"Drake no! Don't do it! Don't become one of them." The words didn't reach my ears. Maybe I only spoke in my head. Nothing made sense. I couldn't move. Something pinned me down.
Drake looked to me, tears in his eyes. "I can't lose you, Sam. I lost them. I can't lose you too. I'm sorry."
My mind filled with Drake's. His pain became mine, his memories my memories. We existed as one in that terrible moment.
The doctor's head exploded in a splash of blood and brain.
I blocked the image of him from my mind, and my connection to Drake snapped shut. The guard still lay unconscious in the corner, and Ana lay like a dead weight against me.
I shifted her, and screamed. A crimson gash covered her abdomen. I tried to move my arm and flinched. Blood covered my right shoulder. Two bullets—one in her, and one that just grazed me. She must have moved at the last minute, and thrown herself in front of me.
She'd saved my life.
This plan was supposed to be simple. How could this happen?
My hearing returned as I choked on my sobs. I held Ana and rocked her, stared at her, willing her to wake up. I waited for that movie moment when she would open her eyes and tell me it was okay, that it was best this way. When she would make me vow to help her children and all the other kids in this hellhole.
That moment never came.
I was robbed of those last words, that final connection.
Images of Gar's lifeless eyes plagued me. Two deaths.
I looked at my bloodstained hands and cringed. I would never wipe my soul clean from this.
"Sam, we have to go now. I'm sorry, but we don't have much time to get out of here. Are you okay? Is our baby okay?"
I stared at Drake, still in a daze, and nodded mutely as he moved Ana's body off of me. "We can't leave her here. That's not right."
"I know, but we have no choice. We're the only hope left to save her kids. She'd want us to go."
"No! I'm not going to leave her here. Her kids deserve to know where she's buried. She deserves some respect. I will not leave her in the hands of these monsters! Not like I left Gar."
"Please, Sam, listen to me. For the sake of our baby, we have to go. Please!"
"I can't. I just can't. The babies. Ana. I can't."
I sat on the floor, crying, clutching her body in my arms, unable to move, unable to think past the grief that ate away at my soul. She'd given everything for her kids, and for us. Her whole life had been a sacrifice for others. I had just reunited her with her children, gave my best friends their mom back. Now, because of me, they'd lost it all.
Sobs tore out of me. My body shook as my tears spilled onto her lifeless face.
***
'Sam, I am so sorry to do this, but I have to. Sam, you will get up and come with me to the car. You will move quickly.'
My mind emptied. Only a compulsion to do as the voice commanded remained. My body moved reflexively as an unknown arm helped me up and guided me out of the building. Distant alarms sounded, but the compulsion was all that mattered.
I saw the guard and what was left of Dr. Pana as if looking through murky waters.
A thread of anger uncoiled inside me. I despised him. I despised them all. If I could burn the whole building down, I would. These thoughts rose up like bubbles from some buried mind, but I could do nothing but walk forward and get in the car.
We found the blue Honda where Ana said it would be. Drake pulled the backpack out of the trunk, and we jumped in. He drove.
The compulsion disappeared, my mind cleared, and all the memories and feelings flooded back to me. I felt violated, mentally raped. Drake couldn't make eye contact with me, and I couldn't speak to him. My rage wouldn't allow it.
I thought about the babies. What would happen to them? Ana had been the only one who loved them and gave them what they needed. We had destroyed so much tonight—so many lives, so much hope.
My arm throbbed in pain and practicality gradually took over. I checked the bags, trying to focus. Good Ana, she'd left us a first aid kit. I disinfected my bullet wound and wrapped it awkwardly with gauze, also replacing the wrecked bandage Ana had put on me.
"Do you want some help with that? I can pull over and—"
"I can do it myself!"
"Sam, I'm sorry. So sorry. But you would have died. Our baby would have died. I couldn't let you stay there!"
I screamed, "You could have used your physical strength! You could have carried me if you had to. You didn't need to use mind control on me. On me!"
"There was no time. You would have fought. You were injured. And you're pregnant! What would you have done in my situation? Huh? Would you have let me die so I wouldn't get mad at you? Would you have held that ethical line at the expense of my life?"
I refused to look at him or answer.
We drove in silence while I counted our cash. Drake looked over at the money. Ana had left us several thousand dollars, at least, and that didn't count the money I'd squirreled away in my secret box.
He finally broke the silence. "We should dump this car and get something else. The plates are traceable."