Under Ground (32 page)

We hide behind columns as the
guards start shooting in our direction. But Taylor has been
training for years. In less time than I have to think, he has
already shot two of them. One man tries to run away and sound the
alert, but James shoots him before he makes it out of the
room.

Only one guard is left now. He
calls out to us frantically, “I’m with you! Taylor, please, I’m on
your side!”

“It seems no one in this camp is
on our side anymore, Charles! I heard about what
happened.”

“I know. I know, but I’m still
with you," Charles pleads. "I want to help! Please, you’ll need my
help!”

Conflict crosses Taylor’s eyes. He
sends Chi a look and Chi nods his head twice.

“Okay," Taylor relents. "We need
more forces anyway. But you stay with us at all times. I see you
run, call out to the others, or move a finger in a suspicious way
and I’ll shoot you on the spot! I see you point your gun at anyone
but another guard and you’re dead.”

Charles acquiesces with his head,
obvious relief and fear showing on his face.

“Help me get them out of here,
now,” Taylor orders before he calls out to the prisoners, “We're
here to help you and take you out. Follow our orders and do not
bring attention to yourselves. If you hear any shooting, run.
Follow Chi and I to the tunnels and don’t look back.”

I take a quick glance around, but
I can’t see my mother. Fear squeezes my heart tightly.
What if
William was wrong? What if my mother is working in a different
area? What if I arrived too late?
I don’t have time to panic. I
can’t afford to panic.

Chi takes the lead quickly and
starts walking everyone to the main entrance. Before going out, he
strips the guard and puts on his uniform. Then he opens the door to
the outside, surveys the area, and beckons for the group to follow
him, in line, hiding in the shadows.

Chi and Taylor are to meet more
armed rebels outside the building to help secure the group as they
proceed to the tunnels. James, William, and I will move on to the
men’s building, located farther away to the right. We leave the
prisoners to Taylor's care and walk cautiously while keeping close
to the wall.

When we reach the gate to the
men's area, I catch a glimpse of someone walking toward us. I turn
around and relief fills my veins when I realize it’s only Chi. But
something’s wrong, different somehow. James is looking at the
towers to make sure no roof guard notices us.

Suddenly, everything happens so
fast I have no time to move. Chi aims his gun at me, and before I
can process anything, it’s too late. He lifts his rifle, pointing
it at my face, and shouts for us to drop our weapons. I’m
petrified, paralyzed on the spot. When Chi yells his order again,
James turns around, aiming his gun at Chi. His reaction is too
slow. Chi shoots first; James falls to the ground. When I raise my
hands, I'm still holding my gun; it looks like I'm targeting Chi.
Something flickers through his eyes and he fires, right at
me.

William leaps into the air, and I
close my eyes as the gunshot rings in my ears. A heavy weight
pushes against me, knocking me to the ground, hard. I'm down;
something is pinning me to the concrete. I hurt my elbow when I
fell and pain needles are shooting though my entire arm. It hurts
so much that my head starts spinning. I force my eyes open anyway.
Blood is dripping onto my skin. A drop of it falls straight into my
eye. I squint instinctively.

Through my other eye, I can see
someone lying over me, but my vision is blurred. Black spots are
dancing in front of me. I try to breathe deeply, but I can hardly
inhale because of the person crushing my chest. Something wet and
sticky is running down my face. I try to focus past the dark spots
so I can regain my vision. But when I identify the person pinning
me down, I suddenly wish I had lost consciousness entirely. The
empty expression on his face makes me sick to my stomach heaving
with waves of nausea. I’ll choke on vomit if I throw up. I can’t
lift myself or move.

William is on top of me. His cheek
is stuck to mine and his eyes are wide open. There's a hole in his
head and blood is coming out of it, dripping down, all the way to
my face. A deep scream tries to force its way out, but I bite on my
lip to remain silent, and the wails of horror resonate inside my
head instead.

