5

Countdown: 174 Days Remaining.

Makoto awoke with a gasp, sitting up in the same motion with panic rushing through his veins. Sumire, was the only thought in his aching head.

He’d lost track of how much time had elapsed. Was it too late? Could he get back to camp in time? Would she be dead when he arrived? Had he failed?

A hand pushed against his chest, forcing him to lie back down. He frantically scanned the pitch black surroundings, but he couldn’t make out anything. Even trying to turn the sensitivity of his ear as high as it could go, he seemed to have gone deaf.

Then, Rui’s voice came through the emptiness. “Calm down,” he said. “You’re safe.”

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. His hand shook as he reached for Rui’s, the only thing he could hold on to. No words came out as he gasped for air, opening and closing his mouth uselessly, unable to form any syllables.

“You’re home. You’re okay,” Rui continued in the same soothing voice.

“Home?” Makoto croaked out.

“I carried you back here, after you got knocked out,” he replied. He sounded like he wanted to say more, but he fell silent.

Rui’s hand was warm and steady, a comfort, but Makoto forced himself to let go. He reached out to explore his surroundings, grasping for anything he could feel.

Immediately, his hand landed on one of the latches of his backpack, opened, despite him having no recollection of pulling anything out during the fight. Besides that, he felt a blanket on the ground, soft and fluffy, made of the same heat-trapping materials as their clothes.

“Sumire,” he said. He looked toward where Rui’s voice had come from, pleading with the boy he couldn’t see. “How long has it been?”

He dreaded the answer. He dreaded hearing that he was too late to help her, that she was laying beside him, dead from necrosis, or about to be.

With what little strength he had, he used Rui’s hand to pull himself into a sitting position, wincing. Everything hurt, and it took all the self control he had not to cry out at the sharp pain in his rib cage. He grit his teeth and forced the distraction aside.

If there was still a chance that they could delay it, even just another hour, he would do anything. He would find a way to keep her alive. He couldn’t rescue Miyuki knowing that he had let her best friend die.

“You shouldn’t be moving so much right now,” Rui said. His hand touched Makoto’s shoulder as a warning, much gentler than it had been the first time they met, but he didn’t try to stop Makoto.

“Where’s Sumire?” Makoto asked, pulling out his monocle with numb fingers. His voice was coming back, so he forced it out a little louder. “I have to help her.”

“I’m okay,” said a soft voice beside him. Sleepy, but clear, strong. “I’m sorry to make you worry about me, but I’m doing alright now.”

“Sumire?” Makoto’s voice cracked, the surprised pitch making his disbelief evident. He fitted the monocle to his face and looked around.

“He took good care of her,” Granny said. She was sitting beside Sumire, looking toward Rui with a kind expression.

Rui laughed. “I don’t know squat about anatomy, so it was Granny who did all the work,” he said. “Hope I didn’t ruin any of your equipment, Makoto.” He met Makoto’s gaze and offered an apologetic smile.

Makoto glanced at his backpack, noting that the bottom pouch was open and the electrodes were still lying on the floor, not attached to anything. The vial that usually contained converted energy was missing from its slot.

He didn’t have the time to question it. Though everything he heard was comforting, he had to check the necrosis immediately, lest he need to rush out to gather more energy.

Instinctively, he reached into his backpack for his scope, which was where he’d left it, and screwed it into place. This time, his hands remained steady as he connected the wire.

Once the image loaded over his monocle, he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and nearly collapsed from the relief.

The tissue had returned to a healthy red, and the organs were now comfortably cushioned and surrounded by it. All seemed to function perfectly, buzzing with renewed energy. The necrotized tissue was fully revitalized, the decay reversed.

Sumire’s complexion had improved too. Where she’d been pale and sweaty, she now had her warm colors and a rosiness to her cheeks that showed in the advanced night vision. Her eyes sparkled when she smiled, excited once again.

Something’s off. I thought we didn’t have enough. Makoto furrowed his brows in confusion.

He turned to Rui and asked, “What happened? Did you convince them to give you more? What they offered couldn’t have done this…” He frowned a little deeper. “At least, I don’t think so…” Calculations streamed into his mind: how much energy it would take, how much they had given, whether it would be enough combined with how much she had been giv-

“It didn’t,” Rui said, offering a nervous smile this time. There was a glint in his eyes, one that hoped for acceptance. “I could barely get away with what was given, especially while trying to carry you and avoid any other punches.”

Makoto grimaced, shifting his weight uncomfortably to his other side. “Sorry about that,” he said, shrinking under the guilt of his weakness. He’d grown accustomed to storing guilt away in a corner of his mind, so instead he repeated, “So what happened?”

Rui nodded towards something to his right. Makoto followed his gaze and saw the taser lying beside him.

