I had no idea how long I'd been staring into the room, when I heard footsteps behind me.

"Hands up where I can see them!" I heard Adam's shout. "Now!"

I glanced backwards to see him striding towards me, the gun in his hand pointed at me. I realized only belatedly what he had yelled, but raised my hands above me head.

"Got you now, Connor," Adam said, coming closer. "Just what is this— Oh, shit, what the fuck!"

His stride faltered when he saw the body, but he recovered quickly. His grip on the gun tightened, his eyes filling with disgust as he regarded me.

"On your knees, Connor! On your knees, dammit!"

"It— It wasn't me," I croaked. "I found her like this."

"Yeah, of course," Adam sneered. "Connor Moore, I'm arresting you for murdering Vivienne Cohen and Garen Presley, as well as being complicit in the demise of eleven Vessels and Mergers. Now, will you kneel or do I have to—"

He couldn't finish his sentence, because his head exploded. Blood flew everywhere and I cried out in dismay, ducking for cover. Adam's body fell to the ground with a dull thump, revealing Della behind him with a plasma gun in her hands. I watched dumbly as she dropped the weapon and ran towards me, hopping over the Adam's body.

"Come on, we got to go," she grabbed my hand and tugged on it, and I reluctantly followed.

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"Y-You killed him."

"Yes, I did. He would have accused you of murder and locked you in. I couldn't let that happen."

"You fucking killed him!" I wrenched my hand out of hers. "You shot him in the head!"

Della turned back to face me, brow slightly creased. "Yes?"

"You can't just go around murdering people! What the fuck! What— How will I explain this? I can't even— Why did you do that?!"

"I already told you why," Della said with a tiny frown.

I opened my mouth to reply, but at that moment someone shrieked behind us. It was soon followed by a panicked shout, and at that point even I realized that it was time to get away.

"Come on, this way," Della said, taking my hand once again. I really hoped that she had a plan—she seemed like she did—because I had no idea what to do. Everything was happening so quickly, and my mind was still stuck at the bloody image of Vivienne's body. What were the chances that it wasn't her, but some other woman in her room?

I also had no doubt that the murders will be connected to me. I left fingerprints on the door, and it wouldn't be too hard to figure out that I knew both Adam and Vivienne. I couldn't think of any way to prove my innocence, so what did that leave to me? A lifetime in jail? Living the rest of my life as a fugitive?

"We shouldn't have left the gun there," I said, slightly out of breath. We were practically running, going as fast as my bad leg allowed.

"We don't need it."

"If we have to fight the security—"

Wait, was I already this committed? Now that we had killed one of them, would I kill the rest?

"We have other options," was all Della said.

We took one empty corridor after the other, spotting other people occasionally but never stopping, until we arrived to the less-inhabited area of the building complex. After a couple more twists and turns, I realized where we were headed: to the abandoned storage room where I hid the children.

"Have we evaded all the security cameras?" I asked.

"Yup," said Della, swinging the storage room's door open. "It will take them a long while till they realize where we are."

"Alright," I said, going inside and securing the door. I limped after Della, making some effort to be quiet; the children were sleeping, the various shapes of their Vessel forms lying all around.