Domgre

12

The ride took a day. The car ride was less than pleasant. They were going much too fast making every minuscule bump make the car go almost airborne. She asked her handler to slow down once and the look she gave her made her wish she'd hadn't. She looked terrified, though neither of them would say so. Evie only realized she'd driven through the night when they arrived without camping.

The only time they stopped was to send communications to the base alerting them of their situation. It meant that when they arrived a stretcher and a team were waiting for them. People grabbed at her, helping her out of the car. She pushed them of, climbing on the stretcher herself, her handler at her side. The stretcher rolled and she felt her body relax. She was going to be okay.

"They want to administer an anesthetic." The doctor had looked over her and quickly left. She'd been alone in the room for or a few minutes afterward before her handler entered. "I've given myself stitches before, I'll be fine." She swallowed hard, "The doctors are unable to properly assess the damage, you need surgery. They believe you got lucky, that it might have only hit muscle but it could've gotten bone. You did get very lucky though, it didn't hit your artery or nerves." She thought back to how they'd made her move her fingers. They were checking her motor function. She'd never gone through surgery before. She looked at her handler, "Will you be there?" She looked away. She thought about Bee. She thought about the gunshot. She wondered if she'd even felt it. She looked up as her handler spoke , "I will oversee." She glanced at the door, watching doctors peek through the window. They were trying to stay calm. Something was wrong. "Okay."

"Alright, breathe in." They put a mask over her face. She thought about throwing up in her respirator, hopefully she'd pass out before her nausea could catch up. She looked away from the doctor to her handler. She looked at her and, with her good arm, put her hand on top of hers. She smiled but even on her way out Evie knew it was a lie. She knee better than to fight the gas but she was not one to go quietly. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slipped from consciousness. It was time to rest.

She woke up with bandages around her arm and shoulder, stretching across her chest to wrap back around. She was in a bed in the medical floor. Her handler was sat at the end in a chair, fast asleep with her head in a position Evie knew would hurt when she woke. She lifted her hand carefully, flexing her fingers. It hurt. She moved to the end of the bed, searching for the clipboard that would let her know what happened. It was gone. She couldn't help but thing something was wrong. She looked at her shoulder again, moving back to lean against the pillows. How had it gone so badly?

For the first time in a long time, she cried. Again, her body fought. She quickly realized she wasn't alone. "Are you okay?" A voice from behind the curtain asked. She wiped her eyes with her good arm and looked at the curtain. She got up carefully, moving around the corner to see a man in bed, one hand chained to the bar. "Williamson?"

His worry was gone now, replaced with anger. "Oh get the fuck out of here, traitor." He had bandages up his arms and on his neck and the lower part of his face. She moved to the edge of his bed, careful to stay out of reach of his legs and not to put any strain on her arm. "You can't be a traitor if you were never with the cause." He scoffed, "Yeah keep telling yourself that." She stared at him, thinking of the days she spent using her free time to annoy him. She liked to think she was making their job more interesting, standing guard at a door all day couldn't have been too fun. "I don't even know what the fuck you stand for." He went quiet. The tension fell away and he let his shoulders fall with it. "Not much."

He explained that a councilman had forced him back into the fire in the bunker to retrieve things for him. He told her he insisted it was too dangerous, as the smoke was almost unbearable but the councilman wouldn't let him leave so he did. When he returned, coughing and burnt after the door had gotten stuck, he found the councilman dead. Soldiers gave him a choice. He told her it was easy.

"I think I'm done with fighting." He was looked at the ceiling now, she was looking at his bandages. She would've done the same thing if asked by a superior. "Our doctors here are really good." He shrugged and she thought of her own bandages before a hand tapped her shoulder. She looked up at her handler. "Follow me." She gave Williamson a wave and he smiled, she hurried after her handler.

"How's your arm?" Inaki asked, sitting atop his desk. She hadn't actually tested it yet. Her handler spoke instead, "The bullet only damaged the muscle," she glanced at Evie, "it will take a bit of work, but she should be good in a few months." Evie stared at her, a few months without her dominant arm? It was unthinkable. Still, she stayed quiet.

Inaki nodded quietly, fidgeting with his hands as he so often did. "Well, I have other news. We lost quite a few in the raid, they aren't all back but the numbers we have so far say about a dozen." Because any loss was a big loss. But they expected a fire fight and they got it. They were lucky it wasn't more. Inaki looked up, "I'd like you to meet someone. Their handler was lost in the fight and we do not have another present at the moment. Yours has already been filled in, she'll be your partner for the time being." She was tired and if they asked she'd blame it on drugs still left in her system.

"I'm going to get better. I don't need a replacement." Her handler tensed, "Evie-" Her handler put a warning hand on her shoulder. Inaki shook his head, leveling his gaze at her, "You aren't getting replaced Evie. Her handler was killed. We'd do the same if something happened to yours." She already knew she wasn't the only one with a handler, the only one raised to be an unstoppable force. Inaki's father had set in motion the experimental program in the last year before he died. It died with him, Evie was a remnant of it. She nodded and forced herself to withdraw, she wasn't to raise her voice at Inaki. He accepted this withdraw without comment and continued, "Her name is Khaira, according to my father's records she was born a few days after you. You've likely seen her around though I do not believe you two have formally met." She thought about the green stripes she'd seen, the sign of handlers. She never really paid attention to their charges. "I'd like to talk to your handler alone now, Khaira is in the hallway if you'd like to make introductions."

She moved to the hallway. A girl was leaning against the wall. She glanced over her, brown skin, dark eyes, a few scars on the exposed skin of her arms. Her hair was longer than Evie's, cut close to her head, while her mess of dark hair was in in a pony tail atop her head. She wore the normal fatigues, the tank top peeking out from beneath her jacket. She looked to be a few inches taller than her. How irritating. She finally landed on her face.

"I suppose your the new asshole I'm stuck with." Evie has never met someone so rude, at least not so blatantly. "Nice to meet you too." Khaira pushed off the wall to stand infront of her, making a show of looking down at her despite it maybe being one inch between them. She gestured to her shoulder. "Yeah whatever. What happened to your arm?" She stared at her, you weren't exactly supposed to point out people's difficulties the minute you met them. She smiled, "What happened to your handler?" Her eyes went wide and Evie ended up on the ground, crying out as her shoulder hit. She kicked the girl off, she scrambled to her feet and ran her into the wall, the two stared at each other for a long time. "Let me go before we get in trouble." She scoffed and dropped her, Evie quickly examined her shoulder as the door opened.

Her handler looked between them before her eyes stopped on Khaira, "Hello Khaira, you may call me miss or ma'am. I hope you have already made introductions but, this is Evie." The two looked at each other with silent knowing, Khaira smiled, "Yes she did. I think we'll get along just fine." Evie smiled right back, desperate to call out her bullshit. She stayed quiet and the two followed their handler down the hall.