Chapter Nine—In and Out

A police siren wailed in the far distance as the air breath of traffic funneled down the alleyway from the road. Mairu’s chest was slowly expanding and contracting as her head lolled forward.

Nova was quiet and feeling apprehensive. Koto looked at her, then he glanced toward the street. He felt tired, didn’t want to move. He looked at his watch. That hour had come and gone a while ago.

With a heavy sigh he stepped forward. “It’s time,” he said quietly.

Nova looked at him and got up from the cardboard she was sitting on. Like Mairu, she had gotten tired of standing up for hours on end. She turned to the other girl and touched her shoulder.

“Mairu. Mairu—it’s time to wake up.”

“Mmm?”

Mairu glanced about and smacked her lips as she rubbed her eyes.

“I was dreaming.”

Nova sniffed with amusement. “A good dream I hope.”

“No, not really. I dreamed we were attacked by thousands of Rems. We were all destroyed and scattered. I tried to find you, but I couldn’t.”

“Well,” Nova said, standing. “I was just a dream. Now come on, Mairu. It’s time to get to work.”

The girl got up and Koto looked at them both. Then he nodded. “Come on.”

They wandered out of the alley with their hands inside their pockets. Even in this late hour there were people out all over the place, and more sirens wailing in the distance than before.

Koto wondered if one of those sirens was for Jon. Where was he? What was he doing? If he was on his way back, he should have arrived hours ago. To be held up for some long could only mean he ran into a serious problem.

“I guess Jon didn’t show,” said Nova.

Koto turned to her and then glanced about. “I’m sure he is busy with something.”

“Yeah, like getting us those explosives like he promises? I think he decided since he’s back in the green zone he might as well stay.”

“Don’t be so cynical,” Mairu said.

“Why not?”

“I think Jon is all right,” she said.

She snorted. “And how do you know this?”

“I can feel it.”

“You can ‘feel’ it?”

“Mmhm.”

Hopefully he hadn’t been captured by the police, thought Koto, otherwise he could be forced somehow to reveal their plans. But rushing into a hospital and stealing some medicine, even if enchanted medicine which was rare and extremely expensive, that didn’t quite warrant putting every cop in the city up in arms.

“What do you think, Koto?” Nova asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said, walking on and not looking back. Even now his heart had started beating faster with the implication of what they were about to do.

If they were caught, no one would come to save them.

Sure, a few of the other Dregs could try—and probably would. But to break them out of a prison cell would be all but impossible.

“Why are you so quiet?”

He glanced back finally. “This could go badly,” he said. “Don’t you remember why we needed Jon in the first place?”

“To make a distraction in case we need it.”

He stopped and faced them both. “Yeah, that, and to destroy that factory poisoning the water, remember?”

Mairu and Nova both became quiet.

“Whatever!” Nova finally said. “There’s other sources of water out there.”

“What, you think we can brave the Rems in the wastes? A bunch of kids?”

Mairu made a thoughtful sound, a doubtful sound.

Nova shrugged. “Better than dying of poison.”

“And what about the resistance?”

She glanced down at the sidewalk then.

*

He dragged his fingers over the surface of his brown leather jacket where the bullet hole was and felt at the roughness of the leather. Then he dragged his fingers toward the second hold.

Upon first blinking awake he had laid there for at least five minutes simply wondering why he was still alive as his chest smarted like a red-hot iron was being pushed through.

Finally he had gotten up and now he was checking the damage. Two holes, which means a ricochet. But how—?

That was right!

He reached into his jacket and into the pocket where he had put that little energy pistol. Pulling it out, he looked at it. There was a ding on the handle, a pretty deep one where his partner’s bullet had been deflected.

Shit…

Jon turned the gun around in his palm a few times, wondering if it had been ruined. He wasn’t sure, so he put it back into his pocket and glanced about. He couldn’t see far because of the night, but the blue-black skies didn’t completely shut off his ability to see.

That, and there were street lights alight along the old and cracked highway.

