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I reached for my brother, pulling on his collar, dragging his head into my lap. More blood was draining, leaking from his nose and out of the corners of his lips. “Jacob,” I screamed again, feeling the desperation consuming me.

He shifted ever so slightly, and his eyelids slowly lifted. The whites of his eyes were red as every delicate blood vessel ruptured, and tears of ruby red dripped out of the corners of his eyes.

“Oh my god, Jacob,” I sobbed, the tears flowing freely. “Please don’t die on me. Please !”

“Mara,” he muttered, my name hardly audible. “You have…to finish it.” Every word took effort. He struggled even to whisper.

“I can’t do this,” I cried. “Not without you. We can still do it. I can still save you,” I said as I stroked his bloodied blond hair.

He coughed, and I watched as blood oozed out of his mouth, more draining from his nose and ears.

Oh my god…he was dying. He was really dying and there was nothing I could do to save him.

Nothing I could do to rescue him. There were no cliffs to climb, no hounds to defeat. Nothing…nothing left to do but watch.

I caressed his face, stroking the lines of handsome cheeks as tears flowed down my own. “Oh Jacob…please don’t leave me. I can’t—” I sniffed as another sob racked my chest. “I can’t do it without you.”

His bloodied, oceanic eyes stared at me as he reached his hand up to wipe a tear from my cheek. “It’s got to end, Mara. It has to end…with us.”

“ Please …please, please, please.” I didn’t know who I was begging to or what it would change, but it was the only thing I could say. The only thing I could do— beg . Beg that his life would be spared.

“Remember…I love…you.”

I nodded, the tears flowing unchecked as the sorrow consumed my soul. “I know. I love you too. And I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t…be sorry. I would…do it all over…again…if it meant…I saw you…one last…time.” He dropped his hand as he coughed again, choking on his own blood. And then, with one last shuddering breath, Jacob fell silent.

“Jacob?” I searched his eyes, but they were unseeing.

“Jacob!” I shrieked, shaking him. But he remained lifeless in my arms, the blood pooling around us as his body bled out.

“ No! No, please no!” I shook him again, desperate for him to respond.

But he remained limp…nothing but a shell for the soul that was once my brother.

“No,” I whimpered as I pulled him into me, shifting my body so I could hold him, gripping him as though I could keep the life inside of him.

But it was of no use.

No amount of pleading, or tears, or grieving would bring him back to me. And I sobbed. I screamed out in anguish. I rocked his body with mine as I felt myself break. Shattered. None of it was worth it. None of it was worth the pain and suffering of losing my brother. And I didn’t care.

I didn’t care anymore.

Because a life without Jacob was no life at all. I had failed him. I had worked so hard, given up so much, to save him. And in the end, I killed him. I pushed Raúl, cornering him, and he turned around and did what I least expected. He took Jacob from me. And now I was lost.

Lost.

I pulled my brother’s body back, and softly laid him down on the tile, caressing his cheek as I did. I glanced at the clock, its numbers ticking down.

Five minutes.

Only five minutes remained before it would all be over. I wiped the tears from my face, and then positioned myself to lie down next to him, nestling up close, resting my head on his silent chest.

I was tired. I was so tired of losing. I lost Matias to Chelsea, Wes to his father, and Jacob to Raúl. I was so tired of always fighting the losing battle. I wanted no more of it.

And why not?

Why should I have to keep going? To have Charles Calvernon command me like a slave?

God only knew what that man wanted from me, and I really didn’t want to find out.

At least with Jacob, I stood a chance. We stood a chance as long as we stuck together.

But that was over, and I just didn’t care anymore.

I closed my eyes, still feeling the tears streaming from my cheeks as I waited for the clock to finish counting down. A sigh escaped my lips as I resolved myself to let it all end here. No more pain. No more suffering. No more lies and schemes.

I was done. Finished.

Finish it. The little voice in my head niggled me. Finish it, Mara.

I shuddered. I didn’t want to.

Jacob’s voice whispered, It ends with us.

I opened my eyes, my gaze landing on the clock ticking down.

Three minutes.

It ends with us… Finish it.

But it was too hard, the grief too heavy. I didn’t want to do it anymore, not without my brother.

Finish it.

My mind wandered, memories drifting of Edith and Matias.

Of the laughs we had at the camp. The secret moments Matias and I shared.

And I loved them. But it didn’t outweigh the sorrow in my heart.

I nuzzled in closer to my brother, resting my left hand on his still chest as I watched the clock beyond, silently ticking.

Two minutes.

I watched each number change, and my left hand blurred as I kept my focus on the clock beyond. I shifted slightly, and something glistened on my finger. My vision refocused and then I saw it.

My ring.

The dim lighting caught the golden diamond, causing it to glitter on my finger, and my heart seized.

Wes.

I never got the chance to tell him the truth. He would never know what really happened. That I loved him for him , for who he was.

What if he didn’t make it out of the city? What if none of them did? What if they were captured, taken to the tower, and retrofitted with NIT-V2?

No.

I couldn’t bear to think about that. To think of Wes as nothing but a mindless drone of Raúl’s, or worse…

of Charles’s. Because if Charles got his hands on this technology, what would keep him from implanting Wes just like Raúl did to Jacob?

And if Wes defied him, would he share Jacob’s fate?

Bleeding out, suffocating on his own blood?

I sat up.

I couldn’t let that happen. I had to warn him. I had to warn all of them. I looked at the clock.

One minute.

Shit.

I looked back at my brother and gave him one last kiss on his cheek.

“We’ll see each other again,” I whispered as I stroked his hair.

And then I leaped over his body and grabbed the backpack, leaving the bomb behind.

There was no way I was going to try and deactivate that thing.

Not only did I have zero knowledge of bombs, but there wasn’t nearly enough time for me to even try.

I raced to the window, looking out below.

We weren’t that far—three stories. And I had survived much higher drops than this.

Remembering Wes’s epic move of smashing the window in the Admin Building, I grabbed a chair and banged it on the window—once, twice, three times—until it finally shattered.

A gust of wind whipped in through the broken glass, whipping my hair all about my face.

In the distance, I could still hear people screaming, terrified of the battle happening just beyond the wall.

Quickly, I pulled the stash of rope my brother had packed just for this exact scenario and desperately searched for a place to tie it.

Twenty seconds.

I couldn’t find anything except…maybe a desk? It would be better than nothing. I looped the end around, tying it off.

Ten seconds.

I raced back to the window. Just below me was the main entrance into REG Command with its decorative canopy just two floors below. I could drop onto that, and then easily jump to the ground floor. I tossed the rope and turned around to climb down when my eyes caught sight of the clock.

Two seconds.

“Shit,” I breathed out, and then the bomb exploded.

***

My ears rang. My whole body felt broken. I tried to cough, but the ache inside of me kept me from attempting it again. I opened my eyes, and everything felt as though it was moving in slow motion.

The canopy drifted in the breeze, a gaping hole allowing me to look up at the clouds as plumes of black smoke poured out of the building, flames raging, licking up into the sky.

Ash rained down upon me as I laid on the concrete, my body twisted.

And the pain, the pain was so intense, that it stole my breath and brought me to tears.

I felt the cold surround me, and watched as my vision blurred, dark circles creeping in, narrowing my sight.

I couldn’t move. Every part of me felt broken.

It was the only thing that could explain the pain I was in.

I tried to blink, to clear my vision, but the blackness only crept in further, until I could no longer see anything. And with one final, shuddering breath, I succumbed to the darkness.