Storm

Chapter Sixty-Four

I wasn't sure where I was walking to.

Or limping to.

I just had somewhere to get away from, but I guess that was all I needed.

It was the middle of the night and very few people were out. The roads were dark, the lack of lampposts making it difficult to too see anyone else.

I angrily headed down the cobblestone streets, clutching my crutches tightly to my sides. Who the hell did he think he was? And was everyone here really that brainwashed?

Did he really not believe what I'd gone through?

Sometimes, I dreamt about that day. Of being trapped, of nearly having my very soul ripped from me and my body used as a joke. Just the thought of somebody else using my body made me sick. But the people here thought it was normal. They thought that it was perfectly fine.

They thought they had a body factory.

And you know what, a part of me almost believed it. But at the same time, I'd been thinking a lot about the Equator. About their lack of a justice system. About how I'd been treated.

About the people they'd killed outside the wall.

And I'd slowly started to put together the pieces, as much as I hated it.

They needed bodies...while they did have this crazy technology, I was reluctant to believe they were so advanced they could create human bodies from scratch. That only left one possibility: they were killing people who came to the Equator for their bodies.

How they decided who would be soldiers and who deserved to die, I wasn't sure. But for some reason, I had a bad feeling I wasn't wrong.

Whatever. It didn't matter now. Noah would never believe me. I was still stuck. Asten and Ava were god knows where. They could be dead by now. They definitely weren't in that courtroom. And like hell did I know where January or literally anyone else was.

It hit me then how little I'd been thinking about them. I'd been so distracted playing a past life with Noah and Emma that I hadn't thought about what they could be suffering all while I'm just trying to learn how to walk again.

I guess the first step to saving them, though, was learning how to walk again.

"Hey, girl!" shouted a middle-aged women from just outside the nearest convenience store. I was so lost in my own head that I almost didn't hear her. "Girl, I'm talking to you!" she shouted again. "I can fix all your problems."

I put my head down and kept walking. I didn't want to know what she meant by that.

"I can fix your leg!"

I moved forward, but a bit slower. Did I hear her right? Because if she could get me to walk again, I could save everyone else, just as I'd been planning. And without Noah, I really needed to get on with it as soon as possible since I wouldn't have anywhere to sleep, and...

The woman could obviously tell that I was paying her a bit of attention. She got a bit louder. "Simple exchange. Get you walking for an easy job," the woman encouraged.

Was I going to do it? Was this probably the worst idea I could possibly have?

Maybe not. After all, I had nothing. I didn't have a place to stay, money, or friends apparently. And I wasn't about to go back to Noah. Not now. Not ever.

And he never wanted me back either.

I paused, and turned towards the woman. "I'm interested."

________________________________________________________________

A couple minutes later I was being led into a dark basement beneath an apartment building that I assumed the women owned. She hadn't said much else. I had a tight grip on my crutches and a terrible feeling about this.

After all, I wasn't expecting anything good from following a creepy stranger into an even creepier basement. This may have been my dumbest idea yet. But hey, I had nothing left to lose.

Which hurt to think about.

A lot.

So, I just wouldn't think about it.

The woman hadn't said much else, had just gestured for me to follow her and I had. There wasn't really much in the basement -- just a desk with some papers, a ping pong table of all things, and a couple other miscellaneous items scattered about.

She shut the door behind her, but thankfully didn't lock it.

"So...," I started, a little concerned that I'd walked into a trap of some sort.

She motioned to a small sofa seat that was positioned across from the desk. "Sit," she ordered.

I obeyed and sat down, leaning my crutches against the desk. It reminded me of being back in the courtroom, and almost getting screwed over.

She had just a bunch of papers on the desk, nothing else. No computer. She started scribbling something. As I looked closer, I noticed that they were all medical papers of some kind. Was she some doctor for the poor or something?

"Ya want your leg fixed, right? I can give that to you. I've done plenty. These people walk the streets all the time, not knowing what to do. It's an easy job. Good pay. Clients never complain," the woman said. "All you have to do is help us out once. Then, you'll get your body back. No worries to be had."

I had many many questions. She was scribbling something onto a print-out and I tried to catch a peek of it, but she covered it up.

"Name?" she ordered, not even looking up. I almost gave her my real one.

"It's Hannah," I said. I didn't give a last name, but she didn't end up asking for one.

"All right, Hannah...," the woman commented, scribbling out a signature on the bottom of the page. I frowned as she flipped the paper towards me, pen out, too.

She finally met my gaze. "You want a new body? Sign here."