It was late by the time Georgianna finally finished at Crisco and made her way from the Rion district. It felt like stone blocks had attached themselves to her hands and feet, making the walk through the streets long and laborious. While it usually only took a short time to walk the stretch to the nearest safe tunnel entrance, Georgianna felt like she’d been walking for hours before she could finally slip down into the lit main line. Even then, down in the tunnels, in the quiet of the night, it felt like too long a time until she could make the turning unseen into the stretch of Belsa-controlled passages.
The guard recognised Georgianna before she even realised he was there, and proceeded to ramble and panic about a problem down Medics’ Way. Georgianna didn’t stop to find out what the problem was. The fact that a guard was still on post was enough to tell her the Belsa hadn’t been discovered, and despite the aching in her legs, she set off at a run down the tunnel.
Coming into Medics’ Way, Georgianna expected chaos. The way the guard had told her about it made it sound like it was a big problem. However, apart from a pained groaning echoing from one of the cars, all seemed relatively quiet. Still, Georgianna kept hurrying down towards the car, hauling herself up and dropping her bag to the side of the door.
Jaid had her back to her, her short dark hair mussed from being woken up in a rush. Georgianna moved further into the car, trying to see what was going on.
“Wrench?”
Wrench was lying on the bed before her. His dark skin was beaded with sweat, his breath, too fast for Georgianna’s liking, came in quick pants that left no space for anything else. His trousers had been left intact but his shirt, always tattered at best, was torn from neck to hem, lying open across the bed to show a large, purple and red angry welt across his barrelled chest.
“George!” Jaid cried, stepping back from Wrench’s side and reaching into a bucket, pulling out a cloth and wringing it, using it to clean an oozing wound. “Where have you been?”
“Work,” Georgianna answered, stepping closer to Wrench and placing the back of her hand across his stomach to gauge his temperature. “What happened?”
The taught skin across Wrench’s skin was searing hot, radiating out from a weeping wound of burned flesh. Georgianna didn’t even need to hear Jaid’s answer before she knew exactly what had happened.
“Copaq. He came in an hour ago, I’ve not been able to stop the sweats, and nothing will take the pain away.”
Georgianna frowned and moved to her bag. Flipping it open, she dug through it until she found a small, linen bag. She tugged it out, pulling the drawstring open and taking out a shiny, lilac pill.
The copaq didn’t injure like a normal gun. Instead of firing a metal bullet, a copaq, whether one of the small hand weapons or a larger rifle, projected a gel pellet which, though hard when shot, splattered across the skin upon contact. When the gel hit, it sent out a number of electrical charges as it reacted with the skin, slowly fading away as the chemical inside the gel was used up. Even after scraping the gel from the skin, the damage had been done. The Adveni used them mainly on capture missions because the electrical charges shooting through the body made it impossible to run. Unfortunately, healing the injuries was also made difficult, as the Veniche had little with which to counteract the chemical.
“What’s that?” Jaid asked as she dabbed the damp cloth against the welt.
Wrench let out a pained cry.
“Drugs. They’re Adveni.”
“Where did you get Adveni medicine?” Jaid asked suspiciously.
YOU ARE READING
Dead and Buryd
Science Fiction"You are an inmate, not a medic. You should get used to that." On the planet Os-Veruh, the native Veniche have endured a decade under the oppressive rule of a race of invaders, the Adveni. When Georgianna Lennox, a Veniche medic, discovers her child...
