SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

nine ━ about mistakes

Once on the other side, Connor held the patch of cut barbed wire lifted so Brady could have less of a trouble getting through, but undeniably, his full attention was already on the house, even as he could not yet scan for any signs of activity inside. As soon as Brady was through, he didn't wait for his complaining to stop before walking to the front door of the abandoned house and trying to push it open.

"Jesus, Connor!" Brady exclaimed, as hushed as he could while running to be by his side. "Wait up!" He pulled out his gun, a gun which he had finally deemed necessary to take outside of the car with him — Connor suspected seeing Joel Reed's body had scared the officer deeply, enough so to lose sleep over it, hence his dark circles underneath his eyes, but also to find it necessary to have means of protecting himself up close —, but ended up watching Connor step away from the door as soon as he got there instead.

"Something is blocking the entrance from inside," he informed his partner. "We should try around the back." He left Brady no time to object to that decision, already on his way to following the newly selected objective, studying up the covered windows. By the time he reached the backdoor, Brady was coming up around the corner. After pushing a couple times against it, Connor assessed it must have also been blocked from inside. A sigh prompted him to look to the side and spot the entrance to the basement of the house. The chain which was supposed to keep that entrance locked had been previously broken and abandoned on the ground, right besides it.

Connor climbed off the stairs to the backdoor and moved towards the basement entrance instead. His suspicions that this had been the main entry point for the deviants were immediately confirmed once he pulled on the doors and they moved with ease, save for a long creak. "This way, Officer."

"Right behind you," Officer Brady announced, following Connor down the stairs leading beneath the house, his breath lightly ragged already. Upon seeing just how dark it was down there, he fidgeted for his flashlight, thus lowering his right hand still closed around his gun. The flashlight revealed a troubling amount of dust dancing in the stationary air down there, making Brady sigh. "What's with your sudden hurry? Can't we slow down?"

"They might have seen us coming," Connor justified his rush, thus avoiding mentioning how, according to what Mia told him of deviants, it was fair to assume Joel Reed's death would not be the end of the violence, especially if the deviants are not captured and contained. It was time sensitive because they should also not be allowed to reach any android populated areas to spread the virus. Of course, there was still some part of Connor which was curious to see the end of this lead, to prove that he had been right on his assessment, no matter how dangerous that would turn out to be, however this final reason, he ignored completely.

"We would have heard them if they tried to make a break for it," Officer Brady righteously sighed, however was not allowed to further his complaints, because Connor stopped ahead of him, turned around and, with only two fingers, moved the beam of his flashlight to the left, downwards. "I'll be damned," his eyes went wide. "Are those...?"

Connor dropped to one knee besides the pile of clothes amongst which a couple had been covered in blood, including an android uniform similar to those worn by Joel's androids at the farm. In the pile were also the missing clothing items of the victim. "The blood matches Joel Reed's," Connor confirmed after a short scan, no longer than a couple of blinks. "There are faint Thirium traces on the android uniform too."

"So you were right," Officer Brady audibly gulped while Connor stood up. He turned out to be correct in the end, but there was no real satisfaction to the achievement of his skills proving to be as efficient as intended — it was merely a relief. Thus, he moved away from the pile of clothes, despite Brady remaining on the spot, staring at them. "An android did this. What's the world come to?"