Chapter thirty eight

Christiana

Christiana was seething. She was literally seeing red. She worked hard on controlling her breathing as she followed Duncan down the corridor, past the lobby and into a new section of the building that she hadn’t been to before. Connor and Adam were jogging along behind her. Everything in this section of the building seemed to be made of varnished wood and rich mahogany. It looked very executive. She walked through the rooms and caught sight of the door Duncan was heading to. A metal name plate was on the door with the name ‘Kelly Mayhew’ in bold gold writing.

She pushed past Duncan as soon as she saw it and pushed open the door without knocking. Striding into the room, she found Kelly sitting at her desk, looking through some files. Kelly looked up, a startled expression on her face.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Christiana shouted.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” Kelly said.

Kelly’s gaze left Christiana’s and fell onto Duncan. Immediately the realisation fell on her.

“I thought I had told you that what you saw in that room was top secret, Jennings.”

“Sorry ma’am but I felt that Ms David’s life could be in jeopardy.”

“Too right it is.” Christiana snapped. Kelly continued to glare at Duncan. “Kelly! Eyes front!”

Kelly turned her gaze back to Christiana, she could hear Connor’s uncomfortable shuffling of feet behind her.

“Are you serious with this?” Christiana asked. “Are you actually expecting that kid to have to be responsible for the deaths of those people? And for what? Science? Well guess what, we already know all we have to know Kelly, the world outside will kill us, so we stay inside and then no one has to die.”

Kelly stared at Christiana for a moment, she looked angry, she looked like she was ready to let loose. Christiana had seen this expression before and she knew that it never ended pretty. However, after a moment she closed her eyes, took and deep breath and opened them again, her expression changing to one a lot softer.

“Sorry Chris,” She said. “I know this all seems a little too much.”

“Don’t even start on what this is Kelly, I’m not in the mood to have that conversation. You’ve been lying to me the whole time I’ve known you, fine. I don’t like it but I also really don’t want to talk about it with you. However, what I do want to talk about is the 22 year old girl who is stuck in a room with a dying man and being forced to forget herself so that you can find out just exactly how people are dying.”

“Everyone in that room are volunteers…”

“Don’t even begin to start justifying this Kelly because you will fail miserably, and I am pretty close to slapping the crap out of you as it is."

“Chris, please, can we at least talk about this alone?”

“No, we’ll talk about this now, in front of witnesses. I want them to hear you say that you order that girl out of that room and back in a place that’s not requiring her to be a mass murderer so that she can at least attempt to save a little of the sanity she has left.”

“She can leave whenever she wants to.” Kelly said.

“No, she can’t. Because you have made it so that she feels responsible regardless of whether she is there when they die or not. You need to free those people Kelly, it is not up to you to decide whether they live or die.”

“Of course it is!” Kelly was shouting now. “This whole thing has been made my decision! Everyone in the country other than in this building are now dead because of a decision I was forced to make.”

“I’m not here to talk about the decisions you have made previously Kelly, I can’t even begin to get my brain around that. What I am interested in right now are the people who are in that room, still alive and still safe. You can make the decision to keep them that way Kelly. Please. I’m begging you. Make the right one."

“They wouldn’t come out even if I ordered them to, they have their orders, so do I.”

“Who’s ordering you? Last I checked you were the one in charge around here. Unless I got that wrong?”

“I am, but…”

“But nothing Kelly! For crying out loud! Whoever was giving you the orders before have now gone. The only person left is you. You have the ability and authority to save the lives of those people. What even makes it so that they don’t qualify for here anyway? Are they already dying? Are they convicted murderers? Because let me tell you, none of them could have possibly killed as many people as you have.”

“Christie…” Connor’s voice was a low warning.

Christiana took a deep breath. When she spoke again her voice was softer and calm.

“Kelly I know you, I know how you work and who you are. I know you have had to make difficult decisions that I will never be able to understand but I am begging you. I am pleading to that human side in you that I know is there. Stop being a commander and just be my housemate for a second. Don’t kill those people. Please. Let them live. And for all that is holy, please get that girl out of there.”

The whole room fell into silence as Kelly and Christiana continued to stare at each other. No one moved a muscle for fear of it influencing the decision they were all so desperate for Kelly to make.

“Fine,” Kelly said eventually. “I’ll let them go. But you can be the one to convince them to come in. Trust me, they won’t come easily.”

Christiana let out a sigh of relief and felt the rest of the people in the room follow suit.

“Thank you Kelly.” She said.

“Yeah well, let’s do this quick before I change my mind.”

Kelly strode out of the room, not waiting for the others to follow. As such, everyone suddenly jolted forward to catch up with her. On her way out, Christiana felt Connor’s hand on her lower back and his mouth at her ear.

“That, woman, is why you were saved.”

Christiana rolled her eyes and continued to walk, eager to see this out. She wouldn’t believe that Kelly would go through with this until she saw it with her own eyes.

Kelly led them through the clinic and through another door, into a large lab. A man was at the computer system, monitoring the screen. At Kelly’s entrance, he jumped up.

“She hasn’t made any untoward actions.” He reported. “In fact, she’s been monitoring him well. I haven’t recorded one emotion from her for the past half an hour.” He glanced over at Christiana and the rest of the people who had followed Kelly in. “Why is Adam Gammon here?”

“Bring her in.” Kelly ordered, ignoring his last question.

“Will Gary be taking her place?” Jensen asked.

“No one will.” Kelly said.

“But I thought…”

“I don’t care what you thought, just do it.”

Jensen nodded and went back to the screen. He hit the glass pane and talked into a mic.

“Daniela, I’m bringing you in.”

“What?” Daniela’s voice sounded over the speakers. Christiana peered round and could see her moving around on the screen. She was in a basic room and was standing over a man. “I’m barely finished. I need a bit more time.”

Kelly strode to the monitor. “Daniela, this is Kelly, we’re aborting the experiments. All of the subjects are to be transferred to Utopia."

“No!” Daniela cried. She seemed to be fiddling with a black phone looking device in her hand.

“Bring her in.” Kelly said to Jensen.

Jensen’s hands flew over the glass panel and he looked expectantly at the pod where Daniela’s body stood dormant.

Nothing happened.

“Wait.” Jensen said. “But I thought…”

“What’s going on?” Kelly asked.

“She’s blocked me!” Jensen said.

“What?” Duncan cried.

“I can’t access her to bring her back, she’s put all of the control into her handheld. I’ve got nothing.”

Duncan strode over to the monitor and spoke into the mic.

“Daniela, this is Duncan, get your arse in here now.”

“I said no.” Daniela said. “I go back there and then I’ll never know what this thing is, I need to know. Oh and I’ve blocked the entrances to the room as well, no one can enter in or out. If you guys won’t try and work out what’s going on, then I guess I’ll have to do it myself.”

Jensen’s hands were all over the glass, dragging and dropping all kinds of programmes and commands.

“She’s right, she’s completely pushed me out.” Jensen stopped what he was doing and turned to the rest of the group. “The only way Daniela’s getting out of there, is if she decides to do it herself.”