Even all the way out here in the red zone.

With a grunt, he reached back into his jacket and rubbed his chest. The force of that impact had smashed the pistol against his ribs.

Jon leaned forward, stepping over the dry dirt and rocks as he crisscrossed his way back up the steep embankment leading to the road.

Once he made it up, he glanced about and found the tire tracks of the police cruiser. And there it was.

His gun.

Lying in the dirt just as before.

The ex-cop smiled. “There you are, baby.”

He picked it up and dusted it off. Then he pulled out the clip and racked the slide a few times to make sure it was free of dust and sand. Once he saw that the weapon was in working order, he put the clip back in and chambered a round, holstered it.

Glancing about, he wondered where the hells he was and whether or not he could make it back to Maple’s place, or maybe head back into the green zone. But by now, the kids were probably snatching that magic anyway, or already had it.

They might be on their way back.

He sighed with indecision.

*

“All right,” Koto said. “Are we ready for this?”

Mairu nodded. “Mm.” Then she tightened her grip over the bag atop her Little Bullet.

“I’m good to go,” said Nova.

In the time they had waited for Jon, the three of them had toured around the hospital where they went to each of the three manhole covers and to the perch from where Mairu would be causing a distraction if need be.

Koto nodded, swallowing against the not in his throat. But he was determined. “Mairu, you take up your position. Me and Nova are going to do our thing.”

“Okay.” She turned.

“Mairu,” said Nova.

The girl turned.

“Hm?”

“Good luck.”

Mairu brushed a long lock of her white hair behind her ear. “You too.”

As Nova and Koto crossed the street toward the parking area of the hospital, Nova couldn’t help but take Koto’s hand and glance back in Mairu’s direction.

“She’ll be fine,” he said.

“Yeah,” Nova said with a nod, and she made eye contact with him. “I know.”

“We’re going to get this medicine to Karu and we’re going to figure out what do do about the water.”

She smiled, though she wasn’t sure either of those things would come to pass. Still—she had to keep a good attitude.

*

Mairu strode through the alleyway, her sneakers slapping across the cement as she went. An rough looking guy sitting on the floor with his back to the wall glanced up at her, but she wasn’t afraid, even if he did have a green mohawk and a spiked collar.

When she came out onto the sidewalk on the other side of the building, she glanced about, making sure everything looked good. She was a pretty normal looking girl, but that didn’t mean the cops wouldn’t stop her and ask to scan her wristlet.

Happened all the time.

If it looked like that was what was going to go down, then Mairu would have to make a break for it, hoof it over some fences or maybe even make her escape early. That was no good.

She had a job to do.

The white haired sniper narrowed her eyes and ran faster, dodging people on the sidewalk as the bright lights of oncoming cars nearly blinded her.

They were doing this for Karu—to save him.

Mairu did not want to see Kawa’s reaction should they fail tonight. That was unacceptable. But in any event, they would pull it off. Mairu had total faith and trust in Koto and Nova.

As for the Dregs, they were the most capable among them all.

She found the building that had a view of the hospital parking lot. It wasn’t great, but there was enough to see by to fire a few shots there if need be. But she would only need to do that if things got bad.

The building looked almost abandoned.

It was so strange how a city could be clean and immaculate and then the next street over be a total slum. Of course, none of these areas near the hospital were very nice.

They probably should have gone to a more upper class part of town.

She went to the crosswalk and made her way to the other side past some palm trees and green grass situated inside some big cement planters. Then she stalked over the cement sidewalk to the building.

The way up wasn’t here in the front, so she went around back, found the metal staircase and made her way to the third floor roof. There was plenty of stuff up here to block the view so no one would see her looking through her sniper scope.

Of course, she could still be spotted from above the other buildings towering over her. But that wouldn’t happen. These people were too busy working or amusing themselves with the unending distractions.

People didn’t look out their windows.

She went to the ledge and placed her rifle atop an air conditioning unit. It wasn’t turning, so it was probably broke. That was good. She didn’t need distractions.

