Estranged [Completed]

Broken

Josh paced the recovery room, anxiously scratching his head with his right hand while he held his left hand inches away from his mouth, the black thumbnail ready and waiting to be chewed on as needed, which seemed to be every time he paused for breath. "Trojan, bug, no... Always servers, frogs like to jump in the summer, yes, that's good..."

Kalei walked further into the room and tried to catch his eye. "Hey, Josh. Do you remember me?"

He looked at her and his eyes widened. "Frogs! Frogs are green! Frogs are green! FROGS ARE GREEN!"

Before Kalei could react to his outburst, Josh retreated to the far end of the room, muttering to the wall. 

Kalei was stunned. She wasn't sure if it was anger or frustration she saw in his eyes, but she felt hurt and bewildered. She didn't know if it was directed at her or... in either case, she wanted to say something, but she just... didn't know what she could say.

Terin turned and left the room, with Walker and Erit following close behind him. Kalei took one more look at Josh's quivering form, then withdrew as well.

Kalei had a hard time believing that an Estranged could be damaged like that. Josh was mentally shattered by wounds that otherwise were unable to kill him. 

If I had known this could have happened, I would have put a helmet on him. I would have stopped Jenna, I— 

The image of Jenna's skull falling to the cement with a fresh bullet hole in her scalp flashed into Kalei's mind.

"Wait— where is Jenna! She took a bullet to the head. She didn't...Jenna...she's not like that, is she?"

"No," Terin assured her. "She's quite all right."

"Good." 

The horror of what she might have done melted away with Terin's assurance. The final scraps of guilt were promptly eradicated by the recollection of why she had shot her sister. Kalei pushed Jenna from her mind.

She returned her attention to the people before her and found Walker already talking to Terin. "...completely useless to us. I don't know why we even bother keeping him around. He can't tell us any more about that device than Erit can. Just let him out into the district where he can live out whatever shred of his miserable life he has left."

Terin replied, "I'm not going to do that. The other inmates would be all over him. He can leave if he wants, but we're not sending him out."

Kalei asked, "What did you need him to tell you? You said it has something to do with that backpack he had, right?"

Terin answered, "You already know about it. Josh was working on Franklin's device. The same one you were going to plug into our computers. Josh had the latest prototype in his backpack. "

"How do you—"

Terin waved off her question. "Franklin isn't as smart as he thinks he is."

"Okay, but what's the big deal about Franklin getting intel on SWORDE? Sure, there will be a political uproar and all but—"

Erit replied, "We don't think it is designed to gather intelligence. We don't know what it is, but—"

"Yes, we do," Walker cut in. "It's some sort of digital worm designed to take out the electric fence, the solitary cells, and other key facilities around here."

Kalei asked, "The fence is run by computers?"

"Yes, that's how we know when the fence takes damage, or if a section loses power."

Kalei remembered her foray through the fence with Lecia. "You may want to get that system checked."

Erit interjected, "We don't have any evidence to support your theory that it is a worm—"