Sneaking Around

-San-

He stumbled, using the wall as a support. He hadn't wanted to go with Cassidy and the rest through the hat's generated doorway. San couldn't figure out how it worked, and he didn't trust things he didn't understand.

The only thing like that he did trust was Quell. Ever since leaving his cylinder, he could feel the craving for it building inside of him. He could sense that Niles recognized the symptoms he was starting to display and that it amused the older teen.

That was Niles' problem. He liked to see people suffer, especially those around Lucy. San always had a sneaking suspicion that making Lucy cry made him inordinately happy.

Part of San wished he'd ignored the summons from Lucy in the beginning. He was sure his pet chemist was nearly to the part where they could duplicate Quell. San wasn't stupid. He was well aware of the criminal empire his little chemist was building on the side. He just didn't care.

Another part of him wished that he'd cozened just a little bit more from that brown-haired temptress before he'd been scooped up in the overlords' little net. Whatever that stuff was was starting to wear off with a vengeance. Whereas before it just felt like a little itch in his veins along with annoyance that everything was becoming crystal clear, now it felt as if ants were crawling along his bones and biting every square millimeter.

"Are you okay?" Don asked, falling back to whisper to him.

"What's going on?" San asked back, summoning up the strength to smile at his friend.

"Big fight up ahead; weird magic stuff being flung around, the usual," Don replied with a shrug. He tilted up the cowboy hat on his head, looking like an escapee from a rodeo. "Bigger fight ahead though. Aarti's getting upset, and Lucy looks antsy."

"Figures," San replied, feeling a faint sense of amusement permeate through the agony. "So, what's the bad news?"

"I'm starving, we're trapped in here with Niles, and there's a giant chunk of guards coming up from behind us," Don replied. He chuckled. "At least we're still alive, right?"

San allowed his lips to quirk in a smile. Don could always cheer him up.

"But we're out of Quell," San said.

"Shades of being, man, shades of being," Don replied. He patted his jacket pockets. "All out of anybody's Quell. Then again, I don't think Jebediah ever thought to make any?"

"But we're in a creche?" San said, straightening up. If he concentrated just a little, then he could vaguely hear alien voices behind them, commanding and irritated. The irritation made him happy. "We could raid a lab before leaving?"

"I could raid a lab, and you distract everyone is what you're really suggesting?" Don took off the hat and busied himself turning it in a circle by the brim.

"There's always that," San said. He reached out and took the hat, plopping it on his head. "Do you think they're going to get it from me easier than they can from you?"

"Just wave some Quell," Don said crushingly.

"Why risk theirs when we can steal our own?" San retorted. He glanced at the bigger clot of children who were distracted by whatever was happening in front of them.

"I think I know where to look. Give me five—no, three," Don said with a shake of his head.

San adjusted the hat on his head. He'd never worn a cowboy hat before, especially one so weird.

*****

-Don-

Don zipped into the lab he'd thought of. Like he'd expected, none of the guards or overlords had noted his passing. He was sure that would change shortly, but by that time, he planned on being back where San and the rest were.

He had been paying a little attention when Jebediah and his little group had arrived in the cylinder room. From inference, he could figure out just where the lab Jebediah had been imprisoned was located. The bloody chair he'd been strapped to was still there, the prongs on the neck collar giving him the shivers.

The lab was cluttered with samples and computers. He wanted to laugh at how similar it was to the ones in the old creche. Don swept away the brief instance of sorrow. He was sure that few of the samples here belonged to anyone he knew.

He quickly crossed to a low counter nearly hidden behind the bigger lab setups. Don stared down at it, unhappy. The lab was truly a cookie cutter setup.

Don squatted in front of it and examined the lock on the door. With a quirk of his lips he grasped the front of the lock and started to vibrate. A few seconds later, the lock fell to the ground in front of him. Don fished one of his last few bars out of his jacket.

Dawnie had shoved them in his pockets while the others were evacuating. She'd said they were better than the ones they usually ate. He'd already had one, and it had made his hunger pains vanish for a short while. This one proclaimed itself 'mocha banana' of all things. Don frowned and forced it down. He had no clue who kept coming up with all these weird flavors.

What was wrong with simple oat? Or perhaps peanut butter or even strawberry jam?

He shoved those thoughts out of his head as he opened the cabinet, frowning at the amount of little vials filled with a nearly translucent powder.

Don pulled back slightly and looked at the samples sitting on the counters and shelves. Then he frowned at the vials.

"The things that cross your mind when you're trying to be busy," he muttered to himself as he swept them into his mostly empty knapsack.

The only things there were a couple of IWA bars and a bottle of water. He found that he kept getting dehydrated lately. Don made a mental note to mention that little tidbit to Dawnie. He hadn't seen her guzzling any large amounts of water lately, so maybe it was something peculiar to himself.

Don stood up. With another look at the lab's contents he also made another mental note to ask Jebediah if it was possible that Quell wasn't some made up chemical.

Then he darted back towards the others. Who knew what had happened while he was gone?