Unwrapping the back, she kept it mostly over the rifle to conceal it, revealing only the scope, a scope made from makeshift materials and glass taken from a camera telephoto lens and then rigged onto the weapon.

With just the scope exposed, she could be doing anything out here if anyone even cared to look. She smiled, which they wouldn’t!

Her view of the hospital lot and the emergency entry doors was clear. An EMT vehicle pulled passed and then she caught sight of Koto and Nova walking toward those doors hand in hand.

That was so sweet.

“Good luck,” she whispered.

*

“You’re up,” Koto said, slowing down.

Their hands parted, and even though both of their hands were clammy and warm in this summer heat, Nova didn’t want to let go, but of course she did. It was time to get to work.

“Yeah,” she said, walking backwards away from him. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

He nodded and hung back as she turned and strode across the lot, her stomach roiling as she swallowed.

“Okay,” she muttered as she cascaded her fingers across her thumbs nervously, “here we go.”

She strode in through those emergency doors and the detectors instantly pinged, indicating that her civil status wasn’t high enough to enter the hospital, or without the wristlet rather, that she had no civil status.

The door guard flinched slightly, his grip tightening on his baton as he raised it and said, “Stop.”

“Sorry,” she said, “is something wrong?”

Of course, if the machines went off, that didn’t mean the door guard would simply start beating on you. Mistakes happened and the machines glitches from time to time.

Not really.

But it could happen!

“Please step back through the doors.”

“Sure,” she said with a nod.

As she turned, she walloped him in the chin as hard as she could. Yeah, didn’t think a kid would smack you, huh?

While the guard stumbled back, Nova lurched out the doors and ran.

“Hey!” he yelled after her. “Come back here, you little shit!”

She didn’t look back as she ran across the walkway toward the front of the hospital where she would catch the notice of the other guards. She ran by, nearly bowling over some people entering through the front doors.

The guard gave pursuit, calling out on his radio from behind her, and she smiled. “You can’t refuse me treatment!” she screamed. “It’s inhuman, you tyrants!”

Breathing heavily, she reached the corner lot on the other side and glanced behind her. Two more guards and come to back up the first guy. Not great, but not bad either. She would have liked to get more to follow.

She needed to keep up this chase.

As it was now, what she was doing was nothing more than a civil disturbance. But she made her way the a fence on the other side of the building.

She tried for the door, but it was locked, and the guards slowed down, fanned out.

“Give it up,” they said. “You can’t go inside and if you continue this, we’ll call the police.”

She looked at them. “Losers!’

Then she whirled around and jumped atop the dumpster near the wall. She used that to elevate her height so she could jump to the landing nearby where the metal stairs led.

“Look out!” one guard said. “She’s getting through.”

They made more calls on their radios for backup.

“East side, east side. She’s making entry on the second floor on the east side.”

They ran to the fence and unlocked it with their key cards.

Nova tried the door, her hands shaking and her heart pounding. But it was locked. She moved up the stairs to the next level, and then glanced down as she heard the metallic vibrations of the guard’s boots stamping up the stairs.

“This!—this isn’t right!” she called.

Then she moved farther up.

Good, they were following with more on the way.

*

Koto sprinted across the lot just as some EMT guys had pulled up. They walked through the doors and be barreled past them. One guy almost fell as he lunged forward with flailing arms.

The desk lady jerked upright. “Hey!” she called. “Hey! Stop him!”

The EMT guys actually gave chase.

That didn’t stop Koto, or even worry him. Two EMTs couldn’t stop him even if they tried. And neither could a few guards for that matter.

He ran down the brightly lit corridors passed the surgeries. This place was like a maze, but the nurse’s cabinet wasn’t too far away, or least it shouldn’t be, if he knew anything about hospitals, which he did.

As he ran down the hall he took a left and came up behind a nurse who was striding toward some errand or other. In order to get into the medicine cabinet, he would need the keycard.

Sure, he could probably shoot his way in, but he had no gun anyway.

