The quakes stop before Doctor Polo has a chance to dive for cover. I instinctively rush to Keith's side, holding him closely in my arms and comforting him. I take a look through the window behind his desk. There isn't any signs of mass panic in the streets below, so I can conclude what we felt only affected EvGeni.
"What kind of earthquake was THAT?" Keith asks, taking short, fast breaths. My heart pounds in my chest. The abnormal, consistent timing of the quakes suggest they aren't caused by a natural phenomenon. I spin multiple theories in my head what could have caused such a disturbance in the foundation. One thing I know for sure is that whatever caused the quakes aren't benevolent.
"Keith, we need to leave," I say.
"Ayden, I can't just leave. If there was an earthquake, I have to follow protocol and check patients who may be injured,"
"That wasn't an earthquake. That was something else!" I exclaim.
A jarring wail blares from the fire alarm in Keith's office. If I wasn't paranoid before, I am now. I cover my ears as the enclosed room magnifies the alarm tenfold. It's almost impossible to hear myself think.
"We need to evacuate to the front garden!" Keith tries to say over the alarm. He grabs his holo-pad from his desk then the three of us head towards the nearest stairwell. Stirred by an adrenaline-fueled vigilance; I cut glances over my shoulder, half expecting something or someone to catch us off guard. Keith leads us to a doorway at the end of the hall that leads into the stairwell.
"This is where we part," says Keith. "Simply go downstairs and head out through the lobby."
"I'm not going to leave you," I persist.
"I need to do my rounds and make sure patients are safely transported out first. I'll be fine," he assures me, patting my shoulder.
I put on a brave face and pretend his gesture inspires reassurance. I reluctantly enter the stairs along with Doctor Polo who is already began his descent. I glance back to Keith who blows me a kiss goodbye before shutting the door. I catch up to Doctor Polo.
"One helluva a day, huh?" asks Doctor Polo out of the blue. I remain quiet, unsure of whether or not he was asking a question, or being rhetorical.
"Hey, look, I'm sorry that I refused to help you with regaining your memories but you do understand the risks right?"
"It's whatever," I shrug. My only concern now is Keith's safety. I put thought into losing Doctor Polo in the evacuating crowd then doubling back.
"So… you and Doctor Everett ARE together," says Doctor Polo outloud.
"Fuck," I say to myself but I'm sure he heard that too.
"It's okay, I understand your concern for his safety. I'd be doing the same thing too if I were in your shoes," he replies.
"Full offense, but, would you stay out of my mind?"
"Alright, no need for such hostility. I was just confirming," he says with his hands raised defensively. I roll my eyes then hurry ahead of him.
We reach the ground floor and enter the front lobby, joining the other evacuating staff members and patients. Four men clad in thick, brown and yellow fire suits emerge from the darkness just outside entryway. Embroidered on their jackets are the initials, CFD, for Capitala Fire Department. Hanging from their shoulders is a long duffle bag, which sway side to side with each step.
"The fire department got here pretty quick," I wonder. The men stop just before the entrance outside. In unison, the duffle bags unravel and flutter onto the floor, revealing the glossy aluminum finish of automatic energy rifles. Time slows down to a quarter speed as the men assume a bladed-off stance. My heart suddenly drops like an anchor, and it's that reaction which pulls the rest of my body to the ground. The firemen unleash a barrage of energy bolts. I shut my eyes and cover my head as shards of glass from the entryway rain on top of me. One by one bodies drop like flies. I peek with one eye. The four men advance into the lobby, picking off stragglers without second thought. They don't notice me among the dead. When they pass, I slowly grovel behind a sofa in the waiting area beside the entryway. I check myself for wounds and count no extra holes on my body. The gunman continue to spray bolts throughout the lobby, decorating the interior with constellations of scorch marks on every surface living or not.
They discharge their empty battery cartridges from their rifles and reload it with new ones. One of the gunmen moves ahead to the secretary's desk as the other three survey the sea of bodies for anyone still alive. The one rummaging through the desk triggers something from a control panel. An impressive containment shield blocks the front entrance and windows. The four men then regroup at the center of the atrium, standing side by side one another as if they were summoned for roll call.
"What the fuck is going on?" I ask myself. I look around the room for any sort of exit. But the nearest exit is the door I came from which is in gunmen's direct line of sight.
