Bancroft - 10
“Shit.” I curse at the blood still dripping from his arm. “How the heck did I not see this coming?”
Shelton, or whoever the eff he is, cocks his smile. “Did you know that attractive people are 23.4 percent more likely to get away with a suspicious behavior?”
Jo lifts her shoulders. “Cut the crap, asshole. We don’t care.”
My face feels warm – too warm – in this cold air.
“You have 1 minute and 34 seconds to take me to cure.” Fake-Shelton’s gun sways.
“Or what?” Jo’s voice punches the night.
My hands twitch and my legs tingle. Great, I am having an episode – right freaking now? But it’s worse than that.
A dreadful sensation fills me as tremors rock the ground below. Something large approaches – I don’t have to look to know it’s the owner of those inhuman howls. Join the freaking party.
I glare at fake-Shelton. “No one is chasing us from Ambrosient Tech, are they? You are the one who works for them.”
“I do.” He says plainly.
I gesture to the woods. “All of this, was to get me to lead you to the cure. That’s why you wanted Jo to come along, so you could manipulate me into showing you where it was?”
“It was.”
A painful feeling – like repeatedly shoving sewing pins into my muscles - hits my legs. The word “painful” is such a stupid and inadequate word.
“The Bigfoot sightings…” I shiver as I sense the large creature. “It’s behind me, isn’t it?”
“She’s not Bigfoot, Nat.” Fake Shelton calls out mockingly. “Come on. You know what she is.”
The pins turn to forks, and a shredding sensation reverberates through my organs. I grit my teeth against the tunnel vision threatening to take my consciousness from me. My quick healing keeps me upright, but nothing is dulling the pain.
Every word strained. “You tried to recreate the cure.”
“Bingo.” His teeth flash against the light. “That 7.9 feet of terror lurking behind you – that is what happens when you hide the cure from the world.” He gestures with his gun. “I want you to see her. I want you to see you have done.”
I try to turn but the motion brings me to my knees, as my organs split and scorch. I have only moments left as I shout. “This didn’t happen because I hid, I hid because I didn’t want this to happen. There is a reason we – the real Shelton and I – used the cure on ourselves first…”
“Shut up.” He screams back at me his hands shaking against the weight of the gun – the weight of a potential of using it. “Shelton was nothing like you. He didn’t think the cure should be kept secret. He was going to share it with the world – even Ambrosient. He wanted everyone to know how to make it and you… you killed him for it.”
“Is that true.” Jo turns and gasps as she sees the creature standing behind me.
“46 seconds.” Fake Shelton calls out.
The wave slices through my organs again, and I spew a blackish red fluid onto the dirt.
“You killed him,” He cries as my vision tunnels. “Time’s almost up. Tell me where the cure is.”
Jo gestures to me. “Does she look freaking cured to you?”
“30 seconds.” He replies.
“Call your hounds off.” She demands.
A thought clicks into my spinning mind. Why does this person care so much about Shelton?
“Fitz.” I whisper.
“20 seconds.” He enunciates and his lips seem to shine with sweat.
He knew about personal conversations between Shelton and me, but Shelton would have only shared that with one other person…
“Stop, wait stop!” Jo shouts. “Can’t you see she is trying to say something?”
“15.” He replies.
“Stop the countdown.” Jo screams.
“I can’t.” He clenches his teeth. “It’s not my countdown.”
“What do you mean it’s not your countdown?” Jo shouts as I try to push the words to my lips.
“Fitzgerald Hyde.” I say as loudly as I can manage, but the world is spinning, and I am not sure if I say anything at all.
“What?” The blurry shape of his arm lowers.
I push out the next words as hard as I can. “Shelton’s little brother.”
There is a flash of color where Jo is standing, and I know she took his hesitation as an opportunity. She lunges at him only a split second before the gun fires. I can’t see what happens as more blackish blood erupts from my mouth and nose. My face slams into the ground, and the vibrations below my cheek tell me the creature behind me is moving forward.
Time’s up, I think as I slip out of consciousness.