My breath tore at my throat and lungs. An ache twanged harshly every time I pounded a foot down. The path in front of me was starting to spin and wobble. The air ripped past me.

_Why oh why did I give it to her? Why did I let her believe she could do anything? Why was I such a failure?_

I couldn’t let her do it. I had to stop her before it was too late. I had to save her. I had to _stop _her.

As I hurled myself through crowds of people I focused on one thing only: to get to ANT.

_Why was this facility so big? Were they usually this big? _

The lights glaring overhead bathed everything in the facility with robotic white light.

_Good. She didn’t do anything yet._

Just as I thought my tired and sore legs couldn’t carry me any further, my heart dropped all the way down to the pit of my stomach: the lights had turned red and the cold, unforgiving voice I was dreading reached my ears: “Citizen 2046: threatened to disrupt the system. Penalty: imprisonment and work in the WALL.”

_NOOOOOOO! _

_I was too late! _

I squeezed the remaining energy I had left into running faster than I ever ran in my life. As I finally stumbled into the space the crowd had opened for ANT and my sister, I knew it was too late. ANT was a monster. ANT gave no room for error. And what my sister just did was a big mistake. Now she would have to spend the rest of her days working in the WALL among criminals to provide energy to the whole city. She was only 12. And this was all my fault.

_Why oh why wasn’t I more careful?_

I threw myself to Kaia, my sister, screaming in a voice that didn’t sound like mine: “NO PLEASE! TAKE ME INSTEAD! I’M THE ENEMY, I GAVE IT TO HER! IT WAS ME! ME!”

As I started to throw myself at Kaia, ANT’s cold, steally grabber appendage shot at me and wrapped it’s robotic fingers around my arms and torso. I flailed and screamed, but it was useless. This was ANT I was struggling against. Winning a fight with ANT was impossible.

When I looked at my sister through my tears of rage, I was surprised to see her eyes, not scared or crying, but confident and determined. She was staring straight at me,as if telling me with her eyes: “don’t worry, I’ll fix everything.”

But she was only a child. I knew she wouldn’t be able to fix _anything. _

Then a realization hit me. Getting into the WALL was probably to _best _way to destroy ANT. She had the kill-code, and when she got inside the WALL, she would have the clearest path to the heart of the city. Kaia was smarter than I gave her credit for. If she was careful and calculated every move, she could be able to save us all.

But I wished so badly I was the one going into the WALL, not Kaia. She was still a child. She had a life to live. It should’ve been me.

As I looked up at my sister again, her stare still unwavering, I realized the only way she was getting out of ANT’s grip was for me to trust her and hope against hope she would be smart enough to survive. And although this thought hurt my heart, I knew it was true. I would have to be strong for her.

I stared into her eyes with the same determination I saw in her’s, still unwavering even as ANT built a cage around her. She was lifted into the air and swept to the great, big wall surrounding the city, far far away.

A tear rolled down my face.

_This was all my fault._