Chapter 11: Three. Two. One.

Harvel watched as the little bar shaped lights that dotted the ceiling of the infirmary passed over his head. One of the nurses pushed him along the corridor at a slightly faster pace than necessary. He'd tried to get himself clean for the most part, but he still smelled of sewage. It was a stench that, once attached to your skin, could take days to wear away.

The nurse stopped and pressed a button on a panel next to the elevator. Her lips were subtly pursed with a slight crinkle starting to form on her nose. Harvel had to assume that the earlier haste had been an attempt to out-run the smell. By the time the elevator doors closed in front of them the pursed lips had turned into a full-blown grimace.

Harvel was beginning to grow embarrassed by this point. He'd always made it a point to clean away the days grime before interacting with anyone he didn't know. As nose blind as he'd grown to the sewers, he knew the average person could tell from a mile away if you still had "Taco Tuesday" caked in the tread of your boots.

After about a minute, the doors opened to reveal the landing pad located on the roof of the station. A blast of biting cold wind flowed freely through Harvels hospital gown. Winters in Boris-Valka tended to be long and brutal. He'd often relished the time he spent in the deeper parts of the sewer where the cold gave way to the steady warmth of decomposition.

From his position he could see that the pad was occupied by a red and white painted ambulance AV. Two EMTs stood near the back hatch, one slightly shorter than the other. From what he could tell, the taller of the two was in a somewhat heated conversation with Yiddek.

They were pouring over Yiddeks data pad, both occasionally pointing to different parts of the AV. Harvel couldn't hear their voices above the sound of the wind whipping across the pad but he could tell it had something to do with one of the rear tail lights. The EMT seemingly gave up, throwing his hands into the air and quickly stomping around to the other side of the vehicle.

The shorter of the two walked closer to the edge of the landing platform, a pair of glowing binoculars held up to their eyes. They seemed to be scanning the horizon, but for what exactly Harvel couldn't tell. Harvel couldn't help but notice the rifle slung over their shoulder.

Yiddek walked up to the stretcher, still flipping through his tablet and glancing back at the AV. He seemed anxious about the aforementioned taillight. Harvel on the other hand was now focused on the little holes that dotted the hull of the entire vehicle. At first, he'd thought they were rivets that had simply fallen out. As they drew closer, he could see that they were evident of something he was rather familiar with doing the exact opposite.

"Yiddek? Why are you more worried about the taillights than the bullet holes?" Harvel asked, a little dumbfounded at the whole scene.

"Hmm? Oh! Yeah, the bullet holes are normal, but that taillight needs to be replaced. Don't worry though I've let Aldon know about it." Yiddek responded, with a nonchalance Harvel hadn't quite been expecting.

"Oh, the bullet holes are normal? Okay, that seems reasonable." Harvel said, rolling his eyes and staring back at the EMT with the rifle. Was everything in this city attempting to kill him? Yiddek looked up from his tablet, resting one of his claws on the side of Harvels stretcher.

"It'll be fine, I use the Morrisons for transport all the time. Never had a problem with them at the helm." Yiddek fibbed, wheeling the stretcher over to the back of the ambulance. The larger of the two EMTs walked back around the side of the vehicle, slamming a fist into the flickering taillight. The light steadied itself, the EMT using both hands to present the now "fixed" component like a magician showing off his favorite trick.

While Yiddek didn't seem quite satisfied with this, he apprehensively tapped the tablet one more time before handing it to the EMT. As the EMT plucked the tablet victoriously from Yiddeks claw, Harvel noticed he was quite a bit older than his mannerisms would have indicated. The wrinkles on his face belonged to a much older smile than the one he was currently wearing.

"Harvel, this is Aldon Morrison, best pilot I've ever had the pleasure of employing." Yiddek said, beaming a bit.

Aldon signed his name on the tablet and tucked it under his arm. "I choose to believe he meant the best pilot anyone's ever had the pleasure of employing. Good to make your acquaintance." He announced, giving Yiddek a slightly incredulous look as he shook Harvels hand. Harvel couldn't help but notice the hand was a prosthetic.

Aldon waved the tablet in the air, grabbing the attention of the other EMT. "I'd like you to meet my niece Parker. She'll be on rear watch." He said, handing the tablet to the figure that Harvel could now tell was a young woman. He couldn't tell much else about her though, as the EMT suit she wore was bulky, with a kevlar collar that came up to the bridge of her nose.

She took some time to look over Yiddeks notes before signing what Harvel assumed was a pre-flight checklist. Though they were the only part of her face that Harvel could see, he could tell that her eyes had a pale, deep orange color to them. Only when she leaned in to have a look at his face could he see they were both prosthetics. The iris' whirring and focusing in tandem.

"Nice to meet you. I'm gonna be riding with you in the back." Was all she said before turning to inspect the brackets that would be holding the stretcher in place. As Aldon and Yiddek looked over the manifest one last time, Harvel noticed that one of the brackets was slightly bent.

