A week later,
Michael sat on the edge of the table. He watched the footsteps go by, seeing where the feet fell each time people walked. He looked down at himself, thankful that his recovery had been so quick.
Down the hall, Tom and Lani spoke with the doctors who were involved in his surgery.
“When can I go see him,” Lani asked impatiently, “you say he’s upright and functioning.”
“We’re still trying to reintegrate him,” the doctor explained, “with the trauma-”
“Dude,” Lani interrupted, “this is not the first time he’s been fucked up. Take me to him now!”
“Hey,” Tom said as he stepped in front of Lani, “force won’t work here, I can talk to the director of the facility and get you full access to the building.”
“I don’t wanna loot the goddamn closets and cabinets,” Lani said with glaring eyes, “I want to see one person, and bring him home!” She looked at the doctor who was preparing to give her some kind of explanation that she didn’t want. “Doctor, tell me what room he’s in or I will make a fucking scene!”
“Please,” the Doctor began pleading, “I can’t let you take him, but if he leaves willingly then we cannot stop him.”
“Then I’ll fucking ask him,” Lani said with a scowl, “where the fuck is he?”
“Hey,” Tom said as he tapped on Lani’s shoulder, “these rooms have names on them.”
“Room twenty five,” the doctor said with a defeated sigh, “his name is not allowed on our doors because of his affiliation with three agencies that won’t be happy to have their people named here. It’ll say that his name is Buck Doe.”
Lani immediately began walking with a brisk pace down the hall, reading the numbers on the doors. As she broke away from the conversation, Tom shook his head and crossed his arms. “Ya know a Buck and a Doe are opposites, right?” he said to the doctor with half a chuckle.
A few moments went by as Lani searched for Michael’s room. By this time, Michael had stood up from the table and began walking toward the door. He was tired of sitting around for no reason. As he approached the door, he could see intense ripples approaching him through the hallway. These footsteps were landing harder than the others, and were broadcasting themselves noticeably. He stepped back from the door as he saw the steps turn toward him. As the door opened, he saw Lani’s face and smiled, or at least he thought he was.
Lani stopped and looked at Michael, his eye glowing faintly and his face making almost no expression. “Michael,” she said softly, “it’s you, right?”
Michael chuckled half heartedly. “Of course,” he said laboringly, “I feel like complete shit but I’m still the mother fucker.”
A tear escaped Lani’s eye and she lunged forward and threw her arms around Michael, hugging him tightly. Michael carefully wrapped an arm around her shoulders, still getting used to the new strength of his rebuilt body. “I did it,” she whispered, “I killed them like you said to.”
Michael patted her head softly. “I’m sure they have more operations around the world,” he said calmly, “but the more cells we shut down the better things are for everyone else.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Lani nodded as she lay her head against his chest. Tom walked into the room, the doctor followed fearfully behind him. “Michael,” Tom said slowly, “The doctor doesn’t want you to go, but he realizes that he can’t keep you against your will.”
“I’m needed elsewhere,” Michael quickly replied, “aside from making sure my surgery doesn’t unglue itself, I don’t need to be here.”
“Just one last thing if you must leave us,” the doctor spoke up with some hesitation, “place your left hand against your temple, it’ll let you see your options.”
Michael stared at him with his involuntarily blank face. After a brief moment, he placed his hand on the side of his head like he was told. In the vision of his left eye, he could see a small dropdown menu in the top corner of his field of view. He looked at it and tried to think of how to manipulate it.
“How do I move the selection,” he asked patiently.
“Twitch your pointer finger up or down,” the doctor answered, “then press to select. Pull your hand away to reset the menu if you get lost. That was the last thing you needed to know.”
“And you couldn’t tell me that when I woke up,” Michael responded with a slight agitation in his voice, “you let me spend the last two days with confused eyesight not understanding what I could see.”
“Michael,” Lani whispered, “focus on me, we’re gonna go home now.” As Michael navigated the menu in his eye to bring his vision back to the closest thing he could to normal, Lani took his right hand and guided him out of the room. “We have a house set aside for us,” she began explaining, “it’s not been settled yet but it’s got the basic furnishings and it’s deed owned so we can do what we want to it.”
“Like the last place,” Michael acknowledged.
“Yeah,” Lani answered with excitement, “but with a couple roommates.”
Michael paused. “Roommates,” he repeated flatly, “Task Force?”
“One of them,” she responded, “the other is kinda pending for lack of a better thing to call it.”
John and William sat at the other end of the hall, waiting patiently for Lani to come back with Michael. William sat staring at the floor nervously, his leg shaking.
“Dude,” John said quietly to William, “pretty sure he’s not gonna flip out on you on sight.”
“Damien did,” William responded softly, “Lani did, those soldiers almost shot me before Lani waved them off me.”
“Exactly,” John said with a stern voice, “Lani’s gonna explain your situation to him and it’ll be okay.”
Michael came walking briskly toward William and pointed his hand with his fingers forward at his face. “William,” he said through a growl, “I’m told you escaped the Order.”
William nodded as he held his head low. “Yeah,” he said, “dam-”
“I’m gonna get irritated if you keep saying his name around me,”Michael interrupted furiously, “between the lives he cost and the shit he put you through, humanizing him with a name is not something I’ll tolerate.”
“What he did to me was nothing,” William said sorrowfully, “he almost killed her. Your gun is really good at putting holes in bad men.”
Michael turned to Lani, his face still not quite able to express his confusion. “Who almost died,” Michael asked in a low tone.
“Me,” Lani answered “he almost got the best of me and William picked up the gun I dropped and put all eight shots in his head.”
For a moment, Michael stood still as he reflected in his thoughts. He could have let Lani die and run off after shooting fuckface in the back, he realized as he processed the information. He looked at William and nodded. “You might be on the right track to being a human,” he said reluctantly before turning toward the big door of the hallway.
“You don’t want this?” John asked as he held up a small backpack. Michael walked back and took the bag, opening it and taking a peek inside. He looked up and nodded, before proceeding to walk through the big door. Stepping into a restroom, he entered a stall and locked the door.
He pulled out a rolled up pair of jeans and put them on quickly, with the holster attached to the belt of the pants. A USP Compact, he thought to himself, I’m alright with this.