I thought of accompanying Almyra, more so than before, but the image of the Natural writhing under the statue jolted my mind. And I could not leave her, despite Almyra’s pleas, despite my alleged fate. But before I could restart my race, Almyra clutched my shoulder and stared at me. So much that she even knelt a little so we’d be eye to eye. “Hæf … Mr. Cavanaugh,” she said. “Security forces shall arrive shortly.” She held my hand. Her soft skin a stream to my scalded palm. “I am in need of your coming with me before the news arrive, before everyone comes.” She leaned further toward me. “Please, Mr. Cavanaugh. I am in need of you.”

I didn’t know what to do, more so because for a second I saw Ashley, but I knew she wasn’t her. I wanted to help the injured, didn’t want to forsake her, but neglecting Almyra felt like forgetting about Ashley. That I had let her die because of my negligence. And I would do the same thing with Almyra. But a part of me hauled my soul to the injured, more so now that Almyra was safe. And had a pocketknife with her. “What’s so important about Mildred and Samuel that you need to tell me now, and can’t wait for me to help?”

“It would not be prudent to say.”

“You’re asking me to abandon others,” I said. “To abandon the Naturals. I can’t do that, Ms. Bernhart.”

“Even if the lives of millions are at stake?”

Ice shards punctured my organs. I thought I had made my decision, but each step clouted my chest, an axe to my heart, so much I thought it’d stop. In Wexford I could not do a thing. In the Towers, I had chosen not to do a thing. I had chosen one over many. I had chosen Enhanced over Naturals. I could not do that. I turned and sprinted to the Natural again.

“Mr. Cavanaugh!”

I didn’t listen to Almyra. And as if I were Samson, I helped the Natural lift the statue from under his wife. Did not hear his words. Blocked by the prayers in my mind. And the gravels. Had I made the wrong decision? I had not. I had made my decision. And had to live with the consequences. Forever imprinted in my brain. The image of the Natural’s wife, immobile as the statue that crushed her.

But before I could even finish a Lord’s Prayer for the Natural’s soul, I spotted some security forces aiming at me. Or at least what looked like security forces, because they might as well have been Harmonists. What Almyra had wanted to avoid. And they were closing in on her, so I raced toward her, snatched her arm, and sprinted to the safest place in the Section—Mildred and Samuel’s apartment.

But then she heaved my arm back, and almost thrust me down. And looked up some coordinates in her smartwatch, bright enough for us to see its display. “Head two-thirds of a kilometer left from here,” she said. “Then through a passageway I shall inform you about. And do not doubt me. My plan is for our sakes, as currently everyone must be in thought of your kidnapping me. And you shall not survive the onslaught of the Tower’s security forces.”

I opened my eyes again, but the tear gas still stung. The security forces neared us. And then I heard a blast. I sidestepped and dodged the bullet by an eight of a second. I did not want to admit it, but she was right. That settled it. Almyra then tossed her smartwatch, as did I, since they were probably tracking them, and darted to the passageway Almyra had told me about. And prayed that she wouldn’t betray me.

We arrived to a middle point on the plaza. And I could not see a thing. Not because of the tear gas, but because nothing lay ahead of us. A wall. Biolocked. At least to my Natural eyes. I guessed I wasn’t the one who had lived there all his life. Thank God.

Almyra then called a name and said something in Spanish. I opened my eyes. And saw one of the workers smile at her and press his hand against the biolock, and then pointed his eye at the bioscanner. The wall opened. Almyra thanked him and we bolted inside. I chuckled. How could I have not thought about it? The cargo area. The shipment area. Another jab to my mind. Not only had she demonstrated better vision, but she had also talked with the service workers. I laughed again. That convinced me. She wasn’t the rich brat I had her to be, but she was still a Bernhart. And that would never change.

The service worker shut off the wall. We were safe. And I had expected some major information in my mind, but nothing could have prepared me for her words, for what she said, for what started that day.

“I am in need of your services.”

“Why should I help you?” I said. “I already saved your life. And my Ashley lost hers because of you, your poison.”

“Eugenex?” she said. “I apologize. It is rare for that to occur.”

“Rare won’t bring my girlfriend back.” And in that moment, Almyra stopped looking like Ashley. When I thought about the real one. Tears marred her face, but those must have been for the tear gas, not my Ashley’s death, right?

“Are you not in will to save Mildred? The districts?”

And I thought I only listened to her because I cared about the Naturals, but it wasn’t true. I kind of wanted to help her because of her, because she wasn’t the brat I had her out to be. But my soul constricted my veins, because I had to help people just for the sake of it, for God, not because they were saints or jerks. But with the Achroites, you could not let them know your true intentions, lest they used them against you. “It depends.” That phrase lacerated my chest, even though I was thinking of helping her, despite everything. “What do you have in mind?”

“Class B bridger Mildred Williams went missing during the blasts, presumed dead,” she said. “But I am in belief of her being alive, and of her husband Samuel Gieves’ responsibility for her disappearance, and for the blasts.” And for a quarter of a second, the corners of her lips pulled down just a millimeter, but it was so fast that sometimes I wondered if I had imagined it, but what I had no doubts of was the glinting blazes of her eyes, when she said, “I am in will of finding Mildred and bringing Samuel to justice. She was my nanny until I was of ten years.”