"Psst!" hisses someone quietly.
I turn my head in the direction the sound came from. A few feet away from underneath another sofa is Doctor Polo, whose mortified eyes were practically the size of saucers. I place my finger over my lips to signal him to not make another sound. He nods his head. From the other direction, a young woman cries for help. I look around for the source and in the distance a woman crawls out from behind the reception desk. She struggles to find her grip on the linoleum with one hand as the other grips her upper thigh.
"Help me, please!" she wails. I hear Doctor Polo rustle from under the sofa. I quickly turn my head to him and shake my head, gesturing a throat cutting motion with my hand. I observe quietly, and notice the gunmen have yet to move. They stand idle, completely unfazed by her presence. I question if the gunmen are even human. I carefully move out from behind the sofa and grovel in the direction of the woman. Her cries echo through the lobby. I try my best to flag her down as silently as I can while navigating around the tangled mess of corpses. She finally spots me inching towards her.
"Can you help me?!" she sobs. I recognize her. It's the secretary, Trysha.
"Shut up!" I mouth aggressively through clenched teeth. She cups her mouth then nods her head. I quickly cut back to the motionless gunmen then close the distance between her and I.
"Let me see your leg," I say. I move her clammy hand out of the way then stare into the streak of singed, bloody flesh. Looks like she was only grazed by the bolt, a few more inches in the other direction could have been worse.
"Is it going to have to be amputated?! I can't feel below my knee!" she whimpers.
I shake my head. "No, but I need you to stay quiet."
"Why is the fire department shooting at us?" she asks.
"I wish I knew," I reply. I look for Doctor Polo and spot him sidling along the wall. He manages to quietly prop the stairwell door open. He looks at the gunmen then to me, signaling me to move along.
"Let me help you up," I say to Trysha. I suspend her in the air using telekinesis. Trysha lets out a mouse-like squeak as her she floats in mid-air. I look across the lobby and the sea of bodies scattered around the floor. I feel a tightening in my chest, my head whirls into light headedness and a sensation peculiarity washes over me. I stumble for a moment and almost lose my grip on Trysha. I shake the feeling from my head then press on.
We safely make it to the stairwell. I glance over my shoulder one last time. The gunmen are still unmoving, oblivious to us and our escape. We climb all the way up to the third floor and hide inside the pharmacy lab. There, Doctor Polo gets a better opportunity to examine Trysha's wound while I secure the door.
"Is it bad? It really stings…" she sniffles. Doctor Polo places a glob of mediform on her wound then a mesh bandage over it. As he tends to her I wound, I try to call Keith but my cybernetic interface flickers beyond my control and fails to respond to my touch.
"This is fucking bullshit!" I curse, slamming my fist into the wall. "What the fuck is happening?!"
"I think I have an idea…" replies Doctor Polo. "Their behavior has me thinking about a case I once handled a few years ago about an abusive Mnemokinetic. This man had been married to his wife for ten years before she presented him with divorce papers. Distraught, he wiped her memories of filing for the divorce and implanted false memories that reprogrammed her whole personality. She became a drone to his will, becoming the ideal housewife in his vision. He was eventually caught when his wife came into the hospital with bruises she had no recollection of getting."
"What does that have to do with firemen shooting up hospitals?" I ask bluntly.
"They're merely puppets. Why else would they suddenly stop and ignore this young lady and her cries for help when seconds ago they were mercilessly killing anything that moved? Someone's brainwashed them!"
I squint my eyes accusingly. "Didn't you say mnemokinesis is extremely rare?"
"Yes… but…" he stammers into a brief pause. "Wait, you're not seriously thinking I had something to do with this, are you?!"
"You tell me. You're the mind reader…"
"It can't be him, he bandaged up my leg! He won't hurt anybody… right?" says Trysha. She shuffles away just in case.
"Look. It's not me, alright?" says Doctor Polo. "I've been on the surface of Arcathia maybe a few hours at most, and as soon as my flight touched down I came straight here."
I take his alibi with a grain of salt. I then give my cybernetic another try. It fails yet again.
"I'm going back out there…" I say.
"Are you crazy!" exclaims Trysha. "You'll get killed!"
