The Countdown (A Project 863-Inspired Story!)

Day 8/10

Nov. 11, 2002/Nov. 15, 2002

He glanced down at my feet and then looked up at me. Then he sighed. "If we're quick about it." he said.

I followed Osamu down the steps and away from Nathaniel, leaving him to read my half-begun letter.

I followed Osamu back to the place where I'd met him. In the staircase. Looking now, the wall had been smashed open.

"That's how I got out," Osamu told me, his voice tight. "After you passed out, I clawed my way out of there, with my tail between my legs. I ended up running straight into Deborah, and she immediately knew what happened."

"Did you end up getting your reward?" I asked him. "Did she end up helping you?"

He looked away. "Yes, and no." He paused. "She gave me a dose of the antidote, but I have to keep injecting people if I want to wean off of Life's Blood safely at this point in the experiment."

I tried to restrain my jealousy and anger that was bubbling within me. "And you're trusting her not to kill you in the process?! You have no idea what that medicine is doing to you! And you're going to keep injecting people for this, I assume?!"

He shook his head. "No, Rena, in both senses. I don't trust her and you know that. And after I saw what was happening to you-- what I did to you-- I just can't do that to anybody else. And," he continued. "I'm far from Deborah's good side. I know that if I make one wrong move, I'd-I'd be toast! Burnt toast specifically."

His words softened the stone forming around the edges around my heart. "But you still went out of your way to save me?"

He nodded. "What's happening to you is my fault, and I admit that freely."

I shook my head, but offered him a smile. "It's not really, really, but thank you." I said.

He lifted his hand to point at the break in the wall. "You first," he said. "I'll keep watch. Just in case."

"Thanks," I told him as I turned away and stepped through the hold he'd made 6 days ago.

Oddly, enough, as ominous and scary it felt to be back, it felt just as comforting, if not more comforting than any other emotion. I tried to shrug off the feeling of comfort that was bleeding within me.

It was the kind of comfort that made my stomach churn and my mind hazy. It was the comfort of being under a blanket, but instead of a normal blanket it was a blanket of fog.

It took only a few glimpses for my eyes to adjust. Someone had turned off the light at some point. Blankets were strewn on the ground and torn up against the walls, one of which had a gaping hole. I turned away, it was the one that Osamu had broken through to inject me.

Even though I told him it wasn't his fault, I couldn't quite disagree completely. He had practically destroyed any hope I had for a happy life by breaking down and relenting to Deborah. I would have been better than him. I wouldn't have let Deborah get to me like she had gotten to him, manipulating him.

No. That's the wrong way to think. I told myself as I moved aside blankets to find my shoe. He's suffering too. Someone injected him too. Don't think of yourself all the time, Hoo. Keep an open mind. OH! There it is! I spotted my shoe in the corner, and in my rush to get over there, accidentally knocked a canister to the floor, causing a bit of a ruckus to be made. I paused for a moment, waiting to see if I'd annoyed Osamu or not, but I didn't hear anything, so I continued as if nothing happened.

I stooped down to my shoe and found my sock stuffed inside. I gently pulled the sock, the tip of it brown from my dried blood, and slid my foot inside the shoe. I laced up my shoe and stood up, wobbling for a moment. I stood very still for a moment and squeezed my eyes shut. I hadn't had my left shoe on since before I got injected, and it already felt foreign on my foot. I waited for my body, or at least the serum in my body, to adjust to the change in balance.