My screams splinter off the sides of the capsule.
Margaret walks right up to the spaceship. She presses her hands against the transparent panel, as if she’s trying to force it open. She turns and nods to someone I can’t see. Suddenly, there’s a high-pitched sound. I look for the source. It’s coming from a speaker in the panel.
“Good, I have got your attention.” Margaret’s cold voice fills our chamber. “Ellis, aren’t you happy to see your mother has made an early recovery?” she says, with her hands on her hips. “Though most, if not all, of the credit must go to your brother, who re-set the bio-knife.” She pauses, her eyebrows arched for emphasis. “You look surprised. I guess Fallon failed to tell you that when he came back to the house, he saw his dear mother lying on the ground and regretted what you had all done. He left before I revived. But I am sure he knew that I would be informing the others of what had happened. So here we are, all back together.” She holds her arm out and waves for someone to come over. “Fallon, dear, come closer so your brother can see you and thank you.”
Fallon’s already massive face is grotesquely swollen, and there’s a trickle of blood over his right eye. He keeps his eyes to the ground.
“There was a bit of a misunderstanding, between Fallon and the others. But we have gotten that all straightened out. Now, Ellis, you need to come out of there,” she says.
Ellis doesn’t flinch.
“Come out now, Ellis, and your life will be spared.” Margaret’s voice echoes loudly around us.
Ellis lifts his hand. Is he going to do what she says? I realize the significance of Margaret’s carefully chosen words. Only Ellis’s life will be spared.
“Ellis, re-seal the hatch in the roof. This ship is not leaving. Do not be a fool. They will be waiting for you. They will kill you as soon as you land. You cannot escape.”
I turn my head toward Ellis. He’s staring with eyes as cold and as hard as Margaret’s.
“If that is the way you want to play it,” she snarls, and turns to someone I can’t see. “Bring him here,” she commands. Margaret backs away a few steps.
Voices ring out. Fallon’s eyes, though hidden within his swollen head, bulge out in complete shock. I lean forward, pressing my face against the glass, trying to see what Fallon sees, and then I do. A cry of inconsolable anguish erupts from my lips. Sammy.
“Sammy,” I scream, banging on the window.
His face lifts and our eyes meet.
“Sammy! Let him go! Let him go!” I shout, pulling at my restraint, which refuses to release.
Margaret suspends Sammy from his collar, as he twists and turns to find solid ground. “I had my doubts about this situation from the moment you brought her in. Your insistence that she not be sedated like the rest. I worried that your … how should I put it?” She takes a deep breath. “That your weakness would make you forget your responsibility to our mission. So when you mentioned the child, I was inspired.” She drops Sammy to the ground and pulls him into her, raking her long fingernails down his cheek. “I sent a couple of people from the team to find the child, and he has been under my care.”
“Why would you do that?” Ellis asks.
“Insurance, you stupid boy,” she says, thrusting Sammy toward us.
My hands automatically reach for him, as his do for me. He’s trying to be brave, but I can see the tears running down his cheeks and the tremble of his lower lip.
“Kalli, you have exactly ten seconds to come out of there, or this sweet little boy will be dead.”
Sammy’s eyes widen. He kicks and flails his arms, desperate to get away.
“Ten,” says Margaret.
I wrench at the seatbelt; my fingers bleed as my skin tears along the edges of the restraint.
“Nine.”
“Ellis,” I plead.
“I’m trying. It’s because I opened the hatch. Everything locks up in anticipation for lift off.” His hands are frantically racing across the panel, entering in codes, pushing buttons, and turning knobs.
“Eight.”
“Kalli,” Sammy cries. I look up and see Margaret grazing Sammy’s cheek with a long, thin metal needle. The same one she was going to use on me.
“Sammy, it’s going to be okay. I’m coming,” I choke out. “Get away from him, you bitch!”
“Seven,” she says, glaring at me.
“Okay, I’ve got it,” Ellis says as we both break free from our seats.
I’m twisting the handle, but it won’t budge.
“Aaaahh!” I shout, ramming my shoulder against the solid glass door.
“Six.”
Sammy is full on crying now. His small body shakes and shudders against Margaret, who remains unmoved by his despair.
“Margaret, don’t do this,” Fallon says, as he takes a step toward her.
“Stay down, Fallon,” she threatens and nods her head.
And instantly Fallon is slammed to the ground. An enormous man pins Fallon beneath his knees.
“Five.”
“Ellis, let me out of here!” I throw myself against the immovable door.
Please don’t hurt Sammy. Please. I pray to any God who will listen. My whole body shakes and my head throbs.
“Margaret, please,” begs Ellis. “I’ll do whatever you want. Don’t hurt the boy. He’s an innocent child. You can kill me. Take me instead of him.”
A wide grin forms on Margaret’s face, transforming her into the most hideous thing I have ever seen. “Four,” she says.
“Kalli, I’m scared,” whimpers Sammy.
“Oh shhhh,” soothes Margaret, while she runs the metal needle under his chin and up the other side of his face. “Three.”
“Sammy, look at me,” I say, steadying my voice. “You’ll be okay. I love you Sammy.”
“I love you too,” he cries.
“Awww, isn’t that so sweet,” Margaret coos, and then her hard edge returns. “Two.”
Oh my God. No. Please no. Please. But the door won’t give. Ellis is now launching himself against it so wildly that the entire capsule shakes. But the door remains firmly shut.
I see Margaret’s mouth open to announce the end of Sammy’s life. My ears fill with my screams and pleas for her to stop. Ellis’s voice echoes my anguished cries. And then there are shouts from the other side of the ship. Fallon roars, as he heaves himself off the ground, propelling his guard up and out of my view. He charges toward Margaret. Her lips freeze in an open circle, about to say the final number, when Fallon slams into her, sending the three of them tumbling out of sight.
“Sammy,” I wail, flattening myself against the window.
“Smash your feet into the glass,” Ellis yells, as he lifts me up.
Over and over I kick. It’s impenetrable. Outside the chaos continues, until one voice silences them all. My stomach drops. It’s Margaret’s. She appears again in my line of view, still brandishing the needle in one hand and dragging Sammy along with the other.
“One,” she hisses, and plunges the needle into Sammy’s chest.
He looks up at me, eyes wide. His body tenses and then goes slack. His eyes relax and his mouth opens, but I can’t hear what he’s saying.
“No,” I cry, pounding my fists against the window. “No.”
Margaret removes the needle and lets Sammy fall to the ground. For a moment I think perhaps he’s just asleep, that she just injected him with a tranquilizer.
But then his pupils slide beneath his eyelids, and blood trickles from his nose and the side of his mouth. I watch in helpless horror as creases form at the base of his nose, and spread out, cutting into his once beautifully smooth face. The lines widen, deforming him, mutilating him. His body swells to such a size that his clothes rip apart, leaving Sammy draped in rags and disfigured. He lies limp and lifeless on the floor. Someone grabs his bloated ankles and drags his body out of my view.