“There he goes!” one EMT barked.

The nurse turned around and gasped, throwing herself to the wall in horror. Koto then suddenly turned around and charged the two EMTs. As he neared them, he jumped, slid across the polished floors and kicked on of them in the shin.

He growled and fell over.

Once he was back on his feet the other EMT spread his arms to bar his passing, but Koto smiled. He didn’t want to get past this guy.

Though he made like he was going to dart left to escape him, when the EMT moved to block his path, Koto jumped, twisted his body and kicked the guy right in the face and he went flying across the floor.

“Oh my gods!” the nurse cried.

Turning around, the first guy was getting back up, but Koto went to him and punches him in the face before he could raise his arm to block him.

Then he looked at the nurse and her eyes widened. “Help!” she cried.

He ran to her and grabbed her by the the collar of her scrubs. “Shut up,” he said.

She called out again as he lifted her off the floor.

Her name tag said Yaleena.

“Yaleena,” he breathed, then he sniffed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’m not going to hurt you, but you have to do what I say or else somebody is going to die.”

She almost wailed in terror then, but he snapped her name and she came to attention. “Whatwhatwhatdo you want? Please don’t hurt me.”

What a cow.

“Hey!” he said. “I told you I wouldn’t hurt you, but I need you to take me to the medicine cabinet.”

Understanding came to her eyes then. She probably thought he was some kind of junky looking to get some meds or a thief planning on robbing the place so he could make a tidy profit in some dank alley a few blocks from her.

“It’s—it’s—“

“Where is it?!”

Her head jerked and she screamed as four security guards came barreling down the corridor.

“There! Stop him!”

One of them had a gun.

“Damn!” Koto breathed, and dragged the woman in front of him.

That was when he flicked out his sword, the blade extending in a split second and crackling with energy.

“Don’t come any closer!” he yelled, and pointed his sword at them.

They came up short and spread out.

“Let her go!” one guard ordered. “You can’t get away.”

With a smirk, Koto pushed forward and the lady’s wobbly legs almost gave out. If she collapsed, he’d probably get shot by the guy with the gun.

“Move!” he yelled, pushing forward and using her as a shield as he rushed forward, toward them.

They raised their batons and the woman finally collapsed in a shrieked. The guard with the pistol tightened his posture as he went to make the kill, but Koto jumped, rolled and came up with his sword.

The crack of the two shots pummels his ears, but that didn’t stop him from slicing upward at the guy’s wrist. Between the blade cut and the electrified energy, his arm twitched and the gun went flying.

The other guards came at him with their batons, but Koto swung his weapon in quick arching slices that forced them to recoil away from him as he got back to his feet.

“We need backup!” the guard on the left shrieked into his coms unit. “We need backup now! We have an armed intruder in central corridors on the ground—“

His coms units cracked in half and shot through the air amidst a crackle of electrified energy. The guard flinched, blinked as if he wasn’t quite sure what happened.

Then Koto lashed out with his foot, spinning his shoulders and hips and kicking outward. His sneaker came into direct contact with the guard’s chest on the right. He grunted and stumbled back.

Koto took a step forward and jumped, cycling his feet at him for two more quick kicks to his arm and face and he went down.

The guard that called in for backup glanced at his partner, then back to Koto and raised his bottom. He lunged at the Dreg, but Koto back stepped out of his reach ad sliced his bottom on half with his sword.

With another flinch of pure surprise, Koto used that split second of indecision on the guard’s part to swing a left hook that went straight into his face.

He fell back while covering his nose.

All three guards writhed in pain at his feet, the third rising again, but Koto put him back down with a kick to his face. The nurse covered her mouth and let out of small shriek as if being quiet about it would make him forget she was there.

He looked at her and she shrunk back, her eyes wide.

“Please—don’t hurt me.”

“Ugh!” he growled in frustration. “Up! Take me to the medicine cabinet.”

She shook her head. “I don’t have the key!”

“Then take me to the person who does.”

