As well as the crazies and the dead, there were others who came down into the train station. These were people that Nova wouldn't look twice at on a busy street, but here they were, joining the queue behind Nova and waiting for their own hit.
She debated leaving the station. It wouldn't be hard to turn and walk back up the stairs, except that every fibre of her being yearned for another hit. It was an urge she couldn't fight and so she stayed in line.
"Ah, fresh blood I see," said the man at the ticket booth when Nova stepped forward.
She pressed her lips together and stared at the man without talking.
"Well?" The man said.
"H-how much?" she asked.
"Wow, you are new," the man chuckled, pointing to a cardboard sign in the window of the ticket booth. One hundred credits.
"Oh," Nova said.
She sunk her hands into her pockets, hoping that she had left some cash in her jacket.
"Ah!" she said, pulling out a handful of notes.
She didn't bother to count them, at that moment she could barely tell which way was up.
"Here's your change, and here's your pill," the man said, pushing the money and the drug under the glass screen of the ticket booth.
"Can I have two?" she whispered, her lips cracking.
"One pill at a time. That's the rule," he said, waving at the man behind Nova.
Nova snatched the pill and money, shoving them deep into her jacket pockets.
The man behind her elbowed her out of the way and she stumbled across the platform. She hobbled to the nearest corner and stared at the mouldy bricks. She wanted to swallow the pill right there. It burned a hole in her pocket and her hand kept slipping down to caress the tablet. In her mind's eye she could see a big green pill twirling in black space.
"No," she chided herself. She had to save it. She had to keep it until she absolutely needed it. She'd taken the last one too soon, what if she hadn't been able to find another hit? Any thought of giving the pill to Cal or Tanguin had died. It was hers. She'd earned it, and when the cravings became too much, she'd take it. But not now… not yet.
She bit hard on her lip until the tangy taste of blood filled her mouth.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nova made it up the subway stairs and into brightness. The sun shone into her bloodshot eyes and made her squint in pain.
She stumbled away from the subway entrance and into the shade of the closest building. Her head throbbed but knowing that she had a pill spare made her heart flutter. Anew high crept through her and a pleasant tipsiness gripped her body.
She swayed from side to side and looked down at her open hand to examine the scribbled map. She frowned at her hand but the map wasn't there. She turned her hand over to look at the other side but the piece of paper wasn't there either.
"Grishnak," she said, looking up and down the street. She didn't recognise any of the buildings. She couldn't even have said whether she'd been here before, except that it was the only entrance down to the train station.
She looked left, looked right, and then stumbled down the road to her left. She tried to look normal, to blend in with the rest of the people. In her own mind she did a fantastic job. In reality, her footsteps took her back and forth across the footpath in a zig-zag pattern that made the rest of the pedestrians cross to the other side of the street.
Nova battled on even as sunset descended. The streets got darker as the sun's light faded and the dim lamps flickered on and off. Despite her best efforts she found herself going deeper into the slums of the city as night approached.
She spun in circles. She tried to stop, to pick a direction, but her body kept tilting to the left and she was forced to follow it. It was like her head was getting heavier with every passing second and it weighed her down, pulling her towards the rough pavement.
Through her blurred, spinning vision, Nova saw a group of men approaching. In her stomach she felt a deadly sense of Déjà vu. The men smiled at her and formed a rough circle around her spinning body.
"Got any Ralium?"
"What? No," Nova stuttered. But her slurred voice gave her away, even if her jerky uncontrolled movements hadn't.
Rough hands grabbed at her arms and patted down her sides. Fingers slid into her pockets, searching for the shiny, green pill.
The thought of them taking the pill sent Nova into a panic. Her body came back under her command and she lashed out, shaking her attackers loose. She snatched for the gun at her waist and fired at the men surrounding her.
She was usually a crack shot; today the bullets went in all directions. She didn't pay any attention to the wayward balls of energy, keeping her finger on the trigger and spinning in circles.
The continuous spray of blue plasma bolts sent the group of men running, but they weren't fast enough. The wayward spray of shots slammed into their backs and they crumpled to the ground with solid thumps.
Nova smiled as they fell. She was so engrossed in the bright lights firing out of her gun that she didn't even notice when all of the men were dead.
It wasn't until her gun overheated and a burst of pain shot through her hand that Nova was knocked out of her trance. She dropped the gun with a cry and looked at her red, blistered hands.
Bodies spread out around her, at least seven of them. Gaping wounds smouldered black and the scent of burning flesh filled the air. Black marks dotted the buildings where her shots had gone wide and the street looked like a battleground.
She took a deep breath. Night had descended and the gunfire was bound to bring others. She had to protect the pill.
She snatched the gun from the ground and ran down the street away from the dead bodies. The fear and adrenalin pumped the drug faster through her veins and her head sunk deeper. She saw ghosts and ghouls on either side of her, and the buildings seemed to morph until they had faces which leaned down and tried to eat her.
