Ink
Ink
The gun was pointed at him before he could get out of the way. It wasn’t like he had much choice either way.
“What the fuck? Nothing human can take that kind of hit!”
“Derek… you know me.”
“I thought I did.”
“I’m not metal damn it!”
“Then tell me how the hell you’re not in pieces right now Alec!”
The other man’s voice had gone soft and Alec knew he was in shit then. When Derek Reece was screaming you were fine. When he got that quiet voice, it meant he was about to do something that would hurt himself, something that would be for his brother’s good, for John’s good, for the resistance’s good, but that would send him personally reeling. Like killing his lover.
He closed his eyes. “Can I turn around?”
“What?”
“I need to show you something to explain it.”
“Yeah, okay.”
He turned slowly, knowing that the wrong move would put a bullet in his brain faster than even he could move. He pulled the collar of his shirt down at the neck and offered Derek a good look at his barcode.
“No. They’re all extinct.”
“Mostly. Engangered to say the least, but so is the rest of humanity.”
“The metal cleared out all the Transgenics, used them to figure out how to grow all that pretty flesh they use to cover themselves up with.”
“Some of us managed to hide.”
“No, that can’t be…”
“No one else knows. I haven’t told anyone, not even John Connor.”
“Why not?”
“It would be you I told before anyone else and… I’ve made mistakes before.” They both knew he was talking about the other bar code, the one that had been put on his arm by machines.
It didn’t matter then. He turned around to face Derek. None of the rest of it mattered because Derek believed him, he could see it in his eyes and when he took a step forward Derek’s gun hand was moving towards him, wrapping around the back of his head, the metal of his gun pulling Alec into him. Their teeth clashed and blood and bruises formed and swelled between them but neither cared. They were still alive, they were still there. The whole fucking human race was about to be extinct. The barcode was just another barcode and who the hell didn’t have enough ink anymore to last a life time.