Beyond the Horizon

43. Injection

FROM: ishikawa@horizonlaboratories.gov

TO: rashi@horizonlaboratories.gov

SUBJECT: VC-221

Marked as Highly Important!

Dear Officer Rashi,

It is with deep regret that I find myself composing this message. I have been over most of the audio and video recordings in the last three days, and have spoken to our infirmary team regarding VC-221. While the injuries inflicted upon him were in no way life-threatening, it has been determined through a rather thorough investigation conducted by both myself and Chief Officer Masahiro that they were inflicted without just cause.

The fact of the matter is: you went overboard, Rashi. Plain and simple. We have in our possession several complaints made in the past few weeks regarding your sector and the treatment of VC-221. The amount of resources and time that went into acquiring this specimen far outweigh whatever petty rivalry you seem to believe the two of you have.

After thorough discussions with the medical team and Chief Officer Masahiro, we have come to the decision that VC-221 will be removed from your sector and relocated effective immediately.

I have scheduled a meeting between the three of us for this upcoming Monday, 9 AM. Please be advised that any irrational decisions made within the next few days will be taken as an act of retaliation and will be taken up the chain as needed.

Regards,

Ishikawa Hoshitake

⁂

Nezumi hadn't returned to his cell in Section M. For the past three days, he'd been dozing on and off in the infirmary. The brilliant LED lights peppered along the ceiling dimmed and brightened at regular intervals, giving Nezumi the first sense of time he'd had since arriving at Horizon Labs.

          He didn't remember what happened after Rashi knocked him unconscious with the buzz baton, but he'd been told, by the creepy doctor in the white lab coat and a skittish intern who didn't like to be in the room with Nezumi alone, that Rashi had kicked him in the face, the ribs, and the stomach after he'd collapsed to the ground. Rashi had continued to kick him until he'd been stopped by another surge of guards who responded to the video footage of Rashi beating Nezumi senseless.

          Nezumi didn't remember the incident, but the bruises marring his body confirmed their story. There was a deep, purpling bruise on his cheek and below his eye. His right side burned as if one of his ribs had been cracked at best, broken at worst―if it had, Lab Coat hadn't told him about it―and his legs ached.

          He hadn't felt this bad since the day he woke up in the Lab.

          Nezumi stared up at the ceiling. On the outside, he appeared calm and calculated, the subservient puppet the Lab expected him to be. On the inside, he was seething.

          Inukashi wanted him to fight back, come up with a new plan, and escape. But if Rashi was going to smack him around simply for existing, Nezumi had no idea where to start. The days that had gone by since Nezumi woke in the Lab blended together into one singular nightmare, a period of almost unbearable tension and strain interwoven with flashes of burning anger and frozen sorrow. Those moments of crazy rebellion shuddered through his mind now, encouraging him to continue searching for an answer. There had to be some chip in Horizon Lab's armor, some angle he could exploit.

          Nezumi didn't have much of a plan. Escape didn't mean much of anything. A number of concepts flitted through his mind as he lay in the infirmary bed, recovering and plotting. None of them worked out. In all scenarios, Rashi pumped him full of bullets and left him bleeding out on the tiles. He didn't know how long it would take for the Lab to give him enough wiggle room to figure out another way to break free. There was no telling how many days, months, years he would spend suffering in this place―but it would be worth it. It would be worth it to put the ones who'd taken every good thing in Nezumi's life away from him into the ground.