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Months Later:

In Dry River, Arizona, Jarod slipped in and out of consciousness, under the influence of the sedative Lyle gave him. He fought the medication and tried to stay awake, his speech was becoming slurred and his eyes felt heavy. Lyle wanted revenge for everything Jarod had put him through. What would be better revenge then taking the pretenders thumb?

Jarod groggily begs Lyle not to remove his thumb. Lyle ignores his pleas, and prepares to cut off Jarod's left thumb with one of the scalpels from his kit. This is for the loss of my thumb and every piece of hell you put me through.

In his drugged blur, Jarod watches Lyle’s face contort in front of him. Lyle suddenly jerks and collapses to the floor in a heap. Jarod’s vision is blurry but his mind registers the form in front of him. Jarod blinks through the fog, and Jarod looks up to see the image of his brother, Kyle come into focus. “I thought you’d never wake up.”

"They said you were dead," Jarod mutters before losing consciousness.

Kyle smiles at him and says, "Not hardly, big brother."

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Jarod awakens on a couch in a trailer. He feels groggy, but he is awake. He can feel his thumbs and is thankful the nightmare wasn’t real. Or was it? Jarod looks up and spots Kyle’s form moving towards him. Is this real? Jarod gets to his feet and hugs his brother. “I saw the van explode.”

Expressing a suddenly soft and vulnerable aspect, Kyle asks Jarod if he'd been able to find out anything else about their parent since the last time they saw each other. Jarod shows Kyle the GENE note Sydney's brother, Jacob, wrote before he died.

"Is that our father's name?" Kyle asks.

“I don’t know.”

Kyle's mood changes again, and he's detached and expressionless once more. In a few more seconds, Kyle's mood blackens considerably, and he talks to Jarod about wanting to kill everyone in the Centre who ever hurt them. "We'll start with Lyle," Kyle says, and then they'll go on from there. Although he completely understands Kyle's rage, Jarod is distressed about his brother's display and keeps himself quiet for a time. When Jarod's able to move around more effectively, he and Kyle go back to the warehouse in search of Lyle.

Jarod finds Mr. Lyle standing up against a wooden bracing pillar in the warehouse: his hands cuffed over his head and his ankles in shackles. Mr. Lyle's face has been battered, and Jarod asks Kyle what happened to him.

“He fell and bumped his head.” Kyle smiles slyly. Kyle then displays an enormous knife and threatens to kill Lyle with it, but Jarod intervenes saying they need Lyle alive so they can find out where the sheriff's wife is buried.

Jarod begs Kyle to keep a hold of his temper; to let Jarod teach him how wonderful it feels to save a life rather than taking one.

Kyle agrees to help Jarod find the sheriff's wife, but he still goes after Lyle with the knife . "Don't worry, big brother. This is what I do," Kyle says, and uses the knife to torture Lyle into telling the brothers what they need to know.

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Jarod and Kyle arrive on three-wheel all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to the spot indicated to them by Mr. Lyle. They shut off the ATVs' engines and can hear the sound of a small gasoline generator sputtering as it starts to go dry and shut off.

The brothers run to the spot where the generator is sitting and follow the out-flow tube to the spot where Sheriff Delmont's wife is buried underground. Working feverishly together, Jarod and Kyle manage to dig up the canister in which Linda Delmont is being held.

Kyle uses his knife to break the seal on the canister, and the brothers force the lid off. Kyle reaches into the canister, and pulls out Mrs. Delmont and removes her gag.

Her arms, wrists and ankles are bound with duct tape, so she can't embrace him, but she falls against Kyle and weeps against his chest, thanking him for rescuing her. Kyle at first looks startled by the woman's reaction, but eventually he let’s her lean on him and tries to comfort her. Jarod smiles as he watches his younger brother soothe and gently caress the crying woman.

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Jarod and Kyle return the sheriffs wife and then head back to the warehouse to deal with Lyle.

Jarod and Kyle arrive to discover that Mr. Lyle has somehow escaped from his shackles. They look around the warehouse and trailer, but can't find him. They walk out to the grounds surrounding the warehouse to search. Lyle appears out of the shadows, holding Miss Parker by the throat and threatening her with a gun.

"Shoot him, you moron!" Miss Parker shouts to Kyle. Kyle raises his shotgun and aims it at Mr. Lyle, but Mr. Lyle turns his gun toward Jarod and tells Kyle that if he doesn't put the shotgun down, Lyle will kill his brother.

Kyle keeps the shotgun poised, aimed directly at Lyle's chest. He tells Lyle that The Centre had stolen their lives and freedom from them, and that threats of death don't frighten them anymore.

Lyle insists he's going to shoot Jarod.

Kyle tells him to go ahead, "And then I'll shoot you."

For a moment, everyone is distracted by the arrival a small black Centre helicopter, which is carrying Broots, Sydney and a handful of Sweepers. The helicopter circles the compound, casting its lights on the scene below.

Kyle looks to Miss Parker, but says to Mr. Lyle, "How's your knife wound?"

Miss Parker picks up on the cue, and elbows Lyle in one of the spots where Kyle had tortured him with the knife earlier. Lyle screams and doubles over, and Miss Parker scrambles away from him.

