Chapter 6: Instinct.exe

Kathryn's trip to the hospital ends up being less peaceful than she thought.

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Kathryn Botts

Cold lashes around my face and rattles my bones as I struggle to carry his small form through the autumn rains. I can see the school medical building up ahead. Water is soaking the bandages piled against his head. The cloths have become slimy and useless. Whatever Mortum is doing is thinning his blood and speeding up his heart. Sickenly creative. “An unfortunate incident.” they would say. “Done at the hands of a brutal rebel.”

I pound on the door to the clinic. There's a nurse working overtime inside on some papers. She turns her head towards us and her eyes widen as she jumps up from the desk. My arms are shaking a little. It's been at least 15 minutes since I decided to bring him here. The woman's hand fumble around with the key as she unlocks the door.

“His blood's not clotting. Can you do anything?” I plea.

“Probably.” she starts. His eyes flutter open for a second before resting again, and she can't help but get this expression that makes her look like shes masking hatred. “It's a Hound, officer.”

“I don't care.”

“But I have to call the-”

“I don't care!” I yell. Our eyes lock and I use a method I haven't used in a very long time. “Treat this man. Don't call anyone.” I say firmly, successfully executing a low-key command.

“As is best.” she mutters, a typical confirmation.

She keys him in under a confidential case and gets him situated in a room at the end of the ward. Peacefully he sleeps under a canopy of IVs. As night edges on I doze off in front of the door. It's in my blood to be protective. No amount of programming is going to change that.

A loud pounding noise wakes me up. Light stings my eyes as I look to the window. A shadow of someone is moving around their side of the glass, trying to find a way in. They eventually pry it open with a jagged knife. He slips in the room with a crash. Nobody outside in the hall hears.

It's impossible not to gasp a little whenever I see him. He's the same age as me from what I can tell, but he's only a little over 5 feet tall. Ragged brown hair falls over his shoulders in an uncombed disaster. There are bandages covering one of his eyes ineffectively, revealing the blue glow beneath.

“Batty?” Quell mutters as he wakes up. “Is that you, man?”

The stranger turns to him and smiles uneasily. “Yeah. Glad to see you're okay.”

I interject, “He would be better if you hadn't beat the living hell out of him. What did you do?”

I can tell it hit a nerve in him. “That wasn't my fault.”

“Then who's was it?” I ask, getting tense.

“It was your dear old staff's doing. My signal is usually weak enough so you can't even pick me up like you did last night. But something like, I don't know, three active officers in my locality augments it a bit. I was caught off guard.” he half-speaks, half-yells. “I'm surprised they didn't make you do anything.”

“They never give me-”

“They will! You have to get as far away as possible.”

“I'm taking Quell.”

“Fine. Rather be around my computers anyway. Let's get out of here.”

“Do I get a choice in this?” Quell complains.

Batty's face softens as he looks at Quell and tells him, “I'm just going to go off again. They're hunting her down now. She won't betray us now.”

We exit through Batty's opening, and I swear I can see Batty smile as I walk Quell to whatever comes next.