*

Nova made it to the roof and ran toward the other side. She was sure other guards must have been encircling the building to cut her off.

When she got to the metal emergency stairs, she glanced back, but she saw no pursuers.

“Where are they?”

She turned and glanced over the roof.

There were none coming up from this side of the building, which meant they had been called back to deal with Koto who was probably making a huge mess right now.

She gritted her teeth and glanced across the parking lot toward the building where Mairu was, but from here, the fifteen-year-old couldn’t see her.

Nova’s part in this was done.

She had offered a distraction for Koto, and by now he was probably bagging a bunch of medicine, but…

What if he wasn’t?

She strode back and forth for a minute with indecision. She was supposed to go to the sewer tunnels right now to wait for him.

Suddenly in the distance the wail of police sirens filled the night city air. There were multiples from different directions.

In a city like this, there were always sirens all over the place, but this was different. They were getting louder—all coming to this location, the hospital.

She ran to the side, grabbed onto the raised ledge and glanced down.

“Koto!”

She looked up back in the direction of Mairu.

“Dammit!”

*

The nurse moved on heavy legs and several times Koto told her that if he didn’t get into the medicine cabinet someone was going to do. He didn’t mean that he was going to kill someone, he meant that Karu was going to die, but the stupid nurse didn’t know that.

She probably thought he was threatening to kill her, because every time he said that, she shivered and shook and her decision making became dumber than before. And yet, she was quicker, her feet moved just a little faster.

If she was misunderstanding him, that was fine by Koto.

“Faster,” he said, and he pushed her in the back, not hard, but enough to let her know she needed to kick her feet.

And she did.

They came to a set of doors and she turned to him then. “Please… Please don’t hurt anyone.”

Koto ignored her and pushed through the doors.

The other nurses were standing about, huddled together as if they were taking refuse here in the nurse’s station back here. He glanced at them all and one of them looked past him.

Koto turned and met the barrel of a gun.

“Don’t move!” the guard shouted. “Don’t… don’t you move! Stay there.”

“He was young—probably only a little older than Koto himself.

“Listen,” he said, “if you—“

“Don’t move!”

“I’m not moving!”

“Stay where you’re at!” he took a handoff his pistol and pointed a finger at him. Then he used that free hand to call in backup.

“If you shoot at me,” said Koto, “you’re going to his the nurses behind you.”

Not even Koto wanted that, but his advantage right now was that they had no idea about that, or about what he wanted.

Backing away from the guard toward the nurses, they shrieked and he called out, demanding that he not move.

But Koto didn’t stop, though he did spread his hands.

Then he slipped his palm upwards. “The key to the medicine cabinet,” he said.

No one moved.

“THE KEY!”

They screamed and a woman came to him and slapped the keycard in his hand. Koto glanced at it. Well, he wasn’t certain this was actually the right key…

He lunged backward, hitting the nurses who screamed and scrabbled away from him, but he managed to reach out and grab one.

“What are you doing?!’ the guard snarled. “Are you taking a hostage? Dammit! Security! Security, do you read? I’m with the intruder. He’s taking a hostage with him!”

Koto went back out the doors back first as he dragged the nurse, who cringed in on herself as he he might slice her neck any moment.

“The medicine cabinet!”

She pointed. “It’s over there!”

*

The sirens filled the night and the police cruisers converged upon the hospital. Mairu didn’t like what she was seeing, as they were setting up a cordon around the hospital.

Koto, you need to get out of there!

She aimed rifle at the engine block of one of the city cards and fired. Her rifle bucked and the gunshot filled the open area and was funneled back to her from the other structures rising around the dump where she was positioned.

When she glanced back through her scope, the cops were scrambling about for cover. She aimed at another vehicle, a big cruiser utility vehicle and shot the engine block. She didn’t know if she was doing any damage to the cars, but that wasn’t the point.

The point was to get their attention off of the hospital so Koto could have enough time to get done what he needed to.

Another siren wailed through the air and she glanced up above her scope and looked around in the sky.

