Fragments

Behind the Gate

Prompt:
Everything changed after that night. The night they started putting up the barricades. The night we realized we were on the wrong side of them.

Answer:
She watched them slide the lock into place. That thud echoed in her mind for ages.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she couldn't stop looking at the gate. It wasn't a gate anymore. It was a wall of steel, electrified enough to burn someone into dust. It would keep them in. It had to.

She could hear the dull roar of the creatures somewhere inside the labs. The barricades inside it wouldn't hold much longer.

Terra shut her eyes. She had sent all of the other unnecessary personal to their homes. Out of danger. But there were too many who had to stay. Ten of them, the leaders of the facility. Only all ten of them could enforce the security system to do a lock down and self destruct.

Terra shuddered. She had only been promoted two days ago.

And now she was stuck inside.

"They just broke through!" A panicked scream reached her from Captain Davis.

Terra felt her throat begin to close up. They would tear them to shreds. She remembered seeing the tests at the beginning stages of the creatures. They had seemed so harmless at first. And then they had found Jack's body...

She was still as the men grabbed what weapons they had.

"Terra," Halt grabbed her shoulder. She wiped away the tears from her face. "You need to get to safety."

She scoffed. The gates were closed and they were on the wrong side. Safety was an illusion. They both knew that.

"Where?" She asked.

"The tower," he looked in her eyes and then down at her swollen belly. He seemed to break in those moments. "You have to go," his voice cracked.

Terra felt bile rise in her mouth. The child in her womb kicked her gently. It was as if he too knew that he would never see his father again.

"You're coming with me," she demanded.

He cupped her face in his hand. She leaned into his touch.

"You have to go now." He glanced behind him, "Sally can get you there in time, but you have to go now."

"Don't leave me," the whimper escaped her mouth.

He ran his calloused thumb over her cheek.

"You are so beautiful, you know that?"

Matching tears ran down both of their faces. He cried out softly and pulled her into an embrace. One of his hands cradling her stomach. She kissed him deeply and he kissed her back. All she wanted to do was stay by his side, in his kiss for the rest of time.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you," his blue eyes looked black in the dark of the night. Halt looked down and rubbed her belly, "love you too." She put her hand on top of his.

All too soon he pulled his hand out from under hers.

"Go," his face hardened and the tears began to dry.

She swallowed hard and gave him one more Kiss before hurrying to where Sally stood on the platform.

Terra forced herself not to look back. Not to see the facility bathed in flood lights. Not to see the military grade weapons in the hands of her friends and colleagues. Not to see the creatures that roared behind the doors of the labs.

Not to watch her husband walk away for the last time.