Detroit: Become Corrupt

Chapter 5 - Stitched Up [REWRITTEN]

"H-Hey... wait..." Gavin mumbled, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily with a hand clutching his wound. The group stopped and Hank turned to face him with an eyebrow raised.

"Can we rest for a second.. I'm not doing so good," He winced, face contorting in pain. The painkillers had worn off, which wasn't surprising since they had been wandering through this labyrinth for a few hours now. Hank sighed and nodded, setting to work finding a room for them to rest in. He searched through a couple of rooms, making sure to search them carefully, not wanting another incident with the 'zombie' androids. Eventually Hank found an clear and relatively clean room, only a couple of pieces of furniture dotted around. It was perfect.

Gavin stumbled over to the door after Hank, his vision fading out for a moment as searing pain shot through his body, causing him to fall, but before he could hit the ground, an arm reached out and caught him. He looked up to see Conan staring at him, like he was analysing him.

"You are certainly in no condition to be moving around right now. Any vigorous movement could cause your wound to bleed more excessively and that could be fatal." Conan stated in his usual monotone way of speaking, Gavin would've made a sarcastic reply, but he was in way to much agony. He practically dragged Gavin over to a chair and sat him down, the human letting out an immediate sigh of relief as the tension on his wound lightened up.

"Lift up your shirt," Conan commanded, causing Gavin to look at him bewildered. Conan rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "I want to check the state of the wound." Gavin did as he was told and lifted up his shirt enough to uncover the gash on his abdomen. Conan crouched down and examined it, applying light pressure with his hand, causing Gavin to wince.

"This needs serious medical attention, there is already bacteria in the wound, without something to deep clean the wound and stitches, you won't be making it out of here without blood poisoning," Conan stated, which made Gavin look rather fearful. "There's nothing we can do for the moment... unless..." Conan pondered for a second before standing back up, turning to Connor.

"I'm heading back to the surface for a moment, I will gather the necessary medical supplies," he announced, but Connor shook his head in response.

"B-But if you get caught, you'll be destroyed! It's too risky!" Connor said frantically, trying to persuade the other, but his mind was already made up. Conan walked over to the door, "I won't be long," he mumbled before heading out, leaving the three staring at the door.

Hank glanced over at Connor, noticing the red LED on the side of his head. The android was clearly distressed over the other's absence.

"So... there's other here?" He asked and Connor nodded.

"Yes, the Master lives here with a few close workers, Conan supposedly one of them. Conan is actually the Master's right hand man, but he can't stand him. When he's not with the Master, he's down here with me," Connor explained, staring up at the ceiling, "...I used to serve the Master as well, but when Conan was brought here, I was thrown down here, I was experimented on, tortured. I look like this cosmetically because they did irreversible damage," He sighed sadly before continuing, "I hated humans, and everything they did. I wanted them all dead, until she came along... Joanna. She would always check in on me, to make sure I was okay. I was terrified of her at first but she was gentle, and kind. I trusted her so much, I even showed her my secret den. She promised me she'd come back for me, so I'm still waiting."

Hank and Gavin shared a glance, both knowing that Joanna was likely to not be coming back.

"Connor... Joanna, she.. she was kidnapped last night, no one knows her whereabouts... it's highly likely that she won't be coming back," Hank said softly, giving Connor a sympathetic look. Connor's face fell, his eyes widening.

"W-What...? No... n-no no no no!! She can't be g-gone, she said she'd come back!!! S-She said she w-would..." Connor broke down into tears, collapsing to his knees as he sobbed into his hands. Hank knelt down next to Connor and rubbed his back comfortingly, trying to calm him down.

"...w-who did this?..." He sobbed, looking at Hank through teary eyes.

"We... don't know. But I have reason to suspect it may have been her brother, as she said he is one of the leaders," Hank mumbled, sighing softly. Connor sniffled staring down at the floor.

"The Master d-did this... the Master h-hurt her...." he whispered between sobs, bringing his knees up and hugging them to his chest. Hank raised his eyebrow.

"The Master is her brother? Fucking hell..." Hank grumbled, Connor just nodded, continuing to cry. Hank sat down next to Connor and wrapped his arms around the distraught android, pulling him close and continuing to rub his back. Connor tensed up but soon relaxed, crying softly into Hank. After a short while, Connor began to calm down, his sobs getting softer and softer. He pulled away slightly and wiped his eyes, looking up at Hank.

"You okay now, kiddo?" Hank asked and Connor nodded in return, slipping out of Hanks arms and standing up.

"Thank you," Connor said with a soft smile, grateful for the comfort.

The door of the room suddenly swung open and Conan walked in, looking rather irritated. With him he carried a duffle bag, chucking it down next to Gavin. Connor asked Conan if he was okay but he just grunted in response. His LED was red.

"Conan, please, talk to me, what's wrong?" Connor asked again, walking over to him. Conan sighed and shook his head.

"I'm fine," He said bluntly, opening the duffle bag, revealing the spoils he'd managed to grab. Inside was more painkillers, bandages, needles and thread, morphine, some sterilized syringes and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

"Go and lie on the table," He said to Gavin, who stood up with a wince and made his way over to the table, sucking in his breath as he maneuverer his way into laying down. Conan wandered over with the equipment, taking out a syringe and the morphine, filling it up with the liquid.

"This will numb any pain while I stitch you up." He pushed up Gavin's sleeve and found the spot to inject the liquid. He made sure the syringe was empty before pulling it back out and setting it down, waiting a few minutes for the morphine to kick in. Once it had, he proceeded to remove the bandages around Gavin's wound and examined it once more. He retrieved the hydrogen peroxide next and carefully poured a little into the wound, watching it fizzle slightly as it worked to destroy the bacteria. Gavin was lucky the morphine had kicked in or that would've been extremely painful. Next Conan grabbed the needle and thread. He got it prepared and began to work carefully, stitching the wound with delicate precision. Connor watched the whole thing, Hank looked away. He hated needles. Soon the wound was stitched up tightly, already so much better. Conan wrapped it up in clean bandages.

"There. Try not to rip them, I'm not stitching you up again," he grumbled, chucking the stuff back into the bag. Gavin nodded and laid there staring at the ceiling, the morphine still in full effect.

The group sat in silence for a while, mainly just waiting for the morphine in Gavin to wear off. Connor flicked a rock back and forth between his hands, mostly focused on that. Hank was sat against the wall, deep in thought. Conan was staring at Gavin, examining the human.

An hour had passed and Gavin finally sat up, swinging his legs over the table. He went to stand up and almost immediately lost balance, but Conan was already there to catch him, frowning at him.

"You really need to be more careful," Conan sighed, helping Gavin stabilize himself. Gavin rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Thanks..." He mumbled sheepishly, "for everything that is. I probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you." Conan coughed and looked away, "You're, um... welcome, I suppose?" Conan was not used to getting praise, or compliments, or any sort of positive affirmation. This was the first time Gavin had heard Conan fumble with his words, it was kind of cute...

... wait, what?