10 Chapter 9

The black surface of the road was rough underfoot, and 391 had been walking many hours. She was hungry, thirsty, and bleeding from a wound in her side that caused pain to rip through her with every step. She bit onto her back teeth and pushed through the pain, knowing that stopping was not an option, but she could feel her energy leeching away like the blood that had plastered t-shirt and tracksuit pants to her skin.

She had left the pretty gardens behind her. There had been many humans in the building, all determined to stop her from leaving, and not all the blood that stained her white t-shirt and grey tracksuit pants was her own.

Logic told her that if the road had brought her to the building with gardens where the doctors had died, following it back would return her to her sisters.