“What does he mean?” Zora asked Ailsa.
“Shut up,” she said.
Zora crossed her arms. “I can’t help you if—”
“Zora, just tell us how to get past the Gards at this clinic.”
“It’s actually a Xemura clinic,” said Zora with a sheepish smile.
Ailsa smacked her across the face. “You stupid bitch, do you think I’m screwing around with my daughter’s future here?” She hit her again. “Stupid upworlder. You have no clue what life is like for the rest of us.”
“I—” started Zora.
“You look down on us like farmers on their livestock. So arrogant,” Ailsa said.
“I have a job to do,” said Zora. “I advance the human race through science. I am—”
“You prey on downworld. You people keep all the wealth for yourselves.”
“Why shouldn’t we?” asked Zora. “We produce it.”
“You corral us. You experiment on us without our permission, you treat us like things to be toyed with as you please.”
Zora crossed her arms and looked away.
“But we’re human beings, just like you, free, equal. We want the same—” started Ailsa.
“You’re rabble! You’re the reason this planet is dying! Now we have to find ways to survive – new ways,” said Zora.
“Ladies,” said Gabriel in a deep voice, “you’re going to—”
Texa opened her eyes. “Can you guys shut up!”
“How are we getting in, Zora?” asked Ailsa.
Gabriel pulled into the parking lot of Xemura Clinic No. 23. The wide, flat building snaked through an expertly landscaped forest on a hillside. Villas and small farms dotted the landscape around it.
Just beyond and above the clinic was another high, cement wall. Green, flowing fields framed little homes on the other side. Floating blimp cameras and weapons platforms created a two-kilometer high barrier between them and the other protectorate.
“What’s in that other protectorate?” asked Ailsa. “And how far are we from 13477?”
Gabriel shrugged.
Ailsa turned to Zora with a harsh stare. “How are we going to do this?”
Zora smirked. She straightened her back and put her hands on her hips. “So, all of this abuse and now the proud downworlder depends on the know-nothing upworlder.”
“Well?” said Ailsa.
Texa looked up at Zora and smiled. “You’re nice. You’re just scared.”
Zora’s eyes darkened. She looked out the window at the clinic. “It isn’t right, what Xemura is doing, what he did to you. You did kill yourselves though?” She turned around and fixed Ailsa in a quizzical stare. “How do I know I’m not risking my neck for someone who’s going to turn around and suicide again when things get tough?”
Ailsa’s face fell. “That’s not—”
“You killed her!” Zora yelled. “And you talk to me about helping her? You’re not fit to be her mother!”
Gabriel pulled a gun from under the front passenger seat. “Maybe this will come in handy, darling?”
“Enough talk.” Ailsa grabbed the gun. She turned to Gabriel. “Does it work? Where did you get it?”
“The dead soldiers,” he said.
She pointed it at the roof of the taxi.
“Not in here! You’ll damage it!” yelled Gabriel. “And who knows what else. Those things go through a lot and keep going.”
“What if it doesn’t work?” asked Zora. “We’ll go in there and be prisoners.”
“Relax,” said Ailsa. “You’re an upworlder. You’ll be fine.” She opened the door and grabbed Texa’s hand. “Come on, baby girl. Zora’s going to help us.”
The three of them made their way to the front door. Gabriel edged the taxi’s rear bumper up to the front steps and killed the engine.
Ailsa passed through the front door of the clinic. Zora and Texa passed through ahead of her. A shiny young woman sat behind a bright white plastic desk. A great, gray and green tree grew from smooth stone floor to atrium ceiling above them.
The woman looked up. Ailsa brought the gun up and pointed it at her.
“Get out from behind there!” Ailsa yelled. She pointed the gun down and pulled the trigger. A crater opened in the smooth granite floor between them. Ailsa stared at the hole a moment. Oh my God.
The woman’s eyes got big and she tilted her head.
Ailsa walked around and grabbed the back of her neck. “Come on.”
“Go!” Ailsa yelled to Zora. They walked past empty operating rooms and offices.
