Specimen(80)

“I think it will suit us for the night, at least,” I say.

“How do we get in?”

I give her a half smile, smash in the nearest window, and help her through it.

“Subtle.” Riley presses her lips together. “What if there’s an alarm?”

“It would have gone off when the other windows were broken,” I tell her. “There is no active alarm system here.”

We go through the main warehouse, past rows of empty shelves. There are a few stacks of broken down boxes lying about and filth everywhere. One crate holds a stack of cloth on bolts.

“No one’s been in this building for a long time.” I take Riley’s hand and lead her toward a staircase along the back wall. “Let’s see if there are offices upstairs.”

On the top level, we find a decent-sized office and start to make camp for the night. Riley retrieves a dusty bolt of cloth, shakes it out, and starts making a bed of it while I check out the rest of the upstairs for any kind of supplies.

There’s running water in the bathroom, which I use to fill up the canteen. I break into a vending machine and grab the single bag of potato chips inside, but there’s no other food or drink to be found.

“Stay here,” I tell Riley when I deliver the water and chips. “I’m going to find more supplies.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Riley grabs my hand and squeezes it for a moment. I can see the worry in her eyes.

“I’ll be careful,” I tell her.

I head outside and check out the surrounding buildings. None of them look as abandoned as the one we found, and several of them do have alarm systems. I can’t risk being found so close to our hiding spot, so I break into a run down the side of the main street.

There is little traffic this late at night, and I stick to the shadows near structures. Haprin isn’t a big city by any means, but I do find a shopping center not far from the industrial park. I break in through the back door of a closed grocery, grab a sack, and shove it full of food and energy drinks. I’m in and out in three minutes. Even if I did trip a silent alarm, I will be long gone before anyone gets here.

I return to Riley, and she digs in quickly. I feel no need for food, but I do drink a decent amount of water. I leave the rest for Riley. We still have a long trek ahead of us in the morning.

“I need to give you your injections.” She takes out her bag and removes two hypodermics, already loaded.

I take off my shirt to give her better access to my veins and sit in the office chair. Riley slides the needle through my skin, loading me up with TST and FOG. I feel it surge into my system with a flash of white-hot pain, but it diminishes quickly.

“Okay?” Riley asks softly.

“I’m good.” I roll my shoulders and stretch my neck. “It just hits a little hard.”

“I know,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“I don’t want you to get into the habit of apologizing to me for what’s been done. There’s nothing either of us can do to change it now.”

“I’ll try,” she says with a sad smile. She places everything back inside her medical bag. “I am developing a bit of a guilt complex though, and every injection is going to remain a reminder of that.”

“I’ll always need them, won’t I?”

“Yes. The implants won’t function correctly without them, and there is no way to remove the implants without leaving you a vegetable.”

I’d already figured as much.

“I don’t necessarily regret what’s been done,” I tell her. “The way it was accomplished, yeah, but not the end result. If I weren’t like I am now, I wouldn’t have been able to fly a helicopter to get us away. I wouldn’t have a chance at finding Spat and the others. I can’t regret any of it, not if it means I can keep you safe now.”

“Maybe this will help.” Riley pulls a small data stick out of her medical bag.

“What is that?”

“The diagnostic information from the techs at Mills,” she says. “I thought Spat might be able to make better sense of it.”

“Maybe.” I wonder if he will be willing to do so. Of the people I remember from my time with the Carson Alliance, he remains the least known to me. The only times he was in my presence, I was rather out of it.

“Come here.” Riley sits on the makeshift bed and pats the spot beside her.

I join her on the surprisingly comfortable bed she’s made, wondering if this used to be a textile plant of some kind. She’s managed to find a lot of cloth to make a soft mattress below us and a couple of other blankets to keep us warm.