Chapter 5 - the little girl

"Don't leave me!" Cries the voice of a little girl in the darkness.

Pax wakes up again in the middle of the night with the same dream torturing him. A little girl is squatting in the dark, crying for help. Pax is trying to ignore it but she comes again every night since he met her at the orphanage.

He gets up from his bed and heads to the bathroom, the lights get on as soon as he passes the doorway. He leans against the sink and starts staring at his reflection in the mirror.

"Are you even human?" He asks his reflection.

A ringing sound from his hand interrupts his short monologue. As he opens his hand his skin illuminates and what seems to be a holo screen appears in his palm.

Call from officer Johnson.

With a simple gesture, he accepts the call and a black man appears on the screen.

"Pax, did I wake you?" Johnson asks.

"No, insomnia, what's up?" Pax replies.

"A scav's nest, some nasty stuff down here, we need your expertise." Johnson says.

"Text me the address, usual fees, you got that covered?" Pax asks.

"Sure, try to hurry, we have some barely alive ones." Johnson hangs up.

The screen in pax's hand blinks one time, GPS marker received. He quickly gets dressed, grabs his jacket, and catches his emergency pack.

He passes through the door of his bedroom, it leads to a bigger room full of ripperdoc's equipments. He keeps walking until he reaches a door on the other side that opens instantly as he gets close to it. The lights switch-on in what seems to be a small garage, his motorbike resting in the middle.

He places the emergency pack on a magnetic area at the back of the ride, then quickly gets settled on it. He places his hand on a palm scanner that instantly illuminates.

"Welcome, Paxter." Says a robotic voice coming out of the motorbike.

"Upload GPS marker," Pax says.

"GPS marker uploaded." The robotic voice confirms.

The front door of the garage opens on what seems to be a regular street of the commons area.

Pax blasts the thrust and the motorbike hurls out of the garage. He follows the GPS route from the holographic screen that displays in front of the bike.

The streets are still populated at this hour, with plenty of vendors selling all sorts of junk food. He rushes on the road, Johnson told him they had survivors, no time to waste.

He arrives at an alley street, two police cars with lights on are parked and a perimeter is already in place guarded by two cops. One of them waves at Pax as he parks the bike within the perimeter.

"Hurry, man! Johnson has survivors up there!" One of the cops says.

Pax grabs his emergency pack, rushes inside, and starts climbing stairs. He recognizes this kind of abandoned buildings, perfect dens for scavengers, gangsters, and junkies.

He reaches an open door with a cop waiting in front of it, as soon as he sees Pax he reaches to shake his hand.

"We are glad you are here, one of the survivors already flatlined." He says while guiding Pax inside.

They pass through a curtain made of a plastic sheet, the smell hits pax.

"That smell, f..." Pax says while covering his mouth and nose.

He passes through a room that looks like a regular media room with a big holo screen in the middle surrounded by sofas. An open door leads to a makeshift surgery room with 3 tables in it.

One of the tables is empty but a big stain of fresh blood hints that it was used recently. There are bodies on the two other tables, one of them is still breathing, Johnson is standing next to it.

Pax rushes to the table and drops his emergency pack on the ground, he freezes for a second.

"Johnson! She is a little girl! Damn it!" He shouts while scanning the fresh cuts on the body.

"Orphans..." Johnson says.

Pax kicks his emergency pack that opens automatically, inside are various medical items. He reaches down to grab something that resembles a gun, he aims it at the biggest wound and covers it with a kind of gel.

"Are they the only ones you found here?" He questions Johnson.

Johnson's face turns darker.

"No, one of the room is serving as a discarding space. You don't want to know." Johnson answers in a low monotonic voice.

Pax knows it well, it's not the first time he is working with the New Paris police. In the commons area, the police often get the help of local ripperdocs to assist them for a small fee, it's cheaper than hiring in-house docs.

Suddenly he sees a mark he recognizes on the body he is fixing, a transdermal injection similar to the ones he uses on orphans.

He is haunted again by the little Asian girl, this time she seems to be squatting in the corner of the room. He ignores her and finishes fixing the body.

"She will live..." He says "But she will never see again, the monsters took her eyes..." He continues.

"Why are we even doing this?" Johnson seems to feel desperate.

"Because we are still human..." Pax tries to convince himself.

The vision of the little Asian girl comes again, this time she looks straight at Pax, her eyes drenched in tears.

"Please, take me with you!" She says while looking straight at him.

Pax stares blankly at her, then rubs his eyes. She vanishes in thin air. The lack of sleep must be causing these hallucinations, he thinks as he starts leaning against the wall facing it.

Johnson gets closer to him and puts his hand on his shoulder.

"Are you ok, man?" He asks him.

"It's nothing, probably lack of sleep," Pax says as he rubs his head against the wall.

He hears a muffled voice from within the wall, but this time it feels more real. He starts moving stuff around frantically to clear the wall.

"Man! Calm down!" Johnson shouts.

"There's somebody in the walls!" Pax shouts back as he keeps shuffling anything on his way.

Johnson looks surprised but he starts helping him to move stuff. They finally uncover a small ventilation panel, they both kneel in front of it.

A small squatting silhouette can be seen on the other side of the panel. Pax grabs the panel and slowly lifts it, sobbing can be heard. Johnson sits on his butt in shock as Pax leans inside the ventilation shaft to reach the little girl.

She keeps repeating "Please, take me with you." While looking at her feet. Pax reaches to her arm and grabs it, he can feel her soft skin.

"She is real..." He repeats while dragging her gently out of the ventilation shaft. She turns her head to look at him and recognizes him immediately. She explodes in tears, jumps on him, and yells "Take me with you!"

Pax falls back while hugging her tightly.

"I got you, princess. I'm not letting you go!" He says while taking off his jacket and using it to cover her. He stands up with the little girl in his arms.

"Do you know this girl?" Johnson asks him still in awe.

"Yes, you need to help me with something. There's no way I let her go back to the orphanage." He says while staring at him.

"Man, she will be better off with you, look around you, half of them finish in places like this!" Johnson exclaims.

Pax nods his head, as he walks out with the little girl strongly gripping on him. He reaches his bike and starts riding back home. She looks at the lights of the city passing by with her face half-buried against his chest.

Blurry lights through her heavy wet eyes, slowly darkness invades again, but this time she isn't alone anymore.