I try to push him off of me, but
he’s too heavy and the angle of his body makes it difficult for me
to move. I push harder, holding myself with one arm, but my elbow
is hurting so much I can’t hold the position. Someone runs to me
and gasps. Chi is still standing there, holding his gun on me, but
his attention has shifted. He’s looking at something above my head.
There's a crooked smile on his face, and my heart shatters upon
realizing what he's done.

Time stands still. It’s hard to
breathe under William’s weight and all these emotions breaking me
apart. I don’t want to catch Chi’s attention. Suddenly, William’s
weight is lifted off of me. Akio is standing over me, pushing
William to the side. He takes my hand and helps me up.

I look down at William. I’m still
hoping to see a spark of light in his eyes, an indication that he’s
still somewhere inside that body, but he’s gone. Despite everything
that has happened, I never wanted this. I didn't wish for his
death. Guilt stabs at me as I look at his face one last
time.

I lift my head to see what's
grasping Chi's attention, and the sight greeting me strikes me with
horror and confusion. The man pointing a gun at me—this person I
mistook for Chi—is still right in front of me, but he's staring at
a cloned copy of himself standing farther away to my right. I shift
my eyes from one to the other to take them both in.

“I’ll be damned! My little
brother, right here in our camp! Tsk tsk!” the man in front of me
says. "What the hell happened to your face, Chi?" He
snickers.

Chi's face is still bruised from
when he was beaten up.
How could I not see that?
Chi walks
toward us, fast. He stops and points his rifle right at his brother
while looking at him with pure hatred on his face. Chi's twin
shakes his head in faked disappointment before returning the
gesture by moving the tip of his barrel from me to Chi.

He looks like a perfect image of
Chi, but a somewhat colder version of him, slightly distorted, more
vicious. There's no love in Chi's eyes when he looks at his
sibling, just utter disgust marking his features. I've never seen
him show such revulsion for anyone before, not even for William.
He's watching his brother with caution too, as if he were a deadly
predator ready to pounce at any moment.

“
So, tell me, brother, what are
you doing here?" says Chi's twin. "Looking for our parents, I
presume.”

“Don’t call me that. I'm not your
brother and they are not your parents,” Chi retorts.

“Well, legally, they are my
parents more than they are yours! See, according to the law, I am
the only child they have. And you, you’re just non-existent. I
could kill you right here and it'd be like you never
were.”

“You are a traitor and a coward! I
don’t care what the law says, Stephen. You stopped being their son
the moment you betrayed them.”

Stephen's eye twitches and his jaw
clenches upon being called a coward. “Do you know what it's been
like for me all those years?" he snarls. "Having to lie through my
teeth every moment of my life. Starving to death every second of
each day."

“Stop whining, Stephen, it’s
pathetic,” Chi hisses through his teeth. “You’re
pathetic!”

“Mother and Father deserved what
they got, Chi, and in good time, so will you."

At that moment, Chi lifts his gun
higher to point it right at his brother’s forehead. Stephen
imitates him, and my heart races in response.

Chi's twin shakes his head again
like a big brother disapproving of his younger sibling’s actions.
“Tsk tsk! What’re you gonna do, baby brother? Blow my head off?"
Stephen laughs, a snicker devoid of all humor. "I’ll react before
you can even pull that trigger. So you’re going to listen to me and
follow me nicely.”

“I’d rather die.”

Stephen smirks at that. “Your
choice!” He's about to pull the trigger when I scream. He looks at
me quickly from the corner of his eye, and a sadistic smile spreads
on his face. “Well, well, well. Look what we got here. Looks like
little brother got himself a new girlfriend.”

Chi doesn’t look at me, but he’s
livid now. “She’s not my girlfriend. She’s just a member of the
group.” He shows no emotion as he says it, and I truly hope he’s
just acting.

“Oh really?” Stephen points the
gun at me again, close, the tip of the barrel pressing hard against
my forehead. I can't protect myself; I lost my gun when I fell. My
heart is racing fast, with adrenaline shooting through my veins,
making me weak in the knees.

