"No."
671Please respect copyright.PENANARMlKeD1GVH
"Yes."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAu8AXefVqcc
"No."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAGDp2nJSal8
"Yes."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAImV2nAXJ2Z
"You're lying!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA5IWDd2PS8d
"I'm not."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAQ2ZFdLcfus
Yes he is! He must be!
671Please respect copyright.PENANAWc9kxmibJ6
"You are!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANARUcOf04biQ
"Really, I'm not," he deadpanned, but it was easier said than believed.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAFgOwXYOPT2
"Gemma?" I gawped.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAG8P0QFc2lc
"I believe I've specified that before."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAWvKukIetjE
"You better not be lying to me, or I swear to God—"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAsTIMgDclCD
"202," he stepped towards me, "I'm not lying."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAdKoByvZoaT
I stared into the distance, bewildered. "Gemma?" I repeated. "Gemma Reynolds?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA1MmAS6d0wl
"Yes."
671Please respect copyright.PENANA128LW4MKWi
"You're not just winding me up, are you?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAVVuY9846r2
"Should I even bother answering that?" he replied bluntly.
671Please respect copyright.PENANABMcGJgYq55
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Of all the people in the world..." I looked at Everest. "Do you know how many people are in the world?!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAmSxM8TWyLF
"As of now, seven billion, increasing at a rate of one-point-zeo-nine percent."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAunU62QmFpT
I smiled, bitterly. "Seven billion people, increasing at a rate of one-point-zero-nine percent?" My smile morphed into a scowl. "Seven billion goddamn people, and it had to be Gemma! Gemma bloody Reynolds!" I spat.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAp4cOhX2CdQ
"Reasonably speaking, her dad was the only person who knew about what the Front had been up to."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAQgCQWJkoKC
"That's why he set up a branch in London anyway."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAgyLLOdOHPT
In actual fact, Robert Reynolds was American, as was Gemma – that was why everyone made a huge deal out of it when she appeared at the launch evening. The base of their company was located in San Francisco, but just after the discovery of the cure, Robert established another commercial building in London, – hmm, I wonder why – making it geographically closer to the Front's Headquarters. The two rivals were practically neighbours.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAhV2PXTYYn1
Suddenly, I gasped, realising something. "That's why you wanted to go to London!" My stare attempted to penetrate through his rigid exterior. "To find Gemma!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAo5XO39tpbi
"Needed," he corrected.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAmJMzCQXZcU
"Oh, come off it," I grumbled. "What do you even intend on doing there, anyway? Walk in, and demand they give you the drug?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA0aSM1Qx1L0
Silence dominated the forest.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAwuIK80Wxt3
"Oh for the love of God, just tell me! I think we're past the whole I-ask-you-questions-and-you-don't-answer-them phase."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAK5gEdEAKQB
"Fine. That's exactly what we're going to do."
671Please respect copyright.PENANA5DSU7DLywS
"The, I ask you questions, and you don't answer them phase?" I quizzed.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAx3pL873YYm
"No."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAYj5EqEEgxC
"We're going to demand the drug from Gemma?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAERCbLW3IoO
"We will take a more tactful approach, than how you put it."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAt0qHBognLx
"Define tactful."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAP1vtUB54mm
"Smarter," he said, flatly.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAVcBkblSPos
"Hey!" I swatted his arm. It was equivalent to hitting steel. "And then, what?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANArgGfGwiVUt
"We expose Director."
671Please respect copyright.PENANA3QSN1fOdwX
Good plan. Except: "How are we going to do that?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA2dxTVGLqpA
"One thing at a time, 202."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAFdt5z5K6Q8
***
671Please respect copyright.PENANAl2W92R7BU8
671Please respect copyright.PENANA45O9QUwObc
"So, you're telling me," I spoke, nibbling on an almond. "That this time next year, I'd be dead?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAe91xShLfbb
Even with the bizarre ability to maintain hunger for an abnormally long period of time, it didn't take much brainpower to understand that two days without food or water was over-doing it. Hence, the next morning, we busied ourselves with the job of finding edible food; it proved to be a success.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAFdiNsYyXKX
Everest gave a curt nod.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA8VNZSbUDee
Wow.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAtnDKWiJQrA
"Because the semi-cure only lasts twenty years, or so?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA9M9ou0XfT2
We also agreed on calling 202 the 'semi-cure', since it only half worked.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAqpBhKIi7r2
He nodded again.
