She could see the recognition in their eyes. It evenreflected back from the eyes of the military men. To her surprise, Mort was theone to speak, saying, "You don't get to decide that. You don't get todecide who lives and who dies. There's enough of that in this world."
"Oh, but you get to decide? You get to decide that Idie, you fucking hypocrites?"
"You're not going to die, Chloe." This time itwas Amanda speaking. Chloe looked at her, trying to spin the words around inher head to make sense.
"What are you saying?" she sputtered.
Amanda looked at her, and she knew that it was going tobe bad. She had that gleam in her eye, that gleam that spoke of revenge. "We'renot going to kill you. We're going to give you a choice."
A choice? This was better than she could have everhoped for. Relief flooded through her. She dropped to her knees and clasped herhands in front of her as if she were praying. "Oh, thank God. Thank you,thank you, thank you!"
Andy, the kid from the movie theater said, "Youmight want to hear the choice before you thank us."
Chloe looked from the kid to the others, and she waitedto hear the rest. Lou wiped a hand across his bald head. "We're not goingto kill you, unless you want us to."
"Why would I want you to kill me?" she asked.
"Because your only other choice is to jump off thisbridge," Amanda said. It were as if she had hit Chloe across the chestwith a baseball bat. Suddenly, Chloe couldn't breathe. She leaned forward,supporting her weight with her arms, as the words sunk in. "There's achance you can survive," Amanda continued.
"The choice is yours," Lou added, "jumpoff that bridge or eat a bullet. You decide."
There was really no choice at all. Hate blossomed inChloe's chest, and she turned off the waterworks. It was decided. The time forgames was over. She wiped the tears from her eyes and got to her feet,composing herself.
"It's not much of a choice at all, is it?" shesaid. "I'll take the bridge."
"I hope you can swim, bitch," Amanda said.
"Like a goddamn fish, little girl. Like a goddamnfish."
"Then get swimming," she said.
Chloe turned around and looked over the edge of thebridge. The green-brown water flowed beneath her, some six-stories below. Theworld began to spin after a few seconds of looking over. "You ok withthis, military man?" Chloe asked, stalling for time.
The Sergeant looked over at her and smiled, a toothywhite grin. "It's a hell of a lot nicer than I would have been."
Chloe just nodded, and looked back at the water. She wasfrozen. She thought back to her time at Garfield Prep School, and all thosedives she had taken off the high-dive. 10 meters, that's how high the boardwas. Looking down from the bridge, it was roughly twice that distance. Nomatter what she did, this was going to hurt. Tuck your chin. Don'tover-rotate. Keep your hands together. Cut through the water. Arch your backand come up.
"Today, Chloe!" Amanda yelled.
She climbed up on the railing and looked into the deepwaters. This was nothing. This was no different from the high-dive board at herhigh school. She was ready. A sharp pain hit her in the shoulder, and withoutwarning, she was tumbling into the river.
As she attempted to right herself, she saw clearly a canof pork and beans falling with her. She knew without having to ask that Amandahad been the one to throw it. For a second, she hung in the air, and then theworld became a blur as she spun, falling, the world turning into an incomprehensibleblur. She put her arms above her head and attempted to right her spin, hopingthat she would be straightened out by the time she hit the surface. She wasn't.The water blasted into her face like a ton of bricks.
She felt her mouth open, and cold river water rushed intoher mouth, the chill of the water sending fire along the exposed nerves of herbroken teeth. She arched her back, and opened her eyes, blinking in the murkyriver, trying to figure out which way was up.
Chloe choked and gagged. She only had one chance. Shestruck out for what she thought was the surface of the river, adjusting herbody to take hold of the current of the river. She kicked and swung her arms,and then she felt something. Hands? What would hands be doing down here?
She had swam the wrong way. The hands grasped her,tangling in her hair, and pulled her downward. She screamed in the depths ofthe river, and the water rushed in and filled her lungs, but not before shecould feel the unseen creatures beneath her begin taking bites out of her body.The water tasted of blood before everything went black.
Chapter 11: The Decision
Andy stared over the side of the bridge. He hadn't beenpart of the conversation. Didn't want to be in fact. But he had heard how ithad all gone down. Still, he hoped that the girl made it out alright. Fromeverything they had seen, there simply weren't that many humans around to bethrowing them off of bridges.
He felt conflicted about Chloe's punishment. Not becauseit wasn't fair. In this day and age, it seemed fair enough. More than fairactually. He was conflicted because the old ways were still a part of him Helaughed at the idea of the "old ways." They were antiquated now,virtually non-existent. But still, the girl hadn't killed anyone, and they hadsent her off to her death.
With his hands gripping the cold concrete of the bridge,he had waited a full fifteen minutes in the hopes that he would see her comebobbing up on the other side of the bridge, but there was nothing. They hadmade her jump to her own death. How sick was that? Now, he was at a crossroads.
Should he continue
