Monotone | ✔️

Chapter Thirty

I stopped. Stared. Chris's body slumped forward, connecting with Robyn, a pool of blood quickly collecting as he fell. His eyes had closed, his hair was ruffled, lips slightly parted as if they were still connected to Robyn's. Distantly, I heard Robyn's whimpers. Silently, I begged her not to stand up.

But she did.

Bang.
Bang.

Two shots right in her chest, where the heart would be. At least she would feel no pain.

I felt like the whole world was in the middle of a swirling funnel; a whirlwind. Inside the Eye of the Storm, I was breaking, the winds of grief and desolation tugging relentlessly, sending my mind into a turbulent replay of my two friends falling to the floor, blood trickling from their wounds. Blood... so vibrant against the dull ground.

"Tempest!" The voice was dull, muffled. "We need to go." But I didn't want to go. I couldn't. I was stuck, fixated, whilst the face of death and destruction snickered in hardly suppressed glee. I hated it, I hated it...

"Tempest!" Now the persistent voice had a hand, and it was shaking me, clutching my shoulder in an attempt to pull me back to the present. When I didn't respond, Stephen appeared before me, blocking my vision of the horrible sight. "Tempest!" 

Why didn't he understand I couldn't move? Tears fell down my cheeks. I was only aware of the fact I was crying when the downpour splattered despairingly onto the floor; the repetitive sound reminded me of robot footsteps. Maybe they were. I didn't know, nor care. They were dead, killed in such a cruel way. What was I to do? I didn't know! I don't even want to be here!

Stephen pulled me into an embrace. I didn't hug him back. I was numb, frozen. "Tempest! They're coming! We need to go! I'm sorry but we need to go!" 

Forcing my body to move, I shrugged out of Stephen's grasp. There was something I had to do. Maybe I would get shot? In all honesty, I didn't particularly care. I felt like giving up. My steps were clumsy and staggered, like I was drunk, as I made my way over to the bodies. Dimly, I was aware of Stephen trying to stop me, but I kept going nonetheless. Blood lapped at my shoes greedily as I knelt down and took the key necklace from Robyn, dislodging it from her cold neck and avoiding the eternal stare of her glassy, inky eyes.

Propelling myself faster, I made my way back to Stephen and the others, clutching the necklace in a shaking hand. Stephen and his team took a moment to stare at me incredulously, before taking off. Obediently, I followed.

"Do you know the city well?" I asked, my voice blank. The next time I spoke, I would make sure to include more emotion in my tone. Otherwise, I sounded like one of them, one of the robots.

"Yes." Noah replied immediately, looking back at me as we ran down a secluded alley.

"Do you know where an abandoned science building is?"

"Yes." Noah repeated, sounding bemused as to why I inquired such a thing. But there was no time to explain.

"Take me there."

Stephen nodded as an indication for Noah to proceed, and our direction changed, running through an abandoned building and appearing on another street. I followed blindly, my fingertips tracing the indents of the important key.

Adrenaline fuelled me.

No, it wasn't adrenaline. It was grief; anger. I recognised the emotion from when Jay died.

As we progressed, I tried to piece together a plan, remembering what Robyn had told me the day before. I reminisced with ardent clarity the passion she had developed when describing her parents, when she told of the great plan she had been organising for the better part of a year. With a jolt, I realised Robyn had had her doubts about her theory actually being true. If that was the case, we were all jogging to our dooms.

From time to time I noticed Stephen's gaze on me. It appeared he was worried for me. Or maybe he was just suspicious. I hadn't told him about Chris - or the plan altogether - he was obeying my orders without any finishing line laid in his mind. Ha, I bet he was wishing he had stayed behind his fancy barrier now.

"Robots!" Noah, who was leading, yelled. I pulled out the small pistol; any ammo it contained wouldn't last long. Thankfully, the others all had good guns and vast amount of bullets. I barely fired as we took the small gathering of enemies down.

The further we advanced toward our destination, the more robots we encountered. Time and time again, they were defeated. Remorse and a strange relief flashed through me whenever I had to step over one of their metallic shells.

That was for killing Jay.
That was for killing Chris.
That was for killing Robyn.
That was for taking my life away.

"We're nearly there!" Noah called. I focused, drifting away from my complicated myriad of thoughts. Looking up, I saw a dilapidated building the same to all the other buildings. This was it? No, I couldn't lose hope now. If the robots wanted their secretive base to be inconspicuous, of course it would look like everything else!

"What now?" Andrew said.

Click, clack.
Click, clack.
Click, clack.
Click, clack.

"More are coming!" Someone yelled.

"Cover me."

{RIP CHRIS AND ROBYN. I'm such a morbid person ;) }