“You won’t mind if I shoot her,
then. What do you say? I’ll give you a choice—it can be you, or it
can be her.”

Chi still refuses to look at me.
He tries to hide his emotions, but he’s getting nervous.

“So, brother, which one is it?”
Stephen asks, his voice dripping out like honey.

“I’m not gonna play your little
games. Whatever I say, you’ll shoot us both anyway. I’m your twin
brother, remember. I know what you’re thinking, and I know how
you’re thinking.”

“Fine, it’ll be her first then. I
want you to watch.” Stephen presses the gun harder against my
forehead, but he still doesn't shoot. My skin rips under the tip of
the barrel. Chi looks like he’s ready to rip his brother's face
off.

“I will shoot her, brother,"
Stephen teases with cruelty. "I will kill her, just like I did
Willow.”

This feels like a fist to my guts.
Stephen sneers as he says it too, but a swift spark of pain
flickers through his eyes as the words spill out of his mouth, and
Chi’s hands clench around his gun.

“What did you just say?” Chi's
voice is frosty with wrath growling underneath, but the faint
tremor leaking through his tone is quite audible, as if he’s
choking on a suppressed sob.

“Are you deaf now, little brother?
I said...” Stephen is speaking louder now, articulating every
syllable as though Chi is too dumb to understand. “I… will… kill…
her… just…. like… I… did… Willow.” His voice breaks on the last
word, as if her name is too hard for him to pronounce.

“It was you?” Chi's eyes widen in
horror.

“Well, of course! Who did you
think it was? Obviously, you didn’t get the brains in our family,
Chi, if you haven’t figured it out yet! When the authorities took
Mother, Father, and me away, I had to prove my loyalty to the
officers. It was either that or get tortured. And I cared more
about myself than I did you, so when they asked for your location,
I just gave it away.

"I truly thought Mother had sent
you to stay with Willow's family. I was hoping that once the
officers found you, they would drag you here, or even better, maybe
kill you. But I guess Mother didn’t trust me enough to share any
real information with me. That really hurt my feelings, you know,
to realize that Mother lied to me like that."

He shakes his head and his eyes
fill with sorrow, as if he is truly sad and disappointed. He seems
deeply upset for some reason, and I can't tell if he's faking it
anymore.

"So, tell me, brother. Where have
you been all this time? Ever cared to look for me? Ever wondered
how I was doing?" Stephen asks.

"Why would I worry about you?
You've been doing perfectly fine," Chi replies harshly, and
Stephen's face turns livid as his eyes darken with pure
wrath.

“What about Lila?" Chi yells at
him. "She was your girlfriend!”

“Yeah, some poor pathetic girl
passed on to me," Stephen snaps back. "Did you ever really look at
her? Damn, that girl was ghastly! So I should have put up with the
ugly duckling while you would get sweet, beautiful Willow. I don’t
think so!" True rage seeps through his tone as he throws those
painful words at Chi. "And to think that Mother and Father were
supposed to stand up for what’s right in society." He snorts in
disdain. "Claiming to want freedom and equality for all. Right!
They didn’t hesitate to push that hideous chick on me and rip my
heart right out of my chest!” His tone is harsh and filled with
pure loathing, sending chills down my spine.

“You were never forced to date her
and you know that.”

“Yeah, whatever. You're nothing
but a blind fool, Chi." Stephen’s attention shifts toward me again.
I shudder as his eyes run up and down my body, appraising me. I
wish he were looking at anyone but me. I feel like an insect
entangled in a web, facing an arachnid about to take its first
bite.

“Chi did tell you about her,
right? Our sweet, beautiful Willow." He smiles charmingly like a
cobra mesmerizing its prey before striking it down with venom. A
vindictive smile spreads on his face as he strikes the next blow.
"Did he tell you about their first night together too?”

I know I can’t believe anything
coming out of his mouth. He’s spitting filth just to hurt me. But
his question still cuts like a knife. I don’t want to believe
it.