The Test

Thirty-seven

We dive out into the battle, taking down soldiers left right and centre. It almost doesn't matter which side they're on; I can still hear mom's voice in my head saying, "They were going to use you as pawns in their war."

I see a government soldier - he doesn't have an AntiGen badge so I guess he must be - advancing towards Luc and draw my gun, (another procured from the wreckage) pointing it at the soldier.

But then the soldier speaks.

Luc goes still.

"Hey, you. Montero, right? Yeah. Lucas." he continues without letting Luc answer. I can't see his face, but it must be the picture of shock.
"Yeah. I'm Lucas. Why do you want to know?" Luc says gruffly, drawing me closer to him.
"I knew your brother."
"Andreas?" Luc breathes, stilled again.
Andreas. It's like a punch to the gut as I remember the simulation Luc put himself through, the memory of their last conversation. Their last fight.

The soldier removes his helmet.
"Yeah, Andreas."

Luc recovers his composure. "Yeah? What about him?"

The soldier smirks. "I shot him."

Luc's eyes widen and he surges forward, punching the soldier in the jaw and jamming his gun up and by his temple. "You have three seconds to explain yourself." Luc growls.
"Whoa, sorry. I didn't know you had such a soft spot for him." The soldier drawls. "He was a bastard anyway."

The gun goes off.
Luc grimaces, but I can almost see a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. Turns to me. "If anyone says a word against Andreas..."
"You'll blow their brains out?" I ask ruefully.
He smiles a little. "Pretty much." He jerks his head toward the ongoing battle. "We should go."
~
We pick off three more soldiers and almost get shot twice, a rouge bullet clipping my abdomen. I twist away before it can hit, managing to shoot the soldier at the same time. By now we've surmised that the government soldiers are actually members of the army, and that they were sent to save our hides so the government could use us in their war against humanity and kill us all over again.

Ha. Like that's going to happen.

Engaged in hand-to-hand combat with another unmarked soldier a few minutes later, I pull out my knife and try to stab him, but he dodges. I pin him to the floor. This is no longer training. This is what I've been training for - or probably, more accurately, what the government were training us for.
As we continue to grapple and my knife enters his heart, I wonder; are they making me into a monster?

I stand and wipe the blood onto the edge of my shirt, looking for Luc and failing to find him.

I see Vi and Frex ahead and jog over to them. "Hey," Frex says. "Still alive, then."

I grin. "You're not getting rid of me that easily." Vi smirks and smacks Frex's arm. "See? I told you."
He laughs and kisses her forehead. "Yeah, but I'm not the one that bet she'd be dead within five minutes."
"And who was that?" I ask, looking over their shoulder in time to raise my gun (stashed in my pocket from the battle with the soldier) and shoot another soldier coming towards them.

"Zach." Vi says grimly.
"Ah. That explains a lot." I say, resigned to the fact that Zach will always probably hate me. I sigh.
"Yeah. He and Alina left pretty quickly."

"Cowards." Luc says, coming up behind me and taking me in his arms. Is he grinning?
He is.
Despite the new blood that paints his clothes and the evidence that his bullet wound has opened from where it's been stitched up, a jubilant grin graces his face. He hugs me and takes my face in his hands, scanning my body for wounds. "You're bleeding, love," he says, worried. His voice is low, anxious. His eyes burn like liquid fire. This is the Luc I know and love.

"It's not mine." I remember the way the blood poured from the soldier's fatal wound, spilling all over my shirt and hands, not to mention the blood I wiped from my blade.

He nods, satisfied. "As long as you're alright." His eyes meet mine, searching for pain within them. He evidently finds none, or at least none save the still-fresh pain of my mother's death, as he nods again.
"I'm fine." I assure him. "Don't worry about me, Luc."
He grins. "I do, though. I'll always worry about you."
~