671Please respect copyright.PENANArHKe9xQENy
Wow.
671Please respect copyright.PENANASBBdCiRESn
"And they were serious about the termination thing?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAO4GyguOcks
Another nod.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAs1gbFnoRII
Wow.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAPQBSSV8mfm
"So, the real reason for the termination wasn't because you're better than me; it was because they're going to release 202 anyway, but didn't want the world to know that it doesn't do what everyone what everyone actually think it does?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAjq1XIGP6D1
"Not quite. I'm still better. It's how they made me."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAlJmdnzWbWt
I scoffed. "And how exactly did they make you? I mean, Director did say that you have something that I don't. What?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAs0uoJDeEBi
This time, I didn't even get a nod – not that it was a question that could be answered with a simple nod, anyway.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA19YXLSSopd
"It's getting late, we have to move," he said, a while later, getting up.
671Please respect copyright.PENANApOP75GFEkS
"It's midday," I stated, cornering him. Physically.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAlk5Avk0315
"It doesn't matter—"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAzP0ggdWmOA
"What do you have, that I don't?" I demanded.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAHJdQ31ndr8
"Brain cells."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAOvhoqlOAue
I gasped. Humour was my thing!
671Please respect copyright.PENANANt7m4QgNhY
"Dead brain cells!" I couldn't help but shoot back.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA3JIkKopMyw
"We both know that I'm smarter than you," he retaliated.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAlnStJfvF1C
"Tell me!" I pushed.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAuv8RbbNeKh
And we're back to square one.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAIzA1dJytRS
"I don't owe you anything, 202," he replied.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAOfiSJKQ3gd
No! Do something, quick! Make him answer!
671Please respect copyright.PENANAqnpO5k3VJ5
A sad smile plastered itself across my face. "That's true, you don't. But I'm going to die soon," Ha! Of course I wasn't planning on dying! "So whatever you say, I'll take to my grave." I sighed for effect. "Isn't that enough insurance for you?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA3bWNDkvSNn
His chiseled face remained as still as igneous rock. "You and I both know you are not dying. Now, drop it."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAkz7UUwmNpq
Unexpectedly, that made me feel a tad – just a tad – better. But the second part of his response initiated frustration.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAEJ3XSfs9KF
"Bloody hell, just tell me!" I rid myself of my vulnerable pretense. "You know everything about me! Hell, you know more about me than I do! So, you do, in fact, owe me this!" Plus, the curiosity was eating me inside out.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAiNGmk5iBqm
At first, I received no response. Then, just as I was about to cuss him for being his obstinate self, he spoke; his voice low.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAJZidkfNKGQ
"It's not what I have. It's what I don't have."
671Please respect copyright.PENANALBoj61wBa3
Don't have? My mind flickered through the various things which he might've lacked in order to make him stronger. Fatigue? Flesh? Nerve-endings?
671Please respect copyright.PENANAa78WjXgcTj
"Emotions," he stated.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAGkK5Url9i9
Emotions?
671Please respect copyright.PENANAYSOmFqt1SO
"Yeah well, I knew that," I replied, uninterested in the obvious.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA8Z3xwKxSXA
"No. Neurologically speaking. I don't have emotions."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAcuwkyF6C7B
I made a face. "What do you mean? You do have emotions." I could name a few: anger, distrust (in me, particularly), pride, annoyance (at me also), narcissism... it went on!
671Please respect copyright.PENANAiDQkBPVLvj
He gave me the same cold look that I'd already received a hundred too many times from him. "Of course I have emotions. I said, Director took away emotions, not emotion."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAy59MCc5VcU
What the hell?
