can he just decide to throw away everything for the so-called 'greater good'?
Humanity isn't something that should just be 'reset.' As if they're all nothing more than a failed experiment.
She is tired of being an experiment.
Edith sprints through the power plant, seeing the Imperium officers standing and watching in horror and uncertainty of what Oscar is doing under the building. None of them can get in. None of them can do anything to stop him.
All of the people they had once considered their enemies now stand with them on equal ground. It's no longer them against the Imperium or the Hexes or the entire conglomerate.
Now, it's just them with the world against Oscar Stewart.
He wouldn't do this.
Would he?
She remembers holding him for the first time. Laying in the hospital bed, she cradled her newborn baby boy with tears in her eyes.
How could something so innocent and pure go so wrong?
She rushes past the officers with one arm around her stomach. Her movements are slow and sporadic and her trembling only makes it harder to make it to the door that will bring her below the building, but as she walks, some of the officers hurry to help her make it across the room.
She struggles to stifle her shaking enough to enter the code into the panel beside the door, but she manages. She clicks each number and hits 'enter,' making the door immediately swing open and she rushes in with help from the officers.
Some of them seem hesitant about letting a wounded pregnant woman enter the chamber of the nuke, but they know that only an SRL can get to Oscar now. Even with that, they see the look in her eyes and know better than to try to stop her.
Her eyes hold a fire despite the way her body breaks.
Edith races through the decontamination chamber, giving the process no time to run before the officers break down the metal door for her to hurry to the next room.
Through the tinted windows lining the wall, she sees Oscar standing below in a hazmat suit, tampering with the massive device that could bring the end of the world at any moment.
She looks around to see that no hazmat suits remain, just as Jules had warned them of. She looks back to see the officers hesitantly backing out of the room. Some stare through the window while others watch her cautiously.
Edith takes a deep breath, tightens her hold on her stomach, and enters the chamber of the nuke.
"...Everything is going to be okay," she whispers to herself as the heat surrounds her. She can feel the energy radiating from the center of the room but luckily, being an SRL protects her from the radiation. "Everything is going to be okay..."
She may look human, but her skin is still synthetic. She may feel human, but her heart is still metal. The door closes behind her and she has to brace herself against the railing to keep herself standing as she starts slowly making her way down the stairs towards her son.
YOU ARE READING
Rift
Science Fiction(Imperium Saga, Book 6) This is what it all comes down to. Nearing the end that could result in either unity for the world or being left forever divided. Outsiders from the continents of Aramora and Utopia come together to bring back the order that...
