Insomnia

18

The head start didn't do her much good.

Esme careened straight into a server causing the wires to tumble out in a messy heap. She picked herself up off the ground and staggered ahead. Footsteps from behind. Esme kept running.

"Esme?" Oz said. "Esme?"

She didn't reply. She didn't have the breath to spare. Her thick boots pounded against the cold floors. The sound from behind grew louder. She barely had the time to whirl around as the other woman's arm grabbed hold of her scarf and pulled her close, drawing the fabric tight around her neck.

"Who are you?" the woman hissed.

Esme struggled just to breathe. A single scar wound its way along the woman's forehead like a circlet. Her eyes were pure rage - teeth bared and deathly white.

"Who are you?" she yelled again. Esme might have cowered, but her grip was just too tight. She pulled away to escape and her scarf tore under the pressure. Esme was sent reeling to the floor. She scrabbled to her feet and dashed ahead a few more feet.

The air was knocked out of her lungs as her assailant tackled her into another of the wall servers. The woman turned her around and pinned her up against the wall with only her normal arm. Esme's feet kicked out from under her as she tried to get away.

Her opponent didn't bother with any more questions this time. She placed her robotic hand an inch away from Esme's stomach. Esme heard a brief whir from the elbow as the internal machinery drove a quick jab into her solar plexus. It felt as if her abdomen went into spasm. Pain rippled through her body with each gasping breath.

"That hit was twenty percent of full power," she muttered. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

Esme replied with a wordless growl. One half was pain - the other, defiant rage.

The woman crashed her arm into the server behind her. The metal dented and cracked.

"That's forty percent," she hissed. "Next one will rupture your kidneys. Who. Are. You. Why. Are. You. Here."

Esme shook her head. In the corner of her eye she could see the entrance to the air lock. The woman snarled and stepped closer. Esme felt the cyborg's hold weaken. Saw her lips curl with displeasure.

Her lips. Her lips. She wasn't wearing her mask. One of Atticus's self-defense lessons flashed through her mind.

Esme stopped resisting the woman's tight hold and allowed her body to go limp. The sudden transition to dead weight broke through her opponent's grip and she fell to the floor. The next blow glanced off her mask, denting the interior workings but knocking Esme closer to the door. Esme's vision swirled after the impact. Dizzied, she leapt clumsily towards the air lock.

Her attacker lingered back, cradling her metal arm as if in pain. Her eyes narrowed on Esme. She stepped forward as the automatic doors shut and the compartment sealed. They stared at one another through the glass. The woman felt briefly at her exposed face and cursed. The other side of the door opened, allowing Esme to get outside. She saw the woman run back to the room, presumably to retrieve her mask. Not even she would be caught exposed outside.

Esme didn't hang around. Taking advantage of this second head start she sprinted towards the fence, hurling her body against it before beginning a desperate, frenzied climb. Once on the other side she didn't waste time calling a car over. Esme raced towards the alley from before. She passed through it and didn't stop.

After a few minutes, her lungs began to burn. Her throat felt sore. She shook her head and slowed her pace, trying to clear her fatigue. Nothing. Then Esme remembered. That woman did serious damage to her mask.

She triggered her visor's overhead display.

Filtration System: 80%.

Mask Integrity: 70%.

Air Quality: 68%

Panic swelled in her chest. Contaminated air. She thought of Gaius's raspy voice. Her mother's scarred eyes. The last time she saw her father.

Esme kept running but tried desperately to keep her breathing even. The more air she drew in the worse the effects would be. She passed street after street, block after block. The buildings here were old and unmodified. Broken railings, weathered stairs and the occasional dried bone from a corpse that had never been collected. There were no airlocks to take refuge in so Esme focused on putting distance between her and the cyborg. Slippery sand dunes made the trip slow going. How many minutes had it been? She didn't know. Didn't want to know.

"Esme?" Oz yelled. "Esme?"

She couldn't afford to speak. Speech was air. Air was poison.

Esme staggered forward. This dune was particularly steep, piled in a narrow, grimy alley. She looked out for shops or restaurants that might provide her refuge. Nothing had been open in this part of the city for years.

A sharp pain in the back of her head. She slowed down for a moment and felt a trickle of blood running slick in her hair. Dizziness rattled her vision. She wasn't going to make it. Not like this.

Oz was too far away. Even if he drove, he couldn't reach her in time.

"Call Atticus," she commanded. The comm unit blipped and whirred before placing the call. A sigh of relief followed immediately by the sudden urge to vomit. She waited several agonizing seconds before he picked up.

"Need help," Esme said. "I'm... I'm a few blocks away." She looked around unsteadily, trying to find some marker to describe her location. Street signs didn't mean much these days. And all the buildings looked the same in black and white. She contemplated taking the mask off to see. Fear rippled through her. Not an option.

A thought occurred to her.

"Send live-feed," she whispered. The mask hummed for a moment before a green light began blinking in the top right corner. Esme turned from side to side. This would transmit video from her perspective - as much information about her location as she could provide.

Her vision went black for a moment before fluttering back into focus. The green light had vanished. That cyborg must have damaged her camera unit as well. How much did it manage to send?

The call was still live.

"Please," she whispered. "Hurry."

Another lance of pain racked her body. Everything went black.