The sights made Nova run even faster. She had no idea where she was, and in the depths of her mind she knew she couldn't run forever, but that didn't stop her trying.
Amongst the darkness and the hallucinations she spotted a bright light. It was as if a shining orb was guiding her way through the darkness. She sprinted straight for it.
In reality, the streets were still dark and she was running towards a dark object barely discernible in the night. But somewhere in her mind she recognised the shape for what it was: Crusader.
She ran. With the last of her strength she collapsed through Crusader's side door and blacked out.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cal and Tanguin looked up at the massive house from the thin cover of the bush.
"Why would someone who can afford to live in a place like that be dosing people with a street drug?" Tanguin asked.
"Maybe that's how they afford it," Cal said. "We should assess the property anyway."
Tanguin nodded and stood from the bushes. She sauntered past the mansion, counting the windows out of the corner of her eye. Cal hovered beside her, his processors whirring. They made two passes and stopped next to the van.
Tanguin forced a smile and kicked at a small rock, giving Cal time to assess the property. They tried to keep casual, but on the silent and very upper-class street they stood out like the Easter Bunny at Christmas.
"Lots of rooms," Tanguin said.
"It's well kept; I predict there are many people working here."
"So what now?" Tanguin asked.
They turned back to the mansion.
***
Meanwhile, inside the mansion, a man looked down on the woman and the robot. He smiled at them but there was a slight twist in his stomach, a twinge of fear.
"Get them in your sights," he said to the man at his side.
The man in question knelt by the window sill and looked down the sight of a long sniper rifle.
The curtains hiding the two men ruffled in the breeze. The man giving the orders glared down at the pair. They kept looking at his house, and he knew exactly
why.
"Make sure you get the robot first, he'll pose the biggest threat," he said.
The two men steadied their breathing. The first opened his mouth to give the command but before he could speak the girl and the robot walked away.
"Never mind," he muttered, turning away from the window.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
"Crusader is sending an emergency signal. Nova is back, and she's unconscious." Cal's voice quaked as his motor's whirred into overdrive and he zipped down the street.
Tanguin sprinted to keep up with him, her heart in her throat. A cold sweat sprung across her forehead and prickled down her neck. "I hope Nova is okay," she said, gasping for air.
Cal didn't respond.
They dashed to the ship and the door slid open to welcome them. Tanguin grabbed hold of the handrail to pull herself in and stopped dead. Lying in front of her, sprawled across Crusader's floor was Nova's body.
Tanguin collapsed to her knees by her friend's side. "Nova! What happened?"
Crusader's voice filled the loading bay. "She ran up like she was being chased. I opened the door and she fell straight through, unconscious. Her symptoms are the same as before, blood pressure and neural activity are reaching dangerous levels."
"Is there anything we can do?" Tanguin asked.
"No. Just hope that she wakes up again soon."
***
Nova's eyes fluttered open. The familiar feel of her own bed cushioned her back and Tanguin gazed down at her with a concerned frown.
It was the most emotion she had ever seen on Tanguin's face. Usually the dark-haired woman was an unreadable slate.
Nova's head spun. It was as if her brain was sloshing from side to side within her skull. She took a deep breath and nausea rushed through her stomach. Her skin felt as though it was on fire and she fought a deep urge to scratch until it peeled off in tattered shreds.
Already a voice whispered into her head, urging her to take the pill. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused on her memory of the train station and the stiff bodies shoved into the darkest corners. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she reached into her jacket pocket and closed her fist around the pill.
She bit her lip and looked up at Tanguin. It would be so easy to slip the pill into her mouth, and no one would know. She'd be blissfully free of her pounding headache and the fiery ants that squirmed below her skin, but another part of her knew that this was her one chance. If she didn't do the right thing now then she was as good as dead.
She ran her fingers through her hair but when they came free a bunch of hair came with it. Black strands circled her fingers, dull and lifeless.
"What the—" Nova choked.
Tanguin's frown deepened. "It started last night," she whispered.
Nova ran her hand over her head and found more bald patches, whole segments of hair fell free and coated her pillow, whispering through the air like falling leaves.
She ripped her clenched fist free of her pocket and thrust it towards Tanguin. She couldn't meet her friend's eyes, and instead glared at the ceiling. The muscles in her arm jerked, as if trying to pull her hand back.
"No," she said to herself, forcing her hand open.
Tanguin's eyes opened wide, her mouth dropping.
"Take it!" Nova commanded.
Tanguin snatched the green pill away and stalked from the room with stiff restraint.
As soon as Tanguin's hand clasped around the pill Nova filled with rage. How dare she take the pill! That black-haired thief! Nova's mind raced with ways she would do away with Tanguin and take the pill back.
"No," Nova repeated. Her voice was less sure this time.
It felt as if her mind was doing battle with itself. Like her brain had split in half and the two were fighting inside her head. She closed her eyes and wished for the thumping headache to go away, it seared behind her eyeballs, pressing against them and making her wince. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes and created wet patches on her pillow amongst the fallen hair.
