Daystar

21| Paralysis

"–we ever get out of this place, I'm making you my doctor, teenager or not. A child protégé, I'm telling you."

That was Asher's voice, clear as day. Kara's breath hitched slightly as the resonance swept through her.

She flickered her eyes to the screen, nails biting into the palms of her hands. Asher's gaze was unsteady, snapping from the ground to the boy with onyx eyes and curled, raven hair behind him. Kara watched the screen helplessly as Asher clapped a boy on his shoulder. She hadn't realized how much she missed him.

"Where are they?" she whispered, wary of how loud her voice sounded amidst the silence.

"Local hospital," Chester replied, his breath hot in her ear. "They're looking for medicine."

"What would you like to know?"

This man must have been the local Chester had told her about, judging by his complexion and thick Mediterranean accent.

"Is he safe? Will he hurt them?"

Chester shook his head. "We can't know that sort of thing for sure. Not everything about their environment can be regulated. Tagging every person who lives in the testing zone is a little far fetched, even for de Ven's resources."

"–in this city has evacuated. In other places, most did not make it out in time."

"In time for what?"

Someone else was speaking now. Asher didn't turn to face that owned the voice, but a smooth, Australian accent was evident with every syllable.

"Why was everyone evacuating?"

"You really know nothing."

"What happened here?"

"A businessman by the name of Simon De Ven invaded these lands. He took over the oil deposits in the area and established factories and drilling rigs of his own."

Chester spun a digital dial and the volume of the transmission increased. He shoved a sheet of paper and a pen into her hands.

"Take notes on what they're saying and write fast."

Kara quickly began scrawling out notes as quickly as the words of the transmission moved. She was vaguely aware of Chester moving to talk to some of the employees seated towards the middle of the room. She continued to write furiously, subconsciously taking in phrases like "too unstable," "millions killed," and "toxins in the air."

She tried her best not to get distracted by the chatter around her—keeping up with the dialogue coming over the speakers was proving to be difficult—but then, didn't they have access to the audio and visual files from these transmissions? She didn't need to be writing notes when they had a library full of records. So why had Chester–

Kara dropped her pen and tuned into the conversation Chester was having with the other employees.

"–not much of a threat. He's just some guy. The information he has is limited, and if the recognition hasn't triggered their memories by now, it's unlikely that it will in the future. Intervention is unnecessary."

"Any chance of recall should not be risked, no matter how small. Collateral damage is unlikely to occur from a collapse. It'll be slow enough that they'll be able to get out, and if that native really knows his way around, he'll see it coming a mile away."

All at once, the speaker erupted, and the screen filled with dust. Kara nearly threw herself beneath her desk, heart hammering at light speed, almost positive that the speaker had exploded. After fiddling with the voluming and twisting her trembling hands into the folds of her blouse, Kara glued her eyes to the screen.

Asher burst through one of the dull white hallways, turning sharply and sprinting for a set of doors. A tuft of black hair appeared in the corner of his vision, and chunks of concrete suddenly began crumbling from the ceiling. Kara jolted as Asher's yelp shredded her ears.

Asher's heartbeat soared instantaneously. Kara's chest pounded in answer.

She knew how his mind worked. Kara prayed to every and any God she could think of as Asher took the boy in his arms and lunged for the glass doors.

Relief poured into her veins when a picture perfect sky filled the screen.

He'd made it.

Kara tamped down her brief—and irrational—moment of solace, remembering that Asher had only been the first through. Where was Somer? Where were the others?

Asher spun around, his eyes frantically darting around. Kara watched several others burst through the doors. A man rushed towards the doors with an armful of injured teenager. Kara's eyes widened when the entire structure began to tremble. There was no way he was going to make it.

Asher seemed to come to the same conclusion, a faint gasp sounding in the speakers. He whirled around and pulled the raven-haired boy close to his chest just as the building came down. The monitors went dark when Asher squeezed his eyes shut.

"That was unnecessary," Chester flung out a hand. Kara jerked her head in his direction, anxious to overhear anything that could explain what had just taken place. "That man was not nearly enough of a threat to justify a move like that. You just killed off two test subjects, and one of them was a vital control variable."

One of the employees rolled her eyes.

"Relax, McCoy. It's nothing the market can't replace. C'mon, back to your station. Reports on damage and regen for the live ones. And see if the dead ones still have their implants intact. Labs is gonna want a report on post-termination regen, if we can manage it."

______________________________

Heheeee I hope the picture's gettin' a little clearer.

Xoxo
~NASA_Space_Pirate and StarGazerFromHell