Evan found himself on the cold tile in what looked like a medical wing of some sort. Branching hallways that were crowded with monitoring equipment, IV bags, and the smell of ammonia.

  In front of him were sealed blast doors that reverberated with the pounding of something large. The purifier no doubt.

  Vihn asked, “Evan? Twins? What’s your status?”

  Blink huffed. “We’re trapped in some sort of hospital or something, and the Feds are trying to get in. I don’t know why they can’t.”

  Rowic explained. “I’ve been able to manipulate some of the facility’s functions. I can keep the door locked down for now, but there’s not much beyond that that I can do. Good news though – records say your friend is somewhere in that wing.”

  “So, we get him, and then what?” She asked.

  Evan desired to contribute to this conversation but struggled to manage more than a grunt. It was like his body had been tenderized by a giant robot, and that robot was still sitting on his chest.

  “Uh… we’ll come up with something, just keep moving. Those doors will only do so much.”

  There was some blood trickling down Blink’s eyebrow, and Twitch cradled a bruised elbow.

  “I’m sorry,” Evan said, peeling himself off the floor.

  The twins helped him stand. It felt as if their fingers were penetrating his skin. He staved off the urge to moan and shrugged them off while he found his footing.

  “Why are you sorry?” Blink asked.

  “I got us trapped here, and probably got us killed. Probably got Luna killed, too. I screwed it all up just so I could save one person. Screwed it up just because I didn’t want to see more enforcers get killed.” Evan rolled his neck. He didn’t have the strength to feel the guilt, but the words still made their way out of his lips all the same. He thought about what Jeck had told him. Maybe a bit of Vihn’s cynicism had also taken root. “People die all the same. I’ve just traded my friends’ lives for my enemy’s.”

  Blink waved off the suggestion. “How about we find Ken first, then we can talk whether or not you got us killed, huh?”

  He supposed that was as much as he could ask for. As long as he could still breathe, then there was still a chance to make it out alive.

  Bam! Mounds popped into the door’s surface, looking like hills. It wouldn’t take long for the purifier to get through.

  He searched his surroundings for clues as to where Ken might be held. There was a sign at the center of the room, which had the makings of a waiting lounge with sofas and a front desk. The sign was a map of the medical wing. The word Observation Room stuck out as much as any word might. He beckoned the others with him, the blast doors clanging behind them.

  The observation room was rather barren with steel tables, some computer monitors, and a chair with straps at the center of the room that was bolted to the floor. Evan found another door in the back of the room that led to yet another hallway.

  Evan imagined Twitch was asking, “How are we going to find him in this place?” when he threw up his hands. It was what Evan was thinking.

  “Any ideas, Rowic?” Evan asked

  “Mm, yeah. I see it. Building schematics say there’s a holding room at the end of the red line.”

  It was then that Evan realized there were three colored lines with arrows on the floor that ran the course of the hallway; one green, one blue, one red. Some words were written on the lines, with the red line pointing behind them and titled Lab Security.

  “This way.” Evan pointed.

  Blink asked, “Don’t you think it’s weird that the whole base is on lockdown, but we haven’t run into anyone else on this floor yet? Shouldn’t there be more scientists and guards down here?”

  It was weird. But Evan couldn’t afford to worry about that. He’d take any good luck at this point.

  “We don’t have time to question it. We just have to trust our fate.” He stumbled forward down the red line. The security room was locked.

  “I got it,” Rowic said.

  The door swooshed open as Evan and the twins ran through. No one else was inside. The wall was lined with video terminals, amps, sound suppression foam, and a sound board stretching around it.

  Evan admitted, “Yeah… something is wrong here.”

  Rowic whistled. “I think I know what happened. Watch.”

  A video played on one of the monitors.

  Evan couldn’t believe it.

  There was Ken strapped to a medical chair, with wires and stubbing coming in and out of his body. A football shaped microphone was setup in front of him, and his eyes looked dead as they stared at a television box that was secured to his head. There were some lab workers in the room with him using obscene looking tools.

  The lights in the room flashed to the red emergency lights and the alarm sounded. The scientists left their tools and walked into the hallway with several other workers, perhaps trying to determine what to do next.

  Ken smacked his gums and spoke in a voice that was a perfect mimic of the alarm’s voice.

  “Warning,” he said, throwing his voice out so it sounded like it was coming from the speakers, “biohazard breach on floor fifteen. All personnel, please evacuate floor fifteen to floor sixteen immediately in order to avoid harm.”

  The scientists and security guards bought it, escaping the floor, and leaving Ken alone strapped to his chair.

  “Woah,” Blink said.

  Evan nodded, “He’s smart, man. He’s always been smarter than me.”

  “Hey, kids, looks like Ken’s in lab twenty-two.”

