Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

Fifty-Two

I nod and move around to carry Casshern back to his room. He grabs my shoulder.

"I want my baby... I want... I want to see my baby..."

"Don't worry, when Dr. Heckler is done looking at her I'll bring her to you."

He falls into silence as I put him back on the bed and cover him up a little. I close the door and walk down the hallway to Sakina's door and knock on it. I wish R would hurry up and come back. Things are starting to get a little awkward around here with just the three of us and me being the odd man out. The only one who seems to enjoy my company is Octavia but the conversations are not as foregoing as I'd like. It's hard to talk to a chicken...

Sakina opens the door a crack and I look up at the sound.

"Hey, I just wanted to let you know that Dr. Heckler is here to look at Verona and Cash."

"Verona?"

"That's what Casshern named the baby."

"Oh, okay. I'll be out in a minute."

I nod and go back to see what the consensus is for the baby.

****************************

Dr. Heckler is rocking Verona back and forth, humming softly when she hears me coming in.

"How is she?"

"Fit as a fiddle and then some. A perfect little girl... I thought Ramey was supposed to be with you?"

"He... was... I think he's got bigger things to deal with than all of this at the moment."

"Are you referring to the odd report that I saw on the news?"

"Yeah... I don't know what's going on. We've been going in and out of places and trucking our way to the Badlands for months now and when we finally get close enough to make a difference, Matt calls Ramey out of the blue. He sounded really scared and of course R wasn't going to leave his little brother. Right after that, that weird announcement on the news about him killing my parents came out and now I think he's on the run. I mean... I just don't get it. When we went there, it looked like my parents had been there for a bit before we got there and the only other person that was there... Oh shit..."

"What is it?"

"Triffin... I bet he has something to do with this."

"Has something to do with what?"

We both turn as Sakina walks out of hallway and into the kitchen. I don't know how long R is going to be gone so I guess it would be advantageous to tell her what's happening.

"I got attacked by a blood-albino before we made it to your house." Sakina turns quickly with an angry look. "I'm not a blood-albino; that's not how albinos work... I'm not a danger to anyone here... the point of the matter though is that when R decided to bring me to the Badlands, we stopped by my parents' house to get some clothes for me. While we were there, we found my parents murdered in my bedroom, their entrails pulled out and a message written in blood on my walls. When we escaped, Triffin was there trying to capture the both of us for some reason. A little later, we actually did get captured by him and he told the RDC that I had been captured and even got a certificate for it due to a bounty or something. I think when we escaped, he had to tell the RDC about his slip up and so now they are pulling out all the stops to try and find R."

"You just said that blood-albino was collecting a bounty on you. Why would he go after R? I didn't think that Empties started carrying bounties now..."

"They don't." Dr. Heckler said as she handed Verona to me.

Sakina looked over and stumbled back into the counter.