While this was all happening, Ellie Maisie and Dominic were chasing after Keres. Everything was happening so quickly. Ellie Maisie didn't even notice the scrapes and bruises on her face, the shagginess of her hair because of the adrenaline. She could see him, he was in sight. He was running away from her. He was running away from

her, not the other way around. What an odd change of pace, she thought. It was so bizarre, and she hated every minute of it, but his cowardice was finally coming into the light, and everyone could see him running away. They were in the middle of the battle. Thousands of people shooting at each other. Screaming, blood, crying, gunshots. It all sort of froze. She couldn't hear it. She couldn't hear anything, she couldn't see anything. It all sort of disappeared, because her entire being was focused on dealing with Keres. She held her gun up high, readied herself to press the trigger, but she couldn't. She turned to Dominic, who ran past her and managed to shoot Keres in the leg. He fell to the ground, defenseless, his gun flying out of

sight. He was on the ground, still alive, wincing from the pain. It felt as if the whole world stopped and stared at Ellie Maisie as she regained consciousness and pointed her gun at Keres, with the intent to kill. Dominic leaned in.
"You know, if you killed him no one would judge you," he whispered to her.
She nodded, staring right into Keres' eyes, stepping closer towards him.
"I'm going to kill you," she said, nervously.
"Go ahead then," Keres yelled.
"But, before I kill you I need you to listen to me," she explained loudly, enough for everyone to hear, "I was happy before this. And I know

that's an overused sentence. I know everyone was happy before this, but I don't think you understand how well my life was going. How well everyone's life was going before any of this. I don't think you understood how stable society was. Or maybe you did, and society was barely stable enough to give an illusion of utopia. An unbreakable, impenetrable force. It turned out not to be that way. You knocked it down pretty easily. You had a good plan that you carried out perfectly, and you succeeded. You won for a brief period of time, and I can't even begin to explain the pain that caused me and everyone I'm close to, and everyone I'm not close to. I cried myself to sleep most nights, every day my sanity cracked and I went insane. You might remember

that. Or you might not remember me at all. Maybe I'm just a number to you. But do you realize what you did to me? You kidnapped me, you put me to sleep for a month, and then you jailed me for not being male and forced me to follow a set of rules that destroyed my mental, physical, emotional, and psychological health. And now look at me. I can't even recognize myself. I am so different compared to the person I was before this happened. And honestly, I wish I wasn't. I wish everything would just go back to the way it was. But it did get me thinking. About the past, feminism, sexism in general. It's not something I'd ever experienced. It's not something anyone of my generation had experienced, because it wasn't a thing. It didn't exist. But now I

know what it feels like, and I could feel it even before you took me captive. Even if no one ever treated me wrong, I felt this sort of pain and wound that came with not being male. It's like the world was in a really bad place, like culturally, economically, socially, environmentally, and it was a terrible place for women. Especially bad for women of color, and even worse for transgender women, transgender men, or anyone who wasn't a white cisgender man. Somehow we all escaped that dark void, but every day I feel like I'm being sucked back in like I can't escape like it's holding me tight. And I almost let go. I almost quit and conceded. I didn't resist, I did everything that was expected of me like I always have. But when I sat

there taking that stupid test, listening to how they insulted me I just remember thinking, Why? Why do I have to take this? Why do I have to sit here and listen to them treat me like this? I realized that if I don't stand up for myself no one will. Because no one cares, especially not someone like you. So I decided to fight for my freedom, and the freedom of other people, harmed by you and your psychopathic ideas. But, now I'm standing here thinking about how stupid that concept is. Why do I have to fight for freedom? Why should anyone have to fight for something that should be a birthright? It's stupid, right? What's the point? But I guess that's just how it is. That's just how it works. It shouldn't be that way. Why do we keep going backward? We were

basically perfect, but it takes one convincing person to pollute the minds of thousands of others and just wreak havoc on the world. Do you realize how much you've stripped away from me? And I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm not dead, and that is a huge blessing. I feel ill, like physically ill. You've made me hate myself, you've made me wake up every day for the last who knows how many months with a terrible headache. You caused me depression, anxiety, nightmares, discomfort, fear, hallucinations, panic, insanity, eating disorders, pain, and every kind of trauma, I am completely distraught."
She wiped away a tear from her face and put her hand back on the gun. She was shivering, emotionally breaking down in front of so many

people. Only now had her adrenaline died down. She could feel how cold the air was. How the fresh blood on her face burned and ached. She took a deep breath and redirected her focus.
"That is why," she said slowly, "I have decided to not kill you." She lowered her gun, took all the bullets out, and tossed it on the ground.
"Why?" Keres said.
"You could've killed me, but you didn't. You kept me alive and made me suffer. So I'm not going to give you the pleasure of dying."
That was it. Ellie Maisie had escaped the inescapable. All three leaders had been apprehended. No one was shooting, no one was fighting.

War was over, at least in their corner of the world. Maybe this wasn't the true end. But at least things would improve, and hopefully, no one would ever have to go through what Ellie Maisie, Rosanna, Ariana, Nanette, Mo, and so many others went through again.