Xifeng follows Ify’s eyes. Then Ify aims her gun at the display. Xifeng grabs her and tries to wrestle her away, kicks her legs out from under her. Ify falls onto Xifeng. They twist and roll over. Xifeng knocks Ify’s gun out of Ify’s hands. It clatters against the metal hemisphere. Ify kicks Xifeng away and dives for the gun. Xifeng grabs her by the ankle and pulls her back. Ify twists and kicks at Xifeng, but Xifeng grabs her leg and twists as though to snap it. Ify rolls out of her grip and traps Xifeng with her legs, ankles crossed at her neck. And squeezes. Ify can feel Xifeng’s body tightening, spasming, from the lack of air. Before Ify can react, Xifeng pulls a knife from her belt and stabs Ify’s leg. Ify lets out a cry and lets go. Xifeng pulls out the small knife then leaps at Ify and falls on top of her. Ify blocks the strike with her forearms. Pain blossoms anew in her left shoulder. The knife’s edge inches closer and closer to Ify’s chest. Spittle drops onto Ify’s face. She’s losing strength.

Closer.

Closer.

Ify shifts, dodges the knife as it clangs against the metal of the walkway. In the next instant, she rams her elbow into Xifeng’s temple. Xifeng staggers across the platform, shaking the dizziness out of her head. Ify charges her, crashing into her middle and driving her away from hemisphere until they smash into the railing and Xifeng screams in pain. Xifeng leans back, holding Ify tight, pulling them both over the edge. Ify’s heart leaps into her throat. The air turns dangerously around her as she feels herself go over. At the last moment, she catches the edge of the walkway. Already, her sweat-slick fingers are slipping. Xifeng hangs on to Ify’s boot. Below them is a chasm. A part of the facility where not even the light can reach.

Xifeng tries to climb up Ify’s leg with a grim expression on her face. And that’s what does it for Ify. There isn’t a hint of remorse. There is nothing she can do to change this woman’s mind. She’s lost.

“Remember the war, Ify. Remember the war. She lives—”

Tears leak down her face when she kicks at Xifeng once, twice, three times, then watches her fall away, growing smaller and smaller until there is no trace of her left.

With the last of her strength, Ify pulls herself up onto the walkway and rolls onto her back, heaving several mountainous breaths.