  “Heard.” Evan hobbled that direction with Blink and Twitch behind him. If they could all make it out alive, Evan would never doubt himself again.

  Blink looked down the halls. “Maybe the elevator is still on this level.”

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  “Go, I’ll keep searching for Ken.”

  She nodded and signaled Twitch to follow down a splitting hall.

  Part of Evan desired to help them, but he was confident they’d manage. He had to maintain focus. He made it to the room where Ken was supposed to be.

  Things were much worse than what he’d seen in the video.

  Ken’s wrists were chaffed red from straps around them. He wore an orange prison jumper that was unzipped down to his waist. A dozen tubes and wires were hooked up to him, none of them clear as to their purpose other than add to the torture film aspect of the room. His eyes were heavily bloodshot - his eyelids peeled back by tiny brackets - and glistening from whatever the television screen above him was playing. The screen showed fast images of nonsense footage. Insects, dead bodies, lips, abstract art, and then intercut with a black screen and white text of anti-Afflicted and pro-Federation nonsense, “Change. Serve. Afflicted. Die. Repent. Change. Serve,” on and on.

  How could anyone do this to another person? To what end? Evan’s chest ached. He had to stop this. Where did he start? He unlatched the eye brackets. The video still reflected in those bloodshot eyes. Evan found a cloth hanging from a hook and threw it over Ken’s eyes to break whatever brain washing the Feds were trying to do to him. He felt for the things leaching Ken, the snakes and tendrils that sucked his life away, and severed their connections. Finally, the straps could come off and Evan helped a head-shaven Ken out of the chair. Shaved… it made him look older, torn down… what had his hair looked like before?

  Ken fell to the floor. Evan dropped to help him back up. The cloth had fallen off his eyes. They locked with Evan’s. Still Ken’s eyes, still his soul.

  “I got you bro,” Evan said.

  “E…” Ken blinked. “E-friend?”

  Evan let out a deep breath. “Yeah, it’s me buddy.”

  A tear fell from Ken’s eyes, then another, and now a stream as he embraced Evan.

  They embraced.

  Thank you… thank you, Evan rejoiced. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to get you out of here, man,” he promised Ken.

  Evan looped Ken’s left arm over his neck and limped out with him. Ken’s body was heavy, slouched, weighed down by whatever chemicals they had been pumping into him. We’ll make it home first, then we’ll collapse, then we’ll give up – once we’ve made it.

  Blink and Twitch came down the hall, no Luna.

  “You found him!” Blink cheered. Twitch ran over and took Ken’s other arm.

  Evan asked, “where’s Luna?”

  Blink shook her head. “We couldn’t find her. I’m sorry, Evan.”

  It was shameful. He’d gained her trust and fought so much for her survival. She’d risked everything to help him, and now she was gone – captured or worse. But there wasn’t much he could do now. He couldn’t risk the whole mission; he couldn’t risk losing his brother again. All he could do was hope she’d find a way out on her own somehow.

  “How do we get out of here, Rowic?” Evan asked.

  “Ah, well. I don’t have great news for you guys. Enforcers are standing ready to come down the lifts. The purifier is almost through the blast door, and another one is making its way to the emergency exit with even more enforcers.”

  “So… we’re surrounded?”

  Blink cracked her knuckles. “I’ll get us out of here.”

  “Blink,” Evan sighed, “there are fifteen floors between us and the top. If you jump that… Someone might get hurt, or worse.”

  “What other choice do we have?”

  Ken’s lips cracked as he spoke. “Camera room?”

  Evan wasn’t sure what he meant. “That’s back towards the purifier.”

  “Trust me.” Ken tugged Evan to the left.

  Evan nodded. “We have to get back to the security room,” he said over the comm.

  “Be careful guys, that purifier is almost through. Don’t even try to go to the emergency exit, that way is blocked.”

  Evan hobbled with Ken faster. “How much time do we have before those soldiers intercept us?”

  “I’ll take care of it, but you got maybe five good minutes, tops.”

  Evan pushed further, but they were still too slow. Ken couldn’t stand on his own either.

  “We need another way to get there.” Evan looked around for options.

  Blink stopped him again. “Look, let me take him. I’ll be all right, ok? We have to work together - you have to trust me. I’ve been through a heck of lot more than you realize.”

  She was right, Evan knew she was. He nodded and let her take Ken.

  “I’ll be ok, E-friend, I love you bud.” Ken squeezed Evan before going with Blink.

  “Ok. You better be man. I love you, bro.” It felt wrong, finally saving his buddy, promising to never let him go again, just to have his other friend risk herself as well.

  Blink smiled softly. “We’ll be ok. Trust me.”

