Page 48 of Echos and Empires
“Emma.” It was Liam who spoke, his voice uncharacteristically somber. “Please. We need you safe. Those little ones need you safe.”
For a moment, Emma looked like she might argue further. But then her shoulders slumped, one hand coming up to rest on the gentle swell of her belly. “Fine,” she murmured, though the word clearly tasted bitter on her tongue. “I’ll stay out of it.”
Relief, tinged with guilt, washed through Chris. He hated benching her, hated the hurt and frustration that clouded her features. But the thought of losing her, of losing their twins... it was more than he could bear. He would shoulder any burden, endure any sacrifice, to protect them.
“We’ve got a plan,” he said, looking around at his battered, determined crew. “But we need to be smart. Careful. We’ll win if we are, I don’t care what hte odds are.”
“There’s something else we’re not talking about,” William said, his voice cutting through the tense silence like a blade. Chris looked up, a new dread coiling in his gut at the expression on the strategist’s face. It was a look he’d seen before, in the early days of the outbreak—the look of a man who’d just realized the monster under the bed was real.
“The report mentioned a weapon. Something psychological, something Warrington’s been developing in secret.” William’s words were clipped, his knuckles white where they gripped the damning pages. “It says... it says it could change everything. Give him total control.”
The room went still, a held breath, as the implications sank in. Chris felt the fear rise up, a choking tide, as his mind raced with the possibilities.
What could it be? Some kind of drug, maybe, or a subliminal message system? Something to warp people’s perceptions, to twist their loyalties? The very idea made his skin crawl.
Beside him, Alex swore under his breath. “Mind control,” the medic muttered, his face pale. “And memory alteration. It’s possible, Emma confirmed it a little bit ago. Who wants to bet those vitamins create some sort of altered state where Victor can easily convince people to do something?”
“Or if there’s something in each one that builds up in the bloodstream that could work like a magnet or something when a flip is switched.” William hissed.
“Jesus,” Liam breathed, running a hand through his dark hair. “Can you imagine? He could turn people into his puppets, make them do anything he wanted. Or just... just flip a switch and shut down anyone who opposed him.”
The thought was chilling, the stuff of dystopian nightmares. But Chris couldn’t shake the feeling that they were on the right track. It fit with everything else they knew about Warrington—the secrecy, the iron control, the messiah complex.
Bash’s voice was a low growl, his green eyes hard as flint. “It would be the ultimate weapon. Not just physical control, but breaking people from the inside out. Turning them against each other, against themselves.”
Chris’s stomach turned at the thought. It was insidious, a violation on the deepest level, deeper than destroying lives. And if Warrington succeeded the whole Island could be destroyed because he knew the mother’s and father’s here wouldn’t let their children be at risk.
“He wins over the next generation,” Emma whispered, her arms wrapped protectively around her middle. “Mold them in his image. They’d never even know they had a choice. Our children,” she broke off with a sharp cry and Chris wrapped his arms around her.
The horror of it was staggering. The idea of his child, of any child, subjected to that kind of manipulation made Chris want to howl with fury. Made him want to tear Warrington apart with his bare hands.
But beneath the anger, a cold certainty was taking root. Because now he understood the true scope of what they were up against. It wasn’t just a matter of overthrowing a tyrant, or wrestling control of the island’s resources.
It was a battle for the very soul of humanity. For the right to think, to feel, to be free. Warrington wasn’t just a threat to their physical safety—he was a threat to everything that made them human.
The stakes had just been raised to a staggering height. It was no longer just their lives on the line, or even the fate of the island. It was the future of the human race itself.
Chris looked around at his shell-shocked team, saw the fear and revulsion etched into every face. But beneath that, in the set of their jaws and the fire in their eyes, he saw something else—a grim determination, a steely resolve.
“This changes things.” he spoke low, as if his words didn’t dare rise up to match the level of fury coursing through him. “We’re not just fighting for ourselves anymore. We’re fighting for everyone. For the right to be human.”
He looked each of them in the eye, saw the answering flare of determination. “I won’t lie to you. The odds, they’re not good. Warrington has all the power here, and if this weapon is as bad as it sounds...”
He trailed off, letting the unspoken hang in the air. They all knew the score. Knew that this could very well be a suicide mission.
But what choice did they have? To stand by and watch as Warrington played god, as he twisted and broke the remnants of humanity to his will? To let their child, and all the children to come, grow up as slaves in mind and body?
No.
That was not a future Chris was willing to accept. Not while he still had breath in his body and fire in his soul.
“We’re going to stop him,” he said, and it was a vow, a blood oath. “Whatever it takes, however long it takes. We’re going to find that weapon, and we’re going to destroy it. And we’re going to tear Warrington’s little empire down around his ears.”
It wouldn’t be easy. Warrington and his men would fight them every step of the way, clinging to their power, their twisted vision of the future. And the specter of that weapon, of the unthinkable violation it represented, loomed over them all like a gathering storm.
“Let’s curb this for the night. It wasn’t so long ago you know we’d let loose before a mission. While that’s not a possibilitywith what’s on the line, we need to clear our heads. We need to breathe so that when we begin again, there are no mistakes. No weakness.”
“The beach,” Emma whispered, gently pushing out of his embrace. “It’s a bit cold, but the beach will help. It washes away the pain. If we let it.”
