Eien managed to sprint between the guards and tackle Aino in the hall before they caught up. She had been in the process of turning around, having sensed the guards behind her. He slid with her down the hall a few feet, crushing her shoulder into the floor.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” he shouted, to himself, to her, to the guards.

She shoved him off of her. He felt a breeze.

“No! No! It’s okay. It’s okay. Let me see what is happening. Let me talk to them,” he pleaded with her, pulling himself up. He turned to the guards.

“Let me go with her. I have to be with her. We’ll go wherever you want us to go, but let me stay with her,” he said. The two guards looked at each other.

“Fine. Follow us to the solitary ward,” the light-skinned one on the right said, “Roger, take up back.” The other guard nodded. Aino straightened her robe as she stood. He saw her body start to tense.

“It’s fine,” he said to her quickly, “We’ll leave when the poison is gone. We have time to sleep, so we should try to sleep.” She stared at him. He felt a bit of heat rise within him. She leaned in close to him, as if to whisper in his ear. He felt the heat of her breath. Then she must have decided to say nothing because she pulled back and inclined her head in a single nod.

His insides went cold.

They followed the guards through a door along the hallway that led to another similar hallway. Down the way was a set of doors that opened up into a small box-like room.

Oh. It was an elevator.

There were ten buttons on the elevator. Eien noted they pressed the button marked “5” at the top of the building. They must have been on the floor marked “1.” There were negative numbers, too, that went down to negative six, which was strange because they were missing floor zero and floor four. The elevator itself was very clean with nary a bit of dust. There was a railing that went around it, and he felt at the back of it as best as he could. He scanned the corners, looking for cameras or microphones. Nothing that he could see.

The guards were silent as they escorted them up the elevator to another desk, much smaller than the front desk, with only two workers present, a lady with shoulder length brown hair and a man with large black, puffy hair, tamped down in the front by the uniform’s hat. A closed, metal door was on either side of the desk.

“Presenting a patient for a solitary bed,” the light-skinned guard said to a woman at the desk who smiled politely at him.

“Yes. I got the notification. Please come with me to escort her to the room until the paperwork is done.”

“Um, ma’am, I’m sorry to bother you about it all,” Eien began, “I’m wondering if I could talk to you for a moment.”

The woman ignored him and opened the door on the left side of the desk.

“Please come this way.”

“Can I talk about this? See, we just woke up recently; we were passed out from the poison from the…the biting flies, and Ai, here, she just is a bit disoriented, still, having woken up here, in the hospital, and before we go further, can we talk to Nurse Dagmar? She…she is expecting us-“

“Please come this way,” the woman repeated more strongly, glaring at him. Eien felt a suspicion creep into his heart like a worm in an apple. His apple heart was beating more loudly in his ears. He could hear the thumps like the stomping of feet.

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Shit. Fuck decisions.

He was a follower. He couldn’t help but be a follower. All his life, the only thing he knew how to do was take directions. Most of their training in the first two years of conscription was learning to how follow the commands. Pain after pain after pain. And suddenly, it was easy. No thinking involved. Just merely knowing. Knowing and doing and avoiding the searing pain.

Now, even, he still followed. He relied on some of his training, but Aino was giving him nothing. All he knew was that she was ready to go. Was he ready to go? Was he ready to see what was out there? Did he want to risk ill will from the authorities?

He felt a coolness in the back of his head start to grow cold. He realized Aino was waiting for him to make a decision. The woman was standing there, waiting. The guards were waiting. Fuck!

They still didn’t have their weapons or armor or clothing. No supplies. There was no way they were making it anywhere alive, even if they did fight their way out of the hospital. Sure, Aino was powerful, but there was no way they could fight their way out without being hunted again. The only thing he could hope for was that he could get them both out quietly and not get them into a situation they couldn’t escape from.

“Okay,” he said, stepping forward, feeling a sense of impending doom weigh heavy on him like he was filled with metal.

The woman led them through the door and down a hallway with many sets of doors on either side. The whole upper part of each door was like glass. Some patients were lying down on the ground. Some were sitting, staring at him as he walked. One had her face smushed up against the glass, breathing out fog and creating a blur.

“This is your room,” the woman said, opening up a door close to the end of the hallway. Eien looked at Aino, her goop covered robe, her messy hair, her blank face.

“Okay, let’s go in. We will wait for Nurse Dagmar and…the doctor here,” he said to her, trying to smile.

“You have to wait outside,” the woman interrupted, “Only one person allowed per room.”

“But I have to stay with her,” he said, turning to the woman, “I can’t leave her alone.”

“The room is safe. There are no sharp objects, metal parts, or hard surfaces-“ she continued.

“No, you don’t understand,” Eien said, “I don’t think…I don’t think you can deal with her by yourself.”

“Our staff is trained to deal with all kinds of issues. I assure you we have everything under control.”

Eien felt the hairs on his neck rise. The coldness at the back of his head was like ice. Frigid. He felt Aino pulling at him. It was a strange sensation. It was not a command like the Beldam government had issued with a pull and a pain. It was more of a question.

“Okay. Fine,” he replied, “Aino, I’m going to go get our stuff and then we can get out of here soon. I’ll be back in a little bit. I promise.”

I promise I’ll be back, Mari.

His spit dried up in his mouth.

Aino merely stepped into the room, her feet squishing into the floor. She sat down cross legged as the door closed behind her, staring them.

Eien turned from her, following the woman and the men back down the hallway.

“How long does she stay in there for?” he asked.

“As long as it takes to determine she is not a danger to herself or others.”

“Who decides that?”

“The doctor will be up in short order. After an evaluation, he will assess whether she can be released.”

“Okay. I’ll wait here then.”

“You can’t wait here, sir,” the woman said, emphasizing each word with a punch. Her blue eyes were as piercing as the sky outside. She had a pen in her front pocket and nothing else. He could take her.

He glanced at the guards.

Both armed and looking at him cautiously. He could probably take them, too, but it would be a struggle.

“Where can I wait then?” he asked her, starting to lose some of his patience.

“You can wait back in the ward where you came from,” she replied, motioning to the elevator, “These men will escort you to the right place.”

Eien reluctantly followed them back to the ward.

His brain ran through multiple scenarios of him fighting back, getting Aino, and getting the hell out. But every one of them ended with them both dead at the end of it. He could leave by himself; he was pretty sure he could navigate whatever was outside and leave, but he would have to leave Aino behind.

Could he…could he abandon her now?

After all this time?

I promise I’ll come back.

He sat on one of the beds in the ward, staring at the door.

He had promised Mari he would come back.