“This place is abandoned,” said Zora. “It’s not a good sign.”
“Zora, I’m scared,” said Texa.
Zora put her arm around Texa’s shoulders.
“Get your hands off my little girl,” said Ailsa. She pushed the stiff-necked receptionist ahead of her.
Texa stopped and turned around. “I asked her to, Mom, okay? Is that okay with you?”
Ailsa brushed past them, then turned around. “Well,” she said to Zora, “which one is it?”
“I’m heading for the last one on the right,” Zora said as she brushed past Ailsa. “The major operating theatre is usually back there.”
A short, dark hallway opened into a two story atrium illuminated with direct sunlight filtered through opaque ceiling tiles. Three unblemished steel operating tables waited in the middle of the room. Next to each was a series of screens, tubes and wires.
“Texa, you go first,” said Ailsa. She forced the stiff-necked woman into a seated position behind the tables, in the corner farthest from the door.
“You must all wear proper protective garb in the operating theater,” the receptionist said. “You may find it in the closets out in the hallway.”
Ailsa turned to her. “Why don’t—”
“Leave it!” yelled Zora. “It’s not even human. Help me get Texa up on the table.”
Ailsa walked over and hoisted Texa by the armpits. “Really? Are they that—”
Zora rolled her eyes. “I’m going to put her under.”
“Is that really necessary?” asked Ailsa.
“Does she have any known allergies?”
Ailsa frowned.
Zora applied a quick injection to Texa and she was unconscious. She selected a long, tubular metal device with a black, rubber suction cup on the end. She pulled up Texa’s duck-and-egg-patterned shirt to reveal her swollen abdomen.
Zora shook her head.
“What is it?” Ailsa asked. The current ebbed. She took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders.
“You are not physicians,” said the android. “Sounding silent alarm.”
Ailsa glared at Zora. “Is she kidding?”
“No,” said Zora, “and he put the tracker in with the new method.”
“I thought you put it in,” said Ailsa.
“No, it was Erik. I… didn’t…”
“Anyway,” said Ailsa. “Just get it out.”
“What if it leaves a scar?”
“Just get it out! Now!” yelled Ailsa.
Zora grimaced and tossed the tubular device to the floor. She grabbed a scalpel and made a small incision above Texa’s belly button and below the reducing swelling. She stuck a finger in, hooked it and pulled.
“It doesn’t want to come,” Zora said. She poked a second finger in and the incision expanded.
Ailsa’s stomach tensed up and she looked away.
“It might be attached to her uterus,” said Zora. She looked up at Ailsa. “What do you want to do?”
Ailsa froze. Rip it out and no grandchildren. Wait and Xemura’s goons get us.
“Ailsa.” Zora glared at her.
“I don’t know! What do you think?” Ailsa leaned on the other steel table. Her head swirled and her stomach turned.
Zora pursed her lips. “Let me jiggle it a bit.” She jammed her two fingers hard into the open wound.
Something cracked. Ailsa bent over and took deep breaths. “I think… I�
��m going to be—”
“I got it!” yelled Zora. “I got it! I had to break it in two, then the clamp lost power.” She fused the wound and taped gauze over it.
“Your turn,” she said to Ailsa.
“No sedatives.”
Zora moved to the next table over and tapped it. “Hurry up.”
Ailsa limped over and laid down. “Mine’s in my leg,” she said.
Zora undid her pants and pulled them down to reveal the red swelling on her thigh.
Ailsa looked away and cleared her throat. “This is just a little weird.”
Zora guffawed. “I don’t swing that way. Tall, dark and handsome is my type.”
Ailsa glared at her. I saw him first.
“You ready for this?” Zora asked. She held up a shiny steel scalpel. The ceiling lights reflected off of it and Ailsa blinked her eyes shut.
“Just do it, bitch.”
Zora slashed her leg. Blood oozed out and pooled on the metal table.
Pain flooded through Ailsa. She gritted her teeth. Stop, stop. All I wanted was to end the pain so how did this happen?
