I need to find another way to the bottom of the ramp to get to the hangar. Looking around at my options, I take my rifle and run toward the medical ward's open wall. If I can find my way to the surveillance room, I can see a way into the hangar.
As I reach the open wall, I poke around and find the medical ward empty. I sneak to the door to the main hallway and push it open with the tip of the rifle. The hallway is quiet, but my nerves are on edge. I walk down, ready to shoot at anyone who comes down the corridor.
A door next to me flies open, and a scientist catches me off guard and pushes me against the wall. He tries to pull the rifle away but is too weak. I twist the gun around, breaking it free from his grasp. I kick him down the hallway, and he stumbles to the ground.
“Run or get shot,” I yell.
He hurries to his feet and runs off. The next three people I come across on my way to the surveillance room aren't as lucky. All three of them are armed drones, ready to kill me if I don’t shoot first. So I do.
I turn the last corner and approach the door to the surveillance room. I remember there being about five scientists in there, and I need to be ready in case they all charge at me. After pushing the door open with my foot, I sweep my rifle across the entire room. It's empty.
I step into the center and look over all the monitors. Some are black, which I assume means the cameras were destroyed. On a couple of other monitors, I see some rogue outsiders pillaging other parts of the compound.
I scour every monitor, but the only feed that shows a path to the hangar is the same one Dr. Anfang spotted me on. I watch the feed and see a few of the outsiders and Mutineers retreating. At the bottom of the monitor, I see Atom run out of the hangar door.
On the monitor on the top right, I spot some of the Flyz taking off. It's too late to keep the Genesys from leaving, but we can still stop the Ragnarok. I look back at the feed for the ramp and don't see Atom. He was heading away from the hangar. They won't set off the Ragnarok if Atom can't be evacuated safely.
“Fe!” a voice screams from the hallway. My eyes dart across the various screens until I see the feed to the corridor outside the door. Atom stands exposed in the middle of the hallway.
CHAPTER XIX
I grab my gun and shoot off a couple of shots at the wall next to him. I don't want him to be caught off guard and shoot me. I still have time to try to talk some sense into him and stop all of this.
Looking at the monitor, I notice that he's taken cover around a corner at the end of the hall. I stand tall at the doorway and yell, “Atom!”
“Who's there?” He replies.
I throw caution to the wind and walk through the door. “It's 80. I'm stepping out.”
“Are you alone?” he calls out.
“Yes.” I stand in the middle of the corridor and place my rifle on the ground. I want to make sure he understands that I only want to talk.
He steps out and faces me. Atom does not reciprocate my attempt at civility. He points his rifle right at my head. “If you move, I'll shoot.”
“Got it.” The size of his pupils reaffirms that he means what he says. He's focused on one thing, and I feel like I'm standing in the way of him getting it. There is a fire in his eyes, and the kindling is anger directed at me.
“Why? Why did you do this?” He lowers his gun, the pain of my betrayal replacing the anger for a moment.
I know this is the only chance I will have to reason with him. The vulnerability of our exposed positions might help my point come across. I take a deep breath. “You taught me what it was like to live. You taught me the value of life, and I didn't want to lose it. I told every drone I could what I had learned, and one by one, we came to realize how wrong this extermination by the scientists is. It's not their place to decide the fate of others.”
My words have struck a chord. I can tell he's letting his guard down. He walks up to me, but his fist connects with my jaw before I can continue talking. The force is so strong that it knocks me into the wall.
“I guess I deserve that.” I stand back up, wiping blood from my lip.
“I was your friend!” he yells, right up in my face.
How dare he say that to me? I push him away. “And you were going to let me die!”
Atom flinches. What I said hit deep. He steps back up to me and gets in my face again. “I didn't have a choice!”
“Well, you do now,” I implore. “End this.”
The remorse in his eyes tells me the answer before he speaks. “It's too late. There's nothing I can do. Rene already started the sequence, and it can't be stopped.”
The pain in my chest is unbearable. We failed. I failed. Farouk, Paz, KJ, Pocket; I failed them all. I don't try to suppress the tears that well up in my eyes, so they streak down my face.
“Have you seen Fe?” Atom breaks the silence.
I wipe the tears from my face and look up at him. He's not going to like this. “She's in the city.”
He pushes me hard against the wall. “What did you do with her?”
“I didn't do anything.” I smack his hands away.