"Yes, Ayden, think about this rationally. I know you're worried for Doctor Everett but it's too dangerous to go out alone," says Doctor Polo slowly and delicately. His warning only motivates me.
"I can handle myself!"
I open the door ever so slightly, just enough to peek my head out and scope down the hall for the entrance to the stairwell.
"Turn off the lights and lie low for now," I say to Doctor Polo and Trysha. "I'll be back..."
I step into the hallway then shut the door behind me. I take a second to shake away the jitters before entering the stairwell. I tread carefully as I make my ascent, periodically glancing over the railing to see if anyone might be as well. I reach Keith's floor. I peek the hallway, first left and then right. Empty.
"Keith!" I whisper loudly. I check the nearby offices.
"KEITH!"
Nothing.
I'm about to circle back the other way until suddenly, I hear a terrified shriek followed by gunshots. I feel my heart skip a beat then sink to my gut. A sickening emptiness takes its place and my lungs grow tight, making it near impossible to breathe. I sprint down the hallway in full stride which leads into an open area with a nurses' station. A man lay unmoving on the floor with a smoldering hole on the side of his head. Upon closer inspection, I notice it's one of the gunmen from the lobby.
A white figure steps into my field of view. It's Doctor Hsu, armed with a P-39 energy pistol in her tiny hand. Her back is to me as she assesses body of the firemen.
"It's safe now, love," she says out loud.
"Hey, Doctor Hsu…" I say quietly and cautiously. In a blink of an eye, she whips her body around and aims her gun right at me.
"Woah, woah, woah, Doc, DOC!" I shriek as I reach for the sky.
"Fortuna's cunt! You scared the living shit out of me, Ayden!" she curses, lowering her weapon with a sigh of relief. Keith pokes his head out from behind the nurses' station countertop, pale as a ghost but elated to see the both of us.
"Keith!" I exclaim. He climbs over the counter and falls into my open arms. I hold him tightly, planting a kiss behind his ear.
"I know you two are happy to see each other but we need to get moving to a panic room," says Doctor Hsu impatiently. "Someone breached the underground detention ward."
I break away from Keith then turn to her with a stunned look of surprise. "Detention ward? There's a prison here?"
"Yes, for our most mentally unstable Gifted. I'll explain this later once we're safe."
"Okay, but, me and two other survivors sought refuge in the pharmacy down stairs. One of them was shot," I say.
"Alright, lets go and round them up," says Doctor Hsu. "Keith, you stay behind me and Ayden, watch my six."
She primes her pistol and part of me quivers with excitement. The three of us discreetly travel back to the pharmacy, making quick work of rescuing Doctor Polo and Trysha before hightailing it to the nearest panic room. Once inside, I settle into an empty space on the floor alongside Keith and a few dozen other patients and staff.
"Are you okay?" I ask Keith. He nods his head half-heartedly. I caress his cheek with the back of my palm then kiss him on the forehead. I can feel everyone focus their attention on me. They whisper among themselves but I don't care. Doctor Hsu steps up to a control console at the far end of the room. Multiple holographic screens form a complex grid of live security footage compiled from different parts of the hospital. She analyzes the feed thoroughly.
"Damn it!" she curses. The vexation in her voice is enough to convince me to investigate. I rise to my feet with Keith following close behind. Looking up to the grid, I try to make sense of what exactly Doctor Hsu was cursing at.
"Look right here," says Doctor Hsu, pointing her finger upwards. She zooms into one of the screens titled Express Lift. Inside an elevator are six individuals, five of which are dressed in drab grey prison uniforms while the other is dressed in a sundress and appears to be pregnant. Keith audibly gasps, but not for the reason I think.
"Oh my god. Ayden, that's… that's the woman from the station!" he says.
"The pregnant woman?" I ask, bewildered. I look back to the woman but fail to recognize her.
"Don't you remember? She was acting all creepy?"
"You know this woman?" asks Doctor Hsu.
"I don't. Keith does apparently," I say.
"I don't know her… Ayden and I crossed paths with her Friday morning at the station," he rebuttals. I shrug.
"You really don't remember her?" he asks again. "I think you even mentioned her before the bank exploded…" Doctor Polo calls my name, but the three of us turn our attention to him.
"... I think she's the one causing all this," he says. "She has the gift of Mnemosyne."
