“Now try unlocking the padlock,” Mpho said in a whisper.
She was about to continue talking but her words were cut short when she saw the figure standing in front of her. Rikk and Azalea had been right.
They had been chasing a cyborg for 6 months. It’s why there had been no DNA at the scene. She had just one arm, and it looked barely alive. Her legs were prosthetic replaced as well as her right arm. Her torso left arm and head were the only flesh parts of her.
“What happened to you?” Mpho asked taken aback by the inhuman standing before her.
“Not what, Who.” The girl said. “My name is Akua. The head scientist took me as a child from one of District Z-25b shelters and experimented on me in his lab in District X-13a. He made me his superhuman. His aim? To beat evolution at its game.”
“I…I thought augmented humans were illegal. Why would they make something illegal if they created it themselves?”
“Because we live in a construct. Below District X-13a, everything is a lie. They don’t care about us. We all just data to them. That’s why I’m going to kill them all.”
“I can’t let you do that,” Mpho said. She shoved the chains off her and charged at Akua. The shock drove into Akua as Mpho’s weight pushed her to the floor. She tackled her pistol out of Akua’s hand and slammed the hilt into her jaw. Akua screamed as she struggled to push Mpho off her.
Between ragged breaths, Mpho yelled at her, “I can’t let you kill anyone anymore.”
Punch
“It’s my job to protect this District and planet K-RIA. I can’t let you wreak havoc and break the order.”
Punch
Akua’s face was bruised. She hadn’t stopped screaming. She looked at Mpho straight in the eyes and raised her legs from behind, slamming them into Mpho’s back. The kick was strong it pushed Mpho off balance. But she regained her balance and dragged Akua back to her feet as she tried to get up. Her gun had slipped from her hand from the kick earlier.
“AZALEA PASS ME THE GUN!!!” Mpho screamed out at him.
Azalea flinched at the sound of his name. He knew what it felt like to have the level 1 trample on a person. He had watched one of the ministers kill his uncle because he refused to deny his win at the betting grounds.
Why would he help this police officer now to kill another one of his own people? Akua looked back and kicked Mpho in the head earning a groan from her lips. Azalea bent and picked the pistol. He started at the scene unfolding before him.
This was wrong. Everything about this was wrong. But why did he feel the urge to protect Mpho? He backed away from the two women into a corner. Akua freed herself and a blade shot off her robotic arm. She bared her teeth at Mpho. But before she could attack her, Akua let out a piercing scream as she dropped to her knees.
Mpho turned quickly following the direction where the shot had come from.
“Azalea?”
Akua watched her muscles begin to melt into goo. She gripped her torso with her metallic hand and began to smile then she let out laughter.”Remember the truth, they’re using you,” Akua said as the light extinguished from her eyes. Mpho stood to her feet and looked at Azalea who was still shaken up from firing the pistol. The doors began to open as police officers trooped into the warehouse. Mpho looked at the ceiling with a strange smile Azalea hadn’t seen her wear since the 20 hours she had come to release him from The Abyss. “What is the truth?” Mpho asked with a soft voice and shut her eyes.