His body tensed on its own, hardly daring to look at the thing as though it feared doing so would turn the device on. Yet, he also couldn’t look away. There was something different about it, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Rui said with a chuckle. “It can’t hurt anyone now.”

“What do you…” Makoto trailed off. His monocle ran an energy read, and nothing came up from the taser. It had no power left in it. “Did you…”

“Convert the energy it had into an injectable type? Yep, hence why I borrowed your backpack. Didn’t know how to put the electrodes back though, sorry.” Rui wasn’t meeting Makoto’s eyes anymore. His gaze bounced around, looking at anything and anyone else.

“But I thought…” Makoto didn’t know how to finish. He’d seen how protective Rui was of that taser, how he rested a hand on it when he slept, and always kept it within easy reach. He’d assumed it was important, a sense of security in these dangerous times.

“Well, some things are more important, aren’t they?” Rui chanced a look at Makoto, and Makoto saw the sadness in his eyes. He couldn’t detect any regret though. “I hope I won’t need the protection anymore?” He glanced around, silently asking permission to stay.

Makoto opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t think of any words. A warmth spread through his chest, a strong sense of gratitude to the boy who’d saved his family.

Perhaps siding with a chameleon wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

“Thank you,” was all he managed to say. It didn’t convey everything he wanted. It didn’t even come close to measuring up to the emotions bubbling up inside him and threatening to spill out, but those two words were all he could think of.

“We’re partners now, right?” Rui asked, holding out a hand. “Or scavenging buddies?”

“Partners,” Makoto agreed, shaking his hand and giving Rui a genuine smile.

Then Makoto flopped back, drained of the adrenaline that had helped him sit up. Now the pain returned full force, reminding him of every hit he took. It built up into a pressure in his chest, threatening to strangle the next breath he tried to take, and the pounding in his head made thinking difficult.

Rui shifted closer, coming to sit by Makoto’s side. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with you?” he asked, an edge of panic in his voice.

“I don’t know,” Makoto said. The pain was too spread out. He couldn’t tell what was damaged now, what needed to be fixed. It was all too vague, and he wondered how Sumire felt when she was in pain. Did she know which organ was acting up? Did anyone?

Why bother using pain as a warning if it’s so vague? Makoto asked his body as though it would give him an answer.

“Pass me my scope,” he said to Rui, reaching out with a shaking hand. Once Rui did, he unzipped his jacket and the shirt beneath, located the port in his chest with a shaking finger, and clumsily screwed the scope into place. He was usually much steadier, but a combination of weakness and pain made it all the more difficult.

Granny came over to help attach the wire between his scope and monocle, allowing him to start the examination.

His vital information ran over the lens of the eyepiece, telling him his blood pressure had dropped significantly alongside his temperature. His mechanical heart was still functioning normally, at least, and producing the expected energy readouts.

But that was about all he could tell, for when he switched to the camera view, all went dark.

“Shit,” he muttered, mostly to himself. “There’s too much blood. I can’t see anything.”

“T-too much blood?” Rui said from beside him. His voice trembled, but he was trying to keep that from showing. Makoto felt his hand shake as Rui touched his arm. “What can I do?” he asked, his voice steadier. Granny moved to crouch beside him, silently offering her aid as well.

“Hand me my multi-tool and a syringe from the sterilizing pocket. Granny, you know which one.”

Once given his tools, Makoto inserted the empty syringe into the side of the port and pulled the top to suck out as much of the blood as he could. He winced at the odd sensation of his insides being vacuumed, but there was little pain associated with it.

When he could see properly, he grimaced at the problem.

“It’s always the spleen,” he grumbled. With a sigh, he opened a small section of the multitool and used the numbing salve to anesthetize the area. “I have to remove it, and since I don’t have the materials to make a new one, I’ll just have to live without it.” He narrated out loud to Rui. Sumire’s soft breathing beside him told Makoto she was asleep, and Granny never questioned the surgeries he performed on himself or anyone else.

“Can you do that?” Rui asked.

“Remove it or live without it? It’s a yes to both, by the way. The spleen is helpful, but it’s not necessary, and we’re not at much risk for infections anymore, so it won’t matter whether I have one or not.”

The surgery was completed in a matter of minutes. Makoto cut the organ into smaller pieces with a heated scalpel, cauterizing the area around it as he went, and removed it, letting the multitool contain, condense, and dispose of it automatically.

He’d done the procedure several times on others, but rarely worked on himself. Even with the anesthetics taking away most of the pain, Makoto still struggled to focus and keep his hands steady. The blood he’d lost had weakened him, but the rupture would kill him if he didn’t take care of it while he still had sufficient mobility.

Once he withdrew the multitool, satisfied that he had stemmed any bleeding and removed as much damaged tissue as he could live without, Makoto unhooked the wire, unscrewed the scope, and relaxed with a sigh.

