Is He Safe?

“Is that my baby brother?” I pointed to one of the babies in the row of children laying in those little cradles.

“No, sweetheart,” daddy told me, brushing my hair.

“What about that one?”

“Not him either.”

Gosh, which baby was he then? Why were there so many of them?

“Daddy, if I can’t find him, what if you can’t either? You don’t think the doctors will mix up which baby is ours, do you?”

“Of course they won’t,” he pointed to one with a little name tag that said Aaron. “That’s your brother right there. Do you want to go in and see him?”

Would I ever! I got all bouncy until I saw him up close…

“He’s all wrinkly.” I said, poking his cheek. “He looks like the “my precious” guy from that really long movie.”

“Hey, he’s more handsome than that!” daddy gave me a funny look. “He’s going to look like me one day, you know?”

I looked back and forth between them, but I didn’t think they looked anything alike.

“Maybe he’ll evolve like a Gokemon,” I smiled.

Daddy laughed, then patted me on the head a few times.

“Maybe.”

Some creepy looking guy was staring at us through the window. He looked like he was a real life soldier with a bunch of shiny pins and metals across his chest.

“Daddy, do you know him?” I pointed.

Daddy didn’t look happy, but he said he had to go out and talk with that guy. The door didn’t close all the way, so I could hear a little of what they were talking about out in the hallway.

“Yes sir,” daddy said. “I heard about the failed New York insurrection.”

“Chicago has another cell active, which you’ll be joining.”

“Yes sir. I can be there by the morning.”

“Good. Our spies in Washington have said that they’re starting to deploy titan tanks in any insurrection zones. The word ‘nuke’ has been thrown around too. You said someone in your old squad was a demolition expert?”

“Yes sir. Lieutenant Peter Demetri. I don’t know what he’d be able to do against nukes though.”

“He’ll be more useful than you think. We can contact him as well.”

There was a moment of silence between them.

“How long?” asked daddy.

"How long what?”

“How long before the bots get up here?” daddy clarified.

“The government's forces are moving up Green Bay road as we speak. So their progress is going to be up to how well your men hold them back.”

“Yes sir…” daddy said with a sigh.

Somebody entered the room from a different door on the opposite side of the room. It looked like a nurse, but it wasn’t the one that was taking care of mommy in her room.

She was holding a little needle gun and poked my brother with it. He started crying really loudly.

“Hey!” I ran at her and surprise kicked her in the shin. “Don’t hurt him!”

Her leg buckled from the pain and she almost fell over.

“I didn’t know you were in here, you brat,” she growled. “What did you see?”

“What’s going on in here?” daddy came in and immediately checked on Aaron.

“Oh… Nothing, sir.” the nurse said in a kind voice while hiding the needle gun behind her. “Your son was just getting a checkup and started crying.”

“She’s lying!” I shouted. “She poked him with something!”

“What?!” Daddy clenched his fists, so did the other military guy.

That was when a really loud siren started going off and everyone in the hallways started to panic. The ground was shaking a lot, and someone on the intercom was saying something about evacuating to the lower floors.

“Damn it!” shouted the military guy. “What the hell was that?!”

Daddy picked me and Aaron up and raced out the door. When we were about to pass by a window, daddy stopped to take a look outside.

“Fireworks!” I shouted, pointing off on the horizon where pretty bright lights were raining down and exploding with lovely colors. “Woah! Daddy, aren’t they super pretty?”

“Oh my God…” daddy uttered. “They’re already here…”

***

Harsh white light was blazing down on me, followed by a man’s dome shaped head eclipsing it. He hung over me with glasses in front of his observing eyes and a little gadget that spawned a blinding grid of light in my eyes.

I tried to speak, but a breathing mask was over my face, causing all my words to sound like a garbled mess of grunts and grumbles.

The man disappeared for a few seconds while I was checking my surroundings. I was in a hospital room. Just outside the door I could see people walking up and down the isles, some looked like nurses, others looked like normal civilians. That told me at least I wasn’t in much terrible danger.

Suddenly I felt a horrible pain in my left ear, followed by a distant sounding screech.

“Mmmhhm…” I grunted, turning to my left and seeing the doc taping something to my ear.

“TESTING.” His voice blasted through my skull. “CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

“Mmmhhhmm!” I threw my hands over my ears. “Muuu suuppee mumer puuker… Mye my mher mu!”

I couldn’t even understand my own words with this dumb mask over my mouth, so I tore it off and glared at the idiot doctor.

“Sorry…” he nervously laughed, scratching his bald head. “I set the hearing aid too high.”

“What?” my brow raised curiously. I turned to a mirror to see one of those little plastic things stuck in my ear, strapped on with a little piece of felt and wire. “Why’d you give me a…” I looked back out the door window. I could see a little more now that I was sitting up, and it looked like Ben was out there reading something.

“Your friend out there brought you back here for treatment,” the doctor adjusted his glasses. “You had several injuries including a concussion.”

Ben didn’t know my hearing was out on the left side though. So who did tell him?

I leaned over and tugged the doctor close to my face while giving him a glare.

“I had another friend here. He was shot. His name was Yuri. If you tell me he’s dead I’ll kick your ass.”

