3 TERRENCE'S PLEA

"N-No!" 

Adrenaline rushed through Terrence's veins. He couldn't think except for the fact that he needed to save his family. 

"Where are you going?!" 

Numerous shouts tried to stop and grab Terrence's attention, but no one succeeded. The others were left confused at how he was acting. The only thing that they could do was to follow Terrence. 

The crowd was split in half. Terrence kept on running. He tried to keep in his mind where was the last time he saw his family. 

"Fuck! What's with all these people?" Terrence uttered a curse. 

Terrence didn't care if he was already bumping into people. Since the gate was just letting people in, the whole area designated for people was starting to be filled, making it harder for him to locate his family.

"Terrence!" A strong hand gripped onto Terrence's shoulder, stopping him from moving. 

"Let me go!" Terrence tried to remove the hand of the person who had stopped him. 

But one hand became two. Two became three. Three became four until more hands tried to stop Terrence, making him unable to proceed any further. 

"What's happening, Terrence?" Marco sounded so alarmed by how Terrence was acting. It was the first time he saw Terrence that desperately.

He was shocked to see tears falling down on Terrence's eyes. It was evident even if he was wearing a gas mask. 

"My family is in the crowd! They're there!" Terrence bitterly exclaimed, pointing at the crowds.

His heart wouldn't stop beating faster. His silent cry started to sound. 

Marco's face reddened with what Terrence answered. He knew for sure that Terrence's family was very important to him. 

"You can't act impulsively! There are a lot of guards guarding this area. If they knew what you were doing, they would be alarmed." Marco tried to put logic into Terrence's head.

But Terrence was already desperate enough. 

Terrence shook his head. He stood firmly on the ground and glared at all the people trying to stop him. "I do not care. This is all your fault! Get your hands off me, and let me save my family."

Marco gave a look at his subordinates. He took a deep breath and nodded. No one will be able to stop Terrence at this rate. He wasn't heartless enough to stop him from saving his family.

"Do whatever you want, but we won't assure you that you'll be safe with what you will do." Marco gave a final reminder before stepping back. "We can't halt the killing. We are being monitored. Now go save your family, and we'll do our work." 

Terrence nodded determinedly. "I will." He answered before running to the crowds after they freed him. 

Marco looked at his subordinates. Even with a heavy heart, he knew for sure that he couldn't do anything. He can't also delay the scheduled mass killing. If the government knew about it, all of them would be dead. 

'I wish you succeed, Terrence.' He shut his eyes tightly for a second before giving an order.

"Let's get to work now. Everyone, get to your position and do what is ordered." 

Terrence, on the other hand, continued to look for his family. However, it had been a few minutes already, and he still saw no signs of his family. 

'Where are you guys?' Asking the question to himself, Terrence grabbed the mask on his head and threw it to the ground. 

This was the only way he could think of to quickly locate his family. 

"Abigail?! Mom?! Dad?!" Terrence desperately shouted in the midst of the crowd. 

His loud shout gathered a lot of attention, but it wasn't what he was looking for. 

Remembering the partition they made to the people earlier, Terrence ran the distance between him and the gas chamber. 

His knees turned into jelly when he noticed the smoke coming from the top of the gas chamber. 

Was he already late?

The killing had already started.

Terrence knew he needed to act quickly.

"No! Stop This!" Terrence shouted as he slapped the gas chamber's door several times. He kept kicking and kicking the door, but it was made out of steel. 

Terrence went to the back route of the gas chamber where it was being controlled. 

"You motherfucker! Stop what you're doing!" Terrence launched an attack on the guy who was controlling the acid inside. He tried to steal the remote control from the guy, but before he could do so, forces of people stopped him once again. 

What's with all these people stopping him?

Can't they see that his family was the one being put into danger here? 

"Let me go! And stop this fucking nonsense!" He angrily gritted his teeth as he tried to fight back the force stopping him from attacking again.

"You motherfuckers! Just wait and see, and I will expose each one of you!" He threatened. 

He didn't care anymore about the consequences of what he was saying. 

"All of you, remove your hands. NOW!" When a familiar voice sounded, hope, filled Terrence's emotions. 

"William! Help me!" 

William nodded. "Give me the remote control now." He commanded the person in charge. 

Since William was the second in command, he had the authority to do whatever he liked. 

The man who was in charge gave the remote control to William. William looked at Terrence and smiled. "I'll stop it in the meantime. Now go inside and save your family." He uttered before handing a gas mask to Terrence. 

Terrence believed William's words. He put on the mask to cover his face before he unlocked the back door to go inside. He was relieved when he noticed the gas had stopped coming out. 

He was very thankful to have William as a friend. 

When Terrence spotted two familiar faces in the middle, he immediately went to their aid and helped them stand up. Fortunately, it had just been a few minutes before it started. His mother and sister were still breathing.

With Terrence's strength, he made his sister and mother stand up to lean over his shoulder. "We just need to get out of this, and everything will be fine," he assured his mother and sister, who were already having difficulty breathing. 

Even though it was hard for him, Terrence used his full strength to move his mother and sister, who were on his shoulders. 

He was already shaking in the inisde but he remained strong for his family.

When he knew that they were just a few steps away from the door, Terrence looked at his mother, assuring her. "Everything will be fine, Mom." a tear fell on his cheek.

"T-Terrence..." Tiana, Terrence's mother, smiled despite the difficulty and pain. She looked at Terrence with sadness in her eyes. She looked worse with the haggard expression on her face.

"W-Why are you doing this, Son?" Tiana's voice trembled. 

"I'll answer you later, Mom." Terrence smiled at his mother. "We're nea—" 

However, a loud sound echoed in the whole chamber before Terrence could even finish his words. 

His eyes widened when he saw that it was the door that made a sound. 

"W-What?" His voice became hoarse when he saw that the door was now closed and the gas chamber was working again. 

*Beeepppp 

The chamber's speakers made a sound followed by a man's voice.

 "I'm sorry, Terrence. We had no choice." William announced before turning off the mic. There was coldness and cruelty in his voice.

Terrence shook his head. He carefully placed his mother and sister on the ground before he quickly ran over to the door. He tried slapping and hitting it to produce a sound, asking them to open it.

"William! Let me out!" He desperately shouted numerous times, but to no avail; nothing happened. 

Terrence gazed at his mother and sister, who were already struggling on the ground. They were crawling and twisting their body in pain as they inhaled the poisonous gas once again. 

He quickly knelt to the ground. The only thing that hr could do was cry as he tried to touch his family's body.

"Mom… Abigail… N-No!"

Terrence tried waiting for an answer, but there was none. Tears pooled in his eyes as he watched his family suffer. He can't even do anything to ease their pain. 

He can also feel the stinging sensation in his chest because of the poisonous acid. 

Terrence's fist turned into a ball. He could see red from his eyes. This was his fault for… for believing William... for believing Marco... for believing the government! 

Terrence remembered his mother's words. 

If he was only given a chance, he didn't want to live like this again. 

Terrence's body fell to the ground. There was now a stream of water in his eyes from crying. The mask on his face was not helping. Some parts of his body were starting to shake a little already. 

"God… Can you hear me?" Terrence gathered his strength to say those words. 

He was not religious at all, but at this moment in his life, he thought that this was the only way he could be saved. 

"I-If you can h-hear m-me… p-please… please…" A tear fell into Terrence's eyes. His body was in pain. Every limb of his body felt as if it was burning. He was starting to lose consciousness, but the pain was not decreasing. 

"P-Pease help me…" Terrence uttered in his final breath.