"Well, whoever she is, she's trying to escape with five Gifted degenerates," hisses Doctor Hsu. She furiously types a set of commands into the console. A big red warning appears asking for confirmation to override. She presses it without hesitation.
"What did you do?" I ask.
"I've overwritten the security barrier controls to this terminal exclusively so they won't be able to leave," she replies.
"You're shitting me? You're going to keep them in here with us?" exclaims a nurse who overheard her reply. "What if they tear through the panic room? They'll kill us all!"
"Would you rather them break out and kill hundreds of civilians? Maybe thousands?" Doctor Hsu replies without missing a beat.
"But—"
"You know what these monsters are capable of and I'm not going to stand around and watch them escape!" she raises her voice. The nurse cowers back to her colleagues.
"You sound like you have a plan…" I say.
"Not really… but I can stall them until the DSSO arrive," she replies.
"You called for backup?!" I ask with a glisten of hope.
"Yeah, the Admiral could only spare two Gifted operatives but it'll have to do…"
I glance back to the security cameras. The pregnant woman leads her newfound entourage into the main lobby. It appears the gunmen have reawakened and are holding some staff members hostage, two of which are Doctor Summers and Damian Simmons.
"No…" gasps Doctor Hsu. She cycles over to the reception area camera for a closer look at her fellow board members but the pregnant woman steps in front of them. She attempts to open the barrier from the reception desk but isn't successful. She stands back, perplexed, then growls in a fit of anger. She shoves the monitors and decorations from the desk surface towards the hostages.
"OPEN IT!" she shouts. The hostages flinch but none dare stand up to her.
"I need to go down there…" says Doctor Hsu.
"No! That's suicide!" says Keith.
"They'll die if don't do something," she says. "I'm the reason they can't get out in the first place!"
"Just wait until the DSSO gets here!" insists Keith.
"There's not enough time! They'll kill everyone!"
The two are interrupted by a harsh, terrified scream as one of the hostages is dragged against her will by a male convict. Doctor Hsu grits her teeth and primes her gun.
"I'm going, and you can't stop me!"
She turns heel to the door. Keith looks to me with pleading eyes, begging me to stop her. I glance up to the security footage behind him and watch the convicts take another victim for slaughter. Doctor Hsu is right. No one else needs to die... but she can't do this alone.
"I'm coming with you!" I blurt out. Keith furrows his brow in protest but I give him no further opportunity to argue. I kiss him firmly on his warm, quivering lips then pull away. He holds onto my hand as long as he possibly can before I completely let go. I couldn't bear to look him in the eye because just one glimpse would be enough to convince me to stay. I catch up to Doctor Hsu and follow her out.
"I love you!" I say, turning around before the panic door locks shut.
"You didn't have to do this…" says Doctor Hsu. "... but I thank you. At least now we have a fighting chance until help arrives."
"I suppose so," I say with a nervous smile.
"Hey, if we make it, I'll be sure to score you a dinner date with the Saviors," she chuckles. I find it hard to laugh at her dark sense of humor at the moment but I put on a facade, and force a chuckle.
Doctor Hsu strips off her lab coat, revealing a snug energy resistant vest and harness. Written across her chest armor in bold navy blue lettering is the initials DSSO. My jaw drops with awe.
"Well don't look surprised, Ayden. I'm still in active service," she says with a confident smirk.
We both make our way down to the lobby. As we grow closer, my nerves get the best of me. My heart pounds all the way up to my ears, my skin trembles at the thought of dying and each step feels like I'm dragging weights by my ankles. But I follow closely behind Doctor Hsu while simultaneously watching my back.
Suddenly, as we reach a crossing in the corridor, she raises her hand high enough for me to see then balls it into a fist. I instinctively stop. As a former police chief, Petyr taught me the basics of CRE hand signals. It's a skill I found odd to know at first but one I'm clearly thankful for now. She peeks her head around the corner slowly. With lightning fast grace, she pivots on one foot out into the hallway, and assumes a firing stance. She pulls the trigger and barrel of her gun discharges a blue colored bolt. I hear a thud in the distance and I peek around the corner to see. Another gunman lay dead on the floor. A smoldering black hole in place of an ear.
"Bastard didn't even see it coming," she says with a cocky grin.
