Crossfire

Chapter Two - "Buds"

Shrike groaned, his vision clearing. He blinked away the fuzziness from his vision, and tries to make out his surroundings.

His head swayed from side to side, his eyes drifting. He he blinks hard, and stretches his limbs.

After about thirty seconds, the room is perfectly clear. It looks almost exactly like a hospital room. He's hooked up to a couple machines, which seemed unnecessary to him, he had only been knocked out.

He glances out of the window, to see the dome.

Only city centers and capitals had the domes. Massive constructions built to protect against the wasteland. Where was he?

When he sat upright, pain coursed through his chest. He tears off his bed sheets and surveys the damage.

Scarred skin lined his left rib cage. The jagged marks and splash like pattern meant it was some kind of shrapnel.

"I wouldn't move if I were you." a harsh voice came from the other end of the room.

A woman, around her mid-twenties, rose from her seat, staring him down with cold green eyes. Despite the fact that her red hair was pulled up in a messy bun, Shrike should've been able to see her as soon as he woke up, but it was almost as if she materialized.

"Let me ask you, Shrike:" she spat out his name like it had a bad taste "Explain to me why a man can show up at three in the morning with seven shards of silver shrapnel and a concussion, and be requested immediate attention by one of the top professionals in the building, despite this being a private company?"

Shrike tilted his head. "For a nurse, you sure are unwelcoming. What's your name, Miss?"

"That's Doctor to you." her eyes narrowed, she looked exhausted "And you didn't answer my question." she walked closer to him, picking up a clipboard with forms of his medical procedures. "You came from the New York incident, no doubt. The dates and times of your report match up. So why didn't you go to a regular hospital? Who are you to have to be brought back to Blossom?"

Shrike knew that the regular staff of Blossom didn't know about the military division, but this Doctor had hinted that she was higher up in the ranks. 

He wasn't certain, so he was thinking about giving her some BS about "executive perks" before she used two of her fingers to lift the sleeve of his black shirt, and then gestured to his brown overcoat, which hung on the wall. "You're obviously a Wastelander, probably with some effects of radioactivity, judging from these... clothes."

He opened his mouth to begin, when a voice came from the door. "He is my new assistant."

The captain from the previous night leaned against the doorway, his arms folded against his chest.

The Doctor  turned on the captain "Oh no, not again, Reid. Drag some other poor soul to look after your test dummy. Every time you hire a new "assistant" they end up in a box within the week. I don't know what kind of "field experiments" you boys run out there, but it ought to be shut down."

Captain Reid shrugged "You're paid to do as our boss says, and boss says to take care of my assistant."

"Your assistant has already taken nine hours from my sleeping schedule." the Doctor growled.

Shrike looked at the clock, it was almost noon.

"Nevertheless, I'm sure he's feeling alright?" Reid glanced at Shrikes wounds.

"Mostly." The Doctor sighed, handing him her clipboard and pulling up an image on her laptop. "I was able to remove five of the shrapnel, but two remain, and they're slowly burrowing themselves in."

"Then he'll need to come in regularly to see you." Reid said, handing her back the clipboard without so much as a second glance.

"See me regular- He'll be staying here day-round until those two prices come out!"

"Nonsense, he can walk, and we have a lot of talking to do."

Half an hour of arguing later, and Shrike was out of his bed and walking down the hallway.

"I never agreed to this." Shrike muttered, and the Captain glanced at him down the corner of his eye.

"If I hadn't requested you as part of my squad, you would be dead in a regular hospital." he said coldly.

"What happened to the friendly attitude?"

"Never had it for you. Doctor Brose would never give me the time of day if I so much as looked at her the wrong way."

"Right. So why am I here?" Shrike caught the door that Reid almost closed in his face as they leave the building. Glancing behind him, he can see that they were in a large, glass paneled skyscraper. Blossoms headquarters.

"I don't know. Apparently my superiors liked watching you fall out of that building." Reid turns on him, just outside of a black car. "You might be the best shot they've ever seen, but that panic you caused last night cost us a fortune. I don't ever want to see a mistake like that again. If you can't handle that, I suggest you don't get in this car."

"And if I stay?"

Reid sighed, "You'll be offered thrice the amount we originally paid you for every completed mission. You'll be authorized to use state of the art weaponry under my disclosure."

Shrike thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't want to be buried under this companies name. Besides, there are always people willing to pay more." He said plainly, and turned to leave.

Then, the passenger seat's window opened, and a man from inside spoke. "Blossom Corporation is the first and only scientific research facility to go completely unwatched by government eyes, and something tells me you don't want any eyes on you. We will provide additional funding if you need extra commodities, for as long as you work for us. Besides, something tells me you don't want that shrapnel left unattended."

Shrike froze. Additional funding, and complete anonymity? He could finally finish what had sat dormant in his warehouse, he could finally leave, and never leave even a hint that he had ever been there.

He turned, and captain Reid opened the door for him.