“Uh…” the doctor tilted his head and broke out into a nervous sweat. “Ma’am, please take it easy. Your body is still recovering.”

“Forget about me!” I shouted. “Where is Yuri?!”

“Yuri?” The doctor's head tilted. “Oh, you're talking about the other boy… Well…”

I shook him up, trying to draw out the answer.

“Out with it, four eyes!”

The door into the room opened and in came Ben. he quickly placed a hand on my shoulder and attempted to get me to lay down, but I fought him.

“Where is Yuri?!” I clenched my fist, ready to fight. If only my body agreed, because a head splitting migraine started up and tamed me pretty good.

“Do you want to see him?”

Suddenly the headache took a backseat to my hope. I rose up and shakily stood to my feet. Ben helped walk me out of the room, placing a blanket around me for warmth in this cold place.

“He’s alive, right? He’ll be okay?” I asked Ben as we continued walking and ignored the wishes of the doctor for me to stay in bed.

“See for yourself. He’s right in here.” Ben opened the door to the room next to us.

I ran in, nearly falling flat on my face from lack of balance. “Yuri!”

He was there and awake. When he saw me, he smiled.

“Vanessa, how's your ear?” he said. “Feeling better?”

Tears started streaming down my face the longer I looked at him. I couldn’t help diving forward and latching my arms around him while he sat up in bed.

“Thank God you’re okay!” I sobbed. “When you got shot, I ran after the bitch who did it and kicked her ass!”

“I…” Yuri was speechless. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

I pulled away from him, using the blanket on me to wipe away my tears. Those doctors did a crap job removing my makeup, because it was running down my face pretty bad.

“And you’ll never see me like this again,” I composed myself. “So enjoy it while it lasts.”

“I can’t say I enjoy seeing a girl cry,” he smirked. “But at least it's over me… Should I be proud of that?”

“Don’t push it, nerd,” I said to Yuri, trying to fight against the tears that kept forcing themselves out. I felt so weak for not being able to keep my crying in check, but it seemed justified enough that I gave myself an exception.

Rather then continue to fight a loosing battle, I gave myself time to experience the rare joyful tears. Then once my heart seemed satisfied with that sobbing, I turned to Ben. 

“You’re not looking too bad right now, so is Sadie alright too?”

“She’s in an intensive care unit,” he said, “but they said she’s going to be fine.”

That was good to hear. If we’d just gone through all that hell to find out we lost anyone here, I would have lost my mind. This trip was worth it. Although, this hospital looked pretty top notch, so the bill wouldn't be nearly as great.

The doctor looking after me finally came stumbling in, completely out of breath for some reason.

“This man came rushing in here carrying all of you on his shoulder. He told us everything you did and we’re very grateful to you all for your service.”

“Oh, grateful enough to waive the fee?” I grinned.

“Uh…” the doctor blinked a few times. “Ehem… Well… I suppose.”

I didn’t actually think that would work, but you never know until you try, yeah?

As it turned out, we’d been in here for about a day and a half recovering. That shit had me bummed because I missed my self imposed deadline to take ownership of Rick’s shop. But something like that wasn’t going to stop me from putting that jackass out of business.

“Hey, Ben…” I spoke up. “You’re boss, Rick, he’s tried to kill me. I wouldn’t doubt that assassin back there was hired up by him.”

I actually didn’t think that the assassin had anything to do with Rick at all. She would have had plenty of chances to kill me, but never took a proper shot until I came after her. It actually seemed like Yuri was her target, but I couldn’t say that for sure.

When Yuri started bringing up that same thought I had, I put my hand over his mouth and shushed him. “You’re delirious, so don’t talk, Yuri.” I needed all the ammo I could fire off to get Ben on my side here, even if it wasn’t 100% proven.

Ben was shocked to find out his boss had tried to take my life. He almost didn’t believe me, since he saw him as a real straight shooter type of guy.

“Are you sure it was him?”

“Not a doubt in my mind,” I said. “The rope he sold me was sabotaged. I confronted him about it and he was shocked I was alive.”

Ben started putting pieces together as he said some other competitors in town started disappearing a few years back… Conveniently while Rick’s shop was on the rise. At any rate, I managed to muddy up his boss's reputation in his mind.

“I bet you didn’t come out all this way just to tell me this,” Ben said. “You’ve got a business proposition, don’t you?”

“You’re smart, I like that.”

I tossed out my offer of having him come work for me, even promising some generous payment and rewards for his and Sadie’s service. He couldn’t refuse, but he wanted to wait and get Sadie’s opinion on the subject first, which I was sure she’d be all willing to join the crew when she hears about everything that went down.

Even past my deadline, my plan was looking great. It might have earned me a few new scars and a hearing aid, but heck, it was worth it.

“Hey, doc…” I spoke up, “how long do I need this thing in my ear for anyways?”

He adjusted his glasses and frowned.

“I’d suggest coming back every few years for maintenance.”

“What the hell?!” I growled at him. It sounded like he was saying I shouldn’t expect to take it out any time soon! “That’s not what I asked, egghead!” My rage aimed at Yuri next, who looked very ashamed. “Idiot nerd! This is all your fault for shooting that gun in my ear!”

“Remember when she was happy to see me alive?” Yuri said to the void. “Yuri remembers…”