I look to see how she knew someone was around the corner. My sights fall on a rounded mirror placed on the ceiling of the intersecting hallways. The reflections gave a warped, but a clear view of everything down the hall. All the more reason to stay more vigilant.
"So do we have a plan for when we get to the lobby? Who are we facing?" I whisper as the two of us step over the gunman's corpse.
"Ruthless killers and sociopaths—all of them unfortunately Gifted..." she grimaces. "I'm going to distract them with a negotiation. I need you to try and save as many hostages as you can. Can you do that for me?"
"What if they attack?"
"Then attack back."
I clear my throat with a nervous swallow before nodding my head. We stop at the doors leading into the main lobby.
"I'm going to countdown, and when I open the door I want you to sneak around to the hostages near the front. Use the flower bed partitions as cover, okay?"
She starts her countdown. On three she pushes the door open and bolt to the left behind the nearest partition. I hear hurried footsteps in the distance as the inmates investigate the source of the sound. I crawl as quickly as I can on my hands and knees along the slick tile, occasionally peeking over the waist high partition to keep tabs on Doctor Hsu and the inmates.
"Identify yourself!" exclaims a thin inmate. His skin is as dark as his hair, and the air around him hazes slightly like a living mirage.
"My name is, Jennifer Hsu, board member of EvGeni," the Doctor exclaims proudly.
"I assume you're responsible for overriding the security barrier," says the pregnant woman.
"Correct," replies Doctor Hsu. "I will not let you leave with these people."
I continue sneaking behind the partitions, making sure to cross over gaps when it's safest. I glance over again. The inmates are all grouped beside the pregnant woman, including the two remaining gunmen, leaving the hostages unguarded. I close the distance then attempt to quietly catch the attention of one of the hostages.
Damian Simmons is the first to see me subtly wave my hand from behind the flower bed. He elbows his colleague who silently washes over with joyous relief. I glance over to Doctor Hsu and the inmates. Tension has risen between them, and could go full nuclear at any moment. I gesture the hostages to be quiet with my finger then telekinetically pull the first person towards me. I'm sure to pull slightly above the air to not create any drag.
"I can read your thoughts, Doctor," says the pregnant woman. "I know of your plan to stall us until the DSSO arrive..."
"So you are Gifted… Who are you?" she asks. The pregnant woman chuckles.
"I am Lupo!" she proclaims.
My skin writhes at the sound of her name. My breathing becomes fast and heavy, and I can feel my jaw lock with anger. But I have to concentrate, there's one more hostage left and that's Doctor Summers. I steady my grip around her body then carefully lift her off the ground. My heart beats erratically, she's halfway to safety before a short inmate with wirey hair turns around. Through her matted, dark locks she spots me in the corner.
"The hostages!" she shrieks, pointing a bony finger directly to me. Seven pairs of eyes fall upon me. The gunmen take aim, but Doctor Hsu beats them to the trigger. She fires two shots in rapid succession, hitting the leftmost gunmen in his back, and the other in his head. A rush of adrenaline excites me, and I accidentally bowl Doctor Summers across the floor. She slides on her ass into the wall behind me with a shriek then a thud. Doctor Hsu fires more shots from her gun but the female inmate deflects the energy bolts bolts with a few swats of her hands. Two identical looking male inmates retreat with the pregnant woman to a safer area, allowing the others to fight on their behalf.
The short female inmate follows up with a quick thrust of her palm, sending Doctor Hsu onto her back with a violent shove. Another inmate prepares to attack the prone Doctor Hsu. He draws in air, sucking in his massive stomach. Then his throat area swells like bullfrog, giving off a faint bile-green glow underneath the stretched skin.
I focus on his large, swollen target then strike him with a kinetic blast equal to six consecutive punches. The inmate recoils, spewing a torrent of green bile from his mouth narrowly missing Doctor Hsu but splattering a nearby support beam. The bile sizzles, dissolving the beam into goo before completely evaporating.
The repulsive manner of his gift leaves me a bit queasy. I've never seen or faced something so foul as acid spit.
From the corner of my eye, the dark skinned inmate gesticulates, extending two open palms in my direction like an overpowered anime character.
