"Leave my brother alone!" She looked to Beleth, then Robert, but they did nothing to stop.
She looked back to her brother. His mouth opened in a scream of pure agony, but no sound emerged.
Beleth gestured to Luke. "Your brother's lungs are collapsing. If Robert releases him soon, he will not suffer permanent damage, but wait too long and he won't recover. Consider your choices carefully, Lucy."
His fingers bent back, pushed to near breaking by the invisible force that controlled him. His limbs twisted in unnatural ways. Lucy tried to run to him, to help him, but a force stopped her, paralyzing her and forcing her to watch her brother be tortured to death.
She couldn't move toward Luke, so she moved to the side, grabbing Morrison's gun from his detached hand, fingers slipping on the blood. She lifted it, aimed and shot Robert in the chest.
Luke collapsed to the ground and groaned in pain.
Lucy shook and dropped the gun as her body went into shock. The plane shifted down, and Lucy slid across the floor.
Robert was dying and could no longer suspend the plane in the sky.
Beleth and his men grabbed onto seats to steady themselves. Soldiers and IPI Agents fell. Everyone drew guns, shooting at each other. Lucy knew Luke was too exhausted to stop the bullets. More people died as the plane tilted in the sky, suspended by metal cables attached to the helicopter above.
Robert writhed on the floor, the bullet to his chest killing him slowly. Lucy didn't want to watch, but couldn't seem to pull her eyes from the scene.
Beleth knelt next to his dying friend, his voice low but still commanding. "Robert, you have served us well and now, your mission has come to an end. Rest assured, your family will be well cared for, and you will be missed."
Robert grunted, unable to speak, but nodded his consent to a fast death.
Beleth placed his gun under his friend's chin. A tear, shiny and black, leaked from Beleth's eye as he pulled the trigger, and that one bullet sounded louder than the hundreds that had come before.
Lucy's stomach lodged in her throat as the plane plunged forward more, the cables attaching it to the helicopter above stretched beyond capacity. Bethel looked at her, not with anger or despair, as she'd expected, but with that same stillness that so aggravated her.
His voice boomed in the cabin. "You've made your decision."
A flicker of doubt plagued her. Had it been the right one? She looked around at the dead men, agents and soldiers piling up at the back of the plane as it hung from the sky. How could this have been the right choice? But giving in, going with them, that wouldn't have been right either.
Bethel's words from earlier haunted her. "Sometimes there are no right decisions."
The plane shook and strained against the cables, until one snapped, jerking the plane into a twisted limbo in the sky.
Bethel let go of his seat and allowed himself to fall toward Lucy, grabbing her. He yelled to the only soldier who survived the massacre. "Get the boy."
Lucy shoved against his rock hard chest. She might as well have pushed against a brick wall. He wrapped his arms around her and locked her in a death-like grip, a mockery of a loving embrace. She couldn't move, couldn't fight him, couldn't escape. He pulled her to the hatch, presumably trying to get her onto the helicopter above them before this plane crashed and burned.
Luke struggled with his own captor. He made more headway than her, marginally. Their circumstances didn't allow for much in the way of true fighting, and Luke remained exhausted after his torture.
The men made it to the hatch, cables hanging and waiting for them to attach themselves so they could be pulled to the helicopter.
Lucy couldn't let them capture her and her brother. This could be the only chance they had to escape; once they were onboard the helicopter, it would be near impossible with the level of para-power and manpower Beleth controlled. She thought fast, assessing her tools. Their parachutes were still attached, as were their tank-less breathing systems and backpacks. Below them, the ocean swirled and consumed the world. The dark sky beckoned like a black hole into nothing.
Still, better than the alternative. With her crazy-suicidal-probably-will-die-trying plan in place, Lucy waited until Bethel released her in order to hook her to the cables. When his partner did the same with Luke, Lucy tackled her brother... and pushed him out of the plane.
She held him tightly as they dropped into the night. Luke returned her grip and smiled. Such a guy!
"Hope you have a plan here, Luce. Not that I don't love a good adrenaline high," he said through the rush of wind and the sting of rain.
Breaths came in small, shallow pulses, but at least they were free.
"Um, Sis, we've got company."
Lucy looked up, and nearly choked on the rain when her mouth fell open in shock. Bethel had jumped out of the plane in pursuit. Head first like a rocket, and gaining ground. What the hell? He isn't wearing a parachute. Is he insane?