That sounded like…

Something exploded in front of her and she convulsed in sudden fright and sprang back. She landed on her butt and caught her Little Bullet with a grunt.

Then Mairu shook her head.

Were those cops shooting at her?!

They could kill somebody!

“Oh man…”

Then the air car came around the bend. That was bad.

That was really bad!

Mairu rolled, grunting as her body went atop her rifle. She hated doing that, since she could knock the scope loose by doing something like that.

The vehicle looked straight at her.

“This is the City -27 Police Department.”

The voice came over the loud speakers amplified by the sky cruiser.

“Put down your weapons and put your hands in the—“

She raised Little Bullet and took aim.

The car opened fire, the canons flashing and lasers cracked against the rooftop cement and exploded.

Mairu squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger.

The gun kicked and the police stopped shooting.

This was her moment.

Glancing to the emergency metal staircase, she ran for her escape as a terrible whine sounded behind her. Something sputtered, and that sound chased her.

She couldn’t help but cry out in sudden alarm.

Were they going to ram her?!

She jumped, slid over the rooftop and scrapped her knee as she tumbled to the metal stairs when a shadow enveloped her.

Mairu glanced up and saw the sky cruiser pass over her right when a roiling cloud of hot smoke fell on top of her.

Her throat and eyes suddenly burned and she coughed like she was dying. But she had to keep moving.

“Oh gods!”

She hacked again into a fit of violent coughing.

She moved down the stairs, hardly able to see anything when suddenly a bright light and a huge explosion rocked the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Glass exploded and people screamed and ran in every direction while car alarms started wailing.

“Oh my gods!” Mairu cried, looking at the plume of fire and smoke as it rose into the air, a flash of hot air brushing past her and making her hair whip about like angry sand snakes.

“Oh my gods!” she said again.

Had she really done that?

She moved to go down the stairs, jerked to a halt and looked at what she had done. Ohmygods!Ohmygods!

Oh. My. Gods!

She almost kept looking, but then she was reminded of what she needed to do. She had to get out of there!

Suddenly the burn of engines filled the air once more as spotlights shined down over the area. They came dangerously close to the metal stairs and Mairu lurched away, her back hitting the metal rail and digging into her spine.

She hissed from the pain, but she kept moving, heaving Little Bullet as she went.

When her sneakers came into contact with the cement, the the sky car hovered back over the dumpy residential building and the spotlight hit her directly.

She glanced up.

“DON’T MOVE!”

She lurched to the side under the stairs and ran through the corridor leading to the other side of the building.

The car overhead swooped over the building and she did a quick turnaround, her shoes squeaking under her feet as she panted, her heart thundering inside her chest like an alien being trying to rip itself out of her.

Someone was down here with her, but when she looked at the lady, she just looked right back, then her eyes flicked to Little Bullet and widened.

Mairu hitched with half a laugh and rand.

The police were hovering over the building on the other side because they thought she was running in the direction of the hospital.

She sprinted, but realized how slow she was because of Little Bullet.

Looking at the weapon, she had no time to deliberate.

She tossed it onto the cement and ran for the hedge, then she jumped, landing atop the flattened top and rolled over and into the street where the smoke and the wailing car alarms were at.

She moved straight for the alleyway where she needed to go.

The car was behind her, swooping about the residential building and shining its spotlights. Down the road on her left police vehicles with their lights flashing and their sirens screaming, rolled up toward her.

Then the swoop and burn of those sky car engines sounded and the spotlight came back to her. She lurched, ran for the alley.

Explosions rocked the corners of the building leading into that trash-filled and steamy alleyway.

She stopped and cried out, fell onto her butt again. But she didn’t stop. She got back to her feet and ran into the alleyway, the police car swooping in close as it’s lights lit the dark spaces.

Glancing back, Mairu gasped, certain she was going to be torn to pieces, and she hit a trash can and fall over, yelping like a little girl.

