“I’m staying here,” she replies, her voice still monotone, firm.
I take her arm, squeezing my hand tightly around her bicep. “Look at me.” She doesn’t.
“Don’t bother,” Mom says.
Rage simmers in my gut, quickly boiling into pure fury. I grab Mom’s arm, flinging her around to look at me just as I’m assaulted by a patrol. An arm wraps around my neck, and my hands are pulled tightly behind my back. “You know I’m always doing what’s best for you, Sinon.”
“What did you do to her?” I growl, fighting the patrol off of me.
“Who? Your lovely Juliet?” she asks, turning around to face me.
“She isn’t a Juliet,” I seethe, I want so badly to punch my own mother in the jaw and I wouldn’t feel bad about it for even a second. “I shouldn't be surprised by anything that comes out of your mouth at this point. You continuously keep proving to me and this entire bunker how fucking stupid you are. You want to control the remaining population with no leadership, truth, answers, intelligence, or appropriate motivation, so instead you continue to spew out information that you wouldn’t be able to prove if your life depended on it.” The thin smile across her lips pulls into a longer line, spreading from ear to ear. This infuriates me. “You would, however, be willing to risk someone else’s life, whether it be your own flesh and blood or a complete stranger. Isn’t that right?”
“Reese Daniels is patient zero. She isthecarrier and creator of the Juliet toxin.”
“Again, with the lies. You already said it was a terrorist attack, so why don’t you choose your fibs a little more wisely,” I spit back at her.
“And I am the terrorist, dear. A sleeper—a blonde, attractive, middle-aged woman, posing as nothing but a middle-class, stay-at-home mother with only the dream of being a well-known research scientist. Our country was headed for complete destruction if something didn’t change. Jackson Crownwell, the brave man who heads up Operation Juliet, has paved the way for our country to improve, but to start this process, we needed a way to clean up the pollution—so to speak. And now, we’re almost there—we are close to completion of Phase One, and you will live in a clean world filled with upstanding Americans who have one goal in mind—perfection, wealth, and structure. We have mitigated the weak-minded individuals, weeding out the poor and useless, leaving us with the rich, the government officials, and politicians. What more could we ask for?”
“You are fucking sick!” I spew. My head hurts as I try to digest everything. My own mother has taken part in the demolition of our country.
“That’s quite enough,” she says to me. “When did it become okay to talk to me this way?”
“When you became a dictator and a murderer.”
“Sinon,” she sighs. With a disapproving shake of her head, she turns back around and continues walking. “I am none of what you accuse me of. I am responsible for creating the rebirth of what this country was intended to be. You should be proud to be a part of it.”
“I’m disgusted with you, your beliefs and what you have done. How do you live with yourself?”
“Easily,” she laughs. “I’m what all Americans will strive to be, a leader who was brave enough to create what we all wish our country to be.”
“You’re not a leader. You are a follower. Of Jackson Crownwell. No one is going to look up to you. They will hate you for destroying their lives, their communities, their families, what they knew to be normal, You ruined the country they loved, what took centuries to build, and what has always felt comfortable and right. For millions, you took away their lives and their future. Some day, you’ll want to hide behind Jackson Crownwell, rather than stand in front of him, but until then, I just feel sorry for you.” I feel sorry for myself. How could I not see any of this? How could this woman possibly be my mother? At least now I know why she originally left me in Chipley to rot. She truly is a monster.
We arrive at her office door and she places her hand on the doorknob. “I would take the time you have now to spend it with your darling girlfriend because I’m afraid she doesn’t have much longer.” I don’t know what she means by that or what she plans to do, but I will kill her before she hurts Reese any more than she already has. “Men, you are dismissed.” One by one the patrols depart in the opposite direction, leaving Reese and me with Mom. This just makes my job easier for when I snap, and she should have considered that before releasing her bodyguards.
Mom opens her door a touch and I kick it out of her hand, grabbing her arm as I shove her inside. Reese follows silently behind us, probably not thinking twice about what I’m doing considering her brain appears to be on mute. I push Mom up against the farthest wall and cup my hand over her mouth, pulling my pistol out with my other hand. Her eyes grow wide as I press the barrel up to the side of her head. How could she not consider this possible outcome? You push anyone far enough and they will crack, even your own son.
Her focus is no longer on my face, though, it is set behind me. “Sin,” Dad’s voice sounds from behind me. “Put the weapon down, son.” I keep my hands locked in place as I turn my head. JJ is in the other corner, holding Reese against the wall the same way I’m holding Mom, a pistol pressed to her head and all. Then there’s Dad, standing neutral between us all.
“Well, look at this—a fucking family reunion. Are you in on this, too?” I ask him.
He laughs that same laugh that has always made me want to rip his head off. The laugh that tells the world he has a secret that no one will ever know about. “Your mother and I met while working for Jackson Crownwell, Sin. Three years before you were born, we accepted our positions with him. JJ did, as well. Although, like in any office job, sometimes you lose your slutty wife to another co-worker.” He looks back and forth between Mom and JJ.
JJ laughs at this remark. “Come on, man, we’re all good now. I thought we moved past this.”
“Shut it, JJ,” Dad says. “Look, my point is, I hate him,” he points to JJ, “and I hate the fuck out of her,” he points to Mom. “But, son, you know I love you, and for you, your mother and I have stuck with our agreement with Jackson Crownwell.”
“Snatcher,” JJ laughs. “I still love that name.” He sighs before continuing with whatever he was about to say. “Come on now, you know we don’t have the option of backing away from this shit.”
“Sure we do,” Dad says.
“Shut up!” I shout at them. I wish I had three weapons, one to kill each of them simultaneously. “So now that we’ve determined you’re all sick sons of bitches and that you were brilliant enough to take down a country without remorse, we can all sit here like one big happy family and watch the country deconstruct a little bit more before you stick your toes in the water?”
JJ and Dad laugh in unison, which infuriates me enough to cock the pistol in my hand. However, JJ does the same to Reese. “Undo whatever the hell you did to her and I’ll lower my weapon.”
“She was a sacrifice we needed to make,” Dad says. “Once the Juliet toxin has infected a human brain, it’s permanent. From what our research shows, Reese has already exceeded her life expectancy.”
“Why her?” my voice breaks. “Why fucking her?” Why take away the one being in this world who hasn’t lied to me, who has cared for me. Why?