671Please respect copyright.PENANAxaBreCUHqY
I snatched the almonds from his hands. "They're doing something to you."
671Please respect copyright.PENANA44sIFZOrtZ
"They're not," he said, taking them back. "When I said emotions, I meant they took away specific emotions, not all of my emotion. If that were the case, they would have created a robot."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAgw1eqPD8S1
"They already have," I muttered, unable to restrain the comment from slipping out.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA2MbEwmXiQC
He sent me a glare that could have cooled plasma.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAjn10OU3EDw
I shuddered. "Kidding. Continue."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAvlOvpL3lph
"They removed emotions that cause weakness."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAjIGqG9apqs
I cocked my head. "Weakness?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA8a7qncL3bf
"Grief, empathy, shame, remorse, fear, love," he recited at meteoric speed.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAgn0mzBmra8
I glanced up, repeating them in my mind, at a much slower pace...
671Please respect copyright.PENANA0QYrxp9AEv
Oh.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAlT51xciGiG
True, such an act seemed impossible. But for a multibillionaire company that possessed laboratories which stretched as far as football pitches, it would have been as easy as baking a cake. Scratch that; I tried baking a cake once, and that night, I went to bed with a blocked ear, thanks to the relentless screeching of those damned fire alarms.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAHC1BOuERyU
"When?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANA7fLskwUmyL
"When they decided they wanted you dead." He clearly didn't understand the concept of sugar coating certain details, I concluded.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAKt26MHfgYF
Gazing at his handsome yet stony face, I uselessly pondered at the thought of what it must feel like to have your emotions torn out of you – or rather, what it wouldn't feel like. Eventually, I gave up on the thought, realising how it paralleled a paradox: He wouldn't have felt loss, because they seized the very thing that stimulates the feeling of loss. So he wouldn't have actually felt like he lost something, despite simultaneously acknowledging the fact that he had.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAFgUuqIo2a8
I fiddled with the ring in my eyebrow. In a twisted way, Director played us both. But why him?
671Please respect copyright.PENANANq4lO7JKza
"So when they said you have something I don't have, they meant you haven't got something, I have?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAUJktaaZ9tg
"Yes. You've got weakness, and I haven't," he stated.
671Please respect copyright.PENANARNpe7hq0iJ
"I was talking about emotions! And these emotions don't make you weak! They make you... a good person. They make you human!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAtYnCUslhWA
"And that leads to weakness."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAlsTFy2OSCU
"That's a lie. They fed you lies."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAccpaXoNjzX
"Is it? If that's the case, am I right in saying that loss wouldn't bring about grief? And, that in turn, wouldn't drag you down?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAm5jsOy4J14
He was doing it again! He was turning my views against themselves.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAzhMhOz8U9d
"That depends on how you handle it," I said, sternly. "Emotions are a work of nature; you can't control it. It might drag some people into a dark corner, but other people fight it. That's what being strong is."
671Please respect copyright.PENANA1Bdyry99jV
"What if you can't bring yourself out of a dark corner?" For the first time since I met him, the question wasn't asked in rebuttal, but rather as a genuine question. He was actually asking me, to answer something for him.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA6E4nFgkp2c
Wow, they really did remove those emotions.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAHayE6gsQY6
But if the question were asked to contradict what I said, then he had a point. "Then... that's it." Suddenly the feeling of defeat spread through me, one which I despised. "But getting these natural emotions removed just so you don't have to experience them isn't strength. It's cowardice."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAqC17EjG1bz
Something flashed in his eyes, in that moment, but was concealed just as fast. A poor acorn stood, frozen under his glare. "I didn't ask for this."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAQNHVL20xBi
I sighed, guilt flushing through my veins. "Everest, I didn't mean that."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAGZgLH9j4m2
"No," he said, emotionless. Right. No sorrow. Got it.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAHw2Vm5iRhR
This discovery made me contemplate one thing, in particular: Was the front constructed of a bunch of Hitlers? Because, damn, was there anything else left on that evil things to do list of theirs?