But the steam was a white mist, bright and luminescent in the spotlights of the police vehicle. She couldn’t see them.

That meant they couldn’t see her! And since the alley was so narrow, they couldn’t get their stupid guns on her either.

She laughed then.

“So long, losers!”

She got up and sprinted further in, just as the sounds of ropes boot came from behind.

“She went this way!

Mairu slid to the manhole that she and the others had left partially open and stopped, glanced about at the doos.

She went to one and tried it.

It was open.

She left it ajar and went back to the sewer entrance, climbed down the latter.

Mairu’s adrenalin was so strong she barely noticed the stench as she grabbed the manhole cover, and with a grunt of effort, slid it closed.

As she slid down the ladder, heavy boots thumped over the metal cover above her.

“She went this way!”

Glancing up, she held her breath as she waited to see if they would lift the manhole cover.

And then the metallic thrum of the disk against the cement rim echoed downward and her eyes shot open wide amidst an involuntary gasp.

Mairu ran.

*

Koto swiped the keycard and the door flicked from red to green and unlocked. He went in, pushing the nurse as he went.

“Please—don’t hurt me. Everything you have is right here.”

The room wasn’t that large since the hospital in this areas wasn’t one of the really big ones in the city, but still, there were tables and counters with sinks, and many, many shelves filled with medicines and drugs.

“Where are the enchantments?”

She looked at him, then glanced toward another shelf. “In that glass case.”

Koto stalked over to it and opened it. The cabinet contained glass containers with luminescent pill capsules. There were many varying kinds for various kinds of illnesses. He read the bottles. There were bone knitters, heart and blood purifiers, poison counters, and adrenalin drugs as well as many other kinds.

This is perfect.

“Give me a back.”

The woman said nothing.

When Koto turned, he her a subtle swishing of the door and realized the nurse had slipped out when he wasn’t looking.

Damn.

He looked around and saw some lockers. He went to them, opened them and found some duffle bags on the bottom. He unzipped it and emptied the contents. It was valuable stuff, fresh EMT gear, bandages and other minor medicines in the pre-packaged kits.

Stalking quickly back to the medicine cabinet, he yanked the duffle open as far as he could get it and shoved the medicine bottles off the shelves. The fell over the bag, in the bag and around on the floor.

Once the shelves were empty, he picked up the remaining bottles and tossed them into the duffle, zipped it and sluing it onto his back.

Doing all that seemed like it took half an hour.

He was far too slow.

Koto pushed through the door and his eyes came into contact with six police officers in the corridor as they were making their way to him with their weapons up.

They started firing and he pushed backward, tripped and almost fell had it not been for the table, which he slammed his forearms atop to catch himself.

Glancing about the room, he flicked his sword back out, but there were no other exits out of the medicine room.

Gritting his teeth, he whirled back to the door.

He could make a break across the hall where branched off. There was a set of double doors back there and sure to lead to the back doors, but those cops were ready with their guns up.

They’d probably put a bunch of holes in him.

He had no choice.

With is heart hammering inside his chest, his hands shaking, he looked up, and thought that he must do this. For Karu’s sake, and for that of Kawa, too.

The double doors on the other side opened up and his heart jumped into his mouth. If he was flanked from that position he wouldn’t be able to—

He barely saw through the little windows in the door when someone ran to the edge of the corner and started shooting at the cops, the muffled crack of gunfire and muzzle flashes startling to his senses.

Then a fusillade of weapon’s fire came back, filling the hallway with such a roar as to drown out any and all other sounds as the bullets hit and smacked into the wall, putting holes through it.

On the other side of the doors several doctors and nurses rushed through the halls to those back doors.

Koto neared the doors with his sword up in a defensive posture as he peeked through the windows to see what was happening.

That was when he saw Nova.

She leaned out from the corner of the hall and fired of another five shots as returned fire from the cops came back at her.

She ducked into cover and saw Koto with a lurch of surprise when the doors opened. She wasn’t supposed to be here!

“Koto!” she hissed.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came back to help you. This place is swarming.”