  Evan sucked in a cold breath, then nodded. In a flash, they were gone, leaving Twitch and him alone. Twitch gripped Evan’s shoulder, providing a warmth of comradery. They could do this. They had to do this. But he still hadn’t heard Blink’s voice. Please say something. Please –

  “Evan?”

  “Blink?”

  “Yeah, we’re good. I’m passing my comm to Ken.”

  Evan steadied himself. It’d worked, he just needed to keep moving.

  “Let’s go,” he said to Twitch. They ran past the blast door, which was gashed with holes where the purifier had made significant impact.

  Evan saw a glimpse of him through the cracks, and he knew death would meet them soon if they didn’t escape.

  “Evan?” Ken asked.

  “What do you need, bud?” Evan asked.

  “Microphone. Soldiers. Names.”

  Evan called to Rowic. “Hey, can you help Ken get microphone access, and tell him the IDs of the soldiers and purifiers on our floor?” He made it past a lane of elevators, one of which he could hear banging and shouting coming from within.

  It was clear Rowic was keeping the encroaching forces busy through his hacker sorcery. He relayed identification codes of each soldier on the floor over the comm.

  Ken cleared his throat.

  Evan and Twitch were almost to the security room.

  Then came Ken’s power.

  “Unit P-30,” he said in the alarm system’s voice, “enforcer unit E-20 are in control of floor fifteen. Redirect efforts to floor sixteen to engage Afflicted hostiles.”

  The assault on the blast door stopped, followed by the bass steps of the purifier leaving.

  Evan muttered, “My… bro.”

  “Hurry.” Ken said.

  Evan reunited with his friends, and was greeted with one of Ken’s rare smiles, crooked as it was, working its way into his lips. The plan had worked. This was the power of diversity, the capability to take on the overlords, each gift chipping away at the enemy’s hold.

  He admitted his revelation to Blink. “I think I know what you meant now, back at Alpha base. About how everyone coexists.”

  She winked. “Together, ape strong.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She shrugged. “It was a good movie.”

  Evan chuckled. “I have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Hey, kids. Freaking get out of there already?” Vihn’s cut in, the strum of his tight vocals sobering them.

  “Right!” Evan waved on the group.

  They ran for the blast door, Ken now able to stumble his way with minimal support from Evan. The door lifted only halfway, battered to bits. The team crawled underneath it and made for the upper stairs. However, the damage Evan had done to the steps was far greater than he’d realized. There was no climbing the slide of metal that he’d made, and the sound of soldiers encroached its way from behind them.

  “Heads up!”

  A loader drone descended with its flatbed facing them.

  They jumped on and clutched to what they could as the drone ascended, up, up, through a sky door at the top of the roof. Up, up, up, and free into the blue rapture of the outside sky. The Sun kissed Evan, and sibling clouds smiled at them. Below, the base swarmed with soldiers, but none seemed to give attention to the drone that flew across the mountain range. It zipped low under an overhanging cliff to where Ad Astra waited for them.

  As soon as the drone landed, Blink, Twitch, Evan, and Ken hopped off and entered the safety of Ad Astra. The rest of the crew rushed to them, except for Rowic who was presumably still in the cockpit, and Vihn who watched from a distance. Evan noted the old stranger nod.

  Ken was helped to a medical table in a room with just enough space for Evan and Cranston to stand in. The other crew took to their roles in prepping the ship, before Evan had time to process what had happened.

  “Buckle in, team, we’re heading home,” Rowic said over the ship’s speakers.

  Ken lay on the table while Cranston ran a hand scanner over him that tracked his condition.

  Evan stood with his hands in his pockets, dumbstruck that he’d succeeded, but not sure what he could do while his friend was being examined.

  “Ok, E-friend.” Ken gave him a reassuring nod.

  Cranston rolled up Ken’s sleeve and prepped it for a needle. He looked above the frames of his glasses at Evan. “I got it here, son. He’s doing good. Go take a rest. You deserve it. You did good.”

  Evan sighed, unable to fathom that they’d made it to this point. He kept expecting to wake up at any moment. He started to walk out but stopped. “Oh! I forgot!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out Ken’s ID and handed it to his brother. “This is yours, buddy.”

  Ken flipped the thing over quizzically, and finally said to Evan, “Mine?”

  “That’s right, man. Yours.” Evan left the room. Successful mission... for everyone except one. He’d traded one life for another. Maybe this was the way it had to be. He’d find a way to save Luna next, they just had to get back to Alpha base and regroup.

  “Evangelos?”

  Evan’s chest tightened as he heard the voice from one of the ship’s bunk rooms. He’d almost forgotten. “Dad?”

  Thank you for your time reading so far, I'm looking forward to sharing the next epic part of this story with you - it's going to be a wild ride.