671Please respect copyright.PENANAS85r1n1m7Y
I peered back at everest; his eyes were still fixated on the acorn.
671Please respect copyright.PENANA8mn27umlTP
"How did they do it?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAndLAZBTA9q
"You can find out if you take a fourteen year neurology course at university."
671Please respect copyright.PENANARTJt7tlM7Z
Translation: I don't know.
Then he added, "But they also..." he hesitated, "... they used aversion therapy on me." For a moment he looked like he regretted saying it as though he had said too much.
But it didn't really make sense to me. "Aversion therapy?" I inquired. "Like the ones they give to alcoholics to make them quit?"
He nodded.
"So, what? They used aversion therapy to discourage emotions?"
His visage was cold again, as he shortly replied, "That's exactly what they did."
When did they do it?"
When I first asked it, it felt like an ordinary question, prompted by sheer curiosity. It was when his jaw clenched, that I reconsidered its significance.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAksAXCWxQ47
"They started it when you were nine, a few years after they made you, you know, 202," he clarified. "It was after they found out where they went wrong with the cure."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAwXBldi0rFp
I was about to ask why, when it hit me. They noticed that they had messed up. They rid Everest of removed grief, empathy, shame, remorse, fear, love, so that he wouldn't feel the traditional guilt that is usually felt when someone murders another person in cold blood – cold blood indeed, if he had to fuse both of our bloods to finish the job. But the point was, they were preparing him for it! But, that also meant...
671Please respect copyright.PENANAQQcrIew7pb
"They meant to kill me since I was nine years! Not just recently!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAE47wkS80uo
"Yes."
"Using you!"
"Yes."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAj8aZTTEazJ
"That's why they took your emotions away."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAW9CzY1K4tS
"Yes."
671Please respect copyright.PENANANVgfy7NMOz
"You were supposed to kill me."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAT6GtHHEz3D
"Yes."
671Please respect copyright.PENANApNUkCCV46t
"You were supposed to kill me!"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAam9Gqeb4TG
"We've established that already."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAgS6P7lkBrK
"No. You were supposed to kill me. So why didn't you?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAxjCiMQHI8b
I wasn't really expecting him to declare his undying love for me, or anything, especially regarding the whole removal of emotions thing, but his reply was drier than I had expected.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAeAMgqT5Qxw
"I didn't want to slave for Director."
671Please respect copyright.PENANALiFYC0PoN8
I raised an eyebrow. I knew he wasn't being honest with me as soon as he said it – not that I particularly expected him to be honest either.
671Please respect copyright.PENANApjBcwb0VRr
"And it took you up till the last minute to decide this, huh?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANApXDFIC20Mr
"If you suppose."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAkEAAYADmlM
"Be honest!" I demanded. "You wouldn't have ended up in this position, in the middle of a forest scavenging for food. Why didn't you follow Director's orders?"
671Please respect copyright.PENANAHzevJDesdm
His face remained unmoved. "I don't have to explain myself to you, 202."
671Please respect copyright.PENANAwiiP9jvHV2
No, he didn't. I could have tortured the answer out of him, but it wasn't important, anyway. He had already told me everything I needed to know, including the whole Gemma Reynolds thing.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAq1cX9yTkzD
So, London it is.
671Please respect copyright.PENANANNl1FgWj9n
____________________________________________________________________________
671Please respect copyright.PENANAXH4fFhQCfT
Author's note: To those bothered to read:
671Please respect copyright.PENANAdmdLQvUNL3
And there you have it, folks, your (and Emerald's) burning questions have finally been answered. Now, that wasn't so hard was it, Everest?
671Please respect copyright.PENANAjGXtAnoZJ2
What was your reaction when you found out Everest's secret?
671Please respect copyright.PENANA82I9jjTq9w
Thank you for reading, I really, really appreciate your amazing taste in books. Please, vote comment (no, seriously, go nuts), and share.
671Please respect copyright.PENANAnl9uFR6Q6O
-Ruth
ns18.223.211.185da2