More bullets came down the hall and tore up the wall to Koto’s left, but he kept within the room so he would not become a target.

“Come on!” she said. “We have to go!”

“All right!” he said with a strong nod. “Give me some cover fire. I’m going to jump across.”

She said nothing as she leaned into the hall and pulled the trigger, putting down one, two, three, four and five bullets down the hall toward the corps.

Koto sprinted, jumped and slid across the floors on his shoes, his sneakers coming into contact with Nova’s and she bowled over screaming.

She got up. “Be more careful!”

“Sorry.”

“Come on!” she howled, and grabbed his free hand and helped him up. Once he was on his feet Nova put two more shots down the corridor and whirled around, sprinting through the corridor leading away from the cops on the other side.

“The back door is this way.”

Koto sprinted after her as nurses and doctors scrambled about the corridors. When they saw Koto and Nova, some of them cried out in sudden fear and shrank back, while others didn’t even seem to realize the emergency had been cause by them—two kids.

But when they saw Nova’s gun, their reactions were similar to the others. It didn’t matter. They ran, sprinting for the exit.

When the turned the corner, they saw the glass doors leading out to the EMT area. Two guards in black came through those doors, their pistols in hand.

Nova lifted her gun and fired two rounds, taking both of them out in sprays of hot blood that splattered the walls and shattered the glass behind them.

They fell, and for a moment, all was quiet, save for the sirens from outside. Then the general alarms tripped, and red lights flashed throughout the corridors.

“This is an emergency broadcast,” a voice said over the intercom. It was calm and monotone. “If you are able, leave the hospital immediately though whatever exit you deem to be the safest. If you cannot leave, wait for a medical technician to assist you. This is an emergency broadcast. If you are able to leave the hospital…”

Koto glanced down at the dead guards and swallowed. He was worried for Nova, because she had never killed anyone before.

With wide eyes, Nova looked to Koto for a reaction. Her heart was beating so hard and fast it hurt, and her ears were thundering. But when he nodded to her, she found the resolve not to freeze with indecision any longer.

She moved forward, stepping over the dead bodies.

Then Koto grabbed her hand and led her between the EMT vehicles. A few of the MTs saw them, and quickly scrambled for their radios, but it would be too late by the time backup arrived.

Koto and Nova were already running across the street for the alleyways as police sirens wailed from every direction. A cloud of black smoke rose from where Mairu was at and she gasped.

“Is she okay? Koto—do you see it?!”

“I see it!” he said. “We can’t go over there.”

“But what if Mairu is hurt?”

“We stick to the plan!” he pulled her across the street as the air support hovered about the square.

Just as they made for the alley two police cruisers were driving up the street. Their engines revved and their speed increased as the spotlights snapped on them.

Nova held her pistol, and Koto his sword.

The tired shrieked.

“Come on!” Koto yelled, and they ran faster.

As soon as he heard the cruiser doors open, Nova turned her shoulders and fired off two shots, the slide on her pistol racking back as she went empty.

They rushed into the alleyway and took a sharp left, made their way to the manhole cover where they had already planned to make their exist.

The alley was empty, which was both good and bad.

Koto had half expected Jon to show up, and on the other hand, he was hoping Mairu might have waited for them here, but she wasn’t here either.

He bent and lifted the cylindrical cover off of the sewer opening. “Hurry!”

“I am!”

As she went down, her sneakers squeaking against the metal, Koto folded his sword with a power down of electrical noise and followed her, pulling the cover back on as he went.

He squeaked down and when his sneakers hit the cement, Nova looked at him, her chest heaving like his own.

“Mairu…”

He shook his head. “They’re going to be right behind us, Nova!”

Weapons fire erupted down the corridors and they both gasped, their heads turning. The noise had funneled down to them in a muffled echo.

“Mairu!” Nova called.

She ran.

“Nova!” Koto snapped. “Wait!”

Her footfalls echoed off the walls as she sprinted away.

Koto went after her.