Inhumanity

Chapter 8

I don't know how I managed it but I made it back to the engine, I'm practically about the crawl over the threshold when the door slides open for me. "Saw you coming back up the train" ben says as he rushes by. I roll my eyes and drag myself into the engine, Javi is sat at the front muttering under his breath. I collapse into a seat with about as much subtly as a rhino and he swings round "someone's feeling the affects of a night of bad decisions" he says. I hold my head in my hands "not you too". Melanie and Jinju come out of the cabin engrossed in a conversation before they fall silent noticing me. I cringe a little when I feel someone place a hand on my shoulder "why did Wilford think it a good idea to let me experience the terrible nightmare that is a hangover" I grumble. I then lean back in the chair closing my eyes "I think it may have something to do with people learning from bad decisions they make and therefore never doing them again" javi suggests. I sigh "and he didn't give that function an off switch".

I then feel a surge of nausea and thankfully am able to grab the nearest bin before spilling my guts. Melanie grabs my chin and glances into my eyes "okay you've never thrown up before, no matter how drunk you may have gotten so what did you take?" She demands. I snort "not my mother", then I gracefully throw up again. She shakes her head "I can either have jinju analyse this lovely sample you've provided or you can tell us, either way it'll be a while till we let you anywhere near any alcohol. You can decide how long that period of sobriety lasts". I glance to javi to help me out but he raises an eyebrow "I was just experimenting, don't really know what it was. Some girl gave it to me" she bends down "got a description?". Unfortunately my memory is completely blank which is odd but probably a side effect of the alcohol and drugs. I bite my lip "good kisser?" She straightens up "until further notice you're grounded. Javi deactivate her chip" I'm too worn out to argue, I just stare into the bin as Javi types in the deactivation codes "done" She straightens up "now I have a train to keep in order so try to get some work done" she orders before marching out, Jinju following her out. "I could carry out a quick internal sweep if you want" Javi offers. I raise my head, giving him a thumb up "nah I'll be fine" I mumble.

The rest of the morning passes fairly slowly, Javi and Ben work around me whilst i sit hunched over my bucket. By noon I'm starting to feel a lot better so the bin is no longer needed. I stand up "right give me something to do or I'll go mad" I declare. Ben points to a laptop "keep an eye on that would you, just keeping an eye on the track integrity". Easy job, though at least it's something. I imagine this grounding session is going to be a long haul affair so keeping my mind ticking over is something that's going to be challenging.

I try to replay the events of last night but all I can remember is voices and some lights "how is it possible that I've lost a few hours of memory?" I ask nobody is particular. I spin round to see the other two looking at me "meant to one of the benefits of a computer mind, crystal clear memories". Bennet sits down next to me "maybe an internal sweep might not be such a bad idea?" He offers. I close my eyes and quickly performs a quick sweep myself "nothing's showing up on the quick self scans usually if something's wrong it would but there's nothing" then a terrible thought hits me "unless it's hardware related". Javi leans forward "that'd be hard to do, you were made to be pretty hard wearing, you could probably even last a few days out there" he turns his head to the window. I then bring my hand up to my neck "when I was taken hostage he got a pretty good hit with his gun to my neck area, say something disconnected ever so slightly, it'd explain why I couldn't remember Ed's death at first"

Javi tilts his head "we just assumed it was a trauma induced amnesia" Ben starts to fell around my neck area "there's a lump, pretty small just here" he states. He turns to Javi, we need Mel up here now" he orders tensely. I start to panic "this isn't good" I mumble. He takes a deep breath "don't worry we just need to repair the damage" he reassured me. I gulp "what if there's not the parts, or it's worse" he doesn't reply. Ive has this injury for days, I've been moving around probably making the problem worse and worse. I clasp my hands together to stop them shaking and try to focus on anything but the possible damage that I somehow missed.