As soon as Lyle is in the clear, Kyle shoots him in the shoulder with the shotgun. The force of the blast twirls Lyle around and he collapses to the ground. But then he forces himself up again briefly, and aims his pistol point-blank at Jarod. Lyle pulls the trigger -- and Kyle steps in front of Jarod and gets Lyle's bullet in his back.

Kyle stumbles forward against Jarod who, shocked and anguished, grabs his younger brother, holds him for a moment, then lowers him to the ground.

The Centre helicopter lands, and Broots, Sydney and the sweepers rush out of it, but Miss Parker waves them off, keeping them away from Jarod and Kyle for the moment.

On his knees, Jarod holds Kyle's hand and begs his brother to stay with him. He tells Kyle he'll get him to a hospital, and that they'll then be able to spend time together, learning new things and learning how to be happy.

Kyle tells Jarod it's too late for that; he's dying and won't be coming back this time. Jarod leans over Kyle and insists that Kyle hang on, but Kyle has no more strength. With his last breath he says, "I'm sorry, Jarod..."

Jarod asks, "For what?"

And Kyle responds, "For everything ." Kyle's hand then slips outs of Jarod's and he stops breathing.

Jarod looks up imploringly to Sydney, as though silently asking him to save his brother's life even though he knows Kyle is beyond saving.

Miss Parker says to him, "It's time to come home now, Jarod."

Jarod ignores her, gets to his feet, and says between his teeth, "Where's Lyle?"

Everyone looks around, but Mr. Lyle is nowhere to be seen.

Miss Parker and the sweepers start to move in on Jarod, but they're intercepted by Sheriff Delmont who says to Jarod, "I don't know who you are, but I figure I owe you at least one Get Out of Jail Free card." He levels a shotgun at Miss Parker, and tells her and the others to back off and leave Jarod alone.

Rather than fleeing, Jarod uses the opportunity to turn his attention back to Kyle. He lowers himself on his knees next to Kyle's body, picks up his brother's lifeless hand, leans over Kyle and starts to sob. When he's a bit more composed, he carries Kyle's body to the Centre helicopter and loads it on board.

Sydney asks where Jarod is taking Kyle, and Jarod answers that he's taking him someplace where he can do some good. Jarod climbs into the pilot's seat of the helicopter and flies off, leaving Sydney, Broots, Miss Parker and the others behind.

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A Week Later:

Jarod arrives back in town where Harriet Tashman and he once traveled to, and pulls his rental into the location he got directions from back in town. Jarod had been here before and he remembers the pain of this place. The first time his brother had “died” it was just up the road, but Jarod knew now he spent his time here, at least some of it. Kyle hadn’t told him much but he knew Kyle wanted him to meet Beth.

Jarod watched a women run down the steps to the cabin-like building and towards his car. “Are you Mr. Wilkinson?”

“Yes. And you are?”

“Chris.” She seemed a bit puzzled. “I thought you needed help with your dog?”

“No, I lied. I need to see,” Jarod looked down at the paper he had found in Kyle’s belongings, “Dr. Elizabeth Cramer.”

“What is this about?” Chris stared at him suspiciously.

Jarod didn’t want to do this. He could barely grasp the fact he had lost Kyle again, but now he was telling someone else they had lost Kyle too. Jarod’s face contorted in pain. He tried to mask it. He couldn’t cry again. “It’s about my brother… Kyle.”

Chris was shocked. “Come in. Come in.” Chris motioned for him to follow her. They entered the house and Chris had Jarod sit on the couch. “I will go get Beth.”

Chris ran into the clinic. “Beth! Bailey! Kyle’s brother, Jarod, is here!”

Beth and Bailey came running out of the office. “You’re kidding.” Bailey said.

Chris stopped them. “No, but he doesn’t seem happy.” Beth cocked her head to one side and then walked into the house with Bailey and Chris in tow.

They walked up behind Jarod, and Beth noticed him wringing his hands as he waited. “Jarod?”

Jarod turned to them. His eyes were getting teary. Beth didn’t know why he was in her living room. “Kyle isn’t here,” she whispered.

“I know.” A tear rolled down Jarod’s face. Jarod was trying to muster up the strength to tell her what happened. Jarod breathed in heavily.

“What’s wrong?” Chris asked

Beth could feel her tears burning hot on her eyes. “What?”

“I know Kyle promised he would return. We found each other, but…” Jarod paused as he felt the sharp pain in his heart.

Beth’s tears were running free, which prompted Chris’ and Bailey’s. She knew what Jarod was going to say, “But?”

“It’s my fault. Lyle was going to shoot me, but Kyle stepped in front of the bullet.” Jarod sobbed.

Beth walked over to him and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her. “It wasn’t your fault Jarod.”

Chris and Bailey sobbed together.

Jarod sobbed with them. After a moment, he pulled away from Beth. “Could you all tell me about the Kyle you knew?” Jarod asked Beth.

She nodded. “Only if you tell me about the Kyle you knew.”

Jarod, Beth, Chris, and Bailey sat down on the couch and spent the rest of the day talking about Kyle, which made them all feel better. Jarod told them about the boy who got Kyle’s heart and about Kyle saying he really thought he had found something with Beth.

Once they finish, Jarod drove off promising to visit again.

THE END









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