Machine Man (serial)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I realized I could no longer postpone medical treatment when I began to hallucinate. Until now, I had remained functional despite a bullet wound to the bicep thanks to the ocean of adrenaline sloshing around my veins, but now Lola and I had put distance between ourselves and people who wanted to kill us, this began to subside, leaving me raw and shaky. It was just as well I’d started the day with the usual generous cocktail of painkillers. But the effects of that were not going to last forever. As I stared into the darkening sky and saw a low-flying plane morph into a pigeon and back again, I decided I needed a hospital.

“You can’t go to a hospital,” said Lola. Night was falling; in the dusk light, her face looked unreal, like something from a movie. Or maybe that was the hallucinating. “That’s the first place they’ll look.”

“Who?”

“Better Future. The people who want to cover up their not-so-legal human trials of artificial body parts. Isn’t that what you just told me?”

“I need to sit down.”

“You are sitting down.”

I looked at the Contours. “Sometimes I forget.”

“Charlie. Stay with me.”

“I will,” I said, emotional.

Lola fell silent. Somewhere, a dog barked. “Okay. I think I know somewhere. A friend of mine from the hospital, a doctor, she lives around here. Maybe she can help us.”

I watched Lola’s hair. Strands floated on the breeze: when they caught the streetlight, they flared like stars.

“Charlie?”

“What?”

“We need to go.”

“I’m really tired.”

“Just a little further, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

104.