"INFERNA!" he exclaims, rolling the 'R'. A bright white light flickers from the middle of his hands which then unleashes a breath of concentrated fire. I duck behind the partition completely but the flames engulf flower bed entirely. As I flee for new cover, I hear more gunshots. The beam of fire stops momentarily only to be redirected towards Doctor Hsu. She dives for cover behind another support beam but it offers little protection from the raging fire. I rip the flaming partition from the floor then hurl it at the unsuspecting Pyrokinetic. It's a direct hit, the partition sweeps him off his feet. He flips once in the air like a rag doll before falling right into his back. The female inmate steps in, hurling a chair from the waiting area with her telekinesis. I repel her attack, catching the chair with ease then throwing it back at her. She extends her hand out to stop it but she is no match. The chair nails her right in the gut. She grunts a pained oof before buckling over to the ground.
A blur of green whizzes just past my head with the speed of a bullet. The overweight inmate prepares another bile ball but another blow to his swollen throat prevents him from spitting it more than a few inches. With three of the inmates incapacitated, Doctor Hsu advances towards the pregnant woman and the final two inmates hiding in the waiting area.
"Good job," Doctor Hsu says with an exhausted huff. "You're a natural."
"I've been in a few scraps before when I lived off the streets," I reply. "I'm just glad I could but some of that ugly experience to good use."
Doctor Hsu chuckles lightheartedly, then draws her weapon.
"Come out with your hands up!"
The twin inmates step out of hiding with their hands raised. They're young, maybe in their early twenties with platinum blonde hair and picturesque looks. It's almost as if they were never incarcerated at all. It's hard to discern their gift by looks alone. The only lead about them is the series of restricting belts and straps woven into their jumpsuit sleeves and ankle cuffs.
"Where's the pregnant woman?" asks Doctor Hsu. I glance around the lobby but see no trace of her. She couldn't have gotten too far.
The twins remain quiet. They slowly reach for one another and lock hands. I take a step back, bracing for the unknown.
"I WON'T ASK AGAIN! WHERE'S—"
Doctor Hsu is interrupted by a loud explosion from above. The two of us recoil from the blast as metal and glass rain from the skylight above. The twins seize the opportunity. One tackles the Doctor to the ground with acrobatic finesse while the other leaps into a drop kick. The heel of his boots connect with my chest and diaphragm. Air escapes my lungs, leaving me vulnerable to another attack. The twin somersaults back to his feet and delivers another blow to the same area. I'm stunned momentarily, gasping for air.
More gunshots sound off along with forceful grunts from Doctor Hsu and the inmate. I hear the gun clack onto the ground. The other twin reaches for her gun so I cast him aside like a used piece of tissue. Angry, I grab the other twin by the collar then pull him off the Doctor with my own physical strength. He's light as a feather, and he flies just as far as his brother did.
I help the Doctor up then turn towards where I threw the twins. A fire has broken out within the lobby from the explosion. As the temporary episode of tinnitus fades, I hear the sound of powerful turbines chopping the air outside. Doctor Hsu and I investigate. We look up to a large blown out hole in the ceiling. Hovering above is a military class gunship. Its sturdy hull design confirms it's an EW era gunship.
A blinding beam emits from the belly of the hull, casting a spotlight onto the center of the lobby floor. The pregnant woman emerges from her hiding spot and regroups with the convicts in the center of the light.
"Tractor beam!" Doctor Hsu exclaims. Before I can stop them, the Pyrokinetic casts another beam of fire towards both of us. I project a defensive barrier, dispersing the fire around us. Doctor Hsu fires blindly into the air, hoping to hit the inmates before they are lifted into the gunship above. Through the flames I spot them. I focus on one of the dark shapes then pull them out from the range of the beam. The fire weakens but staring into the orange blur of flames triggers something familiar. I figuratively feel my brain twist on itself. A sharp pain destabilizes my mental grasp. I shut my eyes, but even in darkness the fire follows me. A shrill scream snaps me from my temporary daze and the Pyrokinetic crashes to the hard floor with a bone chilling crunch. The gunship takes off, there is only silence now.
I stare at his mangled body, paralyzed and unable to breathe. Doctor Hsu notices my horrified expression then steps in front of my view. She guides me attention to her so we lock eyes but I can still see his body through her deep brown irises. She says something to me but I passively tune her out. The only thing I can hear is his scream… then crunch.
scream… crunch.
Scream… Crunch.
SCREAM… CRUNCH.