Hail pulsed through my veins. I stepped back, faced down, and slid my hand past my face, because I wanted to help her find Mildred, but I didn’t want to help her arrest Samuel, even if it meant reforms had to take longer.

“What are you in need of? What are you in will of, Mr. Cavanaugh?”

That was the first time anyone had ever asked me that. Everyone had a fee in mind, almost everyone, that is.

“Should it be money what you are in need of,” she said. “I am in ability to grant you an amount that shall satisfy the deepest desires of even the most avaricious of the Enhanceds.”

I remained silent.

“Should it be power and fame what you are in will of,” she said. “I am in power to grant you one of the most luxurious penthouses in the most exclusive segment of Section A.”

“Ms. Bernhart,” I said. “I don’t want any of those things.”

Almyra tilted her head and looked at me as if I were an alien, but she composed herself and leaned towards me. “So what is your deepest desire?” she said. “Inform me of it and I shall grant it to you, no questions asked.”

I didn’t know what to ask for, what to do. Everything she said sounded tempting, really tempting, to the point that I almost asked her for the money, power, and fame, but then again, they were just that, temptations.

And then I thought about Ellie. Naturals were forbidden by law to buy exoskeletons and cochlear implants, but Almyra would have definitely been able to buy them, and with no one harassing her about who was it for and what would have been her intentions. But was that the right thing? And then again, Ellie had refused them when Aisha offered them to her.

My chest tightened when I thought Ellie would have refused. She would have told me to choose something for the world, something that everyone, that Naturals and Enhanceds could benefit from. Not something selfish, not something just for her. Because she was like that, despite how iniquitous the world had been to her. She was a better Christian than I. I would have chosen the exoskeleton.

Almyra leaned toward me, clasped my hands. Her eyes watery. “Mr. Cavanaugh, I plead you. No other bridger would care enough about justice for a mere Class B who was a Natural even,” she said, in a timbre that sounded like Ashley’s.

I didn’t want to help her. Deep down, I knew it could have ended up with Samuel imprisoned. Deep down I knew he could have been a terrorist. But how could I not? Was I that callous? But then again, if I really trusted Samuel, if I really believed he was innocent, if I could prove he was innocent, then Almyra would have no choice but to let him go. She didn’t strike as someone who’d put an innocent person behind bars just to boost convictions, and pretend that we were safer. So I swallowed my anger at Eugenex and said, “I want a complete halt of Eugenex production for new Enhanceds.” Something, perhaps, even better than the reforms.

A grin emerged on her face, though only for a fraction of a second. She then puckered her lips. “Well, it seems you are in accomplishment of what no one else is, Mr. Cavanaugh,” she said. “You are in possession of a fee I am not in power to disburse.”

I stared at my hands, at her face. It was like my guardian angel himself was telling me I was a horrible bastard and a bad Christian. My veins coiled my heart, my organs, as if they had ripped my heart right out of my chest, and gravity blasted my brain. She was a Bernhart, but she had not killed my girlfriend, even if it soothed me to believe that. Ellie was right. She was not at fault for what her father had done. She was an Achroite, but she was not like them. I couldn’t live with myself if I let her go. It would have gnawed at me all my life, not helping her, clawed at my heart until I had none. And she began to look like Ashley again. And it clouted me. “Then I want you to promise me your support to reform the Non-Enhanced Defense Act, Cael’s Law. And provide more protections for the Naturals in the Zielkkenhomvilles. The Harmonists will not use me as an excuse for violence and senseless bloodshed.”

Almyra’s eyes glistened, like stars that guide your way. “That is a payable fee,” she said. “I shall inform my father and Chairman Zielkkenhom about the matter.”

“But I won’t help you put Samuel behind bars.”

A twinge of wrath formed in her eyes. “What if he did murder her? Or kidnap her?” she said. “Should he be guilty, he shall lose his district. And jeopardize all the others.”

“He didn’t kill her,” I said. “They’ll both be together. Alive. Happy. I’ll prove it to you. And that the Harmonists were responsible for the blasts.”

She just laughed. “Let us proceed to Section A,” she said. “However, be prepared for the news crews. What matters is not the truth, but how you say your lies.”

We entered the elevator and untied our masks, my eyes finally adjusting themselves to light, but still itching as if I had chickenpox. “I don’t need to lie,” I said as I put on my shirt. “I saved your life. That’s the truth.”

She laughed as she wrapped her shawl around her waist to leave her bruised arms exposed. “I expect your services to outshine your naiveté.”

“Not naiveté,” I said. “Just optimism, Ash … Ms. Bernhart.”

She didn’t seem to catch my mistake.

The doors shut. I had dealt with those of Section A before, no need to worry, though I couldn’t figure out why Almyra would want the news to broadcast her bruises. I would clear Samuel’s name, and achieve freedom through peace, or at least I thought I would.

Hi, my fellow bridgers! Thank you so much for reading The Last God. It means a lot to me that you took time to read my story. Being able to share this story with others has been an amazing experience.

I will appreciate your comments and reviews because my work is intended for you. I invite you to share this experience in social media through the links below. Every single review or share matters.

Thanks again for reading. May God bless you. Have a great day!