“It’s hooked into your sartorius. Hold on.”
The crack vibrated her bone and a jagged piece ripped into her.
“Ow!” Ailsa whined. She sat up.
“Lay down! Almost done.” Zora pulled the two sides of the wound together and fused them.
Ailsa’s head swam and she gritted her teeth. Each prick of the needle caused her jaw to ache more. “Would you… just… finish… already!” she muttered.
“It’s done. It’s done!” said Zora. She ripped off her plastic gloves. “Pull your pants up. I’ll grab some antibiotics, then Texa and—” Zora stopped. Her face froze.
Ailsa raised herself up. A soldier brought his rifle butt down on her forehead.
Ailsa sat up and hit her head on the bottom of a steel table. “Damnnit!” she whispered.
She crawled out and got to her feet. She put weight on the leg with the incision and collapsed on her side to the red granite floor. She struggled to take in air.
“I just can’t do it. I can’t.” Ailsa sobbed.
She got up on two feet again and leaned on the steel table. The shiny white android still sat behind it. “What the hell happened?” Ailsa asked.
“Xemura Security arrived and removed the disallowed personnel, to include Dr. Zora Collins, the juvenile and… They did not take you. This was against policy. I am sounding the silent alarm once more,” said the android.
Ailsa groaned. “Where did they take them?”
“You are unauthorized personnel.”
Ailsa limped over to the android and slapped its face. “Where did they go?”
“Violent behavior against Xemura corporate property is considered a severe crime under the category of property destruction and is heard by arbitration panel 37240. This crime has been reported,” the machine said.
Ailsa screamed. She headed for the door. “Texa,” she called.
There was no answer.
“Texa!” There was a scrap of cloth up ahead. She bent down and picked it up. It was the duck and egg pattern from Texa’s shirt. Blood stained it now.
“Texa!” She yelled it louder this time. “Zora!”
She made it to the entrance. The frosted doors whooshed open for her. She walked out. The parking lot was empty.
Ailsa sat down on the front stoop of the clinic and cried.
I’ve lost her. The one good thing in my life. She’s gone. I’ll never get her back now. Gabriel either abandoned me or is being corrected. It’s all my fault.
But why did they leave me behind?
She let out a deep breath and sagged. She buried her head in her arms. I deserve to be like this. I don’t deserve Texa or Gabriel or anything. I killed my baby girl. The tears poured down her cheeks.
A long time passed. Ailsa did not want to get up. She did not want to open her eyes. She did not want to be alive. A wrenching pain clawed at her gut.
A tiny red and black bird landed on her shoulder. It dug its pointy claws into her flesh. She shrugged and it flew off.
The bird came back. She looked up. There were a half-dozen of them standing around her. Some pecked at the decorative landscaping but others watched her. Their tiny little eyes flickered here and there.
“Don’t look at me!” she whispered. “I’m death. I’m failure. I’ll screw you up, get you killed, poor, precious little birds.” She buried her head in her arms again.
I won’t look up. I won’t move. I won’t open my eyes. Someone will come for me. Someone will tell me where to go or what to do. I’ll take the correction or the uplift or whatever. I deserve to suffer.
Ailsa plodded down the empty road from the clinic against her better judgment. “I can’t even give up right,” she whispered. “I don’t even have the willpower for—”
She stopped. It was Texa. Her influence made me strong. She was angry when the Gards killed those men. She was sad when I killed us. Without her, I have no strength left.
She collapsed to the ground. “I am such a failure!” she yelled.
Get up. Get up. You have to find her. Not just for her but for you, too.
She stood up again. There was a red spot on her pants where Zora made the incision.
A loud beeping noise sounded behind her. She turned. A black car approached. Ailsa looked up. Gabriel?
The car hit the ground unevenly and bounced around before coming to a complete stop. The driver rolled his window down.
“Hop in,” he said. “I can give you a ride, Lizzy.”
Ailsa scowled. Who is this guy? The inside of the vehicle was dark in the approaching twilight.