Parker must have seen it too, as she grabbed the piece of steel and bent it back into place, bare handed. This being an action seemingly impossible without tools, Harvel watched her fingers, looking for the tell-tale gaps in the joints that would indicate prosthetics. He was both amazed and frightened to see that there were none. When she turned back to face them, she was staring at Harvel as if she were inspecting the back of his skull.

"Alright, everything's set to go. I'm gonna be riding in my own AV alongside the whole way." Yiddek said, giving Harvel a little pat on the shoulder in reassurance. He gestured to Aldon and Parker who heaved him up and slid the stretcher into the brackets.

Parker hopped up into the cramped compartment and began securing the wheels in place. With one door still open, Parker slid into a small half seat sunk into the wall of the compartment. She quickly fastened herself in place with the oddly shaped seatbelt.

"Now, your brother said you get claustrophobic. I've got something to calm you down should you get excitable." She said, placing the large rifle across her lap.

Noticing his sudden change in pupil size she held out a hand and physically cleared the air. "I meant, I have a sedative for you. Doreen here is for calming other people down. Often before they have a chance to get excited in the first place." She continued, giving the rifle a couple of loving pats.

"Erm. How often do you have to use Doreen normally?" Harvel asked, feeling icy sweat start to pool a little in his lower back. There had been quite a lot of holes.

"Mmm, not that often anymore. We've gotten a bit of a reputation." Parker replied, adjusting the seat to jut out slightly.

"Um, Yiddek? Yiddek!" Harvel barked, frantically twisting his head to see back out of the door. He'd already been nearly killed once within the last week, and he was starting to get a slightly Kevorkian vibe from the way she was staring at him.

"Oh, It'll be fine! Miss Morrison and her uncle are the best ambulance team in the city. You'll be... fine." Yiddek assured him, the last bit sounding a bit less confident as he pulled his sleeve free of a bullet hole it had gotten caught on.

Yiddek slammed the door shut, causing Harvel to wince a bit as the locks slid into place. He was alone with Parker at this point and couldn't help but notice she was still staring directly at him. Though a social butterfly Harvel was not, he normally didn't find it hard to keep sufficient eye contact during casual conversation. In this particular instance though, it was about as difficult as trying to convince a hungry shark that his birthname wasn't "Lunch".

Oddly enough this seemed to make his claustrophobia take a rather far off spot at the back of Harvels mental parking garage. He tried to look for literally anything else to look at besides her. As the cabin was almost pitch black, this was relatively unsuccessful venture.

"So, uh, you've worked with my brother before?" He asked, hoping some of the tension would fade away behind the fog of inane conversation.

"Yes, we do quite a lot of work for Doctor Valez. Though this is the first we've heard of him having a brother." Parker replied, unblinking.

"Yeah, most people don't know we're siblings." Harvel said, punctuating the statement with a nervous chuckle.

"I can't imagine why." She said, starting to shift a little in her seat.

"Probably the scales I'd wager." Harvel trailed off, letting the comment float around in the air between them. When he worked up the courage to look her in the eyes again, he noticed she was no longer staring at the back of his skull. He might have managed to spoil the mood, if that were possible.

She was shifting around the seat uncomfortably again. She reached behind her shoulders, and Harvel heard a ripping sound that he could only associate with Velcro being torn free. When she was done the large collar from her suit was hanging from a hook alongside several others.

This was the first time Harvel had been able to see any of the facial features below her nose. From the light seeping in through the rear window he could make out high cheekbones on a slender face. She had a slight cleft in her chin.

Well, one high cheekbone at least. From what he could tell there had been a cheekbone on the other side at one point. The left side of her cheek and jaw looked as if it had been scooped away with a large ice cream spoon.

Before Harvel realized he was staring, Parker once again locked eyes with him and said four words, "Stray bullet. Not pretty." It had carried a bit of an edge.

'If you say so.' Harvel thought. He believed she was rather attractive. 'But don't think for a second I believe that came from a bullet. No bullet could leave a scar that large and be that uncannily clean.'

Parker shifted to face the rear hatch, causing Doreen to gleam in the dim city lights. He couldn't tell what kind of rifle it was. Hell, he could barely tell what color her hair was. Actually, he was still trying to decide if it was green or if it was his eyes playing tricks.

'Why is it so damn dark anyway?' He thought, straining his eyes to read a little sign on the roof. It read: "CAUTION CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE" It was placed next to the seal of a hatch without a handle, just one big red button with the words "knock knock" written on it.

The AVs engines roared to life, shaking the cabin before settling into a steady rumble. Harvel barely felt the slight downward pull as the vehicle tenderly left the pad. Aldon hadn't been lying when he said he was the best. Even the auto launch sequences installed in most modern AVs couldn't take off that smoothly.

Harvel watched as the lights began to move and shift throughout the cabin. They were moving slowly across Parkers face when her eyes snapped back his direction. 'Think of something to say idiot.' He thought, his mouth dry.

"Shouldn't we be moving faster? It's a long way to the dome." Harvel asked, clearing his throat and picking his head up from the pillow. Parker held up a hand with three fingers extended. Then two. Then one. Then, all he could see was the ceiling.