***
"She handed it over," Tanguin said, amazed. "There's still some of her left."
"But for how long?" Cal asked.
The green pill lay in the centre of his workbench in Crusader's loading bay, illuminated by bright lights. Cal scraped a small amount from the side of the pill and dropped it into a vial. He pushed the vial into a beeping machine set into Crusader's wall.
The machine whirred into action and in a matter of minutes the attached monitor sprung to life with colourful graphs.
"Well?" Tanguin said.
"It tells us what's in it but whether that will help at all… I don't know."
"What are you going to do with it?"
"Send it through to the doctor; hopefully he will have a look at it and know what to do."
"Surely that's the first thing the hospital would have done?" Tanguin said.
"If they could get hold of a pill. It took a lot of Nova's will to hand it to you and you're her friend. From what I've seen of this drug I don't think anyone would hand a sample over to a doctor."
"The victims destroy the evidence. It's practically self-cleaning," Tanguin said.
"Yes. It's disgusting in its genius."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Nova writhed in the sheets, her eyes squeezed shut. She ground her teeth together and clenched her fists.
"Cal! Cal! I can't do this! I can't wait any longer!"
Cal said they were waiting to hear back from the doctor, but that didn't stop the ants from crawling under Nova's skin or the constant burn running through her head.
Her mind raced out of control, thoughts jumping without any kind of order or sense. Random images flashed up into her consciousness and her head ached from the battle raging inside of her. Sometimes she saw things that weren't really there and yet she had no way of knowing if they were hallucinations from the drug or if she was catching glimpses of other points in time; her power unleashed and uncontrollable with the drug in her system.
Her body burned with rage. At first she couldn't say what she was angry with. It seemed as if the whole world was conspiring to send her into a meltdown and she started noticing little things that scratched at her patience.
Tanguin kept talking to Crusader as they searched through the Cloud. Their continuous chatter about drugs hammered Nova's head until she screamed at them to shut up. They ignored her which only served to make her madder.
She thrashed, straining to break free of the rope that tied her to her bed but the knots stayed firm. The fibres dug into Nova's wrists and chafed away the skin until blood dribbled into her mattress, but she barely felt the sting.
It was exquisite torture, because so much energy pulsed through her veins that she felt as if she could jump right through Crusader's walls. Instead, she was forced to lie on the bed, unmoving.
She arched her back, every muscle taut and when that didn't work she smashed her head back against the mattress. She did it again and again until her thoughts were so muddled that the room spun over her head.
***
"What's she doing?" Tanguin said, running to the door of Nova's sleeping pod.
Cal raced behind.
Nova thrashed from side to side, her arms and legs convulsing. She yelled and swore and slammed her head against the hard mattress.
"I'll kill you! If you don't let me go I'll kill you all!"
"She's going to hurt herself," Tanguin said, terrified.
"There's nothing we can do. If we release her she could do even more damage."
"You useless robot! I own you. Let me go this instant or I'll report you to robot enforcement!"
"Nova, please calm down." Tanguin stepped forward.
Nova ripped her head to the side and gnashed her teeth, grazing Tanguin's leg and leaving a trail of bloody spit.
Tanguin jumped back to the door, tears stinging the corners of her eyes.
"And you! I should never have been friendly to you, you freak! All the Connected should have
died! If you don't release me I'll make sure you do."
Tanguin took a deep breath and tried not to let Nova's words affect her.
"Nova, I'm sorry, but you have to stay there."
Nova lifted her head and bashed her skull back against the bed, her eyes rolling.
"She'll do major damage if she keeps doing that," Cal said.
Tanguin ran in and snatched Nova's head, holding it firm against the mattress. It took all of her strength to fight against Nova's super-human might and hold her down. She had to look away from Nova's face, unable to confront the wild eyes and frothing mouth.
Cal flew up beside her and with a thick strap he tied Nova's head flat to the bed so that only her eyes could move. Once secured, he and Tanguin pulled away from the sleeping pod. Tanguin pressed the large orange button by the door and it slid shut. The door blocked most of Nova's yelling and the rest of Crusader became eerily quiet.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"Communication incoming from the hospital," Crusader said.
"Hello?" the doctor's face appeared on screen. He squinted at them with bloodshot eyes, surrounded by wrinkles.
"Doctor, have you found anything?" Cal asked.
"Yes, thanks to your analysis we now know the active ingredients. I'm afraid there's only one way to get people off the drug without killing them."
"Well?"
"All we can do is keep giving them smaller and smaller doses," the doctor replied. "After a month their bodies won't be reliant on it, although there's no telling how long the after-effects will last."
Tanguin smacked her palm against the metal bench. "That drug is destroying her body! There must be another way."
"I'm afraid not. I would have started with my patients but I don't have any of the drug here. Where did you get it? Can you get more?"
Junkie Page 4