Granny took the tools from him, and he thanked her, listening to the hum of the sanitization process beginning in the compartment of his backpack. She handed him a blanket, and one to Rui, who still sat beside him, then shuffled off to sleep against her usual pillar by Sumire.

He shut down the night vision on his monocle and put it back in its pocket before folding his arms under his head, ready to settle down for the night.

Sleep tried to claim him, but Rui interrupted the silence to ask, “What’s gonna happen now?”

“I just need to rest for a day or two, long enough for my body to acclimate to functioning without the organ, then we can head out again.”

He seemed to accept the answer. Makoto thought he heard Rui’s breathing slow, but then the boy said, “Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Go ahead,” Makoto said with a yawn.

“What’s that scar on your chest, the one beside the port? That doesn’t look surgical, and I’ve seen my fair share of surgical.”

“You’re right. It’s not.”

Rui shifted beside him, and it was clear from the slight glow of his fake eye directed straight at Makoto that he was watching, waiting for an answer. Makoto had a sinking feeling that he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he satisfied Rui’s insatiable curiosity.

I should trust him now, right? Might as well tell him the truth, Makoto thought, chastising the voice in the back of his mind that wanted to make up a lie. Rui had sacrificed something to gain Makoto’s trust. He had saved not only his life, but Sumire’s as well. I owe him at least this much.

He sighed, instructing his body to stave off the much-needed sleep a little longer, and started. “When the Pure raided my hometown, in the Before, they found out my sister, Miyuki, was one of them. They’d already killed our parents for being Defectives, so I was supposed to protect her. That was the last thing my mom said to me. She told me to go protect Miyuki instead of saving her.”

He shuddered at the memory. The loud sounds in his house that roused him from sleep, the voice of his father, followed by the screams of his mother. The clanging of things falling to the ground, the high-pitched noises of glass shattering.

His mother’s hand, covered in blood, pushing his away. Her voice as she croaked out her last words, begging him to leave her and find his sister.

“I ran into MIyuki’s room right behind the Pure officers. They turned their guns on me -- those archaic things -- and she made a deal with them. She’d go willingly, be their Incubator, help recreate a world full of complete humans, if they let me live.”

Her face streaked with tears, her voice cracking as it pleaded. She was only 13, but she looked so much younger, like a child about to hide behind her mother’s skirts. She shivered like she was cold, even though the room was heated.

The two officers looked at each other through their helmets. Makoto couldn’t make out either face, but they towered over Miyuki, with strong arms that looked like they could rip her apart before he got to her.

The barrel of the gun was level with his eyes. A black hole, surrounded by sleek gray metal. Makoto was staring death in the face, and he didn’t expect to live.

“They agreed to her terms, and one of them led her away. I tried to follow, but the other one held me back. I was 17 and supposed to be her strong older brother. She was 13, being taken away by strangers, and here she was, trying to comfort me.”

Every time she looked back at Makoto, she tried to offer a smile. A comforting look from around the officer. She waved, once, twice, and then they turned the corner, and Makoto was certain he would never see her again.

“I was supposed to protect her, but I couldn’t do anything. I’m sure she turned the corner thinking that at least I was safe. That her would-be protector was in turn protected.”

“But they didn’t stay true to their word. As soon as the officer holding me back was sure that his partner and Miyuki were out of hearing range, he turned the gun on me and shot me through the heart.”

Silence descended between the pair. Makoto listened to the snoring of the other camp members a few feet away, the sound comforting after everything he’d been through. He still missed the sounds of Shinobu and Satoshi, but he knew that if they hadn’t returned by now, they wouldn’t anymore. He tried not to think about what state they might be in without his help.

“So what happened after that?” Rui whispered.

“I woke up. I survived.”

“I mean, I assumed I haven’t been talking to a ghost, but how did it not kill you? A shot through the heart should have been fatal, right? Did they miss?”

“No, he got my heart alright. But mechanical hearts are built differently. They’re meant to regenerate the missing parts as long as you have enough time and energy. I was out for three days, and by the time I came to, my hometown was in ruins, and everyone else was gone. Everyone but Sumire, Granny, and Shu, who you might not have met yet.”

“The loud one?”

“OK, you have met him then. He’s annoying, but harmless.”

Rui chuckled, but the sound died quickly. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Thanks.”

Another few seconds of silence passed, then Rui asked, “So what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of this activity called sleep? I’ve been meaning to try it out.”

“I meant tomorrow, and the day after. What are you going to do?” There was a certain urgency to Rui’s voice.

Makoto yawned. His entire body felt so heavy he thought it might sink into the ground. He barely had enough energy left to turn onto his side. “We’ll see tomorrow,” was all he could mumble before drifting away.