“It’s me,” he said.
“Gabriel?”
“Who’s Gabriel?” he asked in an angry tone of voice.
This is a trick. They sent him. She took a step back.
He activated the cabin light. The face was familiar. He had greying teeth, stubble and a face that sagged slightly.
“It’s me! Milton!”
“Milton? You look different.”
“I’m just a little cleaned up is all.”
“What are you— Did you go through uplift?” she asked.
“It gets ugly around here at night, Lizzy. You should come with me. I have a place. I can keep you safe,” he said.
She walked around the car and got into the backseat.
“I’m going to take care of you, Lizzy. You’re safe now. I promise.”
“How did you get this car?” Ailsa asked Milton. She looked around the interior. The front panels were cracked and the upholstery was worn down.
“I don’t have much,” he said, “but things are way, way better for me now. The uplift changed everything for me. I know you missed it but… yes, yes, I know I shouldn’t pick up a woman… but I know her. I know her. She’s a… fugitive? Maybe! We don’t know that for sure yet!”
Ailsa looked out the window. The car sped over dark hills. Things moved down there. She spied homes, but there was no light.
“Are we crossing protectorate borders?” she asked.
“I said, we don’t yet— Oh shit.” He turned to her. “Lizzy, are you a fugitive?”
Ailsa stared at him blankly. I probably am. “I don’t know,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
Milton turned the back of his head to her and tapped the nape of his neck. A tiny metal box protruded. “Protecty Central says someone matching your description is wanted. Do you know anything about this?”
Her eyes widened and she stared at the box. “No,” she whispered. “What’s Protecty Central and what’s that box?”
Milton laughed. “Oh, it’s nothing, just a thing they gave me in uplift. I sent them your picture so they can see if it’s you.”
“What do you mean, you ‘sent them my picture’?” Ailsa asked. “Why don’t you let me out in the central district?”
“I… no, Lizzy. I love you,” he said. “I want to be a good citizen of P
rotectorate 13491. Yes, I agreed to the terms. No, I do not wish to be in breach. Goddamnit.” Milton shook his head. He clawed at the metal box at the back of his neck.
The car careened to the right and descended rapidly.
“Milton!” she yelled. “Stop!” She grabbed the wheel and righted the car but the decent continued. “Pull up! Pull up!”
Milton groaned. He got two fingers on the box and pulled. “Why won’t you… come out, goddamnit!”
The car dived left. The golden arches of a Taco McDonalds invaded her view through the windshield.
Milton twisted the box. It came out. He laughed. “I got it! I’m free!”
He passed out.
Ailsa dragged Milton’s unconscious body out of the remains of the car. His foot was wedged under his door.
Hamburger buns flew over their heads and razor sharp chopping blades cut nonexistent tomatoes against the stained cement. Ketchup spewed out of a tube in spurts at high pressure like a severed artery.
She dislodged his foot. She dragged him through a puddle of ketchup and over the counter where an ordering kiosk repeated, “Can I take your order?”
Ailsa stopped and stared a moment. I remember this. I don’t remember being here but I remember this place. A dollop of ketchup landed on her face from a pressurized tube. She licked it. Why does that taste so good?
She pulled Milton’s ketchup-soaked body out of the remains of the restaurant and into the parking lot. Cars raced off around her at high speed. A crowd gathered to view the carnage.
A woman screamed. “He’s dead, oh my God, all that blood!” She fainted and hit the ground head-first.
Ailsa looked up. “It’s just ketchup,” she whispered.
She stepped back in and found a cache of water bottles. She grabbed as many of the icy containers as she could. Outside, she dumped them one by one on Milton.
She kneeled down next to him. “Wake up, Milton!” She shook him. His head flopped from side to side.
A Guardian aircar hovered above them.
“Papers, please,” said the Guardian. He was the same height as all of them, medium build and well-muscled. His white suit glimmered from the reflections of the fire. His identical partner paced the edges of the crowd.
Defiant, She Advanced: Legends of Future Resistance Page 21